Southeast Homeschool Expo 2011

This is usually my kickoff encouragement before I start my school year, but this year things were different.
Number 1 - I had already started our school year, but you know what, it still was encouraging. It's always a good time for encouragement in homeschool.
Number 2 - We enrolled the kids in Kidzone for Friday, which gave Theron and I some time for just the two of us.

After dropping the kids off, we sat down in the Atrium with some coffee and discussed the workshops we were going to attend.

Cumberland Galleria

Head of the Rose Team

tools of the trade

Then we headed off to hear some great speakers.

Steve Demme of Math-U-See He encourages families in a witty yet also serious way and shared how God led him to create the Math-U-See program. It was my first time ever hearing him speak. We went to three of his workshops and came away full.

The Razvis First time hearing this couple speak also about their family and things that have worked for them and their large family. They have alot of wisdom for those who add to their families through adoption.

After some workshops, we picked up the kids for lunch and got to hear some of what they had seen, like the Lego movie from Shatterpoint Entertainment about the Israelites in the dessert, and cool science experiments.

Student 1

Student 2

After lunch, they got to go back and see a preview of the Dolphin Tale movie and critters from Zoo Atlanta, and hear a storyteller.

Part of that evening after we picked the kids and up, and the next day, they got to go through the vendor hall with us.
The Atlanta History Center had a nice exhibit.

"I can't see you very well through this monocle, but I will still tell you a thing or two."

"I am so STRONG."

Then there is always the chess area.

The Thinker

"Hmmm, this looks like a good move."

It's fun to try out the samples.

"I'm all ears."

"Crank it up."

The kids also got to go to some workshops with us on Saturday. We also got to go by the Dolphin Tale booth and see one of the actors, get a signed movie poster, and get a dolphin balloon hat.

The Hat

 We always let the kids get something that is around $5. Hannah chose a horse color by number picture and modeling clay, and Josiah's choice was a book on How to Draw Dinosaurs.

Until next year!

The Roses are leaving the building.

Making Up for Missed Mondays

41. gifts from mom.

Soaps, lotions, bath salts sent through the mail with a sweet handmade card

42. unseen gifts.

What is unseen is eternal

43. flowers from Theron.

beautiful orchids like my mom's

44. quiet.

      In the stillness, in the quiet, I know that YOU are near.

45. a backyard oasis (pool) on a hot July day.

two fish

46. dipping chips together.

Yummy cheese dip

47. summer showers that come and go.

two ducks

48. doves.

(Sorry, this picture does not do them justice. Better in real life.)

49. Little surprises.

Baby mantis on Josiah's arm

50. Milestone birthday - fabulous fifty!
      What a coincidence! This is my fiftieth entry. That does not mean that I will be one hundred when I post my hundredth entry, does it? That is meant to be funny. (Insert laughter) Okay, I'm trying not to overreact. Theron told me, "It's not that bad being fifty." That made me feel better. He should know.

What would you do?

zinnias in the garden

If it were a Friday morning,
 you might go help a friend who is having a Reading Club for neighborhood kids.

If your boy asked,
you would probably let him ride his bike in the culdesac while his sister rode her scooter.

If you want to add culture to your child's education,
you might teach an art lesson and listen to classical music.

If your husband gets off work early and you are adventurous (even in 90 degree weather),
you could go looking for some geocaches.

Do you see where this one might be?

If you have time,
you will find two!

Hannah with our second find of the day.

If you need a treat,
you might find yourself at Baskin Robbins.

Josiah and his favorite (vanilla).

If you are smart,
you will spend some time underwater to escape the heat.

Josiah diving under the noodle.

If you just can't keep your hands out of the dirt,
you will pull some weeds just for fun.

If you want to get an ice cream cake for your birthday,
you will probably go to three different stores before you find one that you think is a good price.

If you want to go out to eat and your favorite place is an hour long wait,
you most likely will go to your second favorite place.

bean burrito and guacamole salad

If you want to come home and relax with a family friendly movie from Netflix,
you're gonna have to settle for a documentary about the ocean, but that's okay because you really do like documentaries about the ocean.

Whew! It was a busy day. Would you choose to do all of those things? Well, we did all of these things on Friday. It's easier to celebrate your last day being 49 that it is to celebrate your first day being 50.

Building Blocks

We began our science today using these two books about the human body.

This book has lots of good hands on things to do.

Hannah gets alot out of the internet links.

I was excited about doing a model cell. This is how it turned out.

It has a cell membrane (baggie), cytoplasm (jello), and nucleus (grape).

Hannah's cell model

Josiah loves showing how his changes shape.

We learned how cells are the building blocks of all living things (hence the title of this post). I love learning about the human body. God is an amazing Creator.

Hannah is still finishing up her Handwriting Without Tears cursive book and doing very well. Almost done, and yes, no tears.

Hannah, the scribe

She even did some on her "wax" tablet.

Josiah is practicing his writing with a magnetic write-on, wipe-off board.

I think I'll be looking into how to deal with dyslexia soon. The youngest is still struggling with reversed numbers and letters.

We are also using English from the Roots Up again this year and I'm glad that Josiah is learning it, too. Last year, we did the Greek portion and this year, we are doing the Latin portion.

Unus is the Latin word for one and the Roman numeral one.

School Year-Round

To begin with, let me say that I did not do a very good job sharing about Creation to the Greeks last year. It was a fun year and we did alot of cool stuff, but I think my mind was more on, "Let's get this done, so we can check it off and move on."

I've noticed that my children's retention of what they learned has gone downhill, because of my rush to the finish line. Also, maybe their joy of learning.

So, for a change, we are going to try the year-round schooling schedule, which means, . . . I can start NOW! I can be more relaxed. We can take off days when the weather is cooler and more enjoyable. I can use pooltime as an incentive to get schoolwork done. Yay! . . . at least for a while.

The pictures show "wax writing tablets" we made with non-hardening modeling clay instead of wax. The Romans used something similar to this to write on. We have enjoyed using them. They might be fun to leave messages on for the kids to read.

Now that Josiah is entering second grade, he can join Hannah in Rome to the Reformation. So, here we go!

Geocaching

Today, we decided to try our hand at geocaching. This was a Friday when Theron was home early and we definitely needed his "tech"brain help. He was also familiar with using a GPS for something called Orienteering. So, we chose three sites to explore and set out.
Our first one, once again . . .  a disappointment. We searched and searched and could not find it.

Mr. Funnyguy

If this one was tricky, well they had us tricked. We refueled . . .

Yeah, it was hot.

and moved on to our next one, following the directions from our navigational tools and this one had clues, too, that were helpful. It was a nice sight and we enjoyed walking around the grounds. Not sure why I did not take pictures of it. I guess that just adds to the mystery of it for you. It was actually a historic site and while we were there, a nice black car pulled up. The driver pulled a walker out of the trunk and helped his passenger out of the car. They looked at the site and took pictures. The elderly gentleman pointed to an upstairs window. That was his room when he was a boy. He had lots of memories. He remembers running down to the creek for a short dip. Wish we had sat and listened to him reminisce a bit more. Why do we hurry so?
Theron was the one who found the cache, so he got to open it and sign it for us.

This is a small one for sure.

It only contained a log book.

Happy with our first find, we moved on to our last one. With a bit of searching, Theron uncovered it. A much larger stash was found in this one. The kids were delighted. It was a simple mayonnaise jar (cleaned out of course) with a log book, pen and some goodies. The kids were prepared with stuff to trade. There was just one problem. Can you guess what that was?

They both wanted the wind-up monkey

A note for the finder

We got the monkey and left a balloon toy and a Malibu token. They will just have to share the monkey.

Letterbox Find #2

Another hot July morning, make that late morning as we are not known to be early risers, especially on the heels of a fireworks night, and we are off to find our next letterbox.
This one is at yet another park, close to the library we frequent. We come with gifts for the geese. A flock with only one gosling has been in attendance since the young one's hatching. Upon arriving, we find that all of the flock has left, but this small family. The gosling has grown and is hardly distinguishable from the parents.

The gosling and parents

Tossing crumbs

Into the water

The fish are liking it, too

a nearby tree that caught my eye

Looks like a cypress

We move on, in search of our box.

Goodbye to the trio of geese

I wonder if they will be here next time

 Another successful find! This one was called Retirement is Great! There was a picnic table not too far away where we took our find to do the stamping.

stamping the log

We remembered to take something to write with this time, so we could put the date and our trail name - TeamRose in the log book.

I think they like gardening, golf, rubberstamping, and flying

Josiah blows the shofar (stick)

Josiah wielding his sword (stick)

Josiah took this picture of a bee fly he found

 Now we're ready to head to the library to cool off and check out some books.

Happy Trails! Until next time.