Journey to Excellence

I am participating in The Homeschool Village's Garden Challenge again this year. My updates will be posted on Taulman Times, however. Head over there to see our PITIFUL before photos!

Getting back into school after a relaxing week-long vacation in Florida. Two dentist appointments for Dawson. Lots of tooth pain. Two field trips. One that was two hours away. Girls and Boys Club on Tuesday afternoon/evening. Practice for children's musical at church on Wednesday night, when we don't normally do anything in the evenings. Birthday party tonight. This was our week. I am exhausted! I have expressed on numerous occasions that we are a homebody family! We don't leave our house unless we have to. Many weeks we have school Monday through Thursday and only leave the house on Friday mornings to go to Co-op. This week was so full of activity that I feel like a ZOMBIE tonight! Lots of traveling. Lots of fresh air. TI-RED! Here's a collage of our lessons and activities at home this week.   1. Brynne finished her very first REAL chapter book. It is from the Puppy Place series, and it had 10 chapters. She is now on Chapter 3 of another book in

Easter is in just a few short days. I always like to incorporate some Easter studies into our lessons, as I'm sure many of us do. So this week at Blogging Through the Alphabet , E is for "Easter" Resources. Photo credit I have come across some great resources this year that I wanted to pass along. I don't know if we will do everything, but you might see something you like. A free Celebrate Easter Lapbook from Scripture Adventures. A free Easter H-O-P-E printable from Amanda Bennett. A free Amanda Bennett Easter Lapbook. A Resurrection Plant . You just water the "dead" plant before you go to bed on the night before Easter and in the morning "It's Alive!" Every year we hunt and find Resurrection Eggs. I made my own one year, using this resource . My kids also love to do Resurrection Cookies and we will do them this year as well. Last year we made this Hill of Calvary . We loved it! Jesus is o

It looks as though we have about 30 days of at-home book school left to do this school year. Dawson has expressed some desires of things he would like to study before the school year is over, so I have planned some fun things for the month of May. We also have some things I would like for us to get done before the end of the school year, so I have made some goals. This has also included a few tweaks to our curriculum. Brynne * Complete Handwriting Without Tears Printing Power (one lesson per day) * Get through Lesson 45 of Copywork for Little Girls * Get through Lesson 75 of Math Enhancement Programme * Complete goal of independently reading 100 books * Get through Lesson 115 of Easy Grammar * Complete The Secret Garden unit * Finish 5 more state studies and focus on U.S. Geography Dawson * Finish Life of Fred Beginning Algebra * Finish Critical Thinking book * Stop Easy Grammar for now and complete GrammarKey Parts of Speech curriculum (next year he will re

Extra-curricular activities . The TOS Cruisers are talking about extra-curricular activities this week. At first I thought, "My kids don't do ANY extra-curricular activities." But then I realized that isn't totally true. What is totally true is that we don't do many. All of my children are homebodies. Once they have their school work done, they are ready to just play, get on the computer, or play video games. They play outside, ride their scooters, run in the backyard, swing on the swingset, play with the dogs, etc. Extra-curricular activities, to them, is just something else to take away from their play time. Our kids are not involved in regular sports activities. Yes, we have dabbled in them at their request. But, it's obvious that we do not have the next big sports star, so we don't push it. My philosophy has always been that I will allow my children to be involved in anything that they want to do bad enough that I don't have to beg, plead,

Some accidental American History occurred this week for Eli and Brynne. While in Pensacola, Florida, on Spring Break, I took the kids to tour Ft. Barrancas. According to the National Park Service, "European colonization, American expansion, and threats of invasion led to the building of coastal forts along the northern Gulf Coast. Situated on the bluffs (barrancas) overlooking Pensacola Bay and the gateway to the outside world, Fort Barrancas served as the lock on the gate from potential foreign invaders." "The forts of Gulf Islands National Seashore span almost 150 years, from the Spanish colonial Bateria De San Antonio (1797) to the World War Two-era Battery 234. This reflects the historic value of the anchorages at Pensacola Bay, Florida and Ship Island, Mississippi. Most striking among these are the American Third System forts: Fort Pickens, Fort Massachusetts, Fort Barrancas, and the Advanced Redoubt, all of which saw action during the Civil War." &q

We are on Spring Break this week. It was our intention to shut down our brains and just relax for a full week. But, the one thing about homeschooling  is that it's impossible to shut off teacher brain, especially when you are in a completely new environment so full of learning opportunities. Like seeing hermit crabs while at the beach. And going to the the naval aviation museum. And watching the Blue Angels do their practice runs. Then stopping off to tour Ft. Barrancas. Learning just cannot stop when you have so much living education around you. Life is my Favorite Resource this week. No, we didn't touch a book this week. (Well, I did. I read two ... HA!) But it becomes more and more apparent to me how learning is an experience , not a planner of assignments . The richness of learning that occurred this week without planning has been amazing! These are things I am certain my kids will remember for the rest of their lives, not just long enough to regurgitate

This was my favorite moment of our non-schooling week in Pensacola, Florida. We went to the beach to take some gorgeous photos, and ended up drenched in the ocean instead. The smiles, laughter, and joy out of them and me was something I will never forget. I am linking up this week at 1+1+1=1 .

Do you ever feel that way? I know that when I spend day-in-day-out with my kids, from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., teaching and caring for them, I am extremely guilty about squeezing out my husband. And then when they all go to bed and I am finally fully available for Rick, I am oftentimes so exhausted that he gets what's left of me, which is not much. I am fully concious of this, and I try to stay on top of it. But I do not do nearly enough to make my husband the priority in my life that he should be. My priorities are (or at least I try to make them be): 1. God 2. Rick 3. The kids 4. Myself 5. Outside activities Because Rick is so loving and accommodating to me, he seems to be the one that drops down my priority list before anything else. Here are just a few things that I try to do to help that not happen: Go on dates during unconventional times and on unconventional days. Most of our dates these days are on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon (going to the movies or to eat

We have all had a high fever this week .... Spring Fever! Our Spring Break officially starts ....... NOW! Oh my goodness, it was hard to push through this week. But we did it! There were no bells and whistles to our week .. just steadily getting necessary work done. I didn't take one picture! Dawson and Brynne covered all the basics every day: Math/Algebra, Grammar, Critical Thinking, Writing, Copywork, and Literature. Our art this week consisted of lots of free drawing. We haven't done one of our artist studies in SUCH  a long time and I was planning on getting us back into this week. But, it never happened. After Spring Break, that is going to be one of my goals for the remainder of the year. I will have a Goals post coming soon. Dawson learned about feedback mechanisms in cells: fight or flight responses, homeostasis, and chemotaxis. He is also learning much about the condition of New York City in the late 1800's after the Statue of Liberty was constructed, Elli

(** I'm posting this today, instead of next Wednesday which is my usual time. I'll be away on Spring Break next week and sometimes my auto-post feature works, and sometimes it doesn't.) Oh my, yes, in just one month, this young man will be ... gulp! ... DRIVING! It makes me sad to think that in such a short amount of time, he'll be driving up the street to his friend's house instead of riding his RipStik with his dog at his side. He will be able to test for his permit at 15 1/2, which is next month. Until then, he and I will be launching into our new homeschool elective: Driver's Education. We will be using the "Take the Wheel" parent taught driver's education program. And we will be counting it as school! I ordered the dvd set and workbooks today. Rick taught Kyndal to drive, so the stress was minimal for me. But, I'm taking on Dawson. I have already taught him how to back out of the driveway in my Suburban, get turned around and