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From the Desk of
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The Class
 
 
 
 
Ben
 
 
 
 
Gavin
 
 
 
 
Luci
 
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Happy Thanksgiving-Snow Day-Christmas-New Year! Wednesday, December 31, 2008   It’s been a while since I updated so I’m lumping all the “holidays” into one! Beginning with Thanksgiving, we’ve had just over a month now of fast-paced days and lot of good food. Dad and his lady friend, Brenda, came for Thanksgiving and I cooked my first ever “solo” Thanksgiving dinner, start to finish. Aside from setting the oven on fire with Pioneer Woman’s No Knead Dinner Rolls, my dinner turned out wonderfully.  After dinner we pulled out the Christmas Decorations and put up the tree. With three kids it’s a bit of a job. Each ornament I pull from the box elicits a squeal or an aaaaahhhhhh, followed by “That’s MY favorite! Let me hang it!” Not to mention the temptation of the ornament box which positively sparkles and invites grabbing hands. Some of our ornaments are one of a kind, others are collectibles, etc...Because of this, I always establish hard and fast rules about hanging ornaments. The kids are allowed only to take an ornament from my hand. No digging in the box, No Comments Read more   Conversations With Luci Wednesday, November 19, 2008  This morning Luci came running to me, out of breath and somewhat disturbed! The following conversation ensued: Luci: Mom, Ben says we’re not a super hero family, but we are! Me: We are? Luci: Yes! But he says we aren’t. Me: What’s your super hero power? Luci: Hm, well, I don’t know but I might have to think about it. Me: Ok. Think about it. Luci: Well, I did help daddy in the garage with his tools. (she appears to be dismayed) But I can’t fly. Me: No, I can’t fly either. Luci: I will have to use my super hero imagination to fly! That’s it! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After Luci saw Santa at the mall and told him what she wants him to bring, she had a slight change she needed to add. When I asked her what she was going to do about that she raised her arm with her index finger pointed to the sky as if she’d just come up with a brilliant plan and said: “I have a plan! But I don’t know what the plan is. I’ll have to think about that and tell you in 1 Comment Read more   Science in the Garage Saturday, November 15, 2008  Luci’s primary science book is The Berenstain Bears Big Book of Science and Nature. It’s really three books in one: an almanac, a nature guide, and the science fair. This week’s readings centered on “tools” that we use every day that make things easier to do. This type of lesson practically begs for a trip to the garage with Daddy!  With safety goggles and a capable instructor Luci learned about levers and how they really do make things easier. Here, Brian asked her to lift this heavy floor jack with her bare hands.  Of course, she can’t lift it no matter how hard she tries and believe me, she did try! Daddy set up a lever to make lifting the jack easier for her:  Success! She sees how the lever made lifting the jack possible for her. Next, how do you pull a nail out of a piece of wood?  Can’t do it? How about a lever?  As Luci would say: Easy Peasy! 3 Comments Read more   Balancing the Scales: Learning I Don’t Have to Do It All Sunday, November 9, 2008   When Brian and I first decided to listen to God’s call to homeschool our children I was paralyzed with fear. Fear that somehow I would miss one crucial thing--or worse an entire subject. I worried that somehow my children would grow up unable to diagram a sentence, or not knowing how to find the area of a triangle. So I obsessed over the various curriculum choices, and concluded that I had to order it all from the same company and I had to have one of everything. That way, I reasoned, I would be sure not to miss some critical component like I was certain to do if I mix and matched from various publishers. I was so excited to get all of our new books that first year. With great intensity, I poured myself into the teacher’s manuals, convinced I had to do every single thing. It didn’t matter that Gavin could count by tens eight weeks ago, or that he was bored with the repetitive way I hammered those ‘special sounds’ into his head. Less than six months into it I was burned out--totally 7 Comments Read more   Princess Tea Party and Rocket Ship Launching Monday, October 27, 2008   I don’t remember too many tea parties from my childhood, but I know I must have had a tea party once or twice. It’s a little girl’s way of pretending to be grown up and proper. Sipping apple juice or kool-aid from tiny tea cups and eating dainty little sandwiches and cakes is almost a rite of passage. Today Luci was invited to join her two friends, sisters Riley and Reece, for a Tea Party hosted by their mother, Amanda. The girls put on their finest gowns, tiaras, and slippers and enjoyed a very sweet tea party followed by some playtime on the swingset! You can look at the pictures here. As Ben and I have studied Saturn we’ve learned about the Cassini Mission and the Centaur rocket that launched the spaceship. Today we attempted to make and launch our own Centaur rocket. Our mission: to construct a rocket using a film canister and construction paper and launch it using Alka Seltzer and warm water. The result: dismal failure. However we aren’t defeated in our purpose and we are 5 Comments Read more   5432C102-94AF-4FBA-A411-F5BF5EB3818B.htmlhttp://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/11/pw_dinner_rolls_-_no_kneading_required/5432C102-94AF-4FBA-A411-F5BF5EB3818B.html#comment_layer5432C102-94AF-4FBA-A411-F5BF5EB3818B.html5432C102-94AF-4FBA-A411-F5BF5EB3818B.html369C973E-775D-44C9-9CBE-4999A9A858A8.html#comment_layer369C973E-775D-44C9-9CBE-4999A9A858A8.html369C973E-775D-44C9-9CBE-4999A9A858A8.htmlhttp://www.amazon.com/Berenstain-Bears-Book-Science-Nature/dp/0679886524469AE3E9-BDC5-4A9A-BBEF-CEC180C5D1E5.html#comment_layer469AE3E9-BDC5-4A9A-BBEF-CEC180C5D1E5.html469AE3E9-BDC5-4A9A-BBEF-CEC180C5D1E5.htmlE73416FE-E911-438B-A76D-B0665D7FEE8E.htmlE73416FE-E911-438B-A76D-B0665D7FEE8E.html#comment_layerE73416FE-E911-438B-A76D-B0665D7FEE8E.htmlE73416FE-E911-438B-A76D-B0665D7FEE8E.htmlB0E00DE0-CD69-41B8-AC17-4ABA12193642.htmlhttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfmB0E00DE0-CD69-41B8-AC17-4ABA12193642.html#comment_layerB0E00DE0-CD69-41B8-AC17-4ABA12193642.htmlB0E00DE0-CD69-41B8-AC17-4ABA12193642.htmlshapeimage_8_link_1shapeimage_8_link_2shapeimage_8_link_3shapeimage_8_link_5shapeimage_8_link_6shapeimage_8_link_8shapeimage_8_link_9shapeimage_8_link_10shapeimage_8_link_13shapeimage_8_link_14shapeimage_8_link_17shapeimage_8_link_18shapeimage_8_link_19shapeimage_8_link_20
Homeschool adventures
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March 23, ‘08
A Day in the Life...
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