Bonjour!! With Pictures.

Crepe filled with chocholate! Yummy

Triple H making crepes.

Princess Poodle making crepes.
Monet water lily tissue art.

Just a few pictures from our time spent in France. We have also started French lessons. Our local library has Rosetta Stone on the computers for free. Why French? Why not Spanish which would be much more practical. I don't know. We are just doing what we want to do. Triple H works on math and reading while Princess poodle and I take French. What fun! Off to French lessons. Au Revoir

Update on Hazelnut Academy

I wanted to post a few pictures of some of the things we have been working on in addition to our curriculum basics. I won't bore you with posting math sheets or cursive writing practice (oh the torture!). We spent two weeks "visiting" England in our countries and cultures portion of school. My goal is not to have the kids walk away being able to quote the type of government or the population total of each country. I want them to get an idea of where in the world these countries are, how life can be like in some of these areas, but mostly to just enjoy the sights, sounds, tastes, etc. of a place different from their own. Who knows what or how much of what we teach will stick. History and geography and culture are not like math facts. I did almost fall on the floor when Triple H came to the office and asked me in his still very toddler sounding voice, "Momma, how do you spell Joseph William Mallord Turner?"((the four named artist was said so speedily and with slurred sounds that only a Momma could decipher) and then , Momma, what do you think about him? He was attempting to write about him in the Hazelton Sunday News, or at least his copycat version of what his sister was doing. She was writing about Shakespeare. For Princess Poodle, my literary minded child, Shakespeare was right up her alley and she is begging me to buy more kid versions of his plays. This past week school was put on hold for a four day long art camp in our small town. The kids got to spend time learning from a painter, fabric artist, photographer, and basket weaver, and got to make projects in each discipline. The kids had a good week. Tomorrow its off to France. We will be studying Monet and Degas for our artist focus. We plan on making crepes and at the end of the second week having a mock tour de france. Note to self: must purchase cheap gold medals. Hope you enjoy the pics. Thanks for stopping by.

Paper mache globes. One earth is a bit crooked. We are beginners at this.

Art project for our Turner study. Stormy Seas by Triple H

Storm seas by Princess Poodle. Travel Log entry below.

Princess Poodle's Turner information page for Travel Log. We place all our maps, artist focus, country informational pages etc. in travel logs for each of the kids. At the end of the year we should have a documented trip around the world!

Jingle Bells...Jingle Bells

Am I the only one out there that has Autumn fever and has started singing Christmas carols in the shower? They just come out of nowhere, I promise. One minute I'm shampooing my hair and the next I'm belting out "oH the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful..". I think I must be crazy. It has got to be this GA humidity. Seriously, there have been days when I thought I was melting, just like the witch in The Wizard of Oz. I am known for being a holiday nut in my family. I love it all but the Autumn/Winter holidays which include for me, Halloween, my birthday, and Christmas, are the very best of the year. My Christmas "itch" usually starts in late August, and yet it has come sooner this year. I don't know why I rush things like this. This autumn my Princess Poodle turns eight, I am horrified and still not over my baby boy turning five on me. But the carols and visions of colored lights are flooding my mind and today as I watched 10 pine trees being cut down and chopped into mulch, the smell nearly sent me into fits of joy inside! We have much school to accomplish. My big goals for the kids this year. ..For PP I hope to see her math facts solidified and her writing progress. For Triple H, I want to see him come to love reading and move beyond, Al has a fast cat. I would also like to see some improvement in their chores around the house and in my own as well. (gotta be honest) Mostly I want to see us find a rhythm to our schooling and our days. I hear others talk of such a rhythm but we have yet to find it and I feel that is my own fault. As for school, we are studying Great Britian and next week I introduce Princess Poodle to Shakespeare for the first time. We will be reading childrens versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet. Triple H is loving memorizing poetry which suprises me a bit. Princess Poodle is working on The Violet. Math is new to us and so we are working on a level that is a bit easy in order to transisition into the new program. WWE level 2 has introduced dictation. This is somewhat new, especially in the length of the passage dictated. For spelling I think I am going to go for a combined approach of a workbook and real life application. PPoodle writes all the time. She is working on an infomational "book" about space. I think we will work through Spelling workout and also add words to our list that I find her misspelling in her fun writing. I won't make her correct her fun writing, I'll just put these words down in some type of list/folder/etc. Triple H is working in the Kinder part of SIng spell read and write. I would love to finish the Kinder portion this year but I will move at his pace. He won't officially be a Kinder until the 2010/2011 school year. We will do some ETC pages along with this. He also enjoys much of our math and sits in on our countries and cultures lessons most of the time.

I'm off to check on dinner and maybe sing a little Silent Night as I finish it up.

Christmas Morning 2007 Kids still love the boxes more than anything!

First Week of School, Spelling Impaired, and a painted Friend.

We finished our first week of school here at Hazelnut Academy. I now have a second grader (oh I see a rabbit in our yard!) and a K-5 boy! Hard to believe. For the most part school went well. We started our geography unit which is the kids favorite part of school. They are making paper mache globes which are an experiment to be honest. We studied maps and they each made a map of a local nursery/art studio including a map key. Tomorrow we head off to Europe with our first stop being England. I really need to update my curriculum link with the full story of what we are doing but time hasn't permitted it yet. I have noticed that I have let Spelling slide and Princess poodle, being an avid writer and wanna be journalist, really needs me to kick this subject into high gear. I guess I was just hoping that it would come naturally. Hopefully a better weekly update with pictures will come soon. I'm still here but swamped from trying to get into the routine of things. As usual the house and meals suffer when school is in session. Why can't I have enough money for a maid and a cook? ha ha Also I have discovered a new passion, or hobby, or maybe just a release. I'm not sure what to call it but I am enjoying playing with paints. I am not an artist. My sister is the artist in the family. But at the age of 33 I have picked up a paintbrush and I like the way it feels. Here's a picture of a recent, really my first real, painting. Its very simple really but I enjoyed painting her and now she is somehow my friend. Thanks for stopping by.

A new Hair Style and New way of thinking

I am undergoing quite a change in my life. It has been coming on for some time now. Part of this change has been learning to relax and take life a little more as it comes. To savor all that is sweet and beautiful and smells good. I am no longer blowdrying my hair. Perhaps I never will again. I am wearing it in its naturally wavy state which is a bit messy but that is ok. So here's to tossing the blowdryer and flatiron and embracing my true self or at least my true hair. What are you embracing these days? What are you tossing?

Sinapore Math is shipping!

I just received an email that my backordered sinapore math is shipping. Yeah! I am excited and a bit nervous about the change. School for us starts in a few days and I can't believe that I am about to have a K5 and a Second Grader. I am very blessed for these two kids to be in my life. Their spirits are unique and quirky and sweet and just what I need. Triple H is standing in the bathroom talking to me. He is wearing his vote for pawpaw t-shirt that was mine when I was a little girl, an old cowboy hat, a robe he is holding over his left shoulder and is tapping dancing in his new flipflops (his very first pair). He just said" Momma thank you for my flipflops, I love them"). Princess Poodle is still fast asleep but will soon be up and will have The Silver Chair in her hand the moment she awakes. She is now in my lap giving me special hugs and holding her lovey that she has had since she was 6 months old. How the time goes by? Why so fast? And I try not to drown in the sadness of them growing up. Their spirits are eternal and they are growing up at just the speed God wants them too. I however would do things a bit differently.

This post is quite random but that seems to be my life these days. I do have good news. We made it into a co-op which is a miracle because the waiting list was 70 families long. It is called Explorers and we will meet one day a week for six weeks. There will be three six week sessions. each six weeks we will cover a new topic, a unit study type of thing. I think the kids will eventually love it but it will be hard on all three of us at first. We are all a bit shy in new places and around new faces. But this is ,I am sure a blessing and a challenge from God. A way to stretch our characters. I know He will have somthing there for each of us to learn.

Here are a couple of pictures from a recent fieldtrip to Spruells Bluff. We are still enjoying our summering and hope all who read this crazy blog are having a magical summer as well.

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....