Not So Wordless...

We took the kids to see the lights at Bristol Motor Speedway. It was so neat!!

The volcano had real flames!

We actually got to drive on the track! We drove halfway on one of the turns. Physics lesson! :)

Baby turns 1!! *sniffle*

First Birthday

Click on the photo to see ALL of the pics.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Weekly Report ?13?

We did well this week. Everyone was sick so we took Friday off, only to find out that we had a surprise field trip!!

Daddy's work had Santa come, so we went to see him. Then they took us on a tour! (They make cabs for Caterpillar and John Deere machinery.) Here's some pics.

I started T on "Preschool" this week. I'd been having a hard time figuring out when to do it. So, this week we tried something new. B, 2nd grade, and C, 1st grade, are reading to each other out of Pathway Readers. They love the stories and she is helping C while I work with T. I am so happy the way it worked out!

We also made Papyrus this week. We're going to make blackberry ink on Monday. After we write on them I'll post pics of that adventure! All in all, it was a great week.

Wordless Wednesday

Weekly Report??

We kind of took some time off. We went to Ohio for the Holiday. That drained us! :)

4 kids and a dog in the back of a Dodge Neon.

We had Christmas with my mom, she lives in TX and neither of us are making the trip to OH in December.

This is the tunnel at Cumberland Gap. The kids LOVE going through here.

Wordless Wednesday

This was a couple of years ago.
(mascara, in case you're wondering)

Wordless Wednesday

Graphics provided by MySpaceAnimations.com

The Death of a Great Man (Week 11)

We had a very important lesson on death this week. Our Pastor from Ohio died last Friday. I started going to his church in November of 1997, so it's been 10 years. Wow, time flies. My husband and I met at church about a year later, when he started coming. In August of 1999, Rev. Lonnie Lyle married us. His health started to deteriorate about a year after that. In February of 2004 he was rushed to the hospital with an infection in his left leg. He woke up only to discover that it had been amputated not too far from his hip. He never fully recovered physically. Mentally, he was fine.

We moved to TN this past April, and we just didn't have the money to go up to Ohio on such short notice. I'm sad that we couldn't make it to the funeral. He was a big part of our lives. Our kids called him Papaw Pastor. He had just turned 51.

We sat the kids down and said, "You know how Pastor's been sick a lot? Well, he just couldn't get better this time. He went to Heaven to be with Jesus." B cried. C was sad that Pastor died, but happy that he could run now. :) I still don't think that T fully understands.

Later, B said, "Mommy, Pastor is taking care of the baby now." And I started bawling. (In Jan 06 I had a miscarriage. A couple months later I got pregnant with my littlest guy.)

So, that's what we did this week.

Week 10 Report ~ begin Term 2

Ok, this week was crazy. Daddy started a new job, he went from 2nd shift to 1st shift. I found that we get more accomplished when we learn in the morning!! I also had to prepare for our Thanksgiving Feast. (Which we just finished.) I still feel that we got quite a bit accomplished, though.

T ~ K4
This week we concentrated on learning to spell and write his name.

B ~ grade 2
I didn't have her do a spelling pretest, we worked through the lessons. She did perfectly on the final test. Math went a lot better this week. She's always struggled a bit, but this week subtraction just seemed to "click."

C ~ grade 1
He completed Explode the Code book 1 and started book 2. He wanted to finish so bad, that he would VOLUNTARILY work through about 10 pages at a time. His handwriting is improving with practice, and his math skills are unparalleled.

Andrew Johnson Field Trip

We planned on taking this week off. Daddy was on vacation this week so we decided to take them to Andrew Johnson's Home and Museum.

I had such a hard time choosing pictures so click here to see them all.

This is the family tree taken at "The Early Home" across from the Museum/Tailor Shop. Andrew and Eliza had 5 children. None of the 3 boys ever had any children of their own.

This is the original Tailor Shop. In 1921-1923 the State of TN constructed a brick building around it. This is now the Museum.

"What would you wear in Andrew Johnson's day?"


Andrew Johnson's bedroom on the first floor.


AJ's bed. The shirt was actually worn by him.


This "invalid's chair" was in Eliza's room (his wife). She had Tuberculosis.


Also in Eliza's room. This is a piece of wall with no wallpaper showing where the Confederate Army wrote/scratched nasty messages to AJ on his walls. This one says "Andrew Johnson the old trator" an 'i' was written smaller between the 'a' and 't': showing where fellow soldiers corrected the spelling. :)


These "toys" were in the grandchildren's room. The little furniture were actually samples that salesmen would bring to show customers.


The middle picture was Robert "Bob" Johnson. He died of TB in this room.


Andrew Johnson Jr. was called "Frank". He was 19 years younger than the next youngest sibling. His sisters had sons and named them Andrew Johnson (insert last name) as well. They all lived in this house. He died of TB as well. I believe he was 23.


Frank's room used to be a dining room and this doorway was where the kitchen used to be. I took the picture to show the "cage" where we were actually allowed to stand in each room.


Here is Sam Johnson and his half sister Dolly Johnson with her children. They were slaves. After they were freed AJ paid them for all the time they worked for him and kept them on as paid servents.


The kitchen was moved to the basement and in doing so, Dolly and her children had to move into a house on the grounds with Sam.


Entrance to the basement/kitchen.


B asked TONS of questions.


"IN THE MEMORY OF MY BELOVED HUSBAND"
AJ was buried (at his request) wrapped in an American Flag with a copy of the Constitution as a pillow.


The cemetery was a miniature mountain in itself!! This is the family plot, not too far from the Homestead.

Week 9 Report ~ End Term 1

Not much really happened this week. We did our lapbook, and a little bit of math and other stuff. We've been reading ... If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620.
The kids really enjoy it. I love hearing "Did that really happen?" When we're done, we'll read If you were at...The First Thanksgiving. I'm going to have to read about 20 pages a day to get done by Thanksgiving (which is the goal).

Check out our first lapbook below.

Our First LapBook!

I was so excited when we finished our first lapbook. The kids really enjoyed it. They looked forward to the mini book everyday!! :)

Week 8 Report

I hate to say that we only got about 1/2 done this week. I found lots of mice "stuff" and I went on a cleaning kick.

B passed her spelling pretest again. She needs more practice in subtraction before we can really move on to the next section of 1A. I did make some number bond flash cards, she likes looking at them. I also made some Number Bond copywork pages that I'll start having her do next week.

C was extremely excited to start his new math book. He's doing very well. It's helping his reading along too, because he wants to read his own directions (like his sister does.)

We finished "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" so I let them watch the movie. I had forgotten how different it was. Poor kids were confused. :) "I thought Jenner wasn't in the book." They just couldn't get over that one. *My* main question is: If the rats don't age normally why was Nicodemus so OLD, and Jenner was fairly young.

This is why I hate it when I watch a movie that was a book. The only movie that I've ever truly been satisfied with is "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardorbe."

I finally got my books from CBD and I will be starting our Science and Earth books next week. I did some researching on lapbooks today and I really want to do them. I think the kids will enjoy it.

Week 7 Report

Well, I have to say this week went great! Our 7th week, and the first one that I actually finished EVERYTHING I planned. It's so wonderful!

LEARNING TOGETHER
History/Geography: I bought History for Little Pilgrims and I really like it, but we will be done in just a few weeks. I wanted them to have a general overview of history before we began to dig into a particular era.

This is what we did as I'm waiting for my new book from CBD
called The Earth.

Science: There again I'm waiting on a book called Science. So this week we read a section from my Usborne Science Encyclopedia.

Bible: We've read 5 stories from our Egermeier Bible Story Book. Mostly about Abram this week. We always color a picture to go with it. I don't want "Bible" to become dull or dreaded so I don't require anything.

Music: We read from Meet the Great Composers about Bach this week. Well, I read while the CD was on repeat. My plan is 1Composer a month. We'll see what happens.

B ~ grade 2

English: She started English for the Thoughtful Child this week. We were using First Language Lessons and she was doing fine, but I wanted a less intensive approach.

Reading: This week she started reading one section of Christian Liberty Nature Reader and then she copies the sentence of her choice.

Spelling: I've been having her take a "pretest" and if she gets the majority of them right she doesn't have to do her lesson. This week she only got one wrong. So, NO LESSON THIS WEEK.

Math: She worked through subtraction within 10 in Singapore PM 1A. Honestly, she did a lot better than I thought she would. She's just not very mathematically inclined.

C ~ grade 1

Reading: C read Green Eggs and Ham for the first time on Monday. He's also working through OPG. He's doing well.

Phonics: C just loves Explode the Code.

Math: He finished Earlybird 2B and started PM 1A on Friday. He is my math whiz. It won't be long before he surpasses his sister.

T ~ K4
I don't have too much actually "set" for him to do. He's at the table with Preschool workbooks though (his choice) the whole time we're working.

Address Practice

I know that you know what these are... My kids LOVE to fill them out. In fact, I didn't realize that my daughter (2nd grade) knew her complete address. We moved in May and I just haven't worked with her yet. I was surprised when I found a BUNCH of these things filled out...correctly!!

My Little Helper

He's pulling himself up now, when I got to him a few of my school books were on the floor.

Here he decided to take the clothes OUT of the dryer as I was putting them IN.

Bays Mountain

Entrance to Bays Mountain

Looking at the fishies.

Freshwater Jellyfish.

All of the kiddles

They loved seeing the turtles

Up Close and Personal with the Big Bad Wolf

The ones on the left are mine

Checking out the live snakes

The Snake Lady

This was the 4th time he touched the snake. My camera wasn't ready the first 3.

The King Snake.
Not Poisonous, and immune to other snake venom.

On the dam.

To see all of the pictures please click here