Our First Day of School! (and some other stuff too)
Well, we finally started school today. Ok, well not technically yet since we're still working through our morning routine, but we'll be getting started shortly. I got the kids a few little things from the Target $1 bins just because. You know, they don't get all the normal back to school stuff so I just thought it would be fun to do something for them!
Abigayle got some blank note cards, stamps, gel pens, and small sticky note pads. Zachary got some pencils, gel pens, alphabet stamp letters and a clear stamp block for them, and a silver stamp pad. They were pretty surprised to see it this morning. I also wrote them each a little note welcoming them to their respective grades.
I watched some kids yesterday to help a friend out while she was moving and we took a couple of pictures. I thought these were funny. The youngest loved my dog's crate...
I like this one too, although, I wonder if they look just a little too happy to see their little brother in a cage!
We went to Shedd Aquarium for the first time a little over a week ago. It was kind of our NOT back to school day since it was the first day of school for kids here. It was so crowded there though. Josh said that schools down there didn't start yet so that's probably why. We're going to try to go down again in Oct. Maybe next time I go I'll remember my camera!
We went up to MI a couple of weeks ago and I thought I'd share a little about that. We went to a thing in Muskegon called Bike Time. It's a thing for all the bikers. They had monster truck rides though and my ds and hubby went for a ride.
We went on a tour of a Lighthouse
Here's a picture looking out from the top:
And we took Bear to the dog beach! She didn't really care for it. I had to carry her out and put her in the water. The bad thing is that she is so tall that even going out up to my waist she could walk about half way back to shore! It's a little hard to see, hubby didn't zoom. We didn't have to keep her on a leash, but I don't think she would have stuck around if we hadn't!
Here's my mom's dog:
Passed out from a day of fun at the beach:
That is Bear's boredom hole in my dad's yard - oops! At least it's not too big though.
Oh, gotta love this one:
I guess that's about all for now. We've all been hit with a stomach bug and still recuperating so I can't really think of anything else right now. I'm sure I'm missing something though!
We are excited about today! We have a bunch of people coming over to help us celebrate. The kids have been waiting for this all week. Hopefully, the rain stops before this afternoon though. I'm not sure I have room in my house for all these people!
I have some new pictures of the puppy too that I thought I'd share real quick. I finally have her signed up for training classes at PetSmart. She starts next weekend. We'll miss a week when we go to MI but we can make it up later, so I'm not worried about it.
We got her a new bed last night to use when she's not in her crate. Josh wasn't sure about getting it, but it was only a couple $$ more than just the boring crate liner so he caved for me!
This is what happened this morning while she was bored! So cute!
This is what she does in the morning, waiting for her "kids" to get up. She just loves them! I will sometimes take her in their rooms to wake them up. She just loves that! Zach will cover his head with his blanket and she just goes crazy trying to dig him out! He says it hurts a little, but I don't think he minds. I think he likes that she does that with him.
Zachary has lost two front teeth - the ones on either side of his very front top teeth. Well, he was eating grapes the other day and was being silly.
We are on our summer break finally! We stopped a week early. We were all just done and ready for a break. I haven't counted up our days, but we already had almost 30 extra days scheduled so I'm sure we're fine. We'll start back up on Sept. 1st. We have 4 books to finish for the Prairie Primer but we may just do 3. The last book, Farmer Boy, is about Almanzo growing on up the farm in NY so we may just skip that one. We'll probably still read it for fun though.
Well, I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th! God Bless
She getting so big already and smart too! The books say that these dogs get bored easily with doing mundane tasks or activities and will find a new way to do them. We have already noticed this with Bear. I definitely want to get her into some training classes soon and would like to start going to dog parks so she can play on the agility equipment they have (then I don't have to buy my own!).
She's still small enough to fit behind the couch and she loves running through it when she's all riled up!
Ok, so she's not suppose to be in the kitchen/dining room area, but she still found a way to be near me when I'm in there...(it's a broken drawer whole - we call it her cubby!)
She loves to look out this window. It's so cute!
A boy and his dog...Awwww!
Abigayle trying to play with her outside, it doesn't look like it's going to well...
We dissected a cow's eye a couple of weeks ago! It goes along with our Prairie Primer. We had read the part in the books when Mary goes blind, which is true. She went blind from having Scarlet Fever as a baby and it didn't affect her until years later. So we learned the different parts of the eye and how it works. It was very interesting. The kids were so grossed out for most of it they probably don't remember a whole lot of what they were suppose to be learning!
Notice how they don't look real thrilled about touching it...
The first cuts...
The meaty stuff around the eye is tougher than it looks. I had to help Zach...
Ok, I really did try to not take the whole thing over
Here's the front and the back of the eye. Zach is holding the front (the Anterior - the part that we can see when you're looking at someone) and Abigayle is holding the inside/back part of the eye (the Posterior - the part we can't see)
The Cornea was kind of tricky. It's a lot thicker than you might think and it took a couple of tries to cut deep enough to get it off.
Notice the little white marble looking thing on the plate. That is the cornea that we just cut off. Zach's getting ready to pop the lens out!
And here's the lens. If it wasn't cloudy, we would be able to see the words through it and they would be slightly magnified.
We had talked about getting another dog a few months before we had to put Shadow down, but we never had a peace about it so we decided to wait. I'm glad we waited, I believe it has all worked out for the best.
Many of you might think "Wow! You didn't wait very long!" But I take comfort in the fact that Shadow had a good, long life and he will always have a special place in all of our hearts.
Say hello to Pretty Bear. She is an Australian Shepherd with a little Border Collie mixed in. She will be nine weeks old on Sunday. We got her yesterday afternoon.
Well, we went to OH last weekend to surprise my SIL for her belated 30th birthday! We pulled it off w/o her finding out. We got in to OH Friday evening and stayed in a hotel and surprised her with silly string and lots of noise Saturday morning! It was a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed being part of a big surprise like that! I left my camera in my purse so I don't have any actual pictures of it, but it was still fun!
We took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese on Monday and had lots of fun. Here they are going on a virtual roller coaster ride:
Our Shadow was put down last Friday (5/8). It was a difficult day for him and by the time we got to the vet it was pretty obvious that it was just time to let him go, even though it took me a little while to accept it. It was heartbreaking to see him trying to beg for treats and attention all the while knowing that he was in his last moments. He left us with wonderful memories and big shoes to fill for our next dog.
The vet had two molds made of his paw prints for us. They are ready today and I will be going to pick them up shortly. I also made a bookmark obituary for him that I am going to have laminated and will surprise the kids with these later today.
Here's some pictures to remember him:
His camping trip with us to Apple River just last summer:
His last hair cut:
Zachary loved taking pictures of him just because:
Here's the obituary on his bookmark. I can't get all the pictures to show up and can't upload them here because they are not all on this computer.
Wiseman’s Toy Shadow
8/15/95 – 5/8/09
Shadow was a good boy and lived a long, happy life.
He was our first “baby”, our first responsibility as adults.He saw us go through life changes - the Marine Corps, babies, and multiple moves.
He will be remembered for his playful spirit, begging for food, and always trying to be a puppy!
Shadow wasn’t just our pet; he was a member of our family.
A local historical village had a Civil War Hands On History thing going on last week that we went to. They had different stations set up that you visited and were told about different people or situations during that time period.
We saw a 30 min. presentation from an actress about Harriet Tubman:
We met with a Southern Lady Spy by the name of Rose Greenhow:
We learned how to load a Civil War cannon:
That's our little penguinlover (the smallest one of the group)!
We learned about camp life for the soldiers. Here's one getting ready to fire a blank shot for us:
All in all, it was a good day. A long one, but good. We will go back next year, but we will go a little more prepared. We haven't talked in depth about any wars yet so next year we will study it in advance of the field trip.
She was so excited to turn 12! We took her and a couple of her friends bowling and then went to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch. The all had a good time. Her dad took the day off from work so he could join us.
Well, at least she can say she got ride a horse for her birthday!
She also got to learn how to mow the yard! She wanted to do it last year, but we just never got around to having her do it. This year she didn't want to have anything to do with it! She did a pretty good job though and she was pleased with doing the whole yard herself!
I think we are still waiting for spring to spring here. It looks and feels more like autumn outside than it does spring! Oh well, there's always hope for tomorrow!
We are now on our 4th book of the primer. We are going to concentrate on the reading comprehension and the state histories mostly. We are looking up each state in some old encyclopedias that my mom gave us (thanks mom!) and we will go more in depth learning about our state of Illinois. This is the book that Mary goes blind in so we are going to study how the eye works by dissecting a cow's eye! A couple of our Pastor's daughters are going to do it with us. I'm actually looking forward to it. I want to be able to get it all done before our Spring Break. I'm planning on taking our break from April 20th - May 1. That gives them and me a decent amount of time off and it's special for my little horse lover too because her birthday is the 24th.
We renewed our zoo membership and we will probably go there during our break. They have a butterfly garden that will have just opened so that should be fun. We'll probably also try to visit some family but haven't really worked out any details yet.
Wow, I can’t believe a whole month has gone by already!I really need to get better at this.I’m on the computer a lot so I figured I would just remember to do this, evidently not.Oh well, here’s what we’ve been up to.
We went to MidwayVillage a few weeks ago (the field trip I mentioned in my previous post).It’s a village museum of what the Rockford area used to be like back in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s.It goes perfectly with our Prairie Primer.They also have other historical events throughout the year.In May we will be going to a Civil War Era event they are having.Amy Pak at Homeschool in the Woods has a new Civil War project pack that I’m thinking about doing to go with it.
Ok, so get this.Penguinlover is giving us lovey’s before he went to be tonight and he kept rubbing at his nose.So hubby told him to stop messing with it and go blow it.Not to be too gross or anything, but one nostril was bright yellow and the other orange!I thought that maybe he had stuck a marker up them earlier in the day when he was messing around with a friend.It took a little prodding, but he finally admitted to putting M & M’s up his nose on the way home from the grocery store.EEEWWWW!!!Ok, I cracked up laughing but still!So, we had a quick talk about certain holes being exit only!I didn’t think I’d have to do that with him at this age (7 ½) but what do I know about being a little boy!J
Well, I’m off to watch a movie with hubby, so good night and God Bless!
Last week we ended up going up to Michigan for a quick visit.Hubby had some work stuff come up unexpectedly up there, so off we went.We stayed with my mom and dad while we were there and since they both work, we took our school stuff with us.We didn’t get thru everything we took, but that’s ok.I wanted to get thru this book quicker than we have the others but that’s not going to happen now.Oh well.We did all the reading and comprehension stuff but we didn’t get too deep into the science or the lapbooking.I’m going to spend this week trying to get back on track with all of that.It’s weird, the older I get the easier changes throw me off!I’ve been feeling out of it since we got back.I think this week will help get me back on track too.
We didn’t really do anything special for my birthday this year (we never really do), but I did get a new cell phone and a freezer on Valentine’s day!I had penguinlover take pictures of them to show you.I bought hubby a heart shaped box of turtles.I’m still not quite sure how I was able to make out like a bandit this year!
I went with a purple'ish/pink'ish phone this time, not usually my style, but I wanted it to be fun. It also has an MP3 player I just have to get the little memory card for it. Hopefully, we'll be able to get one soon. We thought it might come with a small storage card, but it didn't.
Horselover and I got flowers Monday from Nana and Grandpa (my parents) for my birthday/valentine’s day.Penguinlover got a balloon from them.They send something every year for us.Even though we tend to expect it, there is still excitement when the delivery person comes every year.Penguinlover took pictures of those for me too.
We took a field trip yesterday, but I will post more about that later.
Okay, so I’m not the world’s most active blogger. But, I would like to start updating at least weekly, otherwise what’s the point really?
I’ll start with last week.
Monday we didn’t get a full day in as we had dentist appointments.Our dentist is about 30 miles north into Wisconsin.So having an appointment at 2 pm for all three of us consecutively took quite a while.Poor penguinlover has two more cavities.They are on the top this time; imagine that, he doesn’t have any more molars on the bottom to get cavities in because they are full already!I haven’t decided what to do about them yet, I don’t think they are very advanced, but just not sure yet what to do exactly.I feel so bad for him that he has to go through this so much already.This makes cavities number 6 & 7.We are prayerfully seeking alternatives.
Horselover’s mouth was fine, I guess.They didn’t really say too much about it.We are still looking into getting braces for her.I will be calling around to find out about getting other estimates this week.We will probably end up using our tax return to help cover some of the cost, but probably not all.
Penguinlover’s guitar lessons are still going well.He has learned 3 notes each on 3 strings and 2 notes on one string, so he’s learned 11 notes already!The tricky part is remembering the difference on the scale.He has learned the some of the same notes, just different octaves so they are on different strings.For example, he just has to remember which G to play – the G string G or the E string G!He still enjoys getting it out and practicing so that's good.I’ve even picked up on some of it.It is fun!
Since we lost half a school day on Monday, we stayed home Saturday to do our day of Prairie Primer.I am motivated to get this book done in 4-5 weeks.We spent almost the whole day on it and got a lot done.I bought a lapbook project for this book (it was on sale) and we’re working on a butterfly notebooking project.We will be ordering caterpillars in the spring to watch them morph into butterflies.I might even plant some butterfly friendly flowers for them to hang out on before they are ready to take flight.
They started their music class on Sunday.Since we stay at church all day, the teacher is a church member, we’re all already there and she couldn’t see making everyone make another special trip out on another day for less than an hour-long class.They are using Patch the Pirate this year.It consists mostly of theory (learning about different instruments and different aspects of music) and choir.All of the kids play an instrument so it makes sense to go this route.This way it’s different from the type of stuff they get with their specific instrument classes.It also has a daily devotional to do.I am going to have them work on it together.I think it will be good for them.The theme of this book is humility and they have been at each other’s throats lately.So maybe this will help.
This week we are going to be learning about Blue Herons, leeches, lichens (we didn’t get to that one last week) and continuing our butterfly and lapbooking projects.We’ll read a brief biography on Noah Webster (Webster’s Dictionary guy).Oh, and we’re doing an Abraham Lincoln audio unit study to commemorate the bi-centennial of his birth.Plus, they will still be doing their regular “book work” work.They do bible, math and English (for penguinlover) daily.Penguinlover is doing multiplication already!I couldn’t believe it.He’s doing well with the concept though so he’ll probably be ok with it.He started his 3rd grade math book just a couple of weeks ago.It’s difficult to imagine that he’ll be doing division, decimals and fractions by the end of this book!
Horselover is doing well with her math too.She started division with this book a couple of weeks ago.She was a little nervous about it, but it clicked and now she actually enjoys it.We have a DVD to go along with it.The “teacher” teaches a short lesson and then she does the bookwork.He explains things her way I think because I think he’s a goofball but she gets it and that’s all that really matters.
Okay, so I haven't posted much on here lately. So here's another entry.
We went to the library today. Penguin lover is so excited to be getting Magic Tree House and MagicSchool Bus books. He used to tell me that he couldn't read chapter books because they were too long, until he found some penguin ones to read! Now he can't seem to get enough of them! We also have Happy Feet to watch (about a dancing penguin or something).
Horse lover is still working her way through the Life of Faith series. I think she's almost done with it and then she wants to start reading the Misty of Chincoteague books. She also started reading the horse books she got for Christmas from her Grandma, though it's slow going right now because of the library books she's trying to get through. She has finished watching all of her Christy dvd's and we borrowed the movies from the library (I read the novel). I got her the Love Comes Softly series (6 dvd's) and we've watched almost all of those now. I think we have 1 left! She will definitely enjoy them over and over.
I got the kids an art easel for Christmas and they really seem to be enjoying it. You can see some of their drawings in some of the other pictures, but here's one of penguin lover finger painting.
This is a girl fishing off a dock with her dad...
This is a horse...
Here's little horse lover painting a horse she got for Christmas. It's not quite finished. We have to spray it with a matte finish spray paint to protect it and then glue the mane and tail on, but we're almost there. We'll post pictures of the finished product as soon as we get them!
I am part of a letter writing group on the homeschool lounge and we do a letter writing swap every month. Well there is a woman on there that is very creative at card making and does weekly projects and posts them for all to see and do. I tried my hand at making a few cards this month for my swap. Here is what I came up with.
I also signed the kids up to do a Valentine's card swap with a bunch of other homeschoolers. That should be fun. We are suppose to do homemade cards so I'll probably take some pictures and post those as well.
Well, I guess that's all for now. Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you safe.
Well, we have finally finished book 2 in our Primer journey. We do something called lapbooking and the kids each made one. It has little pieces of information from the book. We put them together yesterday. Here are some pictures:
After lots and lots of gluing, we have our finished product:
We begin book 3 - On the banks of Plum Creek on Monday. We will spend the week learning about this new place, water purification, lichens (I don't even know what that is!), the life cycle of a butterfly, the difference between a butterfly and a moth, life cycle of a tree, and I'm sure there's more I can't think of right now! :) We will be doing a complete unit study on butterflies and we borrowed some butterfly videos from the library too. Hopefully, we can get through this book in 4 weeks. I haven't been able to do that yet. It would be nice but there's just so much information!
When our church merged with another back in September we also acquired their building. We found a small, child-size pulpit. It has been added to my son's Sunday school class room for them to use. I help out in his class and have been charged with the task of involving the boys with some preaching time. Right now our church is doing an adding to your faith series from II Peter 1:5 - 7.
The first thing that came to mind (because I found out I was doing this at the same time as the class!) was Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 starts out by defining faith, but also gives examples of faithful men of the bible. So since I didn't have much time to prepare, I naturally chose my son to go first. That way I would have time to figure out how this crazy thing is going to work.
The first person talked about is Abel. So I took our little penguin lover all the way back to Genesis. This is what he came up with and read to the class:
Cain and Abel were probably taught by their mom and dad how to sacrifice to God. But Cain wanted to do it his way by bringing fruit to God instead of an animal. Abel's sacrifice was more excellent by faith because of the shedding of blood and because Abel did it God's way. We should do things God's way and not our own.
I thought he did a wonderful job. Here are a couple of pictures of him at the pulpit (I did take these later because I didn't want to make him more nervous when he first went up to speak to the class):
Also, here is a picture of his classroom, his teacher, and a couple of friends that he wanted me to add:
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year. I haven't been on lately because I have been enjoying family time. My husband has had the last two weeks off and will be heading back to work tomorrow. We will miss him immensely during the day (especially since that means we have to start back to school tomorrow!).
I thought I'd share some pictures from our Christmas.
Here's a neat little puzzle our little arctic lover got for Christmas
Here's a puzzle they both got (and my husband put together, lol). It has a really neat glow in the dark pattern that I'll post a picture of as soon as I can get one. It's not working out too well so far.
Our little arctic lover got the Geotrax Grand Central station and the new Geoair. He was very excited to get these.
Here's a cool picture of all his tracks put together, now he has a little Geo Town!
They're playing with their new play doh
Our little horse lover didn't get many toys this year. She got some horse books, The Circle C Adventures written by one of our own homeschool moms here on homeschool blogger. I don't have it in front of me right now and I don't remember her name right off. She also got the Love Comes Softly series (all 6 dvd's), the Christy tv series on dvd, a horse painting kit (I'll add pictures of that when she gets it done), and some new pink legos (perfectly girlie just for her).
All in all they had a good Christmas. We have scaled back a lot in the last 4 years or so, but this year I'm really feeling like we should scale back even a little more. I want them to have a good Christmas, but I still don't think they have a true appreciation for the "Reason for the Season". We'll just have to wait and see I guess.
Thanks for taking a look at our Christmas. I'll probably add some more pictures as time goes on and we get some more puzzles done (they got a lot of them this year).
This is a message by my pastor that I wanted to share. It's regarding Santa and his apparent association with Satan and we, as Christians, should not participate in such a worldly tradition. Please click here and scroll down to Misc. Sermons and click on Simple Coincidence or Supreme Impostor from 12/17/08.
(If the link doesn't work go to http://www.truthbaptistmp.org/Multimedia-from-Truth-Baptist-Church.aspx)
Enjoy. Leave me a comment when you've listened to let me know what you think.
I just thought I'd share our family newsletter with everyone. I included a quick run down of the Roman's Road for my unsaved family members.
The Christmas season is upon us and the most important thing to remember is why we celebrate Christmas.It is a time to celebrate the birth of a Saviour, who came to save us.
He came to save the sinner.(For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.Rom. 3:23)
First, you have to admit that you are a sinner.
The penalty for sin is death.This death is not only physical, but also spiritual.(For the wages of sin is death; Rom. 6:23a)
Understand that you deserve death for your sin.
However, God provided a way to escape that death (…but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.Rom. 6:23b)
Salvation is a free gift from God.You CANNOT earn this gift, but you must ask for it in order to receive it.
Simply ask God to forgive you and save you.
He has already shown us His amazing love.(But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.Rom. 5:8)
He sent Christ to be the ultimate and final sacrifice for all our sins.
He came to save everyone who would have Him.(For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.Rom. 10:13)
Call out to God, in Jesus’ name.(That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.Rom. 10:9-10)
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.(Rev 3:20)
DO NOT DELAY, ASK JESUS INTO YOUR HEART TODAY!
This year has been a good year in the Wiseman house!My husband has been truly blessed at work, Praise the Lord!He has moved positions and is now in sales.
Our church has moved into the 21st Century and we have a website now.If you are interested, you can check it out at www.truthbaptistmp.org.We also have a new building, acquired through a church merger that took place in September.
We did our first achievement tests this year.Our daughter tested at grade level (6) and our son tested almost one grade level above, he is 2nd grade age wise, but he scored almost 3rd grade.
Our little horse lover is doing well in school.She is actually enjoying math, one of her most hated subjects when I pulled her out of school!She still struggles with English, but we are working on that.She still enjoys playing the piano.She has had a break from her lessons for the last couple of months, but will start back up again in January.
Our littler arctic lover is also doing well.He is good at all his subjects when he applies himself.He struggles with writing his own thoughts and ideas down, but we are working on that too.He is very excited to have started his guitar lessons in November.He is doing very well with practicing and learning the notes.
They both seem to be enjoying the Prairie Primer that we are working on this year.It covers our history, social studies, literature, art, music, science and a whole lot more.
I hope you have enjoyed reading about what has been going on here at the Wiseman household and that you enjoy the pictures I have included.
May the Lord richly bless you and your family this year.
