I'm still here!

I am still here! It's been a while since I have posted due to...well, life!

I miss blogging, but other things come first and by the time I can really sit down and do a little, It's time to go to bed. I have a little time tonight so I thought I would post an update or something. Now, I'm about to post everything that has happened since then- well, not really everything.

We have been busy doing school work, being involved in our church anniversary, basket ball, basket ball, and basket ball! Whew, I am tired! My oldest son's team came in 3rd place. Not bad for his first year playing in a while. They almost won 2nd place but missed it by one point. I loved his team and his coach was excellent! The attitude of the players and the coach were very impressive! Here's a picture-that's my husband sitting at the table keeping score:

My son with his trophy:

My middle son played B-Ball also and my husband was his coach. Those games were good, but really funny at times, considering these kids were all 7 or 8 years old and it's their fist time playing. I can't tell you how many times baskets were made at the wrong basket! Without fail, the balls always went in!

In case you can't figure it out, my son is standing right by the ref.


One of the team mothers bought cupcakes for the final game, on top were these cute little basket ball baskets. My son was more into that than he was his trophy. I thought they were pretty neat, too!

All of these pictures bring me to a blessing I have been waiting and praying to purchase- My camera! My husband purchased me a high end point & shoot camera. It had a lost of features that helped me to learn photography. My reason for wanting it was because my children were growing up so fast and I wanted pictures of them- good pictures, you know, not the Walmart Studio Kind (those are good, when you want studio pics- I am not putting Wally World down at all) but the kind that are taken outdoors and at random of kids being kids and doing kid things. I want to remember what my kids look like when they were sleeping when they were 4-5 years old, I want to remember all that sweetness about them. Then I want to be able to show their children, and they can show their children. After checking out the prices of a few photographers, I realized that I could easily buy a good camera for same amount I was going to pay the photographers for. So, I bugged my husband and he got me an Olympus sp550 uz.. I really do like it, buuuuuutttttt the shutter lag was terrible! Shutter lag is the time it takes for you to push the button and for the picture to be taken. My kids would be looking at the camera and it would take so long for the camera to respond that I would end up getting a good picture of the side of their heads! Not good. That camera is great for nature pictures, still pictures and stuff like that- it's definately not for children portraits. I plan to keep it for all the good points it has.
So that's when I realized I need to bump things up a bit...I bought....a ....professional camera! Yeah, I'm still scared to say it, but it hasn't been so bad. I took the above pictures with it and I am taking lessons from a wonderful friend who is willing to put with me- he takes awesome pictures! (Shhhh, don't tell him I said that- it will go to his head, lol) I have been playing around with it and having fun. Here's one I took of my youngest son. He was in the kitchen and I liked how the light was on his face:
I will post more pics tomorrow, but that's all for now...

The Human Body Chapter

These pictures should have posted back in November! We did a unit in Weaver about the Human Body. I have included a few pictures of the different games and activities we did during our study.
Here the kids are putting together a two sided puzzle: one side was of the skeletal system and the other side of the circulatory and body organs. I would suggest it for ages 10 and up, due to all the pieces.


Little by little, bit by bit. It's coming together!

Here he is completed!

Here's a oldie, but goodie: Operation! My younger two loved playing this game.

Shoe tying

I have been looking for a poem I saw in a movie with a woman trying to teach a little girl how to tie her shoes. I could have watched the movie, but I can't remember the name of it! I thought the poem was pretty cute and wanted to use it for my children. My two older ones already knew how to tie their shoes and my third child learned how to before I could sit down and teach him-apparently the two older kids taught him. Well, now I am down to my youngest and he is not as easy to teach as child #3. He is very much into himself being correct.

Build a tee pee
Come inside
Close it tight so we can hide
Over the mountain
And around we go
Here's my arrow
And here's my bow!

Martin Luther King, Jr.- A Dream

Typo issues- I can't correct the typos from the post below-please bear with me...

Our Own School Room

Well, I had a few things I really wanted to get done while we were out for Christmas Break. I actually accomplished three! One was to finish up on the murals in my sons rooms-still working on that, but at least I got started on them again-which was a goal within itself. The second thing was to get a desk in our school room. Let me back up a little on this...
The school room...I was so happy when we got our house built that we had the option of breaking up our living room and formal dining room into separate rooms. I am not big on formality. When growing up, I could never understand the purpose of a formal living room. Why have a room that was nice to look at but you could never, ever step foot into-unless you were company. Then, if you ever got the privilege of doing so, you had to take your shoes off due to the carpet being white or a very light color. Once you made in, you had to sit on the plastic that covered the couch and the love seat-very uncomfortable, especially to kid in the summer time with shorts on. My legs would always stick to the plastic....eeeewwwwweeeewwwww.
I am so happy for this room! It makes things a whole lot easier! Well, my children had their desks from a school that was throwing their old desks out. I bought a couple of cans of spray paint and painted them the colors of their rooms-just in case we decide to the desks in their rooms later on. But I didn't have one! Wellllll, we still have houses being built around us and I am still amazed at what the builders will throw away. One day I was out walking and I just happen to glance in the trash bin and there was a kitchen island iWellllll I whole entire island! There was nothing wrong with it! I told my husband and he got it out for me. It sat in our garage for about 6 months. Then, it dawned on me that the island could be my desk! It was more than enough room at 4'x3'. I had a two drawer file cabinet and will buy another one for the other side, in the meantime, I had boxes with school books in them. My husband got the island and put it on top-VOILA! MY DESK!!!! And it is perfect for me. I have enough room to do lesson planning, while using my laptop and my printer/fax/copier/photo printer I received as a gift for Christmas. All of my lapbooking things are in order...which brings me to the third thing on my to do list. I got all of our supplies out of the school room and put them in the cabinets under the island in my kitchen, which is where I want all of our crafty things-there is carpet in the school room.
Well here are the pictures:
That's my bookcase in the corner with all my teaching info and stuff, the other bookcase is next to my desk with the materials we are currently using for lessons:

These are the children's desks and a few of our bookcases. This was taken from the doorway that leads into the school room:

Another view of the desks:

Nice pic of my bookcase-again. The big cream colored binders are our curriculum:

Last but not least, my desk. I have bought a lamp since these pics were taken:

One of my most prized possessions-a pencil sharpener. When we lived with my parents, we always used on of those 3 for a $1 ones. I thought it was great because the kids could keep them in their backpacks and have them handy-nnnnnooooooooo! It didn't work out as planned. The blades would become dull and wouldn't sharpen the pencils correctly or the kids would loose them or I would. And don't even begin to think about the battery operated kind. I would get so tired of them (the pencil sharpeners, not the kids). I told myself, when we moved I would buy a pencil sharpener like the kind in schools that could be mounted on the wall. While shopping in a whole sale store, I came across this one that could be like a clip on, I guess really a screw-on-it is perfect. No more excuses for an unsharpened pencil!

Here's one of the murals in the younger boys room-this is by their window-notice one of her gloves is black? I was so excited to get back to painting I accidentally did this. Oh, well-I'll fix it later. The little round circles above her head are "bubbles", they are really mirrors:

Here's Patrick at the doorway and once again, mirror bubbles.

I have the Spongebob portion halfway finished and will post pics as soon as its done. I love it and so do my children. My oldest son's room is Spider Man themed and I really need to get started on his before he changes his mind!

Phonics Booklets

This post is really for my brain and to remind me of a few good things:

My plan is to lapbook each letter of the alphabet for my 5 year old son to help him learn his letters and phonic sounds:

Jamin shared these websites on her page:

http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/learning-letters/books.htm

http://www.starfall.com/n/N-info/onlinebooks.htm?n=downloadcenter