Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Sweet Sixteen!
Late last night we returned from a wonderful trip to Denver where we spent Christmas with our family. We made several trips back and forth between the houses of Marc's sister and his mother, each time passing the building that used to be the little Reformed church that Marc grew up in. The church where we were married sixteen years ago. It's now a Korean church, but it still brought back fond memories every time we drove by. Memories of a winter wedding between a young couple who could never have dreamed what the next sixteen years would hold. What a wonderful adventure it has been!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
My favorite Christmas tradition
We all have special ways we celebrate this holiday. Maybe you're preparing your grandmother's special recipe she used every Christmas. Or maybe you're gazing at an ornament on your tree that you decorated in 3rd grade.
But my favorite tradition is one Marc's family started many years ago, long before Marc and I even knew each other. Every year we have a special cake. It's a birthday cake. Because it is the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior, after all. But it's also the birthday of someone else I love dearly.
Every year the cake is different...
but the celebration is the same.
Thank You, Heavenly Father, for sending us your Son, and thank You for giving me the most wonderful husband in the world!
Happy Birthday, Marc and Jesus!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Week 17 in Review
What a week! We got a lot done, but it was very different than our normal routine. Individual subjects were held at a minimum and we spent a good portion of the week snuggled on the bed reading. We had some Christmas joy infused into our school week in everything from a nativity themed word search to decorating our classroom, such as our little tree to the left and lots of snowflakes hanging from the ceiling (below).
Even better, we made time for a Christmas art project. Googling "Nativity art project" led me to That Artist Woman's blog and this lovely project:
We also studied George Frederick Handel and his magnificent Messiah. Here are some great resources we used:
Both Hallelujah Handel's are essentially the same story, so you could just use the book for pictures while you listen to the CD. We chose to read the book by itself after listening to the CD. We also listened to selections from Messiah. I also found through the library a CD with Medieval Christmas songs that I of course forgot to play when we were doing our art project. We'll try to find some time this weekend to listen to it.
I hope you all have a blessed Christmas and I wish you Happy Homeschooling in 2009!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Attention Math U See Users!
Special announcement from the MUS Blog:
Go visit the blog for more information. On one hand I'm thrilled for the changes, except that we already own all the teacher manuals through Zeta. Oh well.
LOL, I had to do some math of my own to figure out how to size the video to fit my column!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
what girls do with Legos
Not impressed?
BHA Weekly Planner
The planner I use is actually a variation of the planner my friend and homeschool mentor, Melanie, gave me when I first started homeschooling. It's designed to grow with the students, so I tweak it every now and then. Each student has a section with their individual subjects listed and a space for the day's assignment. This year I found it helpful to make the planner two pages, using the second page for subjects we do together and for extracurricular activities. That left me a little more room on the first page to be creative and add an encouraging Bible verse. I print on thicker copier paper so I can print on both sides versus stapling two pages.
I typically fill in the planning sheets six weeks in advance, but I always write in pencil so changes can easily be made. This could easily be done on the computer as well, but for whatever reason I still prefer to write instead of type. Each school day I keep the planner at my desk and check things off as they are completed.
If you would like to download a copy click here. I don't know why the formatting gets so messed up in the iPaper format, but it seems to work fine if you download it as an Excel file, and then you can customize it to your needs. Note that in Excel to find the second page click on the tab at the bottom of the screen.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Weeks 15 & 16 in Review
Gracie is working on adding 9's in MUS Alpha. She is moving at a snail's pace with this lesson, but she is making progress. We will camp in this lesson for a while.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Do you love homeschool conventions?
Boy, do I love them! Great speakers and hours of browsing through all the vendor booths, drooling over all the great materials. Well, you have to check out this give-away at Life with My 3 Boybarians! Thanks, Darcy!
Friday, December 5, 2008
I Photoshopped...again!
I would love to know if there's a way to change the color of Grace's sweater to match the others. By the way, I'll give you some behind-the-scenes scoop. I was having trouble finding coordinating clothes, so Grace wore Anna's sweater, Anna wore my sweater (the shoulder seam is halfway down her arm!), and everyone wore pants that were definitely not picture worthy.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
I Photoshopped!
But I still love the idea of scrapbooking. Several years ago I bought Photoshop Elements 2.0 (version 7.0 is in stores now!), thinking it would be easier if I learned how to scrap digitally. No more trips to the scrapbook store, I reasoned. But I never could figure out how to use the darn thing. I used the tutorial, read magazine articles, and even looked for instructions on the web. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not figure out how to make the simplest layout.
So here is my first project ever -- my attempt at a Christmas card. It's still in the "playing around" stage because I don't even have pictures of my kids for the card yet. I might not use the circles, but I thought it would be fun to try. So I'm hoping to get some constructive criticism from you ladies. LOL, I might have to go comment on some of your blogs to lure you over here! I obviously have a lot to learn yet, so don't be afraid to tell me what needs to be fixed.
Since this is the "blog version," I used BHA instead of our last name. The JOY, JOY, JOY theme has been a tradition with our cards for several years. I enclose a letter that includes several other Bible verses with the word JOY.
My dear husband looked at my handiwork and said, "Just what you need, another hobby." So true.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Finally, first snow
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Week 14 in Review
Anna: Sometimes when I read about other homeschooler's days, I'm amazed at how independent many of the kids are with their school work. Mom can actually take a break to go fold some laundry or throw some dinner in the crock pot. We're not there yet -- I'm in motion non-stop, switching between the three kids, usually telling one of them, "I'll be there in a minute!" But I'm starting to see the light at the tunnel. Anna is slowly becoming more independent. Yet sometimes I struggle with how to let her work independently without giving her busywork. For example, she uses Rod & Staff for grammar, which we really like. But what we like about it (besides being thorough and easy to understand) is that we can work on it together orally and be done in 15 minutes. We read the lesson together and then go through the oral drill section and the review section (also orally). About the only time I have her write anything down is when we do sentence diagramming or when she takes the unit test. I could easily send her off to read the lesson and complete the work on paper, freeing me up to do other things, but I just don't see the point. She has a solid grasp of the materials and this way she is freed up to work on other things. But it is something I privately debate -- how much should we do together.
Ryne: Giving addition with regrouping another week was just what Beta Boy needed. By the end of the week he was doing great with Lesson 7. One day I was checking his paper and could not find where he wrote the work to solve a certain word problem. The answer was correct, but there was nothing to show how he got the answer. I asked him about it and he said he did it in his head! Anna and looked at each other in disbelief. If you're new to this blog, you might want to read some of Ryne's history with math. Every week I continue to be amazed at the progress he has made. But as exciting as it was, I did tell him he needed to show me his work for word problems. Ryne also finished the book Pilgrim Boy just in time for Thanksgiving. While we ate our Thanksgiving turkey he told us all about the story. Ryne and I both liked the story.
Grace: She too benefited from staying in the same math lesson for an extra week. Solving for the unknown was a tough concept for her. It really helped to have her read the equation out loud. She is so eager to move forward in math, but I think we will be moving at a slower pace in the weeks ahead. Because she is the youngest and wants to learn the things the big kids are learning, sometimes I forget to teach her the things she is supposed to be learning as a Kindergartner. Thankfully, Ryne remembers every detail of Kindergarten so he is often reminding me of things to teach her. For example, something I said to Ryne one day made him start humming a song he learned to remember the days of the week. Grace was still having trouble remembering the days in order, so this song was perfect.
(Sing to the tune of the Munsters theme song)
Days of the week, [snap, snap]
Days of the week, [snap, snap]
Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week. [snap, snap]
There's Sunday and there's Monday,
There's Tuesday and there's Wednesday,
There's Thursday and there's Friday,
and then there's Saturday.
Days of the week, [snap, snap]
Days of the week, [snap, snap]
Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week. [snap, snap]
Of course that brings up another thing we need to work on -- snapping!
Other: I have mentioned before that we love Song School Latin, so I thought I'd show you what it looks like in a real homeschool. Grace and Ryne are practicing a chant, asking each other, "How are you?"