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Our boys are camping, so the girls and I are enjoying some special "girl time."
Last night we made individual pizzas...
And enjoyed them with rootbeer floats while watching The Princess and the Frog.
This morning, we did complete manicures. (Not really my thing, but I love my girls enough to do it anyway.)
I wonder if the boys are having as much fun as we are!
Gideon and Malaika came to us with a limited vocabulary. They aren't speech impaired or very academically delayed... just lacking word knowledge I would have expected them to have by now. Seldom does a day go by when in normal conversation they have to ask "what does that mean?"
Now maybe I'm being unfair in my assessment. Sam and Hallie were both early readers, and are being raised in a homeschool environment, being read to multiple times a day, and I have no doubt that has increased their vocabularies beyond "grade level". Often they surprise and amuse me with the words they use in everyday conversation. Gideon and Malaika's early years were spent in neglect and in fact the first CPS referral came in because Gideon had missed over half of the school year of Kindergarten, even though he was enrolled. So comparing the two sets of children may not be possible. Regardless, I keep making a mental note (that escapes my mouth more often than not) that "I really need to work on your vocabulary."
So when Gideon approached me recently and said "I want to work on my vocabulary," the timing couldn't have been more perfect. I literally had the new Vocabulary Cartoons , Elementary Edition book from New Monic sitting RIGHT NEXT TO ME! (I knew the review was coming due soon and I wanted to explore the book and decide how to incorporate it into our school time.)
I cracked the book open, with Gideon on my lap right then, and he and I read through the first chapter together. In the span of less than 10 minutes, he learned all of the new words and got the end-of-chapter quiz 100% correct. I've orally quizzed him on the words since then and he remembers them. Their tagline, "learn a word a minute and never forget it!" seems to be fairly accurate so far!
This version of the book is for elementary students, and costs $12.95 on their website. They also have 2 different books for older children, called "SAT Power" for beefing up the vocab before taking the BIG TEST! (I'm glad that's still a long way off for us!)
Each page of this book has a cartoon incorporating both the new word, it's meaning, and a word (or set of words) that it sounds like. The pictures are humorous, keeping the children's attention, and helping them remember each new word and it's meaning. Below that are several more sentences, using the word (or variations of it) to help really cement it in their minds and understand how variants (-s, -ing, -ed) are used.
I found some of the combinations to be a tad confusing, hokey, or a bit of a stretch (like guerrillas/gorillas), but the idea is absolutely sound, and if Gideon's experience is any indication, it works! I look forward to using it with my other children, and eventually moving on to the older books when the time comes.
Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this product in exchange for my honest review. I have not been compensated in any other way.
(UPDATED: The links weren't working for some reason, so I've changed the format. Try again, below. If you're local... my boys will be selling at Barkley Haggen again tomorrow from 3-6 and Saturday from 11-2. At the site, they'll have other (less expensive) options than are available online. But however you choose to support our boys... Thanks!)
It's that time of year again, when the cubscouts sell popcorn to help support our pack!
If you'd like to help support our awesome boys, their links are below for online ordering. 70% of the sales goes right back to local scouting, and your purchases help our boys earn prizes. (They've both got their sights set on a marshmallow crossbow if they sell $600 worth of popcorn each!)
Many Thanks!!!
To buy from Gideon, click here.
You know you're a mom...
(and probably of boys)...
when you put on your socks in the morning,
and that something that doesn't feel quite right...
turns out to be a lego machine gun.
All of my children are animal lovers, so when a little box came from Schleich recently, it was a lot of fun to take out each little animal and unwrap it. Each of our children quickly claimed their favorites and got to the "hard work" of playing with them and giving me their reviews.
The girls, of course, immediately fell in love with the horses. Schleich has a whole range of farm animals to choose from, along with barns, scenes and other accessories.
The boys had their eyes set on the wildlife. Gideon would have been ecstatic to get his hands on a wolf from the American Wildlife series (wolves are his favorite animal), but he had a lot of fun playing with the elephants, too!
The first thing you can't help but notice about these figures is the incredible attention to detail. Every wrinkle on the elephant's leathery side, every hair on the horse's mane... the manufacturer has represented these animals just as realistically as possible. For that reason, I think they would be a great asset to any animal study. Beyond that, of course, they would be a delightful gift for any young animal lover!
Browsing the Schleich website is a lot of fun and very educational in itself. As you click on each animal to view the details, you can also catch real animal facts, scientific names, habitats and more.
The one thing they seemed to be sadly lacking in was a good variety of birds and other "flying animals" (besides ducks, chickens, budgies and penguins)... which happens to be what we are studying this year! I was hoping for bats, insects, and more variety of birds. But you can bet I'll keep them in mind for future use. While not inexpensive (a set of 3 horses on Amazon was $17), the figures are high quality and really are beautifully done. I can't wait to purchase some of these for our dinosaur study!
Besides playing with them as the animals they are, we've used them for math story problems, game markers and more.
Products can be purchased online, or you can search for a retailer near you.
Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this product in exchange for my honest review. I have not been compensated in any other way.
...our new, official, finalized and forever ours children...
Gideon Tyler Bachelder and Malaika Hailey Bachelder (pronounced Muh-LIKE-uh, and her nickname is Molly.)
We got up bright and early this morning, to the feeling of little elbows and knees, as all four children piled on top of us in our bed, with choruses of "it's today! it's today! it's today!" and "happy adoption day!"
We all got dressed in our finery...
And headed to the courthouse (just over an hour south of here) for finalization.
The judge was very accommodating, made a grand deal out of the FINALITY and PERMANANCY of adoption, (thanks to our lawyer, who made sure she knew how much the children had moved and how much they needed to understand that adoption means FOREVER), made sure the children watched her sign the papers, then had all 4 take their turns banging her gavel.
And it was over, just like that. A year and half of effort, prayers and tears, and after just a few minutes in a courtroom (incidentally the same courtoom and same judge as for the birthmom's termination hearing I attended back in March) they are finally ours forever.
In attendance:
- Our family of 6, of course.
- My mom and stepdad.
- My grandma and grandpa.
- My aunt, Patty.
- Two of the children's birth-uncles.
- The children's birth aunt and uncle (that had custody before us and have always been very supportive of the chidlren being in our family.) They came just a little too late to see the hearing, unfortunately.
- Our caseworker from our adoption agency.
- The transition counselor that worked with the children when they were still with their birthmother, and through EVERY move, including both transitions into our home... she was THRILLED to see a happy ending.
- The children's FIRST social worker, who just happened to be at the courthouse for a different adoption, but saw us and popped in to watch.
Next, we jumped back in our van to head home to change clothes. I made these tees late last night (making an "adoption day shirt" has been a tradition we started with the other children, and wanted to continue. This time I made a series... (based on Psalm 127:3-5)
The children's shirts (front):
Mine and Brian's shirts:
And the back of the children's shirts had each of their adoption dates:
Once in our tees and jeans, we headed to Renee's house - she was kind enough to offer to host... which is wonderful, since there is NO WAY ON EARTH we would have been able to fit all those people in our house! We had a simple light lunch (soup, rolls, cake and cream puffs). I'll post my soup recipes soon, since I had several requests... but not tonight! (From left to right: Chili, Potato Corn Chowder, Alphabet Chicken Noodle.)
By my count, there were 52 of us there, celebrating the adoption, and many more celebrating with us in spirit, and praying for us today. I know many of my blog readers have walked this path with us, praying for us and our children through the roller coaster of the last year and a half. Thank you. Truly. I never imagined when I started the blog to document our family's happenings, that it would become such a source of encouragement and prayer support!
Just a few more photos of our celebration...
We had a fun surprise this week. The placement desk called and asked if we wanted an 11-day-old baby for "a day or a month." Seriously? Who turns down an 11-day old baby???
I scrambled to get the crib out of the shed and set it up in the girls' room, and to gather baby supplies from storage. She arrived around 4pm on Wednesday.
L. was tiny... not even 6 lbs. She was a good eater (despite never having taken a bottle, according to the report I got), a good sleeper (at least during the day) and very calm and sweet. The children were crushed when she left the next afternoon. (She's joining her older siblings in another foster home, and she was here while they were waiting for approval to add her to that family.) They've been begging for another baby ever since. I kinda like the idea myself.
I'm pretty sure this product was supposed to be for my children, but I've become absolutely addicted to this card game.
Pyramath is a game from "I See Cards" that helps children learn math facts in a really fun way. A single card is played on top of 2 cards using any math operation. The example given in the instruction booklet was: if a 4 and 7 are side-by-side, legal plays would be 3 (7-4=3), 1 (7+4=11, you use only the ones digit), or 8 (7x4=28.)
In addition to the solitaire game, there is a 2-player option (building off each side of the original line of cards), a war game, and more puzzles available online.
As a bonus, the cards have not only the numeral, but the written number word in English, the Roman numeral, and the words for the numbers in 4 other languages.
My children enjoyed it, and one of the benefits is that the game can be played by children at almost any level of math - if they only know addition and subtraction, they can use those facts to play the game and still enjoy it, but if they have multiplication and division skills, it gives them that many more options. (And as I said... it's pretty stinking fun for grown-ups, too. I've actually found myself grabbing the deck throughout the week to get a little down-time, playing the solitaire version.
At $6.95, it's a serious bargain for the entertainment value... but add in the reinforcement of mathematical skills, and I'm completely sold. I LOVE this product.
I See Cards has other games available on their website as well, for learning Fractions, Prime Numbers and Language.
Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this product in exchange for my honest review. I have not been compensated in any other way.
Sam was my go-to man for this review. The program is for 4th grade through Algebra, and Sam (my eldest) is in 4th grade this year. Sam worked through several of the courses at the 4th grade level, with me by his side.
America's Math Teacher is a website to help your child understand and master math concepts. The site is new, but obviously well thought out. The cost for a year's subscription is $195, and that includes access for the whole family (on one computer at a time). Because it's internet based, you can access it from anywhere.
The main features of this site are teaching videos, showing the student how to do different mathematical operations and solve problems, and printable pages (in PDF format) that are meant to be used to solidify the facts and allow your student practice in the skills they have learned. Similar to most math programs, the written pages include both new concepts and review, to keep skills sharp. A nice added touch was a small section on the worksheets themselves that show you once more how to tackle the newest problems.
In a lot of ways, this program reminded me of my years sitting in school, listening to math teachers explain new topics, show how to do a few problems, then assign the homework. The benefit HERE, obviously, is the ability to watch those lessons over and over until the concepts sink in. Admittedly, my brain is afflicted with ADD, and I did far too much spacing out during school. While I could figure most things out, every once in a while I'd come across a new topic that needed explanation. And if I'd daydreamed during the lecture, I'd be lost when I got home to work on my textbook pages. With a program like this, I could have watched the lecture again... and again, if needed, until I could figure it out well enough to complete my homework.
And that's where I could see a huge benefit to having access to this site if your children are in school - the ability to review the topics and see them explained as often as needed could give your child a huge boost. Likewise, if you homeschool, this program looks like a solid, inclusive, and thorough supplement to any curriculum. They offer free trial lessons so you can get a feel for the program, and I'd encourage you to check it out. (The site also has a game you can use to work on your math facts recall, giving you a score after each attempt at a series of problems, so you can continually try to improve.)
As I've mentioned before on this blog, Sam has Asperger Syndrome, as well as ADHD. Unfortunately, because of the lecture format of the lessons, I had to be right by his side, rewinding, repeating, drawing his attention back in. For him, at this point in his development, the video portions of America's Math Teacher weren't a great fit. He just couldn't keep his mind engaged. For your more typical child, I could really see this being a great tool. I'd encourage you to use the link above to try a few lessons with your students before buying the subscription to the site. It shouldn't take long to see if it "clicks" with their learning style.
Sam's personal review of this site was:
"I might learn from it, and I might not. He explains it well, but my mind just waaaaaanders away."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this product in exchange for my honest review. I have not been compensated in any other way.
