Victoria's Blessings

Connections

2012-01-31T15:27:00.078-05:00

Warning: this is a happy post!! I haven't had some good news for awhile, so I thought I needed to do something cheerful.

The most exciting thing which I have experienced as a new homeschooling mom is the connections that Catherine makes, showing me that she is learning what I am teaching her. When she was at school, I really did not know what she did all day and what she was learning. At home, I know exactly what we are doing. At least once a day Catherine will say something that makes me realize that she has absorbed and comprehended something we taught her. Here are some examples:

-- While we were in the hospital she and I read a book about Rapunzel based on the Disney movie. It is a beginner reader, so she reads it to me and I help her with the words she does not know. She stopped at "kidnapped" while reading the book. I explained that kidnapping was when someone takes a child away from their parents, like when Mother Gothel took Rapunzel out of her parents' castle. Catherine said OK and we finished reading the book.

But, the little wheels in her head were still turning. Later that day, Catherine asked me if Dr. Kirsch kidnapped her to do the surgery. I realized that my initial definition of the word was inadequate and I had to make some clarifications.

-- Last night we made a chart of different kinds of nouns: persons, places, and things. As we were talking about it, somehow the word "she" was mentioned. Catherine said "that's not a noun, it's a pronoun." I was shocked because we have never discussed pronouns and I don't think her class ever discussed any of the parts of speech.

I asked her how she knew what a pronoun was. Catherine said "you taught me what they were when we were in the hotel." I said "What hotel?" I had no idea what she was talking about. She said "When I was reading the Snow White book and could not find her name." Suddenly, I remembered her reference. Back in July 2011, we went to Disney World and stayed at a hotel. She was reading a book about Snow White, which was written in the first person from Snow White's perspective. Before she started to read, she told me she wanted to count every time the author used the term "Snow White." She became very frustrated because she could not find the term "Snow White" anywhere. So I explained that every time the author used "I" or "me" or "mine" the author meant "Snow White." This little mini-lesson on pronouns satisfied her to the point where she could stop crying and read the book by herself. I had not thought about this incident again until Catherine mentioned it yesterday. I am so impressed that she remembered the lesson and was able to apply it accurately.

-- As part of the curriculum we are using, we have to do Social Studies lessons about once a week. The last lesson was on voting and laws, how they are created, and what they do. The lesson gave a few examples of laws which first graders can comprehend: stop at a read light, etc. The lesson directed me to ask Catherine to name a law. She said "When Daniel was alive, the law was that he could not pray to God." I was shocked that that was the first law which came to her mind. About a year ago, Robby had taught them the Biblical story of Daniel being thrown to the lions because he broke the king's law and prayed to God. I loved how she is seemlessly blending two subjects: Bible study and Social Studies (one philosophy of home schooling is an attempt to break down the compartmentalization of education). This kind of connection that Catherine makes is humbling to me: I have to constantly be aware of what I say and what she hears. She is not just listening, she is comprehending and remembering!!

- In Math we are strengthening addition and subtraction skills. The kids spend a few hours a week in the car, so I try to get educational DVD's from the library. I found an arithmetic one which included some songs to help learn the addition facts and a scene involving "Detective Digit." In the movie, a child is faced with three addends (1 + 4 + 6). The child has no idea what to do. Detective Digit calls this a triple threat and teaches the child to add two of the addends together, get a sum, then add the third addend to the sum to get a final sum.

When we were checking into Egleston hospital two weeks ago, we had to wait in the registration lobby for about two hours. Catherine pulled out some of the toys she brought with her. She lined them up so they can watch tv with her. She had 4 princess figurines, 3 Barbie dolls, and 2 stuffed animals. She said to me "4 plus 3 plus 2 - that's a triple threat!" Then we looked around the waiting room and found some other triple threats to add, such as green chairs plus orange chairs plus tables.

As I have said before, one of my biggest stressors with home schooling is knowing whether or not the girls are really learning. Am I just doing busy work? Is she retaining this? Am I going too fast? Does she really understand what I am teaching her?

I love it when she says something that correctly connects what we have taught her and demonstrates to me that she truly understands the material. Praise God for moments like that!

Math Posters

2012-01-31T10:48:00.000-05:00

One goal I have for home schooling is to make it fun and exciting (who wouldn't? Plus, when the girls get bored they refuse to do work, and we end up fighting). This is easier to do with unit studies for science, history and social studies. With language arts and reading, we can do projects and act out the books we have read. But with math, it is harder to get creative. So much of math is rote memorization at this level. So, I am always seeking ways to make math more exciting.

My girls love arts and crafts, so I printed out some "posters" which I found on teachers blogs. These posters are meant to be printed in color and hung up in a classroom. We have a color printer, but I think it is in the basement somewhere. So, I printed them out in black and white and had the girls color them in with glitter glue (which they love to use and is not as messy as real glitter).

These two posters were about odd and even numbers. I explained the lesson to Catherine, and I think she got it. We then hung them up in the room. The girls really do look at the posters a lot and use them as references.

Even Sabrina refers to her past work. When she and I were doing an alphabet puzzle a few days ago, I told her what sound each of the letters make and asked her to tell me a word which started with that letter. When we got to "F" she said "Wait Mommy and ran over to the worksheet she had done about the letter F and then told me what pictures were on that page."

Here is Catherine making her Even Number poster with glitter:

Animal Classification

2012-01-31T10:36:00.000-05:00

This week in science we are doing a unit called "Animal Classification." GCA, our online school, provides a good starting point with its curriculum. I use what they provide as a jumping off part and look for some more creative ways to teach the same material. The girls love making anything that we can hang on the wall. They also like doing "units" where we focus on one topic for about a week.

We started by making a big chart of the 7 types of animals, listing the characteristics of each:

We cut out and colored the pictures provided by GCA and added them to the poster:

Catherine's word list for this week is all the terms we learned from our Animal Classification study (mammal, reptile, gills, beak, thorax, etc.). Yesterday I had her copy the words over once. Today I will get her to write some sentences using some of the words. She hates creating sentences on her own, as this is a huge challenge for her. We have to do a lot more practice on that skill.

It may sound strange, but I love that with home schooling she can have her catheter bag sitting on her desk next to her. She is feeling well and has the energy to do school work, so we are doing that. If she was still in regular school, I am not sure if they would let her be in the regular classroom with a catheter bag. Plus, even if they did, I would hate the social implications of all of her peers knowing that she had a te-te bag attached to her.

She also made a poster of "Mammal" and "Not a Mammal:"

An "Insect" and "Not an Insect" sorting activity:

In the car I had the girls watch Bill Nye the Science Guy's show about mammals. I have a ton of books about different types of animals which we will read and discuss this week. We may do some craft projects to coordinate with these animals.

Yesterday I bought Catherine her first dictionary and showed her how to use it (this was part of the Language Arts curriculum). Catherine immediately wanted to look up mammal, insect, and other words we have learned in this unit. As her copy work, I am considering having her copy some of the definitions for the science terms we have studied.

I am not sure how I can incorporate addition and subtraction into the Animal Classification unit study. In fact, it is hard for me to get creative with math.

Just Sabrina for a Few Days

2012-01-31T10:11:00.000-05:00

While Catherine was between her Egleston admission and her Scottish Rite admission, we were home for a few days. Catherine was exhausted (which we later learned was due to the infection in her body), so I let her sleep most of the day. Sabrina, as always, had tons of energy. So I just did "school" with her alone. In addition to teaching her skills, I also want Sabrina to focus on desk work, completing assignments, etc.

The girls both love making "books." I love finding templates and printable materials on the Internet which I can just print out and use. Sabrina made a "Snowflake Counting Book." She was so proud of it that she wanted to show Daddy as soon as he got home. I was able to find similar books of candy canes, hearts, etc. which I can use later.

I am beginning to teach Sabrina phonics. She knows most of the letters on sight and can write them (usually). She also likes the cut-and-paste worksheets. I think they feel like a game more. So I found a worksheet for "what sounds like S" (and one for F), as well as a (Insect/Not an Insect) worksheet which we did this week with our animal study.

Sabrina loves hanging everything she does on the wall. I provide a basket for each of them to put their completed work in, but she likes to hang them up anyway. It had gotten so out of hand that I instituted a new Monday morning rule of taking everything off the walls so we can start the week fresh. Sabrina asked me several times not to throw them out. I wonder if she has some hoarding tendencies. I assured them that we would do more work this week to hang on the walls. Catherine seemed pleased with that, but Sabrina had trouble getting beyond that we were taking down her work. I do need to leverage her pride in her work.

Sabrina loves doing Do-A-Dot exercises, which helps reinforce the letters:

I love Laura Numeroff's books. Here are just 3 of them:

Sabrina asks me to read them to her at least twice a day. She analyzes every picture and we have to discuss the silly pictures on every page (Can you believe the pig is brushing his teeth? Have you ever seen a moose ride a bicycle before? That is ridiculous!).

I cannot imagine how you could home school without a good public library system nearby. I could not afford to purchase all the books we use, and I never know until I get the book and read it if it is good or not (plus, where would we store all these books?). For example, I got some Laura Numeroff books which are not part of her "If You Give A ..." series which I and the girls did not like. But the above books are fabulous and Sabrina loves them. I am not sure if she actually learns anything from them, other than a love and joy for reading. But, getting the girls to love books is essential!

I also give Sabrina a lot of desk work which is merely busy work to keep her occupied while I am doing more substantial work with Catherine. I of course hope that Sabrina would learn something at the same time. She has made several "posters" where she cuts out big and little letters, pairs them up, and glues them down. She loves making these. It is hard to tell with preschool level work, but perhaps she is learning letter recognition and that every letter has two versions. She definitely is improving her cutting and gluing skills.

Patterns. Last year in kindergarten Catherine was frequently making patterns. I am not sure why, but it is a precursor to math. We received a snap cube set with four colors with Catherine's first grade math curriculum. Catherine is great at patterns and does not need any more practice with that. But, Sabrina has never done patterns before. So, I gave them to Sabrina to make patterns with. Here she is doing basic ABAB patterns:

I have just started to give Sabrina more difficult patterns, like AABB, or ABCABC. She struggles with the more difficult patterns, which is great. We are expanding beyond what she knows already!

"My Sissy Needs Help!"

2012-01-30T15:12:00.002-05:00

We have tried to shield our children from fear, disappointment, shock and all the other negative emotions associated with having a medically fragile child. Usually, we are successful. We have always tried to treat it as "normal" and "OK." As a result, both girls think it is just fine to get your milk through a tube. Sabrina will frequently try to hook Catherine's feeding tube into her belly button.

They have both given their stuffed animals pretend IV's and will frequently be seen using masking tape to check a Barbie doll's blood pressure. This is their reality and so it is part of their pretend play.

However, this last surgery has been different because both girls have a heightened awareness and understanding of what is happening. Sabrina helped me pack all of her stuff to go spend a week at Grandpa's. She understood that Catherine would be in the hospital for surgery, although I am not sure if she understood what the surgery was for. Catherine was (and is) well aware of what the surgery was for (she says she will get a te-te tube and a poo-poo tube).

When Catherine came back from the hospital, we had to give her colon irrigations once a day. She also has a catheter bag for now. She currently has two tubes coming out of her abdomen, in addition to her G-tube. The openings are new, so they are still healing. They are bloody and have mucus coming out of them. Her te-te tube looks like there is hamburger meat coming out of it. (Hopefully this will improve with time!)

On last Saturday evening we did the first colon irrigation. Robby and I had never done it before, so we were nervous about how to do it. Catherine sits on the potty while we push 8 ounces of saline into her colon through a new tube. She has to hold her shirt up high so we can see what is happening. While we were pushing it, we kept asking Catherine if it hurt, if she could feel it going in, etc.

Sabrina walked into the bathroom, because we were all in there. She saw the new tubes, with the yucky bloody openings, for the first time. We probably had uneasy, scared looks on our faces.

I turned to look at Sabrina. Her mouth was gaping, her eyes were wide open, and she was staring straight at her sister's tummy. She was totally silent. For the first time ever I saw fear in her face. She had no idea what was happening and had such a look of worry. We had to comfort her and show her the new tubes.

After that first colon irrigation, we are much more comfortable doing it. She has to sit on the potty for 20-30 minutes. We give her the laptop on a desk so she can watch a DVD or play some computer games. Sabrina sits on a stool next to her and also plays on my laptop.

On Monday evening, I was in the office at my desk while they were in the bathroom. Sabrina came running down the hall, full speed, screaming "My sissy needs help!" She has never done that before. So, I ran down the hall to he bathroom. Catherine threw up a little, probably because she was straining during her colon irrigation. She was fine, but it was unusual.

Again, I hated that Sabrina was afraid for her sister. I was proud of her that she ran to me to get help when she thought her sister needed help. That was a mature reaction and I praised her for it. But again, I was so sad that Sabrina had experienced fear.

On Tuesday Catherine spiked a fever and was so sickly that I decided to take her to the ER. Robby was still at work. I called a neighbor to watch Sabrina, but she did not answer. So, on the way out of the neighborhood, I stopped at a neighbor's house. I knocked on the door and begged her to watch Sabrina for what I thought would be 2-3 hours. Sabrina had never stayed at their house and really did not know their kids well. We had seen them at the pool during the summer, but this was essentially dropping Sabrina off at a stranger's house (to her, I knew the mother pretty well). My neighbor said OK, so I got Sabrina out of the car. I told her she would stay here for a few hours while I went to the hospital with Catherine. She asked why and I told her we just needed to go.

Sabrina is quite compliant and easy-going, so she just walked into my neighbor's house. I wonder what she was thinking. Was she worried about her big sister? Did she understand that this was serious? Did she think I was just dumping her off at some one's house? Did she think she was less important than her sister?

Things have settled down since we returned from the hospital after this second stay, so we are trying to act like everything is normal. I am also trying to give Sabrina lots of attention so she feels loved. It is so hard to balance all of this and it is is frequent prayer of mine that Robby and I balance everything (these are not listed in any particular order):

Catherine's medical needs
Catherine's non-medical needs
Sabrina's needs
daily maintenance of self, house, etc.
rest
couple time
personal time
service to others efforts
social time with friends, family

Back in the Hospital

2012-01-25T20:09:00.002-05:00

We have had a busy week! Catherine was admitted to Egleston Hospital on Jan. 17. This hospital is right next door to Emory University, so parking is always a big problem. I drove around for an hour before I decided to just go to valet (which is $8 a day instead of $1 a day). Then we rushed ourselves and all of our belongings to the registration desk. We were told to be there by 11:30 a.m. I had not planned to spend an hour circling the parking decks, so we were a little late.

So, we registered. About 3 hours later they finally found a room for us, even though this admission was planned several weeks ago. We got settled in our room, and Catherine promptly found the play room. She got the "Fred Flintstone" car and started driving all over the floor with it. She was feeling fine.

About 4 p.m. we started the "bowel prep." Through a pump, they gave her ten ounces of a special fluid every hour from 4 p.m. until 2 a.m. Ironically, this fluid is called "GoLitely." It is anything but go lightly. I would call it go tsunami. Once it kicked in, about 6 p.m., she had enormous bowel accidents which were completely liquid. The nurses and I had to change the bedding several times, mop the floor, and sponge bath her all night long. It was yucky, but apparently necessary for this surgery.

So on January 18, we wheeled her down to the operating room. She was still very energetic and talkative. The surgeon came to speak with us. When he asked her if she knew what she was getting she said "a tee-tee tube and a poo-poo tube." He smiled because she so concisely and accurately described the procedures.

Her surgery was from about 11 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. The surgeon came and talked with us in the middle of the surgery, telling us it was going well. They brought her back to us about 4 p.m. She slept the rest of the day.

She was sleepy most of Thursday and Friday, with a few complaints of pain. On Thursday they gave her morphine for pain twice. She reacted with what we called a "morphine stare," where she would sit up in bed and stare directly at you. She wouldn't even blink if you waved your hand in front of her face. She looked like she had had a lobotomy. We hated that reaction and asked the doctors to see if she can do without the morphine. They switched us to Tylenol, which seems less intense.

She seemed very uncomfortable, but not in pain. There were no signs of problems, so they sent us home on Friday evening. Of course it was awesome to be home. I had spent 23 hours a day in that hospital room and was ready to go stir crazy. I also got to hold and cuddle Sabrina for the first time in days.

At home Catherine was lethargic and very uncomfortable. She did not want us to lift or carry her. She kept trying to walk on her own, although she has to carry a catheter bag with her and she is very unsteady. She played some, but slept a lot too.

On Monday night we gave her a sponge bath on the kitchen counter. I think she felt better after this. She seemed to enjoy it, saying "it is raining on me!"

On Tuesday afternoon we sat on the couch and read a book together. She was exhausted and all of a sudden (which is always how it happens with her) she spiked a fever. Her skin was hot to the touch. I used the temporal thermometer we have and got a range of readings: from 99.7 up to 101.5. So I gave her some acetaminophin.

An hour later she was still hot to the touch and had a range of temperatures in the 100's. She normally responds very well to acetaminophin. I was concerned and told Robby I was going to take her to the ER. On the way out of our neighborhood, I stopped at a neighbor's house and, with no notice, left Sabrina with them. I honestly thought I would be back in 2, maybe 3, hours.

At the ER she no longer had a fever, but was very lethargic. Because she had just had surgery, they took a urine culture, did a CBC, and did a c-reactive protein test (of her blood). Apparently the third test will tell them if she is fighting an infection even if she is on antibiotics. The urine culture had blood and proteins in it. We do not have the final results on it yet. The CBC showed elevated white blood cells. The C-reactive test was very high (normal is 2 and she was over 25).

So, we started IV antibiotics and they admitted us. She continues to spike fevers every few hours and is miserable. When she has a fever spikes, she either moans in pain or has a blank stare on her face and looks like a statue. When the ibuprofen kicks in, she'll feel a little better for awhile, then she'll feel bad again. This morning we took abdomenal x-rays. We have had three visits from the surgeon since we have been here.

I think we will be here until at least Friday. Grandpa came down on Tuesday night to take Sabrina back to Jasper with him for a few days.

Silliness

2012-01-25T14:18:00.001-05:00

I know that we should not label our children, but it hard not to regularly use the term "Silly Sabrina." She is generally a very happy child and is so unpredictable in her silly behaviors. For example:

-   While Sabrina is in the bath tub, I frequently walk up and down our upstairs hallway putting laundry away, cleaning, etc. The other day Sabrina climbed out of the bath tub, in her birthday suit, and walked into the hallway (dripping). She screamed "Mommy!" I responded "Yes, Sabrina?" She said, in a completely serious tone of voice, "Can I play hopscotch in the bath tub?"

-    Robby walked into a room and found Sabrina with a pair of scissors, cutting her hair. He took the scissors away and told her she cannot cut her own hair. She had cut about half of her bangs off, leaving about a centimeter of hair in their place. He asked why she did it, and she said "Sissy told me to."

-    We have been reading the Laura Numeroff books lately (If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, If you Give a Pig a Party, etc.). These books are custom made for Sabrina. When I tell her to pick out some books for me to read to her, she always chooses these. As we read them, she studies the pictures. She will ask ten questions per page: Have you ever seen a pig wear a hat? Have you ever seen a mouse draw with a crayon? Have you ever seen a dog ride a bicycle? I think she knows these are all fantastical situations, and finds them hysterical.

-   She has always been very ticklish. Recently I have started doing "air tickles," when I hold my hand out like a claw and pretend to tickle the air in front of her. My hand remains at least a foot from her, never making contact with her. Nevertheless, she will respond like she is being tickled. She will writhe and giggle, screaming out "stop, Mommy, stop!"

Perspective

2012-01-25T01:00:00.000-05:00

Sabrina is at that wonderful age when she has no perspective. I remember how cute I thought it was when Catherine went through this stage and am loving the wide swings of Sabrina's emotions.

Sabrina can instantly, and I mean instantly, go from fine to elated to devastated to fine and back to elated. This cycling through of emotions can happen right in front of your eyes. The extreme nature of her emotions is adorable.

Even cuter is the cause of these emotional swings. Finding the pink crayon in the big tub of crayons can elicit squeals of joy. Dropping a stuffed animal while strapped into a car seat can cause a meltdown.

The other day Sabrina came down the hallway to my room, bawling her eyes out. With tears streaming down her face, she screamed out "My sister says I'm younger!"

I really wanted to laugh, but I fought back even cracking a smile. It was obvious that this issue was important to her and had struck an emotional chord for her. There are times when I just ignore these kind of meltdowns, but on this occasion I had enough patience to respond to her gently (sadly, that's not always the case).

I told Sabrina "Sweetie, you are younger. You were born two years after Catherine, so you are younger. It's not a bad thing. It just is the way it is."

Sabrina was not pacified. She continue to cry. Tears continued to flow down her face. "But I don't want to be younger!"

Again, I tried to console her with the reality that she is younger and that is not a bad thing. Unable to calm her down, I offered to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with her. Because that is her current favorite show, she immediately screamed out "Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggety Dog!" and jumped on my bed to watch the show. See what I mean about mood swings?

This incident struck me and made me think about the triviality of some of our own emotions and how God must react to them.

We get devastated about some issues that have no lasting consequence. We pray for a certain guy to call. Or for a good grade on a test. We fret when we don't get a job. At the time, all of these incidents seem very important to us. Just like Sabrina's momentary devastations, we do not have an eternal, or even a life-long, perspective. We live so much in the moment, that we allow our emotions to take over.

Does God ignore our cries and deal with the important issues? Or does He try to console us? If He can't console us, does He just redirect our attention? Does He try to fix the petty situation which is causing our meltdown?

I also do not get too excited simply because Sabrina is excited. I love her energy and her joy, but I cannot rejoice over the discovery of a crayon. It just is not important enough for me to get too happy, no matter how thrilled Sabrina is. Does God get as happy for us as we get for ourselves over petty joys? I doubt it. God knows what is important and what is just a fleeting gleeful moment.

Sabrina will develop perspective over the next few years. I hope I will stop my emotions and use some perspective.

Sabrina Turns Four

2012-01-18T00:45:00.000-05:00

Sabrina continues to be our little bundle of energy. She wanted a Minnie Mouse themed birthday party, so we did it for her. We let her plan as much of the party as possible. We decorated with pink and black balloons everywhere. We served pink lunch and "polka dots" (aka mini marshmallows) for treats.

She wanted a hot dog bar for dinner:

She wanted polka dot cupcakes:

Roasting marshmallows and making s'mores around the fire pit (yes, Sabrina is wearing a Minnie Mouse costume):

Sabrina asked if all the kids could do the "hot dog dance" from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show:

The Minnie Mouse pinata was a little different. Instead of hitting it with a baseball bat, each child pulled a string.

One of the strings opened a magic trap door, which caused the candy to fall out:

The mad dash for candy once it all hits the floor:

Opening presents (Sabrina got a doll and a bunch of accessories):

Sabrina got a set of wooden dolls with magnetic clothes. This is a great game for her because she can change the doll's clothes, by herself, every few minutes,

Another doll outfit:

A sock monkey:

Grandpa gave them a toy grand piano, a bunch of Disney figurines, and new Ariel nightgowns:

We are so blessed that friends and family can celebrate her four years with us!

Playing in Cabinets

2012-01-18T00:02:00.000-05:00

A few days ago we finally got our new cabinets for our bathroom. We are so excited, because this is a big step towards the master bathroom being done!

The granite guy has not made the countertop yet, so the girls could not resist playing "pop up and down" in the sink cabinets:

Where's Sabrina? Here she is!

Helper Girl

2012-01-18T00:01:00.002-05:00

I hope she never outgrows this, but one of Sabrina's best character traits is her desire to help. She will get in the middle of things and help out, even when not asked. It is such a wonderful trait, that we do whatever we can to cultivate that innate desire to help, even though at this age she is generally not actually helpful. We sometimes have to be creative to quickly think of a way for her to feel like she is helping.

Robby had to do some last minute plumbing while the cabinet makers were installing our new cabinets. Sabrina was desperate to help, so he had her hold the pipe while he put some purple stuff on it (I have no idea what that purple stuff does).

Oh how I love her helpful spirit!

Word Lists, Tracing

2012-01-17T23:38:00.000-05:00

The curriculum we are using (Georgia Cyber Academy) does not include any kind of spelling list or vocabulary list for first grade. But, Catherine asked for it. So, each week we come up with a list of words for her to learn. She loves choosing the topic (body parts, items of clothing) and thinking of words for her to learn.

I am keeping a journal of our spelling lists. I also keep a list of all the vocabulary words which we learn in other studies. For example, for Health we read a book about feet. The new terms she learned were heel, arch, sole, etc. In Language Arts, we learned poet, stanza, alliteration.

She refers to the "Word List Book" all the time. Sometimes when she is writing a story, she will know that the word she wants to spell is on a particular word list and will go look it up. I also make up fill-in-the-blank and labeling worksheets, using magazine pictures for inspiration, to help reiterate the words.

This was one of the more fun worksheets I made up for her:

Sabrina also loves to trace. She still finds school exciting and runs down the hall to show us her completed work:

Starfall

2012-01-17T23:30:00.000-05:00

Many of my friends tell me that their children love playing games on the computer. We do not own any type of video game system and I have never let them play games on the computer. But, Catherine learned how to play on Starfall and PBS Kids during her computer class at school.

I needed to find something to keep Sabrina occupied while Catherine and I did reading or some other type of quiet, focused activity. So, I taught Sabrina how to use the Starfall web site. She had never used a mouse or keyboard before, but she was a quick learner. If she didn't know what to do, she just pushed any key she could find.

The first time I let her get on the Starfall web site she was on there for three hours! We had to pull her away from it to eat dinner. Halfway through dinner, Sabrina asked if she can go back to play Starfall some more.

I need to leverage this "Starfall addiction" to manipulate them!

Gingerbread Day

2012-01-17T23:07:00.002-05:00

Last week was a bit crazy with homeschooling. I am still working a few days a month and am unable to choose which days (I am an attorney and the judges schedule hearings for us). Unfortunately, I had court Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning of last week. The girls stayed with a family friend while I was in court. We were able to do several hours of schooling in the afternoon.

Catherine seems to enjoy the online portion of schooling: the lessons, videos, and the computerized tests. On Thursday, we had a fun event played: a trip to the Center for Puppetry Arts to see "The New Adventures of the Gingerbread Man." The show was not until 11:30 a.m., so we did some desk work and fun activities first. All of the morning activities were gingerbread themed too, which seemed to get the girls excited about the puppet show.

One of my "overall goals" for this semester is to improve Catherine's reading. So, we have started making a "story map" of the books we read. Well, some of the books. The girls love to make posters of anything, so I made a reusable template poster. I read The Gingerbread Baby to them. The girls were not sure what a "setting" was, but we learned. They could easily name all the "characters" and the "conflict." They needed help with the "solution." They both LOVED affixing the post-its on the poster board.

I found a "What makes the F sound?" worksheet with a picture of a fox on it (remember the fox in the story eats the gingerbread boy). The girls cut out the pictures and glued the ones on which started with the letter F.

Catherine copying the refrain from the story:

The last project was using glitter glue to decorate a construction paper gingerbread man:

As we drove to the the puppet show, I lectured the girls about remaining quiet and still during the show. What a waste of time! The entire crowd yelled, laughed, and sang along due to prompting by the puppets for the entire show. It was a noisy, rambunctious show which the girls absolutely loved! They mention scenes and characters from the play at least once a day. They sing "Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man" daily.

After the show the girls got a chance to meet the puppeteer and the Gingerbread puppet. They were thrilled and frequently show everyone how the Gingerbread puppet shook their hands.

The Center also has many Jim Henson puppets on display, like Big Bird:

The girls got to make a puppet face with a bunch of velcro eyes, noses, mouths, etc.:

Look, it's Bert! And he is holding his rubber ducky:

The girls also had fun in the gift shop, even though we did not buy any puppets.

I thoroughly recommend the Center for Puppetry Arts for this age group. I am not sure how much longer they would enjoy these shows, but for now they do!

Math Games

2012-01-13T23:47:00.004-05:00

Last week, after fighting with Catherine over work sheets, I found some math games which involved a die, some flat bottomed marbles, and worksheets. This game was called "Add Ten:"

Catherine rolled a die and added ten to the number she got. She placed a colored stone on the appropriate number (between 11 and 16). When the "board" was completely covered, she won.

This game is called "Doubles:"

Again, she rolled a die. She doubled the number she got and marked the correct total on her board. She "won" this game too.

Sabrina also does some math fun too. One of her favorites is placing stickers next to the correct numbers. She has learned the concept of zero through this exercise and strengthened her counting skills.

Today while we were in the car the girls watched a video on Addition. The term zero was mentioned. Sabrina blurted out "Zero means none at all!" I love moments like this: proof that they have learned something!

Modeling Clay

2012-01-13T23:33:00.012-05:00

I have often said how much I love the dollar store. I find so many gems there. Even of something does not work as well as I hope, I only invested a dollar. A few months ago I bought a set of modeling clay. There were at least 20 colors in little sticks. The set has been sitting on a shelf all this time.

As a reward for finishing all their desk work, I let the girls play with it:

They made little flowers, snakes, pizzas, towers, and some other basic sculptures.

One thing I like about homeschooling is having the time to do more of these projects with my girls that I have meant to do for awhile. The girls enjoyed this and played with the clay for almost an hour. It was very poor quality and hard to manipulate. By the time they were done with it, the clay had hardened and was really dry. So, I threw it out. But for a dollar, who cares? My girls go to pretend they were sculptors and used their imaginations and fingers!

Calendar Time

2012-01-12T23:12:00.038-05:00

There are a few aspects of regular school that Catherine requests that we do. She wants to start the day with the Pledge of Allegiance. She wants a behavior chart and, if she is good all week, a treasure box item at the end of the week. And, she wants to do "Calendar Time."

Because I have never actually taught kindergarten or first grade, I end up making up a lot of what I do. So for "Calendar Time," we review what month it is, what year it is, what day it is, and the days of the week. We sing the days of the week song and discuss what day it is, what yesterday was, and what tomorrow will be. Lastly, we discuss what activities, if any, will be occurring that day or in the next few days. The whole process take about 5 minutes.

On the above day, we were out and about all day. So, we did not do Calendar Time. Catherine reminded me at night and so we did it right before we got ready for bed.

Sabrina has learned the Days of the Week song and is learning what days come in what order. I think she knows it is January, but not sure of that means anything to her at this point.

What has shocked me about Catherine is that she has really learned what activities will be on what days. On January 4th, we checked off the day before. Then Catherine said I should write in Sabrina's birthday party on the 14th and her surgery on the 18th.

After I did, Catherine pointed to the calendar and said "Sabrina, you will be at Grandpa's house on the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and the 21st, while I am in the hospital. I was shocked. We have always just talked about Catherine's medical stuff in front of her and never considered that she would understand what we were saying.

My dad has agreed to take Sabrina for a week while we are in the hospital. This will be a huge benefit to us because the hospital rooms are small and Sabrina will likely so stir crazy staying cooped up all day. I expect that Catherine will not feel well and will sleep and/or be bed bound most of the time. But we never actually told the girls that Sabrina will stay with my dad. We had made these plans in front of her, but I had no idea she was so aware of what we were saying.

In light of this, we need to be much more conscious of what we say in front of her.

Tricycle Time

2012-01-12T23:06:00.008-05:00

Last week the weather was gorgeous, especially for January. So I decided we would take the tricycles to a local tennis court and let the girls ride around.

It was so nice that the tennis courts were empty. Our driveway is too hilly for tricycles. We stayed for about 30 minutes and I was able to return several phone calls.

Both girls brought a doll to ride with them. Catherine's basket fell off and needs to be reattached, so her doll rode in the "trunk."

When we were done, Catherine told me that I should leave the tricycles in the back of the van so we can come back on another pretty day. I guess that means she had fun!

Music Class

2012-01-11T23:04:00.000-05:00

I often wonder if I truly have no musical talent or if it was never nurtured in me in my childhood. I guess that is the perennial "nature v. nurture" debate. But, now that I am homeschooling my kids I know that there are certain areas I have to seek outside help to teach my kids.

We have gone to Camp Sunshine for years and enjoy their programs. Before Catherine was in kindergarten, we were regular attenders of their Music Class. We had to stop for a year because she was in school. Now, we can be more flexible and was able to attend today. As always, the kids had a blast:

They love to dance while the teacher, Berne, plays the guitar:

One of the little boys, Gus, came with his little 14 month old sister. Gus reminds me of where we were 3 years ago. He has just finished his treatment for meddullablastoma and his parents welcomed a new baby in the midst of his treatment too. Catherine has recently developed a love for babies and wanted Audrey to dance with her:

Catherine did everything she could do get Audrey to hold part of the fabric ring:

Marching in a circle:

Sabrina dancing with a scarf:

Of course you could put a bunch of scarves around your waist and make a tutu:

Playing with the instruments:

Catherine wasn't feeling very well, so she did her drumming while reclining:

Sabrina saw her sister laying on the floor pillows and followed suit:

So much fun!

Sparklers on the Deck

2012-01-11T22:52:00.000-05:00

One of the things I love about young children is that small, cheap, 5 minute activities can be the thrill of their life. It is so easy to please my girls! Catherine has had kind of a rough day because she has an impaction in her colon so we had to give her an enema. We have to literally hold her down, etc. It is a traumatic experience and I am so glad that next week we will have a better solution after her surgery.

As a result of the need to try to relieve this impaction, we had to miss Wednesday night church. When I told Catherine, she just bawled. Then Sabrina wanted to join me in the jacuzzi bathtub. Catherine wanted to also, but we couldn't let her because of fecal leakage. Again, she bawled.

So, I suggested we do a really fun thing and play with sparklers on the deck. We have never done this before, but Catherine thought the idea was "awesome." Again, she had no idea what I was talking about, but had concluded it was "awesome." I wish I was so positive about the unknown.

We let Catherine go first. We have actually had these sparklers for months. I have no idea where we got them, but they were the super long kind. We felt like they would be safe enough for our little kids. The girls had a blast. We only had 6 sparklers, so this thrill was short-lived.

We were already in pajamas when we decided to have sparkler fun. Don't you love Catherine's Santa slippers?

It did not take long for Catherine to figure out you can wave the sparkler back and forth really fast:

Sabrina having fun too:

This was the first time we attempted to photograph this, so it was a learning experience. We could either get the girl or the sparkler, but not both in one picture.

Sabrina, watching her sparkler start to burn:

Finally, both girls on the deck:

I was so happy that we were able to cheer Catherine up tonight. Thank God for simple pleasures!

Homeschool Update

2012-01-10T22:07:00.002-05:00

Nearly every day I get asked the question "Does Catherine like home school?" If you ask her, she will give you a thumb's up sign or say "yes!" She has never once asked to go back to school.

As for me, I am still deciding if I like to home school. When Catherine is paying attention and learning, I love it. When I have to harass her incessantly to get her to do something, I hate it. I confess that I have yelled at her several times, a few times until she has cried. I feel absolutely horrible about my behavior. I do not want her to hate me, hate home schooling, hate learning, or lose confidence. I pray daily for increased patience.

We have been working on addition & subtraction facts a lot. She does not like doing worksheets and often stares off into space when I give her one. So, I have had to be creative to get her to do math problems in some other manner. She likes using the white board. I have no idea why this is so much more fun for her than using a pencil and paper, but she loves the white board! I was thrilled beyond belief when I saw a bunch of lined white boards in the dollar section at Target. I bought a bunch. I write out the problems and she does them on the white board. Today for the first time she wrote out problems for herself to do. Then she wanted to test me, so she wrote out an Addition Test for me.

For math I have also found a few games for her. Most of them involve dice: rolling them, adding them, and then coloring the spot on the paper which represents the total. Or there are a bunch of numbered spots on a paper. We have a page for "doubles" and a page for "add ten." She rolls one die, doubles it, and covers the space. Ir she rolls one die, adds ten, and then covers that spot. These games seem enjoyable to her (i.e. she doesn't complain about them) and I think she is learning.

One of the hardest struggles I have had is knowing whether she is actually learning or not. At the end of one week, I noticed that we had done a large amount of work (about a month's worth from what came home from her school). But, looking at that pile, I thought "Did she actually learn anything?" The pile of work doesn't even include the reading, games, and online stuff we do.

To try to figure out if her math skills are improving, today I gave her 2 of the online tests and I finally saw a huge improvement in her quick recollection of facts.

I read to her about 30 minutes a day and she reads to me about an hour a day (not all at once!). I think her reading is improving. So far both girls are much better at listening to chapter books then they were a few months ago. I do not see much improvement in Catherine's reading to me, but maybe that is because I deal with it every day and the improvements may be too incremental.

We have also been doing other subjects which she loves: history, science, and health. All of that is new info to her, so she soaks it up and really pays attention.

In history so far we have studied basic geography and nomads. She has learned a lot of facts: the 7 continents, what the equator is, how to read a compass, etc. Both girls love playing with the inflatable globe we got with the curriculum. Next we will study the Fertile Crescent and Ancient Egypt. I think we will do a lot of projects with that unit.

In Science we have studied the various tools scientists use and the "scientific method." Catherine asked me at one point "Am I a scientist?" Both girls loved playing with the ruler, graduated cylinder, thermometer, and scale. I did not stress the use of units as much with the girls (like writing 5 g, or 5 cm) as I think I should have.

For Health, we have been studying parts of the body. I get books from the library and we read them, talking then through. Then we come up with some kind of project or activity related to it. The first two books we read were on Hands and Feet. For the whole two weeks since we have done those books, the girls will still make random comments showing they remember what I taught them (this is the heel part of the sock, I drew a circle on my palm, this one is my ring finger, I am tickling the arch of my foot).

Then a few days ago I read a book on the five senses with Catherine. She still surprises me with how much she can learn. The hearing section of the book spoke of the ear drum, the 3 bones, and the inner ear. Catherine asked me where they put the tubes in her ears. She was shocked that there were bones in her ears and the fact that sound waves passed through fluid was "silly" to her. I am not sure she believed me on the ear anatomy lesson.

I did Phonics with her at first but it was too easy and she hated it. So, I had her take all the tests and the teacher let her skip the whole year. Now we do cutting & pasting activities for phonics to either put things in ABC order, sort rhyming words, or something like that. Tomorrow she is going to sort OY and OI words. That is sort of phonics, but the phonics worksheets were just too torturous and she is already reading, so we skipped them.

I also make her write a “story” every day. Right now it is only one or two sentences, but I will probably insist on 3 sentences per story starting next week. She has asked for spelling words, so I gave them to her. Last week we did parts of the body and this week we are doing items of clothing. The online curriculum does not include spelling, but Catherine asked it. She likes to be sure when she is spelling. Every time I tell her to write a story she thinks about it before hand and makes me write out all the words she will need on scrap paper so she will have it correct. She does not like phonetic spelling. She wants every word spelled correctly.

The biggest problem I have is getting her to focus and work independently. But, if it is new information, she will easily focus. She wants attention non stop (as does her sister). So it is exhausting on me because I have to interact with them non-stop all day. I know we will get into a rhythm, but then that rhythm will be upset by her medical needs. This is a big leap of faith for us, but we do feel it is God’s will.

This week is touch because I have court hearings Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. The girls are staying with a friend for the morning and we do school in the afternoon. But we don't get started until about 1 pm. We have done more reading and online stuff, so there has been less activities and written work.

Tomorrow we plan to go to a Music Class. Thursday we plan to go to a Puppet Show and Sabrina's 4 year check up. Friday will be a big desk work and project day to make up for having such a chaotic week.

Week Two, Monday -Thursday

2012-01-05T16:56:00.000-05:00

This week has been a little better. I have been more creative, which has helped. I have also allowed the girls to do school in spurts: an hour or two at a time, then take a break, then return to school. Some time we end up doing some at night, but that is fine. Catherine just does not have the endurance to go all day.

This week I did a theme for the first time. Last week we talked about nouns, so this week the theme was VERBS. I know that is not a very exciting theme, but it was the only thing I could come up with late on Sunday night.

I decorated (somewhat) the door to our school room/office to highlight the theme. Neither girl had any idea what a verb was, so at least I have introduced them to the concept.

We made a poster of all the verbs we could think of. As we did our reading throughout the week, we made additional lists of verbs and added them to the poster. We ended up with 2 huge posters.

My goal for Sabrina was for her to learn the days of the week. We taught her a little song and I had her write them out several times. She likes laying on the floor to do her work. I also bought white boards over the weekend to replace the glass mirrors I had the girls write on last week.

Instead of doing the phonics worksheets, which were ridiculously easy for Catherine, we are going through the phonics readers and the phonics games. She seems to enjoy both of those activities. We played Word Bingo with colored marbles:

Catherine's regular school did graphs all the time with the kids, so I let them do one. Catherine knows how to graph, so this is just review for her. Sabrina had never done one before, so it was a new concept for her. We made a die out of Toy Story characters and they graphed which character was rolled each time. Whichever character reached 10 rolls first was the winner. Surprisingly, Lotso Bear was the winner for both girls.

Sabrina wanted to do her graphing on the floor:

For her handwriting and vocabulary practice, I made Catherine copy down any 20 verbs off our posters every day. You can kind of tell that she has added some extra verbs she thought of throughout the day to our posters. The problem with letting her choose which verbs she wants to write was that it took her forever to pick a word. She would stare at the poster and think about it for several minutes between each word. One day she chose all the 3 letter verbs. This made her vocabulary practice take forever.

For Sabrina, tracing is still a great exercise for her. Every day she had to trace her name, all of our names, and the days of the week.

I also teach Sabrina two "new" letters every day, using letter writing worksheets. She loves these because they have a Mickey Mouse theme.

One of our biggest struggles is how to teach Catherine addition and subtraction. She understands the concept behind both, but only knows the facts up to about the 4's and 5's. After that, she has to use some type of manipulative. She loved using the marbles, calling them her "magic marbles."

Catherine's teacher from Georgia Cyber Academy called this week (I am merely a "learning coach). She and I talked about the addition and subtraction a lot. She said that it is totally normal for kids to use manipulatives throughout first grade and in to second grade. I suggested we take away all the manipulatives, but her teacher pointed out that we cannot take away her fingers.

She said to just try to do the addition and subtraction facts every day in different formats: worksheets, games, flash cards, songs, videos, etc. I got two DVD's from the library on the subject. We have been playing cards and counting the totals. We were already using flashcards, but will do these more.

One of the hardest struggles I have is to find things that the girls can do independently that is also educational. Sabrina will do puzzles by herself and really enjoys them. In just one week, I have seen a huge improvement in her ability to solve puzzles. When we first started, she could not do any of them by herself. Now she can do them very quickly. I may need to invest in some more.

Sabrina also wanted some flash cards of her own, so we got some of just the numbers (Mickey Mouse theme, per her request). I made her put them all out in order, mix them up, and do it again several times. She loved this and I think it strengthened her counting skills.

It is kind nice to do some of the schoolwork in the evening, because we can give the girls individual attention. Catherine read a Phonics Reader to Robby while he acted as the scribe and wrote down the verbs. Can you see Catherine's feeding tube sticking out from her dress? This is one of the reasons we home schooled: so her learning can continue as she is fed.

I saw this activity on a blog somewhere (I never keep track of where I find things) and it is an enormous hit. I bought a package of half-sized Popsicle sticks and used some Styrofoam strips that we had from a set of picture frames we purchased. For Sabrina, I wrote the numbers 1-10 on the sticks and she had to poke them into the Styrofoam in order. She kept having to count (out loud of course) to figure out what the next number is. This was great practice for her.

This apparently looked like lots of fun, because Catherine insisted (and I mean insisted) that she do one too. So I made Catherine one for skip counting by 2's:

They wanted to do this every single day. So I made Sabrina a second one for the letters (and between every single letter she had to sign the alphabet song). For Catherine I made ones for skip counting by 5's, 10's, and 3's. I am learning that the girls like things which require they use their hands, perhaps because it seems like a game.

We also started the Science curriculum this week, doing 3 lessons. The first unit is on tools that scientists use to measure things. So we learned how to use a graduated cylinder (with a few drops of food coloring in the water to make it easier to read):

She measured household objects with paperclips and a ruler and made a chart (did I mention that the girls wanted to have a "costume day"? I figure I fight with them so much on the worksheets that I am not fighting about what they wear.):

Catherine also learned how to use a scale. Each of those blue cubes is one gram. We made a chart of how much her different characters weighed. The mean queen from Sleeping Beauty was the heaviest.

I still have Sabrina do cutting practice every day, although she is very good at it. Right now I am giving her a different shape every day in different colors. This day was a square:

Catherine has to write a "story" every day. These shaped writing templates only allow for a sentence or two, but that is about as in-depth as her writing is right now. I was touched at the Biblical nature of her barn story:

Another Phonics game we did was "action charades." We drew cards and read the action on them, then acted them out. The girls loved this and will probably play it with Daddy tonight. This is Catherine acting out "fill a cup."

Sabrina just came in and got the Toy Story die out and wanted to make another graph. Of course I let her. It is interesting how some "school" type activities are torture on them and others are so fun they come and ask to do them. I am trying to intersperse the fun activities with the not-fun activities. Because I have had zero education in education, I really do not know what is an is not "educational" for the girls. I do really want them to enjoy school, so even if some of these activities are not truly "educational" the fun aspect of them will at least foster a positive attitude towards homeschooling.

This week so far we have also gone to the library once, had a play date while I went to a court hearing, and had a Girl Scout leader meeting at Chick Fil A (the girls enjoyed the play ground). I make the girls go outside and play for at least an hour a day to get some exercise, although it is not really formal "physical education."

We have also read a Magic Tree House book about a tsunami hitting Hawaii and some books about our body parts and the five senses. I made Catherine some worksheets to practice some of the vocabulary we learned in those books.

Day Five, End of Week One

2012-01-02T01:41:00.001-05:00

By Days 3 and 4, my patience was pretty thin and I wasn't sure if Catherine was learning anything. But, I really felt guilty because I had yelled at Catherine so much that she had broken down into tears several times. I needed to change my behavior and, hopefully, her behavior. I decided to have fun activities and try to do more fun things on Friday so that Catherine would enjoy school. I could not continue to argue with her, yell at her, and hurt her feelings. This had to be a positive experience for her.

When I woke the girls up, I suggested that we have a pajama day. They loved the idea and even wanted me to wear a nightgown also. I also took a friend's suggestion and let Catherine write out her vocabulary and do her math problems with a marker on a mirror. Both girls loved this "twist" on worksheets. I was glad they enjoyed it, but was not comfortable with them using a glass mirror. I was too afraid they would lean in to it and break it. So, this weekend I bought white boards for them to use.

I also was impressed that Catherine asked me what her spelling words were. In school she had 12 spelling words each week. The GCA curriculum did not include spelling lists, so I didn't even think about it until she said something. Upon her request, I made her a list of 20 words. For our health credits, we will be studying the human body, so I gave Catherine 20 words which were all body parts. We let her choose some of the ones she wanted to learn how to spell (eyebrow, forehead, and knee were her choices). Friday night while we were making dinner Catherine sat at the table and wrote out the words in the order I had given them to her the day before. She got all but shoulder spelled correctly. I was impressed!

Sabrina loves using the snap cubes to practice making patterns. She will only do a few before she gets bored and wants to move on. One of my challenges with Sabrina is her lack of a sustained attention span. She is only 4, so she needs a new activity every 10-15 minutes.

When Catherine was doing her math problems on the mirror, Sabrina wanted to help her. Catherine used Sabrina's fingers to do her math.

The most fun thing we did was our Health Study. GCA does not provide any lessons or materials for Health, so we have to make it up. I got some books from the library on body parts and read 2 of them to the girls. They were My Hands by Aliki and My Feet by Aliki. Both were good reads and taught the girls the various parts of your hands and feet. The foot book talked about various silly things you can do with your feet, such as drawing a picture by holding a marker with your toes:

Or putting finger puppets on your toes:

The girls loved those silly activities, giggling incessantly. Catherine even said "this is so much fun, Mommy!" Finally, she was enjoying school. I was so happy. The girls also had Daddy draw with his toes when he got home from work. I loved seeing all the excitement. The next day when Catherine was getting dressed, she ran and showed me her sock. It, like all socks, had an area for the heel and another area for the toes. She was learning some of the vocabulary from the books!

We also did some silly activities with our hands, like holding a pencil without using our thumbs:

We also practiced doing things without using our hands at all:

Sabrina trying to cut a sheet of paper with her toes:

Earlier in the week we had done some online lessons for History. The lessons were on the continents, the oceans, the parts of a compass, and the parts of a map. Both girls loved sitting next to me and doing these lessons. While we were driving in the car the next day, Catherine pointed out to me whenever she saw the words "North," etc. on a road sign. We also played a "globe game" on Friday (we sat on the floor and tossed a globe between us, pointing out something on the globe each time).

I decided that Catherine does best with new material. Of course she still needs practice on "old" material. I am trying to think of ways to let her think she is doing something new even if she is just reinforcing or strengthening skills she has.

I also decided that we did a lot of work, but I am not sure what she actually learned. So, for next week I want to be more intentional about what we are actually studying. The first week I kind of made up stuff as we went, rather than do lesson plans.

Here are pictures of the books I mentioned in this post:

Day Three

2012-01-01T23:52:00.002-05:00

Day Two of homeschooling was Sabrina's birthday. So, after we did the work in the morning, we went to see a movie: The Smurfs. It was cute. These pictures were all taken on Day Three (Wednesday).

Here is a picture of Sabrina's letter project. She placed a letter sticker on each letter which I have written:

Here is Sabrina's "Big Project" (she had to mach and glue sets of big and little letters:

I didn't realize that I had no pictures of Catherine. But, by Day 3 she was over the newness of homeschooling. The phonics and the math worksheets I had given her were way too easy for her. Instead of doing her work, she stared off into space or started giggling with her sister. I ended up yelling at her quite a bit.

My back and shoulders were hurting, so I was less patient than I want to be. These days were actually kind of rough for us. I had a lot of self doubt because I could not make Catherine do her work. I felt very guilty that I had screamed at her and made her cry. It seemed especially bad because we were getting in these arguments over material she already knew. The phonics assignments from GCA were ridiculously easy for her: circle the vowel, add a starting letter to a word.

I had to re-evaluate what I was doing. My goals for this semester are to improve her reading and writing skills, have her learn her addition and subtraction skills by heart, get her to love learning, and get her medical stuff under control. My yelling at her over dilly-dallying instead of completing worksheets which were way too easy for her was not going to accomplish any of my goals.

I have lots of friends who home school, both in my church family and in my brain tumor family. I had long, long conversations with several of them. They all have completely different styles of homeschooling and have had various levels of experience. They all gave me lots of insight.

One told me that there should be absolutely no "busy work" in home school. That everything you do should either introduce new material or strengthen a skill they still need to master. So I re-evaluated the phonics curriculum GCA sent. Because phonics is merely a pre-cursor to reading and Catherine can already read, I decided to focus on just reading with Catherine and on doing the vocabulary games.

I have given Catherine several of the Phonics tests. She has gotten 100% or almost 100% on every one of them. She was very confused when I asked her to tell me the "-en" sound. It was on her test and my teacher's guide asked her to say the sound out loud. She said "But Mommy -en is not a word. If I put a P in front of it, it will be pen. Or an H will make it hen."

I told her I understood that, but the Phonics Test wants her to say just the sound for -en. Catherine looked at me quizzically and said "Why would I say just part of a word?" I could not think of a good answer for her and by then had realized that she knows the carious sounds. I could see no value in testing her on these sounds. So, I let her skip that portion of the test. Two days later we took another Phonics Test. She drew a big X across the sound portion, telling me we would skip that part go straight to the whole words.

Math is also boring for her. She understands the concepts of addition and subtraction, but she does not know the facts well. She still uses her fingers or the math manipulatives we have. So, another friend suggested that I let her do her math problems on a mirror or to use flash cards. She said that with homeschooling Catherine may never need to do a worksheet again, that I need to focus on her learning the facts rather than completing a stack of worksheets. So I decided I had to get more creative about my methods.

On Day Three we were invited to a bowling party for kids with brain tumors. The girls had a blast:

Thank God bowling alleys have bumper guards and ball ramps. Sabrina yelled "Ready, Set, Go!" every time she made a shot:

It didn't make sense to us, but before she took her shot, Catherine lined up the ball ramp to point it straight for the gutter. Then she went and got the ball:

I am not sure if this counts as a field trip or not. When we told Catherine that we would home school her, we told her she would have more field trips. She seemed to love that idea. We are not technically started home schooling yet, so the extra fun things seemed OK to do this week.

On Thursday we had to go to Catherine's doctor in the morning to have her scalp stitches removed. After we went to the doctor, we stopped at the library. The kids love it. I took them to the library at least once a week before we home schooled, so it doesn't feel like a "school" activity. But, in Catherine's public school the classes each went to the library once a week. This was a good visit to the library because Catherine wanted to borrow the DVD "Zoe's Dance Moves." She and Sabrina could not find it on the DVD shelves, so Catherine (on her own without my prompting) asked the librarian for help. The librarian was able to help her find the DVD. Catherine was so excited she ran over to me (yes, ran) and told me "that lady found the DVD for me!" I took it as an opportunity to explain to her the term "librarian" and made her go back and thank her.

So, school could not start until about 11:00 a.m. Actually, Catherine is not a morning person at all. So, the first hour or so that she is up she is not very mentally alert. I have also learned that Catherine does not have the endurance to work for too long. It is better for her to work about an hour to an hour and a half, and then take a break. So glad we have flexibility now!

"Mommy School" - Day One

2012-01-01T23:18:00.001-05:00

Catherine and Sabrina have begun calling homeschooling "Mommy School." We have been prepping them by telling them that they will now walk down the hall from their bedroom to the school room in the morning. They helped Robby build little tables and chairs for the new classroom. So, they were ready for Day One.

Catherine wanted to wear her school uniform on the first day. I told her she could wear whatever she wanted, but she said it was Monday so she would wear her uniform. Interestingly, she has chosen to wear regular clothes the other days.

I created a cubby system for them. Each child has a column of cubbies and each cubby has a different topic (Writing, Reading, Math, Science, History). For Sabrina the cubbies included Coloring, Cutting, Numbers, Letters. Here they are when I introduced them to the cubby system:

Sabrina ate a bowl of grits while doing her letter work. She has to circle the H's on this worksheet:

I had no idea Sabrina was such a great cutter. Her scissor skills are quite impressive. I have her cut out various shapes every day. She is very neat and exact:

One thing I really want to improve with Catherine is her writing skills. So, she does a guided journal exercise every day. This one was in the shape of an apple and her assignment was to write a story about an apple. I thought she would write about our trips to the apple orchard. Instead, she wrote about Snow White eating a poisoned apple and falling asleep. You can see on their desks that they each have a caddy of supplies and a file tray for completed work. In Catherine's completed tray is a list of questions I had written out for a book she had read. This is my version of "AR" tests and helps to make sure she comprehends what she is reading.

The most fun thing the girls did the first day was called "Big Project." They each cut out a bunch of cards with letters, words and pictures for some Christmas vocabulary. Then they glued them on to construction paper. I had Catherine glue them in alphabetical order, to strengthen that skill. (Can you see Sabrina's shapes on her bulletin board?)

One of the last things we did was puzzles. The girls love doing this and have really improved over the course of the week doing a puzzle every day. They actually go back after school time is over and do the puzzles again.

I had the tissue box on the table because Catherine was congested. The poor thing actually threw up at least once a day and three times on one day. We are still trying to figure out how to feed her during the day in such a way that she can keep it all down.

Day One I guess was a success. The girls seemed to enjoy it. Sabrina especially thinks school is "fun." She does a little end-zone dance after she finishes a worksheet.

Both kids love having me there. They will give me a hug after every worksheet. During her math worksheets, Catherine actually wanted to hug me between every problem. At this point they do not work independently at all. They want me to help them through everything. I am hoping this will improve, but it may take quite some time before it improves.

The Decision to Homeschool

2012-01-01T22:49:00.001-05:00

In late November we decided that we would pull Catherine out of public school and begin homeschooling her. This was a tough decisions for several reasons. My career may completely disappear as a result of this decision, so financially we would become completely dependent on Robby. I was not sure if I would have the patience. Catherine loves her friends and the social aspect of school.

But, Catherine was missing about a day and a half a week for medical appointments. Plus, each day that she was there she was missing about an hour to two hours of class time because of her tube feedings and pottying issues. This has been the case for all of last year and this year. There has been virtually no improvement.

Then on Dec. 7 we took Catherine to the hospital to do some extensive testing on her bladder and colon. On Dec. 8 we met with her urologist and learned that she would never be potty trained and would need surgery in January, to create a permanent catheter and a colon irrigation system. She will be in the hospital for a week and then spend 3-4 weeks at home in recovery.

Then we will have to learn how to catheterize her 4-6 times per day and to irrigate her colon once a day. We will also have to switch her feedings to the day (before she was fed overnight). Her body will produce to much urine overnight if we continue the night feedings, and we do not want to wake her up several times a night to catheterize her.

So, we decided to tell Catherine. We could not ask her what she wanted to do, because we had already made our decision. We couldn't risk her opposing it and us having to force the issue. So, we presented it as a fun change. She immediately said she wanted to do it. The most logical time to pull her out of school seemed to be during the Christmas break. When her classmates returned in January, she would be at home.

We wanted to wait to tell her teachers until we were closer to the Christmas break. But, the day after we told Catherine she walked in and told her teacher "Starting in January I am going to be homeschooled!" The cat was out of the bag at that point. We knew the whole school would know within the hour. So, we met with her teacher and told them our reasons.

We really did not have any complaints about the school. We wanted them to handle more of the medical stuff in the classroom, so she would not miss so much school. We agreed that the pottying issues had to be held in private. But the school would not do a tube feeding in the classroom, citing a concern for her safety.

When the surgery and recovery issues were considered, there was no longer any option. She would miss about a month of school if we left her in traditional school.

We briefly looked at a few curriculum options, but chose Georgia Cyber Academy for a few reasons. It is free (she will technically still be a public school student, in the GCA). She receives physical therapy and occupational therapy from the school per her IEP and that would continue, paid for by the school system. There are online classes and tons of materials which GCA sends us.

So we applied for GCA and were accepted. Our start date for this semester is supposed to be January 9th. But, because she will be out so much in January & February, we decided to start right after Christmas and get a jump start on the semester. The material arrived before Christmas. We do not have official access to the online portion of GCA yet, but a friend of ours has given us her password so we can do some of the online lessons that way.

This is a huge leap of faith for us in several ways. I have no idea if and how this will work, but I feel like it is what is best for Catherine. It is a huge sacrifice for me, as I will be losing my career (or at least letting it dwindle substantially) and I will have to take on the enormous task of educating my children by myself.

I had been thinking about it for weeks. I was not sure how Robby would react (he was immediately supportive). We made the decision before we knew about the January surgery and its aftermath. That news was a huge confirmation to me that we had made the right decision.

Only time will tell if this will be a successful decision. Bu we have lived for years not knowing what the future will hold. This situation is a little different because we are taking steps that are creating the uncertainty in our future. With the medical situations, they just kind of happened and we reacted. Here, we are behind the steering wheel, pulling her out of school and teaching her ourselves.

Chocolate Fondue

2011-12-30T15:59:00.000-05:00

Recently my Dad had a family dinner at his house. He asked us to bring our chocolate fondue fountain for dessert. I would say that Sabrina and Addison loved this:

It looks like she has a goatee:

Sabrina's cousin Addison is much neater, but still loved it:

BTFC Holiday Party

2011-12-30T15:56:00.000-05:00

Every year one of the most fun things we do during the holiday season is attend the Brain Tumor Foundation for Children's Holiday Party. It is an amazing party with lots of action to entertain the children. Of course visiting Santa is the highlight:

And getting a gift from Santa's elves (Sabrina got an Ariel chair and Catherine got a set of dresses, shoes, etc. for Barbie):

The girls also love the crafts. Catherine made a placemat:

The weather this year was warm enough to enjoy the train ride around the parking lot (several times):

We made necklaces:

Sabrina painted a bunch of plastic ornaments:

We ran into one of the oncology nurses, Jennifer. Unbeknownst to us, she has a baby now! It is such a wonderful to go to the chemo clinic so rarely that we actually missed our favorite nurse's pregnancy and maternity leave!

More painting:

So much fun!

More Advent Projects

2011-12-30T15:41:00.000-05:00

This year our holiday season was far busier than is at all comfortable. We have been working hard to finish our bathroom and build a playhouse at the same time. In addition, we spent a few days in and out of the hospital dealing with Catherine's bladder/colon issues. So, we got really behind on the daily advent projects.

Last year we were great about doing one project each and every day. This year we did nothing for about a week or so, and then had marathon days on which we did several projects all at once. Despite our lack of consistency, the girls still loved the projects.

Being lifted up and grabbing an envelope is tons of fun for the kids:

They also love the surprise of opening the envelope:

We made paper chains out of red and green strips of paper:

The girls love how long the paper chains can get:

The girls love putting candy canes on the tree (Catherine's parapro gave her a set of Ariel jewelry and tiara for Christmas):

One of the activities was to play a game, so we played Candyland:

We made snowmen out of a sticker set:

We colored Christmas pictures:

Despite our haphazard holiday season, I still think this was a fun activity and the girls did love it. I pray that next year will be less chaotic so we can enjoy Christmas more. Of course I need to get more organized in September and October to be better prepared next year.

The Playhouse

2011-12-30T15:31:00.000-05:00

This year we decided to give the girls a playhouse. To add to the drama (it really could not be a surprise because it is so big and we built it in the backyard and they couldn't not see it), we decided to wrap up keys to the playhouse. After they opened all of the other gifts and their stockings, they figured out that the small box containing the playhouse keys was on the mantle:

We let Catherine remove the paper:

And Sabrina open the box:

Then they put on some sweat pants, a jacket and headed out to see if the keys worked:

We did a "ribbon cutting:"

Which was harder than it looked because the child's scissors I gave the girls were not strong enough for the big ribbon:

But the kids loved exploring the completed, furnished play house! They have a reading loft with old comforters, big pillows, and a desk:

The staircase now has a pink handrail on it so the girls don't get splinters:

The kitchen area has a small dishwasher (behind Catherine) and some great shelves my Dad built:

The small table for tea parties fits well under the staircase. We even hung curtains up on all the windows (these once hung in my parents' bedroom many years ago).

Christmas Morning

2011-12-28T11:11:00.000-05:00

Santa always eats the cookies, drinks the milk, and leaves a "thank you" note next to the presents he leaves. Here are the girls finding the note:

Sabrina is so excited about getting a Belle doll:

Catherine does not seem happy, but she truly does love books. Santa gave her a book of Disney fairy stories.

Sabrina got a book about animals & their habitats:

Both got another set of Play-Doh, which they love:

I love the sisterly body language. Catherine turned her back on her sister to open the gift in "private." Sabrina was so curious:

Santa filled the stockings with girly things (perfume, body spray, hair scrunchies, neon colored band-aids):

Catherine helping Grandpa open some tools he picked out from Home Depot (all I did was pay for them & wrap them; I don't even know what they are):

Both girls helping Robby open some new frying pans:

New Pajamas

2011-12-28T11:03:00.000-05:00

We have very few traditions in our house. I think it is because our life has always been so chaotic that we just have not had the ability to create and sustain a lot of traditions. But, one small one we have been able to do is give the girls matching pajamas on Christmas Eve and take pictures of them in front of the hearth. Even though we have done this for several years, I think neither of them knew what was in the present they were opening on Christmas Eve:

This year they got flannel princess nightgowns:

I love the "side chokes" during the hugging:

Holding hands:

The princess pajamas were on clearance, so I also bought them matching fairy nightgowns. While Catherine was still changing her pajamas, Sabrina did some posing:

More hugs & giggles:

One of my favorites:

Oops!

After they put out cookies & milk for Santa:

Making Cookies for Santa

2011-12-28T10:57:00.000-05:00

The girls did a great job decorating cookies for Santa. Catherine focused on sprinkles:

While Sabrina focused on frosting:

They both had fun:

Playhouse Construction

2011-12-19T22:17:00.013-05:00

We decided to build the girls a playhouse in the backyard for this Christmas. They are still young, so we wanted them to have it for as long as they could enjoy it. My father is an architect, so of course he designed it. We wanted it to be able to convert to a tool shed when the girls outgrow it. So the back has a full size door and it will be wired for electricity.

So, my father drew up some plans, which neither Robby or I really understood. We have started to construct it and will have it completed by Christmas. Originally I wanted the playhouse to be a surprise. I suggested my Dad build it in modular pieces at his house and we assemble it on Christmas Eve, after the girls went to bed. My Dad thought I was nuts and rejected my idea.

So, we began construction. We have told the kids that Mommy, Daddy and Grandpa are building it and Santa might bring them the key to it. There is no way we could keep it a secret, as my Dad has been here several days a week, all day, building it. Plus, it is huge. I had no idea it would be as large or as fancy as it is. Both Robby and I are in shock at how fancy it is.

Here are some construction shots:

I love the above shot because it shows the windows and shutters. Plus, it shows all the trim which my Dad has added. I had to leave one afternoon during construction to go handle a court case. When I came back, my Dad had put trim on the top and bottom of the columns!

This shot shows the size. We have since put a step between the side of the porch and the swingset/slide area. Of course I took these pictures while it was still under construction, so there are tools and supplies everywhere in the pictures.

My dad painted the front door pastel pink. It is so cute. Adults have to bend over so much, it feels like you are Alice entering Wonderland.

Family Shots

2011-12-18T16:25:00.001-05:00

Here are some family shots from the Brain Tumor Foundation for Children's photo session:

I think the photographer got us all laughing:

I am particularly grateful that they took some couple shots of us:

Photo sessions with little kids can not take long, because the giggling will commence:

Me and Sabrina (do you see the resemblence?):

I think Catherine was "side choking" Sabrina here:

My Girls, Posers!

2011-12-18T16:22:00.000-05:00

Recently the Brain Tumor Foundation for Children hosted a family picture session. I have no idea where my children have learned this, but they have both turned into total posers:

Princess arms:

A Minnie Mouse leg tilt:

Ballerina arms:

Not sure what this is:

I think she was doing the twist:

It is quite funny to watch them in action!

Two More "Tubies"

2011-12-16T09:05:00.003-05:00

We have been trying to potty train Catherine for almost three years. We were told not to start until after chemo ended (in March 2009) and after her bladder was repaired (for the first time in April 2009, then again in November 2010). We had no success potty training Catherine.  We were hoping peer pressure may help. In kindergarten we eased up on the potty training and let her wear pull-ups to school, but over the summer we tried to ban pull-ups. We cleaned the floor several times a day.

But in first grade we believed that we really needed to get her potty trained. If not in first grade, then we'll have a second grader in pull-ups, then a third grader, etc. She had been off chemo over two years. We had the confidence that we could do it because I potty trained Sabrina in just three days (using a "boot camp" strategy a friend told me about).

Catherine's school agreed with us and assigned a full-time para-pro to her to help her. The para-pro kept meticulous records and timed every single trip to the bathroom. She took her hourly. Catherine almost never initiated, but usually would go if you sat her on the potty. But, she still had accidents almost every day. The school, county staff, and I had several meetings about this process.

By late September, six weeks into school, Catherine was still not the least bit potty trained. At our quarterly Brain Tumor Clinic meeting, the oncologist told me that there must me something anatomically wrong with Catherine's bladder. She said every child gets potty trained in a few weeks, even ones who are severely cognitively impaired. So, we scheduled a meeting with the urologist. He agreed there is likely something not working correctly, but needed to do some specific testing in the hospital to determine what exactly was happening inside of her.

On December 7th we went to Scottish Rite for the tests. They revealed that her bladder does not contract when she tells it to, the neck of her urethra has too low leak pressure (should be in the 80’s and is in the 10’s) and her colon also doesn’t do what her body tells her to. Catherine's big spinal tumor at birth (called a saccrococygeal terratoma) and her tethered spinal cord likely caused this. The urologist said that he does not think she will ever be potty trained. He said she has a neurogenic bladder and colon (which means the nerves serving those organs do not work).

One solution is to catheterize her 4-6 times a day through her urethra. However, this would not fix the colon problem and, due to the low leak pressure, she would still leak. Plus, there is a dignity issue. Catherine is starting to develop modesty and we don't really want Mommy, Daddy, Grandpa, school nurses, and babysitters catheterizing her this way. By age 8 the doctor said that she can catheterize herself, but that is still a year away.

There is also a surgery which can use electrical impulses to reconnect her nerves with the bladder and her colon, but she is not a candidate for that surgery because her lower spine has so many issues.

Another solution, and the one we have chosen, is called a Mitrofanoff procedure. The surgeon will use her appendix to create a second urethra. Your urethra (I have learned so much anatomy from parenting Catherine!) is the tube that drains urine from your bladder out of your body. This second urethra will be at the top of her bladder and will exit her body at the bottom part of her belly button. Then, several times a day we will stick a tube down this "second urethra" and hold the other end of the tube over the toilet. She will urinate in this manner for the rest of her life (unless medical science invents something better).

To help with the leaking, they will take either cadaveric tissue (from a dead person) or tissue from a cow and wrap it around the neck of her urethra, where it joins the bladder. This is called a sling and should prevent leaking. The surgeon asked us during our meeting if we had a preference of what type of tissue they used.

Thankfully the nurses had taken Catherine out of the room and were playing with her. Robby and I were still reeling with the onslaught of bad news and information. Then the surgeon asked if we wanted cadaveric or bovine tissue in our daughter. I wanted to say "neither, can't she just be healthy?!" But, I learned long ago that Catherine's body is not "healthy" and that is just the way it is. On the spot the only response I could come up with was "whatever is likely to not be rejected by her body and last the longest." Robby said he didn't care either way, that she already has a metal coil in her heart and a plastic tube in her stomach.

Lastly, Catherine has been constipated her entire life. We give her stool softeners, medicine to make her colon contract, etc. She has had several impactions (where it is just stuck in there). One of them was removed surgically. Usually we can handle the impactions at home with enemas and lots of laxatives. It is a horrible situation, very painful for her. Sometimes she gets diarrhea for days, and so we have to worry about dehydration.  Needless to say, these bowel issues are very hard on a child who would prefer to play.

Last year some of the bacteria from her colon penetrated the membranes of her colon and gave her a horrible e coli infection.  I have literally never seen her so sick before. We carried her to the ER and she couldn't even hold her head up. They treated it with massive, strong anti-biotics. Within a few days, she was fine. But, the fear that she will get e coli poisoning again is ever present.

So, the third thing the surgeon is going to do is use another portion of her appendix in a procedure called MACE. This will create a hole in her tummy (called a stoma) which will be on the right side (opposite of her g-tube). This hole will go into the top of her colon. We will then, once a day, sit her on the potty and put a saline mixture into the stoma. This will irrigate her colon. It is like an enema, but from above instead of below. Therefore, it will be less painful (hopefully no pain), more dignified, and something she can learn to do on her own.

She will be in the hospital for a week having all of this done. The surgery date is set for January 18, but we have to go in the day before for "bowel preparation." Then she will have 3 weeks of recovery after that.

We have explained to Catherine that she will get 2 more "tubies" in her tummy. She asked me how long they will be there. I told her "a long time." Last night when we were doing an enema for her, she pointed to the right side of her abdomen and calmly said "after the surgery you will do the enema here, right?" It is amazing how much she understands. It is amazing how much she can accept and minimize.  It is just not a "big deal" to her.

The surgeon asked us if we were OK with all that he thought needed to be done to Catherine. I told him that I hate the fact that these problems will plague her for the rest of her life, but it is not like we have not significantly intervened medically with Catherine many times already. It seems like every aspect of her body has had some type of surgery or treatment.

The words normal and healthy are so strange. Every person who is expecting a baby prays fervently "I just want a normal, healthy baby." That was my prayer when I was pregnant. But, that is certainly not what God gave us.

But if I had prayed for "a sweet, loving child with the inner strength to accept any and all challenges she faces with dignity and perseverance" then I would have gotten exactly what I had prayed for! Catherine understands why she is getting these new tubies, has not questioned it at all, and seems to understand that it will be better for her.

Other than a few comments, I don't think Catherine has thought about these two new tubies much at all. She is far more concerned with what Santa will bring her for Christmas, whether she can wear a ballet costume to the Polar Express ballet we are attending, and if her sister is sharing her princess dolls. Those issues elicit real emotion and concern from Catherine, not the failure of her bladder, urethra and colon to work properly. If only I can learn from Catherine's example ...

Sabrina's Singing Debut

2011-12-15T00:25:00.018-05:00

We go to church almost every Sunday morning and every Wednesday evening. The girls love the Wednesday night activities: dinner, choir, mission friends, and general play. Sabrina normally talks non-stop, but she was actually a little shell shocked during the Christmas concert. I remember that Catherine had the same reaction, she just wasn't sure what was going on. All of a sudden, she was on a stage with her classmates singing. By the time Sabrina figured out that she was supposed to be singing, the concert was almost over.

I love it when they give props to the children to use. Lots of kids were accidentally poked in the face by the plastic stars. They also taught them hand movements to accompany the songs, but I am not sure which children are doing the correct hand movements for this song:

Sabrina did find us in the audience and wave to us:

I am glad she saw us. I know the girls love choir. I do not believe I have a musical cell in my body, so any chance they have at learning any musical skills or appreciation will have to come from outside sources.

I especially find the logistics of toddler concerts cute: 15 minutes to get the children standing on the risers and facing the same direction, 3 minutes to sing their songs, 20 minutes to get the children reunited with their parents in the middle of the mob scene. Some kids start crying, some poke their neighbors. Behind the risers several adult volunteers are positioned to catch any children who might fall off the back of the risers. At least 10 parents video tape the entire "concert" and everyone photographs their children.

Camp Sunshine's Christmas Party

2011-12-14T00:17:00.001-05:00

On Sunday we went to Camp Sunshine's annual Christmas Party. They have Santa (of course), food, crafts and lots of other fun activities. Here the girls are talking with Santa:

Sabrina getting their nails done:

The highlight of the afternoon was the face painting, which the kids really loved. Sabrina getting her face painted like Rudolph by an elf:

Catherine getting flowers painted on her face by an angel:

Sabrina's finished product:

Sabrina was so excited to show Catherine her painted face:

Catherine getting sparkly dust on her painted face:

Sabrina found a mirror in one of the craft rooms and loved looking at herself:

Thank you, Camp Sunshine, for a fabulous day of fun!

Rally Hosts Milk & Cookies with Santa

2011-12-13T23:59:00.002-05:00

On Sunday we went to a fabulous Christmas visit with Santa at the St. Regis Hotel. The girls were so excited; they both ran into the room screaming "Santa!" This was the first time that I have ever seen kids sitting on the floor listening to Santa tell stories:

The kids were enraptured by his stories:

Then, each child was able to individually tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. He spent a lot of time with them and my girls had extensive conversations with him:

The conversation seems so serious:

I wish I could have been close enough to hear what Sabrina was telling him:

Here is our attempt at a family photo:

The St. Regis Hotel was very opulent. They had a huge walk-through gingerbread house, which the girls loved:

The entire event was very classy and upscale. We dressed the girls up in beautiful party dresses and enjoyed fabulous snacks and drinks. My girls were fairly well behaved, except for this little choking incident:

I promise I do not let my children watch violent television!

Camp Sunshine Hosts Kids at Rhodes Hall

2011-12-12T23:50:00.001-05:00

Last week attended a fabulous Christmas event at Rhodes Hall in downtown Atlanta. When I told the girls we had to dress up to go see Santa, Catherine asked me if we were going to the North Pole. It is amazing to me how convoluted the "lie" of Santa has to be. On the fly the only thing I could think of was that Santa was coming to Atlanta to visit.

While we were waiting for Robby to get home, the girls practiced a bunch of poses for the camera. I didn't think much about it, until we actually got next to Santa and they could not just stand still and smile:

Catherine was particularly hamming it up for the camera:

They also enjoyed crafts at Rhodes Hall:

Catherine brought a cookie to Santa (I think she was actually flirting with him):

Lastly, we wanted to try a family picture. After several attempts at a serious, normal picture, we just gave up and all decided to pose for the camera:

Thank you, Camp Sunshine for a fabulous evening with Santa in a beautiful castle-like house!

More Advent Activities

2011-12-11T23:47:00.000-05:00

This December is considerably busier than usual (and December is normally a busy month). With the playhouse construction, bathroom renovation, and processing Catherine's new medical challenges, we are just barely getting by. I have not begun to do any shopping for my family and have no idea what I will put in their stockings. I have finished their Santa gifts and the playhouse is what we are giving them. We are giving each other the bathroom, so that is taken care of.
So, we have been a bit behind on our advent activities, but the girls still love them! I think the most exciting part is pulling the envelopes down and opening them:

Sabrina cannot read the cards herself, because she is 3. So when it is her turn to pull an envelope down, Catherine always tries to take it from her to read the card.

But, Sabrina wants to feel like she can do it herself, so she runs away from Catherine (they literally chased each other around the couch a few times):

This year we tried a new activity that we did not do last year: Have a Picnic by the Christmas Tree. The girls loved it:

We have also done Show and Tell Your Favorite Ornament:

Sabrina chose the Ariel ornament and Catherine chose the pink magic wand. I chose a hand made Disney ornament and Robby chose an angel ornament. Halfway through our discussion both girls and Robby all wanted to choose an extra ornament.

We also Danced to Christmas Music:

After Robby got tired, the girls chose our Mickey and Minnie as dance partners:

We have also Made Tissue Wreaths. I was not as organized this year as last year, so I could not find red and green tissue paper in my wrapping supplies. So, I just used the pastel tissue paper I could find:

Sabrina is still working on the distinction between a wreath and a hat:

Mirror and Wand Kits

2011-12-10T22:12:00.005-05:00

A few weeks ago (again, I am behind in my blogging) a dear friend of ours sent my girls some art supplies and craft kits. Whatever would make her think my daughters would enjoy those gifts? Actually, she knows my girls so well that she bought them kits to make and decorate mirrors and wands with stickers, jewels, and glitter glue:

The girls were in heaven with these kits:

I love glitter glue so much more than loose glitter:

Post Office Tour

2011-12-09T21:58:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago Catherine's Daisy troop took a tour of the local post office (I know I am behind in my blogging). The girls enjoyed this tour, but then again they seem to enjoy every field trip we take. Here is the group with Brian, the tour guide:

Sabrina is checking out an individual carrier's section. I did not realize that the Post Office had staff who pre-sorted the mail into routes. Then, the individual carriers must sort their mail into slots per address. Once done, they can then load their mail up and go on their routes.

Here is the group in front of a mail truck which we got to tour:

Inside one of the big trucks which deliver mail to the post office:

Touring some of the offices:

Above the mail sorting floor, they had catwalks with windows facing downwards. These catwalks are for postal inspectors to use to observe the sorters and make sure they aren't stealing anything out of the mail.

Playhouse Footings

2011-12-08T21:51:00.001-05:00

This year for Christmas we are building the girls a playhouse in our back yard. My Dad, an architect, is our designer, so it will be very nice, and much larger than a typical playhouse. We have been working on it for a few weeks and will still need to push hard to finish by Christmas.

Here are some shots of the first day of work, when we dug the footings. I love how helpful Sabrina is in projects like this. She always wants to get in the middle of things:

My Dad and Robby handling the "one person" hole digger:

Robby teaching Sabrina how to use a level:

Christmas Packages

2011-12-07T21:47:00.001-05:00

Our church, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, holds a Christmas festival every year called "Christmas Packages." The kids enjoy it. We were tired and skipped some events because the lines were too long. But the girls did have their arms painted (both opted to not have their face painted):

Their favorite part each year is the Nutcracker Dance-Along:

I love the tutus:

This little 30 minute ballet class is so cute:

Sabrina pretending to ride a hobby horse:

Catherine seems so dramatic:

At the end of the event, we saw some real reindeer:

Sticker Art

2011-12-07T15:40:00.000-05:00

Sabrina's finished product:

One of the most fun activities for the girls is sticker art ... they love decorating things with stickers. I love when the stickers & the item to be sticker come as a set. We had oversized paper stockings and a sheet of stickers, which the girls decorated yesterday:

Catherine's Christmas Concert

2011-12-06T21:10:00.028-05:00

This past Sunday Catherine sang in her first grade church choir concert. I love that Catherine always gets to stand in the front row, because she is so short. She and a few other kids held posters which, when held up next to each other, showed the image of a city.

The "producers" of the show had an image of the kids on the big overhead screen behind the children. This was great because the parents could see the children. But, the children frequently got distracted and watched themselves on the screen instead of looking at the audience:

Here is the "city" and the stars above it when held up by the children. Catherine is completely covered by her poster:

When the kids sang "Let My Little Light Shine" (or whatever the song is called), they held up wants with stars on the end:

Every time Catherine's image appeared on the overhead screen, Sabrina pointed to it, so Robby took a picture of it:

I have no idea why, but it appears that Catherine is cracking up in the middle of the concert:

I think this is part of a wave to us:

After the concert, we attended our church's Christmas Packages, a festival of various Christmas activities (I'll blog about that later). When we were leaving, I asked Catherine what her favorite part was. She said "singing in the concert."

Fire Station Tour

2011-12-05T21:04:00.002-05:00

Catherine's Girl Scout Daisy troop recently toured Cobb County's Fire Station Number 19. It was a great tour, very thorough. The best part is when one of the fire fighters dressed up in his full gear to show the girls what he would look like inside a burning building:

The girls were at first afraid of the fire fighter because his breathing through the oxygen was so loud, but they eventually agreed to sit near him. Another highlight of the trip was climbing into the truck:

They were even allowed to push buttons:

Sabrina pretending to drive:

Catherine pretending to drive, in her Daisy uniform:

Advent - Day 4

2011-12-04T21:38:00.000-05:00

Here is our advent activity for Day 4 (we have temporarily skipped Day 3 because it is a long one and we got home pretty late - hopefully we'll do it tomorrow). Here's Sabrina pulling the envelope down:

The activity is "wear silly Santa hats." Both girls love wearing these hats. Catherine even wanted to wear hers to bed.

Snowman Napkin Holder

2011-12-04T20:51:00.000-05:00

We missed last month's project, but was able to make it to Home Depot's Kids' Workshop this month. The project was snowman napkin holders. I am not sure what Sabrina is hammering, since we had not even opened the kits yet:

We are trying to make the children more independent, so we made them open the kits themselves this time:

Catherine's carpentry skills are really coming along. She was able to do almost all of the project herself:

Robby helped Sabrina with her assembly:

I made Catherine read the instructions (although I think she mostly just looked at the pictures) and try to figure out how to assemble the project on her own. To my pleasant surprise, she was able to do so:

I loved this project because it included a set of stickers, which the girls love. I don't like when they include painting, because then we have to figure out how to get a wet project home in the car.

The girls has such a blast picking out scarves, smiles, buttons, and eyeballs out of the sticker selection:

I liked this project so much that I asked them for another set of kits. I want to test the girls and see if they can do it on their own. My plan is to wait a week and see if they can do the project again. I truly love the Home Depot Kids' Workshops!!

Advent Activities

2011-12-04T20:37:00.000-05:00

Last year we did an advent activity project instead of the traditional advent chocolate calendars. Catherine would not eat chocolate and I don't want to encourage Sabrina (or anyone) to eat more candy. So, I made envelopes for each day and hung them up in our foyer. Each day we took an envelope down and completed the activity listed inside. The kids loved the activity last year.

This year I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it again. But, after Thanksgiving was over, Catherine kept asking me when we were going to hang the envelopes up for December. She decided that she would pull down all the odd numbers and Sabrina could pull down the even numbers.

So, I used the same envelopes as last year and we have started again.

Day 1 was "Write letter to Santa." Here's Catherine (in her Sleeping Beauty costume) picking the first envelope:

Day 2 was "Drink Hot Chocolate" and Sabrina chose the envelope:

Catherine would not drink it, but we let Sabrina use the fancy Christmas china:

Scalp Surgery

2011-11-27T15:42:00.036-05:00

Last week Catherine had three spots of dead skin removed from her scalp. She was born with these three tear-drop shaped patches of dead skin on the crown of her head. When she was a baby, a dermatologist told us it should be removed as it could contain pre-cancerous cells. But, he wanted to wait until she was older. Then when she was 27 months old, she started battling a brain tumor. The oncologist said we should wait until she is off treatment to repair the scalp.

Of course post cancer treatment we have been focused on bladder, kidney, colon, and stomach issues. Some of those issues are still in process, but things have medically kind of settled down for awhile.

So, last week we had the three patches, as well as a "bridge" of skin between them removed. The surgery was supposed to take 30 minutes, but instead lasted an hour and a half. Before the operation, the surgeon mentioned that he might need to put some bandages on the area to help protect the stitches, but he wasn't sure. I was absolutely shocked when they returned Catherine to me with this on her head:

According to the surgeon, the operation went well. We were told to keep the bandages on at least 24 hours, but preferably 48 hours. He said that some kids will try to pull it off themselves, which could rip the stitches. Once it comes off, we have to put a prescription-level antibiotic cream on it 3 times a day. We also have to shampoo it carefully every day and give her another antibiotic through her g-tube 4 times a day. I guess infection is a big risk with this surgery!

She will have the stitches for 4 weeks, or right before Christmas.

When Catherine woke up from the surgery, she was of course groggy. But, she kept touching the bandages. I told her that the doctor put a silly hat on her head to protect the stitches, but that she would only have to wear if for 2 days. I asked her if she wanted to see what it looked like. She said yes. So, I held her in front of a mirror.

Thankfully, she giggled when she saw her "silly hat" in the mirror. The first thing she said to me was "now you can't comb my hair!" Catherine's hair is quite wavy and gets tangled all the time. So, combing her hair is usually a screaming and crying ordeal. With these bandages, only a tiny part of her hair sticks out of the bottom.

On Thursday, after Thanksgiving dinner, we had to take the bandages off. Catherine wanted to keep it on, but we told her we had to take it off so we could start putting the cream on. Catherine was quite a trooper as we removed several layers of white gauze. The bottom layer, which was touching the stitches, had some dried blood in it mixed with her hair. So, it hurt a little to remove that.

Then we have used the cream for another 2 days and actually washed her hair for the first time tonight. We wanted to give the stitches as much time as possible to strengthen the incisions. I know it hurt her as we had to wash her hair. There were some sections which had blood and other gunk dried in there. Some parts I just cut out, rather than cause her any more pain. I bought some special de-tangling shampoo, but I am not sure it really made a difference. I still had to put tons of conditioner in her hair to try to get a comb through it. I also bought some detangling spray to use after I had rinsed her hair. I think that did help a lot (of course she was pleased because it came in a Disney princess bottle).

I feel confident that with all the anti-biotics we are giving Catherine, she will not get an infection. But, my bigger fear is that she will fall, hit the crown of her head and pop the incision open. Sabrina's chin incision was popped open by a fluky fall, thus destroying any hope of having a pretty small scar. Of course Catherine's "scar" will be on the crown of her head, completely covered by her hair. So, unless she shaves her head, no one will ever see it. But, if it bursts open, it could become infected.

As worried as the devil wants me to be, I have to remind myself that the stitches are completely on the crown of her head. So, to bump her head exactly on the top of her head would be quite difficult. In fact, if she truly did land on the top of her head, I would need to be more concerned about a concussion or closed head injury than stitches breaking open.

But, I know I need to trust God and not worry about this at all. I am grateful for talented surgeons, prophylactic anti-biotics, skilled nurses, and an experienced six year old patient who is so calm in medical situations. Catherine actually reminds us to give her her medicines, respects what the doctors say (of course that had bad consequences with her last surgery), and is careful with any kind of stitches, etc.

Arguing with Sabrina

2011-11-26T21:10:00.001-05:00

Sabrina has always been verbal. As a baby she cooed incessantly. She graduated into words, then phrases, and eventually sentences. Her clarity has improved over time, but she has always talked a lot. I frequently joke that Sabrina doesn't always talk; at night she sleeps.

Lately her talkative nature has crossed paths with an emerging toddler defiance/boundary challenging attitude. Yes, she has started to argue with me. Catherine has challenged me every step of the way since birth, so I have become used to and even appreciate her strong willed nature.

But Sabrina has always been a compliant, cooperative child. Until now. Every day she takes serious exception to things I say. She will scream or cry when I stand my ground, insisting that I am wrong. These are some of the things we have argued about in the last week or so:

Whether it is Monday
If she has a brother
If she can draw on the wall
If the grass is green
Whether she has two arms
Whether Catherine's name is "Catherine"
Whether the house we have just arrive at is our house
Whether she lives in that house with us
Whether or not it is night time
Whether they sell food at Publix
If this is really my car
If she can stand up in the grocery cart
If my car really needs gas
Does she have to take a bath
Can she stay in the bath tub all night

You get the idea, these arguments occur all the time. I try not to enter into unnecessary arguments, but I do feel like I have to correct her. There remains the eternal question: "Does she really believe the "position" she is arguing or is she just making conversation with me?" I still want her to believe me when I tell her things, so I feel like I have to reiterate the truth.

At times these arguments are cute; they can be so silly that I have to laugh. But, when my day is a little stressful, I am sometimes impatient with her and react negatively. I know she is pushing her boundaries and that is an essential part of her development. I also know that I have to win these battles, or at least the majority of them. I must remain an authority figure in her life.

I pray that God will give me the patience to calmly, consistently parent Sabrina during this phase.

Five Days of Silence

2011-10-31T23:31:00.000-04:00

On October 13, 2011 Catherine had surgery to correct her left eye. The surgery was only about half an hour, but she was put under general anesthesia, which includes intubating her. The surgery went fine. We were all home by noon. She was still under the influence of all the drugs she had been given during the surgery, as well as the painkillers we were advised to give her. So, she basically slept on and off all Thursday afternoon.

We were told that she could go back to school on Friday, so we got her ready and took her in. She did not talk at all that morning, and kept pointing at her throat. I figured her throat might be sore, but she seemed fine other than her refusal to talk.

When I picked her up after school, her teachers and the nurse said that she has refused to talk all day. hey said that she did a great job of using basic sign language, pointing and grunting to communicate. But she had not uttered a word all day. They also said that she refused to drink any water, which she normally does.

That night she seemed fine, but still not vocal. She and her sister played. Catherine laughed without opening her mouth. When I asked her what TV show she wanted to watch, she tried to spell it in the air with her fingers. I pretended I didn't understand her in an effort to get her to speak. She then ran to her bedroom and came back with one of the "Super Why" books. She pointed to the title of the book, which is also the title to a TV show. Sabrina figured it out (of course I had too) and screamed out "she wants to watch Super Why!" Sabrina thought this was a game. I was very frustrated and annoyed.

After dinner we got hte girls ready for bed, Catherine still being silent. Robby took Sabrina to another room to read to her. I sat in Catherine's bed with her. She brought me a Fred & Ted book. She opened it up and pointed to the words. Then she pointed to my mouth. Then the words, then my mouth again. It was obvious she wanted me to read it to her. I told her I would only read it if she would say the words "Fred" and "Ted." I told her I would read all of the other words in the book.

The first time one of the words I wanted Catherine to read appeared, I stopped and looked at her. She kept her mouth shut and pointed to my mouth. I said "No, you say the word." She shook her head no. I said "Catherine, you can say one word." She opened her mouth about a millimeter and mumbled something. I accepted her attempt and read the rest of the words.

Another word I wanted Catherine to read appeared on the next page. Again, I paused for Catherine to read it. She opened her mouth a millimeter and mumbled something. On the next page, I paused for Catherine to read the word. She simply closed the book, got out of bed and put the book back on the shelf. She came back and started to cry. This was very unusual; normally she loves having books read to her.

Her refusal to open her mouth started to concern me. I asked her why she wouldn't talk, even though I knew she could. She kept pointing to her throat and shaking her head. I am embarrassed to say that I yelled at her some. But I still could not get her to speak. So, I got worried. Very worried. I thought maybe the surgeons left something in her throat. Maybe they damaged her throat and she was unable to swallow. If she couldn't swallow and clear out her throat, she would be at risk of aspirating or choking on vomit if she got sick in the middle of the night. She could die. I wasn't comfortable with her falling asleep at this point.

I told Robby that we should take her to the ER. He said "because she's being stubborn and playing a game with us?" I told him I thought she may still have a foreign object in her throat, or maybe they paralyzed her vocal cords. Robby yelled at her, threatened that she better not be faking it. We called the Scottish Rite nurse's line. They said that if she would not open her mouth, we should take her to the ER. So, I went. By this point it was late at night and Sabrina was asleep. So Robby stayed home.

At the ER the doctor used a tongue depressor to wedge her mouth open. He looked inside with a flashlight. He said that she had a "bruised uvula" (that dangly thing in the back of our mouths). He said it definitely hurts her to talk, but that we just have to give it time to heal and that she should start talking again in 4-5 days. He said that sometimes people will get serious throat infections as a result of anesthesia, but that she did not have that. I asked what should I do while her throat heals. He said "enjoy the silence." He told us to pump extra fluids into her to make sure she did not get dehydrated. We went home.

On Saturday she was fine, but still silent. She also refused to drink anything. She wasn't swallowing, so her mouth would fill up with saliva. Every few hours she would open her mouth a little and a puddle of saliva would pour out.

Still, she seemed well enough to take her and Sabrina to Disney on Ice. They both loved it, watching every movement. Sabrina chatted throughout the entire show. Catherine pointed at the characters and jumped up and down when her favorites appeared. When Cinderella's step sisters skated out, Catherine pointed at them, made the sign for NO and then hugged her own arms. When we met the mean stepsisters in Disney World, Catherine tried to hug them. One of the stepsisters pulled away from Catherine and sneered "I don't hug!"

By mid day on Saturday, Catherine had gotten pretty good at using the sign language she knew, as well as making up her own signs. Sometimes she would use her dry erase board to write down what she wanted to tell us. It was almost always totally obvious what she wanted, although she did not speak.

On Sunday we took her to church and she did not speak there. On Monday we took her to school and told them she had a bruised uvula. Her teacher told me that during her guided reading group she refused to speak and pointed to her throat.

By Tuesday my patience had run thin. Surely her throat was better by now. I have had surgery and remember my throat feeling dry and sore for a day or two. I cured myself by eating a bunch of ice cream. Catherine of course would not eat ice cream. But I couldn't even get her to drink some water. I felt certain that if she drank some water, her throat would feel better.

At times I thought it was becoming a game for her, a battle of wills. She was toying with us, knowing that we were getting very frustrated with her. I felt like all of our conversations were me asking her "yes" or "no" questions. Or she pointing and grunting to what she wants, like a one year old does. All of our communication with her had become very shallow. There were times I would yell at her, threaten to punish her if she didn't speak.

Robby would take over for me interacting with her when I got too frustrated. He would do fine for awhile, but then he would get overly frustrated with her.

Interestingly, Catherine and Sabrina still played well together. They would laugh at each other even if Catherine wouldn't open her mouth. Sabrina talked twice as much, basically interpreting Catherine's signs and pointing for everyone else. There were times they would even fight with each other. Catherine would make facial expressions, aggravated grunting sounds, and arm gestures to show her anger at her sister.

By Wednesday morning I was beginning to worry if she would ever speak again. Would she be silent the rest of her life? Would she be able to stay in a regular classroom if she was mute? Should we sign up for more advanced sign language classes? Should we get her an iPad so she can type to us? Could surgery repair her uvula? My mind was on overdrive with worry and wild speculation.

On Wednesday afternoon she had a follow up appointment with her eye surgeon. I told him that I wanted a copy of all of the surgery notes and I needed the name if the anesthesiologist. I told him that I think her vocal cords may have been permanently damaged. Maybe she had had a stroke during the surgery and suffered brain damage. I was not a happy camper and was pretty nasty with the doctor.

The eye surgeon said he is not an ENT, but he would look in her throat. He wedged her mouth open with a tongue depressor and shone his light down her throat. He told me to look at it, It seemed pink to me. He said it looked healthy to him and he didn't see any bruising.

He turned the light off and removed the tongue depressor from her mouth. Catherine then said, clearly and distinctly, "So I can talk now?" The surgeon looked at her and said "Yes, you can."

When she wouldn't talk, I had no idea what Catherine was thinking. So, I assumed she wasn't thinking. When we were leaving the eye surgeon's office, we stopped at the hospital cafe so I could get a cup of iced tea. They were out, so I couldn't get any. As we were leaving the cafe and walking to the car, Catherine asked "Are you sad because they are out of iced tea?" This was the first conversations we were able to have in five days. It was so precious that we could talk again!

When she and I went to get Sabrina, Catherine ran into her classroom and shouted "My five days are up! I can talk now!" Apparently when the ER doctor told me her uvula would heal on its own in 4-5 days, Catherine took it as a directive that she should not talk for 4-5 days.

In fact, on Thursday when she returned to school, Catherine got "written up" for talking too much in class.

Now that it has been two weeks after it is over, I have to remind myself that it was only a five day period. I remember the ER doctor telling me to "enjoy the silence." I didn't enjoy the silence. I panicked. I let me worst fears take control. I accused the doctors of malpractice. I yelled at Catherine.

Now my fears are gone. I have the luxury of perspective. I can now empathize with parents whose children are never able to talk with them. It was so hard to have any meaningful communication with her. I have always been a talker, but now I truly understood just how important speech is.

Camp Sunshine Fall Festival

2011-10-31T21:47:00.000-04:00

One of the best (well, actually the very best) fall festival that we go to each year is held at Camp Sunshine. Located in Decatur, Camp Sunshine offers programs all year round for children battling cancer and their families. They also have bereavement programs. It is a phenomenal place and we have spent a lot of time there. During the past festivals, my girls loved having their faces painted. This year they didn't want their faces painted, just their arms:

Sabrina is so expressive, as this picture shows. The face (or in our case, arm) painter also made balloon flowers and animals.

Some of the many carnival like games:

Catherine rejoices when she successfully drops a clothespin in a milkcan:

Sabrina and the bean bag toss:

Sabrina enjoying the bouncy house:

Sabrina gets airborne in the slide:

The girls also love the cakewalk:

Even Catherine, who of course has no desire for baked goodies, loved running around and around while the music played:

This was the first year that Catherine was able to make sand art jewelry all by herself. In the past we have always had to help her in the past.

Sabrina was still eating her Smore, so she simply told the volunteer what colors she wanted in her sand art jewelry:

One aspect of the festival which is so fun is that all the volunteers dress up:

This year they had a drum set, which the girls actually loved playing. This was the noisiest section of the festival!

A special visitor arrived while we were there ... Dora!

The girls kept going back to "meet her again:"

They also got to paint small pumpkins:

Roasting marshmallows:

The girls actually did some of the festival twice, like the velcro darts:

And cornhole toss:

And more drums:

Tossing whole rolls of toilet paper into a mock toilet:

More drums:

The volunteer helped Sabrina with the pedal:

Fishing for magnetized plastic fish:

We love Camp Sunshine for a lot of reasons. We have received a lot of support from the staff there, as well as the other families we have met there. We continue to be impressed with the top-notch programming they consistently host!

Collage Pumpkins

2011-10-31T12:29:00.001-04:00

A few days ago I had the girls make pumpkins out of torn pieces of orange construction paper. This turned out to be a much bigger task than I imagined. Sabrina really had difficulty tearing the pieces of paper. She couldn't seem to understand that she had to hold the paper still with one hand while tearing with the other. Catherine could do it, but got tired and quit after a few minutes.

They both did a good job with gluing the pieces on:

Sabrina with her finished project:

"My Gym" Birthday Party

2011-10-29T09:24:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we went to a birthday party at My Gym. It was a blast! The first activity was to have all the kids sit in a circle. Each child stated their name, then ran around the circle.

Sabrina's turn to run:

Catherine's turn to run:

Sabrina hanging on a "high" bar:

One of the organizers put on a see-through blindfold and bopped the kids on the head while they ran around:

I love seeing the huge smile on Catherine's face:

Sabrina trying to freeze during freeze tag:

The girls held on to the trapeze while it spins around:

Catherine held on to the rings while the organizer swung her back and forth. She loved this too:

Sabrina's turn to swing:

The organizers swung the big foam pieces, while the kids had to zig zag between them:

All the kids laughed while they ran through:

Sabrina stopped in the middle to push one of the foam squares away:

The best thing the girls got to do was the zipline. I was impressed that Sabrina actually held on:

I asked the organizer to hold Catherine because I was afraid she wouldn't have the strength to hold on herself, especially if she started laughing:

Robby thought the zipline looked like so much fun her tried it himself:

Georgia Study

2011-10-28T09:20:00.000-04:00

Of course we studied Georgia, our home state!

We talked about peaches and peanuts, famous Georgia crops:

We discussed the Okefenokee Swamp:

We discussed Jimmy Carter (I have never been to Plains and we'll do a day trip there some time soon):

We discussed Juliette Gordon Low, who founded the Girl Scouts and is from Savannah:

Lastly, we talked about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement:

Hawaii Study

2011-10-27T09:16:00.001-04:00

The best state we have studied so far was Hawaii. One struggle I have had with the 50 State Study is that some states have very little exciting, interesting aspects. But, Hawaii has so much of its own culture, that we had a lot of fun studying it.

I should have taken some pictures at the time, but we had some leis in our costume center, so the girls wore them while we did this craft. We also cut one of the plastic flowers off and glued it on as the state flower (hibiscus). We even practiced hula dancing:

The girls thought it was neat that the Hawaiians make necklaces out of flowers:

We went to Hawaii on our honeymoon, so I showed the girls the scrapbook I made of that trip.

Idaho Study

2011-10-26T09:14:00.000-04:00

We got out of the habit of doing our 50 state study. But, Catherine asked several times if we could study another state. So, the next one we had to do was Idaho (I know I haven't blogged about all of them).

The girls really love finding the state on the map and coloring it in:

The highlight of the activity was talking about potatoes, which grow in the dirt:

Every time we add some sort of 3-dimensional aspect to a craft project, the girls are thrilled!

Burning Bush

2011-10-25T09:22:00.000-04:00

Recently we told the girls about the story of Moses and the burning bush. I think they got it, but am never sure. I do think they understand the concept of "miracle." Here is the craft we did with it:

The girls loved making flames out of tissue paper. I have found that any kind of 3-dimensional aspect I can add to a craft makes it considerably more fun to them.

Letter Mazes

2011-10-25T09:19:00.000-04:00

I found some Do A Dot mazes which included upper and lower case letters. The girls loved finding and stamping the trail with their markers:

Finger Paint

2011-10-25T09:17:00.000-04:00

Wow, do the girls love to finger paint!! I bought this kit of 4 colors at the dollar store. I wasn't sure if it was washable or not, so I made the girls take their shirts off.

Catherine actually made pictures with hers:

Sabrina's paintings were more abstract:

East Cobber Parade

2011-10-15T11:22:00.000-04:00

Our county hosts a parade every fall called the East Cobber Parade. We have never attended, but Catherine's dance team "marched" in it. This year. I think Catherine enjoyed walking down the street. The dance teacher gives them all ribbons to wear in their hair:

Listening to the dance teacher:

Lining up for the parade to start:

Catherine frequently treats the pom-poms like bracelets:

Waiting:

I have to confess that Catherine ended up riding in a stroller for most of the parade:

Clear Contact Paper

2011-10-14T10:37:00.001-04:00

As you know I ~~waste~~ spend a lot of time on other people's blogs looking for ideas. I have seen lots of people make art projects with clear contact paper. So, several months ago I bought a roll. I put it on a shelf and forgot about it for awhile.

Finally, I pulled it out and we used it. The girls had a blast with this new tool. First, we took tiny purple flowers and green leaves, spread them out on a sheet of construction paper, then covered it with contact paper. Wow, we had made place mats:

Then we made a bunch of bookmarks:

The girls really loved peeling the contact paper backing off:

Cheerleading

2011-10-13T10:32:00.008-04:00

This school year I have signed Catherine up for dance team/cheerleading. They meet once a week, immediately after school. It is part of the "after school enrichment program," so it is at the school and I do not have to rearrange my schedule to get her from school and take her somewhere. It is great. It is more fast paced than ballet was, so I think she enjoys it more. She frequently teaches the little dances and cheers which she learns to Sabrina.

In addition to the afternoon class, Catherine's wonderful dance teacher has arranged for the girls to get a few additional experiences. Last week we all met at a middle school football game and "cheered" for them:

Yes, Catherine is much smaller than her peers. This is a group of kindergarten, first and second graders.

She loved it!

Rally 4 Quarters 4 Research

2011-10-12T16:05:00.001-04:00

Recently we were asked to participate in a program at a local high school, Pope High School. About six-seven years ago a Pope football player, Matt Hobby, was diagnosed with cancer. His family started a fund raiser to help with research to cure childhood cancer. After Matt passed on, the school has continued this fabulous fund raiser called Rally 4 Quarters 4 Research.

They invited several local families with kids who had cancer to come to the night. We had a great time. Pope assigned two teenagers to help our family. They basically played with my girls non-stop. It took about two minutes for my kids to decide that these teenage girls thought they were cute and would carry them the whole time:

The high school had a big inflatable football helmet, which the girls loved running through:

They ran through it several times:

The girls met some "real live football players" and got to hold footballs:

The highlight of the evening was probably when the cheerleaders held the girls up above their heads:

They both loved this:

Sabrina is holding one of the light sticks they gave us. The theme of the night was "Constructing a Cure to Childhood Cancer," so they gave us light rings, light necklaces, and light sticks.

One of our brain tumor friends, Logan, is a student at Pope. We took a picture with him:

The girls saw the referees and wanted to meet them:

Catherine loved the cheerleader's megaphone:

Sabrina playing with pom-poms:

Right before the game, we got to run on the field. Pope's mascot is the greyhound, so the local greyhound owners had about 20 greyhounds on hand. Sabrina and that "spirit girl" ran with the greyhound across the field.

I was afraid to have Catherine run with a dog, because she can't run as fast. So I ran with her:

Sabrina, sort of sprinting:

I am so proud of Pope High School, which raised $17,000 that week to help fund research to find a cure for childhood cancer!!

Black and White Versions

2011-10-12T10:23:00.000-04:00

I love the simplicity of black and white photos. I also loved the brightness of the pink in these pictures, but here are some black and white versions of the photos we took a few days ago:

I love her big brown eyes:

Catherine, with a sly smile:

She was not feeling good that day, so wanted some Mommy affection:

Pink & Brown

2011-10-12T10:17:00.001-04:00

A few days ago a friend of ours encouraged us to take some pictures of the kids in pink & brown. I love how the dark pink "pops" in the pictures:

I hate that Sabrina has started sticking her tongue out during pictures!

This entire photo shoot was only about 30 minutes and involved 3 families. However, my kids got "over" sitting for pictures pretty quickly:

Sabrina decides she wants to play instead of sit on the rock one more second:

Catherine, in deep thought:

I love shots of the kids laying on their tummys. Not every kid will do this, but Sabrina is game for it:

Robby loves this shot because of the angle. I love her smile:

Catherine's hair is getting so long:

Still, she is bored with taking pictures:

Playing on the Bleachers

2011-10-09T22:39:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we went to a middle school football game so that Catherine and her cheerleading squad could participate and experience "real" cheerleading. Sabrina loved climbing up and down the bleachers the whole time:

It was like her own private playground.

Police Station Tour

2011-10-09T22:36:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Catherine's Girl Scout troop took a tour of a local police station. As always, it is amazing to me how fascinated the kids are in what we consider "boring" stuff. They had a blast and requested that we tour the fire station next.

The first thing the Officer showed us was the two holding cells they have. All the girls walked in and we shut the door. They giggled and screamed!

I am not sure how the kids know what "jail" is, but they all jokingly screamed out "Let me out of jail!"

The Officer passed around handcuffs, which the girls found interesting:

The second most fascinating part of the tour was playing in the police car. Catherine was delighted to pretend to drive it:

The Officer showed Sabrina where the siren button was, so she kept pushing it and pushing it until we had to pull her out of the driver's seat.

The Officer demonstrated the use of the Tazer gun; he just "shocked" the air.

The girls all liked to pile into the backseat of the police car, whcih had bars on the windows:

Sabrina thought it was so funny to be trapped in the back seat:

Here's a group shot:

Publix Tour

2011-10-09T22:07:00.001-04:00

Catherine's Girl Scout troop recently took a tour of Publix. We go there every week, so it is mind boggling to me how much the children love this tour. They were so excited and fascinated. Here are the girls in front of the pumpkin display:

Checking out the items available at the deli:

Squealing over the live lobster, wiggling:

The most exciting part ... the walk in freezer!

One of the other moms wisely took a video of this scene. The girls kept running in and out, screaming and laughing. They loved the walk-in freezer!

The produce department gave us samples of fresh pineapple:

The tour included the "mop room:"

A lengthy discussion of squash v. guords v. pumpkins:

We ended the tour with balloons and goody bags:

Bible Presentation

2011-10-07T08:08:00.000-04:00

This occurred a few weeks ago, but I just now figured out how to upload a picture that the church emailed us to my Picasa web album, and then onto the blog. I am a little slow about learning new technology.

In any event, our church gave new Adventure Bibles to all the first graders. The pastor spoke to the kids and then had to bend down to give one to each child. He had to really stoop for Catherine:

Catherine loves her new Bible. Robby is trying to make her learn Psalm 100. Every night she reads it out of her Bible. We made bookmarks so she could keep her place.

Fall Trees... and Then Other Trees

2011-10-05T11:45:00.001-04:00

Now that it is October, I wanted to do a fall project. I drew stick trees and gave the girls a little bit of orange, yellow and red paint. They loved using their fingertips to make leaves! I am constantly impressed with my kids. Both of them told me they are going to put some leaves on the ground and some in the air on the way to the ground, because leaves fall off the trees in the fall.

While we were doing the fall trees, Catherine asked me if we can do winter, spring and summer trees. This was not in my plan, but I went with their excitement. Catherine's class at school has been studying seasons and weather, so I think that is where she got the idea. Here's Sabrina putting snowflakes on a bare tree:

I was so proud of Catherine when she made little tiny leaves on her spring tree, telling me that in the spring the leaves are just sprouts, so they are smaller.

Practice IV's

2011-09-27T20:36:00.002-04:00

Catherine divides all of her medical visits into two categories: ones when she gets IV's and ones when she doesn't. Everytime we go to a doctor now, she asks me if she is going to get an IV or not.

The girls love to play with the toy medical supplies we have. They give each other and me physical exams almost daily. Sometimes they will also give their Barbie dolls and stuffed animals physical exams.

Today Catherine pretended to put an IV in Sabrina's arm. It was cute to overhear Catherine telling her "Hold your arm still. It will only feel like a small pinch."

Success!

Daniel and the Lions

2011-09-27T20:28:00.001-04:00

Recently we taught the girls the story of Daniel and the Lions. Robby used a power point presentation which he found on the internet to tell the story. The girls loves this:

After the story, we used dry pasta, glue and a paper plate to make lion faces:

I can't remember why my girls are topless, but that frequently is the case inside our home. They loved this project and kept talking to the lion heads they made, saying things like "the angels said to shut your mouth! Don't eat Daniel!"

Giving Blood

2011-09-20T22:17:00.000-04:00

For Catherine's 6th birthday, we decided to host a community blood drive in conjunction with her party. Robby has given blood several times before, but I never had. I was quite uneasy about it, but had to give. Catherine needed whole blood transfusions and platelet transfusions throughout the last few months of her chemo treatment, so I felt we had to give back.

Here's Robby giving blood:

And me:

They parked a Bloodmobile in the pool's parking lot. Inside that Bloodmobile there are 4 beds and 3 interview rooms. I was afraid it would be claustrophobic, but it wasn't. It was actually quite nice inside because it was air conditioned. The party was in August, so it was very hot.

We ended up collecting 32 pints of blood, each of which can help 3 separate people. In addition to the 32 people who were able to donate, several were deferred from donating for various reasons. Plus, a lot of spouses and friends helped our drive by watching children swimming while parents donated.

Girls in Action

2011-09-16T13:54:00.006-04:00

The name "Girls in Action" sounds so exciting. When I told Catherine she would be doing Girls in Action this year on Wednesday nights at our church, she screamed "Yeah!," even though she (and I) had no idea what that meant.

A few weeks later I was recruited to be one of her teachers. I still had no idea what Girls in Action would be doing. But, I am one of Sabrina's teachers on Sunday morning so I felt like I should participate in Catherine's church activities too. Plus, I would love to observe how my children interact with their peers.

The first week of GAs (as Girls in Action is called) was a "Glam Up for God" program. The girls had their hair, make-up and nails done. Plus, they had glamour photos taken and got some candy. Catherine, and all the other girls, loved it.

The next 2 weeks we played games and learned about sports missionaries in a classroom. Not so exciting. Then this week they had the formal "commencement" ceremony. All the parents attended and a real live missionary from China spoke.

Some of the girls got to light pink and purple candles. Catherine was selected and loved to participate in the ceremony:

Here is the GA pledge:

I sure hope Catherine loves this program!

Jesus' Miracle of Loaves & Fish

2011-09-15T13:38:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we did another Bible story with a craft. We told the girls about the miracle of Jesus using 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish to feed 5000 people. Then they made a craft to accompany the story:

The girls glued blue tissue paper onto a bowl I drew in, and then added 2 construction paper fish.

After they glued 5 loaves of bread onto a plate I drew, they wrote numbers on the loaves (I had to draw dots for Sabrina).

This was a great project. I saw the tissue paper fishbowl project and wanted to try that with the girls. I decided to add a Biblical lesson to it and the girls, as always, LOVE hearing Robby tell them Bible stories. We realized this was the first time we had taught them about a miracle performed by Jesus. They seemed to understand what a "miracle" is and realized that only Jesus can perform miracles.

Letter S Study

2011-09-05T22:14:00.000-04:00

Today was Labor Day, so there was no school. The girls asked if we could play "homeschool." I asked them what they wanted to do, and they said they wanted to do another letter study. We had stopped our letter studies at M, so I was going to do N. But, they both said they wanted to do S. So, we started by painting upper and lower case S's:

The girls loved using the new metallic paints Catherine just got for her birthday.

Catherine could come up with tons of words that start with the letter S. Sabrina didn't seem to understand what I was asking, as every word she kept saying did not start with S.

I wrote tons of words that started with an S for Sabrina to trace with a pink highlighter. For Catherine, I wrote a list of words and made her copy them onto lined paper.

The last activity we did was a letter sorting activity with yellow dot stickers:

Here is Sabrina's final product. She had to be guided through the whole process. I am not entirely sure she understood the concept of sorting. She put some stickers on top of others, some sideways, etc.

Catherine's final product was (to my utter delight!) far more orderly. She did the letters in order: first all the S's, then the Ts, etc. I had only given her 4 X's and she asked me for an extra one, so all the "letter boxes" would be the same.

Dry Erase Boards

2011-09-05T10:49:00.000-04:00

On the first Saturday of every month we go to the Home Depot Kids' Workshop. In September the project was "dry erase boards." This was by far the hardest project so far, but the kids LOVE the end result more than any project we have done so far. The kids love being able to draw & erase in their car seats.

It was actually kind of tricky getting the frame for the dry erase boards assembled:

I was quite impressed at how well Catherine could use a screwdriver:

Sabrina added glue, even when unnecessary:

Robby had to help (well, take over) to get Sabrina's frame assembled:

Before Sabrina even finished her project, Catherine was already writing on her board:

The girls loved their final projects. I am so glad they decided to paint them at home, so we would not risk getting wet paint in my new car.

HD Kids' Workshop - Pencil Boxes

2011-09-03T21:09:00.000-04:00

This post is from last month's project, but I have been busy lately. To get ready for the start of school, the project was pencil boxes. The girls LOVE gluing the best:

They are both getting pretty good at hammering:

This month the project including painting. The kids loved painting their boxes, but that meant the workshop was a lot more crowded (every one was taking longer on their projects). Also, we had to wrap the projects in paper towels to take them in the car, and the paper towels got stuck to the paint.

Teamwork

2011-08-16T20:15:00.000-04:00

Sometimes at the pool the girls get bored and like to sit on towels and read books. I thought it was cute how they worked together to make their little reading space:

I am not sure if this was intentional or not:

Applying Your Own Suntan Lotion

2011-08-16T20:07:00.000-04:00

We always try to let the girls do things for themselves. Their spirit of independence was flying high when they put their own suntan lotion on at the pool:

I am so glad we got the suntan lotion for free (with coupons!).