The boys are huge fans of the You Wouldn’t Want to… book series. 

For those of you who have some how MISSED these gems, they include such greats as You Wouldn’t Want to Be a World War II Pilot: Air Battles You Might Not Survive (currently on our shelf), You Wouldn’t Want to Be an 18th Century Convict: A Trip to Australia You’d Rather Not Take (No offense to my Australian readers – ie. Von.), and You Wouldn’t Want to Be Mary Queen of Scots: A Ruler Who Really Lost Her Head.

Check your local library.  They’re awesome.  Especially for boys.

But anyway.  Fred and I – but especially I, ’cause I’m prone to such things as extensive geneological researching, and also spend nearly all my time with said children —  have been very conscious of the fact that giving them a thorough connection to their own roots is very important. 

And that that means doing some extra research.  Because their roots are not our roots (though they’re welcome to partake in all our Euro-straight-to-U.S.-American fun-and-games, of course!)

So we’ve read about Guatemala, TRAVELED back to Guatemala, read about the Maya, CLIMBED their pyramids, studied Spanish… I’m still looking for a socially acceptable way of asking some of the Latino men I know just what it is that they’re wearing that smells so good, so I can buy it to put on the boys (who frequently smell like sweat and “tootle”)… but I digress… Read the rest of this entry

Reason # 4,357,921,934 I home school:  we’re DONE for the semester!  Our co-op wrapped up our Fall with a Medieval feast this afternoon, and while I will of course do some reviewing over the break to make sure the boys don’t lose their new knowledge, we’re OFF for the holidays!  Looking forward to field tripping, celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas, spending time with family and friends, and just enjoying one another’s company without having lessons to accomplish or Mama “being picky about handwriting.”

Ahhhh….

Right.  BACK to the feast.  The kids (and some of the adults) came dressed for the event, and our class (I sit in class every week with all the other moms, so yes it is “our” class) presented what they’re thankful for.  Each kid had a letter. 

And here they are.

What’s that you say?  The “T” and “F” are missing?  What IS those knights’ deal?! Read the rest of this entry

One of the unique facets of our home school co-op is that the boys are expected to give a short oral presentation every week in class.  And then once a year, we present as a family to the whole school.

Today was our 3rd family presentation.  And let me just say the prior 50 experiences seem to have paid off!  We decided to tell the school about our up-coming trip to Guatemala.  I introduced us and wrapped up.  But the boys told everyone about the places we’re planning to see.

For about a minute each.

But still. Read the rest of this entry

Just found an excellent use for the boys’ kindergarten handwriting, spelling and math pages:

Read the rest of this entry

One of the non-priority results of our latest home improvement endeavor is that I now have a room dedicated to doing school with the boys during the day.   We’re homeschooling rather than sending them to all-day kindergarten this year, and that’s going so well that I think we’re going to continue with it for some time to come.  It’s certainly not for everybody, and we’ll see what we can handle when our current adoption finalizes, but for now it’s working well for us.

And so it has justified getting it’s own dedicated space. 

I spent the last week organizing our stuff and then laminating and hanging wall-charts that go with what we’re learning this year, and at this point, the room’s pretty much all it’s ever going to be for this school year anyway.

And all down-low where short people can see (makes me smile every time I walk through).

And so I post for the benefit of our friends who have already done the same and whose ideas I’ve already stolen and for those who love to steal ideas as much as I do:

Read the rest of this entry

Well, we’ve completed our Kindergarten Nativity Set project!  And because my guys are too wiggly to sit through all the Bible passages that make up the story we celebrate each year, I paraphrased it for them and then added the pictures of the characters we just finished making.  I’m dying to write a more humorous version because some of these characters (ok MOST of these characters) are truly funny-looking.  But that’ll probably have to wait till next year when we pull this all back out.

For now, though, here’s the story of the First Christmas, foreshortened a bit by this Mama who’s about done spending time with hot glue and toilet paper tubes! 

The Christmas Story

(Taken from Luke 1:26-38, Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 2: 1-40, Matthew 2:1-21)

During the reign of King Herod of Judea, God sent an angel named Gabriel to the home of a young woman named Mary who lived in the town of Nazareth in Galilee.

He said to her, “Greetings, highly favored one!  The Lord is with you.”

  Read the rest of this entry

One of my sisters’ and my favorite Christmas memories from growing up was pulling out the absolutely hideous nativity scenes we made when we were in Kindergarten (clearly at private Christian school!).  Amy’s Peanut-Baby-Jesus and my Construction-Paper-Cone Mary made it front and center of the “Kid Tree” each year.  Then when Lori’s Styrofoam-Cup Angel joined the gang, we had our tree-topper.  (No IDEA why my parents relegated all that goodness to a remote location while the “Family Tree” got Living Room status!)

I’m homeschooling the twins this year, but I didn’t want them to miss out on the humor of looking back on their 5 year old handiwork.  So this Christmas season, we’re building our own extended Nativity scene, a little bit each day.  We read part of the story every morning (2nd time through the whole thing, already); and then we build whatever we decide we want to work on.  And when we’re bored with it (or the paint’s still sticky and we can’t move forward till it’s dry), we stop.

Today was King Herod & his soldiers (mostly because the boys couldn’t wait to make spears).  Tomorrow?  Who knows.  But I’ll be sure to post the complete masterpiece when we’re done! Read the rest of this entry