On our final day of school before the holidays, we studied A Visit from St. Nick (1822) by Clement Clarke Moore (commonly known as The Night Before Christmas) and the origins of Santa Clause/St.Nicholas. The kids did a sweet little play of the poem and we made pop-up Christmas tree cards. Additionally, we conducted a survey asking for other's favorite Christmas traditions inspired by the life & work of St. Nicholas.
The options were...

- Candy Canes (represent St, Nicholas’s bishop’s staff) - Stockings (hung by the fireplace to dry each night, apparently gifts thrown in the windows in secret often found here or in shoes left to dry as well) - Oranges in Stockings (represents the gold St. Nicholas gave in secret…often in stockings) - Secret Gift Giving (St. Nicholas usually left gifts for the needy at night and in secret) - Charity (our tradition of helping the needy at Christmas came from St. Nicholas’s ongoing actions as bishop)

The front-runner changed over the course of the day, but the winner was Stockings left by the fireplace. The graph included shows what the kids found in their research. Whatever your favorite...we hope you have an enjoyable, blessed, peaceful holiday. Mery Christmas!

Arts Week!

This week we crammed all of our regular school work into 2 days and spent our time in the theatre. On Wednesday the kids and I went to see THE SNOW QUEEN by Lexington Children's Theatre. It was loud and abstract. The costumes were gorgeous and there were lots of devils & imps (Oscori sp?) running around moaning & screaming...Reeves liked that part. Today, Embree & I left the boys with Daddy...dressed up...and went with friends to The Nutcracker by the Lexington Ballet. One of Embree's friends appeared in it and was quite excited to have friends in the audience. It was our first full viewing of the ballet and Embree loved it. Like me, she thought the male lead was the best...he was fantastic...so strong and athletic. Very impressive dancing. Also, we enjoyed the dances in The Land of Sweets, and the angels. It was a nice outing for mom & daughter. We hope to make it a holiday tradition. Tomorrow we are off to Brice's reading club at the library, then to make gingerbread houses. Busy...fun days.

Snow Day

The kids were indignant this morning when they found out that the public schools were closed because of the snow...but they had school!!! They don't understand, or more likely care, that they will finish earlier this summer...they just wanted snow day. I finally gave in and gave them 1/2 a snow day. No one can claim I'm the Grinch...completely,anyway!

Happy snowball fight!

The Iliad

Today, we began studying the Iliad by Homer in our study of Ancient Greece. According to Reeves it is about "The Trojan war. It's a war over a girl." Embree says, "It's about a war. They fight for the most beautiful girl in the world. King Zeus decides thee needs to be a war so he starts a war by rolling a golden apple on the table of the goddesses and saying 'Whoever is the most beautiful gets the apple.' "

Reeves' favorite part.."the wooden horse is so big and cool...it has big hip-hop cool dudes inside."
Embee's favorite part..."the horse was really big & pretty."

Interesting take on the story...we are on to the Odyssey next...kids already think the Cyclops is the coolest! They love the gruesome parts!

Happy Brrrrrithday!

The big kids were invited to a birthday party yesterday, a rare occurance now that we are homeschooling. It was held at Evan's Orchard. There was a hayride, corn maze, giant slide, and toy tractor races. All of this was fun on a normal day...yesterday it was 32 degrees! While the kids usually can't be coaxed away from the place in under 2 hours, yesteday they were both shivering and ready to leave in 15 minutes. The three of us huddled together on the hayride, shivered through cake & ice cream...yep, ICE CREAM...then Reeves (who hates to bathe) said he wished he was home in the bathtub! We left early & had burritos on the way home to warm us up! It was certainly an adventure. Hope our friend had a great day!

Gratitude

With the holidays coming up we've been talking a lot about gratitude. Sometimes I don't think the kids understand that we are so very lucky to be able to go for cereal, milk, and a friend's birthday present a few days before payday. All they see is what others have and they don't. We talked about a family who had every penny invested in a mobile home that they were moving to a new site. The wheels fell off during transit and after nine hours of blocking the highway, the local sheriff simply had the trailer tipped over off of the road. It smashed to pieces...it was the only home for 4 adults and 6 or so kids. Now they have nowhere to live, have lost everything they couldn't get out before it was tipped, and they are responsible for removing the debris. It's hard to argue that we need new legos, ice cream, or magazines when there are people out there who have so much less...are so in need. I want to find a way to make them look beyond their Christmas lists and Thanksgiving gratitude for new video games to ways that we can help others this season. They're kids, I know...but I feel strongly that the way they are raised will change the way they look at the world when they are grown. While I don't want them to suffer, I want the "gimmes" of Christmas to become the "giveyous". That's my goal. Maybe it won't happen miraculously this year, but increments are good.

Don't Recycle the Baby!

Brice's new favorite...he asks to be put "in" the recyclng bin, where he sits & reads the old newspapers! Very cute!

Halloween

Biltmore

Updates...Finally!

Wow! It's been awhile since I posted. It's been really busy...but sorry to all of you who actually follow us. I'll try to keep up!
Our trip was fun. Our day at Biltmore was long, but quite fun. The kids were in awe of the house. Embree said she'd be sure to have three rooms to herself if we lived there! Reeves liked the bowling alley and pool in the basement. They both loved the farm...namely the barnyard where animals ran around and were available for petting. We could've stayed there for hours! See pictures!

We had a fun Halloween, though Daddy had to work. We spent the evening at a friends house and Trick-or-Treated in his neighborhood. We're still eating candy...I'm ready to begin the sneaky process of throwing out a handful every night after they go to bed. Embree was a flower queen, Brice was a bat, and Reeves was Reeves. At the party he won the contest for the costume most like the wearer's own personality. Ha! Pics of that are attached too!

Saturday we helped Embree's Girl Scout troop hand out Promise To Vote stickers at the Lexington farmer's market. Had a nice visit with Brice's Birthmother & Grandma, then Dad's brother & his family visited. We had eleven people sleeping here! Whew! It was great fun and everyone got along famously! We spent Sunday at Evan's Orchard - corn maze, apple pies, playland. The kids got filthy...but had a blast! Of course we also watched the Cowboy's game too. Todd was happy to have someone who was interested in watching it with him...'cause the rest of his family usually finds something else to do during the games!

All of us here are happy about the election. Todd & I are both moved beyond words that we were able to participate in electing the first African American president. It's an historic day. We are one step closer to Abraham Lincoln's "more perfect union." The kids are just fascinated that kids their own age will be moving into the White House. Embree's concerned that they won't get to take all their stuff, but happy they'll be taking their new puppy. Got to get your priorities straight. I think having these young girls live there will allow all of our children to find the presidency relevant!

More soon!

Our fall break...did I say break?

OK, I shouldn't have spoken so soon! The fancy chore site I listed earlier did nothing but convince the kids that they had a CHOICE as to whether they did their chors or not. I'm back to nagging again, when I had clean bathrooms, clean laundry, and sparkling windows before I set up that reward list!! BOOOOOO!

But this week it's all Todd's duty! I'm off with the kids for a whirlwind tour of field trips. Because I'm teaching on Tuesday nights and have had rehearsal on Sundays & Thursdays, I've had to save all of our field trips until my break at the College. So this week (Tuesday-Friday) we'll visit Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, Biltmore Estate, Exchange Place, and do a little letterboxing. Homeschool vacations are never restful!! Thank goodness for that little bit of peace & quiet between midnight and 6am!

Scavenger Hunt

This week we took a break on Tuesday afternoon to join some friends for a scaenger hunt. It was great fun! We did lots of silly stunts, but in the end our team won!! Here's a list of some of our favorites...

Go to Speedway, sing Happy Unbirthday to the cashier on duty.

Go to someone's house and say, "Trick or Treat" Bonus Points if you get a treat from them without asking.

Get the book Green Eggs and Ham, then go to the grocery store of your choice. Go to the dairy section and read the book out loud. (You may stop only if the manager asks you to.)

Get a clean diaper. (1) (Loose 200 points if the diaper is dirty.)

Take away one point for every red light that stops you.

Thank a fireman for being a hero, then get his/her signature.

Anansi

During our study of Africa we read many Anansi the Spider tales. One day we created Anansi puppets. Why is it my kids can't paint without painting themselves? It's a family tradition!

Brice's favorite thing

Brice loves books! During schooltime he either reads or draws the whole time. No kidding! We have toys all over the classroom for him and he would rather sit in the reading corner and look at books, or sit at the table with the big kids & draw/write. Finally, I may have a kid who loves books as much as I do!

Our new pets

Embree & Reeves got new pets this weekend.

Reeves got three new fantail goldfish - Rainbow, Colors, & Cheeto...who join Goldie whom we've had since we were living in Wise (six years!).

Embree got a Firebelly Toad, named Flame. He is really quite fascinating...beautiful. Little did she know that having a toad also meant having a cage that houses, feeds & waters live crickets! Feeding time is exciting! She has to get two crickets into a ziplock back, pour in a little calcium dust, shake 'em up so they are covered and pour them into the vivarium for the frog. They look like they are covered in powdered sugar! The frog seems to think they are the tastiest things around!

She really wanted a lizard of some sort, but wanted to be able to hold it. The pet store owner recommended we begin with a toad and work up to lizard...they are so fast! I'm sure we have a lizard in our future someday!

Chores

OK, all I can say is, "Why hasn't someone thought of this before?" My sis told me about a website called Handipoints. It's a kids chore list site that allow parents to setup a chore chart on and/or offline. Kids get goal points for chores completed that go toward prizes set by the parents and they get bonus points that allow them to set up a character online (sort of like Webkinz) and interact in that world. My kids have been brushing teeth with no prodding, setting the table for dinner after breakfast, and reading extra minutes just to gain points. I know it will eventually lose its appeal...but I'm lovin' it today! http://www.handipoints.com/

Today in School

We have been studying Ancient Civilizations. Embree & Reeves both can actually locate on a Map the Nile & Egypt, the Tigris & Euphrates rivers & Mesopotamia, India & the Indus Valley, and the Yellow River Valley of Ancient China. They have been so excited to learn of all these civilizations...can tell you about nomads in the Fertile Crescent and how to make a mummy (we actually have a small chicken on the kitchen counter mummifying as we speak...6 weeks & counting...more on that in a week or so!)

Today we began a week of study on Ancient Africa (not including Egypt...it has so much to cover it is handled on its own). We talked about how the Sahara Desert used to be fertile and then became arid & dry, separating the villages in the north of Africa from those in the south. We began reading Anansi the spider tales and we made African paper beads.

Later this week we will be reading more myths, making African instruments, and making a African feast for dinner on Friday evening...chicken with figs, papaya rice, fried plantains. I'll let you know who eats and who goes to Subway after the kids go to bed!

While both kids are enjoying our history lessons, Reeves seems to really connect! There are lots of battles and tyrants. He's very good at map reading and wants to delve more deeply in many subjects than I originally plan. He's beginning to venture into reading on his own and has picked out books on warriors and myths...particularly interested in the Minotaur! Also, he's quite adept at math...whizzing through his own 1st grade work. I've noticed that if Embree asks a question about her own math, Reeves often shouts out the answer!

Next week we are back into Egypt for awhile and I'll be posting about or final preparations of the chicken mummy. Needless to say, Embree is thrilled!!!

Recipe

I found out this morning that we were having a student over for dinner. I had already been to the grocery store for the week and hadn't planned on baking any desserts. But, this morning I received an email with the following recipe also. It was EASY and turned out beautifully...used stuff I already had. It was rich, but a small batch so it was gone after dinner and there was no leftovers to tempt me later...everyone loved it and it made the whole house smell like autumn!

Credit: http://vscreationsonline.com/publications.html

Easy Apple Snack Cake
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter (she called for shortening, but I used butter)
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
2 1/2 cups peeled, cored apple slices
.
Topping:
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
PREPARATION:
Into a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and granulated sugar. Add shortening, egg, and milk; beat with electric mixer until blended, about 1 1/2 minutes.
Spread this batter in a greased and floured 8-inch square baking pan. Arrange apple slices over the batter, sharp inner edges down, overlapping as needed.
Combine topping ingredients; sprinkle over apple slices. Bake at 375° for 40 to 45 minutes, until apples are tender and topping is browned. Serve warm with ice cream or sweetened whipped cream.

We have a reader!!!!

Embree has discovered a new series of novels. You might have seen them. They are THE WARRIORS...about clans of cats. I think her cousin, Gregory, might have introduced them to her. Anyway, she's still a bit leary of trying a novel, but we found a WARRIOR series in a genre called, manga. It's a genre of illustrated novel from Japan...sort of a comic book of a novel. It has the story and dialogue, but most of the decription that loses Embree is accomplished through the pictures...about 100 pages. She's finished three this week and, best of all, she's finally interested in reading alone. She's even planning to email the author and ask questions about one of the characters. Wonder of Wonders!

Pumpkins or Balls?

We visited Evans Orchard this week to buy apples & Brice thought he was in heaven...all the "balls" (pumpkins)!

Embree's Girl Scout Meeting

Embree has been a Brownie for the past three years, but today she "bridged" over to her new Junior troop. Because the old troop disbanded (her leader was too busy to continue...yes, that was me!) she joined a new troop that's all homeschooled girls like herself. She was very nervous and almost didn't go, but after encouragement she agreed to try it once...only once. She came out smiling, with an alien made from an Osage Orange and a variety of hardware supplies. Very cute! She's ready to buy her uniform!

We have discovered letterboxing! (check it out atlasquest.com) We used our new GPS today to locate three destinations. We found 1 out of the 3! The kids love following the clues and it's like Christmas morning when we find a box!

First Post

SO, I am attempting to create a blog about our days in school. It's meant fo family and friends who'd like to follow the fun things the kids are doing. My challenge will be to get things posted, but they would like to share so we'll give it a go.

Check back soon for the fun!