It's School Time Again... What??

Hey everyone! I know its been a while.

Summer vacation is over... Can you believe it? And so is our first week of school (well almost). It's going well for the most part. I was joking on the phone with my best friend last week about how the first week of school you have all of these ambitions and you're doing everything thing right, and grading papers right away. You are starting every day with a smile on your face and a peppy attitude, then by week two reality has set in, and you grade your papers at the end of the week, and your attitude is more like "oh just get your work done and stop complaining!"  Yeah, it makes me laugh just thinking about it.

I also feel that the kids' ambitions about the new school year are pretty similar. They seem enthusiastic about studying and learning. They are confident that they can turn all of their work in on time, and without a hitch. We all know that doesn't last either. I guess the moral of all of this is, no we are not perfect. What a relief right?

So yes the first week of school. Well I must say that teaching Olivia was a bit easier than I thought it would be. She gave me a much harder time during summer vacation. I guess it helps having her brothers in the room and learning as well. Zachary and Nathaniel are still struggling to get their work done on time on our math and language days, but as of right now it isn't as bad as last year. Darien is still getting done early, even though I gave him a lot more work this year. Yes some things never change. The good news is they did study this week. They put time into their work, and I feel like they are doing well. I feel like I have finally instilled in them the importance of learning and I'm proud of them, no matter how crazy they make me. Do you get like that too? You know the whole "why don't you remember this?" or "Why can't you read this word?" or "What do you mean you don't know what an antonym is?" This is when the hulk inside of me comes out, and all of my kids start to tip-toe around and whisper to each other "she's the mom hulk right now, you may want to leave her alone."

I'm sure all of us moms homeschooling or not, are very crucial of our children, and when they don't know or remember something it's like a failure for us more then them, and it's hard. So all of you moms out there make sure you pat yourself on the back this week, and take deep breaths. You're doing the best you can, and it's going to be alright.








P.s. since the first week of school is almost over, we now have one game review up on our game review blog and will have more in a few days if you would like to check them out :)

School work is all planned... The books are all order... School work starts in 5 weeks

Yeah I know, just 5 weeks. I'm wondering where the summer went, which is really saying something since our summer started in May. Oh and we do start our school work in August in case anyone is wondering.

I am doing things a bit different this year. I have written up the week to week plans a bit different. If you have been following this blog for a while, you may remember this...

And there was nothing wrong with this plan, but I just wanted to go more in depth, and also make time for homework (yes I know, it's all homework, because it's all from home), and study time. So now it's this...

with this schedule...

You may have noticed that every ones week plan is tailored to what they are able to complete, and that each subject (math, history, ....) is done on certain days of the week. We do it like that because it flows better that way (for us it does). My kids do a lot better when we start the week off with the subjects that we are going to need to study the most in, and take the most notes in. 

You may have also noticed that on the schedule I have over time work and a Saturday penalty. That's because there are two boys who live in this house that sometimes have a hard time keeping their mind on their work. I also have a boy who always gets done early no matter how much work I throw at him.

For anyone who is curious we do 36 weeks of school (if I tell myself 36 weeks, then it makes it really easy to schedule breaks for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter), We usually start the 3rd week in August and finish the 3rd week in May (or that's the plan, it's not unusual for us to finish earlier).

I'm happy to announce that all of the homeschool books for this year are either here already or on their way, and should be arriving tomorrow.

The school books can get a little expensive, but I'm so happy that my 3 big money savers exist and really came through for me this year, Ebay, Amazon, and the legendary Curriculum Sale (where local HS moms sell the books they don't need anymore). 

After making up the list of books we needed this year (not counting the ones we already owned) it was going to be about $500 brand new from ABEKA (which is our choice curriculum). Well we only ended up spending half of that, when it was all said and done. :) This is something I really look forward to every year, the making of the list, hunting for the books at discount, and having them arrive. I'm not sure if other HS moms feel that way as well, but if I were to guess I would say that yeah they do.

Oh and I also have the reading / book report list for anyone who wanted to see...

Reading List 2015-2016 Homeschool Year

Darien

Walt Disney - Saving America’s Lost Generation

Animal Farm

The Princess Bride

The Time Machine

Bloody Jack

Earthrise: My Adventures as an Apollo 14 Astronaut

The Paper Magician

The Glass Magician

Zachary

Lily Renee, Escape Artist: From Holocaust Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer

Leonardo da Vinci: The Amazing Genius Inventor and Artist

Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Six Napoleons

Abraham Lincoln For Kids

The Jungle Book

Mary Poppins

Half Magic

The 13th Warning

Nathaniel

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Operation Huttlet

A True Book: Volcanoes

Detective Dinosaur

Grasshopper on the Road

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Yoda in Action

Penguins

Scooby-Doo: The Haunted Hallowen Party

Super Twins Meet the Bad Dogs From Space

Darien is going to be an 8th grader this year, Zach is 6th, and Nathaniel is 3rd.

Olivia is going to be in Kindergarten, so yeah no reading / book report list for her, even though I'm sure we will be doing a lot of reading.

With my list I tried to do (well with the older two anyways) some non-fictions, and some classics. I also included things that I knew they would enjoy, and my husband helped with the list.

The book reports are just a part of all of the writing they are going to be doing this year. They will have one writing assignment every week, and it will either be a game review, where they pick a board game or video game and write a review on it (I will be posting all reviews on this new blog I made for them), an Essay like a personal narrative, fan fiction, or research report, and of course the books reports are thrown in there on certain weeks. This is my attempt to improve their handwriting, spelling and grammar. 

Lets hope it works :)

Oh and filing my Intent To Homeschool here in Utah was super easy. I had already found the paper work I needed to fill out for filing online (it was one page), and I got the address for the school district building. Before I left I pulled a folder with the kids' birth certificates, shot records, and prof of homeschooling for the previous years, and I didn't need to bring any of it. The school district building was the nicest one I have ever seen. Most of the time, they are in an old school building that are pasted their expiration date, and they smell funny. No not this one. It looked like an historic town building from the outside, and a fancy office building from the inside. Yeah WOW! Maybe the Mormon church is funding the school district or something. :)

So yes 5 weeks... Well here's to trying to enjoy the rest of the summer. Thanks for reading everyone.

Deep Breaths :)

Hi everyone! I have a little to update you guys on, and since a little is better than nothing at all, I decided to write a blog post.

I need to first start by thanking all of you prayer worriers out there. God has really come through for us this week. We have to get some repairs to our (soon to be their) chimney, and after the inspector came and we finally got an estimate a week later, and it was over $5,000. Yes, wow! This was just something we could not afford. You can imagine the stress and worry that took place in the days that followed. We really didn't know what to do. Our real estate agent suggested that he could try and work something out with the buyers. See what they thought about it, and wanted to do, and see if they were willing to cover some of the cost. Well it really payed off because they were, and they also wanted to change some things about the fireplace anyways. This decision cut our cost in half, and that was something we could afford and are more than willing to pay for. So once again a big thank you to all who have been praying for us. Words can't describe how relieved and thankful I am.

We are moving back into military housing a week from now, so I'm going to be really busy this week finishing all of the packing. Fun! Lets just say that's there is more to do than I care to think about. I've gotten the house about a third of the way packed, so yes still two thirds to go. I Think Olivia thought I canceled Christmas when I packed up the Christmas tree last week. I'm sorry to say that it was the first thing I packed, and we decided that even after we move we aren't getting it back out again this year. I know, it does seem somewhat sad, but all you need to have a good Christmas is just each other, and I can say that we are more than blessed in that department.

We still have no news about our final destination, so if you could keep the prayers coming, and pray for news, than that would be great. We really can't move forward until we have news. Jeremy needs news before he can apply for jobs.

I made this map after looking up all of the different Homeschool laws from all of the 50 states. Yes every state has different laws and some states are easier to homeschool in than others. Since homeschooling is my number one priority right now, I would like to move to a state that is very homeschool friendly. If anyone were to ask me right now what state I wanted to move to the most. I would say Texas, because they have awesome homeschool laws. That may shock a few people because I have said for years now, that given the choice I would move back to San Diego. I still love that city and it is still my most favorite place, but it's just to expensive. I still count myself as a San Diegan (even though I was born and raised 3,000 miles away from it) and yes if money weren't an issue I would move there in a heartbeat and have someone explain the homeschool laws to me (because I found California's laws a bit confusing). I do feel though, that I could also grow to love another city just as much, if given the chance.

Well that's all I have for now please keep praying for news and, I'll tell you once we have some.

The Legates Family is Moving... AGAIN!

I'm sure you are hopping that the title holds some news as to where we are going, but I am sad to say, that not even this blog post holds any shred of evidence as to where we may end up. We received the news two weeks ago. Although I was hopping that by this time I would have received more news such as where, or what exactly is happening, so that way I could share it here, or at least with my family and friends, but I have nothing else to report on that matter.

I'm just going to explain why we are in this situation in the first place. Back in February my husband passed out on the way to work. Thank goodness he walks to work instead of drives (you can read all about that on this post). Face planting on the sidewalk and the headaches that followed after that disqualified him from his rate (job) in the Navy. That was okay though because they were going to let him apply for three other rates, and most likely one of them would pick him up. It was all supposed to happen like this... He would get pick up by his new rate in January, go off to a school for it, come back a few months later, and maybe we would move at the end of all of that if they were going to send us elsewhere. Which meant if we were going to be moving, than we would move sometime next summer... maybe. I really should known by now that nothing ever happens the way you expect it to, or at least not when you husband is in the military.

What really happened was two of the three rates that Jeremy (my husband) applied for, he was already medically disqualified for (because of the same reasons). This is of course was something the detailer (the person helping him with all of this) forgot to mention, so of course those two rates said no, and the third was over manned, so no again.

Now what? Yes that was my exact thought as you can imagine. I should also note that we had been waiting for news on this since August, because that's when the paper work was sent. Waiting to hear some news since August, and we finally hear some, and it's... "You can't have those rates, and we still don't know what we are going to do with you."

So what now? Well one of two things is going to happen. My husband is now on the needs of the Navy status, meaning they will find a rate for him that he is qualified for and send him there as long as it's not over manned, or if they can't find one then they will discharge him. We were also told that if he doesn't like the rate that they pick out for him, then we has the option of getting out as well. We should have news soon, but in reality we should have had news by now.

I'm not worried if we get out, Jeremy had a friend who got out a few weeks ago, did the same job in the Navy as him, and had a ton of job offers. I'm also now worried if we say in. I'm use to the crazy lifestyle that comes with having a husband in the service, and I've enjoyed the adventures we've been able to partake in. I do not however want to say here, and it's not because of the rain. No that's only part of it. It's because of the homeschool laws (mostly, there maybe a few other reasons like area and there being nothing here, but mostly homeschool laws). I would like to move to a state where they trust you enough to homeschool your kids without having to check your work every week or making you take a three month long course in order to homeschool. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind them checking our work, but every week is a lot, and not being able to follow my own curriculum is the worst.

I love my children and I want them to be themselves (just the way God made them), and learn the best way possible for them, and I feel like right now, it's just not happening.

I'm sorry I don't have anymore news, but I will update this once I know something. Please continue to pray for our family, and thank you for your prayers so far.

We are just trusting God with get us though this, and off to a new place that we will love.

Do you Minecraft?

First I want to start off and saying that I'm sorry for the gap in post. I things are really ordinary around here, and I haven't had mush to write about (I think I almost always use that excuse about a gap in post) (well sorry about that too).

We have a new favorite thing around here in the Legates house, and it's Minecraft. We started playing a few weeks ago (all of us really), and we love it, and wonder how we have ever lived without it before. Minecraft in a big building sandbox kind of game. You can chose to play survival mode, where you need to acquire all of your resources to build, eat, and survive (there are monsters that try to kill you), and there is create mode where you are given unlimited resources to build and create whatever you what. If you are going to give survival mode a try, I recommend watching these videos. Jeremy and I have teamed up on survival mode, and it's been having so much fun. He would mine, while I added on to our house, and feed the animals. I also love create mode! Being able to create anything you can thing of is very rewarding.

I've known about minecraft for sometime, well I knew that it existed, but I didn't know what it was about. The boys' friends at co-op just kept talking about it, and that's what made us curious. The game can be downloaded on to almost any computer (no mater how old), and they have a version for the xbox. Jeremy and I play on the computer, and the boys play on the xbox, and yes both allow for multipliers, so yes basically we can all play at the same time (and we totally have). Also for all of you frugal people, the game is only $20, no matter what version you get.

I just had to share, because it really is an awesome game, and it's one that makes you think, and lets you be creative.





Oh and I've been taking a picture each time I change our classroom board. This year my goal is to make the board fun and interactive, so here's what I've come up with so far this school year. Tell me what you think. :) (click on the pictures to make them bigger)

Helpful Homeschooling Tools (a guest post by Clare E. Booth)

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Zaner-Bloser is committed to helping you deliver quality education tools for your children, as well as see your child succeed in your homeschooling study. We want you to experience the Zaner-Bloser advantage. Enter the code "ZBFOP" at checkout to receive the premium version of ZB Fonts Online for only $14.99. This offer expires on 12/31/2013.

First Week of School, Congrats to Shelby, and School Pictures

Hey everyone! We are finished with our first week of school, and finally into the swing of things again.

This was how I did the white board on the first day of school (and actually to tell you the truth it still looks that way... oh well). The question of the day was "Who is your favorite fictional character of all time?" As you can see I also put on the board that they were not to answer it until the end of the day, because I really wanted them to think on it. Finally after much thought they all had an answer for me. Darien picked Severus Snape (from Harry Potter), Zachary picked Wreck-it Ralph (from the Disney movie Wreck-it Ralph), and Nathaniel picked Violet (from the Disney movie The Incredibles). Their assignment after that was to write a story about them, a new story. I'll let you guys know how that turned out.

I also mentioned in a previous post that we have new bedtime rules in regards to grades, and this is what I came up with...

The New Good Grades / Bad Grades Bedtime rules

You can now earn a later bedtime by getting good grades, but you can also be sent to bed early for bad grades. This will be counted weekly, so at the end of the week on Friday mom will grade all of your papers. Your grades will decide your bedtime for that upcoming week Monday - Friday (weekends you will always keep your 8pm bedtime).

- If you get all 100%

     *then you get to stay up until 9pm

- If your lowest grade is in the 90's

     *then you get to stay up until 8:30pm

- If your lowest grade is in the 80's

     *then your bedtime will stay the same at 8pm

- If you lowest grade is 79% or lower

     *then you are to go to bed at 7:30pm and take your notes with you

Keep up the good grades and you will be rewarded

- If you get 2 great weeks in a row (meaning 90% or higher on all or your test and quizzes), then you will be allowed to take your DS to bed with you.

I don't know about your kids, but mine love to stay up past bedtime, and now they can earn it. The Abeka curriculum is a tough one with studying, notes to take, and a lot of memorizing, but I want my kids to be challenged. With this rule in-place they want to study, and not just slide by.

Now if you guys are still wondering about those chickens well here they are

This is their new coop (you can see three of them in this picture). Yes they have gotten much bigger. The coop we got off of amazon, and it was actually a rabbit hutch, but it works as a coop as well. I love it, and it's super easy to clean. The roof opens up, and the upper floor slides out, so I can take it out and hose it down.

Something exciting happened this weekend...

MY LITTLE SISTER GOT MARRIED

Yeah wow!

I know, they make a really cute couple (picture by Jessica Ober). They had their wedding in my parents' back yard, and it was beautiful. I was able to be there via Skype. Yes I was carried around on a laptop, and it was awesome.   It almost felt like I was there. I'm really happy for them both, and I'm sure they will have a wonderful life together.

I got the kids school pictures done early this year. I really wanted to do something fun and different this year, since last year we did the whole sailor thing...

I wanted a way, not to top it, but to at the least be just as cool... cute... oh I'm not sure... I finally decided that I wanted to do hats and scarfs (you know since we live in the northwest and all), and to make it unique, they wore their Hogwarts' house hats, and I crocheted scarfs to match (because the scarfs were super expensive on amazon).

I took the pictures with my iPhone at Scenic Beach in Seabeck, WA. I love them! Okay so their not professional but their good enough for me, and they were cheaper this way. I got them printed at walgreens, and I had a coupon as well. I'm just really excited right now about all of the money I saved.

In other Harry Potter news, we are planning another Harry Potter party. It's going to be in October. We have one every year, it's where we watch the movies back to back (we have to start early), and eat yummy food, and just have a fun time and hang out as a family. This year I'm making...

Chocolate frogs

Cauldron cake pops

And that's just the desserts. I'm really excited and can't want, and yes I will tell you all about it. :)

Starting school again!

Hey everyone, I'm excited to announce that this is our first day of school! This will be my fourth year of homeschooling my wonderful children. Now I am a person who loves time off, and I really enjoy the days of summer, but I am so ready to start school again.

Last week was a week of fail, and not because anything bad happened to me, it was just because I have nothing to do, or well I should say that nothing was holding my interest. I was so happy at the beginning of last week, to have at least one week of freedom left. I told myself that I was going to enjoy it. I was going to do things that I found fun and relaxing like, read a few books, play the sims, and some warcraft, catch up on some laundry (I really don't enjoy that, but I did have time on my hands so whatever), watch some of my fav TV shows like Star Trek, Big Bang Theory, and Bones. You know... fun and relaxing. All of these sounded great until I started to do them. I just didn't want to. I would start to read, and get 15 mins into it, and get bored and give up. I would start to play the sims and on the sims start to build this exquisite house for mermaids, and then the game would freeze... ... yeah... (I didn't really have the patience to re-boot, and start all over again) So then off to laundry, but you can only do so much laundry before everything is clean including all of the sheets. Not to mention that during all of these activities I was getting interrupted by a three year old every 15 mins or so. I'm also sad to say that I just didn't enjoy watching Star Trek and Bones as much as I normally do. I know what you must be thinking "Oh poor Randi, she's bored and complaining about it. GET A LIFE." and you would so be right.

So yeah, that's why I'm happy that school is starting. Yes I know I'm crazy. It's just time for summer to be over (lets just face it) (and according to the northwest weather it was over two weeks ago), and it's time to start school. It's time to get the books out, and see our friends from co-op again (I'm really looking forward to that starting up again, yes says the person who was complaining about being bored).

I'm writing and posting this early, because it's going to be a big day. I always feel really tired after the first day of school (it usually takes me a week to get into the swing of things). This year I have a new rewards system in place for getting good grades, and the kids are super excited about it. I'll have to tell you guys about it in a later post. We have also moved the chickens outside in their coop, and I'll have more on that later as well. I need to get off of here and start my day.

Thanks for reading :)

Homeschooling FAQ

I've put together questions about homeschooling, these are questions that I have been asked personally, and hopefully they will be helpful to anyone who is considering homeschooling.


- How do you get started with homeschooling?
This of course is one of the more important questions because it is the first step. Every state has different homeschooling laws so the first step is finding out those laws. I recommend a Google search like "Washington Homeschooling laws" or whatever state you live in. Some states are very loose with their laws, and some states are very tight. Some states require you to be supervised, and some just require a test at the end of every year to make sure that your children are meeting academic standards. Some states also offer more than one option. If you don't understand the laws or if still don't know how to get stated after seeing the laws, I recommend either finding a local homeschooling group (most of them are on yahoo groups, just search for a group in your area "Homeschooling groups in Anne Arundel County Maryland"), or you could e-mail the board of education in your school distract. They usually have someone on staff that deals with homeschooling, and should be able to answer your questions. If they are not helping you in any way what so ever, driving to the office itself really helps (I've totally done this before), the whole I'm not leaving until you help me act really does wonders. They will help you tenfold just to get you out of their hair. :)

- Do you have to be really organized to homeschool?
I just want to start by saying that I am not a very organized person. Homeschooling does take organization but not an extreme amount. The way I see it is if I can do it (a person who is not very organized), than I'm sure you can too. The more you plan the easier it will be. You don't want your school year falling apart in the middle. If you would like to know how I plan out my school year please read this post. It may take some time to plan everything out, but you will be happy you did. If you are not good at that, then I would recommend going with a curriculum that comes already planed out (they do exist) (I think Alpha Omega is one of them).

- How do you pick a curriculum?
This also states with your state in some cases, because in curtain states there is a list of approved curriculums, but most states will let you do whatever so find out first. Then I would recommend talking to that homeschool group (the local one you need to join) and ask different people about their curriculum. Some curriculums a very laid out with test and quizzes included, some are just the books and leave the test and quizzes up to you (they give you full control), and some are all online. It really all depends on what kind of person you are, and how you want to do things. So ask questions, and find out.

- What curriculum do you use?
I get ask this a lot! Which is a good thing. I use Abeka, and it's a curriculum that comes with the test and quizzes already made up (because I really didn't want to have to do that myself), but it is also a really tough curriculum, and it's really challenging. You have to teach a lot and with math there is a lot of drilling. I feel like it keeps my kids and me on our toes (we really need that). With all curriculums there is good and bad, which is why asking questions is important.

- What happens if you need help teaching your kids curtain subjects?
This of course depends on what that subject is. If it is something extra curricular like art, music or sports ,you can sign them up for art classes (YMCA or town civic centre), or a local sports team for sports. If it is something more academic then look for local co-ops or if worse comes to worse you can get a tutor. I ended up getting one for my son Nathaniel when he had a really hard time learning to read. We had her come to our house twice a week and she really help me learn different ways of teaching him, and he learned a lot in just a few months. Note it was expensive, but totally worth it. If you don't want to spend your money on a tutor than ask some other homeschooling moms on their methods of teaching curtain subjects.

- What is a co-op?
A co-op is either a group of moms, church staff, or state provided teachers that teach curtain classes to homeschooled kids. Some co-ops are provided by the state, some are just a group of parents who got together and pooled all of their teaching methods (each teaching a different subject to a group of kids), and some are provided by different churches who just want to help homeschooled kids. Once again if this is something you are interested in, a Google search should help you find out if there is one near you ("Homeschool Co-op in Kitsap Country").

- How long should your school year last?
This is completely up to you. I like to do about 36 weeks (give or take), but the best way to do it (or the way that works best for me) is to print up a calender for the upcoming school year then plan your days off for thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring break, ext... Then figure out when you want your school year to end and when you want it to start, from there you can pull out the books and figure out how much work you would have to do each week to finish on time (sounds like a lot of work, I know). Like I said 36 weeks seems to be that magic number of weeks for us. Everyone is different though, some like to have busy days, and some like to take it easy. Some like to have the luxury of taking time off more often, and some would rather not. This is why homeschooling is so cool, because it is up to you, and if you have the type of lifestyle where you travel a lot or have a lot of activities or if you just like to have a lot of free time, homeschooling is the answer.

- How do your children socialize with others in their age group if they are homeschooled?
People wonder and worry about this one a lot. I have had people tell me that I shouldn't homeschool because of the lack of socialization that happens when you homeschool. These people honestly don't understand that there are different ways to meet people, and school isn't the only place my children can go to make friends. They meet friends at co-op, church, homeschool groups, ext... True if you do stay at home and never do any of these things than yes they will not be socializing and that would be bad, but in most cases us homeschooling moms are very active and knowledgeable about what we are doing and how it will affect them. We research everything. We care deeply for our children which is why we want to homeschool them, and we don't do this lightly.

- Do you think homeschooling is for everyone?
No of course not. I think that in some cases some children do better in a school setting, and they may even need and enjoy that more, but I also think that public schooling is not for everyone (that's right I said it). It is very generic and with some children it just doesn't help them. Some children get lost in the class room setting, and advance only because their class does, and they don't end up learning curtain things. There are times when someone notices a child struggling, but then they just make excuses as to why their system is not working for this child, and they try to stick a label on them saying "oh well it's ADHD, and you need to put your child on medication." I just don't believe that the system works for everyone. One of my friends shared this video on facebook a few weeks ago, and it really does explain why our public schools don't work for everyone. True it does work for most, but what if your child isn't like most other children?




I really hope this helped anyone who was considering homeschooling. If you have any other questions or if you have any points that you feel should be added, please message me (e-mail, comment, Facebook, whatever) and I will add it to this post and credit you. Thank you to everyone who asked these questions. :)

When is your reading time?

Jeremy and I really put an emphasis on reading. We really want our children to know how important reading really is. When I was little I hated to read, because I found it really difficult, and I really didn't want to take to time to practice and get better. It wasn't until after I got married, and Jeremy started reading to me, that I wanted to read more. He inspired me to read out loud, and read a lot of books, a lot of different books. My son Darien is a lot like him. Darien will read without me telling him to. He will check out 5 books when we are at the library and have read all of them by the end of the week, and that's just the kind of person he is. My other two sons are like me. Reading isn't easy for them, and they need to set aside time just for reading. So everyday at 4pm is our reading time (for the kids anyways). This is usually about the time I start to make dinner. While I'm making dinner, the boys come and read to me a few lines in whatever book they are reading. It's nice, the house is quiet (well mostly) and my kids are practicing.

Last month my son Zachary had to write a "Persuasive Essay" for our home school supervisor. This is what he wrote.

Reading Time

by Zachary Legates

     I think that reading is important because it helps to train your brain so you will read better and it helps with spelling. Reading can also help with history, science, and health because you have to read and understand your work, so reading helps with almost everything in school.

     I think everyone should read for an hour everyday because it's fun and relaxing. Reading can settle you down for bed, it can also make you sleepy.

     When you are reading you can think of a picture in your head of the whole book and you can imagine that you are in the book while you are reading. So reading is also good for your imagination. I like reading I will read everyday.

This is from my son in the third grade. WOW! Note I did have to correct some spelling. I did however leave the grammar alone, because he is only 8. How cool is that though? He hated to idea of having to read "for a whole hour everyday," but now he loves it, and knows its importance. I want my children to know how important it is to read, write, and speak properly, so that way they are taken seriously. I know from experience that reading more really helps in this area. I'm sure you are thinking "well yeah, everyone knows that," and you are right, but how many people actually do that? Or encourage their kids to do that?  All I have to say is it's never to late to start.

I also have more encouraging news. Nathaniel (my son with ADD), is doing so much better with his school work. He is now able to sound words out like a pro, and has a huge list of words he knows just by sight. I'm so proud of the progress he has made over this past school year. I really thought he would never learn and that I may never be able to teach him myself, but finding help and taking deep breaths does wonders (not to mention trusting God, he really has helped me). :)

Salmon!

There's not a lot to do here in Washington, that is unless you hike and watch nature all of the time, and there's nothing wrong with that. One of the things you do get to do (and I guess this really does go along with watching nature) is, you get to watch salmon. It's more exciting then it sounds (or maybe it's just really exciting for me, because I stay at home most of the time with my kids).

The homeschooling program that we are in (Off Campus), gets salmon eggs every year, and they let the kids release them into the stream, that is right next to their building (how convenient). Last fall in November we got a chance to see the salmon swimming upstream. This was at the very same stream that is right by the school distract building. 

We were told by Mrs. Huggins (our homeschool supervisor), that soon they would be getting the eggs, and we could come and see them in their library. AWESOME! So from that point on, every time we were in the building, we had to go and see those eggs.

This was really exciting, even if it doesn't look like it. Even if you are thinking to yourself "They are just eggs." Well yes they are, but they are also a learning experience, and that really gets me excited. Salmon are such awesome fish. From babies they travel thousands of miles to the ocean, and after just a few years they travel all the way back just to lay eggs, and then die, and that's if they make it back (Well I guess if they don't make it back, then yes they did die too....). Wow what a journey!

This became even more exciting when the eggs started to hatch :)

They were so small, and looked nothing like salmon. It's hard to believe that these little guys could make such a big journey. I've mentioned before that Olivia really likes fish and aquariums, so she was the real pusher, but the others of course didn't mind one bit.

Last week was release week, so we came on friday, and it was awesome!

This is the kids, and Mr. Menefee (one of the teachers), releasing the salmon

Each of them were able to release a few, with their red cups.

Mr. Menefee is showing them how to do it

He is now wishing the fish good luck :)

I was nervous when Mr Menefee started to hand each of the kids a cup, but he told me that he has yet to have a kid drop a cup, or fall into the stream. He was right, no one dropped their cup or fell in, and I was so glad (you have no idea). I really didn't want to be the first family to have someone drop their cup of fish, or have one of my kids fall into the stream.

Okay so great day, and big success! Can't wait to do it all again next year.

The weather was been great here these past few days, and we've been out more (you may have notice on the pictures above, that the sun is acually shining on the kids). On clear days you can see the mountains.

This is Mt. Rainier, and even though it is 75 miles away, you can still see it from here on a clear day, and it is huge! It's summit is 14,411 ft tall, and it is considered a Volcano. No Hawaii isn't the only state with volcanos, and no Mt. Rainier isn't the only one we have.

These are the mountains of the Olympic National Forest, and they'er a bit closer.

On most days you can't even see them because of overcast or rain, but like I was saying it's been really nice here lately. Sunny days, and the temperature has been in the mid 60s.

Saturday we took a walk downtown. We live close enough to do so. We visited our favorite game store, the pet store (to pick up some treats for the cats), and the playground.

Olivia has to bring her bears everywhere :)

Darien and Zach love the swings

Nathaniel loves to climb.

It really surprising how many cool things are within walking distance.

If the weather stays this nice, then this weekend we are going to go hiking (thats all you can do around here right?). If we do I'm sure you'll hear all about it ;)

Nerdy Nummies and cat party

Hey everyone, I'm just writing to catch everyone up.

The school work is back on full swing since last Monday. We took two weeks off so we could go to Disney. I just ended up moving spring break, so now when spring break does come around we won't be taking any time off. It's really no big deal, I don't think the kids will even notice the fact that everyone else is off of school. Our school year is also coming close to ending. I know already. The boys have finished their health books, and history and science are soon to follow. If the school year ends to soon, I'll just go and buy some more work books, to keep them busy, and to keep everything fresh in their heads. I've had to do this all of the other years. Finishing early will also give us more time to work on the subjects we have a bit harder time with. Zachary and Nathaniel can always use more partice with reading and writing, and Darien needs to work on his study stills in history and science. This is why homeschooling works so well if done right, because it's personalized education, but if you can't homeschool you can still get yourself involved with your child's education. :)

I've found something awesome on You Tube! It's called Nerdy Nummies. Rosanna, this wonderful nerdy girl who loved to bake and play video games, decided to put those two things together, and now every Tuesdays she comes up with something wonderful. I LOVE HER VIDEOS! She's goofy and makes cute sound effects, and her creations make me smile. So you really need to check out her videos. My favorites are the Portal Cake, the Chess Cake, and the Harry Potter Cauldron Cake Pop. If you don't have enough time to check out her channel then you still need to at lest check out those three videos, because I SAID SO! :)

Okay last thing... This may put us into the crazy homeschool family category... I'm not sure, but here goes... We had a birthday party for the cats last week on Friday. :) Are we nuts? Are we crazy homeschooling cat people? Maybe... We have two cats Link and Lady. Link we got as a kitten from an ad in the paper, back when we lived in San Diego. Link's birthday really is in March, we're just not sure of the date. Lady is a rescue from the local shelter, we got her last June. We have no idea when her birthday is, but we were told that she was 3 years old when we adopted her. So just to make things fun (because we hadn't had cake in a while) (like 3 weeks), we threw the cats a birthday party. Link turned 5 and Lady turned 4 (or so we say). We got them catnip mice and kitty treats and we ate cake in-front of them. It's okay they really didn't want any, believe me I tried to get them to eat some. :)  I just think they are such awesome cats, and they make me so happy, and I just wanted to honer them, and I wanted to eat cake, and I have no shame mentioning that. :)

Okay, well that's all, thanks for reading :)

Bigger school room, and about to go to Disney

 Hey everyone, I'm finally blogging again! YAY! I've been busy, and not with anything really interesting. We are about to go to Disney, and I'm currently getting ready, and we had extra school work to do, so we could go.

Jeremy (my husband), had the idea to switch the play room and the school room, and make the school room more of a computer and school room. So that's what we did yesterday. It was very tiring. I made the mistake of staying up until 1am the night before, to finish season 2 of The Game Of Thrones with Jeremy, and I was really tired. (I'm one of those people who like to go to bed at 10pm and no later, so I'm not use to staying up) We got it done though, and this was the end result...

The boys' desks

Numbers on the wall, with the solar system

Found great educational posters at Barns and Noble   

It's much bigger, and I love it.

We are about to go to Disney. We have less than and week, and everyone is super excited. This week I'm going to focus on cleaning the house, and double checking our suitcases. 

Remember this? This was our Disney chain when we first started it, in January 

(I think we started with 36)

This is it now! It's so exciting to see it shrink day by day!

Kids' questionnaire

I asked my kids some questions about Disney, just to get in the Disney spirit. :)

Darien

-What park do you want to go to the most? Magic Kingdom

-What ride do you want to ride the most? Space Mountain

-What foods do you hope you get to try at Disney? All of the different kids of Coke

-Who is your favorite Disney character? Mickey

-Use one word to describe how excited you are. Crazy

Zachary

-What park do you want to go to the most? Magic Kingdom

-What ride do you want to ride the most? Mission Space

-What foods do you hope you get to try at Disney? Hamburgers

-Who is your favorite Disney character? Tigger

-Use one word to describe how excited you are. Crazy

Nathaniel

-What park do you want to go to the most? Magic Kingdom

-What ride do you want to ride the most? The Buzz Lightyear One

-What foods do you hope you get to try at Disney? Mickey Pancakes

-Who is your favorite Disney character? Buzz Lightyear

-Use one word to describe how excited you are. Wild

Olivia

-What park do you want to go to the most? Magic Kingdom

-What ride do you want to ride the most? a Princess one

-What foods do you hope you get to try at Disney? Hot dogs

-Who is your favorite Disney character? Rapunzel

-Use one word to describe how excited you are. Magical

We can't wait to go, and we'll tell you all about it, when we get back :)

Going out... need to dress like Muggles

Hey everyone! Happy new year!

I just wanted to write a quick post about a little joke the kids and I share. Perhaps you and your children do something similar (please share if you do).

Since I homeschool the kids and I don't always get a chance to go out everyday, because of this we tend to dress down. We like to wear comfy clothes and not care how we look (to a certain degree).

I like to wear my yoga pants with a comfy sweater, and the boys like to wear sweat pants (that may be a tiny bit to short around the ankles and a little worn at the knees) and a favorite tee (most of the time these tees are loved and worn).

All of this really doesn't make a difference, because we'll be at home, and even if we go out in the backyard, we'll have our jackets on, and our yard is fenced. No one is going to see us. We like it this way. We are big nerds and we like to read and play video games, and for exercise we get the few exercise videos that we have. This just works for us, I like to keep things simple.

So on the days we have to go out like on Co-op day, Commissary day, Homeschool check day, or on the weekends I tell the kids that they have to dress like Muggles (Muggles are from Harry Potter, they are people who can't use magic). To them this means "Go and find a shirt suitable for the weather we are having, and one that fits. Go find some jeans. ones that fit around the waist and go past your ankles. Put on socks!" On a normal day my kids hate to ware socks. I'm not sure where this comes from because I love socks!

:)

I know this is short and I'll have a real post soon, but thanks for reading and if you want please share a fun joke that you have between you and your kids. If you tell me something really funny I'll share it in an upcoming post :)

Also... Do you have any New Years Resolutions?

You Might be a homeschooler if...

I love these :)

Off Campus

Hey everyone, so remember when I told you guys that my kids, were in the Off Campus program for home schooled kids? Well I thought that today I would write about it, beings that today is their second time going to the off campus classes. I want to first start off by staying that it's awesome. They go every Wednesday, and they love it, and I get a break. I drop them off at 9:30am, and don't pick them up until 2:30pm. When they are there, they have a class for their grade, so my oldest who is in the 5th grade, has a 5th grade class. In that class they learn things for their grade level. Last week Darien said they did graphs. Then they have P.E. (awesome), and then break for lunch. My kids love that they get to bring a packed lunch, they go bananas over it (tee-hee). After that they break off into multi age classes. These classes are ones that the kids get to chose themselves, and they get to go to 2 of them. Darien choose "Smash, Crash, and Launch" it a class where they try out smashing crashing and launch things, and look at the science to it as well. For his second class he choose "Fabulous Fall Crafts" the name is self explanatory. Zachary choose "Fun with Card Games" they teach you a lot of different card games, and for his second class he choose "Fun and Games" where they teach all different kinds of games. Nathaniel choose "Fabulous Fall Crafts" for his first and "Fun and Games" for his second. Last week they talked for hours after I picked them up, and it was all about their first day and how much fun they had. As for me, well this break is nice. Sure I still have Olivia, but she takes a nap for half the time that they are gone :). I really thinks it's the best of both worlds. They are still Home schooled so I still get to give them that personalized education, and they still get to go to class and meet other kids. I get to spend a bunch of time with them, and I still get a break. :) Life is good!