A butterfly, a cat, Professor Jones, and a boy in the wind!

All Kinds of Talents

 So proud of all of my babies today. Olive did a great job in her ballet presentation, Asa sucked it up and stood on stage in costume to sing with his class, Addison rocked the cello in the talent show, and Ivey, well, Ivey felt all of the emotions in each and every talent show song and sobbed her bloody heart out at the sadness of the minor keys, the lyrics, and how it all reminded her of the cat in that book she read that died as a kitten after being attacked by a rat.

Good job, guys. And now, where the heck is my pillow... This momma needs to CRASH.

Olive's Thoughts on Ivey & Tripp

 

Fungi Freedom

 I just found a huge mushroom in a bag hanging on my doorknob.

Ivey: "Oh, yeah! That's my mushroom. I'm gonna go outside and let it go."

They're Just Knives

 My kids unload the dishwasher at least once per day. The girls are not allowed to unload any of the sharp knives, of course. It seems that my children, among themselves, referred to the sharp knives as "killer knives". (As in "Don't touch the killer knives.") Well, we have a couple of those TINY Pampered Chef prep knives that are super sharp. Because of their size, my kids would call them "baby" knives. So, if sharp knives are "killer knives", it makes sense that these "baby" knives would be called "baby, killer knives". I am hoping I can convince them to stop referring to these knives as such before they mention our "baby-killer knives" to some unsuspecting person at Bed Bath & Beyond.

Homeschool. Ourschool.

Asa's "Office"

Making the biggest 3 digit number possible.... with dice.

Linking subjects to other words using linking verbs.

Using 1, 10, & 100 cards to represent numbers.  Visualizing adding enough ones to necessitate another 10, etc.

"Working From Home / Schooling From Home"

Addison

Homeschool Perk = Teaching in PJ's.

This Year's Rythm

We kicked back in to all of the activities, sports, and classes fairly late this year.  For us, school started after Labor Day, which allowed us to baby step our way into a full fall schedule.  Olive started back to ballet in August.

Addison began playing cello for a new community orchestra.  For Ivey, hockey began at the end of August.  Boy Scouts continued on, as did Addison's Aikido classes.

The big news is that Addison passed his 3rd kyu test up at the big Aikido Center!

Asa will be on a Lego robotics team that will compete in the First Lego League competition, and they meet each Friday.  Church classes kicked back in once public school was in session, and the boys began confirmation classes.

The girls' Farm Fusion class was back in full swing in early September.

At home this year, the girls are in 2nd Grade Abeka for language arts & social studies, Singapore Math 2a/b, First Language Lessons 2, Wordly Wise 2, plus handwriting, journaling, and online games.  They are both ahead of the game, so it is nice that we do not have to feel pushed in any way!

 

The biggest change has been in the boys' schedules.  They joined Konos Academy this year, which means they have a new curriculum, new classes which meet once per week (Asa on Tuesdays and Addison on Thursdays), a slew of new teachers, a new online grading system, and a new science class that meets on Mondays.  I must say, I was a big intimidated by all of the emails and information that was coming my way in late August/early September, but after a few weeks, I think we are all getting the hang of things.  The boys' grades are wonderful, and they are telling me all the time how much they love Konos!  Another big change is that the boys are not just going to "school" on different days, but they are in different programs.  Asa is in the Juniors group, which is for 7th and 8th graders.  However, Asa is taking Algebra 1 and Physical Science on a high school level.  Addison is now officially in high school, and it honestly is great for him.  The academic work is exactly what he needed.  It is not too challenging at all for him, and he is in a supportive group of wonderful peers!  I can't ask for more!

Addison's Class

Addison: "This essay is easy to write because I like the topic."

Me: "Yes! It's always easier to write about things you're interested in. What are you writing about?"

Addison: "Comparing and contrasting two of Milton's poems."

Heartbreaker

 Led Zeppelin's Heartbreaker is playing. Olive is explaining to Ivey that someone thought Olive was the big sister, because Ivey whined and cried more.

Ivey answers, "Did you hear what he said? Some people cry and some people don't."

Some people cry and some people die
By the wicked ways of love
But I'll just keep on rollin' along
With the grace of the Lord above

Tiny Stress-Ball

Olive is working on tomorrow's to-do list. I think we should add some anti-anxiety therapy to that list!

______________________

Here's a list I found of things she plans to do at the Tractor Show:

What happens when I kick the kids out of the house....