Blast Off!

This day is the direct response to allowing my husband and twin boys access to an awesome hobby shop for obviously way too much time while Haley and I went shopping at Joann's.  Dummy me thought that they would have a nice time "browsing" all of the fun boy toys there.  But no...rather than just looking as I do, he left with a big model rocket, engines and all.

Notice Ryan WAY back in the distance with his fingers in his ears?  Yep, that's my boy.  He's not really into loud noises.  This was one of several different launches.  Haley's best friend Jaiden did the honors for this launch.

 Here goes Adam's turn being the official launcher!  One nice thing about this particular rocket was that every time it went up, it came back in one piece and was able to be launched again.  Even though the parachute didn't work and slow its descent as evidenced by the picture below.  It went really, really high too!

 Here's Adam with the launcher thingy.  No idea what its called.  Not my area of expertise.  The boys (both old and young) had a blast though.

We girls did our best to fly Haley's new dragon kite that she got for Christmas.  Never did manage to get it to really fly though.  She sure wore herself out trying though!

All in all it was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon with family and friends!

Mercury Models!

This particular activity didn't exactly turn out as planned, but the boy's enjoyed it none the less, so I guess we'll call it a success.  We're studying the planets again this year along with lots of other fun earth and space science.  This week we learned about Mercury.  Since Haley was taking AGES to finish up her math, the boys and I did this particular activity without her. 

First, we mixed up a big batch of salt dough from a recipe in the textbook.  I suppose it should have been thicker and maybe it would've worked better.  We were supposed to have balls, but ours looked like blobs.  The dough was just too soft to hold the sphere shape needed for Mercury.  So, we considered it half of Mercury.

Then, once we had our Mercury model to work with, the boys proceeded to make craters of all depths and sizes to recreate the surface of  Mercury.  You may have noticed that they are in their pajamas...yes, that's a big perk of homeschooling.  They don't have to get dressed!  Nothing says school time like PJ's. 

The boys really had fun figuring out all kinds of objects to make different types of craters.  Pencils, crayons, and even odd shaped Legos were used.  We sat the models aside to dry for a few hours and to share with daddy when he came home.  As I said before, I obviously need more practice on salt dough, because the models dried on the outside, but stayed gooey inside.  We finally gave up and simply threw them away. 

Happy New Year!

Well, I can't exactly say that I'm sorry the holidays are over.  I don't know why, but this year it all seemed more stressful than usual.  Every year I say that I'm not going to wait until November to start thinking about Christmas, and every year, I procrastinate until the very last minute.  So, if the holidays are stressful, I'm the one to blame. 

We did take a nice long school break throughout much of December.  This is due to the fact that we just had so many illnesses, extra curricular activities, out of town company and just plain craziness, that we really needed the time away from school.  Its been a bit of a shock to the system getting back into the swing of things this week however.

I have been so bad about posting on the things we've been doing and learning about.  I don't even know where to start.  We have some fun activities planned later this week, so I'll do my best to post about them and share some pics.  In the meantime, from our family to your's...Happy New Year!!

Visitors...

Last night we had a very unique visitor to our house.  Never in the twelve years we've lived here have we had a visitor of this kind.  We've had opossums, wild turkeys, deer, snakes, hawks, but never this!

It was about 11:00 pm and I let our three dogs out to "do their business" before bed and they ran out started barking like crazy right beside the house.  I turned on the porch light and this terrified little face is looking up at me.

 

Poor little guy was just hungry and apparently came to our yard because of the cat food bowl on our porch.  He thought we were asleep for the night.  He got away from the dogs by climbing up the side of the house between the house and the fence.  He got himself wedged in and couldn't go up or down.  After quickly getting the dogs inside, snapping a couple of pictures, I got a broom and used the handle to give him a little boost up and in an instant he was gone.  I'm just so thankful that the dogs didn't catch him.  Is he cute, or what?

Busy days...

Well, as you may have guessed from my lack of posting, I've been super busy.  Just to catch you up on what's been happening in our lives, we've been keeping up with school work, Haley's choir class started back, we are participating in a weekly co-op using a Catholic classical style curriculum, I'm teaching science for this co-op, our church's Parish School of Religion is starting back, so I've been gearing up for that, I've been adding Friday get together and PE activities to my homeschool group's website, handling membership for that same group, running my bow business, re-signing the boy's up for Cub Scouts, becoming a leader for a brand new American Heritage Girls troop just for homeschooled girls (Haley is now a member), going on vacation to Florida for my family's annual family reunion and a quick trip to Ft. Myers Beach (I'll post pictures ASAP), oh and lets not forget my falling down the stairs the night before we left for Florida and spraining both ankles.  Thankfully only my right ankle is still giving me trouble.  I am feeling quite lucky that it didn't get broken, considering how bad it hurt and how hard I fell.

So, as you can see, we're really, really busy right now.  As I write this my kids are tearing newspaper into strips preparing to make two volcanoes that the kids in our co-op can paint on Friday.  I'm just praying that paper mache' dries really fast so that its ready for paint on Friday!  Anybody else feeling rather overwhelmed?

Making Volcanoes!

My children and I are participating in a homeschool co-op for the first time in many years.  We're using a Catholic Classical memorization program called Classically Catholic Memory.  We meet once a week on Fridays with a bunch of other Catholic families.  I'm  teaching science for the co-op and we're getting ready to study volcanoes.  So, to prepare for our lesson and activity this week, my kids and I had the fun task of making a paper mache' volcano.  I've only done paper mache' once in my life, so I wasn't sure how it would turn out.  Here are the kids having fun making a HUGE mess in my driveway.

Here are the two finished volcanoes.  This week we'll be painting them in preparation for the following week when we'll explode them!  The kids are all SO exicted!

They turned out pretty good I thought.  Now if I can just get the eruption to be impressive enough for the kids to be impressed.  I think they have visions of lava shooting up several feet.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Thankful Thursdays

Sometimes I think we get so caught up in the day to day monotony of our lives that we forget to be thankful for all that we've been given.  I know I am very guilty of this.  We, as homeschoolers, have been given one of the greatest gifts of all...time. 

Take a minute and think about what your life might look like if your children were gone to school all day.   I know some days that very thought can be very appealing!  But seriously, imagine your day.  Having spent the better part of two public school years with my daughter, I'm well aware of just what it entails.  Here's a sampling from an average day in my former life.  Keep in mind this was kindergarten and first grade.  It gets worse as they get older!


7:00 - Wake up seriously grumpy children and drag them to the kitchen for breakfast.

7:15 - Prepare and eat said breakfast.

7:30 - Brush teeth and hair and get dressed.

7:45 - Hop in the car for the short ride to school.

7:50 - Sit in car line waiting to drop off my child.  Watch with some apprehension as my precious little girl walks off into the great unknown of the elementary school.  Hope and pray she goes right to her classroom and doesn't wander off on her way there.

7:55 - Arrive back home for the bulk of the day to do housework, run my business, and take care of her two younger brothers that are thankfully still with me.  Some days I go back to school to eat lunch with my daughter and to help out in her classroom.  This allows me to spend more time with her even while she's at school.

3:00 - Watch with anticipation as the big yellow school bus comes up our street to bring her safely home to me.  She's tired from her day, but hands me her daily journal so I can see any notes her teacher has for me.  This also lists what homework she has to complete tonight.  Most days I get notes about bad behavior during the day.  My daughter is gifted and has ADD.  Not the best combination for classroom behavior.  I get her a quick snack, and allow her to unwind a bit before we move on to tackling the homework (usually math and spelling) that we have to complete before tomorrow.

4:00 - We sit at the kitchen table to do homework.

5:00 - Free time to play while I start getting dinner ready.

6:00 - Dinner time.

6:30 - Get ready to go to scouts/soccer practice.  You can insert whatever works here.

7:00 - Practice time.

8:00 - Head home to get ready for another day tomorrow.

8:30 - Take bath/shower, brush teeth and put on PJ's.  Bedtime prayers, hugs and kisses.

8:45 - I'm trying to figure out what she'll wear to school tomorrow and lay it out for her.  Possibly pack her lunch or get her lunch money ready, and sign her journal to show that I've seen it.  Get everything ready to go for the next day.

10:00 Finally go to bed myself.

Now does this sound like a fun day?  Not to me!  Our homeschool days are spent together, not apart.  We wake up naturally whenever our internal clocks get us up.  We have breakfast together, we talk, we laugh, and we spend our day learning together, not apart.  My children's closest playmates are each other.  I am blessed to witness every "light bulb" moment as it happens.  I have the joy and honor of being the one that helped them achieve that moment.  I get to watch them grow, mature, and learn each and every day of our lives.  Sure, we do lots of outside activities...some days more than I would care to, but we still spend HUGE amounts of time together.  Am I saying my kids don't misbehave?  No!  Am I saying that there aren't days when I wouldn't love to spend some alone time?  No!  Am I saying I think my life is perfect?  No!  However, I am saying that I am truly, 100% thankful for the gift God has given me in my three children.  I am thankful for the time I get to spend with them each day.  I am so very thankful that my husband works hard to provide for us as a family so that we have these days.  Because, as we all know, this time will be gone in the blink of an eye.

So today, when your children are driving you crazy, think about what life might be like if they weren't there.  Think about life as a public school family.  I really think you'll find that this is the better way.  Today, I take a moment to say thank you to God for allowing me this opportunity.

So tell me...what are you thankful for?