Skool Daze

In just a few weeks school will be over for this year.

Faith's class had their first science fair, in some ways it was better than the high school 

production. They had simple scientific principles explained.

Faith chose to do a study on the usefulness of thumbs.

She had her subjects do common tasks using their whole hand and then with their thumb taped to their palm. Her hypothesis was correct, it takes longer to do a task if you can't use your thumb.

This whole project was a bit ironic for this family though...wonder how well people can tie their shoes with only one hand?  How about with only 3 fingers?

Our one handed typist can pound out as many WPM as most two-handed typists.

We will have to think outside the box when it is time to teach Shekinah to type, haven't found any online programs for that.

I liked this experiment. The plant on the right was fed water, #1 was fed Gatorade    #2 was fed Mountain Dew    #3 was fed peroxide...there was a #4 that was fed chlorox, but that plant was just dried up leaves.

This fine lady was found at my kitchen table doing her homework.

Later she was seen walking on the drive in her white high heeled shoes.

First Grade has been an interesting ride this year. She started off by having issues with her math facts.When you've lived life with only 4 fingers you can't just visualize 4+1. I learned those facts way before I went to school simply because I added on my fingers many times. She didn't have that opportunity.  So we taught her to use the mental image of dots on a dice, a number line or simply counting backward for some of the simple subtraction problems. She is doing quite well with them.

She is also very literal, she and Zeke get along very well. The other day I pulled out some papers from her backpack and noticed that this one paper had four errors so I started reading.  "Ray will tear a white shirt."  Well of course that makes sense.

The next one should have caught her attention, but  "the thorn where on my dress."  sorta makes sense.   "Over where is my house"  is a sentence we've surely used.   "There is my book?"  I told her that one is a question.  She said "yeah, there is my booook?"  with a pronounced question in her voice.

I explained that English is a crazy language with three "wears" in it and I wrote them and explained it.  Her response? "Well that just isn't fair!"

Because I'm a mean mom or ....not, I also ordered the ACE English for 1st grade and 6th grade math for Faith intending to use them over the summer because Hope intends to go to school over the summer. Well they arrived on Saturday and those books just HAD to be opened. So I relented. I explained that the beginning of the books was going to be easy but that was OK, I didn't expect her to be finished quite so quickly though.  She followed the directions to the letter!

One night I got this note when I came home from teaching a class. "I wrote it myself"

Those crazy shoes!

We took Parker on an ambulance tour the other night.

Birthdays, Ides of March snow, etc

When life is too full to stop and analyze ...then it's too full

On February 25, hubby and I were at a funeral and the kids were home, the 19 y.o. was in charge, thankfully. They got the weather alert and headed to the basement, we sat oblivious in the church until the electricity blinked, then I realized that the roaring I'd thought was a truck was actually wind.

Everyone was OK at home, but just a few miles north of our place there was quite a bit of damage.

The clouds you see on that picture were deemed "straight-line-winds"...well whatever.

When your marshmallow runs out of your smore, you just wrap it around your finger and rescue it.

Most of us are wrapped around that little finger too.

Especially the daddy that made the tin can stilts for her to try her skilz.

Then someone had the nerve to turn 17! Can't quite believe it.

He requested a cheese cake.

Since he threatened to eat all the pie crust the other week, Hope made a batch for him and packaged it in a hot chocolate box.

Shekinah's class made graham cracker houses on one of the warmest days this winter.

Little did we know that just a few days later we would FREEZE.

When you just don't need more bread in your life.

EMT in training? She never realized that one of her Christmas gifts was a CPR DVD.

She claimed she could feel our pulses, but when everyone's pulse turned out to be the same

I realized she was counting the seconds on the clock. Baby steps...

Then it snowed! and of course heels and bare feet make great footwear when you are checking the snowfall accumulations. I think our children were ready for spring, they didn't go out in the snow very much. 

They thought bumping volleyball in freezing temperatures was a good idea.

With one thing and another Parker hadn't visited in a few weeks, they played store and McDonalds.

"one coffee drink please and french fries"

We almost had a state of emergency this morning, we were down to the emergency rations of peanut butter! So you have a staple (besides milk) that your family needs every day?

I have a hat problem....I have a tea problem too, but that is another story. I started crocheting one night and it turned into a hat!? So I tried another and then I bought more yarn...I haven't bought more fabric this year though. Now Pinterest keeps showing me free crochet patterns along with my math games and reading helps.

Shekinah is doing better in her after school homework, we have greatly reduced breakdown time by letting that dreaded Victory Drill book till Friday and Saturday and we do the required four lessons on those days (they get out of school at 1:15 on Fridays). I really didn't know if it would work, but it seems she is just that much more relaxed and we can whiz through them in no time.

Countdown time to new grandson --about 6 weeks

Countdown to wedding...house under contract, new job secured (he's currently serving in VS), and wedding fabrics on the shelf.