Field Trip!!! :)

We were so excited to get to go to the Pumpkin Patch last Sunday! :) This is one of our favorite family traditions. :) We love the Pumpkin Patch we go to near our home. They have a train ride and also a boat ride. It is a beautiful place and we enjoy all the photos we take there each year. This year, Karly was excited to ride the train and they had to stop it and make our cart get off because it was derailing. Thankfully, they got it fixed and we were off. :) It was a lot of fun and we just love watching the girls there as they select the perfect pumpkin. We sat Katie in a pile of pumpkins and she tried to eat them, dirt and all. :) When we all said, "Ewwww!" She cried for a second and decided to give it a try again. :) She had a great time, too. 

We let the girls ride the little barrel carts. They really liked that. There was another family that had some teens and the man who was driving the cart said that if they can fit, they can ride. So, that family tried to fit all their teens and the mom into a cart. :) The mom fit and a couple of their teens, but one of them just couldn't squeeze in. His legs were too long. :) They inspired Kaylee, so she jumped into one. We had 5 of our girls ride in them. They had a great time. 

Looking at all the photos, makes me want to cry. Our girls are getting so big and my heart aches at the thought that they are growing up. :(  They are all such blessings. 

Another Day in Germ Land. =(

Well, Karly still had a fever in the morning and I awoke feeling the chills and a fever coming on. :(

So, I thought I was catching whatever Karly had. I never did get a fever, but I felt as if one was coming a few times as I got the chills. I was also extremely exhausted all day long and all night long. I am still exhausted right now and I don't get it. I slept on and off all day/night. :( Right now, it is 1:32am and I am going to go back to bed. I hope I have more energy today. I have a lot to get done before Monday. 

So much for project week. :(

Kaylee volunteers at a Therapy Riding Stable on Wednesdays, so we dropped her off to do that yesterday and went back to hang out at my parents house. (They live only about 3 minutes away from the Stable). While we were there, we noticed that Karly was just kind of quiet and not her usual self. I checked her and I could tell she had a fever. :( So, we got out my mom's thermometer and she had a 104.1 degree fever!!! :( I ran to the store in town, which is a few minutes away and got her some tylenol and we gave her some and tried to get her to drink fluids. We came home and she was still just lying around. Poor, little thing. :( It is now after 12:30am & I just gave her some Motrin. Now she is playing and wanting Applesauce. :) I am so happy to see her doing better. :) I just need to get her back into bed.

Project Week day 2

Well, we had a little issue today. I woke up and couldn't open my eye. :(  I ended up with a laceration under a little cyst that I have on my right eye. while I was sleeping, it had crusted shut. :( Ewwww. So, I had to make an appointment to have it looked at. My parents are so sweet. My dad drove me (and Katie) to the appointment and my mom hung out with the girls. I have an infection in that eye, so we had to get some antibiotic drops. 

Well, I didn't get much done as far as projects today. My mom is so sweet. She and the girls worked on the mountain of laundry and got that folded. I sure didn't expect that. It sure did help out. 

I am hoping and praying that we get a lot more done the rest of this week. 

Project Week

Well.....We were supposed to officially start school for the girls this week. We have been so busy recently that we are now VERY behind in household chores. We also are still organizing our homeschool room so we can find things. We have some extra household repairs to do now, which I won't get into on this Blog. I think I will write about it on our other one. :) Anyway, We have decided to take this week as a project week so we can catch up, organize & plan schedules for school, chores, meals, etc. 

I am not really a planner, or a scheduled person by nature. To be honest, the mere thought of having a schedule makes me want to run away screaming. I have finally come to the realization that without any form of schedule, we are wasting valuable time doing nothing. :(  The Lord has started convicting me to start planning my days so that they won't be so chaotic & stressful. I honestly can't believe I just wrote that. :) That is the exact reason I have put off having schedules. I was fearful that with a schedule, I would constantly feel stressed about having to follow it. I am now seeing how we can just plan an order to our day & follow that, rather than a strict time schedule to adhere to. :) So, I am actually looking forward to spending this week, looking at how to plan our days. I will be praying that the Lord will show me how He wants us to spend our days and also praying for His help in following the plan. I tend to have a hard time following through with things. : (  

I am going to be thinking on what things we are wasting time with and work on a plan to have more balance in our lives. I will post that later. :) 

Have a great day! :)

Katherine Grace

Katie was born on April 4, 2008. She is 6 months old. We are really enjoying her. She is learning every day & we are enjoying seeing the world through her precious eyes. :)

Katie is such a happy Baby & she loves her Big Sisters. She just started sitting up & she tries so hard to crawl.

Karly Christine

Karly is now 3 and has been wanting to start school. like her big sisters. She loves to sit in on the stories & participate in the crafts from MFW K with Khloe. She is a very adventurous girl
& seems to get into trouble when she has too much time on her hands. So, we decided to look for a Curriculum of fun activities that would teach her & keep her busy. I was just looking at a friend's Blog & saw the curriculum she is using with her little one & I went to the website to read more about it. I LOVED what I saw, so I just ordered it for Karly. It is Heart of Dakota's Little Hand's to Heaven. I am really looking forward to trying this with Karly. It looks very similar to My Father's World. :)

Right now, we are in the process of figuring out food allergies with Karly. That has been a real struggle. She has very bad reactions to Food Dyes, Corn Syrup, and many Food Additives. We finally joined the Feingold Program & hope & pray we will see some improvements.

Karly is a funny girl & loves to make us laugh. :)

Khloe Corrine-Marie

Khloe turned 6 last August. She started using My Father's World's Kindergarten last year. We didn't finish it, but she loved it so much that she begged me to continue using it this year. So, we will continue with it. It is a fun curriculum & we really enjoy it. Her Big sisters like to join us in a lot of the projects. :) Once we finish MFW K, she will start MFW 1st Grade. Can you tell how much I love My Father's World curriculum? :)

Khloe also enjoys the Homeschool group & Apologetics with her sisters. She is in the same Apologetics group as Kyla & she loves memorizing the verses & doing the crafts. :)

One of Khloe's favorite passtimes is reading. She loves words & amazes us with some of the words she can read. I can't take any credit for teaching her to read. She honestly just learned pretty much on her own.

Khloe loves playing the piano. She enjoys watching Kaylee play & then she will memorize what Kaylee does & sit down & play. Her & Kaylee would love lessons. So far, they have learned by ear & watching tutorials. I think they get that from their Dad. I can't seem to play anything recognizable. :)

Kyla Rose

Kyla will turn 9 on November 3rd. She will be joining Karissa in MFW's ECC. She is also excited about the fun projects & all that she will learn about different cultures.

Kyla also loves to draw. She enjoys drawing wedding gowns & has actually created a few gowns using her sisters as models. It takes many rolls of toilet paper to achieve her artistic creations. :) We have many pictures of her TP wedding gown line. :) They really turn out great.

Kyla also enjoys the Homeschool group & Apologetics with her sisters. She is in a different Apologetics group & is learning the definitions, doing crafts & memorizing verses. :0)

We are also looking for a Violin teacher for Kyla. She would love to learn to play. Hopefully we can get her some lessons soon.

Kyla is also interested in learning to sew. I wish I knew how so I could teach her. Maybe we will take lessons together. :)

Like her sister, Kyla is enjoying learning how to bake. She is also my kitchen helper. I am blessed by her help.

Karissa Gayle

Karissa is 11 and will turn 12 on Christmas Day. :) She is going to be working through My Father's World's Exploring Countries & Cultures curriculum. :) She is looking forward to learning about different countries & doing the fun projects.

We attend a Homeschool group on Mondays and enjoy doing crafts, field trips, letterboxing and other fun activities. :)

Karissa is our Artist. She LOVES to draw and paint and create things. :) She is also very computer savvy. Whenever we can't figure out something on the computer, she is usually the first person we call. She amazes me with what she can figure out.

Karissa has been enjoying baking and is becoming quite the Queen of the kitchen. :) She has pretty much mastered the Mountain Bar and cooks them without the directions now. :) She also loves to make cakes and other cookies from scratch. If I could just get her to cook dinners.

Karissa is also enjoying the apologetics class. She is now in the observing phase & won't begin writing speeches until she is 12. She is enjoying learning Apologetics with her friends. :)

We are hoping to get Karissa into Guitar lessons this fall/winter. We are just looking for a teacher. She has a guitar and can't wait to learn how to use it. :)

Kaylee Nicolle

Kaylee turned 14 last April and is starting 9th Grade. She is using My Father’s World’s High School program. We are moving into week 4 & are truly enjoying it!!! :) We’re learning a lot & having some neat conversations.

Kaylee is very interested in learning about other cultures & is especially interested in Japan. She started using Rosetta Stone Japanese back in April & was really enjoying it until her little sister got a hold of the headphones & broke them. :( Thankfully, we are getting some new ones soon. :)

Every Wednesday, Kaylee volunteers at a local Therapy Riding Stable where she helps out aroud the Barn & also helps with the Therapy Riding Sessions. She just adores the little kids she has been helping with. This experience has truly been such a blessing to her.

Kaylee has recently taken up photography and LOVES it. We ended up getting a digital SLR and it has been a lot of fun to play with. :) I am amazed at the creative photos she takes. Sadly, I can't seem to figure the camera out. If I just had 30 hours to read the insanely long instruction manual. :( Somehow my subjects end up blurry and the background is in focus. Kaylee's shots turn out beautifully every time. I just don't get it.

We are also taking part in an Apologetics class through our church. This has been a great experience. Kaylee wrote her first speech last week & is working on the second one right now. The topics are very challenging & they give their speeches in front of 3 groups of Dads/Moms/ Grandparents. They are scored & given feedback. Our group is not competing this year. We are just working on learning Apologetics & public speaking.

Sorry this ended up a little long. :)

Starting over! :)

Well, I have done a terrible job of keeping up on this blog. :(
So, we decided to officially start over. :)

We felt as if this was a good time to start over because we are just beginning our year. :) We ended up doing school over the summer and took a break during Sept and Oct. We did Start Kaylee's High School curriculum 3 weeks ago, but her sisters have been taking a break. So....we will be starting them on Monday, Oct 20th. We are going on a Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch with our Homeschool group. :) We are all excited for that.

Since we are starting over with this blog, I think I will write a little about each of the girls & post a photo of each of them. Please pray that I will actually do a better job of posting this time around. :)

MFW K

Today, I thought I would try to update Khloe's Kindergarden journey. ;) 

We are using a wonderful curriculum called "My Father's World" and are enjoying every moment of it. It has been so much fun that her big sisters have been joining her with a lot of the fun projects. We love the way that it teaches character 

We started with a week of learning about Creation. The girls all made creation books, which was fun. I have pictures of those, but can't seem to locate them. Hopefully, I can do a better job of keeping current with the blog so I won't have to backtrack again. :) Here are the units we have learned about so far and a few of the projects we have done. 

Sun Unit

Memory words: "Jesus is the Light of the World"

Some of the fun things we did: watched a neat movie about the sun, did some fun sun arts and crafts, read some fun books about the sun

Moon Unit

Memory words: "I am the light of the World."

Some of the fun things we did: Learned the phases of the moon and made a chart, made a moon cake, painted moon rocks with fluorescent paints, hid them and had a moon rock hunt, watched another neat informational DVD for kids about the moon, learned how high we would be able to jump on the moon

Leaf Unit

Memory words: "I will live and grow in Jesus."

Some of the fun things we did: It was a little difficult to do a lot in this unit because we started it during the winter and most of the leaves were gone. :(  We did read a lot of books about trees, and learned about different types of trees and how to tell how old they are, etc. We are planning on doing a little more on this unit when we can get a hold of some more leaves. :)

Apple Unit

Memory words: "If I stay in Jesus, I will have much fruit."

Some of the fun things we did: We first attempted to make some apple tarts, which did not turn out very good.....I am very challenged in the kitchen. :(  So, we found an apple cake recipe in Gigi's (My Grandmother's) recipe box. We decided to give that a try and it turned out wonderfully!!! :) We even made it Gluten Free. :) We also read a lot of neat books about Apples and the different types, learned about the fruit of the spirit and wrote each of them on apple cut-outs that are hanging in our dining room to memorize. I know we did some other things, but I can't seem to remember at the moment. 

Nest Unit

Memory words: "Jesus Takes good care of me."

Some of the fun things we did: We read a lot of fun books about nests and different animal homes, we made birds nests for a treat (these were like rice crispy treats, but had some coconut in them and were shaped like little nests), we learned about different types of birds, we also watched a movie about different animal homes. The part the girls enjoyed most was that they got to paint their own birdhouses. That was a fun craft project. :)

Khloe thinks it is really neat when her big sisters join her in Kindergarden. They all love to do Kindergarden because they feel ripped off that they didn't get to do all of these fun activities when they were in Kindergarden. They didn't have this particular curriculum when they were in K. Actually, it did exist for Kyla, but I didn't know about it yet. 

We are currently on the Turtle unit right now and are enjoying that. I will write more about that as soon as we finish, so I can post photos. ;)

Khloe isn't doing the phonics in MFW because she is already reading real well.  We are continuing with Hooked On Phonics, which she LOVES. She is now in Level 4 and is really enjoying reading! :) 

Kaylee's Science Experiments

OK....I am backtracking and had to go through hundreds of photos. :) So, I know I am missing some, but here are some photos of Kaylee's Previous Science experiments from this year in Apologia's General Science. I am hoping to do a good job of keeping up and posting a photo, or two each week so we can keep current. Backtracking is hard work. :) I have given Kaylee an assignment today to write what she remembers about each experiment. So....Here she is:

Experiment #1: This experiment was done to learn about density.

What I did: Taking a tall glass, I Added to it vegetable oil, water, and corn syrup (in that order). Then, To that I added a small rock, a grape, an ice cube, and a piece of cork (also in that order). 

What Happened: The Liquids made layers inside the Glass; the corn syrup sunk to the bottom, the Vegetable floated on top, and the Water in between. By adding the objects, something similar happened: The cork floated on top of the Vegetable oil, the ice cube inside the Vegetable oil, the grape on top of the water layer, and the rock sunk to the bottom of the glass. 

Why it happened: The water, vegetable oil, and syrup are made up of atoms. The atoms in the water are denser (packed closely together) than those of the vegetable oil, making them able to squeeze in-between the atoms of the Vegetable oil, sinking underneath it. The same thing happened with the corn syrup. This also applies to the objects: The atoms in each of the items have different density levels, resulting in making each of the items a different weight and making them sink to various parts of the layers. 

Experiment 1.3: 

What I did: First I put 2 cups of water in a saucepan with a a few red cabbage leaves. I heated the water\cabbage until the water boiled. While I was waiting for the water to boil, I took a balloon and put 2 tablespoons of baking soda in it. Setting the balloon aside, I added 3/4 Cup of Vinegar into a 2-liter bottle. Once the water started to boil, I removed it from the heat, and cooled it. When it cooled, I added 1\2 of a cup of the liquid to the 2-liter bottle, then attached the balloon containing the baking soda to the opening of the bottle. After setting that up, I lifted the balloon and let all of the baking soda fall into the liquid in the bottle, leaving the balloon attached to the opening of the bottle. 

What Happened: When the baking soda hit the liquid in the bottle, it began to fizz, and the balloon started to inflate. There was a change in the liquid's color as well: Changing from a pinkish color to a more blue-ish-looking color. :)

Why it happened: This experiment was caused by a Chemical reaction. There were actually 2 chemical reactions going on in this experiment: The one causing the balloon to inflate, and the one causing the liquid to change colors. The first one occurred when the baking soda was added to the vinegar that was inside the mixture in the bottle. The two substances interacted, forming 2 new substances, water and Carbon-Dioxide. The Carbon-Dioxide bubbled out of the vinegar and went into the balloon, causing it to inflate. The Second reaction occurred when the vinegar was being used up in the first reaction. Something inside of the Red cabbage called "Anthocyanin", interacts with the vinegar, turning it pink. But as the vinegar was being used up in the first reaction, the Anthocyanin had no vinegar to interact with so it turned into a blue color instead. 

Experiment 3.1: 

What I did: Taking a tall glass, I filled it with 1\2 cup of water. I took an egg and dropped it carefully into the water. The egg sinks to the bottom of the glass. I took the egg out, added a teaspoon of salt into the glass, stirred it into the water until it dissolved, and added the egg in again. 

What Happened: After repeating this process about 6 times, The Egg started to float. 

Why it Happened: For the same reason in experiment 1: Saltwater is denser than pure water. By adding so much salt, the water became denser than the egg, resulting the egg to float somewhere in the middle. :)

Experiment 3.2:

What I did: I made 4 little "Boats" by cutting 3x2 inch rectangles out of cardboard. I gave them a triangular point on the top, and cut out a little triangular notch on the bottom of each boat. I then took a wad of chewed gum into one of the notches, a chunk of soap into another notch, a wad of wet tissue into another notch, and left one of the "Boats" without anything in it's notch. I set each of them on the water in the bathtub.

What Happened: All but one "Boat" didn't move. (the one without anything in it's notch was the one that didn't move). There are stray winds in each house and that could have participated in some of the boats' movements, but there was one that moved more than any of them, and that was the one with the soap. 

Why it happened: This experiment was caused by Surface tension. Surface tension exists on the surface of any liquid and could be thought of as a thin film spread across the surface of said liquid. There is something in the soap that weakens the surface tension of the water. So... the soap in the notch of the boat was reducing the surface tension at the point where the soap in the "Boat" was. This caused the "film" on the water to pull back, pulling the "boat" along with it. Thus, the "boat" moved as if the soap was pushing it. 

Whew! I think those are all of the "Fun" experiments I've done so far. :) I hope I've explained all of them well. 

Welcome! :)

We have decided to start a little Blog to document our journey in homeschooling. We are thrilled this year to be using a new curriculum called My Father's World. We are using their Kindergarden curriculum and also a Geography program called Exploring Countries and Cultures. So far, we are loving every moment of it. :) I am going to do some back tracking and post some photos of what we have done so far and then, keep this blog up to date. :)