One of the many advantages of living in an area where there are lots of home schoolers is that there are lots of cool home school activities.  Another plus is that the activities are generally organized by other more zealous home school moms, and all I have to do is show up with my kids in tow.  Last week's Field Day for our county was no exception.

Man, I loved field day when I was a kid.  A whole day out of the classroom, running through grass, challenging your friends to relay races and balloon tosses.  My kids loved it too....until it started thundering and lightening in the afternoon.  But our morning was filled with running...

and Frisbee-throwing...

and backwards-walking (or whatever this is called)...

and hula-hooping...

and all sorts of other activities that didn't involve remote controls or video game consoles.  They were just as pleased as punch with their flimsy satin ribbons.  Annaleigh won 2nd place in that backwards walking, whatever-it's-called event and jump-roping.  Harrison won 1st place in the broad jump and 2nd place in the Frisbee-throw and the shoe-toss.

Living in this area, outside of Nashville, which is the capital of country and Christian music, you never know who you might see.  Well, unless you're like me and hardly know what anyone looks like.  I could run smack-dab into...oh, say....Kenny Chesney in the middle of Wal-mart (assuming he even shops there) and I might possibly never know it.  I have had a few sitings of over-the-top celebrity sorts.  Like last Mother's Day we saw Wynona and Naomi Judd at Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  I would have never recognized the normal looking Naomi, but we all recognized Wynona immediately because she has this unnatural looking, super-long red hair.  I regularly see Phil Joel, formerly of the Newsboys, but again, he has this outrageous set of long, blond, curly locks.  I would recognize Willie Nelson or Dolly Parton in a second, but I've yet to run into either of them.

Well, at our homeschool field day, I saw this guy (the one with the long gray hair)...

Anyone know who that is?  Anyone?  Anyone?

It is Guy Penrod, formerly of The Gaither Vocal Band!  (Update:  Oops...my bad!  It has just come to my attention that Guy is STILL with the GVB.  Sorry, Guy....I have no idea why I had it in my mind that you left.  Shows what I know about Southern Gospel!)  Now, some of you may be wondering what a self-proclaimed rocker girl like me is doing recognizing and photographing a former member of a southern gospel group.  Well, my grandma loved the Gaither Vocal Band and had a lot of their Homecoming videos, so I was subjected many times to Guy's amazing tenor vocals and recognized him almost instantly.  And don't worry....he never knew I was photographing him.  I have pretty good zoom on my camera.  I'm a stealthy paparazzi!

Finally, 4sweetums tagged me with an interesting challenge....

Here are the rules:
1. Write the title to your own memoir using 6 words.
2. Post it on your blog.
3. Link to the person that tagged you.
4. Tag five more blogs.

So, here it goes,  my six-word memoir...

KIDS, where are my freakin' scissors?!?

Actually, the word scissors could be replaced with any random object on any given day....calculator, keys, loose change, my favorite pencil, my house slippers, my lesson plan book, the glue gun (don't ask), the Night at the Museum DVD....you name it, and we've misplaced it.

I'm going to fore go the tagging this time because I have company coming later this week, and I really should be cleaning my baseboards.  Ta-ta!

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Since the weather has turned gorgeous over the past few weeks, we have been frequenting this park, which is a mere five minute drive from our home....

Nice, huh?  It's very new too, about a year and half old, I think.  The city maintains it impeccably and continues to dump money on it for comfortable benches and covered picnic areas.  There's a nice walking trail, which has views of the play area from every angle.  Nice.  Very, very nice.

But do my children appreciate it?  Do they use the hundreds of thousands of dollars of play equipment?  Do they stay in the areas where they are visible to me from my shaded picnic table?  Oh no.  They like to play here...

Doesn't it seem they have left the confines of this small town park for the deep jungles of South America?  Doesn't it look like an anaconda could swoop down at any moment and swallow them alive? 

That is a muddy creek which flows along the perimeter of the park.  It is a magnet for my children.  I cannot see them as they play unless I stand for two hours on the bridge which crosses it.  I'm left to only listen for screams or splashes and only hope that it wasn't one of mine who just drenched themselves with muck and grime.  It usually is.

I must regularly pluck ticks off the above child, so that he will not succumb to Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever or Lyme's Disease.  And I must wash mud out of the child's hair below, so that she can go to ballet class in an acceptable manner.

So, again, I ask, are they some weird freaks of nature?  Or are they just nature freaks?  Maybe a little of both?  I don't know, but something tells me this is ok.  And something tells me that perhaps the city could just invest money into more creeks instead of slides and swing sets.

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...or, an alternate title...

Reason #127 Why I Can Never Send Him to School

or another alternate title...

Why I'm a Little Concerned to Someday Have Harrison Read to the Baby

*Sigh*  The other day Harrison read this story out loud to me for reading practice.  He got so tickled over the story that I wanted to record his reading it for posterity and all.  It was just so cute how he was doing the voices and laughing hysterically at intervals.  So I asked him to read it again, just like he did the first time.

Well, the best laid plans of mice and men, I guess.  This time through he didn't do the voices and wasn't laughing.  Well, he wasn't laughing until he decided to belch.  That's always good for a laugh around here.  Then, by sign language, I tried to remind him to laugh.  I know that's cheesy, but that was the whole point, and well, if you watched the video, then you know how that went.

Not that I'm really considering sending him to school, but do you  honestly think he would burp like that if he was reading aloud in a classroom, with at least twenty other children?  Something in me sorta hopes he would.

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As you well know, this is more like a peek into the last month or so of our educational endeavors, but I can't change the name now seeing as how I'm on volume 8 and all.

At this point, like many home schoolers, we're trying to cram as much into the next few months as possible, so that we don't have to spend our summers finishing our math texts.  We've been super busy, but we have managed to squeeze in a few...and yes....zany things into our school days.

Annaleigh continues to trek her way through The Usborne Complete Book of Science.  Here she is doing an experiment about God-only-knows-what (I'm not very scientific)...

However, I do know that she is using a hand mirror to reflect a prism onto her wall.  I just don't know why.

Both kids are studying Ancient World History this year, but at slightly different rates.  Harrison is just finishing up Ancient Greece.  He loved The Usborne Book of Greek Myths, probably because it was pretty violent...in a kid-friendly way, of course.

He liked reading about the Trojan War so much that one afternoon he spontaneously built the Trojan horse out of Legos.

I thought this part was particularly clever...

Both kids then planned and executed a Greek feast and Olympic games.  Here is Annaleigh overseeing the hummus...

For the feast we had Greek chicken, pita, hummus, Greek pilaf and Ekmek for dessert.

Most of the recipes were from the Story of the World, vol. 1 activity guide.  Everything was really good.  We totally messed up the syrup for the Ekmek, but I substituted regular maple syrup, which I'm sure made it taste nothing like what it was supposed to, but you do what you have to do.  Considering I almost caught my kitchen on fire, it's all I could come up with at the time.

Here are the Greeks in their togas, getting ready to chow down...

Yes, Indiana Mimi is making the peace sign.  She can be a real handful.

Speaking of our togas, we all wore them.  They were just sheets, secured with safety pins.  Nothing elaborate, but I don't own white sheets, so we turned out to be a colorful Grecian lot.

Harrison wondered whether one could do a jump-sidekick in a rather restrictive toga...

...and we found the answer to be no.

We conducted the Olympics in our school room.  We had an obstacle course, a discus throw, and wrestling matches.

I would just like to say, for the record, that in the following picture I am not attempting and failing to do a push-up for our obstacle course.  I am pretending to be in a Febreze commercial and smelling our carpet, because I can totally do like 50 push-ups.  No sweat.

Annaleigh won the obstacle course and was crowned with a laurel wreath...

Big D won the discus throw because he has big muscles.  That's why we call him Big D, in case you didn't know.

And then the wrestling matches....boy, were they wild!  First, I wrestled Big D, and I let him win.  See, here, I'm all over him...

Big D then took on the mighty Annaleigh, but he overcame her as well.

Indiana Mimi would not wrestle because she is scared of me.  She has seen me do 50 push-ups in 30 seconds with one hand tied behind my back, so I can't blame her.  See the fear in her eyes....

For the bored and the restless, here is a little minute and half video of the final wrestling match for the laurel crown, between Big D and Harrison.  I will warn you that Harrison is shirtless by this point.  He saw in his history book that the Greeks actually wrestled nude, so he thought he would try that in part.  I would also like to say that the room is usually not this messy, but it got a little dicey in all the preparation for the feast and games.  Plus when we started sweating, togas were flying everywhere and landing in little heaps.

And then the half-naked winner was crowned...

In non-Greek news, Harrison has started baseball.  It was absolutely insane for us to add another thing to our already hectic schedule, but if you're a regular reader of this blog, then you already know I like to flirt with insanity.  Here he is at his first practice...

I took this from my van because it was really cold outside.  Harrison's the one in the maroon hoodie.

And now for the contest!  Simply leave me a comment and tell me, "Enter me in the contest!," and then also let me know how many push-ups you can do with one hand behind your back.  (Probably not as many as I can, I'm sure.)  I will draw randomly from the entrants after Sunday, March 31 at 9:00pm, Central Time.  The winner may then choose from the following....

Evaluating for Excellence

or

Uncle Josh's Outline Maps CD ROM

or...

a bull-honkin' stack of 12x12 scrapbook paper

To be honest, I don't know how many sheets, but the stack is nearly an inch thick.

It's mostly patterned paper in every color of the rainbow.  I have 3 stacks of this, so be watching for more opportunities if you have your eye on this particular prize.  Even if you don't scrapbook, it would work great for cards or your kids' crafts and/or lapbooks.  I have a California Redwood's worth of paper in this house, and it was just time to weed some of it out.

And, finally, I'm taking a week's break from my usual Flashback Friday.  Tune in next week for more Flashback fun!

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Geographically, our state is right above Crossview's, but that didn't stop the "oohs" and "aahs" as I pulled the items out of the swap package we received over the weekend.

Several weeks ago Crossview put out a feeler on her blog about having a state swap with various other homeschoolers.  I immediately signed up, and it was so much fun packing and putting things together, trying to represent my state with little tidbits that I was to mail away.

The kids were enthralled with the cotton, and I'm quite sure they had assumed that it felt like their tee-shirts and didn't give much thought at all to where it came from.

Harrison pulled out the pine cone and said, "What's this?"  I was amazed that he didn't know what it was.  But then I remember that he was less than a year and half years old when we moved from South Carolina, and while we do have pines here, they are not as prolific as further south, so he had never held one or seen one up close.

It was fun to read through Crossview's small town newspaper.  And now I'm wondering how I can get to a Harvey's grocery because they have a really good deal on smoked hams this week....

We have been to Georgia a handful of times.  We even have family that live in Georgia.  Yet we still learned many, many things by reading through Crossview's hand-outs.

The kids each had their own favorite portions of the package...

and...

We have bought Reese Cups for Annaleigh before, so I'm not sure why she felt the need to kiss these.  And Harrison has decided that he is, in fact, willing to chew the Bulldog gum even though he is a big UT fan.

Thanks, Crossview!  I hope you enjoyed our package as much as we enjoyed yours.  And, readers, hop on over to her blog and take a look at what they received from good ol' Tennessee.

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OK, people.  You can stop contacting me asking me when in the world I'm going to publish another "Peek."  You can stop calling.  Stop writing.  Stop e-mailing.  Stop stalking me at Publix.  I am finally posting one.

Seriously, I got a bit off-track over Christmas.  I have found that I like to start school early every year, so that we can take a nice, long break around Christmas, and this year was no exception.  We don't abandon learning, creativity or teachable moments altogether, but we do put aside our curriculum and generally just blow off some steam.  Over our break the kids did things like this...

That is a fort they constructed in the middle of our loft/family room.  It was ingenious really when I began to study their building methods.  They used zip ties...

and Big D's quick grips...

and, my personal favorite, chip clips.

I was only slightly concerned that the top was secured to the ceiling fan with yarn and more zip ties.  And it only took them nearly two weeks to clean it all up.  Actually I am still finding the occasional zip tie attached to a coffee table leg or stair banister.

We have finally....FINALLY...finished with our Egypt studies.  I now have a lot of empathy for the Israelites, wanting to leave Egypt so badly, feeling like a slave to it's every whim, praying for a deliverer.  That was me during our last couple of weeks.  If I had to say the name Tutankhamen one more time, I was going to scream.  Here are the kids putting the final touches on a sticker map that sort of reviewed all that they had studied over the past few eons years weeks.

I hesitate to post the next picture for fear that you will think that all of Harrison's math lessons involve food.  That is not the case.  They are just the only ones exciting enough to photograph.  Here he is learning about fractions using peanut butter crackers.

 Speaking of food, isn't it great when your kids begin to learn to cook and are actually competent at it?  I was really tied up making dinner one night, but I needed a dessert for the Bible study we were hosting, so I put Annaleigh to work making these.

Her industry freed me up for more gourmet and sweat-inducing cooking like this...

I actually had to chop up some of the vegetables for this crock pot minestrone.

For PE, the kids both tested recently for their next belt levels in taekwondo.  Harrison tested for 1st degree, level 4 black...

Annaleigh tested for brown.

We are on the fringe of Tornado Alley, so here is our version of a tornado drill:

We troop down to our half-bath and hang out for a while until the weathermen tell us it's safe to come out.  Harrison always feels better wearing his Titans football helmet, and Annaleigh always feels better using my cell phone to call everyone she knows to tell them we might be having a tornado.  I usually wander around the house, snapping pictures, eating Wheat Thins and organizing my mail until we can go back upstairs.

I will leave you with a little video that the kids put together for a Bible lesson.  Usually, Annaleigh has written activities to complete, but this time her book suggested putting together a play to illustrate one of the stories she had read, and she was all about doing that.  Please note that it is necessary to rate this clip PG for simulated knife violence to a teddy bear playing the part of sacrificial beast.  Annaleigh is Elijah and Harrison is a samurai sword-carrying Baal worshipper.  Bridget, our dog, is a rubber-necker.  Enjoy....

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There comes a time when every 2nd grader must learn about measurements, and a nice, creative, fun way to do that might be to make brownies or some other calorie-laden treat.  Here is how I imagine some institutions might handle this...

"Good morning, class.  Today for math class we are going to be learning some new measurements.  Because there are more than 30 of you we will not be actually baking the brownies, but if we just meditate on the brownies and visualize the brownies, it will be practically the same thing.  Plus the school board has recently banned all sweets in our county, so even if we baked them, we could not eat them, or I would lose my job and end up on the 5 o'clock news.  Alright, let's begin!"

"This, class, is one cup."

"In the cup, you would measure one cup of white....er, I mean Caucasian sugar.  Now, I'd like for everyone to write 'one cup' on their paper.  What's that, Matilda?  You don't know how to spell 'cup'?  Oh well, that doesn't really matter as long as it is phonetically acceptable.  Use a 'c' or a 'k'....your choice."

"Next, class, I am going to show you a set of standard measuring spoons."

" You can see that they come in all different sizes, ranging from one tablespoon to 1/8 teaspoon.  You can also see that they are blue.  I chose blue because I couldn't think of any people group who has blue skin, except for the Smurfs who are fictional, and therefore no racial connotations could be construed.  But please note that I have nothing against small blue people, just in case any ever present themselves.  I also chose blue to show that it is perfectly acceptable for boys to cook.  Tomorrow I will show you a pink football, so that you will know that it is perfectly acceptable for girls to play that sport."

"This, class, is an egg."

"It will be cracked and mixed into the brownies as well.  Eggs have been around for millions and millions of years.  Right after our world exploded into existence out of thin air, an amoeba crawled out of a puddle and laid one.  Then it hatched and out popped a monkey, who is really your great, great, great, great, great grandfather."

"And speaking of crack, don't forget that our "Just Say No" program meets today after school.  And also do not forget that any day now, we may have a drug bust where snarling ferocious German Shepherds will come and sniff your desks and bookbags for drugs.  I just warn you because you're only seven, and it might be a little scary.  Please prepare yourself by watching CSI:New York tonight at 9pm."

"And speaking of eggs, that reminds me of something else.  Again, I know you are just seven years old, but someday, perhaps in just a few years,  you may want to....ahem...take part in the fertilization process.  That is perfectly normal.  When you begin to want to do that, whatever you do, do NOT discuss it with your parents.  That is what the school nurse is for.  She will tell you what you need to know and give you whatever it is you need, so that you may experiment with it however you chose."

"Alright, class, that is all for our lesson on measurement.  For homework tonight please write a one-page essay on why we should not eat brownies.  For extra credit you may invent an alternate, less offensive name for brownies.  Now it is time for recess.  Please remember that you will be expelled for playing dodge ball, Red Rover, or any competitive game where someone might lose."

And here's how we did this lesson today....

"Oh, look Harrison!  For math today you're learning about measurement.  Why don't we go make some brownies?"

Hmmmm...I wonder which lesson was most effective?

*********************************Reminder****************************************

Many of you expressed interest in participating in my Flashback Friday.  Please know that you can post about anything from the past....from Benjamin Franklin to your first day of first grade to friendship pins on your Reeboks....whatever!  And pictures are optional, so don't worry about whether you have a scanner or not.  Google image search might have something similiar to what you need too.  Just have fun with it!

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Ever heard of this?  Me neither.  I just saw a link over at my friend Hallie's blog and clicked.  Wow....that is an impressive site!

Anyway, there are nominations going on right now for over 20 categories.  I thought about nominating myself for something, which you're totally allowed to do, but I couldn't find a category for "Blog with the most Bad-Cat pictures" or "Silliest Blog Contest," so I just nominated some of you.  You should mosey over and check it out!

(Quit looking.  There are no wreaths in this post.  I have a baby-sitting engagement this afternoon, but tonight I'm posting a new component to the contest that does not involve wreath-hunting.)

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My last "Peek" was posted on October 15, and frankly I'm a little baffled about how we spent our last almost 3 weeks.  It is a hazy blur of TKD, pumpkins, a birthday, play practice, laundry loot, chicken wings, caramel apples and, of course, wreaths of mint.  I sit here and stare at the computer screen, wondering, "Did we even do any school at which to peek these last 19 days?!"

Well, my Photoshop picture manager says we have, and it's a reliable source.  So here's what I could scrounge up for you thrill-seekers....

Annaleigh culminated her Ancient Greek studies by putting together a lapbook.  This one was not a kit.  I gave her a list of items to include, and then she was pretty much on her own.  She did a great job, I think.

If there was ever any doubt that this child is my daughter, just check out the title she came up, completely on her own....

She's never even seen the movie. She also color-coordinated the whole thing in shades of yellow and blue.  Need I say more?  Methinks the apple falls not far from the tree.

Here's the first part, which includes a Greek god mini book, the definition of democracy, lift-the-flap books on Greek columns and a fold-out time line:

A close-up of a page of the mini book (Hi Zeus and Hera!  Looking good, you two!):

A close-up of the columns (just in case you have a burning desire to know, the one being shown is an example of an ionic column):

Here's the second section, which includes a comic book of the Trojan War, a Venn diagram comparing Athens and Sparta, mini biographies of Alexander the Great and Homer, an envelope filled with Greek paper dolls (on the outer flap) and a fold-down of a report on the Olympics:

Here I tried to take a picture of the paper dolls, but they weren't dressed, and Annaleigh (or Mini Me in this case) had drawn pink boxers with hearts on her man figure.  Since my blog is already rated R, I decided to err on the side of discretion and just give you a teaser:

And here is the lapbook artist herself, either doing her math on the computer or listening to our iPod (pink earbuds can be deceiving):

While his sister left him for other cultures, Harrison is still camped out in Egypt.  He enjoyed reading a pop-out, fold-down, shoot 'em up book on Pyramids that I bought at a used curriculum sale.

His favorite subject of late has been science, since we're studying the animal kingdom.  Here he's engrossed in doing his activity questions on birds:

And that's about all that Photoshop tells me we.....wait a minute...what's this?

What is Ripley doing with our Nile model?!  Doesn't he look sneaky?  He has no idea I'm watching him thanks to my new camera with super-zoom.

Uh-oh!  He's decided we've left it sitting so long on that table that it's free game, and he's going to eat it (And, no, becominglikehim, we cannot play "Where's the Nile?" next).

Wait!  He's not eating it....he's tomb-robbing!  He's stealing one of the Pyramids of Giza!

Nice try, kitty-man, but we caught you orange-handed...er, I mean pawed...even if you did manage to swallow the tip.  Little do you know that polymer clay is a little rough on the stomach!  (Actually, I don't know this personally....but I've heard!)

DID YOU SEE THE WREATH?

E-mail me at kellieann@adelgren.com to get your points!

***A 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place have already been awarded for this entry....within the first 10 minutes of posting actually!  Way to go, ladies!

Watch for another chance sooooooooon!

Everyone is still neck-in-neck, so even if you're just starting, you can still be competitive!

Oh...and make sure you check out the original prize details post to see a picture of the prize provided by Jeep Collins!

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For those of you that have been waiting on pins and needles for the past two weeks for a "Peek" installment, never fear...the wait is over!  We have been B-U-S-Y!!!  The kids have a taekwondo tournament coming up, so I've been trying to get them to as many classes as possible.  And then I made an announcement earlier last week that Annaleigh has been cast as the Ghost of Christmas Past in "The Christmas Carol,"  so forgive me if my "Peeks" from here on out appear blurry.  It is not your clouded contact lenses or a glitch with your computer screen.  It is just the speed with which we move...we are speed!

Harrison continues to excel in just about anything he puts his mind to.  He just has to complain about it a little before he puts his mind to it.  Here he's posing with an address book that he made for language arts:

He also wrote a lovely letter to his grandparents, which I have temporarily...ah...misplaced.

In this picture he's learning how to divide a set of objects in half.  The book suggested colored tiles, but we chose mini M&Ms.  I swear I missed my calling in writing curriculum!  I would have called it "Math with Chocolate,"  "Language Arts with Chocolate,"  "The History of Chocolate,"  "The Science of Chocolate," etc.

For history, I found a little pyramid that you can break open and find a little Egyptian artifact inside.  The kids worked on this together.

Above they're just getting started using the little tools that came with the this 88 cent contraption.

Here they decided to break out the more serious, heavy-duty Play-doh tools.

And, finally about 30 minutes later, a little hieroglyphic tablet emerges.  They had fun doing it, and both decided to never become an archaeologist.  I decided that I REALLY need to take down the Starlite mint wreath.

Annaleigh, despite her busy schedule, still graces us with her presence from time to time.  Here I found her on the surprisingly clean floor of her room doing math, in a red shirt and pink socks, no less.

She's still in the middle of her Ancient Greek studies.  For a project she made a Greek God Family Tree.

I think she thought that the names were going to take up more space than they actually did, but other than that, she did a great job on it.

Ripley thinks, "School is no big deal.  I can do it with my eyes shut.  {Sigh}...I love the color orange."

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I feel a little discombobulated doing our "peek" now because we haven't really finished our work from last week.  We had company stop in for Friday afternoon and evening, and we didn't do anything academic as a result, but each child got a crash course in Home Economics, as they were made to overhaul their rooms and help scrub the bathroom.  Annaleigh could also probably get a music credit as I'm pretty sure I heard her humming the the theme from "Cinderella" as she slaved away.  As it stands I'm not sure when we're going to squeeze in our neglected math lessons and spelling tests, but it's a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon, and I'm in "Who really cares?" mode.  It'll happen.

In the mean time, here's how we spent our more purposeful Monday-Thursday.  The kids dug into our spelling activity idea box (I'm serious...we really do have one of these.  It's an  optional part of the Spelling Power program) and found the suggestion of practicing your spelling words in instant pudding, spread out over a cookie sheet.  So, by golly, they wanted to try it.

Annaleigh is seen here spelling out her solo word for the week, "accidentally," as in I accidentally licked the pudding off my fingers as the kids practiced their words.  After they practiced a few times, they both grabbed spoons to dig in.

Annaleigh likes to sniff her chocolate before she tastes it.  I think sorta like wine drinkers slosh their glasses around and sniff.  I've always hated that in restaurants where the waiters want you to do that before they pour.  I rarely drink wine, but on the occasion that I do, it's always White Zinfandel, and I don't really care how it smells.  My concern has always been why it's called white when it is clearly pink.  Anyway....

Annaleigh finished her Egypt study just as Harrison was beginning his this week.  She has now moved on to the Greeks, which I'm sure will eventually produce some very interesting photos, like all of us in multi-colored togas, since I don't own any white sheets.  In the meantime here is a photo of Harrison's attempt at hieroglyphics:

I don't know what you think, but there's something very comical and just a tad creepy about that photo.  It sort of reminds me of the "Kilroy was here!" cartoon.

See?  Weird, huh?

We talked Big D into joining us one evening for a review game that was a part of Annaleigh's history.  Annaleigh won, rightly so.

And then here's an extremely flattering picture of me helping Harrison to complete a puzzle of Hatshepsut's temple.

I do not recommend puzzles of Egyptian scenes.  It really teaches you nothing about the culture, and everything is sand-colored, so it took us nearly an hour to finish this little 8.5x11 puzzle....ugh!

We squeezed in two movies this week.  This, of course...

And for good measure, we're going to throw in the cartoon version this week.  Strictly for a compare and contrast.  I promise.

We also took three days to watch this:

Both kids have hit this already in Bible, and then it was also a good Egyptian visual for both of them.  Of course, I had to field the normal questions with its Biblical inconsistencies like "Was Moses really in love with the Egyptian princess, Neferteri?"  "Did Moses' Egyptian mother really come with the Israelites for the Exodus?"  "Did Moses really rescue his Hebrew mother from being trapped underneath a huge stone?"  All of these I could handle.  The one from Annaleigh that stumped me was, "Was Moses really that cute?"

And on that note I'll leave you to ponder that deep, theological mystery.   Have a great week!

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This was a full week, but funnily enough, as I was uploading the pictures that I snapped, it looks like we weren't too academic.  Actually, we were, but I think I just forgot to photograph any of our more scholarly moments.  So the photos and write-ups that I'm including this week are much more action-packed and exciting (so much so that we all used stunt doubles....can you tell?), so buckle up your seat belts, and let's go....

Monumentally, this week, Harrison finished his Charlotte's Web lapbook, and in celebration we formed a mosh pit and body-surfed until dawn, but the pictures were waaaayyy too blurry, so you'll have to settle for these:

Harrison, with the cover:

You may notice an unfortunate splatter of glitter on the web.  And you may remember that I have an aversion for glitter.  The splatter is supposed to say "Some Pig," but in reality it looks like shiny vomit.  And now every time I, or anyone else for that matter, have come within 3 feet of this lapbook, they wind up looking like they've been doused in the samples from Claire's boutique at the mall.  We are all walking around with our sunglasses on because of the cover of this lapbook.  I really, really hate glitter, and this is....I promise....the one and only time you will see glitter on any of our school projects.

Here's a look at the inside:

Here we included a crossword, a "Wilbur" acrostic, a pig activity book, and the results of our favorite character survey.  Charlotte, albeit posthumously, won with Wilbur as a close second.

This is the second panel, with more of a spider emphasis:

Included are a color-by-number, a sentence writing activity, vocabulary, a "MY favorite spider" booklet (he chose banana spider), and a spider anatomy fill-in-the blank, which I kept closed so as not to disturb young viewers.

Here are the two side panels.  One has a pocket for his book report, and the other has a write-up on EB White.

And, finally, the back, where we placed several coloring sheets and little descriptions written by Harrison:

One thing I try to do as a homeschooler is work in a healthy dose of life-skills on a daily basis.  This is basically so that they don't grow up to be a complete dolt, like me, when it comes to domesticity.  So, fairly regularly lately, I've been having Annaleigh come in to assist with dinner.  I'll add Harrison to this activity when he can stop pretending to be Jack Sparrow or a Power Ranger for intervals of five minutes or more.  One day this week, we made pork chops, and here she is dipping them and breading them:

I have a reward system set up in our school, where I made and printed "school dollars" that I give out for A's on tests, hard work during the week, and reading books.  I fill a little box with some goodies and assign dollar amounts.  On Fridays, they can use their dollars to shop at the store.  When they were younger, it was mostly dollar items, but Annaleigh was quickly not caring whether she earned and spent her dollars or not on cheap plastic items that broke about 2.3 minutes after they were opened, so last year I started picking up clearance items at unbelievable prices.  Harrison has been saving since the beginning of the year to buy a Lego set that normally sells for around $50 at Target, that I got for $9 (but shhhh!...don't tell him, since I was charging $40 in the school store!).  Here  he is posing with his prize that he waited and saved for 7 weeks:

We took a fun field trip to Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  Yes, you read that right.  We read a chapter in Homer Price about the doughnut machine that goes awry, so we thought we needed a hands-on.  Our Krispy Kreme has a big window where you can see the machine making the doughnuts, so it was a totally legit trip....and for good measure, we went on Saturday, so we didn't cut into anything academic.

Here are the kids enjoying their "breakfast":

Annaleigh was mortified that I made her wear the paper hat.  Does she think she's 11, or something?!

If you look past me in this one (I'm the one holding the all-important beverage and trying to get the child's hat to stay on my big head with my big hair), you can see Harrison watching the machine:

And, yes, I'm still doing my "life style change," but everyone needs a break sometimes.  Plus I've lost 4 lbs!!!

Our on-going PE is taekwondo for both kids, and this week they were both awarded their new belts.  Annaleigh is now a blue belt, and Harrison is now a 1st degree, level 3 black belt.  So, in other words, don't mess with us.  We don't play.

Oh, wait...here is one honest-to-goodness real learning picture!  The kids doing a science experiment:

Or is Harrison just drinking a very large Bloody Mary?  No, it is definitely science.  My kids just have the unique ability to take something totally factual, academic and pure and turn it into pure goofiness.  He is learning, by the way, how water will travel.  In a few days the veins of the celery will be red like the Bloody Mary.  Er...I mean dyed water.

And then to end out our week we had a real, live open house.  We do this every 4 to 5 to 6 to 20 weeks or so....basically whenever we've accumulated enough interesting work to show Big D and Indiana Mimi.  Here they are perusing the kids' work:

One of the kidlets even made a sign!

Harrison recited his memory passage, Psalm 1, and Annaleigh gave an oral book report on Mara, Daughter of the Nile.

Note to self:  work on eye contact with Annaleigh....oh, and take down the old, crusty Starlite mint Christmas wreath.  It is September for pete's sake, and that's been hanging on that doorknob since 2005.

And with this last photo, I will leave you in peace...literally.  Bridget and Ripley attended a species reconciliation seminar where they learned to appreciate the other's differences, share, be kind, etc. and this is the result:

Awwww....I see some pets who are getting a little more kibble in their bowls.

Till next time...

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Well, I didn't really give you a peek into our week 2 weeks ago.  We really ended up trying to cram too much into that week.  We took off on Labor Day and had this, which I've already blogged about:

And then it was also Annaleigh's birthday, which added to the chaos of an already shortened week.  But, hey, you only turn 11 once.  It is quite a feat to turn an age, in which you've run out of fingers for...

I guess little brothers are good for something after all.

This past week, however, was normal....well, relatively speaking.

Here's an update on our Nile:

As you can see, it sprouted.  We also added sand, and Harrison insisted on sculpting some clay Pyramids.  We've flooded it a few times, which the kids enjoy doing, and we've also discovered that it discourages the cats from thinking we've bought them a new, fancy litter box.  On our list next is to mummify a chicken.  I'm pretty much dreading this since I can't stand to touch fresh raw chicken, let alone 6 week old, salt-soaked raw chicken, but I guess we'll try it.  I just have to prepare my gag reflexes...

Here's Annaleigh hard at work, watching a dvd for grammar.

Remember the old "School House Rocks" clips from Saturday morning cartoons?  They now have them all on dvd, and I found a supplemental program that actually built a curriculum around the songs.  My kids are loving them, and I find them a good reinforcement.  Now if I can just get "Conjunction Junction....what's your function?..." out of my head...

Here Annaleigh really is hard at work completing one of her Story of the World activity sheets.  I believe this one was on Moses and the Plagues.

Both kids enjoyed making their version of Phoenician glass.  Their favorite part?  Why, shaving the crayons, of course.  My favorite part?  Why, scraping shaved crayon off my dining room table, of course.  It may look like they're being neat and all, but it is a total farce.  Don't let them fool ya'.

Harrison had a fun review of fractions.  He likes fractions because it usually involves cutting or dividing something, which is violent.....for math, anyway.  He was a little disappointed here that he only got to use crayons to divide a square into eighths and that he wasn't required to shave them.

I finally started an art program with Harrison.  I found one of the Start Smart kits last spring at Hobby Lobby on clearance, but just hadn't found time yet to fit it in.  The first lesson was all on shading, and he seemed to enjoy it and did a good job, even though it was a little sedate for him.  Again, I think he'd rather be shaving the crayons instead of shading with him.

We finished our first read-aloud for the year, Charlotte's Web.  {sigh}  That has to be one of my favorite stories of all time.  Even though both movies have been very good, there's just nothing like actually reading the book.  We're working on a lapbook with this, so I'm sure I'll have pictures to post in a week or two.

Why he's acting like he's at a Guns-N-Roses concert instead of having just finished a quaint children's book, I do not know, but I stopped trying to psychoanalyze my children long ago.  I think maybe it means he liked it.  Maybe.

That about does it.  I think I'll go read Great Expectations  while playing the air guitar.  'Till next time....

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So, I came up with a catchier title for our school updates.  What do ya' think?  Nevermind...I don't want to know.

This week, week 3 of our school year, I felt like we kinda got into a groove.  The kids knew the schedule of things and had less questions and complaints.  Always a good thing.

Annaleigh doesn't make much of a secret about her adversion to math.  She works it into almost any conversation.

"So, Annaleigh, how's it going today?" a friend might enquire.

"Oh, fine.  By the way, did you know I hate math?" she might answer.

She actually does fairly well though.  This week she made a 98% on her first test.

She's working on a lesson in the above picture.  It doesn't show up well, but I usually chain her to the chair for this.

She completed her first lapbook this week.  Homeschool e-store had a freebie a few weeks ago for an Egyptian mummy lapbook kit from Hands of a Child, so I took advantage of that, and we're both pleased with how it turned out.

The cover.  The title is "Mummies Un-wrapped."  Get it?

The inside

The inside with the flap raised.

And because we just can't do anything in a normal way around here, Annaleigh decided to practice her spelling words this week by making and doing cheers to spell them out, pom-poms and all.

Harrison had a very productive week as well.  He got a 100% on his math test.  He didn't do quite as well on his spelling test.  He decided that all words that start with W also need an H, so he spelled wish, w-h-i-s-h and with, w-h-i-t-h, which was really, really cute, but I still had to mark them wrong.  He took it like a man though.

He's also working on a lapbook.  His is on Charlotte's Web, and I'm pulling a variety of resources together for it.  Here he's cutting out a series of pink pigs for a little booklet that we'll include.

And then here he's displaying the acrostic that he wrote using the letters in Wilbur's name.  He came up with W-wonderful, I-interesting, L-lucky, B-believable, U-unusual, and R-radiant, of course.

Normally, we adhere to the "no-shirt, no-school" policy around here, but this was after his shower, and he was on his way to bed.  He also switched to brown pigs after a while because he decided that pink pigs were too girly for him and his bare chest.

The kids are working on a project together of building a replica of the Nile River, since Annaleigh is in the throes of her Egypt studies and Harrison will soon embark upon them.  Here they are laying down the rocks in the riverbed:

And then Harrison is seen here, flooding the river:

I try to give him the jobs that involve destruction.  He likes that sort of thing.  The idea is to reenact that actual occurrence of yearly flooding on the Nile by watering your river, and thus your grass seed every week.  So far, nothing.  But I'll keep you posted....

And "Rut-Roh"...look what we watched, just for fun!

That's right...no National Geographic movies for us, goofballs that we are.  I haven't seen Scooby in years.  This was a newer one than the 80s fare that I used to watch after school.  And let me just say, Velma has lost weight!  She is definitely giving Daphne a run for her money.  I wonder what she's doing....  Weight Watchers?  Jenny Craig?  C'mon, girl!  Tell us your secret...  I made the mistake of watching some of the credits and was highly disturbed to find out that the same guy who does the voice for Fred, also does Scooby.  I don't know if this was always the case, but that's just wrong!

Ripley started out having a good week.  He took Basket-weaving 101 and made this for his afternoon naps:

That turned out nicely don't you think, especially by a creature that doesn't have prehensible thumbs?  Anyway, after this it got a little ugly, and I had to write him up.

You see, he was disturbed by my picture-taking and hopped out of the basket, the ornery thing.  And then stuck his tongue out at me.  Then it turned violent...

Can you believe that?!  I should expel him from Hilltop Academy!

And that about sums it up.  We're having a ball here!  I hope your educational endeavors are just as fun!  See ya' next time...

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I am going to attempt to post one of these every week...or at least every other week.  If not, then once a month.  Truly, I should not even state my intentions because that's usually the kiss of death for said intentions.  I'm serious.  I can say, "I'll be right back.  I'm going to the mailbox and mail this letter."  And I will walk right outside and throw it in the trash.  Whereas if I had not told anyone what my plans were for the letter, it would be well on its way to the indicated destination.  OK...OK...I'm not that bad!  But I have admitted here before that I'm not a good finisher.  My intentions are good (most of the time).  My stick-to-it-tiveness is bad.

Well, now that I've given you very little hope for seeing this series of posts again, here we go.  My thought is to give an overview of our week, with pictures of course, so that long-distant grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, enemies, bosses, ex-bosses, old teachers, OB/GYNs, ....I think you get the picture....can peek at what we're up to here at Hilltop Academy.

This week I'll start with Harrison.

Harrison is very sharp with math.  I admire this in him because I am not so sharp with math.  He's actually working a grade ahead, using Saxon 3, and I learn little math tricks all the time.  Hey...I admitted to borrowing a friend's toothbrush once, so why not fess up that I learn from a 3rd grade math book?!

Harrison and I discovered long ago that Star Wars figures make the best manipulatives.

He likes to make up what Saxon calls "some and some more stories" with them.  They go a little something like this:  "Obi-Wan, Yoda, Mace Windu and Kit Fisto went to the Jedi temple.  Darth Vadar, Count Dooku and Darth Maul met them there to fight.  How many Star Wars figures are in the temple now?"  Harrison's answer: "Six and a half because Obi-Wan sliced Darth Maul in half with his light saber."  Ohhhh Kaaaay....onto less violent subjects.

Harrison says that this year Spelling is one of his favorites.  Actually he hasn't done a whole lot of formal spelling up to this point.  I was a little surprised by his enthusiasm. Here he's painting his study words for this week:

In History he's been getting kind of an overview of world cultures through the book Peoples of the World by Usborne before we dive into chronological world history.  When we read about different foods earlier this week, the book included a recipe for the Indian yogurt drink called lassi.  He really chugged it down.

"Do you like it Harrison?"

"Yeah...it tastes a lot like yogurt."  Uh....yeah.

The following is a descriptive paragraph he wrote (actually from our first week....but who's keeping track?!). 

My cat's name is Baxter.  He is fat and furry.  He has a pink nose and green eyes.  He is a little stinky.  He has a loud meow and a purr.  He is soft and warm.

He got a 97 on his first math test and 100 on his spelling test today.  I may not always share their grades, but when they're that good, why not?

And now on to Annaleigh....

The big news for our 6th grader is that she had her first tutorial classes earlier this week where she is taking 2 classes, voice and drama.

As homeschoolers we don't always get the chance to take the first-day-of-school-backpack-on-my-shoulder-going-out-the-door shot, so I rose to the occasion.

Here she is busy working on a color-coded Bible project:

In history she's learning about Ancient Egypt right now.  I bought one of those treasure chest thingies for that time period, so today she made some hieroglyphic messages with some stamps that were included.

A couple of the things she wrote were "God Rocks!" and "Johnny Depp."

The next series of photos I'm calling "Indiana Mimi" as they are of my mom, trying to decode Annaleigh's messages.  She told me not to post any of them here, so, of course, I'm posting all of them.

Annaleigh explaining how to use the decoder and Mimi thinking that the print is way too small.

Mimi laughing because I just told her I'm calling these pictures "Indiana Mimi" and she still is not "getting" the decoder.

"OK, I think I've got it," says Indiana Mimi.  "Where, by the way, is my whip?"

Here Indiana Mimi tries to hide behind her decoder, but she should know there is no hiding from the papparazzi.

Annaleigh:  "Look!  It's Indiana Mimi cracking the code!"

Mimi:  "Where are my BC headache powders?"

Stay tuned for the Adventures of Indiana Mimi and the Daycare of Doom....

Alright...enough of that.  Later today Annaleigh did her first science experiment, and I'll just be upfront and say that I really don't know what she was doing.  It involved rubbing alcohol, canola oil and some food coloring.  She used impressive little droppers and made impressive little drawings and notes, so I think I'll give her an A.  Give me a break...my lowest college grade ever was in Chemistry where I went down an entire letter grade every test.  Thankfully there were only 4 tests!

Wouldn't you give her an A?  Look how closely she's examining...whatever it is.

Thankfully, Big D arrived on the scene and was able to have an intelligent discussion about....whatever she was doing.

And then, I kid you not, right in the middle of this big mess on my dining room table, a big storm brewed up and our power went out for about 40 minutes.

Maybe God was saying, "Don't do Chemistry."  Huh...ya' think?  Maybe...please.!!!  For some reason, I see science in her future at that tutorial.  And, yes, Annaleigh is wearing flashlight strapped to her head.  I've tried to tell you we're a little nerdy.  Now, do you believe me?

And, finally, I can't leave out our mascots who learned how to play the congas...

and got steam-cleaned...

I promise the cleaner is NOT on.  And I promise those are not my legs.  Damon just wanted to show Ripley what could happen if he sits on his congas again, and Baxter just volunteered to help out.  He's just that kind of cat.  (Actually, he's about 17 years old, and it's hard to get him to move out of the way!)

I hope you enjoyed this peek into our week.  Happy schooling!

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And, I won't be around for a bit again, but when I return to the computer I plan to post about the mother-of-all-field trips.

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Last year I chronicled our 2nd day of school here at Hilltop Academy.  It was basically a total disaster, so blogging about it was sort of like therapy, since I can't afford to actually see a professional therapist.  This year our 2nd day of school went off without a hitch.  As I lay in bed last night pondering the ease of my 2nd day a disturbing sort of feeling washed over me....always a nice feeling right before you go to sleep, right?  It was sort of the feeling of the calm before the storm because surely not all days are going to go so smoothly, are they? 

Well, in the words of one of my favorite heroines, Scarlett O'hara, "I'll think about that tomorrow..." and I could also add "Fiddle-dee-dee" for good measure.

Since my 2nd day was so boring and non-incidental calm, I'll leave you with a link to my post from last year.  Enjoy...   click here.

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Last night as I sat in our school room, frantically making final preparations to begin school this morning, I sort of had a mental breakdown.  I didn't have to go dig out my straight jacket or anything, but I just had the most incredible feeling of being overwhelmed with it all...."all" being the papers, the books, the records, the copies, etc., etc., etc. Now please understand, I only have 2 kids....really GREAT kids.  It's really pretty easy to work with them.  But I have perfectionist tendencies and insecurities to boot.  I want everything to be just right and so-so and all that, but it rarely happens that way.  So basically what I'm saying is that I drive myself crazy.  Period.

Now, how dumb is that?!  I calmed myself down by sitting at the computer and praying for a minute. (Just for the record, I was already sitting at the computer doing some work....I don't normally go to the computer to have my prayer time.)  Soon after I was reminded of this song, a favorite by the artist Plumb (That's not her name.  I don't know what her name is, but this is what she calls herself...not her group, but herself.  Even radio dee-jays call her 'Plumb.'  I have read and re-read the liner notes of her albums trying to figure it all out, but to no avail.  It could drive a person nuts trying to figure out why....but I'm calming down now, so I won't go there.)  Anyway here is a protion of the song that I so clearly identify with...

Here are the lyrics, since I can't figure out how to get the whole song to play:

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My title