One Moms Walk

Its 100 Degrees in January

2012-01-24T10:33:00.000-06:00

WHY?????? In South Louisiana we don't get a very long winter, but this year my goodness gracious!!! It was really only cold for 4 nights and that was like a cold snap back in November!!! I don't ever remember a winter this hot and humid!!!!

In an effort to try to convince myself that it is in fact winter, here are some pics of what has been going on around here in the last few months....

Elfalfa came to visit and was up to mischief as usual...

We had a Pioneer Woman cinnamon roll making day with my mom...YUMMY!!!

We ate so much of this delicious chocolate gingerbread, filled with chocolate ganache cake that I could have popped!!! My sister in law made it {recipe came from somewhere in a Southern Living magazine} and it took her 9 HOURS to make, but it was sooooo worth it!!

Lots of fun time with cousins...

Lots of remembering what the season is really about....

More cousin time in New Orleans {where they live} complete with uptown shopping and lunch at Slice {an amazing pizza place}. We ended our day with a gelato from Sucre!!! YUMMY!!!!! These kids love each other so much and have so much fun together!!! Im talking play all day fun!!!

Im pretty crazy about my sister in law as well!!!!!

And a day downtown with Maw Maw {my momma}!! We just strolled around the lakes and visited our state capitol!! From the top we could even see daddy's work!! That would be the big oil refinery in the above picture in case anyone is wondering why in the dickens I would include that pic!! He was working that day, so we went to the top of the state capitol and called him and he drove to where we could see him and we waved at each other!!!! Lots of corny fun!!!!!

I want to remember these days forever!!!

Now we are back in school and yearning for summer!!!!

The 100 degree weather is really making me want to hit the beach!!!

Many Blessings to You in 2012

2011-12-31T21:05:00.001-06:00

From our family to yours
Happy 2012

All of the Christmas deets are coming soon!!!
Soon as in when I get back in gear!!!

Right now let's just say that there are p.j.s and egg nog, and crock pot hot choc and way too many Frango chocolates involved!!!
Not good.

I hope your holidays are filled with all the joy of the season!!!

When You Make an Idol {out of homeschooling}

2011-11-23T09:27:00.000-06:00

*Warning: This is a confession. Maybe you have been here. Maybe you haven't. *

When we first decided we were going to remove our girls from the private school they were enrolled in, our reasons were very simple. Yes, we wanted to give our daughters the best education possible, with a love of learning that could not be quenched. Yes, we loved the idea of being able to have the freedom homeschooling gives and the thought of getting out of the mad rush of life. Yes, we definitely wanted our girls to have a Christ centered education. But really, we began homeschooling because the Lord God Almighty saw fit to impress it upon our hearts that the. days. are. short. Our time was ticking, and honestly I just wanted them home with me. Totally selfish, I know, but that is the honest truth. I just wanted to be able to spend every moment I could with them, savor every bite.

I know these are fuzzy but I found them on an old phone and just had to show you how fast time flies...this picture was taken about 5 years ago {Karsyn was 4 and Kamryn was 6}

This is when Karsyn lost her first tooth!! She was in Kindergarten!!!

Now she is about to get a retainer!!!! She has lost 8 teeth!!!

But somehow I lost track. I forgot about the very reason I had embarked on this journey in the first place. This homeschool world is a multi-million dollar business you see. And just like any other line of products, you can get sucked in.

And I did.

I read somewhere that 20 years ago you could hold a homeschool convention in an airplane bathroom. This year I attended the Mid South Homeschool Convention in Memphis with over 400 vendors. Suddenly, everything for me had become about the latest and greatest curriculum, SAT scores, and advanced learning...you know critical thinking, logic, Latin, and all of those other things we have never learned or even heard of.

I bought lots of curriculums with bells and whistles.

I moved our schoolroom from a small bedroom upstairs to our very large playroom so that our "atmosphere of learning" would be better.

I made a beautiful schedule that perfectly laid out our entire day and included all 29 of our subjects in 5 or 6 short hours.

I beefed up our Latin, threw in some Logic, got lots of critical thinking books, and bought a brand new curriculum that promised to teach American History and World History simultaneously and have my very young 2nd grader writing research papers and reading Johnny Tremain.

It all looked perfect.

But here is what was missing from our most perfect year {plan}thus far....

reading for pleasure
hours of playing outside
a love of learning that could not be quenched {one of the reasons we started homeschooling}
that character development that I so desired for my children
opportunities to grow spiritually {them and me}
that bonding time that I so craved and felt so deprived of while my girls were in school

Somehow, I had managed to do exactly what our school system does each and every day to my own children. Forget about the fun, forget about the bonding, forget about the meaningful connections, no way are we going here, forget about doing that...We have Latin, and 2 histories in one day, and timelines, and research papers, and science, and music, and picture study, and we must learn the composers of each period....ALL THIS YEAR RIGHT NOW!!! And, is your research paper done 2nd grader?????

Because your momma that loves you more than anything in the world has made an idol out of homeschooling and has somehow made it all about her!!

I had made this journey, this blessing, this calling all about how I wanted to do things, and what I wanted to teach, and how smart I wanted them to be. And in the midst of all of it, I had made an idol out of homeschooling. I had made an idol out of the very thing that I thought I was doing right.

So, while you may look at our colorful schedule with 47 subjects on it and think to yourself, man that chick has lost her mind...rest assured, our day no longer looks anything like that pretty little schedule. As a matter of fact, we have gone back to the way we schooled when we first started homeschooling. Isn't it funny how things always work out that way, you always come full circle. Our schedule looks more like this...

MUST DO's

Bible
3 R's
Piano

HOPE TO DO's

American History {a very broad over view of American History}
Science {a different topic each term, just some exposure and fun}
Music Appreciation {my girls are very involved in music so they love this}

ONLY IF WE CAN DO's
Latin
Art
Picture Study
Nature Study

Our school room has been turned back into our play room with floors covered in Polly Pockets and baby dolls and Webkinz that have been "rescued" by their animal control agency and pretend food from their restaurant. My girls play for hours on end just as kids their age should!! We are back to doing school downstairs at the kitchen table where we first began and we do our reading on the couch!!!

I have completely ditched my security blanket called my planner. Instead I am now using a one subject, spiral notebook. I can hardly believe I am saying those words. I actually got the idea here, and when I read it, it was almost like the light bulbs were going off everywhere!!! My lesson plans look more like notes jotted down on a page rather than a spreadsheet {which I totally thought was my personality but wasn't at all} and I love it. The feeling that comes with writing in pencil on a notebook page and just adding notes as needed is just bliss for me!!

And, that pretty little schedule....well, she is still around but now she looks like this....

This basically amounts to doing what matters first so that the rest of our day can be spent doing whatever we want. We started this right after school started because it only took me a few weeks to realize that I cannot be and will never be {no matter how much I may try to be} the kind of person that can cram 458 things into a day. I do love a schedule, and I do love to have my day planned. I like knowing what I will be doing at 9:00 {Math} 12:00 {Lunch} and 4:00 {Paula Deen and coffee...ummmm did I say that out loud??}.

I am a creature of habit, but tight schedules make me feel behind, like I am always playing catch up, which I don't like!!! This is the best of both worlds.

Before, I had subscribed to the idea that you should alternate the subjects between fun and technical so we may not have done grammar until 12:00 or we may have started our day with history. While this is a great idea if you can be committed to being in a school room all day, we just couldn't do it. So I tweaked to make this journey the best it can be for our family. AND IT FINALLY IS!!!

And for the cherry on top....if we have something we would like to do i.e. field trip, play date, gorgeous day outside, or just play with Polly Pockets we know that at 11:15 we have done all the MUST DO subjects. We can stop here for the day and nobody is going to be hindered for life. This has been the biggest blessing of them all for me.

I have repented of creating an idol out of homeschooling {thank you to my sweet friend Traci who helped me see the light, post on that soon} and am now spending waaaay more time in prayer asking the Lord to guide me on this journey. I cannot do it alone and no support group can help. Only He can show me what to do with His children. I am so blessed to have them and cannot imagine doing anything else, I just needed a little refresher course!!

One last thing I will share with you is that the Lord does guide us, every day, sometimes we choose to see it, sometimes we don't. I am so thankful that while it did take me a year to see His way, I now see it and He is faithful even when we are not. His mercies are new every morning. And He will never leave us or forsake us...even when we make an idol out of what He has called us to!!!

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving, we all have so much to be thankful for!!! We are having our family and many of our friends to our house this year, so I am baking and table setting, and cleaning like a mad woman {haven't been out of my pjs in 2 days}!! I leave you with my table!!! Decorated completely for free by shopping the house!!!!! I hope your Thanksgiving is full of family and love!!!

Eleven Already???

2011-10-19T14:14:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to the most beautiful eleven year old ever!!

She is beautiful on the inside and out.

The most generous person I have ever met.

Loves all things animal and wants to be an animal scientist or rescuer when she grows up.

Which she hopes she never does.

My hopes are the same...

I love you my Kami Wami...Happy Birthday!!!

Fall Fun...and a confession

2011-10-02T17:01:00.000-05:00

Its beginning to feel alot like autumn around here, and while it may only last a week or two before the temperature is back to 90, we are in full swing fall mode!!!

And fall is for...

Late night trampoline jumping...

Camp fires in the back yard...

With little puppies named Nellie following close behind...

And roasting hot dogs for supper...

And trips to the hunting camp...

And discovering cool spider webs and the residents who live there...

Can you seem him peeking out of the hole??

And cruising on the golf cart all over the hunting lease...

And being made when you don't get to drive {ahem, Kamryn}

But getting over it quickly because this is way too much fun to be pouting!!

And shooting a pistol for the very first time...

For all of us...

And going to the LSU game with your super cool Aunt and Uncle that were nice enough to take you...

And LSU is still undefeated in case anyone is wondering!!

And for my confession...

I thought that keeping up weekly with what we are learning would be helpful to me and be a way for me to document, but truly its just one more thing that I don't have time to do. I will update everyone when we do something super fun, but other than that just know we are learning over here...I promise!!

Study America Saturday

2011-09-25T09:37:00.000-05:00

A great blogger friend Nicole at Journey to Excellence invited me to link up to Study America Saturday weeks ago. And since I get so much useful info from it, how could I not???

Well, because I don't have anything super exciting to post about our studies right now...I don't know WHAT to post!! We are really enjoying our American History study of the American Revolution, but really haven't done anything out of the ordinary yet that would be picture worthy!! So what could I post about???

What I thought I would do is share a great tool with everyone who is studying American History. That tool is Liberty's Kids. If you haven't heard of this wonderful series, please go check it out here. This show was on PBS for a while, but I don't think it is any longer. Lucky for us and the wonder of You Tube, we have access to all of the episodes, or most of them any way.

I love them for so many reasons but here are my top 5 for including them in our studies:

Last year we used something similar and sometimes my girls still ask to watch those episodes or will talk about them, so I know they were memorable.

My youngest is a very visual learner. Although she does comprehend what we read and does lots of reading on her own, I know that these help her tremendously.

While reading lots of good books is very beneficial and definitely my preferred choice of instruction for history studies, sometimes I feel like my kids just don't get the most out of big events because they can't visualize what is going on and have nothing to pull from to help them understand how critical things like the Boston Tea Party or the Battle or Paul Revere's Ride were.

These videos show them that in ways that I never could.

The videos are on YouTube and so are broken up into 2 ten minute episodes usually. I love this because it doesn't take up all of our allotted time and also gives them a perfect cliff hanger for the next day. I love when the video ends and they both just fall out begging to watch part 2!!!

THEY ARE FREE!!! I am all about free resources and this is a great one!!

I hope that you can find use for these episodes in your homeschool and enjoy them as much as we have. You can go here and scroll down to read about each individual episode and then just type in "liberty kids episode # {whatever}" in the you tube search box and there you go!!!

Happenings of a Homeschool...Week 3

2011-09-23T09:34:00.001-05:00

Bible

This week our parable was the The Parable of the Yeast. Kind of a short but sweet parable, but the kids are definitely getting better at understanding them and I have to remember that they too, like the people Jesus was preaching to, are not saved, so these types of things don't come easy to them. Its amazing how the Holy Spirit can change not only your heart but also your mind!!! So, this parable was pretty simple and the girls enjoyed talking about how yeast changes the entire loaf of bread and makes it bigger as does the Holy Spirit for the kingdom of God. Here was our coloring page...nothing spectacular for sure, but it will definitely trigger their memory when they retell these for a grade at the end of the 9 week term!

Memory Work

Still working on Psalm 1 and the Shadow. They are chugging right along and are almost half way through to memorizing them both entirely!!

Latin

Chapter 3 this week was TOUGH!!! I don't know if I am just not "Latin-y" or what, but even I didn't get it at all. Because it was tough, we are going to repeat it next week and be a little more thorough. Hopefully something will make more sense to us!! Reason number 456 I love homeschooling...you don't understand it....just repeat it!! Why take a test on something you don't get???

Math

This week Karsyn and I were introduced to MULTIPLICATION!!! She is so excited because she now knows multiplication!! With Right Start Math there is no memorizing, so you don't learn each individual family so to speak. You master skip counting and then you can multiply anything because you just know that its something counted however many times. AWESOME!!!

Kamryn and I are still working with massive fractions over here!! We are adding and reducing and changing improper to proper and subtracting and all kinds of great things!!! Whew, its some tough stuff, but its so fun!!!

Language Arts

This week in Storytelling the girls had to retell "The Teeny Tiny Lady". So much fun. They were so creative in their "props". Polly Pockets, Little Pet Shop pets, nothing was off limits! Great job gals!!

This week Karsyn had to work with the dictionary and alphabetize and look at pronunciation and syllables and write definitions. All such good stuff. I can see her with such a deeper understanding than if she were just memorizing rules and doing worksheets!!

Still loving Fix It Grammar although we had to re-write Weeks 1 and 2 this week because we didn't get it right. We know what we are doing now, thanks to my friend Kayce who shined the light on the teacher's guide for me this week!!! SERIOUSLY???? What was I thinking???

World History

Still talking pyramids this week. Those things are fascinating!!! We are still reading from The Egyptology handbook and its so visual and cool!! The girls each read a lesson on their own and then we talk about it and watch NatGeo videos to supplement and bring it home. We learned this week that each stone on a pyramid weighed 2 tons and it took anywhere from 8-20 years for a pyramid to built!!! WOW!! If we had that kind of work ethic in America what we could accomplish!!!

American History

This week we learned about the different classes of people in the colonies. Kamryn wanted to know why the rural colonists didn't just move to the towns where they could buy what they need and why the slaves didn't just leave the houses they were at. GREAT DISCUSSIONS!! And the Boston "Massacre" has just taken place and we got the very first taste of media propaganda in our country when the Red Coats killed 5 colonists, but the newspapers reported it as a "massacre" because the folks in Boston were ready to get the British soldiers out of the colonies and they knew it fire up everyone to march toward independence. The girls are loving it!! SO AM I!!! Here are our supplement books to go with our history studies:

Life as a Colonial Schoolteacher

Life as a Colonial Doctor

The 13 Colonies

American History Stories Vol 2

Colonial Women

Geography

This week week we finally began our states. Starting with Deleware. Next week we will do 2 to catch up. The girls are responsible for coloring the state, memorizing the capital, and telling us something interesting they found out about it from a book we have in our book basket called The Quilt of the States.

Picture Study, Music Study, and Art

This week our new piece of art was The Oregon Trail. Wow, not at all what I expected it to look like!! We enjoyed studying that piece for sure, since we all love the 80's computer game. (is that just me?) In Music we entered into the Classical Period where everyday people were first getting exposed to beautiful music. We talked about Mozart and listened to some great pieces from the period! Art was pushed to the side this week...for some reason we just couldn't make it happen :(

Science

We finished our healthy plant growth experiment and are now working on a deep understanding of photosynthesis and why leaves change color. We are heading to TN in a few weeks, so I really want them to understand this so that when we see the massive changing colors there they will know why. We did lots of reading this week and next week we will head out to see if we can back up some of what we have read. Lots of experiments next week as well to show photosynthesis in action. I will have lots of pictures!! Here are the books we read this week...

Usbourne Book of Science Activities Vol. 2

The Nature and Science of Leaves

How Leaves Change

Nature Study

This week is SPIDERS!!! This weekend we will go out in search of different kinds of webs and identify some spiders! CREEPY!!!

Next week is going to be so great, I cannot wait!!! Hopefully I will have more pictures. This week was rushed because we are heading out to participate in The Homeschool Movie Club's showing of Dolphin Tale today!!! We are so excited to see this movie!! In case you are going today, wear blue to show that you are a homeschooler!!! The club is trying to get the message to Hollywood that good, clean, quality movies will sell...and that there are lots of homeschoolers out there that have a very loud voice!!!

Happenings of a Homeschool...Week 2

2011-09-17T17:15:00.000-05:00

Bible

This week our parable was the The Parable of the Weeds. What a great follow up to the wise and foolish man because who are "weeds"? The people who build their houses on the sand of course!! We read the scripture in Matthew 13 and talked about how weeds can take over the garden, how they can sometimes look just like plants, and what kind of damage they can do. Then we discussed why the farmer didn't want the servant to pull them up right away, but to wait until it was harvest time and he would pull both the wheat and the weeds up then and the wheat he would store in the barn and the weeds he would burn and how that relates to us today. The girls are loving how Jesus used these stories so that people could understand what He was telling them. The girls colored the coloring page below from here and then re-wrote the parable in their own words for their parable book they are creating!

Memory Work

Still working on Psalm 1 and the Shadow.

Latin

Chapter 2 this week and everyone made a 100 on the test!! I was so proud because this chapter last year was really hard for Karsyn to understand. So now the girls officially know how to conjugate a Latin verb! YAY!!

Math

This week we reviewed for her test at the end of the week. She did really well on it and one question had her explain the strategy she used to figure the problem out as opposed to showing her work because all of her math must be done in her head. It was really exciting to see her understand how to get the answer. I told her she is well on her way to being a mathematical thinker!! Yes she is!!

This week Kamryn and I learned how to add fractions mentally which was so much fun! It took her a few tries to really get the hang of it, but once she did she was on a roll. Here was one of her problems...

John bought one foot of ribbon.

He cut it into 1, 1 3/4, 5/6, 1 1/2, 2 1/3, and 1 1/6 pieces.

How much ribbon did he have left?

We had so much fun solving these problems. I love learning math with her every day!!! Next year she will be on her own and I will probably cry!

Intermediate Language Lessons

Still liking ILL, but hoping that it gets a little more technical in the coming weeks. Karsyn really likes it, so for now its working.

Fix It Grammar

LOVE LOVE LOVE!! Kamryn will start officially find errors this coming week which should be fun!

World History

We learned about pyramids this week and what they were used for. The girls really are enjoying Egyptian life and culture...who knew??

American History

We are getting close to the Revolution now. We have experienced our very first public address of sorts and the colonists are banning together! Things should start getting heated here pretty quickly!!

What we are reading

Kamryn read about William and Catherine Booth this week, the founders of the Salvation Army. She said she liked them but liked Gladys Alward better!! I am having a hard time finding any books on her, so if anyone knows of any please let me know! I don't want to quench her fire!

For Bible reading, Karsyn is reading the Day by Day Bible.

Both girls finished Sarah Noble this week. Kamryn will begin The Winter of the Red Snow next week which will be much more challenging for her, and she needs that. I am looking for something for Karsyn to read at her level...ideas would be appreciated!

Geography

This week we completely forgot to color a state. Ooops, again I say that I love homeschooling!

Picture Study, Music Study, and Art

We reviewed our picture from last week in Picture Study, began the Baroque period in Music, and learned how to make animals out of basic shapes in Art. This is a quick and easy, but very fun part of our day!!

Science

We are still working on our "Healthy Plant Growth" experiment and are tracking our little lima beans growth in our science journals. We turned their home on its side to see how much they would like that. LOL, they didnt! We also began to look at leaves and why they change colors. We had an experiment and removed chlorophyll from a leaf as well. Fun stuff!! I mean where is my camera??

Nature Study

This week for nature study the Daddy Boy took the girls down to the river by our house. They found lots of invertebrates that were not insects there. The favorite of which were clams!! They loved it. We talked about and read about crabs, crawfish, and other water loving invertebrates to go along with the clams and will start Pagoo on Monday!!! Again, where is my camera?? I will do better next week!! I promise!!

Happenings of a Homeschool....Week 1

2011-09-13T19:02:00.003-05:00

Our first week back to school is now under our belts, and while I am a little bitty bit late in posting, I am going to try hard to post weekly the happenings of our homeschool. I really want to remember these good days around mid-February.

I have to first say, "Living Books Curriculum, where have you been all my life?" Wow!! What a great program. We are doing the 2nd grade program and while I think I will pick up the pace a little bit...it is really great. My girls still have their Math, Latin, Intermediate Language Lessons, and Fix It Grammar which is on their appropriate levels, so I wasn't too worried about the other stuff being a few years behind. The problem I am having is that I want to stick with this until high school, so I have got to figure out how to pick up the pace and catch up to their appropriate levels. But its so awesome that I don't want to miss anything. We are having a blast and its amazing how much can be learned in short 20 minute lessons that are alternated between technical and non-technical subjects. I have revamped our schedule once again to make sure everything is alternating the way it should be and I have moved their Independent Work to their "quiet time". It was pointless to have it in the middle of the school day because I wasn't getting anything done with all of the questions. Now, I have permanently given them something to do while they are in their rooms for quiet time and if they have questions I don't have to go upstairs to answer them. The choir is a singin' I tell ya!!!

So here is the new and improved schedule...

And here is our weekly breakdown, which is what the rest of the posts will look like :)

Bible
We are doing Bible this year at the kitchen table with breakfast. It has really worked out because it gives us that precious extra 15 minutes in the mornings and we can pray and eat and talk all before going upstairs which I love. So, I have decided to venture on my own for Bible and have found a list of all of the parables of Jesus here. We do a parable a week and I just search online to find a coloring page and some good discussion questions that we can stretch throughout the week. This week we did the parable of the wise man and the foolish man. We had a great talk and made huge improvements from Monday when both girls thought that God wants us to build a house in the mountains not at the beach. By Friday everyone understood that Jesus is the rock upon which we build our lives!

Memory Work
This term we are memorizing Psalm 1 and "The Shadow" by Robert Louis Stevenson. The girls love memory work so much and its a great energy boost first thing in the morning with all of the dance moves and hand motions they make up to go with the words. They will recite both for grandparents at the end of the 9 weeks.

Latin
We started back from the beginning in Latin this year even though we had made it through Chapt. 3 last year. Because we got such a late start beginning the Latin for Children program, I felt like we would do better just to start over!! We breezed through chapter 1 this week and love to sing the latin songs that go along with the program. So fun!! This program is fabulous!!

Math
This week in RightStart Math, Karsyn is mastering 2 digit mental addition by learning different strategies for doing these problems in her head. She will take her first test of the year next week after a full week of games and review and I am crossing my fingers that she just blows us out of the water. What I love about this program is that on her test next week she will be required to list out the steps of the strategy she chooses to use to solve each problem mentally.

Kamryn is working on fractions and mastering how to add them, find fractions of a whole number, finding how many more to make a whole and do way more than I knew how to do before beginning this week! Our "ah ha" moment this week in math was when we learned that the denominator is the number you make and the numerator is the number you take. For instance if you are looking for 5/6 of 12 you will "make" 6 groups of 2 and "take" 5 groups of 2 making 5/6 of 12...10!!! I cannot say enough about this program, I really can't!

Intermediate Language Lessons
Karysn started Intermediate Language Lessons this year as a bit of a more relaxed program that teaches in context. I like it so far. If things don't go as planned I will definitely go back to First Language Lessons but I have heard so many good things about this program that I had to give it a try! We like it so far! My favorite thing about it is that it gives you a passage to read and then gives you a specific sentence to dictate and then zeros in on a word or group of words from the sentence and asks you to formulate a rule for it. One was a capital I. Karsyn's rule was "Always capitalize the I when its lonely." I think she will remember that better because its her rule!! I like it!!!

Fix It Grammar
This is by far the best find of the Midsouth Homeschool Convention. Kamryn has a sentence a day to fix, define a vocab word from, and rewrite all from a classic novel. This year its Tom Sawyer.   So this year she will read an abridged version of Tom Sawyer, define the difficult words in the story, and rewrite the entire story to keep for herself! IM SOLD!!! Another plus is that her entire grammar career is right there in this one little book. NEVER BUY GRAMMAR AGAIN!!! Come on somebody!!!!

World History
We are learning about the Ancient Egyptians and have just scratched the surface so far. We began our timeline which is even amazing to me to see how the Bible facts are happening right alongside the Egyptians building pyramids. I mean you always knew it, but to see it is amazing. Im excited to put it all together this year!

American History
We are studying the American Revolution this year and can I just say that colonial life is so awesome!! I love this time period and the living books included with this curriculum just bring it all to life. So far we have learned about taxation without representation and The Stamp Act. Its just getting good!!! By far my fave subject!

What we are reading
Kamryn is reading Hero Tales for her Bible reading and this week was Gladys Alward. She LOVED it and said that she wanted more books about her. CHECK, I can do that!!

For Bible reading, Karsyn is reading the Day by Day Bible.

Both girls are independently reading The Courage of Sarah Noble this week and what a great story that is. We are really enjoying our time talking about it.

Geography
To correlate with American History we are studying very loosely American Geography using Daily Geography from Evan Moor. We will also color one state per week and just briefly talk about what makes the states unique. Were coloring them in order of statehood...love it!! Hopefully by the end of the year we will have memorized all of the states and capitals as well as be able to locate them all on a map! Yay for Geography!

Picture Study, Music Study, and Art
We studied The Artist in His Museum by Charles Peale this week. The girls loved it, and I was very pleasantly surprised. They were quite interested in this man's museum and all that he put in it. In Music, we studied Richard Wagner. Very interesting. We are using The Story of the Orchestra...a very small picture book that comes with a CD to hear the composer while you study. Couldn't be more simple and yet so thorough. I love it!! Art starts next week!!!

Science
This week we began a "Healthy Plant Growth" experiment and are tracking our little lima beans growth in our science journals. Next week we will begin making changes to the beans and seeing how it affects them. At the end of the term the girls will have to tell about this experiment and explain what plants need to grow as well as what hinders their growth. Fun!!!

Nature Study
The highlight of our week this week was our nature study time. We are always out and about in nature, but this week was phenomenal. A few days back Big Daddy took a ride around the 90 acres behind our house and stumbled upon a butterfly sanctuary. We don't know why they were all here, but there were hundreds. He told me about it and so I knew where we were headed for our nature study time. We jumped on the golf cart and headed out back. It was amazing. This term we will be studying invertebrates that are NOT insects, so we kicked the year off with our favorite invertebrate that IS an insect...the butterfly. Here are some pictures from the trip!!!

It was a great first week back!! I am so ready to see all that we learn this year!!! I feel like after a year of flailing like a fish out of water, I have finally found my niche, and I am just tickled pink!!

We will never forget...

2011-09-11T07:21:00.001-05:00

September 11, 2001.

Where were you??

I have been told that people old enough to understand what was happening on that day will never forget where they were and what they were doing when our country was attacked.

I remember where I was. I was in our very first house. I was in the living room feeding my baby girl who was about to turn 1 (and is now about to turn 11) some oatmeal for breakfast. Dora the Explorer was on tv (before they decided to make her a tween....big mistake Nick). The sun was beating in our front door window, that is what it did every morning. Our border collie Shae, that we still have today laying in her favorite corner of the living room. My phone rang and it was Big Daddy who wanted to know if I was watching the news. Of course I wasn't, so he told that that a plane had just flown into the World Trade Center "on accident". I remember putting in on Good Morning America only to see the live footage of the 2nd plane flying into the building while they talked about the first plane doing it. I will never forget.

Life changed forever on September 11, 2001 for us as Americans but for so many men and women, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, daughters and sons. So many people never came home that day. So many lives shattered. I will never forget those families.

On September 10, 2001 life was NORMAL!!! George W was President and life was good. Did I just say that out loud??? There was no such thing as smart phones, text messaging, facebook, twitter, or even blogs. We had cell phones for emergencies and desktop computers to type papers for school. Email was something only office workers had, and there wasn't an i anything. No ipod, itouch, ipad, or iphone. And there was no such thing as terrorism, like we know it today. I had no idea where Afghanistan was on a map, had no idea that people hated Americans, never had heard of Islam, and certainly had no clue of extremist groups who would harm themselves for their ridiculous cause. I will never forget.

And on that September 11th morning, I went to Walmart as fast as I could (back then they were few and far between) and bought and American flag for our house and our cars. I loved my country and I wanted everyone to know it. That feeling I will never forget.

And now today 10 years later, I remember of all the lives that have been changed. All of the families who sacrifice their husbands and wives, moms and dads for the greater good of our country every day. The wives who haven't held their husband's hands in months or years but talk every night on Skype from Afghanistan. All of the children who have never met their dads because they are serving our country. All of the families whose soldiers are not going to ever come home. On this day, I remember your family. I thank your family for the huge sacrifice you make for our country so that we can be free and safe. From the bottom of my heart to all of the soldiers, government officials, airport staff, taxi drivers, subway workers, security guards, police officers, and firemen who work every day to make sure 911 doesn't happen again, I say thank you!!! Your work is immeasurable and my gratitude is too. I will never forget the sacrifice you make!!! We will never forget!!!

What man intends for evil, God will use for good. Genesis 50:20

I am a Good Girl

2011-09-01T08:08:00.001-05:00

I had first heard about this book months ago {the author is Emily from Chatting at the Sky, she is Nester's sister} and knew that I would have to read it. Well, today it is on bookshelves and I cannot wait to get my hands on it. Check out the video...are you a good girl like me??

Pinterest is my new BFF

2011-08-30T07:39:00.000-05:00

This is a public service announcement....

In case you have been living under a rock as I had been and have never heard of Pinterest, please mosey on over and check out the latest social networking site just for pyscho, obsessive folks like me {and maybe you}!!!

I love the site so much because it is like a huge bookmark folder for all of the things you find online but have nowhere to put {aka my desktop is full of little images, but then you can't find the websites they came from} or you don't want to bookmark it {aka my bookmark folders are busting at the seams and who knows what in the world I found at those random sites}. Well, Pinterest has solved the dilemma for us all!!!

Head on over and search away...you will find what everyone else is pinning and then add it to your pin board that you can categorize {recipes, decorations, school inspiration, it just goes on and on} and then voila its all there for you...websites and all!!! I couldn't be more tickled!!!

My username is kellyej, so search me and see what I am pinning!!!! Then just be in love!! Here are just a few things I found this morning...

And EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM is just linked right on over to the site it comes from!! AUTOMATICALLY!!!!! Aaaaaaah!!!

Start pinning!!!!

Fall is in the Air

2011-08-29T13:49:00.000-05:00

This is our last week of summer before we begin school next week, and you can even feel it in the air. In the mornings when I go take the dogs out it is so crisp and cool...but it quickly heats to somewhere around 285 degrees before lunch. Please don't misunderstand. When you live in South Louisiana, you will take what you can get and right now I will take mornings in the 70's, even if it is only for an hour or two.

We will kick in the school year with the first LSU football game {Geaux Tigers} Saturday night, then celebrate Labor Day at my parent's house and be ready for Tuesday to get into our new school room and dive into our 2nd year of homeschooling!!! I can hardly wait. I know that by mid-February I won't be so excited to be cooped up in a school room all day, so I am writing how excited I am now to remind me!!! It probably won't hurt to be reminded of the warm weather either in February!!!

I hope that you are enjoying your last few days of summer too!!!

Breaking Up is Hard To Do

2011-08-16T09:14:00.000-05:00

**This will be a very long and boring, pour your heart out kind of post so either just X out now or grab you a cup of some strong stuff because we may be here a while. You can't say I didn't warn you.**

Nobody likes to say goodbye!! I hate it...especially when I'm saying goodbye to something I really don't want to say goodbye to...like Blue Bell ice cream, Housewives of New Jersey, or Institute for Excellence in Writing....

That's right. I said it. Hang me now!!!

We have cut IEW from our school plans for this year!!!! I cannot believe the words are coming out of my mouth {or should I say from my fingers}. I have sold so many people on this program its ridiculous. I have read so much about this program its ridiculous. I have spent so many hours on the IEW website and yahoo group its ridiculous. And now we're aren't even going to use it.

Why??? You ask. Why, if I am so in love with this program are we putting it aside??

Well, I will just tell you.

We don't need it!!!

Very complicated answer right??? And now you are thinking, okay, does she think she is raising geniuses or something?? No, I don't. But the truth of the matter is that right now my girls are pretty good little writers for their ages. Its not a place where we struggle nor is it a time of the day I dread. They write every morning in their journals, they write for fun during their quiet time, and now with our new Living Books Curriculum they will be writing narration constantly!! I just don't see where we need an hour of our day dedicated to a formal writing program right now.

You see, this homeschool thing really gets to your heart in places that you never knew existed. You go into this thinking that your kids are supposed to do everything public school kids do, they must take the standardized tests that the other "real school kids" take and you spend an hour on every boring and monotonous subject. Then about half way through the first year something happens. I realized that we really didn't need to do all that we were doing. We really didn't need to do 45 worksheets on nouns because guess what...does anybody ever write a sentence without a noun???? EVER???? Somebody answer me because I don't believe in all my years of teaching and parenting have I ever read a sentence that somebody wrote that didn't have a noun in it!!!! So why on earth am I drilling nouns for weeks???

Then I find this Living Books Curriculum that nobody has ever heard of and has no reviews anywhere except for a few people that are the same people who are on their very quiet forum and I FALL IN LOVE!!! Its all about writing constantly, testing what they do know, not what they don't know, science experiments every day, World History and American History simultaneously, all in 8 weeks of instruction and a week of review and testing. Its exactly what I have been looking for. And as I read all of this stuff in the teacher's guide I am learning that 20 minutes per subject is plenty and that if you rotate subjects between fun and boring, everybody will always be interested.

So, no formal writing program for us this year. And to boot...I have completely revamped my schedule of our day to follow what Charlotte Mason and LBC recommends and I could not be happier. I feel like this is where we belong. We will be done by lunch and my kids will have learned more in the 5 hours of school this year than they have learned every year up to this point combined!!! And the best part is half the time they won't even realize they are learning because we are just reading and painting and listening to the orchestra and chasing invertebrates in the "out of doors" as Mrs. Mason would call it!! And writing about all of it!!!

So IEW, I must put you aside for this year. Who knows maybe next year we will come back for you. Or we may be unschooling by then...at the rate I'm going :)

I hope that you are getting ready for your year and learning all kinds of things you didn't know about yourself and your school!!!!

Here is our new schedule...

My Favorite Homeschool Links

2011-08-15T17:26:00.001-05:00

I am almost finished with school planning and am getting very excited about this upcoming year!!! I went out on a limb and chose a spine that I had never heard of before and that had very little reviews, but WOW, it is phenomenal!! It is totally Charlotte Mason, so it fits me perfectly and I think what what we have been looking for in our school day!! I cannot wait to get started!!! Living Books Curriculum I am so glad I met you!!

This year, I took the advice of Carrie and am trying to be ahead of the game with my planning. I am working on getting everything planned through Christmas. I am talking everything...copies made and in a folder, library books decided on and saved in a list, vocabulary words decided on and printed, EVERYTHING!! So far so good. As soon as I finish that, I will move on to cleaning up and moving the school room to the playroom which looks like a tornado went through it at the moment!! We start on September 6th. Hello!!

During this planning phase I have learned that I have several "go to" websites for resources and wanted to share them with you in case you had never been to them. All of these websites are free and are AMAZING!!!

So here is my favorite homeschool links...

www.homeschoolshare.com

Here you can find all sorts of free lapbooks, unit studies, etc. Did I mention it is all FREE?? Sometimes I don't go all out and do the lapbook, but I will use the information just for my lesson. Vocabulary words, other books that compliment the subject, art to go along with topic...it can all be found here. This is a great site!!

www.currclick.com

This is a great jewel of a website because sometimes for free and most of the time for less than $5 you can find just what you need to completely flesh out what you are teaching. I have found so much on here like word puzzles, unit studies, book studies. This is a great tool. And you can sign up for their "Follow Your Favorites Mailer" and they will email you what you like every morning. Most of it is FREE!!! Great website!!

www.spellingcity.com

Awesome and FREE resource!! You can type in your child's spelling list and she can play games, take

practice tests, and even take the real test all online!!! We visit this site daily!!!!

www.edhelper.com
I love this website when I want a little something more about a topic. There are crossword puzzles, reading comprehension quizzes, all kinds of stuff here. There is a membership fee but it is nominal I believe and well worth it!!!

These sites are huge helps for me as I am "fleshing out" my spine over here!!! I would love to hear anyone else's fave sites if you have them!!

And before you go...Remember I told you that we had a wedding at our house a few weekends ago!!! Here are a few pics...

Prayers are urgently needed PLEASE!!!

2011-07-21T23:59:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone,

As we all hold our babies in our arms or feed them supper or tell them to pick up their toys, we are all abundantly blessed beyond measure!! Tonight, I heard about a mom who lives about an hour from our house who is holding her son tonight while all she can do for him is try to keep him comfortable!!! Her son is 2 and was diagnosed at around 2 months old with "EB" a very rare skin disease that causes severely painful blisters that often are accompanied by extremely painful and difficult and sometimes impossible to heal infections. I have never ever heard of this disease before nor had I ever seen anything like it. She has a blog and I encourage you all to please go over and see her post from tonight as she wrestles with how to best keep her son comfortable as she tries to wrap her brain around the possibility that the Lord may be calling him home.

Leave her a little note to let her know you are praying for their family and please lift little Tripp up to the ultimate healer. And then thank the Lord above that you have been so very blessed in so many ways that we don't even realize or even, heaven forbid, acknowledge!!