A Happy 4th of July

Hope everyone has a safe and happy day.  We are keeping it low key.  My parents came for their weekly visit as usual.  My oldest is on the beach with his friends but dh is on call so the rest of us are just enjoying the day around the house.  Earlier in the week we had a little patriotic crafting fun…

making some firecracker sparkler wave around thingys…

and making our annual tshirts for the holiday.  The boy needs a new shirt, don’t ‘ya think?

I saw lots of posts for these cuties floating around and just had to make us some.  They are too cute, huh?

I think he likes them!  Here’s a trick I almost always do when I’m using plain white canned frosting…melt a couple of blocks of white chocolate to stir in!  Really amps up the yum factor.  :)  Oh, and check out ds’s shirt.  We went with an idea from Family Fun where you make designs with pasta shapes and use them as a stamp for painting your shirt.  Turned out very cute.

Here is ds3 with his finished shirt, and chomping down on some red, white and blue fruit kabobs.  Just threaded some strawberries, mini marshmallows and blueberries on some skewers.  Too easy!

So now dh and ds2 are out hunting for fireworks, although our neighbors will surely give us a good show tonight.  Fireworks are actually illegal here in the Sunshine State, but you can do sparklers and smoke bombs and those popping things.  And of course watch the display put on by your state-hopping neighbors lol.  Happy 4th!

Homeschool 8th Grade Year Wrap-Up

Wrap up, a look back, whatever.  Can you tell I’m on edge getting ds2’s portfolio together for evals this week?  I go through this every year and every year we live through it.  But I just don’t feel good until it’s over.  Please, let it be over soon.

Anywho, as I have been prepping ds’s portfolio I revisited some posts I made about his schooling over the year.  Most especially this post about my final decisions for his curriculum for the year.  Why?  Because as I was looking through ds’s materials I suddenly remembered that my computer crashed earlier this year and that means all the grades and assignments I had recorded in my homeschool software WAS GONE.  His reading list, report cards, everything. Apparently I had blocked this from my memory lol.  I have written backup in the form of my lesson planner book, but honestly I did not keep up with it as well this year as I have in the past.  So both ds and I needed our memories refreshed as far as just what he did this year…thank goodness for this blog!

So I thought I would do a follow-up post to this one, and see just how well the actual school year followed the planned one.

Math          Abeka Pre-Algebra  We stuck with Abeka for all the 8 years I homeschooled ds2 and I am glad.  It is a great program and worked well for both ds1 and ds2.

Reading      Dear Mr. Henshaw, Maniac McGee, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Old Man and The Sea, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Jungle Book, Treasure Island, Robin Hood, and The Hobbit.  We will cover a book a month, with 2 months for The Hobbit at the end of the school year.  He did not get to 20,000 Leagues, The Jungle Book or Treasure Island, but we also added The Dangerous Days of Daniel X.  Our reading was a good mix imo and a good prep for high school.

History       Across The Centuries  Nope, hated this book.  We wound up doing lapbooks and unit studies.  Having both the Olympics and an Election made for good fodder lol.

Language    Spectrum Writing Grade 8  He will do a worksheet once and week, and write a paragraph once a week (usually based on the book we are covering.)  We have used Abeka's language program from the start, and he has a very good grasp of grammar.  We are concentrating on writing this year.  So glad I went with this one this year.  Abeka has an excellent language program and we used it for 7 of the 8 years with ds2, but I felt he needed to concentrate more on writing.  The Spectrum workbook fulfilled this need quite well.

Spelling      Natural Speller  Sorry, but I hated this one, too.  I had heard so many good things about it, but it was too complicated and involved and convoluted.  Spelling isn’t that hard but this method pretty much made it so.  I wound up giving ds lists of words that he frequently misspelled in his writing and words from his reading.

Art       Usborne Introduction To Art and Art Masterpieces to Color, using Harmony Art Mom's lesson plans.  Loved the Usborne book and the coloring book.  Harmony Art Mom’s plans are a good base although for us they didn’t have the right “flow.”  It seemed we were doing lots of lessons on things that had nothing to do with the artist we were concentrating on.  Instead I wound up just following the Usborne book.

Nature     The Handbook of Nature Study's Outdoor Hours  As always, a wonderful wonderful resource for nature study.  Will be following this for years to come.

Science     Chemistry for Christian Schools (rethinking this one...may just use some kind of workbook.)  Nope, spent a lot on this book and it turned out to be not what we needed.  I found a fun workbook full of chemistry experiments at a homeschool convention that worked out great for us.

So that’s that.  A few misses, a few hits.  Typical homeschool year, eh?  Okay now I have to stop avoiding with a vengeance procrastinating and get back to the portfolio.  Pass the sweet tea and the tylenol.  Please.

Wordless Wednesday: A Boy, A Hat & Some Bubbles

Book Review: The Kite Runner

I had heard a lot of good reviews about this book, but I read A Thousand Splendid Suns by the same author last year and while I will note that Suns is a well written book, it’s subject matter left me not exactly wanting more.  Because of this I have avoided The Kite Runner until now.  I picked up a copy at the library book sale and after reading a few “less intense” books lately I decided to finally tackle this one.

I have to say I’m very glad I did delve into this book.  It is very well written and quite easy to read for a book that deals with such intense subject matter.  I can’t explain why, but with this book the author did a better job of presenting the dark and somewhat gory stuff in a manner that didn’t turn me away.  It turns out to be a beautiful story even with all the tragedy involved.  The author managed to lock us into the main character’s mind so well that we can’t bring ourselves to like him until he finally begins to like himself (and that’s not until near the end.)  The themes of father/son relationships, familial traditions and human tolerance (or lack thereof,) although presented through an Afghan’s eyes, are easily understood and related to by any reader.

I’m sure all that gooble gabble up there is clear as mud.  :)  It’s a good book, well worth looking into.

Product Review: Guitar Hero On Tour Nintendo DS

It is official!  Ds2’s hopes and dreams have finally come true!  I have been doing online surveys and product reviews for a while now.  Since day one ds has wanted me to be picked to review something, anything, to do with video games.  And with many thanks to Mom Central and their association with Activision, I now have the happiest teenager around. :)

My family is full of video game enthusiasts.  We all have different tastes as far as games go, but I have to admit that we all like Guitar Hero.  The boys like the challenge of the game, dh and I like listening to the music.  I knew that Nintendo had come out with a version for the DS, but wondered just how you could enjoy the game without a real guitar.  Would it be as challenging for the boys and as fun for us as a family?

Yep, it is. :)

The happy bunch after opening the much anticipated box.  Note the Guitar Hero t-shirts.  On the back they say “I rock.”  Told you we were fans. :)

Okay, pardon all the technical jargon I am about to use, but there really is no way around it.  Basically the game comes with a thingy that has the fret buttons from the guitar.  You attach this thingy on to the DS and hold the system in the palm of your hand. 

Like so.

The game also comes with a pick that you use to strum on the touchpad side of the DS.  Not to worry, there is a little compartment on the thingy where you can store the pick.  (Special thanks to ds2 for telling me about frets and touchpads.)

Ooooh, a live action shot!  So you can see the setup is simple and while it’s different than holding a guitar in your hands, it is just as fun to play.  Plus, being on the DS, it’s portable!  Soon after we first tested the games we went on a two hour road trip to a family reunion.  This was my first time to try things out.  I liked it!  It was easy to catch on to the basic mechanics of how to play, but a nice challenge.  Well, I was on easy mode, but still. :)

Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits has 28 songs, multiplayer modes and song streaming…where you can use a wireless connection to share songs between players from different versions of the game.  Mom Central graciously set us up with Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades so we could do just that.  Gotta admit, that is a cool feature that really allowed us to play together more.  And Decades has a few more artists I recognize (yeah, I knew I couldn’t get through this review without showing my age lol.)  Here are the important facts about these products:

Publisher: Activision Publishing, Inc./RedOctane

Developer: Vicarious Visions

Platform: Nintendo DS

MSRP: Hardware Bundle (includes game and Guitar Grip): $49.99

ESRB Rating: “E 10+” (Everyone 10 and older – Lyrics)

Need even more info?  Check it out here at the product website.  I especially like that these games are rated E…for everyone!  Really, if any game companies are listening out there, please make more E rated games!  It’s not that hard, half the T for teen and M for mature games out there could be edited just a little to make them more family friendly.  Okay, off the soapbox.  Final opinion?  Happy kids=happy mom.  You can feel good about putting Guitar Hero On Tour for the DS on your shopping list, it’s a good one.  The end. :)

You Can Tell A Lot About A Blogger…

…from the labels on her blog!  I was doing some rearranging of my blog layout and noticed my labels gadget.  You know what most of my posts are filed under?  The label “Mom Thoughts.”  There are 62 posts with that label.  Wow, I didn’t know I was such a heavy thinker.  Or had so many posts that I couldn’t classify in any other way.

The label that has the most posts after that?  Homeschooling.  Whew.  I was afraid I had lost the whole theme of this blog!  It is, after all, “A place for me to share about life homeschooling and raising 4 boys in the Sunshine State.”

Next most popular label?  With 47 posts it’s “Family Fun.”  Yep, I’d say that is right.  And I can retain my blog title of Fun In The Sun.  Yea!

The next three most used labels really tell something about me.  They are “reading” with 32 posts, “Disney” with 28 posts, and “kitties” with 22.  I do love all three of those things. :)  How I have dreamed of cuddling up with one of my kitties and reading a good book while at Disney World.  Sigh.

So labels aren’t always a bad thing.  I am proud to be labeled a “thinking, homeschooling, family fun, reading, Disney, kitty” mom.   I’d say that is me in a nutshell. :)

Cats On Tuesday: Smokey

 

I’ve noticed that Mimi and Winnie seem to steal the show as far as my COT posts go.  So I decided to focus on one of the older bunch of cats this morning…Smokey.

Smokey is technically ds1’s cat.  He picked him out from a litter not long after we moved into this house, so he’s more local than we are lol.  What can I say about Smokey?

He is all cat.  He goes about his business and expects you to go about yours…making sure he has food, water and love on demand. :)

He purrs like there is no tomorrow when he gets his wish…but is one of those cats that will turn on you and bite the hand that feeds scratches him.  We don’t know why he does this.  We have to warn visitors, because sure enough Smokey will jump on the couch next to them, they will start to pet him and out of no where he will bite.  :(  Why, Smokey, why?

Sometimes he will approach you outside and do what we call the “Smokey dance” where he rolls and rolls on the ground in front of you.  You reach down and pet him of course.  You walk away…and he attacks your leg!  Why, Smokey, why?

  You can’t help but love the guy.  He is just Smokey, and that’s that. :)  For more kitty love head over to Gattina’s blog and join in on the fun.