September 2021 CKCB Layouts

I know. I have been MIA.  My oldest daughter has brain cancer and we were gone for her surgery and I have been waiting to see when I am heading back to her house to help her while she's in treatment. It's has kind of thrown us all for a loop.  She did really well with the surgery to remove the tumor-in fact, her neurologist said the surgery could not have gone any better.  He removed all of the tumor, plus excised a little bit more of her brain-just in case. Keep praying for her.  God is working as He always does. 

In the meantime, I have started homeschooling for this school year.  This year, I only have ONE student at my table.  It feels really weird to just have Emily to teach.  I have been homeschooling for 21 years-this school year marking my 22nd year. Emily is a Junior this year, so it won't be long until this part of my life will be completed and I'll have free time, RIGHT?????  LOL

 Here's my beautiful girl!  

I have been doing a minimal amount of scrapbooking and have two layouts to share with you from my September CKCB kit.  The first one features a sketch from the current Allison Davis class:  Sketches for 6x6 Paper Pads - One Page Sketches.  I am having a bit of trouble with this class because of photo sizing.  This particular sketch I was able to use the size she used in hers but I was minus one photo.  I just used the ones that I had and called it good. 

My second layout features our kitty, Smudge, who is a grouchy old man.  He has never EVER responded to his name when you call him.  This photo I took of him was taken because he INSISTED on going outside with the kids while I took back to school photos that year.  I think he remembers that he was the Homeschooled Cat, or maybe he thinks he's the school mascot or something.  That might be true.  HAHAHA! We love our old man kitty.  

I added some washi tape that "jumped" into my online cart while shopping and had landed on my desktop.  I bought it, not because I have lots of Halloween photos to scrapbook, but because I have a black cat.  We take quite a few photos of him.  He "needs" his own washi tape.  I also added a couple of word/phrase stickers from a sheet of Kitty stickers on my desktop.  I put them there so I would start using them!  They're from 7 Gypsies.  Anyone remember that company?  They made word/text stickers before they were cool!  I also used a bit of the animal print from my CKCB kit.  I hate animal prints.  I won't wear them and I don't typically buy them, but this piece of patterned paper was in the paper pad for this Amy Tangerine collection.  So, I have it.  And I will try to use it.  I also managed to get two of the animal print stickers on this page as well.  Win!! 

I hope you have a great week! Thank you for stopping by my blog today!

More of the school stuff….

After that day at the pond, the boys had to learn to use the new microscope purchased for this school year.  We had SO much fun finding the bacterium!!!!


I’m totally going to miss having them here.  I have been homeschooling since 2000, when we pulled Tyler out of public school at the end of first grade.  This has been an enjoyable time of my life, one I was looking forward to seeing through to completion.  However, that isn’t what is going to happen.  I can only pray and hope that this is what Tyler needs.  I ask that each of you pray with me.
Seth and Emily made Eagle Lapbooks during this first unit of the year.  That was great fun.


On Friday of this past week, Seth and Emily did their first chemistry experiment.  We are making crystals.  I currently have 7 petry dishes on my window ledge growing crystals. They are really excited about them.  we got the stuff to complete the experiment from Home Science Tools online. 
Tomorrow we start a new unit…we’ll be talking quite a bit about the Temple that Jesus knew.  We are *supposed* to build a model of it but I bought books and a DVD instead.  It was next to impossible to get the items needed to make it here without spending an arm and a leg for postage. 
Hope to chat soon….

School Stuff

We are about 5 weeks or so into this school year.  It’s been a hard and productive year for my older three students….but they’ve done well and are learning.  More about the future of this homeschool towards the end of the post.
Sharing some pictures….
Tyler and Garret have completed their first experiment in Biology.  They made four cultures with pond water and egg yolk, rice grains, hay, and soil.  We got the pond water at the pond in Baumholder.



While there, the Littles and Courtney did some nature journal stuff…LOL…for lack of a better description.




This was a nice day…although it was chilly.  It was nice to be out and about during our schooling time.

SEEE…look at these smiles.




See ya all later gator…..

OH yeah…I said I had something to tell you about the future of our home school. 
Pat and I are having major issues with Tyler and rebellion…this is only putting it mildly.  Some of you know what is going on.  Some of you don’t even know the half of it.  I am not going to air dirty laundry on my blog…so to speak.  Pat and I discussed putting Tyler in public school.  He won’t work for me anymore.  I  can’t get him to DO anything…and we’ve tried EVERYTHING in our parental arsenal to get him to comply.  He won’t.  He has to have an education.  Period.  Pat enrolled him in public school this week.  (with my blessing in the end)  Garret wanted to play football with the high school and to do this he has to go to school there.  So he’s going as well.  Garret will be fine.  He’s a good student.  Tyler has the POTENTIAL to do fine…whether he will or not…is up to him.
Starting Monday, I will be down to just three kids in our school.  It’s going to be strange.  It was necessary.  For my sanity as well as…well I will leave it at that.

Happy First Day of {Home}School

Our school year has officially started.  We didn’t do a full day’s worth of school due to an Allergy appointment for Emily.  It was right in the middle of the day, so really messed it up.  However, we put together notebooks, talked about expectations, and did a science objective.  Courtney is doing her math.  Garret went out to play for a few minutes before football practice.  The Littles are taking a very LATE nap.
Tyler-age 16, Junior Year of High School:

He refused to smile…no he’s NOT mad.  It’s uncool to smile or some such nonsense.  ROTF

Garret-age 14.5-Freshman Year of High School

Garret will be playing football this fall. 

Courtney-12.5 years-7th grade

Seth- almost 7 years old, 1st grade

Seth is playing soccer with CYS on one of their Minor Teams this fall. 

Emily-4.5 years-Preschool #2

Emily is playing soccer with the CYS as well, a Bambino Team.

And the whole crew:

And if you wanna see a genuine smile from Tyler….ask him if Stephenie is cute….

Nope, Momma doesn’t play fair.  ROTF.  But he’s so handsome with a smile…a REAL one.

I hope all of my friends have a wonderful school year, whether or not you are homeschooling or have children in the public school system. 

Saying Good-Bye to Summer

Yep, it’s getting close to that time.  I officially have less than two weeks before we begin homeschool for this year.  Tyler will be 11th grade, Garret will be 9th, Courtney will be 7th, Seth will be 1st, and Emily is still our tag along.  She finished Kindergarten last year with Seth.  She did almost everything he did, just at a slower pace on her own terms.  I am sure she will do the same this year.  Next year will be her official start of Kindergarten.  But I must not jump ahead or I’ll have a nervous breakdown. LOL!
Cold, hard reality has hit.  I am not nearly ready for schooling to start.  I have time to get there and I have no doubt that I will get there.  It’s the GETTING THERE that has me a bit worried.  And the other thing…how can I do all of it…alone?  I’m not even sure that I am cut out for this rather large task.  So that brings me to this:
Philippians 4:13 “I can do ALL things which strengthen me.”
Really Lord?  ALL of it?  Alone.  Help me I am scared.  I am unsure.  Yes Lord, I’ll do my part.  Yes Lord, I’ll pray.  Yes Lord, I’ll come to You.  Yes Lord, I can do all things…but not without YOU.  I can’t do this alone..I don’t even want to try.  I need You.  More than ever.  This is the MOST IMPORTANT job in the world.  Not only the responsibility of their education but also their hearts. 
I have a big amount of things planned for the year. 
We are doing Sonlight’s  Bible/Apologetics course from their Core 300 for the older boys this year.  I purchased the books from Amazon however…LOL.  Free shipping and it was cheaper.  With titles such as “How To Ruin Your Life By 40” and “Know What You Believe” how could you go wrong?  LOL.
Both boys (older) are going to be doing these things as well:
Easy Grammar
Write Source/Writer’s Inc
Apologia’s Biology with Labs
Algebra 1
Learning to Love Literature by Weaver (AOP)
History of some sort…with two weeks to go, I haven’t decided if I’ll continue to allow them to sit with our Weaver unit studies-easier for me as far as planning and teaching OR doing a text book-easier for the transcript. 
Anyone see why I am a little nervous this school year yet?  That’s just the two older ones. 
Courtney will be doing a 7th grade Literature class from ABeka, Easy Grammar, spellling, Saxon Math 65 and will finish it and move on to the  next level, etc….she will be sitting with us on our Weaver unit studies.
Seth didn’t quite get learning to read last year.  So we will pick in phonics where we left off.  He will be doing Saxon Math 1, Spelling, I think I bought Easy Grammar for him.  Plus our Weaver Unit studies.  Oh yeah…there’s Explode the Code 1.
OK….I think I need to go, ahem, PRAY HARDER. 
Enjoy the picture.  No worries to those of you having a heart attack that I am allowing my 4 year old to ride her scooter in the middle of the road.  It’s closed off to traffic, privately owned by the US Army for setting up deployments and training.  She’s perfectly safe.  PROMISE.

School Prep

Every year at this time, I am doing some sort of preparations for our upcoming homeschooling year.  This year, I have to recreate my Teacher’s Binder for use with our unit study, through the Weaver Curriculum.  Normally, I just put in the new stuff we’ll be doing into my old binder but this year, I have to replace the binder itself.  It’s falling apart.  The tabs are breaking.  So a new one is in order.  I am revamping it as I go as well.  I am sure throughout this year I will continue to revamp.  But this is what I have so far:


Some of you will recognize that pretty binder label.  It was originally made for the OSU Topper challenge.  I put it to use.  LOL


And a LO I made for the BPM monthly DT.  Mine didn’t win and that’s okay.  Another finished LO and I am completely happy with my creation.

Update on the homeschooled cat….

caWell, as you can see Smudge is taking being a homeschooled cat in stride. 

We only have one more day left in this experiment before moving on to something else.  I can tell you that I am GLAD that I will have a clean windowsill again in my dining room.  It’s driving me nuts looking at the science clutter.  LOL……
Here’s the pictures from Friday:



Pictures from Tuesday:  (apparently Garret only own ONE shirt-LOL)

Science experiment catch up

We have not done anything photo worthy this week, BUT I took some photos of what my window sill looks like-LOL.

MONDAY~
GROW< GROW, GROW:
We measured the plants in the aluminum planters we made on Friday.  Here’s Em’s results (each child has similar results):
14A- 0cm
14B- 0cm
14C-0cm
14d- 0cm
We also made out Toxic Stress jars.  We took three paper towels and folded them until they were 16 layers thick, impressed the baby food jars onto them and cut out the resulting circle.  The 16 layer circle then went into the baby food jar.  We did three of these for each student.  They were labeled WATER, VINEGAR, and SALT WATER respectively.  The water jar got 8 seeds on the 16 layer circle (which we soaked with water) and the other two jars got 4 seeds each.  We sealed the jars up and put them on our trays.

TUESDAY~
GROW, GROW, GROW:
Measured our plants again:
14A-1.3 cm
14B- 0.6cm
14C- 1.7 cm
14D- 2.1cm\
Today we also revisited our grid work from lesson 10.  Checked the growth of those sprouts…they grew (LOL) and the kiddos drew them onto their charts.
Today we also began an experiment on phototropism.  In lesson 12, we planted a seedling in aluminum planter 2C.  Today we took aluminum planter 2D, and made an aluminum plant.  2C was turned away from the sun and 2D we bent in the manner we thought 2C would grow (all but one of the kids said that it would grow  towards the window or light source). 

WEDNESDAY~
GROW, GROW, GROW
Measured plants again:
14A-2.9cm
14B- 1.5 cm
14C- 3.7 cm
14D- 3.9 cm
We were supposed to start experiments on Geotropism and  Hydrotropism BUT our seedlings weren’t large enough.  We waited until today to start them.  It worked out okay since after the experiment we would throw them out. 
THURSDAY~
GROW, GROW, GROW:
14a 5.2CM
14B 5.0 CM
14C- 6.9 CM
14D- 5.8CM
Geotropism:
Pick out a seedling from your water jar that has root hairs.  Put about this much water into a baby food jar and tip the jar onto it’s side-the water CANNOT spill out, so be careful how much you use.  Put your seedling into the jar head first.  slowly tip the jar upright so the seedling sticks to the jar.  It should be UPSIDE DOWN and out of the water.  Close the lid and put scotch tape on the outside of the jar, then trace the seedling’s outline onto the tape.  Walk away until tomorrow. 
What’s the point you ask?  How do YOU think these seedlings will grow in response to gravity????????????
HYDROTROPISM:
Cut a paper towel in half and fold it until about 1/3 of it will hang down the side of a baby food jar.  Moisten with water.  Cut a small piece of plastic wrap so it will exactly fit the overhanging towel.  Take 3 more of your seedlings from your water jar from lesson 16 (toxic stress).  Gently place these seedlings between the towel and plastic.  Cover them completely with plastic.  Add water no higher than 1/2 full.  Gently place the lid on the top.  Stop and return in 6 days.  Is a radish root hydrotopic??????  Explain.  (this the kids will do next week)  (and brownie points-a fresh batch is sitting on my stove top- if you know what hydrotopic means…LOL)

So that concludes the experiments for this week through today.  LOL.  I’ll try to post tomorrow.
Here’s the promised pix





And a LO….I have only done two pages this  week, both TODAY.
I can’t share one of them since it’s OSU’s May Telephone Scraplift but here’s some detail pix of that one:



Thanks to Kylie for the papers and letter stickers I used in that LO.  She was my Kit partner for a swap we did a year ago (or was it longer..blush).  I’ve been hoarding this paper until now. 
Here’s the other LO:
Celebrating Valentine’s Day 2007