The Delks

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

2012-02-07T16:27:00.001-08:00

Won't you be my neighbor?

It was such a pretty day today that the kids and I went to the school across the street to play on their playground. The kids had a lot of fun, and Aunt Kitty came with her twins too!

They never do what I want them to. *sigh*

They had to get a little help.

She's such a big girl!

What amused me the most about their playing was that Isaac and Abby were dare-devils, while Andy was careful. Abby climbed over everything and Isaac ran around, but Andy always told me where he was, and didn't climb anything unless a sibling had gone first.

Sorry this post in long overdue! I'll find some more pictures soon!

Also, I have a little good news.... I am my school's nominee for Tennessee Teacher of the Year!

I've turned in my application and I'll find out by the 10th if I was chosen as a Hamilton County Teacher of the Year. From there, I would go to another level. It's like a beauty pageant, but without the swimsuit competition.

Wish me luck!

Happy Delk Christmas

2011-12-27T10:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the Happy Delk Christmas with just Joe's immediate family. We will have the Extended Delk Christmas after the new year.

The kids were excited to see their relatives and... presents!! Once again Isaac appointed himself the watcher of the gifts.

Grammy Delk brought a special hat that sang and danced. I'm surprised that Isaac put it on his head! Unfortunately I didn't get video.

And, of course, Abby attached herself to Uncle Craig. At the end of the day she didn't want Uncle Craig to leave. I offered to pack her a bag so she could go with him, but that idea didn't fly.

Andy was happy just playing with his train set. In fact, while everyone else was opening their gifts, he ignored his stack and kept on playing!I'm thinking that Focus is Andy's Superpower.

Abby got a new Cinderella doll, so now she has 2 princess babies!

Isaac got a new firetruck, complete with lights and siren. I don't see those batteries lasting long! (mostly because Joe is going to take them out!)

Uncle JD got the twins some really great water-coloring books. They use a special water marker to bring out the color on the page. The kids LOVED them and they don't make a mess, so I love them too!

Abby got some magnetic paper-dolls. They're all fashion, quiet, and came in a fancy feathered bag... what's not to love?! I can see this being used a lot during our homeschool time.

After nap time we brought out the roll-up piano from Aunt Susie and danced the night away!

You know what's crazy? We've had 3 Christmases so far, and we still have 2 more to go! It's the holiday that keeps on going! :)

Merry Christmas!

Happy Bell Christmas

2011-12-27T09:14:00.001-08:00

This post is out of order since it happened a few weeks ago.
The first weekend in December, Joe's mom's side of the family got together to celebrate Christmas. I haven't been able to go for a few years because the kids always managed to get sick, but this year everyone was healthy!

We all met at Uncle Jack and Aunt Jodi's house in Hendersonville. The house was packed! 12 of the inhabitants were kids! Just kids! Then you add aunts, uncles, cousins, moms and dads, and Mamaw!

These are pictures that Uncle Craig took with his rockin' awesome camera.

Me and Aunt Beth

Joe took the kids outside to play. Not sure what Andy is doing here.

Playing in the leaves.

Andy loves just walking around and around. I think he was pretending to be a train on a track.

Abby planting new garden. She does have experience!

Andy eating a mini cupcake. Every time we turned around he had snatched another one off the dessert table!

Yes, she's adorable.

Mamaw and all of her Great-Grandchildren.

Mamaw and her Grandchildren. As you can see, twins run in the family! And, proof that this is a small world, the twin on the left (Marti) was Aunt Jenny's roommate in college!

Mamaw gave each of the great-grandchildren an ornament for their tree. Thank you Mamaw and Aunt Jodi!

Isaac opening his present. (this one was taken by my camera. It just doesn't compare)

Andy with Papa Delk

Abby and Uncle Jack

And we got to take home yummy fudge.

All in all, it was a wonderful visit!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T08:47:00.000-08:00

When Joe and I got married we made an agreement that our children would always wake up in their beds on Christmas Day. So, the kids and I drove all the way back to Ringgold after our Christmas in Dickson. When we got home, Santa's elves had set up our tree!

Beautiful! Joe said that the Elves even let him help! So, the tree was set up and ready for Santa's visit later that night.

On Christmas morning we woke up to find that Santa had brought everyone what they had wished for.

Isaac got his Hot Wheels.

And a Hot Wheels track. Isaac really liked Cousin Joshua's set-up, so I guess Santa decided that Ike needed his own.

Andy got a new train set! The Delks also got a train set for the whole family. (it's a smaller scale. Joe's big plan is to have a set-up like Papa Joe.)

Here's video of Andy's train! Sorry it's so dark.

Abby's wish list started simple, but grew a little bigger as Christmas got closer. In the end, she wanted Princess shirts, cupcakes, and a tea party. She's lucky that Santa always pays attention!

A new Princess to have tea parties with.

Rapunzell shirt

Cinderella shirt

And Santa even left some homemade cupcakes. Since Christmas is the celebration of Jesus' birth, Abby decided they were Happy Birthday, Jesus cupcakes.

After presents, we got ready to go to church!

Abby with her new doll, Christmas dress, and hat from Aunt Sandy.

After church we had lunch and Abby finally got to dig into a Christmas cupcake.

Since the cakes were chocolate on chocolate, I didn't want her pretty dress to get dirty.

You know, with her chocolate goatee, she really does look like her daddy!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas in Dickson

2011-12-27T08:13:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve I took the kids and we visited Gommy Petty. I told Joe to stay home since he had worked right up till the actual holiday and I knew he would be cranky if I told him he had to travel too. (And a cranky Joe is not a fun Joe.)

So, the kids and I, along with Aunts Susie and Sandy, Jenny and her crew, Aunt Boo, and Grammy Pat, all met in Dickson for lunch and fellowship. Considering the energy level of the kids, it's a good thing it wasn't too cold outside!

Good job, Aunt Jenny! Sidewalk chalk was a great idea!

Children of all ages loved being outdoors!

Picture time!!

The original 3 sisters.

The second generation of sisters.
Since I don't plan on giving birth to any more little divas, and I'm pretty sure Jenny is done too, it is up to Joanna to have the third generation of sisters. Good luck with that!

Queen Gommy and her Princess daughters.

I feel the need to point out that this picture contains a Christmas Miracle. I look great! :)

Isaac faithfully guarded the gifts. No one got to the tree without his notice!

Isaac was very happy with his "Bumblebee" car! He is convinced that any yellow car is secretly the Transformers Bumblebee car. He showed the car to Uncle Jason and let him know that his car was a "Robot in disguise."

Abby got new 'baby'. She's always happy to add another animal to her collection! Her bed looks like mine used to when I was younger. All her babies are lined up at the foot of her bed so she can keep watch over them.

I didn't get a picture of Andy, but he was being a cranky pain, so you're not missing much.

Last, but not least, the joint present for the kids was a roll-up piano from Aunt Susie. We pulled it out during the Happy Delk Christmas and the kids played with it after their nap.

You can tell it's after nap time by checking out Abby's hair. It curls because she gets sweaty when she sleeps. :)

Merry Christmas!

Happy Delk Thanksgiving

2011-12-03T09:21:00.000-08:00

After spending so much time on the road, it was nice to be back at our house. On Saturday after Thanksgiving, we hosted the Happy Delk Thanksgiving. Although, due to the lack of Thanksgiving-style food, it ought to be called the Happy Delk Brunch.

The kids were excited to see everyone, especially Uncle Craig!

Airplane time!! (where Uncle Craig learns that what you do for one, you do for all!)

The twins share a little love.

Abby pretty much latched on to Craig as soon as he entered the house, and never let go.

Andy was more social and got love from Uncle JD and from Grammy Delk.

Then Andy decided to find a solitary activity.

And Isaac found baseball cards to keep him entertained.

Abby played the game Hide-the-Daddy.

After all this fun, it was time for naps! (for the kids, although I'm pretty sure Aunt Beth would have gladly slept on the couch if she was given the chance!)

It was a fun day! Can't wait for the Happy Delk Christmas!

Thanksgiving and Birthday

2011-12-03T07:51:00.000-08:00

To make life easier, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family, along with celebrating the twins' birthday, all in one day. Everyone had survived our Dickson adventure, and we were ready for the Princess and Pirate Party that Aunt Boo and Aunt Jenny had planned.

It started with playtime outside.

After getting our fresh air, it was time to put on our party clothes! (Thank you, Aunt Jenny!)

Our pretty Princesses

A Royal Family

Now, Isaac was the only boy who was interested in being in costume. I think Joshua and Andy were busy elsewhere and couldn't be bothered.

"Arrr, matey!"

The Princess and the Pirate.
You know, I'm pretty sure I've read a book by that title...
These guys are much cuter!

Here's the reason Andy was too busy to be in costume. Papa Joe sneaked Andy out to play with the model trains. Andy had been kicked out of the garage earlier because he wasn't following directions, but he was so brokenhearted that Papa Joe took pity on him and let him go back by himself. Papa Joe is such a softie!

Cake time! We finally got Andy to be a little more piratey.

Ready for the song!

Isaac is ready for cake!

Joshua is ready too!

And here is Aunt Boo. Because no post would be complete without a picture of her! :)

Thank you Grammy and Papa, Boo, and Jenny for making this day special!

Fun at Grammy Pat's

2011-12-03T07:25:00.000-08:00

Before setting out for Dickson, the tiny Delks and I stayed at Grammy Pat and Papa Joe's house.

Wednesday night we pulled out Grammy Pat's ipad and texted Aunt Jenny to get her ipad ready too. The Delks and Davises were going to chat!

The boys had a better time than Abby. Once Abby realized she wasn't going to be the star of the show, she lost interest. The boys were entertained by Joshua who wanted to show his truck collection, and Julia who was kind enough to listen to Isaac and Andy sing.

Isaac being cute

Abby got one of Grammy's scarves and found a tutu. My daughter knows fashion!

Andy was just having a good time.

Time for a good night's sleep and then Dickson in the morning!

Turkey Day- Dickson Style!

2011-12-03T06:51:00.000-08:00

I love the holidays! I love seeing family and friends. I love getting time away from work. I even love having time to straighten my house. (not that I do it, but I could!) The only thing I don't really love- all the road time.

I'm not going to complain since the road time is what takes me to the friends and family I love, but I sure do wish Abby would shut up for more than 5 minutes at a time. 3.5 hours on the road with a talkative 2 year old is not anyone's idea of a good time.

Don't let the cuteness fool you. She talks more in a day than Oprah did in her entire career.

Well, the Delks recently made the trek to Dickson for the annual Thanksgiving Day reunion at the White Bluff Community Center. I didn't get any pictures while we were there, but I did get pictures when we all went back to Aunt Hollye's!

The men, along with Hannah, Ingrim, and Hannah's boyfriend went to Emily's house to watch the game and escape the children. I can't blame them since they were the ones to watch the kids at the Community Center playground. :)

The kids behaved themselves, for the most part. Aunt Jenny brought a Veggie Tales to watch and they were all hooked for a little while.

Joshua was focused! I have no idea which movie it was, but it must have been one of his favorites!

Aunt Boo and Aunt Emily. Such style! Such grace! Such good hair!

Abby doing... something. She really enjoyed playing with Sadie's dolls and doll house. (that is NOT a hint for Christmas) Abby even stayed inside to play when everyone else went outside with Aunt Jane.

I know that there are plans for Christmas in Dickson as well, but we are going to have to play that by ear. For the past 3 years we have enjoyed being in our home Christmas day. We'll keep everyone updated!

Halloween

2011-11-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

I hate Halloween. The only thing I like about Halloween is getting together with our friends and being able to catch up on things.

This was the 5th annual Halloween get-together with our neighbors Kayla and Travis (and baby Ansley). Melissa and John were able to come too! (with the twins) The house was swarming with children!

Andy was a pirate. Arrrr matey!

Isaac was a baseball player- no surprise there! But he did choose to be a Reds player, which may have broken Joe's heart a little.

Abby was a ladybug. Or a red and black princess, depending on her mood.

Abby and Andy sitting at their fancy table at Kayla's house.

Kayla holding Ben. Matt was being fed. I neglected to get a picture when he was done. I hope this doesn't cause him to become emotionally stunted.

Baby Ansley causing havoc on Kayla. The hat caused her to misbehave. Arrr, Mommy!

Joe and I took the kids on one lap of the neighborhood before we called it quits. They all had a blast! They loved going up to each door and saying "Happy Halloween!" It wasn't the expected greeting, but it was good enough for them to get what they wanted. :)

Unfortunately, we didn't have as many trick-or-treaters as we were expecting, and we have TONS of candy left over. I've been taking the chocolate to school to share with the teachers during our faculty meetings and professional developments. Teachers will do anything for chocolate!

Grammy and Papa Delk

2011-11-08T15:38:00.000-08:00

Joe's birthday was October 30, and Grammy and Papa Delk came to visit and celebrate! I honestly don't know what the kids were more excited about- seeing grandparents or having a party!

No party is complete without presents! Each of the kids received a teddy bear!

You had better believe that candy was taken away very quickly! We have a gallon sized baggie full of candy that the kids get to have a piece out of when they eat all of their dinner. I might have had to sample some of the chocolate, just to make sure it was fresh. :)

After the grandparents left, Abby pretty much commandeered the teddy bears. No one can be as good a mommy to the bears as Abby!

I'm glad the boys were feeling photogenic! Not sure what Abby's problem was.

Here's Abby showing off her sticker creation. Each of the kids also got a Halloween card complete with stickers from Grammy and Papa!
All in all, it was a fabulous party for the kids, and we're lucky that Daddy was born so we could all get together!

Thank you, Grammy and Papa Delk!

Catching Up

2011-11-08T15:09:00.000-08:00

Sorry, it's been a while. Let me catch you up on a few things that have been going on in the Delk house.

1. My school blog has gotten some recognition!

You can read the article and my blog post about it HERE. My students love knowing that people outside of school are wondering what they are learning. Most days I hear the question, "Will that be on the blog?" at least twice.

2. Isaac is doing extremely well in school! He has been coming home with a smiley face in his behavior folder and gets stickers for his good deeds.

One thing about Pre-K that he loves is when Ms. Cherri sends home a literacy bag. The bag has a book, a notebook and crayons for an extension activity, and usually a puppet or stuffed animal that goes along with the story.

Two weekends ago, Ike brought home the 3 Little Pigs bag, complete with pig puppet. We pretended to be different characters all the way home, during dinner (and we went out to eat that night!), and all throughout the weekend. The only thing that was missing- a Big Bad Wolf puppet.

Well, I used to be creative at one time. I figured, how hard could a puppet be? I got out my felt, scissors, sewing kit, and an oven mitt.
Yes, an oven mitt. I traced the mitt on one side, then flipped the mitt so I would have a 'thumb' on either side. I hand stitched those suckers, and voila! A Big Bad Wolf puppet!

Two sided, cause it looks neat. I couldn't figure out how to make a mouth that looked good, so no mouth for this Wolf!
The kids had the best time playing with the puppets! I sent the Wolf back to school in the literacy bag so others could play. I might make another puppet for the kids though cause they loved them!

3. The twins are potty training. Andy is better at it than Abby at this point, but that doesn't stop her from trying! Today she went to daycare with 'big girl panties' on. She didn't even last until 8am. Oh well. We are going to keep trying!

Me Too, Woody!

2011-10-22T16:18:00.000-07:00

Isaac is reading on a Level 1 in those leveled readers you see at Walmart. I found some books on that level at McKays and turned one of them into a Literacy Bag.

I chose this book because we already have a Little Critter book titled Me Too! on our Nook and I thought Isaac might be able to make a connection.

I typed up the words, added pictures from Goggle Images and Clipart, printed everything and cut them out, and voila!

And everything fits into a pencil case!

He has actually read this so many times that he has it memorized. (much like Aunt Boo had Hop on Pop! memorized) You can hear the twins wanting attention in the background. Well, you can hear Abby wanting attention in the background.

After reading the story, we spread out the story strips and Isaac had to put the story back together. (the video is a little shaky- it's was difficult to film and direct at the same time)

Click on the picture to watch the video!

I didn't film all of it, but Isaac did get it finished! I got the picture of him standing with it, I turned around for one second to tell Abby something and Isaac had already mixed the sentence strips. (I was going to have him read them to Daddy.) *sigh*

I've done this activity with my students and they have a good time with it since it's a Literacy Center that I take a picture of to put on my school blog. I used the sentence strips from 1+1+1=1 for my students, but since it was pretty easy to make my own, I'll probably do more!

You might be wondering what I had the twins doing during all this.

Abby chose robots for her activity. She has the robots shapes page and a pipe cleaner. Her activity was to try to make the shapes with the pipe cleaner. (yes, it is an advanced activity, but she really tried hard!)

She mastered the circle!

I combined Andy's love of pirates with his love of colored pom-poms. His job- match the pom-poms to the circles on the page. Hand-eye coordination.

Here's the problem that I'm finding with doing Delk Homeschool- I can't do all the kids at one time. They all need individual help with their activities. However, wherever Ike goes, so goes Abby. Wherever Abby goes, so goes Andy. If I leave anyone out, they scream and cry. I could send them to their rooms to cry it out, then call them back when it's their turn, but by then they are in bad moods and don't want to do their activity.

For anyone who wanted to know why I don't actually homeschool my kids- that's the reason. They get on my nerves.

Click on the links ( robots and pirates) to see where I got the great activities!

Fun with Food Coloring

2011-10-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

I've been on Fall break all week, but this was the first day with the kids. The last 3 days have been cleaning and laundry days- kid free! I love my hubby! (he assured me that daycare was in the budget for this week)

So, today I had children and needed something to do with them. I had thought about going to the zoo, but it was cold and wet outside. I thought about being a good teacher-mommy, but I hadn't printed out and prepared anything yet.

Then I remembered THIS website. I considered this activity to be part of the Crafty Trinity- it was fast, cheap and easy. So, instead of going to the zoo, we made Aquarium Baggies. Great for... well, I don't know. But the kids liked it and now we have sun catchers that are sensory/ tactile oriented.

I collected my items...

I honestly can't remember when I bought that hair gel, but I'm glad I didn't get rid of it!
baggies
multi-colored sharpies
hair gel (the website said it would work with lotion too. but it wouldn't be as see-through for sun catchers)
food coloring to make the "water" blue
the white felt was for Isaac to see where he was marking

I stripped the kids of their shirts so they couldn't ruin them with the markers. I also read them their rights, should a marker find its way to a mouth, other body part, or the wall, all fun would cease for that child.

Abby chose orange and purple for her colors.

Andy chose blue and pink. He did well until I noticed him in his "thinking pose" with the marker tip in his mouth. No more aquarium fun for him!

Isaac had the rest of the colors.

I drew the fish, but they colored them and decorated the baggies as they saw fit.

Hmmmm.... what to do with Andy now that he can't have fun. Cupcakes. Multi-colored cupcakes.

I didn't take pictures as we made them, but we used a white cake mix, prepared the batter according to the box, then separated the batter into 3 bowls. Andy helped me choose the colors for the 3 bowls; blue, green and red.
Then we spooned 2 different colors into the cupcake cups.

You can't tell, but they are different colors on the bottom.

Abby loving her cupcakes. She's not exactly lady-like is she?

Here are the finished aquariums.

I'm so glad I thought to strip them first! Check out Abby's battle scars from the markers.

Ike is so proud!

My example is on top. They will look much better then the sun is cooperating!
Now Grammy Pat, don't you worry. I'll give Andy another chance tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, while the kids were taking their naps today, I jumped on the computer and printed their activities for the rest of this week and next week.

Abby chose robots for her activities and Andy has been on a pirate kick for a while, so Abby will be working on shapes, and Andy on letter recognition and hand-eye coordination. (matching colored pom-poms to the circles)

Ike chose circus for his theme, and I printed out the ones for pirate too. These are the Read, Build, Write mats from Homeschool Creations.

This came from a teaching blog that I came across. It's a sight word phrase game. Isaac knows a lot of his sight words already, and he's really good about recognizing new words when they are presented to him, so this game should be right up his alley.

I got this idea from the 1+1+1=1 website. I chose a Level 1 book from McKays that I knew would keep Isaac's interest and had words that he could read. I typed each page and added pictures I found from Google Images and clipart. I cut the strips and now Isaac has a fluency game he can play!

And, I love how the book and sentence strips fit perfectly into this 97 cent pencil case! I can definitely see myself doing more of these! (another Crafty Trinity activity!)

Last, but not least, Isaac's new Memory verse. This is for the letter 'C'. Of course, this is also from the 1+1+1=1 website.

I think I have enough to keep the kids busy! :)

Happy birthday, Aunt Sandy!

2011-10-17T19:05:00.000-07:00

Now, it wasn't really Aunt Sandy's birthday, but cake was involved and the kids had to have someone to sing to. Thank goodness Aunt Sandy's birthday is next month or we wouldn't have anyone to sing to!

Joe and Isaac went to visit his home church on Sunday, and I took the twins to visit my Gommy Petty.
It was a beautiful day! After lunch we went outside and let the kids run around. Andy went straight for the bird-poop infested birdbath. Abby had to follow since it looked like he was having fun, and that can't happen without her. So, the kids got wet, and the shirts came off. Good thing it was warm!

Pretty Gommy!

Aunt Sandy and Andy- notice Andy's haircut! Happy birthday, Aunt Sandy!

Andy and Grammy Pat. Andy was the photogenic one today.

This was the best I could get of Andy with Boo. Still cute!

Sorry, Grammy Pat but this was the best picture of Abby that I got!

Yummy cake!

More yummy cake!

So, Happy birthday, Aunt Sandy! We'll celebrate you again next month!

Happy Birthday, Julia!

2011-10-17T18:17:00.000-07:00

My kids live for a good party! When I told the tiny Delks that we were going to a birthday party, there was much celebration! Abby told me she was excited about seeing Grammy Pat, cupcakes, and Uncle Jason's iPad. (she called is Jason's Nook Book) It's nice that she had her priorities in order.

For those of you who might not know, Julia is our cute-as-a-bug cousin. She turned 2 years old last week and her party was this past Saturday.

The Happy Davis Family- Uncle Jason, cousin Josh-e-wash, cousin Julia, and Aunt Jenny.

We Delks love our Davis cousins sooooo much, we're willing to drive HOURS and HOURS just to see them! (Jenny- that was a guilt trip. Get your butt in the car and come see us!)

Everyone had a good time. Lots of food and family. I didn't get a lot of family pictures, sorry. But both sides of Julia's family were able to celebrate her!

Here are some kid pics...

Yummy cake!!

Silly boy!!

Look! I found books!

Umm.... Andy's hair was getting in his eyes, so we had to be creative. After the party Joe and I took the kids to get hair cuts.

Aunt Boo got this picture! You know, when she's not talking, she's kind of cute! (I'll let you figure out who I was talking about- Boo or Abby.) :)

Grammy Pat and Aunt Boo

The Bradley Girls

After the actual party the kids went outside and played with Joshua's riding toys. Isaac really got a kick out of driving the truck around. I wish I had gotten video! I know Jenny did, so I'm waiting for her to post it!

Joe and I took the kids to get haircuts too. Isaac said he would get a scissor cut- which is a BIG DEAL for him. Lately we have given him haircuts at home because he throws wild fits, but he did really well this time! He sat in Joe's lap and cried and shook, but he didn't have a melt-down! Yea!!!

Andy sat in the chair and didn't even need Mommy or Daddy with him. He's such a pro.

Abby had her VERY FIRST haircut! I told her stylist that I didn't know what to do with her hair since it is so baby-fine and curly. The stylist just trimmed all around and helped her curly in the back come out. It looks sooooooo much better! (no, I didn't save any of her hair. That's creepy.)

Happy birthday, Julia!!

The power of Pinterest

2011-10-08T17:27:00.000-07:00

If you are unfamiliar with Pinterest, let me enlighten you...

It is the BEST. WEBSITE. EVER!
I'm am by no means a crafty person, but after a mere 2 hours on Pinterest, I feel like I can make anything! Who knew someone could make a wreath out of ______! (fill in the blank with something off the wall, and I'm sure someone has done it! And posted it on Pinterest!) It's only slightly addictive, and I can stop at any time... but I don't want to!

As you know, my children are addicted to Aunt Beth's felt board. While I am glad they enjoy the quiet activity, it made me sad that I could only have one quiet child at a time. So, today I decided to rectify that problem. I looked on Pinterest for some felt craft ideas, mostly for any patterns to follow. (I can craft or cook anything as long as there is something to follow!) I found some easy picture ideas, and made a shopping list. Here are the pictures I found. You can click on the pictures to see their blogs.

Cute, huh? Unfortunately, no patterns to follow- I'd have to wing it!

Joe is working this weekend- all weekend. I have no felt at the house, and I needed some other crafty materials, so I packed up the kids and we braved Walmart. On a Saturday. In the middle of the day.

Good news- we survived! Bad news- it was 2:30 before the kids finally went down for their naps, and I was so busy crafting that I didn't get my nap. :( But I got some great crafting done! :)

Felt. I wasn't sure how much I was going to need, so I only bought a pack of 12. I should have gotten other colors too!

I had this butterfly template from another craft I did for the kids. I cut 2 butterflies out of card stock, and cut one of them into pieces. The top tan butterfly is the felt one I cut out.

I cut another piece of felt into the different parts of the butterfly.

More shapes for decoration. As I worked on the different projects, I added more decorative shapes into the butterfly bag.
So, that was Abby's butterfly. Next, on to Isaac's monsters.

I had to free-hand the template for this one. I cut the tiny pieces out in two different colors so he could mix and match.

What would monsters be without googly eyes? I glues felt onto the backs so they would stick.

Here are the two monsters I created. I'm guessing Ike will be a lot more creative when he makes his.

And since I cut into the blue and yellow, Abby had blue and yellow pieces to add to her butterfly bag!

Andy's house was fairly simple. The house scene will have to fit on Beth's board, since it's too big to fit on the ones I made!

Not bad, if I do say so myself! I have 3 new felt activity bags.

To make my own felt boards, I needed directions. I found this picture on Pinterest, and followed the link to the blog that gave a short tutorial. (click on the picture to see the tutorial)

So, here is mine!

I bought the frame at the Dollar Tree 2 weekends ago for a different project, but it got used for this one instead! I bought 3 frames total, but only converted 2 into felt boards.

I did this while the kids were napping. As soon as Abby woke up, she came downstairs and demanded school. Here she is playing with her new butterfly board.

She liked it, I think, but she moved on to another activity I had bought at the Dollar Tree.

I bought one for each of the kids, and once the boys saw Abby with hers, all felt was forgotten. *sigh. I'm not too worried. They will come to their senses eventually.

Remember when I mentioned another Pinterest project? Well, once I finished this one, I decided to do the other. It's simple, really. You take a picture frame, some scrapbook paper, and some glue. Cut and glue the scrapbook paper onto the inside of the frame (on the backing) then you can write on the glass with a dry-erase marker! It's pretty and useful!

We are going to use ours to show Ike's memory verse of the week. This past week was Matthew 5:9.

I love Pinterest!

2011-10-06T16:39:00.000-07:00

Pinterest is a wonderful website where people from all walks of life (mostly women) come together to share what interests them. In other words, it's a bigger time killer than Facebook. I have a few boards that I update: Classroom, My Style, Homeschool... and I love finding ideas of things that would make my life easier.

Remember how I was complaining in a previous post about how we never know where the mail is in our house? I found a solution, and I found it on Pinterest!

Another blog did this activity first and shared a tutorial. Basically, she turned a cereal box and some scrapbook paper into a handy-dandy mail holder for the fridge! Here's mine!

Cute, huh? I tried using magnet clips, but the box ended up being too heavy. I found a strip of magnet tape and glued it on the back instead.

While bragging about my new crafty side at school today, the new first grade teacher (male) stated that Pinterest was a wasteland of married women who have turned their backs on their husbands in order to stay glued to their computers.

I didn't appreciate the accurate comparison, so I stole his Cheerios box from his classroom and turned it into something useful.

Tee-hee. I did make sure to use masculine colors!

Ta-da! His wife is going to love it! :)

That will teach him to mess with General Delk!

Homeschool Day 2- Isaac

2011-10-01T07:53:00.002-07:00

Isaac's turn! Putting his verse in order, sport sort, following directions and free play.

Memory Verse: "A soft answer turns away wrath." Proverbs 15:1 (thanks to 1+1+1=1 website!)

I really need a verse to teach Abby about not being a pain in Mommy's butt. (other than just Exodus 20:12) If you know one off the top of your head, let me know!

Sport sort:

He sorted just like Abby! He only did one sport at a time. He counted the balls and wrote the numbers next to them . (he needed help with the #4) We talked about which one had the most and the least.

Following directions: This activity came with the Memory verse lesson.

Click on the picture of Isaac and watch the video of the activity!

For Free Play (I know it sounds stupid since he's been playing freely all morning, but this was "school time" free play) Isaac chose the fabulous felt board! (Aunt Beth- you really hit on something big!)

All in all, I think this morning was a success! Now, on to laundry!

Homeschool Day 2- Abby and Andy

2011-10-01T07:53:00.001-07:00

I don't know if you've noticed, but Abby is a bossy piece of goods. We are still working on sorting with the twins. (mostly by color, but we moved into sorting by picture today) I visit so many homeschooling and teaching blog sites, I'm not sure where I got this activity. I saved the sport sorting activity for Isaac.

Abby sorted pictures of plants. I noticed that she only focused on one picture at a time. All the leaves first, then trees, then flowers.

Andy sorted by whatever he grabbed first. He wouldn't let me get a picture of his face. When he showed his face he said he was a dinosaur and growled. When he's not being a dino, he's a pirate. What an imagination!

Abby informed me that she was not done gluing, she wanted more. Maybe it's the teacher in me, (or the pack rat) but I never throw anything away. So, I still had scrapbook paper scraps from my wreath making kick. Cut them up in squares and voila! Color sorting!

The memory card on my camera became full after she finished the pink squares. I downloaded, deleted, and took the picture of the finished product.

Andy finished his sorting activity, moved on to drawing, then moved on to the Nook. The Nook got sleepy (the battery died) so it is now taking a nap with the charger. Andy is playing with Abby's fairy tree house.

You might be wondering where Isaac is. Well, he went with Daddy to the recycling place, so it was nice and quiet for school. Now he is back and I have to get the twins doing something so I can work with Ike uninterrupted.

We'll see how it goes...

Go, Dog! Go!

2011-09-29T15:31:00.000-07:00

Isaac's teacher sent home one of their Literacy Bags this week. We were supposed to get it last weekend, but Isaac forgot it. The book is Go, Dog! Go! and it is not a book we have at home. I don't know if they have read it at school, but Isaac knew it.

I mean... Isaac read it to me. Not the whole book, because he got tired of it after a while. And some words he needed help with. But for the most part he read it to me! I grabbed my camera and got most of it on video. (honestly, it is not the most gripping book in the world. It was a little...yawn.)

Click on the picture, and Isaac will read the book to you too! (of course you'll hear his siblings in the background. It couldn't be avoided.)

Homeschool Day 1

2011-09-27T20:56:00.000-07:00

I refused to let the kids turn on the tv when we got home today. I expected more complaining than I actually received. No one cared! Hmmmm... I'll have to remember that.
Isaac did try to escape upstairs, where he knows how to get past the child-proof door knobs, to get into my bedroom to watch tv, but he came back down when I called.

I didn't want to overwhelm Isaac on his first day. Today we simply introduced the memory verse for "A", and practiced tracing it. I could tell he works on his letters at school. He kept telling me that the letter 'a' has a belly- which I have never told him. His form while holding a pencil is getting better too!

While Ike was hard at work, the twins were working with their puffballs again. This time, we made patterns.

Andy's

Abby's

They got tired of that soon enough, and Andy wanted his puzzle (from Aunt Beth's quiet bag) and Abby wanted the picture cards. Whatever.

So, Isaac traced his memory verse while we worked on the song that goes with it. (we got it from the 1+1+1=1 website)

Here is Isaac!!

We sang that song the whole time he was writing! Abby and Andy did a little too. Getting Ike to say "soft answer" was difficult. He kept slurring his words. But, you can see he is tracking his print as he reads!

Here is the song again as he shows you his work.

Tomorrow we are going to cut and paste the verse in order. I have some cut and paste pages for Andy and Abby too. They will be working on graphing while Ike works on fluency.

* you know what I like most about this post? The fact that I KNOW that as soon as Uncle JD reads it he is going to 1. share it with his co-workers, and 2. call as soon as he gets off work to see if Isaac will sing his verse to him. Now we'll see how long it takes JD to check the blog and read it! :)

Little Einsteins

2011-09-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

My kids might be loud (right, Aunt Boo?), and obnoxiously energetic, but they love their school time! They fight in the car over who is going to school, and who is just going to "new daycare". (They still call is "new daycare" even though they've been there almost a year now.) They all love telling me that they have a "smiley face" for their behavior! (Isaac has a behavior folder) I almost feel bad for Ms. Patty, the twins teacher, because she has to listen to Abby talk about Isaac's school all day. :)

Anyhoo- the kids will come running when I say it's time for school. Our classroom is our dining room, and one of these days, I'm going to decorate it and make it look good! (or at least clean.)

Last night I was working on my other blogsite and the twins were wanting to be entertained. Well, ok. Let me turn on my super-mommy powers and come up with a quasi-educational activity that will keep them focused for minutes on end.

Enter, the felt board. This miracle board was given to us by Aunt Beth in a Delk Quiet Bag. I keep this bag in my car for traveling emergencies and pull activities out as needed. Thanks, Aunt Beth!!

Roar!!

Now, I will admit to arranging the pieces, but the kids loved moving them around, making noises, and telling me all about the different dinos!

After the magic board, we got out the puffballs. I bought these the last time I was in M'boro and I didn't know what I was going to do with them. Now I know!

I separated the balls, made some colored circles on pieces of paper, and told them to have at it!

When the finished their paper, they traded and kept going! After a while, Abby put the balls in different circles and said, "Look, Mommy! I'm being silly!"

I know you're impressed. :)

On the Isaac front, I want you to know his teacher is very impressed with his abilities. They sat in circle time, ready to read a big book, and Isaac started reading the book to Ms. Cheri! She told me that she was very impressed and syas he's already doing Kindergarten material. :)
Now if we can only get him to follow directions the first time. *sigh*

Well, hopefully I found a solution. My new favorite website 1+1+1=1 has wonderful lessons and Pre-K packs geared towards our young learners. My favorite part is her Raising Rock Stars lessons. RRS are Bible based lessons that use Bible verses to teach ABCs, writing skills, and critical thinking skills. Perfect for Isaac!

I've downloaded everything I can get my hands on! Most of is is free! (like 99%) So, I've started a binder for Isaac's RRS lessons.

I found this picture when I was printing out his first lesson. Yea, Grammy Pat!

Nice lesson planning pages and separations.

The first lesson- letter "A".

I also printed out a camping Pre-K pack that I found at Homeschool Creations. Not sure why I chose Camping as our first theme, but it looked good! (Jenny- they have a Star Wars theme! If you look at their Read! Build! Write! boards, you'll find them)

I'll keep everyone posted on Isaac's progress!

Cute idea for Halloween

2011-09-24T20:35:00.000-07:00

I found this cute little Pre-K pack at Over the Big Moon blog. I thought I would share it with all of my devoted fans! (this would be fun to print and have for when the Delks come visiting! Hint-hint!)

http://overthebigmoon.blogspot.com/2011/09/halloween-pre-k-pack.html?showComment=1316921533040#c1127524331425710706

Lake Winnie

2011-09-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

Joe's company picnic at Lake Winnie was today. I'm sure Joe will get on here later and tell all about it, but for now I can show you how prepared the kids were.

All happy with their backpacks. Abby and Andy are sporting their Thomas the Train backpacks from Aunt Jenny.

Isaac is being the responsible older brother and is carrying the "real" backpack with the supplies for the day.

If you'll notice, Isaac is also rockin' his new shoes from Cousin Joshua.

I enjoyed the day alone by going out and doing errands that I've been wanting to do. Then I came home and did laundry while watching the new movie of Jane Eyre.

Joe and the kids didn't get back home until 4:40 and they took late naps. We made sure to run them around the house to get them tired again. Check the posts under this one to hear their beautiful singing!

Blue Skies and Rainbows

2011-09-24T18:26:00.000-07:00

As sung by Abby

Our God is an Awesome God

2011-09-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

As sung by Isaac. (with sibling accompaniment)

And again by Andy

Pretty Abby!!

2011-09-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

Pictures from yesterday when Abby got to wear her new pretty dress.

Twirling her dress

The model walk and strip.

Andy passed out on the floor as soon as we got home.

Throw away day!

2011-09-17T13:19:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, the kids are safe... for now.

I was just sick and tired of seeing broken toys and shredded baseball cards. I got out the trash bag and went to work.

My inspiration.
I waited until the kids were upstairs for their naps. I trashed any broken toys, puzzles, ripped books, and random things that have made it into the house. The last time I did this, I had trash bags and donate bags. This time, it was only trash.

I cleaned out and straightened their books. All small board books found another home, along with the cloth books that Grammy Delk made for the kids. I wanted them to be more easily assessable.

These are the only "large" toy structures I kept. I kept them because we still had the parts, and the kids still play with them. I also kept the trains and tracks- they are in the red wagon. (no picture, sorry)

Here are the only toys left downstairs. Balls, trains, and Transformers. Honestly, if Joe had not made it home when he did, some of the Transformers would have disappeared. There's always next time. :)
Then there is the box o' books. Small books ready for small hands to grab them.

Joe vacuumed after I put everything in the trash.

So, what does this mean for the Delk home? NO MORE TOYS!!!! PLEASE!!!

Birthdays, Christmas... these are times for new clothes, books, or gift cards. (Barnes and Noble for the kids since they rule the Nook) Or, better yet, visits! The kids would love visits more than anything! We can get pictures and make new picture books for the kids based on their experiences with YOU!

p.s. Isaac is really doing well in Pre-K! This week he got 2 straight faces :/, and 3 smiley faces :)! Yea! I was talking to Ms. Cheri, his teacher, and most of his class already knows their ABCs, letter sounds, numbers, colors, and shapes. She said she was glad that she had such a big group of kids ready to go to the next level. Yea, Isaac!

Ms. Cheri and Mrs. Monica (the director) got all the kids copies of The Kissing Hand. How sweet is that?

It's beginning to look a lot like...

2011-09-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

...like Abby is going to be the death of Daddy's wallet in the future. Abby is a serious Fashionista!

Luckily, I have wonderful friends who have daughters just big enough to grow out of clothes just as I need them.

The school's Media Specialist ('Librarian' for all you not in education) has 2 daughters who love to grow out of clothes, and she sent me home with a HUGE bag full of clothes! Well, I'll admit that they have been just sitting in the bag for a while. Abby opened the bag today, and surprise! New pretty clothes!

"Merry Christmas! Ho Ho Ho!"

She put this dress on over her outfit. Can you see her blue shirt?

In her new Princess Abby outfit.

I'm glad she found this one! We can wear it now before it gets too cool!

Don't worry Jen. The Christmas dresses are 3T, perfect for Julia's Christmas next year!

Check it out!

2011-09-15T15:56:00.000-07:00

For the one other person with small children who actually looks at this blog (that would be you, Jenny) go look at the homeschoolcreations blog that I love. Click on the button on the right and see if anything looks cool to you. I plan on checking it out!

Anything that I download will be used for this guy! Doesn't he look handsome and ready for school? This was taken on his first day. :)

You would never know they were sick

2011-09-14T18:25:00.000-07:00

Today I stayed home with Abby and Andy since they have strep. (it was going around their class) However, you would never be able to tell they were sick! They played, laughed, Abby never stopped talking! So, I got some pictures of them being silly.

Abby wearing my shoes. She was a pretty princess!

Andy also wearing a pair of my shoes. Macho boots.

They're feeling better and they've been on meds for 24 hours. Back to school tomorrow!

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-11T14:14:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I packed up the kids and headed to the 'Boro. We got to see the whole crew: Grammy and Papa Joe, the Davis family, and Aunt Boo. And let's not forget, Uncle Jason's Ipad.

They were all enthralled.

Isaac decided that the crowd around the Ipad was too great, so he requested the Nook Book.

This has been the best early- Christmas present ever! The kids love the books and apps that I've downloaded. Isaac is willing to ride to church with me, instead of daddy, if he can play on the Nook Book. Abby will sit QUIETLY and listen to stories. Andy is working on his vocabulary with the Little Critter books. Thank you Grammy Pat and Papa Joe!

Julia didn't want to have to share the Ipad either, so she got mommy's phone. It amazes me how tech-savvy these kids are! (not that they have a choice, really. They ARE related to Jason.)

Here Abby gets her turn with the Nook Book. It's a rare thing for Isaac to give it up, especially to a sister.

Grammy Pat's kitchen is a magical place. In it, my children have been introduced to new and exotic foods that have never before been seen in the Delk house. For example: cantaloupe. Well, this weekend, Issac was introduced to another fruit. Red grapes.
This might not seem significant, but until this day Isaac did not know that grapes came in colors other than green.

Here he is. Eating red grapes AND cantaloupe! It's a Labor Day miracle!

Of course Abby couldn't be left out of getting lunch praise. Good job, Abby!

This video refused to load where I wanted it. Oh well. Here is Andy with Uncle Jason's Ipad playing Samurai Fruit. You can tell Andy doesn't really care about the game so much as he cares about making colorful swipes on the page. Whatever, he was entertained. I have since downloaded the game on the Nook.

We had the girls playing a game of "Wake Up" on the love seat. The game is played as follows: 1. lie down. 2. Pop up. 3. Giggle. Think you can handle it?

Getting ready for the pop up!

Andy giving the girls "good night" kisses.

Good food, good family, and good shopping trip the next day. What a great way to spend a weekend! Thanks Grammy and Papa Joe!

Delk Saturday School

2011-08-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

One of the problems at the Delk house is that there is no set place to put mail. It has not caused too many late payments on anything, but it did cause a scuffle with Joe and I the other day.

You see, a few days ago I found a cute yellow envelope addressed to me! I love getting mail! Since this was the first I had seen of it, I naturally assumed that Joe had placed it there the day before since he was the one to get the mail. Inside the envelope was this...

A cute summery card. And inside the card was this...

Clippings for Isaac's ABC chart sent from Grammy Delk!! I got excited, Isaac got excited, it was an exciting time in the house. When Joe got home that night I shared with him our bounty, and he said, "Yeah, that card has been here for a while. I thought you just didn't want to open it."

WHAT?!? Are you kidding me?! To which I replied, "Great, Joe. Now your mom is going to think I hate her or something because we haven't done anything with the clippings yet and I haven't updated the blog with the kids' work." Geez.

All that to say- Grammy Delk, Thank you for the card and the clippings! The kids were so excited to get a card from Grammy, they thought it was your birthday and started singing. (I was bad and didn't get video of that, but believe me it happened!) The reason we haven't done anything before now is because 1. Your middle son is terrible about letting me know when I have mail and 2. I had to wait til the weekend because week nights are busy.

So, here is Day 1 of Delk Saturday School. Isaac used all the clippings and added them ot the ABC chart.

Andy didn't help with the chart, but he wanted to have a picture too.

Abby had the option of getting her picture made, but she wouldn't stop throwing a fit, so she was told to go upstairs instead.

After ABC, we worked on math. I bought a CD of Pre-K curriculum last year and I printed off some of the activities for Isaac to use. This was a fruit number sort. Andy helped.

Great job, boys!!

I'm sure you can hear Abby being annoying in the background.

But wait, we aren't done yet!
Yesterday when I picked the kids up from daycare Ms. Patty (the twins' teacher) told me that Abby made an observation about her shirt. (Ms. Patty's shirt was from the beach- it had a palm tree on it) Abby went up to Patty , pointed to her shirt, and said, "That's a Chicka-Boom-Boom shirt!" Which inspired Patty to get out the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and read it to the class. What a smart daughter I have!

So, we made Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees today for our art/ writing activity. We used construction paper, sticky sided foam board, apples that doubled as coconuts, and markers.
Isaac and Andy got to do the activity first since Abby was in time-out upstairs.

Isaac and Andy adding their letters to their trees.

Isaac and his finished Chicka Boom Boom tree. I didn't get a pic of Andy with his. They are all on my fridge, so feel free to stop by to see them. :)

By the time Abby finished her tantrum and returned to the dining room there were only scraps left for her tree. I can just hear Grammy Pat now, "Oh Jocelyn, couldn't you find another piece for Abby?" Well, no. No I couldn't. If she wanted a full piece she should have sucked up her tantrum earlier.

In all honesty, she didn't seem to notice. I did make her new leaves for the tree, no scraps there.

She was very proud of her work, and so was I. She insisted on getting 2 pictures made, but I am only putting one on here.

What smart children I have! Unless something happens and we are out of town, I really want Delk Saturday School to continue. The Pre-K CD I bought has a years worth of lessons and games, so we'll have plenty to do!

Joe's garden

2011-08-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

Joe's garden has done wonderfully this season. Joe would probably disagree since he knows all the plants that have thrived or died, but I know what my kitchen counter tells me. We have lots of veggies.
Joe has already pickled okra and canned 2 jars of tomatoes, with more on the counter just waiting. He also told me that he almost has enough okra for another jar. Travis and Kayla have already enjoyed a jar- not pickled. They know that real okra is fried.

One crop that I know Joe has been waiting for finally came in, but not how he expected.

Any guesses as to what these are? Well, due to the recent drought and high temperatures, they are deformed cucumbers! Joe brought them in and just had to laugh. I don't know if he's hoping for more from the same plant or if they are a bust, but I think it's pretty funny!

So, what does one do with deformed cucumbers? Give them to the kids to play with!

Here's Abby using hers as a camera!

Then she realized that it was food of some sort, so she took a big bite. I asked Joe if they had been cleaned, but he seemed unconcerned. He told me that Snoopy never peed on them in the garden, so they were OK. (It's comments like those that make me worry about his judgment in some things)

Andy decided that he wanted to eat his too.
Abby worked on hers the rest of the morning. Andy wasn't impressed, so Abby worked on his too.

If we do get some non-deformed cucumbers this season, I plan on preparing them they way Gommy Bradley used to. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Silly Saturday

2011-08-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I survived my first week at school. All the Delks are home today, and we are enjoying a day of rest. (and cleaning)

The kids decided to celebrate this day by using their imaginations, and Daddy, to become... well... birds. Of a sort.

Abby Bird

Isaac Bird

Hmmm, I feel like watching Peter Pan after this.

As a side note, I know a few people really enjoyed Delks summer school. I plan on doing stuff with the kids throughout the year, but it probably won't be daily. I have, however, created a blog to follow my classroom this year. Check it out!

www.generaldelksarmy.blogspot.com

The Wright brothers have their best day EVER!

2011-07-31T14:52:00.000-07:00

Aside from being born, the recently birthed Wright brothers experienced their best day ever yesterday!

Could it be because Benjamin is now off his feeding tube and has taken a bottle for over 24 hours now? Nope!

Could it be because they are both gaining weight like champs and are now both a little over 5 pounds? Nope!

It's because..... Auntie Jojo came to visit them! They are so lucky! Their day started out so average, so hum-drum, so unexciting. But when Auntie Jojo is in the room, it's a party!

I let him know that his adopted Grammy Pat was going to be watching. Ben is a hoot. Always moving, wanting to see what's going on. He also has monkey arms and long fingers. I have decided that he is going to be one of two things... a pitcher for the Braves, or a concert pianist.

I can hear Grammy Pat now, "Why can't he be both?" Well, I guess he can, but that's a lot of training time. And he has plenty of time to decide; we can wait till he's 3.

So, after bring cleaned up a bit, he got to eat first. He's a hard-core bottle drinker. He also has a slight drinking problem that hopefully won't carry on to adulthood.

He did ok in this position, but it wouldn't let him express himself as an individual.

"Um, Mom? It's about me now..." Lots of drooling and forgetting to breathe. (I can understand that. Breathing can be sooo difficult sometimes.) Don't worry, he always remembered after a second. Besides, I'm pretty sure he was doing it as an attention getter. :)

So, after a diaper change to wake the kid back up, Mom (Melissa, aka Aunt Kitty) thought he might do better sitting up. Surprise! He did! Melissa also gave him the job of holding his own spit-up cloth. As it turns out, that was all it took. He just wanted to have a more active role in this "eating" business! And, he's already following directions! That bodes well for later!

So, what was brother doing during all this excitement?

Well, to be fair, it wasn't his feeding time yet, so he had no reason to be entertaining. When the clock hit 8:00pm he woke up ready to go! Which was good timing because Benny had just finished and was ready to have a chat with Auntie Jojo.

We discussed all the important topics; world trade, religion, pop culture, future friends in the neighborhood, the female population available to them...the good stuff.

Then it was Matt's turn to be impressive.

One thing you need to know about Matt, he's an opportunist. He knows he's got a good thing going. Sleep all day, flirt with hot nurses, new rotations of cute girl babies almost every day, food on demand... it's a baby's dream! Basically, he doesn't see the need to get gung-ho with the bottle just yet.

He'll get it eventually when Ben gets to go home to play with his furry brothers. (Racer, Bender and Jasper; cats for those of you who don't know) But, for now he's a happy camper.

Melissa tried bribery, but he might have to be older for it to work. He did do well, and he tried hard. After I turned off the camera he cheesed big time, the punk.

With Matt being the shorter and rounder of the two, and with his facial expressions and impeccable timing, I see him as a future politician or a cattle rancher. I think he would be too cute with a cowboy hat! And I can see him giving important speeches that would save the world. (like enacting President Bartlett's secret plan to fight inflation!) :)

With Matt taking all of Mommy and Aunt Jojo's attention, Ben decided it was his turn to take a break.

I have a feeling this one is just like Abby. The only time he's not moving is when he's sleeping.

Eating turned out to be too tiring for little Matty. He finished his bottle through his tube and went back to sleep.

Thus concluded their best day ever. I like to think this day will stay in their memory for years to come. And if it doesn't, at least I can show them this blog.

Keep growing little guys!

Day 11- Last day of summer school

2011-07-29T19:20:00.000-07:00

Ummmm... we didn't actually do anything. But I did start a project that will be included in their Delk School experience.

To start, today I went through our DVD collection and my 5 book shelves upstairs and came up with 3.5 bags of books and 1 HUGE bag of DVDs to take to McKays. I have to re-do my "bookstore" at school since the books I currently have are 2nd-3rd grade level books. I need stuff my new little babies can read! So, summer cleaning is going to help my babies. (at home and school)

While at McKays, I will be looking for easy books, hopefully ones that have easy recognizable rhymes, like Itsy-bitsy Spider, for my home project. If I can't find any in book form, I can print them off from the Internet. No biggie.

My big plan is to make the kids some Reading Baggies that include a book, or rhyme, some manipulatives (like stick puppets) and a game. (comprehension, or matching, etc)

What am I going to need... well, let me show you what I have done so far...

We finished off a roll of aluminum foil, so I yanked the cardboard core away before the kids could tear it up. (or turn it into a wand, sword, beating stick, etc)

Andy had his speech therapy today (he did exceptionally well) and one of the activities he did was read an Itsy-bitsy Spider book that Ms. Jamie had; hand motions and all. So, I decided to turn the cardboard core into a rain stick!

Cardboard core, foil (for the ends), beans (gotta have some rain!), extra scrapbook paper (from the owl wreath), glue, scissors, computer (playing my Broadway station). Ready Freddy!

Beans inside and ends covered! (Kids upstairs getting baths- I did this late tonight)
Cut scrapbook pieces, glue and tape the ends...

Ta-da!! Rain stick! Actually, it looks like a big thing of Mentos. (remember that candy?) I showed it to the kids before they went to bed and everyone got to play with it.

All I need now is a gallon sized baggie, the book or rhyme, puppets, game and the rain stick. Everything goes in the bag and PRESTO! A fluency/ comprehension/ fun baggie the kids can play with, while learning at the same time! (under supervision and tutelage.)

I'll do a new post when the baggie is complete! Hopefully tomorrow. I'm already planning an outing early in the morning to get everything. Don't know what Joe is going to do, but I think baseball might be included. (big surprise, right?)

OH, and one more thing!

New wreath! :)

Day 10- A day at the gym

2011-07-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

My church friend, Jennifer Brewer, had the genius idea to reserve the church gym today for a few hours. It big, it's open, it's AIR CONDITIONED! Jennifer has 2 little boys. Cole is between the twins and Isaac in age; Cooper is still a baby.

We had a great time! Jennifer brought her riding toys, and the church has basketballs. We all brought lunches so we had a 'picnic' lunch on the floor. We ended up being the only ones to show us, everyone else had other plans. It didn't matter. The kids had a great time and the moms got to hang out with another adult.

After lunch, Mr. Steve came for a visit. Mr. Steve is the head of the Children's Ministry at East Brainerd C of C. He is also GREAT with kids. He is the 'baby whisperer'. I have yet to meet a child who doesn't like Steve. He joined in the fun and had a great workout... just watch the video!

We'll have to plan better for next summer and do this more often!

Isaac giving a wave. He didn't eat lunch, whined like a baby at the thought of a nap, and is passed out upstairs as I type this. Sigh.

Little Miss Diva. You can imagine how much she liked being the only girl. She was thrilled when Mr. Steve came to play with her.

Caught his face between a smile and a... something else.

Baby Cooper. I think he had fun pretending to be a big kid. :)

A happier look at Andy, and Mr. Steve is getting tired!

Just one more day at home! I'll have to think of something good!

Um... Kristy might have created a monster...

2011-07-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

Now I'm addicted! Once my brain latches on to something, it will stay there; at least until it latches on to something else.

So, here are my new creations...

Cute huh? I was going to use a butterfly, but the flower looked cuter.

Now, the next one was a brain fart. I had planned on using the little turtle I have, but the colors didn't match right so I had to be creative all on my own. You know that doesn't always go well. So here it is...

It's.... different. Interesting.

"Interesting" is also the code word Joe has to use when I make him a new dish for dinner and he doesn't really like it. Maybe someone artsy-fartsy will see it and fall in love.

I know what you're wondering, "What is she going to do with these?" The answer is, I have no idea. I'm really just making them for the hay of it. If you want one, let me know. It would be really easy to get some little wooden letters, paint them, then put them on the wreath.

Maybe one day I'll branch out to other things, but until then you're stuck with me making wreaths!

Thanks to you, Kristy Godbout!

2011-07-25T19:23:00.000-07:00

I am not crafty, never have been. I even managed to fail my bulletin board assignment in college. I suck at crafts. The spirit is willing, but the mind is disoriented. Enter my fabulous friends...

I have wonderfully crafty coworkers. They are the MacGyver (Joe told me how to spell that) of crafts.

Take my Kindergarten teacher friend, Kristy Godbout. She just recently started her blog Pocketful of Poise and already she is a huge hit! She shows easy tutorials on how to be crafty for cheap! (You know me; fast, cheap, and easy!)

One of her first crafts was how to make a scrapbook paper wreath. Hers was so cute, I just had to give it a try. Check out hers HERE...

And now here is my first attempt..

Pathetic, I know. I didn't trace any circle, so it is lopsided. Just not a pretty sight. No need to spare my feelings.

Well, you know what they say- If at first you don't succeed; skydiving is not for you. I figured I could try this again. If I sucked the second time, I would throw in the towel.

I used a box that Joe had brought home from Aldi today, and I traced around a plate. I wanted some good circles this time! I found some cute animal thingies at Walmart, and owls are very popular lately, so I went to work.

I had already done one of the circles before I remembered to take pictures.

See?! Cute owl thingy! And a piece of peel and stick foam and special craft glue. I probably didn't need the special glue, but it made me feel more crafty.

And now... Drum roll please......

Ta-da! Much cuter, right? Practice makes perfect!

So, thank you Kristy for starting with something even a creatively-challenged brain could handle! I am a big fan, keep up the good work!

And, if you are looking for even more craft ideas, check out Paper Wings. Paper Wings is done by another teacher friend of mine named Tracy Crosby. She taught 5th grade at CHES with me.

Day 9- Dr. Tyner comes for a visit

2011-07-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

Dr. Beverly Tyner is a reading specialist that gets paid $1,500 just for entering my school building. She specializes in small group reading strategies for grades K-3. She is a lovely woman who deeply cares for students and their learning, while also managing to look out for over-worked teachers. I adore her.

So, who would be better for my youngster here at home, than Dr. Tyner? I have had Tyner's instruction crammed down my thr... um... guiding my small group reading time for 7 years now. I've created a 3 in. binder for each of her reading stages; there are 6. I have color coded, laminated, copied, cut, and created all of the manipulatives she had provided and recommended. I know this woman's work. I also have it saved on my flash drive since most of that work had to be done at home.

It's a good thing I have it here at my disposal since today I decided to test my child to see where his reading level lies. I am pleased to report, he ranks between a Fledgling and Beginning reader. (Level 1 and 2) What does that mean? He knows some sight words, but not all; but he also has the skills to start sounding out word families.

Today we tested over sight words, and worked on Emergent Readers cut-up sentences.

This chart has the 100 most frequent words in children's reading. There are words on the back as well. You can kind-of see that some of the words have stickers next to them. Those are the words he could read without prompting. These are not the Dolch words that you can find here... http://gemini.es.brevard.k12.fl.us/sheppard/reading/dolch.html
Most people know of the Dolch sight word list. There are similarities. Flash cards will be made of the words he did not know and we will go over them a small group at a time.

Next we went over the cut-up sentences. He recognized some of the words, and noticed the repetition of the first set of sentences. Repetition helps a lot for kids his age. I did make sure to color code things so he knew which words went to which sentences. We will keep working on those as well. :)

Abby and Andy, not to be left out, worked on spelling their names. A combination of letter identification and matching. And I had extra scrap book paper that needed to be used. Isaac had to get in on the action too of course.

The best part was they were so happy with this game, they played while I could get lunch ready.

Now, you know me. I'm not going to let Isaac get away with merely doing the same thing as the twins. We pushed it one step further. I took away the paper that had his name on it and he had to form his name by himself. It took him 3 tries. That surprised me a little since he has recognized his name in written form for over 2 years now.

Well, only a few days left of Delk summer school. Sigh. Then we'll see just how advanced Isaac is in Pre-K. His school starts in Sept. but I am going back next Monday so he will have a month of daycare before "school" starts.

Day 8- Revisiting the ABCs

2011-07-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

We got the ABC picture charts back out today. I decided that Isaac was the only one that really needed to be working on it. He is the one that knows his letters and letter sounds, so he got the chart.

But never fear! The twins were not left out! Each of them got a piece of construction paper and a stack of pictures. They didn't have to tell me the beginning sound of the pictures, but they did have to identify the picture before I let them glue it to their page.

Since no one was having to wait a long time for their turn, we got to work for a lot longer than we did previously. Andy enjoyed himself and didn't drop out as early as he usually does. These kids love to glue!

Abby working on her pretty yellow paper. She was picky about what pictures she allowed on her page. Only the pretty pictures for Abby!

Andy on his black paper. He was funny to watch. As I gave him more pictures, he focused more on making sure there were no holes between pictures than on identifying the pictures. No blank space for Andy!

Isaac did a great job! He didn't get tired of it and was interesting in his naming of the pictures. In some cases he didn't choose the picture I cut out, he turned the picture over and used what was on the back.

After a while he started to notice that some pictures were similar (snowy day, snowman, snowflakes) and he automatically went to the page that matched the pictures. Connections!

Believe it or not, we still have lots more pictures to go! Here are the not-so-finished products!

After they got tired gluing, we got out the picture cards and working on making sentences. They identified the picture and had to tell me about it, then we would make a complete sentence with what they told me and they had to repeat the sentence. Here's how they did..

Isaac- Fabulous! He was able to tell me animal sounds, where we could find different objects and animals in the house, or in the outdoors. The biggest problem we found was his constant use of the work 'on' instead of 'in'. Example: The horse was on the barn. We worked on that a lot. But I was very impressed!

Abby- She didn't want to stop with a sentence. Surprise, surprise. "I see the tree in the grass. A bird is in the tree too! Do you see it, Mommy? Look, it's out there!" I see a lot of creative writing in her future.

Andy- picture identification- check! Sentence repeating-nope! However, he did repeat the beat I used with the sentences I made. I used rhythms when I said the sentences to help them find a 'flow' for when they repeated it. Example: The cat... is on... the mat. (tap with the words) Andy might not have said the sentence, but he got his taps!

All in all; today was a success!

Daddy Dance Studio

2011-07-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

Where Daddy, Joe Delk, teaches the kids the highlights of ballroom dancing. Daddy learned from the Master Dancer- Neville Longbottom. You can see and hear the instructional video in the background. (Harry Potter #4)

After teaching the children the finer points of leading and following, he allowed them to practice with each other.

After practicing their spins and twirls, they decided to make their own instructional video. In this video, they are teaching you how to perform the "Couch Crash". Watch and learn...

I'm sure this dance will become wildly popular, it already is in my house! You will be lucky enough to say that you saw it here first!

Happy Birthday Gommy Petty!

2011-07-19T11:29:00.000-07:00

My family got together this past Saturday to celebrate Gommy Petty's birthday. You know my kids enjoy a good birthday! I packed up the kids and we stayed Friday night with Grammy Pat and Papa Joe then we traveled to Dickson on Saturday. I think we all had a good time, and we got pictures to prove it!

Abby stopped to enjoy the flowers.

I had to tell her to stop enjoying the flowers so much since she kept picking them. :)

Andy had fun playing with Julia's tricycle.

Then he had fun playing Cinder Andy.

Grammy Pat had the amazing foresight to bring the water table. Everyone was drenched by the end, but no one cared. (except Isaac who had to strip down to his underwear because he couldn't handle wearing wet clothes)

Andy LOVED getting wet! If the water table needed refilling he would follow the person with the hose so he could get sprayed. Julia was the opposite, she ran as far from the hose as she could get.

Aunt Boo enjoying the shade.

Now, I don't usually pit pictures of myself in the blog, but I had to make an exception here. My new haircut is too cute! And Joanna is looking pretty ok too! :)

Grammy Pat and Grand Aunt Susie. (Aunt Susie, notice I got the name right!)

Once we finally got the kids back inside, it was time for cake! I didn't get video of us singing, but I did get the blowing out of the candles!

The adults got to enjoy the coconut cake, made by the fabulous Aunt Sandy, while the kids had cupcakes. Not just any cupcakes... Cars cupcakes! Blue and green- stain your teeth cupcakes!

Andy jumped right in! He didn't care about the wrapping, he just ate around it. Isaac started his and then would pause for dramatic effect.

Joshua had to have a green cupcake since green is his favorite color. Julia got to eat big-people cake cause she's special.

No picture of Abby. Not sure why. She ate her cupcake the way Grammy Pat eats her dinner.... s...l...o...w...l...y. Everyone else had left the table and were cleaning up by the time Abby finished her cupcake. She also finished some other food that was left on the table. So, I guess she's like her Papa Joe too. :)

Gommy's birthday party was a success! Happy birthday, Gommy!

Day 7- Twinkle-Twinkle

2011-07-14T09:26:00.001-07:00

More reading and writing. Today we worked on Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star. Abby joined in. Andy wanted to work on his letters with the Leap Frog letter thingy. In the video you can hear it in the background.

Color coded and ready to go!

Abby placing the word 'I'.

Isaac placing the word 'wonder'.

Isaac impressed me with this deductive reasoning skills during this activity. At one point Abby had the word 'sky' and she wanted to put it on 'star'. Isaac told her, "No Abby! That's too little!" He recognized that the card was too small to be the word star! Also, he knows how to read the word star so he knew it wasn't right. I was impressed that he used a reason that Abby could understand. Abby might not know her letters, but she understands the concepts of big and small.

Here is the finished product, with some extra sounds added in for good measure. :)

After the singing, we moved on to 3-letter words for Isaac. We stared his chart on the first day then never returned to it; which is a no-no in a teacher's book. (we should have returned to it within 2 days, oh well) We returned to it today and he did really well! His words from today are in blue.

As you can see, we added: dog, fox, hat, saw, hen, zoo, jet, pie, and pig. I had him correct his 'w' in saw, but I did not have him fix his 'e' in hen or his 'z' in zoo. Mostly I didn't worry about those because I've seen him write them properly before.

By this time Andy had finished with letters and had moved on to coloring. Abby took the letters and had fun.

By the end of school the boys were sent upstairs for time-out for chewing on their markers.

Abby wanted to share her knowledge of the alphabet so I got video. This blog won't let me do lots of video on one post, so I let her be special and have her own post.

(see the video in the next post- General Abby)

General Abby reporting for duty!

2011-07-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

Abby's rendition of the ABC's. With something special added at the end...

We watched this again and Abby said, "I yelling, Mommy!" Then she did it again, even louder. Special child. :)

Day 6- ABC picture chart

2011-07-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to make an Environmental Print ABC book, be we don't get the paper so we don't have any coupons or fliers that would have popular names brands in them. (like McDonalds, or any other name brands the kids would recognize)

I did find a teachers resource magazine, so I cut out lots of pictures from it. I also had a random Fred's flier that came in the mail, so we had food pictures too. We started our Beginning Sounds ABC Chart. We did not finish, since we had a lot of pictures, but we will come back and keep working on it from time to time. Maybe even tonight with Daddy!

Our supplies: Chart divided into sections and labeled, baggie of pictures, glue. I started with the glue stick, but ended up using runny glue instead. It really doesn't matter.

The activity was pretty simple. The kids chose a picture from the baggie, said the name of the picture and placed it under the letter that matches its beginning sound.

I should have done better when adding the pictures to make sure I didn't include any digraphs (ch, ph, wh, etc..) but I was just trying to get things ready, so I didn't pay much attention. A few slipped through as you can see in the video.

It took a little extra guidance, but he got it. In fact, he did all of the beginning sounds. Abby and Andy could tell me the name of the pictures, but only Isaac could identify the beginning sounds. That's probably because the twins don't play with the Leap Frog letter thingy as much as Isaac did. We'll work on it. :)

Here is Abby putting down her picture of 'cake'.

Isaac putting down his picture of 'sunshine'.

Andy was not impressed. He put down 2 'train's and a 'tree', but after that he was done. He colored quietly the rest of the time. I think he didn't like having to wait his turn.

So, Abby and Isaac did around 5 more turns apiece before Abby dropped out.

I moved her to her high chair so she wouldn't color on the table. She tends to use everything as her canvas, including herself.

Isaac kept working pretty well, but it wasn't as fun without siblings to help.

So here is our started project. The "C" page filled up quickly. We probably won't work on it tomorrow. I want Ike to work on his 3-letter words some more. We might pick it back up on Thursday.

p.s. if you get the paper and want to save some fliers for us, you would be my new favorite person! Or you could help by cutting labels off of boxes of things that you use around the house. (after you're done using them of course) Like Coke labels, or cereal or pizza boxes, McDonalds bags... anything you think they would recognize.
(Isaac read Papa Johns, he didn't just call it 'pizza', so that tells me he knows his brands!)

Day 5- The Next Food Network Stars!!

2011-07-11T10:21:00.000-07:00

Isaac informed Joe and I that today was his birthday. Color me surprised! I could have sworn I remembered having an 8 lb baby boy in February... oh well. It's a good thing I was prepared. Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies anyone?

I decided that this was going to be our school project for the day. What's the skill you ask? Sequencing! Recipes are a great way to teach sequencing. Also, time-order words. (first, next, then, last) So, follow our easy steps and you too can have yummy cookies!

1. Wash hands. No germs here!

2. Preheat the oven. Isaac helped me.

3. Gather ingredients.

4. Start dumping things in! The video is just of Isaac dumping in the mix. He felt very important!

Abby with the egg. Andy did the butter, but I had to help him hold the bowl, so no picture.

5. Mix it up!!

After we mixed, we performed the 'scoop' and 'plop'. The kids had fun chanting. "Scoop and plop! Scoop and plop!"

And, after a short 10 min in the oven, we have wonderful oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! Happy birthday Isaac!

*This reminded me a lot of when I would make cakes with my Gommy Bradley. She always had a cake mix ready; usually she had 2 or 3 mixes on hand, just for when her grandkids would visit. She would do the 'adult' stuff, like cracking eggs and dealing with the oven, but I was in charge of the directions on the box. I made sure we were following all the directions and I got to pour, mix, and prepare fabulous cakes. I know Gommy would be proud of my kids and their cooking abilities. :)

But wait! There's more! What were we going to do while waiting for our cookies to bake? Make a pizza of course! Art project!

We had a Walmart pizza the other day and I had the great idea to save the cardboard circle that it came on. I collected some supplies and we went to work!

Going with the cooking theme, we used pieces of construction paper to create our pizzas. We went mosaic! I prepared the pieces. I tried letting the kids tear their own pieces, but it really didn't work. Live and learn.

Isaac finished his crust and is working on his tomato sauce.

Abby spreading her sauce.

Isaac placing his cheese on his pizza.
The kids pointed to where they wanted their cheese and I helped them glue.

Their finished pieces! Yea!

Now, in a perfect world we would have made a real pizza after practicing with our art pizza. However, I forgot to get pepperoni at the store and the kids can't handle pizza without it. We did have left overs from Portofino's from last night, so we did have pizza for lunch!

The Wright Brothers

2011-07-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

Cuter than Orville and Wilbur (seriously. No weird looking facial hair)... more popular too (I bet O & W don't have fans on Facebook!) Welcome....

Matthew David and Benjamin Luke!!

This cuter, more popular set of Wright brothers arrived on the scene last night at 11:04 and 11:10. Weighing a little over 4 lbs apiece, these brothers are already good at crying and flirting with the nurses.

Still not convinced of their superiority? Let's take a look...

Here we have Wilbur Wright...

The older of the two, he looks vacant. Not much going on here.

Whereas, with Matthew, the older of the twins, we have a different story.

Here Matthew is contemplating his new life. So full of possibilities! So full of people waiting to make fools of themselves just for his sake!

Next, let's look at Orville...

Before mentioning the odd handle-bar mustache, I have to point out his name. Orville? Really? This man grew up with a complex, I'm sure.

Now look at Benjamin Luke...

Already sitting up so proudly! Ready to give speeches that will change the World! (for the better, of course) Benjamin has a plan for life and he is just ready for the opportunity to share it!

Congratulations Melissa and John Wright! You have a set of twins that are ready to take on the World!

Color matching video

2011-07-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

This is the video that I tried to post for Day 4 and it wouldn't load. Enjoy!

Day 4- Building reading fluency

2011-07-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

Isaac told me when it was time for school today by saying, "Mommy, I want to play a game. Come on, Mommy." The Mickey Mouse matching game has become the 'prize' for a job well done, so he had to do 'school work' first. Today we focused on reading fluency.

When you work with a child this young you should always start with pieces he/ she already knows and has memorized. (right Aunt Boo? Hop on Pop!) This gives the child validation as a reader and earns them some 'easy' praise. We started with Jesus Loves Me.

The words in red are the "sight words" I want Isaac to work on. As we sing/ read, Isaac is going to be placing these cards...

over the words in red. It's kind of a matching game, since Isaac loves those, but he also has to recognize the letters.

Here is Isaac completing the chart...

I did have him go back through and check his work to match the red words to the red cards. I praised him for reading the words in other places on the chart but pointed out that the colors did not match.

Here is the completed, and fixed, chart.

Here is Isaac "reading" the chart. I would have had him point to the words as he read them, but I didn't want him to fall off his chair. I followed his progress by watching his head. I could tell from his head movements that he knows that reading goes from left to right. At one point he is just singing, ("Little ones to Him belong") but you can tell when he comes back to the chart.

We went over it a few more times. I would sing the song and leave out the red words and he would have to say them. Then we swapped and he sang while I filled in the red words.

After he played that game for a while- 3 times to be exact, he wanted to play something else. So, we moved on to colors.

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Jocelyn, he already knows his colors." And you would be correct. Isaac does recognize his colors. But I also want him to recognize his color words. So, I made this chart and used some of the extra paint samples.

There are 2 ways to complete this chart. Notice, I wrote the words in a color that was not recognized on the chart. No extra hints!

Way #1- match the color side of the paint swatch to the word

Way #2- turn to the back of the swatch and match the words. I could have Isaac try to solve it using the 1st way, then have him turn the swatch over to check his answers. (HE checks his answers, not me. He needs to learn self-evaluation)

He went straight to using the words to solve the chart. The video for this would not load so I might be over my limit per blog. I'll try to do it in another one. I did have him try it again using only the color side of the swatch. He only had to check the 'black' and 'blue'. Not too shabby!

Isaac and his completed work.

WHAT ABOUT THE TWINS?! Not to worry, they were working had too.

Abby focused on the color green. Yes, that is marker around her mouth. You should see her arms.

Andy focused on blue. No picture. Sorry. He can now audition for the Blue Man Group.

After all that hard work, I let Ike and Abby play Mickey Mouse matching while I worked with Andy and his phrases. He is the most stubborn little boy!

We used the picture cards (from Day 1) and I chose the "bike" card. He identified it as "bicycle". I said the phrase, "I see bicycle." I tapped out syllables to help him hear the rhythm of the phrase. He liked the rhythm, but refused to repeat it. He did clap along, so I know he was hearing it properly. By the end of it he finally said, "I bicycle."

*sigh* Good enough.

Happy Birthday Grammy Delk!

2011-07-05T08:44:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday the Delk clan met in Whitwell to celebrate Grammy Delk. Of course our part of the group was late, traffic was bad. We had a good time once we arrived!

There was a baseball game on for Isaac and other patrons of the restaurant for Andy (he's never met a stranger!) Abby was happy eating Grammy's salad.

Here is Grammy letting Abby wear her necklace. You know how Abby loves to accessorize! Abby spent most of her time on Grammy's lap. Grammy had a nice big salad that she was willing to share with Abby. Not a piece of lettuce was left!

Ike decided he was better than everyone else. He sat at another table (the place wasn't crowded) and watched the game. We managed to get him to turn around to get a picture with Uncle JD.

Here are two lovely ladies!

I know what you're wondering, "Where is Uncle Craig?" Well, he had to work. I'm sure Super Abby would have saved him is she could.

Happy Birthday, Grammy Delk!!

p.s. Andy never sat long enough to get a picture of him, so here is a pic I took yesterday.

Day 3 aka my BIRTHDAY!!

2011-06-30T09:47:00.000-07:00

We won't dwell on the fact that it is my 29th birthday. (tee-hee) Instead I will show you what the kids did on day 3 of Delk Summer School.

The first thing we did today was go outside to play. If I had known it was going to be such a nice morning, we would have packed up and gone to the zoo. Maybe tomorrow. Instead, we took out the sidewalk chalk and had some fun.

All just as happy as pigs in slop.

Abby made pictures of giraffes, lions, and bears. Of course you would need a very active imagination to recognize them, but we all "ooohed" and "aahhhed" over them. Andy went behind Abby and Ike and added his own embellishments to their pictures.

Isaac spelled "pop tarts" all by himself!

After we went inside, we started on our project of colors- Matching games!

Preparation for the lesson began last night when Abby and I visited the Lowes and Home Depot. We had to go find some 'colors'. Meaning we had to go find some fabulous paint samples.
*The idea actually came from a blog I read called "Momtessori". You can find the link to it on my information page, I think. She is a stay-at-home mom that used to teach in the Montessori setting. Now she shares her great ideas on her web page.*

So, Abby and I set out to find some great colors for our project today. And boy, did we find some great stuff! And, the best part, THEY ARE FREE!! I love cheap entertainment!

Did you know that Disney made paint? Me neither! Of course, Abby had to have some of these. The key when you are getting paint samples: always get more than one. We turned these "Mickey Mouse colors" (as Abby called them) into a matching game!

Laid out and ready to play. Ike and Abby really enjoyed the game. Andy played twice then went to play with his trains.

Abby made a match with reds.

Andy made a match with oranges. You can't really tell, but trust me.

Here is a video of us playing. I know I probably sound a little uptight in the video, but I'd like to remind you- I'm anal like that.

They had a really good time and I promised them that Daddy would play with them later tonight.

But wait! There's more! I made another matching game that tests to see if the kids can match capital and lower case letters. I started out writing the alphabet on the paint samples like this...

Then I cut them apart like this...

Kids can match the capital letter to the lower case letter and check their work by making sure the colors match.
When I had Isaac play this the first time, I separated the colors- blues, reds, yellows, etc. He only matched a set at a time. Starting slow is good.

Isaac was very proud of his finished product.

So, all in all it was an eventful day. I still have more paint samples that I am waiting to use. I haven't decided how to use them. The Momtessori site suggested using them to teach sequencing; lightest to darkest and so on.

I thought about doing what I did with the alphabet cards, only having them match numbers to the number names. (1 : one) Or colors to color names. (red card to the word 'red') We'll see. As long as the kids are having a good time, that's all that matters.

Oh, and one more thing.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Favorite Uncle Ever...

2011-06-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

The award goes to.... Uncle Craig!! For letting 3 crazy children climb over you as they insisted on horsey rides, airplane, and crazy faces. Congratulations Craig!

Aunt Beth and Uncle Craig came to visit us today. They were on their way back from their vacation. Boy were the kids ecstatic to see them! There was hooting, hollering, jumping, climbing... you get the picture.

Horsey rides on both legs while talking baseball with Isaac. Dang, he's good. :)

Aunt Beth was a good resting spot for Isaac to eat his apple slices.

Abby pretty much stayed with Craig until I took them upstairs for naps. In fact, she had to be held by Craig up the stairs.

Andy also took a Beth break to eat some apples.

Airplane ride anyone? I like this picture because of Craig's face. He's not really in pain. Well, with all the airplane rides he had to give the kids, he might be. Who knows.

Isaac's turn. THAT would be painful. 38 pounds of kid.

After their naps, Abby helped me vacuum the floor. Proof that Aunt Beth's cleaning skills rubbed off while she was here.

Thanks for the visit Beth and Craig!

Delk Summer School Day 2- Cool Beans

2011-06-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

When Joe came home yesterday he was very impressed with the kids' work. I told him about the project for today and he graciously offered his beans as the manipulative. We decided to test the kids to see if they could handle glue and beans. Surprise of surprises... they could!! Here are their pieces of art they created last night.

I don't know if you can read their titles, but Abby called hers "Snowman". Andy called his "Big Beans", and Isaac called his "The Blacks and Whites". Basically we gave the kids a handful of beans and they pointed to where they wanted the glue. They did pretty well, if I do say so myself. :)

For Day 2 of Delk Summer School, we used their ability to glue beans to make number cards. Each child got a set of cards numbered 1-10. I had them use 2 sets of beans to help them later when talking about odd and even numbers.

I used a little of the Touch Math technique when I had the kids place the beans. Numbers 1-5 have the beans placed in the Touch Math locations. I did not follow TM for 6-10 since the kids wouldn't understand double tapping the beans to get the proper count.

For example- for the #6 there is a dot and a ring around it. The ring means you tap the dot twice. 3 double taps gets you the total 6. Get it?

The kids a had a good time gluing their beans to their cards. I made sure to use different color to write the numbers- less confusion later.
Once the glue dries we can use them for math drills (who can show me the #5 the fastest?), addition and subtraction. We could use them for multiplication, but I don't think we will get that far.

Most impressive. Touch Math also does not go up to 10. I decided to go up to 10 because you can teach kids anything with numbers as long as they have an understanding of a base-10 system. It helps kids with rounding and different addition and subtraction techniques. (ex. like counting up instead of subtraction)

So here are my little dears showing you they they are #1!

Isaac with his bold black numbers

Abby with her pretty in pink numbers

Andy with basic brown. (he chose the color himself)

After we made the cards the kids still wanted to play with beans and glue. So, we decorated our names.

The kids got to choose their color of paper and marker for their names. They also got to choose which beans they got to use. Isaac chose all but the reds. The twins wanted it all. :)

We will, hopefully, be getting their new sleeping arrangements sorted out this weekend, so these name posters will be used as decoration for their new rooms.

I think today was a success.

Delk Summer School

2011-06-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

My kids watch a lot of tv. It's sad but true. It's also a crying shame since I'm a teacher and should know better. Oh well.

It's a rainy, dark day outside and I decided that I didn't want to watch Harry Potter for the hundredth time, or watch Phineas and Firb on the Disney channel. (I really can't stand that show.) So, I started the Delk Summer School. I had some school materials that haven't taken to school in my house, so I can feel professional when we work. Also, I'm really just anal like that.

Chart paper- in rockin' awesome colors. I just can't teach without color.

I found these fabulous cards at Target. They are good as a starting point, but I plan on making a lot of my own materials from here on out.

So, as a teacher/mom, what is the first thing I do? I assess their prior knowledge.

With Isaac, I know that he knows his ABC's, numbers, letters and letter sounds, shapes, and some basic words. With him I am going to start working on making and reading 3 letter words. For math skills we will begin with making numbers. (with things like beans and pasta- groups of 3 for example)

The twins are a little harder. For one thing, Abby is annoying and wants to do everything Isaac does, even though she is not on his level. Already I am having to diversify my instruction to make her feel like she is involved, without having to actively work with her while I work with Ike.
Today Abby saw Ike working with markers. So, I let her work with markers too.

I let Andy work with the Leap Frog alphabet magnets. He was happy as a clam. (No picture, sorry)

So, here is Day 1 at the Delk Summer School...

Isaac worked with the 3-letter word cards that I found at Target. He put the cards together, spelled the word and said the word. After he did 3 sets of cards I had him write the words. He wrote 9 words before becoming antsy. Not bad for the first day. ( No math today. I need to get some glue before starting our math lesson)

With Abby and Andy, I let them do their "Individual Learning Centers" while I worked with Isaac, then I assessed their vocabulary using the picture flash cards. For Andy this was a double whammy since it let me know what he recognized, and it helped with his speech therapy. From here, we can work on making 2-4 word phrases with the picture cards. (Ex.- I see a cat.)

Great job, Andy!!

Andy recognized and could properly verbalize 27 of the picture cards. I wrote down the pictures he recognized and added any extra words he added. (ex. for "boots" he said "shoes". I counted it, but documented the swap.) Yea Andy!!

It did not surprise me that Abby had a larger vocabulary than Andy. I already knew that just from her speech. However, even though she has a more extensive vernacular, that does not mean she is ahead of Andy in all areas. She does not recognize all of her letters, for example the way Andy does.

Abby recognized 39 picture cards! I also documented any swapped words that she said. (ex- "airplane" for the word "jet") My favorite of her swaps was when she said "coffee" for "cup". She recognizes that a lot of the adults in her life like to drink that disgusting brown stuff. (not I, obviously)

It was a start. I played Beethoven, softly, in the background while we worked. The kids had a good time and I feel like I accomplished something. Tomorrow we will work on math. I hope. I might even start making lesson plans. Cause I'm anal like that. :)

Twinkle twinkle

2011-06-10T17:27:00.000-07:00

Isaac singing. Abby trying to butt in. Enjoy.

Pillow heads

2011-06-10T17:19:00.001-07:00

This happened randomly and I just happened to have my camera handy. The video is not very good, but you get the gist. It started with Abby putting her pillow on her head for a few laughs. Ike and Andy were merely followers. Joe added the singing, and there you go.

After the singing.

Andy's new hat. He told me "hat".

And now, the song..

I'm not sure what song Joe is starting at the end. Doesn't matter. I just though it was hilarious that they all were ready to sing the "Pillow on their heads" song.

Warner Park Zoo

2011-06-10T16:06:00.000-07:00

My dear friend Maria, mother of Will, who you've heard me talk about before, told me that she refused to let me stay indoors all summer. So, she planned a trip to our zoo here in Chattanooga. Originally, it was to be a zoo trip, then a picnic lunch, then playtime at the water park that is next to the zoo.

I know what you're thinking, "Dear Lord! Maria must be crazy!" And, to a certain extent, I would agree with you. But that only adds to her charm. :)

I agreed that I needed to be adventurous this summer. Taking 3 kids out in public, no matter where one goes, is going to be an adventure. So, I packed up our gear. Put shoes on everyone's feet. Said a Hail Mary or two. And we set out for the zoo.

We met up with another church friend of ours, Jennifer, along with her two little boys. Isaac was so excited to see Will! They held hands while we got our passes. I got the family pass; we might just do this again!

We started the zoo getting to see deer, a camel, goats in the petting zoo, and free roaming peacocks. You can see some of a peacock in this picture. (don't worry, we washed hands after the petting zoo)

Andy waving his excitement over something. You can see Will and his sister Caroline in the background.

This is a raccoon. Now, I realize that this is Tennessee and the kids have lots of opportunities to see raccoons. Here they get to see live ones.

Here Isaac is pointing out the "gorillas". In actuality, they are chimps. Isaac refused to believe it. He went so far as to educate the people around us that they were not chimps at all, but were "really big gorillas". Sigh.

Abby was only moderately interested in the chimps. Here she is informing me that she is out of cheerios and needs more.

All the kids were excited to see the leopards. There were 3 on the exhibit, but this one decided to get close. It might have been my children calling out to him, "Here kitty! Come here big kitty!" And, my favorite from Abby, "Kitty come here! I want to see you!"

Here are Isaac and Will looking in the exotic birds cage. Only one of the birds was a talker. It kept telling us "Bye-bye!" Andy returned the birds call. It was quite a conversation.

Nice tour lady. Didn't get her name, but she was very nice to the kids that had crowded around her.

Lunch time. Peanut butter sandwiches for everyone! Ms. Jennifer was nice enough to share her grapes with the twins.

Andy enjoying his sandwich. Unfortunately, there are no pics of Isaac with his lunch. He didn't sit down long enough to get a bite of his food, let alone a picture.

If the kids look a little pink, that is due to the heat, not sunburn. Never fear, I kept them hydrated the whole time, and covered in sunscreen. We did not stay for the water park. We had already been in the sun for 2.5 hours and it was nap time.

I am glad that Maria made me get out of the house. I'm sure we will try the water park another time.

p.s. the family pass I got also works for the Nashville, Knoxville, and Memphis zoos- just for future reference! :)

Water fun with Josh-e-wash and Julia

2011-06-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

We decided to start the summer right- with a trip to see our favorite cousins, Josh-e-wash and Julia.
The kids had a great time. We had lunch, played in the water, and took naps. (not so much the nap part- that got a little complicated)

I couldn't find my camera, so I borrowed Grammy Pat's.

Ike had a great time! He really liked when Aunt Jenny brought out the water guns!

Andy was Andy. He loved splashing.

Abby liked splashing and being a prissy princess. No surprise there.

Julia was adorable.

I didn't get a good pic of Joshua, but he had fun with the water and the bats and baseballs I brought.

This trip was also to celebrate Aunt Boo's birthday. Unfortunately, I got no pic of that event. I'm hoping Jenny got some and I am going to steal some of her pics from her blog to use on here. (or you could e-mail me some, Jenny. Hint. Hint.)

Thanks for letting the Delks invade! We had a great time! Not it's your turn to come here!! :)

Attack of the stickers

2011-06-10T15:26:00.000-07:00

I blame myself.

I turned my back for 1 minute.

My teacher bag was left unattended.

It was... the Attack of the Stickers...

All. Over. Her. Face.

"Look at me, Mommy! Look at me!" She was so proud of herself.

Andy thought it was pretty dang funny.

Abby was hoping she would get to put all those stickers on her chore chart, but that didn't happen. I have since hidden the stickers and moved my teacher bag to the closet.

Isaac's last game

2011-06-10T15:15:00.000-07:00

Not sure what team we played, but I don't think it mattered.
It was a very hot, dusty day. The kids tried to stay focused as long as they could. It lasted half an inning. We were in the field first- I repeat, hot and dusty. Making dirt piles was a popular activity.

Abby enjoyed her snack while cheering for her brother.

Andy was having fun as well.

Here is Isaac at the beginning of the game- just a little dirt around the eye area. Not too bad...

Isaac at the end of the game, enjoying his treat. Yes, that is all dirt on his face.
Now, imagine being the lucky parent who got to drive this dirty, sweaty, and soon to be juice covered child back home. Needless to say, he got a bath as soon as we arrived home!

I don't know if we are going to have him play next year. I think we'll leave it up to him. :) It was fun while it lasted!

Isaac Goes Shopping for Tomatoes

2011-06-04T21:31:00.001-07:00

Hey guys, Joe has taken over the blog because I want to share a quick story with everyone about our trip back from Aunt Boo's Birthday Party.

On our way home, Isaac and I stopped at Lowe's in Kimball, TN because I wanted to get as straight as I could on the way home and not have to back track to any of the ones in Chattanooga. I had to get some more dirt for the garden (Check out www.joehasagarden.blogspot.com). Isaac really likes these trips to Lowe's and Home Depot because he likes to look at the vegetables and tell me all the stuff he wants to put in the garden.

On the way in, I successfully steered Isaac away from the vegetables and into the store. On the way out, I was not so successful. He walked over to the vegetables and proudly proclaimed that this was the garden. He began, as he always does, of looking all them over and telling which ones are which. After he had looked at all of them, I told him it was time to go. He did not want to go, because he wanted to buy some plant to put in the garden and call his (much like his strawberry plant and the pumpkins). The last trip, he wanted Rutger tomatoes. This trip he wanted all sorts of things. He pointed out to the big plants, but I told him if he wanted one he would have to pick something small. He began bringing plants to me and I would tell him that we already had that in the garden. He then brought me some Bradley Heirloom tomatoes. We did not have that.

So I was faced with a dilemma. Break his heart and risk causing a scene, or let him be responsible for his choice. I decided the latter. I gave him $2 and told him to take his tomatoes to the cashier (grandparents, don't worry, I was standing there the whole time watching him). He quickly walked right up to the cashier who was in the middle of a transaction with another customer and shouted, "Hey lady. I want some tomatoes!" Needless to say, I was a little embarrassed, but the cashier and the other patrons thought it was the cutest thing ever. I told Isaac he had to wait his turn behind the others. Isaac did as he was told and clutched the small package of tomatoes and the $2 tightly and quietly waited his turn. The other patrons asked if he was going to plant that in his garden and he answered that he was. He told them he was a farmer.

When it was Isaac's turn, he reached up with his tomatoes and waited while the cashier rang him up. She told him the price and he gave her the two dollars and got the receipt and his change and then put the tomatoes in a bag and walked out. It was simply nice to watch him go through a "Big Boy" transaction. Now if I could only get him to get a "Big Boy" job.

Hope that brings a smile to your face.

Joe

More Updates from the Baseball Trip

2011-05-11T21:14:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone out there, this is Isaac again. Hope everyone is enjoying seeing the few pictures that Daddy has posted. Hopefully we can remedy the few part with this post.

After Port Charlotte Stone Crabs, we went to the beach again. It was fun. Daddy said the beach smelled funny (it was actually fishy), but it was still fun. Andy got to throw sand into the Gulf and I chased a Heron. Daddy also let me run in the water and we got really dirty. Daddy was not impressed with that but Daddy was very impressed with a mommy and daddy osprey that was just sitting on a tree. We sat on a tree too.

Andy had fun as well. Also there was the ever present "Choo-Choo" in Andy's hand.

This is me chasing a Heron.

Andy tried and tried to fill all the cracks on the log but he was not able to.

That night after some more driving we were in Daytona Beach to watch the "Teenie Tiny Cubs", at least that is what I called them. We racked a bunch of baseballs again from the Brevard County Manatees. I even tried my best to be a Teenie Tiny Cub as well.

I got very upset when it got dark, because I just knew there were going to be fireworks and I do not like fireworks. So I pitched a big fit and we left early. Daddy was mad and I was sad.

Daddy had planned on going to see the Kennedy Space Center the next day but we slept in at the hotel and Daddy did not want to pay $75 for a couple of hours of running through the KSC so I guess we will have to do it again some time in the future. So instead we had to settle for this rocket ship outside the Brevard County Manatees stadium.

We also got our pictures taken in front of a huge sculpture of the Mighty Casey from the Mudville Nine. I really liked it.

That night we were in West Palm Beach and watched the Jupiter Hammerheads take on the Teenie Tiny Cubs. It was fun and I was really excited because we got to get two bats because the Palm Beach Cardinals play at the same stadium. Yippee. The Jupiter Hammerheads' mascot was also a shark named Hamilton the Hammerhead. He was fun but Andy did not like him.

We slept at a Travel Lodge and then went to the beach again. It was really fun and we got really sandy again. Daddy really loved that.

Daddy lucked up and found a nice beach for us to visit and it was great because there was no one on it at all while we were there. I decided to show the sand who was boss with my new Jupiter Hammerhead bat.

Andy just liked to look at the waves.

Daddy was glad there were not that many people on the beach because apparently in having all my fun I had several wardrobe malfunctions.

Daddy made me put this picture on the blog because it showed the sunscreen Daddy used on us in his bag. (Just for you Grammy Pat).

After playing in the waves, we decided to sit and pay in the sand for a little while.

Tonight, we went to see the Marlins and the Phillies. Daddy really liked it because it was the closest he had ever sat at a Major League game. Andy had a blast. He really hammed it up with the people around us. I liked getting another bat. While Daddy finished up the blog I am going to sleep with my new bat and ball.

Andy suffered from sensory overload. He just stopped and stared for a long time while we walked into the stadium.

I was just trying to get a better look.

Andy really liked his first real MLB Game.

Well we have just three more games left and then it is off to the home.

Talk to you guys later.

Isaac