Second Semester

All good things must come to an end and it's time for this break to be over. I'm getting us all ready for second semester this weekend. After a late night New Year's Eve, followed by another later night for the Sugar Bowl (way to go Buckeyes!), I'm feeling behind but there's still tomorrow.

Girls: Not much changes for them at home or at Veritas. Bobo switches from Government to Economics, but other than that they'll continue on in Latin, History, and Science there (and Math for Elbow). Both girls will carry on with Literature at home; Bobo and I will continue to slog through Saxon's Algebra 2 as well. Bobo did a study of Twain in the Fall for our American Lit class, reading some of his short stories and Huckleberry Finn.  We're moving on to Steinbeck after break. I'd assumed we'd start with Of Mice and Men, but after reading it again this weekend I'm switching to The Red Pony.  After that she'll tackle The Grapes of Wrath.

Boys: We've ditched our library days for the time being. It was great to get our year started, but Right Hand Man grew a little weary of wandering aimlessly between the bookshelves while we tried to work. Toddzilla also prefers the comforts of home (which include things like wearing pajamas, playing Legos as a break, listening to music on his iPod during math... it's a pretty hard gig to give up).  Happily he likes division. Reading, not so much (unless it's the sports page). He tolerated Sounder before break. His current reading of Hatchet seems to actually interest him. Crockett likes the Frog and Toad books as well as his reader, Busy Times. The Patriot is coming along in the Kindergarten Hooked on Phonics "books." Our "I did it!" chart is literally tearing apart as we've peeled off the previous user's achievement stickers four times by now.  We're supplementing My Father's World history (Creation to the Greeks) with Story of the World: Ancients. 

Fall Highlights

The holidays are already upon us and I'm still feeling like the school year has just begun. Here are some of the highlights of the year so far:

Halloween!

The kids managed to collect 40 pounds of candy. Ugh. Most has been hidden/given away (Shhh!)

Football!

Toddzilla had a great season as QB, leading his team to the championship game and making the All Star Team. Go #75!

Breaking free from the pack...

Touchdown!

Ready to cheer for the Bears in the Championship!

The biggest and littlest of the boys cheering for the Buckeyes.

Soccer!

The Patriot loved his first season of soccer.

Cross Country!

Bobo also loved her first year running cross country. She made some great friends and is already excited to run track with them in the Spring.

Science!

Our science group is having fun studying swimming creatures. Most recently we studied primeval reptiles and had fun with fossils:

A fun field trip with Dad to the natural history museum in Cleveland. More fossils!

Gymnastics!

After six months of training, the competitive season has begun. Elbow had a good meet near Cleveland last weekend. First on beam!

 Music!

 Hubby is attempting to teach the girls to sing 3 part harmony. This may take awhile :)

Just moved up to the full size violin this Fall

 Baking!

Some friends from church taught the girls how to make cheesecake this week: chocolate chip cookie dough and peanut butter cup. Calories anyone?

 Next up: Thanksgiving Prep!

Five Weeks In

Here it is, the end of September and I've posted nothing about the beginning of our school year or all the goings-on at Living Waters.  This has been a particularly busy - and productive - Fall with lots of changes to the normal routine at home.

The girls are each taking four classes at Veritas Academy. This Classical, Christian private school has been a great addition to our homeschool program and has given me the time needed to focus more on my four busy boys. Bobo is taking Latin, History, Government, and Science at Veritas and continues to do Math and Literature at home. Elbow is taking Math, Science, Latin, and History at Veritas and is doing Language Arts at home. They're in class all day Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and home with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's been a big adjustment in many ways and I'm very proud of how well they're doing with all of it. (I can't say they love studying on the weekends, something they have happily avoided until now, but  they're enjoying their classmates, teachers, and the ability to be in a learning environment without all the interruptions of little brothers a busy household).

The boys and I have been getting our work done at the library on the mornings we have to take the girls to school. This has greatly helped the amount of distractions that seem ever present: their toys, gadgets, outdoor escapades - all of the things that I've found lure boys away from the books much more easily than girls. Currently, Toddzilla is in 4th grade, Crockett in 2nd, and The Patriot is a kindergartener. Right Hand Man is playing his role as the Dismantler-of-All-Things-Academic just as well as his predecessors did. 

We're still involved in our science co-op; this year we're studying Exploring Creation with Zoology 2 (Swimming Creatures). We had a great time on a field trip to the Newport Aquarium last week:

And it's always fun to add an element of danger when you've got boys around. Here we are tempting fate with hairdryers and water in an effort to learn about ocean currents:

Without the girls around three days a week, our afternoons are free for all sorts of explorations. We've found two new stomping grounds, both are quickly becoming favorites: an off road bike path and the local skate park. Danger seems to be the operative principle. (And yes, we've had quite a few scrapes and bruises). Who takes a two year old to these places? We do.

We've also had time to launch rockets and explore Indian Village: 

Finally, we've been busy with all sorts of sporting events. Bobo is running cross country for the first time and Toddzilla is loving life as QB of his football team.

Elbow continues to train hard for her upcoming competition season in gymnastics (pics to come after her first meet this year). She's been excited to see Gabby Douglas in action since Gabby started training at her gym this summer. 

The Patriot is on his first team ever - a little wild man on the soccer field. He spends more time on the field than on his feet; he seems to love diving and sliding.

Hubby and I are teaching a six week class on my new book, Faith@Home, at our church. Whew... I'm ready for a break after all this.

Sliding into Summer

Yesterday was Home School Day at Zoombezi Bay. Basically that just means the water park gives home schoolers a big discount before the rest of the world gets out of school. It's always fun despite it often being on the chilly side so early in the summer.

Last week we re-visited a favorite Metro Park: The Audubon Grange Center downtown.  Right Hand Man got to experience it for the first time, because in years past he's been stroller-bound.

Beginnings

First day back at the books today. All told, everything went well. It's going to be a real challenge to keep Right Hand Man at bay; he's quite fond of climbing on tables, messing up papers, and just generally causing mayhem. The girls and I have to focus on their major work (Latin, French, and Math) while he's napping. It's not my favorite schedule but I think it's viable for the time being. We still don't have violin and guitar on the schedule since Elbow can't play yet with her broken arm and Toddzilla will start up with the guitar again after football season.

The boys are doing Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy, which the girls did our first year of homeschooling. Today we worked on our scale model of the planets.

We're doing My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures all together for geography and missions. (And Elbow wanted to include Phileas Fogg's journey from her reading today in Around the World in 80 Days).

Afternoons still fairly free to do all sorts of random outdoor projects:

 One place we know he can't get into too much trouble:

Here's to another year!

Viewer Beware!

Our science co-op finished strong this year with a fetal pig dissection. Our fearless leader/teacher/doctor/dad led them through a rigorous study of Life Science over the course of the year, culminating in quite a few dissections: worm, crayfish, fish, frog, and the poor little piggy. I have to say these girls impressed me with their willingness to tackle these big projects at a much younger age than I ever did. If you have a weak stomach, you may want to skip the photos! But as you know, this is how I keep track of our academic endeavors around here so I have to post them :)

Very well done, Dr. D and all the little science scholars!