Thursday

There are new machines at the gym. WHEW - the AMT is good. I really worked but it said I burned less calories. The trainer said that 15 min on it was worth twice that on the normal elliptical.....but I sure didnt' burn the calories I wanted too. These new machines have individual TV screens...so if I remember headphones I'll be able to watch something besides CNN.

The kids' piano lessons were cancelled today - but that turned out to be a blessing. Nolan is going to begin them too.

I was SAD that it looks like our excellent homeschool drama class at a local studio isn't going to fly this semester. There's always next semester. Basically, the local homeschool co-op changed their day to the same day as drama and the drama studio didn't know in time to rearrange their schedule to pick a better day. She is so GOOD with the kids. I really am hoping they can take more classes with her before we leave. The owner of the studio works at the gym so we talked about it this a.m. I told her if someone showed up to give me a call and I'd have the kids to the class within 10 minutes. She will. LOL

Here's yet another blanket fort.

©2008 D.R.G.

School AGAIN

I got home from the gym and got ambushed. The RULE this year is no computer until school is done. I knew that there were some moderator things I needed to check on on SHS. How did I know this? Because I checked email early before I left for the gym. Then when I got back, I sat down at the computer. BAD move. Conviction galore. I really need to quit that. I guess I should say EARLY hours on the computer are fine but after 6:45 a.m. NO computer time until school is well underway or done.

45 minutes later Jamin asked if I could help him register from the SAT and ACT as I was "at the computer". 1 1/2 hours later we finished. Grrrr....

Now it was lunch time.

I decided not to do "book school" with the younger boys. They love to color and such. The Science Notebooks are a hit. I got out a couple of the History booklets for our Knights Lapbook and we worked on those.

I don't know WHY Zander looks so pained. Debbie, I thought about your question about Stacia some more. No, she doesn't always cooperate with school. She DOES love it when we are working on projects and insists on being in the middle. This is not always helpful, but I've begun to plan for it. ::snort::

We discussed the parts of a knights armor. Zander picked the knight from the level 2 lapbook and Nolan picked the knight from the level 3 lapbook. I got both of these from Homeschool Share.com (no, I'm not an affiliate). ::snort:: I love the fact that this site is full of unit studies, worksheets, lesson plans, lapbooks that HOMESCHOOL MOMS have written and decided to SHARE with one another. FREE. ::snort::

Zander's work is on the right. I engaged him. He learned....we have to approach it a bit differently than expected. LOL Notice his colorful knight. He is VERY imaginative. The sword and shield are red because the knight "plunged them all the way into the dragon" and the story goes on from there. The poor man's shin guards are different colors because he laughed at a man and so God gave him a purple shin guard, which isn't very knightly at all.

The other project they began is a timeline pocket for the lapbook. This was a lightbulb moment for me. I've been trying to figure out what to do for our TOG timeline. I refuse to keep long, involved notebooks for little ones. This project has 8 historical events. They are coloring them. I'll laminate them. Then they'll store them in that pocket. They'll play a game and put them in order. I'm thinking I could do THAT with our timeline dates.....or find a place that does this so I don't have to come up with the images. ::snort::

Arielle is running me ragged. She has read 4 books that were to take 3 weeks EACH and we are in our 2nd week. She has read ALL the assignments (history core, in depth, supplemental) for both weeks....we had our discussion today. I do need to help her plan out her work a bit better next week. She's doing great with all the new parts of the program that she's adding in at the Dialectic level (because I don't require them in the grammar level). She missed some parts that I wanted her to do.

Jared had House of Faith this afternoon. He's teaching one of the story groups this year. He had Civil Air Patrol tonight.

Jamin is still working on getting his book finished and in the right format to submit to a contest. Oh, if God would allow him to win, I'd be so excited. He'd not have to worry about college expenses, he'd be published....he could move on to the next big goal. LOL I am eagerly awaiting the chance to read this. He let Krista and Mike read it to edit. Arielle grabbed it and read it. I read the short stories that it grew from and there is a HUGE story there....it's called The Leper King...and oh the short story was good, and discussing his ideas with him are good......I want to READ it. I'll get a printed copy when it is done....I didn't do too well with my favorite parts being edited out of the last book. ::snort::

That's it for another day of school. I'm exhausted...and the house isn't clean...tomorrow is produce co-op....and I didn't make it to the library.... but I think we got enough school done.

©2008 D.R.G.

Voting /Election Resources

I am in the process of pulling together a quick study on the voting process, elections etc. My older boys are very interested. The younger ones can be sucked in. ::snort::

In scanning my shelves I realize we have NO books on this topic. Would you share your favorite books on voting/election for the K-3 age range? Jr High? High School?

I have the excellent email going around about why women should vote - recounting what it took to win the right to vote. My Grams was not allowed to vote for the first several decades of her life. She used to tell me this story every election year. One of my great memories of grams was taking her down to the local high school to vote when she was in her 90's. She and I would joke that our votes would cancel each other out. Come to think of it anyone in town who saw us would joke about it. ::snort:: I was a conservative pastor's wife in the small town....she was a liberal - and very proud of it...but she was really not a social liberal.... In fact my uncle once asked WHY I took her down their each year since we cancelled each other out we may as well skip the fuss. Grams gave quite the lecture that day to her 60+ year old "boy". ::snort::

I found a free lapbook here. I have our "absentee voter" ballot from the primary election here - mine arrived while we were on vacation and I missed the chance to vote. I felt bad about that all day.

The older 3 will vote in a mock election. I am SERIOUSLY thinking of having some sort of mock election on a Friday produce co-op day so the younger kids can have fun "voting".

I just want a couple of books. I'm going to get The Ballot Box Battle from our library. But it's not ALL about women's right to vote, KWIM?

The older ones and I are checking out election video clips nightly.

Do you have a book or two to suggest? Or a DVD I could get from netflix?

©2008 D.R.G.

School Today

Yes, we have life outside of school....but not much these days. LOL Some shots from the day.... Thanks for all the suggestions on King Arthur books. Sherri brought one to Bible Study for us to try. It's an adaptation of Howard Pyle. Looks more doable. I checked out the TOG manual again and noted that The Story of the Middle Ages is for the Jr High level - which may be why it puts Zander and Nolan to sleep. ::snort:: I enjoy it a lot. Arielle may use it later - but she really enjoys the Famous Men books and I've given her the choice. I think I'll read the Grueber books for myself. LOL

We began work on our science notebooks....



Arielle did story hour with the littles. She chose to read, "Crafty Chameleon". She had made printed out quite a few of the animals from the story and they colored and made hats.

I figured out why Jared is so stressed. He spent four hours reading selections from "Norton's Anthology of English Lit" instead of "Norton's Anthology of Western Lit". I meant to warn them that they'd be going back and forth between various anthologies this year.

Jamin takes the winning school moment for the day: TOG asks "What do you think this character was thinking....." Jamin's answer, "Well, his name was Skull Splitter, I don't think he was writing poetry and that axe wasn't for felling trees." ::snort:: Jamin is off until Saturday.

I continued to work on the massive "to do" list.

©2008 D.R.G.

CATCHING UP

This is my attempt to catch you up on things other than school! LOL

Monday night was United Foods co-op. The truck broke down. This meant that it was a couple of hours late when I met the truck. That worked out fine. Bre was able to call and we had a fun conversation. Co-op went well. I'm still tweaking things to work for all. Thanks again, Heather and Niki, for your help with sorting.

Tuesday was a day of running here and there. Tuesday evening was PWOC Bible Study. Good STUFF. We talked about things that were redeemed in the Bible...then we talked about Jesus. We talked of how he met the conditions and fullfilled the duties to be our Kinsman/Redeemer. This is a really fun group. I KNOW I say that each and every year! BUT we have grown quite a bit in numbers, this makes for more varied discussions. A really cool thing God did for us this study is to bring a young bride into our midst whose family is from Israel....great new dimension. We really liked talking about "Bethlehem being stirred up" over the news of Naomi's return.

Wednesday - I've stayed home ALL day and worked on various projects that have to be done.

Mike is still at work - I think he'll be home around 7:30 and we'll visit a bit...then begin it all again tomorrow.

How are your fall schedules going? Mom are you adjusting o.k. to the new school year?

©2008 D.R.G.

The Big Deal in our Home

Zander lost TWO teeth - that Arthur Mac and Cheese can be deadly! In all the other photos of the day the strange expressions are because he is trying to show off his missing teeth. LOL

©2008 D.R.G.

School Daze....

I was up until 1:30 a.m. working on Jamin's Jr. Year Portfolio. (Thanks Debbie for the late night email with the file I needed. Some day we WILL meet in person).

I was up at 5 a.m. working on Jamin's portfolio....then I realized that I have other things that MUST be done today.

PE - was slow coming as I didn't make it to the gym. Jared & I are going to try to make it tonight after United co-op.

THIS is how much Zander likes "all that reading stuff". I thought he was being especially attentive today. I thought we were making progress. ::snort::

UNTIL I HEARD THE SNORING!!!I think the reading in the Christine Miller books is too much for Zander....maybe we'll skip it. We don't NEED a text for the younger years....*I* just like a text to tie it all together...but boring them to tears is counter-productive. LOL

Nolan, Zander and I decided to exchange "The Story of King Arthur" by Howard Pyle for "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table" by Marcia Williams. I really WANT to read these to the boys but found that they were not able to follow the story line in Howard Pyle quite yet (1st and 3rd/4th). I didn't buy the TOG recommended one and found the picture book at the library. If anyone else has a suggestion for a good rendition of this tale that would be a step up from a picture book but not totally loose two very active boys, leave a comment. I like Mr. Pyles work better than Ms. Williams'....but really if the boys are falling asleep then I'd best look for something a bit easier.

Nolan had speech today. I asked the elementary school librarian and she took me to her section King Arthur. She does a unit every year for 3rd graders. She suggested the Great Illustrated Classics or Classical Starts series.....they have King Arthur based on Pyle....but she thought it hilarious that the silly homeschooler was trying to read an "adult" book to her young ones. I must say the Great Illustrated Classic based on Pyle does look much more doable - more meat than the picture book...but not overwhelming for any of us - maybe Zander will be challenged because all "this reading stuff" is hard on him. LOL

Well - time to busy for United co-op tonight.

©2008 D.R.G.