Seminole Indians~ February 4, 2009
With the little ones this week, we are learning about the Seminole Indians. They are from Florida so I am also including the state into our study. I printed off a map which I found from here….
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/coloring-pages/usa/state-outline/florida.html (copy and paste)
I went to the library and found a couple of books on Seminole Indians and even a book on longhouses and tepees. I would also like to cook or bake something with them that the indians ate but I am not sure what we are going to do yet.
Today we did some work on our timelines. We entered George Washington, Sandro Botticelli, and Ben Franklin. We got our timeline free from this web site
http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/history/timeline.html I added the timeline into a binder for each one of the kids and put the cover on it.
Well not much is going on here. The boys are at basketball practice with dad and Mikayla is next door at her friends house so I should take advantage of it and get some things done.
Paddle to the Sea February 3, 2009
I found this online and thought I would share it because I know there are a lot of homeschool parents that read this to their children. You can read the book online and there is a 30 minute video for the kids. How exciting!
http://www.nighttrainfilms.net/NTFWEB/NTFPages/PaddleToTheSea/index.htm
Here is a web site that has lesson plans to go along with the book also.
http://teachers.net/lessonplans/posts/2090.html
What we have been up to~ January 30, 2009
The boy’s basketball has almost come to a hault. I think they only have three games left and then it’s done. So far Matt’s team has won every game. He is excited about that. Dylan is having alot of fun with it to. I wasn’t sure how he would be with it being that he doesn’t seem as outgoing and athletic as Matthew. He always seems to surprise me though.
Dylan and Austin are in Music lessons. I want all the kids to take music lessons but I thought I would start with Dylan and Austin and see how they liked it. Dylan loves piano lessons. He has learned so much already. Austin is taking guitar lessons from someone that was recommended to us. We are going to put Matthew and Mikayla in piano soon as well.
Here is the piano we got from Henry’s Music. It’s nothing fancy but the size is perfect for the kids. We are studying Bach and George Washington in school so I decided to print off two pictures from the internet and frame them. It adds a better decor to the home than having posters all over the walls. It really seems to help the kids get to know the people to. They already knew what George Washington looked like because, well, who doesn’t. But there are alot of people who would’t recognize Bach from a line-up of people. George Washington is going to be replaced soon but I haven’t decided by whom yet.
I can’t believe January is almost gone. It really went by fast. I am kind of glad because for some reason this winter just seems to long. Maybe it is because of the really cold weather and all the snow we have gotten but it has been dragging. I am looking forward to spring. I had a good birthday. The whole family went to Red Robin for supper. I picked that because I knew Dylan has been wanting to go. Hubby got me a purse as a gift.
We all went to the movies last week and saw Hotel for Dogs. It was really cute. I can’t believe the price to see a movie now days. It’s a good thing we don’t do that often. I just go for the pretzels and cheese. Just kidding.
Our family movie this week was Fireproof which I HIGHLY recommend! I can’t tell you how many times I started to cry. It was such a touching movie and you will never think the same when you are finished watching it. It is an awsome movie for a husband or wife or couple date night to watch together because it is about marriage.
Well, this is what we have been up to. I am getting a post together to let you know what we have been learning in school.
God Bless,
Homeschool Play~ January 14, 2009
This year we have decided to participate in the Homeschool Players annual play. Last year the group did Alice in Wonderland. This year the play is
I am excited and nervous all the same. Excited to be apart of this and see how it all turns out in the end and nervous because my three boys are all very passive. I haven’t quite figured out if Mikayla is or not. Sometimes she comes off as shy and other times, she is outgoing and talkative to anyone who will listen. I can’t wait to see how the kids do. This will be the first time doing a play. Actually it will be theirfirst time being in front of an audience of any sort. I will keep updates on here. Check out the Homeschool Players website at www.homeschoolplayers.org
Also if you have a business of your own or work at a business that would like to generate some publicity, Homeschool Players are selling ads for their program book. This ad will go onto the web site above also for a year. All proceeds are used directly to offset the costs of production. If you don’t have a business to promote, you can buy an individual ad just congratulating the cast or a special someone that is in the play. Make that certain someone feel special. Or embarrass them, whatever the case may be. All the details are on the web site above. If you have any questions email me at reutertanya@yahoo.com. Thank you in advance for supporting Homeschool Players. Those of you reading this that are local, we hope you can come and see the play in March.
Snow!! December 20, 2008
We have been getting alot of snow lately. It is really white and beautiful outside. Especially with all the Christmas lights on all the houses. It really hasn’t been that bad as far as temperatures go either. It snowed quite a bit last night and I thought I heard we are suppose to get even more tonight. I love shoveling outside. I don’t know why. There is just something about going out in all that white(especially when it looks glittery) and shoveling.I don’t like to go out if it is really cold out or windy.The temperature has to be just right. It’s fun for the kids to. It’s a great way to make some memories for the kids. We have some neighbors next to us that are elderly so whenever I go out to shovel, I do their side for them to. I noticed that the kids have been doing it to when they do the shoveling. Seeing this made me think of a verse I read this past week on a You Tube video of Voddie Bauchum. The verse is Luke 6:40 and states A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. It reminded me that my children are with me day and night. I need to constantly be working on myself and keeping in check with things because there are little eyes always watching me. What I do and say in my life reflects onto my kids and what I am is what my kids could become. I hope and pray that for the glory of God, it will all turn out to be good. I think we are doing a pretty good job for God so far.
Mikayla is feeling better now. She threw up for 2 days and slept and didn’t eat for another two days after that. Whatever she had was pretty bad but mysteriously the boys or anyone else for that matter has not gotten it. I’m glad it is done and over with though. It was not fun watching her like that.
We have a real tree this year. We haven’t had a real tree in about five years so I was excited about buying one this year. I soon realized why I liked the fake ones. I am not thrilled with the needles on the floor and having to water it. It also looks like it is getting pretty dried out already. I might rethink this one again for next year and convert back.
Homeschooling is going well. I was just talking with hubby the other day about year round school. I have heard that some people will do a three week on and one week off schedule. One I just read about was a three months on and one month off. This has always been more appealing to me than taking three months off all at once. Taking the last two Summers off I noticed that when it was time for school to reside again, the kids forgot alot. I know it’s not like that for all kids but I think the younger they are, the harder it is because they are just learning all new concepts. I think it would be easier to take a whole Summer off if they have been working on a concepts for a few years and really have it down. I am going to talk with hubby more and possibly pursue one of these options. I want to at least give it a shot and see if it works for us. I have been doing alot of reading and research on Charlotte Mason. I have read two books so far on her method of teaching and have fallen in love with her techniques. I am not interested in creating a school in my home for my kids anymore. I am not interested in this for many reasons, one being we just don’t have the room for it. Another reason being, we have had a school room for them in the past and we much of the time ended up not even doing school in it. Sometimes the kids just wanted to lounge around in the living room. Austin alot of times will go up on his bed and read. I think my biggest reason though is I don’t want to have a separation there. I want to intertwine school with our life. I don’t want to be so stressed out because I didn’t get X amount of worksheets done with the kids on a certain day. I felt like my days were more focused on making sure they did this many worksheets or workbook pages just to make sure they finished the book by the end of the year. If we fell behind, then I would have a boo hoo party for myself and really beat myself up saying things like “maybe I should just put the kids in school”, or “Maybe this is not what God wants for us”, or “maybe I am just not cut out for this”. All the typical things Satan wants you to believe so that you will give up. We are still going to continue doing a math and a grammar out of text books. Matthew and Mikayla still need phonics to. What I am leaning towards are doing all of our learning out of real life books for the subjects of history, health, geography and some science. I say some science because right now we are doing Apologia and the way the books are written, it is like you are reading a book. They are laid out really nice and simple for a child to understand. We will just add some books to read along with Apologia. Austin has begun to read real life books more than ever this year but because he is in high school now, he has text books for most of his subjects. I am still learning alot about this style of learning so I’m sure there will be lot’s of tweeks here and there. So far I am less stressed and I truly believe the kids are learning so much more from reading a whole book on a topic than just a few paragraphs from a text. It is also more enjoyable to sit around and read together. Dylan’s reading has really taken off this year and Matthew has come along way to. My hope is for them to have a love of reading like I do. So far this is not the case for Dylan. He might take after his dad in that aspect. There is always hope though.
Happy Holidays~ December 13, 2008
I hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Lord knows there is much to be thankful for. I am anticipating the next holiday, Christmas. We have our tree up and decorations out. I decided to do something different this year and go with blue lights on the tree. I really like it! We also got a real tree instead of our usual artificial one. There are some perks to an artificial one. Like not having to water it and having to vacuum up needles on the floor underneath it. Other than that, I am pleased. I know I haven’t been blogging much lately. I really need to get back in the habit of it. I won’t be able to do much tonight because Mikayla is passed out on the living room floor with the flu. Yuk! I was sipping off her drinks earlier before I knew she was sick. I hope I don’t catch it to. Anyway, the kids are getting big and doing well. We got a puppy. Her name is Molly. She is a poodle-bichon mix(above picture) and is so cute. I will post updated pictures of the kids maybe this weekend if I don’t end up getting the bug. Hope everyone has a good weekend. Stay warm!
William Shakespeare~
Bible~
Literature~
Dylan's quiet time reading~
Matthew's quiet time reading~
Health
Our bedtime read aloud~
The Secret Garden
