Surprise

I had given up on my garden this year. I didn't want to deal with the water bill from watering through all the heat this summer. It was brutal here. So I let go and ripped up most of it and put plastic down. I let a few things continue mostly with bad result but then I got this surprise. A watermelon and little cantaloupe are thriving now that we got some rain. THe watermelon is a nice size already. Very exciting.

Fabric Dollhouse

Inside folded out
The frontThe back

For Renata's birthday we gave her her first Bible and this fabric dollhouse I made with a Tinkerbell to go with it. I got the pattern out of the book, One Yard Wonders. It was easier than I thought it would be and I was very intimidated by the idea. It came out really cute and I made matching toadstool furniture from wooden spools I had.

The Archeological Dig

We have been doing a small homeschooling group every Friday with two other large families. We each have a topic we teach once a month ( mine is art , of course) and on the last Friday of the month we go on a field trip. It has been going really great. We are going to the bank this week for our field trip. It should be a lot of fun.

My friend Jen is doing history each month and she really topped herself this month. She made an archeological dig. It was great. She dug up two "sites" and added sand. Then she added coins, jewlery, plaster bones and pottery pieces. Then she roped off sections for each child. They had to use brushes to uncover there treasures and place each one in a bag. Then they came inside and cataloged each "find". It was so fun.

My other friend Megan (who has science) has had the kids making ice cream in baggies filled with ice. They have to shake them for awhile to get the cream to turn into ice cream. She has also had them test spices and stuff in cabbage juice to see if they are acids or bases.

I did mini frescos and have fun plans to make stain glass windows with melted candy. It's so fun to be doing these as a bigger group and not have all the planning to do.

The first days of school

So we started homeschooling again this week and it went really well the first day. I would recommend to anyone to check out Harry Wong's book, The First Days of School, to read. It is almost completely irrelevant information for a homeschooler ( hence the library checkout vs. buying) but it has some good ideas about organizing procedures and making your school day go with efficiently.

It is so easy with homeschooling to drag the day out and be disorganized.That was fine when I was doing Kindergarten with one but now I am teaching 2 separate grades and will eventually have 4 to teach. One of the hardest things I am implementing is writing the day's schedule on the board so the kids know what to expect. This is hard for me because I like leaving my kid's in the dark so I can be flexible and not do things I don't feel like doing. Well it's time to buck up, Kimmy!

The other nice thing to implement is board work that the kids start on immediately in the morning. I put up a few assignments the night before and while I finish my morning work they are already working. I give them a time it should be completed. The book has other good thoughts about being prepared but like it said most of it is irrelevant and it is written in an annoying style. On that positive note you should check it out if you're a disorganized homeschooler.

We just had Renata's birthday this weekend. It was great fun and she was especially proud of her cake. She wanted this palette cake. So I shaped two cakes (we had the whole church for psalm sing and then celebrated her birthday too) into palettes and she decorated them with colored frosting to look like paint. She found this in her American Girl book and really wanted to do it. They were super easy.

Being Men

So my boys decided to play a game of Uno yesterday. They sat down and haggled about the rules of the game.
Then George says, "Let's pretend to be men playing a game."
Joffre agrees. Then George deepens his voice and says, "This is a great game."
Joffre responds also in a deeper voice, "Dude, don't mess up the pile!"
George (still deep voiced) "Ok, Dude. What card do I put down now." Shows Joffre all his cards.
Joffre picks out what card he should put down and the game continues.

This may not be very funny in writing but it was super cute in person. It probably helps that ones kids are always cuter than anyone elses. When did it get Manly to say "Dude"? I am going to have to talk to there father about this.

I'm Back!!!!!!!!!!!

So I am back here at A Modest Garden! Yea!

To celebrate I will tell you a fun story.

Yesterday at the dinner table we were talking about the Ten Commandments and the kids were trying to see if they could name them all.

All three kids yelled "Honor your mother and father!" at the same time. I guess we stress that one a bit right now.=)

Then they all separately started naming them. Renata brought up not worshiping idols, Joffre brought up not stealing, I talked about not coveting and then Georgie piped up. "I know one! Don't whine!"

After giggling for a minute, I explained to George that wasn't one of the Ten Commandments but God does command we don't whine. ( The story of Israelites wandering in the desert and God's response to their complaining was profound for George.)