Weekly Update

I think instead of weekly updates, I should do monthly updates, at least it seems like that is about how often I end up posting. I guess I really don't have as much to say as I originally thought. ;) But anyways, here a bit of what we've been doing -

Math: Jake is FINALLY finished his geometry. Now again, he didn't do ALL of the books in the set, just a few. If he feels later he wants more we'll either get the rest of the set or a different curriculum. But I am pretty sure he'll never, ever want more Geometry.

English/Writing: He's getting a little further into his book and finding the exercises getting a little harder. He is not enjoying "finding such & such clauses" and all that sort of stuff. hehe His writing is still horrible, and I hate trying to read anything. He insists on writing so tiny.. *sigh*

Geography: I am REALLY hoping that by the end of April we will finally be finished with this. It was started forever ago. We did great when first starting, because we were doing this as a group with some others. Then that fizzled out and, well, it just got pushed to the bottom of our pile. Here and there I've tried to get it going again, but it fizzled out every time. But no more, it needs to be finished. So he is almost halfway through it. So if we keep at this pace, then it should be finished by the end of April if not sooner.

History: We've been jumping all over the place here. I was going to start with Ancient History using Susan Wise Bauer's The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome. But instead I think we are going to do a US study first using America The Story of Us book & DVD first.That won't take us long. Basically I'll have them (Amanda is doing this as well) read a Chapter sometime M-Th and on Fri we'll watch the DVD chapter and do any lessons from the Teacher's Guide. I think there are like 9 Chapters or so in the book. If they end up reading the chapter early enough in the week, we can go ahead and do 2 per week instead.

Science: We are changing this, yet again. Not sure what I am going to pull of the shelf, but something Biology. And I think we'll do Chemistry at the same time, using The Joy of Chemistry: The Amazing Science of Familiar Things

Amanda's been really into artsy stuff lately; working in her sketchbook, crafts of one sort or another, etc. We've made pom-flowers:

Notebook paper t-shirt:

Crayon art:

And we had a failed attempt at an altered t-shirt, which then become a cleaning rag. LOL So no picture of that one. ;) Oh, and I finally finished my tiles I made the beginning of Feb.

Holiday Happenings

Been awhile since I've posted and I thought I'd do an update. :) We finally moved! The end of October to be exact. It was a bit rough at first... Amanda is never good about change, so we had about a week before she felt "ok" about living here. She was the one that BEGGED us to sign the lease and then once we moved she wanted to go back to the apartments. (She was like this when we moved into the apartments as well, but I thought it was because we moved from Smithsburg because we HAD to, not WANTED to.) I was very stressed about about various things and that was the icing on the cake. On the plus side of it all, I did lose 10lbs. lol School-wise things are up & down. We started off ok back in Sept. then with the move we kind of slacked off since we were packing and what-not. And since we've been moved & unpacked things haven't restarted yet. The Holidays came up quickly and we were wrapped up in that. We did manage to sneak in a field trip in Nov. We drove to Triangle VA to the Marine Corps Museum. We had a really nice day. There was a LOT to see there.

We've done a bit of baking since early Nov. Cupcakes, pie, coffee cake, and cookies. A LOT of cookies!

Jake also turned 16, so that's why the slice of pie is getting a candle stuck in it. ;) Mid-Dec we attended our homeschool groups Christmas party. We wanted to go since we really aren't "active" in the group much anymore. There aren't many older kids in the group so there just isn't anything going on for my 2. :( But anyways, we went and had a great time. The kids each got a gift from the kids' gift exchange. Jake got a recycled butter box with about 27 tiny wrapped "presents". He had to open each one to find the Gamestop gift card. We had a fun time watching Jake open them. Amanda got a cool Hello Kitty "lunch-box" with 4 Hello Kitty Pez dispensers. I had seen this at AC Moore and told the mom about it. So Amanda was happy about getting that. For the moms gift exchange, anyone participating just brings a gift. we draw numbers and go round choosing or stealing a gift. Whoever gets #1 can go again at the end to steal if they choose. I got #1 (again) this year. My first gift was a bunch of nice ornaments and scented items. It of course was stolen. My 2nd one was a really nice crochet shopping bag. It was stolen. The 3rd time I thought I was picking up some candy or something, but it was a Port City Java gift card, a really cute coin purse and a handmade Golden Snitch ornament. I LOVED it. And I warned everyone if they took it from me I would be stealing it back at the end. So of course, I kept it. :) I had made a really awesome recycled newspaper sparkling tree. I have to make one for myself yet. So hopefully will get that done this week. lol

Amanda and I also made cranberry & popcorn garland for the trees out back. I meant to get this done for the Winter Solstice, but we were a day late. Christmas has come and gone and we had a very nice one this year. Kids got a lot of cool & fun stuff. I guess they were pleased as they both dove into their games and such. lol

Here is sweet little Dwight posing...

Amanda's pile

Jake's loot

Family gifts

Now we just need to figure out what to do for New Year's Eve, besides eating Chinese Food.

New Year's Goals (I don't like resolutions)

Alright, my goal for 2011 is to blog more. At least checking in once a week. That would be fabulous. And we have to get a routine going once again to get some school work finished. School goals are to finish up the geography unit and science unit by mid-Feb. (Love for it all to be finished by the end of Jan. but I doubt that will happen. The health unit should be finished by the end of Jan. though as they are both almost done with that. I have a large stack of Learning Through History magazines they also need to get through. But that will take the rest of the school year.

We started up a game day with some of the older boys in our homeschool group. It is just 4 boys right now (3 plus Jake) that hang out for 3 hours playing games. The first meeting it was all video games. 2nd meeting was all board games. They played Risk, Lego Creationary, then some Uno. Next week I think I'll have them play board games for a bit, then let them hit the video games for the last hour (as long as Jake's Xbox works that is, might have to find some games for the PS3).

That's about it for now. We've taken a huge unschooling turn, but it is time to get back into a little more "bookwork" once again. So come Jan 3rd, I'll be cracking the whip. (LOL Yeah I've said that many times before!)

Menu Plan Monday

I missed posting last week, but wanted to post really quickly our menu for the week. It is a "cheap" eating week here. LOL

Monday - Tuna patties (I use a box of cornbread stuffing mix, mayo, relish, and cheddar) with orzo & peas
Tuesday - Chicken of some sort (not sure yet what I will make), rice & veggies
Wednesday - Cheese-steaks and fries
Thursday - Creamy chicken & wild rice soup
Friday - pizza

And one of these days this week I am going to do some baking. I want to use up some apple butter and bake a cake. Then I have some Golden Delicious apples to use, so I am hungry for apple crisp. And I need to get some mini pizza crusts made so the kids can have pizza for lunches.

I'm Back!

Ok, I am going to give this a try AGAIN! I really do want to be "a blogger", but well I just forget to post sometimes. But I will try harder (I know I say that every time).

So obviously, we are on break from "school" for the summer. Jake finished his math program up late this year (well he got started on it late as well). Amanda did not like the MUS set, so we switched from that to the Key To Algebra. She is *supposed* to be working on it throughout the summer, but hasn't done too much recently. I am trying to get them to do more reading.

As for how the school year went, well it was kinda pathetic. LOL With the move and all I just had a hard time getting into a routine. We've really taken a turn in our homeschooling style, moving towards more unschooling. So our relaxed, eclectic approach has gotten WAY more relaxed. ;) Regardless, I will continue with a math program for both of them. I just can't let that go completely unschoolish. They can work at their pace though.

For the 2010-11 school year though we do have some unfinished things to complete. So these will be a priority come September. The things we need to finish are:

1. Trail Guide to US Geography needs finished by both
2. Story of Science needs finished by both
3. Health unit needs finished by both
4. Word Roots by Amanda

Then here is a tentative "plan" for other work:
Amanda:
English/Language Arts - Shakespeare study; Literature Through Movies
Math - Finish Key to Algebra books; Consumer Math
Science - Life Science/Chemistry/Physics (her choice)
Social Studies/History/Geography - US Trail Guide to World Geography; You Decide (Bill of Rights).

Jake:
English/Language Arts - Literature Through the Movies; Shakespeare study?
Math - Key to Geometry (books 2 & 3); Key to Measurements (Books 1-4); Key to Metric Measurements (books 1-4)?; Key to Algebra (books 1-10)?
Science - The story of Science: Newton at the Center; Life Science/Chemistry/Physics (his choice); Other Joy Hakim books
Social Studies/History/Geography - US Trail Guide to World Geography; You Decide (Bill of Rights); Civil war
Arts - Computer programming

But they will be able to work at their pace. Trying to make a schedule and stick to it is useless, I'm not that disciplined. LOL So we'll see how things go. :)

Halloween Updates

Here are some things we've been doing to prepare for Halloween:

October 1st - we brought out the Halloween decorations. In doing so, I realized how little I have. But we put a few things about and I left the rest for another time. I then started making a list of things we can do for the rest of October. I found some fun crafts, we have a few "spooky" science kits/experiments to do, and of course some baking.

October 2nd - We put the rest of the decorations out. The kids decided to get rid of the cheesy window clings finally. LOL I gather more supplies for some crafts we'll be doing on the coming days. At the store we picked up some mini pumpkins and gourds.

October 3rd - we've been doing some fall baking today. Brownies have been baked and are cooling. Then we'll be icing them and adding fall colored sprinkles. I don't usually ice my brownies, but hey, it is just more chocolate. :D Right now I have 2 loaves of zucchini bread cooking. Then I have to bake 2 loaves of banana bread to take to our homeschoolers picnic tomorrow.

While the brownies were baking, Amanda and spread glue onto the stems of the pumpkins and gourds then added glitter. They look really cute.

I'm Back!

I can't believe I haven't blogged in so long. (Well ok, I can believe.. I was never that great at blogging regularly.) But I'll try harder. ;)

We've had many things going on since I blogged last. The major event was we moved at the beginning of August. We are now apartment dwellers. hehe That's been quite an adjustment. We were living at my husband's fathers place, we had a small house on his same property that was about 6 feet away from the main house. While it was "our" place, it was way too close. We had planned on moving 3 years ago but then Randy hurt himself at work and was unable to work at all for 2 years. So we were planning to move sometime this fall, then began having major issues with his dad. And we ended up moving before we had wanted to (or I should say before we were planning.) But we are moved and much happier.

Another event was my oldest turning 16 in August! I can't believe I have a 16 yo. She didn't want a big party or anything, but I kind of made her invite her friends over. She had about 10 kids here last weekend. Then girls chatted, played Guitar Hero and walked around the neighborhood a bit. The boys ended up playing a game of Risk. lol They all ate and ate (lots of pizza & cupcakes were consumed!). They all had fun, I had to keep quieting them down some. ;)

But anyways, I have LOTS of updating to do on school-ish stuff. So I'll be working on that this weekend. School started last week, so I hope to post soon about what we're doing weekly. :)

What can I say?

I just keep forgetting to update here. I'll keep at it, but I really don't think I'm cut out to be a blogger. LOL

So what's been going on with us? April went by really freaking fast! We had a lot of colder, yucky days with a few really nice ones and then a few ridiculously hot ones.

We had 2 Earth Scout meetings, 2 book club meetings and 2 co-op days. They all went well.

With Earth Scouts, I'll be changing the schedule a bit for the summer months. We usually have a hard time getting enough kids there to make the meeting worth it, so we're going to cut back to once a month. And those will be outdoors. So this weeks meeting will be the last indoor meeting until Fall. If the weather is too nasty we'll come up with something else.

Book club is going very well. This weeks meeting, we'll be discussing the 4th Percy Jackson book, The Battle of the Labyrinth. I must say, these books are really good! The 5th book is released today, The Last Olympian. So we are heading to Border's this evening to grab it up. I really wish Amanda would read these, I think she'd enjoy them also. So, with the kids reading the Percy books, we'll be holding a Mythology Bee. This will be on May 15th, not our usual book club day. Some of the kids will either be on vacation or moving, so we bumped it up a few days so they can participate.

Co-op has ended for this school year. May 1st was the last meeting, which the kids and I missed due to some UPS deliveries I needed to be here for. :( I'll miss co-op, but also thankful for the break. I am not sure what we'll do come fall. I might just rejoin for Jake and I, and Amanda can come along if she wishes. Jake really likes it, and so does Amanda... but for her, its just so terrible to have to wake up so early. I think starting at 11am would be a good idea though. LOL Hint hint Marti if you read this. ;)

So we have some fun stuff coming up in May with Earth Scouts and Book club. Plus we'll be continuing with the Geo-Club, once a month.

Today is Cinco de Mayo, so we're having a potluck picnic at the park with friends. I really, really, really hope the weather cooperates with us today!

So that's what's going on in a nutshell (or a nuthouse?) with us lately. :)

Week in review

So I'm trying to get back into the habit of blogging more about our school life. :) So here's what we were doing this past week.

Math - Not as much math work was done as I had hoped, but they both did get a decent amount finished. Amazingly I think Amanda finished more than Jake. She's at the mindset now where the more she does, the sooner she'll be done (thankfully!!).

Geography - Geo-club is going well. We did miss the last meeting though. :( My kids are not super into it, but they do learn (and remember) some interesting things as we go along.

Reading - Jake has jumped ahead and finished reading the first 4 Percy Jackson books. He really got into them more than I thought he would. So I went ahead and ordered The Demigod Files for him also. The 5th book will be out sometime in the beginning of May. But I don't think we'll use that for the Mythology Bee for the book club. We might still read that but not sure if everyone will have it before. We'll have to wait and see.

We had another Earth Scouts meeting this week. We've been working on the Peace and nonviolence principle. So we talked about signs & symbols of peace. I showed the kids the symbols and we talked a little about them. Then one of the boys showed the group a bit about meditation, they did some yoga and got all stretched out. :) For the final activity they each colored in a peace Dove (of Picasso's) and wrote some words on their paper that they think of as peaceful.

After ES was the book group. We only have 7 kids reading the Percy Jackson books, and the group was small this week. 4 kids were there. But we still had a great meeting. It's interesting hearing what the kids think about the books. We did have a bit of an issue though. Some of them have read all through the first 4 books (my son included) and they are getting the books mixed up. Which I had a feeling was going to happen. (Mental note to myself: I need to email the group and have them re-read for next meeting.) So I had to keep them straight on things so they didn't give too much away for those of us who haven't read that far.

And on Friday, we had another co-op meeting. Co-op day is always fun, but as I've said, I come home with a terrible headache. LOL The things we go through for our kids. ;) First class is Wizardology. I have Jake (& Amanda but she just reads something else) in the class. We had a small group this week, just 3 out of 6 boys. So it was MUCH calmer and quieter. lol We actually finished the last 3 lessons in the handbook, which completes the Spring lessons. So now the boys can do the Summer lessons at home and they'll have completed the entire "course" on Wizardology. :) So for our next class, I think we'll view a movie. So I need to find a good one to show.

Then in the 2nd class, Jake had dissection. They did the starfish. That was pretty cool. I'll upload some pictures later. Jake had a medium sized starfish, so you could see things fairly nicely. Lots of digestive yuck. lol Amanda was in photography during 2nd period. Not sure exactly what she did. I know she needs to get some pictures printed up.

And that was our week. We have nothing NOTHING!! planned for next week. But I do need to figure out a day to have some kids over for a going away party for one of Jake & Amanda's friends. His family is moving to Australia soon for 2-3 years. But that's about it. Let's hope the week is a calm and quiet one. :D

Catching Up!!

I haven't posted anything homeschooling wise here in awhile. This is after all a homeschooling blog, not a Lost blog which it would seem it has become. hehe So here is a bit of what we've been up to recently.

Jake had decided to join the dissection class at co-op. Of course this was after the 3rd class, so I had to get his kit ordered. A group of us went together and placed a large order of various items through the Home Science Tools website. Very cool stuff by the way. I order his dissection kit, complete with tool kit, 7 specimens and dissection guides. Then I also picked up a mini chemistry kit, I think there are about 30 different experiments. Several us then went together to get a bulk discount on owl pellets & cow eyeballs.

Jake and I did one of our owl pellets last week. Very cool! Here are some pics:



We did our eyeballs yesterday with a group of friends. That was still cool, just a tad bit gross. It certainly wasn't as bad as I was expecting though, and I did have fun. (I'm one of the kids that refused dissecting anything in middle school.) Here's a few pics:



The beginning of March went went on a mini vacation. We headed off to Williamsbug, VA for 3 days, staying 2 nights at Great Wolf Lodge. It was great, the kids had a fabulous time at the Lodge and can't wait to go back again. We had some issues with our meals, and Amanda ended up getting sick the last day there (not sure if it was a stomach virus or from the food). So next time we go, we'll certainly be taking more of our own food to make. hehe



Jake and I are still reading the Percy Jackson books, Amanda has decided to not join the group. So she will be reading a series of books on Colonial Williamsburg children. Jake is on Book 3, I'm just getting started on Book 2.

And we're enjoying using the Trail Guide to US Geography and sharing with our group. We have our next meeting this coming Thursday. So here are our plans for the week -

Math: Both kids need to get caught up with their math.

Reading: We'll continue to make time during the day for all 3 of us to be able to read in peace. :) So this means, we'll have a designated reading time.

Geography: We have a bit more to finished by Thursday in our 2nd region for geo-club.

And I'm not sure what else we'll get into. We have some science work in our Story of Science books, plus I think we might do a chemistry experiment or 2. We have some history work to do. I Ave a paper model of the Jamestown Settlement we never got around to doing, so I think we might do this as well.

So that's a bit of what we've been up to. I'll try harder to update more regularly. :D

A printing we shall go

hehe I am printing like a mad-woman today. I've been slacking (nothing new there right?) with our Geography work. Our first club/group meeting is this Thursday. So I need to get my arse on the ball. So I am printing out the pages for the first 2 regions: New England States & Mid-Atlantic States. This way, next week I have no excuses and we can get started right into the next region.

So for the upcoming week, here's what we have planned.

Math - The kids will be finished with the Key to Decimals books by the end of the week. (Well *supposed* to be finished anyways.) Then we're going to move into Algebra and I think some beginning Geometry.

Reading - We didn't get to have our last book group. A lot was going on last week, many were sick. So some didn't get the book finished, us included. So we'll be finishing The Lighting Thief up this week also.

Science - I think this week we are just going to watch some Planet Earth DVDs. We also have a lot of the Food Detective shows DVR'ed that I think we'll watch. Just have an easy week science-wise.

History - The kids are bored with what we've been doing (explorers) so I think we might jump into something else. I need to sit down with them and see what they want to do.

And of course, Geography we'll be working on the New England States region for our Geo-club meeting on Thursday.

And thankfully Thursday is the only day we have anything planned out of the house! YAY!! it is supposed to be an icky week weather-wise, so I'm glad we get to stay home most of it. :)

This weeks schedule

I know it seems as if this has become a blog for Lost. LOL But with everyone being sick so much lately, there hasn't been a ton to post school-wise.

So for this week we have to do the following:

Math - Get caught up through at least book 3. Amanda has a lot more to do than Jake does.

Reading - Finish reading The Lighting Thief (Book group on Wed.)

Science - we're going to skip science this week so we can focus on math mainly.

Geography - Finish up Region 1 work in Trail Guide to US Geography notebook.

Then I need to get materials gather for Earth Scouts on Wed. We make peace flags on paper, and this week we are transferring these onto material for a hanging flag. The kids will then be able to use a metal clothes hanger to display their flags on.

Jake has some work to finish up for Wizardology for Friday's co-op. Amanda has some photography homework to do.

Thursday the kids are having some of the homeschool teens over for a game day. I think they'll mainly be playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

So we have lots of things to do this week, not much time spent at home, or at least home alone. LOL

Dot Dot Dot

Ok, so I didn't feel like coming up with a title. :D

We've been keeping busy with Math and reading the past few weeks. Finished up George's Secret Key to the Universe, had out last book club meeting for that. We are now beginning the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series with The Lightning Thief. All of the kids seem to be really into it.

We've had 2 back-to-back Earth Scouts meetings as well. Last week was our badge ceremony. And we discussed a bit about the next principle we'll be doing, Peace and Non-violence. So the kids acted out some situations where they had to come up with a peaceful solution. This had them quite rowdy so we moved into doing some yoga. lol

Yesterday's Earth Scout meeting they all made mini books for Peace Journals. Some of them went ahead and wrote/drew in what they do to find peace. Others will fill it out later. I am looking forward to seeing what each kid puts into their journal.

We've had our first SALT Co-op meeting of the semester. I am only teaching one class this time around, but I helped out in the younger kids science class. Then I hang out with the teens that are doing the videos. So I don't get to sit and chat with the moms very much, but at least I can leave most of the thinking and planning to others. hehe

We finished reading the Lewis and Clark book. The kids just weren't into this book. I don't think they got much at all from it. So we'll continue on with something else.

So that's about it. I am looking foward to the weekend. I'll post our schedule for next week sometime soon. :)

Back to school

Wow.. that break was WAY too short. LOL I've had to look at my planner twice now to be sure it was time to get back to work. *sigh* Wonder if anyone will notice if I take January off too? hehe

Ok all kidding aside, here is what we have going on this week coming:
I am doing something new with math for the month. Sort of a trial period. I am not assigning any certain page or lesson #'s each day, but am leaving it up tot eh kids how much to do every day. But they have to have a certain # finished by Friday evening, or they'll be doing math on Saturday before anything else.

Mon Jan 5: Read Ch 4 in Lewis & Clark book (no we didn't finish this before Christmas); Lesson 4 in Science.

Tues Jan 6: Ch 5 in Lewis & Clark; Lesson 5 in Science.

Wed Jan 7: Earth Scouts & Book club meetings, all afternoon. Earth Scouts we'll be having a badge ceremony and discussing the new principle we'll be working on:

*Peace and Nonviolence*
· Respecting cultural differences, and recognizing commonalities in the
global human family
· Resolving conflict creatively and without the use of violence
· Valuing and practicing cooperation
· Developing inner peace

Our Book group will be discussing the most of the George's Secret Key to the Universe book. We decided to go ahead and finish this off since it has been since before Thanksgiving that we last met for the group. Then we'll discuss a bit about the next book, Percy Jackson. I think the kids will really enjoy these books. I am looking forward to it.

Thurs Jan 8: Ch 6 in history; Lesson 6 in science.

Fri Jan 9: Ch 7 in history; Lesson 7 in science.

They are to have 25 pages finished in Key to Decimals book 1. We'll be finished all 4 books by the end of Feb. Then I am hoping the newest version of the MUS books are out and we'll start Mar with pre-algebra.

Reading - we'll be finished with George's Secret Key to the Universe by Tues for our meeting on Wed. Then we're starting the Percy Jackson series with The Lighting Thief. We'll be doing the first 4 books (a new one is due out in May) and then having a Mythology Bee. I have the materials put out by Disney Media. They look really cool and I think the kids will have a lot of fun.

Goodbye 2008!!

This year seemed to go by really fast. I dunno, maybe it was because the kids and I were involved in more things this year. We certainly weren't bored! Here is a look back at some of what we've done:

Homeschool co-op: This is an ongoing group that meets the 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month (aside from summer months). We've had so much fun with our co-op. We've done science classes, cooking classes, gym classes, a Wizardology class, the kids have had plenty of time to just hang out and chill, they've made some really funny videos. I've been able to watch all of the kids grow, not just my own. I've watch the babies go from just newborns to toddlers. I really love our group of homeschoolers. The new semester starts in a few weeks. YAY!

Earth Scouts: We got this group up and running in April. We met twice a month on Tuesdays at a local library. We've had some members leave and have gained some new members. So right now our group is staying at about 8 families. We did a lot with the Respect for Nature principle. Some things we did include: made field guides and went on a nature walk along the C&O canal; made bird feeders & nesting bags; made glass lanterns & some of us braved the cold and went on a nighttime stroll around the local park during the Christmas lighting; Trick or Treated for Unicef - the kids raised almost $200!! There were a lot more we've done since April, and it has been a blast facilitating this group.

Parties: Oh so many parties & potlucks!! In April we celebrated Earth Day with a huge potluck. We had a speaker come in from the recycling plant, the kids & parents enjoyed that. Our food spread was to be only earth friendly foods (meaning organic if possible, using the least amount of energy as possible to make it, etc); We had a park potluck for Cinco de Mayo, everyone brought lots of yummy foods; in September, we had our annual "Not Back to School" park picnic. As always TONS of food and great time being spent with each other. Then the year ended with our Geo-lunch international holiday party. There was lots of food, gift exchanges, games, and just some fun hang out time for kids and moms.

Field Trips: In March we had a trip to the local PetCo. My kids have done this before with another group, but they never pass up a chance to hang out in the pet store. It was a crazy day, we had the store totally overwhelmed with kids. The manager was a little crabby due to a misunderstanding on her part. But all in all, the kids had fun so that's what matters; April brought around a trip to a local Martin's grocery store. The kids learned about eating healthy and making good food choices; We also headed out to Philly for a day in April. We went to the Franklin Institute to see the Star Wars traveling exhibit. This was great. We all really enjoyed seeing the actual costumes and props from the movies; June brought a very impromptu field trip to Winchester to the Discovery Museum and Sonic. hehe It all started with a discussion of the Sonic drive-in's, so of course to make it educational, we went to the Discovery Museum which the kids had to themselves for the most part. Half of our group worked in the "apple orchard" business, the other half worked in the "hospital" business. LOL Of course, my kids were in the orchard. No big surprise there, since we live in one. ;) But they had a great time!; We headed back to Philly in October. Again to the Franklin, but this time to see the Pirates exhibit. It was nice, but I was pissed because we couldn't take photos. But the kids still had fun.

Geo-lunches: one of the moms in our group decided to start monthly Geo-lunches. Each month we'd have a different country, everyone would bring a dish from that area and if the kids wanted, they can share something they've learned about the area. We attended a few and had a great time. The kids were bummed we didn't get to them all. They'll be continuing in the new year, but I *think* we'll be doing the US this time around. We ended the year with an International holiday potluck/party

Losses: In June we had Amanda's cat put down. He wasn't very old but had a lot of health issues. I had really put this off for way longer than I should have. I don't think he was suffering, but he was getting worse. And it would have been way more traumatic if she found he died rather than just putting him down. And then if that wasn't enough, either on Halloween day or the day after, something killed her bunny. We are pretty sure it was a fox as we've had one stalking around all summer. But whatever it was, took the bunny. we couldn't even find any trails of fur; And not as sad & upsetting as the pets, but Amanda had her wisdom teeth removed in Sept. She did WAY better than I ever expected. So either she is really tough, or everyone else is wimpy. hehe We had planned to start back with school that week, but that was put on hold. Jake didn't mind one bit. ;)

Fun & Entertainment: I like April sometime I had won tickets from a local radio station to see John Mayer playing at Merriweather Post. So a friend and I headed off one icky day in July. Yep, it was storming something terrible on the day of the concert. We still went, in the rain. And wouldn't you know it, the rain stopped during the last song of the night. Aww, how kind of you monster nature. LOL We also saw a few movies throughout the year. Not as many as I had planned on. But oh well.

Birthdays: Amanda turned 15 in August. She just invites some kids over anymore, they hang out and chat, play Rock Band, etc. This year though they did Henna tattoos. This was fun, but stinky. lol I am glad the evening was nice and they could go out to the patio. Jake turned 13 in November. So know I have teens in the house!! He had some boys over, and of course, they played the Xbox & the Wii all day. lol Parties get easier & less expensive as the kids get older. :D

Work: Randy FINALLY got back to work in July. He was off for 2 years with a work related injury. He likes the job and it seems to be going quite well. So keep your fingers crossed for another raise next month. LOL

That's our year in a nutshell. I am sure I forgot to tell you something really exciting. But I figure this post was extremely long as it is. ;) Have a wonderful and safe New Years!! We'll be staying home as usual. I don't like going out on New Year's Eve anymore. We're ordering Chinese food for dinner tonight. YAY!

Brrrr!

It is so freakin' cold here right now! Winter certainly has slammed into us hard here in MD. Monday it was almost 70* and now this morning it is a toasty 11* (-7* with wind chill).

I am sick. :( Started feeling bad Thursday evening. It hit me all of a sudden. I was fine all day, then by about 8:30 that night I started with a bad sinusy headache, the major nose drippage. then when I woke up Friday morning, I felt horrible. I was feeling much better yesterday, but I guess being out grocery shopping wasn't the smartest thing to do, but hey ya gotta have food in the house. So this am. I woke up and my throat is on fire, I can't talk but a bit of a squeak (tried talking to the cat because no one else is awake). So I am downing hot tea today. Getting ready to make my 2nd cup here in a second.

Last week started our Christmas/winter break. Monday was our homeschool groups holiday party. After much craziness, we made it there. I had invited my mom to come along, but then she ended up not. So that left us without a ride. So we were bummed about having to miss the party. Then after some emails & phone calls back and forth we had a plan. :) One mom would come pick up 1 of of us (Jake) and another mom would come pick up the other 2 (Amanda and I) because she had 2 seats left as her littlest one was sick. :( So she stayed home with her daddy (and he ended up missing his Christmas party so the rest of the family could have theirs). This is what the holiday season is all about... being with your loved ones, lending a helping hand, and making others happy. So we have several people to thank for helping my kids and I get to our Christmas party: Mindy & Kim for the rides; Jim for giving up his party to stay home with poor little Maggie; Marti, Krista and Pat for their offers of help. I love my group of friends.

So then on Tuesday we had our Earth Scouts meeting & book group scheduled. But the weather was totally the opposite of Monday. It was cold, snowing/raining/sleeting. So I went ahead and canceled. The roads were most likely ok, but I didn't want to take that chance. So the kids and I finally got to decorate the tree. And Amanda and I baked some oatmeal raisin cookies.

The rest of the week we had nothing planned until Friday. Which was our co-op's last day for the Fall semester. We were going to build gingerbread houses, but of course we missed that because I woke up sick. But Marti's oldest dropped off our house before taking her sisters to co-op. So another thanks goes out to Emilee. :)

So I was hoping we could have done the house over the weekend with Randy, but I just didn't feel good enough to. I am hoping maybe this afternoon or at least tomorrow I be feeling better. I have a TON of baking to do also. But I did get the grocery shopping and Christmas shopping finished. Our ham is ordered, Randy will pick it up tomorrow evening. So we'll at least have food, maybe not too many cookies though. But I'll at least get a batch of chocolate chip cookies made. hehe

Updates and plans

Last week well, school wise. The kids finished up a lot of work. Grammar and math are finished until January, YAY! We have a little history and science to do yet, and well get that finished up this week. Hopefully by Thursday at the latest.

We didn't have an Earth Scouts or book group meeting last week. Our Earth Scouts had planned to go to a local nursing home to sing and spend some time with the residents. We didn't make it because I had some kind of yucky sinusy thing. I had a constant headache for almost a full week, couldn't sleep, and anytime I tried to do something I just felt horribly tired. But all better now.

Friday we had our co-op. Pretty much it was the last session of classes for this semester. So in Wizardology, the boys worked on understanding wizarding codes. Then they each had to write something in code. 2 of the boys wrote out what they wanted for supper, the 3rd used a form of pig Latin to tell me goodbye. LOL Then in science we used baking soda and vinegar to blow up a balloon. Place the baking soda in the clean bottle, vinegar in the balloon. Attached the balloon to the bottle and pour in the vinegar. The reaction of the 2 will puff up the balloon. It was simple and quick. The kids had fun.

Now, for this week, we'll be finishing up Unit 1 in our science book. We didn't get to work on this today any. We have 3 lessons to do, so we'll have this finished by Thursday. For history, we are behind in our Lewis and Clark unit study. But by the end of the week, we'll have at least 5 lessons out of 9 finished. So once we pick back up in January, we'll be finished that within the first week. Then we're moving on to Pioneers.

The kids are having some teens over Friday for a game day. They wanted to do something before Christmas, and I wanted them to do so before we put up our tree. LOL Otherwise, our small living room gets smaller. And I don't want anyone knocking into the tree.

Happy 13th Birthday jake!

Can you believe November is almost gone! Today Jake turned 13. Wow! I now officially have 2 teens in the house. He had his party on the 23rd. Does anyone else think having 6 teenage boys in your house is worse than 6 teenage girls? I do! They are louder, they argue & wrestle, they're just plain obnoxious at times! LOL But they had fun, nothing was broken, no one was hurt. Ok so, that's a lie... apparently my old broom I keep out in the patio was used to whack Jake and it was bent. Jake said he wasn't hurt (must have been numb from being outside in the freezing temps).

He got some gifts cards to Best Buy & Borders and cash. Cash.. the perfect gift, especially for a teenage boy with a terrible game addiction. hehe

Here are some photos from the party and one of him tonight, now that he is officially 13.

Jake, the 13 yo, playing some Xbox.


Jake, the day of the party -

From l-r: Levi & Ben sitting on the couch; Jake, Alex, & Zack -

Jake, Alex & Brian playing on the Wii -

Zack, Alex, Levi, Ben & Amanda -

The cake, a chocolate cake with PB icing (no I didn't make this, it was bought) -

Weekly review

Well last week we got all of our math and Grammar finished that was planned. We did some science, not as many lessons as I had wanted. And of course History took a back seat again. We didn't have our Earth Scouts meeting, most of the families were going to miss it, so I didn't want to run the families that live further away out, especially since we just were going to do some reading.

But we did have a great day at co-op on Friday. The boys (my heathen son included) in Wizardology were EXTREMELY hyper this week. But we got through that with no bloodshed. hehe During my break (2nd class session, I don't teach) I got to hang out with Mr. Lincoln. He is a 10 month old on the verge of walking and an extremely busy guy. He kept me on my toes for an hour. :)

Then after lunch, it was Kitchen Chemistry. Again, some of the kids tend to be very hyper and very impatient. This can be nerve wracking when 16-18 kids are yelling at you at once. But we got into the activity, making Lava Lamps!! I think Amanda has some pictures, so I need to get those form her. Here are directions for the Lava Lamps. I highly recommend this, it was a lot of fun. Just be sure the kids DO NOT SHAKE the bottle once the food coloring is in. :)

Materials
- One clean, plastic soda bottle (16 oz. size works well)
- Soda bottle cap
- Vegetable oil (the cheaper the better)
- Food coloring
- An Alka-Seltzer tablet
- Water

* Fill the bottle 3/4 full with vegetable oil.
* Fill the rest of the bottle with water (almost to the top but not overflowing).
* Add about 10 drops of food coloring. Be sure to make the water fairly dark in color. Notice that the food coloring only colors the water and not the oil. Hmmm?
* Divide the Alka-Seltzer tablet into 8 pieces.
* Drop one of the tiny pieces of Alka-Seltzer into the oil and water mixture. Watch what happens. When the bubbling stops, add another chunk of Alka-Seltzer. It’s just like a lava lamp!
* When you have used up all of the Alka-Seltzer and the bubbling has completely stopped, screw on the soda bottle cap. Tip the bottle back and forth and watch the wave appear. The tiny droplets of liquid join together to make one big lava-like blob.

How does it work?
First of all, you confirmed what you already knew... oil and water do not mix. The molecules of water do not like to mix with the molecules of oil. Even if you try to really shake-up the bottle, the oil breaks up into small little drops, but the oil doesn’t mix with the water. Food coloring only mixes with water. That’s why it does not color the oil.

When you poured the water into the soda bottle with the oil, the water sank to the bottom. That’s because water is heavier than oil. Scientists say that the water is more dense than the oil. If oil from a ship spills in the ocean, the oil floats on top of the water.

Here’s the surprising part... The Alka-Seltzer tablet reacted with the water to make tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide gas. These bubbles attached themselves to the blobs of colored water and cause them to float to the surface. When the bubbles popped, the color blobs sank back to the bottom of the bottle. Now that’s a burst of color!

And last but not least, check out the fun video Amanda made of her and some of the kids dancing to Chumbawumba's Tubthumping. Great song to be blaring in a church gym. hehe

Things don't always go as planned

The past 4 "school" days we have not gotten no where near what I wanted to finished. I don't plan a lot, but sheesh.. Thursday was spent redoing Halloween costumes. The kids were going as the Beatles until one other kid told us at the last minute she was going. I was pissed. She could have said so a week before, not the night before. But that aside, Amanda and Katie dressed up as Punk Rockers. Jake kinda wore what he did last year, a version of Leon from Resident Evil. (The girls were wavering back and forth on being zombie punk rockers, or just punk rockers.) Another friend came along as well, then we met up with Ben and Deana at their house. Another family also met us there. So we had a nice group walking around the neighborhood Trick or Treating.


So, for the rest of the week, here is what I HOPE to finish:

Wed Nov 5 - 5 pgs DG; 6 pgs math; Science lesson 3; History intro to Lewis & Clark and lesson 1.

Thurs Nov 6 - 5 pgs DG; 6 pgs math; Science, finish lesson 3 or begin lesson 4; History Lewis & Clark finish lesson 1.

Fri Nov 7 - Co-op.

Then sometime in between there, I have to get my books packed up and ready for 2 vendor events this weekend. One in Hagerstown on Saturday, another on Sunday in Frederick.

And the kids are Uber thrilled to get to go to the Midnight Release for Gears of War 2. This comes out on Nov 7th. It is one of Jake's birthday presents, but I'll be nice and let him have it a bit early. (Even though part of me wants to make him wait until his birthday on the 26th to allow him to play it. Bwahahaha!!) So anyways, I told the kids we can go to this, they can play for an hour.. then they have to get to bed so we can get up for co-op in the am on Friday.


So I'll be beat by Sunday evening.