Decisions, Decisions

I read that we make thousands upon thousands of decisions every day...both voluntary and involuntary.  That's amazing.  No wonder we need to sleep at night...or drink coffee.

We were having one of those days on our homeschooling frontier and I happened to hear about a private Christian school hosting an open house (uh oh), so I made an appointment and Julianna and I went for the tour.  I really liked it. (double uh oh)  Positives:  I could see the benefit of her being in a classroom...and being away from me some during the day...we don't always bring out the best in each other.  The classes were very small (only 9 currently in the Kindergarten class) and it's only 5 minutes from our house.  Plus, they have those cute little navy/khaki uniforms that all the private schools wear. Negatives:   It's pricey, so I would probably substitute teach a few days per month at my old school to offset the cost.  The curriculum  they use isn't much different than what we are using now (Abeka for Language Arts, etc.) and I would have to admit that I cannot teach my own child.  We are going for another visit next week (they are holding an evening open house, so Michael will be able to go with us) and we'll start our decision making process then.  Please help us pray for direction.  <3

Ciao amici

Hello friends!

We began studying Italy before Christmas, but didn't get through a few of the activities I had planned, so we picked it up again when we started back.   

We do one country per week, which may seem like much for a Kindergartner, but we really do just a basic overview (country facts, flag, continent and map location, some language and customs and we choose a  missionary from the area to pray for.) 

I don't have pictures of everything, but these are a couple things we did:

*  We learned about the Leaning Tower of Pisa, so we tried to create one using magic nuudles.  

 Our nuudles started to disintegrate (I think some had been used before), so our tower turned into Mt Vesuvius.  We are nothing if not resourceful! 

 *  We also learned about Michelangelo and how it took him 4 years, lying on his back, to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  We taped paper to the bottom of our school table (Off topic, I just noticed how poorly finished the paint job is on our IKEA table.  I guess no one really cares what it looks like underneath.) to act as our "ceiling".

Our little Michelangelo (still in her jammies, so overlook her attire) got to work. 

 

 Her semi-finished work.  It was the first day she started Daisy Scouts, so with that being the main focus of her little brain that day, she was painting the DS emblem. 

* At Cedar Brook (our umbrella school) the kids have a world geography class that uses Flat Stanley (http://www.flatstanley.com/?nav=home) to teach about different countries.  The kids made their own Flat Stanley and then they can do reports on places that he visits.  Well, one of our Flat Stanleys (who was never a "Stanley", by the way - that's a boy you know.  As if! Speaking of which, we have a whole family of Flats.  We are like the Duggars of the Flat Stanley world.  I will have to do a separate post with all of them. It's a site to behold, really.), is currently visiting Heather Keaton (http://signorakeaton.blogspot.com/  - Thanks again, Heather and James, for being so gracious to host our Flat Emily.) in Naples, Italy!  Julianna and I have decided that we would like to be Flat Julianna and Flat Kelly and be able to mail ourselves around the world on adventures.  Here is a picture of them at the post office when we were sending Flat Emily off on her travels.  I can't wait to post about her escapades! 

December musings, Part 2

Let's see, where did we leave off? 

*  Our High Five magazine for December (Highlights for little ones) had instructions for making a paper bag village.  After we got it all together, Julianna decided it needed villagers, so it was the Playmobil people to the rescue.  She set all the kids up on one side and the adults as the audience and put on a little choir performance.  Notice Tammy (and her cat) in the front with the crutch (think Tiny Tim from "A Christmas Carol") leading "Joy to the World".  A few other carols were sung and enjoyed by all.  God bless us, everyone!  

* I had been seeing people driving around with reindeer antlers and a red "nose" on their cars.  I thought they were awesome, but didn't know where to get a set.  A couple days before Christmas I was in the dollar store and found them.  Score!  Christmas Eve we had to play Santa and deliver a couple gifts, so I thought it would be the best time to put them on our car.  They were really cute and festive...

until you drive 65 mph down the highway.  "Oops, there went one of the antlers. Oh, wait, there went the other one."  They didn't even make it 3 miles from our house.  The plain white plastic sticks on your window when you arrive at your destination do not have the same holiday appeal as the cute fuzzy antlers.  Jus sayin'.

* The big day finally came!

 

  Months of planning and saving and buying, weeks of counting down, days of decorating and baking, hours of wrapping and shopping and it all ends up like this.  It's worth every minute. 

* I have no idea when Julianna took this picture of herself, but it made me laugh.

Here is wishing you a happy and healthy 2011!