Homeschool Journal Number Five

What's going On In My Life: Sunday is going to be Glenn and I's Anniversary......12 years. It seems like it was just yesterday I was saying it was our eleventh. How a year flies by. Come to think of it, how the years fly by. This year we added a new addition to our family, little Brooke, and we are still adjusting to that. We are also trying to get more self sufficient. We are still buckling down on our finances. Honestly one day I won't still have pea green and orange furniture and I am very excited about that prospect. Right now we really are living like no one else so later we can live like no one else. Ok I am laughing now because that sounds so cheesy, but it is true. I can tolerate a lot if I know it won't always be this way. I do want different stuff eventually,but I am not miserable. I just hope everyone knows this is not my real taste. 



Homeschool This Week: We are getting close to closing down for this year and I am working on what route to take next year. We will be homeschooling Bodie again I am sure, but Ihave not figured out if I will put Brylee in a preschool or start her at home with me. Of course she already likes to be involved, but I think this

next year will be alot easier because her attention span is getting better. This week we did quite a few projects that tied in with Easter. For a fun Math project I took plastic eggs with a math problem on one half and the answer on the other and mixed them all in a basket. Bodie would have to find the egg that had the correct sum. We did a simplified version for Brylee. I would have her hand me all the red eggs or all the purple eggs. Once we got them all out we would practice our counting to see how many of each colors there were.

Of course we had to decorate Easter eggs and cupcakes, although at almost three and five it is more work than fun. But, we managed to get it done with out too big of a mess and had some fun too! Our letter of the week was W, which happens to be Bodie's favorite letter, but even Brylee had fun helping out. For her I would cut out the shape of the w and let her glue tissue paper to it.

More Tidbits: I have always been able to laugh at myself and so I must confess that I went a whole day wearing to socks that did not match. That happened to be the day that I went to town, ran errands,and met my father-in-law. They were at least the same color, but one was an ankle sock and the other was right above my ankle. Pretty obvious I think, and how I didn't notice I will never know. It is true there are days when I get up and truly don't even look in the mirror. This is something I am working on.....remembering I am important too.

Bodie blowing through a straw with paint.

Brylee doing her stained glass

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Homeschool Journal Week Four

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chicken tractor with the nesting box attached.

So, I have missed a couple of weeks since I last wrote. We had family one weekend and were gone the next so I just never had time to write. This is a combination of the last couple of weeks and the things we did.


An Inside View: my favorite part is that you just open and retrieve the eggs, no going into the tractor.

In My Life This Week: We added an addition on the chicken tractor. Believe it or not the girls( an affectionate term for someone who used to hate chickens) are almost big enough to start laying eggs. So Glenn added the nesting box onto the end of the Casa. Bring on the eggs.

Our garden is coming on, although we have had gale force winds for a month now with very few breaks thus our plants are not very pretty. However, we are getting some blooms now on our peppers, and tomatoes. We have little cherries on our trees, green berries on the vines, a row or two of corn,(which really has suffered in the wind) and a row of beans. More details on that if they ever do anything.

In Our Homeschool This Week: There are a couple of things Bodie has going on in addition to his regular work. One: he is involved in a sports program with quite a few other kids. He attends every Thurday and they spend about a month on four particular sports. After a month they switch to four more sports. I am really pleased I found this program. I like his coach, who is no nonsense, but fun at the same time. They have the ages split up and there is a coach with each group. I like the approach they take to sports. For instance, when they were teaching Bodie's age baseball, they used tennis rackets to hit the ball. I thought this was such a great idea because it is a good way to teach them the hand eye coordination and give the confidence you need from actually making contact with the ball. Also, they signed up for the presidential challenge. Age of participation actually starts at 6 year olds, but they had everyone do it. It is four or five timed events. They had a lot of fun doing this.

They had to stretch a certain amount of inches depending on age.

Lining up to do the Shuttle Run.



Bodie and another team mate doing their pushups.



Also, once a month, Bodie attends Enrichment Club. This is a program for homeschoolers that exposes them to speaking in public. They get up in front of their peers and tell about a project, recite a poem, or demonstrate a lapbook they have been working on. This is Bodie's second one to do. I wish I had gotten a video because he puts on his big man voice when he gets up there. It makes me laugh.



Bodie's combine project. I did the writing but he did all the coloring on it.




 

Places we are going and people we see: On Friday we decided we would stop at Lyndon B. Johnson's park on our way down to San Antonio to visit Glenn's mom. It is an historic site so there is a lot of history to be told. First of all this park has no entrance fees. When you check in they give you a cd that tells you what you are seeing as you drive along the ranch. I was pretty happy about this as it was 94 that day. We also visited the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm, which was right next door. Here people are in character and run the farm as it would have been run in Lyndon's day. They have cows that they milk. Then, they show you how to make cheese and butter. You can help them gather eggs, they show you how to make soap, smoke meats, can foods. It was fun and informative.

Airforce 1 that Lyndon B.Johnson flew on.  (he had a landing strip built right through the middle of his ranch)







Brylee trying to pet one of the chickens there.

Still looking for any extra tips on working with toddlers while schooling. Brylee will be three in July so her attention span is getting bettter. But, if anyone has fun things to do with them I am always looking for ideas.