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What's New!

Sep. 18, 2008 • 11:21 PM

Just a quick update of a few new things going on here!

First, I am excited that I was chosen from about 500 applicants as one of the 100 reviewers for the TOS (The Old Schoolhouse Magazine) group of product reviewers. Our group is called The Homeschool Crew.

So... from time to time whenever I have a product to review, you will hear about it here! Most products will be educational! We will be "steering homeschoolers toward great products!"

Also, my youngest son has started Pre-schooling. We are mostly using Calvert and many FUN books and activities. He also started this workbook

 as just an introduction to recognizing all 26 letters and starting to write the letters.

He is very good at writing his name (well, nickname). While working on this page, he asked me quietly "Am I being a good school boy?" Aw! 

I replied, "Yes, you are being a GOOD school boy!" Then smile, smile, smile.  It was just so sweet and tender. (He had just had a fit though before starting his book so we go through moods.)

Also... we have our signs up!

A busy week!

Apr. 1, 2008 • 9:53 AM

Last week I didn't blog much but wanted to record a few things from our week. It was very eventful. We had our regular music lessons and also a group lesson on another day. This is when all the teacher's students come together and play pieces and work on duets/group pieces. They then play these pieces at recitals, etc.

Besides this, we also had our monthly Homeschool Co-op day and the following day we had a field trip day! It was busy but a lot of great fun and learning was done! Here is just a peek at some things we did and learned on these outings.

Homeschool Group Co-op Day: I am busy throughout the day so I don't get to take pictures of all the classes. The young (LAMBS) class learned about caterpillars and butterflies and new life in Christ! The older kids are doing a nutrition class. They plan the menu for the day and bring food items as well as help to prepare foods. They dress in the colors of the food groups on the food pyramid. They may even learn and perform a play on healthy eating. A free educational program you can also use for this can be found here at mypyramid.gov on the worldwide web. Click on the tab "For professionals" and you can download and print the whole curriculum. There is also an online game and a coloring page (and more) under the For Kids section. Check it out if this is an area you would like to teach in your homeschool. The older children also have another on-going class -in art appreciation. This week they transfered their drawing they made last month from tracing paper onto canvas paper. Next month they will start painting it! We also have physical education every month and they write and read their Creative Writing assignments. These kids have become excellent writers. I love hearing their Creative writings each month. (I encourage you if you are part of a co-op or group of homeschoolers to start up Creatie writing- giving some prompts or an assignment each time. They complete them at home. Then read them when the group meets.) This time I had a stack of interesting pictures/photos from magazines. They each chose a picture and for next month, they are to write a story about the picture! The other class is the Human Body class. I mentioned this class on my blog before and showed pictures. The teacher was a nurse and she gets the organs that they are studying from a butcher shop - usually a pig or cow's organ. The children get to really see what the organs are like by seeing and touching them. WARNING! These pictures are graphic and kind of gross! Look at your own risk!

This month they learned about the digestive system:

They held a blue rope to see just how long the large intestine is if it was laid out in a straight line. Did you know... that an adult's small intestine is more than 17 feet long! The large intestine is shorter than the small intestine but it is called "large" because it is wider. About 18-20 hours pass between when food is eaten and when it it passes through the large intestine.

After the lesson, they were able to touch and look at a pig's stomach:

Here is a picture of a stomach (similar to our human stomach): The stomach is a muscular bag of digestive juices. The walls of the stomach are made of 3 layers of muscles. It can take up to 6 hours for the stomach to empty its contents into the small intestine.

The children also learn that many hands make light work. At the end, teams of two are given a task to go do- to clean up the building. Once they are completed and checked then they get to pick from the prize bin!

Here are my little ones doing their part of clean-up! They had fun!

Then the next morning we had a field trip to a taxidermy shop with our homeschool group! Afterwards we went to a park/nature center closeby that also had mounted animals on display. They had a wildlife art contest going on as well so we got to view other elementary student's art work!

Here we learned how to mount an animal. You start with a styrofoam form. They have forms out there for every animal. The animal's skin,fur and horns are all that are used from the actual animal. The eyes, teeth, tongue, etc. are all artificial and added after the tanned hide is wetted to be more pliable and fit over the form. It is then sewn in place. The yellow form below is for a small fox.

The facial features need touched up with air-brushing. The eyes, noses and teeth look more realistic after a good paint job!

Here are deer in the process of painting. The children are "dear" as well!

Below is an elk and a wild pig. This pig was believed to live on a pig farm though, as it is much larger than the average wild pig. (You can see with this pig how the ears are held in place until they are dry again and stiff. The rods are then removed. The pig's face has also not yet been painted. The elk's face has been painted.)

Even an ostrich is getting mounted!

Our group that day:

More info about taxidermy:

Taxidermy is a general term describing the methods of reproducing a life-like three-dimensional representation of an animal for permanent display. It uses the actual animal's skin (including the fur, feathers or scales). It is preserved and mounted over an artificial form.

The word "taxidermy" is derived from two ancient Greek words:

taxis, meaning movement

derma, meaning skin.

          Therefore, loosely translated, taxidermy means “the movement of skin.” This is a fairly appropriate definition as many taxidermy procedures involve removing the natural skin from the animal, replacing this skin over an artificial body, and adjusting the skin until it appears lifelike.

Thousands of years ago when man had to hunt for his food, he found that the skins of his prey, when treated with certain substances could be preserved and used for clothing and shelter. This process is called tanning and produces leather.

          The first taxidermists were primitive hunter-gatherers who crudely formed animal skins over mud and rock for use in their hunting rituals. Over time, as methods to preserve these skins improved and the need for tanned skins increased, the tanner became one of the most important members of the tribe.

By the 1700s, almost every small town had a prosperous tannery business. Once animal skins were tanned, the leather could then be made into clothing, shoes, bags, and used as blankets or shelter.

Leather products are no longer as much a necessity as they were in past civilizations however, they are still very nice to have!

By the 1900s, taxidermy had developed into a full-fledged form of wildlife art.

If interested in becoming a taxidermist someday, some good areas of study would be anatomy, dissection, sculpture, painting, light carpentry (for assembling bases) as well as tanning. You can then also get into leathercraft and scenery. 

Some more photos from the park/nature center:

Brown Bear (above) and polar bear (below)- and the head of a walrus in the left corner.

...and an American Buffalo/Bison.

Goodbye for now...

Happy Homeschooling!

Last Week's Highlights!

Oct. 23, 2007 • 4:31 PM

I am getting to this late but here are some of the highlights from last week (outside our regular schooling)!

Monday: My second daughter had her first Date Day with Grandma. If you read my previous posts, you'll know my oldest daughter had her first day shopping with Gram about a week and a half ago. Now it was Princess' turn. They ate out and went shopping. They hit all the sale and clearance racks and came home with bags of goodies. Thanks again Grandma! The girls love this!

Here they are at the return of their busy day. Princess is holding one of her non-clothing purchases: a soft seat pillow. Mom, she sleeps with it every night. I thought it would give her a kinked neck but she loves it! (Thanks!) Since then, Gram also bought one for Panda so they both have one!

Tuesday was Play practice again! Another successful Wal-Mart trip until we get to the check-out. It took so long but we were parked at the garden center so we waited there! Thankfully they had this festive fellow there for my kids to stay occupied:

Tuesday evening: We met "daddy" for supper when he was done working at our local TGI Fridays Restaurant for Kid's Night. From 5:00pm on they have 99cents kid's meals (that includes the refillable drink). They also have a clown that goes around and makes balloon art for the children. It is always a time of family fun -not to mention a break from cooking and cleaning up. Can't beat 99 cents happy meals for FIVE kids. Occasionally we even have a coupon for buy one -get one free on our adult meals.  The Lord wants us to be good stewarts of our money!

Here's our crew with the clown and the balloon creations:

Wednesday: Music lessons

Thursday: Our homeschool co-op day! Another wonderful day of group learning. I plan to post all about this next in a separate post. Check it out!

Friday: Daddy worked nighttime so during the day we went to get our hardwood floors scheduled.

One the way to the flooring place, we had lunch at Sonic. This was the first time we were ever there! It was a hit! The kids love how they brought the food to the car on skates. I thought it would take awhile for the food and the kids would be stir-crazy sitting in the car waiting but it was Fast and pretty tasty too- especially the fruit smoothies! Yum! Too bad there isn't one a little closer!

With the flooring, it took us awhile to make our final decision but we feel confident now and it should be done by Thanksgiving! By driving there to make certain of our choice one last time we even saved $400 as the nice salesman took 99cents off per sq.foot. (Thank you, Lord!)   This will be so nice once it's completed! (We moved into our home last May. The living room has a wood-burning fireplace- something we always wanted. However, it also has white carpet. I asked the sellers about this and she said that they rarely used the fireplace.  Well, I knew we WOULD be using it. I can't wait to sit by the fireplace on chilly evenings! Plus, white carpet will never last with 5 kids. It is already looking bad. Now, we just have to figure out the kitchen flooring. It has mirror-like high gloss tile that is so unpractical. We have 5 kids and cook in our kitchen pretty much everyday. It shows every fingerprint and smudge- just like glass! I am extremely thankful for our home but it will be much less stress with keeping clean once that floor is replaced! The Lord will open the right door at the right time! 

Saturday: Just hung out at the house- always lots to do! In the evening the kids played some PlayStation II with daddy!

Sunday: After our church meeting, "Pilgrim" went to a friend's house and we had a friend and a cousin to our house to play all afternoon before returning to the evening meeting.

Lord, Thank you for another wonderful week!

Our week in Review

Oct. 8, 2007 • 9:02 AM

I am getting to this late but this is some of the FUN from last week!

Monday was basically schoolwork, bookwork, spelling tests, etc. We finished reading Ramona Quimby. Daddy worked through the night so he was sleeping. When he got up, we all went to the basement to organize more and Daddy and Pilgrim worked on the wall they are building down there around the oil tank, water heater, etc. Once the wall is completed, the children can ride bikes and roller skate down there safely.

Tuesday was play practice again. The 2 older girls were there in the morning. I took the younger 3 with me to Wal-Mart. I can actually say it was a successful, relatively peaceful trip. I was happily surprised. Of course I had packed juice cups and snacks but everyone stayed with me and we managed to NOT cause a scene. Then I picked the girls up and they had lunch while Pilgrim went for his (shorter) play practice. Once we got home we worked on some schoolwork before relaxing a bit in the evening.

Wednesday: Morning Music lessons: Back-to-back piano and violin. I just love that I only run out once and both girls get their lessons. The teacher is so wonderful too and a wonderfully talented musician. I am thankful to have found her! Her prices are reasonable too! Then my girls started back to sewing lessons. This time was even more special as they met and sewed skirts with their cousins. Sewing lessons are given by a wonderfully sweet lady from our church assembly who is a wonderful seamstress. She gives sewing lessons to many of the interested children from our church throughout the year. She usually does the public/private school children in the summer and the homeschooled children during the school year. Her lessons are such a blessing to us. She doesn't charge any of us- not even for the materials. We often will take her meals or small gifts but it is her ministry. My girls love it! She sews with them and also sits and reads good old-fashioned stories with them over cookies and milk for a break. The sewing sessions are usually 3 hours long. My mom is friends with the seamstress and knows my girls sew with her so... my mom bought some skirt material that she thought would be an easy project for the girls and gave it to her. She arranged for the cousins to sew together and make matching skirts. It was a wonderful memory besides a great sewing lesson. So far my girls made a pincushion (with piping around it), a thimble bag, a tote bag (for sewing supplies and journal), matching skirts (both my girls matched and they also sewed matching doll skirts with the leftover material), And made an appliqué from the same material to add to a top (to wear with the skirt). Then each girl worked on a small quilt for their younger siblings. These were very special Christmas presents last year. Panda made a light blue and pink one with hearts for Precious. Princess made a patchwork of blues, green and deep purples for Peanut (it reminded me of an Amish quilt because of the colors) The last thing they made last year was a cloak. Now they are back into the lessons again and they are really enjoying them. I am so thankful as I am not a very good sewer yet I want my children to be- especially my girls.

Here is a picture of my girls and my nieces with the sweet Sister in the Lord who teaches them:

Here is a photo of the girls in their finished skirts. They also all wore them to church yesterday!

Then in the evening after supper, we watched a show as a family that the kids have really been enjoying. It is called Kid Nation and is on at 8pm on ABC. The kids are running a town with a town council and each one having a certain rank and job. They vote on things and run this town.

Thursday: Once again play practice but just for the girls in the afternoon. My hubby was working late afternoon to evening so I started out just having the baby so I was able to get my haircut and I got 2 Christmas presents purchased before meeting hubby to get the boys from him on his way to work. Then we picked up the girls and on our way home we went to a food surplus store (where they have great deals. Each week the inventory is different but the prices are super! They even have a deli. We actually buy lunchmeat now because it is really reasonable and fresh.) It is smaller than a regular grocery store too so I can usually do this with all 5 kids without it getting to loud, etc.-- I also walked 1 mile today! (with my Leslie Sansone DVD)

Friday: Daddy had off again this Friday!!! After getting our schoolwork completed, we all worked more in the basement. I also walked 2 miles today (w/ Leslie's DVD)

Saturday: Daddy worked day shift. We went to a library book/bake sale to benefit our local library. The videos were 50cents and the books ranged from 75 cents to $2.00. Here are the books (and things) I got:

A cute rubber stamp; Little girl holding a heart

VHS movies: Mary Poppins, The Great pyramids(Reader's Digest)

Books: Southwest Indians (reproducibles and lesson plans), The Cat in the Hat Fun Pad (Spiral Bond Scrapbook). I thought this would be fun for Peanut next year to do a Dr. Suess unit for his preschooling.(It even has its stickers with it.), Tough Mazes: American landmarks, Teacher's Savers II (Reproducible Big book), China Culture Kit (reproducible pages and  cassette tape- also a map of China-poster size), Mary Engelbreit:Wrap it up!, Mary Engelbreit: Crafts to Deocrate your Home,The Birthright by Janette Oke & T. David Bunn, Meet the Boxcar Children, Magic Tree house #13 Vacation Under the Volcano.

In the afternoon, the kids played a Cranium DVD game called Hullabaloo: Amazing Animal Adventure. It is great for preschoolers as it reviews colors and shapes as you play. It shows real animal clips from National Geographic plus it gets them active. There are actually 20 different games they can play with it.

I got it last year for a Christmas present. I actually got it for $2.99 NEW at Target (and other Cranium games free.) Target had online printable coupons for $5 off any game. Then Motts Apple juice boxes had another $5.oo coupon through Cranium...so that was $10.00 off per game (just the price of the apple juice- which my kids drink all the time anyway!) I recommend this game for those of you with preschoolers or those of you shopping for preschoolers. It is a hit with my children (The older ones think it is fun too- for being a game geared towards the younger ones. They play it all together.)

Then we made Homemade Stromboli for supper. It was pretty much a full-family activity. Here is the recipe:

Bread Dough (this can be homemade, made in the bread machine or store-bought frozen bread dough)

1/4 lb. each: ham, hard salami, mozzerella cheese, provolone cheese

Sauce: 1 tablespoon yellow mustard & 1 Tablespoon mayonnaise

Pizza/Spaghetti Sauce for dipping

Let dough rise. Flatten dough (punching, stretching and rolling involved)Layer ham, mozzerella, salami, provolone. Brush mixed sauce along sides. Fold dough into the middle and overlap, pinch seams together to seal. Turn seam to the bottom and place on baking sheet. Cut slits into the top for steam to release and thorough baking. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until dough inside is completely cooked. Allow to cool slightly. Slice and serve. Dip in favorite pizza sauce. This is a family favorite. It is even better warmed up the next day for lunch!

Panda punching down the dough:

 Rolling and stretching the dough:

Layering the meat and cheese:

Dad helps out, too! (besides taking all the photos- except this one  !)

The finished product:

Time to eat!

Let me know if you try this recipe for Homemade Stromboli and how it turns out! Sometimes we add a little cooked hamburger too. You only need a little so often if I have some cooked burger leftover after assembling a casserole, etc. I will add it.

Week in Review

Sep. 29, 2007 • 10:50 PM

Our Week in review: September 24th-29th

I want to quickly record some happenings from our past week. We did all our regular schoolwork ...books, worksheets, reading, etc. I am "recording" some of the extra stuff that I can remember. I don't have the best memory so that is where I hope this blog will help me to remember more - even the little things.

Monday: Princess learned how to make Kool-aid on her own. It's not that she couldn't do it before but with moving she didn't know exactly where everything was placed and now I showed her exactly how I do it. She knows how I expect it (with less sugar, etc.) We usually have 100% juice but Kool-aid is okay occasionally. (I was raised on it.) Did I just admit that??

Also Monday evening, Pilgrim lost his 2nd tooth. He is 7 but is holding on to his baby teeth it seems. He was pretty excited. His other tooth is almost half-way up already. It looks like he will most likely need braces.

Tuesday: At 8:20 am, we had 5 deer in our yard. We have seen so much wildlife close-up since we moved here. (We keep binoculars near the windows,too.) It is all just right in our yard. We also have a family of wild turkeys living nearby as we have seen them in our yard twice now. First we saw a group of 7 and this week we saw 5 again.

The older children had their play practices. The girls have practice for their play then they leave and Pilgrim stays just an hour and a half for his practice. (He is younger so he is in a different play.) I was able to go with the youngest children to the local "odd" lots type discount/warehouse store (during the girls longer practice). I got some good books (as usual) and some Christmas gifts. (I am hoping to be done most of my shopping by the end of Oct.) When we came back to pick up Pilgrim, the practice was still going on so I peeked through the curtain some and watched. Here Pilgrim was the only boy at practice that day so... he kept running the same scene over and over again so that each of the 10-12 girls could "run through" it. He was doing an excellent job but he was really getting good practice in!

When we got home from practice, we had some bags to carry up to the kitchen. The kids knew they had to get their regular schoolwork completed and it was already after 2pm. I was unloaded the bags to put things away.(Usually in cases like this each of the older girls keep an eye on the two youngest) Well, they were off getting their schoolwork done and I was distracted with work. At the time you don't think about it but during that small span of time, Precious fell over at the shoe closet and bumped her chin on the round metal tub of shoes. It was a small gash but right in the center of her chin and it was deep so she was really bleeding. My daughter got there right at the end of this very quick-happening incident and yelled for me as there was blood dripping. Oooooh. I hate to see my children hurt. I knew I needed to be strong and take a closer look and get it cleaned. My hubby usually does this if home. He later said she probably cold have gotten a stitch. However it stopped bleeding. It now has a thick scab on it. This bothers her as she keeps trying to pick it off.

Wednesday morning we had our first "official" lesson with our new music teacher. She is a very sweet Christian woman. She is a mother of three (She doesn't homeschool though). It is so WONDERFUL that she teaches both piano and violin. This saves so much hassle. We no longer need to run out twice throughout the week for lessons. The girls can work on the same pieces of music too. They have back-to-back lessons. She lives close to our church. So on this day we left and went to our church building to get some things set up for our Homeschool co-op (which was the next day). Usually during these lessons, we will stay in the room next door in her lovely home. I was worried about this with 4 others to keep quiet at each lesson but she wants us to stay and says all her students' families do this. Each time she brings different toys to the room from her children's toy stash. My kids love it. It has already been a blessing!

Thursday was our co-op day! Always such a wonderful day yet so busy. We jam so much into that one day! We usually end around 3 pm but I didn't leave until 4;30 (after clean-up this time) I think we may have too many classes this year. I am working to "fine-tune" our schedule but we may need to drop a class. I guess I never mentioned anything about our church homeschool group. I will do a post on it soon. I have some great pictures from our day, too. I started this group 4 years ago by asking the few other homeschooling moms from our church assembly if they would want to come together once a month for group activities with our children. Everyone wanted to so I then got permission from our church elders to use the chapel facilities and we started our co-op. It has grown a lot since then. We have a Christmas Around the World event every Winter, we do field trips together, we had a Career Night and this Spring we might do a play! It is such a blessing!

Friday, Daddy had off work! Yay! A day with daddy around. He usually still has too much work to do but he is here and has bursts of time with us. He played a round of pool with the kids right before lunch. Then we had a "Grandma Date Day" planned for Panda. We had talked about these days a lot yet this was the first time it "came together". Grandma (my mom) came and picked up Panda around lunchtime, they had lunch together and shopped (something they both love to do.) Panda actually got to takes stacks of clothing into a fitting room to try-on. (I usually just buy her current size and if it wouldn't fit then we return it.) They went back to Grams and Pap's house for supper with Pappy. (Pap was leaving to go to the hunting cabin for the weekend so Gram wanted to see him before he left.) Gram is also planning a Halloween party for her granchildren (my 5 and my sister's 2 children) I hope it is more of a Fall party then Halloween but she still usually does cross the line a bit with some monster or ghosts things, unfortunately. She knows we don't like that though. (I think she feels it is just innocent fun but these things do not bring any glory to the Lord--just the opposite.) I do not allow witches, etc. and really don't like ghosts or anything overly goory either. Panda helped her with some things for this party. She called us during supper time. She said how Gram was going to be painting her nails next. She said it was going to be black or green. I told her I really didn't think black would be attractive at all. I asked Daddy and he said NO! So thankfully she ended up with cute light green shiny nails (when she arrived home.) They left Gram's house after supper and shopped more until Gram brought Panda back home. They had a wonderful time together though and they really got some great deals! Panda loved it (Thanks Gram!) The others are now waiting in line anxiously for their "date days"

Here is what they got while shopping and everything was at such great sale prices!

Saturday was a work day: Pilgrim (and Peanut) helped daddy finish off their jungle-themed room. I will also have to post this as I took photos. (Before/After photos.)Today the trim just needed to be put on the wall and the giant leaf placed back up. (more to come in photos) Then Daddy mowed the grass. After that, we as a family worked on filling some cracks in our driveway. Daddy had to go to work for the evening shift. Unfortunately he worked all day at home then had to turn around and work all evening and some of the night. We have a really hard working daddy. I am so thankful for my hubby! He is a very handy guy! He is just as handy as he is intellegent! Thanks for your hard work, love!

Wow! I just looked up from my computer. (I am right at a large window with a great view.) A deer ran right by in the weeded-up lot next to us. I only saw one this time. It is so neat to have wildlife right in your backyard. At Our other homes we never saw much more than birds and squirrels.

Well, That was our week in quick review!

Thank you, Lord for all you do for us each and every day!