I am a daughter of God, a princess if you will(my name means princess), a wife, a homeschooling mom of 3 beautiful boys, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. I am on a journey of the heart seeking to find all that my precious Lord has in store for me. Won't you join me, as I learn to how to receive the overflowing love that God wants to give.?! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:59:00 -0500 Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:59:00 -0500 L has come up with the perfect way to cut onions without crying, it's actually pretty ingenious and hilarious too! By the way he will eat an onion like an apple.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/607119/ Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:59:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/607119/ Here's the boys at our support group's learning fair. The subject was  States of the US and we chose Ohio.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/607117/ Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:49:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/607117/ At our local YMCA the boys have gym/swim on Mondays. They get one hour of gym time which is basic PE and one hour of swim lessons. They have a great time!     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/607111/ Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:36:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/607111/ Last week we studied ants and other insects. One of the craft ideas in GTG was to make ice cream ants. It was very simple, but tons of fun and hands-on learning. The  ingredients were: Vanilla ice cream- three body segments (head, thorax, and abdomen) M&Ms- eyes and mouth Stick pretzels- legs (all insects have six) Shoe-string licorice- antennae Chocolate Shell coating- exoskeleton These pictures are kind of hard to distinguish, but you get the idea   Those were the most delicious looking ants I've ever seen!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/594064/ Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:46:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/594064/ We started school last week and so far we have been doing pretty well. We are doing the geography unit study called Galloping the Globe and so far we have been learning basic geography, reading about different explorers, and learning about insects. We made passports today to get ready for our travels around the world.     This is the cover for the boys' notebooks     We learned what a globe is       We learned about direction       We learned how to use a map       We also learned that God created the Universe and everything in it       We learned about the oceans of the world     We are also tracking Hurricane Ike       We read "How to make an apple pie and see the world"     And of course....we made an apple pie and it was delicious!       Today we made passports so that we can keep track of all the countries that we visit Stay tuned for further travels........... http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/587777/ Tue, 9 Sep 2008 22:24:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/587777/ The last couple weeks have been filled with picking apples, drying apples, and bagging apples. Picking blueberries, smashing blueberries, and preserving blueberries. Washing cucumbers, slicing cucumbers, and pickling cucumbers. And we haven't even started on the green beans or tomatoes. No wonder people went to bed at 7:30 pm in the old days! I'm pooped! I'm so tired that I can't even think of anything to write.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/567872/ Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:03:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/567872/ Our precious little bunny, Snowball, died about a week ago. We think she died from heat exhaustion even though she was well shaded and had plenty of water. You can see a picture of her in one of my previous posts. The boys were really sad, but a friend of ours had a couple bunnies, so we traded a bushel of apples for a baby bunny. It won't be small very long because it's a flemish giant. They are very gentle giants. I will post a picture soon. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/566892/ Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:50:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/566892/ Sunday my parents took us to the Grandfather Mtn. Highland Games. We had never attended anything like it and my mom thought it would be a wonderful learning experience for the boys. The night before, my dh called a cousin of his, whose husband is of Scottish descent. When he asked about the event he found out that his cousin and her family were there with their clan. She told him that she would meet us in a parking lot and take us up the mountain to the site, so that we wouldn't have to take the shuttle which cost $5.00 a person to and from the site. It would have cost us $70.00 to take the shuttle! She also told us that we could sit in their tent with them and offered us any food that we wanted to eat. Our boys wanted to participate in the kids kilted mile race and they had to wear a kilt. Well she just happened to have kilts that fit the boys. So we registered them to run and got them fitted in their kilts. Believe it or not they actually liked wearing them! We watched the Parade of Tartans which was really awesome. The bagpipers and the drummers were so good that it gave me goosebumps. I could have done without the people in some of the clans who were scantily dressed and the ones who were gothic. It was neat to see how many clans were there and to see the smallest of children in kilts. The boys have never run in a race before nor have they run a quarter mile, which is how long the kids kilted mile race was. We tried to explain to them that the lap around the track would be longer than they thought and that they would need to start out slow and then pick up their speed towards the end of the race. I wasn't sure how they would do and like any loving parent, you want your child to succeed. So when it came to race time I just told them that would do wonderful that the Lord would be with them. Our 6 year old went first and their were quite a few boys in the race. He finished the race and he wasn't last! Yay for him! We were just happy that he made it all the way around! He's number 75.   Our middle son raced next he is 8 and he raced in the 7-8 year old lad race. I think there were about 15 boys that raced in this age group. I told him the same thing as his brother, that the Lord would be with him. The race started and he paced himself really well. He came in 4th place! I couldn't believe he did so well! We were so excited for him. Our oldest son did not want to run and we were not going to push him to do something that he didn't want to do, so he just cheered his brothers on! Our 8 year old is number 74 in the picture below.     We ended up having to leave early because the bottom fell out of the sky and we got soaked to the bone. We rode the 2 hour drive home soaked and cold. We had a great time though and plan to attend next year and that time we'll bring umbrellas! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/561095/ Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:36:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/561095/ Ok,  I have tried to put a video on my site, but as usual, I'm not sure I did it correctly. If you can't hear the song or see the lyrics will you let me know on my comments page? This song is so awesome and my oldest son along with about 30 other fifth and sixth graders learned the sign language to this song and performed it on the last day of VBS. It was absolutely breathtaking to see. I was almost in complete tears because my son is so shy in front of an audience (especially mom and dad), but he did all the motions in seriousness and humbleness without a care of who was watching. To top that, when we got home that evening he said "mom, would you like me to show you the hand motions"?  He was touched by God during vbs last week and I am so thankful! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/554348/ Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:51:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/554348/ This past Saturday, while the boys and dh went to a father/son outing at church, my mom and I went to our local park to hear the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra play. It was wonderful and I was delightfully surprised that they played God Bless America and America the Beautiful and asked the audience to sing along. The one thing I could have done without was people consuming alcoholic beverages which are prohibited. Of course when there are fine upstanding citizens drinking it doesn't matter if it is illegal or not. Sunday started another week of VBS at my parent's church which is awesome(by the way). Actually, our two oldest boys go to church with them because they have an awesome children's program and they love it there. Our church is very small and has two very dominate families who control everything. Because of their control our church is slowly dying. Anyway, this VBS has been AWESOME! It has been worth the 40 minute drive to get there. We have been exhausted every night and my housework is falling behind, but there are only two more nights left and we can catch up on our chores.  Have a blessed rest of the week! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/552770/ Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:39:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/nicolenordman/552770/