Moving .......

Yep.... We are done with Mexico and are moving onto Canada. I am posting some pictures of the art projects the kids did these last 2 weeks. They made "mexican tissue paper flowers" and did some "yarn art". Bubby went by an example in the book but Fancy wanted to do her own thing (as usual) .... haha.

They also each colored a picture of the Flag of Mexico aka "La Bandera de Mexico" and we learned what each of the colors and the emblem in the center represents.

GREEN: HOPE: The Independence Movement

WHITE: PURITY: The Purity of the Catholic Faith

RED: UNION: The Spaniards that joined in the quest for Independence

The Emblem: Symbolizes the Aztec Heritage

Here are their flags --- and you can see some of the flowers they made also:

We went to the library today and exchanged our Mexico books for Canada ones. We ended up checking out 27 this time. It really is amazing how quickly they go through them and get bored with them. We will study Canada for two weeks .... I am hoping these books will last them. Some of the ones we got are books about Canada and some are stories that take place in Canada.

Here are some pics of our reading area. Bubby spread out the books to give you the full effect. The basket you see is a GREAT find I made that has a handle that pops out (like on luggage) and the basket is on wheels. It is probably going to prove to be the best homeschool expense I had. 27 library books can get pretty heavy. Besides, Bubby finds GREAT JOY in wheeling that thing around. In between library trips, it also proves a great place to store all the books so we don't lose track of any. You can see in the corner there is a pillow. The kids love to stretch out on the floor and read there ... they typically get QUITE comfy with pillows and sometimes blankets too !!

Oh .... and as I see the pics here now, I have some explaining to do. My redneck husband is wearing off on Bubby. As you leave the library, they have old magazines for sale for 10 cents each. Bubby made some exciting finds (in his world) ..... 10 issues of Whitetail Journal and American Hunter ... that is ALOT of entertainment for $1. Life is good. Fancy got a couple of Fashion magazines too but they have already made it upstairs to her room and have been chopped up into posters for her wall. Maybe I will photograph that another day. She says she is going to be a baby nurse (sound familiar?) and a fashion designer when she grows up. Sounds like an interesting combo to me. Bubby, if you are wondering, plans to build cars, build fences (sound familiar?), be an "insurance man" (not sure where that came from) and also be a hunter and fisherman. Whew .... I feel sorry for his wife, he will NEVER be home.

On the wall above the "Book Basket"/"Reading Area" we post the weekly Memory Verse. We are reading through the Book of Matthew this year. Because this curriculum focuses heavily on Geography, Matthew is a logical choice to read with it. The last part of Matthew is what is called "The Great Commisson". It is the last instruction of Christ to His disciples that they go and spread the good news of The Gospel to all the nations of the world. This week's verse is Matthew 4:19: "Come to me", Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."

The Great Commission:

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of The Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:16-20

Be blessed.

Me .....

Ok, so for those of you that have wanted pics of the husband and I ... here is half of your request. I changed my hair (fairly drastically) this week, so I thought I'd post a pic of that.

As soon as the husband does something exciting and worthy of a pic, I will post it. hehe

Finally .... an update

Wow .... Time really got away from me. I can't believe it has been 3 weeks since I posted. I hope I am not going to make a habit of that.



School has really been fabulous. I can't believe how simple and fun it has been. We have really enjoyed having so much more time together. Our days are not taking as long either. I find myself embracing the more relaxed style of homeschooling. We still get all the work done, but with a less rigid schedule. The kids do better when I give them a little more freedom as far as what subject to do next, etc. We also don't do 9am to 3pm necessarily. Some days we start earlier, some later. Sometimes we do school from 8-11 and then play all afternoon and wrap up school after dinner with Daddy. The freedom is nice ..... why did I want to do it like the schools do it anyway?

We are continuing on with our North America studies. This week we will finish up Mexico. We will begin a two week unit on Canada next week. We made passports for the kids and they will get to stamp them for each country we study. We took passport photos and everything. It was pretty fun. Fancy wasn't in the best of spirits that day .... hence the "Not going to smile" face.

Passport photos:

Their passports turned out pretty well. We used Navy blue paper and a gold pen to write the words on the front cover. We had my old passport to go by. They even filled out a "passport application" and wrote a "check" for the fee. Then I had them address the envelope and mail off the application and fee. (Did you know the passport office is conveniently located at my parents address?)

I think my favorite part of school this year is the fact that we have read and read and read .... both individually and together. The kids aren't exactly as excited about this as I am, but I am starting to see them come around .... especially Fancy. They much prefer to spend their time on the computer or playing PlayStation or watching TV .... I am ashamed at how much time they have spent doing those things over the last few years, especially when I was in school. Now that we can make an effort though, we have seriously been limiting that wasted time. All in all, for me, there is nothing better than ending a long day snuggled up in my bed with everyone and a good book to read together. I can tell as much as they like TV, they are finding this time reading together really fun.

I have successfully incorporated "Home Ec" (aka chores) into our daily schedule. They really LOVE that. It is nice to train them in this and benefit from the time it saves me too. I realized not long ago that my kids are definitely old enough to have some chores. How did I let them get to this age without any? Those days are over. The result: Thrilled children.

On a non-schooling note, Bubby got his birthday present on Sunday. "It's his birthday?", you ask. Nope. The husband and I went to Guitar Center this weekend to do some early shopping while the kids were out of town with my parents. They were having a really great sale so we went ahead and got Bubby's drum set we were planning on getting him for his birthday. My plan was to hide it at my parents' house until December (the birthday). The Husband's plan differed. He couldn't wait to see Bubby's excitement ..... let's be honest though: He set it up IMMEDIATELY when we got home Saturday and played with it until Bubby got home Sunday. It is too funny. I'm not sure who enjoys it more. Ok, so here is a pic of Bubby's face seeing the set for the first time (YES .... he started RUNNING):

And here is where the noise began:

It has not stopped since. He is actually pretty good. We think it will be something he will stick with. We'll see. I will be checking into lessons for the next few weeks.

I guess for now that is all I have to say. I will get back to school, and laundry, and dinner, and life.

Take Care

This week ......

We started our study of North America today. We will be covering the U.S., Mexico and Canada in depth over the next 6 weeks.

Today we started on The United States. We checked out 32 library books last Friday on the subject. Fancy and Bubby enjoyed having this mini-library to browse through throughout the day. They are now happy (weren't through the summer) that we worked on learning the states and capitals all summer as now they can name them off really well. That makes for less studying this week as that is one of the major components. We enjoyed finishing up quickly and having more time for our new read aloud book (see below).

With each continent we will be reading a book about a Missionary that is associated with that continent. Today we started this book about Cameron Townsend:

He founded Wycliffe which is an orginization dedicated to making God's word available to every person in the language they speak. What good is a bible delivered to people if it is in english and they can't speak/read english?

If you want to know more about it, check out http://www.wycliffe.org/.

We are only two chapters in, but we are REALLY enjoying this book.

Here is a pic of the kids doing Math today. Fancy had finished hers and it turns out she is a great "teacher's aide". She really likes to help Bubby with his work. In fact, she almost likes it too much. If I do not keep an eye on it, she will do it FOR him so he can get done. She likes to move quickly through school. You know, so she can do important studious things like watch QUALITY television like "What Not to Wear" and such. (ugh) haha (she is a fashion freak after all).

Our friend "Peeping Tom" was back today (we think it is him anyway) ..... he wasn't looking in the window this time, just relaxing on the porch, but Bubby saw it as a photo opportunity.

While outside photographing "Tom" we saw several interesting spiders. The first picture ended up to be a blurry shot of the spider itself, but we thought the web was impressive.

Here is one last one Bubby had to capture. He seems to be very interested in Nature Photography. He must be taking after my sister who takes GREAT pics and has ALWAYS loved nature as her subject.

This spider, by the way, kind of gives me the "willies". I would be OK with him finding a new home. He is about the size of a haf dollar. I wish the web had turned out better. It is really neat. It has a zig-zag pattern to it.

Ok, and speaking of my sister .... here is her precious Izobella again. My kids got to spend a little time with her the other night at my parents' house. Fancy tends to like to photograph people .... especially babies.

That's all for now ... thanks for checking in.

Homeschool Open House 2007

I am joining in on the fun over at Tiany's Homeschool Open House 2007. (See it at homeschoolblogger.com/Tiany) .... I cannot get a link to work here .... I don't know why.

My husband and I have been married for 13 years (this Oct) and are first year homeschoolers. We are in our third week of school now and have truly loved every minute of it.

We have 2 great kids, and 11 year old daughter, who is nick-named "Fancy"on my blog (and in real life) and a 7 year old son we call "Bubby" (also in the blog world and the real world). They are in 6th and 2nd grade respectively.

I work full time nights as a Nurse and my husband is self employed. We weren't sure we could homeschool with our schedules, but with much prayer and consideration, we decided to step out on FAITH. I work Wed-Thur-Fri from 7pm to 7am so I am able to do full school days with the kids on Mon-Tue-Wed with no problem. Hubby's job allows him to stay home and do Thursdays. We seem to be able to finish it all up in a 4 day week. My Mom is a GREAT support and takes the kids on Fridays while I sleep and Hubby works. She does library days, fieldtrips, takes them to P.E. at the coop and/or anything else needed. It is great having such a support system. I'm sure she will work in plenty of just plain FUN on Fridays too.

I have recently posted pics of our schoolroom and kids on my blog, but I will repeat for the sake of the Open House visitors. I apologize to those who have already seen them.

We are using the following curricula:

My Father's World - Exploring Countries and Cultures

Character Building: The Narrow Way (by Pearables)

English From the Roots Up

A Reason for Handwriting

Mind Benders (logic)

Language Lessons by Emma Searle (Primary for him and Intermediate for her)

Spelling Power

Horizons Math (2nd and 6th grade)

My daughter plays Volleyball and serves in the Kindergarten ministry at church. She is also wanting to start taking guitar lessons soon.

My son plays soccer and and wants to take up drums (Lord help us).

They also both are doing AWANA.

Our day:

Since we are new to this, our schedule is loose and will surely be evolving, but for now here is what we do:

Goal is to start by 9am

Bible Story/Memory verse practice/AWANA practice

Handwriting

Math

Reading (Independent)

Spelling

Language

Character Training

LUNCH

Geography

Science/Nature Walk

Repeat Memory verse practice/AWANA practice

Music/Art

Logic

Greek/Latin

FREE TIME

DINNER

Read aloud before bed

So far, our day (from Bible to Greek/Latin) seems to be taking about 6 hours (including breaks). Not too bad, but I think it will lessen as we get better at moving from subject to subject. They then get in about 2-3 hours of free time, then dinner, baths, reading (1-2 hours) then off to sleep. We need to work in some "Home Economics" (aka chores) into that schedule too. I need a break somewhere. haha

Here are a couple of pictures of our schoolroom (although we do a lot in other areas of the house and outside too). We have three desks and 2 big bookshelves in this small room, but it works out very well.

And here are the precious reasons we do it all:

"Fancy"

"Bubby"