Video of the Barn Dance

Let's see if I actually got this right! I will add the right links to this post as I finish the uploads.

Weeks 15 & 16 of school

I have been TRYING not to combine weeks into one post but we have been so busy and there are a million and one things my unsocialized homeschoolers partake in, I just don't have the inclination to separate them. So in a nut shell this is what we have been focusing on these last couple weeks.

Night eyes~ Animals that are nocturnal including Owls and bats. Abby has learned a lot about each one of these species and also made a few "pocket" books for them.

Koala bears~ We started a pretty large unit study on Koala bears this last week. Abby has done several craft activities that she loves to show to others when they come to visit.

American Indians~ WOW! We decided to start the typical Thanksgiving themed stuff early since I wanted to do several activities and not feel like I had to rush through things.

Pilgrims and Puritans~ Once again I feel like this small part of history is greatly overlooked! We will continue our studies using "living" books wrote in the 18th & 19th Century, listen to several podcasts and audiobooks and complete some more unit studies.

The boys are struggling with their math and science now that things have gotten harder. We had to pull out a number of video's to help them understand what I simply cannot explain. They are doing a higher level of math than I ever did.

 

 

found this fun game at www.sunflowerschoolhouse.com

The fruit of the Spirit game.

 

I just HAD to get in on the paint chip Phonics too!

Naturalistic weaving like the American Indians did... Abby REALLY liked this project and requested to do it again but make a real basket.

We did a fun game to discover what her Native American name would be.

 

 

Our version of the Rain gods...

 

 

 

 

We really enjoyed making these rain sticks! Abby thinks that everyone should have one of these as instruments!

All finished!

Our parfletch  we created using native designs and then put secret messages in them for each other to open up.

By far we enjoyed alot of hands-on this week. Abby really learns so much better when we can do activities and for some strange reason it just sticks! Now, if I can just come up with several fun activities to finish out these next few weeks before the holidays!

After seeing Abby have all the fun... Hali decided to get in on the action and make her own rain stick! She doesn't want me to show the finished product however because its a gift!

Home School Barn Dance

I am quite tempted to upload some dancing these kids did the night of the barn dance. They were an ABSOLUTE riot! I believe all the kids had a fantastic time. Not only did we rent out Sibley's Orchard for the night, the kids also went on a hay rack ride and enjoyed a roaring bonfire! I know they kids had an excellent time and I do believe we had to kick them out at the end! "Just one more song!" Was heard over and over again.
I took  more video than I did pictures so I only have a few to share! If time grows on trees I will try to upload the others someday!

Musical chairs

A little refreshment before the hay rack ride

Nick and Chelsea on the hay ride

"Farmer's in the Dell"

Not a hair out of place!

I decided to go ahead and  upload those vidoes. I think they may be done by morning! Ha!

U 15 Soccer Tournament

Isn't this a beautiful group of young ladies? Hali was asked a couple of weeks ago if she would play Up with this group of girls for a tourney this last weekend. We talked to Hali about it because as most of  you know she is only 11 AND she really dislikes playing with all girls! She did a fantastic job at the tournament and did VERY well going up against some of these young ladies who are 4 years older than her!. Hali is pictured in the front row, just left of the Large trophy.

Congrats Hali for stepping out and pushing yourself beyond "comfortable" limits!

The shoot out!

We had tied the second game so we went into a 5 minute over time. We were STILL tied after that. So we had to do a shootout. This was the first time I have ever seen a game tie so many times!

This group of kids are the ones that Hali normally plays with. She is the tallest on her team! This was taken at our Team picnic where each of the kids got their metals of participation and we had great food, fellowship and a killer soccer game!

This is Abby and Her sweet friend Rozzia! the have been playing soccer together from the beginning!

And these little cuties just received their soccer awards! Abby was a bit "miffed" that she didn't get a share play metal this year since she has a slew of them that she has used as decorations on her window.

Our Pumpkin Carving Experience

Dearest Abby has never been allowed to carve a pumpkin. We have always painted our pumpkins. I refused to let her do Demons or spooky Halloween stuff. We came to a lovely compromise and began our 3 hour project.

First we pinned the template and wet it down. Then we took the exacto knives and carved the lines.

Then we cut the top off~

And scooped the insides out. THIS took her forever! Not the scooping part but the scraping part. I think she removed atleast 2 inches of the insides! Haha

Hali repeats the process with hers.

She thinks this is really great but gross.

After finishing the outline we dusted it with flour so the lines stand out better.

It's brains are all gone~

 Hali pops the top on hers.

Abby's completed pumpkin.

 

Hali and Brianna attacking the pumpkin (pretending to anyway!)

What is it with kids and bunny ears?

Hali's Completed "THE MAN ON THE MOON"

Abby's finished "PURR-FECT KITTY"

Slimy Experiments

We don't Celebrate Halloween, but that's no reason NOT to have some fun! We would  have normally had a fall festival today but we didn't plan ahead so... We're not complaining though. We sat down for a few hours and did some pretty cool experiments. I really thought the girls would enjoy them, so imagine my surprise when the boys had just as much fun!

I am going to be honest here. We tried the water bender experiment and we just didn't have enough static electricity to make it work!
We did however have a couple successful runs with Guck and Oobleck.

Oobleck is not a polymer. Instead, it is a colloid suspension, a substance in which the molecules do not settle. It is a solid and a liquid at the same time.

Here is the simple recipe. Make sure you use newspaper or paper plates to protect your surfaces.
1/2 box of cornstartch
3/4 C. Water
Food coloring
Mix well. This experiment was so SIMPLE yet one of the favorites!

 

 

Nobody believed her when she said it was hard....

From everyone else's angle the oobleck appeared to be a liquid...because it is. Until you pick it up. Then its not.

Here are a couple video's that we took

We then began our Guck experiment. It was quite messy but all of the kids put their own baggies in their own areas and I have seen them take out their Guck and play with it. I wonder what it is about these chemical toys that send mom's flocking to the stores at Christmas time to fill their little ones stocking with them?

If you didn't know, Gak!, Silly Putty, Floam, Smud and Guck are all made up of Polymerized chemicals. Polymers basically consist of long chains of molecules that are flexible and that cross-link every which way. When the right chemicals are mixed, the molecules from the chemicals cross link and create a polymerized liquid.

If you pull a polymer apart slowly, the molecules hold together and stretch. If you pull it apart quickly it snaps because the molecules can't hold together.

  

 

 

I love this face!

 

 

 

 

And now to our video

Week Fourteen Finished

This has been a very busy and long week in our little world. We are finishing up all of our fall sports and hopefully will be settling down into a home bound season after next week.

We finally finished our fire unit and followed it up with a trip to the station. I will show those in another post. We embarked on high school lapbooking this last week. Honestly they are turning out wonderfully and the boys are learning from them. I will share those when they are completely finished. Nick is doing the Civil War and Aaron is doing the Westward Expansion. Both really big lapbooks with tons of information.

Hali has been working on her di Vinci Lapbook. She is having to draw, color or learn technique in every unit and there are MANY units. Here she is drawing the Louvre where the Mona Lisa is kept.  She is using a post card I picked up while I was there for inspiration.

These are some other items she is using for inspiration. We dug through some of my old photos and pulled out a few of our Missions Team standing in front of the Louvre. All the kids that it was cool, so we spent an hour or so looking through all of my photos. They were amazed at the wealth in some of the palace's.

We don't really celebrate Halloween here. Since we have been doing a unit study on animal that have "night eyes" we decided to make our own spiders. They do most of their work at night and sleep during the day. Here are Abby's.

Isn't it so cute?

We are studying Bats, Owls and Koala's now for science.

 

Aaron is trying to figure out this simple craft.

And then Nick gets in on the action of making holes for the legs.

We had a coloring contest.

 

Can you guess who's was who's? Hint: Nick gave his to his girlfriend.

We HAD to  make some pumpkins since that is what we have been studying. Abby's is the top one and Hali's is the bottom. They used primary shapes to make their characteristics

I love having Abby make this big books. She had read this book a while ago and since the pc's were just laying around we decided to put them to use. We plan to give these to the little girl down the block who just started homeschooling.

 

The last of our fire unit.

"How my family prepares for winter" ... Abby's answers were "firewood, food, clothes and lanterns". Can you tell my children have had too many midwest ice storms?

A few Autumn worksheets.

Abby has fallen for this game. On Sunday of this last week I was downstairs for several hours preparing for the school week while the kids watched transformers with dad. Abby came down after the move and when she saw all the awesome new stuff in her workboxes she yells "Oh! How cool is all this stuff"... She sat down and did workbox's 1-6 while I finished lesson plans and organizing for the week! I LOVE IT WHEN THEY WANT TO LEARN ON THEIR OWN!

Lastly, these little characters were the highlight of our week. Abby just adores these and they have made learning to read much more fun!

I am trying to put Abby's words in these but I am still off on alignment.  Right now we are using the words that came with it.

That about rounds off the week for the new stuff that I took pictures of. Tomorrow we are going to be adding some pumpkin fun to our day and enjoying the apple crisp and apple crumble we made tonight!

Football Friday~ No McDonalds this time

Our last out of State football game was Friday night. We played against Waverly. The boys had alot of fun.

After the game, we all piled into the local Taco Bell. It took over 2 hours to get us all fed and out of there. The boy's sure didn't mind the slow service... A team of girl's college volleyball players showed up right before us.

Aaron all dressed up!

Ethan~ Who is Aaron's twin. He got his growth spurt this last summer and I was always yelling at him at practice because I thought he was my son!

Boys chowing down!

The Junior High boy's joined us for moral support.

 Coach Varney set with the grown ups for a while.

Here is Ethan again, this time without the hat.

 

JB, Nick and Robert

Aaron, JB and Shayne

These boys are downright silly.

This is my favorite picture of the season. These guys are such wonderful friends!

Junior Missions Retreat to Africa

Every year now for quite a few years one of my dear children have went on the Junior Missions Retreat to Africa. It has been a wonderful learning experience and because it is "simulated" there is really no danger to them.

Hali was the one to go this time. She learned a ton and came home exhausted.

I will post more pictures of the actual trip when I get them.

Nick and Aaron getting their instructions.

 Here come the kiddo's

The waiting room

Coming in to get their passports, boarding passes and a hard time.

I asked the kids to find their heartbeat and listen to themselves breathing during their physicals.

The stragglers after the trip. The girls didn't want to go home.

Hali and her "bestie" Molly

Our walk in the woods

I love Robert Frost's poem, "The road less traveled". Sometimes I feel like this is the road I am on.

Days and outings like this are such a blessing and a great time for reflection. I love who the Creator made me, I love who I have become thanks to His Mercy and  Grace. I am thankful for the fact that I can take my family and enjoy a romp in the woods.

The colors are just beginning to come alive

 

Aaron stole the camera and took a picture of mom.

 

It was raining and muddy.

 

Interesting growth in the water...

 

Leaves in the brook.

 

Little Blue River

 

 Little Blue Again

 

looking for Arrow heads and  skipping rocks

 

Hali just got nailed with mud, thanks to her big brother.

 

I got a smile!

 

 Abby standing in the creek bed.

 

Hali was SO not happy. She ended up with muddy clothes and wet shoes.

 

Isn't she just a cutie!

 

Another smile!

 

 beautiful berries... too bad they are poisonous.

 

Heading back to the car. We were all very tired. After we came home and changed clothes, we headed to celebrate at Cici's pizza.

A new twist on readers

Pumpkins. I just love this time of year. There are so many activities to do with the kids. We have plenty of things in mind for this season, but I came across some little readers that are just perfect for Abby. She loves poetry and the books build up her confidence. So I print off the books, she colors them, reads them and then works on sequence order. When we were done I was left with all of these extra words (which I thought about using on the word wall) so I found something to do with them. Instead of making a lapbook we just created a big book using the extras. She is using these to "teach" her friends. When she is completely done with the book and we move on, I hope to have a stack of these that we can hand down to friends who are homeschooling younger ones.

 

 

Hali's Chocolate Bouquets

As some of you know, I have a business called Beautiful Blessings by Jenn. You can visit my website by following this link: www.beautifulblessingsbyjenn.com I desperately need to spend some time updating the site.

For a  year, Hali and Abby have been helping me do chocolates. In that amount of time Hali's skill in painting chocolates has greatly improved. She is creating her own bouquets now to give to those that she loves. This week she made 2 new bouquets for Samantha and Brittany. For an 11 year old girl, her skill is amazing.

 

Completing projects

Like many other homeschoolers we do alot of different random projects just for the fun of it. Other times, our projects are well thought out and planned out. Often we don't finish before me move on to something else. However it is a rule in this house that we have to go back and finish what we start. This week was one of those times when we get a move on. Start some new things and finish some old.

Our mosaics that were started when we were doing Rome. They are falling apart now.

 

School store. The kids have been saving for a few weeks now... Hali got to the store first which caused a few words between her and Abby. Next time I will remember to get more than one of each thing.

Making a tough decision...

 

Abby saved enough to get 3 items from the store.

Aaron making his choices.

I somehow missed Nick. He chose an football air freshener for his truck.

Hali just started working on her DaVinci  lapbook. I suspect since this lapbook is huge it will take her until Christmas to finish it.

One more Soccer Saturday to go...

This week marked the end of Hali's soccer season. With the exception of a tournament and then a party we are done. They managed to win their last game and I am very happy for the kids. Ms. Abby has one more week of soccer and she too will be done. One week after that we are done with football. THEN life slows down. Maybe we can actually get around to doing all those exciting things here at home we have been looking forward to. Like cleaning and organizing the basement, classroom, closets.... I have a feeling that the kids would rather be playing sports.

 

Hali got called a few times for running down the other players. OOPS. Guess the ref didn't notice the elbow she got in the back.

 

Pants, long shirts and headbands are required for Abby's early morning games.

I think Abby was giving this young lady the "what for"  because she actually turned her back to the throw in.  She was supposed to block Abby. DIDN'T happen.

Fantastic Friends

I am so blessed with such good friends. Some much older than I, others younger. This last week I had the opportunity to meet Dave & Debbie for lunch and then visit with Imelda and the baby in the afternoon.

These guys are just so very precious. They have been mentors in the Lord to me for a long time. Dave makes the most awesome things as an architect. Their house is so beautiful with all of the custom things that Debbie has asked Dave to create.

The loft bed in the girls bedroom (a few posts down) was made by Dave. He is helping us make Nicks decorations for his graduation. I believe there is NOTHING that man cannot make.

I love you Debbie and Dave!

Then there is Imelda~ Who is the lovely Daughter- in -law to Dave and Debbie. Have I mentioned how much I just love this girl? Her little sugar bear (Anders) is just the sweetest little thing. "Aunt Jenn" loves having time to hold and love on him since I don't plan to have any more kids.

 

This is Debbie, Anders and myself.

Ms. Hali and baby Anders.

A picture of Anders actually smiling. It was reported that he actually STOPS smiling when he see's a camera.

Imelda and myself in our self portrait.

Long story short... I am teaching Imelda how to give the "evil eye"... I can do it with both eyes, confirming that I must do this all too often! She thought it was great fun.

Fire Prevention Week

One of the things we covered this last week was fire prevention. In addition to that we did a unit study (we haven't completely finished) that includes how a fireman lives, how much they make and the history of fire fighting. We developed a great respect for the men and woman who put their lives on the line every day for us.

Here are a few pictures of some of the things we did finally get finished. We are going to come back to some of this unit when day-light savings happens because that when we check the fire detectors and make sure we don't have any fire hazards. Expect another update including our model of a Robotic arm and our last activities for this unit.

Hali's Cursive copy work and drawings

Fun worksheet packets that everyone completed.

Abby's copy work and drawings.

Fire prevention workbook.

Our own little dalmatian.  I refused the request to get the real deal. I like this one much better since it sits quietly in the class room and doesn't pee on the floor.

Spoons

Have you all ever played this game? It's a load of fun and the kids love playing it for hours.

On Saturday we had a friend come up from MU to stay the day and visit. We had alot of fun with Brittany. She is really a treasure. After running all day, we settled into some games for the evening.

Int his household you HAVE to hold your cards so no one else see's. We are all a bunch of cheaters.

Even Abby was in on this action. See the spoons laying in the center of the table?

Abby, Hali and Brittany.

 

Abby was THRILLED she had a friend for the day. Brit was very wonderful and played, entertained and befriended the youngest!

Of course Hali adored Brittany before she came to visit. Now she can't wait for her to come back again!

New Bedroom Stuff

Don't ya just love it when you get new stuff? My girls sure do. My husband, bless his heart was a good sport one night this last week and drove in the pouring rain to the store to make a few purchases. The next day the girls and I spent 10 hours in their room. We moved one of the bedroom sets to Nicks Room so that he would have the complete matching set, cleaned up their toys, went through all their summer and winter clothes, and set up their new bedroom furniture. The loft bed we have had. Hali decided she was going to give it to Abby and she was going to take the other bed since she is getting older and I don't think the loft has as much of an appeal as it used to.

So now they have a new set up that is clean, organized and downsized. Notice the key word in this is DOWNSIZED. My girls have WAY too much stuff. I personally think the room is looking bright and cheerful again and believe it or not it  has pretty much stayed laundry and clutter free!

 

 

 

 

Girl Scout Bridging

Our little girl is getting so grown  up!

We celebrated becoming a Cadet in Girl scouts with a Bridging night. After trying three separate times to plan this celebration, they finally got it together and pulled it off. Hali and her troop put in a massive amount of hours to get their Bronze Awards, finish their signs and fill all of their badges. This particular year was hard because the Girl Scout program changed and the girls only had 2 years to do what they would normally accomplish in 3.

Congrats Hali on  your Bronze Award. Now it's time to work on the Silver!

Short meeting before the activity

My Suzie Q Cutting some yummy brownies.

 

The reason I had severe Allergic reaction that night.....

Our Darling Kim... Such a sweetie!

Prayer time before food

Ms. Allie and Hali

Hali taking her turn to explain what the Bronze award is and the activities they had to complete to get it.

My Favorite part. You simply CANNOT go to a GS function and NOT have dessert!

My girlfriend Carrie

One of the joys in life is friendship. I have been so blessed throughout the years with good friends. One such friend is my "bestie" as Hali would say, Carrie. She lives in Iowa now. That wasn't always the case.

A long time ago (sure seems like a long time) when my other "Bestie" Jen lived next door to me, God planned the meeting between Carrie and I. You see, I had just found out that Jen was moving to South Dakota. I cried out to God because I was very sad that she was leaving me behind. I was happy that Jen and her family were taking a full time pastoral position, but I was heartbroken at the same time. That's when Carrie's husband called my husband and by weird chance (we call it divine appointment here) we met and joined each other to go see Billy Graham. That evening we bonded and became forever friends. Every week with out fail we would meet at the IHOP pancake house for coffee, prayer and fellowship. God really used Carrie during many tough moments in life (Including the choice to homeschool) to give me sound wisdom and advice.

We only get to see each other about 4 times a year now. Our family's love each other and we try to schedule our vacations and mini trips to include a visit.

This last week, business brought my girl to town. Being the sport she is, she went with us to the senior meeting and then we hit Texas Roadhouse, returned home for a long visit with the girls and finally once we put everyone to bed.... We stayed up till the wee hours of the next day laughing, crying and celebrating our friendship.

I consider myself VERY blessed to have a friend who is as faithful, kind and loving as Carrie. I am crossing all of my body parts in hopes that they will be able to join us for Thanksgiving!