We began school today

We officially began school today. Neither my children or I were excited about starting again. We had done quite a bit of school throughout the summer and I was tired. But we began anyway. We're actually beginning a week later than their public school counterparts because of a family situation.

My children cruise through Math-U-See. I think I forgot to mention them in my previous blog. This is our second year of MUS and I'm grateful for Steve Demme. He has made math understandable and accessible to myself and my children. One child even enjoys fractions whereas before the fractions brought tears of frustration. www.mathusee.com

Romans, Reformers and Revolutionaries began with discussing the key points and beginning to listen to Ms. Waring's insightful scholarship. My children really did discuss the questions. Even my youngest piped up with insights that brought sunshine warmth to a mother's heart. The child stated that the early Christian Church grew despite persecution because of faith. Two of my older children "debated" the merits of dividing the Roman Empire under Diocletian. We also enjoyed learning a bit about Georgia's history.

Even though grammar was buried and put in the dark closet for three weeks, we were able to pull it out and get in the swing of Shurley English again. I don't think they're fond of subject-verb agreement and I must say I don't think it was explained very well. The rules though make sense and I'm hoping that through use, it will become easier to understand. What I love most about this program are the introductory practice sentences done three times a unit.

Writing Strands 4 didn't start out well, but I think it will get better. The "flow" lesson didn't make much sense to me, but we all struggled through it and came out victorious on the other side. The next lessons make a lot more sense and hopefully we'll all be better composers by the end of this program.

We're still waiting on the art, music and Spanish. Latin was fun though at co op. We may actually figure the language out. I'm finally understanding the difference between declensions and conjugations. I can barely wait to figure out how to USE the declensions. I remember when I learn conjugations during Spanish class (many years ago), WHAT A REVELATION!!! I keep hoping for that light to go on in my children.

My children have been using Spelling Power for so long that they correct me when I mess up. It's just has to be the easiest, most delightful spelling program on the market. My favorite part are the generalizations. They reinforce phonics though none of my children are phonetic. The 10 step worksheet is a great reinforcer also.

We had a great discussion while introducing folktales. We talked about how the origin of many folktales can be found in the Bible. We'll be tackling Aesop's Fables and Canterbury Tales (various translation and editions) for this unit. One child still thinks Shakespeare is the foundation of all literature. I can't wait until the child finishes Canterbury Tales and realizes Shakespeare read Chaucer and not the other way around.

Getting Ready for School

School began this week in our school district of Georgia. Wow! Because one of the children is not here we have decided to put off starting until next week. We don't take as many breaks as the other schools, so we make up our days further in the year.

After home schooling for 13 years now, I finally feel like I'm getting how to put together our schedule and our curriculum. We belong to a co op and the children are involved with music one day a week. So I've learned how to work around those activities. Plus this year, one of the children is trying to do two years in one so that adds another dimension to the schedule.

And this year, I finally feel confident in the ALL the curriculum we're using. So for any of you that are interested, this is what we are using this year:
History - Diana Waring's Romans, Reformers, Revolutionaries, www.dianawaring.com,
Story of the World Vol. 2, www.peacehillpress.com,
Georgia Dailies www.gallopade.com
Science - Apologia's Physical Science and Chemistry www.apologia.com
Language Arts - Shurley English www.shurley.com,
Writing Strands www.writing-strands.com ,
Spelling Power www.spellingpower.com, and
Drawn into the Heart of Reading www.heartofdakota.com
Foreign Language - Learnables' Spanish www.learnables.com and
Latina Christiana www.memoriapress.com
Music - Harmony Fine Arts www.harmonyfinearts.com
Art - Artistic Pursuits www.artisticpursuits.com
I have a few more "extras" that I'll probably be using throughout as I love the Eleanor Hoomes' creative writing series www.amazon.com and Wordly Wise vocabulary www.wordlywise3000.com. We are also picking up Shakespeare again with our co op this year and I have a slew (or is that slough) of books for teaching Shakespeare.

My reasoning for using these particular curriculums and my Shakespeare picks will have to wait until another posting. I may post our schedule. And because I think I'm finally wise enough, I'll post my recommended scope and sequence. (We have to tootle off to take a child to work.)

My new convertible clothing discovery

Ha! My children think I need to join Youtube Anonymous because I'm addicted. Well, I managed to stay off for about two weeks. But Saturday, I found this new convertible piece of clothing. You can view it here: YouTube - Magical Scarf Instructions 26 ways (obviously, I'm still learning how to embed, so pardon this one.)

I love convertible clothing - clothing that can be used more than one way. My current favorite piece is the origami shirt, which I'll write more about at a later date. This magical scarf though is quite clever. It is a simple rectangle, probably 54" x 22", hemmed along the edges, made of knit. It has five buttons - four along one edge and one on the opposite corner. I haven't quite figured out how far apart the buttons are yet, but I will. Look at all the different ways you can wear this simple piece of fabric.

The other nice feature of convertible clothing is that they are usually simple shapes, thus easy to sew or construct. Some don't even have zippers or other closures.

This is definitely something I'll be writing about a lot in the future.

Easiest Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

I have the easiest bread recipe in the world. It's so easy, my children can make it. I've tried this on 8 year old girls just hand kneading it and it works. So here's the recipe:


1 3/4 c warm water
1 heaping T yeast
1 T sugar
1/3 c oil (I prefer olive oil)
1/3 c vital gluten (optional)
4 c + whole wheat flour (sometimes I combine with other flours, such as quinoa or kamut - then the vital gluten might be essential rather than optional)
1 t salt

Preheat oven to 350 degress. Mix the warm water, yeast and sugar together first. Add the oil and vital gluten. Add 3 cups of the flour. Then add salt. Change your mixing blade to kneading hook or begin hand kneading at this point and add approximately 1 more cup of flour to your dough. If you're using a mixer like a Kitchen Aid, your bowl should be "clean" on the sides. Knead for 3 minutes, whether hand or machine kneading. Take your dough and SLAM it 12 times on your counter. Place dough in greased bread pan. TURN OFF oven and place bread in the warm oven for about 30 minutes (the dough will have risen over the top of the pan). TURN ON the oven again (without removing the bread) to 350 degrees and bake 30-45 minutes. (I usually bake for 40 minutes.) Take the bread out of the oven and put on cooling rack. I like to let my bread cool for awhile before cutting it, but if you like it hot, just make sure you cut a really thick slice or it will fall apart until cooled.

Cooking Preparation Tip - chicken

Okay, I cannot believe I'm back all ready. Tonight for dinner, we had a chicken enchilada casserole. The recipe can be found at www.7daymenuplanner.com week of 7/19/09. (Aside: I love this site, though I get the menu in the Sunday AJC - but just in case I miss a week...)

Anyway, the recipe calls for cut up chicken. I don't know about you, but I'm not fond of this chore. I had microwaved (please don't hate me for microwaving, just don't microwave if you don't want to) the chicken breasts then cut the chicken with my kitchen scissors in the bowl without even touching it. (Actually it only calls for cooked chicken and I assumed it was to be cut up - go figure.)

I hope this little tip makes sense.

P.S. My children also liked the Chinese chicken burgers (we used turkey) without the hoisin sauce from the 7/19/09 menu.

In the Beginning....

Hi All! Wow! When my sister and sisters-in-law said this would be easy they weren't kidding! We'll see if I can keep this up. I have so much I want to share in regards to my many interests that I thought this would be the best avenue for doing such. So this blog will be about home schooling, stamping anything and everything, sewing and some fashion, and handicrafts - mainly tatting, crocheting, and jewelry making. I might even throw in some LDS seminary and book reviews. I haven't decided whether this will include much about my children as I'm VERY paranoid about having them on the internet.