Robotic Bugs

    This morning, we had to run a few errands and of course we ended up in the clearance aisles. We found a few other presents for upcoming birthday's and next years Christmas. I am a firm believer in not playing full price. Thank goodness, I'm pretty sure we are finished with presents except for Keree.
     Now Keree was thrilled because on a back bottom shelf, she spotted a Christmas Hex-bug. Now, Santa brought Keree a hex-bug in her stocking. He wasn't sure if she would like it but thought it was cool since she's on a JRFFL league through Girl Scouts. She didn't open it till New Year's eve but we had so much fun playing with it, that she really wanted another one. What I liked the most was that it was on clearance and instead of paying $6.99 for it, we got it for a little over a $1. She spent the entire afternoon building mazes for them to race around and stuff for them to run into.

Keree holding her Hex-bugs that she named Dasher and Dancer

A Conditional Offer

Today, pretty much started out as a lazy, uneventful day. I was spending the day packing, cleaning, sorting, etc. Then suddenly the phone rang, it wasn't any number I knew, so I let it go to voicemail. Yes, I admit, I'm one of those people. Most of the time, there is no voicemail left but this time it was different, there was a voicemail.....

 It started out as "Hi, Ms. This is Mister So-So from SCC. I came across the application that you sent in and would like to talk to you about it." I'll preface this and say, that since I lost my job shortly after Keree came home, I haven't had a good job. I've had jobs, here and there and even started doing Shows. Now I love doing shows, making children's clothing and accessories to sale but I'll admit that sometimes it's hard. It's hard because you never know how you will do, you don't know if the customers will be buying or just browsing and you also have to factor in the weather, economy, everything. So, back in December I was just surfing the net and came across this job post. It was a good job, I was qualified and thought, well heck it won't hurt to put in my application.

I quickly returned the phone call, apologized for not answering and we started talking. By the end of the conversation they conditionally offered me the job. All I have to do is pass my background and drug test. I was shocked!!! Actually, it was more like what just happened, did that really happen?? Now, I'm trying not to get my hopes up. Plus, this will be a little weird, I haven't been in a normal 9-5 job for almost 4 1/2 years. Also, the biggest thing with this job is we will be going on the road full time. This job will have me spend 3-6 months in a job location before moving onto another job location. Being that I'm a single Mom, I can't leave Keree behind and not see her for months and months at a time. So, if this all go through, we have a new plan, we are getting an RV and were going to be living in it full time. Three days into the New Year and our whole lives are about to change big time!

Second Day of 2013

Well today was the 2nd day of the new year and what did we do......well I spent the day packing. Not only packing away Christmas decorations but also packing to move. I'm excited about what this new adventure is going to bring us but I'm also really having bitter sweet memories of this house. I mean it's the place I brought Keree home too. But I'm also glad not to have to worry about all the problems this house has either.

 The most excitement of the day we had was this little guy. Being that we live in the country, every so often we have a visitor get into our house. Well this guy was brave, we caught him actually sitting in our chair. We grabbed our Christmas cookie tin and trapped him inside. Keree didn't want us to kill him but she sure didn't want him inside the house.

 So I took him outside to the road's edge. He wouldn't move, so finally I sort of tossed and dumped him out. He sat there for a minute and then ran across the road. Since they always say, if you see one, there are more, once I got back inside, I sat quite a few traps to catch any more of our unwanted visitors.

On the 2nd Day of December....

we spent our day working. In just a matter of days, we have a huge Show in Tennessee. My Mom and I have been making stuff non-stop. I've been making tons of larger hair bows and accessories and Mom has been making lots more couture dresses. Keree, like always, is so good and just does her own thing. She'll read, do her workbooks and then read some more. Since we forgot yesterday, Keree also got to eat both December 1st and 2nd in her advent calendar. I really had wanted a non-food advent calendar like the past few years but weren't able to find one. So Keree got to pick out this German made, chocolate one instead.

Movies & a Christmas Party gone wrong

Our morning started out with the Cans film festival. We donated enough cans so we could see two movies at the Theatre. Which as you know for us is a real treat, since Keree has only seen 2 movies so far on the big screen, Tangled and Brave (at the drive-in). We were so excited that we got to see Wreck-It Ralph and we got to see Brave again. I just love getting to see and hear her reactions to movies on the big screen.  I also gotta say that I loved Wreck-It Ralph and can't wait for it to come out on dvd so I can see it again!

 

 After our 4+ hours at the movie theatres, we went home and got ready for our annual Homestudy Adoption group Christmas party. Well, we purposelessly got there late. I was to the point of us not attending these group gatherings anymore but felt that since this maybe our last year and after some intense pressuring by my Mom...we compromised by showing up late and leaving early. Now the Christmas party was in full force, the little kids were watching dvds, while the few older kiddos (Keree and a few others) were coloring and talking about Santa. Now, Santa has always made an appearance and it is always a big deal because he brings the children one special present. Well this year, he didn't make it. What was worse was they gave a very awful excuse why he wasn't there. I'm so thankful that Keree was move involved in what she was doing than listening! I cringed at the thought because if she had heard what they said, it would have been our last year of secrets.

 Now as I said, the kids each get a special gift from Santa. Usually we get this amazing reaction from Keree over her gift but I think because it wasn't Santa that handed it to her....it just wasn't the same. Plus since she knows how to read, she was trying to figure out why Santa had went to Toys R Us for her gift, instead of just making them at the North Pole. We ended the evening with a group shot, this was the lowest attendance I have ever seen for a Christmas party, there was only 8 families there.

Break from the heat

Nothing really special about today. We did school, we worked on crafty stuff and we cooked. But in other news, it was cool today! No record breaking heat, it was actually in the 80's and just lovely.

Official 1st Day

We considered today, our 1st day of school and 1st grade. So what did we do? Well we spent the entire day in our pajamas. To be honest, it was so hot, it was actually cooler to stay in our pajamas. We did a full day of school today. We worked on math, french, science, geography, history and language. 

So what is Keree doing in our homeschool right now:
Math - right now we are working on two and three digit adding, we will be moving on shortly to greater, lesser, equal.
Language - we are working on learning the parts of a sentence (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, etc). She also has to write everyday a complete and proper paragraph in her notebook. Along with other activites.
Reading - she just started reading Chapter books. Before now, she would get upset that there was so many pages, so she would refuse to read them. But something just clicked a few weeks ago and she likes that she can mark her pages and then continue the story later.
Spelling - I will be using the spelling list from her old school, she will be learning the 1st, 2nd & 3rd grade list every week and then I test her on it at the end of the week. I looked at all three lists and couldn't help but laugh because they are so easy and honestly don't think they will be too much of a challenge for her.
Geography - we are learning about the 50 states
Science - we are learning about the solar system, space and space travel
History - we are learning about important symbols in the United States and their history
French - we are working on basic greeting, animals, colors and days of the week.

Official Withdrawal

This morning, we had to get some errands ran and more importantly....we had to send off the official withdrawal paperwork to the school district. It's so silly, I mean they were the ones screwing around with us. But I wanted to follow the procedure to the letter, so there is no mistake and hopefully will prevent any questions in why we were chosing to homeschool this year. So here is Keree holding the official withdrawal paperwork before I went into the post office and sent it off. 

Otherwise, the rest of our day was spent doing school, working on craft stuff and just trying to stay cool.

Opening Night of the County Fair

After doing a little bit of school this morning, we spent the rest of our day waiting for it to be 5 pm, so we could head out to the County Fair. Keree was so excited and couldn't wait to see how her premiums did. My Mom and I was curious to see how our Scouts did with their entries. We were so thankfully to see that all of them at least won a ribbon.Now Keree had over 70 entries, she got mostly 1st place awards and she 

also won Best of Show in the 18 & under Arts category. We were so proud of her. Her Bandanna dress got 1st place. Here seams are a little wonky but it just proved she really used the sewing machine and sewed it herself.

 Both of these t-shirts are hers, the brown one was a decorated t-shirt, which she added beads too the bottom of it. The other t-shirt was her tye-died one, she used the sharpie marker and rubbing alcohol technique so she was able to create some really awesome hearts all over it.

 This is her Crossstitch entry. I had gotten the idea off another blog (wish I could remember where I saw this because I would love to give credit to them). They had used checked dish towels for their Scouts to do crossstitch with. This way it created larger x's for them to stitch. Keree made this towel for her Great-Grandma's birthday in October.

 We are currently learning about the solar system and this is a mobile we created. It was a perfect entry into the Fair.

We had such a nice time walking around afterwards. Keree kept telling me that she would go on the boat ride this year, along with a few others. I had to laugh because I know Keree, I knew there was no way she was going to do it. When we got closer, she started to panic. Finally, she stopped dead in her tracks and goes "no, that doesn't look safe to go on." I chuckled because she also isn't tall enough to ride this anyway. We left the fair without riding any rides or playing any games.

4 years ago....

today, I held my baby girl for the first time. She was so little, just a little over 5 mos old and 0-3 mos clothes was big on her. She was so sick the day my Mom and I meet her. Who would of known, that she had Polio and was fighting for her life. For how long had she been fighting it? We will never know exactly, other than I do know she contracted it between 3 1/2 - 4 mos old. I will never forgot how she just stared at us, we had to stop talking so she would take her bottle. She was so aware of her world and everything in it. 

We don't really celebrate today, since today isn't our Family day. My Mom and I sat down with Keree and we told her about us meeting her for the first time. About how Grandma forgot to take any pictures until after Keree was already in Mommy's arms. We told her about how little she was, how at first I didn't think the Nannies had the right baby until I saw her face. Then we went about our normal day. Today with school, I have started setting a timer. Keree knows that she has to do a certain subject for X number of minutes and then we can move onto the next activity. Plus, I have to say, it helps me stay on track also. Since the timer went so well, we did a art project to end our day. Keree made a paper Perry the platypus.

Sunday learning and craftiness

Today was suppose to be a break in the heat....LOL, yep it's only suppose to be in the low 100's. This heat and drought is just crazy stuff. I don't think I've ever seen yards, flowers, trees and bushes so brown that they almost look burnt. As for today, my Mom and I worked on crafty stuff. While Keree did her core curriculum and went back to learning French. She is loving learning French and I really wish I had stuck with it, when she was a baby. After a few hours, she decided she need a break. I have to say that right now, I don't set any time limits on what she has to do and for how long. It has worked out so far because she will spend 2-3 hrs at a time learning but when August hits, I plan on setting more of a schedule for school. She spent the rest of her afternoon and evening playing and practicing for singing tomorrow at the Ball Stadium. 

 One of the many crafty things I got done today. Keree really wanted a fancy Brave flower. So, I added some bling to the petals of the flower. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Homeschool - learning French

Today was another hot day but we had to head upstairs to work on some craft stuff, so Keree decided to work on some school work. I have recently gotten a lot of flack and questions on why I'm choosing to homeschool Keree. I know it seems like a super odd choice for a Single Mom but for right now, this feels like the right choice in our lives. Plus, honestly, last year in public school, Kindergarten was a complete waste. Keree would go to school, do 2-3 worksheets, then because she got them done early, she would draw pictures on the back of them, eat lunch, have rest time, have 4 recesses and then come home. Keree constantly complained she was bored at school. So, when she would get home, we did an additional 2-2 1/2 hrs of what the public school considered 2nd grade work (adding, subtracting, reading and writing). Now before I moved, I thoroughly researched the school districts, this is one of the top rated districts in the State and still is today. But it honestly cannot compare to the education I had already provided to Keree before she started Kindergarten and continued providing her during the year. 

So, that is the short answer to why I'm choosing to homeschool. At this point, I don't want to provide the long answer about all the underhanded things the School has done and is continuing to do because I don't want them to cause us any trouble this coming school year. Today, after Keree finished her core curriculum, she started foreign language lessons. I'm using a computer based program recommended by another Homeschool Momma and so far, we love it. Plus I love that there was so many languages (Spanish, Chinese,  etc) to choose from. We choose French, why, mainly because that is her Godmother and her Godmother's Families first language. We are really hoping in the very near future that we will be able to make a trip to visit. Since we want to spend a lengthy time with them, knowing French will make the visit a whole lot easier. Otherwise, our day was filled completely with school and craftiness until bedtime.

Emotional Saturday

This morning, we all woke up on the wrong side of the bed. My plan for today was to work upstairs, of course, my Mom wanted to work outside all day. So instead, Keree decided to head outside with my Mom, while I worked upstairs. I didn't get as far as I wanted but I'm happy with my progress. While outside, Keree spent her time cleaning off her water toys and then she played a little bit in her water table. After about 2 hours outside, Mom and Keree headed inside. 

So Keree joined me upstairs, so I let her do a few home school assignments. Well after about an hour, Keree needed a little help and as I was helping her, she collapsed into  sobbing. I asked her what was wrong and she said that I was going to yell at her. I have no idea where that came from, so we stopped and tried to play, nope didn't help. Finally, she begged me to hold her and sing Farmer in the Dell. So, I held her tight and sang. After about 2 hours of sobbing uncontrollably, she finally calmed down.

She still couldn't tell me why she started crying in the first place but I'm thinking maybe it has to do with her week at VBS, they talked extensively about orphans and orphanages and I think deep down it  upset her. The previously years, they barely touched on the subject and by the time I found out they were talking about orphanages and orphans it was basically the last day. In the evening, she started talking and asking about her orphanage and how if I hadn't adopted her, she wouldn't have been able to adopt her stuffed Kitty. We took tonight easy, Keree is super excited that she gets to sing tomorrow in the VBS musical, so we practiced the songs and hand movements and also washed several cartoon movies.

Stormy, Humid, Super Hot Sunday

Last night, we had a few storms come thought. Honestly, they didn't seem so bad but when we arrived we saw this. Thank goodness for once this wasn't our tent but our neighbors. The winds completely mangled this double tent. The only thing we ran into was a few puddles in our covered pavilion space. Didn't hurt anything except one box got wet. When he and his mother arrived, I helped him move his tent and get the tarp off of it. 

 This was our booth space, there was plenty of space and didn't take us long to set-up in the morning. We even had enough time that Keree did some homeschool work in the morning.

 Of course, today was another record breaking heat day. Keree had pigtail braids but eventually I pinned them up so they were off her neck. It was miserable out there and sales were slow.

 Then the heat got to us. Keree and I made scary face at each other.

Since everyone was packing up 2-3 hours early, we finally packed up about an hour before the ending. Keree was thankful to head home because today was also her stuffed Kitty's birthday. Last year we held a huge birthday party for KittyKitty, complete with a picnic lunch and cake. This year it was a little more low key. But we still remembered to sing Happy Birthday to KittyKitty. We also talked with Great-Great and YeYe and they sang Happy Birthday to KittyKitty too. They said we was so polite when we meowed back to him, then Keree got on the phone and translated what he said.

Homeschool & Brave Lunch

 Once we got up this morning, we had to run to our storage unit and load the van for tomorrow's flea market sale. By the time we got done, it was almost 11a, so we decided to stop by Subway for lunch. Keree was so excited to get a Brave tote bag. She is downright giddy and can't wait to see the movie. I'm thinking Brave and Merida is going to give Rapunzel a run for it's money in our house.

That afternoon and into the evening, we decided to try out the new free online curriculum. I've decided to give it a try this summer and see where she is in August. I started her at first in the Kindergarten level just to see it and thought maybe for a review but realized it was way to simple. So, I jumped her up to the 1st grade level and even though she's breezing through it, I really don't want to jump her up another grade level just yet. She's really enjoying it and other than having to print the worksheets, it seems to be going well. 

Decisions and Tagging

We spent today mostly working on tagging and getting ready for the sale this weekend. In the afternoon, I spent some time researching homeschooling curriculum options. I am trying my best for Keree not to go back to public school for first grade. I was so disappointed by how little she learned in Kindergarten and since I was already supplementing her learning, why not just keep her home. I think I'm leaning towards one of the many free online options there are and then supplementing with anything else that interests us.

Venus journey across the Sun

We spent the day moving and packing like we have done for basically the last week. Finally we sat down for a few minutes to rest. So we watched awhile on television and the internet Venus moving across the sun but finally Keree had to take her telescope outside and see for herself. Luckily, I have a very strong filter (part of an old welding helmet) that I was able to place across the telescope so she could watch. 

I tried to take some pictures of this once in a lifetime event but couldn't get anything decent. 

 Of course, Keree also thought she needed some sunglasses because the sun was so bright.

 Keree loved using her telescope that her Uncle had gotten her two Christmases ago.

I found this pic on the web that better showed Venus moving across the sun. It was amazing to watch and to share it with my daughter. 

1st Day of Summer Break

Well as Keree would tell it, today was her first day as a 1st grader. So to celebrate the first day of summer break, Keree and my Mom fixed orange cinnamon rolls. I can't believe that this was the first time we had made them since Keree came home and she's 6 now. My Mom use to make them at least once a month when my Brother and I was growing up. It was such a treat to have them on a Sunday morning, to wake up to that ooey-gooey smell. After breakfast, we headed into town to meet up with Keree's homeschool pre-school teacher from last year. At the end of last year, before we had our last meeting, Ms. Jen had her baby. So, we have been trying literally for a year to get our schedule together and see each other. We sat and talked together for almost 3 hours. We talked about the struggles Keree went through this year, about how advanced she was over the other kids and how I'm seriously going to withdraw her from public school. I know people think I'm nuts when I say this as a Single Mom, that I want to homeschool my daughter but with the kindergarten year from hell, where she literally learned nothing in the public school system and basically would have wasted a year of education if I hadn't been teaching her when she came home from school. Ok, ok, so I'm totally off topic and seriously that could be a whole series of posts. So after our visit, we headed home. We spent today as a down day, we watched some cartoons, we love Wild Kratts, we worked some math problems, almost finished a entire workbook just today, and played outside for a short time before the skeeters started biting. Once inside for the night, we mellowed out and talked about what we wanted to do this summer.

Stupid Golden Ticket Popsicles

When Keree got home from school today she was just upset. Basically, at her school, they have a Golden ticket system. The way it's suppose to work is if the child is good, they get a ticket. Well in her classroom, that's not how it works. They award the ticket when a child who is constantly bad is good for even a short time. Keree has gotten a few golden tickets but never from her Teacher, they are usually from the Assistant School Principal and Music Teacher. Well today was the very last time to have her Golden Ticket picked for a popsicle party. Of course, the Worst Behaved, Awful Boy in her class, well his ticket was drawn out of the bucket. So, she was upset.  She wanted to go to the popsicle party, she wanted to be recognized as a kid who has never pulled a behavior card, she wanted to have popsicles with the Principal. So in a desperate attempt to make my daughter realize that she doesn't need some stupid popsicle party. I devised that tomorrow we will have an Ice Cream party for dinner. Keree's face lite-up like a Christmas tree, she was so excited. She rushed to tell my Mom who was less than thrilled but once I took her aside and explained what happened she was on board. I may not be able to fix everything (especially all the issues I have with that school) but I can sometimes give my Daughter, Ice Cream for dinner.

Dentist Visit

Today Keree had her second only ever Dentist visit, actually it turned out that all they did was clean her teeth and give her a fluoride treatment. I'm surprised at how well Keree did because she was scared to death when we arrived. Now she did drive the Dental Assistant crazy because anything she did, including just moving her arms, Keree asked about a thousand questions. Luckily, the Dental Assistant who did it, did it fast, so Keree was in the chair maybe 10 minutes tops. Here reward, a sticker and a new toothbrush.