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HSBA Overload.
2007-11-06 01:51:00
In case you didn't know about it... the 2007 Homeschool Blog Awards have begun. Nominations began today and if you click the title of this post, you can hop over to see what all the fuss is about. I spent half of the day getting the rules, nomination information, and categories posts up... discussing design issues with our team for the site and cleaning out my email box. My 8 year old daughter was sick today, so we had a sick-day off from school. In other really boring news: the fuzzy calipitter molted again today. I love to pet the furry little bugger. I would show you another photo, but the last photo will do. He looks about that cute still - black, hairy, and just a bit bigger. I'm going to cry when he becomes a moth and we have to set him free.Morgan read an Elsie Dinsmore book today while she was in bed (between naps and medicine). Kaden has played on the computer most of the day. Hopefully we'll all be well enough to get on with school tomorrow... while everyone sends in th...

Field Trip Foto Friday: McArthur Military Museum
2007-11-02 17:48:00
We were moving to Arkansas in the middle of our Military Unit back in the early part of the school year (October) 2005-6. We didn't get very many field trips done for that unit (and that was a shame because there were plenty of military bases and places to see near Little Rock). It took us until the very end of the school year to make up one of these planned field trips: the trip to McArthur Miltary Museum .We finally visited the museum on a day when Daddy was off work. It was the only good thing about his schedule there (evenings and weekends on duty) - the fact that he was able to accompany us on many of our field trips. This museum, while not "spectacular" was very interesting (the building alone was worth going to see). I love old buildings... the smell of real wood and polish... the milky glass and beautiful trim... and metal door-knobs... it takes you back in time.This particular building, with its striking octagonal tower, is an old arsenal for a frontier fort - "Fort Roots" ...
More About: Foto , Friday , Trip

My Vision Forum Wish List
2007-11-01 17:42:00
Kim told me about this contest (in the nick of time) today as we were hashing over the prizes that Vision Forum so generously is offering to the winners of the Homeschool Blog Awards. Once again this year they are offering a ton of prizes to our contest and each winner will get something of value from the VF.Kim's contest, however, is ending tomorrow night. So if you haven't entered, you better hurry! She's giving away 250$ in prizes of your own choice. The only catch is that you are up against an ARMY (she has over 150 entries already) and you have to pick VF products out of their catalog ONLY. The product has to have the gold VF symbol beside it. Go see her blog (link under the title of this post) for more details.I really love Vision Forum, so making a wish list that is UNDER $250 is really hard for me. That explains why this 'list' is broken up in parts... the part for Kim's contest... and the parts for later so I can keep a running tally of VF favorites in case we have a ...
More About: List

School Metamorphosis: Adding Art
2007-10-31 23:03:00
This year has been so much more fun now that we have made the effort to add art every week. Having a daytime schedule has helped as well... but I really think the art has given our year the spice that last year lacked. We have been busy bees this year with homeschooling. Some of the art in our school year consists of a monthly art class (and their art teacher's assignments), GeeArt, and our KONOS art ideas. For a long time, I felt like I was skimping on art... and that really broke my heart because art was my favorite subject in school. It very well may be my favorite subject still!I am what you would call an eclectic homeschooler, so I tend to mix and match different styles of homeschooling and curriculums to fit our needs. We are usually studying a loose topical unit-study through KONOS that gives us a basic "theme" to focus on. While we do that topic, I like to throw in many sources (library books, fiction chapter books, movies, field trips, textbooks, geography, timeline charac...
More About: School , Metamorphosis , Morph , Metamorpho

Carnival of Homeschooling: Yearbook Edition
2007-10-30 09:30:00
Welcome to the 96th Carnival of Homeschooling . If you don't know what a carnival is... let me explain. A Blog Carnival is a showcase of memories (articles that we bloggers call "posts") from around the net on a group of blogs which share similar interests. There are carnivals for all sorts of things (cats, finances, poetry...). This carnival is put on BY homeschoolers FOR homeschoolers. Each host has their own style and sometimes uses a "theme" to write the carnival. I like themes... so I usually use them when I host the carnival on my blog. This week's theme is high school yearbooks. I happen to be a photo nut... and I thought it would be fun to see what some of my favorite bloggers looked like in their yearbook days. A few of the photo submissions you see here are current photos of bloggers (we won't hold it against you that you are young enough to be our CHILDREN).Take some time and visit each of the links below. You might go blind if you try to do it all in one sitting. Bookm...
More About: Edition

Field Trip Foto Friday: Old State House Museum - Little Rock, AR
2007-10-26 20:43:00
The Arkansas Old Statehouse is a charming white building with its Greek-inspired columns and beautiful black accents. When we first saw it, it seemed to beckon us inside. That was before I even knew it was a museum; back when we first arrived in Arkansas in 2005. When I discovered that it was on the trolley route and admission was FREE, we made plans to go and explore it.The museum there boasts exhibits that tell of famous Arkansans and spotlight antique artifacts from early America. They have rooms which are decorated in the design styles of the past and in one of these rooms you will find a Confederate Seal behind glass. In a hallway, lit by the nearby window, there is a bust of Thomas Jefferson. Behind glass you will find a colorful exhibit of Hillary Clinton's evening gowns along with photography of the Clinton family.Other things you will find of interest are... Arkansas Native American artifacts and pottery, local artwork, local history exhibits, and a room full of antiques s...
More About: House , Rock , Foto , Friday , Museum

FUZZY CALIPITTER!!!!
2007-10-25 00:25:00
HE MOLTED!!! I am just so excited. Can you tell? We were worried about our little hibernating fuzzy-wuzzy yesterday. He had been eating like a tiny little cow, and then all of the sudden, he started turning a bit gray and stopped moving. I was worried that the plants we were giving him weren't what he needed. I was wrong! Today we checked on him again and inside our plastic bowl there was a tiny little ball of 'fur' and 'cap' that used to cover his body and head. Look beside him in the above photo. He's the cutie-pie on the leaf there... and beside him is his leftover ball of fuzz. This afternoon he is still snuggled up on the same dead leaf... but he isn't red and black any more like yesterday's photo. He is REALLY black and REALLY fuzzy! He looks a lot bigger now. I guess the little guy wanted his winter coat on with the change in temperature this week.We haven't ever raised a caterpillar before, so we are just tickled to see these amazing changes right before our eyes. I...

Texas Flyway, Monarch Migration, Raising Caterpillars and More
2007-10-24 04:37:00
We are officially in the Texas Flyway (the path in Texas through which the stately Mona rch butterfly makes its way to Mexico where it hibernates for the winter). Did you know that Monarchs migrate and hibernate? Amazing stuff!Today we counted 54 Monarchs - 'King of the Butterflies' - around town when we made our way to art class. The cold front had them all hiding yesterday. The day before we saw only five and I was beginning to think that most of them were already close to the Mexico border. I was happy to see some of them today, but I sure hope they get to Mexico in time to beat the cold weather. They are so beautiful. Friday we counted 87 or so while we ran our errands for the culture fair. Thursday we counted 49 just in our neighborhood alone! They were flying high in the blue sky... one by one, drifting along with the breeze, orange wings glowing in the late afternoon sun.You can't really tell from our pictures (silly butterflies just wouldn't be still... and they were so h...
More About: Pillars

Sprittibee's Monday Devotional: Finances and Faith
2007-10-23 00:04:00
Psalm 37:25 ~ I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.The TEACHER OUT OF SERVICE day is going well. There has been no argument (other than over sorting laundry this morning when we first woke up). There has been a lot of housework done. The kids have actually enjoyed themselves while doing it all! I even heard them singing together while they did our lunch dishes. We warmed up leftovers from Mexico, Italy, Japan and Madagascar in the microwave. All but the Mexican tasted much better the first go-around. The vanilla fruit-salad from Madagascar was getting a bit 'strong'. We threw out the last bit that wasn't eaten. Mommy has been upstairs doing bills, checkbook and laundry... and soon some school plans for tomorrow. Later I have to go return our library books and go to the bank to get an ATM card.This brings me to my blog topic today: Finances and Faith . No one wants to talk about money (at least those who don't h...
More About: Devotional , Monday

Culture Fair Weekend
2007-10-21 19:03:00
We had a blast at our culture fair this weekend. Here's a cute shot from the fun. I'm totally wiped out, though... so I'm sorry for not blogging, but life is just a little hectic when you are doing a major school project. Plus, we had my sister in town this weekend (who was a huge help), and we had church and small group today (Sundays are always busy).Since last Thursday we have made our displays (including matting art and school work for show and painting some background illustrations), got our costumes finished, practiced our reports, bought some last minute items for our table, gathered some things from home for show-and-tell, and mom spent from 6am Saturday to 9am cooking! I made 'Tempura', 'Edamame', 'Sticky Rice', and 'Miso Soup'. I was so proud of the kiddos for their performance. My reluctant participant (Kaden) was the hardest one to get to sit down and stop talking! They said they were nervous, but you couldn't even tell. It was so fun to listen to all the kid...
More About: Culture , Weekend , Fair

My Homeschool Lunch 3
2007-10-18 15:08:00
It's that time again... busy time! You know that when you see a photo of my lunch in here, that I have much more important things to do than blog. However, seeing what other homeschoolers are eating has always been an interest of mine... because not only do I have to wear the hat as Mom, Teacher, Secretary, Principal, Janitor, and Administrator for my little school... I also have to take on the title of COOK! Getting a good lunch crammed in to your already full day is sometimes hard. We eat too much canned soup if we are really cracking the books. Here's an example of a 'quickie' family favorite of ours... Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches!Speaking of food... I have put a few recipes on my food blog for you this week! It isn't the prettiest blog, but the recipes are great. One day, I'll have the time and money to get the site re-designed. Right now, it is my back-burner blog (a recipe collection of our family's favorites).While you imagine the warm smell of my soup dr...
More About: Lunch

Fall Five Kodak Printer Give-Away: Winner!
2007-10-17 23:25:00
The 7 entries for our Fall Five Kodak Printer Give -Away that we had on the 14th of this month swelled to 19 in just one day! Seems like everyone else is just as bad of a procrastinator as I am. I had a good time with this project and I hope you did too. I think that everyone deserves a printer. Too bad there's only one! I wanted the judging to be unbiased, so there were five of us that voted. A few of my "judges" didn't respond fast enough, so I felt like 5 of us was enough to get a sample of unbiased opinion. Seems that the vote is in!The WINNER is Jacque Dixon of "Seeking Rest in the Ancient Paths". Seems like all that hard work she put into her garden (teaching those future gardeners in her family as she goes) is paying off (in more than just veggies). She really was a favorite for our judges! Even the lady at Kodak mentioned it! Kudos to you, Jacque. Maybe you can send me a fresh can of some scrumptious veggie one of these days (because we live in a neighborhood and aren't a...
More About: Winner

Linkies First, Winner Tomorrow!
2007-10-17 05:56:00
I know it hurts to wait this long to find out who won the free printer (really, I do). I have had three responses back from my judging team (who don't know the bloggers in the contest). I felt that I couldn't make an unbiased decision since I know so many of you great moms and you all did such a great job. I asked about 6 or 7 others to help me pick. I'm hoping that a few of them will pick the same winning post so that I can make a final call. Tomo rrow we should have a winner up!In the mean time, you wouldn't believe all the great stuff we've been coming up with on the net! My kids are doing a culture project on Japan right now (which is interestingly falling in the middle of our studies on insects - particularly the silk worm, Monarch and other butterflies and moth species). There God goes again, showing off! Our co-op is doing a "pot-luck" culture fair and the kids are giving reports, setting up tables, and eating international foods. I'm no Japanese food fan, but I guess I...
More About: Winner , Morrow

* All My Favorite Things Collage *
2007-10-16 05:28:00
We already have the most awesomest printer (the Kodak EasyShare 5300)... but since we made everyone else work so hard for this contest, we decided it would only be fair to do a project ourselves. Of course, I can't win the contest... but I'm sending in a bogus entry just for kicks! I love doing creative projects (and as you can see, I work best under pressure... which is why this post is up just hours before the contest deadline!). The kids enjoy letting mom work herself up into a deadline panic and then getting a WHOLE DAY OFF to work to their little hearts content on ARTSY-FARTSY stuff.Today was a fun-day. We did our Bible, Devotional, Math... and then we jumped in the car with our printed photos and made our way to the teacher's supply store. They laminated our pictures for our project and we picked out some piggy-pink butcher block paper (since Morgan's room is mainly pink). We had fun cutting laminated squares out. The scissors slide on lamination (which is really groovy if...
More About: Things , Favorite , Favor , My Favorite Things , Collage