hide-n-(sensory)-seeking

Very excited to help introduce a new series for young readers! We are starting on the first book this week, I'll let you know what we think soon. In the meantime, this gives you a good sneak peek.     About the Books Book 1: The Secret Sisters Club Title: The Secret Sisters Club (Ginnie West Adventures, Book 1) | Author: Monique Bucheger | Illustrator: Mikey Brooks | Publication Date: March 18, 2012 | Publisher: True West Publishing | Pages: 238 | Recommended Ages: 8 to 13 Book Summary: Twelve-year-old BFFs want to be sisters. Tillie's divorced mom plus Ginnie's widowed dad could equal a lifetime of round-the-clock girl talk. Too bad Dad vowed to never marry again. Ginnie and Tillie come up with the perfect mission to change his mind: ‘Operation Secret Sisters.’ Before long, Ginnie suspects Tillie has turned ‘Operation Secret Sisters’ into a scam called ‘Operation Steal My Dad.’ Things get more complicated when Ginnie stumbles across her dead ...

By noon on Monday I already knew that my school plans for the early part of the week were simply not going to be happening. Not because of anything negative, I could just see the resistance, the desire to do anything else. And when that manifests in my kiddos, I take it pretty seriously, because, after all, our "school" involves a great deal of fun, so when they are drained, it's a sign that they truly need a break. So I gave them one. We took the whole week off, instead of just Thursday and Friday as I had planned. They loved it. Monday afternoon was spent mostly taking turns playing on my computer. I made cake. Tuesday the kids got new bikes. We had been waiting for the weather to cool, and the time felt right, and the day, sort of perfect. They love them. Grace is still trying to bravely learn to balance and ride without training wheels, which is going to take some time, but she's working very hard at it. Zak is in complete sensory heaven on a bike. I had forg...

Good morning friends! I'm very pleased to share with you this link over  to Jocelyn at The Reading Residence so you can read her Blog Lowdown featuring...me! Yes, I have had the wonderful privilege of being featured, so please head over there to read the whole interview. And while you're there, check out a few of her other posts and features as well. She's a super sweet mama, with a great blog! Thank you, Jocelyn! It was fun.

I have not been compensated in any way to provide this review.(Except with loads of fun.)  We got our container of H2O-la-la as part of Kit's Preschool Curriculum back in August. It took us a while to pull it out and discover that it totally ROCKS!! H2O-la-la are fizzy color tablets that can be added to bathwater, or any other container of water to make crisp, bright colored water! The container contains a combined total of 300 large and small tablets that, according to the packaging, "fizz, swirl, and color the water!" And that is indeed what these amazing little tablets do! The tablets are "kid safe, lab tested, no soap or fragrance". But the label still warns that the tablets are not to be eaten. This product is labeled for kids 3+, so use caution with younger children, especially if they like to drink the bathwater. We love them. Kit loves them. She loves choosing a color for her bath each night! The tablets come in the...

This week has been all kinds of busy, some fun, some productive, some in the opposite directions of those two. But throughout the busy, and much more noticeably, this week has been very... COLORFUL! From play dough, to story book pictures, and playground to pjs, we've had a little extra color everywhere. Kit has had different color bathwater every day, and not from getting gross and grimy. She had pink on Monday, green on Tuesday, and purple on Wednesday and Friday! I'm writing a whole post on these very cool bath tablets, but here's a little sneak peak! Our shopping trip on Tuesday resulted in several new t-shirts for Zak,  plus a new light jacket since he has outgrown everything from last year, which honestly, barely fit him then. But this one should last him a good number of years now. Kit also got a new jacket, not because it's cool enough to wear yet, but because the stores are selling them now, and this one was bright pink and supe...

Okie doke, so in addition to daily math, the kids kept busy this week doing GeoPuzzles, math and thinking skills games on the computer, and actual reading out of science books. I was also reminded by a fellow homeschool mom that the fair was accepting entries to the exhibition hall. I had forgotten, but when I mentioned it to the kids, they really wanted to participate, and both of them found something they have previously done to enter. Grace entered her watercolor called "Bird", and Zak entered an ink sketch he titled "Dream." And guess what? Zak won first place! Though I don't think there were many other entries that shared his medium in his age bracket. I'm bummed that Grace only got a participant ribbon, because I seriously love her painting. We literally took it off our living room wall and brought it, frame and all, to the exhibition hall. But she seems un-phased, and both kids are looking forward to next year when they will have time to wor...

Kit had a very rough Tuesday evening.  She did okay in Walmart that afternoon, but it was good that we were only there for a few items and able to keep it a very short trip. On the way home she started to fall apart. She was very very tired. It was a quarter to five, so I told Victor that after the bags were unloaded, Kit and I would take a drive.  A quiet drive after a busy activity often makes her sleepy, so I figured once the kids were out of the car, and things were calmer that she would knock out, and get a 15-20 minute snooze, and maybe that would help her to be calm enough to go to the Kingdom Hall for the meeting that night.  But her little mind was struggling. And her evening was taking an entirely different shape that looked nothing like a peaceful rest. She cried the entire twenty minute drive to the next town over.  She had told me she was done with her gum, so I took it and wrapped it up in a napkin. Then she asked for a new...