I am a homeschooling Momma of two. This is my blog about our sometimes zany, always entertaining, family life and homeschool adventures. Hope you enjoy! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:14:00 -0500 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:14:00 -0500 I'm really very proud of Taylor's work today, so I told her I would put it on my blog.  She did it with a happy heart- that's the best part.  But her handwriting was much better, she indented in all the right spots, she lined up her other lines with the left margin, she looked up every word she didn't know how to spell, AND I feel like she's getting the hang of writing quotes!  Yeah! She worked very hard on this.  It took her 45 minutes, no joke. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/729285/ Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:14:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/729285/ I've tried to make up our own LA program this year because I couldn't find one that I thought would work for us.  I really wanted it to go along with what we are already studying about in science and history.  I also wanted it to have a lot of dictation, and spelling that was customized to Taylor.  This is our LA plan for this week.  I really need some feedback.  Is this the right workload for a 3rd and a half grade student?  I don't want just busy work, but I do want enough repetition for her to learn.  We are also doing a lapbook based off the pilgrims and early colonists, but this is the main writing.  What do you think? Dictation page 73, 2nd paragraph, Stories of the Pilgrims  “If we were in America we could make homes such as we had in England.  We could have our own church, and bring up our children to love and serve God,” said Elder Brewster. Monday- study selection and do dictation.  Correct mistakes.  Add misspelled words to spelling list.  Add any other words that need worked on up to 10 words.  I try to pick words with the same patterns as the ones missed from dictation.  Write each word 3 times in a fun way.  (On window, in sand, with magnetic letters, etc) Tuesday- Quotations work.  Write a dialog between 2 people working on all aspects of quotations- commas, quotation marks, capital letters, end punctuations, separate paragraphs for new speakers, etc.  Play spelling stomp. Wednesday- Dictate selection again without child seeing it first.  Correct mistakes and talk about why they were made.  Use all spelling words in only one or two sentences. Thursday- Compound sentences and conjunctions.  Watch Conjunction Junction http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lambchop/418483/ http://www.abcteach.com/free/w/wksht_grammar_compoundsentences.pdf choose 5 or six sentences to combine.  Spelling quiz.  Study misspelled words. Friday-  Final Dictation.  Spelling Test.  Writing from another subject.     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/728932/ Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:17:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/728932/ A couple of my friends on facebook posted their kids answers to these questions.  It was very cute so I thought I'd do it myself.  Taylor's answers are first, Isaac's answers are second.  Enjoy! Ask your child these questions! 1. What is something mom always says to you? Tell me to go clean Go clean your room 2. What makes mom happy? me hugging and snuggling with her I’ll bring you some flowers 3. What makes mom sad? when I dropped her ring I will not get you any princess stuff. 4. How does your mom make you laugh? tickling me Give me hugs 5. What was your mom like as a child? she grew up in crazy church Go to midgets 6. How old is your mom? 29 28 7. How tall is your mom? about 5 feet tall Super tall 8. What is her favorite thing to do? read Jump up in the air 9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Um, I don’t know.  Probably eat all the food. She cries 10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? cooking She’ll have big claws, fingernails 11. What is your mom really good at? reading fighting 12. What is your mom not very good at? painting the walls cooking 13. What does your mom do for her job? school she washes the dishes 14. What is your mom's favorite food? salad hamburger helper 15. What makes you proud of your mom? she has brown eyes like me Cleaning my room 16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? daphne superman 17. What do you and your mom do together? school and talk and shop Do school 18. How are you and your mom the same? we have brown eyes and small ears and we both like to wear our pajamas in the morning We give hugs 19. How are you and your mom different? our hair is different and she’s a grown up. We pour salt on our heads 20. How do you know your mom loves you? She always tells me. Because she gives me hugs 21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? Ingles ingles http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/718355/ Tue, 18 Aug 2009 08:30:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/718355/ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/712166/ Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:22:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/712166/ We still haven't gotten our new painting.  (It's supposed to be delivered tomorrow.)  In the meantime, I wanted something new on the walls.  I started by taking down what was already up.  It had been up for 5 years or more and I was tired of looking at it.  We lived with completely blank walls for a couple of weeks while I decided what I wanted to do. Since we bought the painting, I decided to take some colors from that.  It has a turqoise color, brown, and white.  My walls are cabbage green.  :-)  We were at Wal-Mart one night and a shower curtain caught my eye.  I stared at ir for a few minutes while John went on ahead and then decided to buy it.  So yes, I have a shower curtain hanging on my wall.   I have actually been reading a lot about fabric walls and I thought they were very cool. You know what?  I really like it.  I tacked it up there with thumb tacks for a few days just to make sure.  John is not as crazy about it.  He thinks it will look better if we do the whole wall.  I don't know.  That seems like a lot more work.... On a different wall, I bought a canvas at the art store and made 'art' with scrapbooking papers and Mod Podge.  I also bought some little flower decorations in glass bottles that were on clearance.  Michael's had glass rock type things on sale also, so I bought a few.  Itook the flowers and put them in plastic bags for later use, then used the glass bottles for my rocks.  Here's what I ended up with. Both walls together cost less than $30, which is quite a bit less than what I spent on our "Tropical Night" painting that still has not met my wall.  And I still have leftovers that I can use for something else! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/704534/ Thu, 2 Jul 2009 15:52:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/704534/ I absolutely love our new furniture, but there is one thing about our old set that I really missed- the ottoman.  At the end of almost every day, I would sit in the chair and think about how much I missed being able to put my feet up.  I may have mentioned it aloud a few times as well.  So, for Mother's Day, John made me this great ottoman that doubles as storage.  I'm using it to hold school stuff.  Imagine that.  And yes, I'm aware that I am painfully behind in my blog updating.  Sorry about that. Anyway, here is a pic of my gorgeous new ottoman. Lovely, isn't it?  The fabric matches the chair and couch very well.  Here it is opened up. Yup, that should hold a LOT of goodies! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/704528/ Thu, 2 Jul 2009 15:42:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/704528/ In 2 weeks time, Taylor will be trying for her yellow belt.  Hoorah!  Before then she has to finish 3 Bible studies and work on her 5 verses to memorize.  She had actually memorized 2 already, but they are both about love and she needs to memorize a verse for each move.  Well, 5 moves anyway.  After she turns 12 or 13, she's expected to memorize a LOT more verses before she can advance. Here are her verses she's working on. (NIV) Love (This is the Fruit for the white belt.  In normal karate it's called Kata.)- 1 Corinthians 13:4    Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. Don't Set Foot (This is a jump to avoid a low hit or kick.)- Proverbs 4:14   Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evil men. Enter the Ark (This is a forward roll to put distance between you and the opponent.)- Genesis 7:7    And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Freedom (This is a foundation.) 2 Corintians 3:17    Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Belt of Truth and Shields of Faith (Two kinds of blocks)  Ephesians 6:14    Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place I made index cards (color) with the verses typed out on them.  They are placed at stategic locations (bathroom, Taylor's room, front door, and hall).  Before she can go through any of these rooms, she has to recite the verse and reference.  In a couple of days I'll just have the reference and she'll have to remember the verse.  Then I'll just have the move, and she'll need to know the verse and reference. I also made little puzzles with the verses for her to practice putting in order.  Hopefully she'll remember them easily! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/698346/ Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:04:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/698346/ Last night, John called the people who painted the artwork. They were very accomadating.  I was worried that she would say that our painting WAS the one on the website when it clearly was not, but she didn't.  She said that when she paints something that she feels sure that people will like, that she goes ahead and paints a few of them.  So obviously they are not all alike.  What they are going to do is pay for this painting to be shipped back to them and then she will paint us one that is exactly like the one online.  So the only thing we are really out is more time to wait for this next painting.  I can live with that. Now I DO think that this should be specified on the website.  We were not buying a recreation, but the exact painting in the picture.  It would save a lot of headache I'm sure.  But at least it's taken care of now and as an added bonus, she will be painting on canvas that is even larger than the current one.  That will be nice. All's well that ends well! I'll post a picture when we get it on the wall. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/698342/ Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:56:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/698342/ Before the van broke down, I had spent about a week looking for some really nice original art for the big wall in our living room.  John and I found one that we both liked, so we bought it.  On the website, it said that the painting was available immediately and would ship within 24 hours.  They also had paintings for sale that were labeled as 'Similar painting to be recreated'.  These would ship in 3 days.  Well, we bought one of the available immediately paintings (for a good chunk of change I might add).  They emailed us that night, but the painting didn't ship for more than 5 days.  When I emailed about it, they said they were out of the boxes used for shipping and that it would leave on Monday.  It didn't go out until Wednesday.  We just got it today.  The painting is very similar to the one we bought, but it is not the painting we bought.  We don't like it as well because of the shape of the tree and such. Are we within our rights to ask for our money back?  I hate to be a prude, but we bought the painting on the screen, not a recreation.  There were several other of their paintings that we may have bought eventually as well, but probably will not now.  What would you do?? http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/698037/ Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:49:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/698037/ OK, I think this will be Taylor's final school schedule for next year.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/697631/ Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:03:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/fieldsofharvest/697631/