When was the last time...

you cleaned the top and behind your refrigerator?

YUCK! I did it yesterday. I found lots of interesting things under and behind the fridge. And my gosh...the wall behind it was scary. Mind you, we live in a log house with rough hewn logs. Everything clings to them, but this gave a whole new meaning to dust bunnies. More like dust kangaroos!

Along with that, I cleaned out the "medicine" cabinet in the kitchen. Everything in that cabinet had been expired for at least a year or more. All that clutter just taking up space. I am on a mission. I am determined to de-clutter this house. Even if it is one cabinet or drawer at a time.

Good deed for the day

Thursday afternoon(8/20) Cerdwin and I were going to return some movies and go to the grocery store. We drove by a home on Stewart Road and I noticed a person laying in the driveway. Something just didn't seem quite right about that to me. There was a car behind me so I went on up to the next road and turned around at the first available spot. I waited to see if that other car had stopped, but they didn't. I drove back by the house again and the person was still laying in the driveway, so I turned around and pulled into the driveway. I got out and walked up to the woman. Of course, I asked the most ridiculous question, but I was just looking for and hoping for a response. I asked if she was OK. She opened her eyes and nodded her head to respond no. I asked if anyone else was at home and she said no. I ran back to the van to get my cell phone and had to go out to the road to look for the address on the mailbox. I called 911 and stayed with the woman until the first responders and ambulance arrived. Poor Cerdwin was in the van screaming bloody murder. I did go back and open the doors so she could get some air because it was so hot and I had turned the van off. She was begging to get out. She unbuckled her seat belt, but she stayed in her seat the whole time. I was so proud of her for actually listening to me for once!
While we were waiting to leave since we were blocked in, of course the inquisition started. Where are they taking her? Why is the motor so loud on the ambulance? What is wrong with her? What happened to her? Did the dog bite her? Is she going to be alright? What is wrong with her? What is wrong with her? I couldn't give her a definitive answer about what was wrong with the woman so she kept asking over and over. I really don't know what was wrong with the woman. She appeared to be having some sort of seizure because her body was shaking all over, but she was semi-alert and responsive.
We made an unplanned stop at the library and hung out for a while before heading on to get groceries. It gave her a chance to settle down and enjoy herself for a while. When I went back by the house on the way home the front door was still open and nobody else appeared to have been there since we left. I stopped at the neighbor's house to ask if they knew the woman. They were clueless. A bunch of young "adults" who had just moved in and didn't know anyone or anything.

Lost in High Point

Once again, I got lost in High Point! I do not like that town at all. Cerdwin and I made a trip to High Point to visit my friend Cheri and her son Gabe. Cerdwin had been begging for a couple of weeks to see Gabe. Since they have moved from King, it makes it a little more difficult to just swing by for a visit. After driving around for at least 45 minutes, I finally spotted the street sign. It was camouflaged by tree limbs and leaves from one direction. We visited for about 2 hours and Cerdwin had fun playing with Gabe and the other kids. The next time we go to visit them, they will probably be in another place and I will have to go on another trek around that horrid town.

Lesson Plans

The more I look at things, the more frazzled I get. While I am completely opposed to a "boxed curriculum", I am finding it rather overwhelming to make any concrete decision. I have read more about different approaches to homeschooling. Based upon how Cerdwin reacts to the different materials I have been "testing" her with over the past week or so, I really think we need to use an unschooling approach. I am going to try to just follow her lead for a while and see how it goes. Even though I am trying to follow standards outlined for Kindergarten skills, we certainly have plenty of time. Some days we might sit at the table, others at the computer, and others will be spent exploring outside the house and traveling to other places.
Tuesday's efforts proved to be somewhat frustrating for us both at times. I gathered information from Lesson Pathways for Math, Science, History(Social Studies), and Language Arts. She and I worked through the Science lesson-we created a Science Notebook.(http://www.squidoo.com/interactive-notebook) This proved to be a fun and satisfying lesson for her. She consistently looks forward to science related studies.
Our Social Studies lesson was a bit more of a challenge. Our focus was the community where we live. The suggested pathway was to create a map of our community which would involve a considerable amount of drawing. Her pencil/pen/marker skills are still somewhat lacking and she tends to avoid anything that requires much effort in that area. I decided to steer in a little different direction. We chose to list her favorite places to travel, how we get there, and what we see on the way. She and I got a lot of giggles and smiles from this method.
Language Arts included reading the story: The Princess and the Pea. She dressed up in a costume as the princess, gathered lots of pillows, blankets, and her "lucky rock" which played the part of the pea. I, of course, was designated as the prince. She acted out the part of the princess and climbed upon the huge pile of pillows and of course she could feel that "pea"! We danced and had a wedding. We will continue this week on the pathway outlined using this story.
The math lesson was left to Jason when he got home from work. Unfortunately, that one got pushed back. It involved going outdoors on a nature hunt. He was in no mood to go back out in the heat. Instead, she played some games online to hone in on some number recognition skills.
Later, she played some games on the Wii with Jason.
I am exhausted, but feel like we both gleaned much from our experiences today. Tomorrow is a new day and I think we will travel to a new destination.

The Weekend Was a NIGHTMARE

Where to begin...since we are usually on the go all the time, I suppose I can chalk some of it up to cabin fever. However, the unacceptable behaviors started long before the weekend. We just happened to discover them on Saturday. Cerdwin had been invited to attend a birthday party on Sunday. We told her she had to clean her bedroom and playroom to have that privilege. Woe is me for starting that battle. Jason and I ended up in the playroom going through everything. First discovery was that she had decided to use her "playhouse washing machine" as a toilet. Yep. Full of dried urine! As we were going through things we found some strange stick substance all over some toys and DVD cases. Apparently that was lip gloss. The straw that broke the camels proverbial back though was when I started going through the toy box. I thought I smelled pee. Sure enough when I started picking up some of the toys they were wet! UGH! I went berserk. I had to throw a large number of toys in the garbage because they were saturated with urine.
We ended up bagging up 3 garbage bags full of toys to give away, quite a few items to put on craigslist, and two bags full to just toss. The options are now very limited in the playroom. Hopefully, that will make things much more manageable and less overwhelming for Cerdwin. All DVDs have been put in our bedroom. When she wants to watch one in the playroom she has to come ask for it and return it before getting another. So far that has been working pretty well. She has also been able to keep the playroom cleaned up fairly well without a huge battle.
Unfortunately, Mommy had to suffer the consequences of the bad behavior and stubbornness of the 4 year old. I was looking forward to going swimming after the birthday party. Boo hiss!
The battles continued through Sunday night. Monday was a much better day.
We started with some lessons on http://www.time4learning.com/ and this was a great experience. She seems to be enjoying the lessons, though at times they seem to move a little too slow for her. Even at bedtime we were able to review some of the things she had worked on as we were reading bedtime stories. It still to be seen if the $19.95/month subscription to the site will be worth our money, but we are giving it a try.
I am still trying to put together a curriculum for her to start on for Kindergarten. I have found several incredible websites. The resources from them are infinite! I just have to keep from being overwhelmed with them all and be rather discerning about which ones Cerdwin sees. She wants to try them all!
The top 3 for us so far are:
Time 4 Learning
Internet 4 Classrooms
Lesson Pathways

Today is a new day and we are going swimming at GG Carter's with some friends. So far it has been relaxed. Let's hope it continues.

Baby! Baby! August 23rd

Fundraiser for The Mommies Network

Aven's Corner

I received an email about this a long time ago, but didn't actually look into it. I found the link to http://www.avenscorner.com on another site today. Cerdwin has been playing the games and having lots of fun with it. There is an error message that pops up sometimes when going to the games but if you just click OK it goes on and I haven't seen any problems. The games are cute and help with learning mouse skills too.

Quote:

Hello, My name is Billy Collins. I am the creator of http://avenscorner.com, a free online preschool and educational game website specifically designed for children with spectrum disorder. I started this site to help my son Aven who was recently diagnosed with ASD. He has responded to the games very well. I think some of the visitors or members of your group would enjoy the content at Aven's Corner. Would you be willing to link to our site? I would be happy to post a reciprocal link to your site on my home page. Thanks, I hope your site continues to grow! Billy Collins

Great article on resiliency

http://www.divinecaroline.com/22189/53715-resiliency--handy-habit-mind

How resilient are you? Do you stress over the "big picture" or just the little stuff, all of it or none of it?

Wildflowers

I happened upon these photos taken of the wildflowers in Namaqualand in South Africa. Namaqualand is quite popular with both local and international tourists during early springtime, when for a short period a normally arid area becomes covered with a kaleidoscope of color during the flowering season. They are so gorgeous and cover the land as far as the eye can see. I wish I could have a field of flowers this beautiful.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/martin_heigan/sets/72157601478436350/show/

Sandwich Thins

I had never even seen these things until a couple of weeks ago when I was at a baby shower in VA. I found them at Sam's Club this week and we are loving them. I am looking forward to making some breakfast sandwiches with them.

Cholesterol Free
Excellent Source of Fiber
Low Fat
0g Trans Fat
Multigrain
Made with Whole Grains
No High Fructose Corn Syrup

Swimming at Bur-Mil

We made another trip out to Bur-Mil pool for an afternoon to cool off in the water. Lots of fun with Hannah, Yvonne, and some new friends!

Going to the drive-in again

We decided to give the Eden Drive-In a try to see Aliens in the Attic and Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince.
It might be a while before we head back to the Eden Drive-In. Don't get me wrong. It is nice. I like the grassy parking areas and the fact that they have larger restroom facilities than the Bright Leaf in Mt. Airy. However, they have a playground down by the screen and DD nearly drove us insane wanting to go play. DH took her to play and thank goodness I stayed by the van. He said that thing was a hazard. They also have someone walking around selling glow in the dark things that look like light sabers. UGH!
We made DD take a nap that afternoon before we went. It didn't help much. She did OK through the first movie - Aliens in the Attic. By the time the second movie started: Harry Potter, she was pretty tired and starting to get on my nerves. She was doing whatever she could to try to stay awake. It was also really humid Saturday night. The heat was not bad, but the humidity just made me feel nasty.
Someone had told me they liked the Bright Leaf in Mt. Airy better than the Eden Drive-In. I didn't ask their reason. After going to both of them, I think I agree. Aesthetically Eden is more appealing. However, we were more comfortable at the Bright Leaf.
You can't beat the prices to see 2 new release movies!
Eden: 6-Adult $5 each. 5 & under is FREE.
Bright Leaf: 11-Adult $6 each. 4-10 yrs $3. Under 4 is FREE.