Happy New Year!

And a Merry late Christmas. How was everyone's Christmas and New Year's? Our Christmas was really nice, and filled with lots of family... and of course gifts. I was really sick the week of Christmas, with a flu and vomiting. I thought I was better, and felt well enough to visit with family. I was wrong lol, boy was I wrong! I was a trooper though, and stuck it out for my kids (who were having too much fun with their cousins).

The week before new years I was still getting over my flu, and was so stuffy. I went to blow my nose, and had a terrible pain in my left ear. It brought me to my knees, and had me in tears. I had to call my husband home early from work to take me to the hospital. Turns out, I blew out my ear (literally)! I have a perforated ear drum in my left ear, and still can't hear a thing. They gave me some antibiotics, and pain killers, and instructions to schedule a follow up appointment with my Dr. My doctor said that my hearing should resume as my eardrum heals, but I might need surgery to repair that :(

I didn't let that put a damper on how we brought in the new year though! We went to watch the Pasadena rose parade. It's kind of a big thing around here, so we were excited to have great seats and be able to go. My husband's company had reserved parking, and bleacher seating for us, complete with our own bathroom (no waiting an hour in line for us). They even had free food (my kids favorite part), so of course my kids helped themselves to a breakfast of champions (hot dogs, popcorn, hot chocolate, and nachos).

This is before the parade started. You can see people still lining up :)

Boo Boo enjoying the parade, and all bundled up!

My Babe acting silly.

Bunny loves her photo ops, and she really loved the horses in the parade.

These were our favorite floats in the parade. Bunny is really into the Tangled movie (we've seen it too many times already lol), and thought the first float was Rapunzel's castle with Maximus the horse in front :) And the boys (husband included) are really into medieval stuff, and loved the jousting float that had knights on horses following it.
We've been keeping up with our school studies, I just haven't been keeping up with pictures and blogging. But, tis' a new year and I can always fix that! I'll be back in a few days with some more pictures of what we've been up to, and what I've been working on.

No more vacation time for us

We pretty much spent the last 3 weeks using up every last bit of vacation time we had for our school year. Were okay with that too. I needed a week to adjust to my new medication, which made me very drowsy, and gave me weird side effects. I'm pretty used to it now, and can still feel the side effects, but they don't bother me as bad as they did in the beginning.

I started feeling better towards Thanksgiving, so of course I was up for some black Friday shopping with my best friend. We went and had our traditional Thanksgiving with my in laws, and then we hurried back home. I thought I was smart by wearing a thermal, a sweater, and taking a blanket.... Boy was I wrong! Next year I'm wearing a double pair of socks, and taking a beanie, some gloves, and an extra blanket lol. I'm super excited with the deals I got though (I saved us a ton of money), because I went prepared. I stalked the black Friday ads the whole week before, and made a list. I shopped during the week, used coupons and compared deals. Target was a gold mine for us this year! We splurged a little this year, and got our oldest boy a desktop computer (can't wait to see his face!).

This last week we've been reviewing a bit what we did the last week we did school, so when we return to our studies next week it won't be a total shock lol. And we've been painting more wrapping paper. The kids have loved painting. I brought out all of our Christmas cookie cutters, sponge brushes, and regular brushes and let them go at it. I'm thinking of cutting up some cheap dollar store sponges into Christmas shapes for them to stamp as well, but we'll see.

Here they are painting up a storm. We used some packing paper that I've saved throughout the year that has come in our amazon packages. The key is to take a hot iron to them to get the wrinkles out. The other paper were using is a really inexpensive (around $3), but huge roll from Ikea.

Here's the first section of our wrapping paper roll laid out to dry. After it dries, I roll the dried end in on itself and paper clip it, so that the roll is in 2 separate parts (painted, and not yet painted). The kids have really loved adding in a lot of their hand prints, finger prints and painting in the cookie cutter shapes.

Our first wrapped gift of the season! This was a birthday gift for my niece. I was being extra cheap ( I meant thrift!), so I glued the open ends shut instead of using tape, and tied the package with a piece of yarn. He's kind of smudgy so you probably can't tell, but we cut out a gingerbread man out of the paper and used him as a card. The kids were super proud of their wrapping paper, and that makes me proud :)

We'll be back to our regular posting next week for sure, and I've got lots of fun links to share with you!

Adjusting and Recovery

I had a follow up appointment with my regular doctor last Tuesday, and it turns out that I had a stroke. Thinking back, it fits, and I was in denial. Migraines build up, and mine wasn't a build up.... but more of a sudden rush of pain. The right side of my face was drooping, and I was in denial. Let this be a lesson to not ignore your symptoms!

This week I spent sleeping, so no school for us :( I was put on a few daily meds (for preventative reasons), and I'm still adjusting so they make me really sleepy. And I haven't been eating (side effects), food just hasn't tasted the same :(

I'll be back to regular posting tomorrow! We've made some awesome pumpkin chocolate cookies, painted our own wrapping paper, and are getting ready to start making some great Christmas presents for family.

modifications and migraines

Sorry I've been m.i.a for the week, I had a lot on my plate. Tuesday I had Orion's SST meeting (that I've been crazy preparing for), then it was the sit and wait game. At the meeting we talked about making modifications for dyslexia, and it was pretty much what I've been doing with him. Wednesday afternoon we got the call that they indeed are going to evaluate him for learning disabilities, and I was supposed to go back on Friday to sign consent to evaluate forms... but yeah I started not feeling well. I'll write more about the meeting soon. Saturday morning Orion was throwing up, so we missed his football, and in the evening my husband took my Babe to his game. My sister in law picked me and the Littles up, so I can help her and my mother in law get ready for cheer competition on Sunday.

Sunday, I spent the day at cheer competition, and as we were heading home my head started hurting. I took a migraine pill, and didn't feel any relief :( About an hour later I took another, and tried to lay down to rest. I got up 10 minutes later, because my eye was throbbing.

This is me, when we got to the hospital. The whole right side of my face was swollen! Then we started hearing scary words like meningitis and stroke. Not good :( They gave me a cocktail of benedryl and compazine, which only made me sleepy and barely took the edge off of my migraine. I was so sleepy I said it was good enough (since it was now at least tolerable, and I wasn't blubbering like a baby), and we left. Monday wasn't spent any better, since I started feeling the pain in my head again. I left the hospital with a prescription for more compazine, and took that. It really doesn't help any :(  As of now, it's tolerable, but I can feel it building up. I have an appointment tomorrow with a new Dr (since our insurance switched), and hopefully I'll feel some relief soon.

And here's a nifty picture of my arm after my I.V. See the paper under my arm? That's the next printable I'm working on, Fry's first hundred words!

Bits and pieces

I'm a little late on this, because I've been really busy getting ready for my son's SST meeting. Last week Bunny worked on the letter F, number 6, color green, and a some other concepts (cutting, coloring, tracing).

Here she is working on her Kumon coloring book. I really love this book, and so does she. We use pages from this book on Tuesdays and Thursdays, along with the Kumon cutting.

Cutting from the Kumon book. I was very leery of letting her use scissors, but I found a pair that weren't very sharp, and fit her small hands. She's doing very good so far, and almost cutting a straight line now. Not bad for a 3 year old :)

Bunny loves working on her shape sorting game. She's really good at matching the shapes, but could use some work on identifying the names of the shapes. Were working on that!

Number tracing practice. I laminated this, and she uses a dry erase marker to practice her numbers. Another favorite of hers.

Working on magnet pages. I've been seeing the magnetic pom poms on other blogs, and decided to make them also. I got the pom poms from the dollar tree, and the magnets from walmart. They were very easy to make, all I did was hot glue the magnets to the pom poms. We laminate the pages, and place them on a cookie sheet (from the dollar tree). She's entertained by this activity for hours at a time, which is great!

Letter F practice. Do-a-dot page, sorting activity, and lacing letters. We do these every week with each letter.

Color matching cows (from Creative Learning Fun), and recognizing the color green.

We did a few other activities, but towards the end of the week I dropped the ball and forgot to take pictures. This week is shaping up to be a bit slower too, since we have that important meeting tomorrow morning. The boys have been working on air for science, and pilgrims/thanksgiving/mayflower for history. I'll post more about that tomorrow, till then!

Evaluation for learning disabilities

Last Thursday I submitted a formal letter to our local public school, requesting an evaluation for learning disabilities. I was told (when I called the school district, to ask about the process), that they cannot test for specific learning disabilities (like dyslexia), so I had to state what my concerns where in the letter. I don't know if all states have the same rules as California, but I'm not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, if he doesn't have dyslexia (or if there are other disabilities), I'll finally know. On the other hand, it leaves me wondering how "spot on" this test will be, since it's not specific.I plan on blogging about our journey through this process, and hopefully someone will find this information useful.

I got the call today (from the school psychologist), that our SST (student success team) appointment is scheduled for next Tuesday. In California, the school district has 15 days upon receipt of a request for evaluation to schedule the initial SST meeting. If anyone wants, I can share the letter that I turned in requesting our evaluation. I was told that since I am homeschooling, I need to bring with me:

All of the curriculum my son is using
Samples of his work
My grading system
Any other methods that we have tried

That list leaves me a bit nervous, since I have no real grading system (except a pass/no pass), I teach green (we don't always do work on paper), and I use a lot of different internet resources. So, what's a concerned parent to do? I've decided I'm going to bring in every last book my son has used/is using/supplements from, bring in the science journal I've been making using all of his observation pages (they include writing and drawing), I will type out my pass/no pass grading system, type out a list of the different websites I pull resources from, and I'm bringing in our file folder games.

I'm hoping that they will view all of the above, as the different methods I have tried to help my son succeed. I am also making a chart, listing my concerns and how they impact him in different educational areas. My goal is to provide the school with a copy of my chart, and to remind myself of things I want to address. I can post the blank chart here also, for anyone interested. The psychologist informed me that, at this meeting the SST members will determine whether or not to proceed with evaluation, based on the information I provide. Maybe I'm being a bit excessive, but you can't take chances when it comes to your child's success :)

Baked Ziti

As part of my contribution to what works for me Wednesday, I'm sharing one of my family's favorite dinner's. It's also my go-to recipe for potluck parties :) It's really quick and easy, and I usually make it during the day on days that we have football practice (that means we get home late), because it heats up nicely. Days like today!

I can't find my camera cord, so the picture of our delicious dinner will have to wait until the morning. Here's what you'll need:

1 box of ziti noodles (brand doesn't matter, but I like Barilla)
1 lb of ground hamburger meat
12 oz roll of pork sausage
1 large jar of spaghetti sauce (we use Prego)
1 large white onion
2-3 cloves of garlic (or to taste)
salt and pepper
a brick of mozzarella cheese

Chop onion, and grate garlic (I feel like we taste the flavor more this way, than chopping). Combine onion, garlic, sausage and hamburger meat, and cook in a frying pan until done. Drain off fat. I boil my ziti noodles at the same time as I cook my meat, and drain. Grate mozzarella cheese. Pour ziti noodles in a baking dish, cover with meat mix, and spaghetti sauce. Mix until everything is blended. Cover in cheese, and bake in oven at 325 degrees, until cheese is melted.

Serve with garlic bread, and enjoy! Quick, easy, and cheap :)