Getting back into the groove!

We finally got started back to school last week. I was hoping to start a little earlier but with a funeral and another trip to Shreveport for Kalysa and I, it just didn't get done. It is really nice to start getting back into the groove of things and back into a routine. We have also started a whole new chapter of our homeschool adventure. In our years of homeschooling we have not participated in many organized activities. There are lots of things we do with another family or two but they have always been just when and what we wanted to do at the time. This year we have added a scheduled weekly class and I am soooooo excited about it.

 

We started band!!!  I played the clarinet all through jr. high, high school and the first year of college and I loved it! I thought that my playing days were over since I obviously was not going to be a professional clarinet player but I always wanted my kids to learn an instrument. Now that my world view has changed I realize I should have continued my playing to honor the Lord. He gave me a talent that I have failed to use for His Glory. I can't wait for my children to play a special at church sometime!

We met with the band directer and he talked with each of the kids and allowed them to try out all the instruments. Kalysa was her usual shy self and refused to participate so she actually is not in the band this year but Kenyon and Keslee tried everything out. Kenyon went to the meeting thinking he only wanted to play the violin but after trying them out he decided he really wanted to play the saxophone. Keslee thought she wanted a flute and that did not change. Kalysa says she wants to play the clarinet so maybe missing out this year will persuade her to speak up and she can join next year. I told the directer how much I loved the clarinet and missed being able to play. He handed one to me and told me to try it out. After 20 years of not playing I actually still remember more than I thought. Then the directer really made my day. He said "You know parents can be in the band too." 

WHAT?!?! I can be in band and relearn my clarinet?!? I AM THERE!!!

So Kenyon, Keslee and I go to band once a week! My friend Mamie has a daughter in band also so Kalysa will stay with Mamie and her other kids in the overflow room for families and work on other school work while we are in practice.

Now my house is filled with music-well.....almost music. I don't think we can really count it as a joyful noise just yet but everyone enjoys practicing. Even the baby wanted in on the leasons☺. Isn't she a cutie!! Remember just over a year ago when I got to witness this cutie enter into this world? Boy, how time flies! They grow up so fast!!

 

This weekend my son had an awesome boy scout function. His troop entered the cardboard boat regatta at a local lake. The boats could be made of only cardboard and duck tape. His boat was the silver bullet. They had races and then all surviving boats got to participate in a demolition derby. There were some VERY creative boat entries.

 
Kenyon's boat survived the race and they even came in 2nd place.

Between races the girls just could not resist taking a little dip in the lake!

We had not planned on swimming so they just went in with their clothes on and came home dripping wet. They didn't seem to mind!

Our boy scout troop had 4 boats and they all survived the races. As you can tell, not everyone was as fortunate!

During the demolition derby  every one's goal was to sink the other's boat. This huge (creative, awesome) crocodile's crew came prepared with secret weapons of water filled buckets. One way to sink a cardboard boat is to fill it with water!

This was another very creative entry. It is Michael Phelps. We all know how awesome Phelps is in a pool but unfortunately he is not so great in a lake!

He had to be dragged to shore in pieces.

His owner even tried CPR but it was no use. Michael did not survive the regatta!

This batmobile was another very creative entry. Batman and his robin made it out and almost made it back to shore before the bottom fell out. I heard them say it took them over 2 months to build this boat. At least they had fun while it lasted.

Kenyon and his crew won the 2nd place ore for their race.

 

 

 
 
These scouts came in 1st in their batboat. Got a little creative with their costumes☺ It was a lot of fun and I think our troop is pretty hooked. This was the first year they entered the regatta but I have a feeling it will not be the last!

Well that is what we have been up to this weekend. What fun or interesting things have been going on in you life? Guess I better be sure everyone has their church clothes picked out and get them all to bed. By the way, Monty is still looking for a job. If you feel so inclined, please pray that the Lord will open the doors to just the right job for him soon. Have a great week!!

 

Thats what I love about homeschool!

After we finished our lessons together,  I gave each kiddo instruction on some lessons to do on their own while I finally got a shower. I had to go back to the laundry room to find my socks and I noticed everyone was gone from the school area-aka the kitchen table.  I thought I better double check that things were getting done and this is what I found....

 One boy laying on the couch all cozy under a blanket with his science workbook.......

and two girls on the back porch, also under a cozy blanket, with a math test and an SRA.

I love homeschooling☺

Can you lick your elbow?

So I have been MIA in blog land but things have been moving right along here at home. Like this.....

 a typical day of homeschooling. I don't even remember what lesson we were doing when this topic came up and we had to take a "contest" break.

 We started back to school about a month ago. I still have a list of curriculum I need to buy for this year so we started by finishing up the things we did not finish last year. We had a few weeks of lessons left on the My Father's World-Rome to the Reformation. We have been working on finishing that before we start Exploration to 1850. Hopefully by the time we finish that I will have the funds to get the rest of what we need for this year which is mostly our read alouds, progeny press study guides, and some supplemental material for the girls.

Kenyon is doing a Baptist Heritage course this year that I am really pleased with. The author spoke at our church during our mission conference. We learned soooo much so I just had to buy the books. I did the course myself through the summer and Kenyon is doing it now. I now see why knowing where we come from is important for more than just cultural reasons. I may have more on this topic later if I can find the time and the words to write it out.

Keslee has still been having trouble with reading. She can read pretty good but not nearly as well as Kalysa or Kenyon when he was her age. Her writing/spelling is awful as well. She loves to write stories but I have a hard time reading them when she is finished. She has gotten into the habit of spelling words just the way they sound (which I know is allowed in many public schools now) and most of her words had no vowels. I have started Alphabet Island with her this year and I.AM.SO.IMPRESSED! We went ahead and started in level one, even though she knows all the sounds of the letters and can read and write 3 letter words with no problem and will be able to go through several of the lessons really quickly, but the beginning had a very detailed story about the vowels and how they "act". It has already opened up a whole new world for her. She has always been my child that need to experience things with ALL her senses in order to fully "get" it and Alphabet Island does that for her. Every letter is a different character (boy or girl) and they all have things they can or can not do. The story is phenomenal. The authors are obviously geniuses to come up with an on going story line detailing the way each "person" "acts". After just 10 lessons, I can read her stories. Her spelling has improved 100%! She is just as excited as I am because she doesn't have to struggle with it. It is finally making sense to her-YAY!!!!

We are still using Math U See and the girls are doing SRAs for reading comprehension. The girls are also starting to learn the recorder. That will help them get the basics down on reading music and then I hope to teach them both piano lessons. My mother said we can have her piano we just have not had a way to move it over here yet. I took piano lessons for about a year and I played the clarinet for 8 years so I should be able to get them started off with piano before we have to search out a "real" teacher.

Well, that is an overview of what is up here and I guess will work just fine as my introduction back into blogging.☺ Thanks for stopping by!

You might be a homeschooler if...

I have read tons of "you might be a homeschooler if..." posts in bloggy world and I can relate to almost every single one of them. Some of them are pretty funny and all of them show the uniqueness of homschoolers. Instead of posting the same ones I've read before, I decided to share some examples from my own home. Feel free to share your own in the comments.

You might be a homeschooler if....

The kids ask "did you order school books?" anytime UPS is in the neighborhood.

Your kids say "the only Lady Gaga song I have ever heard was when preacher read some of the lyrics to us at church." and they are not afraid to explain to others why they shouldn't listen to it.

when your kids insist on getting the "Antony and Cleopatra" dvd even though dad is trying to convince them to get a cartoon movie.

you have ever heard "we haven't done school in awhile, can we please do some today?" in July.

you have to beat your kids to answer the door during school because they don't know the rest of the block is on spring break and you want to keep it that way.

you hear your kids say "You've never heard of the Barbary wars?!?" as they then explain them to their public school friends.

your kids negotiation techniques sound like "instead of cleaning my room right now can I just do some more math?"

when asked what grade he's in your son answers "7th-ish."

if you leave your computer and your son comes along and corrects the spelling in the blog post you were writing.

when you tell the kids to get the living room cleaned up and they immediately ask "Why? Who's coming over?"

when your doing school while others are out for a snow day but playing outside in the rain while everyone else is at school.

your kids think you've gone crazy if you say "we are only getting one book apiece at the library today."

your 8 year old can't tie her own shoe yet but can tell you who Julius Caesar was, recognizes a Roman Soldier in pictures, draw every phase of the moon, can explain why we can't live on Mercury or Venus, find the Mediterranean sea on every map, knows what country is shaped like a boot, etc. etc.....

It is no doubt that just because we homeschool makes us different from most and I love that. Just because our life is different makes it easy for the kids to go against the grain. They don't have to think as hard about not doing something just because everyone else does it. They don't worry about not being like everyone else. That is their whole life-constantly learning to stand alone.

And I'm the crazy one?!?!

LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me. Psalms 3:1

I know it is to be expected. I realize that the Bible warns us about it. People will hate us for His name's sake. The choices we make will often convict others about their own lives without us ever saying a word. They immediately get defensive and go on the attack when all we were doing was raising our children the way God has led us to raise them. It happens almost immediately when you start making changes in your life to honor the Lord. It is sanctification- setting us apart from the world and unto God. It is the growing pains of our Christian life. It is wonderful yet painful. Especially painful when the people you love are the ones against you which, in my experience, is most common. Most difficult for me is trying to remember that their eyes are often still closed to the truth. No amount of arguing and defensiveness will change that. I have made that mistake and have the ruined relationships to prove it. The hardest thing for me is to hold my tongue when other's logic makes NO sense!

Here are several of the things I heard when we started to homeschool and the things I thought(or said-probably too often):

"Well I could never homeschool." Ok, well I didn't ask you to.

"You just want to keep your kids home so you don't have to be held responsible" uuuhhhh...what? I believe now 100% of the responsibility is on me. I wont have the chance to blame the teacher but you still do.

"I think Christian kids need to be in public school to be a light to the others" so let me understand...you send your kids to school for years then college to prepare them before sending then into the world to have a career and support themselves but a Christian child should be held responsible for the salvation of others by the time they are 5 (which is very often before they themselves are even saved)?

"How do you even know they are learning anything" Well, let's see. I am with them 24 hours a day. I see what they do in school and then how they are applying that in everyday life. How do you know? Oh, right! They brought you home a paper that said so.

"Well you can't just keep them hidden away from everybody" Of course we can't....at least not until we finish the moat! ;)

Well now that we have been homeschooling for 4 years the people that know me must be convinced that they will NOT sway me on that one so they have to move on to another issue. The hot topic as of late has been purity, modesty and courtship. I can understand some of the questions about homeschooling but why anyone would not want purity to at least be the goal for their children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins or any other child is just beyond me! Now understand, my children are only 13, 9, and 8. Really it is only the 9 and 8 year old that I receive these comments about. For some reason my son's choices seem to be ok with people but the raising of my not even teen age girls is who people seem to have a problem with. You see, there is still several years before even my opposition would be comfortable with my girls dating so the topic is not one that comes up naturally. Some of these people could make big bucks writing for late night talk shows with the inventive ways they come up with to segway into this issue just to cause conflict and start a debate. Here are some of my favorite arguments:

"That isn't fair, did you and Monty wait?" Maybe it is just me but I thought all parents wanted to prevent their children from making the same mistakes they did.

"I would NEVER ask my daughter to wear a dress all the way to her knees!" Now your on the right track-I don't ASK my daughters either. I am the mother so I TELL them what is expected!

"That (courtship) is never gonna work. You know Keslee has a mind of her own and will do what she wants to!" First of all, ALL of my kids have a mind of their own and that is kinda the point. They are being taught to think for themselves instead of just doing what everyone else does!

"You don't want them to date?! You can't just never let them meet people!" Since when did "dating" mean "meeting people"? We live in a town, we go to stores, libraries, parks, restaurants and every single time there are people there. There are people at church. There are houses all around us and people live in all of them. They already meet people all the time and haven't dated yet so....

"I understand God has the perfect spouse picked out but what if that person never comes?" That either means you don't think God is powerful enough OR your ok with my kids settling for less just in case. Either way....WRONG!

"Expecting your kids not to kiss other people before they get married is just plain stupid!" Even if you think it is an impossible goal, why would anyone not support it as something to strive for? What good ever comes from making out with lots of people before marriage?? Can you give me one benefit.....didn't think so!

And I think my all time favorite would be "Every time I talk to you, you just sound crazier and crazier!" to which I say Thank you! That tells me that I am most definitely on the right track!

Now everything I have written are quotes from various people in my life. All of which claim to be Christians and all of which claim to love me and my children. If either of those are really true I wonder why it would be perfectly acceptable to them for my children to grow up to be promiscuous, scantly clad, relationship hopping adults. Some of the same people that told me "you only fail if you fail to try" when I was growing up are now telling me "Your goal is to hard and it is stupid to try!" with my own kids. People that ask their own kids "if everybody else jumped off a bridge, would you jump off also?" argue to me that I must be doing things wrong because I don't want to do it like everyone else. And then of course there is "I know what the Bible says but..." STOP RIGHT THERE! If you are convinced you know more than He does and could have better explained what He meant to say than the way He already said it then this is obviously something you need to take up with God before you bring it to me!

Now let me get this straight...the ones that refused to let me listen to Michael Jackson but now have no idea what is on their own child's ipod; that ridiculed me as a teenager for wearing a knee length denim skirt because it was not proper to wear to church but now allow their own teens to run around in itsy bitsy teeny bikinis; the ones that say "when your child is out of your sight they are in danger" but send their own children to spend 8 hours a day to be supervised, taught and indoctrinated by a person they met for 10 minutes at meet the teacher night; the ones that told me I could be anything I wanted to be and do anything I set my mind to; the ones that have had innumerable physical relationships that didn't work out; The ones that say we should live for God but now tell me am going overboard for my stance on Biblical principles.....These are the ones that think I am the crazy one!!??!!
Yeah! OK! Gotcha!

Just what I needed

Oh yeah! It really was just what I needed!! I know I am a slacker when it comes to blogging so this actually happened about 2 weeks ago. It still feels like it was just yesterday but at the same time it seems so long ago that I could wonder if it really happened at all or was it all a dream. Luckily I have a few pictures to prove to myself that it was not a dream. Yes, it really did happen......


Amy (my bestest friend on earth) REALLY was here and we spent 2 days in a motel in OKC. Just the 2 of us-no kids-no husbands-just 2 old friends (not old as in old but old as in being friends a long time!!). It is hard to believe that it had been a year since we had actually seen each other. She came last year for the homeschool convention and we got to spend a day together. This year we both did lots of pre-planning. Our husbands both agreed to keeping the kiddos and we were able to stay in a motel and hang out for 2 and 1/2 days. I love my kids and I love my husband but 2 nights away with my best friend and lots of (grown-up) girl talk really was the refresher that I needed!!


So how did we spend our time away??? Well, just like the old days! We stayed up talking ALL night long the first night! Amy and I can (and do) talk about anything and everything under the sun. Even though we stayed up until about 6 am, we still got up around 9am to prepare for the homeschool convention. Of course it was great! We got to talk with John Erickson, author of the Hank the Cowdog series and listen to him read. That brought back some memories. John is from Perryton Texas which is where I grew up and Amy grew up just 15 minutes from there. It is just a little farm town in the Texas panhandle miles away from anything where everyone pretty much knows everyone else. It was kinda funny to see a line full of people waiting for his autograph. I mean, it was just John Erickson. I knew his son growing up (his other kids are a lot younger than me). He read Hank books to us at school assemblies before they were ever even published. Ha! I guess I know a celebrity.
On our walk back to the car we saw a momma bird in a nest on a very low tree branch. When we got close she flew away and Amy said it looked like she may have been feeding babies. The branch was just low enough for me stretch and hold my camera right over the edge of the nest and snap this...

They don't even have feathers yet-so cool!
After we spent the day shopping for curriculum we did some shopping at Madel's Christian book store. Amy had never been there and was like a kid in a candy store. It is almost like a whole other homeschool convention without all the separate vendors. I had mentioned to Amy that me mom had recently told me that she has never had a Bible with her name on it and she has only had a new Bible once when she was young. All the other Bibles she has have been handed down from someone.
Since mom was doing the paper route without my help so I could have 2 free days, Amy bought her a Bible to say thanks. It is blue (her favorite color) and brown leather WITH her name embossed on the cover. Mom and Jacinta got to go to the convention with us the second day so Amy gave her the gift that morning. She cried. I knew she would. ☺We spent another day shopping and listened to a few speakers. Todd Wilson gave an awesome talk about what you can do to make sure your kids hate you, homeschool, and everything you stand for (or not if you do the opposite!). He referred to what happened with King David and his son Absalom in the book of 2nd Samuel. It was very convicting and I tell ya what, I have been doing a lot more smiling and waving at my kids lately!!!
After the 2 convention days, Amy's kids are all set for a new school year. I know what all we need for next year and was able to solidify some curriculum decisions but was only able to purchase about 1/2 that day. I am praying God will provide a way for us to order the rest throughout the summer since the money I had set back had to be used for an earlier emergency. I have faith God will provide what we need even if it doesn't happen to be everything I think we need.
Although the friend time was great, we got a lot done and had a blast, it had to come to an end. Amy loaded up her truck and headed back to Texas. We are both back in our own homes, surrounded by kids and books and school projects and settling for the occasional phone call with each other ..until next year!

Life saving homeschool

This year in science we have been learning about the human body. We use The Body Book and have made hands on 3-D models of several different body parts. They are really easy and explain alot. The kids have been having lots of fun.

We have made this model of the ear. The outer ear opens up to show the inner parts of the ear.


This tooth open up to show the pulp of the teeth, the roots and root canals and the gums and jaw bone.

The eyeball model has several layers including a piece of plastic wrap on the front for the lens.

This face has lips that open up to show the tongue. We learned all about the different areas of taste. Kalysa decided to make all her teeth either gold or silver, goofy girl:)

The skin has several layers and this model is the same. We learned the layers as well as about the nerve endings and pain receptors in the skin. Also the hair and hair follicles.

And then there is the skeleton. We have talked about the different bones and joints. We have used our own bodies to recognize the hinge joints and the ball joints; what they can do and what they can't. It has been alot of fun. I love these hands on projects. The kids have a visual of what it is we are talking about and can go back and look again when they have questions.

We are scheduled to do some astronomy this year as well with Apologia science. Kenyon is waiting and waiting on that. He has a telescope and loves to look at the moon and stars. He has gotten up in the middle of the night to watch an eclipse and meteor showers every single time we hear of them. He is just fascinated by space as most boys are. So one day while we were making one of our body part models Kenyon asked "When do we get to start astronomy? I really want to do that now instead." I explained that I had looked ahead in our book and it was still several weeks before we get to the astronomy lessons.

"We still have several more parts of the body to learn about" I say.

"Oh Good! I can't wait till we get to the penis!" uuuuhhh, yeah. That would be Keslee.

Wh...WHAA...WHAT? WHY? Why? yeah...that was me.

"I just don't understand them mom, I just don't understand."

I am sooooo thankful that we homeschool!!!

All kids are curious. They all come to a point when they just want to learn about themselves and the other ones. Just imagine if my sweet, innocent, beautiful almost 9 year old girl spent 8 hours a day surrounded by hundreds of other curious children. Lots of curious children. Lots of curious children that live lives that are often unsupervised, uncensored, and totally unBiblical. I will tell you what would happen...she would still be curious. She would have the same questions. She would look for answers and she would find them. Only she would not get those answers from her mother and they very likely would not be totally accurate. Curious young minds would teach each other things without any adults knowledge. The conscience that the Lord equipped them with would let them know they were entering territory that they were not supposed to be in and she would hide what she knew and what she wanted to know. She would no longer feel comfortable coming to her mother for such indiscreet information. And there it is...I WOULD HAVE LOST HER. Right then and there, with a simple curiosity that everyone has, I would have lost my sweet 8 year old daughter for good.

Oh, Thank You Lord for the opportunity to homeschool!!

Yep, He is full of it!

Last week, in our science studies about the lungs we conducted a little experiment to determine the amount of air the lungs could hold. We started out with a two liter bottle filled with water. We turned the bottle over in a sink full of water and then removed the lid keeping the bottle full. Then we inserted a tube in the bottle, took a DEEP breath and blew.
The air in your lungs replaces the water in the bottle. When each participant had blown all they could blow with only one breath I replaced the lid while the bottle was still under water keeping what was left in the bottle.

Keslee was almost able to empty the entire two liter!

Kalysa took her turn and amazed us all when she emptied well over 1/2 of the bottle. Her lung capacity was just a little less than Keslee's.

Remember this is the same girl that started out on this earth at only 2 pounds 4 ounces and spent the first 5 weeks of her life on a ventilator. That is a scenario that often means asthma or other lung problems for a life time but we have none of that here. Praise the Lord!!

When Kenyon took his turn and blew every bit of water out of the two liter bottle like it was nothing and still had air to spare, we moved to an empty gallon milk jug for his test. After one try with the gallon jug, what we had known all along was confirmed...

MY SON IS FULL OF HOT AIR!! ☺hehehe!! ☺ He almost emptied out the entire gallon! I am sure he would have if we would have kept trying (like he wanted to) but we had to move on. Knowing my son, this is something he will be working on in his spare time until he DOES empty the gallon jug and who knows what size bottle he will want to tackle after that.

Ya know-lung capacity is a big one in the bragging rights of young boys.

Disclaimer

Ok, so once again I have been missing from blog land. I really enjoy my blog and have stopped in often with the intention of posting something new but for some reason I always end up leaving with nothing new to say. I have spent lots of time wondering to myself just why I can't seem to share anything new. Why can I not just leave a simple little post about the cuteness of my kids or the weather and move on?
Well I have come to the conclusion that the problem is within me. I am not really sure my purpose in this particular post. I guess I would call this a disclaimer. I want to let you know my heart. I love the Lord Jesus Christ. I want the light of Jesus to shine through me and that is in where the problem lies. I feel so inadequate. I know myself in all my sinfulness. I see where I fail daily and even hourly. I don't want to be a stumbling block for anyone in their walk with the Lord. Most of all, I don't want my failures to make my Lord look bad. With those thoughts in mind, when I am going through a tough situation and especially if it is a situation I have not or am not handling a well as I should, I have a hard time discussing anything. I am not very good at faking it. If I were to just blog about nothingness, I would feel like I am falsely portraying a person who is doing such a good job at living faithfully for the Lord when I know that is not always the case. If I were to just spill out all of my failures for the world to see I would feel as if I have let down the Lord and let down anyone who may be out there that has ever looked to me for inspiration or encouragement with my own hypocrisy. So there ya have it. I say nothing, talk about nothing, post nothing and here we are.
Well that is not working so good for me because....well...I like to talk. I like to share my thoughts and experiences and interact with people. That is the whole reason I started a blog in the first place. So, here is the disclaimer part.....
I am NOT perfect
I am not the best help meet
..I have a very hard time being submissive to my husband
..Meek and mild are adjectives never used in conjunction with my name
..my husband and I don't always communicate well with each other
I am not a great homeschool mom
..sometimes I yell too much
..some days school doesn't get done at all
..sometimes I don't expect enough of my kids
..sometimes I expect too much
I am not the greatest keeper of my home
..my laundry is ALWAYS behind
..my house is never really clean
..my sink holds at least a few dirty dishes most of the time
I am not the greatest Christian
..I don't always read my Bible
..I miss church sometimes
..I try to take control to often instead of letting go and letting God
..my faith is not always strong

There ya have it! Now I am not too vain to believe that anyone ever really believed that I was anywhere close to being perfect but I just needed to say that. Now I feel like I can share again. I don't know yet how much of the bad I will share but just know that it is there. Through it all, I am still growing in the Lord. I am always learning and changing and now you have many specific examples of areas you could pray for me about.

Every school has to have a mascot, Right?

Unfortunately our mascot, Soffie, is a little more active in the everyday studies.

Every.Single.time that we sit down for school work, Soffie is not far behind. She plants herself right on top of whatever book I may be reading from. When I move her over to read from the portion of the book that she is hiding, she will mosey on over to any of the kids that happen to have an open book or notebook. It is not just school work that she is interested in. Oh no! She will climb up between my face and anything I may be trying to read no matter where in the house I may be reading it. I know one thing, we probably have the most well educated cat in these parts!

November is not over yet!

Ok, I just could not let an entire month go by without one single blog post going up. I know I am cutting it kinda close but November ain't over yet! (ok, so it may be by the time anyone reads this but anyway...)



WOW! I can't believe November is almost gone. Where oh where has it gone?? I am just sitting here wondering what exactly was it that has kept me from my blog? What did we do in this past month? Wasn't it just yesterday that the neighborhood was being decorated with pumpkins and scarecrows? Now the trees and Christmas lights are popping up all over the place and another page is being ripped off of the calender.
Well let's see.....I spent a lot of time this month trying to get back on top of the mess piles in my house, school has been chugging right along, Kenyon has had a great time being busy with boyscouts, Kalysa had 2 trips to Shreveport....I guess we have been kinda busy.



About my house...It has been a long time since I have felt on top of things. I am much more familiar with the drowning under piles feeling. Well, enough was enough and we have done something about it. It all started with the girls bedroom. For the past several I don't know how longs, they have had the bunk beds separated into two independent beds. Come to think about it, that drowning feeling started not long after their beds were separated. I never realized it but their room was holding up the entire house! With two beds in their not so large room there was very little play area left. That room was the most disgusting room in the house. I am not exaggerating at all. Even after spending an entire day with them cleaning, 2 days was the record before you could no longer walk through the room. I had tried helping them, punishing them, and even removing their toy box and leaving them only with 1 baby doll apiece. Nothing worked. That room always looked like the after tornado pictures we have so often seen on the news and it inevitably spilled over into most of the rest of the house. Well 3 weeks ago I put those bunkbeds back together freeing up over 1/2 of the room. The girls and I went through everything. We got rid of trash and found a place for everything. They were excited to have so much room to play. And would you believe that 3 weeks later that room is still clean and has even been the cleanest room in the house several times!?!? (I am tellin ya, if you would have seen it before-you wouldn't believe it now!) Once that one room was conquered the rest of the house just seemed to fall into place and I feel like I am on top again! YIPPEE!





Remember the stick system I started in our school? Well they are really working out good. It has kept us all on track and nothing is getting forgotten. They have been a great motivator. One week Kenyon did not want to cooperate and did not get many sticks done at all. I did not say a whole lot to him about it but come Monday morning his cup was full again and also held the dreaded black stick. When it hit him that he had NO games-gameboy, xbox, OR computer-he decided he did not like that option at all! He spent Tuesday and Wednesday almost dawn till dusk both days getting his entire weeks worth of school work done (besides the part we all do together). He worked hard and I was very proud of him. It was very encouraging to me to see him work so hard on his own to make sure he got everything done. That confirmed to me that by the time he is ready for high school he will be ready to work independently and be responsible for himself (which is one of our goals).





At the first of the month, Kalysa had her year check up scheduled in Shreveport. She had a gait analysis to compare the way she walks now to the way she walked before the surgery. After that test, she had a new splint molded to account for the growing she has done and saw the doctor. When the Doctor did all the measurements, they were still not real happy about how tight her calf muscle is so they decided to put her in a cast to hold it in a slightly stretched position. That decision really felt like a step back for me but she was super excited about it. She just really loves having a cast on-crazy kid☺. I guess after about 25 casts in 5 years ya either love them or hate them. I am glad that she doesn't hate it since they are such a constant part of her life. She got a green cast and 3 weeks later we made another trip to get it removed and pick up her new splint. Although her measurements were not as good as the doctors hoped, she really has made a lot of progress. She can now stand on her left foot and balance for a full minute. Before surgery she could not do that at all and after surgery she could only balance for 6 seconds. She can also hop on her left foot and actually come off the ground-something she was never able to do before. She has been working hard on walking with the heel-toe step instead of just toe. She can do it great and now just has to break the habit of stepping on her toe. I sometimes have to remind her but it is getting closer to becoming more natural for her. She will continue physical therapy and wearing her splint and we will have another check up in May. We will also be doing some shoe shopping soon since the new larger splint wont fit in her most perfect girly shoes.





Well there ya have it-our November-in a nutshell-all in one post for the month. Hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving and hopefully I will be able to stay on top of things which will give me more opportunities to check in here.

♥ ♥ ♥ IT!!!

I love love love the fall!! It is just the most perfect season. I love everything about it. The cool weather, the leaves changing colors and

falling everywhere adding their own decoration to anything they touch.

The cool rains storms with gray skys and thunder and big clouds swirling around the sky.

Fall weather always brings back the best memories. It seems that tons of the most important memories I have happened between August and November. Now, why would anyone want to miss the opportunity to enjoy the fall every chance they get?

That is why I ♥ ♥ ♥ homeschooling!!!

We can take a "play in the rain " break right smack dab in the middle of our school work!

There is no need to get your shoes on.

No need for don't get dirty speeches.

Just no real good reason to stay out of the puddles!!


We can always finish up with our studies after we kick up our heels and have a little fun!!

Cup o' sticks

Since all three kids are doing the same curriculum, our days go pretty smooth. The 4 of us do the bulk of the school work together. After our together work, they each have math, language, and writing and then Kenyon also has extra science and personal help for boys character training. Those extras have been posing a problem. I have a bad habit of forgetting one or the other subject for a few days and then have to spend a day on catch up. I also seem to forget how many lessons I have assigned. I was writing assignments down one side of our chalkboard but they seem to disappear or get distorted. To solve this problem I have just implemented our knew system; Cup o' Sticks. Each child has a cup and mom has a cup. Each color represents a different subject. At the beginning of the week I will place one stick for every lesson due by the end of the week. When a lesson is completed that stick is then moved to mom's cup and I know what I need to go over and grade. If any sticks are left in a child's cup on Sunday morning, mom will place a black stick in that cup. Any child with a black stick in their cup has no computer or video game privileges until they have a week of completed sticks. Everyone can tell, by just a glance, how much work they have to complete and in what subjects during the week. If they put off doing math all week, they will have to spend extra time or their Saturday completing the weeks worth. We are just starting this but I have hopes that it will not only help me stay organized but also teach the kids some responsibility about keeping up with their own work. If they don't, they will have to pay the consequence. I'll let ya know how it goes.

When in Rome

I just have not had much opportunity to update here much. We have been spending a lot of time in Rome. School has been moving along well and the kids and I have learned so much. It is amazing to me how much I am learning. I am kinda embarrassed to admit all that I never knew. I mean I was a good student, always got A's and B's. I never had to study very hard. Cramming for a test a little was all I needed to make the grade. I was even in the honor fraternity in college. Did you know I never knew that Julius Caesar was a real person??!! I thought he was just a Shakespeare character. I did not know the impact he had on our life today with our calendar. I had know idea how many similarities the Rise of Rome had to our own country. All that I have learned has re-emphasized to me just how public schooling is really not about learning. Their only goal is making sure students can regurgitate information onto a test paper. As long as you can make the grade it really doesn't matter if you ever really KNOW anything. Well there is one thing that I do KNOW. My kids wont have that same fate. They know more now -at 12, 8, and 7-than I had ever even heard in my lifetime about Rome, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and Mark Antony. AND we have had a little fun in the process!

We made writing tablets from non hardening clay and cardboard. Sharpened chop sticks work perfectly as the writing tool. The pink one is with the cover flap closed and the green is the clay on the inside. The kids have enjoyed drawing with their stick and then smoothing out the clay to start over, similar to how the Roman children would have. They have been a helpful tool during our read aloud times as well. The kids sit quietly drawing on them while I read. It eliminates the constant rustling of paper and digging through the crayon box that normally accompanies reading times.


Of course we could not travel around and study about Rome without our Togas. Did you know that I do not have one single plain white sheet in this whole house??!! That's ok. I rather like the more colorful versions. ☺ In case you did not notice the stranger in the camouflage mask(scarf tied around head)? All I can say is that Kenyon did not want to be seen in a toga covered in Winnie the Pooh so he disappeared during this part and this stranger in the mask showed up to complete the lesson. Of course by Kalysa's smile you can tell she is More than happy to wear her toga!

Besides learning about how the Romans dressed, we have also learned about their way of life, the bath houses they went to, and how their homes were set up. Since Mosaics were used often in the decoration of their floors and walls, we decided to make our own. Above is Keslee's rendition of a flower.

Kenyon decided he would do a house. Now even though we had talked about what a mosaic was and we had looked at several examples, Kenyon and Keslee thought they were just going to get away with only making their small picture with the tiny bits of paper. I explained that the whole thing was to be covered. Keslee did not want to spend the time digging through our bowl of paper bits and choose a color scheme so her flower kinda blends in with the background. Before long, Kenyon decided that the observer would just have to imagine that the black WAS the mosaic pieces.

Now Kalysa, on the other hand, was more than happy to wade through the pieces to find all the pink for her fish and the blue for the water. She is ALWAYS the one that insists on taking her time on anything artsy. She is also the reason I have to be sure to save any projects that involve coloring, cutting or gluing until the end of the day or she would get nothing else done.

In science we have been learning about the human body. We have drawn models of a cell and the brain and brain stem. We have learned how the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and vise versa. One of the books that comes with My Father's World is The Body Book. It is chocked full of hands on projects about parts of the body. We are talking about the 5 senses. This model has flaps in the face that reveal what is underneath like the brain, nerves, and ear canals.

We are all enjoying these fun hands on learning projects.

Keslee held hers up over her own face to show where her own personal parts would be. Kenyon had to open his notebook to show me his finished model because he was already finished by the time I got the camera. And of course.......

Kalysa was ALMOST done...with the cutting. ☺

Well, there really is lots more that we have learned but I am afraid I may have already caused any readers that still may be out there into shock by FINALLY posting an update. I am really going to try to do better with that. You will all have to stick around to hold be accountable, K?