It is almost May!!!

We are on the home stretch with school. Benjamin has completed his language arts and look at what that entailed.

As I look back over the school year, we have changed our course probably every other week. Our days now look nothing like they did 7 months ago. I have really learned a lot about how he operates best. The math and language program we used did not even have a teaching aspect to it. It was just questions. So, you learned the material by doing, instead of listening to it being explained and then doing. I really think that works best for him. As much as he loves to read, it is very difficult for him to 'school' books. Since we switched to this curriculum later in the school year, it is doubtful we will finish with the math component, which is fine. The great thing about homeschooling, you can pick up where you left off.

One of the things that people recommend when you go from public school to home school, is to take off (unschool) 1 month for each year they have been in school. It takes this long to de-program how you see learning. I get that now, having been through the first year. Some of my friends think I am doing my child such a disservice by not having written grades and tests. However, I know that those two things can really throw him off. I also know that he hates to write. He would rather tell me for 15 minutes what he learned than write a paragraph. I strongly believe in the ability to write well, so still trying to figure that one out. Maybe next fall he will be more apt to learn about writing. He typically writes a letter a week to work on spelling and handwriting. Neither of which seem to be getting better :-). Just this past week we tried something different. He dictated the letter to me and I typed it. Then he wrote it. I finally realized that he can't learn spelling if he is always writing the words wrong (and he is not the type to ask how to spell a word, he would just rather spell phonetically). Plus it gave me a great way to talk with him about different ways to say things and how to put words together so they sound more polished. He really enjoyed writing the letters this week!

I have come across a science curriculum that he loves! It is a huge program put together by a college professor who has also been a NASA scientist. She loves to teach and is very hands on. We were introduced to her through a free online science class she put together. Benjamin has participated in 2 of them and really enjoyed both of them. There are of course different packages she offers, one being a 5 year curriculum that comes with 90% of science experiment materials, videos, tests, you name it. I opted instead to buy some individual CDs that will cover about 3 years worth of stuff. Somewhat spendy, but she has handouts, videos, experiments, shopping lists, etc. They are self guided. I figure since it is something he is really into, never hurts to spend the money. I might not get him to do the worksheets, etc but I know he will absorb every bit of it. With the last online science class she did, I printed off 7 pages of fill in the blanks. He did not use them, yet when she randomly selected a question to ask, he knew the answer. I see him wanting to watch these videos over and over.

Another subject he really enjoys is history. Just the other day I was reading a book to Jacob and asked Benjamin about a certain 'smaller' war and whether it was in the American Revolution or Civil War. He knew the answer and could list some of the smaller battles of both. Just from watching History channel. He even asked me the other night (after school hours) if he could watch history videos.

I have tried to encourage Benjamin to think about some of his passions and if he could earn some money doing them. We talked a little bit about a business plan and why that is important and what that can look like. I think he is leaning toward photography. I told him he needs to get familiar with the camera and all of the different shooting modes. Once that happens, we will contact some friends to see if he could spend 30 minutes shooting their kids, do some basic editing, download pics to a flash drive and then hand it over. They get some pics of the kids and Benjamin can get 15 bucks or so in his pocket. He does not need a lot of money to get him motivated to learn more and more and improve his skills. Plus our neighbors next door are photographers and maybe could teach him a lot.

Just excited to have more of a clue for the fall with homeschooling. There is so much more valuable stuff to be taught outside of the traditional classroom.

We have had some beautiful weather lately and have parked the car and been riding bikes where ever we can! I have also discovered some bike trails not too far from us. One smaller town probably has 10 miles of trails so wanting to get the boys out and riding.

Off to cook dinner! The boys are outside and have been spending 3-4 hours at a time outside!! Yay for them and for me!

Just a few pictures.....

Recently I learned of Appleseedinfo.org. It is a nonprofit organization that brings history and riflemanship together. It is sponsored by the American Revolutionary War Veterans Association and classes are held all over the US. It is an intense 2 day training. We went out to observe and possibly participate.

It was held on some private land that was an old homestead.

All the kids got free shirts.

Jacob was the only one that was really interested.  The other two boys and I hung around for the 'history' lesson at lunch time.  Very interesting and lots of facts about Hancock, Adams, Revere, etc.

They shot many, many rounds and learned about safety, sighting, yardage, wind, chambering, etc.

He had his safety goggles and ear protection in.

All of his groups of 5 shots were pretty consistent.  I think they finally got the sights correct.

On April 15th, we woke up to about 8 inches of snow!

Of course we were up in the 60s today, so it melted quickly.

Benjamin finished up his 2nd year of robotics. This time they downloaded a program that actually ran the robot ~ I still can't wrap my head around all this technology.

The robots were dueling...not sure how they knew who won.

I recently gave Benjamin a short test to try to determine his 'intellectual style'. There were 7 different styles and his highest was music, followed by linguistics, spatial visual and then bodily kinesthetic. The music really surprised me. However, he has been listening to internet radio while he does his work and somehow focuses. (I constantly find myself wanting to turn it down). I need to do some reading over the summer about how to incorporate the other 3 into his studies. I have already started thinking about curriculum for the fall. I have figured out that the 2 areas I really need to focus on are math and writing/language arts (sentence structure, writing process). The music, history and science are things that he loves and easily soaks up when exposed to them.

Another quiet week on the horizon. AWANA is now finished, as is robotics, so no extra-curriculars right now. Hopefully just lots of playing outside!

We have been moving some things around at the house.  I love how this kid finds all the crazy outside the box things.  He made his bed for a few nights in the closet.  He loved having his own little hole in which to sleep.  You probably can't see it, but on the left are all of his stuffed animals ~ neatly stacked beside him

We all went out for some shooting practice recently.  I don't think you can ever expose kids too much to proper gun handling.

Here are a few more pictures from the health fair a couple of weekends ago.  This was set up by the highway patrol.  People could put on some googles that would impair their vision as if they had been drinking alcohol.  Then they had to walk a line, pick up keys and place in a cup and then pick up a tennis ball and place on an orange cone.  It was a great opportunity to talk with them, once again, about the dangers of drinking and drugs.  I think it surprised their little minds how hard it was.  The goggled ranged from .06 to something like 2.4 blood alcohol content.  It was interesting to see what the vision of someone 3 times the legal limit was like.  No wonder there are so many drunk driving accidents.  You see like 3 or 4 of everything!

We had a pretty quiet weekend and looks like a quiet week ahead. Really enjoy the slower paced days! The warmer weather (although lots of wind) has returned and the boys have been spending lots of time outside playing.

I have stumbled upon a blog of a (fairly) local family that spends lots of time traveling and exploring the state. Excited to have a list of adventures within an hour or two for us to start exploring. It really does not take much for us...some rocks, water and sun and the boys will be entertained for hours and mom can take a book and chair along!

The second graders at Jacob's school was recently treated to an art lesson by a local artist. J was quite excited to create something from chalk.

Benjamin amazed me with his memory. He recently took first place at the AWANA bible quizzing. One of my greatest desires is for my kids to be learning God's word and hiding it in their heart. They are such little sponges during the younger years. We recently found in a stack of my books, a Bible Quiz book my Mammaw gave me dated in 1991. The boys loved testing their knowledge. Benjamin particularly enjoyed it. He is currently reading through the Power Bibles and amazed me with how the stories are coming together for him. Here is B with his medal from the quizzing.

The local hospital has a health fair once a year and the boys enjoy going. This year there was a egg decorating station.

There was a table with an buffalo leg on it. The kids got to explore it and look at tendons, muscles, etc.

The hands on spine. Jacob was telling the lady all about it :-)

40 days left of school ~ at least for Jacob. Not sure if Benjamin will be finished by then! None of the boys are doing spring sports, so pretty quiet and uneventful at our house!

The snow is melting up at the resort and JR will probably be able to start some of his landscape projects by late April. Hopefully at least one of the boys can go to work with him each week. It is hard to teach them to manage money when they don't have any money to manage. (The have never latched on to the 'jobs' at home ~ although the chores are not an option for them.)

Blessed Easter!

Luke 24:5
"Why do you seek the living among the dead?"
The stone has been rolled away and the tomb is empty. Upon that is what gives me hope! Our Jesus is the only One who has ever risen from the grave. All the other 'gods' are still in the grave!

In Joseph's preschool they created a tomb scene, with real grass. We have had fun watching the grass grow over the last week.

Not to be outdone, Jacob created a tomb scene out of legos...maybe a new tradition?

Praying it was a hope filled day for you!