Thanksgiving

My daughter and Mam-mam eating salt.  I had to put a stop to it, but it was cute.

My sister and her newest baby boy.

Sebastian is baby obsessed. He is SO excited for February when we welcome another baby in this house.

My second nephew. He is a model!

Cousin boys being cousin boys and falling off the see-saw.

We got almost all of them on it!

Homeschool Journal- Day 80

Today marks the 80th day of home school!! I am trying hard to pack in the days before the baby comes in February.

My Little Pony: Party of One App Review

This Brony family was very excited to be able to check out the new My Little Pony: Part of One app for our iPod touch.

First off, Pinkie Pie is my three-year-old daughter and my favorite pony. Second off, Party of One is, hands down, my favorite episode of My Little Pony.  I knew before playing around with this app, that I would love it... and maybe my kids would too... ;-)


The story can either be read to the user or you can turn it off and read it for yourself.  This made the app fun for both my 3-year-old, getting the story read to her, and my 6-year-old, reading the story for himself.

The opening screen allows you to choose whether or not you want the story read to you.

If you are reading the story by yourself, there are certain words that are highlighted. You can touch them to hear the word. This is great for those harder words beginning readers are not able to decipher.

Throughout the pages, there are opportunities to press on the characters to see additional interactions. This page is my 3-year-old daughter's favorite page. She presses Pinkie Pie over and over and over again to hear to scream "What's in that bag?!?!?" and see Rainbow Dash jump.

She spends most of her iPod time playing with Pinkie Pie and having the story read to her over and over again.

Overall I feel this app is very nicely done. I like the Read to me / Read it myself functionality as well as the actual voice of Pinkie Pie in the app.  My son was upset that the narrator was the voice for the other ponies, but it didn't keep him from playing with the app.  The interaction on the pages keeps my kids attention and makes each reading of the story different. This app costs $2.99 and I was hoping for a little more with the price- perhaps a learning game or something. Although I don't think the price is outrageous, I just thought there might have been more to the app than just a story book.

Pros:

• Pinkie Pie's real voice
• Ability to Read to Me or Read it Myself
• Interactive pony moments
• Just like the episode!
• The animation is just like the show and looks very nice
• Keeps my daughter busy for a few minutes (perfect for in the doctor's waiting room, or when I am trying to go over math facts with my son)

Cons:

• $2.99 for just a story
• No other pony voices from the show besides Pinkie Pie

Visit Mosaic Reviews to see other people's reviews of this product and other products.

Humbled

 My six year old son has completely humbled me this week.

He didn't go to mass on Sunday because my husband and I went at two different times, and it is just easier to not take the kids when we are running around. That bothered him and he asked to go to daily mass on Tuesday. His heart was touched and he asked to go again today. We went. How could I say no to such a humble request?  I have always wanted to get to daily mass, but I always picked sleeping in over going to daily mass because I am lazy. With Sebastian's sweet and loving request I set my alarm and made it a point to get our family out the door to go to daily mass the past two days.

I asked him what he thought of it.  He told me that he loves going to daily mass, and that he wants us to go every day we can. I cannot believe this little man!  He said he is very much looking forward to getting his sacraments, and isn't happy that I am making him wait yet.  Perhaps I should talk to a priest and see if we could do it sooner instead of making him wait over a year.

Not only did he request daily mass, but he is now keeping a bottle of holy water with him at all times and he has a rosary he keeps on him too.  Yesterday in the car he was attempting to say the rosary by himself. He also decided that we need to feed the homeless. He wants to help at a soup kitchen, or keep food in the car so that we can hand it out if we see homeless people on the streets.  And to top it all off, he likes to read the Children's Bible and wants to get a Bible to keep in his bedroom. The Holy Spirit is working on his heart in a big way right now.

As Pope Francis has said, "The Saints were not superhuman. They were people who loved God in their hearts, and who shared this joy with others." Sebastian is doing this without thinking about it.  When do we lose this? When does it become a chore? My son is my spiritual inspiration. 

Luke 18:17: Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."

Weekly Lesson Planning

For the past month or so, I have been doing weekly lesson planning. It happened because we moved our home school room into the kitchen/dining room and it was easier to have a bucket for the week filled with everything we would need for the week. I have to say this is a wonderful way to plan. 

I have a manilla folder for each day of the week and fill it with the papers we will need for that day. On Monday I take out what we need and am able to clean it up easily for lunch and end of day. I am also able to see how the week went and adjust plans for what work needs to move slower or faster for the next week.  I used to plan six or more weeks at a time and if there was a sick day or learning difficulties it would mess all the plans up.  This way I am able to adjust easier.

The only downside is that every weekend I need to carve out some time to plan the following week, and with our printer currently not working I need to plan ahead for any papers that might need to be printed or made.

This past week we made stained glass windows in school for art class. The kids want to do it again for Christmas and make Christmas tree windows.  I love their creativity.