• Aug. 12, 2009
The School Year Is Planned!

Always feels good to have the year mapped out! Here's the plan:

Horizons for reading, writing, spelling and math.

KONOS unit studies for everything else.

Astronomy & Constellations (non-KONOS...just putting something together)
Planets/Moon/Calendars/Seasons
Rock Classification
Kings & Queens
Military
Christmas
Crime & Punishment
Plant Classification
Valentine
Indians
Easter
Explorers/Navigation/Ships

For the summer I am hoping CurrClick.com has a couple more "Continental Hop" units completed as the kids have enjoyed those. We've skimmed the surface on Africa, Australia and S. America so far. Very fun.

We also do a few things around the Iditarod each year. We have our map showing the odd/even trails and choose two mushers to follow each day. Always fun! We were able to take advantage of a field trip to visit our vet this year as he was a volunteer and he shared photos and answered questions.

Will also throw in some generic arts/crafts when the unit doesn't call for as many as my kids love to be making something.

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• Jul. 5, 2009
Keep on Learning!

Here's the reason we homeschool!  These two beautiful creations from God are worth it!!

Summer just keeps going and thankfully I have been able to spend a lot of time entering lesson plans into my tracking/planner program.  Feels so good to be so far ahead of the game this year!!  Both kids will be using Alpha Omega's Horizons for Reading, Writing and Math and we will mostly use KONOS for our "together school" that covers everything else.  We will begin with the Obedience Unit.

Currently we are still working through our Art Treasury book and we just began our South America "Continental Hop."  Am having both the kids use the Usborne palette to work on things such as vowel sounds, beginning reading and math concepts.  Gotta keep the learning going!

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• Jun. 15, 2009
Avercamp Artwork

Another fun day copying an artists style!  This is from Hendrick Avercamp and he used watercolors.

Punkin's above and Sweetie Boy's below.

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• Jun. 9, 2009
Artist #2

I just think this artist series is too fun!  Today we studied about Katsushika Hokusai and here are their attempts at creating his style.

Punkin's is above and Sweetie Boy's is below.

They were supposed to be waves in the sea but our bubble wrap was too hard to pop!  We painted the entire bubble wrap and then placed our white paper on there and gently rubbed it to catch the paint. 

Also caught a cute photo last night of the rabbit and one of our goats just hanging out together.

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• May. 18, 2009
Planning for Next Year

I finally had time this afternoon to sit down and figure out what we need for the next school year and actually got most of it ordered.   For our next year we will be using Horizons for Math, Reading, Spelling and Penmanship.  We will use KONOS (I need to order Vol. 2) for our "together school" which covers Science, History, Literature, etc.

This will give me a year to sort out what to move towards regarding Language Arts for Punkin' (for 3rd grade) as Alpha Omega's Horizon series ends at that point except for Math & Penmanship.  I printed out testing forms for her to take and it appears LifePac's are a year behind the Horizon work.  I've had some recommendations of materials to look into from some of you here and from some other people but know I can't make a snap decision over the summer.  Unfortunately many of the vendors won't be at our homeschool convention next month due to the economy (they are picking and choosing where to spend the time and money this year) so some I won't be able to look through so it will be hunting the internet for examples.  So if you have the time please let me know what has worked for you!

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• Mar. 30, 2009
Getting Back to Normal

All I can say is "Whew!"  I needed some normal in my life!  On the school front... things are back on track.  We finished our Iditarod study and it was fun following the mushers we chose one the map we made.  We had two that finished in the top 20 and two rookies.  We are going to meet with our Vet next Thursday to talk to him and see pictures he took while he was there!

Next comes sheep and weaving.  I headed to the library and brought a stack of books home for reading and research.  We plan to go to a friends place next week to have her daughter show us her sheep (she shows them in 4H and has won many 1st place and more prizes with them) and talk to the kids about them.

Punkin' has been asking that we go to another continent since Africa was so fun so need to see what I can throw together on Australia.  I believe that was the second in the Continental Hop series with CurrClick.com.

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• Feb. 5, 2009
Africa fun

We are currently doing a unit study on Africa for "together school."  The kids have had fun making a passport, creating a house and tie-dieing paper.  We've played games using animal cards... Memory and The Watering Hole.  We learned to play Mancala.  But I think the favorite thing for both are the stories that we are reading.  So many of the African tales deal with animals or people tricking each other which causes lots of laughter in this house.  We still have some fun things to do while learning about the animals and habitat.  Monday we begin our safari!

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• Jan. 13, 2009
Learning about Abuse and Prevention

This week for "together school" we are learning all sorts of things about being healthy and safe.  So far we have begun an experiment to grow bacteria (YUCK is what Punkin' said to that idea.) and have had fun setting up an Emergency Room.  Here are pictures of the kids playing E.R.  Sweetie Boy is driving the ambulance and transporting patients.  They got creative and brought in dad's scooter that he uses to work on vehicles.  Punkin' was the nurse and I became Dr. Trosk.  Who knows where that name came from! 

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• Oct. 6, 2008
Totally Lost

The following is today's devotion from Alpha Omega and it hit me right where I am with Sweetie Boy.  I still remember the first time I realized that I was the one who needed to change so he could learn.  It was a simple thing too (for me) and I just couldn't understand why he could not figure it out!  I was explaining it well.  I was showing him how to do it.  But nothing but a complete blank on his face.  This was learning how to write letters and numbers following numbers and arrows.  I finally wised up and turned those outlined numbers and letters into roads he needed to build.  Whoo Hoo!  He had it figured out in seconds!  He understood roads and dead-ends.  So...read the following devotion if you'd like to.  It was a good reminder for me to look at myself.

* * * * * * * * *

"Totally Lost"
Monday / October 06, 2008

Some days, even the best homeschool teacher has trouble communicating a lesson. Whether you're teaching equations in algebra or diagramming sentences in grammar, a change begins to occur in your child when he does not comprehend the information you are covering. You've seen the look-a blank stare, a squint, eyebrows up in the form of a question mark. The body begins to fidget and unintelligible utterances come from his mouth. He doesn't have a clue what you are talking about and is totally lost. What are you going to do?

When I was new to homeschooling, I walked away in frustration or assumed my child was not paying attention. I tried repeating the same information or using a louder voice. With infinite variations, the battle went on until I realized the problem was not with my child; it was with me. I was the teacher, and I had failed to teach. I needed to try again and approach the information from a different angle-a new learning style or additional visual aids.

Thankfully, God doesn't lose His temper or walk away from us when teaching life's lessons. When we begin our fussing routine or get that lost look, He gently wraps His arms around us and takes us back to where we last understood. Lovingly, He leads us to godly counsel from Christian friends or words of wisdom from the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit customizes each particular lesson until we grow "in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).

Do you feel lost today? Let the Lord guide you back to where you should be. "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Jesus, thank You for always knowing where to find me. Without You, I am totally lost in teaching my children. Show our family where we need to be and how to keep our eyes on You. In Your name, Amen.

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• Oct. 2, 2008
Tabernacle Fun & Learning

Our recent "together school" study has been about God's Tabernacle in the wilderness.  We are within a unit based on honor so what an appropriate thing to learn about.  I will share some photos of the models the kids are working on, but the best part of this has been the desire that Punkin' has to read about this event in her Bible and to assist them in putting together the significance of this structure for her life.  Sweetie Boy is just having fun getting messy with gold and bronze paint!

Putting the courtyard walls in place.

And painting the posts silver.

Here the models are with the courtyard walls, brazen altar and basin.

Painting the tabernacle walls gold.

The models with the tabernacle walls and veils/curtains in place.

As promised here is a photo of the inside of the tabernacle.  I had a really hard time getting my camera to take a decent photo of it for some reason so not the greatest, but you can tell what things are.

Tomorrow we will add the coverings of the tabernacle and the following day we will discuss how all of this aligns to be a cross and also make paper doll priests.  Having a hard time leaving this study.  It has been so fun and the kids have learned a lot.  How many 4 year olds do you know that go around talking about the tabernacle?

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• Sep. 12, 2008
One Last Pottery Entry

You're just going to have to bear with me one more time!  The kids had such a great time at a local pottery studio today.  We still have just a little more work to do on this part of our Honor unit before moving to the Tabernacle, but other than picking up their finished products on Tuesday night...the big projects are finished.

Punkin' chose a very cute fairy to paint while Sweetie Boy naturally migrated to the race car.  I was glad he didn't want anything larger as I believe his attention span wouldn't have lasted.  He did great with his patchwork car.  I think he used about 6 or 7 colors on this little 3" car!  LOL  Anyway...enjoy the pictures!

Ready to head inside!

Cleaning off their projects with water.

Starting work on his race car.

Finishing touches on her fairy.

I will have to come back and post the finished products after they have been glazed and fired so the colors really show up.

* * * * * * *

Here are the finished pieces.

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• Sep. 10, 2008
Sculpture and Attributes of God

We are continuing this week with our Honor Unit that covers sculpture, pottery and the attributes of God.  It is supposed to be a 3 week study, but we're going to finish it this week and move onto the next section of the tabernacle.  Can't wait to dig into that one!

Yesterday the kids made "clay dough" using flour, salt and water and then used their imaginations to create.  Today the paint came out.

Sweetie Boy created a caterpillar, cake and a hot dog.  He LOVES hot dogs!

Punkin' had a bracelet, teddy bear, Christmas tree, egg and shape necklaces.

Friday we will head to the pottery studio in town to make something to close off this study.

We finally have several pieces for our paper attribute quilt finished and Punkin' taped it all together and chose the entryway closet door to hang it on.  They've both been enjoying this project.

Today we added a couple more....Holy and Answers Our Prayers.

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• Sep. 4, 2008
Fun With Clay

We have been learning about pottery and sculpture at the same time we are studying the attributes of God.  The kids have been enjoying making things with clay.  Goodness but that stuff is hard to soften!  Next week I plan to take them to a ceramic type place so they can make a piece there for a field trip.  For now...here's a couple of photos of some of their work.

Tomorrow we will bring out the paint and decorate them up a bit.

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• Sep. 2, 2008
School in full swing!

Punkin' officially began her 1st Grade year on Monday and so far her favorite has been Spelling.  Since much of her math and reading is review from the previous year it is moving rather quickly for her so I'm putting a 15 minute time on the math and today she got through 3 days worth of work easily.  I know there will come a point when things will slow down so why not apply something we can do at home that they cannot do at public....keep working to your abilities!

Sweetie Boy is still doing well with his preschool and he has the song "3 in 1" down and goes around the house singing it all day.  It goes like this and is sung to the tune of "Three Blind Mice."  "Three in One.  Three in One. See them working together to make our world great.  Three in One."  He then yells out while counting on his fingers...God, Jesus and Holy Pirit!  (Yes...typo is in place for accuracy.  LOL)

We also began our "together school" (KONOS) today.  The unit I chose to begin with is Honor.  For at least 2 weeks we will be studying the attributes of God and sculpture/pottery.  Today it was mostly the attributes.  We will be building a paper quilt featuring their own interpretations of the different attributes they name.  Should be a fun project that we build on each day.  I promise to share photos when we have more to show you.  I will share though that Sweetie Boy chose...drum roll please...3 in 1.  Big surprise!  Now, close your eyes and imagine this for the drawing.  4 sets of eyeballs and some squiggly lines.  That's it.  Can you see them?  He will point to each set and say "God, Jesus, Holy Pirit and Isaac."  I asked him why he added himself and he said, "Holy Pirit lives inside me."  WOW!  He's paying attention!!  Punkin' chose shepherd for her attribute and she drew a picture of herself inside a circle.  There is a smiling face on her dress.  She said the circle was Jesus all wrapped around her, guiding her.  The face is because He is happy and loves her. "  Can't argue with that either!  I'm really looking forward to what they come up with tomorrow!

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• Aug. 18, 2008
School Has Begun!

The first day of school for Sweetie Boy was today.  We are using the preschool material provided by Horizons (Alpha Omega) and it is very thorough.  I couldn't believe it took us almost 90 minutes to cover everything!  They have it written so actual preschools could use the curriculum for 1/2 and full day school so it makes sense.  Anyway, Sweetie Boy actually was excited about starting, paid attention (a big thing for him these days) and worked diligently on his assignments.  He even remembered the song he learned about Daddy to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle.  I really like how there are Bible lessons, character traits and then the basic school stuff of math, etc.

Punkin' won't begin her 1st grade work until the first week of September IF it can be held off that long.  She just couldn't hardly take that her brother was "having fun and I'm not."  LOL  I had her washing the banister (which she actually enjoyed) and that didn't take as long as I had hoped it would to "entertain" her and then she came down to see what was going on.  When I told her to leave as she was distracting her brother she broke down in tears.   I still sent her out.  After school time was over I spent time with her cleaning out the lazy susan cabinet in the kitchen.  That seemed to help her depressed state.  We managed to break the lazy susan though...the fitting came loose so will have to unload it again to take it out and fix it tonight.  She thought that was pretty funny.

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• Aug. 2, 2008
Summer Olympics - Day 3

We discussed the different events that are played in the Summer Olympics.  They then played a game of "Memory" using the symbols created for the China games.  I had printed them out and then put them on index card halfs with rubber cement. 

Next we looked up the medals on the internet.  Very beautiful ones have been designed for these games!  Then they created their own.

After that we headed outside for some fun and games of our own.  We did the shotput, frisbee throw, soccer, baseball, ran dashes and relays and added some water games.  We ended the festivities with a water ball fight!

Here are the lapbooks so far.

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• Jul. 31, 2008
Summer Olympics - Day 2

Our fun continues!  Today we discussed the Olympic flag, rings, motto and song.  They each colored a picture of the flag to use in the lapbooks, but the fun really started happening when we pulled out the biscuit dough, butter and colored sugar!  We made donuts!

While the donuts were baking they painted their version of the Olympic flag.  At least Punkin' got the rings on in color order.  Sweetie boy just did what he wanted.  I did notice when he was finished that there were two yellow rings though.

Tomorrow we will be learning about the different sporting events and actually holding a few of our own competitions.  To begin this segment we actually started early by going to the public pool this afternoon for our swimming competition.  Punkin' won the farthest jump off the edge and leg splashing contests.  Sweetie boy won the "I'm done" contest.  He was tired and cold.

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• Jul. 30, 2008
Summer Olympics

We officially began our summer Olympics study today and the kids had so much fun.  We talked briefly about how the games came into being and what they are like now.  Then we talked about the torch relay and how it is used during the games.  Punkin' was very happy to know she will be staying up late for Opening Ceremonies to see the torch come in and how they light the "big fire."  We then made our own torches out of construction paper and tissue paper.  They have had a blast with those simple things!  Punkin' sat with me at the table for about 30 minutes while we mapped out the torch relay across the world.  That was really neat to see on paper.

Here's the beginning to their lapbooks.

   And here are their torches.

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• May. 16, 2008
One Thing I Love About Homeschooling

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• May. 2, 2008
School Photos & Reptiles

Today we had school photos taken at Friday School.  It is always fun to see all the kids in one place as you just forget how many people are involved in our weekly group.

After the group photo was accomplished we broke for lunch and then enjoyed a presentation by "The Reptile Guy."  He is only 19 years old but has actually been on television shows such as The Tonight Show.  This was a great supplement to go with the Wildlife Refuge class that the K-6 graders have been participating in this semester.

Overall, a fun day at Friday School!

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