I haven't been posting very often here, but just wanted to share with my (two or three, if I'm lucky) faitful readers that I am going on a "time travel" trip this weekend.  I am headed home to Alberta today so that I can attend my high school reunion - my class 25th!! *gasp*  I'm really looking forward to it, and hopefully will have some fun things to share when I get back.

And it started me wondering... do you know of any homeschool alumni that have "class reunions?"  For instance, the graduating class of an umbrella group or co-op getting together 5 or 10 years after they graduated?  Just curious. 

For Show & Tell this week, I want to share how Kennady has been spending a lot of her spare time lately - practicing her recorder.  I have to admit that the family gets pretty tired of hearing it, but from what I can tell, that's fairly common among family members of recorder players!!  She has been learning to play in a co-op class and is really enjoying it so she practices at home (which not all of her classmates do, apparently) and last week she got out the whiteboard and practiced writing out her music as well.

Okay, now she's embarrassed because I'm taking her picture:

Okay, time to go - we need to practice for the Talent Night this evening - she is singing!

For more Show & Tell fun, visit  my friend CanadaGirl!

It's time for Show & Tell, and as usual I am late in getting mine ready.  I posted a little preview earlier today though.

On Monday, I took Landon and Kennady on a field trip.  We visited an art glass studio in Baltimore and were able to see how the glass pieces are made, and the kids each got to make a marble using the technique!  As our group arrived, we looked around at the interesting glasswork in the workshop area.

Calla lilies!

I thought this looked a little like Spanish onions!  Its MUCH larger, and is hanging from the ceiling, almost like a chandelier.

Here's where its all made:

As we were getting settled, our tour guide - the owner and artist, Tim - quickly fashioned a horse out of glass. 

Then it was our turn.  One at a time, the kids chose which colored glass bits they would use for their own marble.  This is Kennady getting a quick lesson on how to hold the rod and keep turning it so that the hot glass doesn't droop.

Tim got the hot glass on the end of the rod, and then Kennady pressed it into the little pile of lavender glass she had chosen.

Next, over to the furnace where the glass is heated again, always turning the rod.

Back to the stainless steel table again, this time to shape the molten glass by turning and pressing it onto the table.

And to the furnace again...

Finally, Kennady can sit down (still turning the rod though!) and Tim helps her to pinch in the end of the glass so that the rounded marble will come off the rod.  (I took a little video of that, which I will add here later if I can)

Landon's turn:

Here is Kennady's finished marble:

All the kids in our group proving that they still have their marbles!

Afterwards we looked around the shop and gallery - beautiful and unique work!!

He's got everything you could imagine in there, including the kitchen sink! (Actually, this is the bathroom sink - we couldn't resist taking a picture, despite the fact that our reflections are in the mirror! Ooops LOL)

Thanks for coming by - more show and tell fun can be found by visiting Mary aka CanadaGirl

H is for Hot!

On Monday we went on a field trip to an art glass studio.  We were told that the furnace is about 2000 degrees!  This is the smaller oven, which I guess isn't quite that hot, but still...

For more A B See's, visit The Homeschool Post

A couple weeks ago I shared some pictures from the kids co-op class.  Well, now we've passed the halfway point and here are some more co-op pictures.  First the gross stuff...  I went into Spencer's biology lab two weeks ago to get a look at a cow brain.  I'm still rather surprised at how little it bothered me.  LOL 

They've now examined the tongue, heart, brain, and lungs.  Interesting.

The younger kids are enjoying their classes as well, particularly Music and Art.  One of the local library branches puts up artwork in a "gallery" to showcase different area schools, and most recently our homeschool group was featured.  We sent a perspective drawing Spencer did in his co-op art class:

Kennady also had a piece from her Art class submitted, a story quilt drawing inspired by the work of Faith Ringgold:

Kennady was with me when I went to visit the "gallery" so I tried to get her picture.  Not easy since her work was at the very top of the bulletin board, and I'm not crazy about how it turned out, but I haven't got a copy of Gramma's picture yet. (hers turned out much better, I think!)

For more Show & Tell, visit Mary aka CanadaGirl

As homeschoolers, we all have “one of those days” every now and then. Sometimes there isn’t even a sickie in the house. Sometimes mom is drained or burned out and feeling run down. Sometimes there are other medical or health issues that are interfering with our best laid-out plans (bedrest for a 9 month old teacher, anyone?!)…

So do we give up and give in? Do we change the plans to make them more flexible?

I’d love to hear about the ideas that some of you have, the stories that you all can tell - about days that were less than perfect because someone “came down with a bug”, but successes anyway. Are you a “carschooler” when there are doctor appointments to attend? Are you a “bedschooler” when life lays you up? Or do you have a “sick day” schedule that you follow - a “rainy day idea can” that you dip in to?

What happens at your house when life throws a schedule curve?

Share your story with all of us moms who need a little encouragement.

********************************************************************************

Sick Days don't interfere with our plans as much, now that the kids are all older!  Way back when I was pregnant or nursing, and had a toddler to deal with, it was a different story.  But I have forgotten much of how we handled those times.  Now that my students are all reading on their own, if *I* am feeling too miserable to manage their schoolday, I ask them to work on their own.  Most of the time they are working on their own anyway, so its really only History and Science that have to be rescheduled when sickness interferes.  Recently I had a touch of pneumonia and pretty much lost my voice (and what little energy and motivation I have!) for about a week, and was just plain tired all the time for a few weeks after that.  I took a couple days off History and Science, because my voice just wasn't strong enough to get through the class time.  When we got back to it, I kept the lessons shorter so as not to wear my voice out. 

Since we do Science and History together (except for Harrison) I am sometimes torn about what to do if ONE of the three kids isn't feeling well.  Thankfully it doesn't happen that often that someone is feeling so poorly they can't even sit at the table for a half hour for a History discussion, so most of the time we just postpone those subjects until everyone is feeling better.

Check out other homeschooler's ideas on how to handle sick days at The HSBA Post

Time again for Show & Tell!  A couple weeks ago, when we started our Lewis & Clark unit in History, we followed my book's instructions for making "vermillion" paint, which the Corps of Discovery took with them to trade to the Native Americans they met. 

Then it was off to a mirror so Landon and Kennady could paint up!

Here is Landon trying to look mean, like he's headed out on the warpath.  And Kennady tried to look mean too, but couldn't wipe the smile off her face. 

At first we were a little disappinted that the paint looked more PINK than RED, but when the time came to wash it off, I was glad!  I had a few anxious moments where I thought I might have to take them to gym class looking like they had sunburn! Thankfully it really was washable, like the instructions said, but I'd recommend not leaving the paint on for TOO long! LOL

For more Show & Tell fun, visit CanadaGirl and feel free to join us!

(by the way, I try to visit all the Show & Tell entries each week, but have so much trouble getting comments to post! I will visit your Show & Tell, I promise! Just might not be able to comment)

F is for Fire Hydrant

Ever seen the underground part of a fire hydrant?  I hadn't, until driving through the nearby town where they have been doing a major overhaul of the main street.  All the detours and delays are annoying, but this was kind of neat!

For more A B See's, visit The Homeschool Post

E is for Eeeeek!!!

Had to be creative with this letter, but that is pretty much what I said when our TV antenna blew off our roof on Monday!  Here it is sitting in our yard.  I'm trying to think of a good homeschool project we can do with a TV antenna - suggestions?

For more A B See's, visit The Homeschool Post

And for Show & Tell, visit Mary aka CanadaGirl

Something often overlooked on our blogs is the ‘other’ family member that sleeps at the end of the bed.  We fail to mention our fur children even though they are a huge part of our lives. Is your ‘pet’ is really the king or queen of the house? Maybe you just tolerate having an animal because the husband or kids can’t live without one. Or some of you might be ‘animal free’, take issue with ‘just another responsibility’, or find that you’re deathly allergic to dander. With as much a part of our personal lives as pets tend to be, I figured it would be good to share about our animal friends (or the lack of them).

Who doesn’t love looking at furry critters - even if they aren’t your own? Some of us spend more time inhaling them than looking at them (cat belly can be addictive). Let’s not forget the slimy froggies, swimmy fish, feathery birds and other interesting creatures that some keep, also! Do you have an exotic pet to tell about? Or a neat animal story? Have you ever rescued a wild forest animal or had something strange wander up on to your porch?

Tell us your pet history. What was your first pet? Which was your most memorable? How about today? How many pets do you have? Do they help or hinder your homeschooling?

***********************************************************************************

We have one cat and would you believe I can't find a picture of him?  Not taken on a digital camera anyway.  I thought that odd, since Kennady loves to take pictures and I know she's taken many of the cat, but apparently I don't save them.  Hmmm...  Well,  our cat is named Blue and here is his story:  before we had kids, I was an office manager for a heavy construction company.  One day, one of our engineers came in the office and told me and the receptionist that the yard cat had apparently abandoned her 'nest' and one of the kittens was still there.  We went out to see, and found that a kitten had slipped down between the rolled-up construction site tarps and the fence they were stacked against.  The 'nest' had been on top of the tarps and it looked like the mama cat had moved her kittens to a more sheltered spot but she couldn't get at this one.  I asked the engineer to take up a board or two of the fence so we could get the kitten out and I took it inside wrapped in my extra sweatshirt and listened to it cry the rest of the day.  After work I took it to our vet (we had another cat named Monkey already) and found out it was only a few weeks old and just barely ready for solid food.  The vet recommended we try feeding it strained meat - as in baby food! - mixed with baby cereal to start with!!  So that's how Blue joined our household.  He is named after Don Cherry's dog, by the way.  Blue is about 17 years old, which is positively ancient for a cat, but he is still relatively spry.  We think he may be going deaf though.

Blue doesn't have much affect on homeschooling at all, and since he is old enough that he prefers to sleep about 22 hours a day, we barely notice him some days.  When he IS awake, he tends to yowl LOUDLY (contributing to our theory that he is hard of hearing) to indicate that he wants food or water.  And most of the time, he HAS food and water, he is just too lazy to go to where it is.  LOL

Harrison also has two pet turtles, but he's not that emotionally attached to them.   I don't think they even have names.  I call them Mary and Terri, in honor of the Maryland Terrapins, but those names haven't stuck.

Our past pets include the aforementioned cat named Monkey, a cockatiel named Spike, and a parakeet named Jester.  When I was growing up we had parakeets - I can't remember how many, but I think they were all named either Billy or Hank. 

We have several cats in our neighborhood that like to root through our recycle bin, and we think they sometimes take up residence under our pool deck too.  We have started referring to them by names, and mostly try to ignore their presence.  Soupcan Cat is so named because he is the one that got his head stuck inside a soup can in the recycle bin last spring and ran around the yard with it on his head.  Hysterical!  There's another one we named Bob, and one we call Tumor.  Tumor got up on our roof a couple of weeks ago and then was uncomfortable coming down.  We assumed he would get cold or hungry and would figure it out, but by Day 3 of the standoff we figured we'd better help him out.  I posted about it and shared a couple pictures here

Visit The Homeschool Post for other Homeschool Memoirs

Just one picture this week for my Show & Tell.  Last week I featured our co-op class and showed Spencer starting on a perspective drawing.  The students were to finish their drawings of the road heading off into the horizon this week, and add their own personal touches.  Here is what Spencer came up with:

He's not quite finish, I think he is going to adjust the shadows so they match.  Note the worker on thepower pole.

Check in with Mary at Raising 4 Godly Men for more Show & Tells!

It seems like many homeschoolers begin to see the fire die out around this time of year. Yet it doesn’t always take a whole lot to get the flames burning bright again. It may be one small change in your routine. Maybe it’s trying out an idea you’ve been pondering for awhile. Or you might need to throw on a bit of kindling on to fuel that fire.

Let’s see some sparks of imagination as we encourage one another, sharing ways to get your homeschool efforts cooking again. What is something you’ve done, or thought about doing, to “fan the flame” of waning motivation?

*************************************************************

It's sad but true... we do run out of educational steam about this time of year.  There are so many distractions around the holidays and I feel like I'm fighting the current to get us back to business in January and February.  At the beginning of February, we also start co-op classes once a week, which the kids enjoy and does get us fired up in some ways - but the downside is that we do have to adjust our weekly schedule to allow for that, and sometimes that is hard to do!

Looking forward to the book fairs and homeschool conventions, and starting to plan for the next school year - that motivates me.  It's kind of like needing to finish my main course before I can move on to dessert!  I start planning what I might need to buy for next school year, what areas we'll want to cover in science or history; and then realize that we need to get cracking on this year's work or we won't be able to jump into the next fascinating topic as soon. 

One thing I need to work on is keeping up with grading, and with the Homeschool Tracker.  When I get behind on grading work or entering assignments in the Tracker, it just gets more daunting the longer I leave it.  And I am a procrastinator, so you can guess how that will turn out if I don't stay on top of it.  This year I have really let myself get behind, and its discouraging to think about.  I've been plugging away, a little at a time, to get it caught up though, and my goal is to have everything ship-shape well before third quarter grades are due.

For more motivational ideas, visit  The HSBA Post

D is for Driving

Harrison is getting as much time behind the wheel as he can, as he hopes to get his license soon.  I'm looking forward to the increase on our insurance - NOT.

For more A B See's, visit The Homeschool Post

Memory Verse: Psalm 69:21 They put poison in my food; in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

Introduction: Obey Your Thirst (Sprite) In this Psalm, terrible things are plaguing David. He’s seeking the Lord, as he has that sinking feeling, that desperate thing of alienation and abandonment… and they try to poison him and give him vinegar - GROSS! How Vile! Sometimes when we’re sick, we have that sinking desperate feeling, we call out to God, we call out for healing.

Assignment: Tell us the most vile “remedy” you’ve ever had to consume in order to be rid of that “plague”.  Was it something prescribed by a Medical Doctor? or was it an herbal remedy? We all know that Buckley’s commercial, it tastes awful, but it works.  Would you take this remedy again?  Did it work? Can you get your children to take it?

**********************************************************************

Before I even read the reference to Buckley's in the assignment, that's what I thought of!!  Ah, Buckley's Mixture - one of Canada's greatest contributions to the world.    When I was growing up, we really did hear those infamous words "Better get out the Buckley's" when we had a nasty cough.  Just hearing the words sometimes had a curative effect!  Only in the past few years have we seen Buckley's available in some US stores, and so we had been bringing our personal supply home with us whenever we visited family in Canada.  Those wonderful words still work, especially for my kids that think they might get some yummy grape-flavored cough syrup if they can fake a little cough and fool me.    We've introduced Buckley's Mixture to a few friends as well.  Our odd fascination with this horrible-tasting, but effective, product has also led us to collect a few Buckley's "souvinirs! 

We actually have two of these little magnet dry-erase boards, and also a medicine spoon with a buckleys handle - all "won" at a mall display a few years ago where you drink a dose of buckleys to earn a spin of the prize wheel! 

One year my DH got this handy Buckley's Cold Care Kit from his sister as a birthday present. It contained Buckleys and this great t-shirt!

(rats, the picture is sideways.  my bad.)  That's the front of the shirt, and here is the back:

I can't remember for sure, but I suspect her boyfriend had to drink some Buckleys in order to "win" that prize!

So - sorry I don't have pictures of the faces we make when we actually have to take Buckleys - and there's no prize - but we all make that face.  I really thought there wasn't anything as nasty as that, but last week I tried drinking some TheraFlu because I thought I had a nasty flu (turned out it's pneumonia) and I remembered taking NeoCitran when I was younger and it was kind of like hot lemonade AND made me feel better.  Let me tell ya - NeoCitran did NOT sell their recipe for a good-tasting drink to the TheraFlu people!! ICK!!!! With Buckleys, you slug back a teaspoon or two and make that face and that hairball kind of sound and then you are DONE.  The TheraFlu is a whole CUP.  And you are supposed to drink it hot, so less likely that you can just chug it, y'know?  Ugh.  I'll have to be really sick before I'll be willing to try that again!

Visit Blogger Friend School to find out how others are taking their medicine.

Once again, I'm late in getting my Show & Tell posted.  For some reason it has seemed much slower than usual getting my pictures loaded onto photobucket so I can share them, and I don't know if it's my computer or the website, or who knows what.  Anyway,  since I wasn't well enough to teach this week, I got to just hang around during co-op, so I tried to get a few pictures.

Landon and Kennady are both enjoying an art class this year.  They study the style of a famous or influential artist and then do their own version of that type of artwork.  Landon's project this week:

And here's Kennady's:

They also each have a Science class and a Music class.  They are learning to play recorder.  I feel bad that I haven't really given Kennady proper piano lessons, because she really has a good ear.  She almost didn't need the class to learn recorder,as she has been teaching herself at home!

Spencer is taking two classes - one is an art class that is a basic intro to perspective drawing, or drafting.  I think he is really enjoying that one.  I sat in on that class for awhile so I took some pictures.

Demonstration:

Students hard at work:

This is Spencer's work in progress:

Spencer's other class is a biology lab, dissecting all kinds of body parts.  I think last week they did a cow eyeball.  Ick.  This week they examined a cow's tongue, and I gathered my courage to step in for a picture.  It wasn't nearly as disgusting as I'd feared.

Blech.

And finally, on our way out the door after class yesterday, Kennady noticed an insect on the wall.  It's still pretty early in the season for insects to be out, but I gues the recent warm temperatures brought this guy out into the open.  Normally Kennady wouldn't be at all interested, and I sure wouldn't be taking a picture, but her Science class happens to be focusing on insects, so this was a fabulous specimen.  I tried getting some good close-up pictures, and then fortunately found a ziploc baggie, so we saved this critter for the kids to take a better look at next week in co-op.  (the boys that were close by assured us that it was an assassin bug, but I don't know and am not interested enough to look it up!)

C is for Cable Knit

This is my first 'big' cable-knit project - a pillow cover.  I am a self-taught knitter of about two years.  I was working on binding this off tonight and am stuck on the button-band until I show it to my expert friend. 

For more A B See's, visit The Homeschool Post

B is for Bears (Hershey Bears)

On Sunday, DH took the kids to Hershey to watch the hockey game, and to meet up with our friend that plays there.  After the game the kids got some autographs.  Then they went out to eat, and DH and our friend Jay posed in the old jerseys from the pick-up team that DH and Jay's dad played on together. 

For more A B Sees, visit The Homeschool Post

We’ve been catching up and throwing out a lot of the clutter in our home this past week, and thankfully it looks as if we’ve done so! However, one thing we won’t ever really get rid of, especially in a large family, is laundry. Everyone has it, but just how much?

THEME

This question was posted at a Large Family Homeschooling fourm, and I thought it would be fun as one of the memoirs.

Question: Watching the Duggars, and other mega families [our family of 11 is small in comparison!] I was astounded at how many loads of washing. Do all large families do 7 loads a day and more, as I was thinking it sounds a little OTT?

So share all about your laundry. It’s on very rare occasion that it’s suitable to air dirty laundry. Ha!

***************************************************************************

Mount Washmore is what we call it here.  We are a family of six, so I don't think we have nearly the amount of laundry that larger families do, but I am stunned at the way it piles up and multiplies when we slack off on getting it done.  Generally we do at least one load every day, and try to share the work among several of us.  I make the kids responsible for their own laundry when they hit about 13 or 14 years old, so Harrison has been taking care of his own for a couple years now, and Spencer just started.  This past week, in fact, I struck a deal with Spencer and Landon that they would look after their laundry between the two of them which leaves me with only mine, Kennady's and DH's to worry about!  The downside to it is that I will have to fold it...  up until this deal, I did the washing and drying, and the kids were responsible to fold everything, then everyone put away their own.  But that did have its drawbacks, so I think the new arrangement will work fine once we all are used to it.

For more Homeschool Memoirs, and other dirty laundry stories, visit The Homeschool Post

I'm trying to get back in the habit of blogging, so my Show & Tell today will be a brief review of the school things we did last month.

In our Science class, we talked about gears and tried making our own to see how they work.

I brought in a bike from the garage so we could see the gears in action, and do some measuring to figure out where the mechanical advantages were.

We also worked on History, Math, and Language Arts, but I didn't take pictures of those.

Last week we capped off January with a trip to Annapolis to see our state capitol.  I blogged about it here but will include a couple of the pictures I liked best in this Show & Tell entry as well!

The House Chamber:

The old Senate Chamber (1772!):

Outside view of the State House:

There are more pictures and some info about Annapolis and its State House in my entry from a couple of days ago - Annapolis, Feb. 5th blog entry - please feel free to check it out!

Visit CanadaGirl, our lovely hostess for Show & Tell, to participate and to see other entries!