7kids4me

Teacher Resource Books for Sale...

2011-10-16T09:16:00.005-04:00

I'm listing a bunch of my Scholastic Teacher Resource books on eBay. These are wonderful for teachers, homeschooling moms, etc.! We don't need them anymore, and I love for them to go someplace where they'll get lots of use.

We're pinching pennies this year, and the funds will be used for Christmas and an upcoming birthday for the munchkins. Please take a look and pass the information on to anyone you know who might be interested. Thank you!

*Ü* Blessings,

Mid-Summer's Fun

2011-08-05T11:13:00.007-04:00

Well, we've been busy enjoying one of Maine's best summers ever! It has been glorious! While we've had some rain, the majority of it has been at the end of the day and overnight... that means lots and lots of sunny days!

We got the kids one of those inexpensive soft sided pools... the kind with the inflatable ring that "floats" above the water line thus "holding up" the pool sides. It has been a blessing on some of our hot-hot days!

Here's a picture so you can see what I mean:

We've had a busy summer too... ds7 played Little League for the first time this year. He loved it!

And our little ballerina took two classes of ballet all year, so she had two recital numbers to perform this year. She really loves to dance, so next year we're looking at different schools for the coming school year.

A local gym offered a class called YEOP (Youth Environmental Obstacle Play) that we took advantage of. There was lots of running, jumping, balancing, climbing, tumbling, etc. The kids loved it, so we have been going all summer.

Our Keeper's club ended with a Pinning Ceremony. The club members received pins for weaving, plastic canvas, decoupage, croquet and music. We had two boys with us this year, and we let them follow along and earn pins as well. Since our members aren't able to commit to the club in the fall, my own girlies and I continued through the summer with two more skills - wild flowers and flower pressing.

Our family had the chance to visit the Nina and Pinta - replicas of the original boats Christopher Columbus sailed on in 1492. It was amazing to see just how small these boats really were!

We did our annual strawberry picking, and made some jam for the year. We visited a living history museum in Newfield, Maine called Willowbrook Village. We played with sparklers on The Fourth, we attended my family's annual reunion, and we visited the local amusement park - FUNTown USA. And just last weekend, we visited my sil in Connecticut. The kids played on a Slip N Slide for the first time, and we visited a park that had a pool and a splashing fountain! Both were great fun!

I'll end with just two more photos of our summer of fun... Daddy created a slide for our little pool:

Hope your summer is just as much fun as ours!
*Ü* Blessings,

The school year is winding down...

2011-06-05T22:40:00.005-04:00

Yes, it is. We've complete Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory by Heart of Dakota, and we really enjoyed it! I think our favorite part was the book American Pioneers and Patriots. We just loved the short stories about the pioneer children and the "How they ..." pages that told how they made butter or soap or log cabins... or even how they lived on a sailing ship!

We had a change in math programs part way through the year due to my ds7 being diagnosed with a color deficiency. We opted to stop using Math U See (which I had been using successfully with all my children except this one.) SO we switched over to the (recommended by HOD) Singapore Math US Edition. Because it is a totally different way to teach math, I thought we would do best if we started at the beginning... so we went back to the beginning of first grade with both my ds7 and dd8. Alot of it was review for dd, but I'm okay with that. We are now about 1/3 of the way through the second book, and we'll work on it all summer so that we can start book 2A in the fall. This will put dd a bit behind, but I think that will be okay if she can work at her own pace, she may even catch up at some point.

Besides math, over the summer months ds will continue to read through the Emergent Reader set in Beyond. I added in the alternate books, so it is taking quite a bit longer to get through the books than it normally would. This is okay, because ds is progressing nicely and enjoying his reading time. He is even choosing to read on his own to himself some days! I had a Little Bear Treasury book that he completed independently! I'm so proud of him! My dd is also continuing reading over the summer, but she'll be reading some of the storytime books that we haven't yet read. The list is full of so many good books!

I've already started preparing for next year. We'll be starting Bigger Hearts for His Glory, and I'm super excited about that! I've already got every book we'll need, except three from the Extension Pack... which I'm not even sure we'll need, but want to have, just in case dd needs a little extra challenge. I've been organizing and preparing notebooks, binders and the like! While out with the family today, I happened across a 20 pack of page protectors for $1.50! I bought four packs, enough for history notebooking for both children. After I was home, one of our older children told me what a steal I had gotten, that generally these page protectors are closer to $4 a package! Woo-hoo! Now I realize I'll need at least 12 of these packages - I'll have to go back for eight more! Here's the real question... do I really NEED them? Can the children do a notebooking page on a piece of copy paper and then three hole punch it to fit in a binder? Or will that be sloppy? We've done lapbooking, but never notebooking... so this is a new journey for me!

I decided on separate composition notebooks for the vocabulary work we'll be doing in Bigger. And then dd will need another notebook for her Dictation work... or I can have her do that on loose leaf paper, and then put it in a Language Arts binder for her. She won't be doing spelling like ds. He gets 340 note cards and a special box to hold them all... I got a box that will hold them all for $1.25 at the same store as the page protectors. I've never seen a box that will hold that many, so I'm glad I found it! He'll be learning cursive this year with Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting book D. I'm hoping that jumping book C will be okay. His penmanship is very good, so I think he's ready. My dd has already learned cursive, so she will be doing copywork of the poetry selections in Bigger. For her I have the poems printed in the Getty-Dubay cursive font (I used the StartWrite program to do this) and put in page protectors for her. She'll then copy a portion of the poem onto loose leaf paper which will go into the page protector as well, and we'll have a nice poetry copywork binder at the end of the year.

I'm thinking two binders for each kiddo. One binder to hold all the Language Arts stuff (dictation/spelling, copywork, grammar - maybe even a pocket for the vocab book) and another to hold the History and Science notebooking pages.

Now to figure out how to make this work with the oh-so-organized-Workboxes!

*Ü* Blessings,

I'm SO neglectful!

2011-02-12T09:15:00.010-05:00

Gosh, I can't believe how bad I am about keeping up on this! I think it must be because I feel like every post must come with photos, and that takes longer... so my new goal is to update each week (Saturday morning may be good) and if I have pics great, if not - that's okay too!

Are you ready? This is a long one! I'm going to back up and go quickly over everything I've neglected...

The kiddos started swim lessons at our local YMCA at the end of September. We've kept right up with it all through the winter... we've had a couple cancellations due to excessive snow - in case you hadn't heard, we've been lambasted this year! lol

Here's one of my fave pics of each of the kiddos in the pool:

At the end of October, Daddy got to doing some woodwork with the kiddos, using power drills and hammers (thankfully no sore thumbs!) and this is what they created:

Doesn't that look like fun? They LOVE it! It's packed away in the shed right now, but I know when Spring does arrive here in the cold North East, they will pull that out and the fun will start all over again! Oh the joys of childhood!

Just last week, I was driving B to violin practice...just the two of us...and she was looking at the clouds... "Mom, is that a Cirro-Cumulus cloud?" I was amazed that she had actually retained the information we had gone over back in November on cloud formations! You know I love our curriculum Heart of Dakota - Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory...well, I can't remember what unit it was, but here is a photo of her doing the "Science Exploration" that week:

Yes...that is shaving cream she is using to create different cloud formations - they both had a blast! Another bit of homeschool news...we participated in our homeschool group's Fall Workshop, which was themed "The First Thanksgiving". The kids absolutely enjoyed themselves! I scrapped a couple pages about this...

After that we moved on into the holidays! My friend and I had our 3rd annual pie baking day again this year... it is always so much fun to have her and her family over and to spend time baking together! After that of course there was Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful day with all our family - except my oldest son was not there, but home sick; I brought him a plate later in the day. Then B had her 8th birthday! I cannot believe she is already eight! Time flies... here are the pages I scrapped about that special day:

Then Christmas came... that's an entire story all by itself! Let's just say it was the most wonderful season of all! And then the snow came...

Here are the kids on the slope behind our house:

More woodworking with Daddy, more snow, more sledding... oh and Mommy went to FL to visit her Grandpa who was celebrating his 100th birthday! And Daddy taught the kids to ice skate while Mommy enjoyed the sunshine and warmth! lol

Here's some layouts I did about those things:

OMGoodness, this is really getting LOOOOOONG, eh? Really, we're in January now, so I'm almost done! The day after I got back from FL, the homeschool group held their annual Spelling Bee...I'm so proud of all the hard work my kiddos did to prepare! Of course, I scrapped those photos too!

You know what...this is plenty long enough. I'll stop for now, and catch you all up on the last month of our lives next week!

*Ü* Blessings,

Week 4 and a Freebie

2010-09-30T09:26:00.004-04:00

We're part way through week 4, and doing well. We've set aside Singapore Math this week, and are doing some CalcuLadder worksheets to help little man learn his math facts. My dd is ahead in that area, but I'm drilling her anyway...it will just solidify her knowledge.

Back at the beginning of the week, I realized October was right around the corner! I can't believe how fast this year has gone! Well, I thought, why not make new cards for our pocket chart wall calendar - what a fun idea! I had already done new ones for September (now they look so boring, so I'll have to do new ones again for next year) and new ones for December. I love how my December ones came out - I used one of my digital scrapbooking kits. You'll have to come back at the end of November to see that one! lol

I chose to use Simply Autumn by LawTeeDa Designs. I did have to add in a pumpkin and some leaves from another kit however... but everything else is Simply Autumn...here's a preview of the kit:

I picked mine up at ScrapMatters, my favorite digital scrapping place!

This is a sampling of the cards...you don't want to print this preview as it is not print quality...please download the set of all 31 cards and print those instead...

I saved them to my calendar cards folder in my documents, then I double clicked the image. Up pops the Picture and Fax Viewer window! I then use the button for printing at the bottom and choose full page fax...there you go! I hope you like them - feel free to download them here and tell your friends! Please leave a comment here on my blog if you download...this way I know if someone appreciates them - and I'll share each month. Otherwise, I won't bother! lol

Fall *Ü* Blessings,

Week 3 of School Unit 18 of Beyond

2010-09-21T13:47:00.006-04:00

Well, our third week of school has started off nicely. We're adding in a bit more each day and finding our rhythm. I *think* we'll keep a slow pace with Beyond this year, and begin Bigger next fall. Previously I had thought we'd finish Beyond about January and then start Bigger...but I've heard tell that Bigger is a big jump, and I'm thinking it may be too big of a jump for my 6yo son. Of course, nothing's for certain yet, we'll see how it goes. I'd like to keep them in the same manual throughout our HOD years... right now Beyond is working great! He's decided to do the copywork, and is enjoying it; he's holding his own with the Singapore math...though we're playing catch up; and the grammar is perfectly paced for him.

Unit 18 finds us in the colonies, toward the end of King Philip's war. Yesterday's science was so much fun...we learned about how dogs follow scent - and how it gets lost in water. We set up our own trail ending in water, here's a couple photos of the fun:

...sniffing out the scent...

...harder to detect in water...

I had almond and orange extract for scents...I would have added in another if I had had more cotton balls...so you teachers who are only at the beginning of Beyond...get cotton balls now! lol

Today we read about a family making candles, and how they made a special candle called a "sparkling candle" with gun powder...then we did a little art project. (Can I just say how much I love the little art projects in HOD...not too much and not too little either!) Here are some photos of the finished product:

I think if I was on the ball here...I would make REAL candles with my little ones...but unfortunately I don't have the supplies to do it.

I hope you are having fun with HOD (or whatever curriculum you are using) this homeschooling year! I'd love to hear about it!

*Ü* Blessings,

A New Year and Beyond

2010-08-31T11:49:00.004-04:00

Kind of a catchy title, huh? Actually we are using Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory again this year. We are starting in unit 16, right where we left off. This is only day 2, but so far we have had little complaining, and lots of fun!

Yesterday we read about the colonists, and what happened after Massasoit died and his son Philip became king: King Philip's War. We learned he was upset because he felt the Englishmen had cheated him and his peers out of the land. We did a simple paper weaving project to remind us that the colonists traded blanket (and knives, beads, etc.) with the native Americans for land.

Today we read how they native Americans would hide in the forests and wait to attack a farmhouse or family. Then we re-enacted the capturing of colonists with this fun game...

The dining room table and chairs became our "forest" where the Indians hid and the kitchen floor the "field" where the colonists lived. One child playing the Indian would sneak up and grab a colonist (an array of stuffed animals), then the other children (colonists) would try to catch the Indian and thus rescue the captured colonist. Here are a few photos of the fun...

Doesn't his smile say it all?

You have to move fast to keep the captive!

This year we've switched out our math program, too. While I'm a bit melancholy about leaving a program that I have used FOREVER, I felt it was the best thing for my son who has been diagnosed with a color deficiency... years ago they called it color blindness, but today they have a different name. He can see color, but has a harder time differentiating the shades of colors. I thought he was having a hard time learning the colors of the blocks in our previous program...now I am pretty sure this was why, and hence the change in program. So far, so good...I'll keep you posted!

*Ü* Blessings,

Heart of Dakota Blog Roll

2010-08-26T15:46:00.005-04:00

I belong to a HOD Yahoo group, and one of the ladies there has decided to organize a Blog Roll...basically just collecting blog info for those of us who all use HOD and blog about it. It will be really great to be able to hop from blog to blog and see what other HODies are doing! I'm really excited about it.
I volunteered to make the button for the blog roll, and this is what I came up with:

Isn't it cute? I love it! It's a little hard to read since I had to shrink it down...but the H has "Homeschool" in it, and the paper tag at the top says "My favorite curriculum is..." I used Stolen Moments Designs new digital scrapbooking kit called Time to Learn - with the exception of the chalkboard, that came from Back 2 School by Chelle's Creations. Both are available at the ScrapMatters shop.

Okay...so back to the blog roll...the image is linked to Krissy's original post, at the end is a Mr. Linky which will be activated so that anyone using Heart of Dakota can link in and/or view anyone else doing an HOD curriculum!

We're gearing up to start school on Monday! We've had a lovely summer, and couldn't have asked for better Maine weather! I'm switching out our math program, and going with the one that HOD recommends: Singapore Math...click here to take a look at the first book we'll be using.

We are picking up at week 16 in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory, and working our way through the rest of the manual, then planning to starting Bigger Hearts in the Spring. I'm looking forward to Bigger, but glad we're delayed a little so the my ds can grow a little more and be ready to do all that it requires.

*Ü* Blessings,

Wild Olive

2010-07-08T08:22:00.001-04:00

I just came across this really cool site...I know my friends out in cyber-space would like to know about Wild Olive too.

You have to check out their fantastic tee-shirts for adults and kids alike!

*Ü* Blessings,

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

2010-03-05T18:13:00.011-05:00

Welcome, knights of the realm!

That was how the guests of my son's birthday party were heralded in this morning. My little knight turns 6 tomorrow, but today was the day we celebrated.

Here is the invitation each guest received by email:

As the knights arrived, each was given a shield to paint. I had researched each family's heraldry, and had the appropriate colors and images available. After the shields were painted, the heraldic images were attached using just wet paint - no need for glue! Swords, tunics and helmets were then handed out. I made the swords using instructions from "Knight and Castle Things to Make and Do" by Usborne. The helmets were made from a pattern on the Cleveland Museum of Art website.

Don't these little knight's look remarkably handsome?

After the quick photo-op, I jumped right into my character; announcing "To test your loyalty to the king, you must seek and find the royal treasure! Twelve gold coins have been lost and must be returned to the king, time is of the essence! Go and return quickly before the king's anger is aroused!" The boys were directed to another room to hunt for twelve coins...I had only hidden 11, but it didn't matter; they only found 9! lol

I then proclaimed, "You have failed in your quest to return the gold! The king has ordered that you be shackled! But all is not lost, if you can escape your chains and help your brothers in knighthood escape theirs also, you will pass the test of honor." A black balloon was then tied to each knight's ankle (think ball & chain.) They had to help each other pop the balloons to be free. I wish I had gotten a photo of this, but the action was just too fun for me to remember a camera! lol They of course LOVED this (whereas when we played a similar game at my daughter's 7th birthday, the girls did NOT like the game at all!)

We continue the story with..."A daring escape! This display of honor to your brothers shall be rewarded henceforth! What is that I see? Could it be the twelfth coin? It is!" I show a coin at this point, and no one comments that it came from my pocket...or that it really wasn't the twelfth coin at all! "Your honor and loyalty are commendable, but are you brave and skillful enough to storm the castle ruins and rescue the fair maiden?" They were actually following my dialog and all declared "YES!" I explained, "With this slingshot, take careful aim! Knock down a parapet from atop the wall - only then will you be able to tunnel under the castle ruins, slay the evil dragon, rescue the maiden from the dungeon beyond and make your escape through the moat at the back of the castle ruins! Return the maiden to the king and your skill and bravery shall be richly rewarded!"

I had set up an obstacle course of sorts...our big screen tv box became the castle wall. I set four gallon milk jugs with a square of gray paper attached to each across the top to be the parapets. The tunnel was a quilt over the backs of two couches. After that they had use their swords to pop bubbles that the girls were blowing, then make their way around the couch to an overturned mini laundry basket.

Atop the basket was a "dragon" (really a plastic dinosaur) and inside the basket a fair maiden (my daughter's doll) waited to be rescued. Once that task was completed, the knights "snuck" out of the back of the castle but were faced with the moat - enclosed area of blue balloons. They had to sit on the balloons to pop them!

Of course, that was another extremely fun activity for the boys and they popped all 15 balloons we had blown up!

I then knighted each boy...

By then everyone had worked up quite an appetite! The cake was revealed, and everyone was so excited to see this dragon cake! (You can make one too, with directions from Family Fun magazine online.)

We all had SO much fun, and we finished up with gifts for the birthday boy...he is still playing with them 8 hours later! OMGoodness, we had to practically drag him outdoors earlier to play with an afternoon visitor! And because he is SO my son, he will not mix his toys, but required no less than four plastic containers and one large container to hold them all! We then arranged his bedroom so that he could continue to play in there after daddy arrived home!

Thanks to all the moms who wrote into BirthdayPartyIdeas.com and shared their ideas, which helped me to make my son's day absolutely wonderful! Another thank you to all the moms who came today and shared the morning with me! (I'd love to hear what your son's favorite part of the party was...or just his thoughts in general!)

*Ü* Blessings,

Happy Valentine's Day - Happy 100th Day!

2010-02-12T14:57:00.012-05:00

I looked and looked, I was sure I blogged about last year's 100th day...but alas, I did not. I created a layout for it, but never did blog about it...bummer.
In case you are the teeniest bit interested, here are the layouts:

So this year, here we are again, we've barely finished the party itself, and I've downloaded the photos, fixed the red-eye and am ready to blog!

Several years ago, friends of mine had given me an ice cream sandwich mold kit. It has a cowboy theme. I finally got around to using it! Because I had it, and really wanted to use it, I decided to go with a rodeo theme for our 100th Day/Valentine's Day party...we called it our 100th Day Valentine Rodeo, kinda catchy, eh?

We had several families come over, kids ranging from age 3 into 5th grade. The invitation asked the kids to wear western gear, bring 100 of a specific snack item (to make the "ultimate trail mix") and to bring valentines to share. (One thing I've always felt homeschoolers miss out on is sharing valentines! lol)

The kids were met at the door with a couple activities...color a bag to receive your valentines and an Estimation Station which consisted of four glass milk bottles filled with different items. The kids were to estimate the number of items in each milk bottle and then determine whether that number was less than, more than or exactly 100; putting their answer in a pocket chart.

Once inside, the kids were divided into older and younger groups...

The younger group participated in a "Buckaroo Glyph":

Then did a valentine m&m sort:

After that they did some numberline jumping while counting by 10s to 100, and making "10" trains with unifix cubes to put them together and create a long "100" train:

Lastly, they read a story about 100 m&ms.

The bigger kids first created a picture by working some math equations, then coloring the answer on a one-hundred chart:

They then played "I Have...Who Has?" This was the first time I was able to play this game with my kiddos, and once they got the hang of it, they really liked it, and wanted to play again!

The big kids then made their "Buckaroo Glyphs"

By then the kids were ready for some wiggling... that meant it was time for the Rodeo to begin! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, but I'm sure the other moms will share those they were able to get. I had two spinners, one spinner told the rodeo volunteers which action to perform, the other spinner told the audience how to count those actions (by 5s or 10s to 100!) It was alot of fun, and I had alot of volunteers! It seems everyone wanted to be a prancing pony or a bucking bronco...or even a horse that was jumping or galloping!

Whew! By then we were really tired and ready for some refreshments! Out came the ice cream sandwiches...shaped like a cowboy boot, cowboy hat and sheriff's badge. They were a big hit with the kids, and with the moms once they knew the Sneaky ingredients each held (the brownie sandwich part was made with spinach, blueberries, wheat germ and whole wheat flour.)

We made the Ultimate Trail mix by dumping each child's 100 item ingredient into a big bowl while we counted by 100s to 1000 and beyond! The trail mix was put in baggies for the cowpokes to take on the trail with them! lol

To finish our day, the kids delivered their valentines, then explored their overflowing bags of treats while the moms chit-chatted! It was a fantastic day!

*Ü* Blessings,

Our First Book Project

2010-01-14T13:50:00.003-05:00

Good day, my friends!

I hope you are all well...we've been busy getting back to the business of school. We're using Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory now, and enjoying it quite well. Along with it, we're using Drawn Into the Heart of Reading by the same author/publisher: Heart of Dakota.

We've finished our first genre, folktale, and started on the next one, historical fiction. For our end of the genre project, we decided to do a project from the book: "Book Projects to Send Home - Grade 2". This is a great introduction to "book report" type projects. B loved this activity:

She had to come up with four words to describe the main character, three more action words for the character and then write out a diamante poem using those words. Then she had to create what the book called a mobile (I'd say a paper character). As you can see from the photo, it came out really cute, and she was so excited to do this project!

In other parts of school, I've gone round and round with spelling...she is a fantastic speller, so this has been hard...I finally decided to just use the words in the back of the Beyond manual and give a new list (there are 2 for each week) daily until we come to some words she has trouble with...and go from there. I'm also considering a series called Sequential Spelling...has anyone out there tried this? Please let me know how you felt about it!

Both kiddos are chugging right along in Math-U-See. Ben is learning the +1 addition facts...he loves using the wrap-ups I bought for this...he will practice 10 or 12 times in a row! B is working on her subtraction facts and working in both Alpha and Beta concurrently.

We're also enjoying the history/science parts of Beyond...B and I take turns reading the history portion, and the activities that follow for science, history or geography are quick, easy and fun to do!

My little guy's readying is also puttering along...we've been working on some sight words, before attempting to tackle long vowel words. He will read, but it is not his favorite thing to do right now.

Well...that's my update for now!

*Ü* Blessings,

Ten Things NOT to do with Young Children

2010-01-01T21:12:00.002-05:00

This was taken from the blog Trivium Pursuit's August 9, 2009 post.

Excellent information...information is knowledge, knowledge is truth, the truth will set you free...

1. Do not let your child be a passive observer. If you read to him, ask him questions about what he has heard. Tell him to narrate the material back in his own words. Make him address any moral value issues which may come up. Develop his mind, not simply in the direction of absorbing, but in the direction of responding. The mind which can respond has to absorb in some measure, but the mind which simply absorbs — like in front of a television or computer screen — is too passive in the learning process, learns to take without giving, and it is questionable how much it really does absorb anyway. Computers do not offer learning experiences which require real human responsiveness. Programmed learning has its uses, and it can be very effective at later ages, but at this age your child needs interaction with an adult (and not with groups of children his own age).

2. Do not let your child ignore God. God is the ultimate reason for why he is alive. When God speaks, He must always have the child’s attention. So do not indulge in frivolous Bible story books which degrade God’s word to entertaining comics or to nice little tales on the level of myths and fables. The standard must not be entertainment value, but faithfulness to God’s word.

3. Do not let your child explore the world only from a cathode ray tube. Children need real experiences to relate to. Seeing a jet take off on television is not the same as seeing a jet take off in front of you. Hearing an orchestra on television or radio is not the same as hearing an orchestra in person. Watching a computer simulation of a scientific experiment, or watching a video of it, is not the same as doing it in front of your very own eyes. Yes, you can learn some things by the tube. But it is not the same. There are also some things which you are not learning.

4. Do not do for your child what he can do for himself. We need to reject all of this popular “self-esteem” stuff. The world’s problems can be summarized in one simple expression: too much self-esteem. Too many people think they are too good for what they get in life. They think they deserve better. And among the things which foster such notions is parents fawning over their little children. For the first year of his life, you pretty much need to do everything for him. But after that, the situation should begin to change rapidly. He can learn to do many things for himself in the next couple of years. He can clean up his own messes.

5. An important corollary to this is: Do not do for yourself what your child can do for you. Your child needs to esteem himself lower than others, beginning with his parents. He can gather the clothes for laundry, and he can fold the laundry. Then he can do the laundry. He can set the table and wash the dishes. Then he can help fix the meals. He can vacuum the floor and dust the furniture. Then he can wash the windows. If you do all of this for him, then he will get a notion of self-esteem: “I am so important everyone ought to do things for me.” But if he learns to do it for himself, then he will get a notion of self-confidence: “I can do it myself.” And if he learns to do it for you, then he will get a notion of self-usefulness: “I can be helpful and I am needed around here.”

6. Do not allow your child to ignore you. You are the immediate reason for why he is alive. When you tell him something, make sure he hears you. When you read to him, do not let his attention wander too far. Of course, be sensitive. There are going to be times when he has something he needs to think about, and you may need to leave him do so. But do not let him shut you out. You must always have his attention when you speak. You must always have something for him to hear. No, we do not live up to that standard. But that should be the standard by which we measure.

7. Do not let your child rule you. Let him rule himself. A man must rule himself before he can rule others. (Think of all of the offices which have become inverted and perverted because of men who could not first rule themselves.) Nobody learns to rule himself by obeying his own desires. He can only learn to rule himself by obeying another’s desires. There must be something larger than himself to serve. (That is why the concept of God is inescapable. If you do not follow the true God, then you have to invent a substitute god to serve a similar function.) If you can teach your child to know himself and rule himself, then he will be able to rule that part of the world which you give to him, and eventually that part of the world of which God places him in stewardship

8. Do not set your child in front of a television screen. Television is bad. The material on the screen is bad. The entertainment method of learning creates a sort of entertainment addiction — the child wants to be entertained all of the time — he wants his visual and auditory senses stimulated (overstimulated). Every child needs to learn to spell through touch and taste and smell, and through interaction with real human beings who smile and answer back. He needs to learn in submission to the authority of real parents, not the authority of glamorized, always-happy, limitlessly-resourceful, never-tired substitutes who have absolutely no accountability.

9. Do not let your child waste away. You will have to discover the happy medium between giving your child enough time of his own and giving your child too much time of his own. If he has too little time, he will not develop his own thoughts. If he has too much time, he will pursue mischief, or at least no profitable ends. Give him something to think on when he has nothing to do. Memorization fills the mind with things to teethe his mind on and ponder.

10. Do not let your child play in a cyber world. He can play in a miniature world. He can play in a pretend world. But it must be made up of objects which exist in the real three-dimensional world, not electrons hitting an opaque, two dimensional phosphorescent screen. Why? Because — though he may learn something from the screen image, there are nevertheless many things which he is not learning precisely because it is only a screen image. Besides the missing sensory experiences (touching, tasting, smelling, hearing, seeing — three dimensionally), there are logical things missing (such as consequences in the real world). When the computer substitutes for the functions and processes which the brain normally supplies, the brain is left to atrophy. It does not develop its brain muscles, as it were. Excessive use of computers, especially at early ages, will restructure the way the brain processes information, often for the worse. It also causes the underdevelopment of the emotional and social dimensions of the child. Young children are developing many parts of their understanding, and “holes” can occur in their development if they are deprived of certain experiences during critical periods of time. These may not be discovered until much later.

Harvey Bluedorn

I applaud Harvey...and these are ten things I can strive for...can you?

*Ü* Blessings,

Black Friday - Not So Black

2009-11-27T19:15:00.005-05:00

I went out to the mad crowds for only one item. The sale item was $20 less than I was anticipating *Ü* BUT they were sold out at the local store, they nicely called four towns over and had one held for me. Since I was now $20 richer, I bought the accessories to go with the set...wait in line at the first store to buy the accessories, meet lovely lady who made time pass faster...drive 30 minutes north, and wait in line to pick up the item and wait in line again to buy item. Meanwhile dd texts me to say my favorite jeans are on sale for $12! (what a steal!) Pick up dh who was getting new tires, pick up new jeans, home for more pie...tired, but happy! See photos for the reason I went to two stores...

My dd is getting a new bedroom, and thus a bedroom makeover for her 7th birthday!

Part 1: new bedding, courtesy of Kohl's Black Friday!
Part 2: new paint...
Part 3: new curtains...

to be continued...

*Ü* Blessings,

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T21:14:00.002-05:00

Precious conversation between dh and ds5 tonight...

ds: "Is Thanksgiving Jesus's holiday?"
dh: "No, Christmas is Jesus's birthday. Thanksgiving is a day to be thankful for all God has done for us."
ds: "Oh! So...it's really thanksGODday!"
dh: "Yes!"

How cute is that?! I had to share.

May each and everyone of you have a blessed Thanksgiving Day!

*Ü* Blessings,

It's so quiet, what's going on?

2009-11-11T14:42:00.002-05:00

Yeah, it has been quiet around here. We're continuing to press on and finish our Little Hearts for His Glory curriculum. We only have two weeks left, and it is SO tempting to just jump to the next book...especially since I've got it sitting on my shelf anyway! You know what? I think I will make this our last week, and then I can put that first manual up on eBay or HomeschoolClassifieds....hmmm, with Christmas around the corner, this is a great idea! I will have to get right on that.

In other news, we have really and truly started the additional reading program called Drawn Into the Heart of Reading (DITHOR or DITHR for short). Last week we started on the Folk Tales genre. We began with some short stories a couple weeks before, Rumpelstiltskin, Paul Bunyan, etc. Last week we took Pecos Bill and John Henry from the library, and enjoyed those. This week we're watching the videos of those books just for fun. The girls had a choice of either McBroom's Wonderful One Acre Farm or Jeremy, a Tale of an Honest Bunny as their read-aloud to me books. B chose McBroom, G chose Jeremy...both are enjoying those. Then my read-aloud to them is a lively book called Tales from Grandma's Attic. All the kids are enjoying that book. I've been slow starting DITHR because I wanted to wait until we had started Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory, but finally gave in...I'm glad I did! I have all the books I need to do this, thanks to Paperbackswap and all the wonderful members who are so willing to share!

Lastly, I just wanted to give an update on bowling and ballet. My little guy has really enjoyed bowling, and made some great friends...so this is good, and we've signed up for the next session. B wanted to bowl also, so we've signed her up too. Ballet continues to be her favorite thing, however. Yesterday the class was put on the spot to give a performance to the HipHop class in the next studio...I was surprised she didn't shrink from this, but she did well...no smile (of course) but she did talk about it. It is good practice for the recital in May! (She's already told me we'll have to visit the theater the week before so she can get used to that space! lol - She knows how it is!)

Happy Veteran's Day, friends!

*Ü* Blessings,

Ballerina Update!

2009-10-07T21:02:00.006-04:00

I'm sure no one else has been on pins and needles all week wondering if dd6 would actually participate in ballet/tap class this week. (With the exception of maybe Angel! lol) Anyhoo...I thought I'd share. My little ballerina actually did join in her class this week (it only took four weeks, but hey...what's a little stress?)

We have of course been chatting about it almost daily...and last week even though she only tapped her toes, she did say she enjoyed it. This week, however, she gave herself a little pep talk outdoors on the swing. She told me about it later, in the car, on the way to class. She said "when I was outside swinging, I told myself 'today could be my day to dance'" I replied, yes, it could, and told her it was up to her. I would love for her to participate. In fact I went so far as to "almost" bribe her. Okay, I did bribe her...sort of. I said if she did decide to participate, then I would have a little surprise for her. I'm not sure if this is really the correct way to handle the situation...but I figured it couldn't hurt.

My future lawyer or politician basically asked me to define participation! lol What a hoot! She is really too much. I said she needed to obey the teacher, move her arms the way the teacher asked, move her legs the way the teacher asked...but then I added that if she didn't feel comfortable doing it in the middle of the class, with all the other kids, she could do it at the back of the room, or off to the side. She was okay with that.

When it came down to it, I was pleasantly surprised to find that only one teacher was present, and only about half the kids, and the room was empty when we got there (usually a private lesson is in session) this meant she could have time to acclimate herself to the room - God is SO good! She joined the group, a bit hesitantly at first...and stayed in the circle for attendance. When the kids all lined up for the start of class, she went back to her wall...but she was doing arm movements and pliées with all the other kids! Yay! What a proud moment for me! Then the kids moved to another area of the room, and she joined them...and that was that...she stuck with the group through the rest of the class! And on top of that, my dgd was SO very supportive of her! She was giving her little hugs and high-fives throughout the lesson. Wow! God truly has done amazing things here this week!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, her surprise was a set of Hello Kitty hair rings, necklace & bracelet, as well as a little chapter book by Janette Oke.

*Ü* Blessings,

Our Westward Expansion

2009-10-03T23:12:00.014-04:00

We've studied the Revolutionary time period, and now we've moved on to Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark and Sacajawea. What fun we had this past Thursday! I bet you get tired of hearing how much I love Heart of Dakota! We're still finishing up with Little Hearts for His Glory, but we are really enjoying it!

While we learned about Lewis & Clark's expedition to find a western route to the Pacific Ocean, we cut paper bags into Native American vests, and decorated them. The kids LOVED this activity...see how great the vests turned out:

G drew a tee-pee, a campfire and a buffalo (I think) on the back of her vest.

B put a tee-pee, campfire, trees and a snake on the back of her's.

And ds put mountains, a buffalo and of course bows & arrow on his! Too funny!

While they were busy decorating their vests, I read to them about Lewis & Clark's westward journey. Then while they continued drawing, I set up an obstacle course to re-enact that journey...this was so much fun!

I took a video of the kids "journey", then they had to wait at the "Pacific Ocean" like the original travelers did...no ship came so they had to turn around and follow their route back to St. Louis, the photos are actually backwards because I took the video first...here is the video:

Silly me, I had the camera tipped sideways! I found a program that will rotate it for viewing on the pc, but I guess it is not a permanent fix, cuz here it is, rotated back :o( Oh well!

And the return journey...

Trekking the Columbia River!

Crossing the mountains - I think this was their most favorite part!

Traveling the Missouri River (sit and scooch, scooch, scooch).

This coming week, we've got the American Girl Addy class and bowling again on Monday because of the holiday...ballet on Tuesday (in the evening for me is our TEACH meeting)...and an apple picking field trip on Wednesday (so much fun!) We will be busy little beavers, that's for sure! I can't wait to blog about the apple picking trip...we went last year, and it was great fun!

*Ü* Blessings,

New Look

2009-10-02T18:34:00.001-04:00

After I published today's post, I realized our family photo was WAY outdated! I knew we had a newer one...so I opted to change up our look for this school year. I love this kit by Golden Girls called "Where the Heart Grows" - the colors are so me!
Hope you like the new look!
*Ü* Blessings,

One Month Done

2009-10-02T13:23:00.009-04:00

I can't believe the first month of school has already gone by! We have had alot of fun, and met some new friends, too! In looking over some of the photos I've taken between then and now, I realized there are so many I did not share.

Here's one from the first day of school:

This one is of the school table, and cabinet; you can also see the workboxes in the corner. I did the same thing as last year, stacking new school supplies with a special welcome note on top...the kids really like this! The workboxes are set up, but we haven't implemented them yet...oops! You can also see our schedule on the door. I tried to plan an hour of work, then a 20 minute break...the kids get to run and enjoy the weather, I get a few minutes to clean or check email. This schedule has worked really well for us so far. Behind the door are three shelves, one for each kiddo...each shelf has a labeled "cubbie" where they can keep their books neatly. The two open shelves and drawers below are for my teacher supplies. The tackle box is where we keep our Math-U-See blocks...I learned this trick on another website! Fantastic idea!

One week we were studying the Revolution, and we learned about Betsy Ross...the girls thoroughly enjoyed "stitching" their own stars:

And while ballet continues to be a struggle, bowling is going quite well. Our little guy is enjoying this activity, and the kids all get to spend time with other homeschoolers. Here's a few shots of ds:

Later I will upload some pictures of the fun activites we did this week...it was great!

*Ü* Blessings,

The "Secret" School

2009-10-01T15:20:00.006-04:00

Funny...I think my kiddos must LOVE school...they have to...I find they do it even when I'm not prompting and prodding. They do it in secret! *gasp*

Look at this picture of ds...

in his bedroom doing school (phonics workbook) while mom and dad chat in the livingroom! It was too funny...we thought, now, hmmm...he is awful quiet, wonder what he's up to! lol He was up to school. His big sis was too, but she heard the camera and effectively hid behind the door before we could get a photo of her.

I have one more picture to share...the 3 Amigos is the name of ds5's bowling team. This photo explains it all:

(note: ds had a haircut within days of this photo being taken...it is rather long isn't it? Well...now I can see his beautiful blue eyes! lol)

*Ü* Blessings,

Recent Happenings

2009-09-23T14:09:00.006-04:00

Recently we've done some yard-saleing, and have found some great treasures.

I found a science experiment book for ds, and he just loves the neat stuff he can do with it. Here are a couple pictures of the experiment dealing with gravity, air resistance and drag...a clay dinosaur goes for a parachute ride:

We also found an Easy Bake oven. I swore to myself I would never buy one of these since they are such a huge waste of money...but it was only a dollar. Big sister splurged for it...it was meant to be a sister bonding thing. As it happens, the one we bought had all the parts, except the pans! Ugh! A couple weeks later, another yard sale, and another dollar yielded a second Easy Bake oven, this time with said pan. So, yes, now we have 2 ovens and only one pan...but we've only shelled out $2 rather than the $27 they go for new...so not such a big waste...that is until we went to buy mixes for it. What a sham! Nearly $6 later (three times what we've paid for the oven & pan!) We have the mixings for just 4 three inch brownies! Personally, I think the brownies were the best deal...you get to make 4 of them, verses two with the cake or cookie mixes. Still...when it is all done, we'll be using an ounce of REAL brownie mix rather than buying more itty-bitty mixes! Here's dd with her oven and treat:

Lastly, I have to share the fun we had in school today! Can I just say I LOVE my Heart of Dakota curriculum! We are using Little Hearts for His Glory, and finishing up the last few units we did not get done last year. Because I am homeschooling dgd three days of the week, we are doing 5 days of Little Hearts in 3 days of school...this makes for some fun days! We sometimes have to push a couple history lessons together...sometimes a couple art activities! Yay! Right now we are learning about the American Revolution and George Washington. Today we made tri-cornered hats, and added white "wig" curls to the sides...they love these hats! And look how cute they are:

Aren't they adorable? If you haven't looked at Heart of Dakota yet, I highly recommend it!

*Ü* Blessings,

Ballet Fun

2009-09-17T12:22:00.008-04:00

As I mentioned a few days ago, we had our first ballet class this week. My batteries had died in my camera, so before reaching the studio we stopped at the Dollar Tree for new ones. Yes! Batteries for a dollar, snack and juice boxes, too! We had a lovely picnic snack on the grass outside the studio, then took a few before photos...look at the excitement:

Okay, well, G doesn't look that thrilled...but trust me, she was excited about ballet, just not about getting her photo taken! lol

B looks a bit happier...and she was. A (dd18) had done their hair all up pretty, and had even purchased a special dance bag for B...it may have all been for naught...

She pretty much just stood there like a stick the entire ballet class. Tap was slightly better (she huddled next to the wall.) I feel so bad for her, I know the only way for her to get past this shy/anxious stage is to experience the crowds, right? We try to arrive early, to let her get acclimated to the space, and that sometimes works...but not today. Hopefully next week will be better.

Here's another shot, G (in black) is to B's right, and you can see she is concentrating on all the moves.

They have been talking about it all, and the recital in May, so I am hoping B will come out of her shell soon. She LOVES everything ballet, from Angelina Ballerina to ballet books, shoes & tutus to the Nutcracker (which we're planning to see this season!) I really, truly think she just needs a bit of extra time...and NO attention, she withdraws even more when the teachers try to pull her in. If anyone else has had experience with this, and has some good advice for me...I'd love to hear it!

*Ü* Blessings,

Nature Study

2009-09-15T12:01:00.004-04:00

It's a brand new week! Yesterday our day was filled with activities outside the house. First dd6 had her American Girl doll class. They are studying Addy this session, and therefore the Civil War era. Though she didn't join in on any of the activities, she did seem to enjoy the class. I know she is looking forward to making some new friends.
After the class, we had one hour before ds5's bowling league started. We ate lunch at McDonald's, a treat for us to eat in! They love that.
We ended up being early for the bowling league, but that is okay, we got to watch as everyone arrived. We filled all the lanes, three to a lane, for just over 50 kids! Wow! There were 6 bumper lanes, and ds was paired with 2 other little boys his age. It was a fun time, and ds is looking forward to doing it again! Unfortunately, my camera batteries died right after this photo:

We are looking forward to doing both of those things again soon! Today, dgd7 joined us again. In history we read about the Boston Tea Party, reenacted it a bit. Then with crayon drew three ships in full sail, and painted over it with blue water paint and lastly sprinkled bits of tea (which for some odd reason I did have on hand) in the wet paint. When it dries we'll hang them up to help us remember that event.

We also did our Nature Study again this week. Last week the girls found pine cones that had been eaten and slightly eaten. We kept these in our science box, and watched all week as the slightly eaten one began to open. What was really cool, was that when we put this weeks things into the box, there were winged seeds on the bottom of the box! They were hiding in the pine cones. Now I always new a pine cone was a seed, but I didn't realize it was actually many, many seeds!

My dgd found something else quite interesting this week. Some mica rock. Pretty, delicate, silvery mica. It is smooth and shiny. We are really enjoying this study.

I'll close for now, as I have to get lunch on the table...we have our first ballet class this afternoon, and the girls are so very excited! Both are in a huge hurry for 3:30 to get here! My dd even thought she'd take a nap to make it come faster! lol Note to self: get batteries on the way!

*Ü* Blessings,

Our First Week is Over

2009-09-12T10:06:00.004-04:00

Well, we've done it. We've finished our first full week of school...okay, well, not really full, since we had a holiday last Monday...but still. Four full days.

I had created an excel schedule for us to be able to see what we would be doing each day and for how long. Because dgd only comes three days a week, I had to tweak the schedule to include her on those days and not on the other two, and then tweak our Monday's to include short-term activities we will be doing during the school day. It took some time, but I did eventually get what looked like a doable schedule. After working through it for the (almost) full week, I am happy to say, it works! Yay! We didn't get to everything, but we did the important things. We didn't do any poetry or Spanish, but we did do daily devotionals, calendar time, dictation, copywork, phonics, math, history, science and storytime! We also added in on three different days a nature study, artist study and composer study! The kids seem to really enjoy those parts of our day, and I am glad I scheduled them last so that we have something to look forward to.

I know some who read this will think I'm a little ocd when I say I even scheduled in breaks with notes to self about housework. I think it's good for me...I have a goal of what I am tackling each day (thank you FLYLady!) and I can say that at the end of the week, I still have a clean house and laundry is not out of control! lol (Is there a way to maintain this over the weekend, without cleaning??) We even pulled out The Harris Family 21 Rules of this House, and have begun work on those again. It is great to see the little ones piecing the rules together (if you obey #17, you'll automatically be obeying #18 kind of thing.)

Today, the youngest grandchild has her first birthday. I cannot believe she is one already, where did the year go? She is a sweet, happy baby, and I am looking forward to the next year! Here's a scrapbook page I did of us recently:

*Ü* Blessings,

Our First Official Day Today!

2009-09-08T15:37:00.004-04:00

We had a good day! I was sort of surprised that the kids didn't fuss more...but we got through all that I wanted to (though no poetry and no Spanish. We'll get to those eventually.)

Our day was like this...devotional, prayer, pledge, song, calendar time. I set the timer here to see if we could get it done in 20 minutes, but it took us a bit longer.

My ds5 had a break and dd6 did copywork page while I worked one on one with dgd7 for studied dictation. This will be the hardest part of her day for a while!

Then the girls did Explode the Code while I worked 1 on 1 with ds5 and his phonics/reading/writing. Again I set the timer for the allotted 15 minutes, but we were all done before it rang....and actually the girls did their first math journal page while I finished with ds!

We then had a 20 minute break...snack, recess, laundry, etc. Daycare kiddo arrived during this time, which worked out perfectly!

After break we did Math...dgd7 had to do 2 pages to get back on track with dd6...I think I will be sending the book home for Friday & Monday, so they will stay on the same page. (I'm homeschooling dgd Tuesday - Thursday, while mom does it Monday's and Friday's.)

We went right into History at this point...not too much complaining, though they wanted to read it outside, but I said no. (mean, mean, Mommy/Nonnie! lol)

Another 20 minute break... I was supposed to clean, but I needed to prepare for the science lesson, so no cleaning got done...plus I think I was having email withdrawl! lol It will certainly take a bit of time to get our schedule running smoothly...but I was happy to get two loads of laundry washed, dried, folded AND put away!

Science - we had read about George Washington and how he learned to write with chalk on a slate, then a quill and ink...so we wrote our names with chalk, (and every other writing implement I could find!) and finally with a quill and ink from our vacation in Colonial Williamsburg...they loved that! My dgd asked how chalk was made, so we looked it up...natural chalk is a very soft limestone rock...interesting.

We followed up with a walk to get the mail, but we were too early. Then I sent them out to find something interesting in nature. They all came back with something, and drew a picture of it, classified it and described it in their new nature journals. They loved, loved, loved this! My dgd told me at lunch that this was her favorite part of school. I told her I saved the best for last! We are going to keep the things in a box for examining all week.

Lunch. Poppie came home with the mail. He was so happy to see dgd. I asked the kids what their favorite part of the day had been. No surprise, ds5 said recess! lol He's in Kindergarten for Pete's sake! lol. Oddly enough, my dd6 said her favorite was the clock/time activity during calendar...that is, until dgd mentioned loving the nature study...dd had to agree that was great fun!

Storytime...I think they still had the wiggles...but we got through it!

A fun, productive day! I didn't take any other photos, though...just of the room last night, and these before we started our day:

My darling baby boy has started Kindergarten!

She is 1st/2nd this year...but we forgot to do her hair! Oh well!

She is getting SO big! Second grade this year!

*Ü* Blessings,

First Homeschool Meeting of the Year!

2009-09-02T14:11:00.005-04:00

We had our first meeting for this year! It was very exciting. A wonderful husband and wife team lead us in song, another member of our group gave a stirring testimony/devotional, and our fearless leader got us all caught up on the latest happenings of the group!

I gave a small presentation on making learning fun. I didn't realize how passionate I was about this topic until I started! Normally, speaking before a large group is rather intimidating for me, and definitely not in my comfort zone! But God is good, and He took the lead!

I shared alot about our morning routine here, especially about our calendar time. I shared about how we learn through songs, games and different fun activities. There were a few ladies who approached me afterwards and asked for some of my songs and specifically the calendar notebook I use.

I can't claim that I came up with these ideas, but I did create each file that I will offer here. The ideas themselves came from various sources, including Dr. Jean Warren, Shari Sloane and Jessica Meachem.

I offer these two files to anyone who'd like them...

Found a Penny - pdf file of letter size posters, one for each often used coin:
~ download here ~

My calendar notebook pages here - excel file of my notebook pages:
~ download here ~

Enjoy, and if you look back at this post, you can see our calendar wall, and get an idea of how we use the calendar notebook pages!

I thought I should add here our schedule for calendar...you know, how we do things. The order in which we move from calendar piece to calendar piece. You can download it here.

*Ü* Blessings,

Gearing Up for Another Year

2009-08-13T08:16:00.008-04:00

Yep, it's that time again...I'm looking forward to this year and Beyond...well, that's a play on words if I ever heard one. I meant "and beyond this year" however, I am also looking forward to using "Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory" (from Heart of Dakota) this year! Too funny!

We haven't quite finished with Little Hearts, so we'll start with that, then turn to Beyond when we are done. In addition to Beyond, we'll use the program (by the same publisher) called Drawn Into the Heart of Reading (DITHR). I was able to get my book brand new but used...so at a wonderfully reduced price! Yay! The teacher's book is so much bigger than I thought it would be! It is about the same size as the Beyond manual. In DITHR, the parent guides the child through nine different genres: biography, adventure, historical fiction, fantasy, folk tales, non-fiction, humor and realistic fiction. The manual is good for grades 2-8, so you do get alot of use from it. The student books are full of worksheets, graphic organizers and reading planners.

I gathered all the books I've collected so far, and took photos! This is the set of books that I will read aloud to my kiddos, as part of the story-time aspect of Beyond. These books do also coincide with the genres in DITHR, but if I chose not to use DITHR, I would still be reading these great books:

I've collected some books from more than one category choice. (Heart of Dakota has choices for boys, girls and classic - sometimes I just couldn't resist getting them all! lol)

I have: Helen Keller (this was my book when I was a child!) Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims, Sword in the Tree, Little House in the Big Woods, (not pictured, but on it's way is The Cabin Faced West from Paperback Swap). Also I have The Cricket in Times Square (brown book) Charlotte's Web (isn't it a great size? Goodwill for 99 cents!), Ginger Pye, The Key to the Treasure (on it's way from Paperback Swap), The Railway Children (a gift from my good friend to my daughter for her 1/2 birthday - see this post for that story.) Oh, let's see...we also have In Grandma's Attic, A Bear Called Paddington, Mr. Popper's Penguins, The House at Pooh Corner (big blue book - yard sale 50 cents!) and All-of-a-kind Family - I couldn't resist reading the first two chapters of this one! I also have Phoebe and the General, which has since been renamed to Phoebe the Spy and was removed from the book list because it is out of print...but I have it! I also have Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle...this one is not on the list at all, but I think it will be fun to read.

Then, for dd to read-aloud to me, we have these books:

Amelia Earhart: Young Air Pioneer (this was gifted to me by a lovely lady on the Heart of Dakota forum who had finished with it! So Sweet!), Stone Fox, Dolphin Adventure, Hannah, Pioneer Cat, The Littles, The Storm, Treasure of Pelican Cove (on it's way from Paperback Swap) and The Secret School. Books I still need are Capyboppy, Who's That Stepping on Plymouth Rock? (will borrow this one from my good friend) and One Small Square: Backyard (may substitute this one as it is hard to find free! lol) The two books that are recommended for the folk tale genre I decided not to use...I have a large workbook that is all folk/tall tales and I think we will just finish that, even though the stories are shorter...we could do one each day, I think.

Now here is a question for all you HOD users out there...when you have two kiddos the same age who are supposed to be doing the read-alouds...do you have them take turns? read separately? OR since my granddaughter can read at home to her parents, should I send the book home and have her read there? I'm curious what your answer would be...please leave a comment.

*Ü* Blessings,

Happy 1/2 Birthday

2009-08-03T20:48:00.003-04:00

I know...I know...most would probably think this very silly of me! My dd's birthday is in December...right between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That is a hectic time of year for everyone. However, this past December, Maine saw a lovely ice storm come through that knocked power out in our area for three days. Well, it just so happened that one of those day was supposed to be dd's 6th birthday party.

I consoled her with the promise of a 1/2 birthday in June, when the weather would be nice and she and her friends could enjoy some outdoor games. She was pacified...I thought she would forget...(should I feel guilty for that? lol)

She did not forget...and along about the end of May, when she realized June was coming soon...began to pine away for her party.

We finally held it at the end of July...it rained almost the entire month of June. (Who feels like celebrating when it is so gloomy outside?) We decided on a princess/dress-up tea party. My oldest daughter had dd spend the night with my granddaughter the night before (her first ever sleep over!) so I was able to go shopping for goodies and come home and decorate without her seeing anything! My ds5 helped me decorate in the morning...he blew up ALOT of balloons! I hung streamers, and we prepared the games. I decided to forgo the cake and ice cream since this wasn't her actual birthday...but did the tea table very fancy, and found fancy cookies to serve along with fruit and cheese cubes.

First the girls entered the "boutique" and got all dolled up:

Then we made paper fans:

(my dd is the one trying hard NOT to smile in those last two photos...heaven forbid she show any emotion! lol)

Then we played Kiss the Frog Prince: (dd loved this game, and actually smiled for me - not a pretty smile, but a smile nonetheless.)

Then came refreshments...yum, yum! This is the only shot of our school table all fancied up and the girls actually looking at the camera, lol!

Here's a close up of the smiling 1/2 birthday princess:

Lastly, she opened her gifts, and then the girls had some time to play with them:

*Ü* Blessings,

Happy Independence Day!

2009-07-04T12:30:00.002-04:00

On occasion, we have watched the show "Jon & Kate plus 8." While I am saddened by the recent events in this family's life, I am not really surprised... living your life under a microscope (or in front of a camera) must be very stressful.

Anyhow...the point of this post, is that on one of those episodes, while the family is vacationing, Kate and the kids made this yummy flag cake. Well, dd6 was just in awe of the cake. (She loves strawberries.) So we made a plan to make this same cake for the Fourth of July.

And we did...

I hope your family had a wonderful holiday!

*Ü* Blessings,

Daddy gets involved

2009-07-03T12:18:00.000-04:00

Daddy loves hearing about our day, and it's really not surprising that he wanted to be more involved than his work schedule would allow. He opted to do some "manly" activites with ds5...but dd6 joined in, too!

We took a Saturday morning, and went to several stores so daddy could get all the necessary supplies for his project. Then I left them alone so daddy could have complete control of the chaos lol!

He taught them how to use a hammer and nails. This was just a "practice" session, but the kids loved it...here they are hard at work:

I can't wait to see what they really build!

*Ü* Blessings,

New World - New Faith part 3

2009-06-29T12:05:00.002-04:00

Moving on from Europe, we next talked about the settlers who came to the New World.
We read about Jamestown, how it was springtime when the settlers arrived in Jamestown. We painted some lovely paintings of springtime in Jamestown based on a description in our book.

We learned about "Indians" who helped the settlers learn to fish and farm. We did another art project for this, too.

Then we learned about the Mayflower's journey to the New World. This activity was a HUGE hit! We had to go from "Europe" (the playroom) to "America" (the livingroom) by traveling across the "ocean" (linoleum in the schoolroom and kitchen.) The kids were each giving to pieces of paper. They had to step on one, then put the other in front of them and step on that piece. Then they had to take the piece from behind them and move it to a spot in front of them...the process was slow going at first, until they got a rhythm down. They have actually played this more than once! Too funny!

The last part of this week was the first Thanksgiving feast. Even though it is not November, we still enjoyed a small feast, and pantomiming the hard work the pilgrims had to do in order to enjoy the harvest.

*Ü* Blessings,

New World - New Faith part 2

2009-05-29T11:46:00.000-04:00

Continuing on from the previous post, but the same week in LHFHG...

We learned about a very mean man in Peru who captured the king and promised to exchange him for a room full of gold. He was a greedy man, and didn't honor his promise.

The kids took a piece of papers, drew a line down the middle and drew a picture of the king on one half. The king was in one "room" the other "room" was empty...the kids made gold coins from playdoh to fill the other "room" for Pizarro. They enjoyed this activity, and I think they even grasped the amount of gold it took to fill the room, since it took alot longer than they anticipated to fill their "room" with playdoh gold!

The following week, (and I wish I had photos to show how much we loved this one!) we learned about Martin Luther. At one point he stopped eating, and we simulated the digestive tract as a science activity. We took a bowl, a fork for everyone, and a graham cracker. The forks were "teeth" that chewed up the cracker. The chewed up cracker was put into a baggie (the stomach) with a small amount of water (stomach acid.) The kids then squeezed the baggie, like stomach muscles! We followed looooong pieces of yarn while doing this...one piece of yarn for the small intestine, another for the large. They really, really enjoyed this activity, and have even asked to do it again!

We also read about how in Luther's day, people were instructed to put money into a box in the church, and by doing this they would earn/buy their way into heaven. Luther taught that salvation is through faith. Our art project was to make "boxes" but put "faith" into them instead of coins. The kids love doing these art projects!

We read about John Calvin, and how he believed in reform, just like Luther. We learned about Walter Raleigh, too! We're more than half way through Little Hearts now, and I have SO not regretted using this curriculum!

*Ü* Blessings,

New World - New Faith part 1

2009-05-28T11:25:00.000-04:00

We have finished reading the New Testament - yes, we actually read the entire Bible! (Well, it was a kid's Bible...but still!) Then we began to read about how the gospel spread, first into Europe, and then into the New World.

We learned about St. Valentine and Constantine. We learned about false teachings...and how salt and sugar look the same, but aren't...how cocoa and hot chocolate mix look the same, but aren't...how apple juice and lemon juice look the same, but aren't. How Augustine found pears that looks sweet but weren't and that sin is like that...it seems sweet at first, but the consequences are not. We learned about St. Patrick, and how he wasn't even Irish! We learned about Boniface, Charles the Great and Alfred the Great.

We learned about European kingdoms, castles, lords and rulers. We learned King Richard was imprisoned in an Austrian Castle...then we built our own castle:

We learned about native Americans, and how they lived, hunted and worshipped:

We learned how Columbus thought the world was round when most people in his day thought it was flat. We learned of the Panama Canal, and watch a video of it working that we found on youtube. I'm hoping that at some point this summer, we will be able to visit some local working locks much like those in S. America, but on a smaller scale.

We learned about John Ponce de Leon, and even participated in our own archaelogical dig. You can see in the photos how much the kids really enjoyed this part of our day:

More to come...

*Ü* Blessings,

Hey! We Made them Look!

2009-05-27T19:58:00.004-04:00

I'll be uploading some photos of our recent school activities, but I wanted to share that dd6 had her layout chosen as a "Made Ya Look Monday" featured layout at Faith Sisters! She is SO excited...
She gets to sport this lovely blinkie:

This was the layout that "Made them Look":

I think the girls may be scrapping again tomorrow! They just love doing it...ya know, I'm not sure I've uploaded all they've done...I'll have to get a slide show set up here for that I think.

*Ü* Blessings,

B and her Daddy - Scrapped

2009-05-21T09:10:00.004-04:00

The girls showed off their newly acquired skill (digital scrapbooking - in case you missed yesterday's post) to their daddy/poppie. He was delighted at what they had done and asked specifically for dd to do one of them together. B got right to work this morning. We found this photo of them together, and found a kit (my Forever in Bloom kit)...this is what she created:

Yes, I helped a little bit...she is only 6 after all. For the most part the choices were all her's, and I only made suggestions for her. She actually was the one to suggest something to "attach" the tag...too funny, and yes, I had to do the fine detailing to get the tag to actually hang from the hook...but that's okay! She had alot of fun! My ds5 is now begging to learn! lol

One funny thing that happened during the course of this scrap session...we were getting ready for the title, and B wanted the brackets. She says "I love those bracket things!" We get that all done, and she's thinking we're just typing in her choice of words. (I really don't like the way my pse does typing...whenever I type an N it stops working properly.) All that to say, I was planning to use an alpha. Well, the Forever in Bloom kit does not have an alpha...so I headed over to my brand new kit (downloadable tomorrow.) I opened the folder that holds the alpha, and said "Oh, you can use my brand-new alpha..." to which she interrupted "is THAT glitter?! I LOVE glitter!" ROFL I think I've created a monster!

*Ü* Blessings,

Computer Skills?

2009-05-20T13:29:00.005-04:00

I think this counts as school...I really do!

I had so much fun this morning! I taught the girls how to digi-scrap! lol
It can count as computer instruction (and art and keyboarding and writing, too!)

I was doing a lo, and they wanted to "help" so I was showing them how to clip layers and shadow and such. They loved it so much they wanted to do their own lo. One at a time, I let them choose a template, then their own photos, and then I suggested a kit to go with the colors in the photos. (Well, dgd just picked the kit based on the name! lol)

They ended up with very different pages, but they are SO proud of what they have done, and are begging to do another this afternoon! I think I've got them addicted!

Here is dgd7's layout:

She used my WHATever! kit (available at FaithSisters.com - She loves bright colors!

This one is dd6's:

She chose my Rustic Friends kit because of the reds and greens in the photo.

I thought it so cute that they both chose to do layouts of their sisters!

*Ü* Blessings,

A Resurrection & An Earthquake

2009-05-13T10:59:00.001-04:00

This is an old update...I've been remiss about publishing our school year...

When these photos were taken, we were talking about the Resurrection, and then Paul's missionary journeys.

This was a science experiment we did... using vinegar and baking soda to make raisins rise up... This was SO cool because the author of Little Hearts for His Glory knew how excited the kids would get when the first raisin started to rise and she instructed the parent to feed that excitement with this statement... If we find the raising of a raisin exciting, imagine how exciting it was for the people to see Jesus rise up into the clouds and into heaven! WOW!

We moved through the New Testament, learning about Paul, his conversion and his testimony. How he was imprisoned...

And how he used his circumstances to spread the gospel...even to his jailer!

The kids build the jail with their blocks, chose random dolls for Paul his friend (Timothy?) and the jailer then re-enacted the earthquake:

Afterwards the jailer called out, and Paul replied I am here...then began to share his story with the guard.

We are truly enjoying Little Hearts for His Glory!

*Ü* Blessings,

Modern Homesteading Workshop

2009-05-11T15:15:00.002-04:00

We had a homeschooling workshop today...it was themed "modern homesteading"....we learned about composting; container gardening; raising bees, chickens, ducks, goats, sheep, llamas; making quilts, making our own laundry soap, making our own butter & bread and salsa too!; making art from recyclables, using solar energy...umm, I think that was it...it was so much fun! The kids loved it. It was nice to visit with other homeschooling families. Of course I forgot my camera!
We came home with 3 loaves of artisan bread to bake, some homemade detergent (I've got a wash going now...it smelled SO good, I can't wait to see how the clothes come out!), an upside down tomato plant, a trio of salsa plants (peppers, onion & cilantro) as well as energy information and recipes to do it all ourselves!
It was the first workshop I've attended since returning to homeschooling, and it was just wonderful! They split us up into 4 well-known homesteading families (the Ingalls, Beans, Roosevelts and hmmmm...can't remember the 4th right now) and as a group we rotated through the 4 major stations. It was a beautiful day, and perfect for this! As soon as I get some photos from other moms who did remember their cameras, I'll post those pictures!

*Ü* Blessings,

Our First Spelling Bee

2009-02-16T12:35:00.003-05:00

Not sure what's going on with my blog, but half the time the posts don't load...hmmm.

On to happy news! We participated in our first Spelling Bee today. It was divided into grade levels 1-3rd, 4-6th and 7th and up...we entered the 1-3rd level, both dd6 and dgd7, even though dd is only in K. There were other kids who were also what was referred to a K/1, so that was fine. They bent the rules a bit.

If you know my dd, you know she can be quite shy in unfamiliar situations, and I was certain she would back out of the bee once she realized what it entailed...she did. She stayed to watch and about half way through said maybe she would try in a little while...of course I had to explain that she would now have to wait until next year! lol oh well...she did study and studied hard...so it was overall a good experience for her.

On the other hand, dgd, who isn't shy at all, did participate and went on to win 3rd place! Wow! She was so thrilled, and so are we! She received a certificate of participation and a ribbon, as well as a small 3rd place trophy! Look at this happy face:

*Ü* Blessings,

Art Study

2009-01-24T10:41:00.003-05:00

I had previously decided that my choice of homeschool "method" was very similar to the Charlotte Mason method, and so I had thought to follow her ideas...this is easier said than done, and I wonder often how I will accomplish all she set out to do! I've been a lurker at a Charlotte Mason yahoo group or two for quite sometime...recently one post in particular prompted me to do more with art. I love art, so it shouldn't be a hard thing...but it can be very intimidating! One poster had on her blog simple steps that even I found to be very quick and painless. She called it a "Picture Study" so that is what I call it.
I had some prints in 4x6 size, so I chose one at random. Now, God is not a random God...so I should not have been surprised when I pulled out a famous painting of a rabbit...given that we had just completed our rabbit lapbook! God knew, and He is so good. So our first "study" was of this particular painting by Albrecht Dürer ca. 1500. We didn't do much...they studied the image for a minute or two, and then narrated back to me what they had seen. (This week I actually typed their narration so that I will have a record of it...but my first attempt in lost, oh well, live and learn.) Then I gave the girls each a composition notebook, and a photocopy of the print to glue in. They then journaled their thoughts about the painting. The print remained on the wall for the rest of the week.
This week I took it a little further, and a little slower. I chose another print by Dürer, Nuremburg Woman Dressed for Church ca 1500, and again let them study it and narrate or dictate to me their thoughts. I did type them to add to their notebook at a later date. Then a couple days later we did the journal, and another couple days after that I gave them paper and paint so that they could re-create the painting. I thought they would really enjoy this part...not! My dgd who LOVES to draw was so stressed about making it perfect that she completely lost the fun of it! And dd who is a perfectionist really struggled as well! Gosh, I had hoped it would be something fun for them to look forward to doing...I guess we'll have to see about next week. They did finally get a painting done, and we've attached it to their notebook. I haven't given up, but I hope they are a little more relaxed about it next week. I was practically chanting...it's art, it's not about perfection, art is individual, each person's art is different, it's not Dürer's woman you are painting it's your woman dressed for church...I think it did finally sink it...but I hope things are better next time!
Here's a couple pictures without tears:

*Ü* Blessings,

Rabbit Lapbook (Fox too!)

2009-01-12T15:58:00.008-05:00

Hello Friends!
We finished our rabbit lapbook today to go along with the Thornton Burgess book "The Adventure of Peter Cottontail." In looking back, I realized I never posted photos of our fox lapbook for the "Reddy Fox" book...so I'll add those here too! Next we'll be doing a mouse lapbook to go with the book "Danny Meadow Mouse."

I was surprise at how much I actually fit into this rabbit book! We did some vocabulary work, though it isn't in the lapbook...we learned that a buck in an adult male, a doe an adult female and a kit is a baby bunny...a whole litter is referred to as kittens! Rabbits live in a warren and are herbivores. The latter two words are in our lapbook...the first three were just interested things we thought quite funny.

In our lapbook is a bit of poetry copywork and some math - addition and tangrams (I'll do tangrams in each of the animal lapbooks.) We made a little puppet and poem, a lifecycle wheel, and what rabbits eat as well as who eats them! Rabbits are found on every continent except Antarctica, so I didn't feel the need to do any mapping of their location. We did a fact layer book as well as a pre-made fact shape book. Most of the things were found on homeschoolshare.com and some things I made myself. Because I used Jan Brett's mask of a fox face for that lapbook cover, I decided to do the same with this lapbook for a rabbit...I know she also has a mouse mask as well as a bear mask...not sure what I'll do for a frog or squirrel yet...we'll see.

Here is dgd with her lapbook:

the inside:

And dd with hers:

and her interior:

You can see they are both a little different in layout and colors...they picked their own, and they helped with layout as well. In the very middle are mini match books with a number on the top...inside are images or rabbits, and the girls had to decide upon a number sentence for each group of rabbits...here is a close up of one of the books:

We had alot of fun with this lapbook, and actually I have already begun sketching out and planning the mouse lapbook...I'm hoping to be a little faster with the other lapbooks! I was anticipating them only taking a week or at most 2 to finish...but they've taken a bit longer...though we did have some holidays and vacations to deal with in between this one and the fox one...still I wish to be faster!

Here is a quick picture of our fox lapbook:

*Ü* Blessings,

They Did It!

2009-01-10T11:39:00.005-05:00

The girls have both mastered their poems and allowed me to video tape them. woo-hoo!
I'm so proud of them both. G chose "The Swing" and B chose "Bed in Summer" both poems by Robert Louis Stevenson. They really enjoyed this exercise, and are already scouring the "Child's Garden of Verses" for the next piece. Wow!
Here is "The Swing":

And here is "Bed in Summer":

The girls were so proud of themselves!

*Ü* Blessings,

Time Sure Flies By Fast!

2009-01-08T11:37:00.004-05:00

I can't believe how time flies! The holidays are over, and we are back hard at work...well, easing in this week by finishing up our mouse lapbook...sheesh, I know! I should have been done with that ages ago! But on the bright side, I have already started work on the mouse lapbook! So that one should go alot smoother! I'm pleased with the rabbit lapbook as I've found lots of things to include. I'll be uploading it to LapbookLessons, and you can download it there if you are at all interested.

I think it would be great if there was a generic animal lapbook that you could use to apply to any animal...but I haven't found one...and I suppose making 8 of the same lapbook would get monotonous and that wouldn't be good...so I'll keep doing them individually.

We had a lovely, small Christmas this year. The kids got maybe 5 or 6 gifts each. No overload, no stress, it really was nice. Favorites? Fisher-Price learn to skate Rollerblades for dd6, and Matchbox race track ramp thingy for ds4!

I was able to finish both sweaters, and they came out wonderful! (If I do say so myself.) I'll have to get a photo on here soon...I have one of dd, but not ds. I also made them "church" coats out of fleece. Their winter coats were so grungy because they are from last year, and I thought they should have a dress coat to wear out to church or even just the store...I love how they came out:

I've got to get lunch going or I'll have mutiny here soon!
I hope you also had a wonderful holiday, and I'll post more soon about our homeschool journey!

*Ü* Blessings,

snow, ice & hot chocolate

2008-12-13T15:29:00.004-05:00

This week we did get some school done...but more excitedly we had our first "substantial" snowfall...according to the kids anyhow. Really, it wasn't much, but it was enough to sled on, and that is all that really matters to the kids. See here:

See? Not really more than an inch or so...but enough to sled on at least 3 times.
Then we tried a new recipe for homemade hot chocolate. I don't drink it, but I knew there must be a way to make it from scratch, using powdered milk...and we found a recipe...the kids loved it:

Then we had a surprise ice storm...we were expecting freezing rain, just not so much of it! We lost power, no heat, no water, no tv, no internet...but we were able to power up enough to get the refrigerator running as well as the pellet stove so at least we could stay warm, and not lose our food.

dd18 and dd6 went out to take a few pictures...here is our ice world:

*Ü* Blessings,

This Week at Our House

2008-12-05T08:38:00.004-05:00

This picture was actually taken last week, but I wanted to include it here. This is our Thanksgiving Tree all finished. The whole family participated to some degree, but dd6 was the most faithful...she really enjoyed watching the tree "grow"!

This week we started up again slowly after having the week of Thanksgivng off...I hope we are a bit faster getting back into the groove in January after Christmas break! My printer is out of ink - again! So for our calendar pieces, I suggested the kids make one each day...they loved this idea! Here's a picture of ds4 holding the flag for the pledge, and another of the kiddos making the calendar cards...

We've started reading the New Testament in history (Heart of Dakota, Little Hearts for His Glory) - I thought "perfect, just in time for Christmas" but no, it moves very quickly, and we are already on the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. This week's art expression was to "paint" with water then add one drop of food coloring and watch the picture emerge. This tied into the story of Jesus turning the water into wine, and I asked the kids if I had just turned water into wine...no. Why could Jesus do it? Because He is the Son of God. I know I've said this before, but I really like the way Carrie (author of Little Hearts) ties everything back into scripture.

Speaking of scripture, this week is a review week of the last 5 verses we've studied, and the kids are doing great remembering them all!

Yesterday we read the story of how Jesus met Andrew and Peter while they were fishing and told them to throw their nets to the other side of the boat, and how the net was so full others had to help them pull in their catch...to which Jesus responded "Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men." Little Hearts then had us on a "rabbit trail" regarding fish and how they breathe and move...we created these fish with gills and fins:

So far, we've had a good week. The kids have done well doing all I ask of them. We skipped spelling this week (no ink in printer, remember?) But our math, phonics (Explode the Code) and handwriting has been accomplished lickety-split! They have been enjoying playing out in the yard even though it's averaged 35 degrees here daily (brrr). We finished the second "story-time" book and I am preparing a lapbook on rabbits for them to do...but again I'll need ink to print those things. The next animal storybook is about Danny Meadow Mouse...I think I should start gathering things now for that one! The idea was for me to have the lapbook ready when we finished the book...but that hasn't happened yet...maybe next time.

If you didn't catch it at the beginning of my post, dd turned 6 this week! She lost her first tooth on Saturday, and turned 6 on Wednesday...I can't believe she is growing up so fast! I did a scrapbook page for her tooth:

For Christmas, I am still knitting the sweaters...the big pieces are all done on the last one, so it's just the ribbing that goes up the front for the buttons, and then put it together and add the neck ribbing and buttons on both...if I took the time, I could finish this weekend...we'll see. I have a special day planned for tomorrow, so I am not sure how much time I'll devote to knitting. Tomorrow will be my family's "second annual ladies shopping trip". Last year my two oldest daughters, and my mom and sister all went, it was great fun. This year, sadly, my daughters can't make it. :o( I'm sure I'll have fun with my mom and sister...but we'll all miss the "family" time.

I've got to run and get school started! Have a wonderful day!

*Ü* Blessings,

Happy Turkey Day! (gobble, gobble)

2008-11-27T22:34:00.002-05:00

Hope you all had a wonderful turkey dinner, pie and et al. (did I spell that right?)
We did have a nice time, and my oldest son was home, so we took that opportunity to grab the camera and snap, snap, snap! After dinner, I then decided to scrap, scrap, scrap...oh course? what else was I to do?

I've lots more photos we took today...of just the boys, just the girls, etc. and I can't wait to scrap those as well!

I made my first pecan pie today, and other than being cooked a tad too long...it came out great! I'm happy because I was a little nervous about this. My sister had tried several times to make one for her dh, but has only succeeded once, and given she bakes more often than I do, I didn't think I had it in me...but yay! it came out fine, and my dh liked it!

The turkey was tasty, the potatoes perfects and the stuffing...well it was rather stuffing! lol No really, dinner was scrumptious! I hope yours was as well.

*Ü* Blessings,

Our Pies are done...(well, almost)

2008-11-26T21:24:00.004-05:00

Today was our day to make pies! We make alot of pie...so several years ago I decided to bake the day before and alleviate the stress of pies/turkey/taters, etc. all on the same day...boy was that a BIG help!
Because our family is so large, I plan on 4 pumpkins, one fruit and one mincemeat (the jarred apple/raisin variety - a tradition from my childhood.) Well, apparently mincemeat is scarce this year, wally-world didn't have it...so I opted out (*sniff*sniff*) and I'm hoping I'll find it somewhere before Christmas, and I'll make it then.
My dh loves pecan pie, which I have never made...but I did pick up the supplies, and will try to make that for him tonight.

The kids love to bake with me, so of course I let them help. This year I decided to let them help with the crust, so here are a few pics of me teaching them that skill, and two of our finished pumpkins (before baking.) YUMMY!

We are looking forward to a wonderful Thanksgiving with ALL of my children here at home! I hope your Thanksgiving is just as blessed.

*Ü* Blessings,

making pies

2008-11-25T08:50:00.002-05:00

Good Morning, Friends,
We have a family coming over today to learn how to make pie...it will be so much fun to share that experience...it is one I look forward to every year!
I don't have alot of time as I have to pick up the house a bit...but I wanted to check it with you all and tell you I haven't forgotten you.
I plan to take pictures today and add them here a little later, maybe during naptime!
How are your Thankgiving plans coming along? The turkey is thawing in the fridge here. Every year the company my dh works for gives it's employees a turkey, which is such a blessing. But every year we forget and put it in the freezer (after all it is frozen when we get it.) Then have to scramble to thaw the big bird...so last year I told dh, "next year when you get the turkey we should just put it right in the fridge so it can have a week to thaw" of course we forgot and into the freezer it went. However, I did remember I think it was Sunday night and so it's in there, taking up half the bottom shelf...but hopefully he will be thawed on time!

Have a lovely day!

*Ü* Blessings,

Science & Thanksgiving Tree

2008-11-20T11:33:00.008-05:00

Good Afternoon (almost),
This week in science we've been learning how sound is made by vibration. Specifically, vibrations in our throat...we transferred that knowledge today to water in glasses and the sound made by the glass vibrating. Here are a few pics:

I almost forgot...here is a video of dgd telling what she learned about sound:

Afterwards, we (well...I) created the Thanksgiving tree. I put it on a little cork board as I said I would, and cut out a bunch of leaves. I put the leaves in a basket with a black marker and the stapler...a little sign on the tree gives instructions. Each of the kiddos made their own leaf (including ds4 who wrote FAMiLY). So the tree will fill up over the next several days, and on Thanksgiving we can talk about all we are thankful for! Here's the tree today:

*Ü* Blessings,

A Cardboard House

2008-11-20T08:08:00.003-05:00

During quiet time yesterday, while I was busy doing other things, the girls proceeded to unload our paper-to-be-recycled bag (the town picks up every other week...so it was pretty full this week.) B came over and asked for some tape to hold her house together...I didn't pay much attention, just gave her a couple pieces of tape...now this is because the day before the girls were sitting at the table drawing and doodling and making their "future families", so I just assumed they were up to the same thing.

Let me interject here and tell you about their "future families". G will marry a man named Jon, and have 3 girls: Cara, Mady and Sophie...do you see the "Jon and Kate plus 8" theme going on...one of her favorite shows! Initially B said she would have 6 girls and 4 boys - she used happy face stickers to show this. G told her that was 10 kids, I said "that is alot of babies!" She then changed her mind to 2 girls and 1 boy...because she didn't want "to have to take care of all those babies!" LOL I had to laugh, I remember as a little girl wanting a dozen (literally) kids...well, I got more than half...and when they all marry, I'll have my dozen - right?

Okay, back to the first story...I gave them some tape...of course once B had hers G had to have some too...then I checked to see what they were up to - wow! Take a look:

Now, I know they didn't come up with this idea all on their own...in ps, G had done this in Kindergarten...but I liked that they were working cooperatively to make this project, they chose the materials and with no help from me created a pretty cool structure that was architecturally sound - we were able to lift it from the floor and move it to a spot safe from the marauding two year old! Best of all, it can all be re-recycled!

Today I plan to make a Thanksgiving Tree...I'll put it on our mini cork board. I think I'll even have the kids cut out the leaves for it. I know I should have started this at the beginning of November, but time just got away from me. So this is my plan...Today we will each write on a leaf something we are thankful for. We will cut out extra leaves and hopefully each person in our family will daily write out a leaf and add it to the tree...then by next Thursday we'll have a tree full of blessings! I challenge you to do one, too! (Bet ya didn't expect that did ya?)

Gotta start school (((hugs)))

*Ü* Blessings,

Thanksgiving Thoughts

2008-11-19T17:39:00.002-05:00

Hi Friends,
I'm sorry I haven't been homeschool blogging lately...I've been doing some digital scrapping and filling that blog instead. I do have some photos of what we've been doing lately, and some new ones of the baby, too...I'll try to get those downloaded tonight so that I can upload them here.
I love the teacher resource publisher Evan-Moor, I even signed up for their newsletter. Today they sent me a really neat freebie by email. It's three writing frames for Thanksgiving...a turkey, pilgrim boy and pilgrim girl. The frames are two page print-outs to color, and then you put your child's writing in between. I think the pictures are really, really cute...so I thought I'd share...here's the direct link. I think you'll like them, too!

Have you popped over to check out my digital scrapbook yet? I hope you do soon...and leave me a note so I know you stopped by!

Hmmm...let's see, what have we been up to lately? Well, today is day 58...which means we are 1/3 of the way through school already! I can't believe it. We're learning the different addition facts for 10, counting the minutes on a clock by 5s and getting better at transitioning from counting one type of coin to another (example: dimes to nickels to pennies - we haven't started on quarters yet.) I'm very pleased with the girls progress in the coin area. We have been doing a spelling program (Evan-Moor) for a few weeks now, and it has dictation built in twice a week...the girls now start and end sentences correctly without needing to be reminded.

OH! I just remembered...lol... I was in the store with B, and we were in the craft dept. She noticed a large package of beads for kids and read it..."Mom, this box has ten-thousand beads in it!" I couldn't believe it! She recognized and correctly read the number 10,000 on the box! I asked her how she knew that was ten-thousand, and her reply? "It has three zeros" duh...I still have NO idea how she did it!

B is reading Little House My First Chapter Books now, and G (having just gotten her very own library card *Ü*) is reading Mr. Putter and Tabby books. Both girls are reading very well.

Yesterday we did some baking, and I had the girls reading the recipe card sentence by sentence as we mixed up the cookies. They put on my grandmother's aprons, and I just love that connection we have to her. We used it as a learning time for not just reading and following directions, but recognizing measurements in a recipe. The cookies were very yummy! Peanutbutter cookies are my favorite!

The timer is beeping, the pizza is ready...gotta run!

*Ü* Blessings,

Button Ü Babies

2008-11-16T20:24:00.002-05:00

Hi Friends,
Just wanted to let you know I'll be moving my scrapbooking pictures to another blog. I decided to make this one just my homeschool adventure, and so have created a new blog: Button *Ü* Babies. I hope you'll stop over and say hello!
*Ü* Blessings,

Teddy Bear Tea Party

2008-11-14T20:52:00.006-05:00

Hello again,

We woke up to a great surprise this morning...a MOOSE in our yard! The two little ones came running into the bedroom shouting "you are not gonna believe this...you gotta come see!" so of course dh and I jumped out of bed and tore out into the other room...by then the moose had moved to the other side of the yard, so we had to scamper over to the sliding glass door, we were just in time to see him canter down the middle of the road! He was pretty good size, and had a nice rack. Earlier this evening, dd5 explained it like this..."we saw a enormous moose and we yelled to you and daddy, and it was so funny how you jumped out of bed! and he was really big and it scared the heck out of me, and he went running down the street." She said the "scared the heck" part several times today...I think she was having fun just saying it! lol

After that, things settled into a more normal rountine...

We had a wonderful day with some of our dear friends today!
As it happens, dh did end up taking ds out just before our friends arrived, and didn't return until after they had gone home...ds didn't seem upset, so I am guessing he and daddy had a grand time of it!
I didn't tell my kiddos what exactly I had planned because I wasn't sure 100% that our friends would be able to make it, but just before they were due to arrive I began to set up the table...they became very excited to see the table cloth go onto the table, and the tea set come out. I had them put chairs around the table for our "bear friends" which was exactly the number of our real friends...so they never guessed.
Then I took out the dress-up box and they all put on their best finery. Even my little daycare 2yo found a fancy dress to wear (well, actually I found it for her...she looked so cute!)
Not too long after that, my "surprise" arrived! Everyone was happy to be together. We started with tea and teddy grahams.

You can see all our bear friends in the photo, and here are a couple close ups of my best-dressed girls...G is wearing a dress from my late grandmother. I believe she made it herself as there is alot of hand stitching, and no tag. It's really quite a pretty dress:

B is wearing a dress her Auntie Kathy bought for her one year for Christmas. She has been very reserved around the camera lately...but honestly she did smile today!

After the tea party, we read a pop-up story about a polar bear who writes to his bear friends in other countries...it's very cute. Then we sorted our bears by size, color, clothing, etc. and compared them for more/less. Then we gave our bears awards for best dressed, softest, fuzziest, oldest, etc. The girls had to decided which bear got which award...I think they really enjoyed that part. Lastly we played dvd candyland...except that instead of candy or characters on the game squares, I had attached photos of the different kinds of bears...I did this once with the rainforest, and the kids seem to like this game just as much as the real game.

Afterwards, my friend and I had a chance to chit-chat while the girls played for a short time.

*Ü* Blessings,

Memorization of Poetry & Math Concepts

2008-11-12T13:21:00.009-05:00

Hello again,
I mentioned yesterday (was it yesterday?) how I had been inspired by another blogger to have my children memorize some poetry...well, I think I also mentioned taking some video of B reciting our morning prayer poem...before I show it to you, I thought I should probably credit the sources; however, when I went to gather them, I found them to be anonymous prayers for children. So, ours is a blend of 4-5 simple children's morning prayers:

My darling son wanted to sing a song for me...so he made this one up on the fly:

And I have to tell you, yesterday after I finished checking email, and before school began, I found dd5 spontaneously doing this:

If there is anyone out there who doesn't know the significance of this, read on. This is called "cumulative property" - the concept that numbers in addition (and multiplication) can be turned around and still mean the same thing. This is an easy concept for adults, but not so much for children. Most kids see 5+1=6 as a different addition problem than 1+5=6. I was so thrilled to see B doing this without any prodding from me (except the Math Minute white board being ready with the sentence...she filled in the number.)

She was a little shy about getting her picture taken, hence the reason she is hiding behind the board. In order to even get her to let me take the photo, I had to first let her and ds4 play with my camera...so they took some pictures, and had me take some of them...and this is a really nice one of them:

Yesterday was Veteran's Day, and I had a hard time finding any activities online to do on this day. We ended up just discussing it, and doing a word search. If you have an idea for an activity for elementary aged students, please share it with me.

Did you know Friday is National Teddy Bear Day? We're planning something very special, so you'll have to check back to see just what we do! I can't wait. I'll have to scrapbook those pages...or maybe smile box it...we'll see.

Have a wonderful day!

*Ü* Blessings,

Happy Veteran's Day!

2008-11-11T09:19:00.006-05:00

Hi Friends!

I've been inspired by another blogger: Trivium Academy. Her daughter is 8, and she has a video of her reciting a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson...well, our morning prayer poem is about the same length, and B can recite that from memory...so I took a video of her to post here...but the camera batteries are recharging. I'll post it later. Anyway, I have a couple of children's poetry books, and gave one to each of the girls and had them choose a poem they really liked. They will memorize it and recite it, hopefully I will get a video of that sometime next week or so...I'm not sure how long it will take to memorize. B is a bit faster than G...we'll see how it goes.

I have extra kids for school today, we're getting a late start as we are still waiting for them to arrive. I wish I had some really special Veteran's Day activity planned...but they are hard to find!

On Friday, it is National American Teddy Bear Day. We're having friends over to do special activities with our bears...sorting, counting, games, etc...then we'll have a teddy bear tea party or picnic...probably too cold for a picnic, most likely we'll do a tea party, as they love getting all dressed up and fancy...plus Ben will be the only boy...hmmm, Daddy is on vacation, maybe he'll take Ben away for the morning? That's an idea!

Gotta run for now...
*Ü* Blessings,

Another Test - Direct Post

2008-11-07T16:02:00.004-05:00

Hello again,

This is a direct post from email to blog.

I wanted to include a photo and see if that works, so here goes...

Yesterday the kids had to choose from the house 3 things they thought would float.

We then tested their predictions...I have to say we had done a float/sink experiment last year or the year before, so this was nothing new.

They each chose their three items, traced them onto a paper they had labled "I think these will float" then color the items in if they did indeed float.

Here is the outcome of those papers:

Blessings,
*Ü*
Karen

PS Another note to self...this didn't work either for image uploading.

The Things You Can Do With a Blog!

2008-11-07T15:46:00.004-05:00

Each time I use this blog, I learn something new!

It's amazing...I can use my normal email program, and type up a rambling (or not so much) message...hit send, and ta-da! It's here on blogspot! Wow.

Yesterday I learned how to change my background and format my header and all that...today I came back to dig around some more...and found this cool option.

I'm going to add in a picture, just so I can see how it really works:

Today was a zero day...the 50th day of school...so we did an art project that I will be adding to our growing "Hundred Day Book".

This project was also connected to Veteran's Day...we did the flag in watercolors, first coloring the stars with white crayon, then washing over them:

My ds4 is improving with leaps and bounds in penmanship...you can see he wrote: Fifty White Stars, with just a bit of help on the S's.

In case you were wondering, this is what we did on the 40th day...Candy!

We haven't written anything for this page yet...I am not sure what to write yet...Forty pieces of candy probably...but that sounds boring...do you have a better idea?

I'm going to send this off to the blog now, and see how it comes out!

Blessings,
*Ü*
Karen

PS Note to self, the email version didn't work well...no pictures showed in the blog...will try next one to post automatically.

PPS I decided on 40 Colorful Candies for the title of the candy page.

Oh Boy! I had fun today!

2008-11-06T15:17:00.001-05:00

Hi!
I'm sure you've noticed my new look? I found a great blogging background spot today:
The Cutest Blog on the Block! I am so glad I came across it. Not only do they offer some really CUTE blog backgrounds, but they give tips and such too and that helped me to create my own personalized background AND header - which up until this point, I didn't know was even possible!
I hope you like my new look...I know the small family photo is a bit outdated, and I'd forgotten (how could I?) about the wedding photo...however, bear with me, because come Thanksgiving, I'll be taking another family pic and will change that one out!
*Ü* Blessings,

More Pictures of the Baby

2008-11-01T12:51:00.002-04:00

Hi Friends,
Some of you have been asking for updated photos of the baby...well, here she is - pretty in pink!

*Ü* Blessings,

Guided or Leveled Reading

2008-10-25T11:46:00.000-04:00

Hi Friends,
I don't know how many of you homeschoolers use ordinary books for reading rather than a basal reader...but I'm sure some of you are familiar with Reading A-Z and their leveled books.

In a public school, children are tested to find their specific reading level, so that during independent reading time, they can be directed to books that are not too hard to read alone; but also, the testing allows the teachers to teach specifically to the child's level.

Anyway...I saw someone ask once about their child's reading level, so I thought I'd share this Reading-Level Comparison Chart which shows grade levels with approximate reading levels for different leveling indicators such as Lexile, DRA and Guided Reading (Fountas & Pinnell.)

I use the Reading A-Z benchmark books to get a level for each child, then use the Reading A-Z Comparison Chart to find the correlating "professional" levels.

Then a few days ago, I found this Book Wizard at Scholastic. You can put in the title of a book or the author, and it will tell you the different levels of the book. Then you can search for more in that level or above or below that level. I've been busy leveling the books from my bookshelves so that the kiddos will know at a glance the books that will be "just right" for them. I send my dgd home with a bag of books to read with her mom and dad every few days, so this wizard has been a huge help in sending the right books home! No more guessing and hoping the books won't be too hard or too easy...now I can just pull level "H" books off the shelf and into the bag they go! So easy.

I thought even though you may not have a grandchild or extra child that leaves your homeschool each day...this may still help you pull the right books out for taking in the car, or for making a list of books to get from the library, or maybe just for quiet time reading... so hopefully I am helping someone out with this post.

Blessings,
*Ü*
Karen

Got Yarn?

2008-10-22T21:18:00.001-04:00

I knit...not alot, but this time of year more so. Last year I made the kids hats, I'd like to do it again. Last year I made my dgd a Fisherman Knit cardigan...I've always wanted to make one...it was SO unbelievably easy! I finished it in less than 3 weeks - and I made an extra sleeve...well, I didn't make it extra on purpose...I made it and decided it would be too small, and I would need to make the next size up...so I have an extra sleeve...NO WAY was I ripping out all that hard work. LOL So this year, I decided to make the rest of the sweater to go with that sleeve. I'm nearly done...doing the last front piece, and then I'll have to assemble it and be done. It's for dd5, she knows it, she's very excited...it'll probably be a birthday present since that is before Christmas.
This is dgd with the sweater at Christmas:

Well, today as I sat down to work a little on the latest sweater, dgd asked if I would teach her to "sew." I explained it is called knitting, and found some short wooden needles for her...and dd as I knew once dgd was knitting, dd would have to do so as well! lol I was right, I had just enough time to get dgd knitting away when dd noticed and wanted to do the same.
I wasn't able to get alot of knitting done myself, and I only managed to get photos after dgd had gone home...so I don't have photos of her yet, but she did very well learning the rhyme. If you haven't figured out my A type personality yet - well, dd is the same way! She sat an knit away, right up to dinner and afterward, too! Dear hubby was able to get a couple photos and even a video of her. She is very competitive, and wanted to make sure she had "passed" dgd in knitting length of the "scarf."
Rather than post a bunch of pictures, I decided to make a smilebox for it...so, without further ado...

Blessings!
*Ü*
Karen

My "Schoolroom"

2008-10-21T12:33:00.005-04:00

Hello Friends,
Someone in a yahoo group I belong to was asking for photos of our homeschool setup for a website she was making to help other homeschoolers. Of course now I can't find her post, so I thought I'd just put my pics here...maybe she'll find me, maybe not...but maybe someone truly is interested in my setup...then again maybe not.
But I'll post anyway. *Ü*

We are set up in my formal dining room...which we don't ever use as a dining room.
The pellet stove is in this room, so it's nice and warm.
This is a picture of the full "calendar wall". The next pictures are close ups of the different components:

You can see there are some "song sheets" and a white board which has days of the week, a clock, piggy bank and tally spot. Below that is a rolled up pocket chart, another white board (which is gray) used for morning messages, and a "weather station". To the left of the "weather station" is our calendar and thermometer.

The above close up shows the days of the week. We turn one card over each day, and will eventually use this to spring board into math computations...7-4=3, 7-3=4, 4+3=7, 3+4=7 etc. On the blue square we write the date in numerals. We do the "time" each day...right now we are doing strictly by the hour and so far have used word problems for this..."if it is 10 o'clock now, what time was in one hour ago" to get a time for the new day. We also tally the days of school each month and record that as well as count the days we've been in school (not for the month, but total) and then count that in coins.

The next photo is of our "white" board, that is actually gray...we use it for a morning message. Right now we are concentrating on punctuation, capitalization and spelling of sight words. The weather graph is done daily by ds4, the girls do it in their calendar notebook...well, most of these components are also done in their notebooks. Under that is our new Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow chart. Our old one just had the days of the week...I made this one yesterday to include days as well as numbers. I'll manipulate it for a couple weeks, then let the kids do it. Underneath, you can't see the clocks we use during the "time" part of calendar. Every child has his/her own clock. You can see them in the first picture I posted.

This next picture shows the coin songs we use, the Book-It chart and the pledge. Below that is a strip of seasons, the orange arrow points to our current season.

Last photo...it's our calendar, place value/school day counter pockets (we use popsicle sticks instead of straws for this), our thermometer {we practice counting by 5s daily, and this is graphed in our calendar notebook daily, and a hundreds board (we add then new number daily, we're counting our days of school...to 100, then we'll have a party!) Every day of school that ends in a zero (10th, 20th, 30th, etc.) we have a special celebration with "Zero the Hero" and do an art activity and a graphing activity.}

Well, that's not the entire room...I didn't post a picture of our table, so I'll have to do that on another post...but that is our calendar wall, and it takes about a half hour to do all of that. It sets a nice routine to our day.

The kids know we do calendar, spelling, Explode the Code or handwriting and math...then we have snack. Then we finish our school day with History and Science. Break for lunch and recess, then storytime and naps for the little ones. Lastly we have reading for the girls and some independent activities to reinforce math and language arts skills.

I've gotta run and make lunch...my tummy is growling!

Bye for now!
Blessings,
*Ü*
merchi

Our Wonderful Indian Summer Day

2008-10-13T20:22:00.000-04:00

Lapbooking and Zero the Hero

2008-10-10T17:06:00.000-04:00

Well, after helping someone on LapbookLessons.ning.com come up with some ideas for a bear lapbook, I decided to go ahead and do one lapbook on each animal in the Thornton Burgess stories...(rather than one mini book and culminating in one lapbook at the end of the year.) God gave me some inspirational ideas in the middle of the night, I should have gotten up and jotted them down! I did remember a few however and so will incorporate those into our lapbook.
The first book was called The Adventures of Reddy Fox. So we did a library pocket with some tangrams and a picture of a tangram fox - I really like making my lapbooks interactive and able to be used again and again. We also put some folds along one small side, and used those to write some words that end in sh/ch/tch or x to add -es to to make plural (such as foxes - I tried to find words somehow related to the fox world...but we did stretch a few! lol)
We also did a little flip book with vocabulary words such as nocturnal and omnivorous and an accordian fold which tells the size of each type of 3 foxes, and compares to find the largest and smallest.
I think in the big center space we'll add a peek-a-boo lift-the-flap of four different types of foxes, and on a fold-out we'll put in a wheel that does something similar, and finally we'll have some lift-the-flap greeting card type folds for where each fox lives in the world.
We found a lovely Jan Brett illustration for our cover, and I will certainly share our creations when we are done.
I'm just glad to have finally made the decision and be moving forward!

On another topic, today was our 30th day of school - I can't believe it! I don't know if any of you have ever heard of Zero the Hero? Well, we have a "visit" from him every tenth day...days of school that end in a zero. Today he brought Reese's Pieces for us (notice the zero shape) 30 for each child, and we sorted and graphed them. I had hoped to have one graphing activity each month besides our weather graphing...but this is our first. The kids loved it - we did a few last year so they are old pros now. Another zero day activity I'm planning is some sort of art project that will end in a ten page book which counts by 10s to 100. On day 10 we did 10 red apples in a tree, day 20 was 20 fall leaves and today was 30 pumpkin seeds...of course I made a mad dash to Wally-World last night in hopes that they would still have seed packages - nope - I was dreading having to cut open a pumpkin and dry the seeds overnight when it dawned on me that we could paint the seeds...so we did. We cut orange construction paper ovals, and then smaller, lighter ones and layered them to look like we were looking at the inside of a pumpkin...then using our finger we made the seeds! They look so cute!

Just in case anyone is interested...these were the apple trees:

and these were the fall leaves:

I'm excited about the final book. My plans are for 40 - candy, 50 stars (it's on or near Veteran's Day, so we'll do a flag) 60 turkey feathers, 70 Christmas tree ornaments, 80 snowflakes, 90 - not sure yet and 100 hearts (very near Valentine's Day.) If you have any ideas/suggestions for this, help me out! I appreciate all the help I can get!

Watch for our Fox lapbooks coming soon!

Blessings,
*Ü*
merchi

Heart of Dakota's Little Hearts for His Glory - Week 6

2008-10-08T20:12:00.000-04:00

Last week I attended our local homeschool group's monthly meeting. One lady lead us all in song, and afterwards said that is how she and her children begin each homeschool day...with a worship song. I thought, oh how nice...I should do that, too! The next morning, we did. We sang two songs, our day went wonderfully. That was Friday.
My dgd made a wonderful drawing of Moses coming down the mountain to find the Israelites worshiping the golden calf...

(I think I wrote previously of the edible playdoh adventure we had!)

Well, on Monday of this week, we started the same way...it was awful! No one wanted to sing or be quiet and enjoy the music...it was dreadful. We tried again on Tuesday...it wasn't much better! We tried again today (Wednesday) and it was much better...the sense of peace and calm was back. School was very smooth, attitudes were mostly cooperative, and we finished school in record time!
This week we've been reading about Moses and the promised land. Moses has died. Joshua is to lead the people into Jericho. Today we read about Rahab and the spies she protected. The Little Hearts program suggested a very creative art project...re-create the walls with construction paper and hand drawn stones and have the children fill in the "mortar" (ie. shaving cream) by squeezing it from a baggie onto the paper - sort of like frosting a cake! It was so much fun. Then we added a red "rope" that was the rope the spies escaped Jericho on. Here are some pictures:

You can see they all enjoyed this...and you can see dgd6 is quite proficient with a bag of "frosting" I may have to do some cakes with her!
Here they are with their finished products:

Rather than just throw away the extra shaving cream, I let the kids have fun with it in the tub! They thought that was just a grand adventure...

dgd made a face with it.

ds was just a giggly little guy!

and dd got it on herself...oops!

Well, this was a really long post...and I haven't blogged at all about our horse riding adventures! I'll save that for another blog.
Blessings,
*Ü*
merchi

LH4HG Week 5

2008-10-03T13:33:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends!

Week five of homeschooling has drawn to a close. I cannot believe how fast the weeks are going by! How is your homeschool journey going?

We've finished "unit" 5. The kids had a hard time learning the Bible verse, but we've sung it everyday and then some...I think it is just too long. We learned about Moses and the Israelites. We concluded today's history lesson with some "art". Edible art. Little Hearts for His Glory had us make homemade playdoh...well, we ran out of peanut butter, so instead we used a jell-o playdoh recipe (I'll share it later.) The dough was easy to make, and didn't take long to cool. We read the Bible story of how Moses comes down from the mountain and sees the people worshiping the golden calf. Did you know that to teach the Israelites a lesson, he melted the gold and made them DRINK it?! I had never read that tidbit before! So our "art" lesson was to make a "golden calf" from our edible playdoh and then eat it.

I have to say here...our playdoh was pink because we happened to have strawberry jell-o on hand. We also had orange, and in hindsight I realize now orange would have been a better choice...more "golden"...but I didn't think of that when I was looking at ingredients, I just thought "oh, strawberry will taste better than orange" duh - oh, well. The kids loved the softness of the playdoh, and making any animal is tricky...so I helped a little. Here is dgd6's response to "drinking the golden calf":

She thought it was gross! Well, it is very salty.
Here's the recipe I used:
1c flour
1/2c salt
1c water
1T oil
2t cream of tartar
1 pkg jell-o

Mix together (I wisked the flour and water together first - like gravy - to make it "lumpless") cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it becomes mashed potatoe consistancy. Let cool. Knead with floured hands on floured surface until dry. Cool completely before storing in airtight container.

We had a grand time. We truly have been enjoying our LH4HG experience.

Last week we introduced spelling, and went through the process of dictating a sentence, and having a "spelling test" and all that. It went well, so this week we did it for real. I have an Evan-Moor Grade 1 Spelling book that we are using. We actually began half way through...the first 13 units were all 3 letter short vowel words. So we had our real spelling test today, and the girls both got all the words correct. They were allowed to choose a sticker to put on their paper as a reward. (Oh the joys of homeschooling little ones! lol)

New this week also, ds4 wanted a calendar notebook like the girls. So mommy made him one...he has carried it around much of the day! He is very proud to have one. Of course I didn't include all that I do with the girls, but just encourage him by telling him that next year he will have all of that too...he doesn't write much yet, so instead of writing a number in the calendar boxes, he just colors our pattern...this month is an AAB pattern, so he is coloring the boxes red, red, orange. It is so cute to see him so excited.

We also did our first CalcuLadder drill. Well, just the girls. They did level 2 which is simply adding 1 to a number. We did a trial run to show them how it is done, then did an actual drill. They completed the page and still have 15 or 20 seconds to spare! Wow! Was I impressed. They got a little reward certificate for their efforts.

My sweet brother bought for his daughter 6 or so years ago, the Phonics Game. We brought that out to play with during quiet time this week. The games are all played the same it seems...but that's okay, the kiddos have fun playing and learning anyhow.

Oh! I almost forgot! We also instituted a new "responsibility chart" into our home. I was blessed to get it at nearly half price used from another homeschooling family that had outgrown it. We are loving it. The two little ones get up each morning and follow the cards on the chart and earn a "ticket". They go about the homeschooling part of our day, and follow the cards as needed to earn another ticket in the afternoon. Then at bedtime they follow a few more routine cards and earn a final ticket. If they earn 3 in a day, they earn a sticker towards a long-term reward - a special date with mom or dad. The program is SO AWESOME! It's called Accountable Kids and I have to say things are so much smoother at my house! If I have a child who just isn't being obedient, I can warn them that they will lose a ticket; if the behavior continues, I ask them to bring me a ticket...they hate that! They use their tickets to "buy" special privileges that they have had all along - riding bikes, watching tv or videos...but I also added playing a game from our game closet and playdoh...things I don't usually let them do unsupervised. They can also earn a special "Privilege Pass" for a targeted behavior that they can use to buy computer time. This has been an amazing incentive for my ds4 who was still messing in his pants. This is week 2 of doing the program and the messing happened only once since we began! I am totally amazed...I had offered the incentive of computer time...but for some reason the idea that he can earn the card that he can use to buy computer time just worked better...I don't get it! But, I am not going to question a program that works!

Blessings,
*Ü*

Apple Picking

2008-09-24T21:32:00.001-04:00

Can you believe we went apple picking, and I forgot my camera at home?! That is so frustrating. :o(
I missed lots of great pictures, but we had a great time! We did remember to bring our sketch books along, and got some sketching done.
I had two of my teens, dd18 and ds17, so that meant we each had a little one to watch...which really meant mom wasn't watching 3 little ones all alone! It was so much more relaxing to feel like there were enough eyes there that no one would wander off (yes, it has happened before.)

School is going well. We are in week 4 of Little Hearts for His Glory. The scripture memorization is actually something the little ones look forward to...this surprises me, actually. I guess I thought it wouldn't be much "fun" but actually this program incorporates music into it...and we do one day of copy work which dd5 loves...so they are really quite proud to recite their verses! They are also enjoying the storytime part of our day. We missed it today, so tomorrow we'll read two chapters, and that is kind of nice because the chapters are short and go very quick...even without pictures...speaking of - ds4 doesn't even ask to see them anymore.

We are still working through MUS Primer...we're now more than half way, lesson 19 of 30...counting by 10s to 100. This has gotten too easy...dd5 did her entire lesson without me this morning. We usually do two pages right after our calendar/circle time, but because we were going apple picking, she wanted to "do school" before we left...she started an hour earlier than we normally do, and worked independently!

I just wanted to do a quick blog before I missed another week. Our house is still for sale, and we therefore covet your prayers regarding that...also, my hubby had applied for a supervisor position at work, and we are hopeful that God wouldn't move in that respect also. Thanks for your prayers.

Blessings,
*Ü*
merchi

LH4HG Week 2

2008-09-14T22:50:00.000-04:00

We're making progress, and it is so fun to see!
Last week we missed the art project, and I really didn't like this weeks, so we did last weeks instead! I love the flexibility of Little Hearts!
Here are the kiddos doing their art work:

This week our science discovery revolved around floating and sinking with regards to Noah's story. Well, we had covered that concept a while ago...so I decided to add onto it by having the kids guess or estimate how many counters their "boat" could hold before it would sink...we brought our white board into the bathroom (convenient low sink for this kind of project...and counters to sit on, too!) Here's a shot of the silly kids:

and one more serious...note the guesses or estimations on the white board:

Now, here are the photos I know you have been waiting for...drumroll please...the sinking ship:

And you really can't see it very well...but this is their reaction to the sinking...lots of giggles!

Of course that is not all we've done. The kids have all learned thier bible verse, and can recognize the tune when it comes on the tape in the car - lol. They enjoyed writing a letter to Reddy Fox to warn him of the danger to come. We are learning about coins this year too, so the penny and nickel have been introduced, and the girls are quite adept at counting on from 5 which is a BIG learned skill that they could not do last year. We learned a new rhyme in motion, that they really enjoyed, and I'm curious what next weeks rhyme is.

On Monday as we did calendar, I gave the kids each a piece of yellow paper to put their names on, and I wrote underneath is "thinks Isabella will come today." Then we each put our card into a pocket of our pocket chart calendar. We had to change a couple as two of the kids guessed the next day and the day after...finally we each had a decent guess...Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and her original due date...Isabella surprised us all by coming in between our guesses on Sunday...that's right, the little bundle arrived today! Yipee! We are all so exc ited, and my dgd6 is the most excited:

We get to add baby Isabella's name to our birthday calendar for this month.

I hope you all had a wonderful week as well!
God bless,
merchi

2008-09-14T21:19:00.000-04:00

We have a new granddaughter today, and everyone is just all smiles!
We wanted to share our joy with you!

We Finished Week 1

2008-09-05T14:30:00.000-04:00

Well, week 1 has come to an end...we did alot! I can't believe how little it looks like on paper, but we really did do quite a bit. I love Little Hearts for His Glory so far, and don't think I'll be dissappointed in the long run...it will save me so much time and energy! Plus it is so neat how it all centers on God...I love that.
Earlier in the week, we did a little activity, acted out the earth's orbit around the sun, then singing "happy birthday, dear Earth" after one rotation...later when I asked the kids how long it took for the earth to go around the sun, they didn't have a clue! Hmmm...I thought, what did I do wrong?? So today, we redid that activity - but this time, with each step we took around the sun, we said a month (well, we actually sang the months) then when we got back around to where we started, the "sun" told us happy birthday.
At first I was the sun, and the kiddos were each an "earth"...but for this activity, someone else was the sun, so I could show them how to move taking one step for each month...I took a video so you could hear the tune of the song, and see how we did it...just in case you wanted to do the same...though perhaps your kiddos got the whole earth goes around the sun in one year thing right off the bat? lol (Okay...perhaps I should explain the blanket and pillows...we picked up our reading area pillows because even though they are square, they are blue and have waves of water and people on them like the earth! - and the sun? no, it's not yellow...but an orangy-yellow...and it does have little suns on it...and the fringe of the blanket is kind of like rays of the sun, right? right? well, I thought it was a good idea, and it worked for us.)

We also started a creation book...it's not really a lapbook...but it is on a video around somewhere...the quarter circle one that opens to a full circle...one quarter circle for each day. The girls are enjoying that, and I wanted them to understand the creation story most fully.
My ds4 has been learning to read using Reading Reflex...we're only on day 2, but we had done bits and pieces of this earlier, so he does have some knowledge...but he is beginning to put 3 sounds together without my help! It's so exciting to watch this happen!

I trust your week was just a productive, and I'll leave you with our "earths" orbiting the "sun" photo:

Blessings,
*Ü*
Karen

Little Hearts for His Glory - Day 3

2008-09-03T23:12:00.002-04:00

I so wanted to greet my munchkins with a surprise for the first day of school...and since that didn't work out, I did it on day 3.
Another homeschooling mom had made these really neat little "welcome to 1st grade/preschool" cards placed on top of a pile of school supplies for her little ones, and I was so touched by that it made me want to do the same for mine...so I did:

They were very excited...I asked them to hold up their favorite item, and they smiled so nicely for the photo op:

Today we enjoyed our calendar wall again, and then went outside for the "Rhymes in Motion" portion of our day...which if you are reading my posts remember from day 1 as being a favorite of dd5. At first she did not want to go out doors, but rather wanted to stay in for school...but when I reminded her what we were doing, she was very excited. Again I drew the continents on the driveway:

The girls loved leaping, stomping, hopping, crawling, waddling etc. to the different continents...then I added waves for water, and we went over the names of the oceans that we had learned in our Noah's Ark Lapbook. LHFHG has the kids jump from brown paper to blue paper as the parent calls out a land or sea animal...but my plan was for them to jump onto a continent or into the ocean...instead they began to draw the animals onto the driveway in the appropriate places...and called upon me for some help. It was quite cute!

My dd21 decided to bake today, and since she really enjoys doing this I thought it would be a good way for her to take part in the homeschooling. I had planned to bake with the kiddos every Monday...so now dd21 will do this instead! One less thing for me to remember to do...and a little break for me too. Today she made bread with the kiddos, and we had a "European" lunch (think Heidi) of fresh bread with butter and jam, cheese, apples and milk...yum! yum!

Well, that pretty much sums up our day!

We Will Survive! - Awesome Video

2008-09-03T08:30:00.000-04:00

Hi Friends,
I came across this on another homeschooler's site, and I just loved it...the song itself was one of my favorites as a teenage girl, so it's even better twisted to the homeschool mom.
Enjoy!

Blessings,
*Ü*
Karen

We Started School Today!

2008-09-02T21:40:00.000-04:00

Today was our first day of school...well, really our second as we did do one day last week...but really tomorrow is officially our first day...today and last week I'm calling "dry-runs" can I do that?
Somewhere online I found a wonderful mom who had made these cute "welcome to 1st grade"/"welcome to preschool" cards to sit on her children's table to welcome them to school that very first day...I thought it was so sweet, and wanted to do the same, but then deciding to sell the house, decluttering and not setting up a school room threw me off track! (It's NOT fair - stomping foot!)
This is why I want tomorrow to be the "official" first day...cuz I want to have those cute little signs done for my kiddos!

You know I've been struggling with not being able to set up my room after having spent so much time deciding on what I wanted it to look like...but I decided upon a "temporary" circle time wall! Yipee! It's actually in two parts...

Part 1 is the calendar, place value straw thingy, odd/even days, weather station:

As you can see...it is a VERY temporary/portable wall. I can quickly hide everything away...well, except for the calendar which unhooks from the wall (cup hooks are screwed into the bottom of the chair rail, so I can unscrew them as needed and the holes won't show! lol)

Part 2 is my old white board which I would have hung above the chair rail...it now sits on the easel, which makes it very portable. On this we have the days of the week, yesterday/today/tomorrow, tally marks & how to write the date (the blue board) and a cute little piggy bank - we put coins on it to correspond to the day...today is Sept. 2, so we put 2 cents on it...great for coin counting reinforcement as well as coin exchanging.

Here is a picture my hubby took of us doing school today...the girls are finding the right page in their calendar notebook,

while ds4 waits patiently for his turn to do something on the wall...

he was so happy to get to do school with us!

We had a pretty productive day considering that we followed absolutely NO schedule at all today...and for those that even know me slightly, you know how hard that was for me! lol

Blessings to you my friends,
I hope your days are just as grand!
merchi