What a Week!

Whew!! It's been a busy week. We are just about done planning our history/English class. The science is a go and the books are ordered and on the way. I've had a little trouble with getting the production of Fiddler on the Roof because we don't fit into the accredited school category. They finally said we can get it but I'll need to sign a contract.. YAY!! Hopefully it'll all go through by next week so we can have the scripts, music, and choreography for the second week of class. This production is going to be great. We have 20 teens signed up and ready to go!! We have also been trying to get this awesome artist to come and teach an oil painting class and he's coming. Savannah is ecstatic. She loves painting : ) We have 16 kids signed up and start this coming Wednesday. The kids are excited for school to start.

My very good friend had her sweet baby this week. Her kids came over to play. The kids loved having them over. We've done a co-op with them for about 8-9 years. They are like family to us. Their baby girl is so adorable and tiny.

The election will be coming up soon. Both candidates, Obama and McCain, announced their VP running mates this week. I don't like Obama or McCain. Our country is in for some trouble in the future. I don't feel like either one of these men will up hold our constitution. It's hanging by a tread and not many think anything is wrong. UGGGGG!! Scary stuff. I think I'll vote for my husband ; )

On a good note. I know who is in charge so I'll trust that everything will be okay. I have a healthy, happy family, a home, I can homeschool, I can have animals, and I can worship the way I choose.

Matthew playing the piano

Matthew LOVES piano. He and his friend Cody put on a couple concerts this summer. Here is Matthew playing Root Beer Rag by Billy Joel. These boys have a lot of fun doing this. I'll have to post the song they played together that ended in a duel. 

English Class and New Goat

Here are the pictures I promised.....and more.



Here is Savannah showing off her new soccer uniform. Her comp. games started today
and they won. Matthew's games started today and they won also.
Not that winning is so important but it's fun when they do.

Here's Tanner with our new baby goat. It's been fun bottle feeding her. She's very,
very friendly and follows everyone around. She thinks she's one of the family.

A cute close up.

Here is a picture of the English class. Matthew is sporting his cool dude look : ) We had an older and middle class. Here is the whole group with an exception of a couple people. Their (awesome) teacher, Mrs Kelly, is pregnant. For our end of the year party we had her a baby shower. It was pretty hilarious watching the boys participate in the games. My favorite was when they raced to change a baby doll's diaper. The kids will miss Kelly very much. She was a wonderful teacher and they learned so much from her.

School and Life

I've been really busy the last couple weeks getting school planned for the fall. I'm directing the teen production this year so we've been really busy picking out the play. It's a lot more work then I anticipated. OH well! My kids love theater so on we go ; ) Matthew started seminary this week. He ended up being in one of his homeschool friend's class so that was a nice surprise. We are also finishing planning the English/history and Biology classes today.  I'm really excited about it! 

At Keystone (a homeschool center) Savannah is taking digital photography, theater, and year book. Matthew is taking AP Physics, speech/debate, and theater. Brady is also taking the younger theater class and will be performing A Christmas Carol in November.  Whew! It's going to be crazy in two weeks!! 

Some other things they are involved in are piano and soccer. Matthew and Savannah are on comp. teams this year and Brady is playing Rec. Brady and Tanner are also in gymnastics. Am I nuts or What?? 

It sounds funny but I  kind of like being busy. The kids do much better with a schedule.

On Monday we brought home a new milk goat. She's just a baby so we are still bottle feeding her. She is very sweet and follows us around. The pygmy goats haven't accepted her yet. It's sad : ( The first night she came home our other goats started trying to buck her. She cried that night and all the next day. She lost her mom and home in one day. She's doing much better today. She loves to be out running around with the kids. We're crazy, I know but we love having animals.

Well, that's what we're up to right now. I can't post pictures on the Mac so I'll post some of the goat another day.

Homeschool

This is our 11th year homeschooling!! It's been an quite an adventure. We don't get asked questions very much any more because people now realize that, yes we are going to continue homeschooling and no it's not a disease that we're going to get over with soon. Here are the top questions we get asked about home school and I'll try and answer them the best that I can : )

What about socialization?
Don't you go crazy and need time to yourself?
How do you teach all the subjects?
Do you have a teaching degree?
Are you going to send them to high school?
What about college?
Why do you homeschool?
How can you teach them everything without leaving "holes in their education?"

Here we go.......

What about socialization? Well, Hmmm. What socialization are you talking about? My kids have many good friends. They get along with kids their age, adults, little kids, and they love the babies. We do plenty of classes and activities that my kids have too much of a social life : ) I don't think it's required to sit in a classroom all day with kids your own age to learn to socialize. You will never do that in your adult life. Therefore homeschool prepares them well for adult life.

Don't you go crazy and need time to yourself? Yes!! Who doesn't go crazy whether you homeschool or not. It's a hard job raising kids. I find time to for myself to do things I'm interested in. My main interest is my kids, so homeschool and my interests go hand in hand. Besides, I think it sounds harder to have the kids in school and and having to do homework at night.

How do you teach all the subjects? I don't! Thanks goodness. I don't know any teacher that knows everything. The key is to teach the kids to love learning and they will learn a lot on their own. If we see a need for the kids (and I can't do it) then we'll hire someone to come and teach that class. I'm not very good at English so last year we hired an English teacher. The kids LOVED the class (I'll show a picture of the class sometime). This year we're hiring someone for Biology and a history/English class. Savannah wants to continue with painting (did I tell you that she's an awesome artist) and digital photography so we have some classes planned for her in September. Matthew wants to take some college classes and has plans to take the ACT this year so we have plans for him. He also plans on getting out a music CD and a book of all his compositions to sell. He is also working on his music website and is learning programming and web design along the way.
The younger kids are very easy to teach. They love sitting down with mom doing reading, writing, math, cooking, and other subjects.

Do you have a teaching degree? No and I don't plan on getting one. My kids are well educated. There are plenty self taught people who are very intelligent, like Abraham Lincoln to name one.

Are you going to send them to high school? If the kids choose to do so. Matthew has only wanted to do seminary so far. He loves having plenty of time in the afternoon to pursue his own goals. He loves piano and web design. Homeschooling gives him the freedom to really learn and get good at stuff that he loves and this will really help him in his adult career.

What about college? Homeschool kids can go to college. You don't need a high school diploma for that. Actually, Matthew will be taking a couple BYU college courses on line this year. He wants to be on campus next year but I think he's too young for that. We'll see : ) Really, it's important to guide your kids but ultimately it's their decision. I really want them all to go to college but if they decide differently then I'll support them. The most important thing to me is that they learn to love their Heavenly Father, love other people, learn to be kind and caring, find their reason and gifts for being here on earth, and just be decent human beings. If they accomplish that, I'll feel like we have all the success in the world.

Why do you homeschool? I have a half a million reasons why I homeschool. I don't want to be offensive so I'll just say that we like homeschool and it's right for our family. There are many ways to educated your children and whether you choose to homeschool, public school, or private school, it doesn't matter. As long as you love your kids and you're involved in their lives then they'll do well.

How can you teach them everything without leaving "holes in their education?" I was public schooled and I look like Swiss cheese ; ) Everyone has holes and who cares. No one ever learns everything. We learn and remember what's important to us. We go after our interests and passions and that is what we'll remember. We need all kinds of people in this world to make it whole. Thanks goodness we don't all know everything. How boring would that be??

So here's to education.........No matter which way you choose it!!!

Fun Festivities

We had a busy week with our town's activities going on. We went to a mini rodeo on Friday night. Savannah rode a steer, Brady rode a sheep and Tanner was in the chicken chasing contest. I really wasn't too happy about Savannah riding the steer but she was set on it. She got bucked off but lived through it ( I think I had a harder time). That girl is a dare devil. I posted some videos below. On Saturday we went to the parade, then later in the afternoon we went to the park and played on the blow ups. The kids had a fun time doing the different activities. Our friends , the Edgecombs, joined us in the afternoon for some fun. Later that night we went to the concert and fireworks. Whew......what a long day. We were all pretty tired on Sunday.



Brady and Tanner are at the science booth. They made bouncy balls.

Here is Tanner and Brady with some cousins and friends at Jump on It on Wednesday.
Matthew and Savannah went later on that night.

Tanner riding the mechanical bull. So cute : )

Brady showing off his basketball face painting.

Tanner got a little caterpillar painted on his face.

Matthew chilling watching the mini rodeo.

Savannah just got her hair done at a hair style booth. By the look on her face
I'm not sure she liked the outcome.

They had a little train ride that Tanner rode.

Crazy but Fun!

Ye ha!

Savannah found a new career.

Finally, we got Matthew on the bull.

A regular cowboy. Patrick fulfilling his childhood dreams.

Here is Brady riding the Mechanical bull. It was so much fun!!

Here's savy riding the steer. OUCH!! Her back was a little sore
the next day but she really didn't get hurt. She is already excited for next year.
I'm just glad it's over.

Here's Brady riding the sheep. He wanted to ride a calf but after I saw how
big they were I told him he needed to wait until next year. I think this sheep
was too tired and did not want to go anywhere.

Gardening

Organic gardening is one of my favorite hobbies though I'm not an expert at it. I think it's an important way to teach kids to work. They learn how to work hard and get a reward at the end. I think it's also important for the kids to know where their food comes from and how much work it takes to produce it. We are loosing touch with the earth and the way food is supposed to be raised with all the vitamins and minerals that were intended. Along with that we are loosing our health. I'm teaching them how to put back what you take out of the earth like grass clippings, leaves, our chicken and goat manure, etc. We don't use any pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. Here are some fun pictures.



Here is my pumpkin and squash patch. They got a slow start so I'm just
staring to see fruits coming on.

We have over 200 tomatoes growing. They are finally starting to
turn red. I guess we'll be bottling a lot of tomatoes this year.

This is the first year we've planted strawberries. It's been fun to have them.
We've made smoothies and ice cream out of them.

This is the most beautiful corn we've ever had and yummy too!

We love planting cantaloupe. We first planted this last year and had such good luck that
we did it this year too. We have about 20-25 melons growing, some
almost ready to pick. these are so sweet when you grow them naturally.

Here is the corn growing on the stock. One row turned out really big and healthy. The other row I planted when it was too cold and the stocks were dwarfed.

Our grapevine is HUGE this year and loaded with grapes.

The kids really love planting sunflowers. At the end of the season we cut off the head and the kids eat the seeds. We have these come up from our own seeds every year.

Here are the potatoes. I'm experimenting with them this year.
They are huge on top so we'll see if we get any potatoes. We also planted peas but they're spring veggies and we have eaten them all up. Raw peas from my garden are my favorite veggie. I also have broccoli, carrots, and beans growing for my fall garden.

Dentist AHHH!

We did it! Tanner had an ugly cavity in one of his front teeth. I was so worried about getting it fixed. Tanner did great, didn't even flinch for one of his numbings! He looks so good. Whew, I'm glad that's over.  I hope we can avoid those in the future by following the Weston Price nutrition. 

For more info. look at this site : ) westonaprice.org/splash_2.htm

We also had a fun time last night. Our city is doing their summer celebrations. Last night we went to the picnic in the park and watched the entertainment. It was a nice family time.