Apples, apples, apples

cooking the apples down

no photos of the applesauce...sorry

I thought I had lost these photos...

We ordered a bushel (or was it more?) of apples last year and got right to work canning the mess out of them.

I made appleasuce, applebutter and apple pie filling.

These jars are a lovely sight!

Oh, the good old newspaper

I don't know why these turned out so blurry.

For a while we were newspaper subscribers - my kids loved getting the newspaper....they loved the comics of course.

It seems Liv loved the business section.

I loved to read about what was going on. It was awesome. We even used the newspaper to launch homeschool discussion - like living history in our classroom.

School's In!

Waiting for pictures from the camera......

Just thought I'd let you know that school is officially on for our family.
We started this week - it was a great week!!
The weather was so perfect at the beginning that we had windows open and really felt as though the world was "at peace". :) That is until Olivia painted my floors with nail polish. Hmmm.

Still waiting for pictures from the camera.....

What are we using this year for curriculum???
Glad you asked! I'll tell ya....

As a family, we are studying:
Ancient History using the "Living History" books by Dan Hunter as our guide (we are starting at the VERY beginning - heaven - Adam and Eve, etc--in fact, for history today we watched a video on the Garden of Eden and finished with Cain and Able...awesome!).
Apologia Elementary Science (with expectation to heavily edit the creationist beliefs found therein) - Thanks, Sister Gosseling!
Classical Music ("Classical Music for Dummies")
Latin (yes, Latin)
Sequential Spelling (thanks, Christine!) - I have both boys on the same spelling lesson each day. This program is so amazing!! My 6-year old is already spelling words like - disagreeing, beginner, beginning - and it's only been a week!!!

The boys are each using Bob Jones for English (LOVING it so far!)
Calvin is using Singapore math and is already quite good at Order of Operations (thanks, Sarah!) Josh is in Bob Jones math

Of course they still have their reading books from Pathway Readers (thanks, Jolinn!). These books are simply the best. I thought my boys would tire of the stories quickly...I was wrong. They love the books - and so do I. For those who know Lois, you'll appreciate these books more when I tell you that Lois grew up reading these books!!

Since we are studying so much as a family this year, I am able to focus more on the core subjects that each boy has. I am excited about the curriculum I have put together this year - hopefully I won't feel as "sapped" as quickly as I did last year ... planning two curriculum for two different grades was a LOT for me. This year looks good so far.

Pictures.....where are you???

Homeschool: Create-a-Culture

I got this idea from a bookstore and made it my own . . . I'm a good and cheap copy cat.
Calvin had so much fun with this, I thought I would pass it on as well.

He did a great job creating his own culture of people. I even had him draw a map of his country, he labeled everything (mountains, rivers, lakes, parks, cities, the capital of the country, etc.). I made his color it and include a map legend. I think I might want to make one of these for myself. :)
Create a Culture

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Essays & Theses School Work culture map

I have to say that I made this last year at the beginning of the school year. After hearing President Uchtdorf's Conference message about Creating, I knew I had done something great. (grin).
Here is the Mormon Message about his talk:
(side note: I love to listen to his voice. I imagine my grandmother-a German immagrant-sounded much like this. My dad would obviously remember her voice better than I would. I sure hope she keeps her accent - when I see her again I want to hear it.)

Homeschool: Summer Reading

I got this idea . . . somewhere . . . and made it my own. I created these little "book marks" for the boys to use.
We take a trip the library, and the boys are expected to find a book on each of these topics. We'll go to the library with these bookmarks in hand and when they find the book they plan to read, they'll stick the bookmark in the book to sort of "check off" their book list.
I plan to hang a string on our wall with mini clothes pins so that each time a book is finished, the boys can pin that book mark to the string (I'll have to come up with a cute title for the string) and they'll get to play the Wii for 30 minutes.
I just thought I would share this idea with those who might be interested...all 1 of you. lol!

Summer Reading Chart

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Essays & Theses School Work reading summer

Homeschool: Russian Soldier Dance

First of all - what kind of leg muscles do these men have??
Secondly, I am thinking that gravity is different in Russia than it is here in Georgia.


So, this video is not the best quality and the men really do move fast, but some of their "moves" are amazing. Chalk one up for the Russians today.
Calvin is studying Russia today, so we thought we would get a little culture here...


The dance of Russian soldiers @ Yahoo! Video

What a photo!

This is my stud husband standing on the roof of an apartment building which is on fire. This is just before they "vented" the roof or cut a big hole to let all of the heat and smoke out.

Field Trip: Ruby Falls

A local homeschool group arranged for a tour of Ruby Falls. It was an awesome study in cave creation - and creation overall. It was fun to think about how many caves are undiscovered . . . but the Lord knows them all.

I took a TON of photos, but am only going to post a few - gotta keep you awake and all.

These are, of course, out of order - this is us playing the alphabet game as we drove.

This is Liv playing "Marco...Pillow". yep, she hid her eyes and started calling, "Marco?" We answer with POLO, but she always resorts to saying Pillow. It is cute.

We'll continue studying about caves by watching a video on caves.

We'll also make our own stalactites and stalagmites: http://home.howstuffworks.com/science-experiments-for-kids13.htm

Homeschool: Owl Pellets

Our Owl Pellet Project - this finishes up any owl study we will do this year.
We studied them from beginning to . . . end.

Meet our newest member of the family!
This is Misty. Misty is a Maltepoo (Maltese/Poodle). Misty doesn't shed. Misty's coat is like cashmere.
This is Misty before her grooming.

This is Misty after her grooming!

This is Misty after a bath.

This is Misty with her doting brother Josh (yes, he is her brother). :)

Father/Son Campout

Our ward's annual Father/Son campout was last weekend.

This is the second campout my boys have been on with daddy. It rained both campouts.

To commemorate the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood, they had a "reading" of it all and Calvin got to "play" Joseph Smith.

The boys enjoyed the fire most of all, I think.

The next morning Greg helped to make breakfast for everyone - it was basically an Egg McMuffin - campstyle. He brought one home . . . not too shabby!

Field Trip: Six Flags

Six Flags opened up just for homeschoolers. They offered a package deal: admisison, a meal, and a returnvisit ticket for $23. THAT is a steal!
We loved it -
It was overcast
It wasn't too hot or too cold
It wasn't crowded.
We could ride some rides over and over again without a line.
The people there were a great crowd - they were modestly dressed, they were in families, they had clean language, they were polite. The employees were even awesome. A few times as I looked at a map, a park employee would stop and ask if I needed help. How nice is that?

Liv rode this ride about a dozen times. She finally got tired of it! Whew!

Some of these kiddie rides were a bit lame (even for Calvin), but they had fun, anyway.

This was ON THE WAY to Six Flags. Nice!

Calvin earned his Bear!

Here he is right before "the pinning".