Sunday, February 24, 2008

This photo seems so long ago now...last night's layout.

Saturday, February 16, 2008








When I was about 10 years old my dad bought me a white bookcase for my bedroom. Over 20 years later, those bookshelves made nine or ten moves through moving with my family, my college years, and moving with Ethan. They made their final move from my basement scrapbooking room to my guest room scrapbooking area. I put all my cool supplies on them, but they were leaning in a serious way. Ethan suggested that I find something new before they crashed to the ground, taking all my gemstones, textured paints, and silk flowers with them. On my brother's advice, I got some cool gently used Ikea Expedit shelves. Charles recommended the 4 cube by 4 cube set but I was lucky enough to find the 5 by 5 set on craigslist. All of a sudden I have sooo much space! I am enjoying filling my cubes up with all the crafty stuff I love. I would highly recommend these to any scrapbooker - they hold a ton of stuff, and fit 12 by 12 papers and albums easily! My old shelves will get nailed together and won't be so attractive, but they'll make good storage for our camping gear in the basement.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Our Aquarium Visit



We visited the Aquarium to celebrate the end of our ocean unit! It was a wonderful and very satisfying experience to watch Esme move through the exhibits and see all the different animals she'd learned about. Her favorite part was touching the starfish. We had a book from the library about Starfish that we must have read fifty times, because she loved it so much. I think what caught

her attention and held her rapt the longest was the Beluga whales. We stopped and watched them on our way in and went outside again to watch their feeding. It is amazing how close they swim to where you're standing. She also really enjoyed the penguins and sea lions, as well as the florescent fish, clown fish, octopus (which she named Ursula), and a moray eel which Ethan and I both found disturbing. It was great to see how much she's really learned, and see her make the connections between the books we've read and the real live animals.

Thursday, February 07, 2008


I just finished an incredibly interesting book. It wasn't just about the cholera epidemic of the 1850s, but about how epidemiology was developed. It told the personal story of two men who we can thank for a major advancement in medicine. As I type this, it sound a bit dry, but believe me, it was fascinating and suspenseful! This book was both entertaining and extremely educational - a great read! I'd highly recommend it!

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

I had a harder time choosing who to vote for this year than usual. I was okay with almost all the choices, so it made it hard to narrow down a final candidate to get behind. I finally decided - good thing, because I had to vote today! Our family is going for Barack Obama! I'm ready for a really intelligent president, and I like his ideas, so I finally committed and gave him my vote! If he is the Democratic candidate for president I even have some signs ready to hang up on my fence.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Paper Plate Sea Creatures












Two of Esme's recent projects - making a paper plate sea jelly helped Esme learn their two main parts - a bell and tentacles. We made the crab after reading A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle. In the story the crab uses all different ocean life to decorate his home. We let Esme choose any materials available in our craft area and she really made it a mixed media project with crayons, glitter, stickers, foil tape, rick rack, etc. I was very amused she chose to decorate it with vegetable stickers!!

Fantasy, Folk Tales, and Myths


It is hard for me to believe that we are in the last week of our second unit already. We've been studying the ocean for several weeks and have covered sand, water, and tons of animals. We are devoting this week to magical ocean stories. Our book of the week is Mermaid Dreams and we're also reading The Fisherman's Wife, Atlantis, and two Russian folk takes relating to the sea. Words of the week are is and see.

Next week we'll take a few days to explore Valentine's Day and then we'll be on to our next full unit!

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Will you let Esme decide to go to school if she wants to when she gets older?

No. While we are certainly open to hearing her desires and opinions, we are ultimately responsible for her education and the decision to continue homeschooling or place her in a school setting will be made by us.

How long will you continue to homeschool? Will you homeschool all the way through high school?

This is an impossible question for us to answer. Throughout the process, Esme's education has to come first. We will evaluate whether homeschooling is still our best option at least every year. We can't know when she's 4 if homeschooling will be right for her at 14. We can only say that so far we love it, and that Esme is making good progress. At this time it is the right option for us. We hope we'll be able to continue for a long time.

Friday, February 01, 2008

I can't believe how busy I've been since I finished my long-term assignment! I thought once I stopped working every day I would have tons of time on my hands. I guess I forgot what real life is like, and how quickly days fill up! I have been doing a variety of different things. Our Girl Scout troop is finally up and running, I've been working on homeschooling lesson plans, finally seeing some friends, cooking more, etc.

I was excited that I lost approximately 16 pounds during my long-term assignment. I have a new doctor who was very encouraging. He gave me good advice about what I can do to stay on the same track. The most major thing I'm doing is giving up having soda at home. I've always drunk tons of soda, and when the doctor and I sat down and added up the calories I take in every week just in soda, I was amazed. Also, watching Super Size Me really opened my eyes to how bad soda is for you! So NO MORE soda in our home. We're going to try to teach Esme not to get hooked on the stuff either.