it's all fun and games: November 2019

mon!

this is nate pretending to be me. ha coffee in one hand, a book in the other, with sunglasses. he cracks me up!

mon was BUSY! we did ponies, a quick lunch, then met up with the homeschool group for an afternoon of jumping

look at those pony tales! so cute!

nate took on 12 kids before he was defeated by a guy twice his size

so proud!

then ellie took on 2 boys!

i sat and chatted for most of the afternoon. so nice to get out with adults. we went home for a quick supper and nate had cadets. he totally slept well that night! ha 0 comments

Posted by mel at 3:20 PM

tue/wed

look what joey found while digging through my cupboard! my missing engagement ring! i took it off 8 yrs ago when i saw preggers with ellie and forgot where i put it! hahaha

tues we had small group, im so glad that we have a great group of peeps! they are turning to be great friends! and joey dressed herself. i had to take a pic of it. haha

my little joey, doing what she loves to do. draw and color with lots of colors!

this little gal was sick wed. she spent the day on the couch. burning a fever and all icky. poor little bug

this is a typical day with chris and his welders! i get SO many deliveries. this is 1 day!

and another!

wed it was time to decorate! we brought the tree up, its a hot mess. i had a coffee date wed night so i left the house with the front room looking like this!

thurs i finished. and we are all ready for christmas

fire place

tree! its so colorful it glows! ha

fri night i went out with friends and for the first time since june, i did my hair. everyone had a mini freak out over that. ha AND i wore make up.

look how long it is!

i saw this and laughed. its totally something my sister would say to me! hahaha

look ursi! i found the same pattern that you made my socks from! ha. your are way better though!

0 comments

Posted by mel at 3:20 PM

christmas fun!

sat was our kick off to start the holidays! we made sugar cookies

so fun and they did most of it themselves

my other kid came over as well

the sugar hit her

then we iced and ate them!

after a quick clean up and nates friend left we made the gingerbread house

voila! done!

sat night we went to chris's office to watch the parade, in comfy chairs and stayed warm. we brought jessy along with us. and quess what? nate was in the parade with his cadet group. so it was extra fun to watch him march by!

so proud of this kid!

0 comments

Posted by mel at 3:20 PM

pt 2

he's here! franklin is here! this is our new family member, our neighbour at the cabin sold it to us. its an "amphibian" which i had NO clue what it was...it had 6 wheels, and snow tracks, 2 levels to steer and NO steering wheel! it is perfect on land AND in the water! and thanks to lissy we call him franklin!

we also played any games...and spent time catching up on life

ariel!

more games

the girls went to bed, and us older peeps stayed up chatting

and lots of silly happened

tues we took franklin out to drive. we all took turns. SOOOOO fun!!!

then it was time for this little lady to go to bed!

tues i went out looking for tracks, its my new hobby at the cabin. i found a few but i was amazed by how beautiful the snow looked on the green grass!

the tent, at base camp

chippy was EVERYWHERE!

the girls asked if they could clean the cabin, so i gave them a cloth and told them to go nuts. nate supervised. ha

thurs was a sad day. we took our girls back to the airport! what a GREAT visit we all had! until next time, and i know there will be one! be safe and know that we love you both so much!

ellie, chris and franklin

me learning to drive it. and today i did drive it! SOOOO fun!

after we dropped the girls off at the airport, we went back to the house and i packed up for the cabin. nate didnt have cadets thurs night, which is rare! so i took the kids to the cabin. chris stayed at the house to catch up on some projects and to have a night to himself. i had a great time with the kids at the cabin. alone! i read a book, then for the first time ever! i down loaded a movie to watch. so fun! after the kids were tucked away i went for a walk to the end of the driveway, hoping to get a bar of cell to call chris...instead i sat outside on the rock at the end of the driveway for 15 mins...until i was too cold. it was so quiet, to peaceful! i walked back to the cabin, locked up, stoked the fire and went to bed...with a new book 0 comments

Posted by mel at 3:34 PM

school round up!

i will totally admit that this school yr has been way more chill than the others. know what i've discovered?

that they still learn! at their own rate!

this is the 1st yr that im schooling all 3 and its a total learning curve. we have been really busy with outdoor activities and i keep telling myself once things slow done we will hit the books...
so the last few wkes, i ve been playing with a schedule or sorts, trying to see what will work and what will not! ive discovered that on the days that we have an activity its NOT worth the time, effort, and patience to do book work with the girls. after a few times of trying to get it all done, i discovered that i cant! and in place of the "to do" list for the girls (book wise) we instead read a few books then go out. im MUCH happier and they are too!

the girls are also getting into the routine of book school. ive also learned that i cant NOT school the girls at the same time for their core subjects. its NOT worth losing my temper over the constant interruptions and the ever going "MOM!" which was not in my plan....sigh

so what is working? after breaky which is when ever i get up! ha. i clean up and send nate up to do his on line school, i send ellie to go play and spend an hr one on one with joey. this totally adds an extra hr to my day! but its worth it

home schooling joey is so unlike her siblings. after a wk or so i went to chris to chat about my loose ideas to school her. NONE of them were fitting the profile. so i decided to o something radical. i threw out ALL my "how to" books and just followed her lead...

which lead to SO many late night talks with chris. i bounced so many thoughts off of him, talked his ear off, and shared my insecurities with him. i taught nate and ellie how to read, following a few ideas and curriculum that i had, but after a few lessons with joey i KNEW she was not going to learn the way they did. so i took a leap, and toss away everything i knew logically and decided to find something new (is 43:19)

and voila. shes doing GREAT! joey is surprising me every day. she catches on to math so fast, much better than i thought! as long as school is FUN shes all in!

i also tossed out the idea of pre planning lessons ahead of time. its NOT working and its a HUGE pressure to live up to. instead, a month ago i went to the dollar store and bought this planner.

how do i use it?

i mark in what we DO instead of planning what i think we should do=NO pressure. it works so well for us! i can see that we are progressing and having a good time doing so!

joey on lesson 12 (that is 3 wks ahead of 'schedule') and smiling!

so for joey this fall we are ONLY doing math, printing. with handwriting with out tears. i LOVE this program!

joey colors (she LOVES coloring!_ the picture and while she colors i talk about all the words i can think of that start with that letter. ha

then i use this to go along with that letter

see!

by this time, about 45 mins in she almost done. if she still goo i toss in math and reading flash cards, some more printing practice then we end the day with a pic that she draws (her choice) and i write what she says...then we read a book of her choice (that i read) ...which ellie usually joins in

joey working!

after joeys's read out loud, i touch in with nate. make sure he's on track. answer his questions and tell everyone "5 min break!"....while i make a coffee, check me emails/texts....get joey settled in her alone time and i start ellies one on one. ellies school for gr 2 this fall is just under 2 hrs. depending on her mood. ha

i snapped this pic. she is NOT mad, just thinking. haha

for ellie this yr, i decided to spent the time to finish her alpha (gr 1) and then move to beta (gr 2) SOOOOOOOOO glad i did this, even thou it put me 2 months behind! ellie was able to grasp gr 1 and slide into gr 2. as of today, she covered 4 lessons in 2 wks. mastering all the knowledge expected!

after her math lesson, we do flash cards

then we move on to spelling.
instead of starting with level 2, i decided to review level 1 the last few weeks, i really wanted her to grasp and understand the basics of spelling for level 1 before we move on to level 2 she is doing really well!

then we move on to this. i LOVE SPR&W. but could never afford it, a good friend gifted me the books and im using it with ellie. i LOVE it. it covers all grammar, spelling, writing, reading and language arts. we usually do 2-3 pages

after that, we do ellies read out loud. 2 books. 1 she reads to joey and i, and 1 i read to all of us. normally, its about 12:30-1 at this time...

after our read out loud, i pack up the girls books and starts lunch. after lunch i touch base with nate, then depending on the day, i take some me time (i spent time with god, and then take a fast nap) then get up to clean up, do some art with the girls, have nate around, do house work make supper and start the night! that is a quick peek into our school!

come winter for the girls im adding science, writing and geography with nate!