We had an awesome day! Today was the day of our first tea party based on the Fruit of the Spirit Teas. I got this as a freebie years ago and never got around to using it, until this year. I asked Tiffany which she wanted to do first and she said blueberry; so that's what we did.
It was a blueberry iced tea and blueberry scones. The fruit of the Spirit studied was peace. This was such a good study. The mom of the girls that came said that it was very helpful to her right now, and that she was going to type the verses up and read them each day. God is so good!!!!! He gave us just the right study to please these dear friends at just the right time for them.
I wasn't sure I'd like the blueberry tea, but I do like peach tea so I thought it was worth a try. I liked it a lot. It wasn't on my diet!!!! by any stretch of the imagination but my daughter would not have enjoyed it as much if I had not fully participated. Yes, there are any number of things I could have done, but I chose not to. I chose to share in everything with my daughter and our company.
Since we have been friends for 11 years, I knew that we would want a nice long visit, so we had them come before lunch and eat lunch with us as well as share in a tea, which we combined. We made a salad with a rotisserie style chicken and cheese cubes in it. (I followed the recipe card for the chicken that I got with my Turbo Cooker—purchased on clearance several years ago. But tonight I found a version to make something similar in the crockpot, linked above, which I will use in the future, since it does not have to be "babysat", just get it in the crockpot and let it cook. Anyway, we cooked the chicken last night and I removed the chicken from the bones. We put A LOT of it in the salad. It was very good. Even the girls had seconds and even thirds, I think.
After we ate and we cleaned the table off, the girls used paint pens to decorate the candle holders I had for each of them. I gave them some blue votive candles to put in them. I suggested writing something like, "Peace, Jesus gave it, follow it!" on it but they could choose to write anything they wanted to on them. I thought that the only way to remove the paint was to use a razor blade and scrape it off but we found that it dried very quickly and that rubbing alcohol cleaned it off quickly and easily. (We had a perfectionist and a mis-speller and an oops.) I chose candles as a craft because I felt that candles symbolized peace.
I also got some scratch cards from Dollar Tree. You use something hard (wood stick provided) to scrape off some of the black on the surface of an animal shape, revealing a pretty silvery prism of colors. There were a total of 10 die cuts (animal shapes) approximately the size of a 3x5 card; not bad for a buck. It is something similar to this.
I may get motivated an take a picture of it and post it; of course, I'm more apt to do that if there are comments showing interest in such.
Our friends left around 5pm; what a wonderful time we had. It was easier for the girls to part because we will be going to our homeschool Back-to-School Picnic tomorrow, together, if their momma dog shows no sign of delivering her pups yet. But it was funny because the older girl said she'd bring her DVD player to watch something in the van and Tiffany "needed" to call her and tell her not to bother because she gets car sick if she even listens to a video while riding in the car. She ended up talking to her for a while on the phone. I'm so glad that God provided good friends for my dd!!! He knows just what we need and when we need it!
The only thing that would make the Fruit of the Spirit Teas Bible Study, that I mentioned before., any better would be if it included a craft for each study. But I'm sure God will continue to give me ideas as we go along.
This has been a great experience and I look forward to future teas. Tiffany is learning that hospitality is hard work but very worthwhile. I'm so glad God inspired the "course" for her education this year. I am eager to see what God will do with the rest of them.
Oh! I learned something today, that I will share in another post, about jealousy and envy
One day this week I decided to have some fun with math and Tiffany. I had seen this easy game in “Games . . . Tools for Learning” by Janice and Mark Vreeland, so I decided to do it on the spur of the moment. Tiffany is way passed simple addition, but I thought it would be good to solidify the pairs that add up to 10.
Here's the game, take two sets of cards of 1-10, giving you 20 cards in total. Shuffle and lay them out, face side down, in a memory or concentration style; we used 3 rows of 6. Then you take turns picking 2 cards. In order for them to match, they must total 10. We played this a few times and I won each time. This spurred her on to play more and more, to finally win once. Unfortunately, that never happened; but she did end up playing it many times and got those pairs down well.
The other game I found that I'd purchased years ago is from Bicycle Kids, called Total It. There are 8 sets of 1-10 in the deck. The dealer deals 7 cards to each player and then turns the top card face up. This face up card is the total aimed for by each player this round. So, let's say the face up card is 5. Then each player, in turn, can either put down a 5 that they have in their hand or any two cards that either add up to, or subtract to equal 5, in a pile in front of them, called a score pile. After each player lays down their matches and total cards, the deal gives each person the number of cards needed to have 7 in their hand again and another card is placed face up for the total this round. When there are no longer enough cards to give each player enough cards for a full hand and a face up card, then the game is over. Each player totals the number of cards he placed in his score pile and that is his score for the game. The one with the most points wins. It was fun! But . . . I now have to look through my resources for multiplication and division games, as this is where she needs the most practice right now.
It was a fun math day! I hope you can use the ideas.
Michele ºÜº
We started school two weeks ago already. It has been a really good two weeks, in spite of the fact that I didn't realize that my oldest would be as interested in the Olympics as he is. Consequently, I've lessened the requirements for school for the two weeks of the Olympics, since learning about other countries and many sports that we don't usually have contact with are educational; I think we are doing well. We record the night events and watch them in the afternoon the next day, after watching the morning events.
I am so glad that I decided to put art/crafts in my 11yodd's schedule this year. In previous years the art was just sketching/rough drawing, this year I decided to put in crafts and other arts. I purchased a stamped cross stitch kit for her. It wanted this so that she could learn the stitching and not be worried about counting.
When I was a teen, I had a printed cross stitch piece that I ended up making a pillow out of. It is a small pillow but my dd has it in her room and has talked about it recently. So, I'm glad to get her something that she can have to make that she can keep. Then I got her a very simple counted cross stitch butterfly pattern kit for her to do. It should be an easy transition for her.
The final thing I got her to begin our year was a latch hook rug kit of a Labrador puppy. It is really darling, not cheesy looking at all. This particular kit has the pattern in the directions, so there is no guessing about which color is supposed to go where, like I had to do when I was a teen. We started this kit on Thursday morning and she loves it. We've talked about finding patterns for things her relatives might like for Christmas gifts. This brought such joy to her; I'm so glad that I got these for her. Of course, she is eager to try the cross stitch too, but I'm holding her off for a few more days.
I mentioned before that past art has only been drawing and sketching, but this year we will also be doing some painting. I love One Stroke Painting with Donna Dewberry, even though I don't do it often. By putting art in Tiffany's schedule this year, I'm essentially putting it in MY schedule too, which is a good thing. I get so busy doing so many other things that I don't take time to paint. I guess I would probably pull out cross stitch, crochet, or other hand crafts quicker because it doesn't create as big a mess or involve as much when setting up or putting away. I haven't done these activities in years and am enjoying sharing them with Tiffany and even feeling the desire to do some myself, once again.
We will probably also experiment with oil pastels, which I bought several years ago, and watercolor pencils too. We may even look into doing some beading, since I saw it on another blog I like to visit. Her blog is http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/jaminacema/ Just Call Me Jamin.
Well, I gotta run and get dinner in the oven as DH is on his way home.
I never thought I'd be doing what I am this year. You see, 8 years ago I found the Student of the Word (SOW) curriculum and knew that we were supposed to use it in educating our children and we have done so for the last 7 years. But a few months ago, during the UHSE 2008, the Lord began to deal with me about taking a new direction. Oh, don't get me wrong, the Word is still the focus of our studies, just like with SOW but this year my boys will be deciding what to study in the Word for themselves rather than being told what to study. I felt impressed that they have learned HOW to study the Word and make it the focus of their lives but now they need to learn how to apply that to themselves for the rest of their lives. As you might be able to tell, this is my oldest's senior year. My next oldest still has a few more years left but he has done what his brother has done for so long that it wouldn't be right to have him do something different.
Tiffany and I talked a lot about how to decide what she (and I) should read in the Bible. We talked about needing some kind of structure or framework to go by. I showed her some online 'read through the Bible' plans, most of which tried to finish in a year. There were some I really liked, The Teaching Home: Read the Bible Through in a Year and Bibleyear.com (which I think I may use the chronological play at some point). But the one we decided on was Powered by 4 , which only has a chapter or less, generally, per day to read. I know we won't get through the entire Bible in a year with this plan, but it is definitely something that my 11yodd can do. Plus they have a few questions each day, to think about, which will give us something to discuss daily. Another thing we liked about it is that it starts with a gospel (Mark) and then spends the next 5 days or so reading a Psalm a day, then starts reading the gospel of John, and after that goes to Genesis (but only 1/2 is read before going to another book) and so on. It seems like a plan that will give us some variety and structure. The amount of reading required is small enough that my dd will be able to complete it even on the weekends, which is one of the goals.
I was looking for some help with copywork for the first week or so. So, I did want any internet savvy person would do, I googled 'sources copywork'. I found an interesting, and very helpful bit of information from Ambleside Online's website.
What are the very best sources for copywork?
Finely crafted, well written sentences are the best sources. In our home we have a different selection each day of the week. One day is poetry, another Bible, another from their history, another from Science, and one from their literature selection. A copywork selection from the foreign language being studied is also good. Hymns may also be used.
This was so good, that I wanted to put it in a place that I knew I wouldn't lose it. So I put it here on my blog. (Underlining above is my emphasis.)
I have to say, I'm excited about the new year. Tomorrow and Saturday, I am attending Cindy Rushton's online Let's Get Organized for the New School Year seminar. You can join in too, free or buy a ticket and have access to everything forever. You can always try it out free and then if you decide that you really need to hear it again or if you missed a few sessions, get the ticket and listen to your heart's content. I'm guessing that I will get some great input in the next 2 days and be able to finish my initial planning.
I have a really neat set of books, Pictorial Encyclopedia of American History, that we will use for some history study. It is really neat; I like the looks of it a lot. I thumbed through most of the 18 volumes the other day. These I will cuddle up with my sweet daughter and read them with her. We will also be reading a set of books from Media Angels, called The Truth Seekers Mystery Series; there are 3 books in the series and I'm looking forward to enjoying these with her too. Another thing I'm really looking forward to cuddling up with her and digging into is The Girlhood Home Companion available from Remembrance Press; Jill Novak is the wonderful lady behind this periodical. It is a lovely full color magazine. I got it about a month ago and have had a difficult NOT reading it from cover to cover right away but I *knew* that I wanted to share it with my daughter, so I've waited.
My daughter and I will also be planning a monthly tea. I got a neat study from CurrClick called Fruit of the Spirit Teas. We will use this for our basis and add a craft and maybe another monthly theme (to go with the season or holiday of the month). We are looking forward to this time of bonding and fun.
For science, I may have her use another freebie I got from CurrClick, Connect the Thoughts Science I or we may work on some of the parts of Considering God's Creation, that we haven't finished yet, or we may be able to borrow Cooking Science from a friend of mine (if she still has it and can locate it). The Cooking Science is really the one I would like to do the most, as I think it would be very informative and fun to do together, but I'm not sure if she will be old enough to enjoy it now, as it is an older edition and I don't remember the targeted ages.
We also plan to do some sketching, drawing, and painting together. So, as you can tell, I pretty much have most of my daughter's plan together. I just need specifics now.
The boys will be in charge of most of their education this year. I am requiring that they study government this year. I think I will probably go with Connect the Thoughts Civics curriculum. When it was first suggested to me, I looked it up at their website and found that it was a whomping $120; there is NO WAY I can do that. But through CurrClick it is only $50 right now. I've asked my oldest if he'd be interested and he said yes. I'm leaning towards it because then he will have some "guidance" in this study. Other than this, I don't have much I need to do for the boys, except to assign a book to read every now and then. I am also requiring that they give me some plan for the first month within the next week or so.
One of the things that is neat about CtT's civics curriculum is that it uses some films in the study. My oldest loves movies, so this will definitely make it more interesting for them.
Oh, I just remembered something else I will be studying with my daughter. Each of the children are required to do an indepth study in the Word. I think she and I will be studying modesty but I haven't completely decided yet.
Well, I need to get off of here, so I'm going to run.
I'm soooo excited! I'll be really honest with you all, I have NEVER been to a homeschool convention/conference before. It just seemed too big and confusing to me. Well, last year Cindy Rushton had something called a Home School Expo, which is like a homeschool convention/conference online. It was great!!!!
Well, she's doing it again this year. It is called the Ultimate Home School Expo '08 (UHSE) and already I have been very blessed by it. See, she's been having preview chats for about the last 8 weeks or so. They alone, have already helped me and give me some direction as to where our homeschooling should go next year, but we haven't even gotten the tip of this iceberg yet!
The Expo is next week. It is all week long, right on your very own computer. If you miss a session or even a day or two, no big deal, as all of the sessions are recorded and are available to you as free downloads!!!! How awesome is that? AND all of the preview chats will be available as free downloads too! It doesn't stop there!
Most of the speakers have products that they sell (many are electronic in nature). Each vender will have their own "booth" and most are giving away things to every participant! Then there are even special "door prizes" that will be given away live during the actual expo. I cannot tell you how incredible this is! Cindy said we'd probably be playing BINGO too! :) What fun!
Last year, being her first year, she did offer scholarships to those that could not purchase a "ticket" but she realized that because of all the fabulous giveaways, mommy grab bag, and audios that her bandwidth bill will be very high and must have each attendee purchase a "ticket".
I saw that the OCHEC convention/conference is $35 for 2 days, plus gas, meals and lodging or more gas. The UHSE is 5 days with membership pages that have not time constraints to them, once they are up and running. All that for only $40! What an awesome deal.
Now another cool thing is that because I love Cindy's stuff soooo much and tell people about it, she wants to bless me by allowing me to become an affiliate, which means that I make a little bit of money if you purchase your ticket through my link. It would be a blessing to me if you would!
I hope to see you at the UHSE!!! (Of course, my sister is due to have her baby any time now. I'm really hoping it is THIS week and not next week but thankfully, I'll still be able to listen to the audios, even if I have to miss it live. BUT LIVE is so much better!)
I cannot believe this! I have now typed up a blog entry and lost it twice! I can only imagine that either God doesn't want me to say all that I had said or that the devil doesn't want me to say it. So, I'm going to go with the feeling that I think God may not want me to post what I had originally intended. Thus this update will be shorter than originally planned.
Since this blog is hosted on Homeschoolblogger, maybe I should blog more about homeschooling. You think?
Since this is an election year, I thought we would study the election process of this, our Republic. With last week being the Iowa caucuses and this week the New Hampshire primary, this is where we started. Being confused about the differences between the two, I searched the web for answers.
Then this website has a clip from Arizona's Fox News where the gentleman is describing the two. I played this for my children and then added in bits of info from the other website after they viewed it. (It isn't copying in, so I'll try making this a link instead.)
We will be talking about the different branches of government and how each one is a check of the other branches, to provide balance. We will talk about what each 'job' does and what the requirements are for that 'job'. I'll keep you posted with links that I find, as the majority of our information will probably be found online.
We are studying Exodus 1-15:21 this week in our Bible studies; we use the Student of the Word curriculum. I had heard over the past several years, that the 10 plagues were aimed at 10 of the different gods of Egypt. I set out to find more information. I did not, however, go digging out the different gods and such myself. Why should I reinvent the wheel?
So here are the links to three main articles that I found online. I combined all three because there was information in some that wasn't in the others. 10 Plagues of Egypt Plagues of Egypt versus Egypt's gods Against All the gods of Egypt
(I do know that the word gods should be capitalized because it is a main word in a title, but I just cannot bring myself to capitalize it here.)
That last link has 3 different pages, the link is just to the first page.
Cindy Rushton is having a great sale right now. First off, her audios are 50% off but then if you spend $25, you get to pick another audio free. I am buying her Quiet Times Seminar and will get membership to the Just Wish I Knew Talk-A-Latte series that just started. This is an incredible deal!!! Here's the link, but hurry as I don't know how long this will be available. Scroll down to the bottom of her entry on December 26th.
It is hard to believe that I haven't blogged for a few days. I'm sorry to those few people that have visited my site daily; I know it is a let-down to visit a blog only to find that there isn't anything new.
I think I've talked a little about our priorities this year but I don't think I've talked about our goals. I have a Junior this year and so I know that I'm nearing the end of his time at home with me. This was very strong on me this spring and summer and I was praying and reading the books on Charlotte Mason.
I finally felt that what I really want most is that my children have a relationship with God. Second to that, I want them to love learning. Finally, I want them to know how to learn any thing they need to learn.
Well, I realized that the way we did school last year was not giving them a love for learning. To be honest, nothing I'd done to this point has given them that love yet. I have taught them to have a relationship with God and I think that I've taught them how to learn something, but there just hasn't been a love for learning in them.
Well, I'm beginning to see a little of this 'love of learning' take root. I mentioned the other day how my oldest got some grammar and vocabulary from copying a poem. He actually took the time to look up the information. That my dears, is a beginning.
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About a week and a half ago, I was in my bedroom and I pulled back the curtain. When I did, I saw a rather large spider jump from the back of my curtain to the window. I, of course, called my boys in to get it. They trapped it in a jar, which we closed with the lid. That crazy spider was still alive in that closed jar, with no air holes, two days later. With that kind of survivability, we were tempted to let it free in the woods.
Before we did that, we wanted to be certain that it was not a poisonous spider. I looked online and found out that it is a Wolf spider. It is poisonous and has a painful bite but is not lethal. Well, that settled it, we put a cotton ball, soaked in alcohol, into the jar; it was dead by that evening.
Well, just a few days ago, my middle son heard our dog walking across the kitchen floor and glanced over at him. What did he see? Another wolf spider! Needless to say, we jarred and killed that one too.
So now I'm wondering, just where are these spiders coming from? And why are they in my home in broad daylight? (Thank God they are in the daylight rather than at night when I probably wouldn't find them.)
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I mentioned the plays/skits that I found and that we have read some of them. Well, it really ignited my children! They absolutely love it. They already felt that they wanted to make games and movies when they grow up. The reason they haven't done anything with this yet, is because things are so expensive.
I've told them that they really should start working on this in some way, if it really is their desire. Well, the other day, they went outside. (I require that they go out for at least 30 minutes after we've finished school.) They were outside for about 2 hours or so. I was amazed. I was also afraid to go out and see what they were doing for fear they realize that they were out there long enough and stop and come inside.
Come to find out, they were out there working on a 'movie'. They all really enjoyed themselves and my youngest was very excited. So now, they are believing God for the equipment they need to play around with this and see what God will develop in them.
Back to the plays/skits: every time we read these, they really enjoy them. They actually ask me if we can do more! I don't know where this may lead but I know that we are enjoying it. Many of these skits have some good points to them, which has been good for us to talk about.
Speaking of themes, Have you ever seen "Fiddler on the Roof?" I had never seen it before—just couldn't make it through all that singing. Well, it was on OETA, our public television station, last night and we watched it all.
I have to say that I am somewhat disturbed by it. It seems to me that they were trying to say that traditions are not a good thing. I do think that it did a good job of showing that once you make a 'compromise,' you are met with more choices, which may lead to more 'compromises.'
I'm going to have to do some research into the history of the time period of that movie, to find out if the Jews were made to leave their homes like that, for real. We recently read a little short story about the Trail of Tears. When the Jews had to pack and leave in 3 days in the movie, it reminded me of the Native Americans being forced from their homes and being made to walk to a new place far away.
Well, I guess I got all caught up now. I'll try not to be so long between postings again. It is my goal to write a bit each night.
The sun is beginning to set, so I guess it is almost Monday now. So, have a blessed day!
Michele ºÜº
I am amazed! My children have been doing some form of copywork for over 6 years now. The majority of it has been scriptures from the KJV though.
My children have been struggling with spelling and punctuation; I've lamented over how to help them. I had thought that copywork didn't work for this, for our family. BUT this week I stopped doing spelling/vocabulary the way we had been this year, and decided to have the children spend the allotted time doing copywork. But I told them I wanted them to include other sources for their copywork like poems, skits, short stories, and paragraphs from novels.
I am sooooo pleased! My oldest, who is 16, was copying a poem I had printed, entitled Midsummer written by John Townsend Trowbridge. It can be found in this e-book. I gave it to him because I especially liked the last stanza. Anyway, he was copying it and asked why Paradise was capitalized. Then he asked about dashes. I showed him how to use WriteSource 2000 for this answer. And then, he even looked up some words in the dictionary, that he was unfamiliar with. Whoo Hoo!!! (Now you should know that my children will ask me what something means but if I don't know, or don't know how to put it into words, they generally will NOT go look it up themselves.)
I was absolutely stunned. In just one night we made progress on our punctuation issue and I wouldn't doubt that we made some spelling progress as well. Awesome!
Thank you God, for leading me to the right path for the children you've entrusted to our care.
If you haven't tried copywork yet, please do give it a try. It really is a great tool for learning spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation.
Wow! I just finished being a part of Cindy Rushton's Notebooking Seminar! What an awesome time! I've been soooo encouraged! (More on this later.)
Last year, I was feeling the pressure of my oldest being in 'high school'. I decided we needed to cover American History in a systematic way. I bought Pledge Allegiance series from American Vision. Wow, that was an incredibly thorough trip through much of world history. But unfortunately, my children did not enjoy it very much. We were very glad when we finished with all we had but it isn't complete yet as it stops with the presidential election of 1800.
I also wanted my children's writing to improve and decided to use the IEW's (Institute for Excellence in Writing) U.S. History-Based Writing Lessons (Vol. 1). This was good but time consuming.
I also instituted a read-aloud time and scheduled it for right after our Bible time, which is first thing we do for school. This worked out absolutely wonderfully . . . UNTIL we started reading Lord of the Rings. Up until that I was reading a chapter or two a day and it was taking about 30 minutes. When I got going on this book, it took a LONG time to read a chapter. Eventually, I got overwhelmed with it. After struggling for a while, my dh took me out and let me talk through my frustrations. I decided to shorten the passages on this book and FIND some place to stop about mid-way through each chapter—even at this, the daily reading portion was still LONG.
As if all that weren't enough, I also wanted to address some spelling issues we were having. So I started using Spell to Write and Read as it was intended to be used by the author. This also took some time—many times it would take an hour. (Please remember my son is in his teens and is able to do this type of work quickly and it still took a long time.)
My oldest two did geometry. This took a LOT of time as well and was not enjoyed.
Around Thanksgiving we cut back on the length of our read aloud time. Then after the first of the year I stopped the IEW and just told the children to include the principles in their other writings that they already do. But even at that, we still had a LONG TIRING day.
During the spring and summer of this year, I actually READ some of the books that I'd glanced through years ago on the Charlotte Mason method. AND I read MORE books on the subject too. For those who want to know, I read A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola, A Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levison, More Charlotte Mason Education also by Catherine Levison, and then my favorite, Pocketful of Pinecones also by Karen Andreola. I prayed and asked God for His direction.
Then I just let all of the information sink in and went about my busy summer. Mid-July rolled around and I asked God to help me create my schedule. What a blessed and refreshing schedule God helped me to create! We 'school' as long as we have any other year, but this year there is no pressing curriculum to get through. We are enjoying our trip through books, although I have not attempted the last book in the Lord of the Rings series. Each one of the children have a book they are reading through aloud to the rest of us. Very enjoyable!
I've even given the children 'homework' to be done each day/week. They must do some copywork, of their choosing, each day. They must do 2 hours worth of art/crafts throughout the week. And they must write one good narration, using IEW principles, throughout the week. Oh and I make them go outside for at least 30 minutes daily.
Well, I've still been concerned about their spelling and punctuation. After this weekend's Notebooking Seminar, I think I am going to quit thinking about these two areas and just ensure that the children are doing substantial copywork.
Now for my BIG brainstorm! I'm going to have them do a unit study on the topic that absolutely thrills them. Well, I'm sure this doesn't seem like a brainstorm to most of you, it seems only logical. But you see the topic that thrills them is video games. This has been a problem for me because I don't like them to 'waste' their time on gaming but they really do enjoy it and would love to go pro—yes, there is money in it. Also, they would like to make games. Sooooo, I'm going to have them learn all they can about making games and then even have them make one.
I told my oldest son about it a little bit ago, and his face lit up! Aha! I think I've finally hit it. Thank you God for leading me in the right direction. I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do with this!
I hope all this encourages you in some way. I know I am encouraged. If you get a chance to use any of Cindy Rushton's materials or audios or seminars, do! It will be well worth it! Cindy is a VERY giving person and makes her seminar and materials well worth the price you pay. She wants to be sure that everyone gets the help/encouragement they need. For her seminars, she has many freebies that each attendee gets and then door prizes too! She is awesome and so sweet! Check her out!
Well, I guess I've rambled on enough for today. I wanted to talk a bit about our homeschool group outing we attended yesterday, but that will have to wait for another time.
(Me and my dd, Tiffany on an easy to climb tree limb on vacation in VA in 2007.) These are my ramblings on homeschooling and whatever else comes to mind.
Counting Down
We are starting school, so it's time to look forward to the holidays!
) I chose candles as a craft because I felt that candles symbolized peace. 
We were very glad when we finished with all we had but it isn't complete yet as it stops with the presidential election of 1800.
