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Baby Steps Preschool lesson 12

It's been a while since I planned out our activities, and I can tell that it's time to get back into doing it again! Here's the plan for the next 2 weeks.

Fiction:
Week 1: Freight Train by Donald Crews
Week 2: Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner

Nonfiction:
Week 1: Baby Signs for Mealtime by Linda Acredolo
Week 2: Baby Signs for Bedtime by Linda Acredolo

Read Aloud:
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle, chapter 1

Bible:
Week 1: Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25-27)
Week 2: Jacob's Ladder/Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 28)

Book of Mormon:
Jacob 5

Classical Music:
Mediaeval Baebes Mistletoe and Wine (Christmas album)

Game:
"Stuffy Shirt" (pg 82, Baby Play & Learn)

Art:
Nativity art

Around the House:
Making Christmas Cookies


Baby Steps Preschool

Hold Your Tounge Just Right

I noticed today that it's been a good while since I added any pictures of my Monkey, and we can't be having that! So I got out my camera and chased the Monkey around for a while. Or rather, he chased me, trying to get the camera. A good time was had by all.



This is his latest thing.



Even though he's happy to do it on cue (this kid is turning into quite the ham), it still took several tries to get these specimens you see here. This is because while he's more than willing to stick that tongue out there, it never seems to stay out for very long.

Goal Check

Well, my weight is back to 187. No loss, no gain, in relation to my official "starting" spot. But since I was up last time, I'll take it.

As far as the writing goes... can I have a second month? I haven't written a single solitary word yet. I barely even posted to the blog this month. I did spend more time thinking about my book than I have in a long time, but thinking doesn't really get me very far! At this point, I just need to get something done on the book. Anyone wanna come do everything else that's gotta be done for an hour or two??

Happy Tuesday to Me!

Today, Andy brought me a "Happy Tuesday" present: the Killer Bunnies starter set! Yay Andy! Now all I need to do is figure out who to have over and we too can join in the bunnycide. I'm very pleased by this little "dilemma" and I think I may have to solve it multiple times in the near future.

Sunday Scripture 10

For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

-1 Peter 2:19-20

More Coloring Pages

LDS Coloring pages

Coloring pages from the Children's Friend.

Busy Busy Busy

OK. So, I've been trying to get a post done since Wednesday. It's not working very well because this week is a zoo. But here's what's going on.

Progress report for Tales from the Scales: I lost ground this week. I kinda think it may be bloating as I suddenly went from 187 to 191, in just a day or two. But I'm not doing very well on my water, so I'm stuck with it until I get that going on. Of course, I'm also late, so if it turns out that the negative pregnancy test was wrong then it's all moot anyway. The whole mess is sorta stuck in limbo.

Progress report for my book: yeah. That's going nowhere fast. I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about it, but what little time I've been home I've been cleaning up puke rather than typing anything.

Preschool: I'm badly in need of some planning. But we've actually had enough energy to read a few stories again, and get some coloring done. This boy REALLY likes to color. It's fun. And he's getting pretty good at it, in a scribbly sort of way. I'll have to scan & post some of his art one of these days. We sent some of his art to his Uncle and Great-Aunt who are serving missions. They always enjoy that sort of mail.

One of the things that has been keeping us so busy is a diaper study, which, mercifully, just ended. Mostly it was a lot of fun, but I had my first run-in with another Mom who was convinced that I was doing terrible social damage to my child by homeschooling him. Grrrr. I came home and gave my husband an earful when that was done. Fortunately, she's not someone I have to see very often, maybe never again. That would be OK.

Because I just walked away from the situation, I was left with all these Thoughts running around in my head about how wrong she is. After all, the poor socialization is one of the reasons that we decided to homeschool in the first place! Andy and I were both on the receiving end of more than a little bullying at school. When I thought about it, I decided that the majority of socializing at school happened in terms of bullying: You were either the bully or the target. So much of the "socialization" that went on in my schools was either avoiding bullies or trying to figure out how to avoid bullying the kids who were low in the pecking order without drawing more cruelty myself. I've never run across that sort of nastiness at any job I had, so I have a hard time believing that it's preparation for "real life." I want better for my son. And I want him to learn to BE better than that!

And speaking of "real life," since when do adults spend their days in groups composed of only the same age adults? It just doesn't happen. In fact, the further you get from high school graduation, the less that age seems to matter. So how does spending all day with only other 6 year olds or 18 year olds prepare someone for the reality that they're going to be living in?

They told us in school that the reason that they tortured us with those group projects was to prepare us for project and group oriented work in "real life." I have a hard time with that type of "socialization" too. I mean, whenever we did group work, inevitably there was someone in the group who didn't pull their weight. So the rest of the group had to either pick up the slack or let their grades suffer. And you knew going into the ordeal who it was going to be. That sort of nonsense would never fly for very long in the workplace. Bosses just don't like to have employees who don't do their job. And if they did, for some unknown reason, allow it, in the workplace I have the option of getting a new job. Not so much in the classroom. It's just not realistic.

There are just so many reasons why socialization is not only not a good reason to stay in public school, but a great reason to consider homeschooling! It just irritated the living daylights out of me.

OK. I'm done ranting now. I think I'll go do something productive again. Maybe sleep. That's sounding really good right about now.

Cool Coloring Pages

We're doing a fun Enrichment activity this week, we're making quiet books. The idea is to find something for each letter of the alphabet. Some picture. Well, my printer's not so nice, and I don't have back issues of the Friend laying around home. Actually, we don't get the Friend yet, so there are no current issues laying around either. And that's where the ladies suggested that we get our pictures for this book from. So I went online and I looked for coloring pages. I decided that I'd like to start with stories of Jesus. That's always a good place to start. So I googled "New Testament coloring pages" and clicked around until I found this cool site. Now, it's in Dutch, which makes life a little bit interesting. But the pictures are a lot higher quality than a lot of the coloring pages that I've found when I googled just "Bible coloring pages." A lot of the art on the English sites needs some work. Not that I can do any better. (But my sister could, if she wanted to.) Anyway, I'm planning to look through there and see what sort of cool pictures I can find. So far, I've printed out this one that's kinda fun: it's Christ blessing the children. I'd link to it, but I don't know which one it was anymore. Did I mention that it's all in Dutch?

Sunday Scripture 9

Therefore may God grant unto you, my brethren, that ye may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance, that ye begin to call upon his holy name, that he would have mercy upon you;

Yea, cry unto him for mercy; for he is mighty to save.

Yea, humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto him.

Cry unto him when ye are in your fields, yea, over all your flocks.

Cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household, both morning, mid-day, and evening.

Yea, cry unto him against the power of your enemies.

Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness.

Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them.

Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase.

But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness.

Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you.

Alma 34:37-27

I need to remember to pray more often, so this is one of the scriptures I've put in my Scripture Box. The box seems to be working nicely so far. The biggest problem is that I don't remember to do it all the time. But I've already got more scriptures memorized than I had before, so as far as I'm concerned, it's a success, if a somewhat imperfect success!

A Whole Lotta NUTHIN

I have been thoroughly sick for more than a week now, and I've gotten a whole lot of NUTHIN done around here. Kinda stinky. But the good news is that my doctor prescribed me some nice amox, and I'm on the mend. Slowly. But getting better. It's a good thing!

So, several days ago, I decided to do that Tales From the Scales thingy. They have a cute "Happy Friday" post up today. Anyway. TFtS suggests taking a before picture, so I looked through the recent pictures of me, well the onces that are still left after I went on a delete-fest (surely a sign of trouble: I've never minded how I looked in pictures before!), and this is now my official "before" picture.



As far as the novel goes, between being FLAT from this cold and my husband being out of town for a good chunk of the week, I haven't so much as opened the file, I'm sad to say. As busy as next week is, I'm still hoping to get at least a little bit done, which will be a vast improvement over NUTHIN.

Fortunately, there are a few productive things that require nearly NUTHIN in terms of brain power, so I did get a little accomplished this week. I made a bunch of lower case letters to go with the capitals I made a while back when the Monkey started noticing letters on sweatshirts and things. I did the consonants in yellow and the vowels in orange, and the plan is for there to be enough letters to do some words in a while when Monkey starts figuring out that stuff. Right now though, when I'm crazy enough to get them out the game goes like this: I put letters on the flannel board, naming each one. The Monkey knocks them off almost as fast as I get them up. Then he helps me put them back into the bucket. Then we start over and repeat as needed until one of us gets bored with the game. That and a few stories more or less sums up what we did for school this week. But I'm starting to feel somewhat human again, so I hope to do better next week.

Two New Toys

I added 2 things to the sidebar today (and played musical chairs with a bunch of the others) because I have 2 new games to play.

The first one is the "Tales From the Scales" weight-loss thing. I want their 10 pounds icon. OK. I want their 50 pounds icon. (Can we have a 40? I'm not sure I need a whole 50 pounds gone.) But lets start small here. 10 pounds by the new year. Sounds good to me!


The second new thing is actually a bit more, ah, intimidating. Yeah. Intimidating's the word. I think I'm gonna do the NaNoWriMo thing. Maybe not all 50,000 words. After all, my novel is already partly written. And I do have a 13 month old that expects to get some all of my time. Fortunately, he sleeps from time to time & is better at entertaining himself than he thinks he is. Of course, with the joys of climbing recently discovered, that could be interesting. Anyway. I don't think a whole novel in a month is terribly realistic for us. But I do think I could get some more done on the one I've got! And I was just thinking I should send in some more queries on my picture book. Not that I've heard back from any of the first batch. I hope they at least send me my rejection slip. I want at least as many as Dr. Seuss.

Sunday Scripture 8

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hat laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:4-6

Photo Hunt: Classic

Theme: Classic



I've actually seen before & after pictures where the before was worse looking than this: High Performance Pontiac has some pretty impressive before pictures this month. But I'm not working on this one. It's an old rusty hulk I found in the junkyard while Andy was actually finding useful stuff not too long ago.

Restoration Source