You've gotta be kidding....

We had to do this trip. For those of you afraid of snakes I saved the best for last. So the last picture is of the snakes. After watching the show Dirty Jobs where he was in this place and cleaning the alligator pond and snake pits we just knew we had to go there. Let me tell you that there are a ton of snakes there, all kinds of snakes. This place had the largest collection of venomous snakes that I have ever seen. That was our adventure Saturday. It was a fun trip and there's more so keep on the lookout.

My what big teeth you have.
"Please just don't spit."
Hey what's that ringtailed Lemur doing kissing my hubby?
Two big snakes... what more can I say?

"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie. That's...."

What a wonderful moon.

Art filled day

Today we went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. http://www.mfah.org/main.asp?target=home I wanted to show my children that art is not something perfect in our eyes. Art is what you make it to be. My middle son gets so sad because he says he can't draw or paint nice like this person or that one. So we went to a wonderful museum. If you get a chance to go to an art museum take the chance. Although the little one started getting bored towards the end he also enjoyed it. It was actually kinda funny when there was a marble statue of I don't even remember who but you know what I mean. Those that have no heads or arms and have hardly any clothing on them. hehehe Well my little one passed by that one with with tiny hands over his eyes. It cracked me up because as we passed it by he looked back and laughed.

There were many paintings, drawings and too many buildings to do them all in one day. Oh and Thursday is *free* day in Houston. Wowwweeeee!!! We saw all that for free. There was things from Roman times. The usual amount of paintings depicting Jesus and Mary in the eyes of different artists. Then there were some by Vincent Van Gogh that I liked called The Rocks. Some by Pablo Picasso, by Matisse, Delacroix, Monet, Renoir and some by Edgar Degas. Most areas we could not take pictures of I would have taken a picture of everything. hehehe I had my favorites.

Now I don't know what it is about Mexican artists. What is up with all the death, blood and skeletons? I really don't understand why some people have to express themselves with blood in the gorrish sense. We just walked right by some areas. Too much gore for my taste.

Below are a few pictures we could take and I wanted to share with you all.

These are by Mary Cassett, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Tiffany.

I took these to remind my son that art is what you make of it. After seeing these and others he said that he could do that. This should make us all feel that we can draw or paint because what is art to us is just that.... ART.

Now there was a special exhibit called Red Hot. It was Asian art and boy was that fun. I just wish I could have taken pictures of at least a few from there but of course all the great stuff was off limits to cameras. This kept all the kids attention and it was at the end so what a wonderful ending to our art day.

Make it a point to go to an art museum even if you don't consider your family an art museum type family. There is always something for everyone and it will capture their attention.

What's with no reading?

What is he doing? Well it was finally diagnosed. It's dyslexia. So what have we been doing? He is following along his bible reading that I printed out on purple paper. Yes, he is listening to his assigned bible reading. After listening to it he is able to read it. Although I think his Irlen problems are still what I think impedes him from progressing.
So what do you think dyslexia is? Is it letters turned backwards. Nope! Sometimes he will start reading and put in a word from the end of the sentence at the beginning or he will completely turn the word around. For example he will say god for dog or he may instead of from he will say form. Sometimes instead of an f in the word he will make it a j.
Now what about the Irlen syndrome? Well, as if dyslexia isn't enough, he also has this thing that makes his words look so different. It's called rivers because instead of seeing words like we do he sees a few words put together and then a space then a few more words and then a space. No wonder I had to cover up everything around a word for him to be able to figure out where is began and where it ended. There are many forms of Irlen syndrome and people see different ways and what helps with this is colored overlays. Can you believe this? Covered overlays helps keep those words where they are supposed to be. My son uses two colors and it would be better for him to get special glasses that have those colors in them. His sight is totally normal. The problem is not the eyes but the brain. So the future holds glasses for him. Although the latest guess as to the cost of these "special" glasses is right around $600, can you see our hesitance. It has to be done though.
Our books now are books on cd that we listen to in the van while going here and there. All the kids love this. I do too. Not only are they listening but they are quiet. So if you ever see a kid around town with colored glasses don't assume they are for the sun, it may be Irlen syndrome and if your child is having a hard time reading and you see these problems, look into it. My son is now 10 and it would have been better if we had known this when he was younger. It would have saved lots of frustration on his part not to mention on my part. I remember being told, "Oh, don't worry, some kids take longer to read than others." This from a very wise and a homeschooling mom with many years. To this day I hear that and I want to jump in and say, "BUT...." It could be something else. I always had the feeling something was wrong. Now I know.
I will continue to talk about this to anyone that wants to listen. One day my story may help someone who feels something is wrong but can't put a finger on it. For now, we are doing great. Feeling better and learning to read.

Nature Day

Since beginning this year I have thought a lot about nature journaling. I've been investigating what others do and getting ideas. We have been homeschooling for 6yrs going on 7yrs and we never have done this regularly.

So what really is nature journaling? Well, basically you buy or make your own journal. We got ours at Hobby Lobby that have the spiral binding so we could all just fold it back and have the front open with no problems.

Then go outdoors and look around. Spend time enjoying being outdoors and look for something that interests you and draw it. You could also write a bit about it. Now don't think you just have to draw. You could take pictures or put a leaf or flower to dry in your journal. How about a leaf rubbing. I am no artist but I give things a try.

These photos here will be part of my journal. I have been playing around with the settings on my camera and look how wonderful it looks. That was our moon at night and the other was our sunset looking out to the front of our house. I would love to be able to capture more of those pinks in the sky but I think they show up enough.

Next week I'll try to post the kids pages. So get some good colored pencils, pens, gel pens, glue sticks and a journal and join us in doing this too. I can't wait to have a years full of journaling and see what it looks like. This will be a great keepsake of our children's fun times with us outdoors.



Leave me a message and share your journaling with us.

Fun Sunday

We had fun on Sunday. We went to a little town that is mostly for tourists. It has little shops of all kinds. We didn't do the shops but we were taken out to eat. What wonderful food this place had. OOOHHHH YUM!!! Everyones plate looked wonderful. Wish I could have gotten a bite from everyones plate. hehehe

The scenery was wonderful but don't think the kids would enjoy going through all those shops. We will have to make that trip again and maybe do some sightseeing. There is actually a place in Texas that is not as flat as our city. What a fun time we had that day.

At the library

Thinking of cooler weather

We came to the library today to do our schoolwork and to get on the internet. Our internet at the house is not working at the moment. They are supposed to send us a part that we need with FedEx but it hasn't arrived yet and this is day 4 with no internet. AAAHHHHHH!!! I can handle a weekend but a whole week is asking a bit too much of me. HEHEHEHE

While here at the library we did our math, grammar and the little one did his reading. Art is also on the agenda. I think I like doing our schoolwork here at the library. The kids are so much more quiet.

Just so you know what is going on with me and why I'm not posting like I want to, now you know.

Monday's Photo of the day on Tuesday

This is for the birds

So what am I talking about? We will be doing Apologia Flying Creatures this year. I am trying to do it while lapbooking and notebooking. Older son will be doing notebooking and the two younger ones will be lapbooking it. We have the first lesson almost done now.

The only problem is that right now we have a different sort of flying creatures outside. Those are mosquitos. There is no way we will be going outdoors for a while. We would be sucked dry. hehehehe

Anyway, we love these books for science. They have great projects to do and it's easy enough for a little one to be involved and there is enough info in it for an older one to be interested in it too.

I will keep using these books and can't wait to use the next ones. By the way, I already own it. So if you haven't already guessed I really like these books.

Whatcha Reading?

Reading can be so much fun unless you have some problems. We got a diagnosis of dyslexia and Irlen syndrome this summer. That explains so much now. He is slowly figuring it out. How to get those words mean something for him is a slow process.

Children with dyslexia are not lazy or just trying to get away without doing their schoolwork. You can see their struggles and their ways of hiding from people who might expect them to read something in front of others.

I have made it well known around our friends here at home that he has dyslexia and that it is ok now. Now, we know what is going on with him. My son knows he has it and I let him know and was excited when I told him. That excitement rubbed off on him.

Did you know how many famous and very intelligent people in history were dyslexic? According to the book The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis there are many. I'll mention some you might already know.
Whoopi Goldberg
Jay Leno
Cher
Greg Louganis
What about Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Winston Churchill, Leonardo da Vinci, Walt Disney, Nelson Rockefeller and Woodrow Wilson.

Those are a few and my son is among those very smart, intelligent people. Having a hard time with reading doesn't mean that you are dumb. It just means you have a different way of learning. It's not the way everyone else learns but then that is what makes you special. You are able to learn reading differently. My child is more out of the box kind of thinker. A bright very intelligent son I have.

What's for Math?

This year my oldest is trying Teaching Textbooks. So far so good. He loves it. I actually like it too. I like the fact that he can get an explanation on the subject and then do the problems. It is really nice that now after so many years of homeschooling there is more options as far as curriculum goes.

When we started homeschooling we used Alpha Omega LifePacs. Of course, as a newbie there were things I didn't know about or where to search but with time comes understanding as to what is available and what you can use. Also with time comes the understanding that no matter what....they do learn.

I gone from Alpha Omega to Saxon to Rod and Staff and now to Teaching Textbooks. I've also used Horizons for my others. So I guess you could say that I have tried several different types of curriculum's. Then again I might just be doing this because I am a curriculum junkie. *wink* I do like Rod and Staff for the younger ones but for the older one TT is the best.

I give TT a 2 thumbs up. I would recommend it to anyone.

Our New School Year

We had fun doing art this week. We are using Artistic Pursuits. All the children enjoyed this. We've never used it before but we all had fun learning and working on our projects. From older one to little one, they all enjoyed this day. So here is what they did.