100th Day of School!

It's always such a happy day when we reach our 100th day of school. It's has become a tradition to do something special that day, and we continued that tradition this year. First, the kids did a writing  exercise. The kids got to choose from two story starters.

 #1: If you had $100 dollars, what would you buy and why.

#2: If you were 100 years old, write a story about your life at that age.

 Each of the kids wrote their story then shared it with the class. Julia was so cute with her illustration and the story she "wrote". I even got video of some of them sharing.....so sweet.

 Next we got out the mini-marshmallows and toothpicks to prepare for the next activity.

First everyone made piles of ten till they reached 100.

 Then I gave them the freedom to start creating whatever they wanted.

 Zach is playing it cool while he is building his masterpiece.

 Caleb was making some kind of structure with interesting angles.

 Lance is an engineer at heart, he loves constructing things.

 There you have it, a peek into our morning of fun with 100. It always feels like a we are on the home stretch with the school year when we reach the 100th day. It always strikes me as crazy that we have completed over half of our school year at this point. This is my 7th year as a teacher to my children, and the 7th year we have celebrated 100 days of school. I can't tell you how unbelievably fast those years have flown by! This will be Lance's last year to celebrate the 100th day of school, since he's on to middle school!! I'm thinking he might be to cool to participate with us next year. Although homeschooling my children has been a major sacrifice on every level, and their have been several occasions where tears have flowed, I wouldn't change our decision even for a second. When I ask my kids they say the same thing. I totally understand that homeschooling is not for every family, but it sure has been a gift to our family.

Making A Settlement

Since the beginning of school we have been reading Diary of an Early American Boy. This book inspired the kids to build their own "settlement".  Last week while I was canning apple stuff the kids spent ALL AFTERNOON in the woods. They completely knocked my socks off! No fighting, and no crying occurred for three afternoons in a row!! If that wasn't miraculous enough in and of itself they made a totally impressive settlement to boot! Want a little tour?

 This is the beginning of Lance and Caleb "home".

 Here it is completed with limbs for camo and extra insulation and a tarp door.

 The proud engineers.

 This is Zach and Julia's "home". Horrible shot but I think you can see it's clearly a masterpiece in the making.

 Adorable House Contractors

 No settlement would be complete without a community fire pit!

 Here is their amazingly cool teeter totter in action! Mama was totally impressed by this element of the settlement.

 Unfortunately the teeter totter was  broken shortly after it's riders dismounted, and then was made into a chair with Lance's superior saw skills.

 No settlement is complete without an adorable watch dog. He must have really worn himself out watching everyone work........

 Making a settlement can really make a crowd hungry...so we used that great fire pit for lunch!

After lunch, Caleb showed us his tree climbing skills. He does this to make his mother nervous, yet proud of him all at the same time!

I would recommend reading this great book written from the perspective of a fifteen year old boy. Plus it's interlaced with history of how things were done, how bridges were build over creeks, fields planted for crops, and everything else you might want to know about making a settlement from scratch.

Field Trip...

We made our own little field trip day last week and headed north. (Even though were done with school around here...an excuse for a field trip is still okay, right?) Our first stop was a wholesale produce auction. We had never been to this type of auction before and it was interesting to all of us how it worked. When you see the word "wholesale" in this case think "bulk sale"!! Everything was sold in large quantities. Like if you wanted to buy some beautiful hanging baskets...you bought 6, 12, or 20 of them at a time! I went armed with a list for myself, my mother-in-law and my mom. I'm not sure where all the growers were from but I think most of them are local...which in my book in another plus and makes me feel good about supporting the local economy.

 This is a snap shot of some of the goodies we came home with...Here are the prices in case your interested:

16 lbs of fresh rhubarb $1per pound, Hanging baskets (6) $6 each, 4 flats of petunias $8 each

2 flats of tomatoes (Celebrity, Better Boy) $9 each, 5 flats of Yellow Marigolds $6.50 each!

 I also brought home 10 rhubarb plants, 3 for my dad and then I sold the others because I already have a nice collection of 12 plants.

We had a really good time and I figured up what I spent on the things I kept then added what I would have spent elsewhere and I saved almost half..when you subtract my gas I still saved 40-45%. I saved some money, combined it with some other stops on the way home and it was great fun!

While we were out and about we also made a stop at a quilt shop to pick up some fabric so I can get sewing some new curtains for the dinning room....Not sure when I'll make time for that, but I need to very soon! Then after that we stopped at the home of Gene Stratton-Porter to tour the gardens. We had visited the grounds last fall but everything was done blooming. I think it will be just gorgeous in another couple weeks when even more things are in bloom, but we got to enjoy a nice walk on the trails and some blooms as well. If your local, you really should make a trip to visit the beautiful grounds, it's free to roam the grounds, it only cost money to tour the house. Here are some pictures of our visit.

 I love the simple rock path that leads to the this amazing arbor which is full of wisteria, but it wasn't blooming yet.

 Ahhhhhh, I love these little "snowball" trees!

 The poppies were showing their bright colors, I even spied a honey bee hard at work!

 Iris...Can you ever really have to many of these pretty girls around?

 It was a gorgeous day on the lake...we spied a pair of swans swimming off in the distance as well.

 

 Enjoying a stroll along the many paths!

 

 

 

A shot of part of the gardens, I think there are over 30 separate beds throughout the garden area.

Shade garden area.

 Then just past the shade area, is this sweet little pond with fish.

 

 

 

What a fun day!

2012-2013 School Curriculum has ARRIVED!

I know! I know! We've barely finished our school year and already I'm excited to get our new school curriculum! I can't help it...we are all excited! We are switching a few things, and I thought I would share with you what we are doing just in case your searching for something new to try. 

I am switching to Sonlight this year for the oldest two boys for Language Arts, History, & Science. 

I am very excited to be teaching the same thing to both older boys!

We are starting the Rosetta Stone Latin American Spanish! (purchased through Sonlight) I am excited because each child will have their own setting and can work as slowly or as quickly as they need. It keeps track of each child's progress for me as well.

 We have been using Teaching Textbooks (I purchases this also through Sonlight this year) for Math for 2 years now, and would NEVER consider changing!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT (and so do my kiddos)! Teaching Textbooks is now available starting in 3rd grade (which Caleb used this past year).

It teaches, grades, and keeps track of each child's work. So you buy it once and can use it for all the kids!! It's really great, I can't say enough good things about it!

 I chose a Science Curriculum that will focus on Electricity, Magnetism, and Astronomy. My two oldest will enjoy each of these topics!

To make our summer even more exciting the two oldest are attending church camp for a whole week, and then Camp Inventions! It's a one week camp 9-330p that focuses on Science, Inventions, and critical thinking skills! It's being offered locally. It's normally a $215 camp...being offered for only $50 because of a local grant from the county!!! 

We are using Grammar 5 in addition to our Lang. Arts, plus Sequential Spelling, and Wordly Wise 3000 for vocabulary development! (all available through Sonlight.) We also already registered for the Pizza Hut Book It Program! Lots of fun ahead, but first I think we are going to enjoy a nice little summer break! Happy No Schedule, Playing in the Sun, Working in Garden, Mama might even quilt some more again.......to you too!

Kid Survey

The other day I saw a cute idea on Pinterest for Mother's Day. It was a little survey that asked the kids things about their mommy. I took that idea and then expanded on it. Some of these questions I knew the answers,  but others I just wanted to see what their thoughts were.

                     The total survey was 4 pages front and back.

 At supper that night I read everyone's answers so we could learn something new about everyone.

It  was a really fun exercise, I would highly recommend it. We got to practice handwriting, spelling, language, and critical thinking all in one exercise.

DeBrand Chocolate Field Trip

We had the opportunity to go on a rather tasty field trip to Debrand Chocolates...YUM!

We were greeted by this HUGE chocolate egg that was on display (we went right before Easter).

 At the beginning of the field trip we watched a brief video, and got to answer a few trivia questions about chocolate...and win some prizes!

 No pictures were allowed to be taken while in the back on the tour...plus we may have been to busy eating all the yummy samples to snap pictures anyway. We did get to see the process of making the different kings of things that DeBrand's sells.

 Caramel Truffles.....

 One of our family favorites!

 I have to tell you about the little deal I was able to work...it was really FUN! We purchases all this chocolate for $.39!!!

 Our family had a $50 gift card to use up while we were here, thanks to Hubby doing a benefit auction last month. The field trip was $5 per person (5 of us went). So I used my first $25 GC to pay for taking the tour. When we paid for the tour each person got $5 off any $10 purchase. So we bought $50.39 worth of chocolate, then used our $25 off coupon we got, then our other $25 GC and our total was .39!

 This was such a major treat for the kids, and they were really thrilled to get to pick out whatever (within the budget) they wanted. We all went home happy campers, even Hubby got some loot!