Hey, Sunshine! Welcome to WV :)

            It was just Max and I this morning when we got up today, which always makes for a lazy, quiet day.  He's pretty content first thing to just sit around, watch TV, and drink some juicy.  Lion King 2- Simba's Pride was on, and we're all Lion King fans (great family values!).  Max got a little sad though, and said, "Our daddy isn't here, he went home..."  LOL he meant work!  But I agree, we miss Gary when he isn't here.  He has to work tomorrow, too, which will be the first holiday in a LONG time that he's missed.   About half-way through the movie, Max realized just how nice it was outside and asked to get dressed and go play.  The sun was shining brightly and it was in the mid-60's, so I was game for a little soaking in the rays myself.

         There was a lot going on outside!  Up the road a bit, some workers were putting on a roof, which was LOUD!  Max kept telling them to quiet down, since he is a little sensitive to noises, but after a while he was too interested in everything else to even notice.  We found a couple creepy crawlies in the grass, which prompted a search for worms underneath our brick walkway.  I think it might be a little too early for them, since we only found a few teeny tiny babies.  There wasn't much other bug life going on under there, which is unusual.  Again, I blame the unseasonably cold weather :(  Max was disappointed and asked the bugs where they were a few times.

 

Pulling up bricks

 

Baby worms... so cute!

 

 

            Later on, Lil Man came home from Mamaw's.  Him and Sophie had spent the night over there, but then the girls went dress shopping for church tomorrow.  That's no fun!!  He watched a little TV with Max, then asked if we could do an experiment.  Hmm.... What kind of experiment would interest a 5 year old boy??  All I could think of was volcanoes lol, so we got out the vinegar and baking soda (and some food coloring to make it pretty).  We picked green the first time, and the reaction shocked him for a couple minutes.  We got a pretty decent foam going on, and it spilled over the cup sides and all over the sink.  That was declared "AWESOME" and we did it two more times in pink and blue.  I think we could have went on and on with that, but I ran out of vinegar. 

 

 

 

         By then, the boys were both looking to get into something messy.  We don't have much going on in the house right now, so I suggested we fill a bucket up with water and play with that outside.  Of course they were both all for that!  Water play just sounds so summer-like :) and I think we are ALL just waiting for summer.  They started out with just the 5 gallon bucket of water and a couple cups, when I went inside.  It wasn't long before I heard a lot of laughter coming through the house.  Lil Man found an old washer hose and was using it to spray water everywhere, just like an elephant.  They took turns using it to carry water over to my flower beds to water the flowers, which are non-existent at this point.  The water didn't last long, but that didn't stop the boys!  Lil Man discovered that the hose had many uses, including carrying sound.  He would make noises in one end and they came out the other end like a telephone!!  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the water play.  My phone was dying and I'm not too keen on getting a brand new iphone around water! 

 

         I don't think the boys realize tomorrow is Easter yet.  They have played with some empty plastic eggs today that they got at a egg hunt yesterday, and ate a little candy, but no mention of actual Easter.  Usually they would all be hyper over the anticipation.  I'm guessing its because Sophie isn't here to tell them.  The boys are much more into the NOW of today and don't really plan the future.  Sophie is a planner by nature, and thinks about events months away even.  I never really noticed the difference in their personalities until lately.  Sophie is a reader, as long as its something that interests her, and likes to make up long, complicated (but very verbal not written) stories.  Lil Man is more into numbers.  He's only 5, but he can count high, I'm not positive to what exactly but the other night we hit 120 before he got tired of it.  He can also add and subtract already, although entirely in his head.  He isn't writing yet, besides the occasional tracing of his name, and I'm fine with that.  I worry about him going to school next year and what they will force on him.  He's insistent about going though.  He wants to ride the bus and do the school thing.  And I don't want to take the experience away from him, if that's what he really wants to do.  I'm torn.  I only hope that public school doesn't steal his spark, like it was doing to Sophie.

 

           Well, until next time!  We're going to go play some more and get ready for Easter.... Even though we'll be spending it alone and be missing our Daddy  :( 

 

HAPPY EASTER!!!

 





It's (a) Good Friday

          Its a beautiful day here in WV, with the weather acting much more like Spring now.  It's Good Friday, which anyone who knows their theology can tell you is the day that Jesus was crucified.  We're gearing up for Easter, the kids are discussing candy, eggs, and the story of Jesus.  They are going with their Mamaw later today, to an Easter egg hunt in Beckley, proceeds going to the Children's Miracle Network, and everyone is very excited with the plan.

         A couple days ago, we made Resurrection Cookies.  We were bored, Sophie wanted to "make something", which is a request I'm hearing a lot lately.  She loves baking and concocting strange recipes.  I did a quick google search to make sure we had all the ingredients (we did!) and I printed out the story that goes along with it, and we started.  Resurrections Cookies are nothing more than meringues, sometimes called "Forgotten Cookies" because you leave them in a preheated, then shut off, oven ALL NIGHT LONG.  When you wake up the next morning, you get a yummy breakfast treat.  The trick with the Resurrection Cookies, is that you tell about Jesus being prosecuted, beaten, and crucified while you make the cookies, using the ingredients and actions as props.  It was a lot of fun and kids got a kick out of how they were hollow the next morning.

          We ran out of juice this morning.  This is a big deal in the Monkee House, because 2 out of 3 Monkees are allergic to milk, and let's face it, plain water is BORING.  (I water down the juice before I provoke a nutrition lecture)  We poked around the cabinets for a while, looking for something to make, finding only a single packet of kool aid and some crystal light single packs.  Ugh.  Then Sophie found our Sun Tea jug.  Hmmm....  The sun was shining brightly (Thank you Mother Nature!) and while it was cool, it wasn't cold.  Sounds like a science experiment to this Momma.  We set it out in the backyard, where we get the most sunshine, and waited.  Sure enough, it brewed right up, no problem.  Sophie announced that apparently Sun Tea only needs sun, not summer heat, to make the tea bags work.  We then flavored it with that lone kool aid packet.  So we are the proud drinkers of Springtime, strawberry-kiwi Sun Tea.  Yum!!!

 

Doesn't she look thrilled? Haha!

 

Yummy!!!

It Begins!!!

       Well, I did it.  I finally decided to make my own blog.  There are a number of reasons I'm doing this.  For starters, everyone else is doing it, and I felt a little left out haha... but more importantly, I have made the decision to not only homeschool Sophie, I'm leaning towards "unschooling" and I need a way to document our adventures.

       West Virginia is middle of the road in the homeschooling laws.  They ask that you file a notice of intent, tell them what you will be teaching/learning, and that you turn in an assessment at the end of the year.  Unfortunately, that makes things a little difficult from a unschooling perspective.  How am I supposed to tell the county what we will be learning?  I don't know the answer to that myself.  What I DO know is this:  Traditional school learning isn't working for Sophie.  She can read (and loves it as long as its a Goosebumps book), she can technically write, but she hates it and is convinced she CAN'T.  Hand that girl a recording device, though, and she will tell you hours of stories that are pretty darn good.  She hates math.  Hates it because she doesn't "get it".  If she's given a worksheet, it will take her at least an hour, sometimes longer, to finish it.  And even then, she's not really sure what she's doing or why.  But USING math, in every day situations?  She can do that.  She baked a cake, from scratch, using only limited measuring tools, no problems, no tears, and it tasted delicious.  She read a ghost story online, circa 2007, and announced happily that she was 4 when it happened.  And don't get me started on science and social studies.  It bores her to the point that she literally has glassy eyes and she just zones out, not listening, not retaining.  But she loves history, without having to worry about specific dates and boring details.  She is thrilled at hearing about our heritage, and what happened in the area that we live.  She just doesn't want to read about it in a textbook.  She is excited to do experiments, to design her own, to hypothesize what is going to happen when she does certain things.  The DESIRE to learn is there.

           And so we set out, the three kids and I, on the adventure of our lives.