Hannah, Kalie, Karin, Katy, Celeste, Lauren, Hayden & Brooke (L to R)
Here we are ready for our first group activity. We performed a skit about fishing. Everyone loved it and the girls were so cute.
Before breakfast Saturday AM.
After breakfast, playing games in the rain. We were playing Little Sally Walker.
WOW! I put a call for help out to my "cyber friends" and ... You guys are great! You came up with way more than I ever would have thought of. I do not know what I would do without the collective knowledge my "cyber friends" have. Thanks!
I have put in a reserve of over 26 books from the library (we have multiple cards). Kalie and I sat down and talked about what she might want in her back yard. We looked at MANY links and spent a bit of time on the Internet. She had to print out her "best" projects. This is turning into a GREAT unit study, but I am not going to tell her that. LOL! I am going to make this a blog project for me. I will blog pictures of our before and after (as we go along).
One thing that she really wanted was a place to go and be by herself. So today we set up the tent (4 person) and she had a place to go. We also used it as our schoolroom, so today we had "tent school". It was GREAT! (Oh by the way, we are re-reading Little House in the Big Woods, she does not want to move on to the next book yet.)
Here are some of the things we will be doing (mostly her ideas): taking pictures, making a backyard map (before and after), measuring, comparing prices, researching plants, building, painting, planting, picnicking, . We "planned" many things and created a budget. Tomorrow we are going to Walmart, Lowes and Home Depot to make our list of supplies and prices. The Farmers Market is having a plant sale the first weekend in May, so we will buy most of our plants there. A local homeschooler has worms and their castings for sale, so we will buy some.
Some of the ideas she loves and wants to include are: a sunflower house, plant tunnel, stepping stones, square foot gardening, container gardening, strawberry tower, the certified Habitat from the National Wildlife Federation, a butterfly garden, bird bath and feeders, water and sand play area ... did you notice that a swing set was not on the list? It was not as big of a priority as I thought it was. Who knew? At the end of the season I will try to get a bench swing that the whole family can enjoy. That will be more for me. LOL!
Another thing that was very important to her was that our garden be as organic and environmentally friendly as possible. She amazes me sometimes. LOL!
Thanks for all of the advice, help and support that you guys give me. It has been a rough year and I couldn't have made it without you. Things are beginning to look up!
OK I need help, A LOT of help. Kalie wants to "fix our backyard so it is not so disgusting and ugly" and plant a garden (vegetable and flowers). I am so not a gardener or an outside creating girl. LOL! I need help and advice and links. I am handy with simple tools and building projects.
I would like to create an outside living area for our family that is fun inviting and cheap. We rent and the landlord will let us do almost anything to improve the yard at our expense. I do not want to invest a lot of money in permanent improvements beyond some plants.
I have done a search of library books for gardening with children. I am waiting for them to come in. A suggestion of a good book would be wonderful.
I would like to surprise her by build a simple swing set, A frame with 2 swings. I tried to find free plans online but had no luck. I do not want to spend $50 on plans as our budget for the "total improvements" is about $150. I would also like to build some type of inexpensive shelter to provide shade. We have no trees in our yard.
I think a raised bed would be the best for our vegetable garden as we have the "red clay" yard. I need suggestions of plants that would be easy to grow and would produce food for her.
HELP!
Wow! It has been a month since I posted. So much has gone on … but mainly we were sick. I will try to recap most of what has happened in our life.
Health ~ Kalie’s allergies are acting up, but that is too expected with the time of year. Kasie caught a “cold” and brought it home to us. I guess because I have been under so much stress lately my immune system is decrease because it turned into walking pneumonia for me. I was pretty much useless for almost 3 weeks. So Kalie has had a very light spring schedule. LOL! We are better now and things are picking up for us. I told Kasie the next time she is sick, she needs to stay at North Greenville. I DO NOT want any more of their germs. I have been sick 4 times since she went to that school. Kalie keeps telling her that she needs to "do college online at home" so we won't be sick.
Girl Scouts ~ Our cookie sale ended with about $350 in profit for the troop. I think that is good since we only have 7 girls. Two weeks ago we had a new girl join the troop, Celeste. She is a friend of Lauren. So we are now up to 5 brownies and 3 juniors. Our service unit is hosting their annual encampment at Camp Wabak on April 18-20. We are so excited! I had a lot of down time when I was sick so I was able to plan lots of stuff. Our end of the year hurrah/cookie sale celebration will be at Build-A-Bear on May 31st. Our awards ceremony will be June 2nd. Our summer plans are almost finished with a meeting every 3 weeks and a field trip or activity once a month.
Izabel ~ She is one wild and crazy dog. We love her to death but she is worse than the cats or the girls. The pets wake me up between 5:30 and 6:30 every morning to be let out. YUCK! I usually am up for the rest of the day after that. We had been letting her sleep with us but she was not very good. She would want to play at about 3:00 am. So now she sleeps in the crate at night. I checked into the AKC. We are going to register her with the AKC but I do not think we will show her. It seemed to me that the “clubs” in our area were a little too high strung for us.
School ~ Kalie has “learned to read”. Yea! A few weeks ago she read her first chapter book all by herself, Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. She is now reading everything she can, mostly out loud. LOL! So things are changing around here. I am able to give her a little more independent work. When I was sick I had lots of time to veg out, watch TV and read. During that time I was also able to “research” and make decisions for the next school year. We school year round so our new year will begin June 1st. So … I think we will be a little more structured with things and will be adding in new subjects. I am going to try to “hold her back” and keep her in the 2nd grade range. I have thought about this for most of the year and I just do not think it will be a good idea for her to go to college 2 weeks after she turns 18, which is what will happen if she goes to 3rd grade now. I think I might phase in the new stuff one at a time to help with the transitions. We will notebook and lapbook most of our subjects. My plan is:
· Bible - Calvary Chapel (free online) to create our Bible Notebook (this is what we do now and it is working)
· History and Geography - Story of the World 1
· Science - Apologia (deciding between Zoo 1and Astronomy)
· Reading and Language Arts – Learning Language Arts Through Literature (trying to decide on which level to start her in)
· Math - ????? We did a textbook and that did not work well. We tried RightStart but I had the wrong level (too easy) and she hated it, I don’t think she will try the next level. I don’t know if we can afford Math U See, so… any suggestions? We have been playing Math games and using real life math for about 6 weeks now but I know we need something more.
· Art – Next year (September) we will take art lessons from Samantha Bell again. She is wonderful and Kalie loves it! (Not sure what day next year.)
· PE – I hope to be more disciplined and get her to homeschool PE every week. (They meet Mon and Thru, but we usually do Mon.)
· Music – I would love to get her piano lessons, but we would need to get a piano or keyboard so she can practice.
· Girl Scouts – We will continue on Mondays.
WOW! Now that it is all written out it seems like a lot. I am overwhelmed. LOL!
Church ~ We have not been to church in over a month because we have been sick. I am so looking forward to it this weekend! Hopefully we will be able to go to community group also, but that will depend on the older girls work schedule.
Katie and Kasie ~ They are to be finished with exams and will be moving back home April 30th. So, please pray that the transition will go smoothly. Kasie will be working at Girl Scout camp again this summer. She is very excited! Katie is trying to get a job as an overnight resident counselor at Camp Spearhead (special education camp) or the recreation center (day camp).
Well I think that is it. I hope you have enjoyed this recap. LOL!
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