Signs of Summer

No more coats or jackets on these hooks! Time to hang up the shades.

Workboxes Worked for Us

If you homeschool then it's very likely that you heard of workboxes.  They're all the rage!  I'd guess they peeked in popularity over this past school year and it seemed everywhere I looked for homeschool resources I saw info on workboxes. So of course I had to give them a try and I was really excited with the results!  Our workboxes are an adaptation of the original concept as we were limited by space.  Workboxes are supposed to be just that; boxes filled with the child's assignments.  The original system calls for 12 boxes per child so with 3 children that could take up quite a bit of room.  What I did instead was use folders placed in a plastic basket for each child.  I picked a different color for each one of the kids and labled the folders with their name and the activity numbers that each folder corresponds to. When it's time to begin our school work, each of the kids takes out the first folder from their basket and opens it up.  Each pocket of the folder holds a different worksheet, assignment, or activity.  Attached to the front of the pocket is a laminated number held in place with velcro.  As each pocket of work is completed, the child takes that number card off and attaches it to a velcro strip with their name.  When the strip is full, the work is done!  My oldest son is on the Autism Spectrum and each school day started with questions like..."What's first, Mom?"..."How many worksheets do I have to do?"..."What's after Spelling?"..."How much more work, Mom?"    Worboxes have been wonderful for him!   Now he can see exactly WHAT he has to do, HOW MUCH he has to do, and WHEN his work is finished.  I'm certain workboxes will be a big part of our school day in the upcoming school year!

Latest Artwork

Here is the latest painting I did for a child's bedroom. The sister of an old high school classmate found me on facebook and saw some of my work. She hired me to paint in her 3yo son's bedroom. With baby #2 on the way, she wanted big brother Jeffery to feel special, so we took his love of trains and turned it into a very personal space for him. My client had a bedspread from The Land of Nod that we used as inspiration. I altered the designs & color just a bit and transfered those train cars from the bedspread to the wall. She knew she wanted his name as part of the mural so I came up with this...



The space over the closet was perfect for this phrase my client wanted incorporated into the room... "Always remember... you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." To make it even more whimsical, I added a red plane pulling a banner.








And here's a better look at the plane...















...and the bed put back together complete with bedspread.







and now I have a serious itch to redo my own kid's rooms...stay tuned!

Valentine's Day

One of my favorite memories from my schooldays is decorating a box for Valentine's Day and stuffing my classmates boxes with cards. My kids may not "Go to school," but they did not miss out on this holiday tradition. Our local homeschool group held a party at our church and they kids were SOOoooo excited. M.J., of course, took her box decorating very seriously. She had her heart set on a castle box. We covered 2 boxes, 4 paper towel tubes, and 1 Ovaltine container with some red & pink paper I've had since God knows when. We finished it of with some princess stickers and glitter letter stickers.


Buster Brown wanted a box that looked like Rocket from Little Einstein's. It was challenging making a rectangular box look like a rocket, but we used our imagination and he was so proud when we finished.

J-Saurus doesn't like to bothered with such things as arts and crafts. He has a one track mind and it's all about dinosaur facts! Well, I don't know what else we could have done to reflect his interest than cover a box w/ dino stickers!


At the party, the kids had a blast! Mrs. M always does everything w/ excellence and she had some great activities for the kids. Make a note for next year...


1. Hershey hug relay: The kids paired up and then formed 2 teams. Each pair linked arms and stepped up to the table. With their free arms they had work together to unwrap a Hershey Kiss and then eat it. The first team to unwrap all their kisses won!

2. Smartie Suck-Up: This was another relay where the players of each team had to transfer Smarties from a white plate to a red plate using a straw. Each player transfered as many as they could in 30 seconds and then the race continued until all the Smartie's were transfered.

3. Love Verses Puzzle: The children formed 2 teams and each received an envelope with 4 heart puzzles to assemble. The puzzles were large foam hearts with a Bible verse about love written on it. On 4 seperate pieces of Foamies where the chapter and verse. After assembling the puzzles (or while assembling them), one player looked up each verse and matched the chapter and verse to the heart with that verse on it.

There was also a Valentine box judging. The categories were: yummiest looking box, largest box, smallest box, box with the most hearts, etc. Every child won. No one was left out. Then the kids voted for their favorite box and my dd was so happy to win the "Kid's Choice Award for Best Box!"

What a wonderful time of fellowship and what a wonderful way to celebrate Valentine's Day as we reminded our children that..."We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19

Snow Much Fun!!!

The best thing about Daddy's job is the time off! Having 2 weeks to enjoy Christmas and New Years with him is priceless. This year, public school kids had school on Mon. & Tues. the week of Christmas, but Daddy's school was already on break. That meant that Rocky Ridge was all ours! We didn't have a lot of snow, but it was enough to cover the hills and it made for some excellent sledding! We had a blast!

Happy Father's Day!

Summer Vacation

For anyone wondering "what happened to her?"...

I've been far to busy enjoying the beautiful weather to be at the computer. I've thought of blogging, I've wanted to blog, but I just didn't have the time! Warm temps and sunshine are a rare thing in northeast Ohio, so when the weather finally brakes - I'm outta here! After being couped up all winter and looking out the window each Spring day to see a gray and rainy sky, I feel alive again!!! I can't believe how much more motivation I have when the weather is nice. I'm already crossing off projects on my summer to-do list and feeling refreshed. I guess that could also be because we had an awesome family vacation.

It had been 5 years since any trip or vacation to speak of, so when we did decide to go, we went all out.

Yes, we went to Disney World, "The Most Magical Place on Earth." This was my 6th visit to the Magic Kingdom and the kids' first. I was just as (if not more) excited than them. Josh isn't in this picture because he was in the stroller with Dan trailing behind me yelling, "Slow down Mommy! Wait Up! Sorry, but there's so much to see...there's no time to waste!

Our first full day in Disney was also our Anniversary. We came here for our honeymoon 11 years ago. Now we were returning with our 3 blessings and it was absolutely wonderful. How precious to see it all again through the eyes of a child.

Now that our vacation is over our summer break begins. I plan on doing a little catching up on a few things we didn't get to in our homeschool. I will be continuing to do Math-U-See with the kids through the summer. (They can lose so much in 3 months!) Lots of work still ahead over break. We will be taking our CATs (California Achievement Test) and putting together our portfolios to have our reviews done which we need to send in with our notification for next year. So glad we had our family vacation to refresh and re energize Mommy!

Blessings All!

Back in Blog-ness!

Wow...it's been way too long since my last post. Now that we have our new computer set up and camera finally installed, I can blog more efficiently! Hooray! It isn't a factory new computer, but new for us. I'm very pleased AND we saved money. That's always good.

Well, we finished our Japan Unit a few weeks ago and we're moving on to Classifying Plants and Animals as part of our KONOS Orderliness Unit. We took last week off to enjoy some time with Daddy. Dan was off for Spring Break and I decided to make it a Spring Break for our homeschool as well.

So, here's what we've been up to since my last post...

making carp windsocks...our finished product...oragami cranes...Hina Matsuri or "Doll Day"...Geisha Laini...

Tylenol, Tempers, and Too Much Toilet Paper

Kid's are in bed, except the ill child on the couch...FINALLY. Ugh, what a day.



The forecast was very promising. Partly sunny and near 70 degrees. The plan was to attend Community Bible Study this morning and then have a picnic in the park with my friend E. She's been out of town for 3 weeks and I was really looking forward to catching up. We'd also missed 2 weeks in a row of Bible Study for various reasons and I was SOO longing for some Christian fellowship. We'd head home after enjoying pizza on the playground, do our KONOS activities, and then join some family for a surprise b-day party at 6:30p.m., but....



Here's what our day ending up looking like.



*Awakened at 6am by a wide awake 3 year old.

*Try to catch another half hour at least.

*Awakened by doorbell, "what did hubby forget." Head to the kitchen to see.

*Hear, "Oh, sorry. Did I hit the doorbell by mistake?" UGH!!!!

*Check Joey's temp to see if it broke overnight.

*Get reading of 99.5

*Head to the kitchen for tylenol.

*Realize we do not have plain tylenol only Cough & Cold.

*Decide not to dispense unnecessary meds.

*Put on coffee.

*Feed 3 year old.

*Feed 8 year old.

*Feed 6 year old.

*Check temp again...100.5

*Call E. and reluctantly cancel lunch plans.

*Put on a movie and resign to the fact that the plans are out the window!

*Reheat coffee.

*Balance checkbook and crunch some numbers.

*Tell 6 & 3 year old to STOP FIGHTING!

*Waste time on the computer.

*Comfort Laini who gets bit by the cat and vow, yet again, that that cat is outta here!

*Head to mom's work place to get her half of the vacation money.

*Bank, post office, drugstore with sick son:(

*Send a big check to Walt Disney Travel Co.

*Arrive back home.

*Lay sleeping 3 year old on couch.

*Administer tylenol and tell 8 & 6 year old to take a nap!

*Take a power nap with cat on my lap as I'm reminded of my daughter's words, "Jasmine is part of our family. You can't just get rid of someone in your family because they bite you." touche.

*Feed kids.

*Start to feel a major headache comin' on.

*Yell at kids to STOP YELLING!

*Start to organize school stuff and prepare for a new unit.

*Remind daughter that I'm the Mother!

*Give up on organizing.

*Feel guilty that the children have watched a weeks worth of TV in one day.

*Make the mistake of flushing the toilet that 3 year old has filled with 1/2 roll of TP.

*Watch the toilet overflow, grab the plunger, and yell for kids to "BRING TOWELS, NOW!!!"

*Yell at kids for bringing PAPER TOWELS!

*Yell at 8 year old for bringing WASH CLOTHS!

*GRAB TOWELS MYSELF!

*Spend the next hour cleaning the bathroom.

*Check Joey's temp...100.4

*Start dinner...late.

*Tear up as hubby arrives home and tells me about his day. He has 2 non-verbal severely Autistic students that he so humbly cares for everyday. One of them wet himself as they were on their way to the bathroom. This happens nearly everyday. The boy looked at Dan as if to say "I'm sorry I disappointed you." I listen as Dan tells me how he told the boy, "It's ok, buddy." We hug each other and share a good cry.

*Realize I have NOTHING to complain about.

*Repent, thank God for another chance and look forward to tomorrow.

*About to hit "Post" as Laini emerges from her room complaining of a sore throat.

"Be joyful in ALL THINGS!"

Homeschool Scrapbooking

( This is Joey's scrapbook from last year!)

As the end of the schoolyear quickly approaches I've started thinking about putting together Joey's portfolio. In Ohio we have the option of having our children take an achievement test or having their work (portfolio) reviewed by a certified teacher. We chose the later of the two. I chose the portfolio review for several reasons:

1. Joey is a wiggly, energetic, active, lively little boy (I think the doctors call it ADHD, but I like my definition better) who would have a difficult time sitting through several hours of testing at a time. Now, I know that Joey must learn self-control and overcome his constant need to move, but I also believe God put a little extra wiggle in boys and that this will improve as Joey matures.

2. Testing, while important, is not the only way to measure knowledge. Joey may be behind his peers in several areas, but ahead of them in others. Being on the Autism Spectrum, Joey has social deficits, but his unique brain make him more advanced in memorizing facts (especially dinosaur facts).

OK, that's "a couple" reasons rather than "several," but you get my point. That being said, I have ordered CAT tests (California Achievement Test) for both Joey and Laini from Seton testing. Some moms in my local group use this test because you can administer them yourself. This is not only for me to see how well they will do,but for them as well to have the experience of taking a test like this.

I'll be doing another homeschool scrapbook for this year for both Joey and Laini. I was hoping to put it together gradually doing one page per month, but it looks like I'll be putting it all together over the summer just like last year! Oh well, I guess that's one more goal to aspire to for next year.