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Just Our Thoughts
Sep. 5, 2008
Reviewing Our Choosen Homeschool Curriculum
Draw, Write, Now! Books 1, 2, 3
The girls have been working on book one. They like the drawing part but are not so keen of all the writing involved. We usually pick one or two sentences.
ACSI Mathematics 1 & 2
When K and I started with the review pages in Grade One we realized that she should maybe start there this summer and move on to Grade Two later in the year. So I have to order a new Grade One book for CJ. K is on Chapter 3 or 4 right now.
Canada, My Country
Haven't looked at this much, but have rave reviews! We'll get into it eventually.
Canada-opoly
Played this almost daily for a week straight.
Bug-opoly
Did receive this in the last couple of weeks. We played it once or twice. The girls like it a lot but we haven't got into reading the backs of the cards where the extra information about bugs is "kept".
Penpal letters
These are the biggest hit! They love to receive the mail at the post office and writing letters isn't too much of a chore. We print off pretty paper and use cool pens and stickers. This time the plan is to put some little gifts in for the girls we are writing to because my girls received some "treats" at the Wellness Fair.
Various Unit Studies
Working on a Bee Unit but haven't done much with it. We'll get back to it probably next week.
Lapbooking
Copywork, as needed (using penpal letters for most of their writing stuff)
Using copywork sheets with our Bible lessons so they get practice writing what we are learning.
Internet and computer programs / games
I grounded them from the computer for the time being! They made a HUGE mess of my desk one day!
UB David + I'll B Jonathan (Mailbox Club type program)
This only comes in the mail every so often and we haven't been good about getting it back to them for grading. But when it comes in the girls are eager to read everything in the package.
BOB Books for learning to read
We took a break from these books but K has asked to get back into them just this morning.
All About Spelling
Haven't even looked at this yet. We are too busy with everything else.
How To Teach Science
They are asking to learn more about the periodic table again. We only ever did Hydrogen but we'll get into that too. I found a new cool site with YouTube videos that explain the elements in greater detail. I can't wait to get into them. They look very well done.
Come Sit By Me
This is mainly for the younger ones but K likes to listen to a story too. I don't know that I'll do all or any of the activities but it gives us a good list of books to check out and read and talk about.
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Sep. 5, 2008
Homeschool Log: Bible Lessons In The Morning
So, we have started something new to us. Right after breakfast is cleaned up we learn about some part of the Bible. Eventually I'd like to find a book we can follow, but for now I am just picking stories, printing coloring pages and copywork pages and we are talking about what we are learning.
The very first one that we did was Shadrach, Meshach and Abendigo. They colored pictures while I read and have been coloring in the little coloring books that I made up for them.
Secondly, we started a miniseries on the Ten Commandments. The first day we read the whole story and colored a page. Today, the second day we worked on this topic, we talked more indepth about the first commandment.
Ex. 20:3 KJV - Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
or another way to say it
Do not worship any other gods.
We have a poster in the window with the 10 commandments listed on tablets.
So then we talked about what worship means. I looked it up in the dictionary. We came up with:
to worship God means to do things that show that we love God.
We started a new duotang called: Words We Learned and put that definition into it.
We will continue on like this (at least that's the plan) through the ten of them.
Something encouraging that K said today while doing our lesson: If we were doing this at church I would be sooooo bored. I asked if she was bored doing it here and she said that she wasn't! Woohoo!!!
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Sep. 5, 2008
Book It On Friday
Betsy-Tacy by Maud Lovelace. If you have never read or listened to this story, you should! It is sweet, well written and gives a wonderful description of life in small town America in the . . . . honestly I don't know what year, but I'm guessing 1950s. There is even a Betsy-Tacy Society. We will be moving on to read the next in the series as I can't find an audiobookin our library system. The next book is called Betsy-Tacy and Tib.
I've been still struggling through The Hidden Art of Homemaking. And it's not because the book is hard to read. Honestly, it's because I committed to writing a post about each chapter and find it very hard to go on reading the next chapter if that post is not written and posted. I'm loving this book. The last chapter was on Flower Arranging. Loved it! I'll post about it soon and move on to the next chapters.
In our homeschooling, our Bible lesson has seen us learning about Moses and the Ten Commandments and the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abendigo. (Not positive on the spelling, forgive me.)
Oh and the C.O.W. Bus gave us new books, so we'll be getting into reading those. You'll hopefully hear about those next week. While on the C.O.W. Bus we looked at some really neat books that were puzzles and you had to put the pieces on the correct page. Those were neat.
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Sep. 4, 2008
The Hidden Art of Homemaking Chapter 7: Flower Arrangement
I loved this chapter. Such an easy concept to execute. Flowers add so much color and joy to a room or a table. It doesn't have to be much. I went out after reading this chapter and wandered around my yard. I was able to gather a small handful of flowers for our dining room table. A vase of flowers, even just one flower makes a house of furniture more of a home.
Things to add to or use instead of flowers:
- grasses
- pretty wood
- a toy or two
- table clothes
- gourds
- sand
- candles
- candies
- vegetables from the garden
- shells
- mirrors
- moss
- stones
A centerpiece including flowers and anything from the list, or others you can think of, shows thought, care and love for those that come to your table and your home. These flower arrangements are a drawing card to calm in the busy crazy world. It symbolizes a sinmpler time and seems to "center" a family, giving them a chance to communicate over food.
The author goes on to talk about children and how they appreciate beauty as much as adults, and how those sick or in pain need that special attention too. And even those who live alone need that little bit of beauty in their lives and need to do so for themselves!
"You may feel I am giving the 'Hidden Art' of flower arrangement too large a significance but I feel that the 'caring' for others in the family, whatever that 'family' consists of, can be expressed over and over again in ways which bring a very warm chain of memories, through transforming an ordinary meal-table into a place of surprise and beauty." page 107
This "art" is so wonderful because it is so simple and so uncostly. A leaf, a twig, an ivy, a potted plant. Anyone, no matter their situation in life can add a little beauty to their table or home.
She ends this chapter with the following:
"I must add one more sentence to this chapter: please try something in this area today. The only way to start, is to start." page 111
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Sep. 4, 2008
Thankful Thursday
I'm thankful for:
cooler weather
a healthy garden
a great pregnancy
well-behaved children
a friendly community
answers to prayer
technology - and using it, not letting it use me
fall activities starting again
the opportunity to stay home with my children
my children loving to learn
a Bible-believing midwife
my hubby's job
my parents
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Sep. 4, 2008
The Wellness Fair
Today the C.O.W. Bus came to town and with it the community held a Wellness Fair - booths from the local health centers and library and such. There was canada's food guide, and brushing teeth and bike safety and balance, and strokes and ages and stages and parentlink, etc. Lots of goodies and reading material to take home. Each child got a book or two! Plus coloring stuff and stickers and post-it notes and chalk and more stickers etc. What fun.
After we went to the C.O.W. Bus, we went on a little picnic in the park. Of course we decided to go at nap time, but W would not sleep in the stroller - too much to look at and too much running to do.
Well, here's what an hour at a Wellness Fair will do to two little ones.
I was trying to keep them up to put them to bed early tonight. Oh well. That's the way life goes. When you are tired, you are tired. I will probably be canning with two little ones under foot!
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Sep. 4, 2008
Some Pictures I've Taken Lately
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