Gilcrease Orchard

October 3, 2011

Our V&B Homeschool Group went for a little field trip to Gilcrease Orchard in the northwest part of the desert.

Acres and acres of pumpkins, veggies, apple orchards, etc, growing right here in the desert.  It was fun!

We've been here 10+ yrs now, and this is our first trip to G.O.



Catching Up...

Catching up...

it's the story of my life!

We started our Sonlight program on Sept. 6th.

We are enjoying the program, mostly.  I haven't had the funds to get some of the books, so we are adjusting the curriculum to that fact.

I do like the history, so do the kids. They like the readers and read-a-louds. We are doing Winston Grammar, simple yet complete.  We are doing Math-U-See, and we like it overall. We are just doing a lot of review on math, making sure we master math and not just keep going on. We are almost done with our first book! I think we'll get through at least 2 more levels this year.

The kids are doing a lot of writing with Sonlight as well. I like their L. Arts program, overall. We are doing dictation on Mondays, and writing every other day. Sometimes, I have them copy poems to get some handwriting practice.

My overall review of Sonlight - it's important to have all the books, otherwise it's difficult to follow.  I'm still waiting for some of our science books to come in.

I'll admit, I am missing Ambleside a little bit. We'll see... but we are doing this Sonlight till we're done!

We went on a field trip last Tuesday with our group to Gilcrease Orchard. We picked veggies and walked in the rain and thunder! It was a beautiful day in the desert.

I have no idea who this little girl is... she wasn't with our group. But I loved her hat!

New Curriculum

Well...

Last summer I was up & down about our curriculum. Drove me nuts. I'm sure I drove everyone nuts. We did http://www.amblesideonline.com/ and really enjoyed the history. The one thing I didn't like too much was the booklist... what the kids were supposed to read along with our history. The books they had listed didn't correlate to the same time period as what we were studying. 

I was planning on staying with AO... and decided to look at a recent Sonlight Catalog to look at their book lists. I love their booklists!  You can download (for free) a 3 week Sample of their History, L. Arts, and Science programs, for any or all levels.  So I did!

Their booklist is in time sync with their history timeline. (Both AO and SL study world history this year, but AO doesn't start at Creation, as I'd like).

I love how their L.A. program (writing, dictation, narration, vocabulary) focus around their readers and read-alouds, as well as the history books.

While reading reviews of SL, I noticed moms saying that SL was a little weak on Grammar.  Looking through their L. Arts guide, ah, they might be a little. But I can fix that!

So... I chose to do Core G - World History 1.  Next year we follow up with WH2.  I was able to buy the Instructor's Guide for History/Geography, L. Arts, and Science (a & P) on Ebay and am piecing the books together. Some I have, some I am purchasing, some I will borrow (hopefully).

I was going through the IGs tonight and am getting excited about starting school. Of course, we need to finish school. UGH!

Summer Vacation

Summer Vacation....

Has lasted a lot longer than I intended!

We will start back on Monday July 18th.  We are not 'starting' our next year, we will be finishing the past's years assignments!  hunk #4 has to finish math & spelling, and Chicket has to finish spelling & work on grammar.  We'll take @ 2 weeks, tops, to finish up, then take a break for a few more weeks.  But we just gotta finish what we started, right?

We are going to be doing Sonlight this year, Core G... World History 1.  I am pretty excited for it... Hunk #4 has found my books and is already reading them. I need to hide them!



May 2011

I am preparing for our Homeschool 'Promotion Ceremony' tonight at church. This is the first year we have participated in this gathering.  I have been busy printing off certificates for my 2 kiddos at home -

grade advancement for both (and yes,a bit prematurely be/c we are nowhere near done w/ the schoolyear!).  Chicklet is receiving a Reading Award as she has totally taken off in her reading the last few months! I am soooo grateful she is now enjoying reading!

Hunk#4 is receiving a Writing Award.  This is one of the items he has penned within the last year. (or so).

Nature, nature, everywhere

Little bunnies, little hares

The sun shines straight down on

Sweet nature everywhere.

At night, nature sleepeth

The little owl whoo’s

The tiny bug creepeth

Everything’s still.

At first light, the world awakens

To the happy songs of life.

The Birds fly,

The river runs,

The deer loves to play.

When the sky turns grey

The deer cease their cheerful play.

The leaves fall.

As the sky darkens, the world becomes

Quiet once more.

The fall of the rain ends this cheery poem,

A day I shall never forget.

Richard Davis 2010

Round 4 - Sewing in the Desert!

Miss E. has her binding on, and needs to finish that and she will be done!

The back of Miss E's

Miss V.'s quilt!  She is in the process of making her binding!

The back of Miss V's quilt!

Miss I's quilt!  She has been gone for a while.  We sandwiched her quilt today and she started quilting it!

Chicklet's quilt!  She finished quilting it and is now working on her binding.

This is me.  Going to bed.  I am utterly exhausted!

March 15, Sewing Day, Round 2

Round 2 = borders for our quilt tops!

The girls had sooo much fun making these quilts!  Miss V even bought more fabric and made a 2nd quilt (w/ lite greens & browns).

 

I’m so excited they are excited about quilting.

We meet in 2 weeks to sandwich the quilts. Then they get to start quilting!

 

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Sewing Day 3-8-11

 

Today was a fun day in the Vine & Branch Sewing Group!  We tackled our first big quilt! 4 girls, lots of strips of fabric, and loads of fun.  The quilt pattern we made is called the 1600 Quilt.  You take @ 40 strips of fabric, 2 1/2” x WOF (width of fabric), sew the strips end to end, till you have one long strip measuring 1600”.  That’s a strip that measures over 133 FEET! Wow!  Sew & flip, sew & flip, and there you go! We’re waiting to receive a picture of the fourth finished quilt!  Next week, we’ll add borders and sandwich. I’ll show them how to quilt it and send them home. The week after, we’ll bind.  I dislike binding, but that’s ok!

 

 

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Museum of Natural History

 

The Vine & Branch Homeschool Group from CCGV went to the Museum of Natural History this morning.  We had a great time! There were about 6 or 7 families represented – not a full turn out but fun, nonetheless!

We were pleased to have a guide that never mentioned evolution or that the earth was millions of years old.  Or that I was a million years old, lol!

 

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Birds of a feather...

We started Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day a few weeks ago and we are all enjoying it a lot!

This past week, the kids made bird-feeders out of juice bottles.  We hung them up late yesterday afternoon and saw that we had some visitors this morning! What pleasant company!



Issues....

So sorry for not writing in ages!  Life has happened, but we're back! 

We had a great Christmas break with all the kids home!  It was hard to start back to school on January 3rd but we did it! Yeah me... !

Tonight I am writing about a website called

http://www.spellingcity.com/

 I love it!

I've known about it for at least a year, even looked through it a few times.  I was speaking to a dear friend I look up to for homeschooling advice - she knows who she is - and she recommended it to me for help w/ Chicklet.

Well, we have had so much fun on there!  It is a free sight, but you can pay $25 for additional uses.  Here's how it works...

you type in a list of words, and then click on test, teach, games, etc. There are several games they can play to build their skills, but it also teaches them the definitions and reinforces those too.

Hunk #4 and Chicklet are using Apples Spelling and Apples Phonics respectively this year.  I love these books.  Each section covers a rule for 8 days or so. The first day, the whole rule is printed on the top of the page. Each consecutive day, part of the rule is missing and the student needs to write it in. There are exercises on words that fit the rules.  I typed in and saved several lists for each of these rules that they have covered.  I can even print the spelling words off in cursive for them to practice. Heck, you can print it off showing the word in sign language! 

 They can even work on writing skills... having to type or write a sentence for each spelling word OR using all the spelling words in a paragraph. When they are finished, it is sent to me, the teacher, for grading!  These kiddos get to work on it after lunchtime.  So far, they really enjoy it, and so do I.

Thanks Miss Rosie!