Jan. 28, 2010 - Nature Study in the Carport!
We didn't have to venture far at all for our nature journaling entry last week. The specimen conveniently showed up right in our carport! Dad set us up for this without even knowing it by running over a skink on his way out to work.
The lizard had two eggs inside. Dd measured the eggs as well as the body and the detached tail. We even cut open one of the eggs.
Dd found the experience enjoyable (in a learning sort of way!
, which was a plus -- given the way the school day had started out. At least we ended our school day on a positive note and on better terms between teacher and student!
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Jan. 28, 2010 - When it all comes together
It's just like the Lord, who cares even about the small things, to nicely mesh our school and life experiences together. Take this past weekend for just one example. We have been studying Helen Keller with our Beyond Five in a Row studies and on the weekend, dh asked dc to search for a good geocache to look for. Low and behold, a few minutes later dc start yelling "There is a braille one, mom!" Sure enough -- written in braille code is the information that will lead you to the cache. We sat down and cracked the code and set out to find it.
If you are interested in checking it out it is called "Can't See the View" # GC2378B
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Jan. 22, 2010 - Name in Braille
We are enjoying our study of Helen Keller in Beyond Five in a Row, and recently included a hands on project since we had a little Kindergarten friend hanging out with us.
Using this website we found what their names would like in braille:
http://afb.org/braillebug/thenamegame.asp
We enlarged it, rolled out some sculpie clay and made an imprint of the pattern on the clay and then made tiny balls to put along the pattern so that it was raised - and baked them. It was a fun project!
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Jan. 5, 2010 - Jesus Calling
A dear friend gave me a new devotional for Christmas Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. The devotional for January 2nd especially spoke to my heart. "Relax in my Healing Presence. As you spend time with Me, your thoughts tend to jump ahead to today's plans and problems. Bring your mind back to Me for refreshment and renewal. Let the Light of My Presence soak into you, as you focus your thoughts on Me. Thus I equip you to face whatever the day brings. This sacrifice of time pleases Me and strengthens you. Do not skimp on our time together. Resist the clamor of tasks waiting to be done. "
Quite an appropriate reminder for this mom trying to juggle so many things!
As I read the verses from Luke 10:39-42, which I have read numerous times before, something jumped out at me..."Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away.."
Time invested in developing our relationship with God is eternal and will never be taken away, only built upon. In contrast, those distractions that we fret over, the plans we spend so much time on, the things we attempt to hold on to - at the expense of time with the Lord - may slip from our hands no matter how tight our grip.
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Jan. 5, 2010 - A New Year
We have a family tradition of viewing the whole year's pictures as a slide show in order to remember all the highlights of the year. It fills our hearts with thankfulness and joy as we start the new year, especially since who takes pictures of any of the bad things that happen, right?
I just took an inventory and noticed that I wrote 52 entries in 2009, having started this blog right last New Years -- That's one entry per week average, though I tend to write more in spurts!
This entry is short but I guess it counts towards this year's total!
I don't tend to be a person of a lot of words and try to talk only when I have something to say! Likewise, I wait for something to burn in my head and heart before I start to blog about it. Mostly, I want to encourage others in the homeschooling journey, and to share resources and ideas that have been helpful to me since I have borrowed SO many ideas from websites and blogs myself!
Happy New Year!!
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Jan. 2, 2010 - ADVENT activities
I am so pleased that a Guam Homeschooler pointed me to The ADVENTure of Christmas by Lisa Welchel, a wonderful book for celebrating Advent, which tells the history behind many of the Christmas symbols and traditions and offers lots of great activities to do as a family.
For the seond year in a row our read aloud for the Advent season was a storybook called Jotham's Journey by Arnold Ytreeide, which has a captivating storyline, along with related devotional thoughts for each day of the Advent season. The girls love this book and were very enthused about starting our December days with it again. I purchased another in this trilogy series, Bartholomew's Passage for next year. The third book in the series is called Tabitha's Travels, but that one is not in print this year.
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Dec. 28, 2009 - Christmas Traditions
We carried on some of our favorite traditions again this year..
-Ringing bells for the Salvation Army:
-Seaside Concert with music by the Guam Symphony and other great groups -- Santa makes an appearance getting pulled by a carabao (water buffalo):
-"Gingerbread" house activity - these past few years we have done it as a group with the homeschoolers. Here are this year's final products 
-Cookie making:
This year Joy made a special nativity cake for church snacks. The green nativity silhouette is made from fondant that we trimmed to the shape of a blown up clip art.:
-Special Christmas-themed Kid's Klub:
I love the layered Christmas cards we made:
This card craft came from Danielle's Place.
We made these angel ornaments at Kid's Klub and they were quite easy to make; made from coffee filters:
-Singing Happy Birthday Jesus with strawberry crepes on Christmas morning.
I will write more in another entry about our Advent readings as well as our Christmas services at church.
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Nov. 30, 2009 - the best gifts are usually free
Last year, my oldest dd had a brainstorm when her dad cut the bottom off the Christmas tree. She saw the disk that emerged and, knowing her mom so well, realized that Mom would love this as a coaster.
So, she wrapped it and put it under the Christmas tree. Sure enough ! love it and wanted to start a tradition:
We got this year's tree over the weekend and dh kindly asked the guys preparing the tree to trim off an extra disk which they were happy to do.
On the back we add the year. It is a slow way to gather a coaster set but the funnest way I have heard of.
If you haven't bought your tree yet, feel free to borrow our tradition. That is the whole reason I even started this blog.....I have borrowed SO many ideas from others that if I can help inspire a few people in return it will make me happy!
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Nov. 25, 2009 - New Thanksgiving Read
We love special read alouds for the holidays. Our newest Thanksgiving read aloud is Eating the Plates by Lucille Recht Penner.
This is a Pilgrim book about Food and Manners. It is an enjoyable read. The kids already asked if we can read it again next year!
Thanks to the Five in a Row ladies for another great recommendation!
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Nov. 25, 2009 - Princess Ceremony
We joined with some special friends for a wonderful closing ceremony for our Princess and the Kiss (purity) study this week. All the ladies were committed to making it a meaningful ceremony and it is one we will remember for a long time with fond memories!
Decorations included photos of our girls at different stages:
We started out with prayer and the reading of the book, Princess and the Kiss.
Joy played More Precious Than Silver on the flute, accompanied by one of the moms on the keyboard.
After a brief introduction of why we were together, the girls worked on some short worksheets that one of the moms had prepared asking for their favorite verses, a picture of how they felt when their mom spent the devotional time with them, and filling in the blanks for some of their memory verses. As they shared their answers, they were presented with matching headband/bracelet sets.
Next, we had a craft time, making roses with twisted paper:
It was then time for the focal point of the day -- blessing our little princesses! One of the mom's explained the meaning of the Princess Prayer Box Necklace Then, one by one, we put a tiara on their head, shared encouragement to live a life of purity, and prayed God's blessing on them, put the necklace around their heads and gave them a fresh rose.
My first princess:
My second princess:
As we closed, the girls signed bookmarks as "witnesses"
The ladies went all out to prepare special baskets filled with goodies to take home:
-mini bibles
-stationary and pens
-large candy kisses
-journals
-sweets
-My Heart, Christ's Home for Children booklets
And what is a princess party without some fancy snacks?
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Nov. 2, 2009 - girlie craft
We did this craft in Kid's Klub for the kids to give to their moms. I thought it would be a good craft to do at our Princess and the Kiss Closing Ceremony. The instructions were from www.arteflorale.com
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Oct. 30, 2009 - Jumprope Competition
We had a blast on this past Saturday at Guam's 3rd Annual Jump Rope Competition. Attending was Lee Reisig, 3 time world champion jump roper!
The girls both got a gold and a silver medal. I was presented a medal for 3rd place for speed, but found out later the tally was wrong and I was actually 4th. But, hey I am still pretty excited seeing as the division was 15 years old and above. 
Sarah took first place in the Freestyle with a beautiful routine set to My Praise by Philips Craig and Dean. She also took second place in speed:
Joy jumped for 8:08 non-stop with no mistakes to win the endurance.
She also took second place for her Freestyle routine -- a fun routine set to He Came to Give us Life.
Here we are with Lee Reisig:
Not sure how long the online pictures will stay up but for now they are here:
Pacific Daily News
My girls appear in pics 8, 12, 13 (in red shirt/jean shorts + aqua shirt/brown-aqua plaid shorts). There is a great shot of Lee upside down in pic no. 5
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Oct. 23, 2009 - Healthy, Edible Centerpiece for Autumn
Okay, well it is just rainy and dry seasons here for us - this being rainy. But, nonetheless, we are enjoying decorating with pumpkins, fall leaves and the like.
Check out this fun centerpiece that really isn't hard to make at all. The idea came from Country Woman magazine:
Sarah helped me put it together and Joy made some fondant leaves (that we decided look more like petals). What do you think, does it look like they enjoyed this break from the books?
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Oct. 20, 2009 - Pretenders
In our neighborhood Kid's Klub this week we talked about wearing masks and pretending. Man looks at the outward appearance and we can sometimes fool people, but God looks in our hearts and we can't fool Him. He created our hearts and He knows what is really going on.
Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourself, do what it says. ~ James 1:22
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Oct. 12, 2009 - Thunderbird Show!
We had the privilege of viewing a show by the Thunderbirds this past week. The show was postponed from the previous week due to a typhoon threat (but we were spared!), and on the postponed date we had a bit of a wait for the low lying clouds to break a bit, but it was worth the wait:
Notice the Rainbow!
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Oct. 6, 2009 - Jumprope Pamphlet
Inspired by our jumprope class, dd1 chose that topic for her assignment to create a pamphlet about a topic of choice. Her final product came out really nice. Check it out at the link at the end of this entry if you like. DD wrote the script and Mom edited it with her. She then, typed it out and designed the pamphlet complete with photos and clipart which she organized and placed in the pamphlet. We did this over several days and it was quite a learning experience!
Click here for the document.
cover, back and page 1,6
pages 2,3,4, 5
Since the layout was done on a program many might not have , I published it to a pdf file. You will have to take note of the page numbers which aren't in correct order because of this. It was created on legal size and then folded but that layout doesn't come through in pdf.
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Sep. 25, 2009 - God's Encouragement for me this week
The Beyond Five in a Row Christian Character and Bible Supplement recently led us to this verse in Deuteronomy 29:29 which has been a huge encouragement to me of late!
"...the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and our children forever!" Deut. 29:29
Wow, just think about it! God has revealed secrets not only to us but to our children. It amazes me to see a child that has accepted the Lord at times possessing nuggets of wisdom that older people who do not know the Lord miss. Is that not remarkable!? God certainly works in unexpected ways!
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Sep. 12, 2009 - latest nature study
After giving a little talk to the homeschool group about nature journaling, I have had a few people check how it is going. A little accountability!! 
Our latest simple activity idea came from our Nature Friend magazine. We separated the pigments in some plants by mixing them with acetone (finger nail polish remover) and letting them sit for a few hoursw with a strip of absorbant paper inside. Due to the chemical reaction, the colors come out in layers.
I took my picture before the labels were added - but the first one is guava leaves, the second a bright red hibiscus flower and the third a purple orchid. By the way, these are all from our yard -- we are blessed!
Simple and fun experiment for a nice addition to our nature journal! What nature studies have you been up to?!
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Sep. 10, 2009 - great articles to ponder
Here are a few really great blog entries that have inspired me lately:
Keeping the Home in Homeschool
Growing your Children's Passions
Do You have a Dream?
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Aug. 21, 2009 - applications for nature journaling
Besides the obvious science and art lessons that can be pulled out of nature walks, here are a few other things we have used it for:
*language: spelling practice, handwriting practice, dictation, notebooking, paragraph construction, labeling, vocabulary, poetry, abc's, descriptive language, list-making
*math : figuring dates (incubation dates, growth rates), measuring circumferences, weights, lengths, graphing of types,
*geography : indigenous species and use of field guides when travelling, how and from where an invasive species came, flora and fauna of a region
*art: photography, making crafts with nature, drying flowers, blending of colors, various art mediums
*science: weather, plants, animal studies, flowers, insects, senses, animal classification
My other blog entry with ideas for getting started
To read an inspiring nature blog by Jane Claire Lambert, Writer of the Five in a Row curriculum visit:
Jane's Nature Notes
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