http://blog.thenatureschild.com/2008/06/beat-heat-summer-con-test.html
check it out!
sue

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We have been trying to conceive since Dec./Jan. time frame and we got our positive.  Our expected Due Date is Jan. 22, 2009 but since I typically deliver around 37weeks we are thinking around the 1st week or so of Jan or maybe even the last week in Dec.  We would love to have a boy but are just as happy with another girl.

John is moving home this summer and I will continue to home school Shelby and now also John.  He comes home June 17th we cant wait!!

Karis is officially 2!  I cant believe it has been so long.

The end of our school year is winding down with just a few more days of Ca history and Math left to work on we will be closing shop soon:)

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(copied from home school group i belong too)- This is scary and other states will follow if this is upheld!!  No matter what type of home schooler you are or even if you dont home school dont you want the right to choose!!

Hello all - I received this lead from another HS group. Click the link below or paste it to your
browser for the full story. ~Michelle

Judge orders homeschoolers into government education
Court: Family's religious beliefs 'no evidence' of 1st Amendment violation

A California court has ruled that several children in one homeschool family must be enrolled
in a public school or "legally qualified" private school, and must attend, sending ripples of
shock into the nation's homeschooling advocates as the family reviews its options for appeal.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=57679

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We jumped right back into our studies.  We have started really getting aggressive with our math and writing... I found a way for her to do her writing without complaining.. a topic she loves! 

Most recently she has started a writing about "My Idol" in the hopes of someone she likes will motivate her, it was Hannah Montana (with a total of three names) which gave us a lot to write about.  Handwritten it is the front of a page and 1/2 the back, we start the typing (publishing) part tomorrow.

Math has been one of our biggest struggles.  The fact that she didnt know how to tell time, simple addtion and subtraction, or any of the other things she "should" have known in 3rd grade last yr when we pulled her out of school makes me feel like she has done great!  But i do know we have a long way to go and we take it one day/ one task/ on topic at a time.  I am very proud to say she can tell time, she cooks and therefore can read and work with measurements and fractions, can do simple addition, hard addition, and subtraction as well.  With time she is still not 100% on lapsed time (start 2:15 finish 3:00 how much time did it take?).  We will continue to work on it.

thanks to some help from other home school mommies I talk with we started reading Bingo.  she loves to read and that isnt a problem but i wanted to reward her for her reading, and have her reading a variety of material so this is her bingo chart we just started this month:

Reading Bingo

Science Fiction	Read to sibling 20min.	Spanish picture book	Your choice	Magazine Article
Poetry	Humor	Comic Book	Famous Artist	Newspaper Article
Nature:  about Animal, plant, earth, insect, human body	Music composer	FREE	Non-fiction	Book on Manners
Sports	Biography	An Inventor	Safety Book	Your choice
Fantasy	Adventure	How to book	A book from the Bible	Government

Any 5 in a row_____Go to Jumba Juice____

Two rows _________Go to Cold stone________________

Three rows_Go to the bookstore spend up to $20______

Four rows__________ Movie:  Your pick___________

Blackout____________ Scandia Golf ____________

I didnt know how else to put it in here but to copy and paste it...

I am trying to also use a lapbook for one of our lessons to try it out.  I am also trying a few other things as well and hoping we find something that will really help her retain the information better!

gotta go for now!

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"Death of a Child"

Sorry I didn't get to stay.
To laugh and run and play.
To be there by your side.
I'm sorry that I had to die.

God sent me down to be with you,
to make your loving heart anew.
To help you look up and see
Both God and little me.

Mommy, I wish I could stay.
Just like I heard you pray.
But, all the angels did cry
when they told little me goodbye.

God didn't take me cause He's mad.
He didn't send me to make you sad.
But to give us both a chance to be
a love so precious .. don't you see?

Up here no trouble do I see
and the pretty angels sing to me.
The streets of gold is where I play
you'll come here too, mommy, someday.

Until the day you join me here,
I'll love you mommy, dear.
Each breeze you feel and see,
brings love and a kiss from me.

By Sandy Eakle

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I cant believe we are a week into December already... I havent had time to breath let alone update my blog:(  We have done so much from math to science and everything in between... Shelby got to sing with the girlscouts at our city tree lighting ceremony, and has practice with Solohomeschoolers for our christmas caroling of the senior citizens home on the 13th... We picked out our tree, the girls decorated it, and the house is decorated as well now:)  I have gotten a few christmas gifts early and a couple of the family (mainly dh) gifts as well... we are loving the season and the time we have together:)  This season has a sad side for our family as well.  In Dec. 05, on Christmas morning our son William Ray Otwell died in our arms.  He was home with hospice care after finding there was nothing more that they could do to help him... We are very fortunate to have had the 9mos with him before he left us:)

here are some pictures of the events!

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I have mixed feelings about this.  Kevin says he is ready and doesnt mind me finishing my pack of pills i am on and then not taking anymore, or taking another month if i want to... that is just it i am not sure.  At first i was ready, but now I dont know if i want to wait till after the 1st week of Jan.  If i stop after this pack of pills i am on we will be over those pills next Sunday... Although it could take us a couple months (i have not had a cycle since conception of Karis in Sept. 05) or i could get pregnant right away so i have to know that i am ok becoming pregnant right away if it were to happen... I dont know i guess i will decide by the end of next week:)

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The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List

By Deborah Markus, from Secular Homeschooling Magazine, Issue #1, Fall 2007

1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?

2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.

3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.

4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.

5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.

6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.

7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.

9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.

10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.

12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.

14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.

16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.

18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.

20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.

22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.

23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.

24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

25 Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!

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Well, we started our week off with a dr. appt.  I had to get a biospy done... awaiting results but dr was optimistic with what she saw so i am trying not to worry and waiting for results.

Tuesday Shelby has Co-Op at church where she has a math class, writing class, and mad science class.  During this time i usually do housework and hang out with Karis but I took Karis to the library for some toddler time and playing with her age group of kids... she had fun..

Wednesday our church group L.I.F.E had Greek day and we played games that the greeks would have played and of course had food from the greeks.  The children helped several of the adults cook the food it was fun!

Thursday morning our CT came by, and we did our state samples and things of that nature.  That afternoon shelby had MOPS (monthly oral presentations) where the kids get up in front of a podium and speak to us (kids and parents) as a group about whatever they would like... one child told of his modal car he made with his father, another of his trip to england with his aunt, and shelby and several others did poems, and scenes from william shakespare plays... it was a lot of fun and the kids enjoy it and learn public speaking in a friendly environment.

Friday we went on our field trip to Sutters Fort and the Capitol Building.  It was a lot of fun and we learned alot....

Then today, Saturday, Was shelby's 10th Birthday.  we didnt plan the party due to kevin working and all... Karis, shelby, and i went to Denny's for Breakfast.  We came home and played WII for a bit then had to leave we were being too loud while kevin who isnt feeling to hot and worked all night last night was tring to sleep so we went to Kids gone wild, just to find they were only open for Birthday parties on friday-sundays... so we went to scandia instead and played for 5.00 in the club house (a big better mcdonalds play land and on a rainy saturday it wasnt to bad they had several bday parties going on and all and it was still not crowded) we had fun, yes i mean we i went into the play structure with them:)

Sue

I dont have pictures of the Greek day on this computer and it takes along time to link the two computers so i will email myself some of them later to help......

Thanks for looking:  Sue

by the way we dont usually have this much going on during a normal week!!

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We took a nice trip to a great pumpkin patch it was a lot of fun..

We finished with a banana when we got home:)  Paper about the trip to follow!!!

Sue

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Last Thursday we had Science in the park and the topic was Dry Ice... here are some pictures.  the kids had a great time and learned alot:)

Shelby looking in amazement...

The big bubble in the dry ice w/soap in water

the dry ice fumes blew up the balloon..

the dry ice fumes popped the lid off the coffee can.

it was fun!

Sue

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Well, last week was fun but we had a lot of little things to deal with besides school!  We started our co-op on one day (Tuesdays) and it is math, writing, and they are hoping they get an art or science class started real soon.  This takes care of Tuesday mornings for us and since most of our work gets done before noon we dont get much done and I dont sweat it because the core things are done...  Wednesday we spent doing a fun co-op day with our church group LIFE.  They did many hands on activities to include making mummies, writing their names with egyption signs, and many other things.  They also played Egyption games such as leap frog and tug a war...  Thursday was pretty typical but i had a dr appt in the early morning so we didnt do as much as i hoped but did get our core subjects done including a math test from the 1st few lessons to make sure she is remember them while we push forward.  Friday we took it pretty easy after all the things we did during the week it was time to rest and of course our park day... busy week but it was fun and we learned a lot!!  Here are some pictures to show how much fun we had!! we also did a science project (art type) on monday and friday evening my child wanted to do Fall Art!

(above) This is Shelby working on an Energy Pyramid for science... food chains!

(Below) The finished product!

(Above) Picture of several of the kids' mummies!

(below) picture of the group with their mummies!

(below) Shelby working on her "soap" making the statues from Egypt (sorry drew a blank and cant think of the name)

(below) that finished item!

The next two pictues are of shelby and the group playing leap frog, on the second picture and on picture number three you can see Karis (my little one) playing leap frog too or at least trying:)

now tug a war... the last picture some parents were involved i am in there! (i am in the orange-ish/peachish looking  shirt)

Last but not least the pics from friday's fall art!  and  a special surprise karis gave us!!

See how busy our week was, exhausting but fun... wouldnt change it for a thing!!

On top of this on Saturday I went to a yard sale just to "look" and stumbled upon a girl scout book "juniors" that shelby and i have to get before next thursday and the lady was asking $0.25 each for the books and I thought she would charge at least like $5.00 for those books but i got the two for girl scouts Shelby needed and several other books two of which i will use for home schooling and only paid 2.00 for them all all of them it was a wonderful find and a blessing as well!

Sue

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I guess i need to remember to resize the pictures.  I am hopeing this post will move everything down so it doesnt run into each other:)

Sue

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Shelby was so much enjoying the art she had on thursday she wanted to continue so we pulled out the finger paints!!

Thanks for looking they had a great time and I have several master pieces to hang in the house:)

Sue

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We went on a field trip to an Egyptian Museum and saw tons of wonderful things.  Shelby and I are not currently studying Egypt or anything really about it but some of the people in our LIFE group was and we thought it would be a fun field trip anyway and it was.  We enjoyed all the artifacts and things there.  There was some very cool stuff.  Here are some pictures!:

These are some of our pictures from the day!

Sue

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So today although we shouldnt have skipped church we baked and it was wonderful!  I made home made Buiscuts for the very 1st time ever... and they were so worth all the time i put into them.  I had to let the Yeast sit, i had to mix all the stuff, knead the bread wait for it to rise, and still after all that my house smells so wonderful and the food was great!  While the bread was rising Shelby Baked Cookies with minimal help from me.  I was next to her in the kitchen the whole time and helped her get the ingredients and all but she did all the work and figured out which measuring cup/spoon she would need, she beat the ingredients together and put them on the pan to bake... She is as proud of her cookies as I am of my Buiscuts... i will post pics soon!

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we had two back to school picnics.. 1st one is LIFE (learning in a family environment) through our church.. the second one is CHSC (Christian homeschoolers of solano county)...

Hope this works out!!

We have so much fun in our groups... i will post more pictures of our activities alone and with our groups!

Sue

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