Broken Train!

The other night we were in Fremont and we saw a train stopped on the tracks. Obviously, we were able to turn around and go the other way, so we did, BUT this led to an interesting conversation about WHY the train was stopped.

Christian thought for sure that the train had crashed or the engineer had fallen asleep.

Micah, on the other hand, thought differently. He said, "Change batteries! Daddy get home!"
In other words, he thought the train needed to change its batteries and dad would do that when he got home. Whenever something doesn't work at home, Micah has learned that it usually needs new batteries.  Why wouldn't we apply this same concept to a train that "isn't working?"

Yesterday morning, we were on our way to church and we saw a train that was moving. Micah said,"Changed batteries! Yay!"  In his little mind, he thought that the two trains were the same and somebody had "changed the batteries" in the train and made it work! He was thrilled watching that train move!

Oh the mind of a two year old!!

And of course, thanks to "The Little Red Caboose," Micah told us which cars were the coal cars, the flat cars, the oil cars, and the box cars!

New History book!

I am so excited around here lately. We get to start new books for school. :)

Yesterday we finished up our final lesson in our Heart of Dakota curriculum. We started this in August of 2016 and after 35 weeks of lessons, we are finally done! We studied the program entitled "From Creation to Christ."  I picked this curriculum at the time because I needed something easy with Micah, but now that he is older and more manageable, I am going to move to something more challenging.  This curriculum was also geared towards 4th-6th graders with an extension pack (nine extra readers) for the older kids, which I thought would work well, but really didn't (in my opinion) Megan was not really challenged when it came to daily work and even though she was supposed to read the nine extra books, she really didn't.

The girls (and I) learned a lot, but I am not going on with the next program in Heart of Dakota curriculum. I need to find something more challenging for both girls! Courtney actually told me today that she wanted to do the next program because HOD is "really easy." I don't want "easy" for my kids! Another reason I am switching it because it is too expensive. I got this program at a pretty good cost (for used), but I can't seem to find the next program at a reasonable price.  HOD is still pretty new, and there is not a huge used market for it yet. The notebooks for the next program are also $40 a piece (plus $10 shipping), so I would spend about $90 just on two notebooks! Too much for me!

To take the place of this program, we are switching to a book entitled "Mystery of History, book 2."

This book is going to pick up where we left after Christ's resurrection and take us through the Middle Ages.  I like this book because even though there is a reading section for each chapter, the author also gives extended activities for younger kids, middle school kids, and older kids. This activities range from acting out a play to researching something you learned about. I am going to be able to challenge Megan quite a bit and stretch her knowledge! There are also tests and other quizzes throughout the book. I actually bought a copy for Megan and a copy for Courtney. I told Megan that she gets to write all throughout her book and do whatever she wants. I really want her to do it independently because she will be a 9th grader next year. I still haven't decided how I am going to approach it with Courtney. I told her she could do it on her own and I would expect less from her, but she kind of wants me to read it to her. I don't mind doing this because then Christian will hear the info too! I guess we will just start it and see how things work out.

In addition to using this book, we are going to pick up Sonlight Core G and start about week 18.  I am going to use the read-alouds and readers from this program to go alongside Mystery of History. Sonlight uses a different history book for their program, but I don't really like it. It is written towards a younger age group and I need something more challenging. :) So I am replacing their book with MOH!

I think this is a great plan! There are four volumes altogether of Mystery of History, and we are starting in volume 2. I would really like Megan to get through volumes 3 and 4, but I also know she only has four years of high school. She will need a year of American history and a year of government, so we will need to see how this will all work out! She loves history, so maybe she can double up a few years. :)

Gotta Love a Good Deal!!

Awhile ago, my oven stopped working properly.  It would not regulate the heat and when I baked something, the oven would just burn it because it just kept getting hotter and hotter.  Matt took the back off and determined it was the computer. After looking online, he saw that we could replace the computer board for $325, which is a little bit less than a new stove. Our stove is over ten years old, so we decided to just buy a new stove.

A couple weeks ago, we went to an appliance store and checked out new stoves.  Matt really wanted me to get a gas or an induction stove, but I really like my flat top. It is super easy to clean and I like the flat surface. I said if "I" am the one using it, I want to get what I want! I did not like the look of the gas stoves and all the grates on the top.

Today we determined that we finally needed to get me a new stove. (I have been baking everything in my microwave because it doubles as a convention oven.)  He really wanted to get an induction oven because they are new, and he thinks they are kind of neat, but they are pretty expensive.  I told him I am ok with a cheap stove; I didn't really want anything fancy.

He had to run into Home. Depot today to get something, and he happened to see a stove, just like what we need, in the clearance section!! It was reduced by about $200 because it was a floor model and had a pretty good dent in the bottom drawer. He called me right away and texted me some pictures. I thought it looked good, so he asked the employees if they would take an extra $30 off to fix the drawer and they said they would. He ended up buying the stove!! And wasn't an expensive, extra-fancy one either! Plain and simple!

He went back to the store with the truck and brought it home and put it in. I cooked on it tonight!

I am anxious to get baking things again in a REAL oven!!

Christian's picture

Today Christian brought home a picture from church and since it was rolled up like a scroll, I did not look at it at church. Once we got home, I unrolled it and looked at it.  I kind of laughed. He drew the earth with it's magnetic fields around it!

I asked Christian what it was a picture of, just to make sure I was right, and he said it was the earth with it's magnetic field PLUS the equator around the earth.

What other first grader would draw the earth's magnetic field?? Apparently somebody has been paying attention in science class!

Oh Micah!

Micah's language has been exploding again lately. He can repeat about everything we say and can count to 12 by himself. He can even count backwards from 5 to 1 (thank you to the time on the microwave!)

Yesterday I was cleaning his room and all the barbies were out and most of them were naked. I asked him why they were all naked. He responded with, "They take showers!" Ummm. Ok!! They all needed to take showers! Now, can we put some clothes back on them??

I love it when he lays out a blanket on the floor, puts a baby on the blanket, and sings the baby to sleep. He will sing her "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Jesus Loves Me." He will then kiss the baby and tell us all "shhh. baby sleeping."  Melts my heart every time. :)

He has also been potty training his baby lately. We have a doll that we call Big Baby. He is about the size of a newborn baby. This baby used to wear diapers, but now he wears underwear (Micah's size 2-3.) Micah is not potty trained yet, but he knows about underwear and going potty. Micah insists that this baby needs to go potty, so he will take off his underwear, wipe his bottom,and take him potty. He will put the potty seat on the toilet in the bathroom and set the baby on the toilet. Often times, he will walk out at this point. The other day, I walked into the bathroom and the baby was still sitting on the toilet going potty!

He has also learned his manners a little bit too much. When you do something for him, he will say, "thank you, you're welcome" instead of just "thank you." I haven't quite figured out how we are going to fix this yet!

He also refuses to wear a bib anymore, so when he spills on his shirt, he will say, "shirt off, shirt off!"  Try telling a two year old that you are not going to change his shirt until he is completely done eating- it doesn't work so well!

I really love this stage!

A dead battery. A new watch.

For the last couple of weeks, the battery in my watch has been dead. I finally decided to stop at Wal.mart yesterday to have it fixed. I didn't know I would be walking away with a brand new watch!

I gave it to the lady across the counter and she was having a hard time getting the back of my watch  off so she could switch the batteries. All of the sudden, it popped off and we heard it go "ping, ping" off of some shelves.  We looked around and we could not find it!! There were two employees there who were looking and I told Christian I would pay him fifty cents if he found it.

After searching for about ten minutes and no luck, one of the employees went over and took a brand new watch off the shelves and decided that I was going to get a new watch! The price tag said $37! (Honestly, this was only fair since they did break my watch!)  They called over a customer service manager to ring it up at the cash register. She asked me if I had a receipt. I said no. I have NO idea when I bought this watch; I have had it quite a few years! She decided that we would do a "no receipt exchange." I would get a new watch and they would take my old one and "damage claim" it. She said, "I hope you don't have any sentimental ties to your old watch." I did not really! Even though Christian wanted to keep it to take it apart, I had to give it back. Wal.Mart probably got some kind of credit for my broken watch. I hope they did!

There are good people out there! Even at Wal.mart!!