Chirpoo tau pootu pootau pi
boochirpoo tau dautwo pootau (grape) pi


If you eat a grape you dont spit the grape skin
if you dont eat the grape skin you do spit the grape skin.

Artist Canvas ===$1

We joined another family about 2 months ago to go thrifting to look for some outfits for the 4h fashion revue. Of course, G, found just what she needed but I found something rough, off white, and a huge panel of it. I had know idea but for 1.99 not something to pass up I thought for sure. So I showed my friend and asked her what it could be. My thought was to line fabric with it to give a stronger give to a purse the girls were doing in 4h sewing...then she said maybe it is for painting...Ahhh...I see. Okay, now here is my excitement for fathers day my husband wanted to go check out MIchaels!!! HOw cool is that!!!! We were going to take a stab at silk screening a few shirts with pictures of his music gear. So we checked out prices but waited and then I spotted it. (I should add that before we left I watched a youtube video to create a canvas....wood, mitered, measured, etc ughhh not up for that today) So you ask what was this of many gold mines that I found at Michaels. A wooden picture frame for $1!!!Can you see where my mind is churning? Here we have what it became...All for a dollar.

Imagine the excitement from your little ones artwork displayed museum style...

***I used actual canvas on mine but I am sure you could use virtually anything thick...Walmart has a twin sheet for only $5...imagine how many artworks you will have...



UPdate: This is what the first one was used for a bit of card stock, mod podge, and a picture.



yet another painted by my daughter to coordinate zebra print in her room..

Pasta Time...manja manja...No not really

My kids are very hands on this morning so to perfect the hand eye coordination we are making pasta necklaces...To make the colored pasta go to my earlier post here.

http://mymommygoround.blogspot.com/2010/07/crazy-for-pasta-total-cost-4.html

Here is the tip of the day for little hands. Little hands have a harder time to keep a steady hand but this simple modification to the end of the thread, yarn, or elastic makes things so much better. The best use for duct tape by far using a small snipet of tape place thread on diagonal and roll to create a needle.

Don't forget to ask!!!!

I am for sure not the shy type. So if I am out and about shopping and happened to land at hmmmm...lets see Michaels or something. I always ask if they have any coupons. More often then not the clerk will get it done. One clerk even gave me a 15% pass for all of my future shopping orders. So my response is always ask!!! I am sooo amazed at the extreme couponers and though I couponed I just dont have the patience. I am giving it another try and I do use them here and there. Like for a wedding cake topper @ half off. Oops spilled the beans. Here is my top deal today.

Walgreens has the Nova Max Plus blood glucose monitoring system for sale right now @ 10+ and tax and you get a $10 Register Reward. So for .09 Cents I got the nova max plus.

I also needed a refill on my ink and was prompt to use my $3 off coupon (which I asked for) but I needed to add more to the order a simple .39 snickers and then apply my $10 RR. My grand total was about .50 Cents with an extra candy bar.



So for less than $11 I got a
blood glucose monitor
a candy bar
refilled ink cartridge

Frugality pays...

I am not your typical unschooling mom. My children are enrolled in a charter school and we are allotted a balance to be used for each student per year. Well I am cheap. I refill my own ink cartridges at Walgreens (loved the awesome $1 deal they had). Buy my own curriculum at thrift stores and friends of the library are great!!and use the pletheria of websites to get free homeschool materials. We have been fortunate to use much of our funds for other skilled items like ballet, guitar, etc. Well, as frugal as I was I just started the program and didnt take advantage of the funds and was told you spend it now or lose it. In two days I had to come up with spending nearly $800 on stuff.. Poor planning but I am so excited. Right now we made our own Vennagram charts with sharpies and construction paper but now we have the whole shabang so those floating papers can now be recycled. Though I would've preferred more science kits we were told we coulnd't. So here is the spread we have with a few added guitar lessons. Better planning next year. Rosetta Stone for sure. Anyone else used it for their kids?

Sooo bad with dates....

Ok so I am not the perfect person when it comes to dates. I still don't know any of my in-laws birthdays. Had the MIL and Greatgranma in law over for Lunch on Sunday after church only to find out that GGIL's birthday is on Tuesday. WHatt??? With our current nonexistent financial situation what can I do to pull of a grand party in hmmmm less than 20 hours. With a few trips to the dollar store. This is what we came up with. We will have a 5 course meal and prior to the meal is the centerpiece. Every guest will have a numbered envelope and the numbered envelope will correspond with the centerpiece...I have cleverly coined the Memory Tree. GGIL is celebrating her 92nd birthday this Tues. So there will be numbers hanging from the tree and with some sleuth work and google we have a detail or headline every ten years of her life. Each person will participate in sharing the info. K here is the breakdown for the cost black table cloth ---free this is a twin bedsheet my son bought for his quilt he will be making but we havent gotten to it yet. $5.75 centerpiece- twigs and vase from a friendly neighbor (oh and the same wonderful friend's 13 year old pianist gave Great grandma a musical concert), 2--$1 pink tulips-$1 green leaves. 2 candle holders $2.50- pink sparkly tulle 1.25 Rocks on hand

Edit added. Thank you for being such a selfless loving, hard working mother, grandmother, and great grandmother.

Time intro...

Trying to incorporate a hands on activities to further enhance learning. We have worked with physical clocks but I wanted to turn this into a craft they could be proud of also. During our lesson on time we created clocks. What you need

dark plate (I used black, happened to have some from a party)

round multicolored stickers

brad pin

construction paper to draw big hand and little hands (In addition to using arrow points, I made the big hand bigger and the little hand smaller to help the children in distinguishing which one.)

hole punch

Using a separate circle cutout I told the kids to pretend this was a pizza and if we wanted to cut it up so that 4 people could have it how would we do that. B was given the cutout and began to show the lines using her fingers to make it in fourths (intro to fractions) I was then told to fold the creases. I unfolded the paper and told them lets now pretend this is a clock and had them tell me what numbers would be at the corresponding creases. i.e 12,3,6, etc (Add stickers to those areas to reinforce visually) We then talked about total minutes from 12 to 3 and introduced them to counting up by 15s. Then they were ready to begin.

I think the craft is pretty forward. To add to the learning they were given time worksheets and had to recreate it on there clock and then listened to dictated times and had to show me. What kid doesnt like a craft and even better that it helps them learn.

Dali Inspiration

As part of our art lesson, the kids were introduced to Salvador Dali. I knew the colors and the angles would grab I's attention. He was mesmorized with the artwork in my Dali book B on the other hand was overly giggly at the silhoutted bodies. Here is Is work in completion.

Scrabble anyone??

My son LOVES scrabble..hmmm I think he gets it from me. Brain food...So came the thought of interactive scrabble. I have 2 dollar tree baking pans and magnetic letters. I and B took turns spelling out words in true scrabble fashion it went smooth till young one intervened and started throwing but how much fun they had before then. Working together, leaning on each other for help forming words, etc.

Were almost there...

Am I the only homeschool mom trying to find my balance in teaching 3 different grades at once. We are at the end of the year and things are finally starting to calm down. I HAVE MADE IT!!! Working with my ODD, ADHD, and Mood disorder (mentally ill) son has now come to a calm and I can work smoothly and finally get things done. This job of mine is sooo awesome and I would not change it for any fortune 500 job (though I must admit I haven't felt that way all the time). My endless nights and time spent on the computer trying to figure out the best curriculum for my right brain learner, how to engage him at his level, etc.I have spent the last two days going over the newly added program of more starfall @ starfall.com and I am amazed at what we got. It is incredible the curriculum, the downloadables, everything, and I have 3 kids working simultaneously on it. This allowed me a great time to actually do unload/load dishes, laundry, and clean up. I LOVVEEE IT! Everybody doing their own no screaming no crying. Then the time of 9....off to begin the next activity.

Hard to start in the middle of a circle without retracing the outside

My 1st grader came into the 1st grade not knowing any geography, 5 senses, and so many more things that should have been brought up. So as review we have been introducing him to these things with my Kindergartener. Kids are resilient with maps and it is better to introduce now than later. My oldest who is now 11 was able to recite 11 states based on size, location, and name when she was only 17 months old. Since my son has sensory issues he refuses coloring, drawing, and writing. That leaves us with a pretty empty slate for learning but we took it out of the traditional mold of learning and with some leftover sugar cookie dough. The kids had a fun task before them: Continent cookies. Shape, cut, and cook to look like a continent after naming all 7 of them first of course. This was the end result...

My homeschool journey...

I have always felt God tug at me to homeschool my children and I have never wanted to listen then finally gave in several years ago till finances beckoned me to go back to work briefly) Four children later I have listened again and have begun the journey

This pictured moment was the proudest moment for me. Part of our homeschooling journey was the decision to work with my out of control son. My son was seen by a therapist while in a brick and mortar school for behavior issues that we wanted to get a hold of. Have you ever been terrified because you know if something doesn't change bad things will soon happen. My son was very defiant all the time.. He had no respect authority and ALWAYS pushed the button. He has no sense of cause and effect (If i do this then this will happen) By the age of 7, he had attempted petty theft twice (which I caught and made him take care of immediately). He kicked and punched two children in school. So as I write you can imagine the struggles we had at home with him.
Then begin the school year of 2010. My plan for the year was to homeschool my new 6th grader and Kinder while my son (1st grader) went to school. I had NO intention of homeschooling him...I feared the outcome and honestly didn't want to deal with it. It wasn't until my oldest applied for a new school and we thought that if she gets accepted (she was waitlisted)I can't be in two places at the same time dropping both kids off each on the other side of town. So a careful and unwilling plan was made to homeschool ALL the children from the beginning of the year (in the beginning I could only say really....what was I thinking.) We have since changed chartered homeschools twice. The first online school was overkill and working with a child with problems proved to make a bad situation worse. I was soo exhausted of the fighting, the screaming, and the crying. I began to really question why I started this. Then God who has always taken care of us made this bad thing better. I befriended several unschooling homeschool moms who made my thoughts of unschooling a little more at ease. We were also waitlisted for another homeschool charter that allowed a more hands on learning environment...then miraculously mid year 2 spots opened up as I told them I was willing to drive up to 20 miles to meet their teachers I pleaded to just try to get us in...This they did!!! A teacher in the mountains was willing to drive to us every 20 days...My two oldest were in the school since early Dec and the hands on element, labs, etc are so much better..It has now been a little over 2 months and we are more at peace still working through curriculum that works and learning strategies but we are ALL happy. One of the many struggles my son has is writing. I never wanted to push it but he still has to write some things for practice. Lines are non existent in his writing. His letter formations are everywhere. This never goes without a huff and a puff.
We have tried to get him into the ADHD clinic for several months and they kept denying us stating that he did not fit their criteria without ever meeting with him. We pushed and pushed, continued calls and emails to his Dr. and then we finally got an appt. Then on January 31, 2011 (about a year since his last therapist appointments which did nothing not even a diagnosis) we finally received a diagnosis...he had mental disorders, Occupational Defiance Disorder, and ADHD. Because of the combination of problems the doctor started us on a med for one and these pictures are what happened after just one day of the meds. You can see clear defined letters that are all within the lines. What an amazing God we have!!!

Though this was amazing, I will be honest the mental disorder really took me into a state of denial. My mother is bipolar/manic and doesn't take medication. She has developed addictions to a variety of things: gambling, caffeine, sugar, and spicy foods. This all trigger her disorder and though I am told the Christian thing to do is to cast her out (as I do believe there is evil in her) I just can't do that. So we have taken her in but not without suffering. We are now working to send her to Korea to live with her family abroad. So when they told me mental disorder I just thought of my mom. How unfair my life is that I now have to also take care of my mental son...I can't sit and watch him turn into my mom and do nothing about it. Through prayer, I realize that God opened these doors to help him. If we can get him cycled to see that this is the norm for his life to take a pill every day by training him early then it will be habitual and he will not refuse to become like so many mentally ill that refuse medications. So this is my journey....

Crazy for solar....

Our latest adventure was the task of a solar oven. Though the windy day today was against us we got something out of our solar oven.

Used cardboard pizza box
aluminum foil
elmers glue
paintbrush
reynolds turkey bag

Flowers aren't just for girls...

To celebrate the sun we hopped on over to our neighborhood store that happens to be in every city and bought some flowers. They each picked their favorite and later planted in front of the house. Though I am most certain my boys enjoyed the worms soo much more..

Me and my son....

Thanks to Ana from Knock off wood for this plan. My son and I used his scrap wood to make this awesome little chair. What turned out to be a we project ended with a me project. =)

History can be fun when you use your hands and noggin

Today we started a new homeschool program called, The Story of the World. This is a review of our old lessons but on audio (let me rest with my migraine while I folded laundry) To keep the kids engaged we would pause and ask ? to be sure they were focused and listening. Then the challenge....
To make a shaduf with household objects...(though this met some resistance) they learned many valuable lessons.
After, their creative challenge was to test their trajectory with the newly converted catapult. Oh yeah the picture with them in laughing/pain was their lesson of what goes up must come down. Unfortunately, they learned it the hard way when their weight fell on their foot.

Learning Rome....

We have been waiting for our core curriculum but in the meantime set out to the library and literally checked out ALL the books on the topic...Then came the idea to make a cardboard box city of ancient Rome. My oldest 10 had sooo much fun with this and this is her creation. I love the attention to detail that she showed on this assignment.

Happy Homeschooling...x 3= Books and books everywhere

School days which are every day bring the comfort of books and papers everywhere. I was thinking about how great a locker would be but the lack of space stinks. But Knock off wood has a great solution for a bench/cubby. I am oohhhh sooo excited!!