Nov. 14, 2009 - Artwork by Miss Em.

In her free time this week Em drew and wrote these and I wanted to share them with you.  She has been working on making her penmanship very neat and I was suprised that she did so "outside" of school time! Even if some of the grammar or spelling is wrong it does look very neat! 

First Up:  GIRAFFE

pg. 1

pg 2.

Next Up: RUDOLPH:

pg. 1 (she did an awesome job making him look "furry")

pg. 2

~GOOD JOB MISS EM!!

Love, Mom

Nov. 11, 2009 - CONGRATS EMILY!!

Miss Em completed book 6 of Explode the Code today!!!! WooHoo!!  She was so thrilled!  Six books down, 2 to go!  We love this phonics program soooo much!! 

Here she is with her completed book and bestest friend Mooch...doesnt he almost look as happy as she is??

CONGRATS SWEETIE!!!  LOVE MOM!!

~Lori

Nov. 10, 2009 - That dreaded "S" word......

You know the word don't ya? SOCIALIZATION.  Don't you just cringe when someone puts that in your face all because you homeschool?  Not because you think they are right, but because you know better.  Here is a link to an article written by a homeschool dad about socialization.  I thought it was pretty good.:

http://www.homeschooltoday.com/news/111/30/Socially-Thriving-vs-Socially-Depriving.htm 

Plus the fact that it was written by a dad and not a mom says a lot to me. I recently had a conversation with a non-homeschooling person about this "dreaded socialization" thing.  And this dad summed up a lot of what I said.  Yeah!  Enjoy the article and let me know if the link does not work.

~Lori

Nov. 8, 2009 - New Adventures

I have always wanted to nurture talent as it appears in my kids, not just passing fancies that they have, but true desires that I see in them that are truly a part of who they are.  Emily has started private art lessons with a local artist and she loves it.  He is focusing on drawing with her and he is very impressed with her work and he should be because she has a talent for it!  Drawing is a passion of Em's and has been since she could hold a pencil properly, it is a part of who she is.

Tyler, has a love of the game chess.  He is just learning it, but the problem is only his dad knows how to play it and schedule-wise it doesnt always work out to play together.  So, Tyler is starting a homeschool Chess Club this Monday.  It meets once a month, unless the kids want to get together and play outside of club.  He is so excited.  The way it is set up is that older kids who are more experienced in chess, teach the younger ones.  Tyler is excited for 2 reasons-he gets to learn chess and he will make more friends.  Tyler's talent is applying methods.  I mean he actually likes to methodically plan strategies in different games such as checkers, battleship, even go-fish if that is possible.  So we will see how the chess club goes.  What is amazing is that a boy who at times can't sit still, can sit very still for a couple of hours playing this. So cool!!

~Lori

Nov. 7, 2009 - Stuart Little Unit Study

Remember reading this book as a kid?  Monday we are starting a 3 week unit study on this book.  It is our current "read-a-loud."  I found a free unit study for it here:   http://www.homeschoolshare.com/stuartlittle.php   My kids are really excited about this book.  Obviously we won't do everything the unit study offers, but it will give us some good ideas to really enrich the understanding of such a wonderful story!  My kids have not seen the movie so they have no previous ideas on which to base the story (except that it is about a mouse-why would Mom choose that book?...see the post below this one!)...ha hahaha.  No, I had this study planned long before that happened....God just has a sense of humor!  

~Lori  

Nov. 3, 2009 - Year-Round School

Someone noticed on my left side bar that we have a year round school schedule. Yep, we are doing school all year-round.  Why?? They asked.  Actually I think it will make the learning easier and there will be less time to forget what was learned.  Doing 6 weeks of school knowing that you soon will have 2 whole weeks off is appealing I think and my kids are geeked about it too!  Plus, we don't have to spend the first month of every school year reviewing all the stuff they "lost" over the summer.  We are trying it this year to see how it goes. Plus if we choose to do a 6 week unit study on something, it will fit nicely. Plus it will bring more consistency which my children thrive on! 

Will it work??  I don't know, but we are going to try it and see. The kids like the idea and that is important.  So far, we have done one marking period and are currently on our break. I can sit back and assess the last six weeks easily and see the areas that are lacking, it has allowed me to do some of those things that we put off (deep cleaning the house, re-organizing stuff, etc...) It allows me to dig deeper into things the kids WANT to study more of and then get prepared to do it. Yeah, I think this is going to work fine.  I'll try to post more on this as we experience it. It may need some tweaking here and there, but that's okay-that's the flexibility of homeschooling!  

~Lori   

Nov. 1, 2009 - History Update

Well we've plugged through Mystery of History and I'll tell you, its not good.   No one is enjoying it. I truly think the material is just over their heads so I'm putting it away for a few years...but now, what to do???   I dug through a box of books (my stash), to see what I had left for history and I came across two gems from Abeka Book Publications that a dear friend had given me that I had completely forgotten about!  They are entitled "Of America, Vol's 1 and  2. " It is a US History study / reading program and it covers famous American citizens, and what it means for us to be citizens of the greatest country ever!   They are all "stories" so I can sit and read them to the kids, there are famous poems in there too, like Paul Revere's Ride.  What I will have them do is draw a picture of every story and compile a notebook of sorts. Also, Emily and Tyler will copy the vocabulary words as well.  I'll keep ya posted on how it all goes.  I'm so excited!

~Lori

Oct. 13, 2009 - Reading right along.....

Claire is really loving "reading."  We are using Hooked on Phonics and LLATL Blue.  I am not impressed with LLATL at all, but I do like the readers and some of the exercises so I use it to supplement her language arts.  Anyways, she has completed the first set of readers in the LLATL blue program!!  They are all short vowel readers and she has read them all!

The first row there are the books she has read!  In this program, they cut out a picture of that book and glue it on the chart.  She is so pleased with her accomplishment!

Here she is holding up the next readers, called Bridge Readers.  They start now with blends such as CH/SH/SN/SM...which coordinates really really well with where she is at with Hooked on Phonics also.  Good Job ClaireBear!

~Lori

Oct. 12, 2009 - Mom...this is boring.

Yep, those are the words Emily said about the LLATL Orange program.  It is too easy for her I admit.  So she is going to start with the book Paths to Follow:

So she will do this for reading, as it has good comprehension questions in it, but they are not overwhelming and lots of it we can do orally.  We have gone back to Rod and Staff English for the rest of Language Arts, it is by far the best I believe.  It just covers more things about sentence structure, diagramming sentences and all that.  LLATL doesnt cover that.  It does have 3 units in it that I do want her to do though: Research, Journaling and Newspaper.  So we will do those.  For quiet reading time she loves to read about animals and so she picked this one out of the bookcase:

This is the fourth reader.  I have all of them, but the other 2 are not interested in them yet.  This would be the reader for fourth grade.  Emily said, "Mom, can I read it, answer the questions and then draw a picture of the animal??"  You Betcha Em!  She loves these books.  I think that is the blessing about homeschooling isn't it??  If something isn't working well for a child, we CAN change it so that learning is enjoyable AND successful!  

~Lori

Oct. 12, 2009 - Henry and Mudge

Tyler is starting a new series of books, the Henry and Mudge series.  He read the first book today and he loved it.  They are about a boy and his dog (a 180 lb dog!) 

I got Tyler the first four books from the library so he could read them this week.  He then wanted a picture of himself with the book and Dillon (his dog) who weighs about 100 lbs less than Mudge-thank goodness! 

He thinks tomorrow he will read book #2 to Dillon.  Aww. Dillon would love that!

~Lori

Oct. 9, 2009 - Island Festival Field Trip!

Well, today was our first field trip of the year!  We went to a nearby town that was having a fall festival, it was semi-arranged through our homeschool group-because then we all get in really really cheap!  They have people re-inacting times from the 1600's-1800's which was awesome and they had some 4 H stuff there as well. So, despite the chilly temps (47 degrees F), which made the air so fresh and crisp,  and rain (which never stopped) we actually had a great time.   Here are some pics:

This dear lady was talking to the kids about cooking back in the Civil War times. Yes, she was standing in the rain.

This couple were traders waiting for the Indians to come trade.  This guy was totally into his part and asked my kids what they had to trade today...they were like uh...what?? It was great!  This booth was really cool.....

He had antlers and things made out of antlers, French playing cards, pieces of flint too.  See that small gray rectangle there..that is a small block of lead that they would put into that spoon you see in the picture by the antlers, they would melt the lead in that spoon over a hot fire and poor it into the molder-thingy (for lack of a better term), then it would mold into those little balls..aka: bullets!  He also discussed animal pelts and trapping which was fascinating (but I love History!!)

This guy was a blacksmith and he was forging steel.  He had a really hot fire and he kept putting air into the fire with that contraption that looks like a fishing reel.  At this time he was going to fashion a fire stick and needed to put a curve into the end of the steel so it could hang on a hook till needed.....

He would then take the steel out of the fire and set it on the anvil and pound it till the red-hot section became gray.  He then would put it back into the fire and then pound it some more till he got it too look like......

this!

We also got to see how sauerkraut was made back in the "old days."  It was their way of preserving cabbage-we all got to help "pound" the sauerkraut and taste it...well, I am the only one who tasted it, the kids were like "NO WAY!"  It was delicious though!

The kids helped in a science experiment that 4 H put on to make ethane gas-that was very cool!

And of course there were all sorts of animals to love.

This lady was showing us this "toy" that little girls would play with to prepare them for sewing.

Ty didn't care if it was a girl toy-he thought it was fun too!

There was this beautiful paddle boat doing color tours, it was too pricey for my budget though.  We did enjoy watching it and listening to that olde tyme music it was playing.

The scenery was just gorgeous!

After 2 fun filled hours the Terrifc Trio and mom were ready to leave.  There were a few exhibits we did not get to participate in such as rope-making and cider making, since the people at those booths were not there at the time, but it was fun none-the-less. 

I love Fall in Michigan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~Lori

Oct. 7, 2009 - Our Crazy Classroom...

The Terrific Trio got a little crazy during Science today.   Maybe because it was after lunch? Who knows...at any rate Tyler and Claire had a wonderful little play fight and no one got hurt, but it was cute to watch.  Em? No she did not get involved but she did enjoy watching it too.

This is how it all started....yep...rabbit ears.  Tyler was nice about it though....

He was like "watch this Mom....."   {{Evil Laugh}} 

But, Claire saw him coming and she was ready....and so it began....

honestly....they were both laughing so hard and Tyler was having so much fun "picking" on her..

I love her look here...she was totally loving this attention from her big bro.

Oh...I know it looks bad but they are only "fairy fighting"--when you pretend to punch but you NEVER touch each other.

Em was getting a kick out of watching them!

Ok....here, yes she actually hit him...and I had to kabash the FUN.

Back to the books...

I think she got it out of her system.....right???

Yep....back to normal.  

~Lori

Oct. 7, 2009 - "See Claire....see Claire read...see Claire read so well!"

I found a bunch of "Dick and Jane" Readers at our local library last week so I picked up some for Claire to work on for school.  She LOVES them!  She thinks these kids are the greatest and will stop reading for a while to show me what is going on in the pictures.  She thinks baby Sally is the cutest little thing and she absolutely adores Puff, the kitten in the story.  Here are some pics of her reading one of the books to her dolly.

I still cannot believe she is reading!!  WOW!

Here she is showing the book to me....she is sooo proud of herself and feels like such a "big" kid now!

~Lori

Sep. 30, 2009 - Tackling the Atmosphere!!

This was a totally cool project!  For Geography we are using the book:

I am very impressed with this book!

Anways, we are learning about the "layers" of the atmosphere and how each layer was provided by God do to a certain thing for us and how God actually designed our atmosphere to protect us from harmful things...something He did not do for any other planet.    So, this project was not in the book, but I found it online and decided it was way more fun than the one the book had (it wasn't a bad project in the book..but I wanted something more creative).  This is what we did:

On a big sheet of cardboard you begin by drawing the earth, than you add the atmospheric layers (which we discovered are not really layers at all, but just a bunch of gas-and okay-my kids chuckled at that one---"gas" in the atMASpehere??)  Ha haha !  

They are hard to read, but they are all there...the troposphere, stratosphere, then the ozone layer, then the Mesophere, the Ionosphere, the thermosphere and finally the exosphere (outerspace-as Ty calls it, or at least where the aliens are).   I drew the circles and put all the "terminology" on it and the kids did the rest.

We discussed what the Ozone layer was and the hole that is in it.  It was interesting to read how God designed the ozone layer to keep us safe from the ultraviolet rays of the sun, the kids never knew that before and I had never thought of it in terms of "God's" way of protecting us, something He did not do for any other planet.

The kids had fun coloring the Exosphere area...yes we had USA space ships fighting alien invaders (thanks to Ty!).  We have a meteor that came from a solar flare that is entering the thermosphere but we know that the Ionosphere (another "shield of defense" from God) will help it break up into a million pieces and they could eventually become shooting stars when they get to the Mesophere!  It's like God's very own fireworks! We discovered that if we went to the thermosphere we would see the Space Station and several satellites that orbit the earth.  Sooooo Cool!!   

The book handled this so well!  It had the kids pretend to walk straight up into the atmosphere, it covered the temperature changes, what they might see and what they would see, it was very cool and it all gave God the credit.  When you see how intricately these layers work together how can anyone deny that a skillful Creator made it??

As we got to the exosphere, the kids began asking questions about all the other planets so I do believe we are taking a Geography "detour" and will be studying those next.  Then we will come back to the continents and all that.    ON A SIDE NOTE and this was funny...after we made this project I was making lunch, Em came into the kitchen and said "MOM! Dillon (our dog) is in the atmosphere!!"  The dog was lying down on our creation...he was quickly booted out of the atmosphere!   Hahahaha.

~Lori

Sep. 28, 2009 - Reading Fun..

Tyler is enjoying working on his 2nd grade Hooked on Phonics. One day last week he read the book The Very Hungry Bear.  This next part he came up with on his own.....he really wanted to read to Claire, but she was still working on some school stuff, so he went and grabbed his 2 other bestest friends: Brownie and Caramel....they are bears.

It was cute as I sat there and watched him read to his friends...

He even showed them the pictures.....awwwwwww.

Ok...this is silly, but when he got to this part of the book, that last quote on this page, Tyler emphasized the words "Oh, nuts!" so well that we all cracked up!!  I say that a lot around here and Tyler just laughed and laughed....I guess it just hit us all funny......love it!!

Its so nice to see Tyler enjoy reading!!

~Lori