On the Road Again.....

On the road again...yes like the Willie Nelson song......... That is what I kept hearing this weekend, running through my head as we hit the trails on our bikes again for the first time in over a year.

Beautiful isn't it........ Notice the winding path........

I'll be honest......I really wish I had been walking and taking pictures instead of riding. You know that saying about the wind in your hair.......ya, that's not me. If I am moving so fast that there is wind blowing my hair my brain says "stop immediately!" "Imminent danger!" And if I am standing still and the wind is blowing that hard it usually means take cover- at least to me anyway. 

Add that to the fact that I have an aversion to anything that is fast moving ,and this beautiful windy road, that happens to be creating that wind in your hair sensation means only one thing -nausea. It's really pitiful I know but the first 15 minutes of this ride were excruciating! The only reason I have this picture is because I happen to be sitting on a bench trying to make the lightheaded feeling I was then experiencing, go away. I have a picture which my husband thought would be funny to take to prove it, but I do not intend to show you a photo of myself bent over my bike head resting on it's seat anytime soon.... not pretty.....

I will however share a picture of my husband which I snapped while he wasn't looking and while he was waiting for me to recover ....and get a photo of the windy road for posterity....... I think he's pretty cute!

This one was taken with his knowledge with one of our sweet girls.

Stopping for a rest and checking out a few plants..........

   

I digress............

Luckily this trail happens to become a little straighter as it continues and adjusting my gears to create greater tension/ grip on the road seemed to do the trick and make the rest of the ride MUCH more enjoyable. 

I always use the excuse that my husband is a better leader - true- and so he is at the head of the pack while I am at the back - supposedly keeping behind the children so no one gets left behind- which is also true- but partly because I get to go slower, since going fast scares the life out of me! It also has another benefit........

I get the best view! 

While I may not have had time to "smell the flowers"

In the end, it sure was a sweet ride............

A 6.5 mile ride to be exact! So proud of my kiddos!

  

  

  

How do you organize your day?

One of the questions I get asked  most frequently is "How do you homeschool three kids at once and get everything that everyone needs done"?

I will admit that when I started homeschooling my first child it was tough because of the learning curve. But by the time I added on the second child I felt like it was easy peasy to do. Then came the third child and boy oh boy was that tough for me. It took a while before things got smoother. I know of other people who homeschool three children and they say similar things, so I thought I would share what seems to work well for us right now although by no means is this concrete. I have found that we are most successful when we are flexible with  and open to changing things up if and when they no longer work. You'll also notice that the first thing we do is our Bible Lesson - pray first, then start your day- I can only tell you what works for us :) I am going to plug "One Hundred and One Devotions for Homeschool Moms" by Jackie Wellwood one more time.....

So here is an example of today's "schedule"    

K	A	L
Bible: Student Discovery Bible Jesus Chooses a Tax Collector pg. 235 Coin Craft after lesson	Bible: Student Discovery Bible Jesus Chooses a Tax Collector pg. 235 Coin Craft after lesson	Bible: Student Discovery Bible Jesus Chooses a Tax Collector pg. 235 Coin Craft after lesson
Science : Thermal Energy/ Expansion ( Science Text) Experiment: Floating Tea Bag Experiment: Balloon Expansion	Science : Thermal Energy/ Expansion ( Science Text) Experiment: Floating Tea Bag Experiment: Balloon Expansion	Science : Thermal Energy/ Expansion ( Science Text) Experiment: Floating Tea Bag Experiment: Balloon Expansion
Latin: Review Lessons 2-4 Vocabulary : Type or print	Latin: Review Lessons 2-4 Vocabulary : Type or print	Latin: Review Lessons 2-4 Vocabulary : Type or print
Math ( Meet with me)	Reading ( Independent)	Reading ( Independent)
Reading ( Independent)	Math ( Meet with me)	Online: Multiplication.com
Math ( part 2- Independent)	Spelling	Math ( Meet with me)
Spelling	Online: Multiplication.com	Grammar( Meet with me)
Grammar ( Meet with me)	Grammar ( Meet with me)	Spelling

So, everything that is highlighted in green means that I taught that lesson. You will notice that that Bible, Science, and Latin are taught as a group.

Now, I know that some of you have super little ones and are trying to school with babies or toddlers. When my kids were that age I would have activities that they could do alone like puzzles, blocks, play-doh, chalk and chalkboard, coloring with crayons or markers, stringing beads( large ones), scooping cotton balls, rice,  or macaroni with big spoons and transferring between bowls etc. If you have babies you can always school while they are napping or if they are content while they are playing quietly.  The nice part about when they get a little older is that you can always let them work online doing games that reinforce previous lessons. If you scroll to the right of the blog page a tab with sites that we like to use will come up. I should also add that I recently found a site called KidZui which is a safe internet search site for kids. Lots of great topics they can look up including things like the Yellow River/ Huang in China, as well as funny little videos and songs with dogs and kittens etc. They are parent and teacher approved before they go on the site. I waited until we had been using it for several months before sharing it just to make sure there weren't any problems and so far so good. We have never come across anything inappropriate. While the site is safe, I will note that  I do not allow them to surf any site without my supervision. I give my 10 year old a little space in that I am not sitting with her, but I am always in the room she is in  listening and occasionally looking at her screen .

I also want to mention that many subjects can be taught outside on a back porch table while smaller brothers or sisters play in a sand box or on swings.

There are many more possibilities but those are a few that we employed and which worked well for us.

So, just a  few pictures from today with sites that explain what we worked on before I go .....

This is the "coin craft" the kids worked on today that went along with our story " Jesus Chooses a Tax Collector"
The kids drew a picture of themselves on one side ( funny - none of my kids have red hair)  and on the other side they drew a picture or wrote down how they  were valuable to Jesus.

Anything that requires a fire extinguisher has got to be fun right?
Floating/ Flying  Tea Bag Experiment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKF3OKxwM8g

Right before lift off!

Balloon Expansion Experiment


http://www.ehow.com/info_8320986_thermal-expansion-science-experiments-kids.htm

Hot water warms the air inside the bottle and the balloon blows up





Take the balloon out of the water and watch it deflate. This was fun and went on for about 15 minutes back and forth.