June 2012 and now

I was looking back at this old blog of ours and noticed there were a few gaps in my journalling (to say the least). So, as I'm able, I plan to post my favorite pictures from those months that I missed, until I catch up.  We so enjoyed looking through the archives of this blog yesterday.  My kids loved seeing themselves when they were babies, especially the videos.  I hope I'm at a place in life now, that I can resume documenting some of our journey together.  In the process, I will update you on what life is like now for us.   

Phoebe couldn't go so sleep without grabbing my nose.

Love the rolls, on those thighs!  They're long gone now!

 What a silly watermelon girl! Where did we get her? Oh yes, Akron!

Not to be left out, it's the fearless, the amazing watermelon boy!  

That was then, and...

------------------------------------------------------------------

....this is now!

This past month (February 2014), we visited the children's museum in Mansfield and had a blast sharing it with my mom, during her two week visit.  We are glad you chose to fly with Air Phoebe, if you would please stay in your seats and fasten your seat belt...

 We also spent lots of time in the snow in February, and January, and December, if I recall correctly.  It's been a long, cold Winter, we have definitely made the most of it, though. Ben took the kids sledding again today, and I love that they are becoming resilient, maybe not like in Norway or Iceland, but they're adapting to the weather well and anything above 30 degrees actually feels warm these days!  

 We're busy with homeschooling, drama, piano, weekly homeschool meetings for Classical Conversations and another group I organize that expounds on what we learn there.  Ezra has his first piano performance at a music club this week, he'll be wearing his bow tie and best duds for the occasion. 

I'm reminded, as I write this, how much I miss blogging...{sigh}

Christmas picture

We didn't send out Christmas cards, but we got this picture taken to share.  I forgot to share it until now, sorry!

Summer School - My Honest Review

On Grandpa Tim and Grandma Amy's Boat this Summer

Mid-July it hit me that Summer was completely upon us and going to be over soon!  We became so engrossed in enjoying whatever Summer opportunities before us, we completely dropped Summer School.  I think 8 weeks is a nice round number and aside from shortening the overall length of the program I planned for them, the only other thing I would do differently in the future is cut back to just 5-6 subjects to cover.  How to pick though, I don't know!  I love all of what we did.  Perhaps we'd eliminate the animal section, though it was super fun, it was just to expound on the kids' knowledge of animals they already could identify.  That doesn't quite fit with the goal of the others which was to simply introduce new material and memorize.  It should, like in Classical Conversations, be simple and straightforward, like "Here's the new constellation, I'll show it to you everyday for a week, then review once a week for the rest of the Summer."  Mondays were our review day, Tuesday started the new info for the week.

Favorite Subjects we did: Classical Music, Bird Sounds, Sea Life and Fungi
Least Popular Subjects we did: Trees, Astronomy, Geology

Through the Summer the kids and I kept a running list of subjects we'd like to cover in future years. The plan is to return to all this in three years, so I have two more years worth of material to compile.  For the sake of next Spring when I'm ready to think about this again, here's the list we came up with:

• Dog Types  - Ezra's determined to learn these, so we must add this one
• Braille - Another Ezra add
• Morse Code - why not?  We'd have to use this for good and not evil though. Back in the '80s, I had neighbors in DC who were both Morse code specialists and they'd cheat during Pictionary using Morse code.
• Weeds - I took a medicinal herb class this Summer and am inspired to learn more about the weeds in my backyard!  
• Different cultures - Mainly so we could try making different foods from different countries.
• Reptiles
• Arachnids

Before I let it go, I had already looked this up for Week 9 and wanted to share because I never knew the difference.  Check out these conifers:


     
They are Spruce, Fir and Pine, in order of top left, top right and bottom.
Now, I know!