Josh & I got our spacers on today. Josh was not happy about it. He still does not want to get braces. I told him, 'tough Twinkies" he still getting them 
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Two of my spacers already busted. I'm going to have to go back tomorrow. Bummer! I haven't had anything hard or sticky. Some noodle soup, cookie & scrambled egg.
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Regarding school; I think I have decided not to combine everyone with My Father's World Exploration to 1850. I have thought hard and long about this and would like to combine them for History, Science & Bible but I can't see when I can pull everyone together. I am going to do Bible together though. We can do that first thing in the morning like we do now.
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Today, my dad came by. He loves visiting he grandchildren. I usually have the children do a lighter load of schoolwork on Monday because most times my dad comes and he stays for four hours. As long as we get math and language arts done with some reading we call it a school day.
The children still need to finish. once quiet time is over they'll finish their school.
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The children like Time4Learning. We use it basically for Language Arts only. The program is great but I don't like how much time the children are spending in front of the computer. Annette, Caleb & Brent each spend about 20-30 minutes on their lesson and 20 minutes at the playground. The playground is online games. Some are educational and others are just for fun. Normally this would be okay since the first half is learning. What I don't like is Lance & Ethan watch all three of them. If you add that up it's a lot of watching the computer. For me computer is equal to T.V. time. I feel like half of Lance & Ethan's morning time is in front of the computer watching their siblings. I am not sure but I might pull the plug on T4L.
Annette, is doing well with it and she is the one I mainly wanted it for. I asked her if she would still like to continue with T4L. She said either way is fine. She prefers T4L because she does not have to write. She did complete all of Level 3 and has started level 4.
Caleb & Brent REALLY like it. I do like all the phonics review. Maybe we'll continue with if for this year or half the year 
I don't have time to reread my post today, so I'll have to check for mistakes later.
Blessings,
Linda<><
The other night my daughter came to me with her Awana book and said "It says in here that in the 60's the Astronauts read from the book of Genesis on Christmas Eve from the Moon. Is that true or something Awana just made up?" I happened to be sitting at the computer so I played this for her...
http://www.archive.org/details/Genesis-ApolloEight-24Dec1968
Pretty cool!
I am assuming I don't remember this from the original airing since I was only 3 in 1968! But I do remember hearing it before. It is quite touching to listen to and somewhat sad to think about how much our world has changed in the last 40 years. I can't imagine something like this happening today and obviously neither could my daughter since she thought they had made it up for Awana.
I am praying for a revival for America! How awesome it would be to NOT be surprised to hear prayer in this country! How wonderful it would be for my children and grandchildren to live in an America that honored the one true God! Please join me in praying for our country.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he chose for his inheritance.
Psalms 33:12
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
I'm watching my youngest son right now trying to juggle three little bags of skittles. The look on his face alone is priceless. I love cheap thrills.
Hesitantly, I thought I would start to fill in the gap of the last few months of silence. I guess I struggle with going that long and not blogging. Part of the time I wrestle with a terrible bout of "writers block" lately. While the rest of the time, I'm just trying to find the time to sit down to do it. I hate that. Especially because it's something that I love doing so much. I find it aggravating to want to pen my thoughts....and then not being able to collect the words to write. I don't know if anyone else finds themselves in that same boat. I'd really appreciate any suggestions on the subject.
At any rate, our new school year is out the gate and rounding the first corner, so to speak. Back in September I found a great online program for organizing, scheduling, and planning the school calendar. It's at Homeschool Skedtrack. It took some time to get the courses and schedules entered. On a daily basis, it takes a little time to approve and update the work the kids have done. But, you can maintain grades and your school year calendar, and run reports as well. It's been a great way to lay out the lesson plans for the courses that I'm putting together on my own. I really love it. Each day we can print off the day's work for each child and that gives them something to manage their work a little more independently. They like being able to check things off. With a 9th grader this year, I'm looking forward to just being able to print off a transcript and report card from the tip of my fingers.
For curriculum, we have some "old faithfuls" and a few new additions, all as follows...
- Bible ~ All 3 are doing Kay Arthur's How to Study the Bible ~ for kids to begin with.
- Math ~ Math-u-See's Geometry for Bri, Pre-Alg for Sis and Zeta for Con
- Science ~ Apologia's General Science for Sis, Biology for Bri and Creation Science Botany for Con
- Grammar ~ Our Mother's Tongue
- Writing ~ IEW American History Vol. 1
- History ~ Beautiful Feet Early American and World History (literature-based) and American Heritage Series DVD's
- Basic Maps and Geography ~
- Literature ~ a broad look and discussion of different types of literature (Shakespeare, short plays, songs, classics, etc.)
- Art and Music Appreciation ~ I have designed a schedule using the Usborne Book of Art the Usborne Book of Art Skills and the Usborne Introduction to Music. One 2-hour class each week.
- Keyboarding ~ Mavis Beacon CD-Rom
- Guitar Lessons
I know I'm hopeless, it's only November and I'm getting ready for next year. I have been racking the brains of my sweet friends at My Father's World forum. I had it all figured out for Joshua's 7th grade year.
- My Father's World for Bible, History & Read Aloud
- Apologia Science (as recommended by MFW)
- The Bridge to the Latin Road
- Character Quality Language Arts for spelling, grammar review, writing. I will omit the editing, all optional exercises since he will be getting some heavy grammar using The Latin Road.
- Progeny Press Guides or Christian Light Education
- Math Mammoth
I was going to have Joshua, use MFW Exploration to 1850 on his own. I would order this early and pre read the books so I can discuss them with him. I could write out everything he needs to do in his student planner.
I have been chatting with the ladies on the MFW forum and they have suggested I combine all dc for Bible, History, Science, Read Aloud using MFW Exp1850.
BUT here is my dilemma; I plan to use The Phonics Road Levels 1 & 2 and The Bridge to the Latin Road. These are all mom intensive. They can not be done as independent work. It would take me about three hours to get through it all.
- The Bridge 40-60 minutes (Josh & Annette)
- Phonics Road Level 1 20-30 minutes (Ethan & Lance. I might also wait another year, depending on Lance how mature he is and how far Ethan has gotten with Christ-Centered Phonics)
- Phonics Road Level 2. (Caleb & Brent) There are three parts or sections and each takes about 20-30 minutes
If I combine when would I ever get to MFW?
I do want to continue with The Phonics Road to Spelling & Reading. I already see improvement in Caleb's & Brent's reading & spelling. I think it is worth the time and effort.
The Bridge to Latin Road is also something I don't want to give up. I truly believe it will give Josh & Annette a strong start in grammar. It looks to be a very solid program. I also want to use The Latin Road for High School credits (can't believe I'm talking about high school credits
)
I still have the rest of my children's subjects. Annette, can do a lot on her own. Not sure where Caleb & Brent will be regarding reading.
I'm thinking out loud here. We can all do MFW Bible together in the morning. Do The Bridge with Annette & Josh so they can be set loose to finish their other subjects after we are done.
After that I'm stumped . I think that once I have the Teacher Manual for MFW Exp1850, I can get a better handle on how to accomplish everything. I can figure out if it would be better for Josh to do MFW on his own or if we should combine.
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Today we went to Mr. Jim's Pizza for lunch. We actually picked it up and took it to the park. It was pretty windy. The leaves where falling everywhere. Pretty but some of them hit your face pretty hard.
The children had fun playing. I was busy looking at the Scope & Sequence of CQLA & The Bridge. trying to figure things out. We then came home and the kiddos are napping and here I am.
As for school I still need to correct papers but other than that we are done with week 9. Amazing.
I almost forgot. Joshua, is going shooting with Lupe, this weekend. Yesterday they took a class with some men from church regarding firearms. Josh, was so excited. My boy is growing up 
.
Blessings,
Linda<><
On Oct. 1st the kids and I were in the car headed to the pumpkin patch! They were all dressed in fall t-shirts and I was ready to take some great pictures! Then it started raining...I pulled over and made a few quick calls to the homeschool friends we were suppose to meet. We all decided to go another day. Little did we know it was going to rain for 30 days straight! (I am exaggerating a little here, but honestly this is the wettest Oct. I have seen in my life!) Meanwhile we were in the middle of moving. The rain meant we were moving in the mud and the last thing I wanted to do was trek out into a pumpkin patch and collect even more mud. As the month headed to a close I started to realize a trip to the pumpkin patch was not going to happen. So I did the next logical thing...I decided to have a Pumpkin Party! LOL
What is a Pumpkin Party??? Honestly it's something I made up. But, we had our first one on Nov. 2nd with 97 people in attendance! Thankfully the rain finally stopped and we found a park with lots of concrete to keep us out of the mud. The party was a huge success and a LOT of fun! Here are the highlights....
We started out with the kids each decorating a pumpkin cookie.
Then they ate their cookies while waiting for the pumpkin story to start.
Next we listened to the Pumpkin Gospel
You can read all about the story at the link belowhttp://ginaconroy.
Then we played pumpkin games!
Pumpkin Parachute Game.
I got a package of Fun Foam Pumpkin and made a smiley face on one with a marker. Then they would put all the pumpkins in the parachute, throw them up in the air and the person who found the smiley face got a piece of candy. Repeat until everyone wins!Pumpkin Bowling was a favorite!
We also had Pumpkin Golf! My husband cut the bottom off the pumpkin and made 3 holes for us to golf into!
The kids loved this! I got the idea here: http://familycrafts
We also had Pumpkin Hot Potato.
And we had Pumpkin Relay Races!
We finished off the party with lots and lots of pumpkin food! Everyone brought a pumpkin dish to share. We had pies, breads, cakes, cookies, pumpkin dip. The food was amazing!
It was a great day and I am sure we will have many more pumpkin parties in the future.
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
Welcome to Freebie Friday!
It just so happens that all five of the people in our family have birthdays in a six-month period. So from mid-August to mid-February it feels we are constantly in birthday mode. Tomorrow is my husband's birthday, so that got me thinking about what birthday freebies are out there. I found some great ones, including a list of restaurants that give free food on your birthday! There are also free printable cards, cake ideas, and much more!
I hope you enjoy this week's birthday freebies!
Family Fun has a wonderful selection of birthday cake ideas you can easily make at home. I have made many of these for my family, and they are always a big hit!
Greetings Island has free, printable birthday cards.
Dayspring has a lovely collection of free E-Cards.
Need to be reminded of upcoming birthdays? Here is a free birthday reminder service.
You can print your own free happy birthday banner HERE.
How about some free food? This website has a huge list of restaurants that give freebies on your birthday.
Want to know what happened in history on your birthday? Click HERE to see a short video of what has happened on your special day.
Find out how many days old you are HERE.
This is a neat website. You can see a time capsule of the day you were born. Find out what bread cost, or how much you would have paid for a car. Learn what the minimum wage was and lots of other fun information!
I hope you enjoy this week’s birthday freebies!
Happy homeschooling!
Jamin
I was unpacking some boxes today and I came upon something that really blessed me, so I had to share.
Last spring I did a Women's Bible Study at church. One of the things we did was write down things we needed to give to God and put them in a box. One of the girls brought us all boxes that looked like a flip flop. Very cute! So I stuck mine on a shelf and forgot about it, like I was suppose to. Today I found it. I smiled when I saw it because I knew most of the things I had put in the box God indeed had taken care of. But, just for fun I took off the lid off and started opening the little slips of paper to see the words I had written. One by one I saw that they were all handled by God! Then I opened one I honestly do not remeber putting in there. It was just one word...space. WOW! Did I really put that in there? Yes, our last house was too small, but I had NO intention of moving. I really, really wanted to stay until our oldest was through high school. (3 more years.) We had even thought we might even try to buy it so we could add on to it at some point. We had even looked at those sunrooms you can have built on as a possiblilty for more space in the future. Now as I am sitting in my new house (which is more than 50% bigger than where we were when I wrote the word "space") I cannot help but just be amazed. It was just a fleeting moment. Write something down they said...Okay, give me space. And He did!
God is good!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
P.S. Unpacking is going well! I would say we are 75% unpacked. Here is my very happy daughter in her totally unpacked room! YAY!!!! She is one happy girl to have her own "space" now! :^)
