What is going on at Hazelnut Academy

We are still on Summer Break. I am in the process of organizing our school room. Thank you Steven for the perfect IKEA bookshelves. I have our first two countries for our geography study planned out. I decided to add in a short study on William Shakespeare, Princess Poodle is wanting to learn about him. I am in search of good children's versions of some of his plays. Our math curriculum is still on back order and therefore I can't plan for that. I have yet to decide what my notebook will look like and what type of lesson plan forms I will use. The kids will each have a Semester Notebook and a Geography notebook. As well as their poetry notebook which will go through 5th grade. Here is a breakdown of what I think our curriculum will look like.

Countries and Cultures Study: this will incorporate geography, science, art, music, literature( I am piecing this together myself)
Writing with Ease Level 2
Singapore Math
Abeka Cursive
Poetry memorization
First Language Lessons for the Well trained mind Second Grade
Bible?
For Triple H: Sing Spell Read and Write K level as well as Explode the Code and math games.

I am probably forgetting something. I may add in mindbenders for Princess Poodle. I have not thought about a plan of action for our days yet. We still haven't heard from the co-op we are waiting to get into. That's ok. It will work out. How do I want to structure our days. Do I want to save our countries and cultures for Fridays or do a little each day. Hmmm. I know Math and Writing must be everyday. I just don't know how I want things to flow this year. Still thinking....

A Day at the Beach

I Want to be a funky, turqouise, velvet couch

I have a couch. It is a camel back couch that belonged to my Momma and Daddy. They bought it new when I was a young teenager so it is pretty old. Plus its pink and that won't do. My plan is to sand the wood legs and refinish them in an ivory antiqued finish. But what to do with the fabric. I will have to pay someone to reupholster it I know but what fabric to choose. I am not a decorator. Oh how I wish I were. I know what I want. Something slightly funky. I want this traditional couch to have some flare. I want it to be tourquise and velvet. The problem is that the rug in my living room has all brown, burnt reds and oranges in it. How can I incorporate a funky, tourquise, velvet couch. Hmmmm....

That dilemma will go on for awhile because I do not have the money to fix it up yet. Maybe christmas. But it got me thinking. I've been doing ALOT of that the last few months. Trying to figure out who I am. Who God made me to be. How my need to please others has held me back from being who He wants me to be. I'll have to post more on that journey later. But I do know that I want God to make me over like that couch. I know the "bones" are there. He made me after all. But I'm faded, from being selfish, I'm tattered from sinful choices, I'm just not shining and making the statement I could make; all because I have feared man instead of God. I want to be a funky, tourquise, velvet couch. I want to me who God made me to be, which will glorify Him all the more. I don't want to be this shell of a person, a robot going through the motions. I want to be Sheryl and to be a Sheryl that is in touch with her Father. And something tells me that this person that God knit together for a purpose; will be some shade of tourquise. (pardon the horrible spelling; I am quite sure that I spelled tourquise wrong, it looks wrong but I am too lazy this morning to go find my dictionary.)

Update on Lost Curriculum

Ok..I have now officially lost my MIND; not a math curriculum. The missing SAxon 3 kit is missing because I never ordered it. It must have been a dream. So now I am going to order math this week and I'm seriously thinking of swithcing to Singapore. I think I will order Singapore 1b and 2a; that way Princess poodle will have some review with the new method of teaching etc. Why is switching a math curriculum so scary?

Also, we enjoyed the first little tomatoes from our garden today. Yummy and homegrown!


Udpate: I ordered the Singapore curriculum today. Somehow buying an 80 dollar math curriculum feels like signing your life away. I know that's a bit crazy . But I did it, I pressed the complete order button and I pinched myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming this time.

Update #2: new curriculum is all on backorder. That's why I ordered the math curriculum months ago.... so I thought!

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!