This Blog Is For Women

For a long time people have told me that I should write about parenting.  I put them off, saying that I didn't think people would be interested in reading what I had to say.

Recently, I decided to take their advice and I started a blog.  Easier than writing a book, for sure!

Well, it seems from the viewer-ship I've been getting that people do indeed want to read my ideas about family and relationships.  Here's a recent comment one of my readers has posted:

Susan Steadman, RN, BSN | February 22, 2012 at 10:46 am

I have never seen so much good, old-fashioned, common sense in one place…..well, since my parents raised me. Your insight into what to do illuminates what is wrong for so many families; they just don’t know what to do!

….I hope they’ll listen to YOU!!

 If you'd like to check it out, here's the link. http://thisblogisforwomen.com

Star Gazing

Winter is a great time for star gazing.  It might be a little chilly, but you also don't have to stay up as late.  With longer nights we have more chance to see the stars in the night sky. 

If you're forturnate enough to live a little distance from a city you'll have a view of thousands of stellar objects and even a few planets!

This week we visited our local planetarium and heard a guest lecturer speak about the constellations and asterisms in the winter sky. 

We learned how to navigate by the winter hexagon to find the 6 corner stars: Capella, Aldearan, Rigel, Sirius, Procyon and the twins Castor and Pollux.  Within this figure can be found Taurus, Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor and Gemini. 

We learned the mythology of the twins Pollux and Castor, one mortal one immortal: both together in the night sky for all eternity.  We chuckled at The Harry Potter References of Sirius (and the dog stars) and Bellatrix (LeStrange.)    

If you don't have a planetarium in your area, you can still find your way around the night sky with the help of a sky map.

Interesting thing to note: Homeschool outing are often great Date Night ideas!

For more information about the astronomy scene in your area visit the Royal Astronomical Society website. 

Sewing with Kids

Sewing with kids is lots of fun.  Sometimes they can find it frustrating when the project is too challenging. 

Stitching pals out of fleece has become somewhat of an obsession around our house.  If you stopped by to visit you'd see for yourself! 

This cute little Shamrock, Sheldon, was designed by my eldest boy. (He's named after his favorite character from The Big Bang Theory!) The project uses basic sewing technique and even my 8-year old had success with it.

Because we believe in cross-curricular studies, I enouraged my son to blog about his sewing.  And now he's even taken it a step farther and published his patterns for sale online. It's never too early to stasrt being an Entrepreneur.


Check out his blog and his online shop!

Paper Snow Balls

We always find ourselves hibernating in winter.  And with spending time indoors comes craft time!

We found this paper ball online and just HAD to make our own.  They took a little time and were a bit fiddly at first, but they turned out great!

There's a video that shows how it's done.
Check it out!

Grammar Books Arrive

When my oldest was in Grade 4 he started Grammar.
There were a few reasons for this.  OK there were 2. One was that I discovered a great grammar program called Growing With Grammar just before finalizing my curriculum plan for the year.  The other was because he was ready for it.

My youngest is in third grade this year. He's all boy.  School work is fine with him, but there's no eagerness to do it, unless it means finishing early to do something fun.

Over the Christmas break he asked me offhandedly when he would be starting to learn Grammar. The conversation went something like this:

"Mom, when will I start to do Grammar?"  note the incorrect verb usage "do Grammar."
"When you're in grade four."
"Oh, I would like to start to do Grammar this year."
"Really?  We'll see."  meaning,  'not likely.'

Two weeks later:
"Mom.  Did you get me a Grammar book yet?"
"Oh, no I didn't get one.  You have to order them."
"Can you order me one?"
"I suppose."  meaning  'he'll likely forget about this and he's not really ready for Grammar yet.


The next week.
"Did my Grammar book come yet?"
"Oh, I didn't order it yet."
"Oh, (sad face.)  Can you order it for me today?
"Not today (said in the middle of cleaning kitchen before heading to work.) But I will."  meaning 'when I think of it at a time when I can actually act on it.'

Later that week:
"Did you order my Grammar book yet?"
"No, not yet, but I'll order it soon."
"Do you promise?"
"Yes, I promise."  Which means 'looks like I'm actually going to have to order this boy a grammar book before grade 4.'

On Friday:
"Have you ordered my Grammar book yet?"
"No but, I did promise I would do it, and I will do it very soon."  meaning 'shoot!  I forgot to order the Grammar!'

On Monday I ordered the Grammar books.
"I ordered your Grammar books today."
"Yes!" big grin, fist pump.    seriously?

On Tuesday:
"Did my Grammar book get here yet?"
"No it's coming from New Brunswick."
"Do they speak English or French in New Brunswick?"
"Both, or either, but the people I'm dealing with speak English."
"Phew." big sigh.  "I was worried they'd send French ones!"

On Wednesday:
"I got a box in the mail today. Do you want to open it for me?"
"Sure."  shoulder shrug.
The look on his face when he opened it said it all.  I'd seen this face recently, but it was on Christmas Morning.  I've got photographic evidence of this so that someday, and it will come, when he complains about having to do his Grammar assignment I'll have some evidence that he was happy about it once.

He started Grammar as soon as the mail was taken in on Wednesday January 18th, in Grade 3.

Mulitplication

We're learning multiplication this year.  One of the things that works best by drill is learning the math facts.  There's a website called IXL that has tons of online educational resources for every grade level.  They have multiplication drills for every stage of learning.  The first one is writing multiplication sentences from a picture.  Check it out here.

Kids really do love technology and (at my house anyway) they think that it's a special treat if they can do their school work on a computer or tablet.

Here's the full table of contents of math drills available for multiplication.

• Multiplication - facts to 12
• Multiplication word problems - facts to 12
• Missing factors - facts to 12
• Missing factors - facts to 12 - word problems
• Squares up to 20
• Multiplication patterns over increasing place values
• Multiply numbers ending in zeroes
• Multiply a one-digit number by a larger number
• Multiply a one-digit number by a larger number - word problems
• Multiply three or more numbers
• Multiply three or more numbers - word problems
• Multiplication input/output tables