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Showing posts from April, 2013

End of Year Crazies

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Today I'm linking up with Hip Homeschool Moms Anyone else have trouble staying focused the last few weeks of the year? I know both my son and I are having issues right about now. We have a cruise coming up the first week of June (to celebrate my husbands retirement from the Air Force) and all of us - hubby included are kind of distracted. Ok, really distracted! =) When I brought my son home again this year I promised he could have summer break - so he could hang out with his PS friends and just relax. Now that time is getting closer and we just want to be finished. But I'm not a "let's say you did this when you didn't" kind of person. Even if I was the boy would have none of that! So, we are plodding along, desperately trying to stay focused and on track until the end. Wish us luck!

Essays (or Why I'm Pulling My Hair Out)

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I'm not a writer "Thanks Captain Obvious" but I do have to teach writing. I'm so bad at teaching writing skills that I sent my son back into the public school system to have them teach him the basics for me. Do I need to say it? You know it was an utter fail. As a matter of fact all his teachers knew how bad he was, but because he was so advanced in everything else we couldn't get him remedial help. Just let me point out that his teachers were exceptional and tried to help as much as they could within  the system. 'Nuff said, right? So I've tried all kinds of writing programs. And I mean at least a whole school year of curriculum money on writing alone. It's out of control. But he has to be able to write. He's a great speaker - the boy can talk about something and we're great. Putting it on paper - well, not so much. So last week I assigned him a 500 word essay. "What?"  Why would I do that to a non-writer? I let him use the computer

Really Starting to Freak

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This week my husband is in TAP class. No, not the dancing kind (although that would be an instant hit on You Tube!), but the getting out of the military kind. I think it stands for Transition Assistance Processing, I'm not sure though. Someone out there can help me out with that one. And this one week class (four days, really) has got me freaking out so bad. My husband heads out with a laptop carrier in civilian clothes - which of course had to be bought because really - why would you have business casual just hanging out in your closet when you wear a uniform every day? So he heads off in these spiffy clothes and I see what's coming up. This will be our life. No more combat boots. No more name tag across the front of his shirt. No more hat wearing. My honey will be retired. And I'm happy because I know he won't have to go to some nasty war torn place anymore, but I'm scared because this has been our life since we've been married. Well, since before we got m

New Curriculum!

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It's that time of year, when all the homeschool parents are looking at next year. Everybody has probably made some changes during the year ~ I know we have! ~ and are now spending hours upon hours hunting down the steals and deals on curriculum for next year. I've done all my ordering and have started receiving our books for next year. That always makes it harder to stay focused on this year and finish strong (at least for me!). Now that my items have arrived, I feel I can now share what we've decided to do for next year (7th grade folks - it's a biggie!). History, Geography, and Language Arts: We opted for Winter Promise American Crossing for history and geography. I chose this particular program for a variety of reasons. First, it includes a state study (yes, my son recently asked if Connecticut was a state or a country - it's time for a state study!), it was easy to remove the Bible portion and still have solid reading and other activities, and most importantly

Review ~ The Romanov Cross

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Nearly one hundred years ago, a desperate young woman crawled ashore on a desolate arctic island, carrying a terrible secret and a mysterious, emerald-encrusted cross. A century later, acts of man, nature, and history converge on that same forbidding shore with a power sufficient to shatter civilization as we know it.   Army epidemiologist Frank Slater is facing a court-martial, but after his punishment is mysteriously lifted, Slater is offered a job no one else wants—to travel to a small island off the coast of Alaska and investigate a potentially lethal phenomenon: The permafrost has begun to melt, exposing bodies from a colony that was wiped out by the dreaded Spanish flu of 1918. Frank must determine if the thawed remains still carry the deadly virus in their frozen flesh and, if so, ensure that it doesn’t come back to life.   Frank and his handpicked team arrive by helicopter, loaded down with high-tech tools, prepared to exhume history. The colony, it transpires, was once

March Round-Up

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It's not like I've been crazy busy or anything - actually the opposite - but I still don't get on here and blog the way I used to. *sigh* I guess that means I'm running out of things to say! So, I thought I'd give you a few highlights of our March here in Caddickland. The first weekend was Hornaday Weekend. This is a big scouting thing where the boys spend a whole weekend working on merit badges. Scouts come from up and down the state (and even from other states!) to earn these and spend a weekend having fun and fellowship with other Scouts. I enjoy it because I get to spend time with Nicole! Her son and husband always come so we get a girls weekend! And my son earned three more environmental merit badges, one is his first Eagle merit badge (Environmental Science!) He is my environmentalist for sure, so this weekend fits him to a 'T'. On the Cub Scout front we had our Pinewood Derby. Zach can't race anymore, but Erik did race in open class

Movies From Books - A Learning Lesson

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We finally finished reading The Lightening Thief. As a fun learning moment for Zach I decided to rent the movie and have him compare. I know this may seem like a no brainer to most of us - the movie rarely lives up to the world you've created in your head. But for my reluctant reader I thought it was something that needed to be pointed out. Some comments - "I imagined Annabeth with blonde hair.", "They took almost all the good stuff out.", and lots of "That's not how it happened in the book.". His final review - "If we hadn't read the book that movie would have been pretty good.". Yes son, it would have. What I learned while listening to him comment was that he remembered a ton of stuff from the book. Way more than I thought he would. That makes me so happy! I always wondered if he was paying attention or not - I guess he was. This week was our spring break. We have about two months left of school. I've been busy buying next year