Hello all!

I'm writing today to say I'm taking a break from blogging. There are too many things going on that take priority over blogging! It's mostly time consuming going through pictures, downsizing them, then uploading them, and of course making comments. I can spend an hour, easy, if there's a good amount of pictures (especially now that Josephine has a camera and I'm having to weed through her pictures, too!!). Anyhow, this is Michael's last semester of school, his thesis and solo exhibition are due this semester, among a thousand other things, including applying for jobs. I need to spend my computer time helping Michael keep up with the jobs, doing as much of it as I can by myself (organizing the information for him, at least).

PLUS, ASSUMING that Michael get's a job for the fall of this year, we will (hopefully!) be moving out of this house to our new location, which means, PACKING. Lots of it!

I hope to post something at least once a month, but I'm not going to promise anything. In any case, I will e-mail everyone when I can get back to posting on the blog regularly, which may be several months (hopefully it will be in a new location wherever Michael's job is!).

My Dad is in the hospital again - he has blood clots in his lungs, and is still recovering from his previous lung illnesses. The hospital is giving him blood thinners and I hope he'll be going back home in a few days. Michael's grandfather is in the hospital, too, recovering from getting his spleen removed. I hope he'll be heading back home soon, too. Say your prayers for both of them and for Michael getting a job!

Click on the YouTube video on the left (the very first box/square) - it is SOOOO funny!

Last week, Maureen's "schoolwork" focused on shapes... we did plenty of "learning games," some of which included taping shapes on the floor and doing patterns on the felt board. Even though my intention is to teach Maureen, Josephine and Veronica are right there next to us, begging to be included :) Of course, I let them join in on the fun. Veronica has, in the process, learned to recognize and say the names of several shapes, too! They all had a blast with the shapes (made with tape) on the floor - you would have thought I took them to an amusement park and gave them cotton candy or something!





Last week, Michael took Josephine and Maureen to his studio to paint. He bought them each two canvases to paint on, and they had a great time with Michael. Michael said Maureen wouldn't smile for the camera because they were about to leave the studio, and she wasn't happy about that!

Hello all - I have a bit of pictures to share, but still need to pick and downsize them before posting... so it'll be tomorrow or the next day for some new pictures.

I enjoy looking at other peoples' blogs, especially other homeschooling families... I was curious about an old student (from LA) and his family who homeschooled. I remember the student's Mom was like my role model! She was organized and had a routine, but was also relaxed and knew when to be flexible with her schedule... she was a very devout Catholic and had 5 beautiful, well-behaved, smart children. I loved teaching her son (who practiced regularly, always followed my directions, and played very well) and enjoyed observing her oldest teenage daughter work in the same music school I worked in (she taught music theory)- she was living proof that homeschooled kids adjust just fine in the "real world." She was well-spoken, mature, organized, had great "people" skills with the parents and answering the phones, etc.... Anyhow, I'm kind of going on a bit too much, here... I looked up their name to see if they had a blog I could peek at from time to time. I didn't find one, but I did find a couple articles (from last year) written about their family. I posted a link on the top-left, labeled "Schooling at home gaining popularity." I know I just recently posted another homeschool article, but I can't help it with this one!

Josephine took this one of Maureen and herself, and also managed to get Veronica in the background!

This is a craft Maureen did yesterday (a shapes collage) and then she could freely draw on it. I'm not sure what all the scribbling is about in the top/middle!
Josephine took this one :)
I took this one... this is how Veronica looks while she feeds herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich :)

The previous two pictures shows what happens when Veronica gets a hold of a marker, pen, crayon, or pencil. I have marks all over my whole house! Aghhh!!
This is a detailed picture of "double-cross stitches" that Josephine did. I did only one on the far left to show her how to do it, and she did the rest completely on her own. I thought she did well for sewing/stitching something for the first time. You may have to click on the picture to enlarge it, to see the details of each stitch.
Here's the outline of the heart. Once the outline is finished, the inside of the heart will be filled with various stitches.
Josephine manages to take a lot of really great pictures of Veronica... too cute not to post!

Isn't the beret so cute on her? This picture was taken using Josephine's camera... Michael took a picture of Josephine using her camera on the tripod, and she looked like a young "professional" photographer :) it was cute... I'll eventually post that picture.
Rocking for a few minutes before naps.
Veronica and Maureen playing with "Tadoodles" markers.
Maureen wrote this about a month ago... I was impressed for a couple reasons: not only did she write the letters "m," "a," and "o," well for being only three years old, but she did a repeating pattern over and over with the same three letters, and (for the most part) kept the letters in a fairly neat column! She told me what letters meant (in her little mind, it all said a sentence or two) but I don't remember! I'll have to ask her again and see if she remembers.
You're probably wondering why I'm posting a picture of folded washcloths. Maureen folded each of the washcloths, neatly stacked them, and put them on the couch for me (that's where I normally fold clothes). I thought she did good!

I took the video without her noticing... Although she's seen it after I took the video. I wanted to tape her singing the songs from her Diamond Castle princess barbie dolls that Grammy and Grampy Champion bought her. She jammed out to the songs over and over!

I have a couple more videos to show, but they'll have to wait until next time. They take several minutes to upload and "process" and I need to go to bed.

I receive e-mails from the local Catholic homeschool group, and this is the heading of one I wanted to share: "Homeschooling goes boom in America: 74 percent increase in number of families teaching own children" I enjoy reading articles like this one... if you wanted to read the whole article click on the link on the top-left.

If you were a six year old, and just got a new camera, what types of things would you take pictures of??? I went through over 400 of Josephine's pictures and weeded out the following:


And on to pictures of people...





Not bad for a six year old!

Here's something you don't see everyday... NUNS - at a football game! A Saints home football game, of course!

There were TONS of these "Portuguese man-of-wars" on the shore in AL... come to find out their sting is very painful and can land some people in the hospital! I put a link on the top-left if you want to read a little bit about the weird looking creatures.