|
Hello everyone! Check out the cute little kitten in my sidebar. My mom sent me a code and told me to put it in my blog and I did (aren't I trusting! LOL). And it turns out it is a cute little kitten. You can make him purr, play with the mouse cursor or make him meow. So if I haven't updated in a while at least you can come and visit the little kitten. :o) We are in summer mode here in our house. We have gone camping a couple of times. We went quading for a day (which put Deanna and I totally out of our comfort zones). We attended a couple of weddings with one more to go to this summer. This Friday we are taking off to BC to visit family. I am sure glad there is nothing much booked for August because I am going to need a break and time to be home! It seems this is the year for things breaking down and getting replaced. So far we have replaced my dishwasher, fridge, deep freeze, kitchen island, and my glasses. Plus the car needed work -- brake pads and some valve. So I am feeling like the piggy bank is pretty empty at the moment. Maybe I will have to come home and get a job to pay for all these things! I still haven't come up with a solid plan for our upcoming home schooling year. I guess I will work on that in August. Jordan has been having an interesting summer break so far. He went to a horse camp for a day and thoroughly enjoyed it. He came home really wanting a horse. So a little magic happened and we have a pony in our backyard. It belongs to his aunt but she is allowing it to live here so Jordan can pratcice his horse skills. Plus Jordan and Wes have been working on a go-kart. It isn't finished yet but Jordan has taken it for a couple of spins around the yard. Deanna has been just relaxing mostly so far. Her and her sweet dog and inseperable most of the time. Deanna refers to herself as mommy and picks up Licorice and carries her around. That dog really loves Deanna. Puts up with anything Deanna does to her. It is kind of sweet to watch. Well that is all I have for now. I am suppose to go to the city today to get a few supplies before we leave for our trip. Happy summer everyone! |
|
Yesterday was Mug Up and our family was hosting. We were scheduled to go to a park in town but I was not feeling 100% and Jordan really wanted to have his friends here to play with. It was a great day. Lots of visiting and discussing of curriculum choices. The kids were outside quite a bit. Deanna and her friends caught 7 frogs and a tadpole (and then proceeded to put them in my bath tub to live! I was not impressed.) This morning Deanna set the frog clan free, back to their pond. :o) Jordan was pleased last night when Wes came in and said "Let's go and get started on your go-kart." I am not sure what all they did but they were dirty when they came in. Today Jordan brought up a topic I was dreading. Since we are now officially on summer break, I knew the question about electronic entertainment was going to come up and today it did (a few times while I was trying to make a decision). Well I did finally come to a conclusion. I want this summer to be one of self-discovery, away from electronic distractions. My kids are very dependent on TV, movies, gaming systems and such when they have free time. So this summer I want them to find and discover ways to occupy their time that do not include a screen that lulls them into a coma. :o) I am hoping that they might develop hobbies of some sort (something I myself never did). But mostly I want them to get to know themselves and be able to be content with themselves and their free time away from electronic distractions. They need to get bored. Today is day one. So far Deanna is doing well. She has put together a puzzle of the world and is now creating with play dough. Jordan is struggling already. He has done some reading and has helped his dad witha couple of things but he is starting to twitch like an addict needing a fix. :o) I have also come to the conclusion that I am addicted to TV and the computer. So this summer I also want to break the addiction, the habit of electronic distraction. I wonder who will go mad first... me or Jordan? I am going to set up set times to check email and only plug in when scheduled. Wish us luck. Happy summer everyone. Pam :o) |
|
Doing a happy dance here at my house ---- summer break is finally here!!!!! YAY!!! My kids finished their tests finally and we are done. I will mail them away tomorrow to be graded. Happy days are here!
:o) |
|
I just finished reading this book -- The Shack. What an absolutely amazing story that can't help but affect you on a deep level. I highly recommend it! (It will be out as an audio book late June as well.)
You can read more here -- http://www.theshackbook.com/read.html
~ Pam ~ To find out where home schooling ends and the other stuff begins is hard. Home schooling isn't like school after all. There's no bell, no bus ride home. It's a lifestyle, not an institution. And it touches everything in my life. http://daybydayhsing.blogspot.com/2008/05/my-lifeits-homeschooling.html |
|
I came across this article today and it really explains my thoughts, feelings and journey with the church much better than I think I could. http://lifestream.org/LSBL.May01.html
|
|
FRIDAY - The kids worked on the Ranch, helping with hauling the cattle from the home property to summer pastures. - We went to visit Grandpa and Grandma Pekse in the evening. Poor Grandma is having a hard time with her mind. This day she was convinced she saw black smoke outside from a fire and that her building was going to burn down. Luckily the nurses were able to calm her down and get her to see that was not the case. She was very happy to have us as company that evening. SATURDAY - Birthday Party Day -- the kids woke up very excited. :o) Their friend Josh D. was having a celebration for his thirteenth birthday. The birthday party gang, Lori (Josh's mom), Wes and I went to see the movie "Prince Caspian" in theatre. It was a very good movie. I have been told it doesn't follow the original book, but I haven't read the book so I was able to enjoy the movie just as it is. After the movie we went back to their home for pizza, presents and cake and ice cream. Jordan was invited to spend the night with all the boys. They were priviledged enough to be able to take over the camper as their sleepover headquarters. SUNDAY - But it would seem there was no sleepover after all. The boys stayed awake ALL NIGHT!!!! I heard they started dropping off like flies in the late morning/early afternoon though. :o) Jordan was so tired when we got home last night. I went in to his room around 9pm to say goodnight and he was out cold! *grin* - We met with our church in the afternoon. We had a great discussion about the Lord's Supper. I am learning so much from our church gatherings and discussions. We are always being spurred on to learn more and being challenged. - last night Wes and I watched the movie "Juno". Deanna has been asking to watch it but I told her I wanted to watch it first and see if it was appropriate for her. I enjoyed the movie and the quirky character of Juno but I don't think it is a movie I want Deanna seeing at this time in her life. MISC - Jordan has been changing so much lately. He has sprouted in height, his voice is changing and his appetite has grown by leaps and bounds. We don't seem to have enough food around lately to feed him. The grocery bill is definitely going to be getting higher. I think we definitely have a teenager in our midst. :o) - I finally got Wes to talk about the kids education on Saturday night. Yay! He wants the kids to continue with the Saxon math because it works for them, they get good marks on their lessons. So basically don't try to fix what isn't broken. Some of Jordan's issues with math (not focusing and so on) are things Wes feels he needs to work on and master and that changing curruiculum now will not do him any favors in learning to overcome his personal obstacles. We both feel strongly that we need to put a big focus on writing this coming year, so this is our number one goal. He feels that the kids are behind in science knowledge, so we will do some sort of general science learning. We talked about history and how it needs to tie into their world today and see how things of the past affect today's world. A big focus should be on the Romans because so much of what we do in today's world can be directly tied back to their civilization. So his biggest goals for the kids are math skills/knowledge and being able to write an essay and strong written communication skills. - We still need to finish the CTBS. We are finished the math/science/map booklet. This week we will need to finish the language arts booklet. I don't think the kids will score as high as they have in previous years. That is all I have to report for now. TTYS Pam |
|
YESTERDAY - was Mug Up. We had a wonderful time. Charlene hosted a baby shower for Corrie. Have I mentioned how much I love this concept of Mug Up? :o) - on the way to Mug Up Jordan was sitting in the front seat with me and we did some learning and creating on our drive. We were measuring the distance from range road 43 to a campground so we could give directions to a friend for this weekend. Jordan learned that when the gage says 17.4 that means 17km and 400m. At first he thought it meant 4m. Jordan wrote a song on the way there too. He was quite proud of himself. Here are the lyrics (please note that a 12 almost 13 year old boy finds this underwear topic hilarious): Buckshot Willy in his underwear, Ran up a hill and scared a bear, Stole the mayors underwear, Ran home to comb his hair, Went to town and cleared the fair, Every body stopped to stare, Bucktooth Billy was the mayor, Chased down Will for his underwear, Buckshot Willy just didn't care, Cause right behind him was that bear, Bucktooth Billy scared the bear... (the rest of the song to come when he is inspired to continue) - Deanna spent the ride in the car enjoying her music on her CD player - I tried talking to Wes about the upcoming school years. I asked him what he wanted for the kids. Did he want them to follow a typical high school program (3 sciences, math, etc, etc) or did he want them to be more free to pursue their interests/passions. I shared my struggles with both ideas and that I was having trouble deciding. And Wes, in total Wes fashion, said he needed to think about it. Sigh. Who knows when I will get an answer??? - Jordan finished reading a book called "Spartan Quest: The Fire of Ares". I picked it out for him and he actually liked it. (WOW! That doesn't always happen) I asked him if he liked it and he said yes but the it ended dumb! He figures it needs another book to continue the story and so I did a search and sure enough there is a second book. Click here to learn more. TODAY - we slept in. I mean really slept in. I didn't wake up until 10:00am. I was so surprised. I am not a person who can usually sleep that late. I must have really needed the sleep. - the kids are working on their tests again. Grandma Maureen stopped in during the middle of the science section. I so badly want to get these out of the way. - tonight we are going to visit Grandpa and Grandma Pekse. - I have been doing research today about math programs and options. This website has been very helpful. http://www.homeschoolmath.net/ - I came across some magazines I might subscribe to for our learning here: http://www.scholastic.ca/education/magazines/intermediate.html#anchormath |
|
I just finished watching American Idol and David Cook won by 12 million votes. Amazing! I thought the other David was going to win for sure! |
|
Another day... Bad headache today. It made me feel pretty ill for most of the day. CTBS once again. The kids did another math portion. Then their dad kidnapped them to do some cattle work. It was only suppose to be a couple of hours but they were gone till supper time. So much for what I had planned. :o) Jordan finished reading the book "Stardust" and this evening watched the movie. Deanna watched the movie "August Rush". I really love this movie. About 9:30pm, the kids went out to help dad plant potatoes and peas. Wes heard on the radio about planting under a fullmoon and something about quicker germination... maybe that's why he decided to get some planting done tonight. Tomorrow (if it doesn't rain) we will have to plant the rest of our seeds (sunflowers, pumpkins, carrots, lettuce, beets, and I don't remember what else). It got too dark to finish planting tonight. My friend Lori came up with a great idea for a group project for the fall --- Literary World's. I explained the idea to the kids and they are really excited about this project. I made the mistake of telling Jordan before he started his exam... shame on me. Now his mind was on what he wanted to do for this project instead of math. Speaking of his exam... math is the one subject that drives me crazy where Jordan is concerned. He lollygags and daydreams and belly aches the whole time he is doing math. I have to really see what I can do to change things so it is not so painful for next fall. And then his brain was not fully working today... he forgot how to carry in math, had it totally backwards, I was really surprised by this. So it should be interesting to see how he did on this portion of the exam. I did some research about teaching math today as well. We use Saxon right now and I read an interesting view about it today. I am considering changing from Saxon. Teaching Textbooks is looking promising at the moment. Deanna's dog has really adapted herself to our family. She seems happiest to be home -- a real homebody. Her housebreaking has been really easy... up until yesterday??? Yesterday and today she peed in the living room. What is up with that? She has been so good! Deanna needs to do some research on leash training her dog (plus make an appointment with the vet). I have to remember to get her to call tomorrow (note to self!). Today I was doing research on the Lord's Supper and found some interesting reading. This is the topic of discussion at our upcoming Sunday meeting. I am going through a real spiritual testing right now -- a lot of of my previous knowledge is being challenged, which of course is good. If you are not being challenged you are not growing! Tonight I watched the season finale of "Dancing with the Stars" and the last "American Idol" competiton show. I think David A. is going to win. Well I have babbled long enough. Time for more pain killers and maybe off to bed. There have been quite a few late nights lately, I should get a few zzzzz's. Tomorrow is Mug Up! Yay. Goodnight. |
|
The weekend is now over and it is time to get on with everything else.
Today the kids started their CTBS. They did three sections of the math portion. They took long walks between each section to enjoy the sunshine and clear the head. In the afternoon we finished off our family novel (four chapters). We were reading "The Family Under the Bridge". It is a great little book. I had Jordan read to Deanna and I a letter a father wrote to his three year old son (http://zenhabits.net/2008/05/a-letter-to-my-son-on-starting-out-in-life/). I thought there were some great life lessons in there. We had a good discussion afterwards. And that about wraps up our day.
|