Rachel's Ramblings

Pregnancy Center Gala time again!

www.homeschoolblogger.com/earthenvessel/

This past Saturday was the annual Pregnancy Center Gala and Auction. As usual, my hubby was there that morning to set up the computers and make sure all was running smoothly in that realm.This is the same time that many hard working volunteers and Pregnancy Center staff are busy decorating the room for the evening.

Around 4 pm our sweet sister team of sitters arrived. We showed up at the St. Petersburg Coliseum a little before 5 pm and had a little time to look at the all the wonderful silent auction items before it was time for us to work. (We call it work, but it really is a joy!) Hubby was going to bid on a fishing pole but when the bidding went over $100 he decided that was too much for us.

My job every year is to connect with the lady who works out all the problems with registration. She keeps a list of changes to names and bidder #s which I take to make changes in the computer. That way when all the bidding is over, the item that were won go to the correct people!  

I am also part of the data entry team. Once again, after all the bidding is over, there are volunteers assigned to go gather up the bidder sheets and they are brought to the computer room. That's when the computer room really comes to life! Usually about 3 of us meticulously enter each Item # and the winning bid and price. I'm not sure how many Items there are in each auction but I would feel safe in guessing maybe around 200 items. As we are entering the items and winning bids, hubby is gathering the already entered sheets and sorting them by item #. When we finish entering we take over fine sorting what hubby started while he starts running reports for the cashiers and invoices for the folks who won their bids. It is a fine tuned machine as we all work together!

As we are doing all this we get to visit with wonderful friends, who unfortunately, we seem to only get to see at this one event each year. I should have brought my camera but didn't this year.

FIAR Field Trip

Our Five in a Row group studied Madeline this month.  To go along with our study I decided to coordinate a field trip to our local kids science museum.  They have an exhibit right now called, Grossology~the impolite science of the human body.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  It was a little boys dream come true and my girls loved it too. 

Did you ever want to know the science behind a sneeze?  Well, this exhibit not only explained the process but then the giant nose you stand inside of sneezes on you!!!

This lovely fellow explained all about allergies, sniffles, colds and anything else that can cause you to have a runny nose.  Yes, his nose ran frequently! See what I mean about a little boys dream....

The kids spent lots of time at the life size operation game.  Remember that game? What a concrete way to learn where all the body parts go.  It didn't hurt their eye hand coordination either.

The girls could have stayed in the digestive system playground all day.  Yes, they crawled through the whole digestive system.  The joke of where they came out of the digestive tract was not lost on them either. Yucky!!

The skin climbing wall was loads of fun too.  While they climbed along they were supposed to guess if they were climbing over a pimple or mole or hair follicle.

I did not take pictures of all the things to smell.  Really gross things to smell.  Aren't you glad this is not a scratch and sniff blog. LOL!  Somehow I missed pictures of the statue that you crank up and make burp or the tooting machine.  We will have to go back when it is less crowded.  The exhibit just got to us and lots of the school groups were there.   All in all it was a really cool and gross exhibit.  Hey, IT"S GROSSOLOGY!

Blessings,

Dawn

MamaBuzz Tour: "Mothering Heights" by Keitha Smith and Susan Brereton

This is a Mama Buzz review. The product was provided by: Judson Press for this review.

Author Information:

Susan Brereton is a former New Zealand resident currently living in England. She is a wife, mother of five children, and an interior designer. For many years, Susan has run a Bible study for mothers of preschool children, and has had a long association with the Navigators and Moms-in-Touch.

Keitha Smith lives in New Zealand with her husband and two children, including one with special needs. With a background in training and education, Keitha leads the women's ministry group at her church and serves on the local school's board of trustees.
Check out Keitha's fictional Mother's Prayer Blog ,The Jonah Tree. Also visit www.MotheringHeights.org.

My opinion:

"Mothering Heights" was a quick read that was enjoyable even if I didn't agree with everything that the authors wrote about.  I liked the fact that several classic books were used to glean knowledge from such as Pride and Prejudice, Pilgrim's Progess and several others.  The quotes used from the books were very much aligned with the theme of the book, mothering. 

Using Scripture Smith and Brereton do back up their writing with Biblical basis - again some of their applications of Scripture were not what I had interpreted them to be but I definitely did find myself gleaning some inspiration from the book.  This book was not geared toward moms who homeschool and it does include several mentions of having alone time and how good that is for the mom - one of the things I disagree with - but I can't throw the baby out with the bath water - because overall this book was loaded with uplifting writings to speak to the heart of a mom.

Wether you are a first time mom or a mom three times over this book will have something to speak to your heart.  With study questions that can help to see how you view motherhood and your expectations of others, it could be used as a guided Bible study as well.  Again it's a fast read which any mom will appreciate and the insight in the book will be well worth the time that it takes to read it.

Price: $15.00

Available at  Judson Press.  A sample chapter is available at the mothering heights website.

Veterans week Canada

Veterans' Week 2009, November 5 to 11
How will you Remember?

If you are looking for Educational resources relevant for Veterans week you are sure to find something here.

Veterans affairs Canada Links to Web sites relating to war veterans the history of our wars and peace activities and some great veterans stories.

www.vac-acc.gc.ca/youth/sub.cfm?source=links

Main site for Veterans Affairs Canada www.vac-acc.gc.ca

This from Veterans Affairs Canada website

There are many ways you can show that you remember and honour our Canadian Veterans:

• Pin a poppy above your heart.
• Attend a local Remembrance Day ceremony.
• Visit a friend or relative who just returned home from Afghanistan or who served elsewhere in the world.
• Listen to Veterans talk about their experiences.
• Create a mashup and share it on the YouTube Channel (Opens a new window) and on Veterans' Week our Remembrance Feed.
• Visit the Veterans' Week fan page (Opens a new window) on Facebook, write on our wall and share how you remember.
• Change your FaceBook profile picture with a poppy, write on your wall about how you remember, or create your own remembrance fan page.
• Write about remembrance on your blog.

Veterans Affairs Canada also has learning resource  materials for classroom use that they will send to homeschoolers sorry I posted too late this to receive this year (2009)

PLEASE BE PATIENT WHILE CHANGES ARE MADE TO THIS BLOG

Changes are being made to the blog in the next few weeks as soon as things are worked out I will return past articles and put up new ones.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE

Meanwhile if you wish to add information or a story to this blog please forward the info to my email at:

homeschoolresources@hotmail.com

School updates

Well we've been having lots of fun with school - I love doing school during the holidays as it really gives us more to study and do.  With my husband having gone to the ER by squad on October 29th and staying until late Saturday the 31st, we've been very, very busy.  Thankfully we haven't been sick, sick.  Two of the children do have stuffy noses and I'm thinking it's more allergies than an actual cold so we're continuing life as normal.  The girls and I continue to be busy with our Nutcracker rehearsals and this weekend marks every weekend rehearsals from now until the show!!  My surgery is rescheduled for the day after Thanksgiving - and yes I'm still mulling over how to get in some after Thanksgiving sales LOL  Anyway on to some pictures of school from about two weeks ago.

Bethanne studied Madeline and she started her first lapnote for this and she really enjoyed feeling like her big sister.

One of the projects she did was a Madeline 'doll' using a toiler paper roll.

Both girls with Bethanne's finished Madeline 'doll'

I don't have pictures of Hannah's lapnote so I'll take pictures later to show about J is for Japan unit.  We did study the solar system and we made her own solar system which lost air very fast with a little boy who thought the planets were fun to squash so now all we have is pictures.  Pluto is there, we had to draw it in - it's to the right of the blue balloon. 

Here is some bread and cookies I've baked and frozen.  The bread is pumpkin bread and the cookies are pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

And just because I can't leave my little guy out, here is a picture of Christian.

There will be more pictures coming from our field trip to Carriage Hill Farm - a historic working farm and other pictures of our school year so far.  I'm working on updating as our days get back to normal.

Time To Paint!

We are at the point in construction where it is time for us to start contributing to the process (more than just financially) to keep costs down.  I have three rooms to paint, numerous doors to paint, furniture to move, 5 or so pieces of furniture to refinish, shades/curtains to buy and hang, closets to build, oh and so much more!  Then there is Thanksgivng and, dare I say, CHRISTMAS on the horizon!  This is my favorite season, and I want to savor it somehow in the mist of all of this change.  I want my children to remember Christmas season 2009 as a great year, not the year mom went crazy. LOL! 

So to create balance, this is officially our last day of highly structured and planned school for this season in our lives.  We will still school, but in a lighter, less structured way.  The plan is to do reading, math, and tea time each day and have two goals for the week. Notice ~ I can't help but have to have a plan.  I really lack the unschooling bone, even though I wish I had it ....  The rest of the time, the kids will be learning skills in painting, weeding out toys, cleaning, playing peacefully and independently (still a challenge around here for some), and continuing to practice flexibility. 

On top of the basics mentioned earlier, the two goals for next week are to make an Arctic mural and do another outdoor challenge.  We will be studying the arctic and arctic life for the month of November.

I leave you with this picture of the kiddos!  Our outdoor challenge last week was to find squirrels and study them.  We could not find a single squirrel, but we did have fun climbing trees.

Blessings,

Dawn

~25 Days of Gratitude~

Today I am grateful for...

~love...faith...and continually answered prayers

~a beautiful teenage daughter who helps willing around our home

~two sisters who play together and claim to be "best friends"

~a husband who diligently prepares our home for winter, he is the best!

~a Friday tea party with loving Grandparents.

~health!  We are all so healthy! Thank you Lord!

I am blessed!

Closing Show And Tell Friday

I have decided after much prayer that I need to close Show and Tell Friday.  It has been wonderful connecting with so many ladies this way.  I feel like I need to scale back some in my life.  Thank you all who have joined in ALL on the fun over the last couple of years. 

~25 Days of Gratitude~

Today I am grateful for~

~full days...filled with grace, love, hope and joy!  Many activities and lots of smiles.

~daughters with tender hearts.  Grace and Elizabeth came home from Awana's wanting to send their favorite stuffed animals in the Operation Christmas Child boxes.  They have a shopping list started for what to send. 

~faithfulness....a faithful God who always their to speak loving words to me.  A spouse that is faithful in so many ways.  Children that are faithful in their learning.  Parents who are faithful and taught me responsibility. 

~a warm home and warm bed...

I am blessed!