I just want to thank everyone for all of the sweet birthday greetings that were left for me at The Lounge! I had a great birthday! It was nice and quiet and peaceful. I went to Starbuck's and got my Mocha Frap from my sweet friend Pammy! Then we had order-out Mexican food for dinner and Gil and the kids surprised me with birthday cupcakes and chocolate with the birthday song at the end of the day. It was perfect! Thank you all so much for making my day so special!!

Waaahaaahaaahaa!!!

Okay, so she's actually yawning, but it looks like she's cracking up. LOL!

I would have to say that all of my boys are pretty artistic. Brittany is the writer in the family, and my boys all love to draw on paper and on computers.

Chris happens to love drawing animations and is working on game coding, but what really impresses me is how he can whip up a game character out of his head and draw it out in three dimensions. Sammy also loves to draw. He watched Chris draw out Sonic The Hedgehog and he decided to draw him too. He told me that you have to draw shadows and reflections of light on them or it's not good. LOL!

Here's a pen drawing of Sonic that Chris did.

Here's how he finished it up in PhotoShop

This is Sammy drawing Sonic without any help.

We found out a few weeks ago that Sammy is very near-sighted. I knew that he had to be somewhat near-sighted because he would either stand close to the TV or squint to see it from 3 feet away. He's suppose to wear them all of the time because his vision is pretty impaired. He ended up breaking the glasses the first day. Thankfully, the guy at the eye glass place was able to repair them somewhat while we wait for his replacement pair to come in.

Here's he is!

DRUM ROLL, PLEASE…………

Here is our 2008-2009 Homeschool Plan!

Chris- 10^th Grade

Language Arts-

--Vocabulary- Wordly Wise

--Grammar- Easy Grammar

--Writing- Word Craftsman & various writing assignments

--Reading- Classic novels

Bible- ILumina Gold Bible software

History- Ancient History and The Bible with Diana Waring. Plus Answers in Genesis DVD’s, Drive Thu History DVD's, Unwrapping The Pharoahs, and lots of research and books.

Biology- Alpha Omega Lifepac Biology. Plus DVD’s, research and books.

Japanese- including online lessons at LiveMocha.com and class on Japanese writing

Algebra- Key to Algebra & Key to Tracker online course

Computer Graphics- Photo Shop CS2, Paint Shop Pro

P.E.- Various sports and activities

Sammy- Kindergarten

Bible- Bible Story Book, Ken Ham Creation books

Language Arts-

--Reading- Explode The Code

--Writing- Mead Writing Fundamentals

Math- Various number games and workbooks

Science- Backyard Scientist- science experiments

Social Studies- Going around town exploring community workers and businesses.

We’re doing various lapbooking activities, arts and crafts, music, and Physical Education activities at home and at the park.

We’ll also have Park Day’s with our homeschool groups, planned and unplanned field trips and organized activities with our homeschool groups.

No, we didn't actually go anywhere. I've just been missing in action from the online homeschooling community since May. I would have loved to have said that we just got back from a trip from Europe, or Hawaii, or some other exotic place, but that's not it. We've been spending our summer at home being very busy with ...well, just life.

Brittany has graduated from high school and will be going to college. Now I have Chris in 10th grade and Sammy starting Kindergarten. I'm delving into lesson planning and selling and buying curriculum. Out with the old, and in with the new!

My mom has just recently been diagnosed with Scleroderma and Lupus. We weren't thrilled to hear this news, especially after everything that she has been through already. We need lots of prayers. We have faith that God will carry her through all of this. She's been seeing lots of specialists and having a lot of tests done. She has some scarring in her lungs so she'll be starting on a cancer drug to try to stop that from getting worse. The more prayers the better!

I hope that everyone is having an awesome summer! I'll be hopping around to blogs and the Homeschool Lounge  to say "Hi!" to all of my sisters soon!

Can you find the real kitty cat?

Last week we had a little Fiesta party. We played some Mariachi music and had a great Mexican feast with carne asada, bbq chicken, and all of the fixin’s!

Jason really got into it!

Sammy got to hit his very first piñata!

  The other night we went to a street fair around the block from our house. It was quite fun! There was lots of food, entertainment, and various vendors all out in the middle of the street. The kids made some crazy hats and had a clown make them balloon swords. They looked pretty silly, but they sure had fun!

  Brit and I went to see Craig Morgan (country singer) performing in concert at a local park. We had so much fun! It actually rained in the middle of the concert. We had to pull our microfiber blanket, that we were sitting on, and pulled it over our heads! Yay for microfiber! We stayed relatively dry! Some people were screaming and running..but we stayed and danced and sang as the concert went on! That will be one mother-daughter night that we will always remember.

This is what my oldest son, Robbie, brought in from the garden today. He definitely has the green thumb that I’ve never had. It’s amazing to see how quickly he learned about gardening. He’s even harvesting his own vegetable seeds and will be using those for next year. I gave him my dad’s old gardening book and he gets on the internet and has become quite an expert on plants this past summer.

Yummy! We’re sure eating healthier these days!

These are some very important social skills that I believe children need to learn whether they are learning in a classroom, or being homeschooled…

 --Being respectful to family and friends

--Learning to be problem solvers and peace-makers

--Being confident in who they are and also being able to humble themselves

--Learning acceptance of others for who they are, but not participating in poor behavior or going against moral standards.

--Choosing friends who will encourage them and keep them positive

--Helping those who need help, and teaching them how they can also help themselves

--Being hard workers and self disciplined

--Being honest and never compromising integrity no matter how hard it may be.

 So the word “socialization” can be a negative thing, as well as positive, depending on the time spent on learning these very important skills.  It takes a lot of individual attention with guidance, and by following examples, to learn how to be a good person who can socialize properly.

 I use to volunteer at my children’s schools (before homeschooling) and I can tell you that some of the socialization that I witnessed on the playground was not exactly admirable. One yard duty watching over 50 – 60  children could never replace a parent watching over their own children.

I’m going to list some of my favorite products that I have bought for my son, Sammy, that I feel has helped him to grow in his learning to prepare for kindergarten homeschool.

One of my favorite beginning literacy approaches for ages 2-6 is using the Leap Frog DVD Letter and Word Factory programs. You just pop them into your player and let the learning begin! My son was recognizing letters and their sounds after watching the Letter Factory DVD only two times. Then he went around the house pointing at every letter he would see and say the sound. The next DVD is the Talking Words Factory.

The Leap Frog Leap Pad's are also excellent for early learning, as well as for grades up to 7th. Sammy likes the matching games and making music with different instruments that are on some of the books. He also has learned the U.S. states this way.

These are just supplements to reading and spending time together. Of course reading to your child is the most important and valuable time spent. We buy a lot of books through our local city library. They have great sales twice a year and I love to stock up.  I also buy a lot of our books through Ebay, garage sales, and thrift stores, as well as on Amazon.com and R.O.C.K. Solid.

Okay, I'm a little late at posting this. I had an unexpectedly busy day today. I did find time to get over to this site to download some good stuff though.

Here's the scoop!

Learning A–Z Open House Starts Today
Teacher Appreciation: Try One Learning A–Z Website a Day
The Learning A–Z Teacher Appreciation Open House begins today—Monday, May 5. That means anyone, anywhere can get free access to one of the six Learning A–Z websites each day of the week. Today our gift to you is Reading A–Z. Enjoy your choice of thousands of resources: leveled books, lesson plans, and worksheets; poetry books; high-frequency word books; phonics and alphabet worksheets; and reading assessments.
Access Thousands of Books, Lessons, Worksheets
The websites will be open on the days indicated below, from midnight to midnight Central time.
Monday, May 5: ReadingA-Z.com
Tuesday, May 6: Raz-Kids.com
Wednesday, May 7: WritingA-Z.com
Thursday, May 8: VocabularyA-Z.com
Friday, May 9: Reading-Tutors.com
Plus a bonus day—Monday, May 12: ScienceA-Z.com

Sign-up Today, and Benefit All Week
If you are not already a registered user of one or more of the Learning A–Z websites, just register for Open House (www.learninga-z.com/openhouse) then visit your My Account page each day to activate the free pass for the appropriate website.Have fun!

General characteristics

Crew: 3

Capacity: Up to 150 troops or 78,000 lb of cargo

Length: 124 ft 3 in (37.9 m)

Wingspan: 110 ft 4 in/132 ft 7 in (33.6 m/40.4 m)

Height: 43 ft 4 in (13.2 m)

Wing area: 1,740 ft² (162 m²)

Empty weight: 105,000 lb (47,600 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 219,200 lb (99,400 kg)

Powerplant: 4× Pratt & Whitney JT8D-17 turbofans, 15,500 lbf (68,9 kN) each

Performance

Maximum speed: 465 knots (861 km/h)

Range: 2,600 nm (4,810 km)

It sat near my backyard for about a half hour as they used a crane to rearrange poles and traffic lights to make room in the intersection. The wings were on top of a flat bed truck in front of the fuselage. We climbed up into my son's clubhouse to look over our block wall.

The YC 15 was in route from Plant 42 to Edward’s AFB where it will be retired and on display.

Local newspaper article: http://www.avpress.com/n/03/0503_s14.hts

What a neat sight!

I've seen this father and son team on TV interviews. This is such a wonderful example of what love can do. The strength, courage, and determination is all drawn through this father's love for his child. Kinda' reminds you of another Father that we know.

Grab a hanky! (Don't forget to pause my blog music before playing the video.)

Thanks, Eren, for posting this Youtube video over at The Lounge!

We drove out to the north west side of our valley yesterday, looking for a huge flock of 2,000 sheep that we had seen just the day before. The sheep were gone, but we enjoyed the view of poppies blooming everywhere. In one direction you can see poppies. In the other direction there are snow-capped mountains.

We enjoyed driving through the agricultural parts of our valley and seeing all of the farms and vineyards. So, although we missed getting pictures of the huge flock of sheep, it was a nice drive.

In a couple of weeks we'll be heading out to the California Poppy reserve right here in our valley.  It's a spectacular thing to see. People travel from all over the state to see it, and it happens to be right here in our valley!

Here's more information on the Poppy Reserve .

This is my all-time favorite homeschool curriculum site. I buy a lot of used goods on Ebay, but you can't beat the prices at Rock Solid when you need to buy something new.. like workbooks, answer keys, etc.. They also have a lot of homeschool games, supplies, and tools that you can't find anywhere else for good prices.

If you use Alpha Omega, they're having a 20% discount for the month of April! It's a great site. Have fun browsing! Just click on the Rock Solid banner on the right-hand column below.

This site is a gold mine! I've loved Starfall  and Letter of the Week for as long as I can remember, BUT...this site called Literactive is the best site for preschoolers that I have found yet! It has guided reading, e-picture books, spelling, nursery rhymes, blackline masters, e-poetry, and tons of learning activities. You have to register to be able to use the interactive activities and stories, but that's very simple to do. We just joined this past week and it's been so much fun for Sammy. He's actually learning from the activities as he's having fun. He really loved the traditional tale, The Three Little Pigs. He sat with his mouth dropped open while watching it. It looks like they will be adding a lot more.

I'm telling you that if you have a 3-6 year-old this is an excellent site for them!

I get daily devotionals in my email from Charles Stanley, and I thought that this is one of the nicest descriptions on salvation and love that I had ever read.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

February 15, 2008 -- Our Loving Friend -- Romans 5:6-11  

            Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and many people no doubt received cards, gifts, or kind words from friends and family. But no matter how tender our expressions of affection can be, human love pales in comparison to Jesus' divine love, which He demonstrated by dying on the cross to save us. 

            Jesus lived a perfect life--one which was sinless and fully pleasing to God. He had no unrighteousness for which He owed payment (Romans 3:23). But we do. Until the Savior intervened, our destiny was fixed: we were headed for eternal separation from God. The Lord cared so much that He willingly set aside His divinity and became a man to live among people whose hearts were far from the Father. In fact, He even came to die on behalf of a world that rejected Him. 

            Today's passage describes the mystery of an innocent person dying in place of a guilty one. He questions who among us would volunteer to take on the justly deserved punishment of someone else. Perhaps we'd consider helping a righteous person, but Jesus was willing to help the guilty. He voluntarily became our substitute-- taking on our sin-debt and enduring the penalty we deserved. God's wrath was poured out on Him for all our sins. 

            The Savior died on the cross so that we might enter God's family and live with Him forever. Because of Jesus' sacrifice, our status has been changed from outsider to child of God, from enemy to beloved, and from stranger to friend. No one could care about us more deeply than that. Jesus is truly our loving friend