Luv, Lafter, Play and Success!

No fab trip to talk about, but certainly a fab weekend to tell about. After 3 dayz of missing my gurl i got to pick her up from her theater class at ACO. This was her second time to go. The first time she went they auditioned for parts and this time they got the full script and got assigned there parts. She got the part of the daughter. The play is called "The Truth" and it is about a two children who learn that you cant make a truth out of a lie. I'd tell more, but i cant go giving away they whole plot and ending. Maybe some of you can come up to see they play? Its not until November tho. After getting home we got in a good solid hour of Barbies, had some lunch, played babysitter where we cracked up making crazy baby noises, and then i taught Science and Heritage Studies for the first time. It went very good. She is such a smart gurl, which makes the teaching all that more easy. I learned a lot over the weekend too about how and what to prep; not prep and how to go about teaching. It is great to have the option and the freedom to not have to follow the teachers guide word for word; step by step. I found myself covering things w/o the manual and found her answering questions before we even got to them. BTW we are learning about farms in heritage studies and we learned about Forces in Science. I am looking forward to covering the upcoming lessons this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday (the days i have decided to teach). I had gotten a scale to use for our Gravity lesson and when we were done she asked me if she could have it. Of course, so she immediately wanted to play a game involving it. hehe. It was grocery shop where at the check out she weighted each item and determined how much it cost by how much it weighed. it was awesome. Played a little outside, including superhero's and a play very much like the one she is doing at ACO (i think she likes drama ; ). Sunday was wonderful Church, then home to play Barbies and to do some school before heading to Fun City for a B-day party. It was for one of the boys that she goed to Treehouse w/. She had a really good time; glad we went. We boogied home, she played Cinderella on her V-smile and then we did the rest of our school for the day. Before bed, in the bed, we reenacted this magic show we watched earlier. Its this show where they show you a trick and then show you how its done. Kelly was the masked magician and two unicorns were the assistants. it was hilarious and we were bustin up by the end. So the weekend was just full of love, laughter, play, and successful school! Later.

Random Thoughts!

I Love MaryJane!

Kittens are cute (and sometimes annoying)!

"Ma Ma Mia"! "Pa Pa Pia"!

Thank you MetallicA!

Take that Seahawks!

Well, Well, Well...

...look who decided to Blog today. Shame on me for not posting earlier this week *slapping own hand*. Hard to believe its already Thursday, but kinda glad it is. Im going to Fayetteville tomorrow from 9:00 to 4:00 on paid company time to take my first of 3 Excel classes. Should be aight. I like to think i know a lot about Excel, but i know there is a lot i dont know to so this should get me squared away. So before im gone tomorrow i must recap last weekend and this weeks happenings.

Weekend was nice. Got out to home depot and built a sweet pair of uprights. She gets to make a Firetruck next time and there going to have the a truck and a fire fighter or two there as well. Watched the brand spankin new Barbie and the Diamond Castle Movie. It was so awesome. She loves it. One of the best parts is when these 2 cute puppies dance. Went to Church and to the Jones Center to swim on Sunday. She gave me some wild swimming lessons, we played super hero's in the water, and just had the best time. ...and of course we played around the house; duh! haha.

Tuesday was packed, as it usually is this time of year. Can anyone tell me why EVERYTHING is on Tuesday? MaryJane kicked the day of w/ her first day of Treehouse. Mommy called around 10:15 am to report that she was totally into it, as we knew she would be. She has an adorable little friend named Shayla there and aside from the 2 classes they dont have together they spent, and will spend, every moment together. they are quite the pair of monkeys. they just crack each other up w/ there crazy antics and behaviour. ill have to get a pick of them..that is if i can get them to stand still for 2 seconds. haha. I am going over a lunch on tuesdays to spend an hour w/ her (and Shayla) and we love that. She said enjoyed all her morning classes. they ate for about 15 minutes and then we ran around indoors and out as if we were some animals that had escaped the zoo and were having a party to celebrate. the best lunch ive had in a looong time...and i get to do it 9 more times woohoo! Im also getting off at 4 on Tuesdays so i can pick her up and take her to the library for class. : ) so i did, and she sat thru maybe 1 minute of class before she wanted to go get book. Was ok w/ me so we did. Shes loving horses, ponies, (b)unicorns, and Pegasuses right now so she picked out 18 horse and unicorn books..and one cat book for good measure. hehe. then it was off to community group. i anticipated a possible issue since i was going to be leaving her at the babysitters...and there was a problem...she really didnt want to stay and didnt make her. So off to mommy's she went and i went on to community group. It was good to get back into a lesson. We are doing a DVD study. The DVD is called "The Sacred Marriage" and although im the only single there i have been married and have plenty of input and am taking plenty away from it. I had lunch w/ Brandon, our leader, today. He called me and took me to this place called Jason's Deli down by the mall and man was it phat. : d

M.J. and i spend last night just hanging out playing the barbie that could only speak to animals and the prince who just didnt get it, pet shops, beauty salon, and this cool game where we type e-mails to each other from under our pillows. : )

M.J., mommy and some other homeschoolers are rocking the Benton County Fair tomorrow so look for goodies about that over at Jess's spot coming soon.

So ill end w/ some really exciting newz..to me at least. Starting next week i am taking over teaching 2 subjects. Yea! Im a little nervous, but very confident in my ability to teach these 2 subjects. They are Science and Heritage Studies. I will keep you all updated.

Later

Goodies!

Homeschool is going great. M.J. luvs the BJU Press Curriculum. Her fav subject is math.

Had our first community group meeting for this semester last nite. Just grubbed, caught up, and talked for a few minutes about how this go round will go. Some new couples, one of which has a 6 yr old daughter named Mikaela. MaryJane and hr are friends already and she is happy that there is now a girl her age to play with at community group.

Got MaryJane signed up for her next drama class today. She moving up into the next level of class you might call it. Shes taken 4 drama classes previous, and they were all great, but they were all fairly simple as well and i have looked forward to when she was old enough to advance into the next level of class. As you can see by the description of this class it goes deeper into the world of theater.

Kids Theatre Production Workshop for 2nd-3rd grade with Judy Scott– This production oriented class teaches the world of theatre through actual performance. From auditioning to learning lines to developing characters, plus costumes, sets, lights, sound.

Around the Treehouse!

So you may remember me mentioning the Treehouse openhouse last week. Well, it was neat. M.J. took me on a tour of the Church and classes were decided on. She did not want to go a full day like last semester, which was fine w/ mommy and me, but we felt like it was important for her to take at least 2 classes. The program is so good in so many ways, from the educational standpoint as well as the social interaction standpoint and we want to keep her involved because of those things. Jessica has also taken on the responsibility of Official Treehouse Secretary (go mommy, it not your birthday) and if she going to take on that responsibility M.J. needs to take some classes. Well, it seems the job of secretary requires a bit more on hands involvement then we originally anticipated and Jess will need to be at the Church all day on Tuesdays so guess what that means....yes, M.J. is now in 6 classes instead of two...and she is ok w/ that. Her reasoning for not wanting to go to Treehouse this semester was because she didnt want to be away from us (she is VERY clingy right now), but w/ Jess being there all day and me coming to spend lunch she feels better about going. MaryJane is excited and looking forward to this coming Tuesday when Treehouse kicks off.

Here are the class descriptions:

Connecting With Nature

It’s only natural to be curious about the things we see in nature – why do some animals eat other animals? How come trees don’t grow in deserts? What is a rainforest? We’ll learn about how different plants and animals are connected to each other and to the world around them. We’ll use activities, games, and experiments to find out the answers to some of our questions about nature and how it works, and while we’re learning about the environment we will learn a whole new way to enjoy being outside.

Discovering The Treehouse

Based on the popular Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne, we will use this wonderful series to explore the magic of books. Do Dinosaurs Before Dark, The Knights at Dawn, Mummies in the Morning sound interesting? This class is for beginning and non-readers. We will read, discuss and do some projects pertaining to the "time" we travel to. We will read portions of the book in class but students should ideally have a copy of the book to read at home with a parent or on their own. This course will run through Spring Term 2009. A ticket for the spring production of The Magic Treehouse at the Walton Arts Center will be included in the Spring Term 2009 materials fee.

Family Math – level one

We will focus on practicing problem solving techniques, mental arithmetic, estimation, place value, and exploring relationships of multiples and factors of the first one hundred numbers.

Seasonal Arts & Crafts

We’ll be cutting and pasting and creating a variety of cool crafts each week. Kids will have fun using different mediums to create projects perfect for any fridge, centerpiece or gift-giving occasion.

Principles and Elements of Art

Students will learn the principles and elements of art and how they can be used to create a work of art. Wear old clothes or bring a smock. You will get messy.

Mad Science

Kids will enjoy exciting hands-on activities, watch spectacular demonstrations, participate in inquiry-based discussions and take home things that they have made themselves like monster drinks, glow-in-the-dark 3D constellations, cannons, Mad Science slime, putty and more. Topics will include astronomy, matter, polymers, light, lasers and more. This class is going to be VERY cool. Please note that there are no tuition discounts for this course. www.madscience.org/

From No-Labor 2 Labor-Labor!

Wanted to get a post up yesterday, but its been mad krazy around here. A day off on close week toped w/ lots of out of the ordinary issues makes for a fun week. The weekend and the day off was great. M.J. and i played around the house, got out and did some stuff, knocked out some chores, and had did our guitar / bible lesson for the weekend. Saturday made a trip to Barnes and Noble where she picked up a free book she had been wanting. She read 8 books to get it. She played babysitter w/ her kitten. That thing is surprisingly ok w/ being treated like a baby. hehe. Also made a sweet polly pocket pool out of a ceramic dish and wooden blocks that provided hours of fun playtime. Sunday w/ rocked Church, which was very nice as always. Went out to G&G Danforths for lunch where we chowed, visited and played hide-n-seek tag, something M.J. has been wanting to do for some time. Also played the afternoon away, more blocks, more kitten, more a lot of things. Monday we were on our way to Target and Wal-Mart @ 8 AM. We had gone to both Saturday to get grocery's and MaryJane had seen tons of stuff she wanted. She took her earnings from finishing her chores for the previous week, along w/ the long time collected change i give her; came up w/ 35 bucks and got her self 4 peek-a-boo- petites, a bella serra stuffed animal w/ cards, and a pack of webkinz cards. So as you can imagine the day was nothing but playing w/ the 4 dolls and the pegasus. Lionel wanted to eat the the dolls, i was continuously surprised to find the dolls, and the dolls had a ball doing gurly things together. We learned about Jonah (the Bible version, not the Veggie Tales version which she knows all 2 well) and learned a new chord and practiced 2 songs on guitar. She enjoyed both very much and it was a very nice day.