Veronica Boulden

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The big girls eat chilled watermelon on the deck stairs.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The wagon got it's annual wash this week.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Avril sits on her dad's lap at her cousin's high school graduation.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Thu, 31 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Avril brushes Norah's hair in the hotel room where we stayed for our recent trip to see family in New Jersey.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:04:00 +0000

On our way to New Jersey for our nephew's graduation, we took Norah to two more places on her list of 101. See her blog posts about it here.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Mon, 28 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

"Sweet Baby-Del, I love you. Sweet Baby Del..."

We sing this to the tune of "Sweet Baby Boy" on the Slugs and Bugs album Under Where? Every one of our kids has had a song. This one's hers.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:59:00 +0000

The whole family enjoys "Baby-Del's" smiles.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:55:00 +0000

The girls got carried away while playing with their chalkboard.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:29:00 +0000

Counting my blessings: 1, 2, 3.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Tue, 22 May 2012 00:20:00 +0000

Here's a recent photo of what I've been doing with my time, in case some of you are wondering why I'm not blogging everyday.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Mon, 21 May 2012 00:28:00 +0000

She calls it the "El-pad." "El" is probably short for Elmo because she asks to play this app all the time.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:41:00 +0000

"Me ready-go, Mom."

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:50:00 +0000

I added some important words to the end of Norah's daily goals today:

"Take responsibility for your own learning."

Then I took some time to sit with her and explain that from now on, every single day she does her routine (which is almost every day of the week), I want her to come to me once she is done with her list and ask, "What do you want me to do for school today?"

I thought about asking her to do this a while ago, but I wanted to make sure she was in the habit of doing stuff everyday to begin with. I also wanted to make sure she was mature enough understand the subtle nuances of why on one day, I may tell her to do six home school assignments and on the next, I may say, "Not today, baby... nothing today."

Having Norah ask, "What do you want me to do...?" will be a big help to me since my schedule is all out of whack with a tiny baby. But, it should be easy enough to give Norah direction to get her started and guide her through things even if I am nursing the baby or standing at the washing machine or changing table.

When Norah is older, taking responsibility for her own learning will mean actually picking out her own books and deciding how much of them to do so she can do all she wants to do in one semester, of course. But for now, taking responsibility just means asking mom what ought to be done.

I am assuming that after she's gotten into the habit of asking what to do for school every morning, it might be easier for her to just start doing what she knows she's supposed to do.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:16:00 +0000

Dwayne got me an ipad for Mother's Day.

And when I say "me," I mean "we," as usual.

He also got a really good warranty because he knows me.

Yes, in that case, I mean "me."

I'm the one who got the peanut butter on my keyboard and dropped my camera in the snow.

I've been downloading educational/ pseudo-educational apps for the kids.

Here's a list of the ones that I saw recommended by other moms on home school websites I frequent.

Stack the States
Stack the Countries
Geographia
Math Evolve
Math Ninja
EarthAlive
Build a Word
Word Wizard
Analogies 4 Kids
Princess Piano
Sequencing
Books by Auryn
Britannica
Amelia Earhart
Fish Farm
Diner Dash
Butterfly Farm
Magic Towers
Brain Pop
Pop Math Plus
Chirp
3-D Sun
NASA HD
Pocket Universe
Finger Physics
The Oregon Trail
Suduko
Rocket Math
Red Remover
Hudson Alpha icell
Pandora
AppStart
Flipboard
Goby
Pages
iThoughts
SketchBook
Bamboo Paper
PDF Expert
Magnetic ABC
Dodo HD
BrainPOP
Little Things
Rush Hour
Math Games
Rocket Math
Bobo & Light
Fluidity
Contraptions
Pocket Pond
Bloki
Blokus
Set Pro
Scribblenauts
A. Chronicles
ChocFix
Color Uncovered
The Elements
Learn to Count
Montessori Crosswords
ABCs of God
Cargo Bot
Pres vs Aliens

I haven't gotten through this list yet, but I like the ones I have seen.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Mon, 14 May 2012 03:02:00 +0000

Now that I am on my third child, I feel I've learned a thing or two.

First off, too much t.v. really does rot their brains. Just try and get a kid to focus after a few days of vegging out.

Without water, sandboxes are just plain boring. Think about it. Would you want to play in the middle of a desert?

Babies cry for a reason. They're hungry or tired or they have gas or maybe they're just bored, but they don't just cry because they are babies.

"Sleep when the baby sleeps" is advice that only works for a mother of one.

Clean sheets are more important than matching sheets.

But over-used and dirty kitchens are superior to those that are underutilized and crystal clean.

It's a godly thing to give children gifts for no reason.

You don't have to yell to be heard.

Knickknacks are good for one reason and one reason only: providing your children opportunities to learn from breaking them.

The amount a child will enjoy a toy is directly proportional to what you spend (or don't spend) on it. Meaning that if it costs a fortune, they will use it once and then throw it down. If they found it on the ground, they will play with it all day.

Bible verses like "turn the other cheek" weren't just given for dealing with rude strangers and demanding bosses. They apply even more frequently to husbands and wives and parents and children.

And most importantly, cupcakes actually do taste better with sprinkles.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:06:00 +0000

"Me do school, too?"

Avril asked for school so we started doing a few things together.

Let's Cut Paper and My Book of Coloring by Kumon.

They're kind of perfect for her age and ability level right now, if I may say so. I just picked them out with a glance or two while at the bookstore. I guess my experience with my oldest is really paying off. (Picture me filing my fingernails against my chest and then proudly inspecting them here.)

No, we don't do this everyday! I don't even do school with her older sister every day at this point!

But we keep this little pile of books, scissors and crayons in the kitchen and when there's time and opportunity, I call her to the table and we pull them out.

I only takes about five to ten minutes, but Avril really loves it.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:38:00 +0000

We had to go to Toys R Us the other day to buy her friend a birthday gift, so we took some extra time for ourselves to pick out Norah's summer reading rewards. Note: We decided to create our own summer reading program with prizes of our own. Read more about it here. After walking the isles and looking at all the toys, Norah chose a remote controlled HexBug, a package of Bakugons, a DS game and a scooter.

Three of the prizes, the HexBug, the Bakugons and the DS game, are all about the same value, so I am just going to let Norah choose which of those she wants when she reaches 10, 25 and 50 hours. The scooter is much more expensive than the other prizes, so that will be reserved for when she gets to 75 hours. And, of course, the grand prize for 100 hours of reading is to go to Coco Key with me for a day.

I am not sure that letting Norah start the reading program right away was the best idea. After only a few days, she's almost at ten hours. And the fact is, she'd probably have twice that many hours filled if she actually remembered to use the timer every time she picked up a book. But, lucky for me, she doesn't. She only gets credit for the times she does remember to use a timer before she begins. When I started this, I didn't imagine that Norah would go so fast or that she might do enough reading to earn more than one prize in the same month! Because of our budget, I may end up having to make Norah wait to get her prizes.

Note: Norah also saw the Lego Millenium Falcon at Toys R Us and said she wanted that, but I told it was way too expensive and that she could only have that instead of a day at Coco Key. She thought about that for a second and then said, "Well, what if I read for another hundred hours?" I chuckled at her question and told her I'd have to talk to her dad.

You may wonder how Avril's taking all her big sister's prize-earning. Does she feel left out? Well, when Norah and I were talking about prizes this morning, she asked, "Me, too?" When I told her she had to learn to read before she earned prizes for reading, she sighed, shrugged and said, "Okay." Her opportunity will come.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:14:00 +0000

I've done a few hours worth of labor in the vegetable garden over the last few days, running outside as soon as the baby is fed or sleeping to do a little more here and there. I've tilled up the ground, added topsoil and compost, and planted a row of peas under the trellis you see in the photo above. And in that pot you can barely see behind the bag of soil, I mixed up the right proportions of sand and soil and planted carrot seeds.

As I've been working (and spending money on the garden), I've been confronting doubts about my ability to pull it all off. I've entertained fears that I might be doing all this for no reason because something might go wrong and I might not get a harvest after all.

But on my bed last night, as I was drifting in and out of sleep, a verse of Scripture came to my mind, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." -Galatians 6:9 All at once, that Scripture made more sense to me than ever before and I woke up just long enough to realize that it takes something like faith to work and plant and wait in hopes to reap a harvest later on.

And I didn't take the verse as a promise that my peas and carrots will come out fine, but I was encouraged by it. I decided that I'll keep working in hopes of having a harvest later this summer and before I fell back to sleep, I said a silent prayer of thanks to God, acknowledging that even as I lay on my bed at night, He instructs me. -Psalm 16:7

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:14:00 +0000

I've been firming up plans for this summer, marking the calendar with things I'm going to do with the kids. Just like I (sort-of) plan their home school lessons for the year, I find it helpful to (sort-of) plan their vacations, too. I don't want to miss out on anything we could do together, but I also need to be realistic about what's even possible with our time and financial restraints. So I've found that it's best to think way ahead.

If I don't plan way ahead then I end up kicking myself because I forget to do something like plant the sunflower seeds in time to make the sunflower house I have wanted to make for at least two summers now. But, I happen to be on the ball this year and as you can see, the seeds have already been purchased. (I got the tall ones I need and shorter ones for decoration).

Along with plans to make a sunflower house, we'll be maintaining our vegetable garden, making Norah's fort in the backyard, reading for prizes, keeping track of the birds in our yard, going to a few places on Norah's list, playing wall ball (Seriously. I'm thinking about taking Norah to a park with a wall so she can learn this classic childhood game.), eating ice cream cones and taking lots of walks and riding bikes. I know all of that sounds very simple, but if I don't plan it, we'll end up watching PBSkids.org till noon and we'll miss the simple pleasures of the season.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:15:00 +0000

I took all three kids (and both bikes) to the park today. I got some footage of both kids in action. The way I was holding the phone to take the video had me yelling right into the mic, so my voice is loud at times. Sorry. I didn't realize. I'll do better next time.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:56:00 +0000

We found this tricycle at the thrift store for $5 last night! I had been praying about and looking for a used tricycle for the past two weeks, ever since I realized that the new bicycle we purchased for Avril for her birthday was a bit too heavy for her legs to push at her size. At first, I thought that if we practiced with her bike enough, she'd get stronger and be able to handle it, but after a while it became clear that her little legs and body need another winter of growth before they could handle a bike that size. I realized I had spent as much money as we had to spend on a bike.. on a bike that was too big and so I was stuck. What could I do?

I was afraid Avril wouldn't have anything to ride on or even have a stroller to ride in (now that her baby sister is here) till she was big enough to handle that bike the next summer. Would she just have to toddle behind us all summer long while I pushed the baby in the stroller and her big sister Norah rode her bike way ahead?

I had been looking on Craigslist and I saw these Kettler tricycles. I knew that they were going for over $100 used (way too much for us to spend). So when I walked into the thrift store and saw one of them by the entrance last night, I went over to it directly. I checked the tag and I could hardly believe the price. It was so affordable, it would have been wrong not to buy it! We put Avril on it to see how well she would do pushing it and she rode forward with real ease. At that, our whole family broke into cheers right in the store. We had all seen just how hard it had been for her to get any forward motion on her bike and we were all sad over her bike-predicament.

I give God the glory for these kinds of coincidences in my life. He's a good father to me and to my children. In perfect time, Avril has a bike just her size and she's ridden it all around our streets with ease twice today already.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Thu, 03 May 2012 11:32:00 +0000

We always participate in our library's summer reading program, but we never win any of the awesome prizes. Apart from the bag of free goodies we get for signing up for the program in the first place, we have never seen any reward for so many hours and hours of reading and diligently keeping track of it all. So we've decided to create our own summer reading program this year with rewards we agree upon ahead of time. The grand prize for 100 hours of reading will be a trip to Coco Key. And I'm taking Norah to Toys R' Us to pick out and take photos of the smaller prizes that she'll get along the way for 10, 25, 50 and 75 hours of reading. I think I will print the pictures of the prizes and keep them somewhere that Norah can see them often. Maybe I will attach it with a stapler to the sheet of clocks we're using to keep track of Norah's hours. I used clip art to make the sheet of clocks you can see in the photo above. I can print it over and over again to keep up with Norah's hours. Under my close supervision, I will let Norah color in the amount of minutes she reads till she fills up one hour on a clock and then goes on to the next. We think this custom reading program of ours will be lots of fun. Norah wants to start counting her minutes and getting credit for her reading right away and I think I'll let her.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Thu, 03 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Chilled watermelon on the deck stairs.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:02:00 +0000

We're trying to get back into the swing of things with home school, so Norah has been doing just the basics everyday: Reading (Sonlight's Readers 4-5), Writing (Zaner-Bloser 2C) and Arithmetic (Math-U-See's Beta). But we are getting so far ahead in those three subjects at this point, I think we'll take another three subjects like Spelling, Science and History and do those for a week or two, till we can get back to the point where we can do every subject in one day again.

Norah always begs to do reading first, but we save it till the end because Norah will often get so into a book she won't want to stop after just one chapter. Like yesterday with Henry and Ribsy, she read the entire book in only a few hours. So she started the new book (and may well finish), Encyclopedia Brown, today.

noreply@blogger.com (Veronica Boulden) — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:47:00 +0000

Big smile!