Almost Done....And NOW I Blog About It! ;)

We are almost done with our school year. What I mean by "almost" is that tomorrow is the last day of school! It will have been 182 days of learning, adventures, memories, and family-oriented fun. I truly love teaching my children; about life, the Lord, and 'book' learning, too. Now that we are "almost" done, I will have time to blog about all that we did...well, okay, not ALL. A few glimpses, more like it. I mean, I want to enjoy the summer sun as much as they do- and get my revamped schoolroom into tip-tip shape for the upcoming 2013-14 school year this fall.....when I will be teaching a 2nd grader and a (gulp!) Kindergartener! I cannot believe my babies are this old, already... Pink Elephant is about to be 5 in July. How? When? WHAT? :(  Bittersweet....yet, I am so excited to walk through Kindergarten with her. Can't wait to be there for her lightbulb moments, discoveries of new things, new ideas, new truths. I've been blessed to see her learn to read, already. (Totally unexpected and self-directed, I just followed her lead!) BUT I'm getting away from my original thought. (Not hard to do, if you know me! LOL).

OKAY! Now, what you've all gathered here for..... pictures of my beautiful little elephants. I mean, that IS why you're reading, right?!? Yep, I thought so! Here are a few things we did this year....

Part of our reading curriculum this year was an Eric Carle Unit...and I just can't resist the opportunity to turn something into a craft! 

 

My budding reader...SO proud of my Pink Elephant!

 

 

 

The Very Lonely Firefly required a puppet show, of course!

 

Of course, we had to love on Stripes in the middle of things....

 

 

During our USA Exploration, I wanted to study the Iditarod in Alaska. We couldn't find a copy of "Balto" ANYWHERE....to rent, to buy, Netflix, nothing..so, we made our sled-dog snack and settled on "Eight Below"(set in Antarctica) which the kids loved!!

 

Blue Elephant went up to his room to play after the movie, and then came back downstairs with this....his own sled dog team, made of legos! I love the little lego man riding on it. Also, I happen to adore the little Elephant who built this.....

 

More Eric Carle, this time with a snack for The Grouchy Ladybug. I used this book as a spring board to discuss "politeness vs. rudeness" with both the kids. This is a hard to grasp concept for BE; with his ASD, he has to learn how to be mindful his tone and choice of words. I think the book helped him understand a lot!

 

 

Our USA Exploration brought us to Idaho the week before Easter, so I thought some springtime potato stamping might be fun.... (we also made mashed potatoes together, but that was a different activity, and hey...you'd rather see a cool potato stamp than a pile of mashed potatoes, am I right?!)

 

 

My favorite painting buddies....

 

Yes, I had to do one, too... what is parenthood but re-living your childhood through fresh eyes?

 

 

Another Eric Carle activity... I'm telling you, we did about 10 EC books this year, and I loved every single one! The kids looked forward to craft/snack day each week, almost as much as I did! For The Foolish Tortoise, we decorated (gluten free) pizza crusts to look like Tortoise Shells! :)

 

 

No, there isn't cheese, either. We've all learned to adapt to the GFCFSF diet...pizza is just a fun privilege, no matter the lack of dairy! :) 

 

Pink Elephant enjoying her tortoise shell pizza.....

 

 I leave you with a shot of my sweet Blue Elephant. This has been a 'slice' of our school year as a whole. Thanks for stopping by....be looking for our "last day" celebration pictures, soon!





 

I love my elephants!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cute As a Button

Blue Elephant recently underwent surgery for an umbilical hernia he's had since birth. It's never bothered him much, but it's never grown closed on its own. So when we went to his 6 year check up, the doctor told me it had to be surgically repaired. A routine surgery, easy fix, out-patient procedure, all of that stuff. I heard him, but what I was thinking was: ANESTHESIA. I have an issue with anesthesia and my little elephants. Mainly, that it scares me to think of them with it in their body. I don't know, I cannot explain it. Pink Elephant had corrective eye surgery two years ago, and the anesthesia part scared me then. You'd think that, having gone through it with one kid, I'd be a little bit less of a nervous wreck this time around.....that was not the case.

 

It was still a major source of worry and fear for me, and I spent most of my prayers about the surgery focused on safety. Theres just something about a mother's concern spurred from love for her child that makes the whole "trusting the Lord" part of life difficult. BUT I knew I needed to, because, as a friend of mine pointed out today regarding children: "If He chooses to take them, is there anything we could do about it??" I DID find peace before the day of surgery; it was the result of much, much prayer on the part of many awesome friends and family.

 

All of my worry did not transfer to B.E., thankfully. On the morning of surgery, he came to me bright and early and said "Can we leave for my surgery now? It's going to be FANTASTIC!" Now, not every kid in the world would be so excited to be cut open, but then again, my Blue Elephant is an original! ;)

 

Since he is just so curious about EVERYTHING, when I told him that he'd be needing surgery, he had to know 'why' and 'how' and 'with what'....all the details. And I am a believer in giving kids as much information as they ask for, so I told him (in 6 year old terms) the details of how they'd cut, how he'd be asleep, etc etc. He asked the doctor at the consult appointment if he could SEE the instruments they'd be using. Thankfully for my stomach and B.E.'s little active brain, the doctor did NOT comply with that request!  I think he actually may have been disappointed that he had to sleep through it and miss the fascinating process! (Only my elephant, I'm telling you...)

 

We are blessed to live close to one of the finest children's hospitals in the country, Vanderbuilt's Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital. We were also blessed that out pediatrician readily agreed to refer us there for the surgery. So, on surgery day, my excited (but a bit unsure, I could tell underneath it) elephant headed to Vandy, with Teddy in tow. (Teddy needed his ear fixed, by the way. He had an ear infection.) I could see B.E. transferring some of his nerves onto his concern for Teddy's condition. I assured him that both he and Teddy would wake up feeling just fine, and "all fixed up". :) The beautiful nurse @ Vandy even gave Teddy a gauze strip tied around his furry ear. B.E. was delighted!

 

I brought the camera, of course, so here is our trip through surgery in pictures!

What we are fixing!

Teddy is coming to get fixed, too!

 

 

Drawing what he thinks his new button will look like....

Getting prepped in those cute hospital jammies.

 

Enjoying the stars and moon on the ceiling.

Coloring with his cool new markers given by friends from our church.

 

Even Daddy thought this marker set was cool!

Future doctor?! The staff was quite taken with our Blue Elephant.
 One of them kindly gave him his own stethoscope to take home!

 

Doctor Elephant listens to Daddy Elephant's heart...
(Note the pink elephant balloon in the background.....B.E. LOVES this balloon!! )

 

Much, much, much later, B.E. is resting on the couch at home, post-op.

What we GOT fixed!! (The big bandage came off just today...
but the belly button reveal won't happen till his steri-strips wear off.

Get well cards from sweet friends at church. (Look, elephants!!)
I love love LOVE our church family!

B.E. eating his breakfast the day after surgery.
  He was still wearing his hospital bracelet and band-aid from the I.V.




I was so proud of the great job Blue Elephant did with the whole ordeal.... I was also so thankful that God provided our sweet friend Barbara who arrived at the hospital just a little while before they took B.E. back into surgery. Having her there in the waiting room with us kept my mind from going to places it shouldn't have.....she was such a blessing to us that day!! 

I am thankful that the surgery went so well, and that so far B.E. is healing perfectly....he required barely any pain meds and is almost back to full steam ahead already. ( I had to bar him from climbing trees this afternoon at our homeschool boys' club meeting!! lol).

Thank you, Lord, for once again bringing our herd through another testing time.

 

 

A Wintertime Storybook Series

For the new semester, our reading activities are coming from a fun resource I bought at a yardsale. "Story Stretchers" is designed for the preschool group, but I'm adapting it to suit both my K4 and my 1st grade elephants. Right now, we are using the unit on "wintertime" books. And having a blast......

 

We began with the book "Chicken Soup With Rice"

 

So naturally, we made soup!

 

First we gathered ingrediants.

 

Then we chopped (safely!)

 

 

added spices

 

 

got annoyed with our brother

 

 

stirred.....and stirred...

 

 

turned on the crockpot....and waited....

 

 

At last, lunch time!

 

It was a hit! :)

 

 

This week's book was "Something Is Going to Happen".... all about the first snowfall of the winter.

 

 

In the book, the mother wakes early and decides to make muffins for breakfast.

 

So we made GFCF "berry-corn muffins"....

 

 

 

I did not get any "creation process" pictures this time, as we were very involved in what we were doing..... but the end result sure tasted good on the way into the oven!

 

 

 

 

While we waited on the muffins to bake, we re-read the book (and licked the bowl some MORE!)

 

 

 

Finished product!

 

 

We had breakfast for dinner, including our homemade muffins....

They were yummy!

 

 



 

 

We have been able to study fractions and measurements, as well as home-ec, cooperation, fine-motor skills, and reading practice....all from some soup and muffins!

 

I am looking forward to more fun as our "wintertime" reading unit continues!

 

I sure do love homeschool!!!