About our blogger: hurricaneranch
"You have how many kids, and you do what??" Two of my life's most frequent questions, and that's what I'm here to ponder! I am a stay at home, homeschooling mom to four kids, a dog, two cats, two rabbits, and two tangerine trees, and my blog is all about the triumphs (and struggles!) of my everyday life as mom, teacher, photographer, artist, zookeeper, baby wrangler, and last and definitely least, housekeeper. I love to share ideas and photos from our school lessons and art projects, and funny moments we create along the way!
May 18th, 2012
Today, Alexei and Ibis put the finishing touches on their 4-H project books in preparation for handing in at Thursday’s County Council meeting. Once again, I was completely impressed by their efforts and the broad range of activities in which they participated this year. I can’t say it enough: if you homeschool, 4-H is a gold mine. This year, Alexei continued his work in the photography book, took on the second book in the rabbit series, and completed his first year in the shooting sports air rifle project. Ibis finished her first year in the rabbit book and her first year in an online art project. Hands-on curriculum, opportunities for leadership and citizenship, and healthy competition were highlights of their 4-H year.
If you’ve never seen a 4-H project book in-depth, it may all sound foreign. Most of us can’t get past the idea that 4-H is “only for farm kids,” but if you are willing to look further, I can guarantee you will be amazed. The following are some details from Alexei’s year studying 4-H photography, and I’ll have future blog posts on the remaining projects (no really, I promise!). See for yourself what 4-H has to offer! Read the rest of this entry »
March 29th, 2012
I’ve been on a bit of a rampage lately trying to straighten out our eating habits. It seems like I can’t get away from the horror stories online about preservatives, processed foods, the dangers of soy, and genetically modified grains. I’ve always been great about making desserts from scratch (my waistline bears testament to that) but I would buy whatever was on sale for the kids to snack on. Then I started reading ingredient lists and it all sounded kind of gross! I’m taking baby steps to healthier snacks, and granola bars were one of the easiest things I found to make; they are delicious. Like I have to restrain myself and remember that these are for the kids. And then I eat them anyway.
I found the basic recipe here for chewy granola bars and then read through Read the rest of this entry »
January 26th, 2012
Bedtime was swiftly approaching, and Hobie’s diapers were still cycling through the dryer. After quite the week with serious school struggles between myself and a certain Ibis, and a Monday holiday and Tuesday spent mostly away from home, I was running a little behind on the laundry. So Hobie was running around in the nude (like you’ve never had nude toddlers in your house), and I was enjoying a few minutes with Facebook, reading all the happy success stories of my friends’ kids doing happy successful things in their potties. I turned around, and there was Hobie, standing over a suspicious brown lump on the rug, completely mortified. Of course, he had no clue that said brown lump had been deposited there by he himself. Ten minutes later, the initial spot on the rug, the other spot on the rug that occurred as he plopped down [ahem] still a mess to play while I was doing my best impression of a panicked octopus (the 8 legs part, not the ink part), Hobie, the changing table, and I were once again cleaned up and ready for take two. No pun intended.
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| Let’s pretend these are his Thomas jammies |
Read the rest of this entry »
January 14th, 2012
If you’re like me and have ever thought you loved Play-Doh, then experienced the joys of a child smearing Play-Doh all over the carpet and it never coming off again, you’re probably already suspicious. We were in Target last weekend looking for something… Now I can’t even remember what. You know how that memory just melts away with each kid you have, and I’ve got four. Anyhow, of course we wound up in the toy section, of course a bunch of stuff was on clearance, and of course the kids all had money left over after Christmas because they were smart and spent *our* money on gifts and saved theirs. They really needed new toys a week after getting like a zillion of them. Two years later, they’d finally picked out the toys they were going to buy, when I spotted something that gave me pause.
Yes, it was the dreaded Play-Doh. Play-Doh like I have cleaned up a million times and swore we were finished with. But this Play-Doh came with letter stampers! This elevated it out of toy status and into the realms of school necessity. Plus, it was on clearance at 50% off, and you know what a cheapskate…err, bargain hunter I am. The Play-Doh came home with us under strict admonishments that it would live in the school closet and only be used by Coral for letter practice. I figured we had about a 10% chance of abiding by those rules for more than a day. Read the rest of this entry »
November 8th, 2011
Many misconceptions abound regarding homeschool kids. As a homeschool family, we have heard them all: the kids aren’t socialized, they aren’t educated enough, they aren’t exposed to the real world, they miss out on the opportunities to x y and z. All negative opinions from those who have never been there and have no idea what being a homeschool kid actually means. Most of us weren’t homeschooled as kids (I wasn’t), so our “reliable” source of information on the topic hails from television news stories notorious for sensationalism and one-sidedness. Six years ago, we decided to use our own brains and parental intuition to decide what was right for our children, and we’ve never regretted it!
What biggest thing does homeschooling offer that traditional schooling does not? Time. Plain and simple, it offers us the time we need to pursue whatever the kids want. Read the rest of this entry »
September 29th, 2011
It’s amazing how some experiences just seem to stick with you forever. I was thinking about my new niece who will be born later this year, and that got me to thinking about Coral, who was born ten weeks prematurely. It’s like this emotional force you never truly escape; some days you don’t feel it at all anymore, and other days it feels like you’re privately obsessing about it.
After Coral was born, I went through some mild post traumatic stress. I kept flashing back to sitting in the OB’s office, and his last words were, “You need to go to the hospital, right now.” I was 29 weeks, 5 days pregnant. Then we had the six week NICU stay, which was absolutely agonizing with two young children at home. Finally she came home, on prescription caffeine and wearing an apnea monitor 24/7, just a hair over 4 pounds. Read the rest of this entry »
September 6th, 2011
We’ve made it through the first week of school; this used to be a big deal, but this year for the first time there wasn’t a whole lot of, “Oh crud, what was I thinking?!?” going on. I guess it only took six years to get here! I’ve set our days up to have Friday be more of a relaxed, fun subjects kind of day. I do sneak in writing, but so far they’re pacified; that may change when they’re writing rough drafts. Soon, Friday will mean 4-H activities, but until our books come in, the major subject of the day is art.
Today, we made our own cave paintings to help understand lines and form. I cut up paper grocery sacks and wrinkled them for a realistic textured effect, and the kids were told to use a black crayon for outlining their main elements in their drawings. Suggestions were horses, mammoths, simple people, plants, and so on. After outlining, they could use pastel chalks to add colors to their cave wall. Read the rest of this entry »
September 2nd, 2011
Let me preface this by saying we’ve been using the program for a grand total of two days now, so I am subject to change my mind on this at a later time. But I don’t think I will: everything I’ve seen thus far with our new Handwriting Without Tears workbooks has me excited. I did some research over the summer (but mostly I lounged around the house in the a/c), and I knew this particular line of books existed, but I had never paid much attention. Everything I’d heard from friends touted its greatness, but I personally like to see and feel my books in a store before making a purchase, so if Wal-Mart or Books A Million didn’t carry it, I didn’t own it.
I was thoroughly impressed with the HWT website; they seem to have included just about everything: samples, PDFs of actual pages, research, lots of reasons to use their curriculum because of their unique approach, and even access to free online tools. If nothing else, they have a slick marketing team. Read the rest of this entry »
August 30th, 2011
Yesterday, the big kids had their 4-H awards ceremony, where they got certificates, pins, and ribbons for the project books completed earlier in the year. When I have more than one free hand, I will find the photos and give you all the juicy details. Having a toddler along for the ride magically made two hours of festivities seem like an all-day torture.
Back to the reason for the occupied hand: yesterday evening, the kids came in, clamoring about a kitten lying in the road. I went out and didn’t see anything, and then a little black shape slipped under a fence into someone’s backyard. Alexei wanted me to toss him over the fence so he could get the kitten, and he was rather upset when I told him that A) there was no way on earth I was throwing him into a backyard of people who weren’t home, and B) we’d probably never catch it. End of story.
That would be too easy, right? Read the rest of this entry »
August 24th, 2011
Today was our first day back to school after a leisurely summer break. A first day of school juggling three elementary students in different grades and a rambunctious toddler goes something like this:
I kick everyone out of bed and make them get dressed and assembled for school pictures. An opportunity to torture children with the camera would be a pity to pass up.
Alexei is in 5th this year and has an attitude to match.
Read the rest of this entry »
