ABC's of Service Projects-- update

"A"---Attitude of Giving
"B"--- Bringing snacks to a shelter.

"C"--- caring for a friend.
"D"---Doing a good deed with no return
"E"---everyone needs toothbrushes (handing out toothbrushes to the home less in area)
"F"---Fixing a meal for a family, just because.
"G"---Giving of our time, working on something that needs doing!
"H"---Help by giving food to a food pantry
"I"---I can change someones life by telling them about God- passing out tracts.
"J"---Just give up one thing you like, to give to others
"K"---keep an amount from our grocery fund to give to the Houston Food Bank
"L"---leave a note for someone, just to show you care
"M"---make a dessert to give out to the homeless people around our house
"N"---never think something little isn't enough. bring beans and rice to a shelter
"O"---offer to keep a friends kids- just to be a blessing!
"P"---Pray for those around you!
"Q"---Quietly go about doing good... Do something nice... quietly!
"R"---Rarely do we go without-- go without something in order to give.
"S"---stop and spend some time to speak with someone you don't usually notice
"T"---touch a heart by doing a good deed
"U"---underneath everyone needs feel loved... do something for someone to make them feel special
"V"---view your heart by what God says--- read verses about giving and do a deed
"W"---Wait on someone else. Be helpful. Be kind
"X"---Examine your motives--- do you like being told thank you? Do a deed in secret.
"Y"---You can make a difference- ask those around to donate to a cause
"Z"---zeal for giving is what I hope you have achieved! Come up with your own service project!


The ones in bold we have done.  I have three more lined up for this month...

I think the kids really like doing service projects.  They seem to be more alert to situations that can "give" or "do".  So that is good, right!

Anyway... this is obvious the season of giving, but I want to make sure and do it all year round.  Not just.... in the season.

How do you spoil your kids?

I am sure that I do MANY things...

but the first thing that comes to my mind is warming a towel in the dryer for Emily to use when she gets out of the bathtub.

She gets sooo cold and we used to have screaming fights with spankings to get her out of the tub. So one day I warmed a blanket and no fight.

Dave says I am spoiling her but really it is for me. I do know that she gets cold easily and there is practically NOTHING to the child so I am not surprised that she gets cold so easily.

But YES I know it is spoiling.

So what do YOU do?

Welcome Hershey and S'more...

Kaitlin has received her early birthday present from Bus Maw Maw and Pa Pa.

She got hamsters.

Yes. Hamsters.

Actually they are very, very cute!

The is S'More, she doesn't mind being held.

This is Hershey, she is smaller and more weary of humans!

The little bits of yellow and black on my sheets is the bits of food they leave in their cheeks and spit out at opportune moments! It is all over Kate's shelf where there cage is! But really they are cute.  This is AS big as they get!

Through the Years Thursday---Seaworld 2006

Wordless Wednesday

Autumn Popcorn Unit Study --- Part 2

If you missed part 1- here it is!


We are really enjoying our fall activities!

Kaitlin has found many cool bugs while looking at all the nature:

She has gotten 3 different caterpillars that she is waiting to see what they "morph" into.

She found THIS at my sisters house last Saturday!

We found a whole ant colony under a rock on the property!

She found this dragonfly and butterfly at Garner

Kaitlin drew these with her new watercolor pencils!

just watercolor pencils

after she added water with a brush

This week in the days before we left for Garner we did some fall activities on corn and of course POPCORN!

We made popcorn necklaces--- which quickly turned into bird/ squirrel feeders!

We made some pop corn, popcorn balls (yes I used the dreaded corn syrup!---this did not go well!) and corn crafts.

Popcorn Art

We read these books...

Popcorn in the Palace by Emily Arnold McCully

here is a lap book to go with this book from Home school Share
(I really, really liked this book-it was is a great period read for early 1800's, interesting that popcorn never took off in England!)

POPCORN! by Elaine Landau

The Popcorn Book by Tomie de Paola   (this has all the history of popcorn as well as how to make it at home on your own stove... cute book.)

The Popcorn Dragon by Jane Thayer

and we watched Between the Lions : The Popcorn Popper

We studied about how popcorn was invented and watched a video on how corn is harvested and eventually turned into tortilla chips!

We also watched the end of THE REAL GENIUS (no they didn't get to watch the whole movie, Matt was bummed!)

then we watched MYTH BUSTERS try to prove that a laser could pop the popcorn.
then here is a guy proving you can pop popcorn with a laser at home.


We measured popcorn volume

Corn Math Riddles

How Cracker Jacks got its name

October is NATIONAL POPCORN MONTH

Slow motion video of popcorn popping-- pretty cool

popcorn color sheets-- kindof corny (no pun intended)

popcorn trivia worksheet

popcorn math sheet

Popcorn math sheet

A- Maize-ing worksheet

A- Maize-ing math worksheet

Back.. update on life in general

Tired.

But we are back and mostly unpacked!  Yeah.

I have another almost load to wash and then sleeping bags and I am done!  Bonus that I was caught up on laundry when we left so WHOO HOO!

We had a really good time this year.. good family, good friends, good food and loads of good scenery!

I have to get back into a routine.  I would say that this entire month between sickness and vacation and just odd happenings has left me with ZERO routine.  We focused on the kids routine, which is SOME better but not much.  I told them that if we didn't get the habits under control in our 31 days of October we would do another boot camp in Nov.  SO I guess we are.  I am however going to change up a few things.

I am going to simply put the chore sheets on our fridge.  I HATE FRIDGE ART. I like my fridge clean and free of clutter.... so deciding to use the side of the fridge for their chore charts is a big deal for me!

 I am not saying that the ZONE books are not working but they are not working very well for us.  I am not using them to their full potential right now and since I am FOCUSING on the habits (chores, daily care, bible reading) I decided to focus on that instead of a WHOLE system at once.  Does that make sense?

So we are restarting boot camp and will FOCUS on it for the next 23 days!  Then we leave for Little Rock- hopefully not undoing all my work!

I also have revised my schedule: besides HAVING one!  :)

I am making one for each day--- otherwise I just get behind because one day is different than another, but if I make one for each day, then I can tailor what I need to get done with the time I have that day.

DON'T KNOW WHY THAT HASN'T OCCURRED TO ME.

Anyhoo.

I am stopping the tickets.  They are irritating, and we hardly use them... not even the kids remember to ask for them!  SO I gotta think of something else.  THINK, THINK, THINK!

I am going to re read Laying Down Rails by Sonya Shafer because I don't have it yet. 

I am also reading Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends by Sally Mally

Kaitlin has 1 more game at the YMCA... them two weeks and her NEW home school team starts practice on the 17th.  She is VERY excited and volleyball will be a MAJOR part of our life for the next 8 months.   We shall see how that goes!  :)

Emily is on a new recreational team which means she gets to participate in meets, her first meet is possibly sometime this month, I am still waiting to hear.

Matt is enjoying is tap lessons-- he really likes it, and I am just glad he is enjoying an activity!

We took a break from school today-- just to recoup!  Tomorrow we start FULL force.  I am not playing catch up, I am starting school tomorrow!  We will finish up our popcorn unit, continue working on our Autumn unit and begin our Thanksgiving unit on the 15th. 

Guess that is mostly it for now! 

Wordless Wednesday...