(1+2) squared + (2)(2) = X = The Great Conn!

X=squared root of 169 = Connor! Now do the math or forever wonder what 10 to the seventy-ninth power is. Post the answer in the comment and receive a fantastic prize! Figure out what set I'm referring with the 10 to the seventy-ninth to and get an even better prize!

Well, you must be wondering what I got for my birthday. I got some new video games (AWESOME) and some clothes. Clothes-wise, I received a couple of shirts, one church shirt and a tie. Also, from my cousins, second cousins or third cousins, I'm not sure which, gave me a shirt that says HALE'S CONSTRUCTION on it.(They are visiting from Massachusetts right now.

For video games, I got Super Paper Mario and used the twenty bucks from Grandma and Grandpa Stumm. The money came in a really awesome birthday card with a picture of a galaxy on it. I spent 800 Wii points to purchase the classic game, Super Metroid, for the Super NES which I am still waiting to play. I don't yet know what I'll do with the other 1200. Now (more math, this time with out a prize) figure out what one Wii point costs. I also got to go out to dinner and then breakfast. I got to go to break fast because the tradition is, on your birthday, you get whatever you want for breakfast. The problem this time is that everyone but me, dad, and Ryan were left that morning on a field trip to Stanton. So after taking Ryan to his pre-cal class at the community college, we went to Shoney's and had some food. Dad says I made off like a bandit.

Most people think that Pi is the only irrational number, but there are about 8(pretend this eight is sideways) more. The square root of thirteen for instance. Or of two. Or three, Or five, or six, or seven... Do you get the picture now (not the one above, mind you)?

That was some good steak. All dad said was "What do you think birthday boy?" as the waitress asked us if we wanted an appetizer. That wouldn't have been a problem if he hadn't said it in front of the waitress. The terrifying scene below displays the horror of the Texas Roadhouse, if it's your birthday.

The dreaded birthday saddle. You can sort of see it.

But the delicious steak and super yummy pie made the whole thing bearable! Happy Birthday to me!!!!!

Another two weeks down...

When it rains it pours....this past week the computer crashed and the dishwasher--already on it's last leg--died. September is a big birthday month for us so, we've had many birthday parties to put on and friend's parties to attend to-- fun, but chaotically busy.

These kids, unbeknown st to me (Brianne, Connor and Liam) developed strep....yeah! I took Bri to her 18 month well baby checkup and the rash I've been battling apparently was strep. Who knew--not me, that's for sure! The head aches and sore throat that Connor complained of I chalked up to allergies--'tis the season--were strep. Liam's complaints of his stomach hurting and head hurting, well I just thought, "brace for a stomach virus, it's coming." As a few days past and he didn't get sick, I thought "yeah, we've missed this one...." When Brianne's test came back positive and I heard the doctor rattle off the symptoms (these ones I knew of, just forgot) it dawned on me that Connor and Liam had strep too. Lucky the other's didn't have it, so just three scripts of penicillin and we'll be good in no time.

After having to wash the same load of laundry for the 5th or 6th time, because either I had forgotten to move it to the dryer or the person I asked to move it didn't do it either, I lost it!! Sometimes melt downs are good. This one made me stop, collect myself and try to find better ways to get things done and to realize that I can't get it all done--that goal is impossible, I just have too much to do. A friend told me that she goes to the Lord in prayer every morning and asks for guidance as to what was the most important thing for her to get done that day. I wasn't really doing this...sort of, but, not really. I was just saying the routine 'lets start the day prayer'. I wasn't taking advantage of his great wisdom to help me know what really is most important and what should go, or at least wait for another day.

This was certainly poignant for me in regards to Connor. He's been complaining for a while about some of the school work that he needs to accomplish for his CC class. He's told me that the work isn't hard, but that there is so much of it! His greatest challenge is that of organizing himself and his time. I knew that this work load would be a huge test and challenge for him. I was right. He's been melting down too. So much so, that things he's enjoyed in the past, such as his Latin lessons, he's beginning to hate now. His greatest disdain for school work is geography, so, as his teacher, (and through much prayer and confirmation from the Lord) I'm letting him drop that for now. He's also complaining greatly of Saxon math, he wants to use the 'Life of Fred' math series instead. Because of my lack of mathematics knowledge, I've relied heavily on "the- best-curriculum-to-teach-math-available', because it's known to be a complete and solid math instruction. Interestingly enough, the answer to this situation came from a conversation with another home school mom. Her daughter is in Delaney's CC class and she is a home school graduate herself. She had to endure Saxon math as a youth and swore she would never make her child have to use it. (Her mom's reason's for using it were the same as mine) She also gave me concrete reasons as to why it wasn't everything it claims to be. She said "Why not let him just attend the lecture in class and do daily lesson work with the book he wants to use." Sooo, that's what we've decided to do. Of course, I want to see written work--he still wants to do everything in his head, but we are listening to each other and school is going much better now--for him and me.

Another direction the Lord is guiding my towards is to learn more about TJEd--the Thomas Jefferson Education model, also known as leadership education model. I've learned much about it and implement many concepts but I think he's telling me to learn more and implement more. So I'm back in the student's seat and learning along with my little one. One day, when I feel I'm able to slow down enough and actually learn math with my kids (probably with Liam), I'll be happy that I listened to the Lord, had faith in him and Connor and let him learn in a way that suits his needs and not mine entirely. (Interestingly, my friend's mom still has three kids at home and she is buckling down and learning math now too--she's finding how dry and overly repetitive Saxon can be.)

Ryan's doing well with his New River class....not perfect, but considering he's not had this demanding of a class before, he's getting his bearings about him and learning what it takes to complete a college math class. (If only he'd learn that getting a tutor doesn't make him a failure--goodness he's stubborn)

I've also changed the way we are approaching his writing. After talking with a friend I've realized that he speaks clearly and well, but when he puts his thoughts down on paper-- chaos reigns-- and we just don't understand what he's trying to say. He goes in circle after circle saying the same things over and over and over and over.... So, I'm having him write in a journal everyday, sometimes twice a day and we are having success. I have him summarize favorite dragon stories of his and his history lesson.

Ryan has labs for his chemistry lessons to complete. Although he doesn't enjoy them, Connor sure does. I'm sure having his younger brother around makes the task more palatable for him....well maybe.

Two weeks ago, the boys and I, along with Cailin headed north to help my brother and his family move from Maryland to Virginia. Now they are only 2 hours away!! Yeah!

That was a Friday, the day after, they headed north again to attend a youth temple trip at the DC Temple. Connor learned that he can't be that busy and still get all his school work done, but he had a great time none the less. He now has an arsenal of fun jokes from his friend Alan to share with us. Oh joy!

Delaney, Liam and I have been reading about water fowl (see the post on The Trumpet of the Swan) and the Pledge of Allegiance.

For Delaney, reading is starting to 'click'. she read her first book 'Go Dog Go' by Dr. Seuss entirely on her own to me one day. I was shouting for joy inside as she read. She's starting to pick up more picture books and read them too. I kept telling myself that she'd get it as I would get frustrated because she wouldn't remember from day to day what we had already learned. I was right...she is getting it and I'm so proud! She is too.

She's also remembering much of her memory work for CC. I'm surprised as she rattles off the Latin words for various things and English definitions for present participle and past participle and other parts of speech. She's even remembering her skip counting this year. Of course, her favorite memory work is always the history sentences because they are put to music. Last night we went over some sentences from last year. She remembers it quite well.
Cailin's had it with math!!! Life of Fred isn't going to well for us--even for me. (Connor loves it!!! He's reading and solving these books on his own, so far he's complete 3 of them.) We are looking into a few other math programs. I'm hoping that Khan Academy will work, because it's free, but if it doesn't then we'll shell out the money and use Teaching Textbooks.

Writing, of course, is going well. She's still enjoying her science. The other day, while the missionaries were over for dinner an elder mentioned that an investigator's tibula was chipped, and that is what was keeping him from coming to church. She excitedly exclaimed, "Hey, I know what that is! It's a bone in your leg." She's looking forward to starting the lesson on BLOOD!
She's also mention that she's fascinated by the digestive system and nutrition, but that will have to come later, right now she wants to learn about blood!

Enjoying a yummy chocolate donut at Cailin's birthday party.

And what about sweet Brianne...now that she's on antibiotics I'm sure she's feeling much better. I never really could tell she was sick, she's generally a happy child. However, she is starting to get frustrated as she tries to convey to us her wants and wishes. We're trying hard to teach and get her to use sign language. She's been quite reticent to doing this, why, I don't know. But if she could grasp this concept--that signing will help her get things she wants--we'll all be a bit more happy.

Polka Dots and Stripes....a birthday celebration!

Welcome, welcome, one and all, to Cailin's birthday celebration. I am Cailin, the birthday girl herself, and I will be leading you through your tour today.

I've heard you are interested in learning about the events in which occurred during the hours my birthday party took place. I will be glad to explain them to you.

First event in my party: T-shirt making. Now, this sounds REALLY boring, or maybe for you it doesn't, but right out, if you said it to me, I'd probably be thinking, "Um...don't you think that's kinda boring?" But, as it comes out, it's the opposite. I ended up making 3 shirts because there were 2 extra. And hey, that's coming from ME.

Well, we got some t-shirts at the store and the guests, as they arrived, selected their sizes, chose a seat, and drew, put on a bit of rubbing alcohol, drew, rubbed, drew, rubbed, drew, rubbed...ends up, looks REALLY cool. The alcohol makes the marker bleed out, but not so much you lose what you have and its shape and all that stuff. So, what do you end up getting? An awesome shirt. But I'm not wearing it today as I am typing up this post cause Mom said to-it's too cold.

Second activity: Because the party was from 5 to 8, we made pizza (my favorite dinner) for dinner. Plus, it was on a Friday, and Friday night is Pizza Night!!! So, here we are rolling out our dough.

Coyote, the one in the pink shirt with the bag, and is pounding her pizza to a pulp, is destroying her pizza, while CK, the one in the long-sleeved purple shirt, is making her pizza without killing it.

Third activity: Eating CAKE!!! What is one cake plus one cake plus one cake??? Awesome, that's what!!! I had a lot of guests, and calls on a lot of cake. But, surprisingly enough, there was still cake after. The bottom one is Funfetti and then the middle one is homemade chocolate and the top is homemade vanilla. I ate the bottom and a tiny bit of the middle. Of course, I also had some ice-cream, but what kind of cake goes without ice-cream??? NONE!!! Well, maybe carrot cake, but I don't think that carrot cake is a real cake. This is another picture of me and my awesome cake. Note: Fire looks strange in photos. Another note: I blew all of the candles out in one breath. Just goes to show how playing the flute helps you!!!

Fourth activity: Presents. Such wonderful things.
I don't know what number this now is activity: Eating donuts.

Come one, come all, come to eat some DONUTS ON A STRING!!! Mouths only, folks, that's our number one rule. And let the doughnut eating contests begin!!!

Almost everyone had to drop out as their doughnuts fell heavily to the muddy earth. They wailed in despair as their doughnuts were gone. They scrambled to retrieve their doughnuts before they had too much grass and germs on them to be any good. I, regretfully, was one of them.
Trinity (the closest one) and Mikayla (The farthest one) were the only ones still in-who would win? Oh! It's a tie! Both fell at once! Yet there was still plenty bites taken out of the doughnuts and there was another box to eat with our hands.

Well, this is all of my party guests. And don't tell me its a lot-I didn't want to leave anyone out!!!

Book Group begins again....The Trumpet of the Swan

We've started up our book group gatherings again....we've been doing this for four years and we still have a great time. This month we read the book The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White.

We have changed things a bit, this year we are using the Teaching the Classics curriculum guide by Adam and Missy Andrews as a guide for our discussion. It guides the learner through key elements to look for in analyzing literature and uses the Socratic Method of questioning.

This month we focused the context and authorship....learning about the background of the authors and the time period they live/wrote the book in to see how that influenced the book.

Along with the novel we've also added the element of reading a children's book. It's easier to identify the basic concepts. We read Thank you Mr. Faulkner by Patricia Polocco. This book was her story--how she struggled with reading and how her teacher, Mr. Faulkner, realized this and then helped her learn to read at the age of 11 or 12.

Clearly this book showed the context and authorship concepts.

Afterwards, we talked and discussed about our book of the month--The Trumpet of the Swan, and had some great discussion about overcoming trials and not giving up!

During the month, we read a few factual books about swans and other water fowl. We learned why ducks don't get wet! To experiment with this we took two paper bags-- coated one with oil and left the other one dry. Then we wet down both of the bags and looked at the results. Delaney was amazed at the water beading up on the oiled bag.

"This one is just getting wet."

"Look at this one, Wow, it just rolls off."

(Jared and Connor working hard to write their story.)

As for group activities, all the kids became hired as field reporters and wrote about their favorite part of the story--or drew pictures--soon, I'll get all the stories put together in a newspaper format for all to enjoy.
EB White interwove many facts about swans in his book. We learned that they loved to eat many items found in the water...including wild rice or other grains. We took some grain and made some crackers for our cooking activity.

Letter of the Week--P

Delaney's social studies lessons were about the 'Pledge of Alliegence'....so the letter of the week became P!
While learning about the vocabulary of the Pledge of Alliegence, we worked on a Puzzle

Another day, after I dropped Ryan off at NRCC, Liam, Bri and I headed off to Walmart where I had the wonderful idea to find items that began with the letter P--either the item it's self or on the packaging label.

It didn't take long for him to remember what "P" looked like. He was eager to find them everywhere.

Sitting among the Pumpkins at the store.


I was very proud of him with this photo shoot. He asked if we could buy some Pop-tarts, when I said no, he calmly said "Okay, Mom" and off he went--no fits or fights!

While I was looking for a few of the items I needed to purchase, he too, was scouting out for letters "P"....this is the first one he found on his own without me prompting or guiding him.

At home we continued the fun and made soft pretzels....

...for dinner a scrumptious meal of Pigs in a blanket, pasta, peas, pineapple and papaya!

Whew, now I'm pooped!

Devotional-- The Standard Bearer

Every morning we start our day with a devotional. Secular knowledge and spiritual knowledge inter mesh beautifully, as well it should, all truth and knowledge is from God. My goal is to combine the two during this time.

A few days ago we started our day as usual by singing High on a Mountain Top. (We've been trying to memorize all three verses of this song and we almost have it done.)

Lately,Delaney, Cailin, Liam and I have been reading about General George Washington and how he asked Betsy Ross to sew a flag that he designed to help inspire and remind the people, soldiers and patriots, of who they were and what great task they were about. It would help bolster their love for their country when they saw the white stars and stripes. They could take courage and feel bold and brave when they saw the flag flew.

With all the kids, I went over these concepts and then I brought the scriptures out and discussed how Captain Moroni did the very same thing when he rent his coat and wrote upon it "In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom and our peace, our wives, and our children" and thus created the Title of Liberty, in hopes to rally his people to defend their religion from the Lamanities and King Amalickiah.

At that point I realized, how well timed it was that we sang that song this particular morning.

The song starts with the words...."High on the mountain top A banner is unfurled. Ye nations now look up; it waves to all the world. In Deseret's sweet peaceful land, On Zion's mount behold it stands. It dawned on me that the temple is like our flag--our reminder to keep our covenants and endure well to the end. Of course the temple is so much more than just a banner reminding us to stand strong but, this is probably why President Hinkley long ago suggested that we have pictures of the temple in our homes...in fact that each child would do well to have one in their own rooms--to remind us all to stay strong to the standards set forth and be unwavering in our faith of Christ.

I can't seem to find a picture of us at the DC temple with all of us in it....I know I have one....somewhere.... here we are at Temple Square, SLC, UT in 2008

Letter of the Week--S

Stars and Stripes...this week Delaney continued learning about the flag so we called it by it's nickname, 'The Stars and Stripes' for Liam's letter of the week.
We read about Betsy Ross, how she showed General Washington how making a 5 pointed star is much easier to make than a 6 pointed one.

We talked about the colors red, white and blue and what the colors represent.

Red--Courage (or phonetically written as 'krig' by Delaney)

White--Purity (pur--we're still working to add that silent 'e'.)
Blue--Justice (justis--again, silent e)

We also, made some 5 pointed stars by folding a square piece of paper in a certain way, one snip with the scissors and tad ah, you have a 5 pointed star.

Liam loves to paint so after making a flag with strips of colored paper and a star he added more stars with paint....and more and more paint... did I say he loves to paint?

For lunch, I let then cut their sandwiches into star shapes.

We planted some sunflowers in our garden this year. I cut one down to gather some seeds and glue them on paper to make their own "Sunflower" I found that it was diseased somewhat.

Under a portion of the seeds the plant had a slimy yucky stuff covering the plant--gross. Plus, a spider and 5 or so stink bugs came crawling out.

Cailin's been working on alliteration for her IEW class this week. We created this alliteration about our sunflower....

Our sick, stinky, slimy sunflower was infested with spiders and stink bugs.

Sharing and building Ships with Brianne.

There were so many more activities I had planned for this week,

that I'm going to extend 'S' for another week.

Homeschool notetaking...

In an effort to better document our schooling-- for family history purposes and to track what we have done so at the end of the year we can see the progress we have made-- I am going to (try) to add a post every week about each of the kids, what they have accomplished and the daily routines that we do. (Okay, okay, I know me, in all likely hood, this will only be a monthly occurrence ;)
For most of you this will be quite boring. I could start a new blog devoted just to homeschooling, but, I have grand ambitions to print our blog into a hard copy type book as our family history and I want it all-our family fun and school learning fun under one cover. (This will probably be heavy on information about Ryan and Connor, because they don't do "project" type work with me anymore...so I want to remember what they did in the future and will write it down here.)

I may often document the daily tasks that each accomplish, so to the readers of this blog, I apologize if they are boring. You may wish to ignore these posts and just look at the few pictures that will be sprinkled with in.

Ryan--He's now ending his 3rd week of his class at New River. Because of his Asperger's he has a counselor we can go to for help and guidance. She has found that Mrs. Audus, his teacher says he's a delight and a wonderful addition to her class. He participates, is ready and prepared. We worry, due to his perfectionism tendencies-- and his head banging at home on the computer as he's doing school work-- if he's 'getting it'. She says he's doing well and we'll let him take the lead about getting tutor. I'm so please with how well New River works with kids that have disabilities. What a blessing that we live so close to this institution.

At home he got an A on his first chemistry test, and still need to complete his labs, but he's doing better this year with it, than two years ago when we tried it. I think it's because he's got a better understanding with math. For American Literature, he's reading short stories and excerpts from sermons and essays by various authors, one is by Martin Luther circa 1517. In history he's studying People's Law vs. Ruler's Law.

Connor--Geography- He finished up the US map, drawing by memory, and placement of capitals, and major features. On the final "test" his friend ended up with 51 states, and he only had 49 states. I told him Noah must've stole one! :) He still can't figure out which state he's missing. They have moved on to Canada for next week.
Algebra is going well. He's still doing review work and loving Mrs. Lo and her challenging questions.
For science his research for the past two weeks were on Kingdom Monera and Fungi. His IEW papers are on Noah and Abraham and Issac.

Cailin-Life of Fred math is still going well. Yeah! Science fun still going strong...she's made another edible cell, this time out of jello. She wrote three poems for IEW and is doing "boring" (as quoted by her) copy work for English. I keep telling her, that's how the founding fathers learned, there must be something to it. She's reading about the Native Americans and learning more about symbols of our history...the flag and our National Anthem and it's origin. We learned how to make a 5 pointed star with just one cut of scissors. By folding a square sheet of paper in a certain way and with one cut, we made a perfect star like Betsy Ross.

Delaney and Liam- Combining her social studies and his preschool together is still going well. Letter of the week was S, for stars and stripes. This was a busy week so we didn't get to do as many activities as I would have liked, but that's okay, there's next week.
Delaney is working on silent E in phonics and I'm having her read many different books from the library, if they aren't too wordy, she does quite well. She's even figuring out some of the words that we haven't gone over. Math is still fun and she's working on memorizing her +2's. and skip counting 1-4's. by singing them.

Brianne--As for our sweet angel, she's doing well with her therapy. She now stands with out any leg jerking. She will side step along the sofa with help. She still cries when she's scared but she now stops and plays and will calm down on her own, plus her crying bursts are short lived. Yesterday, she and Susan cruised around the house hand in hand. She still loves music and will sway and swing her arms about when the kids sing or music is playing...she especially likes this weeks song of the history sentence about pilgrims and the Mayflower Compact.

We ended our week with a trip playing with friends at Bissett Park. Explore Now had their annual picnic/kick-off to the school year.

Flying bats and pancakes

Tonight, while reading a bedtime book to Liam about animal sounds, he asked me how many other animals-- other than birds--flew. I said "Well, some insects and bats.." and he piped up and said, with those expressive, grinning eyes shining "...and pancakes." He makes me laugh. I suppose that just a plausible to fly a (baseball) bat as anything else would be.

Science Fun: Edible Cells

This year Cailin will be studying biology, namely, anatomy and physiology.

Her first lesson was about cell structure.

She made (baking lesson included) a brownie edible cell.
Using, frosting, marshmallows, sprinkles, nuts and a few other things she created all the components of a human cell.

Ever the writer, she loves to journal about her readings and discoveries in her pre -made journal. I almost didn't buy this book, as it wasn't necessary, but it sure has been a great addition to her schooling. There's just something more enticing and fun about writing and illustrating in this book as apposed to a plain sheet of paper.

A picture drawn by her of cell anatomy

The books contain many hands on activities for her to further imprint to her mind what she's been reading about.

Here she filled in a pie chart about about the purposes of each part of the cells.

The book authors compared each function to various functions of a town....police, grocery store etc. This definitely helped her better visualize how it all works together.