Camp Mom--Day 2

On to Day 2 of Camp Mom. Got a late start today. Guess we had too much fun in the sun yesterday. :)

Nice healthy camp breakfast. :)

We started with pipe cleaner crafts.

Dog. BTW, does this look purple to you? It is purple but it looks to me to be blue in the photo. Weird. Maybe my phone is red color blind? ;D

Parrot.

Dragon. 

Thing 2 picked out this effect on Instagram because he thought it made it look as if the fire from the dragon was making the light. :)

Learned about the Good Samaritan for our bible lesson today.

After lunch it was time for an ice cream bar. :)

Then it was time to wait around for our friends to come over for swimming...

...and the trampoline.

And then my stupid phone croaked. :/

Anyway, it's been a long day. Had two families over for swimming & BBQ. It was a blast...and somewhat of a Sparks/Cubbies/Puggles reunion. :)

Tomorrow will be the most seemingly odd day for a summer camp...well, unless you know Thing 2 really well, then it will make perfect sense. :)

Camp Mom--Day 1

What do you do when the older brothers get to go to camp but the others have to stay behind? Have Camp Mom, of course. :)

We started the day with yummy camp food from McDonald's. (Hey, I only had half a kitchen...yeah, that's a good excuse.)

Then we had to make our camp t-shirts.

Time for crafts. Babycakes was not too thrilled that there were none for him. Eventually we were able to distract him with Cars 2.

Thing 2 has wanted to try those Dot crafts from Crayola forever. Kind of disappointing, but he's my positive kid so we just went with it and made our own stuff. Above is Thing 2's work-in-progress. Directly above is Braniac's finished masterpiece.

Finally, time for a snack. We made Fairy Toast which consists of toast, margarine, & fairy dust (aka sprinkles). Got this idea from a friend on Instagram. It was a big hit. I'm sure there is a lot of Fairy Toast in our future. :)

Some free time, then one more craft.

Bible story time. We learned about Zaccheus.

Finally swimming. Of course. What kind of summer camp wouldn't have swimming? :)

Thing 2 and Braniac were very pleased with their day at camp. Lots of love and "thanks you's" all around. :) Next year maybe we'll add a tent and make it an overnight camp.

*****

Linking up with The MOB Society for "let's hear it for the boys!"

And They're Off

Shipped my two oldest off to camp today. The Teenager had to be at church at 6:30am. It sounds early for a Sunday, I know, but I'm really supposed to be getting up at 5 anyway so it provided motivation and proved I could do it easily. We'll see how things go in the morning. :D

Here's the posh ride the high schoolers took to Hume Lake. The Teenager now leads everyone else in the family for times at Hume Lake. He left behind some very jealous brothers, and maybe a jealous mom too. ;)

After dropping The Teenager off I had to get back home and we had to get ready to go back to church. I was a little out of it and discovered Braniac had completely dressed himself.  I probably would have suggested his tan pants.But seriously, what hope is there fashion-wise for a kid who takes 2 minutes to find a pair of socks that mismatches "correctly?" :)

Then we ran home, had a quick lunch, gave Thing 1 a shower, and packed up and went back to church.

Obviously, 13-3rd & 4th graders driving up the mountain to Forest Home didn't warrant quite the same treatment. But he didn't make any complaints getting on. :)

And then he was off too. I was OK, until then. I guess I was so busy all morning I didn't have time to think about it. It's going to be a long week.

Homeschooling High School

(Participating in the Not Back to School Blog Hop.)


Trying not to panic. (nervous laugh)

College Prep Course of Study

We mostly use Christian Light even though we are not Mennonite so we don't agree with 100% of what they say. I've been homeschooling over 10years, though, and have yet to find any curriculum we agree with 100%. The kids have responded positively to the layout and organization of this curriculum so we'll be sticking with it. :D

Bible

English – Two sections--1st Semester--Literature; 2nd Semester--English. He'll also be taking the course offered through the PSP because I have finally accepted that I am completely incapable of teaching a subject I loathe. ;D

Math -- He seems to like this better than Saxon. We'll see how it works. I hope it gives him enough room to work out the problems in his head.

Social Science – 1 sem. Geography,--Hopefully we can count this as both the Civics & Geography requirements. 1 sem. Health -- CLE doesn't have a Health curriculum, but AOP is laid out similarly...suprise. ;)

Science – Biology --You knew I had to sneak Saxon in there somehow, right? :) We're hoping to take Fridays to focus on Science projects and experiments. He wants to start by dissecting everything. :D

Foreign Language – German

Visual & Performing Arts – 1 year required--Obviously, this shouldn't be a problem in our house. He'll be focusing on Art & Music though. I will outsource those. :)

Physical Education – We'll probably have to skip PE this year.

Electives – Typing; Computer

Golly, it looks so easy on paper. **shudder**

Five Minute Friday: Dance

          

By the time the doctor had announced "It's a boy" the third time, I had given up on pink. We'd even named the third child using the male version of our Grandmothers' names. By the time we heard "It's a boy" the fourth time, dance was the center of our life. By the fifth time we were looking for black baby ballet shoes just coz we knew. It was inevitable.

Braniac tried to fight it. Of all the kids, the one formerly known as Hippie-Freak didn't want to dance. But then one day he announced, in typical Braniac fashion, he'd start when he turned five and followed through with his promise the Saturday after his fifth birthday.

I've been watching them for eight years. It's as ingrained in us as reading. I watch The Teenager now, caught between the world of pain that has taken him out of ballet and the desire to return to the arts. I watch Thing 1 as he tries to push himself so he can achieve great things. I watch the joy and love of the dance in Thing 2's face as he zig-zags across the floor while practicing his spotting or leaps into the air trying to get even higher than the last time. I watch Braniac as he catches on with ease...things come too easily to Braniac. Now we ready for Babycakes first class because we know it's inevitable.

We don't know why. We don't know how they have been so captured. But they are, and they pull us right along with them.

~~~

Post-Script. The timing of this prompt was interesting in that just yesterday I was reading through some quotes on dance, looking for just the right thing and I found St Augustine.

I praise the dance, for it frees people from the heaviness of matter and binds the isolated to community.

I praise the dance, which demands everything: health and a clear spirit and a buoyant soul.

Dance is a transformation of space, of time, of people, who are in constant danger of becoming all brain, will, or feeling.

Dancing demands a whole person, one who is firmly anchored in the center of his life, who is not obsessed by lust for people and things and the demon of isolation in his own ego.

Dancing demands a freed person, one who vibrates with the equipoise of all his powers.

I praise the dance.

O man, learn to dance, or else the angels in heaven will not know what to do with you.

~ Saint Augustine

(Click on the 5-minute Friday graphic above to find more entries on this topic.)