Pocket full of Poesies

Scriptures: our filing cabinet of friends

2012-02-13T03:00:00.000-07:00

(Lil's favorite scripture from our New Testament studies)

At the beginning of our school year, I felt inspired to start our day with "Stories of Jesus" time. We've been studying the New Testament. Each day we read a story from the New Testament manual; and each week, we memorize one scripture from our week's lessons. I've been incredibly overwhelmed by the capabilities of my little ones! Not only do they memorize the words, but they understand and feel the scriptures too. They have quoted them as comforts during daily situations. And, the scriptures have popped into my heads to give me needed guidance.

(Big Sis' favorite scripture from our New Testament studies)

I'm a worrier. I come from a long line of women worriers. So, even though I know homeschooling is the right choice for our family this year, I worry about it. I worry about teaching too little, or teaching too much and taking over their childhood. I worry about teaching the most important things and if I'm teaching at all - or just "telling." :) Not to mention the social aspect - that sends me in a tizzy of worry! So, when the prophets and apostles spoke to the world in October during General Conference, I had a prayer in my heart asking for help with my little home school. When I heard this quote from Elder Richard G. Scott, I felt an overwhelming sense of peace:

"The scriptures provide the strength of authority to our declarations when they are cited correctly. They can become stalwart friends that are not limited by geography or calendar. They are always available when needed. Their use provides a foundation of truth that can be awakened by the Holy Ghost. Learning, pondering, searching, and memorizing scriptures is like filling a filing cabinet with friends, values, and truths that can be called upon anytime, anywhere in the world." - Richard G. Scott, "The Power of Scripture" Oct. 2011 General Conference.

(One of mom's favorite scripture from our New Testament studies)

(Another one of mom's favorite scripture from our New Testament studies)

Since we completed the New Testament manual this week, I thought I'd record the scriptures we have learned. Now, the trick will be to keep this precious truths clear in our minds.

John 3:16
John 10:16
John 11:25
John 12:47

John 13:34
Luke 1:10
Luke 1:37
Luke 2:52
Luke 17: 15, 17
Matthew 5:6
Matthew 6:3 - 4
Matthew 14:27
Matthew 16:15 - 16

Mark 5:34
Genesis 1:31

2 Nephi 2:27

Girlz Getaway!

2012-02-11T03:00:00.000-07:00

Four besties, from four states met up in one snowy, cozy Sundance cabin.

Feeling 14 again, we giggled until the wee morning hours.

Our sides hurt from laughter. Our minds spun with memories - past and present.

We fought flames, talked flames and lit the flame under our fondue pot.

We had a "Favorite Things" party with our favorite people.

And a hot '80s seafoam green snowsuit inspired a photoshoot.

I can't stop smiling every time I look at it. LOL.

Heading out to ride some Mountain Boyz sleds.

These two beauties were blissful, kissable and sweet. So glad they came too!

This was the first time we've all been together in YEARS -- way too many years! Now that the reunion finally happened, there's no stopping the next one ... which is (hopefully) just a few months away!

Every place has a value ... every value has a place

2012-02-08T03:00:00.000-07:00

We worked on place values with Popsicle sticks. It was super fun!
I'd write a number and they'd pick the sticks to make that number. Or, I'd call out a number, they'd find the sticks and they'd write it on the board. OR, they'd make up the number for the other sister - and then switch. Everybody really had fun with this one.

To hibernate or migrate?

2012-02-06T15:42:00.004-07:00

After learning about migration, we studied another animal behavior: hibernation.
The girls worked together to create this image of some hibernating animals in their homes.

After a discussion about both behaviors, each lady decided which they'd rather do, and why.
They also picked out which animal they'd like to be. Each response totally coincides with each girl's personality - cracked me up.

Big Sis' says, "If I were a Animal I would migrate to Hawaii because I did not want to hibernate because I want to migrate. If I were a Animal I would be a dolphin."

Lil Sis says, "If I were an animal, I would want to hibernate because I like to be cozy in my bed. I would be a chipmunk. I would eat nuts."

Then they played pretend - like they were bears hibernating in E!'s crib.

Big E little e, what begins with Ee?

2012-02-03T03:00:00.000-07:00

He's in that in between stage ... not a baby, but not a big kid either. He's a toddler - in all its glory!
This week he seemed more focused with his play. Sure, he still threw every toy across the room - but there seemed more purpose behind each throw. Here he is, focused on his shape puzzle.

And in a new hat mom crocheted for him ... of course, he has that ball in hand. :)

Cruising at top speeds

2012-02-02T03:00:00.000-07:00

For Christmas, E! got this bike thing and it is in constant use at our house. Sometimes three kiddos are on at it at once. Sometimes it's pulling two baby strollers with babydolls strapped snuggly in. Sometimes we hear it crash into the hallway wall and cringe.

But, there's always laughter and smiles. And blurry photos because they're going so fast.

See ya!

Time telling

2012-02-01T03:00:00.000-07:00

We talked about telling time quite a bit this week. I have to say, it wasn't Big Sis' favorite. I'm not sure if I didn't present it well enough, if there wasn't an interest, or if it was just hard for her ... the latter one is the most fearsome, because I hope she enjoys a challenge and the process of learning (more than just having it all come easy and "knowing it all"). Anyway, Lil Sis learned how to tell the time if it's the hour straight up, and if it's half past. Big Sis got most of it ... but we'll need to continue working on it.

Here they are making a human clock. E! would roll the dice to see what the hour hand (Lil) would say, and I'd call out what the minute hand (Big) would say. It was a cute idea I saw on Pinterest.

Great Migrations

2012-01-31T03:30:00.000-07:00

This week we learned about animals that migrate. National Geographic had several outstanding books to read all about it. My favorite quote about the subject came from Big Sis who asked if we could migrate to Hawaii for the winter. Um, yes please!

Here's Lil Sis' poster about migrating animals - she spent a great deal of time on each picture, then dictated what I should write. The "red crabs can pinch people" stood out to her the most.

Here's Big Sis' poster. She really gets into each drawing - and could spend hours illustrating a project. Though I wish we could just keep going for as long as she wants, my internal tick-tock keeps us on a timer. I need to do better about following their lead.

Not a migration picture ... Here's Big Sis putting contraction star puzzles. She focused on punctuation, contraction and migration last week ... lots of 'tions! :)

Snowy dayz

2012-01-28T03:00:00.000-07:00

Last week it thought about snowing ... nothing stuck, but it did flurry with fury all afternoon. At one point, Big Sis asked if the whole earth was a snow globe. So cute. Luckily, I had the perfect book from the Library sitting in our book drawer downstairs ... so we read a story about a family who lived in a snow globe, made our paper snowglobes (with glitter!) and they finished a writing prompt of what they would do if they lived in a snowglobe. Here are their responses:

"If I lived in a snow globe I would play in the snow a lot. And go sledding a lot. And I would not melt." ~ Big Sis.

"If I lived in a snow globe I would play and play. No nap." ~ Lil Sis.

If you're going to dream, dream big! Can we keep their creative thoughts pure?

Anyway, then we went to G-Ma's for a "Snow party!" G-Ma gave each girl a ball of white fuzzy yarn and let them string it around the entire house, to form the largest snowflake. Then the sipped hot chocolate and nibbled cookies. Then they watched snow shows on tv. Then they transformed their largest snowflake back into yarn balls. Then we ate warm soup. Loved it!

Homeschool: Butterfly lifecycle

2012-01-27T03:00:00.000-07:00

We finished off our insect unit by learning lifecycles of different insects. There are a ton of well-done, educational and quick videos for a variety of insect lifecycles out there. The Internet is awesome. Anyway, I saw this noodle idea on Pinterest - and knew the girls would have a blast. We had a few other ideas, but never got to them ... maybe in the spring when we order our live butterflies!

Put a sock in it ... puppets

2012-01-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

For Christmas, Jacob and Jesse got the kiddos a sock puppet kit - that rocked!
It came with pom pons, googly eyes, felt parts with adhesive ready-to-go, and three fuzzy socks.

E! made a dino.

Big Sis made a tutu skirt, piggy-tailed cutie.

Lil made an elephant - though she refused to claim it for the picture. ha!

Then on Sunday, we used them in Primary for my new calling as Singing Time lady. They were a hit.

Homeschool: Math at multiple levels

2012-01-25T04:00:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a bit better at making lessons applicable to each knowledge level present at our kitchen table. I know I can improve a ton, at the same time, I'm happy with how our math went last week. So, here are a few examples of how each individual met their math challenge. One day we did face cards (if you don't know the story about Alex in seminary with face cards, please request it sometime!). Big Sis picked two and added them together; Lil Sis picked one and practiced writing the number; and E! enjoyed looking at them, flipping them over and throwing them on the ground.

One day we played a game called, "How many make 5?" With a divided circle, the girls put a few numbers on each side and tried to come up with as many math equations as possible. Big Sis wrote a math sentence, while Lil Sis wrote one number on one side of the line, then the other number on the opposite side of the line.

On another day, we did dominos. I found a printable worksheet on Pintrest (love that site!) and they went to work. Big Sis added the two sides together, Lil Sis counted and wrote each number down, and E! even tried to line up the dominos in the correct spots.

Baller

2012-01-25T03:30:00.000-07:00

Without any encouragement from us, this mini basketball is E!'s new buddy. Calling out "Ball! Ball!" comes in second to "Mama! Mama!" ... so it's a lot. He sleeps with it. He sits at the top of the stairs and chucks it down (laughing with delight). Since his name means "height," I can't help but wonder if he's getting ready for his future?!

E! is also working hard with his dexterity. He loves to work on puzzles, put checkers in the slots of Connect Four and take everything out of it's box/drawer/cabinet/container.

EA!

2012-01-24T21:52:00.001-07:00

Congrats to my preppy and super cute hubby, who is officially an Enrolled Agent with the Internal Revenue Service!

Homeschool: Week recap

2012-01-19T03:00:00.000-07:00

We're plugging away on those addition and subtraction problems.
Roll the dice, write the numbers, find the sum (or the difference).

This little lady loves to get her nose in a book.
It's hard to keep stocked from the library!

Not sure this was the greatest idea ...
We have special markers for the window, and I let E! join in drawing the scripture's signs of the Second Coming. I doubt he knows which markers are ok for the window, and which aren't .... which means, I could be paying for this later.

Sorry it's upside down ... lol. I'm trying to go to quick - and I'm not going to go back and fix it.
In our insect unit, we learned about different ways insects harm or help man. We also learned about some of the talents Heavenly Father blessed certain insects with, so that they'd be protected. The talent aspect was great fun, because we're reading a book about a fairy trying to discover her talent; and because we read the story Christ taught in the New Testament about the talents. I love it when our studies overlap and intersect. :)

This little talented beauty was assigned to recite a scripture in Primary this week. It was her first time, and she worked very hard practicing it all week. In fact, we selected it for our weekly memorization scripture. We're proud of how hard she worked. When it came time to speak in the mic, she froze up - but she'll try again next time. I'm thankful our Church gives so many opportunities to stretch - even at a young age.

Why gnomes?

2012-01-18T03:00:00.000-07:00

People often ask me about our mascot ... the Poe Gnome. Why gnomes?
In our house, the gnome represents a cute little creature who runs about doing secret acts of service.
So, when I came across this cute free printable for paper doll gnomes, I couldn't resist.

To earn a doll and each item of clothing, the girls conducted a secret service. They made a list of all the things we've been talking about and people we've been praying for, then came up with service ideas for each one. We had a marathon service morning, and it was great fun. Can't tell you what we did ... but can tell you Mommy got caught on one. - the girls thought that was pretty funny.

We can dream like Dr. King

2012-01-17T03:00:00.000-07:00

Not sure why this pic refuses to go horizontal ... oh well. We studied Martin Luther King Jr. last week - there are so many fabulous books for children about him. After reading several, we thought up our dreams of how the world could be a better place .... and then we tried to do something to help our dreams come true. So, when Lil Sis suggested that everyone would have enough food, she helped gather a box of food for a local Food Bank. When Big Sis wanted all fighting to stop, we focused on being super happy at home. I hope they felt as inspired by Dr. King's message as I did.

Putting on a show

2012-01-16T15:09:00.001-07:00

Our little E! knows how to put on a show.
I think he likes dress up items because of the reaction he gets. :)

Doesn't he look like a little Elton John? Lol. But much cuter.

He continues to eat well .... here's a purple mustache from a smoothie.

Homeschool: Insects

2012-01-11T03:00:00.000-07:00

We began a new science unit: Insects.
We're not too far into it yet, but so far we learned a few characteristics that ALL insects have, and a list of characteristics that just some insects have. Did you know that all insects have six legs, two feelers, three body sections and a hard covering? So cool. Also so cool, for Christmas the Poes got us an awesome color printer ... I gotta say, I love that I can run upstairs, print out a list, come downstairs and go for it!

My girls can turn an insect unit totally girly ... the guidelines were to create an insect with a head, two feelers, a thorax and abdomen, and six legs. Big Sis diagrammed her princess ballerina bug - with tutu. Lil Sis designed gorgeous wings. Even our little guy got buggy ...

He had a hard week. I'm not sure if it's due to new teeth coming in, or taking a Christmas break from school and then starting up again, or the fact that we had some cold/flu bug in the house ... but he didn't have fun, and he let us know. I hope next week is better.

Homeschool: Draw with me

2012-01-09T03:00:00.000-07:00

For Christmas, GG and Joe Joe got the girls some "How to Draw" books. Big hit!
Last week we learned about the Post Office, and how mail travels. Some lucky blog readers will be getting a few drawings in their mailbox soon ...
I think their masterpieces are so cute, I have to share:

Lil Sis' goose and moose.

Big Sis' tiger, snail and princess ballerina.

Lil Sis' bear, giraffe and bat ... and Big Sis' detailed owl.

Happy New Year! 2012

2012-01-08T03:00:00.000-07:00

How did you welcome 2012? We started with games and a parade, then made some "rock hard resolutions" and ended by clinkin' our glasses (of apple cider) at the drop of the ball ... east coast time. ;)

Here are the members of the parade: a pirate, a princess ballerina, a gnome, a horse, and the "masters" of the ceremony.

As for games, we played a Connect Four tournament, and many rounds of fishing
... we had more games set out to play, but the minutes just flew by!

Next up: Rock Hard Resolutions.
Each person picked one to share. They got to write down their resolution on a rock to take home, and had their picture taken. Each person picked their own (except the little boy). Some of these crack me up ... Ok, from youngest to oldest:

He has quite an arm. And he uses it to chuck unwanted food on the floor.
Here's to a year with food on the plate!

LOL.

LOL! Sleepovers at her grandparents' houses are her favorite things in the world.
We explained that resolutions are goals to make our life better .... well, hers fits the bill.

In 2012 I'm hoping to surround myself with opportunities to be inspired.
I have great plans of surrounding myself with music, books and people who inspire, and to allow enough quiet time to hear the Spirit's whisperings.

Go, Alex, Go! Can I read your first entry? :)

Positive thoughts, laughter, smiles ... We love you G-Ma!

We love you, GPa. We feel such peace around you already!

At the end of the night, we clinked glasses, and sippy cups. I loved our little guy in his make-shift cape saying "cheers" to Daddy!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Christmas with the Poe's

2011-12-31T03:00:00.000-07:00

Can you spot the girls peaking out behind those polka dot boxes?
Grandma and Papa spoiled the little (and big) Poes! Thank you, Grandma and Papa!

Here's Papa being a sport - and lookin' good - in a hat I crocheted him.

Sassie, from our ward, brought her spunky spirit and smile with her!

It was a big party with tons of family and friends!

Christmas at our house

2011-12-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

Since Christmas fell on a Sunday, we had church that morning - 9 a.m. church. This was the first Christmas since we've had children that we went to church before unwrapping presents. Though it felt strange to have our traditional photo coming down the stairs in our Sunday best instead of our pjs, I really enjoyed setting the right tone for the day with church in the morning!

But before we got out the door, our little man spotted a new car Santa brought him!
And we opened stockings.

After enjoying the music at church, we changed back into cozy pj's and dug into breakfast and the tree.

Santa brought each member of the family a Poe Gnome School of Learning t-shirt.

We played Perfection and Connect Four - which brought back childhood memories.

This little guy got a mini Pillow Pet from Gg and Joe Joe - and he loves it. Thank you!

Christmas EVE

2011-12-29T03:00:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful, traditional Christmas Eve party at the Rognon's - with special guest Aunt Shar!

We ended the night with our nativity puppet show (skyped for viewing pleasure to Gg and Joe Joe).

We started the party with a project Aunt Shar brought:

paper chains out of the cutest Trader Joe's Christmas bags.

Then came the gingerbread house!

See how much candy ended up on the house?

Just imagine how much ended up in Lil's tummy.

We put a new spin on the tradition of making a gingerbread house with G-Ma

(and it was Daddy's idea): EAT the gingerbread house as soon as you're done decorating it!

A few books were read, and games were played.

Aunt Shar hid packages all around the living room - that was super fun - and she gifted our family with a neat cube game. She always finds the perfect educational and fun items!

G-Pa and G-Ma worked very hard and made the girls two bright, cozy blankets and matching pillows. Plus, books, fairy dust, hand sanitizer and more. Our little man got a cool car track, and in the bottom picture he's holding one of the cars and making a vroom noise.

Sundry school projects

2011-12-28T03:00:00.000-07:00

The girls made a few Christmas light cards with fingerprints - turned out cute.
They had me draw the curly strands, then they added the lightbulbs, houses and wrote inside.

Big Sis put together her storyboard booklet to go with her hair donation. Her "before" and "after" pages had front and back photos, then she tied the booklet together with yarn and added in her hair.

Here's a closer look at that hair!

We're super proud of Lil Sis! All year, she's been working on writing her ABC's. She has two dry erase books (one for upper and one for lowercase), that she practices on. Then she "passes off" a letter by writing it on her ABC sheets - and she gets a sticker when she passes it off. The week before Christmas, she finished the alphabet. It was a big task for her, and we're proud of her for sticking with it!

We used a lot of Playdough last week. Partially because we're trying to prep our little guy for Nursery. He eats EVERYTHING - so I'm nervous about sending him to Nursery - where there are 11 tots and one regular teacher. We got it out almost every day of the week ... he loves it, and is still eating it.

Both Big and Lil Sis used the Playdough for math problems ... any maniuplative works magic for math!

Mommy & Daughter Nutcracker date

2011-12-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

For her 6th birthday, she asked for a Mommy/Daughter date. I think Mommy was equally excited! We went to see the Nutcracker Tea at Portland Community College. It was her first experience with a live ballet ... and she was in heaven!

She may be the Big Sis, but she's still a little girl. The seat kept swallowing her up because she didn't weigh enough to keep it down. She laughed and laughed about it.

She even met two of the gingerbread baking dancers, after their performance.

The next day, she wrote a report about our date. It's a little hard to read (you can click on each photo to enlarge them), but I wanted to put it up here anyway:

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T03:00:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas to all!

**Please note the faces on my children.

Little boy looks petrified.

Big Sis is forcin' that smile like a trooper.

Lil Sis is milkin' it with her classic frowny pout.

Randoms

2011-12-21T03:00:00.000-07:00

I'm so thankful for the girls' desire to help out and learn new things. This week they learned to rinse off dishes and put them in the dishwasher ... the rinser is the hot job on our chore list! Sure, plenty of water ends up on the floor ... but they're at a perfect age for wanting to help! I love that! I'm guessing it's easier to train now - while they're excited - than trying to train them when they're dodging me. :)

Everyone had a cold last week, and little boy blue was cutting teeth ... he just wanted to be snuggled. I cracked up when he let the girls rock him like a baby. And yes, takes two little girls to hold this big baby!

We went to a different stake's nativity display, which included a children's room for dress up.

Homeschool: The legend of the candy cane

2011-12-20T03:00:00.000-07:00

"The Legend of the Candy Cane" is a cute book explaining the real symbolism behind candy canes. Super cute. After we read it, we created certificates that explain the symbol and also thank people for sharing their fantastic Christmas light displays. I got this idea from an old roomie's blog - she made random certificates for houses donned with fabulous lights, then secretly left the awards on doorsteps. We did it last year, and had a blast - so we did it again this year with a candy cane twist.

If anyone wants to do this at their house, just e-mail me (or leave a comment with your e-mail address) and I'll send you the pdf.

While the big girls focused on their project, our little boy pulled red and green foam circles out of a Kleenex box ... then put them back in. It didn't last long, but at least he felt like he had something to do.

Homeschool: Wreath wrap

2011-12-19T03:00:00.000-07:00

The girls made wreath ornaments during school craft time. Lil Sis slipped beads onto a pipecleaner, then mom added the bow. Big Sis crocheted a long chain, then wrapped it around and around to make her wreath, then mom added the bow. I need to make sure I customize our lessons and projects for each girl; they loved that they were both making wreaths but that they both could do it at their own level. It was a hit.

Here are the finished projects:

Angel Hair

2011-12-18T21:49:00.000-07:00

Big Sis' hair has grown very, very long.
Here's her before shots.
She knew a hair cut was coming soon, and she felt excited about it.
I introduced her to the idea of hair donations.

One of our friends has a little girl with leukemia; we've been following her blog and facebook posts, and we've been praying for her a lot. My girls and I watched a video online at the Angel Hair site; it was about a little girl with leukemia who received a wig made from hair donations. The tear-jerker video provided a turning point for Big Sis. She decided she wanted to give her hair to help someone.

Nearly 10 inches! My sweet friend Nancy cuts hair out of her garage.
So,Nancy chopped Big Sis' braided pony tail off, and gave her a cute style.

Here's her "after" look. She loves it! She looks so grown up!
Her hair is thick and healthy - and a lot like Kit (the American Girl she's been reading about lately).

I'm proud of my angel for deciding to donate her hair.
We haven't mailed it off yet; and she keeps asking when and how we'll do it.
We'll send it off in the next day or so, and I'm hoping we can put a personal touch on her donation package. :) If you're interested in watching the video, or learning about the Angel Hair organization, then click HERE.

Homeschool: craft madness

2011-12-15T03:00:00.000-07:00

Free play! That's a term I use when I need them to find their own activity.
We had "free play" craft time ... let's just call it craft madness.
See the little guy with scissors? That's not good.
He also had colored pencils ...I'm happy to say that a few colored marks made it to a piece of paper.
See the scraps everywhere - the picture doesn't do it justice.

The results? Two itty-bitty, teeny-weeny Christmas cards made for their baby dolls,
with homemade envelopes. Super cute. And a regular-sized Christmas card or two.

Homeschool: If you take a mouse to the movies fun

2011-12-14T03:00:00.000-07:00

Lil loves the "If you give a mouse a cookie" book, so we went for the Christmas version: "If you take a mouse to the movies." Same cycle of cause and effect ... I found most of these school-ish activities and printables via Pinterest (love that site!). First, we made a storyboard - to show what happens next; then we had a chit chat about natural consequences (and how that can be applied in our home).

Next was this cute writing prompt. "If you take me to the movies ..." and had them fill in the rest of the thought.

The one above is Lil's ... spot-on-accurate!
She says "If you take me to the movies then I will eat all the popcorn."

Here's Big Sis' ... which is also very, very true:

"If you take me to the movies I will want to woch the movie right when we get there."

The next day, Big Sis had a bunch of pictures from the movie to cut out and then write a story about. She finished this page and then it was time to clean up - she hopes to finish another day.

Lil Sis had this reading activity. I'm so in awe of her because she really wants to read, and is putting so much effort forth. This was her first week at really putting sounds together, and she amazed me. She sounded out these filmstrip words and then found the matching picture.

Look at the focus ... look at how wide her mouth gets when she's sounding out each letter.
It's awesome!

Christmas tree search

2011-12-13T03:00:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas season!!

My girls keep asking if it's almost Christmas, and I keep trying to remind them that THIS
is the best part of the season! (THIS = whatever seasonal experience we're having at the moment).
We stumbled upon a Christmas tree farm on accident ... and made some memories:

Like a Christmas season pony ride.

Chasing our bundled man around the forest while Lil Sis had to go find a bathroom was amusing.
He was so bundled up that his arms wouldn't go down ... lol.

And we found a tree! Whoo hoo!

She's SIX!

2011-12-11T16:21:00.001-07:00

One of the first things she said to me that morning was,

"I know you told me not to Mom, but I did. I grew up. I'm six!"

After breakfast we opened some presents.

And then surprised her by telling her about J. J. Jump.

With the amount of energy and jumps in this girl, we figured it'd be the perfect birthday activity. Plus, she kept saying she wanted a jumphouse ... and we kept saying it wouldn't fit in our house. :)

Mom and Dad got jumpy too.

Dad had them running obstacle courses at full-speed - 10 times around.

They took a nice nap that afternoon.

In the evening, Big Sis' grandparents came over for a candy cane party!
We played two candy came games; one where you hooked the canes onto one cane's curve,
and the other was hot-n-cold hide-n-seek with the candy canes.

Here's the requested cake: Strawberry pink insides, candy cane outside - with a big, pink 6.

Make a wish, sweetheart!

Here's Grandma, Aunt Jean and the little ones - with the girls dressed in clothes from the costume treasure chest Grandma got Big Sis.

The sugar really kicked in ...

And the girls turned G-Pa into a frog.

Roadtrip randoms

2011-12-08T22:12:00.001-07:00

Seriously, this will be the last post about our trip to Utah! This was our first major roadtrip as a family, and I gotta say, the kiddos did way better than I expected! I gues it's always a good thing to prepare for the worst, and secretly hope for the best. :) They were awesome.

We played car games, read books, listened to books on CD, watched a few movies, ate snacks and just hung out as a family. Lil kept falling asleep holding onto things - totally cracked us up.

On the way back we stopped at this cute park (can't remember where it was at - but I know it was in Oregon). Alex had a work call with Russia, so the young ones and I went exploring. Tons of ducks waddled around as our little guy chased them. Then the sisters joined in, they tried to "sneak up quietly" ... uh, no sneaking up on those ducks.

And there was a train car just sitting all random like on a tiny piece of track.
And since trains make us think of the MacDs ... I made them take a picture.

MacD moments ...

2011-12-06T22:30:00.001-07:00

A major bonus of the roadtrip was stopping at the MacD's for a sleepover - each way! The girls are instant friends - planning dance routines, jumping in the leaves and munchin' on Red Robin together.

Plus, the adults enjoyed themselves too ... a little "bubbly," a late night hot tub dip, and the mamas staying up chatting way past bed time (I do believe Alex was snoring in my lap!).
Ah, how we adore the MacDs!

Salt Lake Temple @ Christmas time

2011-12-04T17:15:00.001-07:00

We love to see the temple! And seeing it with glowing Christmas lights is extra special!
First, James took some group photos (I'll post those soon ... not sure if they're being used for Christmas cards, so just in case, I'll hold off for a bit). It was FREEZING cold, and little ones were NOT having fun - so we quickly walked to the Visitor's Center ...

I think my girls could have spent a couple long days at all the Temple Square sites - maybe next time. It was difficult pulling Big Sis away from this display of Bibles and Books of Mormon in different languages from around the world. She told me this was her favorite part.

Lil Sis' favorite part was seeing the Christus statue ... even though she wouldn't take a photo by it (of course, Big Sis would!). The statue’s size alone was impressive and awe-inspiring tomy little ones. The room was busy and loud with families talking and takingpictures. We had been sitting in a row, gazing at the statue and talkingamongst ourselves for several minutes when the loud speaker came on. A voicerepresenting Heavenly Father said, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am wellpleased … hear ye him …”

Lil Sis was sitting closest to me, and when I looked over, I saw her mouth had dropped open, her glossy eyes widened andshe sat perfectly still – tuning out the crowd, and tuning in to her HeavenlyFather. I could tell at once, she believed our real Heavenly Father was actuallysaying those words at that very moment. It was so beautiful, pure, innocent, andbelieving. Her faith overwhelmed me.

I watched her for a moment and tried toguess what she was thinking and feeling. I wondered if she wondered why thewhole crowd didn’t stop talking and start listening to Him (I'm guessing Heavenly Father wonders that too, sometimes). I wondered if shefelt the Spirit as strongly as I did by watching her. I wondered what shethought might happen next … and then I felt like I should tell her it wasn’treally Him speaking right that instant. I can’t remember how I broke the news to her,but when I did she nodded slowly, understandingly. We talked about it again when we got home,and she quickly said that she had thought it was real. She also said she feltthe Spirit – and we talked about how that part was real - very, very real.

Utah classics

2011-12-03T09:19:00.001-07:00

We had such fun doing the classic Utah things ... ok, they're special classics to us because we can't do them at home! Like eating at In-N-Out and Cafe Rio ... yum!

We took the girls to Gardner's Village and saw a bunch of Santa's elves
(and mom enjoyed the shopping).

We saw Alex's childhood buddy, Matt! We love him!
This charismatic guy got plenty of giggles from the girls.

And of course, Mom and I hit up Tai Pain Trading. The men and children enjoyed hot chocolate for the first hour, then hit up a park for the second hour. :) Yes, it takes us that long - and we even felt a little rushed!

Of course, seeing cousins and family is the best part of the trip!!!!

6 little indian braves!

2011-12-01T00:01:00.001-07:00

1 little, 2 little, 3 little indians ...

4 little, 5 little, 6 little indians!

The Poe Gnomes spent Thanksgiving with Uncle James and his sweet family, and our parents.

Look at this bunch of braves! They're so sweet, each having a special light within them that shines through their eyes. I adore our little ones and am so thankful we could safely spend the holiday with family! More pics to come of our adventure on another post.

Homeschool: Indian corn experiment

2011-11-29T23:00:00.001-07:00

What happens when you put Indian corn in very shallow water, and let them sit on your counter for four weeks? This experiment idea came from pinterest somewhere - and it was a big hit. Each week the girls drew their observations, and we discussed the differences we saw and what we guessed would happen by the next week.

After one week, tiny sprouts appeared and kernels looked like bubbles ready to burst.

After two weeks, roots tangled and stems sprouted straight up.

Here they are drawing their observations of week 2.

By week 3, the green was growing!

By week four, it was like a forest.

Here's the final observation sheet:

I am thankful for ...

2011-11-24T03:30:00.000-07:00

I am thankful for the power of a determined and willing mind.
This is Big Sis with her thinking cap on so tight she couldn't smile for the camera. Lol. So cute.

I am thankful for unbridled creativity and a drive to explore.
As Little Man began to empty the contents of our kitchen cabinets, he found this perfect chair.

I am thankful for laughter, smiles and exciting energy packaged tightly in our little people.

I'm so thankful for family, and the opportunities we have to live, learn, love and grow together.Cheesy? Yes. True? Yes.

Hope your Thanksgiving is filled with delicious samples from life's harvest.

Homeschool: Leaf identification

2011-11-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

I love fall. We went on a walk and collected leaves, brought them home and let them dry out from the rain a bit. A day or so later we pulled them out, along with a small leaf identification book we found at the library. This activity promotes close observation to details, as well an appreciation for the variety of nature that Heavenly Father created.

We picked out a few favorites, stuck them under a sheet of paper and did the classic crayon leaf print. Then, the girls labeled their findings. Big Sis is super detail-oriented, and wanted to make each leaf look just right. I appreciate her work ethic - she applies it to everything she does. Big Sis is almost 6 years old ... Here's her final product:

Lil Sis is doing a great job at putting her letters in order, and she's been practicing her letters. Her attention span seems to be increasing - and I'm impressed with her final product. Lil Sis is 3.5 years old ... Here's her work:

Homeschool: Sarah saves Thanksgiving

2011-11-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

I am in love with this book we got at the library (I might need it for our personal collection!), and am now inspired to learn more about Sarah Hales. I think I can add her to my list of heroes. In this true story about how Sarah Hales saves Thanksgiving, we learned that the pen is mightier than the sword, and that it's good to be stubborn for what you believe in.

We also had an AWESOME activity to try with it. The girls' great grandpa Joe Joe got these wild turkey feathers in Wyoming. Aren't they beautiful? We've been using them as decoration around the house ... and saving them for the perfect teaching moment. This was it! Joe Joe used his talents to turn several of the feathers into quills.

We bought some ink from the craft store, watched a You Tube tutorial of how to write with a quill, then went to work. The ink bottle said "waterproof" all over it - so I wrapped up the table and the girls in tarps. :) If I were doing this again, I think I would have just mixed paint with water ... Anyway, it was so fun. The girls practiced and practiced, taking the exercise seriously. It gave us an opportunity to talk about how difficult it would have been to write thousands of letters, like Sarah Hale did, using a quill. Add pencils, pens, crayons and computers to the lengthy list of things we're thankful for.

Homeschool: You've got {thankful} mail

2011-11-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

In preparation for Thanksgiving, we made "thank you mail boxes" for each member of the family. Any time we caught someone doing something kind, or any time we just wanted to show gratitude for our family, we could write a little note, fold it up and stick it in the mail box.

The mailboxes were easy to make - just Thanksgiving scrapbook paper, stickers and old tissue boxes.
I love activities that give the girls an inspired reason to practice their writing and spelling. Lil Sis drew beautiful pictures, with letters floating across her notes. Big Sis is putting her new spelling rules to work, and she made thoughtful observations in her notes.

And everyone was excited to see if they had any new mail in their box.

Then there's our Little Man. He enjoyed reaching in the boxes, snatching the contents, and running like crazy with his new prizes. Yes, he keeps us busy.

Homeschool science sprouts

2011-11-18T02:30:00.001-07:00

We've been learning a bit about Heavenly Father's creation of plants. With the beauty of mother nature right now, it seemed like perfect timing. We learned then colored and labeled the four parts of a plant: roots, stem, leaves and flower. We talked about the different fruits/veggies we eat from the four parts (ex: roots = carrots, stem = asparagus, leaves = spinach, flower to fruit = tomato).

Then, we started some alfalfa sprouts. I'm happy to say that the girls even eat them!!! They put them on circular veggie chips and call them "plates of salad". Yay! Our little man, on the other hand, hates the taste. He eats most everything, but he truly finds our sprouts disgusting.

We have another science plant project in the works - more pics to come later.

TGIF!

2011-11-18T02:30:00.000-07:00

I can't wait to see my scoutmaster. He's been gone (not actually scouting), but comes home tonight. This pic was taken when he left for the campout last weekend ... lol ... I'm so thankful he puts up with me and my camera.

Just for smiles

2011-11-17T02:30:00.000-07:00

Don't judge me by the contents of my refrigerator ...

Our busy boy figured out he can step up and fit into his favorite spot.

Surrounded by food, he's all smiles.

Homeschool: brain stretches

2011-11-16T02:30:00.000-07:00

The girls have a few workbooks we lean on when I'm fresh out of ideas - and one of them had this puzzle you cut out and try to put back together to be a square. I think it's a second grade workbook ... but it left me and Big Sis scratching our heads for way too long. She was the brilliant one who got the paper she had cut it out from in order to put it back together ... My mom always talks about how great puzzles are for the brain. I think we need to do a few more brain stretches!

Another fun go-to game in our house is Boggle Jr. It has dice with letters and several cards with words to spell. I love how my two girls instinctively found a way that both could play at the same time, and at their own levels. They did that on their own - I was in awe. Lil Sis would sound out each sound and try to identify the letter, then help find the right dice. Big Sis is learning a few spelling rules (I really like the "All About Spelling" book we've been using), and so she'd put the sounds and rules together to help form the right word. Then they'd check their work and sort the words into two piles: words to work on next time and words spelled correctly. They were a great team.

Homeschool button jar

2011-11-15T02:30:00.000-07:00

I have a bunch of buttons, and the girls adore them. So, when the book "Playful Learning" suggested the book "The Button Box," I knew it would be a hit. We checked it out from the library, read it and then let the girls have freeplay with the buttons ...

We also enjoyed a bit of organization - there are so many ways to do this!
We talked about all the sorting possibilities - by size, by color, if there are swirls, by how many holes the buttons have, what material the button is made of, if the buttons are shiny or dull, etc.

Lil Sis began by sorting according to how many holes the button had. She picked three categories: zero holes, two holes and four holes. She guessed that there would be the most of the two-holed buttons (she was right). She kept a tally sheet until she lost interest, and then we worked on some come color sorting:

Big Sis wanted to sort by color, and she selected four colors she'd keep track of:
pink, blue, black and white.
She guessed that the black button group would be largest (she was correct).

Here's what her tally sheet looked like at the end. She would have kept counting, but the jar she collected her counted buttons in tipped over into the pile of unsorted buttons. I'm sure she was frustrated, but we just cleaned up and moved on. What a sweetie.

And our little guy got strapped in again ... with a few objects to experiment with, and a button too big for his mouth.

Birthday boy and collage chaos

2011-11-13T21:43:00.001-07:00

Our main squeeze had a b-day! We had a short window of opportunity to celebrate, after an Scout campout and before a week-long work trip ... so we celebrated a day early and made the best of it. Even thought it took the kiddos and I all day to prepare for our little family party, it really wasn't much - but hey, half the fun is in the planning and anticipation of a part-ay!

So, our prep work started with a chaotic collage. I call it chaotic because of ... well, look at the floor. Every picture and magazine image was carefully selected to represent our adored Dad/husband ... every piece was cut out to the best of their abilities ... and every scrap was ripped, torn and chucked on the ground by our little, screaming toddler (who didn't want to be strapped into that chair unless he was going to eat something!). The poster took a LONG time to complete ... but, that's because they were enjoying it! This was the girls' first collage. The birthday poster turned out like this:

We had chicken enchiladas, blackberry pie, blackberry icecream, played balloon games and made up games, and watched ....{drumroll} ... Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Does anyone remember that movie? I LOVED it as a kid ... but honestly, it was kinda painful to watch as an adult.

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Randoms

2011-11-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Our go-to book, "Playful Learning" suggested reading Donald Crew's "Ten Black Dots" and then making our own dot pictures. Each girl (including me) rolled dice to see how many dots they'd get, then made their pic.

We went to Grandma and Papa's house for dinner and pictures the other night - our Lil Sis wouldn't smile. She'd barely stand in. And I know the picture is blurry, with bad lighting ... but we rarely take pictures with all the grandkiddos together - so it's getting posted. :)

Lastly, we had a baby boy baby shower at our house last night with a fall theme. And I gotta share this funny (to me) story. I went to Costco and picked up a pumpkin cheesecake - I painstakingly selected the best one. It was perfect. Placed it on the bottom of the cart and off we went. When I pushed the cart to the car, the cheesecake cracked right in the middle due to the bumps in the parking lot. Grrrrr! I tried to convince a parking attendant to get me a new, uncracked one so I wouldn't have to load all three kids back into the shopping cart and start Round 2 of Costco. I didn't succeed. So, I took it home.

My superhero mom came to my house the morning of the shower, with buckets of cleaner in hand, posing as my maid service. :) So sweet. She helped me set up too ... and when she saw the cheesecake she had a brilliant idea. Let's cut the crack out of the middle, eat it, and then stuff a pear in the middle of the missing hole. Brilliant! lol. So we did. And you can see on the picture, it didn't look too shabby. hee hee.

Homeschool: Graphing goodies

2011-11-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

This graphing worksheet was somewhere on Pinterest - and it was a welcome lesson to the three tots who love any excuse to pull out their trick-or-treat loot. We combined a few categories, to make it more fun. The girls got the hang of it super quick, while our little guy figured out he could chew thru wrappers.

For more practice, we graphed the types of patterns from our nature pattern book
(which still isn't complete ... this project just keeps living on!) It was fun to discuss how a graph is a special kind of picture that can tell us information just by looking it over. They both made guesses about which pile would be biggest and smallest, and then they got straight to counting.

Homeschool: Just for laughs

2011-11-09T00:24:00.002-07:00

Just for laughs, here's a silly game we made up ... and had a few giggles with. The point of the game: draw a creative monster, with the correct number of body parts. I think we used it for Family Home Evening - and made it up on the fly. Here's how it works: one player rolls dice, and figures out what number they rolled (that in itself is educational! lol). Then the other players huddle up and decide what body part needs to be drawn on the board. Say the player rolled a six, and the huddle decides the body part to draw is legs ... that means the player who rolled draws six legs on the monster. Everyone laughs at how crazy the monsters turn out ... the end. Every family needs a good laugh. As our sweet Sunday School marriage class instructor said in church, "If it's 7 p.m. and you haven't had a good laugh for the day, it's too late!"

Poe Gnomes with GPa and GMa

2011-11-09T00:17:00.001-07:00

Two more cute pics ... with two very special people.

Homeschool: Nature patterns {part 3}

2011-11-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

During our nature pattern unit, we studied six categories of patterns:

Symmetry, circular, branching, tessellation, linear and spiral.

We only found one spiral pattern during our hike (a curled up caterpillar) - sorry no pic on this post.

Even though Lil Sis is only 3 years old, she'd correctly identify each pattern - just simplify the name a bit. She'd say "circles" or "lines" instead of circular or linear.

Tessellation was often referred to as the "puzzle" pattern - much easier to say.

After I wrote the pattern name on the top paper, the girls would draw
an example of that type of pattern. This helped solidify the idea, after we had looked online
at images of the patterns and read a few books.

Out of all the photos we took, we had the most branching and linear patterns.

Homeschool: Patterns in nature {part 2}

2011-11-02T06:30:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago, we read a book about patterns in nature and then went on a hike looking for patterns, and took pictures of what we found. This week, we took the printed photos and divided them into six types of patterns. We went to this site and learned more about each type of pattern.

Then, each day of the week we made several pages for our very own nature pattern book. The girls would pick a picture they especially liked, glue it to a blank half page of white paper, write a few words about it and then glue on the pattern label.

We worked on the project every day, and it's still not complete.
When it is finished, I think it will be cherished and read many times.

Homeschool mascot: Poe Gnomes

2011-11-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

Our homeschool is called the "Poe Gnome School of Learning"
... so we just had to be Poe Gnomes for Halloween!! I'm lovin' the family pride!
Now, I can't claim any credit for sewing those cute dresses or my apron
- other very skilled women made those. BUT, I did crochet the crazy hats.

People have asked me why gnomes? Well, it all started with Papa - we gave him a garden gnome several years ago for a birthday gift, and the little guy is always sneaking around to new spots of the garden and in the house. The girls get a kick out of hiding him. In our school, our gnomes like to do sneaky service - and hence, they've become our mascot.

And our scripture of the week went hand-in-hand with the concept:
"But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. That thine alms may be in secret, and thy father, which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly."

- Matthew 6:3-4.

It feels like we've celebrated Halloween for soooo long. Last Friday we went to Alex's work, to trick-or-treat around the office. His team even made a sweet haunted house to walk through.

At church, our ward had a chili cook off and lots of games. The pic above is the girls with some of their cute friends: Captain America girl, Black Cat and Orca.

This game was a crack up. The classic doughnut on a string had us laughing so hard ... Big Sis chased after it with mouth wide open, and it took only a few seconds before Lil grabbed the string and ate it up.

Happy Halloween - train field trip

2011-10-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

Choo choo! Our little guy loved the pumpkin-faced choo choo train.

It's a short ride around the farm, waving to a few chickens, going under a few "scary" tunnels and arriving at the hay pyramid - with its dark maze.

G-Ma and Big Sis are toward the top of the pyramid,
and Lil Sis is near the bottom.

Our pumpkin lover was in heaven. He just sat on them, rode on them and rocked on them ...
I'm sure he would have stayed by them for hours.

Homeschool with Halloween style

2011-10-30T14:12:00.005-07:00

Whether it's spooky subtraction story problems, or making addition problems out of jack-o-lanterns' eyes and nose, adding a bippity-boppity-boo of Halloween spirit can spice up the usual math practice.

We also re-used last year's skeleton puzzle. Big Sis enjoyed the familiarity of the puzzle, and while she remembered most of the basic info, she soaked in more details as we talked about each piece. Lil Sis liked locating the bones in her body as we went along, and thought it was funny that we have a cage inside of us (rib cage).

Now, my little man adores pumpkins. He shouts "Pu-Pu!" every time we enter or exit the house, because he wants some "pumpkin time." So, when it was time to decorate them, he was extremely happy to hold his pumpkin and brush a dry paintbrush across it.

With little ones, carving a pumpkin means Dad and Mom do most of the work, and the kiddos really want to help, but there's so much sharp equipment. So, both girls painted their pumpkins.

Here's Big Sis finished product:

Here's Lil Sis in all her artistic glory -and her finished product.

Oh, and to get ready for Halloween ... we had to have a spooky bath.
Bathwater + Glowsticks = Spooky bath.
The idea came from Pinterest, and it was a major hit.

Fruit Loop field trip - TRADITION

2011-10-27T20:40:00.000-07:00

I think this is the fourth year in a row that we've taken the family to Hood River's Fruit Loop - and this time we added G-Pa and G-Ma to the road trip. First stop is always Rasmussen Farms for their corn maze, pumpkin museum, pumpkin bowling and local apples and pears. .

We had fabulous weather!

I made everyone over dress ... a lot. I was ready for rain, wind and cold

... but we saw sun and felt warmth.

It was fun to have G-Pa and G-Ma with us. They had never been, so we could show them our favorite spots and discover new farms too.

The next stop (and Alex's favorite) is for BBQ. The three adults in line got the last three racks of baby back ribs!!! Lucky! My favorite old-timer country singer was there too. It's the perfect food combined with the perfect atmosphere and people.

Oh yeah, and they have a tire swing. My dream farmhouse will have one of those too ... someday. :)

Next stop: the bakery. As you can tell, our fruit loop tradition is all about the food!

While I loaded up on cookies, these three got icecream cones that left an impact.

See what I mean? That's an impact! Passersby made plenty of comments about the matching blue shirt/mouth. hee hee. She's so cute. And Lil Sis was left with something too ...

A sugar high!!! lol.

Homeschool: Patterns of Nature

2011-10-26T08:02:00.000-07:00

We read "Lots and Lots of Zebra Stripes: Patterns in Nature" by Stephen R. Swinburne, and then went on a hunt for patterns in nature at our favorite local state park. The idea is from our favorite "Playful Learning" book.

As we strolled, we came across a community of beautiful toadstool mushrooms. They were PERFECT Poe Gnome mushrooms - and I've never before seen this kind of mushroom in real life. We were so excited by them - I wish I could bottle the enthusiasm and energy we received when we found these mushrooms! And Heavenly Father made a perfect pattern on them, and it felt like He placed them there just for us ... honestly, they were like a rejuvenating tender mercy.

Here are three more pics from our journey.

Little Man found this leaf with a pattern of lines ...and it was big enough he could snuggle with it.

We are taking all of the photos and making a nature book ... eventually.

I'm sure there will be more posts to come.

Homeschool numbers and such

2011-10-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

For 1,2,3s this week, the girls practiced writing numbers.

Big Sis still questions herself about which way the numbers should go,

so each day she wrote about 20 numbers. Lil Sis is learning how to write each number, so each day she focused on two numbers by completing practice pages out of a workbook.

Little man thinks the A,B,Cs are Delicious. Mmmm good.
And he perfected his truck noises this week.

Homeschool: Sermon on the Mount

2011-10-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

We're using a classic New Testament children's book for our "Stories of Jesus" time.

Each day we read a bit, look at pictures and then have a discussion. Plus, each week we memorize a scripture from the passages of the week. Anyway, we took a few days to talk about the Sermon on the Mount - and we played a little game with it too. We divided Christ's sermon into eight things the girls can work on - then we'd spin (oh how a spinner makes any game fun) and draw a picture or talk about ways we can accomplish that principle

... it's not about the finished product, but the conversations and process along the way.

Homeschool: Fall leaves make great art

2011-10-24T15:54:00.000-07:00

We read the book, "Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf" by Lois Ehlert and then used some leaves from a previous day's nature walk to make a colorful (and easy!) art project. We took several acrylic paint colors, squirted them into a pan smooshed side by side, and then carefully covered one side of the leaf with paint. Last, make a leaf print.

Here are our finished products. After the paint dried, we outlined the leaves (in attempt to make them more leaf-like). Big Sis didn't like how one of her prints turned out, so she cut it out and labeled her painting "Rainbow of three leaves." Pretty creative way to turn an "oops" into an "awesome!"

Family Home Evening: Iron rod to tree of life

2011-10-23T15:00:00.003-07:00

Grandma and PaPa invited us over for a special-edition FHE with their neighbors. Alex was asked to give the lesson, and we decided to talk about a dream that Lehi, a prophet from the Book of Mormon, had. In the dream he saw an iron rod that led to a tree that was white, light and had delicious fruit. In the dream, people would try to get to the tree, but the only way to get there was by holding to the iron rod and staying on the path. Many people let go of the rod and got lost in the darkness, or the filthy rivers, or were made fun of by wealthy people in a great and spacious building ... but those who held to the rod made it to the tree, which is called the Tree of Life. It represents eternal life. The iron rod is the Word of God. So, Alex and his dad set up an iron rod ... well, a rope that went from Papa's deck, around the side of the house to the tree they put white Christmas lights on.

The little ones loved it ... and the icecream that followed.

Boy scouts for {relatively young} men

2011-10-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Meet the scout master. :)
Doesn't he look handsome in his uniform? It's hard not to swoon over those badges. Honest to goodness, I'm excited for him. This is a volunteer position, he accepted it as a calling for our church. He's going to have great experiences, he'll learn much, teach much and have a blast as he goes. His little troop of tiny girl and boy scouts at home will be rooting for him (even Lil Sis - who decided to frown for this picture ... simply because she can).

Homeschool music, math and mayhem

2011-10-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Drown out unpleasant noises with more musical ones.
Music time can replace frowns with smiles and change destructive hands to creative ones.
Oh, how we love a good tune.

More math manipulatives for Halloween. G-Ma had some cute stickers and candy corn papers in a test tube container. The girls have made puppets out of the big ones (not pictured here) and used the small ones for games and counting.

We can't forget our little man. No, he didn't write those perfect P's (that was Lil Sis) ... he's trying to erase them. It seems that he likes to un-do what's been done. lol ... really, he just wants his share of the action. He's a busy boy -- as most are at his age.

Homeschool: Fire station field trip

2011-10-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, we took a field trip to the fire station - and the kind fire fighters gave us a personalized tour of their engines, ambulances, and living quarters.

They even let the girls pretend to drive the truck with the lights swirling.

I thought it was sweet how the firemen talked at their level, explaining the importance to never hide from a firefighter. They took out their masks and gear, and showed them how they looked "all dressed up." They even let the girls check out a special heat-sensitive camera to detect people in a pitch black, smoke-filled room.

In the ambulance, they saw a stretcher and the stuffed animals that they give to little ones who feel scared but need help (more on that later too). Inside the living quarters, we saw where they eat and learned that they don't have a mom there to make food for them, so they each take turns with different meals. We saw where they sleep, exercise and watch TV. We learned how to tie a knot on a rope and use it as a zipper pull. :) I think the girls enjoyed it.

Homeschool: Fire safety

2011-10-18T06:15:00.000-07:00

Sadly, 52 percent of children's fire deaths occurs in children 4 years old and younger. Hence, a week of fire safety at our house.

We checked out a ton of great books from the library and a Fireman Sam video. Just in case you don't know about Fireman Sam < --- this link will get you to the Sprout site with some videos and coloring sheets. The firefighters at our local fire station highly endorse the educational cartoon.

We also did a science experiment about fire - and got the idea here.
What three things does fire need to burn?

1. heat 2. air 3. fuel

With our first candle, the girls cooled the fire down by squirting it with water (they did it more than once because it was so much fun).

For the second candle, the girls took away the candle's air by putting a glass jar over top.

For the third candle, we talked about different kinds of fuel.

We stressed that they should not try to put out a fire themselves, but to shout "Fire!" and get away from it.

Homeschool ABCs

2011-10-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

The sound of the typewriter keys slapping the paper and the ring at the end of the row, makes me smile. What a blessing it was to find this typewriter with a "free" label in our church's hallway. I had been searching for an old typewriter in our garage, and never found it. It was a tender mercy. Then, we couldn't get it to work ... so I called Office Depot, ordered some ribbon (wrong size), then returned at Office Depot (right size), but the typewriter still didn't work. Until we said a prayer. Then the Spirit prompted me to push a button on the inside of the typewriter - and wha la!

Here's how we used the typewriter for homeschool this week:

For Big Sis: Spelling and creative writing.
I'd call out spelling words, and she'd type them. Also, she wanted to write a newsletter for Dad (because that's what the American Girl named Kit does). Maybe she'll have some journalistic passions like her mom? Anyway, she knew what wanted to write and she'd ask how to spell every word ... that took up a lot of Mom's attention, so she then had a lesson on using a child's dictionary to look up how to spell things. Here's a sheet of her work:

For Lil Sis:For Lil Sis: Letter recognition and yoga moves. I'd call out a letter and she'd find it on the keyboard. She loved it. Also, the typing exercise seemed to bring out physical exercise ... at least, that's what I think of when I look at her balancing act in the photo below.
It's funny how little ones can not sit still.

First steps

2011-10-16T14:03:00.001-07:00

Our little guy (who's nearly 16 months), started taking his first baby steps! Here's a crazy clip of his moves (can't figure out how to get the videos from my camera to be compatible with Windows Movie Player). He's a tough one. He rarely cries, and he gets up and tries again quickly. He makes me nervous when he just goes for it ... but at the same time, his enthusiasm for trying something new is welcome in our home! He really is teaching us how to tackle the next big challenge: with a smile, with relentless effort, and with more focus on the "try, try again" than the fall on the face.

Halloween handy bat craft

2011-10-09T16:42:00.001-07:00

We read this simple book about bats - it points out interesting facts, like how bats are the only mammals that can fly.

Our big baby boy sure loves books. They hold his attention much longer than any toy. When I read books to the children at lunch time, he wants to see the pictures, he wants an animated voice and he wants to be included in everything we talk about. We didn't leave him out of our handy Halloween bat craft:

Big Sis remembered this craft from last year, as soon as we pulled them out of our Halloween decor box. She wanted to create new ones, right away. So, we dated this year's little handy bats, then compared size from last year ... oh how tiny fingers grow fast. Add that to the long list of reasons we love homeschool ...

This week we've all had some sort of nasty fall initiation cold. It hasn't been fun. School has been relaxed, short and simple ... and just what we needed. It was awesome to remind myself that if we were in public school, we wouldn't be in school at all - definitely "sick days" would have added up. So, we took it easy, knowing that it was better than nothing ... and it was just the reminder I needed to stick to the basics, and keep it simple. One of my favorite scriptures is "By small and simple things, shall great things come to pass." - it's the reason I can homeschool without having my head explode with the responsibility we're taking on. Little by little, we're gaining wisdom. Really, it's amazing.

Halloween homeschool math

2011-10-09T16:28:00.002-07:00

Want to give everyday math more appeal? Just add manipulatives.
One night, we left Grandma and Papa's house with a bag of plastic spiders ... they sure came in handy. Addition became more exciting as these little creatures crawled across the paper.

For the first time, Lil Sis tried some addition too. She caught on fast. Pic below is hers.

In fact, Lil Sis wants to do most of what Big Sis does.
So when Big Sis works out of her Singapore Math workbooks, Lil Sis wants a workbook too.

Big Sis has been working on learning all the combos that make the sum of ten.
I can't remember where I saw this rainbow idea, but new she'd love it ... hello, it has a rainbow!

Map my heart for homeschool art

2011-10-09T16:14:00.001-07:00

This idea was a great follow-up to last week's mapping activities. The idea itself came from a book called "Playful Learning: Develop your child's sense of joy and wonder" by Mariah Bruehl (which I've enjoyed and recommend to all parents - whether you're homeschooling or looking for extra fun and educational activities to do at home). She recommends reading "My Map Book" - a children's book by Sara Fanelli, which shows all types of maps: maps of her bedroom, of her neighborhood, of her tummy after lunch, of her family and of her heart. After we read the book, we too made maps of our heart. We outlined in Sharpie, then watercolored over top. I love them:

Above: Big Sis' heart.
Below: Lil Sis' heart.

Homeschool snapshots

2011-10-09T16:05:00.001-07:00

Each day, Lil works on writing a letter of the alphabet. After she can write the capital and lowercase letter without any extra help, she can "pass it off" - and she gets a special sticker of that letter. She takes the sticker and writes the letter next to it on one master paper that she has a special spot for in her binder. This week, Lil loved L - super simple letter gave her a boost of confidence (and what child --or adult for that matter-- doesn't need a boost of confidence every now and then?).

Our church was giving away this electric typewriter! I was sooo excited because I had been searching for an old typewriter that I know is in our garage somewhere. Since Big Sis is reading a book about a girl who liked to type up newspaper articles for her dad, I thought this would be perfect!! There was a grand unveiling of the surprise ... but sadly, it wasn't ready to go yet (my fault for not checking it out first!). I have ordered new ribbon, and hopefully we'll be up and running this week.

Every morning, our homeschool begins with "Stories of Jesus" time. We're studying the New Testament. And we're trying to memorize a scripture each week. I have been tickled that both girls have been able to accomplish the goal each week, and that they remember all the weeks prior!

This week, our scripture was Luke 2:52, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature in favor with God and man." To introduce that scripture, we divided a large paper into the four areas: Wisdom, Stature, God, Man. Then, we talked about how we can make sure we're growing in each area. I did not handfeed them answers - they came up with the responses on their own - and I was blown away!!!

Our man.

2011-10-09T15:55:00.002-07:00

Just a quick post to mention how awesome Alex is. He's the Daddy of our dreams. Though he has a lot on his plate (and more added daily), I love that he can really "be home" when he's home - his mind isn't anywhere else. Here are two pics of him from this week; (above) I got to go with the YW to do landscaping service at the temple on Saturday morning, and so he got Daddy Duty to go with the Primary children with the temple for a field trip. (below) He even managed to win a bowling trophy at work ... ha ha. I've always known about his bowling skills - he used to take me bowling weekly back in our dating days. It's hard not to admire that trophy ... now that there's a pic of it on the blog, maybe he won't mind if I chuck it. lol.

Fall is here: 1,2,3 acorns

2011-10-02T16:53:00.002-07:00

One day this week, we went to a park and gathered acorns ... a lot of acorns.
The girls organized them into a variety of groups:
doubles, babies, acorns without hats, just hats, acorns with hats, etc.

We wanted to count how many acorns we had, so we made groups of ten and practiced counting by tens ... after 200 acorns didn't make a dent in our collection, we decided to stop counting and stick with organizing.

Here's big Sis showing the different groups she selected for organizing.

When they were all categorized, it looked like this.
Now they're in jars all over our house as fall decoration. Super cute, I might add.

1,2,3s

2011-10-02T16:47:00.002-07:00

We read a book called "Inch by inch" and then made our own inch rulers to measure household items. Each girl made a chart with the item, estimate, actual measurement and then the difference.

They really got into this project - and it was a lot of fun.
It was helpful in so many ways: practice writing numbers, making estimates, subtraction, etc.

Ladybug thumbprints

2011-10-02T16:39:00.002-07:00

The girls made some thank you notes this week with ladybugs ... using their thumbs.
They turned out cute.

The tongue sticking out is a sign of concentration.

Here's Lil Sis' finished product. They're ladybugs dancing and jumping in the sun.
Big Sis sealed her envelope so fast, I missed the chance to take a pic.

He's still eating crayons ... not too many art projects for him.

Mommy's art project this week is this frame. I picked up the frame at a garage sale, it was gold originally. A little spray paint, rub and chalkboard paint ... ta da! Maybe the message (WE over me) will help me be less selfish. That's the goal! I'm guessing it's going to take more than a little message - but maybe it can get me started.

Friday field trip: Champoeg State Park

2011-10-02T16:21:00.003-07:00

We went to Champoeg State Park to view their exhibit about the settlers,
and a video about re-introducing a species of blue birds to the park. In the pic above, the girls are looking at how many pelts of a particular animal would equal one beaver pelt.

Lil Sis practiced churning butter.

Big Sis decided it would be a lot of hard work.

Big Sis got to use her new mapping skills (see the zoo day post)
to navigate our way through this 1860s style garden at Champoeg State Park .

The Park Ranger there was so kind, she generously picked us some beets, squash, and tomatoes.

Cheese in front of the big barn.

apple cider presses.

cute.

haystack.

Life Skills: Mapping at the zoo

2011-10-02T15:59:00.003-07:00

GMa took us to the zoo for our Life Skills lesson this week to teach us about reading a map.
The girls each carried their own map, they found where we were,
where we wanted to go next and what was just around the corner.

They look like explorers.

The penguins put on a great show for us!
Our little boy laughed and laughed every time they'd swim right by him.

The girls did more measuring for the week ... bears.

Mother bird and her eaglets.

Some of our favorite sights:

* monkeys playing doctor,

* "Hairy" eating veggies and ice cubes,

* an elephant doing tricks with her trainer,

* turtles kissing Big Sis in the water,

* identifying types of ducks,

*reading the map.

Shadows all about

2011-09-25T16:24:00.004-07:00

Week 2 of the Poe Gnome School of Learning felt rewarding! The girls are so enthusiastic, that I feel so motivated by them. For science, we learned about the sun. We learned that the earth rotates once in a day, so that means it's day time for some of the world when it's night time for other parts of the world. That's what we were learning in the above pic (it was actually dark in the bathroom, with just the headlamp - sun - shining ... but with the flash, it's impossible to tell).

Outside, we made a sun dial and traced our shadows. It was fun to come outside and check the sun dial at different times of the day.

We also made a game where we'd pull items out of the garage and trace the shadow. Then, when Dad got home from work, he had to guess the item. The girls got really into it.

And of course, we had to do a day of shadow puppets! Some cute library books went right along with this activity. See Big Sis' crocodile and Lil Sis' bunny in the pic above?

Here's Big Sis' bird, Lil Sis' rooster and Mama's llama. lol. Oh how they light up if mama gets into it too.

1,2,3s

2011-09-25T16:14:00.002-07:00

I re-learned an important lesson this week during math time. I'm reading a book called "Playful Learning" (love it), and that's exactly what I want our homeschool to be like. To my little angels, life is one big game right now. They're figuring out the rules, trying it out and laughing as they go. If what we're learning is in the style of a game, we're smiling, laughing and learning simultaneously. It's magical. Now, it doesn't happen all the time (I'm not a miracle worker!) but when it does, life feels picture perfect.

So, for example the first picture above is Lil Sis doing some counting puzzle ... It was kinda fun, and it taught it's lesson ... BUT, counting beads into cupcake liners because we're making mini-cakes for the queen and we must get done before her birthday, is much, much more fun! We had to hurry, make the cakes with the correct number of ingredients, cook them, let the cool and present them to the queen - and we had a time limit. It was a blast! Don't they look yummy?

Here she is building Jenga block towers as high as the cards say
... not letting them tip and placing them in different ways brought smiles.

Here's Big Sis trying to stay focused on her addition when Baby Bro wants to steal the show.

And lastly, placing jewels on top of pirate dice before the wicked pirates from the ship across the sea come to steal the loot left these ladies in squeals of delight.

ABCs

2011-09-25T16:03:00.003-07:00

Writing time with the trio.
To spice things up, we got out some alphabet stamps and ink pads ...
then stamped out the words we were learning.

The high point of his week ...

2011-09-25T15:57:00.003-07:00

This little man is keeping us busy. Thank goodness he naps for some of school time ... let's hope he keeps that up a little while longer. In the pic above, he got himself stuck in the drawer of books. His face is saying, "put the camera down and get me out of here!"
The high point in his week had to have been exploring the dirt. While mom pulled a few weeds and tied up the sunflowers with the girls, this guy ate a rotten tomatoe, several old, muddy blue berries, and a super-sized portion of soil. He's not walking yet, but he's still fast! At one point, I just let him go ... he was already dirty, how much dirtier could he get?

He loved it. So did the girls.

Life Skillz & Friday field trip with friends

2011-09-25T15:50:00.002-07:00

For Life Skills, G-Ma taught the girls about order, organization and being thrifty. She talked about how much better we feel when things are in order, and how Heavenly Father is a God of order. Then, they spent significant time sorting and organizing their sock/undies drawer. They took small shoe boxes and wrapped them in colorful flowery gift wrap paper, and they decided what should go where. It was quite a process - and completed enthusiastically, I might add.
The finished project looks great! G-Ma even said she'll be coming by to check up on them, opening their drawers to see if they're still neat and tidy. :)

For Friday Field Trip with Friends, we took advantage of the sunshine and headed to Fir Point Farms. It was much more social than educational, and the perfect way to end the week.
We had 5 moms and 15 children there ... here are some of them in the nut house:

And a cute new girl that my girls met ... Big Sis and her clicked right away:

Sara to Ecuador!

2011-09-23T14:56:00.004-07:00

Family and friends gathered to wish Sara well.
She's now in Ecuador, studying the education system amongst indigenous tribes.
We can't wait to hear her stories of adventure!

Ready, set, go

2011-09-19T06:59:00.004-07:00

My awesome brother made us this logo for our school. Super cute, huh!?
I hope to do fun things with it during the year.

To get ready for the year, we bought this Potterybarn Kids table from someone on Craigslist.
It was an ideal Craigslist experience (other than we drove quite far to get it): the people were nice and normal, the table is in excellent condition, and it was a quick exchange. Once we got it home, I went to a nearby supply store and had a piece of plexiglass cut to the size of the top. Now it can be our tabletop bulletin board, and we can update it with the seasons! For now, I decorated under the plexi with fabric and these cute signs I made:

This is our schedule. The girls love running to it, to tell me what we should do next.

A cute ABC chart is always a must.

First Day of School!!!

2011-09-16T15:48:00.003-07:00

Our kindergartner.

Our preschooler.

Our peanut.

It's the first day of the Poe Gnome School of Learning!!!
Can you see the excitement on their faces?

And how did they get ready for their first day?
A campout the night before with Dad in the backyard. Headlights and all.

Tell me the stories of Jesus

2011-09-16T15:41:00.002-07:00

Each morning starts with time for "Stories of Jesus". We began with the beginning ... the creation. Our scripture of the week that the girls memorized is Genesis 1:31 "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." The Spirit was strong as we talked about all the good things created, about Adam and Eve, and about what the Garden of Eden was like compared to the world we live in now. Most of the time is spent reading, talking and looking at pictures - one activity we did involved a new Crayola marker that's designed for use on windows. We drew our Garden of Eden, and they loved it.

"Stories of Jesus" is followed by "Reading Rainbow" where each child gets one-on-one time with Mom and a book. Everyone can pick if they want to listen or do their own thing. Big Sis is reading her first American Girl book; she selected a story about a girl named Kit who lived in the time of the Depression. Lil Sis is reading a lot of alphabet books and Baby Boy loves animal books.

Our baby IS the lesson :)

2011-09-16T15:36:00.002-07:00

There's a great article called "The baby IS the lesson" by homeschooling guru Diane Hopkins. It talks about how we treat the baby teaches our children so much. Our {growing} baby boy has so many mommies caring for him! I've had friends ask me what he does during school - so far, he's still taking a short morning nap during 45 minutes of school; during the rest, he's in on the action. He's also very good at entertaining himself if it's time to be quiet and focused.

I love that he has a book in his lap as he counts how many balls go in the gumball machine. :)
Next up: music time.

1,2,3s

2011-09-16T15:30:00.002-07:00

For our "1,2,3s" time, Big Sis got a Singapore Math workbook (it's the first curriculum based textbook we've purchased). It's stretching her, but she seems to really enjoy it! She's learning about "number bonds" - or numbers that go together to create a bigger number. Here she is working hard:

Lil Sis is practicing counting groups of 5 to 10 objects. She had a manipulative-focused activity each day, and by the end of the week I could see a big improvement!

Putting the correct number of "puffy clouds" in each CareBear box.

She learned to double-check her work on the day she placed popsicle sticks in colored bowls with numbers written on the bottom.

Here she is putting beans into our egg carton container. I placed a small piece of paper with a number in the bottom of each slot.

Helen Keller

2011-09-16T15:27:00.002-07:00

Helen Keller has always been one of my favorite people to learn about - and the enthusiasm started in my youth. Big Sis has studied her before, but was thrilled to learn more. We even got an animated video about her from the library, by the people who make the Living Scriptures movies. So one day's Reading Rainbow focused on Helen Keller, then we watched the video for our "Extra, Extra" and tried to understand what it might feel like to be blind. Then, for "A,B,C" Big Sis wrote a list of facts, using keywords, to help her remember what she had learend about this brave woman.

Life Skills with G-Ma and G-Pa

2011-09-16T15:20:00.002-07:00

G-Ma volunteered to teach a "Life Skills" class once a week in our Poe Gnome School of Learning! For our first week, her and G-Pa took us tomato picking. They're getting ready for their annual salsa making session, and we want to help (because we want to eat it later!). We learned what to look for when picking a ripe tomato ... and that it can be tricky to find good ones.

We also learned a very important lesson: "You got to be careful when you're picking tomatoes because it might rain!" ~ Big Sis. So true! Out of no where, the clouds let out fat drops. It only lasted a few minutes (and that was the only time it rained all day) -but we were out in the field looking at giant zucchini and pumpkins, so it took us a while to get under cover ... which is why we looked like this by the end of Life Skills:

Friday field trip with friends

2011-09-16T15:10:00.003-07:00

I have a goal to play with friends each Friday - and if it's educational, that's a plus. In the Poe Gnome School of Learning, we're calling it "Friday field trip with friends." On a whim, I posted an invite on a local homeschooling group Internet message board - and people actually showed up! We had about 15 children playing in the dahlia fields, between 1 and 7 years old. We read all the flower names, then went back to the picnic table to color and name our own dahlia; then we had a picnic and watched the koi pond. Thankfully, it didn't rain on us!

Here are some of the little ones ... standing still to say "cheese" wasn't on their wish list.

Coloring pics. Big Sis created two flowers, one peach and one pink ... and named "Peach" and "Pink." Lil Sis created a blue flower and named it "Honey Daddy" ... and she wrote it out!
(That's a new skill for her!)

Very good. Very, very good!

2nd Annual Coast Trip

2011-09-11T20:21:00.003-07:00

It's the second time we hit up the coast a day after Labor Day, for a family getaway. It's gotta be the perfect way to end the summer! We sure missed James, Michelle and their little ones on our coast trip this year; but we'll play next year, I'm sure. We stayed at a home in Olivia Beach - we really enjoyed it. It was clean, new, had a hot tub and plenty of room! The property had a fire pit, park and beach access. I think we'll stay there again. We left a heatwave at home to cool off at the coast - on the last day, the wind blew soooo hard! Our cheeks looked pink with wind burn. The first full day was perfect weather - and we soaked it up while crabbing and then on the sand. I'm so thankful my parents started this tradition - and I know my kiddos and I will cherish the memories.

Crabs!

2011-09-11T15:39:00.002-07:00

Standin' at the dock of the bay ...
Smilin' on the dock of the bay ...

In Oregon, you can only keep the males.
This is what a female looks like ... and we sure saw a lot of little lady crabs.

The bait: mink.

The only boy was too small. He's measuring ... too sad.

Look at that load!

One of my favorite moments was when we met this OSU fish biologist. He and his friend had caught two 25 lb salmon, and two small ones. He gave us a fish anatomy lesson as he gutted the beauties - even opened the stomach so we could see the candlestick fish they'd had for lunch. The eggs were amazing - I had no idea there were so many. It was a homeschooling-at-it's-finest moment.

The wise man built his house upon the rock ...

2011-09-11T15:33:00.002-07:00

The theme of this year's coast trip revolved around rocks. We can all do {rock hard} things. We will remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer that we want to build our foundation. We talked of scripture stories involving rocks, we collected rocks, we sang songs about rocks and we even ate rock candy. The trip basically ... rocked! :) And everyone got a pic next to the rocks by Devil's Punchbowl tide pools. Here they are, from youngest to oldest:

Coast trip highlights

2011-09-11T15:19:00.002-07:00

G-Pa flippin' pancakes. We ate well during the trip. Very, very well.
Ah, sisterly love.

Good morning! Start the day with jumpin' on the bed ... and G-Ma!

One day we went to Depoe Bay. We saw the whaler's museum and did a little shopping.

One night we had a fireside and toasted s'mores.