Tuesday, September 14, 2010

1st Day Success

The girls got to go to their first day of Options (a once a week public school for home schoolers) yesterday.


Sierra set her alarm clock to go off at 7 am just to make sure they wouldn't be late, and when the girls got up, they quickly ate breakfast, got dressed, helped put their lunches together, double checked to make sure they had everything (Bailey's water bottle was missing so she borrowed mine), and declared themselves ready to go ten minutes early. Needless to say, the girls were excited.

As for the last ten minutes before leaving, I took out Sierra's class schedule, drew a map on the bottom half with room numbers, etc., and went over her room changes a few times before we packed up into the car (we had also gone over the rooms in order during orientation a couple weeks ago, so I hoped it would be enough).

This year, instead of driving all the way up to Loveland (a 20 minute drive), we only had to travel about a mile (3 minutes) to get to school. Nice!

We showed up at about 8:10. School assembly starts at 8:15, so everything was going well. We sat on the bleachers in the gym, taking pictures and saying "Hi" to friends until we had announcements. Then the girls were off to their classes. Bailey lined up with her kindergarden class and teacher to go up stairs, and I took Blake and Sierra up stairs to Sierra's first classroom (math). I once again reminded her to follow the map and schedule that she had and to ask an adult if she needed any help.

Honestly, I found it amusing/interesting that I was making such a fuss about Sierra when it was Bailey's first time ever going to school. Really, it's because Bailey is so easygoing, and Sierra, who still has anxiety attacks and freaks out about things on occasion, had such a terrible first day last year. It's not hard to understand, but I had to wonder what Bailey's Kindergarden teacher thought as she watched me simply smile and wave goodbye at Bailey while acting like an overly protective, anxious mother toward my 3rd grader.


After dropping Sierra off, Blake and I headed back down the stairs to drop supplies off and pick up the Latin curriculum that we had checked out for the year. Then we were off.

Mondays are typically cleaning and grocery days, and yesterday was no exception. Blake happily played by himself putting together and pulling apart his new Toy Story puzzle while I cleaned the house. I guess I'm odd, but I had forgotten how much I liked cleaning by myself. I'm such a "fairness fairy" that I can't stand cleaning up while others sit around and do nothing, but it's so annoying having to ride herd on my kids to keep cleaning until they're done. Anyway, after cleaning, showering, going to the library, and three stores, I ended up with only about an hour to chill before heading out to pick up the girls.

I got there a few minutes early and was able to talk to some friends before the kids got out. Bailey had a huge grin on her face and promptly showed me the picture she had made during art, told me that she had three teachers (Kindergarden, Art and PE), and pranced around as we waited for Sierra who had to come all the way from the other side of the building to meet us.


To my relief, when Sierra found us she was smiling, though she looked a little uncertain. She found all of her classes and had fun, but she was still a bit tense. I think she'll be more relaxed next week now that she knows exactly what to expect.

And when we got home, we all chilled.

All in all, a very good day.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Our Schedule, So Far

Here's what our days look like so far this year (including what we plan on adding when Options starts):

Monday:
Options from 8:15-3:15
Sierra: PE, Drama, Science, Computer Skills, Piano, and Art
Bailey: K program combining Science, Art, Reading, Math, PE, etc.

Tuesday-Friday Mornings:
starting around 9am and going from one subject to another until complete, usually in this order
Sierra: Cleaning, Piano, Math, Handwriting, Dictation, Spelling, Grammar, Computer Work
Bailey: Cleaning, Math, Handwriting, Spelling, Copy Work, Reading

Tuesday Afternoon:
Together: Latin
Sierra: 30 minutes reading

Wednesday Afternoon:
Together: Latin and History
Sierra: 30 minutes reading

Thursday Afternoon:
Together: Latin and Science
Sierra: 30 minutes reading

Friday Afternoon:
Homeschool Playgroup

Boulder County Fair

A day to remember. The kids got all day passes on the rides, and were loving it. We did see the animals, art exhibits, equestrian competitions, and such, but the rides are what the kids loved most. No surprises there.

Believe it or not, Sierra actually went on this ride and loved it!

Bailey was too short to go on the older kids rides. She was so bummed. She still had fun anyway.


Blake was scared and practically cried the first time he went on the pirate ship. He got over it though and it became his favorite.

Daddy had fun too.


Sierra got to go on a lot of the older kid rides with one of her friends. They had a lot of fun together.


Thursday, August 12, 2010

Back to Normal-FINALY!

We started school this week.

It's really nice to have a semblance of routine to our days again. I didn't realize before how much I appreciated that. Really.

These last few weeks have been listless blahs. Cleaning, shopping, cooking-they all went haphazard. Oh, there were fun days too, like when we went to the fair, but most of it was spent sitting around being very unproductive. Reading binges, anime binges, playing at the pool. . .it all gets boring after a while.

Don't get me wrong. Vacation is very nice. I've just realized that there can be too much of it too.

I'm thinking next summer we'll only take one month off. Two, while nice, was way to long.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Let's Get Organized

Our summer vacation time is swiftly coming to a close, and we're starting to get exited.

Yesterday morning, the kids and I went to the store and got all of our school supplies; binders, crayons, pencil boxes, pencils, paper, etc. They were so excited by it all that we were soon pulling packaging apart, putting school boxes together, coloring binder labels, and having a grand old time. I even went so far as to put together their math and language arts binders, an activity which involved pulling apart a number of 100+ page workbooks, hole punching them, and organizing them with deviders. I even made and printed out and hole punched a bunch of experiment pages for science. It took me a good few hours. Before we knew it, it was time for dinner!

I still have to get History ready, which involves pulling apart another workbook, scanning the pages, making a disk, printing them out, and hole punching them all. We also need to finalize our daily and year-long schedules, but there's still time.

We start school the second week in August.

We're almost there.

Vacation is nice, but we're getting ready for life to be normal again.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Kasper


Every time we go out to visit my family, I ask if I can have my brother's cat, never really expecting them to give him to me. Oh, I pout, act cute, and eventually grin when they don't take me seriously. But seriously, I love my brother's cat! He's one of the best kitties I've ever met; social, good with kids, laid back, doesn't bite or scratch, and isn't needy.

So, I got a surprise when I asked if I could take him home with me this time.

Turns out, a friend of my niece found a stray kitten and asked my niece if she could take care of him until the girl convinced her mom to let her keep him. Well, my sister consented, but then the girl wasn't allowed to keep him after all. Unfortunately, my sister already had three cats, the maximum allowed by city ordinances, and couldn't keep him either.


So, with us being in town and knowing my adoration of my brother's cat (who the kitten resembles in personality), they asked if we would take him.

Long story short, we now have a kitten. His name is Kasper. We don't know exactly, but I think he's somewhere around two to three months old.

It's almost strange how naturally he has fir into our house. Seth and I both grew up with cats, so having one seems so, well, natural. He's good natured too. He loves to play, explore, go outside, be around us, and sleep in the window sill in the basement and on Bailey's bed. He gets along well with the kids too and even our rats (though we have to be careful when they "play").


I like having a cat. I like it a lot, and it's a decision that I seriously doubt we'll regret.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Mint.com

After deciding to get my finances in better order, I started to look for a program to keep track of my spending. I've used Quicken before, so I went to their on-line sight first. Turns out they have a free on-line financial tracker called Mint. It acts similar to the old pre-2004 Quicken programs, which is what I used before, plus the added on-line capabilities. Very basic, but very useful.

Pros:
It's FREE
Easy access from any internet linked computer
Works with my Mac
Quicken style program
Create budgets
See data in chart and graph forms
Track your spending/income/net worth
Automatically downloads bank info
Info/advertising for other financial opportunities without being obnoxious

Cons:
No immediate downloads of transaction data (this may just be my bank)
Transaction data can take a few days to download
Information is all on the internet
It is only a basic program without all of the bells and whistles


Anyway, I like it. It covers all my basic needs and then some. Very nice.

I definitely think it's worth checking out.