Colorado Trip

We recently returned from a great road trip! We were gone 6 days and 5 nights. We sent to Southern Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. We visited family and friends. We also saw some great sites. We saw an old cemetery, a scenic railroad, The Great Sand Dune National Park, a natural hot springs, Sky City (pueblo homes) and some Anasazi ruins.

We learned while in Colorado to never complain about the wind in Idaho again! It averaged 50-60 miles per hour one day. Apparently that was normal!

We traveled over 2,100 miles. You can see pictures on the family blog if you would like.

Temple Square

We recently enjoyed a quick getaway to Salt Lake City to see some old friends who were in town that we haven't seen in a long time.We also took time to visit one our favorite sites-Temple Square. We watched the Joseph Smith movie for the umpteenth time. It is a family favorite. We love it so much that even when we visit the church sites back east (Independence, Nauvoo, Palmyra and DC) we stop and watch the movie there too. Each time we see it we learn something more and each time we cry more than the last time. Jared, our 10 year old BOY, constantly declares that it is his favorite movie ever.
We also visited the church museum. The artwork in there is so beautiful. We stared at the large painting of the Tree of Life for a long time talking about Babylon, Zion, the last days and coming unto Christ.
We also stopped at Heber C Kimball's graveside. Another regular destination for us. He is our great, great, great grandfather. We enjoy "checking in" and reminding ourselves who we are about and what we have yet to be. When we left this time Caleb said, "Goodbye grandpa Kimball. See you next time."
I love the SLC temple! It is truly a beautiful place. I always feel like the pioneers are talking to me urging me forward "in so great a cause." I always feel rejuvenated after participating in a session in the hallowed and historic halls. I feel so blessed that I was able to serve there twice in two weeks. (Alex and I enjoyed an over nighter getaway there two weeks ago. What we do? Temple, Joseph Smith movie, cemetery...it's a recurring pattern).
I love Temple Square. I love that my husband likes to go there. I love that my kids love feeling in the Spirit there as well. That is what we are about-bringing our family to Christ.
The flowers were in full bloom and beautiful. The photos are courtesy of Olivia (besides the two she's in). As a side note we also met some new friends in Salt Lake City. We gave them our favorite puppy and he couldn't have gone to a better home! Sometimes this journey of Leadership Education and fleeing Babylon is a lonely one. It was refreshing to meet new people who are going through the same spiritual journey as us. They are arriving at the same conclusions about life and its meaning as we are. So to our new friends is was a honor to meet you and may we meet again!

Field Trip Friday

Today we were all over Southern Idaho. We went to the library. We went to the Natural History Museum and saw their new display about pre-Columbian fishing in Idaho. We also went to the Hagerman Fossil Beds and saw the Idaho State Fossil, "The Hagerman Horse."

Elk Farm

Today we left early and we came home late. We took a field trip with other home schooling families to an elk farm in our area. The kids enjoyed this. We also had a little Christmas party afterwords. We went to the library and the kids went Christmas shopping for their cousins and siblings. Fun day but very long!

September 23, 2009 (Wednesday)

Today we did our book work and then went to town. Alex watched the kids while I did a temple session with my dad and brother. We then had lunch with then. Later the kids and I went to the Natural History Museum. I think we will go there quite a bit. They are learning more every time they go. It's fun to see them interested in History. They also have a lot of science exhibits too.

Family Scripture Study: 2 Corinthians 8
Weekly Scripture Memorization: 2 Nephi 31:20
Chores and Animal Care (goats!)
Library trip.

Olivia
Religion: Read a chapter in Genesis.
Geography: Did an Evan-Moor lesson.
Math: Took a Saxon 7/6 test.
Math Drill: Did a multiplication fact drill.
Language Arts: Did a Daily Grams lesson.
Computer/Science: Played Zoo Vet on the computer.
Spelling: Did a spell drill
Creative Writing: She also did her 30 min writing assignment from her scholar class.
Science: Did a science lesson her science textbook.
Music: Practiced the piano and went to piano lessons.

Jared
Religion: Read in the Book of Mormon.
Music: Practiced his piano lesson and his piano lesson.
Geography: Did an Evan-Moor lesson.
Math: Did a Saxon 6/5 test.
Math Drill: Did an addition math fact drill.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Creative Writing: Did a lesson in Let's Write.
Grammar: Did a Daily Grams lesson.
Book on Tape: Listened to Star Wars.
Reading: Read Peter and the Starcatchers for 1 hour.


Luke
Geography: Did an Evan-Moor lesson.
Math: Did a Saxon 3 lesson.
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Grammar: Did a Daily Grams lesson.
Spelling: Did a spell drill.
Book on Tape: Listened to Star Wars.
Reading: Read for an hour in various books.

Caleb
Geography: Did a lesson from Evan-Moor.
Math: Did one Saxon Math 2 lesson.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 2 pages of Explode the Code
Reading: Practiced his sight words by using a highlighter and finding them in The Friend.

Family (in the evening):
Worked/played on the land-Weeding, raking, goat care.
Went to grandpa's and had root beer floats.

To Show Parent Core/Love of Learner/Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna: Scriptures, journal, went to the temple, practiced my Greek, and worked on my BYU class.
Alex: Scriptures, word of the day, watched the kids, listening to Tears in Darfor, went to work, and went to mutual.

End of the summer field trip

We finished off the summer with one heck of a field trip. Click the links from our family blog to see more. We flew out of Salt Lake City, Utah and landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Here's our trip chronicles:

Salt Lake City

Rehobath Beach, Delaware

Washington, DC, Temple

Our old house

Family History

Visiting grandma

Canada & Niagara Falls

Palmyra, New York

The Site of the Aaronic Priesthood Restoration

Philadelphia-Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and The Betsy Ross Home

As You Like It

On Saturday our family went and watched the local Commonwealth School put on the production of As You Like It by Shakespeare. I was glad we had read an abridged version so that our children were familiar with the play. Olivia and Jared were able to follow it well. I was very impressed with the performance. I couldn't believe how many lines they had to memorize. Kudos to them! It was a fun night.

April 10, 2009 (Friday) Easter Egg time

Mom School
Pray and National Anthem
Song: I Lived in Heaven
Theology: Chapter 36: An Eternal Family from Gospel Principles
Book of Mormon Stories: Captain Moroni Raises the Title of Liberty
Friend Article
Biography/American History: Discussed the Lewis and Clark Expedition at length. We used a book that is a calender of what happened each day of their journey. We read many of the entries.
Literature: Read 2 1/2 chapters of The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (I decided not to finish this with the kids. They weren't interested in it. Olivia will finish it on her own).
Fairy Tales/Fables: Read "The Emperor's New Clothes," "Cinderella," and "The Swan Princess" from Usborne's Fairy Tales.
Character/Music: Rythmn poem about making good choices.
Memorization: 12 apostles
Family History: Several pages from my grandfather's book, "Memories of a Flying Tiger" about his experiences in WW II.
Geography: India and the culture. Detailed examples from the family history book we are reading.
Science: Sound from Capella's Technology book.
Art: Dying Easter eggs.
Chores


Olivia
Music: Practiced her voice lesson. Her voice teacher didn't show up.
Geography: Did a geography lesson from Evan-Moor 5.
Social Studies: Memorizing the states and capitals. Working on the first 25.
Math: Redid lesson 123 from Saxon 6/5.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Easy Grammar lesson.
Vocabulary: Peterson's Word of the Day- Vex
Vocabulary/Language Usage: Took a classical roots test.
Free Reading: Read the Land of Elyon #3.
Literature: Read for 30 min in The Red Badge of Courage.
Life Skills: Prepared the dye for egg coloring without any help.
Field Trip: Went with her cousins to a professional rodeo in Pocatello. Big fun for the cowgirl.


Jared
Religion: Read a chapter from the New Testament Reader.
Music: Practiced his voice lesson.
Math: Did a Singapore 3B lesson.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code 5

Luke
Geography: Did a geography lesson from Evan-Moor 2.
Math: Did 3 Saxon Math 2 lessons.
Spelling: 3 spell drills
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages in Explode the Code 3
Creative Writing: Worked some more on his story on the computer. He spends a lot of time on this every day.

Caleb
Math: Did a Right Start Math lesson.
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 3 pages of Explode the Code 3
Free Reading: Read/looked out the The Usborne Fairy Tale book. "Reading" several stories. I'm sure he did read some of it, but I know he couldn't read all of it.
Reading: Read a phonics reader and 2 McGuffy Primer lessons.

Family (in the evening):
-We swapped kids with the cousins. Olivia went to the rodeo with them and their 10 year old boy stayed with us overnight.
-Alex and I went on a date to the temple.
-The kids enjoyed a night with their favorite babysitter.

To Show Parent Core/Love of Learner/Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna: Scriptures, journal, conference talks, worked on my lesson for Sunday, spell drill, word of the day, researched William Shakespeare (for the book club I have next week), researched Sophocles for a paper I was assigned by my mentor, read The Red Badge of Courage, enjoyed my date at the temple with Alex.
Alex: Scriptures, read a chapter of The Law by Bastiat, word of the day, went to work, listened to Brisingr and also enjoyed our date to the temple. : )

Spring Break?

So I guess we're taking spring break this week? Or not. We've been to Vegas and back this week. The kids really loved "The Tournament of Kings." They were sick most of the time however and confined to the the room. They did watch a lot of PBS though.

We went to a funeral today. Our house is freezing, but the temp is starting to rise. It went from being unregistered to a blissful 52 degrees the last time I checked.

Tomorrow, if my fingers are dethawed we might have some school. If not we will continue to be wrapped up in blankets and counting our blessings, which are many!

(See the family blog for pictures).

02/11/09: Paint

Today we were kicked out of our house so it could be painted. So went to town and did other things....

• Picked out and ordered carpet.
• Bought a new upright freezer.
• Practiced 30 Spanish words on the children's menu at a Mexican restaurant. Good thing Alex knows how to speak Spanish, because I was messing up the pronunciations.
• Listened to Story of the World vol. 2 for two hours. (To town and back).
• I was pulled over for the first time in my entire life. (See family blog post).
• Went to scouts.
• Had cousins over after scouts for a couple of hours. The painter had left. (She's really a family friend. I shouldn't refer to her as the "painter").
• Alex and I put the Mud Room and the Kitchen back together. (Almost, except the food storage).
• Olivia rode the horse with Alex.
• I read 1/2 chapter out of The Iliad by Homer.
• The boys bought new Lego's in town with their saved up money. They've spent all evening working on them. Jared's was a 650 piece one and Luke's was a 450 piece one.
• Oh, and yesterday Olivia measured the house with Alex and he had her figure out the square feet so we knew how much carpet to order.

01/23/09: Day on the Hill

Today the older three were able to go to the capital and learn more about our government. They loved it! They each presented a bill they had written and then tried to get it to pass. They learned about parliamentary procedure and the way laws are passed. They were able to meet a Idaho Supreme Court Justice and tour the court room and his chambers. They can't wait to go next year.

While Alex took the kids to that Caleb and I swam and than went to my sisters and hung out with her and her children.

Everyone had a fun day!

01/16/09: It's about life.

Today went skipped "school." We had cabin fever so we went to "town." (almost an hour away) Here's what we did...

• Went to the eye doctor. Uncle Matt's the best!
• We went to Barnes and Nobles.
• We went to Target.
• We went SWIMMING!

• We went to the library.
• We went grocery shopping.
• We left at 10:30 AM and we were home at 9 PM. I'm tired.
• Olivia held her "handwriting class" on the way to town today.
• Olivia read Jane Eyre for 30 min.
• Jared read books to Caleb for 30 min.
• Luke read a chapter book for 30 min.
• We listened to Story of the World vol. 2 for two plus hours.
• I read the Iliad for 2 hours.

12/12/08: Busy Day

Today was a busy and fun day! We went to "town" and did all sorts of things.

We went Christmas Shopping. We even went to the mall. We rarely go there.
We went to the library and came out with a haul.
We went grocery shopping. And every other kind of shopping you can think of.
We went to a pizza buffet.
We went to the junior college's presentation of A Christmas Carol. The kids LOVED this.

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

11/14/08: 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.

11/6/08: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.

10/27/08: We met the Governor

Today we went on a field trip to a Republican Rally and we met the Governor of Idaho. Very fun. We had Mom/Dad school in the 2 hour car ride.

Mom and Dad School

Pray/Pledge They were asked to lead the Pledge at the rally.
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Lesson 5: Priesthood and Auxiliary Organizations
Bible History: Joash is anointed King
Friend Article
Biography/American History: 4 chapters of Paul Revere: Boston Patriot by Augusta Stevenson of the Childhood of Famous Americans Series. Finished.
Fairy Tales/Fables: 1 story from A Story To Tell: The Classic Book of Virtues for Children from Dessert Book
Spanish: Alex taught them how to pronounce Spanish words and the Spanish Alphabet for 45 minutes.
Memorization: First 12 Presidents of the USA, Books of the New Testament and Books of the Book of Mormon

Government: Attended a Republican Rally and heard several speakers including Governor Otter

Part of our family with Governor Butch Otter of Idaho.

Art: Carving pumpkins
Life Skills: A man from India came and personally talked to the kids at the rally about his story coming from India and making his fortune in the USA. He told the kids they had to remember its the stuff between your ears that gets you the things you need and want. He was very kind.
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 the piano
Math: Lesson 41
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Sentences
Creative Writing: Wrote a poem backwards (like Leonardo Da Vinci) All Love of Learning

Jared
Music: Had his piano lesson today
Math: Lesson 41
Math Drill: Multiplication Wrap-ups: 9's

Logic: Put together a glow in the dark skeleton puzzle
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting: Cursive G's
Creative Writing: Wrote a short creative story. All on his own accord-Love of Learning
Computers/Typing: Typed a creative story he's been working on

Family:
Family Home Evening: Pumpkin Carving

Chores including mucking stalls

Babysitting Roxy

PE: Alex spent 30 minutes teaching them Karate and self defense moves

Babysat and played with our 3 cousins for 3 hours (Social)

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna:
Good Reads book reviews

2 hours reading

Alex:
Taught seminary

Worked on the playhouse

Hung up canidate signs for the House position

He is currently serving as the vice-chair of the Republic Party for our District (I guess I can know he's doing a good job when the people running for office mention my husband in thanks when they are giving their speech at the rally).

Daily Schedule for 8/29/08

We went on a Field Trip! We went to Salt Lake and did several different activities.

LIFE SKILLS: First we went to The Garden on Temple Square and practiced our manners and etiquette that we have been talking about and working on this past week.

At The Garden.

THEOLOGY: Then we went and saw the Joseph Smith movie at the Joseph Smith Memorial building. It's Jared's favorite movie and I think that was about the 10th time we saw it. Then we went and walked around Temple Square and saw all the displays including The Christis.


Olivia and Jared in front of The Christis.


Overlooking Temple Square.

SCIENCE/HISTORY: Then we went over to the University of Utah's Museum of Natural History. We learned about Native American Indians, Paleontology, DNA, Rocks and Minerals, Native American Animals, Earthquakes and Plate Tectonics.


Jared looking at a DNA display.


Olivia and Jared looking at a gems and minerals display.


In front of a Wholly Mammoth replica.

FAMILY HISTORY: We went to the grave of Heber C Kimball and his extended family.


At the Heber C Kimball cemetary

SOCIAL/FAMILY/PE: Then we went to Provo and saw my family and watched a BYU football game on Saturday. We also went on campus for a while and saw what college life was like and went to the books store. They saw all the textbooks and I bought one for my next BYU class.


At the football game.

FREE READING: On the way down they each read for two hours.

BOOK ON TAPE: They listened to the first half of Treasure Island.

Daily Schedule for 8/27/08

Both
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, The Restoration of the Gospel, Lesson 1, part 6
Bible History: Moses last words to his people
Biography/American History: America's Providential History and A Child's Story of America about William Bradford, John Smith, Miles Standish and John Winthrop
Geography: There's a Map on My Lap: All About Maps by Tish Rabe
Read-a-loud: 2 chapters of A Wrinkle in Time
Video: 30 min video about Jamestown for kids
Pet Care: We went to the vets for a field trip and watched Hank have his ear lanced, very cool! The vet and the vet tech were very kind and explained everything that they were doing. They had to put Hank under, put a tube down his throat, lance and clean him, suture him and bandage him to name a few things. And they were talked through the whole thing. Some may think it's morbid, but if they want to be doctors and vets they better suck it up now! Besides, I just think it's cool...

Jared
Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Math: Lesson 7
Math Drill: Subtraction Wrap-ups 10's, 1's
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting: A Reason for Writing Lesson, wrote out a Bible verse
Free Reading: 45 minutes of Geronimo Stilton

Olivia
Music: Voice Lesson practice and Recorder practice
Math: Lesson 7
Math Drill: Multiplication Wrap-up's 10's and 9's
Spelling: 2 spell drills
Language Arts: Verbs Abeka Language B
Free Reading: 1+ hour of Work and the Glory
Life Skills: Sheppard's Pie

Field Trip to the Zoo

Outside the Penguin Pavilion.

Today we went on a field trip to the zoo with our cousins. We rented "Explorer Backpacks" from the zoo. They ended up being not what we had hoped! The Lewis and Clark Backpack was all right and the Birds of Prey was thumbs down. The kids had been looking forward to using those and so they were disappointed. We did talk about prey and predators for a little bit. We also talked about nocturnal animals. This year the theme at the zoo is "The year of the frog." So there were frogs exhibits everywhere. Now that the kids are older the older 3 can read all the information about the animals and so that's added to their own learning and interest.

On the way there and back the kids read to each other in the car. It was funny how the older kids asked the younger kids every couple of pages what they had just read or they had a specific question for them. They also spend a lot of time on their math facts. They used Wrap Ups and the Math Shark.