Our Homeschool Week in Review

The kids are starting to finish a lot of subjects now that we're getting close to the end of our school year. Those taking a summer break start that break on July 1st. Hannah 15, has opted to not take a break. I'm sure she will take days off during the month of July. Especially when we have relatives visiting from out of state.

All the kids have math left. And all the kids have finished history and science. Hannah learned how to cut her brothers hair this week. Exciting for her, a little nerve racking for her brother. lol

So they are mostly finishing up math. I have one doing an intensive spelling unit, using the Natural Speller. In this case, intensive means 20 words a day, a pre-test in the morning and a re-test of the words missed in the afternoon. So far, they have gotten all the words right by the end of the day. I told this child that if they didn't get them all right, they would get homework over the weekend. Another kid asked, "Don't we always have homework?" lol

They recently found a tree frog and a turtle.




This coming week will find all the kids anxious to be on break, I'm sure. I don't normally like taking a summer break, but I'm looking forward to this one. I really need to sort through all the books in the school room and downsize.


Here are some links I found helpful:

Torah Homeschool Links
Handbook of Nature Study: First Day of Summer Activity Page
Large Family Homeschool Form
How to Regrow Store Bought Celery - looks like a good summer project!
Want to learn more about edible wild plants & mushrooms? Visit Wildman Steve Brill
Quizlet - has flashcards and quizzes on a variety of subjects. I'm looking specifically at the Hebrew flashcards, they are even printable. And the quiz looks hard! lol






Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

Our Homeschool Week in Review

The kids have been working in the garden in the mornings while its cooler. Schoolwork has been waiting until the afternoon. Most of the kids prefer to get their schoolwork done in the morning so they can have the afternoon free. However, it has been so hot in Kentucky this week. So hot that they haven't even been wanting to play outside in the afternoon. If there is no church at night, or other family activity, we all go back outside and get a little more work done in the "cool" of the evening.

Today, Zach caught a cricket and followed the directions in his science book to make a terrarium for it.

See his little friend inside it's new home?

We also reviewed Shavuot this week.  And enjoyed a nice family meal together on the first night of Shavuot, complete with everyone's favorite dairy foods. We had homemade macaroni and cheese and yellow squash casserole. I made the yellow squash casserole with home canned squash from our garden last year, covered with Ranch dressing and mozzarella cheese, then baked. My family loves this! We also had homemade vanilla pudding and chocolate pudding made by the girls for dessert.

It was the first time the girls had made homemade pudding themselves. They did great, except for Abby burning her finger on the pan. The pudding was awesome!  I have no pictures to share as we ate it all. :)

The kids also started reading for a summer reading program this week over at Homeschool Buyers Co-op. The kids will have chances to win prizes. My kids are reading a lot to try and win the Ipad2.


Here are some links I found interesting and helpful this week:

Gee Whiz Quiz - A Math Scavenger Hunt Game
American Sign Language University at Lifeprint.com - includes dictionary, free lessons and more!
Why Did 17 Million  Students Go to College?
What is a College Education Really Worth?
Little House on the Prairie - This post has a lot of links for a study of these books







Please visit:
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Our Homeschool Week in Review

Today, I had the kids fill out a Who am I? sheet. I didn't get too many surprises. It didn't even surprise me when one of them tried to answer every question with "IDK". lol  I'm going to have them fill one out at the end of every school year. If I remember. lol I think it will be fun to look back every year and see how much they have changed.

As I've mentioned before, we don't take a long summer break. This is a nice article, Summer Help or Hindrance. I find a long summer vacation more of a hindrance.

Are you a member of the Homeschool Buyers Co-op? They are offering a summer reading program where the grand prize is an Ipad2! They are also giving aways lots of other prizes. This is open to all ages. Also check your local library, most offer a summer reading program.


Here are some links:

Mason Jar Terrariums - great project for kids to make, great gift, also
Organizing Kids School Papers
Painted Pencils - great project, and gift items
Factory Tours USA - find factories that give tours listed by state
Clothespin Button Racers - great fun for a rainy or snowy day
Online Storybook - Charlie the Ranch Dog by Ree Drummond
Homemade Sprinkler - great way to keep the kids entertained on a hot day
The Case for Once a Month Cleaning - Sounds great for homeschooling families!
American Sign Language - View signs online, create quizzes, this looks great!
Good Books for Boys
How to Make Free Watercolors







Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

Our Homeschool Week in Review

This week hasn't been terribly exciting in our home. We're just plugging along with work.

It ended up being cold this week! Which is highly unusual for Kentucky in May. We did manage to get some work done in the garden yesterday. Today has turned out really warm! So we worked some more in the garden and got a few things planted.

I did talk with each of the kids about their goals this week. More important for the high school kids than the 4th and 6th graders. But since we talked about how much of a summer break they are going to get, the two younger ones were really interested. lol

Hannah, 15, who is completing 10th grade because she worked ahead, doesn't want to take a summer break. She just wants to keep working. Calen 16, who is completing 10th grade does want to take a break. So as soon as he finishes his books, he will be on vacation until the first week of August. He does spend time working on computers and such, so I'm sure he will make wise use of his time. Or I'll find lots of work for him to do. lol

The 4th and 6th graders will be only getting the month of July off for vacation. Of course, they will get a day or two off here and there when cousins come to visit.

I'm not a big fan of summer vacations. I learned early on in our homeschool, having started kindergarten with our oldest in 1991, that it's easier to keep schooling over the summer. I found attitudes about starting school again after summer vacation were less than desirable. Besides, in real life you never get the whole summer off. Unless, of course, you are a teacher. :)

One exciting thing did happen since my last homeschool week in review!

I have been selected to be a part of the TOS Homeschool Crew!


I am so excited! I'm really looking forward to reviewing some great homeschool products!


Until next week, here are a few websites I found helpful:

Homeschooling Grades
How to Calculate Grade Point Averages For Homeschooled Students
Homemade Butterfly Feeder







Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

Our Homeschool Week in Review

Our homeschool week mainly concentrated on lots of study and practice time of Bible Drill for Abby & Zach.

Their State Bible Drill was on Friday night.

Abby is a State Winner! This is the 3rd year in a row that she was a State Winner, so she received a 3 Year State Winner Medal. It's the small white medal. The larger medal is from the Association for being a 3 year Association Winner. The trophy is for being an Association Winner this year, and the certificate is for being a State Winner this year. Next year she moves up to the next age group, 7-9th grades, with more memorization.

Congratulations Abby!!

Zachary was not a State Winner this year. He missed too many. That's ok, we're still proud of him! He won a trophy for being an Association Winner, and a certificate for participating in the State Drill.

Congratulations Zachary!!

They are looking forward to taking a break from all that memorizing! We won't get the papers with what they have to learn for next year for another couple of months.

They will continue to read their Bibles, though!

Next week will find all the kids buckling down so they can finish this years work. Their choice. They want a summer break. I prefer to school year round.

But if they are willing to work hard to finish, I will let them!  :)


Here are a few links I found helpful:

Spelling City
Charlie the Ranch Dog - online storybook read by the author Ree Drummond







Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

Our Homeschool Week in Review

The kids have been very busy this week. They have cousins visiting from out of state. They even started their school work on Sunday night, so they would have more play time on Monday! The rest of the days, they have been getting up early to get their work done. Their cousins are homeschooled, so most days they had work to do in the mornings also.

Game time!

 The kids have been spending lots and lots of time playing outside. They even played out in the rain.

I found this picture on the sd card. They are training the kitten to walk through a hoop. There are other pictures before and after this one, and the kitten really walks through on its own. Too funny.

They have all spent a lot of time playing the story game together. This is a great game for groups to play, as all ages can play equally. One person starts and says one word. Then they go around the circle with everyone saying one word. You end up with some really funny stories! It's nice to have someone who writes fast write down the story as it's told. Great memories! My oldest daughter used to play this when she was younger on instant messenger with a cousin who lived in another state. They would take turns typing the next word. It's a really fun game that all ages love to play.

We also worked on The Curiosity Files e-book Dung Beetles. We really liked the format and tons of information included. I learned a lot about dung beetles, also. Did you know that Dung Beetles were depicted in womens jewelry? Ever heard of a Scarab? It makes me wonder why they would choose the Dung Beetle for jewelry! lol You can go here to read my review of  The Curiosity Files e-book Dung Beetles.

Next Friday is Abby & Zachs State Bible Drill Competition. So next week will find them studying hard!





Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

Our Homeschool Week in Review

The highlights of our week were two Bible Drills. Hannah had her State Bible Drill in Elizabethtown on Saturday.

Hannah competed in 3 different drills. The first drill determined state winners. They had to have a certain number of points to be state winners. All those who had enough points are state winners. Because of the number of points Hannah received in the first drill, she qualified to compete in the preliminaries for Nationals. That was her second drill, and she got enough points to qualify to compete in the finals for Nationals!

Kentucky sends one winner to compete in the National Bible Drills. Hannah's third drill was to determine who would go to Nationals. Hannah didn't have enough points to go to Nationals. Since her goal was to make it to the preliminaries, she exceeded her goal! Way to go Hannah!!

Here she is, after she got home, with her certificate, and the 3 number stickers from the 3 drills.

Here's the banner her younger siblings made for her.

The pictures of her actually competing in the drills are on her sd card, and shes sleeping. lol I'll try to add them later.

If your wondering about Bible Drill, here's a link that explains more about Youth (which is what Hannah competed in) and High School Bible Drill.

Then on Sunday, Abby and Zach had their Association Bible Drill. Here they are in the group picture taken before the competition started.

They are the two in the middle on stage during the competition.

And after the competition with their trophies. They both qualified to go to State! Congratulations Abby & Zach!

Their State drill is in a couple of weeks, so they are still studying hard.

Actual school book work was accomplished this week, too! As well as studying about Passover, and preparing everything for the holiday. We've had a great week!





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Our Homeschool Week in Review

This weeks highlight for the kids was getting a coconut. We rarely eat coconut, so when they asked to get one to try, we were happy to get them one. They loved watching Dad trying to get it open. lol

Dad poured out the milk, for everyone to taste.

Then he cracked it open for everyone to eat.

Zack likes to do his schoolwork on the couch. I was helping him with his math.  He wasn't listening to anything. In fact, the headphones weren't even attached to anything. He was just wearing them. lol

A couple of months ago, while out on a walk, Abby brought home an acorn to plant. She planted it in a flower pot in the dining room. Here's what it looks like now.

It grew out of the acorn, cracking the shell. Look at the big leaves.

It's pretty tall, too. I took it outside for better lighting, it still lives in the house. We'll probably wait until after the last frost date to transplant it outside. Hopefully, it survives.

Here's Abby studying her Bible Drill. You can see the top of her tree in the dining room window.

She has her own study system going. Here's what her tray looked like.

Hannah has her State Bible Drill tomorrow, Saturday. Abby & Zack have their Association Bible Drill on Sunday. Lot's of Bible Drill this weekend. Pictures coming next week. :)


Here are some links:

Computer Programming Course I'm considering getting for my son
Taking the Classroom Outside







Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

Our Homeschool Week in Review

Hanging upside down from a tree counts as PE, right? lol The weather has been nice this week, so they have been playing outside a lot. Playing basketball & hide and go seek are the two favorites.

We've spend quite a bit of time working on Bible Drill this week. Abby & Zack (the upside down kid) have their church drill this Sunday. Hannah is still getting ready for her state drill on the 16th.

Calen likes to make Lego videos, using real legos & stop motion or using a program on the computer to make animated lego videos. This week, he's been teaching himself how to make animated videos that don't involve Legos. A person walking across the screen was one that he did. He's doing really well with it.

My nephew has been staying with my Mother across the street this week on his spring break. The kids have been getting up early to get their schoolwork done early so they will have lots of playtime. That's fine with me. :) They kept asking why they weren't getting a spring break this year. So I let them have today off. lol

Here are a few links for you:

American Sign Language Lessons
Cross Crafts
Free Spring Crafts, Fun & Activities for Families







Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

Our Homeschool Week in Review

The last week has been really busy. In addition to our regular book work, we were getting ready for Purim.
Here's Zack working on his costume.

We are back working at our church's outreach center after taking a break while the church bought a new building. On Saturday, we worked at stocking the clothes closet at the new outreach center.

This is our 4th year participating in Bible Drill at church. The kids work hard starting in the fall memorizing about 26 different Bible verses and passages. They have to practicing finding verses in the Bible quickly. The competition season has started. Sunday was our church drill for the 7-9th grades group. Hannah is the only one in this age group this year. She got a perfect score! It's not a competition in the sense that there is only one winner. They kids need to get a certain number of points to go on to the next competition. Bonus points are given for each question to the first one to step out. It is possible to get a perfect score even when drilling with others. Hannah actually had to work harder, being the only one. The same number of questions are asked, no matter how many kids are drilling. The person conducting the drill calls on one person for each question. Since Hannah was the only one, she had to answer every question herself. She did an awesome job!

This Sunday is the Association Drill, where she drills with other winners from other churches. The winners of the Association Drill go on to the State drill, where they drill with other Association winners from across the state. At the state drill, they person with the highest score goes on to compete in Nationals. This is Hannah's last year in 7-9th, and she wants to at least make it to the preliminaries for Nationals. She's off to a good start!

Sunday was also Purim, you can read about how we celebrate Purim. This is our second year celebrating Purim. We dress up in costumes and visit the neighbors passing out gifts of food. Here are this years costumes:

Zack - the box of Slim Jims - his choice, lol

Abby dressed as American Girl Josephina

Hannah dressed as Hadassah, she made every part of this costume herself, without a pattern!

Calen and Dad as hunter and target

Ah, yes, that's me as Golde, the mother from Fiddler on the Roof

After our Purim festivities, we've just had a quiet week of book work.

Abby decided she wanted to do more with the American Girl Books, so I pulled out Portraits of American Girlhood . We used this a few years ago, and she's excited to be doing the unit on Felicity.



Here are a few links I found:

Tsunamis: Know What to Do! - is a great video that explains tsunamis.

Easter Lapbook

Dolch Word List









Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

St. Patrick's Day

Image by Kavya Bhat via Flickr

Even though I do have Irish blood, I have never celebrated St. Patrick's Day with my kids.


Don't pinch me, ok?






I don't remember doing anything special for St. Patrick's Day growing up. Well, except wearing green to school so no one would pinch me. I always felt sorry for the kids who forgot to wear green, and got pinched so much.

The kids requested that we learn more about St. Patrick, so today's the day.

I remember hearing that St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. Turns out, they weren't real snakes. Ireland never had any snakes. The pagans used to worshiped serpent symbols. St. Patrick was a Christian missionary. The snakes being driven out of Ireland was symbolic for putting an end to the pagan practice.

Do you know why the clover is a symbol of St. Patrick's day? St. Patrick used the three leaf clover to explain the Trinity.

Here are some links to help you learn more about St. Patrick's Day, and some fun activities to do with the kids.

Learn more about St. Patrick.

St. Patrick's Day Games, Puzzles, Recipes, Crafts & more

Facts About St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day Online Games

St. Patrick's Day Activities, Crafts, Recipes & more for everyone from toddlers to adults.

Family Fun St. Patrick's Day Printables

Perpetual Preschool St. Patrick's Day - printables and activities just for preschoolers.

Watch a YouTube video about The History of St. Patrick's Day.

We're going to make Boxty for supper tonight.

What do you do to celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

Our Homeschool Week in Review

Last week, in our Homeschool Week in Review, I shared how we had had a minor cold. Well, this week, we had a major cold. It's been a bad one.I'm pretty sure it wasn't the flu. It was most definitely the worst cold we've had all winter. And we've had a lot. sigh....

So, this homeschool week was pretty much a bust. Here's the picture I shared for Wordless Wednesday this week:

3 days + 4 sick kids + 2 sick parents = one trashed living room!

Pretty scary, huh?!

We are finally on the mend. The living room, however, is not. yet! I insisted that we all go out and sit on the porch in the sun for at least 15 minutes this afternoon. I read aloud some of the Purim chapter of Jewish Holidays and Festivals A Young Persons Guide to the Stories, Practices and Prayers of Jewish Celebrations. We also started reading Misty of Chincoteague.

Here's the kids spread out on the front porch:

They decided they didn't want to show their faces. The little one dragged his pillow and blanket outside. lol

After we came in, 3 of the kids decided to go back out. One decided to draw a picture of her sister. It took some doing, but she finally agreed I could share it here. I think she did great!

Did you know you can play Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego on Facebook? When your sitting around sick, you find out all kinds of things.  :)






Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights