04/21/11

I realize I have been MIA.

(I sometimes wonder, though, if my daily blog begins to sound like the teacher on Charlie Brown - wa, wa, wa, wa, wa....)

I have been overwhelmed this week by all the devastation around me from this past weekend. I'll talk more on that tomorrow.

I have been overwhelmed, too, by the last minute work on the kids fourth grade NC Projects times two that are due today.

This was my den most of the week. Our office was the normal disaster zone, but I had to get out of there and move to another environment. This actually looks good compared to what the office looked like most of the time.

See those sticky tabs? They were used A LOT on this project and I picked up over 12 million of them. I even found one stuck to my foot last night. Who knows whether I wore that all day or not.

We went through a lot of construction paper. It wasn't the appropriate size for the page protectors so guess who cut ALL of the paper for the project?
(I wasn't letting Wesley and Mikayla near my paper cutter.... I envisioned injuries.)

All in all this project encompassed 15 sections including the history of the state, government information on the state (a lot of information was sent from school to home to be mounted in each section.... which you hoped your child knew where they went and where they were. There were many times I didn't know if we had them all!), a city report, the two additional projects, arts and entertainment brochures and articles for each of the sections of NC - Mountains, Piedmont and Coastal Plains, decorated divider pages, a site visit that we made to Old Salem which included a summary of our trip and pictures from our trip, pictures from their projects, all of their tests and quizzes, a travel brochure made at school, and.... well, you get the picture.

The next couple of pictures show that we were getting there but not complete. Steve and I put the tabs on..... there is no way Wesley and Mikayla could have done that and it make sense.

Wesley's... those are Town of Cary pics.

Mikayla's... Charlotte pics

They had two required additional projects in conjunction with this notebook. The kids got to choose from a list what they wanted to do. I had to change up Mikayla's when I saw how long just the notebooks were taking. She writes more easily than Wesley so she chose a different path from him.

Wesley's first additional project in addition to that notebook -
Wilbur and Orville Wright model
The box said it was for 10+ year olds. The 43 and 39 year olds in the house had trouble figuring out that model, let alone a 10 year old child. We need to write that company.

Wesley's second additional project in addition to that notebook and the above project -
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
He built this one all by himself. I was so impressed with his creativity and attention to detail. He has a light in it that works. He created the "glass" part out of the top of their mouth wash. Too bad for the mouth wash that it had to be thrown away afterward because of no cap. Thank goodness it was "old."

Mikayla's first additional project in addition to her notebook was a one page report on
James K. Polk.

Her second additional project in addition to the notebook and the above mentioned project was this cross-stitch sampler.
She finished it on Tuesday night at 10:30 pm. She did an AWESOME job... it was just stressful trying to get it all finished in time.
Can you tell she looks tired????

Mikayla's picture shows it all.

Wesley's just glad his Mom isn't saying "FOCUS, WESLEY!" to him a thousand times.

This was a huge mountain of a project. It was overwhelming.... especially times two.

My kids have not had a free weekend since January without me telling them to work on some part of this project.

Our spring break in early March was consumed with this project.

Many school days they had to work on this on top of their regular homework.

Many days I sat in the middle of the floor with them and cut paper as well as help them keep it in the correct area because it was not a project I could just leave them alone to do.

I am thankful for what was learned.

I am just happy to know we are "free at last" and this project is being turned in today.

We are doing nothing involving school at all this long Easter weekend.

We all need a break.
(Just ask the kids.... they know Momma's nerves are shot.)