Curriculums Are "just" Tools

Math is one of the Subjects that took us a while to find a match. It had to be something hands on, with not too long lessons, easy to grasp that included practice. After Houghton Mifflin and Right Start Math we happily settled with Saxon Math which we really REALLY like A LOT. Last week due to some miscommunications I still haven't received my long awaited Saxon Math 3 Worksheets instead I was willing to try the Saxon Intermediate, which was the only one available. I decided to give it a try and already got a grumble from L'Drago the same morning. I assured him that it was very similar to Saxon and (probably even more so) tried to convince myself that this is going to work, we just needed to show patience... 

Here I am today, three mornings later still getting angry just looking at the Math Curriculum and decided to kick it to the curb. It took me over a year to find the right Curriculum that works for L'Drago and yes I welcome change in our homeschool journey but I do not like change when the later worked perfectly fine and math was as easy as 1, 2 & 3. Just looking at the regular Saxon Math makes me happy (weird I agree) but I cannot wait to get back to happy L'Drago, happy Me and our regular happy Math Lessons. I love change but so I do a routine that works smoothly!!

Myriam

Changes in "Me-World"

I'm not exactly having an eating disorder but at times I feel it borders on one. Specially when my brain tells me to eat when my stomach's clearly full. I did make a big change when I joined Weight Watchers 2+ years back and lost 43 lbs/ 20+kg's. I was able to maintain it until my dear husband started buying all kinds of Julian Pie's and that's how it all went down hill!! okay, okay...  I got into a baking frenzy this past winter and that didn't help either. So 10 days ago I decided to get back on track and after hopping on the scale, realizing that I gained a good 10 pounds/ 5kg's I decided to do something rather earlier than later and signed back up on Weightwatchers.com. So far I've lost 5 pounds/ 3kg's. 10 days ago was also my first exercise day after a very VERY long time and I held it up ever since, riding my exercise bike 30min/day.

I'm forcing myself to exercise to stay healthy, much more than to loose weight. I wish there were more of a variety I could exercise but due to a hip birth defect options are unfortunately very limited. I'm not complaining though, there's much more to be thankful for than there is to complain about *smile* 

I'm a lot of things, but I am not a very disciplined person and I do did not like to exercise!! Since I started exercising though I've felt several changes in my daily life, the best of all by now is being in a better mood, my moods are much more balanced and just an overall better feeling of accomplishment about myself and for that I tap myself on the shoulders, YAY !!

Here my 10 past days in a nutshell and now my daily prayer to Allah is to keep up the good work and for HIM to grant me the discipline it takes to keep on exercising on a daily basis!!

Myriam

How to get "Outside my Box" !!

image from www.web2teachingtools.com

I am admitting that I can't seem to "be" creative !! I'd love to be more of an exciting teacher but I am somehow still stuck in this annoying "pencil in hand an sitting on the chair" method of doing school and right now it's very frustrating!! and so I'm once again brainstorming of how to make teaching more exciting and less school'ish and still be satisfied with myself at the end of the day that, yes we've learned and accomplished something!! Writing this comes over as very stupid to myself because I love Arts/ Crafts, being creative etc. and I do tons of stuff for myself but when it comes to educational creativity for my boys my brain somehow freezes.. I'm thinking maybe I should go cold turkey and ban all books for a week except maybe handwriting and learn to have fun with my boys, educational fun, well understood.. I feel as if something has to unlock in my brain for me to be able to loosen up and I'm still waiting for that event to take place. I can't possibly be the only one having had that issue.. anyone? 

Just a thought on a friday night.. 

Myriam

Our new fancy Pets

Since about a month now we have fresh eggs on an daily basis, yesss we have chicken :-) which if you'd asked me a few years back I would've never thought of it as possible.. but it seems like today it's not such a far fetched thing anymore, you know, to have back yard chickens. They are such interesting animals !! We literally sit outside, all five of us and watch "the chickflick" !! 

Here a few pictures of the Chicken Coop in the Make:

May I introduce to you:

• Olive
• Roxy
• Reds
• Goldy (better pictures will follow, I know this is not the best but it's all I have right now)

From the beginning we've had 1 egg a day which increased to 2-3 eggs a day :-) The boys are thrilled and love watching them. They've been raised by children and are very used to people which is again perfect for us. I needn't say that following to us having chicken is a Lapbook about Chickens which is in the make as you're reading this post so.. stay tuned :-)

Myriam