Chrysalids Journey

Pleasant Weather, "Dumplings", Books, other...

2009-03-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

Oh, these early peeks at Spring weather are so wonderful! We've been eating lunch outside, going for walks, and plucking at, poking at, digging at, a myriad of things which have slept underground throughout winter.

***Chinese Lesson***

John's Chinese teacher invited John's class to come to his home to experience making the traditional Chinese "dumplings" (pot stickers).

John brought the 3 oldest kids with him seeing as how Tyra likes to cook and ....learn anything new, Ethan loves anything to do with the Chinese culture, and Cedric loves to cook. There were times, during the event, that John had wished he had left the two younger ones at home but, all in all, I think it was a neat experience for them.

They made pot stickers and rice "muffins"- they brought home leftovers which I readily enjoyed. . . mmmm, perfectly delicious. They also watched a Chinese movie. Somewhere in between these things John's Chinese teachers' house was just about flooded by a clogged toilet (Ethan) and his bathroom walls were painted with urine (Cedric), but in the end - the house was left in one peace.

***Books***

Our night time read-a-loud is The Door in the Wall. It's a bit hard to follow seeing as how the author used a more traditional English way of speaking for the characters.

But it's good enough that if I'm about to stop reading I still hear, "Keep reading! Keep reading!!!"

Ethan's Audio book has been A Single Shard. Which, it seems to me, has been an alright book for him. He doesn't seem real taken away with it but I think it may be a bit above his comprehension level.

As for his own reading skills, he's on chapter 59 in the "Teaching Children How to Read in 100 Lessons".... or something similar to that title.

The Unicorn's Secret book series are the book Tyra uses for her "vocabulary comprehension" books. (She reads a few pages, circles the words she isn't able to read or understand and we go through those words together.)

We also just finished this series this last week. At first Ty and I were reading them together but Ethan became interested and so they turned into our nightly read-a-loud book...I'm not too fond of how the author words the story but the end it quite good - Tyra was quite taken away with it.

***Homeschool Ways***

About a week ago I sat down and jotted down what our focuses have come to be within our home schooling efforts - and here they are! (not in any particular order)

German (every day): Songs, Rosetta Stone, Word Vocabulary, Video Lessons

Computer time: Typing, Math, English, science history

Independent Activities: karate & gymnastics, play with friends

Educational Activities: "field trips", tours, museums, exhibits...

Family Activities: plays, musicals, performances, hike...etc. etc.

Spiritual Growth: Scripture reading, family councils, saturday preparedness

Academics: workbooks, computer time, story of the world, science

Extra Learning: Share and Tell, Spelling competitions, poem memorization

Reading: vocabulary reading, other reading, read-a-louds, audio books

Individual Interests: Piano, art, science, robots, trains

Awareness: current news discussions, movies, all other learning, documentaries

Other: service and hard labor

Now, we don't do ALL these things ALL the time..I used to think all the good ideas I've had should be going on consistently. But, I've realized that good ideas go in and out of phases and that I just need to make sure I remember the good things we've done and go back and do them over and over again.

***An American Life***

Last week, as a family, we sat down and listened to a down loaded story from This American Life - it's a radio show where very well written (true) stories are told and letting us tap into a person's personal (and intersting) american experience. I thought it was great! The kids enjoyed the story...only, some parts of the story we listened to were a little eery and so when we mentioned we should get together like that more often they said they wanted to... as long as it wasn't another scary one.

***Millie***

And, as usual, here's another completely adorable photo of Millie.

Oooh, which reminds me, my sister(Katja) had her baby (Nyah) and she is one of the most beautiful newborn babies I've ever seen...I love being an aunt!

Mrs. E, Wrist Cyst, Mother Teresa, Mills

2009-02-27T13:29:00.001-08:00

Oh!.....Oh dear. Whose child is this? Poor lad. No hope...no hope.
.

.
"Mrs. E."

Oh wow! That explains A LOT.

"We're a homeschool family! dah-da-de-dum (snap-snap)"
(Sung to the Adam's Family song) - funny video

//////Wrist Cyst//////

Tyra went in for surgery to remove her cyst upon her wrist....something which she was quite excited to be rid of.

It wasn't all quite exciting though. She was a tad nervous but was well taken care of.

She did well, the cyst is now gone and she is now recovering. Yaaay Tyra! It's gone! It's really gone!

//////Books//////

We have been sick the last few weeks (which is an understatement, really) and so have done close to nothing but trying to recover.

But! we did read one great book - it's a book about Mother Teresa's life. What a wonderful woman.

I could feel Tyra and Ethan makes leaps and bounds in the things they came to understand about how we should treat one another and what's really important in life.

One comment Tyra made was, "She reminds me a lot of Jesus." And so I ask, " Should we all be like that?" And her little heart thought only for a moment and clearly answered a simple but profound, "yes."

Ethan is SO disgusted by even the mention of "bones" or "blood" and so I was glad that he could gain a new perspective on the human body as we read this book - that we can become grotesquely diseased, malformed, even to the point of having rotting sores but should that turn us away from caring for one another? Mother Teresa never turned anyone away and took care of everyone with a genuine heartfelt love and concern....maybe we should be the same way.

One man was embarrassed by his sores and said, "Sister, how is it that you can stand the smell of my sores?" and, without lying, she said, " You're sores do smell but how can I care about that when I know what kind of pain you must be in?"

Beautiful just beautiful.

Ya know, that's exactly one significant reason why we home school - I want to expose them to the beautiful things of this world. There's enough junk they do (and will) naturally see as they wander the world, as we discuss recent news, as they meet more people, even as we read about certain characters and scenarios in scriptures and other books. But for right now, during their young years, I want them to learn from the beautiful, the moving, the life changing truths, discoveries, and people that have existed and do exist on this world today.

Life is about taking the great and beautiful things of this world and making it a part of who you are now and who you will be forever.

I don't expect my kids to turn out perfect. But at the end of it all, as most mothers do, I want to know that I did what the Lord wanted me to do for them. I gave them what He wanted me to give them. And I exposed them to the things He wanted me to expose them to - to help them remain true to who they were before they came to earth so the Lord can use those talents and interests of these little individuals at this present time, in this world's present conditions, to help the Lord's work to progress.

//////Millie//////

I always seem to post another completely adorable photo of Millie at the end of these blogs but, I post this one for two reasons.

A) She looks 100% better after being sick for 3 weeks!!!! And am so happy to see her happy again.

B) It's sunny outside and fairly warm(er).

We love seeing the first signs of spring. There's so much natural excitement in a child's heart as they see the first bee of the year or the first green tuft of grass poking up out of the dirt.

Children come alive with nature. And, after being sick for so long, it's just plain good to be alive! :)

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Memorization, Fave Book, 9 principles, Play Dough. Sting Rays, Trains, Other

2009-02-12T08:18:00.001-08:00

:::::Glenn Beck's 9 Principles:::::

The kids and I discussed Glenn's 9 principles and whether we agreed with them or not. After discussing and agreeing with each principle we took pictures of ourselves and sent them to the e-mail address Glenn gave out for this occasion. See my face? Major TMJ day....the kids look lively and refreshed though.

Being inspired by the book Laddie and their way of living we have begun to add a few things to our daily "learning". We discuss current news events. This last week or so we discussed the speech/article "The Action Americans Need" written by Obama himself and we discussed the article, "Grocery Stores Fight Back Against Food Prices". I receive these articles from http://www.izzit.org/.

:::::Audio Books:::::

We like to listen to audio books and the kids enjoy themselves as they play with play dough or do other "quiet" activities while the book plays.
We were listening to Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl here.

Even Millie played with the dough the whole hour and a half.

:::::Treasure Map:::::

Our favorite library find was The Greatest Power. We read aloud The Tiger Rising and really enjoyed it, I've been reading Julie of the Wolves with Tyra. Ethan has been listening to The Castle in the Attic, Tyra listened to Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings, and our current night-time real aloud is The Giver - I've enjoyed the thought provoking discussions its stimulated.

We found a treasure in our house about a week ago thanks to "this here" treasure map. Ethan was cleaning up an area I had asked him to clean up when, all of a sudden, he came rushing over with an old leathery treasure map in his hands. We all gathered round and followed it's clues to the treasure which happened to be the greatest treasure of all - books!

There were three to be exact and each book had a piece of old leathery material within it containing one of the kids' initials on it. Julie of the Wolves went to Tyra, Tiger Rising went to Ethan and a train book went to Cedric.

What a smart pirate! ... Now, if only the kids could find this mysterious pirate - they've been looking long and hard - many times they've even claimed to see him!

:::::Orem Library::::::

We love the Orem Library. They have so many neat events there every month. Most recently we listened to the New York Symphony Soloists perform - they performed music for one of Babar the elephants stories - it really made it come to life. Ethan especially enjoyed it.

They even answered lots of questions and told about themselves and how they came to play the instrument they play....it's interesting most of them began playing a completely different instrument but eventually were led to the instrument they now play professionally.

Ethan now wants to play the piccolo - yikes! And I want to get my fingers on a cello all the more - sigh! Before they played the music to the Babar story they played music from Mozart, Vivaldi and someone else....it was so beautiful.

:::::Living Planet Aquarium:::::

We made a trip to the Living Planet Aquarium (half off on thr first Monday of the month!!!) and enjoyed the colorful assortment of fish.

Tyra and Ethan tried to touch the sting ray's but didn't quite dare - the water wasn't quite shallow enough for their short arms to reach in very far anyway.

::::::Train Show:::::

The train show at Thanksgiving Point was quite a treat (for all the kids) but mostly for little Reeky.

The contents in this picture were Cedric's dream come true - Disney's Cars and trains, oh my!

.......

Ethan was being so cute with Cedric - showing him around and lifting him up so he could see the trains sets a little better.

:::::Just Cuz::::: She is such a shweetie! Squoosh the cheeks - squoosh the cheeks! Still teething though :( - darn those molars, come through already!

Books, Reptile Show, Grand Piano, Chef, Art

2009-01-21T09:04:00.000-08:00

***Current Books***

Ethan's current audio book is Hatchet. I remember enjoying this as a read-a-loud from Mr. Woodhead in 4th grade.

I worried it might be a little over his head but so far he has really enjoyed it.

Tyra's (and Cedric's) audio book is Black Beauty. We've tried reading this book a loud about 2 years ago but the kids weren't too interested. So we put it down for another day.

I love it when the kids' minds can grasp more as time goes on.

Our current read-a louds are the Greek myths...strange yet interesting stories!

***Millie***

Go Millie! Go!
("Riding" a 4 wheeler at Cabella's)

***Monte L. Bean Museum***

We went to a reptile show at the above mentioned museum.

Animals shows are always an easy favorite.

They even got to "pet" a tortoise named Ollie.

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***Joseph Smith Memorial Building***

We had a dinner at the JSMB for my brother's sealing (congrats to him and Erica). As we were about to leave we followed some beautiful piano music to a man playing a grand piano on the main floor.

Tyra was mesmerized, to say the least. She stood and watched his aged fingers amazingly travel up and down the whole scale of keys as he created the most beautiful piano music.

Unexpectedly he stopped playing and began to talk to Tyra and let her play one of her favorite songs. Not only did he do that but he asked her what her favorite primary songs were and played the most beautiful versions of those I've ever heard.

Tyra was inspired! She began composing her own songs the next day and has been ever since.

Apparantly, he plays at the JSMB every saturday from 7-9.

***My Little Chef***

Cedric cooks with me almost every day. Once he hears any sound such as grinding, mixing, or chopping going on in the kitchen I soon hear the pattering of his feet as he runs into the kitchen saying, "Me help?!?!"

Before my dad moved from Germany he used to be a baker and he still loves to cook.

I think those genes have been passed to my little guy.

***Art***

I've been working on some illustrations for a project of mine and have created my own little work area.

I work every night after the kids have been put to bed.

They love to come in my room every morning and view my newest additions.

Tyra has been coming with me to my oil painting classes.

She chose to paint a waterfall for her first oil painting ever!

My latest piece. I love African children.

I'll also add that Ethan has been working on "inventing" toy robots. Millie has been in the process of dealing with 2 molars cutting through, Cedric has been doing his own "workbook" every day by sitting with me and going through an alphabet book and Tyra finger knitted her own scarf.

Those are the highlights of our homeschooling life for the last couple weeks.

Latest reads, drawing lessons, stories, and other....

2009-01-06T10:18:00.000-08:00

Read, Read, Read

Here are our latest reads.

The invention of Hugo Cabret is one Ethan has listened to twice and one which I've read aloud twice. A definite fun read for anyone who loves to read.

We read The Little Prince, once again, and finished the third book in the Narnia series, Prince Caspian, which we celebrated by watching the Prince Caspian movie.

The Other Side of Heaven is one we read one or two chapter from every sunday. This book teaches so many wonderful values and principles. Love it!

The Secret of the Peaceful Warrior is our latest favorite library find.

Drawing Lessons

It's exciting seeing their improvements from one lesson to the next.

Step Aside Grimm Brothers!

The kids and I every now and then come together and make up stories which come from the ideas of everyone involved. Here are our latest creations...

French Onion Soup

(This one we wrote while eating baked potatoes for dinner :) )

Written by Claudia, Ethan and Tyra

After having worked hard many long days, a diligent farmer was anxious to reap his rewards, especially from his biggest and most important field – his potato field.

Harvest day came. Standing in front of his potato garden the farmer bent down, dug about in the earth and, to his surprise, what he pulled from the brown soil was far from a potato. It was an onion!

He quickly realized the store from which he purchased his seeds had tricked him! Although the packages which he had pulled the “potato” sprouts from displayed potatoes on the front, they had contained onion sprouts instead.

Despite being upset, he, fortunately, was a wise farmer. He knew very well that harvest time can come only once a year - there was nothing he could change at this point.

He decided he’d take this misfortune and turn it into something good.

The next day all the people within this little town awoke to the sound of hammering. The farmer had just finished hammering a wooden plaque to the front of his porch which read: “French Onion Soup Restaurant”.

He must have been up all night for he had built multiple chairs and tables which he had carefully placed in his, otherwise empty, barn.

Curiously, the town’s folk gathered round and, one by one, began to purchase his French Onion Soup.

Comments buzzed from all directions. “This is great!” “Fantastic!” “This is yummy!” “I want to get this recipe!” “Mommy, daddy, can we eat this every day?” “Wonderful!”

The soup and the farmer became famous. And every year, from that day on, his most important field no longer contained potatoes but grew, from then on, only onions, thanks to the mischievous store – from which he never purchased another item from again.

…Nevertheless, it has been told, that this mischievous store became the only store ever which sporadically derived free bowls of French Onion soup… bowls which were carefully left at its doorstep by a diligent hand.

The End

The Painting

Written by Ethan, Tyra, and Claudia

Once there was a mother who painted a picture of her children. If she RE-painted them – the children would DIE!!!!! And the mother would cry and cry and cry until there was a flood of tears.

The mother’s children were so beautiful that the king demanded her to re-paint the faces of her children so he could have a painting of them to place above his throne.

She desperately tried to talk the king out of it but the king wouldn’t change his mind. He told her she’d go to jail if she didn’t do it.

So, sadly she re-painted her children’s precious faces as they slept soundly in their beds.

Morning came, the faces were painted and the children slept on….never to wake again.

Crying the whole way there and carrying the painting under her arm, the mother walked to the palace. The king was pleased with the painting. The woman turned away and walked back home to her quiet and lonely abode.

Wanting to remember her children, she, once again, began to paint their delicate faces. Many hours passed – the portraits were done.

Suddenly the children sprang to life and the mother ran to them, embraced them, and cried, “Children! Children! I’m so glad you’re alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The End

The Snowbirds

Written by Tyra and Claudia

Who knew that such a grand being as the Queen of Snowflakes would be but a petite shimmering bird?

Such a little bird existed in the wintry clouds. Even though she was over all the other snow birds - she toiled with them every day.

As all kingdoms require order and hard work – so did the realm of the snowbirds. Throughout winter half of them would flap their wings to create the snowflakes upon the clouds – the other half plucked the snowflakes from its magnificent folds and carried them below where they would release the beautifully crafted snowflakes, creating the sparkling white feathery fest for all to enjoy.

As the weather warmed, the snowbirds, by order of the Snow Queen, attentively carried the clouds to other lands of wintry weather.

The End

2008-12-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

My latest piece of art and.....their latest piece of art.

One day, one day, their artisitic interests will blossom into something other than covering their bodies with the ink from multiple markers.

granola, inventions, reading, Germany, Brazil, Black Friday

2008-12-02T09:23:00.000-08:00

>>>Home from Brazil<<<

We're happy to have John back from Brazil. Even though he was consumed with work, he traveled a bit around Brazil the last two days.

You can view some of his adventures here.

>>>Library Books<<<

There's nothing like seeing children get excited about the books mom brought home from the library.

So cute!

>>>Another one of Ethan's inventions<<<

This is Ethan's snow shoe. . .I think that's what it was supposed to be.

You've got to hand it to him - it's quite creative.

>>>Black Friday<<<

We went to Tracy Aviary on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The weather wasn't bad. The kids had fun and it felt so nice just being together as a family.

Millie is so cute walking around.

Tyra is looking at the Flamingo's. We read about how the flamingo's specialized diet is what causes their beautiful pink color...

we decided Ethan isn't a "picky" eater...he just has a "specialized diet."

We also went to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point. It was pretty cold by this time. But we enjoyed our time anyway.

After the gardens we got some ice cream and, without expecting it, there were suddenly two reindeer right by the window where we sat.

They were selling christmas trees and had reindeer in cages next to them.

So we watched them for a while.

>>>Granola<<<

We have been making granola again. It's such a yummy snack to have around.

The recipe is found on this blog. (It's a blog my friend and I created where we have started posting our natural remedies and recipes.)

>>>Germany<<<

Tyra left to Germany with my parents yesterday (at 4 am). She was nervous and excited.

I know she'll have a good time and will be able to share much with us when she comes home.

Tyra and I spent some time together making these links to go on her countdown chain before she left. Those days flew by.

Little does she know I made a new chain, one which counts down the days for her return.

Unfortunately, I don't think those days will fly by just as quickly.

Sgraffito, Kit, Raphael

2008-11-15T13:42:00.000-08:00

Some of our favorite things have been:

Paintings by Raphael

We love the books: What makes a Raphael a Raphael? (and so on after each artists name.)

I don't buy movies ... almost ever! But this is one we'll be buying. It's our latest favorite movie - Kit Kittredge, from the American Girl's book series. (I especially love the mom's character in this movie.)

Sometime after Tyra turns eight she'll be joining a group called Liberty Girls. This is a group which has book discussions and activities about one of the American Girl books.

After watching this movie and seeing the many neat lessons and principles which we can learn (and did learn) from this story line I'm even more excited for Tyra to join Libierty Girls.

We have also been excited about all the neat (and simple, yet informative and educational) art projects we've been doing. Here's our latest. The style is called Sgraffito where you apply bottom colors which are colored over with a dark color then scratched away at until one has a peice of art one likes. This site has made art projects fun again in our home.

Jail, Face Painting, Gardner Village, Sleeping, Other

2008-10-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

"You in jail." Is what Cedric was telling Millie as he was tying her to her chair with every chord he could find. She definitely wasn't going anywhere.
Face Painting craze. ..Almost every day the kids want their faces painted. Once painted they delve into their imaginary worlds and play together as they act as the animals (or superheroes) which are painted on their faces.
Gardner Village. We went to Gardner Village with some friends on probably their busiest day of the whole year. It was packed!!! But....fun. The faces are extra funny if you're able to view them up close by clicking on the picture. Cedric's face probably resembles perfectly the same look I had on my face as I left that place. :) This isn't an uncommon scene in the mornings. (Although this photo was taken at night.) Ethan comes and sleeps in our room every night. We have a blanket permanently placed on the floor next to our bed just for him. But, now and then they all straggle into our room during the night for one reason or another and we end up all sleeping together in the same room.

Our current favorite movie is Mr. Holland's Opus. It's so inspiring! It increased Tyra's desire to be able to play the piano smoothly and beautifully and Ethan, once again, was inspired to sit at the piano and compose his own songs. I also found him drawing pictures of him conducting an orchestra.

For me, it helped me to remember how important it is to be passionate about the things we teach to our children. Passion transforms. Passion changes one forever.
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Da Vinci Exhibit, Milcreek, Other

2008-10-04T04:24:00.000-07:00

>>>Da Vinci Exhibit<<<

We enjoyed our visit at the Da Vinci Exhibit. We viewed some of his artwork. The Lady and the Ermine being one of them.

And we got to handle and look at displays of his inventions.

Cedric was in his right element here. Experimentation is his other middle name. And that's exactly what Leonardo da Vinci did.

Ty enjoyed herself as well. This was one of Leonardo da Vinci's water "pump" inventions.

>>>MilcreeEEEk!!!<<<

We visited Milcreek. The trees weren't as red and orange as we hoped they'd be but it was amazingly gorgeous anyway! I actually think it was the perfect time to come.

There were so many colors to enjoy. Too bad my camera didn't do well in low light.

Here's everyone hiking up. We only had about 30 minutes of good light until it began to get dark. The kids were rather uncomfortable as dark shadows began to take place within the woods of the mountain.

But we focused on how beautiful it all was. And how the leaves on the ground were like little lights the forest was providing for us. And as Cedric became more nervous, we comforted him with the fact that Heavenly Father made this beautiful place for us to enjoy. He kept repeating, as he thought aloud, "Heavenly Father! Heavenly Father!"

Sweet little bugaboo.

The kids have been getting along so well! Pure contentment flows through our home as they get along. To explain the top photo: Tyra had 2 new pairs of pajamas and so she decided to share one set of her jammies with Ethan. As they played around they decided to mix and match the jammies. They were having SO much fun that particular night.

The bottom photo is of us going on a walk. I looked ahead and this is what I saw. I hurried and snapped a photo before they broke up.

Hear the Singing?

2008-09-13T14:56:00.001-07:00

Here is what has made my homeschooling mother's heart sing.

The other day Tyra and Ethan had a large and intelligent discussion about gemstones and what kind of gemstones Indians probably had and what they used the gemstones for.

Today Tyra and Ethan were playing so well together that when a friend rang the doorbell they got upset and said, "I just want to play with you."

Cedric was unseen and quiet for a long time so I went to check on him. What was he getting into? A book. My favorite book of all things. The Ordinary Princess. (He was gazing intently at the details of the pencil drawings within the book.)

We haven't done our German lessons for a while yet when we tried a online German course Tyra got almost all of them right the first time!

Book of Mormon Party

2008-09-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

We did it!

We finished reading the Book of Mormon together as a family. We had a Book of Mormon party with cupcakes and watermelon to celebrate.

I have loved the discussions the stories from the Book of Mormon has brought into our morning devotionals. Goodbye Book of Mormon....we'll come back to you again.

As for now, we'll be reading from the Bible.

Share 'n' Tell, Larry Arnoldsen

2008-09-08T12:48:00.000-07:00

We hold a weekly Share 'n' Tell where our family gathers round and shares what it is we've been learning about. Here's this weeks...

Tyra

Subject: Gemology

Shared with us her favorite gems: Opal and Quartz
Recognized different birthstones including most everyone in the family.

Ethan

Subject: Indians

Explained the difference between sedentary and nomadic Indians. And the differences in how they ate, lived, and hunted.

Cedric

Subject: Book of Poems

Pointed out his favorite details from the poems and illustrations from the book, Here's A Little Poem.

Millie

Subject: Balance

Showed us how she can now stand up by herself.

John

Subject: Chinese, Writing, Economy, Computer Part

Explained basic chinese grammar and character writing, supply and demand equilibrium, graphic design principles, and showed us basic components of a logic board in a Macintosh computer.

Claudia

Suject: Oil Painting, Homeschooling

Discussed one rule for good composition she learned from her first oil painting class. Discussed Larry Arnoldsen's view on curriculum and how to learn.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

So, here's my two first oil paintings ever! Very exciting! I'm taking painting classes from Nathan Pinnock.

Also, here's a link to a wonderful article from Dr. Larry Arnoldsen on Homeschooling.

Enjoying the last of summer...

2008-08-22T10:02:00.000-07:00

It's still summer time and we're soaking up every last bit of it. We're enjoying being able to go with the natural flow of what feels right for our family and love that we have a few more moments of time to spend together in the warm and sunny weather.

Last monday I went with the kids one last time to Bear Lake for the day. We got up early in the morning and 12 wonderful hours later made our 3 hour drive home.

At the end of the day, as the sun was setting, we went for a walk along the empty beach. The warm sand massaged our feet on our hour journey with sounds of the small rolling waves echoing in our ears as the sky changed colors overhead with the setting sun.

We went on a little adventure through some tall weeds and, although a couple of the kids were skeptical of our safe return, we came out just fine, finding ourselves along the shore of the beach once again.

We sat and ate snacks as the air cooled and held out until the first star came out which we celebrated with shouts of joy. Then we made our long and quiet journey home.

Bear Lake came and went and with us will forever stay happy memories we found together.

That's what life is about. Growing together. Learning together. Giving eachother strength and support on our individual journey back to our Heavenly Father.

Although our summer moments aren't yet over we have been preparing for a more focused homeschooling year. By simplifying, organizing, and rearranging the things within our home. We've made it more comfortable and are now more excited to spend the colder months indoors.

So here we now are, preparing for better in depth homeschooling. We've come up with a fresh schedule that will help keep the things John and I find important for the kids ongoing. Yet, I'm keeping in mind something John Gatto has said, "I get out of the kids' way, I give them time and respect...letting themselves be the major text of their own education."

And so it will be. This will be a wonderful year full of learning, growing relationships, and individuality.

I can feel it.

Garden, face painting, camping, family outings

2008-07-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

There's been lots going on....

Our garden is growing like crazy and is ready for a few new plantings.

Face painting has been going well. My kids are often seen with their faces painted. .. them and the neighborhood kids.

We went on our yearly campout with our friends. It was a lot of fun. It was more work than fun for the parents but the kids had nothing but fun and made it worth all the work.

We made a trip to the mountains....those are always some of our favorite summer memories.

Today, in particular, was a great homeschooling day. Scripture study went well. I test read my newest book to the kids (they like it so far). Tyra wanted to learn about Bach's life. But we were interrupted because she wanted to learn about math instead. My homeschooling heart flutters when I hear sentences like the one she gave me then, "Mommy, can we finish reading about Bach after I learn about math?" Of course!!!!

Tyra and Ethan practiced on the piano...they do this at their own free will. Ethan is memorizing songs and Tyra is almost finished with the first piano lesson book. It's amazing to watch them want to learn and to see them progressing.

We also juiced and made fruit roll ups from the free apricots we picked up yesterday...all 6 bags of them! It was messy (as you can see) but it was fun. We also had the opportunity to share some of our apricot wealth with a lady I visit teach...her husband is severely disabled from scar tissue that has built up from the debilitating disease most of us have heard of -MS. She has a large load to carry so we stop by as often as we can.

Sorry to keep going but there's more that went well. Tyra and I cooked dinner together and Ty really enjoyed it today. The other kids wanted in but I told them we'll switch days. Tomorrow will be Ethan's day to cook with me, then cedric and so on.

We did turn on the TV today .... to the History channel and Ty says, " Ooooh, I love history!" There went that fluttering heart again.... :)

Then during bedtime stories the story/book Cedric wanted me to read him was my most recent story. (I took it as a compliment.)

Today really did go well.

PS Sorry Heather I realize that picture wasn't the best photo of you... I'll have to post a better one of you another time. :)

TRIathlon, Birthday, Boating, Canopy

2008-06-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

>>>triathlon<<<

John did the Provo Triathlon this last weekend.

This time it involved swimming, biking, and running.

What a neat dad!

This triathlon was a little harder for us than the last one. We had a couple busy days before the race and didn't get to bed until late the night before the triathlon. But we got up at 5 in the morning and made it through the triathlon anyway.

Millie and Tyra hung out while we sat on blankets

under big trees after the race was over

>>>third birthday<<<

Cedric had his third birthday. He was sooo cute opening the presents that were just for HIM!

>>> boating <<<
We went boating with oma and opa. The boat almost sank ... but we made it out and back safely.

Look, here I am! I'm trying to look like I'm kicking back and relaxing in the boat but, instead, I just look retarded. Too bad Millie doesn't make up for my bad shot either.
My hunk came with too.

Opa let Ethan steer the boat. That smile couldn't be wiped from his face.

Cedric really loved it too.

Tyra got a try as well.

>>>comfy canopy<<<

Playing under our canopy in the front yard.

Cake, Dirty Pond, Secret Garden

2008-06-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

Tyra designed this cake for fathers day ...originally it was blue and red with orange and red sparkles but it's close enough.

Nice job Ty.

The kids like to play in the fountain area in front of the Lehi Legacy center. Most moms walk by and say to their kids who are tempted to join us, "Eeew no, that's gross."

It's all ours baby!

Tyra LOVES gymnastics. Her favorite is the poles. Look at her go!

We began our annual tradition of reading The Secret Garden in our own little secret area at the Thanksgiving Point gardens. We look forward to this every year.

Dythalon, Krishna Temple, Constructing the universe

2008-06-07T20:26:00.000-07:00

John completed a triathalon (dyathalon) today - more details are on my personal blog. We're so proud of him, he did great!

The kids did so well considering that they were woken up at 6am, had to wait in the car (to stay out of the rain and the cold) for 2 hours, and were shivering and all goose bumpy for another couple hours as we watched the racers take off and saw daddy come in.

We also went to the Himalayan Festival. It was So neat. The Inia(ns) have such a beautiful culture. We ate Tofu and other side dishes that were....interesting. Their food is more spicy than we thought it would be. The Tofu was actually our favorite.

Here's a beautifully dressed young India(n) girl.

The temple grounds consists of open hills and ... a llama farm. We were able to feed and touch them. A few people were spat upon by these woolly creatures. But, fortunately we weren't one of them!

I ran across a book I'll recommend to anyone thirsty for knowledge and unafraid of paradigm shifts. This book it titled, "A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe". Who knew that there's such a thing as secular, symbolic and, most wonderfully, sacred mathematics.

Oh my goodness, I just saw that they have activity books to go along with this wonderful find - even more exciting!

"Studying number properties and intellectually knowing the road map, the symbolism, is not the same as actually taking the journey. We take that journey by finding within ourselves the universal principles these properties represent and by applying the knowledge to our own growth." Michael S Schneider

Where have we been, you may ask?

2008-06-02T17:35:00.000-07:00

We've been to the center of Whangdoodle land.

We've been growing amongst the Babylonians.

We've, once again, been a witness to Leonardo da Vinci's successes.

We've been in Egypt with Joseph.

We've been watching our garden grow.

We've been undoing some messy predicaments between the Elf King and the Fairy Queen.

We've been carried off by the Comuter rail train.

Tyra has started Gymnastics. Ethan is starting karate tomorrow.

And in case I don't come back soon, you may find us under the busy streets of New York or continuing our adventures in Egypt with Moses or taking in the colorful life of the Indian people in India.

Those are some of the things we've been doing... ;)

*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*

Summary of our Homeschooling life:

Morning Devotional
-read B of M
-Memorize current Article of Faith
-Maybe a quote or song and...
-Pray

Read, read, read!
-Library books
-Chosen learning books
-Short story books
-Books about chosen country

Math days with daddy

Making discoveries in every new experience

Listen to Story of the World in car
or to
Audio Book

Night-time Bible stories

Night-time fun novel

Understanding the lives of the composers (Classical Kids)

Learning Sharing time

FHE

Sunday family meetings

And other small things that life is always willing to teach us!

Motorcyle, Grad, Bug, Newer Pet, Garden, Piano

2008-05-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing we enjoy its..
"knowing that beyond every ordinary explanation there is a deeper and more exciting discovery to be made"

Julie Andrews Edwards, The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles

:::Motorcycling:::

Ethan, Cedric and Tyra got a chance to ride on a motorcycle!
Thanks to, Tyler, our next door neighbor.

:::Graduation Day:::

Amanda (John's sister) graduated from USU. Goooo Aggies!!! And way to go Amanda!

:::8th Anniversary:::

First John took some time off of working and we walked along the Jordan walkway and had a picnic with the kids.

We found a bug crawling close to where Millie was sitting.

John even let it crawl on his hand. . .

We researched this bug and found out that it was a "Toe Biter" bug which normally is an aggressive creature. Its bite is known to be the most painful out of all insects in its category (which includes ants, bees and wasps). Its crazy that we played with it like we did!

...I was warning them.

We watched a variety of birds at a nearby lake. There were different kinds of Gulls (seagulls) and even Pelicans!

All the birds took off at once after a dog ran into the water. It was thrilling!

When we got to the Jordan River there just happened to be a few men flying their model airplanes. It was so neat. These "toy" planes were huge - costing up to $9000!

One of the men in this group professionaly flies spy planes over the Middle East.

Cedric was enthralled by it all.

:::An Even Newer Pet:::

Ethan was playing with the baby snake we had recently found outside when I hear him screaming, "Mommy! mommy!!!" I figured he had lost his snake in the grass but instead came in carrying a whole other snake 10 times the size of the other one!

It measures 2 feet 4 inches long! Garter snakes usually grow to 2 - 2 1/2 feet long.

Not only are our kids enjoying the snake but the WHOLE neighborhood of kids come over daily to see and hold it! We've had multiple kids coming over a few times a day to visit these rad reptiles.

:::Square Foot Gardening:::

Yaaaay, we're finally getting our garden going. It's finally warm enough now.

The kids had a great time mixing the dirt for us. . .

. . . and starting their own garden.

:::Favorite Day:::

Our favorite day this week was the rainiest and coldest day of the week. We watched The Sound of Music - and the kids (mostly Tyra) enjoyed it and want to watch it again!

We also cuddled together in my room, playing various games as I read to them from The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.

:::Piano Playing:::

Tyra has been playing the piano. She's doing really well - considering that she isn't taking any professional piano lessons.

She loves to pull Millie up to the piano and let her tinker away to her hearts content.

Funnies, Olives, Glass, Train

2008-05-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

Family Funnies---Greece---

We finished up our studies on

Greece by having a taste of one

of their favorite foods - OLIVES!!!

---New Pet---

We had an interesting experience by the Jordan River this week. First a large skunk scurried across the pathway about 20 feet in front of us. We didn't let it deter us from going to our favorite area though - we just tiptoed past where we saw him cross. We didn't want to annoy a skunk!

After only a few minutes at the lake we saw a snake slither across the waters edge in front of us. The kids caught it and we all decided to take it home and study snakes for the week. . . I'm not sure the river is going to be its home ever again...the kids love it and the snake seems to be happy himself.

---Glass Blowing---

We spent a couple hours at Thanksgiving Point while John shot some bridals in the T.P. Gardens. The kids wanted to go to the Art Gallery/Glass Blowing buiding. We came just in time. They had just started making a piece of art glass.

The artist has blown into the glass glob that is stuck to the end of his metal rod. He's shaping the end and widening the mouth in this photo.

After many other steps: heating the piece over and over, blowing into the rod over and over, shaping, stretching, cutting and pulling, he's flattened the glass piece and spins it to give it its shape... this is pretty much what the final piece looks like.

---Train---

Cedric is SOOO in love with trains! As we drove home from a Park Day with some other Homeschooling moms I saw a train off in the near distance as I crossed over its tracks. So we turned around, stopped near the tracks and got out of the car to watch. Boy, what a thrill. You don't realize the magnitude of the trains size nor the power in its body until you observe it up close.

The engineer even waved to the kids! Cedric is still talking about it!

"Our time is our life, and whatever it is we are doing with our time, we are paying for it with our life. The challenge of mortality is to manage our time in such a way that what we spend it on is worth our life."

Ardeth Greene Kapp

Movie, Liger, Garbage, Kenpo

2008-04-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

These are the days...

(((Movie Making)))

Here's the movie we made with our neighborhood friends. John did a great job. The kids can't get enough of it and it was so much fun to get together with (most) everyone who was in the movie and watch the smiles on all their faces and hear their laughter as we watched it together for the first time.

(((Museum)))

We visited the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum and found the variety of animals to be amazing! Here were some of our favorites:

Tyra was most excited about the wolves.

Ethan was most excited about the Liger.

Cedric was most excited about the Rhinocerous...and later a mini model train he saw.

(((Earth Day)))

For Earth Day we decided to pick up garbage along the Jordan River. There was SO much junk to pick up. Mostly garbage like beer bottles, cigarrette boxes, or even tobacco containers. We learned some neat lessons that day about taking care of our bodies and the earth.

We picked up 5 grocery bags of filthy garbage! It felt so good and the place looked much better after we'd gone through it.

(((Greece)))

We're still learning about Ancient Greece and this week we focused on the Greek myths. Hercules was our favorite. It nice to hear the real myth instead of knowing the Disnsey version and it opens up great conversations.

(((Japanese Festival)))

We enjoyed the Japanese culture immensley...

we watched Kenpo sword practices,

and saw beautiful Japanese flower arrangements.

(((EXTRA)))

Warm days are the best. The kids were surprised with a beautiful tray of food while they were busy playing outside.

Loving It

2008-04-19T06:56:00.000-07:00

"All children are born artists." -Picasso
"...the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up." Ken Robinson.

>>>Greece<<<

We went on a historical art tour titled "American Dreams" at the BYU Museum of Art this week. It was really enjoyable. I could have stayed there all day. The paintings were beautiful.

It just so happend that the first oil painting of the tour was one of Greek women during ancient Greece. We were excited to have such a coincidence occur. (Explanation is in the last blog entry).

I was really impressed with the comments the kids were giving. Especially Tyra when she spoke of freeing the slaves or Martin Luther Kings dream.

We were looking at an oil painting of an eagle that flew before a sky layered in colors and stars when Tyra said, "To me, the sky seems to represent the American flag." Way to go Ty!

>>>Aesop's Fables<<<

We've been reading and learning from Aesop's Fables. I have been so impressed with how well the kids understand the moral lessons in his fables. The ones we covered this week were:

The Frogs and the Well
The Tortoise and the Hare
The Three Bulls and the Lion
The Brother and Sister
The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg

Lessons of Wisdom learned:

"We should be happy with what we have." -Tyra
"We should keep on going and going." -Ethan
"Think and look before we do something." -Tyra
"Sticking together gives us strength - so bad doesn't win." -Ethan

>>>Party<<<

John had a night out with his friends friday night so we had a night out with ourselves by having a popcorn and movie party. We began to watch the movie Dinosaur but because it was scaring Cedric we watched Hercules instead...the kids were excited to point out Greek things we've been learning about like the Greek goddesses (in the movie) who wore the Greek apparel just like the painting we saw at the art museum.

>>>Garden<<<

Our garden has been put on hold until Monday (cross my fingers) as we intermingle it with the lesson of self sufficiency for FHE. I overheard Ethan telling his friend Elaine about our garden. He was out in the back yard walking through the squares (they aren't filled in yet) saying, "...these are going to be the kids' gardens. These are the families." As he walked across the bags filled with compost he said, "...and this is the dirt. We have to use COW POOP!" I just loved his enthusiastic explanation of it all.

>>>Extra<<<

Our "Handbook of Nature" came from Barnes and Noble today. We're excited and we'll be posting our Green Hour Challenge entries starting next week.

Here's something nature-like for now. This is a poem we read before bedtime earlier this week...

"Talents Differ"

Laura E. Richards

"What are you doing there, Robin a Bobbin,

Under my window, out in the blue?"

"Building my nest, O Little One, Pretty One,

Doing the thing that you cannot do!"

"What are you doing now, Robin a Bobbin,

Under my window, out in the blue?"

"Brooding my eggs, O Little One, Pretty One,

Doing the thing that you cannot do!"

"What are you doing there, Robin a Bobbin,

Under my window, out in the blue?"

"Feeding my nestlings, Little One, Pretty One,

Doing the thing that you cannot do!"

"And what are you doing, pray, Little One, Pretty One,

What are you doing, tell me now true?"

"Sewing my patchwork, Robin a Bobbin,

Doing the thing that you cannot do!"

The Lehi library had their annual book sale last thursday. John was at school and had the car so my mom came over and watched the kids so I could take advantage of the opportunity. I only spent $30 on 16 movies and 15 books - what a deal! It was like Christmas for the kids when I came home with those being the contents of a large box.

I think that sums up the bigger things of the week for us...

We have felt wonderfully satisfied with our family life. Lately I feel like shouting from the rooftops, "Homeschooling is incredible!"

What can I say, we love it!

First Turning - "the High"

2008-04-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

There's been a lot going on around here. I'll attempt to do a brief summary...(but, first, this is a photo of Ethan taking in the contents of a book as he's sitting in his basket of books)

We recently did a homeschool "re-construction". It's necessary every now and then. Usually the "pre-construction" time periods are painful for me - nothing productive is really happening and excitement for learning has become close to extinct.

But, it's much like the theory about the cycles of life considered "turnings" from the book The Fourth Turning. The first turning being the "High", the second turning being the "Awakening", the third turning being the "Unraveling", and the fourth turning being the "Crisis". We just came out of the fourth turning and are now, once again, in the first turning - the "high". And boy are we ever! We are loving the opportunities homeschooling provides!

Along with doing our regular reading, writing, and math we are focusing much of our learning on History! Isn't it wonderful? For the next couple months or so we're learning about ancient to present

Greece

How could there be a couple months worth of learning about Greece? We realized how many neat things came from there! We'll be covering:

Aesop's Fables
Alexander the Great
Greek construction and buildings
Greek Gods
Greek Philosopher's
Olympics
Spartan Army

How fun is that? ...Well, I think it's exciting! Here's something else we'll be doing -

Green Hour Challenge!

It's made up of a set of 9 assignments and there's a fabulous book titled, "Handbook of Nature Study" we will be pulling a wonderful amount of information from throughout the assignments.

We'll spend time outdoors observing what we see, finding things we're interested in to focus on and do further investigating on. I'll be posting our entries on this blog.

We'll be observing, sketching, brainstorming, describing, and memorizing...and we get to do all of this enjoying and learning from the beautiful world Heavenly Father blessed us with - it'll be great!

Free Friday!

Friday's will be our reading day. We'll read any (or all) learning and fun books Tyra and Ethan chose from the library earlier in the week without having to write about what they learned from it...so, no strings attached. :) We'll focus a lot on poems and will work on writing our own as well.

We'll be checking out poems written by teens at the Sandy Library this month.

Along with all of this we'll be working on our garden thanks to SFG! The kids each have their own little 2x2 garden where they chose to plant things such as watermelon, lettuce, carrots, beets, and collard! I can't wait to see the results.

I'll be posting the photos from our big activity we're doing today which is

Movie Making

Tyra and Ethan's friends will be coming over and they'll create the story to and act in their very own movie...I hope they dress up! :) John will be recording and editing it and I will be....assisting wherever needed. The results will be posted soon.
All I can say, is there are so many wonderful, fun, and exciting things to enjoy and learn about and that's just what we're doing!

I've detached myself from the internet...I found it to be addicting and mind numbing. It reminds me of Elder Ballards talk to young mothers and the suggestion he gave to stay away from things that numb the mind such as the TV or the internet. He is SO right!

So, interestingly enough, even though I've started a whole new blog I'm cutting back, big time, on my computer time and only stopping by once every couple days or less - to do what I need to do (and stop by everyone's blogs every now and then). My other blog might just go to pots - and this one, being our homeschooling journal, will be tapped into most often.

Our New Blog

2008-04-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

I decided to start a blog dedicated to our home school happenings. We've been sick for a couple weeks now which took us out of our normal way of things. But we're getting back in the jist of things. Here's a look -

We just started having Tyra read to Cedric (and Camilla) while I help Ethan with his reading. It's a good thing for everyone - Tyra reads, Cedric loves to be read to, and it keeps them busy to let Ethan and I work together on his reading.

Tyra and Ethans reading lessons

We enjoy playing games together. This is a photo of John and the kids playing Trouble. Other games we like to play are: Life, Zingo, math card games, Uno, Mensch Argere Disch Nicht, Cagola, and the classic - Candyland.

We've had a lot of time to read while we've been sick. Bridge to Terabithia and The Moffats along with a handful of Junie B books were ones we read during our two week flu epidemic. Bridge to Terabithia was probably my favorite one, although I would recommend scribbling out the innapropriate words before handing the book over to a child to read. Something about taking away a persons only good thing in life is absolutely heart wrenching to me.

More homeschooling adventures to come...