Alaska

We are working on the states and this week it is Alaska. We found another great dvd, it is called Alaska: Into The Wilderness dvd #1 "Braving Alaska" It follows 4 families who live off the grid and indure the struggles & triumphs of living in Alaska. It does show them shooting a moose & deer, It is a little bit graphic on them cutting the animal up but I closed my eyes through out that part and it was okay. We found it to be really interesting & it tied rather nicely to our reading of "My Side Of The Mountain". I found some FREE worksheets from TeacherVision for the book. One of the worksheets asks questions about fishing, kelly brought up that she has never gone fishing. That made me sad because that is something if my Dad were still alive he would have done with her (He took my son on his first fishing outing). She asked me if that is something we could do, I think every kid should have a go at fishing at least one time in their life. We live right by Dead Lake (see picture above) so I hope to be able to sometime get her over there to try her hand at fishing in the near future.

Seahorses

We watched a fantastic dvd on Seahorses today called: "Kingdom of the Seahorse", I love that the male carries & delivers the babies! They really are a very interesting fish! The sad thing is that China & Japan use Seahorses in alot of their medicines ect so they have pounds of them imported. The Seahorses are being over fished, in the dvd you find out how one women is working to help rebound them.

Air Show Tragedy

Last year Kelly & I went to a local air show at our small airport, We loved it. This year even tho is was only $5.00 for adults & $3.00 for teens we just couldn't swing it with the gas prices. Well would you belive one of the planes crashed during the "Wings Over Flagler" show today! The pilot died on impact, the plane crashed straight into the ground. I am soooo glad we did not go! Seeing something like that lives on with you forever. Prayers to the pilots family!

Playing Around With My Blog.....

I have been playing around with my blog, I'm trying to make it more cheery & spring like : ) I'm always afraid I might lose it if I hit the wrong thing. I know I should be working on our homeschooling plan/schedule instead of fooling around with the blog.....

Our nighbors down the road got two new horses. I have to take a picture of them the next time I go out that way. In our area people can't GIVE horses away so I was surprized when I saw two new ones. They are soooo pretty both are a grey/silver color.

Well hope everyone is having a fantastic day!!!!!

Happy Monday....

Happy Monday to all of you! Hope everyone is enjoying the day.
I am finding it hard to get going today.... I really think Monday & Friday's should be off days : )
My husbands boss called on Sat. and told him he had no work for this week - Yikes! He only worked three days last week so things are getting a bit on the shaky side again. I had so hoped that things were finally turning around on the job front.
Anyway, Kelly went down Friday night to my sons place and stayed till Sat. night. My daughter-in-law dyed Kelly's hair again. I'm just glad the girls get along so well : ) It really is great for Kelly to have some other girl to hang with other then me. I had hoped to get some school work together during my time home alone without her but sad to say I spent most my time on twitter....
I really wish I had a better vision of our school year this year! As I know you all know if you have read my blog I just LOVE how Phyllis runs her school day and reading over her planned curriculum for the entire 12 years of schooling just makes me in awe!
Have a Great Day!!!!

Hate When The Time Changes!!!

Good Sunday Morning to you all!
First I would like to send out my thoughts & prayers to all those folks over in Japan who are suffering thru this terrible tragedy!!!! What terrible loss of life & destruction! God Bless them!
I had forgotten to set the clocks ahead last night : ( So now I am really stuggling with the new time. I had just got myself on a nice schedule that was working for me and now this.... Well I have to get my butt in gear and adapt to it!
I need to mention a "Ya Hoo". I finally got a hold of a "working" laptop that runs xp so I can use my printer!!!!! It is so funny that something like this makes me sooooo happy. I can not tell you how hard it was not to be able to print off some worksheets ect. for our homeschooling day. I have been doing alot of reading on visual learners like Kelly & all of them say to let them color/doodle ect while they do thier work it helps them sort everything out easier so having the ability to print out coloring pages is such a blessing!
I will link to some of the articles on visual learners on another blog post, It has been such an eye opener. One article stated how visual learners my be placed into the "learning disability" catagory when all they really need is to be taught the way that works for them to learn. So much of the visual learners ways of learning goes against "regular" schools way that they fall so far behind and then think of themselves as "dumb". That is Kelly all over, this child is soooo smart in so many ways that it amazes me sometimes, but just because she can't remember her times tables ect. she thinks she is stupid. I really hope that the school systems can start pinpointing each childs learning style and place by class that way instead of the way the do now clumping them all together.....
Anyway, Talked your ear off on a Sunday.
Have a wonderful day & God Bless You!

Trying To Make A Schedule

Happy Sat. to you all!
Hope everyone is enjoying the first part of the weekend.
I have been mopping the floors & doing laundry, Trying to give my home some "Lovin". I whine about doing the floors but it is sooo much easier to mop a floor that was done a few days ago instead of a major mopping. I just have to keep reminding myself that. This past week I have really tried to put myself on a schedule. I had been feeling so overwhelmed with everything and not getting anything done which made everything worse. Not this week! I have been tweeking my day to keep myself moving ex. I get up at 5am. with my husband, feed horses & get him off to work (yahoo!). I then go back to bed get up no later then 9am. that is computer time for blogging, twitter ect. Shower by 10am. pick up & clean the house. Lunch by 11am., organize stuff for the school day, during this time we also have been taking the horse for a ride or taking a brisk walk around the block. Start school anytime between 12& 1pm., end school work by 3pm. start dinner. We eat early by 4pm. most nights. Then feed horses, goats ect. walk dogs. Then I wash up all the dishes and the rest of the evening is MINE to do with what I want! What a difference making a schedule has made for me! I feel so much more refreshed and energized (of course having my husband back to work hs made me such a happy camper also!).
Now I am working on trying to get our school day to run smoother! Would like to mention a dvd series we are watching which we are enjoying. "The American President" by PBS it is a 10hr. long series but so well worth the viewing. The only problem I have seen so far for someone like Kelly is they group the presidents in groups instead of in order which makes it a bit harder to follow the flow. I fixed this problem for her by taking down out president palcemat that we had on the wall and put it by the tv so she could see where & what time frame each president held office.
Well off to give one of the dogs a bath, Real problem with fleas this year!!!
Have a FATASTIC weekend Blogger Buddies : )