I have missed doing my weekly updates but sometimes life gets in the way of blogging and I have always wanted to make sure that the living gets done before the writing about the living. So, I am behind on the weekly updates. To tell you the truth I have hit this strange state over the last two weeks and haven't been that motivated. For the first time we didn't get all our assignments completed and now I am two lessons "behind" in math. I'm not freaking out or anything but I would like to catch up. A few things to mention..we had a wonderful bookclub meeting at Ms. Karrie's house complete with tent, campfire, mystery to solve, and smores! Of course the kids enjoyed seeing their homeschooled buddies that they have been with the past three years. We are a small self made group but the two other moms are a blessing to me. So I think I will talk about each of them.
Karrie: She has come into my life in a very strange way. She is the "love" of my husband's young teenage life and you would think this would be odd at the least. But how could this bother me when I have "fallen in love" with her too. She is gracious and caring, she is simple but put together, she is quiet-spirited but strong as an oak. She is a mother of three, a wife of a busy man, a believer longing for something deeper, and quite the encouragment to me.
Donna: She is single mother filling the role of mom, teacher, and sometimes dad. She loves her son with a ferver that you don't see often. She juggles work, homeschooling, parenting, and helping care for her mother and she does this all with grace and resoluteness(ok this may not be a word but it works for me). She sacrifices and she too is an encouragment to me.
Thank you God for these two women that You have divinly put in my path for so many reasons.
We also had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My newest nephew was born early Thanksgiving morning and he and my sister are doing well. We had good fellowship with my husband's family on Thursday and I ate the best turkey I have ever! had.
Today we will enjoy decorating our house for the holidays. We have a winter wonderland theme ( I am so much the theme person). I love this time of year. Our dormant Bermuda grass and simple home get taken over by snowflakes and polar bears. Its as if the Polar Express came rumbling through our yard late one night and left behind a touch of the North Pole for us southerners to enjoy. And when they light up something lights up inside of me.....that little girl with long brown hair down her back and big blue eyes and barefeet comes to visit me and I must say its nice to be with her again.
Happy Holidays and thanks for stopping by.
November 23, 2007
November 7, 2007
Our Kitchen Fix up project
Ok...I have to be honest and nobody get mad please...but I don't like orange oak cabinets. There I said it. Since we bought this house three years ago I have been aching to change them but knew I would have to do it because money couldn't be found to have new cabinets put in. So I sanded, and primed, and painted, and glazed until I actually lost feeling in one of my fingers. Im not kidding! Luckily after almost two months the feeling has returned so no permanent nerve damage. Due to my dh's recent RA diagnosis along with two knee surgeries our dear friend Jon installed our floors for us. So here are some pics of the project. We are almost done but not quite. We will be adding glass to two cabinet doors and putting down the quarter round which I just finished painting last weekend. Tell me what you think. ...honestly I can take it.
Sheryl
Sheryl
November 5, 2007
A Look Back: Hazel"nut" Academy Week 14
Some highlights from our week:
Language Arts: This week in phonics we are working on words that end with "ed". Some of them have the "t" sound others the "d" sound. Princess Poodle is having a hard time distinguishing these two different sounds and it is hard to do. This needs a bit more work. We are spelling short u words this week and continued to read in her readers. I do not think we will make it to the end of Sing Spell Read Write this year. There are 36 steps and I think we will make it to around Step 28. What to do? I guess I could continue some over our summer break. I have curriculum picked out for next year and would like to be done with SSRW. Hmmm? I guess I will keep going and when we do finish we will start First Language Lessons then not worrying about what month it is. Princess Poodle took an assessment of Reader 8 including word recognition, word vocabulary, sentence comprehension, and story comprehension; she made a 100%...way to go Princess Poodle!
Math: We started telling time to the hour which Princess Poodle already knows how to do. She also started counting by two's along with her 10's.
History: This week I combined the Middle and New Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt. Princess Poodle is only in Kindergarten and I think this will be ok. We did our map work, looked up pictures of King Tut's mummy and sarcophagus on the internet, read Temple Cat which she dictated a summary for, and made gold jewerly. She also did her copywork and coloring page for these chapters. I am really ready to move on to Ancient Greece and all that will come with it. I plan on spending alot of time there so I will be combining or skipping (I know I'm horrible) a few chapters to fit it all in before the summer. There is a reason for my madness but I won't take the time to go into it now.
Autumn Project: On Monday I took the kids out and let them use my digital camera to take their very own pictures of the changing leaves here in GA. We printed them out and they got to make a collage/project page with them. Princess Poodle wrote a poem to go along with hers.
We are finishing up our read aloud of The Campout Mystery for our next book club meeting. Ms. Karrie will be having us all to her house soon for a book club meeting in a tentwith a campfire and everything. We can't wait. And I must say that Princess Poodle LOVES a mystery! We are almost finished with the book and have had many! discussions about who is causing all the mysterious things to happen at the campsite. I really like reading a chapter book with my kids so we can have this to share and discuss. I recommend it to anyone homeschooling or not!
It has been a good week at Hazel"nut" Academy. We usually take Fridays off but needed Friday morning to take assessments and do some extra reading. The weekend ahead looks beautiful with sunshine and temps in the 60's. This weekends project: to paint the bonus room a neutral color. We are attempting to get the house ready to go on the market by February. I'm excited but nervous about the change. Our home has been our home for three years and I have enjoyed seeing my kids grow here. I cling to things in search of stability I think. But I also know that with each new open door God brings new life, new people, and new ways of experiencing Him. I'm trying to be open to the idea of selling. We would like a house with one more bedroom for our precious daughter from China....still uncertain of when she will join the family. Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.
Language Arts: This week in phonics we are working on words that end with "ed". Some of them have the "t" sound others the "d" sound. Princess Poodle is having a hard time distinguishing these two different sounds and it is hard to do. This needs a bit more work. We are spelling short u words this week and continued to read in her readers. I do not think we will make it to the end of Sing Spell Read Write this year. There are 36 steps and I think we will make it to around Step 28. What to do? I guess I could continue some over our summer break. I have curriculum picked out for next year and would like to be done with SSRW. Hmmm? I guess I will keep going and when we do finish we will start First Language Lessons then not worrying about what month it is. Princess Poodle took an assessment of Reader 8 including word recognition, word vocabulary, sentence comprehension, and story comprehension; she made a 100%...way to go Princess Poodle!
Math: We started telling time to the hour which Princess Poodle already knows how to do. She also started counting by two's along with her 10's.
History: This week I combined the Middle and New Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt. Princess Poodle is only in Kindergarten and I think this will be ok. We did our map work, looked up pictures of King Tut's mummy and sarcophagus on the internet, read Temple Cat which she dictated a summary for, and made gold jewerly. She also did her copywork and coloring page for these chapters. I am really ready to move on to Ancient Greece and all that will come with it. I plan on spending alot of time there so I will be combining or skipping (I know I'm horrible) a few chapters to fit it all in before the summer. There is a reason for my madness but I won't take the time to go into it now.
Autumn Project: On Monday I took the kids out and let them use my digital camera to take their very own pictures of the changing leaves here in GA. We printed them out and they got to make a collage/project page with them. Princess Poodle wrote a poem to go along with hers.
We are finishing up our read aloud of The Campout Mystery for our next book club meeting. Ms. Karrie will be having us all to her house soon for a book club meeting in a tentwith a campfire and everything. We can't wait. And I must say that Princess Poodle LOVES a mystery! We are almost finished with the book and have had many! discussions about who is causing all the mysterious things to happen at the campsite. I really like reading a chapter book with my kids so we can have this to share and discuss. I recommend it to anyone homeschooling or not!
It has been a good week at Hazel"nut" Academy. We usually take Fridays off but needed Friday morning to take assessments and do some extra reading. The weekend ahead looks beautiful with sunshine and temps in the 60's. This weekends project: to paint the bonus room a neutral color. We are attempting to get the house ready to go on the market by February. I'm excited but nervous about the change. Our home has been our home for three years and I have enjoyed seeing my kids grow here. I cling to things in search of stability I think. But I also know that with each new open door God brings new life, new people, and new ways of experiencing Him. I'm trying to be open to the idea of selling. We would like a house with one more bedroom for our precious daughter from China....still uncertain of when she will join the family. Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.
November 1, 2007
Looking Back: Week 13
A few highlights from this week at Hazel"nut" Academy:
On Monday we painted our faces to represent people of Ancient Africa. We also enjoyed the many stories of the master trickster Anansi the Spider. The kids made plate shakers and performed a dance.
Wednesday was a math morning and we filled the day with many Halloween stories. That night was spent with good friends and festive trick or treating.
On Thursday we had one of those rare but perfect homeschool days. We started with a math lesson involving colored water ..and of course anything with water; especially colored water, is a winner with the kids. We finished our reading and math lessons and then headed out for a picnic at the library. After a quick lunch I performed Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock with puppets and then Princess Poodle did a puppet show of Anansi and the Magic Stick and Triple H even tried to perform The Talking Melon. It was a riot and we laughed and had such a good time. Thank you God that I can be with my kids on a day like today. After our puppet shows we checked out more!! books from our library trying to get a hold of the books we need for upcoming history lessons.
It has been a good week. Princess Poodle is growing in her reading and was able to figure out in her little Kindergarten head that with 12 chicken nuggets we should each get 4 because "Mommy..4 plus 4 plus 4 is 12".
My thought for the week:
Thank you God for Autumn. I am so amazed at the brushstoke of our Creator. Master painter He is. Fall brings a strange mix of emotions for me...a longing for things past like highschool football games on a Friday night, an appreciation for things present like having a picnic with my kids or tackling my son holding a football in the grass, and hope for the future, yes its like God sends hope riding in on the cool breezes. Autumn...Thank you God for Autumn.
Thanks for stopping by.
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