Teacher's Pet

I was never the teacher's pet in school. I always talked too much. I never sat still. I asked why we had to learn to write in cursive when we just needed to learn to write our names that way. I even asked would we REALLY need to know Pi as adults. Nope, I was never the teacher's pet in school. I think they liked me, or maybe that was wishful thinking.

I have a similar student here in my class. He loves to talk and wiggling is definitely a sport in his mind. Just before Thanksgiving he asked me why he had to learn to write in cursive when he really just needed to know how to write his name that way. We've not made it to lessons on Pi, but I can already tell you what his question will be for me.

You know what? He is definitely this teacher's pet. His strong personality and eagerness to really understand just WHY is exactly one of the main reasons we homeschool. Just remember to pray for the teacher. We've added it to our morning prayer list.

Puddle Jumping - on Steroids!

Today's adventure involved rain (lots of it), puddles (lots of them), and jumping (all over the place)!

This morning when I woke up and heard the rain, I immediately thought of our plans for the day: trip to the grocery store and more shopping and then our annual trip to see Christmas lights. Oh how depressing. Why does it have to rain today?

When Little Buddy woke up and heard the rain, he was tickled to death. "What a great day! Can we go out before breakfast?" "Hurry, Mama, grab our rain boots and lets go out and do some puddle jumping." Of course, my reply was we had to eat breakfast first. GAH - surely all mothers agree. Right?

Immediately after breakfast, before the table was properly cleared mind you, Little Buddy had his rain boots on and his jacket in his arms. "Come on, Mama. We have a lot to do today." "Just look at all of those great puddles."

So, being the terrific mother that I am, I doned my rain boots and jacket and headed out the door with him. I have to admit, he was right. What a great day!

I thought I would share pictures of his favorite "puddles."

"Just About" to Get It

I am embarrassed at how long it has been since I have posted on our blog! Where has the time gone?

While it appears as if we dropped of the face of the earth, we were simply living our very busy homeschooling life. I'm sure most of you understand that life very well. Of course, I am mid-way through our first year and still feeling like we are "just about" to get the hang of it.

So, to you homeschooling pros out there, when does the feeling of, "By George, I think we've got it!" kick in? I would love to know!

Halloween Fun Stuff

We have gotten in the cutest stuff for Halloween at Snootie Patootie! And of course, I just have to have one of everything. Little Buddy loves the Trick or Treat bags. They come in various patterns: Haunted House, Jack O Lantern, and Scary Cat! How cute!!!

And for me, I love the aprons. From the skull rhinestone, little black dress, and little black dress ruffle, these aprons are just so adorable. I couldn't believe how cute they were when they came in.

By the way, Little Buddy has decided to be Commander Cody from Star Wars this year. Should be cute as a button!

Book Reports and Bubble Gum

This past week, Little Buddy had the assignment of reading a book and completing a book report. At first, you would have thought I said, "stick hot pokers in your eyes as you write your book report." Oh my goodness - such fussin. When I told him he would be presenting his written book report orally to his Daddy and me, he surprised me by being totally thrilled! Go figure.

His routine assigment each week now includes reading a chapter book and providing a book report the following Monday. His favorite part? The presentation of his book report. That's a good thing!

Last week we also enjoyed making bubble gum as our science project. We have chewed so much bubble gum my jaws are throbbing! Remember that feeling of chewing a big ole hunk of bubble gum for way too long? Well, that's how my jaws were feeling. And I am way past knowing better. Oh well, Little Buddy loved it and so did I. How exciting it was to watch him create his very own recipes of bubble gum.

Funny Things Children Say

"Mama, your hair looks just like wood."

"Really. Is that good?" I asked.

"Sure, if you like wood."

Hmmm.... Thanks, I think.


This is just the latest in the hilarious things that Little Buddy has said. Usually, the funniest are his observations of life, something I'm wearing, or about me. Or at least I think the funniest are about me. In reality, he probably provides equal opportunity commentary.

I learned early on to not be super sensitive. I think Moms of boys understand. If I were sensitive, I would spend a great deal of time in the bathroom repairing my makeup.

And thankfully, I do love wood. So, thanks Little Buddy.

What are some of the funny things your children say? Please share!

Week Wrap-up: Week 8 - Snakes, Scorpions, and Tests

Little Buddy Spots a Copperhead

This week at golf, there was a copperhead snake on the 17th hole. Thankfully, Little Buddy spotted it. His golf instructor was pretty proud he spotted it as well. They just gathered up their stuff and moved right along to the 18th hole. I think that was a good idea. Glad they did.


We read about snakes in our region the next day. I especially wanted to be sure Little Buddy knew how dangerous they were. We read about their habitats, how to identify, but most importantly learned that regardless if they appear harmful or friendly - leave them alone!

The photo above is courtesy of The University of Georgia and is by J.D. Willson. I admire that he either got close enough or took enough time to take photos of these snakes. Hopefully he just had a great zoom lens!


Scorpions at the Lake

As we were busy reading about snakes, installers were busy replacing our hot tub at the lake house. One of the installers had to crawl under the deck to unbolt a support and got stung by a scorpion. Luckily, he's fine.

You guessed it, we then started reading about scorpions. According to what we read, scorpion bites occur 10 times more often than snake bites. While the more venomous variety are in Mexico, South America, and Africa, all scorpions are dangerous. Especially to children, older adults and small pets.

We learned to look carefully in dark areas, check shoes and towels that have been left outside, and have sprayed thoroughly around and in the house to keep scorpions away.

Tests

On a not as exciting note, we also started having weekly tests last week. I was a bit apprehensive about this to begin with, but am really glad we started. Each week, we have tests on each subject area. This is a quick round-up of tests that we have:

• Bible - Memorization of scripture.
• Spelling - 10 spelling words of the week along with five bonus words.
• Math - Right now we are working hard on our multiplication. So, each week we are learning a new group 0-12. Test is on that week's group.
• Grammar - Test of grammar we have learned. I write out sentences. He identifies the adverb, pronoun, noun, verb, preposition, and/ or adjective. This week's focus was on adjectives. He identified the adjectives in sentences and the noun that they described.
• Latin - Test of words of the week and meaning.
• Social Studies - Test from Story of the World book.
• Science - Test from BJU.

When I write this out, it looks like a lot. It's not at all. Our tests are Friday mornings and are really low key. The benefit: Little Buddy told me he was really proud of how well he is doing. Isn't that the goal - to build confidence while learning? It sure is mine.

So, I hope next week is a bit less eventful with venomous things that slither and creep about. Until then, be sure to check out the other Weekly Wrap-up postings at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Do you have regularly scheduled tests in your homeschool? I sure would love to hear about how you handle.

Meet Little Buddy

This week at Darcy's blog-hop, the subject is student photos.

Meet Little Buddy. He was bestowed his nickname when he was two days old from my husband. It stuck and could not be more fitting.

He is our only, our miracle child. He is like a bolt of lightening, full of energy. He is like a sunset, warm and sentimental.

He is smart, athletic, caring, quick to get mad and equally quick to laugh, loving, protective, and hard-working. He loves God, his Daddy, golf, animals, and his legos. (Maybe even me just a bit.)

Our School Room

This week at Darcy's Blog-Hop, we are all sharing about our school rooms (or places where we have school).

Our school room has just recently moved. Well, actually, this summer it has been all over the place. Let me tell you the story.

When we built our house, we finished what would have been the attic into an "in-law suite." Not that it was very practical to have an in-law suite on a third floor, but that's what we did anyway. The area is wonderful, but as Goldilocks would have said, "it was too big."

While I did not move everything at this point, I was in search of another area in our house for our dedicated school room. You see, my husband hates clutter. He does not want to see all the "stuff" strewn about around the house. It's a miracle that we are married and get along as well as we do, because I am most definitely the one to have stuff strewn about around the house. I definitely can leave a trail.

I digress.

On our main level of our home is a guest bedroom. I thought this would be perfect to convert to our schoolroom. So, I started one day by tearing the room apart. I had stuff pulled out of that room before my husband got home from work. It was a huge mess I'll tell ya. As he started helping me move furniture around, he asked me how I planned to lay out the room. Great question. As Goldilocks would have said, "this room is too small."

Thankfully, we have a room across from Little Buddy's bedroom that was set up originally as his study space when he was in regular school. So funny that I had not considered changing this room around just a little and making it our school room. Until now. Thanks to my oh so smart husband.

[I love my old farm table desk, white board, and bookshelf. The fun print in the curtain keeps the room cheery. My Mom gave us the old white school desk. Little Buddy likes to use it each day as well.]

[This is Little Buddy's desk. It includes a hutch and great storage and he likes to keep his laptop on the pull-out keyboard drawer. It is a great set-up for him. Also, we love this dry erase calender we got from Staples. I write the major activities for the week, including chores, projects, and appointments. Also, he likes to keep his workbooks on his desk in a magazine holder.]

[This is our reading area. You can see it is on the other side of the window across from my desk. This room is very cool in that it overlooks our living room. We keep the doors to that opening opened most of the time, but if there is noise in the house, I close them. There is a bean bag in the floor in front of the reading area. Sometimes we snuggle up on the bean bag together and sometimes I read from the chair while Little Buddy is on the bean bag. And sometimes, Little Buddy is doing flips on the floor.]

Since we are just four days into our new school room, please excuse the progress. The other bookcases should be moved in soon and our artwork, globe and maps are ready to be moved from the original school room, too. I just have not gotten to that part yet.

Where else do we have school? Well, anywhere that we are! In the car, RV, at the lake, in the living room, outside, you name it. While I LOVE having a dedicated school room, the room really isn't the big deal in homeschooling. It is great to have the dedicated space, do not get me wrong there. But I have quickly learned, at least for us, that learning is all about well, learning. Not the space. However, I do believe that Goldilocks would now say, "this room is just right."

And I could not agree more.

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 7

I can not believe we have just completed week number 7 of our homeschooling. Time has most certainly flown by over these past weeks. Veteran homeschoolers - does it always go by this quickly? Since this is our first year, I am a bit amazed at how much we both have learned.
What I have learned:
- To find ways to make the lesson more fun. For example, this week we began learning about bones. Little Buddy is fascinated with Ben 10 figures that you click together to make aliens or monsters or something like that. So, I asked him to bring his figures to our schoolroom for a little hands-on exercise. I think he was in shock that I actually asked him to bring toys to class. Anyway, after we made a couple of different "aliens," I asked him what these aliens had in common with humans. I took it back to the aliens by asking him to draw what he thought their bone structure would look like compared to humans. The lesson went from there.
- To always begin the day with our Bible lesson and prayer. How simple is that? Well, there have been two times in the past seven weeks that I rushed into our schoolwork and missed Bible as our priority of the morning. (I know, I am ashamed still.) What did I notice on these days? Well, for one, I was not in the right frame of mind (obviously) and from me being off-kilter, Little Buddy was as well. When we begin our mornings with the Bible lesson and then a prayer from that lesson, our entire day just flows better.
- A ton of other things. The quick list - take a break when Little Buddy or I either one run out of steam. It's okay to have school in the afternoons, in the car, in the RV, at the lake, or in a different room of the house (even outside) sometimes. A routine really does help. Little boys definitely need to run and have active, hands-on learning time.
What Little Buddy has learned.
- Mom means what she says the first time. Being an only child, Little Buddy has been able to "make deals" a good bit in his short life. He knows my pattern. Well, my pattern has changed and now he's getting used to knowing that I mean what I say the first time and not the nine billionth.
- Yes, we do have school today. Even though he asked to start school in late June, there are some days that his first question when he gets out of the bed in the mornings is, "do we have school today." After me saying, "yes, we have school today." since that day in late June, he is now understanding the pattern.

Weekday = school day. Weekend = no school day. Everyday = learning opportunity.

- I hope a ton more. If you ask him what he learned today, he might say, "that Macbeth was greedy like Lot." OR he might say, "Nothing much."
So, where does that leave us for our plans for week 8? Well, we have got a whole bunch of fun stuff and many "learning opportunities" planned.

1. We are making a Flat Stanley and plan to send him traveling. You can read about the Flat Stanley Travels project at Heart of the Matter online.
2. We continue our studies of bones. We'll be completing a lab project with a chicken bone. It's part of Bob Jones Science curriculum.
3. We have two field trips planned for next week. The first is to the mummy exhibit in Atlanta at Emory University and the other is to the Fox to see Grease with Taylor Hicks.
4. For recreation, definitely more golf. Lessons and practice.

Thanks so much to Kris at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for hosting this wonderful weekly wrap-up. I enjoy visiting with the other homeschoolers who link up each week. You know, sharing ideas and fun projects really helps the entire homeschooling community. That is surely where I have gained so much. There, prayer, and listening to Little Buddy.

Going Nowhere!

Today, we go nowhere. Absolutely nowhere.

We have been going, going, going so much this summer and I am definitely not complaining. I love to go. I love to see new places and experience new things. I love to go to the lake house and enjoy the environment there. I love to hop in the RV and head out for an adventure with my family. But today, I am thoroughly enjoying just being at home. I refuse to even crank my car today. There, I said it.

What will we enjoy instead:

- school in our schoolroom (did I mention we moved it last night?)
- playing outside
- roaming around on the farm (checking on the animals)

I'm enjoying it so much, I may plan a "going nowhere" day more often.

Strawberry, Raspberry Pretzel Delight

This is the recipe I tweeted about making. It is so delicious and one of my husband's favorites.
Ingredients
2 cups pretzels (broken)
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
2 tbsps granulated sugar
1 box confectioner's sugar
1 8 oz. package of cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
1 large box Jello - Strawberry flavored
2 cups frozen raspberries or strawberries if you prefer
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix pretzel pieces, granulated sugar and melted butter. Pour into 13 x 9 baking dish. Place in oven for 8 minutes. Remove and cool completely.
Meanwhile, mix cream cheese, confectioner's sugar and vanilla until creamy. Then pour over cooled pretzel base.
Make jello to package directions, stir in frozen fruit and pour over cream cheese mixture.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

And the Winner is...

I am so tickled to announce the winner of our very first giveaway at Our Homeschool Home! We chose to giveaway Hamlet for Kids! in the Shakespeare Can Be Fun! Series by Lois Burdett (Firefly). You can see my earlier post about this series of books and how much we are loving them here.

So, now to the winner. Little Buddy selected the winner. He chose...

Karin Katherine

Congratulations Karin! Send me an email with your address and I'll get it shipped to you this week. I hope your twin boys enjoy this book as much as Little Buddy.

Thanks so much to all who entered a comment in our contest. We appreciate them all!

It's a Blog Hop! Curriculum

This week, we are participating in Darcy's Not Back-to-School Blog Hop! She is so organized and has planned out great topics for each week in August.


See how just gorgeous she makes everything? Even a calendar looks so pretty after Darcy gets hold of it.
I've included the link to my previous post on curriculum here since I'd already written a post on this topic a bit back for Kris' Weekly Wrap-up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers. I didn't want to overpost on our curriculum. Although, I do think it is simply super!

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 6

This week, we enjoyed homeschool on the road. We took an RV trip to the Experimental Aircraft Association's (EAA) AirVenture 2009 in Oshkosh, WI. I planned for weeks before the trip on exactly where Little Buddy would be in his work to make sure I had everything we would need during the trip. I am so glad I did! Preparation is definitely the key to quality homeschooling!
Each morning, Little Buddy and I would sit on the bed in the RV with the containers on the counter top at the foot of the bed and work on his school work. While we were traveling, it really was the perfect opportunity to get our work done and prevent any boredom as well. We started our day with our Bible study, then reading, grammar, writing, spelling, history, science, and math. Then, we would add a craft at the table after lunch.
For our reading, we read Hamlet for Kids! I was a little nervous Little Buddy would not enjoy this book. I was very pleasantly surprised at how much he loved it! We learned about couplets, plot, character development, and Shakespeare to boot! All great lessons in one great book. We enjoyed the book so much, I went online to Amazon and ordered the rest in the series of Shakespeare for Kids! They should be at our house when we get back home. I also ordered another copy of Hamlet for Kids! to giveaway to a lucky reader of our blog! Be sure to enter to win.
We also had great living lessons this week.
We enjoyed visiting one of the largest dairy farms in the United States at Fair Oaks Farms in Indiana. I wrote a review of the farm for Chic Galleria magazine. Click here to see the full article.
In Traveling and Living Math with Navigation, I wrote about how my husband worked with Little Buddy on calculating distance, speed, and time. The end result, Little Buddy now looks at the navigation system and works on calculating the time until we get to our next stop rather than immediately asking, "how much longer?" He then asks us if he is correct in his calculations.
Now to the learning we really loved this week - aviation!
This week was just like a science or aviation camp for us. We spent a lot of time with the great folks at NASA and they had wonderful takeaway educational materials. We also enjoyed seeing the debut of the Airbus A380 landing in North America. My husband and Little Buddy toured the plane, but I was a bit of a wus and didn't stand in line to go through because it was raining. Surely something I will regret.
We were able to see the White Knight 2. A few years ago we were able to see White Knight 1, so we were very happy for Little Buddy to be able to have seen them both.
We also enjoyed living history! We also met two of the Tuskegee Airmen and had the opportunity to shake their hands and thank them for their service. We saw tons of vintage planes, warbirds, and record-setters. We were able to hear Sully Sullivan, the hero captain that safely landed the airplane in the Hudson earlier this year.


My favorite of all though, was the the time to spend with family and good friends. We were fortunate that my husband's parents were able to go on this trip as well. My son thoroughly enjoyed spending time with his grandparents. I know these will be some fond memories when he is older. For that, I am thankful.
Head on over to see what other folks were up to this week. Thanks Kris at http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com for hosting this great weekly event!

We Heart Planes

Had you not already guessed that much? Probably so. My family loves planes. I guess it's only natural since my husband is a private pilot and we live on a grass airstrip. This past week at Oshkosh, I realized how bitten with the airplane bug that I am as well.

When my husband and I first started dating, I decided to take ground school with him to learn to fly. At the very least, I would be able to help him when we were flying with such things as navigation and trip planning. Well, two weeks into ground school, the instructor pulled me to the side and told me that I would make an excellent passenger, but most likely was not cut out to pilot a plane. I whole heartedly agreed. Passenger material, I am. Pilot material, I am not.

I finished ground school. I am far from a quiter. And months pass without me flying. But when we go to an event like Oshkosh, that little bug nibbles on me again and makes me want to go for a "flight around the patch." I even picked out the airplane I want. It's a warbird of course. Loud, sleek, and beautiful. I know I'll be the perfect passenger flying along with my favorite pilot.

Looking for More Great Homeschool Blogs

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Traveling and Living Math with Navigation

Little Buddy and his Daddy have had some special time during this first portion of our RV trip. Little Buddy has acted as our navigator. We created another binder for this trip as I discussed in a previous post, How to Survive a Five-Hour Road Trip. He has utilized his book as we have traveled to help his Daddy about campgrounds, directions, etc.


We did have to veer just a bit of track when one of the members in our RV group has some difficulties. Then, we just switched Little Buddy to paying attention to the navigation system in our RV. He would check to tell his Daddy how many more miles to the next turn and the name of the major roads.

When our trip first started, he kept asking the dreaded question of "how much longer?" Fortunately, my husband has the patience of Job and the ability to redirect our son to make it a learning experience. So his reply, "Let's figure it out." Little Buddy was surely engaged in the game with that challenge.

Together, they have calculated:

- distance

- time

- speed

Have you tried any specific living math activities while you are traveling? If so, please do share. We always need to add more to our idea bank.

Giveaway! Shakespeare Can Be Fun!

Our Homeschool Home is hosting a giveaway. We are so excited about the current book that we are reading, Hamlet for Kids, that we are giving a copy away! When I ordered the other books in the series for Little Buddy, I ordered another copy of Hamlet for Kids from Amazon to giveaway on our blog.
All you have to do is enter a comment. We'll pick a winner next Tuesday and get you your copy to enjoy! We would also love for you to follow along with us on our many adventures. You just never know what we'll be up to next.

Lightening Bugs and Fairy Tales

Driving through Illinois on our was to OshKosh we have enjoyed the most amazing scenery. Little Buddy has been so impressed with the farms of corn and soybeans, the beautiful barns, and the windmills. Being from the south, we enjoy seeing farms, but our farms are very different from those in the corn belt.

Last night as we were pulling into our campground for the night, we could see what seemed like millions of twinkling lights across the soybean fields. Now, we have plenty of lightening bugs in the south and certainly enjoy chasing them on our farm even. But never in my life have I seen so many lightening bugs in one place. It honestly looked like a fairy tale.

Little Buddy and I imagined that it was where Tinkerbell and her fairy friends lived. We made up very imaginative stories about those fairies and all the fun things they were doing in that soybean field. Our story continued for a long while. Little Buddy even asked to sleep with the front curtain to the RV opened so he could watch them as he fell asleep.

For real information on lightening bugs (or fireflies), check out this website. For today, we'll continue our fairy tale story.

Reading Now: Hamlet for Kids

This week's read-aloud is Hamlet for Kids, by Lois Burdett of the Shakespeare Can Be Fun! Series. This is the first in the series we have read. Since Little Buddy is 7, I was a little concerned that he might not really enjoy these books. Boy, was I wrong! He absolutely adores it.
He has really gotten into the story of The Ghost of King Hamlet, Prince Hamlet, Queen Gertrude, and the evil King Claudius. The suspense and intrigue of the story have captured and held his attention.
The illustrations in the book are completed by children from about 6 - 10. There are also summaries written by children of the same age. These have also gotten Little Buddy excited to see what other children drew and wrote about the story.
The only drawback - I only wish I had ordered and had on the hand for the trip more in the series. I have already gone online to Amazon and ordered more in the series: MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Much Ado About Nothing. They should be at my house when I get there. These are exactly the books I want Little Buddy to really enjoy reading.
Have you read a similar series of books that you would recommend to us?

Excursion to Dairy Farm

Today, we took an excursion on our RV trip to OshKosh. We visited Fair Oaks Farm in Indiana. The visit was so educational and all 15 people in our group thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

The most amazing part of the entire trip was being able to watch the birthing of twin calves. I was originally a bit apprehensive about the questions that might come from Little Buddy in observing this part of life. Then, I decided that we have animals on our farm. So, surely, we could handle questions about a cow's birth. Oddly enough, his questions were very well asked and were:
- Does it hurt the mother cow?
- When will the baby start walking?
- Since they are twins, why don't they look alike?

Simple enough to answer. Whew, that bullet was dodged. This time.

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 5 - Curriculum

This week for our Weekly Wrap-Up, Kris at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers has asked for us to share our Curriculum ideas. I love this idea! I love to see what curricula other parents have chosen for their homeschools. I also love to hear experiences that parents have had, both the good, bad and down right ugly, about each.
When I was researching homeschooling and still "on the fence," I traveled the blogosphere searching high and low for any information that I could find on what was "the best." What else would do? Of course I had to find "the best" for my child. Why else would I even consider homeschooling.
The more I read, the more I studied, I discovered there is not one "best" out there. It really depends on you and your child. Now, there are some very good highs and there are some very bad lows. Here is how I narrowed my selections:
1. Visited with veteran homeschoolers in my community whom I respect and value their opinion.
2.Read everything that I could get my hands on about homeschooling approaches, curricula, and models.
3. Requested samples from curricula sources. Many vendors provide good samples online that you can download or view on their websites. However, some, you just have to contact and request for them to email or mail you a few sample pages or even a sample book in some instances.
4. Attended fairs and conferences to not only learn from the excellent speakers on what curricula they utilize, but to network within the homeschooling community.
I will say that through my long and in-depth study, I was impressed with the classical education approach (Trivium). Reading The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise-Bauer and Jessie Wise helped me to bring it all together into one nicely bound package.
The curricula that we follow at Our Homeschool Home is posted on our blog here.
We love to get your comments on what we have selected. Especially if you are or have used these materials. I will say that we are progressing pretty rapidly through our studies and I will be adding items the first of 2010 for our next studies.

RV School - Days 1 and 2

Remember I posted previously that we were having RV School this week on our big trip to OshKosh. Each day, we have about five hours of travel time with planned stops along the way. The perfect amount of time to homeschool and have some "fun" time as well.

We start right after breakfast in the mornings with our Bible study. Just like we do at home. We then dive right into our other lessons. Since I had been planning for three weeks where we would be in our studies, I had everything that we needed packed into two canvas storage crates and stored on the shelf at the end of the bed in our RV. Little Buddy and I sit on the bed and just pull from the storage bin subject by subject. His favorite while we are traveling down the road is when we snuggle up under the blanket and read. I have to admit, it's mine as well.

We are actually a little ahead in our work for the week at this point. I tried to get some extra work in as we were traveling to prevent boredom. I also just wanted to have a bit of a safety net as we get into the activities at OshKosh.

I will say, having RV School has been a wonderful adventure thus far. We have stayed busy, the time has passed quickly, and Little Buddy is enjoying it thoroughly!

Have you tried homeschooling on the road? If so, do you have any tips that I should follow?

Bedtime Routines and Summer

This summer, I have been awful about sticking with our bedtime routine. I know children, especially Little Buddy it seems, needs a dependable, consistent routine. I guess I should really qualify that statement by saying that we are following the same general routine, we just are not doing it very timely each night.

I have given myself a ton of reasons why we are not sticking with our bedtime. Here are a few. I'll warn you, some of them are just plain lame.

- vacations
- it's summer for crying out loud
- trips to the lake
- the movie is still on
- it's so nice outside, let's just play a little bit longer
- oh well, another few minutes won't hurt

Well, now I need to start thinking about how to get our schedules back together. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks tonight when Little Buddy was still up watching his snuggles drying in the dryer. He was unbathed and it was 10:00 p.m.

What kind of Mother am I?

When the pile of snuggles and his blanket were dry, he sleepily gathered them all together and headed up the stairs. I had his bath all ready, with extra bubbles added due to my guilt. Then, off to bed and the real routine began.
- Reading
- Prayers
- Singing (in this order: Jesus Loves Me, You Are My Sunshine, You Are My Blue Eyes (our song), Amazing Grace, and The Whole World)
- Snuggling

Well, I will say, after our reading, prayers, singing, snuggling routine was underway - I felt a whole lot better. So, I guess I can cut myself just a wee bit of slack. Summer nights are so fleeting, especially to this seven year old little boy's mother. I will just be a bit more mindful of the time, but I think I'll start paying attention after OshKosh. I'd hate to waste any daylight there.

What do you do in the summer? Do you stick with your normal bedtimes?

Planning: RV School and OshKosh

Our homeschool is hitting the road. RV style! My family is taking an RV trip to OshKosh, Wisconsin to the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual AirVenture. For all those aviation nuts out there, this is a must see. At least once in your lifetime. I should know, I am married to a definite aviation nut!

As I have been planning our trip, reserving campground spaces, coordinating meals with the other families going with us, and organizing the RV, I have also been taking a careful look at the schedule of events for the week at OshKosh. There are so many educational opportunities that I decided I better have a plan to get the most from them all.

Airbus A380 - The Airbus A380 will make its public North American debut for display and flight. In hearing the pilots that are going on this trip, this is a BIG deal. We have practically scheduled our trip around making sure that we are in OshKosh and settled in time to make it to see Airbus.

Airshows - What would OshKosh be without airshows? Well, it would still be a wonderful gathering of airplanes, pilots, and lots of aviation talk (I'm sure). But, to me, the airshows just make OshKosh, well, OshKosh. The warbirds, the sport planes, the stunts. Oh my, I can't wait!

Evening in the Woods - Each evening, a great program is planned and presented by such notables as Harrison Ford (yes, Indiana Jones will be there!) and The Tuskeegee Airmen.

I know my family will have a memorable, fun trip. Little Buddy will learn so much just from walking the fields with his Daddy among all of the airplanes and wonderful pilots. He'll be totally engrossed in aviation, engineering, and space. How fun is that going to be?

What Has Made Me the Proudest?

This week I participated in a chat session on Twitter hosted by @reflective and @principled titled, Home School Chat. There were a series of questions asked by the hostesses. One that caused a lot of thought on my part was (basically), "What has made you the proudest?"

Goodness, in 140 characters, how would I say what made me the most proud? Would it be that Little Buddy is a quick learner? That I am able to research and determine the best approach for his learning style? Was it that we can spend as much time as we need on a particular subject until Little Buddy has it firmly? That we can move on ahead of schedule when he gets it early?

Then, I realized, those are definite benefits. But, the result is what makes this Mama proud. So what was my response? "Little Buddy reading with a book light."

What would your response have been?

Getting Connected

This summer has been one of the best summers of my life. Absolutely, without a doubt, positively, the best. Hands down! Why you might ask? Have a taken a wonder drug that I can tell you about? Well, no, not really. I am just getting connected.

I am getting connected with myself, first and foremost. I have spent time really understanding what I want from my life. What I need to accomplish. What marker I want to leave with my life. From my life. I have been prayerful in making sure God is guiding me and my decisions. For His guidance and direction, I am thankful. I will quickly tell you, you can not start anywhere else. You have to begin the journey with just you and God. No two ways about it. At least that is my heartfelt belief.

Second, I am getting connected with my family. I have spent great, deep down bonding time with Little Buddy this summer. Down in the floor playing time. Outside blowing bubbles time. Under the table reading about nomads time. Laughing at the clouds time. Discovering baby birds, mallard ducks, Little House on the Prairie. And having our hearts broken over baby bunnies that did not make it. We are positively closer than I remember us being in many a moon.

Thirdly, I am getting connected with the world. For so long, I worked. Now, I was super connected with my working network. I knew everyone in the field that I worked and spent a great deal of time making sure to stay in contact with them. Now, I am connecting with people of all walks of life, from all regions in this country and others, and loving getting to know each and everyone one of them. Homeschooling parents and writers have really had a deep tug on my heart over this summer. I have sought out their kindred spirits to be able to learn from these experts. I just have to say, these are some of the kindest, smartest individuals I have ever had the fortune to encounter.

What connections are next? Well, I think I have really just started. My life is much different from this time a year ago and I just can not wait to see what is in store for my future.