At the Pumpkin Town

Last week, a large group of homeschoolers--probably about 85-90 children met for two hours at a place where they have a pumpkin town set-up. It was really quite nice. The boys dressed in costumes. We were able to make in time for the giant pumpkin moonbounce, for them to go through the hay maze and get lots of sweets from the "trick or treat" time. We had some fantastic fresh cider as well. It really was a little village setting!

Once in a while, I found myself thinking these things were going to start moving.
Aw, JC wants to make sure the pumpkin baby is OK.

In this gazebo, was an amazing thing, Pumpkin President George Bush and first lady Laura met with former Pumpkin President Clinton and first lady, Hillary. I simply had to capture that historical time in my boys' lives.



One final pic...

I have to say, this is one of the many benefits of homeschooling. Finish work by noon and head to an event like this and be home in time to make dinner!

Pacifier Protest

We have been gradually weaning our young two year old off the pacifier. Especially since he now yells for it, forgets to annuniciate the "P" and then leaves off the "ifier." Yeah, that's a great one in public! So, yesterday, I asked him to take it out and place it on the back of his seat.

He did, begrudgingly. And he held his grudge, long enough for me to take this photo...

and moments later, this one...

And, this even feistier one.

Surely he was thinking..."NO FAIR!"

And then...


"Oh hello, pointer finger...dah doo dah dah doo dah"

Language Arts and Copywork

I have often been asked how we school or plan to school our boys, who differ in ages and stages. Bible, History, Science and some other things are taught together--with my third grader having more expected of him in these areas. Language Arts is something taught completely separate. Though, they often want to know about what the other is doing. For my third grader, we use Primary Language Lessons. Below is an example of what was expected of him today. Some days, I have him only write the word that would fill in the blanks. Today, I asked him to write the sentences out. Still need to double-check his work. He does a lot of this work independently--with my supervision being that I will proofread and correct where necessary.

My first grader uses First Language Lessons which includes lots of help from Mom!

I have made a deal with him that on most days, he will only need to write out two words each day until Christmas and we will slowly build. I've heard/read/listened to many opinions about this, and I am quite comfortable with this. Rather have him enjoy and learn, than learn to hate it. Today, I thought this poem was quite fitting and taught us both a good lesson--so we memorized it and both wrote it out. He complained after writing the first two lines and I said, "Hey, look, you've already written one fourth of the poem--like how there are fours quarters in a dollar, only three more to go, that's great!" (Cool, math is all set for the day--Just Kidding!) Then, I whipped out the camera and took a picture as he got further and he quickly 'worked while he was working' and asked me to photograph the completed page.

He asked me to write it for him as well, so I obliged.



JC, well he loves to "do stickers." So, he "did stickers."
He said "BAT."
That's a two year old's Language Arts.
Prior to this lesson, Hunter was reading this Nursery Rhyme book with him.
He loves when his older brothers read to him.

Painting Pumpkins and Spin Art

We enjoyed a Children's Night at our church last week. What a fun time.

We also stole an idea from Sara's Art House--the kids loved this. Ours came out a little different...but that's OK.

Oh yes, that white blob in the middle down there...is actually one of the girls' sweater which was on the back of a chair, but my baby decided to turn it into a football and threw it right on a big blob of paint and got it all colorful! So, I had to wash and add some soap and leave it for her mommy in a plastic baggy to take home to wash and try to get the paint out!

Of course, my son actually make's a pumpkin with directions for carving RIGHT on the pumpkin! Yes, it says where to carve with arrows and everything. Wonder where he gets that from?

Hebrew Writing Scroll

Here is what the scroll will end up looking like. You take two pieces of paper--and squoosh (squish, squash) them all up over and over, lay them flat out and do it again. Then...

...use a cheat sheet like the above and write a phrase, in Hebrew and English--unless you can read Hebrew of course, then you don't need the translation.

I bought this book from the CHAP homeschool convention. I couldn't believe the price! They had two such books and both contain amazing projects for kids. I actually planned this for our Wed night children's ministries last week--but since I planned it, it still counts for our homeschool, right?

Look right up there and you will see the scroll...and below is what it looks like opened:

It's pretty neat that when you wrinkle the paper over and over, it really takes on a neat texture.

Especially the construction paper (orange.)

Early Settlers' Windows

We learned about Jamestown and how people in the early 1600's
used oiled paper for their windows. We did an experiment and tried oiling
white paper to see what happens. It was pretty interesting...
...the oiled paper allows much light through and repels moisture!

On the bottom photo, the left is actually the part that was oiled. This was held up to the window and you can see how bright the sun shines through.

New Cake Topper

k W t

Letters in their place

Here are a couple photos a mom sent of the letters I made her. I think she did an amazing job putting them up with the decor. For close-ups of the letters, CLICK and you will see my own pics in a previous post.

The baby will be in his bassinet for a while...so the mom decided to decorate in the master bedroom. How sweet and what an effort as a new mom. I just kept the bassinet next to the bed, but never thought to doll up the room to coordinate. I'll get more pics when Baby Drew goes to his own nursery. This is a lovely Christian family. As you check out the pics, please lift them up in prayer!

A funny lesson

We watched America's Funniest Home Videos last night. They had a segment on men getting waxed--it showed guys having huge wax strips ripped off their chests, back and stomachs (on purpose!) We were all cracking up--they even had some guys standing on roofs, having a rock thrown off the roof--the rock was tied with a rope--the rope was attached to the wax strip which was attached to the guy's stomach. One by one, the wax strips were ripped off and the guys reactions were simply hilarious. What people do for a laugh.......

So, this morning we were doing "bible" and my eight year old is reading to us about Abraham and the covenant of circumcision. I think nothing of it.

Then, when he finishes the passage, he looks up and says,
"Mom, what is circumcision?"

Oh boy. Hubby, hello, do you have to be at work? And, why can't anyone be here to hear this stuff? And, why can't I have a video camera to capture this stuff? So, I explained circumcision to my eight year old and six year old sons.

There is an eerie dead silence.

Their eyeballs are going up and down and I could tell they are thinking, squirming and confused.

So, my eight year old says, "so it's like 'wah', here's your baby" He then makes a motion of what looks like ripping off a wax strip and makes the noise of paper tearing and then says "I love you, God" sort of mimicking how these men would show their devotion..."Is that what it was like mom, like on America's Funniest Home Video?"

The two boys then began demonstrating it over and over again.... :-) We all laughed so hard...it was pandemonium at our house today but now they know....about waxing/covenants/circumcision/etc etc...

This was great on my last morning as a 33 year old.

THIS...IS HOMESCHOOLING

Lesson: the art of carving! Apples that is!

Skipping math for the day and baking an apple pie to enter into a local fair.

He was 3 years younger than any other kid and he won second place! Woot Woot!

Going to the Cape the day after public school starts!
An eight, two and six year old sharing a morning break with ginger snaps.

OK, so this isn't homeschool, technically. Unless, you call my two year old getting pampered by his Grandma by getting a message and getting to wear big boy underwear while doing so, a lesson.

"Moooah, Mom" he says.