All Fired Up!

Last night I got together with several of my homeschooling friends for a mom's night out. We met at a local ceramics shop called "All Fired Up." On the last Thursday of the month they have a ladies night and all the pottery is 10% off. We had so much fun.

At first it was a bit overwhelming trying to decide which piece of pottery to choose. I didn't want something knick-knacky to sit around and collect dust (it sounds like I've been spending lots of time with Neal, doesn't it?), so I ended up choosing a small pitcher that I want to use as a vase in my kitchen. I'm planning on painting my kitchen soon in shades of red and mustard. I bought some cool salt and pepper shakers last summer...one is shaped like a red pepper and the other like a yellow pepper. I loved the color combination and decided I wanted to redo the kitchen in those colors.

With the pitcher I painted the inside yellow and the outside red. I painted some yellow flowers and dots on the outside (not too many, just enough to make a pretty design), and on the inside lip of the pitcher (where it is yellow) I painted some red dots to tie it together. I can't wait to see it glazed and fired! I hope I covered it well!

Yesterday was a beautiful day here, and I actually wore short sleeves last night and didn't even need my jacket when I left at 9:30. Today and the days ahead will be a different story!

Fun, Busy Weekend

Friday morning started off with a homeschool field trip to Layman Farms in Montvale, Virginia. This was the best corn maze I have ever been to! The farm was outstanding, and there was lots to do for preschoolers all the way through adults! We had 82 homeschoolers come out for this field trip! Lots of fun!

Here are Beth and some of her friends.

Here I am with some of my friends! :o)

This is one of the two wagons we filled up with our homeschool group!

Beth and some of her friends on the big tires!

Here's some of the girls getting ready to enter the maze.

Even teenagers have fun playing in the corn!

This is an aerial view of the corn maze. That is the face of Frank Beamer (Va Tech football coach).

Friday night we had Fun For All at our church. FFA is a halloween alternative we have at our church. There's lots of games, those big blow up jumpy things ;o), pony rides, and Bible stories. At the end of the night the kids go home with a bag full of candy. It goes up through 6th grade, so Ben has one more year. Beth worked in the game room and I worked in the preschool bouncy thingy room. (I'm really drawing a blank of what those things are called!) We had fun, but after having the field trip and then FFA that night, I was ready for bed!

Saturday we had Beth's birthday party! Her Birthday's not until the end of November, but we were hoping to have an outside party. It ended up raining though, and we had to have the party indoors anyway! We had it from 1:00 to 6:00, and at 5:00 it was nice enough that they could go outside. Beth posted pictures from her party, so I'll let you go over there and check them out: Beth's Blog.

Yesterday I visited a friend in the hospital, went to church, went home and finished reading "The Rapture," took a nap, went back to church, went to Walmart, visited Neal's grandpa, went home and ate a late supper, went to bed. Tossed and turned all night, and then started the day all over again. :o)

Now I'm looking foward to a quiet evening at home.

Monticello

Our homeschool group went on a field trip to Monticello on October 3rd. For those of you not familiar with Monticello, that is the home of our 3rd President, Thomas Jefferson. His vacation home is a short distance from our home, and it is called Poplar Forest. It is a smaller version of Monticello.

Monticello (pronounced: Mont a chello)

Those shadow people showed up again!

One section of the huge vegetable garden.

Mom went along with us. She enjoyed everything except the bus ride ... I think we were a bit rowdy for her!

Thomas Jefferson was an inventor. This was on the ceiling of one of his porches. There is a weather vane on top of the house and when it turns, the arrow on this device turns. That way you can see which direction the wind is blowing without going outside to look at the weather vane.

A close-up of Monticello.

A view from the grounds.

Monticello is in Charlottesville, Virginia. If you're ever in the area it is an interesting historical stop!

New Author!

We started a new writing curriculum this year. It's put out by the Institute for Excellence in Writing. It starts out with a simple concept of rewriting another story using a key-word outline. The story the kids rewrote today was The Hare and the Tortoise. I started out with a younger curriculum so that I could teach Ben and Beth together. It was easier for Beth, but I think she still had fun. She'll be posting her story on her blog later today.

The main rule was for them to stick to the theme of the story. In the original story, the Hare challenges the Tortoise to a race. Obviously the Hare was much faster, so it didn't seem like much of a challenge. Then, because of a fateful mistake on the Hare's part, the Tortoise amazingly wins the race! The kids had the freedom to change the characters and the circumstances...just not the main storyline.

So, drumroll please.................

Spider-Man Challenges Mary Jane to a Race

by Ben, age 10

One day Spider-Man was annoyingly making fun of Mary Jane and how slow she was. "Why don't you race me if you think you will win?" she asked. "Because it would be way too easy!" he answered.

"Race me?" he asked a moment later. "Fine," Mary Jane agreed.

The Green Goblin was judging the race. "On your mark, get set, go!" Spider-Man was off! Mary Jane was going pretty fast, but by now she couldn't even see Spider-Man. Then all of a sudden he heard a scream. "Go get 'em Tiger!" Mary Jane yelled from far off. So off Spider-Man went to save the world! Meanwhile, Mary Jane kept plodding on.

Two hours later, Spider-Man, exhausted from fighting, limped across the finish line to find that Mary Jane had won the race.

The End

Project Fair

Last week we had our homeschool banquet, art display and project fair. Ben was finally able to display his postcard collection! Wahoo!!! Thanks again to all who helped out!

Here's a close-up of the postcard display (excuse the erased area -- that had Ben's name and address on it. He made the "sign" to look like a postcard.)


Here's a picture of the entire table. He made a notebook that included a page for every state. He also put our game "Snapshots Across America" on the table, and the extra postcards he received.


Here is Ben showing his display to Grandma and Grandpa.


Here is some of the art that was displayed.


Here is a picture Beth drew. She's been reading lots of dragon books lately, and drew one of the characters in her book.

Drum Roll Please....

Ben is now the proud owner of postcards from ALL 50 United States!!! WAHOOOOOO!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who helped Ben out on his project. Tomorrow is the project fair, so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post them on here!

Postcards

Ben's project fair is week after next! He only needs FOUR more postcards! Two are supposed to be on the way, but we do not have anyone for the other two. Here's what we need:

Montana
North Dakota

Maryland (Kim Griffin's sister is going to send this one.)
Kansas (Christy Brenning is having someone send this one.)

This past week we received Louisiana and Wyoming! Thank you!!! Thank you to everyone who has participated in Ben's project. We all appreciate it!

Postcard Update

We are almost there! Here are the postcards that Ben still needs:

Kansas
Maryland
Montana
North Dakota

Only FOUR more!!! Can you help us??? :o)

Postcard Update

We're getting down to the wire! Ben's geography project has to be completed by May 21st! One month away!!! If you know of anyone who could send us one of these postcards, please contact me. Thanks a bunch!

These are the ones Ben still needs:

Kansas
Louisiana
Maryland (we might have this one, I'm waiting on a phone call)
Montana
Nebraska
North Dakota
South Dakota *update* I found an old SD postcard in my keepsakes box that my Dad sent me in the late 70's. I think I may have one of these on the way, but if not then I have a card Ben can use.*
Wyoming

Postcards

We received some more postcards the past week, so here are the ones we still need: (some are "on the way," but I listed them anyway since they are not in hand)

Kansas
Louisiana
Maryland
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
North Dakota
South Dakota
Wyoming

The project fair is in 6 weeks and we have 9 more cards...Can we do it???

Another Postcard Update

Here's an updated list of the post cards Ben still needs for his geography project.

COLORADO (on its way) Got it!

IDAHO

KANSAS **Update: Someone is sending this one**

LOUISIANA

MARYLAND (on its way)

MASSACHUSETTS **Update** Jackie called me today from MA and they are mailing a postcard...Yaah! Got it!

MINNESOTA **Update** On its way... Got it...thanks Becky!!!

MONTANA

NEBRASKA **Update: Someone is sending this one**

NEVADA

NEW MEXICO (my brother is going there this week so we may get this one) Got it! Thanks Darrell!

NORTH DAKOTA

OKLAHOMA

SOUTH DAKOTA

UTAH (on its way! Got it! Thank you Lynne!)

WEST VIRGINIA Got it! Thanks Wood Family!

WYOMING

Update on Postcards

Here's an updated list of the post cards Ben still needs for his geography project. I sure hope we get all 50 by May!

COLORADO (on its way)

IDAHO

KANSAS **Update: Someone is sending this one**

LOUISIANA

MARYLAND (on its way)

MASSACHUSETTS **Update** Jackie called me today from MA and they are mailing a postcard...Yaah!

MINNESOTA **Update** On its way...thanks Becky!!!

MONTANA

NEBRASKA **Update: Someone is sending this one**

NEVADA

NEW MEXICO (my brother is going there this week so we may get this one)

NORTH DAKOTA

OKLAHOMA

SOUTH DAKOTA

UTAH (on its way! Thank you Lynne!)

WEST VIRGINIA

WYOMING

Postcards Across America -- Revisited

Ben is still in search of a few state postcards for his geography project! I had some success posting this here last time, so I thought I'd give it another try. In May, our homeschool group has a project fair. Ben is doing a geography project this year and one aspect of it is "Postcards Across America." He wants to have a state postcard from each of the 50 states. If you, or someone you know, can send him one of the following state postcards would you please email me at: ihomeschool247 at yahoo dot com (written correctly, of course) and I'll send you our mailing address. Thanks so much! Here's the list of states he still needs:

COLORADO (on its way)

IDAHO

KANSAS **Update: Someone is sending this one**

LOUISIANA

MARYLAND (on its way)

MASSACHUSETTS **Update** Jackie called me today from MA and they are mailing a postcard...Yaah!

MINNESOTA

MONTANA

NEBRASKA **Update: Someone is sending this one**

NEVADA

NEW MEXICO (my brother is going there this week so we may get this one)

NORTH DAKOTA

OKLAHOMA

SOUTH DAKOTA

UTAH (on its way! Thank you Lynne!)

WEST VIRGINIA

WYOMING

Postcards Across America

As I mentioned in a much earlier post, Ben is doing a state history project where he is collecting postcards from all 50 states. These are the states we still need:

Arizona
Colorado
Georgia (I can't believe that!)
Idaho
Kansas
Louisiana
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Jersey
New Mexico
North Dakota
Oklahoma
South Dakota
Utah
West Virginia
Wyoming

(I do have a Hoover Dam postcard that I can use for Nevada, but we're trying to get the state on the front of all the postcards.)

Do you live in one of these states??? ;o)

More Pics

We had a visit from the Masked Reader this month!

I purchased some Stamen Apples at the orchard this month. I made these cinnamon apples with it (the cinnamon comes from the hard little candies)



Here is one of Beth's meals this month: Chicken Crescent Wreath with rice in the center.

Scenes You Will Not See in a School Classroom

The kids relaxing while I read to them from "Little House on the Prairie." (Suzi doesn't look too relaxed though) LOL

Beth disturbed just a "little bit" during her spelling test. She doesn't mind though!

Symon visiting Ben's school book basket. One of his favorite places to sit and look out the window.

Aaaahhh...the joys of homeschooling!

What Was That??

This was one of Beth's spelling words today...well, not really. I was giving Beth a spelling pretest today and wanted to find out the meaning of the spelling word so I could come up with a good sentence. I thought I knew the meaning, but I didn't want to rely on my "I think I know what it means" version, so I clicked on one of my favorite sites: dictionary.com. I quickly and I emphasize quickly typed in the word so that Beth wouldn't see it from across the room. (I shouldn't have worried about it since she didn't have her glasses on, but I didn't think about it that much) When I looked up I realized my fingers were positioned one letter too far, and this is the word I got.


This is what dictionary.com had to say about my new word.


Here's the *real* word. :o)

Home Economics

For Home-Ec, Beth is planning and preparing one meal a week for our family. I have to admit this is one of my better ideas! Not only do I get a scrumptious meal out of it, I don't have to prepare it!!! Yaah!!!!!

Here's a picture of her first meal. I don't recall the name of it, but it had lots of beans (her favorite)and hamburger. She also made her first loaf of homemade bread. She did a fantastic job!



Here's her second meal. It was chicken wrapped in bacon. Inside the chicken was a layer of cream cheese and chives. Again....scrumptious! She made rice, green beans, and homemade bread to go along with it!

Squaring Numbers

Ben is learning how to "square numbers" in Math. Look closely at the center of the picture below to see his "squared" numbers. :o)