Nov. 22, 2009 - Speaking Engagement- Leaders Tea
This past Saturday I was honored to speak to homeschool leaders from all over the Tampa Bay Area. I was so blessed to meet so many precious women.
Alice Paquette, who is a dear friend, partnered with Linda Oberg from Prodigy and together they blew us away with their strong organizational and detail skills. The tea was catered by a very popular tea house called, “Miracles”. There were finger sandwiches, Scones, Chocolate brownies, several types of tea, coffee and bottled water.
The Lord spoke to us from Romans 12 about how He purposefully made His body, His family with different gifts and talents and how when you put us together we make a complete picture. I loved how the leaders participated by sharing those things that energize them and assessing how much they have on their plates of responsibility. I came home energized and “full” of JOY!
Lord, may I never take for granted your gracious heart. Thank you for allowing me to engage in those things that bring me great joy...., Being your daughter, a wife to an amazing man, a mom to incredible sons and homeschooling. You are AMAZING Lord God!
Nov. 22, 2009 - Book Review: Awakening
I recently received a copy of Awakening by Claudia Cangilla McAdam to review from The Catholic Company. This was such a great little book! I'm always looking for new books for my bookworm daughter, and I suspect she's going to love this little gem.
The basic synopsis is that Ronni has a big fight with her mother about going to spend Easter Triduum on a ski trip with her friend. She suddenly becomes ill, falls asleep and wakes up in 33AD 2 days before Jesus is crucified. She thinks she's sent back to stop the crucifixion for happening and makes several attempts to stop it. I would go on, but I don't want to spoil too much--obviously we know how the story ends, but I think the way Ronni is entwined with all the "characters" from the bible--Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Magdalen, Veronica....it was very well done. I especially appreciate that everything Jesus says in the story is straight out of the bible.
I thought this was a very well written, moving story. The only qualm I had was the romance aspect between the main character and Mark. I could have done without that and felt at times that it took away from the main storyline. I think this would make excellent Lenten reading children ages 10+. In fact, I'm definitely giving this to Sarah to read during Lent. I think she's going to really like it.
Nov. 20, 2009 - Blog Not Forgotten
I haven't forgotten my blog, just been busy hanging out on Facebook instead.
Change is in the air ----
Mark has finished Algebra! He ended up with a high B. I am going to have him spend the rest of 2009 reviewing word problems. We will start Jacob's Geometry in January.
Mei finds her LA to be very easy. So we are going to add to it by doing the Total Language Plus study on Courage of Sarah Noble. The spelling is much harder than what she is doing now. It uses some of the kinesthetic methods of learning spelling, so I am curious to see how she does. She will still do the basic grammar, writing, and cursive handwriting from WP's LA3.
We have pretty much dropped Mei's science but will pick it back up in January. She will be learning about weather. Mark has asked to sit in on it.
We will also be finishing the Sea portion of Sea & Sky by Christmas, so the new year will start with Sky.
Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I am doing the ABCs of Thanksgiving on FaceBook. I may post them here after Thanksgiving.
Nov. 17, 2009 - Counting down until Thanksgiving Break!
School has been going pretty good this year. Right now I'm behind on grading papers, but tonight or tomorrow night I'll get caught up with that. I'm almost done making assignments until Thanksgiving break. I'm going to have the kids do school on Monday and somewhat on Tuesday. It will be more of "holiday school". We'll be shopping for food items, reading Thanksgiving books and watching holiday movies, but it will also be a catch-up day for my high schoolers if they need it, and they probably will.
Nov. 16, 2009 - We published a book!
Well, Emilee and I decided to try out LuLu.com and publish our own book. We worked on it these past months in our spare time (Which was very little), but we made it through the process and published it. Check out the link in the sidebar with a picture of the cover. It looks good online, but I just put in my first order for a copy to see how it looks in our hands. I'm anxious to get it. This was an experiment to see how this self-publishing website works from start to finish. Has anyone out there used LuLu or a similar self-publishing site before? Your feedback here would be most helpful.
Laura
Nov. 9, 2009 - Lesson Plans for Nov. 9-13
I thought I'd post my lesson plans for the week, just for my reference as well as to show what we do each week.
Religion
Sarah: Read lesson 8 in Faith and Life 5, complete workbook pages
Robbie & Riley: Complete First Penance text
All: daily religion readings from either Faith and Life, Bible, Once Upon a Time Saints or Devotional Stories for Little Folks
Math
All: Complete lesson 11 in Math U See
Play games (computer, dice, cards, etc.) to practice math facts
Language Arts
Sarah: Lang. Lesson - Valiant, Dog of the Timberline
read from True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Robbie & Riley: Sonlight LA 1 week 1
Riley: finish reading Magic Tree House The Knight at Dawn
Robbie: read from I Can Read It 1
All: cursive practice
History
All: Listen to The Striped Ships
Robbie and Riley: Story of the World ch. 15 -- finish
Sarah: Write a mini report about the claims to the throne and who had the better claim
History Odyssey lesson 22 : mapwork, timeline, entries about Domesday Book and Bayeux Tapestry
All: Memory Work - Norman and Saxon by Rudyard Kipling
Craft Project - A Day in Your Life Bayeux Tapestry
Science
All: Listen to Body Battles and Magic School Bus Inside Ralphie
Work on Healthy Habits chart (for Cub Scouts, but Sarah is keeping one as well)
make notebook pages about what we read
Nov. 9, 2009 - Making adjustments
We are now 11 weeks into the school year. How did that happen? Time just goes way to fast nowadays. After a few weeks in, I started tweaking, and now we've sort of thrown out those lesson plans I worked so hard writing.
I have been reading lots of Ruth Beechick lately. I think she's almost as inspiring to how I home educate as Charlotte Mason. And in a lot of ways, I think they are very similar.
One of the things that needed adjusting, is Robbie's reading lessons. He's been struggling, and we had already dropped spelling since it seemed pointless--if you can't read, you can't spell. So, I've gone and dug out our I Can Read It books from Sonlight, as well as the Language Arts 1 I had put away. We just started it today, but already I can see it's a better fit.
For Sarah, we are using the language lessons provided in You Can Teach Your Child Successfully. I think once we've gone through those I'll dig out the Sonlight Language Arts 2 -- Reading With Chapter Books that I have put away. She wants to be a writer, and this just seems a better fit for her than workbooks. I think she remembers things better when they are used in context. She is enjoying the lessons, except that it requires her to do dictation--which she hates. I'm hoping it will help with her listening skills though, because that is an area that needs a LOT of work.
I've also adjusted our history lessons a bit. Sarah is using History Odyssey, which was taking her hours at a time to complete. Currently we are studying the Normans. Instead of doing the whole lesson in one day (which requires reading a chapter from a history text, 2 pages from Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, outlining that history reading, marking dates on a timeline, mapwork, and 2 short entries written about the Domesday book and the Bayeux Tapestry--WAY too much for one lesson!!) we are reading the historical novel The Striped Ships aloud, and taking our time to complete all those assignments. Plus she's listening in on the Story of the World chapter about the Norman Conquests. She is actually almost enjoying her history lessons now! Yay!
Sarah is also participating in National Novel Writing Month. She is having fun just writing without worrying about making complete sense. 
It's also helping her to work on description in her writing. She tends to write only part of what's in her head--leaving the rest of us to wonder what she's talking about sometimes. I'm hoping that stretching her writing to meet the word requirement (I think she's supposed to hit 10,000 words) will help her to get all the story written down.
I like the way our school year is shaping up. We're adding in a few lapbooks here and there, and I've got a wall time line idea brewing as well. I love it when my kids tell me that they love school!!
Nov. 6, 2009 - That Red Hair
Well, the baby's is more of wispy red hair and fuzz, but anyway.
God cares about such small details as the color of our hair. He even knows how many hairs are on our heads. It's rather amazing when you think about it. He is so big and magnificent and we are so nothing, yet He cares about such a silly thing as what color I hoped my baby's hair would be. He used Faith's red hair to remind me of this gentle love and care recently when I was pushing away from Him.
There is an area of my life that I had taken back from Him. I know he wants ALL of me and I consciously began to refuse to submit in an area. I was miserable, trying to hide from Him. It made me grumpy and depressed to live that way. But He loves me anyway. When I was playing with baby's hair, He whispered to me that He gave her that color in answer to my prayer. His quiet voice persists and asks me to trust Him, to turn it all back over, to let go.
And I have.
And there is peace.
And every time I see that red hair on my little girl I will be reminded of His love and that I can trust Him.
I don't have to be in control.
Nov. 4, 2009 - Happy November
We had eight boxes today:
1 - Our Read Alouds: Two history books & the Boy Scout Chemistry Merit Badge book
2 - Alek's Math
3 - Bible: We used Bible Study Guide For All Ages for the first time today. I think we're really going to like it.
4 - Phonics & Vocabulary Workbook
5 - The Story of the USA
6 - States & Capitals review
7 - Words on the Vine: Write sentences using words with the root 'foli'
8 - Our artist for November, Hokusai: read his biography in Lives of the Artists and watch a Youtube video about him
We also watched some Liberty Kids videos during lunch & he'll do his reading tonight.
Other things we've done in the last week:
We went to Marquette State Park with some of the other families in our homeschool group. First we had a lesson in owls & eagles, and then a two mile hike.
This view is from the top of a mound on the river bluffs. Our guide said that on a clear day, you can see the St. Louis arch from here. Our day was VERY foggy! 
Our state menu this week was from Maine: Lobster Casserole, Roasted Asparagus & Blueberry Pie. (I cheated a little on the pie - a frozen pie from the grocery store) Everything was delicious!
Tuesday was time for Kate to register for the 2nd semester of college already! She'll be taking English, Math, Psychology & Music Theory. Her schedule will be a little easier this semester - no classes before 10 a.m.
We finished Witch of Blackbird Pond on Tuesday. Luke will finish up his book about Pocahontas by the end of the week. He is supposed to finish reading his Chemistry book before the merit badge seminar on Saturday, so we'll concentrate on that for the rest of the week.
I've been working on Dewey, the Small Town Library Cat and The Life and Adventures of Harry Bibb. Both of them are good books, but I just haven't had much time to read.
Nov. 3, 2009 - Book Review: The Shadow of the Bear
I recently received The Shadow of the Bear: A Fairy Tale Retold by Regina Doman to review. I was excited to read it, because I adore her picture book Angel in the Waters and love retellings of fairy tales. I was not disappointed. This is a retelling of Snow White and Rose Red. I have to admit, I've never read the original Grimm's fairy tale. I must seek it out now so I can compare.
The inside cover of the book says:
There lived two sisters who loved books, poetry, music, and fairy tales.
They lived with their widowed mother in a brownstone with two rose bushes in front of it.
One winter night, a Bear came to their door and they let him in, even though he could not tell them his real name or his real mission.
He became their friend, protector, and constant companion.
They never dreamed that his friendship might cost them their lives.
This review was written as part of The Catholic Company product reviewer program. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on The Shadow of the Bear: A Fairy Tale Retold.
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