Our School Year

Well, another school year close to seeing another year change. It is hard to believe that we are looking at 2010. Luke will graduate in another year and Melanie will be one more year closure to High School. We have had a busy year, me in the hospital and our trip to Georgia. I will post some pictures soon. We had a blast. Any ways, I have not posted for some time on this blog. I hope that you have found what you needed when you have been here. I hope that your year has gone smoothly. Like I said, I have somethings to post and some pictures, so I will be on soon. God bless all of you and thank you for visiting my blog. Tanya

I have not posted in a while because I have been in the hospital. My appendix decided that it wanted to evict. So, during this time, I taught the kids about the appendix. And for some reason, I have been able to do school with the kids. But seriously, I have actually felt good, in fact even better than I did before the surgery. So, it was time for it to come out. I hope all is well in Home school land. If you need any help, please email me or leave a comment. And of course, if you have any sites you would like to share let me know. God bless you.

Eagle Owl

Last night, about midnight, I was turning off some lights and getting ready for bed. I kept hearing this hooting sound and I thought it was the kids. I opened the front door and stood there for a while and sure enough, I heard an owl. I called the kids down and we stood on the front porch for a while and listened to the owl. It was cloudy outside, so the sky was light. All of a sudden there was a scuffle in the trees and two owls came gliding out over our roof. Then they turned around and one owl landed in our tree and the other across the street in another tree. They both started in with the hooting and then the other from across the street flew back into our tree. They started scuffling again and both of them flew away. They headed for trees up the hill from our house. I got a good look at one and it was huge and the wing span was wide. I came in and looked at our animal books and found the eagle owl. It is the largest owl I could find. So at twelve thirty in the morning Luke, Melanie and I were having a lesson on owls. It was so awesome. I love learning.

Our School

Well another school year is now upon us. I am so surprised at the beautiful summer that we were blessed with and how fast it went. It really seems like we did not have a summer of rest, we were always busy with some activity. Fairs, to plays, to fireworks, church activities and friends over. Now, we have to get down to the grind and get school going. Luke is a junior this year and Melanie is now a sixth grader. Wow, they have grown fast. We are going to do American History and look at geography more closely. I also hope to get Luke moving on to more challenging math and work on Life skills. Melanie is showing more interest in everything from buds on flowers to how things work. She has always been a curious kind of girl. We will also start up with Nursing home visits and possible scrapebooking with the residents at the Nursing home. Melanie and I love to scrapebook. It is one activity that we do together. I hope that all of you were able to get to the site okay and make sure you check out the daily freebie site. They offer many curriculums for free. I hope to add more sites on this blog and possibly more homeschool blogs. Enjoy your visit and I hope you have an awesome school year.

This is Luke and Melanie.

Welcome New School Year

We have been very busy around here. I have been doing some odds and ends that I can not do during the school year. We are now heading around the bend and will be starting school within a week. So I am getting all of my last minute items in order. I would like to remind all of you home school families that CPI forms can be obtained at http://www.hslda.com/ or the Niche website. They are due really soon. I also stumbled upon two websites that may really help with your math or just crafts or projects this year. This math website is amazing and I think that I am going to be using it many time during our school year, http://www.homeschoolmath.net/. You really need to check this little ditty out. Then the other day I stumbled on a blog that I found really good. I have been wanting to do more sewing with the kids and this blog has plenty. Here is the address to the blog, http://sherylmaxey.com/. I will be honest, I have not done to much searching of this blog. From what I seen I really liked. I hope that all of your planning and teaching is so blessed this year and I will post more later. God bless.

We The People

This is a group of girls that my daughter and I are involved with. The girls put on a play about the colonies and the set up of the new government. They went to the local nursing home, Good Samaritan. The residents just love the girls and the girls really love the residents.




This is Melanie, is she not beautiful. I love that stain glass window behind her. It is so awesome.












Here is another mom working on the costumes for the girls. We had little colonial women, Indians and gentlemen. Very creative with their costumes. They looks so good.







We were so blessed this time with some grandma's and grandpa's helping with the play. They did an awesome job and it was awesome to see family input to the play.







And here are the two mascots for the play. They had a wonderful time waving their flags and rolling in the wagon. They are so cute.

Here are the girls singing songs. They sang some awesome songs, "Yankee Doodle", God bless America, America the Beautiful, and She is a Grand Old Flag. The residents had a wonderful time with the kids and vice a versa. It is so awesome to see how they have all grown in the couple of years that we have done this. They are all wonderful little ladies. What are you doing this summer, please let me know. God bless all of you and Have a wonderful "Fourth Of July."

Why I became a Home school Mom

Jeff came to me about seven years ago and asked me if I would consider home schooling the kids. I was not really sure that I would be able to do that. But with some time of prayer and some time picking the brains of other home school mothers, Jeff and I pulled Luke out of public school and never looked back. Oh, I would not be honest if sometimes I might wonder if I am doing a benefit to the kids by keeping them home and not in public school. But then I see how close Luke and Melanie are, and that we as a family are so close. I think that we would not be as close if we had let the kids stay in Public school. I am also blessed because I was able to teach Melanie to read and watch Luke actually do Multiplication. We were told that Luke may not get that far in Public School. And now he is doing multiplication and division. I have been so bless to watch the growth of both kids.
Now, Melanie and Luke do Nursing Home visits. They are taught about God and what we want them to know about the history of our great America. I really love teaching them, I seem to walk away knowing more than I did. Recently, we started looking at the history of our country. We bought the book, "5000 Year leap" and we are reading it as a family. It is so interesting, I am learning clearly more about our forefathers than I did in high school. We are learning about Jamestown and the free enterprise. Why Jamestown was such a success in growth, then in other countries or tribes that fell so quickly after rapid growth. It is a great book and one that should be in your library. We are also learning about the faith of these forefathers. It is awesome to be able to share this with the kids.

We are also so blessed to be able to teach the kids other things that maybe the public school could not. More music, more cooking, more life skills. I just learned the other day that the public school does not teach the kids how to address envelopes or write thank you notes or business letters. I have been able to share this with the kids, even in the age of the computer, the kids still need to know this. I am so glad that I listened to the Lord and Jeff and I brought the kids home. I love the kids and I am blessed.

Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo

Yesterday, Jeff and I took the kids to the zoo. Jeff's job gave all of us the opportunity to go. It was a blast. The day was wonderful also, there was a light breeze and it was not that hot.



During the year, Melanie and I love to watch the "Meerkat Manner"on Animal Planet. We fell in love with these little guys. It was so cool to get to see them up close. The one on the rock actually came down for me to take its picture. It was so cute.
These pictures are from the dessert dome. It was three deserts from the world, Africa, Australia and American deserts. It was so cool to see all the wild life that live there.



Jeff, Luke and Melanie in front of a cactus.

This year during school, I taught the kids the different structures of the caves. We were so excited to see that the desert dome also showed the structures of caves and all the bats that go with it. Here are Luke and Melanie in a cave.

The Polar Bear was really cool in the water, he looked pretty big.

Oh, the butterfly house was so awesome. The butterflies and hummingbirds were all over the house. The attendants had to check you when you left the house to make sure there were no stow aways. The even had a bee hive that we could watch.



Lunch anyone?

Speaking of Lunch, Jeff's job gave us free lunch and entertainment. This is Foster, she lives in Australia. She talked for us and screamed. She was a beautiful bird.

Jelly fish, this was from the Aquarium. There is so much to see in the zoo. We did not see all of it and we were talking about going another time in the year to see more.





After Lunch we rode the train around the park. We had such a wonderful time. We even seen animals that we would not see from the walking. The only complaint about the train is that it can be noisy.



Here is Melanie and her new friend. She loved the turtles. I think I see a pet turtle in our future?

This is the new Madagascar exhibit. It will be open in the Spring of 2010. Jeff and I were really talking about making another trip next year to see it. It looks like it will be cool.



Here is the Train station and across from it is the carousel and the feeding zoo. We did not get to it, because we went to an Imax Movie. By time the movie was over, we were all tired and ready to go home. We had a wonderful day at the zoo. If you are close to Omaha or making a stop in Omaha, the zoo is well worth your time and money. Get there early though, there is a lot to see.