CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS »

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

I Want a House

I'm obsessed with buying a house. I thought that I just wanted to live in an apartment but I don't. I want a big house and a big yard. I am tired of paying money each month to rent. That money is going nowhere but down the drain.

Down in the Dumps

I am not a kid person. My brain doesn't automatically think in "kid". I don't think of cool things and traditions and games and crafts on my own. I just don't. Prior to having kids I would coo over a cute baby but never (NEVER!) actually hold one. When in the last stages of pregnancy with my oldest, I went to visit my cousin and held her baby. She was cute. Then I handed her back.

After having kids of my own, I like other kids a bit more. But still, my head just doesn't think like that. It is hard for me to say I'm having "fun" while building with legos or playing space rockets.

I don't know how this happened. As a kid I loved making up games and creating. But then... I grew up and school pounded that creativity out of my brain, one standardized test at a time.

And so has begun my search for books with cool activities/traditions to do with the kids.

Sigh. I love books but sometimes it is a burden to be the type of person who must learn from them.

Thank Goodness for Banking Hours!

Dollar stores. The parents' best, and worst, friend.

I walked in with a goal in mind. I wanted to see if I could find a few puzzles. 50 pieces or less, so that the boys and I could put them together in one sitting. I walked out with three puzzles and a whole lot more. The stickler is that everything is a dollar so of course when happening upon something wonderful, one can't help but exclaim, "And only for a dollar!" as one gaily tosses it into the (already overflowing) shopping basket.

In my defense, I don't go to dollar stores often so if I don't buy something when I see it, it likely won't be there again the next time I go. However, my pocketbook doesn't appreciate that sentiment as I'm sure my bank account realizes since I had to beat a path straight to the bank to deposit some cash in my overdrawn account lest I get slammed with bounce charges because I didn't realize how much the bill was going to come out to be and didn't pay attention to the figure I paid until I made it out to the car and looked at my receipt to judge whether I'd been charged for the apple die cuts that hadn't seemed to make it to my bags.

Ahhh... The life of a mama.

Monday, September 08, 2008

No Standards

It looks as though I may be getting the U.S. version of Singapore Math. As much as I love California, the whole reason that I wanted SM is because of the approach and reading the FAQ has led me to believe that they changed up the approach in the Standards Edition. Today I'm trying to map out our week of learning. I'm thinking that I'm going to homeschool on just my three off days each week. Since it is only kindergarten and preschool that I'm doing with them, I think this will work. I'm just going to make the plans for two weeks (to always stay a week ahead) right now since I don't have our curriculum yet and I'll be working with what I have right now. I'm using the free version of Homeschool Tracker that I just downloaded to help with planning.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

A Happy Medium

So I'm deciding on buying curriculum. So far I've decided on:

Science: Child's Play Science $4.75
Earlybird Start-Up Science $3.75

Math: Earlybird Kindergarten Math Standards Edition Textbook, $21.25; Activity book, $13.50; Readers, $32.50

English: First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind $14.95
Handwriting Without Tears Kindergarten Teacher's Guide, $7.50; Workbook, $7.50
Handwriting Without Tears First Grade Teacher's Guide, $7.50; Workbook, $7.50
Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading $24.75
Five in a Row
Explode the Code

History/Geography: Story of the World Text, $13.25; Audiobooks, $30.95; Activity book, $27.25; Tests, $10.25

Logic: Stepping Stones Text, $7.95; Teacher's Guide, $2.95

Foreign Language: Rosetta Stone German
Rosetta Stone Spanish

Art: Art Lessons at Home $23.75

I don't have the money to buy all of this at once so I'm going to split it up and buy one or two programs per paycheck.

I was going to get the cheaper version of Singapore math (the price was actually what drew me to it in the first place) but when looking it up right now I saw that they have a standards version which I'd imagine goes into more depth. So I'm going to buy that one. Though I am wavering between Singapore and Horizons.

Thinking about buying Edu Track for planning purposes.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Click to Donate and other randomness

I try to remember to go to the click to donate sites each day. So far I just have two, Click to Give and Click to Donate. At Click to Donate you can sign up and keep track of how much you've clicked. I've just found this one today from another blog, Saradippity's Knits and Stuff and signed up. They also have interactive daily actions which are cool. Today it is to give up the bottled water addiction. I'm going to try my best at that one. I rarely buy bottled water unless I'm out and about. We have a Brita water filter for the fridge instead as our tap water tastes like moldy dirt.

I'm wondering to myself why I have two separate blogs on this listing. It seems like a lot to keep up with... I'm thinking of merging the two. I wonder if Blogger has an easy way to do this or if I'll have to copy and paste, yet again. Simplifying my life seems nice right now. I'm under way too much stress at work, my hobbies shouldn't add to that.

And shop green while you're at it.