Snow White's World

Okay, so it comes Monthly, not Weekly.

2012-01-29T12:36:00.000-08:00

At least I'm blogging!

In my life this week…

I had heart-to-heart conversations with 5-6 of my favorite people. Sometimes I feel so isolated, but this week has been a good one on the fellowship front!

In our homeschool this week…
Andrew wrote a thank you letter to Uncle Norm and Aunt Gretchen for his Christmas gift. He is working on physically multiplying numbers in math.

Joshua aced a placement test for AOP Lifepac Language Arts. He has been

begging to try a "canned" LA program for several years. I think I will let him try one workbook at the end of the year as an experiment. If both of us agree, it may be our sixth grade LA choice.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
I've been doing our history read-aloud during breakfast! Multi-tasking makes me feel like superwoman. Plus, when the boys' mouths are full and they're not fully awake they are less likely to interrupt the reading.

I am inspired by…

My parents. I hope I can be as understanding and unconditionally loving when my sons are my age as they are for my brothers and me.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
Joshua is part of an Upwards basketball team, so that takes up a large part of Saturday. This week I was excited to attend another age level game with my best girlfriend. Then she and her son stayed to see Joshua's game and my mom came as well. I'm never more content than when in company of my mom and my best girlfriend.

My favorite thing this week was…
Above mentioned basketball game outing.

What’s working/not working for us…

We dropped a history story about King Philip's War. We got the gist of the motivation, setting and some battles and found we were dreading slogging through the remaining battles. Children of the Longhouse, by Louis Bruchac is a big hit, though!

I’m reading…

"Radical- Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream" by David Platt. So far it's a page-turner and very inspiring.

I’m cooking…

A Thai noodle bowl was the big hit this week. I have to say, though, I much preferred today's incredible treat and being taken out to eat to a local authentic Mexican restaurant.

I’m grateful for…

The grace of God. I have never been more mindful of Calvary and its accomplishment giving us the power to become the children of God.

I’m praying for…

Clarity.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Gabriel sings Twinkle, Twinkle.

Trying a Weekly Template to Record our Homeschool Journey

2011-12-13T17:47:00.000-08:00

In my life this week…
I am doing my best to keep the homeschool fires burning while the Christmas spirit engulfs us and tries to make accomplishing anything laughable.

In our homeschool this week…
Joshua is writing a personal narrative about his trip to the state fair with his best friend. He begged to make the narrative into a Powerpoint presentation, to which I naturally agreed. He spent an hour on the rough draft and churned out 6 slides, which roughly equal 2 pages single space. I'm impressed!

Andrew is toughing it out on renaming to tens and hundreds places. The roughest part of this new venture seems to be the addition facts above ten, which have been under-exercised thus far. I foresee introducing the Math Bingo game I bought last summer for just such an occasion.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
Scholaric.com! Seriously, that is my biggest discovery in the past 4 years of homeschool teaching and planning.

I am inspired by…

My husband. Whenever I feel as if I do nothing but work, I look at him and see that he is working harder and longer.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
We have a field trip to Kaviar Forge this week, which is very exciting to me. Joshua has a Homeschool Student Council Christmas party, which sounds fun. John and I are invited to a business Christmas party this week as well! So exciting! I think it has been 5 years since we had one to attend.

My favorite thing this week was…
Having my parents visit us Sunday afternoon. John and Joshua were gone, so having company spared me a whole afternoon of missing them.

What’s working/not working for us…

Joshua has determined that he needs to take his spelling instruction under his own control. To that end, we have abandoned Dictation Day By Day by Kate Wagenen and he is speed-studying the lists at BigIQKids.com for spelling. He's a gifted speller and I well remember the agony of studying lists of words I already knew when I was his age. I am cheering him on and admire his progress.

Questions/thoughts I have…
I find that our appetite and saturation points for learning wax and wane, along with the seasons. It makes sense that our brains can tolerate more activity at regular intervals. I am learning to let our school be more organic and less forced. While I still have a "To Do" list going on all the time, I become less frantic if I find that we are only able to digest 10 pages of a history text rather than the 14 I arbitrarily assigned.

I’m reading…

Devotionals--- Oswald Chambers and A.W. Tozer.

I’m cooking…
Oh, wow! Relishrelish.com has revolutionized my meal planning and shopping. I told John I could never go back to tacos, spaghetti and pizza each once every week. I'm actually using fresh herbs, like rosemary, cilantro, basil, and Italian parsley! I've chopped and seeded my first, second and third jalapenos! I am totally jazzed about this program.

I’m grateful for…

Peace. In the midst of uncertainty and change, there is a deep abiding sense of rightness about my life right now. For this I thank God.

I’m praying for…
Wisdom. The more years I live, the more I realize my own limitations and need for wisdom.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

This has spoken to me so plainly over the past week. It takes away all uncertainty and fear. For loved ones, for my questions: Only believe. Those who believe SHOULD NOT PERISH. Praise His Holy Name.

Cub Scout Pinewood Derby

2009-04-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

A good time was had by all! Joshua took second place in his den, while Daddy and Andrew participated *after* the cub scouts were finished.

Pinewood Derby

Fourth Grade WinterPromise LA

2009-04-22T06:23:00.000-07:00

Another homeschooling mom asked me to scout this LA program for her. The photos are a bit blurry, but you can use the magnifying glass option to get a closer look.

Winterpromise stuff

I especially like the creative writing exercises. There was no 4th grade spelling book to preview, so I took pics of the 3rd grade one. There are samples of SpellWell C and CC available at Christian Book Distributors (cbd.com) and Rainbow Resource (rainbowresource.com) I think.

Belated Christmas Slide Show

2009-02-27T16:46:00.000-08:00

Here you go! Location: Louisiana at John's parents' home. Also present: John's brother Stephen and his wife Esther with 1yo Jonathan.

It's A BOY!

2009-01-16T11:33:00.000-08:00

After 20 weeks of suspense, we now know who will be joining us in late May or early June (this ultrasound puts my dates later). We don't yet know his name, but we know he is a bouncing baby boy.

We are looking forward to spending time getting to know this new little man God is sending to our home.

How fun for his older brothers to teach him all their tricks!

2008 Portraits

2008-12-12T10:13:00.000-08:00

Portrait Innovations outdid themselves as usual this year!

From portraits 2008

Andrew's 4th Birthday Party

2008-09-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

A good time was had by all! We shared a party with my nephew Jeremiah, who is turning six on Thursday. We had chicken barley soup, chili, cornbread, rolls, salad and chips for lunch, then cake and ice cream after presents. What a cutie!

Frazier International History Museum

2008-09-28T17:00:00.000-07:00

I *finally* uploaded our pics from the field trip we took earlier this month. The museum's Survivor Jamestown interactive exhibit was lots of fun and really tied in with our WinterPromise American Story 1 program. What fun!

Here's a link to the album in case you can't see slide shows:

history museum

My Three Men

2008-09-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

We recently went on a trip to Ohio... (interrupted by Hurricane Ike wind storms). This was Sunday morning, and the guys are SO handsome.

Air Force Museum

2008-09-01T16:41:00.000-07:00

We visited Warner Robins Air Force Museum in Georgia when we were on vacation. Here are our pictures, finally.

Our Field Trip to Native American Memorial with Mounds and an Earth Lodge.

2008-07-31T12:46:00.000-07:00

While we were on vacation in Georgia, we took a little side field trip to "Indian Mounds". We viewed an excellently well preserved earth lodge, which has been reconstructed at the top, and hiked to the top of a huge "Temple" mound. Enjoy the slide show! This field trip fit in very well with our American Story 1 study, particularly since we just read about pre-Columbian cultures.

File Folder Timeline

2008-07-30T13:45:00.001-07:00

As promised, here are photos of the File Folder Timeline I designed for early American history.

It's far from perfect, but it will suffice.

We started school.... early, but that's the way we like it.

2008-07-11T16:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a long awaited update! I've been playing with our new camcorder. Forgive the poor recording skills.

Our school year generally starts in late July to give us an early spring finish date, but this year we have other plans in late July so we started earlier. Joshua had been begging for about a week.

The theme this year is "American Story 1", which is a literature based history theme from WinterPromise covering the exploration of the New World and going through the early 19th century. There's a special focus on Native American tribes, which is so exciting to Joshua and to me.

Here's a Youtube peek at our first big project of the year.

I've been doing Prep Work!

2008-05-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

Now that we're officially finished with our first grade year, I've busied myself preparing materials for second grade, which will start June 30. I'm quite proud of my homemade Early American History timeline.

Primary Level Timeline for Early American History - Upload a doc

Once it is complete I'll edit this post and add a picture of the color-coded final product. I have printed it in: Tan for prehistory, Blue for Early Exploration, Green for Colonization, Purple for Colonial Conflict, Red for the Revolution, Yellow for the beginnings of the US, and Orange for Westward Expansion. Now I just have to paste it on file folders and form it into an accordion. The beginning is looking pretty good!

Yes, I've been neglecting my blog!

2008-02-21T11:41:00.000-08:00

I predicted I would, and how well I know myself. I still have great intentions of starting a weekly update process, complete with Wordless Wednesdays and End of the Week reflections. Likely not though!

I have a picture that is just too good to keep to myself. Nathanael, the boy I babysit before school 3 days per week, had a snow day from school last week. We just happened to be making Snowy Owl crafts that same day as part of our Polar Habitats unit study. So here is a picture of our arctic looking winter and our Snowy Owl craft, complete with shivering boys!

Andrew's Birthday!

2007-10-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how time flies. It seems that only yesterday, Andrew was a tiny baby, like this:

Now he's such a big boy! When Joshua was this age, Andrew was already on his way. Here is the obligatory slide show: (and here's a URL in case you have dial-up! http://picasaweb.google.com/jennilynn9/AndrewSBirthday)

I know, this update has been a long time coming. In my usual spurt style, I expect to post a couple more updates this week, one a unit retrospective on Animals and Their Worlds. So stop back in soon!

Summer Vacation

2007-07-11T08:06:00.000-07:00

We went to Georgia for Independence Day week, including the weekends before and after. This is an annual event for us, which we look forward to greatly. John grew up spending parts of every summer in Georgia with his Papa and Nanny. So now he can continue that practice and share it with me and our sons.

Our "Granny", John's mom, also joined us from Louisiana.

Tuesday was one of our trip highlights. We took a day trip to Savannah and Tybee Island beach, along with Granny and John's cousin Jordan and his wife Tiffany. We all had a wonderful time, as you can see in the following slideshow (click on it to view). In case it doesn't work through dial-up, here is a link to the picasa site:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jennilynn9/Beach

On a sad note, John's great-uncle Elmer went to be with the Lord. John served as a pall bearer at the funeral on Saturday. We are glad Elmer no longer has to battle Parkinson's disease. His new body won't lose its movement! Praise the Lord.

Joshua's Planting Science Project

2007-07-11T06:54:00.000-07:00

This spring, when things were winding down with school, Joshua had an inspiration after we read a children's science book about plants.
He decided we needed to plant bean plants like the child in the book! I agreed, so we had a little science project with egg shell halves, soil, bean seeds and water. Click on the image below to see a slide show about our project. In case it doesn't work for dial-up, here is a link to the picasa page where it resides: http://picasaweb.google.com/jennilynn9/Planting

Before we went on vacation, we transplanted our plants to the backyard, where several of them still survive. We shall see whether they yield any fruit.

Meeting a WinterPromise Group Member!

2007-07-11T06:42:00.001-07:00

In June, I had the privilege to meet Alisa Russell and her family! We had lunch at Oxmoor Mall in Louisville, as they were vacationing and visiting friends in the area. Here is a picture:

This is Andrew R, John, Alisa, Andrew C (In Mom's arms), Joshua and yours truly. It was so nice to chat about WinterPromise and homeschooling in general. What a nice afternoon.

The Whole Weight Watchers Thyroid Situation

2007-06-08T04:51:00.000-07:00

If anybody has been reading closely, they will realize that while I have included a lot of pictures of my children and talked about our homeschooling, I have not shared any Weight Watchers thoughts. That is because I have been doing "not so hot" in that department. I am 20 lb plus up from my original goal weight, which I reached last year at this time. It was to a point I was becoming upset and depressed about it and wondering if being thin was something I could only do while nursing. Praise the Lord, that is not the case!

I had my annual evaluation with my endocrinologist (blood specialist), and it turns out my thyroid level is WAY low. My doctor said this condition causes low energy levels, soreness when exercising, weight gain and water retention. She said about half the twenty pounds will melt off with an increase in my medication. I am so looking forward to increased energy! I can't wait to be back to my goal weight, and now I know I am not a failure at weight maintenance. A medical problem was causing my weight gain! Just knowing that makes an incredible difference in my outlook. One symptom I have had lately that made me suspect my meds might be too low is feeling cold a lot. I'm looking forward to losing that symptom too!

So, if you have low energy levels, quick weight gain, and feel cold a lot, I highly recommend having your thyroid levels checked. If you can go to an endocrinologist that would be the best way to find out if you are hypothyroid. You need to have your T3, T4 and TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) levels checked for a full evaluation.

My WinterPromise Curriculum and Why I Love It.

2007-05-24T03:49:00.000-07:00

Our Animals and Their Worlds theme Science books.

These are the "One Small Square" Books which form the backbone of our Animals and Their Worlds theme. We will have 7 habitats to study: African Savanna, Woods, Swamp, Rainforest, Coral Reef, Arctic Tundra, and Desert. The books have information AND activities for us.

This is the "advanced" book set... I think they look extremely fascinating.

The DK Animal Encyclopedia gives us lots of details and wonderful illustrations about all the animals we will study.

These are "just for fun" read-aloud books, and our "God Made Everything Weird and Wacky/Strange and Slimy" devotional books.

Activity books

2007-05-23T17:58:00.000-07:00

This is Mommy's part.... the activity books and Instructor's guide. I am beyond thrilled to have found WinterPromise, because they give me plenty of options for hands-on activities. The two books you see here are a little young for Joshua, so I will save some of the activities for Andrew's Kindergarten year!

Here are the "older" activity books. This is the part I need SOOO much help planning. I am not nearly brave or creative enough to come up with this stuff independently. If I have a schedule that tells me to "go outside and look for bugs" and then "draw them in your notebook", we will actually DO that! (I know that from our experience this year with Hands on Homeschooling K).

These are Joshua's activity books, and the Eric Carle poetry book. We read one page of animal poems each week. Joshua is already an Eric Carle fan and I am a huge poetry fan, so I know this book will be a winner. I am also really looking forward to using the "My Animal Notebook" pages. They will help us cement our knowledge of the "animal of the week."

Language Arts and Chess

2007-05-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry, this one is blurry... but you get the idea. "Real" books for our readers for first grade Language Arts. Joshua grabbed "Tentacles, Tales of the Giant Squid" when our box was delivered.

For the truly curriculum obsessed, a shot of our phonics, grammar and spelling books. ;-P

This we have already begun! Knights of the Square Table: A Knight's First Moves. Joshua has loved Chess from the first time his daddy taught him the moves. This will help him "beat Daddy" eventually.

Thunder over Louisville!!!

2007-04-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

This is a yearly event for most people... we have missed it for too many years. Now that we have found a way to do it for free, without too big a crowd (by mooching hospital parking garage passes from my Mom ;-D) I think it will be a tradition for us. Well, weather permitting!

Be sure to click slide show! I put captions on some of the photos.

Thunder Over Louisville

Joshua can ride his bike!

2007-04-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

This is big news, and I can't wait til dh John gets a "round tuit" and decides to upload the video to YouTube. Once that happens, I will edit and add a link, but for now you can just enjoy still photos of the learning process.

Joshua decided he wanted to learn to ride his bike without training wheels. We have been taking family bike rides in the evening, all the way down to Andrew on his little 12 inch bike with training wheels. The boys are so cute in their helmets and Joshua always makes sure to stay way ahead and be the winner, getting home first! After we get home, Joshua has asked for two-wheel lessons. So John obliges and runs up and down the street with a hand on Joshua's hood. But on Tuesday, Joshua LEARNED how to go by HIMSELF! Wooo hooooooo!

Now every day the boys are taking bike rides during recess. I stay afoot so I can keep Andrew out of traffic. (Not that we get a lot on our dead end!)

I will update more another time... I am all excited over our new WinterPromise materials which we will use for our homeschool next fall. I will spread them out and take pictures, as well as tell why they are so exciting to me. Now that I have written that, it obligates me to follow through!

I finally had Andrew's two-year-old portraits taken.

2007-04-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

These were taken at Portrait Innovations. I have found no place cheaper or better. Andrew "ate it up." He kept asking, "More kick-chers?" I realize these are huge, LOL. If you prefer to see all 50 poses in a slideshow, click on the thumbnail below.

Andrew's Portraits

Grandaddy and Granny Came!

2007-03-18T16:58:00.000-07:00

For a time we were worried that Grandaddy and Granny wouldn't get to stay with us, but Andrew got over his bout with that icky virus just in time! Late Wednesday evening, John's folks arrived, just barely past the boys' bedtime. So when Joshua and Andrew awoke Thursday morning, they found Granny in the kitchen!

Granny brought a boatload of treats, as usual. From Easter baskets to Ack-tiffities for the boys to create and a super duper birthday present for Joshua, she kept up her pattern of spoiling all of us beyond all reason. Besides all the presents for the little ones, she also presented us with a huge Bundt style banana bread, a pumpkin pie, and 3 swags of flowers to grace our living room. Thank you, Granny!

We had a wonderful visit, and Stephen and Esther joined us whenever they could. Stephen became an old 26 year old man on Friday, so we had DQ ice cream cake after our lasagna supper on Saturday.

We will miss you, Grandaddy and Granny, but we are glad you get to come back in May or sometime soon!

Here are some pictures of the boys with their Ack-tiffities, then one of Joshua with his Lego Star-Wars Walker (the infamous birthday gift).

Hmmm... Can I be a "Blogger"?

2007-03-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

I am thinking if I can keep my act together, a blog would be an awesome way to keep my far-flung friends and family updated on our lives. Considering I have broken countless resolutions to journal in the past, it is worth trying one more time!

Right now, life is pretty vanilla bland. Joshua is getting over a virus, poor boy.

This will be our last bland week for a while. John's parents are coming to visit us from Wednesday through Sunday (all the way from Louisiana!), so that will be exciting.

A week from Monday we look forward to seeing my aunts, Marilyn and Gretchen from Ohio. Maybe we will see "Uncle" Norm and his boss Jason that weekend as they speed through to check out the farm equipment show in Louisville.

The last week of March we get to have fun with Nathanael during his spring break (and he gets to sample homeschooing for the week!)

Then April includes Easter and a visit from John's cousins Marcus and Jordan (and Jordan's wife Tiffany). That will be a blast too!

So our life is going from vanilla bland to salsa spicy in a short period. I'm hanging on for the ride!