A to Z- Some A Me

I posted this meme at Life With Heathens but I figured I would share it with my homeschooling friends too. Of course, I had to clean up the language some in order to post it here...*snicker*

Enjoy!!

Accent: I honestly don't have one. I moved so often before the age of 18 that I never had enough time to pick one up.

Breakfast or no breakfast: most times I'm a no breakfast gal but some mornings I'm just a hungry witch.

Chore I don’t care for: All of them? I am an equal opportunity chore hater- I hate them all equally. *smile*

Dog or Cat: We've got three cats so I should say cat so I at least look loyal.

Essential Electronics: Computer definitely computer

Favorite Cologne: Don't have one

Gold or Silver: Both. It's all about the bling, color ain't no thang! *snort*

Handbag I carry most often: This bohemoth black leather thing

Insomnia: I gots it

Job Title: Domestic Engineer, Professional Product Reviewer, Toy Expert, anything that makes me sound more important than I really am.

Kids: Well when a man and a woman love each other... oh you mean how many do I have? Three heathens. Do you want me to finish the reproduction lesson still?

Living Arrangements: All I know is that a large hairy guy walks around my house between the hours of 8-11am and 8-10pm so I guess we have a living arrangement of sorts. He pays a large portion of the bills and sometimes I show him a little leg. *wink wink*

Most Admirable Trait: I'd rather laugh than cry?

Naughtiest Childhood Behavior: Getting drunk for the first time at age 11 probably wasn't a good girl thing was it?

Overnight hospital stays: Thanks to this disorder and cancer, more than I care to remember.

Phobias: heights, deep water, one of my kids dying, claustrophobia

Quote: "Your ass!"

Reason to smile: My kids

Siblings: I refuse to claim them!!! You can't make me!!

Time I wake up: Usually around 8am unless I'm sick and then it's 10am

Unusual Talent or Skill: I'd teach ya but I'd have to charge. *snicker* Okay so I really have no clue.

Vegetable I Refuse to Eat: Sweet Potatoes

Worst Habit: It's a tie between biting my nails and drinking a 2ltr of soda a day.

X-rays: Yeah, see the "Hospital Stays" answer

Yummy Stuff: Cheesecake. It's the nectar of the Gods I tell you!!

Zoo Animal I Like Most: Hmmmm I'd say the hippo because she knows her butt is big and she's okay with that. She's an inspiration to us all... let your butt expand and you too can spend all day in the pool!

So who else is going to give this a try huh? If you don't you're a big ol' WUSSY! That's right, I said it...WOO-say! Oh geez, now I'm channeling Mrs. Fussypants. ahaha

Return of the Black Thumb

Despite last year's complete failure as gardeners, the kids and I have decided to give it another shot this year. Mommy has decided to cheat a little this year though by buying a few starter plants. Hopefully that way we'll have a better chance of SOMETHING growing. *laugh* So as not to completely bypass the beginning process, I did however buy a few packets of seeds and we joined the Tomatosphere project again.

~I bought starters of- thyme, Italian parsley, and strawberries
~Seed packets of- eggplant, spinach, zucchini, and grape tomatoes
~I also got an English Ivy plant for inside and then of course we have the Tomatosphere seed packets.

We've had the starter plants for almost two weeks now and they are actually doing well (surprising for us I know!). The Italian parsley is growing really well and MonkeyBoy has been kind of excited to see white flowers show up on the strawberry plants. We haven't started the seed packets yet but that is on our agenda for this week.

I guess to say our foray into gardening last year was a total loss would be a lie. After all, MonkeyBoy's little pot of mixed flowers survived and even continued to bloom in our windowsill throughout the winter. Seriously, one of the flowers grew upwards two feet and then bloomed a pretty yellow flower. We're all waiting to see what it can do when it's the right season! :)

"Mom, Pokemon IS Educational!"

These are the words muttered to me by MonkeyBoy recently when I informed him that he needs to do something educational for awhile. You see, he received Pokemon Colosseum for Gamecube for Christmas and is completely addicted to it. On one hand, I want to let him play because the poor kid has pretty much been left out of playing the Gamecube for the last three years. On the other hand, I'm not big on kids spending a lot of time playing video games and his constant want to play Pokemon is starting to grate on my nerves.

MonkeyBoy knows exactly what the attacks are for each Pokemon. He can actually read words for the attacks like "metal claw" and "mud shot" so he feels that playing Pokemon IS educational. After all, Jumpstart World and Pajama Sam are games and Mommy says THEY are educational. I think the rotten child has me there.

So I've been trying to figure out how to let him play the game he loves so much (when he earns game time) and not obsess over it when I'm trying to get him to learn other things. Good luck I know. *smile* I thought if I bugged him constantly while he played that he would get tired of it and not want to play. Instead the kid become a living Pokedex and starts telling me everything imaginable about more Pokemon than I ever knew existed! Yeah, that one backfired on me bigtime!

Anyone have any other suggestions? I'm more than happy to listen.

So far the CSI Unit Study is going slowly but we have been working on it. Big B has been reading the CSI books I got from the Library and I think his favorite thus far is Never Suck A Dead Man's Hand by Dana Kollmann. Sis hasn't really started reading the books yet but in order for us to continue with the unit study she at least needs to skim them so we're all "on the same page" so to speak. Then again, I can't talk because I've had my nose in Rosalind Miles books the last few weeks. LOL

As I said, I also bought a Fingerprint Kit for us to use and it's been hell trying to keep everyone out of it until we're ready! Even MonkeyBoy keeps telling his siblings to touch something so he can "lift your fingerprints and steal your DNA". *laughing* I'm afraid of what he might do once we get to the hair sampling part. HAHA.

Since deciding to do a CSI Investigation unit study we have developed an addiction. Yes, the older two kids and myself are hopelessly addicted to watching CSI (the original series). The addiction is so bad that not only do we watch the new episodes but we also watch older ones on Spike TV from 4pm until 7pm Monday through Friday. Every once in awhile we actually watch it the whole three hours while throwing food at MonkeyBoy so he'll leave us alone but usually we catch an hour of it a day. Considering this is the only TV we watch, I'm not going to feel too bad about it.

You should hear the language in this house though! This is some of the things said in my house this week...

*Big B to Sis after she entered his room looking for her pen* "Did you have a warrant giving you permission to enter my room? You do know that anything acquired without a warrant cannot be used in court right?"

Sis- "Tell it to the judge criminal!"

*MonkeyBoy to Sis while charging her with eating his cookie*- "I am going to send these crumbs to Trace and you better HOPE nothing comes back on it! I'll take a Qtip and steal your DNA!"

Sis- "I'll bite you if you come near my mouth!"

MonkeyBoy- "I'll send your spit to the lab!"

*Big B to Sis*- "Don't you think my room would look cool decorated in blood spatters?"

Sis- "Whose blood are we talking about here?"

Big B- "Are you volunteering?"

Sis- "MOMMMMMMMM, Big B wants to use my blood to decorate his room!"

Mom- "Big B, that would leave evidence all over your walls linking you to whatever crime you commit against your sister!"

Big B- "That's true...damn!"

Yes, we're a sick bunch but it's been fun!

MonkeyBoy has been practicing writing his letters alot lately. He likes to have you write a word and then let him copy it and he's getting pretty good at it. He also knows most letters by sight now so since this seems to be the way he likes to learn then we'll do this for awhile. He's also obsessed with counting and money as well so it has been quite interesting around here. I reviewed the Jumpstart World 1st Grade CD-rom last month with MonkeyBoy and that has also been his favorite thing to do. Surprisingly he has mastered alot more of it than I expected and it helps me gauge what he needs help with.

Big B and Sis have both been keeping up on their Copywork, Vocabulary, and Reading with a half-hearted effort on Math and Algebra. We all know we need to pick up the pace in that area it's just something none of us enjoy so we avoid it right now. I think the New Year is going to see us buckling down quite a bit though.

I took the reins on the Copywork and Big B is copying Robert Frost while Sis is copying Maya Angelou. I think both are great examples of prose and while I also need to have them do copywork that will teach them proper puncuation, I think it's important for kids to know Poetry and be able to name the authors when they hear the works.

Vocabulary and Reading have of course been centered around our CSI Unit. Sis hates all the technical words I'm having her learn but Big B has completely embraced this and is even talking about going to college for Criminal Justice in hopes of working CSI some day. Because of that I'm making sure that I don't glamourize the work these people do like they do on TV. The kids are learning the truth about crime scenes and all the gory stuff that goes with them.

My being sick has kept us inside alot lately as has the cold weather (no snow just cold) but I'm hoping to remedy that soon with some field trips to fun places. I have some pictures I need to upload from various homeschool endeavors so keep an eye on the Flickr badge on the left there for some new and exciting pics very soon!

Until then, feel free to visit me on Life With Heathens, LWH Reviews, Our Family Village, and hopefully very soon at GNMParents.

ESRB Blog Tour

Okay first of all, send the kids out of the room because you do not want them to see this! They will seriously cut off your computer time if they know you are learning things like this.

Are they gone? Well okay, the baby can stay but that's it.

Thanks to the release of game systems such as Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and PSP3 most of our kids are putting video games at the top of their wish lists this holiday season right? Once upon a time you could pop just about any game into the console and not worry about whether or not your 5 year old should play it or if it was too violent even for your 15 year old son. The only violence you saw back then was Donkey Kong tossing barrels at Mario and Pitfall Harry falling in a pit. Even then though there was none of the realistic graphics, blood, foul language, or violence that video games today have.

How does a parent keep up with it all though? I mean, it’s not like we as parents have all day to sit around reading reviews on games and making sure that only the suitable ones make it into our house and even if we did, there is always that one neighbor who lets all the kids play the harsher games there. So what can we do?

The answer is so easy that if you’re like me you’re going to feel more embarrassed than the time your 5 year old kicked your butt at Finding Nemo. Seriously. All we have to do is know what tools there are out there to help us do a good job.

ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) ratings are those little boxes you see on the front of every game box. You know the ones- EC (Early Childhood 3+), T (Teen), and all the way up to AO (Adults Only) as well as RP (Rating Pending). I don’t know about you but that last one scares me a little. Just how bad does a game have to be to not be able to be rated? Ugh. Anyway- those little ratings are what tells you what is and isn’t appropriate for your children. Yes, they are right there on the front of the box (and I’ve seen them on the back as well with descriptions of the game content so you get two chances to find the rating and info!). Easy isn’t it?

Another big help is that newer video game consoles (Wii, PSP3, and Xbox 360) are beginning to have Parental Control features that will let us configure the system and decide what our kids can and can’t access on video games based on the ESRB ratings. Personally I like this because we can’t always be right there when our children are playing a video game so these Parental Controls are a little piece of mind when we’re not around. You’ll know your 5 year old isn’t playing Halo3 instead of Spiderman and no more of your teen’s ears being filled with cursing, shooting, and carjacking. Of course, if your kids are anything like mine it wouldn’t take them long to figure out how to change the settings. Haha.

As parents it is first and foremost up to us to actually sit down with our kids and explain what we feel is and isn’t appropriate. It also wouldn’t hurt us to play the games with them sometimes so that we can see for ourselves what they are really like. I know I’m not much into video games but if playing one with my children helps make sure they aren’t exposed to excessive shooting, blood, and gore then I have no problem giving it a go.

Check out ESRB's website which is seriously filled with lots of great ideas, advice, and resources. I thought I was pretty up to date on ratings and descriptions until I checked them out and now I see that I only knew about half of what there is.

Okay, you can let the kids back in now but let's keep this just in the "Parent Circle" okay? *wink wink*

Who Are You? I Really Gotta Know...

Anyone who watches CSI: Las Vegas will know what the title is all about. Either that or just read this whole post. LOL.

I have sorely neglected this blog and I hate that because I have so many things to share and say. Time is not a friend of mine though and so I end up not getting to do half the things I want to.

Learning is going well. Big B and Sis both have finally realized that they need to put forth effort in order to learn. Instead of just blaming me and saying they're not learning because I'm not teaching, they now realize that I've put out many things for them to grab on to and learn from. They just didn't want to put any effort into trying to learn. Hopefully now things will go smoother though and we'll all feel a sense of accomplishment.

To work towards that end, the kids and I sat down the other day and decided to do a Unit Study together. It was hard to get to one they both wanted but finally we weeded through American Hockey, Italian Cooking, Football, and Thomas Edison to get to Crime Scene Investigation. Big B and Sis both enjoy watching the show CSI so I figured I would incorporate something they already enjoy into our learning and see where it takes us.

HOW do we do a unit study on crime scene investigation? Well here is what I have so far;

- I checked out as many books as I could find from the library on reading levels that suit all three children so they will be reading about how investigating is done and what investigators look for.

- I have bookmarked various websites on the internet that deal with crime investigation, evidence, and Science experiments that we can do.

- I have also purchased a Fingerprint Kit that we will use to dust for prints not only around the house but we're also dragging the girl across the street into our search. She's a good sport and thinks the whole thing sounds fun so I might even make her one of our victims. LOL.

- We will also be studying hair samples, do mouth swabs, collect evidence from a "crime scene".

- I plan on contacting the local CSI Unit to see if they would give us a tour/talk telling us about the new crime van they just bought and how they do their jobs.

- The kids talked me into letting them do chalk outlines of each other but I drew the line at chalking me. The last thing I want is to see how wide my hips are on the driveway!

- We will watch CSI (the Las Vegas one) and discuss the show as we watch it. So far we are getting pretty good at solving the cases before they do on the show. The kids are learning to look for clues and are even telling me what tests they will need to run on their evidence.

- We'll always remember to have fun and enjoy ourselves!

I have a feeling that this unit study is going to take a good month at least and I plan on covering all subjects while we do it (obviously...unit study...duh). My hope is that this will just be the first of many unit studies that we all do together. Big B even mentioned doing the Immune System next. Of course, he wants to learn about it so he can laugh at me and my suppressed immune system. Rotten child!

I will try to catch up on here and post more about our homeschooling fun. Also, I changed the name and url of my review blog. It is now LWH Reviews as an extension of my Life With Heathens blog.

Let Them Eat Cake...With Veggies!!

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not big on the whole cooking thing. I usually cook for one reason alone...because I have to. I’m the mom and it’s part of the job description but that doesn’t mean I have to like it!

Currently I have around ten cookbooks sitting all neat and new on my kitchen counter collecting dust as we speak. They were either bought for me or by me in hopes of sparking that "Betty Crocker" instinct in me. Nope, never happened but I’m still always willing to give it a try.

So when Mother Talk said they were doing a Blog Tour for the cookbook, Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld and that it's premise is helping you sneak veggies into your family’s food by using purees, I had to see if maybe this was finally the cookbook to get me cooking.

Did it work? Well, it got my five year old to look through the book and actually ask me to make him many of the recipes just because the pictures looked “yummy”.

After I informed him that you put butternut squash, cauliflower, and even carrots in some of the recipes he believe it or not still wanted me to make them! When I told my two teenagers about the recipes they informed me that as long as it didn’t taste or look funny they didn’t care. So with all that in mind I decided it was time for me to try to do some “deliciously deceptive” cooking!

The first recipe we tried were the Rice Balls at my 5 year old’s request. I decided to go with the butternut squash puree since I had just bought a really huge one to try cooking for the first time. I'll be honest and say that much to our surprise, the rice balls tasted really good. My only complaint was that they were a little dry but none of the kids seemed to notice and all three of them ate the whole batch!

Encouraged such a great response to the Rice Balls, I decided to try a Breakfast recipe next. This time I chose the recipe myself and went for the Banana Bread mainly because I have my own personal recipe that I really love and I wanted to see what the difference would be like. The recipe itself was very easy to make and only included a cauliflower puree. The end result was a very nice and moist bread and you could so totally NOT taste the cauliflower in it!! My 16 year old absolutely abhorrs cauliflower and he still ate two more pieces after I told him what was in it!

So I have finally found a cookbook that I can say I will definitely be using more than once and happily too. Every parent wants a child who will eat all their fruits and vegetables. The reality is that most of us are lucky if we can get our kids to eat even one vegetable and a few fruits. With Deceptively Delicious you can make both parents and the kids happy by giving them yummy foods they’ll enjoy and the nutrients we parents know they need.

Make sure you enter the Deceptively Delicious Sweepstakes at Harper Collins for a chance to win your own copy of the cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld. Cool right?! If you know someone with a picky eater then this might be a great Christmas present for them this year. Just think, a present that everyone thanks you for! Talk about a gift giving first!

Now fess up, have you ever tricked your kids into eating something because you knew it was for their own good? If so, what?