Living With a Two Year Old

I just had to post a second time today. I will preface this story with saying... I have a temper. I get it from my mom who gets it from her dad who I assume gets it from his mom. Needless to say, I come from a long line of temper tantrum oriented people. This curse does not stop with me. My oldest has a temper. My 2 year old has a temper. Oh I know about 2 year old tempers; I have seen them. But Bubba takes the cake. He will bang his beautiful, porcelain forehead on hard concrete to make his point (and cry all the harder because he hurt himself). He will take a bull run at the sliding glass door if he isn't getting let in. Nothing deters this child when he is at his finest.

Well today, I guess, was his finest. Pappa wasn't letting him in. Mamma was no where to be found. And his cries for help were going unnoticed by the world. So he took a handful of rocks and launched them at the door. What happens when you normally launch rocks at a door. Well I would think just a scratched up door. But Oh no, Bubba must have weakened the glass from his previous bull runs that he does this to the door:

Now Bubba didn't create the hole. The glass started bowing out, so Techie Guy started to clean it up before I could get pictures. Like this one:


Yeah you did that Bubba. Nice Work!

How do you clean up bulging shards of glass.... SHOP VAC.... Gotta love the Shop Vac:

After the steam stopped rolling out of my ears, and my eyeballs returned to their proper place, I realized this was a perfect opportunity to practice my Macro shots. Might as well make that glass of lemonade half full right? So here they are:



and this one:



and this one (I love the glow of the sun on this one... Look at how thick the glass is.. that was one doosie of a rock!) :



Cool eh? Well I thought so. Unfortunately I could not capture the sound of constant cracking, or the picture of all those tiny lines being created. May you never have to hear the music of a broken. double-pane, sliding, glass door. (By the way only one of the panes broke.)

So remember, when your children decide to take on such projects like impaling your door with rocks, dunking their head in the toilet, smearing unmentionables all over their crib, or drawing picture on your doors with permanent markers (not that we have experience with those here). Take a deep breath and grab your camera. As you are shooting remember the future and all the times you can use those wonderful pictures as blackmail. Yeah punishment ain't enough here baby... I've got a camera!


Goodnight All!

Organizing - Year at a Glance

Well I have seen many Homeschool moms use a Year at a Glance tool, and at first I thought it wasn't something I needed to do. However, I have determined that it would be a very useful tool for me to keep track of what we are doing each month. Here are the links to two of the ladies I have seen use it.

1. Jessica at Trivium Academy

2. Jennefer at Smooth Stones Academy

I am sure there are others, but these are the two ladies who have inspired me to do my own Year at a Glance. Hats off to them as they have created an amazing tool. As I have come up with mine, I can see how it helps put the year into perspective. It helps me see what we are going to study so I can keep a weather eye out for any supplemental material. I like being able to see what we have done and I will have the ability to keep track if we get behind in a subject. I still use Homeschool Tracker, but I like this high level view. So without further ado... here is mine (please forgive the quality as I don't really know how to get documents on the blog except converting them piece by piece to an image.)



It is actually 40 weeks because our current studies will go into next year... Except Biology. I thought we would be going to NOEO Chemistry after the first of the year, but I don't want to split Science between this school year and next. Why... I really don't know... it just doesn't feel right. So now I am looking into doing a short study on the Solar System. Nothing fancy or overly involved. Since NOEO doesn't have an Astronomy study, I think this is a good time to do one. So I will go off hunting on that one and report to ya' what I find.

As for the holidays, well we are planning a trip in December, and with Thanksgiving and Christmas... well that puts a welcomed crimp in our school schedule. Since we are ending Sonlight Core 1 with the Birth and Resurrection of Jesus, I thought it would be great to do a lenghtened study on our Savior at this time. I am including Mystery of History's study on the the first churches, and Paul's journey. For our homeschool group we are making ornaments for an Jesse Tree Ornament trade (ours is the Sheep and the staff). So we will be adding the Jesse Tree study in for our Bible Time. I also LOVE the book Jesse Tree by Geraldine McCaughrean



It is a story centered around a rather grouchy gentleman telling a young boy the story of the Jesse Tree. There is a transformation of the characters in the end. I will be looking to purchase it this year as I want to get it from the library every year and keep it all holiday season.

Well that is my plan and the things rolling around in my head for right now. Now to go get some laundry done. Have a Blessed Day!!!

Fall Brings Cool Weather, Open Windows, and the State Fair

Well Fall has finally arrived here in the desert. Every year about this time high winds surprise us and we stand out at Homeschool park day commenting on the chill in the air and the wind that is bending and breaking some of our trees. It was just a couple of weeks ago we were still in the triple digits. Now we can open our windows, and freeze in the morning.

Friday we went to the State Fair. We had a great time. It was nice because it was "Education Day" and we got in 3 hours before the official opening so that we could go through the exhibits. There were of course cows, and pigs, chickens, and goats, and lots of roaming 4-H'rs. I remember days of county fairs where my sisiter would show her horse in 4-H. I have contemplated involving our kids in 4-H but I don't think our neighbors would appreciate live stock in the back yard. I didn't realize, till going through these exhibits, the diversity of 4-H. Crafts, sewing, photography. Gives a girl a lot to think about.

We did end up adopting a HUGE Dalmation

Because every little girl wants her daddy to win her a huge dog at the fair. This one took Techie Guy 2 games. The kids were so excited.

One thing I love about the fair is the colors. It gives the begining photographer a chance to take an insane amount of pictures of some pretty colorful things. Like this Merry Go Round. I just love Merry Go Rounds.. can't ride them so I take pictures of them.


Well for all the fun we had... we sure had a weekend of recovering. Especially from the food. Turkey legs, funnel cakes, cotton candy... my arteries were just trembling, but the fair comes only once a year and gives us a reason to take off school for the day and have a family day out. Nothing beats the amazement of kids at the fair.

Ancient Civilization History Pockets and Sonlight

I have created a spreadsheet that combines Sonlight Core 1 studies with the Ancient Civilization History Pockets. If you want to see this book in person you can take a peak here: Where you can click and see every page in the book. You'll also want to take a journey around the site as Evan-Moor has a plethora of materials to enhance the homeschool journey. Now back to the schedule as I could easily get sidetracked on the other resources we are and/or want to use. I created this document while going through lesson by lesson and seeing what was assigned each day. It seems to be pretty popular on the Sonlight Forums so I am happy that it could bless other homeschool households.

 

I am still new in blogger land so bare with me... You should be able to click on the image to see the file in full.

Have fun travelling back into Ancient Times. Bring your sunscreen because the sun gets mighty hot in Egypt!

New Curriculum is in

The smell of fresh ink, paper, and binding glue is in the air. Don't you just love that smell? That coupled with the smell of a pumpkin candle and cool mornings... ahhh makes my heart go pitter pat. I breath it in one more time and feel I just have to take a picture of it all. Well really just the cause of new book smell.  Can't you just smell the ink? Ok maybe I am overdramatizing it a bit, but any curriculum junkie can tell you that after you spend an insane amount of money to bring education to your home, nothing is better than seeing it roll in box by box, sitting there on your front stoop waiting to be opened like a Christmas package. Then you lay it all out admiring your new purchases forgoing the thoughts of the work that lay ahead of you.

The bulk that lay before me comes from Sonlight Core 2 accompanied by 3-5 grade readers. Just looking at the titles makes me want to be 8 again, however I do get to pretend as I intend on reading all the readers before we get started. I was quite pleased to see so many books that go with the time period we were studying so I had to take a picture of that too.
 

I am thinking it is going to be an exciting year as we step back in time to the middle ages. Castles, knights in shining armor, vikings... oh the projects will be a blast. In the middle of it all I will try to schedule Mystery of History II so that we can intermingle church history with our studies.

Next is Math... may I just say BLECH...I am so very blessed that I have a math wizard as a husband and the daunting task of teaching mathematics lies on him. Oh he thinks it is great joy which completely baffles me. Of course he doesn't understand my excitement in history so I guess we are even. We ordered Right Start Level C and even though I am not a Math Wizard... I think it will be great for dd who is already picking up multiplication. Oh to be young and to actually have paid attention in Math Class.

In the back of the first picture is Bible Study Guide for All Ages. I am impressed with what I see. It looks pretty simple to implement and I can send dd on her own after we all gather and read through the scriptures. Then Little Dora and I can sit down and play Bible Games that I had long forgotten about. Someday I might get organized so that I gems like these don't get forgotten. But that will have to be put off another day. Now I must go finish Ancient studies so that we can move onto the Middle Ages.

Camping Follies Part2

 

I just had to start out with this picture.... It was truly just Little Dora trying to be cute but it seems to sum up the way this trip turned out... Here is another one...

 

I already explained how we have learned the limitations of a Chevy Uplander on good ole country roads. Those same country roads did give us a view like this one...

 

I really need to get Photoshop so that I can get rid of the big power lines going across the photo. However I must mention that those power lines buzzed like nothing I have heard before... but I digress. We ended back at camp where we decide to go Crawdad fishing. I will have to share those photos later because some of them are really cool in my biased opinion. When we got back and were cooking the crawdads up (of which I opted for the less mobile hot dogs instead) I proceeded to trip out of our camp trailer and twist my foot trying to take the brunt of the landing as I was carrying Bubba as well. We met the ground fast and hard and it was not a nice "howdy do" My ankle swelled up to the size of a nice grapefruit and I couldn't walk the rest of the trip. It ends up I have a severe double sprain which has caused much unwanted pain and beeeaauutifful marbling of purple, green, black, and yellow on my foot. We ended up having a nice trip besides all the afor mentioned (plus Bubba burning himself on a propane lamp) events. I did end up with a cool picture of my foot x-ray... they put them on CD's now. I can add that to my ever growing school supply list. But instead of sharing these uneventful pictures of my foot to you I will leave you with this one of Bubba and the soon to be lost bucket. Ain't he a cutie??

 

The Great Outdoors - an adventure

We decided on the spur of the moment to go camping in what we all call the "high country". We were all tired of the heat and the "high country" meant lazy days of no heat, possibly some rain, beautiful views, time for me to practice my photography, and many other things that would give us good reason to leave the comfort of modern day living to rough it in the Great Outdoors. Now with 3 children you end up really wanting some comforts of home, so we hitched up the family pop up trailer and away we went. It is such a nice place to visit in September and becomes such a learning ground for children who can only keep one thing in mind... S'Mores. So this is where we went...

Well this was actually a road by where we finally camped. This is actually the road that took us to a look out where we mistakenly decided to take another less travelled road trying to find... well we had no idea what we were trying to do. This is our less travelled road....

Now that I have been down this road I am thinking this picture should have given us a clue to why we should be using better judgement... but our baby was asleep and our adventurous sides were showing and we took the path straight on. We did not anticipate the ear piercing screaming of our seven year old (and the things that were coming out of her mouth in any other situation would have us rolling on the floor... but I digress), or the ruts that could have hidden a cow (OK i exaggerate a bit, but they were big), or the fact there was absolutely NO place to turn around. Well Princess K and I got out (the 2 scaredy cats of the group got out and went ahead to try to find a place to turn around while Techie Guy maneuvered our Chevy Uplander (yes we were attempting this adventure in a minivan) around boulders and ditches. After several attempts.. one leaving the van on two wheels... we did get the van turned around and made it back to safety.. I mean camp. And we thought our adventure had ended... well that was just the beginning. And it is here I will leave you till tomorrow where I can bore you with more details of our Camping adventures. I will leave you with this image of Princess K completely back to normal and calm. She nearly kissed our camping area when we parked the car. Poor thing.

Change is a Good Thang....

Ok I had to change back to my original site. I am not blogging savvy enough to make it do what I want. So with that said I will be using this one until I can figure out things on my own and design something that fits this crazy life I live in. As soon as I can kick (well not really) Little Dora off the computer, I will be posting with pictures YEAH! But here I wait until I have the heart to send my baby girl off to a new and exciting adventure... yeah that's it Little Dora.. a new and exciting adventure !

This Day... How do I teach my children

This morning I got up and as usual unaware of what day it is... but how could I forget. I ventured over to one of my favorite blogs and dear Jessica at Trivium Academy had put up a reminder... this became my reminder and the begining of a long set of thoughts about This Day. I thought back to that day which seems just like a couple of months ago, what was I doing, what did I do that entire day, who did I talk to, who did I pray for, and now my heart weeps. I pray Dear LORD comfort those whose hearts are ripping right now as this anniversary is more than just a day of rememberance but a day in which they will feel their loss.

Little Dora sits here and sings and I am reminded of my grandparents (as she is singing about hers). How did they teach their little ones about the bombing of Pear Harbor. Since I did not know my grandparents, I do not know the answer. I am sure that they probably felt what we feel in this generation. I guess it is at this point you can either teach about hate or love. Teach about vengence or about prayer. I will teach of prayer. Praying for those mourning, pray for those defending our country (God Bless our Brave Soldiers!!!), pray for our leaders, pray for those that hate us so. And teach to look for the day that Jesus will soothe all our wounds and bring peace to those that follow him. Look up dear children because the answers abound from Heaven.

A Month in Review

Well we have been at it for a month and I am quite happy with our pace. I love how God has just put things into place without us even realizing it. It looks like we will finish our tour through Ancient History sometime around mid October. That will end our first quarter and give us a fresh cut into the next Sonlight Core... Core 2. Math is doing far better than we expected and Princess will be taking a final level assessment on Friday. This puts her in the level C book for Right Start. It is a breath of fresh air to hear her "get it". Math is clicking for her and I see her using it all day.

We started our new grammar... Sonlight LA for Grade 3 Readers. Even though Princess has already read all the 3rd Grade readers, I wanted to start her here seeing that it will be a bit light for her. She did not like First Language Lessons and thus has a bad taste for Grammar. I figure if I go easy on her then she might like Grammar again. I will have to report later on how we like this new flavor of Grammar.

Science is a bit rocky. We are enjoying it but we aren't as far as I would like. It looks like we will be studying Biology until the end of the year. The experiments are fun as long as we can get them to work. We had a mishap with the making of the heart model. We had a leaky valve and couldn't get it sealed up. Poor little heart could barely pump that red colored water, but Princess got the idea.

Little Dora is coming right along. She loves to be read to and loves to "read" to us. I am introducting sounds to her ala Ruth Beechick. She is slowly picking them up. She is picking up writing her letters very well. We do this very loosely. I am also doing some Right Start Level A with her. She is picking this up faster than the reading. She likes to play with her brother more and more, which is a GREAT help as he is mainly interested in seeing what he can destroy. The both participate in Bible time and then it is off to the races with both of them.

This weekend is Bubba's second birthday. I cannot believe he is 2 years old. We will be making a trip to the small Zoo near us if it isn't too hot. Seems we make a habit of a zoo trip for second birthdays.

Well I think that is it for now. Once I figure out how to post pictures easier than last time, I will try to update with the ones I have been taking lately.

So You had a bad day....

That song is ringing in my ears as I finish up this day. Yeah it was a bad day at school and our house has some illness going through it. Well illness... make sure the door doesn't hit you on the way out.

Just like in every endeavor, there are bumps... and ours was an 8 year old that couldn't focus, a 4 year old that has a persistent cough, and a two year old who thought it would be really cool to destroy the house after the girls of the house cleaned it. (And I am not exaggerating here... you should see my stairs LOL.) But all is well now. Dishwasher is running, kids are in bed, and I have a bit of time to do my own thing. All is not bad though...we did get most of school done; we just have to pick up extra History and Science tomorrow. It is also Experiment week for Science so that should be a lot of fun. I know Princess K is looking forward to it. I will have to post pictures once we are done.

Praises to the Lord as these times are great learning experiences. This becomes one way in which the Lord tells me to reconsider my expectations (often using the candidness of my dear Techie Guy). So now to look at what REALLY has to be done during the day (outside of school). I thrive on reading to my children and would rather be doing that than cleaning. But my type A personality seems to go crazy at an untidy house.... Sigh time to look at reasonable standards and accept when days are icky, we should just let the house go, read, and have fun. Unfortunately the house will still be there - messy - tomorrow.

I will praise the Lord even in my trials!

Notebooks, Lapbooks, History Pockets Oh My....

Well this was an attempt to put this on the Sonlight Forums but it didn't work so I will post it here. These are History Pockets based on what we are working on in history and my attempt to add in some hands on Activities to our studies. We add other notebooking pages to our history pockets. We are also starting lapbooks this year for science. I will post pictures of those as they are completed. The pictures on the right are of Notebooking pages we have done for our Greece pocket. We are also starting lapbooks this year for science . I will post pictures of those as they are completed.

The Basics of Schooling at the Kitchen Table

Well I started out this post with grand plans of pictures we had taken last week and a long discussion of our curriculum choices. I walked away and thought about and realized that I can't get pictures onto my laptop yet soooooo I put all my previous "stuff" away to start with the basics. (That is what I get for walking away and letting myself think.) First off... yes we do school at the kitchen table.. and the floor... and the couch... and pappa's desk... and hopefully the park this year. Going outside to do school during the winter months is a goal for me this year. That's why we live in the desert right???

Now to the nitty gritty The one bit of information you are always asked for as a homeschool mom- drum roll please - What is our curriculum. Ok so it isn't that exciting but it is the spine to which we use to learn. It is also the cause of many a time on our knees in prayer, fists full of hair, and grotesque faces in frustration on what do we use. I am happy to announce that most of our choices this coming year are returning choices we made last year.

For 7 year old Princess K
1. Bible: We plan to start Bible Study Guide for All Ages in September when we finish with our Bible studies from last year. I LOVE the idea of this curriculum and I hope it turns out as great as I hope it will.

2. History/Reading/Language Arts: These will all come from Sonlight. Again we are finishing up last years work (Core 1) and will go on to Core 2 with Advanced Readers in September. We will also be adding to our history studies Mystery of History Volume 2 (because I just can't leave well enough alone).

3 Spelling: Returning from last year is Spell to Write and Read. It provided us with a good solid foundation for spelling and reading, and I can use it for all three kids.

4. Math: Another Returning Champion is Right Start Math. I am blessed to have a math genius for a husband and he takes over math instruction so this is more his neck of the woods. We are using Right Start Level C once we finish Level B in September.

5. Science: I found a curriculum that completely fits us. It is NOEO Science and I absolutely love it. It is literature based and just slips in so nicely with Sonlight. Right now we are working through the Biology I curriculum, and we will switch to Chemistry I thereafter.

6. Spanish: We are blessed to have someone providing this for us. Every Thursday we pop on over to this wonderful lady's house for 1 hour of Spanish instruction. Then throughout the week we work on the words and phrases we were taught.

7. Latin: Yes we are starting Latin. Call me crazy but I think it will be good as long as we take it slow. It might even aid in our Spanish studies. We will be using Prima Latina very slowly throughout the year.

8. Art: I found this wonderful gem at our homeschool group used curriculum sale. It is Artistic Pursuits and looks to be gentle, easy, so much fun. I can't wait to start it (again in September).

9. Those things with out a curriculum are Memory and handwriting. Along with scripture memory we are memorizing various poems from the Book of Virtues by William J Bennet. We are grouping them based on how they are grouped in the book. I am using all memory items for handwriting practice. Nothing builds handwriting skills better than practice. I just have Princess K put all her writing in a pretty composition book.

Well that is the basics for our 3rd grade year. We will be including various projects and lapbooks to enhance our studies. What these are I will have to go into those another time as well as what I am doing with our preschool and our ever roaming 2 year old. But for tonight I am going to bid a farwell.

Have a Blessed evening!

It's August and Bouquets of Pencils are popping up everywhere.

I love this quote from the movie You've Got Mail:

"Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address"


I don't necessarily know what it is like in New York in the fall, but I do know I just love the idea of a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils and the smell of a brand new pack of paper thrown in as well. Back to School time has always been one of my favorite times of the year. It signifies new supplies, new subjects, new clothes, and the start of a fresh new chapter in life. Mmmmm I can smell that graphite and paper now. Pack up that new book bag... it is time to hit the books.

Today we started our 07-08 school year and it is a perfect time to reflect why we are on this journey. I say we because homeschool for us is an entire family affair. Many years ago, long before we had children, my dear husband and I decided that we would homeschool our children. It became apparent to us, by God's divine appointment, that this was the road we must take in order to fulfill our own duties as parents. We knew family members who homeschooled, and of course were influenced a bit there, but we followed even a different path than they did.

So here we are on an adventure storybook ride that only God can write so well. We have prayed through curriculum choices, activities, and most of all goals.

1. Our number 1 goal is to raise our children to: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Matthew 22:7

2. To give our children an environment where they can foster a personal relationship with our one and only Saviour, Jesus Christ.

3. We want the education in our home focused on and honoring to God. We do this by placing His word as truth in all aspects of life.

4. We want our children to love to learn and know how to learn. It is one thing to have memorized a bunch of information but knowing how to obtain that information and apply it makes one truly educated.

5. We want our children to experience what they learn and to understand the when, where, and how of the things they learn.

These are just the highlights of our goals, and our homeschool will be successful if we keep our eye on God and follow the path he lights up for us... One step at a time. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." Psalm 119:105

My First Blog Post!

Well I am officially a blogger now! I have been contemplating whether or not to join the blogging community; concerned whether I truly have anything more to offer than what is already out there. I figure that if anything it can be a place I can share our walk with the Lord, a place I can think out loud, as well as share our adventures with loved ones that live apart from us. I don't have any preconceived notions on where this blog will go or the information I will include in it. I guess I will just roll with the punches and let it evolve on its own.

A bit about my family and I. We are a homeschooling family as mentioned in my profile. I feel truly blessed that I am on this God led journey, and I will post at another time how we decided to homeschool. We live in the desert southwest and right now are enjoying the bountiful rain God has been sending our way. I enjoy reading, crafting, researching, and lately playing board games with my dear children.

Come Monday our life will shift from watching the summer roll by and the monsoons roll in to the structure of school and the preparation of fall activities. I cannot believe summer vacation is over. Where did the time go? It seems I always look ahead and before I know it where I was looking is suddenly in my face staring right back at me. Maybe someday I will learn to not look so far beyond where God has put me - right here in the present.