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Dangerous Wonder
Jun. 17, 2009
Mother's Day and My Dad's Birthday
Well blogging friends, I have much to report, as the last month has been full of fun! We went to my parents house in Kansas to visit for Mother's Day and my Dad's 60th Birthday.
What started as a 5-6 day visit ended up being 12! It was a wonderful time of relaxing on the farm and being with my family.
The things I remember thinking was how quiet it was on the farm. The low hum of traffic in the distance that I tend to block out in suburbia was noticeably gone in the middle of the country! What a blessing! I hadn't been home in the spring for a long time and everything was beautiful and green.
One morning, there was an amazing amount of mist and fog due to very cool temperatures overnight. I looked outside and saw this:
It was a beautiful gray/green sea of wheat. It looked like I was walking in an almost black and white picture! It was just amazing!
My dad's favorite dessert is apple pie, so I wanted to make him one for his special day. I just started using organic flour before I left for Kansas and was thrilled with the results in my pie crust, so I had to pick some up for this one. I think he enjoyed it!
My grandma lives right down the road from my parents, so we spent a lot of time with her. She is 92 years old and still living on her own! I hope to be that spry when I'm her age! I love my grandma!
I had been wanting to help her with her garden beds around her house, so my mission while we were there was to plant some perennials to liven it up.
I had to do some weeding and hoeing to get it all ready, but in the end we had some nice flowers planted for her.
The kids love playing outside and finding forts, making forts etc. The old one between two trees was no longer there, so they found a new spot to claim as their own.
They were clearing old wood out and Papa even broke out the chain saw and helped them clear some more of the dead wood.
They were sweeping and raking the floor like it was a sod house on the prairie!
This entertained them for hours! Then they checked out the junk shed and found all sorts of treasures to use in their tree fort/home.
It was pure treasure for them! Old frying pans, wheels to an old lawn mower, boards, old garden fencing...etc.! I remember my brothers and I doing the same thing at our grandparents house. It was so much fun!
Here's my son relaxing on their "porch."
One night we had a bonfire to burn all the deadwood from their fort. It was wonderful! Fire, bubbles, hotdogs and s'mores!
This was a very productive vacation because of all the projects we completed! I helped my grandma with her garden, the kids made their fort, I helped my mom clean out some cupboards and part of her storage in the basement and we even did 2 full weeks of school while we were there. It's hard to believe, but I think we got more done in Kansas than we had in quite a while! The kids were so motivated to do their work and be finished for the day. It was wonderful!
I also started making a dishcloth using an actual pattern while I was there. I had failed many times before in attempting this, but low and behold...it was working! I'm almost done with it. It's a real cute heart pattern.
The kids and I thoroughly enjoyed our stay and can't wait to go back for another visit!
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May. 5, 2009
Notebooking Pages
Hi blogger friends. Just wanted to let you know that Notebooking Pages is having a humongous sale starting tomorrow and running through the 8th. We use some of their great products in our homeschooling adventures.
Go check it out!
This is what they have to say about their sale:
3rd Birthday Celebration Sale
Tired of Busywork? Seize the Most from Your Day . . . with Notebooking!
Notebooking is a powerful tool that captures what your children have learned, turning it into a concise, artful piece of work. Visit NotebookingPages.com for free and affordable templates to help you get started today! Simply print out a selection of free notebooking templates or choose pages from one of their themed sets.
Now is a great time to try some of NotebookingPages.com's products during their 3rd Birthday Celebration! Every product and specially priced combo set is 50% off! You can get ALL of their products for $50 - save almost $90! This sale is only in effect May 6, 7, & 8th. They are also giving away three great prizes!
Check it out here:
 
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Apr. 20, 2009
Spring Gardening
Mar. 16, 2009
My New Blogs
My creative juices have been flowing and I have been compelled to write more than about Homeschool Life. I have started a couple of new blogs that you can check out if you are interested. I will still keep this blog and dedicate it to our Homeschooling Adventures and other family things, but I have a need to spread the love if you will on different avenues!
The first new one is over on the sister blog of homeschoolblogger, homesteadblogger. It's called Playing in the Sonshine and is all about my pursuits in homesteading (mostly gardening).
The second new one is over on blogger and is called A Little Sonshine4u. This is dedicated to my journey of understanding and growing into Beautiful Womanhood. I'll be sharing my journey, my thoughts, my discoveries and some challenges for us as we discover who God has called us to be.
I hope you'll join me on my new endeavors and visit me in these new venues! Thanks for reading my blog! I am always glad that you stop by!
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Mar. 15, 2009
100% Irish For A Day
I loved being 100% Irish for a day! The wind blowing through my hair, as I ran through the enchanted fields of clover looking for the end of the rainbow with that silly leprechaun taunting me....
Yesterday I raced my first 5k (3.1 miles). It was an Irish for a Day 5K and apparently, everyone who participates gets to be 100% Irish for the day! My hubby, who has been training all winter to get ready for an Ironman this coming fall wanted to race it in style. So he pulled on his Irish soccer socks, Official Ireland soccer jersey and his not so Irish (Scottish) but close to Irish kilt. He looked awesome!
 After race at Blazer's house.
As for me, I just went with a green pullover.
I was nervous, but excited all at the same time. I had been training for the past 4 weeks and pretty much knew how it was going to feel. I knew I wasn't going to be walking it, because I had ran the distance earlier in the week on the treadmill. I just didn't know what to expect as far as humongous group starts and how that all worked.
I soon found out that the first 1/2 mile is dodging people running slower, people walking, people running with strollers or dogs...it was an adventure! My biggest thing to dodge however were all the icy patches on the trail. While the day before had warmed up enough to get most of the snow melted off the sidewalks, the morning of had some very slippery icy patches. I was just thankful it was 34 degrees and not below freezing!
I soon realized that as I was approaching mile marker 1 that it hadn't even felt like I had run a mile yet and when I hit mile 2 I could hardly believe how great I was feeling! Running outside is so much better than on a treadmill.
 Hubby sprinting to the finish in his fast kilt!
As I approached the end of the race, my hubby and his running buddy Blazer (who had already finished in 20 minutes) came back to keep me company for the last push. I was so glad to see them, but also was challenged because they did push me in their "slow pace." I'm so glad they did that because I really did need that encouragement to push it up that last hill. I was feeling so good by the last 100 meters that I was able to sprint it.
 Me, hubby and Blazer after the race and ready for breakfast!
I was very happy with my time (33:56) considering that I was so far back in the swarms of people where you're not really running till things get spread out. My goal was to be under 35 minutes and I did that! Next time I know not to get stuck in the back with the dogs and the walkers. It was a wonderful experience and I'm so glad I did it! I can't wait till I do another one!
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Mar. 11, 2009
Math-U-See New Books!
My kids and I love Math-U-See. I love teaching this program with Mr. Demme via DVD and the kids love watching him too! They also really understand what they are doing! This is the best program out there and I will not try anything else! We tried several different things before this program and will never look back!
With all that said, this spring, Math-U-See is debuting a new binding to their books, which deserves a shout out of AMEN! They also have improved their layout inside the books to provide more space to work each problem and look sharper.
If you would like to hear it straight from Mr. Steve Demme himself, just watch this video and pop on over to Math-U-See to get all the rest of the details! (Price lists and which editions are new this year.)
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Mar. 11, 2009
School Room Organization
I love to organize things and I strive to find systems that will work not just for me, but also for my kids. If it's hard for them to put things away, then it just won't happen. In the 5 years I have homeschooled, I have discovered a few ways to help keep things in a relatively orderly fashion...umm...just don't come over this second...okay?! 
Here is our workhorse bookcases from IKEA that house most of our history, Bible, Dr. Seuss and other subjects (in magazine holders).
The bottom shelf is holding jumbo magazine holders of our subjects that aren't used everyday or are the next round/level in a subject. I have found these holders on line for a huge amount of money, but have found them at Wal-Mart for around $5.00. I love how they keep all the books together and organized!
Here is our desk for the three kids. It is a hollow-core door varnished and mounted on our wall with roofing braces or something. My hubby made my day with this project! What you can't see is my door desk joined right next to it with my computer and paper-covered desk. When I find the top and have finished making my area "cute" I will be more than happy to share it will you all!
We use the jumbo magazine holders for all the core subjects that we use often (Language Arts, Math, History, Science). I love this system for keeping all our workbooks in an orderly fashion!
Along the desk, you'll find the three-ringed binders sandwiched between the magazine holders. Each child has a folder for History, Language Arts, Geography and Science. We keep all our papers for each child in these and they are working great so far!
The Langauge Arts Notebook is by far the greatest asset of these binders. We have 5 tabbed dividers with pockets for each LA subject (Spelling, Handwriting, Phonics, Grammar and Writing/Composition).
The assignments for the week are in the pocket of the dividers and the finished work gets 3-hole punched and placed behind the divider. It is working so well! Some days the kids want to finish more than one days work and so that has been a perk too! My kids also enjoy seeing how much work they have been accomplishing throughout the year.
Here is my second area of bookcases. The tall white one is primarily for our art supplies/books and our Science books.
- The top shelf has 2 red boxes with phonics games and the other with old magazines to use in art/science projects.
- The next shelf has a cute basket with flash cards, a few manipulatives and other random school things. It also has magazine holders for our construction paper and tin pails that hold our extensive colored pencil collection.
- Third shelf down is our Art library and believe it or not, more colored pencils, different types of coloring utensils and a cup of scissors.
- The fourth shelf is big buckets of pencils, big markers and fine markers and our cute color crayon caddy which you can read about here along with some other organizing ideas.
- The bottom 2 shelves are for our Science books.
The next 2 bookcases are holding most of our Sonlight read alouds, readers and core books we aren't currently using.
I used the bins from one of those frustrating organizing things that you can get most anywhere that houses things at an angle. We go rid of that contraption and are using the bins to hold our readers! It works great!
I was gong crazy trying to keep all our read alouds in order and save shelf space at the same time. This system works great! I just put all the oversized ones on another shelf.
Oversized read alouds with the handy dandy color coding tape from Sonlight.
Well, I don't know about you, but that's enough organizing for today! Hope some of these ideas will help you or spur you on to creative thinking about your stuff and your space!
If this wasn't enough for you, The Heart of the Matter Online is having a Carnival called: 8 Ways to a More Organized Homeschool. This past Friday was the beginning of week one with Organizing your Physical Space. So go check it out!
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Mar. 7, 2009
Training for a 5K
There have been loads of times that I have been determined to stay focused and get back into shape, which only turned into a couple days here and there every few months. My hubby really wanted me to start running again so that I could run with him! He knew the only way I would get serious is if I were signed up for a race. Oh how he knows me! With an impending deadline, I have been quite diligent about working out and getting back into shape! A week from today I will be running my first 5K race ever!
 Mom and Son ready for a run!
With all the running that has been going on here lately, between my training and my hubby's ongoing Ironman training, we decided to sign the kids up for a fun run in May. Yesterday, my son wanted to run with me, so I told him we would try a mile together. He did amazingly well and was very proud of himself! This is a great sport to do together as a family. I can't wait to report back to you the details of my first race next week. Stay tuned!
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Feb. 12, 2009
Math-U-See Block Organization
We made the switch to Math-U-See last year and have been loving it ever since! We purchased the starter block set and the completer block set. I was tempted to get the wooden box they sell to store them in, but my pocketbook was feeling pretty pinched! So we just used the cardboard boxes they came in.
The cardboard boxes were working, but were a continual puzzle each time we had to put them away. I realized that this would be the case if we had gotten the wooden box too, so I stuck with my cardboard box system.
This past summer, my good friend let me in on a system she devised using some storage boxes you can get at most big-box retailers.
The perfect system for a family on a budget! The Sterilite Drawers are the medium sized ones and I found them at Dollar General I believe for $7.00! *Note: The Math book organizer is my innovation that I have implemented for all our other subjects too. It is a jumbo magazine holder that I have found at Wal-Mart for just under $5.00! Keeps those pesky workbooks from slouching in the shelves and falling over!
The tens blocks are in the bottom drawer.
7's, 8's and 9's in the middle drawer.
Units through 6's in the top drawer.
This system holds the entire starter and completer sets! We have the 100's blocks stacked up next to one of our magazine holders.
This has worked out so nicely. The kids have such an easier time of putting them away when they are done. It makes using the blocks a lot more fun and user friendly!
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Feb. 12, 2009
Creative Homeschooling Moments
In my previous post I shared how we spent seven days with my precious niece around the house. What I didn't share was all the creative homeschooling going on that wasn't about the baby!
The girls were experimenting with making an ice rink for their American Girl dolls to "skate" on.
They used a metal jelly roll pan and filled it with water and some snow, then set it outside (which was -10!) to freeze.
Adding Snow!
Using the rolling pin as a "zamboni."
Adding more snow!
They were definitely using scientific reasoning and experimentation for this project! It was fun to listen to them talk through all their thought processes!
While the girls were busy with ice rink making, my son and I played Star Wars Monopoly to help him with his addition/subtraction and money counting skills.
Schoolin' is hard some days, but someone's gotta teach them these skills!
He was thrilled to play a game with Mommy and we had loads of fun taking over the galaxy!
My oldest practiced her fiber industry skills and resourcefulness by crocheting a sweater and shorts for her Barbie doll without a pattern! It was a fabulous way to use all her leftover remnants of yarn!
She is so talented! I am so amazed at her skills!
My youngest made us a very creative snack!
We were all out of graham crackers for the classic snack the kids love ( peanut butter and chocolate chips on top). So she improvised and used mint flavored gingersnap cookies from Sweden.
It was so yummy! Culinary artist for sure!
Hope you enjoyed our creative homeschooling moments! We had a ball! What are some of your creative homeschooling moments?
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