Too Busy for Blogging Lately....

Sorry I haven't written lately. I have been busy enjoying life and other things. Here is a quick update on what we have been up to in case you were wondering.....

We took a much needed Easter vacation/Spring break. The kids and I both enjoyed the rest from school and the chance to take naps and to sleep in. I was able to do some spring cleaning around here that had been neglected for quite a while. Sad to say, with three little ones my house is messy again. At least the cobwebs, windows and a few closets are still clean to prove my hard work.


Here are a few pictures of the kids working in their gardens. I thought up a cleaver way to get them to want to pitch in with the much needed weeding. Each child got to pick an area to set up their own garden. Their ears perked up for that one. A few days we spent all day outside working on them. I still have a few more areas but it is beginning to look beautiful.

This year we made some beautiful Ukrainian Easter eggs. We cheated using a kit that I ordered online. They came out beautiful.

This past week the kids were still off from their studies due to testing.

I hope you enjoyed a few photos of our past weeks of what we have been up to. On Monday March 31st is our dancers 8th birthday. We went ahead and did a little bit of schooling today. We are planning on spending the day at Disneyland in celebration of this happy event. The kids are very excited. All of them have been their once before two years ago. They are having another spring special for California residents and we couldn't pass up the good deal. Hope to have some photos to share with you soon.

Blessings and peace to all of you.....

Have a Blessed Palm Sunday

Wishing all of you a blessed Palm Sunday and a time of renewal and reflection during this Easter week of the Greatest love story ever fulfilled....

States & Regions: Rocky Mountain Region

I apologize for not posting for some time. My kids got hit with the flu real bad around here. This years flu season is terrible. My poor oldest son was down with a high fever for just about six days. I was hoping to escape it this year but apparently it got the best of us this year.

I have some encouraging news to share with all of you in the homeschool community. The Governor and the President of the California Dept of Education announced their support for homeschoolers. They were not pleased with the court ruling and will do everything possible to protect homeschoolers in our state. Yeah for Homeschoolers!!! Keep praying to get the court ruling depublished. This could take months if not years to achieve through our court system. I pray that it be resolved sooner rather than later.

For the past two weeks we have been struggling to get our school work done. With sick kids it is always time to take off the teachers cap for the day and allow Mom to Mommy with love and comfort.


These two weeks we learned about the Rocky Mountain region states. States such as Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Utah and Nevada. They learned about the animals that live in that region and how to track animals in the wild. They learned about Smokey the Bear. I had them color some pictures of him and I read a comic book their grandparents picked up for them on their travels. It was a great little book on the history of Smokey the Bear and how he got his name. I never knew that Smokey was based on a real bear. I even found some video clips online of some old Smokey the bear movies. The kids and I had a few laughs and it was interesting to see how Smokey had changed throughout the years.

We also learned about the three categories of rocks-igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary. We had to postpone our hike and search for rocks. Luckily I had rocks from the three types in our garage from a few years back. They are now interested in starting a rock collection of their own.


For Idaho I had them make a potato using construction paper. My dancing daughter was very creative. Chip my oldest was too sick to make one.

After their state page for Colorado I had Dancer watercolor a mountain scene to add into her state notebook. Here it is....







Utah we learned about salt. We had a quick experiment to see if things can float in salt water because they thought it was cool to float in salt water. For the experiment we filled one kitchen sink basin with water and the other with table salt water. Since we started with too much water on the salt basin side we had to add plenty of salt to compensate. First we tested items in the non salted water to see if they would sink to the bottom. We then tested them in the salt water. Many items failed due to their weight. We finally were successful with a giant fake penny my kids had. It sank to the bottom in the non salted water and floated in the salty water. The kids got a big kick out of pushing it under the water and watching it rise back up to the surface.

Here is a picture of a state page if you are curious what it looks like. I got the coloring page from the crayola website. The kids cut it out, glued it onto a construction paper page and added state stickers.



Here is list of books that we have read for this region:

- B is for Big Sky Country: A Montana Alphabet -Sneed Collard III
-Mountain Explorer -Greg Pyers
-Grizzly Bears-John Woodward
- Old Mother Bear - Victoria Miles
- Face to Face with the Grizzlies - Joel Sartore
- Tricks that Animals Play- Jan Nagel Clarkson
-Welcome to the USA Wyoming -Ann Heinrichs
- Whose Tracks are These? -Jim Nail
-Welcome to the USA Idaho - Ann Heinrichs
- One Potato, two potato - Cynthia DeFelice
- One Potato- Sue Porter
- The Eagle and the River- Charles Craighead
- Welcome to the USA Colorado -Ann Heinrichs
- C is for Centennial: A Colorado Alphabet - Louise Doak Whitney
- Coyote and the Laughing Butterflies - Harriet Peck Taylor
- Welcome to the USA Utah - Ann Heinrichs
- The Story of Salt- Mark Kurlansky
- A is for Arches: A Utah Alphabet book - Becky Hall
- Death Valley- June Behrens
- S is for Silver: A Nevada Alphabet - Eleanor Coerr

Finally Finished .. The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz

-A Fine St. Patrick's Day-Susan Wojciechowski

-The Gold at the End of the Rainbow- Wolfram Hanel

Concerning Court Decision in California

There was concerning court decision that was handed down on February 29, 2008 from a second court judge that could affect homeschoolers here in the state of California. Here is the court document to read for yourself in it's entirety http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B192878.PDF

Please pray that God will spare homeschoolers here in California. Christian Homeschool legal groups are already taking up this case and will fight this verdict. If this verdict should hold true Homeschooling will be found illegal in the state of California. Even those who homeschool under an ISP or through a Charter. The only form of education that will be allowed in the courts eyes is through public/private or to be taught by a credentialed tutor. Our precious freedom of homeschooling will be lost here in the state of California.

If you are reading this blog from another state please pray with me during this time that this will be overturned because if should hold true it can have ugly ramifications for other states as well. Deterioration of our freedoms that we hold true!

Here are more articles on it....

http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/ca/200803030.asp
http://www.pacificjustice.org/resources/news/focusdetails.cfm?ID=PR080305a

Prayerful blessings,
Amy

St. Patrick Craft to Share...

I have a simple craft to share with you for the upcoming St. Patrick's Day holiday....

Here is how to make one of your very own.

All I did was hand draw or better yet copy off the internet a large shamrock. Use your template to trace it onto two pieces of green constrution paper. Next, stack both cut out shamrocks together and fold in half. Now carefully cut out the centers leaving a frame. Unfold your pieces and set aside.

Take a large piece of clear contact paper, enough to cover both shamrocks. Cut the piece of clear contact paper in half. Making each shamrock to have their own piece of contact paper.

Carefully lay one piece of contact paper sticky side up and place one shamrock down and secure it. Now fill the center with colored tissue paper. Once that is done take the second shamrock cut out and glue it with a glue stick onto the other one (creating a sandwich). Now cover it with the second piece of contact paper and cut out your finished piece.

I know it sounds confusing. An easy way of understanding this is you are creating a sandwich- layer after layer.

Now hang it in your favorite window to display your child's work of art. This same technique can be used for any holiday windo art. The possibilities are endless really.

Have Fun,

Amy

Reading and Blessing

I have been so blessed to be a stay at home, homeschooling Mother ever since my children were born. I have never regretted that choice. It is a God given privilege everyday to be called their Mommy and their teacher. Yes, we have those days when I want to pull my hair out but the blessings are far greater. I have been the one to teach all my children to read. Here is a photo of my youngest learning to read. It just melts my heart to see the connections that their little minds make. The light bulb moments and the smiles and hugs that follow. Thank you Lord, Jesus! You are Awesome!!

Midwest States Week 2

This week is our last week learning about the Midwest. We were a bit more relaxed n our schooling since we had company staying with us this week. Here is what the kids and I did this week....


On Monday the kids learned about Minnesota by coloring a state info. page and adding it to their state notebooks. Then we looked at Grant Wood's paintings The Daughters of the Revolution and American Gothic.



On Tuesday we read about Missouri, colored a state info. page and learned about the Pony Express. We had learned about this two years ago during our horse unit so this was a bit of review. Then I had the boys pretend to be Pony Express riders on their bikes. My daughter would have joined in too but she was sick. What the boys had to do was to use the stick in their hand and spear and slice of toast with a hole cut out of it. The idea is from Konos. The boys had a lot of fun with this one and it was a great day to be outside.


On Wednesday we read about Iowa and made a popcorn garland for the birds while watching a movie about Tornadoes.


Thursday we spent a good time of our day learning about Buffalo. I found a great craft on the crayola site. What you do is take a brown grocery bag. Cut a large rectangle piece, crumple it real good and soak it in water for a time. Gently pull it out, squeeze it and leave it outside to dry in the sun. The brown paper is supposed to resemble leather. Once dry cut a buffalo shape. Sorry I don't have a template for you. I just free drew it from the crayola website as a guide. The kids traced, cut and designed theirs. Here is a sample...

Friday we read about the state of Nebraska and how soy is one of the leading crops grown in that state. This gave me another idea for a project to make. I had the kids write about all the crops grown in the Midwest and glue a few samples.

Here is a list of the books we read to go along with this unit this week....

-V is for Viking: A Minnesota Alphabet by Kathy Jo Warig

- Welcome to the U.S.A. Minnesota by Ann Heinrichs

- S is for Show Me: A Missouri Alphabet by Judy Young

-Pony Express by Steven Kroll

-Welcome to the USA Iowa by Ann Heinrichs

-Buffalo by Phyllis Perry

-Soybeans: The Wonder Years by Leonard S. Kensworth

-Welcome to the USA Nebraska by Ann Heinrichs

-C is for Cornhusker: A Nebraska Alphabet by Rajean Luebs Shepherd