reused

So I used up all our soy sauce the other day....how often does that happen? But anyway, I was about to throw the bottle away when I noticed how pretty it was. So since I didn't get one of those beautiful dish soap carafes from Uncle Robert last year for Christmas, I thought I'd make my own. It's not as pretty, of course, but better than what I had sitting up there. PLUS, when I go to squirt some out, only a tiny bit comes out...like when you pour out soy sauce...so I won't be wasting so much soap!

fire safety

One thing I was worried about with homeschooling was missing out on the extra stuff kids learn at school besides the ABCs and 123s...things you might not think to teach. I remember Isabela coming home last year singing and practicing a song she had learned about gun safety. If you ever see one:
Stop
Don't Touch
Run Away
Tell an adult

Saturday, we happened to go to the Lowe's kids' class and they were building a toy fire truck. But the best part was the real firemen and fire engines that were there. Of course, we've all been there and done that, but this time, for some reason, it was different. If there's one thing I've learned over the last few weeks, it's: ask questions. You learn the most interesting stuff... and retain it... if you do this. So Juan Pablo and I were asking away and learned things we never knew. For example, did you know....

...that fire engines actually have water in them. Depending on the truck, it's only enough to last 1-3 minutes, but it gets them started while they are looking for the hydrant.

...or that in the good old days, they could ride holding on to the back of the engine with a strap wrapped around their waist that was hooked to a bar overhead...but that stopped being allowed in '92 due to the number of accidents fire engines were in

...or that one of the trucks we saw could hold six men, but usually only three go out on calls due to budget cuts?

Interesting stuff! Plus we picked up a handful of worksheets for the kids to learn more about fire safety. I guess we've got this one covered!

modern family

Anyone see the new comedy Modern Family on ABC? Very funny! And I'm not much on half hour comedies. The last one I liked was Seinfeld. If you want a good laugh, click here.

the last one

I can't figure out why I have this problem....about finishing the last of something. I'll often leave a sip of drink in my glass...just in case...then Juan Pablo will come along and drink it...and I'll say, "Why did you drink that? I was saving that." He'll say, "You were just going to leave it there." And if he doesn't drink it, I'll often find it sitting there hours later with the same little bit in it.

We'll regularly have this discussion of taking the last one of something, like say a cookie or a roll. I think there should be an announcement to all concerned that "this is the last one!" and I'm eating it or something to that effect. There's nothing worse than having a craving for a homemade chocolate chip cookie and going into the kitchen to see the empty plate with a couple of crumbs on it.

But it's not just with food. Here's what happened today. I was out yardsaleing, and a woman was in front of me at a table just zipping through a box of books and loading each one into her bag. She took every last one, probably about 100 or so storybooks for children...well, she left four. And I was mad at her for taking all of them. I didn't even know the lady, and she was rightly there before me, and she even got them all for $5.00 dollars, a great deal. And I was still mad at her. Not for the great deal she got, but for taking all of them.
I don't think I would have taken all those books. I didn't even take the four that were left.

Juan Pablo laughed when I told him the story. He reminded me of the cholitas who sit on the sidewalk in Bolivia and sell lemons. Once, his mom offered to buy all of the lady's lemons and she said no. She wouldn't have anything to sell during the rest of the day.

I even thought about doing a craft fair once and selling those covered journals I made one year. But I asked Juan Pablo, "What if I sold them all? What would I do?" And he said, "Isn't that the point?"

***************

And let me just add that I did have a wonderful day yardsaleing. First, since JP was working late, I got to go without the kids which almost never happens. This is what I came home with:

a new comforter and sheet set for Isabela's bed $5
a sheet set for Joaquin's bed $5
a bag FULL of 9 month clothes $5
4 jeans, a skirt, a sweater and a shirt for Isabela $7
an ironing board $5 (we've been using the floor with a towel on it)
a princess fishing pole $1
sparklers .25 cents
a few books $2
a picture frame $1
4 kids music CDs $2
two baby toys $3


grand total= 36.25

science museum

We made another trip downtown this week...this time to the science museum. They were in the middle of switching out their Shark exhibit for a Bat one.


Now, when I was a kid, I remember just running through the museum, pushing any and all buttons that I could, and not learning a thing. Pretty much the same thing happened when we went the other day too.


I would try to read the directions as quickly as possible, and before I could, they were off around the corner at the next exhibit.
We did build this bridge together that they could actually walk on...and we've been learning about the keystone (well, the keystone state...anyone?)


This is how we're going to get electricity in our house from now on. No need for the gym, and we'll save a buck, too!


They had a touch tank in the basement. This is a horseshoe crab. She said they are all show and no bite...they look scary but can't sting or pinch or anything. They just use their tail to flip themselves over when they get on their back!


This is a cool starfish....see the chocolate chips?


They pet a real shark.


There was a huge sand sculpture in there...


...and outside we got to dig for real shark teeth and keep one! Did you know a black shark tooth is more than 9,000 years old? She said there are white ones on the beach, too, but they are just harder to see.


They even got to go deep sea diving!


Now, here's the kicker...I had to have known this, but I don't remember. Maybe it's the three kids that have turned my brain to mush, but the big round ball in front of the museum is the Earth (well, that's obvious) but the small one is the moon! And there is a brick path that leads between them to show their distance to scale. Now, really, who knew that? We all just run up, touch the ball, try to move it, and head on in to the museum, right?

I love fall!

I am so excited for fall to start! Cooler weather (minus today, of course), earlier bedtimes, pumpkin patches, and cute pjs! Not to mention TV is back! Anyone else love fall?

date night

Last night was Kids' Night Out at JP's job...and we got to go out, too! Diego stayed with us, and we went to Five Guys and a movie...District 9. An alien, shoot 'em up movie with a good moral...I think. Not my favorite, but we had a good time, and Diego slept through it. Has anyone seen it? What did you think?

Godspeed

Saturday we went to Henricus Historical Park to see the Godspeed replica and learn about colonial times. Okay, so the highlights for the kids were the huge coal mountains at Dominion Power where we parked....


and the bus ride over, being we don't get to ride the school bus.


I was shocked at how fierce the Native Americans really looked. I didn't even get a good picture of them!


We saw a turkey....


...and washed some clothes.


Diego just enjoyed the day.


We played some old time games....



and made a cool Native American rattle.


Here's the Godspeed...I love that name for the boat.


Pulling up the anchor!




Scraping a hide with a shell...


A thanksgiving feast...


Digging out a canoe...


Paddle to the sea...


Planting out young cabbages....


We were there three hours! But if you learn one thing in Virginia, it has to be about colonial times, right? I sure am glad I wasn't one...I wouldn't have lasted a week.

week in school

We had a great week homeschooling this week. I am so glad we decided to do this. It is much easier than I thought. We have a more relaxing morning and afternoon because the kids aren't rushed or tired, and we get to do fun activities together. We also finish by lunch time and have the rest of the day free.

This week was our first spanish class with other homeschoolers. I'm the teacher and I thought it went pretty well....except for Joaquin's antics. He sees a chance and takes it. We started learning the parts of the body and some greetings, then we read a beautiful book called Isabel's House of Butterflies about the Monarch butterfly's migration to Mexico. I know the butterflies don't have to do with parts of the body, but I thought we'd try to learn some things about different countries where spanish is spoken. We finished with a snack face...a bagel with cream cheese, grape ears, m&m eyes and nose, pecan hair and an apple mouth.

They started music again at church. They are both in the same class this year, and Mrs. K is great with them. After that, we went to bilingual family story time at a local library. They read one page at a time in English, then in Spanish. I must say I was shocked by the spanish reader. She had a hard time reading some of the words and even asked me how to pronounce things! (There were only two families there). So I had an idea...I think I'll ask a closer library if I could volunteer to do this. I would love it if our area had more bilingual activities to offer.

Thursday, Juan Pablo was off so I got to go to Joy Circle at church without the kids and then we all went to the Children's Museum. Our Science Museum family passes are good at both places this month. The kids could have stayed there all day. They milked a cow, dug for dinos, played ambulance drivers, and built things. My favorite part is their outdoor area. They have amazing instruments for you to play, a little water area and a sand pit. Juan Pablo and I just sat out there enjoying the evening, and it's so peaceful, you just forget you are in the middle of the city. There weren't many kids there, of course. We were actually the last ones to leave....they came in and turned the lights out on Joaquin and I playing puppet show.




Friday, we read a great math book called Sort It Out. It's about a pack rat that collects things, then sorts them into different groups. So we did that around the house, then we even sorted our snack and learned there are many ways to sort things.



After we finished Friday, we went to the park. I was determined to use what I had learned in Joy Circle of not rushing the kids. They must have played down by the shore, collecting shells and stepping on rocks for over an hour. When they were ready, we moved on to a nature walk through the woods. It was a great afternoon, and now we'll have to figure out what to do with all those shells.

first bites

Diego is six months old today and had his first bites of rice cereal this week! He seems to like it, and especially liked banging on the tray.

npr

On my way home from DC the other day, I happened upon NPR news radio. I'm normally a country music girl....or kid's CDs, which I do love to sing along to....but as I was driving, I realized I didn't get the least bit sleepy while listening to this channel. So I've been putting it on some each day...and besides hearing interesting news from all over the world, including Bolivia!, there was the funniest show on called Car Talk. If you haven't heard it, take a listen here. And I don't even like cars! Is anyone else listening to NPR?

a sample day

In case you're wondering what we do all day...here's what happened today:

Diego was the first one up...I bathed him and then took a shower myself. Juan Pablo had already rushed off to work, almost late. Then I got Joaquin in the bath while I straightened up a little. Next, it was Isabela's turn...believe me, baths are definitely the hardest part of the day...we need to start doing them at night again.
Joaquin helped make blueberry muffins for breakfast, while Isabela took her bath.

While we ate our muffins, I finished a story from Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories. (I didn't think we would like these because of some of the big words they have, but they are pretty good tales. The one we finished was How the Whale got his Throat.)


Then they drew a picture of something from the story...this is like narrating to see how much, or what. they understood from the story.

We did our calendar time in English and Spanish then read a story from Widsom and the Millers about the diligent worker...the ant. (If we were only like the ant.)

For math we used our bear counters and I told a little story with bears coming and going to see if they could add and take away the right number as the story went along. Then they each wanted to tell their own story. This was not in the plan, but I thought it might be fun. Joaquin went on and on in his story and the math part of it went way out the window. It was hard to pull him back around after that, which is why I'm sometimes hesitant to deviate from my plan...however "fly by the seat of my pants" it is.


I read a section on Ben Franklin and his experience at the printing press. They thought his pen name of "Silence Dogood" was funny. We then made potato stamps and printed on big sheets of newsprint. By chance, we learned how letters must be reversed on your stamp when you want to print them or they come out backwards.


We took a little music break to sing a song at the keyboard. Then I think I sent them out for recess. They didn't really want to play outside today for some reason.

Diego had woken up by this point...he takes a great morning nap.

We read some poems by A.A. Milne from Now we are Six. We are loving these poems!


Copywork was next. Isabela copies something from what we've read during the day. Joaquin practices just one letter. Today it was A. He had a melt down at this point....I should have stopped for a snack or even an early lunch but didn't realize it in time.


So we had lunch...Isabela made scrambled eggs for her and Joaquin, I had egg salad. I also started dinner...brunswick stew, which is our new favorite dish. Joaquin requested it for his birthday dinner, and I'm just getting around to making it.

We also made Jello.

At some point a bee like bug had gotten in the house, so we used Joaquin's bug sucker to suck it up and put it outside (not before studying it through the magnifying glass), where we were then chased by multiple insects until no one wanted to be outside anymore.

I ran out to the grocery store, without kids, when JP had come home for an hour in between jobs.

Then we delivered the thank you notes from Joaquin's party. He had written his name on each for handwriting one day...if you haven't guessed it, he HATES writing, although he loves painting and coloring and drawing. We ran into several friends doing this, and got home around 6:15pm, where dinner was ready to be eaten.

We had Jello for dessert, read stories, and went to bed.

Whew! So that's a typical day. We are normally through any "school" stuff by lunch. We went to a park one day and hope to start other little field trips soon. Plus we have art, spanish, music, and dance starting next week!

coke and mentos

We tried the Diet Coke and mint Mentos experiment for the first day of school. You drop the mentos in the coke and it should shoot out of the bottle.


This is what we got.


Joaquin's went a little higher and got a little on his head.


To see how it should look, check here. Well, probably not this advanced, but we realized you have to find a way to drop all the mentos in at once. Try, try again.

a little cutie

Just some cute pics of the babe in his new fall shirt...I do love it when the seasons change.



And he's starting to sit now...with some support from the boppy!