My reflections of watching my 2 sons, 10 & 12, grow in faith of our Lord,in their knowledge with homeschooling, also into young men as they work on our little homestead and towards their Eagle Scout award in Boy Scouts. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Mon, 26 Mar 2007 10:49:00 -0500 Mon, 26 Mar 2007 10:49:00 -0500 Last year our computor was attacked and infected by some spyware and couldn't get back on line for the longest time.  Well, late this winter my brother drove our Mom  here because she was relocating to Minnesta to live closer to us.  While he was visiting  with us he bought me a new computor with a lot of additional service and protection.  Now I can be online with confidence of our computor not being infected (yipee!)  Our Old computor was so outdated and the slow dial up made easy mark for problems and getting rid of them became very complicated. Also so much time had passed I forgot my  passwords to my blogs and so much time had passed I needed help getting going again (argh!) Short story made long now we're back,and I can't wait to get caught up on what  everyone else has been up to! Renee   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/304911/ Mon, 26 Mar 2007 10:49:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/304911/ Yesterday went so smoothly I almost had to pinch myself! The boys worked so diligently on their school work, with- out prodding and reminders. Science was alot of fun! We are working on the human body, the system right now is the nervous system. We did a couple of experiments and had a blast.   Today is our Friday because tomorrow we will be attending homeschooling conference and curriculum fair. This will be the first time for the boys and they are really excited. Alot of what we usually get done on Fridays will need to get fit in today.   I know what curriculums we will be using I just have to spread out the spending over the next few months. I get really impul- ive at these fairs. I'm really looking forward to the workshops, several are being put on by the authors/venders of the cur- riculum we use.   Renee     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/121315/ Thu, 20 Apr 2006 12:04:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/121315/ Easter was such a beautiful day (church, relatives, everything). The boys and I watched the Passion on Friday and I witnessed a change in how they listened during the service and in their bedtime prayers. At the Easter dinner the boys recited the latin prayer they had been practicing in Latina Christiana.   This weekend is our Statewide homeschool conference sponsored by MACHE (Minnesota Assoc. of Christian Home Educators). The boys will attend with me on Friday. This will help them see how many homeschoolers there really are and variety in curriculums. We are currently happy with what we are using, but if the boys are really drawn to something they may have more enthusiasim toward what they are learning compared to negativity when they don't like it.   Here's to the adventure to come. Renee http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/120343/ Tue, 18 Apr 2006 21:04:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/120343/ The Twin Cities beat the previous record high temperature by making 80 degrees today, being an hour or better north of the cities means we were probably 5 degrees cooler. In Minnesota its cause for celebration as we are known to get snow in April.   Well soccer season began with practices starting this past Tuesday and tonight. I'm going to have to stay up on crock pot recipes, dh gets home late as well because he traps wild animals out of peoples homes, yards, and gardens.   We also discovered we have a new litter of about week old kittens. The neighbor down the road has a large flock of sheep and they've had so may lambs that you can't keep count. All the male ducks, pheasants and other game birds are showing off their beautiful plummage to attract those ladies to give us more spring babies.We've started keeping binoculars in the car because of all the beauty of our Lords creation. We spot a Bald Eagle almost daily. Isn't it awesome how it comes on the greatest Holy day  He has given us?!   I just love this time of year. Renee http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/117873/ Thu, 13 Apr 2006 21:54:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/117873/ After breakfast and morning chores are done, school begins. Our morning moved along right on schedule and we had a beautiful spring day with temperatures heading to the 70's. Just before lunch we headed out for a bike ride. I can't believe how out of shape you get after a long winter.   Both boys are in Jr. Master Gardener program and have started seeds indoors for their in town garden plot with the group. We also bought a bunch of seeds last weekend to start indoors for our home garden; and many new vegetables will be added this year like lettuce, spinach, and turnips. A couple of new beds have been tilled for a cold crop bead and a strawberry patch (yum!). The rhubarb has already started coming up, too!   Spring has Sprung! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/117163/ Wed, 12 Apr 2006 19:19:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/117163/ Mondays can be so hard.   To start with getting things going on Mondays always seems to be a struggle. Weekends break the routine, as it should, so getting us all on task takes extra nudging (myself included). We only had 2 subjects left by the time we needed to leave for afternoon activities.   Mondays include Jr. Master Gardener at 3 until 4:30 p.m. then home again for dinner so dh and both ds's can leave by 6:16 p.m. to arrive at Boy Scouts on time.   I always need to restore order to our home before I can face a new week of activity. The inside of the house always looks like a tornado went through it after a weekend full of projects and hanging out.  I truely believe that's what weekends are for; so Monday chaos brings about a certain reflection of what was accomplished in the past week and what needs to be done this week.   The new week begins. Renee   P.S. We had awesome 70 degree weather today, I pray it sticks around the rest of the month! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/115863/ Mon, 10 Apr 2006 19:58:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/115863/ We began our Friday by sleeping in alittle. Why does it seem tougher in the spring going on daylight savings time than going off it in the fall?   Dh stayed home because of a appointment for an MRI on his foot. The machine had been broke down for a while this morning running every appointment 45 minutes late. The boys worked on school work while we were gone and we had a few of our Friday tests to get done before they could work with Dad on projects outside. It's always difficult to concentrate on school work on Fridays, especially when it's a beautiful, sunny, spring day and Dads home. How can you compete with that?!   Fridays usually mean pizza and movie night. Instead they'll be working late outside, so we will run to town to pick up items for weekend projects, and probably eat out. This will really be a surprise treat for the boys for doing well on their tests and all their help on the outdoor spring projects.   The weather is suppose to beautiful all weekend long: that means Monday will be a struggle to get on track again..   Talk to you all again on Monday. Renee http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/114312/ Fri, 7 Apr 2006 17:36:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/114312/ This is really new to me. I've often tried to journal with pen and paper, but often times I would become distracted with other things going on in my head or around me. Knowing someone may be reading my ramblings and have it give them a smile or something more; this may encourage me to continue on.   Well, on to a little about us. We have been homeschooling for over six years. We started with the 3 R's with a few unit studies thrown in over the years. This January we switched to Veritas Press for a more classical style. The boys like to know what their studying and what is expected of them. They also like the bible and history being in cronological order. We have also started latin (they had already been studying spanish). They have really been enjoying it and have already learned the table blessing.    We live in east central Minnesota half way between the Twin Cities and Duluth. Our little 10 acre homestead is by 2 lakes and 2 rivers. We bought the turn of the century house and farmstead last spring and are remodeling the house as the funds allow. My husband and I keep telling the boys this place is their on going shop class and life skills training. We plant a very large garden in which we can almost all our vegetables. We raise chickens for eggs and meat; and hope to add a few cows and pigs when the fences go up this spring. There are also to Golden Retriever hunting dogs that we breed once a year. One indoor cat and many outdoor cats.   When we're not busy with all of the above we go camping, fishing, or hunting whenever possible.   I need to sign off now, I look forward to getting to know more about all of you soon.   A Sister in Christ, Renee http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/113618/ Thu, 6 Apr 2006 14:56:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/WoodsandLakes/113618/