September week 4

Hi all!  Well this week

was jam packed!  

My dad called the other

day to see how we were 

doing and I told him our 

schedule. His response was,

"I think you need a little more to do"

:) 

Monday is my regrouping day.

After the weekend and sports 

mostly, it is important for us 

to regroup.  We finish all our business,

get things ready for the coming week.

And discuss the up coming schedule.

We do our main lesson and freshen up 

with reading and math.

Tuesday is homeschool co-op day.

This week we were invited to 

a friends private beach. 

It had a really nice sand beach,

a beach house, plenty of space and 

charm just right for our group of kids.

They had a lot of fun 

playing kick ball, swimming, 

and a rousing game called kubb.

My kids call it skulls and bones.

At any rate they had fun.

Wednesday we had a violin lesson and 

scope co-op.  All went well.

Matthew is learning a new piece 

by Robert Schumann.

At his teachers suggestion we are starting

an in depth look into the life of this composer.

Thursday was science club! 

Our experiment was about magnets.

The kids brought lots of different kinds 

for everyone to check out.

Our demonstration was how to make a 

compass.  We used a needle, a cork, water and 

of course a magnet.  The kids rubbed the needle on the 

magnet to magnetize it.  Put it in the cork and floated it

on the water and it pointed north :)

Other experiments were awesome.

One group showed us how dense different liquids were.

One demonstrated water pressure and force. 

And the last one showed how to engineer a 

bridge with carrots and paper.

The kids really love science club.

I love to flank my week!

I know that sounds weird, but 

I really crave having my Mondays

and my Fridays just us.

Friday we come back together

we clean the house and 

prepare for the weekend.

We finish up any loose ends from the week.

It gives us a day to reflect and discuss

what we may do differently next week.

Or what we loved and want to keep.

Like having the afternoon free to play 

golf with grandpa!

That's awesome!

Wesley and Tillie have been working 

on their art a lot lately and I really 

wanted to share what they have to offer.

They both love nature themes 

and they have very much been 

into birds lately.

Matthew has a hockey tournement 

this weekend.  The others 

have hockey practice and soccer.

Taggert starts his first learn to 

skate class on Saturday!!!

I am hoping for the best

not so sure though...

He loves hockey more than anything

in the world. The sticks, the puck,

watching it, but he will NOT skate.

He said he is better than anyone in our home

or anywhere really, but he will not skate.

Saturday is the big day.

 We'll see what happens...

until next week

~blessings

September week 3

The kids have been working 

on various things this week

besides our main lesson of 

the Mississippi.  

Matthew has started in his 

Saxon math book for 5th & 6th

grade.  I have tried other curriculum

and he prefers Saxon.  It is  

a very traditional approach to

mathematics. More what we 

all remember from school.

Matthew has been loving 

his writing course.  They have 

been also bringing in more 

than just writing. Things like 

note taking and public speaking. 

Wesley is working on his 

explode the code.  This 

is a phonics program.

It helps him write and hear

the sounds.   He is even 

coming around a

"teensy" bit regarding his 

art class :)

Here is our science clubs first experiment day.

It was a great success.
very entertaining to say the least.


For homeschool co-op this week we
decided to clean the garbage from the
boomsite.  We had a terrific day made
even better when the kids found a
rope swing.

The boys with their buddy from co-op.

We also took a huge hike and did some
cave exploration.

Tillie started taking homeschool
ballet lessons.  This is such  a
bonus for me because we can
do it in the afternoon.  It really
frees up time for us.


Until next week
~blessings

September week 2

I am going to attempt to keep 

this blog updated regularly this

year.  I am striving for every week.

Here we go....

After our field trip to Itasca 

We began with more reading 

of our two stories.

We are drawing maps in 

our main lesson books.

Along with relevant

content of things that 

move us about our adventures 

or things that move us from the 

story itself.

On our first Tuesday back 

with our homeschool friends 

we decided to kick off the year with 

a canoe trip down the St Croix!

Which really 

fell into my river theme :)

We had the very best time!

My words could not express my exact 

sentiment better than my dear 

friend Heidi already has.

Here is a link to her blog 

Blue bird hill Homestead

Where she eloquently describes our
"first day" of school!

We paddled for awhile then

found the most perfect all sand island.

We spent hours swimming, picnicking,

and playing with our wonderful group of friends.

The boys started taking classes at a
traditional "homeschool co-op"
called SCOPE.  This is a place
offering classes for homeschooled children
by paid specialists in their field.
They offer
classes that I am not always confident
teaching nor have the proper
supplies for.  They have advanced math
 and science classes and much more.

Matthew is taking a writing course. 
And Wesley is taking an art class.
They are only taking one class
but if all goes well maybe we will
try more in coming years.

We also started science club this year.
Science club was started by a friend in
our Tree of Life homeschool co-op.
We meet on Thursday mornings
where we rotate between science projects,
project planning efforts and community
service projects.

Our first meeting we cleaned up all
the garbage in Willow river state park

We also enjoyed the waterfalls at
Willow river!
I think it is Matthew's favorite park.

Matthew has continued with his violin
instruction.  I forgot to mention earlier
he got to play at the State Fair this year
with the Young Fiddler Association.

Tillie has started playing soccer!

She loves it!

On her first day she 

scored a goal :)

She was really proud of 

herself.

Until next week
~blessings

Start to our school year 2015-2016

First day of school photo :)

Last year we started out our school

year studying our local history and 

geography.  This year I decided to 

start by broadening that to our region.

We began the year with stories.

Two stories.

One story was to understand the 

history of our area by our 

ancestors as they traveled to

and about this land.  

The other story was to understand 

the native peoples that lived here at 

that time. We read The Birchbark House.

to gain the perspective of the Ojibwa.

How these two stories melded and 

intertwined with one another.

I feel strongly about bringing the 

children to the places we read about.

It gives them a deeper knowledge.

It gives them this essence of these 

places, people, and times that I cannot.

We began with Minn of the Mississippi

This is the story of a snapping turtle 

named Minn born in Lake Itasca

She eventually travels the length of 

the Mississippi river.

All the while an in depth discussion of

geography, history and nature.

We followed in Minn's footsteps.

Having our first day of school in 

Itasca State Park.

It was a great field trip

even better because we brought 

grandma with us.

We swam and canoed in Lake Itasca.

Saw the largest White Pine!

We walked across the Mississippi.

creatures abound...like this pileated woodpecker

We biked, hiked and drove all the trails

through the park.

All the while we learned about 

people and geography from the past 

that shaped this area.

Burial mounds of sacred ground

the site of an ancient buffalo kill.

Explorers like Cass, Schoolcraft and Boutwell

Activists such as Mary Gibbs

We even ate at the old logging camp to 

know what it might be like...a lumberjack

We are continuing down river 

following the flow of the old Miss

I will keep you posted as to how 

far we may travel :)

until next time
~blessings

Canada 2015

Canada 2015

AKA 

Ferguson family 

Canada trip.

 

 

 Yes, this years trip to Canada did not 

include the other Melanders.

We still had a great time though.

I had intended to bring my mom

for years.  Finally it worked out.

I am so thankful that she got to 

enjoy our little slice of heaven.

My little brother and his fiance

their two beautiful babies

Campbell and Crosby, 

and my dad also came along for 

the ride.

My dad brought all these amazing 

toys to enhance our vacation.

He always has a way of enhancing our lives.

The boys caught big fish

Taggert caught this huge bass off the dock

!

Maybe next year we could do 

two or three trips.  With all 

our families and friends.

By far and away the whole family loves 

CANADA!

Until next time

~Blessings

July and random summertime happenings

When summer was in full swing

we were enjoying ourselves in various

ways.  We took a few boat trips this summer.

Not as many as I would have liked though.

We hit a couple of baseball games.

Here we are at the Saints game and a Twins game.

Summer would not be complete without mention of

the lumberjack days.  Best of all parade day!

This year was particularly great for the kids.

Tillie had her dear friend Avi over to watch the

festivities.  Matthew had his dear friend David over.

Wesley had his good friends from hockey over

and they all got in an epic water battle.

The kids downtown during Lumberjack days.

Parade Day!

 Mostly, this summer has been amazing 

because we were blessed with two more 

children on Tom's side of the family.

Little Azalea was born on July 8th

To Molly and Andrew

 and 

Little Archer was born on August 18th

To Matt and Lindsay

We love all our cousins!!!!

The boys also completed their first 

5K race.  They did the color run.

I'm not sure of their time, but the had a good one.

Keeping fresh with academics

The boys and Tillie would go to earth warriors

most Friday's.  Matthew had exceed hockey camp

three days a week. He also participated in YFA's 

fiddle camp.

This is how I remember July 2015 :)

until next time

~Blessings

May / June

May was Morel hunting for our family!

2015 was a great early mushroom year.

we had tons of luck and went out often.

The whole family loves to hike around 

and be on the hunt.

We also had luck fishing at the 

lake behind our house.

we went daily and caught lots of fish.

We celebrated Tillie turning 6!

We had a family gathering at Grandmas house.

On her birthday we went to the MOA.

She performed in her first ballet as a flower fairy.

It was perfect.

Field trips for this month were going to 

Tamarack Nature center, perch lake and 

hay lake school.

Hay lake School is managed 

by the MN Historical society.

We received a historical re-enactment 

of a one room school house.

Wesley is here with the dunce cap on!

He was so punished for making paper airplanes. :)

We also spent time by the St Croix river

 There were many birds nesting in our 

yard this spring.  We really love watching 

the nests.  We had two robins and this blue jay.

 The boys started going to Earth Warriors 

Nature camp.

It is through a very good friend of ours.
They would go most Friday afternoons
and play their favorite games.
"cougar stalking deer & fire keeper"
were the best.  They also created art
using only nature and many projects
like these birdhouses.

We also had the kids do their annual
testing for the state requirements.
This year I chose to use the Peabody test.
The Peabody is a test that is administered
from a qualified tester.   It was very much
preferred to our old testing.  It is only an hour
or two to give as opposed to me administering
a week of testing through the SAT and CAT.
I also got great feed back from the tester. 
She suggested that Wesley may have some dyslexia.
Upon hearing this I immediately sent him to
a two week Orton-Gillingham intensive.
This was very beneficial to him as he made great
improvements quickly.  Now, this year I really
have to be patient with his reading.  I have been
actively looking for outside help just in case
I may find difficulty with this.

Until next time
~Blseeings

March / April 2015

March and April  I started implementing 

more workbooks.  We did spelling books

math practice books and climbing your 

way to good English.  They did not really 

enjoy this much although, I felt like 

it gave the boys a little added practice.  

One of our big field trips was going to the 

state capitol.  I didn't know if I would still

have it in me after my Ron Paul days.  I get 

very emotional about rights.  This was with a 

group called Conscientious Minnesota they 

are advocates for abstaining from vaccinations.

The kids and I went through a very important 

political process called lobbying.  How most things

are done politically.  We learned a lot and got to 

meet with Karen Housley who turned out 

to be very sympathetic of our cause.

 More field trips for March and April involved

bowling, browns creek park, Lake Elmo park,

watching Grace act in a play at the festival theatre

 Center for the book arts

The boys enjoyed a pottery class,

and we went up to the Franconia

sculpture garden.

 We have been very busy this year

with these fun activities

with our friends!

Matthew also joined traveling baseball

He really likes the pace of baseball 

after all the high energy of hockey subsides.

Until next time 

~blessings