Starr Happenings - New Year Update

It has been a while since I have posted a HSMJ. We had a good Christmas break. I always like to take a week and sew to my heart's content, but due to an abnormal medical test I had to spend my time getting some other tests done, getting ready for my parent's visit, and generally being distracted my everything. Our co-op started the first week of January, but my parents arrived January 6 so we didn't start our own school work. This week was our first week that we were back to doing our full school schedule. Here's just a small glimpse of what has happened around our home and school lately.

1. Christmas (in January) with Grandma & Grandpa.
2. Caleb got a new iPhone and I had to laugh because his sister was setting it up for him.
3. I think that has to be my favorite gift Delani received for Christmas. The hat is hysterical!
4. Chantry and Destini are doing a politics class in co-op and we have watched every debate so far. I didn't realize how much had sunk in until Delani excitedly brought us this magazine in Costco. She was so excited to recognize certain faces on it.
5. Delani working on her addition skills. She writes them out and then makes her big sister do them.
6. We have been working through IEW Primary Arts of Language and Delani finally made it to the first reader. I have to admit I find teaching reading so frustrating, but I'm trying to have faith and keep pressing on.
7. While it was snowing like crazy everywhere yesterday, we enjoyed a balmy 57* outside. It felt amazing!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal - September & October Happenings

It has been a long time since I have posted A Homeschool Mother's Journal. Life has been busy, but in a good way. Another reason is that I have gotten really bad about taking pictures. My phone has about used up all of its storage and I'm too cheap to pay for extra storage so right now I am hindered in my photo taking since it usually my phone that is at hand rather than the camera. Now I have something to work on.

We completed our 9th week of school and it is going smoothly. Even after the first four weeks I felt there were going to a few things that we were going to have to drop and except for one book everything all of sudden just seemed to fall into place. Here is a run down of  what has been happening:

1. & 2.  Back in September we took an impromptu field trip to take a tour of a B-17 Flying Fortress. The girls and I walked through once, but the boys went through it at least three times. One thing we discovered is that it is not very big inside. 

3. Chantry working on his dictation for Spelling You See American Spirit. 

4. We canned 24 quarts of applesauce. I still have some more apples that I need to do.

5. I tried my hand at apple butter, since it is something my husband likes. I was lazy and froze it.

6. We have had a very mild fall (Thank you, Jesus!) and my pots of flowers are still very green and blooming. I took this picture last week of my Gerber daisy and it actually has more blooms than it did all summer long.

7. We have hit on a new tradition on Friday mornings--Cream of Wheat. Usually everyone has to fend for themselves for breakfast, but I made Cream of Wheat one morning early in the school year and now the kids expect it on Fridays.

8. You can't see Delani very well in this picture, but she is dying laughing. She was doing math with Caleb and they found something hilarious. I love that she gets to do this with her big brother--another great benefit of homeschooling.

9. My kids love to play games and lately it has been the game CHRONOLOGY(aff). Here Destini is beating the socks of all of us.

The Homeschool Mother's Journal - The End Is In Sight!

 

Life has been happening here. We have been working hard on our school work. This week we did get quite a few things wrapped up. Our goal is to be finished by the last week of May when may parents will be arriving from Wisconsin for a visit. Here is a peek of what has been happening around here: 

1. Mother's Day! I am so thankful for my amazing kids who call me "mom". My life has been changed because of them. I was blessed to receive two more rose bushes to put in the front our house.
2. Chantry filled out an "Mad About Mom" survey during Sunday School (see below) which was pretty funny, but it truly showed that he is a boy. He made up for it later by getting a McDonald's Strawberry & Cream pie.
3. I don't think my oldest kids did much in the kitchen (not their fault), but Delani just goes in there and does what she wants. Since she sees them do things she isn't very intimidated to try for herself. She is cooking herself a tortilla for her lunch. 
4. We finished our history, geography, and literature reading--Mystery of History I, the first part of The Complete Book of Marvels, The Occident, and Black Ships Before Troy.
5. Chantry finished Math U See Zeta.
6. This is my teacher's book from Zeta. It has been through three kids. I am hoping it will survive the fourth kid.
7. Chantry also finished Spelling You See Book D: Americana. This has been a great spelling program for him.
8. Caleb and his dad got all dirty changing the brake pads on our van. I think most of the grease ended up on them. They enjoy every second of getting dirty!
9. Our roses are blooming. This is my rose bush that I received last year for Mother's Day. 

I think this was my favorite thing from Mother's Day. My two youngest kids filled these "Mad About Mom" surveys and the answers really made my day!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal - Apple Pie Day & More

We are closing in on our last five to six weeks of school (hoping for five, but...). Our big event was heading to the Capitol building for Apple Pie Day for Oregon's Home Education Week. There are many things happening that day. Our co-op took a tower tour and also a tour to the House (in session) and the Senate room. I've also included a few more pictures showing what all has been happening around here.

 

 1. & 2.  This year we were able to take a Tower tour. We climbed 121 stairs to go up to the observation deck.
3. At the top!
4. The "Oregon Pioneer" at the top of the building.
5. I took of a picture of the kids by a pink dogwood tree for Grandma K.
6. Eating our lunch on the steps during the rally.
7. The rotunda. (Picture courtesy of Destini.)
8. Delani sang in the Statewide Homeschool Choir.
(I don't have a picture of this, but I think I spent most of my time walking several blocks every couple of hours to move my vehicle since I'm too cheap to pay outrageous meter parking.) 

9. Since our yard isn't huge and since every gas weed-eater that we buy has something go wrong with it within a year my husband decided to get an electric one. Caleb was one happy guy!
10. Sometimes I wonder how well Morning Time goes when one of the kids sleeps right through it!
11. Delani lost two teeth in one week. She was especially proud that she pulled the second one out herself. I was grateful since it didn't involve major screaming like the first one did. (And no she wasn't hurt--it was all drama.)
12. Delani is thrilled that she as found a game she can play with the older kids. She is beating Destini  in Monopoly Deal.
13. Yeah! Destini finished science this week. This is a small glimpse in her science journal. Now I'm on the great search for high school science that doesn't suck the joy of of the subject.
14. While the kids were preparing for Student Convention we had dropped some of our academics and English was one of them. BIG mistake! Now it is hanging over our heads like a heavy weight. Even though we do a lot of orally it takes soooo much time. If the books could be finished 3 times a week I would keep this program for next year, but it takes 4-5 days a week and we are burned out.
15. New curriculum (for Destini) for next year arrived in the mail this week.
16. I was blessed to win the audio book download of The Green Ember by S.D. Smith from Carrie at Reading to Know. Just let me say that I don't care for fantasy books, but this is a splendid read.

The Homeschool Mother's Journal: Competitions, Celebrations, & a Concert

It has been quite a while since I've done any kind of homeschool or family post. I had a vision at the beginning of this school year of having a little bit more time to dedicate to school work with my other kids since Caleb had graduated. Huh!! Right!! I am busier than ever and am still having a hard time finding time to work with Delani. I feel like taxi driver extraordinaire with Caleb working part-time and taking a class each term at out local community college. He is trying to save up money to pay for his insurance and is also paying for his college classes so it has been slow going. If you pass a crazy woman muttering, "This too shall pass, this too shall pass..." then you know it is me.

We have been on a crazy whirlwind ride as our Destini and Chantry prepared for the West Coast ACTS Student Convention, a competition that we have participated in the last 4 years. We did pretty well keeping up with school work and doing convention projects, but by March we were down to a bare minimum of school work as the deadline quickly approached.

We completed the competition the last week and this week we had a pretty easy week of school while trying to catch up on some sleep. Next week it will be time to put the nose to the grindstone.

Here is a look of what has been happening the last few weeks:

1. Easter Sunday - The kids each received a bag of candy and a book. Here are the books that were given as gifts:

  

 

2. Chantry has gone through a major growth spurt. He is feeling pretty good that he is as tall as his sister. 

3. Baseball has started!!

4. Chantry preaching for ACTS Student Convention.

5. Delani was involved in a homeschool choir from January through the beginning of April. Her concert happened to fall right in the middle of Chantry and Destini's competition. Delani and I were able to slip away for a few hours while she sang in the concert. 

6. & 7. In the midst of a concert and competitions Delani celebrated her 7th birthday. I can't believe that my baby is 7 years old. We celebrated are few days later with her requested birthday cake--Strawberry Shortcake.

8. Even though the last month has been heavily focused on practicing poetry and preaching and hand crafts we have kept up our readings for history, literature, and geography. We also got quite a free reads finished (We finished reading Penrod , Penrod and Sam , Ben-Hur, and we started Five for Victory.

9.  This is the closest that Caleb will resemble anything from Star Wars. He is taking a welding class and this is his fancy head gear. He is also taking CAD 1.

Check out how Chantry and Destini did at West Coast ACTS Student Convention here.
 

The Homeschool Mother's Journal: A New Year's Update

It has been over a month since I have blogged about family happenings. Christmas came and we celebrated long and hard and just when it was time to start school again my parents came for a visit. My dad stayed for a week and my mom for two weeks. Of course not a lot of school was finished during that time, and this week finds us back to facing reality.

1. I had to buy this shirt for Chantry. If you can't see it clearly it says: "It is hard work being awesome." The whole shirt sums him up perfectly. He is the one who is always acting so worn out after doing the least bit of anything!
2. I caught Caleb hard at work one day. He is getting about 3-4 days of work. My only dislike is that he has one uniform. I am always trying to keep a load of dark clothes handy so we can wash his uniform.
3. My mom and dad.
4. We headed out to the coast one day (to go shopping, not to see the ocean) and for once it was really nice. The temperatures were up to 60 degrees and it wasn't very windy at all.
5. Destini has started a new cross-stitch picture. This time she will be adding beads to her project.

 

6. After my dad went home we attempted to do some school work. Needless to say we didn't get very much finished!
7. Since our move we haven't found a place to hang our white board and I didn't realize how much we had used it in the past until this week while working on diagramming sentences with Chantry. My goal this week is to get it up on a wall.
8. The working man now has a checking account.
9. My mom flew home last Tuesday so after dropping her off at the airport we went to IKEA. I must backtrack at this point and tell how when we moved into our house in April I wanted to throw away all the blinds on the windows immediately. They were filthy and many of them had broken strings. I have an aversion to plastic mini-blinds since they are so hard to clean. I wanted either wood blinds or bamboo shades so I could just vacuum them off. When I went shopping for new blinds and saw the prices I decided it just might be awhile before that would happen. Needless to say I didn't clean the blinds in my bedroom until right before my parents came. Yes, I lived with them filthy for 8 months, but last week when I walked into IKEA I found wooden blinds for all the windows in our house that needed them for $10 a piece. I guess I should have cleaned my blinds back in April!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal: A New Term Started

Oh my, I have been a terrible blogger! Life has been busy, but in a good way. We had a great Thanksgiving plus we finished up our first term of school and have started our second term. Here is a little update of what has been happening in our home and school.

 

1. My kids were excited to finally get paid their allowance. I have started paying it to them in a check and then we go to the bank and cash them. My kids really, really like this! Oh, and this is Caleb's last allowance payment.

2. I made this Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake for a get-together we had. I started to cut it and realized that I better take a picture since I don't know if I can bake another one without cracking the top. And yes, it was yummy!

3. Delani has decided she is big enough to make her own sandwiches (when it is convenient for her), but she actually surprised me on how well she did.

4. She also learned to wrap gifts in her Daisies club at co-op.

5. And for the big news--Caleb got a job! After filling out application after application he finally got on a McDonald's. He is posing with his first paycheck. Honestly, I have been very frustrated with apply for jobs online, which seem to be the only way to do this at most businesses. I could go on and on about what I think about this, but I will spare you.

 

6. We finished up Term 1 in which Destini completed A Child's Geography of the World and It Couldn't Just Happen: Knowing the Truth About God's Awesome Creation along with 3-4 free reads. Chantry completed A Child's Geography of the World and Archimedes and the Door of Science and two free reads. Delani completed Volume 1 & 2 of My Book House and we almost made it through Book A of First Start Reading.

7. Chantry has started  Along Came Galileo, Created for Work: Practical Insights for Young Men, and  Complete Book Of Marvels. He will continue on The Mystery of History Volume 1, Augustus Caesar's World, Math U See Zeta, Spelling You See Americana, The Mystery of the Periodic Table App, and another 42 lessons of Rod & Staff English 4.

8. Destini will be reading through the Secrets of the Universe book set, The Complete Book of Marvels, along with Never Give In: The Extraordinary Character of Winston Churchill. She has read a lot of science biographies over the last year and asked to take a break so she is delving into history biographies. She also will continue with Mystery of History Volume 1, Augustus Caesar's World, Math U See Pre-Algebra, Rod & Staff Spelling 7, and Rod & Staff English 6. She is starting another cross-stitch project and will soon start a new quilt.

9. Delani almost completed Book of First Start Reading, but honestly every reading page was excruciating. She reads the words one day and looks at them the next day and has to sound out every.single.word. Sooooo, it just so happened that I won a $100 gift certificate to All About Learning Press that was offered in one of the Read Aloud Revival Podcast hosted by Sarah from Amongst Lovely Things.   I am hoping to start this on Monday, but I have to get my act together. She will continue to work through her Math U See Primer book and continue doing a lot of reading aloud.

Last but not least--the Christmas tree is up! I think that if I ever have a season that we can pull the tree out of the box, put the lights and ornaments in one day I will faint dead away.