December Week 4

Christmas Tide

We finished up our studies this week.

Went gift buying and

 took holiday pictures around Stillwater.

Wednesday was Christmas Eve.

This is the day we spend time with all

the Ferguson's.  It was another perfect

Christmas and the kids were spoiled.

 

 In the morning we opened all of Santas

gifts.  After breakfast we left for

Brainerd to have our Wayt Christmas.

How wonderful it was for the kids to 

be with their Great-grandparents.

After returning home from Brainerd the 

boys were invited to attend a Wild game 

in a suite!  Now they are really spoiled! 

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Until next week

~blessings

December Week 3

We started out this week with 

the celebration of Saint Lucia.

With our very dear friends

we attended a early morning 

service at the Gammelgarden

historic farm.  Here they have 

an original chapel (unheated)

The service was traditional and 

all in Swedish and by candlelight.

It was so beautiful.

After the service we went to a 

traditional Swedish smorgasbord.

Listening to the choir.

With the assistance of her daddy

Tillie also lost her first tooth

this week!  I have felt deeply 

she was ready for more formal

academics and now I know.

She was so excited she said it 

felt like Christmas morning.

 

 

 We ended this week with an early Christmas 

celebration with Tom's side of the family.

We had a great time!

until next week 

~blessings

December Week 2

Matthew started the week with 

a Christmas concert at the 

Aurora Staples Inn.

It is such a beautiful old 

home and it was so perfectly 

decorated for the holiday.

While he played his music 

Tillie and Taggert slept near me

on the couch by the cozy fire.

He had two more performances 

this week.  One was at the 

nursing home in Bayport and 

the other was at the historic 

Wardens house.

They played beautifully in this 

quaint  setting.

 

For homeschool co-op this week

we had the chance to see our good 

friend Tristan perform in 

A Christmas Carol.

He did a great job.

They really enjoyed the play.

Next year I think I will get them 

tickets to the Guthrie.

This week we celebrated 

Saint Nicholas day.

They found chocolates in their boots:)

The kids are excited for
Christmas and we are counting
down with our advent calendars.

They are working hard to memorize
 math facts and spelling.
I feel they are progressing.
Even Wesley is getting a lot
better at reversals.  I have
confidence with time he will be fine.

Until next week
~blessings

December Week 1

This week we were still a little
down and out with our various illnesses.
We did not go out for homeschool co-op.
The kids still did go to SCOPE.
Matthew went to violin and practiced
all his Christmas music.

I started reading from the New Testament
and the stories of how Mary and Joseph
became parents :)

We made salt dough ornaments
for the tree and decorated them.

Then we decorated our Christmas tree.
You'll notice our LV showed up in the tree
this week as well.
Tillie said this year she was
"a little afraid of LV and Santa!"




Tom has been hunting more this
November and December.
He has really inspired the boys.
They had an opportunity to go with
him and sit this year.  We have several
friends in town that are generous enough
to let us hunt on their properties.
With the help of a good friend
 our family has learned
how to butcher our own venison.
This has been a great lesson for
the kids to see and experience
from field to table.  This
is really top priority for me.
I am very thankful of Tom for
bringing these skills to our children.





We are so blessed.



Until next week
~blessings

November week 4

This week was a little 

lite because of the 

Thanksgiving holiday.

We decided that it

would be fun to 

have one of our favorite families

ever...over for a huge sleep over!

We had the best time...

Then we were hit hard 

by a family illness.

Here are my usual go to remedies.

I'm not sure that any of this helped 

us this time though.

Thanksgiving was wonderful as usual 

with my mom's side of the family.

Always delicious food.

Matthew and Wesley had 

hockey tournaments.

Poor Matthew played very sick.

He still did a great job.

Until next week
~blessings

November Week 3

This week our studies were 

still focused exclusively

on the three R's.

I have been working 

intentionally with 

Tillie on her phonics.

She is doing very well and 

is extremely excited to read.

This week for our homeschool co-op 

we went to the library and made

our own books.  These were our 

gratitude books for the 

upcoming holiday.

Everyone made a book and when we

came home they made A LOT more.

They must of had a good time. :)

On Thursday's science club

we had a service project.

We found a home that still 

had many leaves left, so

we spent the day raking 

them all.  Our plan is to 

use them for our compost and

learn how it turns into great soil.

 The service projects are my
favorite part of science club.

Until next week
~blessings

November week 2

We are still consistently working 

through our work books.

Climbing our way to good English.

I have seen great improvement 

in grammar, spelling and reading

because of these books.

At the very least we do 

the three R's everyday.

We also add in as much fun

and independent reading

as we can along the way.

Our field trip this week 

was to the Kuhn family farm

The Kuhn family runs a large 

poultry farm.  We got a 

tour and a lesson of how a real

poultry farm operates.

The kids had fun feeding all the 

different breeds of chicken,

holding new chicks,

 

meeting the other animals they 

had on the farm.

 

It was a very informative tour.

We did science club this week at the 

Hudson library.

Our topic was on bioluminesence.

The kids had fun learning about this

beautiful  light up world.

I found a great TED talk on this that

the kids enjoyed and learned well from.

Tillie and Wesley started a new art 

class that lasts through December.

It is with Wesley's favorite art teacher.

They go to Off the Wall studio.

I think we may try some of her

summer art camps.

Tillie loves taking a class of her own.

She is also still loving her ballet.

Until next week

~blessings

November week 1

We began our week 

away from geography,

and way back into the 

old testament stories.

I have implemented the work book 

all around.  It makes things 

so much easier for me.

They are still loving Fred 

for math.  Although, I 

am going to start with 

Math-It to help them memorize.

Matthew has been reading 

The Lightening Thief.

He is also doing very well in

his scope writing class.

 

For homeschool co-op this week

we toured back stage at the Guthrie.

Views from the 9th floor of the Guthrie

They were in awe.  Everyone wants to 

be actors!  

When Wesley saw all 

the beautiful sketches he beamed.

It was very fascinating.

We loved every minute of it.

 

 We presented at science club this 

week with our solar system.

Simply explaining what it consists of.

Planets, moons and the sun.

These concepts of our science club

are brought a lot later in our 

curriculum.  Usually around 

seventh or eighth grade.

Although, I feel it is beneficial 

for the kids to have a very loose and

general knowledge of the basics.

We can always delve deeper 

later.  I try to keep it extremely light.

We have taken to spending our Fridays 

with my brother ice skating.

This week after we went skating 

we met up with grandpa

and he spoiled my children!

He brought them to Dave and Busters.

One can imagine...we will not be back.

We finished up the week with hockey

practice and spending these 

beautiful fall days at the boom site.

Until next week

~Blessings

October week 5

The weather has been beautiful for this 

late in the year.  We have had a lot of 

wildlife here in our backyard.  They have had

more time to store up for winter this year.

Hopefully it lasts long and spring 

comes early :)

This week we have 

gotten started with 

the basics of workbooks.

We are starting the climbing to 

good English series.  This 

is a language arts curriculum 

intended for an Amish classroom.

I think it is very thorough and 

introduces all of the main

topics of phonics, composition,

grammar, and more.

We have also moved on to 

Life of Fred Farming.

They have missed Fred.

He is so fun.

I have Matthew do 

extra practice along side Fred

because he enjoys math so much.

 This week for our field trip 

with Tree of Life co-op

we went to Crystal Cave in Spring Valley, WI

I thought it was so wonderful.

The cave is very extensive.

I feel that the kids got a lot 

out of it.  All the bats were just in 

time for Halloween....

We had our traditional Halloween.

With Molly, Andrew, Izzy, Azalea

and Grandma Jude.  We went over

to our neighbors and trick or treated 

with our dear neighborhood friends.

 Princess

 Pumpkin princesses

Tillie has been working really 

hard on her art and I think 

she is advancing very quickly.

Here is her most recent work

 I am very proud of all of their art work.

Or any work for that matter :)

Efforts are so beautiful.

until next week
~blessings

October Week 4

We finished up our geography unit.

With this unit we studied the 

Mississippi River.  I wanted to broaden

things beyond our town and state.

We also studied about the states that 

touched the river.  We learned about

the river itself.  We used Minn of 

Mississippi for the general study.

Finished the unit up with a wonderful

book called Down the Mississippi

by Clyde Robert Bulla

He writes very interesting stories 

on many subjects.  

The books are perfect for the 

kids to read themselves.

 We spent our Tuesday co-op

field trip back in time.

A 1858 farm in fact.

We went to Oliver Kelly Farm.

This farm is still working in 

the manner in was originally.

They had big beautiful barns

 Lots of animals the kids got to touch

Here, you'll notice Matthew is being completely

devoured by a overly friendly cow!

They all had a great time.

Wednesday the boys had their 

art and writing classes.

Matthew had violin practice.

He also had a violin concert this week.

 The boys also LOVE climbing.

I took them to vertical endeavors

for some climbing time and exercise.

Matthew liked it so 

much I think he might 

join a home school 

climbing team.

We also started up our weekly skate 

training with uncle Chad and Bryce.

Bryce and the kids came this week.

It was really good for them.

If only I could get Taggert out there!

Until next week

~blessings

Accidents

This is a very strange post for 

me.  I use this blog to post

about our homeschooling.

In my state I need to keep 

records of what I do with 

homeschooling.  I create our 

own main lesson books to show 

the progression of education 

over the years.  I also keep this 

blog as a record.  Since this is 

HOMEschooling

posts will get blended with anecdotes of 

what we are up to or little stories of 

our HOME life.

Here is one of those stories...

A very near and dear family to us

had let their children come to 

our home and play.  

The kids love to be outside.

They play big.

From dress up to sword fights

hide n seek to climbing trees

and fort building.

One afternoon I had the 

eight kids outside playing.

The older boys were working 

on a new fort.  The oldest neighbor 

boy was climbing up a tree to 

toss a rope over a limb.

He fell on to a metal post.

The post impaled him.

It went up his thigh and into his 

abdomen.  It destroyed his main 

artery.  Matthew was standing 

with him and he immediately 

ran to the house to get me.

I have never experienced anything 

like this in my life.

I called 911 as fast as I could.

He had seconds left to survive.

The many doctors and surgeons 

were able to save his life.

He is expected to fully recover!

He is a miracle!

I really feel that he had so many 

prayers that it saved him.

People tell you about the power of 

prayer and how accidents can happen so 

fast.  Until all of this happens to 

you one really can not even believe it.

I am still a little rattled by the whole
experience.  We are recovering as well.
We take visits to see him.
He is doing so great that everyone
feels better with him. 

Please cherish every second.
Life can surprise you.

Psalms 116
:)

Until next time
~Blessings

Otober week 3

 Matthew 

turned 11 years old!

He had a great birthday.

He did have a pretty 

hard week though.

He works extremely hard at 

his favorite sport.

He spends nearly everyday

all year round playing 

hockey.

Hockey is the focus of 

most of our extra curriculars.

He is a very good player.

This year he was cut from the 

A team.

This was heart breaking for us.

 It did feel good that so many 

within the Stillwater 

association reached out to us.

Many families remember how hard 

it can be for a kid to be "cut".

Many families were upset about Matthew.

He is a very strong boy.

Despite his mother's plea to try 

a new sport :)

He practiced the very next day with the B team

on the ice with the A's.

Hard stuff...this growing up.

I'm proud.

For our homeschool co-op this week

it was one of our favorite times...

Stone Soup

It was such a beautiful day 

Picturesque.

Made even more so from

 Heidi's dad.

He brought all the kids on 

a horse drawn carriage ride!

This week for Tree of Life science club

we spent the day with Belwin conservency

We helped collect natural prairie seeds.

These seeds will be planted later 

to develop new prairie lands. 

Taggert is collecting Spotted Mint.

Belwin was a terrific experience.

I can not wait to explore more of 

what they have to offer.

We learned so much in just one morning 

with them.  It was great.

Thanks science club!

Matthew's Birthday celebrations 

continued into the weekend.

We went to a corn maze with 

friends and family.

We had more family over to our 

house the next day too.

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Until Next week

~blessings