My boys (mainly Blake) are fascinated with the idea of Bigfoot. They like to watch Monsterquest and Destination Truth and debate the idea of the existence of such a creature.
So, today during Bible time, I asked them if they remembered who Esau was. Laina jokingly said, “The big, hairy guy.” Blake followed up with, “Hey, maybe that’s where Bigfoot came from!”
Not exactly biblical, but worth a smile.
The boys are enjoying their Apologia science books. Blake has been working through the Apologia Botany book by setting his own pace. This works well with him as he tends to want to read ahead. Last week he learned about classifying plants by sorting shoes from our closets. This was a great hands on project since he could visually see how the shoes ended up grouped when he was finished.
Connor is doing well on his Apologia Land Animals book. He’s working more on his own this year. It still takes some prompting to keep him on track, but once he gets going he’s very diligent in his work. Last week his notebooking instructions were to create a newsletter about dogs. Instead of handwriting it, he asked if he could type it. So we opened up a template in Microsoft Publisher and he went to town! I was really impressed, especially since I’ve never typed anything in Publisher! Here’s the final product. Punctuation and spelling still needs to be worked on.
Laina is finishing up her first module in Apologia Biology. She’ll take her test in a couple of days, so hopefully she’ll do well. I’ve decided only to grade on the tests this year and not on the study guide questions. This will simplify things quite a bit on my end, and hopefully enable her to have better information for studying. I also am not requiring the labs, unless it is one that she absolutely wants to do.
That’s all for now~
The kiddos pics on my sidebar are now updated for their current school years! Yay!
It seems I’ve stretched summer out as long as I could, and so today it was time to embark on a new school year adventure. I can’t honestly say I’ll be more faithful in blogging this year than last, but I’ll do my best to keep updating.
How is it going so far? A bit stressful. Right now is the kids quiet reading time, so I had a minute before laundry and errands to catch up. Settling in after having an unstructured summer will take a little while. But, I’ll tweak it as we go, and all should fall into place.
Laina is in 9th grade this year! A freshman! Does having/teaching a high schooler scare me? Not really. It’s more the life lessons she needs to learn that I’m worried about. I’m willing to teach, but she also has to be willing to learn. She is enjoying the SPCA still and has started taking piano lessons from a neighbor across the street. She absolutely loves that and acquired a keyboard from some friends to practice on. This year she is working on completing her Math-U-See Algebra, and then will move on to the Stewardship program. On Wednesdays, we have the opportunity to join a homeschool co-op, where she will be working on a financial class. She’s also doing Apologia Biology, Practical Proverbs Bible Study, Simply Charlotte Mason Spelling Wisdom, Epikardia Essays for High School, Spanish and a whole slew of reading. Whew!
I’m still taking the Charlotte Mason approach, but am throwing in a bit of the Robinson Method in providing the kids with a booklist for history, geography, literature, additional science, economics, and character building and sending them on their way!
As a family we’ll be doing scripture memorization, bible study, poetry, hymn study, map study and current events, along with a read aloud.
Blake is officially a junior high kid now. He’s in 6th grade. He loves military and hunting stuff. Guy stuff. He’s already said he will probably go into the military after high school. He chose this year to start Motherboard Books, Computer Science, Plain & Simple. He’s also working on Math-U-See Zeta, Apologia Botany, Simply Charlotte Mason Spelling Wisdom, a personal Bible study, and writing which I will assign. His choices off the reading lists to begin with today were: Narnia-which he’d already been reading, an autobiography by a former prisoner from Alcatraz who is now a Christian, The Hole in Our Gospel-by the CEO of World Vision, and Squirrels and Other Fur Bearers. Quite an eclectic choice.
Connor is now 4th grade and that just doesn’t seem possible. He asked to do an art class this year, so he’ll be starting How Great Thou Art. He’s also working on Math-U-See Delta, Apologia Land Animals, Cursive Copywork, Queen’s Language Lessons, and a personal Bible Study. Both the boys will be attending a nature study class through the co-op for the next six weeks.
As I type it out, it sounds like a lot, but a lot of it is reading and if it needs to be pared down, I’m not afraid to do it. I really want my kids to understand that this is about teaching yourself to learn, not just cramming a bunch of facts into their heads. I want to build their character and life skills, and have them love God. It can be as simple as that. I wrote more about Homeschooling Their Hearts in this post.
I apologize for not including links to products/websites/pictures today-I’m out of time! I’ll update my sidebar with the kids school pics that I took this morning real soon!
Thanks for visiting with me!
I started reorganizing my school/office supply cupboard today in preparation for our new school year. I should have taken before and after pictures, but I wasn’t thinking that clearly. I actually have a whole row of cupboards in the schoolroom that I want to go through, but the main one I tackled today was the one that I had been chucking all our new curriculum in! I had also been using it to hold the supplies & photos for a scrapbooking project I really want to work on. It also was housing some mailing and packaging supplies for some items I’m planning to list on EBay. Each time I opened one door to shove something in, things would fall out the other door!
Now, I have a current list of all my supplies and they are neatly organized, including the mailing materials. The kid’s new schoolbooks are in three separate piles on my table, just waiting for me to go through for planning, and the scrapbooking is settled in another area where I have some other crafty projects waiting on me.
I feel so much better! Tomorrow I’ll be moving down the line of cupboards and drawers, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll take a look at one stack of the curriculum!
My first post in quite a few months, and it’s not even going to be about homeschooling!
We’re on summer break right now, and my daughter just spent two weeks back in California with her Grandma. While she was gone, I decided to surprise her and redo her room. We had talked about what she had in mind when the time came to redecorate, and so on that note, I went full force on her bedroom with a vintage/shabby chic/French-type theme.
Something I did not expect to get lucky on was the wallpaper. It was a heavy, cream, pin-striped paper with a geometric border. I decided to just strip off the border to see if that made a difference and found a pale yellow painted wall beneath it. Bingo!! So down came the wallpaper without the messy sheetrock to redo. My husband painted a black border around the top of the wall. It’s not perfect, because ideally we’d like to patch, retexture & repaint, but it looks 100 times better than it did.
The quilt came from a local shop on Main Street, Linens & More, and is what Laina had picked out. The “Love” pillowcases are from Red, another neat store in town. The Eiffel Tower pillows I picked up at Tuesday Morning, while the small rectangle pillow, the red sheets & black pillowcases came from Wal-Mart! Now, for some of my cheap finds! The black bed skirt was a $3.00 thrift store find and the small monogrammed pillow in the front is not a pillow at all, but a $3.50 wine bottle bag that I stuffed with some quilt batting. Pretty clever, huh? The picture over the bed came from an antique/consignment store and is a poster for a French veterinarian’s office. I loved the animals in it and the color really ties that area together.
Laina already had the Eiffel Tower lamp, the white vase & the white nightstand, so I added some thrift store fabric for a runner, along with the butterfly picture ($3.50) and the stack of books. One is an old art book ($1.00), one is a French/English Dictionary ($3.00), and one is a Spanish/English Dictionary ($1.00). The had the correct colors & I liked the look of them, plus Laina could use them to study up on some foreign languages!
The black table was given to me by a friend. It was cream & I painted it black with some leftover house paint my husband had. The lamp came from Target. The silver cat ($3.00), small flower bowl (.50) and marble flower coaster (.50) came from a thrift store, while the bird vase was an antique store find ($5.00). I filled it with carnations from the Dollar Tree.
I had bought this desk a couple months ago at a thrift store & decided it needed to be more exciting, so I gathered up an old letter writing book (free), and some vintage looking scrapbook paper and proceeded to decoupage the desk. I had never attempted this before, but it was a lot of fun and I am really pleased with the results! I painted the backboard and knobs black and my husband attached a small bulletin board ($1.00) to the left side as a door.
Laina likes the look of the jars filled with common items, so that is what I topped the desk with. To the left of the desk is a vintage looking wire shelf ($10 from an antique store) that holds some of her personal collectibles. Underneath that is a cool key rack that has “Paris” stamped in it. I hung some music notes that I found at a teacher supply store on the hooks. On the wall directly above the desk is her baptismal certificate, of which I just repainted the frame. In the right side cubby is a wood artist’s mannequin that I found at Wal-Mart. The cupboard house her art supplies, which I reorganized in a small box found at Tuesday Morning; a tin pail holds her pastels & chalk, a small glass jar corrals her crayons & a large glass jar holds her brushes and sketch pencils. Below that are six little jars that I picked up months ago at a garage sale for $1.00. I put her paper clips, rubber bands, etc. in these. A little silver cup ($2) holds her school pens & pencils and a restaurant jelly holder is a good spot for her calculator, glue & time. (I should have taken closer pictures!)
Since taking the photo, we have added a couple candlesticks to the top shelf, a cool little black beaded lamp shade ($3 Ross) to the lamp ($2.50 thrift store-looks like hob-nail), and a antique-looking mirror to the back of it ($4.50 thrift store). I also found a wooden, white chair to use as a desk chair.
Here’s a close up of the desk top. The typewrite fonts I found in a bag of things at a thrift store ($2) along with the little dish (.75).
Some more of my cheap finds make for a great vignette on the hutch. The numbered bricks came directly from our backyard. We inherited them when we purchased the house. The checkerboard was $1.00 and the wooden checkers that came with it are perched in a little ice cream bowl ($2) on a lower shelf. The wire jug ($1.50) and the garden rake (.75) were thrift store finds. I had the decorative balls left over from another display, so they worked perfectly. The potting dish came from my outdoor shed and works wonderfully to hold the black globe ($5- Tuesday Morning). I just painted it cream & sanded it a little.
The other side of the hutch is home to an old Scrabble Board; the letters are in one of the jars. It was a $2 find. The three middle jars were all from the thrift store and I believe the cost $1 each. The one with the bow now holds some dominoes, and the one with the crown is home for some safety pins. That bottle came from Tuesday Morning and cost a little more, but I couldn’t resist. The one with the handle is a measuring cup that belonged to my husband’s grandmother. The buttons in the milk jug I dug out of my scrapbooking supplies & added to them with a .50 bag of red, black & white ones from a thrift store.
There are a few more little items that I added to the room, such as another wall hanging & a couple little knick-knacks on the dresser. I ordered some black ticking-striped valances today, and will hopefully have them up by next week. I would love to find an old iron headboard to add to her bed, and a tray for the top of her dresser.
Needless to say, Laina was absolutely surprised and pleased when she arrived home. She loves her room, and I have to admit, I do, too! It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten to redecorate anything, and I think I have the bug now! I always try to find good deals, and it’s been a lot of fun redecorating on a budget! I’ll have to see what else I can get into before it’s time to head back to school.
I’ll keep you posted.
We woke up to snow this morning. Not a lot of snow, but enough to see it blow through the air and settle on the ground.
The kids were excited. They’ve never been to the snow, so even the smallest of flurries is amazing to them.
It’s amazing to me.
I walked outside to take out the trash and was covered in little flakes. I’ve never walked through snowflakes before.
If you looked closely, you could see the patterns of them as they landed on the bricks. God’s beautiful, intricate works of art.
I hope your day holds something amazing that makes you smile.
The weatherman was calling for rain today. It didn’t rain. It ended up being a springy-feeling 77 degrees. Not a single cloud in the sky.
We took advantage of the sunshine and spent some time on the playground at the local elementary school.
The cutie on the spinner with Laina is a friend of ours.
Blake played some soccer and frisbee with his dad.
Connor got some pointers on the basketball court from one of our friends. He actually shot his first basket today!
How was your day of rest?
It’s been a while since I’ve updated, so I thought a good way to do so would be by participating in Kris’ Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap-Up.
We officially started back from our Christmas break on January 18th. Unfortunately, I’ve been struggling a bit with some anxiety, so we’ve just been plugging along trying to get the scheduled items completed. So far, so good.
We have been cooped up a bit inside, due to the weather and my issues (Yes, I have some issues. I can share more later.), but this week was much better so we managed to spend some time out of doors.
We decided to explore Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park that lies just on the outskirts of town. We found it has a couple small play structures, suitable more for toddler age, and a larger, wooden playground set that the boys loved. Even more exciting was the fact that the park houses two baseball diamonds, a basketball court and a nature trail. There is plenty of room for the kids to run around and even to ride bikes if we choose to take them out there.
On Wednesday they spent some time on the playground and on Thursday we loaded up some bats, gloves and a ball and the kiddos took some time for P.E.
My husband found a snakeskin in a shed while he was working, so I took the boys to see it. Blake, of course, started to touch it and examine it, while Connor yelled at him, “Don’t touch it! Don’t touch it!” They are two totally different little boys! Blake then informed me that it was an old snakeskin because when snakes shed their skin, their eyelids come off with it and the eyelids were no longer visible on this one. Just in case I was concerned they weren’t learning anything being homeschooled!
Inside the schoolroom, we’re continuing our Ancient Egypt study and have begun reading Exodus. Just for fun, they watched The Prince of Egypt yesterday afternoon. I’ve also decided to start with some early American history, mainly for Connor’s benefit, so we’ve started reading the Landmark book, The Vikings and will continue on from there.
That will do it for this week. I’m hoping to get back into some sort of regular blogging again soon!
Hi, everyone! I am still around…..just not enough time in the day to keep up with everything it seems! I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I last posted. I’ve changed Connor’s age on the sidebar-he’s had a birthday and is a whole 8 years old now!
Well, we have been exploring around our area quite a bit and I wanted to share some of our goings and doings with you all.
I’ve become friends with another homeschooling mom in the area that has 2 boys close in age to mine, so we get together every couple of weeks and do something fun. These photos are from our day at Lost Maples State Park.
The drive to the park was beautiful in itself. It took a little over an hour and part way we drove alongside the Guadalupe River, which snakes back and forth in this area.
The trees in the park usually turn colors mid-October to early November, depending on how cold it has been. On the day we visited, we hadn’t had a real cold spell yet, so they were just starting to change colors.
Here is a shot of a large limestone rock the rises above the river on one side.
As we hiked through the park, we stopped to observe some minnows in the creek.
Here is a shot of one of the trees that had started to change colors already.
We stopped to rest and play on a large limestone rock that had a shelf to climb and walk on and an outcropping over it. In the pictures it looks like we standing in an ice cave!
A view back up the creek on our hike back.
The boys discovered if they moved a few rocks, the water was running directly under us. They liked the idea that we were “walking on water.”
This little guy dropped out a tree, almost directly onto the boys. We had never seen anything like him, but I’ve been unable to identify him. If any readers out there know what he’s called-please let me know!
I’m going to try to post some more of our adventures and stay caught up!
I know I’ve been missing in action for a while now, but I don’t want to totally ignore my blogging friends! It seems like my life has been much busier now that we’ve moved, than it was back in California! We’ve become involved with a home group at church and the kids are in AWANA and youth group, so along with still discovering things in our town, we’re running to and from these activities, also. But it is definitely a satisfying busy; not a crazy busy.
One thing we did today was take a walk up to the top of Cross Mountain. These links offer a little bit of information about the history of Cross Mountain:
One thing we did notice was the abundance of poison oak on the mountain.
Here’s some photos from our trip to the top:
The Cross and the kiddos in front of it.
Laina took a minute to sketch the cross. Blake did a sketch of it, also.
Here is the view from the top. It was absolutely magnificent. There was also several different types of butterflies playing around in the flowers.
I have several other trips I’d like to share with all of you! Please be patient, I may get to them yet!
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