Easter, He is Risen!

We made it through Lent and Easter was wonderful!  One of the most wonderful things about home schooling is the ability to tailor our school day and lessons around what is going on in our lives.  We finished our famine/water unit right before Holy Week so it was a perfect time to take a break from our normal curriculum and concentrate on our faith.  We still did Math, Spelling, Grammar and Reading but in place of Social Studies and Science we concentrated on Holy Week.  We made a large poster with each day of the week written on it starting with Palm Sunday and each day we filled in the importance of that day and scripture references and drew pictures.  We also did a huge Stations of the Cross project where we talked about each station and printed them out and made books out of them.  Landon needed to hand his in for his First Communion class so he also wrote what each station meant to him and how each made him feel.  Somehow I don't have pictures of any of that......

Speaking of projects though, we undertook a large project in honor of Easter that was a lot of fun but also a lot of work!  We have talked a lot with the kids about how one of our callings from the Lord is to show others our love of God.  What better time to do that then at Easter?  We made an Easter craft with our friends who home school as well.  Then we went to the local nursing home and hand delivered them to each resident.  It was fun to make the craft but it took awhile as there are 60 residents!  The kids loved handing them out though and the residents loved having them bring the craft to them.  We have decided we will definitely do that again, possibly even for Mother's Day next month.

While we place a large emphasis on Easter as a holy day, we also enjoy letting the kids do other Easter activities so we went to an Easter Egg hunt at the nursing home the week before Easter and they had so much fun.  They also dyed eggs here at home.  That was actually a big thing, as with Daniel's allergies to eggs we have never allowed him to dye eggs.  We were very careful though and he had no reaction and he had so much fun!  They enjoyed their Easter baskets on Easter morning and they looked so handsome for Mass that day.

Last but not least, we made Resurrection Rolls for Easter.  They were fun.  You just use crescent rolls and Peep Chicks and the kids wrap the rolls around the chicks but when you bake them the chicks disappear like the empty tomb.  They were yummy and fun to make.

Closing Out March

I honest to goodness cannot believe March has already come and gone.  Time is flying by with all the fun we have I guess.  Speaking of time flying, we had a happy event in March but one that is always bitter sweet.  I am referring to Daniel's birthday.  I am still in shock my baby is 4 years old now!  He has brought such joy to our lives and while I love watching him grow, I also wish I could keep him a baby just a little longer.

For his 4th birthday we decided to keep it all a bit low key. We had just returned from our trip to the rattlesnake round-up so we decided to have a simple party here at the house.  We invited a home school family that we have become wonderful friends with and our former landlords who are awesome people and who we are blessed to have in our lives.  They all came over for spaghetti and cake and the kids had a blast playing with the new wagon we got Daniel for his birthday.  It was a fun day for sure.

Okay, on to school stuff.  We finished up our water unit with finishing the study of the water cycle, ponds, rivers, lakes and oceans.  We checked out a ton of books at the library on what lives in each place and explored the differences and the importance of each to our lives and the lives of people all over.  The boys then each made a mural of ocean life and made sure to include the different depths of the ocean and what lives in each.  They then did an oral presentation on their mural and what they had learned, for Joe and I as well as Joe's sister who was here visiting.  They really did well and we are proud of them.

Lastly, I wanted to share a couple of photos I took at the end of March of a sunset.  I have to admit that the move to Texas wasn't the easiest thing for me.  It is not that I didn't want to move but it was a huge change from EVERYTHING I knew.  It was shocking to me how different things were in the two states.  Not that things were any better in one or the other, just different.  I am not even talking about the weather and scenery, just the difference in people, ways things are done, etc.  Anyway, it was a huge adjustment for me and I have often wondered if I would ever feel "at home".  Over about the last 4 months though, I have noticed that I have felt more and more at home.  Part of it was getting a longer term lease and finally having a house and being able to unpack all of our things.  Another part though has been just doing the things we love again like riding the horses and roping, taking the family trips, feeling like a part of the church and different groups and loving home schooling more then I thought I ever could.  I still love Colorado and always will, but I am loving where we are and finding beauty in new places and I can only thank God for helping me get to such a good place.

Facing My Snake Fears

First and foremost here is a disclaimer.  There will be pictures of snakes in this post.  So if you are my sister Shannon, or any other person who is afraid of pictures of snakes, you might want to skip this one!

Maybe I shouldn't tell you this, but my husband doesn't like bears much.  I don't know if I would say he is frightened of them but he isn't really comfortable with them.  Maybe it is because there aren't a lot of bears in West Texas where he grew up?  I am a big believer in the fact that many times what creates fear in people is what the don't understand or aren't familiar with.  This is the case I believe with me and snakes.  Growing up in the mountains of Colorado we had no rattlesnakes around for sure and I believe maybe twice in all my time growing up I saw a small harmless snake there.  Needless to say, I have had zero experience with snakes which might not be a good thing living in Texas.

When we moved to Texas a year and a half ago we moved to a place in town so we never saw a snake.  Then we moved out in the country a year ago but as of yet have not seen one.  I know that day will come though and I don't look forward to it.  In an effort to keep my fear at bay though, I decided when my husband told me about a large snake event near us, that I needed to learn what I could.  So, we packed up the truck and traveled 4 hours to Sweetwater, TX for the annual Rattlesnake Round-up.  We decided to make a fun trip out of it and stayed in a hotel overnight and headed to the place early in the morning.  Boy am I glad we got there early.  By lunch time it was so crowded we couldn't even move which worked out fine as we were ready to go get some food and head home.  While we were there though, it was actually quite educational and really very interesting.

There were two pit areas where they did presentations.  There was one where they were milking the venom from the snakes and while it looked very interesting we actually didn't get a chance to learn a lot there as it was pretty crowded.  The other pit area though was where we learned the most.  They did a presentation on the snakes talking all about them from how many babies they have to how big they get, etc.  The man who did it had about 8 snakes on the ground in the pit with him but had protective boots on and they basically left him alone as long as he left them alone.  He did pick up one with a pole though and showed us the teeth and talked all about it.  He put it on the table and showed us how it would strike by getting it to strike at a balloon.  It didn't actually pop the balloon but it was still cool.  The kids got to ask him questions and we learned a lot.  They also got to pet a different kind of snake that wasn't poisonous.

There was another area where they were skinning the snakes and then they had a place where they cooked and sold the fried meat.  It was way crowded there though so we didn't get to do that this time.  We did get to watch them skin them though.  The last area was a pit where there were hundreds of rattlesnakes all in it just rattling non-stop.  While I was so glad I went and learned about the snakes I decided that was a bit much for me so I let Joe and the kids look at it and I just glanced, took a picture of the kids and moved back.  Overall, though, I am so glad we went and when the boys are bigger we may do one of the hunts that they do along with the round-up.  Our boys are in the bright orange hats in these pictures.

Pirates and Whales

When we decided to take this journey into home schooling this year we did it with lots of concern about if doing this would make the kids miss out on social opportunities and having friends.  This is what you always hear as an argument against home schooling so of course we weren't going to take that lightly.  As we researched over the summer and made our decision, we heard more and more from families who do home school that social opportunities were not only possible while home schooling but in fact, with so much extra time, could become too much if not kept in check because there were countless opportunities out there.  It took awhile for us to find a group of people to do activities with but we have found one and we are so thrilled!

I wrote about our Valentine's Day party back in February.  With that same group of people, we went on our first group field trip this month and it was a huge hit!  We went to the Science Spectrum Museum in Lubbock for a day of pirates and whales.  All in all, about 70 people came with kids ranging in age from 1 year old to 17 years old and it was amazing.  We started out the day seeing a movie about Humpback Whales in the theater there.  The theater was unlike anything I have ever been too.  It was a dome shape which meant that not only could you see what was happening in front of you, it happened above you too which made it seem like you were actually there in some ways.  The kids loved it and we learned so much about whales which fit in perfectly with our study of the oceans.

After the movie we all ate lunch together which gave us an opportunity to meet some of the other families.  After lunch we had a private tour of the new exhibit at the Science Spectrum which is centered around buried treasure and pirates.  It was great to get some information from the tour and then we were able to walk around the exhibit and learn all about the treasures they had on display and about pirates.  There was a pirate ship for the kids to dress up and play on, a puppet show area for them, live animals to look at and all sorts of things.  It was so much fun!

 
After the pirate exhibit we were able to explore the rest of the museum which was awesome and it is definitely a place we will be going back to!

I Need Water!

Maybe living in Texas leaves me thirsty and missing all the beautiful waters of Colorado but there has been no short supply of water in our school lessons lately so that is a plus.  We are almost finished with our unit on water and famine.  I know that sounds depressing at first but hear me out.  In order for the kids to really understand the importance of water, they must first understand what happens without water.

This then, is where our unit started, with education about what a famine was.  We read about famine in the Bible and discussed major famines that have happened in history and why famines happen, what can be done to help prevent famine and the importance of conserving water.  It is easy to forget how privileged we are here in the United States.  Back at the beginning of the year we had well problems where our well froze.  We were without water in the house for a week or so while we first waited for it to thaw and then fixed the parts that had been damaged in the freeze.  Of course it was a major pain to have to either go to the rec center to shower or to do a sponge bath with water we purchased in town.  Taking all of our laundry to the laundromat in town was expensive and time consuming.  Heating water on the stove to hand wash dishes took awhile.  Purchasing water in town to put in a huge tank to bring home to fill the horse troughs took planning and effort.  Overall, we were so glad to have water back when the well was fixed.  Here is the thing though.  We still had plenty of access to water.  We may have had to go to town for it and it may have been inconvenient, but it was still available for us.  To teach on famines and help them understand that during a famine, water just plain isn't available is so eye opening for them.  I think this is important for all of us to remember and to realize not only how blessed we are living in the United States but also how there are still many people today living in harsh conditions.  With Lent always having a theme of going into the desert, these lessons fit right in.

While learning about the lack of water was important, of course we needed to learn about water in all forms as well, which was a lot more fun!  We started out with the water cycle and clouds which was fun to talk about and learn about.  Then we moved on to study in depth ponds, oceans, lakes and rivers.  It was so much fun to learn about all the different life in each and how each is so important to our survival.  We checked out close to 30 books from the library and two very cool movies about the Oceans.   The kids loved this unit of study as did I.  We are 2 days away from being finished with the unit and our biggest project for it is yet to be finished so I will have to share pictures of our Ocean mural later.  Fun, fun, fun!  Here are pictures of the water cycle.

Hot Air Balloons

I am so excited to share with you what we did today.  It was so much fun and such a cool project.  We made hot air balloons!  Okay, not real hot air balloons but I think the ones we made are pretty cool.  First off, a little background information.  I think I have mentioned that we have been working on a unit on Transportation.  Today was actually the last day of this unit and we ended it with a bang. We are excited to start a new unit tomorrow but I wanted to share this project with you while it is so fresh on my mind.

Many of our units have one major project among many smaller lessons and projects and this one was no different.  We studied all sorts of transportation throughout this unit and so many of them were the ones you would expect to study such as trains, boats, cars, etc.  When I saw that a large part of the unit had to do with hot air balloons I was surprised.  It isn't one that normally comes to mind when you think about transportation.  I have to tell you, I actually learned as much as the kids did about hot air balloons and I really enjoyed it!  We read quite a bit about them and looked at a lot of pictures.  Landon has even decided he wants to fly one some day but I am not sure how we will make that happen.....  We definitely want to look into maybe going to the huge hot air balloon festival in New Mexico in the fall though, as it sounds so fun!

After reading about how the balloons work and about all the different parts to them, we actually sewed our own balloons.  I have to say, that this has been one of the most rewarding projects with home schooling thus far.  If the kids were in school outside of the home, this is a project that would have never, ever happened.  For one, it is one I wouldn't have thought of to do, and for two it is one we would have never had the time to do.  Being able to take the time to teach the kids how to sew and to watch them at such young ages of 8 and 9 be able to sew something so nicely and to see the pride they took in the finished product was truly rewarding.

Our goal wasn't to create a balloon that would actually float, but rather to create one that had all the parts and design we had learned about and then to have the opportunity to learn about sewing which even as young men is a skill that could serve them well in the future.  They each picked out the fabric they wanted for their balloons and they cut the patterns out and cut the fabric for the pieces.  Then I helped them with the sewing machine by helping them guide the fabric as they ran the machine and sewed all the sides together.  I sewed on the tops of the balloons which actually was a fairly difficult task, but it luckily ended up looking good.  The kids stuffed the balloons and then they hand sewed the bottoms of the balloons on.  Then I helped them attach the baskets and we had a finished product.  I think they came out cute and the kids did so well on them!  I hope this all doesn't come across as a bragging post but it was just such a neat project and one I will always remember.  I know this is a lot of pictures but I hope you like them!

Valentine's Day!

So, really in time order this post should have been before the Lent post, but that post was on my mind and I needed to type as it came to me.  I don't want to neglect to post this one as well though as it is so fun.  It is about Valentine's Day!!!!!

When we started home schooling in the Fall I started searching for other area home school families.  I was not having the best of luck finding a local group that was established.  I found a family about 20 minutes from us in the next town over off of Facebook and we started corresponding about maybe forming a group.  She said she had heard of another family and we all were going to try to get together.  I was unable to get together with them when they met due to a sick kid or something but they talked and they started a local Facebook group for home schooling which has been wonderful!  As word has gotten around the group has grown.

For many months it was more of an online support group.  A few months back though one of the ladies asked for interest on people coming together once a week for a class.  Many people expressed interest including us.  She gave us the link to the unit that would be covered and I checked into it.  Unfortunately it wasn't a good fit for us as it covered science and creation in a way that wasn't consistent with Catholic teachings but it was still exciting to see people starting to plan physical ways to get together.

As Valentine's Day approached I started to feel a bit sorry for the kids.  I remember fondly the Valentine's Day parties I had in school as a child and I remember how much fun the kids had last year at their parties in public school.  They would miss out on all of that.  I stated talking with my friend who also home schools her kids.  She has become a wonderful friend and we try to get the kids together a few times a month.  I also met her off of Facebook and I am so happy I did!  Anyway, we started to plan a party for all the local home school kids.  We found out the back room at the local library was free to rent.  We posted in the home school group and got a great response for people wanting to attend.  We ended up with 23 kids there ages 18 months to 11 years old!  Each family brought food to share, we had a craft station to decorate Valentine's bags for each kid so they could use them in the card exchange, we had another craft station for a heart craft, we had Valentine's Day bingo and they exchanged cards.  It was so much fun!!!!!  We met a lot of new friends and already have plans for more activities in the future so stay tuned.

I sadly forgot to take any pictures as we were having so much fun.  Valentine's Day was an important day for us for another reason though.  Joe and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary!  We had a babysitter for the first time here and she was wonderful.  Joe was working nights so we just went to lunch at a local restaurant which was nice.  So here is wishing Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband and thoughts of many more to come.  I love you Joe!  Now, for a picture of when we were sooooooooo much younger!