Anna Turns 5

Annabella turned 5 on July 28th.  She is becoming such a big girl.  We have been very proud of her lately.  Showing lots of growth.  She is a blessing every day.

For breakfast she requested brownies.  And she got goggles and a hummingbird feeder.  Later in the day Grandma and Papa came over and we went to dinner at Friendly's.  Yum!!!

First Day of School 14-15

In case you wonder...Ben is expressing how much more he likes donuts compared to cinnamon buns.

Ohhh it feels good to be back to the familiar routine!!  I thought I was totally not ready and perhaps even rushing into the start of school unprepared.  But the first day has gone more than swimmingly (Ben is still working as he is a master dawdler) and oh boy did those all routines feel good after a summer of running wild!!

We are getting a nice and super early start this year because I find come August the kids are starting to get bored....just hanging around like lumps.  And I know from two years experience come April/May it is impossible to strap them down to get school done and at the precious young ages I can't bring myself to force it anyway.  So, hopefully we will be done come May when the kids want to run free...and again be ready to get back to routines come August.

A quick rundown of what we are working on this year:

Ben:
-Singapore 2A US edition (this is new this year...a switch from Abeka.  I am not entirely sure it is going to be a good fit but we are going with it for now)
-Memoria Press 1st gr. Literature Study Guide (this is a quick finish up from last year and we will be moving into the 2nd grade Lit. Guides in a few weeks.
-Grammar CHC Language of God for Little Folks Level B
-Spelling CHC My Catholic Speller Level A (finish from last year and then we will get our spelling from our other work)
-Religion St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism and a healthy dose of Lovasik etc
-Poetry as recommended in MODG.  We are starting with The Owl and the Pussycat
-Geography we are learning about the states and capitals
-Science Usborne Science with Plants and Milliken Seasons and Living Things and Magic Schoolbus and WildKratts for those rainy days.

Annabella is for real in Kindergarten now:
-Abeka K Number Skills for Math
-Phonics/Reading Little Angel Readers
-Religion Treasure Box Books, Chats With God's Little Ones, Leading the Little Ones to Mary
-Poetry
-Handwriting Writing Our Catholic Faith

Anna finished her school day in the time it took Mr. Slow Poke to finish Math and she did a wonderful, enthusiastic, and well done job!!  So pleased with my little peanut!!!  In fact she finished so quickly and thoroughly that I forgot to get a picture of her doing school!!  I will have to get one later because she chose quite the fetching first day of school dress.

Trampoline!

When I saw a large trampoline come onto freecycle right before going to bed one night I jumped on it (no pun intended). I never heard back so I assumed someone else claimed it. A few days later I get an email from the lady that the trampoline was still available! It has a little rust in places and definitely shows years of wear. But it also still has plenty of life left in it! WE have since gotten the netting up too so we don't have to worry about the kids flying off the thing or breaking their legs in the springs :)


 

Goodbye Training Wheels

This Spring I had encourage Ben to let us take off his training wheels. He insisted he was no where near old enough to have his training wheels removed. He said he would need to wait until he was approximately 26 years old. So, I simply took his training wheels off and let him fend for himself.......and he did. He started riding his sister's bike. Not wanting to be outsmarted I went ahead and took off her training wheels too. Mom win. After a few days he had it all figured out :)

Ben's First Holy Communion

 

 

On June 8th, the Feast of Pentecost, Benjamin received his First Holy Communion. He worked very hard all year to prepare and what a blessing!!  The FHC class was just 5 boys this year...no girls!  It was a beautiful day and we pray that Benjamin, and all the boys, continue to grow in their faith.

Wordless Wednesday - Ben Goes Vintage

Wordless Wednesday - The Homeschool Science Edition

Rest Stop

We recently took a trip down to Virginia so the Claudio and I could attend the IHM national Catholic Homeschool Conference and we could all visit with my dad and stepmom.

It is a long trip down with a car full of little people. So, we made two great and very different stops.

Our first stop was Cabela's.  This place is awesome!!!  It is basically just a large sporting goods store.  But it is also like a natural history museum...or a taxidermy museum...or something.  I lack the words to describe it. But the kids can't wait to go back.  AND IT IS FREE FREE FREEEEEE!

each side of this mountain showed wildlife from a different region of the US.  Complete with waterfalls and ponds

they wanted me to take their picture with these game feeders...I obliged.

After Cabela's we stopped at the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.  It was just a quick stop in for a look around and a visit to the Church.

the shrine

School Room Redux

Thanks to some advice from friends in a homeschool group I am in I was finally inspired to really get my schoolroom organized.

 I had gotten it functional before last year's school year started, but before Christmas I just got too pregnant to deal with sitting in there for school and we started doing school on the couch and the schoolroom became a dumping ground disaster!!!

I had been putting off dealing with it because I couldn't even figure out where to start or what to do to make it work better.

With just a few dollar store purchases things quickly came together and we are now up and running!!

 Still need some more shelf space in that closet, but for now things all have a place.

From the top down: paints and other craft supplies that require supervision are at the top, next down is paper and school supplies, next down are saint story picture books/children's bibles/church related book and some read aloud books, next shelf is baskets with beginner readers for Anna, early chapter books for Ben, and Lovasik books, bottom is non-fiction/age appropriate books and coloring books in the blue basket.

Our school table (which is already too small...and Buggy me asked me to point out that that is her milk on the table there), our "daily planner".  The white table has their personal school baskets to hold the stuff they are working on.  The shelves above take up that whole wall.  The top shelf has textbooks, workbooks, reading books, etc etc that we are not currently using.  The other end has Christmas and Easter books, and some craft boxes that require supervision.

The bottom shelf has reference/anthology books, a basket of Magic School Bus books, a blue basket for books we will need during the school year but not daily, my teacher manuals and a basket of Treasure Box Books...then printer and computer tower above my desk.

and there is the whole room.

Lucy Takes The Wheel

Ice Cream You Scream....

My dear little Buggy has suffered with food allergies essentially since birth.  She was switched from regular formula to hypoallergenic formula within her first month of life.  By 6M she was reacting to even that and had to be switched to Elecare, an amino acid based formula.

At this time she also had her first round of allergy tests which showed she was allergic to dairy, eggs, and peanuts.  Because they were diagnosed so early Buggy has actually never eaten eggs or peanuts (and only dairy in the form of baby formula).

A year after that tree nuts and coconut was added to Buggy's list of food allergies.  Severely limiting her diet.

It was time for Buggy's annual allergy appointment a few weeks ago.  She was put through a battery of skin tests (32 in all).  Amazingly the only foods that came back positive was peanut!!  Dairy, which she used to react to on contact was negative and so was everything else!  I was dumbfounded!!  Totally shocked!!  Food allergies have been our reality for so long!

The doctor ran some bloodwork to be sure and lo and behold they also came back negative. So, he gave us the go ahead to let Buggy try dairy at home...

first drink of milk ever!

check out that boo boo on her elbow!  She fell on her way out of the allergist.  She had no idea she busted up her elbow.

  When I asked her how it tasted she said, "Like apples.." She is the family comedian for sure.

To really celebrate we went out to get her first taste of real ice cream!!  She chose vanilla with chocolate sprinkles!!

Ben begging for some of my cone....

Ohhh and her first scrambled eggs too!!!