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This just in:

The homeschool moms over at the hive board just became infamous, click over to
this wikipedia entry...
(scroll to the very bottom of the page)

I've never had one, but I thought this was drop on the floor funny!
The idea was tossed up that a commercial would be a good idea, with the line...
"Yes, I homeschool, my neighbors think I'm a superwoman...but really it is only Mike's that is holding this homeschool together."

...sticking to diet coke here...

and next, you have to watch this- very cute and entertaining


make sure to watch all 3 episodes and the out-takes video.

Monday was the hearing for the California homeschooling case (Rachel L case), you can go to
the California homeschool network page for updates on the latest happenings. So far, nothing to report except that the lawyer representing 3 Homeschooling groups was able to speak and answer questions. The link has a short report from someone who attended.

Labels: homeschool

Yesterday evening, I walked into the house around 5 p.m. after an afternoon of errands and lots of driving. I was looking forward to pouring myself an ice-cold diet coke and sitting down with a piece of raisin toast and Pride & Prejudice...(yes, I love comfort food too well, sadly).

Amie comes running in yelling,

"a squirrel fell out of the tree mom, and now it can't walk!!"

we ran outside, and yes- a squirrel did fall out of a mature oak tree and was dragging itself along on the sidewalk. So, very sad. We caught it and I got back into the van and drove it to a sort of near-by wildlife center. I am hoping they will release him back into the neighborhood. He'll miss his family and all. I have such a sorry, soft heart...

So, do squirrels fall out of trees on a regular basis? The whole thing was mystifying to me, I found a really informative squirrel site here- but full-grown squirrels falling out of trees is still a mystery.

Next-

I took Demi-sky to the dentist to get his first ever filling. We waited a long time to even make it out of the waiting room, and then the dentist came in, peered at his tooth, and left us sitting there for another long wait. I was wondering how to ask if we should come back another time, without it sounding snarky. We've always had good visits there, this was a first so I tried to be patient...

Well, the Dentist came back and started doing dentist stuff...and then suddenly I realized that he was drilling on my 8 year old son's tooth without numbing it first! I sat up, and stopped myself before I shouted out "what, are you crazy!!" (thinking it would terrify Demi to hear me shouting) and I stopped myself mid-jump up.... I don't think the dentist realized he was 1 1/2 feet away from being physically attacked. I paused for a tiny second to reason with myself that the dentist was a father, and he must have had good reason to be fixing a cavity in this crazy way. As the adrenaline rush lessened, I realized all the drama of actually giving Demi a shot would out-weigh the time actually spent drilling. It must have been a very shallow cavity, and it didn't even hurt.

I let him live,
this time.

Dentistry....danger, danger, danger...

Labels: family, Wordless Wednesday

First, I will start with a book review:

"The Mother-Daughter Book Club" by Heather Vogel Frederick
is about 4 very different girls roped together by their mothers- to form a book club. The mothers decide the book for the year will be "Little Women". The story of what happens next is told in alternating chapters between the four girls. The girls are each very different from each other, I think young girls reading will find someone in the story to identify with.

Emma is the quiet, bookish daughter of the town's librarian. Jess is Emma's close friend and lives on an organic farm- her mother is working in New York and Jess finds herself missing her mother and dealing with a broken family. Cassidy is the new girl in town, her mother is an ex-super model- a lot to live up to, or to live down- if you are a hockey playing tom-boy who looks nothing like her. Megan is from a newly wealthy family, and used to be best friends with Emma, but is now running with the mean girls.

There is enough information sprinkled throughout the book to get girls interested in Little Women if they have not read it, and girls will not be handicapped by not having read it.
I loved that the girls begin to ask themselves..."what would Jo March do?" - and that at the end of the book when asked which March girl they identified the most with, the girls gave some surprising answers.

I am wary of books with spoiled/bratty kids, disrespect towards family, plain old attitude....we skip over many popular series for this reason...but this book was free from anything off-putting, I thought. There was some tension between a few of the girls and their mothers, but normal - mother/daughter angst...'she doesn't understand' type stuff that was realistic and not over-the-top. The ending was a little too fairy-tale-ish for me- despite the fact I love a happy ending, it was a little too-sweetly wrapped up...but yet, a fun, clean read for girls.
I think it is a can't miss summer read for girls ages 5th to 6th grade...even 7th.

Next, our Summer reading- so far...

I am reading "When the brain can't hear, unraveling the mystery of auditory processing disorder" -see it here at Amazon, I am reading this to understand better how to help our bonus student, Teddy, who has been diagnosed with APD.

I am also reading "Pride and Prejudice", just because I needed a Elizabeth/Darcy fix...

Meg is reading "Double Identity" , which is a mystery/thriller- she has a thirst for those, but it is hard to find ones that are age-appropriate, clean, and won't give her nightmares...I read this one first and approved it- and enjoyed it, a very well-done story. The main character in the story is twelve, and the grade level is listed as 5th to 8th.

Meg is also re-reading the Harry Potter series...

Josie is re-reading the Warriors series... I am reading "Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg" with Demi and Amie right now, and Demi is reading lots of "Calvin & Hobbes", as always.

Next up on our list is "Peter and the Starcatchers" which was recommended
by OC Mom, and "The Mob-feather and bones series" which is a series about crows- a favorite study subject of Meg's, I think she might like it...

So, what are you reading? Any good recommends?

Labels: book review, reading basket

Demi-Sky acquired a new skill a few weekends ago. He was determined, worked hard at it- and did it! About time, too- he's 8.















Well, Amie was not going to stand for being left-behind. She threw down the glove and asked Daddy to take the training-wheels off her bike, too.

(Mom made sure she was all padded-up)







We thought it would take a week of small tries for her to reach success.

We underestimated our little fire-ball, as usual.

A few minutes later, and voila! She was riding!








She rides into the sunset, no looking back.


It's been a running joke in our house that if you want Amie to do something,
-give it to- or have Demi do it first... it's all too true...

Labels: family

Several very late nights later, and I'm finally done with the homeschool records!!




It's one of the drawbacks of homeschooling through a charter school. The needs of record-keeping combined with my procrastinating nature...it's just not pretty. This end of the year stuff was the worst I have let it get, I hope a good lesson for me in the future...




And here is a look at how my brain operates best;

I think best, it seems...surrounded by piles.

Summer, here we come!

Labels: homeschool

I've got a lot of homeschool wrapping-up to do, and a lot of paperwork/records to catch up on...just in case you are wondering where I am- things will be a little slow around this blog for the next week I am thinking.

I have a lot to talk about too, really not a good time to be too busy to blog...

like- my best friend moving to Singapore;

like my youngest deciding to learn to ride a bike in one afternoon, because her brother learned;

or about how one should not decide to throw in squats into one's new exercise routine the morning before heading to Disneyland for 5 hours...just saying. It was a severe and painful tactical error, I'll -ahem, not be repeating.

I was strung out on advil with my feet up that night, so no blogging.

see you around the blogosphere soon, internets....

It's official, I am now the mother of a teen-age daughter- Meg just celebrated her 13th birthday.


Here is the birthday girl....










Here is the water-balloon toss Sky was organizing in the backyard...














In the midst of the game, the sprinklers unexpectedly came on! Screaming and running commenced. I was too busy running to capture any good photos....I did catch this one though.













Order and dryness restored. Parents watching safely from the sidelines...we added up the risks and decided the patio would be the safest spot.











had to add this one in for cuteness factor...isn't she sweet?
She's our neighbor. The little boy is one of our nephews.

I think the summer birthday party season has begun, we went to one on Sunday and have one this coming weekend to go to.

whew!

at least my house is clean now.

Labels: family