HOMESCHOOL: What do YOU think we do?

I saw this on Facebook and thought it was funny!  I tried to find out who to give credit to, but it had been posted so many times that I couldn't track the original poster or photographer. Sorry about that.

• The first photo: Yeah, we DO do that.  I don't make my homeschooled kids wake up at the normal school time.  They wake up when they wake up. 
• The second photo:  Are you kidding me....
• The third photo:  I relly thinck da publlic skoolz hav it all rong bout us homskooolerz
• The fourth photo:  Yep, I like to think that we do studious stuff like this, but we just never get around to it.  Science experiments don't happen often in this house.  They are always on my "list of things to do", though, so my intentions are good.
• The fifth photo:  Yea, we do that!  So?  We live 20 minutes from Disneyland and have annual passes.  What would YOU do?!!
• The sixth photo:  Oh, but this is so true!  I have SO much curriculum and books and supplies all over this house.  We don't even need or use most of it.  But I have a hard time getting rid of it all, because honestly everything is something that I would like to use one day.  My shelves get very full!  

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their favorite day of the week

We are hooked up with a really neat homeschooling group in our area.  Not only do they have park day every Friday, as well as holiday parties and field trips throughout the year, but every Monday they meet at our local ice skating rink.  The skating rink hosts "Homeschool Day" on Mondays and we all get in for a discounted price.  (yay for that! $$)  And since the scheduled time for "Homeschool Day" is from 11:30am to 12:30pm,  the place is practically empty except for us homeschoolers!  So that's very cool.  Literally. 

So this is where we are on most Monday's.  I love that the time is 11:30 to 12:30 because that gives us practically the whole morning to do our school work.  And when the kids know that it's Ice Skating Day...well, let's just say there is no nagging on my part to get them to finish their work.  Whoever goofs off and doesn't get his or her school work done that morning gets to bring the unfinished work to the ice skating rink and finish it there before going out onto the ice!  Yep, I'm a mean teacher -- I know.

Okay, so you'll notice two of the three kids are wearing helmets.  A.J. normally wears a helmet, too, but on this day he could not find his and we were in a hurry to leave the house.  So his little head was not protected on this day, and I was worried the entire hour.  Now see, some of you might think I'm being over-protective by making them wear helmets.  After all, they were the only kids wearing helmets out there  (well, except for my friend Joan's two girls. Joan and I think the same)  but I will tell you, once you have a kid who suffers from a severe traumatic brain injury due to being hit hard in the head, your prospective and awareness of the brain's importance is forever changed, and you take all the precautions you can to protect that very delicate brain in your child's head.  *Add that to being married to a fire fighter/paramedic who goes on calls all the time on children who do not wear helmets while riding bikes, skateboarding, roller and ice skating...and there you have it: an "over-protective" mom who insists her kids wear helmets while ice skating.  Yep, that's me.

Five-year-old Andrew is having a wonderful experience at the skating rink. These photos are of his first day out on the ice! He hugged the wall the first time around, and then after that he wandered out to the middle of the ice and did great!  He only fell a few times.  He had a blast and was so proud of himself for learning something new!

Way to go, Andrew!
This was A.J.'s second time ice skating, so he was practically a pro out there on the ice.  Even though he spent a lot of time ON the ice, it wasn't because he fell a lot by mistake.  No, no --  this kid spent so much time ON the ice because he would skate fast and then slide on the ice.   Crazy, I know.  But I guess that's fun for him.  His pants were pretty wet by the time the hour was up.  He didn't care much at all about that.

Having fun, A.J.?
And finally Aislynn.  Just like Andrew, this was her first time ice skating.  She did great!  I think she had a bit of an edge over Andrew because 1) she's 18 months older than him, and 2) she roller skates a lot with roller blades.  So I guess that would be called "roller blading" instead of "roller skating" ?   Whatever!

Can you see why Mondays are now my kids' FAVORITE day of the week!

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Special Time

I took Aria to the library yesterday, just me and her.  She wanted Special Time with me, and so I spent one hour and 15 minutes in the children's section of the library reading one book....

after another....

 

after another....

after another.   

And then as soon as we got back home,  she asked me, "Mommy...when are we going to have Special Time?  Just you and me?"  And I said,"What? We just did!  At the library! The library WAS special time!!"  and she said, "That's NOT Special Time!"  and I said, "Why not?"  and she said, "That's just reading books!"
So apparently I still owe her some Special Time.  
SEINFELD FANS:  This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry owes dinner to Kenny Bania, a guy who Jerry doesn't particularly like, and when he takes him out to Mendy's restaurant all Bania orders is soup.  And he insists that Jerry still owes him a meal because he only ordered soup. 

source
Somehow I don't think telling Aria  "the library counts"   is going to change her mind.  Ah well. She's no Kenny Bania,  that's for sure.  I don't mind spending more time with my little girl :)
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when life gives you lemons...

... let your three year old make lemonade!

This is Aria's "forced smile" face.  We are seeing this more and more in her photos lately.  She's getting to that age where she knows she is supposed to smile for a picture, and so she forces one instead of smiling naturally.  And it's useless to tell her to "smile right"  because that just makes her force it all the more, turning her "forced smile" face into a face that more resembles constipation.  So I've learned to just leave the "forced smile" as it is ~ she's cute even when she's frowning :)
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is this an age thing or something I have to worry about?

Okay so it's no secret that I'm 42 years old.  If I want to be factual, I am actually almost exactly 42 and a half years old this month on the 14th.... to be exact.  I hate being exact.  But there it is.  
So now I'm wondering if everyone my age is losing their short-term memory?  I know they blame pregnancy on short-term memory loss (some research claims) so I'm wondering if I perhaps had one to many? Pregnancies, that is. Did I totally fry my brain cells away with all these pregnancies?  I'm really staring to wonder.
Lately, not only do I forget things easily  (like for example the kids will give me their money for "safe keeping" and two days later I won't remember where I stashed it)  but I can't remember doing more important things, like say...taking OFF my wedding ring!
Back in the summer months, we had a string of burglaries in our neighborhood.  Thankfully, our home was not targeting.  But I took precautions, just in case.   One of the things I swore I would never do again was to take off my wedding ring.  I just couldn't bare the thought of it being taken from me in some random robbery.  So, I stopped putting it in my jewelry box at night.  Instead, I kept it on my ring finger and NEVER took it off.  I have never taken it off since the summer of 2011.
Well, the other day I was driving the kids to school and I looked at my left hand which was on the steering wheel at the time....and my ring was GONE!    I said, "Oh! My ring!"  and the kids said, "What, Mom?" and I said, "Where is my ring!"  Of course no one knew what I was talking about, and then my mind raced back to the night before.  Did I take off my ring?  No.  Am I sure?  Yes.  I haven't taken off my ring since June 2011.  WHERE IS MY RING!    I had no recollection whatsoever of taking my ring off. None!
And NO, I hadn't been drinking the night before, lol.   This is my completely sober and drug-free mind not remembering.  I was seriously freaking out.  WHERE WAS MY RING!
Once I got home, I searched my room.  I looked on my night stand.  I looked on the bathroom counters. Finally,  I searched my jewelry case... and there in the waaaaay back of one of the smaller drawers was my wedding ring.
I had absolutely no memory of putting it there.  And it's not an easy thing to take my ring off.  It's about a size smaller than my ring finger and to get it off I usually have to soap my finger or put lotion on my hands. So I was trying to remember doing that... and I just couldn't remember doing it!  I had no recollection of taking my ring off.  None!
Brain cells.  I must be losing mine to some extent.  How could I not remember taking such an important piece of jewelry off my hand?  So this left me a bit worried about myself.  Am I getting some kind of early memory loss?  I am now second-guessing everything that I do around here.  The baby is in her high chair: Don't Forget!!!!!     Andrew is in the bathtub:  Don't Forget!!!!    Pick up Alex from soccer at 5:00pm: Don't Forget!!!!  Never mind the bills and the mortgage that needs to be paid every month, but I worry about my children's safety.  Gosh darn it, if I can forget about taking off a piece of jewelry, what else am I capable of forgetting?
I just don't trust my mind anymore.  What is going on?  Is this just me, or is this an age-thing that everyone goes through at one point or another?  
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I'm linking up with Things I Can't Say: Pour Your Heart Out

my favorite...

Being that I was a child of the 80's, of course this was my FAVORITE Super Bowl Commercial that was aired yesterday.   Did anyone else love this one?   Ferris Bueller!!


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