Sunrise to Sunset

Cardinals Rule!

2012-02-01T00:22:00.000-06:00

We had fun learning a little bit about our feeder bird this week. We put a couple of feeders outside the window and put my desk right in front so I could keep one eye on my work and another on the birds. Of course, I love taking pictures of birds. Really, I love taking pictures of any of God's creations.

We are trying to keep up with Barb's challenges over at Handbook of Nature Study. Here is what we decided on since we haven't seen any chickadee's on our feeders. We decided on cardinals. They are such beautiful birds. Both male and female are beautiful. We always stop and watch them when we see them fly around. This beauty is the female.

We were also able to observe the male at our window.

Then we got down to our page provided by Barb.

My son was not in the mood to sketch the bird although I would have liked him to because I think he can draw a pretty cute bird. Maybe next time he will. He liked the idea of the photo. He laughed and said he cheated.

Then I looked up some coloring pages I had downloaded a long time ago and used those. My son wanted me to do a page with him and I did. My arthritis sure makes it hard to color and I love to color. It took me a while to finish coloring my page because I had to come up with creative ways to hold my crayon so as to avoid pain in my hands but I got it done and he was happy we both did the page.

Now on to the next challenge!

Middle Son's Project

2012-01-26T21:51:00.000-06:00

My middle son is the outdoors sort of guy. He loves being outside and doing outside things. He has been wanting chickens for a while and hubby finally gave him permission to have his own animals. Not that we are against animals but time is very limited and although some animals require lots of time these don't. What am I talking about? Chickens and rabbits.

He chopped off a limb that was in the way of the shed he will be using. He is muscle man at work with the ax I went and bought him. He is starting to slowly gather his own collection of tools. Since we have a few acres out back that we never use except to have it grow and have someone come cut it for hay we figured now would be a perfect time to be out there because the grass has not started to grow yet.

The chain link fence back there is the neighbors property. They had chickens, goats and a donkey out there but they are MIA. I don't know what happened to them. Maybe they got tired of them. Anyway, this is the shed he will be using.

This shed was on our property when we bought it over 10yrs ago. We never went back there for anything till today. We cleaned it out. If you click on the picture you can see it up close and there is rotting wood in there that will need to be replaced. Hubby is thinking with a hundred dollars it will be good as new. hehehe I think not but ok. The enclosed part will be the chicken coop and he is going to add an outside fenced area for them in front of the enclosed side. The open side will be for the rabbits.

Right now there is lots of clean up work going on. We have a pile of limbs and old rotting wood that needs to be burned. Hhhmmmm, wonder if we still have a burn ban? I'll post regular updates on the progress so come back and check it out.

It was a Whooper of a Day!

2012-01-22T11:14:00.001-06:00

It was Saturday morning on our weekly drive to Rockport for our class over there and we saw something we didn't expect on the side of the road. There was a big huge bird feeder. I'm calling it a bird feeder because of the birds we saw feeding under it. We had been on the lookout for whooping cranes and that is what we saw. They were eating the feed that wasn't intended for them but I am glad they were. We turned the van around and went to watch for a little bit. There were others there observing also.

They are actually really big. We looked it up and males about 5ft tall with a wingspan of up to 7.5ft. Came you imagine that? We were very far away but I always carry my extra big zoom lens so I got some pretty good pictures. The whooping cranes winter in our area. We were very excited to see them. They are endangered and only around 300 birds are in North America. They are really beautiful birds.

Nature Winter Challenge 1

2012-01-17T20:42:00.000-06:00

We finished our first Winter Challenge. Although I wouldn't call our weather winter but that is besides the point. My little one and myself went for a walk outside the house. We live in the country and on a dead end road so we don't have much traffic. It's very relaxing to just go for a walk. We did our Winter Wonder page first. We talked a little and then told him to be very quiet and listen and had him tell me what he heard.

It's cute to see what he wants to do. The first is a stick house. All three of his things to do this winter are perfect boy things to do and we have enough land for him to have hid outs.

He also did the Winter Weather Walk page. I love his drawing. He said it was a house with wind and snow. My boys love snow and we don't get much or any at all. This year we will not see any.

The last page was cute too. He had a fit though because he couldn't draw the leaf we found. He drew and erased and came to me and said I can't draw this leaf. So I helped him out and showed him that I don't know how to draw well either but after we finished with my pep talk and my drawing he noticed it wasn't that hard after all. So maybe next time he will want to draw more.

I want to get him also to add more color to his pages but I started him out slow and not adding a lot. I'm glad that everything is all prepared for us to do. Just go out and have fun. Thanks Barb for making this available for us. We are having fun and starting on our next challenge. Haven't seen any chickadees around here so let's see which bird we decide to do.

I haven't decided how to bind these pages so I'll just hold on to them till I decide if I want to spiral bind it.

Fun Project

2012-01-10T23:21:00.000-06:00

After our regular school work my baby got a fun project to do. I had gotten this a long time ago but had it away for the right time. Actually, I will not lie...I forgot about it. Yesterday I started cleaning out and throwing away and there it was. Now my son has something fun to do.

It came with sandpaper to sand the edges and make them smooth.

There he is with one piece of the project in his Mario pj's. This is his new desk and his area for school. That is actually an old desk but it's new to him.

Here is the project. It is supposed to be a car. How cool is that. I found it at the dollar store. He is enjoying it so I think I will need to find him more of these sorts of projects.

Boys!

2012-01-03T22:07:00.000-06:00

I came into the kitchen today and guess what I found waiting for me? hahaha Every time I remember I have to giggle.

Nature Study

2012-01-02T14:15:00.001-06:00

Check this Youtube video out. Looks like fun, right?

I have decided to join in on these nature studies. Let's see how this goes. We decided to use More Nature Study with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Book 2.

Everything is explained in Barb's e-book. There are 10 lessons and my boys will definitely want to do the magnet and the sheep lessons. Of course the bird, tree, quartz, pansy, moon, winter weed and winter insect will be fun too.

I like the fact that this e-book was made with children of all ages to enjoy so my young one and my high schooler will be doing this. There are coloring pages which I love to do and my little one will get into it if he sees me doing it.

Can't wait to get started. Now who has sheep we can visit during this study? Hhhmmmm??

Class with a little bit of Nature

2011-12-31T18:39:00.000-06:00

After our ASL class today we make a little stop by a beach area. We were happy to see these beauties. The American White Pelican. Isn't it beautiful!

There were several on the rocks. I'm sure the rocks looked nicer before they made their stop there. Yuck!! Of course, I didn't notice that until I uploaded the pictures onto the computer. You can see so much when you put a picture on the computer.

There is a Brown Pelican in the water.

They come by this area during the winter even though our winter has been very mild so far. Today it was 77degrees. Not only was it warm but the fog was crazy. There was fog in one area and not in the other. Do you see the Great Blue Heron?

It was a nice treat to our day of learning. We are done with week 8 of ASL class. Maybe I can get the guys to take me for some more fun and nature observations.

Learning ASL

2011-12-28T22:06:00.000-06:00

We just finished week 6 of our ASL classes. We have learned so much already. Here I am doing a few signs in front of our group.

These are actually different games we do and others guess what we are doing. We learn very fast this way. This is me signing soup.

Here I am getting ready to sign fork. We were learning food this week and it was hard when we were getting close to lunch time and we were all hungry by then and then try to sign hamburger.

So that is some of what we are doing. Our classes are every Saturday morning from now till April. We are very busy going to classes and practicing at home. Of course, all this learning is much more easier for the boys. It's our adult brains that take longer to remember some.

My oldest son and I are interpreting right now at our hall. It is very exciting but nerve wracking at the same time. Lots of learning going on right.

In need of Nature

2011-12-16T15:04:00.000-06:00

We have been away for a long time. Yes, I know, a very long time. We are still here but using our time wisely and trying to do as much as we can as often as we can. So this week after going into town everyday and Thursday being our day to stay at home I promised the two youngest that we could go to the park to feed the ducks. The oldest stayed home to do his online college course. It was Dec. 15th and yes the boys are wearing short sleeve shirts and only wearing pants because I told them to just in case the ducks got a little to close. You just never know.

The ducks came around and ate. We noticed at our duck pond for some reason there is a huge gathering of black vultures. Nasty birds! I mean they serve a purpose and it's to eat roadkill but just the thought of them being at the duck pond where young ones always go was not a good thing.

So as we were leaving the duck pond I took this next picture. Isn't it a beautiful gazebo? Oh and the trees were all changing colors. It's about time with it being the middle of December.

Then we drove to another spot to do something that in our area lots of older people do and that is to pick pecans. Our park has tons of pecan trees and usually you see the older ones picking up the pecans but that day we went. The little one loved it.

I guess you can say it was a combination of nature study and PE time. When we were ready to get going to another spot they would take off the the van. I loved this picture.

Now the little one wants to know when I'm making that pecan pie I kept talking about. Guess I better get to cracking those pecans open. I foresee a baking lesson coming. My little chef loves to bake. Although he wants to go pick more pecans so we'll see. Maybe next time I'll take pictures of the trees. It was amazing to see the colors changing. Nothing like that in town but only at the park.

So there you have it. We are still alive and doing school but in a more relaxed way.

Yes, you make me feel like dancing....

2011-06-30T15:10:00.002-05:00

What has me in such a mood? Well, life at the moment does. As I look back on our school year I see that we have done a lot even though I thought it was not much. We have kept up with our nature studies. We are always on the lookout for a new bird, plant, animal anything nature. We had some fun nights using the Crayola glow in the dark chalk.

Even though some are camera shy we have fun in our venture of helping those that are deaf.

It was a cold day and we are still out helping the deaf. This was a cold, windy day and yes, I have two glasses on my head. One for the sun and one to read. No fun getting old. Oh well....

We are learning a new language as a family. American Sign Language is a beautiful language and it's right up my alley. Didn't you know I like to act up? ASL is perfect for acting and performing.

We also had "farm boy" out with us one day and I happened to find a wheat field. So "farm boy" gets out to show my middle son the wheat. Son and "farm boy" got some left over wheat from the side of the road and got the seeds out.

So yes I feel like dancing at all we have learned this past year. There is so much more I haven't posted but this is a sneak peak at some of our fun.

The Soap Lady

2011-06-30T14:40:00.002-05:00

A friend of ours makes soaps as their business. Homeschool families are so creative. I love the Almond Oatmeal soap. My order is in and getting it Sunday since that is the only day we will see each other for some time.

Pool Time again

2011-06-23T14:31:00.000-05:00

It's pool time again. The boys are enjoying trying to get the highest jumps they can. Not much else to do outdoors when its hot and muggy out there.

I passed by a home in town and just can't get over how long this small area has lasted. I still see those poppy flowers out there. Reminds me of my trip to California and friends.

We have also had so many bunnies outside. It's crazy. We hadn't seen so many in forever. I think it's the drought that has them coming closer to home and eating what little bits of our grass we have left. My youngest loves going out there to see how close he can get to them. Not much closer than that before they speed away.

By the way our berries are all gone because of the heat and bunnies. We did enjoy our berry cobblers though.

Our lives are still full of things to do. We still have lots going on in our volunteer service. Our ASL is going great. We all keep learning more and more. We can carry on a conversation with the deaf friends we have.

There is my little update for now.

Hummers

2011-05-10T20:58:00.001-05:00

I was reading a blog about hummingbirds and I am so glad they are back at my home too. I love to see all my hummingbirds come to our feeders.

We had 6 Ruby Throated Hummingbirds out there fighting for the feeders. It was amazing to see them fly around and come so close to hitting me and my camera.

Here you can see one ready to land on the feeder and you can see his red throat. How amazing!

We (girls day out) took a little trip to a friends house way out somewhere between No and Where. They had a beautiful yard with tons of hummingbirds fighting there too. This is the first time to see a Buff-bellied Hummingbird. The white tip on the beak is actually its tongue.

We were told they actually have around six different varieties of hummingbirds come around their home. I'd love to be there for that. These Buff-bellied hummers are fierce little guys. They would not let the Ruby Throated hummers near the feeders.

Our feeders are still hanging in front of a window at our home and my little one loves to watch them fly around and often will call me to come see. If only we had several different kinds stop by...oh well, we are happy to see what we have.

Bird Day

2011-04-15T20:31:00.000-05:00

We were out in the ministry and had to stop to take pictures. These birds were making their homes under an overpass. They are Cliff Swallows. I just love their colors. If you look at both pictures you can see some with nests all done and some that are working on theirs. It was amazing to see them fly all around. Yes, I made hubby stop on the side of the road and we watched for a bit. It's a country road so there was not much traffic.

We also saw a Blue Jay. I love the colors on him. They are so beautiful. I still remember seeing a Steller's Jay on a trip a long time ago to California and I also got to see a Mexican Jay on last years vacation. My iBird PRO app on my ipod says that a Mexican Jays range is mostly in Mexico but I saw him in Texas.

That was our nature observation for this week. I am wanting to go back and take more pictures of those Cliff Swallows. They are beautiful.

It's Berry Picking Time Again

2011-04-14T20:26:00.000-05:00

While hubby was working on dinner the boys and myself went outside to look for and pick some berries. We got a big batch and I decided to make a cobbler. It was soooo yummy. As you can see on the bottom picture it was almost gone.

It's amazing to just be able to walk out your door and look for them and pick them and voila you have a cobbler out of fresh fruit. These berries grow wild on our land around our trees and I let them grow there. The only bad thing is that they are very thorny. Ouch!! The results were good though.

It's all gone now though. Every last bit of it is gone. It was a fun nature, outdoor, cousin bonding time. Yes, their cousins were over and they enjoyed the cobbler too.

All About Reading

2011-03-07T00:10:00.000-06:00

I got a great email about a new program that just came out called All About Reading. I am disappointed that my boys are past this stage but thought I would post about it anyway. I love All About Spelling and we are still using it and I'm sure that this reading program is just as wonderful. Even if you don't get the program you can go get their free e-books at this link... https://marierippel.infusionsoft.com/go/activitybooklets/gr84u/

Our family is using All About Spelling. I have a 3rd grader and a 13yr old dyslexic which use this program. My dyslexic son loved this program from the beginning. It's fun and easy for him to learn it. Can't beat the fun part. Here is a whole article about dyslexia.

This is what we use for spelling. So what I write about our spelling curriculum is from experience. We are also an affiliate which helps us continue in our wonderful choice of spelling programs. I'm sure those two free e-books will not be free for long so grab them while you can.

Lots going on

2011-03-06T11:39:00.000-06:00

Was nice in morning then rush home from ministry because of sleet. Home for 2 days till the thaw.

Here I am. I was out of the blog world for a long while. We have been so busy and really I had no time to do anything but try to keep up with what is going on now. So what have we been up to? Let's see, where do I begin? My oldest is done with high school. He will soon be taking an online course in electronics. There are actually two courses he is going to take but he will start off with electronics.

Middle son is working diligently on his Teaching Textbooks math. He also wants to finish school early but we'll see how that goes. He will be learning engine repair soon. We found a friend that is going to teach his son and he will also take on our middle son. That is so nice when someone does that.

Now as for my baby he is plugging along with his school work. We actually took some time off from a full school load and just did the basics so that we can pursue other interests.

Nature study at home. Caught a baby bat inside my home early in the morning before ministry. Kept him for a day to observe as any good homeschool mom would.

I am happy to say that my oldest son and I have started our full time service in our ministry. Middle son will be joining us soon in that. Learning how to balance our ministry and school has been interesting and has taking me some time to adjust. I think I have gotten the hang of things now. Now if only my health cooperated. Oh well, that's life.

What does our schedule look like? Mon, Wed, and Fri is our long days out in the ministry. Since we are out in town and after our ministry I run errands and get groceries. I do that to conserve as much driving as I can since gas prices are going up and up and up. Tues and Thurs are our school days. We have done math only Mon-Fri. but only two days a week we do everything else we have to do for the week.

I'll try to post more now that I am getting used to our schedule. I have more to say about our ministry and our schooling. I will have to schedule in my blogging to my already full schedule but my goal is to post at least once a week. Let's see if I can accomplish that.

Yummy Garden Goodies

2010-06-25T23:03:00.000-05:00

Yum, the garden has been great. Some of the tomato plants are at the end of their lives. I have others that will start producing soon. We love those little tomatoes. Lots of salads going on. Lets see now if my other things come up soon.

Oh, lightening

2010-05-31T22:52:00.000-05:00

A few weeks back we had some crazy weather but I was able to take some awesome pictures.

The boys were excited to see my pictures and jumped with joy when I was able to get another one.

And another....

And another...

After that last one the storms let up and the lightening was gone. We were left with 5 inches of rain the following morning. The news informed everyone in our city to stay put. The flooding was incredible. The worst came days later with the flood of mosquitoes. I hate those things. They have finally died down some after a few weeks. I can finally get to the garden which was very neglected.

Garden news to come...stay tuned...

Fuzzy Fuzzy Garden Eating Catepillar

2010-05-28T00:16:00.000-05:00

I was outside and came across this little buggy. It is hairy and crawly. I couldn't figure out what it was or what it will be. Of course being the good homeschool mommy that I am I brought it indoors.

I brought in some yellow flowers so it could continue to eat. Don't you think it needs a haircut? Look at those eyes.

It had nice reddish hairs on the bottom. Can you see it holding on to that stem?

It went to the top and started to do its change. So now we wait to see what it turns into. We take a look everyday to see if something has happened but nothing yet. Wonder what it will look like?

Africanized Honey Bees

2010-05-14T00:47:00.000-05:00

These mean things still exist and they were very close to us. Like on our property. Hubby and a friend were attacked and good thing they only got stung once each. You should have seen these two grown men run though.

We have a friend who we call the "Bee Man" because he has many bee hives for that precious honey. He found out about our little up front and personal encounter and called and came prepared to take them on. Those things were aggressive but he took care of them. Now we will not be afraid to be on the lawn mower or at the pool. They were pretty close to the pool. Glad we have the "Bee Man" for a friend.

Bee Man to the rescue!

It's been a while

2010-05-11T16:18:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's been a while. I've been busy working on getting my medications straight. If you are interested, I'm still working on this one. I've also been enjoying the cooler weather. The boys and I got the garden going. We have some tomatoes almost ready to harvest. We planted green beans, peas, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, bell peppers, jalapenos, onions, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash and some zinnias. I'm still thinking about what else to plant. I still have space in that garden. Any suggestions?

We've embarked on a family learning experience. We are learning sign language. We have been learning a lot and can now at least understand what is being said by our deaf friends. When we decided to do this as a family we went to the big chain book stores and got some ASL dictionaries. This is great for learning words but our question was how to do you speak in ASL. It's not like speaking in english. We searched and found a site for ASL grammar. I got the books in pdf and we have started to figure out how the grammar for ASL works.

Here I am at one of our sign language practice classes at a friends house. I think there were about 25 of us learning that day. Of course it was fun eating the food too. That was a lot of fun. We have been driving to a congregation meeting in sign language out of town. That has been lots of fun also.

We took a trip to the Houston zoo and really enjoyed the cool breeze that day. We have also taken days off of school to accomplish other learning experiences. Also days off with hubby have been fun even if we just stayed home and just did work around the house. It's the best time of the year when the cold stops and it's just mild enough to be outside in shorts. That is when we take time off. It's not much time we have when the weather is perfect to be outside. We always say our winter is maybe 3months, spring is about 3 weeks and our hot and humid summer is the rest. BLAH!

Now that summer is coming on in South Texas it will be time for finishing up our school year. I hope to be posting some more now. Nice to be back.

Some Birds are Winter Texans Too

2010-01-26T14:33:00.002-06:00

I have to say that personally I have always loved nature and walking out alone and quietly in the pastures behind our home when I was little. I dreamed of one day getting a horse when I was young. That dream never materialized but I am an avid picture taker now of all things nature including those horses. After a visit to Yosemite I was reminded of my love of nature and it has stayed with me ever since. Now I try to instill that same love of nature into my children every chance we get.

We have done just about all the challenges so most things we do now will be a further expansion on those challenges. I love birds and we have done a lot on hummingbirds but yesterday we saw some birds that we might only see during the winter migration and one was the Common/Wilson Snipe.

There is a section in the Handbook of Nature Study talking about Migration of Birds. I looked that up since this particular bird is not in there. Plus we looked at several bird ID books we have and my favorite place to look is on my itouch on the program Bird Explorer Pro. We love listening to the sound of each bird. We all agree this bird has a spooky call. We saw this guy on the side of the road while leaving home. He blends in well and as I was slowing down to take pictures I guess he figured if it stayed still it would not be seen.

This next one is what we think is the Orange-crowned Warbler. We have searched and searched on this one. We finally decided because of its call. It looked like it had a nest in the land next to ours. We also read in the book HONS the section on How Birds Fly. We were out there for a long while watching this bird fly from branch to branch and give its call.

Our nature study this week was around our house and we found some never before seen birds. How cool is that? I wonder what we will come up on next week?

The Secret Life of the Dyslexic Child

2010-01-25T00:18:00.000-06:00

Since making the announcement that I was ordering and starting with Barton for my son I wanted to read something interesting about dyslexia. I am forever looking for new books. You all know how it is when you go to the bookstore, right? You walk in with an idea of different subjects that you would like to learn about. Well, I've been reading about dyslexia. I walked through Barnes and Noble and it was teachers appreciation week. Yippee, 25% off that weekend! We don't have a B&N in my town but we were in Wichita, Kansas visiting family and I can't ever leave there without going to the bookstore especially when it's teacher appreciation week.

I found this book called The Secret Life of the Dyslexic Child by Robert Frank. I have a couple more pages to read before I am on chapter 6. Wow, is all I can say about this book. If your child is dyslexic or you just want to know about how a child with dyslexia feels then you have to read this book. If you know of a child or older person with dyslexia then you have to read this book.

Dyslexia is not just letter reversals or not being able to read. It can involve many aspects of life and it does in many people from math, reading, writing and given directions for a project and they just can't remember what was told to them. There is much more to it than that.

I hope to be done with this book soon but so far it is two thumbs up.

Starting Multiplication

2010-01-20T16:12:00.000-06:00

My youngest is so excited because he has started to learn his multiplication facts. He already knows his 0's of course and his 1's. He worked on his 2's and has those down too. Now it's time to go into the 3's. Ooohhhh.....he is having so much fun with it. Well, sometimes anyway. Sometimes his brain seems to fail him and in rushes the frustration but a little bit of tickle time and all is better.

Talk about being proud. He is excited to be learning his multiplication. That picture was taken at the beginning of the school year but he still looks like that but now it is for multiplication. He has such great expressions.

Frustrations

2010-01-19T00:22:00.000-06:00

Dyslexia is a fact of our lives. Not being able to read or write like others can be very frustrating. No one makes fun or laughs but my son who has dyslexia tries and tries but the problem still exists. Frustration is part of his daily life. Everything out there for teaching children with dyslexia is extremely expensive. When I say expensive I really mean expensive.

Up till now I've had to do without anything, but I was given the green light by hubby and just ordered a program for dyslexia. I ordered Barton Reading System. Now waiting for it to come so we can start. I wonder if it will help? Wonder if all this money I'm spending will be money well spent?

I guess time will tell......starting on Level 1 soon.

Unexpected Detour and Our Week of School

2010-01-17T22:59:00.001-06:00

We made a last minute trip to Kansas. I say last minute because we got a phone call from my brother saying he was having surgery on Wed so we took off. I hate the 12hr drive but enjoy spending time with family.

We brought our books for some school. We didn't do as much as I had planned but middle son did his math and did his bible reading. My little one did his math. The oldest did his physics and he had his bible by his bed for reading at night.

We did lots of family things. Between hospital and homes, it took most of our time. We drove those dreaded 12hrs back home today and got home around 7:30pm. Bed time is early tonight because that drive is a killer. The boys saw frosted windows this morning and also saw me trying to rid that frost from the windows so we can start our drive. Middle son loved to see the frost come back after wetting the window with the windshield washer fluid. I'll have to check and see what kind of fluid is in my moms car. Oh and next time we'll go in my van and not in my moms car. We all hated that tiny car. Can you say....cramped?

We Need a Change Soon

2010-01-09T21:22:00.000-06:00

We have watched several documentaries lately about food, industry, corn, and the progressive disregard for nature and the natural way of living. Our earth and our bodies are in desperate need of healing.

I'm glad there are people out there that do these type of documentaries. These are eye opening dvd's. A word of warning...although these are documentaries I would not allow small children to watch. My 12 year old actually left the room because it was too much for him. So watch with caution around the littles but watch and learn.

Nature excitement

2010-01-08T01:28:00.000-06:00

We came home on Sunday after lunch and these were out there. They came up to us, I guess they thought I had something for them to eat. We had never heard them before. We have seen them but never heard them. They are loud. I figured I would take out my little and very portable video camera. Good thing I did.

Then another thing we had never seen is that those wings are for something. Check it out.

The boys had fun looking at these guineafowl. So did I.

Need Me Some Recharging

2009-12-11T21:35:00.000-06:00

I have a few posts saved for posting but I just need to take a break right now. I'm taking a break from all things that require extra time from me. I am hoping that when I get back to posting I will be recharged.

Life can get a bit overwhelming at times........

Yes It Did!!! We have SNOW!

2009-12-04T14:24:00.000-06:00

It snowed hard this morning. Now remember this will be gone tomorrow and in a few days temperatures are supposed to be up in the 70's. That is Texas weather for you.

My poor hibiscus. It still had flowers on it.

We were all dressed and ready to go this morning but the boys had to have a snowball fight before leaving. Public school was still going on. So we went and got my nephew who is in public school so that he could enjoy a SNOW DAY. They all had fun.

We Are Waiting........

2009-12-03T23:30:00.000-06:00

We have been very busy this week with some extra volunteer work and we are going out again tomorrow. Our normal school work is getting done but on a lighter schedule. For now, we will be waiting, we are waiting tonight. There is anticipation, there is a sense of hope. For what? Well, I've lived in Texas all my life. Now remember this is South Texas. We have lots of heat and humidity. We may have a handful of freezes a year and that is it. By a handful I mean maybe 5 days here and there.

So the excitement is building for SNOW! Our forecast says up to one inch of snow. I know you northerners will laugh but the first snow I remember was in 1995 and my snowball had dirt and grass in it. We did get what they call the snow of the century in 2004. We got over a foot of snow. I have pictures to prove it.

I drove in the stuff till around 2 in the morning because I went to pick up a friend at the airport. What normally is a 2hr drive from Houston to my home took around 8hrs because of this snow. Go ahead and laugh! I know, I've lived in New Jersey and have driven in the stuff before but in South Texas there is no need for snow plows or salt. It never snows, right? Except on the rare occasion and when that happens everyone stays home and plays in the snow.

So the excitement is building. We will be out for a short time in the morning doing our volunteer work then home to make some chili for dinner. We are all hoping this snow doesn't turn out to be a dud for us. If it snows we are taking us a snow day and I will have my camera handy. Not to worry though, the snow will be gone fast and our temperatures are supposed to be back up to the low 70's in a few days. That's South Texas for you.

What's Up for Science?

2009-11-29T20:22:00.000-06:00

We did the last Autumn Series Outdoor Challenges. They were fun to do and we enjoyed them. So now we are doing something a little like the challenges but it is all on Botany. What is it? Apologia's Exploring Creation with Botany.

Yes, this is science but it will be a lot like the nature challenges we have been doing since it has to do with plants. We will be doing notebooking pages that they now offer in a book.

I have always like Apologia for science. I am going to enjoy this book for sure. I've not done this one and kept passing it by but this year we are all ready to do it. This will be a combination of science and nature study along with some fun artsy stuff to go along with our notebooking pages. We'll see how this goes. Stay tuned for more on this........

Spelling is Easy

2009-11-24T00:56:00.001-06:00

I've looked and read through lots of language arts books. Especially lots of books that deal with dyslexia. I have one son with dyslexia and it has and still is a challenge to get him to read. Every person with dyslexia is different in how they deal with reading and mine rushes through his reading that he often says a wrong word for what is actually on the page. He will say a word with the same first letter or about the same length but it will be a wrong word. His spelling, he still leaves off letters or puts one letter in the wrong place. He has gotten better at not flipping letters but still does occasionally.

So what programs have I looked at for him? There is one called A Reading Program for Overcoming Dyslexia and although I think it is a good book, I think it would be a book for older students that have been through several other curriculums.

I've seen Spell to Write and Read and I have it and took a class. After taking the class I still felt like I just didn't get it on how to teach. There are so many marks to make on words and so many rules to learn even before starting to teach. Spelling Power is not for my son with dyslexia either.

I have and read the book the Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis. This was a very helpful book to read and understand what your child is going through. This man has a week long class that is priced way over my head, but I would love to do it one day.

Then there are a few other Orton-Gillingham principled programs out there. All the rest I have looked at while attending a homeschool convention. It is always better to touch and see with your own eyes a program to see if it will work for your family.

I did find one program that I absolutely love and it's All About Spelling. I loved it so much that so far I have all levels they make even though we are still working on level 2. As soon as level 6 comes out I'm ordering it.

So what do I like about it? It's easy, first of all. I totally get what I am supposed to do for each lesson. It is scripted, and shows what different games to play. I call them games because that is what my boys call them. It is actually magnetic tiles that they get to play with.

All About Spelling has on their site a section that lets you know what are they symptoms of dyslexia. If you want to know what dyslexia is then you must read this. You can also sign up for their dyslexia newsletter.

This program is not just for kiddos with dyslexia. I use it with my youngest who loves to read and finds it easy to read. Another thing I love about it is that it is inexpensive and you can use it with the whole family. It's a spelling program but that goes right along with reading. Do I sound like a commercial? I truly think this program is the easiest most inexpensive program out there. I can't wait to get into the next level. I can see their progress in just the first book and a half.

I've decided to post more about our spelling adventures and this program so check back often to see what we are up to.

Oak Tree Study

2009-11-23T14:09:00.000-06:00

We started our Oak tree study by taking a look at our Oak tree in the front of the house. What did we see? Lots of acorns on it. None have fallen off yet. Our Texas weather is still in the 80's during the day. I guess for some of you that would be summer but for us it is awesome weather compared to the 100 degree weather we had been getting.

We don't have squirrels anywhere around our area so these acorns just fall to the ground.

We also saw galls. There were three right next to each other. Then there was this......don't scream now.......

I know, I know, this is not part of the tree but it was making its web there. I have no idea what kind of spider this is but its belly was huge. It was ugly but at the same time amazing how it was spinning its web very quickly as sunset was coming on.

We did more of an oral review on this tree. Remembering what we have gone over on this study before. I looked over the Handbook of Nature Study. Also our trip last year to LBJ's home we remembered the big or should I say huge live oak trees.

The private family cemetery on the property is also under some beautiful huge shady live oaks.

I can't wait till our tree gets that big and shady. I will have to wait at least 100 years though. It was fun remembering this trip which was one that left an impression on us all.

Where oh Where can the Woodpeckers be?

2009-11-19T19:47:00.000-06:00

They are in hiding because we haven't seen or heard not one woodpecker in a long while. There was one on our pecan tree a long while back. Actually it was last winter. Our winters anyway. We were outdoors long enough to snap a picture though.

It was a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker. We looked it up and read up on it. We also listened to it online. Of course, we heard it live and in person but it's always interesting to listen to them online. This one was a female because we learned while reading the Handbook of Nature Study book that the male is the one with red on it's forehead and neck and the female only had red on the forehead.

We will be watching this winter and hopefully we will get another visit.

Lots of Mushrooms to Pick From

2009-11-16T16:13:00.000-06:00

Finally after a whole summer of drought it has rained these past couple of months. This is when we have seen lots of mushrooms. We see them peeking out through the grass especially early in the mornings. Then as the days go by they get bigger and bigger.

The boys laugh at me when I see something and I slow down to take pictures. This one was at my brothers yard so that wasn't that bad.

This next one was huge and not at my brothers house. hehehe Those people from that house must have wondered why I was taking pictures towards their house. If I would have seen them outside I would have stopped and asked for a close up look. We were driving home and the huge size caught my attention.

We thought this one was neat because unlike the first picture this one was curling its edges up so it sort of looked like a cup. The top was neat too because it had a different design on the top than that of the first picture.

This last mushroom that we saw was on a tree as we were walking down to see Niagara Falls. I just had to stop and take this picture. My little one ran back to where I had stopped and asked what I was taking a picture of and I showed him. This was the first time he had seen a mushroom up on a tree.

Mushrooms we decided were a little hard to identify. We looked through books but never found the exact one. There is so much yet to learn and so little time.

Learning about Goldenrod

2009-11-13T21:11:00.000-06:00

We were on vacation and everywhere we saw this yellow flower, the goldenrod. This was right along the Canadian/US border. Yep, right at Niagara Falls. We observed this yellow flower as we drove along our route on vacation. By the time we got home we had one growing by our pool outside so I just couldn't cut it down.

We've gone outside and looked at the plant as time goes by. The yellow flower is dying but still interesting.

Although we didn't do a notebooking page we have our pictures that will be added to our nature journal and enjoyed because we will remember our wonderful vacation. We will also remember the hunting for this particular plant. My boys now can identify this plant whenever we see it on the side of the road. All from searching from it and taking a close up look at it.

Pecan Tree Study

2009-11-13T19:29:00.000-06:00

So is it Pe-can or Pu-con? Whatever you call it it has very tasty nuts that I can't seem to get them indoors to make anything. We did a quick run outside to look at our pecan tree and see if we could find anymore pecans out there. I found two and I ate them. hehe Couldn't help it. Pecans are my favorite nut.

We did a bark rubbing and worked on a notebooking page I made and they drew their own rendition of the pecan tree. I love having their drawings in their binders and looking at them years down the road. I'd love to have a few more pecan trees out there. One day we will.

Schooling and Health Issues

2009-11-11T15:29:00.000-06:00

I don't usually talk much about the health issues that I am living with. I try my best to leave it out and just talk about schooling and what the kids do but I figured there are some out there dealing with health issues.

Learning from others that are having the same issues has helped me in learning what is normal for my body. There are a few local friends that I have learned have RA although all are at least 10 years older than myself. Having rheumatoid arthritis has changed my life in many ways.

I am the primary teacher at home. So how does this mother/teacher do it all? I have no idea. hehehe Did you think I was going to say something inspiring? Not coming out of my mouth. Those of you who know me personally know that I love to laugh. I think that has helped. I'm not constantly crying over what I can't do or what I would love to do. Ok, I do say I would like to do this or that. I am happy and content to watch others enjoy their experiences and travels. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to be hiking or just go out for long walks every day. I know my limits and I know that is not happening. So what do I do?

We take short walks. I try to do one thing a day. I take my medication which is not the right cocktail yet. We have more relaxed days. Mornings are hard for me. Getting out of bed takes at least an hour. So we take advantage of the that time that I spend flexing my feet and hands and enjoy reading a book or two. I have started taking naps in the afternoons. I have to now and I do it. Really! I have to. It's not just me being lazy. I do more naps on the days I take most of my medication. By the way, have you ever had a pill get lodged in your throat and water will not push it down. OUCH! I call those my horse pills.

One more thing that has helped me is my friendships to those few that have never left my side. It helps to tell someone what is going on and how I'm feeling. I love to keep up with some blogs which I figure out how to do what they do but my way. I enjoy seeing you do and where you go.

Something I have learned is no matter what, my children learn. They learn to do everything from their school to cleaning house. Their chores are always done. They've learned to keep quiet when my headaches are bad. They've learned that some days are good and some are bad.

So in all, we try out best in all we can do. I enjoy my kids and enjoy our quiet times. Thank you to all of you for reading and posting comments.

Now on to our regularly scheduled programming......

My Links for Workboxes

2009-11-09T12:37:00.001-06:00

What's in the Box? This is where I got my inspiration. She has lots of printables to share and she also has lots of other links to blogs and places you can go.

After reading that blog I joined a yahoo group for workboxes. There is so much info on there. If you decide to join be prepared for a high volume of posts. It's a very busy group but you will find just about every idea on there.

Those are the two links I will post. I'm sure you will find more by going to those two links.

It's Up!

2009-11-08T22:30:00.000-06:00

The Hands On Homeschool carnival is up.

Learning a New Language

2009-11-07T00:16:00.003-06:00

We have finally made the plunge and are learning a new language. We of course, know English. I'm fluent in Spanish and the boys can understand Spanish and speak it a little. So what are we learning now? Russian!

I looked at book stores and all I see is books for learning Spanish, French, Latin and German. Very few books are out there for Russian. Hubby took it during high school and can read very well although he might not understand everything he is reading so this is why we decided to learn it.

So how are we learning? At the moment we are diving into the language and learning different ways. I made the alphabet cards with Russian letters in front and the sound in the back. Did you know that some letters in Russian are printed one way but look totally different when written in cursive? We have got lots of learning to do.

We have dictionaries. We even have the bible and some other books in Russian. Oldest son can already read Russian some and so can I but that doesn't mean we know what we are reading. We compare the Russian Bible to the English Bible and we do the same with the other books we have. We have also attended a bible study meeting in the Russian language. Total immersion is the way to go. We have the written page and audio and then Russian speaking friends to help us along.

We are also using Mango language program through our library. Since Rosetta Stone left the library they now have Mango. It's a pretty good program and we can do it from home and best of all it's free. We don't have to be at the library to use it although we do need our library card number. No problem there.

So hands on and total immersion is the way we do it to learn a new language.

Another New Thing for ME

2009-11-06T10:46:00.000-06:00

I had to get it, really, I did! I love my sharpie writing pens but I hate the caps. I knew they would have to come up with the click kind and do away with those caps and they did. The only thing that I find different is that they are a bit fatter. I'm not used to a pen this fat but I will get used to it. I'm loving it so far.....

Trying Out Some Organization

2009-11-05T23:05:00.004-06:00

I know everyone and their mothers have heard about workboxes by now. If you haven't, where have you been hiding? I've tried different things from having a separate shelf on the bookcase for each child to having a basket with their work in it for the day. So now I am going to try the workbox thing with the whole set up.

Why do we need organization or more than before? Well, having an autoimmune disease makes one see the need for more organization so that things get done around the house. This year I have kept things simple. Only working on a few subjects at a time. I would love to keep up the same schedule as before but my body is not letting me do much.

Let's just say that I've heard the good things about this system and then those comments from those who think this is worthless. I appreciate what I've read about this system from everyone but I'm still going to try it. hehehe I'm just a rebel, I guess. I guess I've had some influence from a rebel friend. So I've got our boxes and now I will be getting them ready. Hey, this will clear a shelf on my book case which if all you who read this are homeschoolers then you all know how precious a shelf on a book case can be. Yipppeee!

So here is our boxes. I still am in the process of getting them organized and putting things in them. I'm not one to follow things exactly as others are doing them so I will have to figure out my way. Hope it works for us. I'll post more on how and what we do as time goes on and I figure out how we will do this.

What a Cutie Patootie

2009-11-03T21:19:00.001-06:00

While we were on vacation we had some wonderful experiences indoors and outdoors. We were at Niagara Falls and had just parked when I noticed something fall from the tree that we parked next to. The little hard thing hit the car next to ours. Then we saw what had happened. It was Mr. Squirrel. We stood there and watched him eat a nut then go for another. My little one laughed at his cuteness. We all looked at each other and put our hands to our faces and did little squirrel faces. He had fun with that. I even had one come up to me and as I stood still it came up to me and ran under my legs. I guess they are used to people giving them treats.

We had fun looking at them hunting for something to eat but we also read some interesting books to go along with our study. We read The Burgess Animal Book for Children. I love that book. We also took a trip to the library and found a neat book, it's called Earl The Squirrel. Not much color in the pages but a cute story of a little squirrel learning now to find his own acorns. Of course, we also did a notebooking page I made up. It will go into our nature binder.

This nature challenge is part of Barb's Outdoor Challenges.

What a Spider of a Day

2009-11-01T00:03:00.000-05:00

I know what this spider is preparing for lunch. What I don't know is what kind of spider this is. I've searched and searched. Hhhhhmmmm, anyone know?

Here is another view. Amazing isn't it? This was outside our window and this spider had a huge back end.

This spider was right under the bigger one but I know what this one is. This is the underside of the crablike spiny orb weaver. Now take a look at the top side of it.

It was a bright yellow color. Isn't it beautiful? We loved the web this spider was weaving. The kids and I love it when we go outside and find different things and we can identify some without looking them up. Can't wait to see what else we come across.

Pumpkin Fun

2009-10-27T23:47:00.001-05:00

We are way behind in our nature challenges but we will catch up eventually. Vacation and the flu were the culprits. So we will start with pumpkins and work our way back then forth but we plan on getting all 10 challenges done. We have done some of the other challenges as we were on vacation but didn't get done with them so between this week and next week we will light a fire under our nature studies and get it done.

This is our first time in buying a pumpkin and mutilating it. That is what you call it right? After all I've heard the word "innards" being used to describe what you will take out of that poor thing. All in the name of nature study and of course to fill our tummy's.

We set the table up with newspaper which made clean up very easy. Then I handled the knife and cutting the pumpkins open. The boys were in charge of taking all those seeds out.

Each one had their own pumpkin. I had gotten one pumpkin first. Then we were reading online about them and learned that the pie pumpkins are sweeter than the ones you normally see. Although I have talked to some friends who use them to cook and make some sweets with them. Of course since I had already gotten one I had to get two of the smaller ones.

So we cleaned them up and steamed them. We taste tested them after cooking and the pie pumpkins are sweeter. Anyway, now we had a huge, huge bowl to of this stuff to make all sorts of yummy desserts. We got the seeds roasted. The boys love those. We also made some pumpkin bread. Not just pumpkin bread but pumpkin gingerbread. It smells good. Oh, the recipe was for two loaves. I guess I will have to find some friends to share with. Here's a picture of the loaves and seeds.

I also found a recipe for some pumpkin pancakes. I remember an old friend always making them and I never tried them so now that we have a ton of the pumpkin all ready in the fridge I guess we will just have to try them out. I am going to also make a mexican pastry with the pumpkin filling called empanadas. Has anyone tried those? Oh, so yummy!

We have decided to try to grow some pumpkins next year in our garden. We also filled out another notebooking page I made for this lesson and will add it to our nature studies binder.

These challenges are on Handbook of Nature Study blog.

Week In Review

2009-10-24T22:50:00.001-05:00

Our first week after vacation was very slow. One sick boy with lots of attention needed was what slowed our week. Middle son slept in a lot but still did a few math lessons. He thought he was getting off with no school at all. HA!

The little one did his regular math lessons but also had a great math lesson on fractions helping me make an apple pie. He enjoyed that and looks forward to the next yummy lesson.

Our days were mostly filled with disinfecting and giving meds this week. Math was done but that is about all. Well except for a little nature and PE time for the little one.

We saw a butterfly and what looks like an huge red ant with wings. It was walking very fast and was carrying what looked like dinner underneath it. That will take some investigating to see what that is. Any ideas? The butterfly is called the Gulf Fritillary. We hadn't seen one around here in a while so we stayed looking at it for a while then identified it.

Now these flying guys we always see. My little once can identify them now by the wings and the red head. A turkey vulture. Those are some ugly birds.

We are hoping that next week will be a better week as far as school goes. We have planned a few nature lessons that we started on before the flu set in and we need to finish those up now.

That is our week in review for this week. Doesn't sound like much but if you would have seen how much cleaning and disinfecting went on you would know why.

The Chef-a-nator Working on Fractions

2009-10-22T15:24:00.001-05:00

We have been busy this week with one sick boy. He tested positive for that dreaded flu so school has been a little slow but I found a fun way for the little one to do fractions today.

Here is my little Chef-a-nator as he named himself today. I bought some wonderful smelling apples yesterday and suggested making an apple pie today and my baby was up for the task. He dressed the part with his chef hat that a friend bought him.

Here he is mixing.

Here he is adding the yummyness to the apples. We put it all in a pie plate and stuck it in the oven. I set the timer and my little one would keep coming to check on it. He jumped up and down when the timer went off.

This was a good way to learn about math today. We measured. Talked about different size cups and teaspoons. Today we had this extra math lesson on fractions and it is a yummy lesson.

Off to go do a taste test......

More Vacation

2009-10-14T00:06:00.001-05:00

Well we had a blast and now we are home. It seems like the last two weeks flew by. This vacation was a big one because as I have already shared we went to different places on the Eastern side of the states. We did D.C. and saw a few museums and walked a lot. I have no idea how I did all that walking but I did it. Of course, I was dead at the end of the day but I did it. In DC I got to see Julia Childs kitchen, it was at one of the museums. The boys and I also saw a tree we have never seen before. We commented how it looked like it was peeling from sunburn.

I also mentioned that we were in Brooklyn and took some tours. Well a friend that lives there took us to the top of her building. It was late at night and I was able to take a nice night time picture of the city. It looks so beautiful at night.

Then after a few other tours we went on up further north. All the way to see Niagara Falls. I think I took at least 100 pictures there alone. It was so awesome. The thunder of the water crashing on the rocks below. Now I am only showing one picture but there were so many that I had to choose just one. It was an incredible day.

I promised my Canadian friend that I would go to Tim Hortons and have that breakfast sandwich. So I did. I'm very obedient. hehe It was good. I miss Tim Hortons living down here in Texas.

After that we started our journey down, down, down south. We stopped in Alabama and then West Virgina after all we had to sleep to continue our journey home. Before we got home though, we stopped at a friends home in Louisiana. We spent two nights there. The kids had an awesome time and us two moms went on a little trip to Borders. Yippeeee! What homeschool mom doesn't like to go there? hehehe On our way home hubby slowed down so that I could take this picture of the morning. Can you see the spider webs? It was rainy, misty and there were lots of webs on the fields and fences.

We left Texas for the beginning of our trip with temperatures in the 90's and it dropped to the 40's at Niagara Falls then started our way home and we were in the 80's in Louisiana and now that we are home it's in the mid to upper 80's. That is just not fair! Oh and we came home to tall grass since it has been raining the whole time we were gone and with rain comes mosquitoes. Big ones! Huge ones! We need some good cold air to get rid of them. Maybe if my Canadian friends start blowing that cold air down here, please!

That about sums up our trip. It was a blast and this is something the boys will remember for a long time. I loved seeing the excitement when they learned something new. I am tired now but so glad we did this trip.

Our field trip

2009-10-11T00:39:00.000-05:00

We have been on vacation and at the time I am writing this we still are. This was a great learning experience for all of us. As our schooling progresses we learn a lot about different places and different parts of the world. We had planned on this vacation/field trip for a long time and it has finally arrived.

We got to tour a facility in New York where Bibles and other literature are made. The boys appreciate how much work goes into each magazine, book, pamplet and bible and how much work goes into packaging everything for delivery. We got some special tours because we know some friends that work there so it was even more special to see old friends and see what they do.

The leaves were also changing. We don't get to see the changing of the leaves much down in Texas so it was wonderful to see it in person. My youngest commented how wonderful GOD was to have made the leaves in such beautiful colors. He was picking them up and now we have a big stash in our improvised leaf press which is our road atlas. Good thing I have such a big book in the van with us.

We also got a tour of a guitar building factory. It was the Martin Guitar factory. They have a small museum and then they give you a free tour of the place. Hubby is building guitars and is on his third guitar so this was his hands on part of the trip. This tour was also a review for us since we see the progress of his work and learn what each part of wood is called.

Of course, there was so much more to our hands on and eyes on learning. By the time we get home we will have put around 5000 miles on my van. We did mostly nature viewing with some tours to our learning these past two weeks.

It is so wonderful to learn something in books but it always helps to see it in person. We got to do it this year in a big way. We also got to see it rain leaves. As soon as I get home I will try to post more pictures and highlights of our learning experience.

First Post on Vacation

2009-10-02T22:11:00.000-05:00

So have any of you wondered where I am? Here are some pictures to show you what we have done so far. Some things I was not able to take pictures of because we were going 70mph on the highway and by the time I saw things we zoomed by. So here is what we have done so far.

We have done the Smoky Mountains and went to the top of one area for pictures. That was a hard climb for me. One of the boys stayed with me while the other two climbed to the top with hubby. Then there was the drive further up the states. My boys laughed at this sign even though it's blurry you can tell what it says. They wondered if there were airplanes with missles aiming at you. hehehe

Then we drove to DC. Yep that is where we are now. But not for long. We will be hitting the road for some further excitement. Stay tuned for more.......

Vacation...Our Reads

2009-09-29T21:37:00.000-05:00

We will be leaving Wednesday at 1pm. That is the plan anyway. I started preparing by downloading some audio books, magazines and music. What the problem is now is that I have more than enough for our trip. We have a 16hr drive on the first day and although we could listen to a lot we do require quiet times just to keep our sanity.

We have downloaded and added to my ipod the following books...
Time Machine
Gulliver's Travels
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Learn From the Great Teacher
My Book of Bible Stories
several magazines and songs

We have movies but I prefer audio books because you can still look out the windows and see the views of places we are going by.

Anyone have any other ideas for books?

Preparation for Vacation

2009-09-28T22:47:00.001-05:00

9:00am Started the washer again. Have all washed clothes laying out ready to fold and pack in suitcases. Pulled out the luggage. Cleaned up breakfast dishes.

10:30 Reloaded the washer. Got kids to strip beds. We are coming home to clean beds. Start folding clothes.

11:30 Hear, "I'm hungry, what's for lunch." Start looking at my dress clothes and figuring out what I will take. Make lunch, all leftovers. We are not leaving anything in the fridge to spoil.

1pm Get ready to go into town. Returning shoes that looked good and fit good but in the evening my feet were swollen and those will not work. Paid some bills and went to bank. Stopped for 1/2 price slushes at Sonic. Boys got happy about that. We love their strawberry limeade slushes. Quick stop to return shoes at Academy. WalMart next. Boys need pants, weather will be cooler than we are used to. Got a few more things and saw my mom there.

4:00pm Home and reloading washer and dryer. Internet time, check emails. Feet hurting and swollen.

5:00 Boys do chores. Finish up math. Wondering why men have to put leaky pens in their dress shirt pockets and then forget to mention it. Sheets for one bed ready and give to son to get it done. Start wondering if I will ever be packed by Wed.

6:00 Forgot the time in my rush with washer and dryer and folding and packing. Hubby walks in and I get to making dinner.

7:30 Cleaning up kitchen. Boys help put things away. Hubby kindly offers to wash dishes. *smiling* I'm off to get that packing taken care of.

10:00 Two bags packed. Tomorrow I will pack dress clothes. Kitchen clean. Reloaded washer with little clothes we have left and spot treated some to rewash.

Still have at least two more loads of towels and a few sheets. Showers. Mentally going over the packed bags several times to make sure I have what we need. We are having to take detergent because we are definitely going to need to do a load or two before coming home.

Morning: taking the van for a recall part to be installed and an oil change. Then wash and vacuum and gas it up.

Lunch with mom in town.   Getting cold cuts and bread for the trip. Then heading home to start packing up the van.

Afternoon: Start loading up van. Rush, rush, rush......

School Break

2009-09-28T01:47:00.001-05:00

We are taking a little break. Boys had to get to lesson 30 and then a break. So guess what? They are happy to get to lesson 30. So am I. Middle son is doing Teaching Textbook and my baby is using Rod and Staff. They are both on lesson 30. Yippeeee! They did it.

We have lots to do before vacation. I'm finishing up with laundry then packing. I have the cooler ready for ice. Van needs to get the recall part put on and an oil change. Clean and vacuum the van. Gas and pack up the van.

Deadline: Wednesday 1pm.

Let's see, where shall we go? East or West? North? Can't go much more South than we are without leaving the country. So 3 options.

Excitement is building.......

Two Months in Review

2009-09-26T22:29:00.001-05:00

I wanted to do the week in review but these past months it has gotten so crazy. So here is my attempt at getting back on track. We started our school year off slow. The first month we worked on language arts and math. Just the basics. Middle son who has dyslexia is reading so much better and my baby is reading so wonderfully also. I'm glad we spent a month just with basics. We have accomplished working on spelling and reading mostly. I never thought middle son would get into reading chapter books but he is now. We still listen to lots of things on audio which is wonderful especially while we are driving. I would love to be able to read books in the van but I'm not the one that can do that because I always get car sick. So audio is the way to go. For spelling we have been working on All About Spelling. I think I need to pick up the pace on that but it is so much fun that we take our time and have fun.

Now this month we have added geography, science, history and nature studies. For geography we are using Galloping the Globe which is a unit study and we are adding science and history through that. We learn about a country for geography, for science we learn about different animals in that country and for history we learn about people or events that happened in the country.

We have always done nature studies. We have learned to identify our local birds and flowers. This summer has been extremely hot and we have no where to go to escape from it except indoors. We have no mountains to go to that would be cooler. Texas is pretty flat for the most part. South Texas is also very humid so lots of our nature study this past month has been our hummingbirds right outside our window. We have had scorpions and snakes that decided it was to hot and dry outside and ventured indoors and were quickly captured and studied. We will be adding art and just doing some fun art projects starting in October using some books we have in our home library.

Here are some of the things we have used these past two months. We are still enjoying some of them.

Stay tuned for more on that....

Our Cattail Nature Study

2009-09-24T17:32:00.001-05:00

Some of you may know that living down in South Texas can be a challenge when it comes to weather. Up north there is snow to deal with but down here there is heat and mosquitoes. This year was particularly hard due to the drought conditions and the heat we have had. There were cracks in the ground big enough to put a foot through. I did not attempt to do that though.

So what does this all have to do with cattails? We don't have any. There were some but have all withered and died. Any ponds that were out there with cattails are now dry and gone. Next week we will be going on vacation so we will keep our eyes open for the live kind. For now we took pictures of what they look like with no life in them. It's a pretty sad story.

What did we learn? I found a site that had some interesting things about cattails. We learned that they were used for medicine, clothing and even food. Imagine that! It has even been found as mats in caves. So many ways to use one plant. The liquid jelly from young leaves was used on sores and wounds. The starch from this plant was used to thicken soups and we also found some recipes out there of people who stir fry it. Also the brown flower heads make good "punks," keeping a slowly-burning flame, with a smoke that drives insects away. Maybe I'll plant some and use them on our mosquitoes.

There were so many uses for this plant and we read a lot and looked at pictures of what they should look like when alive. Now we will have to keep our eyes peeled for them on our trip. I also made my own notebooking page. I've seen others out there but I usually always make my own things. I was asked by a friend if I follow directions and do everything the way it is on the instructions and of course, I don't. I also had my nephews here so they joined in also.

I will have you all know that our local homeschool group was on the lookout for cattails all week. Asking around anyone that travels. Husbands were also asked to keep an eye for them on their way to work. Not one single live cattail for miles. I traveled 34 miles round trip to get the few pictures that I got. Maybe next year will be better. We'll have to keep an eye on that location and see if they come back with the rain we have been getting this week. Rain, finally!

By the way, I will be following Barb's new challenges this time around. Just so you know.

Update and nature

2009-09-23T23:32:00.000-05:00

It has been almost two weeks since I last posted. I never do this but I've had personal issues to deal with and school and house and getting ready for a little vacation. We have still been busy with out math and reading. We have added science in and geography. I love having nature studies when something comes across our path. This time what came across our path was a baby. A baby what? A baby snake. Yep, I said snake. You can be sure that I will post a picture.

Let me explain...my youngest has always had a hard time getting to bed. He is one of those that gets up and has to explain this or that. I send him to bed then he comes back and tells me something else. Comes back for a hug and an extra prayer. Well, this one time he was heading to his bed again and I heard him scream and run and yell, "snake" in the loudest voice I've ever heard come out of him. Ok, so I'm thinking a snake. Big snake. Mean snake. Nope it was a baby. I guess to him a snake is a snake. It is no more than 12 inches. Although I didn't even try to measure this one. He is a ferocious little booger. He kept on striking at me so in he went into our alway ready and trusty little pet carrier.

So now we have a pet for a while. We checked our Texas Snake ID guide to see if we could figure out what he is and we have come up with a Texas Rat Snake. It is non venomous but is mean. They climb up trees and look for baby birds for a snack. By the way, I let the first one out yesterday. Yes, I said first! We have number 2 hold up in our glass aquarium. I wonder how many more will show up for a visit and a scare.

Hands On Homeschooling Blog Carnival

2009-09-14T12:13:00.000-05:00

It's up and you can go take a look at all the neat hands on things done for homeschool. It's always inspiring to me to see what others do.

Nature Study-Not my cup of tea this week

2009-09-13T00:02:00.000-05:00

We took a trip to the local Dollar Tree to look for some cool school things a friend told me she bought. Well, the cool things were not there but we came upon something else. Let me tell you though that this was and continues to be the grossest thing ever. Talk about creepy too. It's a strip mall with different stores and every year around this time we have a plague of these black disgusting crickets. NASTY!! I would venture to say that there are millions upon millions of these nasty things. Why do I says nasty? Well, because when you have that many and they are dead due to people walking or cars driving by or the store employees kill them and leave them to rot.....makes you want to, as my kids say, barf.

I don't like to go to the stores around this time of the year especially wearing a dress or skirt. Yes, it's happened to me before. Can you imagine a crazy lady running down the parking lot screaming and brushing the dress to get the thing out. OOOHHHHH sends shivers up my back or should I say up my skirt?

These are a few things we have learned for nature study this week.
1. One cricket is ok but millions of dead, decaying, disgusting crickets is not ok.
2. Don't go to the store when there is a plague.
3. Don't wear a skirt during this time of the year.

Questions we asked ourselves...
1. Why don't they clean the mess up?
2. Bleach is not expensive, why don't the stores us it?
3. ...again...Why don't they clean that stinky mess up?

For another stinky story pop on over to Applie's Place.

Texas is a Country, really!

2009-09-09T01:59:00.001-05:00

We went to the zoo on Monday. It was a nice fun day. We joked around and laughed all day. We had a nice time at the zoo. It's not a very big zoo. We went through it in an hour. Like I said, it's not that big. My youngest got to feed the goats.

We did see some ducks.

We saw big teeth grinning at us.

Then my son saw something that made us laugh again. Click on the picture and take a look at the zoo. Look at all the countries mentioned. Now who says that Texas is not a country?

Still Learning about our Hummers

2009-09-07T15:11:00.000-05:00

If you click on this picture you will see that a bee is fighting with the hummer for the feeder. The hummers do fly away though. We have seen the hummers being chased away by those bees. It is so funny to watch. We are learning so much about these birds by observing.

Enjoy some of my pictures that I took today as we watched out the window.

Watching a DVD

2009-09-03T01:11:00.001-05:00

Today we did science by watching a dvd. Not exactly hands on but more eyes on. Yes, we took it easy but it was an awesome dvd. We didn't watch the whole thing because it was 2hrs and 30mins long. It has 3 parts on the first dvd. It's called Nature's Most Amazing Events and it's disc 1. I forgot to see how many discs are in the series. Probably like a million but I have to say that the first one is awesome. We watched The Great Melt. It's on the polar bears and everything Arctic. I can't wait to see the next part called The Great Salmon Run then the last part of it is The Great Migration.

If you have a chance to see these dvds they are wonderful. I got them off Netflix. What a fun way to learn science don't you think? Next time we'll make the popcorn to go with it.

Today's Extraordinary and Amazing Event

2009-09-02T00:10:00.002-05:00

We saw something awesome. We have a hummingbird feeder outside one of our school room windows and at the moment we have lots of hummingbirds. It's amazing to see these little creatures. We walk up to the window very slowly and they stay around for us to see them up close. What amazing creatures.

These little guys and girls come over during this time of the year and we make sure to try to keep those feeders full but before you know it they drink up all that food. It doesn't help that a Baltimore Oriole came over and learned how to stick his long beak in there and drink away.

Today was a different day. One like other days but different in what happened. I've stood at the window and looked in awe at these little birds. I was thinking of a time that I might be able to hold one in my hand and how wonderful it would be to hold such a small and amazing bird.

So I came home from grocery shopping today and hubby was home with the boys this afternoon and had left the garage door open. The door has this cord in the center of the garage to close the doors manually. The end of the cord is a grip and it's red. I've had hummingbirds in the garage before pecking at it and go out as fast as they came in. But today as I came home one of the boys came out and said that this hummingbird has been in the garage since they got home. Even though, the door was wide open it was flying up above the door and could not figure out how to get out. It would bump it's head on the ceiling of the garage.

Now I don't know about your garage but we have lots of spiders and webs which we like because they catch a lot of our mosquitos. My mom would clean them off but I leave them. I choose my battles. Anyway, this hummingbird was flying and hitting the ceiling and had a lot of webs on it's beak and wings. All over really. Poor thing. Then it happened. It got caught up on something. It was upside down. I got a swimming pool noodle and gently touched it. It tried to fly away and eventually did. Then it started falling. It fell down behind some of the other noodles.

My son and I felt so bad for it. I went over and picked it up. Poor thing was exhausted. It tried to fly but fell back in my hands. I held a hummingbird. Did you hear what I said?.....I held a hummingbird. I took it outside and let the wind hit it and let it rest in my hands till it struggled but finally made it in a tree and there is stayed for a long time. Till it finally flew away. After I saw it fly away I felt better and knew it would make it.

I never knew these guys made such a cute little noise. Then when he was in my hands he was crying in a lonely, I give up sort of way. It was sad. My boys and I have been doing the hummingbird cry all evening. Truely an amazing experience.

We're back and on top of the World

2009-08-31T17:11:00.002-05:00

We started back up with school this week after a week of sickness. I am so glad we have tile floors. Anyway, on to school. Today was actually a nice day when the clouds came. We went outside and the little one got on his scooter for a while. The white flowers on my crepe myrtle is blooming after only an inch and a half of rain. We have been and still are in drought conditions so it is nice to see some flowers. We had some exercise today when the clouds came in for a little while. We are having some cooler east winds for an hour or

two so we headed outside for some PE time.

We also filled the bird feeders and watched the hummingbird at the hummingbird feeder. We also have a ton of dragonflies. I am actually glad about that because that means they are eating up the mosquitoes.

We also worked on geography today. Just the basics. Learning about maps and symbols. How to read maps and map different types of maps. The boys worked on putting together a puzzle and then my little one did it on his own.

He is sitting on top of the world.

Sick Days!

2009-08-25T19:31:00.001-05:00

Hope this is a 24hr thing going on but with me and my low immunity you just never know. Be back as soon as this blows over and out.

Yellow Birdie

2009-08-22T20:54:00.002-05:00

Update: Baltimore Oriole it is! This bird is a migratory bird in our area of South Texas. I've never, ever, ever seen this bird in person. It's been at the hummingbird feeders for a few days already. It's long beak is perfect for getting in those little holes of the feeders. I need to put out some more seed. Thanks for all your comments. I finally had time to check on this and here is a post about it.

My little one called me and said that there was a yellow birdie on the hummingbird feeder. He was excited and when I saw it I was too.

This bird was actually eating out of the hummingbird feeder. The hummingbirds did not like it at all.

I'm trying to put a name to this guy but I haven't even had time to sit much less pull out our books. I'll be out most of the day tomorrow and will not be home to check on this till night time so if anyone can help me out and name him for me. It would be most appreciated. *wink*

Geography Plans

2009-08-21T21:44:00.000-05:00

I started the year off slow. I had to. Pain and health keeps me from doing much. The month of August we are just doing math and language arts. I'm keeping it slow and simple. Language arts consists of spelling, grammar, reading and writing.

So what about everything else? Well, I have worked up some plans for geography. I found a great book. It's Galloping the Globe. This book is actually a unit study of world geography. It includes first of all geography and also history, science, literature, vocabulary, maps and flags, recipes, puzzles, games crafts and bible. It also has reproducibles for the flags and for the different countries. I love it because it has it all.

We are going to do from this book, geography, history and science. It has wonderful references and ideas of which books to look for at the library. I wrote out my weekly plans of course because I am like that. I like to see a page and know what I am doing that week. It is easy too because as we study China we will learn about Marco Polo and the Great Wall of China for history and for science we will learn about ducks and pandas. To end the week of study we will cook up some Chinese food. The following week we move on to South Korea then Japan. We will spend one week learning things about a different country and end the week with food. There is nothing better than ending a week with food.

Monday we will go to the library and gather up books. Then we will start the following week. Each Monday we will be at the library to gather our books for the following week. Sounds like fun to me.

These are only 2 pages of 6 for these plans. I have added more than we might be able to do but I like to be able to pick and choose. Can't wait to get started. Whatcha think?

Currclick's Sale

2009-08-16T20:31:00.004-05:00

Hurry and go to Currclick to get your school supplies before the sale is over.

Humming excitement

2009-08-15T23:30:00.002-05:00

Today we went out to Corpus Christi because hubby had a meeting to attend and of course we tagged along. I love seeing all the birds out there. Every time I see the pelicans I think of the pterodactyls. Those are some huge birds. Another exciting thing was I met a friend walking into a restaurant without even calling her. How cool was that. I just walked in and there she was. How fun.

After coming home I was excited to see hummingbirds at the feeders again. They came yesterday. Yesterday they were what I've always seen....the ruby-throated hummingbirds. Today I was happy to see what I think is Allen's hummingbird. I'm excited because this is the first time I've seen it in person. I took a bunch of pictures as they zoomed by me sometimes barely missing my head. I love waiting around to see these on our feeders.

I have a ton more pictures of these guys but that is it for now.

Capturing Thunder

2009-08-13T00:15:00.001-05:00

It started getting dark during the early evening hours. So I took my camera out and took some pictures of these storm clouds. I had to. That is what I do. I take pictures. hehehe Then it got dark and the storms came.

Now what did I do? I took more pictures. I took about 100 pictures of the weather. I was trying to get a good shot of some lightning. Did I do it? YES!!!! I was excited to see these on my computer and see the streaks thru the sky. Don't forget to click on the pictures to see them bigger and better. How many of you have ever tried to get pictures of a storm?

These pictures I took were at night but with all that lightning it certainly did not look like night time. We are very happy to have gotten some rain. I'll check in the morning but we possibly got about an inch. Of course, that does nothing for the drought we are in but I am hoping it's the beginning of some rain.

I'm still learning to take pictures with my Canon. Storms are a favorite thing of mine to try to master. One day I will be good.

So two nature nights for us. Last night we took out a cushion and layed out in the back of the truck to see the meteor shower and we saw plenty. Some green, some pink, some small and some that went across the whole sky. Followed by another kind of awesome light show. The boys were excited by both.

Dirty Dirt Diggers

2009-08-12T00:03:00.002-05:00

We're going on a bug hunt, going on a bug hunt....

What in the world are those things in the ground. We are studying geography and since I have these in the backyard all over the place we decided to study these creatures. So what are they?

These are called Ant Lion Larvae. These are smart creatures. Why are they called antlions? The name makes sense since their food are ants and they ambush like a lion. Look at those jaws too. I'd hate to be the ant that falls in their trap.

These little creatures hide beneath the dirt and wait for their food to come walking by.

They have long jaws that once their prey is caught they kill it and ok here it is they suck the ant dry. Nasty! I am actually glad we have a ton of these because we have so many ants. These will actually become something similar to a dragon fly.

I found a You Tube video that is pretty interesting. Take a look at what they do.

By the way, these little antlions will go with just about any country you study. Have you seen them where you live?

Is it a girl or boy?

2009-08-11T00:05:00.002-05:00

Remember the post about our new baby? I said we had a girl and someone wanted to know how I could tell the difference. Well, no, I didn't turn it over. Can't tell that way. hehehe Here is how you can tell. Look at my picture and then hop on over to Applie's Place and see the handsome guy she posted about.

I have the Kaufman Field Guide to Butterflies of North America and it shows the two. It says in part, that males are mostly black with yellow spots along wing edge and a submarginal yellow band of varying width. On females the band is reduced to small spots on forewing and replaced by blue scaling on hindwing.

There you have it. I had girls and over at Applie's Place they have the boys. And there is another nature study completed.

10 Things I Wish I Knew When....

2009-08-10T13:34:00.012-05:00

....I first started homeschooling.....

1. Just read. Read anything and everything you can. It can be a bit overwhelming but after reading you will have time to think, ponder and let it slowly sink in.

2. Books that are must reads...The Well Trained Mind, 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculums and the series of What you __ needs to know.

3. You don't have to school like public school. You don't have to school all day. Your children will learn from going to the zoo, to the museum and on nature walks which can be in the back yard.

4. Having others my childrens ages to hang out with is nice but not necessary on a constant basis. As long as I fill the day with fun and interesting things to do for school like reading, crafts and games to play together they will be ok. One important thing is that they can hang out with older ones too not just kids their ages.

5. Boxed curriculums...they are good for one purpose....the first year but after that we never used them again. I hate to buy a full curriculum and not using everything because it just seems a waste of time and money.

6. It's ok to take time off when public school kids are in school. That's the best time to go and avoid the crowds.

7. You don't have to defend your position to homeschool to every Dick and Jane that asks. Learn to give short answers to those that just want to debate and for those that want to really learn you can sit and talk to.

8. You can school in your pajamas or do reading in bed. It's fun and wonderful especially when the littles are not so little anymore and don't give hugs freely anymore because they think they are too big for that sort of thing. *sigh* Tickle sessions are a must too.

9. Not every child is the same or learns in the same way or uses to same books. So you might have to buy different things for each child. This brings me to number 10.

10. When you homeschool there is something that happens to the homeschool mom. She goes silly in the head and wants to buy books and more books.

Amazon.com Widgets

Hands On Homeschooling

2009-08-09T23:12:00.004-05:00

Check out this months Hands on Homeschool Blog Carnival posted over at Talking to Myself.

To CM or Not to CM, that is the question!

2009-08-09T16:07:00.009-05:00

Jimmie over on her blog talked about some things that she does not agree with CM. Finally, someone spoke out about some of those things she does not do or does not agree on. I've always wondered about some who say they follow CM and wondered if they do it all as CM wrote.

I am not one to follow any person or any one idea. I like this and that. I've done lapbooking, notebooking and curriculums galore. I'm all for what your child learns with then go with it.

I've always wanted to participate in the CM carnival and started to but I find it all way to CMie for me. Does that make sense? I've been following some blogs and I can tell when they are doing a post just for CM even though their schooling is always in a CM style. I love to read how others school and appreciate the ideas from others. I guess I'm the type that likes to learn from others by example and not by seeing quotes of what Charlotte Mason wrote.

My blog is a collection of what we do and I take ideas, crafts or curriculum reviews from other bloggers who share and I hope some find something to take from our school blog. I like classical in some things. CM is good on other things. Unit Studies serve a purpose too in our house. So does that make us eclectic?

Homeschool Convention

2009-08-08T21:51:00.000-05:00

This weekend was a fun weekend for me. We (hubby and I) decided to go to a homeschool convention at The Woodlands which is in the Houston, Tx area. Did I like it? Not really. I didn't find any workshops that were interesting. The vendors were ok too. The Arlington convention was a lot better in my opinion. I didn't even buy anything. Wow, now that is amazing.

What I did like was spending the weekend just hubby and I and going out where ever we wanted to, eat what we wanted to and watch what we wanted to on the tv in the hotel room.

One thing I do recommend anyone coming to Houston, Tx is to go to The Homeschool Store. That is my favorite store. They have an awesome used book room in the back. I take all my homeschool friends there. I did buy from there. I always do. I got a few CM books that I wanted to read. I'll start on that soon.

That is what I've been up to this weekend. Stay tuned for what we will be doing for school starting next week. Yes a revision already.

Sunset to Moon

2009-08-08T20:27:00.002-05:00

I've been playing around with the settings on my camera and the one thing I try to capture is the sun and moon.

Night time is the hardest to figure out but I think I did a pretty good job of the moon. Hope you enjoy my pictures of a Texas sunset and our part of the moon.

PE time in the Pool

2009-08-04T14:22:00.004-05:00

Ok, now don't tell me you thought someone went in the pool because of the title. hehehe

My baby used to wear what he called his "super suit" and one day last week hubby told him he was big enough to reach the bottom. Off came the super suit which was one of those full body swim suits with the floats in it. He dove in the pool and took off like a fish. After a week of training he is swimming under water. PE time is after 4pm when the trees shade the pool some and the temperature is below 100F.

How amazing is that? Take a look at him go.

And we're off!

2009-08-03T16:52:00.006-05:00

Today was our first day of school. The first after some needed time off. We started off with a slow day. Just a few things today and adding a little more till we get into full swing.

My baby was so excited to get started. He could not believe he was starting Rod and Staff 3rd grade. He went off and did his work with no problem. I sure hope that attitude lasts all year.

Middle son reviewed some Rod and Staff work before he gets to go to Teaching Textbooks. I wonder if that will be a better fit for him? I guess we'll see.

My oldest is on to Algebra 2. I can't believe he is almost done with school.

So here is a short list of our school schedule:
Oldest:
Algebra 2
Apologia Chemistry
online college course
weekly volunteer work

Middle son:
Math-Teaching Textbooks
Science-Working on some lapbooking
Geography-Lapbooking different continents
Language Arts-All About Spelling, Pathway Readers, review of Ordinary Parent's guide to Teaching Reading then onto A Reading Program for Overcoming Dyslexia, Growing with Grammar and Writing with Ease
weekly volunteer work

My baby:
Math-Rod and Staff
Science-Working on some lapbooking
Geography-Lapbooking different continents
Language Arts-All About Spelling, Pathway Readers, Ordinary Parent's guide to Teaching Reading, Growing with Grammar and Writing with Ease
weekly volunteer work

We will be adding other things as we go into our school year. This is just a short list of what we are starting off with.

Slow and easy.

My School Room

2009-07-30T21:00:00.006-05:00

Don't forget to click on pictures to enlarge.

Well, I have been promising some friends that I would post some pictures of my school room and I finally got around to it. Yes, that's right I have 8 bookshelves and they are all packed. Now you have to remember that I love books and I also have three children in all levels of school. So there, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

If you notice the basket on the floor it has some puzzles in baggies for us to use. Really those puzzles are just about ready to be given away. We will use them this year but that's it for them. Yes I have a ladder. I need one. Can you tell?
This is my table. I have lots of books on it right now. I am in the process of figuring out what books we will use and working on our schedule. If you notice on the floor under the table there are some dinosaur counters and a few odds and ends. Well, my baby loves to sit under there and play with them. I also have some stacks of things that are ready to be given away. The things in the black rolling carrier is full of things we no longer need. That is all going to be given away.

The stack on the floor is getting ready to be sold. I'll probably put them all on my blog next time. I've done some major cleaning and decluttering. It may not look like it but I have gotten rid of lots of paper. How is it that we homeschoolers accumulate so much paper? That blue lid tub is for someone that let me borrow her things a while back and I need to return them. I just need to find her.

Here is a close up view of my bookshelves. This one has the baskets that we will be using for all their books. At the moment they are packed with everything I would like to do between now and Monday I have to get it all in order and only have in there what they will be doing.

Here are the bookshelves from top to bottom. Top of all bookshelves have games that we will be using.

Do you see that stack of books on the floor? Gotta get rid of those too.

On the right corner you can see the books of the bible game I made with clothes pins last year. It also has the calendar on the other side. It's homemade. It's amazing what you can do with pvc pipe.

I made my own schedule pages because I just can not, I said can not, do Homeschool Tracker. I have to have things written down. So I'm in the process of working out our plans for geography only because I am looking forward to doing that.

So there you go. That is a glimpse of my school room and my many bookshelves. Many, many bookshelves. Next year I will be getting rid of my little babies readers. I'm so not looking forward to that. I can hear him now, "I'm to old for those books." *sigh*

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Spelling Out the Answers

2009-07-29T13:59:00.007-05:00

I did a post on All About Spelling a few posts back. In that post I talked about a great hands on spelling program. What is so hands on about it? Well, you use magnetic tiles at the beginning to show what letters go with what sounds. Then you start putting them together. When my boys see this coming out they look at it as a game. Which means it's one of their favorite subjects and that is a good thing.

From the previous post I was asked a few things. One of the things was at what age level would you start level 1? What I have to say about that is that this program is not level1=grade 1 or level 2=grade 2. I started my 6yr old on level 1 and I also started my 11yr old on level 1. You would always want to start at level 1 to make sure the kiddos know what sounds go with what letters.

Those older ones that start with level 1 will zip through the level faster than a 6yr old. What I like about this program is that you go as fast or as slow as you need to. If your child knows the information then do it and move on till you get to something that they need a little more time on. You will notice that each child may have something they missed and they need a little more time on it to get it and that is ok.

What I did was start with level 1 with both boys. I got one book and two extras student materials. My 11yr old will be going on to Level 2 this year and my little one is still on level 1 so I don't need the extra set of things for the little one.

Another thing is that this program is also good for those with dyslexia which my 11yr old has. I see improvement in his reading and spelling every day. It will never be what the others are but that is ok. He is getting better and will be the best he can be.

There will be 6 levels in this program and by the time we reach level 6 it will be a high school level. So for 6 books you get up to high school. The advantage to buying it one book or level at a time is the cost in my opinion. There are some programs out there for dyslexics that cost a ridiculously amount of money that you have to dish out at once. This way you pay as you go and if it doesn't work for you then you don't feel like you spent so much money for nothing.

I hope this review will answer questions about this program. We will continue using it this year.

Great Lapbooking Sale Going On

2009-07-26T14:49:00.005-05:00

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I love sales, don't you? Now to see what I don't have so I can order something.

It's my February in July

2009-07-23T10:20:00.011-05:00

Sunset at Sunrise to Sunset

2009-07-19T20:59:00.004-05:00

Our sunset was amazing. This is as close as I get to nature lately. Since my pains have gotten worse it has been harder and harder to take walks much less go out on trails. I do what I can but for now I enjoy looking at nature blogs and enjoy what others do and where they go. One day....one day it will be all better.

What about Spelling? A hands on approach

2009-07-10T11:58:00.006-05:00

Level 5 is ready. I've been waiting for this to come out not because I need it at this moment but because I will still get it even though I will not use it for at least a year or two.

Not only is it ready but it's on sale till Saturday, July 18. This is the time to get it if you are using this program.

Why do I like this program? Well, it's multi sensory, you use games and different hands on ways to learn. The lessons are written in an easy to understand way and it's all there for you to use, it's all written out for you. No having to figure out what to say or do to help teach spelling. We all know that a child can learn to read and really not know how to spell. You can see that when you have them write out a story. I find that this program works for us.

One other thing I like is the levels. Just because it says level one doesn't mean it's grade one. Everyone should start out with level one. It starts off with basics like making sure each student knows the phonetic sounds. If you child knows this then they will fly through that lesson. We have gone through some lessons fast and others we go slower. Like my younger one started out with level one and kept up a good pace in level one. My middle son with dyslexia went a bit faster at the beginning and kept going till there was a point where he slowed down. Each child is different. I like that I can use this program for my son just starting out in 1st grade and my son with dyslexia who will be in 6th grade.

There is even a site you can go to for help if you have questions. It's called Chatter Bee . At that site there is a group for each level. Even if you go to their website you can go and read up on the FAQ section and get lots of info you might need.

What about cost? Well, level 5 is 25% off right now so it's a great buy. I really don't see the price that bad considering it's all written out for you, you can use it for every child, it has hands on and fun games that captures my boys attention.

I highly recommend this program for spelling. It's the best investment I've made. My kiddos love it. It's the best hands on program we have ever used.

Our New Baby

2009-07-01T00:50:00.003-05:00

Remember the post about some caterpillars eating my parsley?

Those of you that commented on the other post were right. It's a swallowtail. Black Swallowtail to be exact and even more precise it's a girl. We have a girl. She will finish drying out her wings tonight and tomorrow she will be on her way.

We have three more to go. By the way, my parsley is growing back.

Continued...

2009-06-28T23:47:00.005-05:00

We saw some amazing flowers at the next place we went to. I have never ever seen these before. This was a great surprise. Don't you just think they are great?

So where did we go? We went to the Children's Museum. They had an outdoor flower area and these flowers were there. I am still amazed at the beauty.

Of course the inside was great too. The A/C was wonderful. My baby loved the different things to do. He had never been there. The older two had but my baby hadn't.

They had this area to climb that was so cool. At least my baby thought so.

The mirror was fun. Can you tell? He thought it was so funny. It had a crank on the side to move the mirror and change the shape of his body. He was all smiles with all those mirrors.

Then there was the climbing wall. He had to try that. We all had a great time. Indoors and out.

Hope we get to do more fun things this week.

Saturday Nature Morning

2009-06-27T20:33:00.009-05:00

Texas has been extremely hot and there has been record breaking hot temperatures this past week. Breaking the hundred degree mark was not hard at all this past week.

Needless to say we stay indoors most of the day with the A/C on to get a little relief.

This Saturday was different though. Not because of the heat but because we had to drive to Houston and leave hubby at the airport. Hubby will be at a week long school. We had to be at the airport by 6:30am which meant we had to leave home at 4:30am. Oh my, I am so tired but we had fun.

I took the boys first thing in the morning before the heat come on full force somewhere fun. Where did we go? We went to the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center. We saw flowers, mushrooms, squirrels, birds and butterflies. Oh and did I forget to say we had fun.

The mushrooms were on the nature trail and was the first thing we saw there. There were some beautiful butterflies. There were dark ones and orange ones. Beautiful creations!

Since we were there early, early in the morning there was still dew drops everywhere. No this was not from a rain storm. Houston has gotten more rain than we have where I live but I think they are still far behind in getting their rain for the year.

We had a nice time and plan on doing that again but it will have to be early in the morning or later on in the year.

Take a look at some of the fun the boys had out there. Not only was there trials and tons of flowers but some fun things. We didn't make it to the Discovery Center because it opened up too late but we had a nice time anyway.

Of course, my oldest has to have fun while I'm taking pictures. What a ham!

These were some of the things we did at the nature center. I never thought that there could be such a beautiful place like that in Houston. Houston is a city in all sense of that word. It's a major city but having this place to go to has to be very refreshing. It was for us.

That's me, ready to leave because the heat is starting to get to me. It was 9:30am and it was already hot by then. Now this was not all we did in Houston. After this we had to have A/C so we went to another place. We hadn't been there since the older boys were small.

To be continued......

Summer Time Is Here

2009-06-25T23:13:00.004-05:00

With temperatures soring over the 100 degree mark we stay mostly indoors with the A/C on but later afternoons is pool time. Do you like his smile? His new tooth is coming in.

Ok time to get back to the pool.

Parsley Invasion - Nature Picture Quiz

2009-06-18T14:13:00.003-05:00

No, the parsley is not taking over but click on the picture and see what is taking over my parsley plant. I went out last night and my plant is almost all gone. I've got to get a few of these little caterpillars and put them in our bug home and watch them transform. I think there must have been around 10 or so of them eating up my parsley. If they were not going to turn out to be such a beautiful butterfly I would salvage my plant.

Can you guess at what they will become? Any guesses? Come on, take a guess.

Nature Time...Pigeon, Purple Martins and a Cow Killer

2009-06-15T21:55:00.007-05:00

We had a nice day today. After spending some volunteer time this morning we went to visit a friend. The kids had a great time and of course us moms talked books and homeschool stuff. After a while she told us she had a pigeon nesting on her plant outside. So of course we had to go see. There is momma but after a little light watering she moved and we saw some of what we thought were the ugliest babies. LOL

Two babies starting to get their feathers but still a bit fuzzy. They lay there quietly while all the kids climbed a ladder to take a peek. All the while mom was checking us out in a tree close by. I guess she didn't trust us.

This is a white-winged dove. If you click on the picture you can see a blue color around the eye. Pretty neat! We hadn't noticed the blue till I made the picture bigger on the computer.

We also saw Purple Martins. These birds are in the swallow family but

the blue on it is beautiful. You can only see a little blue on the head of some of the birds but believe me that I tried and tried to get a better picture. I want one of these purple martin homes.

Last but not least....have you seen a Cow Killer (aka Red Velvet Ant, Red Wasp). Although this looks like an ant it is from the wasp family. So why is it called a Cow Killer? Well those that are unfortunate enough to get stung say that the pain could kill a cow. I know I would never want to get stung by something like that. OUCH!!! The female lays her eggs next to the larva of a bumble bee in the nest and the future cow killer had food to grow up on.

Isn't the color amazing? The boys enjoyed our nature finds today. We looked up information on the internet and in my large assortment of ID books. Oh and I did check out iBird on my iPod and found the Purple Martin. We all took turns hearing it also. Did I mention that I liked my iBird program? Oh, yes, I did.

Learning through IPod

2009-06-12T11:31:00.004-05:00

So are you wondering how this can be done? What can you learn from an ipod? I'm behind the times on some things like texting. Nope, don't do it. Maybe one day I will jump into that world but for now I am happy without it.

Hubby got me one for our anniversary. Boy, have I used it and continue to us it and it is for school. What a great excuse, right? So what do I have on it for school? Well, I have some games but not just mindless games but math games, sign language games, one called Art Gallery, audio books like Treasure Island, matching games where you have to remember where an object is and match it to another one. There is one called iZoo which shows you animals and their sounds. Now my two favorite ones are iBird Pro and Love Art. iBird has lots of birds their description and the sound they make. It is a wonderful program. Then Love Art has art by daVinci, van Gogh, Botticelli, van Rijn, van Eyck, Renoir and others. It also has wonderful descriptions and a little insight into art. Of course, the boys also like the calculator and guessing at their answer and seeing that they are right. I also have the whole Bible loaded on there along with other books and magazines that we listen to a little everyday after dinner.

Technology is wonderful and can be fun for learning especially when we are sitting waiting for a doctor or dentist appointment. It's not all sitting at the table with our books. It's not all boring because sometimes these advances make it fun. Now what else can I get that is cool but educational? Has to be educational. LOL

A Baby Milestone

2009-06-10T19:21:00.004-05:00

My baby with his first missing tooth. Ok, so the adult tooth had already come in behind the baby one but this morning he got up and pulled that baby tooth out. He was so excited like this one missing tooth made him into a big boy now. How fun to be able to share in his excitement.

Fresh Veggies

2009-06-08T17:08:00.002-05:00

I went out today after being away the weekend and look at all I picked. Click on the picture to see it all better. If you notice I have some green beans. Now there were only two left of the purple kind. Yes, purple green beans. We had to try that. When you cook them they go from purple to green. They tasted the same as the others and it was neat to see them. We are having salad and zucchini's tonight. We will also have some tiny carrots with sour cream dip. Yum!! The boys are excited about eating our own veggies. So how are your gardens?

Living Math and Loving It

2009-06-03T15:00:00.001-05:00

We gave it a try. I always go to Jimmie and her blog here and here when I want an idea of something I want to accomplish. She has a ton of info out there for homeschool. She has a ton of pages on squidoo also. Just in those pages and blogs I can find lots of what I need. There are a few other homeschool moms out there that inspire me. Sometimes, I just need inspiration.

The idea for this math lesson came about as I was IMing with a friend last night. She is doing fractions with a chocolate bar and I've been wanting to find a fun way to teach that. We have stopped at fractions in math for now. We have been doing Rod and Staff math for a few years now and I love it. My middle son finds it too tedious. The baby loves it and loves to see the progress.

Now that I gave all the credit where credit was due for today's math lesson I have to tell you that our lesson although a bit short today was soooo yummy and fun. No we didn't do the chocolate bar. I got up early today which is a nice change since like I said in my last post the medication I am on starts wearing off by Monday night. So, I got up early and went to the donut shop. Yep, we used donuts for our math lesson today. Oh and it was soooooo yummy. My baby picked up fractions very quickly but still needs some more instruction. I guess I will have to get something else to eat. hehehe As you can tell in the picture they sure did enjoy our math lesson today.

I cut that donut into 4 pieces. As they ate each piece I asked how much they ate and how much was left. This lesson didn't last too long though. It was gone and done with too quickly. At first they were not too happy that this was a lesson but when they learned this would take place of their math book today they were delighted.

Now that we started on fractions I saw this book suggestion on Jimmies blog called Family Math and we will do the Making a Fraction Kit on page 120. I got this book at the library but will be ordering it soon to add to our library here at home.

We'll be having more fun soon.

Learning to Live With Life

2009-06-02T22:07:00.007-05:00

I haven't posted much lately and I don't post much about myself much either. Having said that life has finally got to me. Some of you already know but for those that don't I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I've had this for a long time but I had not been able to get anyone to diagnose me. Now that I have been diagnosed I am on some interesting medication that is supposed to help. Well, good thing we are at the end of our school year. Seems like it will take a while to figure out what medication will work for me. At the moment I take 6 pills on Wed. and by Thurs. I am sleeping most of the day. I don't come out of my medication induced sleep till the following week which is almost time for my next date with those little pills again.

Hubby does most of the driving and I do most of the sleeping. I love looking out the windows and seeing the sights but now with these new meds I seem to be very tired most of the time.

We will be adjusting our schedule as I adjust mine. I will be going for regular blood work because of these meds. I also have some more tests to do on my knee which I fell on while vacationing in Colorado and it is still giving me trouble. No broken bones but the doctor thinks I might have torn something. LOVELY!!!

So if I don't post much for a while you will know why. It's not that I don't want to do school but rather that I can't because I'm probably sleeping. hehehe Not a good thing but it's what I have to do for now.

Another Garden Update

2009-05-23T16:17:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to show you an update on our garden. Can't wait to try that cantaloupe. Those little tomatoes are yellow and they are just about ready. Little salad yellow tomatoes that are tasty. I'm planting some more seeds of corn because these are almost ready. That zucchini is almost ready to eat.

Hope it rains today so I don't have to water but probably have to go out there with the hose. I can still hope for rain, right? Don't forget to click on the pictures to see them better.