Jokes

Jovi and Corbin currently love telling jokes.  I don't remember how he came up with it, I think Jovi made up a joke and Corbin added a variation, but Corbin's favorite joke is about his stuffed hamster, Squeaky.  "What does Squeaky do when he's bored?"  "He goes ice skating!"  Hilarious laughter ensues.  Sometimes he changes the punchline, aparently Squeaky has lots of options when he is bored, but ice skating is his favorite.  Corbin has never been ice skating, I'm not sure why Squeaky likes it so much.

Jovi's favorite joke was told to her by Laura. 
"Knock, knock"
"Who's there?"
"Interrupting cow."
Interrupting co-"
"MOOOOOO!" (obviously intterupting the previous statement)
There are now many variations on this joke, the interrupting pig, the interrupting duck, the interrupting cheese (introuduced by Juan, the cheese says "Cheese, cheese, cheese!").  They both love any jokes, but those are their favorites.  Jovi is old enough now that she gets most punny (haha) jokes and Corbin will laugh at anything if Jovi does so it is a lot of fun.  Do you have any good jokes to share?

Homeschooling Update

I haven't updated about homeschooling in quite a while.  In November I realized how unhappy I was with most of the programs I had chosen.  I blame it on a few things, but mainly on my inexperience, a lack of knowledge about my preferred teaching style with one student and a bad sense of how much time an activity should take.  I still think the curriculum I chose, (Five In a Row) is an awesome curriculum, but it is not awesome for me.  A curriculum is only as good as your implementation and I couldn't implement it well.  My problem with FIAR was that I thought I would love unit studies, where you study one thing, in this case a picture book, in depth and then move on to a different topic.  I found that I didn't like the constant changing of topics, I needed more continuity.  The constant changing made me feel stressed.  You are supposed to be able to use the FIAR lessons as is, just open and teach, but I felt I had to add stuff which was making me spend three or more hours lesson planning each week.  This planning added more stress. Then, because I had planned so much we wouldn't get to everything (and Jovi was seriously young when we started so her attention span was pretty short) which just caused me to be more stressed and discouraged.  We were getting further and further behind "schedule" so I just dropped everything except for reading and math.  But then Jovi's math program, which was easy and she was speeding through, got very hard.  There wasn't enough practice for her to master anything.  She was getting frustrated.  I was feeling frustrated and guilty for not doing more with her.  We needed a change.

I did a lot more research and chose a new program, Little Hearts For His Glory (yes, it is as Protestant Christian as it sounds).  It gives a biblical world history overview, includes every subject and is Charlotte Mason influenced, including the use of short lessons.  We kept our handwriting program, Handwriting Without Tears, and our reading program, Phonics Pathways and Starfall.com, but switched everything else.  Without homeschooling experience I would have never chosen this program.  I would have looked at it and said,  "No way, this is not what or how I want teach.".  I would have thought, "1-2 hours a day and I can teach all the schooling Jovi needs?  No way!"  I was very wrong.  I have found it to be a perfect fit for Jovi and I right now and am so grateful that we switched. 

The things I love about this program are: 1. It is truly open and go.  I read the lesson plans for the week (about 15 minutes) on Sunday and am ready for the rest of the week.  2. The layout of the lesson plans is SO easy to use.  Each day is shown on a two page spread with boxes around each subject.  I can easily track what we have done and what we still have to do.  3. The lessons are short.  We do at least 8 lessons/subjects a day, but since each lesson only lasts about 10 minutes Jovi stays interested in all of them.  We can also easily do two days of work in one day because of the length of the lessons.  I can occasionally add more things to do (like extra science and art) and not feel overwhelmed.  4. Jovi really likes the lessons.  A lot of them include acting stuff out which she loves.  5. The chapter books we read are wonderful.  They are, Favorite Thornton Burgess Animal Stories Boxed Set (Sets).  The chapters are short enough that she actually asks for more.  The morals are wonderful and since they are "old" she is being introduced to a whole set of vocabulary that she isn't used to hearing.

The program is not perfect by any means.  We don't use the devotional that was included.  Not only do I not agree with some of it, it is extremely harsh, there is so much talk about sinning and sinners and our evil hearts.  It is not how I want my children introduced to religion.  The science is extremely weak, we do extra science to supplement, especially since science is one of Jovi's favorite subjects.  The have craft projects, but we add extra art too.  Overall though I feel it is a wonderful program for us.  It is also helping me understand how to write lesson plans that will get done.  We will be using a different program next year, but I am so glad I found this one for this year.   

Ice and Snow

Last weekend the temperature was in the 60-70s.  You didn't even need to wear a jacket.  On Tuesday, the temperature dropped to below freezing and sleet fell all night.  We woke up to an inch or more of ice everywhere.  The city shut down, everything was closed.  Wednesday and Thursday it continued with below freezing temperatures along with rolling blackouts to avoid power failures.  We are very close to some nursing homes so we were not included in the rolling blackouts, at least I assume that was the reason why we weren't included.  On Friday we were supposed to get 1-2 inches of snow that turned into about 5 inches of snow by the time it stopped falling.  We had some fun playing in the snow yesterday.  Unfortunately, it was super powdery snow, snowmen were impossible to make.  We found ways to have fun anyway, like snowball fights and playing Jovi's made up game called "follow the snow tracks".  Someone makes tracks to a hiding place and everyone else has to follow the tracks to find them.  Today the snow is melting, but there is more winter weather in the forecast so we will see what the next week brings.




One good thing about an icy/snowy week is that we got a lot of school done and I was even able to sew a bit.  We ended up doing 4 (modified) weeks worth of work in one week and now we are on schedule to finish school by the end of June.  I made the kids a bunch of doll diapers, attempted tiny doll clothes (a bit of a disaster, but Jovi still likes them) and have started finishing all of my UfOs (unfinished objects).  I now have one baby boy gift, and am working on a whole stack of baby clothes that will turn into future shower gifts.

Potty Training

So, I go into a bit of detail on this post.  If you are squeamish consider yourself warned.  I am going into a bit of detail because I can't remember Jovi's potty training experience at all and wish I did, at least the basics.  I know she trained shortly after Corbin was born (which might explain why I can't remember) and I'm assuming it was fairly quick and painless because I DON"T remember and I can usually remember traumatic events. 

We tried potty training Corbin back about 6 months ago.  He got the pee thing down really quickly, but refused to poop in the potty.  Yes, I know we are supposed to use the correct words, but we don't.  Then a week into it he decided he didn't want to use the potty at all.  Several accidents later I gave up.  We still talked to him a lot about using the potty.  We read potty books.  He would occasionally ask to pee on the potty, and go, so I knew the connection was there.  He wanted nothing to do with pooping on the potty.  I decided not to push until last month.  I started telling him that three year olds at our house had to wear undies and use the potty.  I was very matter of fact about it.  It is just the way things are.  He would say he still wanted his diapers.  I would tell him all the great things he could do when he was potty trained like go to the IKEA kids class and stuff. 

Then, the day after his birthday, I pulled out the undies, Jovi's old potty chair, some serious bribes (including M&Ms and monster trucks) and we were ready to go.  If Corbin sat on the potty and "tried" he got a couple of M&Ms, if he actually went, he got more M&Ms, if he went poop he got a monster truck.  The first two days there were some accidents, but after that he was pee trained.  He has had 2 accidents since those first two days and he was really involved when they happened.  You could tell he totally forgot he needed to go.  Pooping was much harder, her really fought it.  He would hold it and complain about tummy aches until he couldn't hold it anymore and then he would go, but it would hurt and so he wouldn't want to go anymore and hold it... it was a vicious cycle.  About the second week he got a handle on it and I am happy to report he is now fully potty trained.  The bribes went away very naturally, none were needed (or even asked for) by the end of the second week.  I don't even have to ask him if he needs to go (the answer is always no when I ask), he comes and tells me.  I have no more children in diapers, I can't say I'm sad about that.  It is exciting to be a diaper free household. 

Corbin's Birthday and Goodby Laura

Two weeks ago Corbin turned 3 years old.  The night before Laura gave Corbin her gift, Superman pjs.  Corbin loves Superman and he was so excited.

Laura also gave Jovi Tinkerbell pjs.  They were both very grateful. 

Corbin showing off his super strength.

Laura helping Corbin to fly.

These are now Corbin's all time favorite pjs and he wears them as often as he can.  When he wears them he calls himself Superman and talks in third person.  "Superman needs to brush his teeth."  "Superman wants choose his book."  "Superman flys to bed."  are things he often says in the evenings nowadays.  It is too cute.

The next day, decorating with the Superman party Cricut cartridge, Corbin got a Superman birthday. 

We had a family celebration at Chuck E Cheese.  For some unknown reason, last year Jovi decided she was very scared of Chuck E Cheese.  This quickly went from avoiding him at the restaurant to refusing to even walk in, so we asked her if she would be ok with the party being there and after much discussion she said she would be ok.  This lasted until she actually saw Chuck E Cheese.  She freaked out and refused to move from our booth.  My mom left with her early, but rather than that small snag we all had a great time. (I made the applique for Corbin's shirt with my Cricut and sewing machine :) ).  Corbin got some great presents.  I think his favorite was the Thomas Train trackmaster stuff from my parents.  He loves running those electric trains.











My sister, Laura, has been living with us for just over a year.  It started as a very temporary thing, because she thought she wanted to buy a house and didn't want to be locked into an apartment rent agreement.  After a lot of looking she decided that she didn't want to buy a house right now, then she stayed because her rent was helping our budget.  It was a fun year having her here for dinners and evening game playing, but I think the coolest thing was how my kids got to develope such a wonderful relationship with their aunt.  On Corbin's birthday she packed everything she owned into her car (an amazing feat in and of itself) and left to do a year of service with AmeriCorps in Montana doing statistical analysis of their financial literacy programs.  I think she is in for a fun and exciting adventure and I'm so proud of her for choosing to do something totally out of her comfort zone.  I hope she has a wonderful year.  We love you and miss you Laura!

First Snow Day of the Year

The Sunday before Corbin's birthday we got 4 inches of snow, that stuck!  Unfortunately, Juan had put weed and feed on the lawn before it snowed so we couldn't play there, but our driveway had more than enough snow to play in.  I learned that my snowman making skills are sadly lacking and we really don't own the right clothing for serious snow playing, but we had lots of fun anyway.




Juan gave his car a Mohawk.

Seriously need to catch up

I can't believe it's been two months since I've blogged.  Well, lots of stuff has happened.  To catch up, We had a great time visiting the zoo with some friends. 

We had a nice pre Thanksgiving with my family.

We had Thanksgiving with Juan's family at his mom's house (Unfortunately I forgot my camera.).  We had a really great time with his family, great food and fun and games, but going home was less than ideal.  Corbin cried the whole 2 1/2 hour trip home.  Really, the whole time.  We were considering going to Eagle Pass for Juan's grandparent's 60th anniversary which would have been an 8+ hour drive each way.  We opted for sending a card.  I'm praying he grows out of this because we are driving up to Minnesota this summer whether he does or not.
We are still enjoying going to the DMA's first Tuesday activities.  In fact, we just became DMA members for the free parking perks.  These are the Dr. Seuss hats the kids made during December's first Tuesday.  We also decorated Christmas cookies.



Then my camera battery died and I lost my charger and I wasn't able to take any pictures (or upload the old ones) till I got a new charger right before Christmas.  Honestly, December was pretty boring.  The biggest news was that I started working for my sister who is disabled and has always had serious health issues.  She lives with my parents and we go over and help her with errands and cleaning and stuff every Tuesday and part of Thursday.  I had big plans for making Christmas items, making our family matching Christmas pjs and lots of baked goods to hand out to friends and family.  None of it ended up getting done because two weeks before Christmas Corbin got croup which turned into pneumonia and had me sitting on a couch with him every day watching children's movie after children's movie.  Juan and Jovi also got sick for part of that time.  I got a lot of reading done, but not much else.  Fortunately, everyone felt good enough to enjoy Christmas Eve at my parent's house.







Sickness reigned Christmas Day, but at least not for the kids.  We were supposed to go to Juan mom's house, but Ruben's family was sick so we put that off till New Years Day.   Then we were going to get together with my family for a Christmas lunch, but both my Dad and Mom woke up sick.   We ended up spending a quiet Christmas day at home playing with our new toys.  Corbin got a wooden train set, Jovi got a play laptop, Juan got a bunch of board games and I got a cricut.  I totally wasn't expecting it and it is just as awesome as I thought it would be.  I've been having a lot of fun playing with it.
That week we went to the Frisco Science Center where we have a family membership.  It's small, but a lot of fun and they have a daily story time and craft.  We go 2-3 times a month.


On New Year's Eve my family came over for a pizza dinner.  Everyone hung out till we put the kids to bed and then my sisters left to go to parties.  My parents stayed and played a game with us and then left.  Juan and I rung in the new year on our own.  On New Year's Day day we went to his mom's house celebrate Christmas.  We had a lot of fun and the kids got some very nice presents AND Corbin only cried the last 30 minutes of the drive home (there is hope).





Next time, Corbin's Birthday and Laura leaving...