Sleeping in!

My children have been up late the last two nights. Saturday night, the girls were up until at least 11:30 pm and last night, they were up until at least 10:30 pm.  Even though I have schoolwork I want to get done this morning, I am letting them SLEEP!!!

Do you hear the silence in my house?? I am kind of enjoying it. :)

The only problem is the later I let them sleep in this morning, the later they will go to sleep tonight....

Big Week at the Pool!

I joined a local fitness club this summer JUST so we could visit the pool whenever we wanted! It was a little bit more than the local public pool, but I also get a lot more than at a public pool. (2 hours per day of childcare, access to gym equipment, family locker rooms with private rooms to change, air conditioned locker rooms, keys for lockers, etc.) It also has an indoor AND outdoor pool and they are both zero entry, which is perfect for Christian!

We have tried to go swimming at least twice a week and we always go about an hour before swimming lessons on Wednesday night.  This is usually the time when Christian is at childcare and I can work with the girls on their strokes.  Then I can send them off to swimming lessons with everything fresh in their minds. 

They have been taking swimming lessons for about 6 weeks now and it is a continuous sort of lessons.  They are every Wednesday night and once they pass to the next level, they just move up the following week. I believe these lessons go year round.

Wednesday after lessons, Megan's teacher came up to me and told me that Megan was ready to move up! She had passed her level! I was so proud of her! We had been working on her freestyle all summer and trying to get her not to "slap" the water when she swims. She finally got it and she can breathe to the side!  Her stroke looks so much better than just six weeks ago and her teacher was also amazed at how well it is!

Courtney is the level below Megan and is also improving tremendously! She could barely float when we started and now we are past that and working on our freestyle. She is still having trouble floating on her back, her bottom seems to have lead in it. :)  I think within a month or so, she will be able to move up levels too if she keeps working hard. 

But despite this, she made great strides this week too.  Our gym has a policy that if you cannot swim 25 yards by yourself without touching the bottom, you have to be within 10 feet of an adult, even though the entire pool is only 4 feet!  I had never let Courtney take the swim test because she was just getting the hang of floating and kicking, but last Monday we went swimming with some friends and she had to stay close to me the entire time. She could not go off by herself with her friends and she was not happy! 

Since then, we have been working on swimming across the pool and yesterday, she took the swim test and passed!! She made it 25 yards without touching the bottom! I was thrilled and she was too!  She worked hard and made it! Even though she could barely walk when she was done because she had kicked so hard! But now she can go off with her friends and sister and she doesn't have to stay with me and Christian anymore! I hope this really gives her a boost in her confidence!

Now, can I talk them into swim team next year??

Cucumbers

I have bought a couple new things lately for us try at meal times. One new thing is a cucumber.
Today I cut it up and put it on the table for lunch and nobody was interested.

At one point, I turned to Matt and said, "What can I do with a cucumber?" (meaning what I could make with it.)

Christian responded, "Throw it in the trash!!!"

Haha! Apparently he is not too fond of cucumbers!

Back into the swing of things!

This week is much more calmer than last week! Last week, we attended vacation Bible School and we went camping over the weekend, we had too much stuff going on and school got cancelled for the week. :)

This week though, we are back at it! We had to skip Monday, but we pulled the books back out yesterday and things did not go well!! We did not have school for 9 days and the kids acted like they forgot everything!!! Courtney forgot her math facts and Megan forgot everything about her previous English lesson (which was using the telephone) and her new lesson was also a struggle.  I knew we had to do a little review, but I didn't think I would get blank stares. It's been only 9 days! Not 3 months!!

So today, we tried it again. I tried a new approach to Megan's English.  We roll-played taking telephone messages and it seemed to go better. I then sat down and walked her step by step through her new lesson, which was using the dictionary.  The part she struggled on was pronouncing words using the pronunciation key in the dictionary. Remember, she was not taught phonics when she was in public school, so she has no idea what these symbols mean! I took a step back with her and went over the pronunciation guide first today and then brought in the dictionary. It seemed to go better!

We also got our read-aloud in today, we are reading "Darling: Mercy Dog of World War I."  This is not a read-aloud with our curriculum, but it keeps us going on World War I while we took a break from our Sonlight curriculum for the summer.  It's also a cute book about a dog who helps rescue wounded soldiers in the trenches in Belgium during World War I. The girls seem to enjoy it! They wanted to read, "Just one more chapter!" again today! I may need to find another book for the next couple of weeks. I think we will be done with this one by next week.

I am going to try to get school done in the mornings and then we can go play in the afternoons.  We have a membership to a gym, so I plan on swimming there and we always need time for groceries and the library.  We also have been meeting up with some new homeschoolers lately, so I need time for that too. 

New Recipes I would like to try!

Onion rings:
http://www.paleoeffect.com/recipes/paleo-onion-rings-crunchy-side-burger-topping/

Sweet potato fries:
http://paleoleap.com/sweet-potato-fries/

Berry Crumble:
http://paleoleap.com/berry-crumble/

Chunky Fruit popsicle:
http://paleoleap.com/chunky-fruit-popsicles/

Smoothie:
http://paleoleap.com/valentines-day-smoothie/

Baked apple chips:
http://paleoleap.com/baked-apple-chips/

Granola bars:
http://paleoleap.com/granola-bars/

Morning smoothie:
http://paleoleap.com/morning-paleo-smoothie/

Pork Loin:
http://paleoleap.com/pork-loin-braised-coconut-milk/

I should probably stop there and start with these recipes! I stole them from a paleo website, even though we are not necessarily on the paleo diet, we are almost grain free, dairy free, and sugar free!

Now to find time to make some of these!!  

Allergy Medicine!

Last night it was about 10:45 and Megan came into our room crying. She had already gotten to bed late, but now she couldn't breathe! She was trying to blow her nose, but as she was saying, everything was "stuck" and she couldn't sleep.

I asked her if she wanted some medicine because honestly, I wanted to sleep too. I don't like giving medicine, but I didn't know how else to remedy the situation.  I found some kids' decongestant and gave her the 2 teaspoons and sent her back to bed.

Then I flipped the bottle over and read the ingredients! I had just given my child everything I have been trying to avoid in our diets! Red dye, blue dye, high fructose corn syrup, and citric acid, just to name a few! 

Where can I get more natural decongestant for kids??

I may need to throw that bottle of decongestant out just like I did the canola oil the other day!!

Is school done yet?

School, school, school, when will we finish??

I made an executive decision today. We are not going to do any school this week.

Here is what we have left:
Megan- type research paper, 18 lessons of math, 5 lessons of English
Courtney- one lesson in spelling, 16 lessons of math, 10 lessons of phonics.

And yes, I want to get done, BUT this week is super busy! Remember how I want to try to balance summer fun with school, well, this week, summer fun won!

We have Bible school every day this week from 9-12 am.  Matt and I also decided that we are going to go camping on Wednesday, so this means I need time to pack the camper. Wouldn't the afternoons be a great time to get this done?? This would be the time that I would need to get school work accomplished. I figure we can't really do both, so packing to go camping won out this week.

So I made the decision to stall school until next week!!  Next week, we will have school in the morning again and play in the afternoon!  Hopefully we will get these last lessons done before August!!!

Summer Reading Programs

I have a different opinion when it comes to summer reading programs. First of all, I think they are great! Really, I do! Especially for those kids who need an incentive to read during the summer. But the last couple of years, I have sort of changed my opinion about them when it comes to my own kids and how I want to motivate them to read over the summer.

The problem is that my children do not need an incentive to read all summer! Sometimes I have to make Megan put down a book and get her outside to exercise a little!!!  But I still would like to have them working towards something during the summer months.

A couple of years ago, I signed my kids up for the summer reading program at the library.  We read and recorded every book we went through during the summer. By the time the summer was over, Megan had read over 60 books (they were probably not chapter books like they were now), but still it was a significant number.  The problem was that after 30 books, you got the same prize over and over again! This wasn't any fun, plus at that time, it was a sheet of coupons to places we never went OR we had to spend an extra $50 for us to get in so the kids could use their free coupon they had  earned (free entrance to CoCo Keys or a free baseball ticket).

Ever since that summer, I haven't signed my kids up at the library. As much as I want to, they remember those coupon sheets and didn't think it was very fun.  As summer was approaching this year, I started seeing some different summer reading programs around the area. One that stuck out to me was the one offered at Half Price Book Stores.  Here, the students get a $5 gift card for every 300 minutes you read in June and July.  I would much rather them get money to spend on books than a prize from the library, which are badges this year!

We stumbled another reading program last week.  We were over at Barnes and Nobles and an employee came up to me and started to tell me about their summer reading program.  The kids had to read 8 books, log them, bring their sheet back in, and then they would receive a new book.  Guess what we did today? Took our log sheets back in! Courtney sat in the kitchen after lunch and read 8 books in a row and wrote them all down. Megan wrote down all the books she has read in the last week.  We went back to Barnes and Nobles today and received their free book! It was not such a hard challenge!

Again, I think reading programs are great, especially for those kids who need motivation to keep reading all summer, but I really think you just need to find the right one that will work with your children!  I also needed one that will challenge my kids a little bit.  Reading eight books was not a challenge, but I know to some kids, it is. 

Dentist Visit!

On Monday, we all went to the dentist and we all came out with ZERO cavities and good reports from our dentist!  Christian even went for the first time and did great! I was right beside him (getting my own teeth cleaned) and I was listening to the hygienist work with him and he did everything she asked! I was amazed! (But he has gone with me the last 4 years and the last year or so, has watched me get my teeth cleaned.)

Megan has her 12 year molars already and they did the sealants on those.  Courtney's teeth looked great too, they did a panoramic xray to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be and they were! I am happy with that!

Our dentist came and checked my teeth out and said all my restorations and crown looked good yet, then as he was walking out, he said, "You'll have to do something with your bite eventually." I mentioned to him that that I knew my options, but I don't just know what to do. I can either 1. get Invisalign and line my teeth up or 2. go ahead with oral surgery, break my jaw, and line my teeth up with braces.  Again, he tried to convince me that Invisalign would be the way to go. He said if it was him, he would try the more conservative option first.  He said there is always a risk with surgery (nerves, infection) and there is none of that with Iinvisalign. I told him I was concerned because after talking to the oral surgeon, he said there was no guarantee that Invisalign would work, he also couldn't guarantee surgery would work!

My dentist knows the situation I am in, so he offered me a deal he has never made anyone else. He said I could come in and get the molds done on my teeth and send them into the company that makes Invisalign.  From there, he would wait for them to send back information saying how my teeth would look at the end, how many trays I would need, and how long it would take. My dentist said he would do this without charging me! He said after we get that all back, THEN I could decide what I wanted to do. If I wanted to go ahead, then I would pay for everything. If not, then he is out time and money for the upfront costs. 

My biggest concern with spending money on Invisalign is my insurance benefits. As of right now, I get a set amount of money that I can put toward orthodontics once in a lifetime. If I use it now, I cannot use it again to get braces (if I end up doing surgery later down the road.)  What if Invisalign really messes me up and I have no choice but to do braces and surgery? Then I have to pay for braces out of my pocket! It's another chance I take!

I agree with him 100% that Invisalign would straighten my teeth, but does it solve my jaw problem?? No, it does not. Do I want to continue to deteriorate my teeth because they hit each other at the wrong places? Do I want to continue to deteriorate my jaw joint because of my bad bite?? Can I get by with straightening my teeth and leaving my jaw alone? Maybe, I certainly don't want to have surgery!

So I guess we will go forth with his offer and see what they can do!

Another food experiment

I have been wanting to cook with coconut flour for awhile, but I can't eat eggs and you need to use quite a few eggs when cooking with coconut flour! I finally found that I can replace the eggs with chia seeds, so I am going to attempt banana coconut muffins this morning for breakfast!

I am going to use one of these two recipes:

http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/od/glutenfreemuffinrecipes/r/Gluten-Free-Banana-Coconut-Muffins-With-Coconut-Flour.htm

http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/coconut-flour-banana-muffins

Just a note: The second recipe FAILED!! I can't seem to make muffins lately that have bananas in them. They cook on the outside, but the inside is still gooey! I don't know what I am doing wrong!

Baby Birds

Of all the things Courtney was worried about as the storms blew through tonight, her biggest concern was the baby birds that have made their home in their nest above our garage.  We have been keeping an eye on them for a couple of weeks now and when one fell out of its nest last week, Courtney was the first to notice and made sure Matt put him right back in!

So tonight when she heard about the strong winds, hail, and possibly tornadoes, she wanted to save the baby birds from the storm! I mentioned that maybe we should bring the nest inside, but Matt insisted that the nest needs to stay out with the mama, otherwise she may not know where her babies went! He is absolutely right!

Every time there was a break between storms, Courtney wanted to go outside and check on the baby birds!  I love it that she is so concerned about those little creatures!!! Oh and if there was a tornado, you can make sure that we would have had to take James to the basement with us again! (That is her pet beta fish!)

Lesson on Blood!

I have decided that tomorrow we are going to finish our Sonlight lesson plans. I started looking at the calendar for the next two weeks and knew we weren't going to be able to get anymore done in regards to history, read-alouds, language arts, and science.  We are going to keep pushing forward in math and English/ phonics until it is DONE!

So anyway, our lesson tomorrow in science is on blood! The next lesson after this is on the heart, which will have to wait until we start school back up in the fall. :(

Anyway, I wanted to find something online to represent our blood and it's components and I found something!

We are going to do this little demonstration tomorrow.

http://mymontessorijourney.typepad.com/my_montessori_journey/2009/03/parts-of-the-blood.html

We are also going to use some coloring sheets from this website to talk about the parts of our blood first.

http://www.spelloutloud.com/human-body-learning-about-blood.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+spelloutloud/RoXZ+(Spell+Out+Loud)&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

After we do this, we are going to talk about our veins and arteries and watch this video.

http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/En/JustForKids/Body/Pages/Heart.aspx

Finally, we are going to talk about clots and scabs and how our platelets work. 

I think it will be a fun day!