Successful First Day of School

First Day of School

H-Grade 6

M-Grade 3

C-Kindergarten

A- Total and complete ham around the camera

All in all our first day went very well. The tears were minimal, we completed everything on our schedule, and A didn't wreak too much havoc. 

Have a blessed day!

From Drop Box

Gardening

We decided to try something new this year and grow peanut plants. If you don't know how these plants grow, it's really neat.  First off, the plant will produce pretty yellow flowers like this.



Oh goodness....I hope you're not noticing all those lovely weeds.


Then after the flower dies, these cool shoots grow down from where the flower was. They grow down into the soil, and that is where the peanut grows.

I'll have to remember to take pictures when we harvest them. My plants might be a little behind what they could have been because they were shaded by my pea plants for a while. Now they get plenty of sun and are hopefully making enough peanuts for us to have a few!!


As for the rest of the vegetable garden, it is still going strong. I'm still picking green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peppers, and our zucchini plant has some little zucchinis on it! To back up, my zucchini plant died quite early in the summer after only producing 4 zucchinis. I decided to try planting again. Both plants (I planted 2 seeds and both came up) look quite healthy! Yay! Here's a look at what I picked yesterday. It was so pretty, I just had to take a picture. A stuck his chubby little fingers in the picture too. Aren't they cute little fingers?

A Day in the Life...

Welcome to a day in the life of our homeschool. We haven't actually started school yet. We start on Monday. Everything is ready. The school room (dining room) is cleaned mostly clean.  The books are ready. Homeschool Tracker is up to date. I just need to print out the schedules. Homeschool Tracker is great for this. Check it out! I've decided that for H, a daily schedule would work better than a weekly schedule. M likes a weekly schedule because he tends to work ahead. H finds a weekly schedule overwhelming. So, here is how I imagine things should go. Check back next week and I'll let you know if it works out.
7:00-9:00 Wake up, get showered/dressed, have breakfast, get chores done


9:00-9:20 H and M read their Bibles/Devotionals and I read a Bible story to C and A


9:20-10:30 H will start her Classical Writing and Grammar while M does his spelling on his own.  Once H is underway, I will start M on his math. Usually he only needs me for a short amount of time.


10:30-12:00 I will start H on her math lesson while M works independently on his handwriting. He's starting cursive, so he might need me to start him out. We'll see how that works. Then I'll start M on his Classical Writing and Hannah will do her Latin independently.


In spare times during all this, C will get time to do his Alpha Phonics, Explode the Code, and Math U See Primer. Also, there will probably be a working or breaktime snack in here along with some breaks to run around outside or play with A as weather and time permit.


12:00-1:00 Usually we take an hour for lunch. Sometimes I start reading a book (fiction or from our history curriculum) while they eat if I think we need the time.


1:00-2:00 At 1 pm A goes down for his nap, and I do science and history with the other 3 kids. This usually happens at the couch where we snuggle up and read.


2:00 Our scheduled school day is over by this time. The kids have a rest time where they read quietly to themselves while C and A are napping.  Typically in the past H has used this time to continue working because she has mastered the art of procrastination.  This is also mom's coffee, chocolate, Facebook, blogging break.


Now, let it be known that this is my IDEAL schedule. For some reason the kids don't seem to want to work this way. They try to skip around on their schedules and always want help at the same time. I sure hope I'm not the only one who occasionally wants to pull her hair out. What I really ought to do is write down exactly how one day goes to see how close I get to this one.


If you'd like to read more "Day In the Life" posts, head on over to the NOT Back-to-School Blog Hop and check them out.

Not Back-To-School Blog Hop - Week 3 School Photos

This week is School Photo week over at the NOT Back-to-School Blog Hop. I plan on taking some different photos of my cute students, but we haven't actually started school yet. However, I don't want to miss this week, so here are a few recent pictures of the children taken on our trip to the beach last week.

Meet H:

H just turned 11 this summer and is going into 6th grade. She loves drawing, writing poetry, and reading. Her world would be perfect if it involved never having to do math.  She is the typical bossy, take charge, firstborn.

Meet M: 

M just turned 8 and is starting 3rd grade. He loves loves loves to read. He is very self motivated and tends to get his work done promptly. However he tends to get frustrated quickly when something doesn't come easy to him.  Did I mention that his favorite past time is reading?

Meet C: 

C is 5 and is very excited about starting Kindergarten.  He loves to be goofy and play with his big brother.  He is my easy going child and can always make people smile with his smile and his twinkling eyes.  He can't wait to start to read and so far he loves math.

Meet A: 

A is 2. His specialty is playing with cars and little people and getting into trouble. He loves to join us in the school room and sit at his desk to color.

Check back again in case I get to take REAL school pictures. Also, join in on the NOT Back-to-School Blog Hop. It's been a lot of fun.

Making dill pickle relish

This summer my cucumbers have been plentiful....very very plentiful. I haven't made pickles in many years, but M loves dill relish, so I thought I'd try my hand at it. After searching for a while I decided on this recipe.

Ingredients :

9 small field cucumbers (about 3 lb/1.5 kg)

2 onions
1/4 cup (50 mL) pickling salt
3 cups (750 mL) white vinegar
3/4 cup (175 mL) granulated sugar
4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp (10 mL) each dill seeds and mustard seeds

 First cut the cucumbers in chunks and, in batches, pulse in a food processor to finely chop. Do the same thing with the onion. (I might try less onion next time.)

 Next add the salt to the mixture and let it sit for 1 hour. Then, drain the mixture, rinse it in cold water, and drain again, pressing out all the excess moisture.

 In a large pan bring to a boil the vinegar, sugar, dill seeds, mustard seeds, and garlic.

 Garlic is good for you. Go ahead...add it. Yum!

 When it comes to a boil add in the cucumber mixture. Bring the whole thing back to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer for 30 minutes.

Pour the relish into prepared canning jars.

Process them in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.


We haven't actually tried our relish yet, other than a little taste before it went into the jars. I'll keep you posted on whether we like it and would do it again. I also made dill pickle spears, hamburger dill slices, and pickled green beans (dilly beans). Then, while the canning stuff was still out I canned 3 quarts of tomatoes. Phew. Just writing all that makes me tired.

Our Schoolroom

Technically, last week was "School Room Week" for the "NOT Back-to-School Blog Hop". However, I was away, so now I'm playing catch-up.
For a few years we used our kitchen for school, but last year we moved to the dining room. We don't use the dining room as an eating area anyway, but it is home to my dearly loved antique dining room table, chairs, and sideboard which belonged to my great grandparents.

So here is our school room. The two little boys have little metal school desks. We found M's desk out for the trash in our neighborhood. Can you believe it?!

H used to have her desk under the dry erase board, but I thought putting her over here in the corner would be better for her concentration or lack thereof.

My area still needs to be cleaned up as you can see. I just bought a magnet basket to put the dry erase markers and eraser in so that A doesn't get into them.

Many of our books are in different bookshelves around the house, but this one contains all the curriculum I need at my fingertips and a lot of reference books and such.


I have dreams of someday having a dedicated school room, but for now I'm content as we are, and I try to tweak it occasionally.

Local Fair Week

Our area had a local country fair this week. It's not huge, but the kids always enjoy going. We don't do the rides (really expensive), but we like to see the animals and walk around. Last year H entered some of the contests, and this year M and C joined her.  Tonight we picked up our ribbons.
H got 2nd place for her carrots and her peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and 4th place for her zinnias.

M got 2nd place for his snapdragons.

C got 2nd place for his blanket flowers. (He didn't come with us to pick up his ribbon, so here's a picture of the night he entered them.)

 

All in all it was a fun week.

Not Back-To-School Blog Hop

I've just discovered the "Not Back-To-School Blog Hop" started over at http://heartofthematteronline.com. I've just become a blog follower, so I thought I'd dust off this blog and give it a try. The topic for this week is curriculum, so here it goes...

This year I will have a 6th grader, a 3rd grader, a Kindergartener, and a tag-along.

I'll start with shared subjects:
Science-

Both H (6th grade) and M (3rd grade) will be doing God's Design for Life series. We are doing all three books in the series which are Plants, Animals, and the Human Body.


        We also use Nature Friend Magazine for science.


History-
We are starting with TruthQuest's Ancient Egypt and Greece and will probably move on to Ancient Rome as time permits.  Our goal is to move through to the Middle Ages and Renaissance/Reformation/Exploration eventually, but I'm assuming it will take a good 2 years.



Bible - Both H and M are going to continue their devotion books; Gotta Have God and God and Me! We also will be starting a book by Kay Arthur called Boy Have I Got Problems which is a study of the book of James.

Current Events - God's World News


Now for the 6th grader:
Math - We'll be continuing with MathUSee. This year she'll be starting Zeta.

Writing/Lang. Arts/Grammar -

We use the Classical Writing series. H will be working on Classical Writing Homer B combined with Harvey's Grammar. Also she'll be doing Classical Writing Poetry, which she is very much looking forward to. I can't speak highly enough about these books. They are wonderful. It takes some effort on the part of the teacher, but it's well worth the result. Last year M did the Primer books and they are fabulous. I can't wait to use them again with my two youngest children.

Latin - If you're interested in a Latin program, we've been really pleased with Lively Latin.

Reading - Various books to go along with our history program and anything else she feels like reading. She loves to read, so that shouldn't be much of a problem.

Now for the 3rd grader:

Math - Once again we're going with MathUSee Gamma.

Spelling - Spelling Workout Level C

Language Arts/Grammar - Classical Writing Aesop A (see above for link)

Handwriting - Classically Cursive

Reading - Elson Reader Book 3 (which he actually started last year) and any other books. He loves to read so my challenge is keeping him supplied with enough books.

And finally the Kindergartener:
Math - MathUSee Primer (See a pattern? We love MathUSee!)
Learning to read - AlphaPhonics and Explode the Code books 1 and 2 (We'll start with any beginning reader books as soon as he's ready. We have the Frog and Toad books, Dick and Jane, Little Bear, etc.)
He will also tag along with our history and science. I'll probably have him make a lapbook/notebook of our science projects, so he can color, cut, and follow along with us.

I think I've covered everything, but who knows. I'll probably realize later that I've left something out.