Powerful video:

We have had a crazy few weeks at our house. When I last wrote I told of my father having a stroke and time spent at the hospital. A week and a half later my youngest came down with a aweful stomach virus that ended up going through the whole family. Ending with DH having a trip to the ER to get fluids via an IV. Although he was not admitted I think next time I will insist that he is as we had a rough 24 hours at home after the ER trip. He is fine now (PTL) and we are all trying to get back into our routines.

I am working hard on getting my first childrens book published using blurb. I hope to have all the images created by tomorrow so I can publish it this week I will post again and a link when it is ready for purchase

On the education front. We have made some headway in or History. Finishing our Middle Ages reading. We will move on to Early Modern Times  which we will start in January. The rest of this month we will review our Middle Ages study through video, audio and complete our reading of St George For England. We have some projects we will do as well

Our coop is going well. The boys have been loving Science and learning a lot. Here are a few things they tell me they have learned:

• The Periodic Table and how to use it
• Roman Numerals are cool.
• The parts of an Atom
• That there are Positive, Negative and Neutral

Heres what Cat has enjoyed at her Jr High Coop:

• Designing floor plans and making a paper home of her own.
• PE (playing volleyball, and other games)
• Creative Writing with the possibility of some of the students stories being published in the newspaper.

In Art History (with the boys) we learned last week about Durer. A German Artist who is famous for the Praying Hands image below:

We have also enjoyed the first meeting of our Art Club where we will do a variety of feild trips and projects and end the spring semester with our own art club gallery show.

As always math, reading, and spelling are just clicking along. Its getting to be so nice now that the kids are older as they are becoming more and more independent in thier bookwork.

Cats IEW writing class will be taking a break for Christmas but will begin again in the Spring semester with a study of Level B. Cat has really enjoyed this class and it has created a LOVE for writing. I will try and post some of her stories in the  next week or so

In our science at home we have been doing an experiment with bean seeds. One was put in the fridge, one in a dark place (closet) and one in a window.  Our one in the window grew beautifully into a plant.

Someone asked me today when we were going to be off for Christmas. With all the illness in our family we will probably try and do a bit more this Christmas than usual. But as always. Learning happens all the time here so its no big deal if we “have school” when most are having a break

until next time

blessings

ruthie

Its been a crazy few weeks here at our house. Two weeks ago my Daddy had a stroke. Those days were filled with trips to the hospital twice-3xs a day.

My DH worked from home on most of those days while i was at the hospital so and I left the kids in charge of getting their math, spelling done. One day when I came home the kids were just so excited to tell me that the LOVED spelling! Cat was in one room and the boys in two  other rooms, the boy would run to her.. she would give them the word and then they would run back to the room and put it on their paper. They loved it.

We have been pluggin along with our studies and have enjoyed some extra things as well. We currently have a seed experiment we are watching, enjoying more chapters of our historical fiction chapter book, and still loving out spelling program.

Nate started reading “the Hardy Boys” and Jo is on the 3rd chapter of Harry Potter (the first book).

Co-op has been really fun. Last week the boys elementary coop group had a swim day! All the kids were fantastic and we had so much fun! Cats Jr High coop had a fun session of martial arts instruction (which she loved), and a field trip to a local University, Interior Design firm, and Sonic (which the teachers-parents surprised them with).

We also had a great time at an “Indian Thanksgiving” with our local support group. The older Homeschool kids helped guide the kids to different stations. A story area (where a highschool homeschool girl dressed in a Pilgrams outfit read two stories by the fireplace), an Indian replica area (where the hostess of the event had replicas of Indian dress, etc that she borrowed from a local museum) , an Art area (which i coordinated.. where the kids painted story telling rocks while read a story the Indians passed down from one generation to the next) and a walking trail where they kids hunted for animal tracks and learned about the different types of animals the Indians hunted. The kids also got to eat Indian food, buffalo, corn, fish, and bread etc all cook the way the native American way.

We did a bit of fall cleaning and since the art supplies have been organized the kids have spent a lot of time at the dining table creating artwork. Since we are so into art around here I decided to head up a Art Club for our local HSgroup and our first meeting is coming up.We are looking forward to our club traveling to area art galleries, going to local churches and studying architecture and stained glass, and doing a service project or two.

I am still amazed at what all gets done and how much the kids learn even when we have a day or two where it seems “school” doesn’t happen.  It is also a blessing to realize as the kids get older they will take over more and more of the “burden” of their own education. I have always had a goal of guiding the children to become self reliant in their education, to learn and be responsible for their own education where I will eventually become just a guide. It is so encouraging to see glimpses of what is to come when we have unexpected things happen in our life. It also shows me how quickly time is passing by…….wow.. how time flies!

Hope you have a happy Thanksgiving!

OH.. I only wish you could have been there! A day that was like none other!

Friday our family got up really really early and headed to the Big D for a day of Art and History.. and of course I am a believer those two are always suppose to be used together! So it was ART HISTORY ALIVE day!

Our first stop was the Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art. 

What an incredible experience! Most of the time I spent with the boys looking and reading together. Cat spent her time with a good friend and it was so fun to see her and M walking around together and being so interested in the objects they were seeing. If I even tried to write about our experience at this exhibit it would be to long to read, so I will just hit the highlights

First, this is a MUST see! If this exhibit comes to your area, fork over the money and go!

Second, I had read many things about ancient Egypt and we spent a LONG time there when we started our Story of the World history a few years ago. In all the reading and learning we have done I never caught on to the fact that the Ancient Egyptians made AMAZING glass artwork! Glass beads in their jewelry, and even a glass head rest! It was incredible!

I will do a post at a later date about our favorite pieces and what they expressed .. but for now I will leave Tut and take you to the next step along our journey!

As we were getting ready for this day trip, I made a point to not look into the DMAs permanent collection on line. I wanted to be surprised! And OH was I so surprised! I had NO idea the DMA housed paintings by:

Monet (Water Scene), Manet (Soldier), Picasso, Van Gogh (Bridge), Mary Cassatt (Girls), Jackson Pollock (Cathedral), Mondrian, Renoir (pencil drawing), Rodin (Sculpture), Edward Hicks (The Peaceable Kingdom), Cezanne (Still Life), Andrew Wyeth (That Gentleman), Georgia Okeeffe, Miro, Whistler, and Grandma Moses!

Their collection list is of course a lot longer than this but these are the ones I was so surprised to see! AMAZING experience! And such a large collection of artifact from around the world! wow.

AS if that wasnt enough, we drove to Fort Worth and saw the Impressionists exhibit at the Kimbell. We were all so tired from the day we had already! I was already on overload from the emotional  experience I had at Tut and the DMA.. and if we could have we would have probably just headed home. But this was our last chance! On Nov 2nd the exhibit would be going home to Chicago Art Institute! So, even though were were tired and our feet all hurt, we headed into the Kimbell. It was more crowded than we had anticipated (being that it was Halloween night we figured it would be pretty slow), but there were lots of people! Most paintings has 10 to 15 people around them trying to view.. but all the people sooooo friendly! And all the people were polite to stand for a few minutes and then move on to the next, giving each person a chance to be directly in front of the masterpieces! It was almost more than I could stand! Inches away from Van Goghs self portrait!, Monet’s Haystacks, Toulouse-Lautre’s At the Moulin Rouge, and Degas Dancers! WOW. Speechless! I was THRILLED to stand and gaze into the eyes of Renoirs’ Two Sisters! (A painting that has hung in our home in print form for 15 years) The colors were breathtaking and I could never describe here how amazing this painting was and our print does NOT do it justice.

As far as the children, they were exhausted but did a fantastic job as they listened to the “children’s tour” and some times just went and sat on the benches provided as they listened and then would walk over to look closely. I cannot wait until we will have some time for then to sit and paint and draw (they did a bit today but need more time). I plan on getting Art books by thier favorite Artists and have them do some paintings as a way to remember our trip:)

What an experience! I wish you could have been there! It was like walking through a Art History Text book! After all the study I did in college (Art history was my least favorite subject by the way..lecture classes were not my favorite thing) and all the study I have done in the last 5  years as I teach Elementary children about the world of art.. I NEVER thought I would ever have the opportunity to be the the same room with such legendary masterpieces! Its just indescribable! (and i failed horribly to do it justice in this post)

If you have a chance.

GO.  (pictures and my childrens own masterpieces to be posted later this week:)

We are getting geared up for a trip to see King Tut! Of course.. the net junkie that I am.. I found a few things you might find interesting too! Here you go:

• Did you know there were seeds in Tuts tomb? Click here to read about a man who is growing some of these seeds!

•  We all know the story of Howard Carter finding Tuts tomb.. but this site shows every picture taken of the objects, also notes from Carter and other information about the event.. The pictures are so amazing! Love this site! Click here

• Amazing site that is a virtual tour of Tuts tomb. Has a voice narrating as you see the walls of the tomb. You can zoom in and out to see details of the images. Be sure and check out the other sections, “royal wrappings” and “High Tech Forensics” WAY COOL! Click here

Do you have child that loves science AND art? This video is great for showing the work of  artists in the scientific world! I showed this to the kids today!

(if you are interested in Shakespeare.. be sure and check out the links I added to our sidebar :) 

Its not a day that stands out unlike others. Today was a day that was pure enjoyment. Today was a day we enjoyed each other, learning and living. Our today… what a Joy!

I am not sure what it was about today.. but the joy of being home, relaxed and learning together seems more precious today than usual. I wonder if its the fact that the weather is changing and I know winter is coming. Its just that some days I wish i could just bottle them up and relive them all over again. I am not sure what it is. I do wish, however, that everyone of those Moms I see rushing about, yelling at their children in the grocery store or frustrated with them at the Library, could take a peak into our world. Our lives are not perfect, we struggle with quite a few things, but the joy that a simple, less stressful life brings is priceless. Homeschooler or not, take time to just breathe deeply, enjoy your children and reflect on your day.. for only too soon .. it will be history and we will be sitting in quiet homes with little laundry and a low grocery bill dreaming of days like today!

We began our day with a sleepy eyed wake up on a cool morning. Track practice begins at 8am and the thought of leaving our warm beds for the cool morning air is something of a feat. We dress and leave for the track, a minutes drive, and are so happy to see our friends! The kids work on form and a bit of speed drills for an hour, the moms all walk or jog the track for the hour while the kidos practice.

After track I cooked breakfast (homemade waffles) while the kids did thier math bookwork. After math (and breakfast) the kids played for a few minutes, then watched the last two parts of Macbeth on youtube (in full screen mode).

We began Science and History both of which we did outside on the patio in the sun! It was beautiful but the kids laughed as I curled up in the chair with my old quilt! I was warm and cozy!

Science was all about seeds. We read our textbook and the kids looked at seeds with a magnifying glass while I read. We then soaked some beans so we can take them apart and look at the different parts.

For History, part of me hates to leave Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Era .. so although we have only 2 chapters left in our History book (which will take us to the United States), I decided to linger a bit longer in England. I found a great book by G A Henty called St George for England. This will be our read aloud for the next few weeks! The kids loved it! and we completed the first chapter (still outside in the sunshine).

We are excited about a trip we will be taking to see an Exhibition of King Tut so I checked out a DVD called

Tutankhamun - Tut: The Boy King   We curled up in front of the TV before lunch and watched all 45 mins of the show! The kids are now even more excited to see the exhibit!

We ended up having a late lunch, and while the kids ate they watched another DVD about George Washington. 

We will be talking in more detail in the next few days about the Election etc and of course they will go with me to vote on Tuesday! I also have a great book about the Presidents we will be looking through as well.

We have had two good schooling days in a row:) When I say good I mean.. just feeling like everything fell into place and we were not running around like crazy:) Its so nice to just be at home. After a week of Science Fair, Field Trips, Track and other runnin around I am happy to just be at home. Thats exactly what happened on Friday AND today. We just stayed home .. (well this morning we went to track but that was it)

I thought I would share some things we did today AND some links I found. The wealth of information on the internet never ceases to amaze me! Sure there is horible things on the internet but there are jewels too! Its amazing what you can find once you start looking. I have a system of sorts when trying to locate information for our learning.

1. Do a Google Search on the subject
2. Do an image search (careful on this one you never know what will pop up..)
3. Do a video search on the subject (ditto above)
4. If these fail and I find no information, I rephrase the subject and try again. (If I am looking for Apples, I might narrow the search to just Granny Smith etc).. Or I might put search words in  a different order..
5. Here is a bit of a hint when your children are viewing a video.  First ALWAYS preview. Second, make the screen large if you can so no other videos show on the side, and Third if the large screen is not an option because of poor quality use the smaller mode but make your viewing window smaller as to hide the other videos. (I do not trust most sites and doing this takes away the distraction as well as the potential for my kids viewing images I would prefer them not see)

Ok. So here some things we have been doing:

Friday we continued out Study of Botany and went on a search for the following in our neighborhood. Vascular Plants, Nonvascular plants,  Angiosperms (container seeds:pecan etc), Gymnosperms (uncovered seeds:pinecones etc), Anthrophyta (flowering plant), Pterophyta (ferns), sporangia (spore containers), Bryophyta (moss plants). The kids collected some samples for our Botany notebooks

We had two mornings filled with math. Friday I worked with Cat a bit to fine tune somethings, Jo began work on ‘the area of a trapazoid’ and had fun with THIS website I found. After he did his bookwork he checked his work with this site. Its interactive and WAY cool! He loved it.  Nate took an oral math test, most of which was done either on his head or while trying to walk on his hands! I advanced him a lesson or two as he flew through the test. He astounds me with his mathness and will soon be in the 4th grade book! (def took after his daddy in this area)

Today we had fun with spelling. I called out the words and then tried to use them in a sentence that would relate to Star Trek. The kids thought it was funny and made usually boring spelling a lot more fun!  here are a few of the words from today: splattered, emitted, moulded and molded,  shouldered, committed, and glittered. Star Trek Spelling.. taking spelling where its never gone before ! hehe

Friday we Covered Elizabeth the first. I found  THIS site that has some great images (paintings) and poems by Elizabeth.

Our history today led us to Shakespeare and had a shortened version of Macbeth. This led me to search for short clips of the play and I found this!

The kids watched part one and will finish the rest tomorrow. Its amazing how they were glued to the screen!

Cat and I watched this one too:

Both sites have other animated stories, the first is completely Shakespeare the second has different videos which I have yet to look over but plan to do so.

And Last but not least, Nate and Jo got into a discussion as to where fire was on the “state of matter” topic. Where did it belong?  So I found THIS to answer the question and that led me to this.

Heres a few more things we did today (education wise)

• Watched on DVD

Clips from a website talking about Egyptian history and artifacts.

Cat worked on her writing assignment for tomorrow

and

Jo drew an amazing picture of a cow!  among other things.

(this is a super long post.. dont miss the photos at the bottom!)

Its been a busy week with our family. This past Friday we went on a bird watching field trip. We listened to the owner talk about birds and butterflies, saw Chickadees, Cardinals, Bluejays, Finches, and a Swallowtail Butterfly! The hike in the woods was great! I have pics below

Made me smile to see the owner put a welcome sign out

Cat looking at a page that explains the difference between a Monarch and Viceroy, which mimics the Monarch. This fit in GREAT with our studies as we just finished our “Creatures that Fly” Science book last week!

As we were walking along someone noticed white powder on a catcus. The owner stopped and said that the Native American Indians in this area used this white powder in thier paint and pottery etc. She bent over and carefully scrapped some on her finger. (as you can the kids were fasinated). The white powder, when smashed turns a brilliant red purple.

As we continued walking along..another homeschool student asked if she could get some white stuff off another catus. We .. of course began asking questions about what exactly the white powder was.. we  decided it was a fungus of some kind. But when our daring homeschool friend gave it a try..and smashed the powdery substance between her fingers.. we were so surprised to find..  A WORM! (if you look closely in the pic above you can see a bit of the worm on her pointy finger) The owner was as shocked as we were.. and we all were so excited to learn what it was. I plan on trying to do a bit more research to find out exactly what kind of worm, ect it is.. but this was GREAT! What a memory!

she is going to be taller than me in no time! I have 3 inch clogs on! and she is in flats!

Loved this dead tree in the woods.

Another surprised!!! The kids were excited to find out that their track coach had surprised them with a trip to the zoo instead of an hour of track practice. The whole team enjoy the zoo! and we were happy to see a new exhibit… the burrowing owls! look closely in the pic above and see if you can find him!

And last but not least.. Our homeschool Groups Science and History Fair was yesterday! It was an alllll day event. We spent most of the weekend working on the kids projects. Cat did “The History of Gum” with a friend, and the boys did “The History of Bridges” (Thier Aunt Jana sent them a Bridge Building kit which was the reason they chose this for their project)

The kit had three bridges the boys built.

Here they are painting the base for the truss and arch bridges to sit on.

Here they are making plaster to pour in the forms for the Roman Arch Bridge

Working on getting the Truss Bridge put together (Dad had to help them snap into place)

Here’s the final result for the judges to go over.

Build your own bridge area.

Their model(s)

The suspension bridge. This was a bit tricky to get from home to the car it was LONG

They both won “Excellent” Awards AND “Most Creative” out of allllll the group projects!

Here is Cat with the title of her and Hs project

This is the final display. They had a jar for the judges to “guess how many gumballs” and the girls also had matching shirts and head bands

Cat and H won BEST OF SHOW!

This is right after they got the trophy!

This shows a picture of some of the other participants tables. There is another section to the right that is not in the photo.

It was a great experience and all the kids did a fantastic job!

and LAST but NOT LEAST:

Its so hard to believe shes 12 already! Happy Birthday Sweet Cat!

Your PURE JOY Just as your name says you are!

So .. whats life like homeschooling when Mom is down in her back?

I have had a few weeks of back pain. It all started with an bad move i made when i was on a training run. I popped a rib out and didnt know it. 10 days later I HAD to do something about it. My neck, mid and lower back were in the Chiros terms “a train wreck”. I have been unable to do the dishes (until today), laundry, or any picking up things from the floor is a no no.

So.. whats life been like?

Well.. the beauty of homeschooling is that the kids can really pick up the slack. They have been super! Its been a great learning lesson “Now do you understand why you have chores? because one day.. Mom might not be able to do all this” .. or.. “one day your wife might not be able to do the housework” . My boys (and cat) all did laundry, dishes, and all the other chores for the last almost 2 weeks.

Schooling hasnt changed. We have stayed on top of all our stuff .. despite my condition I just ice my back in bed (either mine or theirs) while they sit and listen or write thier spelling words. Life throws curve balls sometimes… its nice to be able to  just “go with the flow”.

heres a bit of an academic update:

Cat is still working on fractions (lots of different things with that), Jo is in Division, and Nate in Mulitiplication.

Nate has a tendency every week to do 3 or 5 lessons in a row on one day of the week. Today he did extra handrwiting and math.. why? cause its easy for him i think.. and he wants to finish.

Jo picked out some neat science books from the library today… one called. “Alpha Centauri, the Nearest Star”.. Its interesting which books he selects on his own.. Here is the publishers blurb:

“Now that the human race is no longer earthbound, and with space colonies projected for the near future, we look to the stars with a new urgency. In this informative book, Isaac Asimov discusses the stars “of our neighborhood” and in particular the third brightest and the nearest—Alpha Centauri.

The dramatic story of how the distances of the stars are determined is climaxed by the revelation that Alpha Centauri is actually a triple star—and the brightest of the three Alpha Centauri stars is virtually the twin of our Sun.”……

click here to see the site 

Jo also got a book about Physics, and a nice book that is all about Matter.

Nate was thrilled to see the had the NEWEST Magic Tree House book in! He was allowed to check it out eventhough it was at the childrens librians desk and hadnt made it to the shelf! he was thrilled!

Cat is doing a History Fair Project about “the history of computers” with a friend. Jo and Nate will be doing a science presentation on Rocks.

In History we studied South America and Cortes.

Science- we are on our last chapter- all about Lepidopter  Order (Butterflies and Moths). A great subject to end on because the monarchs are here

Bible is the Book of John (they are doing great in Bible Bowl and loving it!)

Well.. thats all for now. We have coop tomorrow

Check back soon on a new addition to our homeschooling adventure! Cub Scouts!

I attended a seminar resently on homeschooling through high school. When I started homeschooling 6 years ago I never thought I would be “going the distance”. Homeschooling  was always the best option for us for many different reasons. But to be sitting in a seminar and realizing that I am preparing myself for high school course work is just a bit surprising to me. Time has flown by! What happened to phonics, to “learning your letters”, and all the joys of Elementary learning I find myself at the beginning of the end. (for one child at least )

My oldest will be 12 in a few weeks and I am now probably viewed by beginning homeschooling moms as “the veteran homeschooler”. It seems like life is just flying by but I am soooo happy I have time with my children and they have time with each other.

I really enjoyed Kathleen Duncan’s seminar and after sitting through the lectures and hearing her explain (and entertain) I am at ease and confident homeschooling High School will be no big deal.

Here are some things I learned

• We can begin High School work in the 7th grade ! (that’s next year)
• Record keeping will not be that big of a deal! (Her notebooks make it easy!)
• There are creative and exciting ways teach Civics, Sciences, and many other high school classes. (and it doesnt all have to be text books!!!)
• We can design the course work our children are required to follow! (I am thrilled with this because it means we can meet their individual needs!)

I could go on and on..

To learn more .. you can visit Kathleens website!

This past Saturday was a great day. It started off with Cats second and the boys first Cross Country Track meet. I have a few pictures from the meet but they are on Hubby’s cell phone so I will have to load them later The meet was fantastic!

Our kids ran against 7th graders. Cat (6th grade) ran with our team (about 5 girls) against 7th grade girls from surrounding schools. Her race had 122 girls running! It was amazing to watch them take off and finish! She came in with a new PR (personal record) for the mile of 8 min 22 seconds! It was fun (again) to watch her sprint at the end .. amazing.

Jo (4th grader) and Nate (2nd grader) ran with 7th grade boys.  Jo had a personal record of 11min 4 seconds and finished the mile with NO walking! It was great! We were all so proud of Jo he has the best attitude and has made AMAZING progress in the last few months!

Nate.. shocked us all by running the mile in 8min 5 seconds! I must say it was very very fun to see this little 2nd grader beat alllll those 7th graders. I had no idea he could run that far..that fast!

The meet was so inspiring and the kids had a great time! This morning at track practice Coach, of course, talked about the meet and how great it was and how everyone was a winner. Its so great to see the BIG smiles of all the kids! They were so happy.  Then, the kids just ran as long as they wanted.. just for fun.. Cat and Jo ran 2 miles, Nate.. ran 3, the most he has ever run! What a way to start the day!

This morning we came home from track and its been so relaxing. I made breakfast (as everyone was of course starving) and the kids went their separate ways. Nate on the floor in the den with a book. Jo in his room working on Bible Bowl questions and Cat in her room working on her History project for coop. They ate breakfast together and before i could finish mine they were all on the floor in Cats room working on Bible Bowl (Gospel of John) together! It’s so neat to hear them read and discuss and help each other work through the questions. I LOVE the fact that learning is just normal to them. I have not forced them to do Bible Bowl, I have never forced it.

Somedays its just more apparent that “loving to learn” has become a reality in our home. It just comes natural and I LOVE that.

This past weekend we also had a Homeschool Family Picnic and then went to our local Hot Air Balloon Festival. It was a great time! We got to hear Homer Hiccolm and the Rocket Boys! They were GREAT!

Heres some photos: