cici at home

twice as nice

Even if you are deep in the mire of resperatory ick. Even if you are coughing up a lung when the initial storm blows through.  You are completely capable of running outside to admire the beauty of a promise.

kids atc

When I saw Erin's post on the kids ATC swap, I didn't waste any time.  This was so right up our ally.  In between the coughs and hacks and warm tea, we managed to do a bit of drawing.  And painting. And cutting. And glueing. Even the glitter came out.

Oh yeah. This is the big time, folks.

This one was done by our resident elephant lover - age 4.5.

I'm not sure how I'm going to package up that little card and manage to bundle up all the excitement, too.  Does excitement and glee fit into little itty bitty envelopes? 

lemons

We've been overrun with ick here. Respiratory ick.  The youngest of amoung us even required the use of an antibiotic.  I'll spare you the anti-antibiotic rant - afterall, it did work.

I much prefer the kinder, gentler approach. Warm lemon water - with a touch of honey. A dollop of honey. A hearty dollop of honey.

The ick appears to be subsiding now. Of course, I type this ignoring the muffled coughs from the children's bedroom. And completely in denial about the earache that woke a sleeping 4 year old from his slumber. I'll deny it and it will be gone in the morning. Right? RIGHT?

So I'm back to my regularly scheduled posting. Not that it was ever regular or scheduled...but you get the point.

lapbook? notebook? the verdict

I tried lapbooking before (in my vast 1 year experience of homeschooling!) and wasn't a big fan. It was too much work for me. It seemed as if I was doing all the work while the kids over-glued everything to my dining room table. And then how do I keep/organize/store all of those glued up file folders (after they had been scraped from my table)?

But it felt like we were missing something. So, this weekend I searched aimlessly for something to "perk up" our learning.  Or was I looking for something to perk up our February? Either way, I stumbled upon a great idea. A spiral notebook - with the lapbook thingies inside.  My kids can't get enough.

No, little P can't read. So I'm not sure how much relevance this will have for him. But he feels involved - and it kept him focused. As in focused like a laser-beam.  Totally unheard of for this kid. No, there aren't any rainbows in Katy No-Pocket - but hey, they're sparkly, they're stickers...they go with everything.

And as for C - she couldn't get enough either.  And it seems a good way to cement the little rabbit trail inspired by our obsession with Lynn Reid Banks' The Indian in the Cupboard series. More accurately, its a way for me - and her year-end assessor - to see the cement of the little rabbit trail. A good deal of information recorded in C's book was from memory.

I'm not sure if the age difference made the success or not - I think little P is a full year older than our last attempt. It didn't feel like I was doing all the work these notebooks. And instead of taped up glued up file folders we have nicely contained notebooks (one for each child) that stores neatly in the "school closet". And I gave the youngest his "crayon rocks" and colored pencils - in his very own book.

They asked to do more tomorrow.