I have been really thrown off thinking today is Monday..... It's going to be one of those weeks!
I have a plan of action in my mind for the summer months schooling.... That is if we don't have a rough Hurricane/Fire season this year.
As I have said I am using the "Checklist" & "How to Home School Today - Checklist Assistant" & "The Homeschool Network Internet Library" to throw together some ideas and fill in some of the areas we just have not covered.
I'm trying to get a better picture of our schooling direction but we really are a wing it type of homeschooling family : ) When I find something that catches Kelly interest I run it for all is worth!
Of course My MidLife "Green" Crisis has been really affecting alot of what we are working on lately. Today we are going to be watching the "Planet in Peril" dvd, I'll let you know how it was tomorrow...
Have a great day!!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
House Dvd Series
We are still working on our "House" dvd's (No, Not Dr. "House" the tv series) but the one where families are transported back to a far away time period and have to try and live that way of life.
So far we have seen:
Colonial House set in 1628
Frontier House set in the 1880's time frame
The 1900 House set in 1900
The Manor House set in the 1900's British class system
The 1940s House set in the time frame of 1939 to 1945
We are still in the watching stage of "The Manor House" but the rest were all very good! As I have mentioned there are some questionable scenes most notable a few animals getting killed, a few shots of nakedness, some talk of husband & wife stuff but we just turned the tv off for a few minutes and these scenes passed quickly. This has been the most enjoyable series of dvd's that we have watched for Kelly! She has come alive with talk of "Would we be able to live back then", "Which time frame we would do better in", "How would we of survived with out the ability to kill an animal", Many many more questions and topics have been delt with while viewing this series. It has been a great success for us I am sad to see we are now viewing the last one in this series so our time is coming to a close for our time travel back to other times but is sure has been a fun trip. : )
So far we have seen:
Colonial House set in 1628
Frontier House set in the 1880's time frame
The 1900 House set in 1900
The Manor House set in the 1900's British class system
The 1940s House set in the time frame of 1939 to 1945
We are still in the watching stage of "The Manor House" but the rest were all very good! As I have mentioned there are some questionable scenes most notable a few animals getting killed, a few shots of nakedness, some talk of husband & wife stuff but we just turned the tv off for a few minutes and these scenes passed quickly. This has been the most enjoyable series of dvd's that we have watched for Kelly! She has come alive with talk of "Would we be able to live back then", "Which time frame we would do better in", "How would we of survived with out the ability to kill an animal", Many many more questions and topics have been delt with while viewing this series. It has been a great success for us I am sad to see we are now viewing the last one in this series so our time is coming to a close for our time travel back to other times but is sure has been a fun trip. : )
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Commenting
Good Morning!!!
Hope everyone is having a fantastic day today!
God Bless all those people in that Missouri town hit by the tornado, My gosh the destruction was horrible!
Sorry I haven't been able to get back to those who commented on my blog, I had changed the settings and had to verify each comment.... which of course got lost in my e-mail issues. Anyway, I have reset it so we should be good to go.
We are still working on the "On theFar side of the Mountain" book & the "Pocket Guide", I know it seems like we have been on them forever doesn't it.... We move along at a snails pace here : ) We are reading about poison ivy, You know I don't think I would know it if I saw it. I think I have only had poison ivy once in my life time and that was years ago. The book shows an example but that looks like alot of other plants. I have to get out the "Nature Guide" book and see what that says.
It's been very hot down here in Florida! It's those kinda days where you hate to go out after lunch because you just sweat buckets : ( Sure hope we are not setting up for a terrible hurricane season!
Have a great day!!
Hope everyone is having a fantastic day today!
God Bless all those people in that Missouri town hit by the tornado, My gosh the destruction was horrible!
Sorry I haven't been able to get back to those who commented on my blog, I had changed the settings and had to verify each comment.... which of course got lost in my e-mail issues. Anyway, I have reset it so we should be good to go.
We are still working on the "On theFar side of the Mountain" book & the "Pocket Guide", I know it seems like we have been on them forever doesn't it.... We move along at a snails pace here : ) We are reading about poison ivy, You know I don't think I would know it if I saw it. I think I have only had poison ivy once in my life time and that was years ago. The book shows an example but that looks like alot of other plants. I have to get out the "Nature Guide" book and see what that says.
It's been very hot down here in Florida! It's those kinda days where you hate to go out after lunch because you just sweat buckets : ( Sure hope we are not setting up for a terrible hurricane season!
Have a great day!!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Books..... Don't you just LOVE them!!!!!
I just LOVE books! I am on a reading marathon right now. I am soaking in as many tips, ideas ect. on a number of different topics and am loving it!!!!
It makes me sad that Kelly has never found the joy of what a book can give you.... She has never just let herself get immersed into a book and let it take her away : (
Both her & my son are non readers, my son says he has never read a book all the way through. He had a small glimmer of hope when his 5th grade teacher started reading the Harry Potter book to them, he seemed pretty caught up in that book and I thought it would spur him to read more but no.
I stand back and see many areas I could have helped encouraged them to read more, One thing is I should have read to them more then I did when they were very young! They spent wayyyyy to much time watching what I thought were educational tv shows. I think that is one reason both of them would much rather have a book read to them then read it themselves - they both are visual learners maybe because of so much tv watching.....
In my travels of my new "Green Life" (See My Other Blog), I ran into a books that looks like a must read for me:
"Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder" by Richard Louv, Has anyone read it yet? I'd love to hear your opinions on it.
Touching back on books....
I told you about my library starting a new anti theft system and they weren't allowed to ship books to my local branch any more which had me sooo upset, WELL by stating that my branch is my pick-up location they have to send the books over for me I just have to request and wait a few extra days which is no problem Yea Hoooooo!
Of course alot of the books I am now interested in reading my library does not have so I have had to resort to inter-library loan books which cost me $2.00 a book (ouch!) but it is still cheaper them buying right.....
Have a great day!!!!!
It makes me sad that Kelly has never found the joy of what a book can give you.... She has never just let herself get immersed into a book and let it take her away : (
Both her & my son are non readers, my son says he has never read a book all the way through. He had a small glimmer of hope when his 5th grade teacher started reading the Harry Potter book to them, he seemed pretty caught up in that book and I thought it would spur him to read more but no.
I stand back and see many areas I could have helped encouraged them to read more, One thing is I should have read to them more then I did when they were very young! They spent wayyyyy to much time watching what I thought were educational tv shows. I think that is one reason both of them would much rather have a book read to them then read it themselves - they both are visual learners maybe because of so much tv watching.....
In my travels of my new "Green Life" (See My Other Blog), I ran into a books that looks like a must read for me:
"Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder" by Richard Louv, Has anyone read it yet? I'd love to hear your opinions on it.
Touching back on books....
I told you about my library starting a new anti theft system and they weren't allowed to ship books to my local branch any more which had me sooo upset, WELL by stating that my branch is my pick-up location they have to send the books over for me I just have to request and wait a few extra days which is no problem Yea Hoooooo!
Of course alot of the books I am now interested in reading my library does not have so I have had to resort to inter-library loan books which cost me $2.00 a book (ouch!) but it is still cheaper them buying right.....
Have a great day!!!!!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
On the Far Side of the Mountain
We started reading "On the Far Side of the Mountain" today (we have had it out from the library for weeks now just sitting there waiting for us in our to-do pile). I really can not say enough about how great Jean Craighead George'es books are! She writes so that you feel you are really in the woods listening to each animal and feeling each emotion & sensation the characters are going thru, just wonderful writting!
We also started reading the "Pocket Guide to the Outdoors", Wow did that get Kelly interested in doing a number of the activities in the book! The first activity suggest making a shelter, one of the options is making a teepee. We have a bamboo tree/bush down the end of the road which Kelly wants to cut off 8 or 9 sticks to use for the teepee - I think it is very hard to cut thru bamboo so not sure if we will be able to do that.... but I LOVE that she is interested in trying it. She really is an outdoors type of girl if she lets herself off of the computer long enough to remember how much she loves it.
We will not be stopping this year for summer vacation, We need to keep moving along granted at a snails pace but at least we are moving.....
Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!
We also started reading the "Pocket Guide to the Outdoors", Wow did that get Kelly interested in doing a number of the activities in the book! The first activity suggest making a shelter, one of the options is making a teepee. We have a bamboo tree/bush down the end of the road which Kelly wants to cut off 8 or 9 sticks to use for the teepee - I think it is very hard to cut thru bamboo so not sure if we will be able to do that.... but I LOVE that she is interested in trying it. She really is an outdoors type of girl if she lets herself off of the computer long enough to remember how much she loves it.
We will not be stopping this year for summer vacation, We need to keep moving along granted at a snails pace but at least we are moving.....
Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Another Blog....
I wanted to let you know I have started another blog:
Wast Not Want Not Eco. Journey
You might call it my "Midlife Crisis" blog : )
As you know this year has been such a struggle for me in soooo many ways, Homeschooling has had it's ups and downs (mostly downs) alot of that is my fault. One of the reasons I think is because I just never seem to clear my mind of homeschooling. I am always thinking of new topics to teach Kelly about and ways to go about it ect. which I think has been very taxing on me because I am a person who loves to read, learn new things, enjoys nature, work on my genealogy tree the list goes on and on. Lately I have shut that part of me off, I have been so worried about is Kelly learning enough, are we covering enough, ect. that it has consumed me. I have decided to start another blog about my outside interests in the hopes that my mind will focus on those things which I enjoy for a little bit each day. I think all this will make me alot more happier and we just might get some better results with our homeschooling day also!
Wast Not Want Not Eco. Journey
You might call it my "Midlife Crisis" blog : )
As you know this year has been such a struggle for me in soooo many ways, Homeschooling has had it's ups and downs (mostly downs) alot of that is my fault. One of the reasons I think is because I just never seem to clear my mind of homeschooling. I am always thinking of new topics to teach Kelly about and ways to go about it ect. which I think has been very taxing on me because I am a person who loves to read, learn new things, enjoys nature, work on my genealogy tree the list goes on and on. Lately I have shut that part of me off, I have been so worried about is Kelly learning enough, are we covering enough, ect. that it has consumed me. I have decided to start another blog about my outside interests in the hopes that my mind will focus on those things which I enjoy for a little bit each day. I think all this will make me alot more happier and we just might get some better results with our homeschooling day also!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Dog Tick Borne Paralysis
This ugly looking tick almost caused our dog his life!
This past Monday Toby started with wobbly back legs & not moving very much, by Tues. he could not use his front or back legs at all! He was paralized but the guy was still wagging his tail a mile a minute & was very alert. At first I thought he had blown a disk in his back but the tail thing had me not beliving that. Wed. he was not better so we were trying to make plans to take him to the vet (we were really thinking he would have to be put down). I felt so bad for him because he kept looking at me pleading with me on why his legs weren't moving (he in normally a very active dog). While I was petting him I saw a tiny black tick on his ear, picked it off and told Kelly about it. She said "Mom you better check his other ear", which I did and lo and behold there was the biggest tick I had ever seen stuck down in his ear canal area! It was the same color as his ear canal so it was easily missed. I got that sucker out of there with Kelly holding Toby down, I wanted to make sure I got it all. I quickly did a search on the computer and found out about "Dog Tick Borne Paralysis"! By the next day he was wobbly again but starting to move, by Friday he was back to his old self : ) It was amazing how quickly this could have killed him if we didn't get that tick out.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Cinco De Mayo Day / Digital Nation dvd
Happy Cinco De Mayo Day!I have been so far behind this week I totally forgot about today's holiday : (
I have another very eye opening dvd to tell you about...
Frontline: Digital Nation ... Another Wow dvd!
It touches on sooo many issues of today, multitasking, addicted to video games, How students do not know how or want to read a book of any length, Kids attention spans are so short that all they want is instant gratification right away, How they are making virtual friends which makes them feel that there is no need for "real" friends, that there will be no need for students to retain alot of info. about a topic because they are able to look the info up in a seconds notice ect. I was spellbound by it all! Kelly was like the kids on the dvd, She kept saying "What's wrong with that"? Kelly has bought right into this digital age, she can't live without her computer & her computer friends, she texts at record speeds, she just LOVES "The Sims3" video game ect. I guess most kids today really are like that : ( As the dvd says we will see what effects this kind of simulation will have on our future generations. One thing that caught my eye is that some schools are going totally digital! The kids are still in the classroon but every subject is taught on the computer, it will be all visual. Some of it sounded wonderful, I mean being immersed in say the Civil War were you are one of the soldiers and you actually meet Gen. Lee & Grant ect. sounds amazing to me! I guess it all has it's good points & bad but really interesting to think about....
Monday, May 2, 2011
God Bless America....
God Bless America & All of her Armed Forces! Finally getting Osama bin Laden!
9 1/2 years after the attack but they finally got him. Most of my family doesn't belive it, they feel since there is no body we will never know for sure if all this is true.... My husband feels that the goverment wanted something to rally America since so much has been going wrong lately ex. gas prices going over the $4.00 mark, food prices are going to soar because of the gas prices, the horrible devastation in Alabama from the tornados, unemployment, housing market hitting the rocks ect.. I really wish they would have been able to reassure the American people that it really was him some how.
On to the school front:
We finished up "My Side of the Mountain", Kelly enjoyed it! I have also gotten from the library "Pocket Guide to the Outdoors" based on My Side of the Mountain which we are going to work thru this week. It looks like alot of interesting facts & ideas to try. We also have been watching the Frontier House dvd, Wow it has spurred alot of conversation between Kelly & I! It really tied in great with the book above. I have to say the dvd's are in 2 parts 3 hours long each, Kelly was glued to the screen! She "Asked" me to hurry up and get part two. I do want to mention that they speak a little bit about contraception & a few bits about the parents not having any time for some "together" time. It also has some scenes of them killing chickens & a pig, We just turned the tv off for a few minutes until these scenes passed. The dvd really makes you aware of how lucky we are now with all our technology to help us make our days easier but also it has ruined us in many ways also. One of the little boys in the dvd said something to the effect that people now adays have no imagination any more! Wow!
I have also gotten from the library "On the Far Side of the Mountain" the next book to follow "My Side of the Mountain" so we will continue with that.
I LOVE Jean Craighead George books!!!!!! And the best part is Kelly does too : )
9 1/2 years after the attack but they finally got him. Most of my family doesn't belive it, they feel since there is no body we will never know for sure if all this is true.... My husband feels that the goverment wanted something to rally America since so much has been going wrong lately ex. gas prices going over the $4.00 mark, food prices are going to soar because of the gas prices, the horrible devastation in Alabama from the tornados, unemployment, housing market hitting the rocks ect.. I really wish they would have been able to reassure the American people that it really was him some how.
On to the school front:
We finished up "My Side of the Mountain", Kelly enjoyed it! I have also gotten from the library "Pocket Guide to the Outdoors" based on My Side of the Mountain which we are going to work thru this week. It looks like alot of interesting facts & ideas to try. We also have been watching the Frontier House dvd, Wow it has spurred alot of conversation between Kelly & I! It really tied in great with the book above. I have to say the dvd's are in 2 parts 3 hours long each, Kelly was glued to the screen! She "Asked" me to hurry up and get part two. I do want to mention that they speak a little bit about contraception & a few bits about the parents not having any time for some "together" time. It also has some scenes of them killing chickens & a pig, We just turned the tv off for a few minutes until these scenes passed. The dvd really makes you aware of how lucky we are now with all our technology to help us make our days easier but also it has ruined us in many ways also. One of the little boys in the dvd said something to the effect that people now adays have no imagination any more! Wow!
I have also gotten from the library "On the Far Side of the Mountain" the next book to follow "My Side of the Mountain" so we will continue with that.
I LOVE Jean Craighead George books!!!!!! And the best part is Kelly does too : )
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