Hi Everyone! Sorry I've been neglecting my blog, I love to see the amount of visitors that touch base with me...I actually feel guilty each time a new number is added to the visitor counter because I know they are checking in for a new entry and I've disappointed again. I'll try to keep adding entries more often... So, my very cool thing to share is this... Last Fall we found a beautiful, green caterpillar. We put it in a jar and it instantly made a chrysalis. I left it in our aquarium along side our praying mantis egg sac and kept it outside, undercover, all Winter. Each day we check the egg sac because if the baby mantids don't get water within 24 hours of birth they will perish. So, yesterday we checked in on them and...WAIT! What's that moving? IT'S THE CHRYSALIS!! The coolest thing I've ever seen...our chrysalis had life within! We are keeping a close eye on our new baby to be and have found out that it is a Swallowtail Butterfly! I'll let you know when she's born!

Thank You Jesus for your gift of life!

One of the amazing gifts of Homeschooling under the Guidance of Jesus Christ is that He's leading us. One of the questions that the judges asked Lee at her Science Fair was, "If you were to study deeper into Entomology, which direction would you go?" Lee's response was Butterflies. When we were on vacation in Saskatchewan a few weeks ago, I found a great study/activity book on butterflies, and now we are having the amazing privilege of watching a chrysalis open up!  I just think it's awesome how God orchestrates our days.   

Our adventure is over for this project! We enjoyed the entire process, learned a lot and even have a First Place Ribbon and a Bronze Medal to show for it! The Regionals were awesome! Six of our Local Students attended and Five of them came away with medals and speciality awards. One of our Grade Eight Students, Sarah, earned $325.00 in Speciality awards.  Sarah is one of two students who will be representing the B.C. West Kootenay Region & British Columbia in Truro, Nova Scotia in May at the Canada Wide Youth Science Fair 2007. Sarah's expenses are completely covered! Sarah was also invited down to Vancouver for a week long Science Adventure this Fall!

     An amazing accomplishment for our Home Educated Children as they swept into that Science Fair and competed against the best of those who placed in their own District Science Fair, 95% of which were Public Educated children.

     During the month of March, Youth Science Month, 500,000 students across Canada competed in Local Science Fairs, as many students as play hockey. 25,000 of those students went on to their Regional Science Fairs. 450 Regional Science fair winners, from across Canada, will take their projects to Truro, Nova Scotia, May 12-20. These elite participants will compete in seven divisions and three age categories for medals and other prizes worth over $360,000.

Today we travelled for an hour to the "Home School Science Fair"! We have worked so hard on our 'Entomology' (The Study of Insects) project. We began last April when we read an article from 'The Old Schoolhouse' Magazine about a homeschooling family who did an extensive project on Entomology! We loved the idea and began collecting bugs until October. We spent the Fall identifying each insect and then we spent the past two weeks creating the Display Board. We also had to make a "Project Workbook" too! My oldest did an amazing job on this project! I was especially proud of her as she presented her project to the judges and was able to speak confidently about what she had learned!

I'll post a picture of our project on the right hand side of my blog!

Blessings,

Mel

I have been asked to share the recipes from my recent post. I must say that 70% of the recipes that Lee tried were not worthy of passing on. This is the point though! I wanted Lee to look for recipes that interested her. Most of our recipes were found in the "Companys Coming" Cook Books and a wonderful magazine we receive called "Kraft: What's Cooking". Lee mostly chose recipes that had pictures to go with them. This was a fabulous way to try new Dishes! Just a few days ago, Lee said to me, "Mom, thanks for teaching me how to cook and bake. I've learned to look at recipes and if some of the ingredients are not what I really like, then I know that the dish won't be that tasty. I know that I'll be able to cook and bake when I move out on my own!" Lee learned by trial and error on her own, not by me telling her that Blue Cheese is a "strong" type of cheese and you probably won't like it...we had to try it in a salad first! Some dishes went in the garbage, and some ingredients went into the garbage, but some dishes became favorites!

Let your children explore what interests them because then the dish really becomes theirs!

Have Fun and bless your children with the gift of cooking/baking!

The Lord gave me an awesome idea last year when I was beginning our school year and I want to share it with you. One important skill that I want all my children to be blessed with is the ability to cook and bake. In the beginning of Lee's Grade Four year we began "Menu Planning". Our theme for that year was 'Dinner'. Each month was considered to be a unit: Week One-Meat Dish, Week Two-Potato/Rice/Pasta Dish, Week Three-Vegetable Dish, and Week Four-Dessert Dish. We did this for September, October, and November and then for December we choose Christmas Treats to make each week. At the beginning of January, Lee made an entire meal of each of her favorite dishes for her grandparents. I kept all of this information in a binder. On Monday of each week, Lee would search for the desired recipe and then type it out. I would print that off and put it into her binder. On Tuesday she would make a shopping list of the ingredients she would need and then she would shop for it when we went to the grocery store. Lee would make each dish by the end of the weekend and I would always take a picture of her with her finished project. I would then print that picture with a title and it would become the title page in her binder for that week. For the rest of the year I would just allow her freedom in the kitchen as she felt the desire to cook or bake. This year we have done "Lunch Planning". Week One-Sandwich Dish, Week Two-Soup Dish, Week Three-Salad Dish, and Week Four-Dessert Dish! For the rest of this year, Lee is making dinner on Saturday nights and she loves it! Next year we will do 'Breakfast Planning'! I'll post a picture on the right-hand side for you to see an example of our Title Page.

Bless you all,

Mel

I began homeschooling my oldest when she was half way through Grade One. She is now half way through Grade Five. She has done extremely well and loves being home where she belongs. We have changed curriculum through-out the years and yet again, here I am at a curriculum change. My two youngest will benefit as I become more and more confident in what we choose to teach with, but Lee will always be my first...she breaks ground! I am happy with our Math-u-see, Exploring God's Creation for Science and our everyday lab...life! I have wonderful resources for Social Studies including Diana Warings "History Alive" but theres an area that needs my attention...ENGLISH... Does anyone have any English curriculum that they could reccommend for Grades 5-12 that includes Poetry, Grammar, etc., all in one book?? I'm going to start Sing, Spell, Read, Write with my Kindergarten girl and I've thought that I'd get Lee to work with her through this just to sharpen those skills for review! Lee is a keen learner and when she took the Canadian Achievment Test at the end of Grade Four she had an overall average of Grade 7.9! This was the first test we had done since we began homeschooling and it was encouraging considering our growing pains as we dove into a new journey for our family. We love homeschooling, somedays I wonder "what am I doing?", but that thought doesn't last long as the Lord gives me these incredible moments that remind me why we are doing this. I have a huge ministry right now and I really do count it a blessing to have been given this assignment. I pray that God will continue to lead us and bless us with the opportunity to serve Him.

    Remember when you were a child and December seemed to have at least 300 days in it? It now feels like December only consists of about three hours! I sat up until midnight last night wrapping gifts and writing a letter to my sisters best friend. The Lord has pressed upon My Honey's and my heart to give her a Bible from Him, and along with that gift, a love letter too! I do pray that she'll know how much her Father in Heaven loves her, as He does all of us! "Come as you are, there is no better time than now!" 

    Our school days seem to be slipping away into the busyness of the Season. We have studied A Christmas in Poland and A Christmas in Denmark. We have also completed our Spelling Program, corrected English assignments and worked on Math as well. The girls both have piano recitals this coming Sunday and also their Christmas Specials at Church on Sunday morning! Lee also enjoyed watching a program where they showed the process of making Lindt Chocolates! Learning is amazing! It happens every single day whether we plan it or not. My three children have spent many hours this month playing store together. As soon as I see peace between the three of them and they are learning together, I drop everything on my 'to do' list and let them play, love and learn together!