Happy Labor Day!

We had big plans for our Labor Day weekend but Tommy and I both got the flu earlier in the week (which messed up our anniversary plans!) so the plans were scrapped and we stayed home. The good thing was Michael got to work around the house a lot, cutting the grass, pulling weeds and getting the boat moved out of the driveway and back into the backyard. I got to rest, rest, rest, watch a little Food Network, catch up on email, work on my to do list, plan my first day of class next Friday, and read a book just for fun! I also took 3 baths (which I hardly EVER do), watched a documentary on the Gates of Israel, and two (not very good) movies, played Banangrams, Uno and Sleeping Queens with various people. We did go to the beach for a few hours on Sunday (skipped church so as to not spread germs) where we just relaxed.

So although it's not what we had planned, it was still nice to spend time together, rest, relax AND be productive! Hope YOU had a happy Labor Day!

Nature Study

This year, rather than doing a Sonlight Science, Annie is going to pursue nature study, recording her findings in a nature journal, doing a little research to find out more about our findings and then publishing her findings in her own nature blog.

We started last week by raising some monarch caterpillars. Today we went to a local park to see what we could find. Here are a few things:

A little tiny bug that looked like a leaf. We will try to identify it tomorrow. Annie sketched this in her notebook and tomorrow will also color it.

Millipede

White fuzzy looking fungus

Teeny frog. You can spot him on the right side of the light colored piece of bark by the green leaves.

Another fungus. Some type of mushroom?

First day of school!

Today was our official first day of school. We have a tradition of photographing the first day. Usually we gather all the kids together for a group shot. Since Tommy is now attending school and they started last week, he got his own picture (but won't let me post it). So I went ahead and shot the other two individual pictures as well. Here they are:

After spending much time designing schedules and courses of studiy we finally put it to the test! The hardest part was getting up at 8:00. Although one of the beauties of homeschooling is getting to sleep in, sleeping til 10:00 is not going to happen this year! I was tired of still schooling at 5:00 because we got started so late. So this year that's going to change. The other change is having an order to our day. In the past they could work on whatever they wanted to work on first but I found tthat we would "forget" to do things that way or "save" our least favorite things to the end of the day.

So the plan this year (so far, I'm sure we'll tweak it as the week progresses) is as follows [for Timothy. Annie's schedule is somewhat different]:

8:30 Bible, CC Review

9:00 Math

10:00 Writing/Grammar

11:00 History

11:30 Science

12:00 Lunch

1:00 Piano

1:30 Reading

2:00 Electives (Logic, Music & Art appreciation)

I made an excel spreadsheet for each child and it's in a page protector so they can check things off or at least refer to it. I'm trying to have them rely less on me and more on their own ability to self govern. Let's see how it goes!

Busy week!

After returning from our Israel trip and spending a week cleaning and doing laundry, I am now able to focus on the upcoming school year.

This is a busy week for me as I have been planning for our school year next year as well as preparing for my last convention of the year. We have joined a new homeschool group this year and Ill be teaching a writing class for middle schoolers. I am writing my own curriculum for that class and will be combining IEW and literature. At home, I am using Sonlight's Core 5 with two children but Timothy has already been through this Core once in '05 so I am pulling together a new set of readers for him. So I have THAT part of the curriculum that I'm writing as well. It sure makes me appreciate all the years of Sonlight under my belt (11 this year) where I was able to just open the Instructor's Guide and hit the ground running! This is the most tweaking I've had to do yet in all my years of homeschooling...thank you Sonlight!

What are YOU doing to prepare for the new school year?

It's Convention Time!

It seems hard to believe that the time has arrived but spring ushers in more than showers and flowers...it's also convention time!

This year Sonlight's booth will be more exciting than ever with a new look and of course those much anticipated new catalogs!

The really neat thing Sonlight is doing this year is offering a convention special of $15 off of any purchase of $50 or more for convention attendees! So be sure to stop by the Sonlight booth and fill out a card in order to receive your coupon!

A neat tip I learned years ago: bring your mailing labels to the convention. You know the ones you receive free in the mail. Or if you don't have any, print your own! It will save you time (and make it legible) to sign up for those convention specials, newsletter and catalog sign-ups and drawings.

I will be at Coastal Florida Curriculum Fair March 12-13 in Vero Beach at Central Assembly. Hours are Friday 4:00-9:00 PM and Saturday 8:30 AM-3:00 PM.

I will also be at South Florida Homeschool Convention on March 27 in Davie (near Ft. Lauderdale) at the Signature Grand. Hours are 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. I will be offering a workshop entitled Homeschooling Made Easy: With Guidance, Great Books and Good times!

And finally I will be at the Home Education Resources and Information Curriculum Convention (HERI) on July 16-17 in Jacksonville at the Prime F Osborn III Convention Center. Hours are  Friday 9am-6pm and Saturday 9am-5pm. I will be giving a workshop there as well.

I hope to see you at one of these events!
~ Sheila

CC's Mom's Night Out!

We had a fun time Saturday night with our CC community's Mom's Night Out. We had an Italian Cooking Night. where I taught some of my family's favorites. The menu was (translated): Penne with "Angry" Tomatoes, Pasta and Peas, Chicken Cacciatore, Lettuce with Potatoes, Carrot Salad, Macerated Strawberries with Ciambellone.

Everyone pitched in to help, cutting tomatoes, stirring, flipping.

Heidi, Charlene, Kim cutting and chopping.

Shawne pressing garlic into olive oil.

Jennifer taking over sauteing the chicken.

Amy, Heidi and Charlene sampling the olive oil.

Kim, Shawne, Charlene, Jennifer, Heidi and Grace.

Angela, Amy and Kim.

Sampling the dessert.

The one thing that happened that was unexpected was that we lost power midway through the cooking! We took about an hour "break," but right when I was about to call my mom to ask if I could finish cooking at her house (she has a gas stove) the power came back on! It just made the night that much more special!

Reading Aloud

On Monday I attended a seminar on writing by Andrew Pudewa and Andrew Kern.

 It was really a seminar on language and even more generally on homeschooling. But one (of the many) things that I got out of it was the importance of reading aloud to your children. As a Sonlight Curriculum user I have been reading aloud for years but it was nice to reaffirm the importance of doing it. Because of the busyness of life our Read-Aloud had been pushed to the bottom of the "get-done" list. So yesterday I told the kids to get a quiet activity and we read aloud for hours! This is what they did:

Annie colored, drew and made a friendship anklet.

Timothy played with his magnetix and created a windmill and a ferris wheel.

What did we read you wonder? Caddie Woodlawn's Family. It's the sequal to Caddie Woodlawn which is a part of our curriculum. I cried at just about every chapter! Of course that's just me! I cry easily.

And why is reading aloud so important? According to the two Andrews it raises a child's reading comprehension, listening comprehension and therefore their reading level! Not to mention their vocabulary and the ability to read aloud themselves. It's just good! And they said to keep reading to them, no matter their age. Don't stop once they can read for themselves. So I'm off to read some more. I encourage you to do the same!

Girl's Club

Annie is part of a girl's club which we helped start last fall. I had been wanting to do some home ec-y type of things with her and thought it would be much more fun to do them in a group. So after emailing some friends we put together a group of 4 families, 6 girls in all. It's working out beautifully. It breaks down nicely into 3 4-month quarters. We just finished up our first "unit" on baking. We covered the following:

October-- Pumpkin bread
November-- Corn bread
December-- Cookies

January-- Muffins

Making cookies

Natalie explaining how to tell if your baking soda is fresh

Girl's Club members

The girls have learned how to measure ingredients, the importance of preheating the oven, what to do to get ready to bake, the difference between baking and cooking, the different types of leavening, why sifting is important, and the different types of measuring utensils among other things. They are also putting together a nice recipe book. While the oven is baking the goodies the girls participate in a little lesson/story/activity. Then they get to sample their wares and often get a little play time while the moms finish cleaning and packing up.

Next we will begin a unit on Sewing followed by a unit on Cooking. I have to say the guys at home will be sad for us to be leaving baking behind. But now that the girls have learned many new skills, they will be able put that talent to work!

Big changes!

Whew! The fall was a blur of activity and zoomed past at breakneck speed! Our oldest son began high school and we thought it would be fun for him to play sports for a small christian school. He liked it so much that he asked to go to school there. It was a difficult decision for us to make but we decided that he could go ahead and start at the beginning of the second semester. That day is today!

When we began homeschooling we always said we would do it as long as the Lord called us to it. When people would invariable ask, "How long are you going to homeschool?" my response was always, "Well, we're doing it this year!" Early on my husband I and sat down and made a mission statement, named our school and came up with a "Why We Homeschool" document. In reviewing the document we had written, I feel confident that we have succeeded in preparing him for this day.

So over the Christmas break we bought books and uniforms, signed contracts and drafted a transcript. Today I dropped him off and I had the experience that so many parents go through when their child is entering Kindergarten. I got to postpone it 9.5 years!!! I'm proud to say that I did remarkably well. I held it together til I got to the car. It sure is hard to let them grow up!

I'm happy that he already has friends there. Two buddies were going to show him around, making sure he gets to his classes. He was beaming when I left. That's better than clinging to my knees, isn't it? Tonight I will try to keep the questioning to a minimum, praying that he'll want to share his experiences.

I feel unbelievably blessed to have been able to homeschool him all these years. We have made some amazing discoveries together and have had lots of deposits in the memory bank. I look forward to focusing on the other two I still have at home. My job as a homeschooling mom is not over yet. My class size just shrunk by 1/3 is all.

Friends and family are praying for us. It sure is nice to be part of a loving community where we are loved and supported!