Monday, February 27, 2006

Kansas Places

I saw an ad on TV for Read Across Kansas. From the NEA website: "Originally created as a one-day event to celebrate the joy of reading on March 2, Dr. Seuss's birthday, NEA's Read Across America has grown into a nationwide initiative that promotes reading every day of the year." This blog entry title is a link to KNEA's webpage that lists many websites about Kansas Places. There is also a page with a list of books about Kansas or set in Kansas, and a list of links about famous Kansans.

Yes! This year!

After a very moving worship service Saturday night on the theme of Covenant and Commitment, and after the boys were asleep, DH and I discussed many things. One of the discussion points came around to me quitting my job to be at home. With no more daycare fees, the big obstacle is our mortgage payment. It will pay off in September 2007, but I don't want to wait that long. Some mornings it is very frustrating trying to get everyone ready and out the door for work and daycare. Some days one or more of us is crying by the time we leave. DH admitted to thinking that there were days he wished I would just give my 2 weeks notice so we didn't have to morning problems. After a little more talking, we agreed that it would be better to wait until the end of summer, when daycare's "year" ends.

While taking my shower Sunday morning, it hit me, "He said, 'Yes'!" I just kept saying that over and over to myself, almost deliriously happy. Then I started thinking about the practicalities. I realized that when DS1's class starts talking about "moving up" to the preschool room all together when they come back from the 5 day break in August, I need to start preparing him for staying home instead. Even though we haven't had any play dates with his classmates, I do want to get some phone numbers of friends. This past August, his best friend didn't come back, and he was quite sad about that for a while. DS2 will not need to "move up" since his birthday is in September.

My next dilemna is deciding how and when to tell my supervisor. I want to give him more than 2 weeks notice, but I think it's still too early. I'm considering that when we come back from our June vacation might be a good time.

I'm excited, anxious, and a bit nervous. I will have to make myself remember that we're NOT starting school, but I'm becoming a SAHM. Play groups, Exploration Place, parks, the library (with story time), but not school. :-)

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Unschooling.Info

I found a new unschooling website today. It was referenced by the Natural Child Project's newsletter. I am familiar with Rue Kream and want to read her book, but I did not know about the website. There is a forum, articles, resources, and collected posts. One of the forum threads is Getting Started - Questions from Parents. After I read through it, I suspect I will want to refer DH to it.

Tangrams

While looking for some tangram links, I found Hoagies' Kids & Teens: Young Kids page. It came up because of RoboPacker which is similar but uses different shapes. I also found Smart Hands-On Toys at Hoagies which has a link to 3-D Tangrams at the online store MindWare. It's a game with 4 sets of tangram pieces that stand on a base and connect together to form the shapes. Funorama has a simple page, but it does include a printable color page for tangram pieces, and 3 sheets with 3-4 pictures each. It's interesting that the simpler (more solid) a piece looks, the more difficult it actually is to create (especially if the pattern is the same size as the pieces). Topuzzle has a page for Tangram Puzzle that appears to be written by someone whose first language is not English. It is fairly easy to understand, has a printable puzzle pieces pages, and many puzzle pages that are grouped well. This page has instructions and diagrams for making tangram pieces from a sheet of paper. I already know how to do that, though, because my mom taught me. We used to make them for her to use in the library with the elementary kids she taught. Thanks Mom! Man, I miss her!

Monday, February 06, 2006

Sonlight - moms and math

I've been reading a long on the Sonlight forums since last Friday when I started preparing for the local Sonlight Mom's Meeting. Today this link, Math Word Problems, came up as something fun for math. I'm blogging it for future reference.

I think I will really like the moms group. Several of them have kids as young as mine, along with older ones that they are already homeschooling. They welcomed me very well, and I felt pretty comfortable with them. Several made a point to mention something particularly good for preschoolers and to visit with me during the snack time.