Mrs. Woody's Wonders

Liahona 2009-10

2009-09-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

I am breathing a HUGE sigh of relief. Our little homeschool support group is alive and growing!

Last year Liahona's leader turned over the reins to yours truly, since her last homeschooler is doing mostly community collge courses now. I tried not to take it personally when our group shrank to almost nonexistence. On the positive side, we-the-few-but-mighty, had some fun park days and some grand field trip adventures! The girls have some very special friends that they would not have if it weren't for Liahona.

Jelly (on the right)and her friend, Leah

Doodle and her pals, Clara, Hannah, and Emily

We're all looking forward to adventures with old AND new friends this year. We had a park day / planning meeting on Wednesday and the group has more than doubled in size! We have teenagers, too, so there are now kids from pre-school through high school. Hurray!!

So watch this space for Liahona adventures - coming soon!

Mission: Homeschool

2009-08-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

There are as many ways to homeschool as there are homeschoolers. The flexibility that is possible is just one of the many reasons that this style of learning fits our family so well.

In California, 4th graders study California History. That means missions, ranchos, and the gold rush. Oh, and did I mention missions?

We started our study of our state's history last year, when Jelly was in 6th grade and Doodle was the official 4th grader. Because we split our Social Studies time by also finishing a study of World History, we decided to give California History a little more time this year. It fits perfectly this way because at Wonderwood Academy, the explorers have now found the New World, and the colonists have arrived on the East coast. So we're learning about what happened with the Spanish padres and the Native Americans on the West coast while the settlers were working things out with the Eastern Woodland "Indians" in Jamestown.

Last week our learning adventures took form as one of our extended field trips, and managed to combine it with some great family visits. We learned a lot, had a great time, and made some wonderful memories.

Since we covered the missions to the south of us last year, it was time to go north. Saving the two closest to us, because we can do those in a couple of day trips sometime when we need a spur-of-the-moment get-away, we left Friday after work and drove up the coast to Lompoc.

No offense to Lompoc, but there isn't much there. Well, there's a federal prison, an air force base, and a mission. Our visit was confined, pun intended, not to jail or base, but to pursuits historical.

We got to our hotel in time for the girls to enjoy the pool.

After a breakfast that would have been more satisfactory had I been able to enjoy it WITH my family, rather than at the bottom of the stairs above which the breakfast room was located (NO elevator, thus no access), we trekked out to the La Purisima Mission State Historic Park. Our visit was timed to coincide with very infrequently held "Village Days." In retrospect, it was the girls' favorite of the trip. Location allows it to feel more like it probably felt during the mission era than the other missions we've visited so far. AND, Village Days are highly interactive. MUCH to see and do... with DO being the keyword. The girls carved soapstone charms, wove baskets, made reed ducks, tried their hand at a Chumash game, decorated toy bull roarers with pictograms, created palm frond brooms, chatted with costumed docents and authentic mountain men, and explored top to bottom. It was a blast! See for yourself.

It sprinkled, almost, as we were on our way to Buellton, CA, home of the famous Andersen's Restaurant. It poured buckets while we sipped split pea soup, gazing out through a beautiful picture window onto a rain-washed garden. When we were ready to leave, the downpour slowed to a drizzle and then was over.

Perfect timing. There was a wedding going on at Mission Santa Ines, so we enjoyed the gardens before going inside the mission church.

I have no picture evidence, but our next stop was Goleta Beach. The girls enjoyed their customary pier walk with Papa, and then we enjoyed his and his wife's hospitality for the night. The girls were introduced to the story of "Brigadoon" and it made us wish even more that we'd been able to see goddaughter SwimChick, who lives in Vancouver, WA, in a recent youth production of the musical.

More traditions kept as the girls picked fresh citrus the next morning before we said our so longs. We like to take oranges and lemons from Papa and Dorothy with us to the cousins, who are usually our next stop.

We couldn't leave Santa Barbara, though, before a visit to the Queen of the Missions.
It was exciting to learn that the lone woman of San Nicolas island, on whose life the book Island of the Blue Dolphin is based, is actually buried in the cemetery of the Santa Barbara Mission. We are currently listening to/reading, and very much enjoying her story as part of A New World of Adventures unit study curriculum.

Our last night, but NOT our last evening, was spent with the aforementioned cousins. We had a great visit, and since the twins weren't starting school until Tuesday, we extended our visit time by taking them with us to our final mission of this trip.

I can't believe it, but again I have no pictorial evidence for this part of the trip. We did, though, thoroughly enjoy visiting with the twins' family, including a loving mama, a big brother who introduced Jelly to the awesome world of rpgs, a big sister who has since started her first term at UC Berkeley, and a new baby brother, adorable but with one of those sensitive level sensors that activate fussing unless he's being held by someone completely vertical, slightly bouncing, and who is preferably serenading him softly so that he knows he has their complete attention. Their daddy, unfortunately, we did not get to visit with, as he was on the road. One of our tradtions here is to exchange hand-me-downs. It's a wonderful system. Oh, for the record, the lemonade and orange juice, freshly squeezed by the kids, was delicious, as always.

Before heading home, we spent our last evening of this mini mission trip visiting with family on the Woody side. I think the girls were suprised at how much fun they had with just boy cousins. LOL The kids were having the kind of fun that moves too fast to be caught on film. I believe it involved an uncle and the kind of fear that induces laughing so hard you almost can't breathe.

Our mission for this mini mission trip was a complete success.

Living Dolls

2009-08-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

Costumes, make-up, and pretend are not solely the domain of those Hollywood and Broadway folks who work so "hard" to make sure we are entertained. Dressing dolls is an entertaining passion for some. Our dolls dress themselves.

This post is just a small sample of some of the (I was going to say FREE ! LOL Anyone with kids knows how NOT true that is!) ways the girls have entertained us over the past year.

We participate in the traditional HUGE party, carnival, and Trunk or Treat at church every October, usually the Saturday evening before Halloween. Then, since the girls have already had a chance to stock up on sweets in a safe environment, we started a NEW family tradition to replace Trick or Treating. On the actual Halloween, the girls dress up in their costumes and then we go on an adventure. In 2008 we used our annual pass to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific. The colors in their costumes rivaled some of the gorgeous tropical fish we saw.

Doodle decided that we should have a Native American at our Thanksgiving feast. Here she’s helping to sauté the aromatics that will flavor our dressing. Doesn’t she have amazing eyelashes? My brother has eyelashes like that, too. No make-up needed there!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving finds us at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA, welcoming the Christmas season with a traditional Messiah Sing-a-Long. It may not be the White House, but the roses are beautiful and the smiles are sweet.

December runs the gamut from silly to sublime. Most of what you see here is the silly.

Jelly, at ALMOST age 12, got this sunny rose at her New Beginnings program – perfect for our sunshiny blondie. She is growing up wonderfully! (The roses in the background are in the planter at the front of our home. Jelly’s own bedroom window is just out of the top of the frame.)

This collage represents the months we all spent preparing and sharing the production of the Savior of the World. Everyone who knows us agreed that the girls were the most angelic angels!

Woody Family Vacation 2009 was dubbed “The Big Loop Trip.” We traveled over 5000 miles in a very lopsided figure 8.

We went so that we could participate in granddaughter Tamara’s (she’s the cutie wearing the pink jacket and belt) baptism, (and being so close, we couldn’t NOT go to the Mall of America),

*Jelly*

*Doodle*

and we stopped at many National Parks, monuments, and memorials, and kid-friendly museums along the way.

Salt Lake City was the last stop in the loop that provided dress-up opportunities of a HUGE variety, including not-pictured-here dressing up to go to a live broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir – Music and the Spoken Word in the company of the most wonderful senior missionary couple serving!

When we’d recovered from the trip, we didn’t wait long to further our adventures. The girls enjoyed most of the attention they got (they weren’t thrilled at the idea of being sold to pirates!) in their costumes at the German Renaissance Festival, Koroneburg, in Corona, CA.

Dressing up, dressing down, costumes, make-up, stylish do’s --- there are no end to the possibilities.

As Lucy Maud Montgomery, writing Anne of Green Gables said, "Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for imagination then, would there?"

That’s what dressing up or playing with dolls does – provides extra scope for imagination as we adventure along!

And if you’re entertained in the process, so much the better. ;o)

Good Start

2009-08-13T05:38:00.000-07:00

UPDATED WITH WORKBOX PICS Sat., Sept. 12, 2009 We have now had six WEEKS of school, rather than the six days of this original post. We have also met with our homeschool support group for the first time. We're still going strong!!

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Here at Wonderwood Academy, we have had, as of this morning, six and a half days of the 180 minimum required by the state of California for the 2009-2010 school year. It has been a good start to the year. We actually started on Monday, the 3rd, and had VERY full (details to follow) school days Monday through Wednesday. Life intervened on Thursday (including a flat tire on our way to pick up a box of frozen blueberries arriving by special order from Oregon), so we turned it into a half school day. Mrs. Woody needed Friday to review and revise, so we quickly scheduled a student-free day. After a Saturday filled with House Blessing and weekly organizing, and a busy Sunday schedule (which included a talk given in Primary by the Doodle), we have again this week, as we did last week, had VERY full school days Monday through Wednesday.

Our VERY full school days have come about for three reasons that we can identify. First, the girls are growing up and need a more rigorous academic schedule. Second, we have been told that the first couple of weeks of A New World of Adventures curriculum has longer days than are usual. Third, we have implemented a modified version of Sue Patrick's Workbox System, and the structure gives us the ability to accomplish MUCH ("Children using this system stay more focused and are more successful in learning and completing their school work independently.") while making sure we don't lose the fun in learning that means so much to us. ("It will then be easier to set up a school day of curriculum, variety and fun...")

Our subjects this year include, in alphabetical order (at varying grade levels from 5th to 12th):
Art Appreciation - including artist studies
Basic Drawing
California History
Choir
Daily Devotional
Early American History
Geography & Map Skills
Home Economics
Language Arts - reading, narration, copywork, spelling, grammar, writing, vocabulary
Library & Research Skills
Literature
Logical Thinking
Math
Music Appreciation - including composer studies
PE
Piano
Science - currently Marine Biology, later we'll add Meteorology and Physics
Spanish - Level 1
Typing (on the computer)

Whew! No wonder our days are long! (And we haven't added in our local homeschool support group, which usually meets once a week, Wednesday afternoons beginning in September.) Now, we don't do all of these subjects every day, but some of them we do. I am still reviewing and revising our schedule/s nearly every night as I prepare to fill the girls' SmartFiles, which is what we choose to call our workbox system. Rather than the many actual boxes required for use in the original system, we use some very cool hanging file boxes that we found at Walmart for less than $10 each.

We use three fileboxes, one for each girl, and one for me.

These are the coolest! The flip-up lid has these great compartments. We use the compartment in the upper left corner to store task cards either not being used that day or cards for tasks/activities that have been completed. There are supposed to be scissors in there, too, but Doodle is a grand paper crafter, and her scissors are often in use!

Besides the files, another vital component of the system is a schedule grid. We don't do it exactly as the original Workbox System, but that's one of the beauties of homeschooling. The girls each have their own daily schedule grid. These show at a quick glance what they will be doing in a single school day. When I get our task cards finished, I'll post a picture of what the grids look like. We ARE using them now, but they're not in their final form. As we work the system, we are learning what works best for us and making modifications along the way. Basically, the grids include cards for things that we do together and that are the same from day to day, and they also include numbers that correspond to file folders that contain assignments that are individualized for each of our (two) students. As a task is completed, it is removed from the grid and placed in a tray contained in the lid of the filebox. You can easily see what you've done and how much is still to be accomplished. Very cool.

The grids are made from two pieces of cardstock, colors chosen by the girls, laminated, and then hinged together with clear packing tape. The girls get them out of their fileboxes in the morning and set them up on our mantel, where we can ALL see them. It's easy to see in the pictures when we're working together and when the girls are on their own. You can also see how I staggered their subjects so that, for example, they don't both need the computer at the same time. Also note, the girls take turns making lunch. In these pics, it's Jelly's turn to make lunch and Doodle's card just says "Break." I really need one that specifies a lunch break, but oh, well.

What's REALLY cool is that not once at the end of these extra-long days has either of our students complained. They are having a GRAND time learning. (See this post for evidence!)

It's their teacher that isn't handling the long days quite so well. Don't get me wrong... I'm LOVING that they are loving "school." I just need to find the balance that will allow me to get some other things done.

We'll get there. We always do.

In the mean time, we're enjoying the adventure.

Wonderwood Academy 2008-9

2009-07-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

Jelly – 6th grade
Doodle – 4th grade

Math-U-See
Learning Adventures –- A World of Adventure & A NEW World of Adventure
Piano Classes
Nature Walks
Swimming
LOTS of library books on LOTS of topics,
because we’re still quite partial to Charlotte Mason and her living books!

Our main course of study:
Learning Adventures – A World of Adventure
Middle Ages and Botany
Renaissance and Astronomy
Explorers and Marine Science

After last year’s late start, it was especially good to get back to school in August, as we are accustomed to doing. We had just gotten started, though, when we took a time out for the Summer Olympics. How could we not?

Check out what’s on the screen in the background. (The braids, btw, are a fun-and-more-comfortable-than-curlers way to get gorgeous wavy hair for church on Sunday.)

In trying to figure out how to do our school year in review, I decided that this year it would be easier to do by subject. If you read this to the end, you’ll get a good idea of how we covered things. We don’t always go from A to Z, but we get there!

Here we go!

We use a combination of things for our devotionals, including personal scripture study as well as the Bible study in Learning Adventures. Add in the Faith in God program and more recently Personal Progress, and fairly regular Family Home Evenings. Jelly is getting really good at planning those! The girls really made some wonderful strides in growing their testimonies this year.

Reading and other language arts (vocabulary, grammar, spelling, writing, etc.) are also covered in our unit studies. (Thank you again, Dorian!) Reading good literature, no twaddle, really has been a fun way to learn what CAN be not-so-fun skills. We did add in regular journaling, which the girls usually enjoy very much.

We continue to use Math-U-See, and both the girls are making good progress. Math probably will never be their favorite subject, but at least it doesn’t cause tears anymore.

We made it through three complete (more on the incomplete later) units in our Learning Adventures this year, which means we have finally finished the first volume, A World of Adventure. We studied the Middle Ages and Botany, the Renaissance and Astronomy, and Explorers and Marine Science.

Jelly wasn’t ready to give up learning about the ocean when we finished that unit, so we’re going to continue that next year. We’ll use Jeanne Fulbright’s Exploring Creation with Zoology 2, Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day.

So we covered science: in our unit studies (Botany/Herbology See post 9/13/2008) and also added Beach/Pier Nature Walks, and picking fruit (botany) with Papa, and swimming (marine science), swinging (physics - centrifugal force), and making juice (more botany) with cousins whenever possible!

We took field trips, like hikes at the El Dorado Nature Center (both in the fall and in the spring), checked out the Irvine Park Pumpkin Patch and Orange County Zoo (10/15/2008 post), traveled north for a Liahona Field Trip to Griffith Park Observatory, and took a tour of a local PetCo in February with a knowledgeable animal specialist as our guide. We celebrated Woody’s 25th Anniversary at Boeing in April, and a couple of days later, Jelly also had a chance to go with him to the Boeing Plant in Huntington Beach for their annual “Take Your Kid to Work Day.” Next year Doodle will be old enough to go, too!

Some of our favorite science adventures this year came about because we bought a membership at the Aquarium of the Pacific when we went there for Homeschool Day. (See post 9/12/2008) We tried to get there once a month and enjoyed every visit except our last one. It was recent, during the summer, and was just too crowded for us. We are so spoiled to being able to go places for school when most other kids are “in” school.

Our Social Studies started this year with the Middle Ages, (See post 9/19/2008), but we also began our concurrent history study of the California Missions when we went to San Diego to celebrate Woody's birthday. Later, in the spring, we also toured the mission at San Juan Capistrano. We have plans to visit many more, if not all, the missions in the next year or so.

For Halloween, Jelly and the Doodle dressed as Renaissance witches, probably influenced by our Middle Ages/Renaissance studies. Another dress-up opportunity came when we went to Koroneburg, the German Renaissance Faire in Corona, in May of this year. The girls were both “knighted” into the Order of the Fabled Readers. Great fun!

We actually try to avoid some “Current Events”, but in November we did a Civics Field Trip. After discussing the issues, we voted and then watched the returns come in. You win some, you lose some. It was a learning experience. Enough said.

We had a HUGE focus on Fine Arts this year, mostly because of the fact that the entire family was involved in the Savior of the World production (See 10/13/2008 post.) In addition to weekly angel choir rehearsals, the girls took piano lessons beginning in September. Our holiday concert season began, as usual, with the Messiah Sing-Along, sponsored by the Yorba Linda Arts Alliance. Because Woody is their tenor soloist, it's a tradition that has opened our Christmas season on the Sunday after Thanksgiving for five years now. During December, the entire Woody family was busy rehearsing, singing for or attending special Christmas concerts.

Rehearsals for the SOTW intensified after the holidays, exponentially each month until opening night, March 25, 2009. Jury duty for Mrs. Woody (and MANY field trips to the court house) complicated everyone’s lives beginning the last week of February and continuing three to four days a week through the opening week of the production of the Savior of the World. There were 10 shows. We are SO thankful that we were able to share that amazing experience as a family. It is something we will always treasure. We also were able to share the experience in May of attending a live broadcast (on Mother’s Day) of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir -– Music and the Spoken Word. What a blessing! Concert season ended for this school year with the annual Patriotic Community Concert in Anaheim Hills –on the Saturday before the 4th of July. We are blessed to be Americans…………. . . and occasionally proud, too.

Life skills are daily events at Wonderwood Academy but we had a few focus events this year. In November, Liahona took a free field trip to Albertson's - with a focus on learning to be "Healthy Eaters". That same month, Liahona had a quilting class under the trees at Heritage Park. We got a fabulous intro and mini history of quilting, a hands-on opportunity for kids and grown-ups to use a rotary cutter, and made decisions on what kind of quilts we wanted to make. We had planned on actually MAKING quilts this year, but family difficulties for our instructor left us hanging. The new plan, at least for our family, is to make a quilt square as we study each state this year and put a quilt together when we finish the 50th one.

November was definitely the month for a focus on life skills. On the 15th, the Freeway Complex fire burned closer than any fire we've experienced before. Our bishop's family, as well as two other families at church, lost their home. Half the ward was evacuated. Jelly was packed and ready to go. Doodle handled her fears by escaping into one of her favorite movies. Though it's been amazing to see the strength and love of our ward family as people step in to serve each other, I hope we never have that experience again. If we do, we ARE more prepared to handle it. We continue to work on our emergency preparedness supplies and plans.

In December, our baby, the Doodlebug, turned nine years old!! This was a year for a family celebration, so she got to plan the entire day's menus. She developed a love for hand sewing when she was tiny, watching her Grandma Joy, and still talks about how she used to "help" put in some of the stitches. Watching Aunt Debby work on her current project revived Doodle's desires for a project that she can do "by herself." So, her special birthday gift was to select a printed cross stitch project. She's making a pillow case with a princess design.

Also in December, Christmas School was in session at Wonderwood Academy. We participated (along with God daughter, SwimChick) in a special HOAC Co-Op on the Twelve Days of Christmas and combined that with Christmas Around the World. In conjunction with that, for at least the third year (I need to check on this) we attended the Orange Stake's Creche and Christmas Concert. It was especially fun this year to look for nativities from the countries we studied in our Christmas unit at Wonderwood.

The New Year, and January 2009 brought renewed goals, 15 min. at a time!!!

Having survived the spring, we made plans for and took what we called the Big Loop Expedition – It was a HUGE Field Trip, motivated by our granddaughter’s baptism in Minnesota. We traveled and explored for nearly three weeks., which included visiting MANY national parks, monuments, and memorials. That trip really deserves a post all its own.

Add in Girls’ Camp, and nearly weekly Mutual activities for Jelly now that she has turned 12, cooking, continued trips to our local libraries (two of them now), and play days and family adventures whenever we can arrange them, and you have what we are pleased to call a very well-rounded school year.

Can’t wait for the next one to begin!

2009 First Full Week in Review

2009-01-09T17:48:00.000-08:00

My ribcage feels like a boxing match has been held inside me (due to all the bronchitis-induced coughing), I sound like a tenor (so says Debby - I'd actually go so far as to say baritone) instead of the alto I am; we're still working on getting Christmas decorations down, laundry caught up, and decluttering done (all 15 minutes at a time); Woody is still working to catch up after his work laptop died and had to have a new hard drive and a new system board put in (he's also trying to catch up on the missed sleep that has all caused); BUT ALL THINGS TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION, I am still officially declaring this a good week.

The bills are done and up to date, and we're okay.

We had three great days of school. I'd originally hoped for 5, but am thrilled with three. I'll share a couple of quotes from the girls, and you'll understand. Jelly - "I LOVE learning! I've missed it!" Doodle - "Cursive writing is so much fun!" It goes on. Seriously.

I know that what they've really missed has been a structured routine. As easy-going as we are, we all thrive when we're following a schedule and doing our routines. Ours is not a "tight" structure - on the contrary. It's really just a guide to keep us on track. If things take less time, or even longer than we expect, no problem. We move on when we're ready. The disclaimer here, though, is that our timer, for CERTAIN things, also keeps us moving and on track. It may not be an exact science, but for us it works. The evidence can't be denied.

We have wrapped up everything we left dangling from 2008, and we're ready to move on! Woohoo!

So now I'm in planning mode again. Details to follow.

I LOVE making lists! Bwwaaahaaahaaaa!

Again I Say, Rejoice!

2009-01-06T06:38:00.000-08:00

It is so nice, when lots of things seem to be completely topsy-turvy, to get an affirmation that you're going in the right direction. It's a reason to rejoice! A quote from this article appeared in my inbox right after I posted my goals for this year.

This is what it said:

"Only one verse of scripture in the entire King James Version of the New Testament suggests what the Savior did to develop himself from age twelve until he began his formal ministry at age thirty: “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52; see JST, Matt. 3:24–26). In other words, the Savior developed in the same areas indicated on the poll: intellectually (in wisdom and knowledge), physically (in stature), socially (in favor with man), and spiritually (in favor with God).

I am convinced that if we make and keep resolutions in those four areas, we will have a happier and more successful new year this coming year and every year for the rest of our lives." ~Joe J. Christensen, “Resolutions,” Ensign, Dec 1994, 62–67

You'll have to read the article to find out what poll he was referring to. You might even find some other great words of wisdom if you take the time. :o)

What it said to me is that my four 15-minute goals ARE going to make 2009 an incredible year!

We're still fighting winter colds (though we're staying hydrated, trying to get enough rest, and eating healthier), we still have Christmas decorations up (though we did start taking them down yesterday, 15 minutes at a time!), we know we have an extra busy several months ahead of us (though we're excited for the reason - the Savior of the World production), and there are LOTS of long-term to-dos on our list (though 15 minutes at a time we're starting to see progress already!). BUT we're enjoying each other - working AND playing together, learning and adventuring together, praying and growing together - and feeling very blessed.

So, again I say, rejoice!

New Year Focus

2009-01-04T03:29:00.000-08:00

It’s hard not to look back and see everything that didn’t get accomplished in 2008, but since I try hard to be a glass-half-full kinda gal, I will state for the record that many things DID get accomplished. So they weren’t always things we expected.

I’ve been sick for a week, but it’s time to try to focus forward. Focus isn’t easy right now. The whole family is sick, to one degree or another. We’re not going to make it to church today. I AM going to get my goals chosen so that, to one degree or another, I can start working toward reaching them. I LOVE this quote by Pres. Benson -

"Every accountable child of God needs to set goals, short-and-long-range goals. A man who is pressing forward to accomplish worthy goals can soon put despondency under his feet, and once a goal is accomplished, others can be set up. Some will be continuing goals. Each week when we partake of the sacrament we commit ourselves to the goals of taking upon ourselves the name of Christ, of always remembering Him and keeping His commandments. Of Jesus' preparation for His mission, the scripture states that He 'increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man; (Luke 2:52). This encompasses four main areas for goals: spiritual, mental, physical, and social" (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 383-384).

I’m using this thought to give myself a focus that won’t overwhelm. I’m setting four simple goals of the continuing kind. When each one becomes a solid habit, I’ll set a new goal in that area:

Spiritual -– favor with God
Spend a minimum of 15 minutes a day feasting on the scriptures.

Mental -– wisdom
Spend a minimum of 15 minutes a day in a twaddle-free book.

Physical -– stature
Spend a minimum of 15 minutes a day moving!!

Social -– favor with man
Spend a minimum of 15 minutes a day decluttering to get rid of the C.H.A.O.S. – (“Can’t have anyone over syndrome”)

One hour a day, fifteen minutes at a time. I can do that.

Adventures I Should Have Blogged

2008-12-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

No posts in nearly two months means that LOTS of life here at the Woody Hacienda and Wonderwood Academy has not been documented. There have been way too many adventures between then and now to attempt to even highlight them. I have to be satisfied with a list. Here it is, in chronological order:

October 12, 19, and 26 Angel Choir rehearsals - We're loving the experience!

October 17-19 Trip to San Diego to celebrate Woody's birthday. Of course, it was also an "extended field trip." We had a great time adventuring at Balboa Park, Old Town, the trolley tour, missions, the Point Loma lighthouse, and the Wild Animal Park.

October 23 The girls had their last piano lesson until after the holidays. Life is already starting to get crazy!!

October 25 Aunt Debby hung out with us and then joined us for the annual Trunk or Treat party at church. Jelly and the Doodle dressed as Renaissance witches. (Possibly influenced by our current Middle Ages/Renaissance studies, and the fact that Jelly wanted something a bit more "Halloweenish, but not scary." When Doodle saw the pretty costume, SHE wanted one JUST LIKE IT! To Jelly's credit, rather than being annoyed, she immediately responded that, "No, I don't mind. We can be twins!" I just pray that their close relationship endures the teen years.

October 29 Liahona Field Trip to Griffith Park Observatory - We're studying astronomy and this was our first trip to the observatory since it reopened after a HUGE renovation. It is amazing!

October 31 Our new family Halloween tradition is to let the girls dress up and then we have a family adventure. This year we utilized our membership to the Aquarium of the Pacific and hung out with our aquatic friends. Pumpkin pancakes at IHOP were a tasty treat to top off the holiday. (The girls definitely didn't need more candy - more than sufficient was obtained at the church Trunk or Treat.)

November 1 Woody began rehearsals (as the tenor soloist) for the 5th Annual Messiah Sing-Along, sponsored by the Yorba Linda Arts Alliance. It's a tradition that opens our Christmas season the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

November 4 Civics Field Trip - We voted and then watched the returns come in. You win some, you lose some. Enough said.

November 5 Liahona had our first quilting class at Heritage Park. We got a fabulous intro and mini history of quilting, a hands-on opportunity for kids and grown-ups to use a rotary cutter, and made decisions on what kind of quilts we want to make. We'll get supplies over the holidays, and begin in earnest after the first of the year. Cool.

November 8 and 13 Woody auditioned, was called back, and got the part of Zacharias in the Savior of the World presentation. Our enthusiasm continues to build as we share this experience as a family. His beard is really coming in and it's going to be a busy winter and spring!

November 9, 23, and 30 Angel Choir rehearsals continue as we prepare for a concert in December. Everyone is still enjoying the experience and the girls are getting an awesome musical education. It's a little daunting, but they're loving it!

November 12 Liahona takes a free field trip to Albertson's - with a focus on learning to be "Healthy Eaters". We weren't sure what to expect, but a great time was had by all, and we gots LOTS of free stuff!

November 14 The Primary kids had a special practice for their Sacrament Meeting presentation, "I Am a Child of God." This was Jelly's last. Next year at this time she will have been in the Young Women program for several months already. She is truly growing into a wonderful young lady.

November 15 The Freeway Complex fire burned closer than any we've experienced before. Our bishop's family, as well as two other families in our ward, lost their home. Half the ward was evacuated. Jelly was packed and ready to go. Doodle handled her fears by escaping into one of her favorite movies. Though it's been amazing to see the strength and love of our ward family as people step in to serve each other, I hope we never have that experience again.

November 16-19 Though the smoke was still in the air, we knew we were safe. After a unique Sacrament Meeting (folks were still evacutated from many areas) Woody traveled to San Francisco on business.

November 23 The Primary Sacrament Meeting Program, having been postponed a week due to the fire, was a resounding success. Both Jelly and Doodle put their whole hearts into singing and their speaking parts. Looking back on past programs, my mama heart was prilled (proud and thrilled) to see the way they have progressed each year to overcome their shyness and fears. Yes, the shyness and fears are still there, but did NOT stop them from sharing their growing testimonies through music and words.

November 27 We have SO much to be thankful for!!!

November 30 5th Annual Messiah Sing-Along. Aunt Debby spent the Thanksgiving holiday with us and joined us for the first seating of the sing-along. The girls and I are Woody's best fans, so we were there for BOTH seatings. We love supporting Daddy and we also love the way this experience helps to usher in the Christmas season with a jubilant spirit.

December The entire Woody family is busy rehearsing for special Christmas concerts, but none is busier than Woody himself!

December 1 Christmas School is in session at Wonderwood Academy. We are participating (along with God daughter, SwimChick) in a special HOAC Co-Op on the Twelve Days of Christmas. More on this later.

December 2 Our baby, the Doodlebug, is nine years old!! This was a year for a family celebration, so she got to plan the entire day's menus. She developed a love for hand sewing when she was tiny, watching her Grandma Joy, and still talks about how she used to "help" put in some of the stitches. Watching Aunt Debby work on her current project revived Doodle's desires for a project that she can do "by herself." So, her special birthday gift was to select a printed cross stitch project. She's making a pillow case with a princess design. So far, she's stitched two of the butterflies and is VERY happy.

December 5 For at least the third year (I need to check on this) we attended the Orange Stake's Creche and Christmas Concert. It was especially fun this year to look for nativities from the countries we have been and will be studying in our Christmas unit at Wonderwood. We'll be adding some of the pictures we took to the girls lap/notebook projects. The concert, featuring the Anaheim Mormon Chorale (where Woody sings tenor), brought even more of a truly tangible spirit to our holiday season.

December 6 In a new joint effort, the Chorale joined with the Yorba Linda Orchestra for a combined concert. We weren't sure just what to expect, and so were VERY pleasantly surprised at the quality of the orchestra's sound. Conditions were less than ideal for the chorale members, but in spite of staging challenges we thoroughly enjoyed yet another wonderful holiday musical experience.

December 7 An amazing testimony meeting set the tone for a special Sabbath. We then basked in the spirit of a quiet afternoon at home, followed by an earlier-than-usual Angel Choir rehearsal. Only one week left before we sing in our stake's Christmas Concert. The day was capped by the First Presidency Christmas Devotional broadcast from Salt Lake. We normally watch it at home, on BYU TV, but since we were already at church, we stayed to share the experience.

There is a place in our family traditions for the secular side of Christmas, but I've been really pleased with the out-of-balance emphasis that we've been able to maintain with the sacred, spiritual, "real reason for the season" so far this year.

Not to worry - the girls have had and will continue to have opportunities for the just-plain-fun parts of the holiday, too. Our tree is up and has lights on it, so far, and our family tradition of holiday movie watching has also begun. (A little later than usual this year, but finally begun.) We're decorating a bit at a time, so there are red and green boxes stacked in a couple of corners. Shopping is almost done, and crafting and baking are on the horizon.

Stay tuned for updates. :o)

Dinner in a Pumpkin

2008-10-16T13:16:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I alluded to our pumpkin tradition. Here is a big part of the story.

When we lived in the little town of Moorpark, the bishop of our ward was a gentle giant of a man from Idaho. He and his family were just plain good people. The ward was full of wonderful, "just plain good people."

One Sunday I happened to be talking to the youngest daughter in the bishop's family. She was a bit anxious for church to be over, not because she didn't want to be there, but because she was excited to go home to eat her very favorite lunch!

The reason for her enthusiasm - a scrumptious, available-only-in-the-autumn, meal they called Dinner in a Pumpkin. With a review like she gave, I HAD to have that recipe. The bishop's wife was genuinely happy to share it with me, and I am equally as happy to be able to share it with you.

The Woody family has enjoyed Dinner in a Pumpkin at least once each fall for quite a few years now, for as long as the girls can remember, I'm sure. We've already had it once this year, and it's still sugar pumpkin season so we may get to make it again! We didn't take pictures this year, so I'm going to share the recipe with pictures from a few years ago (2004). THAT year, we documented the whole process because it was the first time that the girls really got involved in the tradition.

Step 1: Get one large (9-12" diameter), or two to three small (5-6" diameter) sugar pumpkins. These are NOT the same as the ones you carve to make jack-o-lanterns. They're sometimes called pie pumpkins. If your produce manager is inexperienced, they may just be labeled "small" pumpkins. We usually use two of the small ones, and depending on their size, there is usually a bit of filling left over. (More on this in a later step.)

Step 2: Cut a lid on the pumpkin(s), as though you were going to carve a jack-o-lantern.

Ask your charming assistant to hold the pumpkin which is waiting its turn to be, um, prepared. It will make both you AND the pumpkin feel better. :o)

Step 3: Scoop out the "pumpkin guts" so that it is as clean and smooth as possible inside.

Be sure to save the lid(s) to be used later during baking, AND the seeds.

You can toast those in the oven with a little salt later! They add a nice crunch if you sprinkle a few on a salad or a bowl of pumpkin soup.)

Step 4: Chop, dice, or slice 1 1/2 cups celery, 1 cup white onion, (we actually use onion powder instead)and 1 cup mushrooms. You could also add bell peppers, if you were so inclined, which our family is not!

Step 5: Inspect your pumpkins, inside and out, to make sure there are no remaining seeds or "strings."

Success!

Step 6: Saute the celery, mushrooms, and onions in a small amount of olive oil.

Step 7: Add 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of ground beef (or turkey, which we prefer) to the veggie mix and cook until browned.

Step 8: While you are browning the meat, cook 2 cups of rice.

Step 9: When the meat is nicely browned, add 1 can of cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup.

Step 10: Add the following ingredients to the meat mixture: cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups low-sodium soy sauce, and 2 tablespoons brown sugar. (Optional ingredients can be added now as well: 1/2 cup chopped olives, 1/4-1/2 cup raisins, 1 tsp. oregano, and/or 1 tablespoon chili powder.)

Step 11: "Stuff" the pumpkin(s) with the meat, veggie, and rice mixture.

Keep filling... you'll make it!

Step 12: Replace the lid(s). (Put them on tightly... NOT askew like they are in the picture.) If the pumpkin(s) won't fit into the oven with the lid(s) on, cover the top with alumium foil instead, to help keep the juices in. Place in a baking dish or on a cookie sheet (unless you really enjoy cleaning ovens!). If you had leftover meat mixture, you can put it in a casserole dish, cover, and bake it along with the pumpkins.

Step 13: Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. It may take a little longer if you use one big pumpkin. Just check for doneness of the pumpkin using a toothpick or fork. It should be soft, but not mushy.

Step 14: To serve, remove the lid(s) and slice into wedges (like a pie). You can either eat the meat mixture along with the pumpkin, or scrape it off to one side, butter the pumpkin like squash, and eat it separately. Jelly and Doodle prefer theirs separate, because they prefer that someone else takes the "skin" off the pumpkin.

Step 15: ENJOY!

Try this. It's more than a recipe, it's a family adventure.

You may just find yourselves with a new autumn tradition.

Irvine Park Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

Pumpkins have been a part of our family's fall tradition for what seems like always, but visiting a pumpkin patch has not. Oh, we took the girls every year when they were little, but shortly after we moved here we became disenchanted with patches when the cool one we liked to visit closed down because of unruly teens. I won't go into details, but apparently it had something to do with inappropriate and even illegal behavior in the corn maze. Jelly was SO disappointed; we kind of avoided pumpkin patches after that because NONE of them had her favorite attraction, the corn maze.

Fast forward to this year. I was recently asked to coordinate activities for our small homeschool support group, Liahona. Our goal is to have two park days and two field trips each month. In order to make that feasible, the field trips need to be mostly relatively low cost, and free is always good! We already had a trip to Griffith Park Observatory planned for later in the month, so something more local seemed to be a good idea for our other October group trip.

Long story short, we decided on a visit to Irvine Regional Park. I'd heard good things about all the fun options it offers, but in our almost-seven-years in Anaheim we'd never checked it out.

We're really glad we did!

As I mentioned, many local pumpkin patches seem to be geared to the younger kids. The Irvine Park Patch is, too, but they have more to offer than the usual. After getting some of the kids to pose for this pic...

... we explored the half-mile trail to the little Orange County Zoo. The Zoo's focus is on animals and plants native to the southwestern United States.

Jelly, her special Liahona friend, and Doodle at the duck pond.

On the trail back, the girls had a great visit with the horses and ponies at the park. You can ride them, for a fee, but just hanging out is free and lots of fun.

Back at the patch, the girls decided to check out the hay bale maze. It wasn't as cool as we hoped (we were duped by a bit of exaggerated advertising), but the haunted house was good for LOTS of laughs.

Doodle plans to scare her sister.

Okay, so they're not scared, but they ARE having fun!

"Let's go do it again! That was cool! Did you see me get them?"

We opted this time not to ride the train, saving it for another visit. Instead, we ended the visit with an informal picnic - each family providing their own version of a yummy lunch. We had a great time because we made our own fun, enjoyed simple pleasures and just being with our homeschool friends, and we made some good memories.

Maybe next fall we'll try another patch - and maybe it'll have a corn maze. Even if it doesn't, I bet we'll be glad we went.

All-American Sale

2008-10-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

I just couldn't resist sharing this one with you!!! Check it out soon! Too good to pass by. If you've wanted to lapbook and haven't done it yet, here's your chance.

Bringing Laughter and Learning Together

It's In the Hands of a Child's

Share your excitement for the upcoming
Presidential Election and SAVE!

Save $3 off each of the All American Lapbook Project Packs listed below.
NO coupon code needed just add the unit in the format (eBook, Printed or CD) you prefer to your cart and you will have saved between 25% and 15%.

And that’s just for the basic members.
If you are a Super Member you will have saved an additional 15% on top of that for any eBook purchases.

But wait…
We Americans LOVE more ways to save RIGHT?
And you still want more RIGHT…
All shipped purchases over $30 receive a free gift with purchase ($1.50-$5.00 value)

Of course that’s NOT all!
Place a $60 order and receive our special
Meet the Candidates 2008 Project Pack eBook***
which includes more than 20 activities for you to Lapbook and covers both the Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates.
This unit will NOT be available for purchase!

And because we want to make this a sale you’ll be telling all your friends about, the corresponding Kit Packs and Answer Keys to these All American Units are 40%** off until Oct 31st as well.

Now how American is that?!!
So start spreading the word and get shopping!!! Then start Lapbooking of course!!
And for those big spenders out there, we’ll even throw in a Super Membership discount with all purchases over $80! Place an order over $80 and receive a $20 off coupon code good towards a 1 year Super Membership that you can use for yourself or pass along the savings to a friend.
(Valid towards renewal as well as new memberships!)

All American Units to Choose From:
· HOCPP 1254 Presidential Elections
· HOCPP 1032 American Government
· HOCPP 1105 September 11th, 2001
· HOCPP 1181 The American Civil War
· HOCPP 1061 The American Revolution
· HOCPP 1015 The Declaration of Independence
· HOCPP 1132 The United States Air Force
· HOCPP 1256 The United States Constitution
· HOCPP 1106 The United States Navy
· HOCPP 1238 U.S. Army: The Big Red One
· HOCPP 1104 Labor Day
· HOCPP 1149 Presidents’ Day
· HOCPP 1220 Presidents’ Day Fun

**40% is taken off the base price (eBook price) other formats will be at a slightly lower discount due to the way the cart figures the discount.

***This Project Pack will be added to qualifying orders on or before Oct 15th, 2008
Sale valid thru October 31, 2008.

Cannot be combined with any other offer, special, discount, coupon or sale.
Tax and shipping not included in calculating discount price.
Not valid toward prior purchases.
No rainchecks.

Angels in the Choir

2008-10-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

Auditions were a couple of weeks ago. You can read all about THAT experience here.

Yes, it's true. As of last night, our entire little family is currently "in rehearsal" for the Anaheim East Stake production of "Savior of the World." We are all members of the Angel Choir. Woody will be auditioning next month for a principle role (at the request of the music director & director). He's already sporting two-week's worth of beard because of their question - "Can you grow a beard?" It has already begun to be a good missionary tool! Questions regarding the facial growth are answered with explanations about the Savior of the World. Awesome.

The rehearsal began with a wonderful devotional, which brought the spirit before we had even sung a note.

Are you ready for Jelly's description of the spirit she felt AFTER we'd sung?

"Mama, I just loved it! I didn't want it to ever stop! It was even better than when I'm playing my DS and it's working and I just want to keep going and going and going!"

Interesting, yes?

Prayers offered by both girls today have included their thanks for the great rehearsal last night.

Amen.

Preparation for a Surprise!

2008-10-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

When you rely heavily on someone to do physical things for you, managing to do something for them that is a complete surprise is a bit tricky.

BUT...

The girls and I are going to take Woody/Daddy for an overnighter next weekend because it is going to be one of his significantly-numbered birthdays on Saturday. So this morning, after HE cooked breakfast for us, we did a choral reading of the following poem for him:

A Birthday Surprise, October 2008, dedicated to our own Woody

To the Daddy that we love the best,

Way more than we love all the rest,

We want you to know,

That you’re going to go,

On a trip to a place that you know.

Your birthday will be tons of fun,

We hope that we’ll see lots of sun.

This Friday we’re leaving,

So don’t you be grieving!

A surprise for you now we’re achieving!!

So it's not great poetry - something like a modified limerick form - he loved it anyway. We had to tell him that much to make sure that he's clear as far as work goes. It IS a regularly-scheduled Friday off, but that doesn't always mean that he TAKES if off. That is, unfortunately, one of the side-effects of having him work from home most of the time. Also, he'll have to help with the packing, even if it is for just one night.

We're so excited!

Hopefully he'll be over his bronchitis by then, and even more hopefully, noone else will get it.

Conference...

2008-10-05T17:55:00.000-07:00

...was wonderful!

It just was. Jelly's conference packet was a huge success, especially when it worked out that both Doodle and Jelly won games of conference bingo. :o)

We'll be reviewing these talks now for the six months until the next conference, hopefully soaking it all in to internalize the counsel that was given.

As Doodle says, "It was a great testimony-growing conference!"

By the Beautiful Sea

2008-10-03T22:17:00.000-07:00

You can read Woody's version here.

MY version goes like this:
We all woke up this morning in high anticipation of participating via satellite in the 178the Semiannual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We so look forward to the spiritual lift that comes as we listen to words of guidance and counsel. Last Monday night as part of her Family Home Evening lesson, Jelly provided a special conference packet that she and Doodle will be using to keep their focus during the four two-hour general sessions we'll watch this weekend, right from our cozy living room.

Did you catch that? FOUR TWO-HOUR SESSIONS in two days!! It's wonderful for the soul, but it does require sitting fairly quietly for a LONG TIME!!

So, to prepare our spirits to be ready for a feast, we decided that we needed to prepare our bodies to be receptive. We spent the day today "by the beautiful sea!"

We aimed the Wonderwood Academy Schoolbus at Long Beach, the only "aimed" driving that took place today until it was time to aim for home. Utilizing our membership to the Aquarium of the Pacific today means that in just one more visit it will have paid for itself already, with still almost a year to go! Hurray!!

Upon arrival, we asked the girls what they wanted to focus on today. With no hesitation, they said the wanted to see the lorikeets and the seals and sea lions.

Jelly was first up to offer the lorikeets some tasty $3 nectar. Almost before we had completely entered the aviary, this cute guy took her up on her offer.

When we had moved a few feet farther into the enclosure, it was Doodle's turn. While one lorikeet drank its fill, another sang not-so-sweetly right in Doodle's ear!

Today's visit was not our first to the lorikeets, but it was the first time the girls fed them. It was unanimously decided that this will be a new-and-improved family tradition. The giggles and smiles were clearly visible outward signs of inner joy!

After spending some awed-reflecting time with the sharks (Daddy's request, though we all enjoyed it immensely!), we moved to the seal and sea lion tank. The view from above is wonderful, but if you hang out in the underwater observation area, you are treated to some amazing displays. This tradition is already well-established!

After a yummy brunch at IHOP, we somehow ended up ON the Seal Beach pier, all of us! Pier walks have LONG been individual AND family traditions in our immediate family as well as in our extended family. I don't usually get to participate anymore, because most piers aren't terribly "accessible." I try not to complain, but I do have to admit to often getting wistful as I watch. There are just so many things to experience and when you can share them the magic of the ocean just seems to multiply exponentially!

A spontaneous snuggle with this sun-warmed seal guardian of the pier was a sweet end to a marvelous day.

Except, um, I guess the Sonic slushes we picked up on the way home were pretty sweet, too. ;o)

I declare us ready for conference!

Taxi Dad

2008-10-01T22:24:00.000-07:00

I know, I know... it really ought to say "Taxi Mom", but if it did, it just wouldn't be true!

We are SO blessed in our home to have a Daddy that puts his love for his family right out there where everyone can see it! One of the blessings that makes that possible for more hours of the day is a job that allows the man of our house to work from home most days. No, he doesn't have a wonderful home office where he can close the door and seclude himself from the world to focus on his assignments/teleconferences/etc. He usually works, as of late, in the dining room, sitting in a definitely-not-ergonomic-very-ancient-swivel chair that has a part in his personal history and that squeaks whenever he moves, allowing the girls and I to take over the much more comfortable living room for school. (The girls either sit curled up on the big, comfy couch, with a clipboard when needed, or use some beautiful tray tables as their desks.) If Daddy Woody needs focus, he puts on his headphones. More often, though, he listens with one ear to what is going on at Wonderwood Academy. Many times he contributes to the discussion for a while, and then goes right back to "work."

Jelly, Doodle, and I left him there, trying to make his point in a virtual WebEx meeting, and went to a Relief Society cooking class. We spent the morning having a totally fun time learning how to decorate cupcakes from a real pro. Stacy De La Vega just started a new home-based business called Sugar Rush Sweets & Bakery. She gave us all kinds of great tips for decorating cupcakes that look like you bought them. Between her helpful demonstrations and the fellowship with the other ladies in the class, the girls and I had a fantastic time as we decorated our 18 cupcakes. We did some fancy swirly ones with sprinkles, some with hearts and flowers, some that looked like a day at the beach, a special holiday ornament, and one (limited frosting of the right color) that looked like a jack-o-lantern. So we left for home equipped with dessert for the next few days and an icing bag with two tips so that we can make more artistic cupcakes.

When we arrived at home, Wonder Daddy was ready and waiting to rescue me from my taxi duties. I knew without a doubt that my arthritis was NOT going to allow me to be the chauffeur for other adventure we had planned. Donning his chauffer's cap, (uh, his tan canvas not-just-for-fishing hat) he whisked the cupcakes to the safety of the air-conditioned kitchen while I willingly transferred to the passenger-side seat of the Wonderwood School Bus.

A brief stop to pick up a car-picnic-lunch and with Daddy at the wheel, 45 minutes later we had arrived at El Dorado Nature Center to meet our homeschool support group, our Liahona friends.

Equipped with a grid-map of the trail and a nature-based scavenger hunt list of items, Doodle, Jelly, their friends, moms, and our Wonder Daddy headed out for an afternoon of science combined in the best way with P.E. My sweetheart was willing to push my chair, but I didn't want the noise to get in the way of spotting timid wild creatures. While the group explored, I spent time in the little museum at the center attempting to read (in preparation for a discussion with the girls) but truly being hopelessly distracted by the gorgeous view of the small lake and meadow just outside.

When the nature walk had ended, I was greeted by an excited group. In spite of the unseasonalby warm weather, a great time was had by all. While the kids discovered the delights of the little museum, including hanging out in the kid-friendly reading corner, I chatted with the other moms.

Woody did some adventuring of his own, never once complaining, and discovered and purchased a few small surprises for the Woodyettes. He found a patch representing the center to add to Jelly's collection, and for the Doodle a rainbow-colored butterfly eraser for her pencil and a cute turtle pencil sharpener. (Watching the turtles lounge in the sunshine on the rocks as we cross the bridge to the museum here is a favorite tradition when we visit.)

But that isn't all he found. The girls have been fascinated by owls ever since Harry Potter got Hedwig from Hagrid. Wonder Daddy is planning an extension of today's science experience - he will be supervising the girls as they do owl pellet dissections. I promise to take pictures!

So, no taxi mom here. That title belongs to Daddy, and we are SO grateful that he enjoys the work so much.

Pease Porridge Hot

2008-09-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

...Pease porridge cold,
Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old;
Some like it hot, some like it cold,
Some like it in the pot, nine days old.

It's amazing how much you can find about this lowly little rhyme if you google it! This one is my favorite for general overall historical information, but this one is my REAL favorite.

Our version of Pease Porridge came from a recipe (which we only adapted a little!) included as part of the Learning Adventures curriculum, A World of Adventures, the Middle Ages unit. Rather than celebrate in high style, we marked the completion of the unit with a more "common" meal - the very commonly consumed Pease Porridge, accompanied by Bannock, for dipping.

It was recommended that the bannock rest for at least six hours before being sliced, so the girls and I followed THAT recipe (also in the curriculum) the day before we made the pease porridge, which we planned to eat WAY before it was nine days old!

Cooperative cooking - Jelly added the buttermilk to the dry ingredients while Doodle did the kneading.

Jelly watches, glad it's not HER hands in the bowl, as the Doodle enjoys really getting into mixing the dough. The right child for the right job is critical!

"Hands-on" takes on a whole new meaning!

Doodle made sure to remove her ring before plunging whole-heartedly into the messy mass.

The toothpick hole in the center proved it was done.

Letting the completed loaf of bannock rest overnight was SO hard for both the girls - they were VERY anxious to taste the results of their labors!

It was even harder the next day... at first the cooking peas smelled, uh, like cooking peas. Our fire came from the gas stove rather than a stone fireplace, and our bubbling cauldron was stainless steel, but it still FELT like medieval times!

As the flavors melded, and the aroma filled the house, everyone was more than ready for dinner when the time finally came.
We gave the pot a final stir - this is a Day 1 image of our Pease Porridge, which we made with corned beef, because that's what we had on hand.

Doodle, dipping!

Jelly's ready for a medieval adventure in eating, too! (*Note: Daddy and the girls built the Harry Potter/Hogwarts Lego castle in the background and it worked well as the set for acting out some of the stories we read!)

Our pease porridge didn't last nine days, but we did get three meals out of it! Yummy! I'm sure we'll be using those recipes again in the future, just because.

Now let me back up a bit, though, and describe a bit of the adventures that took place during our study of the Middle Ages.

Because we were focusing on a fairly in-depth lapbook for the botany we learned during this unit, the girls added pages to their Books of the Centuries instead. As we notebooked, we listened to lots of Gregorian Chant - the only recordings of Middle Ages music that we could find. The girls can now identify that style no matter what the setting. :o)

We used Amy Pak's timeline figures, (we have the CDs - so excellent!) and then did notebook pages and minibooks which the girls put on cardstock pages. Doodle is a HUGE paperdoll fan (like her Grandma NanZ), so we also added a pocket page to store some Medieval Costume Paper Dolls by Tom Tierney that we got from Dover Publications.

The recommended books in this unit are The Door in the Wall, by Marguerite De Angeli, the story of a medieval boy who loses the use of his legs, but discovers a door in the wall, and Adam of the Road, by Elizabeth Janet Gray, a story of a father and son wandring minstrel team who are separated from one another during the Middle Ages. We enjoyed both the stories very much.

Because the main character in The Door in the Wall learns to whittle, so did the girls!

Their projects were done in Ivory Soap rather than wood. They first traced the soap to make sure their project would fit, then created a design, which they then outlined on the soap.

Doodle made a shining star - and hadn't had enough carving, so she also made a castle, which I don't have a picture of... yet.

Jelly's first creation was a lovely heart. She, too, hadn't had enough - she's still working to finish a carving of a jumping dolphin.

I highly recommend this project... it was a big hit!

Jelly (my voracious reader!)and I also read the Midwife's Apprentice and Matilda Bone, both by Karen Cushman, and from the Royal Diaries series - Eleanor, Crown Jewel of Aquitaine. Since the Adam book was from a boy's perspectice, Eleanor and the two Cushman books gave us the chance to "see" life from a girl's point of view.

Another extra book that the three of us read aloud together was a short, but fun, one from the the Time Warp Trio series by Jon Scieszka called Knights of the Kitchen Table. Good general information in a light-hearted book appropriate for younger readers.

Our homeschool/family friends from Vancouver, WA, also studying the Middle Ages, recommended a series of videos from Schlessinger Media. Thanks, guys!! We were fortunate to find them at our local library - a series of six. The first, Life in the Middle Ages, is a good overview. The other five each focus on one type of person and their life - we learned about nobles, knights, serfs, monks, and doctors.

The "picture books" we read together and the other videos we watched are too numerous to mention, but they included most of what our library had (or could get for us!) on the Middle Ages, knights, castles, cathedrals, King Arthur, Camelot, the Prince and the Pauper, etc. A couple that really stood out were Kids in the Middle Ages, by Lisa A. Wroble, and A Medieval Feast, by Aliki.

A fantastic resource was a book we discovered called Knights and Castles, by Avery Hart and Paul Mantel. The subtitle is 50 Hands-On Activities to Experience the Middle Ages -- extremely cool! There is information presented in an easy-to-read-and-understand format and then corresponding projects and activities to go with many of the mini-articles - a winning combination.

The girls each designed and created a personal coat of arms, illustrated an "illuminated manuscript" with a huge letter of their first name, and did a comparison study of the armor of knights and the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18).

We jumped into our study of the Middle Ages from an intense focus on Cinderella Stories Around the World - so very "princess-y" - and I wasn't sure the girls would enjoy a time in history when the focus was so NOT on women. We learned a lot, and had castle-sized fun.

Truly, it was a wonderful Learning Adventure!

Botany, Herbology... A Rose by Any Other Name

2008-09-13T22:48:00.000-07:00

We've officially wrapped up our study of botany/herbology, at least for this year. We started last spring during our "Cinderella Stories Around the World" unit study. (Ohmygosh! I still haven't posted about that -- soon!) Science was Herbology, focusing, naturally, on pumpkins. "Cinderella Stories" kind of morphed into our study of the Middle Ages, a la Learning Adventures, and we continued our study of botany, focusing more on herbs. So we began in April with an interactive experience in square-foot gardening and finished this month by making a fairly extensive lapbook.

Square-Foot Gardening is a passion of one of the families in our homeschool group. In April, they invited us all to invade their backyard and gave us our introduction to Mel's method for growing good things. The first step is to mix up a blend of three ingredients to use in place of regular old backyard variety soil. You can read all about it in Mel's book.

Because we're notoriously NOT green thumbs around here, we decided to start small. We took the soil blend, and the girls each planted two crops, in 1-foot-diameter pots.

Using the blended soil, the girls prepared the containers.

Then each girl planted two different kinds of seeds, one type in each container.

Jelly chose squash and cucumbers. Doodle chose tomatoes and carrots.

The girls faithfully watered, the sun shone, and the plants began to grow. You may need to look VERY carefully to see Doodle's tiny sprout.

The girls were thrilled!

In July, we went to the Orange County Fair. One of the highlights was attending a class and investigating the demonstration garden of Mr. Square-Foot-Gardening himself, Mel Bartholomew. The girls loved seeing the gardens.

The girls have "notebooked" most of their actual gardening experience as part of their "Cinderella Around the World" unit study. (I really will post about that sometime soon!) Their academic (as opposed to hands-on) study they lapbooked.

The Hands of a Child project pack, HOCPP 1116, Botany, was our main lapbook source. There is an Answer Key for this pack that outlines a complete lesson plan. Cool!

We also used a free sample module from Live and Learn Press that is part of their product that accompanies Jeannie Fulbright's excellent book, Exploring Creation with Botany. If you are looking for an awesome elementary science series, you should definitely investigate her books.

Our third source for minibooks was Homeschool Helper.

As always, we also added in miniaturized pages from miscellaneous sources that I've collected over the years. Some of them came from Evan-Moor's Theme Pockets - May Book. I'd like to list credits for all of them, but it's just not possible.

So, without further delay, here are the Botany Lapbooks that the girls put together after our four-month-plus study.

I especially love the tulips the girls drew on their covers, using a step-by-step how-to-draw-a-tulip page. I'm afraid I don't know it's source.

The folders for these lapbooks were originally intended to be used a minioffices, but we somehow ended up with too many. The colors were perfect for botany, so we appropriated them! The girls did their own layouts, so each book is unique. They do both use brass brads to add in their "notebook-style" pages and extensions.

Jelly's creative style usually involves adding in small drawings and her own humorous cartoons appropriate to the theme.

Doodle chose to label each page that begins a new section of her lapbook.

On the left side of this pic, you can see one of the EMC pages we reduced to 50% and printed two-to-a-page. Still big enough to see the details.

On the right side of this pic, you can see the sample minibooks from the Apologia Elementary Botany lapbook available from Live and Learn Press.

That's our botany study, from cover to cover.

From the beauties of the Earth, we're moving on to the heavens. Astronomy is our next science topic, because it is such a natural fit with our study of the Renaissance. We'll be admiring gorgeous art - both of the earthly and heavenly varieties.

Stay tuned for our adventures in star-gazing!

A Passion for the Pacific

2008-09-12T06:49:00.000-07:00

Our entire family, individually and collectively, has had a life-long love for the ocean. We are very aware, from the crowds that invariably compete for parking space, that we are not alone in our passion. Sharing the fascination with so many others can intensify the feelings - the good and the frustrating. We definitely prefer less-crowded, more peaceful ocean adventures. Even though we are at times required to join the masses, our passion just seems to build.

All this to say, we were not at all surprised when Jelly asked if we could study the ocean in school this year. Though we've visited lots of ocean-themed nature centers, aquariums - from tiny ones to Sea World, rescue centers, harbors, and even gone whale-watching twice, we have not yet made a focused/formal study of marine science. There was absolutely no hesitation before she received a resounding, "Of course we can!"

As I mentioned, being blessed to live so close to the coast, we have taken many field trips over the years relating to the ocean in lots of different ways. Simple beach trips can be amazing and provide an abundance of scientific opportunities - wading/swimming/body surfing, tidepool investigations, pier walks, nature "hikes", bird watching, people watching, sand-castle building, shell/driftwood/rock collecting, kite flying, dog/frisbee exhibitions, surfer/wind-surfer/sailboat observing, and so many other activities. Anyone who has ever experienced just relaxing and absorbing the mystical healing effects of the water and waves becomes an instant ocean fan!

How does that work? Something so huge makes you feel so small, but somehow NOT insignificant, rather a part of something completely wonderful.

So, in addition to the science studies we do in conjunction with our Learning Adventures curriculum this year, we will be learning more about our beloved ocean, and all things related. We're not putting a timeframe on this particular study - it will most likely NEVER end! :o)

We did give it an "official" beginning, however. We joined with many other homeschoolers for one of two days (The year they did just ONE day, they found out just how many homeschoolers there are in this area!) set aside just for us at the Aquarium of the Pacific, in Long Beach, CA. In addition to their regular exhibits, on homeschool days they set up demonstrations and hands-on experiences and experiments that add to the learning opportunities and adventures.

Touch tanks, for example, and the famous "blubber" experiment (involving putting your hand into extremely cold water) to name just a couple. We found ALL the employees/volunteers to be extremely helpful and extra friendly. One kind lady, just because we were there, came out from "the back", and caught us as we were walking away from a tank to tell us that she was just about to feed the fish/eels in that particular tank. As we watched, fascinated, she told us more about the tank's inhabitants, including the fact that one of the new eels had been named after her, in honor of the 500 hours that she had volunteered. Just a little thing, but a nice personal touch.

And there is so much MORE available! The discount and benefits offered were too good to pass up, so we're now annual pass holders and will be going regularly to the Aquarium this year. Our plan is to make LOTS of visits and focus on a different section each time, though I'm sure we'll be regular guests of the seals and sea lions. The girls have a special friend there. :o)

It is just so incredible to experience the ocean's magic - it has caught us, hook, line, and sinker!

Finally, a LOOoooonngg Weekend

2008-08-29T22:32:00.000-07:00

Since we've got a long weekend in front of us, I decided I'd better blog the last one before this one is over. We'd been trying to get away and visit family to the north for nearly two months, and we finally made it last weekend!

The process of getting ready always turns into more of big deal than it should be, but we always survive it somehow. We laugh about my lists, but every time I don't make one, we forget something. This time it was actually quite rewarding. We were able to take LOTS of hand-me-downs with us, and they'll make great school clothes for our sweet niece. PLUS there is more room HERE now. The whole hand-me-down process is really worthy of a post all its own. Another time.

We got out of town within 30 minutes of our goal, which I consider an amazing accomplishment. It was a long but not too traffic-horrific drive to our first stop - Papa's house in Santa Barbara. Papa and his wife, Dorothy, were as excited to see us as we were to be seen!

After deciding to keep with our tradition, we headed to Goleta Beach for a picnic and pier walk.
While we were waiting for Papa and Dorothy to arrive with lunch, an incredibly beautiful flock of pelicans flew by in the traditional V formation. I've seen lots of pelicans at that beach, but NEVER a flock in formation. SOoo cool!! We actually ALL saw them again later in the afternoon.

My sister and three of her kids joined us after they got out of school. (Our beach day WAS school!) The kids swam, boogie-boarded, and played in the sand, and the grown-ups soaked up the sun and scenery. We spent Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday together and had such a good visit.

On Sunday we got to spend time with part of the other side of the family, with Woody's middle sister and family. Again, it was a great visit.

We know we're where we need to be, but it sure would be nice to be closer.

Buried Treasure

2008-08-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

Ages ago, my sister's oldest daughter's preschool teacher introduced our family to the concept of cake-mix cookies. You can use the dough almost like playdough, except it tastes a lot better, even before you bake it! The girls used to make letters, numbers, shapes... you get the idea.

Last week, I was rummaging through my recipes looking for something easy, yummy, and preferably something requiring only ingredients that we had on hand. What I found was buried treasure! The recipe originally came from this website: http://www.sugardoodle.net/mambo/ (a fantasic LDS resource!), shared by Cindee Alexander. Thank you, Cindee!!

Suffice it to say that we have a new family favorite! It kicks the concept of cake-mix playdough cookies up a notch.

Here it is: Pumpkin Chocolate Chippers

2 boxes Spice cake mix, or yellow
1 large can of pumpkin (approx. 29-30 oz can)
2 cups Chocolate Chips (We used mini chips.)

Mix well. (We discovered it takes some muscle!)
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls on lightly greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Makes a ton!

If a ton is too many for you, you can use 1 box of cake mix, a small can of pumpkin, and a cup of add-ins. Truly, no eggs, no oil. The dough is really too gooey to use as playdough. If you want that recipe, let me know. :o

Oh, we didn't have Spice cake mix, so we used one French vanilla cake mix and one carrot cake mix and added about a tablespoon of Pumpkin Pie spice. Delicioso! Next time we're going to try white chocolate chips. You could add nuts, too, or craisins. Hmmm... the possibilities are endless.

It does make a ton - but not an endless supply. Guess it's time to make some more.

Middle Ages, Botany, and Olympics, Oh My!

2008-08-12T01:41:00.000-07:00

Like Michael Phelps, here at Wonderwood Academy we are on a roll!

We have already had four awesome days of school for the 2008-9 year. We started on Monday, August 4th, so it would have been six, but I was attacked by a very feisty bug that knocked me off my feet for a few days. I am SO grateful, ornery bugs notwithstanding, for generally decent health. This time last year I was just home from a nearly two-week stay in the hospital facing a three-month plus recovery time. It goes without saying, but I will anyway – I don’t EVER want to do that again!

What I LOVE doing is watching Jelly’s and Doodle’s enthusiasm climb from general excitement to pure and simple joy as we delve daily deeper into our “Learning Adventures.” Each time we begin a new unit study, the 24/7 aspect of homeschooling and its influence on our lives is reaffirmed. The girls have a tendency to immerse themselves in whatever period of time we are studying. Our current focus is on Medieval Times – the Middle Ages.

So today for “Show and Tell” (We started this when the girls were little and they won’t let me forget to let them do it nearly every Monday after lunch! I thought they’d have outgrown it by now, but it has turned into a good opportunity for them to do oral presentations. Who knew? ;o) Doodle (4th grade) shared her Princess Minnie doll, who is currently studying to become a knight. Jelly (6th grade) presented her entire collection of Enchanted items, putting a Middle Ages twist on her explanations. She has also been consistently naming her main character during playtime, Giselle. I don’t fully understand how it works, but Giselle and Princess Minnie are definitely having Medieval Times time-traveling adventures these days. It so warms my mama heart to hear facts and fancies we’ve learned during “school” being developed into amazing scenarios for “after school” playtime adventures!

We continue to love Math-U-See, so other than needing a new level for Jelly pretty soon, no changes there.

Our basic curriculum this year is again based on Learning Adventures. We’ll be finishing A World of Adventure and moving into A New World of Adventure. I do have specific timeframe goals but as always, they are not set in stone due to our fondness for rabbit trails.

We’re reading The Door in the Wall, by Marguerite de Angeli, along with miscellaneous other books about knights, castles, cathedrals, King Arthur, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and plants. We’ve whittled Ivory soap, dissected a rose, watched most of the DVDs our library has on the Middle Ages (still a few to go – we like to watch them while we eat lunch), eaten porridge for breakfast and beef barley soup, with dark bread for sopping, for lunch. Pease porridge and bannock are on the menu for dinner later this week.

Lapbooking and notebooking are natural fits with our unit studies, and so we continue to do both. Currently the girls are working on lap/notebooks for both history (Middle Ages) and science (Botany). We’re using a combination of project packs from Hands of a Child and free resources gathered from all over the web. This week we’re adding Art (beginning with Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts) and next week when piano lessons resume we’ll add Music Appreciation.

I’ll post pictures and links soon. I’d do it now, but I’m too tired due to staying up late to watch the Olympics. We’d be lapbooking those, too, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day!

Go Team USA!

Missing Month #2

2008-07-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

**UPDATE** This post is now followed by two I wrote on the same day - The Sacred, and The Secular. Note: That last one includes new pics of the girls. **

Once again I find myself WAY behind in blogging the true-life adventures of the Woody family. Once again, it has been a very busy month! Much of our time has been spent in simply enjoying the summer (playdays and sleepovers for the girls, swimming, birthday parties, dinner "parties", service projects, gardening, and movie and/or game nights) while also attempting to continue our organizing and decluttering projects.

The girls' rooms are both done and they LOVE their "new" rooms!! It made them feel good to donate some of their well-loved but outgrown things to "kids who need them and will love them, too!" Somehow it is MUCH easier for a child's heart to part with loved toys when they know those old favorites will continue to be loved by another child. :o) We still have to finish tackling the school room. I was hoping to have that done by now, but have NOT given up hope! ;o) We WILL reclaim that space... even if we have to do it fifteen minutes at a time. In the interim, we will continue to use the dining and living rooms for school. One of the advantages of our school room is that is has a table AND a couch in the same room. We'll get there.

There have been, though, this month, a couple of things/events that I want to make sure I blog so that they are "journaled" for posterity. In trying to figure out how to post things so that they make sense, I've decided to make the technology work for me. I want THIS post to appear first, and then also want to keep the two "journal" posts separate - they range from the sacred to the truly secular. Which to record first... hmmm... it IS the Sabbath, after all.

The Sacred: Savior of the World

2008-07-27T18:05:00.000-07:00

This summer, Woody has been teaching a six-week summer institute class at church titled "Savior of the World." You can actually get links to download audio of the classes here:

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lessons 5 and 6

I am, naturally, a bit biased, but even those who are not said that the summer institute course was a wonderful blessing in their lives. I most heartily concur. I thoroughly enjoyed ALL the sessions, and was, as Woody also expressed, sad to see them come to an end. But, though the classes have ended, my desire to learn more about and draw closer to our Savior has been reborn.

The direction Woody was given for this summer institute was to use the script for the Savior of the World production as a foundation, and then to provide a historical and spiritual background in order to help prepare the members of our stake to participate in the presentation of the production during the spring of 2009. You can download that script, and even the score and accompaniment and choir rehearsal tracks here.

If I had to come up with just one word to summarize, that word would be JOY!

My personal testimony and love for the Savior has grown so much. I do KNOW (through a personal witness of the Spirit) that Jesus' part in the Plan of Salvation makes it possible for us to have hope! There is so much in this world that causes us grief and pain, but it doesn't have to end there.

For example, how can we get through heart-rending grief? There are so many of our own family and friends that are suffering and have heartaches that seem beyond bearing. We can, here and now, have a personal manifestation of the Spirit that will bear record to us of the truthfulness of our Heavenly Father's Plan of Salvation.
That personal testimony of a loving Father's awareness of each of His children, and of a blessed reunion in a heavenly hereafter can not only give us peace, but JOY! Instead of being distraught, we can be eagerly awaiting that reunion!

In the summer institute lessons, we discussed the fact that Mary always kept things and "pondered" them in her heart as she witnessed and experienced events in the life of her Son. What an amazing example that we should follow! Like Mary, we can also come to a real understanding of these life lessons.

As we learned of the time Jesus spent with his disciples before His Ascension, some other things spoke to my heart.
- Charity is not a single act, it is a state of being.
- It doesn't matter what others do, our purpose in life should be to focus on our personal mission.

I'm taking these verses as MY mission:

Doctrine and Covenants, Section 88 verses 118-120, 123-126:

118 And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.
119 Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;
120 That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord; that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High.
123 See that ye love one another; cease to be covetous; learn to impart one to another as the gospel requires.
124 Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.
125 And above all things, clothe yourselves with the bond of charity, as with a mantle, which is the bond of perfectness and peace.
126 Pray always, that ye may not faint, until I come. Behold, and lo, I will come quickly, and receive you unto myself. Amen.

Though I'm not (after three years) teaching monthly lessons in Relief Society anymore, I had the opportunity to substitute teach today. The topic was "Testimony," and was based on a talk given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks, in conference this past April 2008. I closed the lesson by sharing my testimony, and I'd like to do that again now.

I know that our Heavenly Father’s Plan is in place because of His love for each one of us, His children. I know that our Savior, Jesus Christ, is our elder brother, and that the Atonement assures us the opportunity for eternal life. I know that the Prophet Joseph Smith saw the Father and the Son, and restored the fullness of the gospel. I know that we have a prophet now, President Thomas S. Monson, who leads and guides us on our journey toward life with that same Father and Son. I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

What does all this mean? The absolute bottom line is LOVE - sharing it, showing it, living it!

The Secular: The OC Fair

2008-07-27T17:24:00.000-07:00

On a lighter note, we took the girls to the Orange County Fair on Friday, July 25th. It was the first time they’d been to a fair, so we all had a marvelous time!

We saw (and smelled) lots of animals, some gorgeous quilts, table settings that inspired the girls to pay a bit more attention to that small detail, a small one-ring circus (only three performers, but fun), crafts galore, a beautiful demonstration garden that also inspired us to keep going with our own small efforts (a botany/herbology-inspired school project), a couple of carnival rides for the girls, and even pig races!!

Doodle chose to ride an elephant as her special ride. Originally she wanted to ride a pony, but ANYONE can ride a pony! How many can say that they've ridden an elephant? That's her, the adventurer with the big grin, in the pink cap. She is now officially the only member of our family to have ridden an elephant.

Jelly's pick was the Sky Ride. Because Doodle isn't quite tall enough to ride that one without an adult, Jelly had a marvelously independent adventure! She saw all kinds of amazing things from her lofty perch, but don't ask her about the, um, birds-eye view of a gross trashcan. I wanted to post the pic of her WAY UP HIGH, but she was really backlit in that one and so you can't see her awesome smile.

We managed to get our fill before the evening craziness began. It was a wonderfully learning-adventurous kind of day!

House of Order Week 1 Report

2008-06-30T06:55:00.000-07:00

It should NOT surprise anyone when I say that this week has reaffirmed what I learned LONG ago: It always takes SO much longer to get something done than I think it will! And I really thought I was being realistic in my goal-setting.

BUT, having said that, it really has been a good week.

We now have a completely decluttered and reorganized kitchen. We donated the equivalent of three VERY large boxes of perfectly useful household goods - and it sure felt good!

The decluttering and organizing in the "back" of the house has also begun. We're still in the "making-more-of-a-mess" stage, but we ARE making progress. The girls are very much looking forward to doing some donating and having decluttered rooms, and I can't wait to reclaim our schoolroom!!

Also this week:

Jelly had her regular Tuesday night piano class. None for the Doodle this week, as her teacher is on vacation. I (almost always!) love hearing them practice!

Both girls had daily swim lessons. This is the fourth summer we've taken advantage of the aquatics program through Parks and Rec. Reasonable prices for reasonable progress on the girls' water skills. With four lessons still to go this week, Jelly has distinguished herself as the best backstroker in the class, with the best side-breathing freestyler honor going to Doodle. They're both doing very well!

Woody and I have also done some swimming WITH the girls this week. Twice we've availed ourselves of the hospitality of our friends and their beautiful backyard pool! The girls get extra opportunity to practice their strokes and diving, and Woody and I get to work out without sweating! We each did twenty laps on our first swim day, and upped it to twenty-five the second time. The girls love being able to swim with mama and daddy, too!

The girls and I worked together on our regular weekly "home blessing" on Saturday morning (while Woody was at a rehearsal) to prepare our hearts and house for the Sabbath. Dusting with the FlyLady feather duster is actually kinda fun! They don't especially enjoy the vacuuming (they trade off weeks doing the dining room, since it involves moving all the chairs), but they are getting pretty good at it. We all LOVE the results!

Saturday night we went to a patriotic concert (where Woody was the heart of the tenor section)and ice cream social sponsored by our community and hosted by our stake. It's an annual tradition that we really enjoy - especially the tribute to the armed forces. Yeah, our country is a mess, but it is still "a choice land" and we're grateful to live here.

Our Sabbath was a wonderful one, though a bit busier than some. The girls and I got ready while Woody (as counselor in the Stake Sunday School) supported a Teacher Inservice Class held for the instructors in our ward at 7:30 a.m. (See the Inner Dad for a bit more church info.) We returned home for a light lunch after ward choir rehearsal, and then I actually slept most of afternoon while Woody and the girls watched a movie.

You KNOW what they say about all work and no play. :o)

I'll let you know how THIS week goes -- better get started.

Missing Month

2008-06-20T05:38:00.000-07:00

When I realized that it has been over a month since I posted anything, I decided I'd better at least make an attempt to get current.

I've been complaining for a couple of weeks now that the writing muse has deserted me. It isn't that there has been nothing to write about... on the contrary! We have been busy with some very good things going on in our lives and the lives of friends and family.

In the past month:

Woody and I celebrated our 12th anniversary in Santa Barbara, CA, which included attending a Celtic Woman concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl while the girls had a wonderful long weekend visiting and staying with various extended family members.

Doodle did a fun family night. She did a great job! You can read about it here.

We traveled (yup, paying over $4 a gallon for gas for our minivan!) to Vancouver, WA, for the confirmation of our much-loved goddaughter, SwimChick. While we were there, the three girls also filmed a video (which they had previously developed and scripted via telephone conference calls and the magic of IMing) for their Cinderella Stories Around the World Unit Study. A wonderful time was had by all and the trip was WAY worth the price of the gas! :o)

Woody's mom and stepdad began a 12-month Family and Church History mission in Salt Lake City, UT. The girls are LOVING having penpals! They are incredible people, and we're prilled (pleased and thrilled) to know them! We are ALL excited about what they're doing. Their example of service is renewing our desires to serve! They've been in training for the past two weeks, and we can't wait to hear what their assignments will be!

Jelly, Doodle, and I attended a fun(Relief Society enrichment)cooking class called, "Dough, Re, Mi," in which we learned to use prepared doughs and mixes to make all kinds of fun meals while singing or otherwise making a joyful noise in the kitchen. lol The girls (the only kids present) especially loved being included with the "grown-up ladies" in the hands-on portion of the class. Go pizza balls!

We attended, and Woody sang with the Anaheim Mormon Chorale at, the funeral service of an amazing man who gave much to his family, friends, country, and church. His life will continue to serve as motivation for all who knew him.

Woody has taught, and we have attended, two of four Summer Institute classes on the Savior of the World. The classes will continue through July. He has learned and taught the rest of us so much already! Studying the life and mission of Christ has really lifted my spirit.

Jelly had a birthday, which we celebrated with a Patriotic Pool Party on Flag Day, June 14th. She had a fantastic time partying with friends and family! We extended the celebration by having two of the cousins stay for a sleepover - creativity abounded as the girls beaded and each pair of sisters made a cute card, which they presented to their devoted daddies the next day on Fathers' Day.

Piano classes continue once a week, with the girls still enjoying practicing. Each new song or skill increases their enthusiam. It's "music to a mama's ears!" :o)

Public school ended for the year, and though we school year-round, the girls have already had a chance for a playdate, a beachtrip, and an afternoon of swimming with public-schooled friends. One of the things we LOVE about our schedule is that we have the freedom to take days off when WE choose.

And speaking of school, we are winding up with Cinderella Stories Around the World. This unit was originally intended to be a 10-day HOAC co-op, but we KNEW we wanted to go more in depth. Our goal was to finish before Daddy's official "vacation" begins, but we're not quite going to make it. We'd rather extend our deadline a bit than hurry to finish what has been an awesome unit!! More on this later.

We had a chance to feed the missionaries who are serving in our ward. Daddy made his famous meatloaf. Yum! We committed to prayerfully select a family with whom to share "The Family: A Proclamation to the World." (To read the whole proclamation, click on Additional Information when you get to the link.)

Woody is in rehearsal with a community choir for the Annual Anaheim Hills Patriotic Concert hosted by our stake in conjunction with community celebrations for the 4th of July. The concert and ice cream social are held at the stake center every year on the Saturday before the 4th. It is a neat opportunity to be involved, whether you're singing or listening!

We're preparing to spend our official afore-mentioned "vacation" here at home. Our goal is to declutter like crazy, to simplify our lives, and to share the abundance with others. Our work will be offset by LOTS of swimming - two weeks of lessons for the girls as well as workouts for ALL of us. Our aim is to work toward a leaner lifestyle - for us AND for our home!

We start tomorrow. I'll let you know how we do.

We'd sure appreciate your prayers - we're gonna need all the help we can get!!!

Jelly's Family Night of Light

2008-05-15T07:55:00.000-07:00

We've always done fairly well with Family Home Evening, but I will be the first to admit that we're MUCH better at family activities than we are at lesson nights. I am also prilled (pleased and thrilled, NOT proud, thank you, Chapmans) to tell you that we've been improving steadily on the lesson front.

So when Jelly asked last week if she could do Family Home Evening for this week, I said, "Sure, sweetie!" because I knew she could. Then, in true Jelly style, she promptly got involved in something and forgot about her plan. When I asked her early on Monday how things were going for Family Night, she said something like, "Oh, great! I just need to go find a Friend!" Translation: Forgot all about it, but no worries!

Jelly is the keeper of the back issues of the Friend magazine at the Woody hacienda, so I don't know how many she looked through. Soon she came out of her room with the February 2006 issue. She had it open to the Family Home Evening Ideas inside the back cover. "Mama," she asked, "do you think this will work?" And she pointed to idea number one.

Now, anyone who knows me or who has just peeked into our living room from the vantage point of the front door knows how I (and by extension, ALL the Woodys) feel about lighthouses. 'Nuff said for now.

I read the idea, and told her that I was sure she would make it a wonderful Family Home Evening. She said, "I can do that! But I need a game." I quickly fished around in the game closet in my brain and came up with, "How about a flashlight game?"

In case you're in a hurry, let me just say that she did a truly outstanding job! My mama heart just about burst with joy!

If you have a bit more time for blog reading, here is a transcript of Jelly's agenda for our Family Home Evening, held at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, 12 May 2008.

Family Night
Opening Prayer: Doodle
Song: I Have a Family Here on Earth (p.188) (directed by Jelly)
Lesson:
Read "The Lighthouse" (p.2) (Daddy)
Read "Lost in a Cave" (p.42) (Mama)
Do Treasure Puzzle Hunt.*

* Turn ALL the lights off after this story.(An arrow points to "Lost in a Cave.")

Song: A Happy Family (pp.198) (directed by Doodle) (Note: Jelly had us substitute our own family names to personalize the song.)
Closing Prayer: Jelly

Dessert: Goldfish (because they swim in the ocean near lighthouses, of course)

ENJOY!!

To prepare for the Treasure Puzzle Hunt, Jelly drew a picture of our happy family inside a circle of light surrounded by darkness. She made the clothes we were wearing match what we were actually wearing that day (down to the colonial girl costume donned by Doodle just because she felt like it). She cut the picture into puzzle pieces, and then hid them, with clues leading from one to the next in true treasure-hunt style. "And some of the clues even rhyme, Mama! And Doodle loves puzzles!" I wish I had a picture of Jelly's ear-to-ear grin to post here!!

It was an excellent night! Our discussion about the light of Christ and the light of His gospel was fabulous, Doodle had wonderful fun (trailed by Jelly, just in case she needed help) on her flashlight treasure puzzle hunt, and the goldfish ended up swimming in an ocean of chicken noodle soup that was enjoyed by all.

The Doodle wants a turn to plan next week's Family Home Evening. I can't wait! :o)

Cinderella Silliness

2008-05-07T13:30:00.000-07:00

We're still in the midst of our Cinderella Stories Around the World unit study, but I thought I'd give you a preview of some of the fun we're having.

Part of our regular activities include a poetry mini unit. We've written quinzaines, tongue twisters, acrostics, and cinquains so far. Today, as part of our adventures with Irish Cinderellas, we studied the formula for, read, and wrote limericks.

No one knows for sure why or how the name of an Irish city became associated with the short, nonsensical, often not-so-nice verses we know as limericks. Some believe it originated with a school of poets who lived in the town of Croom, in County Limerick, in the 19th century, whose specialization was satiric verse. We may never know for sure, but it is documented that the genre became popular during the Victorian era due mainly to the nonsense verses of Edward Lear.

In any case, as long as you stay away from the bawdy ones, limericks can really be a ton of fun -- whether you're reading or writing them. There are lots of concepts to be learned as you write them, too. Here at Wonderwood Academy, we feel strongly that laughter is an important part of a balanced education. ;o) Just don't laugh TOO much while you're balancing on one leg... you could tip over!! lol

Here are our contributions to the legacy of the limerick. Hopefully they'll make you laugh, or at least smile real big!

Cinderella Limericks
by the Woody Family

There once was a girl, Cinderella,
Who wanted to sing a capella.
She worked as she sang.
The clock chimed and rang.
At her wedding she sang a capella.

~~~~~

There once was a girl, Cinderella,
Who had a nice friend, name of Bella.
The girls had to work hard.
They worked hard in their yard.
Until they each met a nice fella.

~~~~~

There once was a girl, Cinderella,
Who wanted to sing a capella.
Her step-mother brayed.
Her godmother played.
So it wasn't quite true a capella.

More Cinderella stories soon. :o)

A Journey through Ancient Rome

2008-04-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

We finished our study of Ancient Rome here at Wonderwood Academy, and celebrated by taking the entire staff and student body to dinner at Daphne’s Greek Café. Next time we’ll eat out on the patio! It was the closest we could find to Ancient Roman food – the girls just wouldn’t fall for it when we suggested pizza or spaghetti! LOL Guess they learned their lessons well.

These are some of the largest lapbooks the girls have ever done, and are unique for a few reasons I’ll detail as we go along. The spine of our study was the unit on Ancient Rome from Learning Adventures – A World of Adventure.
To accompany the study, we used a bazillion books from our library! We read everything we could find on Ancient Rome, as well as on volcanoes, rocks, and minerals, which was the science focus for this unit.

This was the first time that the girls actually completely organized and assembled their own lapbooks. We only lapbooked Rome, and not the science, this time around. They had a wonderful time! When we finally declared our study done (for this time around!), I handed each dd her zip bag full of minibooks and other projects, and instructed them to divide things into categories. They decided on their own categories, with the Doodle needing only minimal help to combine some of the groups she had that didn’t really have enough minibooks in them to warrant being a category. After doing the classification, they decided in what order they wanted to present their information.

I used clear packing tape to attach three folders together, without refolding them. As the girls did their layouts, then began attaching things to the folders, (we use scrapbook mounting squares in two sizes, as well as colored masking tape) each one ended up needing one extension. Doodle chose to attach hers like a “regular page” in a book.
Jelly preferred an extension page that lifts up to reveal the hidden minibooks.
The file folder tabs serve as dividers for the categories, and the girls labeled them. Doodle only did her labels on one side, so the labels aren’t always visible in the pictures. The end products are lapbooks that resemble thumb-indexed books. We’ll do this style again when we know we have a LOT of information to include.

Our main lapbook support was HOCPP1020, an awesome Project Pack on Ancient Rome from Hands of a Child. It says it is for grades 5 and up, but Doodle (just finishing 3rd grade) did as well with it as our 5th grader, Jelly. The HOAC products are VERY easy to adapt, both up and down.

HOAC also has a lapbook on Gladiators, HOCPP1078. We used the information in the guide, but the girls didn’t want to make the minibooks. (Sorry, HOAC ladies, I tried!) Being girly girls, they just did NOT want so many “mean” things in their books. If you check out their war/soldier pages, you’ll notice that I managed to convince them to include these by making paperdolls, and putting their “clothes” and equipment in a closet!!
(For further insights into our girly girls, see a post I haven’t written yet on the unit study we’re currently involved with – Cinderella Stories Around the World!) If your study goes further than ours did, you may also want to check out HOCPP1092, Romans in Britain.

We also included in our lapbooks some free projects that we got from a Hands-On Teaching Tips newsletter from Homeschool in the Woods. The People of Impact envelope in the lower right corner holds cards with Amy Pak's gorgeous illustrations and information. We use Amy’s time line figures in our Book of the Centuries. They’re just beautiful! You can sign up for the newsletter here. They have a wonderful free new mini unit each month for newsletter subscribers. Unfortunately they aren’t archived, so you need to make sure you save them while you can!! We’re planning to use some of the Time Travelers series when we get to our study of U.S. history.

Another free resource we used was a lapbook on Roman Numerals from Homeschool Helper. This Homeschool Helper lapbook creator, JoAnn S., recommended the book called Roman Numerals I to MM. We read that and had a lot of fun with it, so we turned that into a minibook, too. Roman Numerals turned out to be one of the page divisions in the girls lapbooks.
Evan-Moor Pocket books have been favorites of ours since long before we discovered lapbooking. For this study, we used EMC 3701 History Pockets, Ancient Civilizations – the section on Ancient Rome. Some of the activities we put in the lapbooks, and others the girls added to their Book of the Centuries. Doodle especially likes the “paper dolls/puppets” showing the clothing worn.
We discovered a series of books we fell in love with after just one chapter. Be sure to explore the Roman Mysteries website – there are LOTS of hidden treasures! You can read and even hear some samples from the books, as well as go on a virtual tour of Ostia, a city in Ancient Rome. If you check out the author page, she even includes some music that complements the series and gives ties to why it does. We read the first two books in the series as read-alouds, and I promise you I heard LOTS of “NOoooo… don’t stop yet! Pleeeaassse, Mama, just ONE more chapter!!”
The series is quite true to the period, and so may not be for the faint of heart or the very young, but is really good, so please preview, and see if this would be a good fit for your family. This is a link to the teacher resources available on the site, including how to make a stola out of an old white bedsheet. I’m sure, though we are technically “finished” with our study of Ancient Rome, we will be checking out many more of this series from our local library! If you’re lucky enough to live in the U.K., you can check out the series on the telly! It’s supposed to be coming to the U.S.A. in September (2008). I sure hope we can get the right cable channel!

I’m sure I’ve left out at least a few resources that we used to enjoy a great time with the Ancient Romans. One thing left to do – Jelly wants to go back to the Getty Villa, where we celebrated the finish of our study of Ancient Greece, and this time put our focus on their Roman items.
Hmmm… they also have a great exhibit that focuses on mythological creatures. That would make a nice transition from our magical study of Cinderella stories from around the world. How is a mama to decide what to do next when there are so many incredible things to learn! :o)

New School Posts Soon

2008-04-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

We have been so busy learning that I just plain haven't had time to post about it!

We finished our four-month study of Ancient Rome,(hurray!) so I'll post lapbook pictures soon.

We are currently working on a unit study called "Cinderella Stories Around the World," and having an absolutely wonderful time! It is an e-co-op sponsored by Hands of a Child, and made possible at Wonderwood Academy through a Hogwarts Correspondence Course in the History of Magic. Details to come.

Next up, and I'm not exactly sure of the order yet, are:
* Mythological Creatures Around the World
* Art Appreciation
* Music Appreciation
* The Middle Ages

Busy, busy, busy! :o)

“I Stand All Amazed.”

2008-04-07T00:52:00.000-07:00

Truly, “I stand all amazed.”

It was a weekend like no other. We were spiritually fed and indeed, my cup runneth over.

Last month at our stake leadership training, I was given a new journal with the admonition to use it to record “things of the spirit” – notes taken while listening to a talk in sacrament meeting, participating in a class lesson in Sunday School or Relief Society, studying the scriptures, or whenever an inspirational thought occurs. On the cover, it says, “Allow the spirit within you to illuminate your path.”

I broke in the little book as I soaked up the words of wisdom and counsel given to us by inspired leaders in the 178th Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held last weekend (Apr. 5-6, 2008). I’ve always enjoyed conference (well, maybe not ALWAYS) but this one stands out because the messages from the first to the last were ALL amazing.

The highlight of the conference, though, without a doubt, was being allowed to be a witness as the prophetic mantle descended upon our new prophet and president of the church, Thomas S. Monson. Sharing the experience with Woody made it even more a memory I will treasure always. As Pres. Monson spoke of the on-going battle between good and evil, I have no doubt but that it was a prophetic utterance when he said that we need not despair because we WILL win the war because our God is a God of light and hope!

As the mantle settled on him, I heard it in his voice, and I felt it in my spirit.

“I believe we’re all the more determined to live the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” ~ Pres. Monson

I believe he’s right, and I will follow him. Paraphrasing the words of our new prophet, “Together we shall move forward doing His work… according to His will, and by His inspiration.”

Together, Woody and I will guide our daughters as we all move forward. Our path is illuminated by the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We may stumble occasionally, but we WILL keep moving forward because we won't forget that witness of the spirit.

I do, I do... I stand ALL amazed.

Learning, Living, Loving, and Sharing

2008-03-19T22:41:00.000-07:00

“There must needs be opposition in all things." (2 Nephi 2:11) When there is, it’s nice to have days like this one to pull out, reflect on, and then build upon.

Woody was able to make working from home today work, even though this week he’s filling in for his boss (who is cruisin’ with his wife for a couple of weeks to Hawaii). We were able to take advantage of an afternoon field trip sponsored by one of our local homeschool group moms. (Thank you, Phyllis!)

Starting our day together, including Daddy, just feels right. Our devotionals are simple - a song, a prayer, and scripture study (personal and together)- but they sure make a difference!

The girls took their math tests in the van (Hurray, carschooling!)
as we drove (thank goodness for HOV lanes!) to the coast. Woody and I saw a gorgeous hawk fly right overhead, so we had a really close-up and detailed view of its feathering and structure. Awesome! The girls even finished in time to enjoy some of the scenery, too, as we got closer to the ocean.

We visited a small aquarium, in San Pedro, CA, that we had not even been aware existed – a little hidden treasure. At the Cabrillo Aquarium we saw sea animals, birds, and other creatures. Nature Studies sketchpads added to the adventure fun as the girls drew some of the things they saw and documented their sketches with notes, scientific names, and the date.

We watched some jellies getting their lunch – a specialty shrimp soup concocted to best meet their nutritional needs. They eat, um, the brine shrimp that are the sea monkeys Jelly keeps in a special tank in her room!
I love the reflections in this picture - Jelly's profile, and an awed Adelle, a little member of our homeschool group.

Jelly especially wanted to visit the sea horses where a helpful marine biologist in the Aquatic Nursery taught us how to tell a male from a female. The girls also had their eyes opened as they studied shells, and their own hands, under a microscope. I think Doodle’s favorite parts were the hands-on mud flats you could crawl through and explore and the tank you could crawl under and then stand up and view from the inside out.
We had planned to experience the touch tanks, but a HUGE crowd of public school field trippers changed our plans. Now that we know it’s there, we’ll go back and explore the aquarium and its inhabitants at a less-busy time. (We made sure we got that very useful information from a very helpful young lady in the Exploration Center.)

Leaving earlier than we had planned turned out to be a blessing. Daddy Woody gave us a guided tour of the area where his grandpa had moored his boat, the Seagull 3, when Woody was but a lad. Some things have changed a lot, others not at all. Woody was able to locate the exact area where he spent to many happy times making wonderful memories and even having learning adventures as he shared Grandpa’s passion for the sea. He told the girls stories, and they were as enraptured as they listened as he was in the reminiscing and the telling.

Today was full of learning, living, loving, and sharing – things good for the heart and soul.

St. Patrick's Day the Homeschool Way

2008-03-14T00:17:00.000-07:00

St. Patrick’s Day has officially been moved to Saturday, March 15th this year, because if left to it’s own devices, it interferes with Holy Week.

We’ve decided to focus on Easter this year, but the girls did make some great St. Patrick’s Day lapbooks a couple of years ago. There are some great ones available now, but when we did ours we were on our own. First ours:

Front covers – Mosaic art

Lapbook open – Cloze story (w/word bank words crossed out), Printing name practice, jointed leprechaun, flag of Ireland, March calendar, Lucky Charms accordion book, Music of Ireland

Open showing detail of Lucky Charms accordion book and two of the Music of Ireland minibook pages

Open with top extension flap lifted (Doodle’s) – left flap: Potato Pandemonium shape book include info about potatoes, shamrock fan book has a wish written on each of the three leaves

Open with top extension flap lifted (Jelly’s) – Top extension shows When? Why? Double-flap book and Where in the world is Ireland? shutterbook; slightly different arrangement of minibooks than Doodle’s

The girls LOVED dressing up like leprechauns! It was a little tricky at first, but when we raided MY closet for green (just happens to be my favorite color!) we found shirts that worked great as leprechaun tunics.

Both extension flaps open - You can see the detail of the potato preference graph on the lower one.

The Pot of Gold shape book holds a original illustrated poem titled Where is the Pot of Gold? Here’s Jelly’s as told from the leprechaun’s point of view…

It’s not in my shirt, it’s not on Squirt,
It’s not on Matt, it’s not where I sat.
It’s not on my cat, it’s in my HAT!

And the back covers --

And now, check out these St. Patrick’s Day resources!!

Download a FREE lapbook at Homeschool Helper.

Homeschool Share has four FREE literature studies for St. Patrick’s Day!

Knowledge Quest also has a FREE unit study for St. Patrick’s Day.

Hands of a Child has two lapbook choices:
Learning with Leprechauns (for Early Childhood) and
St. Patrick’s Day, which you can easily adapt for ANY age!!

Live and Learn has a free one that you can download if you join their yahoo group here.

You can find some great St. Patrick’s Day math ideas and links to printables at Googol Learning.

Send someone a green e-card, at Dover.

I’ll leave you with this bit of Irish wisdom,

You'll never plough a field by turning it over in your mind.
--Irish Saying

So, don’t just think about it, DO IT!

And then have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Teaching, No Greater Call

2008-03-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

I love teaching. I always have. I always will.

Because I’ve been thinking so much lately about the process of teaching and learning, I’d like to share some thoughts and ideas on the subject. Some are my own, most are from my collection of master teachers.

“When we study how Jesus taught, we might note that He employed one principle of teaching more than any other. …Educators refer to it as the principle of apperception.

Apperception is defined as “the process of understanding something perceived in terms of previous experience.” This means that if we have something difficult to teach, such as honesty or reverence or love, we should begin with the experience of the student and talk about the things he already knows. Then when we make a comparison with what we want him to know, he will perceive the meaning.

Jesus was indeed the master of this process. “
--Boyd K. Packer, “Using the Apperception Principle in Teaching,” Tambuli, Aug 1977, 31
“Excellent teachers do not take the credit for the learning and growth of those they teach. Like gardeners who plant and tend crops, they strive to create the best possible conditions for learning. Then they give thanks to God when they see the progress of those they teach. Paul wrote, “Neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:7).- From Teaching, No Greater Call

The name of our school, and school motto, come from this quotation from Albert Einstein:

“To wonder is to begin to understand.”

Anyone who has ever watched a small child explore their world will have no trouble understanding why I love that quote. The light that shines, first in their eyes, and then spreading to their whole face, is such an amazingly visible outward sign of the inner wonder and understanding they gain as they learn. Our goal is to not let go of the wonder!!

So, this is my job description, in part:

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." --Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn." -- John Cotton Dana

"You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives." -- Clay P. Bedford

"The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards." - Anatole France

If you want to learn, because you wonder about something, you WILL learn. Unfortunately, there is also this:

"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education”. --Albert Einstein

No matter where a child spends the day, they are permanently affected by their teacher/s:

"A teacher affects eternity – s/he can never tell, where her/his influence stops." -- Henry Brooks Adams

There are days when my influence isn’t as “wonder-ful” as it should be. There are other days when learning seems to grind to a complete halt. Those days are fewer now, though, than they've ever been. We’re all working together to keep a joyful spirit in our home, and that makes all the difference on the more challenging days. It doesn't take as long, these days, to get our little train back on track and headed in the right direction.

"The ultimate goal of the educational system is to shift to the individual the burden of pursing his own education. This will not be a widely shared pursuit until we get over our odd conviction that education is what goes on in school buildings and nowhere else." -- John William Gardner

"You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him to find it for himself." --Galileo Galilei

"A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary." -- Thomas Carruthers

“Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime; teach a man to teach others to fish, feed a generation.” – Chinese Proverb

“Teach a man to fish indeed. But don't take his pole away and snap it over your knee if he doesn't fish exactly the way you want him to. And if you want to do even better, teach a man to teach others to fish.” – Unknown

"...since we can't know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned." - John Holt

"A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on a cold iron." -- Horace Mann

“An understanding heart is everything in a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child." -- Carl Gustav Jung

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” --William Arthur Ward

The Master Teacher is Jesus, whose example, life, and resurrection we celebrate this month.

I’ll close with a quote from a children’s song, written by Janice Kapp Perry.

“I’m trying to be like Jesus.”

Fresh is Best

2008-03-12T23:03:00.000-07:00

Fresh bread, right out of the oven, can’t be beat. As Rachel Ray says, “Yum-o!” The same bread, a week later, uh, not so yummy. Do you need some ideas to keep your teaching fresh? Here are a few, some of which I’ve never heard of, in alphabetical order:

From Teaching, No Greater Call:
Activity Verses
Application Techniques
Attention Activities
Audiovisual Materials
Brainstorming
Buzz Sessions
Case Studies
Chalkboard
Comparison/Object Lessons
Demonstrations
Dioramas
Discussions
Dramatizations
Drawing Activities
Examples
Flannel Boards
Games
Guest Speakers
Lectures
Likening
Maps
Memorization
Music
Overhead Projectors
Panel Discussions
Paper Stand-Up Figures
Pictures
Questions
Readers’ Theaters
Roll Playing
Roller Boxes
Scriptures
Special Reports
Stations
Stories
Visuals
Work Sheets

There are some there that I am going to have to give a try!

Here are my additions to the list:
Unit studies, living books, lapbooks, notebooks, scrapbooks, recipe books, personal-size whiteboards, paper dolls, puppets, timelines, poetry, special personalized correspondence courses, journals, sketchpads, and toys!

(Do you have any teaching methods to share that you especially love? I’d love it if you left a comment!)

David O. McKay once said, “No greater responsibility can rest upon any man [or woman], than to be a teacher of God’s children.”

It isn’t a burden, it’s a blessing.

Who's in Charge of Your Village?

2008-03-07T04:58:00.000-08:00

No one seems to be quite sure where the quotation originated, but many are quoting this these days:

"It takes a whole village to raise a child."

Does it?

If it does, as parents, it is our responsibility to make sure we choose the right village in which to raise our children. There are lots of villages out there that I don't want my children going anywhere near!!!

Now having said that, I am very grateful that we have wonderful support from many sources as we raise our daughters. There are some mighty incredible villages out there that add much to the quality of our lives.

Family – We know, unfortunately, that there are many who deal with unsupportive family – thankfully we’ve never had that particular challenge! Our extended family is completely wonderful, blessing our lives in oodles of ways. When someone is occasionally cranky, they don’t focus their frustrations on us. The girls love to show off their projects or tell about their latest adventure, and family makes a great audience. It’s even better when we can share the adventure together!! Muchas gracias, guys!!

In-Real-Life Friends – Near and far away, again we are supremely blessed! You know who you are, and what you do, and we appreciate you more than we can say. You are precious treasures!!

Church Family – Admittedly it took us a while to settle in, due to our own limited perspective, but for a long while now we have felt loved and supported by many we feel grateful to call brothers and sisters in Zion!

Local Support Group – Small in numbers, they are HUGE in heart! Our once-a-week park days or field trips really add to our love of homeschooling. The girls both have some special friends that they want to keep for life! The moms (and even some dads!) are pretty great, too!

Online Support Group/s – Cyberspace is a much less scary place when you connect with other like-minded folks. Generous, understanding, sympathetic, and willing cyber friends contribute SO much! With so many different groups out there, it isn’t hard to find one (or many!) to belong and contribute to. Some of our online buddies have been part of our lives for YEARS now, and yet we’re still making new ones quite regularly. We can count on you!

I'm leaning toward thinking that it does NOT ultimately take a village - our Heavenly Father assigned that responsibility to parents, and we are the ones who will some day stand before Him to make an accounting of our stewardship.

When a village is threatened by natural or manmade calamity, whose children do the villagers choose to save? Are the threats to all villages the same? Are some villages just plain and simply better for the welfare of their citizens than others or is that distinction completely dependent on the individual villagers?

We do need each other. It’s not the concept of a village that I disagree with – it’s the assumption of responsibility. That rests squarely on our shoulders as parents.

It’s not a burden, it’s a blessing.

Magical Creatures

2008-03-04T08:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Jelly pulled out a little comb-bound, 8.5" x 5.5" volume, about .75" thick titled Magizoology: Our Study of Magical & Muggle Creatures, Volume 1. It is a textbook that I put together in the fall of 2004 for a special class the girls "took" during the month of October - a Hogwarts Special Correspondence Course. It contains mini units on dragons, cats, fairies, phoenixes, owls, werewolves, and unicorns. As I am inclined to do, I OVER planned, and we didn't get through the whole thing that month, and the books got tucked safely away.

Fast forward to March 2008. We're planning on participating in two online co-ops with Hands of a Child in April. (You can sign up by joining this Yahoo group.) I've been talking them up to the girls, because we think that anticipation is part of the fun! I think looking forward to doing lapbooks on Mythological Creatures Around the World and Cinderella Stories Around the World is what prompted some long-remembered memory in Jelly.

Wanna know just ONE of the things that is really cool about all this?

We picked up right where we left off and I didn't need to do a thing extra!! We had stopped right in the middle of a study on owls, so that's where we started yesterday. It rekindled so much enthusiasm - in me, as I think about the work to be done for the co-ops, AND in both Jelly and Doodle! I believe our (stuffed) snowy owl, Hedwig, enjoyed the afternoon as well. We may end up slipping in an entire lapbook on owls. HOAC has recently updated their "Owls"research pack to a project pack - what could be easier!

Yes, indeed, we do love unit studies and rabbit trails. Studying Mythological Creatures and Cinderella Stories is going to be such a fun transition from Greece and Rome to our next unit on the Middle Ages.

We will finish Year 1 of Learning Adventures eventually. ;o)

Leapin' Lapbookin'!

2008-03-01T23:10:00.000-08:00

Jelly was heard to say during a lunchtime prayer today, “Thank you for letting us have a fun Saturday school morning!”

We were going to do it all in one day yesterday, but we decided to add watching a Leap Year movie to our list of activities in honor of this once-every-four-years holiday. (Ed. - If I’d planned and printed ahead, so that we cold have started school at our usual time on the 29th, it would have been darn-near perfect for a one-day mini unit.) We actually (horrors!) “did” a bit of school this morning – on a Saturday! – so that we could finish up the last few mini books. It isn’t too late, though, to still do this mini unit study THIS leap year, because it WILL be Leap Year all year long. So, having said all that, let me also say that once Jelly got used to the idea of having school on Saturday, a very good time was had by all, and especially by Jelly.

Here’s what we did.

A Leap Year Mini Unit Study and Lapbook
All of our information came from the original link I posted yesterday. I did do some link chains, and I was in a hurry, so I can’t give you many exact references. Sorry! I’ll do better next time. I used templates from HomeschoolHelperOnline.com (If you’re out there, ladies, I’d be happy to add this to your freebies if it is feasible.) and Mirkwood Designs, and added text and graphics (mostly using simple image searches) myself. Next time I do a "from scratch" lapbook, it'll be WAY easier, because I'm going to get the Template Pack from Hands of a Child.

1. Introduction and a very brief discussion: What is a “Leap Year?”
Source: Wikipedia

2. 5-petal pentagon minibook titled “Measuring Time”
General Information about Calendars, Clocks, and Keeping Time. Minutes in an hour, hours in a day, days in a week, months in a year, days in a year. We “closed” the book with a graphic of Earth as seen from space.

Did you know that if our days were just a minute longer, we wouldn’t need leap year?

3. Leap Year History - *Three-tab book with separate cover
Tabs with pics and info – Julius Caesar (45 BC), Caesar Augustus (4 AD), and Pope Gregory XIII (1582)

4. Gregorian Calendar Rules – Circle book
How to calculate leap years. To reveal and read each of the three rules, spin the top circle.

5. A Leap Year Riddle - Two-flap book
To put together the answer, which is in two parts, you lift the flaps with pics of a kangaroo and of a calendar.

What do you get when you multiply a kangaroo with a calendar? A Leap Year!

5. Leap Year Poetry – Large Fan Book
Read, compare, and contrast (then memorize and recite your favorite) three poems regarding the number of days in February. You could also do this for copywork.

6. Why Leap Year is Like Swings on a Playground - Minibook
I read this analogy, (you'll have to scroll down to "Why It's Such a Big Deal" to find it) then had the girls do a simple narration in a simple, one-fold minibook. It includes two pages with the top half a blank rectangle for an illustration and the bottom half lined.

7. Leap Year Number Line – One and one-half inch strips, taped together. How many you need depends on how big your child writes.
Skip counting by fours. Draw in ruler-like markings with the line pattern – short, short,short, LONG. Think of a ruler. Count each mark, but only label each fourth one.

The girls “checked” their work for their number lines by listening to Cat Man Math Blues. The song ends with …Scatting... and then “cat says meow.” Because Daddy was available, we added an impromptu music appreciation lesson here. He played the song called “Mas Que Nada” (Al Jarreau) for us, and then gave the girls a short lesson on “scat/jazz” music. As I’ve said before, we LOVE rabbit trails!! Thanks, Daddy!

(Woody adds: "Mas Que Nada" [or "Mais Que Nada" sometimes] was originally written and recorded as a samba piece by Sergio Mendes and the Brasil 66. As far as I know it's only ever been recorded in Portuguese. You can find it on YouTube nowadays, which is where I came across the Al Jarreau version. I used Jarreau's version because he is one of the masters of scat in the world today. Besides that, it's just plain fun! Note: I would not recommend the "Black-Eyed Peas" version. Too immodest for our taste!)

Scat music or scatting is the use of nonsense syllables in jazz music. Source: Wikipedia

7. One Leap Baby We Know – Tri-fold Horizontal Minibook
(Note: I was going to have the girls make a timeline and include LOTS of famous leap day babies, but decided we’ll save that for when they’re older and know who more of the people are.)

On Feb. 29. 1932, Newell Kay Brown was born. In 1970, he wrote the children’s song, “I Hope They Call Me on a Mission,” which children all over the world sing in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

8. Why Leapers Are Special – Large Matchbook
Leap Day Birthday Probability Statistics Table. The chance of being born on leap day is only 1 in 1,461! The girls drew and filled in the whole table as I gave them verbal directions one step at a time.

9. Leap Year World Record – Large Matchbook
A mom in Norway had children on three consecutive leap year days!! We included their pictures and names.

10. Leaping Animals – Keyfan book
The girls illustrated and labeled animals that leap (or jump or hop). Too cute! They each came up with the fact that PEOPLE leap, which led right in to the next activity.

11. The Jump Rope Rhyme – Minibook with lined-paper pages
The girls took dictation (a la Charlotte Mason) as I slowly read the rhyme one line at a time. They want to memorize the poem so that they can practice their “leap-roping.”

12. Leap Year Wordsearch – Square Petal Card
As Doodle finished up, Jelly decided to add a couple of extra activities.
13. Origami Leap Frog
She followed the directions here (this was the simplest version I found), then used a sealed envelope cut in half to make a pocket to hold her creation - “Leap, the Amazing Frog.” There are LOTS of variations on origami frogs, including this one you can watch and fold as you go.

Doodle was still doing her word search, so Jelly kept creating.

14. Leap Year Fortune Teller
She’s big into “cootie catchers” lately, so she made one with leap-related fortunes. She decorated and used the other half of her sealed-then-cut-in-half envelope to store her game.

15. Watch a leap year musical – Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance.”
There is a made-to-be-a-movie version, but we liked the version that was filmed of a live theater performance. Almost the same cast does both versions. Kevin Kline, the Pirate King, was especially fun to watch.

I don’t want to spoil the story if you aren’t familiar with it, so I’ll just tell you that Frederic’s leap-day birthday causes some confusion as to when his indenture to the pirates is concluded. If you’re a Gilbert and Sullivan fan, you’ll understand why this is Woody’s second favorite, after “The Mikado.” If you’re not, give this one a try. Completely family friendly. It makes a great mini-unit-study-culminating activity.

There are LOTS of other LEAPING options out there, but this combination of activities worked really well for us.

Maybe we’ll do this all again sometime… like maybe four years from now!

A Leap Day Rabbit Trail

2008-02-29T09:47:00.000-08:00

We are very fond of rabbit trails. We're studying Ancient Rome, and just learned that Julius Caesar first proclaimed the last day of February as Leap Year Day in 45BC. Back then, February 30th was the last day of the last month of the year, which is why he picked it.

Then, in 4 AD, Emperor Caesar Augustus corrected a counting error in Leap Years. He also got the month of August named after him, and stole the last day of February so that August could have 31 days, just like Julius' month.

By 1582, Pope Gregory XIII recognized that Easter would eventually occur closer and closer to Christmas. The calendar was altered so that a leap day would occur in any year that is divisible by 4 but not divisible by 100 except when the year is divisible by 400. 1600 and 2000, although century marks, have a Leap Day.

This just begs for a special one-day mini unit. Check this out for more than you can possibly do in one day! The link says it's math, and it is, but it's also a LOT more!

If we end up with a lapbook, I'll post it.

Happy Leapin'!

Sick-Days School

2008-02-26T08:54:00.000-08:00

It is always quite amazing to me HOW our Heavenly Father teaches us just what He wants us to know - and just what we NEED to learn. And then I'm always amazed that I'm amazed. What I mean is, He uses the same teaching methods that we do as earthly parents - pretty much whatever it takes to get the lessons across - so I'm not sure why it amazes me so much. He plays to our strengths while helping to strengthen our weaknesses. It's one of the (many!) reasons I love homeschooling.

What I'm trying to say is that this week I seem to be learning yet another lesson that I didn't know I needed to learn. It is, so far, a strange week - which is to say that it doesn't fit the relaxed-but-fairly-predictable schedule we usually keep around here. I'm just starting to feel better, Jelly is deep in the throes of a nasty headcold, last night Doodle began her journey to feverish misery with a flu bug, and Daddy is working NOT at home as he has been so much lately, but actually IN his office. Do you blame him for wanting to escape? ;o)

Things are just not what they should be.

BUT:

Not having enough energy to have our daily devotional isn't a good reason not to have it because having it always makes us feel better, especially if we feel especially crummy before we begin. (This is even more true when you feel physically fine and spiritually crummy.)

Looking at scrapbooks, lapbooks, and notebooks is a great way to sneak in some school when there isn't any energy to "do" school.

Unless your throat really hurts or your cough prohibits it (then let someone else do it!), reading out loud together is a great way to help lift sagging spirits. (Hank, the Cowdog, anyone?)

Cool, creamy yogurt or a fruity, frozen Jamba Juice can tempt even those with sore throats and no appetites.

Amazing things can be accomplished 15- (or even just 5) minutes at a time.

So, Jamba Juice and a story coming right up!

Wonderwood Read-a-thon

2008-02-21T20:45:00.000-08:00

I hoped it wouldn't happen, but it did.

I have succumbed to the family cold and feel basically miserable.

So, when there's no energy for anything else, we have read-a-thons. They work differently at different times. Here's what we did this time:

* Regular morning devotional, including a GREAT old book by Emma Marr Petersen (the wife of Elder Mark E. Petersen), Book of Mormom Stories for Young Latter-Day Saints. It's out of print, but we found it used and very inexpensive at Amazon.com.
* Math (Awww, Mama!)
* Read-a-loud for science - Currently we're reading a Magic School Bus Book, Rocky Road Trip
* Silent reading time - The girls kept track of the pages they read, writing down page numbers each time they started and stopped, and earned one minute of family game time for each page read. Woohoo! They get to cash in when everyone feels good enough to play.

Mama read too, but my pages don't count toward game time. ;o) We use Homeschool Tracker to log the independent reading everyone does, including Mama and Daddy Woody.

I've been hearing a lot lately about the Charlie Bone books, so we picked up the first one at the library last week and asked Woody to read it. He'll post his review soon. For now I'll just say that Jelly and I will probably both be reading it soon.

I'm currently reading the Elm Creek Quilts novels, by Jennifer Chiaverini, and enjoying them a lot. Good stories for and about women. Jelly actually read the first one after I did, and enjoyed it. I decided not to let her read the next two, but only because they deal with more adult themes. NOT at all inappropriate, though, just more about grown-up reality than a 10-year-old needs to think about. No offensive language or anything. She asked when she COULD read them. I told her when she's 16. We'll see.

I'm also reading Peculiar in a Good Way by Mary Ellen Edmunds. It's the kind of book I read a bit at time, so I can think about and absorb what she says. I've loved MEE ever since she worked at the MTC when I was there before going on my mission to Honduras. She is so much fun to read/listen to, and also really touches my spirit.

Cross-Country Quilters is on the okay list if she wants to read it (the 4th in the Elm Creek series), but for now, Jelly is in the middle of about five different series.
* Madeleine L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time series
* The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley
* The Wild Horse Island series by Terri Farley
* Animal Ark books by Ben M. Baglio
* Boxcar Children books by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Of course, there are lots of NON-series books mixed in, too. Jelly is an AVID reader.

Doodle is current reading Dragonsdale by Salamanda Drake, The World of Pooh by A.A. Milne, and various other classic tales about girls - Pollyanna by Eleanor Porter, and Heidi by Johanna Spyri, for example. She's my modern-day old-fashioned girl, and loves reading "old-fashioned" adventures about girls.

What're YOU reading?

Wonderwood Academy Course of Study

2008-02-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: The chronological record of studies at Wonderwood Academy is up-to-date!

Regular readers already know that we've been homeschoolers since before our girls were born. We've gotten lots of help and support from many different people, in person and online. There is no way to thank you all enough. I decided that it's time to pay it back, and maybe even pay it forward, by detailing a bit of what we have done, are doing, and may do in the future.

I decided that a chronological approach makes the most sense (to me, anyway). I hope that this is helpful to someone. It will make a nice record for us, as I print an archival copy of all our family blogs once a year.

Wonderwood Academy 2007-8

2008-02-19T11:41:00.000-08:00

Jelly – 5th grade
Doodle – 3rd grade

Math-U-See
Learning Adventures – A World of Adventure
Hogwarts Correspondence School Yr. 4
Typing Instructor Deluxe
Rosetta Stone Spanish
Piano Classes
Swimming
LOTS of library books on LOTS of topics,
because we’re still quite partial to Charlotte Mason and her living books!

Our main course of study:
Learning Adventures – A World of Adventure
Finishing Greece
Rome
Middle Ages ?

We started this school year almost a month later than we usually do, but still started when “most” public schools do – the week after Labor Day. Due to my recuperation, we started off with only half days, but it didn’t take long to work back up to our usual school schedule. The girls got used to taking impromptu breaks, as we didn’t always know exactly when the home nurses were going to come. It’s nice to be back to “normal” now. :o)

A typical day looks something (we are not at all rigid, but do function better with a basic plan) like this:

* Wake up, breakfast, get ready, and chores done by 10:00 a.m.
* 10:00 – 10:45 a.m. Devotional and Scripture Reading/Study (On Mondays, we also do the Nat’l Anthem or another patriotic song, and the Pledge of Allegiance.) Sometimes this includes the Bible portion of the Learning Adventures curriculum.
* 10:45 – 11:15 a.m. Copywork and Memorization
* 11:15 – 11:45 a.m. Math-U-See
* 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Lunch and “Recess”
* 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Learning Adventures or other Unit Study, including Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Fine Arts – It isn’t really a non-stop, two-hour block, because it includes reading aloud together as well as our notebooking, lapbooking, hands-on, and sometimes extra Hogwarts classes or projects. (We used to do “Show and Tell” every Monday right after our lunch break, but it isn’t a regular thing anymore – I hate to think that the girls are growing out of it. Maybe I need to call it something else, and get us going again. It is great practice for giving talks, speeches, or presentations.)
* 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. Typing and Independent Reading (While one dd does a lesson on the computer (Typing Instructor Deluxe), the other reads silently. (Sometimes Doodle likes to go in Mama and Daddy’s room to read “out loud” to one of her dolls.) Then the girls swap places. We’re also planning to add Rosetta Stone Spanish into this time slot, but I still haven’t figured out the Management software yet, so for now, Spanish is informal, with an occasional bit of notebooking.

We go to the library as a family quite often. The Learning Adventures curriculum relies heavily on living books, which is one of the reasons it fits us so well. When the girls were little, we went once a week at Storytime, and just checked out books then as well. We don’t really have a regular day anymore, but still are VERY faithful library patrons. The girls were thrilled earlier this year when they got their OWN library cards. Now they use the self-checkout machine like seasoned veterans. :o)

We meet with our local support group, Liahona, on Wednesday afternoons. If we have a field trip, we may not “do” any other school that day. If it is a park day, we try to get in our usual morning stuff before we go.

We officially finished our study of Ancient Greece in November by sponsoring a field trip to the Getty Villa, in Malibu, CA. It was a bit last minute, but some of our homeschool friends were able to join us.

A wonderful time was had by all - even when it sprinkled on us a bit it did NOT dampen our spirits. We also had a Greek feast at Daphne’s Restaurant, in Anaheim Hills, CA. The girls want to go to Getty Villa again, so we have plans to celebrate there when we finish our study of Ancient Rome - we’ll just change our focus from Greek to Roman exhibits, tours, and presentations. No problem. :o)

For the 4th year in a row we participated the Sunday after Thanksgiving in the Yorba Linda Messiah Sing-Along at the Nixon Library. Daddy Woody is the tenor soloist. The girls are already VERY familiar with some of the Christmas selections, so it has been easy to add a study of Handel and the Messiah to our study of Rome. The life and ministry of Christ occurred within the timeframe of the Roman Empire, so studying the oratorio now is working out well.

Since Doodle’s birthday is in December, and since our family loves trains, it was just a natural for a very special party theme – a Polar Express Pajama Party! I’ve already blogged lots of details about it, so you can get more info here.

Polar Express Pajama PartySnuggled in and ready to watch the movie,with their stockings full of movie-watching goodies.
At Christmastime, we continued to work on the Symbols of Christmas lapbook we started last year. We listened to music, sang, read LOTS of holiday stories, crafted, and baked. We did a LOT of gingerbread, in honor of our Mawgs.
The girls each put together and decorated a house from a kit.
One was a Wilton, and the other was from Trader Joe’s. I think they both turned out great!

Because we were actually at HOME on Christmas Eve, we had a special celebration. The girls received Owl Post, with directions, supplies, and gifts for “A Hogwarts Holiday – Christmas in the Great Hall.” They had fun decorating 12 mini trees with different themes after a breakfast of cauldron cakes and other British breakfast items. Lunch was pumpkin pasties and butterbeer, and we had Quidditch Players Pie for dinner, washed down with pumpkin juice, of course. During the course of the day, the girls brewed potions, made treats from Honeydukes recipes, and played games including a variation on Wizards chess and Harry Potter Scene It.

A magical holiday.

Our focus this year was to have a JOYFUL and peaceful holiday. We attended two Christmas Around the World celebrations - our plan is to make that our holiday theme next year! So cool!

2008 started out with a bang! For three years now the girls have actually stayed up playing family games and listening to Daddy Woody read aloud (Inkheart) until midnight to welcome in the New Year by banging on pots and pans, blowing horns, and pulling “poppers” that explode with bursting confetti streamers. Good, um, not-so-clean, fun! ;o) Those things are messy like crazy, but not too bad to clean up. Especially if the girls decide to pick up all the streamers and decorate Daddy! Everyone gets a big hug and kiss at midnight, and this year we toasted with Martinelle’s Sparkling Cider. Yum.

In January, we celebrated a milestone event. Doodle and two of her cousins have all been baptized within the last six months. There is another picture of these three as babies, each in a car seat – three in a row in the middle of Grandma’s living room. If I had a digital copy, I’d post it here. Hmm… maybe we can scan it.

This one was taken at the celebration party after Ben’s baptism. (His was the last of the three.)
Definitely cute cousins.
February fun has included making and delivering chocolate rocket valentines for friends and family. We got the idea a couple of years ago when some friends launched and landed Livesaver rockets at our house. We adapted the idea, making ours from Rollos, Hugs, tissue paper, tape, and a bit of hot glue to hold the nose cones in place.

These are the lapbooks (all from Hands of a Child) we’re working on right now. They coordinate with our Learning Adventures – A World of Adventures. We’re in the Ancient Rome unit, with rocks, minerals, and volcanoes as our science topics.
Ancient Rome
Gladiators
Rocks & Minerals/ Rodney Rockhound
Volcanoes

The plan is to finish Rome by the end of March, and start the next unit, the Middle Ages, at the beginning of April. It probably won’t happen quite that way, though – we enjoy rabbit trails and extra projects too much!

We also have plans to do these lapbook studies in HOAC coops this spring:
Cinderella Stories Around the World
Mythological Creatures Around the World
Art Appreciation
Music Appreciation

We continue to add timeline figures and other entries to our Book of the Centuries. The girls really enjoy looking through them and at their finished lapbooks.

Home and school, for us, together are most definitely a magical adventure and a winning combination.

I can’t wait to see what adventures await!

Wonderwood Academy 2006-7

2008-02-16T10:54:00.000-08:00

Jelly – 4th grade
Doodle – 2nd grade

Math-U-See
Typing Instructor Deluxe
Learning Adventures – A World of Adventure
Hogwarts Correspondence School Yr. 3
Medical, Magical, and Marine Science
Hiking/Swimming
MANY library books on MANY topics, because, because, because!

Because of the girls extreme fascination with pioneers, and the virtual Oregon Trail trip we made last winter, we started our school year off with an “Extended Field Trip.”

After attending a temple open house in Sacramento, visiting Donner Memorial State Park, a family reunion, and visiting with extended family along the way, we met up in Montpelier, ID, with the "Neighbor" family, at about the half-way point along the Oregon Trail. (We actually got a personal tour that started in Cokeville, WY, -a tiny town where my mom was born- from a dear history-loving uncle and aunt, before we met up.) Together, our two families followed the trail, with many stops along the way, to the End of the Trail Museum, in Oregon City, OR. Though we began with a good base knowledge, we gained new respect and admiration for those amazing pioneers AND the country they traveled and settled. We also had an incredible time!

SwimChick, Doodle, & Jelly, "Pioneer Girls"
at the Nat'l Oregon/California Trail Center, in Montpelier, ID
Fort Hall Replica, Pocatello, ID

SwimChick's grandma made her pioneer costume, but we got Jelly's and Doodle's from Kelly's Costumes. The quality is great and the girls still wear them - sometimes for dress-up and sometimes just because they like the dresses so much. :o) As we traveled, the girls worked on their Pioneers lapbooks. (They didn’t do much on them, though, because we kept them too busy! Next time around for this study, we’re planning to do a more complete lapbook on the entire Oregon Trail.) As we made our way home at the end of our vacation, we did a mini study on the California Gold Rush, with stops at Sutter’s Fort and Mill, and a boomtown (Columbia, CA). Again, we’ll be more thorough when we study US (and California) History, but it was a great introduction.

Travel for a family wedding later in the fall gave us a chance to see some great fall colors up close and personal – a great science class! On our way home, we focused on LDS history in Southern Utah. We visited Cove Fort and several historic points of interest in St. George. We love LIVING history!

Our main course of study for the year:
Learning Adventures – A World of Adventure
Finishing our unit study of Ancient Egypt and beginning Ancient Greece

To kick off this year’s studies on our unit on Ancient Egypt, we sponsored a field trip for our local homeschool support group to the Bowers Museum. They had a great Mummies exhibit called Death and the After Life in Ancient Egypt, on loan from the British Museum.

We also did some great projects that the girls really enjoyed. We had an Egyptian feast (great all except the figs, but we do like Fig Newtons!), made sugar cube, Lego, and Math-U-See block pyramids (andfigured out the total number of cubes/Legos/blocks used for each), made not-so-scary mummies (complete with sarcophagus), and read the Egyptian Cinderella and the Golden Goblet. Doodle especially liked making paddle dolls using the Hands and Hearts Ancient Egypt Discovery Kit.

We focused on our Hogwarts classes around Halloween, even correlating support group field trips to Sea World and the Aquarium of the Pacific with our study of Magical Creatures.

We finished our Hogwarts Halloween by assembling the lapbooks the girls worked on for about a week. Both Jelly and Doodle are very proud of the way they finished up, and rightfully so. Jelly especially was excited to show her origami ghost to her origami-loving friend.

The Halloween lapbooks were only our second attempt at “from scratch/on our own” folder projects. We used a different technique for assembling the base folders than we’d ever done before, and it worked out really well. We had three main topics and so the girls’ work showcased the studies we did in these three areas: History of Magic(al Holidays - Halloween); Herbology (Pumpkins and how they grow); and Halloween Celebrations and Customs Around the World (anthropology and geography). We used three folders, with the second and third inserted into the first so that when completed, it opened like a regular book rather than being shutter-folded. Of course, we also included jokes and riddles, pumpkin poetry and a concentration game, and a build-a-skeleton game (Science - Body Systems) played like the classic game of Beetle/Cootie. It was based on this free lapbook that I got from the Seiler Clan's website, and then we added stuff I’d collected over the years from ALL kinds of sources.

Halloween Lapbooks - Front Covers
Notice the tabs on the right-hand side. They are labeled with the three main topics.
First Folder Open - History (and some Botany!)
Second Folder Open - Herbology (Pumpkins)
Third Folder Open - Halloween Around the World
Halloween Lapbooks - Back Covers
Wasn’t it nice of nature to provide such a great transition into the Christmas holidays? The rainbow arched almost from one end of the world to the other!!

And yes, we DID add an impromptu study of light to our science classes. How could we not? :o) It was Christmastime, and the LIGHT of the World was a perfect topic.

The girls’ grandma/Mawgs/my mom was gravely ill during the holiday season, and passed from this life to the next on New Year’s Eve, after a long battle with cancer. We focused what time we had for school on the Symbols of Christmas and Christmas Cheer, again joining the HOAC co-op. We were able to keep our projects with us easily as we traveled back and forth from home to be with Mawgs. It was exactly what we needed during a stressful time – it really helped us keep the spirit and joy in the season in spite of our sadness and grief about Mawgs. We had a wonderful time, and we will be working on that lapbook project for YEARS of Christmases to come!

The girls loved showing their almost-finished Egypt lapbooks to their paternal grandparents, who came for a visit from Texas in mid-January.

Ancient Egypt Lapbook - Front Cover
Included minibooks from HOAC project packs for Ancient Egypt, Mummies, Pyramids, and Desert Habitat, as well as some other projects we did.

Ancient Egypt - First Folder Open
Ancient Egypt - First Extension Flap Up

Ancient Egypt - Left and Right Flaps Open

Ancient Egypt - Vocabulary Book Open

In addition to formal school, we learned a lot about life, and how it goes on even when you’re hurting. A local homeschool support group field trip to the our county’s chapter of the Red Cross helped – we saw how people help people in times of challenge. Extra cool field trips (including a whale watching trip on a sailing ship and a port tour on a modern boat and even a trip to Disneyland!) and lots of hands-on projects kept us not-quite-busy-enough. We still missed Mawgs/Grandma a LOT!

We made a HOAC lapbook about Disneyland as a thank you gift for Daddy’s boss’s wife. She works there, and with a friend, arranged to get us all in FREE!! We loved making it, and she loved getting it!

Hands of a Child Disneyland project pack - Two folders, shutter-folded

Our study of Ancient Greece actually began in the Spring of 2007. We had the following lapbook/notebook projects from Hands of a Child: Ancient Greece, Healthy Bodies, Human Body, Five Senses.

As we had done with Egypt, we combined our studies of Ancient Greece into our Book of the Centuries and intended one large lapbook and some notebook pages. Our science unit was anything related to the human body – anatomy, biology, health and nutrition, and the five senses. One of our first activities was about fingerprints – the girls LOVED investigating!

That sums up the school year pretty well - we had lots of great adventures as we spent time investigating together!

Our Family Vacation, during the Summer of 2007, included Owl Scout Day Camp (where the girls earned four badges each) and a Northwest Coast Lighthouse Tour.

Owl Scout Camp - a la Hogwarts; Making Magical Memories!

Little did we know that the end of the tour would include an injury that would change our lives for the next four months. It was still a wonderful vacation.

But that is another story.

Wonderwood Academy 2005-6

2008-02-14T06:07:00.000-08:00

Jelly – 3rd grade
Doodle – 1st grade

Math-U-See
Hooked on Phonics
Dolch Sight Words & Spelling
Hogwarts Correspondence School Yr. 2
Science Around Town & Country
Story of the World, Vol. 1
Learning Adventures – A World of Adventure
Horseback Riding/Swimming
LOTS of library books on LOTS of topics,

always just because we can’t not!

This was a year of transitions. We tried lots of different things, both topics and methods. It took until the end of the year, but we finally found our “groove”!! It’s still a bit eclectic, but more Charlotte Mason; less school-at-home, and a more relaxed structure; quite scheduled, but not rigid.

We began the year with a study of the United States, but after just one state (Delaware), I changed my mind about the order and timing that I thought we needed. So, instead, our study of world history began with a study of the Creation of the World. We started there, and notebooked and project-ed our way through Adam and Eve, Noah and the Flood, and the Tower of Babel. As usual, we did these topics unit-study-style, so we got language arts, social studies (history and geography), and science covered. We had so much fun with rainbows and color!!

We took time out from our world history to have our first experience with Hands of a Child (HOAC) co-ops. Wow! So much fun, and so cool to know you’re doing the same thing as others, but with your own twist on things. It does take some effort to get your assigned job done right, but what you get in return more than makes up for it!

We did co-ops for two HOAC lapbooks, but there was so much information that I got overwhelmed and we didn’t finish either Thanksgiving or Pilgrims. We are planning on finishing them another year. No worries. Everything is tucked away in ziplock bags and folders, and will be ready for us when we are ready for them.

After Christmas, and our holiday/family activities, we went back in time to finish: Ancient Mesopotamia. This was our first purchased lapbook project that we completed all at once. We had only made one lapbook previously that we kind of made up as we went along. (The Little House one.) It was SO wonderful to have most of the work done for us! We used the guide, reading and discussing it a bit at a time, and then doing the minibook project/s that went along with that section of the guide. It had been a LONG time since I’d even thought about Mesopotamia, and I didn’t remember much. We really enjoyed doing these projects, though we ended up putting them in our notebooks on cardstock rather than in a lapbook. We also added paper dolls (from EMC 3701 – History Pockets, Ancient Civilizations) because our girls really like to pretend that they are living history.

The girls still hadn’t had enough of pioneers, so when I found about an online Wagon Train experience, “Westward Ho!” in January 2006, we decided to join up. We made Oregon Trail journals, and assumed pioneer identities. All the pretend was right up our alley! Plus, the girls already had such a good background on pioneers that they REALLY got into it. It was fun that Auntie Neighbor and SwimChick were “making the trip,” too!

After finishing our virtual Oregon Trail Trek, and while we waited for our new curriculum, we had some fun with holiday studies (St. Patrick’s Day) and Hogwarts classes. Then we got ancient history going again with the Story of the World, Vol.1. The girls had fun testing their skills as archeologists at a “dig” and investigating cave paintings.

We were really busy (all year!) with some great field trips for science – gardening in Santa Barbara; Rancho Los Alamitos; Discovery Science Center; Natural History Museum in L.A.; Knott's Berry Farm; IMAX; an Amtrak trip to Texas (Remember the Alamo!) - across the desert and back again; and lots of beach trips.

To celebrate her birthday, Jelly chose a Harry-Potter-themed sleepover party. We were able to use a lot of the ideas we got from our Hogwarts Correspondence School classes. We had a magical time! I'm including a picture collage of some of the things we included in our Hogwarts weekend.

Our main course of study for the last month of the year, our new curriculum:
Learning Adventures – A World of Adventure. We absolutely LOVE this! It includes everything except math, typing, and Spanish, (which we want to get into more formally soon). The author is great to answer any and all questions, too. We love that the studies are based on living books, and reinforced with notebooking and LOTS of hands-on activities.

Our study of Ancient Egypt began with the story of Joseph, who was sold into Egypt. We started one HUGE lapbook, combining four from Hands of a Child into one, (Ancient Egypt, Pyramids, Mummies, Desert Habitat) using two folders, with flaps and extensions. We just barely got started on this unit, so we continued it in 2006-7. Check that post for more info.

By the time this school year was over, I finally felt like I really had a handle on what works for us. Sometimes homeschoolers speak of having to de-tox their kids for a while after they are pulled out of public school to be homeschooled. The longer the exposure to public school, the longer the time required for de-toxing.

Apparently, the same phenomenon affects those of us who have been teachers in public school. ;o)

Wonderwood Academy 2004-5

2008-02-11T08:28:00.000-08:00

Jelly – 2nd grade Doodle – Kindergarten

Still ecclectic with a Charlotte Mason twist:
Singapore Math
Hooked on Phonics
Dolch Sight Words & Spelling
All About Me – Notebooking
Holiday Studies
Hogwarts Correspondence School Yr. 1
Gingerbread Unit Study
Horseback Riding
Swimming (incl. lessons)
Nature Studies at the Beach
Vacation Bible School
LOTS of library books on LOTS of topics, just because!

Our main course of study:
American Girl books

We learned about the following 6 girls, having previously studied Kirsten - 1854. The stories are not great literature, but they are good stories, and serve well as “tags” to associate with real history. Each book has a fantastic feature in the back called “A Peek into the Past.” We took off on a lot of rabbit trails after reading those features.
(Descriptions from the American Girl website) --
Kaya - 1764
Meet Kaya, Kaya’s Escape!, Kaya’s Hero, Kaya and Lone Dog, Kaya Shows the Way, and Changes for Kaya. These are stories of an adventurous girl. Author: Janet Shaw.
Felicity - 1774 Williamsburg
Meet Felicity; Felicity Learns a Lesson; Felicity’s Surprise; Happy Birthday, Felicity!; Felicity Saves the Day; and Changes for Felicity. These are stories of an independent, spirited girl. Author: Valerie Tripp.
Josefina - 1824
Meet Josefina; Josefina Learns a Lesson; Josefina’s Surprise; Happy Birthday, Josefina!; Josefina Saves the Day; and Changes for Josefina. These are stories of a caring, faithful girl. Author: Valerie Tripp.
Samantha - 1904
Meet Samantha; Samantha Learns a Lesson; Samantha’s Surprise; Happy Birthday, Samantha!; Samantha Saves the Day; and Changes for Samantha. These are stories of a compassionate, generous girl that offer lessons about choices and friendship that still touch girls today. Author: Susan S. Adler, Maxine Rose Schur, and Valerie Tripp.
Kit - 1934 Cincinnati
Meet Kit; Kit Learns a Lesson; Kit’s Surprise; Happy Birthday, Kit!; Kit Saves the Day; and Changes for Kit. These are stories of a resourceful, inquisitive girl. Author: Valerie Tripp.
Molly - World War Two
Meet Molly; Molly Learns a Lesson; Molly’s Surprise; Happy Birthday, Molly!; Molly Saves the Day; and Changes for Molly. These are stories of a lovable, patriotic girl. Author: Valerie Tripp.

Resources we used included:
Teacher Guides, Craft Books, and Paper Dolls published by Pleasant Company. You can still get the paper dolls on the American Girl website, but the Teacher Guides and Craft Books are not currently available. We found some of them at our library, and you can find some of them used through Amazon or Ebay, but they’re usually pretty expensive. We let the girls choose their favorite American Girl, and got them each a set of paperdolls. Otherwise we used only the books we could find from the library, and had more than enough to work with.

As we learned about each time period, we played games, did crafts (sewing puppets (Samantha); weaving placemats (Kaya)), made paper dolls, cooked and ate food from (patriotic cookies and candy flags (Molly)), wrote newspaper articles (Kit), and even listened to music appropriate to the time. Our Homeschool support group has a Great Brain Day each year where students share what they have become experts at during the year.

Great Brain Day - A presentation on Kaya and the Nez Perce

When I was searching for links to help you out, I found this:
It is a listmania list on Amazon.com. Here is the description:
David F. Pocai says: "This list contains resources for teaching history with the American Girl books. This list is geared toward homeschoolers, but can be used for larger groups.

We also had a TON of magical fun doing some Hogwarts correspondence classes. (You have to be a member of the appropriate Yahoo groups to access these files.) They served mostly as our science curriculum. Our regular classes were Potions and Care of Muggle and Magical Creatures, but the girls had a few extra lessons occasionally just to keep things interesting - Honeydukes Home Ec., History of Muggles and Magic, and Herbology, for example.

Bertie Botts Beans – Graphing/Math

Potions – Keeping a lab book, including test results (Daddy=guinea pig!); in the Kids’ Corner at the Visitors’ Center (Sequoia Nat’l Park); coloring eggs with potions
Herbology – Fall Leaves; Field trip to the Bolsa Chica Wetlands (herbology AND magical creatures!)
History of Muggles and Magic – Field trip to the Autry Western Heritage Museum and the Holyland Exhibition, both in Los Angeles; Field trip to Rancho Los Cerritos in Long Beach (Josefina); Field trip to the Lady Washington, a tall ship at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum (Also for Magical Creatures) - Check this site to see if the Lady will be in your area any time soon.
Care of Muggle and Magical Creatures - Field trip to the Santa Ana Zoo

Gingerbread Unit Study

We focused on all things gingerbread during the month of December. We made paperdolls and then dressed them everyday appropriately for the weather. We read every gingerbread story we could get our hands on. We used Jan Brett’s Gingerbread Baby online activities. We made cinnamon and applesause “gingerbread” ornaments. The girls did an Advent Lego Calendar, and made gingerbread men for one of the days. We made Old Fashioned Gingersnaps and gingerbread cookies. As a culminating activity, we went to Grandma/Mawgs’ house for a gingerbread and graham cracker house-making celebration with some cousins. School made our house smell yummy all month long!

Family Vacations (Extended Field Trips) – In no particular order: Three Rivers, Sequoia Nat’l Park, California Pioneer Life – Mt. Shasta area/Whiskeytown Nat’l Rec. Area , a trip on the Coast Starlight Train, river trip on a sternwheeler down the Columbia River, OMSI in Portland, OR, and a grist mill near Vancouver, WA.

We lived, laughed, loved, and learned a lot!

Wonderwood Academy 2003-4

2008-02-08T21:14:00.000-08:00

Jelly– 1st grade
Doodle – Pre-K

Ecclectic w/a Charlotte Mason Twist:
Living Math
Hooked on Phonics
Dolch Sight Words & Spelling
All About Me – Notebooking
Geography – Where in the World Am I? – Notebooking
Ballet/Tap Classes
Swim Lessons
Vacation Bible School
LOTS of library books on LOTS of topics, just because!

Our main course of study:
The Prairie Primer: Literature Based Unit Studies Utilizing the "Little House" Series by Margie Gray (Author)

We used the first three original books:
Little House in the Big Woods
Farmer Boy
Little House on the Prairie

…almost all of the My First Little House Books –
… and lots of the Little House Chapter Books.

Mawgs(Grandma)and Doodle enjoy a snuggle and a story.
Some of the additional resource we used included:
(Many of them are available here.)
The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Classic Stories by Barbara M. Walker, Garth Williams

Laura Ingalls Wilder Country: The People and places in Laura Ingalls Wilder's life and books by William Anderson
The World of Little House by Carolyn Strom Collins, Christina Wyss Eriksson, Deborah Maze (Illustrator), Garth Williams (Illustrator)

My Little House Crafts Book: 18 Projects from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House by Carolyn Strom Collins (Author), Mary Collier (Illustrator)

My Book of Little House Paper Dolls: The Big Woods Collection by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Renee Graef (Illustrator)

My Little House Songbook (My First Little House Books)by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Holly Jones (Illustrator)

Little House on the Prairie – DVD Set - The Complete Season 1 (1974)
Starring: Michael Landon, Melissa Gilbert

We made our very first lapbook, from scratch! It included all KINDS of topics (cross-curriculum) from our unit study on the Little House books.

Front Cover of Little House Lapbook

Inside with extension closed

Inside with minibook open, right flap minibook open

Inside with extension flap up

Animal Tracks Minibook open

Left flap open - animals:cup envelope, vocabulary cards:mini folder

(It would be easier to do this project now, because Hands of a Child has a lapbook project pack called "A Little House in the Woods.")

When Laura started to grow up, the girls lost interest in her story, but NOT in pioneers. They wanted more about LITTLE pioneer girls.

So, we switched over to:
Kirsten: An American Girl

Jelly and Kirsten

Kirsten’s six-book set features her stories of growing up in 1854 on the Minnesota frontier prairie. They include Meet Kirsten; Kirsten Learns a Lesson; Kirsten’s Surprise; Happy Birthday, Kirsten!; Kirsten Saves the Day; and Changes for Kirsten. These stories of a steadfast girl offer lessons about choices and friendship that still touch girls today. Author: Janet Shaw.

Kirsten’s Paper Dolls This set includes paper dolls of Kirsten, Anna, and Singing Bird, plus outfits and accessories that attach with reusable sticky dots. Also included are illustrated backgrounds so girls can re-create their favorite Kirsten stories.

All year long we did as many hands-on projects as we could, (making maple syrup candy, sewing projects, building a log cabin, homemade chicken and noodles, making butter, and also managed a few related field trips (pioneer theater – Promised Valley; science center – baby chicks, growing gardens; Kellog House – 19th century family life).

Maple Sugar Candy on "Snow"

Our paper log cabin – Jelly and Doodle were pleased, and their dolls loved their new home!

The summer of 2004, for Jelly’s 7th birthday, she had an awesome Little House Birthday Party. It was a great end-of-unit-study celebration!!

Logical Conclusions

2008-02-07T05:39:00.000-08:00

I love my daughters incredibly much. They are beautiful, inside and out.

Hear me out on this one:

* There is no question that Jelly is my biological daughter, and was always meant to be my daughter, since before we started counting time on Earth. (If you don't know the story, just trust me on this one.)

* Woody is a major train fan - not a fanatic, just a major fan of trains real and trains model. (Is there a technical name for that?)

* Woody is, without a doubt, Jelly's father. (Again, trust me.)

Therefore, when Woody says, speaking of Jelly, "Her little train stops at many stations," he knows whereof he speaks.

('Nuff said?)

Like the Energizer Bunny...

2008-01-31T06:25:00.000-08:00

... going, going, going!

We try NOT to succumb to the frenetic pace that seems to be pervasive these days, but it is critical to our progress that we keep going. So here are a few reflections on "going."

* We are totally excited because Grandma NanZ and Grandpa Bob are officially GOING on a mission! They'll begin in June serving in Salt Lake City, UT, in the Family and Church History Mission. We'll be visiting them there sometime this year -- can't wait to get vacation plans GOING!!

* Jelly & Doodle are taking piano classes. Once a week, they are GOING to Patrick's School of Music. They've had two classes so far and they are loving it! Their teachers are both fantastic, doing a great job of engaging the kids - making music fun while also imparting some good basic foundations in theory and appreciation as well as keyboarding skills. Thank you so much, Poppa!

* We've missed GOING to Liahona - our local homeschool support group. Yesterday, though a still-stuffy Doodle stayed home with an equally-stuffy Woody-Daddy, Jelly and I were able to go to park day and reconnect with our friends there. Not only was it nice to be there, but it confirmed that I truly am fully recovered from last summer's medical challenge - driving to the park yesterday for a day out with Jelly was the first time I've driven anywhere since my hospitalization last July. There'll be no stopping me now! ;o)

* Our newest unit study, on Ancient Rome and all things connected, is GOING very well. The Learning Adventures curriculum really does work well for us. It isn't really necessary, because there is already more than enough, but we add more hands-on with lapbooks and a way-cool pre-assembled history kit. We notebook, too. Today we'll be updating our Book of the Centuries (timeline a la Charlotte Mason), spelling notebook (mostly rules and examples), and vocabulary dictionary (roots, prefixes, suffixes, etc. - their origins from Greek, Latin, etc., and their meanings). We're also going to make an edible model of the earth. Yum!

Better get GOING for now. ;o)

On Comet... I mean Cupid!

2008-01-28T12:44:00.000-08:00

True, the Christmas season has come and gone, but it WILL come again, and it is STILL on the minds of the young, and the young at heart.

We have been, here at our house, working for a while now on having a House of Order. You are probably aware of the wonderful FLYLady. Daily FLYmails help keep order in my mind, even when we haven’t actually quite gotten there. This morning, though, something happened here that I thought might bring a smile, especially to other FLYbabies who are still working to have their own Houses of Order.

I had just finished in the kitchen. Dishes were done, counters and stovetop wiped down, and dinner was in the crockpot. Though I hadn’t said so out loud, we then proceeded to do a 15-minute tidy in the living room. The Doodlebug, sick with a nasty headcold, had earlier finished a yogurt for breakfast. The container, spoon inside, was sitting on her tray. I asked her to put the container into the recycling bag which is hanging on the back door, and to put the spoon into the left-hand side of the sink. She hopped up quickly, happy to comply. (Both the girls usually have great attitudes about helping, unless it interferes with a really great game of pretend!) After depositing the recycling, she walked to the sink, looked in and saw that I had sprinkled it with cleanser to sit for a bit before I shined it up. “Mom, I can’t put my spoon in the sink, it has Cupid in it,” she informed me. Not Dasher or Dancer, or even COMET… CUPID!! :o)

I think Cupid is a much better name for a sink cleanser, especially for FLYladies who LOVE their shiny sinks.

Thoughts on Homeschooling

2008-01-23T11:20:00.000-08:00

We, as you probably already know, absolutely love homeschooling. Let me just pronounce the usual caveat right up front, though. Homeschooling is absolutely NOT for everyone. We are, contrary to popular belief, supporters of public schools, in more ways than just by paying our taxes and receiving NO financial support for educating our own children.

So, having gotten that out of the way, check this out. There are many items listed that I would NEVER say, or with which I don't even agree. However, there are many items listed with which I DO agree.

It's lunchtime here at Wonderwood Academy. Normally on a Wednesday afternoon we'd be heading for the park or a museum or some other location to meet with our support group, but it is rainy here in sunny Southern California this week. We need the rain, so we're not complaining. We're staying in today, cozy and happy. Because we have some unexpected inside time, we'll probably bake some cookies, listen to some classical music while we do an art project (a collage representing high and low musical sounds - an assignment given by the girls' piano teachers last night at their piano classes), put in some extra final touches on our lapbooks about Ancient Greece, and read an extra chapter or two from Shadows in the Glasshouse (our current read-aloud).

Yes, indeed, we absolutely love homeschooling. For our family, it is a perfect fit.

Rain, or shine.

*Update - The link has been changed to reflect the original source.

Thankful Thursday

2008-01-18T02:32:00.000-08:00

Technically, it's Friday, but since I haven't gone to sleep yet, it still counts as Thursday night. Tonight (or this morning) I am feeling very grateful for the following "top ten" things (in random order as they pop into my slightly-fevered brain):

1) being married to my most wonderful and supportive friend

2) our overall good (and improving) health

3) a Heavenly Father who knows each one of us as His much-loved child

4) available medical care (and insurance!)

5) two sweet daughters that have been extremely thoughtful and considerate lately (not that they aren't usually)

6) our cozy home that is a refuge from the world (and the wind!)

7) homeschooling - always a blessing, but this week because we don't have to completely miss school when we have "sick days"

8) an amazing support network of family and friends, in "real" life, and online

9) a consistenly clean kitchen sink (a la FlyLady)

10) making progress (baby steps, but progress) in reaching goals, personal and family

I was kind of hoping that counting blessings would work like counting sheep is supposed to work, but I'm not feeling sleepy, just very, very, blessed!

Just Jelly

2008-01-16T16:54:00.001-08:00

The eyes have it! Thank Heaven our Jelly's beautiful blue eyes are so much more than all right!

There is a gene carried by many of the women in our family that we know goes back at least four generations. It was first manifested, that we know of, in my maternal grandmother, and has not yet skipped a generation. We haven't seen signs yet in Doodle, but unfortunately, Jelly has undoubtedly inherited it from me. For lack of a more scientific name, we call it the "worry gene."

After she got her long-awaited Nintendo DS for Christmas, Jelly played with it almost exclusively for three days. Our family has definite limits on TV and computer time, for lots of reasons, but it didn't even occur to us to limit her use of the tiny gaming computer. She had been waiting SOOooo long to have a virtual pet - a NintenDogs puppy she named "Dandy." After three days of puppy training, she began to complain of what she called "screen vision." So we set a 15-minutes-at-a-time limit on her Nintendo use.

When the complaints didn't stop, and her descriptions changed to seeing "specks" and "shadows", we stopped her DS time altogether, to give her eyes a rest. A call to our pediatrician resulted in a referral to a pediatric opthamalogist. Her appointment was this morning, and the doctor assured both of us (yes, my worry gene has been just as overworked as Jelly's lately!) that her eyes are in excellent health, except for a virus that will disappear in a few days. If it doesn't, he gave us a prescription for eye drops to fill that will irradicate Jelly's eye infection.

Her eyes are not only beautiful, but they are "normal!" Before we left the doctor's office, she whispered in my ear, "Mama, ask him if it's okay for me to play on my Nintendo DS, please!"

Her worry gene went into "relax" mode when he assured her that she could resume caring for Dandy - 15 minutes or so at a time.

:o) So did mine. The picture of Jelly is from our family New Year's Eve celebration, but we're celebrating again tonight!

Beautiful, normal, precious eyes.

Doodle's Day

2008-01-16T16:48:00.000-08:00

Saturday came and went, but will never be forgotten!

Doodle has been 8 years old for over a month, but she chose to wait to be baptized until her grandparents could come from Texas to share her very special day. She has been so excited since right after Thanksgiving. That's the magic time, because after that, the next holiday in our family is her birthday. Last Friday, though, she was nearly beside herself... "Mama, I'm going to be baptized tomorrow! I was a little nervous, but now I'm not at all." And the peace on her face verified the words.

That same peace and joy was there all weekend, and though it has been a bit of a challenging week, she is still very much at peace. Her excitement also has not waned. Today she told me, with joy sparkling in her smile and in her eyes, "Mama, I've been a member of the Church for five days now!"

Many family members, friends, and members of our church family were able to share Doodle's special day with her. She, and we, will always be thankful for them. We are blessed to have a supportive family, and true friends. In an account of the baptism to an auntie that wasn't able to make it to the service, it was reported that Doodle glowed. It's true. The Light of Christ was most definitely in her countenance. My mama-heart was so full of joy!

Doodle is striving to strengthen her relationship with her Savior, learning to rely on her new companion, the Holy Ghost. She wants to make wise choices, and to shine that Light as an example to those around her. I'm so glad to be able to travel with her, and her daddy and sister, as we make this journey we call earth life.

I am filing away the memory of the strength of spirit that I felt on Saturday - to be able to pull it out on those days when my own spirit isn't as strong as it should be - adding it to my store of "golden" moments. I think most of us have those times when we struggle, for lots of different reasons. When I do, the memory of Doodle's day will be one of those I count on.

I am learning so much from our amazing daughters.

Our Very Own Island

2008-01-05T15:05:00.000-08:00

I'm sure it isn't EVERYone's dream to have their own private, personal, island paradise. Our Father's children come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, with all shapes, sizes, and colors of hopes, dreams, and desires.

Even so, one of our dreams has come true! We are the proud owners of our very own (albeit VERY small) island. "Lucky!" you may be thinking to yourself. "Indeed!" I say.

If you have been a regular ready of The Inner Dad, you may remember "The Move from Hades" series. We've been working for a long while now, (brief in only the eternal perspective!)sometimes more steadily than other times, on having a House of Order. We STILL have a ways to go, but we ARE making progress. Life keeps getting in the way!

Our latest adventures in organizing are taking place in the kitchen. We have made it more than half way around the room - de-cluttering, cleaning, and organizing as we go. It's awesome if you stand facing the window... you can only see the side we've finished! :o)

Woody and I both enjoy working in our kitchen. It's not a huge room, but it is much larger than the one we had in our townhouse. We can actually both be in the room at the same time - it's even large enough for our Home Ec. class at Wonderwood Academy!

There is something very rewarding about cooking there for our family and friends. There is comfort in using recipes that are tried and true, and there is satisfaction that comes from trying a new recipe with successful results. The only (small) frustration has been a lack of workspace that is accessible as I accommodate my arthritis - sitting in a rolling office chair that makes it possible for me to do most kitchen tasks (a la Grandma Wilkin).

So, on Thursday, Woody and I pooled our Christmas money (Thank you again, Mom and Bob!) and bought a small island! (Some assembly required, but Woody-the-Toolman took care of that right away!) It has everything we were looking for in a private, personal island. I inaugurated it on Friday by using it to assemble one of our new favorites, Crockpot Lasagna, followed by mixing up a double batch of the best oatmeal cookies to be found on this planet.

Island paradise!

Year of the Ant and the Grasshopper

2007-12-31T05:03:00.000-08:00

New Year's Eve seems to be a day when many of us just naturally look back on the year past and reflect, and then look forward to what the new year will bring. 2007 has been, for me, a year of transition. When my mom slipped through the veil between this earth life and a heavenly one last New Year's Eve, I knew I'd miss her very much. What I didn't know was exactly how that transition would affect our lives.

I still miss her very much. Her legacy and strength live on, and I continue learning life lessons from her example. I have also learned this year that it's okay for me NOT to be my mom. We are two very different women, each with strengths to be maximized and weaknesses to learn from or overcome.

Not long after we were married, Woody's mom, MY bonus Mom, gave me a little book called "Reflections from a Grasshopper." Reading it was an epiphany. Reflecting on 2007 has reminded me of the lesson I learned from that little tome. The world needs both ants and grasshoppers. I am a grasshopper. My mom was an ant. We each have things to offer our family, friends, and the rest of the world, and also things we need to learn from each other.

To have the House of Order that I crave, I need to put more focus on Mom's ant-like constancy. To continue to encourage the love of learning that we are fostering in our girls, I need to allow the grasshopper in me to flourish without guilt. I think the combination will allow both goals to be accomplished.

I'm praying that the lesson I've learned about moderation as I reach for better physical health will give me strength - strength to be as productive as an ant when I need to be, and strength to allow my grasshopper tendencies to be used to bless the lives of those I love.

I don't know what animal the Chinese say this is the year of, but for me, 2008 is the Year of the Ant AND the Grasshopper.

Simple Pleasures

2007-12-28T07:50:00.000-08:00

Last night we declared that this was to be a "sleeping in" day. So my eyes popped open at 6:45 rather than 6:30. Sheesh. The Doodle woke up half an hour later, at 7:15 rather than her usual close-to-9-o'clock, probably because the plan was for her to "very quietly" watch a movie in bed (a special privilege) until Jelly was awake. So even before saying good morning, she asked if she could watch her movie. She just appeared, having paused the Shirly Temple version of Heidi, and asked if she could have a snack in bed. She's now happily ensconced under her Hello, Kitty! blanket, with a paper towel and TWO Christmas tangerines ("because they're so small, Mama").

Simple pleasures.

Woody just appeared, but it may be a while before we see the fourth member of the family. Jelly is a night owl, not falling asleep easily the way her Daddy and sister do. As a result, she is usually the last to wake in the mornings. We usually need to wake her to get things going in the mornings - breakfast, chores, devotions, school. Anyway, I promised her last night that she could stay in bed today until she decides to get up. She needs the extra rest.

Jelly has wanted a Nintendo DS ever since she played with her godsister's system last summer while we were on vacation. We've always been adament about NOT having Nintendo in the house. For six months, she stayed constant. The DS was the ONLY item on her Christmas wish list. As a visit with Santa loomed, she got a bit nervous, not wanting him to think she was greedy. We'd talked about the higher-than-usual price tag of the DS and all the accessories and so forth that are required. She knew that Doodle's request, a snow globe, was a much less costly item. In the end, her great desire won out, and she did ask Santa for the DS.

Woody and I decided to give Santa a break. Joining financially with the girls' Papa, WE gave her the DS and accompanying accessories, including the much-desired game, Nintendogs. There was momentary disappointment when the game system was NOT among the gifts Santa left. As the presents under the tree were opened, and the DS was discovered, Jelly's joy and excitement was precious. It was, as we had hoped, made more so by the fact that the gift had come NOT from Santa, but from loving parents. (Note: Doodle did get her snow globe, but not from Santa. She and Jelly each got unique snow globes, chosen just for them and delivered by Owl Post on behalf of their friends at Hogwarts. Maybe I'll post about that later. Doodle's special gift from Woody and I, and Papa, was her own sewing machine and "real" sewing kit. More on that in another post.)

As loving parents, we've always been quite consistent about allowing only one hour of computer time daily. For some unfathomable reason, we didn't even think to extend any kind of limit to Jelly's Nintendo DS play. Until now. Due to, we are sure, MUCH too much time focusing on that tiny little screen for three days in a row, Jelly is complaining of a phenomenon that she calls "screen vision". She is, at our suggestion, on haitus from the long-awaited DS, having made such comments as "I wish I'd never asked for it!" Jelly, as is common to her age, tends to the extreme and the dramatic. We've assured her that her eyes merely need to rest. Once they recover, we'll monitor her DS time the same way we do the "big" computer, and she'll be able to enjoy herself again.

For now, she's rediscovering the joy of audio books.

Simple pleasures.

Polar Express Party Weekend

2007-12-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

It was the Doodle's first ever sleepover party. A December birthday and our family love of trains made the theme an easy choice - A Polar Express Pajama Party! We kept things simple, and had simply a trainload of fun!!

I started here, and then added other Christmassy train ideas. Invitations were, of course, tickets to ride on the Polar Express. As guests arrived, Woody-the-conductor took tickets and pictures on the front-porch platform. After baggage had been stowed, passengers were escorted to the Dining Car because we needed the table for crafting! We had pre-cut and punched very large stockings made from brown-paper grocery bags. Each girl laced up and decorated her own stocking, which was later filled with movie-watching treats. The Polar Express movie soundtrack, a birthday gift from our Vancouver friends, added atmosphere as it played in the background during the whole party (except for when we were watching the movie).

We had games planned (Conductor Says, Snow Blowers, Polar Express Pick Up) but ended up not needing them. The girls visited and laced, while sipping hot chocolate (or apple cider) until Jelly got back from her Downtown Disney Scavenger Hunt. It was an Activity Day activity for the 9-10 year-old girls from church. She did her stocking early, so as not to miss out on the fun, and we used it as a sample to show the guests.

We gathered in the Lounge Car for present opening (Doodle made the same wish for each gift-giver before she opened their gift - that she would have a very, Merry Christmas), then trouped back to the Dining Car for cupcakes and peppermint icecream. Each girl decorated her own snowman-face cupcake, then the Doodle made her magic wish and blew out eight candles on a snowflake cake.

Passengers donned pjs and spread out sleeping bags in the Sleeping Car, then the Conductor passed out filled stockings and started the movie. We actually had only one guest who hadn't seen it before, but the magic was still there for all of us, so each passenger who "truly believed" received a Christmas bell.

Lights were out just AFTER toothbrushing (a must after all the goodies!), singing Away in a Manger, a family & friends bedtime prayer, and just BEFORE midnight.

Breakfast was turkey bacon, scrambled cheesy eggs, milk, and juice, supplied by the dining car staff (assisted by NJB, one of our cute nieces who happens to be a very good cook!), and personalized snow-people biscuits created, decorated, and devoured by the girls.

Thank-you-for-coming-to-my-Polar-Express-Party goodie bags included a booklet we made from free puzzles, coloring, and story pages found on the www, lots of Christmas-train items (crayons, notepad, pencil, stickers galore), a mini Connect-Four-style game that was a huge hit, and twisty-type red/green/white lollipops, all from Oriental Trading Co., and the favorite, a classic Christmas candy train for each passenger, made by Doodle and I the day before the party.

Even when the party was officially over, the fun continued because we had out-of-town cousins in town. The girls played, inside and out, all day long! It was awesome to see them strengthening their relationships and making some memories.

We took Jelly and Doodle, and the three visiting cousins to our church Christmas party later that night. It was a wonderfully-done Christmas Around the World. We learned some holiday customs and traditions and sampled festive foods from fifteen different countries. (Wonderwood Academy is going to do a whole MONTH of Christmas Around the World in 2008, as part of an online co-op sponsored by Hands of a Child!) A Sing-Along Christmas pageant followed, with Jelly as one of the beautiful angelic messengers. Doodle invited our neighbor's tiny granddaughter (who adores her!) to sit with her during the pageant. Adorable!

Not to forget - Cousins were safely delivered home late Saturday night and we spent Sunday with family, chillin' and then attending the Christmas concert of the combined Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park stakes (directed by Frank Turner), where one of Woody's sisters added her voice to the soprano section. We even visited with a couple of folks from our old ward after the concert. A nice night.

From the train platform to the First Christmas story pageant to the holiday concert, many memories we'll all treasure were made this weekend!

Celebrating Life

2007-12-05T08:04:00.000-08:00

There is just something about December, and this one is off to a fantastic beginning!

Saturday, Dec. 1: Last year, as I mentioned previously, we began a new tradition of participating in the Community Creche Exhibit and Concert sponsored by our neighboring stake in Orange, CA. They really do a marvelous job! We loved it again this year. There were literally hundreds of nativities on display, from all over the world. I asked everyone what their favorites were, but nobody could decide - there are just too many that are amazing for too many different reasons. Really, though, the best part is the incredibly good feeling that permeates the whole building right down into the middle of each heart.

The girls again enjoyed the nativity dress-up room and the kids' craft room, which they took full advantage of while Woody was doing a last-minute rehearsal. I got to relax and enjoy the interim imusical offerings and some time to visit with a friend from church. When concert time came, the Anaheim Mormon Chorale did their usual excellent job. The spirit and message of the music was sweet AND powerful. The song from Amahl and the Night Visitors, by Woody and friends, really blessed my soul. (Mom, if it works out, you may even get to hear it! Hope I'm not spoiling a surprise.)

Sunday, the 2nd: Woody and I were asked to sing a special number during the Relief Society program. It was an Afterglow song, called "The Holy Child." It felt good, and many comments afterward confirmed the feeling.

Then the Doodle had her special baptismal interview with the Bishop after church. She was a little nervous as she went in, but the huge grin covering her entire face as she came out echoed her words, "I'm ready!"

Peace, peace, peace.

Ancient Greece at Wonderwood

2007-12-01T07:49:00.000-08:00

We have been studying Ancient Greece at Wonderwood Academy since the end of May. We use Learning Adventures, A World of Adventure, as our main curriculum. Our favorite add-ins are hands-on history kits and Color and Learn coloring books from Hands and Hearts, lapbooks from Hands of a Child, pocket books from Evan-Moore, and notebooking pages from NotebookingPages. We took from the middle of June through the end of August off this year, which is a month and a half longer than we usually take for "summer vacation". (My hospital stay and convalesence accounted for the extra time.) All that to say that our three-month study of Ancient Greece is finally coming to a close. We have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as we immersed ourselves in all things Greek, including Aesop's Fables, Greek Mythology, and a study of the human body.

We actually haven't finished putting together our lapbooks quite yet, our final "assessment" project - we'll do that right after Christmas before we start our new unit study of Ancient Rome. Last year our holiday was anything but relaxed and festive so we've decided to take December and "study Christmas!" More about that later.

We don't "do" testing here at Wonderwood, because there are so many more accurate ways to find out just how much we're learning. A review as we put minibook projects and photos into lapbook form is usually more than sufficient. So the "final exam" we did for Ancient Greece was a bit unusual. It consisted of 15 questions. You can find it here.

You won't, I'm sure, be as thrilled as the girls were when the screen informed us: "You have won a million pounds! (Must have been a British programmer.) Congratulations!" The celebration was huge as Jelly and Doodle realized just how much they really had learned about Ancient Greece. Truly, I only had to assist the girls' memories twice as we proceeded through the questions, and there was just one (a question about an exact date, which we never focus on) that Jelly completely guessed at and got right. If we did grades, the girls would most definitely get an A for this unit, not because a test declared it, but because they know for themselves just how much they learned.

Yesterday they had a chance to share their enthusiasm and knowledge of Ancient Greece with some homeschooled friends as our family sponsored a field trip for our local support group. We went to the Getty Villa, in Malibu, CA. A wonderful time was had by all! You know it was a success when Jelly asked if we can go there again, and "just explore on our own." We did two tours - one of museum highlights, and the other focusing on architecture and gardens, and also spent some time in the Family Forum, a hands-on place that lets kids really get into things. The girls both correctly identified all three types of columns (Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian) found at the Villa, as I pointed and asked everytime we entered a new area! Both of our tour guides were impressed with the kids and were great at keeping things at the right level and really interesting. I highly recommend this field trip. We'll be going again when we finish our study of Ancient Rome.

We're going to eat Greek food today at Daphne's, and then we're going to a Creche Exhibit. We started this tradition last year, and were more than amazed by the hundreds of nativities from around the world, from super simple to incredibly intricate. The experience also includes a concert, with musicians from around the county, including our own Woody, who will be featured in a selection from Amahl and the Night Visitors. When we get home tonight, our family Christmas devotionals begin. And tomorrow is the Doodle's 8th birthday.

Whew. But the good news is, it doesn't feel crazy-busy, just wonderful Wonderwoody fun!

The Little Black Dress

2007-11-26T06:34:00.000-08:00

I've never been one to buy designer labels, or even to know who the "right" designers might be. But yesterday, when I put on my black "concert" dress, you'd have thought it was a high-priced original! It made me feel fantastic!

For four years now, since its inception, Woody has been the tenor soloist featured in a Messiah Sing-Along concert held in the gorgeously-elegant-decked-out-for-Christmas East Room of the Nixon Library, in Yorba Linda, CA. Yesterday afternoon, he outdid himself as he sang (both Every Valley and Comfort Ye) to ring in the holiday season for two nearly-packed-out seatings of concert goers, including the Woodyettes (who were much praised by complete strangers for their excellent concert behavior) and their Aunt Debby, who gave us the opportunity to share our whole Thanksgiving weekend.

We began a tradition four years ago, when we saw how lovely the setting was, of taking a family picture at the end of the concert. So, this year, as we prepared to get ready, I was thinking of how nice it would be to have an updated family portrait. Then it occurred to me that I didn't have anything to wear. My usual Christmas dress, a simple burgundy, was in the laundry! As he searched the depths of the closet, Woody unearthed several dresses that I haven't worn for years due to the fact that they haven't fit since I had the girls. Now, we've done lots of decluttering (a la Flylady), but my Scottish heritage makes it hard, sometimes, for me to get rid of things that I KNOW I'll use someday.

Out of sheer desperation, I decided to try on the "little" black dress. To my absolute amazement, not only did it fit, but it fit well!!! Go me! (I have a long way to go, but I'm so on the way! "Little" is, obviously, relative. Scottish or not.)

So, this year, our family picture features not Christmas colors, but concert black. And the pic we took in the East Room turned out less than stellar, but the one we snapped in the Rose Garden came out, I think, quite nice.

You be the judge.

Giving Thanks

2007-11-26T05:32:00.000-08:00

Counting blessings is always encouraged, but at this time of year it seems like it just happens - like spontaneous combustion! I'm on fire with gratitude. Here is my list - I'm VERY thankful for them all:

My testimony of the Plan of Salvation; a loving Father in Heaven and His Son, our Saviour and Redeemer - supreme examples of giving
Woody - the best of the best for me; add no. 1 and together we can do anything!
The Woodyettes - being a mom is a wonderful challenge, but the perks and job satisfaction are so worth it!
A cozy, comfortable home that is just right for us and where family and friends are always welcome.
Extended family who are all real blessings to us and whom we keep always in our prayers.
Friends who feel like family - you know who you are!
Woody's good job - we often complain about all it requires of him, but appreciate his willingness to do so much to provide for us.
A free country - even with all its challenges, there is nowhere I'd rather raise our daughters.
Homeschooling - see the first four items on this list and then note the links in the sidebar to some of the awesome curriculum we use!
Health - we're doing our part, and know that the Great Physician has greatly blessed as I've overcome some huge obstacles this year. The power of prayer and the priesthood are real!
Our church family - so many truly Christ-like people!
Scrapbooking - my creative outlet and family history all wrapped up together.
Our minivan - it provides opportunities for so many amazing family adventures.
My laptop - when my arthritis won't let me do anything else, there is still so much I can do and still feel productive.

And, as they say, the list could truly go on and on and on!!

My prayer is that I won't ever take ANY of these incredible blessings for granted, and that I can help our daughters learn to be ever thankful.

How They Grow

2007-11-19T06:24:00.000-08:00

Seasons are cyclical. We are, as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, in a season of harvest. The preparation of the ground, the planting, and the nurturing and caring have been accomplished for this season's crop. The harvest, thankfully, is bountiful!

We have, since January, been singing the songs that are taught in Sharing Time to be featured in this year's Primary Sacrament Meeting Program. We have also been, since September, memorizing and reviewing the scriptures that were the girls' assigned parts for the annual program. But most importantly, we have been, since the girls were toddlers, encouraging both Jelly and Doodle to overcome their nervous trepidation enough to fully participate in song and speech as the children in church present their message. This year's theme was "I'll Follow Him in Faith."

The program that the children have been preparing for all year was presented yesterday. There were the usual congregational giggles due to the incredible cuteness of the little ones, but the overwhelming feeling was an amazingly tangible sweet spirit. Their message of faith came through loudly and clearly, even when the microphone posed a few problems.

And our Jelly and Doodle came through "loud and clear" as well, even when the mike didn't. They sang and spoke like the program veterans that they are. There were even joyous smiles as they realized that they were succeeding.

Yes, indeed, the harvest this season was indeed bountiful.

But we don't have the luxury of letting things lie dormant as we lie in wait for the spring.

Newspaper Craze

2007-11-18T07:59:00.000-08:00

For years now, there have been no subscriptions to any newspapers in the Woody household. We weighed the pros and cons, and the trees won. That was then.

Currently in our home can be found the following periodicals:
1) The Wonderwood (published by Jelly, fairly regularly)
2) Doodle's Daily News (published whenever she feels like it)
3) The Daily Prophet (which arrives once a week via owl post)

The Wonderwood, editor - Jelly Woodyette, is an 11" x 8 1/2" three-column format. There is usually a color-scheme coordinated to whichever holiday is closest. This newspaper contains a variety of articles written by Jelly and also by guest writers ("Mama, Daddy, Doodle, would you please write an article for the Wonderwood?" - and how can one refuse those baby blues and dimples?), illustrations, puzzles, games, contests, and even "links" to online news.

The Daily News, editor - Doodle Woodyette, is published in a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" two-column magazine format. So far it is only black and white, but with many pencil illustrations. Again, some articles are written by the Doodle and others are solicited contributions. The mix tends to be a bit more ecclectic than that found in the Wonderwood, but is always equally entertaining.

The Daily Prophet, as previously mentioned, arrives each Saturday by owl post. It is in 8 1/2" x 11" two-column newsletter format, printed on parchment paper, as used by wizards and witches at Hogwarts, naturally. The girls each have their own subscription, because each is a contributing staff writer. Jelly's articles usually contain reports of the escapades of a small witch called Nanzy. The Doodle, again, is more ecclectic in her writing. Her last article was a report on a nature center, where creatures of all kinds (magical and muggle) can be seen and studied.

We are "ecclectic" homeschoolers, with a preference for unit studies adapted to the Charlotte Mason style, with a classical twist. The child-led learning evident in this newspaper craze is a happy addition to our curriculum.

Apparently the number of writers in the family has now officially doubled. ;o)

Saving Daylight... or Family Time?

2007-11-18T07:28:00.000-08:00

My internal clock has been working overtime ever since the change back from daylight saving time. I used to wake fairly regularly sometime between 7 and 7:30 a.m. - a nice, sane time of the morning, in my opinion. For two weeks now, though, I have been waking up at nearly 6 a.m. on the dot, and it is making me crazy! You'd think that the extra hour of peace and silence would be something I would appreciate, and maybe I would if it didn't mean that I get tired and am ready for bed before anybody else in the house.

I have been making good use of the early hour, don't get me wrong. BUT most nights I've also been beyond frustrated when evening comes. There is a sweet feeling in our home as everyone settles in for some family time - sometimes doing something together and sometimes just doing our "own things" but usually in close proximity - and I just can't seem to keep my eyes open long enough to fully enjoy it!!

My good "neighbor" has suggested that we get some room-darkening shades or curtains to curtail my waking up with the sun. Guess if I want to lose my self-declared rep as a "party pooper" I'll have to give that a try!

Now I know what to put on my Christmas wish list. ;o)

Dancin' in the Rain

2007-11-16T08:36:00.000-08:00

I don't read a LOT of blogs, but once in a while I'm led to read just the right one at just the right time. Don't you LOVE it when that happens!!

I was looking for something and found this post instead, on http://blogscrapgirls.blogspot.com/. The credit goes to Syndee. She wrote:

Attitude is everything.
Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly.......
Leave the rest to God.
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Sometimes I think we get confused though. We think it's raining, when really it's just us, using a watering can to pour water on our own heads.

I think all that extra water is helping me grow. I'm gonna keep on dancin'!

On Strength in Diversity

2007-11-12T09:31:00.000-08:00

The Anaheim Mormon Chorale, which is Woody's main musical outlet these days, participated on Sunday in an Interfaith Concert. Earlier that day, Woody and I both had teaching assignments - the lesson being "Strengthening Our Families." The lessons and the concert were both wonderful experiences for us, and the lesson I learned that day concerned how much we have to gain individually and collectively when we work to increase bonds of unity while still appreciating the strengths of our differences.

When I first read the "Strengthening Our Families" lesson, I knew that there was already a LOT of expertise among my class members. The Spirit whispered, and we all benefitted as so many amazing women shared bits of wisdom regarding successes in their homes. Simple things, like a rule that nobody can say anything bad about anybody else (and if they do they have to follow up by saying three nice things about that person), maintaining the habit of family prayer (even if it has to be done on a speaker phone when a father is traveling on business) and encouraging family members to keep daily "Gratitude Journals" (recording at least one blessing received each day), really can work to make each person, and our entire family unit stronger.

And in the same way, I was reminded to appreciate the strength that can come through the diversity (as represented by the choral groups and representatives who spoke at the Interfaith Concert) of people in our world as we come to understand that we are all children of the same loving Father, no matter how we choose to address Him. The girls and I learned so much as we listened to declarations of faith and gratitude through song and speech. It was the first time I had ever heard from people of some of these faiths - Baha'i, Jain, Muslim, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Buddist, Hindu, and several different Christian groups(including Mormon) were represented. The culminating message was delivered by the combining of all the choirs as they sang "Praise to the Lord", under the guest direction of Craig Jessop (conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir). It was truly a wonder to behold!

I have the priviledge and responsibility to live in such a way that my life reflects the light of Christ, who is the foundation of my own faith. Some days I do better than others, but I will keep up the effort because the goal is so worthy!!

I do so love this season of gratitude!!

Remembering

2007-11-12T08:41:00.000-08:00

I'm afraid that Veteran's Day for many has become nothing more than one of those "sale holidays" where you can get special deals on everything from mattresses to big screen TVs. Our own family's remembrance will not be big or fancy, just a special devotional - discussion, patriotic songs, and helping dad raise the flag - but we do appreciate and love our servicemen past and present. We are truly grateful to live in this "choice land" and to enjoy the blessings of freedom.

We are very proud of our 11-year-old goddaughter, SwimChick. She is an amazing girl with a lot to give. Her even-more-proud mama sent us the following poem, which took 3rd place in a schoolwide contest this week.

Our Heroes
By SwimChick

They fight for our nation
They fight for our pride
They fight for our future
They fight far and wide

Five different Branches
All equally strong
Making sure that in our world
Nothing will go wrong

Many are old
Many are young
Many survived
Too many are gone

God bless our Soldiers
Keep them safe from our foes
God bless our Veterans
God bless our Heroes

Thank you, SwimChick, for helping us remember to keep this holiday real.

I Think I Can, I Think I Can...

2007-11-09T06:44:00.000-08:00

I didn't get as much done yesterday as I wanted to, and nearly let my frustration sidetrack me. (More train analogies :o)

The good news is that first thing this morning, a wonderfully warm feeling started to fill me up as I was reflecting and preparing for a new day.

Phillipians 4:13 says "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

Like the Little Engine That Could (okay, okay, so we LIKE trains!), I know I can work this plan and make it work. I don't have to do it alone. I have the best support system to be found anywhere in the world.

I'm absolutely sure of it.

Moving Right Along

2007-11-07T08:06:00.000-08:00

A week after the official Halloween, ours will be officially over today when the girls take down the trick-or-treater window clings, we fold up the black cat and pumpkin tablecloths, and replace them with turkeys and fall leaves. We're not late in getting these things done, but right on OUR schedule.

Last night (thanks to the flexibility of homeschooling and due to an agreement I made with Jelly to stop school a bit early in the afternoon so that she could attend an online birthday party) we finished our Hogwarts Halloween by assembling the lapbooks that the girls have been working on since last Wednesday. Both Jelly and Doodle are very proud of the way they finished up, and rightfully so. Jelly especially can't wait to show her origami ghost to her origami-loving friend.

Their work showcased the studies we did on: History of Magic(al Holidays - Halloween); Herbology (Pumpkins and how they grow); and Halloween Celebrations and Customs Around the World (anthropology and geography). Of course, we also included jokes and riddles, pumpkin poetry and a concentration game, and a build-a-skeleton game (Science - Body Systems) played like the classic game of Beetle/Cootie.

Now we move on. Our to-do list system of post-its in view full of the world (you get to take them down when you've accomplished what is assigned) is working pretty well. Only Woody is struggling a bit with getting things done, but it's not for lack of desire. They are keeping him WAY to busy at work, surprise, surprise. So meanwhile, his girls are doing what we can to support him and help him "get his train back on track." ;o) We have no doubt that he will... he always does.

It's not a race to a relaxing Christmas (relaxing race - wouldn't that be an oxymoron?), but a joyous adventure as we all move right along the track together.

The Train is On Track!

2007-11-06T08:46:00.000-08:00

Day 1 of The Plan was at least partially accomplished, and I'm calling it a success! We didn't get everything done that I had hoped for, but we made good progress. The train is NOT stuck at the depot, but is on track and moving forward. :o)

I know I'm not the only one who has noticed that no matter how well we plan, things ALWAYS seem to take longer than we plan for. EVEN when we know that they do, and we PLAN for taking longer, it still takes even longer than the planned-for longer time. (Whew!) However, I will NOT be distressed this time. I will NOT get discouraged and stop working The Plan. We WILL have an amazingly relaxed holiday season this year, and we can even enjoy the journey along the way.

I spent some time with each of the girls yesterday beginning the process of readying their rooms for the holidays. It was wonderful. One of the best parts was just listening to their chatter. I do love being a mama. They are both actually quite excited about giving away some of their toys. It is a must - there is no room for new ones unless they make some space - but their attitudes about it are a blessing to my mama heart. "I think some little girl will really have fun playing with this, because I really have." "I can't wait to give this to _____ (the granddaughter of a neighbor)! She's going to love it!"

I have another segment of our journey all mapped out for today... and I can't wait to see how far down the track we get.

I Have a Plan

2007-11-05T06:06:00.000-08:00

It's just after 6 a.m. and the house is still quiet.

I've meant to get back in the blogging habit for a while now, but got all hung up on the fact that I've "missed" so much. This weekend, our first away from home since I got sick in July, helped me realize that what really matters is that I'm ready to go on from here.

Being sick was not fun, in any sense, but it did bring MANY blessings. I am so grateful for the watchcare of a loving Father, for the love and support of an amazing husband who consistently gives more than 100%, for two precious daughters who've been willing, even anxious, to learn to do more so that they could help more, for extended family who never forgot us at prayertime, and for a church family who truly follow our Savior's example of unconditional love through service freely given. As we experience the "grateful" holiday season for the next couple of months, it is a perfect time of year to be able now to begin to give some back. It feels so good to feel good!

Our holidays were not exactly wonderful last year as my mom struggled in her final battle against her cancer. From early September when we had to put her into the hospital, to New Year's Eve at my sisters where we were with her when she slipped through the veil, we learned an important life lesson. What matters is who you are - what you stand for, and what you do with what you are given.

Being together to support Mawgs allowed us to share some sweet moments that will be always treasured, and to anticipate with joy a blessed reunion. It helped me to better understand who I am, what I want to stand for, and how I can give. I look back on those months last year and know that they were what they needed to be.

And now, we move forward.

I have a plan for our holidays this year - it is in place, and it begins today.

Why Study Gladiators?

2007-01-11T09:30:00.000-08:00

This year in our homeschool we’re studying ancient history using A World of Adventure. This is a fantastic curriculum that includes most subjects – it only needs the addition of math, typing, and a foreign language. It took me three years of trying curriculums to find it. The only adaptation I’m finding I need to make is a way to make it a bit more accessible to my 2nd-grader. (It is geared toward 4th – 8th graders.) Enter lapbooking.

On our agenda (after Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece) is Ancient Rome. In preparation for this part of our studies, I discovered that Hands of a Child has a project pack on Gladiators, for grades 4 and up. Now, I have two sweet little girls, ages 9 ½ and 7. I was skeptical as to whether this particular project pack would be appropriate for us. On the other hand, I also have a 13 ½-year-old nephew who is homeschooled. “Perfect!” I thought! He is unofficially ADHD, bright, and very creative, but not too interested in anything but skate- or snow-boarding, video games, and hanging out with his friends. He did have a ton of fun in an air-gun battle with his visiting boy cousins over the holidays.

So, I asked my sister if she’d be interested in having her son try the project pack. “No, but thanks for thinking of him,” she replied after I briefly explained the concept of lapbooking. The minimal organizing of supplies needed to complete a project pack scared her. If we lived closer, I’d have had him come to our house to do the project. So, I proceeded to review the pack myself, keeping my nephew AND my sweet little girls in mind as I did.

I had already learned something new before I’d even finished the first information page! And the suggestions for adapting a project pack for younger or older students are wonderful. All three of the kids could definitely do this!

All of us have heroes. This study would be a great way to introduce a personal study of heroes – who they are, why we think they are heroes, and what we can do to be a hero to someone else.

The story of Spartacus and his leadership of the slaves’ revolt would make a fabulous introduction to a study of personal rights and freedom or could lead into a study of Martin Luther King (Hands of a Child has a project pack for this!) and civil rights.

Athletic training, protective gear, and competitive games in front of an audience – who knew that it all began with the Gladiators!

Add that to the creative options for individual expression and opportunities for short Charlotte Mason-style learning sessions, and I need no more convincing that my nephew as well as my sweet girls will definitely enjoy this project pack.

Now I just need to find a way to convince my sister!

Joy

2007-01-10T17:59:00.000-08:00

I’ve wanted to get into a new blogging habit, because keeping in touch with family and friends IS important to me. Too many life circumstances, and my emotions twirling at hurricane speed, have been conspiring against me. We’re working toward discovering what our “normal” life is now meant to be. I will endeavor to make more frequent communications a part as we press onward.

Some of you are aware that my mama has been battling a rare form of melanoma since the fall of 2000. Last Saturday evening (January 6, 2007), we celebrated her life and loves at my sister’s family’s home in Southern California. Mom passed peacefully through the veil from this life into the next just after one o’clock in the morning on New Year’s Eve. My sister’s family and mine were with her, and my brother’s would have been if flights and weather had cooperated.

Woody called her RoboMom. Her name is Joy. She was.

The legacy she left us is as amazing as her name. I am proud that she chose to share that name with me. Two of her granddaughters also share her Joy, as they are also her namesakes. As I fight to focus on the awesome, heavenly, cancer-free life that she is enjoying now rather than on how much I miss her, I remember the JOY that she brought and that she expects us to continue to share.

Mom was a doer and gave of herself through her service to others. We are not all able to give in the same way she did, but we can all give of ourselves for the benefit of others. She was truly an example of Christ-like love – giving and doing with no thought or expectation of anything in return. Her endless drive made me crazy sometimes (mostly because I couldn’t keep up with her!) but I will always love and miss my wonderful mom.

Life here on Earth cannot be the same without her, but it wasn’t meant to be. As our family continues on to learn our own life’s lessons, my hope and prayer is that I will be able to live up to the example she left. I know I can’t do it her way, so I will strive in my own way to follow Christ in serving others.

Thank you, Mama.

I'm Baaaaack!

2006-07-05T14:07:00.000-07:00

Overheard while watching a commercial about products for new moms and babies:

Doodle: Mama isn’t pregnant, so we don’t need those things. But -- it would be nice to have a baby sister.

Jelly: (In an incredulous tone) What? I have my hands plenty full with you!

... so with this post, I declare myself officially back in blogdom.

Lots and Locks of Love

2005-09-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

Monday (Sept. 12, 2005) was a hectic day… a really good day, but a downright busy day! If Woody hadn’t been doing all the driving, it’d have made a good choice for a “taxi mom” post.

The Woodyettes and I had a good school morning (we’re getting our routine down pretty well!) while Woody worked a half day. He came home at lunchtime and changed hats – for the afternoon we needed a personable chauffer!

There wasn’t time for a REAL lunch, so we grabbed a Lunchable® (We don’t usually have them in the house, but at 10 for $10 last week I caved!) apiece, and headed out the door. Our first stop was my doctor’s office where I had an appointment for a small “procedure.” (Those family members who may be reading need not worry -- nothing life threatening! I just had four un-lovely beauty marks removed from my upper back. I’m a bit tender, but healing nicely.)

Next stop was our local Fantastic Sam’s. Since early summer, Jelly has been trying to convince herself to get a haircut. Her true motivation is the fact that she is extremely tender-headed. I guess the preface to this needs to be understanding that other than a few inch-or-so trims, (one we counted as her official 1st haircut when she was five) Jelly has not really ever had a haircut. She, like all the babies in our family, was born and stayed basically bald for nearly a year. Once her beautiful blonde hair began to come in, it was destined (that’s definitely another story – one which she and most family members already know) to keep growing, at least until after she was baptized. That happened in June – she was indeed the beautiful blue-eyed, long-wavy-haired blondie, all in white, of my dreams. That special event fulfilled, she has been free all summer to choose a different look. At first she was very sure right away that she wanted the haircut (and the end of agonizing hair-brushing sessions), then when the appointed day came, she decided she’d wait until the end of the week. When the end of the week arrived, she informed me that she would wait until after we got home from our vacation so that she could have long braids when she wanted them. In similar fashion, the rest of the summer has progressed, swimming lessons and all. Then, as I brushed out her hair after last Saturday night’s bath and hairwashing, she informed me that she really did want her hair cut. Enough (pain), apparently, was enough!

Now, since her hair has been growing nonstop without interference, it was quite long. We had heard about a really neat program – Locks of Love. So, in memory of her cousin, Brianica, this week Jelly had 12 inches of her beautiful blonde locks cut off, and then she donated her ponytails to make a wig for “a little bald girl who’d like not to be.” In this mama’s eyes, because of her beautiful heart, Jelly is more beautiful than ever with her bouncy new do!

Not to be left out, on that same Monday afternoon, Doodle had her first official haircut ever! Because of her gorgeous curls, I’ve never felt a need to do even an even-it-up kind of trim. Doodle had decided that she wanted to keep her LONG curls for a bit longer, so she had a mere two inches trimmed. She can still have french braids whenever the need arises! ;o) Usually it arises whenever the Woodyettes want to play some version of American Girls or Little House on the Prairie.

After all THAT fun, we still weren’t finished. Chauffer Woody next drove us to one of our two local libraries. Even if we weren’t homeschoolers, we would still be avid readers. It's in the gene pool. (Read that to mean that we read more books than our budget allows us to buy!) And on top of that, our homeschooling methods of choice cause us to spend LOTS of time and money (yup, overdue book fines!) at the library. We love living books!

After checking out, oh 30 or so books, (enough for about a week!) we were on our way home to a family night celebration dinner! Steak and caviar? Ah, goodness no! Pizza and chocolate shakes!! Now that's love! ;o)

Regarding a Prophet Husband

2005-09-17T13:15:00.000-07:00

While Woody is outside attempting to locate our yard (I’m pretty sure it’s hiding somewhere in the jungle out there!) and the Woodyettes are taking advantage of a beautiful sunny, cool, almost-autumn day to do some adventuring of their own, I thought I’d make an attempt at organizing my thoughts. I should probably be organizing the stuff in the old office, or doing laundry, or some such domestic chore. Soon.

It has been a week full of firsts. When I was in high school, I was SO faithful about writing in my journal. I am sorry to say that I have NOT been faithful about doing so ever since. I have missed the chance to record my thoughts and feelings about some incredibly important firsts as they happened. BUT, there is still LOTS of life to be experienced, and many firsts yet to come. So onward and upward! (WARNING – This may get a bit long… I’ve got a LOT on my mind!!)

Thoughts about Sunday, Sept. 11, 1st RS lesson taught for the 2005-6 year

I really enjoy teaching Relief Society… well, mostly. As much as I love the teaching part, the fact that the class is made up of ADULT women tends to make my stomach do acrobatics beginning about 12 hours before the class actually starts. I truly do love the lesson preparation, though. It is so good for me to have a specific gospel topic to study and focus on. It may be trite, but true, that the teacher learns so much more than the students do, no matter what the topic.

I feel a huge responsibility to rely on the spirit both as I prepare and teach these lessons. When I was set apart, the Bishop spoke to us about the fact that there are quite a few sisters who have been choosing not to attend Relief Society. He said that part of the reason I was being called was to help the sisters to want to be there. My teaching style is definitely different than any other of the current RS teachers… so far I’ve taught three lessons and they haven’t “fired” me yet, or even asked me to change my methods, so I guess I’m doing all right. Woody reminded me just yesterday, no matter how old we are, we all appreciate hearing “well done.” It feels even better to hear, “Thank you… that’s just what I needed to hear.” I do love teaching, and being appreciated for doing something I love is nice… and have to say that I am very grateful that our Heavenly Father has been blessing me with talents and opportunities to teach since I was very young.

(One problem with using this blog as a journal is that it is obviously NOT private. The idea is to share my thoughts, but if I come across as egotistical, it’s only because the only thoughts I have the right to share/publish are my own! If I make you crazy, obviously you can point and click and go read something else. ;o)

This calling is also good for me because it is really helping to form and strengthen relationships with the sisters in our ward. The gospel is always the same and always true, but all wards are not created equal. We have a wonderful one, but it took me/us a while to figure that out. More on that later, maybe.

This particular lesson, chapter 15 in the David O. McKay book, was an especially cool one to teach. (If you haven’t read it, you should. You can find it here.)

Yup, I said cool! I’ve always loved Pres. McKay, and now I have even more reasons to do so. He was an incredible husband! Just like my Woody in LOTS of ways! I recognize how blessed I am to have the most important someone in my earthly life share so many awesome qualities with a prophet!! ;o) Woody has a LOT to live up to… because now not only do all the sisters in the ward know how great he is, but his reputation as a fabulous hubby was also made known to the Elders of the ward during their priesthood lesson, by a reluctant Woody himself!

Hopefully none of the OTHER hubbies will find his example too hard to live up to and go postal on us! We could find our jungle outside covered with T.P.!

Not Back to School

2005-09-06T22:29:00.000-07:00

On this, the traditional first day of school for lots of kids and moms in our country, here at Wonderwood Academy we began our fourth week of not-going-to-public-school-again-this 2005-06 year. Let me first say a hearty “We truly DON’T believe homeschooling is right for all families.” And let me assure any and all friends or family who are as excited about their kids’ public-school experiences as we are about ours at home that we still love you forever. ;o)

We choose to homeschool pretty much on a year-round schedule. We LOVE the flexibility that allows us to take breaks when WE need them. It’s mighty nice to be able to take vacations during the peaceful (and yes, usually much less crowded) “OFF” season. And yes, we manage to provide “socialization” opportunities for the Woodyettes even with our crowd-avoiding preferences. We homeschool for lots of reasons, and we made the choice to do so even before Jelly Woodyette was born. I’ll leave that for another blog.

Today, though, was a near-perfect example of WHY homeschooling is right for us. We didn’t go on a spectacular field trip, we didn’t discover that one of the Woodyettes is a child prodigy, but we DID have a marvelous time learning TOGETHER.

I LOVE unit studies!

When we began our homeschool adventure during Jelly’s preschool years, my tendency as a “retired” public school teacher was to do “school at home.” I think most parents would agree that they “homeschool” beginning the day their first child is born, so counting that way, we’ve been homeschooling now for over eight years. The state of California only gives us credit beginning with 1st grade. (A bit ironic with all the hoop-la about Universal Preschool, but that is definitely for another blog!) Anyway, MY accounting says that since Jelly is beginning 3rd grade, and we did both Pre-K 3 and 4 before Kindergarten, we are now beginning our sixth year of “official” homeschooling. All that to say that my thoughts about HOW to do it has changed at LEAST twice a year, and if you do the math (aw, go ahead!) that makes 12 times – an even dozen! I’m sure we’ll continue to make changes as the girls grow and gain more ability to take charge of their learning, but I’m also sure that some form of unit studies will always be part of our adventures.

For social studies this year, we are focusing on the history and geography of our own country. The afternoon train departed for the first official state – Delaware. After a notebooking experience documenting our research of basic facts (location, state capital, state tree, state flower, state bird, state song, state motto, state… well, you get the idea), we took a side trip to practice counting and learning the word for apple in Spanish as we did a dot-to-dot of, naturally, an apple (a product of Delaware) and then another side trip to the Air Mobile Command (in Delaware). The AMC is a really awesome outdoor museum where you can see aircraft of all kinds. We, of course, did our tour virtually. The hands-on part was making, decorating (with a red, white, and blue patriotic theme) and then test-flying a paper airplane! We had the coolest discussion about pilots and what they need to know, what they have to be able to do, and even that they sometimes name their planes after their favorite girl! The test flights were a great success. The girls’ planes weren’t great for distance, but wonderful for acrobatics! As far as I was concerned, that was the end of school for today, but the Woodyettes were not finished. “Mama, be the band! We’re gonna do a parade!” So I oompahed a variation on Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever as they marched, danced, and tumbled around with their airplanes. It didn’t take long for a “float” to be constructed so that the parade would keep the watcher cheering!

My oompah gave out long before they did!

If I’d been thinking, I’d have gotten out a CD of marches and the parade would probably still be passing me by! ;o)