Spring Cleaning and Clearing

Spring Cleaning is going very well. I am cleaning up and especially clearing out. Some things have sold already and I am meeting someone else in 15 minutes at a nearby store. It will probably take me a week or more to clear out all that I want gone. We somehow manage to gather all kinds of excess throughout the course of the year.

We did use some of the money for things I've already sold to pay our library fines. Anna and I took back the books and paid the fines. For what I paid, I could have bought 2-3 books. I hope that never happens again, or I will ONLY buy our books. At least then I don't have to worry about them going back. LOL! I changed my e-mail address with them so hopefully we are good to go and I will catch it sooner next time.

Anyhow, that's all for now. Take care all. Have a good weekend and Happy Spring Cleaning to all!! :-)

School Update

We have been doing school, although not everyday and not consistently, we have been doing it. I was looking at her Reading and realized that if we don't want to school through the entire summer, we need to start doubling up on some lessons. We are way behind where we should be. Spelling is about right. We have 7 weeks left of spelling. History is about 25 lessons left. Math, well, we ditched Saxon and went to various workbooks. Until we build the basic skills and master them, there is no need to move on with the harder things like skip counting and multiplication and the like. We do about 3-4 pages a day from several workbooks. It's easier on me, but also frustrating. We have successfully completed our second unit study or lapbook. It was a lot of fun. This one ended up being a double. The Olympics covers a lot of info and we didn't even do everything we could have. What we did do filled two folders. We are enjoying them and they are simple to do. Science, well, that is hit or miss. I think I'm about to buy a magnet kit and we are going to work through the rest of the book we started a few months ago. OK, we BARELY started it, but that because we don't have the materials to do it. We may also invest in a microscope for more fun with it.

As for field trips, we still go on trips with two homeschool groups. One is very large and takes good field trips. The other group also take good field trips, but it is a LOT smaller and we seem to come away with more knowledge.

Anna is taking the IOWA test in April. We may not test her this way again for a while, but it will give us a good idea as to where we are truly at. Anyhow, I guess that's about as much of an update as I can come up with. I know I haven't been good at keeping up on here, but I'd rather spend more time with my daughter. Keep in touch and I will at least try to update every few weeks. Take care all.

Commercial Tears

This commerical made me cry. It is so true and every mom needs to watch this. It is truly the best thought out commercial ever. Thanks P&G!!

Lapbooks/Unit Studies

We are trying to end our study on horses this week so we can start on the Olympics sometime next week or the week after. I am very excited about it. This has saved us from the bore of everyday typical "school." The text book approach was getting really boring and we were both dreading school time. Now with books and mini-studies, we are thoroughly enjoying it again. (And it doesn't take as long each day-BIG YEAH!!) I will post pics of our first completed book when we get it all put together.

I guess that's our big update for now. I know there isn't anyone really reading my blog anymore, but I like it, so I will keep posting when I can. Have a good week all.

Uh....Happy New Year?

Ok, so I am not the world's best blogger. Not too good at Face*book either right now, but there have been other more important things to do. Christmas was great. Pictures are on my Face*book account. Too hard to get them off the disc to post here, so sorry. I didn't get to them fast enough. Will some New Year's pictures do? Yeah, they just might have to. Here are some pictures of Anna playing with her new scooter from Christmas.

Excuse the funny face on the second picture. The "sun was in my eyes." LOL!! She doesn't like the sun directly in her eyes for pictures.

The New Year has brought some changes to our homeschooling as well. We ditched the direct textbook curriculum method of history and science and are doing lapbooks (mini unit studies). So far we haven't finished the first one, but we are liking what we are doing. Horses!! Yes, of course we did horses. That's Anna's favorite thing. She absolutely loves horses!! Now, if I can find someone to show her all the really hard work of taking care of a horse. I think that will at least make it a little more realistic. LOL!! We'll get there. I also have the second one printed and ready on The Great Depression and stuff, but I think it will wait. The winter Olympics are coming up and surely there will be more fun things to do with that for a while. Sports, countries, techniques, etc. What's more fun that learning about something we will surely be watching on TV anyways? I just hope someone puts out some good material for that.

Other than that, things are the same ole, same ole. Lives still revolve around church, work and school. We are having a fun time. Hope you all have a Happy New Year. Yes, I am a lot late with this post, but its okay. Take care.

Merry Christmas!!

All the fun to be had is in two days. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. I will post some of our pics after the holiday. Maybe even by Sunday, but don't hold your breath. LOL!!

Merry Christmas all!! Have a great day with your family!!

Thanksgiving Pics

At long last, here are the Thanksgiving pics from last month. As a family, we did two, but Anna and I had three Thanksgivings. It was a ton of fun. :-) Enjoy!!

Cecilia pointing to the light:

Gather round the food (Thanksgivng #1):

Time to eat:

Kid's Breakfast (Thanksgiving #2):

Time to talk:

Some cute kids:

Eating time:

Making Turkey's (Thanksgiving #3):