Starting Back to School

We started back to school on the 15th. August and Kiley started 8th grade, Haley 6th grade and my little babies are big Kindergartner's now. Oh where has the time gone? I was nervous about our homeschool days and how it would go helping Kiley and August and also doing Kindergarten with the little ones, but it has worked out fine.

Julia and Emily in their new 1st day of school clothes, with their new binders.
Big sisters drew Mario Brothers characters for them. 

Kiley and August, 1st day of 8th grade, Pre Algebra

All set to work. They are learning to their whole names.

 They are using flour in a cookie sheet to help them learn to write the letters.

see

August and Kiley are working on their Advanced Physical Science forces lesson.
They are building motorized electric racers.

Our first week back in school mode was tiring but exciting too. The girls were all ready to start learning again. I had an 8th grade reading list all ready to go; it included 20 different novels. Considering the public schools only read 4 a year, I figured 20 would be good. They have already read close to 5 of the books. I guess we will be expanding our list some. I have abandoned the text book thing this year, except for math. The books last year were so boring. We are doing a lot more reading with non fiction documentary books we find at the library. This provides a lot more detail into the things we are studying. 

Right now Kiley and August are learning about the Declaration of Independence. They have each chosen one of the signers and are researching and writing a report on that man. August chose John Adams and Kiley Chose John Hancock. Did you know that both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on July 4th? Neato huh? 

Our little kitty Nora is doing well, she is growing so quickly. We are trying to get her litter box trained, which she does fairly well. I am using a small aluminum cake pan because she is much too small to get into a full size one. She is still drinking formula from a bottle but I'm hoping to get her eating real food by next week. She is having fun being a kitten and is very playful now. She's such a cutie. The other day her brother came over for a play date. They were playing together liked they missed one another. 

Nora and Chino

This is Garf our big boy checking out little Nora

It's late. I'll write more soon. Good night and God bless.

Comment Questions

I have received a lot of comments containing questions lately. Thank you so much for all of your interest. I will go through and answer your questions in the comments sections. I have been terribly busy with getting back into school mode.

Teeny tiny kitten

Last Saturday we were given a tiny baby kitten. We estimated her age at about 2-3 weeks. Her little eyes were open but she couldn't walk very well or eat on her own. There were 3 kittens found and the people who found them couldn't keep them. After the girls, who's dad is wrapped around their fingers, were able to convince him we needed a 3rd cat, we went and picked her up.

Here is our little Nora with August. This was in the car after we picked her up on our way to Wal-Mart to get her some kitten formula.

 We made her a little shoe box bed to sleep in. Emily and Julia gave her their Beanie Baby Lamb which she loves to snuggle with. She has to be bottle fed with special kitten formula for the next couple of weeks. Feedings happen around the clock.

Trying to show hot teeny she is, here she is curled up in Adam's hand.   

She spent her first few days sleeping in this little box, except for when she was being held, which is about 80% of the time. We were worried about her getting too cold without her mommy and we wanted to keep her next to our warm bodies. I made her a sock filled with uncooked rice (not pictured) to warm in the microwave, she loves it and cuddles right up next to it for her naps. 

Here is little Julia holding the kitten on her first day with us.

Yesterday she really started wanting to explore more. She has outgrown her little shoe box already. She learned how to climb out of it and I decided it was no longer safe. She now is sleeping in a clothes basket with some warm blankets. She is teething and likes to gnaw on our fingers, a habit we will have to break before she bites hard enough to hurt. Her wobbly legs are getting stronger and we have let her explore a little more. Already, she is sleeping less and starting to act like a bigger kitten. Next week we are going to have to litter box train her and start to wean her from the bottle. 

Isn't she darling? I was laughing with my husband the other day. I mentioned to him that when I was asking God to bless us with a new baby, this isn't exactly what I had in mind. Perhaps I should have prayed for a human baby? 

Bucket List

I was thinking the other day about certain things I really want to do in my life before die. Some are silly and some very important. Here are a few of those.

1. Solve the Rubik's Cube
2. Sew a Quilt
3. Learn a different language
4. Memorize the book of Ruth
5. Bowl a perfect game
6. See Ireland and Germany (where my ancestors come from)
7. Volunteer in a Nursing Home
8. See my family saved
9. Write a "don't open until I'm dead" letter to each of my children
10. Have a son
11. Live in a different state
12. Drive across the country with my husband, after our children are gone