A Place for Everything or Total Schoolroom Makeover

Thanks to an organizing friend (a professional)- our school room saw a total makeover this weekend. I didn't take before pictures, but trust me - it was bad! I was at the point of not wanting to school in our school room. I'm looking forward to it tomorrow!

A place for everything and everything in it's place. I'm not a hoarder, but I'm a disorganized messie. I'm hoping by labeling all my areas in the school room that I will stick to putting things back where they belong. The kids too??

My teaching table. Wade made this for me my second year of homeschooling. I do love it! I can still fit three children around it if I need to, but normally the school room is reserved for one on one time with mom. I added the laptop so I don't have to leave the room to lesson plan anymore. I hate lesson planning - but it was kind of fun tonight!

Each child has a shelf of their school books. I'm sorry to say this was the messiest spot before, and the easiest to clean up. My mom gave me the shelf dividers. Each child will be assigned the task of labeling their area and rewarded for keeping it neat! I will credit Rachel for keeping her spot neat all year long. It was easier for her because of the amount of books she has!

We saved the closet for last. I was able to part with things and organize everything else. My mom worked on this last year and really did a good job. She set up the pencil color crayon area. However, without a label to keep me accountable - I quickly fell into my sloppy habit of quick cleanups and stuffing things in the most convenient place.

This area will hopefully be used as a reading nook, or a comfy place to wait for mom to be available.

Looking forward to school tomorrow! We have our 4-day writing class this week, so the school room won't have a lot of use! However, the week after is full speed ahead!

Coffee Cake and Pippi

This hand written invitation says, "You are invited to a coffey (coffee) party in the kitchen at 1:00

Garret is currently doing a Pippi Longstocking Literature Study. He usually works on vocabulary, spelling, grammar, story writing - but today I had something different in mind. You see, Pippi was invited to a coffee party at the home of her two friends.

We had our own coffee party (more like -coffee cake party!)

I read the chapter to the rest of the family while they dined on coffee cake by Garret, and hot cocoa with French vanilla creamer!

I didn't realize we had closed eyes, but maybe this is the picture Pippi would have picked to show if she had been with us.

Mapping the Dead Sea

I actually did a suggested project in our History book. The kids themselves asked me to post this!

We are using Mystery of History, Volume II. The Early Church and the Middle Ages. I love the book, I love the author!

This week in History we studied events happening around the Dead Sea. You can see our pin marks. Blue is Jerusalem.

1) White: Masada - A.D. 66-73. Herod the Great lived at Masada when he was a young boy. Later in life he remodeled it and turned it into an unbelievable stronghold. During the First Jewish revolt, a group of Zealots made their escape to Masada. Unfortunately, the Romans made their way up to Masada by building a dirt mound. After using battering rams to break down the walls the Romans entered and found very few Jews alive. The Zealots took their own lives in order to prevent Roman captivity.

2) Yellow: The Dead Sea Scrolls - written by a Jewish sect called the Essenes. These are the very words of our Old Testament Scriptures. They were discovered in Qumran in 1947 by a shepherd boy.

3) Red: Bar-Kokhba - A.D. 135. Bar-Kokhba was once thought to be a legend. But the leader of the Second Jewish Revolt was discovered to be a real person in 1961. Proof was found in a canyon named Nahal Hever. Letters written by Bar-Kokhba to his generals were found in remarkable condition (this attributed to the dry air near the Dead Sea).

Lilly and I made this map.

Bret did this one, and Garret made our flags!

Sad for me, Rachel missed out on this. She is in high school and is doing her own study of World History this year.

Bible Time in the Orchard

Most of our school mornings start off with a short Bible reading and prayer. It helps me focus on what is most important in our home school.

A couple of weeks ago, Garret had a great idea. We did our Bible time in the orchard. Wade was home that day so he to read to us. Then we worked on our memory work. I Corinthians 13.

I felt like we were camping and didn't really want it to end. But it was a school day for us and work day for Wade. So we wrapped up our special time in prayer, thanking God for His many blessings and Bible time in our orchard was at the top of the list!

First Day of School

2010-2011 School Year

Lilly - 2nd Grade

This year - multiplication and division! She had fun with math blocks and multiples of 2 last week.

Garret - 4th Grade

Garret has been having a great time with a language study this past week. I can tell his imagination will take him far in his writing this year. I've assured him that his math book is easy.

Bret - 7th Grade

So, Bret is in real school now!! He's working on his second year grammar. He was thrilled (hee, hee) to learn all about Participle Phrases last week! But it's not all that bad. He gets to learn Physical Science with some outstanding young men. Writing class, Bible class - it's good to be in Junior High!

Rachel - 9th Grade

Highschool - wow! Rachel's looking forward to an online Spanish class. We've purchased a microscope, some slides and look forward to having two of Rachel's friends come to our house each week to study Biology together!

There are many other exciting things in store for us this year. Our Bible time is centered around the Acts of the Apostles. Every morning we listen to another story from the Your Story Hour collection. It's an exciting way to learn what happened in the Book of Acts.

I'm going to concentrate on learning large sections of scripture, beginning with I Corinthians 13. We're also finally beginning our Mystery of History II! I love history, love this Christ-centered book, and I'm so excited for the opportunity to share it with my three youngest children.

Just to let you know we're still real, and no every day didn't go as planned last week. The phone rang and I had to answer it. We cried over hand writing. I had to take a nap after I finished teaching Bret his grammar lesson, and Lilly had way too much free time!

Week 2 - here we come!

Perfect Day for a Bike Ride...

The first (I hope) annual SVCS bike ride was today!

We met at the Honda Hills.  The kids had fun on the jumps, etc.  I had a pleasant ride with two other moms!  At the appointed time we headed down the Jacktone bike path and out to our house!  Wade put me in the lead.  I didn't keep it for long - but if I count right, I was the 8th one home out of 36 bikers.  That's not too bad is it?

Upon arriving at our house - Wade fired up the Barby while the rest of us rested and enjoyed fresh picked oranges (from our generous neighbors)!

We were soon fortified with hot dogs, lemonade and chips - yum!

For dessert there were yummy brownies and colorful Popsicles!

Oops!  A couple of guys thought they'd ride on down to the river.

That didn't turn out to be such a good idea.  I think one made it back to Honda Hills by way of tow.  The other had to call mum and dad!

Garret - ready to head back to Honda Hills for some more jumps!

H. getting a tow from J.  What a nice guy!

It was a great day, beautiful weather and wonderful friends to exercise with!

A Note from Lilly

 I never want to forget this...
Young children have the most interesting way of spelling the things they want to communicate.  I remember when Rachel was in school the teacher had them keep a journal.   When the journal made its way home, I stood in my kitchen - laughing at her spelling, but crying because I was so touched with what she had written.  Funny, I understood what she was saying - all I had to do was use my phonics skills- all the right sounds, just the wrong letters.  Lilly needs a little more practice - so I'll interpret for you...

I love this, but I promised my mommy that I would go to the store

Isn't that sweet?  What did she love?  Her math fact families.  I was keeping her busy with them, while I worked with Bret on Grammar!

Happy Ground Hog Day

This morning our family opened up our Atlas, Almanac and other various interesting library books.  I read a fun story about the Liberty Bell - fitting, because we were studying the state of Pennsylvania.  We filled in our notebooks with facts and details about the state.  I quizzed them on events we've studied in prior history lessons that had to do with the state.  We were wrapping it up when I decided to look at one more book...

What do you know?  It's Groundhog Day!  What state does Punxsutawney Phil live in?  None other than Pennsylvania!  

Here's what we learned about Groundhog Day - the first celebration was on February 2, 1886.  The townsfolk had a celebration that day and waited to see if Phil would see his shadow.  They'd been watching him for years before that and decided that Phil could forecast the weather.  If he saw his shadow on February 2nd it would be six more weeks of winter.  If not, spring would soon arrive!  Well today he saw his shadow.  A welcome relief to the dry Californians!!

We also learned that Pittsburgh is a big manufacturer of steel - now we get it -Pittsburgh Steelers!  We remembered that the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia in 1776.  I explained why the Pennsylvania Dutch are not really Dutch, and we drooled over pictures of Hershey Kisses coming off an assembly line!

Happy Groundhog Day!

Return to the Moon/Castle Airfore Base

The year is 2017, and for the first time since the Apollo 17 in 1972, a group of astronauts is planning to land on the surface of the moon!  You may recognize a few of these young astronauts!

Today, our home school group had the privilege of participating in "Return to the Moon", a program put on by the Challenger Learning Center in Atwater.  Challenger Centers dot the U.S., built in memory of the Challenger Crew, who lost their lives seconds after take off in 1986.  This memorial is not made of brick or stone, but is a living, breathing monument that is giving children all over the U.S. a chance to learn what real astronauts do in space!

Half of our crew was in Mission Control, while the other half braved life in the space station.  After one hour, they traded places.  Each member had a specific job and tasks to accomplish.  Javan was on the Medical team.  Here he is reading his scripts and getting ready for his next test.

Bret was a member of the Isolation team.  He and his co-workers controlled robots which operated outside of the space craft.  They were measuring, counting and completing tasks assigned to them by Mission Control

Moriah - our other Medical team member!

Rachel and Emily as Life Support!!  Oh, boy!!  At one time there was only 3 minutes left of oxygen on the space craft.  These girls performed their many tasks in a calm manner and with the help of Mission Control saved the lives of all their crew members!

Busy, busy!!!  They were a great team!

Navigation with the help of Mission Control had to decide the best place to land the space craft.
Remote was very busy, analyzing space rocks, etc.  Mission Control side analyzed data for them, and in their spare time helped find a safe place to land the craft.

More testing!  Mission Control kept Rachel and Emily very busy!

Sending results, via Data to Mission Control.

Safety first!  They loved the glasses - not!!

Isolation continues to work

It looks easier than it is to control these joysticks!  Wade was a great help to the Isolation team!

Almost done!

A safe landing on the moon!  Mission Accomplished!!!

Homeschoolers cram as much as they can in one day.  Once your out, you're out.  So next stop was Castle Air Force Base!  This is Wade's absolute favorite plane - the SR-71

This particular SR-71 was the first to fly over Vietnam, and it flew photo reconnaissance over Libya in 1986!

Planes, and more planes!  It was a great day!  Beautiful weather!  Thankful we don't live in Vermont today!

Top Gun!! (Something this 80's girl could relate to!!)

Cool, and very cool!  Open cockpit at Castle is May 24th!