Randomness

Our kitten eyes are almost open after 1 week and 3 days. We are started to pick and pet them. They actually complain every time we pick them up. They just need to get use to being petted. Mommy's cat is spending too much time outside with the kids and the kittens don't complain much. They just sleep and sleep when their mommy is away.

DH is away again for the whole weekend. He will be back early tonight after the rally in Harrisburg. He called me this morning, and he wanted me and the kids to meet him there. I rather put away a month worth of laundry than driving 2 hours and a half with the kids and away from the house. If I can go by myself, I will in a heartbeat. However, being out with the kids is another story. They are getting bigger but not big enough to understand that we are going there to support the rally, which they need to be quiet and stand for a long time.

Our week has been very nice. I skimmed leaves off our aboveground pool yesterday while the kids are playing outside. They are all asking to go in it, but after I showed them how dirty it was, they all opt not to get in it. Plus, I bet the water is very cold.

I rinse off all of their snow boots, and I am washing their snow suits right. I can finally hide them and my house will have one season clutter put away. Now, all of their rain boots are bringing all kinds of mud in my house. I can't wait for that one to be over too.

We finally got a second hand VCR. Now, they watch all of our VHS tapes that were put away for nearly 3 years. I am a little surprised on how much we got. We also have some more CVD's that we haven't seen for a while. And since we are having a nice weather, we will be outside more often now. We can save some electric bill too. I am sooo glad for the nice temperature.

My kids have one more week before their spring break. DS in 3rd is having a PSSA practice from last week and this week. One school is already asking to re-enroll my kids. DH suggested waiting a little because something big might come out of the health care bill from the congress, and cyber schooling may add other more hoops to jump into. I told him that we can report that we are moving instead, and do traditional home school and not report anything. However, with this government that will only last for a short time, and we are sure they will come after us and lose the kids in the process. Which hell comes if we let them. We are trying to play by the rules as much as our belief allows. What is the point of traditional home schooling if the government will be all over it? Big government sucks big time.

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My Maintenance Man

If something does work all of a sudden on your computer, trying re-starting it first. My Kinder's printer decided to stop working last week. I thought right away that he did something wrong but somehow he can't tell me what he did. Nope, I did not re-start the computer right away it took me a few days before thinking hard on what to do. Today I tried the scanner and it work just fine. I asked DH to check it out for me, he doddle for a little bit and asked me if I restarted it. Duh, I knew that, and why did I not try it first. I guess I'm not thinking hard enough or did I just think too hard...lol.


When DD got a new teacher on the third week of October she schedule a meeting through Elluminate. However, Java is not even installed on the computer and I had to install it before she can use Elluminate. I could not wait and just borrowed DS (3rd grader) pc to do the meeting. Last week is the first time she attended a live lesson for her grade. She wanted to answers some question that the presenter was asking. She got called just to found out that her mic and headphone was not working. Crap! What happens to plug in play stuff?

Today I asked DH to play with it and he can't find anything wrong with it. He just click buttons and did not change anything and not even 15 minutes he got everything working even the microphone. He said he did not do anything but check and look if everything is working. And they are all working.

Now, I think that DD's computer is a girl and just needed a man touch...ha ha ha...lol. I toggle with that stupid thing and almost throw it in the ground and DH sits there for less than 15 minutes and it works...argh.

Now she can listen to her music cd's (from school) and not bother anyone. And she can answer question using the microphone, unless it gives me another hard time when I touch it again tomorrow.

Thank you so much DH.

Image Credit: i.ehow

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T.G.I.F.

It's Friday again, short day for all of my DC. ODS wants me to pick him up around 9am from his school. DH is coming home early also because he do not have a lot to do at work today. My two home school DC have less class today being it's Friday. I am getting hard time giving them lesson because they wanted to go outside all the time.
ODS last day of school is on Tuesday next week. He finally renew his learners permit this past Wednesday, thanks to DH driving him to DMV. I in the other hand is tired and wanting the summer vacation to start. However, my home school kids will not get done until we are finish with their lessons. We started late with this home school and I wanted them to finish the curriculum given to them. They are technically finish because they are in the percentage given to them. But if we don't finish the units, they may have problem with the next grade level. I wanted to play it safe (finish what we have now) than teaching them the missed lessons before started the new grade level when the school starts in September.

Our bedroom is still nowhere, we are going to have rainy Friday and Sunday. DS#2 is going to a birthday party on Sunday. DH will chaperon him and I'm hoping I can plant something in the garden this weekend.

That's it for my edition of T.G.I.F., what are you doing this weekend?

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Studying Hard

Here is DD practicing her writing on her Phonics book. I am so proud of her, she can read some books now. And she loves showing off to her younger siblings with Starfall. Mind you my YDS learn the alphabet when he was 2 1/2 with the help of starfall. If you want your little child to learn early, let them play at starfall dot com.

Anyway, we are almost at the end of DD phonics. I can't wait to go in the next grade level with both DD and DS. I have learned a lot, especially phonics. Coming from a non-English speaking country the phonics helped a lot. I also learned about the beginning of America, all the empires that started in Europe, different kind of paintings, how are rocks formed, and a lot more.

Just an update, we decided to put our Kindergarten in another school. With so much going on with DD and DS school right now. Like school founder charge not following the PDE's regulations and spending our school tax for her own needs. Appointing the board of members instead of parents voting for them and so many thing.

We will try another cyber charter school just in case that school close. I will be learning how their curriculum works just like when we started with the one we are using right now. And maybe enroll our YDS on another, just to have a feel with other cyber school. I need to do the paper works and attend an open house to get my questions answered.

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No School

My two DC don't have school today and tomorrow. Last week DS saw in her sister schedule that she is off and asked me about it. I played that I don't know. Anyway, I wanted them to catch up a bit so, I removed the days off on their schedule. Now we are 2 days closer on finishing their classes when summer comes. I know it's not much, but they will add up in the in of school year. Sshhh, don't tell them.

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DH Helped

Yup, he did yesterday with the request of our 8 year DS. It was not a typical Thursday because her sister is not feeling very well. All I have to do is teach him with no interruption. I wanted to teach him all day to finish his lesson for the week however, he wanted to do less or only what we have for yesterday.

DH did one Science lesson for him and I did three. Not bad, every help is very much welcome. Thank you DH for such a light day load. I even asked him to go to the bank for me to pay our van payment for the month. DH done more than usual load of work yesterday, I'm shocked. (did I said that...lol, just kidding honey) However, I appreciate it very much for helping me yesterday.

In another news, I received the 1099 from IZEA yesterday. Did anyone else received theirs? We already file our taxes last Friday. Now, we will try to amend it this weekend if we can. I made a whooping $2179.00 from them for eight months, not including SS, that amount is only for 3P's.

That's it for today, T.G.I.F. everyone.

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What A Day

Two conferences for my two home school kids today. Plus they wanted to do a block scheduling this week. I am beat and much ready for the weekend. And what day is it today?.. yup only Wednesday. We found out that the two are still behind with their lessons. Their last day of school is schedule in July and August. I try not to go too fast to cover everything and I don't want them to skip even an optional lessons. As a matter of fact, they like the optional lessons much better than required. We did not get done until 4:00pm today. Each one of them did five lessons each today. Did I mention that some of those classes is for 2 hours?

I need some rest to get myself ready tomorrow. Have a good night every one.

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Being Sued

The CEO of my children cyber school is suing some parents that are under the parents organization in that school. They are being charge with slander, I don't know exactly why because from what I am reading they did not say anything bad about the person at all. The only posts that I remember was a questions about how the school is being run and we are asking for documentation about the rules and regulations. Which by the way have not yet answer for some odd reasons because they (people who are in charge) kept telling us to direct our questions to proper authorities. Yes, we will gladly do so if we know the proper authorities. I don't really know when is the court date, I was not serve but the organization for parents is and I am a member. It was address to the president of the organization and the organization itself.

Most of us agree even my husband that finally our questions will be answer. Plus most parents suggested to wear a custom embroidery shirts to make some kind of statement about it. They offer fast delivery for anyone including organization like ours, that will able us to use it right away. You can check them out at threadsmith.com.

We also agree to contact some TV stations to cover the whole thing. I wish this thing turn out for the best, if not we will be looking for alternative and I maybe going to traditional homeschooling for my children. However, if I go that route my taxes will not pay for it. The best part of it is that I can pick what curriculum to use. I can only pick reading, mathematics and writing, the extras are not that important in my opinion.

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Plenty of Help

My ODS did not have school today so, DH told him to help me with his younger siblings lessons. We were done before 12 noon today. The reason he is off today because we are having snow, sleet and freezing rain again. Now I have plenty of time to spend online...(pathetic). I'm addicted what can I say.

ODS did fine guiding his younger sister to all the lessons. DH and I work with his second grade brother with his lessons. Plus he attended two illuminate (online classes from her teacher), one is for language art testing and the other one is history about the Chinese New Year.

I better get started dropping cards to my lists. Goodbye for now.

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Testing Finished

DD supposed to get tested on the first week of this month. However, with the bad weather they postponed it until today. I will not know how she did, until the tester gives the report to DD teacher.

Thursday last week DS a second grader took the scantron test for math and over the weekend we work on his reading test. He is not very fond of reading, I told him if he doesn't do it, he is not allowed to leave the room. It took him half hour, or I should have said it took me half hour to finally get into his head. He needed to read stories, then go into the questions. When he saw the long page he needs to read, he started to cry. I kept telling him crying will not get him pass second grade but no luck.

Eventually, my thinking hat start working, and I copy and paste the whole story into Word and printed in a big font. They are 5 pages and fewer. However, I got him to read the whole story and answers the question with no problem.

I thought actually that he will fail himself by not listening to me. A very hard week for me indeed. I heard that 3rd grade is all about writing and stories. I will be pulling my hair out if he gives me such a hard time next year. I'm not looking forward to it, not at all.

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Happy Monday

Our first day back in regular schedule. I thought I will have a hard time teaching my two DC but I was wrong. I always think of the worst case however it always goes into my favor and I am glad.

I even have time to make home made dinner rolls to go with our chili dinner tonight. Furthermore I baked some sugar cookies after dinner, I feel like a super mom...ha ha ha (not!). Tomorrow DC have more lessons than usual and we did one of them today. All we have to do is put in the hours tomorrow for that lesson. Plus on Wednesday DD (K) have a face to face screening because they can't hear her make the letter sounds over the phone (which she know all of them). Good thing DH is home that day, I don't have to take all 4 of them with me. Thank you DH, you are a great help.

We are also compiling some assessments and writing samples to mail to their teachers before the end of the month (that mostly my job). DD received two Christmas cards from her B&M classmates and she is writing back to say thank you. I have to spell everything for her while she writes and sometimes if she know the words I only sound it out for her. A great way to practice her words.

That's it for today, I need to take some zzzz and start again tomorrow. Have a great day or night everyone.

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14 Days of Homeschooling

I may not technically home school but I found this song amusing...And I would like to share to my reading public...lol

"To the tune of "Twelve Days of Christmas."

On the first day of home school my neighbor said to me, "Can you home school legally?"

On the second day of home school my neighbor said to me, "Are they socialized, can you home school legally?"

On the third day of home school my neighbor said to me, "Do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you home school legally?"

On the fourth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you home school legally?"

On the fifth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "YOU ARE SO STRANGE! What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you home school legally?"

On the sixth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "How long will you home school, YOU ARE S0 STRANGE, what about P.E. , do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you home school legally?"

On the seventh day of home school my neighbor said to me, "Look at what they're missing, how long will you home school, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!, what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, do you home school legally?"

On the eighth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "Why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you home school, YOU ARE SO STRANGE, what about P.E. do you give them tests, are they socialized, do you home school legally?

On the ninth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "They'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you home school, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!, what about P.E. do you give them tests, are they socialized, do you home school legally?"

On the tenth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "What about graduation, they'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you home school, YOU ARE SO STRANGE!, what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you home school legally?"

On the eleventh day of home school my neighbor said to me, "I could never do that, what about graduation, they'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you home school, YOU ARE SO STRANGE, what about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you home school legally?"

On the twelfth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "Can they go to college, I could never do that, what about graduation, they'll miss the prom, why do you do this, look at what they're missing, how long will you home school, YOU ARE SO STRANGE, What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you home school legally?"

On the thirteenth day of home school I thoughtfully replied: "They Can go to college, yes you can do this, they can have graduation, we don't like the prom, we do it cuz we like it, they are missing nothing, we'll home school forever, WE ARE NOT STRANGE!, We give them P.E., and we give them tests, they are socialized, AND WE HOME SCHOOL LEGALLY!

On the fourteenth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "How can I get started, why didn't you tell me, where do I buy curriculum, when is the next conference, WILL PEOPLE THINK WE'RE STRANGE? I think we can do this, if you will help us, we'll join a sports team, and we'll home school legally."

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TGIF

I never been so happy that today is Friday. Still finishing the updates with this blog. Trying to make it open up a little faster with the new layout. We (DS and I) survive the first week of home school. Most of the Math 2 we are doing right now, he already learned in B&M school. So, we always jumps to the assessment part of it and spend more time in Lang Arts 2, because he is not very fond of it. He needs more encouraging with this one and he hates reading and writing. I wish I can let him type everything on Word, but the cyber school wants him to practice writing more. We also do most of the assessment on science and history. We spend all the extra hours on Lang Arts 2. Which he hates, but sometimes when he realize he can't do anything until he is done with the class. Then he will listen attentively and do everything right.

I need a vacation already...lol.

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OLS Not Working This Morning

My DD OLS is not working this morning when we started. I kinda relieved and worry at the same time. Happy because I was planning my 1200 EC happening for the first time, and DD will be doing back up classes until Saturday.

I think within 2 hours is was up and running again. Whew, no Saturday class as we speak. I'm so glad ha ha ha. I don't really want to do a class on the weekend. So glad that we don't have to.

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Pushy Special Ed Teacher

Today is the first day for home school for my 2nd grader. I don't have any hardware and materials for him yet, because he only got approved last Friday (Halloween). And they wanted us to start today. I don't think that people who are in charge for hardware and materials even read their email yet about what we needed. That will take at least about a week to get the first shipment to us.

Well, someone called me today asking how is our first day of home school. I told her that I sent my son to school today because we don't have anything to start with. Then she proceeded that we should start on the date that is given to us to start. Hello, who are you? Are you the president of this school? I hate when they are pushy. I bet she don't have any kids home school. She doesn't know anything about how the kids are affected with not having any materials to use. She told that she will her supervisor about it. Then she called me back around 3pm telling me that I will start tomorrow. No if's and buts. He can only be enroll in one school. That is why I'm letting you know that we will wait for the materials to come. The lessons can be push back and same with his start date.


And since I have other computer at home, my son can use one of them. It's not the hardware I'm having problem with, it's the materials. It will too much for him if we start with nothing. Then she said that I can print everything I need to start. Ok, we tried it after eating dinner, and guess what? All the practice sheets have answer because they are teacher answer sheets. Most of the student pages are in the book. The only thing we found is the assessment page. But how can he answer it without practicing first.

I did an orientation for him and ask the question about starting later (about two weeks later). And the lady who is doing the orientation had no problem with it. Because we don't have any materials. She have 2 kids home school and she understand me right away.

She didn't say that today is our start date, that we should start today even if we don't have anything. I don't know what is the other lady's problem. Good thing she is not my son teacher. She is only his special education teacher, I really don't know what that means but I think she is my sons IEP (speech, my son is delay) teacher. I should call you from now on "Ms. Pushy Grouch".

I didn't actually argue with her about the whole thing. I just keep telling that we need some materials to start and I will ask DH what he thinks about the whole thing and we will get back to her thru email. I better email her now.

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We Are Almost There

Just an update about home school. I am getting the hang of it, after two weeks. I am glad that we are both adjusting with the home environment. Hoping she will stop asking to go back to regular school when her brother start home school too.

My preschooler is very excited about it. He can't wait to get his own desk, chair and computer too.

Anyway, that's all for today.

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DD Gave Up on Me Today

We were in the last two lessons and she gave up today. We had to do music and gym for the last two lessons. She don't even want to imitate anything I do. Good thing that my preschooler was home to help me. He had more fun that his sister. He enjoyed imitating different animals on the way they walk.

Before going to bed tonight, she told me that she didn't like to sing and moved the way animals does. I kept telling her that she can do her best. I guess her best is not doing anything.

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DD School Called and Gave an Attitude

We we're in the middle of class today and my cell phone rang. I answered it because it was my DS school too. I was thinking that they are calling because DS got hurt, need to come home, or just letting me know that something happened, and they just wanted me to know about it. It didn't even dawn on me that DD is home, and they were calling about her.

I wanted to lie at the beginning, but I don't like them anyway so, why lie about what she is doing at home. I don't know who called but as soon as I said that she is starting her home school today, she told me to "hold on because I need to speak to the receptionist". Ok, (in my mind) I don't have anything to tell the receptionist. Then with a tone, the receptionist answer the phone with "Hi Mrs P, you wanted to speak to me?". I was thinking no I'm not. I answer her with "ah the person on the phone told me that". Implying that it wasn't me who wants to talk. Then she proceeded with "you are home schooling your daughter?"...yes i said. "Did you asked for permission from us if you can do it"? My eye brow raised you would not believe. I told her that when I sign up for charter school, that there is no paper saying that I need to give to them to be signed and to release my DD from their school. "Your daughter is never coming here? she asked. Not this year I hope. She ask about my phone number, like they don't know and told that she will get back to me. But in my head, please don't call me anymore. It's not your (school) business what I do with my children.

I think they are worry about the money receiving from our property tax. They would act like they care but the truth is they worry about that money. They will not receive any from us, that's for sure. Plus I can't really say anything bad, because my DS is still there. They might give him a hard time there. DH have an appointment with the speech therapist on Wednesday, so I'm not planning on talking to them before my husband speak to them.

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DD Computer is Set

We got two sets of commercial desks and chair for home school. They are huge, it filled the space we reserve from our bedroom. What we need is a bigger house and more rooms. Next year we need to buy another desk and chair for our 4th child. He is in private preschool right now, and very jealous that his sister can stay home with me. And he also wanted to stay home with me to learn next year.

I hope this work for all of us. I can't imagine what will happen if I fail. I don't even want to think about that word. I will feel bad if I have to send them again to regular school.

Send me some positive thoughts or encouragement my friends. I can really use all I can get. HAve a great weekend everyone.

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Music Lessons For My Home School

All of my kids loves music. I guessed they got my fathers genes when it come to it. My oldest son plays the violin and the rest are starting to like instruments and singing. The youngest one found his oldest brothers' guitar yesterday and his been playing it since then. He can't really speak yet, but he can make up some words to sing while playing the guitar. I will definitely check into Amadeus Home Music School, because my children will be home school very soon, I can use the help.

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