Search for Alphabets

Joel, Matthew, and Bethie are making alphabet books - partly for school, and partly for Cubbies. I'm a great supporter for making one assignment cover the basics of 2 or more needs. So I've been searching the internet for some pictures to use in their books. I started out searching for "alphabet" images - but there really are not that many I could use and they downloaded very fuzzy. I did find Joel a set of sign language alphabet in my Printmaster Clipart - he loved them! His favorite DVD though is Signing Time ABCs. Then one of the RSS feeds I follow pointed to this site ... http://thecoloringspot.com/ - I'm not copying them as full pages - though I suppose I could take the time to do so - just the thumbnails to print out for the little ones to cut and paste. (Hmmm.... paste, interesting that we still use that word when what we mean is glue stick. Wonder if I could even FIND a nice cheap bottle of school paste anymore?) Another great site was http://www.coloringcastle.com/ - there I found alphabets that could be colored with shapes inside the letters, only plain, circles, and squares - and links to other educational pages. http://www.learningplanet.com/ - found online preschool games and a set of alphabet cards you could download to color that match their games. Then I tripped here - http://www.first-school.ws/THEME/alphabetp1.htm - which has links to all sorts of alphabet helps. With dial-up, it may take me a while to look through them all. I think that will be about all I get to look for today. GetRight is trying to download the pages I marked. Little ones are up from naps, girls are doing chores, Supper should be the next item on our list - I've got to find something to go with the Kefir pudding and a salad.

Vannan turns 11 and Finds Treasure!

Sometime this Spring, Vannan discovered "Pirates of the Carribean" and loved the silliness of the movies. Anyone remember her last pirate party? I think she turned 5? We made a big pirate ship out of McDonald's boxes.... well, we didn't do that this year.

Vannan found a treasure chest cake in a magazine and my mom made the cake - all that gold - that's butterscotch! And to the left there are the black and white candles that she put on it. My mom even found tiny skeleton sprinkles for it.

Not many people showed up. Tim said to have the party at 2pm - but it turned out to be the hottest week - with the heat index up to 112, and 104 in the shade. We buried coins and aquirium jewels in the sand - but they were too hot to dig up. My nephews are getting rich on the pennies they have dug up since then.

Then my Uncle (dressed with a genuine sword - he loves dressing up for Renisaunce Festivals) and Vannan's best friend's dad each took a team of giggling kids on a treasure hunt. Both teams had the same clues ... but in a different order and not always to the exact same place. It was a riot, and took a lot longer than we expected. Everyone got stuck on the tire clue. Kendra dressed for the part, planned the whole hunt (with a little help from mom at the end) and planned to decorate all the treasure boxes - she ran out of time.

Presents and cake and the kids were ready to go home. It was a penny pinching affair - we spent a tiny amount on the cake - used left over party stuff from past parties, drank water (which was fine with everybody as hot as it was) and had icy treats to go with it. I doubt the whole party cost us more than $25. And we had FUN! I just regret that a few people recieved their invitations late and were unable to join us. We missed them.

Not Keeping Up so Well, huh?

I mean to write, honest I do... but life has a way of taking over. Haven't a clue what happened last week.... we did have one, I'm pretty sure.

Sunday, my dad let off roach foggers in my kitchen/livingroom (it's all one big room - almost 400 sq. ft.) to try to kill off some of the little beasts. So far, we've rewashed most of the dishes in most of the cabinets, but still have several to go. It's been a LOT of work - and I'm still seeing tons of roaches. I told my mom that next time, we should bomb them at night while they are out and let us go away for 2-4 days to let the poison sit.

I've also got 2 extra girls this week - the older one has been a great help in getting stuff cleaned and put back away. I'm pulling the shelf liner's up - it's pretty gross - but it will be a while before we can afford more liner paper. Oh, well, maybe it will give them fewer places to hide.

Well, back to work. Tim wants the computer anyway.

Saturday is Clean House Day

The girls didn't do half bad for their first week of school. Kendra is still working at catching up - but she likes the Algebra 1 and the Home Ec, so maybe she will stay on top of it this year. She is a book worm and gets side tracked way too easily. Vannan just gets bogged down in the reading or speeds through and has to redo lots when I finally get it from her for grading. We have got to get a better system for turning work in for grading - though I do my best to stay on top of it. I think I'm going to have to get reading glasses or bifocals soon.

Joel is loving school time - though since he already has his alphabet down pat (in sign language too), knows most of the basic phonics sounds, counts to 10, spontaniously adds and subtracts - though he doesn't know what he is doing, can spell his entire name (though he still struggles with the middle name), knows his basic and some of the other colors (his favorite is yellow), knows his shapes.... what is left to teach him to get ready for kindergarten. And he is sounding out words - he knows cat, dog, mom, dad, and all our names on sight. His favorite toy is his My First Leappad Bus - he's got about a dozen different books for it - wish the writing one was still available. He will sit and work with that for hours. I love the way he puts away each book before he gets out a new one. He loves puzzles - though he still needs help if there are more than 12 pieces. He also loves his cars and trucks and trains, builds with blocks, and reads books.

Vannan is doing 4th grade reading and math and English - in spite of the fact that she should be in 6th grade this year. Switching to Rod and Staff curriculum 2 years ago really showed up the holes she had in her learning. I had gotten slack with the "new" house and being pregnant with Joel. Several subjects she's almost ready for her 5th grade books. She's the only morning person in the whole house. Her favorite color these days is pink, and she tries her best to stay organized. We had her do the state testing last Spring - and except for Spelling - she did very well on it.

Kendra is somewhat between an 8th and 9th grader - she basically took 3 years to go through 6th grade - then zoomed through 7th and part of 8th grade. I never know what to expect when she gets up. She works way better in the evenings - but not sure how to accomodate that with our schedule. Her favorite color has migrated to purple - though it has been red and blue in the past. She is working at starting her own knitting business - but I told her that school comes first.

We are getting ready to start a new AWANA year. Looks like I'll be doing Cubbies again. I've been involved with AWANA and mostly Cubbies now for 25 years. Amazing.

Off to check to see how the girls are doing on their chores. We use http://www.chorebuster.com/ to help assign chores - and use the http://www.flylady.com/ to organize how to do them. It works only as much as people are willing to do what is assigned to them. I still need to do some decluttering - though so much of it is not clutter - we do use it! It just doesn't have a home. I am trying to get rid of stuff though - selling or freecycling or good willing what we are not using. Not an easy task when there is no pick up this far out and I don't drive.

Back to paperwork and whatever else I can see that needs doing.

Quiet on the Homefront Today

Today is rather quiet. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, my best friend comes over with her 4 which range from nearly toddler to jr. high. Since her second child has a speech and co-ordination problem, she is doing preschool work with the 2 brothers. She thinks this is great. So while the older 3 girls do thier Polished Cornerstones (http://www.doorposts.net/) for Bible class, and do a combined Science (Chemicals and Elements) and History (Moses and Isrealites Leave Egypt and Establish their own Country) that we "wing" with multiple curriculum, Bible readings, and books from the library,.... the 3 smaller ones sit down with me and do phonics, Bible, and math. Later, Kendra takes the little ones out for PE. Meanwhile Esther follows Karen around while she gets on the internet (assuming Tim isn't) and helps with household chores and lunch. In a 900 sq ft trailer that doesn't cool or heat very well and that has too much in it - it's sometimes quite hectic.

Tuesday we started AGAIN the endless task of taking everything out of the girls room (which is only a few feet wider than our master bath) to go through it and organize it. So we have had them change the sheets and remake their beds, and Vannan is working on her closet which is the top half of the nonworking bathtub (someday we will remove it and they will have more room... at least that is the plan) and Kendra is pretending to clean off her desk and organize it. Well, at least I have the 5 loads of dirty laundry out of the room.

So Joel is finished working on his worksheets and is ready for his TV time. He watches the Revver Preschool learning Videos that we got Kendra when she was little from Alpha Omega (http://www.aop.com/). They no longer sell the videos or DVDs, only the computer programs ... which we also use. But I have seen them for sell other places. There are so many new tool available to help teach preschool through 3rd grade these days - you can practically do if for free - it does still cost time and effort and paper and ink to print worksheets. But there are so many choices and resources to choose from!

Testing the Waters

Earlier this year - April I think - Joel posted this on the freezer. I was amazed - yes, I know it is backwards - but hey, he was not even 3 yet! He's growing way to fast, and I've never even put together a baby book for him.

This afternoon, I measured Vannan at not quite 55 inches. Where does the time go?

So I though maybe if I blog some of this stuff - and ad in a few useful items along the way that I want to remember - at least there would be some kind of "baby book" to show the kids.

Well, we'll see.

Not much of a first post - but I'll see what else I can come up with later. Maybe if Tim gets a job soon - I'll have more time to play with it on the internet - faster internet wouldn't hurt either. And hopefully I'll learn a few things along the way!