Our Homeschool Plan

August 21, 2014

We are nearing the end of August, and most of the kids in our area have already started back to school. Some even started at the beginning of this month! Yikes!

We have been homeschooling since 1999, and because we file our own private school affidavit, we schedule our own school schedule, which works really well for us. This means we won't be starting school until September. And since I only have one student at home now, and she is doing high school work, she is doing most of her work independently.

As you can see, we have quite a full year planned! Here is the list of what she will be studying:

Apologetics: "I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist"
Math: Algebra I with Teaching Textbooks
Art: Color and Composition with Artistic Pursuits
History: British History
Science: Apologia Physical Science
Literature: British Literature with Learning Language Arts Through Literature
Sign Language: this will be a class with other students

We plan to break up some of our studies with making scones and enjoying lots of British TV over the upcoming school year. Seems appropriate doesn't it? We can even count some of the scone making lessons as Home Ec!

What are your plans for your upcoming school year?

Our Summer Bucket List

May 9, 2014

As much as I love the routine of our days during the school year, I love the unstructured time we have during the summer. But instead of spending endless days doing nothing, I like to have a bit of a plan as we enter summer.

A few summers ago, when both of my kids were still home during the day, I took my kids on quite a few local day trips. Of course I took a lot of photos on those day trips! I even ended up making photo books of our adventures for them and gave the books to them for Christmas that year. As my kids have gotten older, I know that the time is precious and I am thankful that we have opportunities to do a lot of fun things together.

This summer will be the second summer that my daughter and I will be home together during the day. She is quite a homebody and would rather stay home all day. But I know I would go stir crazy! Last year, we made a list of some things we wanted to do through the summer. We even made plans to invite a friend or two along when we could. And we both tried some new things together.

Last night, we started writing down some ideas of things we want to do for this upcoming summer.

We found a couple of ideas on Pinterest, but we came up with a few of our own ideas too. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be adding a few more items to our list. I love that my teenage daughter still wants to do things like 'chalk the driveway' and 'crayon art'!

What are your plans for this upcoming summer?

Tackle It on Tuesday: Civil War Event Photos

April 22, 2014

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie, a sweet little film camera that I took to Outdoor Education Camp in the fifth grade. Since that time, I have owned many other cameras and have learned a lot about photography. A couple of weekends ago, our family attended a Civil War event at my favorite location just west of Yosemite. The location is absolutely beautiful!

On Saturday, one of the battles took place during twilight when the light was amazing. Since we are members of the group, I was able to gain access to hang out by a tree on the battlefield during this twilight battle to take pictures. I won't bombard you with a lot of photos, but I will share a few of my favorites:

See what I mean? So incredibly beautiful here!

I had to include this photo because my son is in this one. He is the fourth one from the left.

I haven't finished editing all of the photos I took that weekend, since I did take over 300 pictures. This is one reason why I take quite a few photos, so I might capture one like this...

...or like this one...

...and like this one.

So I didn't quite finish tackling all of the photos I intended to edit, but I did delete over 200 pictures. After editing about 20 pictures, I have another 50 to edit to finish this project. And I really need to finish editing these photos since I am going to be paid for some of them! Yay!

For this next week, I want to start going through some of our bookcases. This is just one of many full bookcases we have in our home.

It has been a while since I have homeschooled little ones, so it is probably time for me to clear out some of my younger age books. But it is so hard for me to get rid of books! So I wonder how many books from this bookcase I can let go of? Be sure to check back next week...

Capture Your 365, or not

October 23, 2013

Usually on Wednesday, I share my week’s worth of Capture Your 365 photos. But not this week. I knew we were going to a Civil War event this past weekend, so I thought I would take a break from the daily photo prompts and share some photos from our weekend.

ISO 200, 55mm, f/4.0, 1/160 sec

Kelsey and a couple of the girls decided to go out on the field as corpsmen with our 20th Maine group this past weekend. Basically, they are responsible for bandaging up any of the fallen soldiers on the field.

ISO 200, 200mm, f/5.6, 1/160 sec

This past year (even though we have only been to two events), Matthew has been ‘playing’ over on the confederate side of the field. Which means my children were on opposite sides!!

ISO 200, 200mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec

So here is my son, Matthew, kneeling, getting ready to ‘fire’ upon the ‘enemy’.

ISO 200, 165 mm, f/5.3, 1/320 sec

Right in the middle of the photo, Kelsey is holding onto her ‘wounded’ arm.

At one point during the ‘battle’, Kelsey came to the front of their line and shouted, “Brother, stop shooting at us!” I could hear here all the way on the sidelines! Then ‘shots’ were fired, and over she went. Eventually, Matthew ended up being ‘shot’ and ‘died’ out on the field too.

ISO 100, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/500 sec

Overall, it was a beautiful weekend! This was our seventh time at this event! Civil War reenacting has been a great activity for our family. We have learned a lot about the Civil War, and we have been able to spend time with some wonderful people.

Capture Your 365

September 18, 2013

Time for another week of Capture Your 365 photos!

ISO 100, 18mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec

Day 250 – Black and White: If you know me and/or have been following my blog for some time, you know that I love to go on day trips to Yosemite. Having this amazing gem of a place within driving distance is such a blessing. There is so much beauty there, and each season has something special to offer its visitors. On this particular trip, my husband and I spent the day bike riding around the valley, something neither one of us had done before. We both enjoyed it so much!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/20 sec

Day 251 – Simple: My husband and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary this month. Anniversaries come and go, but it is the simple (and sometimes not so simple), day to day stuff that we each work on together that keeps a marriage together.

ISO 800, 34mm, f/5.0, 1/8 sec

Day 252 – Routine: Welcome to Monday! Monday around here usually means laundry day. Not the most beautiful photo I have ever taken, but just a small part of my routine.

ISO 800, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/15 sec

Day 253 – Around the House: Most week day mornings, you will find my daughter in her room, up on her new loft bed, diligently working on her school work.

ISO 800, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec

Day 254 – On The Schedule: I know there are so many gadgets and apps to help you stay on task with your to-do list these days, but I seem to always fall back to a simple, written out, to-do list on a post it note. This helps me keep my to-do list somewhat reasonable for the day, and I don’t know about you, but there is satisfaction in actually checking items off of a list.

ISO 800, 48mm, f/5.6, 1/20 sec

Day 255 – Details of the Day: We like to have breakfast for dinner around here every now and then. I had purchased some strawberries at the local farmer’s market the night before, so waffles with strawberries sounded like the perfect dinner for this night. And a little whipped cream just makes it all a little bit more special!

ISO 800, 52mm, f/5.6, 1/15 sec

Day 256 – On The Table: It is not my intent to have food related photos in almost every Capture Your 365 blog post, but when the prompt fits, you just have to go with it! Anyway, I do enjoy using our cloth napkins at dinner. It has been a simple way to make our dinner table just a little more special, and we don’t go through near as many paper napkins any more. There are plenty of tutorials out there to follow to make your own set or two.

So there you have it! A full week of Capture Your 365 photos! What photos are you capturing during your week? I would love to see them!