Journey to Excellence

My mom, Brynne, and I got up super duper early yesterday morning to drive to Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City to run/walk in the Kansas City Royals Charities 5K. We had a lot of fun supporting this event and running around the field on the warning track! We even got up on the Jumbo Tron. By participating we received a cool t-shirt and a ticket voucher to a game in September. After we got home, the rest of my night pretty much looked like this ... Life is so good.

I recently read the book Teaching from Rest by Sarah MacKenzie. There were so many nuggets from that book that I wanted to remember throughout the school year, so I wrote several quotes throughout my planner. One of the quotes written on my August calendar is "When a person interrupts what you are doing, you recognize a representative of Christ." We had our first full week of school last week. And this week a person interrupted us. He was most certainly a representative of Christ. I guess you could go ahead and say he was an angel sent straight from above. Bennett Matthew Werths beautifully interrupted our lives on Monday morning at 7:16 a.m. He weighed 6 lbs. 5 ozs. and was 18 1/2" long. He was three weeks early, just two days shy of 37 weeks. Kyndal had been having contractions, dilating, and effacing since 33 weeks, so her doctor was pleased that she made it that far. Bennett was born completely healthy! His lung development was just fine, his blood sugars ...

Socialization. Everybody assumes that if you homeschool your kids that they are unsocialized weirdos who cannot function in the "real" world. What a load of bologna! When I am asked if I am concerned that my children are not receiving enough socialization, I first clench my fists, take a couple of deep cleansing breaths, and then respond as follows: I do not want my kids socializing with the majority of the kids in public school. There. I said it. Instead, we take the time to choose the circle of influences of our children. We know exactly who they are socializing with at all times. I have one very social child, although she is just as content to hang out at home with her family. And then I have one who gets very over-stimulated around other kids his age. Both of the kids are introverts, like me, and get their energy from being at home in the quiet. Brynne does, however, enjoy friendship time so we make sure she has as much interaction with her gal friends as she...

Welcome back to another year of homeschooling fun with Journey to Excellence ! I cannot believe we are starting our 7th year of home education! We had a great summer of learning ... nine weeks of summer school which consisted of lots of reading, both read alouds and personal reading, a daily Summer Bridge activity sheet that covered so many concepts I can't even begin to list them here, and P.E. in the form of swimming and softball. We ended the summer with our annual trip to the lake with our friends from Oklahoma. While there we did a whole unit study on the Olympics. We planned to take off the rest of the month of August and start our fall semester on August 29th. But after we factored in time we want to take off in the winter months and a rapidly approaching due date for the birth of our first grandchild, we decided we needed to go ahead and start a couple of weeks early. It just so happened that CNN Student News started their new year on August 15th, so the kids d...

Our first grandchild is due in four weeks. To say we are excited is an understatement. We cannot wait to meet our grandson!! On Monday I took Kyndal out to our new property to take some maternity photos of her. We took photos on the side of the property where her and Collin will build their house in a few years. We got some great shots. She is beautiful!

Our first day of fall semester is just a few days away, and with that comes a more scheduled day. As much as I have enjoyed these easy days of summer and summer school, I am ready for more of a schedule. When left to my own devices I can easily wiggle out of getting up earlier to have my morning time, out of exercising regularly, and out of running my household efficiently. I get an attitude of, "Eh, I can do that later ...." And then later never comes. Our days will look pretty much like they have looked every other year. I have it pretty much down to a science for us. But it is always nice to document my intentions so that I have a concrete goal. For me, a goal written down is much easier to achieve. Here is what I am hoping will happen each day starting on Monday ... 7:00 a.m. ~ Me get out of bed for coffee, Bible study, and computer time. 8:00 a.m. ~ Work out. For now that means doing DailyBurn365 two mornings a week, running two mornings a week, and doing a 21...

Are you watching the Olympics? Your favorite summer Olympic event? I read recently a list of the most iconic Olympic moments in history ... what stands out in your mind as a great moment from some past summer Olympic games? We are watching quite a bit of the Olympics this year. I enjoy swimming the most, and particularly enjoyed watching Michael Phelps beat the pants off that jerk, Le Clos. I agree that the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, were definitely monumental with Hitler using the games as propaganda and then Jesse Owens putting Hitler in his place with his four gold medals (priceless!). If you haven't seen the movie, Race , it is worth a watch. The pipe bomb at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, was a pretty big event. And, for me personally, watching Mohammad Ali light the torch in the opening ceremony of those same games was pretty special. Have you ever been to Rio? How about the place that started it all -- Greece? Have you ever been to any of the Olympic...

It's that time ... Yes, it is! It is officially time to start our 2016/2017 school year. This summer we logged over 140 hours in 9 weeks of summer school that will allow us to take the extended breaks we like to take later in the year. We had originally planned to start our fall term on August 29th. But we have a grandson due to be born in the next month, and I have a vacation planned for late January that will interfere with our normal scheduling. So I have convinced the kids that we should start this coming Monday, on August 15th. They weren't overly excited, but the promise of a long Christmas break helped to convince them that it might not be an all-bad idea. As I am every year, I am really excited about our topics for learning. In addition to those basic studies, we will be digging deep into Missouri history, Greek Mythology, astronomy, and literature. It is really going to be an excellent year! Here is what we have by way of curriculum choices: English McGuffey...