Feeling Green

This little sweetie belongs to my good friend. Because I have only boys I enjoy taking photos of her whenever I can. My choice for "green" was a no-brainer for me.

See more at http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

The Simplicity of Black and White

Black and white photographs have always been my favorite. Sepia tones are nice but there's nothing like the clean, simple beauty of a black and white.

See more beautiful black and white at http://www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

Wonder

I love this photo of Bear taken during his first big snow storm. Oh the wonder of it all!



Check out more wonder-ful photos at http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

Cup of Joy

I found so many photos in my archives that qualified for the category of "Joy". But I couldn't resist using this one. This was taken during a pit stop at a cozy cafe after walking down main street, enjoying ice sculptures and Christmas lights with my three favorite men. This is the 7 year old of the bunch enjoying a Peppermint Hot Chocolate. His eyes just scream joy.

Don't be too jealous - this was only seconds before my 5 year old spilled his "cup of joy" all over the table, my wool coat and my camera...

Comfort Food

Life as Mom is hosting a recipe swap with the theme of Comfort Food. I searched my mental recipe box for something that would qualify and what I came up with is Toast. There is no recipe to swap but I thought that good old, white bread, melty butter covered toast should get an honorable mention as my favorite comfort food. We rarely have white-bread in the house and whole wheat just isn't the same. Whenever we have the rare loaf of white or better yet Scali bread we all ask for toast.

Now for an actual recipe. I think everything that I make regularly, the things I learned from my mother all count as comfort food. I guess the king would be Shepherd's Pie. This recipe came from my French-Canadian grandfather and we always called it Pate Chinois and frowned on my peasant friends who called it by it's common name :) It wasn't until recent years that I even knew what the name meant. If you are interested you can see it here . After that I got embarrassed by a lifetime of mis-pronunciation and let my family call it Shepherd's Pie.

Here is our recipe.

I've tweaked it a tiny bit because I don't enjoy buying creamed corn - for fear that someone important will see it in my cart and somehow think less of me. This is the original version - no real measurements.

1 small onion

1 lb Ground Beef

1 can Creamed Corn

1 small package of frozen corn

small batch of mashed potatoes (make 'em good)

butter

salt and fresh ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare the mashed potatoes and brown the ground beef with the onion. In a medium casserole dish layer the ingredients in this order starting with the meat.

Browned Meat

Creamed Corn

Regular Corn

Mashed Potatoes

Score the top in fancy swirls with a fork. Dot with butter and sprinkle with salt and fresh ground pepper. Bake for approx. 1 hour or until the top is all crispy and everything is bubbling over. I usually put a cookie sheet underneath to catch any rogue liquid. Let it sit for a bit before serving. And dump as much salt and pepper as you can stand all over it.

Like a lot of comfort foods this has as many variations as there are families. My sister-in-law uses carrots. The Irish recipe is very different. Enjoy your version or try mine!

I Heart Faces

I am a total novice when it comes to photography but I love to capture the hearts of my boys in a photo - and nowhere is their heart more obvious than in their faces. This contest caught my attention big time. I hope you enjoy this entry. Down to this very moment I'm undecided between two possibilities...

The Babytooth Chronicles

Loosing your first baby tooth is a big deal. When you wait until almost 3 months past your seventh birthday - it is a VERY big deal. This baby has been loose for quite a while. My legalistic little Bear refused to even try to pull it out until yesterday when it started to hurt when he ate...

That didn't go very well.

This morning when I sent him off to brush his teeth I told him to make sure he brushed extra hard - especially his loose tooth so the new tooth underneath could get clean too - I know, I'm wicked to my children.

But I'm also brilliant!

Tada! That is little brother's hand pulling down his lower lip while he talked to Daddy on the phone - isn't he helpful?

Let it snow...

The weather outside may be frightful but as long as I can watch from inside I don't mind. We have electricity (for now) and I am on hot chocolate duty while the boys make popsicles out of themselves. I love this - at least until after Christmas.

One Small Step. . .

I am so proud of my Bear (age 7). This little photo represents a bunch of firsts. This notebook page is his first attempt at a "book report" the result of his first independently read chapter book which is the first of many biographies he will read. He loved reading about Neil Armstrong. I didn't even have to ask for narration because he told me so much about what he was reading as he went along. Our Space studies are only beginning but the boys are immersing themselves in all things astronomical... I love homeschooling.

He just loves those exclamation points!

When f is a dragonfly

Bear is working on cursive handwriting. I love Classically Cursive. It's simple, no frills. When he gets through the alphabet he will be copying scripture - I like that too. Bear is getting bored with learning the lowercase alphabet. Today he is on the last letter - f. His head is not in the game and one of the poor little -f- is now a dragonfly. Oh to be seven years old!

There's nothing like Fall

I am more nostalgic about the change of seasons than almost anything else. Last week we went on our annual Fall outing - apple picking, pumpkins, fresh cider donuts, hayride. There is nothing like Fall in New England. I am sick on the couch but unable to sleep for some reason, so I decided to put together a montage of sorts to show how the boys have grown over the years. I just love the colors and smiles that go along with this season - it was hard to choose only a few photos to tell this story.

These are for you Aunt Cyndi ;)

Poor Babies

This picture inspired many ideas for practical jokes I could play on my homeschooling chums and family members but in the end I wasn't witty enough to use it to it's potential.

My guys enjoyed their 2 minutes on a school bus during our city's recent "Touch a Truck" event featuring real live trucks. Big trucks, little trucks, garbage truck, ambulance, police car (not actually a truck), and of course, the aformentioned school bus (also not a truck). The favorite I think was the moving truck. What made it special was the heaps of bubble wrap inside. They were swimming in the stuff. Now that is a 6-year-old's dream come true isn't it?

But back to my precious little boys on that school bus. Our home is on the corner that also fucntions as the school bus stop. Those children are on that bus while Bug and Bear are still playing with Legos in their pajamas - and they aren't late sleepers, nor do they stay in their pajamas all day. The bus drops them off around 4:00 p.m.Kids in 1st grade are in school from 9:00 - 3:25. That is just too stinkin' long. Now, I am not afraid to make the boys work hard and put in a full day. Our schedule goes from 8:45 - 4:00. But there are meals and quiet time and read alouds and outside playtime and chores and snuggle time and mommy kissing a boo-boo time all mixed in with those hours of school work. I know the kids at the government schools have recess and lunch and all that jazz. But who kisses their boo-boos? Now I'm just ranting, so I will leave it at that. Poor babies. Mostly I wanted an excuse to post that cute photo.

Week in Review

Our first week of school actually only consisted of two days. Two "half" days if you want the whole truth. But they were a pretty good two days. We decided to start on Thursday because I thought that was the day our public schools were starting. I was misinformed - they all started Tuesday. Oh well. We started Thursday. It was a nice enough start.

I chose to start with the bare bones. Bible, Logic, Phonics and some History read alouds to bridge the gap between last years study in the Ancient and this years Middle Ages. Bear even did a little copy work. It was an encouragement to me.

Yes, little fingers need time to get back into the habit of writing, little bottoms need some help sitting in seats and little minds need to adjust to the new balance of work and play but we have time - it's still August after all.

By the look on Bug's face in this picture you'd think things were pretty grim, but rest assured, these silly guys have plenty of time to let it all hang out, whatever that means.

Simple Giveaway...

Beautiful contest from a beautiful blog - check out simplemom's give away... and her excellent blog too.

http://simplemom.net/gift-basket-giveaway/

Starfish Snack

No - we didn't eat the "starfish". But we did get to see a "Sea Star" eating his lunch (they were starfish when I was a kid).

That little white blob is actually this little guy's stomach. In case you didn't know ( I didn't), a Sea Star prys open a mussel or other such creature, expells his insides and goes right inside the shell to eat the insides. Then he just sucks his guts back inside.

Then the poor fellow gets picked up by a five year old, examined thoroughly and exploited here on my blog under the guise of "nature study". Don't tell the boys, this is actually schoolwork for us ... nature study, oceanography, take your pick! They thought we were on vacation. More proper vacation pictures coming soon.

A Piratey Reunion

We are enjoying a few days of vacation in beautiful Bar Harbor. When we arrived around midnight with two sleepy travelers we got a greeting from this guy...

Curricula at a glance

This is the whole deal at a glance:



I made one change last night - we decided that we didn't care so much for the "A Reason For Handwriting" books. My boys are picky about illustrations of humans that don't look "real" and I don't really care for the format. We decided to use other things for Bug and Classically Cursive for Bear. He is so ready for Cursive and I really like the look of these
books.

I also ordered this cool book to add as an optional activity for Bear - who loves to draw. This is the time period we're working on so I think it will be a great addition to our plan.

This is going to be a great year!

The Academic Calendar

This is roughly how our year will break down. I'm working on the more detailed view but for now this is how it will look. I've decided to divide my year into quarters flowing from the Tapestry of Grace Units. This gives me a few planning days here and there.

Now that was easy...

Schedule
August 28th – a Thursday – marks the beginning of our 2008/2009 school year. Bear will be in grade 2 Bug will be in K/1st.

*(Academically speaking Bear will begin 2nd grade and Bug will begin some 1st grade coursework. Age-wise Bear could be either 1st or 2nd grade and Bug would be in Kindergarten. Any standardized testing will be based on age.)

Language Arts

Phonics/Spelling
The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington to fill in any gaps we have after SSRW. It looks like I will start somewhere in the middle. Bear will work through Christian Liberty Press’ Adventures in Phonics C and Building Spelling Skills 2.

Bug is working through the Explode the Code primers: Get Ready for the Code, Get Set for the code and Go for the Code. We will also use The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. If needed we will probably also use some of the colorful worksheets and tools from SSRW since we already have it – but his primary instruction will be from TOPGTR (I wish I had found this before SSRW).

Reading
The question I most frequently ask other moms is “can you recommend any good books for the boys?”. Bear will be reading more independently in his subject work this year. We have a selection of easy readers and are adding to it. We will also use the Public Library when possible. Our home library is a work-in-progress because I am selective about what we read and money does not grow on trees. I want to provide a great selection of books and strongly encourage reading for pleasure. The boys have at least one hour per day of quiet time – during which the only activities allowed are reading and resting. We model a love for reading, avoid “twaddle” and encourage reading at, above, and below grade-level, all in our effort to help the boys become excellent readers.

Penmanship
In addition to the natural results we get from copywork in other subjects-penmanship is practiced using Classically Cursive. I will work with Bug using a variety of tools. I love Happy Scribe Copybooks as well.

Grammar
For “formal” Grammar training we are using First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind Levels 1 & 2 by Jessie Wise (Well Trained Mind). Here we get our age-appropriate grammar instruction, narration, memory work, picture study, and etc. all in a very gentle format. Bear will work on some select lessons from part 1 and move on to 2. Bug will start with 1. I’m not going to place too much emphasis on this until third grade, but FLL is a great way to round out our Language Arts and then we will move on to First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind Level 3.


History
Our history studies are based on the Classical method with the history of the world on a four year rotation. We are using Tapestry of Grace – Year Two. The schedule is:

Year One – The History of Redemption (Creation to the Fall of Rome)
Year Two – Between Ancient and Modern (From Byzantium to the US Constitution)
Year Three – The Nineteenth Century (From Napoleon to the Year 1900)
Year Four – The 20th Century +

We focus on reading living books including fiction and age-appropriate versions of some classics and some reference books on our topic. This is all accomplished through reading, narration, copywork and hands-on activities three days a week. Memory work, lap books, notebook pages, field trips will also aid us in our studies.

Church History and Geography are tied in to our history studies. We will also touch on Science and Art, Bible and other topics as they relate to our history time line in unit study fashion. The people and places of History provide us with a rich context for reading and other language arts which are our focus for the Grammar Stage.


Science - General
Our science studies are aimed at exploring the creation and developing a love for science. We hope to provide a foundation for scientific thinking, excellent observation skills and a love for the world God made. Employing Classical methodology we will study various topics in an order that makes the best use of the season and resources related to our topic. Departing from WTM here, I’ve chosen to vary our subject matter within the year to prevent boredom (theirs and mine) and to expose them to a wide variety of science topics in order to expose their “delights”.
Starting the year a little early with this subject to take advantage of our vacation near the ocean in mid-August, in the summer we will use The Scientist’s Apprentice as a spine. We will have two lessons each week. One will focus on reading and narration with notebooking. The second session will include an experiment and notebook page. As interest dictates we will make room for additional hands-on activities.

The General Science Plan starting this summer:

The General Science Plan starting this summer:

1st Quarter: Oceanography
2nd Quarter: Astronomy
3rd Quarter: Anatomy
4th Quarter: Earth Science

*I updated this after carefully reviewing The Scientist's Apprentice. The four units fit very nicely into my quarterly plan with a week or more each quarter for more in-depth study if any particular topic really captures our interest.

Science cont. Nature Study
We believe that a love of nature romances our hearts to God. Reflective of this and my appreciation of Charlotte Mason’s ideas we will also incorporate ongoing Nature Study into our repertoire. Ideas will come from spending time outdoors, using the Handbook of Nature Study, Nature Friend Magazine and other resources. This will provide us with opportunities for physical activity, drawing, reading, notebooking, etc. We have always been a hiking, beaching, bird-watching, nature-walking family with animals and the outdoors comprising much of the boys’ playtime as well as our family recreation - this is a very natural part of our homeschool.

Math
Bear will be in Saxon 2. For Bug I will use all the wonderful manipulatives we already have to enrich the workbook based lessons of Purposeful Design Book 1. There will be lots of “real life” math for both of them as we count, measure, make predictions and generally observe the world around us.

Art/Music
Tapestry of Grace includes lots of art activities as well as Art History. We will also use Drawing with Children once a week and lots of just plain fun art time.

Some Music History is a part of Tapestry of Grace. I will also use Classical Kids audio as an introduction to classical Music Appreciation. I will keep the composers in their historical context when I can but I also will just use this as an introduction to classical music.

Other Stuff

Family Read Alouds are another area where life and school blend together. We choose God honoring, interesting and exciting books to compliment our studies and to feed the interests of the boys.

We will also add some beginning Logic exercises this year using Mind Benders Warm-Up. I’m looking forward to this and I think the boys will really enjoy it. We’ll do one or two exercises during our days just for “fun”.

Over the course of the school year we will be utilizing the Internet and our Local Library to create a “The World Around Us” lapbook or notebook. This will include personal information such as address and phone number as well information about civics, state flag, regional distinctives, etc. This will be done as a week long unit study at some point in the year and include field trips.

As another “unit-study” sometime this year we will create a Family Health and Safety Handbook. This will include nutrition, hygiene, fire-safety, stranger-safety, emergency response plan, etc.

Physical Fitness takes place during daily “active-play” outside and sports participation with our homeschool support group whenever possible.


Bible and Character Training

Bible
We will be using a few different catechism style resources for our “school” Bible lessons. The Big Book of Questions and Answers (there are two different volumes, we have both) and the Christian Liberty Press book Studying God’s Word B. Using the same Classical techniques we will learn sound answers to some big important questions. There are activities and worksheets for both of these books. We will add narration, copywork, memorization and notebooking as needed to make this fun and fruitful. Bear is learning how to look up verses and will continue to progress to using his own “adult” bible this year.

In our Family Bible Time we will working through an age appropriate Bible and discussing / praying about what we’ve read. We will also read one chapter of Psalms and one or two verses from Proverbs from the ESV. Our goal is to be consistently working through “the whole Bible” as a family, graduating from story Bibles to the real thing when it is appropriate.

Character Training
In addition to life, family discipline and teaching diligence in school work, we will work through various topics from Plants Grown Up and two different literature based character studies: Teaching Character through Literature and the Five in a Row Bible and Character Supplement. The latter two will be used only when we can do so without conflicting with our other reading. All our character topics at this point will be chosen to address particular areas in the boys’ hearts.

The most important element to our homeschool is us as parents being connected to our boys and praying for them consistently while modeling a love for the Word and a living commitment to Christ. Those things are life, not school but we will choose “school” activities to reinforce the important “life” things. It’s our highest calling to teach God’s ways to our boys –

“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). This is the heartbeat of our family and our homeschool.

Summer

Summer seems to be fully settling in. No more back and forth between early spring drizzle and tourturous heat wave. There are few things that truly say "Summer" to my heart





I hope you find plenty of time this weekend to show your heart and your family that it truly is Summer. Toes in the sand, strawberry shortcake, firefly catching, cookouts, camping, the smell of sunscreen, drive-in movies.... what says "Summer" to you?

You may notice that the boys got new blog nicknames or "blognames". These fun titles are a blogging mom's way of telling herself that she is not exposing her family to any internet dangers because she is not using real names. My guys got new blognames today. Not that The Legalist is any less legalistic or The Boss is any less of a pint-sized micro-manager... but Bear and Bug roll off the tongue a bit better :)