Follow along with our homeschooling rambles!

Aug. 21, 2009

The Story of the Bampire Bat by C-Bug, age 4, as told to Momma tonight.

Once upon a time there was a Bampire bat [vampire bat]. He carried a fish in his mouth. He hanged upside down. I not scary Momma! I am Talullah! I eat the fish and hang upside down. He just eated the fish and flew back to his tree to his babies. He had two babies. One little and one in a egg. He just pooped out the eggs, opened them up with his bat and there was babies! Oh they was coot babies Momma! So coot! They was in their nest! They are little cooties! Very cutes! He eated his fish, the Bampire bat, hanged upside down and loved his coot babies! The end!

by C-Bug
age 4
08/21/2009

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Aug. 20, 2009

Something Old, Something New, Something Bike?

T-Bear has wanted a bike for close to a year. Finances being what they are, we have been unable to purchase a new (or used) bike for her and have been waiting for a cousin, aunt or uncle to out-grow one to hand down to her. Enter a wonderful friend of the family who recently brought a pickup load of used toys, clothes, etc. to my Mother's to be passed down to whomever could use them. There amongst the others items, in like-new condition, was a wonderful bike! Mom quickly called me to say she thought there was a bike to T-Bear and to bring her over to try it out.

Papa, our resident bike aficionado, adjusted the seat and handlebars and away she went! We have had to practically *pry* the bike out of her hands nightly! She is putting the miles on it riding round and round the block! She was even able to make the trek to Grandma & Papa's house (1/2 a mile away) by herself, and while practicing all standard bike safety laws, while Mom drove *slowly* ahead in the van with C-Bug.

So I want to offer a public thank you to God for providing the perfect bike that our family has been praying for and for answering the hopes and dreams of one of His children! I think her smile in the picture says it all!

~Hope
P.S. - She calls it her 'miracle bike' because God answered her prayers! *grin*

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Aug. 19, 2009

It's the little... and *heavy* things!

T-Bear has always wanted a typewriter! Even before that amazing sleuth Kit Kittridge (whose movie in no way did justice to the books - as usual!) hit the big screen T-Bear was sure that she would be a better writer if only she could type her stories! Frank and I had planned to find her a typewriter for either her birthday in October or for Christmas this year. Enter a yardsale! While riding her bike around the block she came upon a yardsale and returned to the house practically hyperventilating in her hurry to find her stash of money!

Drawers slammed, clothing few helter-skelter and a garbled voice whailed, "Where is it?!?" At my calm inquiry, "What in the heck are you doing?!? Calm down! I cannot understand a word you are saying!" I was finally able to make out that there was a yardsale on the other side of the block with a *TYPEWRITER*!!! Oh my goodness you would have thought the ice cream truck had turned down our street! *grin* So Daddy set off with T-Bear to the yardsale and home lugged this truly *fabulous* machine! It types in cursive! How cool is that?!?

In order to figure out what some of the buttons do I did a bit of Googling and found out that we have a Swiss-made Hermes 3000 made in 1958! You can read about them HERE. So T-Bear is *thrilled* and our home is filled with the constant tick, tick, ticking of a girl arduously putting her thoughts to paper via a new beloved friend - who just happens to weigh almost as much as she does! *grin*

~Hope

P.S. - Please ignore the messy kitchen in the background and concentrate on that girl's smile!

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Aug. 18, 2009

Houston We Have... Squash?

We have a garden. Okay, what we really have is six 5 gallon buckets with some plants in them! Hey, in our book that is an incredible garden! *grin* We were given 4 mystery plants this year. Four plants to start our garden. We were told they were probably squash of some kind... umm, okay, we all like squash so we planted them and have excitedly awaited the arrival of... what we do not know! *grin*

These plants have all put off an incredible amount of blossoms! Two of the plants have trailing vines like pumpkin and two have upright leaves like zucchini. So we have laid bets to try and guess what kinds of plants we have. Yesterday when I went out to water I discovered this!...

A squash! A baby squash!!! Looks like we are going to have yellow crooked neck squash on this plant. Now we just have to wait and see what the other two plants will give us! What fun this is!

Here is a slide show of our little garden...

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Aug. 3, 2009

Twin Distractions!

I do not know if I should label this post "Twin Distractions!" or "Distractions X 2!" Either way you get the drift! These two, Missy-Moo and Mister-Moo are the sweet twins that I get the privilege to "twin-sit" 2-4 days a week. Are they not simply adorable? I cannot share much because they are in the "foster system" - it is sufficient to say that they had an incredibly rough start in life and are 8 months old and so small that they do not register on the growth curve! We have been privileged to watch them morph from tiny scared screamers into happy-go-lucky babies that are hungry for your attention and touch! What blessings from Our Most High God!

It is okay, this is one time God will allow you to be envious of me! *grin*

These two keep us on our toes and keep us rotating bottles! I get to sit around snuggling babies for hours at a time - yes, I am blessed beyond measure! Please keep them in your prayers. They are growing so quickly now that they are receiving nourishment, their bones are healing and Praise God their trust in people is being restored! How precious are *HIS* children!

I cannot tell you their names but we have nicknamed them "Missy-Moo" and "Mister-Moo". Pray for healing, pray for growth, pray for protection, pray for memory -loss, and pray for accountability for those who need it!

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Jul. 29, 2009

God Give Me Joy!

One of my favorite songs is, "The joy of the Lord is my strength." I hum it without thinking, whisper it when I am frightened and *belt it out* when I am MAD! But I do not think I have ever taken the time to really understand what it means. The Joy of the Lord is MY Strength. Not the joy of Hope or the joy of Main Man hubbie. Not the joy I feel, most of the time, with my daughters T-Bear and C-Bug. *grin* The joy of The LORD is my strength! How very profound!

That means that when I am not filled to bubbling with joy, when life has knocked the wind out of me again, I still have joy because it is not *my* joy but the joy of *the Lord*! So when I am frustrated with funding, with the often eye rolling (by me) insanity of Main Man, the pure unadulterated naughtiness of a freshly 4 year old, and the I-want-to-pull-my-hair-out-by-the-handfuls frustration of dealing with a truly sweet but oftentimes headstrong soon to be 9 year old I CAN HAVE JOY! Not only can I have JOY but that JOY will be my strength because it is not *my* joy, not the joy of Hope, but the joy of the Lord!

Thank you God for this promise!

Nehemiah 8:10 (New International Version)

¹⁰ Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

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Jul. 28, 2009

The Bigger Picture!

Well it is once again that time of year... the nail biting, tired eyes from reading catalogs, sleepless nights while your brain whirls with possibilities... time to order new curriculum for the coming school year! A mixture of Yay!, Boo, Hiss and Groan!

I need to remember to look at "the bigger picture" this year. For the past 5 years that we have homeschooled T-Bear I have chosen curriculum rich in literature because I am a reader and I had hoped my child would be too! - On a side note our children's librarian told us this last week of a study she read that found children generally follow their Father's reading patterns! Very interesting, especially since growing up my Father *always* had a book in his hands or back pocket! He would pull it out any spare moment and read. I am exactly the same way and generally take 10+ books with me on a week long vacation, often ending up with nothing to read by the week's end! - T-Bear has always loved to be read to and our nightly hour of reading has led us down the wonderful paths of many classic children's books. This year we are going to try something completely new! Yep, we are heading out into the dreaded unknown! Sailing into uncharted waters! Head uplifted, gazing into the heavens while jumping OFF A CLIFF! Okay, that is what it feels like but in reality it is just trying something new!

T-Bear and I tripped happily through 3 years of Sonlight (K, 1st and part of 2nd) thoroughly enjoying ourselves but going into financial ruin buying all the wonderful books - okay not really, but I did spend $700+ a year on *one* child's school books! The we hopped over to Tapestry Of Grace (for the 2nd half of 2nd grade and all of 3rd) which we love and will be continuing to use and I was able to purchase used for a mere pittance - this allowed me to purchase an entire year's book from TOG for about 1/2 of what I paid for Sonlight. Tapestry of Grace we use as our main history curriculum supplementing science, math and English/Grammar, penmanship, etc.

This year we are venturing into the unchartered territory of Rod & Staff. While *I* love Sonlight it is not a great fit for T-Bear. Cost-be-darned, if she liked it we would continue using it, but she did not like it - she literally *hated* the English program, thus the switch to Tapestry. This she likes and we will continue using but I hated having to "try this" and "try that" to supplement for the other subjects. Enter Rod & Staff! I picked up some of their readers and lower grade English books at the Good Will store (99 cents a book!) and T-Bear just *devoured* them! Whoa, our daughter is reading? Without being timed or told? Who is that young lady lounging on her bed with her nose firmly stuck in a book requesting that she be allowed to skip lunch so she can read?!?! Our girl is coming to me and talking about nouns and adjectives? What alien has zipped herself up in to a T-Bear suit?!?!

While T-Bear has always enjoyed being read to, but not enjoyed reading herself, all of a sudden she can be heard chorteling over the antics of an Amish/Mennonite boy and his friend as they get into trouble with their goat cart! GOAT CART?!?! She is strikingly animated telling us all the things she reads; laughing over their antics and speaking seriously about their punishments metted out by their fathers. **BINGO!** When I questioned her about her reason for liking the books, her reply was... "they are simple but serious yet funny too and the pictures are great!" I think that says it all!

So we are going to make the leap from the known to the unknow and quite frankly I am *thrilled* and not at all trepidatious about the change! We will use TOG as our history spine and everything else from penmanship to English to math to science will come from Rod & Staff (and all of this for 1/2 what I would have paid for other curriculum!)

But darn it, I still *love* Sonlight! Hopefully we will return one day to it but until then I need to look at "the bigger picture" and see that what is right for me may not be right for T-Bear. Giving her school work she will like and that she *wants* to do is 90% of the battle won! In fact that is closer to a 99% win in any battle! *grin*

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Jul. 27, 2009

Children's Festival

Every year our family treks through the hot July weather to sample the myriad delights at the Children's Festival! Here are some pictures of this years trip. Be sure to read the captions!

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Jul. 27, 2009

Starting Over!

Since the beginning our family blog was a dismal failure! Mostly because although we do things all the time, I never took the time to blog about them! Now that our homeschool has taken a 180 degree turn and we are now back to only homeschooling our two daughters (incredibly long story!), I really want to make the effort to keep family and friends informed of our activities. So here goes... a new beginning! How exciting! Stay tuned...
~Hope

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About Me

Come meet our wacky family of 4 + 1! My husband Frank and I, Hope, homeschool our daughters: "T-Bear" - 8, "C-Bug" - 4 and my youngest sister "Princess-P" - 5 years old. We use an eclectic curriculum incorporating parts of the 'Classical' and 'Charlotte Mason' styles as well as whatever interests us at the time... it's an oxymoron but we enjoy it!

Nehemiah 8:10 (New International Version)

10 Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

¹⁰ Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."