In Need Of Some Time And Space

I am taking a little break.  I am making myself get off the blogging scene until at least Tuesday, maybe longer if needed.  My heart is broken over what happened to a homeschooling family that I have never met, but know through blogging.  It has torn me up, made me ill.  I encounter reminders every time I log on and read blogs or check my mail or make comments.  I feel myself getting into a real funk and my family doesn't deserve that from me.  So I am turning my full attention to them.  I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend.

 

"Is any one of you in trouble?  He should pray."  James 5:13

Homeschool Memoirs: Agendas

Homeschool Blog Awards is hosting a weekly meme called Homeschool Memoirs.  This week we are to share our plans for the school year.

Well, I have 3 grade levels this year.  This is our 4th week of school and I've already changed my mind about some of the curriculum I had picked out, especially for ds2, my 8th grader.  Here is what we are using so far.

DS2 8th Grade:

Math  Abeka Pre-Algebra
Reading  Various classic novels with lessons prepared by me
Writing  Spectrum Writing 8
Science  McWizKids Science
Geography  Globalmania
Art  Usborne Introduction to Art and Masterpieces to Color
Nature Study  Outdoor Hour
Spelling Natural Speller

I am on the hunt for history for ds2, thinking about Story of The World.

DS3 2nd Grade:

Math  Abeka
Reading  FIAR
Science and History  Monthly themes with lapbooks and unit studies
Art  Abeka
Nature Study  Outdoor Hour
Spelling  Natural Speller
I have a couple of workbooks ds is using for writing and language

DS4  Preschool:

BFIAR
Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons
Everything Preschool Workbook
Nature Study  Outdoor Hour
Various lapbooks

I am taking a more relaxed approach with schooling this year and trying to incorporate more hands-on and fun things.  Lots more lapbooks, unit studies, field trips, etc.  And I can't recommend the Outdoor Hour Challenges enough...they have been super fun yet the kids (and I) have learned so much!  Can't wait to see what everyone else has on their agendas this year. 

Booking Through Thursday

This week's topic:  

If you’re anything like me, one of your favorite reasons to read is for the story. Not for the character development and interaction. Not because of the descriptive, emotive powers of the writer. Not because of deep, literary meaning hidden beneath layers of metaphor. (Even though those are all good things.) No … it’s because you want to know what happens next?

Or, um, is it just me?

I majored in English in college.  I have an entire bookshelf filled with paperback copies of novels in which I highlighted and underlined all the phrases with "deep, literary meaning" and "descriptive, emotive powers of the writer."  Here's an example.

This is from my old beat up copy of James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.  See the underlining and the notes in the margin?  For years I could not read a book without looking for the deep and hidden meanings in the author's words.  I forgot how to just enjoy a story.

Thankfully, I have rediscovered that great gift of just letting myself be drawn in to another world.  And while I can appreciate the many layers to books like the Harry Potter series or Life of Pi or Middlesex, etc.,  I now just dive in and let myself be carried away by the fun of the story.  My brain is too full of other stuff right now anyway to delve any deeper. ;)

5 Minutes for Books: What's On Your Nightstand

Wow, I cannot believe it has been a month already since we last met for this carnival!  5 Minutes for Books hosts several carnivals for readers like myself and I love participating in them.  This time, we get to show what is on our nightstand!

Well, I'll tell 'ya, besides being a fun meme that lets us get to know each other a little more, this is also quite the motivator to get me to clean off my nightstand lol. ;)  Here is what is currently residing there.

Okay, we have Jane Eyre, which I am reading for another 5 Minutes for Books carnival.  It's quite an old copy I have had since high school!  Next is the 7th book in the Princess Diaries series.  Yep, I know, they are books for "tweens", but it really is a cute series and I have enjoyed reading them a lot.  Next is Twilight, the first in a series that I saw reviewed at (of course) 5 Minutes for Books.  I like books in a series, and although the subject matter of this one isn't quite my cup of tea, I'm going to give it a try.  Finally there is my favorite crockpot cookbook (see this post for explanation) and another cookbook I checked out from the library.

Don't look to the left of the book pile (and to the right either, even though it's not pictured) as you will see the huge piles of magazines awaiting my perusal.  I've been doing so much book reading, I have neglected my periodical pursuits.  ;)  I don't actually buy or subscribe to that many mags, I got a lot of them free from the homeschool convention I went to and my mom and I also exchange mags.

Out With The Old...

Those with weak stomachs and clean houses, please look away.

This is the state of my kitchen!  Ack!  My oven door broke.  Of course it couldn't be easy getting a new one.  Oh, no.  I had a drop-in stove, meaning my cabinets were custom made for this thing to just, well, drop-in.  Now stoves of this variety are not as popular as they were when my home was built, and the only ones made won't fit into my cabinet space and cost an arm and a leg.  So now I'm not only getting a new stove, I'm getting new countertops, too. I know, I should be more excited and happy, but I'm not fond of sudden change, and all the quick decisions that come with it.  Dh and I went to Lowes and picked out the new stove and ordered the new countertops, but it just didn't have the air of excitement it should have...you know how it is, with the kids running around, needing to go potty, just got to have one more sip of water, hey come here and look at this.  I guess I just wish it was more of a planned and thought out mission than the rush job it turned out to be.

All that said, I am happy with what we are getting!  I actually do have the new stove now.  Here it is.

It is black and white, something I've never seen before.  Oh wait, yes I have...

Here, on my Mimi.  Just like my new stove, the Mimi II.  Both black on top, white in the middle, black legs and white feet.   Too cute.

Here is dh cutting away at my cabinets to make room for the new slide-in stove, a.k.a. the Mimi II.

Here is the cavernous hole in my kitchen, awaiting the new countertops so the new stove can slide in.

Here is what I will be using to make dinner with for a while.  :)

Destination Disney: Animal Kingdom

Heidi is now hosting Destination Disney and this week's theme is the Animal Kingdom.  The AK runs a close second for me for favorite theme park at the Disney resort (Magic Kingdom of course being numero uno.)  This hasn't always been the case.  We were lucky enough to visit the AK shortly after it opened.  It did not leave a wonderful impression on me lol.  It didn't have much to do, it was hot with little shade or buildings to cool off in, it was huge with a lot of walking...I wasn't thinking of going back anytime soon.  Let's just say a lot has changed!

Now the foliage has filled in wonderfully and there are many more shady places.  The buildings are very air conditioned, as opposed to being open to the outside all the time.  And there are so many things to do now!

My favorite attraction still is the Kilimanjaro Safari ride!  We run back to Africa as soon as the park opens, get fast passes, get in the "stand-by" line and ride the ride right away, then use our fast passes to ride it a second time.  It is that much fun. :)  Here are some pics from our latest trip, this past February.

When you first walk in, cast members have creepy crawlies for the little people in your group to check out.  Here is ds4 doing just that.

On the way to the safari ride!

Here comes the truck!

After the safari we hit the Pangani trail.  Don't miss this, it may not look like much, but it is fun.

Here ds4 is spotting birds from the chart.

Aren't we a happy crew lol?  It's such a relaxing little area here with the birds, the waterfall, the fish in the little ponds.  I love it.  There is then an area where you can see hippos, which I also love!

Then on to the gorillas.  First you see this display of info about them, then you walk over a bridge and actually get to see some.  Ds4 is posing here.

Next we move on to Asia and hit the Kali River Rapids.  Our past 3 trips we have been able to just walk right on, twice in a row this past time.  Here is ds4 observing some of the monkeys in a pavilion nearby as we wait for the others to get off the ride.  While he is tall enough now, ds is not quite ready to get soaked.  And yes, you will get soaked. :)

See?  Soaked.  LOL.  Being the veterans we are, though, I had a change of clothes packed for the kiddos (including socks, don't forget the socks!)

 

You can also wait on a bridge and watch the ride go under; plus there are "water guns" you can squirt at them! 

If you are super brave you can also ride the new roller coaster Mount Everest with the yeti...but I'll leave that to dh and the older boys.  Next we move on to Dinoland!  Here they have neat carnival type rides and booths where you can win prizes.

Like these.

Or these!

And you can ride Dinosaur! the ride.  And if you are waiting for your brothers to get off the ride you can play on these...

There really is tons more to do, like see the Nemo musical and the Lion King festival, and a bird of prey show and dig for dinosaur bones, and visit a dinosaur display, ride a train and visit a petting zoo and animal care facility... but we get pretty worn out and just can't do it all. 

Some important tips for planning a visit to Animal Kingdom.

• AK opens early and closes early, so plan accordingly.
• For the animals' safety there are no balloons, straws or cup lids in the AK.  That's right, your kid will spill that drink lol.
• While there are no fireworks, there is a parade and a fun one at that.
• You can see more "obscure" characters here like Pocahontas, so be on the lookout.
• This park is very spread out...you will do a lot of walking.
• Some attractions are off the beaten path and kind of hidden.  Download a map from the Disney site and get to know the place before you go, or you'll miss out.

Well, I think I've gone on enough. :)  Thanks Heidi for the opportunity to ramble on about my favorite vacation place and I look forward to visiting everyone who joins in.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #22: Butterflies

We made a special trip to a butterfly house about 45 minutes away from where we live for this challenge.  It was a super fun and informative day!  The place is called the Panhandle Butterfly House and is run strictly by volunteers and donations.  It is located right next to a spectacular children's park and the beach, so of course we had tons of fun there as well, but that's all for another post. :)

When we first entered the butterfly house the tour guide showed us a splendid butterfly collection donated to them with butterflies from all around the world.  They were beautiful.  She explained about the difference in butterflies and moths, their defense mechanisms, etc.  Some of the insects had such intricate designs on their wings!  One's wings looked like bird profiles and one looked exactly like an owl's face.

We then left the air-conditioned room and stepped into the sauna they called a butterfly house lol.  No kidding, we were drenched in sweat the whole time, but didn't want to leave because it was so much fun.

This is an atala, the personal favorite of ds2 and me.  These are really beautiful, you may want to click on the pic to get closer.

Check out the caterpillars.  They had little plants growing just for them to live on, then these little houses for them to make their chrysalis and morph into the butterflies.

Here is ds3 in front of one of the little chrysalis houses.

 

I couldn't get pics of all the butterflies we saw, they were pretty active and I have a crappy so-so camera.  There were plenty floating around and many even landed on us.  The kids and I had a great time and learned a lot.

Here are ds2 and ds3's nature journal entries.  Ds2 drew the atala and ds3 made his own butterfly and named it "amusement park butterfly."  He described it as being big and with 6 eyes on it's wings.

These are ds4's renderings.  I love the little people on the bottom of the pages!

So, a great assignment this one was!  Now I am sure the kids will be more aware of the butterflies they see in our own backyard. :)

Homeschool Memoirs: All About Me

The Homeschool Blog Awards site is hosting what looks like a fun new weekly meme,  Homeschool Memoirs.  Here is the info from their site.

This meme is to not only keep a “memoir” (posts) of your homeschool year, but to make a way for homeschoolers to get to know each other. Each week, on Wednesdays, we’ll post a new theme and you can participate by posting it on your site with your own homeschool memoirs. Once you’ve posted, come back and sign the linky. We hope you’ll be encouraged, informed, and connected with other homeschoolers and glean from the different ways they do their homeschool.

So here is this week's theme.

The first theme begins today, August 20th, 2008. This week, we want to hear about YOU. The author behind the words. The Momma behind all the homeschooling kiddos. Just write up something about you, your family, and your home. How long you’ve been homeschooling and why you decided to homeschool. It doesn’t have to be anything lengthy at all, but we’d love to hear it! You might include a family photo too!

 

Okay, well, I am Julie.  I celebrated my 1st anniversary of turning 40 this year. ;)  Dh and I have been married 20 years and have 4 handsome boys.  Ds1 is 18, just graduated high school this year, and is starting college next week!  Ds2 is 13 and in 8th grade this year.  Ds3 is 7 and in 2nd grade.  Ds4 is 3 and just enjoys doing whatever his older brothers do.

We live in Florida and love the beach, of course, and being outdoors.  We also love Disney World!  We are seasonal passholders and try to go at least once a year.  I enjoy reading, especially fiction and cookbooks.  We have 4 cats in the family and enjoy their silly, wonderful company.

We began homeschooling in 1999, when it wasn't so popular or well-known.  There weren't all the websites, blogs, and curriculum available just for homeschoolers as there is today.  My ds1 attended a public kindergarten (let's just call that a disaster) and the same private school dh and I attended for 1st and 2nd grade.  He was doing quite well.  Then in 3rd grade he started bringing home C's and I noticed he didn't even have a book for math...just worksheets every day.  We questioned the teacher who assured us all was fine, but he continued to fail to thrive.  We also started having issues with the administration and getting told basically that our child belonged to them from the first bell to the last.  'Nuff said.  No way was I going to pay people to keep my child all day and then send him home with an average education.

I started out using Abeka's complete curriculum as I had no idea what to do and where to start.  Over the years I have learned a great deal and still use Abeka for math, but pretty much make up our curriculum from various sources.  We love homeschooling, the flexibility, the watching our children grow and thrive, the wonderful relationships we have with them, etc.  In other words, "It's all good." LOL.  We are not completely against other schooling at all...it's just our personal choice to homeschool.  In fact, since we began homeschooling, we moved to a wonderful school district and gave ds1 the option of attending public high school, which he did.  He loved it, we loved it and we are glad we did it.

Here we are in Animal Kingdom at Disney World.

  Yep, that was long-winded, but come on, you give a lady the opportunity to gab about her family and herself, and what do you expect? LOL.  I look forward to meeting everyone who participates in the carnival!

Homeschool Convention Experience

Yes, I completely forgot to post about this, but I did, at last, after 10 years of homeschooling, go to an actual, live, real homeschool convention!  There were people and everything lol!  It was a small affair (at least compared to the big state convention in Orlando) and I was unaware of it taking place until the day it started!  It was held at our local fairgrounds and was geared toward NW Florida and neighboring Alabama communities.  Why I never heard about it I don't know. :(  But luckily I saw a post on a local yahoo group about it and was able to go.  It was on a Saturday morning, and my parents visit us on Saturdays for lunch,  so of course we spend those mornings getting the house in order.  My wonderful dh insisted that I go and he would be in charge of the preparations!  An actual hour and a half in a car by myself, and a morning alone browsing vendor tables and conversing with fellow homeschoolers?  You bet I was out the door in a flash lol.  Anyone attending said convention will now understand my un-showered, unkempt appearance.  Please forgive.

There were a few speakers scheduled, but not only did I not have the time to spare, but the topics had either been covered by the "virtual" conference I had just attended or didn't interest me.  I passed by a few small vendor tables and then stopped cold at this beautiful display of dozens of books!  It was an Usborne display and I was in heaven.  They were having a special where if you bought 4 books you got a 5th one free...no problem at all for me. ;)  I found a terrific resource to go along with our human body study this month.

It's one of their internet-linked books and has been so much fun for my boys.  It had a small crease on the cover that I did not even notice, and the vendor gave it to me for 1/2 price!  I then spotted a book about sharks that would be perfect for my 3yo and asked if they had any shark books that would be better suited to my 7yo (i.e more scary, less "happy" as he puts it lol.)  She was sold out of the book but offered to ship a copy to my house, free of shipping charge!  It arrived in less than a week and my ds loved getting a package in the mail.

They had some boxes of discounted books and I found this cute volume for my 3yo...you know how they love baby animals and lifting flaps lol.  It was only $3!

Finally I picked up this book for our future studies of animals.

I highly, highly recommend buying Usborne books, and buying them from a vendor.  At least mine was knowledgeable, friendly and very willing to secure a good deal for me.  I got these 5 books for less than $30.  And they had plenty more that I could have bought.

I strolled around more vendor tables, stopped and talked to or listened in on a few, and had fun meeting people from the local yahoo groups I am part of.  I even signed up for a seminar by the Maxwell family, as they are coming nearby.  There was talk of having another convention next year...I will gladly be in attendance.  I had already established our curriculum for the year and ordered or bought most of our supplies before this year's convention, but I may put off starting school next year until afterward.    It certainly was a fun and informative morning. :)

Outdoor Hour Challenge #26: Ladybugs and Aphids

This week for our nature study we focus on ladybugs and aphids.  My ds3 and I headed out to hunt for ladybugs to bring back in to the lazy bunch who chose to stay in the air conditioned house.  ;)  Ds found one right off the bat on some leaves sprouting out from the bottom of our crepe myrtle tree.  We snipped the branch, placed it in a jar and brought in inside.

Ds4 with a magnifying glass, observing the bugs.

Ds2 making his observations.

See the ladybug?  And just like Barb described, there were plenty of aphids on the underside of the leaves that the ladybug was climbing on.

Blurry, but those black dots are aphids. :)

We discussed what the bugs looked like, how they moved, what the boys already knew about them, etc.  Then we read about them in the handbook and I printed up some worksheets from Enchanted Learning.  Next we all took time to journal our observations.

This is ds3's nature journal, the top drawing is his rendition of a ladybug, and the bottom is my drawing of the tree/branches we found the bug on.

Ds2's sketches.  He prefers to work in inks.

Ds4's drawings on the right, and his coloring of one of the worksheets on the left.  An unexpected and furious whirlpool appeared amongst the insects in his picture, but you'll be glad to know they survived.  I don't know why, but he wanted to do all his bugs in purple. :)

I really enjoyed this challenge, maybe even more so than the boys!  I had read Barb's post and saw her pics but didn't think we'd be so lucky as to see any of the bugs ourselves.  Sure enough, ds found not only the ladybug but the aphids, too!  It was all very interesting to me. 

I hope to take the boys to a butterfly house in a nearby city this week, and will be sure and do a post about that.