Kudzu Korner

I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. ~Phil 4:10-14

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Color poems by the kids

Posted in Kudzu Academy
In school this week, the kids had to compose a non-rhyming poem based on a color. There was an example for them to follow and these were the instructions:

Describe a color through your senses. First choose 3 things that are that color. Then add a line that links the color to a taste. Add a smell. Add a touch. Add a visual. Add a closing statement.

These are their poems. Can you guess which one was Christopher's and which one was Erin's?

Blue is a Blue Jay.
Blue is the sky.
Blue is a color in the rainbow.
Blue is cotton candy.
Blue smells like blueberry muffins.
Blue feels like water.
Blue looks like my eyes.
Blue makes me feel happy.

Purple is grapes.
Purple is lilacs.
Purple is a baby bonnet.
Purple is jelly beans.
Purple smells like icing.
Purple feels like flowers.
Purple looks like jelly.
Purple makes me smile.

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Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming

Posted in Kudzu Academy
Wow! Week 2 of school and we're still going great. The kids are having fun. I'm having fun. We're doing a lot and getting a lot done, which totally surprises me. I'm loving my schedule, even if we don't get it all done in a day. I LOVE that it's manageable at this point and we're having fun with it. Christopher was struggling with his subtraction families, but I found some neat worksheets and puzzles and he flew through them like crazy today and even asked for more!

Erin loves being a big girl and getting her books out when her brother does. At this point she still spends a good deal of the day coloring and doodling, but she's being good and she is learning!

We tried something new with their L/A arts today and they were on opposite sides of the art easle trying to copy what the other one was doing. They were just writing their words, but it was SOOO funny watching them. We might have to keep trying that idea once in a while.

Funny for the day: I read the "Goose that laid the golden eggs" to the kids this morning and the moral of the story was "don't be too greedy" but I was supposed to let them try and figure it out for themselves. (For those of you that don't know, in the story the farmer was rich enough, but wanted more eggs. He decided to not wait for a new egg every day and just kill the goose, cut it open and get all the eggs at once.) When I asked Christopher what the moral of the story was he said:

"If something is giving you something you like, don't kill it and cut it open just to get more. Once it's dead the good stuff is gone."

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Tuesday, September 4, 2007

First day of school!

Posted in Kudzu Academy
Wow! I must admit that I'm rather impressed with how well our first day of school went! There were only a few shed tears (drat that Math...) and the schedule needs tweaked but it worked WONDERFULLY! Is it possible I might actually be able to have a schedule and enjoy it?? Who would have thought that!?!

I told the kids I'd post a few pictures from their first day, so here goes...

Christopher - First Grade

Erin - PreK / K Erin

(Showing off her letter "A")
Erin

Sean - He's just in it for the fun...
Sean

Big brother reading "Hop on Pop" to Sean and Erin.
Reading

We covered a lot and were able to keep up without too much in the way of interruptions from Sean. Last year he was a lot less content, but today was nice. Guess we'll see how it continues from here!

I hope all of our other homeschool families are having a smooth ride too!!
Michele

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Thursday, March 8, 2007

The Light at Tern Rock

Posted in Kudzu Academy
We have been plugging our way through this book for what seems like forever. Christopher doesn't like it that much and honestly, I can't say I do either. I am pushing to finish it up so we can start something else on Monday. We've taken a break from Sonlight's "I can read it" books and are doing Dick & Jane for now. It's doing a lot to ease up on Christopher's frustration level and to build some confidence with his school work. The boy still amazes me at math and what he's able to comprehend. He's a giant math sponge!

Erin's doing great with her schooling as well. We aren't officially starting her until we get the new language arts material and her math ordered after Easter, but I can't wait. I'll have 2 kindergarteners!
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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Catching Up

Posted in Kudzu Academy
We spent most of today catching up. Last week the kids were sick and we took a small break from the major seat work and just did some reading. Today Christopher and I spent a couple hours catching up on Language Arts and Math. Today was his first math test too. (We're using Horizons grade 1 math.) Funny, I was nervous seeing the word "test" at the top of the page and he just breezed through it!! Out of 17 possible points, he got all 17! I gave him a big sticker to put at the top of his page and he was smiling from ear to ear!

The developmental activity for this week is cutting strips of paper to see how straight he can cut them. I'm holding off until tomorrow when we're all caught back up, but he's going to LOVE this one!

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Friday, September 8, 2006

First Week Recap

Posted in Kudzu Academy

We survived our first week! LOL It wasn't even that hard academically but the kids have had me on a real ride! We didn't do much on Wed & Thurs because of MOPS this week. Hopefully the meetings from here on out will not be as hectic and heavily involved for me (I'm the finance team...yup, just me LOL).

The week started out with Erin boycotting that Christopher was old enough to start school and she wasn't. I have some things that I want to do with her, but I really wanted to settle into a routine with Christopher first. I know he will be the hardest one to keep on task and keep focused and since he's the one who actually has to go through the testing process I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. I'm in no rush, but as far as official school goes, he's the focus.

The week ended with Christopher having some pretty serious meltdowns. The last few days he's been crying and overreacting to everything. My nerves were a little shot today, but we made it through and everything seemed to be going fairly well. He loves math. One lesson each day is not enough for him and I have to tell him that we're stopping. I know that may eventually change but I love seeing him get so excited! I also gave him his first spelling test today. Yeah, it wasn't hard at all, but I want him to see what he should have been learning this week. He only missed one and he knew it and immediately begged to correct it when he realized he didn't get "the best score" on it.

Our biggest focus right now is handwriting. He's doing well in some aspects and in others he just wants to goof off. We only spend about 15-20 minutes a day doing paper writing and then he can use his doodle pad as much as he wants the rest of the time. I'm trying to convince him that neatness matters, but at this point we're just taking it at his pace.

Otherwise, all seemed to go well. I want to spend some time getting ready for next week tomorrow and Sunday so I'm not doing it all at the last minute and maybe get some coloring pages for Erin to work on too.

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Tuesday, September 5, 2006

First Day

Posted in Kudzu Academy
Today was our first day of school and it went great! We kept it simple and broke it up a bit to help everyone adjust to the new schedule. We did some handwriting, math, and since daddy was home he helped with science experiments!! Christopher was really excited about everything being official and Erin was really excited for him and helped out with the experiments as well. I know this is a busy time of year for homeschooling families as we transition into the new year and we're continuing to pray for peace and happiness in your homeschooling adventures!

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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Planning Stages

Posted in Kudzu Academy
Well, summer is almost over. We ended up holding off on 'official' school so Christopher could get his doctor appointments out of the way. His hand seems to be completely healed from his surgery and we seem to finally have a handle on his chronic constipation. Now, it's time for school.

We let Christopher pick when his first day of school will be and he chose September 4th! I told him that was a holiday, but he wants to do it that day because daddy will be home to get us off to a great start! I think I'm over all my initial nervousness and I'm ready to go!

I hope everyone else is ready to go! Blessed wishes for a wonderful year of school!!!
~Michele
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Tuesday, June 27, 2006

On and on and on and on...

Posted in Kudzu Academy
Wow! I never expected to have so many conversations with people about why we are homeschooling. I knew my family wouldn't be wild about it. They're semi-quietly keeping civil about it at least. Other people however are just rude. Now that Christopher is 5 everyone is asking if he's enrolled for Kindergarten yet. Normally before I can even answer he'll say "actually we're homeschooling." Then I get this look like I just grew three additional heads. Again, I KNEW it wasn't going to be the most popular decision in the world. I guess I just never thought that people who don't even KNOW us would care.

I guess I just don't get it. I feel like I need a prerecorded message attached to me that says "press here if you want to know why we homeschool." I think the biggest thing that gets me about it is the fact that everyone seems to think it's okay for now, but once he gets to a grade 'where he'll actually be learning something' then I HAVE to send him off to school.

I am so grateful for the online communities and the homeschooling friends we have through church that are so supportive! It makes such a difference!

We are doing great with the CoreK that we're using from Sonlight. We're definitely going slow, but I love it. I don't feel pressured to get things done. Christopher is doing amazing with his reading and his excitement level. He wants to be able to do everything now though and I'm trying to keep him focused. We did great yesterday and he just didn't seem into it today so we stopped for a while. Instead of working on the handwriting we just did some reading together. He loves reading and math so much!! I do expect that his ability level on the handwriting will improve after his surgery on Thursday to fix his trigger thumb. While he MOSTLY uses his right hand to write, there is a part of him that wants to use the left and the trigger thumb causes problems with that. The doctor did indicate that if he continues to have problems with the right hand, they might want to fix the trigger on that hand as well, even though it isn't as bad as the right. Either way, I have no doubt he'll start writing better with practice.

Just like the Energizer bunny...we go on and on and on...
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Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Bumpy Start

Posted in Kudzu Academy
Well, we're off to a rough start with homeschooling. We did great for the first few days and then BAM hit the wall. Christopher is doing great and I was doing great. I'm just having a difficult time keeping the other two occupied during 'school time.' No matter how much time I set aside for them and prepare them, they seem to want ME (and only me) at the exact moment that I start working with Christopher. We're progressing, which is good, we're just taking things much much slower than I expected. The good thing is though, it's okay!

That's one of the awesome things about homeschooling! We can go at our own pace and we can take a break and deal with character issues as we need to. PLUS, Christopher is still only 5 years old. He doesn't have to know everything now, does he?

We went on vacation at the end of May to the beach. While we were there we visited an AWESOME aquarium. If anyone is ever going to Myrtle Beach, SC I can recommend a great place to stay and you have to see Ripley's Aquarium. The kids still talk about it every day and since we've been back we've looked up all sorts of cool things about sharks and sting rays and horseshoe crabs! They want to know so much more!

I love homeschooling!!!!
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About Me

I am a mom to five wonderful blessings--Christopher (7), Erin (5), Sean (3), ^Joshua Michael^ stillborn (11/18/06) and Kelsie (6 months). I have been married 12 years to the love of my life who is also the most amazing man on earth!