I’m hosting a book give away on my other blog, S.A.H.M. I Am! One blessed reader will win a copy of Hungry For God by Margaret Feinberg. To read my review and enter for a chance to win a copy click here.
This give away will close at 8pm on June 18, 2011.
Homeschool Showcase #73 is up over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Be sure to stop by and check out lots of great ideas and resources!
Still no “formal” learning this week. I spent most of my time working on spring cleaning the house. The girls have been playing games, reading, playing in the yard and watching videos. Yes, I let my kids watch tv, in their pajamas no less. In my defense, we don’t have cable. They have a limited selection of DVD’s and VHS movies to watch.
Lindsey’s baseball team finally had an opportunity to do team photos. Obviously, this one is NOT by the professional. However, taking a photo over the shoulder of the professional sometimes works nicely. There are 13 kids on the team. Normally 7 show up for games, but we got lucky and had 9 show up for the photo.
Olivia’s softball season is almost over. Only two more games are left in the regular season and then they have a tournament in June.
Ballet finished up this week. The girls opted not to do ballet summer camp (they want swimming lessons instead). So we’re dance free until September.
As far as weather goes, we were blessed with sunshine and warm temperatures until today. So thankful to have escaped this last round of bad storms. Please continue to pray for those who weren’t as fortunate.
Visit the Weekly Wrap Up!
The garden is looking much more garden like than it did last month! We’ve added tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumber plants, and also planted corn and green beans.
We’ve been enjoying fresh lettuces, endive and spinach for several weeks now. Nothing like a garden fresh salad…if only the tomatoes and lettuces came at the same time! I’ve been adding Gala apples, chicken breast and shredded cheese to the salad greens for yummy dinners.
One thing I’ll do different next year is plant the lettuce/salad greens in stages so it isn’t all coming on at one time. You can only eat so much at one time. We’ve been blessing lots of folks though. In the last week alone we’ve given away 10 GALLONS of lettuces!
The peas (in the back of the photo) should be ready to pick by the end of the week if the weather holds out. When the peas are finished, they’ll be replaced with pumpkins. Part of the lettuce, peppers and the onions are also in this garden.
This garden has corn (far right) and 3 types of tomatoes. There were a couple of cucumbers but I’m thinking the squirrels got them.
To conserve some space we made little gardens along the side of the privacy fence. We’ve planted green beans and squashes there.
Lindsey’s herb garden is making progress as well. The sage, basil and cilantro are doing really well. The chives, mint and oregano are taking a bit more time getting started (uh, yeah, the squirrels have been digging in the pots).
My flower beds are still my pride and joy. The tulips are long gone. But now my peonies, primrose, spiderwort, lamium, salvia and blanket flowers are in bloom.
I love my peonies!
The red hot pokers have gone wild this year! Will have to divide these in the fall!
How is your gardening going so far? Don’t forget to stop by the HSV Garden Challenge and check on everyone’s progress this month!
We finished up our “school year” on April 15. We’ve been on break for approximately 6 weeks now. Olivia is taking full advantage of her break, staying in her pajamas most days. Lindsey on the other hand is dressed and ready for the day early on (way TOO early I might add). I’ve been catching up on scrapbooking, spring cleaning and gardening.
Now it’s time to start thinking about summer school. Yeah, I know it was a dreaded thing when I was in school. However, our summer school is a lot more fun than “normal” summer school. So, what’s on our agenda?
Science: Lots of experiments planned. I’ve been fortunate to find several chemistry kits at yard sales, the most promising being “Slimey Chemistry”. Doesn’t that sound too fun? So we’ll be using those on the back patio.
Crafts: We’ve accumulated a lot of craft kits this past year. Birthdays, Christmas, and yard sales have provided us with lots of crafting products, however our schedule didn’t leave a lot of time for actual crafting. So we’ll be making lots of things.
Reading: Olivia will be working on her reading comprehension and critical thinking skills with Reading Detective Beginning level.
Lindsey will be reading through the Abeka Reading for Fun Enrichment Library.
Math: Both girls will be using Abeka math this year. 3rd grade for Olivia and 1st for Lindsey. Since the first 6 weeks tends to be review, our goal will be to knock out those lessons over the summer. The purpose is two fold: 1) less loss of learned information, 2) we’ll be starting the “new” stuff when the school year starts.
We’ll be doing lots of trips to the park, and field trips, along with swimming lessons and a week at the local college as well.
I’m working on a couple of ideas for unit studies that would be fun for the summer as well. Now if I can just flesh them out and make it happen!
What are your summer school plans?
Ok, I know it’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game. However, when a group of kids try their hardest and lose every game it is disheartening to say the least. This week their hard work paid off and the Sparks got their first win of the season!
Awana wrapped up for the year on Wednesday night. Both girls received their awards for completing their books for the year. In addition, Olivia also was awarded the Leadership and Evangelism award. Lindsey brought home the Faithfulness award. Super proud of both of my girls!
In other news, we finished up our Activity Day for this school year. I wrapped up my class with some tongue twisters from Fox in Socks, and then we made sock puppets. Check it out here!
I’m a bit disheartened to find that Activity Day may not exist next year. The current directors have held the position for three years and have decided it’s time to step down. So the torch needs to be passed…but there is not hand extended to take the torch. I’ve discussed it with the husband, and he’s not in agreement with me taking it on. So I’m stuck in obedience (with an attitude).
Lindsey’s baseball games were all rained out this week. So there’s no news there, with the exception of more games to make up.
Ballet wraps up next week. I’ve been in discussions with the ballet instructor about the upcoming year. At the instructors request, both girls will be skipping a level and going to 2 days per week instead of one. Thankfully the classes fall on the same nights and times!
I spent time this week working on trying to get caught up on the girls scrapbooks. I was a year behind, again. I would have gotten finished, but ran out of scrapbooks and adhesive…so hopefully I’ll get caught up this week.
Be sure to visit the Weekly Wrap Up!
This is the time of year when all of our “things” start wrapping up. It’s quite a busy time, but it’s good to be finishing up and having a breather!
Last Friday night the girls both performed in “Dancin’ Through The Pages”, their spring ballet recital. It was amazing as always and the girls are just too pretty! We still have three weeks of ballet to finish up.
Olivia’s softball team continues to be on a losing streak. Although, they’re loosing by a much smaller amount of runs now…yeah, that makes it better. We only have 6 more games to go.
The spring piano recital was held on Monday of this week. Olivia played two songs, “The Juggler” and “Little Liza Jane”. There’s nothing like getting to play on a Baby Grand to brighten up any pianists day!
This was the last regular week of Awana. Both girls finished their books (Lindsey did hers twice). Next week is the awards ceremony and we’re done until fall.
Now I can start planning our upcoming year! While you’re waiting on me to finish that task, check out the Weekly Wrap Up!
I never thought I’d enjoy ballet, but that was before I had girls who dance. We are so blessed to have an amazing dance studio with three VERY gifted instructors. Tonight was our third spring recital and it was amazing as always.
Olivia was “Little Red Riding Hood”. Here are a few photos before the performance.
Lindsey’s class danced to “A Very Merry Unbirthday” from Alice in Wonderland. Isn’t this the most precious costume EVER?
Here are a few photos from the recital. (Courtesy of my friend Patty Harper).
But really, it’s the flowers and the photo op’s after the recital that make the night really special!
We came home and celebrated the evening with hot fudge, brownie sundaes. Yeeep….it was a good night!
We had another good, but jam packed week! For those of you who may have missed my post about Olivia’s birthday celebration, you can see photos by clicking here.
This was stage week for the spring ballet recital. This year’s theme is “Dancing Thru the Pages”. Wednesday night was dress rehearsal, and I worked back stage from 4-8pm. Way too many tutu’s for one day!!
Lindsey’s class is dancing to “A Very Merry Birthday” from Alice in Wonderland. Olivia’s class is doing a Little Red Riding Hood dance. The performance will be tonight, so I’ll post more photos next week.
Olivia’s softball team is not having a good season so far. 4 games played, 4 games lost. She has 2 games scheduled for this weekend, so hopefully they can pull off a win. Spirits are getting mighty low.
Lindsey’s t-ball team is plodding along. There are 13 kids on the team, and on an average we have 6 show up for the games. Very disheartening, but what can you do?
Piano is going well. Olivia has her year end recital next week. We will continue lessons over the summer to keep her moving ahead.
I managed to sell some of my used curriculum this week. I thought I’d priced it reasonably, considering it was in like new condition. The couple who came to purchase it REFUSED to buy unless I let them pay me more than I was asking. Now really, how many times do you have THAT happen?
During the week the girls worked with their father on making Mother’s Day gifts for the grandmas. You can read about it, and see more photos here.
We’ll be heading out to the recital shortly. So head over to the Weekly Wrap Up while I’m gone.
