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I am happy to report that I was chosen as one of the 100 reviewers needed by The Old Schoolhouse for their special focus group! We are being called The Homeschool Crew, and you can read the blog devoted to our project at The Crew Blog. It contains a list of the vendors that have signed up (so far!) to offer their products for review. I'm excited about getting started and can't wait to share my reviews with you all. On another note, I'd like to invite everyone to visit my new blog over at my new Fenced in Family web site. My husband and I are trying to start a small family-based homeschool business. We don't have anything for sale yet since we're just getting started, but we plan to offer craft materials, e-book format lesson plans on certain "elective" subjects, and more. I have lots of ideas that God has given me, and I'm looking forward to sharing them with my fellow homeschoolers. I've posted on the new blog about a variety of things. I'd especially like for you to read the entry titled To The Edge of the Universe and ask that you please leave a comment if you have any thoughts on the subject. I'd love to hear what your children think too! |
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It's amazing how school goes around here. I feel like I'm constantly making schedules, tweaking schedules, and making lesson plans. Just when I think I've got everything working well, something happens to change or interrupt. I think it's God keeping me humble. Last week, my two older boys spent the week with my parents, so of course we had no school. I had everything ready to get back into the swing of things when they came home. We started yesterday morning with Bible and then math, and things went very well. Just after math, we heard "honk honk" from the driveway. A good friend had brought her children over for a visit unexpectedly. We hadn't had a visit from them in probably three months, so we were all very happy. While they were here, Nicholas (who had a cold) went to bed and fell asleep. He slept for two hours, waking up just a few minutes after our friends left. He had a fever then, so I couldn't possibly make him do any work. Today, we have an appointment this afternoon, I had to sit on hold with the phone company for quite a while this morning (our phone service has been static-only since Saturday! I called them from the cell phone, which gets horrible single here at the house), and all three kids still have colds! So I don't see much point in trying to do any school work. Nicholas did ask some Bible questions this morning that I intend to answer, so at least we'll cover the most important subject. It just seems funny to me sometimes how all my visions and plans never come to pass. It reminds me to put my faith in Him and not in the plans of my own mind. |
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Have you heard of the Erskine family? They operate the web sites for Homeschool Radio Shows and Homeschool Freebie of the Day. Our family has been listening to the radio programs they provide (for free!) for over a year now, and we have all learned to love them. I'll admit, at first it was difficult to get everyone to sit down and listen to them, but now the kids ask for one almost every day. Their favorite recently was on Lewis & Clark. My all time favorite wasn't a program exactly, but a song–The Little Red Caboose (chug chug chug!) Even the baby likes that one. The Freebies they give away each weekday are wonderful for any homeschool family. Mostly they are Ebooks but occasionally you can get an audio program. Recently I downloaded an ebook on cutting hair that was published in the 1950s. I've been cutting the family hair (well, not my own!) for several years now but have never felt like I do a good job. The ebook gave me quite a few tips and ideas to get a better look and showed me how to cut based on an individual's unique shape. Some of the freebies are pure fun, like the ebook The Secrets of Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies, while others are educational and cover topics from astronomy to history to sewing and quiltmaking. Each freebie is available for only one day, so you have to be quick. I had a terrible time remembering to go to the site each day (even with the wonderful Head's Up reminder that the Erskines send out each Monday). I finally hit on the idea of making the Homeschool Freebie of the Day page my browser's homepage. Now it loads each time I open my browser, and I never forget to download the freebie! |
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Well, it's an interesting morning. The two older boys left with my parents yesterday and will be spending a week with them. (They live about two hours away.) Jon's at work, so it's just me and Robert this morning. Things are quieter than usual, and I'm seeing a lovely lack of books and toys on the couches. The last time they went to spend a week with Mama and Papa was December last year. They left the evening after we had Nicholas' seventh birthday party, and I was 7 1/2 months pregnant with Robert. I went to bed and cried after they drove off. I knew they'd be fine, of course, but I missed them so much already. It was the first time either of them had gone to spend the night with someone in two years. (We had done a lot of moving, so there hadn't been enough stability to be doing things like that.) Everyone kept telling me to enjoy the quiet and enjoy being alone, but it was simply too quiet in this house! On that Monday with Jon at work and the boys gone, I didn't know what to do with myself. I dug out old home video tapes from when James was about a year old and Nicholas was four. They were so cute and sweet! Of course the next day, Tuesday, Jon took off work early to go with me to an OB appointment. That's when they admitted me to the hospital because of extremely high blood pressure and I didn't get to leave again for a week. Robert was born that Friday. I promised Nicholas I wouldn't have a baby while he was gone this time! This week, I actually have some plans for filling the week. Now that I'm doing freelance writing, I've got a couple projects I can work on while they're gone. I'm also planning to complete our Konos lesson plans for the rest of the fall and maybe even start on the spring ones. I'm going to try to finish up the Bible Institute course that I've been working on since July. I won't be getting bored this week. Years ago, when James was about nine or ten months, Nicholas spent a week with Mama and Papa and James stayed home. He would climb up on our couch and look at Nicholas' picture hanging on the wall. He'd just stare and then look at me questioningly. It was so cute that he knew Nicholas was gone and wondered why. I'm curious to see how Robert acts as the week goes on. I'm sure he'll enjoy the extra attention anyway. |
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As you know from reading my blog, I have three wonderful sons. Nicholas is now 7 3/4, James is 4 1/2, and Robert is nine months. When I was pregnant with Nicholas, a lady I knew told me about the book by Sheila Kippley Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing. I loved the book and I find it fascinating that God has provided a means of conception-suppression when babies are young. I began to learn that birth control pills (which I had taken for a year before becoming pregnant with Nicholas) don't prevent conception, they just prevent the completion of a pregnancy. My husband and I decided that I wouldn't take birth control pills any more. We took a Natural Family Planning course from Couple to Couple League, which is a Catholic organization that teaches couples how to monitor the wife's fertility in order to space children without tying God's hands through sterilization or chemical means of birth control. (We're not Catholic but appreciate the information we received from CCL.) I became pregnant a second time when Nicholas was almost two but miscarried at about seven weeks. It took us another nine months to get pregnant again (and we were really trying!). James arrived when Nicholas was 3 1/2 years old. He was a difficult, fussy, high-need baby and I decided I never wanted another baby. Though we chose not to do anything permanent, we used barrier methods of birth control for three years. Right after James turned three, I thought one day, "I'd like another baby." I was convinced it just had to be a girl the third time around! Of course, Jon said, "Okay!" About a week and a half later, we were having some money problems and I told him it probably wasn't a good time to get pregnant and that I wasn't sure that I wanted another one anyway. God had His way though....it was too late, I was already pregnant! Robert arrived when Nicholas was seven and James was 3 1/2. In all three pregnancies, I developed pre-eclampsia which became worse each time. Because of it, Robert was born six weeks early, weighed less than four and a half pounds, and had to be fed by syringe for over a week before he figured out how to nurse. His weight gain was very slow, and he only weighed seven pounds at three months old. Around 4 1/2 months, he started gaining well and now weighs a healthy 16 pounds. What I'm getting at is that I question this "family unplanning" thing. I believe that God wants us to prayerfully make each decision in life, including whether to have another child and when. Given my history of pre-eclampsia and also given the fact that our financial situation is not great, I wonder if the "no birth control/planning at all" way of life is the right choice for us. I would love to have more children and still hold a glimmer of a dream that I could someday have a daughter. There is definitely room in my heart and life for more children. My primary hesitation is my health with finances being secondary. Quiverfull Family Blog is holding a contest to give away five copies of Craig Houghton's book Family UNplanning. I decided to enter the contest anbd give the outcome to God. If He wants me to read this information and lead my life a certain way, I'll get the book. If not, I believe that, too, is a message from Him. I'm thankful for the path He's put me on. |
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This isn't homeschool related, but I wanted to share a link for an apron giveaway on a friend's blog. Go to Sallie's Seaside Tales Blog for a chance to win either a Regency Apron or an Amish Apron Pattern from Amelia's Aprons. Growing up, my mom never wore an apron, but my grandmother always did. Every time she cooked, she'd tie on her apron. She kept them in a drawer, and her sister (who lived right next door) also had a drawer-full of aprons. They were the 1950s style "half" aprons that went from the waist to around knee-length. My cousin (whose grandmother was my grandmother's sister) and I would dig out those aprons and have the best time wearing them and playing restaurant or house or anything else we could think of. My favorite was a green one, and my cousin's favorite was an orange one made from a sheer, gauzy material. Not sure that one had much practical-use! When my cousin's grandmother passed away, we couldn't find any of the aprons. When my grandmother passed away, I could only find one blue one. I still have the blue one, but I've often wondered what happened to any of the others. I actually prefer a full length apron, though–with a bodice and a long skirt portion. I think it looks nicer. Check out that Edwardian apron on Amelia's Apron–absolutely beautiful! |
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We officially started our new school year on Monday, and things are going quite well. Because of all the time we took off last winter when Robert was born, we didn't have a real summer break this year. We continued with lessons about three days a week on a very loose, minimal schedule. Last week, I decided we'd start back with a full schedule on August 18. No more fiddling! The Old Schoolhouse Planner has been invaluable in getting my year started. I scheduled our school days using their Weekly Planner 2 page and scheduled our household cleaning tasks (some of them) using their Family Chore Chart page. I'm not a neat housekeeper by nature, I NEED some kind of schedule (prominently posted) to keep me on track. I've been off track for a long time, and the Family Chore Chart has finally gotten me back on the right path. Since I printed it out, I've cleaned both bathrooms (in the last week, it's a miracle!), the kitchen floor has been swept every day except Sunday, and I even mopped the kitchen and one bathroom. That may seem like another day at the office for many of you, but it's a big deal for me. I'm going to share my daily/weekly school schedule in another post. Having this prominently posted has made our school days go very smoothly. We all know what's coming up next, when we'll get breaks, etc. Yes that's a shameless plug for the TOS Planner....I love it! And no I don't work for them... To ease back into our school year, I bought an audio unit study on time from Homeschool Radio Shows. I've been getting the weekly free program from HRS for over a year, but in the last few months, I've begun to love them more and more. We listened to a very good program on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which had my kids sitting on the edge of their seats. When I saw that HRS was releasing a time unit study, I thought it sounded fascinating. How DID worldwide standard time come about anyway? I wanted the unit study for my own education as much as for the boys. We're nearly finished now with the main part of the study and have enjoyed working on the lap book and listening to the stories. There are several additional stories that we can listen to next week as well. After that, we're going to begin the Konos unit on Stewardship....which includes a section on time! Though I knew we'd be working on Stewardship this fall (I made our "lifetime schedule" way back in 2005), I did not realize that it contained a section on time. So buying the Homeschool Radio Shows time unit just when we're about to begin the Konos Stewardship unit was a complete coincidence (undoubtedly orchestrated by God). Another interesting thing God did regarding time studies.... I recently received a copy of the spring issue of TOS which I hadn't seen before because my subscription had lapsed. In that issue, which I just received Tuesday, there is a wonderful article called The Science of Time and Sir Sandford Fleming. Sir Fleming is the man who had the idea to place the entire world on standard time in 24 one-hour blocks. It had never occurred to me before beginning this unit study to wonder how exactly the whole world agreed on time. From the TOS article, I learned that India and the middle portion of Australia are not on standard time. They are a half hour off from the rest of the world! Can you imagine? I think it seems especially strange in the case of Australia. When it is 5:00 in eastern Australia (Sydney) and 3:00 in western Australia (Perth), it's 4:30 in the middle of Australia. Very weird! One more note on time zones: The entire country of China is on ONE time zone. I tried to figure it out, and I think that if the sun rises at 6am in Beijing, which is where I assume they base the "proper" time from, it doesn't rise until 9am in the far western part of the country. If it sets at 8pm in Beijing (in summer), it wouldn't set until 11pm or later in the western portion. We're leaving this evening to go on a trip for the weekend. We'll be going to Dayton, Ohio, hometown of the Wright Brothers, to visit the Air Museum at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base. We studied the Wright Brothers and flight in general as part of the Trust unit in Konos this summer. We're also going to spend a couple days in Jeffersonville, Indiana (just across the river from Louisville, KY) to attend a special birthday celebration for the pastor of our church headquarters there. Her name is Rev. B.R. Hicks, and she will be 90 years old a week from today! She still preaches at least one service a week and is a wonderful servant of God, a beautiful example of Jesus on earth. While there we'll go to the Louisville Zoo (our two youngest boys have never been to a zoo), to the Louisville Slugger Museum, and to the Falls of the Ohio. It'll be our first vacation in two years, and we're all very excited! |
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The Old Schoolhouse has gone digital! About a month and a half ago, I discovered that TOS is now available in a digital format, completely integrated into the internet but viewable even when you're not online. Unlike other digital versions of print magazines, TOS Digital retains all of its gorgeous graphics and maintains the feel of its print edition. It is easy to browse page by page or you can easily jump to whatever page you want. One fantastic feature of the digital version is that if you're looking at the table of contents and see an article you'd like to read, you can simply click on its title and be taken directly to that page. You can't do that in the print edition! All web site links, in articles and in advertisements, are "clickable" the same way. This makes it super easy to go to a web site that interests you. Perhaps the best feature of TOS Digital is its price. You'll save about $10 off the print edition, which is excellent for all of us budget-conscious homeschoolers! |
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The 2008 West Virginia State Fair is just around the corner. This is a nine-day event held every year near the city of Lewisburg, WV. There are basically three sections to the Fair: The competitions, the races, and the carnival. Competitions are held in virtually every category, from livestock of all types to biggest ear of corn, from needle crafts to cakes and pies. You can view entries from all over the state in each category. Beautiful quilts, elegant hand-knitted shawls, intricate cross stitch samplers can be found in the home crafts building. All manner of vegetables, fruits, and grains are located in the garden building, which is air conditioned! Last year, my family especially enjoyed the animal exhibitions. We saw sheep, cows, goats, pigs, rabbits and horses of every type. Some of those rabbits looked like they'd stuck their little claws in an electrical socket! (This year I'll remember to take my camera.) We saw a team of eight draft horses hitched to a very tall carriage. It was a beautiful sight with the strong, regal horses pawing the ground and shaking their massive heads, manes flying and bells and harnesses jingling. We could almost feel their power coming through the ground. We also had the opportunity to watch a miniature pony race in which women dressed in fancy dresses and hats reminiscent of the Kentucky Derby drove tiny carts hitched behind their ponies. The contrast between the elegantly dressed ladies and the tiny carts with tiny ponies was quite comical! Each year, visitors to the WV State Fair have a chance to see a cow give birth at the Mooternity. We waited for a while last year but weren't there at the right time....maybe this year! Exhibitors not only show off their animals, produce, and handcrafted items, they also demonstrate their crafts. I enjoyed watching a woman spin wool into yarn on a spinning wheel and on a drop spindle. She was so kind to show both and explain how they work. I was carried back in time! Can't wait to go again in just a few short weeks...! |
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Sometimes I stop and think, "What do I want for my children? What do I want them, when they are adults, to remember about their childhood?" I want them to remember a mother who was a constant support in their lives. I want them to remember afternoons spent playing together, reading books, singing songs–evenings with the whole family in the yard playing soccer or basketball or baseball. I want them to remember a mom who devoted all of her energies to making a happy home for them–a mom who cooked dinner, baked cookies, and answered every question they ever asked. I want them to remember being loved. We were reading a biography of the Wright Brothers today, and the first chapter talks about their mother, Susan Wright. The book says that Mrs. Wright always valued the ideas of her children and never talked to them as if they were babies. When Wilbur was 11 and told his mother he might build a flying machine someday, Mrs. Wright didn't laugh of scoff or discount his idea. She just said, "Maybe you will." The exchange made me wonder if I always treat my boys with respect and show respect toward their ideas and opinions. I think I do, but I've been inspired to try even harder. Truly children, even ones as young as mine, have valuable ideas. I want to endeavor to show them the same respect that I show my adult friends. Maybe someday my boys will do something great and wonderful just like Mrs. Wright's boys did. |
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Traveling home on Interstate 77 Sunday evening, the landscape was changed from its normal green trees, blue sky, and gray concrete. What I saw was breathtaking, something I have only seen a blessed few times in my life. What I saw has worked its way into my mind and clung to my imagination, just as the clouds themselves clung to the branches on the trees. Here is my fanciful description of it... The sky does not end today. The clouds have come to sleep upon the mountains. The whites and grays, lights and darks are stretching lazily in the crevices of the green mountains. Gauzy white masses float down upon the treetops. The trees think they have found a blanket, but the clouds have found a bed. Some wayward white wisps have drifted beneath the bridge, to hide under its yawning steel expanse and laugh at how far they have drifted from their usual home high above the trees, above the birds, above the far reach of man's imagination. |
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As you'll notice, I haven't posted to my blog in about four months. So much has happened in that time. Around the middle of May, I found out we're expecting a new baby. I sat down one morning to have school with the boys, and I thought "Hmm, I don't feel very good." It was a familiar and unpleasant feeling, and I went straight to the bathroom to use the pregnancy test I'd been keeping in the cabinet. (We'd been trying for another baby...) It was positive, and school was postponed for the day. As the days went by, I became sicker and sicker and ended up spending more than a month in bed. I was very sick with my first pregnancy, but this one has been worse. I won't go into everything. Then in June, a bad situation arose in regards to our rental house. I won't go into that either, but suffice it to say that God used a very bad and painful situation to enable us to move into a much nicer house. We moved in the middle of July. We love our new little house and it's in a much nicer neighborhood with a fenced back yard for the boys to play in. In August, we had an ultrasound and found that God is sending us another little boy! We've decided to name him Robert Joseph. We had an awful time coming up with a name. Every name I said, Jon didn't like; and every name Jon said, I didn't like. Finally one of us said, "How about Robert?" and the other said, "That sounds good." And we both said, "Okay, that's it! No more discussion, Robert it is!" We had trouble with a middle name too. We liked certain things but nothing really felt right. One day last week, I was hanging up some clothes and thought, "I need to think about a middle name. How about Robert Joseph? Well, that sounds pretty good, I'll tell Jon later." Being pregnant, I promptly forgot about it. That evening, Jon said, "Hey I came up with a middle name today. How do you like Robert Joseph?" I laughed and told him I had thought the same name that day. So we decided Robert Joseph it should be. It's funny coming up with a name for a child. With our first born, Jon loved the name Nicholas and almost insisted that we'd have to name him Nicholas. At first, I didn't like the name at all, but I kept repeating it to myself until it grew on me. For a middle name, I found a list of every boy name on a web site. I went through the whole list, saying each name along with Nicholas. Nicholas Isaiah was the only thing that sounded right to me, so that's what we named him. With our second son, we decided to name him James David before I ever even got pregnant! James is Jon's father's middle name, and David is my father's first name. I still wonder how I'm going to deal with three boys in my little house, but time will tell... (I've considered buying a gas mask.) Well, back to everything that has happened since my last entry. We visited my family over Labor Day weekend. It was a very nice visit. My grandmother was in the hospital, and we were able to visit her everyday that we were there. The day we left, she was doing very well. I showed her the ultrasound pictures of the baby and told her we would name him Robert. This was her only brother's name, and she was happy to hear that the baby would be named for him. (He never married or had children himself.) The day after we got home, James asked me when we would go see Mama again. I said maybe next month. He said, "No, let's go back on Friday." I thought, "I hope he doesn't know something that I don't..." Two days later, my grandmother died and we did go back on Friday. She and I were always close, and if I think about it too much it's difficult. The greatest comfort and joy is that she knew Christ as her Saviour and I know she is with Him today. I've tried to imagine what it is like for her now, to see His glory, to behold His throne, to see all things past, present, and future and to see God's Headship behind all things. But it's so far beyond my understanding that I can't wrap my mind around it. "The sufferings of this world are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Last Saturday, our transmission totally failed in our van. We'll have to sell it unfortunately. A friend from church had an extra vehicle that he gave us and said we can make monthly payments to him. I don't know what we'd be doing if not for his kindness. Well, that's enough for now. Later or tomorrow I'll write about all the things I've been knitting lately. |
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When I was a little girl, my mom played a sort of game with me that I guess you could call "Who Loves You?" It went like this: Mom says, "Who loves you?" I reply, "You." Mom: Who do you love? Me: You. Mom: Who loves me? Me: Me. Mom: Who do I love? Me: Me! I loved that exchange with her. I can rememer always feeling so happy inside when she would begin it. My earliest memories of it, I was probably six years old but we had obviously been doing it for years before that because I don't remember her 'teaching' me what to say. I can remember continuing the exchange from time to time right up until I got married. These happy, fuzzy feelings of love have not passed on to my sons. This morning, my younger son had gotten in bed with us about a half hour before it was time to get up. I smiled at him and we cuddled and giggled a bit. I said to him, "Who loves you?" He responded with a grin, "You." So I asked, "And who do you love?" He responded with an even bigger grin, "Daddy." |
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I modified my template, and I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. I found the picture of the crucifixion a few months ago when I was looking for pictures to use on a Resurrection Sunday bulletin board at church. Shortly before I found the picture, I came across a website talking about the archeological findings related to crucifixions in history. It said that, contray to the traditional paintings that show Christ on His Cross raised high in the air, the period documents state that crosses were relatively short. The victim's feet were usually only a foot or so off the ground, and spectators could actually have very easily looked into the victim's eyes. Wow! That really struck me, and just a few minutes later I came across this beautiful painting of Christ on a low cross with a woman laying her head upon His Feet. The image made such an impression on me and even now it makes me want to cry. I can see myself as that woman with my head upon the feet of my Blessed Saviour as He bleeds for me. And knowing as we do that His body was so broken and so pierced that His Blood was running down Golotha's Hill almost like a river, I can see His precious Blood falling upon the woman, upon me...washing away every sin, every stain. It reminds me of some of the great hymns, "If I can hear the hammering and see His wounded side…if I can feel the pain He felt as He hung His head and He died…if I can see forgiveness in His eyes of love for me…" And another one, "My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin–not in part, but the whole–is nailed to His Cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord O my soul!" |
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I solved the photo sizing problem. After a quick web search, I found a web site called www.resize2mail.com It's a very simple online photo resizer. I was able to resize quite a few of my photos... perhaps not as customized as I could have with a photo editing program, but it did what I was wanting. And you can even crop the photos. Very nice and totally free! Now that I have appropriately-sized photos, I'll tell about Nicholas' science project... Nicholas is six and in his second year of schooling ('1st grade'). We've had very limited opportunities for him to do activities with other homeschooled kids. We lived in a very rural area during his Kindergarten year, and then weren't able to make connections with the local homeschoolers where we lived last summer and fall. After we moved to our current locale, we hooked up with a great homeschool group and have been able to participate in a few events/get-togethers with them over the last few months. Back in January, at the first meeting I attended, they announced they'd be having a science fair in April and all ages from K-12 were invited to participate. When I asked Nicholas if he was interested, he said, "Sure!" Of course I knew he didn't have a clue what a science fair was. At any rate, he decided he wanted to do a rock collection (of all things! Mommy was disappointed... I thought flowers or butterflies would be nice, lol). At first we had trouble locating many types of rocks around our neighborhood. Some very nice families on the Konos message board sent us rocks from their areas, which broadened Nicholas' collection drastically and helped us learn about rocks we had never heard of. A week before the fair, we were able to go to a nearby state park with a stream running through it. We all four had fun walking barefoot along the edge of the stream to collect rocks. That water was so cold, though!! We had just had a cold spell (30 degrees just a few days before), and I doubt the water was above 55 degrees that day. You know kids, though, they barely noticed. Here is a photo of Nicholas working on his project:
Of course the science fair rules said the project had to be done by the student not by the parent. Since Nicholas' handwriting is rather illegible (though he is improving!), I was at a loss for a while about how he could do the board by himself. His cutting skills are not fabulous either, so I didn't think cutting out construction paper letters would work. We found foam sponge letters at Wal-Mart, and as you can see they worked out very well! Here is a picture of the finished project after the evaluations were over:
I was so happy with how he did during the evaluation. (They didn't do judging, just evaluated each project individually.) He had never presented anything like that to strangers before and, being shy, he struggles just to say hello to someone he hasn't met before. But all the practicing and review we did beforehand paid off. I didn't get to stay and watch him with the evaluators, but when it was over he came bounding out of the room with such a grin on his face! Here is a picture of the rocks if you're interested:
Left-Right, Back Row First: Mudstone, White Granite, Siltstone Coal, Sandstone, Rose Rock, Slate, Mica Quartz, Pink Granite, Marble, Limestone, Garnets in Rock Pumice Nicholas said his favorite was pumice, which floated when we first tried it but wouldn't float again when I wanted to take a picture of it. My favorite was the rose rock (actually a mineral) that someone sent us from Oklahoma. Very unusual and pretty! If you've never heard of it, look it up on Wikipedia. They are only found in Oklahoma and Spain. The mica is also very pretty, it's thin and delicate. I had never seen or heard of it before. Helping Nicholas with this project was fun, educational, and it actually made me wish I had paid more attention in that Appalachian Archeology class I took in college. |
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I want to post some photos to my blog, but I see that they have to be a certain file size and pixel count. I know how to alter images to fit that, but I can't find a (free) program that will save them in the right format. When I transfer pictures off my camera to my computer, they're huge but they're saved in jpeg (right format, wrong size). I have a picture editing program called Serif Photo Plus 6.0. I found it several months ago somewhere on the internet. It was free, and it works great for editing pictures. I can resize them, cut them, change the color, and much more. I like the program, but it saves only in Serif Photo Plus format, which is not recognized by HomeschoolBlogger (right size, wrong format). Can anyone suggest a free program that will allow me to edit my jpeg files and still save them as jpegs? My program that pulls the pictures off the camera onto the computer (Kodak Easy Share Software) will do some editing, but it won't allow me to resize the picture. So I need to find an entirely different program. Any suggestions? |
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Well, we finished our fourth school day using my new "daily schedule," and it's still working beautifully. I typed it up over the weekend, printed it on yellow paper, and taped it to the wall right above the couch. Math is first everyday and Konos comes after lunch, but everything else is a little different depending on what day it is. For example, we're doing Bible copy work on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and a typing lesson on Mondays and Thursdays. So far my older son is loving it....which surprises me actually. Every time we finish one task, he rushes to the schedule to see what's next. My younger son, however, has adopted "I don't want you to do school" as he favorite phrase. The schedule is definitely keeping us (me, especially) on track and is helping us complete everything we need to do. We're no longer skipping reading because I feel too tired by the time we've finished math. We're no longer skipping spelling because it just doesn't seem so important at this stage and wouldn't we rather just go ahead and stop for the day? Looking forward to the next item on the schedule seems to be making my son more attentive to finish his current task more quickly. Math is only taking 30 minutes instead of an hour, and I've been amazed how quickly he has done his typing lessons this week. He's still quite slow, of course, since he just started learning last week (and he IS an easily distracted six-year-old), but he progressed from 6wpm on Tuesday to 8wpm today. I told him when he hits 15wpm, we can move on to Lesson 2. Haha! Our school day is lasting longer than ever, but we've got it broken up by a 15 minute break mid-morning and an hour for lunch. I'm so glad I decided to make the schedule because it has made a world of difference in what we're doing. Not that Nicholas wasn't learning before, but we definitely weren't working at 'full potential' or even half potential. I've decided not to stop school entirely for the summer. I know he would forget every math fact he's learned this year and probably plenty of other things too. So I plan to make a modified schedule for the summer. Something like Mon-Wed-Fri of one week we do math and a little reading, and Tue-Thu the next week we do a little math and reading. Hopefully that will keep things fresh enough in his mind that we can start back without having to review in August. We're still studying rocks with Konos, and we're supposed to learn about metals tomorrow...but I don't have any books on the subject yet. I've been thinking about seeing if Nicholas and I could ride our bikes to the library this afternoon (with James in the baby seat on back of mine). Since it's almost three miles one way, I'm not sure we could do it though. Plus I just remembered I'm supposed to cook a turkey for dinner tonight. Better go put it in the oven. I guess that cancels the library idea! |