Alamo Trip

We started off our school year with a mostly free trip to the Alamo.

John had to travel there for work and already had a nice hotel room so we tagged along.

It was a very hot day, but we Texans are tough. 

While the kids enjoyed seeing where such important history took place, I think they liked the pizza and swimming at the hotel that evening better. =)

Remember the Alamo!!!

Blue Bell Creamery Field Trip

We believe in high quality, classical education around here.

Which is why we jumped at the chance to tour the Blue Bell Factory! ;)

(I'm sure it had nothing to do with the ice cream you get to eat at the end.)

We weren't allowed to take pictures during the tour, but it was really neat to see!

We all agreed that we will never think about our ice cream the same way again.

Aulora loved her sherbert. And Natalia, my adopted sister's daughter, loved her vanilla. The kids always clamor to sit by their cousin. They are best buds!

If you ever get a chance to visit the Blue Bell Creamery, do it! It's great!

(By the way, the BEST new flavor is "Southern Peach Cobbler". Oh my goodness!!! It's getting harder and harder to find though, which is why I bought all that would fit in our freezer when I found some at our local HEB!)

Aulora and School

What a difference one year makes! Last year Aulora struggled with school. This year she is doing great! On Mondays she goes to Classical Conversations, Monday night is Ballet, Tuesday through Friday we do school at home, and she also does gymnastics on Thursday nights. John's mom is working with her on reading and piano and I'm doing the other subjects. She loves to be videoed when she has learned something. I love that since I'm getting a video to look back on in the years to come and she also likes to watch the video she made over and over which means more review. =) I will continue to add more videos as we make them, which I'm sure is not very exciting to most other people. That's okay though. It's just our digital scrapbook sometimes! =)

Joshua and School

Joshua is still just four, but I really do try to educate him at least a little. He doesn't seem to think it's too very necessary though. He has his own desk just like the other kids, but he is never thrilled to use it. He would rather hang around the house or lay on an exercise ball in his Gran's room.

Here is a shot Gran took of him during his Classical Conversations class a couple of Mondays ago. See all of the other kids standing up doing the hand motions? See Joshua on the floor on the left? 

Here he is holding a jar with an egg in vinegar. It was the science experiment on Monday. (If you've never seen what happens to an egg after a few days in vinegar you should try it!) 

Even though for the most part he acts like he isn't listening and doesn't want to do things, he is learning. He can recite the timeline so far (with minimal help and if he's in the mood) and he can do a lot of other things from our memory work too. I don't get to be in his class since I teach another one, but I hear that sometimes when the other kids don't know the answer he will finally pipe up. 

I snagged a quick video today of him answering the science question from week 1. This one is by far his favorite and he goes around singing it. I think the video shows quite a bit of the contrary side of his personality! Not to mention that he answered in his annoying high pitched voice! I'll have to capture something a little sweeter next time around...

   

Trip to Curious Kids Museum

A few weeks ago I took the kids to a museum about an hour away in Michigan. The older two had been a couple of times before with their old school, but the younger two had never been.

We went on a Thursday and I expected the crowd to be low. Mostly, I was hoping there wouldn't be a school field trip going on!

We had the whole place to ourselves! Not another kid anywhere. =) It made it super easy to watch all four monkeys.

The museum sits right by the beach. There are actually two buildings so we played on the beach after visiting the first one.

Aulora learned how to make a simple cartoon drawing.

Julia and Joshua practiced being news anchors.

Aulora could have played right here all day.

All of these pieces were magnetic.

John David was hiding from Julia.

This was a miniature grocery store. There were also "apple trees" you could pick apples from in this room. After they were picked you could wheel the apples over to a chute, turn a wheel, and crank them back to the trees.

Boo picks an apple.

Awww....this is what Mommy wanted to do!

John David was lifting a bubble up and around himself!

Joshua the astronaut.

Pretending to be veterinarians.

Face painting.

Julia first did a turtle I think. She changed her mind though and started over, making him a puppy instead. (As you can see in other pictures.)

That will be $32 please!

Running the store and the apple orchard was fun for everyone. I was secretly wondering how much longer this statement will be true as I looked at how big John David is getting.

This was a wonderful day! The sweetness, the bonds that were strengthened, the unity. I loved it.

Julia Recites Psalm 136

Memorization is really important to us as a family. John David will finish memorizing his first complete book of the Bible this year (Hebrews) and Julia has memorized a number of passages and poems the last few months.

We do a lot of memorizing for Classical Conversations as well. How many five year olds can tell you what a present participle is or sing songs about the War of 1812, Henry Clay, or Polk? Or how about the parts of the lymph system or excretory system? And you should hear our crazy "Stomp"-ish rendition of skip counting the 14's! (Is it official? Have we attained true homeschooling nerdy status??)

Latin is something new for us this year, but we are learning to say John 1:1-7 in Latin. (We've already learned it in English and have also learned all the Latin words we will need for the John passage.) "In principio erat verbum"!!!

I've reached a new level of decorating greatness, I'll admit. My dining room's new theme is history time line cards. Totally classy.

I leave you with this video of Julia reciting Psalm 136. We worked on this for Thanksgiving, but because of the great plague of illness our family suffered in November, it didn't get finished in time.

(This is my attempt to fancy the video up. It didn't work too well. I'm blaming the windows live movie maker program. The sound and picture aren't lined up in this one.)

This video works just fine. It's just not as pretty. ;)

Zebus

Do you know what a zebus is? I didn't either until teaching my son his 5th grade math lesson the other day. A herd of zebu were mentioned in a word problem and after looking it up on the computer we both learned that a zebus is a type of domesticated ox.

I, uh, my kids are learning so much through this thing called homeschooling and, although it has taken over my life, I love it.

I can not believe what kind of house I keep these days and the things that I let slide by because there's just not enough time in the day. (Well, technically I guess there's time to do it but I don't want to do housecleaning at 10:00 pm!) I told John that the saving grace of all of this is that we live so far away from everyone that no one ever comes to our house so it doesn't really matter. And then he told me his parents were coming in a couple of weeks. [Panic!!] And of course I will be thrilled to see them when they come but it does beg the question - when will this house be taken care of and when will yard work be done?

My porch that is usually decorated for fall in early September hasn't seen a single change. Not even one lonely mum. I had flower boxes built and installed for our upstairs windows and I've yet to plant in them all year long. The garage is a mess, the outgrown clothes (the kids not mine!) are sitting in piles in the basement waiting to be dealt with, the wood floors need a good scrubbing, and my van hasn't been washed in......a really long time.

I could go on and on about the undone things around here, but that's not the point of this post. The point is zebu! Well, not really zebu but what the zebus represents. All the learning we're doing together! (And fortunately most of it is much more useful than knowing about a domesticated ox.)

I also love that my kids are friends. They play together so much and there is a lot of laughing (and whining and squealing too if we're being honest!). We are not perfect (by far!), but getting to spend our days together while we are loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, MIND, and strength is so precious.

A few nights ago they decided to play war and they pretended they were on an ice planet. They got out most ALL of the winter scarves, gloves, and hats. (It was a mess!) The next night they had another war but, this time it took place in the desert. That's why there are some shirtless kids in these pictures. Joshua was confused though and still thought they were on the ice planet.

I'm sure this game will be a favorite when we are cooped up for the winter!

edited to add: Since the writing of this post my porch has been decorated for fall, my flower boxes have been filled, the yard work is done (for now), and a few things were cleaned. My parents were here for Columbus day and while I did school with the older two my mom was making beds and cleaning the kitchen. How nice!

A New Season

For years my heart has wanted it.

For years I had my excuses.

They were lined out so neatly and I had convinced myself they were all very valid.

But you can only run from God's calling for so long before you get worn out. And your excuses are finally exposed as just that - empty excuses.

So several months ago we started talking about it. Pondering, what if-ing, considering. Convincing, dreaming, planning. And today it began.

I am a homeschooling mom!

I expected tears today (because everyone told me to expect it!) but the day went wonderfully. With the exception of one child (who will remain nameless) who will hopefully learn very soon that working quickly means finishing earlier, everything was great! I'm still figuring out the ideal schedule, but I expect that will take awhile.

I went through the day feeling several things over and over:

• I was made for this. This is my purpose.
• When is it nap time? (I imagine this is due to my 5 hours of sleep last night.)
• I am worshiping God in this endeavor.

This worship song has been stuck in my head. I love that as I am teaching my kids numbers I can worship God. I am so blessed that instead of rushing out the door to drop them off at school, I am cuddling with them on the couch while we read Scriptures and stories filled with moral goodness.

And once again, there's the matter of God ordering our steps perfectly. I can't tell you how endlessly I had searched and scoured the internet for the perfect curriculum to use. There's SO much out there. So much good stuff too. But nothing felt right. And I was feeling stressed out and nervous and thinking I had it all wrong and we needed to send the kids back to school after all.

A couple of days before our summer trip to Tulsa my cousin in Dallas mentioned a program she was starting with her daughter this year. I looked into it and it seemed promising. Then we found out there was a 3 day parent practicum right there in Tulsa. From then on it just kept coming together. It all seemed appointed.

This is a video explaining the program - Classical Conversations. Basically, we homeschool four days a week and one day a week we join other families for school. We're schooling based on the classical model, the "trivium".

One of my hesitations was my own feeling of inadequacy, especially when it came to classical homeschooling which involves Latin and some other intimidating things. But one of the speakers addressed that concern at the practicum saying that "homeschooling can be the redemption of two generations".

I'm so grateful. So excited. So content. So......tired!

Good night! ;)