Every good and perfect gift is from above.
~James 1:17

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Close...But No Tornado

The kids were sleeping while the wind was blowing. A storm was coming. Then the warning siren went off. We checked the television to see if there was really danger of a tornado in our area. The meteorologist drew a triangle on the map around the area where the storm was most intense and where there was the most likelihood of a tornado. I stared at the screen. He had drawn the triangle right around our neighborhood!

So, we woke up the kids and headed downstairs to wait it out. It was a little bit scary, but kind of an adventure. Finally, the danger passed. No tornado had developed. Kids tucked safely back in bed. :-) It rained and rained and we all slept soundly.

Today the news reported that a tornado touched down less than ten miles from our home. It was headed this direction but died down before it got this far.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Let's Go Fly A Kite


We just got back from the soccer field at the local high school where we went to fly a kite! It is a cool and breezy evening~perfect weather for sending Grant's alligator kite with the spinning eyes soaring into the sky. Everyone took their turn at flying the kite and then the kids tried to jump and grab the tail as Dave kept it just out of reach. The kids are tuckered out and will sleep well tonight! :-)

Friday, September 08, 2006

Co-op

Today was the first day of classes for our homeschool co-op. The kids and I look forward to this time with other homeschooling families. Grant and Katie especially enjoy the chance to play and hang out with their friends.

This year Katie is in first grade and is in three classes at co-op: Health, Five In A Row and P.E.. Grant is in second grade and the classes he is taking are Music, Art and P.E.. I am teaching the Five In a Row class, along with another mom. Today we read the story, Blueberries For Sal. The mom that I teach with brought in a bear skull and a bearskin rug for our study of bears. Next time we will read the same story again and bake a blueberry pie! :-)

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

First Day Of School


We started the school year today. It was definitely an adjustment to get up earlier and have more of a schedule after our summer break! We got a bit of a late start, but I'm sure we'll get going sooner tomorrow.

I wrote out three chores for each child to do before we started our schoolwork. They loved that! It was fun to see them take on the responsibility of getting those chores done and checked off. Throughout the day they would make comments like, "I wonder what our chores will be tomorrow!" :-)

We hung out our flag and took our traditional first-day-of-school-in-front-of-the-flag-pictures. I gave them a new book and read it to them and we read a few chapters in our history book. That is one of my favorite things about homeschooling ~ the three of us snuggled on the couch reading together. :-) I worked individually with each of them and they each did some writing...and then the day was about over! All in all, it was a good first day of school.

This is the curriculum we are using this year~

Reading, Writing, Spelling: The Writing Road To Reading, Reading Works

Math: Math-U-See

History and Geography: The Story Of The World, Volume 2: The Middle Ages and library books

Science: Using ideas from The Well-Trained Mind as a guide for studying astronomy, the human body and earth science.

Art: I Can Do All Things by How Great Thou Art publications

Music
: Co-op classes, Color The Classics (Hymns) and singing along with tapes and cd’s from the library.

P.E.: Co-op classes, community sports teams and swimming lessons.