Schooling Carissa & Shane

Here is Carissa practicing her Latin.

Carissa diagrammed the mouth and a tooth for the whole Classical Conversations school. She learned a great deal of things this past school year. We are sure proud of her for rising to the occasion and not feeling intimidated by her school work load. Carissa can map the whole world by memory and that includes cities, rivers, mountain ranges, lakes, and etc. It is amazing! She turned in 45 different papers for science and literature. She had to read  7 books and do reports on them. She finished the school year at the end of April but we school throughout the summer too. 

 

Shane did very well this school year. Here is a picture of him practicing his cursive writing. He has completed the 3rd grade. We are proud of his accomplishments too. He is very knowable in many things. He will be completing his 6th grade math book this summer. He will be in 7th grade math when he starts 4th grade. He is a very teachable child because he loves to learn.

Our children have finished their first year with Classical Conversations. We are so thankful that we found this program. Homeschooling has been a journey and I think we have found what we have been searching for. You may want to check them out if you are interested in Classical Christian Education.

This Past Month

It has been awhile since I last posted anything. I am still here but busy. On March 16, Jarrett received a neck injury while playing with Nathan. Nathan did get in trouble for playing rough with his brother. By the next day, Jarrett could not hold his head straight. I took him to the chiropractor a few days later and was totally not satisfied with the chiropractor that he saw. The chiropractor did not even take any x-rays to see what was injured. That night, I stayed up until 2am looking for a new chiropractor to take him to. I found one! He specializes in the Pettibon System. He has really helped Jarrett recover tremendously. Not all chiropractors are the same. Be careful of the ones who just address the symptoms and not the root problem. There is a difference. Jarrett has been in treatment going on 3 weeks and it looks like this will be his last week.

We received about 6 inches or more of snow on March 24th. Churches services were canceled due to the hazardous road conditions. It looks like they are calling for snow again for April 1st.

We are almost done with Classical Conversations for the year. We travel on Sundays about two and half hours and stay with a host family, so our children can attend classes on Mondays. It has been the best home school year for our family. This has been such a great experience. Our children have enjoyed it so much. We will surely miss all our friends we have made but we will stay in touch. I will not miss the drive. I will share more about Classical Conversations next month. There are new and exciting things happening with our homeschooling experience. We plan to do Classical Conversations next year but closer to home.

I pray that everyone has a blessed Easter! God loves us so much. Remember what the cross represents.

Snowed In

 Look how deep the snow is on our back deck.

We have 17 inches of snow on the ground. The snow storm caused some damage to some tree branches. We were out of power for about 5 hours on Tuesday. We were very fortunate to get our power back so soon. Many of our friends did not get power back until Friday. We were snowed in until our friend's father came over to blade/snow plow a part of our driveway.

The snow does make everything look beautiful but it does make a mess. Brian had to shovel so much snow, he is complaining that his back muscles are sore. 

The boys have had fun sledding and playing in the snow.

History Report

Nathan dressed up for his ancient history report presentation. He borrowed the custom. It is not exactly the time period of Alfred the Great but it was fine. This was Nathan's big presentation for the year. I think he is a natural at speaking in front of people. He never shy's away from reading his papers in class. He is doing rather good in his writing. We are very pleased with his progress.

It is amazing what your children can accomplish. 

If you have have a child that is struggling with writing then I suggest you check into the Institute in Excellence in Writing. Go here to look at their website. Next year will be using the Lost Tools of Writing, which is a different program.

 

Juicing

Juicing is good for you but who really does this? I love juicing. Here is my latest glass of juice. I combined 4 kale leaves, parsley,a bunch of fresh wheat grass, 3/4 of a very small pineapple, 1 pear, 5 figs, and fresh ginger. This drink actually tasted really good and I did not have to put stevia in it. Yes, I do put a very small amount of stevia in some of my juice drinks. Try juicing what you have in your refrigerator. You don't need to buy any fancy veggies to make the juice. Do you have tomatoes, carrots, celery, apples, lemons, etc? Come on, I know you have something you can juice.

Try drinking a fresh glass of homemade veggie juice or eating a small salad for dinner instead of eating a big dinner. You will see the weight come off. You don't believe. Try it and see.

 Sprouting wheat grass.

This is what is left of my wheat grass. We love fresh wheat grass. It is sweet tasting. My children will eat it fresh by pulling a blade out and chewing on it.

Here are the containers I use to store a days supply of fresh juice. I don't have time to make fresh juice three times a day.

Sidewalk Chalk

Sidewalk chalk face paint. These pictures were taken back in November, when the weather was warmer to be barefoot. Shane looks like a clown and Jarrett looks like he is ready to fight or cry. You never know what these two will get into from day to day.

A Birthday Boy

Guess who celebrated his sixth birthday?

 

 Carissa made this triple layer cake, upon the request of her brother (the birthday boy).

 He is such a clown.

Sledding

 Jarrett with an icicle in his mouth.

 Sugar Girl

It snowed a few days after Christmas. These children love the snow. They had fun sledding down the small hill. It does not take much snow to make these kids happy.

Gala Night

Carissa went to her 1st formal on December 15th. She went with her father to a ball and danced the night away to traditional line dancing (think Pride and Prejudice). There was a live band and a caller. She seemed to have fun and enjoyed seeing some people that she had not seen for awhile.

Don't you just love her dress...I paid $26  for the fabric. Thank you JoAnn's Fabric for your lovely 50 percent off coupons. The pattern is a remake of the a Jane Austen period dress.

Our kids are growing up.

A December Trip

Our family was in Branson from December 9th to December 16th. We enjoyed all the shows we went to. We went to Sight and Sound Theater and saw the Joseph production. I thought it was the most beautiful theater that we went to. There is so much to do in Branson. I cannot wait to go back. I think the boys favorite place was playing laser tag. Silver Dollar City was sure a fun place.