Westcliffe Mountain Academy

Field Trip: George Washington Exhibit

2012-01-10T11:57:00.000-06:00

Before Christmas we finished a unit on the American Revolution and George Washington's life. There just happened to be an exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History on George Washington. How exciting for us. We were thrilled that our friends, Cindy and Ryan Dake, have season passes and were able to invite us to go. It really made all we learned come alive and we learned even more.

I hope you enjoy our slide show. This didn't include the whole exhibit but I got what I could.

Make your own slideshow design

What is your favorite field trip your family has done?

That is our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Our Progress

2012-01-02T21:58:00.001-06:00

August - December 2011

The first half of this school year has been wonderful. The reason I put a castle for my picture was to represent all the places we have traveled through stories and movies of the year, and the many others we will visit in the years to come. I have managed to blog about most of the really fun and interesting things we have done. We started the school year off in August by finishing up three units from last year's curriculum that we weren't able to finish because of all the preparation for our trip to Kenya in June. We went right into this years material without a pause. We completed two of those units. That makes five units for the first half of our year.

We had some great projects with our homeschool groups. We did a Dolphin Tale study in parts one, two and three and went to the movie on opening day for Home School Day. We made a lap book for Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. The kids played soccer with one of our groups and I was the coach. We had a super missions day for our AAHE October meeting. We had one field trip, to the public library. Because we are part of two groups we are able to do more. Our last group activity of 2011 was our Christmas party, which was a huge success and loads of fun.

We did a major field trip to Kenya in June/July. That was an experience that our family will never forget. We spent three weeks there. You can read about our trip here, here, here and here. We also have some posts on our missions blog here and here. We were on 9 airplanes and it took over 30 hours to reach our final destination each way. Even though that wasn't "during the school year" we felt it was a huge part of our educational experience. We purchased a study on Africa that we will be doing in the next couple of years along with our regular curriculum.

I rearranged the "school room" twice. This last time was to accommodate our new kidcare and preschool. I didn't post the pictures on this site yet but they are posted on the kidcare site. We have involved the front room and the dinning room. It really looks nice and we have all of our resources readily available when we need them.

January - May 2012

We started back to school on January 2. We had three weeks off of school in December and were ready to jump back into it. We have some huge plans for this half of the school year. We will do two more units before taking our Spring Break. Then we will do two more units and finish school mid May. They will finish this years Math by spring break. They will be given the option of starting next years math. I purchased their math for the next several years at the book fair last year.

We are planning a very special Spring Break for the kids to show them we are proud of all their hard work in school this year. We want to make it a tradition each year to do something special, fun and different. They have no idea what we have planned.

We hope to do a few more field trips for the year. There is an exhibit on George Washington at the local museum that we are going to see next week. They have a special website to go along with the exhibit and enhance your learning experience. We will do more book/movie studies. Our next one will be War Horse. We will read the book, do the study and see the movie in January.

That is just a glimpse of the next five months. I can't wait to blog the pictures from all the adventures we will have.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Homeschool Group Christmas Party

2011-12-08T11:15:00.001-06:00

For our homeschool group Christmas party we had a lot of fun. We all brought goodies to eat and one of the moms put together a great craft for the kids.

She brought different sizes of spoons and gave them choices on what to make.

They each had the different colors of paint on their tables and had foil to work on.

We had a very large group that day. Everyone had so much fun.

They had to wait for directions for the character of their choice.

We had a table full of goodies plus cookies for them to decorate.

All of the kids enjoyed it, young and old.

They had to paint the spoon first before adding any pipe cleaners.

They drew on the faces with markers when needed.

Great Santa!

Jennifer is working on her Santa face.

Great Snowman!

Time to decorate cookies and eat them.

Since we meet in the gym at the church they got to play after we were done.

The kids love the new air hockey table.

Merry Christmas!

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Homeschool Field Trip: Public Library

2011-11-17T10:37:00.032-06:00

We had a field trip to the Public Library. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. They kids enjoyed it very much. They got to see the workings of the library from behind the scenes.

The librarian showed us the books they have in Braille. The kids got to feel the pages.

He told us about the computer area and what is upstairs.

This is the room that has all the new books being sent to the different libraries around Arlington.

The children's area was our last stop.

I didn't take pictures of each area. We first went to the area that the books are brought back and how they are sorted and returned to the shelves. We also got to see the teen section. It was just fun getting to see and hear about how the library works.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Dolphin Tale Unit Study Part Three

2011-10-27T10:25:00.001-05:00

For the last part of our Dolphin Tale study we made little flip books with the information that we learned from our study. We didn't have a very large group that week but it was fun anyway.

They had to work to find the words to fit into the blank spaces in the book.

We loved seeing smiles on their faces as they worked together.

We even had some coloring pages for the younger kids if they wanted to do that, too.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

AAHE Mission Day - The Voice of the Martyrs

2011-10-18T11:52:00.000-05:00

AAHE decided that we would focus on Missions in the month of October this year. I personally think that was a GREAT idea. My family focuses on missions every month, since we are missionaries right here in the DFW area. Many families in Arlington are very mission minded. I think one of the reasons is because we have Mission Arlington to help us realize how important it is, even in our own back yards.

For our meeting we asked a representative from The Voice of the Martyrs to come and share with us about their ministry. Our guest speaker was Bob Sweely. He had a slide show with pictures of martyrs across the world and explained their story. I think it was great for all of us, young and old, to see these pictures and make it real for us that there are those out there that suffer greatly because of their love for the Lord. We all KNOW that but we don't really THINK about it in a way that it hits home sometimes.

Bob shared with us the many ministry avenues that VoM has. It is amazing. One of the ministry avenues is the Action Pack bags. The vacuum bags are filled by people like us and sent to Christians in restricted nations who have been ostracized by their family, friends, and village because of their faith. Those items are a welcome expression of Christ's love and yours. The items that are needed to fill the bags are everyday things like shirts, socks,hats, foam balls, bars of soap, a blanket, toys, school supplies, etc.

If you would like more information on The Voice of the Martyrs you can check out these different resources.

http://www.persecution.com http://www.kidsofcourage.com/

Telephone: (918)337-8015

Orders or contributions: (800)747-0085

Ministry information: (877)337-0302

E-mail: thevoice@vom-usa.org

Bob Sweely, Area Representative

(972)255-3628

sweely@juno.com

If you want to have him visit your group, give him a call. He is a wonderful man to talk to with a heart for Christ. This ministry is one of the best out there. Support them where you can.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Dolphin Tale Unit Study Part Two

2011-10-13T16:53:00.000-05:00

We spent a major amount of time today in parent discussion because we had a new mom with questions. And after all, that is what we are here for, to help each other, give support and suggestions on what might work. AND to be an ear just to listen. As moms we need that time to share what is on our hearts. I love this group for that very reason. We are there for each other. We all have different teaching styles and curriculum but we all respect each other and don't think one is doing it wrong just because it isn't the way we are doing it. We learn so much from each other each time we meet.

This week we had eleven kids that were able to come and stay for our craft time. We didn't have a large amount of time for the craft so we didn't do a lot of background on the Anglerfish like we did the Jellyfish. But it is my hope that it will spark an interest in looking into it further. I also printed off some extra stuff for them to do while they were there or at home.

Jonathan, as always, is being silly and Ryan thinks he is funny.

The kids really seemed to have a good time making them. They used egg cartons, pipe cleaners, construction paper to cut out teeth, feathers for the tail and a bead on the end of the pipe cleaner for the "light".

These two boys seem to really love the idea of the feathers for the tail. I just love the expressions on their faces!

They got to do it all by themselves except for when they asked for our help. It was a pretty easy craft but fun at the same time. They drew eyes and fins on the body with a marker. Each child got to pick from a bag of different color feathers and beads. They got really creative with the eyes and how they decorated them.

The younger AND older kids seemed to enjoy our time working together. Then the older ones had a Winter (that's the dolphin's name) word search and the young ones had a dolphin coloring picture to work on.

We are so thankful for the mom's who were there helping us with the crafts, too. It makes it wonderful to have everyone working together.

I told them if they would take a serious group picture they could do a silly group picture. As you can see, we had some happy kids who were more than willing to take a silly picture as a group. I am so pleased because they all told me how much fun they had and they were full of smiles. THAT is why I love bringing things for them to do. THAT is why I homeschool. THAT is why I love working with kids. Their smiles!

We have one more week of the Dolphin Tale Unit Study. That will be two weeks from today. There is much more to the study than we have done or will be able to do in the short amount of time we are able to get together. Make sure you take the time to do some of the other activities at home with your kids and share how it turned out with the group. We would love to hear about it.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Book Reviews: Guest Bloggers

2011-10-11T13:51:00.000-05:00

Guest blogger is Jennifer Lynne will share her review of Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry.

What the Story was about: A horse called Phantom and two kids, Paul and Maureen who lived with their grandparents. Also, Phantom's colt, Misty.

What I thought about the story: I thought it was interesting. You can learn a lot from it. You can learn how to care for horses. The kids in the story worked really hard. Once you read the first chapter you can't stop reading.

We bought the movie for my birthday party. It was good. The book was better than the movie.

I also read the other three books in the series. I love books about horses.

Guest blogger, Jonathan Cole will share his review of Night of the Cossack by Tom Blubaugh.

What the story was about: An interesting fictional account of a young boy facing a series of tough life-or-death decisions when forced into a life of a Cossack soldier.

What I thought about the story: I thought it was a great story. There were many hardships in Nathan's life. I was intrigued by the choices that he had to make through the early years in his life. I was surprised by an important relationship in his life turning out to be false.

The best part about reading books my mom has read is getting to talk about the book with her. We both get excited about the things the characters go through and the choices they make.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercolor-Art Class

2011-10-04T08:20:00.064-05:00

We finished up our Paths of Exploration study last Friday. This week we started our first of six units in the Paths of Settlement study. This is going to be an exciting school year. We are doing the highest level in the main book, which is sixth grade, along with the middle school supplement. That puts us in 7/8 grade work for both kids. Both kids have done really well the last two school years doing the hardest levels together. I am very proud of them for their efforts.

One of the things we are learning in art is watercolor painting. We are using a book called Watercolor for the Artistically Undiscovered. Since we started our new unit Monday, we read the introduction of that book telling us about watercolor painting and how to use the brush and what kind of paper. Then they did a beginner painting exercise. They practiced using the brush with lots and little water to see how the paint went on the paper. They did wavy lines and short lines. In other words, they just had fun. Here are some pictures of them painting.

They both helped me set up the table with newspaper to keep the table clean. We got a cup of water to share and they took turns getting clean water from time to time. They were allowed to paint whatever they wanted. Mostly just to see how the paints worked. Watercolors are very different from other types of paints.

Their finished products were very close to this picture. Jennifer did a watermelon on a table. Jonathan did a heart and some other abstract shapes.

The table was a huge success with this activity. They had enough room to each work and at the same time were able to share the paints and water. They had fun and didn't make a mess. That is always a success in my opinion!

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Updated "School Room"

2011-10-03T20:02:00.002-05:00

At the beginning of our school year I had a "new" set up. I blogged it. After 8 weeks, I changed it! So here is the NEW " and much improved "school room".

When you walk in the front door you can see our school shelf. Under that shelf is a cabinet full of more school stuff and drawing books. It is also where the kids keep their large double three ring binders that they have all of their notebook pages in plus any other unit study pages they are working on. We have all of our readers and reference books on these shelves, plus we many of the novels that we will be reading this year. I keep my teacher's books and planner on the bottom shelf.

To the left of that shelf, right next to the front door is our "office" center. We have a b/w laser printer and a color laser printer/copier/scanner/fax (but we don't have the fax hooked up since we don't have a home phone anymore.) The school computer is under the bulletin board. (I have cards and homemade gifts and pictures from my kids and friends plus pictures on there.) We keep our large hole punch, electric pencil sharpener and CD player there, plus lots of extra printer paper. During the day we keep the blinds open to light the room without electricity to save money. When we are done we shut them to keep out the afternoon heat.

Right next to the bookshelves is my "desk" area. I have Pandora on my phone so at the beginning of the day I play praise and worship music on it. I have a small set of speakers that I hook up to it right next to my chair. Our daily Bible reading is on the chart above the globe along with our weekly memory verse that they use to practice their cursive handwriting daily. Once we finish our morning devotional time, I put on movie sound tracks. In the white containers we have our math manipulatives, and Duplo and Lego blocks.

After eight weeks of school using lap desks and having problems with the kids wanting to either sit on the workout equipment, lay on the floor or go into the kitchen to do handwriting, I decided it was time to change things up a bit. We moved this table into the room and expanded it to full size. It works GREAT! The kids have room to spread out and work and I have room to put my teachers books on the end without getting in their way. Our large laminated wall maps of the US and World are behind the large table. They fit perfectly. We have a light in the corner when we need to do work after dark. They each have a dictionary, a datebook and calculator. There are colored pencils and reference books in the middle of the table to share.Their 3-ring binders stay on the floor behind their chairs when not in use to keep the table space less cluttered.

On our magnetic dry erase board are more reference items. There are lists of both Old and New Testament books, a list of writing tips, a small US map, a prayer of commitment, and some Spanish words and phrases cards that I made myself. I also have some pretty butterfly clips to hang other things if needed.

On the far wall is our workout equipment. Our cross cultural workers prayer board is at the end of the treadmill. John has this verse printed out and framed above it ...and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? Romans 10:14.

I am really happy with how the room turned out. I worked on it a little at a time during school and while they had lunch. I moved the big table into the room before school started so they had that the entire school day. They helped me move the maps and heavy furniture when needed. They did very well staying on task today. There wasn't a problem of wanting to lay on the floor or getting distracted by workout equipment because they had chairs to sit in and a table to work at. I am able to get up from my chair and stand at the table to assist them without having to lean down or sit on the floor with them. I love the height of the table because of that reason. I am always looking for ways to make things easier and more organized.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Dolphin Tale Unit Study Part One

2011-10-01T01:22:00.002-05:00

After watching videos about the movie Dolphin Tale, we couldn't help but want to see the movie as a family. We are a big supporter of family friendly entertainment options. When I found out there was a unit study, being a homeschool mom, I was super excited. I love to turn anything that could be school into a fun time as well as learning new things. I see life as a big school room that we can learn and have fun at the same time. The study has five lessons but I am breaking it into three parts because we meet every other Thursday. We take from an hour to an hour and a half to complete some of the experiments and crafts while learning some neat marine biology.

We did a science experiment called Sink or Swim. We made our own water column. Water columns are used or observed to better understand aquatic phenomena. We tested different items, such as a cork, grape, rock and dab of solid shortening. We learned that the difference in density of an object is called buoyancy or the ability to float. We had a pitcher of water and added syrup and oil. The syrup sunk below the water and the oil rose above the water. Then we tested each object and recorded where they fell in the water column. We also learned what sea creatures lived where in the oceans water column and made charts for our notebooks.

Our craft for that day was a Jellyfish. Jellyfish are amazing creatures. They have no complex body organs, but they are able to survive quite well in the ocean. They are not able to swim against the currents of the ocean. They are called planktonic creatures. They have muscle-like fibers in their two layers of skin. They use those to pulse their bodies and move their long tentacles to help them stay afloat in the water. They use their tentacles to capture prey.

After we learned some things about the jellyfish we made one out of the end of a plastic bottle and yarn. You cut the end off about 2 1/2 inches from the end. They picked yarn from a variety of colors. You need to have 10 long strands of thick yarn and 20 strands of thin yarn a couple of inches shorter than the long ones. Cut card stock the size of your plastic container. Staple the think strands to the middle and the thin strands in twos all the way around the outside. Then tape the card stock circle to the container. Attach fishing line to the top to hang the jellyfish with.

Not all the kids could stay for the group pictures because we did take a bit of time, due to the fact that I didn't bring more than one stapler so we had to share. That was a process that took the longest. I plan on being more prepared with supplies next time. We had a great time and as you can see, they turned out pretty neat! Stay tuned to see the neat things we do the next two weeks of our study during the month of October.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Homeschool Day And A Movie

2011-09-25T16:20:00.008-05:00

Did you know that Friday, September 23rd was Homeschool Day? I didn't either until earlier that week. We found Homeschool Movie Club and then found them on fb. So what is Homeschool Day, you ask? Homeschool Day is a designated day where homeschooling families and groups from around the country gather at their local movie theater to support family friendly films. This is the first one and the movie for the day was Dolphin Tale.

Dolphin Tale is about a special dolphin named Winter that was rescued when she was very young. She had to have the end of her tail removed because it was damaged when she got caught in a crab trap. The true story of Winter is amazing. And they did a great job on the movie.

Friday's are our soccer day with AAHE, one of our homeschool groups. We had a great time playing and then went straight to the theater so we wouldn't be late.

We have downloaded the study guide provided by Homeschool Movie Club and are working through some of it with HomeBase Homeschool Friends, our other homeschool group. We will be doing those "lessons" on three Thursdays instead of five even though there are five lessons. We meet every other Thursday. We will do something else during the month of November.

I will post pictures and information on our lessons and crafts each time we get together.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

AAHE Soccer

2011-09-16T19:47:00.002-05:00

This year Jennifer decided she wanted to play soccer. This is the first year she has wanted to play sports. So of course, I said "Sure!" Jonathan has played in years past and loves it. This year our group has gotten a bit smaller. I don't know if it is because we are all so busy or if people have just joined other groups that are doing more. I like our group because it isn't a bunch of extra money to do things.

I am a kind of "coach" for the younger group of kids, ages 9-12. So both of my kids are in my group. We have about 10 kids in that group but not all of them were there on Friday. We had fun doing some drills and then playing a scrimmage.

Jonathan did great, like he always does. Jennifer did great, too. She was quick to run for the ball and even got very close to scoring goals. I was very proud of all the kids. They got right in there and got to know each other and worked together as teams.

The kids are all eager to play and I know we will have a great soccer season even if we don't have a lot of kids on each team. It's about having fun and making friends. And that is what they are doing. I do wish we had a larger group simply so that we could make even more friends. God is in control of that and will bring more families to us in time.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Homeschool Group Birthday

2011-09-15T19:12:00.001-05:00

We meet with our smaller homeschool group every other Thursday at the church gym. This week we met the day before Jennifer's birthday. We stopped at the store and got a cookie cake and shared it with her friends.

Some days we have a larger group and some days we have a smaller group. But we always have fun! It is open to any homeschool family in the area so if you are looking for one that doesn't cost money and has great fellowship and a time for the kids to play together twice a month, let us know. We would love to have you!

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

AAHE Group Meeting September

2011-09-10T14:05:00.001-05:00

Last month our homeschool group met for an ice cream social to kick off the new school year. We met at the same place but in the evening. We do that every year in August. It is a chance for new families to visit and join if they are ready. We meet each month on the second Friday of the month.

On September 9th we had our first monthly meeting and get together. It is a great time to talk about what events are coming up during our monthly meetings, to discuss field trips ideas, and sign up for sports and other events, like the fall campout! I am so excited to say that we are going to do our best to attend that this year.

This year something that was new for us is Jonathan being in the youth. He went off with the older kids and played games and talked about jr high and high school things while Jennifer and I stayed in the other group. This month we did a neat workshop from the Arlington Public Library. Fatima read the book "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs" out loud to the kids and then they made lapbooks according to their age group. She did a wonderful job of reading with such expression that the kids and adults were captivated by the story.

They had a great time cutting out the different parts for the book. They all had to do with weather or food. I think these two girls had more fun being silly and laughing together than they did actually making the book but that is alright with me. They made the books and had a good time doing it. The moms all helped the younger kids with the cutting and keeping the mess cleaned up.

We didn't have time to take pictures of the finished product there because we were cleaning up the fellowship hall (some of you from our old church will recognize this room) and heading to CiCi's Pizza for lunch. We had a great time of fellowship with our friends there. It is wonderful to have a group that you can share things with and learn from.

If you are looking for a group to join, this one is great! We have been members since 1997. It has changed over the years along with the families that are a part of it but it has always been a great source of encouragement and fun for our family.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Science, Art and Music

2011-09-05T14:48:00.001-05:00

Our curriculum is wonderful about including science and art in the daily lesson plans. During our Lewis and Clark study we are learning how they journeyed to the Pacific Ocean and traveled across America. Along the way they discovered many plants and animals they had never seen before. We love to look in our nature study book and find out information on those plants and animals. Then we write down that information and draw a picture of them. We have started a journal type book for our information and pictures during this unit.

The kids started their piano lessons a couple of weeks ago. They had a hard time at first because the lessons were on the TV and the piano faced the opposite way in the other room. I found a really nice inexpensive 19" TV with DVD player built in that fits on the piano. So when they are doing their lessons they can see the teacher right in front of them and it won't be so difficult. It has helped tremendously. They are able to go to the next lesson when they feel they have mastered the one they are on. Posture and hand positions are a work in progress. We still need the piano tuned but haven't found anyone to do it yet.

Our school year is coming along nicely. We start our fifth week of school tomorrow. We did the work for today on Friday. We have been reading some great books. Even our unit study books have really been good books. We only have two more weeks of our Lewis and Clark study so we will add three more books to our reading list for the next unit.

We have met with our two homeschool groups once each. In August, AAHE had an ice cream social for our new school year kick off. We have our September meeting on Friday followed by lunch at CiCi's Pizza as a fundraiser for that group.

Our HomeBase Homeschool Friends group meets every other Thursday at the church gym. We had a great time this past Thursday talking about what we were using this school year and the kids playing in the gym. We are working on field trips and group activities we can do at least once a month. Your ideas are more than welcome. Share them with us.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Our 2011-2012 School Room

2011-08-24T14:38:00.002-05:00

I thought I would share what our school room looks like this year. I was able to get the room cleaned up and organized. I'm an organizing nut. When you walk in the front door you can see our school shelf. Under that shelf is a cabinet full of more school stuff and drawing books. It is also where the kids keep their large double three ring binders. We have all of our readers and reference books on these shelves, plus we many of the novels that we will be reading this year. I keep my teacher's books and planner on the bottom shelf.

To the left of that shelf, right next to the front door is my "desk" area. I have Pandora on my phone so at the beginning of the day I play praise and worship music on it. I have a small set of speakers that I hook it up to that are right next to my chair. Once we finish our morning devotional time, I put on movie sound tracks. When the kids are done with school they store the lap desks behind my chair.

On the wall next to the school shelves is our "office" center. We have a b/w laser printer and a color laser printer/copier//scanner/fax (but we don't have the fax hooked up). The school computer is in the middle. To the left of the computer is our cross cultural workers prayer board. John has this verse printed out and framed above it ...and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? Romans 10:14. The globe is sitting on containers that have what is left of my childcare toys.

On our magnetic dry erase board are more reference items. There are lists of both Old and New Testament books, a list of writing tips, a small US map, a prayer of commitment, and some Spanish words & phrases cards that I made myself. I also have some pretty butterfly clips to hang other things if needed.

Across from the "office" wall is the workout wall where we have our large laminated wall maps of the US and World. The kids have a tendency to sit between the equipment. Sometimes they do sit out in the large open space in the middle of the room.

Each child uses one of my lap desks. They have a double 3-ring binder and a small date book. We have double copies of some things, like the World Atlas and the United States History Atlas and dictionary.

We drink lots of water, especially in this Texas heat, so they each have a bottle of water. They sometimes trade lap desks or fight over them, I should say.

That was just a small glimpse into our world of homeschool. I will share more about what we are doing this year later. I am super excited about many of the things we are doing this year and the things we have added. I have some goals for the new school year I will post about, too. I hope you will come back and check them out. Plus share the links to your school rooms so I can see how you do things.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

2011 School Pictures

2011-08-18T11:34:00.000-05:00

This school year we took our school pictures in Colorado. We were there for a short visit with friends. We love it there and it was great to get away from the Texas heat for a bit.

5th Grade Age 10

7th Grade Age 12

Our School Year Has Begun 2011-2012

2011-08-08T15:20:00.002-05:00

We have started our new school year. I made sure to take a few pictures of the kids while they were working. Most of the time I never think about it. I had my camera out so that it was on my mind to catch a few good ones.

The kids both have lap desks that they use. We have a large kitchen table but it is easier at times to just gather in the front room and spread out. We are very relaxed about it as long as they can do their work neatly.

We started out this year putting information in a datebook for each child to keep up with on their own. They have a weekly Bible verse (our church gives us a verse a week to memorize), a daily Bible reading (from our church as well) and a couple of chapters in the Bible from my planner. They will write down any other assignments in their datebooks to keep up with on their own. I really want to instill in them that they are responsible for things. They don't need to depend on someone else to help them remember.

They have been doing Math-U-See for the past 6 years so their teacher, Mr. Steve, is an "old friend". They see him at the book fair each year. We are continuing on with our Trail Guide to Learning series, Paths of Exploration and will go right into Paths of Settlement. I am using the Middle School Supplement for both kids even though only one is in middle school. Jenni has been able to do the hardest level of work just like her brother. If she shows she is struggling then I will level it back down to fit her needs.

We are doing a wonderful study on Africa this year called Journey into Africa. We may stretch it out into two years since it looks at all the different countries in Africa and we have our other study. Right now we will do our Africa study once or twice a week. It comes with music and crafts.

For handwriting this year we are taking the weekly Bible verse that the church has for us to memorize and writing it in cursive each day. That will help them memorize the verse and help them with their cursive.

After lunch was a time to read. I went to check on them and maybe get a picture of them reading and I found her asleep with her new book in her hands. That is one reason I love homeschooling. We can get up early if we want and take an afternoon nap once the major subjects are taken care of. We will have assigned reading each day and at the end of the book the kids will do a book review and I will post it on here. I am very excited to see how their writing skills improve over the year, as well as the other skills we are working on.

We are also working on personal responsibilities, like keeping their rooms cleaned up, helping with the cooking and the cleaning. They already do those things but we are going to work on adding to their responsibilities in those areas.

As the weeks go on I will add music lessons, piano and guitar, to our daily schedule. We will do typing and drawing, too. But we are taking it slowly and getting the major subjects on track first. The kids will be doing fall and winter sports through our homeschool group and our church. They will also be learning how to horseback ride! We are so excited about that. The weather has to cool down first. We are hoping it will be soon.

Over the summer we did some major field trips. One of them was to Kenya, Africa for three weeks in June. You can check out our other blogs for pictures and information on that. We also went to Colorado for a week in July.

Thanks for sharing our first day of school with us. I hope to put things on here at least once a week this school year.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Home School Book Fair Next Week

2011-04-30T12:50:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but I get so excited about the Home School Book Fair every year. I love walking up and down those isles seeing all the new things there are and the old things that have lasted through the years. I usually have at least an idea of what I want to get. Last year I found the BEST curriculum EVER. It's called Trail Guides to Learning. They include every subject except Math. Which is fine for us because we have been using Math U See for the past 5 years and don't intend to stop now.

Back to our core curriculum. This school year we did Paths of Exploration. We enjoyed it so much. This kids and I both learned a great deal. I started homeschooling in 1997. I can honestly say this curriculum worked best for the kids and for their teacher. Next year we will be doing Paths of Settlement. They are coming out with the next in the series in August called Paths of Progress. Each set goes up a grade. They are planning on continuing all through high school, which thrills me to no end.

I have to be honest and say we only did a little over half of Paths of Exploration. But we are going to finish it up at the start of the next school year and then continue on with Paths of Settlement. I love homeschooling because of this very reason. We can always do more later if we do less now. Or we can do more now and less a little later. We just enjoy the learning process and keep it fun.

This year we finished Math the last week of March. Can you believe that? I can't. We were scheduled to finish in April but they just decided they would finish it up even earlier. I am not one to say no to doing more work that I require. Less, yes. But more? No way. Go for it. This next year JC will be doing PreAlgebra. Needless to say I am NOT looking forward to that. But I love this program so it is my hope that it will help me help him. It has so far.

I will be buying two years worth of school supplies because it is our hope that we will be sent overseas during this school year. I want to be prepared so that we can take it all with us instead of having to order it.

Although we are done with our basic school for this year I have added some things to finish out April and work through the summer. They are learning basic household duties and scheduling. It isn't running totally smoothly as of yet but it is a work in progress that I hope to carry on into the school year and beyond. We have a set schedule for laundry, what days we do what color clothes, and alternate which child does them that day to completion. We alternate who does the dishes each day and who helps cook the meals. I am teaching them how to make complete meals on their own.

We are bumping up our reading for the summer. They are having to read larger books in a shorter amount of time. We discuss the book as they are reading it and not just at the end of the book. It helps them to understand what they are reading and remember it. It is my intention to teach them how to do a book review like the ones I do on my writers blog. That will help them take the meaning out of the book that the author intended them to find.

We will be going on a HUGE "field trip" in June to East Africa. We are so excited about that. You can find out more information on that by reading our cross cultural ministry blog. I can't wait to share pictures from that trip.

I will be uploading pictures and information about our homeschool book fair trip next week. Thanks for stopping by.

Our Daniel Boone Unit

2011-02-01T20:34:00.000-06:00

This school year we have been using a wonderful program, Trail Guide To Learning: Paths of Exploration. We have fallen in love with this program. It is great for me, the teacher, because everything is laid out so clearly. Everything comes in your "backpack" of supplies with very few exceptions, like colored pencils and the like. For the kids it is great because it is fun and interesting. It includes all the subjects but math. We are able to do so many extra things with each unit. There are six units that take six weeks each. This year we are learning all about exploration of the United States, starting with Christopher Columbus. Next year we will be doing Paths of Settlement. They are supposed to keep making more to this series that will continue all the way through high school. I think that is awesome!

We are having such a great time with our Daniel Boone unit. We have been doing lots of reading about him and I purchased a DVD with some of the Disney TV shows from long ago. We watched one of them last night. It was different from the true story in a lot of ways but truth was mixed into the story line. I could tell where they changed it but still kept truth in it as well. For instance, he had a new child almost every couple of years, but on the show he only had two kids.

We have learned how Daniel Boone lived and explored many different places in the United States. We also learned a great deal about how the battle for independence impacted the settlers in ways we never knew. The British paid the Native American's to kill the settlers because they were trying to gain that independence from them.

We are also learning a lot about honey bees. Did you know that they are disappearing? And if we can't find a way to get them back and keep them we will lose a lot of our favorite fruits and veggies? I am not sure what we can do about it. We found the information by looking up Colony Collapse Disorder, which was first realized in the U.S. in 2006. If you and your kids are studying bees, this would be an awesome subject to check out. The reason we are learning about bees is because when the settlers got to America there weren't any honey bees. I didn't know that.

Most people had a snow day today because the weather is so odd for Texas. It has been below freezing and snowing lightly all day. The kids have gone out twice although I don't see how they can stand it. I stand at the door to check on them and freeze within seconds. Kids are so funny that they can stand things we can't. I am glad they are having a good time but hoping they don't lose any fingers while they are having fun. I'm telling you...it's cold! We did have our school time today. They got their math done before they went out the first time. Then they came in for lunch and our Unit Study time. Now they are back out there freezing. I took these pictures of them when I braved the cold for the few minutes it took me to get them to come off the playground to pose for it.

I don't often post on here because we are usually so busy doing that I don't think about stopping to take pictures. I will try to get better about it so you can see the neat things we are learning about.

School Pictures

2010-09-22T13:12:00.000-05:00

My oldest daughter took these pictures of her siblings. She is an awesome photographer!

11 1/2 years old, 6th grade

9 years old, 4th grade

First Day of School

2010-08-11T17:02:00.001-05:00

Our first day of school was Monday. 8-9-10. The kids got a big kick out of that. They figured it out when they wrote the date on their first page. We have had a great first three days of school. Some new things we are doing have made it so great. We are using the same Math-U-See, which we LOVE. We are doing the Paths for Exploration for our main curriculum. For our Bible curriculum the Paths of Exploration has a Bible supplement that we do daily called Light for the Trail.

We also have Precept Ministries Discovery 4 Yourself Kids Monday, Wednesday and Friday's. We are doing the Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends on Tuesday and Thursdays. We start our days with our Bible time. In the Light for the Trail the kids work on memory verses and how they relate to our lives and what needs to change in our lives to line up with God's Word. They have a Bible notebook that they write in each day. And a memory project they work on every three weeks that is a longer amount of verses.

Then we either do math or start on our Paths of Exploration. After we finish that up we have lunch. The kids have an hour or so reading time. They have chosen a novel from the list I have put together. The two novels they are reading are The Lightning Thief and Ella Enchanted. (Ella Enchanted was her sisters book!)

Each week we have a game that we play every day. We have a container with slips of paper that have games on them. We pick a game out of the container and that is our game for that week. This weeks is Canasta. We are keeping our score from each day and adding on to it. A lot of the games we are learning how to play together and some of them are games I played as a child and youth. Canasta is one I played when I was young. I wanted to pass it on to them.

The kids will have music time, JC will learn the bass guitar from his dad and Jenni will learn the piano from me. We will start the lessons next week and they will be twice a week. They will practice 30 minutes each morning and evening. I can't wait to see how much they grow in that area by the end of the school year.

We will add PE to the mix next week. They do play outside each day with friends and this week have played in the gym at church each night. Our days are so full that may be the majority of what they do until there is FBCA basketball in the spring.

We have our nightly Bible time with dad. Right now we are studying angels. We are learning so much about them. We are hearing things about angels in our lessons at church and during the sermons that we pull out because we are studying them. We share them in our nightly Bible time when we learn something about angels outside of that. The kids each look up verses during that time. They are getting very good at finding any book in the Bible. They will both be doing Bible Drill with the church after the first of the year. We are so blessed to have the head of our household leading us each day to search God's Word and learn His truths.

That is the basics of our school days. I will do my best to add pictures when I can. I will take the kids to the park soon and take school pictures of them. I am sure they have changed so much since last years pictures!

2010 School Room

2010-07-24T10:46:00.001-05:00

I am so excited about our new school year! We have some wonderful new curriculum we are using and the same Math (which we LOVE). I rearranged the front room this morning to make it into our school room. Funny how this room has had so many different names to fit what we needed it for at the time. We have our school books, including teacher books and reference books on the shelves.

I love my containers!

We have toys and supplies in the containers. I still have to go through those and organize them a little better. We will be doing so many fun things this year! The kids will include music lessons during the week. Jenni will be doing piano (I will be her teacher). JC will be doing bass lessons (his dad will teach him, of course). I am excited to see how they will have progressed by the beginning of the next school year.

We will be doing some book reviews on the children's books we read. I will let each one do reviews on the books they read. This will be a year of great discovery of their talents and joy in learning.

We will try to do some field trips during the year and if I don't get too wrapped up in doing I will post about it on here. We get so busy with doing that I forget to take pictures and post about it. I know I should. I am also going to try to get into digital scrapbooking and will put together a school scrapbook for them. So much I want to do! Praying God will give me the time, energy and resources to get it done!

I will be subbing part time with the local school district because our money situation right now requires that I find some type of work. We are praying God will allow more time with the kids and less time working but our bills still get paid. It is in His hands, as always!

New Things For 2010-2011 School Year

2010-05-07T16:15:00.001-05:00

We found some really great stuff for the new school year! I have posted pictures and links of them on the side of this page. Check them out when you have time. We are all excited about our new school year but also excited for a fun summer in between! The kids just have about a days worth of stuff left to finish before they are considered 4th and 6th graders! We will do lots of reading during the summer. But we will have tons of things to do with our church and Mission Arlington.

Have a GREAT summer!!!

Headed to the Bookfair!!!

2010-05-07T08:19:00.002-05:00

This school year has been so busy we have failed to take pictures and write about it. I will try to do better next school year! A few days ago we had a GREAT time. We found a nice spot in the middle the Highlands! Isn't that funny? Right in the middle of a shopping center. They have the landscape done so nicely with a "brook" running through it. We brought our lunch, math books and towels to sit on and had a fine picnic. We went into Borders afterwards to read a bit.

I am not sure what all we will find today at the bookfair. We have talked about doing history and science during the summer months on our off weeks from summer activities. I think it will be much easier to do science when Dad isn't working the LONG hours he is now. Hoping that happens very soon. We are almost done with this years work. Soon I will have a 4th and 6th grader! yay! They are totally excited!

Our adventure continues.....

School Pictures

2009-11-07T17:57:00.001-06:00

I took the kids to our favorite park, Creative Playground, to take our school pictures this year. It was such a beautiful day! They wanted to play so I was trying to get the pictures as quickly as I could. I was so "fast" that I forgot to get some of them together, which they reminded me when we got home later. I guess I will just have to "dress them up" again and go back! They really didn't get to play as much as they wanted because their dad called from work to say he was done and we met him for lunch.

JC: age 10 1/2, 5th grade

Jenni: age 8, 3rd grade

We should be posting some pictures of the History Fair next weekend. And I suppose I should take some pictures of the soccer games (JC's team wins each week). We will be doing a Christmas play with the homeschool group in December. So much fun!

2009-09-26T12:25:00.001-05:00

As I was washing the breakfast dishes Friday morning I saw spider webs glistening in the morning sunlight. An idea came to my mind! Let's study spiders today! So we got the camera and took some pictures. While we were out there we found a hurt butterfly. I almost got a picture of it on Jenni's leg but it scared her.

Jenni got a close up look wearing her new sunglasses from the Hillman's.

This was a neat web. It looks like it has something in it that the spider wrapped up. I wonder what kind of bug it was. We weren't sure but had lots of guesses.

We didn't see a spider even though there were so many webs all over the place.

Our pretty butterfly climbed on the gate as we watched it. Butterflies are one of God's creatures that has always been one of my favorites. Those who know me can tell you I have lots of things with butterflies on them in my home.

JC did his best to catch it and get a closer look. He finally did and we noticed that its wings were torn up. That is why it was on the ground and climbing up the gate instead of flying away. Poor thing.

The kids looked up information on four different spiders and did a report (mini report) on it and drew a picture of the one they chose. I wanted to share that with everyone. They did a good job.

The Wolf Spider by Jennifer

Wolf Spiders don't spin webs. They hunt for there food at night. They have very good eye sight. They have strong legs to make them run fast. They have four large and small eyes. Spiderlings will live on there mother's back until they are big enough to hunt on their own.

The Jumping Spider by Jonathan

Jumping Spiders are small. They have four pairs of eyes that can see their pray from 12 inches away. They can jump a very long way for such small spiders. It leaps on it's prey before the insect can see them. Jumping Spiders eat small insects. They do not make webs since they catch their prey by jumping on them. They are easily identified with their black and white markings. They have a hairy body.

I am very proud of their work and that they had a good time doing it. We went to soccer afterwards and they had a great time doing that. Next week starts the games, this was just a practice week.

I love being able to spend our days together doing fun things like this. Discovering Gods world and creations is an amazing thing!

Until next time I find a chance to blog, usually too busy doing...

First Day of School 2009-2010

2009-08-24T20:45:00.001-05:00

Today was the first day of school for these two, just like AISD. It is true, we usually don't start until after Labor Day weekend. But every year I get to hear about their friends being off for a teacher work day or something like that. So I decided we would give it a try this year. We will be off when they are off and on when they are on. But that means no more "free Friday's" and no more "no book work the whole month of December" with only crafts and reading projects to do then. We usually spend December focusing on Christ's birth and all the things that go with that special holiday, like making gifts for others, serving others and just enjoying our family time when the rest of the world seems to be so wrapped up in commercialism. We will still have two weeks off in December so we will make the best of our time. We will still finish school the first week in May, like last year. I really liked being done with school before the bookfair that weekend. It made looking for next years stuff so much more fun. Instead of having to go home from the bookfair and having to work so hard for the next few weeks before summer, we were able to just enjoy our time and look forward to the next year.

Of course, we had to do the traditional "first day of school" pictures! I have done them for years and years, even though we homeschool. Why should we not when that is part of the fun? We get to look at them each year and see how much they have grown. These two have grown so much this year! I now have a 3rd grader and 5th grader.

I just love her smile! She makes me smile when I see it! She was really excited when she found the purple binder. We tried to find hot pink but it was a different type of binder. These are really neat, they have two sets of rings inside! So I got those so they would have similar binders. I have some great ideas on using the binders and keeping things more organized this year.

He wanted to take the picture with his backpack even though it is the same as last year. It has stayed in such good condition we didn't need to buy new ones. He has a cool red binder. He was trying not to smile too big in this. I think he thought he was too old to take this picture. But I am glad he did! He won't be this age ever again and "mom" needs the pictures so I can look back and remember!

This year we did some things differently to help them with their organizational skills and just to make it more fun. Also, so they could grow in their writing. We have many aspects of English. I am looking forward to see how creative they can be with their writing. We have three composition books each; story journal, daily journal and newspaper journal. I am sure the first two are pretty self explanatory. But the third one you might not know. Each week they will have their own Sunday paper (I buy more than one each week for the coupons). Each week they need to look through it and find an article that catches their attention, cut it out, and paste it in the journal. That way they get used to reading the paper and finding articles of interest. It will also help them learn how a paper is put together. By the second half of the school year I would like for them to be able to put their own "paper" together monthly. We will send it to family and friends. And possibly "publish" some of the articles on this blog.

We will be doing Grammar together. We will be memorizing the prepositions and playing fun games to help us remember them. Plus other fun grammar games. I have a writing book, The Write Stuff, that has some neat writing assignments in it that we will do throughout the year. They will also be required to write a REAL letter once a week and mail it. Not an e-mail, but a written letter. It seems to be a lost art these days. We are still using our Spelling Power for Spelling. They placed very well on the test, both 7th grade spelling levels! I was impressed!

The Bible verses we will learn this year are many, instead of one large one. They will have weekly verses to help them towards their goals in GA's and RA's at church. We will learn the verses from Ephesians on the Armour of God since last year we did the Beatitudes. They still have their daily devotion books plus we have our Discovery 4 Yourself studies we will be working on through the year.

I think we will have a great year!!! So far, so good!!! I am very happy with how things went today. They worked hard! I am trying to keep things fun so they will want to keep working hard.

Home School Book Fair 2009

2009-05-11T10:12:00.001-05:00

Every year in Arlington the weekend of Mother's Day the Home School Book Fair is that Friday and Saturday. We set aside that weekend for family time. A time to focus on the past school year and what we accomplished or didn't. And a time to focus on the coming school year and what we want to accomplish during that time for each child. It is such a joy and a privilege to have this responsibility. I wouldn't trade it for anything!

The kids were able to finish up their school work on Thursday. That is the first time we have done that and we really like it. So that will be our goal from now on, to be finished before the bookfair! We may have to work a little harder in some areas at certain times of the year but we will still not start until after Labor Day and we will still take a winter holiday from Thanksgiving week through New Years. We do so much during that time anyway, just not workbooks.

This year, while I did get the traditional math workbooks that we enjoy, my heart was drawn to things that will prepare my preteens for the things that will be coming in the near future. It may seem early for that when my children are only 10 and almost 8 but I know that if I let this window of time slip by and do not prepare them in the way that the Lord is leading me to do then I am not doing my job correctly as a mother. The world has such different standards than the Lord does. So if I want my children to have the Lords standards for handling things then I need to get to them before the world does.

I found this neat series for preteens and young teens and their moms called Secret Keeper Girl. It is for moms and daughters. I purchased the younger version of the 8 Great Dates for you and your daughter. I also got the Bible study called: My Best Friend Jesus. I want my daughter to know that above all, Jesus needs to be her best friend. And that I am here for her in all things. My older daughter and I went through some hard times so I am trying to learn from the mistakes I made. We are very close now but went through so many hard times to get here. I am hoping I can help my other little princess have an easier road.

I also got the Beautifully Made set. It teaches her about the changes that are going on in her body and how to deal with them. There is one for younger girls like her and then when she does start. There is also one for moms. It has ideas for celebrations you can do with your daughter when that time comes. It helps them celebrate the changes that God created instead of dreading them. I am very excited to do this because I didn't learn them this way. I learned most of it from kids from school. Not really the best way.

I also found some things for the guys in my family. Most of them are to teach them what God expects them to be as a godly man. I even found one for moms called Preparing Him for the Other Woman: A Mother's Guide to Raising Her Son to Love a Wife and Lead a Family. I thought that would be really good for me to read.

That is a glimpse of what I found. I am praying that this new school year will be full of wonderful memories for our family and building blocks to a godly life for my youngsters!

Too Busy to Post

2009-04-06T15:16:00.000-05:00

I realize that there have only been a few posts on this blog since I started it last May. I have to be honest and say that we are usually too busy to take pictures while we are doing school. But we have had a very full year, indeed. The younger two kids are almost finished with math. They only have about 4 or 5 more weeks, if that. We will spend the summer reading and exploring.

My teenager is working hard to catch up after not getting a lot done. He will work through the summer to catch up and then through the next year to graduate! He is excited about picking out his SR. ring! I will post a picture of that on here when he gets it.

The book fair is coming up and we will post what we find there. I love that time of year when everyone gets to plan special things for the school year as a family. God is good and is doing so much in our family right now. Please keep us in your prayers.

School Pictures

2008-11-25T13:42:00.003-06:00

I finally got their "school" pictures done for this year! Last year they went to the private school and the photographer was terrible. So I didn't buy them. I did them myself this year. Not too bad!

2nd Grade/Age 7

4th Grade/Age 9

11th Grade/Age 16

Field Trip to the Park

2008-10-24T19:35:00.000-05:00

Last week we had a day where we knew we wouldn't have any daycare kids until late afternoon. So I told the kids if they got up and got school done early we would spend the morning at the park. It was going to be a lovely day so we were very excited!

Our homeschool is relaxed in one way. The kids have their books in in a crate in the cabinet. Each morning they get them out and put them on the table. When they have completed a subject they put those books back into the crate. In the picture above they are working on their book study together. They had to look up some vocabulary words in the dictionary.

The park we went to was our favorite park from when my older two kids were little! It is called Creative Playground and it is on Fielder and Green Oaks. It is the best! We had many a birthday party there.

They loved running around all over the place and doing the rock climbing wall. They played for an hour and then Pirate Lad rode his skateboard for a little while.

We took our drawing pads to the park so that after an hour of play they could get some art in. Game Champ drew the tire swing but wouldn't let me keep it or take a picture of it. He did a good job.

Pirate Lad decided to draw a tree. He was very serious about his drawing. He really has a gift when it comes to drawing because it is something he loves to do. He wants to get all sorts of drawing materials so he can try lots of new styles.

I think he did a great job! He put all the little limbs on it and he loves to sign and date it. I wish he would learn to do it smaller so it takes up less attention from his drawing but I suppose that will come with time.

Star Princess went around finding different leaves that she liked and she traced them and then taped them to the other page. That is a style in her nature book she learned from her last school.

This is her finished product. She didn't put them in the book exactly like she drew them. I had thought she would color the other ones or draw the lines on them but I think she was too tired from our day out.

We had such a wonderful day. We went to eat lunch afterwards. I wanted to go to Souper Salad but they convinced me to go to Pancho's. I must say that I am disappointed in how they make their food now. Everything is changed and not for the better. Except the sopapias (spelling wrong, sorry). But live and learn. We won't be back. Next time, we use my idea!

I know it has been few and far between posts but we are really working hard each day on our book stuff. For the month of December we will be doing lots of fun things that I am hoping I can get pictures of and blog about. Until then, there might not be too much on here. As the holidays approach us at a fast speed I wish all of you many blessings and love. And don't forget to remember why we celebrate and who we have to thank for all good things! Blessings!

~Colorado Dreamin'

Field Trip to the Circus

2008-10-24T19:19:00.001-05:00

Two weeks ago we were given tickets to the circus in Fort Worth. It was such a treat because none of the kids got to go. We thought Baby Girl was going to get to go with us but it didn't work out. We were very sad because she had never gone either. I know that sounds terrible that we never took them to the cirus before, but there are a lot of things we have yet to do with our children. We are working on fixing that.

Pirate Lad was the only one brave enough to ride the elephant! He loved it. It only went around in the ring twice. For $8 it should have gone around a few more times. But I suppose since we were gifted with the tickets it didn't hurt to spend that money on an elephant ride. He is the third from the front with a white cap on backwards.

The boys really enjoyed the motorcycles in a cage. There was a 10 year old riding one of them. It was something! It made me feel very nervous for them. They also liked the trapees and high wire acts.

Star Princess loved the rope climbers that spun around and did fancy moves in the air as they hung from silky material "ropes". She loved the poodles that did their act. There were also ladies that did fancy things with hoola hoops.

Pirate Lad took a picture of us and he did pretty good. All in all, we had a wonderful time at the circus. We love doing things with our family! What a blessing our friends are, too! Thanks so much for the tickets. It was a blast!

Our First Day of School

2008-09-02T15:55:00.000-05:00

Today was our first day of school! It was full of surprises and a little anxiety. But not for long. I woke up and found out that what we had planned for our 11th grader was not going to happen....again. We were going to put him in public school. That didn't work out, which I am fine with because I don't like public school at all. But I felt I had no option. We couldn't send him to Flint anymore. It was just way toooo costly. Then we thought we would send him to Flint for just math, but that didn't work out either. So......I am now homeschooling an 11th grader, a 4th grader and a 2nd grader! God knows what HE is doing, I am sure.

Today we took longer than I had hoped to do school, in fact, we are still working on it right now and it is after 4 in the afternoon. But we took a long break, so that is fine. I am happy working with my kids a little here and there throughout their day.

My children have been working on memory verses throughout the summer. We decided that since they learned the Lords Prayer and the 23rd Psalm we needed to learn the Beatitudes. So they are taking one verse a week and they recite it everyday. Then the next week we add the next verse so they do two verses. It will keep going until they learn the whole thing. We also talk about what those verses mean as we go along. I love it! They are doing a great job. We are on the third verse this week.

The Beatitudes

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

Because the kingdom of heaven is their.

Blessed are those who mourn,

Because they will be comforted.

Blessed are the gentle,

Because they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

Because they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

Because they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

Because they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

Because they will be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness,

Because the kingdom of heaven is their.

Matthew 5:3-10

I was not trying to take pictures of the kids while they were working, we were too busy working! I don't know how many pictures I will take but will try to take them when we have something special going on, like a field trip or project. Please pray for our little school. I am not in search of a great Latin program so my son can have his Latin 2 credit. But I think I have found a really good one! With DVD's to go with it! God is showing me all sorts of things today and I am trying to be very still and know that He is God! I am getting more and more excited about this school year and where it will take us. Stay tuned for more home school details!!!

~~Colorado Dreamin'

Our Homeschool Focused Weekend

2008-05-12T11:08:00.002-05:00

We had a wonderful weekend! It was very full but very productive and positive. In Texas last week is the "official" Homeschool week. Six Flags has a Homeschool day on Thursday (we didn't go to it this year but might next year!), the book fair is at the convention center for Friday and Saturday and the Rangers Ballpark has Homeschool night at the Ballpark on Friday night.

We went to a few conferences and the kids were very good! They took something to do while we were in there. When we were in between looking at the curriculum and going to a conference we sat in the lobby and talked and laughed with each other.

On of the conferences we went to was on Peace Treaties in the Living Room. It was by the three siblings that wrote Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends. Towards the end of the session they did a visual presentation. The oldest daughter did a chalk drawing while her brother did the talking and her sister played the harp. There were times where both girls would stop what they were doing to talk, too. It was amazing to watch and hear them. Pirate Lad made me take a picture of her picture. He is very into art and drawing. That is why he got two small art sets while we were there, water colors and drawing.

John was "in charge" of finding our Science since he is the one teaching science. He will be helping me in other areas but that is one of the things that will be his only. He is also in charge of our family devotions. He found a great resource for that. In the picture above they are at a science booth where that car was going around the circle on that table. Jennifer was watching that while John and Jonathan were watching their computer demonstration while the man explained the program to them. "Dad" took finding the right program very seriously. He looked diligently both days before he found what he wanted. He thought once that he found one but then as he looked closer he found that it was full of evolution. He was disappointed. But God led him to the right one and he is very excited to get started. We found just the right things for each subject and are very pleased with what we found.

Since we were going to the Ranger game after the book fair they told us at the Ranger office to park in that parking lot early so that we wouldn't have to pay for parking. So we did and walked to the convention center on Friday after lunch. The kids liked telling people how they had to walk so FAR! It was only down the street a block away. We have a tradition when we go to the book fair, we go in the morning and don't buy anything. Then we go to lunch and talk about the things we saw and liked or didn't like. This time we went to Chili's and it was so good! When we got back there were several things we knew we wanted but there were also many things that we needed to think about over night and look up on the Internet for more details. There was also a conference the next morning on the Accountable Kids so I wanted to check it out first before I purchased it. The conference sold me! It is a wonderful program that they kids learn to remind themselves to do things instead of me hounding them all morning to get their list of things done and then wondering if they really did do them. We will start it next Sunday. More info on that later!

We got done at the book fair a little before 5 so we waited outside the Ballpark for it to open. A local Homeschool resource store and the Ballpark had arranged for a comedian and illusionist to come perform for the homeschool kids before the show.

Since it was a special day we did splurge on a few things that we normally wouldn't. The four of us got an Icee! It tasted so good because it had gotten so hot. We were on the very top of the stadium and you can see the new Cowboy Stadium being built in the background. Fourstringpop planned it that way!

Jonathan also got nachos, John got a hot dog, mom got an ice cream cookie sandwich and Jonathan and Jennifer got Dibs. Yes, we spent far two much but we had a good time and that is what counts. We never do that so this was special.

They had a really, really hard time staying in their seats! They were all over the place. We were almost at the top of the bleachers so it really didn't matter much. For the most part they were super! They were excited when the Rangers got a hit and when they struck someone out. The Rangers got a home run and fireworks went off but the guys were in the bathroom so they missed it! Too Bad! But the Rangers did win! 4 to 0! Samantha said that we should go more often maybe they would win more often. I don't know about that. But it was a good game.

Even John was in a playful mood as I tried to take our picture. He was quite proud of himself for putting rabbit ears on me! We got home and they crashed. We got up at 6 that morning. We went to IHOP for breakfast before the book fair. On Saturday morning we got up an hour later but still got to the book fair on time. Samantha decided she wanted to go on Saturday so we picked her up. My two younger kids spent the whole day walking around with her. They had a blast and were so good. I was proud of them!

So as our weekend came to a close I felt so good about things. I spent half of Mother's Day cleaning out cabinets and throwing things away. We have started organizing our Homeschool cabinet. I am so excited to get things cleaned out and start this new adventure with a new frame of mind. One that is focused on Christ and His plans for our lives. More to come.....

Our Journey Begins.....

2008-05-08T13:39:00.001-05:00

Our Homeschooling journey, that is. I am so excited to be starting down this road again after a two year break. We will begin our journey tomorrow as we head to the book fair and search out information and new resources to use. It will be our first "field trip" in this journey and I will be posting about it over the weekend! I can't wait to share our adventures with you all!