11/27/08: Happy Thanksgiving

1. We all participated in the Turkey Trot by running or walking. Good exercises before eating!
See family blog post here.

2. I gave the boys haircuts.

3. Thanksgiving Dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's. Yummy! See family blog post here.

4. Played with our family. We watched "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and we all really liked it. We'll be putting it on our Christmas wish list for sure.

5. Alex played basketball. And lived...

6. We are on horse duty at our cousins again this weeked so we went out there twice.

11/26/08: Birthday

"Today" was my birthday. The kids played at Kristen's house (social) until the afternoon. Olivia helped with the horses again. I cooked my assignments of 3 pies, french green bean casserole, homemade stuffing, 3-bean salad, deviled eggs and jello. The kids helped me cook the food and do some laundry. Then Alex and I went out and did some more Christmas shopping. In was nice having all the kids around since the little two didn't have school.

11/25/08: Temple Day

"Today" (okay so I'm typing this two days late) we went to the temple as a Young Women's Presidency. "Today" was Alex's day serving as an ordinance worker. He ended up getting to do our session so it was a nice surprise to have him in there with us. The kids stayed at Kristen's house. We had our community music class in the afternoon. They ended up back out at Kristen and they all spent the night. Olivia rode horses and then was able to go with Sid and Breck to "the arena" to rope. Alex and I went Christmas shopping that night.

11/24/08: FHE

Mom School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Chapter 4: Recognizing the Spirit
Bible History: Ezekiel
Friend Article
American History Literature: 1 chapter of Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes
American History: Food and Recipes of the Revolutionary War by George Erdosh
Literature: Falling Up by Shel Shilverstein
Character: 3 stories from A Story To Tell by Deseret Book
Read-a-loud: 2 chapters from The Hardy Boys #3
World History: Chapter 3 from Story of the World vol.3
Geography: Countries within the former USSR
Science: The Magic School Bus: Inside Ralphie
Government: Principles of Communism
Memorization: All the Presidents of the USA
Math: The Hershey's Milk Chocolate Fractions Book by Jerry Pallotta
Reading: We take turns reading all of the above material everyday.
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.

Olivia
Music: Practiced her voice lesson
Math: Lesson 57
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Proper Nouns
Cultural Arts: Watched the musical Annie, she's been singing a lot of songs out of the Annie songbook.


Jared
Music: Had piano lessons
Science: Watched 2 science videos from Magic School Bus
Math: Lesson 55
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Prepared a FHE lesson
Book on Tape: 2 hours and finished Eragon

Luke
Reading
Writing/Typing a story


Caleb
Reading
Coloring

Family (in the evening):
Tonight some of our cousins came over for FHE.
Family Home Evening: Gratitude (Jared's lesson)

Olivia's activity was to play "Gratitude Soccer." (From the "orange" FHE book).





To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna
Housework
Piano Practicing
Spell Drill
1 hour free reading
Good Read Reviews
Visited someone...

Alex
Went to work
Worked on his class
Ender's Game

11/21/08: Date Night

Mom School

Pray/Pledge
Theology: We read Pres Uchtdorf's talk about hope.
Bible History: Daniel in the Lion's Den
Friend Article
American History Literature: 4 chapters of Johnny Tremaine by Ester Forbes
Character: 1 story from A Story to Tell by Deseret Book
Read-a-loud: 4 chapters from The Hardy Boys #3
Memorization: All The Presidents of the USA
Family History: Eulogy of James L. Hancock my maternal ggrandfather
World History: Chapter 3 from Story of the World vol.2 - Christianity comes to the Celts
Reading: We take turns reading all of the above material everyday.
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.

Olivia
Music: Practiced her musical number for sacrament meeting on Sunday and she practiced the recorder
Free Reading: 3 hours in Work and the Glory #3
Life Skills: Hamburger Helper

Jared
Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Core Phase: Jared choose to have some quality core phase time today.
Book on Tape: 3 hours of Eragon

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna
Piano
Good Read Reviews
Read for 2 hours
Date Night!
Went to a Constitutional Class

Alex
Went to work
Worked on his class
Date Night!
Went to a Constitutional Class
Listening to Ender's Game

11/20/08: Scouts

Mom School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Chapter 4: Pray with faith and True to the Faith: Prayer
Bible History: Writing on the wall (Daniel)
Friend Article
American History Literature: 3 chapters from Johnny Tremaine by Ester Forbes

American History: The Story of Valley Forge a Cornerstones of Freedom book by R. Conrad Stein
Literature: Read a simplified children's "Beowulf" out of The Story of the World 2 AND The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear and James Marshall
Character: 1 story from A Story to Tell by Desert Book
Read-a-loud: 2 chapters from The Hardy Boys #3
Memorization: First 35 presidents of the USA (I almost have them all done!!)
Family History: An autobiography of James Lick Hancock my maternal ggrandfather (We have several biographies of him so we'll be reading about him for a while).
Math Game: Played a fraction game by Discovery Toys
World History: Chapter 2 from Story of the World Vol. 2
Geography: Ancient Celtic, Norman and Saxon lands
Science: Looked up meteoroids on the Internet
PE: Lots of running around time in the gym
Reading: We take turns reading all of the above material everyday.
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.

Olivia

Music: Practiced her voice lesson and she also practiced the recorder and the piano
Math: Lesson 56
Spelling: 1 spell drill

Language Arts: Proper Nouns and Common Nouns
Free Reading: Over 2 hours of Work and Glory #3
Life Skills: Swedish Pancakes and "Dirt" Cupcakes
Computers/Typing/Writing: Blogging and Good Reads Reviews

Jared
Music: Practiced the recorder
Science: Assembled a telescope and played with it for a while
Math: Lesson 54
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Computers/Typing: Good Reads and Library Requests
Reading: Read for 30 min
Pack Meeting for Scouts! He earned his wolf badge.

Luke and Caleb

Reading

Friend over

Family (in the evening):
Pack Meeting for Scouts

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna
Piano

Spell Drill

Good Reads Review

Read 1 hour which included part of my reading assignments for a constitutional class we are going to tomorrow.

Helped at the pack meeting as an assistant den mother

Alex

Went to work

Listened to Ender's Game
Partial readings for constitutional class

11/19/08: Pizza

Mom School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Chapter 4: Conversion through the Holy Ghost
Bible History: The fiery furnace
Friend Article
American History Literature: 2 chapters from Johnny Tremaine by Ester Forbes
American History: Dangerous Crossing: The Revolutionary Voyage of John Quincy Adams by Stephen Krensky
Literature/Poetry: Nonsense! by Edward Lear
Character: 1 story from A Story To Tell by Deseret Book
Read-a-loud: 2 chapters of The Hardy Boys #3
Memorization: First 30 Presidents of the USA
Family History: Biography of my ggrandmother Anna Almedia Fullmer
Music: Practiced our recorder assignments from our community music class.
World History: 1 chapter from The Story of the World vol. 2 by Susan Wise Bauer
Geography: Countries from the Volcano book: San Fransico; Yungay, Peru; Pompeii, Italy; Martinique, Caribbean; Lisbon, Portugal; Yellow River, China; and South Australia
Science/History: DK Readers Volcanoes and other Natural Disasters by Harriet Griffey. This book was half history, half science.
Art: Stencil Art
Reading: We take turns reading all of the above material everyday.
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.

Olivia
Music: Voice Lesson
Math: Lesson 55
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: State of Being Verbs
Writing: Blogging
Free Reading: 2 hours
Life Skills: Pizza and Pudding AND Proper Place Settings
Computers/Typing: Blogging and Good Reads

Jared
Math: Lesson 52
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting: Cursive M's
Book on Tape: Eragon 3+ hours

Luke and Caleb
Reading
Spelling
Writing

Children (in the evening):
Social: Went to their cousins for 2 hours
Life Skills: Chores at cousins house (cows and horses)

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna
Piano
Set up for the YM/YW Etiquette Dinner
Went to Mutual: Etiquette Dinner
1 spell drill
Hosted and led a book discussion on The Lonesome Gods by Louis L'Amour at my house.

Alex
Went to work
Still working on Alan Greenspan's book
Fulfilled 2 assignments at the Etiquette Dinner (Bishopric: dish duty and Quorum: serving)

11/18/08: Horses

Today Olivia went on a field to see a vet chiropractor (something she's interested in) and a ferrier. She had a fun day and learned lots of neat things.

Mom School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Lesson 4: The Holy Ghost and True to the Faith: The Holy Ghost
Bible History: Nebuchadnezzar (Olivia left after this)
Character: One story from A Story to Tell by Dessert Book
Science: 3 Magic School Bus books. Kicks Up A Storm, Goes Upstream: A Book About Salmon Migration and The Electric Field Trip
Read-a-loud: 2 chapters from The Hardy Boys #3
Reading: We take turns reading all of the above material everyday.
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.

Olivia
Field Trip: Went to see a large ranch with horses that had various kinds of horses. She watched a vet chiropractor work on a couple of horses, listened in on a vet appointment and was also there with the ferrier. Very fun day.
Rode Horses!

Jared
Music: Attended the community music class and worked on the recorder
Math: Lesson 52
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting: Wrote me a letter

Luke and Caleb:
Community Music class
Colored/wrote papers
Reading

Family (in the evening):
Mark 10

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna
Piano
Played the piano for the community music classes
Read 1 hour
Good Reads Review
Babysat for 6 hours
Went to a "girls party" for one hour in the evening

Alex
Fulfilled his Temple Ordinance Worker Shift
Went to Work
Did some car maintenance
Still working on Alan Greenspan's book
"Watched" the kids for an hour in the evening
Worked on some Bishopric stuff

11/17/08:Volcano

Moms School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Chapter 4: Light of Christ and True to the Faith: Light of Christ
Bible History: Daniel in Captivity
Friend Article
American History Literature: 4 chapters from Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes
Character: 1 story from A Story to Tell by Deseret Book
Read-a-loud: 2 chapters from The Hardy Boys #3
Memorization: First 25 presidents of the USA
Family History: Biography of Bryant Campbell my paternal ggrandfather
Math Biography: Omar Khayyam (solution of cubic equations through geometry) from Mathematicians are People, Too by Wilbert and Luetta Reimer
Science: Erupted our volcanoes and watched a Magic School Bus Science video (human body)
Reading: We take turns reading all of the above material everyday.
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.

Olivia
Writing/Religion: Prepared the FHE Lesson
Music: Practiced her voice lesson
Art: Spent about 2 hours scrap booking and using foam stickers making cards and papers
Math: Lesson 54
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Past Tense Verbs
Free Reading: 30 minutes
Life Skills: Spaghetti Sauce, Bread sticks and Cinnamon sticks

Jared

Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Science: Watched 2 more Magic School Bus Videos (color/light reflection and outer space)

Science Experiment: Did some experiments for 1 hour watching how light and color reflected off of things
Math: Lesson 52
Math Drill: Multiplication Wrap-ups: 6's and 7's and he played a Multiplication game
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages from Explode the Code
Computers/Typing: Made a flyer offering his "detective services"
Life Skills?: Spent an hour making a sign that he put up in our driveway alerting "people that they had found the right house that offers detective services"

Luke

Spelling

Worked on his story

Card Making

Watched the volcanoes

Caleb

Spelling

Coloring

Card Making

Watched the volcanoes

Family (in the evening):

Family Home Evening: Elder Cook's Talk

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna
Piano

Spell Drill

Worked on the Young Women lesson schedule for next year (model: fulfilling calling)

Read for 3 hours and finished The Lonesome Gods by Louis L'Amour

Good Reads book review

Alex

Went to Work

Spell Drill

He's been working on an Allan Greenspan audio book for the last 2 weeks

1 hour personal reading, various things

11/14/08: SLC

We were in SLC the last three days, but we are home again. Alex had to speak in Colorado and was flying out early Friday and coming home late Friday so we just went and hung out in SLC. On Friday we...

Swam
Went to the Zoo
We went to Temple Square and watched the Joseph Smith movie again. We also bought all of Luke's "8 year old" presents from the distribution center. It's not until next month, but we won't be back until after the new year most likely.
Swam again

I'll post pix on the family blog later.

11/13/08: Bowling

The Book of the Lamentations of Deanna: I am not well again today, I feel much worse. Oh, well. The kids wanted to do more school, but the following was all I could muster. I'm posting this early. We haven't done the swimming, bowling or book on tape yet, but they are coming.... Olivia did some laundry for me and Jared made me lunch. They are so nice to me.

Pray/Pledge
Theology: 2 conference talks by Elder Cook and Pres Monson
Memorization: First 30 Presidents of the USA (They are passing me up! They are learning them faster than me now).
World History Literature: 4 chapters of The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt By Day by Scott O'Dell. Finished! (William Tyndale)
Science: Watched a Eyewitness Dinosaur video
Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.
Swimming!
Bowling!
Social: We have a friend/cousin playing and visiting until Saturday.
Book on Tape: Listened to a Book on Tape for 3+ Hours

11/12/08: Core Phase

Today we took a full "core" phase day. I wasn't feeling very well and I had a sore throat so I couldn't read to them for mom school. They had a great day. They enjoy a day off every once in a while from our schedule. But they prefer the schedule. I know in the "Thomas Jefferson Education" system they say that those in the "love of learning" phase will occasionally go back to "core" phase for a day here and there. I have to laugh that while they were free from our schedule they both still wanted to do Math and Spelling.

Olivia

Math: Lesson 52 and 53

Spelling: 1 spell drill

Music: Practiced singing

Art: Painted her volcano

Book on Tape: 2 hours of the Blood Red Horse

Memorization: Books of the New Testament and Books of the Book of Mormon

Life Skills: Apple Crumb Pie

Sewing: We sewed the first half of her quilt. It's looking good!

Activity Days!

Service: Helped me at Young Women in Excellence with decorations, slide show and other errands.

I also should note that Olivia is very faithful at reading her scriptures every night.

Jared

Math: Lesson 50

Spelling: 1 spell drill

Art: Painted his volcano (that he had already exploded)

Book on Tape: 3+hours of a book on tape

Memorization: Books of the New Testament and Books of the Book of Mormon

Creative Play: Lots of it with Lego's and Rescue Heroes

Scouts!

Jared painted his with dinosaur tracks on it, because it was a "prehistoric volcano." Olivia's has wildflowers on the sides of hers.

Family (in the evening):

Mark 9 & 10

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...

Deanna

Piano

Read 1 hour

Sewed with Olivia (I detest sewing even more than ironing. My sewing machine is the one household appliance I have that seeks to actively enrage me. Today was a good day though. Olivia knows I love her when I'll sew with her). : )

Made 8 Apple Crumb Pies with Olivia

Helped at scouts (I'm now an assistant den mother)

Young Women in Excellence! It was wonderful!!!

Alex

Went to work

Worked on his college class

Technical support at YW in Excellence, he's such a good sport!! He does a great job modeling supporting your spouse in their calling.

11/11/08: Eruption

Today Mom School lasted 3 1/2 hours. Lots of reading! They didn't want me to stop. They are still in the baking mood. They both wanted to make cookies today. We also started attending a 6 week community music class. I am going to be the pianist for it. Inspire not require right! Jared didn't want to sing. So he played on the play ground. The other 3 participated though.

Mom School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Chapter 4: Personal Revelation and True to the Faith: Personal Revelation
Bible History: Jerusalem Falls, the Lamentations of Jeremiah and reviewed our Bible timeline
Friend Article
American History Literature: 2 chapters from Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
Literature: Les Miserables, By Victor Hugo, Adapted by Monica Kulling. We read the entire book. They really liked it.
Character: 1 story from A Story To Tell by Deseret Book
Read-a-loud/World History: 7 Chapters from The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt By Day By Scott O'Dell (William Tyndale)
Memorization: First 25 Presidents of the USA
Geography: "The Far North" From The Usborne Book of Peoples of the World:Internet -Linked
Science: Jared choose to erupt his volcano. The kids had a great time.
Reading: We take turns reading all of the above material everyday.
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.






Olivia
Music: Practiced her voice lesson, her voice lesson cancelled and she attended the 6 week community music class
Math: Lesson 51
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Diagramming Sentences
Life Skills: Sloppy Joes and Pumpkin Cookies

Making Pumpkin Cookies

Jared
Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Math: Lesson 49
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting: Cursive L's
Life Skills: Oatmeal raisin cookies
PE: Played outside on a play ground for 1 hour


Making Oatmeal Raisin Cookies-his favorite treat


Luke
Public School
Reading
Drawing
Music Class


Caleb
Public School
Spelling
Music Class


To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna
Piano
1 spell drill
1 hour free reading
Laundry
Community Service-Playing the piano for a 6 week community music class for K-6
Attended Enrichment Meeting


Alex
Served as Temple Ordinance Worker
Went to Work
Worked on his professional organization "job" - IAFAPAC Chair (yes that's an acronym) aka political action committee chairman

11/10/08: Volcanoes

Mom School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Lesson 5: Learning in the Gospel and Enduring to the End
Bible History: Jeremiah
Friend Article
American History Literature: 1 chapter of Johnny Tremaine by Esther Forbes
Character: 1 story from A Story To Tell by Desert Book
Read-a-loud/World History: The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt By Day by Scott O'Dell (William Tyndale)
Memorization: First 25 Presidents of the USA
Family History: Biography of Luella Green my paternal ggrandmother
Geography: Boston
Science/Art: Built volcanoes and talked about the different kinds of volcanoes.
Reading: We take turns reading all of the above material everyday.
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.

They are going to paint them tomorrow.

Olivia

Music: Practiced her voice lesson
Math: Lessons 49 and 50
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Sentence diagramming
Life Skills/Art: Made Candy sugar crystals from the Samantha American Girls Cookbook
Computers/Typing: Good Reads and Blogging

Making Candy Crystals

Jared
Music: Practiced his piano lesson and had his piano lesson
World History/Art/Biography: Watched the Agony and Ecstasy. He feel asleep for the last part of it on Friday night.

Math: Lesson 48
Spelling: 1 Spell Drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code

Luke

Spelling

Reading

Writing a story

Caleb

Spelling

Reading

Coloring

Family (in the evening):
Had Family Home Evening: Signs of the Times and the Second Coming

Mark 8

Read 2 chapters in Fablehaven #3

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna

Piano

1 spell drill

Reading 1 hour

Housework

Finished a Power Point Slide Show

Made Programs for Young Women's in Excellence

Alex
Went to work

Worked on his college class

He made bunk beds for the playhouse on Saturday. He only has 1/4 of side left to side.

11/7/08: Feeling Domestic

Today Luke had to stay home from school with a bad belly and a toilet close by. He felt well enough that he joined us "for school" and had a fun day.

Mom's School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Conference Talk by President Monson 10/08
Bible History: King Zedekiah
American History Literature: 1 chapter from Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes
Character: 1 story from A Story To Tell by Deseret Book
Read-a-loud/World History: 2 chapters from The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt By Day by Scott O'Dell (William Tyndale)
Memorization: First 21 Presidents of the USA
Science: 4 chapters from The Magic School Bus #15: Voyage to the Volcano (Finished) and I Can Read About Earthquakes and Volcanoes by Deborah Merrians
Biography: Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists: Michelangelo by Mike Venezia

Art: The Sistine Chapel: A Glorious Restoration, looked at the artwork and talked about it. We watched the Agony and the Ecstasy, see below in family section.

Geography: "Ring of Fire" countries from Volcano studies
Reading: We take turns reading all of the above material everyday.
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.

Olivia
Music: Practiced her voice lesson
Math: Lesson 47 and 48
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Diagramming Compound Sentences

Computers/Typing: Blogging and Good Reads
Life Skills: Olivia was feeling domestic today. She enjoyed creating all afternoon. She made Jelly Biscuits from an American Girl: Samantha cookbook. Recipe here. I didn't help her with any of it. I was off folding laundry. I only came through to take pictures. She also folded napkins in different shapes that she learned from the Samantha book. We also starting quilting-we cut out all of her quilt, we're reading to sew!

Rolling out her dough.

Putting the jelly in them.

The finished product. They were really good!!!

Her fancy napkins.

Cutting out her quilt. It's a horse print of course.

Jared
Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Math: Lesson 47
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting: Cursive K's

Typing: Typed his hamster's "feeding schedule" for the hamster's care takers while we are on a family get a way coming up.
Creative Play: Played he was Nate the Great for a couple of hours. See post on family blog here to learn about his adventures.

Jared as Nate the Great.

Luke

Math: Saxon 2 lesson

Logic: Played several games of Rush Hour, Jr

Spelling: 1 spell drill

Handwriting/Phonics: 5 pages Explode the Code

Art: Construction paper picture

Reading: 30min in his McGuffey first reader out loud to me. He finished it. Now on to the second reader.

Caleb

Spelling

He earned an award from school today. "Mr. Hustle Award." ???

Family (in the evening)

Mark 7

2 chapters of Fablehaven #3

Watched the Agony and the Ecstasy with Charleton Heston and Rex Harrison (about Michelangelo painting the Sistine chapel)

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna

Housework

1 spell drill

Piano

Good Reads Reviews

Alex
Went to work

Gave a speech for his college class

Worked more on his college class in the evening

Creative Writing Ideas

You may think from all my huge entries everyday that I make my kids do stuff all day. That's not true. (I do make them do Math, Grammar and Spelling though-but most of the time they do that willingly and the rest of the time they just do because they know they need to. They understand the big picture). We spent half our day just reading books together. I especially don't "make" my kids write. I try to inspire them and I provide outlets for them though. Olivia is old enough now that she can read and write beyond fluently so we've allowed her to have a blog. It is a great way for to her to write/journal/create! Once your children get a certain level and if they would like it I recommend it highly. I've also found that reports on Good Reads (or other online bookshelves) is another great place they will naturally want to write. All of this comes with the added bonus of typing and computer skills! Both blogging and good reads allows for private accounts if you feel safer with that. It's also a good teaching oppourtunity about what information to share and not share on line.

Here's a recent blog post she made that I copied. She was "tagged" and had to tell 8 things about herself. She's experimenting with parenthesis, quotation marks, and humor. Another thing I find interesting is that she seems to always take the opportunity to bear her testimony. The rising generation truly is great. Anyhow.. here's a great activity that she CHOOSE to do... (Also I don't edit her posts. We talk about them some times.)

1. I love horses(bet ya didn't know that!) I love riding, I've ridden in snow and rain it doesn't keep me away!

2. I love computers and being on them. It's so fun. I enjoy every minute with them, unless of course I'm "mad" at them.

3. My dream vacation is a cruise on the Mediterranean, I want to go on a cruise sooooooo bad!

4. I'm at work today with my dad! I love the time here. Just to be on computers is a day of dreams to me (really it is)!

5. I love goodreads and to add books to my "to read" shelf. Most of them I don't know if I'll even read but it's fun to add them.

6. We went to T*** today and went shopping, I got some new "fake" nails (I'm running out of idea's).

7. I'm a total Conservative, I just can't stand Obama. To tell you the truth I almost puked when I found out he won! I just can't stand for him. As I would say to my parents, "my father has taught me well" just so all of you know my dad is the vice chair district 25 Republican party. I love it, stand for truth and right.

8. My favorite place to be is Southern Idaho, in small towns like D****** and R****** I just can't stand big cities, sometimes even Twin can be a little to big for me. I have seen quite a bit of the US compared to most people my age, and I choose here (of course I have been here the longest). I do like SLC (Salt Lake City) but just temple square. Always having to drive slow, it's just not fun! And most of all there isn't any horses! Well there are but not western style (western style riding) horses.

As you can see I can have big opinions and they matter to me. I stand for truth and right. I don't let evil get in my way. It's hard I can tell you, it's not like there aren't trials. Last but not least and once again, I stand for truth and right.

11/6/08:Field Trip

Today we hit the road. We had to get out of town (all 350 people of it) and go shopping. We'd been stuck in town with lots of babysitting and farm chores for several weeks. So we seized the chance to do something!

We went to a Natural History Museum.

We went to the library.

We went fabric store hopping looking for some material for Olivia to make a quilt with. (Jared had so much fun doing this).

We had lunch with Alex.

Olivia went to work with Alex from 2-6 P.M.

The boys watched a couple of Magic School bus Science videos after school.

We also went bowling to celebrate with the new County Sheriff.

11/5/08:Slimy worms

Mom's School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Lesson 5: Service
Bible History: King Josiah
Friend Article
American History Literature: 1 chapter in Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes
Character: 1 story from A Story to Tell by Deseret Book
Read-a-loud: 1 chapter from The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt By Day by Scott O'Dell
Memorization: First 20 presidents of the USA
Family History: Biography of Norman Ward my paternal ggrandfather
Science: 2 chapters from The Magic School Bus: Voyage to the Volcano
Science Experiment: Made "slimy worms" from a science experiment kit
Art: They made "paper towel houses" for their worm from the Science Experiment (don't ask). They were actually pretty cool looking. All Love of Learning...
Reading: We take turns reading all of the above material everyday.
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.

Olivia
Music: Practiced her voice lesson
Art: Painting
Math: Lesson 46
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Compound sentences
Free Reading: Read 4 chapters in her book
Social: Played with friends 2 hours
Writing: Good Reads reviews

Jared
Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Math: Lesson 46
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages in Explode the Code
Book on Tape: 2 hours of Fisher's of Men #3 (Historical Fiction from the time of Christ)
Social: Played with friends for 1 hour
Had Scouts!


Luke
Reading
Spelling
Writing/Typing a story
Played with friends

Caleb
Reading
Spelling
Painting
Played with friends

Family (in the evening):
Mark 6
2 chapters in Fablehaven #3

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna
Piano
1 spell drill
Helped with Scouts
Attended a leader meeting for scouts
Read for 1 hour in Enna Burning
Yesterday I forgot to put down that I gave a piano lesson (swap piano lessons with Olivia's voice teacher)

Alex
Went to work
Worked on his college class

11/4/08: Election Day

Mom's School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel: Lesson 5 Family History and Temple Work. True to the Faith: Family History and Temple Work
Bible History: Kingdom of Israel falls
Friend Article
American History Literature: 3 chapters in Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes
Read-a-loud/World History: 3 chapters of The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt By Day by Scott O'Dell
Fairy Tales/Fables: 1 story from A Story To Tell by Desert Book
Memorization: First 20 USA Presidents, Books of the New Testament and Books of the Book of Mormon
Geography/Culture: 4 pages from Usborne Book of Peoples of the World: North America and United States
Science: 2 chapters from The Magic School Bus Blows It's Top
Art: Painting
Government: Election Day!
Reading: We take turns reading all of the above material everyday.
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys. We had a very exciting morning capturing a hamster that got out for over 6 hours. Hank and Roxy our fierce hunters were able to track him down for us.

Olivia
Music: Had her voice lesson
Math: Lesson 45
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Compound sentences
Free Reading: 1 hour
Computers/Typing: Fox News Internet, Good Reads and Blogging

Jared
Music: Practiced his voice lesson
Biography: Watched 30min Marco Polo video
Math: Lesson 45
Math Drill: Played rounding math game with me
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting: Cursive J's
Book on Tape: 2 hours Fisher's of Men #3 (Historical Fiction from the times of Christ)

Luke
Writing his latest story

Family (in the evening):
Mark 5
5 chapters in Fablehaven #2, finished
I took them and had them watch me vote
Watched the drive by media report the voting results

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna
VOTED!
Piano
Read 2 hours
1 spell drill
Good Reads Book Reviews
Cleaned the carpets
(Foxy Roxy went home)

Alex
Served as a Temple Ordinance Worker
Went to Work
Did some continuing education credits for work
Attended a Bishopric Meeting (usually they are on Sunday)
VOTED!

A Man, by Olivia (poetry)

Here's a poem Olivia wrote over the weekend.

A Man,

A man of love,
A man of integrity,
A man,

A man of hope,
A man of joy,
A man,

A man of cheer,
A man of holiness,
A man,

A man of God,
A prophet of God,
A man,

Who was this man?
This wonderful man?
It was Joseph Smith!

This poem is to those who need to know about the Prophet, Seer and Revelator of God.

11/3/08:Magic Ink

Mom's School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Lesson 5: Eternal Marriage
Bible History: Prophecies of Joel
Friend Article
Biography/American History: 3 chapters from Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
Fairy Tales/Fables: 1 story from A Story to Tell by Deseret Book
Read-a-loud/(World History): 2 chapters of The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt by Day by Scott O'Dell (William Tyndale)
Memorization: First 16 presidents of the USA
Biography/Art: Da Vinci by Mike Venezia
Science: The Magic School Bus: Voyage to the Volcano #15, 1 chapter
Science Experiment: Magic Ink
Writing/Art??: They both were writing scriptures backwards like Leonardo DaVinci
Reading: We take turns reading all of the above material everyday.
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.

Olivia
Music: Practiced her voice lesson
Math: Lesson 44
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Compound sentences
Computers/Typing: Power Point slide show and blogging
Life Skills/PE: Cleaning stalls, feeding animals...

Jared
Music: Practiced his piano lesson and had his piano lesson
Math: Lesson 44
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Book on Tape: Kingdom and the Crown #3-2 hours (Historical Fiction from the Time of Christ)
Reading: Read his McGuffy 3rd grade reader for 30 min to me

Luke
Working on another story

Family (in the evening):
Family Home Evening: We reviewed the talk and the challenges from our stake president from Stake Conference yesterday
Mark 4
2 chapters from Fablehaven #2

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna
Read 2 hours
Good Read Reviews
Piano
1 spell drill
Mucked stalls
Babysat for 3 hours (this was our last time for a while!!!)
Babysitting Foxy Roxy

Alex
Went to work
Attended a District Republican Leadership Meeting (serves as vice-chair)
Worked on his Persuasive Speech for college for over 4 hours (on why parents do not need to be "certified" to teach their children at home)

Mom School

I just wanted to write a little blip about mom school (or whatever you may want to call it) to all the home school mom's that check out my blog. Mom school is a key ingredient from Oliver and Rachele DeMille's "Core and Love of Learning." Mom school is our favorite time of the day. My kids sit at my feet and beg me to read more and more everyday. I love the opportunity to read out of numerous books and share what's mine, the things I'm passionate about and the things I want them to learn. They also enjoy picking out the books that we read a loud together.

We start out mom school with our prayer and pledge. We then do theology. This year we are using Preach My Gospel that is put out by the LDS church. I suspect we will keep using it over and over. It has a great outline to follow. Why reinvent the wheel? We follow that up with some scripture history and some various articles about character. I get these from magazines or fairy tale books or both.

After that it's free game. I usually go over 3-7 topics. I start my days with personal prayer and find out what I should cover in mom school. I find that we like having variety every day instead of always being regimented to doing specific things everyday-like science. We will end up doing it a couple of times a week though and we seem to like that. We do always read a living book biography from history. This year we are talking about American History and are going through it chronologically. I am seeing my children springing up into little patriots right in front of me. They love America and they have loved learning about the great men and women of America's history. Other subjects we've covered are Family History biographies (a big hit), memorization of various things, Geography, Science, Spanish, random bio's of famous people, abridged Shakespeare plays (Lamb's Tales), cultural arts, language arts, poetry, and classic literature to name a few ideas. (You can see my Good Reads lists to see our specific books we are using this year).

I find we usually go for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. It depends on the day and how much time we have. I think that if we could and my voice could hold out we would go all day. The kids will bring things to do quietly on the floor while I read or they just snuggle up next to me. This has been an amazing bonding time for us. We have great discussions and I feel I'm closer to my children than I've ever been.

I also want to say when I first starting reading out loud to my kids I could barely squeak out 15 minutes before I had to stop because my throat hurt. Over time my throats gotten tougher.

Anyway kudos to Mom School!