Content in His light ...

HS Memoirs~ Homeschool Agendas 08-09

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This week’s theme is about sharing your 2008-09 homeschool agendas and plans. You’ve been preparing your plans for sometime and you’re ready to go. Or you’re still in the planning-stage and need some inspiration or tips on what to use. Because many use different curriculum and methods there is always something new to be gleaned from other homeschoolers. It’s always fun and interesting to see what other’s are using and the WWWWH as Robin Sampson suggests.

So this week we are to share what we'er doing this year for your homeschool agenda. We are suppose to share the  curriculum we’re using. 

Please share a Bible verse that has encouraged you or inspired you during this planning-process, and how.

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Bible

For the Younger 2 ...( but have 2ds help teach...( a sneaky way to get him to learn too)

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~Leading Little Ones To God by.. Marian M. Schoolland

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~Betty Lukens ..Through The Bible in Felt

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All Boys...

finish...

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~"Searching For Treasure" ...A Guide to Wisdom and Charachter Development ( using Proverbs) by Marty Elwell

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~Christian Manhood by... Gary Maldaner

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~ For oldest I haven't totally figured out what I want him to use yet.

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Amongst all this I am trying to learn how to teach with Dianne Craft's, MA, CNHP  material of ....

" Teaching Your Right Brained Child" manuals and DVD's and also  Right Brained Phonics Program , A Reading Program for the "Struggling Reader. 

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History

This year I really wanted to cement my boys in their Canadian History and Geography. Now me a new Canadian citizen myself I can't wait to really dive into all this. 

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The teachers manuals that I will use and improvise off of are...

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~Courage & Conquest ~Discovering Canadian History by..Donna Ward

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~Modern History Through Canadian Eyes by .. Heather Lenner

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~Canadian Natives Long Ago by ... Donna Ward

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~The Ultimate Lap Book Handbook by Tammy Duby and Cyndy Regeling

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~ Talk a latte mp3's by Cindy Rushton on Lapbooking and Notebooking and Charlotte Mason Primer.

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I have picked a lot of different

historical novels for example....

(a trilagy)

~ A Circle Of Silver

~By The Standing Stone

~Under A Shooting Star

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~Jason's Gold by.. Will Hobbs

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~Flight by ..Connie Brummel Crook

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~The Kings Daughter by .. Suzanne Martel

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~The Broken Blade by.. William Durbin

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~Madeleleine Takes Command by ..Ethel C. Brill

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Canadian history activity books 

(Discovering Canada Books by ..Robert Livesey & A.G. Smith

~The Vikings

~The Fur Traders

~New France

~Native Peoples

~The Defenders

~The Railways

~The Loyal Refugees

~The Rebels

~Black Heritage

~The Great War

~The Mounties

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~Westward Ho ! An Activity Guide to the Wild West by Laurie Carlson    ( this book is from the U.S but history didn't stay only in it's own borders and the history of the US and Canada crossed A LOT more than people realised.)

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~More Than Moccasins ...A Kids Activity Guide To Traditional North American Indian Life by.... Laurie Carlson

( once again the tribe names were different but there was enough to use even for the Canadian Native Americans who didn't put a border between the two countires. [0;)

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Other resourse books we will use...

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~Canada Votes by ..Linda Granfield

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~Our Canadian Governments by... Ruth Solski

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~My First History Of Canada by..Donalda Dickie and Rudiger Krause

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~The Story of Canada by..Janet Lunn & Christopher Moore

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~The BIG Book of Canada~ Exploring the Provinces and Territories by .. Christopher Moore

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~The Kids Book of Canada by Barbara Greenwood

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~The Kids Book of Canadian Prime Ministers by ..Pat Hancock

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~The Kids Book of Railway and how the CPR was built by ..Deborah Hodge

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~The Kids Book of Canadian History by ..Carlotta Hacker

~ O Canada by ..Ted Harrison

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Historical DVD's

~Canada - A People's History  Set 1 and 2

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Also I will read from selected stories from ...

~Stories from across Canada by...Bernard L. McEvoy

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~Great Canadian Animal Stories compiled by...Muriel Whitaker

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Science

~Nature Study  and...

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~for ds' 2, 3 and 4 Exploring Creation with Zoology #1

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~1ds ...Exploring Creation with Physical Science

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~I will also add some unit studies afterwards or another Apoloigia book

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World View

1ds will also be reading and notebooking from ..

~Streams of Civilization Vol.2

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Art

4th ds will use " I Can Do All Things" by..Barry Stebbing

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2ds, 3ds will use "God and the History of Art" by Barry Stebbing

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Arts and Crafts ~ as I feel inspired !!! Watch for coming posts. [0=

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~Picture Study - of famous artists and their paintings will be done by all four boys

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~Music with the Masters ~ Music appreciation and learning about the famous composers

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~Learning piano basics and guitar basics too

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P.E

~Curling in the fall and winter

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~ swimming lessons in the Fall

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~The Ultimate Homeschool Physical Education Game Book

 ( Fun and Easy-To-Use Games & Activities To Help You Teach Your Children Fitness, Movement & Sports Skills)   by.. Guy Bailey 

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Math 

We use Math U See for all boys

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1ds15 ~  Algebra

2ds13 ~ Zeta

3ds10 ~ Delta

4ds7 ~ finishing Alpha

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Language Arts

We will use notebooking, lapbooking, copywork, dictation, spelling, narration - written and oral.

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Now for the bible verse God gave me in the last 9 months....

" This is what the Lord says: "Stand at the crossroads and look: ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6:16

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...This verse has encouraged me to get back to my Charlotte Mason roots to teach what I should and stop trying to do too many things that can be done in a few. 

 For example... copywork and narration covers ALL kinds of grammer skills and we can encorperate our intrests and focused subjects while we do it.

Homeschool Memoirs #2- Our Agenda

Lemon Chocolate Chip Scones

These have become a real hit around here. The picture does not do them justice.  I'll be selling these at my Farmer's Market stand (when I have one).

The original recipe comes from: Tonia at  study in brown

However, I first heard about these delicious scones over at High Desert Home. Susan wrote about the changes she made to the scones and I have also made some of the same adjustments.

The following is a combination of Tonia's recipe and Susan's alterations.  This is the way we make them, and we love them (I'm sure they are also delicious made the original way in Tonia's recipe):

Lemon Chocolate-chip Scones

3 cups all-purpose flour (I use fresh ground wheat)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus 1 Tbl for sprinkling (divided)
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into small cubes
1 cup buttermilk
zest of 2 medium lemons
1 Tablespoon whipping cream (optional)
1 cup chocolate chips or 1 bar chocolate, chopped (dark is nice)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, 1/3 cup sugar and salt. With a pastry cutter or two knives, mix butter into dry ingredients until it resembles coarse meal.

Add 1 cup of chocolate chips or a chopped bar of chocolate (dark chocolate is nice) and half the lemon zest. Stir to mix in.

Add buttermilk; stir until mixture begins to form a dough.

Transfer dough to a floured surface and divide into 2 equal balls. Use a rolling pin to lightly roll each ball into a circle about 7 inches in diameter.

Cut each circle into 6 wedges.

Brush top with whipping cream (can use milk instead).

Mix remaining lemon zest and 1 Tblsp. Sugar. Sprinkle on top of scones.

Place the scones separately on a cookie sheet, spaced a little apart.

According to Susan's calculation the whole grain version will take about 18 minutes to bake.

The all-white version takes 15 or 16 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes to firm. Serve warm or at room temperature.


This recipe works foe me every time...and I have yet to meet someone who didn't love it.

Visit Rocks In My Dryer for more Works For Me Wednesday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Gratituesday

This is my first time participating in Gratituesday, hosted by Laura at Heavenly Homemakers.  Please visit Laura to read what others are grateful for and to add your post.

Right now I am so very grateful for all the wonderful people I have in my life.  My family and friends are so nice! 

I wanted to share a fun story from my vacation that shows just how sweet some people are......

A friend in California reads this here blog.  She always comes to hear my husband preach when we visit our family there and it is a real treat to see her.  I think she is an awesome lady and a dear Christian sister                       

So.....this time when we saw each other she told me that she has visited other blogs I have mentioned and enjoyed those too.  We discussed one in particular, High Desert Home .  The blog's author, Susan, answered a question I had asked about favorite kitchen tools....so we talked about that a little bit and how much we enjoy reading High Desert Home..

Anyway.....after a while she handed me a bag.  Inside was a Microplane Zester/Grater.  The very one Susan  mentioned in her blog post

Here is a picture:

I really wanted one.  It was way up the top on my wish list.  

Wasn’t that nice?!  I couldn’t believe someone would be so thoughtful.  I felt so special.

And I LOVE the zester/grater.  I used it tonight to make lemon zest.  Just excellent.

I’ll be using it often to make Lemon Chocolate Chip Scones

I'll post the recipe later today.

So thank  you Cheryl!  I really appreciate you thinking of me and am so grateful.

Key Lime Pie

My rent-a-kid makes the most wonderful key lime pie!  So of course we made sure he brought the recipe along when he came to visit!

Here are my two littles squeezing the key limes.
This kept them occupied for awhile.  It takes A LOT of key limes to get enough juice for a pie!

My rent-a-kid working on grating the rind.

Here is a shot of the delicious end result!
Yummy!!!!

Okay. with my rent-a-kids permission here is the recipe...

:^)

INGREDIENTS

Crust
16 Graham Crackers
3 T. sugar
1 cube (1/4 lb) butter

Pie
4 Large or extra large egg yolks
1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup key lime juice (approx 12 key limes.)
2 teaspoons grated lime peel, green portion only

Whipping Cream Garnish (optional)
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS

Crust
Mix the ingredients and press them into a 9" pie plate. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 10 -12 minutes.  Place on rack to cool.

Pie Filling
Use an electric mixer and beat the egg yolks until they are thick and turn a light yellow.  Don't over mix.  Turn off mixer and add sweetened condensed milk.  Turn speed to low and mis in half of the lime juice.  Once the juice is incorporated add the other half and the zest, continue to mix until blended (just a few seconds).  Pour the mixture into the pie shell and bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.

Garnish
Mix all 3 ingredients until soft peeks form.  Serve a dollop of whipped cream on each slice.

Enjoy!

Tightwad Tuesday~ Crockpot Cooking

I wanted to post a quick TWT b/c this week is another busy week .  Just in case you didn't see my friend Chasity's post for S&T Friday I wanted to draw your attention to it.  She gave a link to A Year Of Crockpotting   It is a NEAT site and a great link to get ideas for tons of recipes.  We are ALL looking for ways to cut down on our cost of living and crockpots are for sure one way. 

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Please also scroll down to the next post and see the Anti-Procrastination Challenge Meme for this week.

"There are only a few big ways to save money but there are a lot of small ways....that all adds up."

 Please go visit these lovely ladies and glean some good tightwad tips from them.  

Remember:  The best way to get a comment is to give a comment

Blessings and ((HUGS)) in Him<><

Anti-Procrastination Challenge

CHALLENGE

Well here we are in week 2 if the Anti-Procrastination Challenge.  I didn't get to work on mine as much as I would have liked b/c of me applesaucing !

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But I did decide on somethings to get rid of !  I am feeling so much better !   If all goes well next week I can show the updated pic and I am picking out colours for the molding and the bottom of my claw foot tub.

Please go visit these other lovely gals and their Anti-Procratinations Projects and encourage, encourage, encourage !!!  We can bust these projects YES WE CAN.

Busy week

It's going to be a busy week this week. Julia starts back to college, tonight. Her first class is ASL (an evening class). Then Tuesday, she starts English and Math  those are day classes. Wednesday, World History and ASL (evening) . And she works too!!!  In the middle of taxing her here & there. I need to work in Brandon's schooling and house work. Sigh. It will all work itself out but sometimes it's a bit overwhelming trying to work it all out in my mind. Don't even get me started on the cost of gas this will involve. But it's ok, it's what mom's 'do' and she is worth it. But if I lose what little sanity I have left, you'll all know why. LOL. I hope everyone has a great week!!

Kristy

Making Your Home a Haven: Anti-Procrastination Day!

Crystal over at Biblical Womanhood is hosting Making Your Home a Haven Monday and has declared today Anti-Procrastination Day.

Procrastinating...hmmm....yes, I have been doing that.

I arrived home from our month long vacation last Tuesday evening. It is now Monday and I finally unpacked my suitcase! That was first on my list for Anti-Procrastination Day.

In my defense, I have packed a way a lot of other things (including helping the kids put their stuff away). I also put up 40 ears of corn: shucked it, blanched it, cut the kernels off the cob, and packed it for the freezer.

I have a similar job to do this afternoon in honor of Anti-procrastination Day. See these peaches:

They will be peeled and sliced for the freezer. We will also eat a few (but that is not included in the anti-procrastination part.)

Today is also our first day of school. So far we have done quite well. We read out Jesus being baptized by John, and practiced our memory verses after breakfast. I then started something new....working with my pre-schooler first. We talked about the letter A and he traced a couple. Then it was SugarBean’s turn.  She has read to me from an easy reader and then a chapter book. We also worked on math sums, practiced the doubles facts and read 512 Ants On Sullivan Street  (which we really liked). I’d like to get to History before the day is out.

Now, if I can just get the empty suitcases out to the garage I will really feel like a success