Wierd Wednesday

Princess was asleep by 9:30pm last night and up by 5:30am this morning.
We had some pancakes and saw Farmer Dad off to work.
Then after watching Arthur, she decided she needed a bath.
I decided to ask her what she wanted to learn in March and our conversation
went something like this:
P. "science".
M."what kind?"
P. "lamp skills".
M."HUH?"
P."OK, How about sheep?"
M."what would you like to know about them?"
P."Do their Mommies let you touch them?"
"oh yeah, and turtles"
M."turtles?"
P."yes, like do they have skills in their shells."
OK, I'm well aware that I brought this upon myself by asking a 4 year old
what she wanted to learn, but I still don't know what "lamp skills" are and
she won't discuss it any further.
I have decided we will cover the following:

3/1 Pig Day My plan is to read Charlotte's Web by E.B.White all this month until we are finished
for our before bed read.
I also plan to have Princess collect all her toy pigs and we will
count them, sort them by size and she can photograph them.
I will try to get her to write "pig".
Have her color a pig picture.
We may watch Charlotte's Web ,the cartoon version.
3/2 Dr.Seuss's Birthday Green Eggs and Ham, Cat in the Hat
I will try to get her to eat Green Eggs and Ham (last year she would not)
We have some fun print outs from www.catinthehat.com.
3/6 Name Day (3/4is Namesake Day,3/5 is Fun Facts about Names Day,3/7Learn what your name means Day)
We will talk about who Princess is named for and why.(My Mom)
We will make a scrapbook with pics of them both.(My Mom will be gone 20 years
this summer, so none of them together)
We will look up what her name means.
We will work on her learning to spell her last name a bit.(She's got her 1st name down)
I'm thinking of reading Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.
3/8Middle Name Day(3/9is Middle Name Pride Day)
We will talk about why we picked her middle name (Farmer Dad's Dad).
We will try to teach her to spell it.
Look up the meaning.
3/13 Johnny Appleseed Day
Read Johnny Appleseed: a tall tale/retold and illustrated by Steven Kellogg
and another book Johnny Appleseed by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet
Apple print painting.
3/15 Saint Patrick's Day
I have so many crafts for this day, I'll just let her pick and choose.
I'm thinking of doing a "rainbow hunt" example Go to the red chair to find clue #1
which will send her to "orange hat" which will have clue #2 "yellow sun picture" etc
until we get to clue#6 at the pot of violets or something that color where she will find
some gold coins(candy) "under the rainbow". Still working that one out.;-)
3/20 Spring
Sheep,lambs, read a story about them.(still looking for which ones)
Make a "sheep" craft with cotton balls.
Listen to spring music.(Vivaldi ,Disney Spring Favorites)
Maybe go out and look to see which bulbs have come up if the weather is decent.
3/22 International Goof Off Day/Spring
Listen to some spring music (see above) read, bake
maybe go to the park or just outside if weather allows.
3/27 Kite Flying Day
Make a kite decoration for front door
Make some "kite" snacks.
Take our kite outside if weather allows.
3/29 Cherry Blossoms (31st begins the Cherry Blossom Festival)
We will read a book about it (undecided) and
make a craft using her arm and hand in brown paint and tissue paper
glued on for blossoms.
We'll see how much of this gets done and how much changes as the month goes by.

Polar Bear Day!

Today is Polar Bear Day and we were going to make a craft and check out some bears on
a web cam
http://www.toledo.com/zoocams/
But Princess has been more interested in running around the house with her
Chinese Dragon Mask in front of her face singing "Here comes the Dragon, don't be afraid,
here comes the dragon he just wants to say..Happy Pig Year!"
So every once in a while, she must listen to me.
I did try to teach her about the Chinese New Year and the year of the Pig....
the song is all her idea...I swear!
I think her lack of interest with the bears had something to do with not actually being able to see them "live"
when we checked in.

Freezing rain and Mondays.....

always make us want to stay inside. Princess has spent the day coloring,taking pictures of her
favorite things,playing with puzzles,
and making "art" with her play food.The above is a "self portrait".I've been reading e-mails,checking all those blogs others
recommend on their blogs and thinking about our "school plan" for March.
I have a huge pile of books next to me and I have been requesting more from our library
as I peruse the blogosphere and find more books we might want to use.
I love staying in on Mondays.

Sunday Snow

Sunday started out nice enough to play outside for Farmer Dad and Princess.
You could see the grass again, the mud was gone from all the melting snow and
freezing rains.The sky was blue.I spent most of the day helping my Sis at my Grandmother's
trying to empty and move the desks in Poppa's former studio.We were lucky to have her
daughter,Steph come lend us some muscles and then her boyfriend and his friend came to move
the really heavy stuff.By the time she brought me home, it was snowing.Freezing rain is coming down now,
but it is supposed to snow more too.Princess enjoyed the day with her Dad, but they did call me every half hour or so asking when I would be home.Normally I would have brought her along with me, but she is coughing too much
to bring her anywhere.

Too tired to enjoy the weekend.

That's us.Tired,coughing,tired of coughing.
Princess helped Farmer Dad set up his "seed table"
which means we will need to put her dollhouse
somewhere else. It amazes me how much stuff
we accumulate in any given year.
I have to sort,sell and post on Freecycle soon.
We just have too much stuff.
Too many movies, too many cds, too many toys,too many clothes
and yes, too many books.(never thought I'd say that!)I have books in every
single room in this house.Bookcases, boxes, stacks,
cabinets.They are everywhere. Some I use all the time,
some I'm wanting to read again, some I hope Princess
will want to read one day.I have two piles in my dining room
of Art books that belonged to Poppa. I have boxes that I've been meaning to
Freecycle for awhile, I just have to go through the boxes to make sure there
is nothing in there I couldn't live without.I can hear you laughing.
Some are laughing because they think I'm nuts, some,because they know I'm nuts,
and some because they are in the same boat.
Which are you?

Sick Day

Princess has been under the weather with a little cold. Nothing serious,
but just not up to "following directions". Thursday is a school day here, but
we left our "lesson plan" in the basket and just played "alphabet games.
We matched letters I wrote on the dry erase board with her fridge magnets.
She made letters and numbers out of her feather boa. We also read a few
(ok, many,many) library books.She was so well behaved that we made cookies together in the afternoon.
We love to bake together.Today we were supposed to join our play group
for our monthly "potluck lunch", but I cancelled. Princess was up a good part of
the night coughing.We missed last month, and I needed this "play date" possibly
more than she did, but I don't want to get everyone else sick.

Pancake Day!

This is my morning set up for our school day. The white basket is where I put my
"lessons" for the day including books,crafts supplies we'll need and any worksheets we'll be doing.
I have a cardboard box under my desk where I store my plastic bags for the month.
(My plastic bags hold the book we'll read and any worksheets or craft instructions we'll need.)
Today we are celebrating "Pancake Day".
Our reading will include "If you give a Pig a Pancake"
by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond
and we are doing several print outs from the author's site
http://www.mousecookiebooks.com/play.asp
I am planning on reading "My First Chinese New Year"
by Karen Katz as well and tying the "Year of the Pig"
into our lesson.We have been "learning" about Chinese New year
all week. I have several crafts lined up for both holidays, but
we'll see how far we get.I try to cover my "subject" over the week
with crafts and music even when we are not having "school"
We are also planning on a "field trip" to our local IHOP for the
free "short stack" when Farmer Dad comes home today.

President's Day

I always worry about how to impart age appropriate information to Princess.
How do you teach a four year old about George Washington? Abe Lincoln?
Nina over at Painted Rainbows and Chamomile Tea has some great book ideas.
(I cannot get this to link,so use the link in my favorite list if you 'd like to check her out)
I was not planning on doing much other than a picture to color and a small talk about
why we celebrate President's Day. I just didn't think it would "click" anyway.
Saturday night we were watching a show on George Washington on the History Channel
and they were showing a pair of his pants. Princess looks up from her coloring and says
"they should get him some new pants", I tell her they are over 200 hundred years old and
belonged to George Washington who was the first President of the United States.
She replies," you mean my President George Washington who's picture is on the dollar bill?"
My jaw dropped. I asked her how she knew that..actually I stammered something like"h-h-h-how did you know that?" and she says,"Mom, I have a dollar". Then she brings it out from in her room to show me.
OK then...guess I did my job.
Today was not our usual Monday as Farmer Dad had off from work. I did get to take a nap this afternoon
for about an hour..it was lovely! Nothing else was done around here except that Princess helped me make some more bread and some pizza dough for dinner.

Trying to catch up

Sunday found us at another birthday party.
The pizza was awesome and the cake was great.
It was nice to spend a little time with our friends as they
moved to Virginia shortly after adopting Thomas.
After the party we spent time with my sis and Chulo,
the puppy!I forgot to bring my camera,
but she printed a few out for me,so I will
scan them in and post today.

The Arrival of the Seeds

Every winter it is the same.The seed catalogs are studied,lists are made, the seed collection from last year gets organized and the orders for new seed are placed.Then we wait.This always takes forever.(Well, it seems like forever)This year it took between 4 to 6 business days.
We actually placed our order early enough that we got everything we asked for!
Now we work out when to start which seed....hmmm.
They do call it the Garden State for a reason folks!
Princess and Farmer Dad will be getting all the seed starting equipment together this week and soon..
very soon it will feel like Spring is just around the corner around here.
At least inside. ;-)

Love is still in the air around here....

or maybe it's just the sweet smell of the hyacinth Farmer Dad brought home on Valentines Day.
I love that smell. Thursday was a school day here, but we didn't do anything exciting.
Princess was not interested in "sitting" for very long so we did a worksheet to practice
her letters, and read some books and she pulled out some cars and dolls and played most of the day.
It was supposed to be the start of our "bird" unit, but I'll hold off until she is interested so she actually
learns something.It used to frustrate me when she was uncooperative, but I have decided to use those days
as a reminder of why I homeschool.The flexibility to change what we are doing to better suit her needs on
any given day.Next week we will be covering Pancake Day,Chinese New Year and possibly the beginning of our Bird Unit.

Love smells like warm bread....

Farmer Dad came home with a pot of Hyacinths for us
and boy does the house smell good!
After an afternoon of roller skating in the kitchen and playing with the felt board
Princess and I finally made bread this evening.
I've been telling her for 3 days that we would, and we're all out
of store bought for Farmer Dad's lunch tomorrow.
It came out shaped kind of weird, but it sure tastes good!
We also finally took pictures of the "heart shaped" crayons
we made Yesterday.

Snow man Directions

We took 3 paper plates and glued a string to the back to "link" them together.
We took pom poms and scrap paper to make the face,buttons,scarf and hat.
We did have to tape the string on because Princess picked up before dry and it started to come apart.
Because it was evening and not morning, I ran out of patience and taped it.

Snow crafts

Tuesday we had a lot of fun reading about snow and doing some snow crafts.
We used the books above. Princess had a lot of fun making a "snowman" out of
three paper plates,some pom poms and scrap paper and yarn. Pictures will be posted
on the right hand side with "directions" if you're interested in how we did it.
We also made a picture to go with "Snowmen at Night".
I wanted to do a "melted snowman" craft found on FamilyFun.com,
but Princess was not interested in it.Instead we did a "tea pot" that started as 4 boxes out of order
that she cut apart and "put back together" in the correct order and then she colored it in.
We also had "gym day" because she really needed some exorcism, I mean exercise.
We cleared the kitchen "school area" of the table and chairs and doll high chair and shopping cart
and I let her "roller skate" for a bit. Then we brought out her "tumbling mat" so she could tumble
and "flip". She also bounced on her mini trampoline and shot hoops for a bit on our 3 season porch.
(Just a side note,the skates,mat,basketball hoop and trampoline were all from Freecycle)

Happy Valentines Day!

Farmer Dad surprised us with heart shaped donuts this morning along with a box of candy and valentine for Princess. She was so excited to find a "love day surprise" from her Daddy when we got up today.

It's snowing!

It's snowing here, and I was getting really excited, until the PSEG guy came to read our meter and told me it's expected to be about 2 inches of slush! Bummer. I wanted a foot of snow!It was nice to see him as he was the regular meter reader in our area before and for the first year of Princess's life.He was amazed at how big she is now! (For those of you who don't know, she was just under 5 lbs when we brought her home)
Princess and I want to make at least one snowman this year and we love a good reason to stay inside with a stack
of books and cup of hot cocoa (for her) and tea or coffee (for me). We will be making bread today as part of our school day. She loves the measuring involved with baking and kneading makes us both happy.
The rest of our school day will involve reading "snow" themed books,another reason I'm excited it is snowing today.
I have a bunch of crafts based on the books we are reading planned, but I've learned she may not want to do them all or may need more. We'll see how much we do when the day is over. We slept in and took our time getting out
of bed today so we are having a late start.I'll post pics later in the day as my "student" is calling for "teacher" right now.

Nothing to do but laugh

I have been trying to re-arrange my blog a bit to make it easier to read and find
what you might be looking for. I am not good at the technical aspects of blogging.
Oh sure, I can run my mouth with the best of them. Opine on any subject until the cows come home,
or someone gets tired of listening (or reading).But I can't make the computer "do" what I want it to.
I have also been trying to post about some bloggers I love to read and books I have enjoyed reading, but
again...I can't make the computer or blogger do what I want it to. LOL
I'm down but not out folks..I'm going to figure it out. Stay tuned. ;-)

Where did my weekend go?

Sunday is almost over, and all I can think is "where did my weekend go?"
This weekend I had wanted to post about books we have been reading,
and book lovers I have been getting to know and instead Farmer Dad did
something to the computer which meant I couldn't access it to post or read
any blogs. I finally get on and find out whatever he did to "fix" what he did
took away a lot of my saved favorites!
Ugh! He will deny it when he reads this, but I think it was all part of his
"master plan" to get a new computer now that "Vista" is available. ;-)

Princess and I did spend a lot of time moving her room around this weekend.
This included bringing toys down from the top shelf of her closet and putting
others up there for storage. I also got a bag or two of stuff she has outgrown to Freecycle.

This also caused me to clean out my storage cabinet in the kitchen since I found some items

that would be better stored in there.

The picture I'm posting shows her bed with one of

her Nana's quilts on it and her huge "Hello Kitty" pillow. At the end of her bed is the washer/dryer set I picked up this weekend and her dress up bin. Fortunately it all fit

without having to move her "reading nook".

The long weekend....

Ah...Friday. We took care of some house cleaning today and talked about moving Princess's room around. Maybe we'll tackle that this weekend.
I picked up a little tikes "laundry set" for her on Freecycle this afternoon.
She has wanted one for a long time, so she was excited to see it.We cleaned it up together and after dinner we took a ride over to my sister's to visit and play with the puppy.
I didn't bring my camera, so you'll have to take my word for how cute he is.

Post Birthday Thursday

Princess had a wonderful time throwing Farmer Dad a surprise

41st Birthday Party last night.The cake was a fave of his, "pineapple upside down cake". They watch "Sponge Bob" together every night so it

fit the theme.

This Thursday was technically a school day, but we didn't stick to our plan

as Princess wanted to work in one of her "wipe off" work books instead.

The only thing in our theme we did was watch a Valentines Day video.

No valentines were made, no decorating done...oh well.We spent a couple

of hours dumping the book basket in her room and then we "organized"

said books and then we put them back. This left us with a huge pile to

be read and so we did. Ah I love to snuggle up and read.

Happy Birthday Farmer Dad!

Today is Farmer Dad's birthday. Princess woke up at 3:30am to
start celebrating.Unfortunately that is about 2 hours before Farmer Dad
gets up for work, so I convinced her to get back into bed and wait for him to
wake up.We snuggled up together in her bed and she wrapped her little
self around me and it was bliss for about 10 minutes until she started
singing "Happy Birthday" to practice for when Daddy got up.
Then she started dancing...in bed..while lying down...while I was
trying to sleep! I reminded her she could get up when she heard him
get out of the shower. I kept reminding her for 2 hours and finally we heard
the shower turn on. She was out like a shot running to turn on the light
and change her pull up. Then she planted herself in her rocking chair
facing the now open bedroom door waiting to pounce.I pulled the covers over my head and tried to imagine I was alone in the house..lol.
After Farmer Dad left for work we headed into the kitchen to start his birthday cake...so it would be done in time. Princess takes great joy in feeding her Dad
and today was no exception. I set her up on the computer while I cleaned up
and she proceeded to print out some "birthday signs" to color for him.
I'm still not sure how she found them on the site or knew how to print them.
Now we'll make dough for his "birthday pizza".

Writing

Today I had Princess work on practicing her writing.
Tomorrow is Farmer Dad's birthday and so she practiced writing
"Dear Daddy Happy Birthday I love You" .I write them in pencil
and then I have her trace it and then print it beneath it . I had hoped she would spend some time just writing the letter Dd, but she grew tired of the "assignment" and requested that "Teacher, make up some kind of fun assignments instead." I'm not sure why, but she calls me"teacher" instead of Momma when we are "doing school" as she calls it.
I humbly handed her some blank paper and crayons and let her go to town.
I was talking to some friends on Sunday about our homeschooling (having been asked if she would be starting Kindergarten this fall) and one of the other kids heard us and asked her "you don't go to school?" I was pretty proud to hear her reply "sure, I do school, I just don't go to school, because my school is in my house". To which the other kid said "Oh,Cool".

Library Day

Monday usually finds us at home in our jammies for most
if not all of the day. This week my sis called and asked to spend time with Princess, so I was able to head over to the library for
"Me time". I love being in the library. I searched the book stacks for
new picture books for Princess and found so many I liked!
I even found some fiction for me (I do love a good cozy!) and some
parenting and teaching books to peruse.I even found some gardening books to
look through for ideas for this year. I am going to try to get back into
gardening as Princess is big enough to "help" or at least let me work
for small periods of time while she plays.My flower beds are a mess from the past 4 years of neglect. We have a "butterfly park" near us and Princess would like to re create some of it here in her play area. We saved shells last year and rocks to paint for decorating the paths as they do in the park and we can't wait to get started. Hopefully we can get some seeds going for annuals to fill in around until the end of season sales for the perennials.I love the promise of a season not yet begun.....

Superbowl Sunday

Sunday dawned cold but sunny here in New Jersey
and we had to leave our house to go to another birthday party.
This one for one of Princess's best friends at a bowling alley.
Not my thing, but Princess loves it!
After that we all headed back to our friends house for a Super Bowl Party.
I'm not interested in football anymore (unless it's the Giants) but the company
was good and so was the food.
The kids ran around like crazy and a good time was had by all.

Bright,Bright,Sunshiny Day!

Yeah! The sun has returned!

It is very cold outside, but it is a bright sunny day.

Farmer Dad has his tins of seeds and seed catalogues

spread out on the dining room table today....spring

must be on it's way! Here is a pic of some of the tomatoes we grew last year.

Now to decide what to grow this year......

Thank Goodness it's Friday!

Princess and I finally left the house today to pick

up a birthday present for two parties we have coming up.

We did not get any of our other errands done,

but we're calling it a success anyway!

She is very busy as I write this playing with an inexpensive "ballet play-set"

book we picked up at our local "close out" store.I had promised we'd stop there

if she tried wearing panties this week.She actually hurried me out of "Toys R Us" to get there. The panties were not a complete success

as she finds them uncomfortable for some reason. She only wants to wear them over her pull up! She has been pretty good about using the potty, just unwilling to give up the pull up.I'm trying to be patient.

GroundHogs Day!

Today is a preschool day for us and we will be covering "Groundhogs Day".

We are starting off our day reading "How Groundhogs Garden Grew" by Lynne Cherry and that will hopefully move on to Princess planning her own garden and talking more about burrows/hibernation and planning (possibly making)our own burrow.(What would you pack away?) This afternoon we will make a

Groundhog puppet.

I know tomorrow is Groundhogs Day, but it is not a "school day" for us,

so Tomorrow we will go out and trace our shadows.