For the beauty of the earth, For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth Over and around us lies,
Lord of all, to thee we raise This our grateful hymn of praise.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Homeschool Open House 2011


Song of the Day: Hold My Heart by Tenth Avenue North  (see video in post below)
Reading: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (read free, online here)
Verse: Ps. 27:9  Hide not your face from me.Turn not your servant away in anger,O you who have been my help.Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation!

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Spent the morning at ballet.  Took Thing 2 to the park while Thing 1 was in his class.



Came home and decorated eggs (again) with H-F.


Then we loaded up the Monster Van and headed to church for the 1st Annual Homeschool Open House.


Had to keep Babycakes contained so he wouldn't destroy all the displays.


Figured out a way to show that the kids have been learning sign language this year.


Grandpa came to check out what the kids have been doing this year.


The Teenager showing his friends the computer he built.


Waiting for the "show."


Violin tuned & ready.


The Teenager half reciting/half reading Ps 45:1-9.


Thing 2 waiting to say his poem.


Thing 2 couldn't recall the poem very well so he opted to read it.


Thing 1's turn.


Violin sans rosin.


More video game playing...what else is a homebuilt computer for? :D

Hold My Heart - Tenth Avenue North


Love this group. Super love this song. It's my current fave. You haven't lived until you've lived this song. :)


Friday, April 29, 2011

Poetry Lapbook

We have finished our Poetry Lapbook for April, National Poetry Month. We found a free lapbook at Homeschool Share via Facebook. All the poems were available, free, online. We even found a few interesting posts from various sources.

The Quarrel--video of 2yo who has memorized the poem.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers--voice recording of Langston Hughes telling how he came to write the poem, then reading it.

I used two file folders (cheap manila colored :)), cut off the tabs, then glued them together so there would be three pages when opened.  If that doesn't make sense ask me and I'll try to post more specific pictures. I let them organize the pages as they'd like after I figured out which ones could fit on a page together. Therefore, it isn't exact like it would be if I, or some other adult, had organized it, but it's theirs.


Cover page.


Inside first opening.


Left.


Right.


Whole book open.


Middle.


Right.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Smilebox Creation

Funny: I just noticed this has the generic name that Smilebox put on it. :D


Click to play this Smilebox greeting
Create your own greeting - Powered by Smilebox
This free digital greeting card generated with Smilebox

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Wednesday, April 27, 2011


Song of the Day: Mighty to Save--Jeremy Camp  (see video in post below)
Reading: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (read free, online here)
Verse: Ps. 10:17 O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear...
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I was going to simply say that it was a pretty awful day during which nothing happened.  That is, I am not really proud of much today. But I did receive T2's reading book & T1's language arts books and enjoyed looking at them.  I really think this is going to be a good fit as far as workbooks go.  I think the kids will like them a lot.  The stories are very nice & point the reader to Godly behavior and attitudes.  I find this somewhat difficult to find in classical literature because my boys do not infer anything.  They are "black & white" only.  Everything must be spelled out.  If it's not moralistic, they won't know what you're trying to convey. :D

I have a few things set aside for the open house on Saturday.  I had a lapbook of H-F's but I think he ran off with it.  I'll have to look for that since we may not be done with our current one in time.

I read a bit in my book today.  Always nice to be able to have time for that.  

No pics to post due to aforementioned difficult day.  Maybe tomorrow.

T2 did have a funny moment while working on his school work.  "Mom, the opposite of 'sucked' is 'fantastic.' Um, what kind of words do they have in this 2nd grade book?!? "Let me see it."  Laugh hysterically. "Honey, that's 'soaked.'"

Jeremy Camp "Mighty To Save"

Thing 2's favorite song. :)


Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Tuesday, April 26, 2011


Song of the Day: Mozart's String Quintet No. 5--1st Movement  (see video in post below)
Reading: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (read free, online here)
Verse: Ps. 27:4 One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.

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Got a few things together for the open house on Saturday.  Still not exactly sure what I'm doing since I've never participated in one before.  Oh, well, I'll know for next year.  The kids are working on their music/memory work for it.

Worked a bit on my sign language.  I don't think I'm ready for tomorrow's class.  I am fortunate to have the kids at about the same level, or higher. :0D It's helpful to have someone I can sign with.  It would probably be more helpful if I had someone who knew ASL perfectly since it's the grammar we are really struggling with.  I'll probably have to take the course again in the fall.  I just don't see how I can get that down in just six short weeks.  There are also videos to go with the book we use.  I may order those to review this summer.  It's fun at any rate. :)

Speaking of ASL...H-F's last birthday present arrived today...finally. :)  We ordered Leah's Farm from Signing Time.  All their DVDs were on sale last week for their 10th anniversary.  I'm going to watch for the next sale and get some more.  They're helpful with learning the signs, just not the grammar.

We also received our first shipment of books for the next school year.


The books look good.  When the readers arrive I'm going to go ahead and start Thing 1.  I know it says "2" and Thing 1 is going into 3rd grade, but I'd read that the language arts in this program is about a year ahead of typical grade level so I decided to start everything back & just accelerate it. From looking at the first workbook I can't see how that will be a problem for Thing 1.  

We had no GF kids with us today (H-F is now officially non-GF) so we went to Del Taco (Thing 1's choice) for dinner after ballet.  H-F was not really thrilled.  He'd hoped to go to Wendy's and have some french fries and chocky milkies. :)  But at least there was a train to watch. 


It wasn't really that loud.  He just does that as a precaution. :D

Mozart String Quintet No.5, KV 593 - 1. Larghetto - Allegro

Monday, April 25, 2011

Monday, April 25, 2011


Song of the Day: New Creation by Leeland  (see video in post below)
Reading: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (read free, online here)
Verse: 2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

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Mostly a typical Monday.  Thing 1 to Violin this morning.  There was a sub today, though, so that was unusual. :)



Then it was time to take H-F to school. He was a little apprehensive about me leaving, but only a little. I felt bad when I picked him up.  Apparently the juice box I packed for him had no straw. :/


While I was picking him (& eggs at the grocery store..."No, Mom, it's not the grocery store, it's Stater Bros." What?!?) up, the thing I'd been waiting for arrived...our new dishwasher.  Here's hoping it works. :)  Dad is installing it now.


They gave out plants at school today.  Well, seeds actually.  Perfect for my little gardener. We watered it when we got home and we'll see if we can get some peas out of it. (Unless Babycakes ate the seed as well as some of the dirt. :D)



He picked the bunny plant out at Stater Bros. (*not* the grocery store) before his birthday for decoration.




Here are Thing 1 and Thing 2, pausing from their jumping upon realizing a wasp had joined them inside the net. :)

Leeland - New Creation (HQ)

Easter 2011


Song of the Day: Easter Hymn by Ralph Vaughan Williams  (see video in post below)
Reading: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (read free, online here)
Verse: Matthew 28:5-6 But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.

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We started the day off slowly since we were all still pretty tired from the party on Saturday night.  The kids weren't too put out that I hadn't got the Easter baskets together since they had the toys from H-F's birthday to play with.


As you can see, my kids like to play right on top of each other.


This is as good as it gets, photo-wise.  I figure if I got everyone's face, it's good to go. :)  The teenager got some candy and the new Harry Potter DVD/Blu-ray/digital. Thing 1 got a puppy, some sidewalk chalk, and a candy.  Thing 2 got a book about bible smuggling (his chosen profession) and chalk & candy. H-F got a ballerina pig, chalk & candy.  Babycakes got a ballerina bunny.  No chalk, though he stole some from his brothers later to eat.  :D

After church we went to my in-laws.  The kids wanted to use their new chalk as soon as they got there.






The table setting.


Babycakes really liked it.  Of course, it was the utensils, not the food, that excited him. :)


Stereotypical teenager.


H-F wanted his picture taken with the pretty purple & yellow flowers.


Dad & Thing 1 playing frisbee.  Babycakes is going to try to get in on the game.


Later, the kids had an egg toss.  That's Dad running after Babycakes so he doesn't run off with the goal. :D


Thing 1 measuring to see who won this round.




Looks like H-F had a fun day.

Ralph Vaughan Williams - Three Choral Hymns - I. Easter Hymn

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Very long day, but good. Easter is my favorite holiday. No entry tonight. I'm too tired to boot up the "mainframe." :)

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Saturday, April 23, 2011


Song of the Day: Low in the Grave He Lay  (see video in post below)
Reading: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (read free, online here)
Verse: Matthew 28:5-6 But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.

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Crazy, busy day as we prepared for the Hippie-Freak's birthday party.  I was also trying to secure some of the school books we'll need for the coming year from someone on the listserv who was selling a bit of what we needed.  It looks like everything I've ordered this week will be coming next week.  Unfortunately, this includes the gift I ordered for H-F for Easter.  I'm sure he'll be just fine waiting. :)

I guess I picked up when I got up, I can't remember.  There was something in there about getting dressed.  It's been over 12 hours ago, though, so it's now all a fog. :D I know I still had to make frosting since I hadn't last night.  I'm glad I waited.  I had forgotten how quickly home-made frosting dries out.  My friend came over to help out with the decorating. I've never made a four layer cake before, even for my cake decorating classes I took 10 years ago. 

After the cake we had lunch & cleaned the dishes.  I'm starting to get used to doing them all by hand now.  I'll kind of miss it.  It just takes so long to do by hand so a dishwasher is for the best. :) (It will be arriving Monday.)  After we finished cleaning most everything Dad took the older boys to their rehearsal.  They skipped their earlier level rehearsals but we thought it would be a good idea to get them in to the boys' rehearsal since that's a big chunk of the class. :D

I mopped the floors.  Babycakes tried to help.


Unfortunately, all he got to do was slip & hurt himself on the floor.  He hurt himself a lot today.  He got bumped into the door jam twice during the party. :/

Finally I got the littles into the bath.  That was actually fun. It would have been more fun but I was pressed for time.  It was 4:30 when I put them in and the party was supposed to start at 5pm.  I'm usually ready and waiting for a long time before we have guests so it was very unusual for me to not even be dressed myself.

H-F's friend E arrived with her parents, followed by the grandparents & the rest of our brood, returning from ballet. He was so excited to show everyone his cake.

We colored eggs first.  That was an adventure.  Everything went well, though, and I was glad I only let him invite one family to his party.  I think it would have been too much for me if I had invited everyone I wanted to invite. :D (One note, the Dudley's Egg Stamping kit does not work well.  It paints nicely but it doesn't stamp.  We'll save the stamps and pick up some stamp pads at Michael's next week to use them on some paper.)


During egg painting E's sister arrived from her other activity so she was able to color some eggs before we moved on to dinner.  After dinner we had an egg hunt.  It was a lot of fun.  We let H-F "find" the first egg before releasing the others.  This was a bit too much pressure for him, though...I think he wanted everyone else to be with him. :) I watched as Thing 1 ran to the typical egg hiding place in the tree.  Boy was he surprised to see it empty.  Thought I'd change it up this year.  We always use the same spot so I put it in another hole on the back side of the tree. :)




After all the eggs were found H-F opened his presents.  He's such a good kid.  He waited for people to take their pictures & was happy to pose for the camera after each present was opened.  It was a lot of farm stuff & one math book from his grandparents. (This is a greatly appreciated gift for my little super-student.)  








We were joking while taking the pictures that the corners of his mouth were tired from smiling all day since he didn't smile like he usually does.  Then we brought out the cake...



Yeah, then he smiled. :)

The cake turned out great.  It was chocolate & vanilla layered.  We used the Betty Crocker Gluten Free cake mix.  I'd never had the Vanilla before & it was very tasty.  I'm definitely going to use it again.  

Somewhere in the middle of this day, my friend came back and dropped off a tractor. :) I pulled it out while they were waiting for the cake & took a picture of each kid.  Anyway, while my friend was here H-F came over with a piece of paper on which he had written his name.  This was the first time he had ever written his whole name all by himself.  I was very proud. :)





And now back to the continuity...;)

After his guests left & before bed, he wanted to play with his new UNO Moo Farm game.  This game is pretty fun.  I don't usually enjoy these newly invented kids' games but this one I'll gladly play again.

So now the kids are in bed & Dad & the teenager (I've not thought up a name for him shy of Zombie-killer yet) are working on the computer. It will sure be fun to get him out of bed for church in the morning. X-(