Fill in the Blank

Desperate Teachers Cheerfully Astonish Lovable Dummies

If you were to ask any of my children what their favorite class was, none of them would answer Language Arts.  After today's lesson they may have changed their minds or at least moved the dial closer to the "like" mark.  The scheduled lesson was to correct a previous paper for redundancy and wordiness.  I felt like sleeping just reading the description.  I am a firm believer in editing one's own work and I realize the importance, but we needed a break.  I chose the optional lesson today. 

Each student was to write an article based upon something that happened this morning.  As every good journalist knows, they were required to include the 5 W's and an H.  To their relief they only had to write one to two paragraphs.  Next they identified each noun, adjective and adverb.  From that point they were allowed to create their own skeleton for a Mad Lib from their original article.  What fun! 

To wrap things up, I broke out my Mad Libs card game.  Each card has either a noun, verb, adjective or adverb.  For each round, players are asked to use their cards to create grammatically correct sentences.  The sentences do not need to make sense.  Each round requires different sentence lengths.  For example, round 1 requires one 4-word sentence and one 6-word sentence.  The game is similar to gin.  The first to lay down all of their sentences wins a bonus for being first and the other players get a point for each card that they used to complete a sentence.  There is also a "Ten Card Rule" that states any sentence using all ten cards in your hand for one sentence automatically trumps other hands and scores double.  We didn't have any ten card sentences, but we did have some impressive and very silly sentences.

These are the days that I love homeschooling.  I am so very blessed to be able to spend this precious time with my children.  What better lesson to teach than the love of learning.

Day Late but not a Valentine Short

C's Valentine Card

Hubby is out of state on business, so the kids and I celebrated Valentine's Day with him over the phone.  I did get to capture some good times with the boys in the fresh snow before school started and I sent some pictures to B to enjoy.  I never did get around to sharing them with all of YOU!  (Daughter Dear opted to spend the morning in bed instead of playing with us.) 

Two smiling faces.

It is hard to see in the picture, but C formed a heart with snow.

Hope that you all had a very special day.  And as H says, "I heart you!"

2nd Sock

Left sock is the 1st sock.  Right side is the 2nd.  See the ridge on the first sock?

 I finished my first pair of socks yesterday afternoon.  How comfy!  I would like my next pair to be patterned, so I am practicing using a chart.  I'll keep you posted!

1950s Social

Last night daughter and I went to an American Heritage Girl Mother/Daughter Ice Cream Social with a 1950s theme.  (WHEW!  What a mouthful!  Title.  NOT ice cream!) We dressed up in our best 50's attire (see picture) and spent the evening having fun Splishin' and a Splashin' to period music, sampling many toppings on our ice cream, making a fun craft and competing for best outfits.  We did not win the contest, that prize went to a mother/daughter team that had matching tops and poodle skirts.  They ended up having a 50's dance-off, so I'm kind of glad that KR and I did not make it to the final round.  See if you can tell what the craft is from the photo.  I'm not telling since some of you may end up with one in your mailbox come Valentine's Day! 

First Sock

As a mother, I remember many firsts with my kids.  First word.  First night away from home.  First tooth.  First day of school.  As mother of a teenager I am seeing my first son grow his first mustache. 

Creating things with my hands also inspires me to remember my firsts.  I'd like to share my first knitted sock.  It's not great, but it fits.  It is comfortable, but I may change my mind after wearing it a few hours. 

Finished product

First time on foot.  Look, Ma!  It fits!

Close up of the heel and gusset. 

This is the looking down on the toe.  I actually used the grafting method!

I made plenty of mistakes.  Some I fixed.  Some I tried to fix.  Others I didn't want to fix and didn't.  Yay me!  (There is a small hole where the gusset and heel meet the leg and toe.  A common problem.  I was glad that it was small!  I also picked up my knitting from the wrong direction at some point and the heel is inside out and I didn't realize it until halfway through and then saw that it carried over to the foot--that is the raised band around the ankle.  You can see all of these easily in the photos above.)

As other crafters know, our crafts and designs become our babies and we overlook "imperfections"  (all our babies are precious!) so I am very pleased with this sock.  Now, just pray that the SECOND sock is better.  I can't decide if I want to try to duplicate the errors (minus the hole) or just try to do it the "right" way.  I think that I want to try for the "right" way this time.  My first pair of socks won't match!  I will always tell right from left.  Tee-hee!

My mother is an avid sock knitter.  She also quilts and makes dollies.  Here are some photos of her designs of Sock Dollies.  Enjoy!

Orgami Party

The cold winter night kept us from venturing out for fun, so we decided to create some of our own.  B and I called C in to help us choose what to do.  After coming up with several great ideas, we grabbed some hot subs and a salad from some local restaurants.  While we ate we decided as a family to have an Orgami Party.  Here are some of the photos of our evening at home. 

Miss KR made several things, but I loved this photo of her demonstrating The Cup.

I made The Helmet.  I also made a sailboat and penguin.

H invented his own patterns--the bunny tie fighter and rabbit star ship. 

B and C working on a starfish which was DIFFICULT!  

 

A fun night in.  It was our version of a one-night stay-cation.  We topped it off with hot chocolate and homemade pineapple upside down cake.  Yum!

Encouraging Creativity

As a mom and homeschooling teacher, I always want to encourage my children to be creative in whatever form they wish.  Pictured above are the two snowmen the two younger children made from foam balls while they listened to me read aloud, The Cay by Theodore Taylor.  The snowmen appear to be a bit chilly to me and sparsely decorated, especially since this was all that was done over the course of having listened to three chapters!  But, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?  And if the kids are pleased with their projects then who am I to discourage that? 

My pledge this year is to spend more time with my kids individually and to encourage their creativity.  During journal time for school this morning, I asked them to write about their best or favorite creation and to tell why it was their favorite.  H wrote that he liked a drawing he made of Tom and Jerry because it was realistic.  (I have to giggle that a drawing of cartoons is "realistic".)  KR wrote that she liked her stories because it was like putting together the puzzle pieces in her mind.  No surprises out of either of them.  Often times I find them giggling with their heads bent together over a piece of paper.  H drawing cartoon characters and KR filling in the thought bubbles.

I ran across some interesting thoughts in a book entitled, Mom's Everything Book for Sons: Practical Ideas for a Quality Relationship.  In a particular chapter the author shared stories of her boys as they grew up and some of the ways they decided to be creative.  She included some quotes from The Creative Spirit by Daniel Goleman, Paul Kaufman, and Michael Ray.  Now I'd like to share them with you!

Creativity flourishes when things are done for enjoyment.  When children learn a creative form, preserving the joy matters as much--if not more--than "getting it right."  What matters is the pleasure, not the perfection.

Creative people often have a compelling sense of mission that drives them forward even when the odds are against them.
 
Creativity entails taking appropriate risks, and courage allows you to use your intuition and will.

Compassion, when extended to yourself helps quiet the voice of self-judgment that discourages risk-taking.

There is a paradox:  Although creativity takes hard work, the work goes more smoothly if you take it lightly.  Humor greases the wheels of creativity.

Now, I think that I may create some scarves for those poor snowmen!