Wordless Wednesday!!

Taekwondo Tournament

The guys all went to tournament this weekend. We drove down and back in one day, the kids had a good time, I felt very claustrophobic the whole time. The venue was very small, in comparison to the turn-out that they had for this tournament. We were literally packed in like sardines.It cracks me up how 'social' my kids are, we've been told by many people that homeschooling our kids can be a problem because of socialization. Everytime my kids leave the house, be it the store, karate, church; my kids strike up conversations with anyone. The kids are not intimidated by anyone, adults or other kids; they hold intelligent conversations and are pleasant to be around. Yeah!!!! I'm not ruining them by homeschooling.

All kids at the tournament 16 and under received medals, either just participation or place medals. Koty received two participation medals and decided to have them engraved. When he told the engraver he wanted them to say "Almost Awesome", I thought she was gonna fall over laughing, does this kid have a sense of humor or what.

Hunter earned two medals as well, but they had run out of medals by that time. Did I mention that they had a much bigger turn-out than they expected??? Hunter received First in Weapons form and participation otherwise.

Rylan also got two participation medals, the little people aren't judged so they get two medals just for grins. He had his engraved with what the judges said when they presented them, "Black Belt Attitude" and "Good Sportsmanship". He was very excited, he even wore his medals to dinner that evening.
Monday morning we got to go to a unique place in our area, Savanahland, an animal sanctuary. They have everything from birds to Tapir's. The porcupine, buffalo or bison, and baby animals were the hit with our homeschool group. Sissy couldn't quite get herself to keep her hands out to let animals eat, she kept dropping the food.This picture doesn't do it justice, but these three came sauntering up all together, they looked like the "Mean Girls" to me.

This baby red kangaroo was so snugly, it was one of the only animals Sissy would touch.
I wasn't even aware you could hand feed bison, this was one of the coolest things for me. They also had a white buffalo; it's one of those things you learn about when you study Native American culture, but you rarely have an opportunity to see.


This little baby wouldn't let go of it's snugly for a minute, we just passed it around wrapped around it's baby.
Update: I'm making this post my Weekly wrap-up, because otherwise the week was business as usual. Nothing special, just plugging away. Head over to Weird, Unsocialized homeschoolers to see how other folks spent their weeks.

Weekly Wrap-up!

I can't really say that we got a whole lot accomplished this week. Hunter and Dakota went on a fishing weekend with their Great-Grandfather, so we had to find something equally fun for the little people to do. We chose to take them to Deanna Rose Farmstead, it's one of those incredible resources that we have in our area, free of charge and absolutely beautiful. It has butterfly gardens, some animals like bison, eagles, owls for viewing, petting zoo, I could go on and on. My father-in-law went with us and really enjoyed his day with the kids. The highlights of the day were the ride-on tractors and the catch and release fishing.Ry and Sissy with Grandpa, don't they look like they were having a great time. Grandpa was having a blast. The next couple pictures are of the guys riding and racing, don't they look scary competitive in the first one.



Sissy was the fisher of the day, she caught three fish, can you tell that she really had no desire for that fish to get anywhere near her!!




After the boys got home on Wednesday, we concentrated on Algebra and Art. We're slowing down in Algebra, what I thought was review turns out the boys feel like they've never seen before. Oh well, we'll slow down and make sure we 'get it'. Hopefully next week we'll actually get some work done, lol. We also got some impromptu nature study done, the kids were all playing out front and came across the following wildlife.

Turns out the bigger snake was dead, I'm not sure if he somehow tangled himself or if he maybe ingested a poisoned mouse. Either way the big one was dead and the little one was alive and eventually left, it's a little disconcerting though that I keep seeing snakes around. I really don't like snakes! The spider was also on the side of our house, I'm not sure what kind he was but we're looking into it, he was huge and was beautifully colored.
Anywho, not a productive week, but a pretty fun one. Head on over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see how other folks spent their week.

Wordless Wednesday!!

Weekly wrap-up: Poison Ivy Edition

We had a pretty good week, we decided to spend Monday out at Grandma's and Grandpa's. They needed manual labor and I had kids willing to work, well sort of. Mostly they watched Grandma and I work and pretended to tend the fire. Chris was messing with the camera and took these pictures through the fire. It's pretty cool how the heat waves are not only visible but distort the kids faces.

Tuesday we had to make a choice, I'd already decided not to send Hunter to his gifted program as they were going to spend part of the day watching the Presidents' speech and I wasn't interested in him spending his time this way. I know, the speech was nothing offensive or indoctrinating, but I really don't believe the speech he gave was the original. If the original speech was as innocuous as this one it would have been released immediately, not a few days after the controversy started. The teaching materials were created, that lends to the belief that the speech was already completed. Either way, I went ahead and kept Hunter home and we made up work that we would normally have done Monday.

Wednesday we just worked as usual, the boys kept working on Ancient Egyptian Art, we're using the curriculum created by Harmony Art mom, the guys really enjoy it.

Thursday I decided that I needed to take Ry to the doctor, he has had this rash for a few days but it wasn't responding to Benadryl creams, Tecnu or Palmolive(home remedy). It was strange, there were several kids in the waiting room with a similar rash. They put him on both an antibiotic and steroid, he's scratched it raw and she believed it was infected. I'm not really big on random antibiotics but I agreed that his arm looked odd, it was puffy and ravaged looking.


Friday is here, unfortunately for me it means it's time to work. Being in the restaurant business means I get the privilege of staying home most of the week, but I have to work all weekend. The boys weren't able to finish all of their school work this week, so they'll probably have to work a little tomorrow. The guys got busy while I took the little people to our neighborhood park.
Koty working with Analytical Grammar and Hunter finally getting going on his Latin Road.
We walked down to the park and played for awhile, they installed some new equipment that the kids really loved. On the way home we noticed this little guy hanging around in the tree. I don't know much about snakes, so I don't know what kind he is, but we were fascinated anyway. Rylan thought it was very cool that he was napping in the tree.
Oh well, that's it for our week! Head over to Weird, Unsocialized, Homeschoolers, to read more weekly wrap-ups!

Wordless Wednesday!!

Photohunt- Theme Orange

The first is of course, one of my kids, I couldn't resist. The rest were taken at our local zoo.

Weekly Wrap-up!

We finished week 3, well sort of. We are still struggling each day to find some order and rhythm. We haven't been able to incorporate everything I wanted us to be doing, but we are adding a little bit more each week. I figure by week 7-8 we'll be hitting everything.

Hunter is plodding through General Science, unfortunately he is not science oriented and he has been unable to connect with anything, yet. He has seemed to enjoy his history and literature readings and has been able to discuss them intelligently. Hurray!!! Ancient Egypt is interesting and engaging, the order that TOG has you taking the readings is intuitive and easy to follow. He hasn't really managed to get into Latin, Geography, or Writing Aids yet but I know we'll get there.

Dakota is racing through Zoology 3, it's a little too easy for him but that is part of the reason he is going so fast. He loves the subject so I wanted him to have the intro with Zoology 3 and then he'll jump into General Science, although he might skip this and just go onto Biology. Koty has really seemed to enjoy his TOG readings, both Literature and History, and during our discussions he seems to be able to make connections. He also hasn't really been able to get into the Analytical Grammar, Geography or Writing Aids.

Ry and Tanyn have been working on puzzles, flash cards, and alot of Jumpstart computer time. We are working on writing our names and ages. Ry is obviously doing alot better, but Tan is holding her own.
Visit Kris over at Weird, Unsocialized, Homeschoolers to see more Weekly wrap-ups.

Creeping back on!

Last Summer and Fall, through exercise and slight diet changes I managed to shed almost 40lbs. No huge life changes just stopped drinking sugared pop and eating alot of candy, mostly it was just exercising using the Exercise TV workouts. I love Leslie Sansone, she inspires me to want to be better, physically. I have to admit though that through the last Spring and Summer I have put back on 15-20lbs. I'm not happy! It's more than the weight gain, it's the mood that goes with not devoting anytime to just me.

When I was exercising, I would sleep better, I was in a generally better mood and as silly as it sounds I was having a better prayer life. Maybe it was that I was getting up early to fit in my walk, then I was able to move on to devotions, all before the kids got up. Whatever it was, I fell out of the habits that I had formed and I am paying for it. I am irritable, not sleeping well, not taking time for devotions, and am generally tired. My kids are paying the price, unfortunate but true. Enough is enough. I am endeavoring to change back to the patterns that I had, if I lose weight, great; if not, oh well. I just want to be a better mom, wife, teacher.

Wordless Wednesday!!