PFAPA

The following article is copied from the Cleveland Clinic website.  The doctor today said that there is nothing major that's wrong with Ethan and that it was most likely either viral infections that he's getting or PFAPA.  He also said that the pediatrician did thorough enough testing and he didn't feel that we have to do more at this point. (YAY!)

So - it's pretty much what I thought and from here I'm going to see how he does the next few months and if he continues to have these fevers monthly the infectious disease doc we saw today can call out a steroid to try that can help with PFAPA.

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Periodic fever, Aphthous-stomatitis, Pharyngitis, Adenitis (PFAPA) Syndrome

This syndrome includes recurrent episodes of fever with aphthous-stomatitis (mouth sores), pharyngitis (sore throat with redness and sometimes a throat that has a white covering – exudate - like that seen in a throat with streptococcal infection. PFAPA affects children in early childhood, usually starting at age two to four years. Episodes usually decrease in frequency and resolve after the age of 10 years. This disease was recognized for the first time in 1987 and was called Marshall’s.

How common is it?

The frequency of PFAPA is not known, but the disease appears to be more common than generally appreciated.

What causes PFAPA?

The answer to this question is not yet known. No gene defect has yet to be found in PFAPA, although in some cases more than one family member has the disease. No infectious cause has been found in PFAPA, thus it is not a contagious disease. It is clear that the inflammatory process is activated during episodes but it is not clear why it is triggered.

What are the main symptoms?

The main symptoms are episodic fevers, accompanied by a sore throat, mouth ulcers, or enlarged cervical lymph nodes (glands in the neck, an important part of the immune system). The episodes of fever start abruptly and last for three to seven days. During episodes, the child looks very ill and complains about at least one of the three symptoms mentioned above. The episodes of fever recur every few weeks and often families know the exact day when an attack will start. On the day the fever starts the child will feel a little ill before the attack and the family knows an attack is about to start. Not all children have all symptoms, especially mouth sores. Some children have other symptoms like joint pain, abdominal pain, headache, vomiting or diarrhea.

How is PFAPA diagnosed?

There are no laboratory tests, or imaging procedures, specific for diagnosing PFAPA. The disease will be diagnosed based on the results of a physical examination and other symptoms. Inflammatory blood tests like the white blood cell count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and the C-reactive protein are increased during attacks. Before the diagnosis is confirmed, it is important to exclude all other diseases that may present with similar symptoms (especially a streptococcal throat). The dramatic response to treatment (see below) also helps diagnose PFAPA.

How is PFAPA treated?

There is no specific treatment to cure PFAPA. The aim of treatment is to control symptoms during the episodes of fever, to shorten the duration of episodes, and in some children to prevent attacks from occurring. In most children, the disease will resolve by itself without treatment, usually after the age of 10 years. The fever does not usually respond well to Tylenol or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. A single dose of steroids (usually prednisone), given when symptoms first appear, has been shown to shorten an episode and sometimes even end the episode. However, the interval between episodes may also be shortened with this treatment, and the next episode may occur earlier than expected. In some patients using cimetidine (a medicine that is used to treat stomach ulcers) may prevents attacks from occurring. In patients with very frequent attacks, a tonsillectomy (removing the tonsils by surgery) may be considered.

What is the outcome and course of PFAPA?

The disease may last for several years. Over time, the intervals between the episodes will increase and usually after the age of 10 years resolve by itself. Children with PFAPA continue to grow and develop normally.

Our first day at Heritage Home School Workshops was on Monday.  The twins are taking a writing class there - Institute for Excellence in Writing.  They go for an hour on Monday and then bring home homework that I incorporate into their day throughout the rest of the week.  We were getting ready to go and Tayden said, "want a backpack!"  So, I was able to find an old one for him:)  He and Ethan went to the nursery for the hour while I sat in on the class with the twins.  Part of our commitment to this co-op is that we have to volunteer some time so I'll be sitting in the nursery from here on out.

Our last three weeks of school have been busy and have flown by!  Between school, doing peaches, babysitting, serving lunch at church, and family things we have not had a lot of free time.

My sis-in-law just gave me an AWESOME website for spelling - I went in last night and plugged in the twins' spelling words and today they can log on and it will give them the spelling test and we can print out the results for our records.  There are also games that can be played with the list that I plugged in.  I will be able to add their words each week for them to study - should make spelling a little more fun:)  I'll add it over the side as well but it's http://spellingcity.com

More Homeschool Links

There are so many amazing resources out there if you just know what you are looking for and how to find them!  In this particular case my sister-in-law who is a teacher found these for me and passed them on.


https://teachingideas.co.uk/science/contents.htm  has just what I was looking for as far as filling out a lab sheet for a science experiment.  I haven't looked completely around the site but I do know that these pages were good.

http://mathwire.com  is another site that I'm using for Ethan to play some counting games on the computer.  It also has math centers that can be printed out along with the instructions to play them.

http://www.kidsbiology.com is a great site for learning more about biology.

A disclaimer on any sites that I post here - I haven't reviewed each site in it's entirety - please make sure you look them over before determining whether they are appropriate for your children or not.

I will also add these sites to the links to the right so that they are easy to find if you come back later looking for them!

Check out the video posted above for a really cool look at an Octopus!  God's design is amazing!

Couponing

For anyone who is interested in couponing or learning more about couponing check out this blog:

www.jillcataldo.com 

She lives in Huntley and does a good job at keeping track of the local sales/coupon match-ups and teaching couponing tips.

Well, here we go with our first full year of homeschooling! I started planning the first week a couple of nights ago and almost have everything figured out. We're starting next Monday because both the kids and I need to have structure again in our lives! Our summer has been very full and busy but I live off of a schedule and the kids are starting to be very grumpy so this will be a good thing:) My job this week has been to get our classroom cleaned up from last semester (it took us longer to get done than I anticipated so I kind of just left it and "shut the door" so to speak on everything in June!), get the first week planned and to finish up painting our kitchen table and chairs. I just have some touch up work to do on those and then the polyurethane coating and we're good to go. I'll have to remember to post some before and after pictures when it's all done:)

A few friends that I met last semester at the Swim & Gym class that the twins took invited me to start up a co-op with them for this fall. We had our second planning meeting tonight and I'm starting to look forward to getting that started. It will be the first three Friday mornings of the month with the third Friday being a field trip. The first two Fridays will consist of a conflict resolution "Bible Study" time, a science class, an art class, and a PE class. Each of the moms will be taking turns with the teaching and hosting. The main purpose of the co-op is for fellowship for the kids (& the moms, of course!) Kaitlyn, especially, will like this as she will also be with this same group of kids on Tuesdays again for Swim & Gym and she made some friends there last year. She misses the socialization at school and this should help with that. There are 10 moms and 18 kids not counting one baby - yikes!!

My biggest challenge this year will be....ETHAN! I'm going to start off doing a preschool curriculum with him and if he's ready we'll start the kindergarten curriculum in January. We'll see - some days he comes up with random new things that he learned from somewhere (I know I didn't teach it to him!) and some days he has no interest at all in those same things.

Here we go!!!

The Torture Begins!

Ughhhh! 

I've been gaining a lot of weight the past few months and have had ZERO motivation to do anything about it.  Today I decided that it's time to try and get healthy again!  I HATE watching what I eat and working out but I've noticed as I've gotten older that the weight just doesn't fall off like it used to:(  So I began the torture of working out tonight - 45 mins on the elliptical machine followed by 10 mins of arm weights...along with limiting my daily intake of coke to 1-a-day (down from...ahem!...4-a-day!)  I'd love to say that I'm good enough to eliminate regular pop from my diet altogether but I don't see that happening soon!  We usually eat fairly healthy but lately the kids and I have been eating out a lot when Ryan's gone and that is what is KILLING my weight.  Time to make more meals at home and eat out less.  That means I actually have to be productive each day and think about what to eat BEFORE 3pm when it gets too late to run to the store for anything I don't have on hand.  Which brings us back to the aforementioned zero motivation.

If only they sold motivation pills...

World Relief Day

 A few weeks ago we helped out at World Relief Day at the church's Fellowship Center.  The twins helped fill health kits that will be used in local (US) crises and some may be sent to Japan.

Bus Counting Center

 

 Today I found this counting center idea from Mailbox.com.  I printed out 11 buses on yellow construction paper and labeled them 0 - 10.  Then I cruised around online until I found the stick figure heads and cut out enough of them that he can work on all 11 numbers at the same time.  (Mailbox.com recommends finding pictures of children's faces in a magazine and using those.)  I will laminate everything once I get the buses cut out and am storing the children cut outs in a ziplok bag inside of a manila mailing folder along with the buses.  The outside of the folder is labeled "Bus Counting Center."

 For a template of the bus to print out click here.

I was grading math tests this morning realizing that I was holding my breath with each problem praying that they had gotten them correct!  By this point I've realized that when they get a problem wrong half the time it is their own carelessness and half the time it's because I've failed to teach it to them correctly.  Mostly they do well but the past few weeks were a little crazy so I was a little unsure how today's test was going to go.  They each got a huge high five for getting A's and I was able to breath a sigh of relief that at least some of what I'm teaching is sticking!  Now, the history tests that they took were another story and I foresee that we will be doing some reviewing:)

We had our Easter program last night and both of the twins did well.  They both sang and said their pieces nice and slow!  Ethan made up his own piece..."My God is my Lord before Jesus Christ was born on Christmas day."  Guess he wanted to be in the program too!

This is the first week in a LONG time where we aren't running around like crazy - today was a "stay in my pj's" kind of day for me and we just hung out at home!  Sometimes we need this and I don't feel guilty at all:)  The nap was kinda nice, too...

Praying that the weather will hurry up and warm up and that the sun will reappear...winter has gone on WAY too long around here!

Another Homeschool Resource

I added another resource to the homeschooling links at the side.  You can either buy their books or use their free printable craft ideas, worksheets, and center ideas.  I went to the library tonight and looked through their Mailbox magazine for a few ideas to incorporate with Easter/Spring.  Awesome, usable ideas!

"Josh"

It's official - we apparently now have four children!  Yesterday we discovered that "Josh" had moved in with us.  Ethan had gone to the fridge and helped himself to a juice box (which he knows not to do) and when I asked him who said he could have it he told me "my invisible friend."  This friend carries the name of Josh.  Ethan walked into my in-laws house last night with his arm around Josh and we're guessing he's around 4 feet 8 inches tall based on how high Ethan's arm was.  We also know that he is 8 and drives his own car since there wasn't enough room in our car for him to ride over there with.  So far he's been very quiet and well behaved (which is more than I can say about the four year old who also lives here) so I guess he can stay.  For now.

Used Curriculum

I added a new link for buying used homeschool curriculum...thanks, Maria!

Dear Poppy Lewis From Hawaii,

You are a great friend.  I am writing to you from school and I can't wait till school is over so I can play with my friends.  Well I love to run and I love to play but I am stuck in school all day.  How about you?  Are you ever stuck in school all day because if you are I feel so sorry for you.  Well my hand is starting to hurt so it's time to say goodbye.

From your Pen Pal,
Kaitlyn

Typing Link

I just added another link that I found for teaching typing to the kids.  These are easy and fun games that help them to become faster typer's.  We tried out Typer Shark but this was a little too hard for beginners.

New Link

I just added a new category of links - links that are useful for "running" a house.  I found a great blog about couponing so I've added this under "Helpful Household Links."  This is a great site for learning how to use coupons and how to keep track the easiest way of all the sales/store ads etc. 

Have fun!

Happy Spring!

Wow, we've stayed busy around here lately!  Seems like it's been really hard to stay caught up on things this winter but at least the time has gone by quickly!  I went outside for awhile this afternoon to enjoy the 60 degree temps and was admiring all my spring bulbs that are coming up that I planted last fall - how fun!  I was really missing having spring color around last year so between some of the landscaping we planted last summer, the spring bulbs, and the landscaping I plan to add in the next month or two we should have some good spring color around here:)

Last week we went to Kansas City to spend some time with the Fehr's.  We also were able to spend a morning and eat lunch with Emch's and pay a short but very sweet visit to the Kaeb's!  It felt like a short, quick trip but was really nice to catch up on old friendships and visit some of our favorite eating spots.

This week we are busy catching up on housework and trying to get caught up on paperwork and grading papers - something I never thought I'd ever say:)  I still want to post a few pictures from our trip back in February but with how busy life has been this has not been a priority.

More Links

I've posted a few more links that I've been using.  The first one is for Sue Patrick's Workbox System.  This book was recommended to me before we ever began homeschooling and it's a system that I hope to put into place by the end of this school year or the beginning of next.  We have been slowly angling towards this method of homeschooling anyway and it really appeals to me because of my insanely organized side:)

The second link is to the Huntley Library's Tumble Books website.  I have been using the library's resources more and more and am blessed to have a library with so many neat programs for the kids (most are free!)  I found this link the other day and used the Tumble Books today in an effort to keep Ethan busy while I was working with the twins on some of their school work.

The third link is for a website that you need to pay before you can access their worksheets but they have over 50,000 different worksheets and activities.  I paid the yearly fee and if I understood the conditions correctly other homeschool moms could partner up with me to split the fee and each have access to all the materials.  One huge advantage of this website over all the free materials out there is that it's super easy to search based on grade, subject, curriculum/holiday, etc.  The materials are all professionally developed as well and are used in classrooms around the country.

This and That

 Last week we made butter to go along with reading "Little House in the Big Woods"

 I babysit my nephew Tayden a couple days a week.  He likes to park it right in between the twins while they are doing school!

 Ethan decided yesterday that he wants to do school too so today he started.  I not really holding my breath that this will last longer than a few days:)

 Kenton writing spelling words on the board

I'd love to say that the twins get along every second of every day but that wouldn't quite be the truth!

Now we're down to business!

Unit Study

We started reading the book "Little House in the Big Woods" yesterday and decided to turn it into a unit study.  I've heard about doing unit studies but this will be our first foray into experiencing it for ourselves.  Time will tell if we like this approach or not.  Yesterday we read the first chapter and had a great discussion on what it would have been like to live in that time and why they had to salt and smoke their meat.  Today we venture into chapter 2 and are going to try our hand at making butter to see how it's done.  I started researching online and found there are tons of resources for using these books as unit studies.  I included a new link on the side for anyone who's interested and will post more as I come across them.

For anyone who doesn't know a unit study is where you take a subject matter (the Little House books in this case) and tie it into all the areas that we study - history, reading, writing, science, math, etc.  For us this is in addition to our regular studies although some use it as the main method of teaching.

PS:  I also added a link on lapbooks and how to make them.  We are going to take this approach in gathering and displaying all that we learn with this unit study.

Back (but not really) From Vacation

I've been back from vacation for three whole days now but I'm afraid that my mind isn't! It's still resting on a Caribbean island, listening to the waves, with a good book in hand and feeling the warm sun on my back! Not even the "warm" weather that we came back to has snapped my mind back to reality!

I will post pictures soon - I just need to get a few things caught up around the house and with school first and than I'll get on it.

Donuts!!

Kaitlyn and Lily cutting out donuts

Frying up yummy donuts

Enjoying the fruits of our labors!

Today I invited over some of the neighbor kids to make (and eat!) donuts since it was a snow day from school.  We of course still did school in the morning but once our lessens were done the kids all bundled up and headed outside to play in the frigid cold.  I was surprised that they lasted as long as they did!  After they were done playing we set about making the donuts - this is an homage to our Kansas City Weiss/Fehr Snow Day Sledding and Donut Making Days!!

Survived Blizzard 2011!

I was kind of chuckling yesterday afternoon that the news media outlets were making such a big deal about the blizzard that was descending on Northern Illinois that they named it!  They kept saying, "Continuous coverage of Blizzard 2011" with dramatic background music!  I have to say, though, after the events of the past 24 + hours I'm a little more in awe of nature's power than I was yesterday.

Our day started out normal enough - school, chores, etc - until I made the final decision to drive into Elgin for Swim & Gym.  I was back and forth about it for awhile before finally realizing that if it started getting bad while we were there we weren't so far from home that we couldn't make it back.  Ethan had been sick since Friday evening with an ear infection and fevers of 104 but I really felt like his fever had finally broke in the middle of the night and he seemed a little better Tuesday am.  We trooped on in to Elgin where the twins had gym the first hour.  My first clue that Ethan wasn't back to normal was when he spent the entire hour on my lap watching cartoons that were playing in the lobby outside the gym.  My second clue was when the twins switched to swimming he asked if he could go too.  I had promised him a few weeks ago that he can go sometime while the twins are swimming but by that point I realized that he was maybe still sick so I told him no.  Instead of fighting me on that he just sat by a window and watching the kids swim.  I looked over at him about half way through and realized he was holding his head/neck really funny.  I went over to check it out and realized he was burning up with a fever again and he refused to move his neck at all.  Naturally this worried me so I called his pediatrician.  She, too, was worried over the symptoms so told us to go directly to the ER.  By this point several other moms were getting calls from husbands saying to get home because the storm was starting up.  I pulled the twins out of the pool and headed out to get the van.  I was thinking over options while getting the car and remembered that my father-in-law works about 2 minutes from where we were so I called him asking if he'd take the twins for me.  I didn't know how long we'd be at the hospital and I didn't want to get stuck there with all three kids and nothing to do.  After I finally met up with him (I was so freaked out by this point I kept making wrong turns) Ethan and I headed to the hospital.  It was slow going from the blowing snow and the heavy traffic but it wasn't too bad at that point.  I had one moment of panic when I was trying to turn onto Randall Road by Sherman Hospital from Big Timber and watched the power lines throw out sparks after being hit by something in the wind.  There were cars just sitting under the lines on Randall and that made me pretty nervous until I was clear of them.

Once we got to the hospital (at 4:00 pm) we were given a room in the ER fairly quickly where they started an IV, drew some blood, and took an x-ray because the doctor thought he heard diminished breath sounds.  All the tests came back normal other than an elevated white blood cell count (which indicates infection) so the doctor ordered a round of Rocephin via his IV.  Ethan was moving his neck by then so we decided not to do a lumbar puncture to check for meningitis.  We were released around 7:30 at which point I was going to try and get home to Huntley.  I called my MIL to let them know I was heading home but they encouraged me to either get to John and Alison's (which was closer and more city driving) or get a hotel room.  The idea of a hotel room didn't really appeal so I headed on Randall to I-90.  The snow plows weren't able to keep up with the snow on Randall which is a major four lane road.  It was slow going with some slippery moments.  The snow was also coming down and blowing like crazy with several moments of white out where the car in front of me completely disappeared, even with street lights overhead.  I-90 was plowed but snow pack covered the roads.  When I got to Rt 31 things got a little bit scary.  The plows were beyond keeping up and I had to be careful to stick to the tire tracks or I'd be in danger or getting stuck.  There is a point on this road where there are no street lights and that is the time another white out occurred.  By the time the white out cleared I was so disoriented that I had no idea whether I was on the road, in my lane or floating around in space!  It was crazy!!  I've driven in nasty white out conditions before but NOTHING like this.  Thankfully the side streets that I needed to get to J & A's were cleared enough I could get though.  I did get stuck in the driveway and was rescued by J, Ricky, and Amanda  (J & A live in an apartment over R & A's house.)  I really believe that had I taken I-90 west out into the "country" I would likely wouldn't have made it home due to drifting.  Even if I had made it as far as our subdivision I doubt I would have made it onto the street due to bad drifting.  My neighborhood didn't get plowed until middle of the afternoon yesterday.  There are quite a few cars stuck in the middle of side streets - they got as far as they could and than had to be rescued.  Some in our area were even rescued by snow mobiles because there was no other way to get to them.  When I went to sleep Tuesday evening I said a prayer of thanks for safety and more importantly for a warm place to sleep and a roof over my head.  I can't even imagine being homeless on nights like that!

Ethan and I arrived home at 4:30 or so yesterday afternoon.  We tried turning onto Rt 47 from I-90 heading south to pick up the twins from Hampshire but we were turned around by a police officer saying that 47 was closed.  My FIL did manage to get the twins to me using a few back roads that had been plowed or weren't too badly drifted so it was nice being all together again under one roof!

Today we are playing catch up with the school we've missed!  The twins did get a snow day after all:)  This afternoon I've invited the neighbor kids over to fry donuts - a tradition that we started with the Fehr's way back in Kansas City when we'd have a snow day!  We usually also did some sledding that day as well but with the low wind chills today we'll nix that for this year.

Stay Warm!

Bring on the Snow!

Food?  Check!  Lots and lots of books from the library?  Check!  Hot chocolate and mini marshmallows?  Check!  Flashlights and batteries?  Check!  Snowstorm of the century on the way?  Check! 

Bring it on!

Any Volunteers??

Anyone want to go to the grocery store for me?  Anyone??

It's been a little crazy since my last post earlier this week.  I woke up Tuesday am with a sore throat and headache.  As the morning went on I felt worse and by 10:30 we wrapped up school so I could go and lay down.  By 1:00 I had to call my sister-in-law to come and get the kids because they were fighting and it was not working with my headache.  By 6:00 I was headed into the doctor because the headache was still intense after two Aleve and I could feel every joint in my back and legs.  Throat culture came back positive for strep and with some antibiotics I was on the road to recovery.  NOW, that this happens while Ryan is gone for the week is just how things go in my life:)  If it snows and the drive needs shoveled - it's when he's gone.  If all the kids get sick - it's when he's gone.  If something major goes out like the furnance - you got it!  It's when he's gone!  We've learned over the years to adjust to things happening while he's gone and taking care of them ourselves.  This time however, I am VERY thankful that I have in-laws close by who were able to take the kids all night and shuttle them around for 2 days for me.  I don't know what I would have done without them!!

Now I need to head out to the grocery store but I'm dragging my feet because it's cold out there and snowing!  It's also one of my least favorite chores so I'm procrastinating as long as possible:)

Name of the Game

Flexibility - something that I've never been all that great at that I'm learning I need to deal with.  Today started off a little later than I like.  The kids have a hard time waking up on Monday mornings after a busy weekend so I've started letting them sleep in a little.  This pushed the whole entire school schedule back and I was starting to feel frustrated and was pushing the kids by 11:30 when I remembered that if our school work goes into the afternoon - SO WHAT?  If we take a break for 3 hours before we finish our last subject - SO WHAT?  By the time we had worked through our schedule and were ready for reading - the last subject of the day - the twins were having a very hard time concentrating.  So I said, "Okay, let's wrap up and we'll come back down later this afternoon and finish our reading."  It wasn't the end of the world and we still got all our work in plus all the piano practicing/chores that I had written down.  Well, that's not entirely true - I have things on my to do list for today that won't get done until later this week but...SO WHAT?  Flexibility is the name of the game around here!

Happy Monday!

Week Interrupted

Week 3 didn't start off so well!  I was planning on having school on Monday since Tuesday we were going to be off doing other things BUT Ryan didn't think it was fair that all the neighbor kids were off and ours had school.  So, I gave in and regretted it:)  Turns out the neighbor kids didn't come over to play until after 1pm - plenty of time to have gotten in a school day.  Now today, Wednesday, I feel like we are playing major catchup PLUS getting the new Teacher's Guides (that just came last week) figured out.   Frustrating but once we get going we'll be fine.  I have the next few days planned already and now that we've done one day with the Teacher's Guide I have a better idea of what's expected from me and how much prep work I have to do.

Yesterday I had to take a turn teaching at Ethan's church preschool so the twins came along to help out.  It was fun but I'm glad that's over!  We went straight from there to Target (minus Ethan who went home with Keegan and plus Tayden) to get goggles for the twins' swim class.  From Target we headed to the Elgin Rec Center for one hour of gym class and one hour of swim.  It went MUCH better than last week where Kenton refused to get into the water.  Sometimes he needs to hang back and check it all out before he's ready to jump in and participate.

We left the Rec Center around three and ran a few errands on the way out to Jamie's to pick up Ethan and for supper before jetting off to my mother-in-laws for Bible Study.  By 8:45 last night Ethan had enough and was melting down big-time.  So we packed up a little early and headed home straight to bed!  Whew!

I was hoping homeschooling would allow us to slow down more than it has.  Some of it is me being unable to say no to things and some of it is that we are busy doing the same things as last semester just in a little different order and together rather than having the twins gone for 8 hours a day.

Week 2

Week 2 is almost over and I feel like we are finally getting into a groove of sorts.  There have been a few ups and downs as we've gone through some "growing pains" this week but overall we have made some progress academically so that's what counts, right?

I had made the decision to back up in Math and take it slower which has turned out to be a good strategy. I'm not fighting the twins during Math time so much to do the work.  When it was way over their heads it was turning into a huge battle to get the math work done in 45 mins instead of it taking all morning!  Now it's taking the appropriate time with a little time to spare.  I'm slowly introducing them to multiplication facts and reviewing addition and subtraction.

It seems like the first 2 hours of the morning goes great and than the next two kind of fall apart!  Right now they are supposed to be reviewing for a History quiz tomorrow but they are rolling around in the basement on the chairs Ryan bought for them yesterday!  I keep telling them that as soon as they are done with the review we can eat lunch but that's not proving to be much motivation this morning:)  We really need to get a big carpet remnant down so that they can't do so much rolling!

Kaitlyn asked me at the beginning of the week if we could do "marbles" like they did at school where they accumulate marbles for good behavior and get them taken away for bad behavior.  They work towards collecting 50 marbles at which point they get to have a "Marble Party".  I'm not sure what the Marble Party is going to consist of and gauging on how today has gone I've got a little bit of time to get it figured out:)  At school they usually had a special dress day and got to bring in drinks and snacks and watch a movie.  Instead of that we may go roller skating or bowling or something.  I'm open to ideas!

Gym & Swim on Tuesday was interesting.  Kenton joined right in on the gym portion of class but wouldn't get into the water for the swim part.  He's a good swimmer so I'm really not sure why he decided not to participate.  He did say something about being scared of sharks being in the water...

pictures of the classroom

Our Arts and Crafts center and soon to be added Science center

Teacher's desk:)

The couch in the background in the reading corner that we use for centers and for reading the history lessons.

kids desks and front of classroom

 

 

 

 

We Want Heat!!!

Lennox Consumer Affairs

2100 Lake Park Blvd.
Richardson, TX 75080
P.O. Box 799900
Dallas, TX 75379-9900

Dear Michelle/Les,

I spent over an hour on hold waiting to speak to a representative today learning about the Energy Star Efficiency award that Lennox received in 2007.

Congratulations on this achievement! I just wanted to let you know, that my 4 year old Lennox furnace should be included in your future statistics, as you will be sure to win more awards.

It is January 11, 2011 in Chicago (26F), and my furnace has not used 1 unit of gas in almost 2 weeks… What an incredible accomplishment! Unfortunately, I have been told that it will not use any gas for at least one more week as well.

Below are the details of my furnace:

Model Number: G43UF36B07008

Serial Number: S906F01713

Part Needed: Draft Inducer 83M56

Order Number: 1000009977

*When it is convenient for you, please advise when I should expect this furnace to start using gas again.

Kind Regards,

Lennox Customer

Ryan Weiss

12430 Lions Chase Lane

Huntley, IL 60142

630-715-5154

New Feature

I've added a new feature to my blog.  If you look in the right hand corner above the "About Me" section I've added links that I have found helpful for both homeschooling and being a mom!  I will add more websites as I find them that prove helpful in providing worksheets or projects to help kids learn - whether they are in public, private, or homeschool!

Survived the First Week!!!

Our first week of homeschooling is officially over and we all survived!  There were a few moments of tears and frustrations as we worked things out but over all I think we got off to a good start and the classroom is set up and is slowly beginning to fill up with evidence of our work. 

We made the decision to start off our homeschooling experience with the A Beka DVD program where the twins watch a master teacher teach all the lessons in a classroom setting.  We discovered that this wasn't the easiest way for us to start out since we are beginning in the middle of the year and they don't re-explain classroom procedures and are ahead in some of the subjects of where the twins were in school.  The Math for example - A Beka is teaching fourth grade concepts already in third grade and while the twins were in accelerated Math class in school they are still behind the A Beka program.  So today Ryan and I made the official decision to ditch the DVD's and ordered the teacher guides so that I can go back and start where the twins left off in school and try to get them caught up to A Beka by fourth grade.  We may switch to a different Math program next year but in case we don't I want them to be able to start off fourth grade caught up to A Beka.

I also realized half way through the week that I needed to make school more "fun".  I was trying to do all the subjects back to back and wasn't taking breaks for activities that don't require sitting at a desk or to decompress a little.  The kids are only 8 after all:) so we added in "Centers" where they get to pick an activity to do for 20 minutes - Art, Math game on computer, Science Experiment, or Reading Corner - that helps to break up the morning a little and gets them out of their seats.  We also started doing our history lesson in the "Reading Corner" of our classroom which contains a couch so that they are getting a little break from the desk and chair.

Our schedule for the day looks a little like this (more or less as some days we started later or took more time for Math):

8:00 - 8:15 Bible Lesson
8:15 - 9:00 Math
9:00 - 9:20 Centers
9:20 - 9:40 Language
9:40 - 10:00 Journaling/Penmanship
10:00 - 10:15 Snack break
10:15 - 10:35 Spelling
10:35 - 10:55 Reading
10:55 - 11:15 History
11:15 - 11:30 Health

I've had to remind the twins several times (as well as myself) that the schedule is just a guide and that the beauty of homeschooling is that we can take things faster or slower depending on the day and interruptions that come up:)

After lunch we take time to practice piano, do chores, and read.  We also set up a big puzzle on the dining room table that we've been working on when we have free time.  Once a week (Tuesdays from 1 - 3) we will head into Elgin for Gym and Swim...they have a one hour PE class followed by a swim lesson with some free time at the end to just swim around the pool and play.  We start next week and we are excited to see how it all goes!

Evenings consist of activities:  Ballet, Cheerleading for Kait, Piano for both, and Chess club twice a month for Kenton.

It'll be a learning process this semester of what works and what doesn't for our family and I expect that the above schedule/subjects might change a time or two until we've worked out the kinks!  So far it's been fun and I'm finding that I'm learning Math the second time around like I didn't the first time around!  I've also fallen into bed each night mentally exhausted and I'm exercising brain muscles that I forgot I had:)  I've found that I'm enjoying the teaching MUCH more than I thought I would and the kids are enjoying being done with school earlier and not having homework in the evenings. 

PS)  I'll save Ethan for another post!