Jacob and Samuel both have email accounts now and are in heaven. They feel so grown up and cool now. If there is something that I want them to do for school but they don't want to do it, I'll tell them they can email me the assignment and then they jump up and down and rush to do it. I love it!
Last night Samuel sent me an email about his favorite school subjects -art and music- and asked when we were going to study them this week. Afterwards he comes into my bedroom and we have the following conversation:
"Mommy."
"Yes Sam."
"Did you get my email I sent you about school with my question?"
"I got your email but I don't remember the question. Can you remind me?"
"I asked you when we were doing music and art this week."
"Well we are going to do....
"Wait! I don't want you to tell me the answer! You have to email it to me!"
"Okay... so I'll email it then."
I love my kids! I remember getting my first email and being so excited to get emails and hoping people would email me. I still love email actually. I guess I'll be having email conversations with those two for the next couple of months until we can revert back to real conversations when the excitement wears down a little :)
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Happy Valentine's Day!
Thursday, February 07, 2013
The Story of Katie's Name
Katie has been on a card making streek lately. She makes cards for valentines, just because, thank yous, and anything else she can think of.
On one of these cards she had written her name with pictures on each letter and told me the following story of the letters in her name:
The K is the queen with a crown or a heart for valentine's day.
The A is the princess.
The T is the messenger who makes sure they K and the A don't step in the mud.
I and E are T's sons and he is presenting them to the Queen K. I is the eldest and E is the youngest.
Today T was the maker or the one who makes things for the Queen K and the Princess A. The story is always changing and evolving and is very cute and very much my daughter. This is how she has adopted writing her name for school work now.
On one of these cards she had written her name with pictures on each letter and told me the following story of the letters in her name:
The K is the queen with a crown or a heart for valentine's day.
The A is the princess.
The T is the messenger who makes sure they K and the A don't step in the mud.
I and E are T's sons and he is presenting them to the Queen K. I is the eldest and E is the youngest.
Today T was the maker or the one who makes things for the Queen K and the Princess A. The story is always changing and evolving and is very cute and very much my daughter. This is how she has adopted writing her name for school work now.
Tuesday, January 08, 2013
New year's resolution: Spanish
One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year is the Fluenz Spanish Latin America language learning software. It is the same idea of Rosetta Stone but better and I've been really enjoying it. You can check them out on their website to get an idea of how it works. I am already half way through the level 1. Mostly because I did take three semesters in college and it is a lot of review/remembering of things for me. When I reviewed the program online I did the German since I have never learned any of it before and wanted to get a good feel for if it would work. I felt like I had to work at it but learned- German would be going slower right now then the Spanish but progressing. Still it is enjoyable, meets my criteria of using native speakers, and I feel like I am getting the basics down faster and faster. Hopefully by posting this here it will commit me to keep going. I really do want to learn- no matter where we have lived there is always someone that speaks Spanish and I want to be able to join the conversation.
The bonus of this is that my kids are now slowly wanting to learn and explore it as well. Jacob chose to do a session today on his own after watching me do them for the last two weeks. I've told the kids I am willing to help them learn whatever language they desire, but the programs are expensive and it's hard to find good ones for younger kids. The other problem is the kids like to switch which language they want to learn a lot so I am waiting for them to have a steady desire for a longer period of time.
That is one of the many projects I have going on right now. I hope everyone had a great Christmas as well. Hasta luego.
The bonus of this is that my kids are now slowly wanting to learn and explore it as well. Jacob chose to do a session today on his own after watching me do them for the last two weeks. I've told the kids I am willing to help them learn whatever language they desire, but the programs are expensive and it's hard to find good ones for younger kids. The other problem is the kids like to switch which language they want to learn a lot so I am waiting for them to have a steady desire for a longer period of time.
That is one of the many projects I have going on right now. I hope everyone had a great Christmas as well. Hasta luego.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
The Great Chore Treaty
This week the kids and I are learning about King Henry V, the battle of Agincourt, and the Treaty of Troyes. For a project we decided to write our own simple treaty over something that at times causes headaches in our house- chores.
This treaty was between all four kids and myself. The agreement was that we would all do our chores quickly and with a good attitude.
The kids agreed that they would no longer whine, fight, or run away and hide during chore time. That they would ask what they needed to do next as they completed tasks and do tasks quickly. If they did not do this they agreed they would have to copy verses for displays of bad attitude, have an extra chore for running away, and after three infractions would have to make their own dinner.
I agreed that I would make sure to have the chore list out and ready for the day, would play good music during chore time with holiday themes as much as possible, would help them with chores, and have a good attitude myself. If I was unprepared or unwilling to help the kids would not have to do chores and if I had a bad attitude they would get to put their input into what we had for dinner that night.
They all signed the treaty and had a fun time coming up with terms and consequences we all could live with. I think it gave a good example of how these things worked on a smaller scale and helped them understand. I do plan on holding them to it. Usually they do chores well, but we are not perfect and there are always those days which seem to happen more often when the days are shorter for some reason :)
This treaty was between all four kids and myself. The agreement was that we would all do our chores quickly and with a good attitude.
The kids agreed that they would no longer whine, fight, or run away and hide during chore time. That they would ask what they needed to do next as they completed tasks and do tasks quickly. If they did not do this they agreed they would have to copy verses for displays of bad attitude, have an extra chore for running away, and after three infractions would have to make their own dinner.
I agreed that I would make sure to have the chore list out and ready for the day, would play good music during chore time with holiday themes as much as possible, would help them with chores, and have a good attitude myself. If I was unprepared or unwilling to help the kids would not have to do chores and if I had a bad attitude they would get to put their input into what we had for dinner that night.
They all signed the treaty and had a fun time coming up with terms and consequences we all could live with. I think it gave a good example of how these things worked on a smaller scale and helped them understand. I do plan on holding them to it. Usually they do chores well, but we are not perfect and there are always those days which seem to happen more often when the days are shorter for some reason :)
Monday, December 10, 2012
Santa's Workshop
For Christmas this year we decided to help the children make things for each other instead of just buying things that they help pick out of for the others. We were hoping that it would make it more meaningful for them. We also decided to set the example and make them some gifts as well.
This has transformed our house into Santa's workshop with projects everywhere. Most of them are simple things so we can get them done and go on with our Christmas without too much fuss since I don't have tons of time. Here is a list of our projects, and hopefully I can post some pictures of them as they finish:
Bracelets
Hair clips
fleece blankets (no sewing required!!!)
pillow cases
aprons
wands (using wood skewers, wooden beads, and string)
samurai masks
Pajama pants (I make these for the kids anyway and can roll them out in no time at this point)
board games
book marks
It seems like ideas are endless and many of them are useful as well as creative. I even saw tutorials for homemade soap, candles, and recycled crayons made into fun shapes that didn't make the list this year. However, we didn't want to have a Christmas that was all homemade because of time and there are just things that aren't practical to make at home (like shoes and legos).
I hope everyone's holiday preparations are going well too :)
This has transformed our house into Santa's workshop with projects everywhere. Most of them are simple things so we can get them done and go on with our Christmas without too much fuss since I don't have tons of time. Here is a list of our projects, and hopefully I can post some pictures of them as they finish:
Bracelets
Hair clips
fleece blankets (no sewing required!!!)
pillow cases
aprons
wands (using wood skewers, wooden beads, and string)
samurai masks
Pajama pants (I make these for the kids anyway and can roll them out in no time at this point)
board games
book marks
It seems like ideas are endless and many of them are useful as well as creative. I even saw tutorials for homemade soap, candles, and recycled crayons made into fun shapes that didn't make the list this year. However, we didn't want to have a Christmas that was all homemade because of time and there are just things that aren't practical to make at home (like shoes and legos).
I hope everyone's holiday preparations are going well too :)
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Halloween Costumes
Before Thanksgiving got here I wanted to post a picture of the children in their halloween costumes. I had no idea what they would pick from the costume trunk until the day of (usually it changes a lot). Jon, Sam, and Katie went as colonials Jacob as a Jedi and Lilly as a very charming good witch. Our new neighborhood is a lot more active than our last one on Halloween night so the kids got to see a "real" halloween like I remember growing up. I wasn't sure what to except and ran out of candy before we ran out of trick or treaters- next year I'll have to go to costco for the candy. It was a lot of fun and the kids thought it was great.
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