Cindy's Life as She Knows It

Today our homeschool co-op had a mini Olympics field day at the park across the street from my house.  The day was cool and clear and we had a good showing with about fifteen of our twenty five or so kids.  This is the first year for my co-op, an idea started with two good friends last spring when we knew that the personal demands of our current co-op were putting too much strain on our already overburdened lives.  We set the plan in motion, arranged for classes at my church and managed to acquire twelve of the most wonderful homeschooling families, quite by sheer circumstance, and got the co-op off the ground in September.  It has been successful beyond my wildest dreams and exactly what I was looking for. We have lost a few members and gained a few, but still manage to have great cohesiveness. Today we met at the park and the kids ran off to play, all fifteen of them, ranging in age from two to ten.  No one is left out. No ugly words are ever said.  This is a group of great kids wh

Today we got back into school mode with the start to our celebration of Earth Week.  We have our "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" poster up and our bulletin board has it's RRR border and is waiting for all the cool art and poetry we do this week to fill it up.  I found a great Earth Day packet on www.teachervision.fen.com and we choose to focus on water today, reading about water conservation and also about ocean pollution.  For art, we cut out a large circle, glued it to the inside of a box lid, dropped in a few splashes of blue and green, four marbles, and made an awesome Earth marble painting.  We also made a crazy color marble painting just to be on the creative side :-)  In addition to our other assignments, we also enjoyed our ongoing baseball unit, working on an ABC paper for baseball, a term for every letter, and reading a story about the Acceras, twelve brothers who put together their own semi-pro team and played across the country.  The best part of the day, however, wa

Today I dropped the little one off at co-op in the care of friends and my husband and I took our older son on the tour of his college campus, the place he will call home in a little over four months.  It was a rainy and dreary day, but despite this, I could tell that the campus was well kept, pleasing to the eye and orderly. We went along with out group, hearing about all the fun the kids were going to have, all the cool groups they could join, all the awesome services that were offered to them, from tutoring to computer fixing.  We saw all the places they could eat, hang with friends and relax outside.  We saw their dorm rooms and were told about the awesomeness of living with a roommate.  My husband thought it was the coolest thing he had ever seen and told our son he was jealous of the experience he was about to embark on.  I smiled, nodded, agreed that this definitely sounded like alot of fun.  In all honesty, the tour made me feel better about his being there.  It did look wonderf

Today was our first day back to school after spring break and Dakota woke up whining and hoping that I would change my mind.  Didn't happen lol.  We spent the morning finishing up our Magic Tree House book, Monday with the Mad Genius about Leonardo da Vinci.  I love how these books let you peek inside the lives of famous people and make them seem like someone you could be friends with.  Today we finished with chapters 9 and 10 and in chapter 9 we watched da Vinci painting a portrait of a woman who didn't want to smile.  Finally she graced him with just a small smile and he finished his painting of Lisa....Mona Lisa.  Koda was shocked!  "I know that picture!" he said.  "I've seen that before!"  I love how in the future, when we see that painting, the odds are good that not only will he remember who painted it, but the story that went along with it!  We did a storyboard, a word search, a crossword puzzle and a character trait paper.  We started our poetry

Twenty seven years ago today I gave birth to my first child in a hospital in Wurzburg, Germany after three days of unproductive labor.  I was nineteen years old and just a child myself, I suppose, but I wanted her so badly and after the shock of her being a girl, after everyone "knew" I was carrying a boy, I jumped right into motherhood with both feet.  My own mother had come to Germany to be with me, but it was stressful, as she is a very domineering woman who wanted to take over and do it all her way.  I stood strong, ended up hurting my mom's feelings, and doing things MY way.  My daughter was an easy baby, crying only when her belly hurt and sleeping very well, but I can still remember the day when it dawned on me that I could not even go to the bathroom now without knowing what was going on with this little life.  The realization was overwhelming!  My husband was gone alot and I was alone in a foreign country, so I had no choice but to rely on my own instincts and ho

We had a very busy, very fun spring break week!  Monday started the week with Dakota having a friend over for the day.  The boys got along great and I took them both to the park before dinner to enjoy the nice day.  Tuesday was even warmer, with gorgeous skies.  My sister brought her granddaughter and grandson over and the four little ones played so well outside.  Natalie stayed in her play yard without a fuss and the three older ones jumped in the bounce house and ran and ran and ran.  We ordered pizza and ate at the picnic table in the yard.  Around 2, we took them all inside, put the baby to bed and let the other three watch a movie.  I love spending time with my sister.  She is someone with whom I would always choose to spend time, and I am madly in love with my great niece and nephew.  They are so sweet and honestly two of the most beautiful kids I have ever seen. Wednesday I hosted an Easter egg hunt and picnic at Lake Waterford in Pasadena.  I got a great turnout and I