Homeschool science project

Jadon is taking a science with labs class each week, and since he has a mind for science he is LOVING it. He gets so excited about the projects they are doing in class that he wants to teach them to us here at home. So my weekly grocery list has had a few add ins lately. This week I needed to buy Borax, I had no idea if they even still made it but was happy to fine it with the laundry detergents. Once Jadon had the supplies we needed (Elmer's glue, Borax, food coloring, water), he lead us through this project where we made our own bouncy balls. It was super fun!!!!!!

Step 1: Add two spoonfuls of elmer's white glue to a bowl.

 Still adding the glue.

 Step 2: Add one spoonful of water.

 Step 3: Mix glue and water together.

 Step 4: Add two drops of food dye.

 Step 5: Mix together.

 Step 6: Get 1 Tablespoon Borax, possibly 1 1/2 tablespoons.

 Step 7: As one person spreads the borax into the glue mixture, the other starts stirring right away.

 Step 8: A chemical reaction takes place the the mixture immedietly clumps into a ball, I believe it's called imploding.

 Step 9: Remove ball formation from bowl and shape it in your hands.

 Step 10: You have a bouncy ball! It may not bounce evenly but it sure is fun. (You may have to add a little more borax to your original mixture if the ball seems sticky or you may have to add a little water if you need to reshape your ball.) Once your done playing with it the ball gets a little soft and loses it's shape so it's really a one time use ball but it sure provides several minutes of fun!

 Jadon helping his sister make her ball.

 She made a green one.

I can't believe I let them....

...play in irrigation water. If you are not from Arizona you may not know what irrigation is so let me explain and then you can be grossed out with me. Several homes, schools, ball fields, etc... use a watering system called irrigation. Basically, reclaimed water is flooded into the grassy area a few times a month and that is how the grass gets watered. We back up to a school yard/ball field so every few weeks in the summer months the fields get flooded with this disgusting water. It smells, it attracts the mosquitoes, and it's just plain gross. However, you would be amazed how many kids play in the water. I've even seen them bring body boards to play in it. I'm disgusted each time I see it therefore I have never let my kids participate in this activity, until yesterday. I don't know what got into me but I caved. It started with Camden and Anna asking to go to the field so they could put Camden's blow dart gun to the test and see if they could hit a bird. Birds love to bathe in the irrigation water so I said they could go out there thinking that they would not step foot in the water, just stand on the sidelines. 5 minutes later they came back with wet shoes, and soaked up to their knees. I started to get mad and then I thought, you know what just go have fun, get wet, but don't get ANY of the water near your head or face. They looked at me like I was the coolest mom ever, I sort of liked that, and off they went. They spent the next hour playing, laughing, and having a blast. I only snapped pictures before they got totally drenched so these ones don't give you the full effect of what they actually looked like when they were done. They were wet from the top of their shoulders down. When they were all done, they had to be sprayed off with the hose while wearing their birthday suites and that brought on even more giggles, it was done in the privacy of our back yard. I'm glad I said yes, they sure had a lot of fun! However, the first question this morning out of Anna's mouth was, "when do we get to do that again?" I'm in trouble now.

Heading towards the water to find some birds.

 YUCK! I had to get my feet wet just to take a few pictures.

This picture doesn't fit in with this post but it cracks me up. Whenver something is placed on Pepper's back like a sock, a blanket, a dish towel, Pepper becomes a statue. I'm sure it's totally out of fear because Pepper is a fearful dog and a big baby! Since he doesn't know what to do when something is on his back, he just freezes. I can't bring myself to time him to see how long he would freeze for but I have a feeling he would probably hold this stance for quite some time. He won't move until the object is removed from his back. So Anna put her blanket on him and he froze in time, just like this. Such a silly dog.

Growing up

I walked by our 10 year old this morning while he was playing a video game and was stopped in my tracks. I swear he grew over night. There is a new found maturity about it him, I can't pin point what it is but he just looks and acts older all of a sudden. I had to take a few pictures of course, I guess that's the photographer in me. I sure love this boy and I am so proud of the young man he is becoming. I have also had a few proud mommy moments this past week as he has been helpful with strangers when we are out in public, totally unprompted by me. There is nothing greater than seeing your child helping another person and bringing a smile to their face. A few days ago as we were driving, Camden scolded me for laughing at an elderly man riding a hot pink bike with a basket attached to the handle bars. As I laughed, he told me I really shouldn't laugh at him because it might just be the only way he gets around and that maybe he and his wife have to share the bike because it's all that he could afford. He sure put me in my place and I sure felt bad for laughing at an elderly man in front of my kids, so not my proudest moment. It's amazing the things your kids can teach you, and believe me I learned a lesson that day. I'm so thankful I get to be Camden's mom, he brings a huge smile to my face.
The lighting in my house is so hard to shoot in because of our solar screens. I set the manual setting to an ISO of 1600, a shutter speed of 1/30 and the F stop at 5.6. They might be a little grainy but I love the natural lighting so much better than flash.

His shirt says Rock Legend, the way the lighting is in the picture below it leaves a mind wondering what his shirt really says.

Boys will be boys

The other day when it was 117 outside, Camden came out of his room wearing this. He then said he was going to go outside to play. I could have done one of two things. First, I could have reminded him it was 117 and he wouldn't last more than a few seconds. Second, I could have said nothing and let him figure it out on his own. I chose the second and he was back inside in 2 minutes stripping of the winter clothes and got right back into his tank top and shorts. 

 This is not an unusual sight at our house. They were actually surprised when they asked if they could use some vinegar and baking soda and I said yes. I was thinking science experiment while they were thinking of making a bomb in a water bottle. Don't worry, I was standing by and nobody got injured in the making of the "bomb". And I learned something new. When you wrap kleenex up with baking soda inside of it, put it in a water bottle, add vinegar, put the cap on quickly, and run away it does in fact explode. The part I didn't know is that the kleenex gets disolved into teeny tiny little pieces and it goes all over the place. It sort of looked like it snowed in our front yard. I sure love my boys, they are always teaching me new things. :) Oh, and I just noticed by looking at this picture that Camden was outside in just his socks, tsssk tsssk, he knows better than that!

 What's missing from this picture? I should have made the boys wear eye protection. When making bombs, that's probably a good idea. Luckily, no eyes were injured in this experiment. It's amazing what you notice when looking at pictures after the fact.

photography fun

It's been a while since I've taken some pictures while really spending time working with the manual settings, lighting, etc... Tonight at sunset I took some pictures of Anna and I am in love with them. They were totally candid, she was wearing her daddy's work hat, the one he wears when doing yard work, and I thought she looked irresistable and amazingly beautiful. With the light shining on back of her head, it was so natural looking. I love the eucalyptus tree blurred in the background. She was balancing a marble in the palm of her hand so she was intently concentrating. I asked her to look up at me and that's when I got that cute little smirk. 

catching up post

My blog has been deprived for a few weeks. Why is that you ask? Well, let's see. We were out of town, then I prepped for our homeschool year, we started homeschool on Monday, Michael has worked a 60 hour workweek so I have been doing the single mom thing, and when I'm at my computer my time is being spent on writing a women's Bible study on the book of Zechariah. My priorities have been in other places and catching up on my blog is not one of them. But tonight, a Friday night, Anna is in bed. Michael is in bed as he has to work tomorrow and wakes up at 4:45 a.m. The boys are in their room, even the dog is asleep. A nice quiet house means I can do some catching up. So here we go. We spent 4 days up north enjoying cooler weather and some wonderful family time. It was so refreshing, relaxing, and rejuvenating. I loved it.

There's just something about nature that brings such a calmness to my body.

We did a lot of hiking.

We did a lot of playing.

 And a lot of relaxing.

 And a lot of just hanging out.

This picture totally cracks me up. 

This is my happy place!

Next up, the chickens. Long story short, our 15 months we've had with our chickens has been wonderful. I wouldn't change anything about it. They have been a great educational experience, we fell in love with them, loved them as pets, but lately they have become a lot more work than we wanted. After praying about it we decided this wasn't something we wanted on our plates right now and we found a wonderful family for them to go to. Actually two families, 2 chickens left last weekend and tomorrow the other 4 will go be with the other family. Thanks for the memories chickens! You will be missed, but not cleaning out the coop, spraying poop off the cement, raking the side yard, filling your water container, buying your food, washing your eggs, and feeding all the birds in the entire neighborhood as well. 

Annagrace started school the week before last. She is going two days a week to an enrichment school and she loves it. She got a new outfit to wear on her first day, such a cutie. 

I had a photo shoot the other day and this was a first, having a snake show up. Crazy darn snake! Yuck. 

These two have been playing a game lately called army training. Camden is the trainer and Anna does whatever he says. Camden loves to be bossy and Anna loves the attention so it works out quite well. It also helps that Anna's tough and can hold her own. She gets a good workout too. 

Something very special happened last night, August 17th, 2011. Annagrace asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior. We had a conversation in homeschool that morning and Anna was telling me she wasn't sure she had asked Jesus into her heart, she wanted to make it official. So when daddy got home from work, she prayed and asked Jesus into her life. It was very special. I took pictures, I couldn't help it. It was such a special moment. 

And I leave you with this, our cool dog wearing some shades.

Well, that sums up the first half of August. Be back soon.

homeschool year 2011-2012

I can't believe we will be embarking on our 3rd year of homeschooling. Looking back I see how our first year was sort of a "trial run" as I got familiar with where the kids were at academically and tried to learn what learning styles best suited them. It was also a time to see the areas that challenged them and the areas that they excelled in. It was a year for them to fall in love with learning again and for me, a year to learn how to be both mom and teacher among other various hats I wear. I would say our first year was a great transition into becoming a homeschool family and confirmed that it was exactly what we needed to be doing.

Before I knew it we were already into our second year of homeschooling. Last year was probably one of the most challenging years as we tackled Camden's dyslexia head on through many therapies and specific teachings plans, thanks to Dianne Craft who taught me how to teach Camden. Our year was successful on so many levels, not only did Camden gain two years in reading (insert a Praise The Lord right here) but more importantly he gained confidence and felt smart for the first time in his 10 years of life. Through all that blood, sweat, and tears both Camden and I put it, it was worth every bad day and all the tears on both our ends (and there were many) to finally hear Camden say the words, "mommy, I really am a smart boy." Those 7 words made it all worth it!

And here we are ready to start our third year of homeschool in about two weeks. I'm really excited for this school year. What I've found with homeschooling is that each year looks a little different than the year before. And this year is shaping up quite nicely. Here's a little peak into our year ahead.

Jadon- he will be entering 6th grade, our last year before he is officially a jr. higher. He is really excited about the year ahead, and so am I. He will be homeschooled Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. On Wednesdays he will be attending a class taught by an amazing teacher who Jadon really enjoys learning from. She teaches a history based class that also involves reading, composition, language arts, geography, debate and current events. He took it last year and really enjoyed it. This year will be a study about American History. I love the book selections she has chosen and I know he will learn a lot. On Thursdays he will be attending a science with labs/math class taught by the son of the history teacher. He is a science major at ASU and is waiting to get into medical school. Jadon is really excited about this class too. I'm excited about it because an hour of that class will be spent doing math work and Mr. Jared will be able to tutor the kids on the math work they bring in. This will be very helpful for me. Jadon's core curriculum will come from these two classes and during his homeschool time, the majority will be spent on homework for these classes. I will also have him do Spelling, Bible, and Math in addition to the class homework. I love the freedom to cater his education and not have to be locked into a particular system.

Camden- I will continue to implement therapies similar to last year to help Camden overcome his dyslexia. If we have the same success as last year, Camden will be reading one year ahead of where he needs to be by the end of this year. He is entering 4th grade. We will be focusing more on writing and composition this year, he will learn cursive and also learn how to be a fluent typer. I'm really excited about starting a history study with him, I bought a really neat resource book at the convention this year and I know it will be something Camden looks forward to. We will continue to drill away at math and enter the world of division. I have some fun things that will hopefully help in this area:

I have a lot of other fun things planned with him too! Camden will not be attending Eagle Ridge this year so he will be homeschooled Monday through Friday. We may do a co-op study with another homeschool family which I'm sure will be a highlight of Camden's week. We may use this book for that (which would also involve getting the dad's involved):

I love all the options. I'm also looking forward to having some alone time with Camden when both Anna  and Jadon are at their classes.

Annagrace- I can't believe she will be a first grader! Her year will look quite different this school year. She will be attending Eagle Ridge twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She loved going one day a week last week so we decided to let her go twice a week. After homeschooling last year, I learned that Anna is very self motivated and breezes through her curriculum. She is very independent and requires very little help. So I changed her curriculum to one that is self driven. It came in the mail yesterday and she is so excited to get started! She will be doing Alpha and Omega's lifepacs. She will do their language arts, science, and history/geography units. I know she will work hard on them Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Another thing I am excited about is our family Bible time. Instead of doing our family devotions in the morning, we will be doing them at dinner time. With Michael leaving the house so early in the morning on the days he works, we decided it would work quite nicely to do our Bible study time at dinner. I'm so excited about the material we will be using. Our year will be focused on creation and the first 11 chapters of Genesis. We will be reading through these books:

We already started reading through the one titled The Answer Book for Kids, volume 1. (there are 4 volumes). The kids already ask at dinner when we get to read the book. They don't even realize they are learning. The questions proposed in the book are awesome and the responses are well thought out and explanatory. I'm loving it! I can't wait to get into the other books too. I look forward to some great dinner conversations over this next year. Hopefully this will be a great base for teaching them about creation so that they can have a strong backbone when they encounter teachings from an evolutionary standpoint. Not only do I hope it will give them a backbone, but hopefully some well thought out responses when they encounter this as well.

So that's just the surface of what we will be learning this year. I'm really excited to get started! I feel so much calmer this year and not nearly as stressed as I have in years passed. Maybe this homeschooling thing gets a little easier over time. Now if I could just figure out how to keep my bathrooms clean and kitchen floor mopped, pantry stocked, and dinner on the table by 6 p.m., I'd be in good shape. :) It's all about priorities, and for this time in our life educating our kids is at the top.