Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Samantha's Thanksgiving Thankful Turkey. We got together with a couple of friends to read some Thanksgiving story books and do a craft. It was fun to see what the children were thankful for....
Samantha is thankful for:
Mom
Dad
Her nieces Selena and Mikayla
Jesus
God
friends
friendship
food,
our cats
Love
Her brothers

Sorry I haven't been posting

We have been busy. This post is a catch up post....

What we have been up to...

Last week we went to the Narrows and viewed the THE ART OF THE BRICK Artist: NATHAN SAWAYA. Its amazing what he can do with lego's. The Fall River children's museum had a room with lego's and other building blocks for the kids to create with at the art museum (I am so excited the children's museum worker told me they found a building and it should be up and running sometime next year!). Samantha loved it. It was a nice way to end our school day on that very rainy Thursday.

We continued to do our normal school work. She went to music class. We started another book with the Five in the Row curriculum. The book we are working on is Cranberry Thanksgiving. She has done many fun things learning about Thanksgiving, cranberries, turkeys, how they lived back in the Pilgrim days. Throw in a few crafts and its been lots of fun. I will post about this in a few days.

Then we had an adventure with Samantha. We didn't tell Samantha that we were going to take her to New Hampshire to visit Santa's village. We just packed up without telling her where we were going. She didn't even know that I had all out clothes packed in the car. She was so funny. We didn't tell her where we were going. It took until we were in New Hampshire before she started asking what are plans were. It was fun. She told my mom that our trip was the best day ever. Well weekend. The hotel had a pool and we had fun swimming. I think we really needed this trip to relax and take some time to ourselves. Santa's Village was so much fun. We didn't wait in any lines besides the line to see Santa.

Waiting to enter Santa's Village

I love the joy I see on her face!

She only asked Santa for one thing a 3 D DS she said that is all she wants for Christmas from him.

I just love the look of joy on her face. She is so beautiful!

The view from our hotel window.

Playing on the playground before we leave for home. It was so cold our last day there was ice on the slide. I did have fun having a race on the swings with Samantha to see who could go the highest. She did say it was no fair that I was taller so I could go higher. LOL

How to deal with negativity....

How do you deal with negativity about homeschooling? How do you handle it when it comes from the people who supposed to love you? How do you handle it when you get the criticism second hand? What do you say when a person you respect makes comments behind your back saying you shouldn't homsechool but wont say it to your face?

I know I have made it know to people in our life that Samantha is our daughter and We will do what we feel is in her best interest. Even if they happen not to agree that their opinion matters but wont sway us in what we feel is best. But to find out it goes on behind your back. Its hurtful. Its harmful to our relationship and my feelings about that person.

I would love for anyone who doesn't agree with us to please voice your concerns maybe I can put your mind at ease. But please don't say things behind my back and not think it wont get back to me. Especially since the person you talk to loves to say these things to me to harm my relationship with you, to upset me. But really talking behind my back has really done it anyway.

You know when a stranger comments on homeschooling I can care less. I will defend my life if need be. Or I just keep quiet if that is what I feel is best. Strangers make no real impact on our lives. But family members do.

What is harmful is I know this person can't really see what is special about Samantha. Only sees the negative about her. Can never look at her and see her for who she is and who she may become with unconditional love.

When I look at Samantha I see a loving child, who wants to please, who loves to see her friends happy. who will encourage a friend, will want to dry her friends eyes when upset. She loves to be loved. She loves to know that you love her in return, She is a child who craves approval, she needs to know she is loved. She craves it. She loves and needs hugs on her terms, not yours. She is a child who loves deeply and feels deeply. She is a child who will spend hours making a gift for you by her own hands. She will do this to make you smile. She is a child who needs love and unconditional love at that. She is a child who needs to know that you will forgive her for her mistakes and not hold them against her for years to come. Samantha is a child who feels all feeling deeply and often can't see past her feelings in the moment. She is a child who is trying to learn her way and control her emotions. She loves her family and wants to be accepted by them for who she is. Not who you want her to be.

Sorry for the rant today just needed to get this off my chest.

My funny little Girl

This is Samantha's spelling paper from today. My child makes me laugh at times. She was supposed to write one sentence about a statue. After her fussing for a few minutes that she doesn't know any statues or what to write I told her she better have a sentence about a statue by time I got out of a shower. Well she came running into the bathroom all proud of herself. So excited she wrote a sentence. She wrote I hate statues. So I made her go back and then tell me why she hated statues. Her reply was well some people think they are god's.

We also continued with our Veteran's Day lesson. She called her brother and talked to him about being a soldier and what it was like. She said she wanted to know if it was hard. We read about superheroes and what it really means to be a hero.

We then moved onto the book Madeline. Today we had lots of fun with it. We talked about how life was in the 1930's compared to today. The other day we started making a hat like Madeline's out of a paper plate and bowl. We then had crepe's for lunch with her wearing her hat.




Samantha went to music class today. It was such a nice day we walked there and back.

Then we did our last project of the day. We learned about and artist named Giotto. We learned that artists of long ago had to make their own paints. They used eggs and thing to make pigment. Most used flowers, insects, plants and other items.

Step one for our pigment we used crushed chalk.. so she crushed all the chalk not an easy thing to do.


Step 2 mix the chalk with the eggs.



Step 3 paint your pictures and let them dry. The eggs give your picture a nice shine to it.

Veterans day lessons

The school day started with the sensory bin. In it I hid clues to our days lessons. Here she is pulling out Nick's extra dog tags.

Trying to find more in the bin. She loves to just run her hands through the dried beans. She said its soothing.

Using the little soldiers to do her math. I think she knew the answers she just wanted to have fun using them to help her count.

So she completed her math. Then grammar, she learned about explanation marks and how to use them, continued learning verbs. She did her phonics. We did the Madeline book and did some fun activities with it. Now the important fun stuff started.... She learned what a veteran is. How they are brave soldiers fighting for us. We talked about her great grandfathers who were veteran's they both fought in WW II. What they did in the war. Then we moved onto the boys. I read a story about when a man deploys and why. I think that got her missing Nick all the more. I have to admit it was hard reading the book it had me choked up but oh so proud of my son's. I talked about what they both have done in the war. Then we had fun making our Wall of Heroes. She put a lot of work into making this. A lot of thought. With veteran's day on Friday there are a lot of veterans around. When you see them please thank them for their service to our country. Even if you don't agree with the war what these soldiers have given up to serve their country is a lot. Many have missed births of babies, the growth of their children, and many important times in their family lives. The give up the every day life we all take for granted. Most are surprised to be thanked. I had one man tell me no one has ever thanked him I put a smile on his face to acknowledge him. So please thank a soldier.

Our families Heroes

PV3 Michael A Gosselin fought in OIF Operation Iraqi Freedom, Army Infantry

SPC Nicholas K Gosselin is still fighting in OEF Operation Enduring Freedom Afghanistan,
Army 82nd Airborne

Radioman 2nd class Charles Blais specialized in mores code fought in WWII Navy

PFC Ernest S Baptista fought in WWII Army

The week ahead...

This coming week we are mixing things up. We will be doing our normal phonics, spelling, grammar and math. But I will be adding in some fun for history and science. Plus we will be doing a week long lesson on veterans day.

First what I have planned for veterans day.... Samantha is going to interview her brother who is a veteran of Iraq War called Operation Iraqi Freedom. She is also going to make a wall of hero's. We have 4 veterans in our family and she is going to make a star and put their information on it to show our appreciation of their service to our country. She is also going to do a few other crafts. I have a kids packet from one of the veterans associations and she will be completing it. We are going to talk about what it means to be a hero and who is a hero.

Last year a friend of mine gave me to borrow a curriculum called five in a row. I really enjoyed the few weeks that we did it. But then life got in the way and we didn't make it to the library as often as we should have to get the books. Its a curriculum that you read one book each start of the day to the child for a week or 2. Then you follow the activities in the teachers guide and it covers subjects such as science, history, social studies, living math and art. So this week I took out the normal History and science work and we will be doing this. I decided to start with the book Madeline. Through Madeline she will learn more about fraction, symmetry, some different art forms, poetry, a brief glimpse of history in the 1930's, a little about Paris and about plants and how to prevent sickness and how to help others who are sick. I am excited to start this again.

I have been wanting to switch some of the stuff we do to a more hands on approach. So with this and our normal work it should make things more interesting

This is how we start our day some of the time... I had mentioned to a friend that I believe that Samantha might have adhd and that sometimes its a struggle for her to sit still. When that happens I do have her get up and run around or change things up. Well she suggested a sensory bin. So here is our first day using it... yes and it was a pj day too :) She loved it. I am going to start hiding parts of our school work in it when I can

Homeschooling on the go. Today we did some of our work in the car while waiting for my client do her food shopping. Not a normal day but its one of our flexible days. This homeschooling on the go worked very well today she got her work done much quicker then normal too. And all correct. She did her double digit addition and fractions without a mistake. Learned more about the weather, read the rest of her book 2 for phonics. Then we went home and she finished the day with spelling, grammar and geography.

Teaching Samantha to sew. Together we made a dog draft for the kitchen door. Then she moved onto making a bag to carry her swim stuff. We just need to add a handle. She did most of it herself and what a great job she did...