Since I am pressed for time, and behind with blogging yet again, I am combining my BFS assignment with my Show & Tell entry for this week!!  The link for Blogger Friend School is below - be sure to visit for other assignments about our homeschool travels.  To participate in Show & Tell, visit CanadaGirl

This is the assignment Nancy has shared with us for this week:  This week we're going to reminisce on our Favorite Travels!  I had three requests to do something about favorite field trips, favorite vacations, or just favorite places to go as a family or with other homeschool families.  I combined those three requests and came up with Favorite Travels! Do you have a favorite travel prayer that the children recite or a favorite verse you can add?  That would be fun too.  Don't you just LOVE the graphic for this assignment...it's thanks to someone on Fliker (not sure that's spelled right), there was no name to give thanks to.  Please share pictures or a direct link to them if you have any!
I love sunshine faces!

I will have a hard time narrowing this down!!  First, I'm going to provide a link back to my own blog entry when I entered a drawing based on "the most memorable field trip"  (guess what - I won!!).  I listed several great trips that our family has experienced, including:

A church-sponsored field trip to Hope Acres (a dairy farm)  (my blog entry about it is here.)

We live close enough to Gettysburg that we can visit Gettysburg National Military Park often, and we do.

On vacations, we have enjoyed some great "field trips" - we have been to Taliesin in Wisconsin.  I blogged a little about it here.

We have also visited The World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, which I definitely counted as a history lesson!  Our family loves to visit Disney World, although we haven't been as often as we would all like.  Our family vacation to Alberta, Canada this past November gave us the chance to spend a day in Banff National Park, which was very educational as well as being lots of fun!  I blogged about that day in three separate entries.

I was able to take my oldest two boys on an all-day field trip to Philadelphia.  Another three part report.  We saw the historic city...

...and the Franklin Institute, which was featuring the King Tut exhibit at the time:

But I still think our most memorable field trip was the weekend camping trip at Camp Flintlock near Historic St Mary's City, Maryland.  DH and I took the boys on this trip with other homeschool families several years ago and it is a favorite memory of ours.  DH has talked about possibly doing this encampment weekend with the mens group from church, and if the opportunity comes up for us to do it as a family again, I'm sure that we will.  If you really want to read my entire post about it, follow that "most memorable field trip" link - but here is a little bit of that post, and one of the pictures:

A group from our homeschool fellowship went together to experience a little bit of life as it might have been in colonial and revolutionary war times.  We slept in tents with straw ticks under our sleeping bags, dressed in period clothes, were awakened by drum call, gathered firewood and hauled water, cooked over an open fire, made crafts, played colonial games, and we even learned how to throw a tomahawk and shoot a musket! 

Here's our family portrait, taken in front of the tent we called home for two nights:

 "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path"

~Psalm 119:105

Nancy writes:  I got this idea from Pat and her beautiful daughter-in-love, Jenny in an email about two weeks ago, so I decided to use it first.  I quoted her email here to give the directions.

"what if you took Jennys idea about showers of blessings and if we all told about a time God showered us with a blessing and how we paid it forward to bless someone else or how we had done something for another and in turn were blessed."  Share a verse or worship song that touches your heart for this assignment.

I'm coming in late to do this assignment, so I'll keep it short.   Over the years, our family has been blessed by the generosity of others many times.  When we lived in New Jersey, our wonderful church family was so helpful.  We were expecting our second child, and had only a vague plan of where Harrison would sleep once the new baby outgrew the cradle I had.  One of the church families gave us a twin bed.  Another lady in the church often blessed us with childrens clothes she had purchased at the store she worked at - when things came off the racks as discontinued, the employees sometimes had opportunity to buy the items for practically pennies.  This lady would buy things up and then give them to families at church.  When we moved to Maryland, we found that church folk here were just as generous and willing to help.  Some of the things we've been blessed with from various people are kids clothes, a bed, and even a TV for the kids to use for their game system.  We have tried also to be generous when we hear of someone else with a need - we have passed along to others a bed, toys, many kids clothes and many baby items.  Most recently we were privileged to be able to supply our youth pastor and his wife with a crib for their new baby.  I'd like to be able to do more and to give away more of the many things we have accumulated that we really don't need any more.  Perhaps never needed in the first place. 

I've learned that there are many people who are reluctant to ask for help when they need it, to accept a gift or offer of help, or to admit that they are in need and allow others to help.  I am like that myself!! But I've also learned that the giver is blessed simply by giving.  It really is true that "it is more blessed to give than to receive"  Don't turn down the help that a fellow believer offers, because you may be denying them the blessing of being able to share what God has given them for just that purpose.

It's interesting that our Scripture reading for this morning was from II Corinthians - where Paul has a lot to say about giving.  So I picked these verses from what we read to share for the assignment:

No he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.  You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overlowing in many expressions of thanks to God.  Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.  And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you.  Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

~ II Corinthians 9:10-15 ~

It's time for Show & Tell Friday, hosted by Mary aka CanadaGirl - head over to her blog to participate and to see what others are sharing today.

Our spring co-op classes ended a couple weeks ago, but I kept forgetting to load up my pictures to share.  Our homeschool association has a co-op class opportunity for 12 weeks in the spring.  This year Landon and Kennady participated.  Their classes were Art, Science, and Spanish. 

The second last week of co-op, the kids that were in Spanish classes had a little "fiesta" Show & Tell.  Each of the children was to bring something to "show and tell" about a Spanish-speaking country.   We found that the previous week, we had to give them a list of countries to choose from other than Mexico! LOL  The teacher was hoping that the kids would be able to connect with someone who was a native of one of those countries, or had lived there.  The kids (well, actually, the mothers) brought a food item to share from that country as well.

Landon and Kennady chose the Central American country of Honduras, because a young lady we know from church (Danielle) is currently teaching there, and also because Harrison and I are planning on going on a missions trip to Honduras in the summer.  We were able to borrow some things from Danielle's family for them to show in class.  Here is Kennady giving her little presentation:

We got her class to pose for a group picture.  Kennady is in the front row, on the left.

Here's Landon giving his presentation (love his hair.  LOL  I don't think he was happy that I was taking his picture):

He is showing a photo album covered in cloth woven by the Lenca people of Honduras.  We showed all of this:

Our friends also loaned us this clay pot that they brought back from Honduras.  It's kind of like a fondue pot - you put a candle or heat source in the bottom to keep the food warm.  They said this is served as appetizer in many Honduran restaurants, the same way Red Lobster gives biscuits.  It is just refried black beans, and cheese, with tortilla chips. 

We even used beans that came from Honduras! 

(I don't think the picture on the package looks very appetizing, do you?   But it was SO good.  Kennady practically licked the bowl.  LOL)

Here's a plate full of a sampling of the foods brought by all the co-op participants:

What a delicious co-op class!!!

Between our co-op class focusing on meteorology, and our science class at home which is also focusing on meteorology, I think we should consider putting together our homemade weather instruments into a science fair project.  Here are the latest things we've tried.

This is a psychrometer (which is a very hard word to type!) which measures relative humidity.  It has two thermometers, one of which has the bulb wrapped in cotton cloth and the cloth is dipped into a jar of water.

After sitting out for the required hour or so, it looked like this:

We could read the difference in temperature on the two thermometers - the dry bulb was about 70 and the wet bulb was about 65, to the best of my memory now - and then use the chart that came with our handy dandy weather kit:

...to figure out the relative humidity.  Going by memory again, I think it was about 70%.

The same day, we made our first attempt at a simple homemade thermometer.  This is made with a 20 oz water bottle filled with colored water (chilled), into which we put a stopper (provided with the kit!) and a clear straw.  The trick, apparently, is to lose as little water as possible when shoving the stopper in, so that the water comes partway up that straw.

Now the challenge was - we were supposed to set it out in the sunshine, undisturbed for about an hour, then mark the water level in the straw.  (I took this picture before marking the starting water level, which turned out to be a good thing...)  Then we were to put it in the shade for an hour and mark the level again.  Both times we would also check the actual temperature on a traditional thermometer, and that was supposed to help us calibrate our thermometer.  Well... as I said... the challenge  - we live in a wind tunnel, I think.  Our poor bottle kept tipping over in the wind, no matter where I put it (not a lot of options either, since it was supposed to be in the sun!) and of course, each time we would have to refill and get that stopper on again.  Frustrating.   So we gave up around 4pm as the sun was getting too low for this to really be effective. 

We decided we would try it again on the next sunny day.

Which at this point, I think might happen sometime in June...

This was the creek near our house within a couple of days after our aborted thermometer experiment:

Yeah, pretty high.  Lots of rain here lately, and usually on baseball days too.  So what we SHOULD have done, was put out our homemade rain gauge and calibrated THAT.  Oh well.

This week's assignment is The Three R's -- Reduce, Recycle, and Re-use.  I thought since today is Earth Day and this month is Arbor Day that we all could share ideas or tips that we use for recycling, reducing or re-using items in our home.  Do you recycle at all?  Does it just seem nearly impossible to recycle?  Trying to catch every piece of trash that goes into the garbage is a hard one for me too.  I have a friend who is very diligent with it and so are her children!  It amazed me to see how they respect nature and use the Three R's in their home.  I challenge you all to write about your ventures with recycling, reducing, and re-using your trash and take a pledge to at least try to use some of the tips that you read about on this assignment.  Don't forget to add your favorite scripture for this assignment.

We do recycle, not everything we could, but most.  We pay for trash and recycling pick-up, so we need to get our money's worth!  We recycle almost all plastic and glass containers from the kitchen, and all the cans.  We save our aluminum cans (soda cans) and crush them ourselves and deliver them once every few months to a place in the city that pays for them.  It gives a little extra money back that we often give to the kids because its their job to crush the cans. 

The most obvious way we "reuse" is things like the containers that sour cream comes in.  My DH takes lunch to work, so these kind of containers are often good for leftovers that he can take along.  When I buy deli meat, it often comes in those Gladware type containers - that is a good deal too. 

We have a woodstove for heat, and we use paper packaging, newspapers, and scrap cardboard tubes that my DH brings home from work as our firestarters.  Our efforts to reduce electricity/energy use at home is purely out of concern for the amount of our electric bill!!  I would love to use the outdoor line for my laundry, if only I could figure out WHY my wonderful energy-efficient front-load washer won't dispense anything out of the fabric softener reservoir???  Only if I wash in warm water, which kind of works against me in the save electricity department, doesn't it.  I do have a call in to an appliance repair guy, so hopefully we can figure that out.

I haven't yet bought any of the reusable canvas grocery bags that most of the stores sell, but I keep meaning to.  What's funny is that I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen other customers with these bags.  With all the people driving around big gas-guzzling SUV's with "Save the Earth" bumper stickers, I'm a little surprised.  LOL 

I believe in taking care of our environment, and being wise stewards of resources; so I gladly recycle as much as I can,  use energy wisely, and choose eco-friendly products wherever possible.  However, I refuse to let the eco-terrorists guilt me into doing anything in a futile effort to "save the planet"  This is probably why I'm slow to buy canvas grocery bags.  It's my silly silent passive-aggressive protest.  LOL  Plus I guess I do care what people think - I don't want anyone to think that I'm an eco-terrorist! hahaha.  Okay, I really did look at the price of the canvas bags at the market this morning, and if I hadn't been in such a hurry (I really needed to use the washroom!) I probably would have bought a couple to get me started.  I hereby promise that I will start stocking up on canvas bags, beginning with my very next trip to the grocery store.  Remind me.  I've definitely got enough plastic grocery bags stored up to stock my small size trash cans for a LONG time, so it's not like I need to bring any more of those ones home.  

(I think that was my pledge: acquire and use canvas grocery bags)

What we SHOULD and COULD do, but don't () is grow any of our own veggies, or compost.  Now the compost I could do - I just need to get started.  The vegetable garden would have to be all DH and the kids.  Me = black thumb.  Me = not even the tiniest shred of interest in planting, weeding, or even harvesting.  I know it's cheaper to grow our own, I know it's healthier, and I even know that it would be more emotionally satisfying to eat something I grew myself; but I have not reached the point where all the benefits outweigh my laziness and disinterest in the project.  *sigh* 

We have been members of the Arbor Day Foundation for many years - for $15 they send you all those trees!!!  I think I let the membership lapse in the fall, but may join up again next chance I get.  We have a little sapling in the kitchen that DH is going to plant soon. 

"The earth is the LORD's, and all that is in it, the world, and all who live in it." ~ Psalm 24:1

It's Show & Tell Friday again, with CanadaGirl as our host.  Click over to her blog to participate and to see what others are sharing today.

My Show & Tell today is rather silly.  I had these pictures from awhile back and thought they were very funny but didn't have opportunity to share them on my blog.  For your entertainment and amusement, I offer my kids' version of sumo wrestling. 

Spencer, Landon, and Kennady came up with this idea - I do not know how, I just heard them having a good time on the trampoline and went to see what they were up to.  They stuffed pillows into their clothing and then went and jumped on the trampoline, bouncing against each other's padded bellies especially.  I had them come onto the deck so I could get some pictures.

In this one, you can kind of see Landon and Spencer having at it in the background.

Let the games begin!!

And check out Kennady's saddlebags!!! They have a couple of small neck pillows, the kind shaped like a "C" - and Landon and KEnnady put those inside their pants to pad their bottoms! LOL

(I do not know how I managed to cut Landon out of that picture.)

And because I don't want to leave Harrison out, because he is at least as weird as the rest of this family, here is a recent picture of him.  He's wearing a Burger King crown, but can't go without his ball cap on:

Hope you've enjoyed this very silly Show & Tell!!

For this weeks assignment I decided to take an idea from a fellow BFS'r.  I'd like a Yea or Nay in a comment if you'd be interested in passing along an idea or you can just email me.  This week I'm using an idea from Sombra at More Little Wilsons.  I do have plenty of ideas that I've written myself, but thought it would be fun if we did a round of BFS on the blogs that participate.

I decided to do this meme, not because I was tagged or for the purpose of tagging anyone else, but because I wanted to post something here today and didn't know what.  I read this one at A Place to Call Home and thought it looked fun.  So here goes:

Five ...

Things I was doing 10 years ago (1998):

1. announcing that we were expecting Baby #3
2. finishing up our first official year of homeschooling
3. wondering how I would teach two different grades in the fall
4. still unpacking and settling into our house, the first time we were not renting
5. planning our first family vacation to Disney World

Items On My To Do List Today:

1. laundry!!!! I'm behind again.
2. deliver mission trip applications and deposit
3. update Homeschool Tracker
4. balance the checkbook
5. get to town in the evening for my choir's concert

Snacks I Enjoy:

1. salt & vinegar chips
2. peanut butter cups
3. Coca-Cola
4. dark chocolate
5. cereal or granola bars

Things I Would Do if I were a Billionaire:

1. pay off all the debts for myself and my family
2. put aside a big college fund for each of my kids
3. buy the land and fund the building project for our church (bigger youth and activity center)
4. get an inground pool (we think our pool liner is done for)
5. do the home improvement projects we'd like but can't afford - or maybe just build a new house... in which case I wouldn't bother with the inground pool here.  LOL

of my Bad Habits:

1. procrastinating
2. yelling at the kids
3. eating mindlessly
4. starting projects and not finishing
5. negative thinking

Places I have Lived:

1. Calgary, Alberta
2. Winnipeg, Manitoba
3. Ocean City, New Jersey
4. Mays Landing, New Jersey
5. Frederick, Maryland

Jobs I've Had:

1. data entry clerk
2. accounts payable
3. assistant controller (accounts)
4. office manager
5. pianist

Since I wasn't tagged, I'm not tagging either.    But if you do decide to play, please leave a comment and let me know!

I had hoped to get this done earlier in the day, but that's how it goes sometimes.  Today is Show & Tell Friday with CanadaGirl - head over to her blog to join in the fun!

I think I can keep today's Show & Tell pretty short and sweet.  My short, sweet daughter finally lost her first tooth yesterday.  Well to be accurate, she did not lose it, I lost patience and pulled it out.  LOL  She had it hanging by a thread and I didn't think it was a good idea for her to go to bed with it like that.  So she agreed to let me pull it out once and for all.  She also informed me that she had a second tooth starting to get loose, so I told her that the Tooth Fairy Rules state clearly that only ONE tooth can be loose at a time, so the first one had to come out. 

Here she is showing how loose the tooth is - it is leaning forward at a 90* angle and resting on her bottom lip when she smiles!

Not such a happy face immediately after I yanked the tooth out:

If your tooth offends you, pull it out????

Enjoying the new space:

She showed me this morning that she can "whistle" now, through the space.  LOL

For this week's assignment I thought it would be fun to share our dinner plans for the night or if you're organized enough for the week.  You can include pictures if you desire.  Also tell what your family likes to drink, if you have desserts or not.  If you want to then take this assignment and let all the children in your life make dinner for the night.   Please add your favorite verse for this assignment as it might be an encouragement for someone else.  This week's assignment is short and sweet so have fun with it.

You know what?  I dont HAVE a plan for dinner tonight.  Tonight is baseball practice for Landon, followed immediately by church activities for the whole family, so Wednesday evening dinners are often "shoot your own" or leftovers etc.  I don't even have any leftovers!!! Realistically, I will probably make hot dogs.   Once baseball season starts, meals at home become a challenge.  I am a reluctant cook of limited skill, cooking for a family of picky eaters.  They get that from me, not their dad, by the way.    But I do have a couple of tried and true things that I make for dinners that don't tax my skill and time too much, and I can be pretty confident they will get eaten. 

• Chicken and Stuffing Casserole
• Slow Cooker Smoky Meatballs (had these last night - yum!)
• homemade baked mac & cheese
• pineapple casserole
• soft tacos or burritos
• hot dogs or hamburgers
• almost anything on the grill (bonus: DH does the actual cooking!)

Usually we drink milk or fruit juice at dinner, but sometimes soda is allowed.  I used to have a policy that everyone had to drink at least one full glass of water before anything else at dinnertime, but I've let that one slide over the winter.  I've thought of it several times lately, that I need to bring that rule back.  In summer we usually have iced tea and lemonade or limeade available as well.  We don't often eat dessert after dinner, but more often have a late evening snack that is a dessert item. 

She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.  ~ Proverbs 31:15

During the winter, it is still dark when I get up!  I do provide food for the family - this verse doesn't say that it's gourmet food or that she enjoys the preparation, just that she provides it!   I make a lunch for DH to take to work, and for Harrison when he works too.  Now, if I had some servants I could make a case for my qualification as a Proverbs 31 Wife!

Show and Tell Thursday, April 3

Show off those talents. Share a story, a special moment, a piece of artwork. Any accomplishment, great or small, is fair game.

Since about this time last year (in somewhat chronological order):

My daughter played baseball for the first time:

Kennady loved it, and became quite a good little player.  She is playing Instructional ball again this year, but I haven't got pictures yet.  Something about it being so COLD at practices that my hands cannot operate the camera...  She is quite proud of the fact that she made the suggestion for her team's name this year that they voted to adopt:  BlueJays  (and Dad and I are secretly thrilled, because naturally we are Toronto BlueJays fans!)

Landon played ball last spring too:



It was not his first time playing, he had four successful seasons under his belt by this time, but this was with a new team, and where we didn't already know any of the players or coaches.  Landon is not a particularly shy boy, but I think it was still an accomplishment that he bravely went out there and got to know some new friends.

We all helped DH's parents move - here is the last picture in front of the old place:



We went to Kingdom Bound, where Landon got Toby Mac's autograph



I finally found a way to keep current schoolbooks accessible, and in some semblance of order:



That was in August when we started the schoolyear.  It is not quite that tidy right now.  But surprisingly close!!!

We started using the "chorebox" which I consider an accomplishment because it has worked better than any other "system" of divvying up chores that we have tried to date:



The official First Day of School (2007-2008) pictures:





We made "marble" and ate it!



We designed our own totems:



I really don't know why she was so straight-faced.

Kennady sang her first solo at the church talent night:



We made and ate a whole "volcano":



Spencer designed a medieval castle, complete with floor plans:



We finally were able to visit my family in Alberta and have EVERYONE there for a family picture:



It looks like we were in one of those tilted-floor funhouses, doesn't it.  LOL

We took the most awesome field trip to Banff National Park:



The Alberta trip was also Kennady's first time on an airplane:



We added a new feature to Social Studies - making and eating dishes from some of the countries we study:



This was Charlotte Russe (Russian night)

Harrison had successful eye surgery:

He looks much better now!!!

And we did so much more - but this is where the pictures run out!

I mentioned in my last post for Home Education Week that I was a day late AGAIN with it.  Well, today I am posting this a day late on purpose - honest!!!  By doing my year-in-review as my Home Education Week Show & Tell, I will also use it for my Show & Tell with CanadaGirl entry for this week!  Head over to her website for more Show & Tell fun, and thanks for visiting my blog for my trip down this year's memory lane!

Recipe for Success Wednesday, April 2

It is also National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day! So share a recipe…figuratively, as in two parts love, one part creativity, or literally, as in a super quick, nutritious meal your kids scarf up. Think about what you do in the day, what helps keep it organized and you sane (or how you got past that need for organization and saneness!), and curriculum materials you find effective.

My kids like meals that don't require recipes.  Things like: mac & cheese, hot dogs, sandwiches, soup, pancakes, etc.  So I will not share a recipe. 

I am not a very organized person and have trouble sticking to a schedule.  But I do like to make lists and lesson plans.  However, as Captain Barbossa says in Pirates of the Caribbean: "They're actually more guidelines that rules"  That being said, I have found a couple of things that are essential to my attempts to keep up with everything.  I long ago gave up any pretensions to organization and sanity, but these things help me to hide that fact!

Homeschool Tracker - There is no way I could keep track of grades, assignments, resources, time spent, credits, etc without this fabulous software.  And I can't even begin to imagine the amount of time I would waste trying to create Excel spreadsheets or Word documents in a futile attempt to keep track of these things!  I have the paid edition of the Tracker, but there is a free version as well.  I try to enter all the basic assignments in advance (this is part of the thrill of lesson planning for a new year! It's fun for me!) and then add and update as we go.  This year I started printing out an assignment list for each of the boys on Monday morning.  Then they are responsible to manage their time and keep track of time and due dates for assignments.  And I can tell them to work on math without having to figure out which pages they are to work on that day.  I absolutely love this program!

I have a chore system, schedule, and posted rules that are not perfect but do seem to help us.  For chores, I have chores written on color-coded index cards and select eight each weekday that are the minimum requirements for the kids to do.  (that's two per person in my house)  Then the kids get to draw their chores randomly from the eight that I want done that day.  Things like pet care and setting and clearing the table are in the mix every day and some others change.  This has gone a long way to quelling the complaints like, "Why do I always have to feed the cat?" - "Why does he always get the easy chores?" - and the complaints of general boredom from being assigned the same job day after day.  "The Rules" are worded almost like a contract, they are printed out in large font, and each of the kids has had to sign it, indicating they have read and understood the terms of our agreement.   Then if when a dispute arises, I can refer them to "The Rules" rather than try to make things up as I go.

I try to find curriculum that will enable me to teach more than one kid at a time, and non-consumable products are my favorites many times. 

Once again I'm a day late in getting my post up.  *sigh*  I really am enjoying the chance to read some other entries though - even though I don't have time to comment on everyone's.

I'm very excited about a new website offered by SoCalVal - I've already bookmarked it and have started exploring.  Thanks, Val!!  She is having a contest on her blog to celebrate the launch of the new site.  Check out her blog for those details, as well as the new site:

Weblink Education

No more guessing if a site is for teachers only,
No more wondering what a particular website offers,
No more guessing if the material you're viewing is free or not,
And no more jumping around from site to site to find something you need...

It's all done for YOU - by Homeschool Moms, like YOU. 
All Weblinks are Mom tested and Mom approved!

I'm not sure my kids have ever noticed that I always refer to it as "Spring Cleaning Break" 

Maybe they are just being polite, and not letting me know that they think I'm a dufus for not knowing the correct name of the event.   In any case, for years, I have referred to it this way, and had the policy that if we are going to take a break from school in the spring, it will be to clean the house.  Because the house will get no attention otherwise.

This week my DH is away on business and I decided we would take our annual spring cleaning break, except that I didn't think it would be wise to take yet another week off school.  So I planned a boot camp type week - Spring Cleaning and School Intensive Week.  That is kind of long.  Cleaning/School Intensive.  That's better.  Wait - CSI!!!! It's a week-long CSI Marathon!  I'm sure the kids would have been more impressed if they'd known that CSI is in fact a television show with a huge cult-like following.  I think I have watched a grand total of 3/8 of an episode myself. 

At any rate, the plan I have in mind involves spending all morning doing school, concentrating on getting every subject caught up; and then spending the afternoon or a chunk of it, doing housecleaning.  Doing some of the housecleaning chores that are above and beyond the daily upkeep.   Everyone agreed in principle to this idea. 

Today we really did make some progress in the kitchen! I have a room or a couple rooms picked out for each day of this week, to help us focus our efforts.  We cleaned out the fridge, cleaned up all the dishes and most of the countertops (the counter is MY catch-all, so my section is left for me to do), cleaned the oven and microwave, washed down all the cabinets (outside - reorganizing inside is a whole day job on its own), swept, and decluttered the phone table.  We are not finished - there's that counter section I mentioned, plus the stovetop needs to be scrubbed, and I need to vacuum behind the fridge, etc - but enough progress was made that I am feeling rather encouraged that the CSI Marathon may be successful!

I love it when a plan comes together.

Oh, that's a different show.  The A-Team.  I watched a LOT more of those episodes.

Now that I think about it... Crime Scene Investigation is a pretty apt description of a typical day here.

Profiling Home Educators Monday, March 31

Describe yourself, your family or one of your children. What is it like to be home educated in your family? What is “normal” for you?

Well... I'm very glad the words "for you" appear after the question "what is normal?"  because I often wonder if we're normal at all!!

Our "normal" day - school starts at 8:30am, when we meet for Bible reading and the kids draw their chores from the deck of cards.  The morning is spent on schoolwork, and for the most part everyone works on their own.  I try to get everyone together midway through the morning on days when we are doing Science or Social Studies all together.  The kids take turns choosing the lunch menu, but usually that means I wind up making two or three different things so everyone gets something they like.  The afternoon is supposed to be school time as well, but very often we all get busy "playing" and we don't get done what I had planned!  I have on my schedule that we are supposed to all do chores and housework for an hour each afternoon ... Riiiiiiiiight.  That doesn't happen in real life like it did in the fantasy world I was living in at the time I wrote up that schedule.  But every now and again - like today - it actually does happen.  Basically, "normal" for us is a day when we get started late, do things in a different order from the plan, skip some things entirely, but somehow when all those days add up, we do finish the school year pretty close to "on time"

Character Sketches:

Name:  Harrison aka "H"

Status:  Tenth Grade

Known for:  talking incessantly, making unnecessary noise, "needing" the music channel on the TV while he works on school, cheering for teams that are rivals to his parents' favorites, being attached to his iPod, collecting hockey cards, dressing like a hoodlum - most notably in Snoop Droopy Drawers style pants.

Talents and Abilities:  he can memorize and analyze sports stats in a most impressive way - this should come in handy in the sports broadcasting/journalism career he hopes to pursue

Favorite Subject:  anything he's already finished. ;~)  Least Favorite:  Biology 

Goals and Future Plans:  to go on two missions trips this summer - a week long trip to Honduras, and a series of day trips to DC; to study broadcast journalism and someday host a sports talk radio program 

Name:  Spencer

Status:  7th/8th Grade

Known for:  artistic ability, incessant and annoying noisemaking, reluctance to speak in public or on the phone, interest in comic books and cartooning, collecting pirate ships (for that WizKids pirates game), willingness to help around the house (usually - not always!)

Talents and Abilities:  drawing and cartoon style drawing in particular;  can build ANYTHING with Lego

Favorite Subject:  Science  Least Favorite:  Language Arts

Goals and Future Plans:  He's not sure what his career choice will be, but something in the area of animation, illustrating, or graphic arts  

Name:  Landon aka "Moe Hawk"

Status:  Third Grade

Known for:  crazy haircuts, stoicism (also called stubbornness), belief that he is always right

Talents and Abilities:  very good at most sports he has tried

Favorite Subject:  Science  Least Favorite:  ??? Depends on his mood.

Goals and Future Plans:  he wants to be a garbageman!!! LOL  Somebody has to do that job and I guess it holds plenty of appeal for young boys - driving or riding on the back of a big truck, throwing trash in it and watching it get chewed up...  He and two of his buddies at co-op are planning (okay they are 9- and 10-year olds, keep that in mind) to have their own trash collecting business when they grow up.  I bet they could do it too! 

Name:  Kennady Anne aka "Kennie"

Status:  First Grade

Known for:  singing ALL the time; wearing Tinkerbell or Princess costumes as her school uniform; sucking her thumb (we're still working on it); generally cheerful attitude; generally messy disastrous room

Talents and Abilities:  she really is a very good singer!!  She has tons of energy and is doing very well at baseball too. 

Favorite Subject:  Art  Least Favorite:  whatever she doesn't feel like doing on a given day

Goals and Future Plans:  I'm not sure, but I think she plans on being a professional princess.  She would make a great worship leader.  She has also told me she'd like to be a fire hydrant (which cracked me up at the time, she MEANT a firefighter) or a cowboy-girl  (I pointed out that a female cowhand or rancher would in fact be known as a "cowgirl" rather than the gender-ambiguous term she came up with)

I don't think I've ever participated in a homeschool carnival before, and I was really branching out by starting Blogger Friend School this year.  But I came across the wonderful blog,  Principled Education , and thought it would be fun to be a part of her celebration of Home Education Week.

Looking Back Sunday, March 30

Share your personal history…before you were a home educator. What was life like? Think about things you miss and things you and your family have gained.

Before I became a home educator, I worked in accounting for a heavy construction company.  It was sometimes an interesting job, sometimes challenging, but rarely truly rewarding.  The company offered to help foot the bill if I was interested in taking courses for my CPA designation, and that would have meant a bigger salary too.  But at about the same time they were making their pitch to me, I found out I was pregnant with our first child.  And there really was no question about it: I was going to be an at-home mom.  And by that time we had also decided that we wanted to educate our child(ren) at home.  But let me back up a bit...

Only a couple of years earlier, I had not even HEARD of homeschooling.  Not in the modern world, anyway.  I guess I knew that sometimes missionaries had to teach their children at home, but I figured they probably used correspondence courses.  A family began attending our church that homeschooled their children, and they were the first such family that I had ever known.  I was very interested in learning more about this unique (to me) way of educating, and it wasn't long before my DH and I were thinking that this might be a good choice for us as well.  By the time we became parents, our minds were made up.  Moving several times while Harrison and Spencer were very young, and meeting other homeschoolers along the way cemented the decision.  And since I had dreamed of being a teacher ever since I was young, it was just "right" for us.

What do I miss about life before?  I guess the paycheck most of all.  That extra money would buy me lots of curriculum now.    I also miss meeting a wide variety of people that exist outside of my "stupid Christian bubble"  as one of our friends puts it.  Yes I meet lots of people now, but to be honest, the vast majority of people I meet are contacts through church or the homeschool community.   

What have we gained?  A measure of freedom and independence that we couldn't have if we were tied to the school system calendar.  We can take vacations when it suits us to do so, even if it is in the middle of the school year; and make time in our schedule to accomodate unexpected illnesses or travel, and things like --oh... eye surgery, for example.   We know where our kids are, what they're doing, what they're learning (or not learning) in school, what they like and what they don't, who their friends are and how much time they are spending with them.  I got to see them learn to read - I got to see that myself, not have them get off the schoolbus and tell me.  In my opinion, watching my child read a book for the first time is every single bit as exhilerating as hearing them say their first word or take their first steps.  Probably more so.  And for me personally, I have gained the chance to learn and study all over again as I teach and plan lessons for my kids.  I can express an interest in the things that it was "un-cool" to be interested in when I was In high school.  I can take extra time to understand something if it doesn't make sense the first time.  I would have loved to be a professional student, but this is close enough for now!

Other than going to church in the morning, I mean.   Actually we had an excellent service - we had a combination of worship music and readings, so there was plenty of participation opportunity for the congregation.  My DH was one of the readers and I was on the worship team. 

We got home about noon and the kids made their favorite springtime treat, Resurrection Rolls, so we could have them with our lunch. 

(Good grief, look how messy the counter is!!!  )  Ready to go in the oven:

And I realized I never took a picture of them when they were done!  The kids scarfed them up too fast, I guess.  LOL  I noticed several bloggers shared the recipe for the cookies last week, the ones with nuts and you leave them in the oven overnight etc...  well I have never made those for two main reasons: 

1.  my kids do not like nuts; and 2.  I'm too lazy!  LOL  But we have been making these very simple Resurrection Rolls for years now and it's good enough for us.  

Resurrection Rolls

1 tube refrigerated crescent rolls

large marshmallows

melted butter

cinnamon sugar or colored sugar

Wrap one marshmallow in each crescent roll triangle - do your best to seal up the edges!  Brush melted butter on top, then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or whatever you like.  Bake according to crescent roll instructions.  When you take them out of the oven, the marshmallow will have melted and you have a sweet roll that is empty inside, just like the tomb!!!

After lunch we had a little bit of time to relax before we headed out to Hershey, PA.  When we got there, we first went to the Hershey's Chocolate World for the (still completely FREE!) tour!  We stocked up on some chocolate treats in the shop, and then headed over the Giant Center to pick up our hockey tickets.  We know a player on the team - he's the son of some good friends of ours from back in our Calgary days.  DH sometimes takes the kids to Hershey Bears games, so when we found out he was playing there, we got in touch with him.  He was willing to get us tickets for a game, since it would give him a chance to use the "friends and family" tickets allotted to players.  So we had awesome seats for the game.  (Stats on our friend, who also just signed a deal with the Washington Capitals) 

Warm-up:

Before the anthem:

End of the game:

I noticed that up on the second tier our friend has his own little fan section!!  (his last name is Beagle and if you can't make it out in the picture, the banner says "Beagle's Dog Pound" LOL  He was pretty amused by that.  And apparently the t-shirt just because available in the fan shop the previous week)

Kennady took this picture of the Bears mascot, Coco.  We still are unsure whether Coco is a boy or a girl bear, but we have been told that the person inside the costume is a girl.

Kennady used her Easter money to get herself a CocoBear to take home.  Later our friend autographed it for her.

After the game we went out for dinner with our friend and finally got home around 11pm.  A long day, and a kind of different way to spend an Easter Sunday afternoon and evening, but we had a great time!!

Join us for Show & Tell hosted by CanadaGirl - head over to her place to participate and to see all the other neat Show & Tells for this week!

This week we talked about thunderstorms in our co-op weather class, and I had hoped to touch a bit on tornadoes and hurricanes as well, depending on our time.  However, I think we must have started class late because there was not even close to enough time. No matter - next week I am planning a "catch-up" week to do some extra things, and anything we didn't have time for in previous classes, so we'll do the tornadoes then.

1.  Thunderstorms are rain storms with huge clouds, strong winds, and LOTS of precipitation.  They form along weather fronts, often on hot summer days.  (in the tropics, it happens throughout the year).  Worldwide there are 40,000-50,000 each day.    I wonder where they are??  Because that is a lot of thunderstorms.  I found that info in a couple of books and also here.  Thunderhead clouds are cumulonimbus clouds that can be 70,000 feet (or 11 miles!) high. 

2.  Lightning and thunder - inside those huge clouds, the air moves up and down quickly and water vapor condenses.  All that motion causes the electrically charged particles - ions - to form electrical fields within the clouds.  When the fields become large enough, a "spark" can flash between them, which we see as lightning.    Lightning can occur cloud to ground, or between clouds.  Thunder is the sound that "spark" of lightning makes - it's really a sonic shock wave, produced by the air being super-heated by the lightning bolt.

3.  We tried a demonstration to produce some static electricity sparks and have sort of a visual idea of how this happens.  All kids know that sometimes when you get under a blanket, there will be static sparks; they know that if you rub a balloon on your hair you can stick it to a wall; and most of them enjoy the evil pleasure of shuffling across a carpet in order to "spark" their sister or brother.   We combined some of those ideas into this:  use a styrofoam plate as an "electron collector" and an aluminum pie tin as the "conductor"  You'll need to fashion a handle for the pie tin - we did it with masking tape and a piece cut off the styrofoam plate.  Basically, you need to be able to pick up the pie tin without your hand coming in contact with the metal.  Take the styrofoam plate and rub the bottom of it on your hair for a minute.  Set it on the table, bottom up.  Using the handle, drop the pie tin onto the plate and then slowly touch your finger to the edge of the pie tin.  It didn't work every single time, but we were able to get some sparks.  The explanation and the original instructions were found at the Science Explorer website - I've found some very fun science demos and experiments there, but this one wasn't one of the most dramatic.  LOL

4.  Lightning changes nitrogen in the air to nitrous oxide, which is good for plants!

There are lots of windows in our lives, i.e., window of our soul, closed windows and open windows that God has for our lives, there's what some people call their, "window of opportunity", and there's "eyes are the window to our soul".  The assignment is to take a picture, if you're able, find a graphic if you can, and write about your favorite window in your home or the one you look out of when you have those 'daydreaming' moments. 

This picture gives a little idea of what I see out my bedroom window as I sit here at the computer.  I am lazy and didn't want to get out my camera, so I just found a picture from back in the fall:

Of course, right now that tree is still pretty bare, so I can see the neighbor's house behind, and it's not quite that close to my window.

The next two pictures are my favorite views from windows in my home - out the back windows, the first one looking east and the second one, more towards the south.

I consider myself very blessed to have country views out my windows!  And I don't complain about NOT having my "dream" view, I do have a wall-hanging that helps me imagine it, and dream of maybe someday (when we retire?) having a log home in the woods:

Who knows? Maybe!     I love having big windows and having a view that stretches a bit, rather than a fence or a wall.  I think the only thing I could really enjoy having right up close to my windows would be big trees.  Being able to see trees and mountains and sky when I look out my windows reminds me to be in awe of their Creator.  And how wonderful it is to be able to look at the world God made for us, and to read the Word God has given us, and get a peek at what God Himself is like.  The challenge for me is also to see the people around me as God sees them, and to remember to see the events and situations I face through a spiritual perspective - in light of eternity.

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.

~ Ephesians 1:18-19

So I was reading blogs this morning and thinking that I really *should* write something for mine, but wasn't sure what to write.  Hmmm.... And funny thing - most of my blog-friends have posted this tremendous contest on their blogs, so my dilemma was solved!!! I have something to post, and I can HOPE that I win this most excellent prize!!!!!  The hard part would be if I do win, that I'd have to choose which language...  I have a long list that I/we would like to learn.  Right now I think I would go with Spanish though.  I have mentioned this on a couple of my message boards, but haven't even been on the phone with family this week to tell them (I hope I do that before they happen to read it here...) but Harrison and I are considering going on a missions trip this summer to Honduras.  So a little knowledge of the Spanish language would certainly be helpful!!  Anyway... on to my requirements for entering the contest:

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE! 

This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.

This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program.  Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking.  Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included!  For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports. 

 

To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/  and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it.  And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it.  And good luck!  The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg.   And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win.   Yay for free stuff!

I know absolutely *everybody* is entering this drawing, but boy I hope I win!!!!!