Here We Are At Monday Again : )

Good Monday Morning!
Hope everyone had a great "Super Bowl" weekend.
We picked up our income tax refund check on Wed. from H & R Block (If we paid an extra $21.00 we got it earlier then the 8 to 15 day wait). It felt sooooo good to have a bit of cash around again for a little while any way. Kelly & I went and paid our bills, the biggest being the 2007 property tax bill ($1008.00) ouch! But having the bills paid (not caught up belive or not) made my day. It is so much easier to breath when you aren't weighted down with major over due bills.

Having got that mess out of the way I hope to tackle school again. This past week has been alot of running down to town for the income tax a number of times which throws me all off our day. I just LOVE how Sheri over at Shades Of Pink throws together a school session, for example see her post:

..: The Saturdays:..

We are reading and studying The Saturdays over the next several weeks. Although the book is a Juvenile Fiction book (around ages 9-12) I feel that there is so much that can be learned through reading this book.

Chapter 1:

History: Hitler (Follow the links from this page to PDF on Hitler and his control)
History: Read "Auschwitz"

History: Read "Holocaust, the events and their impact on real people" watch the DVD and interviews
History: Watch "Paperclips"
Language Arts: Write a descriptive paragraph
Fine Arts: Bach and Tchaikovsky
Art: Pen and Ink drawings
Note!! D14 and M11 have each decided to learn a piece by Bach or Tchaikovsky. M11 is currently practicing Dance of the Sugar Plum fairies on her keyboards (I can hear it from here) and D14...guess what he picked? Toccata and Fugue by Bach (You can see it played on the electric guitar here)
Chapter 2:

History: Benjamin Franklin and bifocals: Read about his various inventions and write a short essay on one invention of your choice.

Geography: Paris, France
History: Lucrezia Borgia
Science: Coatimunids
Science: Camels
Fine Art: Visit a Fine Art Gallery
Fine Art: Cooking: making Petits Fours

I just find this way of pulling everything together great. I have to wonder if with Kelly's memory the way it is if by tying everything together in a lesson might not be a better way to go for her..... (I know here she goes again thinking of changing her school plans). I have found we have been covering alot of books with the BiblioPlan history we are using and she does get ALOT more out of that way of learning then by using workbooks/textbooks. I am going to get the books together for the unit study "Bears on Hemlock Mountain" and see where that takes us. I am also going to use Sheri's notebook idea, We are using lapbooks for both astronomy & zoology 3 (I do soooo much more work with that and I don't really think Kelly is getting that much from it) so I thought we would try just note booking in one book like she does for those subjects. I am also going to use Scott Foreman's grammer & writting I have really been slacking in that area! With getting the income tax money I was able to fill my printer/copier ink refills (only $5.00 each at Walgreens this past week) - Thank you Bunny for offering to do my printing for me, You are such a DOLL! I bought hay and horse feed on Sunday so we won't have to go out today so hopefully we will get in a nice day of learning : )
Hope you all have a wonderful day today!!!!!