Blue Skies

Blue Skies: A Picture A Day: January 24, 2012

2012-02-01T01:32:00.000-06:00

Blue Skies: A Picture A Day: January 24, 2012: AH and his friends before the history theater play, 1968: The Year That Rocked the World

Making Gifts

2011-12-13T16:53:00.001-06:00

Austen and I decided to use up our old crayons by making molded crayons for his little cousins this Christmas. Here is the mold we used. It's a Wilson mold in the shape of snowflakes.

We unwrapped and broke up the crayons.

We sprayed the mold with a candle release spray that we got at Micheal's Craft Store. Then we filled the mold with the broken pieces and popped the tray in the oven. We left the crayons in the 180 degree oven for 15 to 18 minutes.

AH with the mold before it went into the oven.

After cooling for a short time, we just flipped the pan over and out they popped!

Here's our finished product. I think they look great!

AH and I packaged the crayons in cellophane bags and tied them with ribbon

It was a fun, quick and easy project to do on a dreary day!

Independence and Responsibility

2011-12-01T12:33:00.000-06:00

I needed to get to the dentist because of a lost filling, but the soonest they could get me in was a morning appointment. I don't schedule appointments in the morning since that is when we do school type work. But pain is a great motivator. I took the morning they offered instead of waiting a month and a half for an afternoon appointment. When the day came, I left AH a to-do list and figured he would do some of the activities, but not all of them. When I got home every item on the list was checked off and he was making himself an early lunch! Apparently Mom needs a reminder now and again that AH is growing up into a responsible young man. He is obviously ready for more independence in his work and can take on more responsibility around the house and in his life. Knowing where the line between too much responsibility and too little is very hard for me...especially with my youngest.
I guess I learned the biggest lesson that day.

A Picture A Day

2011-09-10T10:43:00.001-05:00

For 8th grade, AH wanted to document his year a little differently. He proposed taking a photo at precisely 10:17 AM each day for the entire year. Since I know myself I asked if we could just do weekdays, since weekends tend to be busy and I'm not exactly known for my consistency! So I added a page to my blog and started posting the pictures each day. I realized I wouldn't be able to fit the entire year of pictures on one page since additional pages on blogger don't work like the home page with separate posts. So I've started another blog called A Picture A Day and linked it as a second page on Blue Skies. I don't think it'll show up in Blue Skies' feeds, though. Just a FYI that I may be posting, but you may not see it. I think this will be a fun little aside for AH. He is very good at reminding me to get my camera each day at around 10 am! I will most likely post the day's picture that evening while I work on my computer. Enjoy AH's project!

Our Great Western Adventure

2011-07-21T11:19:00.000-05:00

Part 1: Texas, continued


A movie on a hot day. This is the biggest movie theater complex I have ever seen!

The following sequence is for DEN:

Even the dogs are in on the fun!

playing torpedo

Our Great Western Adventure

2011-07-19T16:57:00.000-05:00

Part One: Texas

Our first day. AH checks out the pool and plays with Cubby.

I love going to the store here. They have Texas shaped crackers and cookies, and yes, even Colby-Jack cheese!

One of the many hours spent in the pool and we've only been here 3 days!

A Controlled Burn

2011-05-03T22:16:00.000-05:00

AH taking a video of the burn

I got a call during AH's swim lesson yesterday. A family friend wanted us to know that his company was going to be doing a controlled burn in our area and we were welcome to come watch. Well, who can pass up a fire? We took a lunch and some books along with us to the burn site. When we got there our friend, Eric, came over to explain exactly what they were planning to do and why. Then we sat back and watched the crews go to work.


Burning the dead plant material clears the way for new growth while adding nutrients to the soil.


There are 2 crews: each crew consists of one person starting the fire with a torch and another with water gun. The crews work opposite one another.


The trees were sprayed down with water to protect them.


Our friend Eric.

It was amazing how fast the ground turned black!

FOCI - Minnesota Center for Glass Arts

2011-04-26T11:34:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, AH and I were lucky enough to make a visit to a local glass blowing studio and watch a demonstration of this ancient art. We learned a little physics along the way, too!

AH and a friend holding a small glass thread.

We watched while our host made a glass horse in 2 minutes. After it had cooled, the kids got to handle it.

We watched a wine glass being made.

AH holding colored glass.

We also watched them make a vase.

Here they are adding polka dots to the vase.

The vase is removed from the rod.

Watt Munisota

2011-04-18T15:47:00.000-05:00

Tucked away in a small farming community about 45 minutes south of Minneapolis-St. Paul is a beautiful Buddhist temple, Watt Munisota. I was told it is the third largest Buddhist temple in the U.S. Last Saturday they were celebrating the Cambodian New Year so Doug, AH and I had planned on attending the festival. We woke up Saturday morning to a cold, biting wind and quite a bit of snow on the ground! We debated whether we wanted to spend the morning outside, but decided that we are tough Minnesotans and up for the challenge! After a few wrong turns along the way, we finally found the temple sitting at the top of a large hill. It is breath-taking and unexpected in the middle of all that farmland. We parked our car and made our way on foot up the long driveway. The grounds were filled with smiling, welcoming people. After finding our friend, he immediately took us over to a food vendor, a friend of his, and bought us what looked like beef satays. There were quite a few food vendors selling traditional foods. We tried the beef and it was seasoned and cooked deliciously! In addition to the beef, Doug and I tried stuffed chicken wings. Those were also delicious! AH was happy to find a bubble tea vendor since it is one of his favorite beverages. If you have never tried one, think smoothie with large black "bubbles" floating in it. The bubbles are large tapioca pearls. Despite the cold conditions, there was quite a line for the cold drink! After eating and drinking we made our way up the hill to the temple. When we got inside we were asked to remove hats and shoes. Families were sitting together on the floor speaking quietly, others were in front of the statue of the Buddha, and still others were in the middle of the room giving rice as an offering. All along the walls, above the windows, are painted panels depicting stories about the Buddha.

Doug and AH are at the top of the steps of the temple.

AH and I inside the temple with Buddha behind us. Notice the beautiful paintings?

A close up of the Buddha statues.

We spent the rest of the time taking in the sights and sounds: music, languages and traditionally costumed women. It was a wonderful morning spent together!

I loved this basketball backstop. This was one of the festival games!

A close up of the detail of one of the pillars

It Worked!

2011-04-14T17:56:00.000-05:00

AH and I have usually have very bad luck when it comes to science experiments: they usually don't work for us. Today we tried one I've read about in quite a few books and blogs. Since Easter is right around the corner we thought it was fitting to try an experiment that included an egg. AH is learning to use our video camera, so I asked him to record the experiment for the blog.

What we did:

In the microwave we heated water until it was boiling. I poured the boiling water into the bottle and let it heat for a moment, then emptied the bottle (an adults job!) and immediately put the cold, peeled, hard-boiled egg on top. Then all you do is watch and wait!

The hot air inside the jug is less dense than the colder outside air. This creates suction which pulls the egg into the bottle. Have some fun and try it! If it worked for us, it'll work for you!!

National Homeschool Book Award

2011-03-24T12:46:00.001-05:00

I'm so excited about this opportunity! A group of homeschool moms here in Minnesota have organized a National Homeschool Book Award. Here is how they describe it on their website:

The NHBA is a readers' choice book award designed to recognize and celebrate current juvenile fiction that explores learning experiences occurring outside the traditional classroom setting and that resonates with homeschool readers.

The group has nominated four books for their inaugural award:

Alabama Moon by Watt Key
Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass
The Remarkable & Very True Story of Lucy & Snowcap by H.M. Bouwman
Savvy by Ingrid Law

Homeschoolers are asked to read these four books and in October vote for their favorite. The winner will be announced in November. During this time their website will offer activities based on these books. It costs nothing to participate in this award.

The website offers summaries of each nominee and explains the process in depth. They also have a facebook page! Check it out!

Now you know what AH and I will be reading for the next few months!

Car-Schooling

2011-02-15T15:00:00.002-06:00

AD, our college student son, needed some important items brought to his apartment at the University of Minnesota last week. AH, our homeschooler, needed to memorize the books of the new testament for confirmation, review some math facts, and do some independent reading. What's a mom to do? Take school on the road, of course!

We are about 35 - 45 minutes away from the University of Minnesota, so I packed up our iPod Touch, the flashcards I made up for AH to learn the new testament books, his bible, and the book he has been reading independently. As we backed out of the driveway, AH went right to work on memorizing the New Testament Books. He took the flashcards and worked on placing the books in order and memorizing them. He really wanted to learn all of them by confirmation on Wednesday evening. I believe there was a reward or prize at stake here. After we dropped off the forgotten items to big brother, AH worked on his math review by playing a game on the iPod, and then finished his independent reading. We were able to get most of our "schooling" done by the time we pulled into the parking lot for swimming lessons.

All too often these days, we find ourselves in our car traveling to museums, classes, clubs, gym, and field trips. Instead of writing off those times as wasted, we try to use them so that we have more time to play, learn and read together outside of the car! Our history spine, The Story of the World, is available as an audiobook - MP3 downloadable version and that is what we order. We get it immediately and we have it loaded on each of our laptops and our iPod Touch.

One of the most popular homeschool helps, Netflix, is now offering streaming video to computers, iPads, iPods, and game consoles. We have often used this feature to watch documentaries about subjects we are studying. This way there is no waiting for a disc to arrive. When AH expresses an interest to explore a topic more, we jump on our Netflix site and find a movie or documentary! While he's watching, sometimes I'm on another device finding supporting sites and reserving books from our local library.

There are many wonderful iPod apps available (a lot for free). One of our favorites is WW Capitals by Mulishani which is available in the iTunes app store for free! It is a clever app that has flash cards with a country name, flag and capital. The flash cards can either be scrolled or looked at individually. Our favorite feature of this app is the quiz. It is NOT easy! But AH loves this app and often plays it while waiting for performances or classes to start. He has become so good at knowing the flags and capitals of many countries that he can beat his 25 year old sister at it (and remember, she is a geography major!) The same company also has similar apps that cover state capitals and the US Presidents.

Besides the apps stores available on your mobile devices how does one find these apps? One of the best resources for finding cool educational apps is the Apps-School website. They also have a facebook page and that is where I found a fun fractions review game for AH. Motion Math ($ .99) is fairly basic, but it makes a fun review of fractions, decimals and percentages. Beats a worksheet any day! Since it is a visual representation of fractions, decimals and percentages it made everything click with my right-brained learner.

Some of my most memorable and interesting conversations with AH have occurred in the car. I don't want to lose that, so we don't always pack our gadgets when we are out on the road. But I am very thankful for the wonderful technology available and will take advantage of it if it enhances our learning. Gotta go now, AH is waiting to read an old-fashioned paper book on the couch this afternoon!

Out and About

2011-02-03T16:40:00.000-06:00

Wow. What a whirlwind month January was! February is beginning to look like it'll be a busy month, too. Generally, AH and I love our time at home together, but there have been so many opportunities lately, that we couldn't say no. Here are just a few pictures of our exploits this January:

Science Museum of Minnesota: Geometry Playground

We visited the U of M Chemistry Dept. for a Chemistry Demo and Hands on experiments!

We love watching things go up in flames!

Hard to see, but there is a flying pop bottle launched with a chemical reaction

My scientist

An afternoon of free rides at Nick Universe at the Mall of America


Nickelodeon Universe

Homeschool Gym

Tour of KSTP TV station

Celebrated our friend Michael's birthday!

Add to this swimming lessons, art club, a comedy show for homeschoolers, and a trip to the Omni Theater and that adds up to a busy month!

Trust the Child

2011-01-20T08:23:00.002-06:00

I've been homeschooling my now 7th grade son since the beginning of 4th grade. We have our ups and our downs, but generally love our way of life. Indeed, homeschooling has become a way of life. Over the years we have less "school" time scheduled and have found that learning weaves it's way through our days in a more organic way. I prefer it this way and I find AH's retention is higher when he learns this way. But it is so very different than the way I was taught and it brings on episodes of panic now and again. Take for instance spelling. We began in 4th grade with two separate phonics lessons, both of which produced nothing but tears. I then signed him up for an online spelling test weekly which produced more tears and, worse, frustration. I then came to realize just how a right-brained learner cannot learn in these ways and found a better and more productive way for him to learn to spell. It worked, but there was no joy, no spark, no enthusiasm and that brought me to tears.

Then I backed off.

I spelled words when my son wanted to write them. But that was close to never. I just waited (and silently panicked). All the books said that when a child is ready he will want to learn.

And still I waited, enduring criticism and disparaging remarks for my son's poor spelling. But I still waited and clung to the belief that when he was ready, he would want to write and spelling would be a natural part of that. And the criticism continued, sometimes directly at AH, but still I waited (and silently panicked).

In the meantime, with so many activities filling our calendars, we found that we wanted our son to have a cell phone to call us in emergencies (like the night he was left at church to attend confirmation when there was no confirmation scheduled that night!) or to simply call us with a question when we were all out doing our own things. My husband ordered a phone with a full keyboard just to make texting and entering information easier for AH. When AH got the phone he was so excited to fill it with contacts, starting with his big sister and big brother. He texted them occasionally, but when one of his friends also got a phone, that was the beginning of his spelling education. They sent texts back and forth furiously. I must have spelled most of the words he typed to his friend that first week. During the second week, I wasn't asked how to spell words, but was asked if he had spelled them correctly. And by week three, I very rarely have to spell out a word for him.

Trust the child.

As if this wasn't a breakthrough in and of itself, I opened my email one day to see a plea from a homeschool friend of AH's who was trying to start a newspaper. He wanted it to be written by local homeschoolers. I mentioned it to my son and heard nothing for quite a while. One morning AH told me he was going to write movie reviews for the newspaper and wondered if we could go to a couple of movies. As if I was going to say no! We made sure we saw the two movies AH wanted to review (including big brother and dad in this activity made it a natural part of our family life) and AH followed through, with no pressure from me, on writing not only one, but two, reviews for the next issue of the Homeschool Gazette. The words weren't always spelled correctly, but we worked on that when he asked for help. The sentences sometimes didn't flow that way they should, but we worked on that when he asked for help.

What was it that the books said? Oh, yeah,...

Trust the child.

My Last Teenager

2010-12-14T20:26:00.000-06:00

On December 4th, 2010, AH became a teenager!


AH celebrated with friends by hosting a sleep-over

The next day we celebrated as a family with a dinner chosen by the birthday boy.

Big brother made the trip home to celebrate!

Big Sis and MB watch as AH tries to blow out his candles.

Happy 13th Birthday, AH!

Unplanned Learning

2010-12-06T16:36:00.000-06:00

A few months ago I signed up at C-SPAN's website to receive a free presidential poster. It came to our house and I promptly put it in my "I'll get to this later" pile. I completely forgot about it until I was cleaning off my desk a month later. I opened it up and it was HUGE. What was I going to do with this very large poster? I was tempted to give it away. I folded it up and brought it down to the kitchen where AH was hanging out. I showed him the poster and started unfolding it. He was fascinated! We laid it out on the kitchen floor and sat looking at all the information at our fingertips. Not only did it include a list of presidents, but when they were born, other public service posts they had held, military service, what party they belonged to, America's population along the timeline, technology, supreme court rulings, constitutional amendments, and more! We must have spent a good 45 minutes just looking and talking. I wouldn't have considered this part of our "school day", but AH loved it so I couldn't just give this goldmine away. It needed to be up, on display, somewhere we spend a lot of time. Hmmmm....

The poster on our kitchen wall.

You wouldn't believe what we have done with this poster. During dinner AH has taken to quizzing us on our presidential trivia (I am the worst!) and asking to be quizzed. One day during breakfast he wondered just how many years of military service had been served by our presidents altogether. He not only added all the years up, but then decided to make a chart with this information. He found this exercise so interesting that it led to a series of charts that now grace the wall above the poster: Presidential states, birthdays, political parties, and more.

Years of military service. No, Eisenhower did not serve the most years.

Presidential parties

Presidential birthday months

None of this has been planned. It is AH's continuing interest in this poster and subject matter that has made learning history, social studies, and government so easy and so much fun. He blew me away last week when he listed the first 8 presidents in order. I asked if he could list all of them. He needed only one hint (he forgot LBJ). I was reminded that learning occurs when you can take advantage of an interest and encourage a spark of curiosity to become a flame!

My kitchen won't win any decorating awards, but we sure have fun!

Vacation

2010-12-02T15:50:00.002-06:00

We don't often go on vacation or travel, so when my husband suggested visiting his sister and her family in San Antonio, Texas for Thanksgiving I was ecstatic! It had been 5 years since we were there and that time was busy with wedding bells and all the activity which surround such events. AH was pretty excited, too. He and his cousin, CN, are very close. Whether it's been a couple of months or a year, they seem to be able to pick up where they leave off. Visiting San Antonio also gave me inspiration for a unit study we completed before we left: The Alamo, of course! AH had been there before, but was 2 or 3 years old at the time. Here was the perfect opportunity to study some history and to reinforce that learning with an exciting field trip that included a plane ride!

I found some wonderful resources to use in our unit study:
Inside the Alamo by Jim Murphy
A phenomenal resource! I checked out 7 or 8 books on the subject, but this became our main guide through the unit study. We simply read one or two chapters each day and discussed the subject matter. There are anecdotes, sidebars, maps and beautiful photographs and sketches which enhance the story. The history is so thorough, I didn't feel the need to use any other book beside the one listed below. As I was looking up the link to the book, I found a short study guide to the book. I didn't use it but wanted to link to it for your convenience.
The Alamo website
The Daughters of the Republic of Texas have done an amazing job on this website. There are facts, activity pages and curriculum, so I encourage you to explore this rich website. Unfortunately there are several broken links but there are many other resources on the site. Here are the resources we enjoyed:
Lesson plan for 4th grade
Lesson plan for 7th grade
Each of these extensive lesson plans has worksheets, coloring pages, a time-line, a map, diagrams of the Alamo and puzzles.
If you find that you can visit the Alamo, they have a history hunt list, a patch program and a young courier program for kids to complete. AH wasn't interested in completing these, so I have no idea whether they are worth it or not.
Susanna of the Alamo by John Jakes
My 12 year old boy didn't enjoy this as much since it is written for a younger audience, but it did have a woman's perspective that I wanted to bring to the study. We often hear that no one survived the Alamo, but women, children and slaves did survive and this book explores why Santa Anna released these few.

This had to be one of the simplest unit studies we've done. AH didn't want to put together a poster or a power point presentation as we usually do, so we simply read, discussed and did the activity sheets. I did put together some "trading cards" with pictures of key men and women of this time period. On the back, AH then wrote 3 interesting facts about each person. I will upload the templates in the future since am finding it difficult to do right now. Of course, the big event was visiting the site of the battle. Since photography isn't allowed within the Alamo, we don't have too many pictures to show you. But here is what we have:

Our whole family in front of the Alamo.

We stopped by the Alamo on a Segway tour of downtown San Antonio.

San Fernando Cathedral where Santa Anna would climb to the top (of the old section, not visible) and survey his troops and the Alamo.

CN (left), Doug (AH's dad) and AH (right) enjoy a game of Balderdash with the family

Veterans Day

2010-11-12T17:05:00.002-06:00

Having two grandfathers who served in the military, I thought it was a good day for AH to visit two memorials in our little town in honor of Veteran's Day.

I gave AH the camera and this is what he saw...

Changes

2010-11-11T15:40:00.000-06:00

My son, AH, and I entered our 4th year of homeschooling on November 1st. I cannot believe my youngest is a 7th grader! He is also our only child living in the house. Lots of changes this year. Our 19 year old, AD, is off to college this fall and I know AH misses him. Little brother had a hard time when his big sis, AN, moved to college and I'm seeing some of the same things this time around even though AH is 6 years older. Dinner time is when he seemed to feel the loss of his sister the most and I'm finding this to be true this time around. Dinner is a very different affair without AD. I guess I never realized how AD would lead the conversation each night because we have much quieter dinners these days. He was home a couple of weekends ago and it was wonderful to hear these words again: "So, Dad, how was your day today?" and "Mom, guess what?"
There is a big hole in our lives. We will figure it out, but change is tough.
We make our way through this change by forming new traditions and looking forward to the times when big sister and big brother are here. One such change is to watch a movie or documentary together each night. We started out watching each of the Harry Potter movies in anticipation of the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 1, but it has been so much fun that we save the documentaries we watch for school until dad gets home. Last week it was Luther (happy belated Reformation Day!)
Another way to cope is to keep busy and we have had one of the busiest falls of our lives! It seems we are averaging 2 to 3 field trips, clubs or park days per week! Here is a sampling of our adventures so far this fall:

Got the new Lego Minotaur Game and played it A LOT

Took a class at Como Zoo: Life Through Time

A Millipede, one of the many examples of life shown to us during the 8 week Life Through Time class

Art Club

Searched for fossils at a fossil class

Found one!

Found some of Dad's childhood toys while helping Grandpa clean out storage...

AH and Dad try out the boxing gloves found.

Harvest Fest. And that is the worlds heaviest pumpkin and it did weigh 1,820.5 lbs!

Another monster pumpkin at Harvest Fest

A Harry Potter Halloween party

Carving a pumpkin

Draco Malfoy

Celebrated Big Brother's birthday

Take Me Out To The Ball Park...

2010-10-01T08:16:00.001-05:00

Last week AH and I headed to Minneapolis to take a tour of the Minnesota Twins' brand new stadium: Target Field. Since baseball is BIG here at our house, this field trip wasn't met by the usual teenage indifference that seems to permeate our discussions lately. We are Twins fans and we had been to a game earlier in the season, but we wanted to see some of the areas that aren't open to the general public during games. The cost was $15.00 for adults and $7.00 for kids, so it was one of the more costly field trips we've taken, but both AH and I felt it was worth the money. I'll let the pictures tell the story from here on out:

The Golden Glove outside the stadium

Kirby Puckett's image at the Legends Club

The stadium is filled with wonderful images and quotes

Wonderful quotes by TV and Radio announcers

The view from the press box

On the Budweiser Roof Deck

The visitors locker room was cool, but

the visitors dugout was even cooler!!

All in all..a very, very nice day!

Cruisin' Down the River

2010-09-21T23:09:00.000-05:00

AH in front of the Mississippi Queen

AH and I got a chance to take a narrated riverboat cruise down the Mississippi River last week. We learned some great facts about Minneapolis and the Mississippi river. But the best part was going through the St. Anthony lock. Check out the photos we took that day!

Entering the lock

Exiting the lock, 50 feet lower!
AH thought the doors looked like the gates of Mordor (Lord of the Rings)

AH was fascinated with this whole field trip

Having fun together!

In 1492, Columbus Sailed The Ocean Blue

2010-08-13T14:43:00.000-05:00

And in 2010, AH and I were able to explore handcrafted replicas of the Nina and the Pinta in Hudson, Wisconsin! We drove the half hour to this small river town this morning where these two ships are docked until Monday. It was almost perfect timing for our history studies! We will be learning about the age of discovery, Caravels (this type of ship), and Columbus when we begin our "school year" next month. I couldn't pass up an opportunity to learn hands on and up close, especially considering we live in the middle of the country away from any sort of coast. More information about these two museum ships can be found on their website.

AH finds a map!

On the Pinta

I'm not sure I would be brave enough to cross an unknown ocean on these small ships!

They are looking for crew members for the last few weeks of their tour this year. I did ask AH if he would be interested in signing up, but he just looked at me like I was crazy. What an adventure in learning that would be!

"Mom, Come Here! You Have Got To See This!"

2010-08-02T14:51:00.007-05:00

"And bring your camera!"

The door opened and AH bellowed those exact words into the house . I was a little annoyed, but when I got outside I could understand his enthusiasm. He had been playing in the backyard when he chanced upon this fine fellow:

This has to be the largest caterpillar I have ever seen. Who knew that Minnesota had such colorful and large creatures and that they could be in our suburban backyard! We haven't figured out what kind of caterpillar we encountered because AH watched its progress all afternoon (I told him to keep it out of my vegetable garden!) and hasn't bothered to look it up. Eventually his curiosity will get the better of him and then I'll let you know what he comes up with!

***UPDATE***

AH came upstairs to see what I was doing and when he saw the pictures of the caterpillar, he looked it up on our favorite site: Discover Life Here is what he found:
The scientific name of our visitor is Hyalophora Cecropia, and it will become a Cecropia moth or Robin moth. I can't link to the page from Discover Life which had a lot of pictures and information, so I looked on the site, Butterflies and Moths of North America, and found more information.

Just passing by...

2010-06-15T13:36:00.006-05:00

I opened the door this morning to let in some fresh morning air and noticed this fellow passing through our yard!

Of course we asked him to stay and visit!

But he seemed to have places to go and people to see!

AH identified our visitor as a painted turtle. We looked up painted turtles on Warner Nature Center's website (this nature center is very near our home).

First Caterpillar of the Year

2010-04-14T14:04:00.005-05:00

The first caterpillar of the season is a Wooly Bear also known as Isia isabella. It will become a Tiger Moth. We love to identify the many different varieties of caterpillars. We love this site because we don't have to look through a thousand pictures to find what we're looking for; we just enter in the information and it helps narrow our search.

Visit the other Great Outdoor Challenge players- 133 so far! It’s never too late to join; people are still entering daily!

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Experiencing the Outdoors by Going...Indoors?

2010-04-13T17:34:00.008-05:00

We've missed a couple of days of the Outdoor Challenge due to a fundraiser I was helping to coordinate. AH actually did spend time outdoors each day, but I was too busy to photograph it.

Yesterday AH and I had to do some errands to do in the car. It was an overcast day, threatening rain, but it never did. Since we were in St. Paul, we decided to visit one of our favorite places: Como Zoo and Conservatory. It is a very small zoo, but it is free and they have many, many educational programs available. Como Zoo is so much closer to our home than the larger Minnesota Zoo, so we stop by quite often.

Our first stop was the Tropical Trail exhibit. This is one of our favorites during our long, dark and cold winters here in Minnesota. But it is fun anytime. Now you'll know why it's like being outside:
AH's favorite resident is the Sloth. We've been lucky enough to see the zookeepers deliver her to the tree in the morning and watch her climb up and get comfortable. Can you see her in the photo below napping in her favorite spot?

After the Tropical Trail, we walked around the zoo (outdoors!!) then turned our attention to the conservatory. For some strange reason, we don't visit this too often. Strange because when we do go, we invariably see something interesting and amazing and wonder why we don't come more often!!

Here are some photos of our wanderings today:

AH was fascinated to find a cinnamon tree. Here they are:

Visit the other Great Outdoor Challenge players- 131 so far! It’s never too late to join; people are still entering daily!

lisa, sanders, angelina, phyllis, sarah, christie, jennifer, debbie, dong dong, denise,luisa, joy, stephanie, cori, alex, dawn, kristen, catherine, tricia,becky, christy, ruth, kari, courtney,branflakes,jessica, renee, haiku,brynn, amy, clemencia, sherry, leslie, lise, renee, anet, jenn, marina, amy, ella, marcia, karen, beth,julie,kyndale,kelly,lizzie, eileen,ag, mari-ann, cindy, robin, nicole, debbie, julia, renee, anita,lisa, jenn, montessori, marita,jeannie, hallie, mandy, kangaroo, andrea, joey, carmen, teena, stephinie, gidget, elizabeth, emma, rosina, saminda, melissa, katie, becca, atouria, barbara, ariella,missy, elizabeth, sarah, eileen, lisa, stacy, jennifer, tulsileaf, lisa C, morticia, angela, rana,jamie,lisa c, luz, charley, heather, valerie, kirsten, rachel, annie, kendra, beth s, lindsey, michelle, megan, jen, jenni, gabby, renee,korina, linda, kerrs, laura, melissa, eva, jenny, amber, deb, wendy, courtney, shanti, msrev, kellyi, tammy, julia , maureen, indigomum, andrea, mindy, becky, dawn, sarah

There's Life in our Garden!

2010-04-09T13:23:00.000-05:00

We spent some time exploring what was coming up in our garden.

Parsley

Horseradish

Rhubarb (we can't wait to use that in a pie!)

Okay, so the next picture isn't in our garden, but is considered part of our garden...

Chives!

We also found a huge ant hill, onions, and carrots left over from last summer! Yummy!

Best Friends

2010-04-08T15:02:00.006-05:00

This is how AH spends his time in nature with his best friend...

I guess swing sets aren't only for swinging!

Children and Nature Awareness Month Challenge

2010-04-07T11:51:00.007-05:00

I've decided to participate in the Children and Nature Awareness Month Challenge over at one of my favorite blogs, 5 Orange Potatoes. She has a special page set up to explain the challenge. Basically, during the rest of April I'll be posting pictures each day of our outside time.
I'll start off with some pictures from our pond excursion last week. AH and I decided to collect pond water so we could study some "water critters" under a microscope. The pond is a short walk from our house, so we decided to bring a mid-morning snack so we could sit and enjoy the weather after we collected our sample. We saw Mallards, Red-Winged Blackbirds and heard many different sounds that we couldn't identify. AH and I decided we need the Field Guide to Minnesota Reptiles and Amphibians and the Fabulous Frogs Identiflyer card!

Today Austen spent a good portion of the day outside enjoying a nice spring day...
Here he is enjoying one of his favorite things...the swing!

Let's all get outside this month and really look at the beauty right outside our doors!

Pasta Day

2010-02-06T10:27:00.005-06:00

It seems that without meaning to, I've been writing along a theme lately. It's an over-used proverb, but for me it holds true: It takes a village to raise a child. This phrase has become a joke of sorts but when you think about it, it is very wise.
I, alone, could not give my kids the varied experiences they have been given. My daughter and, soon, my older son have had the experience of helping others in a far away place. Our church and many committed adults have allowed my kids learn about another culture and share our many blessings with people who don't have as much. Friends and their families bring different viewpoints and perspective to many issues. Musicians share their music with my family when we attend a concert. Actors tell stories to my children in a way I never could. My daughter shared her love of maps with AH when she invited him to her college cartography lab and taught him to make a map on the computers there.
I am always happy when someone volunteers to share a skill or experience with us. One good friend, Cathy, did that recently when she invited AH and me to her home to make homemade pasta and Alfredo sauce. AH is a pasta fiend, and was very excited to try this.

Cathy was great! She had AH working right alongside her. He mixed ...

and kneaded...and rolled. He shredded and measured. AH had a blast! He also had the satisfaction of sitting down at a table of people knowing he had helped to feed them. The pasta was delicious, but the sharing of a new experience was priceless and will not be soon forgotten. I am blessed that my "village" is so willing and eager to help!

Thank Goodness for Rachel

2010-01-10T18:28:00.006-06:00

I'm often asked how I can teach my child every subject. The questions are asked as if we learn in a vacuum. I suppose most people think that homeschoolers must be all alone at home all the time. AH and I strive to be out in the community: both the general and the local homeschooling community. The homeschoolers I know read blogs, Internet sites, books and magazines for inspiration and help. They love to share what they learn. Most of my inspiration and ideas come from others who are homeschooling themselves. The most helpful suggestion I've ever received came from Rachel, a homeschool mom in St. Paul who I found myself working with during the Minnesota State Fair. What wise ideas did she impart? She simply recommended a book, Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World: Unlocking the Potential of your ADD child, by Jeffery Freed and Laurie Parsons. AH doesn't suffer from ADD (we've had him tested) but he is extremely right-brained. Rachel also has a right-brained learner, so I immediately requested the book from our library. I read the book with interest, not thinking it was going to change our homeschooling lives, and was intrigued with the author's ideas. It was the chapter on spelling that changed everything for us. AH has had an extremely hard time with spelling. His is atrocious! We've tried all sorts of systems and books and methods to no avail. Here was one chapter of a book that unlocked the mystery of spelling. I remember thinking to myself, "Could it really be this simple?" As the author suggested, I chose a word that had multiple syllables and that he wouldn't know how to spell: Cartography. I spelled it out on a sheet of paper like so:

Cartography

I called AD in from another room and asked him to study the word and make a mental image of it in his mind. I gave him 20 seconds. Then I covered the word and asked him to spell it. Without much hesitation, he spelled it correctly! This is a child who had difficulty spelling the word from! The author then tells you to ask the child to spell it backwards. I thought there was no way AH would be able to do that, but I tried anyway. With that mental image in his mind, AH spelled it backwards correctly! I cried that day and almost everyday that we work on spelling. It's fun to see the pride on his face when he remembers how to spell a word. And, yes, he can still spell cartography correctly!

Thank goodness for Rachel! Sometimes inspiration is sitting right next to you.

Frozen Dreaming

2010-01-07T08:24:00.005-06:00

January in Minnesota can be beautiful and bitterly cold and dangerous at the same time. I do love living here even though I have been known to complain about the weather (Minnesotans are notorious for complaining about the weather All. The. Time.) Before we have our famous January thaw, one of my ways of coping with the bitter cold is to brew a hot cup of dark roast and open up my seed catalogs. I am instantly transported to warmer days. It is heavenly reading. I take notes, draw up diagrams of the garden, research plants. Does any real garden come close the the frozen dreams in January? So many goals, hopes, dreams, and plans. I'm an idea person so I love to let my imagination fly. The gardens of my dreams are lush, beautiful and practical, and there are never any bugs! Though my real garden never quite measures up to the garden in my head, I do believe it benefits from these moments in the middle of January when all is possible.

Christmas at the Swedish Institute

2009-12-28T14:36:00.012-06:00

The Friday before Christmas we went on a very Christmas-y field trip to the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. We stopped for coffee and hot chocolate to sip on the 45 minute drive from home and listened to Christmas music and talked about all sorts of things.

The first part of our tour was an informational session about Christmas in Sweden. We learned about St. Lucia's Day, Star Boys and traditional Christmas decorations and foods. We then got to try our hand at making heart ornaments with construction paper. I thought AH would hate this, but he liked this so much he made three!

Our group learns about Christmas in Sweden

AH concentrates on weaving the basket

After the craft we were brought upstairs to the mansion proper. We learned that the Turnblad mansion is in fact classified as a castle because it has turrets and battlements. AH was so proud that he knew what architectural features were required to classify a building as a castle! We learned about the family that built this fabulous home, the Turnblads. During the Holidays, the Swedish Institute has 5 of the rooms decorated especially to represent each of the 5 Nordic nations: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.

After the tour, we stopped in to the Kaffestuga, the coffee shop on site. We had lingonberry juice with Swedish cardamom pastries. Yum!

It was a great way to spend a morning before Christmas. It really got us in the Christmas spirit!

AH with one of his finished heart baskets

Visiting Sue

2009-12-28T14:18:00.009-06:00

It's good to be blogging again. I guess I just needed one thing off my plate for a while.

While I was taking a break, we have been on a lot of field trips. One of the most interesting was "A T-Rex Named Sue" It is a traveling exhibit from the Field Museum in Chicago.

AH and I woke bright and early to drive about an hour and a half to a small county museum in central Minnesota. We listened to an audio book on the way, so the time flew by. We arrived at the Stearns History Museum early and spent some time in the gift shop while we waited for our tour to begin.

Then we got to meet Sue.

AH took this photo

AH with Sue coming at him!

She is the largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found. What we were seeing was one of 2 replicas that travel the world. She is awesome. That's really all I can say! Along with the skeleton, there are pods to learn more about Sue, the technology used by scientists to study Sue, dinosaur vision and more. We got to look through Stegosauruses eyes and a T-Rex's eyes. Since each animals eyes were placed differently, they each have a very different field of vision. If you find Sue in your neighborhood soon, I would heartily recommend a visit!

Our group gets a good look at Sue's 5 foot skull

A better view of the skull

AH experiencing one of the many educational "pods" located in the exhibit area

Post Cards!

2009-11-19T22:24:00.005-06:00

Who doesn't love to get mail? We rarely get "real" mail. By real, I mean letters, personal notes and post cards. (Bills don't count...I get plenty of those!!) AH has discovered the pleasure of receiving mail. Last week I put out a plea to my facebook friends to send AH a post card from their home state or a state they were visiting and he would research each state as he got them. 3 days later we had our first post card from Barry in South Dakota!

Then the cards really started pouring in!

That's when I noticed that AH really loved this project. I made up two notebooking pages where AH could tape a post card and list some interesting facts about that state. We printed out state flags, license plates and state quarters on sticker paper and AH cuts them out and adds them to his notebooking pages. I really got a lot of ideas from Jimmie's 50 States Notebooking lens at Squidoo. AH loves the stickers. In addition to those items, AH researches each state to find the year of statehood, state motto, capital city, other cities, and any notable rivers and/or mountains and records it on the notebooking pages.

He has gotten up every morning since we've gotten these postcards to work on this project before anything else. He hasn't done this since our baseball project! It's a miracle!

Below AH looks up the state motto of South Dakota which is : Under God, the people rule

South Dakota notebook page 1:

The plan is to gather all the sheets into a 3 ring binder and, hopefully, learn about each state as they come in. We have a pile to go through already, but it won't take him long to get through it if his enthusiasm holds. I have a feeling that as long as those post cards keep coming that won't be an issue!

Thanks to my dear friends for all your help. Your effort is making learning fun for this 11 year old!

A Halloween Dilemma

2009-11-02T16:03:00.010-06:00

It had all the makings of a disaster.

I have an 11 year old son who likes to trick or treat. I also have an 18 year old high school senior who plays football. A section semifinal game was scheduled for 7pm, October 31st.

Like I said. The makings of a disaster.

First off, who schedules a game on Halloween for goodness sake! And then, who schedules it for 7 pm on Halloween night?

Apparently the Minnesota High School League does. And as a parent, how was I to handle this? I really didn't want to miss the game (it is his last year, after all). I also wanted my 11 year old to be able to trick or treat and have fun.

Thank goodness for friends! We've known this family for years. It's not easy to find a family who have almost the same spread of ages that we do! It's come in handy since the older boys have played baseball and football together since 6th grade. They were in the same boat. They live very near the high school, and invited AH to trick or treat in their neighborhood so if there was trouble, we could be there quickly. We outfitted the younger boys with cell phones, and sent them off trick or treating with instructions to go home right after they were done.

They two boys had a blast alone! They had quite a load of candy after canvassing the neighborhood and they got to play video games after they were done. I called at half-time asking if they wanted me to pick them up so they could watch the rest of the game. "No Thanks, Mom! We're having fun!"

I was having fun watching my oldest son catch 5 passes for 128 yards and one touchdown! AD was definitely having a great time out on that field and I was there to see it all. The team went on to win and are scheduled to play next weekend in the section final.

All the makings of a disaster. But a great night was had by all!

That's my oldest son, AD, in red running in for a touchdown

This 'n' That

2009-10-23T17:34:00.005-05:00

My what a week!

My older son's (AD) football team ended their season undefeated! The last game was Tuesday night and we've been resting ever since. They have a couple of weeks until their first playoff game which is nice. Congratulations to the Pony Football Players and Coaches...You Rock!

Click here to view these pictures larger

AH has been a busy bee. Last Thursday and Friday AH took a kids cooking class and had an absolute ball! He learned to make all sorts of Mexican food as well as scrumptious chocolate offerings! Saturday night was dinner by AH when he made us Quesadillas...Yummy! On Sunday, our oldest, AN, came over to dinner to celebrate her 24th birthday with us. For a birthday present to his big sis, AH made her lava cakes for dessert. They were exquisite. Big sis loved them! We also baked some bars for the football team.

On the homeschool front:
- We've been reading Lord Brocktree by Brian Jacques. He just loves this series of books!
- AH was able to figure out how to fix his electric car so that it will race down the hallway! What a great day!
- We've been studying The Mystery of the Periodic Table by Benjamin D. Wiker as an intro into the world of chemistry! We love it!
- We are plugging along in math.

- Obscurity is the name of a game we have newly discovered. It's a sort of word search game with hardly any rules!!! We don't compete, we play each card together. I think it's helped him with vocabulary and spelling, but don't tell AH that!

- He's been plugging away at Brainology, a program I signed him up for and he is not too happy about. But I believe it'll help him learn exactly what his brain needs to do to learn things.

- He pulled out our box of magnets and accesories for his little cousins this week. It was fun to watch him show them what a magnet can do!

- AH discovered an unopened Bionicle toy that he got last Christmas and started building it.

- Halloween costume design goes under arts and crafts in the homeschool, right? AH is designing his own Willy Wonka costume and is doing a great job. I'll post pictures as soon as Canon sends me a new software disc!

- Tonight our youngest is off at a sleepover at his best friends house.

Animal School

2009-10-15T14:51:00.004-05:00

This brought tears to my eyes because I am privileged to live with a Bee:

A Spark!

2009-10-13T00:02:00.003-05:00

Sometimes you just know you are on to something when you look into your child's eyes.

Earlier this fall, we asked AH what he wanted to be involved in outside of homeschool. Scouts? No. Football? No. We went through a list a mile long. Nothing seemed to interest him. He is a homebody, as I've said before, and it is important to us that he have some regular interaction with other people! AH asked me about an electric car "club" that I had mentioned earlier in the week. I was pretty sure it had filled up, but emailed the organizer. It was full, but she put AH on the wait list. I was sure we were out of luck, but a few days later we were in! It is called BEST. Each week we meet to work on small electric cars that the kids design and build. We will do this until after Christmas when the kids start designing and building a larger electric vehicle to compete against other teams.

We had missed a couple of weeks by joining late and I was feeling overwhelmed and lost (I know nothing of electricity or cars!!) during one of our meetings. We were trying to figure out how the motor would turn the axle. Where should we mount it, what would we use? I looked around the room at the group of kids each working with their respective parents. They seemed to know what they were doing. I was thinking that I couldn't help AH with this, and how I was a failure as a homeschool mom, when he turned to me in the middle of this problem, his eyes bright and shining and said to me, "This is so fun!" It didn't matter to him that we were stuck. In retrospect, I was probably the only one who thought that. Thank goodness I'm learning to keep my mouth shut and my opinions to myself. He eventually worked out a solution for himself with a little push in the right direction from our experts.

We worked on his car today in anticipation of our meeting tomorrow. He figured out how to attach the battery to the switch and motor. His eyes lit up again today! He's got a game plan and a list of things to buy for his car. Tomorrow will be a great day!

(I'm having computer trouble and need to install some software onto our 2nd computer in order to upload pictures to my blog. My apologies. I would do it now, but it's after midnight and I should rest. I'll upload tomorrow night. ~Barbara)

Celebrate Banned Books Week!

2009-09-30T20:55:00.004-05:00

Celebrate our freedom of speech! This week is Banned Books Week. Pick one up and read it with your child! AH and I have read quite a few found on the list, why not one more?! We started A Wrinkle in Time. What are you reading?

Some books that have been challenged or banned:

The Holy Bible, Huckleberry Finn, Don Quixote, The Koran, Tom Sawyer, Arabian Nights, Gulliver's Travels, Canterbury Tales, Harry Potter, Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, Leaves of Grass, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Les Miserables, Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin, Book of Common Prayer, Grapes of Wrath, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Origin of Species, Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four, To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, Farewell to Arms, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Jungle, Gone with the Wind, All Quiet on the Western Front, Sun Also Rises, Doctor Zhivago, East of Eden, I know Why the Caged Bird Sings,The Talmud, James and the Giant Peach, Little House on the Prairie, Go Tell it On the Mountain, Chocolate War, Hatchet, The Catcher in the Rye, Flowers for Algernon, A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak, Harriet the Spy, Blubber, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings, The Pigman, Lord of the Flies, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Forever, Bridge to Terabithia, Sounder, The Indian in the Cupboard, Julie of the Wolves, A Wrinkle in Time, The Giving Tree, The First Captain Underpants, The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book One), and the list goes on and on and on!

Not Back To School Camp: Day 3

2009-09-11T12:16:00.005-05:00

Castle Mania Day!

AH told me he wanted to do a diorama of a castle. Since our original plans for day 3 fell through, I thought we could easily do a mini study of castles for the day. Our day started bright and early with AH speeding through his breakfast to start on his castle diorama.

He has an idea in his mind of what he wants to build and he started right in! His goal is to finish by Thanksgiving. After an hour or so he needed a break, so he headed outside for some movement time. When he came in we sat in the living room and read several books about castles, including David Macaulay's Castle, Mrs. Frizzle's Adventures: A medieval castle, and several others.

At lunch we ate sandwiches and watched a PBS video based on the David Macaulay book above. It was a pretty good video, a little slow by today's standards, but AH seemed to enjoy it, too.

I'll keep you updated on the progress of his castle.

It's Finished

2009-09-11T12:12:00.003-05:00

AH's self portrait in the style of Austrian artist Hundertwasser.

Why Do They Call It Homeschooling If We're Never Home?

2009-09-10T14:25:00.003-05:00

AH is very happy with the t-shirt I gave him. He's folded it nicely each night and put it back on each morning. I asked him why he doesn't wear something else. "Because I thought it was a Not Back To School CAMP. You have to wear the t-shirts each day you're in camp!" I guess he told me!

Not Back To School Week: Day 2

2009-09-09T13:33:00.006-05:00

Welcome to Art and Math Mayhem day!

What a fun day we are having using our new Prismacolor coloring pencils. We made self portraits in the style of Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Where do I get these wonderful ideas? Kathy at my favorite art blog, Art Projects For Kids , gives me lots of ideas for studying art and artists. Here is the post that inspired today's art project. AH hasn't finished his yet, but it is turning out fantastic!! We've never used Prismacolor pencils before and I now see what all the fuss is about. They are fabulous!

After art came math. AH was dreading it. I'm sure he was envisioning the dry, dull math of last year, but Mom is shaking things up this year! I pulled out a new game, The Allowance Game, that I got at Lakeshore Learning. For some reason I was under the impression that AH's money skills are lacking. Hmmm...Not. Even. Close. But he had fun and practice will give him more confidence with money and making change. We laughed and giggled our way through two games when we were overcome with hunger! We made grilled cheese sandwiches and watched the entertaining and very educational DVD, The Story of 1.

Not Back To School Week: Day 1 - Science

2009-09-08T18:23:00.005-05:00

Happy first day of your last year in school, AD! A senior this year...where has the time gone? Thanks for letting me take the last first day of school photo of you. Have a great senior year, bud!

While his brother is back to school as a 12th grader, AD is a 6th grader celebrating Not Back to School Week. Below, he is sporting a new T-shirt designed especially for him! It states, "Why is it Called Homeschooling When We're Never Home?" Below is a list of every single place we've gone since we started homeschooling.

We started out the day studying lenses and light. We used the book, Exploratopia, as our guide today. We completed the chapter on light. We made a 2 litre bottle lens, collected various lenses from around the house, discovered the terms convex and concave and the properties of each. AH got to project a TV image (light) through a magnifying lens and onto a poster board(the image turns out smaller and upside down!!!). We read how eyeglasses work and made our own lenses out of ...Jell-O!

Why study lenses?

Because AH now understands how light and lenses work in his new microscope! He was definitely surprised and happy! After reading a little about and filling out a worksheet I made up to familiarize him with the workings of the microscope, he spent the rest of the afternoon (well, 2 hours of it, anyway) looking at the slides we bought him. He also stole some fur from Solvay, our Samoyed, to inspect under the lens!

A good first day!

Yellow Ketchup, Anyone?

2009-09-07T11:16:00.008-05:00

Did you know AH's favorite color is yellow? It has been since he was tiny. Well, early this year AH asked me if he could plant yellow tomato plants and use them to make yellow ketchup. Being the *perfect* homeschool mom I, of course, said yes! Anything to get him interested in tomatoes! We found some yellow heirloom tomato plants at our local co-op this spring and planted them in a nice sunny location in our garden. (I meant to remember the varieties, but I cannot find them in my notes anywhere. I believe one was a Russian tomato?!) It took quite a while considering our weird summer (lots of rain and cool days) but last week we had enough to make a yellow ketchup! While the tomatoes ripened I went in search of yellow tomato recipes. There are none. So, I went in search of a ketchup recipe. There are millions!! Most, however, call for 20 lbs of tomatoes. Even though AH did a good job of taking care of his two plants, there was no way we were going to get even 10 lbs out of them! I finally stumbled upon a recipe at this lovely blog, Eggs on Sunday,which called for 2 1/2 lbs. That was something we could do!!!

AH and I chopped up the tomatoes and onion.
Then added vinegar and a spice bag.

We let that simmer on the stove for around 40 minutes.

We removed the spice bag and AH got to try out the immersion blender! He was a little nervous using it, so I helped him instead of photographing it. After that another 30 minutes to simmer down to our desired consistency. And then the final step: tasting it.

I think he likes it!

Well, it didn't exactly turn out yellow, but a kind of orange. We've never made homemade ketchup before and we were impressed with the flavor and consistency of this recipe. It really wasn't too hard. We would change a few things about it, but what a great way to spend a late summer afternoon with my yellow fanatic!

Shhh...This is Top Secret!

2009-08-31T10:18:00.012-05:00

Poor AH. He was asked last night what we were going to be studying starting next week and he really couldn't answer. The reason? It's a secret! I wanted to start our year with a bang: something fun, hands-on, mysterious and out of the ordinary. Okay, so a Not Back to School Week is not out of the ordinary for homeschoolers, especially this time of year. But fun, hands-on and mysterious it is. I would also say that it is out of the ordinary compared to our "normal" schedule. We usually don't do this many hands-on activities on a daily basis. But it will hopefully kick start AH's 6th grade year.

First of all, I thought it would be fun to design a t-shirt for AH to kick off our week. You have all probably seen a version of this shirt at stores: Why Do They Call It Homeschooling if We're Never Home? Underneath this heading I personalized it with all the places we have gone in our 2 years of homeschooling. I'll post a picture later.

Each day that will include some fun hands on activities. Tuesday starts out with a brief study of lenses and light culminating in a reveal of the microscope I bought earlier this summer! I thought that the rest of the day could be devoted to exploring the slide sets I bought along with some experiments which use the microscope. We'll have a lunch of miniatures: mini veggie burgers and baby carrots with mini cupcakes for dessert.

Wednesday is the day I watch AH's very young cousins. I decided to incorporate them into the week and art day is something we can all do together. I've got some new art supplies and activities to try out for that day. I thought we could decorate cookies for both an art activity and snack time!

Thursday is the day I have set aside for planning and executing a "Redwall Feast." AH is a big fan of Brian Jacques' Redwall series. The characters are just as likely to be baking and cooking as defending their beloved Abbey from vermin hordes. So today we will study weapons from the Medieval period while planning, preparing and serving dinner using some recipes from The Redwall Cookbook.

History is AH's favorite subject. We have zoomed through the first and second volumes of Story of the World and still AH cannot get enough! We are starting a living math curriculum this year and as a fun start I thought that after our dinner from Redwall Abbey, we could sit down as a family and watch the PBS show, The Story of 1.

Friday is usually the day I will schedule field trips, so we will be traveling to Interstate Park at Taylor's Falls next week. It is a wonderful park filled with potholes drilled by the water of retreating glaciers, rocks to climb, a river and abounding plant and wildlife to sketch. We'll bring our field guides and sketch books (and camera!) for a morning of discovery. I'm looking backgound materials on the pot holes and Minnesota geology. On the way and back we'll listen to The Legend of Luke, the next book in the Redwall series.

This is my rough plan and I need to fill in more activities and details, but I'm so excited I had to tell someone!

**update...9/9/09 we dropped the Redwall feast tonight due to not getting the cookbook from our library. We'll probably do that in the next two weeks. So Thursday is now Castle Day. We are studying castles, watching a video about castles and making a castle! Check out my blog later this week to see how it turns out!

Planning Mode

2009-08-21T09:12:00.002-05:00

A lot of the blogs I follow have been dealing with planning of the upcoming school year, so planning has been on my mind. It's been a rainy and dreary week here in Minnesota. A good time for planning our upcoming school year since I don't feel like I'm missing out on our very few beautiful summer days! I've got some fun ideas bouncing around in my head! It's just a matter of organizing them into the school day and year. We'll be starting the same week that AD, our 17 year old son, goes back to school. This year it's the Tuesday after Labor Day. I've got some time yet so instead of planning our math year, I've started organizing our education room. To be clear, this is not a school room, but a place to put the accouterments of homeschooling. It's also a great place to work on projects that can't be moved regularly (like those done on our kitchen table). AD even uses it to do homework when he needs to be away from the noise of everyday life.

Anyway....

Organizing led to purging, which lead to taking posters and projects off the walls,which lead to looking at the walls, which led to...PAINTING! ARGHHH!!! It needed it, to be sure, but what it really needs is more shelving! Ah well, it'll be done tomorrow (if I stick to my schedule) and then I can tackle the shelving problem and procrastinate further!

A Tradition Continues

2009-07-15T15:39:00.009-05:00

My kids were quite little when the first Harry Potter book came on the scene. We were enthralled by the adventures of that little orphan and his friends. Each afternoon we would pile on the couch in the living room and read the books out loud together. Even when my daughter became a teen she wanted to continue. She and AN would take turns reading. It's what we did together. AH was too young to remember reading all of them, but he would play in the living room while we read. We all participated. We enjoyed the books so much that we eventually made it a tradition to attend each midnight release party of the books. We really enjoyed these times together and when the series of books became movies it was a natural transition to attend the midnight showings of the movies. My older kids attended public school and I always allowed them to miss the next day of school when we did these activities.

Well, I am truly thankful that our tradition has continued. Last night, AH, AN, AD, MB and I went to the opening of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Even though my daughter is in her early twenties and lives in her own apartment she joined us last night at the 3 am showing of the movie on the "Ultra Screen." I thought that my 17 year old would ditch us for his friends, but he also chose to watch with his mom, brother, and sister. What makes this even more fun is that my daughter's boyfriend, MB, has joined us for the last two movies. And so it continues!

And the movie? It was great!

Happy 24th Anniversary, Douglas!

2009-06-29T14:49:00.004-05:00

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.

~Anne Bradstreet

Grocery Store Wars

2009-06-25T12:21:00.003-05:00

Regular readers will know I am a BIG fan of the sustainable and local food movement. I'm a believer that God gave us this beautiful planet and with this gift comes great responsibility to make sure this gift is taken care of and nurtured. ANYHOW...AH and I came across this silly and fun video on YouTube today. We both love Star Wars so this was right up our alley. I hope you enjoy it...we had a laugh!

A Blast from the Past

2009-06-24T09:55:00.003-05:00

Do you remember the set of books, Childcraft? I loved them as a child. We didn't have all of them, but the ones we had were old and well loved. I was browsing the bookshelves of Goodwill last week when I came upon 2 pristine Childcraft books from the 1990 How and Why series. Each was priced at $2.99 and I grabbed both of them and began to search the shelves for more. Alas, I didn't find more, but the ones I did buy have been a hoot! AH and I paged through Volume 13, Mathemagic last night. Remember, this is a child who has had issues with math for most of his school life. He loves this book!! We solved rebuses, attempted to solve brainteasers and read about squaring numbers. He came up with amazingly creative solutions to some of the brainteasers, even if they weren't the "right answer" and that is exactly what I'm striving for: problem solving creativity. It seems to me that creativity and using your imagination is the key to liking math and understanding it. A natural and playful creativity cannot but make math beautiful and (gasp) fun. AH actually asked if we could do some more of the activities in that book today! I know he has a long way to go, but at least we have found part of the path and are enjoying our walk.

My favorite math websites and blogs:
Math Mama Writes
Living Math

An long, but very interesting, article on math and creativity:
A Mathematician's Lament

The Answers

2009-06-06T16:37:00.013-05:00

AH posted some puzzle pictures the other day and I'm here to give you the answers. How did you do?

A Puzzle

2009-06-03T11:37:00.008-05:00

A post by AH:

Today I took my mom's camera outside and took a bunch of pictures of things in our backyard. Try and see if you can figure out what some of these things are. Answers will be posted tomorrow. Have fun.

Book Arts

2009-06-02T14:13:00.011-05:00

We were off to another home school adventure recently. This time to Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) in the Open Book Building in Minneapolis. This is a great resource that I'm just beginning to learn about. I signed AH up for 3 classes: Journal making, marbling and book making. I usually have to ask AH before I sign him up for field trips, but this one was filling fast and I made the decision alone. Poor me...for the entire 45 minute drive I heard a litany of complaints about too many field trips, how this one sounded "lame" and why can't we just do stuff at home?! AH really is a homebody. He can entertain himself for days on end without complaint. The key to getting AH to enjoy something, is to just get him there. I think the confinement of the car can wreak havoc with his psyche. He hates long drives and Minneapolis is about a 40 to 45 minute drive from our home. But once he is at the destination, he usually has a blast! We usually try to listen to our history CD, The Story of the World, or things like Beethoven Lives Upstairs to make the trip go faster. The trip to MCBA was great once we got there. We walked in and immediately recognized one of his favorite homeschool friends. AH had no idea what classes he was signed up for and I was a little apprehensive about his reaction to the marbling class. I had nothing to fear! He does love art and this was art and magic combined. They say a picture is worth a thousand words... Using the comb to drag through the paints

Another technique using a chop stick

One of his finished projects which we matted and framed.

Making a book starts with covering the front and back covers

Attaching the covers to the binding tape

The finished book and journal!

A fun project

2009-05-14T15:16:00.009-05:00

AH is a pesto lover. Has been since he was 3. It didn't matter that it was green...he loved it! He still does. Tortellini and Pesto is his favorite dinner in the entire universe. I love to make homemade pesto using our own basil. I grow basil every year, but it just doesn't get as big as I want it to. A while back I bought the book, The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City by Kelly Coyne and Eric Knutzen . I find stories of homesteading a fascinating read, and I was not disappointed by this one. The fun aspect of this book is that it has projects you can do. I've been looking forward to doing one in particular and have been collecting materials to accomplish it. Today AH and I built ourselves a self watering container(or, as they call it now, a sub-irrigated planter) for a basil plant. According the the authors, basil needs even amounts of water. I am really not known as being the most organized of gardeners and my plants usually have to deal with a bit of dryness between the times I remember to water. So it was with pleasure I had AH help with this project. He is an enthusiastic gardener, is thrilled at the prospect of more pesto, and, besides, he got to use the electric drill!! Of course I have pictures:

AH with the finished project and the book that inspired it

AH filling the reservoir with water (that's Solvay, our Samoyed, making sure he's doing it right!)

What is the deal between boys and electric tools?!

The authors have a website called Homegrown Evolution. Check it out!

"Hey Mom, I have an Idea..."

2009-05-13T13:18:00.006-05:00

Those were the words I heard one morning about two weeks ago. I should have known those words were going to mean work for me!! I don't mind work, but usually AH's projects have me doing the grunt work and this was no exception.

"I want to sell stuff on e-bay and make some money!

"Okay," I replied. "What stuff do you have that you can sell?"

He thought for a moment and then was gone. He came back 5 minutes later with 3 books. Good choices, too. They were books that were given to him that were WAY over his reading level. He had given them a good try, but they were too much work to read to have any fun.

We were off to the computer to list our items on e-bay. Since it was easier to just use my account instead of setting up a new one with a cool name (which he couldn't decide on, anyway!) we got right into it. We found the stock photo. We researched prices, we guessed on postage and then listed our items. For 4 days, there was nothing. He lost interest. I had to keep checking! He thought it was cool that he finally had a bid after 6 days. After the 7 day auction he had sold one item. We learned not to guess on the postage...I thought I had guessed high, but I was short $.45. Oh well, not a horrible mistake. AH is just happy to have made about US$4.00. (I paid for the envelope, mailed it in a timely manner and pretty much handled everything.) He is pumped for his next sale and to become the next mega retailer on e-bay!! I think I'll let him do the work from now on...

Prom

2009-04-29T14:42:00.005-05:00

We were all up and gathered at the kitchen table enjoying a wonderful breakfast made by Doug. It looked to be a lazy, relaxing Sunday.

"Oh, I almost forgot," AD, our 17 year old son, said, "I need to get a tux today." "Oh, so you ARE going to prom! Cool! When is it?" I asked.

"Next Saturday." was his reply.

I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped into my lap and Doug, my husband was stammering out the following, his voice rising with every word (and he rarely raises his voice!), "I've asked you for a MONTH if you're going to prom and if you needed a tux and NOW you decide you are going?!" The 17 year old just looked at us as if we were idiots. What was the big deal? Of course there would be tuxes to rent. Of course a week was enough time!

Well, luck seems to follow AD everywhere he goes and they indeed had the tux he wanted and he ended up having a great time. He went with a group of 26 kids. They had dinner at a friends house and rented a party bus to take them to the dance itself. Here are some pictures I took at the pre-prom gathering of his group:

A little help from Dad

AD on the right with one of his best friends, SC.

The whole group

Think! Challenge

2009-04-27T10:43:00.004-05:00

Week Thirty-Five -- Kaleidoscopes
Use the following materials to make your own kaleidoscope.

clear plastic, clear plastic sheet protector (it is doable if you don't have this),black paper, cardboard tube (pringles can, toilet paper roll, paper towel roll),glue or tape, pins or paperclips, rubber band, colored tissue paper, small beads or buttons, scissors

I'll let AH describe what he did:

I found a plastic tube. I put the beads on one end of the tube and covered the top with a plastic sheet. I put a rubber band around it to hold it in place.

Then I cut up tissue paper into small squares and put these into the tube. I put plastic over the end and taped it to the tube. I took the black piece of paper and rolled it around the tube and taped it in place.

I took the picture of the inside of the kaleidoscope:

A New Neighbor

2009-04-26T14:16:00.003-05:00

Here is a peek at our new neighbor. Can you see the female Mallard under all the brush?

It all started innocently enough. Last Wednesday I opened our garage door to walk down our driveway to get the mail and bring our garbage can back in. I looked around and caught sight of the duck on our neighbors' driveway. She was all alone and standing still. I told AH about her and, of course, he was racing around looking for bread to feed the duck! He must have been outside there with her for a good 20 minutes throwing pieces of bread to her. She ignored each and every one of those pieces. AH was very disappointed!

She finally had enough and flew away...

But about 5 minutes later she was back. AH left her alone for a while, but went inside to watch her from our windows. He found her exploring our neighbors brush pile and, eventually making a nest within it. AH finds this fascinating. He has gotten fairly close, but doesn't want to scare her. He says her nest is lined with feathers. How lucky are we to have a view to this precious spring event! We are watching and waiting for ducklings!

Homeschool Day at Crystal Cave

2009-04-20T15:31:00.017-05:00

Today was filled with rocks, minerals, bats, caves, stalactites and stalagmites, crystals and a wishing room! It was home school day and we decided it was a great day to explore a cave. We stopped by our co-op to pick up some sandwiches for lunch and then we were on our way to Spring Valley, Wisconsin. We traveled through the beautiful rolling hills of western Wisconsin for about 40 minutes; it was a great day for traveling. Before the tour, we explored the gift shop and waited for the tour to begin. We were first shown a very informative video about the caves, how they were formed, animals that inhabit the caves, and how they were discovered. Then Chris, our tour guide took over. When we gathered to meet him his first question to the kids was "how many of you are home schoolers?" Since it was home school day, all of the kids raised their hands. He said that was cool and told us that he was also home schooled! What a great way for our kids to learn...from someone who understood what they do all day and is passionate and learned about this subject! He was a great guide and we learned so much! What a great value, too. We were in the caves for at least 45 minutes and never, ever got bored or felt that we were being rushed!

Here we are going down into the second level.

The cave walls are limestone. The caves were formed by carbonic acid (the stuff in soda pop) over a million years.

We did get lucky enough to meet some of the cave's inhabitants, which was AH's favorite part of the tour (yes, he is my naturalist!):

These guys are Little Brown Bats and Northern Myotis

This guy is smaller than your pinkie finger and he blends right in with the walls! He is an Eastern Pipistrelle.

Some of the beautiful formations we saw today.

At one point in the tour we were taken into an inner chamber and all the lights were turned off so we could experience total darkness. I had to hold onto AH for courage! Then Chris turned the lights back on at the level of a kerosene lamp so we could appreciate how little light the first explorers of the cave had. I'm pretty sure I would not have had the courage to explore those caves with such little light!

The last chamber on the tour was the wishing room. The walls were covered in coins. Legend has it that if your coin sticks on the wall, your wish will come true. AH took a coin and pressed his to the wall...and it stuck! Chris told us the oldest coin they have found was from 1882. That is one year after the cave was discovered.

All in all, a great way to spend our day!

Mozzarella!

2009-04-18T17:37:00.007-05:00

In our quest to learn in a more relaxed way, we took a great idea from Denise at Mom in Madison and made our own mozzarella! Fun and Yummy!

The curds begin forming

Straining the curds from the whey.

Austen really liked the mozzarella and shared with Dad and AD. He's hamming it up for a photo...we may be on to something!!

The recipe is found on Denise's food blog, cook.eat.think.

Thank you, Denise!

Home Run!

2009-04-17T15:27:00.002-05:00

Here is my 17 year old, AD, hitting his first home run! It happened in the first inning of the JV game last night. The count was 0 - 2 and he hit a line drive over the left field fence! (You can see the ball in the picture just above the last pine tree to the right)

He was greeted at home plate by his teammates! He's in the middle, wearing the black batting helmet.

Congratulations, AD!

Think! Challenge

2009-04-17T12:19:00.007-05:00

Week Thirty-Four -- Geometrical Shapes
Place a box/bag of straws and a box of paperclips on the table. Tell your students to make the largest geometrical shape that they can (preferably 3D). Remind them that there are more shapes than a simple cube. They may use scissors in construction but not the solution.

AH grudgingly accepted this challenge and created the Triangular Pyramid below: (P.S. Mom just told AH the challenge and neglected to tell him it had to be as large as possible...Oooops!)

We found a great website to identify the actual shape. AH thought it was a pyramid, but since the only pyramids we knew had 4 sides, we weren't sure. So we were off to the computer to find out what he had created. We came up with this information on pyramids. What AH created is a triangle pyramid! A four sided pyramid is a rectangle pyramid. Here is a link to the main page of Interactives 3D Shapes Geometry.

Tug of War

2009-04-14T14:43:00.014-05:00

I'm experiencing a lull.
AH doesn't seem interested in much. He grumbles and hems and haws about doing "stuff " escapes to the backyard anytime he thinks I'm not paying attention and is generally making himself very annoying.I realize I've drifted perilously close to "school at home" which I did not want to do with AH. He learns much differently than most kids and learning in a more hands on and visual way is the path I need to take. Instead, I am doing exactly what the school was doing to him and the reason we fled to homeschooling! He is close to shutting down again and it's my own darn fault!

I'm trying to back off.

But an internal tug of war is waging in my mind. On one hand I want him to find his own interests and we can explore them together. On the other hand I have a voice inside telling me that this is not the way school works! Where are the worksheet and reports and spelling lists? That way I have something to show for his "learning!"

We are taking a break from work sheets, problems and memorization. I feel guilty, though. I'm worried my husband will think that our days are filled with nothing but play and that we are wasting time. I know deep inside AH needs space and a more creative presentation of knowledge. Unfortunately, my husband looks at the notes AH leaves for himself and others and is appalled by AH's spelling. He wonders why we haven't worked on spelling. Why doesn't AH know his multiplication tables by heart? In these areas I guess I have been found lacking as a teacher. Don't get me wrong. Doug has been very supportive these past 2 years. And I know that those aren't the only measurements of a child. AH has a fantastic vocabulary, he can make reasoned arguments for a side or viewpoint, he has a memory that is almost infallible (until we deal with multiplication!) he has a sense of humor, he is reading on his own now and becomes a stronger reader every week. He loves history and geography and nature studies. Yet I still struggle for a balance between structure and spontaneous learning. I believe it is a struggle to me (and for Doug) only because I only know about learning from my own school background. All I know is worksheets and tests. But I also know that I didn't really learn much in school. I've forgotten most of it. Most of my knowledge has come from time spent with my mom and dad and adults I trusted. Books were so important to me (and still are) and I've learned from them. Experiences, travel, practice, trial and error. When I really think about it, those have been my real teachers in life!

I am trying to let go of my traditional thoughts on learning, albeit, slowly, and in spurts. I take heart in the fact that, at the very least, I'm moving in the right direction!

To that end, here are some of the wonderful learning experiences we've been sharing for the past week and a half:

Making Easter decorations.

An Easter T-Shirt

Easter Egg Coloring

Abstract Landscape
We have found a wonderful resource online, Art Projects for Kids, filled with ideas for teaching art to children. We are enjoying creating our own abstract art (in fact, this is something that AH has NOT complained about!!)

2009-04-12T00:47:00.003-05:00

International Bird Day

2009-04-08T14:16:00.004-05:00

We are celebrating International Bird Day today! Look what we did:

Sketched:

Hung treats for our feathered friends:

Bought and hung a hummingbird feeder right outside AH's bedroom window, made our own nectar and filled it(sorry it's so fuzzy, I couldn't get it to clear up):

Put some egg candles around our Easter snow globe. Maybe we'll add some Easter grass to make it look more like a centerpiece!We read about birds in our Science Encyclopedia and looked through our favorite birding book: Wild About Birds: the DNR Bird Feeding Guide, by Carrol L. Henderson. Today we read about raptors moving in to urban areas because there are plenty of song birds (food) near feeders. There is always something interesting to read or to do in this book!

Hope you are all having a good day!

"His Wonderous Ball"

2009-04-03T13:09:00.009-05:00

Many of you know that my husband, Doug, gave me a poem for Christmas. In it, he describes the relationship between our son, AH, and me. In it he mentions "his wonderous ball" which references the exersize ball that is key to AH's learning. I've promised to write about it, so here goes.

I was sitting with a group of homeschool parents at an indoor soccer center during our weekly indoor play afternoon almost 2 years ago. I was new. New to it all: homeschooling, education, the group. They were so very welcoming and inclusive. Somehow the conversation turned to the differences between the way boys learn and how girls learn. Someone mentioned that she had read an article about a study done in this area. She mentioned some boys learned more effectively by moving. This peaked my interest because my son, I had noticed since starting to homeschool, moved constantly. It drove me crazy. She mentioned that in the study they had given the boys exersize balls to sit on during school and their schoolwork had improved dramatically. Okay, I thought. I've already gone over the edge by homeschooling, why not try this idea, too?

I've never doubted that decision.

Well, that is not completely true. One afternoon about a month after we got him the ball, we were studying the revolutionary war and listening to Johnny Tremain on CD. AH was moving more than ever, doing flips on the ball, jumping on then off again (yes, it is possible to do that) and basically driving me insane. I was sure he wasn't listening at all. I stormed to the stereo, hit pause and asked him what was happening in the story. The answer I recieved was a calm and precise narration of the recent events of the story. I was shocked. He had never before given me such a detailed and articulate response in my requests for information. I sheepishly walked back to the stereo, pressed play, and I have kept my irritation to myself! It can still drive me crazy at times, but I know it works for him and I know my comfort cannot be the deciding factor in this issue.

Here are some pictures of AH on his wonderous ball, none of which do justice to the skill and coordination he has mastered! He's usually not this active when we are learning, but it's pretty cool what he can do!

School in the Waiting Room

2009-04-02T13:25:00.003-05:00

AH and I have been sitting in this waiting area of a local hospital for 6 hours today. My father is having a procedure done to destroy prostate cancer cells they discovered 3 weeks ago. The nice thing about our homeschooling is that we can take school with us wherever we go. The bad thing about homeschooling is that we can take school with us wherever we go!! AH isn't able to move around as much as he does at home and it really shows in his attitude and his ability to process new information (and his patience...and, for that matter, mine, is nil!!!) So he isn't really a poster child for homeschooling today. We've gotten some strange looks, but overall, we've had a good day. We've done some fluffy stuff (more than usual): origami, Hans Christian Andersen author study, and logic puzzles along with the meatier subjects, but those went by the wayside fast. I now know how important his exersize ball is to his learning. He explained to me that he gets sleepy and lethargic when he can't move around! I'll post later about his ball...we are off to lunch!

Spring Break Time!

2009-03-30T14:51:00.008-05:00

Ahhh. Spring break came at just the right time for me this year. I was feeling overwhelmed, agitated, frustrated, and tired when we walked onto the airplane that was to take us south. It seemed that the minute we walked out into the steamy night, my worries dissolved into the heat. We were to be in Florida for one blessed week. No schedules, no worries, no cooking, and no laundry!!! Funny how we managed to learn A LOT in that one week...just by having fun! AH and AN saw the shuttle from their window seats on the plane shortly after its launch!

We visited the Florida Aquarium in Tampa.

We chased waves in Madiera Beach.

We challenged the waves on Cocoa Beach!

We fed Giraffes!

We watched a very brave (or very stupid) man feed alligators.

We fed baby alligators! We found shells.

We visited the Kennedy Space Center with an old college friend.

We read on the beach,

we tasted new seafood, we learned to get along with each other again!

My daughter spent time with our friends (who are also baseball parents) and told us she really likes our little group.

And we remembered why we love each other and why we can also drive one another crazy!!! I learned not to text my 17 year old son too much. This was after being lectured by my 23 year old daughter. I learned how big a hole there is in our family when one isn't there with you!

AD, our 17 year old son, went on his own vacation with his high school baseball team. They went to Cocoa Beach, Florida to practice and scrimmage with teams from all over the United States.

AD pitching

AD batting

Of course we managed to get over to that side of the Florida peninsula to watch him play. But I missed him being with us. I missed his humour, his wit, and his ability to get me to believe just about anything he says!!!

Lucky for me, his sister, AN, joined us on our vacation, so the hole wasn't gaping wide. It was nice to spend time with my oldest, who is on her own now. She actually made it through the week without having to go to a psychotherapist during the week (I can't claim she hasn't gone since we got back!!!). I got to rediscover the beautiful person she is! She made me laugh, got me to do some girly things with her (Shopping...then more shopping), and joined me in a cocktail or two. (yes, she is legally able to drink, she just looks young!) AH enjoyed having her around. I'm pretty sure she enjoyed spending time with her littlest brother. He was only 6 when she left home to go off to college. She and her dad, my husband, are completely nuts together and the jokes and sarcastic comments flowed freely. I haven't laughed so much in a long time.

So here I sit, now at home. I have a new perspective on life, school, and my family. Breaks are a very good thing!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

2009-03-09T11:09:00.004-05:00

Stop by Peggy's blog to see other daybooks

FOR TODAY, March 9th, 2009

Outside my window...it is a typical March day in Minnesota, grey and cold.

I am thinking...I really shouldn't take a break today to do this since I have a TON of things on my to do list this week!!

I am thankful for...my family

From the learning rooms...Math, Reading, History, Grammar, Writing

From the kitchen...what should I make for dinner?

I am wearing...jeans and a Vikings sweatshirt

I am creating...chaos by being sick...not much is getting done around here!

I am going...to a play tomorrow with AH!

I am reading...nothing at the moment.

I am hoping...I am better before we leave for Florida next week!

I am hearing...AH playing with a light saber and saving our home from lots of Empire bad guys!

Around the house...Are lots of reminders of last weeks scramble to find pictures of my late mother-in-law for her funeral.

One of my favorite things...A unexpected dinner alone with AD, my 17 year old son.

A few plans for the rest of the week:Packing, packing, packing!

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

In loving memory of Mary Jane N.
March 2nd, 1934 - March 1st, 2009

A Fun Giveaway!

2009-02-27T05:33:00.003-06:00

The Crafty Crow, one of my favorite sites, is holding a giveaway of Barefoot Books. Go on over and check it out. While you're there look through all the fun craft ideas she has gathered!

February in Pictures

2009-02-25T14:00:00.014-06:00

February got away from me. We've been busy...

AH's last day as a Webelo...
Boy Scouts, here we come!

The Works Technology Museum:

Homeschool Day

Building a hovercraft:

It works!
Friends forever...

Rock Collecting:
Growing Sprouts...

Racing Soap Boats
Another boat:
Crystal Growing Day 1

Spam-tastic!

2009-01-27T15:25:00.006-06:00

We were off the the famed Spam Museum in Austin, MN today. We learned about the history of the Hormel family and the meat packing industry. We found out that Spam was shipped to soldiers during WWII. Did you know Hawaii eats the most Spam in the United States? We found out all these interesting things about the curious mystery meat in the blue can. What a fun place to go. Admission is free and the people working the museum have an unrivaled enthusiasm for their beloved product. Besides the history of the product, they have an interactive exhibit in which you race to can some spam as they do in the factory. AH and cousin loved it. They were each able to complete one can in 47 and 48 seconds. The exhibit also showed us that the nearby plant was able to can 397 cans of Spam in that same period of time.
Of note, AH is a seasoned vegetarian. He asked at age 9 if he could be a vegetarian. As long as he has been alive, AH has not really been a fan of meat. He presented me with several arguments that made sense to both of us. He respects that his family has different beliefs and values when it comes to meat eating and we really couldn't deny him our respect of his beliefs. Despite his beliefs, AH had a great time at the museum and actually tried Spam!

It was SO cold....

2009-01-15T18:30:00.004-06:00

Well, we here in the tundra are about to come out of our annual deep freeze. It is going to be balmy here tomorrow with a high of 8 degrees ABOVE zero! I've always loved the fact that I don't have to go out on these cold days since AH and I homeschool (I drove him to school before)well, today with a high of -5, our school district cancelled school. (This never happens in our school district!) AH and I had a class at Como Zoo this morning that wasn't cancelled! So the coldest day of the year finds my 17 yo son, AD, cozy in his bed while AH and I were in a cold car for 30 minutes through cold, black ice and cars spinning out!

We did get there in one piece and had a great time. Because I woke up late and was worried about our drive, I forgot my camera. So no pictures today. It was a small group that gathered before hours to learn all about primates. We were lucky to have Dave B. as our instructor. He was great with the kids and kept the class moving. The last 1/2 hour of the class was spent in the primate building watching the volunteers and zookeepers setting up enrichment activities for the animals. We got to watch as the Gorillas were let into their area and each raced to a feeding puzzle. One gorilla was getting frustrated with his puzzle and decided to just break it in half and get the food out! The kids got a kick out of that!

The Orangutans had to find hidden pieces of pomegranate. One Orangutan found four pieces and wouldn't share with anyone! Finally she did share, but with her young child! We watched as another Orangutan approached the young one and grabbed the fruit right out of her hand!

AH and I are glad we were able to make it today. We even walked the zoo to see the other animals after class! We Minnesotans pride ourselves on our toughness in cold weather. I'm not sure why, maybe because otherwise we would be considered crazy?!

Happy Cuddle-Up Day!

2009-01-06T12:38:00.012-06:00

In honor of Cuddle-Up Day AH and I did school work while we cuddled in bed. What a treat! The Qin Dynasty of China, math review and practice, and reading about the history of the celebration of Epiphany have never been so engrossing! It's silly things like this that make our homeschool experience special.

Our 3 Kings!

We are also celebrating the season of Epiphany today. We read the biblical story of the Magi visiting Jesus in Bethlehem and I am baking a Kings Cake to be served after dinner. AH and I hid a gumdrop in the cake (in lieu of a baby Jesus). Researching Epiphany on the 'net lead to a lovely home blessing ritual that I am going to lead tonight after dinner. Even with a 3 kids and 23 years of marriage, I still find it fun to try new things!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

2009-01-05T08:35:00.009-06:00

FOR TODAY, Monday, January 5th, 2009...

Outside my window...I see the neighborhood kids bundled up from head to toe walking to the bus stop

I am thinking...that it seems unusually cold in the house this morning!

I am thankful for...my toasty warm purple and pink socks!

From the learning rooms...in addition to the basics, we're going to be reading about Epiphany, the baptism of our Lord, and celebrating Cuddle Up Day by doing homeschool in bed tomorrow!!

From the kitchen...we will be making King's Cake tomorrow

I am wearing...whatever I could grab in the dark this morning: a Twins T-shirt, black slacks, and, as you already know, my purple and pink socks that match nothing I'm wearing!

I am creating...a red crochet dishcloth

I am going...to run errands this afternoon

I am reading...gardening books

I am hoping...to put all our Christmas decorations away this evening

I am hearing...nothing. Doug was up and out of the house early for a day in court, AD is off to school and AH is still sleeping!

Around the house...lay a dog, a cat and 2 guinea pigs...all napping.

One of my favorite things...is getting up early (when I have had enough rest) and having an hour to myself just to putter, finish a crossword puzzle and have some coffee.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Baking, cuddling, Wed. afternoon homeschool group.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing...

I guess there's always next year...

Sigh...

Check out Peggy's for more Daybooks!

Homeschool Break?

2008-12-30T17:54:00.004-06:00

Do home schoolers break for the Christmas holiday? We do and I would imagine most home school families do break for this time of year. But we are not the typical home school family. Unfortunately, I am bound by our public school calendar for the most part. It's hard to get AH to do anything when his public-schooled brother is still in bed or going out with his friends. When I step back from my worrying, I realize the learning doesn't stop. AH is fervently working on the new Lego sets he received for Christmas. Amazingly for him, he picked out a new chapter book to begin reading. AH is also making his way through the Planet Earth series (a birthday-Christmas present from big sis and her boyfriend). These chances to learn without Mom overseeing everything is what I try to re-create during our official "schooling" days, but there really isn't anything like the real thing! Besides, it's Christmas break and breaks are for kicking back and relaxing, too! This also gives me a break to organize my files and plans, to make sure we are on track, and do some rearranging or editing of some units. Of course, this gives me time to do some things I've been itching to do. I'm working on my crocheting much more. Doug and I have had some time to spend together. And the education room is looking much better since I de-cluttered it and put things back into their rightful places. Actually, the WHOLE HOUSE is looking better since we've been on break! We also can't dismiss the importance of mental breaks...for student and "teacher"!!! I know I am looking forward to returning to our regular schedule, but will cherish the breaks I'm provided by the school district as an opportunity to break out of our learning ruts and patterns and spark some self discovery!

The Best Christmas Present...EVER!

2008-12-27T17:49:00.010-06:00

My husband and I agreed that this year we were not going to exchange expensive gifts. But making things was okay. I once received a beautiful poem from him when we were young and poor and I mentioned to him this year that I would love another one. Doug loves to tease me about my fascination with the Twilight series of books. He often comments that he is my Edward and is always on the look out to save my life. Not much call for that here in central Minnesota. So when I opened up the card that came with my present and it said, "A love story Greater than Edward and Bella..." I expected a love poem about Doug and me, but what I received was much different. He wrote a love story about our youngest, AH, and me, his mother. By writing this poem, I get to see my relationship with our youngest through Doug's eyes. I debated whether I should show you a picture of the gift because it contains our son's name, but decided that it was worth it. It is entitled, Austen's Song, and Austen (or AH, as you have come to know him) decorated it.

Austen's Song

By Doug

She saved his soul
his self esteem
She made him whole
with eyes that gleam

a broken boy
now restored
Her rescue ship
to climb aboard

Her arms outreach
they search and find
She loves to teach
She sculpts his mind

A boy of length
his wondrous ball
He gains strength
She'll catch his fall

She gives every care
She ensures the fun
Journeys everywhere
She sees each run

Her gentle touch
His tender disposition
They love very much
their own tradition

from the very start
their love so pure
joined at the heart
the perfect cure

She loves his smile
and his frowns
Her love for him
knows no bounds

For him,
there is no other
no better friend
Only his mother

His song
sung for you
His love
forever true

The Simple Woman's Daybook

2008-12-15T12:45:00.012-06:00

FOR TODAY Monday, December 15th, 2008...

Outside my window... is a cold, frigid day but a blanket of snow was laid last night making everything clean and beautiful.

I am thinking...that I have a lot to do before Christmas!

I am thankful for...the time I spent with my family yesterday.

From the learning rooms...Just the basics this week (Math, Reading, Writing, Spelling) plus a fun Christmas story and craft each day.

From the kitchen...hopefully, cranberry cookies, since we will be reading Cranberry Christmas today.

I am wearing...jeans and a sweatshirt(gosh I'm boring!)

I am creating...memories!

I am going...to drop AH off at Scouts while I do some quick shopping!

I am reading...Twilight...again!!!

I am hoping...I can feel better soon, I was laid up in bed Friday and Saturday and I still feel drained!

I am hearing...my beeper go off! Time is up! Back to our studies!!!

Around the house...Christmas decorations make me happy.

One of my favorite things...is having a Christmas tree to look at.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Shopping, picking up our lamb at the butchers, baking, having fun!!!!

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Maggies Favorite Cranberry Cookies!

Birthday Wrap Up

2008-12-08T11:14:00.010-06:00

Well, the weekend of celebrating came to a quiet end last night. It all began on Thursday night when we celebrated AH's birthday with a family dinner. AN and MB joined us for the carbo-load that AH planned for us! They were brave souls!!

On Friday night, AH had his buddies over for the night.

Six energetic 10 and 11 year olds, pizza, cake, snacks and pop! I'm sure you get the picture!! They claim they were up until 4 am, but when I woke up around 3 am, there was no sound coming from downstairs. They say they were just being quiet! Anyway you look at it, AH had a fabulous time with his friends. What a great bunch they are! Saturday was a quiet day at home for all of us. I think we needed some time to decompress. AH spent the day putting his new Lego sets together and having a nerf tag war with his older brother! On Sunday, I took my mother to an Icelandic language Christmas service. The liturgy and most prayers were in Icelandic, but the sermon and 2 songs were in English. It was a nice quiet late afternoon service. Afterwards she and I stopped in to our favorite coffee shope (the Dunn Bros. Coffee shop on Fairview Avenue) for a cup of coffee and a treat! Their roaster is great!!! I've never had a bad cup of coffee there! When we got home, I pulled out our Christmas decorations and put up our tree while listening to Christmas music. AH and I decorated while AD did homework nearby, Doug made dinner, and my mom watched, supervised, chatted, and ate with us.

Happy 11th Birthday, AH!!

2008-12-04T16:58:00.005-06:00

Today my baby turns 11 so he gets to plan our dinner:

Tortellinni with Pesto

Crescent Rolls

Malts

DQ ice cream cake

Big Sis is coming to dinner for the celebration too! Our family will truly be together tonight!

Homeschool Memoirs #16: Candy

2008-12-03T08:51:00.004-06:00

THEME:
This week it’s seriously going to be just fun. This week share your favourite candies. I know from being on the HSBA Post team that Sprittibee and Dawn love gummy-bears, and maybe Bunny too. Have fun with this… and you’re welcome to post a photo of YOU eating your favourite candy. Haha!
God’s Word is also like sweetness to our souls. His sweet love, forgiveness, comfort, peace, and more is what makes our lives seem a little more bearable when things get rough. Whenever you eat your sweet piece of goodness remember that God loves you and will always be there when life seems sour.
Share a scripture for this week as well. One that lifts you up when you’re feeling discouraged.

Candy, huh?!

Unfortunately, I have a wicked sweet tooth, so I can enjoy many different candies. But there are two I cannot live without! I believe, like so many women, that life without chocolate would hardly be worth living! I enjoy dark chocolate with a cup of coffee. Mmmmm...(Is it too early at 9 am for chocolate?! I've got my coffee right here!) Sometimes, though, I like a little fun in my chocolate and the only thing that helps that craving is M&M's! I like to buy several kinds and mix them all up.

The second candy I cannot live without is Icelandic licorice. And, yes, it HAS to be Icelandic! It is black, a little sharp and absolutely delicious! Unfortunately, I don't live in Iceland, so I depend upon the goodness of my visiting relatives (have I mentioned that I'm 1/2 Icelandic?) and friends from Iceland to fill my larder with licorice. The absolute best way to enjoy Icelandic licorice is to use it as a straw in real Coca-Cola. Mmmmmm...my inner 10 year old is calling to me! Alas, I'm out of licorice right now. If any of you readers are in Iceland right now...hint, hint, hint....

My scripture today has nothing to do with sweets, but really keeps me going at all times (much like chocolate!):

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

- Philippians 4:4 - 9

The Simple Woman's Daybook

2008-12-01T09:03:00.005-06:00

FOR TODAY, December 1st, 2008...

Outside my window...A beautiful blanket of white covers our lawn.

I am thinking...about making a quilt for AD using his old sports jerseys and t-shirts

I am thankful for...My new dryer!!! (see picture below!)

From the learning rooms...Vikings, Vikings, and more Vikings!!!

From the kitchen...will come one of our favorite dinners: Stir Fry!

I am wearing...a dark gray hooded sweatshirt and jeans

I am creating...a plan for AH's birthday dinner on Thursday and for his sleep-over on Friday night.

I am going...shopping this afternoon to get art supplies for the party and for school, then to the grocery store for vegetables for dinner

I am reading...Nothing! I've finished everything in the house!

I am hoping...to find something interesting to read

I am hearing...AH working on some handwriting (lots of muttering!)

Around the house...not much is happening. We usually wait until after AH's birthday to decorate for Christmas

One of my favorite things...is my new dryer!!!

A few plans for the rest of the week:Cub Scouts, ball room dancing for Doug and me, a visit to my sister-in-law, batting and throwing practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays starts this week for AH and me! AH's 11th birthday is Thursday and we have his sleep over party on Friday night!

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Heaven on Earth!
Thank you, Peggy, for this wonderful idea!

Gardening in November?!

2008-11-29T14:56:00.015-06:00

I've got a definite theme going with some of the books I've been reading lately. The list includes The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollen; Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver; The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen; and the best one of all, This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader by Joan Dye Gussow. I know I'm too busy to do a big garden next summer, but I want to rededicate myself to my existing vegetable garden which has languished the past 3 summers because of our demanding schedules. I would like to try to produce more of our food. Not just a few dinners or side dishes here or there, but really try to make the most out of my garden space. Since I've had such limited time for the garden, the first thing on my agenda is to amend and enhance the soil. What I did today is to layer newspaper over my garden and covered it all up with crunched up leaves. It is a beautiful fall day today, the sun is shining and the temperature is very mild! It felt so nice to go outside and get my muscles moving and blood pumping. Of course I have pictures!

Above you see my main vegetable garden. We had to fence it in to keep out rabbits and other critters that roam our neighborhood.

Along our fence I have a mix of flowers, vegetables, and herbs. This is much more like a cottage garden and I enjoy the way it looks much more so than the fenced portion.

We have been trying to buy locally produced foods as much as possible for the last 2 years. My milkman lives on a hobby farm and raises chickens that we buy each summer. They are field raised and humanely butchered and they taste wonderful! He is offering grass fed lamb right now, so I have ordered a whole lamb that is at the butcher. I have a good store of chickens and, soon, lamb meat in my freezer pantry! It just feels right that our food is seasonal and local. Of course we're not perfect and we also have a budget to consider, but I believe that anything I do to reduce our dependence on industrial agriculture helps our health and our planet.

Homeschool Memoirs

2008-11-26T21:11:00.003-06:00

THEME
This week, you guessed it, is going to be about having a thankful heart! Yes, of course, we should always be thankful for everything we’re blessed with, but it’s not too often we actually sit and ponder what. This week please join me in writing 27 things you’re thankful (There’s got to be at least 27things!). I picked 27 because this year Thanksgiving is on the 27th of November.
Also, share a Scripture verse for this week!

27? Easy! Here they are as they came to mind (no particular order!)

1. Douglas, my husband and the love of my life! 2. AN and MB, my daughter and her boyfriend 3. AD, my son 4. AH, my son 5. my home 6. my faith 7. my wonderful mattress! 8. the opportunity to stay home 9. books! 10. our fireplace 11. family close by 12. my new dryer 13. music 14. friends 15. the blog, Blogwyn, and my enduring friendship with that blogger who I have known since college and was my maid of honor!! 16. our community 17. my garden and yard 18. a good glass of wine! 19. that my mom and dad are still here and close by 20. to be homeschooling 21. my computer and 22. the internet, so that as a home-schooler I don't feel so isolated! 23. My local home school group 24. the blog, By Sun and Candlelight, for the inspiration and positive energy 25. my family's health 26. the ability to laugh 27. that my country doesn't have civil war or genocide happening within our borders 28. that my husbands firm is full of people of different faiths, colors, nationalities and that we all love each other!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

The Perks of Homeschooling

2008-11-25T12:13:00.000-06:00

Today is a brisk winter day here in the north. Here is one perk AH and I enjoy to the fullest during the winter months.

Gotta love this independent reading time!

Solvay is making sure AH counts his spaces correctly while we play Fast Track (a homemade math game)!

Boom Site

2008-11-25T03:02:00.000-06:00

Yesterday AH and I prepared to host our Cub Scout den meeting. We were to meet our den at the Boom Site on the St. Croix river and do some hiking, garbage collecting, tree ID-ing and trail mix munching while we were there. This is a popular place to hang out near the water but I hadn't been there for nearly 10 years, so I was looking forward to it! AH and I planned the activities and snacks. We stopped by our co-op and bought trail mix and Vruit (AH's very, very favorite juice!) for snacks and ducked into the bookstore next door for a Minnesota Tree Guide to help us ID those trees (without leaves I need help!!!) Well, unfortunately, our den never showed, so I lead a disappointed AH on the hike. It was great fun exploring a cave, finding a wonderful fire pit, throwing rocks onto the ice and water. We didn't stay as long as we would have with our den, but you know me, I had my trusty camera and I took some pictures.

AH found a cave to explore and, of course, a stick to carry!

Walking along the beach (with the aforementioned stick!)

Birds heading for warmer weather (or are they just escaping from Wisconsin to Minnesota?!)

A rocky area of the shoreline. Yes, that is Wisconsin across the river!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

2008-11-24T11:31:00.000-06:00

FOR TODAY, Monday, November 24th, 2008...

Outside my window...

I see our dog, Solvay, playing with a paper bag she somehow snuck outside

I am thinking...

that I really CAN be handy if I try hard enough!

I am thankful for...

my husband who loves me more than I deserve!

From the learning rooms...

Viking weapons, helmets and music!

From the kitchen...

I'm hoping to make banana bread today.

I am wearing...

a Mickey Mouse hoodie and my favorite jeans.

I am creating...

an agenda for our den meeting this afternoon

I am going...

to run errands this afternoon before our den meeting

I am reading...

This Organic Life:

Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader

I am hoping...

my brother in law feels better!

I am hearing...

Junkyard Wars on TV and my new dryer humming away.

Around the house...

everywhere I look there are dropped suitcases, backpacks, coats and toys from our long weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

One of my favorite things...

is a day with nowhere to go!!! (it happens so rarely!!!)

A few plans for the rest of the week:

boy scouts, baking, cooking Thanksgiving dinner and avoiding malls!

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

AH working clay to make a Viking runestone.

Thank you, Peggy, for this wonderful idea!

Hope

2008-11-23T20:44:00.002-06:00

My heart is happy to be back at home after a long, but fun, weekend with my in-laws. I'm relishing the thought of my comfy bed and pillows that are waiting for me this minute! But the pull of another post has me here in front of the computer tonight. We have in our extended family two who are suffering with painful illnesses. It tears me apart to see them suffer. I am thankful, though, that love and compassion are shining so brightly within our family. I am seeing brother help brother. A sister take control when she had to. A devoted husband caring for his wife. And I saw my own children come to the aid of their uncles and grandmother and aunt to help, each in differing, but compassionate ways this past weekend. It is in these instances that we realize that our children are caring, loving people (despite their inability to clean their rooms in a timely manner!). It also reminds us of what is really important in this life. It is always good when one can glean hope and love in times of worry and pain.

Cousin Capers

2008-11-18T20:22:00.001-06:00

We are lucky to have a cousin, CA, visiting us from Texas. He and his mom are up to celebrate an early Thanksgiving this weekend with my husband's family. She has been spending quality time with her mom and dad, my in-laws, while we've had CA to ourselves since Sunday. AH and CA are close in age and they have been playing more than they have ever played in their lives! They certainly have managed to wear me out. We spent Monday at the Mall of America exploring Underwater Adventures , building with legos at Lego and riding some rides at Nickelodeon Universe. Here are some pictures I managed to take:

A Stingray decides to take a closer look at the boys.

The boys built cars and raced them on the race track!

On a ride!

Today we spent most of the day at the Science Museum. I was upset with myself that I had forgotten to take my camera with me this morning, so I have no pictures of this afternoon! Anyway, the Science Museum has an exhibit there right now called CSI:The Experience that we found fascinating! We showed up at our appointed time and were handed a clip board with a colored worksheet and pencil. Next, we were ushered into the exhibit with a small group of people and told we were going to examine a crime scene and use forensic science to figure out what happened. There were 3 crime scenes and we were to solve the one that matched the sheet we were given. CA, AH and I worked on Crime Scene #2. I think they gave us 4 or 5 minutes to take careful notes at the crime scene, then we had to go to different stations and answer the questions on our worksheet. At the end, we gave our results to a computer and then were told if we had solved the case correctly. AH, CA and I are proud to say we did solve the crime and are now rookie investigators! We ended up spending about 3 1/2 to 4 hours at the museum. Now I am desperately trying to catch up on my laundry! My new dryer was installed today so the obscene piles that threatened to take over the laundry room are now being systematically attacked! I'm not sure I'll be able to post until next week since we are headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house tomorrow to play and celebrate Thanksgiving a little early. Have a great weekend everyone!

Homeschool Memoirs

2008-11-12T13:08:00.002-06:00

THEME:
This week I’d like to invite you to share what YOUR “Mom” help is. Some drink coffee, soda, or chia-tea. Others check email or read their favourite blogs. Some talk a walk…. what do you do when you need to clear your head and take a breather?

You mean some homeschool moms have only one crutch?????

I am addicted to coffee, coca-cola, my computer, my books! These are all my helps. But my absolute favorite activity to regain my sanity is a bubble bath, a book , candlelight, and 3 hours to myself.

The last time that happened was, oh, 1987!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

2008-11-10T13:08:00.000-06:00

FOR TODAY,

November 10, 2008

Outside my window...

the sun is making a rare November visit. It is sunny and clear!

I am thinking...

I have much too much on my schedule today!

I am thankful for...

being home with Austen today.

From the learning rooms...

a unit study on the vikings is underway!

From the kitchen...

will, hopefully, come some homemade Boboli crusts, pancakes to freeze for quick breakfasts, and banana bread, just for fun!

I am wearing...

a red v-neck sweater and jeans.

I am creating...

a frozen pantry full of homemade "fast food"

I am going...

to stay inside with Austen, who is suffering a sore throat.

I am reading...

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

I am hoping...

Austen is better soon.

I am hearing...

the hum of my various machines working while I blog!

Around the house...

our guinea pigs are running around their cage, the cat is napping, and the dog is begging for food.

One of my favorite things...

is learning right along with Austen!

A few plans for the rest of the week:

A Cub Scout pack meeting, a high school baseball meeting, high school conferences, baking, visitors from Texas, along with our regular schedules.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Thank you to Peggy, for this lovely idea!

Let it Snow!

2008-11-07T17:09:00.000-06:00

I awoke this morning to AH's voice announcing to his dad, "It's snowing out!" Of course I HAD to look, too. And, sure enough, the white stuff was coming down and accumulating on everything but the ground. It has been a beautiful fall and I'm ready for the snow to come!

We headed out into the snow to visit the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota today. We learned about the sport of falconry and got to tour the facility and see quite a few raptors. AH's favorite raptor is the Golden Eagle. I was intrigued with the beauty and grace of all these magnificent birds! I had no idea falconry was still practiced today.

Red Tailed Hawk

American Kestrel