Posted in Homeschooling

Thursday we hit the park for our weekly park day activity. I love getting together with this group of ladies and their kids. I will definitely miss it when we move. We had a new lady visit that Thursday with her 2 children. So that made it all the better. It is amazing though how well we all get along (including the kids). The kids are really starting to bond with each other and play together more compared to at first when they tended to play beside each other instead of with each other.

To top it off we have had a few more people join our online group and are showing interest in our get togethers. We have scheduled our first "co-op" day for the 20th of June. It really is not much of a "co-op" but an art project at the local pottery place. The only down fall is with summer here field trips are not really happening but that is okay. We will only be here for a few more weeks to enjoy it then hopefully we will be able to find a new group of homeschoolers.

I finally cleaned out the rest of the boys folders and set them up for the coming year. So my dining room table is now piled high with books and extra papers that I have to sort and go through. We have so much stuff for school and we don't use a lot of it. I am seriously considering selling some of it but I know if I do then I will end up wanting one of the things I sell back. However, I have almost made up my mind to take the plunge because a lot of it we have not used or opened in over a year. So it is just taking up room on my bookshelf. The downfall is I have no idea where to sell it at since ebay is taking TM off people's lists. What a crock.... I really need to sit down and make a list of the stuff.

I am now deciding on where to place Xavier in grammar. He is smart enough to go into the same book as Micah but his writing... well that's a whole nother story. Plus I have no idea where to put him in math. Technically a 2nd grader now and can do some multiplication but lacks having his addition facts memorized. Ughh. I will figure it out.

We were going to start our new schedule Monday and we still might. But Tuesday they are going off for the day/night. So that will throw a crimp in the lessons being done a little. Why does that always happen? Just when you get things ready to really move in the right direction little curves happen along the way, lol.

Oh well. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Posted in Homeschooling

just a little bit due to the fact that my kids have been monsters and we needed to seriously discuss the burping thing.  For some reason  they think it is cool to burp the alphabet. Okay, I will admit I did not exactly nip that in the bud  like I should have when it first started. So now I am dealing with it bigtime <-That is probably what I looked like at one point as they smiled at me, laughed and said but it is fun.

So the fine points of today's manner/etiquette lesson were the appropriate way to burp and the definition of the word rude. Hopefully they got the point, lol.

We did finish math today - YAY! So now they totally get the concept of multiplication and multiplying by 0 & 1. Now we will practice that for a few days along with their speed drills and then move on to 2 & 5.

Posted in Homeschooling

We officially decided on a name for a homeschool... Olive Branch Academy won out over the other names we thought of. We decided to use Romans 11 as a corresponding passage and I have come up with the basic design for our logo. The boys are excited and it has really given them a sense of ownership. Micah and Xavier can't wait to make a flag and now they are talking about shirts and other things which I never even thought of, lol.

The boys have finished 1/2 of their school work this morning and now are fixing lunch. We will do math and finish writing afterwards. I finally put all of the past years work in their designated envelope's and labeled them. So their notebooks are fresh, clean and empty for a new year (which starts next week).

On another note... we are still waiting to see where we are moving to. We were told that we were going to Ludington, MI and then 4 hours later that changed - ARRR! It is so frustrating. I will be glad when July 26th gets here and the move and knowing where we will be living is finally over.

Posted in Homeschooling

We went to Ft. Pulaski today to take part in the NPS Jr. Ranger Program. We met another family there so we could do it together. WOW! The boys were a little overwhelmed with the writing they had to do but then they do not like to write at all. But they did most of it themselves and the few times I wrote for them they dictated what I wrote. It took about 2 hours for us to do the self-guided tour and then we had a little picnic lunch afterwards. It was a lot of fun and the boys are looking forward to collecting Jr. Ranger pins from other places. 

Posted in Homeschooling

This is not exactly right, but I do love Salvador Dali!

Posted in Homeschooling

Recently a "fun question" on one of my groups was did/what did you name your homeschool? Well we never officially named our little school. After listening to some of the great names from the gals on the group my hubby and I decided to do some brainstorming. Okay I will be honest, I was coming up blank and he came up with a bunch. Which is okay because he can name it or at least come up with them and I can design the logo. Yes, I thought it would be neat to have a little logo and get t-shirts or a bumpersticker or something made. Maybe even a flag we can hang up. So here are some of the choices...

The Harvester's
Ascension Academy
Olive Branch Academy (already thought of a logo for this one)
The Sherperd's Flock or
The Shepherd's Path
Trumpet's Call
My Little One's (Xavier's idea)
The Believer's Beginning

I know they are not the most interesting. But so far this is what we have. I like a couple of them but am trying to figure out the logo's and corresponding Bible verse to use as a motto. So far Olive Branch Academy is winning :-)

Posted in Homeschooling

This week school has been pretty much non-existent. I have been in the dumps and the boys have been in a mood. We did a little early this week but then it all went downhill. I spent half the week laying around the house. While they worked on building a fort in the living room and the best way to irritate your brother. I guess I can not count that as school work huh?

We did manage to go to Park Day on Thursday. Which the boys really enjoyed being able to get out of the house and play with some friends. We were only at the park for a couple of hours and were able to enjoy a sun shower while we were there. It felt good. It has been so hot lately (doesn't help the I am prego).

After our park adventure we made a Lemon Meringue Pie (we added to much lemon though) WHOO - it'll knock your socks off. I think next time I am going to find the recipe I used last time I made one. Then Joel got in from SC. He is home for Memorial Day Weekend. Which is real nice since we won't see him again until he graduates school on the 16th of June.

So next week I have school all planned out and am actually looking forward to hitting some books and doing some cool things with the boys. They do not know what all I have planned yet. They just think we have worksheets, books to do. Not so, my sons. With summer here we will be doing a little bit of bookwork to finish our grammar and also to work on reading/math. But most of the things planned are outdoors, experiments and things of that nature.

Anyways, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Posted in Homeschooling

We went to the Jepson Center for the Arts today with our homeschool group. Overall it was an okay field trip but our tour guide was not very kid friendly and tried to rush the tour. The boys and I would like to go back when we can actually look at some of the paintings and sculptures. The kids got to do a small art project which resembles one of the pieces of art they saw. Micah and Xavier had fun - which is what really matters.

Posted in Homeschooling

I did not make a real "lesson plan" for our bird study which is a little odd for me but here is an overview of what we have done and will be doing over the next few weeks and the resources we are using.

Week 1:
Hang bird feeder & suet feeder
Clean out bird bath & make a "mini" lake in our yard
Paint bird houses the boys got for Easter
Make pine cone bird feeders
Learn to identify birds using field marks
Identify birds in our backyard using a pocket field guide (got to buy a book still)
Watch birds daily - mark off those we identify on a chart
Visit Birds of Prey in Maitland
An overview on birds - from a science encyclopedia we have, different birds wing spans, how many species of birds and how they break down into different groups

Week 2:
Use Considering God's Creation lesson on Birds and pull bird lessons from other sections in the book.
    *Birds - in general (1st week)
    *Flight - parts of the feather, bones are hollow
    *Beaks & Feet - different birds are shaped for where they live, how they eat, etc.
Make bird folder to hold papers, drawings, coloring pages, etc.
Build a bird (looking for link still, you download different parts of the bird and then  
   make the bird to fit a certain habitat)
Talk about wingspan - use yarn to measure out the wing span of
    certain birds
Start reading "Hoot"
Continue watching birds in our backyard
Take pictures of birds in our backyard
Make & paint bird houses out of dried gourds
Color pictures of birds we identify (Dover Publication Bird Coloring Book or
     download a free bird coloring book here )
Watch eagle cam & other web cam of birds
Sunrise bird walk @ the beach (identify water birds)

Week 3:
Continue: reading "Hoot", watching/identifying/coloring/taking    
     photos of birds
Color owl pages & do crossword (downloaded from kidwings.com)
Virtual owl pellet dissection @ kidwings
Watch movie - "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill"
More in depth on habitats/what birds eat
Listen to bird songs online & identify birds by their song in our yard
Pick a bird to study & make poster

Week 4:
Continue watching/identifying/coloring/taking photos
Use lessons for things we have not covered from The Bird Site
Watch movie - "March of the Penguins" ?
Birds in art: look at and discuss pictures, paintings with birds (are they realistic, make believe, colors, good, bad, etc.) google search
Using paper mache make our own sculpture of a bird
Go see "Hoot"
Dissect real owl pellets

Other Resources we are using not listed above (we don't use all of it but take a little from here and there):
Lesson plan from Illinois
Cornell.edu
What Makes a Bird a Bird?
Bird Feeding
GA/FL Bird Photos

Posted in Homeschooling

Our Bird Study

We started studying birds a couple of weeks ago. The boys have painted their bird houses and they are currently being waterproofed. The bird feeder, bath and min lake have been a great hit according to our new feather friends. So far we have been visited by or seen from our backyard:
6 mating pairs of Robins
2 Blue Jays
1 Cardinal
a bunch of Common Grackles
a bunch of European Starlings
2 Carolina Chickadee's
2 mating pairs of House Finch's
a couple of crows
2 Red Headed Woodpeckers
1 Red Bellied Woodpecker
a bunch of Mourning Doves

Micah has become our wildlife photographer. You can check out some of his photo's here.

Posted in Homeschooling

What do you get when you have 7 adults & 8 kids plus a baby go to Sea World together? A fun and insane trip! Joel & I were taking the boys to Sea World as their b-day present instead of a party. Well his 2 sisters & brother came along. We had a great time although trying to keep 8 kids from running in every direction because they are so psyched by being there and being able to hang out with each other can be frustrating at times. We started the day off by meeting at IHOP for breakfast (God Bless our poor waitress). After a hearty meal we hit the road...
Our first stop in Sea World the sting rays. Xavier was a little scared of feeding them but after Dad helped him it was cool. We saw turtles (the boys had to talk the "worker" there ears off) and informed her of sea turtles having tumors. Then all the kids climbed on a manatee statue which has a sign to stay off of statue beside it. We realize this after the photo shot, lol. Moving right along... we enjoyed the rides, animals and hanging out with family. Overall it was a wonderful day and the boys bought their own souveniers (Shamu & baby stuff animals of course). The Orca is Micah's favorite whale and Xavier had to have one to after seeing the show (plus he likes the Orca also).

Kids Galore


Isn't he a cutie?


Chillin' with the penguins


Dad & X-man


Micah


More food now!


Group Photo


My 2 boys - shopping's done...

Posted in Homeschooling

Friday we went to Audubon's Center for Birds of Prey. It is a small sanctuary in Maitland. We had a great time and the boys learned lots of interesting things about the raptor birds. The volunteer's there are wonderful and we plan on adopting one of the birds now. We got to see a lot of different birds: owls, eagles, vultures, kestrels and  more. The highlight was meeting their friendly snake. Who has lived at the center for about 2 years and so far has managed to stay out of the bird cages. He was chomping down on a frog while we were there. With his mouth full I didn't mind getting a little closer than I normally would to take some pictures.











The boys sitting in part of the abandoned eagle's nest that _____ (can't remember her name Mary?) sat in back in the 70's.

Posted in Homeschooling

Our first trip to the beach this year and we went to Daytona. Ughh, Daytona is not one of my favorite beaches but it is "home". Personally I thought the water was to cold to swim but that didn't stop the "guys". Joel and I got a little burned but the boys didn't. They boogie board while I read a book. We only stayed for a couple of hours since we had to go visit Joel's grandparents in the afternoon but it was a blast.

Posted in Homeschooling

We headed down to Florida this week for a mini-vacation before Joel goes to school for 6 weeks. On the way to Deland we stopped by Fort Matanzas which is just south of St. Augustine. We did not get to go across the inlet on the ferry to see the fort because we had a dog with us but we did go on the 1/2 mile nature hike. We had a wonderful picnic lunch and saw a couple of gopher tortoise while on the trail.

The boys climbing trees after lunch




Our Gopher Tortoise Friends... the first one was munching away on a small limb. I have never seen one eat so fast. The second one was booking it to whatever party he was later for. Surprisingly they are not as slow as you think at times.

Posted in Homeschooling

Today we met up with our small homeschool group. Thursday's are park day but with Easter this weekend we decided to do something special. Instead of just hanging out (which we did) we had an Easter party. The kids had fun hunting eggs and stuffing themselves with candy, cupcakes, fruit and veggies. I think it went pretty well for our first real "activity".

Here are a few pics...

Hunting Eggs...




Micah's got "Bling"


Enjoying the Loot

Posted in Homeschooling

Summer is definitely around the corner. The warmer it gets the faster a week goes by. Why is it when it is nice outside the days just slip by but when it is cold they drag on forever?

Our week in a nutshell - typical. We spent the week doing school, cleaning house and hanging out. Thursday we met some homeschoolers at a local park which was really nice. I have been trying to put together an all-inclusive, secular group for awhile and it is finally taking off. We had our second park day and had quite a few families show up. Which was awesome.

Friday we went to organizational day (a battalion thing) at a different park. While there we found our first letterbox. Which has me totally psyched and I can not wait to go hunt down another one. If you do not know what letterboxing is you can check it out  here: http://www.letterboxing.org  Basically it is a treasure hunt. Joel was kinda of hestitant at first but thought it was okay once he saw what we were doing. The boys were not into it until they started following the clues and found the box. Then they got excited.

Posted in Homeschooling

We started Rebel With A Cause by Franklin Graham this morning. It is an autobiography and really good. I read it years ago and remember laughing but also being touched by his story. I thought it would be a good book to read to my boys and I was right. We read a chapter this morning to start the day and they asked me to read another chapter after lunch. Woo hoo! Normally getting them to sit for reading time is like pulling teeth and they wallow all over me during it. Not this time they both were listening more than I would have ever imagined possible.

Now it is off to quiet time for them and I will pick up a what little mess we have made and try to find a place to put these huge boxes my husband has planted in the middle of my living room. (He got his stuff that he had shipped home from Iraq today). Where I am suppose to put them I have no idea my house is already crammed full.

School accomplishments for the day:
*Bible (we will finish book 1 Friday & the boys are excited to being moving to the next one)
*grammar
*math
*writing
*went over phonograms
*history
*story time

Still need to:
*individual reading
*science

We may do science tomorrow instead it depends on what time our company arrives today (Joel's sister is coming to visit today). But reading will be done after quiet time since they have opted not to read during it today.

Posted in Homeschooling

We finally finished The Magician's Nephew. This has taken us forever to read because we kept getting sidetracked with other things. I think we are going to take a break from the series though. I am not sure what book we will read next there are a couple I am debating on. But I think I will read Rebel With A Cause. It is really good and I would like to start reading stories about people who have come to and live for Christ to the boys. There is a book I want at visionforum which I may order that would be great for this.

The boys are now having quiet time (yes we do have quiet time). They are not required to take a nap but just to play in their room alone for an hour or so. Sometimes they fall asleep, sometimes we make them stay in their bed it depends on their attitude that day. But as the days go by and quiet time is observed the more often they are in a good mood and fighting between them has diminished drastically.

This morning we continued are Bible study with Abraham. We are almost finished with the first volume which the boys keep pointing out to me. I had to assure them today that when this book is done we will start the next one. Joel and I were talking the other night and one thing which we have not stressed on the boys is learning Bible verses and the what not. Joel would like them to learn some of the old hymns and certain verses. While talking though it dawned on us that we never taught them the Lord's Prayer. So that is our first memorization lesson. I am breaking it up over a little time. We also are starting Psalm 23, just the first verse because we are working on it at the same time as the Lord's Prayer. But I figure in a month both will be memorized. Another thing Joel wants them to learn is about the armor of God. He has some great memories about learning it back when he was a child and we both feel it is very important. I know we can't do it all at one time but I am making a list.

The only thing we have left to do for school today: science, grammar and art. After quiet time we will read a little from one of the AO readings while we have a snack and then finish up. It has been a really good day though and even with the rain it sure seems sunny out :)

Posted in Homeschooling

I know it seems somewhat of an odd title for a post but it fits today's events. Joel had the day off and was sweet enough to let me sleep in this morning. Of course as much as I needed my sleep and love him for this kind act it kinda threw a few things off for the day. We started school with a phone call from one of the boy's friends wanting them to come over and play. I had to put an end to that since the books were barely cracked open at that point.

We are continuing right along in our Bible reading. Today we covered Genesis 21 when Abraham sends Hagar into the wilderness. We are using "The Book of Life"which was published by Zondervan back in 1980. It is an encyclopedia type set that my MIL gave me to use. She had it for her kids and thought I would help me. It is really an awesome book. We just recently started it and all of us are enjoying this. We are on vol. 1 "God's Pioneer's". What I like so much about the book is that after each Bible reading  it has a couple of paragraphs to put into daily living plus a section where the Bible comes alive with currentpictures/photos of the area, land, maps, monuments or art/sculpture of that time and little tid bits of information which the boys find interesting. The other day when we read about Lot's wife turning to salt there was a picture of the mountain which Lot had gone to and a pillar which some call Lot's wife. Micah agreed he could see why and tried to point out some characteristics of a person in the rock. Xavier on the other hand said it look like a rock. Today Xavier asked a few more questions about whether that really is her. Micah of course jumps in to answer the questions... His answer maybe and God knows but the real pillar of salt probably disintegrated over the years. Smart kid. Xavier agreed.

We soon left Bible time to continue on with grammar and since we didn't do it Friday as we were suppose to we had to finish off our chapter and test today. So tomorrow I will double up on the grammar so we are on target.

While folding laundry we reviewed our science (bugs and spiders) today. Tomorrow we will classify animals. By this time their friend has called 3 more times and lunch is around the corner. They did math and writing ate lunch then headed to their friend's house for a couple of hours.

I came home finished fixing the classification cards for tomorrow and hung out with Joel. Who has informed me that he wants to go to Sunday School starting this Sunday and church on Wednesday. Now I have prayed for him to take the reigns in leadership and for the Lord to do his work in him. He has answered my prayers and how wonderful it is (but I have this nagging what did I pray for feeling at this time). Don't get me wrong I am awestruck from the work the Lord is doing in our house. However, now that it is happening I am also a little apprehensive because I am loosing control. I am a control freak and I am working on this but well this is a big hit at once. Lol. Ok that sounds like I am complaining and that is not how I mean it. So I will just leave it with this... Praise the Lord!!

This evening I went to a Bright Mind workshop. A lot of fun! It was so nice to see some friends I have not seen in awhile. Plus I spent a little money... not good but I can't wait to get my order :) That will take about 2 weeks which is fine because I don't plan on using it until this summer and next year.

So that was our day.... it was chilly here on the 1st day of spring. Not sure what is up with that and it can go away now. The Lord answered a few prayers and blessed me this evening by being able to have fellowship with others.

Now its off to bed and I lok forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for me tomorrow.

Posted in Homeschooling

Every month we go on a field trip with a small group of friends. We only have 4 families that go and so the group has 6 kids (plus a baby). All of us have boys. Normally we get lunch afterwards but this past Friday we opted out of lunch because of other obligations. Our March field trip had us heading to WSAV to meet the meteorologist Lee Haywood.

Mr. Haywood spoke to the group about the 3 ingredients (atmosphere, water, heat) of weather, hurricanes, fronts and his job. The boys really enjoyed seeing how he made the graphics, predicts the 7 day forecast and most of all the green screen. All of the kids had a turn to click the clicker which changes the graphics behind them while in front of the screen. Plenty of questions were asked and they had a great time. TO top it off WSAV had a kids cam and so they got to see themselves on tv Friday night. This was icing on the top of the cake!

I am not sure where we are headed next month with our little group but I am sure it will be fun.

We use to get out of the house a couple of times a week for things school related but lately we have been stuck inside. SO.. I have been searching for some neat places we could visit locally. I am slowly coming up with a list of free or at least cheap things to do. Savannah is great and has a lot to offer - especially if you have money to spend. There are all kinds of tours, houses, museums to visit. The problem is when you are taking a family of 4 it adds up quickly. That's okay though we will find somewhere to go and maybe take a picnic and make a day of it. Now all I need to do is check the weather...