Tara's Extra-Curricula Activities

Tara made a two layer- chocolate cake (from scratch, of course) and her own fondant.  She decorated it with pink flowers and vines.  It was to celebrate the arrival of her cousins from Tennessee.  (please excuse the stove, she took the pic before she cleaned up, lol)

Tara is also doing a design book.  Here is her first shot at it.  She designed a living room.  Give her colored pencils and paper and she is ecstatic!

She is also working on a wonderful math curriculum that teaches how to set up bank accounts, use atms, write checks, and balance a check book.  She will soon be doing a "simulation" of this and I believe is very exciting. 

In Far Above Rubies, she is learning a lot about different gemstones.  She also had to do a resume and write out an advertisement.  She will be also writing a curriculum to teach children about Creation.  I can't wait to see how that turns out.  Again, I will encourage her to make a poster.  I am learning that she is very creative, even in her school work and does better if she can express it through pictures.  She also loves to write and I was very pleased with her first short story. 

 

Blessings,

Terry

Billy's schoolwork from week 2

I really thought it was important for Billy to learn how to type correctly.  He is really enjoying doing this and cringes (as the photo shows) when he makes a mistake.  Too funny

A screen shot of what he is typing:

He loved making his own "town" with streets, stores, a hospital, fire department, post office and other buildings.  I think he enjoys working on the kitchen floor with a big roll of paper.

Here is a close up of his town.  He had to "travel" the streets and show which direction North, South, East and West were.  We had fun doing this!

Billy's earth cake.  I thought it was sooooo funny that he wanted to include the equator.  I am so thankful for this curriculum, My Father's World!  We are enjoying it and learning so much!

Sorry this was almost a week late.  I am uploading pics of this weeks work and hope to post regularly on Friday or Saturday!

 

Blessings,

Terry

Tara's Proverbs 31 poster project

Tara's curriculum this year is Far Above Rubies, which is based on Proverbs 31.  This week she had to do a poster.  I was very happy with her creativity!  She had to depict some of the things a woman does and match it to a verse from Proverbs 31. 

She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.

Who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies.
She perceiveth that her merchandise is good.  Her candle goeth not out by night.

She consider a field and buyeth it:  with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard

She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.

She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.

The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.

She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.

We have it hanging on our door.  It is a beautiful reminder from the Lord.

 

Blessings,

Terry

First week of back to homeschool

This is a look at our first week of school for the new year.  Billy is using My Father's World and enjoying it so much!  Here are three different ways to say "hello".  His favorite was Japanese.

He had been waiting, (not so patiently), all summer to blow up this globe!

 During the summer he joined the library's summer reading program and completed the book, The Hobbit.  He really enjoyed this book and was eager to share it with anyone who would listen!

This week he had to make a poster for the verse John 3:16.  He typed it out and used a bunch of flag stickers to stress the word "world".  We didn't realize how many languages don't have a translation of the Bible and that has been our morning prayer focus for the week.

 

Wednesday we went on a nature walk in our yard and he found these two feathers.

 Learning here about the different continents and coloring each one a different color.  He really enjoys the Continent song and does a little "dance" at the end.

We learned a lot this week about maps and scales.  He had so much fun figuring out his room to scale.  Not sure why he did the scowl, but he asked and I said "Sure, why not"

During our sciene we learned a lot about "niches" and the importance of different animals.  Here is his worm niche.  We will see how they do.  The object was to have different soils layered and see how the worms "mix" it all together.  (Again, don't know why the "model pose" but he was being a clown and made me laugh.

As you may have noticed, there aren't any pictures of Tara and her schoolwork.  She is doing :Far Above Rubies and is on her own this year.  She got more done than I thought she would and is enjoying being on her own and planning her schoolwork independently.  I plan on getting some pics in our second week of school.  Even is she isn't in the pics, just some information on her week will be good.

 

The Lord has been so good in calling us to homeschool.  A lot of prayer went into our choices and I am excited to see the way the Lord uses them in our lives.

 

I am praying to be diligent in keeping this blog current with their schooling, family stuff and some crafts.

 

Blessings,

Terry

Cinnamon bread

My daughter Tabitha decided to make cinnamon bread today. The house smelled incredible!

It is delicious!  Thank you Tabitha for making it. 

Thank you to Krista for telling me about the blog app for my iPhone, maybe now I will blog regularly. 

Getting ready for 2014/2015 school year. Choices and upcoming convention!

I know, we haven't finished this years school work yet and I am already thinking about next year! I do this every year but I know I am not alone in this thinking and planning process.  This upcoming school year is going to be a "big year" for us.  Tara will be starting 10th grade and Billy will be starting 7th grade.

For over two years I have been wanting to do My Father's World  http://www.mfwbooks.com/.  I had planned on doing it two years ago with Billy and Tara, but went with Simply Charlotte Mason for two years.  We enjoyed SCM a great deal.  The one area I had a hard time with was geography, it just didn't work for us the way it was set up.  I'm sure it is wonderful for some, just didn't work in our home.  So after much praying and researching we decided to do MFW with just Billy.  We will start with Exploring Countries and Cultures (ECC) in August.  They had a special for free shipping through the end of March and after getting some money back from "Uncle Sam", I just couldn't wait to order it.  It game in this past Tuesday.  I don't know who was more excited, me or Billy.  He doesn't want to wait until August.  He sat sprawled on the kitchen floor helping me "unbox" his schoolwork.  He spent hours looking at the books and then playing an enrichment game I bought called Rush Hour., Praise the Lord! (it's on the MFW site and is such a fun thing to play, even my older children were taking turns at it), I have never seen him so excited about school work.  Truly confirmation for the Lord!  I will be making lists of extras I would like to get at the convention, but honestly I don't think I will need anything besides math.  I do want to get him some "perplexors" for this summer.  I also need to look at a writing curriculum.  MFW suggests Writing Strands, but I am also looking at other options and probably won't decide until I go to the MassHope Convention (April 25th....34 more days).  I am thrilled to have the MFW curriculum early so I can take my time to go over the Teachers Manual and figure out what supplies I will need and (of course) how to organize them.  I have started one of MFWs suggestions to use a "book basket".  It's a neat idea where you get books from your library that go along with what your studying and just let your kids read or look through them.  Whatever they decide to do.  Just be consistent and have them do it daily.  So last night at the library, I chose some books that went along with a few things we are studying and then I got some fun books that I knew Billy would be interested in looking through.  MFW even suggests getting books with lots of pictures so children can read the captions and learn in that way.  Billy was so funny at the library.  He was wondering why I was in the "kids" section.  I said "school work" and he went about his own business.  Well, last night when we got home he was so excited.  I got books about "space", we've been studying astronauts, space shuttles, Neil Armstrong, etc.  I also got books with poetry, tongue twisters, in line skating, hurricanes, Connecticut and Maine.  He was thrilled with the variety.  Worked out well for him today, he is sick, so he has book basket to keep him busy.  I told him we will get a special basket for him.

Now, on to Tara.  My "unwilling" student...LOL.  She really didn't want to be lumped in with Billy.  She wanted to have something that is her "own".  I spent hours on Friday nights this past month looking at options for her.  I then remembered the course "Far Above Rubies".  I did a search and found a free PDF of one of the units.  At first, I thought,  "no way, she will not apply herself".  I kept looking and praying and kept coming back to "FAR".  I really wanted her to do it.  So, I sat down with her and we talked about it and she wanted to do it.  She loved the fact that it was "just for girls".  The curriculum itself is not expensive ($50.00) especially when you consider it is considered a four year high school curriculum.  You do need to pick up some other books, which I found many on Amazon and eBay.  The curriculum urges you to make use of your public library which I have every intention on doing.  I felt that after talking to her about it, the Lord made it clear to me what He wanted her to do.  She seems excited as different books come in for her for next year.  She has had a great school week this year.  I told her to pick a subject, any subject!  I thought for sure it would be "craft related" but she surprised me.  She chose The Titanic.  She is researching on-line and taking notes, she chose two books and one documentary from the library last night.  she is even working on it "after school hours", which is amazing.

This has been a special time for me.  As a home schooling mom, I sometimes feel that I don't always do as much as I should.  The Lord has shown me that it is more important to help them to learn then it is to "get things done".  To see Tara doing school work when she could be doing anything else, and for Billy to spend hours looking at his work for next year, both really touched my heart.  I know this is the Lord's direction for Tara and Billy.

As a family, we have been talking about the Ark of  The Covenant and are moving on to The Tabernacle.  Our Hebrews study in Family Sunday School has been such a blessing to all of us.  We are learning so much!  Bill just loves cross referencing everything, especially when it goes back the Old Testament.  We purchased a Tabernacle "kit" and will prayerfully (if Billy is up to it) start working on it tonight as we learn about it.

We look forward to next week when we have fellowship with our Pastor and his wife on Thursday and a family over Friday.  Had to cancel our plans for tonight, due to sickness, but will reschedule.

I'm praying that I will be more consistent with "blogging",  and keeping anyone who is interested updated on our walk with the Lord, our children, homeschooling and crafts.

Have a blessed day!
Terry

Cross Stitch Projects that I've been working on

I can't believe how long its been since I posted anything on my blog.  I've done a lot of crocheting, knitting and cross stitching since we got back home.  I started on February 1, 2014 a new heaven and Earth Design.

Mini Citrine (no background) done on 28 count shamrock over 1:

I actually have a bit more done that what is shown here.  This is for Tara and it is one of my hardest projects so far.

I also started Mini Bookworm Fairy on 18 count aida, also a Heaven & Earth design and got 1800 stitches done in one week:

I am having so much fun on this one and am pulling her back out this week!