Our Family Project

In April we participated in our homeschool group's Geography Fair.  We went the easy route because we were throwing together our project at the last minute, and chose to do our project on Chile!  It was easy because that's where Jon served his mission.  So, we had a bunch of little items that showcased the culture there.  Jon and I traced the map on a long sheet of paper, and, okay, we colored it too.  We are such control freaks.  Oh well.  The children drew little pictures/icons of exports, produce, and other things that symbolized specific things we learned about Chile.  We got to the part and everything was set up trunk-or-treat style ... which was so great!  Although, our friends in the car next to us did their report on Argentina ... the sworn enemy of Chile! Then, came the presentation!  This was the fun part.  Eliza, Kate and I got together the day before the fair and wrote a rap for our presentation.  Then, we broke u...

We just got back yesterday from a camping trip.  Originally, we planned on going to Disneyland for Jon's vacation time at the end of January/beginning of February.  We were going to meet my sister there and take advantage of the smaller crowds and lower costs.  But, alas, it still would have cost us $2500 for the trip (food, accommodations, and park passes).  And, we just found out that Jon has a cyst on his head that needs to be surgically removed ($3000).  We decided that since we have a high deductible insurance plan and will have to pay $3000 out of pocket before the insurance will cover anything, that we would just stay around here for his vacation. We went into the nearby mountain range by our house, and stayed for a few days.  The camping there is really accommodating: flush toilets and showers!  We were surrounded by RVs .... the only tents in sight.  I took my camera without remembering that Jon lost my lens cap in October and I haven't...

I've been working on some projects for school recently.  My friend introduced me to a website called Teachers Pay Teachers .  Basically, teachers post files of worksheets, posters, etc. for other teachers to use.  Some you'd have to buy, but there are a ton for free.   I've been wanting posters for the parts of speech to put on the wall for my children to look when they forget what a pronoun is, or a preposition, etc.  So, I got on that website and did some looking around.  I found several different files that were what I wanted, but nothing had everything I wanted.  Make sense?  I wanted my posters to all look the same: font, color scheme, format.  But, I couldn't find one file with all the parts of speech I wanted ... some had all but one or two, others had only four (because I am cheap and just want to get the free ones). My answer was to just make my own!  I spent some time making the posters, then decided to make a booklet ...

Last week we hit kind of a road block on Tuesday.  We were all being a little lazy, a little distracted, and a little unmotivated.  So, I packed everyone up and we went to the park!  Maryanne ran off and started playing, while everyone else was told that they needed to get their work finished before they could go play.  Somehow, it worked!  Eliza ran off to a pavilion to do her work in peace, and shortly after, Kate followed.  The boys and I stayed on our blanket and they each took their turn reading to me, then doing their math worksheets. When they were all finished, they ran over to the playground to play for a little bit.  Unfortunately, they didn't last very long.  It's still too hot here to go outside in the middle of the day (by this time, it was almost 12).  So, we packed everything up and headed out for the library ... a spot that has soon become a favorite for our family. In all, I felt that we didn't get much done, b...

Tonight was Eliza's first performance in a musical.  She was one of the lucky few who was given a speaking/singing part.  And, she did a fantastic job!   It was a rendition of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, but with a little country-western spin on it.  So, it was called: The Taming of Katy Lou. Eliza's character was originally called "Stinky Pete," but because of the lack of boys in the cast, a lot of the boys' parts were given to girls.  Eliza played up the country accent really well too. This girl was made for the stage.  She had overly dramatic expressions, used her whole body to show emotions, and had the best projection of the whole cast.  All, from her tiny self. It was so wonderful to watch her perform tonight ... and do it all on her own!  She knows for sure she's found something she loves and wants to continue to do for years and years.

Eliza just finished a science unit on the solar system.  As part of their "discoveries" they had eight different kinds of projects to complete.  Some were as easy as writing a letter to the president about why we should not live on Mars, or drawing a picture of a space shuttle (which, I admit, may not have been easy for some students).  Eliza did those two projects as well as researching an astronaut and preparing a presentation about them, and several other projects.  The last two that she turned in today were a diorama of the solar system and a solar system board game. She just barely completed her projects last night, with a little help from me.  I found the idea of making a telescope diorama online, then told Eliza about it.  She was thrilled.  Another student in her class had brought in a diorama in a box with all of the planets in orbit.  Eliza said that she didn't want to copy her and paint on the comets and meteors.  So, I did a l...

 Last Saturday, we went to our school district's elementary school art show.  I don't think we would have gone if none of our children had anything in it.  As it was, our school had about 20-25 pieces of art in the show ... if that many ... and TWO of our children had art displayed! It took us forever to find Andrew's artwork.  We asked him over and over again what it was that he had displayed and he couldn't remember for a while.  And, when he did remember, he said it was thumbprint art.  I was expecting a piece of art completed by using his thumbprints.  Instead, we finally found his artwork displayed with his friend's from his class.  Definitely not the thumbprint art I was expecting ... it was so much better!  We found Eliza's artwork almost right away.  For some reason her artwork was displayed without her name, and in a section that wasn't remotely close to the rest of the school.  Strange.  Kate and I asked her a c...

This last week has been quite an eye opener for me.  I never realized how hard and traumatic our moving experience was for our family ... until recently. I spoke in church on Sunday and used an example of a question Adam once asked Jon after we moved into our house as an introduction to my topic ... sort of.  Anyway, it was as I was preparing that I realized that our children/family have been yanked back and forth so much in the last year. Adam's question was: "Do we get to stay here?" It was after Jon told me about Adam's question that I realized that our children have been deeply affected by our move.  10+ months of limbo will do that to you. The affects have been most apparent in Andrew.  His behavior has changed so much since we moved out here.  He has started to throw up a wall everytime he gets upset.  Sometimes that wall is so thick we can't break it down and have to walk away in frustration.  When he gets upset, he simply sits, lookin...

The other day, I was perusing one of my favorite crafting blogs, and was hit with a brick.  I'd been trying to come up with an idea for something for the children to give to their teachers for Valentine's Day, when I saw this craft blogger post about Valentine gift pouches .  The thought had never occurred to me, until then, to make my reusable sandwich bags for their teachers and fill them with treats. So, I did.  And, I think they are so cute.  The children picked out the fabric, and then wrote their names (the girls did a little doodling).  Then, I sewed them together.  I was going to guide Eliza and Kate through the sewing process, but then got carried away and just ended up sewing theirs.  Oh well, they can help me fill an order for Andrew's teacher (who, along with another teacher, wants me to make her some - photos coming soon).

In 2004, we decided to homeschool our children.  We came to this decision after talking to many, many homeschoolers that we met at church, and because the children who were homeschooled were much better behaved and could converse with adults much better than the public-schooled children.  We researched homeschooling and realized that it only takes up a fraction of the time that our children would spend in a public school, and they learn much faster and better because of the one-on-one environment.  That, coupled with the fact that we could decide what they were learning, really solidified our resolve to homeschool. The year that Eliza turned five I started to collect homeschool resources.  I looked online and found many, many blogs about homeschooling, and many homeschool resource stores.  One of our goals with homeschooling was to incorporate the Gospel of Jesus Christ into everything taught.  During my research online, I found a website called: Latter-...

Last week Eliza was given a pilgrim project for social studies at school.  She was to find an ancestor that was a pilgrim, then decorate an old fashioned clothespin to look like that ancestor and bring it in for a presentation about the ancestor.  The Saturday before the project was due we met Jon's sister and her husband at the temple.  My sister-in-law told us of an ancestor of theirs who came across the Atlantic Ocean from Wales and lost a baby on the ship over.  She told us that we could look online and find a lot of information about her.  So, that's who Eliza did her presentation on.  Jon and I helped Eliza make the clothing and hair for her clothespin doll ... but there were other children in her class that made backdrops and props for their dolls.  Such a great family history project!

In May we had every intention of homeschooling this year. I won't bore you with my reasons, unless you really want to know. So, because we made that decision, we didn't get the children enrolled earlier in the summer. By the beginning of August, the children decided they'd rather go to public school. I think the experience they got through k12 wasn't very good. Seemed like they just took test after test to keep up (they had to complete 80% of the k12 curriculum in two and a half months), and I don't think they retained any of what they learned. Sad. *sigh* So, we looked at the school they hopefully will be attending if we ever get the house we have an offer on. Their start date was August 16th. We were in Utah until the 15th, so on the 17th (I left my license in UT and couldn't enroll them without it) I made some phone calls to the district and the school itself. The three persons I talked to said that we could enroll in that school, as long as we bring in a s...

I saw this great idea on a blog one day, and now I can't find it.  So, if anyone has seen this before, and knows the blog address, please let me know! The other day, Andrew and Adam made our own movable alphabet.  I remember using something similar when I'd volunteer in Eliza's first grade classroom to help the children practice spelling words.  Now that both Andrew and Adam have caught the reading bug (thanks Lynette for your help with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons! ), I thought that letting them make their own words would be a great activity for them during the summer (and even into the school year ... I'm sure this will come in handy with spelling list practice). I got the foam letters and containers at JoAnn ; I even had the boys with me so they could get excited about the project.  The next day, I printed out the grid sheets and gave the boys some glue and told them to just go at it.  Adam went like gang busters, just putting whicheve...

These are the new craze in our elementary school. Seriously. Eliza started coming home each day with a new one, explaining that she had bought them from her friends. Before I knew it, she was selling them to her friends in the neighborhood, and then giving them to her brother. And, all of this was happening at school ... she'd never been to the store to actually purchase one herself. When I finally took her to the store with the "squisy" vending machine, Eliza ended up getting four more bears (the one on the far right) and other frog. Ironically, she got a better variety from her friends at school than when she bought them herself. I think we'll just stick to the school yard for her bartering.

We went to an apple orchard for Adam's preschool field trip. It was a lot of fun. Andrew got to come along because we went in the morning (we barely made it make in time for the bus). They fed the goats, watched the different kinds of chickens there ("Look, there's a zebra chicken!" ~courtesy of Adam), and even got to hold little chicks. They had these not-in-use tractors sitting out that a bunch of children were climbing on for pictures. I couldn't keep my boys away from them. What? Keep boys away from something like that? No, I don't think so! They climbed right up there and went to work ... well, they would have gone to work if the tractors were running. There was also a corn pit that they were able to play in. I LOVE these things! They are the best ... way better than the ball pits. I mean, how many balls go home in your pants and hoodies when you play in the ball pit? ;-) No, these are lots of fun. When we got around to picking the apples, the boys wer...