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

January/February 2015

For January we started a new block

Matthew studied Man and Animal.

for this I used Charles Kovak's books.

Wesley studied Jatka tales.

Keeping with the animal theme 

we read the Jungle book as a family.

for extra lesson Matthew studied 

local climate and geography

with a series of books called 

a walk in a ...

we did a boreal forest and the tundra.

Matthew also learned three new classical 

music pieces on the violin all by Bach.

So we began Bach studies.  We read a 

wonderful book about his childhood

Sebastian Bach the Boy From Thuringa

This series was great.  I want more 

books from it.  This led us to 

a Beethoven study as well. 

His life was equally as interesting.

Other Highlights of January were of course

Birthdays!

Wesley turned 8 

and Taggert turned 3!

 We celebrated Wesley's with Molly

and Jude at pump it up

And Taggert's we celebrated with 

a small gathering of cousins at 

grandma's house.

 

Wesley also got to skate with his team on the Minnesota Wild's ice

Tillie started Ballet which she LOVED!

We did some ice fishing in January and February.

Matthew caught this huge crappie

Until next 

March/April

~Nik

2014-2015 school year

This post has been long over do!

For so many reasons I need to blog

and for so many reasons have neglected it.

I am going to attempt to recap the kids 

fourth grade, second grade and kindergarten year.

My last post was from October

Here is how the rest of the school year went...

Tillie played HOCKEY!

although, I do not believe she will continue

with this new skating venture.

she likes to skate though.

For Wesley's Saint block we 

extensively studied Saint Hubert.

He is the patron saint of hunters.  

I really believe all of our focus and 

prayers to Saint Hubert really helped out a 

certain Dad.  :)

Matthew broke his elbow this month too.

 You can barely see his cast in this picture.

He had to sit out some of his hockey season.

Every week we get together with our homeschool 

group called tree of life.  We take field trips and have

social time.  I have really come to look forward to 

this group of mothers and children.  There are 

many highlights.  

We have art shows, we get out in nature, 

and we make stone soup together.  I couldn't 

do it without this group.  They have become 

very important.

We rolled into December which is the usual 

hub bub of the holidays.  I go a little lite 

with school and focus on the season.

we always do a lot of reading and here

is a list of some of the books we 

read aloud this year

Because of Win-dixie

secret garden

milly molly mandy

uncle wiggly

my side of the mountain

This is all I could recall from November/December 2014

Trust me I have new blogging goals for this new school year.

~Nik

 

October 2014

During October we went apple picking at 

a beautiful organic orchard owned by a 

fellow homeschooling family.  We went to 

 Gammelgarden museum in Scandia.

This was great because it tied in our local 

history/geography and our next portion of 

our curriculum.  This is when I introduced Matthew 

to the Norse myths.  After the field trip

we really focused on these Norsemen.

 We also took a beautiful field trip to Taylors Falls.

We had a guided tour of the pot holes and enjoyed 

all the colors.

Tillie's hiding in these smaller pot holes.

 We saved seeds from our garden this year.

And worked at our good friends land 

for a community work day.

This involved getting the garden ready 

for spring, helping them build their house, 

and helping them make bricks.  Very educational :)

the kids are collecting bean seeds from our green bean plants.

Halloween 2014 with our neighborhood buddies!

We also went to a play called Rainbow Crow at
the stepping stone theatre with our
homeschool co-op.
The kids absolutely LOVED it and I vowed to
do more plays this year!
Matthew turned 10 this month with maturity and grace.
I on the other hand was surprised to find him in the double digits?!
 

This pretty much sums up our October 2014

until next time

~blessings

September 2014

 

September was filled with fun.

We started getting our rhythm...

In addition to our Waldorf curriculum

I added extra math practice

with the Life of Fred series.

I also added practice with grammar

for Wesley and spelling for Matthew.

They are doing work in their workbooks

for this.  Wesley's is Climbing your way to 

good English.  Matthew's is practical spelling.

I felt they were a little behind in these areas and 

the extra practice wouldn't hurt.  I am 

still not sure how much I like to English workbooks,

but we definitely LOVE
Life of Fred!

We celebrated our school year by taking a field trip 

to the Renaissance festive for homeschool day.

Knights and sword fighting!

Aunt Burp and Izzy came with us!!

The boys and Tillie slayed some dragons

Tillie saw real mermaids!

As for the sports

the boys finished up their first year of soccer!

Both of them had a great time.

 Matthew's 3 on 3 hockey team were Champions!

With the Waldorf curriculum we started the year with local 

geography and local history.  Matthew studied our neighborhood and our town.

After looking at and creating maps we ventured out.

We took a history tour at the Wardens house.

This is run by the historical society.  It was the BEST historical tour.

We all had a blast.  I really love history, so my opinion is a bit slanted.

Seeing how peopled viewed slide shows in the late 1800's

Kids on the steps of the Warden's house

We had a very good month

meeting up with our homeschool co-op again

connecting with our friends.  Just coming 

back into our school days always exciting.

until next time

~blessings

New school year

We started out the 2014-2015  school year

like we do every year...

We take our family vacation to our 

Canadian cabin.

It is a good way for us to transition from 

summer into our structured school year.

When we come home everyone is ready for our studies.

 Here are some of this years cabin highlights...

Everyone came this year.

It is so great for the cousins to be together.

My kids LOVE spending time with 

their aunts and uncles as well.

All the cousins in Canada

Walking the road with everyone

Of course fishing is a highlight and on the new pontoon!

shooting practice

The boys got a boat of their own!  BIG highlight.

This was another great trip...

and when we arrived back home 

I had a 

2 year old,  5 year old kindy

second grader and

a fourth grader!

until next time

~blessings