I'm watching my youngest son right now trying to juggle three little bags of skittles. The look on his face alone is priceless. I love cheap thrills.
Hesitantly, I thought I would start to fill in the gap of the last few months of silence. I guess I struggle with going that long and not blogging. Part of the time I wrestle with a terrible bout of "writers block" lately. While the rest of the time, I'm just trying to find the time to sit down to do it. I hate that. Especially because it's something that I love doing so much. I find it aggravating to want to pen my thoughts....and then not being able to collect the words to write. I don't know if anyone else finds themselves in that same boat. I'd really appreciate any suggestions on the subject.
At any rate, our new school year is out the gate and rounding the first corner, so to speak. Back in September I found a great online program for organizing, scheduling, and planning the school calendar. It's at Homeschool Skedtrack. It took some time to get the courses and schedules entered. On a daily basis, it takes a little time to approve and update the work the kids have done. But, you can maintain grades and your school year calendar, and run reports as well. It's been a great way to lay out the lesson plans for the courses that I'm putting together on my own. I really love it. Each day we can print off the day's work for each child and that gives them something to manage their work a little more independently. They like being able to check things off. With a 9th grader this year, I'm looking forward to just being able to print off a transcript and report card from the tip of my fingers.
For curriculum, we have some "old faithfuls" and a few new additions, all as follows...
- Bible ~ All 3 are doing Kay Arthur's How to Study the Bible ~ for kids to begin with.
- Math ~ Math-u-See's Geometry for Bri, Pre-Alg for Sis and Zeta for Con
- Science ~ Apologia's General Science for Sis, Biology for Bri and Creation Science Botany for Con
- Grammar ~ Our Mother's Tongue
- Writing ~ IEW American History Vol. 1
- History ~ Beautiful Feet Early American and World History (literature-based) and American Heritage Series DVD's
- Basic Maps and Geography ~
- Literature ~ a broad look and discussion of different types of literature (Shakespeare, short plays, songs, classics, etc.)
- Art and Music Appreciation ~ I have designed a schedule using the Usborne Book of Art the Usborne Book of Art Skills and the Usborne Introduction to Music. One 2-hour class each week.
- Keyboarding ~ Mavis Beacon CD-Rom
- Guitar Lessons
This year Rebecca decided to do math club. She is in high school now and so the math is TRICKY. She, being the perfectionist that she is, came out of class today in a rather foul mood. Methinks it has something to do with the review they had of a recent contest the team competed in. She was not happy on that day either. I'm just sayin' there may be a connection somewhere...
We have long since outgrown Trick or Treating and Halloween has become somewhat of an awkward holiday. It was never really a favorite of mine (although the loads of candy was cool) and now that my kids are all teens it's almost an annoying "holiday".
This year was a bit different, however, because the girls got to go to a dance! Rather than doing the costume thing and having a plethora of "thou shalt not's", the organizers decided to employ black lights and have a "who is the brightest" contest. It was soooo much fun!
The kids have recently become card game aficionados and the idea of dressing with a deck of cards theme was enthusiastically embraced. They spent a couple of hours creating their assigned/chosen card and this was the result.
Josh was supposed to be the jack of clubs, but he decided to hang out with some buddies instead.
Our little preemie, Sarah, turns two today!
Happy birthday, Sarah Jane!!!
This week has been a little strange, so far. Today seems a little more normal. I've been having some lung issues, and had to take time yesterday to explore the cause. Ended up needing an inhaler. So I basically didn't get anything else done except a few loads of laundry and one load of dishes, and some beds changed. No school, or anything else.
Oldest son, "P", also had to see the dentist yesterday, as he had something strange popping up under his tongue. Turns out it's a tooth! Uh, oh! He needs to see an orthodontist. Honestly, I thought we had a few more years before we'd need to see one of those. After our consult, we'll decide with our dentist how we'll proceed. But we'll likely have to pull his baby tooth to see if the new tooth will end up where it's supposed to be. If it doesn't? Who knows?
Today, we got some schoolwork and housework done, and then went off to the Grocery Outlet and the Dollar Tree. We participate each year in the Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child. If you aren't familiar with this project, click here to find out more. Our children enjoy filling up the shoeboxes with hygiene, school, candy and toy items. It's a challenge, sometimes, to get it all in there! And it's fun!
Some of the items we like to include are: Hotwheels, hairbands/clips, crayons, pens, pencils, paper, soap, washclothes, bathpuffs, toothbrushes, toothpaste, hair brush/comb, playing cards, and of course, candy.
At the Grocery Outlet this week, they have organic BBQ sauce I normally buy at a local market for between $4-5 for .99! Obviously, I stocked up! That stuff is good and guilt free, since I know I'm giving my family a high quality product and I am being a good steward at the same time. I also got Coconut water in shelf stable packs for .50 each! Wow! That stuff is great to have around, especially for baby. So I bought a case of that for my food storage. Also got some good deals on organic crackers and some Annies products.
If you have a Grocery Outlet, check it out. I've been there on and off over the years. Never got into the habit of going much. Now that we live in town, I plan to go more. If I see a great deal, I will stock up for my food storage. It's kind of like going to Costco. You don't know how long they're going have it, so you better get it now.
Well, my children need some guidance, so I better go. Thanks for stopping by!
With all of the excitement that has been building on the news about the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay starting in Victoria and making its way up Vancouver Island, I just had to take the kids to see it in real life :) Plus I have to admit that I really wanted to see it myself *grin*. So we made the trip to Campbell River and found ourselves a nice little spot to hang out near the 50th parallel to wait for the runners. As it neared there were tons of police vehicles monitoring the traffic and then the big red Coca Cola truck was the first thing to come into view :)
As the Coca Cola truck was passing by us they started hopping off of it and gave all 3 kids flags & these really cool coke bottles that have fibre optics in them so they randomly change colors from green to blue to red. They were a BIG hit in the car on the way home in the dark *grin*.
Next vehicle in the relay entourage was the RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) truck pumping out the tunes while they danced around on it. It was like being at a parade *grin*.
Once the sponsors had gone by we could finally see the flame! At first all we could see was fire floating above the heads of others watching ahead of us and then it finally came into full view. That baby was really burning! I think the fact that it was starting to get dark really made it look even more impressive than what we had seen on tv :)
And there it goes. It was only seconds from the time it came into view to the time it went past us but it was so worth it to see the excitement on the kids faces as it burned right in front of them :) We never made it to the new Spirit Square downtown Campbell River where the torch finally ended by lighting the cauldron on stage because the crowds were so fierce but we found a nice little spot right in front of the fireworks display *grin*. It'll be great memories for all of us as we may never get the chance to see it again :)
Happy Fall!
(I know, a bit late for fall!)
Here our some fall poem's....
The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.
The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.
by Emily Dickinso
Another......
In autumn when the trees are brown
The little leaves come tumbling down
They do not make the slightest sound
But lie so quietly on the ground
Until the wind comes puffing by
And blows them off towards the sky.
(I am not sure who this is by....)
And here are some Fall/Halloween pictures......
Well, Happy Halloween and Fall!!
Bye!
Swimmerbug a.k.a Laurel
Well, I never posted again after my menu plan last Monday. I'll try harder this week to post something besides my menu. Here is our menu for this first week of November. I stuck with my menu last week, except on Friday. I ended up getting pizza takeout. What can I say? I got tired and lazy. But it sure was yummy!
Monday: Homemade Macaroni & Cheese with Smoked Sausage and Tossed Salad
Tuesday: Vegie Pot Pie, Fruit Salad
Wednesday: Baked Chicken Breast with Curried Brown Rice & Peas, Baked Apples
Thursday: Beef Soft Tacos, Spanish Rice
Friday: Homemade Pizza or Stromboli, Tossed Salad
Saturday: Spaghetti, Garlic Bread, Tossed Salad
Sunday: TBD
Back to Organized Junkie
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Hi and welcome to the Tennessee Homeschool blog at Homeschoolblogger.com. My purpose is to try to help new homeschoolers (and veterans too!) find information on the World Wide Web that can help them with their homeschools.
If you have any specific questions about Homeschooling in Tennessee, please send me an email and I'll see if I can help.
~Betsy
PS. This blog is not to be any source for legal advice. Just opinions and ideas from homeschooling my own children in Tennessee since 1995.
