Three Penguins

Yesterday I finished reading the book Mr. Popper's Penguins to the kids. They loved it! I love listening to them while they play because they often incorporate what we've read into their dramatic play. Ian has been saying lately he wants to be a fire fighter, and the other day he said he was going to be a fire fighter who lives in Antartica. I tried to explain that there probably wasn't much need for a fire fighter in a place that contains so much ice! In light of all the discussion about penguins, I decided to get out the size 24 month pjs that Nadia and Ian wore in the past. So here are my 3 penguins! The first picture is of Oliver (24 months old), the second is of Ian (26 months old), and the third is of Nadia (16 months old). Looking at these three pics together confirms in my mind that I think Oliver looks more like Nadia even though most people tell me he looks just like Ian. I love my three little penguins SO much!

Foto Friday

Time for some privacy!

One of the things I discovered as a new mother was that moms don't experience much privacy. This is one thing that (at least in this house) is a very different experience between mommy and daddy. He's never had a child in the bathroom with him while he's been in the shower or using the toilet or in the bedroom while he's been getting dressed. I haven't been able to totally regain my privacy due to Oliver being only 24 months old, but I have come a long way over the last several months. I still have to take Oliver in the stall with me if I'm using a public bathroom, for example. Recently I've begun working on teaching Nadia and Ian to have privacy such as closing the bathroom door when they're using the toilet and closing their bedroom doors when they are getting dressed. I've also started having Nadia take her own bath after the boys finish their bath.  Maybe some day the kids and I will have as much privacy as Paul has had the past six years. Once Nadia learns how to shampoo her hair independently, then she can have total privacy in the bathroom.

Although I do document quite a bit of our life here on the blog, there are still things that happen during the day which I intend to write about and never end up doing so. One I've been meaning to mention for awhile is that if Oliver sees a two liter of soda, he points to it and says "Daddy's milk." Cracks me up! Neither Paul or I drink milk. We both use it in our cereal (although I have been having oatmeal lately instead of cereal so I haven't been using any milk). I drink water all the time, and the kids see Paul drink orange juice at breakfast and Coke or Pepsi the rest of the day. So Oliver thinks the soda is milk for Daddy. Ha ha! I received an email today from CVS that cracked me up. They kept track of how much I saved using coupons over the past year, how much I saved through using Extra Bucks, and how much I saved by buying things on sale ($1,002.14 altogether). According to them I am in the "top 1% of savers at CVS." I am surprised because I am not an "extreme couponer." I try to go there twice a month, but some months I never entered the store. I guess I am doing better than I thought, according to CVS anyhow!

Thankful Tuesday

1. The kids had a blast at the Children's Museum last Tuesday! I hope they have another "$2 Tuesday" sometime in the next several months!

2. The kids and I were able to swim for a couple of hours on Friday. Someone else who was there had some large toys (ex a big shark you could sit on top of), and the kids had a lot of fun playing with them. We returned on Sunday afternoon. The pool was supposed to be closed from M-Th this week, but they ended up opening it for 2 hours yesterday, and we took advantage of that and swam for an hour before taking Nadia to her gymnastics class. Last year the pool wasn't open on Labor Day, but they will be open next Monday, so the pool will be open four more days this year.

3. We walked to some yard sales on Saturday morning. Two of our purchases included a Little Tikes t-ball set in like new condition for 25 cents (a new one costs $15) and a Little Tikes outdoor playhouse for $20.

4. I took Oliver to the consignment shop on Saturday morning. I had purchased a $100 gift certificate for $50 (50% off) in June, and I used $55 of it on Saturday. Everything in the store was 50% off that day. My total would have been $110.25, but I paid $55.39, and since I got the gift certificate for 50% off, it means I really only paid $27.70 for 26 articles of clothing (and one pair of snow boots). Several of the items were new with tags including a size 7 NY Giants t-shirt, which is a VERY rare find as usually I only see Eagles and Steelers stuff.

5. Oliver and I did some other shopping on Saturday while Paul was at Kennedy Concrete and the other two were with his parents. We got Paul some new polo shirts for school this year, a new closet system for Ian's closet, a light bulb for Nadia's room, and new toilet seats. Nadia and Ian had a nice time building a robot puppet at Lowe's and doing a butterfly painting at Michael's.

6. Nadia sang a solo on Sunday morning. She did a great job! She won't have opportunities like this at our new (much larger) church. I am very grateful that she was given this opportunity this summer. I'm also thankful that Paul's parents came up to go to church with us so they could hear her sing and also join us for lunch.

7. My three kids love each other and enjoy playing together. Yesterday morning when we were walking to the playground, Ian held Oliver's hand (Oliver was
in the stroller) almost all the way there. Near the end Nadia started holding Oliver's other hand. I just had to stop and take a picture of that!

8. Although I do miss being a professor, as a new school year begins I must again state how thankful I am that Paul has a job that allows me to be a stay-at-home mom. I love home schooling our kids!

9. Grapes were on sale for 99 cents a pound again (at a different grocery store). Nadia and I love them!

10. All three of my kids love books! I finished reading Heidi to the kids, and it thrilled my heart that Nadia loved the book as much as I did when I was a child. Oliver's favorite book these days is definitely The Three Little Pigs.

11. We didn't think Bucknell would be contributing toward Paul's retirement account because they have a one year waiting period, but it looks like they'll be counting his year at Bloomsburg as his one year waiting period since Bloomsburg contributed to his account last year!

Back to School

For the last several years I've seen moms posting "first day of x grade" and "last day of x grade" pictures of their kids on Facebook. I love the idea, but I have found it harder to utilize as a home schooling mom. In two years when I have to start submitting paperwork and documenting Nadia's education, it will probably be easier to declare what was the first and last day of third grade, but for now it's very nebulous for me because I started doing Kindergarten with her prior to August 2013 (when she would have started Kindergarten had she gone to a school), and although we took a week or two off here and there this summer while we were on vacation, we still have been doing some school work all year round. Last year I did take a "kindergarten" picture but didn't write the words "first day of" on the chalkboard. One of my friends always flips the chalkboard and has "first day of x grade" on one side and on the other "I want to be a x" stating what her child's current aspiration is to be when she grows up. I love that idea and decided to start doing that this year. It will be fun to see how that changes over the years. I gave up on the idea of doing a last day of Kindergarten picture this past spring because I truly had no idea when to snap that photo, but maybe in the future I'll take some last day pictures as well. Nadia alternates between saying she wants to be an artist and she wants to be an astronaut when she grows up. She says she wants to be the first woman to walk on the moon. Ian alternates between wanting to be a fire fighter or a police officer. When I told them they had to pick one for me to write on the chalkboard, they picked astronaut and police officer.

This year I again wrestled with when to take the "first grade" picture. Our school district started on Thursday, which was earlier than usual. I was tempted to take the picture on that day, but I decided to wait until today to really get into higher gear with school work. I also vacillated on whether or not to take a picture of Ian. Nadia's first picture was taken last August when she was 5 years plus 2 months old. Ian won't be turning five until December so he wouldn't be in Kindergarten this year if he went to school, but I don't plan on waiting a whole year before starting him in Kindergarten curriculum. However when it comes to most things (Sunday School, AWANA, etc.) he's not considered a Kindergartner yet. That won't happen until next fall. So I finally decided to label his picture "K4" as a compromise. The other two have summer birthdays so Ian is the only one in this situation in our family. If I had taken the pictures last week, I would have gotten them before Nadia cut her bags. Oh well! When I was teaching in a middle school or at a university, I was one to have a lot of planning done far in advance. I haven't been operating that way with home schooling thus far. I do have some plans for both kids this school year in my head. This post will count as my written plans. :)

(All About) Reading -  Ian is part way through Level 1. I would like him to finish that level and also do at least some of Level 2. Nadia will be starting Level 4 next month. For now she's still reading "I can read" books. I will continue to read picture books and chapter books to the kids, and I'm hoping that Nadia will develop a stronger thirst for independently reading chapter books this year.

(All About) Spelling - Nadia hasn't done any spelling for two months. Last school year she completed all of Level 1 and 19 of 25 lessons of Level 2. This year I'd like for her to finish Level 2 and also do all of Level 3. I haven't started spelling with Ian yet. I want him to make a little more progress with his reading skills before I start on spelling. I am guessing I'll
probably start on Level 1 with him in January. I'd like him to complete Level 1 in 2015.

Math - Nadia is about 2/3 of the way through the first grade math textbook. I'd like her to finish that by the end of November and start the second grade textbook in December. Although I used a Kindergarten math textbook for Nadia, I am not planning to do so with Ian. However, I do want to start having him do some math (counting, addition, subtraction, shapes, time, etc.) every day starting this week.

Handwriting (without tears) - I'd like to have Ian review his capital letters by completing the Pre-K textbook and also learn to write his numbers and lowercase letters by completing the Kindergarten textbook. I want Nadia to complete the second grade textbook (Printing Power) and at least one more Draw Write Now book. I also will have both kids write in a journal several times a week. Ian just wrote his very first journal entry last week.

Art -  Both children need to make more progress with their scissor skills (cutting paper not hair!). I would like both children to complete four of the Level 1 projects from Creating a Masterpiece (colored pencil, soft pastel, sculpture, and pencil). I also want Ian to finish the Fun to Draw workbook he started a few months ago and Nadia to work through more of the I can Do All Things art curriculum.

Keyboarding (without tears) -  I purchased a one year license for a new keyboarding program (their first grade one). I also have another program "Typing

Instructor for Kids 5" that she could use. She's sent a few emails over the past year, but I'd like her to start sending at least one email a week (to a cousin, aunt, or grandparent).

P.E. - We will walk to the playground (only Oliver rides in a stroller) when the weather is nice. Nadia and Ian are both on soccer teams (8 games in the fall and 8 games in the spring). Nadia is taking Level 2 of gymnastics (starting today). Nadia will play on a basketball team in the winter. Some skills I want to work with both of them at home are: using a hula hoop, using a jump rope, playing hopscotch, and riding a bike without training wheels. I also want Ian to learn how to swing himself.

Science - I won't do anything formal with Ian but will continue to read picture books on science topics, play science games (for example recently we played food group bingo), and take him on science field trips. Nadia will be working through Purposeful Design's Level One science textbook.

Social Studies - I won't do anything formal with Ian but will continue to read picture books on history topics and take him on history field trips. For example, the chapter book I am reading the kids right now is about Saint Patrick. This will be the first year I will do a formal history and geography curriculum with Nadia. She will be doing Adventures in U.S. History (intended for 2nd or 3rd grade) by My Father's World. Her Bible instruction and some science will also be included in this curriculum.

Music - I plan to restart Nadia's piano lessons in November.

Spanish - To be determined! I am considering starting Rosetta Stone Spanish with them sometime this year.

Character Education - 99% of the time this occurs throughout the day through teachable moments, but this year we are going to use the We Choose Virtues program to help the kids learn the definitions for 12 virtues and work on implementing those in our daily life.

This might sound like a lot, but today when I did Nadia's school it only took a few minutes more than one hour to do science, history, handwriting, spelling, reading, and math. We were on our way to the playground by 9:30. I did Ian's school work after I put Oliver down for his nap, and it took him 15 minutes to do his reading, math, and handwriting. This afternoon we're going to go swimming, and then while Nadia is at gymnastics from 4:00-5:30 the boys and I will spend some time at the library and another playground. I love the fact that the kids get a lot more time to play because we are home schooling them!

Oliver got a couple of books and climbed into a dining room chair to read while I did school work with Nadia this morning!

Since I posted two videos of Nadia singing yesterday, I thought I'd post two today of Ian singing parts of two songs in the musical. Enjoy!

Scissors and a solo

Nadia sang a solo at church this morning! It was a first for her. I accompanied her on the piano. She did a fabulous job. I was wishing they would have turned the volume up a bit on her microphone. She stood nice and still (quite the contrast to our rehearsals at home) and smiled for the congregation (according to Paul's mom). I couldn't see her since I was playing the piano. Way to go, Nadia! At the end of the song she mixed up some of the words, but I don't think it would have been noticeable to someone who didn't know the song (she interchanged "have your way" and "I'm the clay"). The only mistake that was obvious was that she had a memory lapse when she went to start the second verse, and this was because she accidentally sang the second verse first and that threw her off. I gave her the first word of the first verse (which she sang as the second verse) and then she finished well. Since I was playing the piano I left the DSLR camera at home. I almost asked someone to take a picture for me (since many people carry around smart phones), but I decided the video would be enough. I had asked Paul to take a video. Near the end of the song he discovered he hadn't actually been recording it, and so the video is only of the last 30 seconds of the 3 minute long song. Paul's parents were there, and she has an iPhone. In the future I'll ask two people to record it to increase the odds we'll get one complete video. Here's the video of the last little bit of the song.




Later on we made a video of her singing it at home. She wasn't smiling, and she wasn't really "into it" like she was in church (without an audience). Frankly I'd rather if this second video was just an audio recording, but it's better than nothing.




Singing her first solo in church turned out not to be the only "first" for her today. I've been a parent for 6 years (plus 2 months), and prior to today I had escaped two things I have heard other parents talk about - a child cutting his or her own hair and a child taking of his or her messy diaper and getting poop all over the crib. Thankfully I still haven't experienced the latter, but Nadia did cut some of her bangs today. The bad news is that I had to trim her bangs REALLY short to even things out. The good news is that it's just hair, it will grow back, and she only cut her bangs. It could have been a lot worse. Hopefully this was the first and last time that as a child she'll give herself a haircut!

Worst thing ever

Yesterday part of Nadia's math lesson included filling in a one hundred chart. She usually is cheerful about doing math, but she immediately wanted no part of filling in that one hundred chart. I even gave her a one hundred chart to look at so that all she had to do was copy it. She writes some of her numbers backwards (especially 2, 7, and 9) so I thought this practice might help. The lesson also involved looking for patterns in the hundred chart. I got her started and went to do something else, and when I came back she had written on the top of the math page "fis is the rst hing evr". I couldn't help but laugh, and she started laughing along with me. Life is pretty good if the worst thing ever in one's life is filling in a one hundred chart! It was such a battle to get her to complete it that I am going to have her do it again tomorrow and will continue to do so until she completes the task with a better attitude and in a more diligent fashion (she took forever to finish it). My second thought was that it's high time we get back to the spelling curriculum because she used to know how to spell words like "this" and "thing."

Children's Museum!

The Children's Museum in Bloomsburg had a special $2 admission charge yesterday. Normally it's $6.50 per person for ages 3 to adult. They also had special bubble activities from 2-4. We spent two hours at the museum, and the kids would have loved to have stayed longer. We'll have to be sure to go at least once a year as long as we live in this area. Nadia and Ian first visited this museum 4 1/2 years ago. Ian was oblivious that time around as he was only 3 months old! Their second visit was in July of 2011 so it had been a little over three years since they had been there. Nadia's favorite part was the Egyptian section, and Oliver's favorite was definitely the coal mine. If we lived closer, I would buy an annual pass.

This afternoon Ian asked when we could go to Friendly's again. Over the past six weeks the only "eating out" we've done is buying carry out pizza. On Wednesdays the kid's meals are $4 cheaper than they are every other day of the week, which means it's the cheapest day for us to eat at Friendly's, and so that's where we had dinner tonight. I am not sure why Ian loves to eat there since he doesn't eat hard ice cream. All of my kids love goldfish crackers (one of the options for the side dish)!

Our little telephone operator

Flying in the bird's nest

Nadia blowing a big bubble in the bubble wall

As always, the kids loved dressing up in costumes, and they had costumes GALORE at the museum!

Oliver and the turtle

Oliver loved playing the amadinda!