Listmania!

Greetings! Well, if you've checked my blog anytime in the past two months you've probably wondered where I drifted off to. Maybe you've thought Ugh! When will there be a new poll?! Or perhaps you've pondered Hasn't she done anything post-worthy in the past two months? In short, Yes! Yes, I have! But I have also been very busy with finishing up our school year.

I discovered about April that we were behind in our schooling, and we would not be finishing in the middle of May like I had originally planned. This was mostly due to the fact that we were participating in our local home school group's annual play. Now, I'm not complaining about being involved in the play; just stating the fact that once we went to two practices a week our school lessons went down to about three lessons a week. o_O This put us grossly behind. But after we finally had our play performance on May 15, the girls and I were able to buckle down with our lessons, and we finished school last Friday. Yay!

On to my actual blog post. ☺

♥♥♥♥♥ (Side note: I love when people add hearts to their Facebook postings. If you add at least one heart to your status post you can be assured that I will probably *like* your posting. Another side note: isn't it interesting that Facebook has changed the word "like" from a state-of-being verb to an action verb?)

Every school year I learn more as a teacher. I truly enjoy seeing the girls discover new facts and remember things I've taught them. And it's a blessing to be able to watch them grow and mature.

Now, I love lists. And since this post is titled "Listmania!" that means there is a list coming, and here it is: a compilation of 50 of the things I've learned or thought about, etc. throughout this school year. ☺

1. God's creation is simply amazing.
2. So many aspects of our natural world point to His hand in forming our earth.
3. Both the tallest and the oldest trees in the world can be found in California.
4. Bees see ultra-violet light the best.
5. Bees are fascinating.
6. But still scary.
7. Hummingbirds see ultra-red light the best.
8. I just spelled the word hummingbirds as "hummingbURds." :|
9. The English language is irritating.
10. The "schwa" sound is not necessary.
11. So are silent letters like "Kn" or "Gn" or "CK".
12. "Ph" should not be a sound.
13. Squanto used fish as fertilizer.
14. Squanto made a dandy corn-on-the-cob.
15. Louis the 14th had a chess board lawn.
16. He liked to use his noble court as the chess pieces.
17. The Native Americans had a lot of reasons to dislike European settlers.
18. There is a TON of home school material published.
19. My wonderful friend Lisa Jeske knows about a lot of it. ☺
20. It is wonderful to have a support group of fellow home schooling mothers.
21. No matter how good my intentions I am not able to start school before 9:30AM.
22. My two-year-old has the ability to greatly hinder our school lessons.
23. So does my six-year-old.
24. And my eight-year-old. **wink**
25. Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder, and Barney the Dinosaur movies have become my school saviors.
26. Paige and Emma will try to sit by the toy room door so they can sneak a peak at whatever movie Abby is watching.
27. Neither of them realizes that I am fully aware of what they are doing by the door.
28. My basement is bitterly cold in the winter.
29. My girls and I do not like having school in our basement past November.
30. Having school upstairs in the living room is a workable alternative.
31. I ♥ Apologia Press.
32. Songs help Paige remember facts.
33. It's a blessing that she and I like to sing.
34. Emma truly understands Biblical concepts and ideas.
35. What's more she ENJOYS them and applies them in everyday situations.
36. My childrens' favorite subject is art.
37. I am not an artsy person.
38. I like using cardstock to make cheat-sheets for my girls.
39. I ♥ my laminator!
40. I have to ignore my phone during school.
41. I also have to ignore the computer.
42. By early May I had finally learned the best way to teach Science to my girls.
43. It's a good thing that copy paper is cheap.
44. Taking a few days instead of one day to complete annual testing works very well!
45. We enjoy our local library.
46. You can put together and perform a play in two month's time.
47. The play songs will get stuck in your head.
48. After the play is over you will continue to sing all those songs.
49. Every time Abby sees anything red, white, and blue she will think it's part of our play.
50. Watching children and young adults act and perform on stage is so much fun!