our dozen beautiful feet

Happy birthday to me!  Monday was my 35th birthday.  Dad celebrated in style by taking us for a night away to the Marriott! It's always been a dream of mine to go to the Marriott for a night, ever since it opened a couple of years ago in our city.  We got to eat two meals in a row there, dinner buffet and breakfast buffet.  We swam in their gorgeous pool twice, and all enjoyed the luxurious bath tub and room. Truly relaxing and we so enjoyed ourselves! So, that started our week off strangely.  We missed our learning work entirely on Monday, because we were busy soaking up all the Marriott we could. : ) We tried to get the all of our work done in the rest of the four days!  This week, we studied the life of James Madison, and his wife, Dolley.  She was known as the host-est with the most-est at the White House.  She was technically the first First Lady to live there.  John and Abigail Adams moved in just before his term ended, while it wa...

The last couple of weeks, I've been reading more about Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling.  I've read a few books about it before, but I got onto the Ambleside Online website this week to figure it out a bit more.  Even though I'm happy with what we're doing, I just always really like to evaluate other curriculums and glean the best stuff from them to implement in what we are doing.  I loved a lot of what I saw on Ambleside Online!   The entire curriculum is free online. You can access the schedules and titles, and many of the literature selections have links to free Kindle or audio versions here .  I ended up downloading about 40 books from the Years 2 and 3 list to my Kindle... for FREE!  We have been enjoying the Burgess Book of Animals, and This Country of Ours since then.   Charlotte Mason is not technically a classical education. But there are many elements that overlap.  A chronological study of history paired with historica...

When I first began our homeschooling journey, my oldest child was three.  I had been planning to enroll him in a local play school, as people in our country do.  I had never considered homeschooling, and never really wanted to. I had a prejudice against it, I guess. It feels so long ago, I have no idea now even what that prejudice was based in.  But there it was. I felt a prompting by the Holy Spirit to ask a good friend of mine about homeschooling. I just felt like I should at least consider it based on its true merits, because I had never taken the time to learn about it.  I sent her a quick email and said, "I've never considered homeschooling, but feel like I ought to, so give me your hard sell." Well, she did. Literally, after reading the email she sent me back, I couldn't NOT do it anymore.  The benefits were incredible, and she had laid it all out in a way I could not argue my way out of. She summarized her points in this blog post .  Jess has ...

Week four we dove into Thomas Jefferson.  He was a fascinating person.  I was challenged by his passions and giftings in so many different areas:  music, violin, writing, surveying, anti-slavery, building, architecture, nature.  200 years ago, many men were truly "jack-of-all-traders."  I'd love for my kids to grow up to be interested and versed in a wide variety of things, like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. We are making a Presidents book this year and next.  This year, we began the page for Thomas Jefferson.  We also read a really fascinating story about Aaron Burr in "This Country of Ours".   Did you know he challenged Alexander Hamilton to a duel and killed him!!??  Really!  Luke is doing really well with Classical Writing.  This was his writing project for week 4. He did a fantastic job!  I'm so pleased! We did a neat experiment this week to see how ionization happens... We studied about G...

Dad was gone this week!  We kind of did the basics and minimal other activities.  We also tried to get all the necessary school work done in four days so we could hang out with friends who were in town on Friday, and get ready for Luke's birthday party!  Yes, Luke turns 8 today!   In Tapestry this week, we learned about how the Industrial Revolution in the early 1800's began to change the way people worked, lived, and traveled.  Prior to the revolution, people had had the same options for travel and speed for literally thousands of years. It was interesting to read about Eli Whitney and how the cotton gin came to be, as well as the challenges they faced in creating it for widespread use.   In Chemistry this week, we learned about different elements, including sodium and hydrogen.  We did a little experiment to see how sodium effects water when it turns to ice.  The kids really enjoyed that, and were excited to check the cups every 30 minu...