Random Ramblings

I've been sick since last Friday with a sore throat/cough/cold type thing. While I have a high pain tolerance, simple colds seem to knock me out physically. I end up spending lots of time laying around trying to get better. I'm not in pain, just a little sore throat. But I'm exhausted and feeling very run down. I even stayed home from church on Sunday (that never happens) to get some extra rest. 


I've managed to stay caught up on laundry, but cleaning doesn't really happen when I'm sick. My husband is great to keep the dishes done, the kitchen counters clean, and the toys picked up. But our bathrooms and floors are pretty dirty right now. I've been sweeping (or having the kids do it) but it just doesn't substitute for vacuuming and mopping. With a crawling baby on the floor, I can't pretend my floors are clean when they're not: Jaxon's knees tell the truth. So I've been dressing him in dark clothes this week, so I don't have to see the dirt on his knees. Isn't that terrible?


But the only thing worse than Mommy being sick would be kids being sick. Aside from the girls having runny noses earlier in the week, no one else has gotten sick. I'm very grateful for that.


I'm excited for Christmas "vacation" since it means we won't have to do schoolwork for 2 weeks! I think I look forward to breaks from school as much as the kids do, if not more! Only 6 more days! 

McWane Science Center, Birmingham, AL - Our Review

I love children's museums. I think they are so much fun for kids, and I must be right because my kids love to visit them as well. If you have one in your area, you should check it out. We do not have a children's museum in our area, but we do have a science museum, the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, AL, that is about an hour away from us. We are very lucky in that the McWane Center also has several features that many children's museums also have, so it is both fun and educational.


There are four levels to the McWane Center, plus an IMAX theater. Level 1 features simple machines such as pulleys and levers, as well as other physical science exhibits. There is also a bubble lab, a distortion room, an area for building and creating, and many other exhibits. There is a special area for kids under 5 called Just Mice Size that features a climbing area with slides, water and sand play areas, dress up center, pretend store with play food, reading and puzzle areas, and a special soft play area for little babies. There is also a quiet room for nursing mothers in this area.

Water play area - this was probably his favorite area!

Bubble Lab

The second level features (among other things) a simulator that produces hurricane force winds, a weather center where kids can broadcast their own reports, and a huge dinosaur exhibit, complete with a site where kids can "excavate" bones. 

Hurricane Simulator

The third level is my favorite. The exhibits here are changed out every so often. The current featured exhibit consists of several huge layouts of model trains. Jaxon surprised me by being very interested in the model trains - check out the look on his face here as he was watching them. I love that little smile :)

A recurring exhibit that my kids love is called "Itty Bitty Magic City" which features things like a supermarket for kids to shop and play cashier. The area is has lots of play food, shopping carts, a conveyor belt and pulley for moving food, a miniature golf course, and giant building materials to construct "houses" and other buildings.

I love the third level because it's very open. I can sit in the infant/toddler play area on this level (which is filled with soft foam pieces that babies and toddlers love to crawl and climb on) and still be able to see the other kids playing and running around. On this level there is also a keyboard you can walk on, a gigantic Lite Brite, and some interactive projections on the wall. 

Let a butterfly land on your shoulder! 

Catch the falling money!

We also love the lower level. This is where the aquariums are. You can pet sting rays and sharks and see all kinds of other sea life. One time when we were there, the kids were allowed to hold a shark egg! We usually spend at least 45 minutes down there petting the sharks & rays. 

Admission is $12 for adults and $9 for kids and well worth it. However, a family membership is only $90 and gives you access for a year, free parking, discounts on IMAX movies, and more. With our family size, membership paid for itself after 2 visits. There is a cafe onsite featuring a Subway, Pizza Hut, and Red Mango - you can also buy items such as hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, and pasta at reasonable prices. 


Connect with the McWane Center at www.McWane.org

Caterpillar Fun

We've been studying invertebrates in science and we've reached the insects section. Insects are gross, for the most part, but butterflies are nice, so we've paused to pay special attention to them. Yesterday the kids watched an Eyewitness: Butterfly & Moth DVD. I love the Eyewitness series -they have great pictures and lots of information in chunks that are easy for kids to understand and remember. 


Today, we focused on my very favorite butterfly, the one that was first a very hungry caterpillar.


I love The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Luckily, my kids do too.  


I saw a cute & easy caterpillar craft on Pinterest several weeks ago. I set the materials for this out for the kids. 

The caterpillars turned out very cute!

Then I decided to elaborate on it a little bit and assigned them each foods from the book to make. I let them take charge, and so we ended up with black plums when purple construction paper couldn't be found and a few of our foods don't look quite like what they are supposed to be, but they had fun. 

Once the foods were done, I punched holes in each food. Then I had the kids sequence the foods and we strung it on a piece of ribbon and hung it, along with our finished caterpillars on the wall. They loved how it looked as if the caterpillars were going to eat the food.

I thought it turned out pretty cute. B was so excited about how it turned out, he wanted his picture taken with it. Then he went off to make a butterfly & a cocoon for the display! 

Need more Very Hungry Caterpillar? Check out my Very Hungry Caterpillar obsession board on Pinterest. 


P.S. I can't explain my VHC obsession. I just like the book...it's cute, well written and beautifully illustrated. And judging from the number of repins I've had on Pinterest, I'm not the only one who is obsessed!

Frisbee Golf & Roller Skating

We are very lucky in that we have several great parks near our house to play at during the week, including a park within walking distance of our house. The kids play outside and ride scooters and bikes at our house every day that the weather allows, but it's nice to have somewhere different to play sometimes.  


Recently, one of the local parks installed a Frisbee golf course. I'd never heard of Frisbee golf, but the concept seemed simple enough. The kids had all received new Frisbees at the beach during our last trip, so we headed out earlier this week to try out the new course. I was happy to have something new to do for PE. 

We didn't play the course in order, because there were some serious Frisbee golfers out there playing, so we tried to stay out of their way. We also didn't play right, since none of my kids can throw a Frisbee 300 + feet, which seemed to be the average distance from the tee (do you call it that in Frisbee golf) to the basket. I did teach the kids how to read the par, and what that meant. Emily seemed to be delighted when she would get the Frisbee in the basket in less than par...the fact that she was throwing from 20 feet away instead of the usual 323 feet was lost on her! They had a great time and they have already asked to go back. 

The funniest part of this little excursion came at the end. Britain and Alex had tied and Britain insisted on a tiebreaker. They threw from about 15 feet away and Alex nailed the basket on her first throw. Britain took 2 throws and was furious that Alex had beat him.

It seems our kids cannot stand to lose...as we found out at the skating rink this week as well. Our homeschool group went skating this week. Britain entered the skate races and almost cried coming off the rink after his loss. Emily entered the foot races and also lost, and ran straight off the rink and literally fell into Jason, bawling her eyes out. Thankfully, they had a great time skating with friends so the losses didn't ruin our fun. I think some discussions on how to be a good loser are definitely needed around here!

Jaxon really wanted to skate...he loved watching the kids & all the lights!

Changes

So I haven’t blogged in a couple of weeks. There’s actually a good reason for that. I have wanted to, but I’ve been completely overwhelmed with all kinds of things. In the last month, we have:


- Moved.
- Started homeschooling our three school age kids.
- Started a church.


Now, that list looks short when I type it out. But if you could see the sub-headings for each of those categories, you would understand why I’ve been so overwhelmed.


Our move was originally scheduled for June, after the kids finished this school year in public schools. But after I had Jaxon, we quickly became aware that it would be better for us to go ahead and move, for a number of reasons I won’t elaborate on here. We had originally planned to start homeschooling in the fall, so suddenly having to order books, develop lesson plans, and start homeschooling three kids was a little crazy for me. I’m a detail girl, so feeling rushed on something I’d like to be excessively detailed about was challenging for me. The fact that I was trying to pack and take care of Jaxon and myself while learning to homeschool made it even more difficult for me.


Now, on to the move. Anyone who has ever moved knows it is hard, especially with kids. Have I mentioned the fact I still had stitches from Jaxon’s birth when we were packing and moving, so I couldn’t lift anything heavier than him? I was pretty helpless during the move and I hated it! My wonderful mother-in-law packed up half my house for me, including my entire kitchen (one of the hardest rooms in a house to pack, in my opinion).


Oh, and our “new” house is actually very old…not old enough to be historical and interesting, just old enough to be old and dirty, lol. It needed tons of cleaning, and some work…painting, tearing down wallpaper, etc. While I was able to do some of the cleaning, my poor sweet husband (and his very helpful father) had to do the wallpaper scraping, painting, and other things getting it ready for us to move into. I wanted to help, but not only do I not have a steady hand for painting, my hand also cramps up too quickly to be of any real help with scraping wallpaper. Plus with Jaxon wanting to nurse all the time, it would have been really hard to find time for me to do much. Jason did a great job getting most of it done before we moved in, which is especially impressive considering he was also starting a church (his new job) during all of this.


I was completely overwhelmed with all of this. I felt like I had so much to do and so little time to do it in and energy to do it with! We have now been here a week, and while there are still several boxes that need to be unpacked, and even more stuff that needs to find a home in the new place, I’m starting to feel a little more settled. I’m having trouble getting this house as clean as I like my house to be. My time and energy are very limited right now and so my OCD is having to take a backseat to more important things, like nursing this baby boy! It’s probably a good thing, actually, since it forces me to slow down.


We are starting to get in a routine now and I’m hoping to blog more now that things are settling down. I’ll be posting an update on my Parkinson’s soon…it’s long overdue!


Until then, any of you homeschool moms who have tips for me should feel free to pass them along! I would especially appreciate any tips on how to settle into a routine and how to juggle teaching 3 different grade levels.