"Work" by Anonymous

Time for a "Tweak Week" as the kids and I recover from colds, lots of work, and a crazy activity schedule:

Work while you work,

Today we spent some time exploring what studies are showing about chess and better focus in kids.  S has a new love (in addition to Pokemon cards).  A love that wakes him early in the morning, eager to set up the game board.  A love that may go deeper than Sponge Bob Sorry!  Here he reads about castling:

Play while you play;

It won't be long before he can beat me at chess!  Good thing his older sisters, dad, and Grandad are very very good at chess.  I came in very last place in my 5th grade chess tournament.

This is the way

When the sun came out this afternoon, I knew it was time to do school outside.  We really needed some Vitamin D to boost our immune systems and our spirits.

To be happy each day

After setting out blankets on the new green grass (The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank-Erma Bombeck), the cats joined the apple-eating kids.  The chickens joined us after hearing about the apples!

All that you do,

After hands were washed and chickens dispatched by the Pathetic Doberman, we got down to the school business.  Fractions were on the schedule.

Do with your might;

This cool game is Fractions War.  It comes with the RightStart Math games kit.  I'm seriously considering switching over to this curriculum because they incorporate more game playing instead of math sheets as drill.  I introduced the game as a Pokemon battle, only with fractions!  You should have heard the shouting!  ("One-half, I choose YOU!")  The game comes with little fraction pieces that you can build to show 3/4 or 7/8 (or whatever the fraction card shows) if you don't know which is bigger.

Things done by halves

And after the boys headed up to Taekwondo, I read the story of Noah to the girls (Bible, Literature, Animals, Math, Science, and History-all in one story!).  After, we built Fruit Loop necklaces using a rainbow pattern (Sequencing, Colors, and Counting).  If I could teach any level forever, it would be the Pre-Kindergarten age.

Are never done right

 The poem written as the photo captions is one that is memorized by kids who are using First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind  for grammar.  I find myself quoting the poem when we experience attitude problems with work vs. play.

F Expressions

We have some new funny faces:

And some new funny phrases:

"[F], you are Chicken-phobic!"

"I'm not Chicken-phobic!  I'm [F]!"

Temporarily NOT afraid of chickens

 And some new funny phases!

And afraid again!

 F is going through a phase my kids have never gone through before.  She is afraid of monsters, the dark, and chickens!  We have to carry her around the house because the coats or vacuum cleaner scare her.

Placed on a ladder to keep her safe...

A chicken approaches!

Five Kids at Five Months

I was going through old pictures this evening and came across this fun collection: The 5 Month Old Baby Discovers The Furry Family Member

Dobermans are comfort-seeking dogs.  They love attention and warm fuzzy things like blankets, stuffed animals, and babies that smell just ripe enough to eat.

IJ and Taz

IJ Loves Taz!

The first thing IJ crawled for was Taz's chew toy.  Taz was a great at sharing!

S sharing his blanket

See what I mean about fuzzy warm blankets?

We lost Taz when he was six years old to a heart attack.  I was pregnant with E at the time.  He was a stinker, barked at bikes and baby carriages, and stole ham off the counter, but he was always, always gentle with the kids.  After E was born, M brought home his Pathetic Doberman.

E's Tasty Toes!

She was still a baby herself and spent less time being gentle and more time chewing and biting and making my life hell.

E hears a secret

But this is a cute picture anyway.  Funny, I think I found that exact pacifier in the back yard, half-digested!

F finds The Doberman

Pathetic Doberman had mellowed out just a tad by the time F joined the family and served as the title of my original blog... mostly because she caused me so much grief!

F gets her face washed!

But she still liked to lick the babies.  And drum roll please....

D and Pathetic Doberman

D discovered the Pathetic Doberman today!  He squirmed over to her and started chewing on her collar...while she was still wearing it!

"Mmmm! Yummy!"

Getting Ready to Crawl!

"You see this hands and knees action?"

"See? Space under the belly!"

No one makes D laugh like F.  She gets him screaming with laughter.  He has no idea the danger he is in...

"Can I pick him up? He's my best fwiend!"

See?

Of course E presents a danger as well...

Especially when she decides he is too heavy and just drops him on the floor...

Oh Boy!

Look at the boys' new room!  Doesn't it look nice?  I wonder how long it will stay that way...

Once A Pawn A Time...

...I taught my boys to play chess using this cute game.  IJ, the insufferable know-it-all, got sent back to bed because he thought he knew it all (and he's going through this really sassy, disrespectful phase).  S patiently sat through the story of how all the pieces move and how to set up the board.  Then we played a game where I just barely beat him!

Now IJ is out of his room and the boys are playing against each other.  I hear them changing the rules, forgetting how pieces move, and "I got his king!" without hearing a "check" first.  The funniest thing I've heard is "Eegl-leegl-moo!" which is S-ish for illegal move.  And did you know that rooks screech as they go sliding across the board?  I have to go referee.  Things are getting crazy!

The Planets Align

Because I knew I would spend most of today attempting to reassemble my nest, I canceled school.  At the time where my little workers started to burn low on energy, I put on a movie to keep them from unraveling our hard work. 

"My Very Energetic Mother Just..."

We are watching The Universe on DVD from the library.  This show is targeted for an adult audience, but my little scientists are getting a lot of information for their little sponge brains.

"...Served Us..."

See what I mean about S and unschooling?

"Nine Pizzas!"

S built this solar system out of balls.  He likes to include Pluto even though it has been demoted to dwarf planet.  Let's take a closer look at Saturn:

Saturn with its Ring

I love the creativity.  Especially the use of the rifle.  Now I'm going to have to find a TV series on DNA and cloning for IJ.

The New Carpet

I've been waiting for this day since I learned I was going to live at Twin Firs.  Sigh... I love the new carpet (and plastic off-gas) smell... I stretched out on the carpet last night, listening to In the Name of Beethoven by Alex Masi, until my nostrils burned and my lungs ached...but strange enough, my head felt clearer than it had in days.

I really like how open the living room looks without furniture!

Stuff has already piled up in the living room, waiting for M to get home from work and decide its ultimate fate...the dump or Goodwill?

Simple, elegant, and functional-just don't try to stand on that stool!

I hear, "Be careful with those camel saddles!  They're not toys!"  Well, if they aren't being used to ride real camels through Egypt, why can't they be used to ride imaginary camels through imaginary Egypt?  It's that or...the dump!  It's not like they could be useful for anything considering we have no camels to ride!

Baby's First Food

Today we reached a great milestone in that journey we call babyhood.  Baby D got his first "solid" food! I believe in waiting for signs from the baby that he is ready to start solids instead of looking at the calendar.  I think D's signs of watching us eat and drooling and trying to grab our food is a good sign.

"Wah! I'm hungry!  I'm starving to death!"

Every other baby got that iron-fortified instant rice cereal.  This baby got iron from a green source: spinach smoothie!  My smoothie!  I told M just yesterday that I wasn't going to give him a smoothie as his first food.  But after he started grabbing my glass and crying, I gave in.

"Hmm...cold texture flavor on mama's finger"

"Wow, I taste something!"

All of the ingredients are found in commercial baby food: spinach, peas, peaches, and water.  But these were fresh and tasty! 

"I like it!"

"I need MORE!"

"Oh, thank you!  I thought I was going to DIE!"

His face was getting too messy with finger feeding, so I switched to a spoon.  But this didn't deliver enough of the goods, so he went after the cup!  And took big gulps!

"I better get some before it's all gone!"

Before I knew it, everyone wanted my smoothie!