Holiday Decor at Homeschool Post

I decided to following along in this meme over at the homeschool post. There are several I am trying to enter in the next few days but this one is keeping it simple. I just have to post a few christmas photos. I got started in holiday decorating when I had a small, simple craft business. I spent most of the year making holiday ornaments to sell at craft shows and stores. Over the years, I ran out of time to do that as a business and it became more of a hobby. I've been collecting for about 20 years now with the result being two christmas trees in our house and some little ones in the kids rooms.







We don't really do "santa" at hour house but we do celebrate Saint Nikolous. The following is one of the types of ornaments I use to make in my business.

Let's Play Tag

Well, not the kind of tag your thinking. But I showed the kids the other day how to make Christmas tags. We used white paper and stamps/ink/markers from close to my heart. They started to really get the hang of it, not that it is really complicated. Annaliese did pretty well considering she couldn't use her right arm and she isn't a lefty. Just some Christmas fun at our house to share with all of you.

Solo Deo Gloria

On December 4th the kids participated in their first concert with the Solo Deo Gloria homeschool choir. We had a fantastic time. The concert was really fabulous. I can't wait for the dvd to arrive. They performed a mix of Christmas carols, spirituals, and hymns. One song was even done in Latin. The choir is broken down into three groups. Sanctus for high school, Jubileo Deo for 4th-8th grades, and Te Deum for 1st - 3rd grades. I am very proud of the kids for getting up so early in the morning and making the long drive to Eau Claire each Thursday. It has been a really great experience for all of them. I am thankful to have even made it to the performance. We had some sickness running through our house plus many people around us in choir rehearsal and in church have been suffering from the stomach bug. Thanks to those who prayed us through it. We are looking forward to choir starting back up on 2/12. Here a few pictures for you all to enjoy.





Annaliese wanted her hair curled so we were busy in the church bathroom among all the other girls trying to get ready. You can't tell in this picture but Annaliese has a festive red cast on her arm. She was so worried that she wouldn't be able to be in the concert if her shirt didn't fit over it. Even if it hadn't we would've taken an older shirt and cut the arm off. She was so looking forward to this evening.




Gabrielle has been enjoying her time at choir. Making many new friends which we are both very happy about. I think it is important for her to have some kids to hang out with that are her age or a bit older. She has been enjoying learning about music and improving her singing.



Arianna is not one for getting dressed up. She honors me by wearing something nice on Christmas and Easter. Now she has to suffer through 2 more times each year - the winter and spring concerts. She looked so nice that evening. She has gained a lot of confidence in her voice since starting choir. Prior to this she was very shy about her singing and would hardly open her mouth. Now she is not as intimidated.




Natania is the one who loves to sing in the family. She seems to have some God given abilities musically. She is teaching herself some songs on the piano until we can afford "real" lessons and eventually she wants to play the flute. She has song before doing small solo parts during church.



Micah was a real trooper. It was a very long day for him without much rest. We left our house at about 7:30am so by concert time (7pm) he was starting to get a bit grumpy. As you can see from this photo he was in no mood for mommy to be having one of those photo-op moments. He did very well during the performance, then joined daddy in the audience and fell asleep on his shoulders.

Thanksgiving Feast

This is a little late for Thanksgiving but I wanted to post it anyway. We recently joined a new homeschool group - Homestars. They have an annual Thanksgiving celebration with the kids and families. The table was filled with chicken wings (our turkey) and hotdogs for little kids, squash, potatoes, breads and lots of desserts. The kids made a snack craft to represent a pilgrim hat and listen to a book being read. Here's some photos:

Experiment with Volcanoes

We did this experiment in the fall when the younger three kids were studying about vocanoes. We used the following supplies:
narrow neck soda bottles
modeling clay and dirt
3-4 tablespoons baking soda
3-4 drops of liquid dish soap
3-4 drops of red food coloring
1/2cup water
1/2 cup vinegar

The kids had alot of fun with this. As you can see from the photos the only thing we should'v done differently is to have maybe doubled the amount of red food coloring. We ended up with pink flowing lava instead of a red.

Night of the Moonjellies lapbook

My son finished this lapbook about 6 weeks ago but I am so far behind in posting things on my blog. I took sometime today to listen to Christmas carols and work on my blog a little bit. We really enjoyed this story because we are native New Englanders. All our family is back there in Massachusetts. We love the ocean and the kids love collecting shells. We don't get home as often as we would like but hope next time to take a trip to Rockport again. One of our favorite ocean spots.



Here are some photos of our book

When we read through this story I was very surprised that Micah could remember several of things being served at the beach stand. We also talked about the things he might hear, smell and see at the ocean.

Here is a list of go-along stories if you ever choose to read this book which I highly recommend.

Under the Sea by Barbara Knox
Seashells by the Seashore by Marianna Berkes
On the Way to the Beach by Henry Cole
The Seashore Book by Charlotte zoltow
A House by the Sea by Joanne Ryder
The Sandcastle by M.P. robertson (great book by the way)
One Wish by Francis Wolfe
Sophie's Bucket by Catherine Stock (another great read)
The PInk House at the Seashore by Deborah Blumenthal
The House Takes a Vacation by Jacqueline Davies

We had alot of fun reminscing about our days in New England and life be the seashore. Oh, how we miss that part of home.

When There’s No Tomorrow-Assign. 107

Assignment: We only have today. Should God take you today, have you accomplished everything that you wanted to, needed to. Have you said all the things that needed to be said? Let’s have no regrets, let’s make sure we get to those things, so that when we’re standing before the Lord, the only thing we need to do is to worship him.. and not regret not getting to that thing on our to do list. Stop - go take care of that thing…. then, come tell us what you choose to share. Don’t embarrass yourself or any of your loved ones.

Okay, there are alot of different ways to go with this assignment but I chose to gear it towards our experience with homeschooling.

I think as far as school, I would choose to not worry about the "book work" and focus more not so much on fun because not everything in life is fun but to focus more on my children as individuals. I would worry less about the things we are trying to learn like algebra and biology; I would put my focus on their character. Am I building up my child or causing them to stumble.

Nothing is easy with parenting. It is even harder when the parent also chooses to be a homeschooling parent. It leaves alot of room for sin. When you venture down this path you quickly learn about all your short comings as a mom, teacher, parent, christian.

I would choose my words wiser, I would show them how to learn in a more loving manner, I would make sure they knew how much they are loved. I would tell them I'm sorry when I've failed to be the best mom that I could be.

Now let's switch gears - when we are standing before God there will be no regrets. We will see fully the how and why of our lives. We will be in perfect peace, there fore we can't have regrets. What I do hope for myself and for my family is that when we stand in the presence of God whenever that time might be that we will here the words "well done, thy good and faithful servant."

I will leave you with this verse from Jeremiah:

Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Keeping Up With Natania

Ever have one of those days where you suspect something might be wrong but you figure your just being paranoid. Well if your a mom, then your mother's intuition has just kicked in. I find that everytime this happens it is because something needs to be checked out on one of my kids.

Micah today was checked for knee problems. He is almost 6, so I figured what could really be wrong but lets have it checked out anyway. I always thought his knees were shaped funny and often looked swollen. Well about a week ago he was complaining and limping around for about three days. I asked him if he had fallen. He said no. He was in quite alot of pain one of those nights. I assumed it was like a "charlie horse" when you get those pains in your muscles. I massaged his leg, moved it up and down to release the pain, after several minutes it was fine. So I thought good, we fixed that. Until about a day later when it started up again.

I asked my husband what he thought but he said boys knees are just shaped different than girls. I said I don't think that's right. It has become the joke in our house because everytime this happens he thinks nothing of it and it proves in fact to be something. So any of you mom's reading this don't second guess your intuition. And if your DH is anything like mine, just skip the conversation and go right to the doctor.

Well upon checking him out tonight our family doctor (who is so good) told me that he has Patellar Subluxation (when your knee cap moves out of joint and off to the side) and Genu Valgum (known as knocked knees). He also told me that I did what we should do when it happens but to keep an eye on him. He thinks he will out grow it but on rare occasions it requires surgery.

I had thought for a while that something was wrong with his knees but continually put it out of my mind, but my mother's intuition was still always nagging on me. Natania my ten year old, who happens to want to be a doctor when she grows up, had also noticed something wrong with his knees. She is also the one in the family that has most of the medical issues, but Micah is doing his best to keep up with her. So between his surgery two weeks ago, a broken leg, surgery as a baby and now this. I think they are neck and neck in this race.

Homeschool Memoirs #10

Our assignment, if we choose to accept it . . .

is as follows-

This is our 10th Homeschool Memoirs so this week it’s going to be about 10 timely facts about you! Write 10 interesting, crazy, weird, fun facts about you! Include facts about you as a woman, a wife, a mommy, a homeschooler, a homekeeper, a taxi-driver, a cook, etc .

10 Facts about Me

mmmh.....

1. I love to collect dishes.
2. I love to decorate - especially at Christmas time.
3. I love to scrapbook.
4. I do like to exercise but lately it hasn't been much of a priority. Actually for a long time now it
hasn't been much of a priority-I guess I need to fix that, huh.
5. I am 4' 10" -pretty short.
6. I am a born and raised New Englander.
7. I hate all cooked veggies other than corn.
8. I love the ecclectic approach to homeschooling.
9. My 3rd daughter was born on the couch in an emergency (not one of those at home planned
births). Although I would've done it that way but hubby was a little nervous. So instead he
got the crash course with this baby. And she is still a hand full.
10. I love to name my children those unusual, less common names (for the most part)
11. My favorite season is fall.

Well that's eleven but whose really counting anyway.

Have it Your Way #106

On this assignment from Blogger Friend school I am to write about how I "have it my way" during the winter months. What I enjoy doing during the cold spells we have in Wisconsin. Well I really don't like the cold much so I tend to stay inside alot. I enjoy taking the kids sledding a couple of times. I'm always hoping to get some good photos. What I do for myself personally is drink hot cocoa and if I'm lucky I'll get a chance to scrapbook some of those winter photos. I also like to lounge around in my warm PJ's and bathrobe. Sometimes we might even do school in our PJ's. I have on occasion made potatoe and ham soup but some of the kids don't like that. So this is not a very interesting post but at least I made an attempt.

A Homeschool Family #109

Here is the assignment: This week’s theme is about your family. Don’t worry. I’m not going to make you write a long essay about all the great things your family does. Just something little diddy that I know everyone will have fun with!

I couldn't figure out how to post the video so for those of you who don't know the poems are to the tune of the old TV show the Adam's Family. If you search on youtube.com you will find the video.

So here are my few verses. At first it was kind of frustrating to find things that rhymed but also had to do with our family and school. Then it kind of took off on it's own and became a fun way of letting out some stress. So here it goes . . .

We live in a small town
It causes us to frown
Somedays we need a clown
The Emmons Family

They think our school's a joke
They tease, make fun and poke
I need another coke
The Emmons Family

We shoot hoops for phys ed class
And learn to make a pass
We run barefoot in the grass
The Emmons Family

We learn of kings and queens
The function of your spleen
And everything in between
The Emmons Family

Our children love to read
To search and find milkweed
They really will succeed
The Emmons Family

We learned about creation
His-tory is our passion
Of God and every nation
The Emmons Family

They think we march offbeat
but our lives are more complete
Somedays are really sweet
The Emmons Family

"adore"
"explore"
"amore"

So that gives you some fun insight to our family. Once you start this project the list could go on and on. The possibilities are endless just like homeschooling.

A Harvest of Fun

We went on a homeschool field trip to a local apple orchard. We had a great day for it--the sun was shining and it wasn't too cold. One of the highlights for the younger kids was horse rides. Natania was thrilled because she dreams of having a few horses when she is grown and has a family of her own. I guess every little girl dreams of having her own horse. I think I'll get concerned when she brings home "prince charming."

Poetry

I just started today taking two of my girls to a poetry class offered through our homeschool group. It's the kind of class geared to "free verse" type poetry not meter, rhyme or scanning. The following are two poems my 10 year old wrote during class today. The theme was to pick a color and write a poem about it.

Pink is my favorite color
It brightens the sunset
And hot pink burns
Like fire and
Makes it bright and beatiful
Around me.


Black is dark and scary
You can't see anything
It haunts you in the dark
But sometimes it's bright
Like the night sky.

Snacks, Snacks and More Snacks

The assignment this week was to share some of your families favorite snacks. So here it goes. We usually have apples and bananas in the house most weeks. Our girls love the mini baby carrots and shredded carrots for those who wear braces. They love salad type things lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers. But at the same time they love all kinds of chips. One of our favorite family snacks is chips and salsa or making nachos. In the fall we love to make pumpkin bread-that is a favorite for breakfast or as a snack. I love the smell of the cinnamon and nutmeg in the house. It's all warm and cozy. At Christmas time one of the family favorites is homemade hummis. So that gives you a sneak peak into the snacks our family enjoys.