Black Friday Madness - We Actually Had Fun!!

I found the easiest way to get some dirty looks thrown your way. Wake up your 8yr old son at 3am and drag him out shopping in the middle of the night (morning) on Black Friday.

After finding a deal too big to pass up, my husband decided he wanted to go to Dick's Sporting Goods to get Zachary's main Christmas gift. The store, which is 30 minutes away from our home, was opening at 4am and would only have 10 of these items for the sale price. I'm purposefully being vague here, just in case my dear son reads this blog.

On Thursday, at our Thanksgiving dinner, Zachary's grandmother gave him money for an early Christmas gift. He has been saving up for an iPod Touch, so we searched the sale papers for a good deal and he was thrilled to find out that he had enough money to go ahead and get it on Friday.

So, at 3am we all got up, loaded into the car (with full cups of coffee for Bucky & Me) and drove 30 minutes to the two stores that we needed to get to at such an ungodly hour. Bucky dropped Zac and I off at Best Buy and Zac literally ran to the iPod section as if they were all going to be gone at 4 o'clock in the morning. I think he was catching some of the craziness that was going on with other adults in the building. Bucky drove on to Dick's to make his  Door Buster purchase. By 5:30 in the morning we were finished! It felt weird to go home so early, so we went to Target and Home Depot and I ran into JCPenney for some really good bargains on clothes, but by 7:30 we were completely finished shopping, back home sitting by the fire, and drinking another cup of coffee!!!

I've done Black Friday shopping before, but never before have I done it with son and husband along with me. Who knew it could be so fun??

After a nice nap and a quick lunch, we decided we wanted to get out some more, so we drove down to Bass Pro Shop to browse around a little bit. While we were there,  Zachary sat on Santa's lap and talked to him about what he wanted for Christmas this year. 

Here are the items that topped his Christmas list........

Skylander for Wii
Radio Controlled Hex Bugs
Bakugan Dragonoid Destroyer
Light Striker Vests, Guns & Laser Targets
Spending Money



Some things I saw at Target that I think he'd like (for parents & sisters that have asked)....
Risk
Shut the Box Game - classic wooden game at Target
Separate Figures for Skylander for Wii  - (Pirate Seas Set, Drobot, Chop Chop, Bash, & Flameslinger)
iTunes Card for music and games

Last Minute Decorating

I love fall and fall decorations...so why in the world did I wait until about 1pm on Thanksgiving day to put out my fall decorations???

Well, better late than never, but now I'll have to take them down very soon to make room for our Christmas decorations.

Here is a peak into my Last Minute Fall Decoration..........

My Dad cut these fresh Dogwood berries from the woods around our house. I made the THANKFUL banner with leftover scrapbook paper.

I love these fall leaves that my Dad cut from the woods too. I picked the aqua vases up from JoAnn's when they were on sale. I was trying to add a few aqua & turquoise accents to go along with the reds and golds.

I threw together two horns of plenty using some old wreaths I had in my basement.

Maybe next year I'll be more on the ball and I'll decorate early enough to enjoy it for a few weeks anyway. But, for now it's time to take it all down and get ready for Christmas!

Make it a beautiful day!

~~ Vicki ~~

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is at our house every year. Bucky's family all comes over, everyone bringing way too much food for the 25 of us, and we hang out eating and laughing and retelling all their old stories. It's a fun time even though it's a whirlwind of cooking and cleaning during the days leading up to the big day.

Beddingfield/Ellerbee Cousins

In the midst of all the excitement over food and family time, my hope for this year was that Bucky and I would not miss this holiday's special opportunity to remind Zachary of how much we have to be thankful. Zac and I have been studying the Pilgrims, Squanto and the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, but I wanted to be sure that he personalized this holiday and remembered to give thanks to our Father in heaven for all his many blessings, not just one day a year at Thanksgiving, but every single day of the year.

The perfect time seemed to present itself last weekend while we were passing out Thanksgiving dinner baskets that Zac had raised money for along with his karate class. We joined other families on the Saturday morning before Thanksgiving to fill the baskets with a very nice, complete dinner, and then split up the baskets to be delivered. We had six baskets to deliver, which to be honest was more than we were expecting, but it turned into a great family time so that Bucky and I together could have a great conversation with Zachary. We talked about how blessed we are and about how much God loves all the people we were helping out with the baskets. He got a glimpse into the lives of some people that are really struggling, but he also saw how some of those people still seemed to be filled to overflowing with a joy that came from deep within their souls. We talked about how we are very thankful for our home and Dad's job and having a car and having plenty of food, but at the same time that those things are not what brings us true joy. The peace and joy that we experience in our daily lives can only come from heaven above. It wasn't so much of a "preachy" sort of talk, just talking and celebrating the many gifts that are ours through Christ Jesus.

As usual, during a time that we were trying to do something to bring a blessing to someone else, we were blessed ourselves by the people that we thought we were going to be helping.

~~Vicki ~~

Memorable Moments This Week

Fall is in the air and I'm loving it! I can't tell you how many times I've stopped in my tracks to admire the gorgeous colors this year. Unfortunately, I don't ever seem to have my camera with me, so I can't share these moments with you, but trust me...the artistic beauty of nature is breath taking.

This week we kicked off our week with a Fall Harvest Festival at Harp's Crossing Baptist Church at Hollinsville. They had games for the kids, candy prizes, jumping slides, and my favorite, a petting zoo. Truthfully, even though I thought all the little animals were so cute and cuddly, I actually felt kind of sorry for all the animals, but they seemed to be used to being surrounded by eager children and to all the passing around that was going on.

Monday we made solar ovens out of pizza boxes and aluminum foil. They would have worked great, but the sun decided to go behind the clouds and just sort of play peek-a-boo all morning. I can't wait to try this again, maybe on our next camping trip.

The kids were crazy excited at co-op class today when they were told we were going outside to learn about water filtration and how water filters down through the soil and how pollutants can reach down into wells. Well, they actually got really excited as soon as they saw ice cream! Once again, I'm impressed with the creativity of some people in coming up with hands-on and tasty lessons that really work in demonstrating a scientific concept. I wish I could tell you exactly where this lesson came from, but I just don't know the original source. 

It started with different layers of soil (chocolate chips, ice cream, and green sprinkles) followed by clear water (Sprite) that gently soaked down into the ground. Then, a polluted water (Sprite with a lot of green food coloring) was poured on top of the mix. When a drill bore a hole down into the ground (a straw struck straight down in the middle of the cup), a pump extracted clear water from the well (slow and steady sucking through a straw brought up the clear Sprite), but when the clear water is removed from the well, the polluted water takes the place of the clean water and is eventually pumped up out of the well (the dark green Sprite traveled up the straw after the clear Sprite had been sucked up.)

After all that sugar, the first thing the boys wanted to do was play Ninja. I don't really understand this game, but it is a lot of fun to watch the poses that they come up with as they take turns going around the circle.

Wednesday after we finished all the basics - Bible, Math, Writing, Spelling, and Grammar - I told Zac we'd make a quick snack. I really am going to have to start planning better!

It started off simple enough. I wanted to make a quick healthy snack that I'd seen on-line and pinned to my Pinterest board.  It was called Baked Apple Chips and looked delicious. So we started by using my Apple Peeler-Corer-Slicer (I've been using this so much this Fall that I've just decided to leave it out on the counter next to my sink!) Zac left the peel on them and just cored and sliced them. Then he spread them out on a pan and sprinkled them with cinnamon and a pinch of sugar. Pretty quick and simple so far, right? Well, this is about the time I decided to check the recipe that I'd seen on-line. Ha! Quick my foot! It said to bake at 275 degrees for TWO hours! There was no way either of us could wait that long - they were already starting to smell SOOO good.

So we yanked them out of the oven after about ten minutes and slathered a little peanut butter on them and.......they were delicious.........just like hot apple pie! YUM!!

Thursday afternoon we had our 2nd and last play practice as a group. The kids were nuts - no seriously, they were crazy little people that I could barely recognize. I was worried. Not so much because the play mattered that much to me, but because we were all inviting the Dads and Grandparents and other family members. I was already preparing my response to the questions that might come that would sound something like this..."Are you sure homeschooling is the best choice for you?" I wasn't the only one. Other moms had voiced these same fears to me.

Friday was an all day cooking day. I actually had a great time in the kitchen working with my mom and getting help from Zachary occasionally. We were having a potluck Thanksgiving dinner before the children performed their play, and I wanted to make sure there would be enough food for everyone. 

One thing we made that I hate that I didn't get any in-progress pictures of, was these little Teepee Cupcakes. Again, I had seen them on-line and saved them to my Pinterest board and just couldn't wait to have an excuse to make them with Zachary. I'm glad Mom was there to help out, because they were a little more tedious than I had expected. I'm glad Dad was here too, because he was the one that thought to take a picture. Here is the final product, and I think they turned out super cute.

When we weren't in the kitchen cooking and cleaning, we were working on a couple of crafts. Zachary has started a little Indian village that is quite impressive to me because he's doing it all on his own without any help from me. He said he was inspired by Cade, one of his good friends. I think that's pretty cool!

I, on the other hand, need lots of help with crafty things. We needed a simple little Mayflower for the kids to carry in their play and I volunteered to make one. Sounds pretty brave of me, but what I knew was that my mom was going to be at the house with me and that she can make anything! Sure enough, she didn't let me down. How does she do it?

Zachary was the Narrator

The Co-op Thanksgiving Dinner and Play went over so much better than I had expected! It was really a very lovely evening. All the families were there and everyone brought a lot of delicious food. More than enough to go around. We all chipped in to help decorate the room and the tables, so it turned out very lovely. But, most importantly, I truly enjoyed just being with everyone. It was a needed reminder of all the many great reasons I have for homeschooling and also a wonderful reminder of how blessed I am to be surrounded by the most amazing women and their families. What an super group we have - such a huge blessing in our lives!! 

The kids were amazing in their play too. They remembered their lines, spoke loudly and clearly, and moved about the stage just like we had asked them to. They did so well and the whole thing was just adorable. I should have never doubted them!

The Cast of The First Thanksgiving

So what will we do for Spring?!!

~Vicki~

Football in the South

I guess we are the typical Southern Sports Fans. I grew up sitting under the stadium lights every Friday night in the Fall, cheering on our Niceville Eagles football team and then gathering around the TV on Saturday afternoons to the watch the Auburn game. Once off to college, I looked forward to Saturday tailgating parties and met my husband-to-be, who played football for Auburn. After Zachary was born, Bucky and I were eager to get Zachary to some of the local high school football games and out of town to visit our Alma Mater and pretty quickly, he was ready to sign up for recreation football.

Well, this year our little Pike County Pirates have been all the sports entertainment we've needed. (It's a good thing, since good old AU has struggled so this year!) Who knew Under7 rec. football could be so exciting? We were actually sad to see it finally come to an end. Now, don't get me wrong, I certainly did my share of complaining about running straight from karate practice to football practice and then rushing home to grab a bite of dinner so that we could get unsuccessfully try to get Zac in bed at a decent time. But the Saturday morning games were always lots of fun. I'm really proud of the whole team. Each one of the boys tried hard and seriously improved throughout the season.

We celebrated the end of a great season at American Pie and the kids all seemed to have a blast watching themselves on video and going up to get their team trophies.

Here are a few of the season highlights:

 Way to Go Pike County Black Pirates!!!

Apples + Cinnamon = FALL

It's that time of year that I look forward to, when the house is filled with scents (and tastes) of Fall. 

A few days ago, Zachary decided he wanted to make his own applesauce and I thought it sounded like a great idea, so I told him to go for it. Here is what he came up with.... 

Making Applesauce... Slice apples, leaving the peel on for extra vitamins. Put slices in mini food processor, process to chunky applesauce consistency, add a sprinkle of cinnamon and blend a little more. Enjoy!!!

Apple Peeler Corer Slicer (Pampered Chef)

Proud Chef

Zachary's Homemade and Healthy Applesauce

What a yummy, healthy snack. Good job, Zac!

Love you, 
~Mom~

Trying a New Grammar Curriculum

I'm very excited about a new grammar program that I am going to be trying out. It is called Foundation of Grammar and it is free for now through Anne's School Place - Curriculum Development Blog.  I ran across that website while I was browsing through The Encouraging Mom blog.

http://annesschoolplace.com/blog/

 

 

My son, Zachary, has covered the very basic grammar lessons that seem to be offered in most curriculum for his age/grade.  This seems to be a strange level when it comes to grammar. Most of the books I've tried for 3rd-4th grade have a simple review of a specific topic along with 8-10 sentences,  and the student is supposed to circle the noun or verb or adverb, etc. The problem I have with this type of practice is that my son picks up on the patterns of the sentences because they are all so similar and he just flies through all the questions without really thinking about what he's doing. Later if I say, find the prepositional phrase, he sort of has a blank look on his face. I'd like a curriculum that uses more complete paragraphs, where the sentences don't all have the same format, and lessons that require him to think about how the sentences are structured.

So this is why I'm going to be trying Foundation of Grammar by Anne Elliot. First of all I like that it uses the Bible as the main source text. The fact that it is free to anyone willing to use it and give feedback to the author is also a bonus. I liked what I reviewed of the teacher's manual. It is concise and although it is scripted, it has a very natural flow. The lessons explain the material thoroughly and, very importantly for me, the examples and practice texts have a wide variety of sentence styles that are all structured beautifully. What a great way to hide God's word in the heart of a child!

Another thing I like about the Lessons is that as the student learns a new definition/topic, they are instructed to find it in the text, but they are also still asked to find the items that they were learning about in the last lesson. So, the lessons build upon each other and they continue to practice locating each part of the sentence, even as they are going on to learn new topics. Again, this will force my son to think about the structure of each sentence and not just look for the repetitive patterns that are so often found in simpler grammar lessons.

This is how the program is set up:

There are 3 units. Unit 1 has Lessons 1-15, Unit 2 has Lessons 16-25, and Unit 3 has Lessons 26-30.


Each lesson introduces a new topic with a definition of a new part of speech. The introduction is followed by a variety of 4-5 Exercises. One exercise may ask the student to cross out any prepositional phrases, underline any verbs twice, and underline any subjects one time. The next exercise may have the student combine choppy sentences using compound verbs, and the next may tell them to fill in the missing prepositions.

The Teacher's Manual - has scripted lessons along with the identical text that the student sees in his book, except that the TM has the answers marked on its pages.

Student Book - since this is a .pdf file, it can be printed out all at one time or as needed. Here is a sample of one of the lessons:

Lesson 12
Exercise A - Cross out any prepositional phrases. Underline any verbs twice.

o Check for action verbs.
o Check for being verbs.
o Check for helping verbs.
o Remember that verbs will never be part of prepositional phrases.

1. This is the beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2. Long ago Isaiah the prophet wrote, “I will send my messenger ahead of you.
3. He will prepare your way.”
4. “A messenger is calling out in the desert, „Prepare the way for the Lord.‟”
5. And so John came.
6. He baptized people in the desert.
7. He also preached that people should be baptized and turn away from their sins.
8. Then God would forgive them.
9. All the people from the countryside of Judea went out to him.
10. All the people from Jerusalem went too.
11. When they admitted they had sinned, John baptized them in the Jordan River.
12. John wore clothes made out of camel's hair.
13. He had a leather belt around his waist.
14. He ate locusts and wild honey.
Mark 1:1-6, NIrV

Extra Practice Exercises - these are available to provide additional practice for the student as necessary

Learning Aids - these are 8 1/2 x 11 posters, covering information covered in each lesson, to place in a mini grammar folder or to post on the wall.


I'm excited to try it out. We've been needing to add something with more substance and structure. This seems to be a good fit for us. I'll be posting more in the future to let you know how it's going and how much I think Zachary is getting out of the program.

Blessings,
Vicki

What's Been Happening in Co-op This Week?

In Human Anatomy Co-op:

We discussed the Endocrine System and the Excretory System. Amy S. jumped in to teach this week and did a great job. I love that all our kids look forward to science class. Is it like that everywhere? It certainly wasn't like that for me growing up. But if I'd have been able to cut out and glue in the body parts as I learned about each one, I think I would have been hooked. It was also helpful to be able to see how the kidney filters out impurities by watching blue water filter through several layers of coffee filters and come out clear on the other side.

In Writing Co-op:

George B. led our IEW SWI-A class today. We didn't have a new lesson to watch on the video today, so we took time today to let each child read the writing assignment that they had been working on over the last two weeks and anything else that they may have written on their own. At this age, I'm glad we are really taking it easy and making sure that they are learning each of the new dress-ups. It's incredible to see how much the kids have taken to writing since starting this class in September. They are all doing really well and love sharing their work with the group.

In American History Co-op:

I am falling in love with history this year. The story is fascinating. I grew up dreading having to memorize dates and birthdays and first, middle, and last names. It was torture. Most definitely not interesting and captivating. Wow, how surprising to enjoy it so much myself now. 

So this week we've been studying the Pilgrims on the Mayflower and the Mayflower Compact. Amy C. brought an activity for the kids that was meant to help them understand how difficult it must have been for so many people to come to an agreement and sign a contract promising that they would all work together as a group and that they would follow the decisions of their elected leader. We asked the kids to work together to come up with their own Compact. It was actually hilarious to hear them debate and vote and try to come to some compromises, but in the end they were all able to sign their name to their group compact. What a great lesson in teamwork and leadership.

Then we did a fun math activity that gave everyone a little extra practice in graphing. The final result was a cute drawing of the Mayflower.

And to finish up the class, we all worked on a 3-D map of the route the Mayflower took across the Atlantic.The kids liked that the Mayflower could actually move across the water (due to a little slit that is cut into the map.)

Co-op Play Practice:

We are all looking forward to our co-op family Thanksgiving Dinner and Skit Night coming up next Friday. The kids practiced their lines for the first time together today, and we all decided we needed to schedule one more day for a dress rehearsal. 

Getting Real:

Almost all of the children were out of sorts today (that's the nicest way I can put how they were acting during break time), but I keep trusting that God will continue to work His character into them. It's humbling to think that He has chosen us (the other moms and me) to help guide them and lead them up in His Ways. Some days I feel like I'm completely inadequate for this task, but somehow He always shows me that He is strong in my weakness. What an awesome and loving God we serve!