Elf things - 3 and 4

Elf - day 3

The elf was so happy to take a break and just build a snowman:

But the next evening - he had two beautiful drawings!  

       

So he had to write a note:

Dear Sophie,
Thank you for the beautiful drawings of myself and Ruffy!  I flew back and gave Ruffy his drawing and he asked me to hang it on his door.  He said that he would practice walking from his bed to your picture each day.  His legs are healing but he is not very strong.
I did some artwork myself for you all!  I hope you enjoy it!
Sincerely,
Sunny

And make some drawings of his own!

Elf Things - day 2

Our elf story continues...my oldest wrote the substitute elf a note:

Hi!
My name is XXX (the oldest kid.)
I have been wondering are you a boy?
Whats your kids address?
When will Ruffy be better?
So on my first letter to Ruffy - I put that I would catch him up.  So we used to live in California in a house.  Then we moved to Wisconsin to this apartment and now we are going to buy a big farm house with 26 acres and tons of barns.  The move in date is a week before Christmas!  I can't wait for you to see it!  We also just started school yesterday.  We were homeschooled before.  Nice to meet you!
P.S. You might meet Santa soon at our house.  My Opa used to work with him so he is inviting him to our house to have a big party.  We do it every year.
Sincerely,
XXXXX
When do you do flying lessons?  Before or after you go in the box and into a store?

And so the substitute elf, Sunny, wrote back:

Hi XXXX (the oldest kid)!
Thank you for all the interesting information!  I am very excited to see your new home and I have always wanted to see California!  Please tell me a little about California in your next note!  I hear it is too warm for my leather bomber jacket.  I always imagined it would not be a good fit for me.  I cannot be without my jacket - see the little boy who first named me gave it to me.  He bought it at the store with his own money that he earned by cleaning the dog poop out of the yard.  I remember watching him every day go outside to clean up the yard.  My family had 5 dogs so it was a big job to clean up outside.  He was so proud of himself and all of his hard work when he gave me the jacket!
You asked where my family lived - they lived on a big farm in a town called Great Falls, Montana.  Santa will visit it 47 minutes after Middleton.
You also asked when do we do flying lessons.  We do flying lessons as part of our primary education along with spying, mischief, humor, and listening classes.
You also asked when will Ruffy feel better - he is very touched by your concern for him!  Both of his legs are in a cast but we elves heal quickly so hopefully in a week or two he should be able to fly again!  Don't worry - Muffy and Susie are taking good care of him!
keep up the good work!
Sunny (a boy)

And of course - Sunny was causing mischief roasting his marshmallows over a candle!

Enjoy!

Homeschool Adventure - resources

My girls are finally in traditional school and the school they are in is FANTASTIC!  We couldn't be happier with how things are (slowly but surely) working out!

But our time doing homeschooling was completely invaluable!  We had a great time and took advantage of the lack of schedule to take a few trips (to New Mexico and D.C.).  We also walk away with a few new learning resources that we have decided to continue to use as needed.

Our two favorite apps:
Our goal is to complete 30 questions or more each day using this math app to improve proficiency in basic math.  It totally worked!
The name of it is Math Fact Master by TipTacTech

link from iTunes store

This second app is actually a bundle and helped my hesitant reader to practice reading comprehension.  The articles are short and the questions are difficult enough that the reader had to pay attention to the article - they cannot just guess.

The name of it is Super Reader by Power Math Apps

link from iTunes store

Our two favorite websites:
The first website is common core sheets.  This website gives you worksheets with the option of doing "One at a time".  This option allows your student to just sit and answer the questions interactively with the computer!  You save time and paper printing and organizing and correcting!  Plus it's colorful and gives immediate feedback which the kids enjoy.

http://www.commoncoresheets.com

Our other favorite website for resources was k12 reader.  This website offers all types of free reading, grammer and spelling worksheets organized by grade level!

http://www.k12reader.com

Enjoy!

Elf Things

Being in a new location and not having our things means that we left a few things behind that are now in storage.  We left my recipe binder, warm gloves for two of the kids and.....the ELF!

Yikes!  After being torn between just buying a new elf and trying to pawn it off on the kids as their elf - or creating an elaborate story to describe why they are getting a substitute elf...we decided to go with the substitute elf!  Here is that adventure....

The new elf's name is Sunny and he "wrote" this letter to the kids:

Hi kids!
My name is Sunny and Ruffy and I are best friends!  We met at elf camp 30 years ago and hit it off immediately during flying class!  We have been best buds ever since!
I'm here because Ruffy can't be here. See - he was hanging sleigh bells on Santa's sleigh the other day and he got too close to the back of Prancer...and well - the next thing we knew he was flying through the air!  He landed in a pile of toy trucks!  Ouch!  But now he has two broken legs which means he cannot fly. If he cannot fly then he cannot visit his kids and he is super sad.
So I volunteered to come in his place while he rests up. I'm very excited! I haven't had kids to watch since my kids grew up and went to college!  I'm hoping someday that they will call me back as their elf to share with their kids but until then - I act as a substitute elf!
I brought along my book to share with you too…but you will need to find it!  I hid it somewhere!  I’ve been taking great care of my book so please enjoy it but I will take it back on Christmas Eve!
Merry Christmas!  I will keep you updated on Ruffy!
Sincerely,
Sunny

He hid the book behind the couch and he sat on top of a gingerbread house.  

Enjoy!

Homeschooling (Introduction)

We are in an awkward situation - we relocated from Southern California to Madison Wisconsin late in the summer and put our Cali home up for sale.  It has just now entered escrow (fingers crossed it all goes well!) but we haven't found a home here in Wisconsin yet....so the bottom line is that we are homeschooling.  The school year has begun and we are in temporary housing so to avoid putting the kids in a school and then it not being our home school when we do buy - we are homeschooling.

I've always wanted to try homeschooling - and it is just as much fun as I thought it would be!  We have had a blast and LOTS of adventures!  But it takes a lot of time to prepare too....that's why the blog posts have been light lately....

Now that we somewhat have a routine - I am finally ready to share some of the cool things that we do during our week!

We have 2 types of activities - there are the daily goals and the weekly goals.  Here is a breakdown:

Daily

• Math drills using "Math Fact Master" on the iPad
• Allows you to customize their problems and keeps simple progress reports
• Math special topic
• varies by the week; topic is general enough for both 4th and 2nd graders to work on worksheets independently and activities together
• Grammer special topic
• varies by the week but each week is focused on a part of speech or a grammar topic
• Spelling practice is a list at the beginning of the week and a test at the end
• Science experiments are done daily
• Craft projects are done daily
• Reading is done daily
• We are using the reading comprehension app "Super Reader Comprehension" and my 2nd grader LOVES it
• Code.org is used as a reward along with board games if they accomplished all their work for the day

Weekly

• Each week the kiddos have to agree on a "special topic" 
• It is something that they both want to learn more about
• Then they are assigned a challenge (report; diorama; poster; skit, etc.)
• And they make an iMovie about their topic
• We continuously update our nature notebook
• This is a Keynote (ppt for MAC) presentation that the girls add new slides to for each topic that they find interesting while we are exploring outside or for a question that they ask about nature
• We are working to switch focus to outreach opportunities
• We put together "Boo Bags" for the two kids that we have found that live in our building.

More to come!  Stay tuned...

Enjoy :-)

Hikes: Cherokee Marsh

I. LOVE. HIKING.

I love a good hike - a chance to get out and be a part of nature for a little while.  I feel like it breathes life into my little crew of kids and it gets them moving.  And sometimes they get a little bored - which is good - because then they start to ask questions about the world around them or they beg me to tell them funny stories.  Hikes also stretch my little guy who doesn't like to always keep on moving.

Location:
Main entrance (Catfish Ct): heading north from Madison on HWY 113/Northport Dr., 1/3 mile past HWY M, turn right on River Rd., then immediate right onto Catfish Ct. 

You walk past the dog exercise area and you can hit the trail that leads along the lake.

This is a beautiful walk!  When you get to the picnic table, there is a beautiful view and a geocache nearby!

(This is the view from the picnic table)

As you walk along, you go through the tall prairie grasses and eventually you will end up at a place called "Rod's Rest".  There is a bench dedicated to him there and it is a gorgeous view.

If you walk a bit further - you will find the effigy mounds that the Native Americans built probably during the late woodland time period of approximately 400 A.D.-1100 A.D.  These literally look like small hills and are not much to see.  However, you are standing where the Native Americans once stood to bury their dead which is so cool!

(bear shaped mound I believe)

(panther shaped mound I believe)

At this point - we turned back and headed for home and encountered this exciting creature along the way!

Here is a link to the map and trail guide of the part of Cherokee Marsh that we visited:

http://cherokeemarsh.org/files/yahara_heights_brochure.pdf

enjoy :-)

Parks around Madison: Odana Hills Park

Today we explored Odana Hills Park!  Its a cute park where the playground is far away from the street.  It has a large pond there but I didn't see any trails or boardwalks that lead to the pond.

Location:

Address: 5201 Milward Dr Madison

Parking is on the street and the playground is at the back of the park.

Highlights:

• There is a tire swing!

• There is a grove of trees next to the playground that is a lot of fun to run through and collect leaves! 

• We did some leaf rubbings!

• There is a cute playground

• a few swings

• and some big open fields

Checklist:

• No restrooms
• Soccer fields
• Two baby swings
• 1 tire swing

Enjoy :-)

Raising My Kids: Their Challenges

Being a full-time Mom has been my favorite job so far...and I've had quite a few!  My little-people co-workers are cute and adorable and warm my heart.  It may be a 24-7 job with no breaks for meals but I get immediate feedback (sometimes in the form of a two year old clapping and sometimes in the form of a pre-teen eye-rolling).  It's a great and rewarding job and since it is my current career choice, I spend a lot of energy on self-evaulation.  I take a lot of time reflecting on my choices and how I handled my kiddos in the situations that we encountered during the day.

I consider one of my goals to be to guide my kiddos to turn their challenging characteristics into their best quality.  It may seem ambitious but I enjoy a good challenge myself!

My little one (Indiana Jones) is two and so his biggest challenge is that he wants to be in charge.  He wants to control everything.  My approach - let him control it.  I give in - all the time...here are some examples:

• He wants to hold the bag of pretzels, chips, grapes, anything!
• My response: okay - I give him all the control - he holds the bag and I ask politely for one of whatever he has.  I respect his "no's" and thank him for his "yes's".
• He wants something that his sister has and he is yelling for it!
• My response: okay - his sister can share but he needs to say "please" and he usually has no problem saying that and it makes everybody feel better.
• He wants to do something dangerous; for example he wants to plug in the vacuum cleaner.  
• My response: calm him down explaining it is a "Mommy job".  Sometimes I teach him how to do a "Mommy job" like opening the door with the keys.

The hardest times though are the times I cannot physically give him what he wants.  Those times I tell him how we are going to get it.  For example, at the orchard the other day - he wanted to eat the grapes that we picked before we paid for them and washed them.  So I laid out the steps - "first we need to pick our apples"...."then we need to pay the lady"...."then we will wash the grapes"...."then you will eat them in the car".  90% of the time, he will work with me - the other 10%, I assume he is just too tired and he has a fit.

So - point is - I give in...I give in to let him know he has control to build his self-confidence.  I hope it pays off one day :-)

Enjoy :-)

Parks around Madison: Swallowtail Park (Middleton)

We love exploring the local parks! Today we headed over to a favorite - swallowtail park. It's a favorite because it has big kid and little kid equipment, nice sidewalks for riding scooters and it seems to always have a surprise for us to uncover there :-)

Location:

It's back in a neighborhood at the address:

901 Swallowtail Dr
Madison, WI 53717

Parking is on the street.

Highlights:

• There is big kid equipment and if you don't get motion sick - you can join in the fun!

• The contraption to the right allows for two people to spin!
• There is great little kid equipment too!  

• This is a motorcycle with a sidecar - perfect for imaginative play!
• The surprises are what make this park fun!  There is a pond to the northeast corner of the park!
• There is a geocache hidden in this park and it's an easy find for the big kids - bring a pencil but nothing to leave!

Checklist:

• No restrooms
• 1 handicap swing
• 2 big kid swings
• 1 baby swing
• basketball full court
• baseball backstop
• large open field
• gravel surface
• gazebo with picnic tables
• sidewalk for riding scooters

Enjoy!

Mesa Verde - a review

We made a few stops along the way on our trip from CA to WI.  The first was Mesa Verde in CO and it was INCREDIBLE!  In short - it is the ancient home of the Pueblo Indians who built their homes into the alcoves of the mesa and pictures cannot do it justice.  Being on top of the mesa is amazing and walking and climbing around the pueblos and having the rangers describe what life was like for the Native Americans is crazy cool.

This is a picture of the cliff house pueblo.  This picture doesn't capture the scale of this pueblo and it doesn't readily show that the dwellings were 3 levels - it's an amazing thing.  So here's the run-down of what we did and saw and what we wish we had time for!  It includes where we stayed and a review of each step (hindsight is 20/20 - hopefully our lessons learned will be your good starting point!)

First Stop: Visitor Center (Mandatory!)

• This is off to your left before you enter the park
• It is where you can buy your tour tickets
• They have other places in the park to buy tickets but you cannot show up for a tour and buy a ticket there.  In my opinion - this is the easiest way to get a good understanding of the park and to secure tickets to create a schedule for your time there!
• Tours are given for the following pueblos: Cliff Palace, Balcony House and the Long House.
• This is also the best gift shop I think we saw (although we didn't return to it on our exit since we were off on the long trek to Idaho!)
• The visitor center also had an awesome exhibit.  If we had more time (we had rushed off to a tour) - it would have been great to spend a long time looking around.

Tour: The Cliff Palace (Ranger-led)

• The tour goes down some steep stairs (nothing to be all that concerned with - I carried the baby down behind an elderly woman who wasn't too stable and we both made it just fine...and joked about it later :-)
• And then you go around the bend and up a little to the alcove where the pueblo dwellings are and it is AMAZING!  You are right there in an alcove of the Mesa (which is a huge and beautiful thing itself) looking out over the canyon, sharing the SAME view as the pueblo Indians who made this alcove their home.  
• The total time of the tour is an hour.  Tours run every half hour so when you are there - there is a tour group in the ruins and when you are in the ruins, there is a tour group waiting to come in.  This is good to know when thinking of how and when to photograph the pueblo.    
• There is a little walking (all of which is exciting because you are climbing down and walking around and then climbing back up) but not an hour's worth of walking.  The remainder of the time is the ranger talking about the pueblos and the Native Americans and telling their story.  If you get a good ranger - this can be a very captivating tale but if you have an antsy two year old - this can be tough :-(  
• The Cliff Palace Tour is (apparently) easy to exit via a couple of short ladders and a baby screaming happens to echo when standing in the alcove and canyon :-)  
• So - bring the kids and if it goes badly - it's easy to make an exit. 

Tour: The Balcony House  (Ranger-led)

• This is the tour that they "warn" you about.  There is a little cave that you need to crawl through and a 30 foot ladder you need to climb.
• It is all completely manageable.  The ladder is tall but completely do-able.  I put the little guy in his back-pack for the tall climbs and the rest of the time, he hung out in my arms.
• The views on this tour are incredible and the history from this particular house in awesome.  You really have the chance to walk into the house and see the wood beams that once held the balconies and look into the kiva where the Native Americans had their ceremonies and really feel present.
• If you choose to do only one tour - THIS is the tour to pick.  It gives you the best views - the most movement (which the kids love) and the most history. 

Tour: The Long House  (Ranger-led)

• I'd love to write a review of this tour but unfortunately we chose not to do it.  The tour is two hours long and for our little guy who decided against napping, this would have been too much.  
• We decided to leave our tickets for somebody else (at every other tour there was always somebody who didn't know they had to buy a ticket so hopefully it helped somebody out)

Tour: Spruce Tree House (Self-guided)

• This tour is on the same mesa as the Balcony House and the Cliff Palace.  It is also close to another museum and its a short walk from the parking lot. 
• It is another great alcove and a very scenic trail walking down.
• The self-guided tours are great because they are as long as you make them!  You can really take your time and enjoy or snap a few pictures and move on.  

Tour: Step House (Self-guided)

• This ruin is on the other mesa; the mesa with the Long House.  
• It's a longer walk down to the ruin than the Spruce Tree House but it's worth it!

Tour: Badger House Trail (self-guided)

• This was the most educational trail/tour.
• Only a very small part of the mesa's Native American history was spent in the alcoves.
• The majority of their history was on the mesa tops where they evolved from living in holes dug in the ground to structures built above ground.  
• This is an easy but long walk.
• There is a chance you may see a "wild" horse!  You will definitely see horse poop though.
• The horses are actually feral horses that have escaped from the ranches surrounding the National Park.  The horses have spent many generations as "wild" horses.

Tour: some general notes

• The rangers are awesome!  We met some awesome rangers who love Mesa Verde and it shows.
• Rangers are people too: not all rangers were too excited to see our little guy and well - he's little and that's understandable.  Nothing to be upset about - just something to note and be respectful of.
• They have a nice Junior Ranger program - it was one of the easier ones that the kids have completed! 

Eats: Cafeteria

• Here is my recommendation for you regarding the cafeteria....don't and if you do - there is edible pizza and mediocre salad options.  
• If you spring for a burger - beware, they are warming them up in the toaster oven - the burgers are not getting grilled....and they taste like rubber.
• sorry - worst cafeteria food ever :-(

Eats: Metate Room

• This is the fancy dining room at the hotel.
• It is fancy but kids are welcome.
• The food is delicious and the view is great!
• It may not be the best food you've ever had...but you're in a National Park....on top of a mesa....eating delicious steak...it's worth the splurge!

Hotel: The Far View Lodge

• For a park hotel - these rooms ROCKED!  
• They were definitely small.
• They were definitely clean.
• They were more updated than other NPS hotels so that was nice.
• Although we had the "Kiva" room and not the "standard" room but I think they are similar
• You park right outside your room and you have a private balcony.  And that is why the room rocked....because of this view as you watched the sun set over the mesa:

A picture cannot show you how captivating and gorgeous the sunsets and the stars were.  We saw 7 shooting stars in one hour long star gazing session.  It was amazing!

Enjoy!

I'm a Wimp

So far on our road trip adventure - I've discovered that the kids and I are complete weather wimps and insect scaredy-cats. So moving to Wisconsin may pose some challenges!

When driving through the Arizona desert, we drove into a storm. Now - the storm had lightening which our California selves aren't used to but then it had heavy rain to top it off (how dare it?!). Although I'd say the part where I lost it was when the alarm on my phone went off for a flash flood warning. We finished driving through the storm (maybe only 5 minutes more) and by the time we were through - I had realized that 15 years in California has turned me into a weather wimp!  I resolve to toughen up!

Then we made it to where we were going and called it a night. The next day the sky was sunny and off we went on the road again. 

We stopped at nowhere Arizona for Subway and ate outside with the dog. Part way through the meal - Bookmark started freaking out saying that some bug was biting her. Like any good Mom I said "No - what? There aren't any Mosquitos. You are fine". And then I felt it too - there were these almost see through flies biting us like crazy!  So -we quickly packed everything up and finished eating in the car. Now - any bug is fair game and my kids are screaming and running away!  We are officially insect scaredy-cats. 

:-)

Enjoy!

Saying good bye

We are winding down one of the best summers of our lives as we get ready to move from California to Wisconsin!  

There is something to be said for our "last time" moments - they are definitely bittersweet. When you know that you are going somewhere for the last time - you soak it up a little extra - spend a little more time or money to make the experience more special. And we had our hit list of places we wanted to visit one last time - the Griffith observatory, Disneyland, universal studios, the beach, and many more. 

We also had people we wanted to visit with one last time and after our huge open house/going away party - a lot of those one last times and one last hug have passed. And here is the tough question - how do I truly feel...and the answer is "okay". I'm okay. I gave hugs to people who I may reasonably never cross paths with again and I hugged hard some of the most amazing people I have ever met knowing I'm the reason for their tears and knowing I will miss them so very much. But right now with packing in front of me and good byes behind me - I'm okay. 

By understanding my feelings -I feel better able to understand my kids feelings. I check in and ask them to see how their feelings are evolving but I don't think they have full understanding of what moving from CA to WI will entail. And that too is okay! They will learn. So as we enter our last few days - our goal is to keep the kids at feeling "okay". 😊

Enjoy!

Hello. My name is Teddi

Hi all!  So this is it!  The first post!  I guess you'd like to know what this blog is all about....

Well....

It's a little about everything me😀

So - I guess a little about me would be useful then!  

I'm a mom to three awesome kiddos! My oldest is going into fourth grade and she loves to read. She reads in the morning, in the car, on the beach, and whenever we are running errands...in the grocery, in the bank...you get the idea. So - in the interest of privacy - I will call her "bookmark".  

My middle child just loves to dance!  She listens to music and absorbs all things dance and creates her own routines at home. She is incredibly fascinating to watch because she pays such close attention to each detail of how her body moves!  I will call her "dancer".

My youngest is a wild child!  At the age of two he is scaling ladders, rock walls, desks, chairs, counters, rocks - well anything. His latest pastime is climbing and he is absolutely fearless. Since he will try anything once and is completely fearless - his name is "Indy" after Indiana Jones!

As for me - I'm happy with my title of "mom". It's the best job title I've ever had. It's also the most challenging. I strive to encourage my kiddos to be good citizens and good friends. Each one is different with their own set of skills and challenges. 

I'm also a "project mom". I'm not a Pinterest mom (my results are never as good as Pinterest) but I love to make a mess and create experiences. 

In this blog I will write about these projects!  I will also share recipes (I absolutely love to cook and try new things) and I will share my experiences with my kids and write about my parenting philosophies in regards to them. And I will also write about our journey!  We are moving from Orange County California to Wisconsin!  And we are so excited about trying new things but so sad to leave our friends in the OC. 

Enjoy!