Tim And Angi » HS General

Organized The Boys’ Computer Nook

Angi — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:50:26 +0000

After Little T dropped a soda can onto the floor which proceeded to burst and soak everything within reach, we were forced to put together the boys new computer desks. These desks were picked up on sale and we used some discounts and coupons we had which made them inexpensive enough to get two of them, one for each child. These were planned to be a birthday gift later this year so this was obviously not planned to be done last week.

Over the past month or so, we’ve been picking up little things to go on their desks and tucking them away. Scissor, tape dispenser, paper clips, pencil cups, and other various desk items are just a few of the items we’ve picked up. We bought everything in twos, typically one in red and one in blue. We, also, tucked away the two mailboxes that Grandma Deb picked up on clearance after Valentine’s Day. They boys love sending and receiving mail and I thought what a fantastic way to send little notes to the boys at their computers.

Midway through Day 1

Tim moved out the old desks for me early Monday morning. Grandma Deb came over to help out that afternoon. She watched the boys and helped them clear out the clutter that accumulated under their desks. I put together the bottom of the first desk but my back starting hurting so we called it a day.

End of Day 1

Day 2: Grandma Deb came over again to help out with the boys which made putting the desk hutch a snap. I, also, got some of Little T’s desk put together but after a while I called it a day.

End of Day 2

Day 3: Grandma Deb came over again to help out with the boys which made finishing up a breeze. Tim helped out this round since he was off work at this point. With his help, we were able to complete Little T’s desk and begin moving the desks into the computer nook. Of course, this instantly meant the boys wanted to start putting away their new stuff.

All Done

Tada! The boys new desks and freshly organized computer nook. Over the weekend, we put the computers and accessories on the desk. Now, the only thing left to figure out is where we’ll hang their calendars. I figured we’ll play it by ear until after we get all the accessories in place. Oh, and we’ll need to find a lighting strip that will fit under the shelf to light up where the monitor will be placed.

Emergency/Medical IDs

Angi — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:36:10 +0000

A few years ago, we decided to get the boys ID cards that would have our phone number in case they were separated from us. We had concerns about Little T not being able to communicate with anyone due to his Apraxia. We researched a variety of ways to get the emergency information into a portable method that the boys would actually use. Jewelry was out because most are geared to medical conditions of which Drama King has none.

Then, we stumbled across the perfect solution. National Emergency / Medical ID provides an ID that is similar in size to a driver’s license and contains both emergency and medical information for children age 0-21. And when we got ours, we were able to get a 2 for 1 deal and free yearly updated cards for one low price. And because we got ours from a kiosk in front of a store, we also got badge holders for the boys to wear the ID cards around their necks. This was great because the boys loved to wear my old work badges and these would have their own information.

We received two ID cards per child. We kept one for each child on a lanyard on my desk at home and one in their backpacks in the car. Whenever we are planning to go somewhere, the boys put on their lanyards before we leave the house. We tuck them inside their shirts and remind them what to do if they cannot find us. And for those spontaneous stops, we have a spare card in their backpacks already in the car. I am thankful we’ve never needed them but they have offered much peace of mind for any parent.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Angi — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:14:13 +0000

Our boys participated in a homeschool country wide Valentine exchange. Since the valentines were coming from various places, it also allowed for a geography lesson. Each family was asked to send some interesting facts about their state. I have lived in the same city my entire life and when looking for interesting facts about Arizona, I still learned something. I knew that Arizona was admitted to the union in February but it never clicked that it was on February 14th.

Our World Is A Little Cleaner Today

Angi — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:53:12 +0000

We walked to our neighborhood park this afternoon and along the way our boys decided to help make the world a little cleaner. They each picked up as many trash items as they could hold in their little hands and carried them all the way to the park. When we got to the park, they each threw the items in the trash and were very proud of themselves.

On the way home, they repeated the process and threw the items in our garbage. They were so proud of themselves for helping the environment that I asked them if they wanted to bring a small trash bag with us next time. They were very excited about that idea because they could pick up a lot more with a small bag then they were able to carry today.

New Paint Job

Angi — Sun, 17 May 2009 08:00:46 +0000

Drama King asked ever so nicely to paint a “project” so out came the paint, paper and brushes. He took out his own scissors (the ones etched with his name) and completed his project. He said he wanted to finish “touching up” his project later so I let him keep the paint out. About an hour later, Tim and I heard the garage door opening and closing so Tim went to check it out. A few seconds later I hear him scream for me to come help him.

I get up and walk towards the garage while trying to figure out what what going on. When I got to the garage, I saw it. The boys decided to paint our van and the garage wall. Thankfully, we only buy washable paints and the boys were able to easily wipe off the paint with a little water. Of course after an incident like that, we attempt to figure out who’s idea and why? This round it was Drama King’s idea because he doesn’t like the color of the van and the garage is unpainted unlike the rest of the house. At least they had a reason!

Sourdough Starter

Angi — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:52:28 +0000

We bought some sourdough starter a week or so ago. We increased it and shared it with some homeschool peers. We have made a couple loaves of bread but are still getting used to making our own bread. Due to the bread being so thick, we bought a Kitchenaide stand mixer. We’ve also used it to make some other things, too.

The boys love using the mixer to help make their own bread. They want to mix everything in it so we have to help them understand what can and cannot go into the mixer. All in all, it’s been fun and will get a lot of use in the next few days.

Butterfly Send Off

Angi — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:02:29 +0000

This afternoon we released our little butterflies. Tim setup the video camera on the tripod to capture the release on film but it appears the movie may not have come out very well so he’s working on it. While the camera rolled he also snapped a handful of photos of the release.

We opened up Little T’s cage first and John Cena and Big Show quickly fluttered away. Next, we opened Drama King’s cage. Cat and Turtle fluttered off behind John Cena and Big Show. Moe stayed behind and appeared to not have any interest in leaving. He hobbled around on the ground for a while until we noticed that one of his wings was malformed and he was unable to fly very far. The boys followed him around watching him while I constructed a wire cube with 2 missing sides to allow for easy access to the put food inside the cage. i covered the cube with a mesh laundry bag. We added a child sized clothes hanger at the top and hung the cage in the opening between the living room and dining room.

Drama King is worried about his new pet but at the same time is very excited about having a butterfly. He held her when we were attempting the release and we got a photo of him and Moe. I’ll be uploading though to the album soon so go check them out.

Shaking The Habitat

Angi — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 05:23:11 +0000

We watched last night as Moe, one of the caterpillar turned chrysalis, shook the entire habitat in his attempt to escape the chrysalis form and emerge as a beautiful butterfly. This process is lengthy so we missed the actual emergence which occurred while we were fast asleep.

The boys watched the butterflies flutter around this morning and we will release them into the wild on Sunday. We have been opening the curtains so they can soak up all the sun rays they need. We also gave them some sugar water to drink.

The remainder of the caterpillars the rest of the unschoolers received are in various states. It’s amazing that all of these caterpillars came from the same source and were roughly the same age when we received them; however, they have all taken different amounts of time to become butterflies. One person noticed that each household’s caterpillars are on similar schedules but they differ from household to household.

This has been an interesting experiment for the family. I even had the boys put together a journal where they drew about each step of the process and “wrote” what they learned.

Photos have been added to the album.

It’s Chrysalis Time

Angi — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:29:30 +0000

We awoke this morning to our first chrysalis. JC is beginning his metamorphosis stage. The remaining 4 caterpillars are now hanging from the lid this evening so we assume they will be in the chrysalis stage by morning. Oh and the unnamed caterpillar finally got a name, Turtle. Turtle was the last one to hang from his lid so he is definitely the baby of the bunch.

My mom … According to Little T (age 5)

Angi — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:24:31 +0000

1. What is something mom always says to you?

I don't know

2. What makes mom happy?

I don't know

3. What makes mom sad?

I don't know

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

Tickling me

5. What was your mom like as a child?

A little tiny baby

6. How old is your mom?

6

7. How tall is your mom?

9

8. What is her favorite thing to do?

play on the computer

9. What does your mom do when you’re not around?

I don't know

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

I don't know

11. What is your mom really good at?

I don't know

12. What is your mom not very good at?

wrestling. you no good wrestling. daddy's good at wrestling.

13. What does your mom do for her job?

is this the last one?

14. What is your mom’s favorite food?

you tell me

15. What makes you proud of your mom?

i don't know

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

poop poop head (that's his signature answer when he is overloaded and will no longer cooperate)

17. What do you and your mom do together?

18. How are you and your mom the same?

19. How are you and your mom different?

20. How do you know your mom loves you?

21. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go?

My mom … According to Drama King (age 4)

Angi — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:12:43 +0000

1. What is something mom always says to you?

Nice things

2. What makes mom happy?

Doing good things

3. What makes mom sad?

Pooping in my pull up

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

Tickling me

5. What was your mom like as a child?

Good things

6. How old is your mom?

I don’t know. You tell me.

7. How tall is your mom?

1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9 (as he counted from my toes to my head)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?

work

9. What does your mom do when you’re not around?

work

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

I don’t know. What that mean?

11. What is your mom really good at?

Jak and poop game (PS2 games that I help him with)

12. What is your mom not very good at?

racing

13. What does your mom do for her job?

Keep working

14. What is your mom’s favorite food?

everything

15. What makes you proud of your mom?

playing

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

Dora

17. What do you and your mom do together?

Race, find dinosaurs, find pieces of dinosaur bones, open pumpkins, watch cowboys, and he kept going on and on.

18. How are you and your mom the same?

Playing games

19. How are you and your mom different?

You’re mom and I’m Drama King so you’re different. You’re bigger and I’m smaller.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?

Pooping in the potty (I have no idea)

21. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go?

Restaurants

Metamorphosis: A Journey To Adulthood

Angi — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 03:29:31 +0000

The boys and some of their unschooled friends have a terrific science project underway. Each family will raise 5 caterpillars from their toddler years through adulthood. Once they have emerged as a beautiful painted lady butterfly, we will watch them for a few weeks and then release them into the great outdoors. We picked up the toddler ‘pillars on Thursday (3/5) and the boys insisted they must name the little guys. Drama King named his Cat and Moe. Little T named his John Cena and Big Show. The last little guy remains unnamed but the boys have decided that he belongs to Tank. We hope to get photos at various stages and if lucky, we’ll get a video of a brand new butterfly as it emerges from it’s chrysalis.

Daisy and Clover

Angi — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 02:58:50 +0000

Soon, we’ll have a mini pot of each type growing in our house. Target had complete plant kits in the bargain bins for Saint Patrick’s day (clover) and Easter (daisy). Drama King will be maintaining the yellow pot (daisy) and Little T has the terracotta pot (clover). Once the plants are large enough, we can transplant them to our back yard.

We planted them on the 3rd and the clovers sprouted just 2 days later. The daisies have yet to sprout but we have hope for them.

Who knew that bath time could be so educational?

Angi — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:35:33 +0000

I’ve been using bath time to help teach the kids their writing skills. I use foaming soap and cover the walls of the shower for the kids to write. They will spend tons of time writing and erasing letters, numbers, shapes and drawings. Drama King is showing an interest in writing his name but only during tub time. I couldn’t get him interested in writing at all. He said it was no fun so I had to come up with a better way for him. I think he thought it was no fun because Little T kept correcting him when we wrote on paper. In the tub, Little T is too busy drawing on his side to be concerned about Drama King being ‘wrong.’ Drama King is just learning how to connect lines to make ‘things’ so as expected, his letters are a little ‘off’. Little T doesn’t understand that Drama King is a year younger so he needs time to learn just like Little T had to learn and he picks at what Drama King does. I have to separate them for now when it comes to certain types of things so Drama King doesn’t get discouraged. Drama King and I work more on those ‘harder’ things when Little T goes to Grandma Deb ‘s house.

Grandma Deb has been great in accepting the whole home school philosophy. She watches both boys one night a week to give my time to prepare for the following week. She also watches each one on their own night to accomplish two things. 1) One on one time with her and 2) One on one time schooling with us. This helps out so much because I can tailor one day to each child. She wants to pick up another day where she takes both boys so I can get a little more work time. She used to watch them 4 days a week for about 5 hours while I worked outside the home. However since her surgery, I won’t let her have them for that same time. She needs to work up to that again because she is still recovering from her first EVER major surgery. She’s doing really well so I think in the next few weeks (2 months post-op) she should be good to watch both boys twice a week and each one once a week so back to 4 days but not as long and not with both every time.

I’ve just starting stumbling through Jump Start’s online tracking of the kids newest computer games. Little T has done pretty well in the kinder program given that he has only spent about 2 hours total (over about 3 weeks) playing the game. He’s even gotten 100% completed in one area. Of course, it’s a number area since he’s a number wiz. I’ve posted to see if the preschool version can be tracked online as well since I know Drama King has done a TON in that one. He loves to play the preschool game. He’s dabbled in the kinder one but gets frustrated because Little T wants to take the game over and insists that it is for him only. We have to work on that. LOL

Little T’s Last Day in a Public School

Angi — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:02:13 +0000

Well, home schooling came much earlier for Little T than originally planned. We went Thursday to his Meet The Teacher night to find out who his teachers would be and to make sure everything was setup for him to start school. We were misled by everyone at the school so today when we took him in for his first day, they turned us away saying we had to fill out enrollment paperwork. We received that paperwork in the mail and sent it in with copies of his birth cert, proof of residency, and other stuff. At the time, we thought how stupid it was to have to provide copies of all the stuff again since he was only transferring within the district and they already had copies of all his stuff. But, we sent it in anyways and just thought they are too dumb to realize he’s coming from their preschool and were treating him as a first time student. We had various run ins over the phone with very rude front desk staff in the past so this run in was just like the rest. I was also very ticked that all the paperwork they tried to hand to me was in Spanish which last I checked was against state law. When they attempted to hand me the paperwork, I just said ‘Don’t bother. I will home school him before he goes to this school’ and walked out. I told Little T quite loudly that he will never have to attend this horrid school and I was sorry for making him get up early for this waste of time. Oh, and another thing that got under my skin was his bus route.

He is 5 years old and they want him on the bus at 6:25 but school doesn’t start until 7:55. He would be on the bus, bored out of his mind, for 90 minutes. That is like an eternity for him and he would either fall asleep and be a grouch when they woke him up or he would become super hyper and want to run around the bus. Either way, he would be a bear for them and I’d hear about it over and over again from them. All in all, I am happy with our decision. I just do not feel that Little T would be safe at their school and I just care too much about the safety of my child to turn the other cheek. We are proud to say we home school Drama King and I feel Little T will benefit from being taught at home as well. I was hoping to get another year of double therapies (school and private) but we will just have to up his private therapies at our expense.

Tim And Angi » HS General

Organized The Boys’ Computer Nook

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Emergency/Medical IDs

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Happy Valentine’s Day

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Our World Is A Little Cleaner Today

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New Paint Job

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Sourdough Starter

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Butterfly Send Off

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Shaking The Habitat

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It’s Chrysalis Time

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My mom … According to Little T (age 5)

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My mom … According to Drama King (age 4)

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Metamorphosis: A Journey To Adulthood

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Daisy and Clover

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Who knew that bath time could be so educational?

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Little T’s Last Day in a Public School

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