Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Nature Study Club Post 1

This Fall nature study is going to be a weekly part of our homeschool... thanks to FIAR for their digital nature study.

The Five in a Row Digital Nature Studies are not just a list of activities of things to do in each season. Rather they are an encouragement for you and your children to begin a life style of becoming more observant about each season, and noticing and learning throughout the year more about the nature around you.

T
his past Friday we had our first nature study day. I have them schedule for every two weeks till the 1st week of fall, after that every Friday!

We went to Memorial Park, we got to walk around looking for signs of Summer and a few signs that Fall was right around the corner. Since we are learning about flying creatures this year, we paid close attention to birds and insects at the park.


Our Nature Study Club members: X6, A8 and M6!
We found a caterpillar which one day soon will become a butterfly.. or a moth...
We found a cicada... she was very much alive but had no problems letting the kids pick her up.. thanks cicada!! I still think you are creepy...
Not sure this is a flying bug, it had wings... earwig?? NASTY
Acorns!! we saw lots of squirrels after these!!
When they start to bury them it will be a sign of fall!
Another sign fall is around the corner!!
It's just one tree right now but you can see the leaves are starting to change color!
I forgot my camera so I had to take pics with my cell phone, which is why the pics are not as nice as they could've been. This won't happen our next time out! The kids have a nature journal where they get to draw the things they saw at the park, older kids will get to write in it as well.

Monday, August 30, 2010

First Day of School 2010 Part 2

Today is A8's first day of 3rd grade!! Last week she had three days of review, math and copywork, we also had our first Nature Study Friday... more on that on another post.

This week A8 will be rowing the FIAR Vol 4 book Roxaboxen.
It is a story about a treasured place: a child's imaginary town named Roxaboxen.












X5 started school last week, this week will be rowing the book Storm in the Night. A story of a young black boy, his grandfather, and their cat during a fearsome thunder storm.


Summer is over, everybody is starting school today, not just my kids... What a great summer this was... lots of adventures, lots of lazy summer days by the pool or in the backyard... I am going to miss them. I'm also looking forward to what this school year is going to bring... I'm hoping for more field trips, that is one thing I'm going to be more intentional about this year. Also, a lot more projects... thanks to Apologia science! I will keep you posted!!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

First Day of School 2010

Today is X6's first day of school. A8 had a whole week of music camp which counts toward school, because of that she is not starting till the 30th, X6 however had to start today(yesterday was his birthday).

We are reading the book Fireflies. He has a few activities with the book but we will be covering fireflies in the Apologia book later in the year, so I kept it light.
He is also doing review work, his letter, numbers, cut and paste... etc.

Another school year begins!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Happy Birthday X6

This weekend was X6's birthday party, his actual birthday was on Monday! Here's a few pics of the party and the gifts he got!

How to train your dragon cake!!
Kids eating cake and ice cream!
Toothless!!!
Legos!!!
My baby is not a baby anymore.... sigh.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

August Update

We are home and back into the swing of things. I t only took me a day to wash Roxbury out of us :) Our clothes all smelled like smoke from the camp fires every night! Everything is back in it's place!

We are starting to work on this years Kids Club for our Church. The schedule has been made and approved. I need to order t shirts and curriculum. We made the decision not to teach a class this year. In the last two years we've been coordinators and class leaders, this year we need to put our energy into doing one thing. Coordinators have the job of overseeing Clubs, being available for emergencies and pretty much keeping and eye out during club meetings. Having a class did not allow us to these things.

We loved our class but we can't do two things at the same time. We were being pulled in two directions every week and it was getting tiring and some things were slipping through the cracks.
We are having our first club meetin this Sunday after Church, hopefully we'll get enough people to volunteer to help with Clubs.

Another update, I have decided to start school with X5 on the 24th which is a Tuesday since X5's birthday is on the 23rd. We will do story time and handwriting reviews for 4 days. The following week(3oth) A8 will start school( she already has 11 days of school).

Monday, August 9, 2010

Roxbury Camp 2010

We are back from Roxbury Holiness Camp. We spent 10 days there... well, 9 since we skipped Wednesday so Dh could work one day and only have to take 4 days vacation.

We had a great time with friends and church family. We had great speakers this year!! The kids did great this year! The really enjoyed themselves and made lots of new friends!

I have so many pics of our time there. I will post a few so you can get a feel for what all we did there!

This was our street, our family unit is on the left where Dh's red car is.
There's our cabin... L9. A8 and her friends!

Inside the cabin! Yes, all the kids got to play in our cabin... everyday:)
This is our hangout, our little community tent!
The camp provides breakfast, lunch and dinner! and all the bread you could possible eat! ha ha! You can eat inside or outside.. you can pretty much eat where ever you want!

Sunbeam center for the kids... they had two sessions a day, one at 10:30, the other at 1:30
A8 and X5 heading to Sunbeam!
Inside Sunbeam! A8 & X5 had a great time in there!
The next two pics are of the playground right next to Sunbeam center.
X5 hanging out at our community tent!
This is the path X5 always took on his bike to visit his friend Isaac! They had a trailer.
A8 and X5 hanging out by the creek, no I did not let them go in the creek. Only when they are old enough that I don't need to be there watching them will they be allowed go in.... maybe:)
All the kids from Sunbeam had a musical presentation during Saturday's morning session at the Tabernacle. X5 did very good for the first 5 minutes, after that he started to cry and I had to go get him.. he sat with us the rest of the time.
Here's a peek at A8.. she was towards the back.
Tabernacle... during the week there was a morning and night session, on the weekends there are three sessions, but we only went to the morning and night ones.
Inside the Tabernacle... this was our own little spot! FABIC's corner!! We always sat here for all the sessions everyday!
See you next year Roxbury!!!!!

Something very tragic happened on our second day at Roxbury. A 23 month old boy, named Elijah died.. he choked on his own vomit. He was the son of one of the missionaries in Roxbury who just happened to be members of our local church.

We continue to pray for Elijah's parents and grandparents, whom I know well. In times like these we hold on to our faith in Jesus all the more!!!!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Hump Day

We are still at Roxbury, had to come home so Dh could go work one day this week. Going right back to Roxbury later tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. I saw this on a blog and loved it!
Matt Chandler (Pastor of Village Church in Dallas)Sermon Jam.

Enjoy!