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