Knights and Fair Maiden Academy

Gosh it has been awhile......

6:32 PM, Dec. 1, 2006 .. 1 comments .. Link

We have had a difficult time getting into the swing of school this year. Some days go smoothly, others don't.

We did however go to Va for 10 days to visit a friend of mine. That was fun and much needed. Then we stopped for 2 days in Pa to see another friend in Lancaster, PA. So we saw lots of Amish horse and buggies as well as a brief stop in Valley Forge. That was really cool to see. We plan on going back to Va next year sometime in between my college semesters. Oh I forgot to mention that I'm returning back to school while homeschooling my little ones.

It will be hectic to do but I'm only taking 2 classes in Jan. all in the afternoon so we will do the bulk of our schooling in the morning and finish whatever we need to in the evening.

I'm pretty excited now that the fear has worn off. Well gotta go. I need to plan next weeeks lessons.

Yesterday's hike

1:18 PM, Sep. 28, 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

We went on a short hike it was only .5 miles. But there were different trees there that we collected leaves from. We saw a blue heron; that was very cool to see. He/she just stood very still while we watched. Then a bit later on we were looking towards the edge of the pond and saw three toads or frogs jump into the water. Noah and Adrien saw the eyes of one afterwards in the water. We kept looking for more but didn't find any. While we were walking I saw orange flowers and stopped to look at them. We found a white caterpillar like the one on our first hike that we took this year. We also saw a bunch of holes in the leaves that he/she had eaten. Yesterday was a beautiful day for a autumn hike. Every hike has it's own personality.

Butterfly lessons

5:52 PM, Sep. 8, 2006 .. 1 comments .. Link

oday, we went on a nature hike. We stopped into the nature center to get our free walking works kit for Tommy and I along with our hiking sticks for $2.00 each. There was a female naturalist just coming outside as we got there. I asked her what she was looking for and sure enough she was there to count butterflies, *this had popped in my head before I asked her*.

She was ever so sweet she caught a butterfly for me to take a picture of but it was a he and he was very scared. So she let him go and then caught another one for us to see up close. This one was also a male, but much more friendly. She showed us how to tell the male from the female butterflies. How they tag them and track them. Oh yes, she let Adrien hold him for a second and release him back up in the air. That was very cool. Noah woulnd't do it though even when offered. She also told the boys how to tell a male bumblebee from a female. Then we went inside and checked it out. It was just beautiful. So many things to see. The theme was the time frame of the reservation. They had a picture of the Underground Railroad along with a set of actual shackles. *I liked seeing them but hated the fact that they were used*

Then we went on our walk. It was a great day for one as it is warm and sunny. I'm hoping that the rain will hold off until tomorrow afternoon so that we can go on another one. 3 walks down 13 to go.

Nature Walks Year 2

5:58 PM, Sep. 2, 2006 .. 1 comments .. Link

Last year if you remember we went on nature hikes and then the boys got a walking stick and a shield. We did them in summit county
Well this year our county is also doing something similar to them. Cuyahoga County

We are so excited because we had such a great time last year on our hikes. We got lots of exercise, family bonding and nature studies in. We will be hiking away our fall this year. We will do at least 16 hikes from sept- nov 30. 8 of them in summit county and then 8 in cuyahoga. We hope to do 2 a week and we may do more than just the required 8 walks for each county. I will be posting lots of pictures for you to see. I hope I lose a few pounds with all this walking though. 5 # would be nice; 10# would be terrific

Better week here

7:30 PM, Aug. 28, 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

Well, this week is off to a much better start. We did church yesterday and we have finished our reading books for the summer reading club at church. Today Noah did his work without having a meltdown, *such a relief* Tonight he is looking at the book Jolly Pocket Postman. I printed out some dinosaur pictures for him to color. I'm still waiting for the Big Book of Books to come in from the library.

Now I just need to integrate Adrien into school better. Caedmon aka the classroom bully *he is 14 months old now* is running a slight fever and very clingy today. I'm not sure if we will get to reading 'Red Sails to Capri' tonight, we are on chapter 6.

If school goes smoothly and the baby is feeling better I might take the kids to the rainforest, if not maybe my husband will take the older 3 while I stay home with the little one. I hope he is better by thursday, I want to go to the beach.

First week was a bust

8:02 PM, Aug. 21, 2006 .. 3 comments .. Link

Last week was so hard on both the boys and myself, we only did part of the work. So this week we are getting more serious about our schooling and it is taking a priority.

Noah seems to have a harder time focusing with Adrien at the table . Adrien tlaks while he works and he works so slow. I thiught at times that Noah was a bit slow, Ha, not compared to Adrien.

Adrien just doesn't seem ready to learn in a structured environment yet. But he is oging to have to do a bit of it for now. I just do'nt have the time to change his curriculum right now. We use sonlight for him, so much of his work is read to him. But his phonics and math are sticking points at the moment. Even so they aren't very in depth or even too hard for him. He just seems to poke around too much.

I hope that he gets with the program soon and settles down. Camryn is listening in and learning her phonics sounds with Adrien. So I hope that next year she will do fine without so much work to teach her to read.

We will have no school tomorrow, I have a MOPS meeting and the boys were invited to a birthday party. So they will have to double up on weds and thurs. to make up for it. Or they will be doing work on saturday.

I hope our lives slow down a bit soon so that I can get us into a rhythem of homeschooling again.

The boys did well with their swim lessons this year. Adrien passed levels 1,2 and 3 the first time through. Noah passed level 4 after 2 tries which is still good. He took one session of level 5 and did fairly well but will need to repeat it sometime in the school year when I have the money.

Well, I have to round up Noah, I want to read his chapter of 'Red Sails to Capri' it is very good, but a bit long in the chapters.

More Homeschool Planning

9:46 PM, Jul. 24, 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

Today I spent much of the day working on scheduling and researching latin, fun things to add in, etc etc.

I gave Adrien a pretest on which lowercase alphabets he knew. He only knew 13, but we really haven't spent that much time with him on that.

I wrote up a tentative daily schedule. A weekly schedule. Found a great history picture of Noah's history divider for his portfolio. Printed out some pages that I'm trying to decide if I need to make a planner for Noah.

Then while Tommy ate dinner (I was too hot to eat and the kids except for Noah were sleeping, so we used this time to talk without interuptions ) I showed him how I pick the kids curriculum, then how I plan out the lessons, schedules, how many days of school/vacations. He was very overwhelmed when I got done. I didn't mean to do that but wanted to show him how I do things so that if/when someone asks he is knowledgable. I felt as if I had come across as a know it all but that was not my intent just to inform him. Thank God he understood what I was trying to show him. Poor man, I don't think he realized just how much work I put into just getting ready for everyyear.

So now I feel a bit more prepared for school to start on Aug. 14th.

Session 2 of swim lessons

8:05 PM, Jul. 22, 2006 .. 2 comments .. Link

So Adrien passed level 2 the first time through.

Noah passed level 4 the second time through

The boys were just so excited. I have a friend who teaches swimming in a different city and she said that level 4 is very hard and it was great that he passed it in 2 sessions.

So next week we will be signing them up for levels 3 & 5.

They will be going to VBS next week also from 9-12pm.

I'm hoping to get the moeny to take swim lessons for me and the kids during the year at some point and time.

34 days and counting

8:31 AM, Jul. 11, 2006 .. 1 comments .. Link

I wrote on the dry erase board how many days until school started for the kids. The groaned and then decided to fill up their remaining summer with lots of fun.

We are in our second session of swim lessons here. In fact we will be busy every day until school starts with either swim lessons or VBS back to swim lessons.

I'm tired just thinking about it.

I asked Noah if he had been having fun this summer? and his reply was "yes" So hopefully he will be ready to work hard when we start back.

I have been gathering school supplies for them. Noah wants a backpack to take on our nature hikes, to hold his sketch pad, colored pencils and a bottle of water. So I'm trying to find a good one but also a cheap one.

Nature Hike

10:10 PM, Jul. 1, 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

these were taken at Brandywine Falls

and yes I took the photos. Had a great time. More later.

Swim Lessons ~session 1 is over !!!!

4:22 PM, Jun. 30, 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

Adrien finished level 1 today and passed it. While Noah had been moved up to Level 4 after 2 days in level 3. He needs to repeat level 4 since he needs more practice with side stroke and breaststroke. But that is okay with me since I knew that level 4 was quite a bit tougher than 3 anyway.

Tomorrow will be a fun day for both of the boys. We have a week off next week and then session 2 starts m-f for 2 weeks. The nice tings is that both boys have made new friends, a brother and sister. They all play together in between lessons and we are having a cook out next saturday the 8th.

Field Trip

6:00 PM, Jun. 22, 2006 .. 1 comments .. Link

We decided that since it was still sunny and not raining yet we would take the kids to the park. Well we hadn't been to Clague Park for awhile so we decided to go there. But we had forgot that there was a detour in place. Tommy saw a sign for a nature center and we decided to check it out. We found it and had a great time. The kids saw lots of new things, put together a big puzzle of bugs and then we took a short trail walk. Yes it was fun indeed. Afterwards we tried to find another trail but couldn't so we went to the park we started out for originally. We stopped at McD's for fries because by then we were so tired and hungry. Tried once again to find that other trail park but couldn't. We came home and the boys are tired and ready for a nice quiet evening. Tommy will be able to sleep tonight since the kids will be too tired to be noisy.

We might try another nature reservation on saturday or sunday depending on the weather. So we are already working on our field trips for the new school year.

Swim Lessons

8:09 PM, Jun. 20, 2006 .. 1 comments .. Link

The boys started swim lessons yeaterday. This is Noah's second summer of lessons and Adrien's first. Here we are at day 2 and we were told that Noah needs to move up to the next level. So tomorrow he will move into level 4.

Adrien had a rough day yesterday. He is very well behaved but sometimes can't seem to handle classroom type things. He was crying at the fence where I was sitting a few feet away. I got up and talked to him and made him go back with the lifeguard, 3 minutes later he was back. I talked to him again and then told the lifeguard to just take his hand and lead him back. He stayed that time and did really well today.
Hopefully the lessons will continue to go well for him. I see a change in him already for the better.

Planning for Fall

8:44 AM, Jun. 17, 2006 .. 1 comments .. Link

I did spend some time on weds. night planning for the next year. I have decided that Tommy needs to be a bit more active in our homeschooling. So with that thought in mind, I planned out 4 history projects and 4 science projects~ topic, due date and a few suggestions ie: lapbook, poster, diorama, Whatever they like. I'm hoping to do the same with Adrien and Camryn this year also. The trick is too not have the projects fall too close together to Noah's.

I have mapped out what subjects for what days, changed SL's schedule for CHOW to SOW. I still need to decide if I'm adding in visual perceptual skills or not. I think it may help Noah with his dyslexia to have the added practice.

I still need to work on Adrien and Camryn's work. I'm combining them for history, science, read alouds and phonics and a bit of math this year I think. The only difference is I won't have Cami do any workbooks just yet. But the more I combine them the easier it will be to school with SL and 4 kids.

I need to touch bass with Pastor Doug and see if they have found a children's choir director as ours is leaving in a couple of weeks. Or else I need to add in something for music

Swamped as usual

8:21 PM, May. 30, 2006 .. 1 comments .. Link

Let's see where did I leave off? Hmmm, dont even remember. It has been a rough couple of months here. Marital issues, enough said about that I think. No we aren't getting a divorce but we are working out a few problems.

So school has been on the back burner while husband and I deal with things. We have been to the zoo a few times, the library, the park. We visited a new nature center and took a nature hike. That was lots of fun, the kids loved looking at all the things in the center and built a floor size bug puzzle.

We also visited 3x with a friend of mine that I met online who was in the area to sell her grandfather's house. We took 2 nature walks with them and then visited their house. It was so interesting for us to see.

We also saw the tacher who evaulates our portfolio. Noah did great and she was very pleased with the amount of work we had accomplished. I told her we were taking off the summer as of June 06 no matter what was done or undone. She smiled and was very happy to hear that we did know how to relax. She knows how much Sonlight packs into a year and how much I add in addtion to Sonlight. So we have been taking it easy this week. I will have Noah do a page of math and read everyday to me, along with me finishing up the read alouds that we have. But all in all it will be a very light summer for us.

We signed the boys up for swimming lessons. An hour a day for two weeks, M-F. There are 3 sessions and we will do all 3 of them. But they love to swim and be in the water and it is the cheapest sport that we have here right now.
Noah did read in one sitting a reader that came with his Veritas
Press Phonics Musuem. I was very proud of him. It is still a struggle with new phonics rules but he is getting it.

Well that's all for now, gotta go swelter some more. Boy is it hot here.

Easter Break

9:28 AM, Apr. 17, 2006 .. 4 comments .. Link

We are taking this week off from school. I am however considering having Noah do some Math and reading in spite of the break. I'm undecided though, he has been really tired and dragging through his work. Perhaps a week off will give him the break he needs to rejuvenate him and then we can get a move on for the rest of the year. I'm really pushing to get done by June 05 this year so we can take a break for 8 weeks while we do fun stuff like swimming lessons and walks. Growing herbs or maybe tomatoes on the balcony. I would like to do some science experiments this summer, we kind of blew them off this year. Yep maybe I will just have him do some reading this week and leave the rest.

Back in the saddle again.....

8:43 PM, Apr. 10, 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

So today we are back into our school routine. Which was much needed let me tell you. I still think we might be done with everything except spelling by the first week of June. Kind of a nice feeling for me to know that we can take a break without being behind. A few more weeks of hard work and it will all pay off. I'm so hoping that this coming year we aren't sick or having any major issues so that we can stay caught up with school. I really dislike doubling up on lessons. It stresses me and the kids out. It only took us two hours to do everything today and that was nice. We also snuck in a trip to the park for an hour. Had to run a few errands today also. Tomorrow is storytime for the little ones. But Noah loves to go to the library so that is fine. If it is nice I will take them over to the park afterwards.

another off day~sort of.

12:09 PM, Apr. 6, 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

Yesterday was spent driving to see my chiropractor for adjustments for myself and my Noah and the baby. He lives 90 minutes away which is really about 75 miles one way. But while we were out that way. We met a friend of mine that I had met on the internet. So her teens and my little ones and us adults went on a nature walk and talked. Then we went to the playground to let the kids run off their steam. They had a blast, the bigger boys and gilrs chasing the little ones. I don't know who had more fun, the littles or the teens. I'm sure that all slept well last night though. It was a beautiful day in spite of starting out gloomy. Now to get some work done. The boys are still a bit draggy and are off to the library, post office and to get haricuts for easter.

Games

12:52 PM, Apr. 3, 2006 .. 0 comments .. Link

Since Toys R Us had Candyland, Chutes and Ladders and High Ho Cheery O on sale for $5. a piece and I had a coupon for a $1. off. So the boys are playing Candyland with Camryn. It is so nice to see them playing all together. Even though Noah is a bit old for Candyland he is haivng a blast. We will have to do a bit of school later but for now they can play.

Played hookie

8:38 AM, Mar. 31, 2006 .. 1 comments .. Link

We went to the zoo yesterday for a few hours. It was so beautiful outside, sunny warm just a gorgeous spring day. I showed the boys a school of fish in one of the aquarium tanks that had quite a few different fish in it. There was this one kind that just kept swimming in a school of about 5 or 6. They would meet up with others like them and then split only to meet up again a few seconds later. It was very cool to watch. Of course they saw the clown fish. They liked the shark tank the best I think though. Then last night we had choir practice. It was long since they have so much new music for the Easter season. Today we have a bit of school and a intro to karate lesson~ more of a gym lesson with a bit of karate in it, But Noah likes it and it is affordable. He will be able to play with my friends boys and that is good.

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