(no subject)

"Charity" organizations I believe in and trust:

RiverKids-http://www.riverkidsproject.org/
Zoe For Live-http://www.zoeforlifeonline.org/
International Orthodox Christian Charities-http://www.iocc.org/
Living Water-http://www.water.cc/
Habitat for Humanity-http://www.habitat.org/
Hogar Rafael Ayau-http://www.hogarafaelayau.org/ (this is where Maria spent the first 2.5 years of her life)
Orthodox Christian Missions Center-http://www.ocmc.org/


Just in case you wanted to know. Heh.

(no subject)

So...Zoe outgrew her snow boots and NO ONE HAS ANY ANYMORE. It is pathetic. Spring stuff is all out in the stores and it is supposed to snow here all weekend. And Zoe had no snow boots. So several days ago, I ordered her some from Crocs. They were the cheapest, decent boots I could find. We'll see how they work. They came today and are absolutely adorable, but not real snow boots as only the bottom part is completely waterproof. I hate it that the stores all anticipate the seasons like this. I mean, don't they realize that kids are going to outgrow stuff DURING the current season? I would have loved to buy her some cheap ones from Target or something but NO ONE around here had any in her size. Okay, I'm not being totally honest. We did find some very clunky, black and blue, boys boots, but she was very saddened by them and I didn't have the heart to make her wear them. If we were on a super tight budget, I'd do it, yes. But I have the money to get something girly, so I did it. Without going overboard. She chose...and this is Zoe we are talking about...hot pink. Uh huh. My Zoe has gone girly. And I'm not as disappointed as I thought I'd be if she did this. Because honestly? The kid has good taste and she still doesn't go for the over the top frou frou stuff. She is very reasonable. Her tastes just seem to run to hotter, brighter colors lately. Less blue and more orange and pink and greens.

Luci outgrew her boots too, but Zoe's old ones fit her just fine and she likes them a lot, so we are good there. Maria hates her boots for some reason, but they fit just fine so she is just going to have to suck it up until next year.

I just realized that this is attitude is actually a change from previous years. I didn't used to hand shoes down at all unless they hadn't been worn hardly at all. I've had foot issues and it was important to me that my kids have good shoes. Zoe's boots aren't really all that worn as she only wore them in the snow last year, but in the past I would not have passed them down. And I might have considered getting Maria new boots this year even though last years still fit just because she didn't like them anymore. Now I won't even consider it.

I guess the recession is changing the way I think, a little bit.

(no subject)

I'm posty today.

We took all the change I could find in the house to a Coinstar today and got a $91.40 certificate for Amazon. Then we came home and I spent it all plus $7 more. It was hugely fun and satisfying. Feels like I just got a bunch of books for free because it was money I didn't really know I had. I can't really quite believe we had that much change hanging out here. All four of us dump our change in this metal basket thing I have sitting on a bookshelf, but it was full a long time ago and overflowed into many other containers. It was cool to get rid of it all. I did the Coinstart/Amazon thing about a year ago and got about half the books for our homeschooling year. All the books I bought today are for our history and literature studies for the next six to eight months. I wish coinstar would give me vouchers to the Rainbow Resource Center too! Then my children's education could really be paid for with pocket change! Hehe.

I just ordered pizza for dinner because I'm lazy tonight. My neck hurts. I must have slept on it wrong. Of course it doesn't help that I've been spending about an hour a night for three nights cutting out the cards for our new All About Spelling program. Eeegads, there are a lot of cards to cut out! I hope the next level doesn't come with this much cutting to do! Although if the word cards that came with this one are any indication, I think it will. Looking through the Level one book, I think Maria and Zoe can move through this in about a month. I want to do it, to make sure there are no gaps, but they know most of this already. So we will be able to start Level Two before we move. I think that also will go quickly for Maria at least. I intend to have Maria in Level Three by next fall.

Singapore math is going spectacularly well for all of us. It is not quite as cool as Rightstart, but it is much less time consuming and all three girls seem to enjoy doing the workbooks. I'm combining them with Kumon workbooks for math fact practice. Luci should be through the Earlybird stuff very soon. I don't know if I'll start her on the Primary math stuff then, or wait until the fall and just do some Rightstart stuff with her. Rightstart is really just a lot of games. I love the games.

Subjects like Spelling, handwriting, and math are so hard for me to figure out how to teach. I've had no real trouble teaching my kids to read or deciding on literature and history stuff. Science too falls into place easily. It is the stuff that requires repetition, workbooks, lots of lined paper....I just get bogged down in it. I really can't wait until my kids are at the Logic stage and I can stop focusing so much on this Grammar "fact" stuff. Heh.

Can you tell that I've given up on my homeschool blog? It was just too hard to write in two different places. My life is so intertwined with our homeschooling that it was impossible to separate the two. This is my focus and where I am right now. I am educating my children. I like to talk about it. I like to write about it. I hope you all don't mind too much.