Joyfully Weary

In years past, we've been working our way through Story of The World by Susan Wise Bauer. This year, however, we are taking a break from world history and studying American history. We joined a co-op and one of the classes the kids are taking is Hands On American History. Originally, I had planned on continuing Story of the World   at home. We are about half-way through Vol 3, early modern history , so in some ways the lesson would coincide. I quickly realized, however, that it wasn't going to work. In class they do a lot of games and skits to make history come alive; but I also wanted to supplement what they were learning with some living books. There just isn't enough time to do the reading for both. For now, we've pressed pause on Story of the World and will probably pick it back up come May when the class ends.  We are just wrapping up our books on the America Revolution and the Founding Fathers; I thought I'd share what we read. Jean Fritz is one ...

It's been a busy last couple weeks...I guess I almost always say that, huh? Life with kids is just plain hectic, even when we don't have plans it feels like we never really stop. I've been especially thankful for the few naps I've gotten in recently.  Even twenty minutes can make such difference. Our front porch has become quite the hang out spot for our family this summer. In the afternoon and evenings it's full neighbor kids. In the morning, however, it's peaceful and the perfect place to enjoy a cup of coffee. Jeremy and I try to sneak out there before the kids are awake but sometimes they end up joining us.  a mug of milk, not coffee :) 

If you are frequent visitor to our blog, you've probably picked up on the fact that we are pretty big fans of books. We considered them 'friends' and enjoy that they introduce us to all kinds of new discoveries. The first thing, I always do when we start a new school unit/topic is look for great books. I also do this, whenever, this kids organically develop their own interests. Which means to my dismay, that I currently know far more about scorpions than I'd like to - knowledge just makes them even more gross and scarier! That book lists, however, will have to wait till another time. With July 4th, just around corner we've started reading, once again, about our country's Independence Day. Below is a list of our current favorite reads.  Fiction Jake Johnson: The Story of a Mule ,  by Tres Seymour -  A silly story of a stubborn mule who  is  suppose to pull the fireworks in to town but refuses to move. The battle between the farmer's wife and mu...

One of the crafts I had the children make during my church's summer day-camp was tin can wind chimes. There where some primed cans left over that I couldn't bear to throw away. When I saw that my mother-in-law (aka Maca) had pinned this patriotic wind chime , the boys and I decided to surprise her.  busy at work  Our supplies: primed food cans (various size with whole drilled in bottom), acrylic paint, brushes, mod podge, fishing line, washers, foam star stickers, glitter pins, jingle bells  *you can use unprimed cans and/or tempera paint but the colors will be less  opaque and vibrant.  Step 1: paint cans it took a little encouraging to get the boys to cover the whole can in paint . big buddy had the brilliant idea of using a pencil eraser to make polka dots - "maca loves red and polka dots, she going to be so happy" Step 2: when paint is dry, decorate cans with glitter pins and foam stickers ...