If you leave a comment under anonymous please put your name at the end of the message so I know who left the comment. Thanks! Laura

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Another Long Overdue Update

Get ready to read a novel.......

Ok, I know I have been awful about keeping this blog updated. I just looked and it's been over a month since I posted anything. I have been on the computer every night but not on here. We have decided to homeschool for second grade and I have spent practically every waking moment online researching for it. UGGH! It's become an obsession I think. We are not going to follow any specific set curriculum but are doing unit studies and lapbooks. We are also using Time 4 Learning (online curriculum). I'm still in the research phase and still seem to find all kinds of new info each day. I did order a science text book and workbook and will possibly do the same for social studies. I will use these more as guides for what to study. I will be getting a math book because I'm lost when it comes to what math she should be working on. When I talked with Jordan about what she wanted to study next year almost everything she named off had to do with animals or nature (is she my daugher or what???). I found a great blogspot blog that does what they call the Outdoor Hour Challenge. http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/ It's not really an hour but an activity you do each week outdoors with your children. If goes along with an old reference book by Anna Comstock called the Handbook of Nature Study. We are looking forward to adding this to our daily/weekly curriculum.
Jordan is really excited about homeschooling. Her cousin Parker has been homeschooled for 2 years now. They spent a week and half together at Grandma's over Christmas and Jordan was so happy that she did "Parker's 2nd grade work" with him while she was there. After Christmas we did a short mini unit on Polar Bears and made a lapbook about it. I have found a great website that gives you lots of templates for lapbooks and reasearch ideas too. The Enchanted Learning and Homeschool Share websites will be our God Send for alot of this.

Front of lapbook (got picture of polar bear from work and typed title out )
Inside of lapbook. We got templates from Enchanted Learning and Homeschool Share websites. We took a "field trip" to the Omaha Zoo and took the pictures
Back of lapbook. Picture report on Polar Bears in a pocket.
Right inside of book lists names of "family" Male=Boar, Female= Sow, Baby= Cub
Polar Bear Diet Shape book. Inside she cut and pasted info about a polar bear's diet.
Book about polar bears. We learned alot about polar bears just from this mini weekend unit. Did you know polar bears fur is actually clear and drinking straw like? How about that polar bears don't drink water?
Right side of lapbook. A polar bear maze, a picture (we took at our zoo) and a "T-book" about where you can find polar bears.

OK, now that I've updated you on our homeschool adventure let's see what else I can tell you about....

Christmas- We spent Christmas eve and Christmas day evenings at Jim's parent's house with James. It was a nice time. We had our traditional syster stew and sloppy joes dinner and then opened presents with them on Christmas eve. We did our own family Christmas with Jordan on Christmas morning (at 5am because Jim had to work) and then went back to his parent's house that evening for duck dinner. I realized I didn't really take that many pictures this Christmas
Jordan with her one present she got to open at home on Christmas Eve. It's her Mariposa Barbie from my mom
Jim reading the story of Jesus' birth
James and Jordan
James in his Packer's coat he got from Grandma
Jordan on Christmas morning
Jim on Christmas with his key finder keychain which doesn't work right so I still have to help him find his keys all the time :)
Jesse with his new toys
Riley with his new toys
Our kitten Nala. I don't think I posted about when we got her. We got her the day after Thanksgiving. Jordan and I went to the pet store just to look around and fell in love with her. Jim wasn't too happy at the time but has since fallen in love with her.
Courtney came down after Christmas but was only here for a day because of a big family blow up that has since been rectified. We were glad to be able to see her though. Victoria and Chad are here from Florida visiting. They are staying with Grandma and Grandpa Leland. It was nice to finally be able to meet our son-in-law. I took all the kids out to dinner at the buffet with a gift certificate we got from my mom and Norm. Let me tell you James and Chad are a couple of goof balls (just kidding guys). You would think they've known each other all their lives though the way they get along. Chad and Tori are coming over today after church and I will try to get some pictures of them. I'm sad I didn't get any pictures of Courtney while she was here.
I went to a 12 hour scrapbook crop on the 27th. That was my Christmas present from Jim. I had a productive day and got 15 pages done. I hadn't done any scrapbooking since last spring and it was nice to get back into it.
We are slowly but surely getting work done on this house and may end up buying it from Leon. He's giving us about 6 more months to live here before we decide for sure.
Jim is switching to 2nd shift in Feb. He will be helping me with homeschooling since he will be home more during the day. I am still loving my job. I'm going to talk to my boss soon about homeschooling Jordan so she knows she will be there more during the day. With Jim working second shift she won't need to come over until 2:00 though when Jim leaves for work so she will only be there an extra hour a day. I was told when she hired me that anytime I am scheduled to work Jordan can be there for free so it shouldn't be an issue.
Well it has taken me over an hour to post this update. I know there are other things that have happened but I can't think of them right now. I will post more later if I think of it. :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice, honey. I am glad you got this up...finally :)

Gigi Lynn said...

Thank you for the "novel" -- I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. And I'm so pleased for you, as you already know!

Anonymous said...

I am really looking forward to tutoring my daughter. I love to be with her anyhow, and look at this challenge as an opportunity to be closer to her and enrich both of our lives.

Love,
Jim