Top Ten Countries

I love the Stats feature on Blogger! My  blog has been viewed 1400+ times, so I would like to assume I would have more followers. LOL The numbers of followers I have isn't important--it's just flattering that people from all walks of life are clicking on the blog. These are the top ten countries from which the blog was viewed plus the number of views over the past year.

1. United States 1,105

2. United Kingdom 52
3. Iraq 33
4. Brazil 32
5. Germany 28
6. Russia 22
7. Denmark 19
8. United Arab Emirates 18
9. Canada 18
10. Colombia 18

Bringing Up Girls

Over the past year I've become quite interested in various parenting books, preferably from a Christian standpoint.  I asked Ryan for Bringing Up Girls by James Dobson for Christmas and it is so phenomenal. I am not at all a science person, but I really enjoyed reading the chapters talking about what happens in the female brain that makes us the way we are. I about laughed out loud when Dr. Dobson said that when the male brain is "bathed" in testosterone in the womb that the part of the brain dedicated to communication is disconnected. That's why so many wives complain  that their husbands don't talk to them! Ha! I think in Ryan's case they might  stayed connected and added a chatterbox mechanism, but I digress...

Anyone who has a daughter or is pregnant with a daughter needs to read this book!!! I felt so encouraged that just because the rest of the world is going you know where in a handbasket doesn't mean your family has to! I am also kind of intrigued to read Bringing Up Boys...just in case. ;) I will at least be picking up Dr. Dobson's other books.

Memphis Zoo

 When we moved to Millington one thing we knew we wanted to eventually do was go to the Memphis Zoo because they have PANDAS! lol If you've been reading this blog for more than a minute you know that the panda is Hannah's absolute favorite animal.  We spontaneously decided to go today, and it was just so fun.  We hadn't had a nice outing like this in a long time. We learned about polar bears this week as a part of Hannah's bear unit, so it couldn't have been more perfect.  Of course a lot of exhibits were closed for the season but admission is half off for the month of January! :-D We didn't know that until we went to the ticket counter.

After a few hours at the zoo, we enjoyed an early at Los Margaritas, a Mexican restaurant that we've really come to like in Millington.



I got this at the gift shop! Love it!



Autumn is intrigued at the aquarium

Talking snakes and reptiles...notice how
I'm holding back :-p



Getting a lift up to see the grizzlies




Penguins...they were swimming fools!



Just keep swimming...just keep swimming...

The grizzlies were very mellow...I bet they
preferred to be hibernating. :-/

Both pandas were asleep in their day room.
Only the best accomodations! :)

He just kept pacing back and forth...it was
so cool how close up we got to see him!

Autumn's cousin LOL I say that in total
jest since my mom called Autumn her little
orangutan when she was born because of
her fuzzy red hair.

Bengal tiger

Week in Review #15



The girls watching polar bear videos

 Our first week in the "new" school room! Very exciting!


 Monday - Hannah learned how to read a calender and caught on very quickly! I had a big blank calender from the Dollar Tree and "laminated" it using packaging tape so we could easily use dry erase markers on it.  Hannah filled in the numbers for January, and now every day we can go over what the date is.



Going over a geography
worksheet about the
different parts of a river



Tuesday - While I was at the gym, Ryan took the girls on a nature adventure around the pond in the backyard.  He said they looked at deer tracks, empty birds' nests, and a couple of turtles wandering around. Ah, the glorious things a homeschooled life is made of! We also finished the third Early Learner book which Hannah scored a 93% on, her best yet!



Deep concentration

 Wednesday - I intended today to be very busy and full of activity but I took a "bad mom" day and let the kids watch a bit too much Nick Jr. :-/ I had taken some Theraflu for my scratchy throat.  It made me sleepy so I opted for a nap instead of the library.  Lucky for me, the kids napped as well!  We did make it to church tonight, which I am pleased to say. Autumn was losing her mind being so cranky, but Ryan was able to get away from work and stay with her for a couple hours. I'm participating in a Bringing Up Girls bible study. I just read the book so I am most excited about this!



Lovin' some school in pjs!

 Thursday - Hannah had the sniffles for the past couple days and now she is starting to get a little feverish. I went grocery shopping so Ryan took over with a bit of school by watching more bear videos on YouTube and building with the megablocks (fattie Legos, I like to call them). I was surprised later when we actually accomplished handwriting, reading, and geography! We also got a good couple inches of snow this evening.  Not too much you're trapped inside, but enough that makes you not want to go anywhere. :)

Friday- A snow day indoors, but Caulfield Academy is still open despite the inclement weather. ;) The snow is quickly melting away, but both girls are still a little sniffly.  In honor of the snowy weather we learned about polar bears.  We even found a  video on YouTube that showed a baby polar bear being born in a snow den! Too sweet!

Yesterday we finally got outside to run around in the snow and to breath fresh air for the first time in a few days. Major cabin fever!

Our New School Room!



View from the couch

 Ryan and I talked about giving it another try having the girls share a room by getting bunk beds in a couple months.  We would then turn the other bedroom into a school room/office.  Ryan got a bit too excited while I was at the gym on Sunday. :-p I am pleased to say that the first and second night with the girls sharing the room was a great success! Of course Autumn going to bed before Hannah obviously helps.  It's only been two days since having an actual room for school, but it is so wonderful! Hannah sits at the desk doing her thing and I sit on the couch in the corner working on the next day's lesson or what ever else. Autumn also has the little table to sit at to play with stickers or color, so it's easier for her to be involved in all the excitement now.

The nerd in me is just imploding! :-D

On another note, I downloaded the coolest (free!) app on my iphone.  It turns pictures to black and white and then you color different parts of your choosing. It's called Color Blast.  So here are some examples of what I did.

Ryan loves me for this :p

Weekend Visit



Air mattress bouncing first thing
in the morning

 This past weeked my mom, grandma, sister, and niece came to visit us for the weekend. They all stayed at our house...going from 4 to 8 people made things very busy and had to make sleeping arrangements just so to make sure we all got a few hours sleep. :-p We intended to go out and about shopping or what have you, but we all felt pretty lazy and mostly stayed at the house.  It was perfectly fine with me! :) Everything seemed so quiet after they left on Sunday. Hopefully within a month or so we ourselves will venture out to visit in Clarksville again.

Saturday was also my mom's birthday, and Hannah decided she needed a bear cake. I was glad to make use of the bear pan I had from Hannah's last birthday. :) We spent the rest of the weekend grazing on pizza and birthday cake. Yum!


A few more pics from the weekend:



Autumn pulling Emma in the wagon





Getting a story from Grendy





Meagan and Mom getting in their pics



All jammied up after their splash party in the tub



Grammie and Autumn bonding over
"Llama Llama Red Pajama"

Enjoying a late breakfast at
McDonald's before everyone left




Week in Review #14



A drawing from this week-
our family watching the
sunset :)

Monday - We started our bear unit which was fun! She wanted to start with the brown bear so we went over some basic facts and she glue together the first page of her bear book.  We also watched some videos on YouTube of brown bears catching salmon. That afternoon we played in the snow, mostly throwing snow at each other.  Ryan tried to rig a sled using cardboard and lids to plastic totes, but to no avail.

Tuesday - Autumn started unofficially homeschooling, I guess you could say.  I printed out some alphabet coloring pages and she scribbles on them and I go over the letters.  Hannah started on her second level of readers! One was about a seal who speeds in a green jeep--obvious the 'ee' and 'ea' sounds.

"holding the book like a teacher"

Wednesday - This became "pandie" day! :) Hannah put together the panda page for her book and we watched some panda videos online. So many people love posting their home movies of pandas at the zoo, but I preferred a more documentary type. I need to figure out some bear crafts to help flesh out this unit, but otherwise it's really fun!

Watching brown bears
fish for salmon

Thursday - Today we are officially halfway done with math!! Very exciting.  Hannah was quite proud of herself. Her math has two workbooks, 80 lessons each and we finished book 1 today!

Off on an adventure!

Friday - Today was quite mellow.  Hannah did handwriting, math, and readiing while Ryan and I straightened up the house to prepare for a visit from my mom, my grandma, sister, and our nice, Emma. (I will be posting about that later! ;D)

Just another reminder also to click the button at the top to help with my ranking! Hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend!

Week in Review #13

Feeding John, our beta fish
(not sure what they're looking
at)

This was our first week back after Christmas and the new year. I am quite pleased at all we accomplished, although I am a bit ashamed we did not get to our bear unit that I was looking forward to (we did start on it today and it's so great!).  I think I was a bit focused on making sure we got all the basics covered and that we wouldn't have to do any massive review.  Fortunately, we were able to pick right up where we left off with no problem.
Instead of the kitchen, we have the desk in the living room which makes it a little  harder because that's where everyone congregates most of the time.  Ryan and I are talking about trying again with the girls sharing a room and even getting bunk beds.  We would use the other room as an office/hobby and school room.  Stay tuned...we'll see what pans out. :)

Math - A new thing Hannah learned this week was what a perimeter was and how to figure it out.  Anyone else learn that in Kindergarten? I didn't think so. Public school or homeschool, I think we can all agree Kindergarten has changed a lot! Hannah also used a math game on my iphone to practice addition, but she would much rather play Angry Birds on my iphone than do anything educational. :-p

Reading - We finished lesson #8 this week. Only 12 more to go! I have a feeling we might go into the summer with this, but that is fine. She is doing very well.  The letter sounds in the next lesson will be 'k' and 'ar'. 

Handwriting/Spelling - Almost every day this week we have a short spelling quiz as review and of course writing practice.  I saw her trying to write out all the names of her family like Grendy (gnrdy), Unkie (uggey), Bobbo (baubo), Papaw (papo)etc. I was very impressed, since I've never seen her try to spell something out on her own like that.


Geography - We reviewed the difference between deserts and prairies, and then we moved on to canyons and valleys.  She colored pictures of the Grand Canyon and Yosemite Valley.  Next week we will talk about the different bodies of water.


Hannah loooooooooooves to draw! This hobby seems to have only grown bigger since starting school.  We go through printer paper like nobody's business.  I looked into getting her a sketch pad but those are too expensive considering how much she draws. :) She also loves to paint and is still into painting Christmas-themed items such as reindeer and snowmen.  She can be found a lot in her room, sitting on a stool drawing at her easel. 

The girls and I checked out the Millington Public Library on Wednesday and stayed for story time.  The library is smaller than the one in Clarksville, but I know we will spend plenty of time there. It's free so you can't knock it! :)

My brothers were visiting a friend in Memphis so they stopped by for a couple hours to say hi.  Hannah showed off her bike riding skills, all before her Bobbo hit her in the face with a ball! Was it an accident? Guess we'll never know. ;-p

This picture on the right is one Hannah drew of Unkie and Bobbo giving each other high fives.  I don't think they actually did this but I thought it was pretty cute.

On a side note, be sure to click on the Top Mommy Blogs badge at the top left! Just clicking on it gives my blog a vote and helps with my ranking! I don't know if you can continuous click it, but clicking once or twice a day should help! :-D

Excited!

I am very much excited about starting school again tomorrow! Hannah was practically bouncing all over her bedroom when I reminded her. I know it's only Kindergarten, but I'm so glad she is enjoying school!

I mentioned this on Facebook already, but I have decided to do a bear unit.  Hannah loves bears so it was a bit of a no brainer.  We are going to learn about the different species of bears (there are eight) and just fun facts and no doubt watch videos online. I'm sure we can also find some educational DVDs.  I've already typed up from different facts about each species and I'm going to have Hannah create her own "bear book."  This will be very casual.  I just want to do how it goes along with the more "mandatory" subjects. 

In other news, we visited First Baptist of Millington this morning.  All went well.  I really like it and they said there's a lot for kids here which is what we are looking for. :) I'm looking forward to getting involved with Wednesday night activities!

2011 is off to a great start!