Ice Cream, Ice Cream, we all read for Ice Cream!

Have you ever in your life been told that if you read a certain amount of books, I will give you FREE ICE CREAM! Well that is what the Braums book buddies are all about. We use to do this program but had stopped due to the whole maintenance of it by me. However I was inspired once again to start doing the Braums Book Buddies. They have to read 6 books and place their stickers in their Braums booklets in order to get their prize. They graduate up from a single dip, to a single cone, to a double dip, milk shake, and the final is the Ice Cream Sunday. This program is available for those in the 1st-6th grade. Of Course that leaves Sarah out but I didn't, so I made my own and had her put her own stickers in it and I will buy her whatever the gradual stages are originally.

Most people who are reading this blog knows my childrens taste. One is a very health, but picky eater and the other two are sweet eaters. Oh they are so like me! They love chocolate, ice cream, and candy. So this tickled their ears and in no time at all after introducing this to them on Tuesday, they have begun and Isabella has already earned her first treat! Zech is one sticker away from it. Sarah has it a little tougher because she is not allowed to just read a first grade reader, she must really read. So she is behind them, but catching up.

This has sparked a new revolution in our house, because instead of hearing, "Mom, may I play a computer game?" it has changed to, "Mom, I just read another book, or mom, I need more books to read!" Oh what joy that brings to my ears.

For the adults out there I propose that everytime you read a book because I know it is usually a novel, go ahead and take yourself to an ice cream shop and treat yourself too!

Time for a change!

Are you ready to take an adventure with us? Well we are going on a homeschooling adventure. You see January and February are what a lot of homeschoolers call the "doldrums". Simply because you've just come through your most busy time and during the "winter" you stay indoors a lot more and you get as much school done as you can. Lately our life has had its many downs than up times and I'm stuck in a rut. So I got a little inspiration from our homeschooling loop on Unit Studies and decided that we are going to change a little learning around here.

One of the reasons that I homeschool is to hopefully make my children think. Unfortunately for me it makes me think too! I have to think up stuff that is fun and simply put, I'm not a lot of fun! I like to keep my house clean and just do routine stuff. I like my homeschooling days to be in the "norm" for us rather than the "un-norm" everyday. I don't like crafts, messy paints, researching stuff and stopping in the middle of what I'm doing to figure things out. I like my kids to go self paced (self disciplined to do what they need to do to "get it done"). However that doesn't create a very learning environment for my children.

So we are off on an adventure. We are throwing aside the history curriculum and the science curriculum (although Sarah still has to do hers) and heading off into the world of 'Unit Studies'. They are studies directed by parent or students that usually last 2 to 3 weeks about one particular thing and then all your learning comes into play studying that one thing. For example, lets say a particular child wants to know why we have a lunar eclipse. For two weeks we would check out books from the library about lunar eclipses, research on the internet, build models, write stories, do some math problems (like light years and miles around the moon and how many years till the next one, etc), and much much more. Now before all of you freak out and say that's not enough study, I agree. So we will stick to the regular math and english programs, the spelling and vocabulary, etc. They will learn all about one thing on top of their regular studies except for their regular History and Science. This helps keep it interesting and makes them want to learn and how to learn.

So come on the adventure with us! We will study about Bald Eagles, the Model T Ford Car, and Wedding Rings. (These are the topics my kids picked out from a list of unit studies I had for them) Isabella picked the wedding rings. At first I thought why would wedding rings be a relevant study, but she actually gets to study gold, platinum, and diamonds (that by the way is chemistry!). She gets to learn the symbolism of the complete circle of the wedding ring. Also if I'm smart, I'll plug in some "true love waits" information in there too! I'm sure also that by the time we are done she will have picked out the wedding ring she wants. I told her that I'm not buying one of those just for the study.

If you have any relevant information about any of these or any interesting ideas on these let me know. I'll be sure to snap plenty of pictures for you to find out all you can. Oh and by the way at the end of two weeks they will be required to deliver a full report of what they've learned to dad and I and the other siblings. So if your within driving distance and want to come and hear, come on down and we will even make you dinner!

Official Spelling Bee!

My kids did the spelling bee. Isabella was eliminated in the first round. Her first word was "saffron"! Now I as a mother would have given her credit because in my opinion she did stop and think and spelled it "saphron"! I thought that was a natural conclusion that the "f" sometimes is spelled with a "ph"! I was proud of her anyway. Zech got eliminated the 3rd round from "relevant". He spelled the second "e" with an "i". Now he knew how to spell that word so I guess nerves just got the best of him. Zech and Isabella were in the elementary catagory (1st - 5th). A third grader won! Sarah and Katie were the only two in their junior high category (6-8th) and the battle was on. Mind you both were guaranteed a prize for the 1st and 2nd place winners, however they were matched word for word! I was amazed. They went on and on, not missing any words for 20 minutes or so. Then Sarah missed a word and the other girl spelled it correctly, then she had to spell another word which she missed and so Sarah got to stand back up and the battle was on again. This happened 3 more times, where Sarah missed and Katy spelled one correctly and then missed another one. Finally Katie spelled the championship word correctly and she won 1st place. We were so proud though of Sarah. That was hard without really a break because once you were done the other spelled and then you were on again. Kind of nerve racking! But she did great. She won a $25 gift card to Hastings (let's hope she buys books with it).

True Love Really Does Wait!

I know against a majority of a popular opinion, I still believe it is best to wait for your true love and marrying that true love and never having sex with anyone or that true love until you are married! That is what True Love Waits is all about. I am proud to say that my 12 year old daughter has taken that vow to stay pure until her husband!

As you can tell we made a committment this last weekend at church. This whole month our pastor has been preaching on "True Love" and what it means. Not the ushy gushy kind of love but Love the person! God is Love, the bible tells us that. The pastor preached this last Sunday on "Holiness Matters!". The bible tells us that we are to be Holy as He is Holy.

Sarah has been going through 6 weeks of study in Sunday School about this commitment. This is a commitment to God and to her parents and we as parents committed to help her stay that way. We are so proud of our children and the fact that they are making our beliefs their own. Praise God!

Did you see it?

Did you see the Lunar Eclipse last night? Did you hear my explanation to my children about the Lunar eclispe? Okay I'm a homeschool mom right. Well that doesn't mean I know everything. But last night as we coming out of church when someone had told us about the Lunar Eclipse. So of course my children had to ask, "How does a Lunar Eclipse work?" Not being the scientific person that I am, stumbled out and said, "Well I don't know, maybe a planet is blocking the path of the moon." Of course then my bright older daughter said, "Mom that can't be right, no planet comes between the path of the moon and the earth." I had to admit she was right! So on I went with trying to explain, so I thought. Then I said, "Well maybe the moon which reflects the sun is in between the earth and the sun at the just the right spot and that cast a shadow on it!" You know what I was right! I amazed myself. Anyway, I took a picture of it at about 8:30 last night. We didn't watch the whole thing, but we did learn something and we did think it was way cool!

Cookie anyone?

Okay I know that I am way late on this picture and this blog but we were sick over the Valentines day holiday. But aren't these pretty. We had a couple in our church send each one of our kids a cookie bouquet. They are too cute! Each one is decorated with a balloon and beautifully artistic cookies, but they are edible! They don't seem to be going quickly around here though. I think they just really like to look at them.

How do you get rid of hiccups?

When my son has hiccups, he gets hiccups and nothing conventional will do. Well the other day in the long battle of our illnesses around here he got the hiccups, not just once, twice, or three times but five times that day. We tried holding our breath, gulps of water, and sugar (believe it or not a teaspoon of sugar does it for him most of the time) and even tried a cookie!. However he kept getting them and they kept being more severe, so in a desperate attempt to get rid of them, I told him to stand on his head on the couch. Truly I came in to find him head down on the pillow, hands held high, and trying to hold his breath. Did it work, NO! Well I finally went on the WWW and found that if you inhale and hold your breath and without letting that go and swallow, inhale again and holding your breath and swallow and keep doing that until you just can't take it anymore and then you let it all out. That seems to work for him. So next time you get hiccups, try something fun!

This is sooo cool!

I don't know who did this but I got this on my email!

What Equals 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been in situations where someone wants you to give over 100% How about achieving 101%? What equals 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these Questions:

If: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZIs represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:
H-A-R-D-W-O- R- K 8+1+18+4+23+ 15+18+11 = 98%

And K-N-O-W-L-E- D-G-E 11+14+15+23+ 12+5+4+7+ 5 = 96%

But, A-T-T-I-T-U- D-E 1+20+20+9+20+ 21+4+5 = 100%

AND, look how far the love of God will take you
L-O-V-E-O-F- G-O-D 12+15+22+5+15+ 6+7+15+4 = 101%

Therefore, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that:
While hard work and Knowledge will get you close,
and Attitude will get you there, it's the Love of God that will put you over the top!

Sick and Tired

Now from the title you probably think I'm sick and tired of something. Actually I have two sick and very tired kids. Last night after tucking my sweet innocent ones to bed (not!) I went to bed myself with visions of a date with my husband tonight! We were going to a mexican food resteraunt and a Casting Crowns concert! Oh how I dreamed how wonderful it would be until . . . cough, cough, "Mom, I don't feel well." Then go into my other childs bedroom and he is the same. Thinking hastily I decided I would try and get them into the doctors office first thing and get an antiobiotic quick and they might be better tonight and someone could still watch them (I know I was still dreaming but give a mom a chance). Took them to a clinic around the corner because even though we have been here in our town about 11 months I still haven't found a doctor. Thinking I would be first in line, I arrived only to find that I'm about one hundred in line and that the appointments come first! So after waiting two hours, we walked in, saw a doctor five minutes for her to tell me, "I'm pretty sure it is just a virus." So not fat chance on the antibiotic, just a wait and see game. And fat chance on the date, because no babysitter will babysit sick kids right?! Now they are all just bored and tired of laying around but when they get up to do anything they feel bad and lay back down. We've watched enough TV and tired of that too! Now their watching Disney Scene II and just watching it, not really playing it. Hopefully soon we will be just sick and tired of something, not really sick and really tired because we are sick.

Spelling Bee Practice

As you guessed it from the title we are practicing for our spelling bee. The children will have a practice round on Friday and then two weeks from there the real Bee will be held at our local library! So the kids get a break from their normal spelling and vocabulary routines and every morning we hold our very own practice bee. However I allow mistakes as we all learn our words.

Monday and Tuesday comprised of words that are commonly misspelled. Misspelled is actually misspelled a lot apparently. Words like occurence, February, succeed, etc. Then we had words that are homonyms often misspelled. Words like cereal:serial, colonel:kernel, and stationary:stationery. These words are why asking the judges to use it in a sentence is important. Today we practiced on words that we have today in modern english that derived from latin words. Words like obsequious, gregarious, foliate, captitulation, filament, etc. Challenge words are just for fun but can you spell "infinitesimal"? Can you even pronounce it? Of course you can because I just spelled it for you. Some of these words I've had to look up meanings. For example, the word bellicose. Do you know the meaning? Lets see if you get it by the sentence, "When Zech and Isabella are playing Star Wars Lightsabers they are being bellicose." Well did you get it that it mean warlike or warlike temperment? You are such a good student. Maybe you should come join our spelling bee!

A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy far, far away . . .

. . . there was an Empire and the Rebels. The Rebels consisted of just an army of kids (all the kids in the world). The Empire had all the adults in the world except for Luke, Leia, Hans Solo, Padme, Anakin, and Obi-wan Kenobi. The leader of the kids happened to all have the last name of Roberson. Their names were Sarah, Zech, Isabella, Noah, Abbie, Dillan, Austin, and Drew. The kids revolted against their parents and they were so strong that the parents ran away and the kids won! After that war the kids ruled the universe! The kids also put all their parents in jail and they were afraid of them forever. The End!

This is a journal entry in Isabella's journal for writing. She wrote this last week and proudly read it to Daddy and I. Now mind you I don't teach rebelling or war in my home. In fact we teach peace and mild and meek spirit. However for some reason, during my daughters phase of Star Wars, she decided this would make an interesting story. She laughed and laughed at throwing the parents in jail and the kids ruling!

Hmm . . . should this entry give me reason to think over this little girls mind? Is this the future for her? Will she rebel and throw me in jail? Hmmm . . . I ponder. Now most of you know this sweet little girl and know she is kind and respectful but my oh my she does make me ponder because truly deep inside of her lives an evil twin sister that shows herself every now and then and battles for the good in her. I know though who I have believed in and I'm persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've commited unto Him against that day! I'm believing in this scripture to be true knowing she has commited her heart to Him and He will complete her one day. But it sure makes me ponder, what about you?