Lots going on

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.   

It's been a while

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.

The Chef-a-nator Working on Fractions

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...... 

Update and nature

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.


     

Watching a DVD

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.      

Geography Plans

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?  

PE time in the Pool

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!

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

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.

Learning through IPod

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

Oz Land

After leaving Colorado we spent a few days at my brothers house in Kansas. While there we went to a place called Old Cowtown. It's an old town and you get to see what people lived like way back in the old days.

Hubby had to take this next picture. We visited the funeral parlor. What do you think? Would you have gotten in there for a picture?

The funeral parlor was very elegant. Lots of wood work and beautiful wallpaper on the walls.

There was even a place for bowling outside. That was fun. We got to play. If you notice one of the rails has two boards in a V shape and one end was higher than the other end. The person at the end of the pins would roll the ball back on that.

Hubby now wants to do one of these in the back. hehehe It would be fun. It would also make for a great learning experience for the boys. I'm starting to like that idea.

This was the boys first and last experience at a saloon. hehehe

It was fun although the day turned out a little hot. Imagine that....we were in snow a few days before that and then it was hot. Crazy!!!

Another New Bird

This is the first time I have seen this bird in person. It also made such a cute sound. If you go to that site and click on the second bird sound then you will hear what I heard. It would go down the tree head first. It was neat to see and hear.

It's a white breasted nuthatch. How cool is that. There are several birds that I would love to see in person and seeing this one was great.

I'm keeping my eyes open and hope to see more birds.

Snow Day

We didn't just stay in our room and call it a snow day but it was a snow day. I just wanted to show you some of these pictures. The boys were so happy and excited to play in snow. For those of you that have snow this is not exciting but for us this is a treat. The driving was crazy. The snowflakes were huge. We are in the room now and will stay here tomorrow for sure. Snow is expected all night and this is the biggest snow storm this season and we are here to enjoy it.

This is the first time that I have been in a snow storm that there was thunder. I'm used to thunder with rain but not snow.


I'll post again soon. I have a ton of things to show you all of what we are doing and what we have done. For now this will have to do. I'll take more snow pictures in the morning and see how much snow we got.



For now enjoy these pictures.

Buffalo Bill Day

We went to the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave today. Have you figured out where we are now? So let me tell you the thing I found the most interesting. It was what riders for the Pony Express were issued and had to carry with them. A gun, a knife and the bible. Isn't that funny? I would have never thought of those three things going together.

There were several pictures of
his indian friends. There were also different clothes that were worn by the indians and in the Wild West shows. It was very interesting. I didn't think it was going to be that good but I was surprised.

This visit will go great with our lapbook on A Historical Look at American Indians from HOAC. I have some pictures that I would like to make copies of and have the boys put them in their lapbooks. For this lapbook, first came the field trip then comes the actual lapbook part. This was a very hands on type of day.

I'll try to post more but this is it for now. I am so tired today.

By the way....we are under a winter storm warning. There is supposed to be a dumping of snow over here. The boys are doing the happy dance. hehehe I'll keep you informed if we get snow.

Our first vacation bird sighting

I saw this bird once before in my life. It was in Canada when I was visiting a friend. Although I didn't get a very good look at it like this time. What a beautiful bird. I know some say this is more of a pest but the colors are beautiful. I made hubby stop so I could take these pictures. Good thing we were in a parking lot and out of traffic.

This was one of the birds Lewis and Clark saw on their trip through South Dakota in the 1800's. They mentioned that these birds were very bold and would enter their tents to steal food.

I think this is a beautiful bird no matter what anyone else says about it. hehehe Can't wait to see what other animals I come across in these parts of the woods.

Van Gogh

We are on vacation. Yep, having fun and seeing some neat sites. A friend looked up on the computer on some site that people post some off the beaten path things that you can see in any state. So on our way out of Kansas we stopped by Goodland, Kansas to see this. This is one big easel. Don't you think?

For those studying or those that have studied Van Gogh this will be an interesting site. To my surprise as I looked around on some blogs I came across a blog or two about Van Gogh.

Hope you all enjoy my posts while we are on vacation.

Guess What's Next

Well something is coming up on Monday. I wonder if you can guess? We will still be doing some fun schooling but ssshhhhh don't tell. Monday we are starting something fun with our group. We are doing a co-op even while I am on vacation. I hope we can work on it a little each day like the rest of our group.

Do I have anyone wondering? Wanna know more? Stay tuned for more info on our activities.

Time Out or is it?

We have been busy this week and the week is almost over. I can't believe it. Here is what we have been up to.

Monday: We use this day for volunteer work for myself and the boys. It is also our day for groceries and getting things done in town before we get home late in the afternoon. We are always very tired but a happy tired.

Tuesday: We were going to make a trip to the zoo but changed it to Thursday because of rain. So we did school. We did our math and reading. We are also working on a few lapbooks.

Wednesday: I had a friend from out of town come over in the morning. We talked homeschool stuff while the kids played. We had lunch together and the boys went out to play and run around and just have a great physical ed. type of day. All we did that day was continue on our reading of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

Thursday: Zoo Day!!!! Yippeeee!! We made a trip to the Houston Zoo. Well, we had to go an hour later because they were going to have some bad thunderstorms early in the morning in Houston. So instead of getting there at 9am when it opens we got there at 10am. Glad we missed all that yucky rain. It turned out to be the most beautiful, cool, breezy, low humidity type of day. It was like the best day to walk around. Well, except for the public school field trips that morning. Have you ever been trampled by a bunch of 6yr olds. Oh, my goodness! My boys just stayed by my side and kept asking me why they were acting like that and why did they all have to yell? Even the teachers and parents were yelling but that was, I imagine, because they had to so they could be heard. Oh and everything was don't touch this or don't do that or stay in line or where is your partner or let's keep up with the group. Anyway, enough of the complaining.

It turned out to be great after lunch because most of the kids left. It was much more quiet and peaceful. We read about different animals. My little one loved the day and would run ahead to see what was next. My middle son loved to listen to me read all the info on different animals that they had. There was a new baby giraffe. At 8 weeks that baby weighs 181 lbs. Wow!! It was soooo cute. They also had a new addition to the zoo. A Red Panda. Now I thought I would see a panda like I saw in the San Diego zoo. Wrong me. It was cute though.

Since it was a windy day we heard the bamboo. Yes, I said heard. They would bang against each other and you could hear a hollow sound. It was so neat to hear that. Reminds me of those bamboo wind chimes that cost way too much money for being bamboo.

After the zoo we went to the Health Museum. It was free admission after 2pm. So we got there at 3 and had fun there too. We saw lungs, the heart, this big boy that if you go around him you see his teeth and on the floor is the tongue with spots for the taste buds. You are actually in his mouth. It's a neat museum and can't beat free!

Finished up the day with dinner at Olive Garden. I love their peach tea. Yum! Oh and we did make a trip to Barnes and Noble but I came out with not one book. *shock, disbelief* We got home at 9:30pm. I am tired and need to finish up here so we can do school tomorrow.

Friday: We will start up our second part of the zoo lapbook now that we did our trip to the zoo.

So no time out for us. All this is learning time.

I'm all upside down

I needed more compost today and since it is spring break here for public school kids we took the week off. Although, I still consider this school but, shhhhh! The kids had their cousin spend the night. They stayed up way to late watching a movie. So after he left it was time to hit the town. I paid bills. (not fun) Then came the fun part. It was garden stuff time. I had gone to Sam's and had seen this neat contraption. I figured it would be easier for me to get some hanging baskets and the hooks to drill somewhere. I had gotten only two baskets with the hooks and it was half the price of this thing which I could put anywhere. So guess what I got?

I will be working on getting it all set up and filled up tomorrow. Can you tell I am excited about this. Not only do I have two 4x4 squares for gardening but also this thing. I already have some tomato plants and some bell pepper to get started. I have to fill the bottom part with sand first before I do anything else. I can't wait to get started tomorrow. It got a little chilly this evening and I just couldn't get myself to go out there and work. I'm sure tomorrow it will be back up to the 80's. Can't wait. I'll take some pictures and post after we (yes, boys too) get it set up and planted.

Square Foot Gardening

We started it already. Our garden is started. I have two squares. I need a little more compost for the second square and to get the strips to make the one foot squares.

This first picture the boys helped me take off all the grass. That was a lot of work. Of course, we stopped and took a small water break. Then we came back and finished it off. We mixed the compost, peat moss and vermiculite and filled the squares. Soon we will add our plants and on some squares we will be adding seeds.

As we added the different ingredients we talked about them. Vermiculite is a rock that is heated until it pops like popcorn and you get the end result that you can put in the garden. We also talked about compost and that not all bags are equal. In the book All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew he mentioned that we should have around 6 different brands of compost and mix them all to end up with a good compost mix. I was like...what??? It actually makes sense since some of these companies make compost out of different materials. Some use manure some leaves and other materials.

We have a good blend of compost in our garden. Tomorrow we will continue with the garden and get ready to plant before the rain comes which is supposed to be this weekend. Did I mention that I will be sore?