Summer School Fun

 We've had such fun gathering every Monday morning with our friends the Brame's and the Mattson's for school that Christine and I decided to keep it going during the summer.  Jen's days away from having #5 so she's opting out :)    We both feel that our girls need a deeper knowledge of phonics.  We've chosen to use Happy Phonics for our curriculum.  We love it, the girls love it and we're having fun....our girls are indeed happy!!  

 We switch back and forth from their home to ours.  My kids love going to their home because all the toys are new.  Brianne's even joining in the schooling fun with this peg board.

We are using 'Handwriting Without Tears' for their penmanship.  What a great find.  The first time I look at this program I didn't see much of a difference than other programs.  Boy was I wrong...this one is full of fun kinetic, gross motor, moving and dance fun.  The kids 'practice' writing the letter in the air with their bodies first while dancing to fun engaging music.  The music teaches them fun songs that describe the motions they will make while writing on paper.  With the songs stuck in their heads, they then pick up the pencil and write the letters on paper.   Delaney often sings the song under her breath as she writes.  Another fun way to learn.
Liam's also wanting to join in the fun.  

Practicing their 'frog-jump' letters.

More game type fun with Happy Phonics.   Letter recognition was the goal of this game.  I wrote all the letters...one in each cup of the egg carton.  I put a bean inside, they shook it around, opened the egg carton and had to tell me which letter it landed on.

Muffin Tops Match Up....match the capital letter to the lower case letter.   I know this is easy for them, but Christine and I were glad we did it as they had just a few minor confusions with a few letters.

Here, they put themselves in ABC order....Bri, Delaney, Janet, and Liam.

It's definitely more fun learning with a friend and a game!

It's time for Cherries!

Our cherry trees are loaded this year.   I'm so excited.  I think we planted these dwarf cherry trees three years ago.  Our first year of harvest was eaten by birds. Worms devoured the second years harvest. However, this year....I was determined to claim these tart red fruited gems for myself!  I didn't think to take a picture before I harvest our first picking...but as you can see, we still have many more to glean.  Mmmm, cherries in a cloud, tarts, jam....and plenty just for eating too!

Early Morning Seminary

 Ahhh, Early morning seminary.....Up at 5 am and off to class at 6 am.  Ryan's been diligently at it for three years.  If fact, he's had perfect attendance. (He missed class for home school conference, but made those classes up, so he's still considered as a perfect attendee.   We got to attend class his last day for this year.  Each of the youth got to share their favorite memory scripture (Ryan's is Ezekiel 37:15-17, about the stick of Judah [the Bible]  and the stick of Joseph[ The Book of Mormon] working hand in hand to support the other)   They then bore their testimony.  It was sweet to hear his simple testimony of the gospel and how seminary helped him learn more of the Old Testament and doctrines of our church.   We, Barry I never once had to remind him to get up...in fact, he often would have to get us up (if Josh couldn't pick him up for class) and he'd feel bad about it...but missing class was never and option.  He said that when he missed class he felt odd and unsettled for the day.  He really wanted that spiritual boost.

Silly, silly youth!!   Emily Robinette, Joshua Witherspoon, Courtney Davis, Adam Richardson.  In back- Melanie Davis and Ryan Hale


Ryan's thoughts-- Well as to my thoughts on seminary I must say that most of the time it was fun but that there were some days that were just real boring to me. I like seminary its nice to be with the other youth and to have some nice discussions. I guess that is all I really have to say.

Book Group--The Wizard of Oz.

 We had a lot of fun reading this book....even the older ones.   We also had fun creating our own 'cities' in monochrome colors.  From the book we learned that the Munchkins land was all blues, the Wicked Witch's home area was yellow.  Glenda's home area were reds....and we learned that Dorothy went TO Glenda, not the other way around. (as portrayed in the movie).  There were many other 'lands' that Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin-Man, and Lion traveled through that weren't mentioned in the book also.  We enjoyed this read, but learned that us Mom's, didn't do our homework.  Apparently this book was quite politically charged according to the times.  If we would have known that we would have had the kids do a bit of research to present to everyone on McKinley's administration and all that was going on during the early 1900's.  I don't think McKinley was liked well...and was considered a humbug wizard of Washington or Emerald City, as the book described.

 To demonstrate the 'melting of the witch' Rachel Brown ( the mom leader of this book) brought sugar cubes for the kids to build with...and then pour hot water over to watch them melt.   It was a fun experiment and some of them.....

 ....namely Connor, proceeded to make that into an experiment of " how long will it take for the water to evaporate and we get back to crystallized sugar again?"

 All of our pretty new cities for Dorothy and her pals to travel through.

Cailin's --orange   Delaney--red  Liam--purple  ( he proudly showed me the door knob, chimney and windows of his home)  and Connor's maze like green city.

Liam's Thoughts....

"Daddy, where is Mommy?"  asks Liam.
"She's not here, she's out walking."  replies Barry.
"Ohhh, does that mean you're in charge?"    
We'll I guess we know who he thinks runs this house. 


A few weeks ago, as Delaney, Liam and I were in the car, out and about  to shop for a few groceries, he says, full of love and happiness....."Mom, you're the best mom in the world.  Daddy gets the money and you spend it!"    Well...we know who spends all the money too.

Soo so, cute...that little guy sure is growing up. He's working hard to keep up with his chores and morning responsibilities(making his bed).  He's starting to write letters, M and L, mostly.  He'll cut cubes of paper and write letters on them and hide them throughout the house.  I guess he's playing a game because when I found one and threw it away, he got a mite upset with me.   Today, while Barry and I were out in the muggy--a bit to warm, but not yet hot.-- heat, working in the garden, who should come bearing two glasses of water...but my sweet Liam.   I asked him to get some sun screen so could put it on Brianne--he did, and began  applied some to himselftoo.  Then he saw that my leg was getting sun, so he put some on for me, so thick, that I think he used 1/2 the bottle just on my leg alone!  He kept telling me, "Mommy, I don't want you to get a sunburn either."
Oh how thoughtful.  What a treasure he is.  I sure love that little guy. 

LDSHE Homschool Conference

We again attended the LDSHE home school conference this year.  Ryan joined Connor and I this year, and we had a good time.  Held in Fredricksburg, VA, we traveled through some beautiful rolling hills country, passed many old and new farms that were amazing to see, along with three civil war history sites.  Connor is planning to have his father take him and Ryan to this area again.
       I wasn't  as thrilled with the conference location....I mean who can beat a beach location? But we enjoyed being together, just me and my boys.  Usually, I come home from these on a spiritual high. While this didn't happen, and I was beginning to regret spending all that money,  I realized as I ponder on some of the things I learned I truly am thankful I was able to attend.  I learned that  I'm a right brained thinker....who knew?!  I always thought of myself as a left brain thinker.  With this knowledge, I'm reorganizing the way I plan time, stuff and all that's in my wee little brain.

    I also gained some more ideas on how to teach writing and history this year.  I had a wonderful conversation with another mother of children of various disabilities...some of which we have in our family too.  She taught a class on working with kids and I now have quite an arsenal of ideas to implement and try, especially for Brianne.

   Apparently, the boys enjoyed the food most of all .....true teenagers...it's all about food!!   We hit a grocery store in Waynesboro that deeply discounts food items for various reason, so we did get some yummy food that we don't normally eat.  We at out  at Five Guys, Burger and Fries for dinner one night...and then there's the donuts that Connor will tell you about...MMmmmmm

Connor's thoughts---Oh, where to begin. To start with, the absolute best thing about the trip was the food. Talking about the above picture, that's actually the second time I had ever eaten donuts from Krispy Kreme. The first time, I was only four (possibly younger) and therefore, barely remember the occasion. In addition, I got a new game called Metroid Prime Hunters. In addition, I got lots of time to read.  What did I read? In Search of Schrodinger Cat, Quantum Physics and reality. I'd better say something about the conference. They had two comedians there who were completely hilarious. Other than that, I gotta say, it wasn't nearly as good as last year.

Ryan's thoughts--- I guess what I have to say about the conference is that is was somewhat good. A few of the classes were interesting like the computer programing class. I was able to talk to all kinds of other kids who liked some of the same things I do. I talked a lot to a kid who was really good at doodling. I also like the food that we got to eat. I also got several new video games like Connor did and I too, read a lot. That is about all I have to say.

May's presentation group gathering...the final one for this school year

Our last presentation group meeting for the year....Delaney and Liam did a report on frogs.  "F" became our letter of the week and we learned about the life cycle of frogs.

He was quite proud of his hand puppet frog....he cut and pasted most everything by himself.

Krystal Mattson's presentation was a readers theather....it was funny how the most difficult reading parts ended up going to Amber and Liam, the youngest of the group!

Cailin claimed that she didn't want to do a presentation this month...yet, the day before the presentation day, she and Ryan walked to Pulaski Library, and she proceeded to research all she could on the lynx cat.  She came up with wonderful information and that has morphed into a desired to research more on other animals...and that has morphed into a new blog of her's.  On this blog she writes all about the different animals she's learned about.

The beginnings of Frog-Eyed Salad.....Mmmmmm one of our favorite treats!  This is what we shared at snack time with the others.





Connor didn't present this week, as he, Ryan and Barry were off on a mowing day!! :)

A history wrap-up

I haven't been posting much on our history and math day at the Mattson's on Monday's.  Well today was the last day for this year so here's a warp up of the past month or so....

Tudor England....we discussed England's monarch reign of the Tudor family, notably Henry the III- Henry the VIII, Queen Mary (Bloody Mary), Mary Queen of Scots,  and Queen Elizabeth (Good Queen Bess.)  What a family!  Thankfully not mine!

We learned that during the time of Queen Elizabeth (this was the time of Shakespeare), that many buildings were built in the shape of an "E".  This created two courtyards for gardens and lawns.  A favorite passtime was to play lawn bowling.  We too, played some lawn bowling.  A ball was thrown out for the target--ours was the small yellow ball in the picture.  Then the players each had a turn to roll their own ball towards the target ball.  The closest one to the target wins.  The owner of the basketball won this time.

Delaney takeing her turn playing the game.

Math time!!  During math time Liam, Amber and I work on learning letters and the sounds they make and have fun playing math games. 

Explorers of the New World....  For two weeks we spent some time on the explorers of North and South America.  Cartier, Champlange, Hudson, Vespucci, Columbus, Dias, Coronado,    We learned that many of them honed their map making skills and drew maps of all the lands they traveled.   Here's Liam with his treasure...a beautiful rock!

We gave the kids each their own book to make maps and write details about the flora, fauna and anything else they may discover in their new-found-land....below, you'll see Connor's map of the yard.

The People of the New World....The Aztecs, Incas and Mayans.    We know the real history of this wonderful new world....just read the Book of Mormon to get the full deal.  But we had fun reading and listening about the cultures that developed after the great wars between the Lamanites and Nephities, the Jaredites  
We created paper masks of Jaguars, vaguely similar to the ones that were worn by the Aztecs warriors. 

Although Ryan didn't join in the creating fun of crafts, he did often join us for the day.  He just went off to read about his history lessons or work on his math.  Many time I would drop him off at the libray.  He really enjoys spending time there.. I think it's because he doens't want to have to share the computer time with his siblings.

Painting her jaguar mask.

We especially enjoyed learning about their discovery of the caco beans and the development of chocolate.....Mmmmmm oh so yummy!

 The Reformation and Counter-Reformation    We listen, talked and learned about Martin Luther and his 95 Thesis and some of the others (Zwingli, Calvin, Wycliff and others)  that followed in his foot steps in challenging the Church and Pope about the doctrines they were teaching.  We learned that this all came about when Gutenberg developed the printing press and made it possible for the Bible to be available to the common people, thus reading for themselves the word of God and not having to rely on the church leaders to tell them what it said.  We also talked about how important this step in history was for the restoration of God's church to be brought back to the earth.  These great men of the Reformation were valiant servants of our Heavenly Father.  For our activity we tried our hand at potato printing.

getting to know my cousins

The younger kids and I took off for a few day so they could get to know their cousins.  What we discovered is that those two cute little boys adore and love the attention of their older cousin Delaney....and she loved the adoration of them too.  She was so sad when we had to leave....even now, two weeks later she asks when we can go back and see them.  It was a great boost to her "stuck in the middle of many kids" life.  She was top dog for a few days, she loved that too....getting to go to bed later than the others...and get a few extra yummy treats when the younger ones went down.

Feeding the boys their mid morning bottles.

Delaney is beginning to develop some confidence in reading and the boys....along with Brianne and Liam enjoyed listening to her read to them.

Playing outside is a great way to spend the day too...we enjoyed taking walks and they liked crawling around on the patio and grass.

I was concerned, with Brianne, just having her surgery two weeks before and being so clingy to me, that this trip wouldn't fair well....but all went well and she too liked playing with her cousins.  I tried to get her to follow their lead in learning how to crawl down the stairs.  She sits precariously on the edge of the steps wanting to go down.

We had a great time and really love our cousins too!