Still here (just layin' low I guess)

I haven't posted here since last Christmas.  I just haven't had the desire to potentially share my private life with my ex- husband. 

However, over the weekend I got this email:

Hi!
I came across your web site searching for curriculum and have had a wonderful time with all your projects. I wanted to say thank you for all your hard work. Also for all the inspiration.. I have passed on your web site to friend and they too are using your wonderful ideas. Thank you for helping me and my family grow and learn. We are currently sending Stanley's and have a great chore list going. Our 5 and 8 year old are cleaning the toilets! Yeah! Like the special plate too. We have and some of our own and just having a great time. We have adding a love ticket, movie ticket. A ticket for each lesson they have to complete that day. It is working great. Thank you.
smiles...
Marilyn

Isn't that sweet?  It really picked up my day.  Things here are better and we've started after schooling.  I suppose my journey may be valuable to others and I'll be sharing things here occasionally again.  It was just too painful for a while ('ya know)?

Is it time yet?

Countdown to Christmas!

Guess who is just a touch excited?

Had to post another photo

Here's little Coco.  Isn't she adorable? 

Look at who followed me

Look at who followed me home today!  She is up for adoption with the local no kill shelter but is too young to stay with the other kitties in the cages at the local pet store.  So I get to foster her until the kitty adoption fair next weekend to find her forever home.

Isn't she ADORABLE?!?

BirdMan Gift Guide

Next up, BirdMan.  He is a very sensitive little boy who is very open with his affection.  It was obvious since he could walk that birds were a central interest to him.

One of the absolute best gifts for him was a simple birdfeeder.  Yep, a birdfeeder.  I recommend three types of feeders.  One is a your standard feeder with a cage that keeps out the big piggy birds like blue jays and starlings.  

The second best birdfeeder is made

 just for finches and holds thistle.  The coolest part of this feeder is that the finches have to hang upside down to eat and they gladly put on their acrobatic show every day.  

The third

 feeder is a suet feeder.  Spectacular woodpeckers will sit right outside your window and demonstrate the unlimited beauty that mother nature so willingly displays in all her creations.

Of course you also need some field guides so you can identify all your new feathered friends. Just a warning here, this becomes addictive and branches out to studying maps and migrations patterns. It may quickly overtake your home but the depth of learning involved in fostering a love for birdwatching is tremendous.

BirdMan also love building things. His favorite building set is K'nex. They are great because of how they can bend and form gears, pulleys, you name it! I found a huge set used from a local homeschool family. 

We must have three tubs of K'nex and the entire neighborhood LOVES to play with them. This is a toy that will grow with your little engineer through the years.

 Take a look at the one I've got linked above. It is a huge set with instructions on how to build world famous landmarks. It would be so cool to study a country and then build a building located in the country!

Chirstmas Gifts- Homeschool style

My kidlets are leafing through the Christmas catalogs we've received and I noticed today that there was only one toy my daughter marked in the big ol' Target toy catalog. 

I started thinking about how the best toys my kids have received aren't the typical toys found in catalogs.  So for your browsing pleasure, here are some of their favs:

GooseyGirl- she is artsy, loves to read and adores bathroom humor.  She is also into cats, horses and American Idol.  What are some of her top gift items from the last year?

Stinky Thinking- This book is nothing but bathroom jokes.  The twist is that the bathroom jokes are all disguised as math problems.  She willingly sits down and will do math p

roblems for 30 minutes just because they all center around fart jokes. 

 

The Fabulous Book of Paper Dolls by Klutz- 

She got this when she was six and played with it exclusively over her other toys for days.  There are gobs of outfits to punch out and backgrounds to place them all.  Plus the back of the book has storage bins for all the pieces.  She loved this book and used it thoroughly.  

Last year she got the

 next paper doll book by Klutz entitled Paper Fashions Kit.

  It is full of funky papers and sturdy cardstock patterns for all the stylish elements a sensible paper fashion doll needs.  This book was different from the one above since she could make all the decisions about pattern and style herself.  She still plays with this book and has made a binder with all her fashion creations.  I love the little metal hangers that come with the book- too cute!

Her next favorite gift is an Ipod.  Yep, I discovered that I can limit the types of music she is exposed to by keeping her download music list on my computer.  I would get uncomfortable with allowing her to listen to the radio.  There are some really trashy radio programs out there.  Plus, some of the songs that are broadcast- don't get me started.  

I bought a refurbished Ipod Nano from the Apple store for about $100 and she listens to it at least once a day.  It is so much fun listening to her sing along!  

Her favorite artists are from American Idol which is a must see show in this household!  I also upload Jim Weiss stories, Rabbit Ears Stories and First Language Lessons stories to her Ipod so she can listen to things we've talked about during school time.

I've heard the new Ipods even have a limiter on the volume level of the earbuds.  That would be a nice feature.  

Another great book she would pick up again and again is Look Alikes.  The entire book has photographs that are incredibly realistic.  It is only after you look deeply at them that you notice everything is made of common household items.  The sidewalk in the street scene?  Fig Newtons.  The arches in the train station?  Rackets from a badminton game.  

Click on the links and you can open up a sample page.  This series of books is perfect for your visual learner.  Check out the Christmas version too!  Smaller kiddos would like Look Alike Jr.

Other great toys include Groovy Girls and a box of office supplies- she loved all those post it notes!

Her favorite games so far include Apples to Apples, Rush Hour Jr. and Rat-a-Tat-Cat.

Happy Shopping!  I'll post BirdMan and RocketMan's list in the next day or two!  (If you subscribe to my feed via email or a news reader, you'll be notified ASAP- check out the boxes on the right!)

It's official. I'm newly single.

Well, after 13 months of enduring a contentious divorce, I got the final papers in the mail today.  

I'm newly single as of Nov. 13.

I feel like I should have some sort of ceremony or party or something to mark this transition but I can't seem to figure out what ceremony should be.  A friend of mine recommended that it should involve a large margarita with a cosmo on the side.  But that doesn't quite seem right.

I don't know.  Any thoughts?