A New Roof!!

Good bye holes in the roof where I can see the sky from the inside.
 Hello darkness where it's suppose to be!!

First Day of School

Ryan-- Last Semester at New River Community College
         Taking--  Biology, Chemistry, Networking Systems, and World Civilizations

Connor--First Semester at New River Community College
     Taking--Intro into Computer Science, Pre-Cal with Trigonometry, College Success skills class                          College Composition

Connor- Well, college is college I guess. It's kind of a transition because most of the work is quantity based, rather than quality based like it used to be. Luckily all of my assignments are easy to keep track of because they're all online, so you just look on the website and it's all there. I'm enjoying the material of the classes. I have two professors who are pretty good and one who's just mediocre. She explains everything, but the presentation is dry and boring. I guess that'll be most of my math classes in the future.

After a summer full of preparing to attend Pulaski County High School this year she's ready for her first day!  As a homeschooled student entering the high school as a Sophomore Cailin had to prove that she mastered the knowledge of the Freshman classes that PCHS offered.  She didn't know all of it, so she spent the summer reading, learning and taking many tests for all the subjects.  She aced them all (but one)--especially the history and English 9 work--that she's a full fledged 10th grader with 7 high school credits.   Algebra didn't go so well, so now she's retaking that class, but she's not terribly unhappy with that as she really likes her teacher and really wants to learn the subject.

Cailin-- Okay, so, hi. Just so you know, the reason I didn't pass the Algebra 1 test is because I never finished Algebra 1. I was doing Saxon Math and it was really bad and didn't make any sense, so I switched to Aleks and with that I was kind of lazy and never finished it. I only got about half way through the course totally. So when I took the test, I didn't know all the stuff because I hadn't learned all the stuff, so I failed the test, but only by one question, which was much better than I expected.

Anyway, high school is okay. It's weird, and very different. The people are weird and very different. But the classes are good and I like all my teachers, even though I don't like all the students in the classes. Some are loud and will not be quiet. But. Still. There are a lot of good people at the high school, and I'm glad I'm there. 

She forgot to add that she auditioned for Advance Choir and got it!  yea!!

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 Delaney is excited to enter 6th grade!   She will be working hard to write lots of papers this year, Grammar (First Language Lessons, Writing with Ease, Daily Grams,Spelling Plus) and math (Math Mammoth) studies will continue.  Now that she's very proficient at reading---and has become quite the book worm she and I developed a reading list that she will go through along with her own personal books of choice.

We'll all continue having fun attending history/book group with other LDS homeschool families. (Brame's, Mattson's, Walker's and new to join us the Averett's)  Well be using Story of the World and study the Medieval and Renaissance time periods.  For book group we'll be reading:  The Bronze Bow, The Little White Horse, Over Sea Under Stone, The Little Prince, Adam of the Road, Princess Academy, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, and Along Came a Dog.


This year we will continue to use Latter-day Learning for Science (Astronomy and Geology), Music Appreciation, Art Appreciation, Literature, Geography (Europe) and History (combined with group time)

 Liam's excited to really dig his teeth into learning to read better this year and math.  We'll also start studies of grammar and continue with penmanship and copy work.

I will also have the kids continue to work on memory work items.  I have them memorize Classical conversations memory work (which is history timeline, sentence, geography, science items) I'm also adding Articles of Faith for Liam ---he's now 8 and has begun his Faith in God, and poems.

I really like the Classical model of education and I've found a program written just for kiddos with special needs by Memoria Press call Simply Classical.  I will be following Level B curriculum for Brianne this year.  It too, has a focus on memory work (poems and songs) along with other preschool like studies.

This should be a great year!

Doggie Kisses

My dear friend Amber Walker cared for my children at her home while I worked on painting our family room....when Brianne walked into her home, Amber's dogs, Cricket and Ginger came to welcome everyone.  Cricket was quite jumpy and scared Brianne.  Ginger, on the other hand is much more calm and just waited for Bri to get used to her.  A few seconds went by when Ginger gave Brianne a doggie kiss.  A sweet little lick on the cheek.  That really startled Brianne and she showed great displeasure at this recent event.  That is, until everyone started cooing, "Ohhh, Bri, Ginger just gave you a doggie kiss--Oh, that's so sweet."   Amber tells me that Bri just tilted her head, as if she were thinking deeply about this, then stuck her tongue out and proceeded to give Ginger a kiss back--doggie fashion of course!

June Summer Camp Fun......Boys camp for the....boys (of course) and Governor's camp for Delaney!

Delaney attended the Southwest Virginia Governor's School summer camp.  Cooking classes and a drama class were her two class choices.  It was tough, so next year she hopes to attend again and do other fun things.  She loved learning how to cook more yummy things so she can cook for the family and of course she loved acting out.....she and her friend Grace shared the joys of Studio C with the rest of the class.



While she and friend Grace Walker went to class these two boys had fun with their own homemade version of day camp.  Mama Walker took them on a hike, and other outings.  They had fun making crafts her home too.  Mama Hale had them make their own fire starters using lint and egg cartons.  With the camp fire they roasted their own dinner and made s'mores.  They also went swimming at the local pool.

June's full of Summer Camps-- Connor and Camp Davy Crockett & Cailin at Camp Cougar

Summer camps were all around us this first month of summer....

Cailin--she spent 3 full weeks attending Camp Cougar.  This was sponsored by Pulaski High School and she got one credit of PE for doing so.  Along with driver's education classes she had health classes and lots of fun outdoor adventures.  They went canoeing, spelunking (going through a cave), rode on a zip line, white water rafting along with other fun times on the lake doing various water sports and hiking.  The most important thing she acquired from this camp was learning more about the high school and meeting new friends for her upcoming school year as a public school girl.  sorry, no picture

Cailin--Camp Cougar was really fun, and really scary as well. We did driver's ed, which was pretty boring because it was all book work, buuuut, we did a lot of fun stuff, too, and I made a lot of friends. We went canoeing and caving and rafting and swimming and tubing and all sorts of stuff. The rafting was really scary. We were going down class four or five rapids that have killed people, and I thought I would end up as a number in that. "Yes, this rapid has killed 4 people now, and the latest one was last summer!" No, thank you. But it was a lot of fun, too.

Connor--For scout camp I went to Camp Davy Crockett this year. We didn't actually do that many merit badges, I think I got two or three. It was very poorly organized and most of the time we sat around. It was still a lot of fun, the people I camped with were really good. I had fun, we just didn't get that many merit badges.  (Mom speaking here--he told me that the food was quite good and plentiful...two things a ravenous teen boy needs!)

Ryan--Personally i think all the summer camps they went to were great. It meant I didn't have to deal with them while I was here at home. Always asking me things and wanting to use my stuff. Although I guess I did miss them every now and then. But for the most part it was just the same old every day routine for me. I was glad for them when they had a lot of fun at a camp and would come home telling mom or dad about what they did that day. So there's all that.

June Summer Camp fun.....Down Syndrome Music Camp

The NRV Down Syndrome Association sponsored a music camp this year.  I thought Brianne would love it....and I was right!!

For one week in June we attended a music camp where we sang lots of songs, played games, nursery rhymes, read stories, played musical instruments....and sang more songs.  It was delightful.

The event was held in Blacksburg, so we made a special day of it and packed a picnic lunch to eat at the duck pond on Virginia Tech campus.....that was fun too!

Early Morning Seminary 2014-1015

What a great Seminary Class!!  Top picture was taken at the beginning of the year....getting the seminary room spruced up for the year.  Cailin, Sister Davis, and Norberto Garcia.

Below was at the end of the year....their annual Shoney's Breakfast Run....Garret Vance, Norberto Garcia, Garret Smith, Connor, Jared Mattson,  Bottom row: Beryl Brame, Sister Melanie Davis, Cailin.