Mama Dani's Musings: update

Showing posts with label update. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

School Update: Jan. 2015

We're about halfway through what the normal school year tends to be so I thought it would be a good time for an update. Over all I say things are going pretty well. Sean and Maddy are both ahead of schedule on math and language arts. They worked faster than I had thought so I think we'll slow it down a little for the second half of the year. We're unfortunately are behind with science and history. Part of it was illnesses (like me being sick most of December). We also never got into a good routine and that was my fault. This will change starting this week. One change I'm making is only concentrating on either science or history per week instead of trying to do both each week. I think this will be the key. With only one of those subjects to concentrate on, it should help me stay more organized and make weekend lesson planning easier.

Mr Skeleton from one of our science lessons

Speaking of organization, this morning while browsing pinterest I found Amongst Lovely Things' post: How I’m Using Spiral Notebooks to Simplify Homeschooling. I thought it was a great idea and since I had some notebooks lying around, I decided to give it a try. I'm hoping it helps keep us organized and on track. Sean and Maddy both seem excited about it.

Sean and Maddy's notebooks and the basket to hold the notebooks and the day's school books.

Self care is referring to things like brushing teeth, brushing hair and such. the first page of their notebooks has a list of what they are to do. Sean has laundry on his list b/c today is his laundry day. Maddy's was yesterday. Our laundry schedule is another new thing I'm trying out to keep myself more on track.

I even have a notebook of my own. Those items under self refer to things I'd like to do for myself. Today they are all some of my new year's resolutions: 30 days of yoga, crochet a granny square a day, read more, and a reminder that I'm going to go to the gym tonight and lift weights.

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Monday, June 30, 2014

Kiddo Update: Summer 2014

I'll just come out and say it, I'm a major slacker when it comes to blogging. Life seems to have a way of getting in the way. A kiddo update is overdue so here you go:

I'll go in birth order. Sean. He has finished his first year of homeschooling. His testing supplies should be here soon so that he can do his test next week. I don't know exactly what to expect but I have no worries that he'll do just fine. We're still schooling throughout the summer but just a lighter load. Right now he's working on a Summer Bridge workbook that's for bridging 1st-2nd grade. It's not easy enough for him to breeze through it but it gives him a little bit of a challenge. Last week he got his summer haircut. He at first wanted his head shaved but ended up just getting it buzzed. And lastly, this weekend we made a purchase that I didn't think we'd be making already. We bought Sean a booster seat. He still has plenty of growing room in his 5 point harness. However, Maddy is nearing outgrowing her's b/c of her height. Sean is a bit sensitive to the fact that his younger sister is so much taller than he is so we thought that it might be a good idea to switch Sean to a booster before Maddy. He meets the size requirement, the belt fits correctly, and he's mature enough to sit properly so I'm ok with it. He's super excited!

Above: freshly cut hair and our neighborhood spy

Below: the big boy in his new booster

Ms Maddy...She's also doing a bit of summer school as she prepares for her first official year of homeschooling next year as a kindergartener. The big milestone that she's hit is she has given up naps....for the most part. Bedtime was getting to be a huge hassle. Giving up naps has helped a ton. Though there are still some afternoons that at the end of naptime for the younger kids she crawls onto the couch and is out like a light. This summer Maddy is working on a preschool workbook to review the past year. I have a daycare child that has also given up naps so her and Maddy have the same workbook and they work together, Maddy teaching her some. Maddy's growing like a weed! She's already outgrown some of the clothes she got for her birthday in April!! It's insane! She's 5 and about the average height of a 6 year old. This past year she took dance again. Earlier this month she had her second dance recital. Oh my, does she love being on the stage!! She danced beautifully on stage once again. Too bad she only gets to do that part once a year. I really do enjoy watching her dance at her recitals. It's not just that she's following my footsteps but just watching the enjoyment she gets out of it. And the way she just glows when you tell her that you were watching. She loves having an audience.

Above: on stage at dress rehearsal

Below: before the big show! Can you see the excitement!?

Emily: the baby. Well, she's not much of a baby any more. I've been slowly night and nap weaning her and she kinda took the lead and started cutting back during the day as well. We've been at once a day (first thing in the morning) for a little while now and today, Monday, I realized that she has not nursed since Saturday morning. She hasn't even asked! We've also started potty training today. Last week one of my daycare kids started telling Em when he needed to go potty and asking if she needed to go. She would then tell me that she needed to go and they'd both get a try. I decided to run with that idea. Today she was dressed in a dress (then a shirt after she tucked the dress under her while on the potty) and a pull up. I set toilet paper next to her little potty in the bathroom. This made it so that she could do the entire process by herself. I got Sean and Maddy in on it too. Whenever any of us went to the bathroom we'd tell her and ask if she wanted to try. She went potty a lot today! There were a few times that she actually asked on her own to go and the only accidents were a pee accident during pick up time/dinner prep time and a poopy pull up. Not bad for her first official day! My baby's growing up...

Above: baby's first "ony"tail

Below: Cinderella needed a nursing break

Monday, February 10, 2014

I'm Back - Daycare - I Am Project

I have missed blogging. I probably could have made time for blogging but haven't. Any ways, I've realized that I've missed it and am back. Today I was thinking that it may be a little difficult to blog about the kids without including what goes on in my home daycare too. Therefor, you'll see some new faces. I will only post pictures of children who I have permission from their parents to do so. I will also avoid using their names and instead just use their initial.

I guess I will start with a little daycare update. For the last 2 years my daycare has been full or close enough where I wasn't looking to fill a spot (like when I had a part time opening). In this time, I did have a couple kids leave (started school) and a couple join but that all happened without me advertising. I've even had to turn people away in that time. I've been blessed! This pass December I got notice from 2 families within weeks of each other telling me that they would be moving. I was saddened with both announcements. We miss those kids. After getting notice from just the first one, I had decided to not advertise the openings. I didn't need to have those spots filled right away and had decided to enjoy a lesser work load for awhile. Plus, the other mom was pregnant so this would keep a spot open for her baby. However, after the second notice I knew I had to start advertising. Things would just be too tight for my liking with just one family. The one family I was left with was D's family. D has been with me for over 2 years now. I've watched him grow since he was an infant. As a matter of fact, D's mom had recently had a baby. D's baby brother, T, will eventually be joining us. I can't wait! So, I'm currently working on finding the right family (or 2) to join us...but haven't found them yet. For now, I'm enjoying the more one-on-one time I'm having with Sean, Maddy, Emily, and D.

Last week I discovered the facebook page, I am. I love their message and accepted their challenge. The pictures below are from that challenge. I'm going to take it a bit further here. I posted these pictures on my daycare's facebook page and mentioned that it's just the tip of the ice burg about these awesome kids. I'm going to tell you about the rest of that ice burg here.

Sean is: smart, a leader, a helper

Maddy is: creative, determined, unique

Emily is: silly, an entertainer, energetic

D. is: caring, imaginative, a music lover

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Suburban Homesteading: January 2014

My last homesteading update was in May so I have a lot to talk about. Both our chicken flock and our rabbitry have grown! In May 2013 Mopsy had a litter of 10 kits. Unfortunately, only 4 survived. Flopsy was suppose to be due at the same time but it turned out that she wasn't pregnant. When she didn't give birth, we bred her again. In July she had a litter of 5, with only 1 surviving. Out of these litters we ended up keeping the only 2 females (Beatrix and Flora) and 1 of the males (Baby....more on him later). The other 2 were processed in the fall.

We also hatched more some chicks in the summer. We didn't keep any of those but it sure was fun! In August we bought some chicks. All the Silkies went to a friend but we kept the Rhode Island Red and Polish; Penny and Joan Jett.

Of Mopsy's and Flopsy's litters, we were only planning on keeping the females. Well, this little guy was just way too tame to process. His name was changed to Baby and we attempted to keep him as a house rabbit. He's just too big for the house so he went back outside with the others.

We did end up getting a house rabbit. We got this little Lionhead in November. His name is Thumper. He hasn't gotten much bigger than he was in this picture:

Around then, our does were due, or we thought. It seems they hadn't gotten pregnant. So we decided to give a rabbit colony a try and moved the rabbits in with the chickens. The girls did beautifully. The boys however, couldn't get along. The girls now live in the colony and the boys live in separate cages and get special visits to the colony. Hubby also built an awesome new chicken/rabbit run this fall. It's bigger and more sturdy than the other one. I absolutely love it! The chickens and rabbits are getting along just fine....once the chickens realized the rabbits weren't something to be scared of.

Almost 2 months ago we had the results of the rabbit colony 3 of our 4 does gave birth. The one doe that didn't give birth was just slightly too young to get pregnant. We had a total of 24 kits. We lost a few and are down to 17. They are now weaned and doing great. Some of the current babies will be adopted out as pets, some will be processed and I'm thinking of keeping one female. She's a beautiful solid black. The boys have had visits with the girls so if it all went well, we have 4 does due in the beginning of February. I love having the babies around!