Fire Station Field Trip

October is fire prevention month so we planned a trip to one of the local fire stations.  The one we visited is manned entirely by volunteers.  They gave the kids a great tour and even gave everyone rides in the trucks.  Seriously, rides in real fire trucks.  For everyone but Gabe who was for some reason terrified of the trucks.

He sounds just like Darth Vader

Katie demonstrating how to "Stop, Drop, and Roll"

Robert

Katie

Kieran and Sean

Can you see the kids through the windows? They were thrilled.

The whole gang

Review-VocabularySpellingCity

We've been using VocabularySpellingCity for the past few weeks in our homeschool.  This has turned out to be a wonderful program for making spelling work more fun for the kids.

This program is very easy for both the parent and the students to use.  At the beginning of the week (or whenever I am doing my weekly planning), I simply entered each student's spelling list for the week.  I then chose several activities for them to work on using that list of words.  You can have the student play games with the words or stick with the familiar more schoolish ways to review words.  There is also an option to have the student learn the definitions of each word.

This program also allows you to pick from many word lists on their site. The yearly membership fees for a premium membership are very affordable if you want to have the ability to use different lists for different students.  These features make the program very affordable for large families or those on a tight budget with regard to school spending.

All of my kids who have been using VocabularySpellingCity over the past few weeks love it.  Granted, anytime I can put their learning on the computer and make it more than just worksheets they are happy.  They all love the interactive nature of the program and being able to play games with their words rather than just writing the words on paper repeatedly to memorize them. The kids have been doing crossword puzzles and playing games with their spelling words.  Heck, Kieran has been asking to work on his spelling since starting this program. This program gets a thumbs up from our family.

Just a side note: I was given a free premium membership to VocabularySpellingCity for a candid, personal, on-line review of the program. I was not compensated in any other way.

Preschool Field Trip

I am trying to focus a bit more this year on focused time with the younger kids and focused time with the older kids.  It is very easy with such a large age spread to leave out some important time with some of the kids.  A few weeks ago the older children went with me to see Dolphin Tale and today the little kids went with me to tour the local apple farm.

This trip was mostly preschool kids.  There were very few older kids which meant that the little kids actually got to ask their questions.  It seems when the older kids are around, the little kids kind of blend in to the background.  I love hearing the questions the little guys come up with.

We learned about how apple trees grow, where the apples come from, got to pick apples and try apple cider.  Then we rode a wagon out to the pumpkin patch where we learned about how pumpkins grow.  The kids all got to pick their own little pumpkin and enjoy a long wagon ride back to the front of the farm.  They even had popcorn and played at the playground.

A very enjoyable trip.  Just watching these guys soak up the atmosphere and knowing this trip was just for them was wonderful.  I think my favorite part of the day was when Gabe looked up at our tour guide, Farmer Jermaine, with the biggest eyes and said "You know, you are REALLY tall."  I think Jermaine is at least 6 feet tall or so and he was great with the kids.

 If you live in the Rochester area, be sure to drop by Whittier Farms to enjoy their wonderful atmosphere and get some of the yummy apples.  Very family friendly establishment and their prices are great.

Happy Birthday Katie

Katie turned 7 on Tuesday.  It was kind of a low key day since many of the other kids were sick and I think Katie was just starting to get sick herself.  Which is never a great way to spend your birthday.

She picked out a great cake and treated us all to dinner out.

Katie is, frankly, my kind of girl.  Not too girly and she holds her own with her brothers easily.  The only older brother she cannot outrun is Sean is she's always just a few seconds behind him.  It irritates her that he keeps winning so I have a feeling it won't be long before she pushes herself to beat him.  She's a wonderful big sister and has already mastered the art of carting a baby around on her hip.  Everywhere we go people are always remarking about how she looks just like me.  But she gets her love to Star Trek from her Dad I think which is only fitting considering how much of a Daddy's Girl she is at the moment.  Love you lots little Lady and I hope you had a great day.

Legacy of Love

I've been reading the book Legacy of Love: Biblical Wisdom for Parenting Teens and Young Adults for a while now.  Ok, I've been struggling in my efforts to get through the book. For quite a while.  Much longer than it usually takes me to get through a book of this size. Much, much longer.

Our first child is an official teen now and our second is nipping at his heels.  This reminds me that our time together with all of our children living under one roof is going to quickly come to an end.  This in turn motivates me to seek out the wisdom of those who have gone before me in this teen parenting thing and try to glean ideas that will help us to guide our children and give them roots they will be proud to call their own.  Kimberly Hahn is rather well-known in the Catholic homeschool parenting realm which is why I wanted to get her insight on this topic.  Sadly, I'm not sure I gained much of anything from reading this book.

I'm sure hidden in this book are some very wonderful, insightful suggestions.  I'm sure there is a wealth of information to be shared.  I'm equally sure that I could not wade my way past the preachy life is full of roses and you just have to do things the way we did them and everything will be great attitude to search them out.  I truly felt as if the tone of the book was one that talked down to me.  I'm not one who finds that kind of tone fun in a book.  It really made it hard for me to take much of what she had to say seriously.  I will admit that I will give the book another try in a few more weeks to see if there is something I was missing.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Legacy of Love :Biblical Wisdom for Parenting Teen. They are also a great source for a Catechism of the Catholic Church or a Catholic Bible.