Getting Organized and Loving It!!

    This post is linked to The Homeschool Mother’s Journal 

over at The Homeschool Chick.

The Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and
Favorite Resource This Week at Learning ALL the Time

Make sure you hop over to see what other homeschool moms did this week!

In my life this week…Boo is finally recovering from being sick. Yay! It has been a long three weeks of him being under the weather. I am feeling better, too. The other kids all seem to be fine, except for Ladybug, who has allergy eyes today, and sniffles. 

Our good friends, Lady L. and her five wonderful kids, came over on Wednesday for a visit and to check out what was new on the Bookmobile. Tex always enjoys recommending books for his friends to read (since he reads so much...maybe he will be a librarian someday?), and he has them hooked on the Percy Jackson series from Rick Riordian. In fact, he received Son of Neptune, the newest book in the second series, from his brilliant mom (me!) for his birthday, finished it in under 24 hours, and then passed it on to me (and I finished it in about two days...being sick is good for catching up on reading). They are fun books, but if you have a problem with your older kids reading fantasy, or about obviously imaginary Greek and Roman "gods," then you should skip them (but you will be missing out on some good laughs!).

Having a nice time with Briar Rose, or Rosie, 

our Shetland-Quarter Horse baby pony.

Yeah, go ahead, laugh if you want. 

It IS an unlikely combination...

But she is adorable, and sweet, too.

In our homeschool this week…The younger group got to read a book about ponds and they drew pictures of what they read about. We watched a video on Egypt together, read a book about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, made a cartouche necklace, wrote letters to the grandmas and great-grandmas, and started working on Math Mammoth, which we are reviewing. They also played with their Duplo Legos quite a bit, and spent plenty of time playing outside with their bikes, the baby pony, and their new sidewalk chalk and bubbles. 

Tex is loving his new (birthday gift/school) computer and accessories.

Tex finished up the last of his ten lessons of Visual Latin (another review item), set up his new printer, finished putting together his notebook (to keep all his reading records, math charts, worksheets, etc. in), started working on the "Alice 2.2" programming lessons, wrote some thank you notes, caught up on his Exploring Creation with Physical Science experiments, and did plenty of Khan Academy. He LOVES his new laptop. So do I. I hope it is my turn to get a new one next...Oh yeah, and Tex and I read Son of Neptune. Does that count for school?

Bubble time!!

Boo was obviously feeling better because he repeatedly got into trouble by climbing places he should not have been to get things he should not have played with. This morning he climbed to get into our school drawers and got some scissors (blunt primary ones) and cut a pillow cover I had quilted years ago. Sigh. What am I going to do with him????

What’s working for us...Nanny helped us rearrange the boys' room downstairs so that two desks (with two computers on them) fit in it now. A third computer (the netbook) sits on the cedar trunk by the bed with a padded footstool for a chair, so all three of the Amigos can do their online schoolwork at the same time. It is much more efficient and helps me to be able to get and keep them on task more easily. Plus, they finish the online stuff (Mathletics, Reading Eggs, some review items) before lunch so that after lunch we can do our "fun" and "creative" together activities for an hour or so (and we don't even start "school" until ten most days since morning chores take a while, and I am not getting up at the crack of dawn to do them). Thanks for the help, Mom!

Cowboy after eating chocolate ice cream. 

Thank goodness Zote soap works so well!

Thoughts I have…If I could just get "caught up," I think our days would go pretty smoothly and I might start having more fun instead of always feeling behind. I know the "to do list" will never be empty, but if it would just get to fewer than a dozen important items...

Ladybug is always hard at work, even when it is fun work.

She's just a hard worker. What a blessing.

My favorite thing this week was…Watching the kids be so excited over being able to do all their work at one time, and then seeing how Ladybug rose to the occasion and acted as helper whenever I was busy doing kitchen chores, or laundry, or something. Great job, sweetie! You are a gem!!

I am inspired by…Cindy Rushton. I discovered her seminars when we moved here and I was on limited activity (pregnant with Boo). Her peppy and heartfelt talks cheered me up, and I felt like I had a friend in the room with me. She's having a sale this week on her notebooking set, which is great, if you want to find out more about it and don't have many printables of your own already. Her "brain in a binder" is awesome (and it is included in the set that is for sale). She's featured on Homeschool Freebie of the Day today, so head over for a freebie and check out her sale! You can get more freebie audio lectures from Cindy HERE.

 Firefly is ready for church...such a pretty and sweet four-year-old big girl!

My favorite homeschooling resource this week…I had fun exploring links for mini-offices this week, and printed up several things I found links to on this Squidoo lens about mini-offices. The kids have a mini-office hanging on their school area bulletin board now, and have loved referring to it since I posted it. Give a mini-office a try!! I'd love to have you share any links to mini-office posts you may have, or favorite resources for your own, if you have time to  leave a comment. Thanks!

Have a blessed week,

Heather

Farewell Stanley...Off to Florida Other Points South of Here

Here are few last pictures of Flat Stanley from earlier in the summer, that we never put up.

For those of you who have not been following Stanley's adventures, this summer we hosted Flat Stanley for a few months, and this week he finally got packed up and mailed off to visit a 2nd grade class in Florida before heading home to the Carolinas.

Stanley had a lot of fun with us this summer. He visited the "waterpark" in our backyard and roasted marshmallows over the fire, went to our church picnic and rode on a boat, went to Busch Gardens, visited the Living Museum for Firefly's birthday, helped Bubba shoe some horses and went riding, attended the birth of a baby pony, survived an earthquake AND a hurricane, and went with us to the library and the bookmobile to check out books (about himself, of course).

Here's a photo of Stanley helping Hubby finish up the stall for Merry just in time...

 Ladybug is proud of the new accommodations for her precious pony.

They aren't fancy, but one thing farm living has taught us is that "done" is better than "perfect" because perfect never gets done!

We also made a small tack and feed room. Again, not fancy, but functional.

This is Merry, a few days before the BIG event.

You can see pictures of the baby pony's birth HERE

or check out an update a month later HERE.

Stanley also helped Bubba trim all our horses' feet.

Jake looks a bit rough in this picture because the HUGE horseflies got very bad late this summer, and he seems to be allergic to their bites, so he gets very itchy and rubs his hair off on the fence. We wound up buying him a fly sheet, which helped immensely. He looks a bit ridiculous in his full get up, though. (You can see him dressed up below).

Once the horses were trimmed, Stanley and the other kids begged for "pony rides," so we gave them rides around the front yard and down the side road to the woods. Stanley enjoyed his ride at a sedate walk, but when Jake wanted to pick the pace up a bit, Stanley insisted on getting off because he felt as if he was feeling a bit light-headed.

Here's Jake all dressed up in his full "fly armor."

Kinda funny, isn't it?

It does the trick, though, and surprisingly, he does not seem to mind. 

Bubba brought his new puppy, Tucker, along for the ride, and we had a nice time playing with him. He's part black lab and part retriever of some sort. Bubba got him from a rescue shelter. Some folks who moved out of a foreclosed on property left behind the mamma dog, four puppies, and two half-starved horses. Such a shame and so irresponsible. 

But, the puppies have all found good homes now, and the mamma dog, too. All's well that ends well. Bubba sure is happy to have a canine companion again.

Well, it has been a fun and busy summer.

Farewell Summer! Farewell Flat Stanley!

Thanks for visiting Blessing Farm...

Anyhow, that's pretty much it for our (almost) Wordless Wednesday.

Blessings,

Heather

Like Word Puzzles? Try Scruble Cube!

We can't guarantee that PLAYING THIS GAME WILL MAKE YOU A GENIUS, but it might!

(from the Scruble Cube website)

Tex is excited that he got something in the mail...wouldn't you be? 

It's a game, not WORK!!! Yay!

Are you a fan of Scrabble? Do you remember playing with a Rubik's cube when you were in junior high school (back when they had jr. high...oh, does that date me?)? Did you ever wonder why someone couldn't find a way to combine the two? Well, even if you didn't ever wonder about that, someone did, and here it is...Scruble Cube, a clever game where you twist and turn sections of a 4X4 cube (yes, that's a total of 96 colorful squares) to use letters to make words for points. It is very similar in movement to a Rubik's cube, but oh so much more interesting and challenging..."it's like a word game and a puzzle, on steroids!"

Here's what our Scruble Cube looked like when it arrived. 

I'll bet yours will look very similar to this one!

Doctors these days say one of the best ways to fight against conditions like dementia and Altzheimers is to keep your brain active. Not to mention the fact that our young ones need ways to develop those important reasoning and critical thinking pathways in their brains...something outside of their regular school work. 

Sure, there are brain training games on your iPhone, but you can't stay plugged-in all the time. Really. You can't. Sometimes you need to do something that not only exercises your mind, but stretches it a bit farther...Sure, you could do another crossword puzzle or jumble, but why not try something new that is really going to give your spatial skills a work out? 

With Scruble Cube you will not only exercise the verbal part of your brain, you will give that part of it that has to manipulate objects (and understand their relationship to each other) some exercise, too. One of Tex's main challenges when he tried out Scruble Cube was to figure out how to manipulate the letters and get the ones he wanted from one side of the cube to the other. But don't worry, the nice folks at Scruble Cube provide a downloadable instruction sheet for those of us to whom making a Scruble Cube work doesn't come naturally. Thanks, guys. It helped.

Scruble Cube can be played individually, or competitively, by using the letters' point values in conjunction with the special bonus squares (just like in Scrabble) to calculate total number of points for each turn. 

There are 7.4 X 1045 possibilities (that's 7,401 septillion possible configurations, if you are counting) which means endless hours of game play for you! Of course, if you are determined to find the word "pie" no matter how long it takes (like Tex is doing in the photo above), you may be playing for a while...In the meantime, the rest of you can check out the video on the game's website to see the Scruble Cube in action. (disclaimer: we never managed to get the Scruble Cube to move as fast as they do in the video...the cube is a bit tough at times to manipulate, and we occasionally worried that a harsh move would have it in pieces...but it never did succumb to our manhandling).

There are many ways to use a Scruble Cube. That is one of the neatest things about it. Just get creative. You can play against yourself, trying to find word of a certain length, within a cerain amount of time, or of a particular point value. Likewise, you can challenge a friend, sharing the cube (or you could each have your own) and see who has the most points in a certain time period, or after five or ten turns (here's a printable score sheet), or just do one on one competitions like "I can find a five letter word in five minutes, can you?" and see how that goes...or how about this: "How long will it take you to find a noun? A verb?" Tada! It's our grammar lesson for today!

Here Tex has "found" the word "stew" (or "wets" backwards...do you get extra points for that?). It was worth 7 points based on tile number value, but because it was between a 2X and a 3X tile, it was worth a whopping 42 points! Good job, Tex!! You can make words going across, up and down, around the corner (on the same line), and you get extra points if you can manage to make a second word intersect with your first word without compromising either one. I did that. Once.

 See how they got the words Scruble and Cube on the face at the same time? Wow! I am thinking I am years away from that feat.

Tex kept his Scruble Cube on the bookshelf, away from tiny hands (there was some concern the little ones might drop it or turn it too hard and damage it, thereby rendering it unusable), in the Parlor where he does most of his schoolwork. Sometimes I would catch him playing with the cube instead of doing his math, English, or science. 

Aha! Caught you again, did I? Well, I guess you could argue that you are doing math, English, and maybe even a bit of science (logic and reasoning, anyway), whenever you are playing with the Scruble Cube. I will let you off this time. Hey, are you wearing two different colored socks? 

The clever folks at Scruble Cube received some pretty prestigious awards for their game.  Scruble Cube has been awarded the Seal of Excellence for the 2010 Creative Toy Awards by Creative Child Magazine and Best Picks New Products by Dr. Toy. These folks are big on education and they even offer lesson plans and challenge sheets to go with their product, in case you want to incorporate using the Scruble Cube into your daily homeschooling plans (or for an after school supplement, or just for good old plain fun!).

Tex thought the Scruble Cube was a lot of fun. He felt it rated about a four on a five point scale for him personally (he must admit he is fond of Chocolate Fix and Rush Hour, and measures everything against those). He thinks that for a real wordsmith, this game would definitely rate a five. He also felt that the game merited a three for workmanship (he felt rotating the sections was a bit tough, though that could have been our individual cube's issue) and gives the game a five for creativity and challenge.

He thinks this game would especially appeal to the wordsmith of your family. You know, those folks who love to trounce you playing Boggle every year at Christmas, or those folks who choose to play Scrabble on their phones instead of Angry Birds? But your average kids, ages 8 and up will find it interesting, too (we thought this age range was right on, as Ladybug, age 7 played with it a bit, but it didn't hold her interest as much as it might in a few months or a year). They will especially appreciate it as a change of pace from their usual lessons. You won't have to worry that they are wasting their brains away playing THIS game, and it just might keep them occupied in the car long enough for you and your honey to have a REAL conversation on your next long car trip.

If you'd like to check out other reviews by members of the TOS Crew, you will find them HERE.

 The Scruble Cube retails for $24.95 and comes with the cube, a score pad of paper, a sand timer, the instructions, and a getting started guide.  

Blessings,

Heather

(and Tex)

As a member of the TOS Review Crew, I received the Scruble Cube for free in order to review it here on my blog. I only recommend products we truly enjoyed and I try to be completely honest about our experiences with a product. If you have any questions about this review, please feel free to contact me.

Friday Fun School

Friday Fun School is not so much fun when some of the kids are sick, but if you try, you can find some fun in every situation (or at least try).

We found our fun in the idea of having a Family Film Festival. Poor Boo is so miserable with bronchitis, that doing much more than that was out of the picture (and Mom is not feeling so hot, either). So, after getting dressed and having breakfast, we settled in for our first movie. We watched a fairy tale called The Polar Bear King on Netflix. It was good. Long, though. But it held the kids' interest (I only had the Four Amigos, since Tex spent the night with my folks following his birthday ice cream trip to Short Lane, our local homemade ice cream parlor, and went bowling with Bubba and my dad this morning) and taught a good lesson about good and evil, perseverance, and the importance of heeding advice and keeping promises. 


Here's a quick synopsis of the movie: A young princess from a land that where it is always winter, longs to see flowers and feel the warmth of the sun. A prince in a land far south inherits his kingdom when his father dies. He is virtuous and kind, and that really ticks off the evil sorceress. She wants to marry him and combine their powers to rule the world. He passes on the offer and she turns him into a polar bear who must wander in that form for seven years, except at midnight, when he turns back into a human until sunrise. He can break the enchantment at the end of seven years IF he finds someone who will love him.

You'd think the turning back into a prince thing would be handy,  except for the fact that if any human sees his face, he will be stuck marrying the sorceress anyway. Sigh. So you can imagine, he manages to get the princess to marry him, without seeing him, and by visiting her in the dark at night they have three kids...BUT since the bad lady is still out there, the king's mother must hide the children without their knowledge. It's complicated. And long...but just what the kids liked on a sick day. If you want to learn the rest of the story, watch it on Netflix. I warn you, there is one scene at the end where the bad folks from all over the kingdom get together and act...bad. But since I was sitting there and we were talking about how sad evil is, the show worked for us.

After that, the kids drew a little, then it was time for lunch. The kids ate their usual PBJs and while Boo napped, we watched Building Pharaoh's Ship (Nova) on Netflix (it is available free on hulu, if you click the link). It is a very interesting documentary about the boat Hatshepsut might have used to send her people to the faraway land of Punt, to gather many amazing things to impress the people, to show them how powerful she was (since she was a female who claimed to be Pharaoh, I guess she needed to do it better and go farther.) It was a pretty fascinating look into Egyptian boatmaking, and went along well with our reading of the book Pharoah's Boat by David Weitzman. The kids really enjoyed that story, and it brought Egypt alive for them. A few more links to check out later are: an article about one of the boats found at Giza and pictures of some of the boats excavated.

We also watched The Riddles of the Sphynx on Netflix, and other than a brief section (about five minutes) early on when they talked about the first pharaoh's tomb (where they found the skeletons of 35 healthy males who had been buried with him and showed them...I made the kids close their eyes and turn away), it was fascinating, too, and really brought the Sphynx to life for us. We read a book called Archaeologists Dig for Clues by Kate Duke to go with it, which reinforced the idea of what archaeology is, and we discussed that we also find clues to our past in the Bible.

Once Boo woke up, we took a movie break, and went outside to do the afternoon feedings, since Tex was not home (he, his dad, Bubba, Poppy, and his uncle had headed east to watch a football game) to do them. Yes, that was me and four little kids, ages 2-7, doing the "barn chores": feeding the horses, cleaning the pony stall (since Hubby left too early to do it in the morning), putting the pony up for the night, putting the chickens back in their house after feeding them, feeding the dogs and the bunny, and watering all the animals. So, we went out and spent about an hour grooming the pony and her baby, Rosie. It was really cute since the bigger kids brushed Merry, and the two little ones brushed Rosie. Rosie loves grooming time already, but she does NOT love it when it is time for her lesson on how to be led. Ladybug had to walk to the back and give her a push whenever she dug in her heels!

Then I needed to clean the stall, so I let the kids play on the hay, which was fine as long as they did not climb too high, which, of course, they did. They found several eggs and watched two chickens lay two more, contemplating what the hens might be saying as they layed the egg ("Hey rooster, the egg is coming...here it is...bak bak...that hurt!). Kids are so funny. It took forever to clean the stall as the pitchfork was AWOL, so I had to use our broken hay fork to do the job. But, the end result was a stall filled with fresh straw, fresh water, and food, all ready for Ladybug to let the pony in to eat later in the evening. I fed the horses early, so I wouldn't have to come back out and leave the kids alone inside, figuring Ladybug could let the ponies in later so they could enjoy the rest of the day. We also went ahead and fed the chickens, so the kids could have the fun of watching them eat.

After that, Boo was ready to go back in and rest, so we headed back in to watch another movie, Second Chances. This movie was about horses, a little girl who was injured in an accident and was able to get better thanks to her love for a horse, and the nice gentleman who helped her out. I recommend it. It was very nicely done and taught a valuable lesson about friendship, perseverance, and helping others. If you like western riding, barrel racing, or just horses in general, it will be a winner for you! I prepared the kids ahead of time for the fact that the little girl lost her daddy in a car wreck, and was hurt besides, so it was not upsetting to them. If you like English riding, you might want to try Moondance Alexander. It has show jumping in it, and a good story line with an excellent lesson taught (and Moondance is very polite, to my recollection, which we liked). There is one brief scene where the trainer considers taking a drink, but winds up throwing it away. Other than that (and the rude girls who learn a lesson), I think it was okay for all viewers, but it has been a while since we watched it.


We got a call from the doctor after that that they were going to call in Boo's usual meds without us going in for a visit, so we set off for the pharmacy and to pick up pizzas for the kids' dinner. When we got back, I sent Ladybug out to put up the pony, Cowboy went and fed both of the dogs (they got a bit more than we usually give them, but I am sure they did not mind!), and Firefly tempted the chickens into their house with the remains of an old loaf of french bread. Wow! Don't ever let anyone tell you your kids are too young to do chores! My Three Amigos rose to the occasion and did very well. I am proud of them.

Once they were in, we doled out sniffle meds, dished out pizza, poured drinks, and headed back up for one last film (late...it was almost 8 when we got home, but it was a Friday Movie Night, right?!). We watched  Joseph: King of Dreams on Netflix. I had seen this movie when it first came out and remembered liking it, but the little kids had never seen it. Since we are studying Egypt, it seemed like a good choice for our movie night. We all loved the music, the animation, and we had some great discussions about the characters and their interactions with each other. It is an amazing story about God's providence...and of course, the folks who wrote it speculated on some things, and added to it, but they retained the essential message that God has a plan, and we should trust in him. What Joseph's brothers meant for evil, God used for good.

So that's our Fun Friday. It was fun, if a bit long (like this post!). But that's okay. Sometimes it is all right to do things a bit differently than you usually do. That's one of the blessings of homeschooling, isn't it? The ability to roll with the punches and adjust to the children's needs (and yours). What a blessing.


I think the kids appreciated the novelty of the day, Boo and I got some rest, everything got done that needed to be done, and we can even say we learned something. Yay!

I hope you had a fun Friday, too.

Blessings,

Heather

School With the Three Amigos---Goals for 2011-2012

The Three Amigos 

(Ladybug, Cowboy, and Firefly, ages almost 8, 6, and 4)

My overall goal this year for these three is to work on developing good character (especially obedience, initiative, diligence, kindness, consideration, responsibility, respect, and self-control), improving habits, training for new chores (such as Ladybug taking over the care of the chickens and Cowboy taking over the dogs...Firefly will begin helping me care for the bunny), and getting the three of them into a solid "homeschooling groove." 


A lot of that depends on me, and how well I do, so I am working on developing MY character, habits, and organizing my completion of chores better. Funny how that works. ;-)

Our secondary goals are academic, and here they are:

• Bible: daily readings from Long Story Short...this study is laid out so that there are five readings per week, which gives me two "bye" days. So far, I have not managed to do all five in one week. It is my goal to become consistent in this area. I try to read while they are eating supper (I am usually not hungry because I taste-test while cooking). We will also complete various Old Testament activities as they arise with our history studies. I want them to have a solid familiarity with Old Testament history, people, and a general idea of the timeline (and how events relate to each other) by the end of the year. Both Cowboy and Ladybug have asked Jesus into their hearts. We are praying for Firefly and Boo (they are four and two, so it is early days yet).
• Reading: Ladybug and Cowboy use Reading Eggs on days when I have a headache (which is, unfortunately, not rare) and do not have the ability to orchestrate all of their activities. We also have a subscription to Click n'Read Phonics (it was very inexpensive at Homeschool Buyer's Co-op) for Firefly. Over the summer they really got motivated to read (we did our own Summer Reading Program), so just moving them from having to read "carefully" to being able to read "comfortably" will be our goal for this year.

• On good days, the kids do various reading and phonics activities with me, such as reading books from our "Reading Suitcase" (an old box suitcase full of easy readers like "I See Sam" and the "Bob" books), reading leveled readers or other picture books silently or to each other and adding the titles to their reading lists, listening to me or Tex read them books out loud (you can see some of our Read Aloud list here...I just started adding titles, so all of the picture books we've read together are not on there yet...it is a work in progress), and doing pages in various workbooks when they have an area they need to work on.
• Writing: The two older Amigos have Reading Response Journals  they are required to use for every five books they read. They must choose one of the five books to write about. We use various forms I find online to give them a suitable format to fill in. I usually have Firefly draw a picture of a story she heard during the week while the other two work on their journals (she might copy the title, if it is not too long). Since I am working on getting organized this year as a main goal, keeping their work for each class in easily accessible notebooks is important to me. They keep each of their notebooks in a lapdesk, which you can see HERE. 
• The Three Amigos take turns using the Writing Suitcase once a week to write someone a letter, or write a story or poem to add to their writing notebook because learning to write good sentences, as well as learning to reach out to others (to make them happy and to be polite, as in the case of thank you notes), are important goals. I think letter-writing is a fading art, and I want my kids to learn it. E-mail (or texting!) just isn't as personal. Letters can be any relative or friend. Sometimes I give them a topic for their stories, other times I let them come up with their own. They write these stories in a Primary Composition notebook...the kind with primary lines and space for a drawing.
• Handwriting: The kids have handwriting books for when they need to practice a certain letter. Most of their writing, though, is done in a "practical" way, as in they write stories, write letters, and write reports. I feel that when you are writing for "real" reasons, that is enough writing in a day. They generally use their handwriting books when there is a problem area, or on days when I am ill and most of their other work is done online.
• Spelling: Ladybug and Cowboy use Big IQ Kids. As it was a review item last year, we have the premium membership until spring, so they get to use customized lists I make. I basically liked many of the lists they had...I just added more words to them when I felt they were too short. They both keep a spelling notebook (in a composition book...this is our choice for most of our written work), and they take turn playing the games they earn by completing exercises. We aren't really nose-grinders when it comes to spelling, as I feel lots of reading of quality literature leads to good spelling (eventually), but Big IQ Kids is fun, and the work on letter families is valuable (plus it is an area in which Ladybug excels, so it is good for her to have that boost...Cowboy needs the practice).

• Math: Ladybug uses Mathletics to do her math online. We also do various worksheets on targeted areas as needed. Cowboy uses IXL to do 20 daily free problems. We also have Math Facts Now!, a review item from last year, to use for math facts, and Quarter Mile Math, which is also online for timed tests. I'd like them to be pretty quick with their times facts drills by the end of the year. Both are on grade level and I expect them to continue on that path.

• History: Our history spine is Mystery of History, though I must admit that I am a colossal failure at regularly reading and progressing through any one resource. I am one of those "go off on a tangent and explore" sorts of people (does that make me a "delight-directed learner?"), and basically we worked on the story of Creation and the initial few stories in Genesis (our Bible study does do a good job of covering these and intermingling how the Old Testament prophecies lead to Jesus), then we got interested in the Egyptians and we are still there, having done quite a bit, but none of it out of the book (it all started with the Flat Stanley Worldwide Adventure kits our library offered this summer...he took a trip to Egypt and we went along). 

• I suppose we will get to the exercises in the book eventually, to connect all the dates (and help us fill in our timeline), but we aren't there yet. Right now we are having fun reading lots of living books about Egypt, watching videos that tie in to that topic, and coming up with projects with Egypt as a theme, such as hieroglyphic writing and building the pyramids out of Legos.

• Our overall history goal for the year is to complete studies on Egypt, Greece, Rome, and perhaps the early Americas (the Mayans and Aztecs are rather gruesome, though) by finishing a lapbook for each and filling in our History Through the Ages timeline book for those time periods (we have the clip art cd to use). How we get to that point is likely to be a collection of living books, activities from various resource books, videos (usually from Netflix), and numerous Internet resource sites. I am trying to keep track of the resources we use for each time period as we go HERE (but I just started, so the list is small) to keep myself motivated and organized. This is a work in progress.
• Science: Our science studies center around Nature Studies. I mostly just want the kids to maintain their interest in all things scientific, so they can develop their gifts in their later years. Ladybug likes to collect, document, and classify, Cowboy is an explorer, and Firefly enjoys tagging along for the ride. For times when it is rainy, or I am not well, I have A Nature Walk With Aunt Bessie from Queen Homeschool Supplies to use. It has stories and activities to go with the stories about bugs, nature, etc. The Amigos complete each lesson in their own Nature Notebook (a Primary Composition notebook...the kind with primary lines and space for a drawing). For weeks when I'd like to get some science in and am feeling under the weather, we can also check out Simple Schooling and do some science on the computer.
• When it is fine to go outside, the kids are veteran Bug Hunters, Rock Collectors, and avid birdwatchers. I usually just send them out with their collection equipment (magnifying glass, bag, jar, Nature Notebooks, pencils) and they find something interesting and either draw it at the picnic table or bring it inside to do there. We've had a lot of "visitors" this year already, and even have a cocoon we believe will be overwintering with us. By the way, one video resource I have discovered that I love is the dvd Your Backyard narrated by three kids and an animated owl. It's about birdwatching and the best part is that it is a God-honoring video! We got this for the kids last Christmas and it is one of their most requested titles. It's a good one to put on when traveling in the car. I don't get tired of hearing it and I feel they are learning something...I'm learning something, anyway! The Amigos often say, "Oh, that's a ?? (I am drawing a blank, but they know)  because he is saying 'drink your tea tea tea!'" or something similar. It's great. 
• Art: We are using Meet the Masters this year which we purchased through the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op. Ladybug, especially, loves it. We also have our Artistic Pursuits book from last year, which we dive into now and then. Our goal is to do something formal with art once a week, though the kids do draw or "do a craft" every day (when they do their Nature Study drawings, that counts as art, too). 
• We also have art lapbooks from Practical Pages and Confessions of a Homeschooler (both FREE!!!) that I hope to complete with the kids this year, which will help us focus on certain artists and techniques. My goal is to choose one painting a month and leave it on display on our piano easel and let the kids see it when they play in that room or practice the piano. We will talk about the artist from time to time and I will find resources online to tell them more about him or her when there is interest.

• Music: We signed up for Classical Composers Monthly as a way to formalize and organize our study of music and musicians this year. It was very inexpensive and seems well worth the small investment, as it saves me the time of finding those resources and putting a unit together. I am hoping we can participate in the Study of the Classical Composers Link-up on Thursdays, once we really get going this month. I also have a music lapbook from Hands of a Child (it was on sale) and we want to finish this by the end of the year. Honestly, it is more likely to happen in bursts than being evenly distributed over time, but it WILL get done. Ladybug is taking piano from me (she is not going to get far with that, since I don't know much...but for now it is enough). We have new neighbors with musically talented daughters, so I am considering asking if we can arrange lessons over there once a week as her "big" Christmas gift (we like to give each child one gift that develops their talents each year). Cowboy and Firefly are not ready for lessons, so they will just continue to enjoy listening to classical music and their favorite music cd, Stand Up! ("swing"-style hymns...it's really a lot of fun...you can see my review HERE). I'd eventually like to add in a monthly hymn study, but I am not there yet.
• One of my goals this year is to add some variety to our weeks, so this year we are trying to do school Monday through Thursday, then have Fridays on which to do things a bit differently. The plan is to use our Museum membership sometimes to take a field trip (my parents gave it to Cowboy as his birthday gift...awesome!!), sometimes we play learning games all day, other times we take a walk or just play outside with the horses. We have been participating in the Friday Fun School link up at Ben & Me. You can see a few of my Fun Friday posts HERE. When it works for us, we like to chime in at the monthly Lego Quest Challenge. Playing with Legos always makes for a fun Friday!

Since I do have migraines with distressing frequency, over the last year I developed a blog that is for the kids' use on those days to guide them to their online learning opportunities. I use it to showcase sites I have decided are appropriate and useful on those days I can't do much more than turn on the computer and point them to it (and keep track of Boo, who is two...you know what that means). On those days they usually do Reading Eggs, Mathletics or IXL, Big IQ Kids, Brain POP!, Big Bible Town, and they use Tumble Books and other sites to listen to books and do activities online (you can see their learning blog and their links HERE). It's not an ideal set up...of course, I'd like to always be on top of things, doing enriching activities with them, but I just can't right now, so this works in the meantime. 

Check out other free links we use to supplement our curriculum on our homeschool-for-free site.

So that's our plan. You can see how much work I have to do to get where I need to be...but these are just goals, and if all of them do not get met, then there must have been something more important that came up (like a tea party!).

Looking back at all we have listed, it actually sounds pretty impressive...Maybe one of these days, I will stop feeling as if I am not doing enough! I think we all need to realize (myself included) that God is in charge of our homeschooling, and He will make the right opportunities and resources available when they are needed. What I have listed above is a lofty set of goals and a listing of resources we have been blessed with to use and explore. I would like to wake up each day with a precise plan and execute it perfectly, getting most, if not all, of our ambitious projects done with enough time to still stop for tea and freshly baked scones at lunch, a ride on the horses before dinner, and some time to snuggle in front of the fire with a good read aloud before bed.

But the truth is, that first of all, we don't have a fireplace, so reading by the fire is definitely out. (Boo hoo). Then there is the fact that many days I wake up in terrible pain (migraines), barely able to think. I generally manage to get the kids fed and dressed, maybe I do the same for myself, and I send Tex out to feed the animals. Then, if I can think well enough to realize I really DO need a plan, I write out the kids' work on their marker boards, and send them off to various areas of the house to do what is listed. At the end of the day, we are all happy to see their various accomplishments checked off, we add the best of their completed work to their notebooks (or send some off to their grandmas), and then we get busy with our chores.


There's always something I wish we had done more of, like art or music, but I try to focus on what I did do instead and believe that there is always tomorrow for the rest. The kids are not going to be unemployed transients just because we didn't do math one day. They are not going to fail to achieve a perfect score on their SATs because I didn't do enough grammar with them. BUT they might become hard to employ if I don't teach them diligence, initiative, and responsibility by helping them stick with something and doing their best even when it seems tough, by helping other when they see it is needed without having to be asked, and by completing our chores together day after day. Perhaps one of them might develop a catering business someday because I made it a point to take time off from regular school work to let them help me make pear butter, scones,  and bread from time to time. At the very least, they will know I love them. They will love each other and other people...and God most of all.

I guess what I am saying, is that in laying out our goals for 2011-2012, I don't want you to think that by me saying that "this is what we plan to do" means it all gets done perfectly in a way that looks like someone's dream homeschooling experience. No, it's more likely that we will do things in fits and spurts. Some days we really get into the academics, and others we will sort of wander and focus on chores or projects or playing. But in the end, it all adds up just the same anyway. The kids will still be presented the material. They will have had fun with it. Best of all, I hope they will have good memories about the time we spent together...I sure do.

Check out other homeschoolers' goals 

for the year by clicking the button.

So thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed seeing what we are up to. You can check back regularly to see what we do on our Fun Fridays and I am going to try to start participating at the Weekly Wrap Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to keep myself accountable, too. I also use Menu Plan Monday from time to time to help my week go more smoothly by planning our our meals. If only they had a Wash My Dishes Wednesday where I could showcase pictures of the many dishes we do each week, or a What a Lot of Laundry Thursday where I could show off all the piles of laundry I fold...then I might feel like I am really accomplishing something...If you know of anything like that on the web, let me know!

You can see what my almost 14 year-old, Tex, is up to on Our Curriculum Choices page and on his learning blog.

I look forward to seeing what everyone else plans to do this year.

Blessings,

Heather