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More school done.

Rachel — Fri, 18 May 2012 23:25:11 +0000

Kaelee finished History today. She still has her term paper to write, but I need to look over her rough draft first. And then we’ll be down to Chemistry, Latin, Writing, Logic, and Spanish for the summer. Chemistry and Logic are the only things that have to get done by August. The rest, it’s fine to go into next year.

Not quite knitting

Rachel — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:14:51 +0000

For Christmas I recieved a skein winder (I bought it here on etsy). I love it. The boys think it’s pretty cool too. Caleb helped me wind some skeins. It works so well and is so much better than the back of a chair.

2012 Garden

Rachel — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:36:02 +0000

Last year the garden was a wash. It was too hot and the watering system we had set up just didn’t work. So this year I had plans. I wanted to try square foot gardening and keep it in the back of the house where I could see it. I bought some kits from Sam’s Club and Walmart. We set them up end of February. I even set up a timer to water. Overall, I thought it would work pretty well. Nope. We have stuff growing, but not a lot. It looks really sparse.

This is the boy’s garden. There’s popcorn, sunflowers, and watermelon in it. I’m just not sure how it’s going to do in the end.

However, the boys are in love with the idea. Oliver has “helped” me pick 3 tomatoes so far. All green. One day we may actually be able to leave them on long enough to actually eat one.

My sad, pathetic soybean. There are bean on the stalks, but I just don’t see it producing enough.

And the one plant that’s doing well. Some sort of bean that Oliver was nice enough to dump into the garden for me. I need some sort of trellis for it.

So in the end, I expect we’ll have some tomatoes, beans, garlic, and onion. Those seem to be the only things that are doing well. I know we have rabbits nearby, I wonder if they’re enjoying my garden more than I am.

More knitting

Rachel — Tue, 08 May 2012 21:28:50 +0000

This is one of the two new soakers I made for the little one using Mosaic Moon’s Red Ming. I used the EviePants pattern.

I used the EviePants pattern on this as well. I added a cable down the side because I think they’re adorable. Another Mosiac Moon colorway.

Another EviePants soaker. Made with PureWool this time.

This one is the only one not done in the EviePants pattern. I used Curly Purly instead. I’ve heard good things about it. Hopefully the high waist takes care of the lack of drawstring.

Math is done!

Rachel — Mon, 07 May 2012 22:44:27 +0000

Kaelee finished herBasic College Mathematics (7th Edition)"> math book! So we went to Dairy Queen to celebrate. She’s going to do some math from Life of Fred Beginning Algebra this summer just to keep it going. Then in September we’ll start with Basic College Mathematics (8th Edition)">Lial’s Beginning Algebra.

Knitting update

Rachel — Tue, 01 May 2012 23:00:24 +0000

So apparently, I’ve been nesting with the baby coming. I’ve finished up quite a few projects I had on the needles and then went on to start and finish some more that I had planned, but not done anything for. I finished the kimono I started (and almost finished for Oliver).

And the complete set:

Oliver did use the longies. I, at least, finished those before he was born. I did find a button for them. Took two trips to the store to find a good one that matched.

Caleb’s mittens became Oliver’s. This is how they were:

And finally done:

Kaelee’s scarf was this:

She wanted it long enough to tie so I finally finished it.

And I finally finished her matching fingerless mittens. Despite the difference in color, they are from the same yarn. The scarf is more the true color. My iphone doesn’t take good color pics.

8th grade

Rachel — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:54:01 +0000

I haven’t updated this blog in a year. I’m not sure I’ve ever gone that long before. Oops.

So here’s what we used this year for 8th grade:

Rod & Staff English 8
Basic College Math. We needed to switch to something and this is highly recommended. Of course, a lot of Kaelee’s problems with math were solved when she stopped rushing it. We’ll start Algebra I over again in 9th.
Second Form Latin
History Odyssey Modern History
Chemistry was a combination of Real Science 4 Kids, The Elements, Carbon Chemistry, TOPS, and Adventures with Atoms.
Writing was started with Meaningful Composition, but once Writing with Skill came out we switched over to it.
Still using So You Really Want to Learn Spanish I. I recently added in Visual Link Spanish for some practice.
For art I just told her to “do art” at least once a week. She’s miles ahead of anything I could ever do.
Vocabulary from Classical Roots B.
Critical Thinking 2.
Lightning Literature 8th grade.

Summer is almost at an end

Rachel — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:33:47 +0000

I went ahead and took the summer off from blogging. It was pretty crazy for a while and so I decided to drop updating this blog. But now that our school year has almost started I decided to go ahead and start updating again.

We start school on Monday or Tuesday. Robert has off on Monday so we’ll see what we end up doing. The past couple of weeks I’ve been trying to get organized for school. I’ve been making lesson plans, ordering books, and trying to organize our school space(s). This is what the bookshelf by the computer looks like. This is some of the curriculum I’ve been going over and planning for this new year with.

It’s been driving us crazy. Robert hates the mess and I’m pulling out my hair just looking at it all. Two kids now. I don’t know how everyone else does it. Although I suppose it helps that for now, Caleb is only somewhat doing two subjects. Math and some letters. But I think all the planning for Kaelee is done now. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with Caleb. Three math programs is a little much.

June 24: The Homeschool Mother’s Journal

Rachel — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:07:27 +0000

In my life this week: I’m trying to get back in the swing of things. Last week, Kaelee and I were at girls’ camp for our church. I didn’t have much to do, but I enjoyed it. Especially because I had a/c.

In our homeschool this week: I received a “sample” of Susan Wise Bauer’s Writing With Style. I say sample because it’s a huge portion of what the book will end up being. It’s for 5th grade so I think it’ll be too easy for Kaelee. I haven’t looked through all of it, just the first 3 weeks, but those three weeks are only doing one level outlining. So far it seems to be like Classical Writing: Homer, but not so mind boggling. It’s laid out so much easier to understand. I’m hoping I could use it, but make it more difficult as it goes along.

ETA: you can get a sample of the book here.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing: this week, thankfully nothing. Actually one of Kaelee’s friends spent the night Wednesday night. I’m just glad it wasn’t all 5 girls like it was supposed to be.

Questions/thoughts I have: Whether or not the writing stuff I have is enough. I now understand why some people but all the writing programs out there. I may end up ordering a couple more. I’m going to try to hold off until I see how Kaelee’s doing with Meaningful Composition.

Things I’m working on: the chemistry schedule for next year. I’d planned on using Ellen McHenry’s two chemistry programs and some experiments. So I ordered them, but then found RS4K’s 2nd level on clearance, so I bought that as well. So now I have to pull it all together.

Rachel — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:25:39 +0000

Is the new cool thing on the internet. And yeah, you’ve got to really look at the “next big thing” sometimes and think about whether or not you would use it, but really. I.love.pinterest. It’s such a great place to find anything and everything. And it’s visual. Which I think is what makes it better than some previous bookmark sites. I have a delicious account and it’s great to keep track of all those sites you come across that you want to keep in mind, just in case, but without pictures you have to rely on descriptions. Not with pinterest. You see the pics in all their glory. It’s a great site and I have invites if anyone wants one.

Check me out here.