What We've Been Up To

1. Enjoying the beautiful weather! It's been unseasonably warm here in Cleveland and we've made every effort to take advantage of it with a couple of trips to the park and walks around the neighborhood. And playing in the backyard, of course. Benjamin has discovered the sand table and played surprisingly well in it. Meaning, he didn't eat or throw the sand.

2. Cub Scouts. The Pinewood Derby was a couple weeks ago and the boys had a great time racing their cars. Due to some technical glitches they didn't exactly get the ribbons they deserved, but they enjoyed it nonetheless. And it was a good lesson in how to handle disappointment, I suppose. Thomas got a third place ribbon and should have gotten second. He was happy just to get a ribbon, though. He's pretty easy going like that. Michael should have been in the top three for the Bears group - his car was the fastest in his heat (three cars) yet somehow he didn't place at all (there were six cars total). He handled it well, though, and was still excited about having a fast car.

3. School. Obviously. I wrote about the math program we use on my homeschooling website - you can read that post here. Other exciting changes include a new scheduling program that I recently discovered and LOVE! It's called Homeschool Skedtrack and it's a free online planning and record keeping program for all of your homeschooling. I spent some time getting each of the boys' set up with their different subjects, materials, etc... and it is making our day so much more organized. Each day I print out their tasks for the day - Michael can easily follow his and check things off as he goes. He does what he can independently and I help him with the rest. Thomas requires more one-on-one time from me and so does Matthew, of course. I love that I can now easily keep track of not just their work each day, but their hours for the whole school year, too. I can also account for EVERYTHING that they do - Cub Scout meetings, Museum classes, Art Class, Music, etc... I'm still playing around with it, but so far I am very impressed with all it can do. I'll be writing a post about it on my homeschooling site, too.

4. Other Activities. Most of these will be winding down for the summer within the next month or two. I was recently approached by the boys' gym teacher about Michael's natural talent for basketball! So far that's been his favorite sport that they've covered in the class, so it's something we will be exploring further. It's his Hoosier blood...

5. More Cub Scouts. It's been kind of a busy couple of months with Cub Scouts. The boys have one more regular den meeting and then April and May will be spent on some field trips that take advantage of the spring weather - fishing, nature center, etc... Michael recently had to prepare a brief speech to give for his den and I'm really proud of him and how well he did. Each scout had to do a "How To" demonstration of something and Michael chose to demonstrate how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He was pretty nervous about it, but came out of the meeting smiling and really happy with how it went. Michael also made and decorated a display shelf for his Pinewood Derby cars. In other Cub Scout news Matthew is VERY excited to become a Tiger Cub in the fall and I will be a Den Leader for the Bears next year - which means Thomas will be in my group.

5. Blogging.  (The above is a video Michael made while I was on the computer one evening after dinner). I've kept myself pretty busy with the now three different websites I have and a fourth one in the works. Because I am, in fact, crazy. But I really enjoy having an outlet for writing. I recently had a post chosen to be spotlighted on the BlogHer Publishing Network and I was really excited about that. I also have a super secret writing project that I'm working on and can't wait to share with you. Yes, I've neglected this blog, but am hoping to post at least a couple times a month again.  Remember that you can subscribe to this site if you aren't already, and then you'll know if there's a new post. Just remember that if you subscribe by email, you will then be sent an email with a link to finish your subscription and make it active - some people never do that last part and therefore aren't really subscribed.

I think that about sums things up for now. I'm now going to go and avoid doing more housework by taking the boys outside for a walk and play time. I hope you are enjoying beautiful weather wherever you are! If you have time to comment, I'd love to know that someone is still reading this blog. Thanks.

Matthew in Action Hero mode

~ Dori