Happy New Year Everyone!

Happy New Years to all of my blogger friends. Don't cha' feel like shouting, "Whew!!! We made it!!!"

We pray that the new year brings you much joy and prosperity. Have fun tonight and see you in the next.

A New Tradition Has Begun

Dollar store Christmas was so fun!!!! I am so amazed at the gifts that the little boys picked out for family members. They were right on target. We are known as a family that has less-than-popular-traditions in some areas (See "Our Thanksgiving") and this I think will be our newest. We had so many laughs that we are going to have a Christmas in July celebration just because. The rules were that each of the 8 members of the family bought a gift from the dollar store for the other 7. In school last week the kids made personalized Christmas cards with really funny couplets in them. Many gifts that were opened were greeted with the statement, "Oh wow, I wanted/needed one of these!" I got lots of lavender smelling lotions (lavender is my favorite) and lots of dental hygiene products, (as I kind of obsess about good tooth care.) My 7 year old got a bottled water and you would have thought he hit the jackpot! He carefully refrigerated it so it could be cold and ready.



Our little tree with many little gifts (some little gifts in really great big bags)

Tunneling Out

This is an old picture of our Rottweiler and the fun she would have after every big snow.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Peace,
:)De

Happy 1 Year to Blogging

I just realized that yesterday, December 22 was my 1 year anniversary for blogging. How about that. What a year of great fun and many bloggy friends.

:)De

This Christmas

I brought my son home in 1996 and for his first Christmas and we went WILD!!! He had so many gifts that we could hardly get into the living room on Christmas morning. He was my "first born" and the first grandchild, nephew, Godchild...you get the picture. Two years later, when I brought home a 2nd baby, we over-indulged again. His reign as the only child was ending.

About 5 years ago, we decided to not buy gifts for family exchange, but adopted an area family and bought gifts for them. That was such a blessing and the kids loved it. We had planned on that being our family tradition, but then I re-opened my home for foster care and that created this whole other situation. I had great foster care workers that were very diligent in getting gifts for the kids placed in my home. They also got gifts for my kids and not just a few trinkets... our cup over, overflowed. So much so, that we could not possibly open them all on Christmas. When kids left our home to go to new families, we were able to send huge boxes of new clothes and toys with them.

Last year, we were able to provide gifts again for an area family and the children are asking to do it this year as well. We are also doing something different for ourselves. We are doing, "dollar store Christmas." The 8 of us are buying gifts for the other 7 from the dollar store only. While the quality of the gifts may not be high, the value of the giving ranks way up there. As always, we sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and enjoy good food and family fun.

Merry Christmas to all who read this. We here at MHS wish you love, happiness and contentment.

Peace,
:)De

Snow Day!

5 Fingers

On Monday we started a unit in 1st grades History and Geography titled: "I Live In A Family." On one page, he was required to draw a picture of his family. Let me just say we have all come a long way from just a round head and 1 stick bodies. But today another first happened... people now have 5 fingers on each hand. LOL! And they are counted twice to be sure everyone has 5. I know...I know...fingers. But it is these developmental growths that just thrill my heart from this child that they said would not be able to learn.

Various numbers of fingers....


5 fingers on each hand!

The Elfin Rotties

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

5th grade has been studying cells. Today she looked at skin cells from her hand. To prepare her slides, she scraped cells from the palms of her hands, from her finger tips and from under her nails. We placed the specimens on slides with a drop of water and slide covers. These are drawings of what we saw:



Let's just say that when we saw what was under her fingernails that we all said a dramatic, "EEEWWWWW" and discussed again the importance of hand washing and not biting our fingernails.

Science...Weather Permitting

10th grade has a science project to look at pond water through the microscope. I knew about this project from the beginning of the school year, but I thought it was later in the school year. If you have seen the pictures from my post, Recess, then you know that getting pond water would be very difficult for us right now. LOL! Luckily, I have a relative that lives "down South." They have promised to send us some, but we shall see.

I told 10th grade that he can always tell his teacher that he tried to do his assignment, but it froze!

Recess

Preschool

My preschooler loves to come to school. In fact, I had only intended for him to do about 1 ½ hours, Monday through Thursday, but when I would tell him he was done, he would cry and beg to stay in “sule.” So while I do not like doing too many worksheets for the little guy, I have had to bump up his table work as he wants to be like the big kids.

This is our preschool program:

Brightly Beaming Steps to Reading Program

My 5th grader loves being the “teacher” for him. She studies her curriculum and finds books in our library that cover the weekly theme. I find other resources and coloring pages using: tlsbooks.com, Enchanted Learning, and BeginningReading.com. I am amazed to watch him learn and sometimes even more amazed watching her “teach”. He has a Spiderman table and chair set, a drawer for his school supplies and loves having a “sule” folder for his “wurhk”.

He uses stacking blocks, play dough (a favorite) math manipulative and lap books from Tot School. Recently he has enjoyed doing nature drawings, listening in on the Rosetta Stone Spanish curriculum and singing karaoke.

The Party Is Over!

We start back to school on Monday as many of you will also. The crew is not very excited about it...but such is life. I hope to post some of our nature pictures from our vacation.

Our Thanksgiving

My immediate family is pretty small... Mom, Dad, 1 younger brother and myself. All of my extended family live out of state and we just don't get together like we used to. About 6 years ago, I asked my then 10 year old what he wanted for thanksgiving dinner and he jokingly said, "grilled cheese sandwiches and french fries" our then favorite meal. We kinda looked at each other and thought, hmmmm. And so our family tradition began. Believe me, I have heard much criticism about it, but it's what we like and it is fun and the kids love it and so do I.

10th grade likes his sandwhiches on the dark side.



I like mine a bit lighter.



The stars of the show.


A carrot and cucumber ribbon salad.


Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was peaceful.

A Shock to the System

We left this...

for this...

all within 48 hours.

My daughter was so happy to have little girls to play with this year. Usually, there are only little boys and I won't even tell you her opinion on little boys. LOL!

Peace

The Ocean

It was very windy on this day, but I still love to sit and watch. Sorry for the wind noise on the camera.

Brrrrrr

We are back.

I was gonna leave it that, but it sounds kinda surely doesn't it. LOL. We are blessed and back safely.

Lobster, Grouper & Shrimp

On Thursday nights the families here have a tradition of getting together for dinner. We all know each other as we vacation together year after year, so it's like a big family with dishes to pass and then a big order of seafood from the local fishermen.

Tonight was an all out feast! And of course... I did not get to take pictures... But let me tell you what brings tears to my eyes. Watching my children, especially my 7 year old, who tells stories of having to eat out of the trash when he was younger, eat lobster with butter dripping down their arms and chins... God is so good!!!

Tomorrow is our last full day on the island and Saturday afternoon we head back to the States. Yes it's over, call it a day... LOL

Handstands & Hammocks

Night Swim

Wednesday

Tuesday

Monday School Skippers

Great day of sun and fun.

We Made It!!

We are in beautiful Nassau and it was quite a nice experience traveling with 4 children. They were very cooperative and excited. We were so tired as we drove 5 hours to my brother's house near the Kentucky/Covington Airport as it is cheaper to fly from a bigger city than our own and there is usually a straight flight to Nassau from Covington. Our flight left at 6:30 am and we arrived 11:57am. The children always wear their swimsuits under their clothes so as soon as we get out of the taxi, say our "Howdy's", they are in the pool or in the ocean.

Pics tomorrow... Must sleep!

Winding Down to Gear Up

When my children were in traditional schools, I would need to make request for the school work that would be missed during family vacations. Initially, this was not problem, but every year it seemed to get more difficult to get teachers to willingly provide the school work that would be missed. I don't miss having to do that.

We usually take our regular schoolwork with us during our 2-3 week vacation and have shortened school hours. (Side story: we use the S O S computer program for school and both children have laptops. I am an admitted web-head and so is my mother who travels with us. Imaging how *fun* it is to travel with 4 laptops as carry-ons! Having to pull them all out, while taking off your shoes and all of the other security measures!)

This year I have decided to try something different with note booking, nature journals and math. We also have a family tradition where we take several copies of a book that the whole family reads and discusses together... And we are an opinionated bunch! LOL! I believe that the kiddos will really enjoy doing nature journals as there are so many geckos, crabs and starfish that are caught daily, and our backpacks will be much lighter for traveling. A notebook, a pack of colored pencils and 1 novel. Aahhhh

3 days!

My Very Big Baby Boy...

My baby turned 16 years old today. He is so tall and his voice is so deep and he has come such a very long way from the day I brought him home. He can be very sweet and is an extremely hard worker around the house. He enjoys (still) legos, cars and all thing related to the armed forces. He wants to enlist as soon as possible and is aiming toward being a part of the secret service or an FBI agent. He is funny too! Very funny at times and sometimes...down .right.silly!

Happy Birthday, Kid!

Mom

The Homework Debate....I Mean Conversation.

It's not really a debate....just something we talk about on occasion. I do give homework. Mostly to encourage independent study, but also to teach the habit of management skills that will be needed when they attend college.

10th grade's thoughts on homework... so expressive. Ha Ha Ha. and the Unexpected gift.

Yippee!!!

My laptop is back and I did not lose any data!!!

10 days until Nassau!

Peace,
:)De

She's Gonna Live

My PC became very ill with a case of fragosus of ferreus coegi, which is Latin for "crash of the hard drive." Luckily, a transplant was found and a full recovery is expected. So tomorrow I will be more than a few dollars poorer, but my baby will be back.

AAHHHHH!

The Age of Music

My first grader came to us with very minimal preschool skills at the age of 5. He did not know his alphabet, how to count at all and no colors. We have worked hard with him over the past year to give him those basics.

When doing his schedule for first grade, I included a music class. I was so surprised to realize that this child did not know 1 preschool song... songs that we all sing to our babies. We started with Twinkle, Twinkle, I'm a Little Teapot, Jesus Loves Me and other just basic songs. He is so proud now to be able to sing songs to himself and for family members.

Here's how I show my age and make my kids tilt their heads with a "huh?" I was teaching 1st grade "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" and when it got to the part when "mama called the doctor" I made the motion of dialing a rotary phone on my hand. The olders asked what I was doing with my hand and I responded, "Dialing the phone." They said, "Wouldn't it be like this..." and proceeded to punch numbers on their hands.

I then had to explain rotary phones.....

My First Award

I received my very first blog award!! Thank you Mom #1 for thinking of me. Unfortunately... I am a doofus when it comes to this thing and cannot figure out how to get it on my blog. I would however like to pass it on to everyone on my blog list as these are the most informative and friendliest people I have ever "met" in blogland.

Peace,

:)De

AHA!!!

I figured it out. I guess I thought there was some special link or something...

Man Overboard...

My PC is ill and in the shop, so I don't have my attendance or grade book.

For the record:

Attendance:

10/20 10th, 5th, and 1st grade present. Pre-school: no school
10/21: all present
10/22: all present
10/23: all present (P.E. 1.5 hour)
10/24: all present
10/27: No pre-school, all else present
10/28: No pre-school, all else present

Grades:

October 21
Math Lifepac, 102 Self test 4: 90%
Bible Lifepac, 102 Self test 3: 100%
Bible Lifepac, 102 Final Test: 100%
Spelling, Contractions: 96% (5th grade)

October 22
Science Lifepac, 102 Final test: 100%

October 23
Math Lifepac, 102 Self test 5: 95%

October 24
Math Lifepac, 102 Final Test: 98%
Spelling, Unit 7: 100%
Science Lifepac, 103 Self Test 1: 100%

October 27
Bible Lifepac, 103 Self Test 1: 100%
History & Geography Lifepac, 103 Self Test 1: 100%

October 28
Language Arts Lifepac, 103 Self Test 1: 100%
History & Geography Lifepac, 103 Self Test 2: 92%

Free Schedule Friday

We had a pretty good week. While 5th grade shed a few tears during the reduction and simplifying of some stubborn fractions... once she "got it" the lesson flew by!
The young ones enjoyed some on-line time.

I think 10th grade had more than a peek at the "I don't wanna get on that kiddie site" LOL!

And now we are looking forward to a very quiet weekend. I have been doing some of the switching of summer clothes for winter clothes, but have been avoiding the all out switch.

I am mostly packed for our trip to Nassau and just need to pack the "food bag." (With food prices, it is cheaper to pack some of our staples)

23 Days to go!!

Peace,
:)De

6 Week Progress Reports

Six weeks have been completed and here are the progress reports:

First Grade

Fifth Grade

Tenth Grade

Congrats MHSer's !

Wow Ya'll!!

My first grader just asked Jesus to come into his heart today!!!

More later!


Yipee!!!

Art Class...

First grade created a park scene with things he likes to do at the park. (Notice the skate boarding boy doing a "flip" on the side of the scene? LOL)

Fifth grade made an owl from shapes.

Templates found at Edhelper.com

Pen Pals

For writing class this year, 5th grade has 4 pen pals. During the first full week of school she wrote 4 introduction letters to 4 different little girls whose parents are members of our homeschool group. The letters are checked for grammar, spelling and penmanship, corrected and mailed. She has had so much joy in receiving letters back that she does not even balk at having to do the handwriting piece! And I must say... 10, 11 and 12 year old little girls are a breed of their own. LOL. The letters they write are full of tales of ponies, ruffles and all things pink!

Spelling Pre-Test in the Sun

First grade took his spelling pre-test today... homeschool style!

In the Classroom....

We have just completed our 3rd week of school and things are GREAT! Everyone is pleased with their grades, 5th and 10th grade is ahead of schedule in their classwork and 1st grade is right where he should be in his Lifepacs (and so happy to be home this year.) We love going to the YMCA for gym class because there is absolutely no one else there. We have the whole basketball court, skating rink and skateboard park to ourselves.

Questions about why the kids are not in school during school hours:

We went to one of those stores where things can be purchased for $1 or less (Hee hee hee) to purchase some of our cleaning supplies and my 10th grader ran in to get the items. He has shopped at this store frequently. The cashier upon recognizing him said, "Why are you always in the store during school hours? Don't you go to school?" He reports that he said without missing a beat, "I am in school." (as he accepted his change and receipt) "This is math class!"

That's my boy! LOL

A New Visitor In the Classroom...

My 5th grader has just learned the phrase "Parachute Expert: My Dear Aunt Sally" in her math class. This sentence is used to teach the order of operations: parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. For some reason, she finds the sentence to be so entertaining and keeps talking about her "Dear Aunt Sally", but changing the first part to different phrases such as: poaching eggs, praising excitedly, paper eater... too funny! Dear Aunt Sally is welcome to stay right now as she is making math class fun! When learning is fun...the day is good!

Peace,
:)De

Another Confession...

I am a side-bar shopper. I love to shop along other homeschooler's side bars for informative links and articles. I am also a major web surfer and click from one link to another, opening pages in new windows so that I can get back to where I was. So if your site meter says I have been on your page for over an hour...don't worry... I am just shopping and clicking myself happy!

:)De

Will Read For Food!

We finally received our Book It Reading Incentive Program from Pizza Hut and the crew is excited. As mentioned before, they are highly motivated by pizza and so goals are being set faster than I can write them down. LOL!

Our literature component this year comes by using the literature list from EdHelper.com. Each student was given the list of suggested readings from their grade level and after returning from our local library on Thursdays, they are given a mixed review literature unit packet which include multiple choice questions, spelling review and essay questions for the book they have chosen.

So if you see some Rotties standing on the side of the road with signs that say "Will Read For Food!" have a heart... throw 'em a book.

Peace,
:)De

My First Day Of School

My first day of school was excellent! When I first picked all my classes, I was excited. My first class is Math. In math I have learned about fractions. The second class is Language Arts. In Language Arts I have learned about Jesus. The third class is Bible. In Bible I have learned about Noah, Jonah, Paul, and Mark. The fourth class is Science. In Science I have learned about animals and cells. My sixth class is History and Geography. I have learned about miles. My seventh hour is State History. In State History I have learned about trading. Eighth hour I do health, typing, Spanish or Pen Pal Writing. I wrote to 3 of my pen pals and already got a letter back from one of them. I love school.

Jordan

Please Keep Your Arms & Legs Inside the Ride!

We have started! What a fun morning so far. We are learning our new schedule and my first grader is becoming quite the task master at making sure we know what class period we are in at any given time. We have a new bell system as the students unanimously voted the old bells out. (The Bells Toll No More!) We are now using the Bell Commander system and it is much more accepted as there are choices for which bells to be heard.

Here are some first day pictures:
My beloved dollar store white board.
Googly eyed and ready to learn! LOL!
Serious scholars.

Peace!