Eagle Valley Acres

• Mar. 28, 2008 - Were back...

If I wait to get pictures loaded of our trip this blog will never get updated!  Well of course we had a wonderful time in Hawaii, lots of sun, sand, relaxing and swimming, not to mention "learning".  We toured Pearl Harbor twice, a war museum, the aquarium, hiked Diamond Head Crater and toured the beaches ending that day with a famous shave ice on the North shore.  I was so amazed at how much they absorbed while doing all this. Joah found a passion for sea life knowledge while at the aquarium, he went from exhibit to exhibit with his digital tour guide and then rattled of fascinating facts for me on all the sea life. They got to hold a hermit crab which they could not get enough of. The highlight for Samuel and Joah was surf lessons that met with great success and created a passion. Nate learned how to swim all on his own and I had tears in my eyes when I realized this is how it is supposed to be with everything our kids do-learning what they need to learn in their own time. I am thrilled! Well we have been back for awhile and have found a groove that seems to work for us for the spring.  We have two new bottle feed calves, a litter of kittens to care for.  Samuel is finishing up a unit study on fractions using the Key To Series and reading the Star Wars Series.  Joah is  plugging along in all areas and finished his math for the year and has asked to move on to the new books already. Both boys finished their units on the Pacific Islands and created elaborate covers by using all the great literature they broght back from the trip. Nate is our little sponge and seems to thrive on bookwork right now-that is when he "feels" like it!  Our plan for the moment ()  is to keep going year round. I hate the pressure to be finished what we are doing. In fact at this time of year we seem to be behind, so if we just keep going we won't have the pressure of being behind in anything.  We also tend to take a lot a breaks and last minute trips or when Dad is home we tend to do other things besides bookwork or other studies. By schooling year round and by this I mean gently schooling, we can just allow homeschooling to become a true part of our lives and a joy not something we "have"  to do or get done. As always the journey is ever changing so we will see how it goes. Hopefully I will get around to posting a few pictures to warm everyone up! We have been using gym time as our major PE outlet.  Joah and Nate are looking forward to Soccer starting up soon. This is their first time playing.

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• Feb. 16, 2008 - In spite of workbooks

• Feb. 10, 2008 - Balance

I had decided during the Christmas season to "lighten" my load.  Part of this was to take a sabbatical from the ever popular Facebook, blogging and yes even emails and computer time to an extent-gasp! I felt a type of external guilt from not updating  these and sometimes it seemed to be on some unspoken to do list that had the potential to cause me stress.  Well I have felt very free indeed.  I do miss it and yes am slowly getting back into it all, but I have to say that it has given a sizable portion back to my day.  I found that our educational pursuits were more regular, we finished more books ahead of schedule, played more games and had days that were picturesque of the "perfect homeschooling" family!  However, with everything I am finding the balance.  I think this has lead me to discover that this is my goal for the year-to become a women of balance.  Balance epitomizes our very existence.  We must balance work and play, saving and spending,  eating vs overeating. Sit down schooling vs life learning.  I tend to be a type of extremest and spend my times going one way and then the other in areas and finding myself never truly satisfied. Any one relate? So I need balance, this even applies to my previous post regarding math curriculums! So I may not update as some of you would like, or email or even decide to sign up for Facebook again, but rest assured I am trying to better our home and life with this mysterious thing called balance! I have even downsized our farm a little and find that the freedom in not having so much to be responsible for has been just what I needed.  In fact, the less animals I have, the less I am feeling the inclination to be a "farmer" anymore!  Time will tell. Well now an update.  We have just finished a fantastic week of snowboard lessons at COP (Canada Olympic Park).  All the boys took part this year and they have taken to the slopes like ducks to water as the saying goes.  Prior to this Sam and Joah took Kayak lessons and decided they liked it, but prefer to swim! I am currently rereading one of my favorite books Dumbing us Down by John Taylor Gatto.  I hope to comment on some of this book in the weeks to come. The boys are doing a unit type study on the Pacific Islands, using Sonlight Core 5 readers and research as our spine.  All of this is in anticipation of our upcoming "Pacific" getaway to Hawaii.  I am hoping to just let the boys take a complete break for the few weeks and see what we will learn!  For those of you who know me, you will know that after Christmas I am an official "unschooler". So, this is all you get until I feel the need to blog again.....TTYL

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• Nov. 29, 2007 - Christmas Unit Study