The Mystery of the Tossed Newspaper

The Mystery of the Tossed Newspaper
by Karli

     That afternoon while Teegan was doing her homework she heard a crash.  She hurried outside and saw Ms. Cupseye cleaning up some of her tea cup that spilled.  

"Good afternoon, Ms. Cupseye, what's the problem?  It happened again?  You spilled your cup?"

"Yes, but this time I didn't spill it and my newspaper's gone."

"Didn't you see it?"

"No, because I went inside."

"Oh. Ummmm.... why don't you make a new one?"

"I can't drink because I need my newspaper."

"Why can't you drink without it?"  Teegan asked.

"Because I need to see the news, so I can see if anybody put poison in my cup."

"Well...where did you put your cup when you went inside?"

She replied, " On the edge."

"Hey, did you let your cat out?"

"Yes."

"Where is his favorite spot to lay?"

"By the bushes."

She looks by the bushes and looks on the cat's tail.  Ahhhhhhh, that weded.

"Your cat knocked the cup over" Teegan said.

"How?" she said.

"You put your cup on the edge.  You went inside and your cat came out and knocked over the cup that made the newspaper fall."

Teegan handed Ms. Cupseye her newspaper and walked away with a smile.   

A Snip and a Snap

A Snip and A Snap

by Karli

That day we went to the hairshop  I didn't want to go because I had long, black hair and it was winter.  It was a chilly, cold day.  My ma took my hand and I followed along.

As we walked in a nice man took me in.  He placed me in a chair and put a towel on me.  Then he washed my hair.  Next he snipped and snapped.

After I was done, I looked in the mirror with amazement.  I loved it.

I thanked the man and I walked out the door.  I felt a chill, but it was a nice breeze.  I think I'm going to have a wonderful winter.

Baseball Player

John Platt

by John Platt

I am a baseball player

I wonder what will happen in the game

I hear the coaches yelling

I see the pitcher on the mound

I want to steal a base

I am a baseball player

I pretend to be Jackie Robinson and steal home plate

I feel that pressure is on me

I touch homebase

I am worried what the call will be, I hope I will be safe

I am a baseball player

I understand I might be out

I say I must be safe for the umpire stretches out his arms "SAFE!"

I dream what will happen for we will celebrate

I am a baseball player

The Monster by Karli Platt

Once there lived a monster, very hungry and smacky.  In the forest lived a pretty little girl named Saige who had brown hair.  She lived on a tree.  When it stormed she always had a shelter.  One day when she slept the monster crept to find food.  When he heard a yawn the monster ran toward the noise.  Saige heard the paws.  She was scared.  So she went away to the city.  She never, never knew how busy it was because her parents left her in the forest.  She hurried toward a High School.  When she entered everyone stared.  She looked around the corner and saw the monster.  AHHHHHHHH..........  She ran out of the High School, but the city was filled with monsters.
She woke up.  "Where am I?  Did I get swallowed up by the monsters?  I can fight him," she thought.  "Saige, it is time for school." She heard her mom yell.  "But what about the monsters," she thought.  "It was probably just a bad dream.  She actually lived in a house.  She got dressed and went to school.  And there were no monsters.  Just Saige.

Picture this!

The other day I found this great book at the library. So, on this fine summer morning I decided to do a small lesson on Impressionism. We discussed Camille Pissarro's painting entitled The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning. As seen here:

After discussing his techniques there was an opportunity and activity to try out one of the techniques he used in some of his paintings. So here are some of our pictures using oil pastels/crayons and watercolors. We had fun. I made the rule that the kids only had one sheet of paper to work with so they had to really focus on what they wanted to do. Here are our "Pissarro" paintings.

Something old, something new

When I was in college, my mom had a very handy gift made for me by my youth pastor, Mike Baumgardner. It was great. I used it in college for my letter writing "station". I was cleaning out some shelves today and came across it:

It has paper and envelopes to write letters, but I now have a desk for that. Wondering what I could use this for I decided to use it as a "Sick Desk". It is great for storing things and a hard surface on top for writing or coloring. So today I put together our SICK DESK. I filled it with crayons, paper, coloring and activity books, pencils, books and playdough. So, whenever the kids are sick and stuck on the couch they now have a nice box with fun things to do. I love finding old things that I can find new uses for! Here is a look at the final product:

With this fun box, my kids will almost want to get sick...ok, maybe it isn't THAT great!

Workbox- My Style (Updated and more detail)

To begin with, I previously wrote about my WORKBOX SYSTEM here. I was not able to go into more detail so I kept promising that I would, and now I have. See below.

First, this is part of my lesson plan (thanks to my friend Rachel, she came up with this, I can not get the credit). On the far left are the days numbered for school (i.e. day 71, day 72, etc.). I could only fit a few subjects into the picture. I have it by date and then you read across left to right. The previous blog was not able to explain this part.

Here is my workbox! It is just a bankers box and file folders...but it has made my life so much better! Read on to see how it works. I know it doesn't look like the normal workboxes you are use to seeing, but trust me it is sooooo helpful.

Here are the file folder, just simply labeled per day. What I do is take the lesson plan and then find all the supplies I need for that day (the day listed to the far left) and then put them in that file folder. I get all the items cut out, ready to go. So when that day comes, all I have to do is pull out that folder and it is all there. Then...

(Here is what one of the folders has in it.)...if there is a page or supplies that needs to be used a different day I take a sticky note and write what day(s) it needs to be moved to when we are done using it. Here is an example of that:
Should there be any supplies that might not fit into the box, or that I have to get the week of I put a sticky note sticking out of the top so I can see it flagged.

Here is what it looks like when I am looking at my Workbox:

I grab the sticky notes and add it to my shopping list. I am planning on trying to do a library list next year. I am working on that. More to come on that later.

So this is my workbox system. The thing I like about it compared to the other workbox systems out there is that everything is already to go, it doesn't take up much space, I don't have to prepare something each night (it is already done) and once day one is done I can start planning on next year when I have time. Just keep rotating. I also like it because if we get behind in one subject I can always see what day the supplies are in. See below. We are a little behind in Spelling on this lesson sheet, so even though we are ahead of that day the items are still in that day. So, when I come to Spelling list 13 worksheet and need it I can go to day 64 and pull it out even though we are on day 70.

I hope that this has been more informative than the previous post. I know that a lot of people have wanted more, and it has taken me some time to get to it. So, here it is. I hope it can help someone out. I have taken things I have read elsewhere and squeaked it to what works for me. With four kids it is hard to keep track of all the different things I need...this works for me. It might not work for you, but maybe you can take something from it and make your own system. I hope you have a great school year, I know we are!

Happy Creativity!

We love Halloween for the very fact that we get to celebrate creativity and use their imagination to be whatever they want to be!

We were so proud of John, he made his own costume (minus the helmet). He drew on some white long johns and then for Captain Rex's black "skirt" he tied a black t-shirt around his waist. He looked great!

Trick or treating at one of our favorite neighbor's house.

Yes, Jason and I were Bacon and Eggs! The perfect match!

Cinnamon went trick or treating himself and found some candy. (Don't worry you dog lovers out there we got it after this picture. No chocolate was consumed!)

Sadly, this is not all the candy we got...anyone want some?

Fun with friends!

If you have never thought of the pumpkin as a chance to remember what God has done, please keep reading.

1. First when you get the pumpkin you cut open the top. This is a great reminder that we need to open our minds to the things of the Lord, searching for Him.

2. Second, God takes all the crappy stuff out of our lives when we confess our sins and trust in Him alone to save us. (1 John 1:9)

3. Third, as you cut the eyes in the pumpkin we can be reminded to ask God to help us see more of Him. (Psalm 119:18)

4. Next, when you cut the mouth you can be reminded to share Jesus and all the things God has done for you with those you meet. (Psalm 118:17)

5. When you place the candle in your pumpkin it can be a reminder for our lives to shine for Him. (Matthew 5:16)

I know this is posted after Halloween, but I hope that you are able to look at pumpkins in a different light each fall. What another Great reminder of all God has done for us!

Homeschool Year 3, Day 17 - Favorite Hat Day

This year to make it more exciting, more variety I have thrown in "spirit days". A couple of weeks ago we had orange day. Today was Favorite Hat Day! Here is a picture of the kids with their favorite hats on. In the afternoon we had our activity for History to do and I thought tha tit was appropriate that we had to make Roman Headpieces (which I got from this curriculum). They had fun putting those together, I wish I could say that I had cordinated that, but I didn't. They added beads to make it more decorative. The funny thing is last week we were learning Ancient American and learned about the native americans. So, I had to remind them that it was Ancient Rome that we were making the headpieces for. They kept running around the house yelling for everyone to come to their Indianland. Oh, well, at least they remembered what we learned LAST WEEK! I think we might have to do a review of Rome next week. 8-)

Grab my button and learn to make your own!

Ok, so I have gone to so many different blogs and love how they have buttons to link others to their site. Not that it is needed, but really wanted to learn how to do it. So where did I go?? My favorite place...google. It first took me to this blog, which is pretty cool, but she had a great link where she learned how to make her own button. So it took me to this blog. It could not have made it more clear how to make your own.

I think it took me a total of 20 minutes to complete. That included designing mine as well. She designed her logo in Photoshop 7.0, but I don't have that on my computer so I just tried Paint, and made it a smaller size and it worked.

I did use Photobucket to upload my photos and it was so easy! I am so excited and it was so simple if I want to change it and have a different design I can! Have fun and let me know in my comment box if you found this helpful and if you created one for your site so I can add it to my blog!

The kids declared it School Picture Day!

I came out of the shower this morning to find my kids dressed in some of their nicer clothes. "Mom, today is school picture day." "It is", I replied. So it was. I drew a backdrop on the chalkboard and tried my best in the limited space to take a good one. I am sure my husband would have done a better job! He is our photographer. He said he will take the class photo this week sometime.

Our youngest has declared that it needs to be a photo in the backyard. So here are our school photos for the year. Hope you like them. I love my kids and their creativity. Who told them you get school pictures anyway??? Hey, at least this photographer only had 4 in the class!