Time4Learning

I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning offers standards-based language arts and math curriculum. Science,social studies and art lessons are provided as a bonus for most grades. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.


I'm going to try this curriculum for Caleb as he says that he really wants to do school on the computer. Joshua and Luke will use it for enrichment. I'm excited to try this for one month and see how it goes.

Happy Birthday Caleb

Caleb turns 7 today. Matt has his final MBA presentation at 2:00 today, so we plan to celebrate both milestones this evening with something fun. Caleb has been looking forward to his birthday and on several days has asked if his birthday or Christmas was first. He was trying to arrange his gift wish lists so that what he wanted most would come first. Prioritization, you see.

Thomas is adjusting to his new diet. I found out that you can mix a can of pumpkin with a regular (chocolate) cake mix and bake it. So, we had "healthy" cake this week! It was a treat for Thomas, and we all enjoyed it too. He loves baked goods, and he will cry if someone has a muffin or cookie and doesn't share. I also made banana chocolate chip muffins and substituted 2 TBS cornstarch for the 1 egg, and they turned out great as well. Who knew? I'm so thankful for the internet in times like these! Lastly, we made pancakes using Bisquik. The recipe calls for an egg, but I left it out. He loved them, but they were a little different texture than the batch I made with an egg.

So, the Christmas season is upon us. This is not exactly a partridge in a pear tree, but rather a regular bird who somehow got into our house and perched upon our Christmas tree. I think she was gathering stuff for her nest! After worrying how we would ever get her out, I opened the front door, and she was quickly on her way.

Thomas got his first haircut with Mimi, following the tradition of his brothers. He was so sweet, and it brought back memories of the other boys who were not so nice, but I won't name names!

Enjoy the rest of 2010! Christmas cards are coming soon!

Thanksgiving Blessings

Thanksgiving is only a week away. I can't even begin to count all my many blessings. We'll stay close to home this year with dinner at David's with Matt's family. Joshua is already counting the hours that he and Andrew will get to play together. I think he has the entire day planned.

I was a bad photographer at Halloween this year. I have one picture of all the boys on my camera, and mom has one picture on her camera. Here is what I got with the boys, Matt, and Mimi. We had a Clone Trooper (again from last year), Dan from Bakugan, Barney (recycled costume from Andrew), and Yoda. Luke insisted on the Barney costume since they just studied dinosaurs in his preschool the week before.

We found out this month that Thomas is allergic to egg and peanuts. That was such a bummer, but we are adjusting to the new diet for him. The allergist said that the egg was probably causing his eczema which he has had since infancy. So three weeks into the new diet, the eczema is gone. Amazing. She also said he will probably outgrow his egg allergy, but the peanut allergy most likely he will not. I now have an epi-pen just in case of a life threatening reaction. We thought that he had egg and peanut allergies after breaking out in hives after a small spoonful of scrambled eggs one night and after eating some crust off a peanut butter and jelly sandwich one afternoon. The skin testing was traumatic for him and me. They poked him with about 30 environmental allergens and egg and peanut. He was only positive to egg and peanut. His reactions have been mild so far, and benadryl was able to counter the effects. I hope that this is always the case, but since he only had a small amount of the allergens, I'm not sure what would happen if he got ahold of a Reese's cup or roasted peanuts at Texas Roadhouse. For this, Joshua is determined that Thomas' life is ruined. I'm determined to be more optomistic, but for now Thomas is eating a lot of crackers and fruit.

Happenings

September is gone, and October is over halfway gone.

Caleb is playing soccer, and he really seems to be enjoying it. He's the goalie, and his smile is huge when he stops the ball.

Luke started preschool, and he is the happiest student. Neither Joshua nor Caleb got really excited about going to school, so it is such a different experience taking Luke. I love it!

Joshua is still taking archery lessons with the 4H club, but he might switch to BB guns soon. We think his top braces will be off before Christmas. He's looking forward to eating popcorn again, but he'll have to wait until the bottom braces are off.

We went to the Homecoming game at Tech. It was a beautiful day, and we had a great time. Joshua and Andrew (our nephew) went with us. Joshua says his favorite part of the day was eating. I really enjoyed catching up with old friends and seeing the AXO house with all the new additions. Wow.

Thomas is still keeping us busy. He's still not walking, but he'll stand for a few seconds while he contemplates what he's going to get into next. We keep getting questioned about where his blonde hair came from. We're not sure, but we're thinking either Papa or Grandad.

Matt started his last 8 week MBA class tonight. The final countdown has started. Graduation is December 11. I can't wait to have this behind us. I'm ready to have my husband home again to help control these wild boys!

WinterPromise Hideaways in History

As we continue our trip through world history, we have made a few more stops. Week 5 was Glorious Greece, and we made a pitiful attempt at the Trojan Horse. The boys didn't seem to mind my lack of creativity.

Week 6: Gladiators and Life in Rome - we made a Gladiator Arena in the Colosseum, complete with little Lego gladiators. They are really knights, but they gladly filled in for us.In week 7, we studied about Caesars, Christians, and Barbarians. We hid out in the closet under the stairs as we talked about the catacombs in ancient Rome.
Week 8: Exploring Britain...the boys loved learning about the Celts. We made a Celtic chariot. The boys wanted to decorate up like the Celtic warriors, so they painted themselves with blue paint and made their hair look crazy. Braveheart, anyone?

Week 9: Islam grows in the Middle East...we didn't make a hideaway this week. We studied the geometric designs that are used on mosques, no people or animals. They made their own geometric design using foam pieces, sorry no picture. I know you're disappointed!

Week 10: France and the Fierce Vikings...we didn't make a hideaway this week either. We were supposed to make a longhouse, but they wanted us to reuse the pyramid box. Maybe they'll draw a picture in their notebook of a longhouse this week?

Happy 1st Birthday Thomas!

Here are some shots from Thomas' birthday party. I still can't believe he's one already.

Living History...and the weather, again

We decided this year to participate in a Living History weekend with several other homeschooling families in the area. This was time for the children to learn what it was like to live in the 18th century as a colonist in Georgia. The camp was divided into two sides - historically accurate and modern. Neither side had power or running water, so I don't think that really counts as modern, but whatever. It was a great time to get to know other families better, the kids ran barefoot, learned to throw tomahawks, shoot a bow, start a fire with flint, make candles, swing on a rope swing, etc. They had a time for the kids to trade items they had bought or made. Joshua ended up with a fox skin, and he was thrilled. Next time he wants to trade a plate of cookies, because he says you can get anything with cookies. We had two days of sunshine, and then, the rain came. It rained all night. We got up to fair skies, and we thought we could make it through the day. Then, the rain came again. It rained the rest of the morning, and after lunch, we called it a day. The river was rising. The creek where the kids had waded the day before was now three feet deep. We made it home to our dry house and decided to go out the next day to pick up the tent and the rest of our stuff. We got an email later that evening that the river was still rising, and if we had more rain overnight, our tent might be gone. So, Matt and his Dad went back out and pack up the rest of our stuff in the dark. We missed out on the community supper and dance and the adult trade blanket, so I think they are planning a make up day soon. Overall, it was a great time, the boys loved it, and it's in our plans for next year.

As Joshua pointed out, "Mama, here's another time that the weather was bad with you around." Thanks, son.

Joshua in the kayak
Luke making a candle
Joshua practicing knot tying using his brothers as prisoners
Luke and Caleb guarding the camp Joshua and Caleb trying to start a fire

WinterPromise Hideaways in History

We are well into our school year. This year we are taking a trip through world history making stops along the way to learn more about each time. Each week we have a theme, and we make a "hideaway" to remember each stop. I'm going to try to document each stop we make by including a picture of our hideaways. I have to do this for the notebooks the boys are making, so it shouldn't be too difficult to post the pictures here also.

Week 1: They made cave drawings, and we made a cave under the table. We learned about early people and ancient Sumeria. We started with a study of creation, Adam and Eve, and the garden of Eden.

Week 2: We studied ancient Egypt, mummies, and Pharoahs. We made two trips to Gwinnett to pick up the boxes needed for most of our remaining hideaways. We used one box to make our pyramid. The boys also dressed up as the Pharoah, a servant, and a guard. This was impromptu and completely done on their own. They are really getting into this!

Week 3: We learned more about ancient China, India, and Africa. This week we made the Great Wall of China (which will be saved for the Berlin wall later this year).

Week 4: We studied about feuds and fights in Mesopotamia - Assyrians, Phonecians, Israelites. We made an artic igloo. I'm not really sure where the igloo idea fits in, but we had saved LOTS of milk jugs for this hideaway, and the boys had fun with it.

July recap

So, another month has come and gone. Another one month recap. I would really like to update more often, but my updates only get done with I feel that I am really behind. We had something going on 3 out of 4 weeks in July. The first week, we had VBS at our church. We hosted a youth group from another church in Winder who came to put on our VBS. The boys stayed at our house, while the girls stayed at another family's house. We put all the boys in our basement (8 total). They are determined that our house is haunted, especially when they heard the dispatch radio talking in the basement. It was too funny. They spent their days swimming, eating, tubing, eating, bowling, eating, you get the picture. I see my life in about 10 years with teenage boys in the house. Hungry...all the time.

For now, my boys spend time playing with legos. Joshua is very proud of the lego castle he bought with his birthday money. You can see in the picture all the lego troops and vehicles in the background too. They have to keep them downstairs so Thomas doesn't get into them.

Caleb finally lost his first tooth. It was wiggly one night at dinner, and he just couldn't leave it alone until it was out. The tooth fairy was good to him.

We vacationed a week in Lake Lure, NC. This is a little resort mountain town on the lake back in the middle of nowhere. It is where they filmed Dirty Dancing. It's also right next to Chimney Rock. On our way there, we found another State Park geocache. It was quite a hike and very hot.

The boys with their geocache treasures

At one of the viewpoints at Black Rock

Matt and Luke at the waterfall at Chimney Rock. The boys got in to cool off.

Joshua rock climbing at Chimney Rock. He made it really high up, and here he is trying to tell us that he is done!

We rented a pontoon boat for 1/2 a day. We toured around the lake, had a picnic, and went swimming.

We think this is the dock where they filmed a scene from Dirty Dancing...does it look familiar?

Jake and Jenna spent a week with us while Danny and Kim went on their annual lobster diving trip in the Keys. We were busy all week entertaining the kids and trading off between our house and Mom's house.

Joshua and Jake picking blueberries

Luke and Jenna were good pals and so sweet together

A nightly routine: ice cream with the kiddos

Now that August is upon us, I have to realize that my baby is turning 1. I can't believe that it's already been a year. He is such a wonderful addition to our family, even when he does things like this...

June recap

We have been having so much fun this summer. I don't think we've had a slow day yet. The boys were in a play this weekend at the community theater. Now that practice is over for that, I hope we can slow down a bit. It's just going too fast!

We have had several thundershowers this summer. They seem to be quickly followed by sunshine. We got this awesome picture after church one Wednesday night. The kids were so excited to see it...they wanted to go looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Thomas is crawling all over the house now. He can pull up on the fireplace, but he cries until he figures out he can just sit back down. He has found the tupperware drawer, like his brothers before him. He has proven to be worse than his brothers were in putting stuff in his mouth. I have already had to fish out more things from his mouth than all his brothers combined! There's lots of opportunities for small stuff on the floor around here too. Sigh.

We have successfully raised butterflies from caterpillars. It was one of those order the caterpillars, they come in the mail, you wait until they turn into chrysalids, then you wait until they hatch as butterflies. Pretty foolproof. I liked it. I talked Caleb into setting them free before we killed them. Whew. We also had toads for a few days. They were found in the yard. After a few days of having to catch 10-15 grasshoppers each day, the boys got tired of the toads, and they were released back into the wild. Whew, again.

We've been in the water quite a bit so far this summer. We have been swimming at Mom's neighborhood pool, and David opened his pool this summer. It hasn't been open for several years with Jean's illness and David working full-time. Since David is now retired, he took time to fix it up. The boys are so excited, as Papa's pool has a slide and a diving board that Grandma's pool doesn't have. We have also been on waterslide several times as that is something quick that we can do at home.

Like I said above, there have been some pretty severe storms come through this summer. Matt says that destruction is following me, if so, I hope it passes over soon! It all started with the flood in Nashville that Mom and I managed to escape. Then, we went to Sonic one night for sundaes and saw a storm coming. We got in the car just before the storm hit. It was so dark, and we could hardly see the road, the storm was so intense. The basement even started flooding at one corner of the house. The next day, I drove by Sonic to see this...

We left about 15 minutes before the roof fell.

So lastly, today a really bad storm came through. We even went to the basement. We couldn't see out the windows, except for lightning strikes every few minutes. Those were followed by loud thunder. Caleb has a fear of a tornado blowing down our house, so this really upset him. Bless his heart, he was crying, "God, have mercy on us. God, save us." He kept saying it over and over. The only thing that would quiet him was if I held him. That wasn't easy when I had Thomas asleep on one shoulder. The scene was so chaotic that it was funny and pitiful at the same time. We sat in the dark (power was out) in the middle of the storm, and Caleb was doing what we have taught him, calling on God during your times of trouble. Matt didn't think it was too bad either, until the storm was over and he saw our swingset and trampoline overturned in the back yard. But, the worst was in the front yard. We had a huge old tree in our front yard. It was hit by lightning a couple of years ago, and we have been waiting to decide what to do with it. It was still alive, but obviously the root system was suffering. The tree fell towards the house, but thankfully, it missed the house and the car. Just as Caleb prayed, God saved us and had mercy on us. Let the cleanup begin...

The pictures don't seem to show the true proportion of the tree. It is huge. After the storm, Matt opened the garage door that I had shut right before the storm hit. He came back in and said, "I can't find Charlie." I had assumed that both Charlie and Buddy were in the garage. Wrong. Buddy was, Charlie wasn't. We went outside and started calling for Charlie. The problem with that is that Charlie is 12 and hard of hearing. He is also terrified of thunderstorms, hence, he should have been in the garage! We walked all around the house multiple times. We looked in the field thinking maybe he had been thrown. We tried looking through the tree limbs thinking maybe he was trapped under the tree. Just when we were about to give up, Joshua says, "There's Charlie!" He was running up our long driveway...just like in a Lassie movie. My heart jumped. He ran right past me soaking wet into the garage to his spot in the corner. Poor thing, I don't know where he was, but we are so glad to have him home safely.

Have a great 4th of July. We will be thinking of Jean, as it was her birthday. She loved to have everyone celebrate on her birthday, so we will be sure to remember her during the day and while watching the fireworks.