Happy Birthday, Shiloh!!

From Grammy and Papa

(Daniel, the package is in the mail)

Thomas' Birthday

Happy Birthday, Thomas.  I can't believe you're 12! 

To see more photos, visit The Parsons' Daughters

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

For my friend, Kay.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup peanut butter (cheap brand works best)

Mix all ingredients together. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 F. for about eight minutes. 

Note: this recipe makes a small amount. 

(Picture taken from Google images)

Chocolate Unit Study

We've just been to stay a week at a lake house so my husband could have some rest.  I wanted to keep Thomas and Abby's noise levels down to a dull roar, so I took along some things for them to do: needlework, toys, plenty of books to read aloud and independently, drawing, cards, and the chocolate unit study from homeschoolshare.com.  Now I have to tell you that we like chocolate the BEST, so this was perfect for our family.  

I gathered my supplies and resources: brownie mix, our favorite truffles loving sent by my daughter-in-law, chocolate bars, M&Ms, plus some I found on sale after Valentines, chocolate chips to make fondue, with pretzels, marshmallows, and apples, chocolate chips to make playdough, and my personal stash of dark chocolate.  Oh, and library books: The Chocolate Touch, books about the history of chocolate, books about the rain forest.  

We did chocolate math, we watched the I Love Lucy episode where she and Ethel get jobs in the chocolate factory, we read books, we did word puzzles, we played, we baked, we partied!

To tell you the truth, we had so much fun, we forgot to take pictures every day!

A week at the lake...

everyone enjoyed the pool table

we all took plenty to read and enjoyed sitting in the warm sun every day

the water level was way down so Thomas and Abby had a great time wading across the narrow end of the lake to explore and bring back treasures

I read The Lonesome Gods aloud every night and we had good discussions

blue sky, pear trees just starting to bloom.....

vacation!

This week, we played around with some art - not so much Arts Week, because we had to finish up some writing and math, but we had an art lesson every day.  I used to subscribe to Homeschooling Today and had pulled out all the art lessons by Barry Stebbing.  I chose 3 artists: Italian artist, Correggio, and American artists, Winslow Homer and Norman Rockwell.

We read about Correggio first and studied a painting of Christ.  Then using colored pencils, Abby and Thomas copied the painting.  

We also studied Winslow Homer's paintings of one-room schoolhouses and drew our own.

Thomas' favorite artist is Norman Rockwell, so he loved reading about him! Thomas and Abby practiced drawing three faces: one from memory, one from a photo, and one from a model, and had to decide which was hardest (they decided that drawing a live person is tough!).  

We are not serious artists, nor serious art students, but reading about various artists and practicing art has definitely helped us look at God's world with different eyes.

Carrie is leading nature study using this blog, Handbook of Nature Study.  It's easy for Carrie and fun for the kids.  On this day, they were studying winter trees, doing bark rubbings, drawing branches, and looking for buds and leaves.

Thought I'd catch you up on what we've been up to for school lately.

A couple of weeks ago, we had Beyond Five in a Row Camp!  We read Homer Price and learned all kinds of things and did a few activities, too.  I simply took the manual and picked out the topics we were most interested in, gathered my materials and we started off on our adventure.

I have a pretty good collection of Reminisce magazines, so I was able to find a few articles about early radio, television, and telephones.  Since Thomas likes to listen to old radio shows, he heard a lot of names in the old stories that he recognized.  He spent the week writing a melodrama, which he, Abby, and Katie performed as a finale to our study.  Thomas and Abby made sandwich boards one day and proudly marched around the yard, he read Whatever Happened to Penny Candy (I thought it might be over his head, but he really enjoyed it and seemed to get the gist of it), we read "Rip Van Winkle", and made some pretty yummy donuts.

We've had our noses to the grindstone ever since the first of January and have made great progress, and this week we're being rewarded for our hard work with some interesting read alouds.  If you've never read The Great Turkey Walk, you should see if your library has it. It's a very entertaining book!

Next week, we're planning to do a bit of art and music appreciation, and then we're going to do a unit study on chocolate!  We're really looking forward to that!

Every year we make a Valentine's Day gingerbread house.  We worked on it last week and had a wonderful time together!  If you look closely, you can see where I dropped the entire kit and Rachel had to glue it all back together with icing before we could begin.  Oh, well, it turned out nice anyway!

Simple Woman's Daybook (July 18th, 2010)

My first daybook in months and months!

Outside my window...
It's hot, but the sky is bright blue and the clouds are beautifully white

I am thinking...
I've been catching up on some blog posts and have been thinking about those. But I'm also thinking about my 5 of my children who are in different countries and states and cities.

I am thankful for...
People who love me and take the time to get to know me in our new church. And for watermelons and tomatoes and cantaloupes, which people have brought from their gardens and are a blessing to us.

From the learning rooms...
Our first day of school tomorrow. We'll soon see if all those plans I've made are based on reality! lol

From the kitchen...
Rachel made a great tomato pie (a la Paula Deen), I made rolls (a la Decadent Housewife) and black bean avocado salad over the weekend for company. This week our milkless kids are not home, so it's buttermilk biscuits on the menu!

I am wearing...
Jeans, a red check ss shirt, no shoes and my fav earrings. Almost time to get ready to go to Sunday night church, though.

I am creating...
Blog posts for my poor neglected blog.

I am going...
To a new library one day this week to get cards and to a new park in the same town. We've just moved and I'm exploring!

I am reading...
I'm on a Rosamunde Pilcher kick right now.

I am hoping...
To get a lot done this week!

I am hearing...
Thomas and Abby playing. There's only Thomas, Abby, Carrie, and me at home, so it's fairly quiet.

Around the house...
I want to paint a little chest of drawers this week - light lime green. And I want to get the paint to make a chalkboard out of an old window, which is hanging in my kitchen. And I have a few more throw pillows to make for the girls' rooms. Probably won't get it all done, but I'm gonna try!

One of my favorite things...
Cantaloupe! Love it!

A few plans for the rest of the week...
My oldest daughter is coming home from a mission trip to Bolivia and we can hardly wait to see her!

A photo I'm sharing...
Ella in Yella - the most wonderful grandbaby in the world!

house before and after

Before::

During::

After::

Before::

After::

Before::

After::

Before::

After::

We've been in our new house for a month now! We've been wildly busy, unpacking, figuring everything out, getting settled, painting and painting and painting some more, and learning where things are in our new community.

The before pictures were taken when we came for a tour of the house about a month before we moved. The after photos were taken several weeks ago, but I haven't had time to post them. The camera is gone with Katie to Bolivia and I'll post some more when she gets back. We've done a lot just since these pictures were taken.

School planning 2010/11

In between all the unpacking, I've been thinking about our upcoming school year, which we are planning to begin tomorrow. I wanted to do a lot of the same things as last year, but I wanted to change some things, too.

Normally, I spend weeks and week thinking and praying and reading books and blogs to help me work it all out, but I haven't had time this year. I usually spend hours printing out papers and going through each book so I'm well prepared. But I have had bits of time here and there to work on it all and, actually, for me, it's relaxing to sit down with my papers and planner and think about it and look at my books.

Anna is trying to finish up high school this year. She only needs about 5 credits and we think she can finish by May.

Most of Abby, Thomas, and Carrie's school work will be the same as last year: same math (different level, of course), same English/spelling/writing. Abby is moving up to Beyond Five in a Row. Thomas will do the science part of another Beyond FIAR book, Thomas Edison. Abby will have the same history, but Thomas and Carrie are changing to TruthQuest, too. I started using my Kathryn Stout Science Scope again last year with Thomas and Abby and we'll do the human body to start off this year.

Some things are going to be different, though.

Carrie is moving up to Apologia general science and time will tell if using a textbook will work out well for her. She's going to be reading Beautiful in God's Eyes and Ordinary Women and Their Extraordinary God for Bible class. Our home ec will center around planning birthdays and decorating cakes, reading hospitality books, and etiquette. We are still very interested in combining concepts from Thomas Jefferson Education and Charlotte Mason learning, so we will continue to also read classic literature together and discuss it. We'll finish The Hiding Place to begin our year. She is starting world/American history, which will be a three year course, using TruthQuest. And for Algebra I we'll be using Math Relief, which we used with several other kids and enjoyed. (OK, the kids say that enjoyed would not be the word they would use in reference to algebra!)

Thomas likes to read real books instead of readers, so we're going to read Swiss Family Robinson and discuss it as we go along. He's going to be studying the middle ages for history and I've ordered some books and borrowed Story of the World Volume 2 for the spine. We like TruthQuest a lot because we learn so much from reading real books aloud instead of using a dry textbook, which only hits the high spots of history.

Abby will be reading Pollyanna and discussing it with me. We'll be doing a unit about Helen Keller, which is exciting because we've moved near her birthplace. I want to work on her household skills and cooking since she's soon going to be 8 years old.

I have several things in mind that I want to try, but know that they may take some tweeking and rearranging of the schedule to make them work.

• I want to add a bit of quiet time every day for Thomas and Abby. I would like this time to be for personal Bible reading and prayer time, using a modified ACTS system with them, as well as time for silent reading. The whole family needs this, since most of the noise generated comes from them.
• We have been lazy about memorizing scripture for the past couple of years and I want to reinstate that. This is the part that's going to take some schedule adjusting, since it takes a chunk of time to work on it.
• I want to have Focus Time several times a week with both kids, for at least 30 minutes. My thought is to spend some time individually with each one, just talking about whatever they want to talk about or reading together and praying with each one. I'll admit it: I'm terribly distracted by household happenings and don't always listen when they tell me stuff. I spend all day with them, but not always focused on what is interesting to them.

Arts Week and Read Aloud Week will continue for the 3rd year, since they are such a huge success.

Well, that's about it. I always start off with grand plans and high hopes and great excitement. Some things have to be put off until another year, some things simply don't work, some things are great and I wonder why I haven't always done them. I'm asking God to lead me and help me have the right priorities, as I try to disciple our children and begin our 25th year of homeschooling.

Boxes, tape, and markers!

2 days, 13 hours, 52 minutes, 2 seconds or 2 days, or 61 hours, or 3,711 minutes, or 22, 676 seconds till the movers get here!

Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday to a wonderful mother in law!

Graduation

Congratulations, Emily!
You have such a heart for God and I know He has great plans for you.
We're so proud of you!

You can see more pictures here, if you're interested.

Homeschool Convention Fun

I spent a blissful Thursday evening, Friday, and Saturday at the state homeschool convention. The main speaker this year was Andrew Pudewa, who was great! I learned so much and to help myself remember it all, I decided to rehearse it in a post.

These are the points I want to remember:

• The most important things I can do to nurture excellent writers and speakers it to read aloud and have the children memorize material. I already read aloud to the younger children, but I need to read aloud to all the children, choosing books that will stretch them. It has always been a priority for me to read to them, so it should be pretty easy to add a bit more and include the olders. We used to memorize poems when we used ABeka years ago and we have memorized a lot of scripture in the past, but we've let that drop in the last couple of years or so. I need to resurrect it. Hmmm, I'll have to think about how to fit that into our school day.
  
  
• Learning to spell words in a sequential manner is very important. It's also very important to have the child spell each word aloud, as well as write it. Since Thomas is such an inventive speller, I was particularly interested in the workshop entitled "Spelling and the Brain". Mr. Pudewa recommended the spelling program I'm already using, Sequential Spelling, so I'm on the right track. I just need to have him spell aloud, too, which I've not been doing.

• Four errors of teaching writing are: over correction of the child's work, not making assignments clear, withholding help, and over expectation. Whoops! Guilty as charged on several counts. I think I'm doing OK about not over correcting, I try to make assignments clear (but I know I fail sometimes), and I don't think I'm expecting too much, but I am guilty of withholding help sometimes because I feel like I'm doing the work for them. Not so, says Mr. Pudewa. He says you cannot help too much and the child will tell you when he wants you to let him do it alone.

Going to the homeschool convention always inspires me to begin another school year. I love talking to people with whom I have so much in common, I like to look at and buy new books, and I like to learn new things and be encouraged that I'm doing a pretty good job after all. This year's convention met all those needs!

Happy Mother's Day
to Granny and Julie,
and all the lovely friends and mothers who read
this blog.
May God bless you as you seek Him in the rearing of your children
and give you the desires of your heart.

Vacation!

We've been home since Monday, but what with all the unpacking and starting to pack for moving, we've been pretty busy.

We had a wonderful trip, with a couple of adventures thrown in! We loved seeing Daniel, Julie, Shiloh, and Ella and got to meet Julie's family and eat with them several times. They are great cooks and great at card games (the girls want to play spoons with Mrs. Fiddler again sometime!) and we enjoyed being with them, too.

We left on Monday, the 19th, and on the way up, we stopped at Bill Monroe's birthplace in Kentucky, visited an Amish village in Indiana, and, my personal favorite, saw the Little House in the Big Woods in Pepin, Wisconsin, and saw Caddie Woodlawn's house, which is in Wisconsin as well.


We had a bit of adventure in Minnesota when the alternator in the van stopped working, but a big THANK YOU to the guys in St. Paul who rescued us and got us back on the road in just a few hours.

Getting over into Canada at the border was interesting. The officials there couldn't believe there are Southerners who don't carry handguns or own rifles and searched the van thoroughly just to make sure. Daniel and Julie drove down to meet us near the border and it wasn't long until we were in Selkirk, hugging the kids!


One day we went to the Oak Hammock Marsh, one day to Lake Winnipeg, and one day to the Manitoba Museum, and one day to The Forks. The children had the opportunity one night to play for some of Julie's relatives at a church and they sang some hymns in the Cree language, which was really interesting. We ate Polish food that Julie's lovely grandmother made for us and Indian tacos one day, made by Julie's father, Mr. Fiddler.



We left there on Thursday, the 29th, with many tears and plans to visit again. On the way home, we visited Plum Creek in Minnesota, where Laura and Mary lived in the dugout, and DeSmet, South Dakota, the location of 5 of the Laura books.


On our last day, we tried to get through Tennessee, but had to turn back and go across Kentucky instead, stopping overnight in Somerset, then home the next day through Knoxville and Chattanooga. But we enjoyed seeing more of Kentucky and had the opportunity to buy a case of Ale-8-1, a favorite local ginger ale which we used to enjoy when we lived in Lexington. (Sorry, no flood photos - we were too stressed!)

Fifteen days, 1400 photos, and a mountain of laundry! Worth it all!

We miss you, Daniel, Julie, Shiloh, and Ella!