My Grace Is Sufficient For Thee - Homeschool Blogger

A Great Thanksgiving Week

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:16:00 -0600

We didn't just take off for Thanksgiving Day, we took the entire week . It was great! Each of us had some me time, as my children call it. We each had the time to choose what we would desire to do. I chose reading, cooking, some cleaning, & shopping for the holidays. I didn't get quite as much reading time as I would have desired, but I'm thankful for the time I got. My children chose play, Christmas movies (I chose these too),& some reading. After having a break, we all should be ready for a full load next week.

I plan to put my tree up on Monday lord's willing. We are going to decorate it different this year. We are thinking about going with blue, white, & silver this year. We'll see how that goes.

My kitchen table is filled with Christmas gifts right now. Isn't that something. I don't even have a tree up yet. I decided to wrap my gifts a little at a time this year instead of doing them all at once like I usually do them so I have already started on them.

We will also be baking on Monday. We have been preparing our Amish Friendship bread starter & Monday is our baking day for it. We love the bread. If you haven't tried this bread you should. Although, it takes 10 days to make it. Not much to do in the10 days just waiting the 10 days to bake.

I plan to have a book give away on my blog so tell all of your friends to stop by & sign up for the give away. All you have to do is post a comment whether you are on my friend's list or not. As soon as I get my DH to put a picture of the book on my blog I'll start the give away.

I suppose I have rambled enough tonight so I'd better go. Until next time, Traci

Winding Things Down

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:59:00 -0600

Well, it's down to the last few days before Thanksgiving & we are trying to get in our last few things before we start up our December studies. We are almost finished. Just a bit more reading. Shouldn't have a problem with that Monday & Tuesday of next week.

Today we went to our local baseball park & met our HS group & we played baseball with them. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it. I think there are some great prospects for future baseball players in the group. They all hit good, & some of them have a good arm on them for throwing the ball.

Tonight we are all kind of doing our own thing, playing, watching a bit of TV, washing clothes, & on the computer. That about sums us up. Until next time, Traci

Not Much Schooling

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:38:00 -0600

Well, we haven't been getting to much schooling this week. My sister is expecting a baby & she has been having contractions, already started dialating, & she'ss not due until DEc. 9. She has been having to go to the Dr. a lot & being put on monitors to monitor the baby so I have had her other children. My nephew is only 23 months old. Sometimes he gets to be a hand full.

I told my DC we'd get back on course when Aunt Amanda had the baby. Until then we'd just do what we could & the rest would come later. That's the beauty of homeschooling.

Better go, just wanted to update. Have to get off here to check on my nephew. Don't want to leave him unattended too long. Until next time, Traci

A Great Day

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:59:00 -0600

We had a great weekend. We have been working on our house all weekend, except yesterday, we went to church. We are almost done with our decluttering. It's amazing how much joy can come over you just seeing your house all neat & tidy. I'm happy!

We have finished our schooling for the day & are on our way out the door to the library to meet our HS group for our children to give their monthly book report. This month their book reports had to be on the origens of holidays. My DD chose Thanksgiving & my DS chose Independence Day.

Well, they just informed me that they are all ready so until next time, Traci

Fall Cleaning

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:24:00 -0600

My DD is sitting here with me & when she saw the title of my blog she said, "You aren't kidding!" I think she's insinuating that I've been making them clean too much.

My home just seemed like everything was just piled up & I got a belly load of looking at it so I told them we are going to get this junk out of here. I have sent 10 Walmart bags & 2 garbage sacks full of stuff out already. I have 6 more Walmart bags & 1 more garbage sack of stuff ready to go out. It is amazing how much stuff you can collect without even realizing it. We still have a little ways to go. My house already looks & feels cleaner.

I love to have a clean, neat, organized house. With being a homeschool family, we all know how that goes. One minute it is so tidy & the next it is out of control. I suppose we need to be more disciplined & it would stay tidy all the time, help me Lord.

Thanks to our long hard effort, we'll have a great looking house for Thanksgiving. We'll be ready to get Christmas things right out after Thanksgiving & start decorating with no cleaning before.

Our schooling is going great! We should be finished up with our books that we are reeading about Thanksgiving right on schedule.

That about sums us up for now. Until next time, Traci

A Different Approach To Studying Around Thanksgiving

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 19:22:00 -0600

Every year around this time we usually study the pilgrims & The First Thanksgiving. I feel like we have given adequate attention to that topic so I asked my DC if they wanted to let's take a different approach this year in our study & they said yes. That's when we decided to study the Indians & their side to the story.

It has turned in to a major indian study, not just the Wampanoags that were at the First Thanksgiving. We started with the Wampanoag & then my daughter wanted to study Sacagawea. So now we have pulled in the Shoshoni & the other tribes associated with them. My son said he wants to study Geronimo so we are going to pull in the tribes associated with him.

We are going to do lots of comparisons with clothing, homes, traditions, tools, diets, etc. I have an indian DVD set that come from Sam's that has a great deal of the different cultures so we are going to use that. Between these DVDs and our library books we should have an abundance of study on our hands. I know this is going to take us through Christmas I'm sure.

Oh, & I almost forgot, their dad & they are building a wigwam & a teepee. The children are excited over that. They are actually going to camp in them & cook like the indians. I don't know any better way to learn something better than just putting your hand in it & doing it. Hands on, they should learn so much.

Our other studies are coming along. I need to clerify that I have a fifth & sixth grader. When I say we are getting ready for the S.A.T. it is the Standard Acheivement Test. Don't ask me why, but our covering that we are under calls it the S.A.T. so I have gotten used to calling it that also. This will be our first year to take it. We have wanted to do it in the past, but something would always prevent it. Hopefully this year in March we'll get to.

We are just sitting here tonight riding out the storm from Ida. So far it's just a lot of rain. The wind hasn't been bad, thank God.

Enough for now. I think this is a pretty good update of what we are currently doing. Until next time, Traci

Reading Paid Off

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:04:00 -0500

Our field trip was a huge success! Once again, I was reassured that my DC can be educated by reading great living books. The nuggets that my children are grasping from great living books are enough to say they know about that subject. Like all homeschool moms, from time to time, I go through the mind trauma wondering are my children really getting anything out of this, Are they learning, What if they are not grasping anything from these books, As their teacher, amI presenting the material in a manner to them that they can fluently present the material to others to show that they know about that particular subject?

I am soon reminded by handfulls being dropped on purpose in my field that I can gleam. God is still watching over us & He still has everything under control. All we have to do is keep trudging, which is moving when the cloud moves, like the children of Israel & He'll keep leading. The cloud is my children's interests.

Just as Ruth was allowed to gleam from Boaz's field, sometimes God allows me to be able to gleam from my on field. He allows me to see that cloud the size of a man's handjust to let us know we are still on track.

Our field trip was one of those times to gleam. We had an awesome trip that transformed in to a marvelous Science class. The instructor taught us about Alabama's migrating birds & its poisonnous snakes . His demonstration was super. He knew how to present the material & use questions to open a discussion floor. I was thrilled that my DS took control of that floor the biggest portion of the time while it was open. My DD had it another portion, & to my amazement their weren't many more trying to get on the floor.

Reading living books & discussing them had prepared my DC for this day. They had picked up enough nuggets from the books to pass their oral test with the instructor. Our goal had been reached, fluently being able to discuss the matter.

On our way out from our field trip we stopped for a bit of nature. We saw a turtle (Common Snapping Turtle) crawling across the grass so we stopped & let the children pencil in a nature drawing with colored pencils. Here are a couple of picts from that experience.

We took a nice long walk after that for exercise & last we went by Party City to pick up the plates & napkins for our bowling party on Monday night. I would say we had a fun FILLED day. Traci

Making Preparations

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:30:00 -0500

Our schooling has been a bit different this week. We have been working on a Spectrum Test so I can see where my DC are lacking in their subjects. I want them to take the S. A. T. in March. I am trying to see what areas we need to cover between now & then.

There are a few things on the Spectrum Test in math that my DC haven't been acquainted with. I want to pick up some worksheets or a math program that would just cover those areas so I can familiarize them with those areas. I have been looking at Math Mammoth for an opption for this. Is anyone familiar with this program? I have not used it in the past. If so, how long are the lessons & can you cover about two lessons a day without it going overboard in time?

Things have been some what strenuous wwith our studies this week, but they'll level off tomorrow. We are going on a field trip. They will get to be with some of their friends so they can unwind. We will be outside the greatest portion of the trip so they'll get plenty of exercise.

Well, it's not time for me to unwind just yet so I'd better go. We have to get back to the books. I just got on the computer long enough to let my DC get a bite to eat. Until next time, Traci

Counting My Blessings!

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:59:00 -0500

My children & I are so excited! We have a new expansion to our home library. We had gone to a store in our local area & we found great books for only $1.49 each. I picked up a few of them, but there were many of them that I desired to have in our library. I thought, I'll just purchase a few of them & order the others later on line. Whhen I got home I looked them up on line and soon discovered the blessing that I had received. These were books that ran from $27.00 to $34.00 each. What does a homeschool mom do when she realizes that she has come across a great bargain, yes, your right, I went back the next day & loaded my buggy with some different titles than what I had purchased the day before. I spent about $60.00 but if I had purchased them on line or at a book store I would have only gotten 2 books for that price. I count my blessings, Praise God!!!!

Here are some pictures of our blessings:

Now we are only having one problem with all of these great books. Which one will we begin with on Monday? Oh, & what makes these books & even greater blessing is that we are studying United States history this year & at least 3/4 of these books make up our curriculum.

I had started using living books & my DC loved learning that way. So This year I thought I would use A Beka's United States history for a scope & sequence & pull in books to go along with it. A great portion of these books will do the job. My God always does all things well. He has blessed me again.

I may fail God in so many ways & have to pray for forgiveness & mercy, but He has not failed me yet. Thank you Lord for your blessings on me, Traci

Trudging Right On!

Fri, 9 Oct 2009 17:59:00 -0500

Our schooling is moving right along. We haven't been in the books, but we have been schooling right on.

We have another book report coming up on Monday so we have been reading library books & research on the internet to get them together.

We have been listening to the audio of "Anne of Green Gables" as we travel in the van. In which my children are dearly loving.

We came out of our A Beka math book to pull in some extra worksheets and other things for fractions.

They brought in mosquito larva in to look at under the microscope. Why mosquito larva I don't know, but it's all educational.

Lots of out door time for nature.

My DS is reading a biography on Mark Twain & my DD is reading a biography on Cleopatra VII.

Our library books have been about plants & wetlands so much Science.

We have just been enjoying our selves. Maybe we'll get back to our routine of my lesson plans soon. If not, we'll just keep trudging along in the areas they are interested in at the present moment.

Well, I'd better let that be all for now. We are on our way out the door to get my Niece. She is coming for the night. Until next time, Traci