Homeschool Liebster Blog Award

Home Schoolers love to encourage one another and this is true as well when it comes to blogging homeschoolers. They give each other awards to encourage each other to keep up blogging about our adventures.

Last week Chareen from over at Every Bed of Roses blessed and encouraged me with this award.  Thank you Chareen for Awarding me The Homeschool Liebster Blogging Award! 



Awards come with rules 

1. List 11 facts about yourself.
2. Answer 11 questions given to you.
3. Create 11 new questions for the bloggers you nominate for the award.
4. Choose 11 bloggers with 200 or less followers to nominate.
5. Go to each blogger page and let them know about the award.
6. Thank the person who nominate you and link back to their blog.

11 Facts about me

1. I  love Rainbows.
2. I was an extra on Dawson's Creek in 1998 
3. I love pumkin pie
4. My best friend ran away from home when she was 14 and worked on the streets as a prostitute  for 4 years,, she is now an RN.
5. As I child I wanted to go into the Air Force and be a fighter pilot, then go to school to be an astronaut. My dreams were shattered went to a recruitment center and found out that since I was born with congenital cataracts I would never be allowed to do either,.I would still love to do both.
6. I am very much afraid of bees
7. My mom and I both died when she delivered me I was brought back first, then my mom.
8. I am writing a novel.
9. I cannot sing but have always wanted to
10. I have 3 tattoos, a cougar cub, a 4 leaf clover and a  2 large vines that cover my back.
11. I was a high school drop out and got my GED when In my 20's before I went to college

Chareen's Questions Answered

1. Can you speak a second language, if so what is it ? I am just learning Spanish
2. What's your favorite book ? The Twilight series 
3. If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go ? The Pyramids of Eygpt
4. What do you use to teach a second language ?My children do Latin and we use Livley Latin  I use Livemocha for Spanish 
5. What's your favorite day of the week ? Monday, I call it motivation monday. We are refreshed from the weekend and ready to start the week off right.
6. How long have you homeschooled ? 8 years...wow I didn't realize it has been that long. Time flies!
7. What's your favorite worship song ? I do not have one
8. What's your favorite Christian DVD ? I do not have one
9. Do you use a curriculum or mix and match ? Mix and match 
10. Are you on Pinterest ? If so what's your page address ? Not my blog just me personally
11. How long does it take you to write a blog post ? 1-2 hours but I am usually watching a documentary on the iPad while I write so I get distracted.

11 Questions to answer

1. What was the last documentary you watched?
2. What did you do today that made you smile?
3. What is your favorite subject to teach ( if you are a homeschool mama)?
4. What subject do you feel you need to work on more?
5. Coffee or tea?
6. When you were a child what did you dream to be when you grew up?
7. What is your favorite tv series?
8. Who inspires you ( other than God)?
9. What color are the walls in the room you are in right now?
10. What was your favorite childhood book?
11. Do like to do schoolwork outside on nice days?

I nominate

1. First Comes Love 
2. The Hogatt Homeschool
3. Bluestocking Belle
4. No Cheetos Allowed
5. Spoonful
6. Princess Ninja  Kitty
7. Broom and Crown  
8. Lightly Enchanted 
9. Swatdee Ka From Thailand
10. Home Grown Hearts Acadamy
11. Homeschool Coffee Break

Not everyone I nominated is a homeschool mama, some are actuall kids who blog and are homeschoolers and a few are just moms who have fun blogs I like to read. Even if you don't homeschool I do hope you still participate in the fun I would love reading all of your questions.

Such a Sweet Week

IN MY LIFE THIS WEEK...

I am gearing up to start another juice fast on Monday for a reset.. I am very excited to start,I have gotten into some pretty bad eating habits the last 3 months so I need a good fast to detox my body so I start craving what my body really needs. Even though I was starving and had a ton of detox symptoms last time I felt amazing, so full of energy. I am going to fast for 7 days then dive  into the whole30 program. What is whole 30 you may ask check it out here. The short version is basically you only eat  meats, fruits and veggies for 30 days and nothing else no grains, no dairy. I am excited, motivated and ready to start. 

IN OUR HOMESCHOOL WEEK...

Falcon:

 I have switched up the way I have been homeschooling Falcon to get him on track so he will be done with highschool and onto college by 15/16 years old. we are incorporating more work and have implemented quite a bit of Ambleside  into his daily program. We are picking up a few things for yr 8 but starting year 9 in 2 months.

To keep him on track I have a weekly lesson plan broke down for him each day with assignments that need to be completed. There is an end time for each day that he needs to have his work turned into me by if he does not get his work in by that time he loses ALL privlages for the rest of that day. He only has work Mon-Thurs. With  Fridays being unschool Fridays  if he has finished all his work throughout the week. During unschool Friday time he can do anything he wants that is educational. draw, do mind teasers, play mom approved video games, logic puzzles work on his novel etc.. So far this week went well, I have a feeling in a week or so we may hit a few bumps.

He just started reading 

I have been having him read 1 chapter per day and write a 1/2  page summery on each chapter. This book is from Ambleside's yr 8 biography unit. 

                                                   For Literature he just started reading

 Wow! this book is a hard one! I found this great study guide though.

We started using Grammar 101 he has been doing 2-3 lessons a day while the lessons are still just review.

We have been using Freerice for Vocab this week, I LOVE this site. He starts at lvl.15 and does 500 grains a day.

                                       

This is a great book Falcon just finished and wrote a great paper on it. He would be thrilled if you would stop by his blog  and read it. You would make his day if you followed him or commented on a post. Thank you in advance.

We all did some sugar sampling 

The kids preferred the German rock sugar we usually only use succanat  or honey for our sweetners. The only reason we even have white sugar is for our kombucha 

Falcon getting a closer look at the different sugars.

Robin read:

I read this to all the kids, it's a great series.

Owl got these out and  and did them all by himself I was so excited that he even counted the buttons and put the right numbers with them.

QUESTIONS I HAVE...

I need Science help I am at a dead end an stuck on what to do next any suggestions on Science for an 8/9 grader. I was considering The Rainbow but not sure due to the cost.

Corduroy {BFIAR}

Was my favorite book as a child I recall reading it over and over and over never getting sick of  the story.
I can't believe I have waited this long to row it with the kids.


We went to Build A Bear for Duck and Owl to have bears made and Robin who already has a bear was going to get  more stuffing added to hers and get a new outfit. I offered to buy the boys outfits for thier bears but they did not want them. Nor did they want me to make green overall's at home for them!

We made gluten free  peanut butter button and bear cookies

 Corduroy helped.

 Finished bears. Here is the recipe we used, it was yummy.

We went to a trip to a department store and acted out the story with our bears.

 We didn't find buttons on any department store beds but we did find a button on a toss pillow on a bed.

 3 sets of bear ears hiding in the bed at JCPenny's

 I was feeling adventurous and I love to see peoples reactions when you do things outside of the social norm. So all  4 of my kids took their shoes off and  climbed up onto the display bed  so I could read them the story, Corduroy that I had stashed in my purse. I didn't intend on them getting under the covers but Duck and Owl insisted and thought it was so fun. So there we were in the middle of the store sitting on the display bed 2 kids under the covers and 2 on top while I read the book to them. We got a lot of stares, I am sure we were quite the site to see but we were NOT escorted out by security and I think the children will always remember the time we climbed into a display bed at the store and read a book!

A picture is worth a thousand words! Here we are, all but Falcon who shot the picture. My husband doesn't like the kids faces on my blog so I blacked them out.
                                       
Measuring how tall our bear is in  the family restroom at the mall. We also measured how tall all 3 bears were together, then how tall each bear was standing on each child's head.


The littles made paper Corduroy bears for us to add in our Project Life schooling book we started this year.

Some other bear books we read this week.

 I cannot say enough about this version of Goldiocks and The 3 Bears it is full of rich vocabulary and bright pictures and is not your ordinary dumbed down children's  remake of a classic. We will be adding this book to add to our collection.

We did a little Goldilocks role play fun. We used pom poms and raced from the pot on the other side of the room to our bears carrying the pom poms  on a spoon.

Gummi Bear math activities
We estimated, sorted, added, subtracted, and did pattern play with these bears before we ate them.

Corduroy  ate some too!

Want to see how others use  BFIAR, click here.

Homeschool Mother's Journal- My son has been taken by aliens!

IN MY LIFE
I think my 12 year old has been abducted by aliens and replaced with an identical match except for the fact that his personality is  now a moody, grumpy, glum, full of attitude and a bit brainless. Seriously where did my son go? He can't read anymore either the aliens must have sucked that knowledge out of his brain as well. He is so spaced  out when doing his school work he has been getting a lot of his school work wrong because he just isn't reading the directions. When he does get something wrong and I am trying to teach him the correct way of doing it he rolls his eyes and argues back at me at why he is right and I am wrong.I would appreciate  the aliens to come back this weekend and give me back my happy, funny, jolly smart son.

A friend of mine called me this week and told me she had to quit Starbuck's, Yes  I said Starbuck's  not crack, or heroine STARBUCK'S!! I had to laugh because I am a closet Starbuck's drinker. The first time I went there I said to a friend " NOWAY will I go back there that stuff is so expensive and really not all that great" but then I started going a bit more.often, maybe I need to quit too!  There are entire support groups online for quitting drinking Starbuck's coffee. This woman's blog post about quitting I found quite funny!

My husband is away on a business trip with one of our clients trying to help her land a 3 million dollar client. He is in the Mile high city of Denver, so I have been single moming it all week!

I got the results back from all the heart tests I had done, the results to the halter test were that I am borderline tachycardic. Which basically means my heart is beating to fast. The doc wants me on a Beta blocker but that lowers your BP and my BP is already to low causing me to pass out often. I am a fit person who works out hard regularly and eats mostly meats fruits and veggies so I am not sure what is causing this. I am going to monitor my pulse more closely and look into some all natural ways to help fix the problem.

IN OUR HOMESCHOOL WEEK
We went to the Zoo on beautiful sunny 25 degree day with our homeschool friends to sketch live animals The animals were so active and amusing to see.

 Falcon's polar bear

Robin's Grey seal

Falcon finished up Animal Farm, we had many long conversations about all the hidden meanings in this book. It really is a great book to get kids really involved in critical thinking and reading beyond the words.
 A great Moral to the story "Don't be a sheep and blindly follow those in power without questioning their motives"                        

                                     


I had him listen to the audio book while following along in the book and then reading the Cliff Notes after each chapter.We watched the movie together on Netflix  after the book was finished.

Robin received another love letter from her boyfriend ( so cute!)

LIFE SKILLS, I even learned a new life skill!
When our toilet got plugged up again this week Falcon asked to learn how to plunge the toilet. So I taught him how to do it and not make a mess, no one ever taught me I just had to figure it out on my own and have had yucky water splattered all over me many time in my young years.

Falcon also learned why the washer gets out of balance and how to correct the problem and start the load again.
My 3 younger kids have been begging to help to laundry all week so I have been teaching them how to sort, fill and start cycles.

But the most entertaining life skill I tried to teach the kids this week was how to react and recover when your car is sliding. I took the kids sledding in the middle of a snow storm and as we arrived I did some donuts in the empty parking slide purposely making my car slide and talking to the kids about how to recover from a nasty slide on snow/ ice. We were all having a great time until I slowly slid sideways into a 3.5 foot snowdrift., I knew I was going to hit but did nothing to stop it because I knew it couldn't do any damage to the car. I did not think that it would embed my car so deeply in the snow that I would be stuck, lesson learned! It took me about an hour to dig myself out while the kids played in the snow. I felt like such and animal on all fours digging my car out with my hands ( I had no shovel). Good thing I was toasty warm in all my snow gear, I love my Carthartt overall they keep me sooooooo warm . Then off to the snow hill we went and had a blast.

Pulling Owl though the snow on the toboggan that I used as a child.

I would rather dig my car out of the snow than dig snow out of my car!

WHATS COOKING?

Lots of ice cream: strawberry, cinnamon,  orange sherbet, and chocolate and then I served it for breakfast!

Olive Garden's Zuppa Tuscana soap 

Strawberry spinach smoothies with cinnamon honey whipped cream ( from scratch)

Notice a theme yet? I bought a bunch organic heavy whipping cream a few weeks back when it was on sale  and it was going to go bad if I didn't use it this week, so made lots of dishes with cream in it.

Creamy potato soup

Cheesy hamburger casserole

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW RIGHT NOW I SEE.....

Melting snow in  turning into a big muddy mess.

I  AM WEARING ...

Fuzzy pink pj's, a pink Tinkerbell t-shirt, fuzzy blue striped socks, my leopard slippers and a dark grey sweater. My youngest kids are in bed so I am now in my pj's after a nice long and peaceful hot shower  When I shower in the morning I usually hop in when the kids have just eaten breakfast and are watching a TV show. They will be content and quite when I get in but not long after I am in the shower fully soaped up do I hear....THUMP....CRASH.... "AHHHHHHH" ...."NO" ...."I'M TELLING!"....... BANG,BANG...! I have no idea what goes in when I am in the shower, but when the water turns off it is quite again. When I am dressed and walk out they are all sitting on the couch again peacefully watching tv! Sometimes though I do get interrupted by children needing to use the bathroom or needing kisses on their owies! 

WISDOM TO SHARE...

I read once on someones blog a while back that kids learn better from experience and that she would let her kids go outside and play in the hose in 50 degree weather if they asked instead of telling them "no, you will freeze" because they will learn and remember the lesson better if they actually do it. I try to remember this always.

IN MY FREE TIME...

Of course I have tons of free time I only have 4 kids that I homeschool, cook all meals from scratch and do house work all day. It's not like I have a REAL job! How many times have you heard that?

I have been trying to finish up Green Eyes, work on my new Project Life Album, and watch Vampire Diaries on Netflix. I haven't gotten far on any of those though.