Showing newest 13 of 22 posts from April 2010. Show older posts
Showing newest 13 of 22 posts from April 2010. Show older posts

Friday, April 30, 2010

FIAR Cookbook

We have been enjoying our FIAR Cookbook.  So far we have made two meals.  For The Story of Ferdinand we made Paella and Spanish rice.




This week while reading They Were Strong and Good we made Coconut Chicken, Coconut Salad, and Coconut Cream Pie.




Each meal has been a hit, even with my picky eaters.  I like exposing our kids to different kinds of food and it really helps the good stories to stick with them.  I am not sure a week goes by that we don't, in some, way reference a Five In A Row book we have read over the past couple of years.  I love when books become a part of our unique family culture. ❀

Thursday, April 29, 2010

What we did - Part II

In the afternoon the younger kids had quiet time and the boys spent some time drawing...


with a little basketball thrown in throughout the day...


some more drawing...


we went to dinner with Jonah for his birthday (thanks to my mom, brother and sil for babysitting the rest of the group!)  followed up with some owl pellet dissection...







all in all a really good day.  Unschooling?  I am really not sure.  Some days it feels like we are switching around with our philosophies, but I think we keep evolving and growing with what works for our family.  We have a framework built, I am just not ready to seal us in with drywall and windows.  The beauty and joy of home education, how ever it is done in your home, is that we have the flexibility to do what works and get rid of what doesn't.  As long as we haven't lost sight of our goals, living and learning our faith each day and igniting a passion and curiosity for life long learning, then we need to go where we are being called. ❀

Some resources that you might enjoy:

Yarns of the Heart
Camp Creek Blog
Three Plus Two

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

What we did - Part I

I wrote just a week or so ago about some new plans we were going to implement.  We were going to try some more child-led learning.  I even went so far as to say that we definitely weren't unschoolers, but then I did some more thinking and some more reading and it seems to me we might be headed in that direction.  I am not quite sure what unschooling might look like in our family.  I do know that this is what we did on Monday:

We started with the birthday celebration and the opening of presents...


the coonskin cap was a big success...


then the Lego building began...


Jacob started his Russian language program, his request, not my requirement...


The girls and Levi spent the morning playing Madeline.

Then we all got together to read our FIAR book for the week, They Were Strong and Good.  This is a great book!

Jonah spent some time doing math on Free Rice.

Jacob made lunch and I supervised.  While he was making lunch, I had a chance to switch the washer and dryer and vacuum the main floor.

We had lunch and I read a story from Devotional Stories for Little Folks.


Jonah started a little science project.

Anna practiced taking the tablecloth off, shaking it outside, and putting it back on again...


Part II tomorrow!


Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Home Education Magazine

Thought I would pass along a good resource.  Mater et magistra is a magazine for Catholic Home Educators.    Chock full of good information and inspiration!  I just received my first issue and for $20 a year is well worth the subscription price.   I only recently learned of this magazine so I thought maybe others would be interested as well.  Enjoy ❀

Monday, April 26, 2010

Jonah Turns 7!

Happy Birthday to our energy-filled, always ready-for-an-adventure, nature lovin' boy!!








In his birthday bag today:

* a summer outfit
* small bug catcher with magnifier
* coonskin cap
* fringe pouch kit
* an owl pellet to dissect

Gifts only a homeschooled nature boy could love...

Every day is an adventure with Jonah.  So glad we get to share life with him!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Upcoming Plans-April 23, 2010

 The Story of Ferdinand (Puffin Storytime)

 Our FIAR book for this week was The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf.   We didn't do as much with it as I had planned, we had another busy, busy week.  Yesterday we read about vultures and noticed how often they were in the story.  Today we will wrap up the story by talking about cork and Spain. Saturday will be our "grand finale".  We will make two recipes from the FIAR Cookbook to celebrate reading Ferdinand.

Next week we will read They Were Strong and Good by Robert Lawson.  Some of the things I hope to cover are:
     Geography - Islands of the Caribbean (we have some personal experience with this one!)
     Science - Bees and Bee Keeping, this is a favorite family topic
Our Saturday dinner will include two caribbean recipes from the FIAR Cookbook.

At the Midwest Conference, I attended a seminar by a woman named Rebecca Kochenderfer.  She was giving out a free book to all of her seminar attendees.  It was a book she wrote called Homeschooling and Loving It.  I really enjoyed the read and it gave me lots of great ideas as well as encouragement and confidence to try some different things  in our day.  As we go along in our homeschool journey I find we are less and less into the school at home mode.  Nothing wrong with that route,  I just think there are other choices that are a better fit for our family.  In the book she walks you through  developing a learning plan for each child, taking into account they way they learn best and most importantly going with what your child is interested in learning about.

She also stresses the importance of helping your child to set goals.  She walks you through breaking those goals down into manageable tasks so it is not so overwhelming.  Jacob and I sat down and worked our way through the learning plan, even taking a quiz on how we each learn best - Dad joined us in that one too!  Without hesitation his goal for this year is to earn his junior black belt.  So we wrote it down and talked about the things that he needs to do over the next several months to achieve that goal.  For instance, this summer we will work on TaeKwonDo knowledge, he will continue with his private lesson, and he will attend sparring class 2x per week.

As for the item he wants to learn more about, not really a surprise, it's trash.  The more we thought about it the more we realized that there really is a lot we can cover.   A field trip to a recycling center, a science experiment on trash decomposition, a mock business plan for a trash business and so on.  I also plan to revisit Math on the Level this summer so we can incorporate more everyday math into the trash unit.  I definitely won't be getting rid of all of our workbooks, we are not unschoolers by any stretch, but we are excited about adding some new and different things to our life of learning.❀

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Tea Parties: Angry & Racist

Tea Party Attendee-in-Training

As the Tea Party movement continues to gain momentum, it is no surprise that it and its participants are under attack.  For months we have heard the ugly names and misconceptions leveled towards those with conservative principles.  The latest ugly names seem to be "angry" and "racist".  Last week we attended a Tea Party in our area at a liberal and diverse university.  Not once did we experience an angry or racist group of people.  In fact, the crowd wasn't very diverse at all.  Granted we were only there for a short period of time, but we only saw a hand full of non-white people on either side of the debate and four of them happened to be our children!  And really, racist?  disagreeing with the current administration make people racist?  Surely the media can come up with a better reason for the grass roots movement of Tea Parties taking off so strongly other than race.

As far as the Tea Party people being angry, I would say if you think the entire fabric of our country is being changed against the will of the people, that might stir up some anger!   Of course a more appropriate word would be passionate, and we should be passionate about our country.  Tea Party attendees are passionate about protecting and ensuring our liberties and freedoms.  Passionate about preserving a nation for our children where the sky is the limit on what they can accomplish.  Passionate about not leaving God out of public places and that the right to be born is pretty darn fundamental.  I guess the word angry sounds more interesting and dangerous.  It gives the impression that at every Tea Party the attendees are carrying bricks to hurl through windows, which couldn't be further from the truth.

There was a young college age girl standing next to me holding a sign that read "If you are 26 and under we have got you covered".  Meaning of course that the new healthcare bill will now cover people up to age 26.  I stood there thinking, here is a young woman attending one of the most prestigious universities in the country and she doesn't think she will have health care coverage by the age of 26.  What does that say about the education she is receiving?, the motivation to be self-sufficient?, and the fact that we are teaching young people that we don't have enough faith in them to be able to care for themselves by age 26?

Passionate and concerned about the direction and future of our country, but definitely not angry and racist.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Faith Folders

If you haven't checked out this resource yet, I highly recommend that you do.  I mentioned them earlier when I posted about some of the items we were going to do during the spring and summer.  I am going to order Jacob the mass book.  I thought it would be good preparation for being an altar server in the future.  This will be our first time using Faith Folders.  I will be sure to post the finished product.*



*Disclaimer - if you posted about Faith Folders on your blog, or FB page you will receive a 50% off coupon in honor of their 2nd Anniversary!  Hey, everyone loves a bargain :)

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Praise the Lord!

On February 3rd I posted this.......



These three handsome boys need a forever family.  They are currently in foster care in St. Vincent and  the Grenadines, a beautiful group of islands in the caribbean.  The boys are 6, 5 and 2 years old.  Please prayerfully consider adding these children to your home. 


It looks like these precious boys have a family!!  Please continue to pray for them and the family they are waiting to join.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Looking for Suggestions

Due to our growing family, I am in need of a some updated kitchen items.  I am looking for suggestions for a few small appliances, preferably ones that will last longer than a week!  I did finally find a coffee maker that has been working well.  These are the items I would like recommendations on:

griddle - for pancakes and sandwiches

blender- mostly for smoothies

waffle-maker - one that makes at least four waffles at a time

If you have any products you like and have lasted please let me know.  Also, if you have any other "can't live withouts" I would like to know those as well!  Thanks

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Sunday Snippets- A Catholic Carnival

Here are my highlights for the week:

Is it really forever?

Russian Adoption

Check out more Sunday Snippets here

Friday, April 16, 2010

Kids Say the Darndest Things Friday....

We decided to take the kids to a local Tea Party last evening.  We haven't been to one to before so naturally the kids had lots of questions about what we were doing.  I thought it was interesting the different reactions they had.

♥ Jacob spent our drive time thinking about what he was going to say when it was his turn at the podium..

♥ From Jonah...."so do we just stand around saying bad things about Obama?"

♥ From Anna...."I love cake!"

We had to break it to Jacob that oddly enough our family were not the featured speakers, no one said anything bad about Obama, and Anna was a bit disappointed that there would be no cake - it wasn't that kind of party, but we did get ice cream on the way home!

For more Kids Say the Darndest Things see here




Thursday, April 15, 2010

Blogging our Russian Adoption

As requested by the Joint Council on International Children's Services, I am blogging today about our Russian adoption.  This is in response to the American woman who sent her child back to Russia.  Of course Jacob & Jonah are only two of our six children who joined our family through adoption, but since they were born in Russia, I wanted to specifically highlight them.  Jonah is also just about the same age as the little boy involved in the situation.

Jacob joined our family in 2001 and Jonah in 2004.  They are now 9 and almost 7.

Jacob - our first meeting

Jacob & Dad

Jonah - our first meeting

Jonah & Mom


Can't imagine life without these boys...we are so blessed!



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