Bird Feeder Craft

So, we wanted to do a fun Springy Craft with the kids.  So in March we decided to make bird feeders, and a bird house.....   I got the idea from Pinterest ....  Here..... Here........ and Here...... 

 The Gallon sized one was made for a birdhouse, we put fun colored string in there to see if they would use it in a nest.... and the half gallon ones we made into bird feeders.  We did the lemonade one long and the milk one tall.   The kids put stickers on them ....

Finished product hung on our patio .... 

For the longest time - birds didn't come.  

We were sad. 

So we put out some dried bread - to entice them.... we got an action shot of the bird dropping the bread....  thanks bird... lol....

and I ended up dumping seed in the "bird house" since no bird was going to use it this year, and took down the lemonade feeder since it was always tilting one way or the other.
 
And one day shortly after.....

We got all excited..... it took awhile for the birds to really start coming .... but I'm proud to announce we have MANY visitors a day now....   and not only do they sit on the sticks on the outside of the feeders, but they jump right on in!!

So we can watch why kind of birds come to our feeder.  We've been trying to figure out what kind of bird it is ... we *think* it's a Sparrow or a Swallow ... but we're still working on it.  We haven't found a bird identification yet where we've gone - yep that's it!

Happy Mother's Day!

Just wanted to wish all the Mommies a HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Couple Homeschool Funnies

Crazyness Ensues ...

Loooong long ago I decided to homeschool my boys.  Due to bullying issues and a few other issues that were going on with Noah just not learning.

We spent a year "de-schooling" and not doing a lot.   It was everyday learning type of stuff... plus two babies in the house - I was B.U.S.Y ....

Well, we moved to Washington State and we debated between homeschooling and putting the boys back in public school and try it out here ......

At first, we were going to homeschool... so I started to prepare .....

And then.......  Cal decided that he wanted to try public school.   So we started down that route ...

They are about to finish their 2nd year in the school system here....   we're not happy.

Calahan is starting to deal with bullying again here ..... but at least here he has friends here.  It's nothing like what it was in Wisconsin...  however, he was hit a few times by one kid, and being the GOOD BOY that he is, Cal befriended this kid.  I remind him a lot of "bullies" have bad home lives.  So he became friends with the kid who was slapping him occasionally.   Then this other - bigger kid - I guess ...  one day... was trying to pull the chair out from under Cal when he was sleeping in class (don't get me started on the sleeping in class) ....  and when the first kid dropped his books and papers all over the floor, and Cal stopped to pick them up ....  he was bent over on the ground gathering them up - and the second kid came and kicked him in the butt sending Cal flying into the fencing.

They also are not following Calahan's IEP at all....  he's suppose to be pulled out for testing because he has trouble getting thoughts from his head out through his hand (he has Dysgraphia) ...  one way or another he's suppose to verbalize the answers to someone who writes them down for him. 

Because of all this - he's failing .... and doing his work at home or through home ... means I can keep a better eye on what he's done and what he hasn't.  I have also asked time and time again that the teachers email me with work that he hasn't gotten done each week so I can keep on top of it ...  and they don't.  I can't help him - if they don't help me....

He wants to e-school next year.

Noah is still only at a 1st or 2nd grade level depending ...  he was diagnosed with dyslexia.  I keep begging the school to hold him back ... but ... thanks to No Child Left Behind ...... he's getting pushed further.   He wants to participate in class, he wants to learn - he's very eager but he gets pulled out of class and he doesn't understand some of the hard stuff in class so he's forced to pull out a folder of work (which he does on his own) to work from while the class carries on.  He has expressed to me more than once that he's "stupid" because of this.

In addition to that - one of my worst fears came true.  There was a school shooting at Noah's school, it made national news.  I really don't want o rehash it but you can read about it on my main blog .....  Serial Killers & School Shootings .....   and my gut instinct was to pull him out and homeschool him again.  Yes, the shooting was an accident, but it was because the kid was BULLIED.... 

My biggest problem homeschooling last time was that Noah wouldn't listen to me and do his work (this was before we knew he had dyslexia but I suspected it.) and coming up with work ...

But now I found the best resource EVER .... Pinterest!  I have tons of boards on homeschooling lessons and ideas ......  I'm really excited.  If you homeschool and want an invite to Pinterest - leave me a note with an email address I can send a invite too :)  (heck even if you don't homeschool! LOL)

So I told Noah that we'll do a "trial" over the summer - and if he listens, then we'll homeschool.   He really wants to do it .... so I think it'll be a success ...

YAY!!!

Oh my oh my.... Decisions

Yep...  Decisions, with a capital D!

It has been a long time since I updated this blog.  If you don't read my other blogs, a lot of things have happened.  First off we made the big move from Wisconsin to Washington State about a month ago. I gave the kids the choice of checking out the public schools or just continuing to homeschool. 

Well, we didn't even really go check out the schools.  But we've decided to continue to homeschool, we're at least going to give it one more year, at least. 

We spent the last year "deschooling" - taking things easy.  We have done work, don't get me wrong.  Working on reading with Noah and Cal has been working on his math and stuff.  We've been trying to do some catch up.  Noah still doesn't like to "work" per-say but he's going to have to start doing his work because this year we are going to become more structured.  We don't have the freedom of "unschooling" here like we did in Wisconsin.  (Not that we were really unschooling, we were more decompressing from the rigid cycle of school) ...

So there are some big changes coming up.  We are moving into our own place in about a week.  We'll be setting up our school area, and we'll be making a plan.  I have already been seeking out the local homeschooling groups and trying to get contacts around here.  We've marked our calenders with the great programs and events the library is throwing this summer along with the great reading program :) 

We are excited and it'll be nice to get back to working on this blog :)

Quick Note

I just wanted to drop a quick note in here.  We've been really busy with life - 3 of us in the family have had surgery (me, Cal & Nathan) and between recovering and trying to get into the swing of things .. life has run away with us.  But we are starting to get back into the swing of things so posts should be showing up again soon :)  YAY!

Looking forward to sharing more of our Homeschooling Adventures here!!

Great Websites: Whiteboard, Acrobabble, and more...

So there are a couple of websites I thought were to great not to share!!

The first one I want to share is Scholastic's Whiteboard Lessons  found at  www.scholastic.com/interactivewhiteboards

You have to download a little program to be able to use the free lessons, but it didn't take me long at all.  So I just basically checked it out and was very impressed.   I clicked on one of the programs, Capacity Lesson (Grade 1) by Joey Savoy which is in the Science & Math section..  and here is an example of what you see and/or do...

This was the screen that I saw...  so I then moved the items...

And then moved the boxes that said "answer" to see if I was correct... 

They have a bunch of great lessons in there.  It's definitely worth checking out!!

Also, a friend of mine introduced me to a fun little free web-based game called Acrobabble.  You can use things like Yahoo, AIM, Facebook, Myspace, etc to sign in to play.  You can create a little "nickname" and then join in the fun!!  www.acrobabble.com

You choose a room ...  there are "unrated" rooms that can get awful dirty, so be sure if your child is playing that you have them in a clean room.  I would suggest this game for teens & adults.  There is some language that would probably be questionable for little kids (I've seen "sex" or inappropriate situations expressed in some answers, it's all about what you as a parent are comfortable with) ...

You can see your category in the upper left corner, and your timer bar counting down.  You simply write a phrase with the letters given. 

And then everyone in the room votes for the "best one" ... if you win the next category choice is yours.  You simply click the category you want from the list, and then you can choose if you want random letters, or a word, and then if you want to add or subtract 10 seconds, or just leave it as it is... and don't forget to hit the submit button or your category will default to "general"

And last but not least, there is a fun link that lets you in on the secrets of LOL and all those combos that we look at and go huh?  Got an older texting child and you just can't understand what all the cryptic acronyms and symbols people us...  check it out at www.netlingo.com