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Monday, March 29, 2010

Because being a stinkin' genius runs in the family.

On Saturday we were at the mall.  Remember? Anyway...I failed to mention in that other post that the other reason we were at the mall was to go to Story Time at Barnes and Noble. My girl loves it and the boy will someday too.  After story time was over and I had read 78293983472198 books to the girl I sent her along with the boys to the Apple Store so I could leisurely browse the school books.  Thrills this homeschool mom's heart and makes me gleefully dizzy!

I'm always looking for fun stuff to add to our curriculum and right now I'm in the process of looking for fun things to do this summer.  (Yes, we will be having a summer school session here at The Ball Room Academy.) When I find things I think I might like or just want to spend more time looking at I take a picture of it with my phone and load it into my handy dandy little amazon.com app.  (The BEST app ever designed for this amazon addict!!!) Then I can look at it later and, more than likely, get it a heck of a lot cheaper than at the mall.

So, like I said, I'm looking for fun books for the summer that will reinforce what she has already learned and expand on them just a bit without getting into the stuff she'll study next year.  I found a few really great books.  Actually I found a TON of stuff, but I don't have the patience to link to it all.  So let's look at the highlight reel, mkay? Good.


She loves the word problems in her Math-U-See book, so I thought this might be a fun book to work through.


And this looks like a great compliment to the reading and phonics work that she's been working on already.

This one might just be an all-in-one book for everything.

This looks like it would be a great little exercise for each day.


So have you noticed a theme here at all?  Say, perhaps the grade level of all these books? They're all a 1st grade level.  My girl is currently in Kindergarten so I guess it wouldn't seem all that remarkable for her to use 1st grade books this summer since, after all, she will be in 1st grade this fall...technically 1st grade because here's the thing... I'm looking for these books to reinforce everything she's already learned and expand upon those things.  She can already do all of the work in these books.  She's been at a 1st grade level since before Christmas.  

How is that possible? you ask. Well, other than the fact that being a stinkin' genius runs in our family, homeschooling affords us the opportunity to learn at our own pace.  When she's grasped a concept we don't have 25 other students to wait on before moving to the next lesson.  She gets undivided one-on-one lessons geared specifically for her learning styles. We can do twice as much work in half the time.  

That, my friends, is the beauty of homeschool. It's may not be for everyone but for it is us.  

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Feasting

Oh the delight my day has held for me...

We went to the mall.  Ah, the mall.  It's a beautiful thing. (Especially since this is what I grew up with.) We went to window shop. The Music Man and I need a few very specific things for our upcoming trip to Spain, but I don't like to make split second decisions when I want something specific. I can't stand to buy something that I think is the perfect thing and just what I want only to find THE MOST PERFECT thing at the next store or a week later. So this trip to the mall was a scouting expedition, so-to-speak.

We went to Banana Republic, which is by far, hands-down, without a doubt my favorite store. It's always a feast for the fashion senses.  Delights this little heart of mine to no end! While my man tried on a few tshirts, (I've declared this the summer of cool tshirts for him) my girl posed in front of this giant spread of mirrors. In fact, she came to me and said, "Mommy, will you take a beautiful picture of me making a cute post." How can one say no to that?! This is the result:
The tshirts didn't jive with my polo-wearing man, but I'm not giving up on them yet.  He will wear tshirts this summer! We were headed out of the store when I spotted this little beauty in this really funky shade of green...I tried it on for kicks and both the Music man and I loved it.  Now you see, that doesn't often happen when it comes to my clothes.  Either I love it and he doesn't say much or he loves it and I endure wearing it to bless him. That's why the fact that we both loved it is so amazing. He insisted I get it in honor of the seemingly once in a lifetime agreement.  So he bought it for me.

(*Also I found this when I was looking for my sweater to link to. I didn't see this in the store, but I sure wish I would have because it sure is purty! And look at this and this. What about these? Aren't they to die for?! And don't forget this. A feast for the fashion senses, I tell ya!)


As if Banana wasn't enough feasting for one day we went over to Anthropologie! I snapped a couple shots of the most beautiful displays.

So pretty, right? There were so many other things that I wanted to show you but I just am too tired to link it all up. Plus my internet is beyond ssssslllllllooooowwww today.  I don't have the patience for it!

Then we went to JCrew. We've tried to like JCrew in the past, but we're not really boat-shoe-wearing, sweater tied around the nexk kind of people and Scott would never consider wearing a pair of shorts with frogs embroidered on them, but I canNOT resist a beautiful window display.  And boy did they have a beautiful window display!

Have you been to JCrew lately? It's totally been over-hauled with cool stuff that I would actually wear! What do you know!? There's this and this. LOVE this! And pretty much everything on this page makes me happy! I saw this little beauty below and snapped a picture thinking I would find it on their website and link up but I can't find it. So you'll have to love it based on this picture. It has Cherry Blossom Festival written all over it! Literally! Hahaha!

 I also saw this table and fell in love...there's too much here to link to everything, because did I happen to mention of slow my internet is right now! It feels like I have dial-up! Ugh! It's so last-century!
I have never, ever in all my life met a table of accessories I didn't love...apparently I have passed that love on to my girl! We could spend forever in the accessories departments of stores and to be able to spend forever in an accessory STORE! Well, that just takes the cake!

Well, I guess that's about all for now.  Our scouting expedition was successful and certainly more costly than planned, but oh! so worth it!!! Can't wait to go get the treasures we found today.  And who knows, by then, I bet it'll all be on sale and marked way down. Score!

Friday, March 12, 2010

The Milestones of Childhood

So we're sitting here at the neighborhood Chilis and there's a table of 20 something girls sitting behind us. My man child WHO IS 22 MONTHS OLD totally checked out one of the girls as she got up to go to the bathroom. I'm talking...watched her get up...eyes glued to her as she walked by...followed her as she passed us and craned his neck to see her as she disappeared around the corner.

When she came back he did the exact same thing. To his credit the Music Man didn't think she was "that hot."




- Posted from my iPhone

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Cathartic Confession

I have a confession... I'm scared to death. Of so much. But here's the craziest part...I'm scared of actually achieving what I have always wanted. When I come face to face with my dreams I get scared of them and find myself avoiding them. I see the beginning so many long awaited dreams ffor me and for my family, but I also see myself dragging my feet on the way there.

Why do I do that?
Why am I scared of becoming the person I've always wanted to be?
What am I truly so afraid of?
And most importany how do I get over that?!

- Posted from my iPhone
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