Fun with Friends

Homemade Deodorant

Here's the Recipe for smell-free pits.

5-6 tablespoons coconut oil

1/4 cup baking soda

1/4 cup cornstarch

Mix and store in a plastic container. Apply by rubbing in with fingers.

This is not an anti-perspirant. BUT you really should sweat to release toxins from your body.

Washing the Car

Aren't kids great?

Working Windmills

The windmills the kids made actually lift up a paperclip. I don't think you can see it in the pictures. This experiment is from Sonlight Science 2.

Future All-Star?

Mayborn Children's Museum

Leonardo da Vinci at the Mayborn Children's Museum

Congrats to my successful husband!

Honey, congratulations on making it through the last 18 months.

The long and stressful application process. The physically demanding academy. The sometimes monotonous probabtion period.

It was a priveledge to see you grow and change into the man you are today. You have worked so hard to make your dream come true.

Today, you are an Austin firefighter.

Wow. You rock!

Blog Hop week 2: School Room

Here's a wide view of our room.

The cabinet and shelves on the left hold all of our liberal arts materials: history, geography, language arts, foreign language, art, and music. The cabinet and shelves on the right hold our math and science materials. The small bookshelf in the middle holds our cd player, readers, the waiting Sonlight Core 3, and Landmark history books.

This hallway wall leading to the kitchen displays artwork. The white bookshelf holds our children's readers, mostly chapter books.

Our lovely IKEA bookshelf has everything else. LOL. Let's see the top rows have mommy stuff, IGs, Bibles, and other reading materials. The next row has Core 2 books, puzzles, Bible and character materials, and diapers. The third row has 1 cubby for each child with the last cubby holding paper and art materials. The fourth row hold Sonlight Cores 1, K, PK 4/5, and PK 3/4 with paper in the last cubby. And the bottom row holds all the kids history, science, and math books that aren't part of any curriculum. Just stuff I've picked up here and there.

We do most of our work at this table. The cabinet in the corner holds mostly craft supplies. Our sewing stuff is on the top.

Summer Peaches

Screaming Two Year Old

Lest anyone think from my blog posts that we're living in perfect harmony over here.....

My 2 year old has screamed for over an hour this morning. He cried for 22 minutes because I wouldn't let him take his cereal upstairs so he could watch Super Why.

I am ready to lock myself in my bedroom and read until Justin gets home.

Isn't he cute? This was after he acquired a piece of cheese. See how deceiving pictures can be?

Eating My Words

Does anyone remember these words I wrote mere days ago?

Singapore Math is our math of choice for the third year running!! Imagine that! I know I'm not the only one to do the math shuffle! I am happy to say that we're feeling rather settled in math. My oldest will be usingEverything's Coming Up Fractionsand/or Key to Fractions to help her understand, you guessed it, fractions!

Well, guess what? I am changing math curriculums! I know, I am an idiot. Actually I won't really be changing so much as going back to what we used before. Math-U-See (MUS). And we'll probably return to Singapore next year. I like both programs so much, and sometimes one program makes more sense for our family to use at certain times.

So for those of you who are curious...Lacy will do MUS Delta, and Jordan will do MUS Gamma. They will still work on their Challenging Word Problems boooks from Singapore Math. They have discontinued this series, and I highly recommend you get your hands on a set before they become impossible to find. They are great word problem books!

We'll likely still do the fraction books as well for Lacy.

Happy 8th Birthday Jordan!!!

Eight pancakes for breakfast! Yum! I can't believe he's 8. When we brought him home from the hospital, I thought he was so perfect. He slept in his little bassinet like a champ. He would sit and look at his baby gym for up to 45 minutes at a time so mommy could do other things. He slept at night in the swing because he didn't like the crib.

Now when I tuck him in bed, he gives me three kinds of kisses -- fish kisses, eskimo kisses, and butterfly kisses -- and one monster hug. He talks constantly, telling me all the funny stories he's read, heard, or seen. You have to tell him to do one thing at a time or he'll get sidetracked. He can play legos for hours. He loves to play tennis, shoot his bow and arrows, ride his bike, play basketball, and play video games.

He's active, smart, fun, and kind. I love him so much. Happy Birthday Jordan!

Plain Old Fashioned Coloring!!

I let the kids have markers today. The good Crayola, non-washable kind. I printed out some coloring pages from the computer. It's amazing how much my kids like to color. I like them to create their own pictures, but sometimes it's okay to just color.

The gang at work.

Here's Emma working on her first picture. She gets frustrated sometimes when she sees how well her older siblings can color, but for a 4 year old, she's amazing!

She's proud for the picture, but a minute later she crumpled it up because she messed up the girl's face.

Joanna's Pegasus

Ethan was not allowed to touch the non-washable markers. He's using block crayons and colored pencils.

Art 101

Artistic Pursuits K-3 is a great introduction to the arts. This week's lesson was called "Artists Communicate." The kids were required to use their whole bodies to show feelings and actions. We had so much fun acting things out! Then we did a little picture study, Charlotte Mason style. Finally we attempted to draw our own pictures, concentrating on communicating with our viewers through facial expressions and body positions.

Jordan has depicted a man digging and several faces with unpleasant expressions.

Joanna drew several faces showing tired, angry, and surprised. She also drew a boy falling off a bike and a girl crying with her hands.

Emma's made an angry face and a sad face, and then drew a full body picture of a happy person.

Lacy did several full body position sketches. Mowing, praying, falling off a bike, and I believe, vomiting, are illustrated for your viewing pleasure.

2009-2010 Curriculum Choices!!

The day will begin with Family Worship. We'll read a selection or sing a song using Hymns for a Kid's Heart. We'll read or recite a psalm. Then we'll all pray together.

Later in the day we'll use Sonlight's Core 3 Bible program to do a more systematic study. The older kids, ages 10 and 8, will keep a prayer journal and read the Bible on their own.

In the evening, I will read Egermeier's Bible Storybook to all.

American History will be studied this year, Sonlight-style! Look at all those books! We'll be marking events in our Book of Time and taking note of locations on our maps and globe.

We will be using Sonlight Core 3 for History, Literature, and Readers. My younger learners, ages 6 and 4, will be using Sonlight PreK 4/5.

Singapore Math is our math of choice for the third year running!! Imagine that! I know I'm not the only one to do the math shuffle! I am happy to say that we're feeling rather settled in math. My oldest will be using Everything's Coming Up Fractions and/or Key to Fractions to help her understand, you guessed it, fractions!

My 6 year old will also be using Miquon's Orange book along with her Singapore Math level 1A.

We're taking a whole new direction in science this year. God's Design for Life is our curriculum of choice, the Chemistry series. Ages 10, 8, and 6 will participate. We've always done Sonlight for science, so this should be a nice change of pace and focus.

Language Arts - nothing fancy here! The oldest two will both be using Sonlight Language Arts 3 (old version) with Sequential Spelling and Grammar Songs.

All three school age children will work in their own level of Handwriting Without Tears. Explode the Code books 1/2 and 5/6 will be completed by the 6 and 8 year olds. Hopefully...

Artistic Pursuits is our art curriculum of choice.We love the fun, simple lessons. I am hoping to get through two K-3 books this year. Or possibly get the next level for my oldest.

And finally, Spanish! We're going to try La Clase Divertida Level 1 for my ages 10, 8, 6, and 4. We've never studies Spanish beyond watching Dora the Explorer videos. so this should be interesting. I think the kids will love it!

The kids really want to study Latin, and I am itching to buy Latin for Children, but I think I may be overambitious thinking I can do it in addition to Spanish this year. We have Prima Latina, but we don't care too much for it.

So that's us this year. Now I MUST remember to revisit this thread next April and see if we're still on track!