A Day of Remembering

Every year it gets a little bit easier when Noni's birthday rolls around. My sister and I always try to make sure that we spend the day together and celebrate in some way that we think she would want us to. So this year we took the girls to the cemetery and brought balloons,

then headed to the beach for the afternoon with one of our favorite aunts. This was GC's first trip to the ocean, but she settled in quickly and we all had a great time.

I know it is a cliche, however you truly can never imagine how much you will miss someone until they are gone. I feel sad for the babies, that they will never know the love that they would have received from my mom, but know in my heart that she is watching out for them each and every day. We make sure that they know who she was and how incredible she was. KM is constantly showing SC pictures and telling her stories about her all the time.

If Noni taught me anything in the 27 years of my life with her was that no matter what happens family comes first. You must push through the hard times, stick together and be there for one another. This last year has pushed some of us in different directions, but we are staying to the principal and sticking together.

Happy Birthday Noni!

We love you and miss you EVERYDAY!

Not quite quiet time!

Although we have been taking a break from "lessons" things have remained busy around here. Lots of projects, visits, birthdays and more! Here are some highlights -

Playground day with the Littles -

A Sewing Project -

GC had her 1ST birthday!!!

Lots of Gardening -

SC had her 3RD Birthday!!!

A trip with OR to the children's museum...

Lots more to come.....we have a new sport to discuss a bit about as well...see you all soon!

Update on Camper Project

I got an email this morning from a long time reader that was wondering how our camper remodeling project has been going as I had not updated on it quiet a while. It is ironic as CJ went to Lowes last night to get the floor tiles -

KM hasn't been able to help with the project as much as we hoped as she was having issues with the dust and dirt agitating her asthma, but we are almost to a point that she can start helping again. On the exterior CJ has removed the awning, caulked all the seams and seal coated the roof as there were a LOT of leaks. After he was sure the leaks were sealed he was able to reinforce and straighten the outer walls. He removed all the 70s orange shag rug and will be working on painting the interior before installing the floor tiles. Once it is all painted and the floor is in, we will be reinstalling the refrigerator and installing the larger sink where the stove was - we NEVER used the stove when we camped - except for more storage, so I felt the bigger sink would be wiser use of the space. The last and most daunting area will be the bathroom. We are hoping to be able to salvage the shower and sink unit and just have to get a new toilet as the bathroom units are rather pricey.

I will be sure to post pictures once the painting is done, I really think that is going to make such a huge difference!

Summer Curriculum Picks - Starting 8th Grade

I believe I have most of KM's 8th grade curriculum choices laid out. I have decided however to list them each session, as I had done a while back, because we do change our minds quite frequently and I want to be sure to leave lots of space for changes and new interests that are developed along the way.

We school year round in 10 week sessions so we begin our "grade" year in the summer. KM will be an 8th grader started July 5th and will be studying the following topics -

English Language Arts - there will be a very strong focus on writing over the summer utilizing our free Mondays to boast ELA up to two days a week.

Math - KM will be finishing up Algebra, utilizing the free Ko's Journey subscription we received and working on word problems -

Science is always a huge area of study for KM so we are not slowing down, but charging ahead into the time line approach -

History will also be continuing on a steady pace and we hope to have Volume 2 completed by the end of the summer -

Music will be continuing with piano, voice and some extras -

We will also be doing some electives in Financial Literacy using Brain Pop and finishing up our Ocean Study using lots of movies on Netflix. Our physical education will center around swimming and bowling - Kids Bowl Free. We will be using some free resources for Art from the National Gallery of Art.

Since I had posted about thinking outside the box KM thought it would be fun to post some of her top Wii and DS game picks that she finds very educational...

How do you get it all done?

I have gotten quite a few emails over the last few days asking this very question.

I just wanted to preface with my strong belief in that all children are different, so though I can let you know what we do here, it may not work for your family.

With that being said here is what we do...

Our general schedule that we have done for the past 6 mo can be seen HERE - this has totally changed the length and flow of our day. KM gets up some time around 9, eats, gets herself ready and does her chores before starting her lessons. I hope to start each day by 10, but it tends to be closer to 10:30. We work on the main subject area for the day first, unless she is really running behind ~~~ I will not just hang around and wait for her since I work from home, help moderate several lists, am secretary and membership coordinator for our local homeschool group and am on the board of directors for our state homeschool organization, so I have far too many things to get done in the day - as every homeschool mom I know does - to just wait for her ~~~ so if I am in the midst of something when she is ready to start then she will do Math, Spanish, Reading or Piano as these are her daily independent study assignments. Her work is usually completed by about 1. Sometimes it is later in the day, but that is usually only if she is really into a project or experiment. If she started on time in the morning and only did her main subject for the day, then sometimes she will work on her independent things in the evening.

It wasn't always this smooth, mind you. It has taken us the better part of the past 2.5 years to figure this all out. One of the biggest things that we have changed is that I have done away with all the "busy work." If something doesn't seem like it is productive, is just a battle to get her to do it or just seems like a disconnected subject that doesn't need to be done right now or would be better if we waited to do it when it connects with something else, then we do away with it - either for the moment or permanently.

One of KM's biggest problems when she was in PS was always dealing with the repetition of things so now I really think "Is this necessary?" before I plug an assignment in. I also tend to look at things that she takes a long time to complete and see if it is because she is not understanding it, doesn't really want to do it, or if it is just not of any interest to her. This is not to say that I don't assign her anything that she doesn't LIKE to do, because I do, I just really think about why I am having her do certain things.

I know what her likes and dislikes are and how she learns the best in each subject, so I try to tailor things to that and don't really bother with the excess. I really try to allow her to make as many of the choices as I can. There are some things that do just need to be covered and I don't budge, but we might just glaze over it rather than force her to spend a ton of time on things that she has either already covered or is just not interested in.

We also do a lot of things like Health, Economics, and any other elective type things on Brain Pop or other computer games. We LOVE LOVE LOVE the wii and use it for as many educational areas as possible. We have things like My Word Coach, Deep Blue Ocean, and Wii Music. We also have lots of educational games for the DS- Spanish for Everyone, Future U, and so on. Basically I am very flexible in what I see as educational and have tried to think outside the box as much as I can. This has lead KM to be able to do the same.

My daughter isn't fully self-motivated, as some have suggested, but has begun to understand that I am only trying to help her and that her education is her choice. I can't FORCE her to learn anything, I can only expose her to things and hope that it sticks or sparks an interest for her to want to delve deeper.

I really love getting questions and they tend to inspire my postings, so please feel free to ask or even just let everyone know what the best way is for your family to get things done.

7th Grade COMPLETED!

I can't believe it, but it is true! We are DONE with 7th grade! KM had one last field trip yesterday and now our "school year" is completed! We finished three weeks early. So we will be having a full 5 week break before summer session starts in July! We have had a fantastic year and I can't believe the amount that we have gotten accomplished. I am so very proud of the progress that KM has made! I can only hope that this next year will be just as excellent!

Check out some of the great photos from our trip -

As we will be on break, it may or may not be quiet around here! I will try to post here and there as the learning never really stops, but I am going to be focusing on getting my house in order and enjoying some much needed down time!

Viking Ship

Often KM will choose to pass on the art projects that go along with Story of the World, but every once in awhile a project will catch her eye and for some reason she will choose to do it! This was the case last week with the viking ship -

New Pet...for a little while

I was working at the computer last week when I heard this rustling noise outside the window. I looked out and saw a pile of leaves moving - A LOT! I am not a screeching type of person, but I am also not very keen on little creatures, so I sat watching it for a while to see if I could tell - from a safe distance - what it was. KM is very brave and loves all creatures large and small - except for spiders - but she was diligently working to finish her history lessons, so I didn't want to distract her from that.

After a little while the rustling stopped and by the time CJ came home I had almost forgotten about it until he went out to start the grill for dinner. I asked him to gently check out the pile of leaves to see if there was something there and I went back inside to my little window to watch - from a safe distance.

He knows how I am so of course he made a big scene about what was in the pile - "Oh my gosh! I can't believe it." "You aren't gonna wanna see this!" and on and on. By this time KM was in on it as well and I knew they were just trying to creep me out, so I bravely went out on the deck to see what the creature was -

just the cutest little sun turtle.

Within 5 minutes a habitat was started in the kiddie pool -

Curtle seems to be enjoying his new temporary home.

Over the weekend KM & AM expanded his habitat to include a few dry spots as they were worried about him being too cold at night.

He seems to really enjoy hiding out in the foliage!

As he is a wild creature we will only keep him for a few days to observe him. We feel it is not right to take creatures out of their natural habitats permanently without just cause - injury or endangerment. We only put plants and bugs from the area where we found him into the habitat and are only allowing the kids to handle him minimally. Once KM has finished her observations we will take him out back to the swamp area behind our house and release him - as I don't feel safe releasing him close to the house as I am afraid one of our bigger animals might harm him.

So for a little while, we have a new pet - Curtle the Turtle!

Drum Roll Please......

To the winner of the Ko's Journey Giveaway - Ami!!!

Thanks to all who participated! If you didn't win, you really should think about getting an individual subscription as it is a FANTASTIC program and one of the only ones that I have seen recently that is TRULY worth the money!

Genetics & DNA Study

Last Thursday we spent the WHOLE day working on the Thames & Kosmos Genetics & DNA kit that we had gotten a few months ago. We had planned on working on these projects over the next few weeks, but KM was so gungho that we did completed all the experiments and then some...

KM will be reading The Cartoon Guide to Genetics over our break and here are the links to all the resources we used -

• DNA Extraction
• Amazing Cells Supplemental Material
• Cloning Webquest
• University of Utah Print & Go Index
• BrainPop Cells
• BrainPop DNA - FREE
• BrainPop Complete Cellular Life & Genetics

LAST DAY ----

FOR A CHANCE TO WIN......

BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT

Final Push...

I tend to schedule the last few weeks of a session a bit lighter than the rest so that we can have time to make things up that may have gotten pushed to the side earlier on. This time however, we are right on track and I think that I have managed to convince KM to push a little bit harder to get some extra weeks off! I printed out all the assignments for the remainder of the session and she couldn't believe how little there was. If you don't hear much in the next week or so, please no we are still here, but are just finishing up to have a nice LONG break at HOME this time!!!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway, it will be closing out tomorrow!!!

Only 3 days left

...to get in on this giveaway!!!! Be sure to check it out ----

HERE!!!!

All my nieces together...

at the zoo and carousel village today was quite exhausting! Luckily I had extra parental help as I don't think it would have worked any other way. I didn't even get any pics of the kids at the zoo because I was trying to keep track of the two 3 year olds running here there and everywhere. I did however get some cute shots when they were strapped to the carousel -

GC and her dad only made it around once before they looked like they were going to be sick! SC on the other hand had 4 trips around and each time found another animal she HAD to ride next! OR was quite content to ride the horses, look at the lights and gaze at herself in the mirror as she made kooky faces!

It was a beautiful day and all the kids had peaceful naps on their way home!

Ko's Journey - Math Curriculum Supplement

REVIEW & GIVEAWAY!!!

Yes, you read that write I have an incredible giveaway for one lucky winner! The product that is up for grabs is a one year license to a fantastic new online program called - Ko's Journey 5th -8th grade Math Improvement with Story Playing. - Instructions for giveaway at the end of the review...

Ko’s Journey covers the core concepts in middle-school math, comprising about 20% of a comprehensive curriculum. By going deep into a set of approximately 10 main areas of learning, students gain a rich, contextual understanding of essential concepts including number lines, fractions with non-common denominators, multiplication, division, rounding, percentage of numbers, applying scales, graphing comprehension, linear equations, Cartesian coordinate mapping, area of a circle, ratios, determining unknown variables, volume, complementary/supplementary angles, slope, addition/subtraction of decimals, multi-step problems and conversion of units of measure.

This program is fantastic! It is super simple to setup an account, which they have at many different levels including individual for $39 or Intervention Homeschool (up to 3 players) for $59. To me this is an extremely reasonable price for this very unique and engaging supplement to your middle school math curriculum.

This program features -

• 15-hour curriculum of core middle school math embedded in rich story
• Easy on-line set-up and administration
• Automatically tracks student progress and assignments
• Aligned with NCTM standards
• Excellent preparation for state testing (includes pre and post tests)
• Interactive learning environment with peer teaching
• Creative tool aimed at addressing emotional resistance to math
• Empower students comprehension of fundamental concepts

Some of the reasons that KM says she has been enjoying are:

• "using math in a virtual real life simulation helps me to understand why it works"
• "the graphics are great!"
• "it is really easy to use"
• "it saves my progress and tracks my scores"
• "each new level brings some new challenge or puzzle to solve"

Some things that I have noticed - both good and bad -

• Pre-test and post-test features are great to really be able to tell if they have learned new concepts by using the product or if previously covered concepts have been reinforce.
• Entertaining storyline to help keeps the wanting to work with the program
• Set-up was super easy
• Tracking of grades and progress is done automatically so you can ask your student to work on it and will know how they did from your own log in screen.
• It is possible to change the student information so that if you have more than one child you could purchase the individual program and they could either work through it together or once one child has completed it - as it is only a 15 hour curriculum - another child could restart it, as you have access to the program for one full year
• When using it on different computers it takes a VERY long time to load. This is not a big deal when we are at home, but when we are out and about and she wants to play it on the laptop it can be a bit annoying

Here are some screen shots -

I am very excited about the direction of this program and am hopeful that we will see more things to come of this high quality!

Now for the giveaway! Imagine Education has been generous enough to offer one lucky reader a full year individual license for this incredible math game! All you have to do is post a comment and you will be entered! Please be sure to leave an email address or blog link for me to be able to connect you through.

Also if you have a blog, mention this giveaway, come back and submit a link to the mention you will have a second chance to win! This will be limited to two entries per email address or blog link.

All comments or posts must be submitted no later than 8pm EDT on Friday 5/21 - I will announce the winner on Monday May 24th!