Costume Party

Our school year is in full swing. We are busy with reading, classes and co-ops (2 this year!)


On Wednesday, Annie asked me if we could have a costume party. After our co-op. On Friday. Friday?! Two days to plan? So what is a mommy to say to such a request but, "Yes, of course!" I had stated the aforementioned response without having checked the calendar. I had conveniently forgotten that I was co-hosting a Pampared Chef party the night before, teaching two classes at co-op (for which I had not yet prepared nor graded papers), then attending a bridal shower in the evening. Plus we had plans to have friends over for a cookout on Sunday evening. So it wasn't like we had nothing going on....


However, the kids promised that they'd help me (and silly me believed them), promised that it would be low key so I posted a quick invite on our co-op's forum. We had about 6 sign ups by Friday morning so I wasn't too worried. Six is a pretty manageable group. But then at co-op that day I had several moms ask if it was too late to sign up for the party and believing in the adage "the more the merrier" I cheerfully agreed.


We arrived at home (with 2 extra kids in tow), ate a quick lunch and then quickly put people the work. The extra kids got to participate in the "preparations" (read: vacuuming, sweeping, putting stuff away).

In the end 11 kids showed up. They played on the trampoline.

Made and devoured caramel apples (all except one child who had braces. She made one and will bring it home to her braces-less sisters). Two girls had never eaten them before!!! Gasp!!

Drank two gallons of pink lemonade and then jumped on the trampoline some more.

Some of the girls had fun with the curling iron.

All in all it was a fun afternoon of food and friends! 

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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