Our Curriculum for 2009-2010

It's that time of year again...time to purchase our curriculum for the fall. I am so excited this year...changes are definitely coming!! We have had quite a difficult year and I am ready move on. Don't get me wrong, it was quite a learning experience, but we had many challenges and so much was sacrificed. Taking care of Dad was one of the hardest and yet rewarding things I've ever done (aside from parenting), but he is now peacefully with the Lord, so we can concentrate on our own family.

Since we're moving, we need to pack up our school work and figure out where we stand for the new year. Unfortunately we will have to continue with school through a good chunk of July, but once August hits, we will start the new year, ready or not. Lionel will be in 10th grade and Sweet-Pea will be in 3rd. I can't believe it...we are exactly half way through our homeschooling years. We've done 10 years (with Lionel), and we have 10 left (for Sweet-Pea). I never ever thought I'd be 'in' school for so many years!! ha ha I went to school for 18 years myself, and if you add homeschooling to it, I'll have been in school 38 years total!!! Wow!! How come I don't feel that smart though?!?

That being said...below are our curriculum choices for August. Some choices are simply a continuation of what we used this past year, but others are different. We all enjoy changes now and then, it keeps things fresh and makes learning so much fun. This year should be a total blast with the kids!!! I can't wait to move, unpack, settle in our new home, and then begin a new school year! Summer? Forget it...we've had plenty of days off already! =)

Here goes:

GEOGRAPHY:
This year Lionel won't be doing any formal geography. He's had his share of it in past years...US Geography, World Geography, Bible Geography etc. This year he gets a break! Sweet-Pea will be doing US Geography using none other than Geomatters...our favorite geography curriculum. What's even better is that I didn't have to purchase anything for her since we have all the books.


MATH:
Sweet-Pea will be once again using Horizons for Math. She did Horizons grade 2 last year and really enjoyed it. She likes the colorful books and Edward (who teaches the kids' math) enjoys the way it's taught. Lionel will be working on Geometry this year. He's looking forward to a break from Algebra! I love watching Edward teach the kids, it's a great time of bonding for them and it helps Daddy really get involved in our homeschooling. That's huge!


HISTORY:
History is my absolute favorite subject to teach and to learn about!! It is constant, yet as a result the present is affected and changed because of the past...how exciting! I love learning right along with the kids. This year will be much different from last year. Sweet-Pea won't be doing a formal 'history' as we know it. Instead, she will be using Beautiful Feet for their 'Teaching Character' literature pack. This will not only instill a love of reading in her, it will teach her all about Godly character. We're excited to begin! Lionel will not be using Beautiful Feet as we have in the past. It was a very difficult decision for us since we love that curriculum so much, but he has not developed into the seasoned reader that we envisioned, so he needs something different. This year he will be using Bob Jones for World History. These books look fantastic, and we are happy to try something new. It looks like something he will thrive on, and we are confident that he will learn history with a solid Biblical foundation this way. That's what matters.


SCIENCE:
We haven't finished our entire science curriculum this year, but fortunately most of what they learned was more than what the school systems end up teaching. Sweet-Pea learned a LOT about our universe through the Exploring Creation with Astronomy. This year we are moving on to Exploring Creation with Botany though. I'm SO excited!! We will be learning a lot about plants, trees, flowers etc. She's been excited about planing a garden in our new backyard, so that will help with some of the hands-on learning this year. Lionel's biology has been a challenge to keep up with. We need to complete it before moving on to his Chemistry class, but hopefully it'll be sometime this fall. I can't wait for Chemistry - it was one of my favorite science classes in high school. Yaay! We purchased the books along with the multimedia CD and also the very cool lab kit...so we get to use bunsen burners, beakers, test tubes and chemicals this year!! Hmm, I hope we have enough insurance on our new home to cover any accidents. =)


WRITING/ENGLISH:
This is my downfall. I do not like writing! I LOVE to read books, especially classics, but I cannot write for the life of me. Fortunately though, I have a friend who wrote a wonderful curriculum called Writing Tales. This will be used for Sweet-Pea. She wrote the curriculum for 3rd adn 4th graders - perfect timing!!! The books not only look fun, but I know that Sweet-Pea will learn lots from them. She covers everything from reading to spelling to writing (including grammar) with this curriculum. For Lionel, I am undertaking a very intense English/Lit program in hopes of creating a wonderful writer in him. I'm also hoping I learn from it as well. The program is called Excellence in Writing. It's a well known curriculum which has very high reviews. We'll see how it goes. I have to watch the teacher DVD's before I even THINK of teaching it to him...so this year I too have 'home'work.


I will also be using Word Roots and Wordly Wise 10 for Lionel to improve on his Latin and vocabulary skills - in preparation for his SAT's. These books are wonderful and they drill information into you without it being a chore. Lionel enjoys these books and finds them to be an enjoyable way to learn.


FOREIGN LANGUAGE:
A few years ago when we were looking for a good foreign language curriculum, we had already heard of Rosetta Stone, but we thought it was too expensive. So, we found something else and we actually grew to love it even more than RS. We use Learnables. It's put out by International Linguistics Corp. Lionel absolutely loves it. He finds that the drawing photos are a lot funnier to look at than real photos. Of course that's not what is important, but it does help. He has learned useful phrases and sentences, not simply words like you do in most foreign language classes. It's the type of learning an adult could relate to as well as a child, plus it's useful the way it's taught! This past year, he was to continue with the 3rd level, but we spent more time reviewing the 2nd level, so this year we'll finally be able to move on. He will learn the grammatical side of it all, so it will flow and fit together better. By the end of the 3rd book, he should be able to read and understand the language fully without worrying about translation. I took 3 years of Spanish in high school and it got me no where. Lionel is learning so much more at his own pace. He does it all by himself on the computer and in his books. I only grade what he's written, and the answers are all in the back, so it's easy for me. Good thing!

ELECTIVES:
This year we will be learning more about Godly character than anything else! I feel that it's an important part of being a child of God, and learning how to live as He did, is something we all need to strive for! The books we'll be using are Young Person's Character Education Handbook. We'll use this together at the beginning of our school day. Then, Lionel will use 2 other books as well for his personal quiet times. A Young Man After God's Own Heart, and Devotions to Make You Smarter. I haven't decided yet which books I'll be using for Sweet-Pea. Since she'll be learning about Godly Character in her history classes this year, we may not need to use anything else. One possibility is the Beautiful Girlhood book that I've been saving for her. We'll see.



Two other things we'll be using this year are Spelling Power...a wonderful spelling curriculum. I'm a firm believer that the more kids read, the less they need to 'learn' how to spell, but sometimes they simply need that extra push, and this is a great book for just that. We also have been using the Mavis Beacon Typing program, but Lionel got VERY frustrated with it. He'd type things correctly and she'd say he did it wrong and make him do it over etc. So...I looked into other programs and found Typing Instructor. It's WONDERFUL! Both kids have been using it already. Sweet-Pea uses the Kid's version which is very kid-friendly, and Lionel has been starting the grown-up version - still fun and easy to use. I know my kids will learn to type quickly with this program. Both my husband and I are very fast typers, so we're hoping the kids will soon follow suit.



Well, besides violin lessons for Lionel and figure skating lessons for Sweet-Pea, that about covers it. Lionel is in his 6th year of violin and has been doing extremely well. Unfortunately he had no recital this year - it had to be canceled due to a death in his teacher's family, but hopefully nexts year he'll blow them all out of the water after having another year to practice! We are so proud of him for his accomplishments in music. Sweet-Pea is also going to continue with figure skating lessons. She's been taking for almost a year now and has improved quite a bit in that short time. Her first day on the ice was not a pleasant experience (we had tears and sadness), but today, she gets right out there on the ice and does all sorts of things I could never do! We're proud of her as well, and know she'll go far...maybe not to the Olympics, yet far enough to get enjoyment out of it for years to come. =) She also is doing well on the flute. I've been teaching her at home and she's coming along better than I ever expected at such a young age.

That about covers it for our curriculum for this coming year. We have lots of work ahead of us, but we are excited about the changes we've made and the new home in which to enjoy them in!

I'm still here!!

It's been way too long since my last post! I feel so out of the loop around here...but life hasn't been without it's challenges these days.

The first thing that kept me away from blogging is obviously our packing up and getting ready to move. Our closing is officially set for June 30th, so we're busy busy busy with packing, cleaning and wondering why in the world we have so much stuff!!! ha ha I can't believe that in 3 weeks, we'll be in our new home! After all these months, all the headaches of house showings, cleaning and frustrations, we'll be ready to end this chapter and literally 'move on'. Yaay!

This is what our home looks like these days:


My husband spent the entire day on the phone today because of all the calls he had to make to the water company, oil company, gas company, phone company, insurance company, cable TV company etc. etc. In between packing and cleaning and all that craziness, we've been trying to get some fun in with the kids. It's not easy though when there's so much to do.

Here are the kids playing with their new super-soakers. Lionel went wild when he purchased his...he's got backup in the special super-soaker backpack! Poor Sweet-Pea, she doesn't stand a chance.


Then again...she's got quite the super-soaker herself!




Sweet-Pea LOVES to dance and jump...here she is 'taking flight'!


We also had a bit of fun at a local park with some of the other families in our homeschool group. One of our previous members came up from Florida to visit us, so that made the day extra special! (I miss you already Suzanne!!!!)

This park has the coolest playground! The kids had a blast - both young and old!! Lionel is in the tower (yellow shirt) and Sweet-Pea is climbing up the side (in pink).






Lionel showing his age - by taking a break from running around with all the younger kids.


Sweet-Pea and 2 of her friends.


Yup, this is what homeschooling does to you!!! The only adult not making a face (in green) is not a homeschool mom...so this is proof that all of us who homeschool are, in fact, crazy! =)


Back to why I haven't blogged in a while....

My Sony laptop died. It was a sad day for me! That computer was a lifeline to many things...keeping records for our own homeschool, maintaining the website for our homeschool group, not to mention keeping in touch with family and friends through our photo site and emails. Praise the Lord I noticed something wasn't quite right, so I backed up all of my work. I no sooner finished the job when it officially shut down and died. Poor thing. I'll miss it...may it rest in peace. =) OK, so that's a bit overboard...but still, we don't realize how much we depend on modern technology until we don't have them anymore.

Fortunately, my amazing, wonderful and extremely generous husband bought me a new computer that very day! I opted for a desktop since I hardly ever moved my laptop away from my desk when it worked. I decided that I'd rather have a more powerful computer over a more convenient one this time. It's got a LOT more storage space on it, and it's much quicker. It arrived today and I'm already enjoying it VERY much! So...now that I have a computer, I can blog again. Yaay me!!

Looth Tooth

For days now, Sweet-Pea has been working on a loose tooth in her mouth. She does NOT like when her teeth fall out...it scares her. She struggled during dinner and even asked me to pull it twice, but it wouldn't budge! So, she went to bed that night a little bit anxious, but she did sleep. Look what I found beside my bed on the nightstand the next morning!!!


It says "Mom, I lost my tooth. That is what I look like. Do you see the missing tooth Mom?"

If that's not so sweet, I don't know what is!?!?! She woke up around 6:00 a.m. and noticed her tooth had fallen out!!! She didn't even realize it, so there was no bleeding, no pain and fortunately she didn't swallow it. =) I admit, I was a little bit sad that she didn't wake me, but she said that she was a big girl and handled it herself. She sure was!!!

Here's the spot where the tooth was...


One proud girl! The other front tooth is also loose, so maybe I'll get another note some morning real soon.


Way to go Sweet-Pea! I'm SO proud of you!!!!

Home update

I'm not holding my breath, but it seems as if we officially sold our home. Déjà vu...I feel like I've done this before....oh, I have! Here's a summary of all that's happened recently:

• Our original buyer sold, but their buyer backed out in the 11th hour, so we had to start over from the beginning. That was back in March!!
  
• Our original buyer still desperately wanted to buy our home from us and worked hard to sell their home. They had 27 showings in 2 weeks but no decent offers. Pretty sad.
• We still had a Hubbard (contingency) for those buyers, so as much as we wanted to dump our current Realtor and get a new one, we couldn't. Bummer!
• On Saturday, we sat our Realtor down and told her she wasn't doing ANYTHING to sell our home for us. She not once brought a client to look at our home, didn't advertise it well enough, had lousy photos of our home online and was not a go-getter. So, we decided to take matters into our own hands. I took brand new photos of the house (don't want to brag, but they are MUCH better than hers!!) and put them up on a new listing...new words, measurements of the rooms, and a new lower price. It looked great.
• On Monday morning (last week), Edward and the kids moved over 100 boxes from the in-law suite down to our basement so we could once again stage our home for showings. What a pain!! We were 2/3 packed and getting ready for the move when things fell through. The house was a disaster, so we had to set everything back up and remove boxes etc. The house looked wonderful and clean once again - ready for more showings.
  
• We had a call Monday afternoon that someone already wanted to come see the house on Tuesday. We had plans on Tuesday to take the kids to the aquarium, but we had to change those plans for the showing since we have Cody, the dog we rescued who can't be left in the house for showings. He gets extremely nervous if people show up without us around, so we have to take him with us. So, no aquarium trip. We decided to go Wednesday.
• On Tuesday mid-morning, we got a call saying those people couldn't make it for the showing, so they would come on Wednesday. UGH! Change plans again and miss out on the aquarium for the 2nd time. Poor kids...this is what their lives have been like lately.
• Wednesday comes and we get a call that morning...our original buyers sold their condo!!! We weren't sure how serious this was, but we knew that if they sold, then we did as well! Now what to do?!? It's too late for the aquarium, so that's still out. The people who wanted to come see our house were told it sold, so they obviously didn't come. The downside in this is that in order for our buyer to actually sell, they had to lower their price a lot more, so we too were put in a situation to lower ours. We all just want this done and over with, so we all compromised just to put an end to it. We're not thrilled about it, but at least we are selling our home now!
  
• Things progressed along quite well this time around. Our buyer now has their mortgage approved. Their buyer is almost approved - any day now...they had their inspection and appraisal, so it's moving right along. It's up to us now.
• We ended up purchasing a different home than originally planned. This house is 2 doors down from the original home we wanted. It was less expensive, yet it's still new. Funny thing though...it's got 8 rooms, where the other had 7, and this one is also a 'green' home...meaning that it's energy efficient so we should save money each month.
  
• Yesterday we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off! We had to get signed contracts to the bank by a certain time (since it's a holiday weekend) or we wouldn't get our mortgage on time to close. Since we're purchasing a different home, we had to start the whole process over. What a pain!
  

So, there you have it. It's been a crazy mess, this whole house thing, but we see a light at the end of the tunnel. If all goes well...we will be closing on June 30th! Only 38 days away!! Here's a photo of our new home. It's a beautiful home and we are excited that God led us here, even though it's been a long road. Things aren't 100% certain yet. I won't be comfortable saying we're moving until we sign our names at the closing! We are hopeful though, and are looking forward to things finally settling down in our lives. Pray with us that nothing will go wrong this time around!! Thanks!


P.S. If we ever get to that aquarium, I'll post photos. =)

Happy Anniversary 'Edward'!!

My dear sweet husband had these beautiful flowers delivered to me today while he was at work. How romantic to get them delivered!! Usually he brings them home, but for some reason, these brightened up my day so much more because they were delivered.



15 years ago I walked down the aisle and said 'I do' before God, our family and friends. It was a day I'll never forget! God blessed me with such an amazing and wonderful man. I am proud to be his wife! We still talk about that day as if it were yesterday, and we reminisce about our amazing honeymoon in Scotland ALL the time!!! One of these days we want to get back over there.


(Ahh, yes, these were the days of puffed sleeves and VERY long trains!! =) Gotta love it. Once Sweet-Pea is a teenager, I'll open up my packed dress and let her try it on just for fun. I'd love to see it again too.)

For all you Moms...

Happy Mother's Day!!!!


This is YOUR day Moms. A day to feel appreciated for all you do, for all you sacrifice and for all you are to your children! You love them unconditionally, you sacrifice daily without complaining, and you see past their faults to point out every strength they have, simply to encourage them.

Keep it up...you're doing a great job and you will be blessed by our Heavenly Father for it!

I will miss my Mom dearly today as I have for the past 7 years! The Lord took her home after a long battle with cancer, but I know I'll see her again. She is in my thoughts constantly, and as I am raising my children, I am reminded of all she sacrificed and did for me. She was a wonderful Mom and I'm so thankful to the Lord for allowing me to be her daughter!!

Take some time to hug your children extra tight tonight...we only have them for a short time before they grow up!!

Have a blessed Mother's Day!!

Homeschool Science Fair!!!

Since I'm the president of our homeschool group, I get to plan a big fair each year. Two years ago we did a Geography Fair, and last year an Art Fair, so this year I decided on the old standby...a Science Fair. I do like to keep it different though, so next year we're going to do a History Fair - I can't wait!!

Anyhow, as I previously mentioned, Lionel did his project on Jet Propulsion, and Sweet-Pea did hers on Horses. They both did a FANTASTIC job!!

Here's Sweet-Pea standing beside her display...complete in her new attire from the Tack shop!! See those yarn things hanging? Those are her homemade horse tails!! She researched the various ways horses tails are braided, cut and combed, and decided to create her own. It was a lot of hard work, but it paid off in the end. They looked awesome. It's hard to appreciate them in detail from the photo though...sorry. On the wall beside her (to her right) are cut-outs of her hands...so people could measure how many hands tall they are, like they do for horses.


Closer look of her display...


Lionel's display involved a lot more research and reading. He too did a fantastic job! The right side of his display showed a time line of jet propulsion, and the left side showed various planes and the different typed of engines used in each one - with descriptions. The whole middle was filled with details on how jet propulsion actually works. It was fascinating, but out of my league. = ) I'm glad Daddy worked with him on this one!!! On the table stand 2 jet plane models, a homemade Lego jet and a Lego engine replica. He's very creative!


At the fair, there were 6 different categories with several entrants for each. The parents voted, and chose 1 winner from each category to win a 1st place trophy. I was so excited to see that Sweet-Pea was the winner for the Zoology category! Here she is with her trophy.


Each child who entered work in the fair got an award medal. We have given these out each year and they're great because it encourages the kids...even if they don't win 'the big trophy'. The kids love it! On the back it says our homeschool group name, "Science Fair" and "2009".


More photos from the fair...lots of moms and dads...


...lots of kids....


...and lots of food! =)


Now that it's over, we can rest a bit and get some of our 'normal' school work done. Of course we are still waiting on news about the house situation, but in the mean time, we'll plug along in hopes of finishing this year off well in school if nothing else!