Fieldtrips Coming Up and my own version of LOST

Summer is in full swing her at Hazelnut academy. I know this because my legs are covered in bug bites and my back and chest in this strange red color that only shows up as Spring fades and the first real heat of summer catches me off guard. I also know that summer is here because I found myself buying a book from Publix. I mean really, how good of a literary masterpiece can come from a grocery store. But summer reads have a place and it had been awhile since I had read something so, saucy and quick witted. Finished it in one day and now I feel guilty about the 1o bucks I spent on it. I have no want to keep it on my shelf and would be slightly embarrassed to pass it on to someone else. lol
This week we leave for a long weekend trip to visit my sister and her family in Charleston, SC. We are hoping to hit the beach one day, downtown Charleston one evening, and then hit Columbia another day. We have reservations to go see the Turner to Cezanne art exhibit that is touring only 5 US cities. Princess Poodle is beyond excited to be visiting a real art museum. She has been jealous ever since I got to visit the Lourve last summer. I cannot wait to get my toes in the sand, feel the ocean breeze on my face, and get lost in a little VanGogh, Turner, and Monet. Fieldtrips are so much fun! I also got some time to get away tonight and read up on next years writing plan and finish planning out our "trips" to England and France. Also, am I the only crazy, absent minded homeschool mom that has ordered curriculum and then LOST It. I mean an entire SAxon 3 kit cannot be found. Now I am wondering, "Did I really order it or was it a dream?" This has been known to happen to me, confusing reality with something I dream. I will search the house from top to bottom this coming week and if it is still unfound I guess I will have to order, "again"?.
So until my next post which will hopefully include pictures of our Charleston trip, a FOUND ad for my lost curriculum, and hopefully less bug bites and a golden color replacing the garish strawberry red that presently exist on my skin.

Happy Summering! (not a word, but Oh it should be!)

The Planning has begun...

I have started my planning for next year which for us starts in July. Today I picked out three of the poems we will learn for next year and printed them out ready to be illustrated and go into the poetry notebooks. I will need to find easier poems for Triple H to memorize and he really wants too or I wouldn't bother. I have also just about finished my planning for the intro as well as England and France units of the countries and cultures study I am working on. I am excited about how it is coming together. We are going to create travel diaries/logs from our trip around the world this year. What will these include? A passport page where we will place a stamp (flag sticker) before each journey, maps of each country, a flag coloring sheet, dictation/illustration from some of our living books, artis info and activities, composer info, words to songs we learn, pictures of our cultural experiences ie english tea, mini tour de france, jap. hibachi grill etc., printed pictures of famous landmarks or people etc. What a notebook this will be at the end of the year!!! I might be jealous not to have one myself. I have already printed out the maps and flags for most of the countries we will cover. I still need to check which books are readily available on interlibrary loan. I need to find directions on how to have an english tea. Of course I will need an ongoing supply list. I would like something that we could color or print to put up on our world map for each country but not sure what yet. Why can't I get this excited over the three loads of laundry I need to fold? I would like to update the lesson planning page but don't have the time to type it all out right now. Hopefully that will happen eventually. So July we will do some stargazing and dreaming about the vastness fo God's creation and the diversity of His world. We will start off with an intro to geography covering hemispheres, continents, oceans, time zones etc. Then we journey over to England and France for the month of August. But first, summer break the month of June. I have to make plenty of time for icecream, swimming, playing barefoot and other adventures. Oh and hopefully a trip to IKEA for the bookshelf I am needed to hold all these wonderful, lovely books!!!!!
Thanks for stopping by.

Welcome Summer!

Leaping into summer.
Running into summer.

Its good to be a boy in the great outdoors.

My little man turns five this summer. sigh


Feathered friends and girly skirts.

Barefoot days.




Pure joy.

Not sure what to say about this one. But I like it.

Bashful beauty.


My little island man being a monkey!

Hazel NUTS for sure

This month we are living up to our name Hazel"nut" Academy. Today we had school in the van, while eating tacos. Really, we did. We have had school outside, school in the library, anywhere but our school room. I just can't sit around a table in a room with four walls right now. May is our month of insanity I guess. Things are winding down. We finished WWE this week and now our main focus in on math. I am not really happy how Saxon has saved all the new material for the end of the year. Teach new concepts then have a four week break. That makes no sense at all. Why not teach the new concepts earlier and review at the end of the year. But I don't write the curriculum, or at least not the math one. So we will continue to have school this month but its a school for oddballs. We are reading Little House in the Big Woods as part of our pioneer studies. Studies which are really loose ended right now. We will cover reptiles and amphibians over the summer months but all in a very relaxed way. We will probably have school in a number of strange locations over the next couple of weeks because I just can 't be blocked in or tied to a chair right now. So we will sit under trees, read great living books, learn some math but not be pressed by it and maybe get in another session while eating tacos in the van. And for those of you wondering why we didn't go into Taco Bell to eat and have our lesson. Call me a freak but I just don't like eating in there.
Hope you have a wonderful and weird May everyone.

Just Playing Around

Momma,

These are some paintings I wanted to share with you. I can't seem to go back to a painting so each of these was done in one sitting. Once that time is over I can't seem to want to go back and add, fix, anything. Hmm...wonder why that is? What do you think? I know I don' t have the talent that Jobo got but I do enjoy how it makes me feel. Love you.

To My Momma

Happy Mother's Day to my MOMMA.

I am thirty three years old. The older I get the more things I notice about myself that are much like my Momma. Some of these are good, some not as good. I guess that is the case with all of us. Recently I have discovered a longing to be free, to be moving and tasting life around me. Its as if I want to drink it all in and have my kids do this as well. I think there is a "gypsy" like quality in my spirit, a longing to be free to roam that I didn't know was there. I think it has been hidden underneath multiple layers of fear, rules, and a need to please others. I have many things to thank my Momma for. My love of nature, wanting to be close to God's creation, is from my Momma. My ability to leave dishes in the sink while I paint with my kids and not to freak out when the house isn't perfect...that's from my Momma. My love of the written word, how poetry makes my blood feel warm...thats from my Momma. The ability to be still and to really see things and more importantly, knowing the necessity of that...its from my Momma. Having a child-like spirit and not caring what others my age and older think of my eccentric nature when I climb a tree with my daughter; in a skirt, ..thats from my Momma. so whether its from sharing her genes, the ones that God chose me to have, or whether its from the years I spent being near her; I have much in common with this young-hearted, brave, somewhat of a misfit, mother of mine. And I thank God that I do.
I love you Momma.
Sheryl