Scrapbook Layout

Inspired by Tami at Ambleside Classical Academy, I have been looking into digital scrapbooking. My biggest problem was two-fold.

• I don't have Photoshop
• I'm on an iMac (which I love!) and most digital scrapping software does not run on this platform

We do, however, have GIMP. After looking around the internet, I found instructions for using it with digital scrapping here. Oh, happy day!

So, after an evening spent with the learning curve, I've created this.




I am very happy with it. Now I just need to print it, which is a whole other issue! LOL

(pages created with Shabby Princess Celebrating, which can be found for free here)

Weekly Report - Sept 24-28

This was our week to try to get back in the groove after a week off. It was hard (!), but we still got quite a bit done and we're back on track now.

Art

First, I want to share our art project for the week. We made these fall banners from a kit I got from Hearts and Trees (who is, by the way, the daughter of Barb at The Heart of Harmony). I tell you, this is a fantastic way of getting art done around here. I don't have to plan or collect supplies. I just pull it out of the bag and go. Easy-peasy and cute, fun (and educational!) projects.

Artist Study

Speaking of art, we have a new Mary Cassatt print - Woman and Child Driving. I read somewhere that the woman is her sister, but now I can't find the reference. I have fallen in love with the artwork of Cassatt. I was thrilled to find out that our local art museum has a couple of pieces of her artwork. I cannot wait for that field trip!

US Geography

As I've blogged before, we are keeping this very simple. We covered Oklahoma and Arizona this week. The coloring sheet with the state bird and flower can be found here.

Science

We continued working on our lapbooks for Apologia Elementary Zoology 2. This week, the kids studied whale moves and made this book. I bought the lapbook instructions from Knowledge Box Central. We also watched the video clips that I mentioned here.


We will be watching Whales: An Unforgettable Journey: IMAX later today.

Reading

Robert, the boy I have to force to read, has discovered Roald Dahl. He read James and the Giant Peach and declared it "the best book ever!" He wants to read Matilda next, so we'll be stopping by the library to get that soon.

Ruth is re-reading Redwall. I think she's read every book in the series. That girl will read anything she can get her hands on. She reminds me a lot of me when I was that age.

Oh, and we finished The Penderwicks while on vacation. What a wonderful, wonderful book. I highly recommend it.

History

Instead of drawing for their notebook this week, I let the kids print off a picture from the internet. For the story of Attila the Hun, we found a painting done by Raphael of the meeting between Pope Leo I and Attila. Perfect! History with a little bit of art appreciation thrown in.

Latin

We finally added this in this week. It's our last subject to make it into the schedule, which means we're finally at our full load. We're using Prima Latina and my children now know the following Latin words:

• ambulo - I walk
• toga - toga (they thought this was funny)
• Deus - God
• luna - moon
  
• via - road
• oremus - let us pray
• salve/salvete - hello
  

All in all, a good week.

Ocean Video Clips

As part of our Elementary Apologia Zoology 2 lesson today, the kids read about whale moves. I decided to see if I could some online video clips of them and found a really neat web-site.

It's called Ocean Footage and you can search for different, short clips to view, for free, on your computer. We were able to easily find videos of whales breaching, spyhopping, lobtailing, and logging.

If you register at their site, you can view the videos at a higher quality. Everything is still free, so I chose to do this.

I think we will be using this web-site quite a bit this year.

Enjoy!

Our Day

This seemed like a busy day, so I thought I would list the happenings to see if it was as much as I thought it was.

• School got off to a late start. I have GOT to stop staying up late watching Heroes on DVD.
• We got history, Latin (our first day!), memory work, and grammar done. Grammar was kind of a cheat. Ruthie made too many mistakes on yesterday's work, so I had her do a supplemental worksheet. Since I'm keeping them together on grammar, Robert pretty much got the day off.
• We headed for the orthodontist for 1:00 appointments. These were initial consultations, recommended by the dentist. Robert needs more work done than Ruthie, but she's ahead of him dentally (fewer baby teeth), so she'll get started in about 6 months. Robert has at least a year before we start with him. I'm glad. He can use the time to learn to sit still in the chair. Sigh.... Kids did math in the car.
• After leaving the orthodontist, we popped into a toy store right next door. I love small toy stores. They seem to have the best stuff. We found Papo figures for the first time and we all fell in love with them. They mainly had medieval figures, which is perfect for us. I caved and let the kids get one each. Robert chose an archer and Ruth got a horse. I see Christmas gift ideas for the grandparents.
  
• We got home and I let the kids have 30 minutes each on the computer while I semi-napped (remember the Heroes DVDs?).
• The kids played with some neighbor kids while I made dinner (baked ziti- requested by Ruth). Not long after it came out of the oven, Robert came home and told me Ruth lost her glasses. Another sigh... I went out and we looked everywhere she had been and couldn't find them. The other kids said they would let us know if they find them. I hope, I hope.
• After dinner, I headed to the store because we were out of dishwasher detergent. I bought myself a York peppermint patty while there. I deserved it. :)
• It is now 10:00 pm. Everyone is in bed. The house is quiet. And I, not having learned my lesson, am going to watch another episode or 2 of Heroes.
  

Another Piece in the Narration Puzzle

I blogged here about my daughter's struggle with oral narrations. We've had some successes, but her skills are still not where I feel they could be.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked her if she wanted to try writing her narrations, rather than doing them orally. She readily agreed, but I didn't pursue it. Today, when she was balking at narrating the chapter she read from Our Island Story, I asked her if she wanted to type it on the computer. She eagerly agreed and got to it.

Here is the result. (click on image if you want to see it larger)



!!!!! Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. The same child who can't remember basic facts when giving an oral narration gives me this as a written one.

I don't really understand it, but I'll take it. If anyone has any insight on this, I would appreciate it.

If It's Monday, This Must Be Albuquerque

I'm back! Actually, we're back. We all went on a week-long road trip and had a fantastic time. We've never traveled so far, or done so much at one time, as a family, before. In fact, the last long vacation we went on was a trip to Disney World back in 2000!

Here's what we did:

Saturday - drove to Carlsbad, New Mexico

This was a long day and through a part of Texas none of us had ever seen. We had expected desolation, but found it has its own beauty.

Sunday - went to Carlsbad Caverns, then drove to Ruidoso

Carlsbad Caverns are incredible! We went on a guided tour through what is called the "Left Hand Tunnel". We only had candle lanterns for our lighting. Fun! I took a lot of pictures, but often had no idea what I was taking a picture of until after the flash went off. It was very dark in there.

After our guided tour, we went to the Big Room, which is lit and has a paved trail with hand rails. There were some amazing formations.

The drive to Ruidoso was gorgeous. Griff is ready to move there. :)

Monday - a lazy morning in Ruidoso, then off to Albuquerque

Tuesday - dropped Griff's double bass off at Robertson's Violin Ship for work to be done to it (the impetus behind this whole trip), then on to Flagstaff, AZ

Wednesday - drove to Williams to ride the Grand Canyon Railway to the Grand Canyon.

We had a few hours at the Grand Canyon, which was not enough. What can you say about the Grand Canyon? Beautiful, amazing, awe-inspiring... Words just cannot express it.

The train trip was fantastic. We all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thursday - left Flagstaff for a quick trip down to Sedona.

Those red rock formations are just beautiful. In some ways, just as beautiful as the Grand Canyon. The city of Sedona is very tourist-y, but beautiful, as well.

After leaving Sedona, we headed up to Meteor Crater, which was a highlight for Robert.

We then headed back to Albuquerque.

Friday - Griff picked up his bass and we left for home. 17 hours later (including stopping in Amarillo to see a family friend), we arrived. Home, sweet home. It's good to be here again.

We are already talking about a longer trip next summer. I think that's a sign that this trip went well.

I'll be Back

I'm going to be without internet access for about a week, so I won't be posting. I'll miss everyone! Enjoy your week.

Beginning the Day the Right Way

We have always done Bible as part of our school day. However, it has been treated as "just another subject". This isn't altogether bad. My focus for for that particular subject is for my children to learn the stories in the Bible thoroughly. A curriculum (Rod and Staff for us) helps do this.

However, I have realized recently that it's not giving us the spiritual emphasis that I want. We are not beginning our days centered on God. Prayers are haphazard. We hit the ground running and never stop to really focus on our Creator.

So today I began something new. Before our morning read-aloud, we had a short devotional. I read a chapter from Proverbs, we sang the hymn we're learning, and we had a prayer. It was very simple, but a great way to start the day.

If you are struggling to find the time to spend together every day, centered on our Lord, give this a try.

Writing Styles

I was grading papers the other night. Robert and Ruth had the same grammar assignment that day - write 2 sentences, using pronouns as the subject. Both gave me correct answers, but the sentences are quite different.

Robert's sentences:

I am leaving.
They are gone.

Ruth's sentences:

She leapt into the air, her blue eyes shining.
We whispered secrets into each other's ears, giggling.

Do you see why picking a writing program that will work for both of them is very difficult for me? :)

A Weekend in Review

I apologize for not posting for a couple of days. To be honest, nothing very exciting has happened. Don't believe me? Well, this is what I did this weekend.

Friday night:

Dinner was catch-as-catch-can. Griff stopped off at his parents' to help his dad with his computer. After he got home, we just kind of hung out. Bo-ring.

Saturday:

My dad is selling his house, so I went over to help get it ready. I spent most of time cleaning and going through stacks of books and just stuff. 38 years worth of stuff. It made me want to come home and throw out at least half of my possessions.

I then went and met a couple of friends for dinner and a movie. We saw Becoming Jane. I liked it, but I did feel that it tried a little too hard.

I then came home and watched one episode of Heroes before heading to bed.

Sunday:

We went to church this morning, then out to lunch with friends. We came home and Griff and I slept for almost 3 hours!! This, of course, meant the kids spent too much time on the computer and playing video games. Ah, well.

Sunday evening church and dinner out rounded out the evening.

Like I said, not much going on. There are a few changes I want to make to our school day, but those really need to wait a couple of weeks. More about why later.

Hopefully my next post will be more substantial.

Weekly Report

This was a short week (Labor Day), and I spent a lot of time planning a vacation we're going on soon, so we didn't get as much done this week as I would have liked.

My personal accomplishment this week was getting copywork notebooks made. I had originally planned to have the kids pick out copywork phrases and use my Educational Fontware fonts to make up copywork sheets for them. Operating on the fly like that doesn't work for me, though. And, since handwriting is a big problem here, it cannot be skipped. So, I used copywork selections from the Ambleside Online copywork yahoo group and made up the notebooks. The kids will spend 5 minutes each day on copywork, just working through the book. I'm also going to make one for literature eventually. There's a picture of the notebooks down below.

Robert finished the book Follow My Leader. He resists longer chapter books, even though he's perfectly capable of reading them, so this is a big deal. I took the advice of someone on the Well-Trained message boards and set up some "rules" for reading time. He must read for 20 minutes, but can choose any book from our book basket. If he doesn't like a book, he can choose a different one, but that one then has to be finished. (Thanks, Tami! It seems to be working.)

We got our ocean boxes made for science. They're not much to look at now, but they will eventually be filled with clay creations of different ocean animals. I can't wait!

Check out Trivium Academy's list of Weekly Reporters for more show-and-tell.

My Latest Trip to Wal-Mart

I have a love-hate relationship with Super Wal-Mart. I love the prices. I hate the fact that I cannot get out of that store in less than an hour. And lately, the love of the prices is being drowned out by the other side.

I did venture to Wal-Mart on Tuesday evening. This is a recap of my experience.

Griff wanted Listerine - original flavor. The only bottles they had of that were the small ones, on the top shelf, pushed all the way to the back. There is no way my 5'3" self was going to be able to reach them. So, I asked the employee at the pharmacy for some help (bwa! ha! ha! - oh, I crack myself up). She paged for customer assistance. I waited patiently for almost 15 minutes and saw 2 employees 3 or 4 aisles away that made absolutely never effort to help me. I finally asked a different pharmacy employee for help. She actually came out, found a small ladder, and got it down for me. She was actually very nice and cheerful about it, even, so that was good.

After a couple of other items on that side of the store, I traipsed all the way over to the grocery section. First stop - milk. I have recently started buying organic milk. I don't know if you've ever looked at organic milk, but it typically has expiration dates that are weeks away. Weird, but there you go. First of all, they did not have skim milk. And the milk would expire in less than a week. Okay, so I got a gallon of 2% and headed off for the rest of my shopping.

I needed bread flour. Nope. They apparently don't believe in bread flour.

Griff eats oatmeal for breakfast most days. He likes the old-fashioned oats, not the 1-minute variety. Since he eats them so often, I always buy the 42 oz. container. They only had the 18 oz. container. What's up with that?! I bought it, but I wasn't happy.

After a few more items (and an unsuccessful attempt to find ham of all things!), I headed to the checkout. When I got in line, I noticed an employee cleaning up one lane over. Apparently a glass bottle of something like grape juice had broken on the floor. I know it was glass because I could see big pieces of it on the floor. The lane was blocked off and he was cleaning the whole thing up with paper towels!! I stood in line for at least 10 minutes and never saw anybody show up with a mop.

You know, I think could excuse the empty shelves part of my experience if it had been on a Sunday night. But this was a Tuesday night! They should have been restocked by then.

I think I'm pretty much done with Wal-Mart. It's just not worth it anymore.

NOTE: I wrote this post months ago and forgot to post it. After a couple more bad experiences at WM (including being basically accused of lying when I tried to return something without a receipt), I no longer shop there. My budget is sad, but the rest of me is rejoicing. :)

On My Bookshelf

I love bookstores. I especially love used bookstores. And a SALE at a used bookstore is just more temptation than I can handle. So... when I found out that Half-Price Books was having a 20% off sale this past weekend, I just had to go. I got some good stuff and my to-read pile has just really grown.

Want to see what I bought? Of course you do!



Messie No More by Sandra Felton - I actually read this years ago, but it's very inspiring and I need to be inspired. :)







Answers to Distraction by Edward Hallowell and John Ratey - part of the endless quest to help my child with his ADD (not to mention me with mine)






Raising a Thinking Child by Myrna Shure - This is a book on how to teach your child how to resolve conflicts and get along with other people. It's actually written for younger children but Robert still struggles in this area, so I think it will be of benefit.




The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman - This has been around a long time, but I've never read it. Pure impulse purchase.





Whew! This should keep me busy for quite awhile.

Geography via YouTube

I was looking for a YouTube video of the song "Fifty Nifty United States" and found that plus a couple of other things.

Here's the Fifty Nifty song. (lyrics)



Then I found a couple of Animaniacs videos. They are fast and kind of frantic, but fun, and I thought they might still be helpful.

The first is a song of all the states and capitols. (lyrics)



This one is all the nations of the world. (I know this is from several years ago and I haven't checked the accuracy.) (lyrics)



They also had one of the US Presidents, but I found a few things that I felt are objectionable, so we won't be watching that one. (call me old-fashioned, but I don't let my kids use the word "butt")

Narration by Trial and Error

I am trying to incorporate more narration into our school day. We spent last year narrating from Aesop's Fables - one each week. That was a good beginning, but we really needed to expand on it.

This year, I have the children narrating the following:

history reading - daily
Bible reading - Mon - Thurs

Both of these subjects are books they read on their own.

I finally started our literature readings this week. I read aloud from a different book each day, then ask them to narrate.

Here's what I have found:

Robert - If he reads the book to himself, he can narrate beautifully. He uses words and phrasing from the reading and hits most of the important parts. I am very happy with how that is progressing.

On the other hand, read-aloud narrations are not going well at all. He cannot give me the simplest narration from an oral reading and I'm not quite sure how to handle this. I know it is part of his auditory processing difficulties, but I would still like him to do better at this. I plan on investigating further and finding things to help him.

Ruthie - She has a hard time with narrations all around. Reading to herself, read-alouds - all of it. I am currently having her read single pages and narrate after that. I am also trying to stop more frequently during read-aloud time and have her narrate. She is doing better, and I believe she will eventually conquer this difficulty, but it is slow going right now.

Today, though, she gave a wonderful narration (actually, 2 of them) from Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare reading. Let me show you what made the difference.


This is a chart showing the major characters of the story we were reading. I got this idea from Higher Up and Further In. With the help of the names written down (and my detailed drawings -ha!), Ruthie was able to tell the story back with no difficulty. She even used some of the phrasing from the story, which she never does. I was so very, very proud of her. And relieved. :)

I need to figure out exactly why this worked. Was it because the names were written down and she didn't have to remember them? Was it the combination of hearing the story and being able to look at the chart at the same time? I'm going to have to play around with it some and figure out how to apply it to our other narration subjects.

(P.S. Can you tell what Shakespeare story we read? Post the answer in the comments. I don't have a prize other than the personal satisfaction you will get from knowing the correct answer. :) )

Wrong Answer. Thank You for Playing. Please Try Again.

Other than a year in Colorado when I was 2, I have lived in Texas my whole life. However, I have been told that I do not have a Texas accent. Some say I do not have an accent at all. This obviously says that I don't.

Oh, and about reason (d) listed below, I was NOT born after 1980. Not even close.

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Western. Like Midland, Western is another accent that people consider neutral. So, you might not actually be from the Western half of the country, but you definitely sound like it.

And if you're not from the West, you are probably one of the following:
(a) A Pittsburgher - the quiz can't tell the difference;
(b) Someone from Canada (probably southern Ontario) who doesn't have a Canadian accent;
(c) Someone from northern New England who doesn't have a New England accent; or
(d) Someone from Texas or the Heartland who was born after 1980.
You are definitely not from New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Detroit, the Deep South, etc.</font>

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

We're going to start with "cot" and "caught." When you say those words do they sound the same or different?

Different Same, no wait I mean different, maybe, a little bit different... Same

HT: By Sun and Candlelight

Simplification is the Name of the Game

I went to Starbucks the other night with a fellow homeschooling mom. I don't have many friends here that homeschool so getting to really talk about struggles, successes, tips, and tricks was a treat. Whenever we get together we stay 'til they kick us out (who heard of a Starbucks that closes at 9:00, anyway?), then stand outside and talk for at least another hour. Total bliss!

Anyway, one of the things we discussed is the need to keep it simple. I believe that as homeschoolers we get so caught up in the "neat" stuff we could do that we lose sight of our goals. Since one of the things Stephanie and I talked about that night was learning US Geography, I'm going to use that as an example.

I'm ashamed to admit how many different US Geography curriculums I've bought. It's at least 3. Maybe 4. My current process is to spend time every Friday on US Geography. I read from a book about the state (stories from its history, etc.), then we fill out maps and information sheets. 6 sheets for each state. 6!!! It took us 2 Fridays to do Rhode Island! Am I absolutely nuts?!

After my night at Starbucks, I started thinking about my goals for studying the 50 states. For each state, I'd like for the kids to know name, location, and capital. That's it. The rest is gravy. Neat gravy, but time-consuming-making-this-way-too-complicated gravy. Do I really care what the highest recorded temperature in North Dakota is? NO! (Sincerest apologies if you're from North Dakota. To be honest, I don't care what the highest recorded temperature is in Texas, either.)

So, I'm simplifying. Tomorrow is Friday. We are going to cover 1-2 states, depending on how long it takes. We'll need 2 maps for each state - a map of the US with that state marked and a map of the state with its capital and surrounding states marked. We might (might!) do a color sheet of the state bird and flower just because that would expose the kids to the names of more bird and flowers. Each week we will cover the names of all the states and the capitals of the ones we've learned. We will work our 50 states puzzle. They'll play with their Leap Pad that has a US geography game. That's it!

Ahhhh.... I feel better already.

And it's a wonderful thing.

There Are Different Kind of Intelligence

My son is pretty smart. Really. I'm not just a proud mama. Sometimes, though...

Saturday night, on the way out to dinner.

Robert: Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad.

Me: Hey, Robert.

Robert: What?

Then, again, Sunday morning...

Robert: Uh, Mom?

Me: Uh, Robert?

Robert: What?

He's a smart kid. I promise. Really, he is.

A Couple of Links

After a not-so-great day yesterday, we've got to get focused around here. I have a couple of post ideas brewing, but they will have to wait until later. So, I'm sending you off to visit other, more wiser blogs than mine. I hope you find something you enjoy!

The Homeschooling Carnival is up at The Common Room (one of my favorites!). Don't miss it!

Do you ever feel invisible as a mother? Then don't miss this. (HT: Real Learning)

That's all I have for now. And I just realized I only posted a link yesterday, too. Ugh.

I apologize from the depths of my heart. I'll do better in the future. I promise there won't be a single link in the next post. Wait. Is that good or not?

Online Watercolor Painting Lessons

I have wanted us all to learn how to paint with watercolors, but haven't wanted to spend the money on books (or lessons!). I did find some books at the library and have requested them. However, a few nights ago I had the brilliant idea to google it (duh!) and came across this web-site. It seems to be just what I was looking for.

You just gotta love google. When you remember to actually use it, that is.

Video

Have you seen this? I originally saw it over at Our Journey With Him. It's just wonderful.

Watching the Mailbox

I am a member of Paperback Swap. I love, love, love this site. If you're not familiar with PBS, be sure to check it out. I also love used bookstores, and frequent them often, but I have found quite a few books through PBS that I can never find used around here.

I have gotten a lot of great books through there, but I still have a wish list a mile long. For some reason, several of my wish list books have come available recently. Here's what's currently heading to our house, and the reason I'm stalking the mailman.



Animal Habitats -- On Land, Ponds, Rivers, Oceans (Draw Write Now, Book 6)




I thought this would be great to have for our science studies this year (ocean creatures).


Celebrate America: Learning About the U.S.A. Through Craft Activities



I originally put this on my list when were doing Sonlight Core 3 last year. I thought about not requesting it when it became available, but I figure we can use it for American holiday celebrations this year, and we'll get back to American History next year. I'm always in need of art/hands-on projects.




Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes... in You and Your Kids




ahem... No comment.

Our School Schedule

I blogged here about using Ambleside Online this year. I showed examples of our first week's work here. I thought I would share how we break up and schedule the work from AO. Keep in mind that we are doing a combination of Year 1 and Year 2.

This is our first term's schedule (12 weeks). Some books change after that, so I will post the next term's schedule when we get there (and I've actually set it!).


I have highlighted the the things we do together. I try to alternate things that will require individual attention. So, while I help Robert with math, Ruth works on Bible and copywork. I also alternate things that require them to read the same book. Believe me, having them read the same book at the same time would not work. :)

I have found as we work through the schedule that some of these things don't take as long as I have scheduled. However, I like having the wriggle room for things that end up taking longer, so I'm just leaving it as is for now. Any changes eventually made will not be drastic.

Afternoons are for physical activity, reading, chores, instrument practice, any art projects we may do, and other things along that line.

Word Problems for the Morbid

We are using Christian Light math this year and really liking it. One interesting thing about their curriculum is that all the word problems for a particular Light Unit (17 lessons, including 2 quizzes and a test) are centered around a theme.

I was grading Ruth's math yesterday and came across the following two word problems. The theme is the ocean.

• A shark is not a good mother. After giving birth, she may eat some of her babies. If 9 mother sharks had 50 babies each, how many baby sharks is that?

Ohh - kayy... But then, even better...

• Those hungry mother sharks gobbled up 27 of the babies before they could escape. How many baby sharks were left?

I'm probably weird, but this just cracks me up. It must appeal to the slightly-macabre sense of humor I have. Where is that ROFL smiley, anyway?

Movie

I received Jane Eyre in the mail from Netflix today. I liked Ciaran Hinds in Persuasion, so I can't wait to watch it. It may be a few days, though. I have a meeting tonight and church tomorrow night. Maybe Thursday night...

Even More Wildlife

You may be tired of the wildlife posts, but just bear with me. I'm a city girl, so seeing this kind of thing in my yard just astounds me.

Typically, the only wildlife we see (aside from when we are actively trying to catch them) is this variety. Some people think they're a big pain, but I think they're adorable.




Imagine my shock at seeing THIS outside my window this week.


I know they're around (as evidenced by the above referenced post), but seeing one roaming freely through our backyard was just weird. I feel like I'm living in Over the Hedge.

Changes

Ta-da!

I'd love to take the credit for the changes here, but it is totally the work of my new best friend at Life With My 3 Boybarians. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't she wonderful? She's having a contest right now, too. She's volunteering to do a blog makeover for someone. Read about it here.

Well, I've got to hurry and post this so I can sit and stare at my pretty blog for awhile.

Small P.S. - I do claim the picture. I took it while on a cruise in February.

Pardon My Dust

I'm messing around with the template, and since I'm pretty clueless, this could be a dangerous thing.

School Days, School Days

Good old golden rule days...

I think that song goes through my head at the beginning of every school year.

This was our first official week of school. I am very, very pleased with how it went. We are not up to a full load yet (we still need to add in science and Latin, and I need to add in some art projects), but we still did quite a bit. I thought I'd do a show-and-tell of our first week. (Click on any image to see it larger.)

I chose a "just for fun" read-aloud - The Penderwicks. It is a wonderful book and we are all loving it.

For history, I made a notebook with sections for all of our AO books. When the kids read a chapter, they will narrate to me, then write a few sentences and draw a picture. I got the idea for the notebooks here. I already had a comb binder, but mine isn't nearly as nice as hers. It works, though.

Here's a page from Robert's notebook for Our Island Story. Yes, those are palm trees on the island of Great Britain. I have yet to convince him that even though it's an island, it's not tropical. We'll keep working on that. :)


Ruth wanted to share her page from the book Trial and Triumph. It's also a very good example of her drawing style - very Anime.


For our music portion of Fine Arts, we are using these CDs. I can give more details if you would like. Basically, they are a CD of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade, an a capella CD of hymns, and Wee Sing America for folk songs (which I confess we did not do this week). Obviously we are studying Rimsky-Korsakov for our composer. I couldn't find a biography, so we read about him on Wikipedia. Our hymn was "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross".


For our artist study, we are learning about Mary Cassatt. We read this biography and studied the picture "Woman in Black at the Opera". The kids looked at the picture for a while, then took turns describing it without looking. You can see that it's a 4x6 picture. I plan on making them artwork albums as described here.


We also got math and grammar done on assigned days. Yea!

For fun, Robert did a science expirement involving water, oil, and food coloring.


Things to improve on:

literature readings - they didn't get done this week
folk song - also didn't get done
art projects - figure out a way to make this work for us

For a break down of what we did each day, check out my other blog Our School Days. It is nothing fancy. It's just an easy way for me to track what gets done.

A New Year

School will begin here soon and I am making some changes. Shortly after I began homeschooling, I learned about the Charlotte Mason method of learning. I have added bits and pieces of it to our homeschooling days, but this year I'm jumping in with both feet and going for it.

We will be basically following Ambleside Online's schedule, but I will be doing a schedule combining Year 1 and 2 that I found here. This will cover history, geography, and literature. We will will also be following AO's composer and artist schedule.

The following will round out our year:

Apologia Elementary Zoology 2 - This is a study of ocean creatures. This looks like so much fun! I can't wait. I also got the lapbooks from Knowledge Box Central. We've never done a lapbook before, so it will be interesting to see if the kids like it.

Christian Light math - I thought about switching back to Abeka math this year, but I still have concerns with all the color on the pages as a distraction for Robert. This program is like Abeka in that it is a workbook and spiral, but the pages are much "calmer".

Rod and Staff English 4 - Okay, so an intense study of grammar is not very CM'ish, but I personally love R&S English and so we're sticking with it. We played around with other grammar programs, which has meant that the kids are now both on the same R&S level. This actually makes life easier for me, because I can teach them at the same time.

Prima Latina - This Latin program is actually intended for much younger students, but I'm still comfortable using it. I think it will make this subject easy for all of us. I hope! I'm considering getting a workbook for myself and learning this subject right alongside the kids.

Art - I found some drawing lessons here. I would also like to add some simple lessons in things like watercolors, but I still need to investigate that.

The kids will be continuing with their private instrument lessons and homeschool orchestra as well.

Temptation

I went to my in-laws' house this morning to make homemade cinnamon rolls with my father-in-law. Friends are coming into town next Tuesday to stay for almost a week and I thought these would be a nice treat.

Number of homemade cinnamon rolls made: 18

Number of cinnamon rolls brought home, ready to be frozen: 16

Number of cinnamon rolls in freezer one hour after returning home: 15

It's going to be a long 4 days....

Tears

Little Malachi, who I first mentioned here, passed away yesterday. He got an infection and was unable to fight it due to a white count of zero.

Please pray for his family. Please.

Changes in the Air

Ruthie is 9, but growing up so fast.

Today, I found her in the bathroom, putting on nail polish. She had pulled her hair back in a ponytail, tucked in her shirt, and added a cute belt to her jeans.

It has begun.

Ahhh, the End Is Near

The end of the school year is coming. Life is slowing down. In the past couple of weeks, the following activities have ended.

• Orchestra
  
• Brownies
• Webelos
  
• Co-op
• Art lessons

As important as the activities are for the kids, I am so ready for the more relaxed pace of the summer. Sleeping late (I can dream, can't I?), time with friends, swimming, vacations. Ahhh...

Wild Animals in Suburbia, Part II

I recently posted (here) about seeing a possum in the backyard. Well, that was just the beginning of the excitement!

About a week later, Griff was using up the remains of a bag of mulch that had been in our garage. When he pulled his hand out of the bag, he felt something furry along with the mulch. This is what he found in the bag.



We had no idea what to do with the babies, so we decided to ask a neighbor who works for a vet. She volunteered to take them to the vet's office, where she could contact someone she knows who raises baby wild animals and releases them into the wild when they're old enough. We decided that was our best option, as we were not willing to leave them in the garage and we were afraid if we left them out at night for the possum to find, a neighborhood cat would find them first.

We were hoping that with the babies gone, the mama possum would leave, too, and our flower beds would no longer be disturbed. That didn't happen, though. After another week or so, Griff decided that he would contact a catch-and-release company and have them set up a trap.

So, that's what we did. The first night, we caught this. Can you tell from the picture what it is? I didn't want to get too close and my zoom is not the best.


The second night, we got the possum.


We decided to set the trap for one more night, and caught another one of these.


Where are all these animals coming from? What in the world is wandering around the neighborhood at night? I had no idea!

We decided we are out of the animal trapping business. We cannot afford to rid the neighborhood of wildlife, one animal at a time.

Recital

Ruth had her first recital recently. She has played cello for about a year now. She did a wonderful job and we were so very proud of her. I also thought she looked beautiful up on that stage.


This is my favorite picture from the recital. Can you see how furrowed her brow is? (click on image for a larger picture)


Ruthie is very focused when she performs (she is also in a homeschool orchestra). She has a real presence on stage and is very expressive. At the reception after the recital, a woman came up to Ruthie and said, "You played very well today, but what I really enjoyed were all your expressions!"

We call Ruthie our "drama queen", and that's not always a good thing. In this case, though, it really added to her performance on stage.

Sweet and Funny Boy

We got home tonight after spending the evening at my in-laws. I noticed we had several messages on the answering machine. The first was a friend returning a call. The second was from my son (he must have borrowed the phone at my in-laws).

"Mom, I just want you to know that I really, really love you."

That brings a smile to a mother's heart.

The last message was also from my son. I'm not sure what exactly he was saying, but it was obvious some creature was attacking him and not allowing him to talk. "Get away!... Ack!... No!"

That also brings a smile to a mother's heart.

Sweet, funny boy.

A Matter of Perception

We finished up and e-filed our taxes at 6:30 last night. The whole thing was a nightmare, but that's not what this is about.

We knew we were going to owe this year. In the midst of our problems with our taxes, the amount owed was always close to $800. So, we've thought for about a week now that that's what we would be paying.

When we got all the problems fixed, we only (!) owed $460.

So now, I feel like we got a tax refund! LOL

Funny

Griff went to Carraba's for lunch today with Ruth and his mom. (I was out with Robert) At the end of the meal, they all shared a Dessert Rosa.

The dessert disappeared very quickly. When it was gone, Ruth said, "Wow! Point, click, and go!"

Wild Animals in Suburbia

I was talking to the kids as they worked at the kitchen table this morning when I saw something scurrying through our yard out of the corner of my eye. It looked like...

"Kids! Look! It's a possum!"

Much excitement was to be found until he/she disappeared under our fence. The kids wondered if it would have played dead if we had run out there to see it. "Then we could have taken pictures of it!" (Yep, they're my kids.)

Ruth told her dad about it later and found out that he had seen a baby possum in the driveway as he left for work this morning.

I think we can quit wondering what's been digging around in the flower beds.

Update on Malachi and a New Prayer Request

I learned this morning that Malachi's latest biopsy shows that his blood is free from leukemia. Praise God! Please pray that this remission continues. He is currently in the hospital because of some nodules in his lungs. The doctors believe that they are some type of fungus. Pray that he can be healed from that and go home.

If you are not familiar with Amy from Amy's Humble Musings, please keep her in your prayers. She is pregnant and experiencing debilitating morning sickness. Her husband is updating her blog occasionally to keep us posted on her condition. Apparently this is typical for her pregnancies. Medications which have helped in the past are having no effect. Please pray that this passes quickly and that both she and the baby are healthy.

I hope that you and yours are having a wonderful Easter!

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Believe it or not, I'm talking about a plant.

Griff and I do not have what I would call a green thumb. Witness the fact that our azaleas put out 2 or 3 blooms this year. That was a sad, sad thing. Our neighborhood was filled with yards full of azalea blooms, except for ours. We are pitiful.

However, we have had great success with a few plants. One of them is called Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrows (we shorten it to YTTs). They are called this because of their flowers. When they first bloom, they are dark violet. The next day, they are a paler shade. The following day, they are white. Here is a picture of one of ours.


I love this plant. It will bloom repeatedly throughout the warm weather. Once winter hits, it no longer blooms, and can look kind of scraggly (is that a word?), but it quickly recovers once it warms up.

I'll be posting more pictures of "winners" for the black-thumbed among us. :)

History Notebook Pages

I have wanted the kids to make history notebook pages all year long, but haven't gotten around to it (a very common problem with me). I suddenly realized that the year was winding to a close. If I wanted to do them (and hopefully get into the habit of them for next year), I needed to start NOW.

Luckily, we were at a good place to start. We just finished studying the writing of the Declaration of Independence. I think the beginning of our country is a fine place to begin.

I got some 8.5x11 paper that is sort of patriotic (color-wise, anyway). I printed off a picture of the Declaration of Independence from the internet. I then gave the kids the option of printing the title on the computer or hand-writing it. They both chose to use the computer. They then had to write a few things about the famous document. We cut things out and glued them on the paper. Here are the final results!


Robert's is on the left. I gave him guidance on where to place things (read "told him exactly what to do"). I left Ruth free to do her own thing. I found her placement rather interesting. :)

They are nothing fancy, but they are done, and we are (hopefully!) on our way to making notebook pages on a regular basis.

I Am SO Not Surprised

You Are 70% Left Brained, 30% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

Update on Malachi

Little Malachi is having his third round of chemo this week. I don't know specifics, but I do know his parents said this is "very serious". Please continue to keep him and the family in your prayers. My heart aches for all of them.

Prayers Needed

I found out at church this morning that the 14 month old son of one our families was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) this past week. Please pray for little Malachi, his parents, and his big sister Emily.

As I receive updates, I'll be sure to let y'all know.

Pachelbel Rant

This video is hysterical. (I rate it PG for some cuss words.)

Deep Thoughts

Quote from Ruthie:

"I really wish they hadn't built the Tower of Babel."

My daughter is a thinker, so we wait expectantly...

"It's just one more thing I have to learn about."

And sometimes she's just an eight year old. :)

A New Schedule

We had the most productive week we've had in a long time this past week. I instituted a new schedule, and while we weren't perfect, we did stick to it pretty well.

I have been giving each of the kids daily assignment sheets for awhile, but I have been letting them choose the order of the subjects. What I found is that they would save all their "hard" work (like math and grammar) for later in the day. It would then either not get done, or get stretched out for way too long. Choosing their own schedule for the day was not working. So, I took the choice away from them.

I now let them know in what order their subjects will be done. I try to vary them so that I can spend time with each child for the subjects that that require one-on-one. I did not go so far as to set a schedule for exact times of the day, but I did put general time limits on subjects. So, if they have not finished math in 30 minutes, they still go on to the next subject. If they finish a subject early, I have them pull out unfinished work and do that.

Ruthie has done amazingly well with this. She finished her work before noon every day. Robert fought me on it, but he also got his work done much more quickly than normal. And, by the end of the week, he seemed to have almost completely adjusted to it and was no longer fighting me (as much, anyway).

I also managed to fit in the history project (make a hornbook) and science activity (make craters in a bowl of flour with rocks) that I've been trying to get done for literally months. I felt very good about that.

So far, this schedule has worked the best of any we have tried this year. I am sure I will have to tweak it over time, but for now it is working, and I will take that.

Books!

Books, glorious books!

We went to the library today and I actually got a couple of things for myself for once. We even (shock!) ventured upstairs to the (gasp!) adult section of the library.

I will now have the following two books sitting on my bedside table, waiting to be read.

An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott (I've only ever read her Little Women series)

and

Unveiled by Francine Rivers (highly recommend by a friend - It's a fictionalized account of the story of Tamar from the Old Testament)

Now, let's see if I can actually find the time to read them!

UPDATED: added links

Some of My Favorite Posts

For those of you who use bloglines, do you use the "Keep New" option in the bottom right hand corner of posts? I was a happy girl the day I found that. I was always thinking, "Now, where did I see that recipe/craft/inspirational post?" and this nifty feature has solved my problem (for the most part). I have quite a few posts that I keep "new". I thought I'd share some of them with you here.

A Bravewriter's Life in Brief has a yummy-sounding lemon scones recipe that I think Griff would like.

Blest with sons has the CUTEST picture of a Barbie Bible Study.

Homeliving Helper has an excellent post on Good Housekeeping that I read when I need a good, swift kick in the pants.

Kim at Life in a Shoe mentions some George Sarris Bible CD's that I absolutely must look into.

Rocks in My Dryer reviews a children's book that sounds just wonderful.

I hope you see something you like. I know I did.

The Problem With a New Computer

We used to have 2 computers. With the new one, that makes 3. I will be using the new one mostly, but will still use the PC for some things. (The 3rd computer is our old Mac. Griff also has Linux loaded on it and that will be its main OS now. I will rarely be on it.)

Since I will be going back and forth between the two computers, I decided to move all my bookmarks to del.icio.us. I exported all my books and copied them to del.icio.us. I am now in the process of going through each bookmark and putting appropriate tags on them.

I have 715 bookmarks. I need to put tags on at least 577 of them. I figure it will take me about a year.

Advice From Nancy Drew

I loved to read Nancy Drew books when I was young. They were so exciting! Mysterious! Fun! Hokey!

Okay, that last one I didn't discover until I picked up one of my old books a few years ago. I read and enjoy a lot of children's books as an adult. Nancy Drew has not stood the test of time. For a young girl, though, they were (and are) wonderful. I cannot wait for Ruth to start reading them. (Griff is the same way with Robert and The Hardy Boys.)

A couple of years ago, my in-laws gave me this tiny book. And it is tiny - only 3"x3". It also has a bookmark with a little magnifying glass on the end. Cute!

Enclosed within the pages are some of the great pearls of wisdom of Nancy Drew, Girl Detective. Here are some of my personal favorites.

• When bound and gagged, you can still tap out HELP in morse code to attract attention. --The Clue of the Tapping Heels
  
• If you hear the telltale sounds of a helicopter, step away from a blaze in the fireplace. The copter might send a downdraft into the chimney and shower sparks all over your sleek coif. --The Myster of the 99 Steps
• Make your date work for you--send him on B-level errands you can't seem to fit into your busy schedule. --The Clue in the Diary
• If a guy's hunch results in a dead-end, don't flaunt your better judgment and intuition in front of him. Smirk secretly to yourself. --The Phantom of Pine Hill

and my personal favorite

• If you see something resembling a shark in a river, don't fret. It's more likely to be a small submarine operated by thieves. --The Mystery of Lilac Inn.

What a fun book for a trip down memory lane!

Just so you know how obsessive I am about the proper use of apostrophes!

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

Are You Gooder at Grammar?
Make a Quiz

HT: Higher Up And Further In

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation

I totally missed Christmas here at Imagine, but I just hate to see the whole season go by without sharing what we did. So, I decided an end-of-season summary was better than nothing!

We spent time making ornaments and these absolutely adorable chocolate cake trees. Can I share instructions for a Christmas craft after Christmas? Is that acceptable? (BTW, the girl in the middle is a friend of the kids'.)



Here is a picture of my family at church on Christmas Eve.



On Christmas Day, I made the decision to sit back and enjoy and forget picture taking. However, I did get a picture of a few things before and after.

I absolutely love our Christmas tree. It's a pre-lit tree and boy, howdy, has that made my life easier! The day I take the tree out and the lights don't work, I will be tossing it and buying another one. It is just that wonderful.



Our tree is covered with a hodge podge of ornaments. No theme tree for me! I just love how it looks.

Favorite Christmas gifts:

Ruth's favorite was her I-Dog. This thing is so cute. It will light up and "dance" (actually just shakes its head and ears) to the music. It also growls when you pull its tail. Adorable!



When I asked Robert what his favorite gift was, he said, "Jesus. He's the gift God gave us." It was enough to make me melt in a puddle on the floor. However, the Lego Mindstorm was also popular.



Griff's favorite was probably our new I-Mac. Oh.my.word! The speed! The screen resolution! The speed! Can you see that he's watching The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on the computer? To say that we could never do that on our old computer is a massive understatement



My favorite (sorry, no picture) is the GPS for my car. Griff really hit the jackpot with this one. I go to so many places that I've never been to before (field trips!) that this will be used often. Love it!

It's interesting to note that all of the favorite gifts (other than my GPS) were from Griff's parents. They truly spoil us!

This past Saturday, we had Christmas for my side of the family. We had a great time! We did a $10 gift card exchange where we got to steal from other people. Poor Ruth did not keep her Barnes & Noble gift card (although she did end up with Best Buy, which was a good second choice) and Robert was thrilled to steal a Wal-Mart gift card. I ended up with Bed, Bath & Beyond and Griff ended up with... I have no clue! LOL!

Here's a picture of me with my sisters and brother.

Oh, Quit Yer Whinin'!

After further thoughts on my previous post, I've decided I don't want to give up on the blog. I will be making an effort to post more frequently and share it more openly.

I would make it a New Year's Resolution, except I don't believe in those. (Hey, that could be a post!)

A Blog Crisis

I am really struggling right now about what to do with my blog.

• I do not update it often.
  
• I have ideas, but never follow through with them.
• I have other things that need my attention more than this blog does.
  
• Writing is a struggle for me, and not something I enjoy. (can you say math geek?)
  
• I get about one reader/day. Sometimes less.
• I am shy about sharing my blog. (probably the reason for the number of readers) My family doesn't even know about it! (other than my husband)
• I haven't figured out the "identity" of my blog. Homeschooling mom? Mother of a child with Asperger's? Christian mom? I know it can be all those things, but I feel it needs an emphasis.
  

However...

• I love the idea of a blog
• I really do have things I'd like to share with others.
• It's a great way to keep track of everyday events. (Of course, I'm not using it for this.)
• I want to improve my writing (and enjoy it!).
  

Right now, the cons are greatly outweighing the pros. If I don't hear from the few readers I have (I'm looking for advice here!), I'll probably call it quits.

A Breakthrough!

My two kids love to go outside every day and play on our swingset. Consequently, there is very little grass and a lot of dirt under the swings. Now that the weather has turned cooler and the kids are no longer in flip-flops all day, we are having a big problem with dirt being tracked into the house.

We have them stomping their feet before coming in, and leaving their shoes right inside the door. However, Ruthie often forgets. When she does, I have her sweep up the mess.

Last week, I noticed quite a bit of dirt on the kitchen floor. While in the car later, I asked Ruthie if she had done that. She admitted it, and I told her she would need to sweep it as soon as we got home. She willingly agreed to do this.

A few minutes later, Robert piped up. "Mom, I don't think it's fair that Ruth has to clean up the dirt."

Me: "Why not?"

Robert: "Because I'm the one who did it."

People, this is huge. HUGE, I tell you. Accepting the blame, personal responsibility, a guilty conscience... These are all things kids with Asperger's struggle with. I can't tell you how important this is.

I immediately told Robert how happy and proud I was of him for admitting this. (I still am. I get this warm, fuzzy feeling when I think of it.) He seemed very happy and proud of himself, as well.

He and Ruthie discussed it and decided they had both made the mess and they would clean it up together. And they did.

I am one happy, proud mama.