Have you ever visited Scraptalk? It is my favorite scrapbooking site, and I am lucky enough to be be on the DT. The message board is the friendliest one I've ever been a part of, and they have a great gallery too. If you haven't ever been, check it out.

This was a tough week for me emotionally and it culminated with an unpleasant incident Saturday night. I am so glad this is a new week and full of new possibilities. The one thing I was really excited about from last week was that my crazy altered flamingos were picked up for publication! They will be in the Paper Trends February/March issue.

this week in homeschooling

Words of the week are a and he, and our book of the week is The Very Lonely Caterpillar. Esme is also learning what authors and illustrators do, and is perfecting counting to 30.

My entry for Last Scrapper Standing! I printed my photo on a transparency, used a transparency for the journaling box, used a Hambly screen print, a 7 Gypsies transparency, a Heidi Swapp silhouette flower, covered a photo corner with mica, used clear buttons, and acryilic letters.

Did this page this summer - I love those polka dotted Primas!

Ethan and I have been reading a lot lately. He wanted to read Finn, so to get ready we both ready The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I hadn't read Huck Finn since college or maybe even high school, so it was such a pleasure! I had forgotten how compelling Huck and Jim's story was. I loved this book! On the other hand, I hated Finn. I knew that Pap was not likely to be a very pleasant or sympathetic kind of guy, but I found the whole book unnecessarily gruesome and violent and disgusting, and found myself unmoved, unchanged, and very disappointed in the end.

After finishing both of those books I decided I would like to go back to Mark Twain and read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which I had never read before. I loved this book also. It's a lot different than Huck Finn, but you know reading it that Mark Twain really remembered what it was like to be a young boy. It's full of adventures and was a delightful read.

Since I've had better luck lately with classics than new books, I've just started The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. I was supposed to read this in high school - one of the Four Classic American Novels - but I'm ashamed to say, I never actually did. Sorry Mr. Sullivan!

A Week of Ants and Exciting Realizations

We are doing a five-week bug unit and this week's theme was ants. Aunt Lisa did a special ant activity with Esme and the girls that explores the roles of different ants in the colony, and the next morning made Esme ant-shaped pancakes! This photos is of Esme observing some ants in our yard. We found some under a brick, at Dylan's advice.

This week Esme realized that she is really learning to read! We were reading a bedtime story and all of a sudden she said, "Look, Mommy, look!" She pointed to one of the words and said, "the! It's the!" Her biggest concern about learning to read is that we will still read stories to her, even when she knows how on her own. We reassured her that we will!

So excited that my next pub will be out next month!!

We are reading several Eric Carle books because we are studying bugs! This week's book of the week is The Very Clumsy Click Beetle. Words of the week are it and one. We will also be studying ants, reading poetry, and making our first simple graph. Esme also had her first Godly Play Sunday School lesson this week.

It seems like so long since I have just sat down at my scrapping table and worked on some photos of Esme!! I had so much fun doing this page!

R.I.P. Crickets

Sadly our brand new crickets passed away this evening. I am sooo sad! Esme was so enthralled and immediately loved them! I don't know if my jar just wasn't adequate or what exactly happened, but they both died. Esme is taking it well. Here is the documentation we did this afternoon, while they were still alive.

Welcome Molly and Polly

Two crickets came home with me today - part of studying bugs is to observe the real thing! Esme fell in love with them right away and I had to explain that we will indeed be releasing them in a few days. Esme's observations have already included that she loves them and would like to kiss them. Luckily she's also noticed that they're brown and need food and water and air.

After all these years of talk I finally did it! I completed the first page for my heritage album! I doing it in 8 and a half by 11 size so that I will be able to easily color copy the pages for my brothers. My first page is one of my all-time favorite pics of my grandmother.

This week's book is The Very Grouchy Ladybug and words of the week are she and not.

Looking for Circles

Part of Friday's lesson was a circle hike through our neighborhood. We found manhole covers, electric meters, fire hydrants, doorknobs, traffic lights, signs, satellite dishes, tires, and more.

P.S. Yes, Esme did choose her own outfit.

tracing work

I told Esme she could choose one paper she's done so far this week to post on her blog and this is what she picked - she traced her first and last name, the date, and each of her sight words three times.

Not Back to School

Today was our first official day of homeschooling! Esme and I worked together for approximately two hours and I was amazed how much we did in such a short time! Her book of the week is I Can't Said the Ant and her sight words of the week are I, said, the, and ant. She did not like the activities around her sight words. She did like reading along with her books on tape, tracing words, sorting her attribute blocks, and drawing a picture to record how she sorted the blocks.