Summertime

Fun in the sun, resting and relaxing, movies, good books, snow cones, rootbeer floats

Conclusion of the 2008-2009 School Year

What an adventure! I have so many words but yet I cannot put them together to express what this year has meant to me. Okay maybe one word from me :D PEACE I think Bryan summed it up quite nicely.

Our school year is almost done

In previous years I have not put much stock in standardized tests but this year the results have me smiling!

I received Bryan's Stanford scores yesterday and he did an outstanding job! His scores went way up from last year too!! He had 4 middle scores and 10 high scores. I'm so proud of him!!

We have about a week left to our school year. We have Math, English and Science to finish up this week. Then we are going to take a couple of weeks off and relax. This summer we're going to do some more Math and Latin. At least that is the plan haha :)

Overall I would give us an A+. It has been a very successful first year of homeschooling. I had no idea it would be this fun and rewarding. I'm glad to have an active part in Bryan's education. I'm so proud of much he is learning and retaining!

While I'm here, I'm going to recommend another WWII book: Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy. It is about a little girl that survives the Lodz Ghetto in Poland. Again I won't give the plot away so check it out from your local library or purchases it any bookstore.

The Cold War and Civil Rights

Here are a couple of book recommendations to learn about The Cold War and Civil Rights. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, just pick them up at your local library or if you are like me and have an insane need to purchase books, they are available at most local and internet bookstores.

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain (Caldecott Honor Book)
by Peter Sis



Through My Eyes
by Ruby Bridges

Do you have a plan?

Last night a group of us attended an emergency awareness/preparedness mini seminar. Mr. Charles Sturrock did an outstanding job and we appreciate him taking time out of his busy schedule to teach us about being prepared in severe weather and other emergencies.

I thought I would post the Emergency Supply List that he gave us--this is good info that everyone needs.

Food and Water
3-day supply of non-perishable food that needs no cooking
hand-operated can opener
plastic plates, cups, utensils
2 gallons of water per day for each person,
to last 3 days for drinking and sanitation

First Aid
First-aid kit
Backup prescriptions for essential medications
Doctors' phone numbers

Personal Hygiene
Hand sanitizer or disinfectant wipes
Toilet paper, paper towels, garbage bags
Dental care and vision products
Travel-size soaps and other personal items

Clean Air Items
Nose and mouth protection masks (N-95 rating)
Plastic sheeting, duct tape

Baby Items
Formula, bottles, powdered milk
Diapers, wipes, diaper rash ointment

Lighting
Flashlights for each member of the family with extra batteries
Fluorescent lanterns for each common area
Waterproof matches or a utility lighter

Communication
Portable, battery-operated radio
Land-line phone with long cord
Extra batteries for flashlights, lanterns, radio
Extra cell phone battery or car charger
Whistle

Family Safety Items
Smoke detector with battery for each floor
Carbon monoxide detector with battery backup
Fire extinguisher
Non-scented bleach for sanitization
Sunscreen, insect repellent
Shovel and basic tools

Transportation Items
State and regional road maps
Basic repair items (tools, tire patch kit, engine oil)
Games, books, puzzles

Pet Needs
3-day supply of non-perishable pet food and water
Pet medications and pet first-aid kit
Current photo in case you are separated
Cat litter and box
Pet bed, toys, carrier, leash

Identification
Drivers license, passports, Social Security cards

Documents
Insurance, financial statements, property, vehicle

Phone Numbers
Family
Friends
Neighbors

Are we done yet?

After 3 days of 'follow along as I read the directions to you...did everyone get answer A in sample C? Do you understand? Are there any questions?, You may begin' I can say we are DONE! And all the students shouted WOOHOO!!

I had a top notch group of 4th and 5th graders this week taking their standardized tests. We were all so happy to finish today. It has been a good week. Even though I might have 'complained' a few times about getting up and being somewhere so early I kind of enjoyed being back in the classroom this week. The students were great! We took plenty of breaks, played outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather we have been having.

Snacks were also provided...I'm still a little grossed out by the 1st grader that said "Here Mrs. G taste this." After 20 years (give or take a year off here and there) of working with children I should know to never taste anything a 6 year old gives me...that child had had that piece of chex mix in her mouth...hmmm...

Enemies, Hate, Distrust and Idiots--Friends, Love, Trust and Wisdom

Are all things that we have discussed this week. There's no getting around it--Bryan is still deeply affected by the past few years. Enemies are not people I do not agree with. Enemies are people who plot and plan my destruction at every turn. Hate is not something you do when someone disagrees with you. Hate is, not caring for someone. Who do I trust? Is it okay to distrust someone? Absolutely! Well I distrust Ms. so and so because she never listened when I told the truth. She always believed the liars. Ok, you've recognized a pattern and you know that even telling the truth doesn't matter to this person so you cannot trust them with it(truth). Idiots, yes, unfortunately they are out there...so watch out!

There is someone who may or may not be an enemy. Who can I trust? Have I really stopped caring about people...hate...it's such an easy word to throw around. Do we really mean we hate someone? Idiots...there's always one and a lot of times they seem to be in charge of something...How do we deal with them when they hurt us, our friends, mess w/our livelihoods and mess things up in general?

God is still in charge. Yes, we have a real enemy. His name is Satan (of if you are my friend Jan, his name is Satin) At some point you will be faced with a human enemy. They are probably being used by Satan. God will give you strength. Remember David and Goliath? Who won that one? What a friend we have in Jesus. He understands and knows us like no one else. God gives us discernment to know who to trust. Listen to God. It's okay that we don't like everybody but God wants us to show love and compassion. God forgives us so we need to forgive others. God loves idiots.



Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.

Put away perversity from your mouth;
keep corrupt talk far from your lips.

Let your eyes look straight ahead,
fix your gaze directly before you.

Make level paths for your feet
and take only ways that are firm.

Do not swerve to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil.

Proverbs 4:23-27

The past week

What have we been doing?

Let's see we celebrated Easter. I can never come up with the right words to describe how I feel about Easter. It either seems over the top or not quite enough. The older I get the more meaning it has for me. God sent His son to this earth to die for my sins. To die for my sins...It's a hard concept to wrap around my brain that Jesus loved me so much he would pay the ultimate price. I am going to get to enjoy eternal life--free of sins, hurts, illness--I get to live happily ever after!! For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life John 3:16

We did the traditional dying of Easter eggs. I know some folks get worked up about that but we don't. We enjoying dying the Easter eggs. I think this might be our last year though--Bryan is trying his best to grow up on us! I was thankful that he understands what Easter is all about. One of his eggs he wrote 'King of Kings'. I had a happy little parent moment when I saw that one:) Then the next one said 'Tough dudes wear pink'. That one made me crack up. I love seeing his sense of humor shining through more and more each day.

That evening we watched an amazing movie: Faith Like Potatoes
(http://www.christiancinema.com/catalog/article_info.php?articles_id=6109). I get emails from christiancinema.com with recommendations. This was on the week before and it sounded interesting. I think it touched all of us and challenged us to always have faith in God, no matter what the circumstances are. I won't give any details--you'll just have to see it for yourself. I wouldn't recommend it for the very young--10 and up should be able to handle it. There are a couple of very intense scenes.

As far as school goes we are moving right along. At this point I am almost certain we will still be doing some school through the month of June. I believe we will be doing year round homeschooling next year. A lot of veteran homeschoolers agree that this is the way to go and it helps the child retain the most information. I think it will work out nicely with our schedule. Year-round doesn't mean 24/7 365 days a year--at least not in my book ;)

In Math we have just finished up division of decimals. Tomorrow we will start multiplying and dividing fractions. In English, Bryan is working on a research project. He chose to research J.R.R. Tolkien. So far, he has learned how to pick out appropriate sources, take notes and work out an outline. He's doing really well with all the note taking. We finished Belles on Their Toes last night. I don't know I feel about finishing it--I wish it could have gone on forever. It was fun to sit back and peek into the lives of the Gilbreth family. Somedays I wish we had 12 children...most days I'm glad we don't. History has been very interesting as we have concluded our textbook study on WWII. I am however thinking of extending it just a little longer. There are so many aspects to cover and Bryan seems genuinely interested in learning more about the War and the people. We will begin reading Yellow Star next. It is about a little girl that survived the Polish Ghetto. There is also a movie coming on Sunday night that will tie in nicely with the book. I can't remember the name right now but it's about a lady that rescued people from the Polish Ghetto. Yesterday we talked about quite a bit about Oskar Schindler, Corrie Ten Boom and Anne Frank. We were looking at book that Anne and Margot Frank's school pictures in it. Bryan was looking through them and then asked, 'How come the pictures stop in 1942?' I know he has a hard time understanding how one day everything is fine and then all of a sudden you are completely stripped of everything you have ever had or known...The U.S. may be in a mess right now, but thank God we live where we are free! In Science we have moved on to habitats and the food chain. We talked about all the habitats that are just in our backyard--ants, wasps, rabbits, squirrels, the list was endless.

Next week we'll be up at the school doing the SATs. This was Bryan's favorite week when he was in school. He's already looking forward to it! I'm not--but only because I have to be up at the school by 8 everyday...

Enjoying the beautiful weather

Yesterday we 'took the day off' and went on a field trip with the school that I work for. One of the families at the school has a farm and invited everyone out for an egg hunt, hayride, lunch and an overall fun day.

It's always good to take a little break now and then and this time of year is the perfect time to step away from the books :) The wind was a little low but Bryan finally got his kite going. I think he enjoyed riding the horse and egg hunt the most, though.

Today we did homeschool 'lite' and then went out in the backyard and flew the kite again. The wind was perfect today! Bryan was able to keep the kite going for about 20 minutes.

Homeschooling and Springtime--does it get any better than this?? :D

Charlotte's Web

We ended our week by going to see Charlotte's Web presented by the A.D. Players in Houston. They did an outstanding job!

This story of friendship and dedication is timeless. No matter what your age, it speaks to all of us. Rory read this book to Bryan probably 5 or 6 years ago. I've read this book to several classes. The end is always the same--we cry but we come away with a better understanding of what true friendship is all about. I hope we all have a friend as loyal as Charlotte was to Wilbur.

"Why did you do all this for me?" he asked. "I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you." "You have been my friend," replied Charlotte. "That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die... By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heavens knows anyone's life can stand a little of that." Charlotte's Web by E.B. White 1952

When you take Monday off

for whatever reason it can sometimes make Tuesday a long day.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are our long days regardless of what else is going on during the week. But yesterday was so choppy we barely got a Math lesson in. Today we made up for lost time and finally finished about 3:45.

We finished our Math chapter. I am so proud of Bryan! He did so well on the chapter review as well as the cumulative review! WTG Bryan!! I think we have area, perimeter and volume down pat :)

English we continued with verbs. We've been studying past, present and future tenses. Today we got into some participles. English is a no-brainer for him and he just breezes through it. I feel very fortunate and blessed for that!

Spelling is spelling and was probably the most boring thing we did today, but we did it lol!

Bryan loves History! We are currently studying WWII. Today we talked about V-E Day, Storming the beaches of Normandy and the U.S. imprisoning citizens of Japanese descent. Sometimes it's hard to find the words to explain why things happened...I only hope that we learn from the past and not make those same mistakes again--that's why we learn History, right?

We have been studying biomes in Science. We were supposed to collect some pond water and look at it thru the microscope but the best we could get today was rain water that had accumulated in the basketball goal. It served our purpose :) We also looked at a premade pollen slide--ewww-no wonder we're always sneezing this time of year!

Even though it was a long day I feel we accomplished so much. I enjoy teaching Bryan and all of our discussions that sprout from some part of the lesson.

8 months of homeschooling

I never knew how much fun it could be. It was always my intention to home school Bryan but somehow I ended up going back to school, he started Kindergarten and then I started working at the school and things were going fairly well. We felt good about our decisions. After all, Bryan was going to a good private school--a family environment, good biblical principles, high academic standards, we received a discount on tuition for all of Rory's computer work, and it seemed to be an all around happy, jolly place. Well, that lasted about 3 years.

I knew God was urging me to home school again, but somehow we just could not justify going back to 1 salary. I don't know why we were thinking that. I had pretty much stayed home since we'd had Bryan and I was by no means pulling in a huge salary working at the school.

Fast forward 2 years later--God is tired of calling me to home school. He makes it more than apparent that homeschooling Bryan is what the entire family needs. I regret not doing it sooner, but I am thankful to be where we are now in this homeschooling journey. What a blessing it is to shape and create my child's education. The freedom, the joy of watching him learn and the feeling of stress leave our lives--God is amazing!!

God also has a sense of humor, I've been told...About a week after school started I get a call from another school in town asking if I would be their librarian. I had no intention of returning to work while trying to home school but God had other plans. God has been working things out in my life for almost 38 years so I don't know why I'm so surprised when He did it again! I work about 5 hours a week--very doable w/homeschooling and while I'm working Bryan gets to take elective classes--classes I worried about how we could do in the homeschooling environment.

We walked into an environment where Bryan easily made friends and gets to take Art, Computer, P.E. and Foreign Language(Spanish and German so far). I walked into an environment where the library was already set up, teachers are friendly and fair, teachers aren't afraid to teach or discipline for fear of 'offending' the 'rich' kids parents or parents serving in 'positions'. I walked into a work environment where I come in do my job and leave and there is no DRAMA! What a relief for all of us! I can't remember the last time the words 'stressed out' were used in our house in regards to school. God is AMAZING!

So I look back as our first year is coming to a close and I thank God for the opportunity to teach my son at home. And in a somewhat twisted way I thank my former employer and a few select folks out there with 'money' and 'position' for giving me the opportunity to home school. What a turn around from just one year ago. A year ago I was physically ill every single day, in the Dr's. office more days than I care to count, and probably looking at some weird medical procedure that stressed me out even more. A year ago Bryan cried every single day about school. A year ago Rory dreaded walking in the door. A year ago...what a difference. A simple, Yes, God I see your hand in this and yes, God I will obey and follow your lead and yes, God your will be done in my life--God is amazing!

Since homeschooling (and I admit even before) I have become a curricula addict. I love browsing catalogs and websites and figuring out which works best for Bryan. This year we have used mostly Bob Jones for 5th grade. It was been easy and Bryan has done very well with it. His favorite by far is History. He excels at English and shows a new confidence in Math that we haven't seen in about 3 years. Again, God is Amazing!

I've started ordering for next year and I can hardly stand waiting for the mail or UPS to stop by my house!

We're sticking with Bob Jones for English and History (http://www.bjupress.com/page/Home) . We'll be adding some Diana Waring (http://www.answersingenesis.org/PublicStore/catalog/History-Revealed,381.aspx) to our study of Ancient History as well.

I found a Language based Math program that looks very promising. It also teaches practical everyday life applications of Math. It's called Life of Fred (http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/index2.html) . It came in the mail today and Bryan has already read the first 2 chapters. I told him he has to hang on a little bit before we really get into it! It's nice to see him excited about a subject that once caused that ugly word--stress!

For Science we'll be doing Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry, Biology and Physics (http://gravitaspublications.com/) . If we don't run out of time we're going to throw a little Apologia Astronomy in there, too (http://www.apologia.com).

I started my own Reading curriculum around December. I mean, after all, I am a librarian and I need to put that English Lit. degree to some use, right? ;) This year we've read several books, but our favorites so far have been Cheaper by the Dozen and it's sequel Belles on Their Toes. The next book we plan to read is Yellow Star.

We've done a little bit of Latin and will probably finish it up this summer. It's called Latin's Not So Tough. (http://www.greeknstuff.com/latin.html). We will start Greek next year from the same company as the Latin program.

Spelling/Vocabulary is one of Bryan's strengths. We gave up on the 'textbook' awhile back and I've been pulling words off of National Spelling Bee lists, words from our readings, words out of the dictionary. Do you know what sybaritic means? lol I found out this week :)

I can't wait to see what's in store for next year. People say a year makes a lot of difference, and yes, it does! God is Amazing!