New Blog for homeschooling.

Hey, pop over to Anderson Academy Adventures to follow my new homeschool blog. I'm going to blog our way through the school year and then print the blog out as a book at the end of the year for a great "year book".
Thanks!

Way Back When..

So after nearly 8 years of living here, I decided to play tourist in my own town. We're studying Jamestown for history right now. I plan on actually taking the kids to Jamestown and Williamsburg, but I'm waiting until public school is back in session so the lines won't be long. (perk #235 of homeschooling)

We started off at the Gloucester History Museum. The building was originally a tavern, then a B&B, the office buildings, and finally the museum. It's cute, very small, but lots and lots crammed into it. Most of the items have been donated from the community. My favorite item was a doll that was over 100 years old. Someone found it in between the walls of a house while doing renovations to it.

Lots of sketching going on. Once, I thought Jackson was sketching the milk crate, but instead he was drawing the phone jack on the floor.





We then walked into the courthouse circle and looked at the old buildings. There was a Confederate monument. There was a picture from 1893 of Confederate Veterans in front of it. In the background of the picture was the building that now houses the  museum. The kids thought it was really cool to see what it looked like in 1983. Honestly, I thought it was really cool too.

We went into the old courthouse. (which is used for modern county meetings). There was no one there so we were discussing what was modern and what was older. I let the kids sit in the county seats with the gavel. They kept giggling like we were doing something wrong. :)

Sam was the only one who scared me, he looked like he was really about to bang the gavel! :)

We then went into the visitor's center and talked to another gentleman for a bit, about the other buildings in the circle. The gift shop now has steel doors because of fire. They lost records, not once, but twice. We were also told the story of the brick wall around the circle. It was just a fence to keep out livestock. Then they added the brick wall. It humored the kids to think of cows and chickens wandering down Main St. and into the circle. :) Also there were lots of 1920's pictures of the town. It was so much fun to point out the buildings to them.

Samplers.

I've taken up making little samplers. I used to embroider a long time ago, but recently wanted to make a few pieces for around the house. Here's what I've come up with so far.

      This is my first one. I didn't have a pattern or anything. 

This is the second one I did. I wrote on it with pencil to make the letters similar in size. It's from Matt Maher's song Hold Us Together.

This is the most recent.

This is the latest one....My mom bought me a sign that had this expression on it.

First Pumpkins, Now Christmas in August.

Us at about 7 and 5 Christmas Eve, the jammies were our gifts :)

I've been thinking a lot about the way we do Christmas. Christmas in my house growing up was a HUGE deal. Mom would always say "it's not going to be that big this year" and every year she pulled it off. We didn't get much through the year, so Christmas was a hoopla. We opened on present on Christmas Eve and got up early on Christmas. We weren't allowed to see the tree until dad covered our eyes and brought us into the room. I'm dead serious we were 19 and 17 sitting in the hallway waiting for them to "get up"...We would yell "Mom Dad wake up it's Christmas". Now when we were little, we thought they were really asleep. Then we learned they were just mocking us. Dad would have to make his coffee before he would come get us. Then the big reveal!!! Then we would have to wait while they poked through the gifts, "hmm this one says Andrea" "wonder what this is for Justin" Then we would have to wait until dad finished the coffee. FINALLY gift time! We did one gift at a time, no free for all in my house, watching as each person opened their gifts. And it was wonderful. We would even stop halfway through for bathroom breaks and the second cup of coffee for dad.  Also Rowlph would join us on Christmas Morning. He's my mom's stuffed puppet that she go on Christmas many moons ago. Oh and stockings, let's not forget stockings!

Christmas Morning 1991

Excuse my sour expression, I'm sure my brother woke me up too early. Here we are 19 and 17, my last Christmas at home. See Rowlph is on my lap.

I held those traditions up in my house. The kids have to wait because as my mom told us "if you see the gifts before we show you, they'll disappear". They get one gift on Christmas Eve, usually a gift that someone sent to them.  The kids line up in the hallway and get their reveal at the top of the stairs. Rowlph is waiting near the gifts. And one by one we open gifts. After gifts are done, then they get their stockings.

Christmas Eve 2009 Awesome hats.

Christmas Morning 2009, the big reveal!

Shane with Rowlph 2009

Here's the big difference in my childhood and that of my own children. My kids get gifts all year long. From  Nanu and Granddaddy, from Aunt Brandy and Aunt Jermaine (don't ask, or do it's a funny story), Aunt Stephie and the random things that come in the mail. Christmas is just a mass of toys that get played with for 5 minutes and then get into trash bags a few months later.

So here's my plan for this Christmas. My friend Heather does this great gift giving idea. Something to read, something to wear, something to play with, and something to share.So basically four gifts. I'm almost 100% sure that this is what we're going to do this year. Instead of buying mass amounts of stuff, we're going to think about each kid and get specials things for them as individuals. They are only going to get older and the things they want will get bigger and more expensive. If we change the way we do things now, it might be helpful later. I also want to impart more tradition into the season. More volunteering, more handmade gifts for friends and family, more love to spread.

As for gifts, here's what I've got so far. For the something to wear, each kid will get new jammies and a new shirt. For something to share: Jackson wants a fish tank, Sam a board game, and I don't know about Shane yet. I'm looking into learning games for the Wii. For something to read: Sam, easy readers about trucks. Shane: a chapter book about racing or football. Jackson: Easy chapter books about animals. Something to play with: For Shane: I've found a great art kit in a carrying case, also a few sketch books. Jackson: He loves those scratch magic things. I found a set on amazon with extra paper. Sam: I think playdoh, he's a playdoh maniac! It's just that more thought will go into each gift. Also they go to dollar tree and pick out a gift for their brothers. We also do Dollar Tree for gifts for Nanu and Grandaddy, they are always a hit! :)

We also will be doing the shoeboxes for the Operation Christmas Child. I hope to start collecting things for the boxes soon. I'd like each kid to be able to do their own box.

In case you're wondering about any foster children. Social Services is rather awesome for that. They set up a Angel Tree for the kids and then invite them all to party with their families and Santa is there, games, food and a gift. The other gifts are in black trash bags and given to the parents to wrap and give at Christmas time!

Pumpkins In August???

So when we planted the garden, we used soil from the compost. We planted two rows of tomatoes, two rows of peppers, beans, and peas. The beans and peas died like usual. My hubby has a vengeance with the beans and peas and corn. He plants them every year and every year they die! Well anyway, the tomatoes were mutants, over 10 feet tall. Yum! Next to the row of shiny red vegetables we noticed a vine growing. It was growing away from our produce so we let it go. We tried to figure it out. Squash, watermelon, cucumber, pumpkins???? All of these things were in the compost. It grew over 20 feet long, leaving the garden through a hole in the fence and growing on the wood pile. Lots and lots of yellow flowers bloomed, but then they would fall off. Finally something sprouted, a little green ball, but before we could figure it out what it was, it died. At last, another one sprouted. It lived and grew into a green baseball. So now we were between pumpkin or watermelon. Low and behold it was a pumpkin. The boys picked it last night, so in the middle of the summer, in the dog days of August, we will be having pumpkin seeds tonight!!!

To Infinity and Beyond.....

So I had to clean my monsters room. This is the after! I dumped every toy they had into a big pile in the middle of the room and proceeded to sort them all out. Sadly, I had just watched Toy Story 3 and was not a fan of tossing the little plastic army men. I had them in a pile to head to the trash can in the sky, and had a change of heart. I gave them one last warning, if they want to stay they had to march their little plastic selves into their basket at night.

The nice new organized closet!

Another view of the completed room.

This is the basket that was removed full of trash, broken toys, randomness that grows in a little boys room. I hate digging under their beds, you never know what moldy gross thing you will find!

Fake Fort Fun

So I have to confess. I hate forts. I have a strong dislike for things that purposely make a mess. I tolerate art projects. I'm just not a fun mom in that way. If you want to go outside and drag every toy we own, by all means, go ahead. If you want to pull out my freshly folded and organized blankets to put them over some chairs, well, I hope you enjoyed mommy, she's entering the asylum. I just don't like to be unorganized. A fort to me is an 'on purpose' mess. I'm all for my kids having fun with their toys. I'm okay with putting a blanket over the table, maybe. But dragging chairs into the living room, blankets galore, and of course you must add the toys. By the time the fort is all set up for enjoyment, they find their selves bored of it.

All that to say. Today the two older boys were out doing a service project. This left poor pitiful Sam to play all alone. That is until the baby woke up. The next thing I know, my little princess has pulled off the "comfy" blankets out of their hidey hole cubby. Sam wants to make a fort. So I sucked it up and made the kid a fort to play in. All was well until clean up time...minute 45! Oh well, I tried.

The start of the 'fun' when little Miss pulled everything out. With Sam cheering her on. (yes, I know her face is showing, but it's blurry)

All that work and he wants to watch TV, you don't want to know what's under there!!!

No it's not a fort, but another version of random mess making that kills me! I love for them to have fun, it's the clean up I hate!