Journey to Excellence

(Well, I typed this on Friday but am just now getting it posted. We've got a busy life with Spring in the air!) It's Freedom Friday around here! (Why, oh why, didn't I think of this earlier?!). The kids are currently in their rooms reading, where they have been for the past 45 minutes. Their math assignments are done. And other than watching CNN Student News, they have the rest of the day to learn on their own. The weather has turned sunny and warmer so I imagine that will include some outside time. I hope so. Me? I've been working on getting together photos of Dawson for his high school graduation senior slide show. In just over two months my boy will be a high school graduate. This week we have mixed things up a bit. Brynne has added a program to her week on Tuesdays and Thursdays called Girls on the Run. She trains with other 4th-6th graders at the elementary school for a 5K coming up in May. Not only that, but they learn about healthy living and body ima...

We started out the week with some snow! We work hard in the mornings to get all of our regular studies done so that the kids could get out into the snow in the afternoon for some P.E. time. And then, friends, things got stressful on Wednesday night with a sobbing phone call from Kyndal and continued on through Friday. I was extremely tense (angry, to be exact) and very frustrated for her. The situation carried over into her wedding plans which ended with her and Collin making the decision to scrap their traditional wedding they were planning and make plans to get married on the beach somewhere. All of the details have not been made yet, but a destination wedding is a definite. The backyard wedding is cancelled. Rick and I are just happy to see a smile on Kyndal's face for the first time in a while. The stress is gone and the fun is beginning. But when our family is consumed with a stressful situation, it is extremely difficult to get any traditional schooling done. Thankful...

Steady. Solid. No bells and whistles. That was this week. But it was good. It has gotten to where it is just really good. We get up, get started, get it done. Everybody is pretty motivated and has good attitudes. I really can't ask for more right now. What were we doing this week? Bible had us learning about the different names of Satan this week and about how to battle him with the Full Armor of God. CNN Student News is always the highlight of our morning. We have a trip planned to tour the CNN Headquarters in Atlanta in August. The kids are VERY excited! Hope we can bump into Carl Azuz! We finished By the Shores of Silver Lake this week. We love the Little House series. I really think we will be so sad this summer after we finish all of the books. We will still have the series to watch, though. We are on Season 3, Episode 5. (This week Brynne drew a floor plan for what she believed the claim shanty looked like based on the description in the book.) I see marked ...

I didn't realize what a big hit "Freedom Friday" would be. The kids were actually excited to get started with school on Friday. Not only that, but the prospect of the upcoming day propelled them through each school day of the week. They had already decided that one of their freedom activities was to play chess. It's been a while since they have done that and needed to brush up on their skills. I was happy for Friday to get here because it tends to be a slower paced day and allows me time to get some much-needed housework done. My floors were especially in need of some attention as it's been super muddy this week and there have been constant doggy prints all over the hardwood floor. Mopping was a must-do activity today. But then after cleaning up prints two times in an hour, I decided to just clean as I went and mop when the ground dries up. Instead I deep cleaned my kitchen and got caught up on laundry. It felt pretty good. The other Freedom Friday acti...

This month our Prairie Primer lessons have us memorizing the states and their capitols in the order they were admitted into the union. We work on three states each day. Eli mentioned that he wanted to watch the clips about each state from our dvd set "The States"  (History Channel) as we are learning about them. We have watched this series once before, but it is very informative and enjoyable to watch. As it usually takes at least a half-hour to forty-five minutes of our day to watch three clips, I have had to readjust some of what we try to accomplish each day to make room. But they really, really enjoy them. Delight-directed learning is important. Plus, their interest in the states is also helping them in memorizing the capitols and state abbreviations. We are through the 19th state in a week. We learned all about the history of the steam locomotive by watching "The History of Steam Locomotives" (pts 1-3) on Youtube. We also read The Stourbridge Lion: Amer...