Where are your calendars?

I have wanted to give a preview of what we did in school this week. Last month I started my daunting task of making a list and checking it not twice, not even three times, but checking it over and over and over again. It was my list of school curriculum for next year! It is daunting, but I am slightly addicted to curriculum, so the time seems to fly by! Each year I have been ordering samples, and checking PDF files online for all the sample lesson plans of each distributor. Because I am random, I like to see what is out there that we aren't doing as of yet. Sometimes I haven't jived well with the writers of certain curriculum. Sometimes they are awesome, but cost a mortgage payment to buy! Sometimes the learning styles of kids aren't lining up with the way the curriculum is presented.

For instance, my son has the attention span of a fly. He simply needs something that is going to grab him and not distract him. He has to work with his hands in order for his brain to stay focused. My daughter though, loves workbooks! She is the one who loves to have all her work piled before her, and then takes it to another room and finishes it all in one shot. I love her! So out I go into the world of homeschooling curriculum. Let me tell you that this is no small world. Not even Walmart could house all the curriculum that is out there.

Where was I? Oh yes, changing curriculum! Sometimes I find a curriculum that presents things in an awesome way, but it leaves some other aspects out that I loved in the curriculum that I left behind. One thing we changed this year was math. My son was doing just "ok" in math last year. We decided to change companies to do something more hands on. It was a great change, but the new math company didn't have everything included that I was used to having like calendars or clocks.

So what does this hands on mom do? We made our own calendars and decided to call it art! I am actually impressed with my idea, so I have decided to share! I first print off a calendar page from http://www.donnayoung.org/. This is a cool website that offers free printables for calendars, lesson planning, household planning like grocery lists, and lots of other things that I can't remember! Yesterday, we printed off January's calendar onto normal white copy paper.

Then, I took a piece of plain white paper and told the kids to draw something nice for their calendar. One drew herself standing next to her cousin and a snowman that they had just built. (This obviously took place in NY, since Indy doesn't believe in having snow!)

My youngest boy drew himself with his brother and cousin holding swords and ready to fight the world! Some moms gasp at such violence. I personally think it is cute!

My oldest son drew a building with the sun. You have to understand this kid! He just wants to get the job done. No frills. No wasting time. "Let's just do it," is his motto!

After the pictures are done, we staple them to a huge piece of construction paper. I am totally guessing the size, but I think it is a 10x16in. It fits two 8x10 pieces of paper with some room on each side. Here are the pic's to see what we did!


Part of the learning process is that we color in each date as it happens. This way the kids get the concept of dates, months, and days of the week.

This is my boy drawing his building. As you can see he sees something else way more interesting happening in the living room and must hurry up and finish so he can join them.

This is my other boy. He's just proud that he is finally old enough to join in all school fun!


Here are the finished products! I didn't have my 3 year old do one, but I am sure she will want to next time! I am planning all sorts of ideas for the upper pictures. Here is the list I have so far, along with a list of holidays for each month.

January: We didn't do this because I just thought of it right now, but you can take white paper and fold it up an cut pieces out for snow flakes. It maybe the only snow you see if you live close to me. You can decorate it with silver glitter if you are really brave! Holidays: Martin Luther King Jr. B-day, Mozart's B-day, and National Bird Day

Feb: Anything with Valentine's Day! Hearts, Love, kisses on the paper with the brightest lipstick you can find! Come on! What kid wouldn't love that? Holidays: St. Valentine's Day, Ground Hog Day, President's Day

March: St Patrick's Day! Growing up outside of Chicago made me a believer of this holiday! Make clovers or rainbows with pots of gold at the end of them. Take red, orange, yellow, green, and blue construction paper and tare it up into dime to nickel sized pieces. The kids love this! Have them glue the pieces to make a rainbow. You can draw a black pot at the end and take gold glitter and sprinkle the top of the pot for gold! Don't forget Leprechauns! They are fun to draw too! Holidays: St. Patrick's Day, National Pig Day (I never knew!), Vincent Van Gough's B-day (The boys might like to draw this one.)

April: April showers bring May flowers! Make clouds with cotton balls. Have them draw raindrops, or have them dip their finger (notice this is singular!) into blue or gray paint and make the raindrops with their finger prints. Also Easter!!!!! Make a cross or a tomb with the stone rolled away! Make an Easter basket filled with colorful eggs. Holidays: Easter, National Frog month, National Kite Day, Arbor day and Earth day, Firefighters Day, and National Pet Day (Take a picture with your kids and their pet. Put it on their calender. You can have it blown up to a 8x10 for a $1 at Walmart.)

May: May flowers! Get some old magazines or pictures and have the kids cut out pictures of flowers, trees, or anything that is living and growing. Make a collage of all the things we are about to see outside. Holidays: (kind of a boring month!) National Transportation month, May day (May 1), Cinco de Mayo, World Turtle Day, Mother's day!!!!!!!!!!!! (A gentle reminder for them.), Memorial Day

June: Remember that old Barney song, "Mr. Sun, Sun. Mr. Golden Sun, please shine down on me!" Have them draw anything having to do with outside. Balls, pools, parks, or even the sun! Even my 3 year old can draw the sun with a happy face! Holidays: Zoo and Aquarium month, First Hot air balloon flight, Father's Day, Flag Day, International Picnic Day, Paul Bunyan Day, Space Day(Ooooooh! I am thinking astornauts, space ships, the moon, stars, and even aliens if you want to get technical!)

July: Stars and stripes. You could cut out a ton of red, white, and blue stars and make a collage of them. You could tare apart red, white, or blue paper and make fire work pictures with them. Use glitter for the sparkles. After you paste all the paper onto the picture, take a paint brush and brush on Elmer's glue. Sprinkle the glitter on top and voila! Your fireworks sparkle! Holidays: National Ice Cream month (make the biggest ice cream sundae they could imagine! Don't forget the cherry and whip cream.), 4th of July, Beatrix Potter's B-day

August: This is back to school for my kids! Have them brainstorm about either something they want to learn about or something they already learned last year. Draw it. Was it sea turtles? Was it the lunch break? Get them motivated for school. What is there favorite subject? If it is math (that's mine) have them show what they learned last year, like their multiplication facts or something. I used to trace my kids' hands at the beginning of the year to be able to go back and see how they have grown. You could have them make hand prints with paint. It would be fun for a keepsake someday! Holidays: International Clown Week, Watermelon Day (glue real watermelon seeds onto a picture of a watermelon), sports day

September: Fall colors. Find some leaves and place them on to white paper. You can make that your picture. Or! For something a little tricky, but worth the effort. Take your leaf and place it under your white paper. Take a crayon and tare the paper off of it. Lay it on its side and color, pressing hard where the leaf is located under your paper. This should make an imprint and a leaf design similar to your leaf. Use different fall colored crayons for different leaves. Holidays: Labor Day, Grandparent's Day, Teddy Bear Day, Patriot Day (love those history lessons!), Elephant Appreciation Day (make a picture of Horton the Elephant from Dr. Seuss!)

October: Pumpkins, ghosts, gourds, bats, or anything to do with Halloween. Cut a big orange pumpkin out of construction paper. Cut out 3 black triangles and a black mouth. Have them glue them on the make your jack-o-lantern. You can make black bats really easily and take a white crayon to make spooky eyes on them. Holidays: International Dinosaur Month, Farmer's Day, Columbus Day, Pablo Picasso's B-day, Reptile Awareness Day, The Statue of Liberty's B-day (interesting), Halloween

November: Turkeys, pilgrims, Indians, etc. Whatever floats your boat. I like turkeys myself. You can make a body and head with brown paper. Then cut out multicolored strips of paper and make feathers for it, but snipping and fraying the paper. If this is too much for you, try the old tracing your hand and coloring it in to be a turkey. The thumb is the head and the other fingers are the feathers. You could trace dad and mom's hands to make a turkey family! Awwwe! Holidays: National Candy Day (glue candy onto your page), Veteran's Day, National Bible Week, National Cake Day, Thanksgiving

December: Christmas! Or whatever you celebrate. We do Christmas here. You can find pictures of nativity scenes, Christmas trees, or even fire places. Make a Santa face with lots of cotton for the hat and beard. Make Rudolph with his nose so bright (red glitter!). Make the star of Bethlehem with lots and lots of gold glitter! Turn it into a history lesson with making the frankincense, gold, and myrrh. Make a manger with hay. You could use little strips of brown paper, brown yarn, or real hay for the bedding. Another real simple idea is taking a square piece of wrapping paper and having them glue it on. Place a bow on top to complete. You now have a present! Holidays: National Cookie Day, Poinsettia Day, St. Nicholas, Christmas

Make it fun! The possibilities are endless. This is art class and calendar learning combined! Have them repeating months of year and days of the week frequently. Write down all family birthdays, holidays, family trips, or family game nights. You can never forget a family game night if they have it on their calendar! They won't let you. I personally like the family birthday idea, since I can't remember to call them all by myself. My daughter is definitely better at these kind of things than me, and will have no problem reminding me all day until I call the special person to say "Happy Birthday" to them! The kids could then get into the great habit of making birthday cards for all their family members!

One last tool for the projects is this link: http://www.first-school.ws/theme/occasions_index.htm It is a link to a website with free worksheets to color in. They have everything from pictures of presidents to trees. If you need a picture for a holiday, chances are they have it. It's all free! Remember to have fun!

I am thinking that we are getting rid of our current calendars and trying something new and improved! Hey! We did ours on the first day back from Christmas break. My creative juices were not flowing!

Back from vacation!

How was everyone's Christmas? New Year's? Ours was a jam packed ball of fun! Every year we pack of all the kids and take a lonnnnnnggggg rode trip to Buffalo, NY! It is the perfect place to have our white Christmas! All 22 members of the Grow family come together and celebrate! It is complete and utter chaos, but I wouldn't want it any other way!

Getting there though is half the battle! We have a nice sized SUV that should be able to fit all of us and our belongings without any trouble. SHOULD and can do not have the same definition! We had quite the problem before we ever took off out of our drive-way. Not only do all 4 kids and 2 adults need to fit into the Expedition, BUT the 65lb dog, the dog food and dishes, the Santa presents, the clothes, the extra toys (since grandma doesn't have the right kind), the home school books and supplies, 4 pillows and blankets (grandma didn't have enough at her house), and the snow gear (which includes 6 pairs of snow pants, 6 pairs of boots, 6 pairs of gloves and 6 hats!) have to be packed into the truck. This is no small task my friends.

In years past, I have been able to help pack up the truck. This year was different. I decided that it would be nice to have a cargo pack up on top of the truck. Dear husband decided that he would rather be in charge of packing the truck up himself and he could do it without the cargo bag. He enlisted our daughter's help.

The first thing they did was take all the boots and snow pants and shove them under each and every space they could find. My little girl was in charge of the stuffing and shoving. She crawled her little body up and around all 4 car seats and found places for all the odd and ends. I thought this to be quite genius! The next thing was to find a way to place all 4 suit cases and 2 bags. One bag needed to be gently positioned while being in a spot that no kids would be able to open and peek inside of it, since it was full of the wrapped presents. (This type of instruction is the kind that drives my husband nuts! Hey! Every mom and wife knows that there are details that have to be considered!)

The last step was all the pillows and blankets. After all pillows are handed out the correct owner, we buckle them in. This is also quite the chore. All the seat belts are smashed in from the surrounding cargo or the dog is sitting on it! I have to climb over a mountain of who-knows-what and get my 6 foot long body (2/3 of which is legs!) to the very back of our SUV, without squishing my dog, who is now freaking out or my other 2 children, all to buckle the seat belt that I can't find! I promise I am ready for a nap and the truck is still in the driveway! OH MY!

2 hours after we started loading up, we are on our way! Not one child dares ask for a bathroom break. They are forbidden! No not really, but I do have the feeling that they knew that they would not be getting out of the truck without some degree of difficulty!

Can you imagine if we somehow got into an accident? I don't know how any medical personnel would find my kids! I am sure that they would be fine with all the extra padding, but the firemen would certainly have treated my truck the same way they would treat a cave that had caved in! They would have to burrow tunnels under all the crap that fell around the trapped family! Oh how my imagination takes over!

It was worth every drop of sweat. I am proud of my husband's packing skills. He got all of my desired belongings into the truck and did it again on the way home. We did decide that next trip would have to be different. We are going to have to buy something to put on the back of the truck to fit the suitcases. The kids are getting bigger and truck is continuing to feel smaller! No wonder my dog pants for the entire trip up there!

Saturday

I would love to tell you how I have decided that this is my day of rest, which it usually is. I would love to tell you that besides a few cleaning tasks, I have nothing planned except trying to find a good Sandra Bullock movie on TBS or reading a preselected book from the library today. I would love to say that I have no one coming over tonight so if I don't want to do the dishes today, I don't have to! But, it's not in my life plan today! Nope! Because I decided that Thursday was the day that I needed to crack the whip and get my house in order. It was a tornado zone from top to bottom. My dear husband actually commented that he has never seen it get that bad before. He usually says this same comment anytime the house is that bad, but this time I had to agree. So we slackers took the day off of school on Thursday, but that means that we have to school on Saturday! It sounded like a good idea at the time. Now, I am not so sure!

Weeeee Got One!!!!!!!!

Can you name that movie? I bet you can't! I bet that I have to give you another clue. How about the State Puffed Marshmallow Man? Come on! There is only one movie on this earth that has a giant, walking marshmallow man ready to take on the city. If you guessed "Ghost Busters" you have my admiration. I will hold you in the highest respect whenever I see or talk to you.



I loved that movie. When I was growing up, my brother and I used to take my dad's flashlights and shine them in dark places to see if Slimer the green sliming ghost was hiding. We would then pretend that the flashlights were our weapons and sucked up the ghosts just like the real Ghost Buster's would do! We were so cool!



Now? What was it that I felt I needed to share? Oh yes! We got one! My husband, the manly man that he is, finally got his deer this year. He hasn't had many places to hunt, and the places that he has been able to hunt on he's had to share with about 200 other hunters. This year, however, he and one of his best friends were blessed to get permission to hunt on 600 acres of land. Not only did they hunt there, they also got permission to hunt on the land neighboring the 600 acres to make that a grand total of 1200 acres to THEMSELVES! I would say the odds were for them.

He called me while still out of breath from the hunt of his dreams. Finally, instead of driving home with out his primary goal, he brought the family some meat. I am feeling a little pioneerish, but its free and I had some tonight in a stew.........amazing!!!!!


Well here it is. Here is my man with 2008 deer! Great job honey! I am proud! He plans to go out next weekend for round two.

His and Her Toys!

After neglecting my duty to my adoring readers, I have finally come home to my blog. I have come to the space where I can say what I want, think what I want, share intricacies of my homestead, and have people read them with laughter and find them somehow entertaining! I love you all for laughing with me! Thank you for being patient with me!

Now for your next installment of my random thought process.......drum roll............His and Her Toys! Those of you without children don't worry. This is not about my picks of the year from Toys R Us. With that said, you don't need to cover your eyes. Let me assure you that this is rated G for everyone. I promise! Would I steer you down a path that I wouldn't tread myself?

Now, We were talking about the adult toys (G rated remember!). My husband, being the manly man that he is, is a wood worker. He loves building things from nothing. He loves working with his hands. He loves critically thinking about putting something together that didn't even exist before he thought of it. In order to do this kind of work, you need to have the right tools. You need some good working toys, I mean tools, to get the quality that you want, the quality he must have.

You need.......another drum roll please..............

This is one of the first toy purchases we made as a couple. Actually this is the upgraded version of what we first purchased! If any of you don't know what the brand De Walt means. Just think money! Lots and lots of money.

This is my newest toy! My darling Kitchen Aid Mixer! I have wanted one of these since I first started to put my kitchen together 10 years ago with a Target wedding registry list. Because of my inherited frugality issues, I decided that I could probably get by with a 40 dollar mixer instead, and then I would get more needed gifts at the wedding. I kicked myself for many years after that! My patience paid off though. After hearing how I burned out 3 mixers in 3 years, one of my dear friends saw this on clearance and bought it for me. I am forever and eternally grateful to her. Every woman wants one of these. If they don't, they are lying, or they don't cook!

Now this is his favorite toy!

I wouldn't be showing the true glory of the toy if I didn't show you the name. It is made by Grizzly. This is where I am going to point out the genius ideas of advertising. All men's toys are manly sounding like Grizzly. You know it gives you the image of the big, tough bear that he probably hunted after it tried to go after his camp's food supply. If the tool has the name of Black and Decker on it, then it probably isn't manly enough to be included in a real man's garage.

This is my other favorite tool/toy! My dream machines! If you haven't heard about how we met click here: http://ordinarilyrandomme.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-can-move-mountains.html I move mountains with these girls! And notice the girly brand name: Whirlpool. What comes to mind with that? As if laundry and relaxation ever will coexist! One can dream.

Pumpking Carving!

With 4 children, things can get pretty messy and out of control in a short time! We had to lay some ground rules before they "had at it" with the pumpkins. Let's remind everyone that we are doing this on my kitchen table that is in a room with a carpeted floor. Don't ask! I have only ever lived a few months in a house that didn't have a carpeted dining room. It seems to be my curse! Even building our own house didn't take it away!

Now, notice in the picture above, my son's first instinct as he grabs the carving knife. I would like to point out to all who think boys won't be boys if there aren't any weapons around. Boys will be boys, and they always find weapons. They make weapons from nothing. They crave weapons. If it is already shaped like a weapon, then it's all the better, and fun!


Princess just jumped right in! "Really! We get to make a mess and you won't be mad????"

Baby Princess is a little disgusted. She took some coercing. Don't worry she eventually realized the reality that she can squeeze the guts all she wants and I won't care!

This is "Mr. Analytical". Not only is he the cleanest kid I have, but he takes the utmost care and time to do everything. The job was not done until every possible seed and gut was removed in as orderly fashion as he could come up with. We eventually had to help in order for it to be finished before Halloween.

My "Hunk of Love"! This is one of his favorite times of year. Fall means a lot of things to him, but this day is ranked on top. Why? Well he is highly addicted to pumpkin seeds. Oh yes, highly addicted. Throughout the entire process of carving he is surfing through the guts picking out every single seed. At least 10 times he makes sure that the kids don't miss a single seed. He has it down to a science. He separates the guts and the seeds, he rechecks the garbage piles to see if any were left behind, he rinses off any left over guts, he rinses again, and again, and then we salt and bake. I am always impressed with his patience while doing this. The beautiful thing about having 4 kids, is having 4 massive pumpkins loaded with seeds.

Coming up! Halloween pictures!

Busy Bee!

I have discovered something that I actually already knew. Anybody who has read this blog or knows me personally, knows that I am busy. Sure we are all busy. We have normal duties that have to be fulfilled. Some are stay-at-home moms that are the basic cruise directors of their house, some work, some volunteer, and some....well some are really busy doing things that no one can figure out. I can't decide if I want to know or not. I don't have time to. I 'm too busy!


Anytime that I go out to the store, I get looks and comments like: "Wow! You have your hands full! Are those all yours? You sure are busy!". This is when I smile and sometimes chuckle. This is when I whip out the big news and say "Yes, I am busy. And oh, by the way, I home school them!" It's my favorite part. I watch their jaws drop, their tongues roll down to the floor, and their eyes open wider than humanly possible. Then I turn around, clap my hands three times, and ask the kids politely to get back in line behind me. (Ok, the end was a slight exaggeration. One can dream, right?)

So I'm busy. What else is new? I have a full day. What I do sometimes struggle with is the fact that I still look for things to fill my day. No, I am never bored. There is always something to do. I just find things that look cool or sound like a good idea and then spend my "extra" time studying them, or doing them. Or I think that I have all the time in the world because I don't work, and my kids don't spend 8 hours a day in school. Sure we can do things later in the day. Sure we can stay up late and sleep in. We home school. We can do what we want.

Well my dears, I am finding that the more I try to buck my schedule, the more I find that I am yearning for it. I am going for the less is best routine. I am going to stick to that routine. I am going to get off the computer and get in the shower right now. Because even before I sat down to type, I knew that this was not in the schedule!