ummm.... I may have created a monster

My kiddos have really taken off with this whole STRATEGIZING bit.

Remember the planning we've done here and here. (Not to mention all the other times we've spent time planning but not blogged about it.)

Well it's come back to bite me.

Sorta.

Lemme explain.

We are going out of town until Sunday morning and have needed to get our costumes ready for the fall festival happening at our church later in the afternoon.(I don't believe in running around last minute screaming, "I can't find my eye patch! I can't find my pirate eye patch!!!)

So I casually mentioned the need to prepare our costumes ahead of time.

WHILE. I. WAS. AWAY....

Insert every mother saying: while the cat's away the mice will play.

Except instead of the word play, use the word plan.

Which then turns into a weird adage that has me being referred to as a can.

Get it?

While the cat's a can, the mice will plan.

Blogger, aside to herself: Nobody gets my sense of humour. Nobody. Sigh. Dramatic hand to the forehead.

While I was away, my kids came up with a plan.

In fact, they executed the whole costume scheme on their own.

"See? Look Mom. We found all the parts that we need for our costumes. Then we collected them and gathered them into this box. We'll keep the box here in our room, so when we get back home the costumes are in one spot and we can just grab them and go."

I think my jaw hit the ground with an audible sound.

"Really?" I asked. "Lemme see."

They showed me all parts of the outfits, the accessories and the shoes to go with it. Everything they needed was there.

They did it all by themselves.

Planned, strategized and then executed the whole plan.

I was so proud of them.

This made something else become very apparent....

I need to go away more often! :P

Criteria focus: Goal Planning

ML Workshop Weekend

My brain is done hurting.

Oh, I jest!

Or do I?????

I attended (and presented) Friday's workshop #1 with the magnificent Therese and the effervescent Jocelyn. We had so much fun connecting with the moms.

Shout out to Coreen, Corie!, Nancy, Suzanne, Veronica, Jorien and Corrina!!! We had a lot of laughs, great discussion and tons of enthusiasm as everyone caught onto the foundations of Mediated Learning.

I would insert the pictures I took, but my camera is still acting up.

Boo, camera, Boo!!!!!! :(

I will say, however, that I scored a seat next to the food and the bowl of chocolate mints that Jocelyn brought. The bowl was empty at the end of the day and I may have contributed to that.

Hard to tell.

This was a great group to hang out with and they were very forgiving when I introduced myself with, "...most of you have had the pleasure of speaking with me on the phone."

What I meant to say was, "I have had the pleasure of speaking with you on the phone."

This was how the morning began...raucous laughter from start to end--and not all of it was caused by my innate ability to collect embarrassing moments like a bad hobby ;)

THEN...

Saturday I attended Workshop #4 Learning Challenges. Have you attended that one yet?

You need to.

But be forewarned: it.is. INTENSE.

I came home after the workshop and went to sleep for 10 hours after the workshop. It was that intense.*** My brain was saying, "Thanks for all the info. Now go to sleep so I can store it in its proper places."

I was all too happy to oblige.

Shout out to great hubby who put the kids to bed for his wife who was sawing logs!

I LOVED this workshop. I was a bit hesitant to attend because I don't have any (that I know of) learning challenges in my home that fall under the typical labels of ADD, Autism spectrum, and the like.

But the information I learned about strengthening the cognitive functions and the stories that other mothers shared about where their kids struggle was a treasure all its own.

Shout out to Veronica, Jorien, Lynn, Yvonne and Ann--all incredible ladies who I love to spend time with and were most gracious with me as we neared the end of the workshop and I became convinced that I had all the cognitive function weaknesses that were being pointed out.

I claim being on overload as my defense!

Anyhow, if you can get to one of these workshops, do it!

The time invested will pay off tremendously.

***it must be mentioned that I did too workshops back to back. So, "intense" is a relative description here :)

TED TALKS: Do Schools Kill Creativity?

This never gets old for me....

Beauty is Skin Deep and Deep Skin is Not Beauty

Today this thought ran through my head as I looked in the mirror:

Perhaps today is the day that starts to show my neglect of moisturizer from the first few years of my twenties.

I know, I know.

Moisturizer is the key to great skin.

And yet, I have pores the size of craters on the moon.

I do not have porcelain smooth skin or an alabaster brow.

This immediately rules me out as being a heroine in a western romance novel or the nemesis in a dime store fashionista book.

I'm ok with that.

**********

With little warning my hubby mentioned that we needed to leave for his appointment in 15 minutes today.

And then this thought ran through my head:

Why, oh why, did I have a luxurious bath last night instead of the practical one where I wash my hair?

No matter. Oily hair can be semi-disguised by a quick ponytail.

I know, I know.

Lather, rinse, REPEAT is what makes shiny hair.

And yet, I do not have silken hair that the sun shines off.

This rules me out of participating in Pantene Pro-V commercials and pointless hair dye magazine ads.

I'm ok with that.

**********

And when my kids were yelling in the back of the car planning the start of WW3, this thought ran through my head:

Lord, give me strength.

Instead of yelling at my kiddos, I gently told them to be quiet and asked questions to seek solution, rather than just arrive at silence 'because I said so!!!'

This may have qualified me for actually living out 1 Peter 3:4: Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.

And I'm ok with that.

October 13-15 2010

Working on words with Daddy resting in bed

Reading

Estimating

Time for a tea party break!

Sorting and organizing

Washing, drying and folding

Found an old math sticker book--learned about US currency

Several chapters out of this book and much discussion

Museum visit

walks outside

discussion on Caledonia

poems and Robert Burns

books

new words

The human body and all it's insides!

Frog games

Pie with Grandma Jill

Forts with ferns and fuzzy moss

Magical movies

camera batteries die....RIP

WHERE TO START--WORKSHOP #1

Did you just finish Workshop #1?

Here's a quick guide to my blog that coincides with the workshop sheet suggestions for getting started and implementing Workshop #1 principles into your home.

I've included posts of how it's looked in my own--both the flops and the successes

Remember the 3 Core Elements

(click here to be reminded)

Chose 1 basic issue per child (academic or behaviour) and simply start mediating there.

Click here to read a post on character

Click here to read a post on academic

Read Your handouts and learn more about how the brain learns

ASK,ASK,ASK. Ask process questions--find out what they are thinking?

Click here to read a post on process questions

Wait a l-o-o-o-n-g time for your child to answer(5 seconds or more) patiently and pleasantly

Click here to read a post on waiting for an answer

Do the Human Figure drawing regularly, weekly or bi-weekly--discuss it with your child

Click here to read a post on Human Figure Drawing

Play logic/strategy games, do puzzles, brain benders with your children often

Click here to read a post on a strategy game

Talk about your history/ethnic background and include family traditions. This helps your child know who they are and whose they are and facilitates a sense of belonging.

Click here to read a post on having a sense of belonging

Appreciate your children's differences. Include different activities.

Click here to see how I vary activities for my family

Discuss the reasons behind activity/behaviours--the underlying theme, pattern, principles

Focus on steps forward NOT failures-no sarcasm or anger

Click here to read a post about leaving your children in a place of success

Click here to read about leaving yourself in a place of success

Visit www.5minutemom.blogspot.com

Well, you are here, thanks for stopping in. Please leave me a comment and let me know if I'm helpful!

Friday

My camera batteries have died.

It is snowing out.

It is only noon.

Dunh-dunh-dunh

Tuesday October 12 '10

All the turkey has been eaten and it's back to learning about life

Many books read, followed by a story inspired discussion on time, clocks and timers

many more story books--final call for all the books going back to the library today

Then we read this book....which inspired us to make this:

It looks like just a beach right now....but wait...

It soon becomes a channel that carries fish to the sea...like the book we read.

And then we made the great lakes, islands and all sorts of water and sand things

Lacing pictures and hanging them on the wall

Studying art

Estimation will meet it's decimation in the hands of my eight year old!

Velcro calendar play

Trip to the library where we only took out 60 books this time (compared to 80 last time)

off to the park to play with friends for...

twisting fun

and spinning play

Happy Thanksgiving...

From all the characters at my house!!!

Friday October 8 2010

I should have known that this day would be crazy when the kids asked for Kraft Dinner for breakfast and I shrugged and said, "Why not? It's Friday!"

That led to all sorts of silliness.

We played hullabaloo, and then a new game.

We picked up all the pieces of hullabaloo and threw them at mom.

A "snowball-style fight" ensued with the pieces of hullabaloo

Eldest found the shaving cream bottle and wanted to sculpt

Many towers were built

Books read

Kitchen play

Eldest found her math book after a 2 week hiatus and said,"Ok, mom, gonna master this whole estimation math today."

And she did.

Listened to the novel Hiedi

Caught telling stories in the hallway!!

Making name cards for the Thanksgiving table

And a bit of mischief thrown in...because it's Friday!

Then we cut out some leaves for our Thankful Tree.

We each write several things we are thankful for onto the leaves and hang them up on a tree. We have leaves left over and we write gratitude thoughts throughout the week

Then my handsome man found some googly eyes and things got silly

See complete craziness at my house!

I guess I can add that to our Thankful tree!

Thursday October 7

Start the morning with a walk at the park

And some running around

Climbing the rocks

Swinging on the swings

Climbing up to the slide

Over to a friends house for a fun homeschool day. Some people study turkeys the week before Thanksgiving, but we chose the peacock! We did our best to make all our food look like peacocks (well, except for the grapes and date logs)

Reading about Peacocks

And playing with our friends toys

Time to make peacock masks

Volcano drawings

Love getting together with other homeschool families and hang out, read books and learn about something new

Wednesday October 6

On such a beautiful day full of potential, it only made sense....

to tackle this. (This is my reality, friends. Crazy bedrooms loaded with too much stuff! Time for an overhaul)

And I'm sure at one point we did other things during the day...but we definitely did some fall art in prep for the upcoming Thanksgiving celebrations

We went leaf picking

And did some leaf rubbings

Pretty colours

Then brought our favourite leaves inside. Placed them on wax paper, and grated crayon colours all over. Then we covered it with another piece of wax paper and using a cloth on top, we ironed the cloth and melted the wax onto the leaves.

Ta-da. A full day of wonder.

Followed by another reality check: laundry that needs folding