The homeschool law states that we need to study the fine arts including music. So to meet that requirement partially I have the boys attend an art class for homeschoolers at our local art center. (Well local being 20 miles away). They get exposed to a variety of mediums and ways of making art. I wish it was a bit more indepth on the art appreciation aspect, mainly because the boys won't study it with me nor do they find an interest in it. They do love the art portion though and I am thankful for a teacher who volunteers her time to teach the students so they only pay a donation to the art center and a one time supply fee. So far this year they have done some 3-d drawings and some pastels. Today they start working with clay and sculptures. It pretty much takes most of our afternoon as we have to drive there and the class is 1 1/2 hours so I run errands in town while they are there. Only the 2 oldest boys are going this year, and it every other Tues.

I will have to take some pics of their work to preserve it and to share with you.

Melanie

Well for the next 4 days then we have 2 weeks off.. Nice I know, but It is at least getting us started. We have 4 days home this week so I decided to start off our school year this week. We got our A World of Adventure done, which we are studying ancient greece. The boys learned about fables, the ways Greeks lived differently from us, our fingerprints and how they are all different. We also did our english, math and spelling. The older two boys had 1/2 our reading a book I chose for them, a fiction selection on Ancient Greece. DH is implementing a physical education program with the kids. He got them new running shoes, and a set of weights. So today they lifted weights and will go for a light jog later on. They ran quite a bit yesterday with DH, so I don't want them to overdue. One is naturally inclined to be a runner, while the other one struggles a great deal with it. So I don't want to overwhelm the one struggling and make him feel like quitting on his 2nd day!

Last night for dinner I made Greek Bifteki (which is like burgers with feta cheese in the middle), and a Greek salad. Tonight is Greek Chicken and potatoes. We love trying new recipes from other cultures! Praising God that I am able to make different meals now and even look at recipes without feeling sick. Finally the morning sickness phase is complete... (Thanks be to God).  I am finding my recipes from allrecipes.com and just typing in greek as a key word.

DS10 got an OUTSTANDING OF THE DAY award for his rocket project for the fair!! We get to go to an awards ceremony next Saturday for that. And an update from his leader that he also got OUTSTANDING OF THE DAY for pet rabbits too!!The fair is gearing up on Friday (thus our only 4 days of school this week). We are so excited. I am actually having someone watch some of the little kids a couple days so that I can just take the two in the fair and concentrate on the things that they are doing or want to see.

Have a great Monday!

Melanie

is how you eat an elephant... and how you try to get back into the swing of homeschooling...

We have had to take the last 2 months off due to my morning sickness and pregnancy related tiredness. I feel we need to at least get back to the basics for the rest of the summer to finish up our previous school year. It is overwhelming when I think of all the things I want to teach them, of all the subjects I want to teach. I sat down and wrote out the subjects and things I want to eventually work up to. The list wasn't crazy, but definately a huge step from where we are right now with doing no school.

So today we started back up our english/phonics and math lessons. Jumped back in where we left off 2 months ago, with the hope to finish them up by Sept when we can officially start our new school year. We use life pacs for the older two, and Bob Jones for my 2nd year old in english. Math is saxon and bob jones. So I want to get them back to the grade level they 'should' be at in the subjects that we can at least.

Eventually we will get back to A world of Adventure and begin our study of Ancient Greece. But for now we will focus our extra time on getting our 4-H projects finished as fair is at the end of the July. We have posters to design and make for rabbits, chickens, rockets, and outdoor education and safety. So rather than turn our attention to something else, I think we will benefit from working on our current projects and not stress out.

So slowly we are tackling this huge homeschooling elephant and it hopefully will work like this for awhile. No schedule, start in the am after chores and when we can. Nothing set in stone and stressful for me.

Blessings

Melanie

Nothing beats homeschooling on the farm. Science doesn't even have to be taught by me. It is observed every day the boys go outside.

Our pond is full of tadpoles and the boys were able to catch many of them in varying stages of metamorphisis. How educational is that!! I kind of thought it gross that they found one with all 4 legs and still had a tail. That little guy is about ready to be a frog!

Melanie

I finally got the kids up to the local library today to sign up for the summer reading program. They are doing a program called "Get a clue" and they got a bag with a bookmark, some stickers, and paperwork to do to earn prizes. For each hour they read they earn a token from the library to buy prizes. For the youger ones they get tokens for having books read to them. We have always been involved in our library's summer reading program. They offer fun activities once a week, and are so encouraging to the kids to read. My boys read a lot anyhow, and this is just a little reward for their hard work.

Since we got home from the library I haven't seen any of them, they are all off reading!! Even the 8 year old who struggles with reading is much more motivated when there are tokens and prizes at the end. He sat here and read me a whole Curious George book and I was just amazed! Every 15 minute intervals they get to put a checkmark on their sheet.

I know Barnes and Nobles offers free books (from their chosen selection) to kids who read 8 books and record their likes about it. I imagine some of the other big chains do the same thing. So as they read for library points, we write the books down on the Barnes and Noble list as well.

DS12 just finished the first Redwall book, and we are waiting for the 2nd to come from paperback swap. He really enjoyed it and I hope he continues. That is such a big book with small print, can be pretty daunting to any child!! But he took on the challenge and loved it!

Stay tuned for Good books we discover over the summer!!

Melanie

(I saw this come through one of my lists and thought it was really cute so wanted to share)

IF YOU GIVE A HOMESCHOOLING MOM A COOKIE

If you give a Homeschooling Mom a cookie, she'll want the recipe.
She will plan a complete unit study on the History of Cookies.
The family will take field trip to a farm and see where we get eggs, milk
and grain.
At home they will make butter out of milk.
The children will want to start grinding their own grain.
Mom will purchase a Bosch Universal Kitchen System.
She will remember she will need a new list of cookbooks.
So, she will order "An Introduction To Whole Grain Baking w/ CD",
"Desserts", "The Cooking With Children CD", and "Lunches & Snacks Cookbook"
by Sue Gregg, also "Whole Foods for Kids to Cook".
Mom orders a 100 lb bag of wheat berries.
Now she will grind her own wheat grain into flour.
The children remember the farm field trip and knowing they can't possibly
get a cow so they beg for a few chickens.
So, to a trip to the library to research how to build a chicken coop and to
how to care for chickens.
On the way out the door Mom sees the book, "Chicken Tractor" by Andy Lee &
Pat Foreman.
They stop by the Feed and Seed to pick up materials and ask where to
purchase the chicks.
There the clerk tells them about egg that can be incubated.
He sells them a book on hatching eggs, eggs, and incubator.
At home Mom and the younger children set up the incubator while Dad and the
older children build the chicken tractor.
Back to the library to pick up gardening books and more books on chickens.
The oldest daughter now starts a business grinding flour for the her
friend's families.
While her younger sisters are selling homemade cookies to their neighbors.
The boys have started building a new chicken tractor because they want more
eggs for breakfast.
That cookie that started this all, the homeschooling mom's three year old
ate it.

Today we begin Ancient Greece!

Any websites, good books, stories, recipes.... I will take them.

I need to figure out how to make gyro's, though there is a restraunt in town that does I think.

Exciting day going back in time. Will let you know our resources in case you want to stash them for later. We start on Aesop's fables today as he was during the time of the Ancient Greeks. I think this will work out great with my little guys too. I can read picture books of the fables for them, and they can have coloring pages. The olders can talk to me about the morals and how they apply to them. I think fables will be a great study for my age span.

Blessings

Melanie

I am tireing of the playstation, gameboy, computer games that have invaded our home this winter. And granted this spring hasn't been too warm and friendly. But... it is spring and I am putting a stop to the technology for at least a week.

The attitudes of my 8 and 10 year old are getting disrespectful, and lazy. So we shall hope this helps with some family unity. They don't play with the 5 year old when they are like this either. So more outside things, doing some more cleaning up and chores, get our basement organized, spend more time with the animals, move into planting the garden soon. Lots of things to keep up busy on the farm this time of year.

I too will try to limit my computer time. Only time to check emails and update my blog. We are going to begin Ancient Greece this coming week, as we are wrapping up Ancient Egypt. So that will be a fun thing to learn about. Something again that I don't really remember much about as a kid. Somehow I just don't think my teacher made it very interesting to a kid who didn't like history! So we will read some 'living books' , watch some videos, see what Greece is like today. It should be a really fun time.

Melanie

Our message for Easter was really great at church. And I am taking it to heart and trying to get us back on track. To realize the goals I had originally for the kids when we started homeschooling them. That their morals stay intact, that they develop godly character, and that they learn to love the Lord with all of their hearts.

So our schedule today looked like this....

6:30 Mom got up, had a cup of coffee and got the equipment ready for milking.

7:00 Got T-10 up and we went out to milk the goats and feed the baby goats while D-12 babysat S-2.

8:00 We all got dressed and had breakfast while we listened to praise and worship music

8:30 We had devotion time and prayer

9-11:30 we had our basic school work, math, english, handwriting

11:30 The boys went out to do outside animal chores, cow, chickens, ducks, rabbits, cats and dogs while I worked on getting lunch together and switching laundry

12:00 We had lunch, egg salad sandwiches

12:30 we went outside and mucked out the goat house, and raked up some thorn branches around the trees inside of the soon to be goat fence.

1:30 I gave S-2 a nap while the older 2 had quiet reading time, M-8 played legos and C-5 did playdoh for 45 mins

2:30 The kids were given free time. I did a few chores then took some time for myself on the computer and looking up quilting patterns

4:30 Free time was over and we did a few more chores to get ready for Dad coming home.

Now tonight was not a normal evening as we ate real quick and DH was out plowing the fields so we didn't all eat together. We milked the goats and fed babies at 7pm.  I borrowed a pasteurizer so seeing how that is going. The older 3 boys are out with Dad as he is disking the field.
I have the 2 littles in here trying to clean up and wrap up our evening.

Blessings

Melanie

Has anyone found the key to balancing farm life, homeschooling and housekeeping?

I am not an organized person, nor am I consistent. That is sure making it hard to get the balance right around here. I feel so behind with school. We don't use a lot of workbooks but the ones we do are behind. The thoughts I originally had for the year with science, history and art are all seriously behind.

The animals are cared for, the house is a mess and we are behind on school. Not sure how to get organized, how to find a rhythm for us to get into to be successful. I would love to hear how you organize your day. We are moving into spring where we will have planting and weeding on top of the already long list of chores to do. Just that overwhelmed feeling and I wanting to do something productive to work on it.

It is difficult to homeschool 4 kids on different levels and tend to a toddler girl who is my siamese twin. We do history and science together when we get to it, and the math and phonics/english have to be done separately with the difference in grades.

Just curious as to how this is suppossed to be the 'simple life' when it seems so complex.....

Blessings

Melanie