Amazed!!!

Oct. 10, 2008

Travels, Aug 2008, Part Three--Prague

We left NYC in the evening and had a pleasant overnight flight to Prague, Czech Republic. British Airways is a great airline! Very family friendly--they had children's movies and children's music to choose from, and children's meals, which they served before they served the adults. Very nice! The girls also enjoyed the goodie bags that the flight attendants gave them, full of crayons, a book, and an activity book. They also liked the little toiletries bag that every passenger had--that eye mask thing, travel toothbrush with a tiny tube of toothpaste, socks, airline headphones, and a blankie. I loved that they seated us all together. You don't get that anymore on US airlines! At least not for free!

Prague has a reputation for being one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and it lives up to its reputation. What a gorgeous, well preserved city! It is apparently one of the benefits of surrendering quickly after being attacked--many original buildings are still standing today. We met up with our Aunt J. there.

Our first day, we visited the Old Town. This first picture shows the Astronomical Clock in the background:

With Aunt J.:

We then walked over to Charles Bridge:

Everything was so gorgeous--it was really hard to capture it with pictures.

The next day we went to Prague Castle. This complex is vast, so we could only take bits and pieces. Also, in most of the buildings, we were prohibited from taking photos.

St. Vitas Cathedral, in Prague Castle was the big highlight. This cathedral was breathtaking. There were numerous chapels on the side of the church, all with a different theme, all with different windows and paintings on the walls, and scultures or tombs. K is standing in front of a particularly nice window:

That evening, we attended a classical music concerto. It was wonderful, as we expected, being in the midst of all this culture.

Our last full day, we went to the Old Jewish Quarter. This area of Prague is very upscale. The Czech Jews have done very well here in Prague, in spite of their history of persecution. We visited numerous synagogues, including the Spanish Synagogue, Pinkas Synagogue, Klausen Synagogue, and Old New Synagogue. Again, we were prohibited from taking photos, so we don't have a lot to show. However, here is one picture of the Old Jewish Cemetery:

Jews were buried one on top of each other here, as there was no real place for them to bury their dead. The whole tour of the synagogues and especially the cemetery was very somber. Jews in this area suffered as did all Jews from the Nazi occupation, and the weight of that horrible part of history fills the atmosphere everywhere you go.

That evening, we went to see a marionette show--Mozart's Don Giovanni. What a special treat! Prague is known for its fantastic marionette shows, and we were super impressed. The marionettes were beautiful--great costumes, lots of attention to detail. But the most amazing thing was that after a while, you almost forgot that these were not humans performing this opera, but puppets! The puppeteers had the marionettes shaking their heads, moving their arms around, and even making their chins bob, just as if they were humans performing opera. I didn't understand a word of the opera, nor did I know what was going on in the story, but it didn't matter! Merely watching this incredible skill and listening to the magic of Mozart's music was spellbinding enough.

Mozart, in marionette form:

Various characters:

That was it for our Prague trip. We had a really nice time and Prague is truly a charm. Foodwise, we tried local fare including fried cheese, wiener schnitzel, goulash, and lots of potatoes.

Oh--to my surprise, I was informed that there is a large Vietnamese community in Prague. In fact, the owner of the little corner grocery store where we bought our breakfast every day was Vietnamese. Who would have thought?

So--anyway, I highly recommend Prague as a European destination. Very kid and family friendly!

God bless,
A.H.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Oct. 10, 2008

Travels, Aug 2008, Part Two--NYC, Manhattan

Posted in Travels

Well, there is no way I could go to NYC and not visit Manhattan. Manhattan is one of my most favorite places in the world. I wish I could live there, but it's too far from family, too cold for my hubby, and the hs laws are so much stricter than where we currently live!

So I have to visit often to get my fill. We only had one day to play here so we tried to do as much as we could. I decided that we would try walking up Fifth Avenue. We took the subway into Manhattan from Queens and got off at 42nd and Fifth Avenue.

Our first stop was at the NY Public Library. Visit a library on vacation? Of course, when it's as cool as this one!!

Here we are outside the entrance, next to one of the Library lions (I don't know if it's Patience or Fortitude--I'm thinking the latter):

We saw a lot of really neat things inside--great paintings and murals on the walls and a really nice exhibit of NYC housing throughout the ages. We weren't allowed to take photos though, so I don't have any to show. But visiting this cool library is a great free activity!

Further north on Fifth Avenue, we walked past St. Patrick's cathedral:

I wish my camera did indoor shots better--this picture does not do this beautiful church justice! Another fine free activity.

The American Girl store is at 57th St. and Fifth Ave., so of course we had to go inside there. I just forgot to take pictures but if you can imagine about 100 shrieking 6-11 year old girls from all different races and walks of life, then you have the picture. This could be a free activity if you are a very strong person and your girls don't care about American Girl. Needless to say, this ended up not being a free activity for us.

And last but not least, our final destination of the day--a must for all fans of Apple Computer, Inc:

The Cube store!!!

Here are my little Mac users, in training:

We ended our day with dinner at a quaint Italian restaurant and then treating the kids at Dylan's Candy Bar. Umm...this was not a free activity for us either. But it was a very yummy activity!

The next day, we decided to stay in Queens, partly because we had never really gone to any other borough, and partly because our flight to Europe was later that day and we wanted to stay close.

Here we are in Corona Park, very near the entrance of the US Open. The structure in the background is called the Unisphere:

Ahem...no offense to Queens folks out there but Corona Park isn't as exciting as Central Park. Of course, we didn't visit the science museum there nor the zoo, so I guess my comparison is unfair. Anyway, an overall relaxing day and a good way to end our short trip to NYC. Oh--Corona Park is free too unless you want to go to the aforementioned zoo and science museum.

Stay tuned for part 3!

Stay joyful!
A.H.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Oct. 10, 2008

Travels, Aug 2008, Part One, NYC--US Open

Posted in Travels

After a very interesting flight, we arrived at our hotel in Flushing, NY, all ready to go to the US Open. We have never been to a Grand Slam tournament before, so we didn't know what to expect.

It was quite an experience. The tournament is set up in a very cool way. There is the Arthur Ashe stadium, where the really big names play. Then there are 2 smaller stadiums where the pretty big names play. Then there are about 18 "lower" courts where everyone else in the tournament plays. These are very casual, with open seating in bleachers.

There were 2 types of tickets--regular general admission, which got you into every court except Arthur Ashe, and general admission with Arthur Ashe. We had tickets for the Arthur Ashe stadium for the first day only, but we had a blast watching matches in all the other stadiums.

You generally get to hop all over the whole grounds--you can come and go to any match as you please. They do only let people in and out between serves, so as not to disturb the players. So it was really neat to be able to see a lot of players, both unknowns and big names.

Anyway--on to the pics.

Here are F and K enjoying a match on a lower court:

Good thing I brought sketchbooks and crayons for the younger kiddos:

An unfocused shot of the 2008 Women's US Open champion from our nosebleed seats:

Does everyone know that Venus and Serena were both homeschooled?

We caught tennis legend John McEnroe practicing on one of the practice courts:

Lexus was one of the sponsors and caught us as we were leaving the first day:

Overall, it was just a total blast. I was more surprised than anyone because I am such a passive tennis fan. My family loved tennis and so I watched many Grand Slam tournaments on and off as I was growing up. When I left home for college, I figured that would be the end of my tennis viewing days--I was definitely not interested enough in it to watch on my own. As God would have it, I married a former nationally ranked tennis player, so I continued watching tournaments on TV on and off. I didn't figure that I would enjoy being here at the US Open so much. I guess I just love live sports. I love sharing the excitement with the other fans, being surrounded by the whole "culture" of the sport, and just seeing the players--whether they are unknown or have celebrity status--giving it their all.

The kids enjoyed it too, I think. They liked watching women's doubles the best. FQ enjoyed climbing up and down the bleachers best. Overall, we had enough fun to think about attending all of the Grand Slams. Big dreams, eh?

God bless,
A.H.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Oct. 9, 2008

Traveling miracles

Posted in Travels

Our flight to NYC was quite disastrous at first. We had to use a specific airline because we had credit with them. The departing city was not our city, but a city about 100 miles south. And we had a very bad experience with the airport in this city the last time we were there (waited in the security line for well over 45 min.) so we decided to leave very early.

Turns out the airport must have fixed it's security line problem because we managed to arrive, check in, and get through security in 30 min. So we had over 2 full hours to wait until our scheduled flight. No biggie, we thought. Then we find out that there is a huge storm in our connecting city. First we're told that we would still catch our connecting flight, since all flights out of that airport were delayed. Two hours later, we are told that we would not make our connecting filght, and that in fact, they could not fly us out until tomorrow morning!

That was not acceptable--our tickets for the US Open were for tomorrow morning. We would essentially miss all of the first day. After a lot of talking and fussing with the agent, we finally get a later flight to the connecting city. We were going to just fly up there first, stay with a friend, and then catch the first flight out to Newark instead of LaGuardia, our original arrival airport.

We would still miss the morning matches but at least we could maybe catch some afternoon ones. This was the best we were going to be able to do. Our bags were checked to LaGuardia, so we would have to figure out a way to get to LGA from EWR, no easy feat.

We had to wait another hour and a half before going to our new flight, making it 6 hours that we've been at the airport. During this time, I cancel our reservation at our NYC hotel for tonight, while F makes plans with our friend in the connecting city. Finally we get on the plane and arrive at the connecting city.

As we are getting out of the gate, I heard an agent at the gate across the hallway announce, "final boarding call to LaGuardia". It's for the same airline, going to NYC LaGuardia. As we walked away, headed for the airport exit where our friend was going to pick us up, I said, half joking to F, "I should try to see if we can get on that flight."

Then I stopped and said, "hey--we should try to get on that flight!" F agreed, so I went to the desk near the gate and asked. I told the agent that I knew it was a long shot--after all, there were 6 of us. She looked at our family and said, "wait." Well--that was a lot better than "no", so we waited.

We waited for 25 minutes while she makes more "final boarding" calls, and during this time, she lets on 3 stand by passengers who were there before us. She continued playing with the computer, making more "final boarding" calls, and then said, "okay--I have 6 seats for you, hurry, get on." WOW!

While we're getting settled, I called the hotel again to reinstate our original reservation, all the time wondering where we would stay if our reservation was gone. The line was cut off while I was put on hold. We were ready to take off so I couldn't call back. So the whole flight, I worried about where we would stay--getting a hotel room in NYC with a reservation is expensive enough. How much worse would it be to get a last minute room?

But God pulled through for us again. At midnight, over 15 hours after we had left our house, we arrived at LGA with our bags and our hotel room waiting for us. How amazing was that?! We even found a Chinese restaurant that delivered delicious food to our room at 2AM.

We've had some crazy traveling/airport stories, but this was one of the best. For me, it is yet another reminder that: 1) we are never in control--He always is; 2) He works things out even better than we thought we could, and 3) His timing is always perfect. After all, the agent across the hall was just announcing one of her many final boarding calls to NYC LGA just as we were walking out of our gate. A minute sooner or later and we would have missed her announcement and gone right out of the airport. And really--how likely is it to find 6 empty seats on a plane where there were numerous delays departing from that city and everyone is trying to get out??? I had already accepted the fact that we were going to spend the night in the connecting city and miss most of our first day at the US Open. What a blessing to be given back that day.

Our trip turned out to be a lot of fun! And our flight back home was mercifully uneventful. Thanks again, God!

Praising His name,
A.H.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Oct. 3, 2008

Week 6, 10/3/2008

Posted in General

We had another very good week. I can't believe I never really used a schedule before. It has been so helpful to schedule out their specific subjects and the time they are allotted to do them. K. said that the schedule helps her to stay focused because she knows that she only has a certain amount of time to do something.

Before the schedule, poor K was having to go to her dance and gym workouts knowing that afterwards, she still had to do more work. Now, she's able to get all of her work prior to going. In fact, she's done by 2P just about every day. A. also is having better days, staying more focused. And that just makes a happier mom.

Besides the schedule, the other big news here is this:

My baby got glasses!!! She looks so grown up! Sniff sniff. She loves them though and is very pleased that she can actually see. We are hoping that these will decrease the incidence of her headaches.

Outside of that, our week was pretty typical. We finished up All Sail Set, which was an excellent book. I was a little nervous because we finished up Moccasin Trail two weeks ago and I absolutely loved that book. I didn't think anything could really hold a candle to it. All Sail Set isn't as good, but definitely a very fine read. K. really enjoyed it.

A's read alouds are K's readers, so I read The Perilous Road to A. We are also enjoying this book. K is reading it to herself and is getting ahead because she likes it so much.

We also discussed disagreements among friends this week, using the guided Bible study, Starting Strong. I was glad that the girls understand that disagreements are a part of life and of relationships, but that there is a Biblical way to handle them.

Another really neat thing that happened this week. We read about the orphan trains that rain in the 1850s, in one of our readings in American Adventures. One of the exercises at the end of the chapter was to discuss whether we should help out homeless people or just let them be. Both of the girls said that we should help the homeless. I tried to play devil's advocate and said, "why should we help them? Why should we work and make our own living and then give some of our money to people who don't work?" K first argued that many times people try to get a job, but the jobs just aren't available. Then she said, "And anyway, we should help out homeless people because God wants us to." And then A. added, "yeah, that is what Jesus would do." Wow--I was impressed that their primary argument for helping others out was because God told us to. I was thinking they would say something like, "it's a good thing to do" or something to that extent. How refreshing that "God said so" was enough reason for them to do something.

Hope your week was great!
A.H.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 27, 2008

Week 5, 9/22/08, learning from last week

Posted in Homeschooling

One big lesson to learn when homeschooling--reevaluate every year. Many times, things that worked so magically one year will flop terribly the next. Up until now, I had a very loose schedule for the girls. Sunday night I would write out all their assignments for the week in their assignment books. During the week, I would designate a time (usually a different time each day) during which we would do our readings together. Outside of that, they had free reign to get all their assignments done. Then, of course, we had all of our extracurricular activities and classes.

This worked very well last year. Everything seemed to be in cruise control. But it seemed to crash last week!

While we eventually got everything done, it was a lot harder! The free time seemed to hurt K., who usually dislikes having a strict schedule. Toward the end of the week, she was asking me if I could put together a schedule for her that would account for all of her free hours.

And so I did just that. I made a schedule for myself and both the older girls, accounting for every 30 minutes. It's a full schedule, but at the same time, I have designated a lot of 30 minute time slots for just catching up. I also have schedule in "car schooling" times, where they are to read their readers in the car or work on their memory verses in the car.

It worked fantastically this week! We got everything done and were a lot more focused. We'll be keeping this very focused schedule for a while--it has really taken the stress out of our days!

Here is a sample of one of K's days (she's 9 years old):

9:00AM--Math, memory verse
9:30AM--Vocabulary, grammar
10AM--readings with Mom (Bible study, history, and read alouds)
11AM--science with Mom (including doing our experiments)
12P--Lunch (with all the family!)
12:30P--read her reader
1:00P--spelling, dictation
1:30P--piano
2:00P--Latin
2:30P--snack, pack for gym class
3:00P--Rosetta Stone Spanish (on the computer)
3:30P--catch up time
4:30P--Gym class

And one of A.'s days (she's 7 years old):
9AM--Math, memory verse
9:30--Vocab, advanced phonics, handwriting
10A--readings with Mom
11A--science with Mom
12P--lunch
12:30P--read reader
1P--piano
1:30P--discuss reader with Mom
2P--Rosetta Stone Spanish
2:30P--snack
3P--read aloud with Mom
3:30P--spelling
evening--catch up read aloud with Mom

And here is mine:
9A--read to FQ
9:30A--read to L.
10-noon--readings and science with older girls
12P--lunch
12:30P--rest!
1P--spelling and dictation with K
1:30--discuss reader with A
2P--Latin with K
2:30--snack
3P--read aloud with A
3:30P--spelling with A
4P--drive K to gym, dragging all her siblings along!
4:30P--drive back home, get dinner ready
5P--dinner
6:30P--catch up read aloud with A if needed
7P--drive back to gym to pick up K, dragging siblings along
7:30P--drive back home
8P--kids' night snacks, vitamins, get ready for bed
8:45P--bedtime!!! for the kids
9P--shower, Bible study, exercise and possibly cook, and hanging out with the hubby
12:30A--this should be my bedtime but I go to bed much later sometimes. It's bad.

You should see my ICal calendars! I have color coded calendars for A. too, and for myself. Also I have a calendar for Daddy's work schedule. It's a rainbow of calendars, but it is working marvelously. I keep track of all of this with my lovely new Ipod Touch (thank you Aunt J!!!).

God bless,
A.H.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 15, 2008

Week 4, 9/16/08

Posted in General

Well, we resume our homeschooling with full force. Well, almost full force.

We just about have our electives schedule set, and this week, we resume Week 4 of SL's Core 4 for the older girls and Core PreK 4/5 for L. We are starting BrainQuest for 2 year olds for FQ.

We are doing a major review for K's math-- a big review of multiplication and division. A. and L. have already continued forward in their respective MUS workbooks.

We started a science project this week. It looks like we will be growing radishes! We started with making a box for our radish seeds to sprout.

Inside the carton, we placed 20 seeds, to see all the different stages of sprouting:

We will see how this experiment goes!! I am no green thumb, so I hope my influence doesn't mess up our experiment! LOL

God bless,
A.H.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Aug. 16, 2008

First week of the new school year! 8/16/08

Posted in General

Well, we started our new school year this week.

K. and A. are doing Sonlight's Core 4 together.

K will be doing SL's Language Arts 4 Advanced. A. is doing SL's LA 2 Advanced. We switched to Spelling Power for K's spelling, and A will continue with Sequential Spelling.

L. is doing Sonlights PreK 4/5 along with SL's LA 2 Regular.

We still love Math U See. Everything else is the same. They will do Rosetta Stone Spanish along with Signing Time for their foreign language. I am looking for a "live" immersion Spanish class for them, though. K. will continue with Latin.

For art this year, I am trying to decide between classes again, or Artistic Pursuits or Draw Write Now or Five In A Row's art lessons. Help!!!

K and A will continue with Mind Benders for logic.

So...how did we fare this week? The girls did great!!! We had a few hiccups, but overall, we got almost everything done. We only have 2 readings to do this weekend, plus a writing assignment for A. She did get sick this week, so she is a little bit behind.

FQ was quite manageable. He rode his bikes and scooters around the house, and played with his cars and wooden sword. L's school only takes about 30 minutes, so when she's done, they go outside and blow bubbles.

Other comments:

We love Core 4 so far! We read Simon Bolivar and learned more about this very ambitious man. We went through a geography workbook about South America. I am reading Moccasin Trail to K and it is so far an excellent read. I am reading By the Great Horn Spoon to A and we are also enjoying that book. K is reading it to herself.

This year promises to be good!

God bless,
A.H.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Aug. 16, 2008

Homeschooling??? Why we chose to homeschool

Posted in Homeschooling

I admit I never in a million years thought we would homeschool our children. We lived within walking distance of a classical Christian private school and I had dreams of walking our children down the sidewalk, clad in their cute little navy blue plaid uniforms, complete with the saddle shoes and navy blue ribbon in their ponytails.

Homeschooling was a weird idea to me, conjuring up visions of...of...well, of nothing. I had never met a homeschooler at that point in my life and knew nearly nothing about homeschooling. It just was weird and maybe it was weird to me because I knew nothing about it.

But somehow I came across The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and I read it all in one sitting. Or nearly one sitting. And it opened up a new world to me. I had thought homeschooling was for those who didn't really care about academics, that the texts and books used by homeschoolers were sub-par. This book proved me completely wrong. Susan Wise Bauer, who was homeschooled herself, has quite a resume, as do these folks.

So the seed was planted. I thought about it and prayed about it. I went to the Open House hosted by the classical Christian school down the street and somehow the school just wasn't appealing to me the way it was before. Maybe I looked too long at their tuition prices: $7, 700 per year for kindergarten, which included a half day and lots of arts and crafts. Arts and crafts are nice...but I think I can do that for less than nearly $8K. And that was just kinder--prices went up every grade. It hit me that by the end of 12 years of classical Christian private school, we would be too broke to send our kids to college.

And so I went back to the homeschooling idea. Someone sent told me about Sonlight. I got their catalog in the mail. And a grand idea hit me square in the nose. K. at that time was only 2 years old. I could home-pre-school her! If I messed up, well, I could just send her to kindergarten and no one would know!

We started when she turned 3--just reading aloud and playing with wooden letters. A few months later she was reading 3 letter words. By the time she was 4, she was reading first grade readers. I guess she doesn't need to go to kindergarten.

Quite by mistake, I had turned into a weird homeschooler. I love being weird.

God bless,
A.H.

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Aug. 16, 2008

Camps

Posted in General

K had an amazing two weeks of back to back camps.

First, she went to horse camp. She had never even ridden a horse before! But she got to take care of a horse for the whole week. She and her partner had to groom and care for their horse. She had 2 riding lessons per day, and by the end of the week, she was pretty good at trotting and doing small jumps. She overall had a blast! Here she is with Tater Tot, her pony.

She followed that with dance camp. She worked on 3 different dances, including a character dance. The dances were from the ballet Swan Lake. Needless to say, she had a blast this week as well. Here she is after her final recital.

She had a great summer with all her camps. We are done with camps for now though. Back to the usual grind!

God bless,
A.H.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jul. 30, 2008

Schedules, schedules, schedules

Posted in Homeschooling

Every time I hear a homeschooler get upset about being "behind" in her schedule, I say, "hey--you're homeschooling! You make the schedule and you're always on time!"

And I do believe that, with all my heart. But sometimes, I have to remind myself that I believe it. I'm a type A person and it's hard sometimes to be finishing after our local public schools.

I have been working out our schedule for next year and what with all of our vacations and things, we'll probably be finished with Core 4 mid June 2009. I was hoping to be done before summer.

What do I care? Really. What's a few weeks, months, even years when you're talking about a lifetime journey? What's important in the journey itself, the time spent learning together, the great discussions, the fabulous books read shared.

So I will say it again and again, most of the time to myself more than anyone else. Enjoy the journey, and don't look at the calendar. It'll all get done....at some point or another!!!

God bless,
AH

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jul. 27, 2008

Travels--July 2008, part 4, Guanajuato, Mexico

Posted in Travels

Immediately after gym camp, we headed for our annual Spanish immersion school experience, this year to beautiful Guanajuato, Mexico. This was our first trip into interior Mexico. We had only been to Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, and small cities near the border.

Guanajuato is a gorgeous, well preserved colonial city. It has a beautiful, pristine feel and it is surrounded by some beautiful mountains.

Our host family was wonderful. They had a great house with a fantastic view of the city. Here I am on their unfinished terrace, with the city in the background:

In the historical center of the city, there is a really nice garden, called Jardin de Union, that is flanked by trees cut into a square(ish). You can see it in the background:

We took a cable car up to see this famous statue called Pipila:

Another shot of the girls and the back of FQ's head, near the statue:

We also took a tour of some mines:

At one point in the tour, they shut off all the lights to show us what the miners experienced when they worked there. It was truly sad, to listen to the stories of enslaved humans forced to work far down in the earth with poor lighting and poor ventilation, carrying large loads on their backs. Miners didn't live more than 5 or so years after they started working in the mines. (Sorry for the downer.)

On our one free weekend, we took a tour to San Miguel de Allende. On the way there, we got to visit the tomb of Jose Alfredo Jimenez:

By far the most interesting looking tomb I have ever seen!!!

Unfortunately, we didn't spend much time in San Miguel de Allende, but fortunately, it looks suspiciously like many of the other colonial towns we have seen:

Spanish school was nice. This was the first school that had more students than just us! There were about 50 or so of them! The only negative was that due to that, we didn't get a true immersion experience. So many of the students spoke English to one another, which frustrated me greatly. We're supposed to be immersed! So after a week in the school, we put the girls in a Mexican summer program, where they got to play with local Mexican children and had non-English speaking teachers. There was no formal Spanish instruction, but immersion is instruction enough!

Our classes were also really nice--I got to take 3 literature classes and one Mexican politics class. Those were my first classes taught in Spanish. I now have a great appreciation for Juan Rulfo and Julio Cortazar.

Did I mention our host family was wonderful? They lived at the top of this great high hill, which was a challenging climb (but great exercise!). They had 8 grandchildren, and we met them all. The grandchildren were wonderful and played with FQ when we were all at school.

They served us delicious Mexican food, including chicharrones in tacos, mole, and pozole. Yummmmy!

The girls did so well with the trip. They are getting better and better at adapting to different countries and different cultures. It only took one day for them to remember not to put the toilet paper in the toilet.

They also ate really well--they tried just about everything! They are just sweet little travelers.

So again, we would highly recommend an immersion experience for learning a foreign language. I would recommend going during the school year, though, and not during the summer, unless you contacted the school ahead of time and verified that you would be one of the few students. However, even if you have to go in the summer, it is still a wonderful way to learn another language.

The school we went to was called Escuela Mexicana. The teachers and director were great to work with!

So now we are back in the US, recovering and awaiting our next trip--to Europe this time.

God bless,
AH

• Comments (2) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jul. 27, 2008

Travels--July 2008, part 3, Gymnastics camp

Posted in Travels

Our next trip was a short trip north to attend gymnastics camp. All the girls had a great time. K's camp was for competitive gymnasts and she got to have some world class coaching! She had a blast and made lots of friends.

Here she is with 2007 Junior National champion Rebecca Bross:

And here is 2004 Olympic all around champion Carly Patterson signing K's leo and posing with her:

And finally, K also got to meet 2008 Olympic team member, Nastia Liukin (with A looking on):

The competitive camp included an ice cream/swim party, bowling night, and a trip to a nearby waterpark. Here is K with a friend she met during camp:

The rest of us got to go to the park too--it was a great day! The kids all got to play with yet another aunt:

This is one of my favorite shots--FQ coming down the slide:

A and L's gym camp was also a lot of fun!

We can all say that if the girls are still doing gym next year, they'll be going to camp again!!!

What a great experience!

God bless,
AH

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jul. 27, 2008

Travels--June 2008, part 2, Destin, FL

Posted in Travels

After the shows, we already had to start packing for our next trip, Destin, FL. We had never been there before but we will most likely be coming back! It was a blast. We got to see a lot of family and some old friends.

FQ with Uncle M:

K with her aunt:

And yet, more family! Here we are with both my brothers and their wives:

FQ working out the sand shovel:

The girls having fun:

We also got to see some wonderful friends. Our children all got along wonderfully:

FQ was dangerous with that hose!

I am sorry to say we didn't get any pics of our kids on the waverunner, fishing, or roasting marshmallows, but they did do all of that and had a really wonderful time.

Destin is a beautiful, small and family friendly vacation spot, if anyone is interested!
http://www.destinfl.com/
http://www.cityofdestin.com/

Next stop--gymnastics camp!!

AH

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jul. 27, 2008

Travels--June 2008, part 1, Las Vegas

Posted in Travels

We have been very busy so far this summer! We finished up our core and took a break--a little too long of one, I think. But then we started traveling and haven't really stopped!

Our first trip this summer was to Las Vegas! We went to a friend's wedding. We did manage to find some nice kid/family friendly things to do.

We found the M&M World and had a nice afternoon there:

The kids also liked the fake Eiffel Tower at Paris Hotel:

And the dancing fountains at the Bellagio:

We had a meal at Quark's at the Star Trek experience. Here we are with a Vulcan:

I think the best thing there was the Aquarium at Mandalay Bay hotel:

And last but not least, the main event was our good friend's wedding:

It wasn't too terribly hot but nice enough for the kids to spend a lot of time in the hotel pool.

We headed home to finish up with a few things--that will be in the next post.

God bless,
AH

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jul. 27, 2008

Shows, June 2008

Posted in Children's Work

We got back from Vegas in time for the girls' dance recital and for A.'s gym show.

A's dance was set to "Whistle While You Work":

And L's was "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy":

A's best event is on bars--she has a really strong upper body:

Her handstand:

A has been taking gym classes at The Little Gym since she was 2.5 years. It has helped tremendously with her core strength and balance. Her coaches have been really wonderful there!

I'm sorry to say I didn't get any pics of K's dance. She had to perform 2 dances so she was in one for a little while and then ran to get into the other. Next time!

That was it for dance and gym for the school year.

More summer adventures next post.

AH

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jun. 3, 2008

More cooking 6/2/08

Posted in Food

One thing we're going to try to do this summer and hopefully the next school year is to have more cooking lessons. I am going to try to have one girl make something each week.

We started with K. making pancakes from scratch. I have been tinkering with vegan cooking, so we made these pancakes vegan and they were delicious!!

I was planning to take a picture of the pancakes alone but they were gobbled up too fast!

The recipe came from this awesome vegan cookbook, called Vegan With a Vengeance, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

This link takes you to her website and is a recipe for banana walnut pancakes. The basic pancake recipe is the same thing except without the bananas and walnuts.

It is technically FQ's week next week to make something so I may try to have each girl cook once next week. And FQ can help. He loves to help.

God bless,
A.H.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jun. 3, 2008

Art work! 6/2/08

Posted in Children's Work

I have been terrible about posting pics of the girls' art work.

Here are their self portraits from the last 2 weeks of their art class.

First, their teacher wanted them to practice their self portraits on paper.

Here is L's:

And here is A's:

I can't find any pics of K with hers, so I guess I must not have taken any.

Here are their final art projects, their self portraits on canvas:

We really have enjoyed art class this year. Sadly, our teacher is moving out of the country so we will have to work out something different for art. Any suggestions?

God bless,
A.H.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

May. 31, 2008

This week in review, 5/31/08

Posted in General

We had a very light but productive week, I think. My goals for this week were to get some things done, catch up, and rest. I think we did that.

K. and A., both just did a lot of math review this week. They both also read on their own--A. is reading Charlotte's Web, while K. is reading book 6 of the Anne of Green Gables series. She is eating through those books, like she does with every book she reads. We went through the math part of her standardized testing and she got all the practice problems correct. I am so proud of her.

L. homeschooled like usual. Her stuff only takes 30 min per day, and I can't take any more breaks. She is rapidly accelerating in her reading and reading well above her current readers and her program. She'll be done with LA 1 in 12 weeks, which seems like it's too long.

FQ was his usual cute self. I did buy him some paints to occupy him while I work with the girls. We haven't opened up the paints yet, so we'll see if I have shot myself in the foot or not!! LOL

Today, Friday, was very relaxing.

Usually Fridays are supposed to be our "rest" days. We usually run around so much during the week and work so hard, that I have made Fridays our "light" and our "social" days. We used to meet with one other homeschooling family on Fridays.

Well, recently, I have been meeting with that family only every other Friday. I guess I was feeling really drained on Fridays, plus I wanted to have the option of going to Friday park day with the local homeschooling group if I wanted to.

Today was one of those Fridays where we didn't meet with that other family. I thought about going to the park day, but felt too tired. And the kids were tired. So we did errands and had some fun instead.

We returned clothes at a store, went down to the city's aquatics office to transfer A. out of her swim class, and then went grocery shopping. We got back home in the afternoon and made homemade ice cream!!!

In the late afternoon and evening, we got very busy again. K. had gym practice, L. had gym class, and A. had her last swim class of this session. So I am glad we got to "rest" a bit.

Next week will be a true rest week. K. has only dance--no gym or tennis. A. has only gym, no yoga or piano, and L. has nothing. We will go to our neighborhood pool, cook a lot, read a lot, and play with Daddy a lot. We're looking forward to it.

At the end of the week, we are flying out of state to go to a friend's wedding. It will be the first of many trips this summer.

God bless,
A.H.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

May. 28, 2008

This week

Posted in General

Well, this week we just plan to take it easy. Since we are on a light schedule, we are very laid back and subsequently end up not doing a lot of stuff. I don't know how this happens. When we are actively working hard, we get almost all of our stuff done. When we are doing "light" schedule, where we have only half of our usual assignments planned, we end up not getting a lot of stuff done. I guess we just don't prioritize or focus during our "light" weeks.

So we are going to just do a math review, K. will continue studying for her standardized tests, and A. will keep reading Charlotte's Web and I will hopefully start The Horse and His Boy with her this week. We have been trying to start it since last week. L. is just flying with her reading. She is on week 23 of LA 1 but her reading level is well beyond that. I have considered not finishing the LA 1 program because she doesn't seem to need it, but I think she actually does. She needs the foundational phonics "rules" and the spelling and dictation. So we'll keep doing it, even though she is now reading Level 2 readers very well.

We had a very nice visit with my parents this past weekend. We don't usually do much for Memorial Day, except travel, which is what we did this time as well. LOL

But K. had a great meet. She is happy with how she did. She came in 5th All-Around, 2nd on beam, 5th on bars and 7th on vault. Not bad for a first Level 5 meet.

It was great to have the family see her--my parents, my brother and sister in law, and my best friend who is essentially my sister, were all able to watch her. And of course, her siblings and us. We all had a very nice time!!!

So that is all we're doing this week. Next week is the "last week of school" for our area's public schools, so I want to enjoy our days now.

God bless,
A.H.

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

About Me

HELLO!!! This blog is a place for us to publish some of our children's work and just to journal our amazing educational journey.