more christmas

the boys had the homeschool choir concert which was so much fun (short and festive) and so nice to see them in ties (even if they were a little long, thank you salvation army).



friends gave us free tickets to the christmas production at sight and sound (for us over a $200 value). all peter could talk about was seeing his good friend garrett's new baby brother who sat a few rows in front of us (his dad is our children's pastor at church and in our small group):

karis gave pete a bath and took pictures (thankful she's willing to give the bath and remembers to take pictures):

half way through

we are officially half way through the school year.
the boys in 1st/5th grade are saying good bye to their bodies.......
and moving on to the next thing....

pennsylvania farm show

(has it been that long since i last posted? i went to do dishes and now january's over)

everyone needs to go to the farm show once.
the joke in college was that it always snowed farm show week.
that just added to the excitement of it.
i took the three oldest to the farm show when they were little.
none of them remembered it.

it's gotten a. lot. more crowded. since then.
it took us an hour and a half to go 1/2 mile to the parking lot and take the shuttle to the building.

but i was so. happy. to have all 7 of my kids together again.
it's such a rare occurrence.
too bad robin had to work.
i guess someone has to fund our fun.


this whole sculpture was made of butter.
1,000 pounds of it.
i wonder what happened to it once the show was over?

here's proof they were all there.
but nick was too cool to get in the canoe.

colorable alphabet

i first saw this idea here and even though we've had these pans a while, and have made chocolates in them, i hadn't made crayons until now. they'll make great gifts for my 3yo sunday school class.

fire safety house

one thing the pennsylvania homeschool law really emphasizes is fire safety.
it's required to be taught (with proof in the portfolio!) every year.
(and yet, it was not taught in one grade out of the 6 we were in public school last year)
so we took up the opportunity when the local township fire department had their inflatable learning house at hands on house.
jack, olivia, mike and pete had fun.

this was from inside. a little girl actually got her foot stuck in the rope ladder that went to the top of the slide. she needed two firemen to get her out (sounds like a joke, but it's all true! olivia tried to help her before the firemen climbed in and rescued her).

the scoop

i'm getting emails wondering how it is that all the kids are now being homeschooled again, so i'll tell the story.

mike, reading on a 3rd grade level, and doing math on a 2nd grade level was not going to be challenged or even taught from his level until 3rd grade (after speaking with his principal, we were not offered much hope for this to change for the next several years, according to how they do things at his school). so we had decided to homeschool him at the end of the year last year.

upon hearing this, jack and olivia asked if they could be homeschooled too.
here's a picture of their first day of school. they were choosing an artist to study (they chose rodin. i'm thinking because they saw night at the museum 2:smithsonian and rodin's the thinker was a big star, at least in the trailer).

then our niece jill (robin's sister's daughter) had a baby in july and asked if we would babysit her until a day care they had looked at had an opening the third week in september.

haley and nick started school on the 24th. haley had a culinary track. she would take 2 classes in the morning at the high school, then take a bus to the career technology center for lunch and an afternoon of culinary learning. it quickly (less than a week) became apparent, that not only would these classes be a total waste of time, but it was a dangerous environment for her to be in. she reluctantly agreed to be homeschooled, and quickly turned to be enthusiastically homeschooled. we were able to get her into a painting class at the big high school homeschool co-op that meets at our church, and we've known the director for 20 years.

(haley with her bff from florida earlier this year when they came to pa to visit)

after going to school alone for 4 days, nick was asking to be homeschooled too. robin was really not in favor of it, not even considering it, until we compared several classes we had taught karis through homeschooling, to how they were taught in public school. for example, high school biology. the public school in florida and in pennsylvania gave a full credit for biology and never required a dissection or look through a microscope. we used apologia's high school biology and had the sonlight microscope. we dissected a worm, frog, crayfish and trout. that's just one example. and then one of our very good friends in co-op broke his leg and dropped an economics class (almost identical to the marketing class nick was taking in public school this semester) and offered the spot to us (the classes in this co-op fill fast). so we took the opening for nick. now robin says he's more convinced than ever that homeschooling is the best option for us, and Lord willing, we'll continue this way the rest of the way through (yay!)

multi-tasking

moms are famous for their unequaled ability to multi-task.
but don't you love it when you find a product that does the same?
enter cheez-it scrabble edition.

you can give the kids their snack/challenge their spelling/play a game all at the same time.

jack was hungry but displayed the family name

olivia did more playing than eating and came up with quite a spread

graduation

our firstborn graduated on monday, june 8.
there were 590 or so students in her graduating class.
it was hot (by pennsylvania standards), and held on the football field.
it lasted only 1 hour 45 minutes.
not bad.


coming in with her class.
she was in row 14 on the left side.


they only gave us 3 tickets, so haley was the one who got to come.
bffs


this is only 1/4th of the students

her best friend from church, kara

really excited for that diploma!

she had no idea who this man was.
we are so proud of her.

though i must admit....after 10 years of homeschooling, our blood/sweat/tears intermingling to achieve the goal.... it felt a bit like a 9 month difficult pregnancy, only to give the baby up for adoption. probably a really poor analogy, but painful nonetheless.

as a wise homeschooling friend reminded me, at least she has a diploma that will never be questioned.

we love you karis!

teacher appreciation

simple, cheap, easy. consummable and most of all... appreciated!
that, to me, describes the best teacher gift.
how many ceramic apples that say "#1 teacher" does a teacher need?
we bought notepads, covered the tops with fancy scrapbook paper (used elmer's glue) and added 3 dimensional stickers from the scrapbook aisle at target.




here's a close up view:


mike made his own, and olivia loved it so much, she wants to make them as party favors for her birthday party this year.

jack henry

it was so much fun trying to get him *not* to smile for a photo

shoes

out the door (notice his choice of a coat when it's 20* outside)

on the road again.

we'll miss you, bud. but we'll be right here when you return.

change: school edition

new school: 2800 students

lunches: 6 brown bags each day

seeing their smiling faces at the end of the day (albeit silly): priceless
(karis-17, haley-16, nick-15)

many of you know that this fall, my kids went to school for the first time after being homeschooled 10+ years. it's still a huge adjustment for pete-3 and me. although it was never our plan to homeschool so long, we really just tried to follow wherever/whatever God was leading us to that year. i enjoyed every minute, and miss that old life every day. the relaxed pace, the time spent with my kids, the lifestyle of learning that was just part of our lives rather than "schoolwork" and "play". but i'm reminded of that Bible verse, "better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere" and for me this year, that means that it will be better for me to humbly submit to my husband's school choice for our kids (one day of obedience to the Divine Order set by God) than a thousand homeschooling days that i insist on.

Go Timberwolves

nick played on the freshmen basketball team for chiles this year

they were moving so quickly! sorry for the blur

we love number 15 the best. he looks so short in these pictures (he stands a bit above me around 5'7") and his best friend on the team, brad hill, is to his right, #13.