Weekly Wrap-Up - May 19

Ahhh, finally a calmer week :) Don't get me wrong, we've been having a blast with all our busy-ness, but we all need some down time too!

So let's see . . . Sunday was Mother's Day, but Rodney had pulled a muscle or something in his arm and couldn't really even move, so no pampering for me (and honestly, while I appreciate when he and the kids voluntarily do nice things for me, in general, I consider Mother's Day to be abit of a "Hallmark holiday" so no big deal . . . ).  That afternoon our awesome neighbor, not only loaned us his super-duper weed-eater/mower thingy, but mowed a good bit of the back yard with it for us too, since Rodney couldn't! And they stayed to help me rake most of it too!

The rest of the week was school and such as normal. Nice weather, so lots of outside time. One day (Thursday, I think?) even got warm enough for the girls to spend the afternoon in the creek.

The big girls are enjoying listening to the homeschool seminar cds I got this year.

Little Bit, who flat out refused to wear leggings or tights all winter long, has now decided that the one pair of pink tights that I still had in her drawer are "ballerina tights" so now, instead of being nakey whenever we're home, without company, she wears a shirt, those tights, and the "tutu" that was in a batch of freecycle dress-up stuff I got for the twins when they were her size. It's just like a thick tulle belt, but it's been a pretty versatile dress-up item, so it's stayed. I have to admit, it's pretty cute to see her dancing to whatever music happens to be on the tv or our computers in that get-up :)

At music lessons this week the girls found out there's going to be a recital at the end of the month. Sassy is over-the-moon excited about her first recital. And the two of them MIGHT play a duet, though at the moment they're not quite there yet, so we shall see . . .

Friday morning about 15 minutes before we normally start school, Penny stopped by and said they had just chased "the helicopter" and we HAD to go see it too. Background . . . a few times since we moved in, we've seen a helicopter with something hanging down off it, flying around, but staying in the area, going up and down. So that morning, she'd loaded the boys into the car and they'd gone to see if they could get close enough to see what the helicopter was doing. When they got closer, they discovered that the helicopter was actually trimming trees! The thing we'd seen hanging down was a huge chain-saw-like blade, and the helicopter was trimming the trees along the power lines. It WAS very cool!

When we all got back from watching the helicopter, the weather was soo gorgeous, and I knew it was supposed to be rainy this week, so we scrapped school and the kids spent the morning riding bikes and otherwise playing outside.

So that was our week.

Crew Review: Luke's Life List and Luke's School List

I love planning and lists. Much as I believe in our eclectic way of homeschooling, I believe in it, because I believe it's best for my kids. If it were "all about me", I'd have every single subject planned out through 12th grade for all three girls. So, when I was given the opportunity to review Luke's Life List, and Luke's School List from Joyce Herzog, I was intrigued.


Luke's Life List is a book full of checklists of the things that the author believes are the most important for our children to learn as they are growing up.  The "Luke" in the title is referring to Luke in the Bible, and the text, Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased, in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. KJV, this is the only verse that tells us of Jesus' growing up years. The author organized this life list to go along with the verse, "wisdom", "stature", etc.

We also reviewed the companion book, Luke's School List, that is the same concept, but for school subjects.

Both books include "goals" throughout childhood, from baby things, like first steps to teenage things like getting a driver's license.

The books are designed such that you can either have a separate book (or set of books) for each child, or suggestions are made to use one book/set for up to three children.

Since I was sent one set to review, and I have three children, it was pretty easy to decide which option to use, and it's working well for me.

I read through both books, then began filling them in. Even as much as I love marking off checklists, I opted to skip the pages that all three kids were WAY past (baby/early toddler stuff). Ideally, a person would start this when their child was VERY young, so that there isn't any "catch-up"

There are also several sections in the Life List book, that I prefer not to use. I feel pretty strongly that it would be counterproductive to use a "checklist" of what my children "know" in their walk with God. I believe that would be a slippery slope toward legalism. WHAT my children know isn't important to me, WHO they know is important, and while family Bible study is a very important part of our days, I trust that God will lead them to learn what He wants them to know, so I don't need a detailed, extensive checklist to make sure they know all there is to know about Christianity. But obviously everyone needs to decide for themselves how they will train their children in the ways of the Lord, and I know many people would value this tool in that process.

I did notice some repetition (same concept listed in more than one place), and there were some things that I'm not sure what was meant by the item. I think she mentioned, in one place, that she explains the terminology in one of her other books.

All in all, I like the idea of this. I am planning to continue using it, glancing through it once or twice a year to jog my memory of skills that we should be working on. I would say this would work with any style of homeschooling, and even those who don't homeschool might find Luke's Life List helpful. I would caution those using this, to recognize that it is tool . . . you will need to tweak it and adjust things to make it work for you (our children don't take gymnastics, or participate in organized sports teams, and there are some rather large sections that relate to these areas that we'll be skipping, for example).  You can purchase these books for $30 each.

Joyce Herzog provided the Schoolhouse Review Crew with a wide variety of items to review, be sure to check out the crew blog (link in the banner below) to see what everyone else reviewed, and what they thought of the items.

Recipe: Banana Bread Muffins

Interestingly, while Sassy doesn't like bananas, she DOES like banana bread. So every so often we make banana bread. And, sometimes we make muffins for breakfast. So the obvious solution, when there's not time for lots of baking, is to make banana bread muffins!

1 3/4 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2-3 bananas, mashed (1 cup)
1/3 c honey
1/4 c butter, melted
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Stir dry ingredients together. Mix in mashed bananas, honey, butter and eggs.

Spoon into 12 greased muffin cups. Bake about 20 min.

If you'd rather make this as bread, you can put into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 50-60 min.

Yummy either way!!!

Crew Review: Spanish for You!

A couple years ago, the girls wanted to learn Spanish. We spent a year or so working on it, but then, when we needed to pare down what all we were doing, Spanish is one of the subjects that we dropped.

I was torn when Spanish for You came up to review. On the one hand, we'd decided to take a break from Spanish this year, on the other hand, this curriculum looked REALLY cool! And I do want them to learn Spanish at some point . . . So, we agreed to review, Spanish for You, Estaciones!

Spanish for You is a flexible curriculum that can be used for all your children, grades 3-8. The themed units can be used in any order. Each unit provides lessons for 24-30 weeks, depending on which grade level you are using. The unit, for grades 3-8 is available for $64.95 or if you only need one of the lesson guides (for 2 grades, instead of all 6), that's available for $39.95. You can see a sample here.

As mentioned above, we reviewed the Estaciones (Seasons) unit. I found that some days, we moved through the suggested lessons very quickly, and ended up adding abit from the next day, and other days, we found there was more suggested than we had time for, so some days we split between 2 days. The first day, we listened to the mp3 of how the words are pronounced, then the girls made flash cards for the first batch of words, then the next few days were spent learning those words using games, songs, flash cards, and worksheets, so there was something for all learning styles, and not enough of any one thing to get bored :) And that's the basic approach, learn new words, make flash cards, review said words in  various ways, and move one. The various activities make sure the children can translate the word in either direction, and also that the child hears the words, speaks the word, reads the word, and writes the word.

Overall, I liked this curriculum. It taught the words thoroughly and in fun ways. It can be used with multiple ages/grades. Most days I could spend a few minutes giving instruction and the girls could do the rest on their own. As I mentioned above, Spanish isn't really a subject we're wanting to focus on right now, but MiniMe is enjoying it enough that she asked if we continue using it, at least a couple times a week. Sassy said she'd like to use it if/when we decide to learn Spanish again in the future.

One thing I found frustrating is that there are several different files/ebooks to keep track of. There's the main ebook that lists the vocabulary and such, then the specific "lesson plans" for the various grades, that tells you what to DO with the book information for that day. AND there are other files for the audio files and workbook pages. So to plan a day's lesson it's necessary to flip between multiple .pdf files. It's not horrible, and you could get around it by printing things out, but, IMO the benefit of .pdfs is not having so many books/papers around, so I try to minimize the printing.

To see what others thought of this, and the Fiesta unit, click the banner below.

Weekly Wrap-Up - May 12

This was a BUSY week! I'm still trying to catch my breath . . . 

At the beginning of the week we were still at my parents' house, so we'll start there.

Sunday was the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival! We've gone several times, and it's always alot of fun! My parents came with us. We watched the sheep dog demonstration, and sheep shearing, then Papa, took Little Bit to see all the sheep, and the big girls, and Mama and I went shopping :) It's kinda fun that they are old enough to want to wander through all the vendors with me now :) MiniMe wanted to learn how to do every handcraft she saw :) I finally started making a list for her in Evernote LOL. Sassy was more selective, but joined in as well.

Monday we visited our friends Monica & Eric. They have 4 kids, and some mutual friends were there as well. Between the 4 families represented there were 15 kids :) The kids had a BLAST fishing, catching salamanders and tadpoles, cooking hotdogs over a campfire, exploring in the woods, and hunting for fossils. Here are some pictures from our day:

Cooking hot dogs for lunch

Little Bit tried fishing.

MiniMe and Sassy had no problem touching the fish!

Little Bit didn't have the patience to catch her own fish, so she snuck into the picture of one of Sassy's :)\ 

Tuesday we headed home from Mama and Papa's with a stop at another friend's house on our way home. We hadn't been over to Kim's house for awhile, so Little Bit didn't really remember the kids, but before we left, she and Z were best of friends :)

When we got home Tuesday night, we had to check out the caterpillar/worms on our bushes. Penny had noticed them while we were gone, and told us to be sure to check them out. They are COVERING the branches of one kind of bushes (and stripping it, but it was a bush that I wasn't sure I wanted to keep anyway, so I can live with it).  Since Daddy was home, I left the kids at home with him and headed to the grocery store to get a few essentials. By the time I got home, they'd googled and figured out that the worms were sawflies worms, and what kind of bushes they are on, and that they turn into things that look kind of like wasps but are harmless . . .so guess we had science class that day LOL.

Wednesday, E & J came over to join us for school. It was rainy, so we did some more of the art video we're reviewing.

Wednesday afternoon when MiniMe went to get the mail, she called me over, there were MILLIONS of ants in the mailbox moving eggs or larvae around and "storing" it in the folds of a food drive paper bag that was part of the day's mail.  I'm still at a loss as to why the ants decided to live IN the mailbox all of a sudden, and how they SO QUICKLY decided the folds of the mail was a good house . . .Sassy had gotten the mail the evening before and there weren't any noticeable ants then, so it was all very fast. Was cool to be able to see though.

Thursday was music lessons, I couldn't resist catching Little Bit being quiet and calm for once :) She'd been drawing, and then was waiting for me to take a picture of her drawing, and I snuck this pick in too. I LOVE it! :)

Thursday evening I left for CHAP (homeschool convention). Little Bit was NOT at all happy about me leaving for so long. She doesn't even like me to go to the grocery store without her. But she handled it pretty well. She sent me off with several of her toys "to remember me by" :) I got her a new puzzle and wrapped each piece individually with a little note and put times on them, so that by the time the puzzle was done I'd be home (or stuck in traffic, LOL). I think that helped alot, and the big girls did a good job of "playing mommy" and helping her out.

Friday, Rodney took the girls to Grandmom's. I had a busy day of curriculum shopping and seminars at CHAP. It was fun, and I was able to get the Life of Fred math books that we needed, and alot of other ideas and such :)

I am so proud of how the big girls stepped up while I was gone. MiniMe asked me, before I left, how to make coffee, so she could make it for Daddy while I was gone. Sassy, knowing that Daddy usually leaves for church later than us (long story, but our SS class starts earlier than his), "bribed" him, by telling him she'd make him eggs for breakfast if he got up on time :) Both girls helped with Little Bit. Sassy can't find her iPod at the moment (sigh), but MiniMe had hers, so all 3 girls could e-mail me from that.

They were finishing up the chocolate chip pancakes they'd made for supper when I got home Sat. evening. Little Bit had been so busy that she hadn't opened her last couple of puzzle pieces :) Sassy was very excited to have her Life of Fred math books! She ran right upstairs and started doing math :) and MiniMe started reading one of the Sonrise Stable books I'd gotten.

After I read one of Little Bit's new books to her, we went up and played with her puzzle some more :)

So that was our week.

Book Review: Papa's Pearls

When I first started researching homeschooling, way back when the twins were toddlers, one of the first books I read was Carschooling by Diane Flynn Keith. It's a book that still lives in my car! So, when I saw we were going to be reviewing a new book by this author, I was intrigued.

Unlike Carschooling, Papa's Pearls, isn't a homeschooling book.  It is a book about the author's father, and the wisdom he passed along to his children and grandchildren, in the form of "pearls" of wisdom, short sayings that he said frequently, and modeled in his life.

When I received the information about this review, it indicated that this book was written for adults, but many families have ended up using it as a family read aloud and discussion-starter.

I read the first chapter on my own, to get a feel for it. I was pretty sure the girls would enjoy it, so we added it into our bedtime routine. I read a chapter to them each night.

Because this book wasn't written for children, and, I assume, to keep it as "authentic" to Papa's life as possible, there were a couple places where I "edited" the language as I read it to the girls, because of that, and some of the other concepts, that required some explanations, at least for my children, I wouldn't recommend handing it over to children to read on their own, but it was a great family read aloud.

Many nights, the girls wanted me to read a second chapter, and when I read the last chapter, Sassy immediately said "she should write a sequel!" So, it was a hit. I enjoyed it as well, Papa had great advice, and it made me think, and re-evaluate, and make some changes in my life. It led to some wonderful discussions with my ten-year-olds. We were blessed to have the opportunity to read this book together, and I'd recommend it to everyone!

You can purchase an autographed copy of the book, here, for $21.97.

To see what other reviewers thought, click the banner below.

Weekly Wrap-up for May 6

We are continuing to enjoy as much outside time as possible with the great, if sometimes chilly, spring weather.

In addition to that, here are some highlights from our week.

On Tuesday we had art class. The littles painted with water colors at one table, and we set the bigger kids up at a table in front of an art DVD we are reviewing. It worked great, and everyone had fun :) I am LOVING the versatility of my drop-leaf table and our open floor plan. I can drag it in front of the TV for a project like this, and it folds down out of the way when it's not in use.

I can't wait to tell you about the art video! For that matter, I can't wait for the kids to do the rest of the projects on that video :)

On Thursday we headed out to music lessons, and from there, on down to Mama and Papa's house. While we've seen lots of Mama and Papa with all their help on our house renovation projects, we hadn't been to their house since Christmas, and even longer then that since we were down to see friends, so this has been a trip of catching up with old long-time friends :)  We had hoped to stop at Kim's house on the way down, but some of her kids were sick so we're hoping to see her on our way home.

With all the bike-riding the kids have been doing, it occurred to me that the twins were about Little Bit's age when they got their first bikes. So one of the first things we did when we got to Mama and Papa's was dig one of the twins' old bikes out of the garage and let Little Bit try it out.

She is LOVING it! And the bonus of being the little sister of twins, she can keep one bike here and take one home with her LOL.

Friday we went to see Miss Vicki and her kids. They just moved into a new house, so we got to see the new house. E & K had great fun showing the girls around, and all the girls had fun playing in E & K's fort! Little Bit kept going back and forth between playing with the rest of the girls outside, or playing with Baby L, inside. I wish we lived closer, she ADORES him, it would be fun to see them interact more often :)

Sabbath was my 20 year reunion from high school, and Rodney's 25 year. His class did a LOT more than mine LOL. He had a whole day event, and wasn't home until bedtime. I just went over for part of church to see people. Sassy and MiniMe chose to go to church with Mama and Papa instead, but Little Bit decided to come with me, I think she regretted it LOL, but she did well, standing around while I talked to people.

Sabbath afternoon, the girls, Mama and Papa, and I, went to Shenandoah National Park for their wildflower weekend. The wildflowers weren't out, but we had fun hiking around, and Papa got his passport stamp :)












Little Bit is obviously related to her Uncle Dan, she wanted to climb right out to the edge of all the rocks. Mean Mommy wouldn't let her LOL.

We looked into doing the Junior Ranger, but you had to either buy the book, or print it online (and we hadn't printed it ahead), and it was a pretty involved one, so we decided to wait and print it out at home and do it another time. Then at the other visitor center, I saw that they have "explorer backpacks" that you could rent, and when you rent the backpack, you get the Junior Ranger book with it. So I asked about it. To rent the backpack, full of fun things like binoculars, for a day only costs $2 more than buying the Jr Ranger book, so I think sometime when we're down here we're going to take a day and go do that :)

So, that was our week. Our fun has continued this week, but I'll wait and tell you about that in another post :)