Author: Wendy

Speech Therapy

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small fry

I don’t have a picture specific to speech therapy, so forgive me for recycling this picture of Small Fry from our Wildlife Safari trip 🙂

 

I’ve mentioned a few times about how Small Fry is a late talker. Most kids, by their 2-year well child checkup, are speaking fairly clearly in 2-3 word sentences. When Small Fry had his appointment back in July, he was barely saying “yes,” “no,” “mama,” and “dada.” He’s a bright kid – it’s clear in the way he does communicate (he picked up the signs I taught him lightning fast – as in, less than a day) and how he obeys and reacts to us. He’s not a dummy. He’s just not all that interested in talking. (With two older brothers who were always ready to jump at his every whim, there was no motivation to learn to talk.) So our doctor suggested we start him on speech therapy. [Read more…]

Picture of the Week: A Black Eye

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A photo posted by Wendy (@ladybugdaydreams) on

Instagram followers will probably recognize this picture (which looks better on the small screen of my phone, lol)…

Last week (9 days ago, to be exact), Seahawk and Small Fry were playing while I worked on something with Munchkin. Suddenly I hear crying (Small Fry) and frantic apologizing (Seahawk), and they come out to see me. Turns out that while they were horsing around, Small Fry came tumbling down and crashed his face right into Seahawk’s knee. (Don’t ask me how that happened…) Within just an hour or so, he had a definite black eye. This picture was taken two days later, and you can see that it’s still quite bruised. Well, today, it’s been a week since this photo, and his poor eye is still all black and blue. He is starting to get some of the green tinge that tells me he’s healing, but it’s still rather surprising how long this black eye is lasting.

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

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Recipe: “Man Dish”

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mandish collage

I have a really yummy recipe to share with you guys today – and it’s easy to boot! We affectionately call it “Man Dish” in my house because Will found the recipe in Esquire magazine. He’d been out selling books one day and he picked up the magazine to read during the slow times. After reading the entire magazine, he decided that night that he wanted to cook one of the recipes he’d found. Something that claimed both “impress her” and “one pot meal” really appealed to him, so he thought he’d give it a try.

There was just one glitch: none of our stove-top pans were big enough to cook enough chicken for our family of five all at once. (The recipes in the magazine were designed to be date meals.) So he asked me to step in and help solve this problem. The solution was this recipe. Enjoy. [Read more…]

Homeschool Mid-Year Update

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School for blog

While we’re not technically halfway through the school year, it seems that the year is most easily broken up into two segments: Before Christmas and After Christmas. Thus, it seemed like a good time to revisit our original schooling plan that I talked about in September and see what we’re still doing that’s working, what we’ve dropped for one reason or another, and what we’ve added in. [Read more…]

A Photo Scavenger Hunt in French

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A Photo Scavenger Hunt in French | Ladybug Daydreams

If you follow me on Instagram (my new favorite social media platform!), you got a sneak peak into today’s post over the weekend.

For Christmas, Will got me all 5 levels of Rosetta Stone French. (This gift came with a new laptop two weeks later since RS only works on Windows 7 or higher; our desktop has XP. I’m loving the new computer [which has 8.1] and the language program!) If you’ve read my blog for very long at all, you’ll know that we’re teaching our children French for their foreign language. You’ll also know that I’ve tried numerous things over the past year in my quest to find something that will work for our family. I’ve explored (and done reviews of) French Essentials on SchoolhouseTeachers.com, Mango Languages, and Middlebury Interactive Languages. While all of these programs had their strengths and weaknesses, none of them were quite right for us in the long term. [Read more…]

Our Visit to Wildlife Safari

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Our Visit to Wildlife Safari ~ Ladybug Daydreams

We spent New Year’s Day doing something we’d never done before: going to a drive-through animal park called Wildlife Safari, which is located about 150 miles south of where we live. To be fair, Will actually had been there before, but not since he was a child. In fact, one of his relatives (we’re not sure what the exact relation to him is) used to work there as a trainer for the big cats. There’s a photograph floating around somewhere of him as a kid playing with a Cheetah cub. How cool is that?

But back to our trip. [Read more…]

Our Reading List – January

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A fresh month means it’s time for a new reading list! Here’s what our family is reading in January.

Read-Aloud – everyone

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I forgot to get us to the library to pick up the book club book with enough time for the boys to read it, so we’re reading it aloud. It is Elijah of Buxton, the story of a black boy whose parents were slaves during the American Civil War. They escape to Canada with a large group of other slaves, where Elijah is the first child born free. [Read more…]

Picture of the Week: Wildlife Safari

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Yesterday, as you know, was New Year’s Day. Will took the day off from work and wanted us to do something awesome as a family. We chose to visit Wildlife Safari, a “roaming zoo” about 150 miles away from where we live. I plan to do a longer post on our trip next week, so I’m not going to talk about it much here, but I wanted the Picture of the Week to be a bit of a teaser of things to come. 😉

Why, yes, that is an emu attacking our car!

Why, yes, that is an emu attacking our car!

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

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2014 Year in Review {Blog Style}

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2014 year in review copy

As you all know, 2014 saw some big changes in my blog. First, I joined the Schoolhouse Review Crew. This commitment has been really good for me in several ways. It helps to make sure I blog regularly. That’s not too hard, since I love sharing my thoughts and ideas on these pages, but knowing that it’s expected of me is a pretty good motivator on those “I just don’t want to” weeks. I’ve learned a lot about social media and blogging by being a part of that group of wonderful ladies. And let’s not forget the curriculum! I have the wonderful opportunity to try out different things and share them here with all of you.

Besides the Crew, you’ll remember that I also changed my blog name and platform earlier this month. That was probably the biggest change to “my space,” and it’s one I haven’t regretted for one second. I love the new name and URL! [Read more…]

Homeschool and Homemaking Interview

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homeschoolers at home

Hello dear readers! I have just a short post for you today. A friend and fellow member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, Kemi of Homemaking Organized, is running a series of interviews with homeschoolers. She’s exploring such topics as homeschooling methods, average daily schedule, and balancing homeschooling with homemaking. Today is the day my interview is up on her blog. I hope you’ll take a moment to click through and read it. While you’re there, poke around on Kemi’s site for a while. She has tons of tips for homemaking, saving money, and her life as a homeschool mom of one daughter.

Have a great day, and I’ll be back later this week with more thoughts!

Blessings,

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