For our spelling words we like to “Mix It Up”, (another suggestion from Sonlight). It really makes spelling enjoyable 
. Two of P’s favorite ways; that are easy for Mom:
On the white board and with water colors–
This really appeals to my artistic side. We still write them on regular paper with a pencil at least once a week, even though it is boring.
In week 11 under “Developmental Activity” Sonlight suggested that you have your children sort socks. This whole time I didn’t know that I was doing school with the girls every week at laundry time . Ok, so my reasons for having them do it were not so honorable, (I hate sorting socks)
. However I’m glad to find out it’s actually good for them 
.
The socks quickly become puppets:
We love to dress up 
. Grammy bought some wonderful dress up at the thrift store THANK YOU!
Well, we finally had our garage sale. We have been saying we would do it for over two months (maybe three 
). I needed to sell all the junk we had collected, plus after loosing weight I had all this fabulous clothes that did not fit anymore. It was very sad to see some of it go 
, by this time I had become very creative in the ways I wore the last few items of clothing I had (putting hair ties in the back of shirts, ect…). Now you may say this is a good problem to have. I agree, but when money is tight and you can’t just go buy a whole new wardrobe, it can be a little frustrating. Thus the reason for the garage sale. With the money we made I was able to go to Walmart and get everything I needed for the summer (it is amazing how far you can stretch your money at Wally World)!
We had a fun time doing the garage sale . We met some of or neighbors that we hadn’t had the privilege of meeting yet. We also met others in our small town. Even though we are coming up on 3 years here, I am still amazed at how nice people can be. It was nice having my hubby home on a Friday,and the kids enjoyed being outside all day. I’m glad we finally got to it.
Lately I have been reading a little about Charlotte Mason and her methods. I think some of it is very cool! Now, you know that I cannot do the whole, “find all the books and make my own lesson plan” thing. We have to have our family, and especially Mommy chill times. Sonlight uses “living books” like Charlotte suggests anyway. So I feel I can still take advantage of some of her ideas without all that work.
I am interested in at least 3 of of her methods:
1.Nature journaling– I would really like to do this with my girl. We are a family who loves nature (hiking being one of our main family outings). Journaling would fit into our family life very well. However I do think that my children need more of a science education than just this, especially as they get older. We will continue with Sonlight’s program which is a lot of fun, and gets us outdoors also.
I am running into a little problem though. I am far from proficient in nature and science studies. Science was never one of my strong subjects 
. Can anyone suggest some resources that will help me define plant and animal types. I don’t want to have to buy a million books, one for every time we have a question. I plan on visiting our local rangers station. Hopefully they can help some .
We have started just a little journaling. Here the girl are drawing pictures of baby pine cones they found in the backyard (from what kind of pine tree I do not know):
2. Narration– Since Sonlight doesn’t really have any tests (which I love by the way, I hate tests 
), narr. has proved to be very helpful in finding out just what they have and haven’t learned. My first attempt at this was with our Bible lesson about John baptizing Jesus. Here’s P’s narration of what happened in the story:File Attachment: P’s Narr..jpg (296 KB). I don’t know if we are doing this exactly right, but it is helpful anyway.
3. Short Lessons– Great idea. P is a dawdler 
. P also hates to leave things undone, she’s a very orderly child. So all I have to do is set the timer. Then I tell her that if she is not done by the time the timer goes off she will have to stop; move on to the next subject; and finish later. I have never seen her move so fast and still do a good job on the task. This keeps her from wasting time, her’s and mine.
If anyone has any suggestions on ways I can improve in these areas(keeping in mind, I don’t want a huge work load), please give them to me. I am also interested in any new ideas,(new to me at least). Just looking for some help.
I did it. I bought a 1982 Jamboree by Fleetwood RV. I have been looking to buy a used motor home for about 5 years now and finally found the one I wanted. The price was right, the layout was outstanding and the timing in my life was amazing. Overall, I have to say, amazing doesn’t even sum up the complete package. And - just like my tent trailer, this RV needed some cosmetic TLC (but not as much as the tent trailer).
When I walked inside I immediately looked to the left, because I was interested in the rear sleeping arrangements (since this is a 24 foot motor home). I found two bunk beds on the rear left and instantly said to myself, “this is the style I need”. I have seen so many floor plans of RV’s. I have toured hundreds in RV lots and peoples personal RVs - I have rarely seen bunk beds in an actual motor home. Usually the pull trailers / 5th wheels would have bunks. As you can see, I have children. I actually have 3. But two bunks is fantastic for my two older girls (they will enjoy the “cubby” sleeping arrangements of the bunks.
OK - let’s get down to specifics. This is a 1982 RV with 100,000 miles on it. It has a Chevy front end with a 350 engine and an Edelbrock manifold. The coach also has a Turbo 400 Automatic transmission. I have to say this motor home was well cared for mechanically. Even though it has 100k miles under it’s belt, it has regular maintenance on it with brand new tires. These are the things that matter to me because I am not a mechanic, but I can fix cosmetic things.
On the mechanical items I need I will prolly shop at Auto Zone and Auto Parts Warehouse.
I determined that this Recreational Vehicle could use these inside updates:
Outside:
I will be shopping at Walmart, Camping World and Al’s RV for all of my RV replacement parts and materials.
I know what you are thinking at this point. How much did you pay for this?? Well, I picked up this motorhome for about $3,000. I figure I will put about $400 into it for the updates I listed above. All in all, my family is really going to enjoy this.
I am in the process of writing a series of step by step articles (with pictures!) about my restoration process. The first article will be about replacing the carpet. If you would like to be notified about that series then tell me your email address:
Here is the photo album for you to enjoy. If you have any questions or comments, post them here!
The Usbourne Children’s Encyclopedia has proved to be a very good imagination starter. We were talking about the different continents and we came to Australia. We discussed the different things found in Aus. and of course the topic of kangaroos came up. We came across a pic. of a mommy kangaroo with her joey in her pouch, on the web. After talking about it a little while we moved onto something else. No big deal right?
Well, the next morning the girls came out of the playroom like this, (they had little stuffed animals in their pants 
):
P said she was protecting her joey. They bounced around, asking all kinds of questions about kangaroos (there were very few I could actually answer, I guess it is research time for mommy
).
You won’t believe it, I can’t. My girl’s after finishing school one day, said “Can we please do History and Science, please”?! You see, we hadn’t done these that day. It was Friday and we had already finished the assignments for the week; the day before; in those two subjects. I was ready to call it quits for the day; due to the fact that I was awakened at 2:30 that night before, with P screaming, after she had vomited. She was completely fine the next morning, but the night was no fun
). Again I wanted to do as little as possible, but how could I tell my daughters, “No, you can’t learn anymore today”. (Although I did try to talk them out of it, a little
). So anyway we delved into the subjects. I’m glad we did it. I know there will be and already have been many days when they have been the ones that are less than excited to do school, but I will hold onto these thrilling little moments. These assure me that I made the right choice to homeschool. I love watching their small minds learn with wonder and excitement
.
Yesterday we were studying Maps and Exploration in the “Usbourne Children’s Encyclopedia”. P asked if she could draw a map, a treasure map to be more specific. So we did.
We started by getting a small cardboard box that I had in the garage. The girls each placed a few things in it (pictures they had colored, a toy car, a plastic dounut, and a sticker), they deemed treasures 
.
Next we found a place that we wanted to bury it in the back yard. The perfect place was behind the play house where there are lots of rocks for Mommy to dig up. So I dug, we buried. I spray painted a black
X on top, because P was quick to remind me “X marks the spot”.
We started our map making out in the garage where Daddy always comes into the house from. Moving our way through the house to the back yard we finished our map entitled, “Daddy’s Treasure Map”.
Finally P taped it to the back of the van so Daddy would see it when he got home. when Jeff called to tell me he was coming home I told him there was something on the back of the van for him 
. When he got here he played along wonderfully and went on an exploration for his treasure. This was a lot of fun!
