Today , we went to visit our favorite person in the whole world, my hubby auntie L,she's like a mom to us, she's is the nicest person you would ever meet. She cooked a delicious,juicy,turkey and arroz con gandules with tostones, yum. The girls really enjoyed visiting her ,C was petting and playing with auntie L cokatoo.

Madness

The NYC parks offers many free programs,like ballet, tap ,boxing,tennis,soccer, ,swimming and many more. Registration for the free swimming program was today, I woke up at 5:30am, got dressed, and waited for 7:00am since registration was schedule at 9:00am. T and I walked in the cold cold weather until finally we arrived . The Recreation center were full of people waiting to register their kids, some individuals have even Camp out all night, I asked the person in charge how many people were before me, he kindly replied "114" LOL .So I left , I figured that my chances of getting the girls sign up was slim since this is a first come,first serve program. After that, I took T to her first gymnastic class. It was incredible, I was so happy to see her smile . After class , we came home ,I picked up C and drop T off and onces again I left home, I took C to her first tennis class,so I though, Once I got there I found out that tennis start next week ..........sigh O well, I least c met her coach.

I am so exhausted!!!!!

HULA HOOP

Today I gave C&T their earnings for the week, each girl got $ 9.50 ,a quarter for each book they read and quarter for each math lesson that they score 90% and up. They asked me to take them to target because they wanted to purchase a Hula Hoop that lights up, so I did.

I was surprise to find out that the Hula Hoop that they wanted was $8 dollars,even though I wouldn't purchased such a pricey Hula it wasnt up to me,it was their money.
Of course, they purchased the Hula that they wanted so much.

T.V versus Books

A while ago I heard someone calling the T.V " the idiot Box" , at that time I though it was strange,but afterwards I understood why they were calling it the idiot Box.
I have try many times to take the T.V out of the house,but hubby love his big screen T.V and the girls took after their father , they enjoyed spending time sitting on the couch with daddy and watching movie after movie. I personally hate it , it's a waste of time, time they could be reading or being creative. Today I noticed how the girls don't enjoyed reading books like they used to,and how the littles ones are not so fond of books . That is not good, even though k is improving in her reading , she should have been reading independently already,but still struggles sounding out words, that is because she prefer to watch t.v rather than reading her books. I remember when C &T were her age they were already reading at a fast paced , I remember how T used to prefer reading her Henry and Mudge books than watching the Idiot Box. I know every child is different ,but I feel this is not about that , It's my fault, I guess , for not having a balance between T.V and other form of entertainment.
Starting on Monday , I will put an end to the idiot box ( I least when my hubby is at work....LOL)
I will not allowed the girls to watch t.v Monday-Friday . It will be hard ,since T.V could entertain the girls while I cook or take a break,(shame on me)but is a must . I will try to visit the library more often and join the homeschool book club again (I stop going 2 months ago)I want to bring the love for books again in this house.

"Television wastes time, promotes passive, vicarious brain development rather than active thought, and is a source of pernicious social contamination. " by art robinson

Money don't grow on trees

I want my girls to learn that working hard has it's reward, I don't want them to think that the world is an easy place where they going to get everything handed out , I want them to be responsible and independent, I want them to appreciate their father hard work, overall I want them to be good daughters to the Lord by abiding in his words and his words only,we believe deeply in God and try are best to follow and understand his words(the bible). To accomplish these goals my hubby and I don't give them an allowance, the way they get money from us is by them reading books, we use to print out a 100 squares sheet and tape it to the wall, for every book they read, and I will put a star in each square, when the sheet were full of stars I will get them what they wanted , their first reward was a digital camera . Now we do things a little different we give them a quarter for every book they read, which teach them to save up (money management) it really works , one time when I was in the store with them I over heard C & T talking about how much they wanted a purse ,C told T that if she liked it to buy it, because T had enough money, but T replied by saying that if she wait longer she will save up more money which means that she will have enough to buy the purse and more stuff, that buying the purse now will reduce her savings. Sometimes they try to be sneaky and have me buy their wants for they could save their money.....LOL. This week I print out a book list sheet for they could record each book they read through the week ,I tape the sheet to the refrigerator, at the end of the week I will give them a quarter for each book they read and a dollar for each book they read that I recommended.


To accomplish the goal of been responsible and independent I give them chores , K clean dishes after breakfast, T clean dishes after lunch , C clean dishes after dinner. they are responsible for keeping their bedroom and the playroom clean. I started teaching them how to cook , They love this part of been independent, I have taught them how to make pancakes,eggs,bacon, rice, chicken Marsala, pizza, beans, and how to chop onions.

To accomplish the goal of them been good Christians my hubby and I read the bible to them, teach them to pray, teach them right from wrong, teach them by us been an example.

Things don't always goes smoothly as it sounds, the girls don't always follow this outline, dad and mom many times get soft and let them get away with things, especially daddy, but we are trying and every time we fall down the wagon we get back up, we try ours best not to spoil them ,but sometimes we do.Yesterday my hubby and I were talking to the girls about how adults also get punish ,adults don't get time out ,but every time we break the law we get punish , our punish is in the form of paying fees or jail time. This discussion gave my hubby an idea of how they should get fee-tickets when they break the rules, they laugh , I reminded them of the fee ticket this morning and C told me she prefer time out... LOL .

This week:

C & T for history they will continue reading story of the world (vol 1)by Susan Wise Bauer

Chapter 11 Ancient Africa

Chapter 12 The middle kingdom of Egypt

Chapter 13 The new kingdom of Egypt

Chapter 14 The Israelites leaves Egypt

Chapter 15 The Phoenicians

For spelling we use spelling power, they get a daily test and only study the words they misspell

For Grammar they will keep working with helping Verbs,capitalization, initials,titles of respect, addresses,contractions,adjectives, introducing interjections.

For math we use Teaching Textbook, they will be working on decimals and carrying,decimals and regrouping,money word problems,thousandths and decimals.

For writing -they will write a summary for each chapter they read in history.

The books I recommend them to read was Great Expectations by Charles Dickens adapted by Monica Kulling and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo adapted by Monica Kulling.

K will continue working on her reading lesson , she's getting better at reading.

S will also continue working on her reading lessons.

E will continue getting potty trained ........oh I almost forgot to mention that E finally use the toilet , we all clap and show her how happy we are for her.

Recap

Wednesday, c had a dentist appointment ,so at 9:40 am we were out of the door and walking toward the bus stop, After a 15 min bus ride we arrived at the Dentist office , we waited about one hour, and finally we were called. Inside the dentist room they clean her teeth and change her braces, this month she chose blue , I was glad that she picked blue cause I was tired of the yellow braces.

Thursday, we started our school work at 8:00am

C did 2 hours of Math, 1 hour of reading ,1 hour of writing, 30 min on spelling and grammar.

T did 1 hour of math, 1/2 an hour of reading, 1 hour of writing, 30 min on spelling and grammar

k did 1 hour on her math facts and reading lessons.

S about 40min in her reading lesson and math.

Friday, I did laundry and gave the girls the day off. I tooked the girls to the neighborhood park in which the girls played withs all their might.

we all thought she looks adorable with that hat



C sketchbook

C & T they are inseparable

Work and play

Yesterday , My hubby bought me EA sport active , this game is awesome.
The girls enjoyed playing the sport section of the game. They dance, they played tennis, baseball , skating , baskeball, volleyball. We had a great day , C&T did their math lessons,C needed help with decimal and fractions ,but after a short explanation she understood and did the rest of her lesson by herself. T did paper mask and hats in her freetime. I started potty training E , she will piss everywhere except the toilet ....sigh. O well , soon she would get it.

T made bunny ears for

S.

As Happy as a child could be

The girls hate going to the mall,they exclaimed that going to stores is boring,they complained about the crowd, they impatiently bother me to finish shoping fast, but the store that makes everything negative about going to the mall, better for them is best buy . The only reason that they love this store is because of the opportunity to touch all type of musical instrument. Their faces lights up like New York City in the night, their smile is as big as a clown, their eyes open as wide as their eyelids permit them to.

Yeah,they totally feel as happy as a child could be.

cooking with the girls

Our mornings are usually very hectic so many times for breakfast we eat cereal, but today we really wanted something different ,it been a while since we had pancakes so this morning we ate pancakes ,eggs,bacon , it was delicious.

For dinner we cooked chicken marsala is one of our favorite dish.

1. we coat our slices of boneless chicken in flour.

2 In a pan we put olive oil and butter (not margarine)

3 we place our slices in the pan, turn slices when cook

4. pour sherry wine and marsala wine

5. chop and add onions .

6. enjoy!!!

Saturday, AMNH

We tooked the girls to the Museum of Natural History, is C's favorite . We usually rush to the 4Th floor to see the dinosaur bones,but this time I wanted the girls to see a different section of the Museum my goal was to take them to the discover center, I hear from other homeschool moms that kids love this part of the Museum especially cause is a hand-on experience. So we packed our peanut butter sandwiches made by C&T and our juices,potato chips, fruits, napkins and diapers and out of the door we went. The weather was perfect it felt like early spring, the girls and I were glad for such a wonderful climate.As we headed to the subway daddy told the girls one of Aesop fable story ,the town mouse and the country mouse, they talked the whole train ride about fables and their morals,the girls really enjoyed learning/ talking with daddy. At last we arrived at 86st, we used the subway entrance to enter the museum. We decided to check out the earth and space exhibition, it was cool. After that we went down to to the 1st floor to find the discovery center ,we went throught the northwest coast Indians exhibition which my hubby love, after asking for direction we found the discovery center entrance, the girls were really excited and so was I , but to avoid the room from getting overcrowded the museum handed over passes ,our passes was for 3:40 and it was 3:00pm so we had some time to kill. we went to the cafeteria to eat our lunch and decided to go home right after because hubby and S had stomaches aches C,T and K were sad that we did'nt get to see the discovery room, but understood that daddy wasnt feeling well and staying any longer will be selfish.



A band playing Jazz in the subway.

C likes the drums and might take drums lessons,

so seeing a girl playing drums was cool for her.

Not much today

Today we started our day with breakfast,after breakfast I read the bible to them , the parable of Jesus the one of a man with two son . After bible study c and I play a little tennis with a ball made of paper...lol..... it was fun , after that we stretch ,practice balance and the handstand. T is getting really good she stood there for few seconds. After our exercise T & C did their math lesson and type write their final writing project. The rest of the day they play and watch t.v.

narration

Narration is such a simple yet powerful learning tool. Kids read the story and retell the story back to mom ,this process shows me if they comprehend the story. Is better than just answering questions and this is why I said this, the other day c asked me if I could just give her questions to answer instead of her re-telling me the story cause it was hard for her to put it together . So after this confession I decided to keep pushing narration because is truly an affected way to practice comprehension/oral skills. So now I have them read one chapter per day and I video tape their narration which they seem to enjoy very much . I am hopeful that they will get better .
c is reading Oliver Twist by Charles dickens adapted by Les Martin

according to wikipedia it was published 1837 in three volumes (wow).

This story is about an orphan that escaped to London where he meets a gang of thieves .

T is reading the Hunchback of Notre Dame by victor Hugo adapted by Marc Cerasini

this novel was published 1831.

This is T narration of the prologue:

she mispronounced prologue and cathedral, but that's okay she will get better at narrating soon.

T

I feel T is very talented in gymnastic, so I helped her as much as I can by doing stretches for flexibility ,I helped withs her bridges , handstand and walkover. This year , if is God will , she will be taking gymnastic classes. She never took them before cause we can't afford it. But now I found a community center that offer gymnastic classes and are very affordable price.

On Thursday night the girls got sick, stomach flu, they was throwing up constantly, and had a difficult time going to sleep. The only one that didn't get sick was E,thanks God! On Friday the girls woke up feeling better,but mom didn't. Dad got sick on Friday night . But we all fell better by Sunday. So last week as you can see was a rough week. We still did our food shopping which was great.

It is I

Today in grammar C&T learn that saying "It is me" is wrong . They also learned about Initials and action verbs. For grammar I am using First language lessons by Jessie Wise .

Today I started teaching S her 1st lesson in Funnix. Funnix is the same method as the book learning to read in 100 easy lessons, but Funnix is like having a tutor on your PC. Both program are by the same author. She also trace the letter C , did some counting, and learn Hey Diddle Diddle.

K didn't feel well, so she took a break from her lessons.

Sunday &Monday

Sunday:

It was a deep cleaning closet day, I gave the biggest closet to C and T. K,s,and E are sharing the closet that's inside their room. I throw many things out ,it felt good to get rid of some junk. I found old pict which was nice to look at. The girls found some of their baby pictures which they enjoyed seeing.

So sunday was just a relaxing day, A playful day , A joyful day.

Daddy did pull up and the girls too ( playing around,of course)

Monday:

My Grandfather came to visit , I haven't see him for over 10 years , and this was the first time that the girls met their great-grandfather.

Home Depot

Today our family headed to Home Depot, for their monthly kid workshop program, my mom and brother join us. The girls build a really cool/cute wood calendar with the help of Home Depot workers,dad,and grandma. After the workshop we went to Marshalls . We bought the girls sweaters and pants,daddy also bought himself some clothes and mommy two pairs of sneakers .The girls try on sunglasses and funny looking hats. E was acting up so to keep her calm I gave a big teddy and glasses for she could be entertained . I did'nt buy it though. after that was over we headed outside the store to face the cold and windy day,the winds were so strong that it push us back as we walked , of course the girls was loving ever bit of it , they was laughing, screamming, and running . E started to cry cause it was freezing to the point that she could'nt feel her hands. Thanks to God we got home pretty fast to a nice ,cozy and warm home.

MY Goals

January , the beginning of a new year, It feels like an opportunity to start all clean, and all the mistakes that you make last year you wont make it again this year.

Today we went to the mall got some food items as cereal, potato chip, milk and few other necessities. we started our new year all bold cause of happen last year . we caught lice. those little fuckers are really hard to get rid off ,so we all shave our head including me.

This year I would concentrate in C learning her math facts ,she already knows her multiplication, so I will be working on her addition,subtraction,division facts. With K I will continued her reading program and working on her math facts. S I will start teaching her reading ,she might be ready . E I will work on her vocabulary , potty train,and I will continue to work on her overall behavior by teaching her boundaries and rules to follow . T is already a strong mathematician for a 7 year old(in my eyes) so I will continue with her math mental drill, and I will increase hers and c reading time to 2 hours.

I will document all our trips,classes, and learning experience.