Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Easter Freebie!

Well, here it is. As I said I was working on this and just kind of lost my feel for it. I hope someone can use it. There are 15 elements, 1 QP and 5 papers. Click on the image to start your download if you like it ;) Please remember, no file sharing, please send people here to my Blog to download it. As always, please leave a little LOVE if you do download this kit ;) (Did I say please enough? lol)



I might have some chicks and what not later on. I haven't decided yet whether or not to finish them ;)

So what do you think?

Yes, I got bored with my other background for my blog so I changed it again lol. This one is pretty neutral so I'm liking it.... for now ;) I was working on a kit for Easter but kinda lost my umph with it. I hate it when that happens. I was pretty happy with the little eggs and the bunnies and some of the papers but just couldn't seem to get it to pull together. I have been working on it for about 3 days. Now I know that seems like a short period of time BUT I can usually tell within the first 2 days if it is going to be worth it to finish it or not. I don't mind working on a kit for 5 or 6 weeks if I have to but if I am just not "feeling it" forget it. Sooooo..... guess what's coming? LOL There are about 5 papers and maybe 20 or so elements to this kit for Easter. I still have to pack it all up for you but it will be here soon. Shame, I really liked the colors and what not, just couldn't seem to catch the fever for it again.

In other news, lol, it looks like I will end up taking John out of Public School here as well. They are now after him it seems. I had a meeting with the teachers the other day and I heard many of the same terms used when I had to take Charles out. John has it in his head that he wants to be homeschooled because of several reasons. One of course being that his brother is at home and supposedly getting all of the attention, another being that he heard Charles and I talking about Columbus and what REALLY happened when he "discovered" America and John's comment to be had been "Why should I go to school and listen to them when they lie to me?" I tried explaining that for his age group the things Charles and I were speaking about was not apprpriate but that the basic facts of what he was learning were true. His next quetion/rhetorical statement? "Then why does everyone celebrate it like a holiday?" How do you argue with that? I managed to get by with saying that the holiday had been set up before the truth had become widely known and that it has since become a tradition and the we celebrate America being found moreso than Columbus himself. He didn't fall for it - don't tell me this kid isn't smart. ANYWAY.... moving right along... he had come home with his "Study Guide" and asked for help with it. Cool, no problem... uh huh. We would ask him the questions and he would blurt out the answer verbatim. So we changed the wording a little and the order of the questions, he was immediately lost. "Just read it like it is" he says to us. "Yeah uh no, you need to understand the answers not just spit out the answer" His reply, "Why do I have to do that when all they tell us to do is memorize the answers?" So, of course, I had to have a speific answer from him as to what he meant .... exactly. Turns out that the "Study Guide" is actually...are you sitting down? - it's actually THE TEST! Yep, that's what I said, the so called study guide is the test. Now, of course, I am not stupid, I know how kids like to finagle and embellish and twist things so when I had had our meeting with his teachers a few months ago we asked about this. Their reply? "Well alot of parents have a hard time or not much time for helping their children study so we found this to be the best way for everyone" My reply was "Well then some people shouldn't be parents" I'm sorry, I am a SAHM now but I worked 10 hours a day in the office, out on sites etc then came home did all of my household stuff PLUS worked again from home doing reports, setting up the new department etc till 4 in the morning and STILL found the time to help with Science Fair projects, reports and daily homework. You just do it.... period. I don't care if you don't sleep for a week - your children come first. Spoon feeding them the answers is NEITHER teaching NOR helping them - in the end they are still ignorant if they don't understand WHY the damn answer is right. Sorry but this just burns my biscuits and frustrates me to no end. We have Charles doing his work alone first. Read the lesson, do the lesson then do the quiz or report etc. We are here if he needs us to help along the way. We go over all of it with him during it if he needs it then always after so that we are sure he is understanding it. We go over his tests and reports with him, grade them ourselves and go over it with him to show and explain to him why and where his work was incorrect and to praise him when he does well. We don't give him the answers. My first question is always "Why do you think this answer is wrong?" He will re-read it out loud to me (or Alex) and alot of the time he catches it right away, sometimes not. If it takes us an hour to help him understand one little thing so be it. But don't tell me that spoon feeding him is the way to go cause it's not happening, not in my house.

(**A little edit here, Laura had asked how old John is. I realize I should have probably said that somewhere lol. John is 10 and Charles just turned 14. Thank you Laura for bringing that to my attention and for commenting ;) )

Well, I really didn't mean for this to turn into a rant, sorry. Going to go pack up that freebie for you ;)