Nick's English assignment

In his English lessons this week, Nick had to write a paper based on a recent event. He chose the youth kick off party for church. I am so proud of this paper, it's here for everyone to see:



Not bad for an 8 year old 4th grader - first paper of the year!



As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

Back to school...

Well, another school year has started, and this year's going to be a little different from the past years. First of all - the work is harder. Just ask my kids! As they grow up, school work is getting a little more in depth and not as easy as it used to be. Secondly, I'm working Tuesday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. I don't get home until after 2:00, so any help they need has to wait until then. That's also when we review their day's work. Monday's are normal. I am home to help with their work, if they need it, and I try to encourage them to get their work done quickly, so it doesn't take up the whole day. Friday's we have off. That's our favorite!

We've already taken a great field trip - we went to the Florida Museum of Natural History last Friday and camped at Ginny Springs - which was a blast. We saw Mastadon and Mammoth skeletons, giant shark jaws (with teeth!), a chickee (where the indians lived), a shell midden (basically their landfill), lots of things made and used by the Calusa and Tequesta indians.

We love field trips - still! That's definitely the best part of school, for us.

The campground was fun. There are seven different springs there and we played around in 3 of them. We went out into the Santa Fe river and tubed down a ways and then had to fight the current back into another spring to get out. We did that three different times. We rode our bikes - Nick rode his almost non-stop when he wasn't in the springs. They saw lots of fish in the springs and a cave down under the water. It was perfectly clear and freezing cold! One of the scuba divers had a thermometer on his watch and said it was 73 degrees. That's twenty-five degrees colder than our body temperature, for those who think that doesn't sound too bad.

Can't wait for our next field trip!


As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

Today...

I am thinking… that I'd like to have this week off of work...

From the school room... it was our first day back to school and it was a success!

I am thankful for… everyone I love

From the kitchen… it was hot open-faced turkey sandwiches and all the fixin's

I am wearing… denim shorts and a colorful top

I am reading… just finished reading "So You're Thinking About Homeschooling" by Lisa Welchel.

I am hoping… that my husband feels better soon

I am creating… nothing at the time being... waiting on a new CM album to come in for my daughter's wedding reception photos to go into

Around the house… I wish I would have gotten the laundry all done today

One of my favorite things… to be able to spend a quiet evening home

A few plans for the rest of the week… I'm off to work, Randy and the kids get to go to the beach on Thursday (I'm jealous!) and then Friday, I'm off but the kids will have to do school to make up for Thursday.

As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

2009 Youth Mission Trip

Randy and Ciara went on our church's Youth Mission Trip a couple of weeks ago, to New Orleans, and had an amazing time. I wish Nick and I could have joined them, but there's always next year.

They started off with a 30 minute delay, waiting for the Youth Leader and his family (who I heard had to drive back to their house for someone's missing pillow??!!) Anyway, they soon found out why they got a late start. On I-10, a pickup truck in front of them blew out a tire and our group stopped to help them change it. Not one of them were able to get the spare tire released from underneath the truck. It should have just come loose after releasing the latch, but it wouldn't budge. Randy and Tate (one of our Youth leaders) began praying, and so did at least one of the kids in the van. As soon as they were finished, literally-as soon as they said aloud, "In Jesus' name we pray, amen!", the tire dropped to the ground! This was with no one touching it right then, by the way! How exciting! The family they helped were on their way to Mexico to help build a church! Praise God!

While in New Orleans, 4 of our youth were saved during the course of the week! One of them accepted Jesus after a very emotional and spirit-let foot-washing ceremony.

One of the other kids asked to pray over an injured man who the paramedics were helping. One of them ( a very tiny, petite young lady) fell THROUGH the roof of a house they were working on and landed ON HER FEET - with no injuries!!! Praise God!

(if you can't read this - the headline says "through the roof!"

The kids and adults connected on a level that gave them a bond that will last a lifetime. I really would have loved to be a part of that, but am so glad that Randy and Ciara got to experience it! I have a new love and appreciation for all those who went, just from the stories I've heard about the trip.

I'm looking forward to next summer, already, so that we might be able to go on a "Family Mission Trip" and all experience God working in our midst to the degree that this fortunate group from The Connection got to be a part of.

Thank you to all of you who supported Randy and Ciara to make this trip happen for them. You made a difference in both their lives because of it, and mine, as well.

Till next time,

The End is in sight!

We are nearing the end of our school year and we can see it coming! We only have a couple of weeks worth of math lessons (the truest and most welcome sign of the end of the year!) and everything seems to be winding down. We've scheduled the CAT tests for the first week in May and we'll finish the last of our lessons on May 15th. We are all ready for another year to be behind us.

Those of you who know me best will not be surprised that I am already planning out the next academic year. I've actually already started buying books that we'll need.

Now that I'm working part-time, we're changing some of the curriculum we've been using to some that are more student led. I think it's going to be a great fit for our family. We're looking forward to this year being finished, but I'm always looking forward to next year!

We enjoyed Spring Break this past week. We didn't do too much, but we did get to go to the beach for the day with some treasured friends. That was really nice! I can't believe we don't make the hour long drive a little more often and enjoy that beauty!

We also went camping for the weekend with some good friends. That was fun - the kids road their bikes endlessly, and we ate too much, talked too much and enjoyed seeing some wildlife. Randy brought the jet-ski and those that rode had a good time. We celebrated Easter out there by having dinner on Sunday afternoon. It was a great weekend!

I hope you are enjoying your Spring as much as we are!


As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

Stonehenge

We've been studying Europe the last couple of weeks and the kids learned about Stonehenge on Thursday. We read about this amazing rock formation and the many theories behind it. Then, the kids made their own Stonehenge formations with graham crackers and frosting. They had a good time, until the structures started to fall down! Hands-on learning is fun!

As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!

Getting ready to begin, again!

We are mid-way through our Chrismtas Break and I've been able to revise all our lesson plans for the next semester and got all that printed out. I've got a list of items that need to be purchased for the first couple of weeks worth of projects and now I get to just enjoy the last of our vacation.

I look forward to starting in January almost as much as I do to starting in the Fall. It's like we got our refreshing and can now tackle the next half of the year with renewed energy. I'm looking forward to digging back in to our Geography study the most. I'm enjoying learning about parts of the world I've never learned much about before.

I'm also thinking of taking the kids to a new P.E. class that I just found out about. It's on Tuesdays and Thursdays and, unlike the previous class that we were going to, it's offered in the afternoon, which is do-able for our family. The class we used to go to changed to a morning class this past fall and we just couldn't make it. I'd love to have them involved in a regular, weekly physical education class again.

I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas Break and that you have a safe and healthy New Year!

As always, have a Blessed Day in your homeschool!