The Duckling

Grace went into her room early tonight, apparently for good reason, as she was busy at work doing this:



She's recently become attached to the duckling and is extremely maternal toward him. She made a hammock out of a doll's bonnet , placed a small pillow in it and added a "lovie", which I think is the coveted "Baby Tigger" found recently at the gathering. I just love how the mind of a child works. I would never have given a thought to the bedtime comfort of MY duckling;)

Forte

Hello!

Hello to all of the new readers that have come through lately! I'm glad you stopped by! Don't be shy. Post a comment or two:) I really DO want to know what you think!
Have a great day! Grace and I will be kicking back until Piano, because Daddy is out of town for the day at his interview!
Forte

Another Funny

Some of you may remember the "Relaxation CD" from the recent conference hotel, and Grace certainly does as well.
Last night, she was having trouble getting herself settled down to sleep. I was attempting to "parent" her to sleep by stroking he head and declaring in monotones "I am pulling down the sleep" over and over. She got a kind of giggly face after a while and stopped my hand mid-motion, opened her eyes and declared, "Mom. D'you know you sound just like the relaxation CD from the Hotel?" She then proceeded to , in a mocking tone, treat me to her own rendition of said CD, "You are beginning to RE-LAX now....wwwwwwwwuuuuuuuuuunnnnnn.......ttttttttoooooooooo........thhhhhhhhrrrrreeeeeee".
What a little toad. I love her, but what a little toad. ;)
Forte

Core Knowledge

This looks pretty cool!
http://www.coreknowledge.org/bookstore/index.php?main_page=document_general_info&cPath=45_48&products_id=26
I am toying with using a curriculum like this, as you can order the guide and simply do any/all grade levels from K-8th. The core books are separate, but we can purchase what we need as we go and as the mood strikes us. Has anyone used this or found it great/horrid?

I am the kind of person that really likes to use a "framework", but one that allows me to still be flexible!
Forte

Mental Floss

Grace and I attended a fun "club" yesterday with her homeschool group. It was called "Mental Floss" , and the idea behind it is that the children get to see and participate in conversations about potentially-conflicting view points. The point of it being about conflicting viewpoints is for the children to observe the parents having differing opinions from one another, but still being able to hold a worthwhile conversation. We first watched half of "The Journey of Man", a video chronicling the adventures of Geneticist Spencer Wells and his search for the truth about where we all come from. His claim, substantiated by some pretty good preliminary data dealing with markers on the Y chromosomes of men he samples along the way, is that we are all descended from common ancestors in southern Africa, whose descendants today are the Bushman.
We all then had a wonderful conversation about it and came out friends on the other side! ;) It was a great experience for the kids and the adults both, and something that I feel is good to model for the kids.
The children the donned their bathing suits and went to play in the back yard on the trampoline and with the sprinkler. It was a great day!
Forte

Soul Mates

Here is a rare photo of the elusive "Anti-Picture Club". I am not sure, but I think it may be the only one in existence! :)

I can effectively say, after some reflection, that the past 4 days have been some of the best married-with-child days of my life. A presenter said Friday that she doesn't advertise to test children because of the children, but rather because of the parents! I think the same could be said of this "meeting of the minds". Unwittingly, the organizers and donors have brought together the parents of the "peerless", who are also probably themselves "peerless" . That's not to say that we don't have friends, and Carl and I are lucky to have found peers where we are, but there is just something special about all being in one boat...or hotel for that matter;)
To all of you that I have recently met face-to-face, I extend a warm hug and a promise to continue on with these relationships, as I now know that they mean more to me than just a cyber chatboard. :)
Here's to the future we are currently raising! I hope we all do a good job!:)
Forte

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

Grace has always taken any kind of change hard. This change will perhaps be he hardest of all. We have been asked to move out of the Secret House into another house nearby. Grace is devastated. She considers the Secret House her "home". This fact has also radically pushed forward our exodus from this state in general, as it would be desirable to only move once. We have until July 31 to move out. I think I will keep the blog name, as this is where it started!
I am going through a range of emotions at this point. From anger to sadness, hope to despair. We knew we did not want to stay here forever, but I thought we would have more tIme to say goodbye. I know that where we are most likely moving is probably a better place, but we've made so many friends here. Grace is part of a growing, thriving homeschool community and I have support. This will be a wonderful, terrible, amazing and frightening two months for our family, and I appreciate any and all support!
Forte

Another "First"

Well Grace had another fist last night, and she isn't home yet to decide if it was a wonderful experience or not! First of all, the children were invited to a local theme park to help a boy celebrate his birthday. Grace was *So* grown up for the rides and the responsibilities she was given over the day. She was invited to sleep over at the friend's house for his birthday:) There were 9 children in all, and she was expressly asked, although she is the youngest by 2 years! Off she went, with her little sleeping bag and overnight satchel and a huge grin across her face. She chose her blue flannel polar bear jammy bottoms and a gray shirt for the night, and a spotted leopard for her sleeping companion.
Good news! We also had dinner at the birthday house, as the birthday boy is part of her homeschool group, and Grace and the boy's 8 y/o sister were really hitting it off! I saw them run past us in medieval wear several times, off in their own world!
We can't wait to pick her up this morning!
Forte

Bedtime and Odds 'n' ends

Grace had another busy day yesterday! This entire week will be very busy, culminating with a trip to the midwest! Grace had a recital for her music club yesterday, History club with her Lincoln presentation today, a trip to a local amusement park and a sleep over tomorrow night and her graduation picnic on Friday! Whew! Grace and I are tired! I think we ae both ready for a break in he festivities. I think there is such a thing as "too much" fun! LOL
In any case, a milestone for Grace happened last night. She decided to read to herself for her bedtime reading, and she chose her old favorite from a while back..."Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg".
I know some readers her have had children doing this for several years now, but Grace has taken her own sweet time in this, and we were touched. She looks so big. Well see what happens tonight. :)
Forte

Grace and the Beasts, Large and Small

Grace just absolutely LOVES caterpillars. She has "formed a bond with them" when she finds one and "just can't seem to let it go" back to it's habitat. It takes an hour to complete this task, as she needs to work through all of the emotions and implications. I love it that she is so loving toward animals and insects. She even has a running commentary with our fish.!
She has a special mind and heart, and I am glad to see that she is using them!
Forte

Weekend Wonderland!

I'm afraid I have no pictures from this weekend, but we all had a great time! We had a family over on Friday night and ate BBQ food, talked, played and laughed together! Grace and her buddy were at play for 5 hours straight and there was never a conflict the entire time. They just play really well together. :)
Saturday was a laid-back day and in the evening, we attended a neighbor's party. Grace played with Nextdoor Neighbor Girl, who shall hereafter be known as NDG, and her brother. It went well for the first part of the evening, but then I overheard NDG say something to Grace that couldn't possibly be true. Grace handled it well though, I must say, by ignoring the statement.
Carl and I took our WOW characters on a few quests together this weekend, and I leveled up by two. It was great!
Today, Grace wasn't feeling so well, so we hung out all day inside and she and I became engrossed in a marathon of "Kyle XY". What a cool show:) She was very interested in the fact that the boy had no navel, and all of the various implications!
Have a great week everyone! We have a bunch of stuff going on for our HS group and for Grace's various lessons and such.
Forte

Funny

We had company over last night, including Grace's friend "H". At one point, Carl asked H nicely not to swing from the table and couch ( gymnast style). Carl explained that "If you break it, you buy it" and I piped up that "If you buy it, we'll send it (the couch) home with you".
Grace, without skipping a beat says to H, "Well can you break me then?" and looks at us adults and says, "Well I want to go home with him!"

It was pretty dang funny!
Forte

Van Gogh has MOVEment

Grace painted today, in the style of Van Gogh. Here's what she created!

I asked Grace why the Moon is so sad in her painting. Her Reply?
"The Moon is sad because his wife, the Sun, is losing all of her light. "

This is a painting of the sea and a windy day. The dolphin was an afterthought!

Grace's World

Welcome to a peek at Grace's everyday. It is lovely to have the gift of time on our hands, and we are enjoying every moment of it!

Seaside Fun!

Grace had a very old friend over yesterday. The friendship goes back years to when Grace was in a preschool here when she was two. It was actually a lovely day:)

Friendship Update

Have you ever been on a roller coaster and the rails look like they are going up and suddenly the whole world drops out from under you? That's the update in a nutshell.
Grace's friend intercepted us as we drove up yesterday--all sweetness and cherry pie, and invited Grace to play. She looked so innocent that DH and I agreed. Why do we never learn? :(
Grace played for a while, and then we heard the door open and she came in really upset. Apparently when the girl's father told her to take Grace home, this little girl sarcastically said "Come on PRINCESS. Time to go home" and grabbed her by the arm(hard) and dragged her from their house and around the hedge to ours and dumped her in the door. Not good. She then returned two minutes later to shout "sorry" in a *not* sorry way into our screen door. Then she returned 3 minutes later and was trying to listen to us talk. At this point, I had both girls go out on the steps and we had a talk. Long story short, the girl ended up blaming Grace for the entire thing and bold-faced lied to me about what had been happening on the previous play dates (recall here that I had listened in through the hedge...) When I called her on it, she just smiled like it was funny---unaffected. She just kept asking if she could go, as if she was bored. The talk ended with Grace promising to tell this girl when she is uncomfortable and the girl promising to not make her do anything which she is uncomfortable with. I am not optimistic with her end of the bargain. I am NOT a happy mommy, and DH and I have decided that *if* this relationship continues, she will come over here with a parent supervising.
Am I being too over-blown?
Forte