1st Time Bowling

Keree was invited to a birthday party for her friend, Alicia (from kindergarten and scouts). We were quite excited because it was a bowling party and Keree had never been bowling. For everything we have done with Keree, it honestly surprises me that we haven't been bowling. Keree had so much fun, she used the smallest bowling ball there and it was still way to heavy. I had to help her carry the ball to the line and then she would roll it down the lane. 

Some of her technique was quite funny. It also was amazing her ball actually reached the end of the lane. The ball moved so slowly down the lane that her turn would last almost 3-4 minutes. There was also a time or two that it stopped mid-lane. I would then have to throw a ball down there to get it moving again. 

 Keree was so proud of herself here. Can you see that, she left only one pin standing! This was her best roll of the day.

 Keree and the Birthday girl, Alicia. 

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.

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.

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.

Last Friday of Kindergarten

Today was Keree's last Friday of Kindergarten. She officially has 1 day and 2 hrs left of school before she's a 1st grader. Today Keree also got her yearbook that I ordered back in November. She had no idea what a yearbook was until we started showing her everyone's pictures inside. I think we looked through the book two or three times trying to find everyone we know. I know for some reason it's uncool to get a yearbook in these day and ages...or at least around here it is! But I remember my yearbooks from when I was a kid and really wanted Keree to have those same memories. 

Rainy Monday

Ice Cream Dinner Party!

Today was my Great Ice Cream for Dinner plan and I'm pretty sure it worked. So after picking Keree up from school, we headed to the store to get all the ingredients we needed for our Ice Cream Dinner Party. Luckily, one of the grocery discount stores was having a sale on ice cream & ice cream makings because in planning all this, I knew I had only sixteen dollars to spend and put on this elaborate party for Keree. I guess, honestly, I should have planned it for once I got paid on the 4th but when your child is upset, you'll do anything and everything to make it better. On our drive to the Grocery store, Keree goes "are we really going to have ice cream for dinner??" and I respond back "yes, I swear, we are really going to have ice cream for dinner!" She was quiet for a short time, when suddenly she goes, "can we have a snack?" My response was, "no, are you crazy, your already getting ice cream for dinner!" And my daughter, in her amazing wisdom, goes "No, Mom, I think we should have bratwursts for our snack." I had to laugh, most other kids out there would jump at the chance to have ice cream for dinner but not my daughter, she knew she needed something more than just ice cream. So, at the store, we picked up all the fixings for our Ice Cream dinner party. We picked up ice cream, waffle bowls, cherries, bananas chocolate sauce, caramel sauce and of course bratwursts. Amazingly, for everything we got, we only spent $11.23. Once home, we ate our snack of bratwursts and corn. Then when it got dinner time, we made our ice cream creations. Keree just giggled as we assembled them, everytime we added an ingredient she would giggle harder and harder. As we sat there and ate our ice cream creations, Keree looked over at me and goes "Mom, this is one of the best days of my life." At first, all I could do was smile at her but then I go this is so much better than a golden ticket popsicle party isn't it. She grinned and shook her head yes.

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.

Irises

Here it is still April and our Irises are blooming. Usually they don't bloom till Mother's day. What a weird spring we are having.

Little Miss Princess

Baby Birds

Before Easter, I had discovered that our Mama Robin bird had laid 4 eggs this year. I had actually forgotten about it, until she dive bombed us this morning on the way to school. So when Keree got home from school, we had to check on the baby birds. 

Monday

Too Cute for Words

Getting in a little computer time while Mom and Grandma are busy.

Paper Snake

Sickly Wednesday

I can't believe it's Wednesday, somehow I missed a day and have swore up and down all day it was Tuesday. I really hate when this happens. So now I feel like I'm behind on everything. Spent most of the day getting ready for our Daisies Investiture ceremony which is Friday night. I'm so excited for Keree and the other girls. As for the sick, I'm still feeling like crap from this cough and then today my Mom decided to start puking her guts out. Of course, I had to join her with the puking right before bed. As for Keree, after school, we spent the late afternoon/evening together since my Mom was asleep. We had a nice dinner of veggie lasagna and salad. Of course, Keree stole all the olives off my salad. We read a few books and then rotted our brain with tv. Keree headed to bed early, which I'm hoping she's just tired and not getting sick like the rest of us. Praying we will be at least 80% by Friday.

Heidi Hair

First Irish Step Class

This week in Keree's class, they are still learning about Rainforest and now Jungles. She said she loved her explorer hat. 

Today was also Keree's first Irish step dance class. They had suggested to help build up her strength that we get her into a controled activity. They gave us a list of and we choose Irish step dance. My thought is to get through the first 6 weeks and then choose if she will continue or not. But by the end of class, Keree kept gushing about how much fun she had and how well she did. She tried ballet and tap along time ago and it was an utter failure, so I'm so glad she feels good about this. (Keree's the shortest one, has black hair in a ponytail and dressed in purple)

Save the Rainforest

They are learning about the rainforests in school. Each child had to make their own Save the Rainforest posters. Keree was so proud of hers, she drew a tent because she wants to go camping in the Rainforest. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Of course, this morning we had to wake up a little late. Which of course, I planned on leaving the house by a certain time and we were almost 15 minutes late leaving. But I guess I should learn that I pad our arrival time by alot, so we aren't late. We ended up having enough time to grab some breakfast and still arrived almost 45 minutes early. Today our Daisy Scouts had a Ballet and You session, so they could earn their dance patch. There was only suppose to be maybe 20 girls and limited to 2 Adults per troop. Of course, as we have found out with our new, improved council that was not the case. There was almost 45 girls and I can't even tell you how many adults. Being of course a stickler for the rules, our 3 girls had 2 Adults and me and another Mom waited outside. We did get to go inside for a short time to watch the girls perform. They were so cute and listened so well. I

have to brag that the 3 girls who are very active in the troop are so well behaved. After they finished up their dance, we gathered the girls together and the Leader (aka my Mom) awarded them with their Girl Scout week patch. We then all gave our good-bye hugs and see ya soons before we headed home. By the time we got home, all the St. Patrick's day parades were over. I was a little

bummed out that we really couldn't celebrate and honestly with as sick as we have all been, we didn't even make green colored food. In the evening, we were suppose to go bowling with out adoption group but lately I have wanted to distance myself from the group. I feel bad about it but I got roped into helping out with the group and things just don't feel like they are meshing. It's like the group is split in two by those who are hard-core religious and then those of us who just want our kids to be around other adopted kids. So, luckily we got hit with a really nasty storm, plus we all still awful from this virus we all have. I used the excuse that the storm was just to bad to go out in and we still felt sick. So we spent the rest of our evening together. We finished reading Keree's six books for her book it list and then she helped me sew on her new patch. We all headed to bed early because none of us was feeling that well.