The Candy House

Raising a Rockstar -Noah's Ark

2010-07-26T13:50:00.001-07:00

I have been a consistent fan of Carissa over at "http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com Recently, we had a discrepancy at church that left Lollipop quite upset, and I finally found the perfect opportunity to use her Raising Rockstar's program in its entirety! This is our first day, of the first week doing this, and I hope for Lollipop's sake that it is fun enough to make him not miss sunday school.
First, we picked up a few books from the Library:
Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Sunday:

We are coloring pages for each day, from www.coloring.ws/t.asp?b=m&t=h
we are making a totbook from carissa's totschool page www.
we are making a rainbow project from http://www.first-school.ws/activities/bible/rainbow.htm
We also have a few puzzles and a sticker book to go along with the theme!
I'm looking forward to posting more pictures as the week wraps up!

My Musicians

2010-07-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

I, admittedly, am way behind on blogging! No, its not because my house is clean, or even my kids for that matter. I think its because I do so much better at reading other people's blogs than creating my own! Some day maybe I'll be more consistent! ;) But, school on the other hand, has become very consistent! We are very much looking forward to starting our "real school" in august! I will be introducing a lot more projects to go along with our history program, and more live books! But, here is a day after all the planned learning has been put away, and we just play and have a blast! Enjoy! I sure know I did!

**i can count this as team-building, right? and music class

** riding on elmo surfer

** oh, all the things you can learn from a ball! We put a bunch of toys in Sweet Girl's room, so they are practically new to her, even though we have had them for a long time. She is finally starting to use them as intended! She played with this polar bear toy for a 1/2 hr! She liked to tease it, pretending to put the ball in, and then not. then she turned it into a race, to put the ball in, and catch it before it went all the way down the slide. I have never seen a kid so interested in a toy before! It was an excellent show.

** some loving time! i can never get too many hugs or kisses!

We are very excited for Sweet Girl's 1st birthday coming up! She's having a butterfly themed party! I know she has no clue whats going on, but I am overwhelmed at how fast this first year flew by! I am attempting to come up with some Montessori type of activities to start Tot School with her when she turns one, but nothing looks interesting enough for me yet! If anyone has any ideas, i'd love to hear them! So, for now, we'll just keep playing, and reading!

Number the stars

2010-05-19T12:58:00.000-07:00

So, In my last post I said I was reading, and would review 'Wuthering Heights' but, the library wanted their book back on time, and I couldn't get interested enough past the 3rd chapter to be willing to pay a fine... So, I did an on-the-spot shop at the library, and came up pretty far off from my list.... Got a few Harry Potter books, and 'Number the Stars'. The two Harry Potter books were just nonsense, so I'll review 'Number the Stars'.
I loved this book as a little girl, and I still do! I have been to Germany, and lived there for almost 5 years as a child. I'm sure i've been to Copenhagen, even though I don't remember anything (sad part about being in the military when your soo little.) I love the faithfulness concept through out the book. The Danes faithfullness to their king, no matter what, and then to their friends when they were attacked, and then later to the nation of Jews on the whole! Loyalty, faithfulness protecting eachother... what awesome concepts to teach our children. I also love how in one of the worst times in history, these concepts are taught! What a great way to look at the Holocaust!

1 of 52

2010-05-12T18:05:00.000-07:00

Book 1 of 52 Review: Little Women

I always loved this movie as a child, and my mom told me this was her favorite book as a child, and that she thought of the character Jo when she named me! I went by Jo for awhile, and find a lot of her characteristics in me at that time. Although, I feel a lot more like Meg now that I'm all grown up and have a family. The book was awesome, and makes me want to watch the movie again! I like the small little moral lessons through out the book, and have Pilgrim's Progress on the list to read now. I almost teared up at Beth's passing, even though I knew it was coming, it was so eloquently written, and such a loving, clean story! I recommend it to any woman or girl!
Next up: Wuthering Heights

2010-05-08T14:32:00.001-07:00

I was just re-reading my old posts, and realized I never updated about the zoo! How unbelievably forgetful of me! The Zoo went awesome, as well as the small Unit Study we did in corroboration with our other normal workbooks. We found a cool lapbook project on the book Goodnight Gorilla (oh how I wish I remembered where it came from, I admit, I need to start working harder at giving credit where it is due, but I am still getting the hang of this) It went very well with our zoo trip!

And Pictures of the Lapbook to go along with it!

The Front with a Gate and "What a zookeeper does"

The Inside, with flaps. The left has the large animals, and a book of the animals we saw when we went to the zoo, and the right has the animals colored, and the letters of the animals written out by Lollipop. The Center has cages of different colors with keys to match, and animals to go in the cages.

The Back says Z is for Zoo and on the inside Lollipop wrote out z Zoo... not bad if I do say so myself. We are pretty proud of our very first Lapbook!

Let us know what you think, any encouragement would be nice.

Some New Projects I'm taking On!!

2010-05-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

I found this pretty cool blog http://operationreadbible.blogspot.com when being lazy, and spending time at my favorite past-time... blog-jumping. They should totally make it an olympic sport! You know, in between checking on my needy children every other 2 minutes. I get pretty far considering how long I actually get to play on the comp! Well, i found this Operation Actually Read Bible. It intrigued me. I decided to give it a go! My brother has also decided to read the bible in a year, and I figure, if he can do it (hes 5 years younger than me, and could really care less about reading, to be quite honest) so can I! So, I am pretty much only putting it on here, so I can hold myself accountable to doing it, and give myself a better reason to hold to it!

I also want to try something else i found on several blogs too! 52 in 52. Read 52 books in 52 weeks. I don't have as much faith in myself in this project as I do in reading the bible... but im going to try. As I already have a summer reading list, and a 10 page list of books I would love to buy, I don't think that reading will be the problem, as much as doing it in 52 weeks. But we shall see!

On to more important matters: The Children! As I type this, Sweet Girl is turning sour, and refuses to be put down practically always. And Lollipop is in that annoying age of arguing over every word I say. Constant challenges to learn patience, and kindness! But, they are both super adorable... Here are some pics!

Next post: Week 1: My bible verses, and a Book Review on Little Women (1 of 52)

Update

2010-05-03T11:27:00.000-07:00

I have no pictures to update with, because my camera has been missing ;(. School with Lollipop has been going well. We picked up the Rod and Staff workbooks, and he is feeling very confident in his colors, as well as numbers. For some exciting and strange reason, he loves counting numerically to 10. How is that odd you ask? Well, after 10 he counts by 2's. I never taught him this, and am so surprised, but would still prefer him to count to 20 numerically, since he doesn't do that! What a fascinating little boy I have!
Mother's Day should be exciting! We are going to the Zoo on Wednesday, so DH has to work on my day! But, its okay, because we are so excited and anticipating the trip! Lollipop surprised me the other day, by telling me all the animals we were going to see. He has never seen an elephant, or zebra etc. But he could tell me all of their names, and then proceeded to entertain me with the "i like to move it move it" song. He picked up all the zoo animal names off the madagascar cartoon! I love innocent children's tv!
Lollipop is also half-way done with his kindergarten workbook for Hooked on Phonics. He doesn't like doing it, but he does well, and his favorite part of the curriculum is putting the star on the board! :)
We are implementing a new reward system that I found on my tlt yahoo group. I love those sweet women! I honestly don't know what I would do without them, they give me insight, encouragement, ideas, and plans. I doubt they even know I exist thought.
We are planning on buying a cute see-through cup, and marbles. Every time Lollipop does something rewarding (ie: completes work cheerfully, puts 100% effort into work, comes when called, does something when asked, responds politely, etc) he will remove one marble from the cup. When it is empty, he can pick a reward from the Reward Box (ie: pizza for dinner, "date with mom/dad", movie before bed, or a fun new trinket)I'm really hoping this new system will create an accountability for him to want to be responsible, and have a better attitude. That seems to be the character trait we have been working on a lot lately.
We also have been reading in our adult classes an amazing book, that i could probably read about 20 more times! Its called 'Raising a Generation for Success' by: Dani Johnson. It is so amazing, and I desperately want to be able to incorporate all her points RIGHT NOW! But, i'm a work in progress...
Thanks for reading my ramblings. My goal recently is to try to be more consistent, in everything I do, and not so scatter-brained. It seems like I haven't finished a project ever! So, this is one thing i'm going to try to stay more consistent in, along with school stuff, reading the bible and working out everyday are good ones too... but, lets start one thing at a time here :) wish me luck!

Christmas Pictures

2010-01-09T12:52:00.001-08:00

The Children (ok, and us) in the Candy House are spoiled, and I promised pictures, so here is what our Christmas Marathon looked like:

We had a total of 6 Christmas parties: Ours, starting on Christmas Eve morning, then an extended family's followed by my dh's family. Christmas day consists of going to my mother's for christmas breakfast, and our house with my father in the afternoon/evening (they've been divorced since I was 9). Then we have a day off, and end the marathon at my grandma's on Sunday. Whew! it was a workout ;) But the kids are very blessed, and border-line spoiled

Here are my favorites:
Lollipop playing in his new "ball tent"

My dh received a Xbox360 for Christmas for 'good behavior.' He was positive he knew which present it was, and when he opened the box, he found stacks of bibles, with a sock. This is the beautiful picture of him finding his prized possession, underneath all the unmatched socks in our room :)

The beloved skate... he found it, and HAD TO HAVE IT! look at the look of joy on his face though, so worth it!

great-grandparents are pretty awesome, so Lollipop said when he got this cool police motorcycle.

Lollipop and I played Santa this year, and handed out presents

Well, that is, until he opened his first present, became a police officer, and started handing out tickets instead....

I became a popular baby-wearer :)

Sweet Girl and Lollipop

Those are the favs!! It was a great year!

Toxic People

2010-01-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling the need lately to shut myself inside a bubble. I feel like I should protect myself and my family. I've been learning alot about the relationships I have, and which ones are good, and which ones are not. I just recently heard the term that fits. Toxic. Do you have any toxic relationships?
Let me explain further... After a "date" with this person, do you come home emotionally drained, tired, dragged down, and just generally in a bad mood? Are your needs and wants taken into consideration when you spend time with this person? Does this person care about your future goals and plans, and encourages you to take steps towards these aspirations?
If your first answer is yes, and the others no, you are probably in a toxic relationship.
Its not cool. I am realizing how many of these relationships I am in lately. Is there something wrong with me? Why do I attract these personalities? I feel like my husband and children are my best friends, I tell my Sweet Girl my greatest secrets. Pretty sad that I know I can confide in my 4 month old, alone.

Homeschooling has opened new windows for me, I have gleaned a lot from different people's blogs, which is why I decided to make one for myself. I hope to one-day inspire someone else! But, its not really a relationship. I don't know anyone personally, and the information I learn is always based upon the context of the group or conversation. Its pretty artificial. I hope to solve this problem quite soon, at the least get over these feelings, and acknowledge that this may be where I am for awhile. Sometimes just writing about it makes it a little bit better.

New Schedule/ Curriculum

2009-12-30T09:53:00.001-08:00

Christmas was excellent. Sadly, we already had to take down our tree, in order to accommodate for all the toys Lollipop and Sweet Girl received from our Christmas Marathon (as i so lovingly refer to Christmas Eve- December 27th, where we celebrate 6 different times with our various families) But, looking forward now.... Lollipop's Homeschooling Journey officially starts January 4th, and we will be putting a schedule in place. Every other blog I have found has several different ideas on how schedules should be in place, and I'm sure that by the time I have enough experience at this I will be the same. But this is it for now:

7:00am- Mom gets up and works out
8:00am- Everyone else gets up Breakfast & Morning chores
8:45 - Dad leaves for work PBS goes on, and mommy takes her quiet time (i'm very much not a morning person without at least 2 cups of coffee)
10:00 - Morning School Time
We don't really have a curriculum as I haven't found one that perfectly fit Lollipop's needs and wants. So, i've meticulously set up some fun games for the rest of this year to teach the concepts I want to be mastered.
Writing- We use Kumon Uppercase Letters
Math- We have a variety of games including:
Chutes and Ladders
Candyland,
Sorting/Counthing pompons,
a toy clock to learn time,
play money to learn values of money,
UNO,
and mindsprinting.com
He gets his pick for each day
Pre-Reading- is the same as math, with various things to do like:
Leapfrog card game,
Lots of Reading
Mindsprinting.com
Progressive Phonics
Starfall
Leapfrog Word Whammer
and Superwhy Board Game
Bible- We will be using Carissa's Raising rockstars program she has made. She is so creative!
http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/RaisingRockStars.html
Art Project or Computer Time- He can do whatever he wants for art, but I prefer the Playdoh Table or Magic Paintbrush from Crayola. Hopefully he'll be happy with those for awhile. We go to fisherprice.com or pbskids.com or uptoten.com for fun, age-appropriate computer games.

12:00 - Lunch Time
1:00 - Nap
3:00 - Afternoon School Time
Science- we read books from the library, based on 2 different topics. Usually an animal habitat and something fun. This month we will be focusing on pets and snow. :) We also do whatever projects and experiments come to mind.
Scripture- we, again are using Carissa's plan for this also.
Music or Movement- Lollipop has the choice to play a game, go outside, play his guitar, drums or piano, or play his Vmotion video games.
Once Lollipop is done with this activities for the day, he can do whatever he wants, my problem is, he usually asks for more school.
5:00 - Dinner and then my evening chores (which include making a plate for dad, cleaning up dinner, and picking up the house.
8:30 - Daddy gets home! (the highlight of Lollipop and Sweet Girl's day!)
9:00-9:30 - Bedtime

During most of this, if you were wondering, Sweet Girl is attached to me in one form or the other, since it seems that I can do nothing or go nowhere without her.

With the allotment that Monday morning is Story Time at the library, and Monday evening is Tumble Class for Lollipop and Tuesday night is Dance Class for Mommy and Wednesday night is Church, we follow this schedule as closely as I can. I hope all goes well in the new year!

Daddy and I got the new Wii fit Plus, and are now apparently on a competition to get to our healthy goal weight first (I say this as I munch down on sweethearts ha!) wish me luck!

I will post pics of Christmas soon.... as soon as I find my camera ;)

Taking an Opportunity

2009-12-19T17:34:00.000-08:00

We attempted an imagination game this week, I'm sorry to report we have no pictures, because the game turned into a scripture memorizing time as Lollipop kept saying "i can't do that" to every activity we picked out. So instead of pretending to be elves, we learned 'Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Jesus who gives me strength.' Yes, we modified it for his age, but with the attitude i've seen come through as of late, I bet he'll be learning this verse in no time!! But, here are some other cute snapshots of this week :)

Even when he vehemently refuses to do anything educational, (which practically never happens) we can always count on learning something with playdoh.

Does helping Ompa decorate the house for Christmas count as math, since he has to put the garland around corners? ;)

Sweet girl is always learning

Christmas Projects

2009-12-16T15:59:00.001-08:00

This is our first year doing Christmas projects. I did end up doing most of the work, but am proud to say that Lollipop can take most of the credit! He painted, used his imagination, and was the one who picked out all the projects we did this year.

We made Lanterns, which is the first time Lollipop got to paint. (I know, i'm horrible for not letting his artistic side out until now, but i'm not very artsy, and i hate the mess it makes)

But the end result was worth it, the lanterns turned out beautiful.

We also made Christmas Cards, you cant really see it, but they're Lollipop's thumb prints, and finger prints, made into snowmen and it says "And may all your Christmases be white" i thought they were adorable!

Today was an exciting day for Sweet Girl too, she had her first taste of real food. Today we tried Applesauce!Lollipop insisted on helping :)

We also were looking at the Leapfrog Tag Reading System. Any thoughts on it anyone? I've read awesome reviews, but I don't know what REAL people think... Lollipop loves Tad and all the Leapfrog movies. He likes Leapfrog games, and I even find him repeating quotes from the movies, and he is ALWAYS singing the Alphabet song. But does the Tag system keep this up. I saw it had books for short vowels and long, and I thought he may like that as another form of learning.

Phonics Fun

2009-12-11T16:47:00.000-08:00

I started searching again for a good beginning reading program, and came to a conclusion: too many people pay WAY too much to teach their children how to read. Some programs I found for the "gifted" children cost up to $600, which was definitely not in my budget. Thankfully, I learned how to ask the right questions, and was directed to a couple of websites that Lollipop has, so far, loved. www.starfall.com and www.progressivephonics.com between the two, and of course our beloved PBS regiment of Superwhy, Sesame Street, and Word World, Lollipop is slowly learning to read, before even turning 3:) I am one proud mother. He hasn't taken any tests, and I don't even know the requirement involved, but as a mother, I have to say that he is one gifted child.

The Search has begun!

2009-12-11T16:13:00.000-08:00

I began my homeschooling research when my son started begging to do more during the day than play. I assumed that "school" didn't really begin until kids were 5 or 6, so I had plenty of time. Well, let me back up...

I didn't know I was going to be a homeschooling mom. It kind of just "came to me" you could say. Lollipop, my 3 year old son, was a surprise, and after he was born, it was impossible to go back to work and leave him. My dh and I both agreed that staying home with him was better for our family, and i am so thankful! Since then, I think I've learned just as much, if not more than my bundle of joy.

I first asked the only person I knew who was successful at homeschooling... and got a lot of advice. I took her word for everything, since she was the only person I knew who had children still being home-schooled, and were thriving. She sent me to ACE. So right away, I bought their pricey preschool curriculum, planning on starting Lollipop on it when he turned 3. But by 2 1/2, he had already exceeded the curriculum, and all he would have learned was how to sit still, and be quiet. (as if a curriculum could actually get a 2 year old to do that, ha!) So the search began again.

I joined SEVERAL groups on Yahoo. One for each program I thought was interesting. I've spent too much time at the library, and now understand the MelCat system pretty well.

I finally learned that in order to get answers from people gone before you, you must ask the questions. That is why i started this blog. To give information to those who, like me, are still searching. And also, in hopes that some old-school homeschool-ers might happen upon this, and point me in every right direction available.

As I gain tid-bits of information, I will post, because this is also a way for me to keep my thoughts open and organized, instead of buried under piles of paper that i'm already beginning to have as a homeschooling parent. I'm so excited, let the journey begin!