Blessed at Home (Lighting the Fire)

Moving

2007-08-20T09:00:00.001-07:00

I have created another blog to log our journey.. Please join us at
http://www.blesseddiscovery.homeschooljournal.net/

Marie Bellet in Ordinary Time

2007-08-09T11:47:00.001-07:00

It will be over before I know it. GREAT song!

summer Update :)

2007-08-07T18:20:00.000-07:00

wow.. Its been sooo long since I posted here that I forgot my password! But ... after a day of thinking about it.. it finally came too me .. and arent you glad?

What have we been doing this summer?
swimming, camping, traveling, fiesta texas, more swimming, "spring cleaning", painting, riding our bikes together as a family, seeing our flowers bloom :) watching movies, enjoying the cool weather and rain (yes .. you right correctly), reading a few books, playing a few video games :) the list goes on and on :) most importantly we have enjoyed being together :)

Heres a few pictures from this summer:

We are looking forward to the new school year ... heres what we are looking forward too:

going to the library without the "schools out crowd"
co-op, which will be our first co-op ever.... the kids will learn spanish, sign language, art (I am teaching), music, science, and pe. :)
Mom is looking forward to getting to attend the homeschool family conference in a few weeks
using some new curr. (Abeka)
enjoying some old curr. (Story of the world and others:)
we really miss our afternoon reading time .. we are all looking forward to getting to read together
being back on our 'schedule' :)
going to our zoo.. which will have its new entrance/educational building and new animals on display this fall :)
learning field trips :)

Books, Birds and Friends :)

2007-06-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of the pictures I talked about in the previous post.

Heres a shot of a few of the books we got at the library book sale :)

The HUGE dictionary we got at the sale.. and the boys measuring how thick it is! :)

"I love it when science drops out of the sky!" Below are some pics of a baby white winged dove the dog "found" a few days ago. We kept it for two nights and I decided to release it because I felt sorry for it being in a box. If it was going to die.. I wanted to let it be outside and happy. :)

AS soon as I brought it in.. Nathan sat down with our bird book to try and figure out on his own what it was.

The two shots above are some of our friends and the kids having a great time! The first shot the kids are reading from the Guinness Book of World Records (a library sale find).. I just thought its great to see so many kids around one book!

And Cat is still in the jewelry making business. Above is a shot of necklaces and bracelets she made for her friends who came to visit from Colorado.

Our week is going great. Art Camp started Monday here at the house and now that I have batteries for my camera I will take some shots of those for all to see. :) The kids are having a great time. Today the kids tore newspaper and put it on paper as a textured background which they will paint tomorrow, they also did pastels.. I think the messier the project.. the more fun!

Our days, LBS, Kindergarten "math"

2007-06-07T20:44:00.000-07:00

We have spent the last few days in the following ways:

painting the house
working on the master bath remodel (its usuable and almost finished!..pics later)
playing with friends (pictures later)
reading books
working at the Library Book Sale
Shopping at the LBS :)
Doing research for art camp
painting (pictures later)
working on jewelry (pictures later)
pretending Pokemon
reading National Geographic Kids Mag.
doing bookwork
asking questions :)
jumping on the trampoline

One of the main things we did today was volunteer for the library book sale. The kids and I worked on Tuesday to help organize the books, and today we went to shop early and then volunteered. The kids were "runners", carrying books from two different sections to the front of the room, and I helped write up tickets for purchases. Of all the books we bought, I am most excited about the books below:

A 5 or 6 inch Websters Dictionary!
Eating for Life Cookbook
Art Slides
Popular Science Year By Year
National Audubon Society Small books with sticker "plates"
Texas History Book
Health and Wellness Book

Here are what I can tell are the kids favorites:

2006 Genus book of World Records
Pokemon videos
History of the American Flag
Star Wars Guide to Vessels
DK Book of Dog Breeds

Today the kids did bookwork. Nathan's math book sheet was a problem like this:
Please write the number
200,000 + 50,000 + 4,000 + 100 + 20 + 5 =.............
It's not like I didnt know it was coming but I keep thinking "he is only in Kindergarten!.. he wont be able to do this!" (or "shouldnt" I should say) .. the they guy always surprises me! I explained what to do and the said "OH.. that's easy!" and then after doing a page with him he said .. "These are fun.. can I do some more!" To think if he were in Kindergarten he would be learning:
"Your child will practice counting numbers from one to 10. By the end of the year, she will be able to count to numbers greater than 10 and to count by fives (5, 10, 15, 20...) and tens (10, 20, 30...)."
"While some kindergartners can memorize specific addition and subtraction facts, such as 2+2=4,"

Use ordinal number names from first to tenth.

Compare two groups to determine which is more, less or the same.

Develop the concept of first, middle and last within a set of three objects.

Respond to directions about location (e.g., above, below, between).

Compare objects based on size and capacity.

All I can think about on days like today is "I know we are not the perfect homeschooling family, I know that I will never be able to teach them everything the ever need to know in life. But what I see in moments like these is how wonderful homeschooling is simply for the fact that my children can go at their own pace! They can learn, explore, relearn, and research as much as they care too. The can move ahead or skip back depending on their own needs. I also know that learning to LOVE learning is the key to being well educated and if I can show my kids how to do that.. then everything will be ok!"

Pictures, Summer "school" and more

2007-05-31T10:59:00.001-07:00

Our good friend Aunt Carroll came last week to visit us all the way from Louisiana. She got to bring with her her four year old niece, Ashleigh. We had lots of fun going to the zoo and petsmart as well as running around campus for a while.

Here are the kids and Su at Petsmart. They thought it was funny that Su was in a "cat play house"

The peacock at the zoo was in rare form! We got to hear his loud call and he came really close to the kids.. then.. a few minutes later he decided to strut his stuff. (Joseph took these two pictures)

The fish were really hungry on this day! I am not sure what kind of fish they are but it is so fun to see their little mouths pop up out of the water. The ducks got some food too but had to swim on top of the fish.. it was fun to see.
This little guy wasnt at the zoo last time we were there. He was really funny, saying "hello" and 'Hi" to us.. then on the way out the door he whistled a "catcall" .. it was really funny.

These little ducks and their mom and dad were so cute to watch. There were 7 babies who were a LOT more bold than the mother and father.. Nate had a great close encounter!

************** *************
It seems that our back yard is a bird nursery! Just a few days after finding the little robin that had fallen this little guy showed up in the back yard with its mom and dad. I just about got bopped on the head by the parents but I just had to get a few pictures of him. He is a blue jay. This was taken over a week ago... and I just saw them outside on our patio a few minutes ago. Guess it wont be long and he will fly away. .. Isnt he cute!

Nathan helped make breakfast one day was thought it was so fun that his eggs turned into a smiley face and asked if I could take a picture of it.

This picture was taken yesterday while Joesph was reading to us.

Our days are going by fast. We are "doing school" this summer. If Dad is at work then we are schooling. The kids said that it still feel like summer to them even though they are doing school work.. so I guess its going pretty well. Here's an update on a few things they have been doing:

working on some folder game pages we are making for their pre-school twin cousins.
pretending Pokemon (the boys)
reading
playing a lot of basketball in the driveway.
going on walks
going to the library
playing with friends
making Jewelry (cat)
Watching Survivorman and How Its Made

We are still reading Bridge to Terabithia.. I still am not liking it. We'll see I guess.

Cat goes today for another sewing lesson with NaNa.

The kids enjoyed going to the library this morning. They got Encyclopedia Brown (cat) and Magic Treehouse (nate and jo) .. I got books on Australia and New Zealand to go with our History. The kids also picked out a few more Henry video's and I got a little DVD that is American History Charlie Brown (it looked cute) ..

I guess thats all for now. I have some late spring cleaning to do! We are in the final stages of having our bathroom finished! Should be completed by Monday Night! (YIPEE!)

Blessings
Ruthie

Hide and Seek Math

2007-05-21T13:38:00.000-07:00

Today has been a fun day. The kids seem to be having video and TV withdrawals from this past weekend. Their Daddy bought them a gameboy advance and Joseph used his birthday money to by some new games for his game cube. Mondays are always a bit hard to get back into the swing of things cause of the video hangovers :)

Book work was done and checked before lunch. The boys began cleaning their room which they had let get a bit out of control yesterday on thier off day :) After books and chores we read a book about Memorial Day. Lunch was next and then it was time for flash card work. Today we did addition, multiplication and clock reading. Nathan won the addition facts! Go Nate! This was his first time ever to get more than his big brother or sister! The clock reading fell to Catherine .. she is just so much faster with that quick tongue :) Multiplication was the best of all. As the kids came to a fact they didnt know quickly I would make up rhyme to help them remember. So when 12x7 came up and they struggled I said " 12x7 is 84.. if you dont like it you can go out the door".. they all started laughing and said ... "ok!" and headed out the back door. I then got up and ran as fast as I could and hid in my closet. The kids came in and finally found me. .. of course we did it again with a different fact. I guess it will be a new tradition in our house.. math fact hide and seek:) The kids laughed and laughed .. and so did I .. it was great fun!

We continued to read Bridge to Terabithia. But I am surprised at how many words I am having to edit out as I read. I am also not sure if I like the portrayal of the family in the story.. basically a son who feels unloved. I thought this was a type of sci-fi book.. I have never read it and have not seen the movie so I have no idea what is coming next. The kids are enjoying it.. esp the part where Jesse runs in the race and the girl ends up winning. (my kinda girl).. So.. I will keep going and hope it all turns out ok. I keep thinking.. Its a Newberry.. its gotta be good.

We also sang some hymns today while I was cooking lunch.. the boys and I mostly.. they seemed to like it.

I have been doing some reading about Montesorri activities and wonder if they have some for older kids. I got a great book for younger ones if you are interested.... .. I also got "The Unofficial Guide to Homeschooling" its been fun to flip through and read.

On the house front.. the Sheetrock man has one more day and he will be done... then I can paint. The dishwasher is amazing! I am so surprised it holds a whole days worth of dishes and gets them realllly clean without me having to rinse them.. I do one load at night before bedtime! Its great.

Update on baby bird.. evidently it was someones late night snack last night.. checked the nest this morning and it was completely gone. Good news is.. no signs of a struggle so hopefully it was a quick death for the poor thing.

I found the article below here. I keep saying my ministry at this time in my life IS my family. This is what I mean. I know there are seasons in this life. The one I am in right now is my family ministry roll. Would love to hear your thoughts on this one :)

Mary was studying her Bible quietly at her desk. A still, small voice began to speak to her.

"Mary?"

"Yes, LORD?" Mary had been walking with the LORD and recognized His still, small voice. Especially in His Word.

"Mary, what if I was to ask you to go to work for Me."

"Oh, yes, LORD." Mary answered anxiously. "To France, perhaps?" As she gazed at the globe on her desk, pointing a finger decidedly on Paris.

"Mary, what if I was to ask you to go to work for Me in an obscure place."

"Ah, yes, LORD." Mary sat dreaming while moving her finger down a bit. "Africa. The jungle..." Her mind wandered to the missionary stories she had read, "perhaps where Elizabeth Elliot worked."

"Mary, what if I was to ask you to work for Me in an even more obscure place."

"Hmmmm...even more obscure. South America, LORD? Or innermost China? Or perhaps Indonesia? Is that what you mean LORD?"

"Mary, what if I was to ask you to work for Me in a home."

"Ah, now I understand, LORD. A home for handicapped kids."

"Mary, what if I was to ask you to work for Me in an obscure home."

"An obscure home? Perhaps a home for orphaned children in Mexico or South America?"

"Mary, what if I was to ask you to work for Me in your own obscure home?"

"Here, LORD? Here?! All I do here is scrub, vacuum, wipe noses, wash clothes, sing lullabies, pray with toddlers, change diapers, cook meal after meal, sweep and dust, stretch one income, mop and mop; oh, and then over and over the very same thing again. Sometimes more in one day that I can count. This can't be the obscure home You mean, LORD!"

"Yes, Mary. This is the home. Will you do it for Me? For when you do it for the least of these, you do it for Me. Will you do it for Me, Mary?"

Big sigh. "No one is going to notice it, LORD. Not even the ones I am doing it for. None of them really even care, LORD. Everything I do, they undo. And then I have to do it all over again. Don't you think Paris is kind of obscure?"

Big Smile. "Mary, I have chosen you especially for this work in this specific place. I have Leaders and Warriors being raised here. I have wives of Leaders and Warriors being raised here. Will you wipe these noses for Me, Mary? Will you bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the LORD, Mary? Some day I may send them out to places like China, Indonesia, South America, Mexico, and yes, perhaps even Paris. Will you do this for me, Mary, in this obscure home of yours?

Spinning the globe gently, Mary bowed her head, "Yes, I will, LORD. Yes, I will."

"I'll do it through you, Mary. Keep coming to me for your strength. It is a very big job raising My Warriors and My Wives of Warriors; but I will walk you through it every step of the way."

Mary thought of her namesake, the mother of Jesus, raising her LORD and Savior in her own obscure home. "You are too awesome for me, LORD. You are too awesome for me." Mary said, as she bent to kiss The Word.

"But women will be saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with propriety." 1 Timothy 2:15

"I love you, LORD, my strength" Psalm 18:1

-- Laine Amavizca
visit her website: Laine's Letters

Baby

2007-05-20T18:44:00.001-07:00

Do we do "school" on the weekends? My answer.. YES.. esp when it falls from the sky!

I let the dog out this afternoon to .. well.. you know.. and a few minutes later I saw her acting funny.. like there was something she wanted to play with realllly bad.. I called her in and went to see.. and look what I found!

Poor little thing.. I think it is a robin but I am not sure.. well.. 90% sure.. I will check it out with the kids after while..

The little thing was so hungry. I had the kids come and look. We observed that if we talked really loud it would pop its head up waiting for a snack.

Well.. what do you do with a little bird so cute and in such bad circumstances? Well.. I did what any homeschooling mom would do.. I headed to the internet. I found this site and decided we would try to get it back into its nest. I asked homeschool Dad to help but our tallest ladder would not reach the nest. So.. back to the internet for plan B. Making a nest was our second option. So.. as you can see in the picture above Nathan is holding our "nest"

Here it is again wishing we would feed it.

Here is where it fell from... see the little brown patch.. thats the nest.

This is Nathan really liking getting this close to it.

Close up of the "nest".

Mom trying to put it in the tree where it wouldnt fall again.

Nest all ready.

Mom picking up the poor thing.

Its so tiny! Isnt God amazing!

It looks so tired.

Putting it in its new "home".

Making sure I didnt put it on its head.

Yep.. its ok. Now we just need momma or daddy robin to come feed it.

I dont have much hope that it will live but we all feel like we gave it a bit of a fighting chance. I felt sure it would be dead when I went out 4 hours later but to my surprise it popped its head up when I came to snap a picture. I have not seen mom or dad robin but we havent sat and watched all that close either. It would be amazing if it makes it through the night.. but I doubt it will.

So.. that was our science lesson for today. I love living a lifestyle that makes days like today so wonderful. So.. tomorrow.. a mini-unit on Robins... sounds like a good idea to me :).. Remind me later to tell you about Survivorman and the word dinghy. .. :) right now I am off to read the kids to sleep :)

blessings
ruthie

happy day!

2007-05-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

8 years ago today I have a beautiful baby boy! Two weeks early, emergency c-section, and very unexpected in every way. He was over 8 lbs two weeks early! and was the sweetest "little" boy. It seems like only yesterday! .. I know time will continue to quickly fly by.. and soon he will be 16 and much taller and stronger than me! So I will cherish these next years and enjoy every minute... this is the time in my life when memories are made!

Happy birthday "Big Guy" we love you and are so thankful for you!

(as you can see .. yes he still had to do "school" on his birthday)

I posted earlier about the Choreganizer.. Here are some pics of how I have mine set up. It has worked beautifully.. in fact.. all three kids cashed in some of their bucks for Pokemon last night :) One funny thing.. Joseph asked if he could buy some bucks from me.. with his birthday money.. he was trying to work the system. funny.

the photo above shows the money in the bottom which I paid for yesterday's chores and then I "reloaded" the chore cards for this morning. Its the FIRST place the kid go in the mornings. Today we had a conversation about why Cat got paid 6 instead of 5 .. (she went above and beyond).. Its great!
Here you can see the Chore Store.. and the cards where I listed items they can purchase with their bucks.

Cat and Nate working at the coffee table.

And I thought it was so funny when Nate just came and plopped all his bookwork at my feet.. literally. I am in the process of checking Josephs work. .. .. just thought you would enjoy a "behind the scenes look" ..
The kids were completely finished with bookwork by 11:30.. I think the Choregonizer has really helped the boys.. cause doing their schoolwork is one of their chores.. so they want to finish it to put their card in the "finish" pile. Seems it keeps me from having to remind then to stay focused.

On the techno front.. today we had a DVR installed. I am so excited because it will enable me to use the TV more for our schooling.. and more easily. Planet Earth, How Its Made, Science and History Channel and more .. I can record the shows and have the kids watch them when they correspond to what we are learning! Also.. .. I can record shows like Pokemon and others they like and the kids can watch them in the afternoons when the "buy" time using the chore system.. Pretty neat!

gotta go.. get ready for a party
blessings
r

Abeka, Museum, and Books

2007-05-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

This past week has been busy but fun and educational. We took a trip to Houston and had a wonderful time visiting with family.

I enjoyed a long talk with my SIL who is a veteran homeschooling mom. I was so encouraged and of course it was so informative and fun to look at all the curricula she uses in her schooling, one of which was Abeka Language Arts. She had the book that Cat will be in for next year and it looked really good. I had never really looked or even considered Abeka. Why? (1.) Because I thought it was very expensive and (2.) I didnt realize you could purchase just certain books and not the whole grade level.
I spent a lot of time yesterday looking at Abeka's web site and have decided to order the Language Arts and Handwriting for all three kids. I am still debating about math. If there was ever a curr. I loved.. it is math u see.. so its going to be a hard sell to get me to switch.

One of the things she shared with me is a little system (book) called Choreganizers. I have tried all kinds of charts and systems for chores. When I started this system yesterday I could tell it would be different. Its a great system, easy, and very motivating for my kids. I love how the back of the cards have instructions on how to do certain chores.. .. its just great! I have created a link here.. be sure and click on "additional views" and it will take you to another page where you can actually see the cards front and back views.

My other SIL and I took the kids to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. We all had a great time. The kids said they liked the Dinosaurs, Mummy, and Butterfly habitat the best. I enjoyed Ancient Rome, with all its carved marble, gods and goddesses, jewelry, and everyday items... in the Chemistry section it was fun to see the "life size" periodic table with examples of each element inside. All and all it was an amazing.. and of course it seems the museum is a bit like the library for us.. we could have stayed until it closed and gone back the next morning! I could go on and on.. and I wish I could post some pictures.. but it seems we have misplaced both our cameras and so I had neither for the trip. I did have my cell phone and took a few shots with it.. but I have no idea how to get the pics off of it. :)

Our school day yesterday was wonderful. The kids did their book work at the dining table together while I hopped for child to child answering questions and make sure they were working diligently. We read Bible yesterday as well and began our new read aloud. The kids are all now in chapter books so I thought I would post what they were reading too:
our read aloud : Bridge To Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Nathans reading: Magic Tree House Tigers at Twilight
Josephs reading: Magic Tree House Twister on Tuesday and Kidnapped by Robert Lois Stevenson
Cats reading: A Encyclopedia Brown book and The Borrowers by Mary Norton
We plan to head to the library today and look forward to seeing what they pick out next!

On the home front.. our bathroom remodel is coming right along, my new dishwasher ROCKS! (I dont even have to rinse the dishes and the washer gets them spotless!.. amazing!) and I think today I will be completely caught up on laundry :)

thanks for reading!
blessings!
Ruthie

our day :)--homefires

2007-05-07T19:23:00.000-07:00

Ahhh.. today was a day that will go down as one of those "best" homeschooling days :) Not that everything was perfect.. but a good day non-the-less :)

I got some much needed sleep .. after having quite a few nights of stormy weather.. or neighbors having Cinco de Mayo celebrations.. so I woke up this morning full of energy :) .. The boys did their math at the dining table while Cat worked in her room. After bookwork was finished we did flashcards for about thirty minutes.. I then allowed the kids to have a break and go jump on the trampoline. Later the kids did spelling, handwriting and English.. with the boys at the table and cat in her room. This seemed to workout better as I could fold clothes just feet away from the boys and answer any questions and give pointers as needed (Like.. "start you letters from the top" etc).. We then had lunch and did chores. The kids played on the NASA kids website, did some riddle reading from a Critical Thinking book, and then had a little break. I then read from Joshua and learned about all the land distribution to the Israelites and continued to read from "Cricket". While I was reading the kids sat at the dining table coloring a few history pages. We also worked on our Nations song and got yet another line down. :) This afternoon the kids played with our next door neighbors (hide and seek, trampoline, and a game Cat taught them that she learned at PE)

It seemed the "schedule" we used today worked really well. I will try it again tomorrow and see if the day goes as well :)

I appreciate everyones comments on the last post. It has been an encouragement to read other peoples comments. :) I have done a bit of browsing and found this site today:

One of my favorite finds today was Homefires
the text below is from a list of "15 Common Characteristics of Successful Homeschools" I have copy and pasted my two favorites! check out the rest of the list.. its great! The also have a section called "click schooling" which highlights some of the best learning sites-interactive educational sites.
Teach your kids because you think it's a privilege and a good idea. Learning with your children is a way of expressing affection for them. Giving them knowledge is like giving them a big hug. When education is presented in this way, and with this understanding and attitude, you can't help but create an environment of mutual respect and good will that will serve you throughout your homeschool journey and throughout your lives together.

Above all, remember this, you are not just teaching your child, you are teaching your grandchildren's mother or father how to teach them. Humbling, isn't it? Believe in the magic in your child that will transform him or her to the vision of the adult you hope they will become. Hold that vision in your mind and heart and let it guide your words and deeds throughout your homeschooling days.

Photos.. and DEEP thoughts on Parenting

2007-05-03T19:08:00.000-07:00

Well. .. this was the big day for Cat.. She cut her hair for Locks of Love. The good news is.. she LOVES it and is happy that she cut it off.. (that's nice :)

We have had some pretty heavy rains lately.. I took this picture of our river.. uhm.. I mean street when one of the storms was passing through..

And of course the kids were a bit worried about all the rain and high winds but the dog was quite worked up.. she would actually look to the ceiling when it thundered. .. and then look at us as if to say.. "Hey.. did you hear that?"

Our days are going good.. working on all our subjects.. enjoying some more than others.. :) The good news is I asked Nate what his favorite subject was.. and he said "reading".. YIPEE!

I will post more later this weekend.. the house is calling me to clean it.. and you know laundry never gets done when you are sitting at a computer !

Those of you who know me.. know I love searching for homeschooling blogs I like.. tonight I found this post (below) on this blog (click here).. and I just had to post it on my blog. .. you can read it .. I will have more thoughts at the bottom : (lucky you huh?)

During one of my brief visits on the computer today,

I was compelled to check my good friend's blog

(which she rarely posts on... but I'm always hopeful).

To my surprise, she did happen to have a recent post!

As I read her post, it saddened and warmed my heart

all at the same time.

(Be sure to visit her and read what she has written)

For those that know me, it is usually easy to see (at least I hope)

that one of my greatest heartbeats is loving and enjoying my children.

I treasure and believe whole-heartedly when God declares,

"Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD:

and the fruit of the womb is his reward"

~ Psalm 127:3 (emphasis added)

How sad and tragic it is when young and older mamas alike

truly do not view their precious children as God says they are.

All too often children are seen as being annoying,

burdensome, irritating, too much to 'handle', etc...

All too often, mamas can't wait until

their baby is six weeks old so they can go back to work,

or until school starts up so the children aren't home all day,

or until bedtime when they can have a 'peaceful' moment,

or even until their children are grown and out of the house,

and perhaps when their children have children so they can just

'give the child back to the parent' as a grandparent.

Why are these little souls not treasured?

Aside from sin and the loss of natural affection,

I believe that part of the problem lies in the older Titus 2 women.

(And we are all older Titus 2 women is some ways

and, in the least, we have the potential to be)

Isn't it interesting in Titus 2, verse 3

that the 'aged women' are commanded to

"...teach the young women to ... love their children"?

Wouldn't you think that loving our children would be 'natural'?

No, it really isn't. Loving self is our nature... our sin nature.

I join my friend in challenging you

to love your children, enjoy your children, treasure your children.

They are our blessed heritage and reward from God Himself.

I also challenge you to become a Titus 2 woman

and challenge, encourage, and pray for other mamas

to love their children, to find joy in their children, and to treasure them.

Will you, too, step up to the challenge and God's calling?

----
I know not all moms out there feel burdened by their children and "cant wait to see them go off to school or daycare etc etc.. " but I think an over whelming majority of women DO feel that way. I agree with the comments above but I also think that in order to be able to be around your child(ren) alllll day.. you have to train them. By training them I mean the "D" word.. yes "discipline" . Being around untrained children IS exhausting and who can blame some Moms for wanting to get them out of the house. I have witnessed countless Parents (Moms and Dads) who have giving over all control to their children. The children run the family. (I could give lists and lists of examples.. but will spare you.. I am sure you have witnessed this yourself).. So many Parents out there are looking for solutions.. cant find what works for them.. or have never been shown.. and they just give up and give in.. and live a miserable "cant wait until they are 5.. or out of the house" survival mode.

I have lived only 38 years on this planet.. but I have seen many joys and tragedies as it relates to how people parent. I have seen many college age men and women who had wonderful parents and .. I am afraid to say.. many many more who had parents that were present financially, and physically but not emotionally or spiritually. I have heard stories (9 years worth) from these "grown" kids and "visited" with many of these kids parents and heard regrets from both the parent and the children.

And.. you wonder.. what does this have to do with me? .. Well.. This is at the core of why I home school the way I do, why I think it is so important for ME to raise my children. I want my kids to know that no matter what.. THEY are NOT a burden.. but a JOY to ME!
I pray that the Lord, who blessed me with these precious souls with guide me to be the Mom he knows I can be to them. I pray .. as well, that other Moms and Dads out there realize that these are the moments they will NEVER get back. If you miss your kids childhood.. you miss it!
In reality I believe that most parents do the BEST they think they can for their kids. But is it just me.. or does it seem that over the last few years.. the idea of parenting as an important role has lost its appeal to parents?

So.. heres to trying to be the best Mom I can be and realizing that childhood is just too precious to just wish away. I hope and pray that I will always strive to be that Titus 2 woman.

"3Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good.
4 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children,
5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on the article above as well! :)

blessings
ruthie

cats room tweeking - better color ribbons

2007-05-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

I we went to walmart today and found ribbons that matched the color a bit better.. hers some shots :)

Cats room makeover

2007-05-01T20:18:00.000-07:00

Here are the before and afters of Cats room. Today she really worked hard.. painting the walls (cutting in and rolling) while I did the ceiling. She got that painter talent in her blood! :)

The wall that is blank will soon have a Bible verse or the "I have not lived in Vain" poem by Emily Dickenson.. she is trying to decide ")

The shot above is her beading area .. the wall above it will be painted "Catherine's Bead Shop" Heres a close up.

This is a "bubble" wall.. I will try and get some better pics of it tomorrow when the sunlight is shining in.. but you get the idea :)

Things I heard while working today
"OH I LOVE IT!"
and
" I would never want to do this for a living"

Painting, Learning, Laughing

2007-05-01T08:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after finishing our school work the kids and I started painting Cats room. The had a GREAT time.. we hope to finish it today or tomorrow :)

Our Roses have just been beautiful this spring. Here are two pictures from the back yard :)

Above is a shot of the kids flower garden.. in the very top you can see morning glory the larger ones just below are sunflower (mammoth) and the foreground are Zenia's :) cant wait to see if they keep growing and bloom! Here a picture of the kids artwork. This is done with little plastic beads and then you iron it to have it stay together. The had a great time.

Our school work is going great.. heres an update:
Bible: Reading about Joshua and how the Kings of Cannon were plotting to attack him. God sent hail stones down during a battle. The stones killed more men than the swords of the Isrealites. (whoever said reading the Bible is boring has never read it)
Read aloud: We are almost finished with our book "Cricket in Times Square" and will start "Bridge to Terabithia" when we are done.
Spelling:Joseph worked from his spelling book. Cat worked on line on this site.
Math- math-u-see is flying by. Nate is now adding three digit money. Jo is working on perimeter and area (and when it stops raining I told him the could find the area and perimeter of our backyard) ..Cat is in multiple digit loooong division. :)
English, and handwriting were completed yesterday as well.. (today will be some Latin and History)

Extra:
The other night it thundered right above out house.. scaring myself, the dog, and Cat out of bed at 3 am. I was so frightened (getting woken out of dead sleep) that I was shaking all over. The next morning we were talking about what had happened and how it took me for ever to go back to sleep because of the adrenaline rush.. Cat asked what adrenaline actually was.. we discussed it but we will actually "study" it today.

We are in the process of remodeling out bathroom so I had Cat help figure square footage on our bathroom to find out how much tile we would need.

When Nate scraped his knee the other day he asked "mom, are we cold blooded or warm blooded?" of course the answer ended up being a discussion..
Another funny thing Nate said yesterday morning. "Mom, the other night I stayed awake until I fell asleep!"

Lots more to tell but not the time..board games played, songs sung, cleaning and organizing done.. but.. the unfinished half purple room awaits us this morning and we still have to get out school work done.

Our Day

2007-04-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

Today started off like any other. I got up and started to make breakfast for the family. The kids, dog and cat all wondered into the den to see what was cooking :) We all had breakfast and gave goodbye hugs to Daddy and started our "schooling". The kids have been asking more and more if they could watch TV.. but the rule is.. no.. no "freetime" until schooling is complete.

So.. the kids started with Math-u-see. Cat finished her two pages all on her own with only one question :) Nate began rounding to the nearest 100th place so I showed him what that ment.. he caught on quickly.. and was FAST at telling me how to round 155. He complete his work and began his handwriting. Joseph started his math.. but for the last few days he has been "procrastinating" a bit.. I have noticed that his math pages have more and more problems and I can sense that he is having issues with his eyes. So.. after he completed a few problems on his own (written) I did the rest orally. I try not to do this very often.. only when I sense he is getting frustrated. The LAST thing I want is for him to be frustrated in Math or Reading. .. He breezed through his oral math work wonderfully.

After Math we spent some time looking at the kids flower garden. Morning Glory, Sun flowers, and others are popping out of the ground. The Sunflower was GREAT.. two had the seed shells laying on the tiny leaves. The kids thought that was so neat!

The kids had a bit of a break while I cleaned the kitchen and visited with my Aunt-in-law .. she lives next door. .. Anyway.. she had cut some Amarillas (like the flowers in the photo but ours were red instead of pink) and I noticed them in her trash in the garage.. the stems of these flowers are hollow! .. which I didnt know.. so I asked if I could take it and show the kids. She then offered to pull up a small oak tree that had 4 leaves on it.. she dug it up and you could see the acorn and root system. I said "thanks for the botony lesson!" and went to show the kids. Joseph dissected the flower and all its parts and commented on the interesting smell the stem had. The kids alll thought it was really neat but it seems that Joseph took a liking to it more than the others..

As we were looking at the plants together I heard thunder and turned on the TV and sure enough we had some sever weather heading out way.. We ended up spending about an hour in the hallway reading our Bible and Cricket book :) .. the kids liked it.. although I dont think they like the bad weather. We might have to sit in the hallway on a sunny day sometime :) After the storms past we looked outside and saw our road was a huge river of water. I then suggested the kids make paper boats and after they were made we went outside and sailed them down the stream that was our road. After we were finished Cat said "Now THAT Was FUN!"

The kids have been working all day on some special artwork .. which I dont know they name of.. but you have beads that you place on a guide tray and then iron them .. they melt together to form the design you created. I will post pictures of these later.. but the rest of the day was filled with reading, art/craft, jewelry making, as well as some TV. I allowed them to watch the Bernstein Bears, Reading Rainbow, and a bit of Animal Planet (during which time I got my workout in).

All and all it was a fun day. Filled with LOTS of questions.. and answers.. and great memories!

Blessings
Ruthie

Our weekend.. some thoughts

2007-04-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend. Saturday was busy with our garage sale. We did very well by the way and have only a couch left to get rid of. I am so glad all that extra furniture is gone to someone who will love having it. The kids made a little extra money by selling some of their toys they no longer played with. I suggested that Catherine put out her handmade jewelry at the cash table to sell. She did very well and sold almost all her inventory!(ended up making 40.00! total) She was so excited! I think it was a thrill for her to see that other people loved the things she created. She was back at it last night creating more pieces to sell, probably on a table at Art Camp and she will have a little spot if we go to Canton to sell my art.

We had several garage sales in our neighborhood and I bought some old wooden windows I am going to paint on and sell. I ended up getting in contact with someone from church who is going to bring me more later this week! I am so thrilled! I have been praying for God to help my business grow and look what he is doing! The windows will mostly be painted and have scripture written on them .. I will post a few pics when I get my first one completed.. but here are a few examples I found in the internet.. just for kicks:

you can look at their website here:)

On a lighter note.. I have been doing a bit of research on Hand-washing dishes vs using a Dishwasher. WHY? Well.. our dishwasher stopped washing as good as it use too .. so I decided to start hand washing. I have done this for about three weeks now and have found that hand washing doesn't require more time in the kitchen like I thought it would. I like hand washing. Its relaxing to me. But as I contemplate whether we should buy a new dishwasher I wondered if it really was more economical/energy efficient to use a machine. I thought at first water conservation would lean toward machine washing. But in the reading I have found MOST people prerinse their dishes BEFORE placing them in the washer. THIS has always made me think.. "you know.. if I JUST ad some soap to this process then the dishes would be done and not have to be washed in the washer" .. Long story short.. from what I have read.. its literally a "wash" .. The hand washing might use more water than the machine.. BUT not if you rinse the dishes first. The machine might use less soap than hand washing .. but it has chemicals that are bad for the environment.. (phosphates) .. and if you buy phosphate free automatic soap.. its pricey. I could go on and on .. how they off set each other.. but I wont bore you any longer..

So.. are you a hand washing fan or a Automatic Gal?

Interested in coming to the hand washing side? heres some tips :)

We are off to the grocery store.. one of our weekly field trips :) todays focus? "How stores use consumer marketing and how to not give in to the call to buy buy buy"

Our Day in Pictures

2007-04-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

Today was one of those days where everything was just so much fun and the kids were so excited about learning. One of those days where it just happens naturally. SWEEET.

Here is Cat taking a break from working on a Lapbook about the state of Texas to work on her math. I did NOT tell her to make a lap book, she just got the stuff out and started creating one on Texas. Last night she made one on Cats, and this morning finished one on horses. As I was walking through to check on the boys she said "Man Mom.. I am learning so much from just making these books!" I thought to myself! "YES" and mentally gave myself a high five and thanked CM and CL for helping my find our way to this kind of learning!

Here is our High tech bird feeder. It sits that close to the door and when the door is closed we can sit right by the door and be less than a foot away from the birds. The cat (Tanner) is thinking that if he site there REALLY still he will catch one!

This is the aftermath of MATH U See :) looks fun huh? We got into a deep conversation and "learning zone" about the decimal point.. its too long to explain here but all three kids learned so much! .. I also explained Pi to Catherine.. that was fun.

Here the boys are playing this game.. Its a place value game.. the kids really enjoyed the music.. its the survivor theme :) And Nathan didnt want to stop playing..! Its a 4th grade level game and we got as far as the millionths place.. i think it might go farther than that! FUN:)

So after a long and fun math session I gave the kids a break to jump on the trampoline. After about 15 mins I came out with my Bible and Cricket in Times Square. We LOVED just laying on the trampoline and reading. It was BEAUTIFUL outside :) In Bible we read of Joshua and the Israelites crossing the Jordan. AMAZING!

I made the kids squeeze together to get a picture :)

And last but not least is a picture of our very own cricket! Tonight while I was getting things ready for a garage sale which we are having in the morning.. .. The kids heard a cricket chirping. The cat was fixing to pounce on it.. so the kids decided they wanted to try and catch it. As you can see .. they DID.. Nathan.. of course was the first to catch it.. .. then it got out twice and once Joseph and then Cat re-caught it. It is now in a palace and seems to be liking its new home. The kids wanted to keep it and right away started asking what to feed it. I sent them to Mr. WB (world book) .. and they came in and out of the garage many many times to tell me something new they had learned from WB. I then got on the internet and found this site which said to feed the cricket lettuce and bran. So the kids got a piece of both and cant wait to see if it eats it. I just hope 1. it doesn't wake me up in the middle of the night chirping and 2. it does squeeze out of its palace. .. we will see I guess.

Happy Birthday---Freedom for Goldie

2007-04-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

It is just hard to believe but my baby is SIX! He said he really like being 5 and didnt know how he would like being 6. So far so good. Of course a few new arrows, some cash and a new sling shot helps a lot. :)

Here is a shot of the birthday boy with the famous chocolate cake. Nate picked the yellow icing, kisses and over sized m&ms. You can see he has a bit of cotton in his ear. Thankgoodness he was feeling good enough to eat cake :)

These are some decorations the kids made, without me knowing I might add. Pretty cute huh.

As you can see we have GREAT lively parties :)

Here's the team.. happy to celebrate together!

I have an announcement to make!
Our family is pleased to announce that one of our members has moved away. Of course I could have said "flown the coup" but he/she is a fish.. so I guess I could say .. "left the tank"
We have had Goldie for about three years. We bought her at walmart for 26 cents along with 5 other goldfish. She was the sole survivor. She has gotten so large she can hardly turn around in our 10 gallon tank.

Thankgoodness there is a wonderful lady at church that has an AMAZING goldfish pond in her back yard. We asked if she would take him and she agreed. :) Above I am trying to get him out of the tank.

heres a close up shot of him in the tank

And HERE HE/she GOES! FREEDOM! I thought I heard him scream.. "TTTHAAANNKKS"
At first we were a little worried cause he went to the bottom and stayed there for a bit. After a few minutes he came to the surface to meet his new friends.

He is the light gold fish.. heading away from us.

And here he is smiling .. he came back up to say thank you. :)

WE are so happy he is in a pond now.. The other goldfish were close to the same size as he/she and right before we left we saw goldie swimming underneath the waterfall. :)We all agree she will be very happy. Thanks Eleanor!

What happens when they are sick?

2007-04-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

The past few days have been a bit more laid back around our house. Illness can do that to a homeschooling family sometimes :)
Cat has been having issues with allergies and Nate has an ear pretty bad ear infection. It is interesting to me that even when the children dont feel well, they continue to learn. Here is a short list of some things they have been doing the last few days:

Reading (from starwars technology books, pokemon comics, social studies books, and biographies, just to name a few)
Puzzles
Study from the book of Acts (Cat)
Math workbook
Handwriting
Latin review
Memory Song Review
Being read to (our current read aloud "A Cricket in Times Square")
Playing chess and mancala (heres a link to a snail mancala game our wonderful librarian gave us.. the kids will probably play this today)
watching the birds eat the bird seed we put outside REALLY close to our back sliding glass door. The birds are literally inches away from the children (and inches away from the dog and cat.. who are so fun to watch as the lick their lips dreaming of catching thier lunch)
Making Puppets for a puppet show, writing the script, practicing, and putting on a "clip" to show what we will see at tomorrow showing. (of course I will post pictures of the show..they will perform it today)
Watched the Science Channel (our favorite channel).. How Its Made (from Glass Eyes, to Mirrors) and Planet Earth .
I can even begin to tell about all the in depth conversations I have had with the kids.. from "What is a Calorie", to "What is an antibiotic", and "How do they take the dogs stitches out.. does it hurt.. what exactly did they do to her?" (we got her fixed..)

All this to say.. that even when children dont feel 100% they are still interested in learning. They are still questioning things and looking for answers. AND even when Mom has had little to no sleep.. and is tired, learning still takes place.

I said a few posts back that I had found Charlotte Mason Methods more my homeschooling style.. I talked about how I had been doing many things the CM way and didnt even realize it was CM. Here is what I mean:

This picture was taken over a year ago while. We went on a trip to the Zoo and I had the kids take paper, and pencil to do sketches and jot down information about the animals they found interesting. As you can see from Cats paper.. she filled the pages up! Also.. I might add.. making sure they wrote the Latin name of each animal. ..

Here is Nate in the foreground and Cat in the background.. on Campus at the local University where we heard the lecture about the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. Before the lecture started I had the kids do a few sketches of "nature" they found close by.

thanks for reading..
blessings!
r

De-cluttering-freeing time and space!

2007-04-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

After a trip to my sweet SiL this past Easter weekend, I was so inspired by her ability to make her house a home! She has an amazing abiblity to organize and decorate to fit HER family needs and I was so inspired I came home and gave it my all. :) I have a few pictures below

Below are two shots of the Living room "before"

This is after I removed the two couches and replaced them with the furniture from our den.Never did like the pink.. SOO... Below: This is the point I am today. I "faux finished" the wall and we bought up to date and much smaller lamp shades :)My plan is to make a large painting on canvas to hang above the couch.. but for now..my favorite picture of the kids will have to do :)

This isnt a very good picture but its the only one I could find for a before picture. This is the den. (we were celebrating Cats birthday :)

Below: This is after! Must more open .. and I think will be a LOT easier to keep clean! We have LOVED having our Dining Table up and extended all the way (it is a drop leaf and is usually tucked away and not open)We now are able to eat our meals together without having to set up the table PLUS the kids have another great space to spread out their school work, puzzles, or other projects :)

The kids love this chair here.. Cat asked last night if she could sit there and read instead of reading in bed! I also got a much smaller lamp shade for this lamp and it looks LOTS better.. but I was too lazy to take a picture just for the new lamp shade so you will just have to visualize :)

I read many years ago in a homeschooling book that if you werent happy at home.. in your surroundings.. homeschooling would be stressful. I also read that you shouldnt even start homeschooling until you have your house under control and manageable. That has always been in the back of my head. After de-cluttering these two rooms and living with them for the last 5 days I have to agree that homeschooling is going to be sooo much less stressful because I have control of my house hold surroundings. For me more open space, a cleaner area equals less stress over household chores and has left more time for the important part of life!
So.. if you having issues with being happy with your house.. make it a home. And with the conversation I had with my SiL in mind "Dont worry about what other people have or how they live.. make your house work for YOUR family." (Thanks Angell for inspiring me to do this!)

Ivory-billed Woodpecker.. a lecture!

2007-04-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

I am going to do a quick post while the kids finish up their lunch. We have had a wonderful day today!
This morning the kids worked hard to get chores, math, and history completed so we could go listen to a presentation about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. The lecture was held at the University where my husband works and was sponsored by our local Universities, local Zoo, and the local Chapter of the Audubon Society. Before I had received the email from our home school support group I had never heard of The Ivory-billed Woodpecker. But with our recent change to official nature study I thought the kids and I would enjoy this lecture.

At first the boys were not at all interested.. but when i showed them this picture:
They were instantly asking questions. The man in the photo above was the man presenting today. His name is Bobby Harrison.
Here is a quote from this article:

"While kayaking in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge on Feb. 11, 2004, Gene Sparling of Hot Springs, Ark., saw an unusually large, red-crested woodpecker fly toward him and land on a nearby tree. He noticed several field marks suggesting the bird was an ivory-billed woodpecker.

A week later, after learning of the sighting, Tim Gallagher, editor of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Living Bird magazine, and Bobby Harrison, associate professor at Oakwood College, Huntsville, Ala., interviewed Sparling. They were so convinced by his report that they traveled to Arkansas and then with Sparling to the bayou where he had seen the bird.

On Feb. 27, as Sparling paddled ahead, a large black-and-white woodpecker flew across the bayou less than 70 feet in front of Gallagher and Harrison, who simultaneously cried out: "Ivory-bill!" Minutes later, after the bird had disappeared into the forest, Gallagher and Harrison sat down to sketch independently what each had seen. Their field sketches, included in the Science article, show the characteristic patterns of white and black on the wings of the woodpecker."

Needless to say.. the lecture was wonderful! We were given the history of the bird and how it was believed to be extinct, we were showed very old photographs, sound recordings and video of the bird. IT was just fantastic!

They had available two books, one of which was a childrens book. If you are interested you can click here.

The other great thing I found out is that our local Audubon Society has a website with lists of over 150 local birds AND birding locations! FUN!

The rest of our day will be filled with the kids getting the seeds into the garden, reading, and helping prepare for Bible class tonight :)

PS>. I know what you are wondering.. and dying to ask "Were your kids the only kids at the lecture?" .. answer.. yes! (The event was attending by mostly college students[getting credit for a class], birdwatchers, professors, and some zoologists from our local zoo!] .. yes we stuck out like a sore thumb.. but loved every minute of it! :)

Thanks for reading!
blessings
ruthie

Picture fun

2007-04-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

I decided to post a few random pictures :) These show a bit of what we have been doing lately.

Here the kids are preparing the flower garden area. I hope to have seeds in the ground tomorrow afternoon :)

The kids washed Dads car. Here the boys are getting those tires really really clean!

This shot of Cat was taken this morning after she finished her math and studied her Bible Bowl.

Some time ago I posted that I no longer had a school room. I dont think I eve posted after pictures. Here is a picture of the boys study area. This "center" has magnets, geo-boards, math blocks, paper, school books, bird guides, binoculars, rock collection and rock identification book, art books, math games, map puzzles, globe, and on the bottom shelf.. the wonderful file system that hold each boys loose paper work :)

We had a great day today.. spent the day with Math, reading, helping organize the house, reading some more, researching information that the kids read about, and much more! I began A Cricket in Times Square last night and the kids LOVE it so far. I have found a few sites that I will use throughout our reading but will post those later.
I am taking the kids to an area Audubon meeting tomorrow.. I will post about that tomorrow as well :)

Have a blessed day!
Ruthie

Two Days Worth of Learning :)

2007-04-04T15:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a busy busy day. I knew we were too busy when my middle son asked "Are we going to get to stay home all day tomorrow?" .. They missed being home.. I did too. One of the things we did was get some flower seeds as the store. Last night the kids began digging up the flower garden area.. I till take a few days to get ready but they are so happy working in the dirt, hauling bricks, playing with earthworms, and replanting grass! The were in their element. They all looked so cute that I wanted to grab the camera but I think I get on the kids nerves taking pictures of them all the time :) Catherine had on a long red white and blue prairie skirt and she reminded me of Laura walking around with the shovel and that skirt. Nathan was so sweet in his SHORTS and COWBOY BOOTS :) and Joseph was in his element trying to figure out the placement of the bricks around the perimeter. We all had fun last night. I loved working in the yard!

Although we did tons if running around yesterday the kids still got their math finished before we left. At the Library I picked up some poetry books and others I will list below. The poetry was GREAT .. before we left the Library the kids were all "fussin" (they really dont fuss much.. so I guess they were really discussing".. who was going to get to read "Runny Babbit" in the car. I told them we would pick three poetry books and we would rotate in the car every 60 seconds. Of course they said that wasnt enough time so what we did was just take turns reading poems. Each child had different books and after all the children finished reading they would rotate books. The kids LOVED it. The poems were so good!

Here is a list of other books we picked up while at the Library:

Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm (for Cat- silent reading)

Homer Price (two copies for Joseph and Nathan to read together)

A Cricket in Times Square-( for read aloud)

Catherine finished Jane Eyre Children's Illustrated Classic last night... read the last eight chapters to the end cause she wanted to see how it ended.. she LOVED it!) Here is her Narration she did this morning. She is also going to try and make a lap book as well.

Name three things about the Main Character:

She was an Orphan.
She was a Private Teacher (Governess).
She was a good Artist.
She was a teacher at the school.

Favorite part of the story:
My Favorite part was when Mr. Rochester got his eye sight back.

If you could be any person in the story, who would you be?
Mary, Jane's' cousin, because she seemed really nice.

Name places that were discussed in the book:
India, France, England,

What languages were discussed in the book:
English, French,

Who were the main Characters?
Jane, Mr. Rochester, Mrs Fairfax, Grace Poole, Bertha (Mrs Rodchesters wife)

What you liked about the book?
All of it.

If you could end the book another way how would you end it?
For Bertha to not go mad.

Today the kids spent time with math, spelling, reading, working in garden, playing in the backyard, building an obstacle course around the outside of the house, putting together the first page of their nature books, helping Mom get ready for Bible class tonight, cleaned house, played with the dog, did copy work of a poem about an eagle (the boys) see below and Catherine tried to decide which poem she wanted to copy from Emily Dickinson (spending about 45 mins reading Emily's Poetry), and listened to two stories from "Kiddie Records"(one about an opera and one about a church mouse) as well as "Beethoven lives upstairs".

Heres the poem that is the boys copy work:
The Eagle (a fragment)

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

-- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Its been a great day.. I am looking forward to getting into a better routine once we get back from our trip. We are traveling for Easter.. so that always put s a kink in our days before we leave trying to get ready. Tomorrow.. we will spend most of the day packing and cleaning the house:)

Thanks for reading!
blessings
ruthie

Loving our Spring Days

2007-04-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

(I am not sure why this post is all in different size fonts.. I have tried to fix it but it just won't co-operate.. I guess I should have titled this post "The Mixed Up Fonts of Mrs. Ruthie S."..)

The last few days have been so beautiful here that we have really enjoyed the spring weather. Our Gladiolas, Morning Glory, Lark Spurs, and Roses are all getting ready to make it really colorful in our yard! We used the afternoon today for a nature study of our back yard. The kids gathered leaves from all the different trees, shrubs, and plants in our backyard. They brought them in the house and did rubbing's or sketched them for their Nature Books. I also put them between wax paper so we could mount them in the books. The children also copied or illustrated a poem by Emily Dickinson called "Nature", and we looked up what nature meant in Latin. They worked for quite a while and we put the books aside to put together tomorrow. I will post pictures of their first entries when they are finished.

We finished The Mixed Up Files Of Basil E Frankweiler (and could that title be any longer?). The Kids LOVED it. Today they also worked on a Lap book for the book which we will add to tomorrow as well.

Catherine began reading the Children's Illustrated Classic "Jane Eyre" and is flying through it. I told her last night as she stayed up late to read "Catherine dont you wakeup in the morning with a Literature hangover like your Mom did a few weeks ago" (When I read the original book I stayed up until 230am to finish it.. I couldn't put it down!). When she finishes I will get the old movie and we will have a movie night and see if its any better than the book. (I am sure it wont be.. but its fun anyway!)

We have read quite a few books the last few days.. here are some favorites:

My Senator and Me by Kennedy illustrated by David Small
So You Want to Be President.. Illustrated by David Small
The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audry Wood Illustrated by Don Wood
Into the Woods: John James Audubon Lives His Dream by Robert Burleigh Illustrated by Wendell Minor ( this book includes some of Audubons Nature Journal notes and paintings of animals.. GREAT book)

We are on the verge of getting the Israelites into the Promised land.. and should accomplish that tomorrow! Last time we read Moses passed away and Joshua took over Leadership.

The kids have also been flying through the audio books of Magic Tree House. I have no idea what number they are on.. but they LOVE those books. I got some of the research guides at the library and the boys esp loved them.

I have LOVED the Simply Charlotte Mason site (thanks C) .. And will begin using some of their printouts for copy work for the boys. They are so board with just doing handwriting pages and I LOVE how this site has a mixture of Hymn's, poems, and scripture for them to practice writing. There are also some corner bookmarks I thought were great.. Catherine has already made hers .. they look wonderful.

Ok.. thats all for now.. I just finished mowing the yard and I need to go clean the kitchen before it gets to late :)

blessings
Ruthie

Finding our Place

2007-03-31T15:12:00.000-07:00

Well, after a few years of schooling, I think I have finally found the "umbrella" we belong under. I have read so many books over the years on homeschooling, from Classical (which I do LOVE the Well Trained Mind) to Unschooling. I was loaned a copy about a year ago of
"A Charlotte Mason Companion" but I was too busy then to have time to read and soak it in. I ended giving the book back finally deciding I had NO time to sit through yet another homeschooling book.

During this time I have been trying the Classical Approach to our homeschool and trying to get into a schedule and lifestyle that would work for our family. I created a schedule a few months ago that was pretty strict. We did well on it for about two weeks and then we were back to "normal" (normal for us anyway). It seemed that I just couldn't fit myself into the mold of the schedule I was setting up for myself.

The thing I LOVE about homeschooling is that with Educating at home you can do what best serves YOUR family and YOUR children. I am a night owl and this frustrated me. After 9 years of being in a job where I worked many many late nights I just have issues with raising early. I use to fell guilty about this. I use to worry that if we weren't dressed and ready for "school" at 9am then I would be seen as a slacker.. or lazy. Well. I have finally come to terms with my natural sleeping patterns and I have decided its OK if we don't start "school" until 10. or 1030.
(although if consider the children eating breakfast, doing chores, and then having time to jump rope, roller blade, or play basket ball part of school (nutrition, home economics, and PE.) .. then we actually DO start school at 730 am :) What matters is if we are actually getting it done. .. and we are.

Two weeks ago a sweet friend who home schools loaned me "A Charlotte Mason Companion" and now I have time to read it :) I have to admit that Charlotte Masons philosophy is so much more my style. I have been teaching my children the "CM" way for years and didn't realize it. !
I LOVE this book and it is so nice to fell like I finally found my place in the homeschool world!

So.. with that said.. here are a few things I am starting next week with the kids.. and looking forward to it.

Spelling: I am going to give CM's method of spelling a try. I bought small notebooks for the children today and we will begin using spelling words we glean from their readings as their spelling words.

Nature study: We will go on nature walks twice a week. Today I also bought scrape books for each of the children. These nature journals will be filled with their sketches, descriptions, Latin scientific names and specimens that will be dried or wax papered.
"Charlotte’s image of the nature walk included the mother sitting on a large blanket and sending the kids off to find what they can find. They would return with their finds, or describe what they had seen to their waiting mother. This might work well for you. Others may use a blanket as a “home base.” I cannot help but walk with my children and find things. I don’t want to miss anything on our nature outings, and my enthusiasm is contagious. Either way is fine, I believe."

Below is an image of a home schoolers nature journal. I have placed the link below for you to see more of these pages. She has some great ideas on her site! Isn't the artwork below fantastic!

Images of a Home schoolers nature journal

Composition Books: I will have the children begin writing two days a week in their composition books. These will be used for their narrations. The younger children will probably do this orally and I will write it down for them to copy. I will also no longer be as strict on their handwriting books.. but will make sure they do some form of copy work everyday (probably scripture) to count as their handwriting.

Lap Books: My children love to color, paint, draw, and create. I have decided to have the children create "lap books" on subjects we have covered. Wonder what lap books are? heres are two links:
Lap books: (great pictures)

What is a lap book?
A lap book is basically an educational learning tool made from a folder and meant to take the place of worksheets.

Lap Books & links to "mini books"

Some we will do next week .. Ants (coming from our study of ants this past week) and Speed of Sound and Speed of Light.. I think the kids will LOVE doing this!

These are the changes I have decided to make so far.. and I think it will fit nicely with what we already do. We love our History (story of the world) so we will obviously continue with that but I will probably have the kids to lap books or narrations in their composition books for History as well as their workbook pages and maps they currently do. We love our Bible readings.. and are looking forward to getting those Israelites out of the desert! I hadn't realized it but all the books we have been reading since starting homeschool have been ones that are NOT considered "twaddle". .. so we will continue with those as well.

I plan to continue to educate throughout the summer as it is just a way of life for us. I also have problems with getting through our history in the few "schooling months" because we get caught in a time period and want to stay there for weeks. Its ok.. I have decided if it takes us two semesters and a summer to get through our history . .. and if we are loving it.. then its OK! :)

I also what to mention.. even if you have NO interest in schooling the Charlotte Mason way.. you should read this book. It will make you feel so wonderful and encourage you as a parent! She has such wonderful quotes in this book.. here are a few quotes and links as well:

Great CM site I found just today

Site #2

"The parent who sees his way- that is, the exact force of method to educate his child, will make use of every circumstance of the child's life almost without intention on his own part, so easy and spontaneous is a method of education based upon Natural Law. Does the child eat or drink, does he come, or go, or play- all the time he is being educated..."

"The object of children's literary studies is not to give them precise information as to who wrote what in the reign of whom? -- but to give them a sense of the spaciousness of the days, not only of great Elizabeth, but of all those times of which poets, historians and the makers of tales, have left us living pictures. In such ways the children secure, not the sort of information which is of little cultural value, but wide spaces wherein imagination may take those holiday excursions deprived of which life is dreary; judgment, too, will turn over these folios of the mind and arrive at fairly just decisions about a given strike, the question of Poland, Indian Unrest. Every man is called upon to be a statesman seeing that every man and woman, too, has a share in the government of the country; but statesmanship requires imaginative conceptions, formed upon pretty wide reading 'and some familiarity with historical precedents. "

"By the saying, EDUCATION IS AN ATMOSPHERE, it is not meant that a child should be isolated in what may be called a 'child environment,' especially adapted and prepared; but that we should take into account the educational value of his natural home atmosphere, both as regards persons and things, and should let him live freely among his proper conditions. It stultifies a child to bring down his world to the 'child's' level" (Mason 1923: preface).

So.. heres to finding our place.. and enjoying every minute of it!

Spring is HERE!

2007-03-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

We are all so thrilled that spring has sprung in our neighborhood! The red oak and pecan trees are so amazing to look at with their tiny little leaves coming out. We have really been trying to enjoy the weather and spending lots of time outside. Last week we read out Bible and other books on the trampoline! It was great!

A fews days ago we went on a nature study in our neighborhood. The first shot is of the kids sitting on our neighbors sidewalk sketching their pear tree. As you can probably tell Nathan is saying "mom.. i cant do it very good!" One of the things Nate is blessed with is a brain that is filled with knowledge well beyond his Kindergarten age. His handwriting and drawing are improving dramatically but he wants to draw as well as his oldest sister.. who has 5 years more practice than he does :) So I encouraged him and of course gave him a few pointers.. and he was happy with his end result. :)

The flowers are from our front yard..The kids sketched these too!

Here is Nate showing me he has just finished this slide puzzle .. It was exactly right when I had him hold it up but when I snapt the picture the top part "slid" over.. but you get the idea.
I have to add here.. I have tried and tried to work this very puzzle but I cant ever complete it. Its amazing to me that he can! I need to try and find more slide puzzles.. I have looked on the internet but havent had any luck. Any Ideas?

Our Sweet Friend M gave us this Silly Sentence game last night at Church. The kids had so much fun making funny sentences they were laughing and joking around with them for almost an hour. ! (thanks M)

I must say that this last week has been filled with lots of surprises like:

realizing that the little sugar ants that are trying to intrude my kitchen are actually a learning tool. After a meal one day I walked into the kitchen and found them all around a little dab of jelly that the kids had left on the counter. I hollered at the kids to come look and this led to many questions.. some of which WP would have to answer (world book). Cat also measured the plop of jelly with a centimeter ruler to see how long it was .. the kids then decided to leave it there all day and night to see how long it would take the ants to eat all the jelly. The next morning they were surprised to see that the jelly was tiny and that it was all dried up AND no ants to be found! (This made me realize that I really need to get an ant farm and also have them make some lap books about this)
The toaster is a lesson in Electricity. At breakfast this morning Cat asked ... "Why can you not put a metal knife in the toaster if the toaster is made of metal?" .. Well. this led her and I into a long talk about Electricity, good conductors, bad conductors, lightening rods, grounds, .. all sorts of things.
How one simple question can turn into a lesson.. Joseph asked how many milliseconds are in a second? He read in a National Geographic Kids magazine that every day the Earth adds a Millisecond .. thus increasing our day.. and that is why we have leap year.
When the kids LOVE a book (From the mixed up files...) they ask over and over if I will read it to them.. then when I read and say I am finished for the day the say "ahhhh.. plllleeease mom.. another chapter!" .. oh its great!.. They love it when I read to them.

I am pleased with the kids and their math lessons.. Jo came in today saying he had completed four pages because he wanted to get to the next lesson! Nathan had a few he skipped but when I asked him the questions orally he is able answer three digit addition questions in his head!

Thanks for reading!
blessings!

Cool, Nature Walk, and The Speed of Light and Sound

2007-03-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

Today and yesterday were fun days here at Blessed At Home :) Both days were filled with questions, answers, and even more questions.. and of course.. LOTS of reading!

We are still reading about Moses and the Israelites and are getting closer and closer to having them in the promise land. :) Joshua is now officially Moses' replacement and several tribes have opted not to live in Canaan but will fight for their fellow Israelites to go live there.

Our reading of The Mixed Up Files.. is great! we are on chapter 7 .. the kids are loving this book :)

Math has been going really good.. .. each child is advancing nicely and yesterday while driving to pick up a friends children from school I was quizzing the kids on their math facts. Cat is quicker with division than multiplication.. and Joseph likes Addition and Multiplication best. Nathan was quick to answer .. beating his siblings many times .. which they thought was surprising!

This morning before breakfast (while I was fixing breakfast) Joseph plopt himself down in the chair and said "Mom.. whats faster.. the speed of light or the speed of sound?".. My answer.. "great questions Joseph.. thats one for the World Book." .. so this afternoon after our readings we found the speed of light and sound in the World Book. It answered all of our questions and then some.. giving us great information of Scientists and the progression of discoveries as it relates to each. Here is a link that speaks about Speed of Light vs Speed of Sound.

After our short break where the kids got to jump on the trampoline, and I got to visit with DH who came home for a late lunch.. we went on a nature walk. The kids did sketches of four different trees in our Neighborhood. They then brought them home and we are making it into our version of a lap book. I will post pictures when they are finished :) They seemed to really LOVE this .. and it reinforced the idea that I need to get them each a Nature Sketch book and have nature walks at least weekly :)

The picture above of the children is with our newest member of the family. His name is Cool. Our sweet friends loaned him to us when they heard we were studying the body. Today I sat with the kids and we used an Anatomy book to locate the scientific names of different bones. (femur,the bones of the feet, phalanges, the collar bone and shoulder blades,.. among others :) I plan on printing out small pieces of paper with the names of the bones and have the children place those names on the correct location. (I will probably use a small amount of plastic tak to make them stick)

All in all a great week so far. We are so blessed to have our children at home with us. I think many times a day how different our lives would be if they were away in school all day. The children are such good friends and I know that it would not be that way if they weren't with each other so much. For me the Educating of my children is so much more than Education. Its about lifestyle, about family, about relationships, its about having time to be a kid, and about the joy of learning! Ah.. I am so very blessed.

I hope you are too!

blessings
Ruthie

the post that almost was

2007-03-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

Well.. I HAD created this wonderful post with lots of pictures and highlights of our last few days.. when I was finished I went to post it and it was lost into the oblivion that is cyberspace. For some reason blogger was gone and my post was no where to be found.

I will try a shorter version .. because I have other things needing done right now :)
What we read today:
Bible, Moses, and the story of Balak and Balaam.
So You Want to Be President
From the Mixed up File of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler
What we listened to today:
The Story of the World: Sinbad and the Valley of Snakes.
The Spanish radio channel, the birds, the dog, the wind
What we did today:
Math, penmanship, drawing, jumping, skooter riding, sidewalk chalk art, kitchen cleaning, bed making, friendship bracelet making, just sitting and talking on the couch.

More exciting posts later.. art is calling my name! :)

Please see the pictures below which are from a presentation we got to see a week or so ago with David Small and his wife Sarah Stewart. They were GREAT.. kids had a great time and were so inspired!

blessings
signed.. "sometimes technology is frustrating" ruthie

Post FULL of Pictures and Recipe

2007-03-09T16:28:00.000-08:00

Catherine at sewing lessons with Nana (her Grandmother) She is learning so much!

This is the pattern she is making.. letter B;)

Here she is proud of the pockets she has sewn on!

I mentioned in a previous post that Cat was looking up the state of Colorado to find its state tree. When I finished posting I walked into the den to find this. She had found 15 states and was looking at their Motos, state trees, date they became a state etc.. .. Great example that shows what can happen if a child is given freedom to just do what she/he wants for a while.

Here are some shots of PawPaw teaching the kids how to shoot. He has a compound bow, of which the children obviously cant even attempt to pull back..

Here is a shot right before PawPaw got a bullseye! :)

Now the kids take turns with their own bow. Nate is shooting.

The boys made the cake part of Daddy's Birthday cake. Here they are reading the recipe to make sure they get the right amount of eggs.

Here the boys are taking turns cracking eggs. (no shells I might add!)

WOW! look at it go! On a side note.. this mixer belonged to the kids great-grandmother! Love the mixer!

Cat made the icing but I failed to get a shot of that. Here is the finished cake with ALLL those candles :)
Want the recipe? Check at the bottom of the post.. Great family recipe!

Here is sweet Cat enjoying Math.

Josephs math page. (please note the artwork on the left .. takes after his mom I suppose:)

Nates math page.. I am so proud of his handwriting.. its improving more and more everyday!

Yes.. its me.. .. on the right of course.. :) .. I am checking the kids math :)

Jo at PE
Here is Cat in the light blue outfit.. fixing to hit the ball.

Both boys trying to walk with beanbags on their heads :)

BEST Chocolate Cake .. .. And old Family Recipe that is a favorite!

Cake:
2 Cups Sugar
2 Cups Flour
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 tsp. soda
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (if its real vanilla I usually just add 1/2 teaspoon)
1/2 cup Buttermilk (I actually sour reg. milk with vinegar)
1/4 tsp salt
3 T Cocoa
1 cup boiling water

Melt butter, then add sugar and eggs. Cream. Add Milk, Soda, Vanilla, Flour, Salt, and Cocoa and mix well. Last add boiling water. (be careful not to splatter this on you! )
Pour in cake pan. (I have used 9x13 or 2 9 inch rounds)

Bake at 350 until done (toothpick test)

Icing:
1 Box Powdered Sugar
1 stick butter
4 T Cocoa
Vanilla (just a few drops)
4 T boiling water.

Soften or melt butter, Mix all ingredients. Frost on warm cake.

ENJOY!

Hope you are having a blessed day!
Ruthie

HOME Where They Belong

2007-03-08T12:33:00.001-08:00

Great video. Thought I would share.

Life and Our Homeschool

2007-03-08T09:58:00.000-08:00

One of the things I love about homeschooling is that when life happens we can be flexible. I have not been feeling all that great for the last week or so and I might just break down and go to the doctor in a few days. All this to say that we have definitely not stuck to our schedule the last few weeks.
The kids have done Math, Handwriting and Reading every day. As far as the rest of it.. I have put it on hold until next week. We have been doing some major spring cleaning and the kids have been helping in a huge way. I had gotten so far behind on laundry that DH and I decided we would pay the kids if they wanted to get it caught up for me. So .. for the last four days the kids have been washing, drying, loading, and folding and putting away laundry. They all have made comments on how the think it is fun. (Laundry fun? who knew?) .. We have also be sorting and organizing closets, bedrooms, and stuff. I consider all of this a learning opportunity for the kids and realize just because they havent written a paper about it or done a worksheet on it.. they are still learning.
One of the neatest things lately is they have really gotten into the encyclopedia sets. Just this morning Cat was looking up the state of Colorado. She was wanting to find out its state tree etc. I also caught my youngest singing memory songs at breakfast this morning and my middle son trying to do a flip on the rings outside. All of these things I consider learning.
I am constantly amazed at the kids interest in learning, reading and finding answers to their questions. I am convinced that the most important thing I can teach my kids is to LOVE learning.
I could write more about all this interests led learning (including the archery lessons that the kids got from their Paw Paw) but I don't have time right now :)
We are looking forward to PE tomorrow and then the park with friends. Today is DHs birthday so the kids will make a homemade cake for him and help decorate and clean house for family party tonight :)

On a side note:
I have checked out from the library Charlotte Masons Original Homeschooling Series (6 vol set) and cant wait to read it. I have looked at it a little bit and so far I love what she has to say.

ALSO.. I am considering giving away a book .. check back soon to sign up for the give away. :)

Weekly update

2007-03-02T13:34:00.000-08:00

This week has been fruitful dispite Mom not feeling to great. I have been fighting a sinus infection ever since the dust storm blew in last Saturday... I am thankful however that is ME that is sick and not the children.
Here are the highlights for the week:
Math:
All the kids continue to make excellent grades on their math assignments. I decided today to sit down with each of the kids and see if we could advance them a few pages in their books. Its really nice to be able to go at a pace that is right for each of them. Nathans book introduced solving for the unknown (X).. so I explained to him how to do the problems and he was so thrilled.! All the kids joined around me on the couch as I showed them a short Algebra problem [ (7+x)2= 28 ] ..When I showed them how to work this problem.. they all said THATS COOL! Its just amazing to me how excited they are about math.. and how its FUN for them. This is because I was a child who struggled in math.. and hate every math page I had to do.. except for geometry .. (that was more art to me than math).. It makes me feel great to know that 1. My kids love math 2. My kids are not scared of Math and 3. My kids can go at their own pace.

Reading:
The boys are devouring the Magic Tree House series.. It seems they are in a new book every day. Catherine is still reading Encyclopedia Brown but I will try and find another "classic" for her to read next week.
Joseph.. .. well.. this week Joseph made my heart sing! We went to the library on Thursday and he found a Magic Tree House Research Guide he just couldnt put down. It was all about Sharks and Dolphins.. .. standing in line at the Library he would keep reading information to me.. "MOM.. did you know a so-in-so shark is "so-in-so" feet long and weighs "s0-in- so" lbs? Then he would start comparing the different lengths and weights of the different Sharks and Dolphins and tell me how much longer "this shark is from that shark" etc.. It was just wonderful.. The kid read the book.. face pasted in between the pages all the way down the sidewalk to the car and all the way home.. reading to me sections at a time.. He was SO excited! (and so was I). This Thursday was the first trip home from the Library that all three kids were reading the whole way home.. This was unusual because my Joseph was usually looking at words and asking what this or that spells .. but not that day.. he just read with confidence! YEPii!

I am looking forward to ordering Phonics Zoo Spelling.. and hope it is something we will love! I have been looking at it for over a year so this is a huge deal for us :)

Today (Friday) we went to PE.. The kids had a great time.. and I will post pictures later .. Also..
this week Cat got to have another sewing lesson and put pockets on her apron.. she was so excited! (i have pictures of that too!)

The kids had a bit more free time this week since I wasnt feeling well.. which they used shooting their bow and arrow and sling shot at the target in the backyard, teaching the dog to run up the slide, watching Henry, drawing Pokemon, and reading. (among other things) .. I hope next week we will all be back to normal and once again making more strides to get through our history, latin and science. :)

Blessings..
and have a great weekend!

The Zoo, PE and Monday

2007-02-26T17:20:00.000-08:00

This past Friday the kids had a great time at PE and the Zoo. We met some sweet friends at the zoo and just had a wonderful time! One of the best things about homeschooling is that you have the opportunity to go places when no one else is there. This is how it was at the zoo on Friday. We really enjoyed taking our time and exploring! It felt like we were the only ones there. Here are some pictures :)

This picture I took when we were leaving, as you can tell.. a front was coming through and the wind was blowing pretty good. :)

When we first got there the peacock was showing off to the ginnies. He was beautiful!

Here a picture from PE. Catherine is in the light blue outfit, waiting to start the game.

If you look at the group with the para shoot you will find Joseph at the left hand corner of the army green triangle. He is wearing a white shirt and red shorts.. and having a BLAST I must add!

Our Monday was pretty good. I worked most of the morning to finish my canvas' for K to pick up this afternoon. While I painted the kids did their math and I would take short breaks to answer questions and check their work. After Math the kids had a short break and then all sat on the couch and read our Bible. The kids were so sweet all sitting in a row each with their Bible taking turns read a verse. The story they read today was Numbers 11 which tells the story of the Isrealites complaining that they didnt have any meat.. and boy .. did they get meat! Heres two of the kids favorite parts:

1 Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. 2 When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the LORD and the fire died down. 3 So that place was called Taberah, ^[a] because fire from the LORD had burned among them.

10 Moses heard the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. 11 He asked the LORD, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? 12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers? 13 Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!' 14 I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin."

and...
31 Now a wind went out from the LORD and drove quail in from the sea. It brought them down all around the camp to about three feet above the ground, as far as a day's walk in any direction. 32 All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. 34 Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.

THREE FEET DEEP! Nathan said tonight.. "hey Mom... I am three feet one inch.. if I was there I would be covered in quail!"

The kids also did penmanship and after that we had about a two hour spring cleaning session. They are such good helpers and it sure is nice to be able to scratch some of those "to-do's" off the list!

Some other things that happened this past week or weekend..

Catherine finished Pride and Prejudice and we watched the complete A&E DVD miniseries.. it was WONDERFUL!

Also.. Joseph finished his first chapter book he has ever read by himself! (I am really proud of his accomplishment! )

A Glimpse into our day.

2007-02-22T11:05:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be fun to write about what our day really looks like. Here is our day.
I woke this morning to the sound of footsteps running down the hall, followed by my sweet Nate jumping on the bed to give Daddy and then I a big hug. Sitting up on the edge of the bed Nate was just bursting with happiness. Dad asked him if he slept well and he said enthusiastically "YEP". A few minutes later Joseph joined us, and then the boys left for the other parts of the house. Catherine joined us shortly after and we talked in our PJs for a few minutes before we started our day. When I left our room I found that Joseph had already made his bed and both he and Nate were quietly sitting in the school room working on their math books.

As my DH was getting ready for work, I ironed a shirt for him and made a quick breakfast for the family. While I was doing this the kids were all quietly in the school room working on Math. (Please note.. I did not tell them to do their math, I did not bribe or trick them in anyway..they WANTED to do their math!.. or maybe its just habit.. the thing they are use to doing first thing in the morning :)

After breakfast DH got hugs from the entire family and left for the morning. I told the children to bring me their books so I could check their work and that they needed to dress for the day so we could go to the library. I checked their work, which was all done wonderfully.. with the exception of a few number written backwards and after the kids were dressed we all worked together to find all the books etc that were due back to the library today.
At the library the kids found books that interested them, Catherine checked out about 6 cookbooks, the boys checked out the next Magic Tree house books AND they worked together (using Dewey) to locate a book about Cheetahs that Nathan wanted to read. We headed downstairs so I could find some great books on castles of Europe for the kids to read and look ate, and then we road the elevator back to the main floor to look at DVDs. The children were so happy to find 8 Henry Videos that hadn't seen! I was happy to find a DVD of Ivanhoe (that we will watch this afternoon while I paint) and a DVD on the parts of speech/grammar.
After visiting with the librarians we left the library with three bags and probably 50lbs of materials :) .. what fun!

The grocery store was a trip that we HAD to make so we headed there right after the library. I am always amazed at the things that are learned/ or that happen when we are at the grocery store. We walked into the veggie section and a sweet lady was cooking up some plantains! I have always wanted to try some .. so we stood and visited with the lady while she handed each of us a bite. I was so impressed when she started educating us on the plantain.. where it came from, who eats it, how they cook it, what it tastes like, etc. We left the veggie section with our bite of plantain .. I tasted mine first.. and LOVED it. Cat and Nate were next.. the LOVED it.. Jo was last.. he didn't like it one bit. :)

I enjoyed the kids walking along singing the Nations of the World song. (They started singing this because the veggie lady named Chile and other countries that eat plantains.)
While we waited for our cheese at the Deli counter Nate read a sign to me that had the words "cholesterol" and "saturated" in it. We then started looking at the word "saturated" to see how many other words were in the word. It was fun.. but I think the Deli counter lady thought we were crazy.:)
The whole time we were in the car we listened to the Magic Tree house CD #2 which I actually think is book 11. By the time we had gotten home we had finished that CD so the boys could move on to the next book on the CD....(we picked up two copies of the book while at the library). The are excited to move on.

While at the grocery store the kids asked if they could get some candy . I made a deal with them that they could get some but couldn't eat it until they were finished reading the books they were currently in. This has sparked a desire to read to Mom today like non other! So .. as I sit here typing Nathan is reading out loud to me as quickly as he can to try and finish it.. Amazing what a bag of Skittles can to to a kid.. esp if they rarely get candy :)

After the store we came home and had sandwiches with Dad.. who came home to eat lunch. This afternoon my plan is to listen to the kids read as I work to finish an art project I have been working on and then watch Ivanhoe with them.

I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our day. A day that has been filled with happy, cheerful, questioning children. A day filled with memories.

A Blessed Day.

Our Week-Memory Game-Math is FUN:)

2007-02-21T09:36:00.000-08:00

Cat working on her Bible Bowl

What a wonderful week we have had so far. Here is a quick update:

Bible:
We are continuing to read of Moses and the Israelites in Numbers. Today we read of how the Israelites were to blow the trumpet etc. Also how when God moved around in the cloud so did the Israelites. Today was wonderful because each of the children had a Bible of their own in the same NIV translation that I am reading from. We were blessed to find two NIV Bibles this past weekend for a great deal. Joseph is using the NIV Study Bible and Nathan is using a NIV Large Print Bible. (I have become a HUGE fan of large print anything! and I was thinking today that a Large print Bibles might be good for all of us to use:) Anyway.. today we each took turns reading each verse for a while and then I finished up our reading as the kids followed along. After our readings we sang some songs and Joseph led us in prayer. He specifically thanked God for PawPaw Jo getting better and to "please be with Joel and Jessica as they go to China"..
He did a great job! It is my hope that having the boys pray after our Bible lessons that they will be comfortable praying in front of others and will not be weary of leading a prayer in Bible class or elsewhere.

Math:
Joseph started his next book this week and is enjoying it. It is multiplication and the first part of the book is a bit easy for him but good practice. Nathan learned today how to round to the nearest 10 and I also showed him how to round to the nearest 5. He seemed to LOVE it. Cat is enjoying division and learned today to find the area of a triangle. 1\2bh .. I quized her on how to find the area of a rectangle and parallelograms and then gave her extra work that I drew out on a paper for her to measure and figure the areas of each shape. When she was finished she said "THAT WAS FUN!" (thats always great to hear.. esp in math! :)

Reading
Joseph is almost finished with his first chapter book. I will post a picture of him with his book when he finishes. Nathan started reading another Magic Treehouse to me yesterday . He read a chapter to me and then 5 silently to himself. Catherine finished another Encyclopedia Browns and started Pride and Prejudice. I told her when she finishes it we will watch the A&E miniseries together.. (I have it on hold at the Library :)
Today I will continue reading "Door in the Wall" and start "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" for reading fun :)

Science- the kids started coloring the next section on their body book. (pictures later)

History:
The kids listened to the History CD and did a worksheet which had them write out the five pillars of Islam. We are going to move on today and find out what happens next !

Catherine has been working on a Jepardy game that she dreamed up to have as a review of all our subjects. She has designed the game and written all the questions and answers .. we will play that today :) She is pretty excited about it.

I had to work on a project up at our church on Monday and I had the kids listen to books on tape. Two Magic Tree houses and continued Kind Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The LOVED both.

I also had the kids do a kind of memory game that I saw on TV. I set up the chess board (see picture below) and gave the kids a few minutes to memorize where they peices were. I then dumped the pieces off and had each take turns to see if they could get them correctly back in their places. They did well.. but the most they got were 5 pieces correct. I will continue to do this every few days as a memory game for them.

(I set up the board and then too a picture with my digital camera so we would have an image of how the board was set)

Ivanhoe finished! and enjoyed!

2007-02-15T13:33:00.000-08:00

Today we finished Ivanhoe and what a great reading that was! We all loved it!

We had a great day today.. did some organizing and lots and lots of math and reading. We figured how many pages Cat has to do in her math book to finish by May 11th (which is when I want our final day of "school" to be for this year). She will have to complete two pages a day. She was thrilled and said "well that will be easy!" :)
Joseph read to me today as well as Nathan. Each are improving everyday! yipee!

Life is just speeding along. Bible has been very interesting and last night both the boys recited "The Lord is My Shepherd" at church. Guess its time to move on to the next on the list :)

We are enjoying listening to "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table" on audio cd. I have been impressed with this companies "version" so I am going to try and find other by the same company.

Kids are looking forward to PE tomorrow and the Library afterwards :)

blessings
ruthie

This week-Ivanhoe and PE :)

2007-02-14T08:25:00.000-08:00

Our week seems to be flying by! We have had some great days of learning :) Heres a bit of what we have been up to:

Bible:
We now have the tabernacle built, Aaron and his sons as well as the Levites are in service to the Lord, sacrifices were offered, and the presence of the Lord filled the tabernacle. One of our favorite passages over the last few days was this one:

Leviticus Chapter Nine

23 Moses and Aaron then went into the Tent of Meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. 24 Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.

Math:
The kids continue in their book work and we have started a new challenge this week on Math-u-see drill page. I have each child sit with me by the computer and I type in the answer as they watch the screen. I have a tablet that I keep track of each child's time and amount he/she got correct. Today they really enjoyed the challenge of beating 1. their fastest time and 2. their brother or sisters fastest time.

History:
The kids listened to Story of the World and are continuing to learn about the nation of Islam.

Science:
Today the kids colored and cut out the parts of the head on their Body Model. (They are really enjoying it!)

Memory time:
We are still working on our Latin words and added new vocabulary. We also focused on Psalms 23. Each child has it almost completely memorized. In order to help with their memory I drew a memory picture for each part of the scripture, this seemed to really help them.

We are almost finished reading Ivanhoe. Today I read and the kids really didnt want me to stop but I had to because my throat started hurting! I am reading the children's classic and it is very good so I cant imagine how wonderful the "real" version is! The kids were excited when the Latin words pax vobiscum which means "peace go with you" were used by one of the men while he was disguised as Friar Tuck.

Today while the kids were working on handwriting and coloring pages they listened to an audio CD of King Arthur and the Knights of the round table. They LOVED it! I do think the reading is wonderful.. AND the music is great too!

Last Friday was our first day of PE. It is held at a local university and has college PE majors as the main teachers with a Home school Dad who is their professor as the overseeing teacher. I think my kids are really going to like this activity. The college kids were so sweet with all of the kidos and I was very impressed even when my littlest started to cry.. a young college man came over and talked with him etc and eventually he joined back in on the games. Here are two pictures from Fridays PE. This is Jo and Nates class. I will get some shots of Cats class this Friday.

I almost forgot to mention the kids newest musical instruments!
A few weeks ago we were at some friends house and they had some harmonicas. All three of the kids LOVED them so they asked if they could have some. (actually the boys said thats what they wanted for their birthday) .. This past weekend DH and I picked three up at Cracker Barrel and surprised the kids. The really do love them. I found a page on the net on how to play songs. They have taught themselves row row row you boat! Now.. I think it is great.. I mean how many people do you know that can actually play .. really play a harmonica? :) I personally LOVE the sound of it in the house. It just sounds happy, and relaxing at the same time.

Moses, Body Book, and New System

2007-02-08T12:21:00.000-08:00

Well, I feel like we have been making progress.. and thats good. Our day was great.. but was a bit frustrating as the house phone seemed to ring offffffff the wall today :) I dont answer the phone when we are working on our education but I think after today I will try and figure out how to use the answering machines "silent" mode :) (if you happened to call me today at home please dont be offended :).. its not you.. its all the telemarketers etc :)

Heres what we enjoyed today:
Bible:
Yesterday we read about how God gave instructions to Moses for the Tabernacle etc. After reading those "instructions" and while the kids were coloring I searched the internet for images of the Tabernacle. I was surprised to find a 3-D animation of what it looked liked. After we walked around in the virtual Tabernacle we decided to check out the 3-D virtual tour of Noahs Ark. These were both really fun.
Well.. Moses and God were both pretty mad about the golden calf today. The kids really listened closely to this section of reading!
After the kids and I finished reading I searched the internet for images of asher poles, golden calves, and Mount Sinai. I was thrilled to find a view from the top of the mountain. If you click on the picture it should make it fit the whole screen. The kids were impressed with the view. I didnt find any good images of an asher pole, but did find these of a calf.
Something new that was learned: Moses made the Isrealites melt the calf and then make it into dust, put it in water and drink it!
"20 And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it." Ex. 32:20

Math- (bookwork) The kids are enjoying their new math books but I am going to have Catherine test on a few of her first chapters to get her up to the level work she has been doing. She will do that tomorrow. Nathan LOVES his new book and Joseph is working as fast as he can to finish his current book so he can start his new one too. (Nothing like a new book sitting on your desk to make you want to complete the one you have :)

In Science today we started making a model of the human body using The Body Book. The kids are very excited about doing this. I am hoping to complete this study and at the end go see the Body Worlds exhibit.

We began new words in our Latin. Thats always fun to get new words!

For reading time I started a new book:
"Door in the Wall" by Marguerite De Angeli
I also continued my reading to the kids "Ivanhoe" by Sir Walter Scott. I told my friend M yesterday that I was having a hard time "getting into" this book.. but today after another jousting session, and a planned kidnapping of Lady Rowena.. who could not be "into it"!

I am also thankful to my sweet friend M who had the idea of using file boxes for paperwork. I am thrilled with how easy this is. Each child has a box, each subject has a folder. Hurrah for no more hold punching! I also told the kids "Another thing that is great about this system is that it is so portable.. if we go on vacation we can just take all our work with us.. in one box! " .. They weren't overly excited about that prospect :) But they love their new boxes!

Flying Buttresses, Math, and Fun.

2007-02-05T14:03:00.000-08:00

Today was a great day. We started a bit late because of our adventurous Super Bowl night last night.
We did our bookwork and really enjoyed hearing about Moses getting to go up on the mountain to be with God. Amazing!
We also did flash card work and memory work. The kids watched a few shows on the science channel. One was about a dig in Argentina , which led to a conversation on the different periods in prehistory including Jurassic Period. We also talked about where Argentina was located etc.
The kids also enjoyed watching two shows about Medieval Weapons and Medieval Technology. (We are in the Middle Ages in our History) The Weapons show had scientists reconstructing jousting matches with "dummies" to show the impact and injuries sustained by the knights. The show on Technology show how the Arabs brought instruments into Spain. It also covered the many Cathedrals that were built and explained what an innovation Flying Buttresses were. Below you will see a picture of the kids being a system of Buttresses.

I have a few picture I wanted to post.. here you go:

We were so excited when our UPS man delivered out math books! The kids cant wait to start.

Today the kids watched the Science Channel, one show about Medieval Weapons, and another about Medieval Technology. Here they are demonstrating what a Flying Buttress would look like if they were a Medieval Cathedral.

This Goldie, our goldfish.. He is getting too big so we are hoping to find a friend with a larger tank for him. :)

Here are the kids looking at our new fish. (We have two fish tanks) The were REALLY excited.

Here are the newest additions. I was quite impressed with how well they posed for the picture. :)

Thats all for now.. I have artwork and a laundry room calling my name :)

Blessings

Our day.

2007-02-01T18:01:00.000-08:00

Well.. so much for a actual run through of our schedule. Today was thrown way off by the following:
1. New Internet service provider showing up at 9am this morning (with 10 mins notice) to switch us over to cable. (not that I am complaining at all.. I am thrilled with the service.. and also thankful that DH was able to go to work late so he could handle all the details etc)

2. It started snowing about noon today. HUGE flakes for our area. It looked like paper confetti outside. Of course how could I make the kids stay in and work on science when it was actually happening outside! So, armed with a puppy, and a hooded sweatshirt they headed out side to watch the snow fall from the sky and of course melt as soon as it hit the ground.

3. Super Walmart and the need for food. (need I say more?)
Besides, where does the field trip to Walmart fall under anyway?

Math? As the children help figure out which Meow Mix is better to buy.. the 18lb one or the 3.5 lb one?

or

Cultural awareness/Church Service.. as we visit with a sweet lady from Church who was there to buy items for the Medical Missions trip this summer?

or

Science as
(a). we all look at the fish and try and decided which ones to buy.
(b). Decided which fish can live safely together.
(c). Listen attentively as the sweet Walmart fish lady explains to my always questioning daughter after she asks "How can you tell which is female and which is male? {I must interrupt this part of the post to make sure you understand how shocked the sweet fish lady was at the question and her puzzled look on her face as she looked at me almost to say "HELP" and then said "OH.. well. lets see if I can explain this without being .. well you know.. giving too much information." .. and as I smiled and said "OH its ok.. go right ahead"} .. She did a fabulous job I must say, explaining it to the children.. and I thought.. "she should work at the ZOO not walmart! ! And the children are happy to know that our little female fish is due any day to have some babies :)

Did we get to stick to our schedule today? NO
Did we learn some things today? yes
Did we manage to squeeze in Latin?(in the car, at the breakfast table, in the bathroom (nathan) Science?(outside in the snow, in the car as we talked about why our bodies shiver, at the grocery store when we talked about BHT. Math? (Book-work pages, figuring how muched I saved with coupons at walmart, the cat food, .. I could go on and on..on this one. Poetry? (to many to mention here) Music?(singing the little man in the sea poem,not to mention doing chores to "Beethoven's Wig".) Scripture Memory? (same as poety) Art? a simple Yes on this one.. I am getting tired :)

Was it all "sit at your desk book-work" Day? No

Did we enjoy each moment together. yes :) {well except for the moment when Joseph accidentally bumped into Catherine in the store, pushing her a bit in to the cheese section.. don't worry though.. the cheese was fine and they are still friends :)

Some other things that happened today.

The boys cracked all the eggs for breakfast this morning.. not a shell in bowls!

I finally ordered the kids next math-u-see books. Its great to see how excited they are.. esp Nathan.

We organized the kids Bible, Science, History and Art folders. Which by the way made me think I REALLY want to set up a filing system for their work instead of folders or binders. But that will have to wait for another post :) All that hole punching is enough to drive anyone a little nuts! :) hehe

so..

Life wasn't on schedule

BUT

Life was GREAT!

Blessings
Ruthie

Finding a Schedule to Fit our needs

2007-01-31T12:36:00.000-08:00

I was up late last night trying to figure out a schedule that would work a little better than the one I have been using the last few weeks. The "old" schedule for our day worked well, but I was at a loss to figure out how to fit everything in. Catherine has more to do than the boys. The boys, in turn, need more practice on certain subjects and more one on one work with Mom. I studied what Susan Wise Baurer suggests in "The Well Trained Mind"-she has many examples for different grade levels- BUT it leaves out two things I consider important to us: Memory Time and Bible Time.
I took from Susan what I could use and set up schedules for each child to meet their needs better. I also made sure I alternated between "close" activities like book-work or reading, with "far away" activities like block building, acting, or listening. The reason for this has to do with Josephs "eye issue". I found so far today it worked great for all three kids. For those of you interested.. here is a combined schedule (hope its not too confusing) .

Combined Daily Schedule

Make Bed, Get Dressed, Eat Breakfast, Brush Teeth and Hair.
After the above is complete you have free time until 9:30.

9:30 - 10:30--Math book work and Correction (Catherine and Joseph)

9:30 -10:00 -- Math book-work (Nathan)
10:00 - 10:30 -- Alone quiet play time (Nathan)

10:30-10:45--Math Flash Card Work (everyone)

10:45-11:00--Handwriting (Joseph and Nate)
{Cat continues flash cards until 11:00)

11:00-11:30-- Bible (everyone)

11:30-11:45--Spelling (Joseph and Nate)
{Cat does spelling on MWF and Grammar on TTH)

11:45-12:00--Break (everyone)

12:00-12:30-- Lunch (everyone)
******
12:30-1:00 -- Reading to self and writing in Common Place Book. (Catherine)

12:30-12:45-- Reading to Mom (Jo)///Computer time (Nate)

12:45-1:00-- Reading to Mom (Nate) ///Computer Time (Jo)
*******
1:00-1:45-- History (MWF) Science (TTH) {everyone}

1:45-2:00-- Memory Time (Everyone)

2:00-2:15--Latin Memory (Everyone)

2:15-2:30(?)--Latin Book-work (Catherine)

2:15-3:30-- Free Reading Time/Art Time (Jo and Nate)
Catherine's free reading time starts as soon as she finishes her Latin.

3:30-4:00--Free Play time

4:00-4:20--Chores

##############

I printed out separate copies for each child with their name on it and hung it up on the wall in-front of their desks.
Tomorrow will be the "full day" test.. as today we got off by thirty minutes because we were working on the schedule :)

As far as the rest of our day.. Heres a sampling:

Bible was fun .. as the Egyptians chased the Israelites across the Red Sea! We were surprised to learn that it took all night for God to part the Red Sea... .. we discussed how long we thought it took based on videos and what we had imagined and seen in artwork or books and all agreed that the less that thirty second parting of the sea on film was no where close enough to what really happened :) .. Great fun! We are really enjoying our Bible readings!

In History we are now learning about Mohammed and the rise of Islam. We discussed what we believe as Christians and what the differences were between Islam and Christianity. Needless to say..seeing from the expressions on the kids faces.. I think it was a bit surprising for them to believe that yet another group of people dont believe that Jesus is God's son and our Savior. The kids also did map work.

In Memory time we are almost halfway through the Nations of the world song! The kids LOVE it! .. and .. The Little Old Man of the sea poem.. well I made up a tune so we can learn it with song :)

So.. thats a bit of what we did today..

we are off now to head to the store before all the kids get out of school and it gets crowded :)

blessings to you and yours!

Ruthie

Library Reflections

2007-01-30T13:29:00.000-08:00

I grew up going to the library. I would ride my bike there after school and enjoyed story time in the summer. I was never a "reader". I hated reading. I was overwelmed by the card catalog and confused by Mr.Dewy Decimal. I rarely stepped foot in the library in college. If I did go there it was to get some reference books for an art project or to go study quietly in a corner. As a young married I went to the library purely for entertainment! Once I realized the library loaned out Videos, records, and cassetts, I was hooked! I NEVER entered the library to find a book for enjoyment. So that is why it surprises me today to see that I have become a person who LOVES .. and yes.. is a bit of a LIBRARY ADDICT!

My library experences seem to have come in waves. The first was when my oldest was a baby and I found out the library had "tot-time" or "Lap sit" as our Library calls it. This brought on many years of going to the library with all my kids and taking them to story time. Singing and dancing and enjoying the books that the sweet librarian read. The next wave came when we decided to home educate. I thought if anything else I wanted my kids to LOVE reading and LOVE the library. If I could accomplish that, I thought, it would be a great success.

So years have gone by and I have been falling more and more in love with our library. From the "Interlibrary Loan" Department, where you can request books they dont have locally and they will get them for you from libraries far away. (One I picked up today came from Virginia!.. whoo hoo!). To the librarians who help find what we are looking for and give my kids hugs when we walk in the door.

We can literally get lost in a sea of Library learning as soon as we walk in the door, loose track of time and all of a sudden wonder why we are so hungry! Well.. its because we have been there for three hours! :)

Why am I telling you this.. well.. today I had another great memory at our library.

I have been pondering what to use for Cats Grammer Curr. and found "The Little Brown Handbook" online at our local libary.. (This is a book that I remember having to use while in college.. and .. as you can probably tell by my grammer.. I need a refresher course as well!) I will probably use part of this book as a base for her Grammer Studies..

ANYWAY..

The kids were sitting quietly at a table looking at books, (please note we were down stairs, a place that you rarely see kids.. but cause it is NOT the KIDS section! ) ..

They were having such a wonderful time that I decided to just take a look around.

I came upon a section of History and Poetry. First I found a book titled: "Vergil's Aeneid" Grabbing it I walked as quickly as I could and held it up for the kids. (mind you this book is about 3 inches thick) .. The kids read it and said "OH..Arma virumque cano....Of Arms and the man I sing!.. Thats the book it comes from!" I said YES! isnt this cool!
I put it back on the shelf and then noticed another "Book of the Dead" .. I took it off the shelf and held it up to the kids.. Cat said.. WOW .. thats what the Egyptians used as a guide in their mummifying!" I showed them how it was a whole book with Heirogliphics and English translation! "LETS GET IT MOM! " was the reply! (I decided not to because we had so many already).. I went back to the shelf and found a whole section on Emily Dickenson! (SWEET! I thought) and then a book entitled "Latin Poems from the Beginning to the Renaissance" I was so excited to see this title but was suprised to find it contained zero latin.. it was all just Latin poems translated to English..

but oh well.. you cant have everything! And of course there is ALWAYS interlibrary loan!

So.. What a wonderful time we had at the library. I left with a sense of awe at the wealth of knowledge that is to be had there.. To think .. all those years spent in the library and I was only there to get copies made, get visuals for artwork, or study in the quiet! Who knew there was a treasure trove of knowledge just waiting quietly for me to discover it!

If you find yourself in a rut... head to the library, find a corner you have never been to.. you might be surprised what you might find! And your kids will catch your love for the library.. I promise!

Monday-Longest Post EVER!

2007-01-29T13:49:00.000-08:00

The BEST part of home-schooling! (Hug Time!)

AHH.. the joys of the computer age!.. I was completely frustrated on Friday as I had worked hard on a long addition to our homeschool blog.. just at the moment I was to upload it.. my computer froze and i lost the lengthy post I worked so hard on. (UGH).. So.. with a few days off from posting I am trying again.

Today was a good day.. although it seems to be filled with stresses. The puppy ate some chocolate last night.. so now of course she has a tummy ache.. She will be ok.. just needed a bit more attention today that I am use to having to give her. Also.. the boys are addicted to the trampoline! (you thought I was going to say video games didnt you?).. I am happy they find the jumping and flipping so fun but this addiction causes them to constantly ask "can we go jump?". Of course it is a blessing in a way.. They get busy to finish their work if they know they can jump when it is over. :)

We took math placement tests today. Everyone did great!

I am now ready to order their next set of math books. The tests took a bit of time. (Cats was longer than the boys) so between that and our Bible reading our morning was full. We are now in the Book of Exodus, and of course the kids LOVE hearing about Moses and Aaron. The kids color on their coloring pages while I read, they really do like it! Heres some of their work:
Cats Page

Josephs Page

Latin is coming along. We have almost all of our second poster of vocabulary down. And today during Memory time Nathan said "You prepare a MENSA (which is latin for table) before me
       in the presence of my enemies."
Then Cat added the Latin for the word Prepare: paro... (oh I just love it when Latin pops up while we are doing other things!)

Memory time today was spent on Latin, Scripture and Poetry. Here's two pages worth of what we are doing in memory time:

Psalm 23
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
       he leads me beside quiet waters,

3 he restores my soul.
       He guides me in paths of righteousness
       for his name's sake.

4 Even though I walk
       through the valley of the shadow of death, [a]
       I will fear no evil,
       for you are with me;
       your rod and your staff,
       they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
       in the presence of my enemies.
       You anoint my head with oil;
       my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
       all the days of my life,
       and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
       forever.
----------------------
Psalms 34:13
13 keep your tongue from evil
       and your lips from speaking lies.
-----------------
1 Thessalonians 5:11, 15-18

11Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

15Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

AND OUR POETRY: (the kids already know Jabberwocky and Ooey Goey.. but we say these just to keep them in our brain.. our goal is by the end of the week to have "The Ingenious Little Old Man" in our memory too!)

Ooey Gooey

Ooey Gooey was a worm
A mighty worm was he
He crawled upon the railroad track
The train he did not see
Ooey Gooey!!

The Ingenious Little Old Man by John Bennett

A little old man of the sea
Went out in a boat for a sail:
The water came in
Almost up to his chin
And he had nothing with which to bail.

But this little old man of the sea
Just drew out his jack-knife so stout,
And a hole with its blade
In the bottom he made,
So that all of the water ran out

JABBERWOCKY
Lewis Carroll
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
  And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
  The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
  Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
  And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
  The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
  And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
  The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
  He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
  Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
  He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
  And the mome raths outgrabe.

__________________
Cat worked on her spelling list and Nate colored a picture for a friend while Joseph read to Mom. His eyes were pretty tired so we focused on just one paragraph and I had him read it four times until he read it without mistakes. Then I finished the book.
He is improving so much! I am so proud of him!

Spelling is FUN!

One of Nates favorite books :)

Here is a list off books we read today.

This is the one Joseph and I read together.

Catherine finished Tuck Everlasting this past weekend. She LOVED it!

Yesterday at the Park

2007-01-26T07:17:00.000-08:00

After our school work was finished we headed to the park. It was just beautiful!

"I AM SMMMMMAARRT!" is great to hear from a 7 year old!

2007-01-24T13:39:00.000-08:00

Life is good.
Here is what we did today :)

Bible- I read to the kids Gen. 42 through Gen. 45:24
The kids and I laughed as we finished our reading with this:
"And this is what he sent to his father: ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and other provisions for his journey. 24 Then he sent his brothers away, and as they were leaving he said to them, "Don't quarrel on the way!"
We thought it was funny that he told them "Dont fuss with each other on your trip!"
While I was reading today the kids colored pictures from a Bible Coloring book we have. They had three pictures from this story they could color if they wanted too. I think they enjoyed that.
-One thing that strikes me when I am reading the Bible to them .. the kids ALWAYS ask me to keep reading. Is it that they really like it? or is it that they dont want to move on to math? hum? :)

For Math the kids worked in their books.. while they did this I sat in my round chair and begain work on my "Common Place book" taking down notes from The Well Educated Mind and from Pride and Prejudice. It worked out well because I was able to get a little bit of study done for myself while at the time able to answer any questions the kids had on math.

Handwriting was next.. each child worked on the letters they have going to different friends. Nate did a page in his handwriting book.

Latin: we moved on to Chapter 8 and focused on our second poster Voc. words. .. we are getting better and better :)

Memory work: States and Capitols songs, Nations of the world, we also watched the video for Elements and went over the months of the year poem.

Reading time- Aloud with mom.. we read the following books:

Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter (Math Adventures)
by Cindy Neuschwander, Wayne Geehan (Illustrator)

A Particular Cow (Hardcover)
by Mem Fox, Terry Denton

The Ugly Duckling (Caldecott Honor Book) (Hardcover)
by Hans Christian Andersen, Jerry Pinkney

The kids helped with the reading of these.. I must say I LOVED the math adventure book.. such a great series!

We then had alone reading time.. (Joseph read with me)

Math flash card time was moved until later today.. so we did our addition facts.. the kids are really improving :) .. Then the boys went off by themselves to work together on flash-cards while I worked with Cat to see which mult. facts she was having "issues" with.. .. happy to find out.. not many. :)

Also today I had Cat start her "common place book" and explained all that I wanted her to do with it. I think she is excited about it. Basically it is a journal.. but more of an educational one than a "this is what my heart, soul feels today" .. definitely not a "dear diary" type journal. She will summarize chapters in her book as she reads them.. list the main characters and jot down any lines from the book she thinks is interesting etc.. I got this idea from the book: The Well Educated Mind.. the author explains it better than I :)

here are some funny things that happened today:

While doing math flash-cards.. Nate answered the card "8+6" the quickest.. FOURTEEN!! he shouted.. Joseph sighed.. and said.. "I AM SMMMMMMAAARRRTT!!! .. I Knew that.. I just didnt say it fast enough!" We all laughed and said.. Yes, Joseph you ARE smart!!! .. it was great!

Today it seemed every-time I turned around the kids wanted to go jump on the trampoline( "Can we go jump?" .. "Mom, can we have a break?".. "What do we have to do until we can go jump?".. I guess the sunny weather is calling them outside! (after so many days of clouds) ... Mind you.. every spare minute they had.. our breaks in between working was filled with trampoline time! .. I think.. what great memories for them!

Blessings
R

Ancient India, Art and Jazz

2007-01-22T13:39:00.000-08:00

Well.. after posting our schedule.. today we ended up not even close to it! Well with the exeption of math in the morning :0 heres what we did today :)

The kids got dressed and ready to go to the library .. then they started thier math bookwork. While they worked on it I did a inventory of our groceries and got a shopping list together for later today. I also looked at our library accounts and gathered books etc that were due back today..
We headed to the library about 1015 or so.. (I had some things that were due so we had to go today.. on the way we sang our Presidents song, some memory verse songs, and the book of the Bible) .. At the library we found books for Cat on beads and beadwork (she is trying to start a jewelry making business and wanted to get ideas).. while downstairs I looked at the homeschooling section and picked up the book Creative HomeschoolingI have had this book before and wanted to get it again to look at its booklists and websites it has listed.:) We then headed back to the childrens section where we picked up a few Mem Fox books (she had a new one I have not read) "A Particular Cow" and another I had not seen by Cindy Neuschwander called Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter-a math adventure. ---we are all looking forward to reading these :) Obviously we did get other books but it would be too long of a post to tell you everyone :) hehe

After lunch we finished up our math (checking and making corrections), we then did our Latin memory posters, and then Joseph read a book to us that he selected. We then did our History coloring map work (Ancient India and the ruler Skandagupta) the kids also colored a picture of the Gupta Dynasty that included a ruler riding on an elephant. Here is a link if you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gupta_Empire

The kids also began work on coloring a picture from "Art Masterpieces to Color" called Broadway Boogie by Piet Mondrian.
While coloring it I asked the kids the following questions:
1. What is this a picture of? Nathan, "squares", Catherine said "houses.. OH NO.. wait!... Its a map!" We then talked about what it looked like and how it seemed to be streets, cars, and buildings..
2. What is Broadway? (Joseph said .. a street)
3. Where is Broadway? (Joseph said.. NewYork)
4. Why do you think it is called Broadway Boogie?
While they were coloring I put on a Jazz CD for them to listen too.. it was by John Coltrane....I had them guess what the type of music was and then talked about Blues and Jazz. .. Here is a link to the website I just found.. it has a bit of his music playing on it.. :
http://www.johncoltrane.com/automat/swf/main.htm

We read our Bible for the day and then the kids had free time to color/read/draw or just play inside.
What a great day!

Blessings
R

Our Schedule :)

2007-01-21T15:00:00.000-08:00

Just another sweet picture.. taken during our reading time:)

Some of you might be interested in our Daily Schedule.. esp if you are calling me and I am not answering.. heres why:

Wake up happy and begin your chores.. one of which includes eating breakfast :)

"Education Time" begins at 9:00 .. (please note we try and stick to this as close as possible.. but sometimes we are a few minutes behind.. and sometimes.. ahead of schedule)

9- Bible Reading, Singing, Memory Verses, and Prayer
930-Math bookwork begins
950 to 1010 Check and Correct Math work
1015-Math Drill work begins
10:45- Latin Begins (sing chants, start new chapter)
11:15- Break -boys (Cat does Latin bookwork)
11:30- Break-everyone (mom prepares lunch)
11:45 Lunch
12:30 Together Reading Time
1:00 Reading time (Joseph with Mom) Nate (on computer or silently) Cat (English)
1:20 Reading time (Nathan with Mom) Jo (on computer) Cat (Finish English-spelling-start quiet reading time)
1:50 short break
2:00 Memory time
2:15 History or Science
2:45 Writing or Art
3:15 Freetime
4:00 Chores
After chores are complete the kids have free time.. They, however, are not allowed to play video games or watch TV (sometimes we watch an "educational" show but this is NOT Boom or cartoons :) Those are saved for Friday afternoons and the weekends :)

I have used this schedule for two weeks so far.. a few times we have been off.. but for the most part it has worked really well. We cover things that are not listed in our schedule.. like during reading time we will read books from a variety of subjects the children also take turns reading all or parts of the books during this time. We also take some time a few days a week to incorporate a few educational video from the web. On Fridays we usually go to the Library or other "field trip" .. so we just do the schedule up until noon on Fridays.
I take time in breaks to do a load of laundry/clean kitchen and straighten up a bit.. but most heavy chores are saved until 4. :)

Thats all for today.. I am off to take the puppy for a jog :)
blessings
r

New Arrangement

2007-01-21T10:38:00.000-08:00

Here is a shot of our new arrangement. I will post other pictures later when I finish. I have been working all weekend trying to get the kids room and our school room organized. I decided my sweet Nate has finally outgrown his "little" desk.. so here is my solution. I think this will work nicely because I can sit on either side of Nate (who is in the middle) to help the other two children with their work.

Our Friday turned into a cleaning day instead of an all day reading marathon. :)

On a side note.. I think Nate has the Chickenpox. He acts like he is feeling fine. .. we will see i guess.

Blessings!
R

Cold Friday

2007-01-19T11:27:00.000-08:00

Well.. we are taking an "easy" day today.

With our new schedule the kids have commented how they dont have as much "free" time.. so I have decided that Fridays will be a bit shorter so they can have some free time. Also.. if there is work they dont finish during the week they will have to complete it on Friday free time :)

Today we read our Bible.. and practiced our Latin. I am hoping this weekend we will have all of our chants and voc memorized and be ready to move on to the next chapter on Monday. :) We will do about 15 min of math flash cards and the rest of the day will be a fun reading marathon day. :) (and freetime)

Here are two books that I have been reading lately:
Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think And What We Can Do About It by Jane M. Healy
and The Well Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer

One thing I have noticed.. since starting our new schedule.. our TV time and video time has drastically reduced! We have discovered there is so much to do there is little time to just sit and stare at the TV anymore :) Although we did watch part of a show about Ancient Troy this morning.. :)

Blessed beyond Measure.!

Pictures :)

2007-01-18T13:07:00.000-08:00

This is Nathans Memory book cover.. He said it was an "abstract"

This is Catherine's Memory book cover.

This is a picture Joseph colored at Bible Class a while back.. :)

Here are the kids today after we read these three books. Aren't they just cute as can be :)

Here is one of the posters I made to help us with out Latin Memory work.

Our Yesterday and Today

2007-01-18T08:57:00.000-08:00

Our yesterday went wonderfully!

The kids did their math after we read out Bible reading for the day and then we did our flash card work. They had lots of fun with the drills.
After math we had Latin and went over our next set of voc words and chants. The kids decided they would like to do some kind of play or presentation using what we have learned in Latin so far. I think they will use Pokemon as a start and make it where different Pokemon they create will be able to say/do/transform into different things in Latin.
Our Reading time was taken up with the following:
(you can find these at Amazon, Books a Million or your Library :)

If you were a noun Dahl, Michael.
If you were a verb Dahl, Michael
Both these books were fun for the kids. Bright Illustrations and creative.

The king's chessboard Birch, David
GREAT book!
This is about a king in India who wants to pay for the services he recieved from a wiseman. The wiseman doesnt want payment but the Kind insists. The wiseman finally asks for the kings to give him a mathmatical trick .. a grain of rice on the first square of his chessboard followed by 2 on the second and 4 on the third and so on.. until there is a LOT of rice being given to the wiseman .. I wont tell you how it ends but the kids LOVED it! Its a great story about how pride can get in your way.
Joseph continued to read from Magic Tree House- Knight before Dawn
Nathan started reading from Magic Tree House - Night of the Ninja
Catherine read quietly from her book "Tuck Everlasting" .. she is really enjoying it!

For extra handwriting and spelling the boys began work on letters to two friends.

The kids got some science in today by watching the NASA channell where they learned about light spectrum and how NASA can tell what a star/sun is made up of. They also watched Survivorman. (which is one of their favorite shows)

Cat and I got out our board game by Aristoplay- Hail to the Chief _ we got the cards organized and read the instructions so we can play it later today.

This morning we have completed Bible and Math.
In Bible we read Gen 31 through the end of 33. I think the kids favorite part was when Jacob wrestled with God.
For Math the kids did their bookwork and then we did facts on Mathusee.com drill page.
They also watched a short video inbetween Bible and Math on Brain-pop Jr. about Charactors in a story. Heres the link.
http://www.brainpopjr.com/
We also took a peak at this website: http://www.mathdork.com/ .. and had a little mini lesson in Algebra. Catherine said "NowTHAT looks fun!."

Better go finish.. Kids free play time is over .. on to lunch and Latin :)

blessings
r

Our Tuesday

2007-01-16T16:39:00.000-08:00

Today was a busy but fun day. We got a bit of a late start but got to everything we needed to including the library!.. heres what we did today:

Bible: We read our daily reading which consisted of the story of Jacob and Esau. (I read from the "Daily Bible" the kids followed along.. Joseph with the KJV, Cat with the NIV and Nate with an easy to read version) Then we sang some songs, talked about prayer and Joseph led us in prayer. I then led a short prayer focusing on our missionary friends we have around the world.

Math: Kids did all their book-work.. and checked for mistakes and then correcting their mistakes.. :)
After math book-work was completed they worked on the computer individually and together. Since Nates math takes him less time he had the majority of the time on the computer. (The kids also did their handwriting before getting on the computer.)

As I said above we were a bit late getting going this morning so it was close to lunch by now so I had the kids do a few chores while I made lunch. DH came home and ate with us and we drove him back to work and headed to the library. It has been so icy here the last 5 days and we havent left the house so it felt sooo good to get out and about. While at the library the kids searched for books and ended up with: (just a few examples) .. Jo: a book about Greek god and goddesses, a National Geographic Kids Mag, and a Science Project book. Nate: a book about Pokemon (how to draw), a Magic Tree House book (I think one about China) .. Cat: three Encyclopedia Brown Books. .... The kids also got a few Polemon DVDs that they will be able to watch after schoolwork is done for the day (since it is so cold outside they watch a bit videos than I would usually allow :) ...

I forgot to mention in the car on the way to the library we had out memory time.. working on Latin and our other songs.
After we returned home we had a quick clean up and then sat with the boys as they each read.. Cat had quiet reading by herself and then I read two Biographies to all the kids
.
"Hans Christian Andersen, prince of storytellers" by Greene, Carol.
This one was really good.. it had pictures on Hans hometown and even his garden. I loved how it had actual pictures from when he was alive, pictures from today of places he lived, and artwork. I thought it was well done.. the kids were very interested.

and

"Martin's big words : the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr" by Rappaport, Doreen.
This book was beautifully illustrated.. although a bit "young" for my kids they still enjoyed it.

It was time for the kids to have a break.. so they watch about 30 mins of Pokemon while I checked my email and folded laundry. We then had another cleaning up time and then left to pick DH up from work.

The kids are really motivated to say their Latin memory work to me tonight .. we will do that in a few minutes and see who gets a Oreo candy bar :)

Thats all for now.. I better go so I can run on the treadmill, clean the kitchen and get the kids ready for bed :)

blessings
r

Update and our day

2007-01-15T12:15:00.000-08:00

Well.. its been a while since I have posted.. We started a new schedule last week and the school work went beautifully! Here are some highlights:

Math: All the kids do work in their math books then we head to the living room for flash card work. The kids compete against each other to see who can get the most cards. We do Addition, Subtraction and Multiplication. The kids LOVE doing it!

Bible: Each day we start off our day (around 9am) with 30 or 40 mins of Bible reading. I am reading to them from The Daily Bible.. The kids have really enjoyed it. Today we read of Isaac, the death of Abraham etc..

Latin: For Latin I made two posters of all the chants and vocabulary we are to remember. I have recorded the chants and vocabulary off the video and put in on cassett tape. We sit in the floor and sing/chant along with the recording. This week our goal it to have up to chapter 6 in our brains :) Next week we will move on to chapter seven :) Its nice to have it all on a poster so we can sit around it and read along with it as we sing. I think Latin is getting into my head because last night I went to sleep singing "-o, -st, -t, -mus, -tis, -ant" .. funny.

Reading: Joseph is making great progress in his reading! Today he read 309 words from his Magic Tree house book.. almost a complete chapter! He was soooo happy! I am so proud of him since his reading is a struggle because of his eye muscle problem! GO! Joseph GO!
Nathan reads quietly to himself while I read with Joseph. When it is Nathans turn he read I let him choose the book. This week and last he has been picking a 2nd grade Science Text book from Abeka that Aunt Jana gave us. Today he read to me the chapter about muscles.
Catherine is reading "Tuck Everlasting" and is liking it so far.. she is on chapter 5.

Handwriting: The boys practice their handwriting in their books while Cat writes letters .. Today she wrote one to Carroll.. (I will mail it tomorrow after she corrects some spelling and does a bit of artwork on it :)

History: We are in Middle Ages and last week learned about the Hogia Sophia here is a link to a picture if you are interested.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Aya_sofya.jpg
Today we learned about MLK Jr. I found this video on YOUTUBE and the kids watched almost all of his "I have a dream" speech. Before we watched it I had the kids look him up in the Encyclopedia and read about him. We also talked about the definition of the word CIVIL and what a "civil war" is and what the word "civil rights" mean.
Here is the link to the video of his speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk&eurl=

Memory time: We will go over our states and capitols song, nations of the world song (which we are learning just the first section, the Presidents song, and the Days in a Month poem. We will also do the Books of the Bible and others.

--------------

I guess that is all for today.. With the cold weather here the kids want to go on another "Ice Adventure" in the backyard.. so after memory time they will do that. They are missing being able to jump on the trampoline so this morning they did jumping jacks, pickin cotton, and toe touches instead :)

What a fun day!

blessings
r

What We Have Been Doing

2006-11-30T08:39:00.000-08:00

Heres a few pictures from our day today. The kids would much rather be outside playing in the snow .. but that is one of the advantages of homeschooling! .. NO snow days!.
I caught Jo doing his handwriting NOT at his desk!.. He might have to redo a few lines
Nate doing his math =)
Cat working on her English.
Nate is holding a book we read a few days ago in one sitting.. It was GREAT! We recommend it highly!
This is my favorite illustration.

Things are going well. We have really enjoyed the Story of the World and all the stories of the knights, kings, and dragons! We did take a few days off last week for Thanksgiving and the kids had a great time seeing their friends and cousins! We have fallen a bit behind on our latin so we will start that up again today and just keep plugging along. Our memory time is still going.. we almost have all the states and capitols memorized and we will begin today on a new memory verse. I am looking for another read aloud to read to the kids.. any suggestions out there?

Blessings!
r

Our Favorite Room!

2006-11-15T12:59:00.000-08:00

Our school room is almost finished.. close enough to show you what we have done. Below you will see pictures of our favorite room in the house..

Here are cat and nate .. (nate showing off his drawing of the Green Knight).. the dry erase board you see under the window is for the children to do "work" on. I like having it there so when I put the curtains down (which go to the floor) it does show the messy board :)

This is our Map Area :) .. if you look close you can see little post-it notes with the names of our family/friends and the location they are living right now.. this is a work in progress .. the kids LOVE it.

You can see from the pictures each child has a desk. The one on the far left is Josephs, the middle "double desk" is Nathans and the far right is Cats. I hope in the future we can get a desk for Nate that matches the others but it might be a while.

This shot shows my art area, and the huge shelf that holds the kids computer, the tanks, radio, and our books etc..
This shows our round reading chair.. which is a great place to curl up and read a book.. and the tv/drawers is a favorite spot for the kids on the weekend.. it contains the Game Cube.. which the only get to play on Sat and Sun. :)

Can you homeschool effectively without a specific room dedicated to it? the answer is yes. I have found so far that having a designated room for our schooling is working well for us.. here's a short list:

*Our school books stay at our desks, instead of being in the living room, den, or bedroom.. depending on where that child decided he wanted to do his work.

*Our school "mess" is in our school room instead of on the dining table for all to see when they come to our house. We use to do school at the dining table.. which worked well.. but when cutting, folding, coloring, or whatever.. the mess it left behind was sometimes frustrating. Always having to clean it up.. or having to leave it when we had to rush out on an errand.. Its so nice to have our mess less public :)

*Our school room is small.. but effective. We are little distractions.. when we schooled in other parts of the house we had plenty of distractions (close to the kitchen "mom.. i need a snack!'... close to the back door.. "hey! look at the bird!" .. close to the living room "mom can we watch TV when we are done?".. .. you get the idea).. our school room helps keep us focused.

*Our resources are all together (with the exception of the computer that is online and the World Book Encyclopedias. :)

*Everyone has their own space. Everyone can clean their own space. I even have a space for my art business! :)

*If one child needs to work on something in quiet.. the others can leave, and visa versa. :)

Thanks for taking time to tour our favorite room in the house!

Blessings!
R

Schooling Update

2006-11-08T12:36:00.000-08:00

The week has been a bit off. I have been having trouble with a tummy virus but in-spite of that we are getting through some school work.
Today after the kids completed their book work (Math, english, spelling, and handwriting) I continued to read the story Beowulf to the kids. We all really enjoyed it. We finished the third part of the story today and then I did some looking on the internet. The kids got to see the original manuscript on the internet via the British Library. They all thought it was amazing!

Our class room is working wonderfully. I still have some work to do in there and hope to get pictures up for all to see soon.

Blessings on a Happy Day!

Changes

2006-11-05T15:09:00.000-08:00

Well.. we have been going through some changes here at our home. I decided we need a bit of a fresh start so I have renamed our blog and changed our look. We have also been changing some things in the real world. This past week we began to rearrange a few rooms in our house and now we have an official school room. The kids are very excited and I am too! We now have a functional space to work and learn together! I will post pictures as soon as I am finished with the last few touches. I will probably do a post later in the week about why having a specific room for school is helpful :)

Blessings!
r

Butterfly fun..etc

2006-10-09T17:08:00.000-07:00

Friday we had a trip to the zoo and park to catch butterflies and feed the ducks.. The kids had a great time.. here are some shots from that day:

School is moving along.. we started late this morning because we were all up late because I was painting at the campus. We read and discussed Psalm 1:1 .. I decided we will cover a Psalm ever day before we begin our school work. We completed the book work and had lunch then headed to the library to return some videos and get a few more books on tape etc.

Joseph and Nate finished "Bears on Hemlock Mountain" today. They said they enjoyed it. I got another book on tape for them to listen to but could not find the books to go with it.. so listening will just have to do on this next one. I am anxiously awaiting the Story of the World to get here.. I am hoping it will arrive soon! We are ready to see what happens next in history.

Please checkout the new additions on the left side of my blog.. there are links to videos for many different things.. The kids love these.. PLEASE NOTE: I must make sure you are aware that I NEVER let the kids view this site alone. The site that provides these videos has many images etc that are not good. I consider using this site like I use TV or Videos, With CAUTION!.. with that said.. these two videos are GREAT.. .. thanks M!

blessings
r

Todays Update

2006-10-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

Well the past two days have been good ones for our homeschool.. heres what we have been doing:

We have 40 latin terms memorized and will start our 5th chapter of Latin for Children. We LOVE this program.. it is actually FUN!

The kids are continuing to listen to The Tale of Despereaux.. and are LOVING it.. The boys today are listening and following along to a story on tape called "the Bears on Hemlock Mountain" I have decided to get books on tape for them and make sure each has his own book for following along. They seem to like it.

We went to the library yesterday:
Cat checked out "The prince and the pauper" for her quiet reading time. And today we read together "Wilma unlimited : how Wilma Rudolph became the world's fastest woman".
Joseph just had to have a 20lb book from the library called: "Birds of North America" and stayed up WAY to late last night reading it.. He really likes the fact that there is a color coded map of the US to show where the birds are in summer, winter, or permenant residence... he also likes that it has a bar at the top with the scientific names of each bird.. (funnyhuh?)

I was happy to find a book/cd/tape kit that is called Multiplication Rap and we also checked out Multiplication Rock by Schoolhouse Rock (video). Little by little those facts are getting into Cats brain! (yipee).

I also checked out a video about Albert Einstien.. so far its been good.

I still need to order my history book.. Story of the World #2.. will do that in a few minutes. I am ready to get that in so we can get our history going again. I am missing that! :)

Books Books and More Books

2006-10-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share some of the books we have enjoyed recently.... and of course give them wonderful reviews because we LOVED them! You can find all of these at the library or on Amazon.

Helen Keller by Margaret Davidson
I thought this book was GREAT.. its a quick read and tells the story of Helen. The kids LOVED this book and didnt want me to stop reading.. we finished it in two sittings. I know the kids really loved it because they spent most of the three days after completing it blindfolded .. to experience the world like somewhat like Helen.
What did you like about the book:
Nate:"I liked all of it. I liked the part where she felt the bumps on the cards, game cards"
Jo: "I liked the very end. Her telling everybody what it like being blind and deaf"
Cat: " My favorite part was when she finished college"
What surprised you about the book?
Cat: that at first the president of the college didnt want her to go.. but he changed his mind"

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George We started this book a LONG time ago .. you know how things get in the way of reading time.. thats what happened with us.. so when we started school up again the kids really wanted to find out what happened to Sam. I liked this book because it explains in detail how Sam took care of his own needs, from food, to housing, to clothes. This book is about a boy who "runs away" from home to live in the wilds of the mountains.. I loved the ending.
Why did you like this book:
Nate: "Cause he lived in a tree, and he burnt it out with fire. All the rest I liked"
Jo: "I liked the book because I didnt know what was going to happen next. I liked frightful, his falcon. How he made his fires, and the racoon he found sleeping on his bed."
Cat: "I like this book because he had a pet falcon, and that he trained it to hunt. I liked the way it ended since they couldnt make him go home they brought home to him."

Go Figure by Johnny Ball
http://us.dk.com/static/cs/us/11/features/gofigure/intro.html

this is a great math book.. I think this one needs to be on my christmas list for the kids.

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

Thanks to M for telling us about this book. Her girls both read it and LOVED it.. I got the book on cd for the kids to follow along with.. the man who reads it is just amazing! .. its a great story so far.
The kids are listening and following along in the book to this book. They are on chapter 17 and really enjoying this book.
Why do you like it so far?
Cat: "Because the mouse can read and everyone else thinks the words are scribbles" and " The rat is going to save him just for telling the rat a story"

happy reading!

History is History! woooo whoo!

2006-09-14T10:49:00.000-07:00

OK.. I cant believe it but we FINALLY finished Story of the World Vol ONE.. I am so happy.. its almost unbelievable! .. It has taken sooo long for us to get through.. not because we didnt like it.. mostly because we spent WAY to much time in each section.. (like what 3 months.. in Egypt..) .. we found it all so interesting that it was always hard to move on!.. But we got through it.. and today I will order Vol TWO.. (I want to do a major review until the next book comes so we have book one .. the major parts.. in our brains :) .. BUT for now.. a BIG HURRAH!

Heres what we did today:

Catherine worked on her memory work and book work.. she said her spelling words for the next week on the tape recorder.. she said she would listen to those each night to help her remember them.. She also finished (last night) her first Encyclopedia Brown book (#6).. and we will head to the library in a few minutes to find another for her to read.. She spent a few hours reading and rereading books into the tape recorder.. reading VERY dramatic.. she's just doing it for "fun" but I just LOVE it!

Joseph is trudging through his bookwork.. although he seems to dread it.. his reading level is improving.. and he LOVES listening to our History and his favorite book "My Side of the Mountain" which I hope to finish this weekend. He has been playing on starfall a bit and REALLY wants to read some of Dads old comic books. (hes hoping Dad will get those down tonight).. he is excited about going to the library so he can play on their computer.

Nathan read about 6 poems to me from Science Verse.. its funny to hear a 5 year old read "precipitation, evaporation" etc.. he has most of those poems memorized. Nathan also did his math, and handwriting.. which he is improving at everyday.

After we read our history today I started a little biography about Helen Keller.. so far it is really good.. the kids LOVED it .. but after 45 mins of reading i had to give my voice a rest..

Yesterday I started a new system.. This past week I had the kids stop watching TV during the week.. they have to read books to earn points (minutes) for the weekend.. they will use these minutes on the weekend to play video games or watch tv.. Well yesterday. while asking the kids to clean up one of the many messes they made.. i decided to come up with a chart with "chores" but they earn minutes for completing those..

heres an example:
reading a book to yourself: time=time.. (that means each minute of reading is a minute of TV viewing)
reading a book to someone else: your time PLUS 15 minutes for reading to someone else
listening to someone read: your time PLUS 10 minutes
putting your shoes where they go (all day): 10min
making your bed: 10min
doing your bookwork: 20mins..
(you get the idea)
so far so good.. walked into the hall this morning and ALL the beds were made and not a shoe in site! (woowho!)

Well I am hoping to find a good book or two at the library :) so I guess I better get going..

blessings
r

School Pic Update

2006-09-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

This week is going good so far.. working on getting in a routine.. Here are some pics from last week.. the ones of the kids at the table are from this morning.. they decided to organize their pen/pencil drawers.. Joseph worked on his spelling words and the close up shot of the scrabble board are words that Joseph spelled for fun yesterday. The ones of the boys on the floor with the cushions are from the church building when the girls were studying for Bible Bowl... I think there is also one of Nathan playing starfall :) The ones outside are the kids getting ready, and playing the real life size board game with questions from thier memory books. They had fun!
I have to run and make sure they get all the appropriate info put in their memory books for this week..

Good Start

2006-09-07T12:20:00.000-07:00

Well, we've had a good start to the year. Our school year started Monday.. and things are going good. This week and next week I am trying to figure out what levels everyone is on. I did start nate on a first grade math book and jo got a new handwriting book. Here is a a few things we have done this week:

We went to the store and got each child a small spiral notebook. These are called "memory books" Each Mondy we will write in our memory books the things each child is to remember.. The are to look at it at bedtime, before going to sleep and first thing in the morning. Here are the sections:
Math, Scripture Memory, Latin, Spelling, English(cat), Reading (jo and nate)
so far the kids are Loving the memory book idea and it seems to be helping them!

Yesterday, While I was lifting weights in the gym.. oops I mean garage.. the kids made a life size game board on the drive way.. after I finished my workout.. they rolled dice and used theirsleves as pawns.. they had to answer a question from their memory book before they could move the number of spaces they rolled.

We also have an on going game of scrabble, the kids played a game of clue (jo LOVES this game), and today we read our history on the trampoline.

So far it is off to a great start.. I am ready for my painting job to be finished. I will have that done on Sunday.. so I can really get into a routine!

I read a article a few days ago about schooling our children: (lets hear what you think of this paragraph)
except: "on Schools" by John Woolman 1758

"Children at an age fit for schools, are at a time of life which requires patient attention of pious people; and if we commit them to the tuition of those, whose minds we believe are not rightly prepared to "train them up in the nurture and admonitions of the Lord, " we are in danger of not acting the part of faithful parents toward them. Our heavenly Father doth not require us to do evil that good may come of it; and it is needful that we deeply examine ourselves, lest we get entangled in the wisdom of this world, and through wrong apprehensions, take such methods of our children. It is a lovely sight to behold innocent children,; and when they are sent to schools where their tender minds are in imminent danger of being led astray by tutuors, who do not live a self-denying life, or by the converstion of such children as do not live in innocence, it is a case much to be lamented. "

UHM..

Swim Lessons Vol. 1/ our summer

2006-06-18T15:57:00.000-07:00

Our first time to take swimming lessons was the best experience! I have always said, "the kids can do this or that when they get older.. well, my friends, they are older".. and this is one of those things I am so happy we waited for. Now that the kids are older they were extreemly excited about learning, and all improved greatly through the classes. Jo, who had what I call a great fear of water and swimming is now (as you can see in the photos) swimming with both arms and legs just a going! Nate, who loved the water is close to getting the hang of swimming and lessons gave him confidence and I know by the end of the summer he will be a swimmer. Cat had a great time and learned, water safety, the breast stroke, front crawl, back stroke and floating. What a great experience!

This summer is flying by! I have been working hard on getting our home organized and the kids chores down so when the fall comes we will be a well oiled machine around here! I will have a bit of tweaking to do of our homeschool as Jo was diagnosed with a eye condition that keeps him from doing close work for longer than 20 min or so.. The solution for us will be to do our schooling with Jo in spurts throughout the day. I am very thankful that we homeschool so we can adapt to his needs.. what a blessing!

I am ever amazed at what the children learn when we are not "doing school" .. the conversations they have are great... the questions are non-stop.. "Dad, is a hedgehog a real animal?, How do the birds know there are seeds there?, Do you think that is from latin or greek? How do the lights know when to change to red or green?, What was (insert a president) middle name?, home state? Who was the tallest president? Could we really dig this hole to China? Do you think the Lava would come out if we dug deep enough? Why did the dogs toenail bleed so much? ".... I could go on forever! I really believe that my job as a homeschool mom is to encourage a thirst for knowledge, a quest of answering the questions, how to find the answer, and to never be afraid to ask. I use to think.. "what is our schooling going to look like when the kids are older.. (when I had two babies and one in kindergarten).. " Well, now I know.. the kids are older.. I will be officially schooling all three this next year and I must say it surprises me that its the same, if not easier now than it was then. I, of course am much more relaxed, use to all the questions people ask and confident in our decision to homeschool. I am also certain that this is the best choice for our family. I recently found some photos in a little scrapbook that was made by Cats teacher when she was in preschool. As I looked over those pics I found myself seeing somethings that were interestingly enough, not seen by me when she was in that preschool. My sweet baby girl (4 years old), sitting close to some man (a teacher) as he read a book to her, another pic of a little boy pushing his way past her to so see something he was interested in, and smiles on my daughters face that were not those of the happy girl I had at home. I dont even remember most of the things she learned that year, or the field trips she went on but I do know that I was so busy working I missed out on so much. It was the experience with preschool that sent us into homeschooling. The teachers there were wonderful .. but it took two to three hours for my baby girl to get back to herself again. We did have some playground issues and name calling etc but the main reason we chose to homeschool was because sending our daughter away so young changed her, changed who she was, and we wanted Cat to be herself! So... as I homeschool ... I remember...
Its a joy, we learn together, read together, and make mistakes together. Life is good. We are so very blessed.

Tents, Bookfair, and Science

2006-05-09T13:24:00.000-07:00

What makes a rainy day fun? why building a HUGE tent of course. The kids have been making tents everyday for over a week now.. even when it is not raining.. Puppet shows, reading books, pretending to be animals, you name it.. they have created a tent for it.

We have been to Saturn and Uranus, both of which were very interesting planets to learn about. Yesterday we watched a video from NASA. It was the mini-movie of the probe landing on Titan.. that was amazing! We also got to see a fast forward video of the scientists building the space craft.

All and all things have been going good. I have lots of other things to right.. but as a homeschooling mom.. the kitchen and laundry are calling my name. The girls are wanting to make brownies.. sooo i must go get the kitchen straightened up so they can cook :) .. (the kitchen doesnt get clean if you spend half the day organizing the kids rooms and the other half at the library!)..

so.. with that.. I will leave you with a link and image of Saturn.. and will post more later.. :)

be sure and check out the link below to see the movie and find out more great stuff about Saturn :)

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm

IO, The Lake, Give away, and The Presidents

2006-05-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

Image of Io.. please see link below and check out the site.. its great.

Yesterday we spent quite a bit of time learning about Jupiter.. here is what the kids said they learned:
Cat: Io is stinky and looks like green mold
Nate: If you were 12 on Earth you would be 1 on Jupiter
Kamie: Io smells like rotten eggs
Joseph: Earth has Sulfter on it too.
Taylor: Europa is made of ice.
Kaleb: 12 Earth years is 1 Jupiter year
Here is is how were are remembering some of the things from our lesson:
Io stinks like rotten eggs cause it is made of sulfer.. so we all hold our nose and yell "IIIIIIOOOOOO" it stinks
Europa is made of ice and has large cracks on it.. so we remember you need to take "Europa (YOUR ROPE-A_) with you so you can get out if you fall through the ice.
There are others but the post would be REALLY long if I shared them all :)
We looked at some great pictures on this site.. it has TONS of pictures.. the kids were really interested in seeing it.. I think Io is beautiful!
http://www.solarviews.com/span/galio.htm
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/targetFamily/Jupiter

Today we tried to go to three different parks in town but they were all over come with school children on field trips. The kids there seemed to be having a great time but I prefer not to take my group there when it is so crowded (hard to keep up with all six with so many kids around). So.. we ended up heading out to the Lake. The kids all had a great time looking at the water and throwing rocks into it. The also gathered a collection of shells that they are going to paint later today. We saw some sea gulls, and a red tipped black bird (when I said "hey kids, look at that bird.. its black but has yellow stripes on its wings.." .. Joseph said, "Yeah mom, thats a red tipped black bird!")... which had a pretty call. We learned a lot along the way.. about the Hydroelectricity Plant and the Water Treament Plant. When we got home and during lunch i looked up the following on the internet..

(water towers) http://people.howstuffworks.com/water1.htm
(Hydroelectric plants) http://people.howstuffworks.com/hydropower-plant1.htm

We have been working for a week or so on the Presidents song. We have the song down from memory all the way through to Coolidge.. The way we are learning it is through the tune the "ten little indians" . I have been really surprised how quickly the kids are learning it.. esp little Kamie.. who LOVES to sing the song! Today we worked on getting to the end and I hope that by the end of tomorrows day we will have all of them memorized!

A friends sent me a link to a free giveaway that a homeschooling mom-blogger is doing. here is the link to that.. I sure would enjoy the microscope :)
Spunky is giving away a Benz Microscope and Apologia Biology Set this week. Click Here to get the details.http://spunkyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2006/05/spunkys-great-giveaway.html

Thank you Ms Polacco

2006-05-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

If you have never read "Thank You Mr. Falker" you need to. I dont care if you have kids 2 years or 22 years old it is a MUST read. Sitting out in the swing in the front yard after lunch today I read this book to the kids. They loved it and I cried! What a great story. I dont want to tell any of the story because I dont want to give it away. It is now in my top three of favorites. Probably the top.. what a great story..

We have had a great day today. After completing the daily book work we ate lunch, I read to the kids and then we played some t-ball.
The kids were split into teams and we made a small baseball field in the backyard. We had a great time. I forgot how much I loved baseball :) we might have to head out to the park in the next few days and play on a real field. :)

Heres a bit more info of what we have learned recently.

in History we learned of the death of Julius Ceasar. (everyone but Kamie) After I was done Catherine asked if all of it was really true.. like "thats so great it must be a fiction story"!..

In Science we have moved on to Jupiter. Learned its made up of Helium and Hydrogen and it gives off heat.. I just LOVE Apologia Science.. its great.

I am looking forward to going to the bookfair.. its always an encouragement to hear the speakers and see all the homeschoolers that go there.. The end of the year is coming fast but we have goals for the summer as well. I will continue with our Latin studies and really focus on bringing the reading levels of the boys up. They have both progressed really great and I am happy with thier work.

so I will end with a quote from the book I started this post about:
"Yes, and so is knowledge, but knowledge is like the bee that made that sweet honey, you have to chase it through the pages of a book!" .. so here is to chasing that bee of knowlege!

"Watch out Jack!"....

2006-04-21T13:20:00.000-07:00

I never thought in a million years that the following words would bring tears to my eyes.
"Watch out, Jack! The monster's coming! Race you!" ............and..........."But Annie had disappeared"
But my friends, that is what happened. When you have a kid who works so hard trying to read, get so frustrated and worked up over reading.. Those words HE read alllllll by himself!!!! .. were music to this moms ears! I just about fell over.. right off the bed and on to the floor.. but I held it together and just bounced up and down a bit. IT was one of those moments I will never forget. ... like when Catherine looked up her first word in the dictionary, or Nathan said "Mom, please go out!" when he was potty training.. what a moment! All i have to say it watch out Magic Tree House .. Here comes Joseph!

Yesterday it rained most of the day .. the kids built a HUGE tent in the den and then spent the rest of the day reading, or playing inside it. Kaleb it reading Treasure Island.. as well as Catherine. Nathan and Joseph both are reading some poems from "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and they love it.

Our History is moving along, yesterday we read the story of Cleopatra and Ceasar (of course a WAY toned down version).. We learned "Vini, Vidi, Vici" .. in Latin, from the history lesson..

For Science we learned more about comets and astroids, about Haleys comet, and about Meteors. The kids seem to really like the section where it talked about a 60 ton meteoite. Of course then they wanted to know how much a ton was.. I did a quick search and found a ton is 2000 lbs.

We have also be doing a Bible lesson .. I have been reading a page from my "Devotionals for Children" they are short and to the point and the kids seemed to like it.

Its been a good week. I look forward to finishing our history.. and I think I might have to throw a party for us when we do.. ! We'll see.

A Bit of China

2006-04-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo post of some things we have been doing in our studies of Ancient China. Last night for Nathans birthday supper he chose to have Harvest Moon Chinese Food takeout. I know that it is probably NOTHING like the food Joel and Jessica eat in Taiwan, but the kids did have fun trying to eat with the chopsticks. Catherine decided to eat her yogart and pb&j with chopsticks.. she had fun! There are also some images of some of the books we got from the library.. and a image of Catherines first try at writing Chinese Characters.

Our schedule.. (?)

2006-04-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

After a homeschool meeting last week in which some great moms shared thier daily schedules, I left feeling a bit overwhelmed. So many moms that homeschool have such strict schedules, and even have those written down for the kids to follow. It seemed to me I didnt have much of a schedule, and nothing compaired to other moms. BUT today.. as our day began I started to notice the time and became more aware that I DO have more of a schedule than I first realized. So.. for the sake of having it written down, here is our schedule

8:15 to 1030- do book work (this includes math, spelling, english, handwriting, and journal). During this time I am in the room and there to answer questions, help with reading of story problems, and just guide the kids through thier work. While this is is going on the younger two children either play on the computer or watch educational tv. They can also draw or play with toys but have to do this quietly so the other children can concentrate.

1030-1130- free play time, building with blocks, playing outside, etc

1130-1230ish.. help with lunch, eat lunch, at the same time watch educational dvd or listen to stories on kiddierecords

1230-200- Reading time.. during this time I read our history, science, 2 picture books usually to do with our history or science and then read from a chapter book.. (i have yet to find a chapter book that will fit with all the children so I read longer in the picture books today)

200.. quiet time starts... Kamie goes down for a nap .. each child reads quietly to him-herself for atleast thirty minutes... Kamie has about 15 mins and then lays down and naps.

245- Catherine and I do our Latin for Children, The other children play on starfall.com, color or draw, play chess, or read quietly

330- Kamie can wake from her nap, We have a snack and the kids have free time until Kerry arrives.

After the school day is over the swed kids have a 10 minute clean up and then get to play.

so I guess I DO have a schedule.. just never wrote it down to see how organized I really was :) Of course I try hard during this time to do a bit of housework but most of the time that only consists of doing the dishes and a bit of laundry. I try to do about a hour of cleaning after Ks kids leave so I can stay on top of the housework.. many days.. it doesnt workout but I try. As will most homeschooling moms.. the house is always a challenge.

So... now for the fun stuff...

Books we read:
"T is for Texas" by Mary D. Wade
"The Master Swordsman and The Magic Doorway" Two Legends from Ancient China Retold and Illustrated by Alice Provensen

Science we studied Comets and learned Comets can be Astroids. We also learned some have short orbits (200 years of less) and others have long orbits (a thousand years)..and they are made of ice, dry ice, and rock. We spent quiet a bit of time reading in our science... I am working hard to get finished with our science book by the second week in May.

In history we are now to Julius Ceasar but today I decided to read the ancient Chinese story so i didnt cover the next section in History. We will continue the JC tomorrow during Kamies nap time. Although it is sooo hard to leave China in our history.. I must keep going so I can finish our Story of the World by May.

update-Wednesday

2006-04-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

A beautiful day for the zoo..we got there a little after six school buses did! But it worked out good.. we were able to stay in front or behind the large groups. We were going to go to the park afterwards but again.. it was too crowded.. so we ran to the store and came home for lunch.

We had to get up extra early cause joel was opening the building this morning so Cat and Joseph had thier bookwork completed by 7 and 7:30!..Catherine liked getting it all done so early that she has asked me to wake her up at 6 every morning!

The kids had lunch and at the same time watched a little bit of "The Jetsons". After a few minutes of free time, in which Joseph and Taylor played chess, Nathan and Kamie watched, Catherine worked on her memory verses and Kaleb watched a bit more of the Jetson, we read our science and history. In History we are learning about Ceasar, and in science we learned about Mars and whether liquid water was there.

Catherine just finished reading "The Secret Garden" and is now watching the BBC Video I got at the library. It will be interesting to hear what she has to say, most of the time she is surprised that the videos are not at good as the books.

Our Monday

2006-04-10T12:46:00.000-07:00

After the kids got their bookwork done the girls organized a little play. Using umbrellas and flowing skirts they pretended they were traveling. With Nathan and Kamie there to turn on the fans for the blowing wind the girls decide to spend the night under their umbrellas. I am not sure if they have decided how the play would end but they sure had fun creating it. While they were doing that Joseph and Kaleb played chess. Then the two boys made up their own game using two sets of chess pieces and two boards.. it had to do with star wars and at the end Kaleb was the winner.

We watched a great geography video on the American Southwest. It was a 30 minute video and covered the states in the southwest, people, history, and geographic/geological sites along the way. Tomorrow we will watch one about Texas.

After a lunch together, in which the kids listened to the "Seeds of Courage" scripture cd, they played outside for a bit of free time together. We also got to watch a bit of Art History via "Gallery" a Hidef art channel (Degas little dancer), and a bit of Buffalo herding with "Equator" Hidef. The kids were very interested in the buffalo roundup esp since one of the cowboys used a bullwhip (Cat/Jo and Nate got bullwhips this past weekend at a garage sale.. they are small homemade ones but they can still crack them if they do it just right.)

For reading time I read from our Apologia Science and we learned that Mars takes 2 earth years to go around the sun. We also learned it is cold year round there but does have seasons, that it has polar ice caps, and that its day is 25 hours long. The kids retained a lot from our last lesson and decided that they would NOT like to live on Mars if a man made ecosystem was built there.

I then read "The Warlords Beads" and "D is for Dragon Dance" both books about China. Then I gave the kids a chance to vote on our next book the choices were "Treasure Island", "King Solomons Mine", and "20000 leagues Under the Sea" the kids agreed on Treasure Island so I read two chapters. I have decided however that it will probably not be one Kamie and Taylor will like.. might be a bit scary.. so I will allow the others to read that to each other and change our group reading to "Little Lord Fauntleroy" which I have on hold in audio tape at the library.
During quiet time Catherine and I will do our Latin together while the other children read or draw quietly. Taylor chose to do some sketches from our science book and Joseph is working on designs for his robot in his new "Robot Journal".
I think most of the kids are pretty tired from a busy weekend.. so a little bit of quiet time is good for them.

Two of our favorites from the new cd are
Philippians chapter Four
6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
and
1 Timothy chapter Four
12Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

Spring is here!

2006-04-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

OH I am so happy that spring is here! Yesterday was a beautiful day. Here the kids are sitting in front of Aunt Rosemary's flower garden.

Here's what we have been up to.
Science: We are now off of the moon and onto Mars. We learned that the Mars surface is red because there is so much iron in the dust there. The atmosphere doesnt protect Mars like the Earths atmosphere does and as a result there are craters on Mars.. esp the southern hemisphere. We saw images of Mars from the NASA rovers that are there via the internet. We got to see video clips of the scientists discussing the hurdles they had to overcome to get the rovers to Mars. We also watched a video of scientists favorite images that the rovers have taken so far. Today we learned that the sky is a pinkish/gold during the day there and the sunset has blue in it. It is funny how our daily life impacts our studies, after reading today I looked outside and we are in the mist of a west texas dust storm. Yes, what a great opportunity to so experience what life would be like on Mars! The sky is now a salmon red color and it is amazingly close to what the sky looked like in the picture we saw of Mars.

Catherine and I went on to lesson 2 in Latin for Children. We watched our video and did the worksheets. We also reviewed the past lesson to make sure we had that down. The other children sat in on part of the Latin session but since it is not a requirement they did not have to do the worksheets etc. I am amazed at how much the take away by watching the videos and singing the songs. It is also interesting how when nothing is said to the children they automatically are drawn into learning situations. They did not know what we were doing but when they heard the singing and teaching going on they naturally wanted to be part of it.

Some of the kids played Starfall for quite a while as the others played a geography game on the other computer. It was great when Nate ran in to tell us that the Taj Mahal was on the computer! They were excitted abou that! The kids also played Chess today and Mancala, did some great drawings and worked with water and marker to make watercolor. We listened to the Fisherman and his Wife on the Kiddie Records and at reading time we LOVED "The Architect and the Artist" By Demi. We completed the last two chapters of The Wind in the Willows... YES we are finished with it! The kids liked it. (Any votes on what our next book should be?.. .. it must be a classic)

Pictures: The Park, Ducks and China

2006-04-03T13:13:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day. After the kids got all their book work finished we headed to the park. It was a amazing spring day.. although a little cool for me :) .. The kids had a great time. It was fun to see and hear them playing and pretending. "Hurry .. quick... get on! we are fixing to take off!!!" .. "now we are blasting off!" ... and as they climb down onto the ground.. "oh cool.. look . we are on a completly different planet!".. OH the joys of imagination!
Take a minute and see the pics I snapped while we were there.. below i will talk a bit about the rest of our day :)
Arent they the sweetest! AND YES Trixy LOVED going down the slide.

These next three shots I call "Just hanging around" :)

Is it Easter Already? The kids found this egg close to the shore. Sure seems moma duck didnt pick a very good spot.
Catherine took this pic of me and Trixy. It was fine weather if you were running around the playground but for me.. if its not in the 80s its cold..
See the little baby ducks? OH it reminded me of "Make Way for Ducklings"
Getting ready to feed the ducks.
The boys in my new 1950's? round chair waiting with excitment for their show to come on.

After the park,, and before T.V.. we watched a great DVD called "Destination China" If you have seen "Globe Trekker" on TV .. this is that show.. It was wonderful! We got to visit the Silk Road and see a temple fair celebrating the end of silk harvest, a Chinese Opera with a mask changing dancer, saw noodles being made in the market place, an acrobatic school, several markets and all different foods. We learned about the temples they have, and how they worship a god of money (they have many gods like the ancient Greeks and Romans), we floated down the Yangzi River, and watched as they played a domino type game that is the national game of China. The ancient capital of China, Xi'an and the Terra Cotta Soldiers were the last on the trip. There were two words I tried to skip over..not that they were "bad" words.. just something I would like to wait awhile before I explain) .. I also skipped over the part about Chinese Medicines.. they saw the pics but I fastforwarded it through the words.. I like to preview most DVDs like this before I show them but didnt have time for that today. If you are have or are studying China.. check this out at your library.. its GREAT.

After the DVD we read "The Warlords Puppeteers" by Virgina Walton Pilegard Illustrated by Nicolas Debon. Tomorrow we will make our own puppets.. and I will encourage the kids to try to work up a play... usually little encouragement is needed for that :)

We also reviewed some scripture and sang with our Seeds of Praise CD, played dressup, read books on our own and just had one of those GREAT homeschooling days!

Photos-Legos, Duck-Goose, and the wash

2006-03-28T08:14:00.000-08:00

Here's a shot of the kids playikng Duck Duck Goose after skate and bowl.
This is a Lego city the boys built. Complete with police station and everything.
The boys working on the Lego city.
Here is a example of how we learn predator and prey. I am sure it almost drives our cat crazy. We are able to get VERY close to all kinds of birds and are checking off in our bird book the ones we see. We put bird seed out really close to our back door and the birds just come right up.
"Mom, can I watch the washer go round and round.?" I say; "you mean agitate?" Joseph says "Agitate, whats that mean?" .. so there we go .. a lesson in housekeeping skills as well as math, science and electronics. (you see .. if you dont close the lid .. it stops).. "How does it do that MOM!" .. Oh the questions.. gotta love 'em.

Pictures- Fire Station Trip

2006-03-28T07:46:00.000-08:00

The kids had a great time at the firestation. The firefighters were GREAT!
Here the firefighter is talking about the kitchen they use and about kitchen safety
Here he is showing the kids where he sleeps.
The kids having a great time. (who would not have a great time climbing on a fire truck!)
Listening as the firefighter explains things about how the truck works.
Kaleb has a question. I cant remember what it was.. I do remember it was a great question.

Ancient China, Walking on the Moon, and more

2006-03-25T11:59:00.000-08:00

With Spring Break and a week to get back into the swing of things I am finally posting on our blog. We had a great week filled with playing with legos, building tents, library trip, and lots of bookwork.

Heres a update on what we are discussing these days:

History: We learned about Chin.. the first emperor of China and how to write some Chinese characters. We also learned about the Great Wall, and what China was like when there were warlards in charge. I found some great sites to get some visuals on China and the great wall. The link below is AMAZING, it is a virtual tour of China. On this site you can see The Great Wall, The Forbiden City, The Marco Polo Bridge and hear classic chinese music as well as learn how to say "the great wall" in Chinese... A MUST SEE and hear :)!
http://www.beijingbeforetheolympics.com/

Science: We are one the Moon. Learning it does not have an atmosphere and about the first man on the moon etc. We got to see the back side of the moon via a great link in the book extras that come with the Apologia book.

At lunch everyday we have enjoyed Kiddierecords.com and listend to "Bugs Bunny", "Tickety Tock", "The Crawly Caterpiler" and "Build me a House" .. among others.

We have been loving a new Good Seeds Album called "Seeds of Praise" This is a cd that has put scripture to music. We have memorized "Psalms 148: 1-5" (among others) Praise the LORD.
"1 Praise the LORD from the heavens,
praise him in the heights above.

2 Praise him, all his angels,
praise him, all his heavenly hosts.

3 Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars.

4 Praise him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the skies.

5 Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for he commanded and they were created."

I am behind on posting pictures. I have some great shots of the kids, building with legos, going to the firestation and at skate and bowl. Below are some shots I took before spring break. I will try and post more later tonight.
The kids playing and talking. (they love hanging on that bar)
Sweet Melissa and the girls.
Kamie and Taylor stopping for a second so I could take a shot.
Playing cards back at home.

"In principio erat verbum"

2006-03-08T07:57:00.000-08:00

In principio erat verbum, (In the beginning was the word-John 1:1)
Latin for Children is GREAT! Catherine and I will be on lesson two today. We worked last week on getting our chants down and although Catherine is the only one required to do Latin, the boys now have the above verse memorized too! We are using Latin for Children, and are loving it so far!

We have started up our Bible Verse Memorization ABC list again..
The verses for today are
Letter I
"In the beginning was the word" John1:1
Letter J
"Jesus said unto him: " I am the way, the truth, and the life..." John 14:6a
Letter K
"Keep your tongue from evil" Psalm 34:13

I have decided to try harder at getting all our school "work" done by noon. The kids can then do projects and play in the afternoon. It will also free my time up to work on the house and artwork. The days seem to fly by, esp when we get caught talking, learning, and singing together.

Pictures-Zoo, Dodecahedrons, and More

2006-03-07T13:38:00.000-08:00

Our trip to the zoo. The day was beautiful and the kids were so happy to get to go.
I caught Nathan playing with the words on the fridge.
Catherine showing our new map of Asia and a pin/paper mark she made to show where I friends are living.
Kamie, Taylor and Kaleb's Dodecahedrons. We made these after reading about one of the charactors in Phantom Tollbooth who had a head that was a dodecohedron. He had a different expresion on each side of his head. The kids made expressions on all 12 sides and I put them together.
The girls playing dress-up. Arent they sweet.

Learning all the time

2006-03-04T20:29:00.000-08:00

Well, I was originally going to post some photos but the system seems to be taking its time.. so you will have to endure another "no pic posted" post.

We have had a great few days. Last week we enjoyed going to the zoo and park and had a picnic lunch on top of that! I am always amazed at what we learn and the things I hear the kids talking about while we are at the zoo. From, "Oh yeah, the Prong Horn is that deer like animal that was under the veterinarians care last time 'cause he had a cut on his neck" to .. "OH now I remember that was the Latin name for this one!" and "Are all those ducks captive with their wings clipped or are some wild?" .. Oh I love the zoo!

Tonight as I was checking my email the kids came and and were just being themselves. As always the questions started. Catherine"So Technology means the study of something.. cause OLOGY means study of .. so what does the first part mean?" ( I must pause at this point and explain that the kids were watching the classic pink panther when the screen came on saying "We are experiencing technical difficulties .. please stand by..") .. that got them into a conversation of .. "what exactly did that mean?" .. SO.. I get the English From the Roots UP book and hand it to Catherine. As she is sitting on the couch, Joseph asks.. "Mom, what's 1000 times 100?" then Nathan.. "What's. 100 times 100?" .. In the mean time Catherine is reading " Techne is Greek for ART OR SKILL.. " and ars... artis .. is Latin for art, skill.(she pauses)... cool." .. Needless to say we found all our answers and learned a few math tricks.. then Nathan said "Mom, hey.. look up what is 12 and 11 in Spanish.." he paused "I MEAN.. how do you say it in Spanish?" .. so I got back on the computer and looked it up .. read it to him.. he repeated it back to me a few times and then paused.. "OK>> so what is 100 in Spanish?".. Got that one answered and made the announcement that all other questions would be answered tomorrow.. "If you want me to read My Side of the Mountain.. we have to go start reading or it will be tooooo late" ..

You know.. I soooo believe learning happens ALL the time.. Here we were .. in our PJS.. getting ready to get to bed and out pop all these questions.. I believe children are natural question askers! ( I KNOW.. it would sound better to say "questioners.. or askers.. but question askers just sounds like the way a kid would say it.. so there.. -yes another creative grammar moment from RS-) ..
Theres no way around it! But if we are not careful it could be easy to squash that in them. So .. my approach to a ZILLION questions.. "bring it on" .. But please.. if I ask for "no questions for 5 minutes PLEEEEASE" .. .. that means its getting close to over load :) .. I just need a 5 minute reboot :)

Great quotes from the kids:
"I would rather be read to than watch Pink Panther!" (Catherine)
"We are now going to put on a play called "Jabberwocky".. (By Miranda.. the girls were over and while we were out they rehearsed a play they made up to Jabberwocky).. Oh the Play was GREAT .. (and the "animated shorts" before and after the play.. PLUS the bloopers.. oh.. what fun!)

The kids are not the only ones learning all the time around here... here is a list of books I checked out tonight from out library.. will be interesting to see what they have to say:
Old Time School and School Book by Clifton Johnson pub 1904 reprinted 1935
Homeschooling: Take a Deep Breath, You Can Do This by Terrie Lynn Bittner
The Empty Schoolhouse by Lluther Bryan Clegg
Homeschooling More Than One Child by Carren W. Joye
Boy and Girls Learn Differently by Micheal Gurian

(I will post pics tomorrow.. if the systems lets me :)

Been to the Library Lately?

2006-02-28T07:46:00.000-08:00

AHH.. the Library.
When I was a child I loved going to the library. But why? Because is was a place I could ride my bike that was far from home. It was a place I felt safe, although a little nervous i might be too loud. They had Story Time! A Photo Copier! I was so intemidated by the card catalog but so proud when the librarian taught me how to use it! It is amazing that I was married and almost out of college before I read my first book from cover to cover.

We go to the library two and sometimes three times a week. I now consider myself a "Library Nerd". (Acording to a my friend Melissa and one of our librarians all that is required to be a Library Nerd is to have your library card number memorized).
The excitement of finding the book I need or better yet, getting a book through interlibrary loan! (You know.. the one you thought you never in your wildest dreams would be able to get your hands on!).

On our shelf in our den we have atleast 120 books checked out from our local library. "Do you really read all those?" yep. With six kids in the house, and 5 quiet reading times a week, with each kid choosing atleast 4 books apiece.. we go through the books. I have learned to LOVE our library. I wish I would have really known how valuable my time at the library was when I was a kid. I would have been much better educated for it.

Here what other people have been saying about the Library:

"I have found the most valuable thing in my wallet is my library card." -- Laura Bush, First Lady

I am what the librarians have made me with a little assistance from a professor of Greek and a few poets. ~Bernard Keble Sandwell

The best of my education has come from the public library... my tuition fee is a bus fare and once in a while, five cents a day for an overdue book. You don't need to know very much to start with, if you know the way to the public library. ~Lesley Conger

Knowledge is free at the library. Just bring your own container. - Unknown

Libraries: The medicine chest of the soul. ~Library at Thebes, inscription over the door

To those with ears to hear, libraries are really very noisy places. On their shelves we hear the captured voices of the centuries-old conversation that makes up our civilization. ~Timothy Healy

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. ~Cicero

The student has his Rome, his Florence, his whole glowing Italy, within the four walls of his library. He has in his books the ruins of an antique world and the glories of a modern one. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"In early days, I tried not to give librarians any trouble, which was where I made my primary mistake. Librarians like to be given trouble; they exist for it, they are geared to it. For the location of a mislaid volume, an uncatalogued item, your good librarian has a ferret's nose. Give her a scent and she jumps the leash, her eye bright with battle."
(Catherine Drinker Bowen. From: Adventures of a Biographer, 1959)

and my quote:
"The Library, ahh.. I would rather go there than to a spa and get a massage ANYDAY!"

Links-Taj Mahal, Kiddie Records

2006-02-27T12:31:00.000-08:00

well today has been one of those days.. hasnt been going like I had planned but thats ok. We have still gotten in some learning, exploring and excersise too!

Last week I had the kids draw the Taj Mahal. Today I asked them what they thought it was. A museum, a park, a church. All good guesses. I then told them what it was. I was THRILLED to find a great website to take a tour of the Taj Mahal. Here is its link.
http://www.taj-mahal.net/
It is an amazing site. There is a link on it to take you to Arm Chair Travel. If you go to that site you can tour the royal gardens of London, and a panoramic picture of the earthquake in San Fran. .. its a great site
http://www.armchair-travel.com/home/index.htm

The kids are down for quiet time. All reading quietly. (Although today they would much rather draw, color or play cards... i had to enforce "15 minutes of reading please") .. :)

Another site we enjoyed today is called Kiddie records.. here is its link
http://www.kiddierecords.com/
During lunch we listened to Robin Hood. Its so neat.. the kids lOVED it!

More pictures

2006-02-22T11:54:00.000-08:00

Here are the two last pictures of the kids letters they wrote to the President. We still have some editing and spelling to correct, but I love the seeing the first drafts and thought you would too!

Be sure and see the post right after this one.. Lots and lots of pictures to see..

this afternoon the kids explored the magnets and talked a bit about Earths magnetic field. They also did some drawings of the Taj Mahal from a huge coffe table book I got at the library. We will learn more about what the Taj Mahal is tomorrow.

pictures-Presidents Day

2006-02-22T11:20:00.000-08:00

Below are some pictures taken on Presidents Day.
This first section are some of the letters the kids wrote to President Bush. The young kids I wrote what they wanted and they signed their name and drew a picture. The older kids wrote their own.. I couldn't get them all on this one post.. so the other two will be up an a few minutes.

Here the kids are just about to dig into our Happy Birthday George Washington and Abraham Lincoln birthday cake. We sang happy birthday to them, the kids thought it was funny.

These two would be considered creative free time results.. not bad huh? They are talented designers!

These last three are the log cabins the kids built as I read to them and we talked about Abraham Lincoln being born in a log cabin. We looked at images of his boyhood home etc while they built the mini models. Sorry the pics are fuzzy.. the kids took them :)

Safety City and Presidents Day

2006-02-21T13:33:00.000-08:00

Today was Safety City day. Catherine and Kaleb had a GREAT time. To put it in their own words, "That was so much FUN!.. I want to go back!"

Safety City is a part of our local police dept. It is a miniature "town" with small (what I would call play house) model churches, gas stations, McDonalds, etc. It also comes complete with traffic lights, side walks, a bridge and a fish pond. The Police officer (who is actually a homeschool dad) gives about a hour lesson on traffic, pedestrian and bike safety. Then the kids get to put what they learned in to practice. Every child got to drive a mini car, ride a bike, and walk all around safety city. It was GREAT. (so sad I forgot my camera.. so no pictures)

I am excited about he possibility of being "virtual" pen pals with Jessicas class in Taiwan. After last nights experience with talking on the computer with her it is even more exciting. Jessica decided that we could teach the kids in her school a lesson in accent. (Texas Accent to be exact) :) My kids have learned so much from Jessica and Joels travels and cant wait to learn more!

Yesterday was Presidents Day.. I found a great site (which I will list at the bottom of this post), which had some pictures of President Bush, the First Lady and the First Puppies. The kids wrote letters to President Bush, (which I will photo and post later), They also built log cabins while we talked about Lincoln, and listened quietly as I read a story of the making of the constitution. We took a break from reading and at a Birthday cake and sang happy birthday to Lincoln and Washington (whose birthdays are both in Feb). It was one of the great homeschooling days!
Here is my favorite quote from the book I read to the kids:

Taken from;
"Ben Franklin's Reminder" from the Children's Book of Faith edited by William J. Bennett

"I have lived a long time," he went on "and the longer I live, the more proof I see of this truth: God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, can an empire rise without his aid? Without God's help we will do no better than those who built the Tower of Babel. We will end up divided by our own selfishness, and our work will come to nothing."
The story goes on to say that over the course of the next few days the men were less argumentative and started working more quickly towards what we now have as the Constitution.

If you have not gotten and chance to read the "Children's Book of Faith". Check it out at your library, you wont be disappointed.

heres the link I spoke of:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/

Pictures- W in the W and Rakhi

2006-02-17T13:54:00.000-08:00

We LOVED the Phantom Tollbooth!
Kamie is showing our new choice for our daily reading: The Wind in the Willows
Hey.. LOOK they both have maps inside the front and back covers.

During our reading today the kids could illustrate as I read. Kamie and Catherine chose to do this activity. The others listened quietly, colored in coloring books (which we hardly ever do) and created more bracelets with yarn.
This is Kamie's illustration. Notice the tree with the face, the house next to it and Rat. I think she did a great job.

This is one of 10 fast sketches Catherine did as I was reading. I think she captured the expresions of Mole and Rat really great to be such a quickly drawn artwork.

Yesterday we made the rakhi. While studying our Ancient Indian History we learned about different traditions that the people in India have. This is one tradition. We modified it a bit, but the kids had a great time making these for each other. Below see information I found on the internet:
"Sisters tie a red thread or nowadays more ornately decorated bracelets, around the wrists of their brothers. This thread symbolizes the affectionate sibling relationship between them." While tying the rakhi, sisters chant the lines from the text they memorize and believe this will protect them from evil spirits. We discused different aspects of that and what we believe.

Here is on close up. We just used yarn. It worked great.

Here are the kids with them on.

Today was also filled with a bit of emails back and forth to my friends in Tiawan. I downloaded Google Earth and showed the kids our house, Taylor, Kamie, and Kalebs house and then showed them Tiawan. Its was great. Google Earth is amazing.

I think we will really enjoy the Wind in the Willows..had a few words I had to edit.. but it was not a big deal.

I am off to update Jo's blog.. he is sitting here waiting.. :)

Pictures-Valentines Play and Park

2006-02-17T13:10:00.000-08:00

Here are pictures of the girls valentine's play. Taylor is queen, Kamie is Princess and Catherine is servant I guess.
The queen and princess come out from the royal hallway to the tune of the wedding march as Catherine holds the queens train. The queen is then robed, with her red royal robe, crowned and seating on her throne. She then reads a proclamation that everyone in the kingdom is to wear hearts on valentine's day. Catherine is then orderd to pass out hearts to everyone in the crowd. The girls take a bow and the play is over. (they were so cute!)

The Park
As you can tell it was 85 degrees Wednesday so we headed to the park. Enjoyed the sunshine and hanging around at the park. Highlights of this trip: monkey bars, playing folow the leader, running the steps with Trixy, looking at the ducks, and throwing rocks in the pond.
AHH finally a picture showing that sparkle in his eyes!
Taking turns and being silly on the low monkey bars.
Spinning in the tire swing! I think this is thier favorite thing to do.

Phantom and our list

2006-02-16T13:17:00.000-08:00

AHHHH the Phantom Tollbooth... we finished our journey! The kids were so great today listening so well and had the goal of finishing the book today.. and we did.. my two favorite quotes from this book..

"You must never feel badly about making mistakes," explained Reason quietly, "as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than be right for the wrong reasons."

and

"And remember also," add the Princess of Sweet Rhyme, " that many places you would like to see are just off the map and many things you want to know are just out of sight or a little beyond your reach. But someday you'll reach them all, for what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow."

I thought I would make a list of all the chapter books I have read to my kids and include this one .. I wrote them done one day a long time ago but if I put it on the blog I will have a record I cant loose :)

Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Prairie
On the Banks of Plum Creek
By the Shores of Silver Lake
LIttle Town on the Prairie
The Long Winter
These Happy Golden Years
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Paddington Bear
Charlotte's Web
The Courage of Sarah Noble
Caddie Woodlawn
Where the Red Fern Grows (Joel)
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (Joel)
The Indian in the Cupboard
The Sign of the Beaver
The Black Stallion
The Phantom Tollbooth
currently reading: My Side of the Mountain

So.. things are up for grabs as to the next book I will read during our "school day" ..
heres the list I have to choose from so far..

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
The Prince and The Pauper by Mark Twain
The Wind in the Willows by Grahame, Kenneth
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
by Deborah Kestel

Update and MUST SEE links!

2006-02-15T08:09:00.000-08:00

The kids have finished all their bookwork this morning and we will head to the park in a few minutes for some nice sunshine. The weatherman said it was to hit 83 today! I am so happy! I am cold all the time so I am looking forward to our 100 degree weather we have in the summers! 83 will do for me today:) ..

The children put faces on their dodecohedrons and I am hoping to get them put together today. Yesterday I spent a hour or so searching the net for information about India. I have a few links I will be showing the kids today and plan to have them make some bracelets like they make in India.

For Valentines yesterday the kids made sugar cookies. (I have pictures I will post later).. We ran out of time so they will have to do thier Valentines Day Play today. That should be cute!

I am so happy to share with you some links I found this past weekend. My sweet friend Tracy has told me several times how to link words to sites on my blogs but I dont seem to have the tool bars that I need to do that. SO.. I will just copy and past the links here and you will have to copy and paste as well.. but these sites are well worth the effort!

One site is called Internet Archive and it is where I found the rest of the links. The Archive(http://www.archive.org/index.php) has a way back machine where you can put in a web address and see what it looked like 10 years ago.. really fun! .. It also has movies, still photos, audio and text archive. I did see that on the audio section you can listen to past presidential speeches! ..

The others I LOVE are listed below.. check them out!

http://www.icdlbooks.org/
above link is to the International Childrens Digital Library-you can read books in lots of different languages.. its so cool! This is done so well.. you just have to see it!

http://www.gutenberg.org/
this site is GREAT.. I looked up Thomas Jefferson and read some letters he wrote as well as a digital image of the Declaration of Indepence with his edits all over it.. WOW!

http://palmm.fcla.edu/juv/
"Literature for Children is a collection of the treasures of children's literature published largely in the United States and Great Britain from before 1850 to beyond 1950." WOW! .. This site I could spend all day at! It has books stains and all--digital pictures/scans.. so it is like you are actually looking at THE book! .. so neat.. esp when some I looked at were dated 1851! AMAZING! I think today at lunch time I will read a story or to from this book from this site:
The apple dumpling, and other stories: for young boys and girls. 1852 by Fanny, Aunt, 1822-1894.

so .. stop reading my blog and go see the great links.. let me know what you think!
We are off to play at the park!