The Tale of Three Sioux Indians

This is the story of Brother Black Bear, Little Blue Flower and their mother Princess Bare Feet.

One Monday morning the three Sioux Indians joined together with other tribes for a day of fun and learning.

First the children colored pictures of Native American in tradition clothing as...

One of the mothers did an overview of the similarities and differences of different regions.

Then each tribe shared what they had been learning.
Brother Black Bear shares about the Sioux tribe including the loin clothes they would wear while hunting.

The boys decoration on his robe. Also note his awesome head dress.

The cradle board Little Blue Flower made to carry her baby, Blue Eyes. The Sioux mothers would carry their babies everywhere in their cradle boards. If the mother needed to do something she would hang the baby on a tree.

Little Blue Flowers dress. I wish I would have gotten a better close up of all the bead work as it is ADORABLE.

One tribe did a reenactment of Chief Pontiac and the affects of small poxs. Did you know the English infected blankets with the diesease and distributed them amongst the Native Americans?

All the kids in their costumes.

Our tribe on the stairs.

After each family shared we had a feast. Every one brought different foods the Native Americans would have eaten.
Corn chips, beans, hominy, hominy with cactus, vegetable mush, wild rice, smoked turkey, dried meat, smoked fish, nuts and berries. (not pictured but also sampled; cactus pear, raspberries, meat and potato soup, elk sausage) It was all so tasty.

I tried fish eggs. Salty but not bad.

When all the indoor stuff was done, the kids went outside to enjoy the snow. They made forts, went snow boarding and had an absolute blast!

The boys stayed outside for hours while the girls came in to warm up and make some crafts.

It was such a fun day!

The three Sioux Indians traveled home that day being enriched by the others, knowing that community is important and sharing our stories is important too.

Because Every Vote Matters!

Here is your opportunity to have your opinion heard.

PLEASE HELP SETTLE THE DEBATE-
When you say the word thanks do you pronounce it with a short or long A sound?

Short a is A as in cat.
Long a is A as in ate.

Cast your vote here or in the comments section of my status on facebook.
ThAnk you!

Sudden Confidence

As I mentioned in the previous post that little girl loves words. Loves them.

Well I just had to share what happened today. With her brother gone on a sleepover and Daddy out of town, little girl and I decided to go on a date. She chose the mall, where we ate Little Easy(Orange chicken and rice) then walked around looking at a few different shops. She decided she wanted to go to the bookstore to look at books. Of course we did. She decided she wanted to use her own allowance money to buy a book so she carefully pondered over which was THE RIGHT book. She settled on a compilation book of Biscuit.

With our purchases complete we went next to the library. On our way to the library little girl took her new book and slowly and carefully read EVERY word of the first story. This was such a huge step for her as usually when she reads a book it is a story from our curriculum and all the words are previewed and known. So this book, Time For Bed Biscuit was her first true read of new unknown words where she was challenged to sound it out for herself. Especially with me driving and unable to see the pages.

She was SO PROUD of herself.

At the library there was a new and sudden confidence about her, she KNEW she could read. As she looked over the books on the easy reader shelf, she would look at it and say, I can read this one mom. So she chose a few off the shelves for her to bring home.

I love it! Her confidence as a reader just shot up about 100 points, simply because we went on a date and went to the bookstore. Watch out we have a reader on the loose.

According to facebook...I am

calm and quiet
you are the sort of person who likes to take life slowly... just one day at a time.. you usually know the difference between right and wrong. you believe in yourself. you put yourself in other peoples shoes and see how it feels to be them and then handle a situation accordingly.your attitude towards life is very positive.... you are liked by all and are a great friend.the flip side is that sometimes you care too much about other people and don't do what you really wanna do..

Words

The mind is so amazing!
I am more and more convinced of this with each passing school day. The fact that we enter this world knowing nothing but our mothers voice. We quickly learn the usefulness of a cry and which cry to use when. Then we begin to recognize different things. Those things start to take on meanings and soon an identity; a word.
Words. They in themselves amaze me. Then you add on the fact that we can vocalize them, understand their meaning, spell them, write them, use them to convey a message. Words are powerful!
Watching my kids decode these lettered mysteries has been so much fun for me.
My daughter is an auditory learner. She walks around the house all day long, saying words, sounding them out, spelling them. Sometimes she takes it to the next level and makes list of all the words she knows. She is a lover of words to the core.
A friend of mine was telling me at the start of the school year about her daughters word wall at school. With each new sight word, the teacher adds it to the wall. It sounded like a splendid idea so we started our own. She loves watching new words appear on the wall and she randomly goes to it and makes sentences with her known words. She loves it so much she wants to add EVERY word she knows to it. We have not gone that far but I am thinking about adding some of her word family words so that she can be more creative in her sentence building. One of her sentences from this morning; my mother has a orange
Words.
Words.
Words.
I
L-O-V-E
T-H-E-M
Y-E-S I D-O

Blah!

In the midst of good days I have had a few blah moments.

The sudden change in temperature has been leaving me chilled. I like the gradual decrease to freezing. Not the 70 on Friday and snowing on Sunday. Yikes.

Struggling with prioritizing. So many distractions...so much left to do.

Blood work came back abnormal. Which means I have another ultrasound on Monday. Not excited about it but willing to do what it takes to get an accurate diagnosis. In the mean time I am staying positive and neutral.

Not feeling like myself. But still me.

Worth It!

I love this song!

Who Knows What This Post Will Be...

Most likely random fragments of life and pondering.

We started the school yesterday morning and after about 2 minutes I wondered why we have never established school rules. This was probably brought on by the thoughts of 'What will happen if I am forced to place my kids in school?' So I decided yesterday that we would come up with our classroom rules. With the kids input, this is what we came up with:
1. Sit properly in your chair. -sons contribution
2. Listen attentively - we have been studying attentiveness
3. Use kind and respectful words. -A must! No whining, complaining, arguing, words of anger, etc.
4. Respect others personal space and property. -We have an issue of hands to ourselves at the moment. So another must!
5. Do your very best.
6. Follow directions and obey.
We made out charts to track their progress and motivate them to follow them. They are both excited about the rules. I remember in 9th grade English, my teacher (Crowly) had some very simple, yet must be observed rules and everyone felt safe in her class. I think her two rules were, no putting down others and give me your best. Those two concepts alone changed the dynamic of her class room. Hoping it works the same magic in mine.

I have a peace about Obama being president-elect. I think some change he will bring will be good. I just truly pray he does not go after parental rights. Especially my right to homeschool. Which according to his views page he does OPPOSE. It would be a sad day in our home and for our nation if he did. Hence the thinking about what would happen question above.

Been having some medical tests. Awaiting their results. Trusting in Him, regardless of the reults.

Went to theater production at the Warton Center, If You Give a Pig a Pancake and other childrens stories. It was super cute and very funny. The kids and I laughed our way through the whole show. I love that our co-op creates these opportunities for me and my kids. Love it.

Been on facebook and the computer too much for the last 72 hours so after I press the publish button on this post the internet will be off for the remainder of the day! I will return tomorrow.

Love the weather the last few days. Warmth and crunchy leaves, yes! Been trying to get outdoors still. Went on a good hike on Tuesday. May go on another today. Hopefully.

Little girl is finally tall enough to climb the rock wall at the YMCA. She made it 2/3 of the way up on her first try.
The boy challenged himself to the "new" third more difficult climb; he was the first kid to make it to the top. Making him the youngest for the most current configuration. You should have seen his determination and then his smile on completing it.

Have a beautiful day! Remember you are loved. See ya soon.

What would you do if were asked to go on a Chrysalis weekend?

I would go!

Yet another Chrysalis Flight has come and gone. And amazingly, God was there, as always . At the close of the weekend those participating were asked 2 questions.

What did this weekend mean to you?
What do you intend to do with it when you get home?

I love getting glimpses of what God did in a persons life over the course of those three days. God is amazing. He is good.
And then to see how someone wants to apply that and share the love with others...I get excited just thinking about it.

Then I have to stop and reflect myself...what did this weekend mean to me? What am I going to do about it?

For me this weekend was about watching each life story; the good, the bad and the ugly be used for God's glory. And watching broken hearts, be reminded of how much they are loved. It was a time of watching the power of laughter, the healing power of a good cry. The importance of a listening ear. The power in sharing my story. The importance of obedience. Taking a God moment to bless someone eternally. The need to be in constant prayer and study with God.
And taking action, being the hands and feet of Christ. I am reminded the power of a smile, a hug and a timely word. I am forever certain that God loves.

As for what I intend to do now that I am home... I intend to connect with these ladies. Pour into their lives and lift them up in prayer. I plan to dig deeper into the word. I plan to keep telling my story. And I will obey...even in the ridiculous!

God Loves You and So Do I
One of His...Super Models ;)

Feel free to share what this weekend may have meant to you.