This week a little boy in my church was in a serious accident. He was with his grandfather picking up split wheel tires. One of them exploded. K (age 7) received serious injuries to his head. K's grandfather almost severed an arm, received many cuts and has broken bones in his face. They are in hospitals in two different states. Two of K's sisters witnessed the accident as well.
Please pray for this entire family. K needs complete healing that only God can give to him. His parents and I believe God is more than capable of doing that. The grandfather needs healing as well. And all of them need emotional healing.
Thank you for your prayers. God is listening to each one!
By Our Love is having a contest! She is giving away the new Homeschool Planner from The Old Schoolhouse. Hurry though... she is drawing the winner this Thursday.
The Old Schoolhouse is allowing me to give away one copy of the new Homeschool Planner. This will be my first contest and I'm so excited. To read my review of my planner go here.
Here are the rules for the contest. Just leave a comment on this entry post and I will put your name in the drawing. If you post about this contest on your blog or homeschool lounge page I will enter your name twice. Let me know in your comment if you have posted about the contest. I will pick a random name on Thursday July 10th. You don't want to miss a chance to win this awesome planner!
Make sure if you don't have a blog you leave a way for me to get in touch with you, an email address would be great!
Salem Ridge Press is a publishing company, established in November, 2005, dedicated to bringing back quality children's books of the 1800's and early 1900's for a new generation of readers. As homeschoolers ourselves, we work hard to find and republish the very best books available so that we can help you provide books for your family that you can feel good about giving them.
A few months ago we sponsored a contest through The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and were delighted with the interest it generated. We are striving to build our reputation with homeschoolers as a trusted source of excellent books, both for use as history supplements and simply for great reading. Our hope is that once families have the opportunity to see and read one of our books, they will come back for more. In our current contest, twenty-five families will each receive the softcover book of their choice from the eighteen titles we have republished so far.* Then, we would like to bless one special family with a grand prize of a full set of all eighteen of our titles - that is approximately a $250 retail value!
You won't want to miss this chance to win some great books. We all love books...especially when they are free!
This is the first year we have put out a garden. We tore down our old shed and put up a new one. We decided to turn the ground where the old shed was into our garden area. It has worked out great. We (well...mainly James) planted potatoes, various tomatoes, red onions, white onions, radishes, carrots, corn, watermelon, peppers, and strawberries. So far we have enjoyed some onions and radishes.
We decided to plant some herbs as well. James and Monkey, with a little help from Lulu and Lil, built a bench to sit our pots on. Lulu and Lil, with a little help from Mom, planted lavender, basil, mint, aloe, oregano, and thyme. I really like how it all turned out. It looks really nice on my patio.
The girls have been catching fireflies each evening. They put them in their bug boxes they made with their Daddy last year. Each night they ask if they can keep them. But we open the lid and watch the all fly away. It's fun to watch our kids enjoy things that we enjoyed when we were young too.
(I just typed this entry, closed the wrong tab. and lost it)
Summer is blowing by us. I cannot believe it is the end of June already. We have been out of school for a little over a month now. I have been planning for next year as well as a summer schedule. We are starting our summer schedule tomorrow. I have decided to follow Ambleside Online this year. Lulu and Monkey are going to be doing year 2 together. I will be reading most of the books to them. I went back and forth over which level to begin with and whether to put them in the same level or different ones. By doing year 2 we will be repeating the Middle Ages in history. I figure since they will be reading different books this year than last it will be okay. Lulu can read several of the additional books on her own. I have nature readers for Monkey to read to me. Once Lil starts "formal" schooling the girls will all be in the same time period in history.
I am excited to see the difference next year. We have already started reading Peter Pan together. The girls are really enjoying it so I think they will love all of the literature this year. Tomorrow when we begin our lite summer schedule we will be doing a lot of the readings from year 1.
As far as our summer activities go...we were able to go camping again a few weekends ago. It was very hot but we had fun anyway. We hiked in the mornings and went to the pool after lunch. The girls loved both of those. We put up a small pool for them this year. They are loving it, except for the swimmer's ear! All three of them are doing so much better swimming. And so far I have only had to rescue Lil twice from a pool. She has no fear and will bob up and down off the bottom until someone grabs her. While we were camping the girls were able to observe lots of little creatures. We had a blue tail lizard that hung around camp for a long time, lots of cicaidas, butterflies, a corn snake, and a chipmunk. Unfortunately I forgot my camera.
James has been able to camp alot this month. He led a group of men from church on a backpacking trip this past Friday. They had a great time and are planning to do it again in the fall. He will also be camping with his boys in his Royal Rangers class at their annual Pow-Wow. As for the family campouts...probably not again until fall. Tent camping has many benefits....but in 90+ degree weather I'd much rather stay in a hotel. We are hoping to do some day hikes though.
The girls just finished a few days of Ministry Camp at church. They learned how to use different skills and activities to minister to others. All three of them participated. They learned crafts, cake decorating, caring for pets, encouraging, planting flowers, musical instruments, and painting. James helped some of the kids with constucting bird houses and I helped with the flowers. It was a good time for the kids. I still prefer a good 'ole Vacation Bible School though. Maybe next year...
Jun. 10, 2008 - GIVEAWAY: TELL ME MORE® Spanish Homeschool Version
Laura at Laura Williams' Musings is offering a contest to win a Spanish curriculum from Tell Me More. The details are listed below. Visit her site to enter.
Well tomorrow is finally here. I am seeing that summer is going to keep me very distracted from the computer. That will be a good thing though.
While we were on vacation we went back to Waccatee Zoo in Myrtle Beach. The "zoo" was birthed from one family's collection of exotic animals as pets. It is very inexpensive and you can get really close to the animals. Most you can feed too. The girls really enjoyed the zoo two years ago and this year was no different.
Notice the big "CAUTION MAY BITE" sign. No fear for this Daddy and Lil. Several times she had her hand all the way through the fences to either feed or touch the animals. So far she has never gotten bit. Except for the neighbor's dog!
We went to Barefoot Landing one day. They have a store called Teddy Bear Circus (I think). It is like Build-A-Bear. The girls had to jump in order to stuff their animals. Lil would not do it so Monkey jumped for her.
Lulu adopted a zebra named "Lulu". Monkey adopted a giraffe named "Ginger". Lil adopted an elephant named "Dave".
We also went to Alligator Adventure at Barefoot Landing. We all really enjoyed this place. There were over 1,000 alligators and crocodiles. Kind of creepy at times.... Everywhere you walked you were surrounded by them. Monkey even got to pet one during one of the demonstration shows!
After that we went to see them feed the alligators. Two girls walked out a little bridge and began tapping on the side. The alligators began swarming that area. They feed them chicken. They would jump up out of the water to snap the chicken. It was really cool to watch.
After the feeding they all swam back off. James told Lulu one was looking at her. Thought she might be a nice snack! There was even a crocodile there who had been born without a tail. It was so funny to look at. Unfortunately I got away without taking a picture of "Bob".
Another highlight of our trip was an evening we spent at "Surf's Up". All five of us played laser tag. I carried Lil the whole time with my vest and gun. Needless to say I was hot, sweaty, and out of breath by the end of it. The girls really enjoyed it though. As did Daddy! They also had a rock climbing wall there. Monkey and Daddy climbed the wall. It was Monkey's first time. Now she wants to start rock climbing. Lulu has decided that she would like to give it a try as well. Here are some pics of Monkey making her first climb.
I have some pictures from the Medieval Dinner Show we went to but they are on my other camera. I have not loaded them yet. When I get to it I will post those photos as well.
After this weekend I am sure I will have some more fun family photos too...
Welcome to our blog! I hope you enjoy your visit. We are a homeschooling family of 5. Our approach is eclectic, but leaning more and more towards Charlotte Mason. Our girls are 8, 6, and 3. Never a dull moment as we desire to teach our girls in the ways of the Lord.
)
