First day of Art Lessons

We were a little late for our first day of art lessons, but in Mary's words, "pottery was surprisingly fun".

Mary made a frog and Ruth is working on  a clay tablet.

Should be great to see what they come home with.

So thankful for the blessing of art lessons, this is something I have wanted for the kids for a long time.

The Return of Assyria

The great library of ninava

There was a king that loved to read. He built  many gardens for his subjects  to admire.A shrine found a book for the king from the old days.That night while  he was reading he hade an idea.He collected books!!!So he was none as the first librarian.

The end

(Ruth's paragraph)

Our crafty trip to Canada

We learned about Canada yesterday.  We made a maple leaf pin, moose frame and moose magnets.

Shirts finished

 Mary choose the spiral pattern (top) and Ruth did the vertical lines (below).  Despite soaking the shirts all night and boiling them in salt water for an hour, the color is a dirty gray.  The shirts were fun to make and we will make tie dye shirts with fabric paint some time in the future.

Loosing Teeth

Mary lost another one.

Sleeping Ruth

Most nights this is how we find Ruth.

We'll see if this works

We are using blueberries (instead of snails) to tie dye tee shirts for our lesson about the Phoenicians.

We'll find out tomorrow if it worked.

Outtakes

While Matt was working on the a/c and I was walking the dog, Ruth took some great and funny pictures.

Handy Woman

Ruth loves home repair, just not this kind.  Mary however loved it!

A/C repair

How to save $450?  Call a trusted a/c repair man and get your kids to working for you.  We have had issues with the a/c in our Texas house since we moved in at the beginning of summer.  We cleaned out what we could and when the problem was still not solved we called in the pros.  Yet another instance where I am so thankful we are back here in Texas.  If tenants were still here in the house we would not be able to fix the a/c ourselves and the repair bill would have been a financial hardship for our family.  I am praying this works, thankful to Matt and the girls for their hard work and dedication, and am paying my workers in ice cream when they are done.

Date Night

Just had the best date night ever.
Took a leap of faith and broke in a new babysitter.
Is it good or bad that you pay the sitter the same amount as you spent on your evening out?
Not the cheapest date we've gone on, but SO much very, very needed and very worth it.
Thank you babe for the fun night out!!

Reading with Spock

I am so grateful today for the ability to home school the girls.  They are doing so well and have come so far since last year.  Here are Ruth, Mary and Spock enjoying 30 minutes of reading time before lunch.

Monday Schedule

7am wake up and breakfast
7:30:00 dog walk and dishes/kitchen
8am Spelling
8:30:00 Leave for C.C
9am
9:30:00 CC
10am
10:30:00
11am
11:30:00
noon Lunch at C.C.
12:30:00
1pm Home from C.C.
13:30:00 Grammar
2pm Math
14:30:00 Review Math concepts
3pm Geography
15:30:00 Writing
4pm Read or Typing
16:30:00 Read or Typing

Egypt's first Queen

To learn about Hatshepsut we made beards.  Here are the girls modeling their creations.

Ruth's First Presentation

My name is Ruth and I  am ten .    I am in fifth grade.  I like mashed potatos and a variety of fruits.  I do gymnastics and like to read ficton books.  I also like being  outside doing home repairs.  My favorite subject is history .  I like history because it is very interesting. 

My mom teaches us and sometimes makes dinner.

  My dad is a computer nerd and a good cook. 

I have a sister   who is nine, her name is Mary.   Mary  is an almost  exact copy of my Dad.     I also have  a guinea pig  and a dog .  My dog Spock is what my mom calls a shnoodle. He is brown and black and is two years old.   He is a medium sized dog.  My guine pig is sweet and fluffy, her name is Nibbles.

I look forward to be learning with you.

Mary's Student Presentation

My name is Mary. I have a dog and his name is Spock and I have a genie pig her name is nibbles.

My favorite food is spaghetti and ice cream.

My favorite color is purple.

When I have free time I play monster high dolls and read magic tree house.  

What a schedule will do to you

We have 45 minutes of math instruction and homework, then 15 minutes to review our times table and new concepts.  Mary learned yesterday about fractions and we filled our 15 minutes playing with fraction circles.

Perfect Park Day and Friday schedule

Today we attended our first park day with our new home school group.
Despite the heat it was a lot of fun and we cannot wait for the next park day.

Here is our schedule for Friday, it took three hours to get groceries but we had a really great day.

7am wake up and breakfast
 7:30 am dog walk and dishes/kitchen
8am Spelling and History Test
8:30am Complete Geography
9am Grammar
9:30am Math
10am 1st, 3rd, 5th Park Day or Clean House



noon Lunch and errands

Tomorrow we clean house, mow the yard and wash Matt's car.
Pictures to come.

School Schedule

Our weekly schedule for school has changed with the new school year.
We enrolled the girls in Classical Conversations (CC for short) http://www.classicalconversations.com/academic-programs/foundations-program-k4-6th
and when our parent guide came for the year I was convicted to start the girls on a 30 minute schedule.
We are on day two today, and so far it has been great.  I am having to stretch myself to come up with things for the kids to do, and this way I know they are learning and retaining more of the information I am teaching them.  It should also keep us on track for the school year since we are sure to cover all the subjects the correct number of days per week.

Here is our schedule for Thursday.

7 am wake up and breakfast

7:30 am dog walk and dishes/kitchen

8 am Latin

8:30 am Leave for FEAST classes (Classes start next week and Ruth is taking 3-D art, Mary is taking pottery)

10am Bookstore (Either the second hand book store or Barnes and Noble.  The girls purchase their free reading books for the week)

noon Lunch

12:30 pm History

1 pm History continued

1:30 pm Grammar

2 pm Math

2:45 pm Review math concepts

3 pm Writing

3:30 pm Read

4 pm Read

Spock the King

 Ruth made these rings symbolizing the seven days of creation.

A gift for me.

Summer has chewed me up and spit me out.  We start gymnastics tomorrow afternoon and then add an activity per week for the next month.  We've accomplished quite a lot of school and I feel that we are mostly caught up which is a great feeling to start the year with.  I am however totally burned out and the school year is officially starting next week.  I am praying for guidance and energy to make this the best school year yet.

More of Spock

 Hanging with the guinea pig.

 Showing a lack of curls on top.  We tried and failed to mow hawk his hair so we trimmed it up to be cooler in the unbearable heat we are having here in Texas.

 Being cute.

Afraid of the vacuum!

Sock Monkeys

 We made sock monkeys (thank you Dad for the sock donation) to help us learn about Middle Egypt.

 Finishing our sock monkeys on Friday morning after cleaning the house. Spock looking on wanting to be a real boy and part of the fun.

The mess from yesterday when we started the sock money project.

The Middle Kingdom of Egypt

The middle kindom

The egepshins used to be a strong wealthy kindom but started  to grow weak  from all the bad faros .then a nomad tribe called the hicsic attect egept .they took over egept intil agroup of egipshin princes dove them out. then one of the princes ruled and made Egypt strong again.

The end

The Hyksos invade Egypt.

The Hyksos made their own weapons.

They were very strong people. They drove the people out of Egypt. When they made their own weapons they got iron.

The end.

Poland

 Lynx headband.

 Terracotta Lynx.

We learned about Poland today.

The latest stray

Here is Peanut.  He followed Ruth home this morning and we took him to the shelter this afternoon so he could find a forever home.

Anansi the Spider

We finished Ancient Africa today, and we made Anansi spiders.

Fur baby

In the week before the kids came home Spock was very mopey.  I warned him that once the girls came to Texas his life would never be the same.  I think after today he finally believes me.

A Quick Hello

This is what Mary does every morning when she gets up!

This is my Living Rom this morning.  Summer has officially worn me out and I could not get up and start school first thing this morning.  I was convicted last week while talking to a girl Mary befriended at the pool.  She had three of Mary's favorite Monster High dolls and was ecstatic that she owned more than one.  I talked to the girls about going through their toys again (we did this before we moved but our house here in Texas is smaller and where they play and the way they play is very different than in New Mexico) and donating what they no longer play with.  I'll list all these toys on craigslist for a week and whatever does not sell I am trying to find a children's shelter to take them to as a donation.