February 9, 2007

  • I want to write a nice, long post--I have things to say and pics to post, but not enough time!!

February 6, 2007

  • I'd often heard that transitioning from two children to three is harder than transitioning from three to four--but that's not the case for me!!  Maybe it's because Lamb is almost nine years older than Sailor?  Maybe Lamb is in his own category and Pilot is number three?  Because, I've also heard that when there are more than five years between children, it's like having an "oldest" or "alpha" child again--and Lamb and Sailor are both definitely alpha males! 

February 5, 2007

February 4, 2007

  • As I was going through some of my old e-mails and yahoo group posts,  I came across a few that I want to copy/paste here before I delete.  This one was in response to a discussion about cooperative learning:
     
    Hey, Becca and REbecca (LOL),
    I really like these philosophies--trickle-down-learning, cooperative learning or multi-age learning--the concept being that children can learn together despite age or grade level differences.   I have always seen this as a pedagogical strategy that heightens each participating child's abilities--everyone benefits!  I think most homeschoolers are educating their children with an individualized (lesson) plan for each one--some may not even realize that that is what they are doing because it happens naturally.  Multi-age learning is conducive to these individualized plans--it is easy to cater to each child and assist them in mastery of a particular skill. 
     
    An example... My first and second sons are 9 years apart in age, but I can meet both of their needs with one lesson.  We are preparing for history co-op and ds1 reads the story aloud to ds2 (and me).  Together, they locate the area on the globe, then they take turns spinning the globe and seeing how quickly they can find it again (older brother helps younger brother until he masters this on his own).  Ds1 researches more information about the subject on the internet while ds2 colors a picture of people from the era--and ds1 calls ds2 to come look at interesting pictures (pyramids, cave art)that he finds as he researches.  Ds1 writes down the five most interesting facts he learned in his research, then reads them aloud to me and ds2.  We go to our co-op, where both boys participate in creating cave art in refrigerator box caves, then ds1 re-creates the Nile river out of a tin pan, rocks, soil, seed and water.  Later in the week, ds1 will label and color a map of the area and write a paper about the era we are researching and both boys will paint more cave art on crumpled paper bags to add to their history notebook. 
     
    Ds1 is able to get more in-depth on the subject with research and writing while ds2 is enjoying his first exposures to the subject with pictures, vocabulary, art and the globe.
     
    :) Katherine

February 3, 2007

  • I am awake at 5:00 a.m. because my two-year old had a night terror.  He has been experiencing these for several months now--but they are sporadic.  I thought I'd try to do a little research...my own theories are that he's either over-tired or didn't get enough physical activity during the day.  From what I read, many parents found that their child was overtired.  I didn't see anything about exercise/physical activity.

    Almost all suggested taking the child to the sink to wet his/her feet--somehow this calms them. 

    Something else I learned:  toddlers need 10-13 hours of sleep per night!  This includes naptime during the day.

    Right now, my five-month old keeps pushing the keyboard shelf in, and I have to pull it back out to continue typing (he's in my lap)!  Silly boy!!  (He woke up after we got the two-year old back to sleep!).

    :)

February 2, 2007

  • Cookbook exchange!

    My cookbook exchange partner sent my package already--I've got to get hers in the mail!!  She did a wonderful job in choosing for me--two of the books have a kid's cooking section.

    IMG_0234

February 1, 2007

  • definitely--I have seen this word spelled "definately" so much lately that I had to go look it up again to see if "the man" officially changed the spelling of the word and I was the only one who didn't know it yet!! 

January 28, 2007

  • I just finished this movie--I thought it was okay; I might have been expecting more... (ETA:  The movie is not showing up--I don't know why--it's The Devil Wears Prada).

    I am so excited!  Tonight I made a smoothie with my kefir, strawberries, and honey--and it was good!  My four-year old shared with me~I think this is going to be my new breakfast!!  I strained the kefir grains and started a new batch with them and I have the ready-for-drinking (?can't think of the right word here, LOL!) kefir in a glass container in the fridge.  I know my two-year old will like it--he likes everything.  It's exciting for me because it's so healthy--there are so many natural probiotics in kefir.  I've been wanting to start The Maker's Diet and wanted to start with a body cleanse, but have been waiting because I've either been pregnant or nursing~but I need to use these supplements before they go bad...I can take all but one while nursing--I just need to do it and forget about the cleanse right now.

    Well, I need to get to sleep--these little guys will wear me out tomorrow!

    :)

January 27, 2007

January 26, 2007