Giveaway

Susie Homeschooler (check out her awesome blog HERE) is hosting a God's Special Prize Giveaway and Review by: See the Light. This is an awesome art with Bible Curriculum. Susie gives a very good review.

SodaStream Fizz the Season House Party

THEY PICKED ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been choosen to host a party to promote the SodaStream! I will be getting a package with the SodaStream and several different flavors for you to taste. So come on over on Dec. 8, at 5:00 pm to come check out this completely awesome invention.

Contact me if you want to come.

Facebook Party Page

House Party Page

Daytona International Speedway

Today we went to Daytona International Speedway as our Friday field trip!! This was so exciting for the kids and me because I am a huge NASCAR fan.

When we arrived I think I was more excited than the kids were…lol. We were taken on a 90 minute tour. The tour included a behind the scenes look of what goes on at Daytona International Speedway on race day. We toured the drivers meeting room, NASCAR Print Cup Series Garages, Gatorade Victory Lane, and go inside of one of the suites in the grand stands which is 7 stories high. The suite had a gorgeous view.

This was a very good tour and I would highly recommend it to any NASCAR fan young or old.

We had a blast. I let each of the kids have a camera at point or another during the day. It was amazing looking through the pictures and seeing it through their eyes.

Learning about Election Day

Today is Election day!!!

I wanted to teach the kids what election day is and why we have it. So all day we did things that related to electing our President.

I found a video on YouTube called Electing a US President in Plain English which was very informative. It was also very kid friendly and it explained it on their level.

Then I found a map of the US and an Electoral Tracking sheet on Daze of Adventure's blog.

I gave each kid a red and blue color crayon and we turned on the news and colored in our states as they were announced.

Now as we all know not all the states report right away so I recorded the news and we went over the rest the next morning.

Honestly I learned a lot by doing this with the kids. It was a lot of fun.

Publix

Today we went to Publix at Hollieanna for a tour. I was honestly very pleasantly surprised at how well of a tour they gave. Our first stop was at the Bakery where they handed out hair nets and gloves and let all the kids decorate their own cookies.

Then we went to the deli. At each department someone from that department came out spoke to the kids and told them what they do in that department. Did you know that they make their own organic peanut butter. It is yummy!!! We ended up buying some at the end of the tour.

After the deli department we headed over to the produce department. I did not know that they will cut any produce you want for you to try so that you know they carry quality foods. Today they showed us how they peel and core a pineapple in one swoop.

Next was the meat department. Of course the first thing the kids see is the lobster tank. One of the gentlemen came out and scooped out a lobster for all the kids to touch.  The kids got a lobster water bath as it splashed its way out of the tank. After the lobster was safely put back the kids and I learned that they cut fresh meat every single night. Then they handed all the kids some beef jerky…lol

Next we checked out the BIG freezer where they keep all the overflow. The kids also got to see how the unload a truck and put all the boxes where they belong.

Next we headed over to the pharmacy. Honestly not much to see here but the lady’s were very nice.

We were now at the end of the tour where they sat the kids down and told them a little about customer service and then gave each one a goodie bag with popcorn, a banana, and a coloring book with crayons.

We really enjoyed our tour and now have a bigger appreciation for the Publix company.

Fall Festival

The community that we live in is always doing really nice get togethers. So for Halloween they did a fall festival with face painting, balloon atritst, and food. The kids had a great time and it was very low key which is something I am all about.

Doglando University

Today we went on a field trip to Doglando University. Now when I signed up for this event I thought we were going to an animal rescue shelter. I was very wrong. Doglando is a doggie day care. When we arrived there was one major thing I noticed right away. NO BARKING!!!!!! As we gather the group the owner comes over and starts going over the rules and tells a little about her establishment. When she got to the part that there was 54 dogs there that day I had to shake my head and ask her to repeat. Yes, I heard right. FIFTY-FOUR dogs and NO BARKING!!!! Amazing was the only thing I was thinking.

When we went outside all the dogs where outside playing in the beach area. They have a little over 3 acres to run free. It was a gorgeous 3 acres also. Now I would have thought that the moment 20 kids stepped near them that they would start barking, but there was not one woof.

She had the kids walk around the area a couple of times so the dogs could sniff their scent. Then she had the kids point out what dogs they thought didn't want to be messed with. She also told the kids that if the dog approaches them and jumps they were to freeze and look up and the dog would go away. It actually worked. I was so amazed.

As we were leaving the owner showed us her goats. When we walked around the corner we saw 2 goats and a duck running towards us. Yes, you read it right a duck. The duck literally thought that he was a goat. He was raised with the goats so he acts like them. He eats grass and head butts just like the goats. It was hilarious.

Goatlando....lol

 



Soap Experiment

Today we tried an experiment we found on Pinterest ( I love this site ) We used Ivory soap and had a blast watching the kids expressions. After the experiment they all wrote down some things about how if changed in color, shape, size, and texture. I think next time I am going to try to find some things to do with the now blown up soap.

Raain Rain go away

Today we went over for our weekly visit at Mrs. Kelly's house. The kids love visiting with Mrs. Kelly. She always has a cool game, experiment, or some activity for the kids to do. Today was not different than any other day. Today we watched a tutorial video on how to make rain catchers and how you have to chose the right one to measure the rain.

The best part was when we gathered all the kids with a tray full of different containers and headed to the shower.

Two of the kids got in the back part of the shower

 while the other three watched from outside.

 Mrs. Kelly had a shower head that was attached to a hose so she was in control of that.

Right as she was turning on the water I began to say(but did not get out in time) that she should make sure she has the overhead head turned off and only have the hose on. Just then she was getting a nice cold shower. I was laughing so hard I was unable to get a picture at the right moment but I did get the aftermath.......

After all the fun in the shower we headed to the table to measure our water.

Co-Op

Time to make a decision. Today the kids and I went to a co-op kick off meeting. I have been very slow to go to these because you end up go go going all the time and then you begin to wonder where does the time go to do actual lessons. Plus most co-op are VERY strict. If you can't be at all the events then they kick you out. Well when you have 4 kids and everything they do costs money go ahead and just count me out. I can not afford to spend that much money.

I feel very good about this group. They meet every Wednesday but it sounds like they actually teach something so that makes me excited. They also do field trips but they are CHEAP.

Anyways today was nothing but an information meeting and I am looking forward to see what happens next.

I gave Hannah my camera to keep her occupied and this is what we got:)

Lunch is even a lesson

As we are homeschooling I am trying to include everything as a lesson. So today Betty Boop cooked lunch for us. I bought some of those complete meal boxes so she picked one of those and went to work.

This covers reading, math, and following directions. She did very well and we had a wonderful lunch.

Wordless Wednesday

Today was Waffle Man's day off and originally we were going to homeschool Monday thru Friday, but I quickly realized that I miss spending our family time together SOOOOOOOO since we homeschool we can be flexible. We are going to start homeschooling the days Waffle Man works and be off when he is off. So with that said we took the day off and headed to Sea World.










After Sea World we came home a got ready for church..........

Yes, they do have purple and green hair...lol:)

Microsoft Class for FREE

Through one of the many online yahoo homeschool groups I have joined, I found this AWESOME opportunity for the three older kids to join a computer class offered by the brand new Microsoft store in Florida Mall. This session of classes is teaching the kids how to make video games. It goes for 5 weeks, then they have another topic they cover for another 5 weeks. I think they have 5 different sessions. I signed the kids up for all of them. So far they love it. In the class each kid had their own computer to work on and after class they all got to play on the xBox 360 with Kinetics. Puppy really liked that part. I brought some things along for Princess to do while she waited for the older ones to get done.

I do think that next week I will try to bring them all home and do a little book work too. We didn't do this today and I regret not doing so.

Chores = Tickets = Prizes

We have set up a system where the kids do chores and they earn tickets for doing so. Then they can turn the tickets in for prizes.

I have the chores in plastic page dividers so they can use a dry erase marker to write their initial beside whatever core they have finished. They also can earn tickets with good behavior and during school time when I ask questions, and by doing extra chores when asked.

I color coded the tickets so that there would be no fighting about someone stealing mine or so on. They also can loose tickets with bad behavior.

The store that we have made has small and big prizes. The store is only opened at certain times so they can not go whenever they want. This teaches them how to save, works on counting, and patience.

I got these ideas from several other websites and just put together what I thought would work for us. I am also trying to not spend a lot of money doing so in the process (since we don't have a lot to spend..lol) The ticket prices we set are based on how many tickets they can earn. The lowest ticket item we have is 10 tickets. All the kids can easily earn 10 tickets every day.

 

 

First day of Homeschool

Today was our very first day of homeschooling. It was a little chaotic at moments but we made our way through it. The kids loved their daily folders. We will be spending the next week to two weeks figuring out what schedule works for us. So there are probably many changes in are future, We will eventually get the hang of it and settle into a really good groove.

All the kids busy at working on their new daily folders. These folders have a calender that they build every month, a count down to 100 days of school, number of the day, color of the day, letter writing, and some other really cool things I found. When I get it down to the way I want it I will post a show and tell with pictures later.