Week 18

We're on Christmas vacation!  Yay!  On our last day of school before vacation, we enjoyed making cookies, making an ornament and finishing our Christmas lapbook.  Here are some pictures I took during the day.  Enjoy!

 

Gingerbread cookies!

Look at those serious faces!  Decorating cookies is serious business! LOL



 

 

Covering a glass ball with fabric and mod podge.  They turned out very pretty!

 

The kids completed a lapbook on the symbols of Christmas.  We worked on this for about a week.  They did a great job!









 



 



Week 17

We started off our week with a trip to the planetarium in Florence.  The Dooley Planetarium is on the Francis Marion University campus.  The program was about "The Star of Christmas".  It was very interesting and we all enjoyed the program. 

 

We really liked the reclining seats!

 

 

 

 

The whole group!  Lots of homeschoolers!

 

 

I had to beg for one more picture.  "Tween"agers are not very cooperative sometimes.  LOL 

 

 

The rest of our week was spent doing our regular stuff.  We are also working on a few Christmas projects.  We only have 3 more days until Christmas vacay!!!  Yay!!!  





Week 16

We made it through another week.  A few days closer to Christmas vacation! Yay!  We have been working on Christmas poems and a Christmas story.  On Monday, we are going to the Dooley Planetarium in Florence.  On, Tuesday, we will start our Christmas lapbook.  We are looking forward to a more relaxed schedule as we enjoy some Christmas activities. 

Week 15

Well, Thanksgiving came and went by way too quickly.  We started the Middle Ages and watched parts of a documentary on the Dark Ages.  Boy, were they dark!  Lots of violence and sickness.  A very rough time to have lived.  It's actually called the Dark Ages because very little is known of the time period.  Things were not written down.  Nothing else really exciting going on.  We're ready to start our count down to Christmas vacay!  Our last day before Christmas break is December 19.  Sure does seem late, but I guess it'll give us something to do while we wait. 

Week 14

Another short week!  We had Monday off for Veteran's Day!  We spent the week doing our usual stuff.  We finished The Story of the World Vol. 1.  When we return from Thanksgiving break, we'll be ready to begin Volume 2 The Middle Ages.  Justin and I have managed to make it to the YMCA three days a week since we joined.  He has really enjoyed the Y-fit class he takes on Mondays even though he complains about his abs hurting for days after. LOL  No pain, no gain...right?  We have next week off for Thanksgiving.  It's hard to believe that in about a month, it will be Christmas!  Wow!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Week 13

I LOVE short weeks.  We had Tuesday off for election day.  Let's see...nothing really exciting to report this week.  The holidays are fast approaching.  We actually have an entire week off for Thanksgiving this year! Yay!  We started a new book this week. Biblical Worldview of Servanthood: Who is my neighbor? And why does he need me?  This is the third book in the series that we started last year.  That's all I got! =)

Week 12

Another week done!  Yay!  We ended our week with an early morning trip to the farm.  We met Papa out there around 8:30am today.  Boy was it cold!  Brr!  I love this time of the year at the farm.  No bugs or snakes!  Justin said, "This was the best farm trip, ever!"  Here are some pictures!  Enjoy!

 

While we were there, Justin decided he wanted to chop down a tree, so he grabbed a hatchet and had at it.  Megan soon joined in.

 

 



 

Tree chopping lessons!

 

Still working!

 



 

Finally!

 

In the woods, by the sping.

 

 

One of the prettiest places on the farm!  The road leading to the hill.

 

The hitching post! 

 





 



Week 11

Let's see...everything is still moving along.  We're still learning about the "ancients" in history.  We have a few more weeks and then we'll be moving on to the Middle Ages.  I took a few pictures of our science experiment this week. 

Justin and Megan are writing out their lab reports.  The counter is really cluttered, but we were observing the balloon on the small coke bottle.  We put baking soda and vinegar in the bottle to form a gas. 

Justin has been taking an art class this semester.  This is a picture of his first painting.  His teacher has all of her students paint a duck to enter in the "Duck Stamp" contest. 

Also, I did something this week that I thought I would never do again.  I joined the "Y".  I used to work at the Y a long time ago and just know too many "secrets" that have kept me away until now.  Justin is old enough to go with me into the exercise room and weight room.  We have our orientation next week.  We both need to get off of the couch!!! 

Week 9 and 10

Well, I forgot to write at the end of week 9 and by the time I remembered, it was already Thursday of week 10.  Oh well!  Not much to report anyway.  Everything is moving along.  The kids are doing great with math.  I really am proud of both of them.  We're getting in a groove with the new science curriculum.  We are studying Ancient Rome in history.  We read a story about a ship captain who took on board chickens because he thought they were "sacred".  LOL  SACRED CHICKENS!!!  The chickens ended up getting sea sick, so he threw them overboard.  Of course, since these were "sacred" chickens, it made the gods angry and he lost the battle.  HAHA  We all had a belly laugh over that one!  Oh yeah!  We did have a little bit of excitement around here when I found a dead squirrel on the patio!  Not sure what happened to the little fella, but one down 50 million more to go!  Guess where we disposed of the body (remember the snake =) and by "we", I mean my dad, no way I was touching that thing) !

Week 8

The new science curriculum finally arrived and we started it on Friday.  We've only completed one day, so I'm not sure how I like it yet, but we're not changing again!  We had a lite schedule on Wednesday and Thursday since Megan wasn't here.  Justin and I went to Columbia on Wednesday to do some clothes shopping.  On Thursday, he had art.  He did do a little school on both days.  On Friday, Justin found and killed a snake on our driveway!  He rode over it with his bike.  =)  Megan scooped it up with a shovel and threw it over the fence in the neighbor's yard.  LOL  (It was way in the back in a wooded area.) 

Week 7

Oops!  I forgot to update the blog.  Let's see...week 7 came and went.  I'm still waiting for our new science curriculum to arrive.  It should be here tomorrow. (Oct. 2)  Yay!  Everything else is moving along.  We went on our field trip to Bi-Lo.  I hate to say, but it was very disappointing.  The poor lady who was leading it was very nervous.  She basically just walked us around the perimeter of the store talking about the food groups.  Yay rah. :(  I had hoped we would get to see behind the scenes in the meat department, bakery etc.  Oh well.  On Saturday, Justin and I went to our homeschool group's family picnic.  We had a great time! 

Week 6

Both kids made a "100" on their first math quiz!  Yay!  So far, the new math program is doing the job.  The computer gives them instant feedback on whether or not their answer is correct.  Both are motivated to get the correct answer.  I love the fact that they can do it independently and only call me for help when they get stuck.  On Friday, we watched a movie on Netflix about a few of the Greek Myths.  It was made by Jim Henson the creator of the Muppets.  On one of our walks this week, we saw 2 dead snakes squished in the road.  It was quite the conversation piece!  Oh, I ordered a new science curriculum.  I should have ordered this one in the first place.  Had my eye on it all summer, but I let someone talk me into something else.  Lesson learned.  It should be in one day next week.    Hopefully, this will be the last major change for the year, but I'm not promising anything! =)

Week 5

Things are moving along.  The kids have done a great job with the new math program.  We are still reading The Trojan War.  I think it will finally end this week.  Yay!  This year we have been doing a little exercise each morning.  Since the weather has been nice, we have been going for a walk.  I bought each of us a pedometer to track our steps or miles.  Each morning we have walked a little over a mile.  Friday was our first skate day of the year with our homeschool group.  Justin managed to get hurt in the first 5 minutes.  I thought he broke his arm, but thankfully it wasn't that bad.  He recovered quickly and was back out on the rink.  Here are a few pictures I took this week.

 



Justin jamming to piano wizard!

 

Megan working hard or is she hardly working or is she just giving me a dirty look for taking her picture. LOL 



 



Week 4

Yay, for short weeks!  It was business as usual this week.  We continued reading Story of the World Volume 1 and The Trojan War.  We finished our week with another science experiment.  The new math curriculum arrived today (Saturday), so we'll start that on Monday. 

Week 3

Wow!  It's hard to believe we have already been in school for 3 weeks.  The year is flying by!  Sorry, no pictures this week.  Nothing really exciting to report.  We continued our study of Ancient Egypt.  We are still working through fractions in math.  I have ordered a new math curriculum that should be in sometime next week.  I'm really excited to try it out.  It is a computer program that the kids will be able to do by themselves.  They will listen to a lesson and do the problems on the computer.  The program even has a gradebook!  Our science experiment this week was on adhesion.  We learned that soap makes water less adhesive.  We went to the library on Friday and checked out a few books.  We are looking forward to a short week next week since we have Monday off!  : )

Week 2

Wow, ten days down and 170 to go! :)  Our main focus this year is World History.  Right now, we are learning about Ancient Egypt.  We are reading The Story of the World Vol. 1 and the Kingfisher Encyclopedia.  During read aloud time, I am reading The Trojan War.  For science, we are reading Evolution:  The Grand Experiment and Cool Stuff 2.0.  For experiments, we are using TOPS: Cohesion.  Here are a few pictures from the week.

Pyramids made out of LEGOS!

 

 

Cohesion experiment #2.

 

 

Look at the water on the penny!  We learned that water has strong cohesion.

 

 



 



First week...DONE!

We have survived the first week of middle school!  Our new schedule is working well.  I'm sure I'll do some tweaking here and there, but mostly it's working.  Here are a few pictures from our week.

Trying out their new bean bag chairs.  They are going to be flat as pancakes in no time. LOL  (The chairs, not the kids.)

Taking a break!

Justin found a comfortable spot to work on vocabulary.

Megan chose to sit at her new desk.

Our first science experiment...cohesion.

                                             It was tough counting 50 drops of each liquid.

Justin's turn.  Look at that concentration! HaHa





Where has the summer gone?

Well, it's that time of the year again.  Our first day of school for the 2012-2013 school year is Monday, August 13th.  We are starting middle school this year which is exciting and scary.  High school is just around the corner!  This year our focus will be on World History part 1.  We'll start with Ancient history and see how far we get.  The goal this year is "independence".  I would like for Justin and Megan to be able to do more without me "hovering" over them.  I will be available for questions/corrections etc., but I would like for them to take a little more responsibility for their learning.  We'll see how it goes.

Below are some pictures of our renovated school room.  We have new hardwood floors, new desks for the kids and me, new tv stand, new rug, new bean bag chairs, new BIG whiteboard!  Basically a total redo! 









We're done!!!!



Wow!  It's hard to believe that 180 days have come and gone!  Today is our last day of school for the 2011-2012 school year.  It has been a great year!  We've learned a lot and we enjoyed having Megan along for the ride with us.  We spent our last day at Swan Lake at the Iris Festival.  Boy was it hot!!!!  We started off at the kid's area, but I couldn't talk either Justin or Megan into doing anything!  We decided to walk around and look at the crafts.  It was really impressive to see the creativity and talent of the vendors.  I bought several things and could have gotten more, but the kids were getting wrestless, tired and hungry.  Megan bought a leather wallet.



  Justin was the only one brave enough to ride the giant slide, but I can't say he enjoyed it very much! LOL  Let's just say, he didn't ask to ride it again.  After his reaction, there was no way I could talk Megan into trying it.  :)

I took this picture right after the slide fiasco.  I think Justin was still in shock.  We were waiting to take a boat ride on the lake. 

Justin and Megan on the boat ride.  When I took the picture of Justin, the sun was in my eyes and I couldn't tell his eyes were closed!  Oh well! 

Have a great summer everyone!!





I've fallen behind in posting.  Justin's birthday was Thursday, April 26.  He is twelve years old!  The week of his birthday was very busy with school, appointments and a trip to the beach.  We went to the beach on Friday, April 27 and returned on Sunday.  We had fun shopping...ok...I had fun shopping.  Justin enjoyed "Wonder Works". 

Last week was school as usual.  We are winding down our studies.  We only have three weeks left.  Friday was field day.  Justin and I enjoyed spending time together doing something besides school. 

We had a great Spring Break and it was hard to get back on schedule on Monday.  Although Megan and Justin completed their testing, I still had to coordinate the testing for our homeschool support group.  Testing was Monday - Wednesday from about 8:30-12 at Harmony Church.  It was hard to get out the door so early.  Megan and Justin did not like doing school "on the road".  It was a disruption to our week, but some how school still got done.  We should finish up the Middle East next week and then move on to Africa, our last country.  :)  We only have about 5 more weeks left of school.  It's been a great year, but we are all ready for a break. 

Testing...UGH!

Well, all I can say is it's over.  This week Justin and Megan took the Stanford 10 test.  Neither one was thrilled about this activity.  We started on Monday at about 9am.  We were joined by some homeschool friends because misery loves company.  LOL  We had 3 adults and 5 kids.  Four kids were testing and 1 hung out in Justin's room during the test.  We tested on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from about 9-12 each day.  On Thursday, we celebrated by eating pizza and other junk food.  We ALL are glad it's over!  Today started Spring Break and we're off until April 16!  YEAH!

Yeah, it's Friday!  We made Indian ice cream this week. (India the country not Native American) Megan and I tasted it and decided it wasn't half bad.  The only thing I had to put in it was bananas and we both agreed it probably would have been better with a different fruit choice and chocolate!!  Of course, Justin refused to taste it. 

Today we went on a field trip with the homeschool group to the Military Museum here in Sumter.  Yes, you read that correctly, we have a military museum.  I have to say I was rather impressed.  It is put together by Sammy Way or Coach Way for those of us who graduated from Sumter High.  He has a passion for history and is/was a fantastic teacher and coach.  He also writes a column for The Item in the Panorama section that runs on Sundays.  He has a fantastic collection of "stuff" from Sumter people who were involved in WWI, WWII, Vietnam, The Korean War, etc.  It is located on Harvin St. at the Transportation center.  He is open on Sunday afternoons from 2-4.  If you have a minute, I suggest you stop by some time.

Dog tags from WWI.

This is so cool!  Periscope from WWI.

The kids loved this, a 3D viewer.

Justin and Megan with the oldest uniform Mr. Way has in the museum.  I think it is a WWI Glider uniform.