Home School Field Trip on a Cold Day!

All 5 of my younger children at Dudley Farm

Tommy

Double trouble!

Max, Joshua, and Tommy work the water pump.

A full bucket of water weighed 16 pounds!

Max does laundry the hard way.

Little E sitting pretty

Fun Geography for Kids!

As many of you know, we are homeschooling our kids.  This is our 12th year!  The following two geography helps are great for any child.  

1.  For years we have had a U.S. place mat on the kitchen table.  It finally kicked the bucket recently.  I ordered a new one from Amazon and it is really nice!!  Every home should have one of these.  We reference it ALL the time!

United States Place mat by M. Ruskin available at Amazon.com

2.  This summer I finally purchased an iPod Touch.  I think my children get to use it more than I do!  There are so many really cool apps for it and many are free.  Originally, I downloaded the Stack the States Lite app, but for $0.99 it is positively worth the asking price to buy the full version!  This app asks all types of questions about our 50 states.  All of my children ages 5-12 love playing it.  The younger ones get help from older siblings.  

Stack the States available at  iTunes

I hope your family has fun with these great geography ideas!

Reindeer Run!

December means physical fitness! Bet you didn't think of that!
We had quite an exciting weekend here. Three of our boys are active in a track club that meets during my Ladies' Bible Study on Tuesday mornings. They ran in the annual "Reindeer Run" this year. It was a 1 mile course and they each got a t-shirt, medal, and snazzy reindeer hat. It's been so good to see them enjoy physical fitness.

Tommy, Max, & Dan warm-up for the race.

Our Track Club--Coach Rebecca is in the blue hat! We are so thankful for our coach, Ms. Rebecca, who volunteers her time with the children for 2 hours every week. She is very enthusiastic and a great encouragement to the children. If you homeschool and enjoy physical fitness, you can start a little club like this in your area, too! All you need is a couple homeschool families and a very active mom!

The Long Haul

Graduating our first homeschooler this past week has caused me to think on things. There are 6 dear ones behind her. Currently, my youngest will graduate high school in 2026 and I will be 57 years old. Life is an adventure. God has given me so much! I am richly blessed! At first, I think of the long road ahead. Everyone has been asking me if I am relieved after the graduation. Honestly, I cannot say that I am. I am proud of Celeste's (and my) accomplishment. I am excited for what comes next. I am contemplative. Relieved, no. Thankfully, God's grace is there every day of my life and I can do all things through Him. It is awesome to think on what great things God has for us and what the future holds. I am thinking on this verse today:

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4

May God's grace be evident to you today and may you lack nothing in Him.

Pictures from Graduation 2009

My Sweet Grad
Celeste with Max and Joshua

Zach, my Jamie, & James (The Cheeseballs)

Stuart & I with Celeste--Proud Parents!

Celeste with her display board

Our First Homeschool Graduate

It's going to be a busy week! Next Saturday, we will graduate our 1st homeschool graduate. It has been a lot of hard work, so I am quite reflective at this point. It makes me think about our decision to homeschool and how we got here. Back in 1996-1997 I used to manage a medical office. Every day the UPS Man would come in and testify about Jesus, his church, and how much he loved his wife. Also, he began to tell me about homeschooling. At this point, Stuart & I had just gotten married and we had Celeste(6yo)and Jamie(3yo). We were starting our own family and God led us to make the decision for homeschooling. Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9. We have had challenges and made mistakes, but God has been so faithful to Celeste. She is a very hard-working young lady who is currently taking 12 credit hours at the local community college and working at a local grocery 20-25 hours per week. I don't get to see her as much as I'd like! I'm going to post her bio in the next post.

Homeschool Science Help

I am always searching for resources that will help me teach my children about this amazing world that God made. Recently, I received a free publication that is "top notch." The Institute for Creation Research has been doing some awesome work. They publish some free publications, namely Acts & Facts magazine and a devotional called Days of Praise. You can sign up to receive these free at the ICR website. While some of the language in Acts & Facts may be too grown up for young homeschoolers, it is helpful for me to explain to my younger children and is age appropriate for older middle to high school students. There is a wonderful article on the human ear (and it's wax!) this month. You can read this issue online, but if you're like me, you just LURVE books and want to have something concrete to peruse. I hope this will encourage you in your pursuit to raise a generation that marvels at God's creation!

I'm still alive over here--buried under several children, but still kicking! Since the big kids returned I have been here, there, and everywhere. I really forgot how much they drive our schedule. The school year gets kicked off next week with Jamie starting at the local high school. Orientation tomorrow night--I'm a nervous mama, but praying I'm overreacting to the whole transition. Celeste begins at the college the following week. She's excited about her senior year and I am, too. We're going to Sarasota for the weekend--Celeste, Karyn (Lest's best bud), and I. I'm going to be doing some planning for the home school year and the girls will hit the beach. Pray for good weather. I know it will be so weird to be without all the littles. Stu is even keeping the baby. That will be hard for me... I hope to post a few pics of our trip, so stay posted. We're staying with my parents and they're always fun!

An encouraging word

We have just started our homeschooling year today. I'm doing a slow start week. It's very hectic! I was quickly checking some things and found this post on Girltalk. It was very encouraging to me. Much of what we do as Christian, homeschooling mommies is among the mundane. Your reward is in heaven, Ladies! Reread all of Psalm 127. And while you're at it, if you homeschool, read Deut. 6, too!

I have LOTS to do, so I need to go! My heart is here with you, but my children are needing my attention in this current season. Blessings!

Put to the Test

Today is testing day. FL law for home schoolers requires that they turn in either a yearly standardized test or be evaluated by a certified teacher. We like to do the test. (I couldn't find an evaluator who would give me valuable feedback, so I gave up!) Anyway, Celeste, Jamie, and Dan are testing today and tomorrow all morning. Please pray for a good outcome! I hope I do well--it is a reflection on how well home school has gone this year. Usually my kids test many grade levels ahead. I'm hoping that continues! Meanwhile, I have to go get a shower before the rest of the younger crew gets up. Bye!

We've had a bunch of sickies around here over the weekend. Jamie and Tommy had high fevers, sore throats, cold symptoms. Jamie spent Friday in the wee morning hours throwing up--for some reason. I have been very tired and a bit nauseated. I go to the doc to check out my elevated thyroid on Tuesday. Maybe that's what's going on. Please pray that Eden doesn't get any of it. Hopefully, nursing will help her keep her immunity up.

Today we're taking the day off from formal schooling. Although, Celeste is working on Spanish I and Algebra II. Jamie will do a FLVS assignment and Dan is doing 2 math worksheets. Still it's a lazy day. No Boy Scouts tonight. I need to go to the grocery store and I'd like to work out today. I'm still not feeling that great, but it's been almost a week since I exercised. Not going to lose weight that way! Kids are bickering, so I need to go.... yes, this goes on in my house, unfortunately.

The Best Present

The best present...

By the way, we got Homeschoolopoly from the UPS man yesterday and we are quite eager to find the time to play it! Also, last night was the night Stu and I met 10 years ago. We've been together ever since. 4Him penned it well when they wrote "The Roller coaster Ride." Life can be a roller coaster even without the love of your life. It's so much nicer when you have someone to go on the ride with...thanks Stu! We just celebrated our 9th anniversary on December 6th. I think I got the best present this year...Eden Joy.

Family Fun

Check this out! If you are a homeschooler I think your family would enjoy this game! We just ordered it and are looking forward to playing it together. Go to http://www.homeschoolopoly.com/index.htm to check it out!

We are busy getting ready for Christmas and will take a break from schooling after this week. We're going to be baking cookies tomorrow and having lunch with my friend, Chris, who also has 6 children. Wow, there will be 12 children at my house tomorrow. The funny thing is that it's not complete chaos. These are wonderful children! I need to send Christmas cards and finish shopping. It's hard to get it all done with a nursing baby. It limits my time out and I'm still so tired in the morning. She's so cute, though!

I just found out that Creative Memories will be offering framing early next year! I can't wait to get more information on that. I am eagerly awaiting my first story book. I'll take a pic of it and show it to you when it comes in. I have a personal web address now and you can order directly from it and have things shipped to your doorstep. It's www.mycmsite.com/nanpalmer. Check it out!