Time 4 Learning Review!

Okay we are 1 month into homeschooling and using Time 4 Learning. First let me say that I’m a new homeschooler and I really don’t have a clue what I’m doing!! I haven’t used anything but this system so I don’t have anything to compare it to really. As long as it works for Mr. Magoo it will work for me. The ease of the system is apparent from the very beginning. We are focusing on Language Arts for the time being and the interactiveness of the grade 3 LA is perfect for my very easily distracted kid. Mr. Magoo works best when there is repetitiveness and when there is an ability to be interactive. Time 4 Learning give us that opportunity and more.  We would work on it in the morning and by the afternoon we would be talking about idioms, homophones and synonyms.  Even when I try to go back and discuss some of the things we did at the beginning of the month Mr. Magoo has them down packed.

Pros:

1. Easy to navigate for both my 8 year old and I.
2. Fun interactive learning
3. Easy parental controls over the time spent on ‘fun games’.
4. Parent forum with LOADS of information
5. Detailed reporting
6. Printable worksheets

Cons

1. Easy to forget that Mr. Magoo has been on the computer for too long!  At least he’s learning while he’s on there!

I think T4L is a great system for us.  We are using it along with math workbooks and manipulatives, a Canadian Social Studies curriculum and of course, PE and Art.  Its been a great introduction for us to this new world of homeschooling and I’m grateful for the free month trial to really get a chance to see what it’s like.   I was given the free month in exchange for reviewing the product but these are opinions are solely mine!

 

My little homeschooler working on some math.

Our Solar System now hangs in Mr. Magoo’s room!

Pluto is NOT a planet…

Ok, so things have changed since I was in school.  The Soviet Union is no more, the Wall is down in Germany, Yugoslavia…finished.  I’m pretty up on world happenings so not much throws me for a loop.  Um, so how did I miss that Pluto is no longer a planet??? We are doing a unit on the Solar System.   Seriously, that is a huge thing to miss.  Oh well, that’s why it’s good to do some planning BEFORE you start a unit.   Mr. Magoo picked it as one of the things he really wanted to learn about.  So to start off the unit he made his OWN solar system!  We are following it up with a guided reading of a cool chapter book called STINK Solar System Superhero!  No it’s not  a normal choice but we’re not normal  but it’s about the solar system and it’s a book he’s interested in.

We had the solar system above his bed but since we got his new loft bed and it came with a tent so now the solar system is off to the side.

We don’t have a mattress that fits in the bed yet but the one from the folding bed will suffice for now.

The first night it was VERY hard to sleep in it for Mr. Magoo but since then he’s been able to calm himself enough to fall asleep.  The cool thing is the added darkness the tent give him and the ‘cocoon’ feeling of the tent is really good for sleep.

Miss Thing helped with the yard work.  Here she is shoveling little rocks into the wheel barrow.  She then moved them over to the other side and  smoothed them out.  We are going to rototill 3/4th of the area for veggies.

On this side we are going to have a huge herb area.  The herbs are going to be in tubs and I’m hoping for tomatoes in that area as well.  On the otherside we are building a compost .  Right now I’m busy trying to figure out how to do that….I’m thinking wood and cheap.  We’ll see how that turns out.  The tree that you see on the left side of the picture is being taken down so I think there will be a fair bit of sun into the garden.  It used to be a garden so it should work out okay.  Miss Thing has requested NO TURNIPS.  The purple topped turnips that we’ve been eating from our neighbors garden have NOT been a hit.  I’m hoping for lots of root veggies and squashes. Zucchini and spaghetti squash at least….I have a bag of spring onions that I have to get into the ground before it hardens but that shouldn’t be too hard they are going in a different area.  Hopefully this weekend I can get that done.

We are settling nicely into our new life.  I miss my friends overseas every day.  I miss the anonymous part of living overseas.  The freedom in that kind of living was liberating.   But I’m so thankful to be back in the surroundings that are familiar.   To be here for the birth of my bbf’s baby was something that I’m so glad I didn’t miss.  I’d post a pic but he’s not my kid, suffice it to say he’s the most beautiful baby.  He’s just perfect.  He’s got amazing black hair and his Mommy’s nose.

Anyway here are MY little babies….

I’m learning through facebook today.  A friend of mine posted a quote by Marilyn Munroe that I hadn’t heard before. “I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”

Back to Guided Reading with my beloved monkey.

End of term picnic in the park…with SUNSHINE (mostly)

Before I start with the picnic I just have to share.  This is the newest craft magazine on the market.  It’s AMAZING.   Love love love it.

Anyway on to the end of term picnic.

Whatever your thoughts on school uniforms you have to admit that this is the cutest thing EVER.  Mr. Magoo wore his white shirt and tie every Monday, Tuesday and Friday and his yellow NLIS polo shirt every Tuesday and Wednesday.  He did not vary from this unless FORCED by circumstances beyond my control.

He is looking forward to wearing ‘home clothes’ next year but has made me promise that we can still have a PE kit for when we have PE.  So we’ve saved his PE bag for homeschool.

Here he is in his favorite uniform .  White shirt, tie and jumper….oh and he’s holding Ted, the newest member of the family.  Ted the teddy.

This is Elijah’s friend.  He is hilarious.  He has decided that it is his job to make sure Elijah is ok at all times.  He also needs to tell me exactly how Elijah’s day was before Elijah does.  It’s a love/hate relationship….mostly love.

Here is Mr. Magoo getting his present from his teacher.  He loves her so much, it’s amazing.  He gave her a good cuddle at the end of the day.  She’s moving to Kent at the end of July and he has told me that he is going to send her a postcard.   Unless it’s too hard, then he will just send an email.

His teacher got her kiss but he made sure he didn’t look like he was enjoying it too much.

All the Moms trying to get pictures.   My friend Bea trying not to cry.   She is so sweet….

Another school year over and our adventure in homeschooling starts in September.   So glad that we leave traditional schooling on such a high note.  I think that makes a difference.   We aren’t running from anything we are running to something…..There will lots of days kicking balls in the park I hope…..maybe Ted the teddy will join us.

Best Canada Day EVER!

The largest Canada Day party outside of Canada is in LONDON!  There was no way we were going to miss that!  So although the kids still have week of school left,  I pulled them for the day.  I mean come on!  It must illegal for a Canadian to work on July 1st right?  So we pulled out our 2 year old too small Canada shirts (oops Sorry Miss Thing) and headed down to Trafalgar Square.

First order of business was to find a shirt for Miss Thing.  On her tank top you could barely see the Canada and it was just a bit too small.  On sale were the limited edition Canada Day in London t-shirt by the Hudson Bay.  Available for one day only for £7.  Now THATS cool!  Of course I wasn’t going to cover up my RIDER T-shirt with a Canada shirt.  Rider pride trumps all.

It was so hot and so sunny, just a beautiful afternoon with the two little ones.

 

The Canadian Paralympic Team (Womens’ Basketball) was there. and we watched some ball hockey.

 

 

The kids watching hockey eating crisps.   Mr. Magoo said that I packed some good stuff for the day. Good thing too cause the food for REALLY expensive.

 

 

 

These  guys were super fun, and popular….but I’m pretty sure they are the reason that we ran out of Molsens and Sleemans.

But the evening was a whole other level!  This is the 6th annual Canada Day in London and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. We met one Londoner who hasn’t missed a Canada Day in London celebration in 5 years.  Wayne Gretzky and Mike Meyers were there, just hanging around (seperately) and Mike Meyers was nice enough to jump up on stage and say hello to the crowd.  But of course for me the highlight of the evening was this man right here.

 

Introduced to some great Canadian performers.  REALLY enjoyed seeing Oh My Darling, Kwarka and Alex Cuba.  I had never heard of any of them before.  Of course Blue Rodeo were AMAZING.  Alex Cuba joined them on stage to sing Bad Timing in Spanish, it was off the hook.  They did sing most of their big hits ending the night with Lost Together as everyone sang.  It felt amazing to sing O Canada at the end of the night deeper meaning than it does at home.  There is a sense of pride singing our national anthem on foreign soil.  60,000 strong at the top of our lungs.  Great Night!

 

Ten for Tea?

Miss Thing was invited to a birthday party today and it was for TEA~!  How cute is that?  I’d looked up the Tea Party on the web and thought, what a fantastic idea but then we saw it and I just about DIED .  You just cannot believe how cute it is!  We met the owner Sam as we were a bit early and she graciously let us in from the cold while she finished setting up.  It’s hard to time the walking around here but it’s about a mile from our front door.  Perfect colour on the outside of the building….

And even more pink on the inside!  It’s like being inside a giant cupcake!  Oh and the cupcakes on the table looked amazing.    Little finger sandwiches and pink goblets it’s like my fantasy place.

Another picture of the room (and Sam the owner) and the sooo cool wallpaper.  The beauty is in the details and there are great details everywhere!  Sam mentioned that there have been a lot of baby showers and parties to show off babies (she called them something but I can’t remember what).  She also mentioned they were planning a knitting party there, so as you can imagine, I’m going to be going to be on the lookout for that!

If I could have, I would have put the chandelier in my purse and taken it home…

Some of my long time readers might remember this fantastic ebay find that I bought Miss Thing ages ago.  The dress was perfect for the required “glamorous” that was requested on the invitation.

Boas??!!!!???  LOVE. IT!

We left before all the party girls had arrived but from what we saw, they all did look very ‘glamorous’!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love living in London?

Knitting IS my therapy.

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Originally uploaded by allycupe

I’m knitting up a storm here in cold, dark, rainy Germany. I am just finishing up a delightful pair of socks for Elijah. I really like the way these knit up. They are from More Sensational Socks (of course). But the reason I’m so excited it because after these socks I am knitting a pair of mitts from the movie Twilight. Bella Mittens Pattern..go over to subliminalrabbit’s blog and get it for FREE. This girl can really write a pattern.

I asked Emmett today if that made me cool. You know seeing a movie, and then knitting the pair of mitts one character was wearing on the screen for like 4 minutes. Of course he said that he can’t imagine anything cooler. (when he said it, it sounded like ‘oh god, you’re such a loser’ but I know what he meant). So I’m rushing through this pair of socks with a determination I haven’t had for knitting in a long time. Funny how your passion can get turned up again….

Elijah wanted the socks to be knee highs but we settled on the length in the photo. I love the colour, the pattern ROCKS and although I’m thoroughly enjoying the renewed passion for knitting I can’t wait to be done to move onto the mitts.

Aw man the above post is brought to you by Flickr, I’m trying to see how the posts look when you upload directly from there. But if you forget anything you have to come back to wordpress and redo it anyways. I forgot to mention the 50 Euro sewing machine I’m getting from a family who is moving back to the States. I know it’ll be a god year before I can get one so I’m buying one off them. And when I can get my fancy machine, this one can be Nad’s.

I should probably bump into walls more…

I’m not sure why I don’t notice some things that others notice.  I like to think that I’m just above the superficial things in life and that I’m so advance emotionally that I live life on a different level but I think that illusion is leaving the building.  For the second time this school year a mom at my child’s school has given birth and I had NO IDEA SHE WAS PREGNANT!   She’s not a big girl either.  Just a regular mom.  Now in my defense she now has FOUR kids under the age of 6 so it’s not like you see her and think ‘wow, just about time for another baby!’ and she’s really tall so she probably carries in a way that doesn’t show that much.  But DAMN, how do I completely miss someone being pregnant.  I am really one of those great friends who can say honestly that you can gain 20 pounds and I won’t notice.  On the flip side, you can lose 20 pounds and that doesn’t register either.  However I can spot hand knit socks at 100 yards so I have other skills.

Speaking of knitting it’s time to pick up the sticks again, I really haven’t been doing a lot of it lately.  My youngest and most delightful child has decided that the only socks he can wear are homemade Mommy socks.  So cute…but he only has three pair that fit and two of them have holes in them.  Last night the only way we got him to sleep was to promise that we would look all night for his green Mommy socks.  Um,  we didn’t.  This morning when said socks were still missing there was a melt down of epic proportions.  Fortunately for Mommy I happened to find them at the final moments before I had to stick him in the van screaming but it was close.  By the way, I totally realize how crazy that sounds, don’t judge me.   So I’m going down to my yarn stash and I’m going to start some new ones for him today.  He’s my favorite kid (the other is down stairs faking sick to skip school and the other one said ‘yes’ when i asked if i looked fat in my summer shorts yesterday) so I think he deserves some new socks!

Oh and can I just add that the remake of Melrose Place looks a MILLION times better than the new 90210.  I’m still 13, shut up.

Sushi night in Canada.

So “N” desperately wanted to make sushi.  Since there is no family thing this weekend for Thanksgiving I figured what the hell.  We made vegetable sushi and salmon maki.  We also made Orange Chicken teriyaki with homemade teriyaki sauce and vegetable tempura from scratch.  It was AWESOME.  I think I’ll make the kids sushi for their lunches (just without the raw fish).  What a great supper.  Here’s us making the rolls. Elijah “helped” by coming over and eating the rolls as we made them.

Tomorrow night I’m making Cornish Game Hens instead of a turkey with wild rice stuffing and mashed potatoes.  I love cooking.  I need to win the lottery so I can really go whole hog.

Winning IS everything.

Yippee! I just went and picked up my prize at The Bounce radio station! I am now the proud owner of Jamie Oliver’s new book Cook with Jamie.  He’s hot and he was one of my old pretend boyfriends, I think I’ll put him back on the ‘active’ list.

And an 8 inch saute pan that is EXTREMELY heavy.  I love it!

I love winning things.

I still have uber hurting knee from volleyball but I played last night and we WON! I was like a giselle out there….well a giselle that has a bum knee.

Sunday is Emmett’s birthday.  Sunday is the Western final with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.  Emmett’s birthday happens every year.  The Roughriders in the playoffs is such a rarity that I’m sure he has no problem with his mother being WAY more excited about the game than his stupid birthday which just shows people how old I am.  This is the world.  This is me.  This is the world revolving around me….. don’t worry, he’s used to it.

My secret pal is spying on me….

I’ve spent the morning searching the house for the cameras. A couple of days ago I was finishing off N’s sock (the knee high in pink) with a short row toe and I was searching madly for stitch holders. I found 2 out of the 900 million (or so) that I’ve had over the years. I did find a package of yucky plastic ones and ended up using them to mark my spot….(sorry that totally makes me think of Frankie the dog who is still peeing like a girl..when do boy dogs start lifting their legs?) I thought I would order some (and did) from a etsy sight but I only got two sets because a. I was being cheap and b. I thought I’d find some locally. I would like to have a few sets for the many projects I have going.

So anywhooooo, I get to the mailbox yesterday and what do I find….a SECRET PAL package! And inside there was some beautiful sock yarn that is telling me that it would like to live on my niece’s feet who is turning 25 this December and has been bugging me for a pair. There is also two balls of the cutes ‘thick and thin’ wool handpainted by Jan Gilray which I’ve fondled at my LYS but never bought so I’m excited to see what I can knit up with it, also a book called Knitting Sweaters from the Top Down by Cathy Carron which I’ve never seen before but since all the sweaters I’ve ever made end up being vests this is probably the find of the century for me….and finally, a set of the cutest stitch markers which lead me to the frantic searching of my house to see where the camera is hidden. Thanks Secret Pal you ROCK!

OOO and the other day I made chicken pot pie from scratch….yep from boiling the chicken to the pastries…..here’s photographic proof!

Oh and stupid teenager DOES smile every year whether he needs it or not…it usually is brought on by his brother. Here they are at Granny’s birthday, geez, I love my kids.

Don’t know what the hell is wrong with the camera I am assuming it’s NOT a user issue.