Grossology

Have you ever seen the show Grossology on Discovery Kids? Alex loves it, Morgan prefers not to watch it but can't help overhear it when Alex is watching. Today we had our own version of Grossology. I was working in the kitchen when I overheard the following conversation between Morgan and Alex.

Morgan: Hey Alex, where is your Eyeclops ?
Alex: In its box in my closet. Why?
Morgan: Can I go get it?
Alex: Yes, why?
Morgan: Because I want to look at my scab.
Alex: Cool!
*Morgan runs upstairs and gets the Eyeclops, and starts examining her scab*
Morgan: Ewww....gross! You've got to see this!
Alex: Your scab? Let me see!
*Alex looks*
Alex: Ewww...that is gross! Is this on 400x?
Morgan: No, that is just 100x. Let me switch it to 400.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All of this was after our official schooling was done. They continued this conversation for a while talking about what they thought the scab was composed of, how it might have looked a day or two ago and how it might look in another day. Then they started looking at other stuff...the healthy skin on their arms, feet, their eyes and eyebrows,etc.

Dancing

Dancing on Tuesdays...ballet and tap, dancing on Wednesdays...hip hop, and dancing on Thursdays...jazz. That is Morgan's dancing schedule this year. However, for the next 4 weeks she can add dancing on Mondays and Fridays...the dances she will be in for Schoolhouse Rock Live! . Her endurance should be built up well by the end of the whole thing.

So far she is loving her dance classes. She was moved up a level this year and she noticed the difference in the first class that she has had of each style. She is so psyched about dance this year. :-) I think it is great! I am so glad we found Columbia Dance Academy . We love it there.

Birthdays

Today was Corey's birthday...31! The kids insisted that he open his gifts this morning. They were too excited to wait any longer. ;-) We then got down to business of our day and got our school work done...well, most of it, we skipped history today. It will still be there tomorrow, I promise. Then we baked Corey a cake...red velvet. Poor Morgan, took the dogs out in the early afternoon and they got all worked up barking with one of the dogs behind us. She was trying to get Trey to back off and he had gotten too worked up and he bit her leg...on the calf. He got her pretty good too...thank Goddess he is a small dog. We cleaned it good and are putting antibiotic ointment on it. I'm keeping an eye on it too. We are not happy with the pup and have to figure something out. Ugh. Dance has started this week and Morgan had her first two classes today...ballet and tap. She loved both classes. While she was in dance, Alex and I frosted the cake with cream cheese frosting. Oooh yum!! Seriously, I think we both could have just grabbed spoons instead. ;-) After Morgan got home from dance we sang to Corey and had cake w/ice cream. Corey had a good day and heard from lots of friends and family! Thanks to everyone for his birthday wishes.

Tomorrow is my step-mother's birthday. Happy Birthday Patsy! We are sending love & birthday wishes from Tennessee to Saudi Arabia. Hope you have a special day.

My grandmother's birthday is on Friday. She's in a nursing home in Jacksonville. Hopefully she has a wonderful birthday. Her birthday rounds out the August birthdays in our family...there are a bunch. :-)

Full Moon? Alien clone?

I'm not sure which but it must be one of those. Alex got up and did part of his school work and his Monday chore, all by 8:15am. Then he did science & spelling with no fuss. Seriously folks...a full moon or alien clone. ;-)

Morgan slept in but then did all of her school work as asked. Our sugar crystals are growing slowly but the kids are fascinated by what is on the string. She is doing very well with her assignments from her writing class. The class is called "Writers in the Park" and they meet at Woodland Park here in Columbia. They have a one hour class, drawing inspiration from the beautiful scenery around them. The students are given assignments to work on during the week between classes. They received a writer's toolkit from their teacher that has helpful tips and pages. They can contact her via phone or email for help on assignments or feedback on how they are doing on the assignment so far.

We watched a really cool show from National Geographic channel today. Morgan had recorded it, Aftermath: Population Zero . It was really interesting. If you get the chance, watch it.

Tonight, Corey has a meeting for his bowling league (it starts next week) and Morgan has Schoolhouse Rock Live! practice. Tomorrow is Corey's birthday!! :-)

A break from summer heat

This weekend has been absolutely amazing in the temperature department. We've had 70's during the day and mid-50's at night. We opened all the windows in the house Saturday morning and it has been wonderful. We've been able to spend some time outside getting yard work done. Yea! Our compost has been out of balance for a while and we've been working on getting it to the right balance. We've started raking after Corey mows the lawn and getting the grass clippings & leaves into the compost. It is helping. Tonight is another cool one and tomorrow shouldn't be too bad. Hopefully it doesn't heat back up too much. However, if it does we will have enjoyed this break from the heat outside and using the a/c. Autumn is just around the corner and we can't wait!

Computer problems....resolved

Well, I went missing again. The last computer fix that was done on my laptop lasted less than a week and I was without computer yet again. Amazingly enough, I think because hubby was upset about the repeat problems, my new computer arrived earlier than expected. So here we are...back online. We have had a pretty good week. Morgan has had a couple of practices for Schoolhouse Rock Live! She is loving it. Alex had tumbling and is doing very well with it. We picked up our CSA goodies on Wednesday morning. Yummy deliciousness! Morgan had her second writing class and is loving that as well. We headed over to the park early that day and the kids went for a rock hunt for our science. We are currently observing the rocks and observing our sugar crystals growing.

Corey and I celebrated our 9th anniversary on Tuesday. We went out on a date last night to see Julie & Julia. My mom kept the kids for us. We loved the movie.

This coming week dance starts back up. Morgan can't wait. We went to get her dance shoes Friday morning. We had to go up into Nashville. Thankfully they had her size.

MIA - computer issues

We have not disappeared and life hasn't gotten too crazy yet. However, I've been MIA due to serious pain the behind computer issues. Corey has been wonderful about working on my computer trying to get it back up and running...just to have it die again. He's had to spend hours on it, plus contacting Dell to get warranteed parts replaced,etc. Friday, while repairing my computer yet again, we decided to bite the bullet and order me a new one. So, hopefully the latest repair will last long enough for my new computer to arrive. :-)

We've been doing pretty well with school. Not too much trouble out of the kids. Science still seems to be their favorite. We tried growing our own crystals but I think the experiment was written incorrectly so we will try again on Monday.

Morgan had a good 1st meeting for Schoolhouse Rock Live! on Monday night at MCAG . HP Club went well on Tuesday night. Alex really enjoyed his new tumbling class on Wednesday. There were more kids there but same teachers so we are happy with the change. Both kids decided not to participate in the homeschool bowling league this session. On Thursday, Corey had the day off so we went bowling as a family. Had a really good time. Morgan had her first writing class that evening. She really enjoyed it and came home ready to start on her assignment! Alex had fun playing on the playground with another younger sibling.

Saturday we had a great family day! We went to the open house at the dance studio to order dancewear for Morgan. Found out she has outgrown the shoe sizes they offer through the studio so we will have to take her up to Franklin to be fitted for new shoes. Egads! We then had lunch and headed up to Nashville to McKay's Used Books . We brought a tote full of books and received over $90 in store credit...we managed to spend all but $6 of it. LOL! Love getting new books, don't you? :-) Then we headed to Yazoo Brewing Company . They are a local brewing company and Corey has tasted their beer and wanted to tour. The kids joined us on the tour and got to see how it is different than homebrewing. Corey made a purchase to bring home as well...plus he got souvenier pint glasses. :-) Afterwards, we drove around downtown Nashville some...must come back...and then found LP Field. Corey purchased tickets for us to see the preseason NFL game between the Titans and the Bucs. We love both teams so great for us. :-) The kids got autographs from 2 Bucs players... #90 - Gaines Adams and #25 - Aqib Talib. They thought that was VERY cool! The game was great..and the Titans won 27-20. We were exhausted by the time we got home from our very long, busy, and wonderful day.

Today, we vegged out most of the day and then went over to GC's to celebrate my brother's birthday. It was yesterday but he worked and we were gone all day. We played trivial pursuit, had dinner and Coldstone Creamery ice cream cake cupcakes. Yum! :-) Happy Birthday Michael!

Wild Wednesday....

well not yet! But soon. :-) Today we just had CSA pick up, #14 out of 26, and then school. Of course on CSA pick up day it isn't "just" picking up our CSA goodies. We then have to unpack all our yummy goodies and find a place for them and start thinking about how we are going to eat them! We get 3 packages of meat plus a breakfast meat, a dozen eggs and 1/2 bushel of produce every week. That is a lot of find space for...but we do it. We've gotten a little behind on eating everything and we are going to need to start feeding some family, friends and neighbors soon! LOL! Today our bounty included 2 broiler chickens, steak, pork jowls, eggs, red potatoes, tomatoes, peaches, summer squash, yellow & green bell peppers, eggplant, wax beans, lots of corn, and a huge cantaloupe! Oh my...the yummy goodness!

Morgan cooperated very well with all of her school work. Thank you sweet girl. I appreciate it very much. Alex was feeling quite fidgety and needed to move around thus dragging his work out quite a bit. He and I had a moment but got past it and his work was completed (and was all correct). Sooo...can't complain too much. Morgan gave a bit of attitude...wish she could keep it in check...but I understand she's at that tween stage and it will be a long while before it gets better. ;-) It doesn't help (not that she NEEDS help) that she's having issues with her allergies right now. I think out of all of the school work, science is our favorite right now. Both kids look forward to it, which makes things MUCH easier. They like spellingcity.com also but we will see how well it helps after they take their first spelling test.

I received The Idea Book for Educators from A&E Networks (A&E, History Channel, Biology Channel) in the mail today. There are some interesting shows coming up and they have links to more information online. Save Our History: Tlicho Nation in September on History Classroom, WWII in HD coming soon on The History Channel, The People Speak in December on History Channel and History Classroom, Albert Einstein in October on Bio Classroom, Predator X on History International in September and December, and Crime 360 in September on A&E Classroom.

Are you wondering about the 'Wild Wednesday' reference? Wonder no longer. :-) Alex's tumbling class (on Tues) is being changed to Wednesday starting next week. The following week Morgan's dance classes start up and she has 1 dance class at the same time as Alex's tumbling class..and thankfully just down the street. And then in another week or two homeschool bowling starts up...if they choose to participate at this time. Plus we will still have CSA pick up. See...a little wild. ;-)

Tumbling Tuesday

Today was day 2 of school and it went pretty well. Morgan is willingly doing everything asked & expected of her. Alex is trying to buck a little but I didn't put up with it and he stopped (for now). So we did math, grammar, spelling, handwriting, history, and Morgan did some work on the computer...using Word to make fliers.

Corey took Alex to tumbling class this evening while Morgan and I cooked dinner & finished watching Bride Wars. Alex is being moved to a new day/time for his tumbling. The class has dwindled down to 1-2 now that school has started & school activities are kicking in. He will be going on Wednesdays at 4:30 starting next week. This works out fine for us because Morgan has a dance class at the same time and is just down the street. Plus, the change means he won't be rushed once a month when HP Club starts.

Current parenting dilemma

Hubby explains it pretty well on his blog. I'll just add that the child in question is our 8yo son.

Corey's blog post

We do not like the computer nanny programs. They block way too much information that can be useless and leave the door open for a lot of inappropriate stuff...all leading parents into a false sense of security. We prefer to educate and trust our children and build upon that. We have had almost no trouble with the kids and the computers...they were raised at the keyboard. lol :-)

1st day of 2009-10 school year

Today was our first official day of schooling for the 2009-10 school year. Before mom got up for the day, both kids did some school work...without being told or asked. Surprise! Wouldn't that be nice if it continued throughout the year? Not holding my breath. ;-)

The kids have done very well with starting back up. I was honestly expecting some fussing. We took it a little slow today with some breaks here and there. Maybe that helped it go smoothly. Hmmm....

So today we did math, grammar, handwriting (M), science & lab, spelling, and art. In between they played, had lunch, and had a watermelon seed spitting contest.

Tonight we have our last night of family bowling league. The kids have gone back & forth about signing up for the homeschool bowling league this season. So we aren't sure if they will be adding that to their schedules.

Corey and I are trying to decide exactly what all we are doing with history this year. We are doing the middle ages but we also want to get some TN history in too. So, do we push through the middle ages for the 1st semester and do TN history the 2nd semester...or try to do them both at the same time over the year. To me that is just too confusing. Morgan voted for doing a semester of each.