Our Family's Homeschooling Fun

Surprise!

2008-01-31T14:18:00.000-08:00

Ok, I guess it's time to let the "cat out of the bag."

After lots of thought, we've decided to stop right in the middle of our year and switch gears. It comes at an excellent time, since life is going to be changing quite a bit anyway. We are going to go ahead and do the optional program through MFW called Adventures.

I have a few reasons, but my main reason is Adventures is a little lighter year. That will be good with the new baby. It will also help us so that we can focus a little more on getting Superkid caught up in other areas, namely Math and spelling.

So, that's the plan. We will be purchasing it within the next couple weeks and starting it as soon as life calms down. HA! Ok, maybe I should say, we'll probably start out working slowly through it and we'll start as soon as we can, reasonably.

How is that going to work with the blogging?
Glad you asked!

I've set up a new blog specially for this new "year."
You can find it here: http://ourhomeschoolingadventures.blogspot.com/

See you there!!

South America Wrap-up

2008-01-31T14:01:00.000-08:00

What have you learned?
I learned a lot about the Amazon jungle. I learned a lot about the Auca tribe. I learned a lot about the animals too. Like the bird-eating spider and the gibbon ape. I like how fast the gibbon ape can go through the jungle. I also like the flying squirrel. I learned that South America has the most computers, almost more than America. The Yanomamo indians think that the people who lived before them came from the moon and they are very scared to point at the moon in case their fingers rot and fall off. I know pretty much all of the countries in South America. There are 12 countries in South America: Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Chili, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador, -then the hard ones in the north-east (by Venezuela): Guyana, Suriname and Cayenne. (Superkid had to look up the last three. We're not sure why there's 13 when everything we've read says 12.) I have a couple of favorite animals that I like, one of them is the flying squirrels, the flying lizard and the chameleon. I like the chameleon the best.

What is your favorite thing you did?
I liked the project that we just did - an airplane project. We made paper airplanes from the airplane that Nate Saint was in.

Here's Superkid's MAF airplane:

And here's Pickles:

Aren't they cute hanging there together?

And here's my superkid hard at work.

Although we really enjoyed Brazil, I wish we would have been more focused. I'm so preoccupied with the new baby, I found myself struggling to enjoy these weeks. We didn't do as many projects as we should have. Maybe later we'll come back around and do some of the things we skipped. Either way, we all learned a lot about South America and that's why were doing it right?

So, we're closing the books until after the baby.
Stay tuned to find out what the big news is...

Nate Saint Narration

2008-01-31T13:05:00.001-08:00

(Don't laugh...he did such a great job "writing" this! Yes, I type word for word what he says to type.)

Nate Saint
Narration by Superkid
1-29-08

He was only 7 years old so he had to wait for Sam to lift him up into the seat of the airplane. He sat in the airplane excitingly as he waited for his brother, Sam, who was a flight instructor to start the plane. Eventually he was old enough to join the army as a pilot. But, he had an infection when he was a little kid and it came back. So, he had to stay in bed and go to the doctor instead of joining the army. Soon it went away and then he went to a conference and decided to be a missionary. Then his dad sent him a letter containing a piece of newspaper with a picture of the Missionary Aviation Fellowship. Nate Saint thought and knew that God was telling him he would be able to fly and do God's will. He soon joined the Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and moved to Ecuador. Nate's sister, Rachel, was already in missionary work too. She was working with another kind of indian tribe. Rachel and Nate soon met up and Rachel said that she thought God had something else for her. Then Nate told his sister about the Auca tribe. The Auca tribe were some very fierce indians that always would try to kill anyone who were in their area. Rachel said I think that is the people who God wants me to work with. They went up flying around the area where the Auca tribe were. Nate said, "there's your tribe." and pointed down below the trees. One time Nate was flying around the area where Nate and his family lived and he looked down at a river and it looked like there were clearings. Nate knew that the Auca tribe had been clearing the area down to the river. The next time he was flying, he decided to go around the area where he saw the clearings. He followed the clearings and found their village. He went home to talk with everyone else about the plan. They all decided that the bucket drop that he had made earlier would be perfect to drop gifts for the Auca tribe. They made a gift drop every week and Nate Saint looked for a good spot to land. Finally he found a place to land. Then they made a big tree house so they could meet together. The next day they waited outside for the Auca tribe. Rachel had found a Auca woman who ran away from the tribe and began to live with her. So now Rachel knew some Auca words and taught Nate Saint and his friends how to speak them. They all sat in the tree house yelling the words, "We want to meet you." and "We are friendly." No one came that day. So, the next day they came back and yelled the same words. Finally they saw two woman and one man coming out of the jungle. They met together fine and wanted to meet together the next day. The next day they came and no one was there. They went around to the village and there was nothing there, so they thought the whole village was coming to the tree house. But what they didn't know is that they were going to be killed. Two woman came there and tried to occupy them. Then the men came up behind them. One fell on a log. All five men turned around to look at what was happening. Then they all got speared to death. The girl who had run away came back and that's how Rachel began to be with them and make them believe in Christ.

Would you recommend this book?
Yes, because I think it has a good mix of things that some of us like and the will of God.

(This book got 5 stars from Superkid)

We're almost there!!

2008-01-18T11:44:00.000-08:00

I thought this little guy was cute that Superkid drew. I'd love to get a Chameleon, but - they eat crickets! I do NOT want crickets in my house. Ick.

THIS picture was done by Pickles!! I found it after we were done with our school time. I noticed she was listening in and said she was going to draw "that one", but I didn't really think she was going to try. I think we have a budding artist. This isn't the first time she's surprised me with her art work. She just puts her mind to something and then does it. Isn't that neat?

. . . .

So, I had mentioned I was just going to go ahead and do both weeks of bible together. Well, I wound up splitting up the bible into the two parts, because I realized you really can't rush it. I find myself praying for the people from "window's on the world" throughout the week and I didn't want to "just get it done." I wanted to take time to think on each of the areas we were praying for.

I LOVE THAT PART OF ECC!!!

I just think it is so cool that we are praying for people throughout the world as we learn about them. I will miss this when we go on to the next "year." (hmm...she's thinking about change and she put the word YEAR in quotes...hmm...wonder if anything strange is coming in the short future??)

Ahem.

Anyway, so we are just about done with Brazil.

-We are still working through our read-aloud

-We have the projects still to do.

-I'd also like to have him work on some of geography games online I found before we call it quits.

-I think there are a few book basket books we're still looking through.

But, all in all I feel pretty confident we're just about ready to leave.

After we finish, I am putting all the books away until way after Baby comes. (Well, maybe we'll stick with math and english just because I'm a mean mom like that, tee hee hee)

If I get some good pictures of the projects I'll post them. I'll also post up the "wrap-up" and the "narration" before saying goodbye for awhile, since we're trying to get prepared for a little one around here. Are you ever prepared for a newborn to rearrange life for you?

OH, and at some point I'll pop in to reveal the "news" that could just indicate some kind of change around here. :-)

Props for MFW!

2008-01-18T10:59:00.000-08:00

Wow. I just happen to stumble across The Homschool Magazine Excellence Awards.

My Fathers World won a TON!

I think they are doing the 2007 awards soon. That's what someone had mentioned on the board (which is how I came across the whole thing.) I couldn't find anywhere about voting or anything. I'll update if I find it.

Anyway, here's what I found.

My Fathers World Placed last year:

#1 in Bible. (that's where it matters most you know!)
#2 in History. (that's the second place that was important to me)
#2 in Geography
#2 in Phonics (not applicable to me - yet)
#2 in Music
#2 in Overall Friendliness
#2 in Best Unit Study
#3 in Most Unique
#3 in Best Classical Resource

3rd Place in Best Overall Homeschool Co.

And, I had never even heard of it until this past year.

I wholeheartedly would vote for My Fathers World, because it really is that good. I think it would work for almost any family. It is VERY user friendly, which makes it easy to adapt for your own home and your personal situation. It is as flexible or as strict as you need it to be. Even though it isn't cumbersome with workbooks and schoolwork, there is a LOT of learning going on. Just enough hands-on that it keeps school fun and interesting, yet everything has been easily accessible and simple. Everything ties in so well as a good unit study should.

A good way to describe it is as a backbone to your homeschool. It gives you a plan to go by, but it also guides you every step of the way. It allows you to get "side-tracked" if you'd like for awhile, but it's there when you're ready to move on. It keeps you focused so you keep on track for where you want to go. It is by far the most usable and effective curriculum I have seen so far.

Yep. I like it. :-)

Book Basket Chapter Book Review

2008-01-16T14:23:00.000-08:00

The Fate of the Yellow Woodbee
Narrated by Superkid
1-16-08

This book was about a boy named Niwa. He was fishing with his friend when they were attacked by different amazon indians. Soon he went home running away. When the village found out they thought their enemies found out where they lived and soon thought the boy should run away. Everyone chased him, including his grandma. His mother found him and stopped the village from trying to get him to run into the jungle. They were all arguing but soon an airplane flew by. They, not knowing what it was, thought it was a woodbee and ran away. While Niwa stayed and watched the woodbee. He thought it had come to save him from them killing him. Because they were so mad, they thought they should kill him. He kept looking at it and it soon flew away.
In the airplane it was really Nate Saint. He was trying to find his friend who was out in the area. And thought the Auca village was where he was. But his friend was not there. He found him and told him that he had found the Auca village. Which he had been trying to find some tribes of the auca village and wanted to learn the language. They found out that one of Nate Saint's friends had a sister that knew a girl who used to be in the Auca tribe and knew the language, so they could learn the language.
They basically took the airplane and took rope and tied it to something to put it down and cut the rope, so it would be like a present. Soon, they put clothes down and all sorts of things. They found out that the girl ran away from the tribe, so the tribe thought that she had been killed by their enemies. So, they put in one of the presents with carvings in it, which in their language meant the girl was alive. Her mom was very happy but they were not very happy when they put on the clothes because they didn't really want to wear clothes. They came to put presents down every week. Then they thought they could come down. They made plans to make a tree house when they found a place to live. Then they could have a place to meet together and talk about the gospel. Soon they got the tools to make the tree house. They found an area where they could land and started delivering the tools. The tree house was made and they landed and went up and said in their language, "welcome." No one came out of the village that day. The next day, two people came out of the village and the mother of the daughter who was away from them thought her daughter was with them and tried saying her name to them in her language, but the white people didn't know that word in their language. And thought she was saying "eat." One of Nate Saint's friends tried to say "eat" in sign language and the mother went and got bananas. Finally the man turned to spanish and somehow understood english. They got along, but soon they thought it was a trick and shot their blowgun at them. When they killed Nate Saint and his friend, there were spirits that went up from their bodies. Then the girl that was lost came back and convinced them that who they had killed were good. She ended up bringing two white girls who were Christians and soon the whole village got saved!
The End.

Would you recommend this book to your friends? Why?
Yes I would. I think this book is very good. I think it's really interesting to find out the way the amazon indians live.

This book got 5 stars from Superkid.

---Mom's Note---

As you can tell, my son is super good at details. The problem I am having with him is the opposite. I'm trying to help him to see the bigger picture so that he doesn't tell the ENTIRE story over. There's no way at 8 years old (my son at least) would write this entire thing out on his own. I'm trying to help him to be less detailed and to teach him how to summarize the story in short small sentences so that he can take over doing his own narration someday.

Brazil Update.

2008-01-08T12:27:00.000-08:00

Well, we finally made our journey today to South America. Although we had already begun to study the animals and habitat of the rain forest, we had not officially made it to Brazil yet. While we visited today we really went full force and did everything we could. In fact we crammed 3 weeks into one! We're tired. :-)

So, how did our travels go?

We had a blast! We discussed the different ways we could get from Canada to Brazil and decided that boat would be fun. I got a great idea while we talked to make it into a CRUISE!!! So, after stamping our passports, I gave them their own "Brazilian Cruise Line" card so that they could enjoy themselves while they travelled.

Of course I made the whole check in process a little intimidating and made them line up to get into the boat. Then, once the "doors" were opened I acted like they had just come to one big huge party. :-) I offered them hot chocolate and cookies and told them their card entitled them to anything they'd like.

YES, I really was that daring! (of course the mom side of me came in plenty to say no. Certain things were "unavailable" and "already reserved") Afterword I directed them to their "cabin" and told them they could relax anytime they wanted. I then told them there was an event going on in the "theater" soon and they were welcome to come to that. I mentioned the games and fun, etc. going on. I also directed them to "try not to pay attention to the waves" as the waters can get rough. After the theater event (don't laugh, this is what I showed...it is about the stuff that we consume. It's actually not a bad presentation if you can get past the fact that we cause global warming. I did like the "consumption" part with the "golden arrow". It's about 20min long if you're interested. Let's just say, I think my children were interested in it only because we don't have a tv. tee hee hee). Anyway, after the "show" I offered them to stop off in the Caribbean to snorkel in the ocean. It worked out very well, as I took them into our bathroom & turned off the lights - we have a fish picture that lights up and a fish tank in there, so we just pretended to swim and found all of the different ocean creatures, turtles, crab,etc.

It was fun. Afterword they used their "magic card" to get some fish crackers. They had enough time to read a book, then we were at Brazil!

Once we were "off the ship," we colored our flags, did a crossword puzzle, and read a lot about South America.

It took us a good amount of time, but hey, we had a GREAT time!!

So, where are we at for school?

We have already done one week of science, but plan to do two weeks together probably on Thursday. We're struggling getting the experiments done, since there is 8 inches of snow on the ground and studying the tropical rain forest by planting seeds just doesn't seem to fit very well. Eventually I'm sure we'll get to them.

Let's see...did the first week of Bible. We might do the rest tomorrow, but we're super busy tomorrow, so it might be finished up Friday. We'll just do two weeks together again. I'm thankful that we have implemented the "devotional time" every day so I don't feel guilty cramming bible altogether.

We started our read aloud.

Haven't done art projects yet.

Listened to first weeks song for music.

Vocabulary for three weeks is done.

If you haven't noticed, we have not been very good about doing our nature walks.

But, we have gotten better about the book basket time. :-)

As for math & english, we have been working on them, but my main focus is getting through My Fathers World stuff. Because Math and English can always be done any time.

And...I haven't mentioned this yet, but I have some news for after baby. Some things are going to change around a little. More on this later...

In the meantime, we're happy to be in one of the most amazing and interesting places in the world to study. There are so many different and strange animals that hang out in the rain forest - not to mention people who live there. If you're looking for us, we're hanging out in the amazon river, probably lounging on a lilly pad or something. :-)

{Edited: I just feel like I need to say, I'm NOT trying to promote the video we watched. My sweet husband was not happy that I let my children watch this, as we both disagree with most of it. I just figure I've spent a lot of time discussing this subject with my son that he has a pretty good understanding of the whole thing. I think there is a balance to understanding our role in the environment. I blame the fact that someone sent it to me and I had planned to watch it anyway & being pregnant I didn't have time to really think about what to do while we went "cruising" to Brazil...it was just easier to watch it then. The kids run to watch whatever I put on, regardless. Blah blah...I'm not endorsing the video for you to show to your children. Just needed to put a caveat. Thanks.}

Slow And Steady Wins...Right?

2008-01-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

So far we are S L O W L Y working. We've gotten through our math and english for this week. And...that's about it. I guess it's because we've been on vacation, but I can't seem to get us on track for anything! Every time I turn around Superkid is off in space. And, unfortunately so am I!!

Fortunately, I'm only aiming to get through Brazil before the baby.

I think I can.
I think I can.
I think I can.

Inspite of the fact I forgot that this was going to be a short week...

2007-12-31T09:11:00.000-08:00

We're going to head into Brazil. I didn't know last week that Superman was going to be able to be home tomorrow. YAY!! But...that always seems to confuse us. Oh well. We're just going to stick to the plan & keep on going. I think I'm going to go ahead and do what we've been doing & have a day per subject. It just seems to fit us best. So, we'll start with the easy stuff - Math & English. Somehow I've got laundry galore, so that will give me some time to get caught up with that while Superkid gets his work done. We'll see how that one goes. :-)

Have a great day!

Typical Homeschool Family

2007-12-29T11:18:00.000-08:00

Here's a cute video.

Enjoy!

Life is going well.

2007-12-28T08:34:00.000-08:00

I guess I should mention that our Christmas turned out really nice. And I'm not taking down the Christmas tree until we go to meet our family over the hill. (hi guys!) This Christmas was super blessed and what's fun is it isn't even done yet! :-)

We (obviously) started right back into our routine though, but with lots more time to play since there is fun stuff everywhere to do. This "week" (as short as it is) we just started with the new part of school - devotion time - and that's about it. I began doing the prep to start into Brazil next week. And we picked up the books today, so starting Monday we'll be traveling again! We just have a bit of momentum right now, so I want to take advantage of that since we've got some bumpy roads in just a few WEEKS - we'll be adding a new little one to our family.

My main goal is to get Brazil done before baby, but that should be more than doable since Brazil is only 3 weeks. I anticipate just continuing and trekking on as much as I possibly can before and after. We'll keep working, but we'll just take it slow. I have a lot to do to prepare for baby, so that's why I'm at least aiming for Brazil to be done. I figure I should get WAY more than that done, but I'm trying not to aim too high - just in case. :-)

So, next time you see us we might not have as many clothes on considering the attire of many of the people we are studying seem to run around with bare butts. I'd better get going so we can pack for the Amazon!

See you there!!

Praying & Reading Day 1

2007-12-26T11:55:00.000-08:00

(sorry the pictures didn't turn out well)

Superkid volunteered to read to Pickles. So, he read her bible story to her (then I asked her afterword what she read - it actually worked really good!)

She drew her picture of Jesus going to heaven:

Then, he read his bible on his own & drew his picture of what he read:

And I helped Pickles to draw a picture of her Praise/Thanks prayer as Superkid worked on his. Ivy's was to thank God for her eggs. :-)

Then, I don't want you to think we are terrible parents, but my son has a neighbor friend who Superkid has been reporting different things to us that he has done & we are working through the relationship. Even though he could have thanked God for any of his Christmas gifts, the first thing Superkid decided to thank God for was that his friend didn't say any bad words when he played with him the other day. We have been praying for him since the day they met. Anyway, here's the picture:

Altogether I think that this will be a blessing to our home to change some things in order to put God first in our lives. I'll update as I figure out how to work everything out otherwise.

Why change something that's working?

2007-12-26T09:42:00.000-08:00

Well...

Maybe it's because the end of the year is approaching or it could be the new bibles the kids got for Christmas - Or, it just could be the attitudes I've been seeing that I know need work, but...

I want to rearrange school a little. (just a little.)

I LOVE My Fathers World. And, I chucked everything to focus JUST on that. And, I still love it. And, I still think it is complete in every area - Except establishing a personal relationship with the Lord.

See, I've been spoiled in that area since we used Student of The Word for awhile. And, I saw the fruits of that curriculum.

I want that back.

Why don't I just use SOW?

Hmmm, well...

It was just too much for me. Too much preparation, too many decisions, and too many materials to buy. It wasn't as "home friendly" as MFW. Meaning I can "slide by" pretty well with MFW - I don't have to do much planning or thinking each day. I can just sit down & do what needs to be done, but still deal with life at the same time. When we were doing SOW it seemed that I needed to be available to figure out what it was we were doing. And, I have a home to take care of so it made me choose too much between home and school. MFW is "school in a box." That is VERY nice!!

Ok, so why am I bringing this whole subject up?

I had originally planned that NEXT year I would try to implement some of SOW into MFW - at least the bible study portion. Since I have VOL 1 of SOW, which is studying Genesis to Deuteronomy, I figured when we began to study Creation-Greeks in MFW I could find some way to interweave the two curriculums.

That was the plan.

But, now I'm longing for the depth that SOW gave us.

Yet, I don't want to leave the stability of MFW.

Anyway, while I think on where to go next, I have made a way for us to establish prayer & reading in our day. (this idea is actually stolen from SOW) After breakfast I will have the kids work on a "prayer page" - it is essentially a page for them to draw a picture of what they'd like to talk to God about. I made my own. I made three different kinds: Praise/Thanks, Pray for someone, Personal Prayer Requests. So, they will just decide what they'd like to talk to God about and make a little picture on whichever page corresponds. I did it with Superkid when he was about 5 years old. And, those pages are precious! Not to mention a foundation and building block to his faith. He still remembers some of those and recalls how God answered his prayers. I am also stealing another idea from SOW, which is to do an "outline" from our daily bible reading. Whatever we read, I will have the kids draw a picture of what the learned or remembered. Depending on the reading, we may actually do an "outline" of what happened, but mostly I just want them to do something to help them remember what they learned.

So, that will help fill this hole I see in my "training them up in the way they should go." BUT, on the other hand, this takes away from my time each day with them. Meaning, I can't do it all... And, I may have to work slower through MFW or something...

Why oh why can't there just be a perfect curriculum? :-)

Math Choices

2007-12-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

So, we just have a few more weeks of superkids math book left. I really want to maybe just focus on getting him through it for awhile. (Although knowing how I work, I'm sure that when baby comes we'll work plenty on math then.)

But, the real dilemma is where to go next?

Part of me just wants to switch to Singapore Math, which is what MFW recommends. Then another part of me says what we are doing seems to be working pretty well, so why not just stick with Horizons? THEN, I look on my bookshelf and see that I have a few math books we could use. We have Mastering Mathematics which I really like, but my problem is that I only have one child. If I could tell him to practice his math with his sister, this curriculum would work out great. I feel like I spend a lot of time working with him in other areas for school and math seems to me to be more of a self-directed subject. Not that Mastering Mathematics is not self-directed, it's just that there are flash cards & games you are supposed to do along with the workbooks. I do better with just plain ol' workbooks. We also have the old style Saxon Math 65. He's not quite there yet. Although he picks up VERY quickly on most concepts, I think he needs a little more work on his basic math skills first. Awhile back I picked up Dorling Kindersley "Math Made Easy" 2nd grade which would be the most logical from here to go to. But, is it complete? Will it work for us?

Oh the decisions we have to make!

More Christmas Fun...

2007-12-21T11:31:00.000-08:00

We had such a blast making ornaments the other night we decided to do a few more. We are meeting with family Christmas eve and this year we're just focusing on the kids, which is how it should be. But, I feel so strange going there empty handed, so I decided to make some ornaments to giveaway.

Here's a look of what we made:

Aren't these cool?

Then I forced my children to make some snowflakes too. :-)

Aren't they pretty??

Unit Studies/The Checklist

2007-12-21T10:54:00.000-08:00

What a great resources!

If you have been homeschooling for any amount of time, I'm sure you've at some point stumbled upon the great website from Oklahoma and you may have heard of Cindy Downes. If not, here's a few links to some really awesome things I stumbled upon today.

First of all, since it's Christmas - I'll give you think link to her free Christmas Unit Study. Then, since you're interested in her unit studies now, I'll give you the link to her long list of free unit studies!!

And, to top it off, here is a link to a really great homeschool resource she created called The Checklist. It has a list of EVERYTHING you could think of that we want our children to learn in the course of our homeschool. It's one of the best tools I've seen to make sure you "fill in the learning gaps" and assures that you cover it all (as best as humanly possible). Very cool in my opinion.

I personally think the Checklist would be great to have as a yearly planning tool. As the end of the year approaches, it's always a good time to make sure you're on track for what you planned in your homeschool for the year or the long haul.

Here's yet another resource I'm putting on my wish list. :-)

Soap Carving

2007-12-19T17:25:00.000-08:00

In case you were curious how the soap carving project turned out...

My very creative son looked at a bar of soap and decided it looked almost like a fridge anyway, so...why not!

(It's the old fashioned kind, you know.)

You gotta love it!

Canada Wrap-Up

2007-12-19T17:23:00.000-08:00

ECC - MFW
Week 7 & 8 (Canada)
What have you learned?
I have just learned all about some gross recipes from Canada. Like "blood pudding" - ewe! And there was a recipe which had the jaw of a moose! Wowzie. I learned about the Northern Lights. I didn't even know about the Northern Lights. Some of the police ride horses instead of cars. Guess what? Some recipes even have snow in them! And instead of states they are provinces. Some of them were Yukon, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. I knew that there were a lot of Indians which are called Inuits.

In science I learned that pond skaters are very little, littler than a fly. I had never heard of a skunk cabbage before. And I never knew what the black dots were in the frogs eggs and the salamanders, then I found out it was the baby frogs and salamanders that would soon hatch and swim around. I never knew what herons name were. Herons are a type of bird with long legs and wade in the water and wait until a fish or a frog comes by or even a water snake. It uses it's long beak to spear or grab the animal.

What are some favorite things you did?
My favorite thing was learning about the Kingfisher. I had seen the Kingfisher in a video before and liked how they dive into the water. At first they would jump into the water downward and right when they are about to go into the water, they put in their wings so they would look like a missile. When lots of them were going in, it looked like missiles were going into the water.

Big Birthday Suprise!!

2007-12-18T15:56:00.000-08:00

Last Friday was a doozy for Superkid!

We woke him up with the surprise of a big birthday trip!!

As he stumbled out to the rental car that was all packed we told him all the things we had planned. He had the widest smile I think I've ever seen on him. :-)

Our first stop was The Jelly Belly Factory for a tour. SO MUCH FUN! The kids had a really good time and especially liked the samples at the end. :-) From that point on I can tell you we ate ENTIRELY WAY TOO MUCH SUGAR! ugh. I'm still sick from it all.

Then we traveled down the road to:

San Fransisco!

(picture taken by Superkid)

We then took a trip down:

"the crookedest street in world." Lumbard Street (which according to Wikipedia it's not the most crooked - OH WELL!) I am just amazed that people actually live on that street!

Anyway, from there we went to Fisherman's Wharf. As soon as we showed up there was a clown blowing up balloons my daughter noticed right away. It wasn't even five minutes as we walked past him that he threw off his wig and began to yell at his partners, making a big scene. My poor daughter spent the rest of our time in San Fransisco talking about how "the clown was angry." Superkid had a blast! He was amazed at the size of the buildings and all of the people. We couldn't leave SF without having a bread bowl of clam chowder first, so we walked in the cold night air and finally found a place to sit down for dinner. San Fransisco was fun to visit, but we all agreed we don't think we could stay there too long without going nuts.

We stayed at an average hotel outside San Fransisco. Woke up all excited for the best of the trip (according to the poll taken afterword). We had planned to go to Bodega Bay for Superkid to see the ocean for the first time. We stocked up on our supplies since we planned to have a bon fire on the beach. We went to Safeway to pickup: Hot Dogs and Smore Supplies. YUMMY!!

So, as we begun traveling to Bodega Bay, we got weary of driving (plus we were ready for lunch) and Superman thought he knew of a beach someplace. Sooo, we drove down these windy and hilly roads, expecting any moment we'd see the ocean. Eventually we found a little town and asked how to get to the ocean. They directed us and we made it. And, it was SO worth the drive! The minute we opened the car door we heard the crashing of the waves. We had no problem with lighting a fire on the beach, which just made the whole experience. The weather wasn't too bad either. We had a few times where it sprinkled on us, but altogether it was fairly nice. Our hot dogs & smores were GREAT! The kids made sand castles and had a good time chasing each other with sticks. Every family needs a trip to the ocean on a regular basis I think.

Here's a picture of my birthday boy playing in the dirt & playing with sticks (his two most favorite things to do):

After that we drove around my husbands old stomping grounds and took a trip down memory lane. It was dark by the time we got over to where he used to live, so he wasn't able to see everything as well as he would have liked. That just means we need to take another trip soon. :-)

Then, we headed back home. As dinner time approached we tricked the kids into thinking we were going to a fancy restaurant since we'd been eating junk and instead we drove into a kids paradise - Chuck E. Cheese!

Altogether we had such a great time. Superkid said this was his best birthday ever.

Happy Birthday my sweet 8 year old boy!!!

Christmas Fun!

2007-12-18T15:35:00.000-08:00

I'll post later about our Canada experiences.

I'm just amazed that Christmas is in just one week!!!

We spent some time last night at our own "Christmas party." We cranked up the Christmas music, while we worked on these:

As we pulled out the Christmas ornaments this year to decorate I realized that my son had a TON of ornaments, while my daughter couldn't find one with her name. :-( Poor her. She did have a craft from last year we did that goes on the fridge, so at least she had something. BUT, I resolved no matter how busy things were, this year we were making ornaments!

Superkid chose to do the iron-on one and Pickles decided to paint some stars.

I can't show the end result of either because they have their names and the date all over them. But, I can assure you - they both turned out VERY cute! Then Daddy got creative and made Pickles her very own iron-on ornament. I don't have pictures of that one (sorry), but I thought that was pretty special.

After hanging them on the tree, we caught up a little with the Jesse Tree (we're just putting the ornaments on our big tree) and ate some hot holiday pumpkin loaf. Yummy!

A very nice Christmas celebration I must say!

Here it is Friday.

2007-12-07T09:05:00.000-08:00

And...it's SNOWING!!!!!!

As homeschoolers, we ARE allowed to take a day to play in the snow. Because, we can! Honestly we don't get outside to play as often as I'd like, so this is a recess day, if you may. :-)

Well, obviously it won't take ALL day long, but we've worked hard this week & all we really have left to do is our Geography. We'll get that done and do our wrap-up next week.

Then I just want to focus on Christmas for awhile. I'm planning on doing some crafts & hopefully visiting a convalescent home at some point. I have to say though, I have been a little pre-occupied as the nesting instinct has seemed to take over around here for me. It won't be long until we have another little person to talk about. :-)

Wow! This is cool!!

2007-12-05T18:34:00.000-08:00

Build your vocabulary & feed the hungry.
http://www.freerice.com/

Check it out at Snopes!

English Narration

2007-12-05T14:47:00.001-08:00

The Crow & the Pitcher
1st Language Lesson # 62
December 5, 2007

There was a black crow. He was flying over a field when he started to get thirsty. So, he flew to a little town and then he saw a pitcher. So, he flew down to drink out of the pitcher. When he got there, he tried to get to the water, but he could not drink it. It was too far down in the pitcher. So, the crow thought if he moved the pitcher all the water that fell into puddles he could drink out of. But, that did not work. The pitcher was too big. So, he tried to reach down into the pitcher, but that did not work either. So, he got really tired and didn't think he would be able to try again. So, he sat thinking under the shade of the tree. Then he saw pebbles by a walkway of a door. He thought if he collected pebbles and dropped them in one by one that the water would raise up so he could drink it. One by one he put the pebbles into the pitcher and soon the water was high enough where the crow could drink it. Then the crow drank until he was full and flew away.

Moral: To be patient and to not give up.

Flower Picture

2007-12-04T20:17:00.001-08:00

Since I'm posting pictures here, I may as well update you on those GREAT flowers that we made. I "helped" Pickles with hers (the red & blue ones) and Superkid did his all on his own. His second one he decided looked better before pulling the tissue apart, so he just left it like that.

Now, mind you - these cute little flowers have been through A LOT. The kids really liked standing on the chair and letting them drop to the ground. Of course in the middle of this fun, the flowers got stepped on quite a few times. And, considering Pickles kept picking them up for Superkid each time, they got just a little squished. So, without further adu...

Our Mexican Flowers!

Pond Skaters & Surface Tention

2007-12-04T19:57:00.000-08:00

The first experiment was done by taking water from the cup & dropping it into the lid. Here we learned how the water bubbles up round in order to keep it held together. This is called "surface tension."

The second experiment was to show how a pond skater uses surface tension so that he is able to be on the water. The paper clip signifies the pond skater.

Daddy helped with this one & he started by having Superkid try to put the paper clip on the water without the "L" shaped helper. (As you can tell by all of the paperclips that dropped to the bottom, it didn't work.) Daddy then explained how we needed to put the paper clip on the water without disturbing the surface tension.

Ta Da!!

We did it!!!!

I Got a great video of Superman & Superkid squirting each other with the dropper. Lots of fun!

Oh! I almost forgot to give the link to the pond skater videos we watched beforehand. Click here for some great footage of the amazing pond skater. :-)

Science Day

2007-12-03T11:59:00.000-08:00

Well, last week we did good trying to get school done even while re-arranging & organizing some things at home and a few other things. The only things we missed out on were science & art. So, today we'll be working on science & we'll do some book basket time together. Then, tonight we'll pick up a good bar of soap to do the soap carving. :-)

We're off to do some SCIENCE...
See you soon!

A long drive to Canada...

2007-11-30T10:05:00.000-08:00

Today we set off to Canada!

I asked how they would be traveling and Superkid said he wanted to drive. So, we setup our "car" in the living room. I draped a blanket over the "backseat" chairs to make it a little more realistic. A "sit & spin" was used for our steering wheel. :-) I pretended to be a mexican border patrol agent and said if they paid me enough I'd give them a ride, since they didn't have a car. I made sure to speak in spanish as much as I possibly could. Made small talk about how they didn't have any luggage and were supposed to be "world travelers!" As we traveled across the United States, we drove through our hometown and our family in CA's. We had to stop a few times for cows, horses and elephants stuck in the road. Of course we made sure to stop for gas plenty along the way. Actually we routinely forgot to check and kept running out of gas! So, we took turns pushing the car until we'd find a gas station. We also took turns driving because you can get awfully tired driving from Mexico to Canada on your own. It was a little rough when the 2yo drove, but we made it through!

Once we made it to Canada, we stamped our passports then snuggled (or "nuggled" as my daughter would say) together reading up on all the weeks geography lessons. They then colored their flags and did a few worksheets. And we called it a day. :-)

Very fun!!

Mexico Wrap-up

2007-11-28T10:56:00.000-08:00

My son was in a silly mood when we did this as you will see...

ECC - MFW
Week 5 & 6 (Mexico)

What have you learned?
I learned about different things from Mexico. Like how they live. And I learned a couple words that they speak. I also learned how to make a pinata, but we haven't done that yet. We made paper flowers. Now I know a couple states from Mexico like Durango, Tabasco and Mexico City. I learned a lot about Cuba and the Caribbean Islands.

In science I learned about how animals live the deserts and how hunters catch food. The rabbits have lots of blood vessels in their ears so that more air gets let out from them. Animals bury themselves underground to keep cool.

The kangaroo rat lives in sandy areas. They go to eat in the night time. The foxes come and try to eat the kangaroo rats. But, the kangaroo rats jump up and kick sand in the foxes face, so the kangaroo rats have time to run away.

The trapdoor spider has a door that it puts in the sand, whenever something little enough that the spider can eat comes, it opens the door and takes it into it's "house" basically and eats it.

Rattlesnakes wait quietly in a bush to eat. Finally a kind of rat comes by which he likes to eat, so he jumps out at the rat. So the snake sprays his venom out from his fangs at the rat. Still the rat runs away, but dies fast. Finally the snake catches the dead rat.

What are some favorite things you did?
My favorite thing I did was making the paper flowers. That was like the BEST BEST BEST of all!!! That's how much I liked it. I can't think of anything else better than that. I also liked to learn the language of Mexico. Do you know how Mexico City was made? Well, at first there was just water in Mexico City; it was a lake. Then people came and put sand on all Mexico City and then made it Mexico city. (That was a little short story. And there you go for that. Bye Bye!)

What picture did I pick for this?? Betcha can't guess...

Him and his paper flowers!!! Of course!

(My camera is going nutso right now or I'd give you a picture of the flowers. Sorry!)

Books are in for Canada!

2007-11-27T16:06:00.001-08:00

So far we've only worked on math this week. Hey, he really needs to catch up in this area anyway, so we may as well spend the holiday's doing extra work in mathematics, right?

Less stress for mama and more responsibility on Superkid.

Alas, we can't stay on math forever though. So, just in time - our books for Canada arrived at the library today. Tomorrow I think we'll do our Bible studies and vocabulary (maybe throw some English in?) Then Thursday we'll head into Canada for the first time and hang out there for awhile. Friday we'll do science and art then we'll be done with the week.

IF all goes to plan...

Thanksgiving Learning

2007-11-20T12:13:00.000-08:00

As I was looking online for some kind of craft/traditional things to do for thanksgiving to make thanksgiving fun, I found this great video on the beginning of thanksgiving. If you click around you will find some other thanksgiving videos as well, like the Presidential turkey pardon. Did you know they go to DISNEYLAND to party after being pardoned???

Click here to learn all about Thanksgiving.

Holiday Crunch Time

2007-11-15T14:31:00.000-08:00

I've spent the last few hours trying to get this month and next month organized since we have the following:

Thanksgiving
Weekend trip to visit family
Superkid's birthday
Christmas

(this is not including the fact that I am having a few complications in my pregnancy and I need to keep myself rested right now.)

So, I was trying to figure out how to work out our homeschooling in the middle of the holiday chaos. Here's my plan:

I'm giving myself until Thanksgiving to finish up Mexico. Then the week afterward we will start into Canada. After Canada (as long as that takes) we'll just focus on Christmas until after Christmas is over.

I'm hoping to buy a Jesse tree this week from online so that we can start doing that to keep us focused on what is really important for Christmas. These people have a great calendar here that I'm planning to use as a reference to keep doing school activities during our "Christmas break."

As I'm looking at what I originally planned when I purchased this curriculum, I am actually right on for what I expected to happen. I just know how goofy-headed I get during this time. Good thing, because it gives me comfort knowing I'm "on-track" as best as can be expected here.

Taking it one day at a time and doing what we can when we can. :-)

Finding our groove.

2007-11-08T12:44:00.000-08:00

These past few weeks instead of following the days perfectly I've looked at the week as a whole. I've found that we've sort of grouped things together so one day he's working almost entirely on just math and english, then another day we'll do all the science, etc. WE ARE LOVING IT! For some reason it doesn't seem to drag things out as much. Although I don't like the idea of doing all the Bible at the same time, it has been working just fine. By the end of the week everything is checked off and we weren't stressed each day to switch gears every half hour.

Here's a photo of our experiment we did today:

My Superman brought this home for me yesterday. Isn't it beautiful?? We did it hours ago, I just checked & no drops yet. Maybe a rose leaf wasn't the best choice?

So, where are we now?

All we have left to work on is this all the fun stuff!!

~We still have to make the North America game. I wish I had some sort of geography game already that I could use in place of this each time. I'm thinking about buying Carmen San Diego or something like that. Actually as soon as I'm done here I'll do a search to see what free games I might be able to find online.

~Projects: Superman promised to do the pinata with him, because that just seemed like too big of a project for me. So I assume that will happen sometime maybe this weekend. We need to pickup some tissue paper for the flowers and Superkid picked the "tin" art for this week which I also need to pick up supplies for at the store. (pinata was last week.)

~We have four chapters left until our read aloud is completely done. We have really enjoyed that!

~I'll have him do his "wrap-ups" of all he learned. (from his read aloud and his Mexico trip.)

Then....

It's time for our FIESTA!!!!!

Flag colored by Superkid:

Flag colored by Pickles.

Overwhelmed

2007-11-05T10:05:00.000-08:00

I'm just assuming that this week we will not accomplish much. Between a new job for my husband that has me a bit bonkers, a few doctor's appointments, homeschool meeting on Friday and the "fish guy" at my parents today - my mind is preoccupied.

So, he'll be working on math, I'll squeeze in english and whatever else I can in between my insanity. We'll plan to spend another extra week here in Mexico (We just can't get out - it's all the tequila I'm telling you. JUST KIDDING! Really. I mean I'm really really joking here.)

We have had SO much fun today!!

2007-10-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

Maybe we should put off doing geography more often so we can do it all in one day all the time! This has been a blast! We first started out by having them officially sign their passports. I made it seem very official and interrogated them a little. Hey, it's my job to prepare them for the real world, right? (tee hee hee) I asked them how they would be traveling to their next country and Superkid said excitedly "By Plane!!". So, I told them to sit in the waiting room (living room) while I got the plane prepared. I set up chairs for us and made a pretend sound like the engine was starting up. Then I told them that they could board the plane. I made sure they put their seat belts on and told them by law I had to inform them of a few things. I basically said (jokingly) that if this plane goes down there's no hope! ;-) I said the best thing is just to start screaming. Then I started the plane and said it was a little bumpy, pretended to get out of control a little. Superkid said that he forgot his seat belt and started acting crazy. Of course Pickles made sure that he sat back down and settled down. That's my girl. I acted like I was speaking through a speaker set by putting my hand over my mouth and making "kshh" sounds before speaking. At one point I told them that it was time to land but I needed help since it's a small plane and I needed them to put their arms out the windows like an airplane. SO cute! Then with a crash we landed. We had a blast!!

So, from there we went right into our geography study. We looked at the illustrated world atlas and the other atlas, then we "learned the language" - I had the kids guess which color I was saying in Spanish. Even my Pickles was getting into it! Afterword we did the worksheet. Actually I realized that I only copied one and I felt bad because Pickles was really into the whole thing so I couldn't leave her out. SO, I had Superkid do his own page & write the names of the colors down and I let Pickles do the worksheet.

What a great day! Much better than yesterday really. I know God was working in our school yesterday, but I was certainly surprised He was there as I continued to apologize to my children for snapping. I was way too cranky to be a mom yesterday. So, I am thankful for a new day and God's mercy on me.

Here's the outside of their passports:

Here's the page I had my son do. I'm sorry it's sideways, I still haven't figured out how to switch that.

And here's the page my daughter did:

We're having a blast in Mexico! Wish you were here!!

Remember these?

2007-10-29T19:57:00.000-07:00

Well, here's what they look like now...

Scroll down...

Are you excited?

Here they are!

um, yeeaah. That's about what they look like. And, yes, this is the same picture, but the truth is they didn't change. We're really bummed. I asked someone on the message board & she said that she has 5 kids who all planted 2 plants each - out of all of those only TWO grew! So, I don't feel as bad. I guess we'll probably try again. I'll let you know if we do.

Today went great!

2007-10-29T18:45:00.001-07:00

I was surprised considering we didn't do a ton for school last week, today went really well! We actually did a lot. In fact, for the week all we have left to do is a few chapters in our read aloud and our geography. That's it! So here it is Monday & we're almost done with this week. That worked out great!!

We did all of our science today. I have to admit, we didn't do the experiments. I know I should. BUT, they just seemed so obvious. And, I haven't mentioned I felt terrible today (body aches & runny nose kind of thing) - the last thing I wanted to do was go out in the rain to do projects. And since my son wasn't really too excited about doing them either, I was more than ok skipping them. He is really digging learning about the different animals though, which is cool.

Oh I have to mention how awesome our God is! This is just amazing. So, we are reading about Cameron Townsend (who started Wycliff ministries) and we are learning about Cuba this week in our Windows Of World book. Well, for over a year now I have been receiving a newsletter & email alerts from a ministry that smuggles bibles into countries. I found them through a homeschool convention once & since then I have kept them in prayer as they go on their missions. I have googled them & they are not online. I don't want to mention their name (not that this site gets a whole lot of hits, but they obviously are trying to keep anonymous.) ANYWAY, the point of me mentioning them is two reasons. First, they did an article of a pioneer in their ministry who recently died and he was a big part of the Wycliff ministry and even had met (and worked with) Cameron Townsend! This man said he highly admired and respected him. So, they are dedicating the mission that they are on right now to this man who just recently passed. AND, where are they currently at? CUBA!! Isn't that amazing?!? God just tied all of our studies together for this week!! I read the newsletter to my son & we both praised God for His awesome ways of doing things so personally.

If you are interested in the name of the ministry, just contact me via email & I'll send you the info.

That was the highlight of our school day today.
Can't wait to see what's in store for tomorrow!

Have a wonderful day in My Fathers World. :-)

If you are thinking about buying, now is the time!

2007-10-25T16:50:00.000-07:00

If I'd have known they were going to have a sale, I would have waited. I guess they don't tell you just for that reason, huh? lol.

Anyway, they are having a GREAT sale at My Fathers World!!

Click here to find out more.

I would buy now if you are able. This is a considerable amount off of the original price & remember they are all new books! Who wants to buy used materials when you can get the real deal at a reasonable price?

If you decide to take advantage of this offer, let me know.

Surprise!

2007-10-25T10:55:00.000-07:00

So, as I mentioned I wasn't quite ready to begin in Mexico. Part of the reason why (that I didn't mention) was I really wanted to get a flag sticker book for my daughter. Yes, she's only two, BUT she at least learned how to identify our state while studying USA, so why not allow her to have some fun too? I'm sure she'll have a good time when we "travel" to the country we're visiting then get her little booklet stamped. Anyway, we hadn't gotten her a book yet. And here it is Thursday and we STILL hadn't been to Borders to see if we could get it.

Well...

Today I got a phone call from a younger girl asking for my husband. I told her he wasn't available and asked for a message. She said that she was from Borders and that his book that he had special ordered was in. Let me just say, my husband is just not a book person. He doesn't just "hang out" in Borders looking for books (like I do!). So, I asked what book he had ordered and - you guessed it- the flag book!

Isn't my superman the BEST?!?

There has been several things that have kept me from going forward into Mexico. That is one less thing to worry about. :-)

This week has been delightfully quiet and peaceful. We spent the first few days dealing with high temps and such. And in the meantime I have been able to get some MUCH needed chores done. I'm actually almost caught up on laundry! I'm happy to report that my daughters temp is down, but she's still coughing and cuddly. (I don't mind that second part though!)

I am thinking about doing this every few weeks where I take two weeks to get through one week. It has been refreshing! We need a balance in life and sometimes you just have to reclaim the HOME in Homeschooling.

It's now at 102.7, poor baby!

2007-10-23T12:45:00.000-07:00

This was taken a few hours ago. She just woke up and I took her temp again. Isn't it the pits to see your children feeling yucky??

There's a bug in this house.

2007-10-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

We keep telling it to leave, but then it shows up again. My daughter has been feeling yucky since Saturday night with a cough and a temp off & on. My son hasn't been feeling too great either.

I was planning to have a light day anyway on Monday (but I was going to go on a nature walk and have a FUN day, not lay around with sickie kids!) So, yesterday that's about what we did. Superkid did math & English, then we just sat around and read books from our book basket.

The book basket from LAST week.

I confess, this weekend we were really busy, so I didn't have time to go to the library or make copies for this week. Also, this is the BIG week - where we use our passports and begin playing the country game. I think I'm just a perfectionist, because I just don't feel ready yet. So, I had planned to get that stuff "done" yesterday, since it was a light day, but when you just HAVE to cuddle with the sweetest two year old you know...it makes it hard to get anything done.

I don't really know my plan for today. I guess we'll just keep working on whatever we can and see where that puts us when were ready to get on with this week's work. I was thinking this week we might just make a day for science & geography only. (or something) We have a lot going on outside of feeling yucky too. We're preparing for a parade that our Church is involved in, so that's taking our nights this week and we'll be busy all Saturday, which means no hope for catching up. SO, I think I'm just going to kind of relax this week and probably stretch week 5 into two weeks this time. That way there is no pressure. :-)

I'll update as things progress.

Ending Week 4

2007-10-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

I know I really didn't write too much this week. We really just kind of tried to slide by and "get the week done." We did enjoy it, but I think there wasn't a whole lot of direction to give us to learn the United States of America. I know he learned a whole lot more if we had not studied, which is the point right? I think if I were to do this country again I would have had more resources (puzzle, game, song, etc.) to study with. I can understand though why they give USA an entire year for the kids to learn in Adventures. Oh well!

He is really enjoying the desert study for science! I'm glad that I got a video from the library about "surviving in the desert", because it really perked his interest. We've gotten to know some of the more famous kinds of animals, lizards, plants, cactus, etc. that live in the desert. And we both think it would be really neat to visit the desert immediately after it rained.

Again though we are not using our book basket as well as we should. I know that a big part of Exploring Countries & Cultures (ECC) is founded on the basket, so I need to be better about that. I just can't see us doing it every day. Maybe I'll highlight it to be done on Tuesdays & Thursdays?

I am surprised how long each chapter is for the read aloud. I was having him read it (which works fine at times), but recently I've been reading instead. It is very interesting to me and he doesn't want to stop when the chapter is done, which is a good sign. I do think there is a little too much info on "agencies" and the technical part of missionary work. Like I said, he is very attentive and seems to be enjoying the book, but there have been times where I thought it might be a little difficult of a read to follow.

Here's what HE said he learned within the past two weeks while we were in the U.S.A.:

What have you learned these past weeks?
I learned a lot about deserts. I learned about (lets see...) plants like cactus- the barrel cactus. I did a very neat project about the Navajo Indians and we have been praying for them. I learned about some plants that live and how they live in the desert without having water. We learned a lot of things about the flag of the United States. I learned the Anthem and the pledge. I learned what the flag stands for. I learned a lot of new states like Montana, Colorado, Texas.

What are some favorite things you did?
One of my favorite things was doing the Navajo Indian project - sand painting. The other was learning all of the Pledge of Allegiance and the Anthem. And just learning about the flag. Those are my two best things.

I did this when we finished up the "Intro" weeks too. (weeks 1 & 2) It sort of gives me a glimpse of what HE learned (not just what I pumped into his brain). I just type while he talks and then afterword we select a good picture of him doing a project in that section.

Of course here it is the last day for USA and I found out about two really great resources I could have used. If you happen across my blog before you hit usa, you need to go to this site:http://funschool.kaboose.com/ for lots of fun games. I was having trouble with some of the games, but it's a good site. And, I wish I would have found the book "The Scrambled States" which is at my library to go along with this week. OH well...

Goodbye United States...

Hello Mexico!

Learning Update

2007-10-17T23:09:00.000-07:00

We're still busy around here. I'm amazed at how many states he is learning. I'm not quite sure HOW, but he knows quite a few. Here's his updated "States He Knows" page:

Each day we just added a few. (the different colored states are for each day we added new ones to learn.)

This next picture was the challenge of coloring the states with only four colors and not touching the colors together. He had to start over once and I told him the trick. He liked it. I wasn't sure whether he would since he's not too thrilled with coloring. But, I think it was the challenge aspect of the whole thing. :-)

Navajo sand painting:

Didn't that turn out great?!?
It was much harder than we thought it would be. Glue is not easy to work with! We found the trick was to dab a little bit, then use a popsicle stick to paint the glue where we wanted it to go. We also learned that we needed to start in the middle, then go out so that the sand didn't get on the other colors. And, the hardest part was to WAIT until the first color was dried until we did another color. It took a lot of effort, but we think it turned out really cool. (Oh, by the way, we did not dye our own sand - we just bought it at walmart! I did read to him how we were supposed to do it so that he could understand the process. It just made me even more thankful for pre-dyed sand!!)

It's Thursday already- as far as our schedule is concerned we are still working on Wednesday's work. I am hoping we can have a little time this weekend to get caught up so that next week we can look forward to the easy Friday!!!! I miss those weeks where I felt like we were ahead. :-)

I'm hoping to get a nature walk in either today or tomorrow. We'll see...

What do I do with my littlest?

2007-10-16T12:52:00.000-07:00

I just stick her in her pillow case & tell her to stay there.

But, sometimes she gets out.

Just kidding!

Here's some of the things I keep her occupied with:

This set is great! I just give her a card & she matches what's on the card with the little butterfly pieces. Sometimes she just sits and plays with the pieces too.

This one is my favorite. She will sit forever lacing these (some parts of this are very easy, others require a little more skill though). She likes to take my lacing apart too. A lot of time she'll just sit and play pretend with the horses.

(sorry this picture is blurry) These are just what she calls her ABC's. She's been playing with these since she first turned two. I have her take out all of the blue ones since those are the easy (just ABC's, not phonics) tiles. And she just goes through & names them on her own. Sometimes if I'm not too busy I'll sit with her and ask each letter like doing flash cards (we're working now more on sound than the name of the letter). She finds her letters for her name, etc. These keep her busy for a little while.

Yes I do realize this picture is sideways. I couldn't figure out how to switch that. Anyway, sometimes if I'm really not busy I will sit and do a workbook with her. These are all VERY easy. Either just coloring a picture a certain color, tracing a letter, or circling which item is bigger. She circles well and knows her colors, I help her with her tracing- but really all of these require close supervision.

PLAYDO! The ultimate in fun learning. :-)

And, of course sometimes she just plays! (the bottom basket is for board books, so she can chose a book every day before naptime.)

With all of these I always give her the choice of what she's going to do for "school" that day. She usually stays out of trouble now that I have set things up for her to keep busy with.

That's what Pickles is usually up to while I'm busy with Superkid's school.

Today's vow.

2007-10-16T09:09:00.000-07:00

I have been convicted about being too "schedule oriented" with feeling "behind" and not being so concerned with my child(ren)'s well being. So, for today the schedule is out the window! And, I promise not to nag or complain about how long it takes him to get from one subject to the next. Instead I will gently remind him to keep on task only when I must.

Week Three Wrap-up

2007-10-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to show Superkid's vocabulary card.
He really put some effort in this one today.

Here's his bookmark for Matthew (done in greek)

He tried his hand at greek on the back of the bookmark.

He is really enjoying the missionary aspect of ECC. I get the missionaries confused (between reading about Moody for Hero Tales, then reading our read aloud on Cameron Townsend. But, Superkid seems sets me straight on who did what. :-)

By the way, I am just having him read Cameron Townsend out loud to me. Which is nice because it frees me up to do something while he reads. Laundry works well.

We're on to week four!

Thanks for coming along on our journey.

Ups & Downs of Parenting

2007-10-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

Whew. I wondered how today would go. Started a little late, actually a lot late. Considering we are JUST starting and it is almost noon. Yeeaahh...

After chasing Daddy with his dog this morning, Superkid came back and had breakfast. One BIG bowl of cereal. He began to get another bowl when I told him one is enough and that he could have a snack in a little bit. He had a real hard time with that, which turned a switch in him. He was super emotional all of a sudden. As any loving mother would do, I said, "If you don't quit your crying you will not eat a snack, you will wait until lunch." It didn't work. He continued to sulk, so after a little bit I called Superman to check with him on the situation. Superman gave Superkid a good talking to and after he got off the phone Superkid asked if he could go pray. I said OF COURSE! After a few minutes of being in his room I hear him singing a song to God. So sweet! Eventually he came to clean up and get started on his day.

So, we're all confused as far as "The Schedule" goes. We did some work on Friday (so that we wouldn't be super behind, although it feels like we are). Here we are on Monday - we have a little bit of last thursday and all of fridays work to do. We'll just keep trucking.

We did both days Bible work, so today I didn't have anything really to do with him in the Bible. Instead I opened Proverbs and began to read. That went pretty well. I just stop after every scripture I read and talk to him about what we are reading to make sure he understands and see if he has any way he can apply it for himself.

After reading the Bible we started talking. One of those real important heart to heart talks that happen every once in a blue moon. We've had some rough times lately (within this year) and I really want to make sure that we don't loose our connection. That he knows that he can always come to us to understand, instead of criticize or give advice. (which is what we do too often!) We both had a lot to say and it was a very treasured time. I LOVE that part of being a mom. These other parts, ya know - constant reminders, tough love kind of things I could get rid of easily. But, they are necessary parts of raising a good boy into a great man. So, I guess I'll keep on doing the hard stuff too.

Anyway, as I said here it is noon, we're about to have lunch and he's just STARTING his english copy work. UGH. I am thankful for our talk this morning, but, well, you know.

Ok, I'm going to get more focused and hopefully encourage him to stay on task too.

See you after awhile...

(this is his latest smile - wish I would have gotten it before that big tooth started coming it, because it was CUTE!)

Schedule Switcharoo

2007-10-11T11:45:00.000-07:00

Well, as it turns out, we only have three days for school this week. As mentioned, we took Monday off for Superman's birthday. And, I completely SPACED that tomorrow (Friday) is our monthly "homeschool meeting." It's essentially a few of us moms getting together to talk & let the kids play. But, we do usually talk about homeschooling at least once each time. :-) Anyway, I can't miss it. My friend just had her baby yesterday, so we get to meet *her* tomorrow!

Anyway, so we're all messed up here now. We might do a little school this weekend? Or just do Thursday's and Friday's work on Monday. Oh boy. Somehow we'll be working it out here.

As far as today has gone, it has just been strange. There was a lot of handwriting stuff today and as I have mentioned my son struggles in that one, so we are working slowly there. There wasn't much for us to do in Geography because I don't have any clue how to help my son memorize the states. I just had him add a few & name the ones we studied yesterday. I had looked at books at our library to see if I could find some "magical" book that would teach him the states, but I guess nothing like that exists. For science we are supposed to do the nature walk which just isn't happening this week. So, there wasn't much to do- yet we have been DRAGGING today. Mostly because of the handwriting issue I think, but there is a bit of "ugh" in all of us about doing our work.

Speaking of which, I really should get back to being focused. My son is waiting for me right now and that's never a good sign.

I should be back to post on Monday unless we get a few spare moments for school this weekend. See you then!

Great book!

2007-10-10T12:20:00.000-07:00

You have probably heard of this book before, but I hope to buy it soon! I checked it out a the library recently and I have been in awe of it ever since. Oh, you are wondering what book it is I am talking about?

Handbook of Nature Study
By Anna Botsford Comstock

It was first written in 1911.

She has taken the idea of studying nature and made it enjoyable & EASY to do. It is a guide with over 850 pages (but it's not too bulky amazingly). The one I am looking at is the older edition from 1976.

It has been broken down into 4 parts:
1.Teaching Nature Studies
2.Animals (which includes fish, birds, reptiles, etc.)
3.Plants
4.Earth and Sky

The choices to study are not at all uncommon either. She has even included things such as chickens, cats & dogs, apple trees, pumpkins, honeybee, etc. I can do those!

Each one has a little information about the subject, questions to think about or to pose to the child, and an occasional poem that may fit your study. She even has suggestions on how to expand the use of Nature Studies in every subject, including Math, English, etc.

And, for those of us who might not be able to purchase right away (although the price is fantastic considering all that it has!) we can view it online for FREE!!! Here it is FREE for ya!

A very valuable book for every homeschool in my opinion!!

Learning the states...

2007-10-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

Here's what we did today. The one on the left is a picture of all the states that Superkid knows and the one on the right is all the states that Pickles is learning. :-)

He chose to do the flipbook for art, but I spaced it and had him put his name all over it, so I can't put that one up here. :-) It was cute though & you're missing out.

Desert Rocks: The wind comes and blows off the rocks, which makes them in weird shapes.
By the way, I am writing for him. I know I really shouldn't be so sloppy, but he usually comes at funky times to tell me what he wants written. Pretty soon I am going to transition him to do the writing, but for now it makes it easier on us all.

That's all for today!

Just be warned...

2007-10-09T17:15:00.000-07:00

Do Not Read The Rag Coat when you are 20 weeks pregnant. Just don't do it. Oh my! Every page I turned I was crying alligator tears!! Yes, it was that bad.

Read it at your own risk.

Today was a rough one.

2007-10-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

Not surprising since we'd been off for 4 whole days. Keeping Superkid focused has been a chore. Since I bought Pickles some "school" things (a lacing/puzzle thingy & pattern set), she was pretty busy on her own. Although she did want interaction, so she added a bit to the distraction. I had plenty of other things that came around to keep me distracted too, phone calls and unexpected things going on tonight to prepare for.

I also forgot that I added a few things to today. I wanted to do a "narration wrap-up" of what he learned the past two weeks. I just asked him: (I typed while he talked) 1. What did you learn? 2. What was your favorite part? He had a hard time being specific, so we worked through it. Then I just copied a picture (cute one with his apple tree & a big smile!) into the document & printed it out. I also added another "narration wrap-up" of his read aloud he just finished. (Pocket Full of Pinecones) He just simply told me about the book and I had him rate it (from 5 stars).

So, couple that with the fact that we already feel behind, since we took monday off. It's no wonder we're all dragging & struggling to finish this day!

So, it's 3:30 now & I think we're almost done. We've got handwriting left I think. We'll just keep chugging away until we're totally finished. It looks like we don't have far to go now.

Our Projects...

2007-10-06T20:36:00.001-07:00

Remember this project?

Well, it didn't go so well.

The one WITHOUT the xylem was suposed to die. Part of the problem (we think) was that we put food coloring into the one with xylem to add to the fun. Oops.

And, we finally planted our apple trees. Someone threw away the first set of seeds, so we had to start new ones. This time there were only three seeds. So, Dad & the kids worked together on this one. Here they are getting their hands dirty:

I'll keep you updated on how that turns out.

And, last but not least, here is our world map.

He made the white splotch for Antarctica's ice.
Didn't Superkid do a great job?

We all had a good time this week.
Can't wait to start next week in USA!!

Getting Organized

2007-10-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned we went shopping this weekend. Amazing how we didn't get everything on our list yet we spent WAY too much! Oh well. I did get 6 (different sizes) of these baskets.

Aren't those cool?? 6 for only $40, that's not bad. The one on the right is for Pickles library books/videos and the one on the left is for Superkids book basket. The bottom one I'm using for "school" to keep all of the school books together. I put math/english in there too, plus any extras I've picked up along the way. The two smaller ones and the largest baskets I'm still not sure exactly what I'll do with them. I know I need a place for Pickles "school time" and I also need a spot for misc. supplies.

So, today, I'm having Superkid get his notebook organized with his new tabs. I'm also setting up Pickles with a little notebook. :-)

Oh, my sweet husband also got this for me (free and then painted it). It even has a little spot to hang up my kiddos art or play with magnetic letters.

Doesn't it just make you smile? Ok, maybe that's just me - I have seen PILES of paper for way too long. Hopefully this will help a little. By the way, the baskets on top are the smaller ones that I don't know exactly what I'm doing with them. Right now I shoved Pickles "school" in one and some supplies in the other. I am still working on filling the filing cabinet - as of right now I just have piles of semi-organized (but very unappealing) papers in cardboard boxes, etc on my floor.

Here's a few pictures of what I've been using to keep my teachers manual in order.

So far, it seems to be working out fantastic!

God has blessed me so much, giving me what I need for school this year. I am very thankful for His help in such a personal way.

Psalms 26:7
That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wondrous works.

Finishing up the second week.

2007-10-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

This seems to be going faster than I thought it would. Since I didn't schedule math or english on Friday's it makes it pretty easy to do extra work beforehand so that we could take Friday's off. All that is scheduled this Friday is Bible, Vocabulary, Geography and making a cake. :-) We may do the cake decorating tomorrow? Supermans birthday is on Monday and he took the day off work, so I'm not sure how next week will work.

We woke up earlier and got started early this morning, so adding a few extra things in hasn't been hard. We just did the extra Bible study right after todays and the same with our geography. It worked well.

For everyone's information, I will be skipping the "animal life" lesson today. I just can't do it. I've been trying to psych myself up since I first saw it, but alas I'm chickening out. If you don't own the curriculum and you are interested in what it is that I could be talking about, send me an email & I'll fill you in. ;-)

So, after two full weeks of using this curriculum I have found I fall very short in the area of the "book basket" and with the songs. Well, maybe not the songs as much -we have done them twice a week (but, not on the specified day - which is fine!) I just find that my kids like to run around crazy while they listen to the songs, so I put it off. Oh well. Anyway, as far as the book basket, I thought we'd do really well with these and maybe we're not doing too bad. But, we are certainly not reading every day. I think I've only sat and read them out loud once or twice in the full two weeks. My son does take liberty to sit and read them (and I've "made him" sit once or twice - not that he REALLY minds that much, but still...) I'd like to go through them with him more, but after sitting with him all day doing school time, it's a struggle to get myself to sit and read out loud anymore. We'll see if it gets any better (or if I come up with any grand ideas).

Anyway, I'll be back later to post some pictures up: Our planted apple tree, the science experiment gone wrong, and the cake!

See you then.

And then there's today...

2007-10-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

We're done!!! It's not even noon. What's the deal with that? Yesterday seemed to go on and on and last forever. And now, here we are - DONE! That gives me some hope that even when we have those rough days, they don't all turn out so bad. :-)

Superkid woke up this morning saying that he was determined to get school done early today. That's my boy! He put his mind to it and did it! Oh kay, we'll give God some credit here. He did pray that we would be done early - so, it was actually a miracle from heaven.

I just have to mention too, he's even done with almost ALL of his chores. He has daily chores he's in charge of, simple things like feeding the dog, getting the mail, taking out the trash and keeping the living room picked up. He's done almost ALL of them!! Amazing!

I'm just so glad for him. He will have a great afternoon playing freely today! YAY!!

Hope you have a great day as well.

Is this day still not done?

2007-10-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

Wow. I really expected to be done by noon today. High hopes I guess. We had done our science last night, so I figured we'd just zoom through the rest today and get done quickly. Um, no. Didn't happen. It's almost 4:00 and we STILL have geography to do. I think after that we will finally be done, but it sure has taken all - day - long. Don't ask me why. A little time here and there stolen I guess. I thought we were doing OK at noon, but since then it has been a huge struggle to get finished. Starting with right after lunch when I put my littlest down and Superkid started reading his geography book to me. I was listening, I really was, but I must have gotten a little too comfortable and dozed off! I woke up and found to my surprise that Pickles really had NOT gone to sleep, she was playing in the bathroom. Ah yes. That was a nice moment in the day.

Here's my son's art project from today:

His turned out much nicer than mine did. We both decided mine looked like spiders. If you haven't caught on by now, I don't have much in the creative department. Yet, I keep trying hoping someday to have some kind of skill. His turned out great though! I'll just live vicariously through his artistic abilities.

I'm waiting for Superkid to finish cleaning up from art and we'll be ready for geography. I am SO done with this day!

Hope yours went better.

A day filled with learning!

2007-10-01T18:29:00.000-07:00

We're back! It's a good thing we went to the park this morning because although Superman got home really early (which makes for a VERY happy Mommy!), we didn't get to go tonight. Pickles had been really cranky and needed a nap. So, we did SCIENCE instead!!

Let me first tell you about our trip to the park.

This was the kids favorite tree they picked out to draw. I tried to keep our focus on trees today. We first walked by the creek, hoping to find some kind of animals. We did see a bird flying, but not much else. I kept pointing out all the different kinds of leaves and how colorful the trees are right now. Then I sat on a bench while they ran around chasing each other with sticks. After watching this for a few minutes I decided to direct their attention elsewhere. So, I had them gather some of the different leaves around us.

Here's the leaf my son found for me.

Isn't that the sweetest?

He's always finding hearts in things and giving them to me.

We only had a little bit for our "nature walk" so I told them to pick their favorite tree. It took a LONG time for Superkid to decide. He liked the climbing ones, but finally decided to go for the bright purple one. It really did look cool from afar. Then, as we sat under it, it seemed like it was all green inside. It was pretty. Pickles picked the same tree, which turned out to be good so we could all stick together. We all drew our pictures. No, I WILL NOT show mine. I am a terrible artist. But, you only learn by doing, right? So, I'll do it around my children who don't know any better. (smile)

After we drew our trees (Pickles drew a leaf she said) then we did bark rubbings. They actually didn't turn out as well as I had hoped they would, but hey, it was fun. We collected a few of the leaves from the "favorite tree" hoping we'd be able to identify it. But, I'm not too good at that. Anyway. I don't know what we'll do with the leaves (if anything). Altogether I think everyone had a good time with our "tree study."

Here's a picture of the bark of the tree. The actual tree picture is up above. Anyone happen to know what kind of tree this is?

Anyway, we showed up at my parents just right about the time the "fish guy" (who is cleaning their tank) was suposed to show up. He wound up being super late. Usually Superkid would sit and soak up whatever this guy talks about. They guy certainly has a lot to say, especially about fish. So, I always consider it a real learning experience. Today, I think everyone was just tired, so after reading a few picture books, we turned on the tv and watched snorkles and smurfs. Amazing they're still showing those cartoons. And amazing all the witchcraft right smack-dab in the middle of these shows. ANYWAY, that took up most of our afternoon.

We came home late, Superman came home early. After putting Pickles to bed we decided we needed to do something...How about some science!!

Oh, I forgot to mention that Superkid pointed out to me while we were at the park about the rings from a tree trunk tell the trees age. I had him show pickles and explain it to her. (cute!) Anyway, God worked it out so perfectly today with "Plants" being the subject.

Here's our celery pictures:

Sure hope we did it right and got all those xylem strings off.

And here's our newest apple tree's birth:

We'll be planting it tomorrow.

And that concludes our day. Wasn't it fun?

Focus, Focus, Focus...

2007-10-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

Well, some days just don't go exactly as planned. Not that I had REALLY planned this day out, but...

I knew in the afternoon I needed to be at my parents house, but I didn't know what time exactly. I still don't. Which just makes my decision about WHEN to go on our nature walk a little confusing. I could go right now, but for some silly reason I called my hubs and invited him. He said yes. What was I thinking? I would LOVE for him to go, but...he doesn't get off work until it is almost dark and the weather isn't too great today. Hmmm...I'm just trying to figure out how to get today's goal accomplished.

I have plenty of other things I'm doing in the meantime. Sorting out summer/winter clothes for my daughter. Paperwork. Yep, they are all just keeping me sidetracked from my goal here.

You know what? We can go twice. What's wrong with that?? There, I've made my decision & I'm sticking to it. :-)

Ok, we're off to the park this morning for only about an hour or so. (I'd rather be early to my parents) Then, we'll go to the grandparents house for a few hours and maybe do another nature walk tonight. Sounds like a great plan!

Check List:
~~Lunch Cooler~~
~~Clipboards & Paper~~
~~Field guide from library~~
~~camera~~
~~jackets!~~
~~children~~

I think that's it. We're ready to go...
See you later!

Great Day

2007-09-28T09:35:00.000-07:00

After breakfast we said goodbye to Daddy. Sometimes we'll go out on the porch and wave. Most of the time Superkid runs down the street racing the truck. Anyway, today we all stood on the porch waving & blowing kisses. Although it looked cloudy, it was actually very nice weather. After sitting on the porch talking for a few minutes, we decided to start school out there. We started by reading psalms (since today doesn't have any real Bible reading) and then we read a chapter of our read aloud - Pocket Full Of Pinecones. I scheduled this in knowing that the first two weeks didn't have a read aloud and we only had 8 chapters left. I think we only have 3 now. My 2yo sat and played with rocks next to us while we read. It was such a beautiful morning!

Toward the afternoon my stomach got pretty queasy and my sweet, adorable, little girl started getting quite an attitude that I needed to deal with. I knew I needed to eat, but ugh. I called hubs to talk to him (um, more like complain- poor guy) and my Superman told me he was in the neighborhood and asked if I wanted anything delivered! Isn't he the sweetest???? What a treat!! I was mostly just excited to see him in the middle of his day. It is a VERY rare happening. It's too bad the food didn't help my stomach very much though.

Here's my son's narration of The Hen and the Golden Eggs from his English lesson today:

Lesson 37 - First Language Lessons
September 28, 2007

The Hen and the Golden Eggs
There was some poor people who lived in a house and they had a hen that laid a gold egg everyday. Each day, when the got the egg they said, "Thank you for your gift." And at night they gave her mush and said, "Have a good night."
After awhile they got enough gold eggs they could build a little cottage in the woods. But the problem was every time they got greedier and greedier with the eggs. So, finally the man said, "Why don't we kill the chicken, because there will be lots more gold inside of her." So, they killed the chicken and they were surprised to see that there was no gold. They got poorer and poorer even though they used to be getting richer and richer.

In geography, he had a tough time trying to draw the smaller scale of his hand today, but he really loved the concept of latitude and longitude. He had fun playing the game where you named a latitude and longitude pair and had him try to find the spot. I let him have a turn to name them too.

Science went ok. I didn't make him draw today because the whole thing was just dumb. It was about global warming, which sparked some interesting questions from him. But, there really was nothing of real value. And, I have to say that I've been noticing that these topics are pretty advanced. I guess he's on the lower edge of the age spectrum for this curriculum and it's a good thing that he is interested in learning so I can keep his attention, but I don't know how other second graders would do. I also have to say, I am thankful that I've had a LITTLE study in this area, so I could answer SOME of his questions. He asked a few that I had no idea how to answer. Anyway, tomorrows lesson looks a little better. Oh, and as for then "animal life" page, I'm still not sure if I can do that one! The day keeps creeping closer...

We skipped handwriting because his papa came and sole him. :-D

All in all, today was a really good day!

These aren't the best pictures, but...

2007-09-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

Here's a sampling of what my son learned this week.
Today's picture is right below. He already knew what a vole and a goshawk were. What seven year old knows that? I didn't know! The picture says, "I learned about the food chain of the animals."

This was what he learned yesterday. He really does not like to color, so I had him just outline the map (and I colored the water for him because I'm such a nice mom like that.)

I have to admit I have been amazed that he is enjoying learning so much about maps. I was pretty sure I'd be able to get him interested in the countries and the people/animals that live there, but I was kind of nervous about the first few weeks. So far, he's soaking it up. And he's learning so much! He named all of the continents for his dad yesterday except Europe and we've only been studying this for 4 days. Pretty cool I think. Considering I didn't know where all the continents were when I left high school. (I've since learned them, obviously) And, with that statement I promise not to go off on a tangent as to why homeschool is so great. Oohh kay...

So, that concludes our first week. Tomorrow (Friday) we will begin week two and do Monday's work.

Today was tough.

2007-09-27T14:27:00.000-07:00

None of us could stay focused. It's not abnormal for the kids, but I couldn't get myself "into" today for anything. I don't know what my deal was. BUT, somehow even still we're very close to being done for the day! Including the extra stuff from Friday, so that we could get ahead and take Monday off. It's 2:30 and all we have left to do is the poster from Tuesday that we skipped and Daddy is going to do the scale project with him tonight. Yes, math is done. I know I usually write and say that we only have math left. :-)

I wanted to mention how I've been working things out with Superkid. He has one notebook that he puts everything in. We've tried to do separate before, but it just gets confusing. He also has a section where I give him a copy of the weekly outlook for his records. I was nervous about doing this at first, because I wanted some of it to be a surprise (activities, projects, etc.) But I've found that it actually really helps him to see that he can work harder to get ahead, to have time off. It also does give him an element of surprise, because all he can read in certain boxes is "activity" - he doesn't know WHAT that is, he just knows that he has something coming up! I also allow HIM to choose what he wants to do next throughout the day. I've been amazed that he's actually chosen some of his least favorite things to do FIRST, so that he can get them out of the way. His choice! Before I was coaxing him to write, now he does it willingly first!! It has worked out really well actually. I've also given him full control over how he organizes his notebook. Whatever way he wants to do it is fine, I just want it to be in some sort of order. We'll see how that goes over time.

This weekend I plan to go shopping for the rest of the supplies we need. I am going to get 2yo her own binder too. She usually winds up drawing pictures and painting with Superkid. I haven't been doing any one on one "school" time with her this week. Once we get into a groove, I think I will do more "school" time with her. (We just count and sing, etc.) I've been focusing mostly on keeping her naptime more regular than I had been. After lunch she reads a book and then gets into bed. That gives us time to do more of the projects in the afternoon that need to be done without little fingers in the way. :-D

Ok, I guess we'd better get focused here so we can get this day finished up.

Another day gone by...

2007-09-26T16:06:00.000-07:00

Today I squeezed a few extra things in so that we can take Monday off. (Or at least make it a really light day because I am hoping to take a good nature walk. We need to go to my parents house for the afternoon, so we'll be busy.) Anyway, so I'm breaking up Friday and doing Friday's work today & tomorrow so that I can do Monday's work on Friday. Confused? Nevermind then.

Anyway, so even with doing a few extra things we didn't do bad on our timing. We were done with everything except math by 2:00. Not bad. Well, you have to remember we START around 10am. Much later than I'd like, but that's just how it seems to work out.

Math was tough for my superkid today. He does Horizons and we don't have the teachers manual. It's a good thing he really catches on easily to math! Today they introduced A LOT all at one time. So, I had to sit with him the entire time and give him different ways to look at the problem. For instance, counting by 4's. He'd never tried before, but after circling all the 4's on a number chart, I pointed out the pattern in the "Ones", then I reminded him that he could add too. (even if he just pays attention to the Ones and applies it to whatever the Tens were.) I have no idea if I am making sense here. Anyway, there were a few new concepts for him that I know he learned some things, but I'm just always amazed how POP here's a huge concept to master. I will be switching to Singapore Math as soon as we are done with this workbook. I'm just not sure where to place him yet. He appears to know almost all of book one, but I'm not sure if he'd be missing concepts or not. We'll just have to see when the time comes.

Other than that, today just kind of went smoothly.

Oh, I had to laugh because something triggered my son today about when he went to his cousins school (a Christian school) for the day as a visitor. He began to reminisce and talk about it, but he did say that he would much rather be at home. (happy, proud, beaming mother writing this here!!) He was able to spend the day in each of his cousins classes, which were (I think) Kindergarten and 2nd grade. In the kindergarten class, he was just bored I guess. And to keep him occupied they let him sit and read. Well, apparently at one point the teacher put him to work "teaching" other children to read! He was thinking intently about this and he said he wants to become a teacher so that he can be an example in the public schools. But, that once he has a family he'll do something else, because he would homeschool his children. He was just in this real sober mood talking seriously about how he wants to change the world and how much he loved teaching the "kids". I told him that maybe he should consider tutoring others or volunteering to teach others to read. Well, that just got him thinking even more and I couldn't reel him in after that! He'd sit and think, then come to me and say, "you know what else I could do..." - It was fun! I am so thankful that we have time together to have these "deep" conversations. I wouldn't trade it for the world! :-)

That was my day, how was yours?

2nd day done!

2007-09-25T11:55:00.000-07:00

WOW! Today went quick!! We didn't start too much earlier today. We were on schedule according to our plan though. Here it is lunch and all my son has to do is Math! Amazing. We had a nice day. I was a bit on edge for some reason. Which doesn't help anything. We are waiting to do the poster because Superkid wants to use the coloring pages on his. So, we skipped that. I am just amazed though that we are done!!!!!!! WOW!

Ok, here's our world map we made today. Don't laugh at my drawings. :-D

Have I mentioned that I LOVE this new curriculum???

Chronicle of our 1st day of school:

2007-09-24T09:20:00.000-07:00

We came home from Church last night, stopped off at walmart and got home at 10:30. Someone around here, we won't name any names (ahem, daddy) decided having ice cream when we got home would be a great idea. Yeah. So, the kids were in bed after 11pm. Hmm... Poor Superman was busy with paperwork for his job until after midnight. So, it was a late night, which of course starts our morning out a little rough.

I woke at 7:30 to pray and read.

Superkid actually woke up first at 8:00. He's one of the harder ones to get out of bed. So, as I made him breakfast we talked about the new school. :-D He's excited. Which is really good!!

Here's the sign I made on the whiteboard for today. Superkid loves the colors red, white and blue. (Although he informed me I should have done Red, then white, then blue. Instead of Red, blue, then white. Can't please em, I tell ya!)

Daddy walked out the door at 9:30 for work this morning. Superkid went running to the end of the street with his dog like he does most days. (He races Daddy's truck.)

When he came back he said he was still hungry. This kid really can eat. I only gave him two waffles, so I let him have some more.

I had him go outside to get his bible out from the car. Instead of coming straight in he began to talk to the neighbor for WAY too long (about his bike, etc.) eventually I called him in. It is now 10:00. Oh boy!

Ok. So, as he eats, I begin bible time with him.

11:20: Oh my... This has been one challenging day! It is not the work, which has actually been really fun! It's just circumstances. The entire morning my daughter has been crying. I think she is not feeling well. I haven't taken her temp, but she seems hot. So between her needing a lot of attention and my son being EXTREMELY distractable today, it has been challenging to say the least. However, in the midst of the trial we have completed - Bible, handwriting, and we did a pretest (we just went over verbally what he knows and I told him the ones he didn't.) We're trucking along. There just seem to be a few bumps in the road and some unexpected turns. :-D

12:20: We've been working on the application for an hour now. I gave him the option of stopping for awhile to take a break and come back to it, but he wants to finish. He's still working on his handwriting skills. It's soo nice and quiet and peaceful now that little one is napping. Poor her, she must not be feeling well. I prayed for her and she did seem to be feeling a little better. Hopefully she wakes refreshed!

1:00 - Finally completely finished with the application. Because it was something different he actually pressed through. It took A LONG time, but I'm proud of him for not complaining! :-)

LUNCH TIME!! And time for a much needed break.

---I just have to mention that this boy must be growing! He had a few waffles this morning, a half of a hamburger with fries, small frozen pizza a pudding and he's STILL hungry! (please disregard my unhealthy choices for my child. I'm going to use the excuse that I'm pregnant and I go for convenience more than anything recently. )

3:20 - YAY! We're almost done!! Superkid is working on his math, then we're done. Our geography book I had him read aloud and just asked a lot of questions as we went along. I am amazed everything we read today was new to him. He reads enough that I thought he had at least heard of many of those, but he said he learned a lot. Then we did science. We read and he balked a little about having to draw (he hates to color and drawing is second below that), but he did a great picture. I think he'll get more accustom to doing it as we make it a habit each day. The other three things we did he's been doing: our read-aloud, pocket full of pinecones (we have a few chapters left), english and now he's doing his math.

WE DID IT!!!!! YES!
It feels so good to be done and it was a great day overall.

By the way, Pickles wokeup feeling MUCH better and in a much better mood. So our afternoon went much more smooth. My son's mood never changed. I don't mind so much, because he's just excited and happy for his new school. He's been hyper and it has been hard to get his attention. (this is not very normal for him. He's a pretty mellow kid.) Anyway, all in all, everything went GREAT!

Thanks for sharing my day with me. :-D

Plans have changed.

2007-09-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

After spending a few days working through the teachers manual, I have decided that it's very organized and I'm prepared to get started earlier. Yes, only one week earlier, but hey one week is one week! Soo, I'm starting on Monday! Yikes!! That seems so quick.

I sat with my husband earlier today and showed him everything, talked about all I need and what he thinks about it all. And, I'm ready.

We have a few things to pick up tomorrow, nothing big. Index cards and a tangerine. We have a bigger list to get on Friday, but to start out next week I'll be fine with the basics. I also have to make a few copies, but then we'll be ready to start! We went to the library today to pick up whatever I could for this weeks topic. I had placed a few books on hold through the interloan checkout thingy, which hadn't come in yet. I think that will work out great since it give us a few fresh books after we've looked through these. (it shouldn't be too long)

Anyway, as I sat here tonight it really started to hit me. I felt for the first time really nervous about the whole thing. The first two weeks are actually more intense than some of the others - especially the second week. The second week has a lot of hands on things, which will really start the year off with a bang, but eye yi yi, I'm just worried about getting overwhelmed or something. I know it will be a tough transition for all of us. We've been VERY relaxed in our homeschooling and there has never been this much structure to follow. I think we are all looking forward to knowing what to expect. Buut, I can't help but feel scared of how things could turn out. My husband keeps telling me it will be fine and that he's even willing to help out if need be! I told you his name is Superman. :-) Anyway, I will keep posting as I work through my days and hopefully I don't find myself drowning in doubt. I have prayed. And prayed. I am sure this is the step God has placed in front of me and He is faithful to bring me through any troubling places. So, I will trust in Him. There is no better place to be but in His hands.

1st Corinthians 7:17
But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk.

Since I opened the box, my every thought has been on this curriculum.

2007-09-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

And, I really like it a lot!

My first thought as I began to read through the teachers manual was how organized it is. Then I began to see really how incredibly flexible it is. It has a main base to work from, but so much extra to add and choose (but not too much where you feel overwhelmed!!)

I love how everything is already there. I don't have to worry about trying to get more books. I will just visit the library every few weeks and pick out a few books that go along with the study. The projects seem surprisingly simple. Nothing TOO complex. A little out of my "convenience box", but I keep reminding myself my children are worth it. There are a few odd things to buy, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Beeswax, bendable wire, plaster of paris. And, actually those are not all "required" I let my son pick a few when the option was available.

What I like most about the curriculum is there seems to be a rhythm. So you get an understanding of what to expect. You can work with it a little once you know the system it seems. Add to this that it looks like most Fridays are light days, so you are able to change things around in order to make it a four day week (or as my case will most likely be, you can have a make up day to get caught up!)

I love the ideas I have read about ways to make it more fun for the children so that they are looking forward to going into the next country. Play pretend a little that you really ARE going. Set up an airplane with chairs and get ready to travel to your next destination. How fun!

So far, it looks like a really great curriculum. I only wish that I had started it sooner! Oh well.

Speaking of which, as I have been mulling over the weeks and have begun to plan, I'm realizing that even if I only take ONE generous break from middle of Jan-middle of March for baby, I will be starting at approximately the same time next year with CTG. That is if I don't take any breaks for moving into a new home (which I am anticipating sometime this year) or slacking off at all (which of course is just life!) So, that kind of bummed me out when I really saw that I was going to stay behind for awhile. Ohh Weelll...

In conclusion - buy this curriculum if you haven't already. (big happy face inserted here)

It's here, It's here!!

2007-09-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

Yaahooooo!!!!!! Look what I got! I'm telling you, I felt foolish with excitement last night thinking about getting "THE box" today. And, the entire day today I was looking out the window afraid we'd miss it. Riigght.

I'm off to soak up the teachers manual now. :-D

Yay! It's on it's way!!

2007-09-14T08:00:00.001-07:00

It's official. I've finally ordered! I'm expecting to get it in the mail by next week sometime.

How exciting!!

A few supplies...

2007-09-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

We bought a few school supplies while the prices were still good this weekend. We didn't get any craft stuff yet. (well, besides the sand) I figured I'd wait until I get the curriculum, then I'll get it all at once. Anyway, the kids and I set up our pencil boxes today. (yes, I got one too!) I figure it should keep us at least a little organized so that we all know who's pens belong to who. My two year old just got some crayons and colored pencils to go in hers.

To those of you using the curriculum, I found these "world-Famous places flash cards" at Walmart. I figure we'll use them somehow. They were on clearance for $2. AND, I had heard about those passports that everyone found in the scrapbooking section of walmart by Jolee. Nope, not my Walmart. Oh well. Maybe I'll try an actual scrapbooking place.

Anyway, we're on our way to officially starting around here!

Getting ready to travel the world...

2007-09-06T09:08:00.000-07:00

I've been re-arranging (mostly bookshelves and paperwork) getting things together after having a rough first trimester and the house getting a bit out of control. Anyway, I moved my bookshelves to where I originally had this map up. I needed a new location for our map, so I chose to put it up by our dining room table. At first I didn't like the idea. We have a very small home and it is difficult to do, but I like to keep "school" separate from "home" as much as possible. What I mean is, I don't want to walk into my home and feel like I'm walking into a school. Anyway, after measuring some other places, this was really the only logical place to put it. I am so glad I did! We find ourselves studying it all the time. Hubby and I last night sat there together laughing at some of the countries names and trying to find places that we knew. My son is asking questions and I often find him looking at it as well. Boy, if I'd have known, I would have moved it long ago!

If you have the space (and the guts) to do it, this is such a great place to hang your wall map!

In case you're wondering...

2007-09-06T09:03:00.000-07:00

It looks like the big purchase date will be next Friday.

I can't wait!!!

I am hoping that once I get it back and get organized we'll be able to start on the first day of October. Not too bad, right? We'll see how it all works out...

Our Schedule

2007-09-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

I've sent in my homeschooling intent letter to the district. All my son's friends went back this past Monday. I've been drooling over that new curriculum (My Fathers World) I found and fell in love with. And, we've set up a new fall schedule. We're kicking it into gear around here.

Let's see if I can post my new schedule...

8:00Wake up
8:30Pickup room, Make bed, laundry, p/u bathroom
9:00Breakfast
9:30Cleanup Table,living room and KitchenSwitch Laundry
10:00Bible Time
10:302yo "School"/7yo Math
11:00English
11:30Read Aloud
12:00Lunch
12:30Cleanup Table,living room and KitchenLaundry
1:00History/Science
1:30History/Science
2:00Art/Music
2:30blog/nap/read
3:00Chore Time
3:30Chore Time
4:00Chore Time
4:30Book Basket with Kids
5:00Daddy's Home Prep
5:30Dinner
6:00-8:00Daddy Time
8:30Family Bible Study
9:00Kids in Bed

This schedule is in anticipation for when I get MFW, but we've been able to work it until about noon and so far it's working great! The afternoon has been mostly "free play" until we get our new curriculum. In the morning, I have my youngest play with blocks or her little people while I read outloud. In case you are wondering our Math is Horizons workbook 1 and our English is First Language Lessons. For our Bible time right now we have just been reading through Psalms and talking about it. It's going well, even when I'm not completely up for doing all my chores, I usually can make it through homeschool time because all I really have to do is sit to read and discuss whatever it is they are learning. Oh, and for my youngest daughter (who is EXCEPTIONALLY bright!) I just do a workbook about colors with her. She already knows her colors, but we write her name on the top and she practices her coloring. After each page she puts a sticker on. Then we count to 5. For some reason she always skips 5, she'll say "1,2,3,4,6!" so I made up a little song to help her learn it. Songs help so much. She knows how to spell her name just because I made up a little catchy tune for it. (oh kay, so her name is only 3 letters, but I'm pretty proud of her!) I can tell she's going to be fun to homeschool, she catches on so easily!Anyway, we're in the school time mode. I'm really looking forward to this year!!

{by the way, I also wanted to mention, this is one of the first times I've made a schedule and my times are pretty accurate. I know it seems strange that I have a whole half hour devoted to waking up, but there's always something to do during that time. Helping hubby or 2yo, or trying to get my son awake. It's been interesting (at least before noon) we have been on track even by the clock! The evenings are not so good though. Bedtime last night for even the kids was 12:00! I know, I'm a terrible mom. My husband is such a late nighter that it's hard to get focused earlier. My goal is 9:00, but if hubby doesn't get home until late, I allow the kids to stay up in order to spend some time with Daddy. Hey, that's one of the greatest parts about homeschooling in my opinion!}

Welcome to our Homeschool!

2007-09-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

Hello. I'm so glad you've come to visit us here at our home. This blog is set up to share and journal all of our fun that we have in our homeschool. We have just found a wonderful curriculum called My Fathers World and we will be working this year through Exploring Countries and Cultures (Or ECC for short). We are SO excited!!

The children in this home are:
"SuperKid" 7 1/2 Year old boy
"Pickles" 2 year old girl
(and we have a baby coming in February!!)

We will be starting this year a little later than we'd like. I'm expecting to begin sometime in October. To top it off, we will be having a baby and possibly moving into a new home this year. (Not to mention that this is my first official year following a set schedule!) I expect that we may be a little behind coming into the summer. I am just happy that I am going into this year with this expectation, so that I won't be bummed when the year end comes.

Anyway, I hope that you join us as we travel the world this year!!!