Its too early here to carve pumpkins.  My poor neighbor did hers last weekend and they are filled with black mold!!  Yuck!! 

We'll be carving ours tomorrow or the next day.  This year, I thought it would be fun for the kiddos to paint smaller pumpkins to get into the spirit of Halloween.

They are out on the front sidewalk so paint doesn't get all over the floor in the house.  It was a little breezy that day, but nice and warm, as you can see by their clothing.

Nope, not lucky enough to add onto my house.  The Japanese are power washing and painting the house.  The base turned off the air conditioning and yes, you can see the plastic covering all the windows.  I had to ask if I could cut holes in the plastic because it was like a sauna in the house.  I thought it was funny that they felt they had to cover the entire window-because they used a brush and roller to paint.  I would understand if it was a sprayer, so it was a little weird for me.

Here's Courtnee with her work of art.  She did a rather nice job and only managed to get paint on half of her shirt.

Here's Hallie's.  Notice all of her teeth missing.  She's been losing quite a few.  Yes, braces will definitely be in her future.

And here's Trey's pumpkin.  He did a nice job and painted a face on each side, I just didn't want to have too many pumpkin pics on here, or I would have posted the other one too.

Thankfully, Kailyn was sleeping during the painting.  THis is her new thing.  I'm still not qutie sure what she's doing, but she does it all the time.  No walking yet, not daring enough to manage the steps on her own, although she stands on her own and has pretty good balance. 

I'll post her first birthday pictures later.  Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Well, I'm sure that we're all getting ready for our next school year.  We are continuing to school through the summer.  Spelling, math, reading, and grammer; mostly to get caught up from this past year.  Starting in August, we will begin our new school year.  I will be teaching fifth grade, second grade, and kindergarten.

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All three will be doing bible, science, history, geography, art, lapbooks, and spanish together. 

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History-We will start off the year with a lapbook on Olympics, then Elections and then we move onto Mystery of History

Science-three units.  Apologia Swimming Creatures, God's Design Water and Weather, and God's Design Human Body

Spanish-Teach them Spanish

Geography-Trail Guide to U.S. Geography

Art-Meet the Masters

Lapbooks is generally not a seperate subject, however, we are going to explore habitats through lapbooking.  It should be a lot of fun!

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Grade 5:

Violin and piano lessons

Reading-we will be doing book studies and working on his dyslexia workbook.  We're also going to start English from the Roots Up. 

Spelling-All About Spelling

Math-BJUP 5

Grammer-BJUP Grammer 5

Grade Two:

Reading-finish Sing, Spell, Read, and Write and then BJUP 2

BJUP Grade 2 Spelling, Grammer, Handwriting, and Math

Kindergarten:

BJUP Grade k Math

Sing, Spell, Read, and Write

How's your new year shaping up?

This is quite a long post about our current and upcoming school year.  I do have a very important question at the bottom that I would like suggestions with, if you have a few minutes to help me out!! 

Our current read aloud is 'Robin Hood' Great illustrated Classics.  The kids, especially Trey are really enjoying it.  Some 'Littles' books just arrived today, so I'm sure the kids will want them read next.

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Trey-fourth grade

          BJUP for reading, handwriting, math, and grammer

          Spellingtime for spelling

           BJUP also for history

          Science we've been using AOP-but that will change next month

Hallie-first grade

          BJUP for phonics, reading, and math

          Spellingtime for spelling

          First Language Lessons for grammer

Courtnee-preschool

          No formal program, we kinda tag along behind Hallie with lots of coloring sheets added in

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     I decided with a new baby this year to continue with BJUP for history and try AOP for science.  Now, I love BJUP and their history program is really nice, however, I would like to try Mystery of History next year.  I just received the first book and its really nice.  I love how she incorporates timelines, maps, notebooks, and flashcards all together, along with reading and projects.  And I love the concept of learning history chronologically-what a novel idea!  Why don't they do this in school?

     Science was tricky because Trey really loves science, all the kids do.  The AOP program is nice but its not what I want.  No involvement other than the computer, nothing hands on.  I tried it because of the baby and it has worked nicely, but now I'm ready for more and so are the kids.  Hallie and Courtnee have been pretty much left out of science and history because I couldn't work on them together at Trey's level, but now I can.  Here's my plan for the rest of the year:

     Feb-April     Botany-using God's Design as our main study, reading and doing other projects along the way

    May               Electricity and then Levers and Pulleys -I will probably draw alot from the AOP program and add on experiments and other things

   June-Aug      Flying Creature from Apologia-birds and bugs

   Sept-Dec     Astronomy from Apologia

In 2009, I plan on working on weather and Sea Creatures from Apologia.

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Now, for history, I plan on completing BJUP with Trey.  This summer we will work on American Indians in July, Africa in August, Australia in September and a huge unit on Elections and presidents in October.  We will start Mystery of History in November of next year.

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Geography-currently we use a daily program from Evan Moor which I love.  Its literally two questions a day!!  Even at Hallie's level its really nice-basic but a good starting point for the girls.  I wanted to continue our continent studies from last year, but we just don't seem to have time in the day to get it all done, which is why we're going to work on Australia and Africa  this summer.

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Health-that's the big question.   How does anyone find time to fit this in?  I want to do the human body and nutrition, but when?

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Vocabulary-Word Wise 3000.  I've been looking into vocabulary programs from Trey.  He's constantly asking me what words mean, so I think its time to start doing this.  I just got this book today and really like the program.  They get 15 vocabulary words at the beginning of the week.  Each day, they have activities to go over and do to review the words.  There isn't a final test, just the daily activities.   I really love the concept, we'll see how it works.

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Music-Trey just started violin.  He really seems to like it.  Of course, he tightened his string tonight and broke it, but other than that, he's excited.  He was very upset, but I told him not a big deal.  I saw him doing it and was trying not to yell 'stop' at him, but I didn't get it out fast enough.  Oh well.  The girls are taking piano and doing okay.  They need to practice more-more mom's fault than their own.  We've been doing better the last few weeks.

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My Final thoughts are on our schedule.  There doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to finsh everything.  Unfortunately, this means that we usually end up ditching history or science.  I'm thinking of going to a four day school week with all the basics-math, history, grammer, etc.  The fifth day would be history in the am, science in the afternoon.  Of course, most of this would be hands on, so the kids will really love this day.  To change it up some, we may even switch the days around, so they never know which day it is until that morning.  I think that will stop alot of the grumbling by mom, I mean, er the kids.  Any thoughts, suggestions?

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Question-Trey will be entering the fifth grade next year.  Now, he'll be doing alot of reading on his own and with science and history.  He will have a formal spelling, grammer and vocabulary program.  My question is: Do we need a formal reading program?  I ask this, because at this point, most of phonics is done correct?  Reading comp is the big issue here.  I would prefer to do novel studies with comp questions and projects.  I have several now on the bookcase that are really great.  I would hate to not use them because I have a formal program and not the time to do it.  Any thoughts, suggestions, I need your help!

I found a wonderful company that sells puzzles of every kind and wonderful puzzle boxes.  We love to do puzzles as a family, but do not have the space to set them up.  We did try one of those puzzle rolls, that you roll your puzzle up into.  However, any loose pieces fall to the floor and then you lose the pieces.  We've had to get rid of several puzzles because of this.  This company actually sells a puzzle board that you work on.  It has a cover and several drawers to put your pieces in.  I ordered this before Christmas and am quite pleased and excited to get started.  I also ordered hubby a golf puzzle where he has to get the rope around a golf ball and several rings to get it off.  It seems very complicated and he hasn't had time yet to look at the directions to figure out how to solve it.  I had them send a puzzle box to my father for Christmas.  It was very nicely made, out of nice wood too.  He enjoyed figuring it out.

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The company's name is Bits and Pieces and you can find them on the web at www.bitsandpieces.com

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I don't usually post information like this, however, I know that most homeschoolers are puzzle lovers, so I thought this would be nice to share.

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Enjoy!

Now is the time of year for maple syrup making.  This wonderful family has put their operations online and developed a very in-depth unit study on the subject. 

Enjoy!!

http://www.lmsugarbush.com/unitstudy.html

It is almost time for the Iditarod!!  The race begins on March 3rd and this will be our fourth year of following the Iditarod.  We love it.  We now follow about eight to ten mushers, all are color coded and moved along our map as they move along through the race.  Trey has a favorite musher, DeeDee Jonrowe, who he's followed every year.  It is fun to see where our mushers end up every year.  We were sad last year when DeeDee and one of our other favorites ended up crashing their sled in a treacherous spot.  Thankfully, none were seriously hurt. 

To order your own map, or to get information about the mushers and race information, check out www.iditarod.com.  Or, check out www.homeschoolinthewoods.com, she has a really nice unit study on the Iditarod.  Also, www.homeschoolestore.com is giving away a free lapbook this week only. 

Enjoy!!

in posting, we've been super busy.  When are we not, right?  Swim lessons have been going wonderfully.  Trey has improved tremendously, even doing the butterfly and diving now.  Hallie has lost her fear of the water and is in level two, starting to swim on her own.  Courtnee will swim on her own with a life jacket on.  We went to the outside pool yesterday and they had a blast.  There's a pool that goes from two feeet to two and a half feet and the girls loved it.  Trey hangs out between the diving board and the slide.  Yesterday, he even swam laps-its a fifty meter pool!

We started school this week. The first day was pretty rough, but we're getting more into the swing of things.  We're only doing half days so that we can still enjoy the summer weather.  Trey has been working hard to finish under two hours and I'm very proud of him.  He's doing very well.   His reading is slowly improving and I'm glad about that.  I think this year, he will make great improvements. 

I've been working on my homeschooling bible study and reading Thirteen Moons by Charles Frasier.  Love both of them.  I finished Jane Eyre and really enjoyed it.  I'm halfway through 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Great Expectations.  They are on my list to finish next.

Two huge boxes from Rainbow Resource graced the post office today!!  I was very excited.  I could tell that Trey was a little bit too.  Something about starting out a new year, nice and fresh that's so nice!  I always loved the start of a new school year, fresh paper and folders, newly sharpened pencils!

Now, that I'm done browsing through Trey's school books and projects, I have neatly stacked in on the dining room table.  I have no idea where to put it all!!  I need more shelves!!  And a place to put the shelves!!

Have a great summer day!!  Enjoy opening your new curriculum and browsing through it!!

Well, its that time of year again.  Time to plan for the next, although maybe not done with this year's yet. 

Trey still has some math to work on.  I figure a page a day throughout the summer with flashcards to memorize his multiplication and division facts is okay.  Reading, needs a little more work.  I'm hoping 45 minutes to an hour a day will help us catch up and review each day. 

Hallie is a little more behind because of my struggles with her.  She insists on doing her work herself and not getting my help, only problem is that she's not learning anything.  I finally resolved to getting her a dvd teacher and things seem to be going a little better.  Although a little long, we may only watch math and I'll work on phonics or vice versa each day.  Two hours in front of a tv is a bit much for her at this age.  A little help from the dvd teacher though, has made great improvements so far.  And with a new baby arriving in October, this will ease my time up a little bit.

Trey's fourth grade I'm still up in the air about.  I'm debating whether or not to get him some computer classes from AOP or K12 to give him something to keep him busy and focused while I work with Hallie.  He tends to interrupt alot when I'm trying to work with her, so I'm hoping this will help out a little.  Plus, it will take some pressure off of me for a few classes.  We're still going to work on reading, spelling and english together, history also, and maybe math.  I haven't decided whether or not to get him the math computer class. 

Geography we didn't get done as much as I wanted last year.  This year, we'll focus on Australia and Africa.  I can't wait, should be alot of fun.  I'm also going to work on some spanish with the kids and a program called "English from the roots up" for Trey.  I think its a great idea to introduce latin and greek roots to the kids.  It will be really good for them to do that.  Very important during testing time in the later years.  My goal is to do this for two years, do latin for two years and then whatever language he wishes to study in high school-can't believe I'm thinking that far ahead already!

I'm also sat down and planned my school year calendar.  I found I was very overwhelmed with household stuff-basically heavy cleaning and organizing that I never seemed to get too.  I am putting a plan in action for next year to change that. 

First, we're going to start in late July.  Do school for six weeks, then off a week.  This will give me time to plan ahead, to make changes as needed and catch up on household stuff.  The nice thing is we can hit the pool everyday the first week that school comes into session here and it won't be busy at all.  he he.

Second, I'm making a schedule and sticking to it better.  We got way off track last year.  My scheduling didn't seem to work at all.  I'm going to work on basics with Trey in the morning and with Hallie.  In the afternoon, we're going to focus on one afternoon of history, one of science, and one of geography.  The other two days will be used to go to the library and catch up on any work that needs to be done.

Thirdly, with a new baby, mom is going to need some more rest to be functionable.  So, my scheduling comes into play here.  We're starting school at 8-not nine or later like we have been.  Working till 10, having a snack and then lunch break at noon for only thirty minutes.  This past year, I seemed to take an hour or longer as I got busy catching up on household stuff and emails.  Then we will work from 12:30-2 each day on our activities.  I plan on resting from 2-3.  I'm not sure how this will work out as school lets out at 2:15 and the kids usually want to play with their friends.  I'm hoping that since the kids are getting older, they will have more homework and need that time to get it done.  Adjustments may be made for the year, we'll see how it pans out when we start. 

On paper, it seems to look good.  My goal is also to not have alot of work unaccomplished at the end of the year.  This year, we did in reading, only because we started late in the year with this level.  I'm hoping to catch up and go through the next level by the end of the school year.  Again, we'll see how it works out. 

The scheduling is done, now I have to sit down and plan some lessons out for the first six weeks.  Since school is out for the summer and its hard to do a complete school day with all these kids around, plus swim lessons will still be going on; I plan on only about three hours a day, probably in the afternoon when its really hot.  I'll be seven months pregnant by then and not want to be in the sun anyway, so it should work out okay.  Until then, we'll work on school about an hour a day. 

Happy planning for next year!

Hello all!  Very frustrated the last two weeks.  Kevin got home and disrupted the routine we had going.  We've been keeping up with reading, math, spelling, and a few other subjects, but history, science and geography has fell to the side the last few weeks.  I was hoping to get back on track this week, but we all know how that goes. 

Anyway, we've had command picnics to go to and we've also attended several badman events last week that my hubby participated in.  Badman is where the commands on the base have friendly competition on different events: dodgeball, softball, golf, you get the idea.  One day, he even came home from work early (he generally leave at 6:30am and comes home 12-14 hours later) so we stopped school to spend time with dad.  When he came home a few weeks ago, he only got one day off, so we're trying to savor our time with him until he leaves again in a few weeks.  With colder weather arriving and dad being gone, I'm sure we'll get caught up and it won't be a problem.

This week, we stopped about an hour early one day because of the weather.  A gorgeous fall day and we couldn't resist.  It was wonderful.  The kids played outside for hours.  They fell asleep before hitting their pillows that night!!  LOL