Hale's Happenings: April 2014

April's here and spring is in the air.

My, my, my, this month was BUSY!!!

Ryan and Connor both obtained their learner's permit (Ryan 3/31 and Connor 4/15) Ryan is still busy with NRCC classes and the mowing business has kicked off with a bang! The grass is growing like crazy, so BRC Lawn Care Services are up and running for it's 8th year in a row.
Connor's busy with early morning seminary, school work, Latin classes on Wednesday evening and Friday morning in C'burg, online history class, scouts--currently he's Senior Patrol Leader. he planned and executed a weekend camp out that WOW-ed his youth leader. From the stories I heard I too was impressed most with how he helped Donovan Wall feel included and needed. He and Ryan are both enjoying a card game called Vanguard CARDFIGHT. Most Saturday nights they go with Bro. McGrady to Radford for a night of fun with the guys. This month I got to teach Connor's scout troop bread making. I enjoyed that....really! :) This month Connor begins working on his Eagle Project.

Brianne--At only 4 years old, this little gal is sure busy too. She has PT, OT and Speech each and every week. She also had surgery to correct her "lazy eye" problems. She had Botox inserted to "paralyze" the muscle where it should be. (didn't work :(, Dr. Faccaini also worked to unclog her tear ducts, (this did work :), and give her a complete exam--she's not very cooperative in the office. He's never been able to get a complete thorough exam. (this didn't work either, apparently even under anesthesia her eyes are still not very cooperative. :(

She's starting to enjoy reading books....she's actually sit with me for a few minutes when I read to her. She absolutely loves Storytime at the library. Ms. Jamie is quite fun! There's lots of rhymes, songs, finger plays, musical instruments and dancing with scarves...what's not to like!

Cailin-- 4 plays! Need I say more! She's in 4 plays at once.
1. The youth at church wrote and performed a play --"Dr. Who Meets the Missionaries".
2. The Suessification of Romeo and Juliet with our local homeschool group
3.Willy Wonka (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) at Pulaski Co. High School with other elementary and Jr. high students.
4. Footloose, because she's in 8th grade she can join in the HS productions. (performed in May)
She loves her time on the stage!! Writing and creating are still her passions. She's also super busy with Classical Conversation's related activities. She attended her 1st ever dance on May 2--the 18th Century Ball with other local home schoolers. Preparations for mock trial and end of year Blue Book tests also kept her busy. (CC doesn't give traditional test, they have you write down all you know and remember from your learning of the past year. The students write in a blue booklet, thus, the Blue Book exams.

The last day of CC with her friend, Celia.

Liam-- He still loves to dress up and be a Super Hero!! He loves his soccer team and coach, which is wonderful after last years 'not-so-great' year. We are still working on reading skills with him, but his body would rather be moving, jumping, kicking and flying than sitting to learn to read. So, we do what we can while he's moving and I choose to work on the sitting skill on the back burner for a while. He loves his Skittles School time with Amber and Marshall at the Mattson's Once, I even received a "but my teacher said....." comment from him. Good thing I know his "teacher" so well!

He's also quite interested in learning how to cook. He's quite thrilled to make grilled cheese sandwiches and eggs.

Delaney--she too, has been busy with plays, but only two! She participated in The Suessification of Romeo and Juliet and Willy Wonka. She's also working hard on school work and loves the new curriculum we are using called Family School (Latter-Day Learning). This program is based on the American Heritage's studies, a private school in Utah. It's heavily infused with LDS doctrine in every lesson. We love this, I love this. We get to learn great academics along with how these studies are tied to the gospel.

She's also spent time learning about hummingbirds and created a lapbook about them She continues to love dance class and performed in the spring recital. Reading at night with me (mom) is still a favorite too. Since January we've added Snow Treasure, The Great Turkey Walk, A Long Way from Chicago, the Miracles on Maple Hill, and Chu Ju to our list.

Classifying buttons--it's a project we did while learning about the classification process of animals.

For an art lesson, we learned about color....here we are mixing colors to create more beautiful colors.

Oh how I love homeschooling....one day, I was super busy with other needs, that I couldn't get started with school on time....no matter, Delaney gathered Liam and Brianne into the "bus" and read to them. My heart soared with gladness!!

Enjoying chocolate fondue at history group time...I can't remember why we did this, but it was good. My favorite was bacon in chocolate! It really is good!!

Some of the papers and projects from the month .

Easter Egg Hunt at the Buchinsky's...

A Hay ride before the hunt....

Brianne wasn't quite sure what to do....and once she figured it out she thought two or three eggs were quite enough.

Liam on the other hand knew exactly what to do....and did it well! He loved the jelly beans the best. He gladly traded all his chocolate candy with Delaney, who got mostly jelly beans, for her jb's. She was dismayed at getting so many jb's and happily took Liam up on his trading offer!

The hunt for the older kids was much more work than the others...but they did come away with quite a load to eat and enough to share with their mom....(yes, mom tax was in effect!)