Teamwork in Homeschooling

Who says children educated at home don't have the opportunity to work on "group projects"? ::snort::

Zander HATES coloring.....oh such pain I inflict on my child.

Stacia loves coloring. She discovered his phonics book and is coloring it for him....sometimes with bright pink - sometimes with a pencil.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

Bre's Big Week....Last Week....

She chose a new hair color, *started a new job, and received official notice that she's been accepted as a Junior at Eugene Bible College.

New job - CHOCOLATE store in the MALL. She loves it. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

Insanity on the Stability Ball

Before Mike left this a.m. he put more air in my stability ball. I've been debating what to do about this "Phase Thing".

(This is not me. This is not my house. This is a replica of MY stability ball.)

Phase 1 helps you establish a regular workout routine, drink water and eat breakfast. I'll write about THAT later. ::snort:: I pretty much had that down.

Phase 2 asks you to add strength training, to identify and conquer a weak food area and to keep a food log. I already keep a food log and began my own personal Lent last week. I decided to move into phase 2. Phase 3 is to make food boring and I'm simply not ready for that. Since one of the 5 elements of the brain change is being truthful, I'm going to hang out here (and I need to spend 4 weeks depriving myself of my weakness before I move on anyway) until I'm ready to make food boring. ::snort::

I've had a hard time finding TIME to add strength to my cardio - and I've proven over and over that my sluggish body NEEDS 60 min of cardio to maintain or lose any weight......but Chantel (see review below - it's not to late to enter) has workouts that take 25 minutes in Never Say Diet. I have a ball and can do this at home.....so.....

Mike blew the ball up bigger - it was really flat. I tried the work out tonight....It's harder than it looks. ::snort:: Though that may be because Stacia delights in jumping on top of my tummy while I try to do some sort of ab walk out...abs walk? Hmmm....mine roll.

I did great until I hit this exercise:

(This is not me.) This hurt my aging knees BAD. The next was a wall lunge (couldn't find a photo) and it hurt terribly too...... I know that I have to baby my knees. I do not want to re injure the thing and be out of cardio for months.....but what can I do instead of these wall squats and lunges to work those muscles without hurting my knee. Ideas?

To prove I'm NOT a wimp, I ignored the wimpy wrists and did the "push ups" - they hurt too - but not as bad. ::snort::

In other news I bought a digital scale as those little lines are simply too far away at 5:30 a.m. It is a fancy thing but I can't figure out how to make it work. ::snort:: According the scale I have now and the one at the gym I lost 2 lbs last week. My grace-filled goal is 3 lbs a month.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

Nolan's Knight Book

Nolan asked me yesterday if we could just make his Knight Book without the fancy folds. ::snort::

Here he stands with his finished product!

Yes, I'm going to share a dozen or so photos...because these are a LOT of work and this represents the completion of our study on the Middle Ages. We have moved on to the Renaissance. I have noticed that Arielle is spending a lot of time hanging around this week. She says she's bored.....we can't have THAT. Bored with the Renaissance? I need to find out what is going on and possibly pull her in to some of our activities. But you want PICTURES - don't you? ::snort::

I love this game. It's a pocket with various historical events on cards. They put them in order. I would LOVE to find some history cards pre-made that I could purchase and use to "play timeline games" . Anyone know of such a thing?

....and what about Zander's Knight Book? HIS is the book that will be in the "double folded" lapbook. I didn't have rubber cement (and can't find any yet) and so I used Elmers. I put it under heavy books to dry but it was still bubbly.

Remember my wonderful husband who carves pumpkins with power tools? He's cracked me up again. He had just the thing for Zander's lapbook.

ANY PROJECT CAN BECOME A BUILDING PROJECT! ::snort::

Zander's folder is in the vise in the garage. We'll probably work on it tomorrow - wait tomorrow is THHHHHHHuuuurrrrrsssssday - probably Friday.

Nolan informs me this is the THIRD lapbook we've finished already this year. One on the election, one on Christmas Symbols (which we began in 2006 - do you see WHY he's so impressed with our current track record?) and this one on knights. I guess he forgot about my very own lapbook compiled with political cartoons of Sarah Palin. ::snort::

You can see more of our lapbooks at Our Lapbooks Page.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.