Sunday, April 29, 2012

Zoo day




I love Spring! Of course here in Florida it feels more like Summer (Yep! It's Hot) So, before are temps decide to stay in the high 90's permanently, I decided I would enjoy the balmy 80-90ish degree weather that is still accompany by some breeze and take my kiddies to the Zoo.


 It was such a blast! :) It had been soooooo long since we had went, about 2 years ((blush)) My favorite animals are the elephant and giraffes.
This zoo we went to, had it where for a couple of dollars you could actually feed a giraffe!





I think these animals are so unique and beautiful. My son loved the monkeys



 where as my daughter was more into all the reptiles eekkkk!!! Snakes are not my favorite :(



Thankfully the zoo was pretty close by, so we were able to get there pretty early before the heat started to really set in. Still it got pretty hot, so we only stayed for a few hours.
When we got home, I thought that I would take advantage and incorporate the zoo into some learning. I mean the kids had already learned so much by visiting and getting to see and learn about all these animals, so why not add to that, right? So the next day, I decided to have them play some animal games online and for our art curriculum, I had them paint their favorite animal( I bet you can guess  what they each painted ;)   ). For my oldest, I also had her write a small report on the animal: what they eat, where they live, etc. For my son, I just had him tell me all he could remember from our day at the zoo.
In end it was a fun family fun day. Yes! we will be going back, but not until the cool weather of winter hits though lol ;)

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Math... Ugh!

I am a bit sad tonight. I just found out that I will be having to retake my Algebra class ( I am in College for all who may not know ) I am just so frustrated with myself! I am getting A's in all my other classes, but Math is for some reason hard for me :( 
All I can say is THANK GOD that when my kids reach homeschool middle school / highschool that I can just buy an online Algebra Curriculum to help teach them, because to be honest I am not sure I will be able to, or want to revisit this very unpleasant area of education again.
I just wish you did not need Algebra to get a degree. I mean for some professions I can understand needing to learn College level Math, but why is it if you choose a career path that will never use it on the job, why do you need to learn it?
I'll be honest with all of you, I used to wonder why people didn't go to college. I mean with grants and school loans out there to help you get an education which would earn you a better income and future, why do people just take min. wage jobs. Well, now I know! If you are not good in Math or lets say English, than it can be very hard to get through the general education classes so you can be able to go to school for said career. And let's be honest, sometimes it is not just hard for people, it is mentally impossible. Some people just can not learn Algebra and some people just can not put an Essay together. For instants I have a Friend, He is Super smart in Math ( wish he could share some of that with me lol ). He has all his classes done Math etc., but he can not pass his Eng. comp class. So he can not get his degree. Just so sad that he is stuck making min.wage, unable to finish his education because of his inability to pass one class. He is obviously bright or he would not be able to pass any of his other classes. I am afraid I may be in the same boat. I am having no problem passing all my other classes, but Math is just hard for me and I am not sure if I will ever be able to pass it. Even if I do I can honestly tell you that nothing will retain once I no longer need it. I am the kind of person that can will only remember if it interests me. If I do not like something or if it is boring it will not retain very long.

Anyways, Thanks for letting me vent :) I really needed it! And if you can, wish me luck! As this summer I  will be tackling this Algebra class again and like I said before I need all the help I can get.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

School work Sunday

Today was defiantly a busy school day for us. My self and my kids! Still we all managed to get all our work done and had some fun too ;-)

For myself, my spring semester is drawing to an end. This of course means many, many, many finals and last minute projects to do. Whew! so much to do and so little time lol. Math homework is done, some last minute tweaks on my journal for speech class is done, online quizzes for English almost done and one of my last essays for English almost done.


Now for my kiddos, they were pretty busy too! I made some neat alphabet flashcards with my flashcard maker for my lil man and printed out tons of printable games for my mini me :)  Lately, I have also have been having my daughter do some review ( I think it is important to go back and have them redo work that they have already learned, it helps reinforce and give confidence IMO )
So she practiced her addition and subtraction and enjoyed some computer time on Time4Learning as did my son.



Until next time...

Friday, April 6, 2012

Easter Time!

Sorry it has been a bit since I have been able to get on here and share my life with all of y'all. The past few days we have all been ill at our house, at least my son and I have :( For him it was a tummy bug, but for me it was allergies ugh! Spring is here in the South and I am loving the warm breezy weather, but my Allergy's are kicked into over drive. I just hope that I am feeling back to my old self by this Sunday, Easter!
It is so hard to believe that it is already Easter, feels like just yesterday it was Christmas. Time sure is flying by faster and faster the older I get. We are planning to travel to my parents this Sunday for a nice Big dinner and egg hunt for all of the kids. My kids still believe in the Easter Bunny so they are Super excited about it all.

I have been trying to make their school lesson for holiday-ish fun for them today. When there is a holiday it is always more fun for me to do their school stuff, kid in me I guess. I kinda put my own Easter themed unit study together, with Bunny coloring pages, what bunnies eat, how many babies they can have, etc. I also created some fill in the blank work sheet pages "Easter themed" of course and had them do some matching vocabulary online. Even though we are all recovering in our home, since it was more fun then work, my kids didn't mind doing it ;)


Anyways, I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter !