Summer Time!

With only a week left of school we have been caught up in all the nice weather we have been having and just exploring our 11acre yard. Searching in the creeks in our front and back yard in search of newts, crawfish, frogs and anything else interesting. Dylan has always been fascinated with insects so every day he will go "exploring" and look for a new bug that he hasn't seen before. Most times he comes back with flies, ants, beetles and worms, but every now and then we get to see a pretty butterfly ;)
Well I have to cut this short because I have kids calling for me ... go figure lol.

What to do now ?

My husband and I have been discussing whether or not to let Dylan go into first grade or hold him back and have him repeat Kindergarten. I am close to tears anytime we discuss it because I never thought one of my kids would be in this situation, let alone have medical issues that holds them back. In a sense I wonder why am I putting so much effort into homeschooling him to only have him repeat K again? and then I am like well it could be good for him, he will have matured a lil more and may be more prepared and ready for school and he will have already done it all before so he shouldn't have any problems with stress since its all familiar. Then the topic of do I enroll him back in Public school or continue homeschooling next fall? Since I have been homeschooling Dylan we have not had one trip to the ER or even a trip to our pediatrician. He hasn't had any problems at all. So I am very worried about letting him go back to public schools and have the overwhelming stress take its toll on him again. I guess we will never know unless we try, but to add to our stress is the fact that my husbands job is stationing us in Florida in October. School starts early August here in Kentucky so they will have been in school a few months before transferring to another school which also really bothers me. I try to keep our life as simple and normal as possible for them because we do relocate a lot and my husband is gone a lot. The kids know that Daddy is in the military and its his job, but it doesn't make it any easier. So my fear is with all the changes happening Dylan may not adjust well and end up having more ER visits. There are days when I focus on this one problem and try to figure out ways to get around it. I even suggested staying here in Kentucky to keep a sense of normalcy until the summer when the kids get out of school them move so they aren't leaving after school has already started. I can go through multiple reasons why its best to stay, but I know we need to stay together as a family for as long as we can because with Mike's job we never know when we will have time with him.
I just hope that this summer I can make a decision that works best for all of us.

Activities outside of schools

Awhile back Dylan mentioned wanting to do Karate so we looked into a local class and didnt feel that it fit our needs for Dylan and he did not seem to be all that interested after seeing what they really do. Could have just been that particular class who knows?
I need help! What other types of activities can I get my son into for confidence building and socialization?
He spends literally all day and night with me and sometimes he gets to play with other kids when I babysit for friends but they are usually younger than him and he wants to do BOY things.
Suggestions?

Paper Mache

So we took a break from hitting the books and did some art. My youngest sons birthday was yesterday (april 25th) and we are celebrating it this weekend on the 30th so as an art project we are doing a paper mache pinata in the shape of a koala. The kids LOVED doing this but it surely was messy. So far we only have 2 layers on it and are waiting for them to dry up a bit before adding the last 2 layers.
We used a balloon, lots of newspaper cut into 2in x 5in strips, and for the paper mache we used 2 cups water and 1 cup flour. I heard you can use glue and lots of other stuff, but this happened to be the tutorial we found first and just went with it so flour and water it was. So far so good ;)
My dinning room floor is still covered in newspapers until we can finish the other layers which Im hoping will get done today. Then we will paint him gray and add the candy =D
Pictures to come soon.

Share your pinata ideas, recipes and photos if you can =)

Giveaway!

So with me homeschooling Dylan it has put my sewing and my business on the back burner .... and I would like to say a big thank you to all of my fans and customers for being so awesome to me these past few years.
I would like to do a giveaway through this blog.

RULES: 3 ways to get entries. Leave a comment when doing one or all of these =)
1.) Post this blog on your page
2.) Share one Kindergarten level learning activity in my comments
3.) "Like" my etsy store http://www.etsy.com/shop/BippityBoppityBibs
4.) also note you must be a "follower" of this blog to participate in the giveaway

One Lucky winner will be picked randomly and announced on May 29th =)


Giveaway Items!
One Winner Will receive : My new "Blazin Blueberries" OR  "B-A-N-A-N-A-S" bib from my Yummy Bib line WINNER will pick which bib they would like as their prize!

AND THE WINNER IS : TANYA MARIE

Thank you to everyone who participated. Tanya let me know which bib you would like Blazzin Blueberries or B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Also let me know you address. =)

Bernheim Forest

It was too beautiful out this morning to sit inside and work on paperwork, so I dropped off Gavin (3) at Preschool and headed out to Bernheim Forest. Dylan was very excited to explore. We have gone plenty of times in the past but this time we were taking the time to learn about everything that this great park has to offer. Check out the pictures we took this morning =)

We got to check out Bees.

Even learned about Mushrooms!

Dylan's Favorite part of the day ... the Beetle Exhibits.

He pieced together a Turtle shell.

Had to check out the types of critters and fish in the lake.

Check out Bernheim here : http://www.bernheim.org/arboretum.html

Buttons

So with Math on IXL getting harder Dylan has been pretty frustrated with the idea of even getting back on to try. So I thought of trying something else. I printed off some pattern worksheets for him to do this morning as a warm up and then broke into my sewing stash where I have a ton of buttons in various sizes and colors. I dumped some out and we started working on patterns and counting into the teens and he seems to have a much easier time doing it hands on than counting photos on the computer. I even got Gavin (3) to join in and they had a blast sorting by color and counting each. Maybe tomorrow I will have him do a color graph for the buttons ;)

He has also read the Dick and Jane book so much I need to find him some more so hopefully the library has more to offer tonight when he goes to story hour. He has been doing really well with the sight words but spelling them later has been a little rough. So We need to practice more on seeing the word then writing it.
Hope you all are having a great Tuesday =)