Okay, what I bought...

This is what I bought from Amazon:

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• 1 of: Lewis and Clark for Kids : Their Journey of Discovery with 21 Activities (For Kids series)
• 1 of: Nonfiction Reading Practice Grade 5 (Nonfiction Reading Practice)
• 1 of: How it works: how math works (How It Works)
• 1 of: HTML for the World Wide Web with XHTML and CSS: Visual QuickStart Guide, Fifth Edition
• 1 of: How body works (How It Works)
<>1 of: How it works: how nature works (How It Works)
• 1 of: A Young Person's Guide to Music
• 1 of: How it works: how the universe works (How It Works)
• 1 of: Janice VanCleave's Geometry for Every Kid : Easy Activities that Make Learning Geometry Fun (Science for Every Kid Series)
• 1 of: Mapping the World by Heart Lite 7th Edition
• 1 of: Logic Liftoff
• 1 of: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Geography, Second Edition
• 1 of: The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia Of World Geography with Complete World Atlas (Geography)
• 1 of: Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters (Bright Ideas for Learning)
• 1 of: Leonardo da Vinci for Kids : His Life and Ideas, 21 Activities (For Kids series)

And this is what I bought from Rainbow:
Building Writing Skills Grade 4 & 5 (hoping this is good, taking a chance)
How Science Works
How Things Work
Metric System placemat
Constellations placemat
Notebook Science Fact Book
an organizational skills book
Pentime Cursive Grade 5
Spectrum Test Practice
Step-by-Step Spreadsheet Activities for Excel
SOTW II activity book
SOTW II CD's
Switched on Schoolhouse Science 5

Can you tell my kid likes science?

I will also be using audible.com to download three Hakim volumes onto a CD (If I can figure out how to do that)

We'll be using some of these things this summer but most in the fall. I also have already purchased reading books, Civil War for Kids, tons of Cornerstone of Freedom books, tons of scholastic biographies, etc. I still have to buy Rod and Staff English. We'll be using Lial's BCM for math again. I plan to use it for 5th and 6th grade. Which is why I bought VanCleave's geometry book because my son won't get to geometry this year. We'll work on that this summer. I'm sure it will be light fluff but enough to get his feet wet and cover bases if it's covered on our standardized test. He's already had geometry exposure with Singapore math so I'm not that worried.

We used American Revolution for Kids this year and we really enjoyed that book, so I bought the Civil War last time I was in civilization (i.e. a bookstore) and it's good, too. I'm anxious to see the do DaVinci and Lewis and Clark books.

I'm still not sure how to approach writing. I may just teach him how to outline and go without a program. I don't know. I've got plenty of time to think that through. I could just use Rod and Staff. ???

Garage Sales

This afternoon after lunch I looked around the house and all our hard work from yesterday disappeared. It was really messy again. Now most people would dive in and get it straightened up. Not me. I wanted out, so I grabbed the newspaper, highlighted the garage sales that were going on this afternoon, gave my son $5 and the door we went.

At our first garage sale I spent a whopping .55 for a really nice Grand Canyon book and -- don't laugh -- a cleaning book for me. (I collect cleaning books like some people collect cookbooks.) The woman holding the sale was very nice and friendly and I told her how beautiful her garden was. She had a garden that ran alongside her driveway with gorgeous flowers. I asked if they were Sweet William and she told me no, they were called Pinks. I could have sworn they were Sweet William. In fact, they were identical to what I planted two years ago, which were Sweet William. She said no, she was a master gardener and in fact they were Pinks. Perplexed, the first thing I did when I arrived home was google Sweet William and Pinks only to be relieved to find they are both Dianthus and I wasn't so crazy. Upon further research, I know that she actually had both Pinks and Sweet Williams.

I'm really funny this way, because I feel compelled to know the correct answer to life's little questionable conversations. We were both right. Nonetheless, they were gorgeous.

This same lady had some yellow perennial that she didn't know what it was and she dug one flower up for me. She told me she's giving one to everyone who comments about her flowers because they spread so fast, she wants rid of them, but appreciates compliments on her garden. I planted it in my garden and wished she would have given me three instead of one. I might have my husband drive by her sale and get me another. lol I offered to pay for it, but she said no.

We went to about ten sales total. Nothing to write home about, really, but we did pick up some Scholastic reading books for my son for ten cents apiece. I also got a four-tiered letter stacking tray for 50 cents. I wanted one for our homeschool table and knew they'd be a dime a dozen at sales.

The most fun part of our afternoon romp was what my son decided to purchase. We went to one sale that had a beautiful hibiscus plant for $2.50. He went straight for it. It surprised the proprietors, but not me. I was so very proud as he stood there asking question after question on the proper care of his hibiscus. What kind of sun should it get? Will it die in the winter? He was delighted to find he can bring it indoors and it will continue to grow. "Should I fertilize it?" was his final question. Just a cute moment. The proprietors were so taken with him that they cut the price in half. The man said, "You are such a nice young man that I think you deserve 50% off." Thomas's eyes grew huge and he gleamed.

He's not a "typical" boy. Yes, he loves frogs, toads, bugs and mud. He also has a very gentle and loving spirit that can appreciate flowers. He just makes me smile. He's my flower and it is so much fun watching him bloom.

Catching Up

Thanks for all the comments regarding my last entry. I talked to my dad who stopped me before I even got into the excuses and reassured me that it was not necessary for me to come, that he completely understood, that gas prices were horrible and to get over the guilt trip. Then he said, "It's okay because your sister will be here." lol Okay, so it wasn't completely guilt-free, but I do feel much better about my decision. And bless her little pea-picking heart, my sister is now and has always been dad's favorite so he's happy that she will be there. And that really does make me happy, too. After I got to thinking about it, I have spent nine out of his last 13 birthdays with him, plus I have visited for up to a month each summer for the past eight years. So guilt-trip over.

My birthday is the day after his, so for once I'll be able to spend mine the way I want to.

With summer vacation upon us, we have turned into lazy bums! Our daily chore cards flew out the window, we have been staying up late, getting up late and aside from the house being a pit, we've been having a ball. Thomas and I have been playing games every single day, have been going to the park a lot, have been going for long walks. Thomas has been going on long bike rides with his dad, too. Try as they might, I won't join them on the bike rides. Yes, I have a nice bike. Yes, I have a gel seat. Yes, I have lots of extra padding on my body. But still -- riding a bike hurts! Even though I have all that extra padding, I am still boney and I just won't bear that.

Yesterday we decided to come back into the real world and started working on chores again. We're putzing around the house slowly and getting it back into shape. It is amazing how quickly a house will go to ruins when you don't do very much. We mowed the back of our property where my husband just refuses to mow. The grass was knee-deep. I don't get my husband and I never will, but it looks better now. I told Thomas that he is not done mowing until everything is mowed. My husband always tells him to stop and the shed line. I told Thomas that he is with me 24/7 and with his dad only six hours a day -- who would he rather have mad at him? lol That was a no brainer.

I placed my big school orders earlier this week. Living in the boonies, in a place with no bookstores, I had to use Amazon. What is it with Amazon now? Earlier in the year I placed a $190 order (I think it was that much) and a month later they emailed and said it wouldn't be shipping for a few more weeks. I cancelled the order. This time I ordered $250 worth of books and they are coming in bits and pieces, and one of those pieces isn't supposed to ship until the end of June. That's just not good customer service, IMHO. I also placed a big order with Rainbow Resources. When I was done giving her the order, I asked why I hadn't received a new catalog. I told her that is my homeschooling bible. I read that catalog more than I read any other homeschooling resources, including my Rebecca Rupp books. I was just sure that it came every year in the spring. She told me it is set to ship out mid-June and that it was new, improved and I was going to like it even better. Is that possible? Did they add more secular products? That would get me to like it even better.

While I am a Christian, there are few Christian products I like to use. Christians have differences ranging from night to day, and I'm a liberal Christian, not the mainstream, and I don't like bible passages on every page. My son had requested Switched on Schoolhouse Science again this year, and that one I can handle because it is easy to just skim over the religious parts. Usually a sentence or two, sometimes a paragraph, it's easy to jump down and get to the meat. I would have ordered the secular version of SOS but it was twice the price.

We will start summer school next week. We are going to work on art, spelling, history, math, science and a review of grammar. I suppose we'll do more than that, but that not much. It will be a relaxed pace, much different than our school year, and I'm going to try to get my son to take the initiative on when and how the work gets done. We'll see how that flies. I don't think we'll get far with that. lol

Well, my son just announced, "Hairball on aisle 5." My kitty got sick so I need to go clean it up. Never a dull moment.