Three months & three things...

I know you probably don't want to hear this. Feel free to look away. But, today is September 25th and that means that Christmas is a mere three months away. Yup, really. :) I know I'm not alone in being one of "those" people who plans for Christmas year round and generally tries to finish all my Christmas shopping and gift-making sooner rather than later. This year is no exception. (Please don't throw things at me, LOL!) My lists are already well underway...projects planned...supplies (at least some of them) on hand. Now that our school year is settling in and soccer is mostly under control, my attention will be shifting to the holidays. It's good. 

So far, we've got a number of holiday traditions (that I'm sure I'll discuss as the time draws nearer), but the only gift-specific one is that we've always done new Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve. I'm looking to try something new this year in hopes of directing the boys' gift giving a bit more and focusing more on the season. In light of this, I know some of y'all have awesome Christmas gift traditions. The one in particular that I'm trying to remember is one where folks do like four categories of gifts for their kids...something you can read, something you can wear...and I can't remember the others. Does anyone know? Help?

Now, I also have three completely unrelated things to share:

1. Happiest of birthdays to my good pal, Melissa! Looking forward to hanging with you to celebrate!

2. Today's the last day to share your project for challenge #3 over at the Good Grief Blog and have a chance to win an awesome Teresa Collins Designs prize!

3. Micah told me last night that I'm "the best girl in the world"! Man that kid knows how to butter a person up, lol!

In case you were wondering...

...and I know some of you were, lol...no, Asher is not angry in that picture on the soccer layout. That was his "look" for the individual pictures I took for his team. I asked him if he wanted to smile and he replied that this was his "confident look". So there. :)

Also...

My layout is up over on the Prism blog today. ;)

That was all. :) Please don't miss my post below (that I added late last night). Happy Wednesday to you!

Science!

So. If you know my boys, you know we're a bit heavy on the science around here. :) Being as science is probably one of my weakest subjects, it's an area I've struggled with for homeschooling. I'm not ashamed to admit that Noah knows more than me in this area, honest. Even without specific instruction, he soaks it all up on his own...through books and the science channel and just asking lots of questions. In particular, the boys are fond of shows like Mythbusters, the Magic School Bus series, and (for Noah) the Bashor science books (these are stinkin' awesome! Noah's already read the Periodic Table and Astronomy ones with Physics and Biology on the bookshelf and the Rocks and Gems one on the wishlist...I'm trying to work time in to read them myself so I can catch up with him!). It helps, too, obviously, that Nathan actually does know the answers and delights in exploring all things scientific with the boys. :)

In any case, it seems like every curriculum I've tried has ended up either being inadequate to challenge the boys, particularly Noah, or too complicated for me to teach. Thanks to numerous field trips and special events and the fact that the boys didn't seem in any way to be lagging behind, I've not really worried about it. (Thus far, btw, our science studies have been group efforts, though I can see that I'll need to separate it out in the coming year or so.) This year, though, I think we've found a winner! I'm so excited (which is saying something, LOL)!

Yup, a friend recommended Real Science 4 Kids and I'm hooked. We've only done a couple weeks' of lessons so far, but I'm delighted...

• by the subject matter (chemistry, physics and biology but targeted at 4-6th graders rather than repeatedly doing earth science, the human body and animals...which don't interest my boys and which we've covered repeatedly);
• by the organization (easy to follow textbook, accompanying project for the week and supplemental materials that line up well (we're doing chemistry right now and also have the history and language KOGs)); and,
• by the product itself (well written! and has a teacher's manual that explains things just for me).

Here's what we did last week:

Marshmallow molecules. Totally easy and fun. And even though Micah and Asher probably won't remember the whole discussion about covalent vs ionic bonds, they definitely delighted in eating the fruits of their labors. (For what it's worth, we did start out with actual molecule representations but ended up letting them build pyramids and spaceships, lol!)

It feels strange, but I'm finally excited about science. :) I can't remember that ever happening before but now find myself actually looking forward to learning alongside the boys. Cool. Hopefully through these lessons I can finally start understanding what Noah's talking about when he gets into discussions like the one last week at the awesome little science store we found in Old Town (we'll so be spending more time there!)...he and the owner talked out the pros and cons of hydrogen powered cars and how the process worked. Yeah, science. ;)

Saturday!

Whew. Here are some random things I know to be facts today:

1. Three soccer games that do not overlap take longer than when any of the soccer games do overlap. Still debating which is better. ;) This was our first weekend without overlap...which may explain number 2. All three boys had great games and loads of fun as usual. Except when Asher scraped up his knee pretty good getting across the sidewalk to his field...yeah, just *before* the game. Alas, I've learned not to go anywhere without a supply of wipes, antibacterial cleaner, an assortment of bandaids and neosporin. So, all was fine.

2. I got too much sun. I wear minimal sunscreen daily anyhow and didn't really think about the need for more this late in the season. Apparently, I was wrong. Nothing horrible, but I can definitely feel it leeching my energy, lol. 

3. I totally win the prize for having a good mail day today! My order from Amazon arrived with this blanket (that I've been coveting from two other soccer moms at practices) and this CD (that I ordered to get ready for the Dylan concert I'm going to in October with my mom and sister). AND, I got payment checks from Creating Keepsakes and Prism. That was the extent of the mail...and it was all mine. ;)

4. My layout is up over on the Good Grief Blog today. I rather like it and hope you'll check it out.

5. I really should get off the computer and finish getting things ready for the class I'm teaching tomorrow. Yikes. I'm teaching a class over at The Treasure Box tomorrow...starting a mini album entitled Lists of Me (though I'm horribly behind on sharing my own pages here for the Lists of Me album I started for 2009, lol). If you're in the area, consider coming! It starts at 1:00 and I've made a couple spare kits. ;)

6. I'm hoping to post more regularly starting next week. Honest. Feel like I'm finally getting into a groove around here and hoping to do some regular stuff here on the ol' blog. Please stay tuned.