Too Long!

I am flunking at this whole blog thing. Its been a really long time since I put anything here. Here's a quick run down:

* I am pregnant with boy #5 at the beginning of May. I am hoping for a VBAC but mostly I want a healthy happy baby and as quick a recovery as possible.
* I continue to homeschool our 4 boys and I was lucky to recently get a free chalkboard and some desks from a school about to be demolished.
* I continue trying to cook from scratch, maintain food storage, and living frugally, providently... although its been really hard with this pregnancy, at first nothing tasted good, luckily we are over that now.
* Yeah for me! I am getting a manual grain grinder for Christmas and I plan on putting my boys to work helping me grind wheat and other stuff and making bread and tortillas- yum! They really want bagels, so we'll see how that goes.
* I have spent a lot of time re-arranging and organizing the upstairs to make room for company coming for Christmas: my brother and in-laws get here in 2 days!
* The kids have been involved in a local art club and have made some really neat things like soap, and candles. Fun to make and stuff we can actually use!
* We have our tree up and the weather is cold, feels like Christmas! The kids are going to get spoiled again this year, I think the grandparents have really outdone themselves this year! Wow! But with 3 sets its hard not to.
* Will likes to plug things into sockets... scary! He plugged in my hot rollers and got a little surprise- they get hot!
* Joe is a partner in crime with Will, Will can get into plenty of mischief by himself but when the two get together-- its bad!
* Peter and Sam are still best friends and are including Joe more and more. They usually make Will the bad guy. They are also doing great with school, eager to learn, curious about the way things work, love the library.
* We have had 2 weeks of overcast, cloudy, cold wet days and its been hard on the kids, too much energy!
* Peter drew the 3 sets of grandparents a drawing of our family. He even included the new baby. Too cute!

Well that's pretty much a quick recap of life at the Duffey's!

HEB Family Homeschool Camp

We went to family camp with our homeschool group. Chris was unable to go with us so I went with a friend from church instead. We left Monday and were done on Friday then Chris and my friends husband drove up and met us at a nearby state park and we camped another day. At family camp the kids played in the sandbox a lot. We waded in the river.

They had a Zainy Olympics with silly and challeging events. Events like watermelon spitting aiming for a large bowel. Blowing a ping pong ball through an obstacle course. Balloon Volleyball and Basketball. It was a lot of fun, and challenging because our team consisted of mostly children under 10 years old.

They had a Trading Post where the kids each bring something to trade and everyone lays out their stuff and kids go around trading homemade crafts or old toys for candy or someone else's homemade toys or old toys. The kids bargain, how many star-burst for your homemade mask of Darth Vader as an example. Peter and Sam don't quite understand the concept, but they are learning.

They also had crafts that the kids got to do. One was a photo frame. The little kids painted Popsicle sticks and I helped glue them in the shape of a square and added HEB CAMP in pre-cut letters, later they could add a photo. It was very messy with the paint and Will kept unplugging the hot glue gun. Overall it was a lot of fun.

I was glad that Chris got to meet us and extend our camping a bit. The kids were excited about camp and talked non stop for a couple hours about everything they did. We spent the night Friday at Palmetto State Park and woke up Saturday to a beautiful day. We got a chance to try our hand at fishing. The kids were bored with it fairly quickly, the casting is fun but the waiting for the bit is hard. I got to catch my first fish though! Will got hungry and wanted to eat an apple. I put him in the wagon to sit and eat it. I failed to notice the distance between the river and the wagon, because moments after I put him in the wagon, the wagon started drifting towards the river and he fell in, wagon and all! Scary moments! Chris dove in after him and Will hardly noticed what happened other than he was suddenly all wet! Chris' cell phone is still recovering...


Peter's Thoughts about Camp:

What did you think of camp? It was my favorite camp I have ever been in. At Trading Post we got He-Man, Spider man, and a red Power Ranger. And I even built my favorite things at craft time. And we goed on a hike. And we have walking sticks from the hike. And we have egg cartons. We put tied feathers and beads to our walking sticks and collected rocks and things and put them in our egg cartons on our hike. I do not have to swim at family camp. I can get to the other side of the river without having to swim. I have no floaties at pools. And we goed camping and fishing. And that's all I have to say.


Sam's thoughts about Camp:

Camp was fun. I swam at camp. I made a necklace. I played in the sandbox and tried to dig a well. I saw a raccoon. I ate bacon and eggs. That's it! (time to go play)


Joe's Thoughts about Camp:

Hands raised excited: "Make a mountain!" (out of sand). Joe and Will loved the sand box.


Its a shame I didn't have a video or tape recorder when Chris came on Friday night. The kids chatted non stop and then the next day they talked even more about camp. Now its Sunday and I think they all told Chris (all at the same time) everything they had to say about camp. We had fun and it was a lot like summer camp, what you might picture a week at a camp like in the Parent Trap. We ate cafeteria style with surprisingly lots of opportunities to eat large lettuce salads with all the fixings which made the health conscious adults like me quite happy! It was a really fun week. I wished we could have camped out more with Chris, we only did an overnight stay with him at Palmetto State Park. But the kids were cranky and out of sorts and Chris couldn't stay on Monday, so it was best to leave Saturday evening. The good news is now we know of a nice place to go about 2 1/2 hours from our house--not too bad.

Peter's thoughts

I like to draw pictures of Optimus Prime. I like drawing pictures. Yesterday my Learn At Home Grade 1 book came in the mail and I’m excited to start using it. I love school. I have been learning the colors in Spanish. I have been learning to read and tell stories. I read a few books. I like to read simple books in the BOB series, they are only 6 pages and they are fun and easy. Dad read me Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I liked that book. Our DVD player can’t work anymore. I am learning about Thomas Edison and Peter Smith. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. The first light bulb was pointy like the picture.
That’s funny to me. Peter Smith is my great great great grandfather who I am named after. Mom and I found out that Peter Smith was 3 years older than Thomas Edison. Peter Smith lived in Norway and then moved here to North Dakota, he never did get to have electricity and light bulbs in his home. I like learning about him. This week we are going to learn about the sun and how God created the world. I am almost 7 my birthday is in a few months. When I am 8, I am going to get baptized. I am excited and I am also going to get my own set of scriptures when I am baptized, they are going to be 2 books, one is the Bible and one is the Book of Mormon. I can’t wait until I am really big. When I am big I’ll take care of my family.

Peter

Joe Likes to Wash Up!

Joey did something really cute recently. He was eating dinner and got his hands dirty so he got down from the table to go wash his hands. When he came back I helped him back into his booster seat and asked if he got his hands washed ok? Then I noticed his hair was wet, and I ask, "Joey your hair is wet, what happened?"
Then he told me that it was dirty, and I noticed his shirt was wet too and I asked about that, and he said that was dirty too. It was cute the way he kept tilting his head the the side and thinking a minute and saying, "Oh, it was dirty". It looked like he nearly took a bath! What a funny kid! We are now quite careful when we tell him that his hands are dirty.

Swimmer Sam and Will the Whale

Yesterday June 13, 2008: Samuel Duffey started officially swimming without the need of flotation devices. No floaties! It was so amazing to see him progress to this point.

On Monday this last week, the kids and I went over to our friend Christine's house with her 2 children Owen and Marianne. The played in her hot tub, the water being unheated, nice and cool. The kids had fun turning the jets on and off and splashing around while Christine and I talked about homeschooling and she showed me the curriculum she is using. While talking with Christine, I kept looking over at the kids to make sure they were ok, and I kept seeing Sam's backside and Sam underwater similar to the dead mans float. This startled me so I kept a close eye and over and over again Sam would come up for air and then lean forward and hold his breath with his face in the water and his backside floating at the surface.

Then yesterday, Saturday, we all went swimming as a family and in the big pool with floaties on Sam kept putting his head in the water and kicking his feet and waving his arms. Then we all went over to the little kiddie pool where Sam has wanted more and more to swim without floaties. So he quickly took them off and started swimming without them. Then when we wanted to go back in the big pool Chris convinced him to try and go without the floaties. He gave it a try and it worked! He got in and started doing the same swimming that he had in the kiddie pool in the big pool. I have watched in amazement as Sam has observed other kids and has pretty much naturally taught himself to swim. We can take little credit other than offering advice and encouragement. He now tells us that he can swim and that he doesn't need floaties or swim lessons! So I guess this was all brought about because he didn't want swim lessons, which we were going to put him in shortly. Yeah! I love it when your kid saves you money!

Meanwhile, as soon as Sam showed us that he can swim Chris and I marveled and cheered Sam, Peter I think was feeling the pressure to keep up. While Chris was over in the big pool witnessing Sam's first un-aided swim. I looked back and Peter was still in the little pool trying to hold his breath under water. Back on Monday at our friend's house Peter told me that going under water was too scary. And here he was struggling to do it. I am grateful for having Sam and how they encourage each other. The kids feel safer in the little pool going underwater and trying things because if it gets too scary they are tall enough to stand up. So I worked with Peter in the little pool for a while encouraging him to keep trying. Then I took him to the big pool to give it a try. As I said we were going to put them in Swim Lesson, but I called about them and because no on is signing up for them, I would have to pay nearly double for them to be in a class of their own with just Peter, Sam and the instructor. I was feeling the cost to be too high, and then when we saw the huge strides that Sam has made (and the fact that he doesn't want them) we know now that we just need to take the kids to the pool a lot and they'll learn. We plan on going 3 times this week. Sam was so funny after we got home, he said that he didn't need swim lessons because he could already swim. Then I told Chris that I would continue encouraging Peter and that he (Chris) help Sam at which time Sam interrupted and said, "But I can swim!" I am glad that Peter and Sam are learning to swim.

What about Joe and Will? you say

Well Joe relies on his floaties and has fun, he isn't too adventurous but as his brothers progress, I can see him copying them. But then there is Will...

Will has absolutely no fear of the water. We were given a nice little baby floating inner-tube for Will to sit in while in the pool. I don't think we have used that thing twice before Will got tired of it and doesn't want anything. We have tried floaties and he crys and crys. He is still so small that the arm floaties are as big as his head! When I hold him he wants down to be free and in the baby pool he can walk a little but pretty quick he falls. Then we grab him and he might cough or look a little surprised, but right away he'll want out of your grasp and then he'll do it again. I kept joking with Chris that he wants to be free and swim among the whales. He has no fear, and its no better in the big pool, he doesn't want to be held and he can't swim. If I can just get him through the summer without drowning! We're planning a trip to the store before our next water adventure to be sure.

Peter the Reader

Peter has been getting better and better with reading. There is a summer reading program here with Half Price Books and if the kids read 15 minutes per day for 5 days then they each get a $3 off coupon. I checked out a set of easy readers in the Bob series from the library and the kids have been reading those. Peter is getting better and better. For a while Sam would say that it was too hard and that he couldn't read, but I think either watching Peter learning or this new incentive or who knows what.. but Sam is starting to want to learn as well. I am glad Peter and Sam have each other to learn from. They are so good for each other and the best of friends. Its been a joy watching them learn and grow. With each new skill learned there is moment of sweetest joy, similar to watching and experiencing birth. I love being a Mom!

Dirty Baby

Yesterday I took the kids to the park down the street. The first thing William did when I got him out of the wagon was to walk a couple steps, blop down in the dirt and begin throwing it on his arms and legs. Pretty soon Joseph began noticed that he was missing a spot so he helped throw dirt on his head. I have never seen someone that dirty! I rushed home snapped some pictures and hosed him off in the bath!

Memorial Day and a Hectic Week

This week has been a very hectic and busy one for us and we are glad that we have an extra day off together because of Memorial Day. We really live in a very blessed place and we are very grateful for all those who have done so much to help our country become what it is. We truly are blessed!

It is a good time to reflect on all those who were "pioneers." Pioneers are those who have gone before to make the way safe. This of course refers to those who have defended our freedom, but it also refers to those in our family who have had to make tremendous sacrifices for us. Sometimes those sacrifices don't seem very big, but they can have lasting consequences. These small sacrifices are simple and receive no praise or notice, but in the end it is those small sacrifices and decisions that help make us who we are.

This week Jen had two bread classes in our Ward. She has been trying to help people in our Ward understand how to use their food storage. A lot of people have extra food stored, but don't ever use it or don't know how. So Jen tries to have classes each month teaching them something about Provident Living. This week she taught two identical bread making classes (same class just different times) to help them understand how to use their whole wheat. Good thing is the method of bread making she taught is very simple and doesn't take much time. With four small children the easy and quick are a must. She also finished her CERT training and they did a mock emergency situation and they had to go through a mock accident/disaster.

Peter continues to really progress with his reading. When Jen makes new foods she often has recipes up on the computer and Peter likes to read them to her. He needs some help but has been able to read fractions some too, which we think is very neat. He really likes to draw now and as a result his handwriting has been steadily improving.

Sam is doing well following in the footsteps of his brothers but more often than not is our little Chef. People reads the recipes but Sam likes to be in the kitchen help make the food. He does a good job and is always very eager to help. He is also more willing to try new things when we go swimming, which is nice to see how willing he is. We normally go swimming each week and hopefully Peter and Sam will know how to swim by the end of the summer.

Joe continues to be his brother's shadow most of the time. This week we have been playing with Legos and whenever his brother's build something, he always wants to make the same thing. I have been amazed at some of the things he has been able to build just watching his brothers. He also acts as a good big brother to little Will and sometimes the two of them with just laugh with each other.

Will is super mobile now and we have had to start being careful when things are close to his reach. Since he has learned to get up on stools he will also sometimes get stuck, meaning he doesn't know how to get down. He used to be that way with our stairs, he would climb up there after us but didn't know how to get back down. It is sad but funny at the same time. He also has started copying us when we pray which is very cute. As soon as you sit down at the table and tell everyone to fold their arms, he will instantly put his hands together for prayer. For us it is always neat to see our children do that because it shows us what a good example we are being.

I had the normal day at work although I should soon start working towards some Microsoft certifications for my job. I don't really need them to do my job but i was talking with my supervisor and we think they will only help us in the end (he is also getting his). I have also spent a lot more time with the kids making castles out of Legos. The kids always want me to build things for them which they normally use and copy. I am amazed that after building something a single time, it won't take them long before they are able to mass produce the same thing without any help. They also like me to build buildings for them and this week I mostly did this. They wanted me to build them a castle and so we worked on making a bigger and better castle this week. It was fun to spend time with the kids doing this.

That was our week and remember to take time to remember all those who have made sacrifices for you. Remember those who have made a a difference in your life just to make a better world for their children.

-Chris

Summer is Here!

Well again it has been too long since we have posted here. But hey we have 4 small children and it sometimes makes it a little difficult. Things continue to go well for us here in Houston. The weather has been getting hot but that also means we get to do one of favorite activities of the summer, which is of course swimming. We have already gone several times over the last few weeks and we normally plan for it at least once a week. Nice thing is that our subdivision has two pools and splash pad that we can use. The kids are also getting much more comfortable in the water and we are hoping to have Peter and Sam completely able to swim by the end of the summer.

Jen has been very busy with her calling as Provident Living leader in our ward and also making things from scratch. That is our in addition to her homeschooling activities which have also been going well. Jen recently was looking at some lists of milestones for grades and we learned that Peter is ahead in a lot of areas. He still struggles with his fine motor stuff but he is improving. Reading is going very well and he reads more and more each day. We are amazed at how much he progressed once we came home from my parents. She is teaching two bread making classes this week for our ward and she has been able to get a lot of practice and learn a lot over the last few weeks.

The kids also were able to get a pet turtle although we think it might have already escaped. We aren't too worried though because in one of the "greenbelts" near our home they find a lot of turtles. This time we want to set things up right because this one was just brought over to us from one of the neighbors down the street (she knew we almost got the boys one for Christmas). So once we get things set up right we will probably go turtle hunting again. Sam is cute with the turtle and always wants to check up on it. He really likes animals and bugs! Anytime he sees anything with a baby he says, "oh cute!" Will is now a good walker and he just took off once he decided to do it. Joe is the best of the kids at playing with him and sometimes they will both just laugh at each other. They are buddies just like Peter and Sam.

My work continues to go well and luckily our company hasn't been too badly hit. Hopefully it keeps up. Houston so far hasn't been hit as bad as a lot of the country. On the side I am trying to do programming for XNA Game Studio to make some games for the kids. That is basically an environment for creating games for Windows or XBOX 360 (although I don't own the latter). We'll see what happens since I don't have tons of time for it.

Well hopefully we can improve on blogging.

Chris and the Duffey Clan

The good, the bad and the doughy

I have really been getting into baking bread lately. I even bought a huge loaf pan so I could make a loaf and have it last for more than just one lunch hour. I managed to make a pretty nice looking loaf although the top sunk slightly, but pretty good for a first time with a 17 inch loaf pan.


During my bread making adventure, I had several visitors come and go and of course my ever present, wonderful children... well they had an adventure of their own. Making "snow" from a store bought loaf of bread. With all the commotion, I let them go a little more free than normal and they got out more toys than normal and have a grand old time.


The baby has been getting into his own form of mischief tearing up books and playing in toilet water. Luckily summer is right around the corner and maybe I can help with his strong desire to splash in water. Here he is getting into the dishwasher as I try and fill it with dishes, he climbs up now all by himself! He loves to try and "help" by either emptying it out and handing it to you or just giving up and listening to the noise he can make when he tries to scatter everything by waving his arms. He just loves playing with things that aren't toys. Like brooms, mops, dustpans, dishwashers, bowls, plates, cups and kitchen utensils. He usually makes a big mess but its all worth it when he crawls up to you with the dustpan when you are sweeping, (sometimes right through your pile of dust) he is trying to help!

Findings

I found a few things that I am really excited about and thought I would share.

1. Learn at Home Kindergarden. Its a neat bare bones book on what to teach week by week with plenty of room to add and customize to your homeschool life. Also good as a supliment for public schooled kids.

I also ordered "What your Preschooler needs to Know" which looks great. Its part of a series of books: "What your ____ grader needs to Know". I have been very pleased with these books. As a homechooling mom its nice to know I am covering the basics and then I can expand as I see fit.

2. http://www.successful-homeschooling.com a wonderful site I found with ideas on how to teach every subject wheather you homeschool or public school we can all take an active part in teaching or suplimenting our children's education.

3. http://www.paperbackswap.com/ a great site for book lovers. Have books you don't want? Post them on the website and request ones that you do want. Get started by posting 10 books and getting 2 credits so you can request 2 books. Or you can buy credits for like $3.50 or something, that is cheaper than amazon's shipping! What could be better than a book you really want for free! I found a neat looking science book called: Gobble Up Science: Fun Activities to Complete and Eat. I look forward to getting it. Too bad I just got rid of nearly every book we didn't want by taking them to the library! Oh well, I searched around the house and still found 10 to start with. This site will encourage me to let go and move on!

4. http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/ a great site for food storage. It's a network of 3 sites for planning, getting and using your food storage. I highly recommend trying their recipes and using your food storage! You should check out the brownie and chocolate chip cookie recipe. I can't wait!


Have a great day!

Our daily home school

I have been asked how I homeschool and what my schedule for the day is. This is a rough outline of our day, or at least how we want our day to go, it ends up being more of a goal then a reality most days, but its a start. We usually end up going over the time set out here, having young children we need to take frequent breaks. I have learned to make everything a family affair, I really need to exercise so we all exercise! I really want to make bread, tortillas and other foods from scratch, so we all get involved! So this is a little taste of our day. We are trying to establish a route more than a tight schedule:


5:30-6:00 Wake up and have family prayer with Dad before he goes to work.
6:00-6:30 Exercise: jump on our mini trampoline and play "simon says"
6:30-7:00 Dress/shower/tidy up the bedroom, make beds
7:00-7:30 Breakfast
7:30-8:00 Scripture study: kids watch scripture stories from lds.org and I read mine.
8:00-8:30 Start School: not exactly in order:
8:30-9:00 Math and Science
9:00-9:30 Piano and singing time
9:30-10:00 Reading and Writing
10:00-10:30 Spotlight : pick an ancestor and try to guess what their life was like
10:30-11:00 Spanish
11:00-11:30 Crafts
11:30-12:00 Finish up school
12:00-12:30 Lunch
12:30-1:00
1:00-1:30
1:30-2:00 Prepare food from scratch like start a loaf of bread or something
2:00-2:30
2:30-3:00
3:00-3:30
3:30-4:00 Make Dinner
4:00-4:30
4:30-5:00 Dinner
5:00-5:30
5:30-6:00 Family Scripture Study after dinner
6:00-6:30
6:30-7:00
7:30-8:00 Get the kids ready and in bed by 8:00
8:00-8:30
8:30-9:00
9:00-9:30 Get ready and go to bed


My new favorite homeschooling website is http://www.successful-homeschooling.com if you are interested in homeschooling or even just supplementing preschool or public school, its great!

I feel strongly that in order for our children to succeed we have to be involved in their education weather that's a public school education or a homeschool education.

Back in Houston

Well it has been way too long since we have added anything to our blog but a lot has been happening. First of all at the beginning of the year our Mom in New Mexico had broken her ankle and we had to go to New Mexico to help her recover. It was a good 6 weeks, but it was also hard to be away from home that long. It was also nice because we were able to see all the Chris' brothers and sisters. It had been over 10 years since they had been all together in a single place. So it was nice being able to see so much family. Luckily, Chris was able to work out of the Farmington office and so he didn't end up missing any work either. We had some neat experiences as we tried to help life get to normal for Chris' parents. Homeschooling also made it easier although we weren't able to get much done there.

After coming back, we worked on trying to get our lives back together. Our house had been watched by some neighbors but the trip came up all of a sudden and so our house wasn't in the best of condition. Jen also began homeschooling again with the kids and we have been really pleased with Peter's progress. There were things that Peter had been struggling with and he came back and suddenly was really good at them. He has been improving on his writing and has been doing good sounding out words. Sam continues to be really interested in animals, especially turtles and Opossums, and in New Mexico he discovered the wonders of rocks. Joe continued to copy his brothers whenever he can. Will is now a super faster crawler and over the last week we have caught him letting go of things and taking a few steps.

Peter and Sam also had a dentist appointment and yeah no cavities! Will also had several check-ups since he turned a year in New Mexico. We'll have to try and post some pictures of his cake. He also had to have in-patient procedure done to unclog his tear ducts which is the same thing Peter also had. He did well except he didn't like being strapped down when they did it. I don't blame him not liking them sticking a long probe down the side of hie eye (YIKES!). Joe also had a birthday party last week and had fun making super-hero capes with his brothers and a few friends. He also had fun finding Easter eggs afterwards.

Well, we will probably be making some more entries to catch up but this is all for now.

Molasses and a road trip

William has officially become a part of the long line of mess makers. Not only has he been doing a number on our computer, banging on the keys and making using the computer difficult... today while I tried to make lunch and my back was turned, he got into the pantry and pulled a bottle down on him, and it just so happened to be made glass which of course broke. And it was a very special glass bottle one nearly filled with molasses! Yes folks we have had our very first molasses spill. Its kind of amazing, molasses which moves very slowly in the jar... moves just as slowly on the floor. So I had two choices, clean off the baby first or clean up the molasses first. I chose to clean the baby for fear of any leftover glass. By the time I was done the molasses had only moved maybe an inch, so the entire jar of molasses was in a small little area. But the clean up was still not easy. I had to really think about how best to clean it. Finally I decided that paper towels although bad on the environment would perhaps save my sanity at this moment. Happily with the help of our temporary foreign exchange student, Phillip (which Joe pronounces Fiwh-dup the same thing he says when a glass "fills up"), I was able to clean it up while he made the children their lunch. What a mess!

We are heading out to Waterflow, New Mexico this Saturday. My mother-in-law Cherl has fallen and broken her ankle in two places and we are all going to support her and help her recover. Its a bit of a sad reason for going, but I hope to make the trip a good growing experience. The kids are getting to the age, especially Peter who is 6, when he can start getting to know grandma and start making some precious memories of her that he can hold on to when he is an adult. I hope that while we'll need to help her that the kids can help cheer her and learn from the life experiences that I am sure we'll have. It looks like I will be celebrating my 30th birthday there. So if you don't hear much from us for a while, you'll know what we are doing. Sadly that means no creative writing class for us, but the good new is that I will be able to see my sister-in-law a little more since she is already there helping. Plus my friends still living in the area.

Creative Writing Class

I am teaching a creative writing class for Cypress Homeschool Co-op. We meet every Monday and I am going to be posting an overview of what we covered each week in class. That way for those of you who couldn't take my class because of distance and/or time you may participate on the internet if you choose to do so. You could email me or post directly to this blog in hopes that we can share our love of creative writing with each other. So anyone who is interested just dive right in! I will post assignments so just complete the assignment and follow along. The first assignment is more fun with several people but it can also be completely independent.

January 12: Collaborative Introduction to Creative Writing
Two people come out of a building and into a story. Who are they? What are they doing? Sit in a circle. Write for 5 minutes then pass to the left. Once you get your own story back read it over.

To help people organize their ideas and thoughts Chris has created a simple program that allows people to create an outline. It is simple but it organizes things in a central place so you can brainstorm and write on the same page. You can save it and go back and work on it as needed (no scattered papers just scattered thoughts). If you would like to try this out just let us know and we will e-mail you a copy.

This week in School

Peter wanted to say "Hi Cousins!" This week in school we talked about marsupial mammals. We read the book "Pocket Babies". Koala Bears have pouches towards their back side and their babies eat their poop because it has special bacteria... yuck! Opossum babies are born really tiny called embryons and they live in their mommies pouch until they are bigger. Kangaroo babies are very similar to Opossums, they are born naked and crawl to their mommies pouch (a short but very dangerous journey) and grow bigger there. The Kangaroo mommy can then get pregnant again and baby #2 can wait in mommies tummy (stops growing and just waits called embryonic diapause or "delayed birth") until baby #1 leaves the pouch. Interesting! Children and parents are both learning!

Peter counted to 20 and is learning to add without his fingers. We read books about mammals as well Wall-E, Bible story books, Dinosaurs, Sharks. Thursday is our library day and we spent an hour reading book after book. Then after that we had our Spanish Story-time where we learned the word for bird: Pajaro! Joey tried his best to say "Gracias" (Thanks) and showed really adorable effort.

Peter misses his cousins and we hope to figure out a way to see our family. Its hard to have family spread so far apart. But Peter has made several friends here closeby which helps. We have a friend Christine around the corner (who also homeschools) with her two children named Owen and Maryanne the same ages as Peter and Sam. Christine came by yesterday and took Joe, Sam and Peter along with her two children to the park. I had to go buy a few things at the store. They had a great time.

For any of you sceptical or curious about homeschooling check this out:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=85408

Baby Will

I posted several videos and I can't forget William. He can't sing but we got a good one of him falling asleep during dinner. Its taken with our camera so there is no sound. So funny!

Joe

Joe wants to say a few things:
Hi.


He is just warming up here!

Sam's first blog entry

Sam wants to say a few things:
I hope you like Peter's song and my song.

This and That

Peter wants to say a few things:
I had a breakfast and meet the teacher activity on Saturday for church and I had a good time. And I am in 6-7 year old class now and Dawn Mangum is my teacher. I will be bigger soon. I am going to build a brick house and take care of it. I am going to have toys, TV, DVD player and movies, oh and food. I will get a Christmas tree and have a car. Where is the brick house going to be? In the back yard. I can buy toys at the store and play with them when I am big and have my own money. Joe will probably live with me but Sam is going to build his own brick house in the backyard. And we'll have our own kid laptops that Grandma Clements gave us so we can go to work. We need two doors so that I have a backyard too. I will be great in my brick house that I build. I'll do good with a car driving.

I like playing with my brothers every day. Will is great fun to play with. We are going to have lots of children and lots of birthdays. The next one is going to be a girl because I like girls and because I prayed about it and my prayers always come true.

We ate breakfast. I am doing great with homeschool. I want to do reading time and make words. In math time I want to Monopoly Junior. I am going to start playing the piano by myself and Mom is going to teach me.

I got a Spiderman toys for Christmas. We opened our stockings one time and there was lots of things inside my favorite was Legos and a Slinky and I got a Transformer shirt. Sam got a slinky too and he got big Legos. He opened a present with a fire engine. I got a radio thing to use in the bath. Joe got a slinky too and he got Legos too. He got Tinker Toys. We had fun.

We have a foreign exchange student again named Phillip and we like him. (We have had 2 foreign exchange students: Andrew and now Phillip: each temporarily while they find permanent host families, it has been good to try out how it all works.) I remember Andrew coming here. We liked Andrew and hope he comes back someday and goes to his home. My favorite thing to do is play Legos. We like each other. Here is me singing Jingle Bells. And that's the end.

Peter's first blog entry

Peter:
I have been watching Dungeons and Dragons. We went to Billy Binns birthday party a few weeks ago. We have been playing with toys like Transformers a lot. We have been drawing guys and books lately.

Yesterday, we cleaned up and we go lots of places like the zoo and Wal-Mart. I liked the elephants and the gift shops. I also liked the Antelope and the long horned steers they had there. I wanted to write the word Christmas.