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I can't believe it has been over a year since I last posted anything on here. We are continuing to school during the summer. We recently finished reading The Call of the Wild by Jack London. It was a good book. We also read The Odyssey. The girls are taking piano lessons again. The teacher they had before moved and I just got around to finding another one. It only took me a year. I just finished reading my daughters posts on here and am completely shocked. They have no regard for correct spelling or grammar. I hate computer slang and their posts are full of it. I'm very grateful that they have met people on here with like interests. I really don't know where they learned computer slang. I do know that I have got to get this habit corrected. |
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Last night after I got home from work, we finished the 5th book in the Spiderwick Chronicles. It was a good series and not exactly what I expected it to be. The ending was bittersweet. Now I just have to find out if it is still playing in theaters in our area. If it isn't my girls are going to be very disappointed. Oh well! I guess they will just have to wait for the video to come out in about 6 months. Monday I hope to begin Treasure Island. As someone suggested audio books, I think that is what I am going to use. I will have the girls listen and follow along in their books. We use these books as read alouds so they can get used to reading aloud as well as hear how it should be read. I think an audio version of Treasure Island will be great, then they can listen to someone reading besides themselves and me. I still need to buy the books for Nims Island before we can begin reading it. Can you tell that I love to read? I wish my girls and son had my love for books, but they don't. Maybe some day (sigh). |
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I haven't been very motivated these past few weeks to get regular schooling done. The girls have been playing video games for school. While they are educational in nature, I really need to get back on track. Last Friday we did go see the play The Giver, based on the book by Lois Lowry. The play was really well done. They did a good job of following the story line of the book. The girls and I are working our way through The Spiderwick Chronicles so that we can go see the movie. We are currently on book 4. Thankfully, there are only 5 in the series. I don't know how we are going to read all the books we need to in the next few months. We need to read Treasure Island because there is a play attached to it that we want to see in May. We also need to read Nim's Island and Prince Caspian because Walden Media is releasing movies based on both of those books. We have so much to finish up. I guess we will try to have school during the summer to finish some of the stuff we have started. It is just so hard for us to have school in the summer. |
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For whatever reason I couldn't sleep last night. I stayed up catching up on e-mails from all of my yahoo groups. Checking out the links that people so generously share. I am always amazed at all the helpful information people are able to find on the internet. I have to wonder what search engine they use to find this stuff and where do they find the time to search for it. I am grateful for their hard work. I am so in awe of others blogging sites. I find doing this blog to be rather difficult. I don't know if it is because it is homeschool blogger and other blogging sites are easier or what. I was reading my two daughters blogs. It really touches my heart to read some of the stuff they put on there. I just wish one of my daughters wouldn't misspell so many words. I have taught phonics and worked on spelling. I swear. I wish I could find something that would just click with her and she would learn to spell. I have to say that it is rather embarrassing to know that others are reading her blog and seeing all of those misspelled words. I can just hear the comments. Our schooling has been rather intermittent the past few weeks. We did finish reading the Spiderwick Chronicles Book 1 The Field Guide. My girls want to see the movie, but the rule in my house is that if there is a book, then it has to be read before the movie or play is seen. We also finished the book by Lois Lowery The Giver last month. I have scheduled a date for us to go see the play for that one. Yesterday we started reading the second Spiderwick Chronicles book, because from the commercials for the movie, book 1 didn't cover it. We are continuing to learn about Ancient Egypt. Right now we are studying Mummies. We read the Time Warp Trio book Tut Tut and watched the show for it on Discovery Kids. We also watched a show from the History Channel about Mummies, but I don't think it was very interesting for the girls. Maybe they learned something from it anyway. I read something a while back (can't remember where) about unschooling. I found it very interesting, especially the part about how educational video games are. Nintendo makes lots of educational games for their systems. I have bought quite a few of their games in the last few weeks. The games are adding to our educational experience in a fun way. |
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I haven't written anything in a while, so I thought I would do a little catching up. On Friday, the girls and I made salt dough so they could make an Egyptian Cartouche. A Cartouche was a stone tablet where the name of the Pharaoh was written. The girls had to write their names on theirs using heiroglyphics. Today they are painting them. I would love it if we could make a diorama of Ancient Egypt. The problem is I really don't know how to make one. I guess it is something I need to research on the web. Next we will be studying about Mummy's using an HOAC lapbook. We just finished reading the book The Giver by Lois Lowry. It is about a boy who lives in a perfect community. It is science fiction. Now I have to schedule a date for us to go see the play. This weekend I filed my taxes. Yeah!!! I'm glad to have that behind me. I also made a chore chart for the whole family using a free service on the internet called ChoreBusters. Here is the link ChoreBusters if you want to check it out. I was looking for a bible study for the girls to do next year and I finally found one that I like this past weekend. It is based on the allegory Hinds Feet on High Places. It looks really good, I hope I can wait until next year to start it. The girls are loving having a blog and meeting new people. Especially my 11 year old. I'm glad I introduced them to the world of blogging even though I am such a newcomer myself. |
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Well today we got up earlier. I was so hoping to get an early start on school and be finished before dark. It didn't happen. Something that should have only taken 45 minutes took 2 hours if not more. I was so frustrated by the time we finished. I'm sure my girls were frustrated too. I just don't understand it. Of course one reason is that they were to busy talking and fighting instead of doing their work. Also, my youngest one didn't sleep last night and she was tired today. That makes her not very cooperative. At least one thing in this journey is for sure, God's mercies are new everyday. Hopefully, Monday will be better. We did finish lapbooking Sumerian Gods and Heroes last week. I would love to figure out how to get the pictures in here. Maybe one of these days, when I can truly concentrate, I will. |
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What can I say about blogging? I am still learning how to get things on my page. I did learn how to put a Daily Bible Verse on there today. My girls are having loads of fun checking out everyone's blog. They get so excited when they have comments. School today was like it is everyday around here. Hectic with not enough time. We slept to late as usual. My brother came over for me to do his taxes. We are currently working on 3 lapbooks, Ancient Egypt, Apologia's Botany and Who is Jesus. I always try to do something like Who is Jesus to prepare for Easter and remind my girls what Easter is really about. I absolutely love the lapbook e-books from HOAC and LiveNLearn Press. Without them, I don't think we would be doing lapbooks. Their products save me so much time. |
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My two youngest daughters are so excited about having a blog. They really want to meet other homeschoolers. I hope they do. They have been looking at and reading other peoples blogs. The problem with that is they then come to me and tell me they want such and such on their page. Well I am not help to them because I don't know how to put it on their page. I did figure out how to put some of my favorite music on my page. Now they want me to put music on theirs. I didn't get a chance to do that for them today. We are not early risers. I read some peoples homeschool schedules and I cringe. They are up at 6 in the morning and start school by 7. My family is definitely not like that. Others will probably think that we are weird. We sleep late, start school late and finish late in the day. It works for us, most of the time. Of course, if we got up earlier in the day, we might finish school before 7 or 8 p.m. Right now we are really into lapbooking. They have 3 going at the moment. They lapbook for science and social studies mostly. Sometimes, I just throw one in that I want them to do, like Who Is Jesus. This is an HOAC lapbook. I love their lapbooks and have purchased quite a few. |
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I am new to all of this blogging stuff. My one daughter wanted a page on myspace, then my other two wanted one. Instead of allowing them a page on myspace, I allowed them to set up a page here. They are 10 and 11. Hopefully, I will figure out how to use it correctly and be able to keep and eye on my girls. I plan to write about my life with them and about our school. I will post pictures, if I can figure it out. |