Playgroup, Dress-up, Park, and Library

That's Taliesin in his "Happily Homeschooling in Kansas" sweatshirt - ordered from a CCU friend. She has some great designs on her Cafe Press site - Contra Mundum!

This is Nathanael in his "Homeschool: The World is My Classroom" sweatshirt. It's not designed by the same person, but it's cute, too. And he liked the ladybug. :^) We found it while searching for homeschool designs on Cafe Press.

The heading of this post is the order our day went in today. This morning, we headed off to a park for a new playgroup. Taliesin quickly made friends with another little boy. Nathanael was soon following and joining in the fun with all of the kids. It was a nice time to talk with the other moms, too. I know several of them from a church I used to attend. None of them homeschool; but it was definitely fun mommy talk. After playgroup, we headed home, read a book called Everyday Things, which talks about things like how a lightbulb and automatic doors work, why we wear pajamas, and why people working in different professions wear different kinds of uniforms. This latter one inspired dress-up! Taliesin dressed up in his Star Wars storm trooper costume. Nathanael, who has never much been into dress-up, dressed up in Taliesin's Batman costume. I played different roles - sometimes as someone needing rescued and sometimes as the bad guy. It was lots of fun. We finished our fun day up with a trip to the park down the street with a neighbor girl Taliesin and Nathanael enjoy playing with. Then we made what is again becoming our weekly trip to the library. We came home with some interesting books - super hero books, Barney books, some on Native American history, one about saints and animals, an art counting book - just a lot of different options. Should be fun to dig into!

Kandy

Oh, To Be King...

Yesterday was just a fun day. Yes, it was a run-around, run errands, pay bills kind of day; but it was relaxing. Taliesin and Nathanael got their hair trimmed. They chose to continue with mullet cuts. Then after we dropped Kelsey off at home to get ready for work, we got shakes (and crowns featured above) from Burger King, got some food from Taco Bell, and rented The Wizard of Oz. Taliesin found an old Wizard of Oz storybook of mine from when I was little. He enjoys it a lot. So I asked him if he would like to see the movie. They were so excited, so imagine our disappointment with the DVD we rented was too scratched to play. But today, they checked out a copy from the library on video and watched part of it while I was at work. My sister told me Taliesin didn't want to watch it when it got to the part of the big head run by the wizard. She explained to him that it was only like a mask that the wizard used to make himself look bigger than he really was; but he didn't want to finish. Right now they're asleep. We'll talk about it more tomorrow and maybe fast forward past that part so they can see for themselves that the wizard of Oz is really just a little man. But, as for Taliesin and Nathanael, in their Burger King crowns, they are definitely kings of Salina.

Kandy

Double major and more to be thankful for

Well, yesterday I spoke with Liberty University. I am so excited that my double major request has been approved! Yay! Now my primary major is religious studies. My secondary major is education. I just feel this was something I needed to do. I know a lot of people I know think I'm paranoid. But that's okay. I'm just thankful it came through; and I will have that degree if it's ever needed. Now any electives that I choose to do for my religion degree will have to be education classes, serving as my core classes for my education degree. But that's okay. Most of the electives I was taking were education electives, anyway. So it's definitely worked out. Definitely something to be thankful for!

Another thing to be thankful for is Taliesin's art class went so well today. We've been talking a lot about how it's okay to be different. All of us are different than each other. When all of the issues with being excluded began, we started talking about that. That's when we watched Mr. Magorium, and it helped even more. Then, just like it's part of God's plan, this week in children's church; Taliesin brought home a drawing they had done. The teachers drew around each of the children, and the kids could decorate themselves however they wanted to - because God made each of us different and special. Cool thing is, today in art class, that was also their big project. The teachers drew around each of the kids and the kids got to decorate themselves. His art class was focusing more on the parts of the body - bones, stomach, heart, etc. But it still made Taliesin think back to his children's church class and what we've been talking about at home. Today he even wore a sweatshirt I ordered from one of my CCU friends. It's one of the "Happily Homeschooling in Kansas" ones; and he loves it. He proudly showed it to his art teacher who told him it was cool. :^) I didn't get a picture of him wearing it today; but I am going to try tomorrow so I can post it. It's just been a busy day today - with art class, delivering The Buyer's Guide, and work this evening. But things are definitely going better!

Kandy

In Pictures...

Promised Dance Pictures of Taliesin

Fun Art... Taliesin and I made this from sunflower stalks in our front yard.

A comfortable sleep? I guess Princess thought so. :^)

Our Newest Pet - Daisy the Guinea Pig.

Well, I finally have had a chance to post the pictures I've been planning to post for a week now. I'm sorry for the delay. I had two research papers for college due this week - one over the signs and miracles in the Book of John and one over the rise of the papacy in the Western world after the fall of the Roman Empire. Finally got them both finished (just in time); so I decided to get these posted.

Kandy

Sunflower Seeds

Let me first say that I do have pictures of Taliesin from dance class on Monday. I hope to get those posted tonight after work. Right now, I'm making lunch for Nathanael. He opted for alfredo pasta. Taliesin just wanted some chicken nuggets. Both settled on chocolate milk (made with Ovaltine). I'm just eating peanut butter and jelly. :^)

The past couple of days have been interesting. So far today, we have begun soaking Taliesin's and Nathanael's sunflower seeds in salt water. Tomorrow, we'll start roasting them in the oven. It's a fun experiment to see how they turn out. We've been watching Mr. Megorium's Wonder Emporium and building our own magical toy store out of Legos. I like the message of the movie - everyone has something special inside of them. That's espeically good for Taliesin right now. Most of you know, he's enrolled at in an art class right now through the art center. This is probably his eighth or ninth class he's taken from them in just about two years. For some reason, this time he's feeling excluded. There were a couple of times he wasn't included in the games. Then yesterday, he was skipped over for face painting which upset him quite a bit. I didn't know how to avoid getting involved, so I did tell the teacher that he had been waiting to get his face painted with the other kids. (I always wait outside the classroom for him or just outside the art center). Even though he was upset and refused it at first, he did finally give in and get his face painted. He was pretty excited after that. I'm honestly just glad that I was sitting there and saw how everything happened. Otherwise, he would have been a very upset little boy. Later today, we're going to buy some of our own face paint so he can play "dress-up" more. LOL. Yesterday we did have another fun experiment. Someone that I work with brought in a couple of boxes full of apples from her apple tree a few days ago. So I took a lot home. Yesteday, we made apple pancakes. Taliesin and Nathanael had fun making them. They really enjoy making pancakes. Now we can add apple pancakes to peanut butter pancakes, planet pancakes, and fairy bread (our version is made from pancake mix - only it's baked and topped with fairy dust - aka powdered sugar).

Kandy

Photos

So Sweet!... This is Nathanael helping with the little kitten my sister rescued. It's difficult to see in the photo since it was taken with a flash; but the kitten is little and fuzzy. My sister is holding a bottle of kitten formula for it to eat from. Nathanael is definitely my animal lover. He loves this little kitten, and you should see it with him!

Outta This World Art... The top picture is the one Taliesin and Nathanael made together. We were studying the landing on the moon that day. In the left corner, if you look closely, you can see Nathanael's glitter glue space and planet drawn at the top. At the top middle, you will see Taliesin's sun and each planet in order (yes, Pluto is there, too). Beneath the planets, you will see a space shuttle and an astronaut (that's Neil Armstrong, as Taliesin wrote around the drawing of him). The bottom picture is one that Taliesin made in his art class this Tuesday. Those are his hands, holding the Earth. The yellow stick figure drawn on the left hand is Taliesin, standing next to a ladder that leads up. He told me he would climb up the ladder, jump over to the earth, jump over to the sun (on the right) and slide back down the right arm.

Lookin' Good!... This is what Taliesin chose to wear to his art class today. If you can't tell from the photos, he's wearing a red Star Wars t-shirt; blue basketball shorts, blue and red crocs, a black pleather jacket, and a pink "Spring Break 2008" baseball cap. Very stylish!

Dance Class... Last week, Nathanael would not allow me to sit outside of his dance class room and watch him and wait for him. Everything was new, so I sat in the room with him; and, of course, I wasn't able to take pictures. This week, he was ready to go in all by himself; so we got these cuties from outside of the room. And, of course, when Taliesin had his ballet/tap class on Monday, I forgot the camera. So I should get some this coming Monday. :^)

Kandy

What's been happening, plus a cool link for cards

I am sorry I have not had a lot of time to blog lately. We have been very busy with Taliesin's and Nathanael's activities, college, and work. But things are going well. I have some cute pictures to post - I hope tonight after work. One is of some spacey artwork Taliesin and Nathanael made yesterday. One is an adorable picture of Nathanael helping to take care of an orphaned kitten my sister found yesterday. Well, actually, she didn't find it. She was delivering newspapers to a neighborhood and two boys were playing catch with this little one. Very sad, indeed. I just wonder why people do not teach their children to be kind to other creatures. Cruelty is one thing we do not tolerate in our family. Even in our unschooling group, one of the guidelines is we have to be kind to other creatures. (These guidelines are found on our website at http://awalkintheparkunschoolinggroup.bravehost.com). The boys and the neighbors said they had no idea who the kitten belonged to or where the mother was, so she now has it. It is so sweet. It's probably not more than a week old, since it still has its eyes shut.

Speaking of cats, we took Mickey in to get him "fixed" today. He's the last one of our animals needing to be done. It's a good feeling. I just spoke with the vet's office an hour or so ago. We had requested that they call us and let us know when the surgery was over. They called and said it's all done, and he's doing well. So that's certainly something to be thankful for.

Last, but certainly not least, I have a really cool site for you to check out. This is a CCU friend who designs some awesome cards - just in time for the holidays. Please check it out: http://handstampedb ylove.com/ .

Until next time.

Kandy

College Day

Well, it seems so nice to be getting off from work before close on Friday nights. That gives me more time with family; plus it helps with my college, since most of my assignments are due either by Friday night or over the weekend. Last night and today, I spent a lot of time getting my assignments typed and submitted and getting quizzes taken. I especially enjoyed the research paper over the canon of the Bible. It's a subject I'm always interested in, so it came very easily for me. I was so happy when the professor liked it, too. Ended up with a 99% on it, so I cannot complain. Next week, I have a paper due explaining how Jesus fulfilled the symbolism in the Feast of Tabernacles. Should be interesting. :^) I think, for now, I'm going to lie down for a while. I'm getting a sore throat.

Kandy

Fairy Tales and Cartoons

Yesterday, Taliesin and Nathanael picked a book of Anderson's and Grimm's fairy tales to spend part of their Buyer's Guide money on. Well, we've been reading it a lot today. A current favorite is "The Ugly Duckling." After reading, we went for a nature walk and make some fall leaf collages, then Taliesin asked to watch Dumbo. So while they were watching it, I started thinking about how "The Ugly Duckling" and Dumbo are similar. So after their movie was over, we talked about it. I asked them how the ugly duckling and Dumbo were alike. Taliesin answered they were both ugly and Nathanael said they were both sad. Then I asked them how others treated the Ugly Duckling and Dumbo. They both said others were not nice to them. I asked them if that is how we are supposed to treat others who are different than we are. They both answered no. So I asked them how we should anyone that we just meet. They both said we should be friends with them. They must have enjoyed our questions and answers, the next book they chose to read was an Elmo one called "Red and Blue, I'm Like You." It's about a friend of Elmo's who is a blue monster. All of the blue monsters assume Elmo has different likes than they do because he's red. Then the book intruduces orange monsters and pink monsters, and the moral of the story is even though we may all look different, we are all important and are all people. That led perfectly into a fun time with dress-up. I got some old clothes out of the closet, and we had lots of fun. :^)

Kandy

Too Cute Not to Post

Kelsey caught this on camera tonight. Nathanael is asleep against Riley. :^)

Kandy

The Dog, the Horse, and the Dragon...

(Sorry this isn't the best picture. I finally took it tonight, and this is how it turned out with the flash on. I think you can tell they decorated paper foot prints. Then the two pages that you cannot see are spiders).

By Taliesin and Nathanael Hastings

Once upon a time there was a horse named Eggo and a dog named Cassie. They fought a dragon named Sadie. They became friends. Suddenly, there was a big, giant, mean doggy dragon. He was angry and said, "Get out of my house!" Sadie the dragon said, "I will knock you down." The big, bad doggy dragon fell down. Suddenly, there was a giant Goliath spider. He said, "Do you like me?" They all said, "Yes, we like you."

The End