This past week started our new schedule.  And it wasn’t that bad!  Some days I think I like having places to be.  I complain about it yes, but on days that we have nothing to do I find myself wishing we had things to do. I think it is a grass is always greener kinda thing. 🙂

Co-op was awesome! Seriously awesome.  My Art Journaling class was amazing.  Thanks to Jess at Teachable Moments I was fully prepared.  Honestly she and I have talked and emailed so many times this summer about my class [and everything else under the sun] that I really wasn’t worried.  The kids seemed to really love it.  In fact at the end of the day a little girl came up to me and gave me a rose because she said it was her favorite class.  The Drama class was great too.  This class is more challenging for me because I am always involved.  The games and discussions all have to be led by me!  I also have a bigger class, around 17 so I was a bit nervous.  I can’t wait until Monday to do them both again!  Thank you Phyllis for all your help with Drama games.  What would I do without my Homeschool Moms???!!!!

One thing I wanted to share is that Keilee is taking a Photography class.  It is mainly high school kids.  It is a large class, around 18.  She said the teacher, who is a photographer for the newspaper, spent the class lecturing.  He kept asking questions and no one would answer.  Keilee said she knew some of the answers so she kept answering.  She said, “Mom I would wait every time but no one raised their hands and I felt bad for the teacher”.  I called her Hermione all the way home.  But I started thinking that has to be so frustrating!  To be a teacher and try to engage in class discussion and no one do anything but stare.  Maybe they were just unsure because it was the first class.  Kei is really excited about it because she loves taking pictures.  As most of you know. 🙂

Art Journaling:

Drama:

Keilee started her Animal Clinic Internship back on Tuesday.  She loved it.  She baked brownies to take.  She took something she had baked every week last year and I suppose the tradition will continue!

She had Gymnastics on Wednesday.  She is the only one in the class and she was so excited.  The girl teaching is great.  She competed in Gymnastics until she hurt her knee when she was 17.  She was so enthusiastic and seemed to really be impressed with what Keilee could already do.  She already has her working on new things because she said Keilee’s technique was great.  She was surprised because she said most of the time when you are self taught the technique is wrong.  She doesn’t realize how many hours of YouTube videos Keilee has watched.  Anyway I had one happy girl.  Which made me one happy Mom.  My pictures aren’t so great because I was across the gym with my iPhone.

Keilee has started a Smash book.  She has worked on it almost every day.  It is similar to an Art Jounal but it is a smaller book.  I LOVE her ideas!!!  She amazes me how she can ‘think’ of things. I can recreate something I see…..well sorta, but she just imagines it and puts it on paper. 

The page in the center she wrote. It says:
When I grow up I want to be a hero.
The kind who saves lives, heals the hurt and help those who can’t help themselves.
I want to be the kind of hero who fights for what’s right no matter what the cost.
The kind people call for help.
Who shows love to the unloved.
When I grow up I want to be an Animal Rehabilator.

The other side of that page is the Superman one. 

And school stuff…yeah she did school stuff.  We did Algebra [Lord help me].  I love Saxon but occasionally they just don’t explain it enough for my Non-Math brain.  We just met our neighbors across the street.  Well we have known them but never talked.  They go to our church and we didn’t know.  We have 5 services so there are so many people we don’t know.  Anyhoooo the girl is a serious Math geek.  She offered to help Keilee with her Algebra so score for me! 

We read History almost every day.  We are reading SOTW 4 but also “A History of Us” which I seriously love.  I bought them on eBay and only the ones we needed.  We started in 1900.  This week we read about Jackie Robinson and then I rented “42”. Nothing like a great movie to reinforce something you read.  We also read about Russia and Lenin and Stalin.  We have such great discussions when we read history together.  She is also keeping me updated on the Syria crisis from watching CNN Student News every day.

She is doing Ecology for Science along with her Internship.  We also read in our “Handbook of Nature Study” This week was grasshoppers.  Then she found videos to show me about grasshoppers.  Nature is just so amazing. 

I wanted to put this video to share.  My brother sent it to us and let me put it on YouTube.  You must watch it!!  It is the hummingbirds at his house.  I could not believe it.  Watch!!  At about 1:00 there are tons of these.

So there is our first crazy week of our new school year.  And I survived.  Only 36 more to go! 🙂  Now if it would just cool down a bit I would be great.  Of course then I will be complaining about the cold.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Happy weekend!
Karen

“I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.”  ~Eartha Kitt

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” ~Henry Ford

Linking with

Mary at “Collage Friday”
Sylvia at “Friendship Friday“

This week’s memories…

A mostly great first week of September.

We went to the Civil War Reenactment as we do every year.  This year it was almost unbearably hot!!  The camera man during the battle actually passed out.  They had to call an ambulance and call off the ‘battle’.  I don’t know how the reenactors did it.  They had on wool suits.  Keilee made all of these pictures.  I was holding the umbrella for us so we didn’t MELT!

These shots were from the camp before the battle began.  Keilee does up close much better than I do.  I love the picture of the little boy with the hat!

Keilee got out her clay and played with it while I read her SOTW 4.  I still read aloud to her almost every day.  She decided to make the Parthenon!  Dirty hands and all.

Here are some pictures Keilee took in the backyard.  I love the bumble bee because you can see the pollen all over its legs.  After she took this we read about Bumble Bees in “Handbook of Nature Study”.  I LOVE this book.  I love the way Anna Botsford Comstock writes like she is writing about friends.

She started a CNN Student News notebook after seeing what Jessica at Teachable Moments was doing with her girls.  She loves CNN Student News and watches it every morning.  She is much more up to date than I am.  We don’t have cable and I rarely read world news.   We are reading through Harry Potter Vocabulary Builder.  This book is awesome!  It has the 3,000 hardest words from Harry Potter.  Any word that she isn’t familiar with she writes down in a notebook.  There hasn’t been many words so far that she doesn’t know.  We both downloaded the FREE Scrabble App for our iPads.  We play against each other.  She beat me!!!  She has never beat me at Scrabble.  I am very good at word games.

The not so good things this week was my Uncle died and we attended the visitation and funeral.  He was married to my Mom’s sister who died several years ago.  He wasn’t a close uncle but it was still very sad.  I did get to see family, some of who Keilee has never met.  I also got to see my cousin who used to be my very best friend.  We have been talking via email the last 3 weeks.  It has been such a blessing to reconnect with her.

Tuesday at lunch I was outside and I came in and Keilee was at the sink.  She said, “I can breath but I have a Wheat Thin stuck in my throat”.  She was very scared because it hurt her every time she breathed.  I stayed calm but I was freaking out inside.  I gave her warm water but they didn’t help.  She was getting more and more panicked [and Keilee does NOT panic, EVER!]  All these things ran through my head; my Mom always told me to give her bread but I was afraid that would just clog it up completely.  I told her to let’s run to the ER.  I was afraid it was going to flip and get stuck completely.  I tried to get my contacts on and ended up dropping one of them in our hall. I just left it there and drove without it.  I grabbed her hand and prayed all the way to the hospital.  They quickly took her back to a room and checked her blood pressure.  She was crying a bit and so scared.  Keilee is afraid of almost nothing but needles is one of them.  Not needles in general, needles in HER.  We waited awhile, me trying to calm her down.  When the doctor came in and was asking her questions she said, “It just went down”.  Her face changed completely in one second from terror to calm.  They still made us wait so they could X-ray her.  It took forever to discharge her.  It was her first trip ever to the ER. [This picture was right before she was discharged, after the wheat thin had gone down!]

When we got home I started washing the dishes from lunch and I just lost it.  I was crying and just imaging what in this world would I be doing if something had happened to her?  I have thanked God MANY times since then that she was OK.

She redid all her social media profile pictures. Isn’t this cool?  It is her Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.  She continues to do her edits and has won 2 contests on Instagram this past week.

 My favorite pictures this week:
Keilee in the dress I bought her at a Craft Show.  The lady had the cutest dresses in little girl sizes and Keilee told her, “I wish you had these in my size” and she did!  It looks like she is wearing a rainbow!

And my Cowgirl.

 

I love, LOVE Fall.  I can not wait for cooler temps and beautiful leaves and crunching under my feet when I walk through the yard.

Happy weekend!  Next week starts our new ‘Normal’ schedule. Prayers would be appreciated.

Homeschool Rocks!
Karen

“By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather
And autumn’s best of cheer.”
– Helen Hunt Jackson, September, 1830-1885

Linking with Mary at “Collage Friday”
Sly via at “Friendship Friday”

 

Sometimes I wonder why I post every week.

I never have anything earth-shattering to impact.  Our weeks are full but very much the same.  I don’t write huge lists of resources or free things that I have found or lovely printables I have made.  I don’t even really post about anything to do with “How To Homeschool”.

And then I realized…..I really post for Keilee.  Although I LOVE my readers and your comments always make my day; this is my love song to her.

It is my hope that one day; maybe when she is homesick and sitting in a dorm room somewhere she will open HomeschoolGirls and smile and remember all the beautiful memories we made and how, although we never had tons of money, we had adventures, lovely adventures.  And also I hope she remembers how very deeply and truly she was loved.

So here my sweet girl are this week’s memories……
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This picture was in the Newspaper from the Fundraiser Keilee did.  This was the biggest stage she has ever been on alone.  Our regular theaters are much smaller than this.  My little girl on that big ‘ole stage looking right at home. 🙂 I would have passed out!

She is still editing pictures on Instagram.  I love the ideas she comes up with.  She sets up her tripod and snaps pictures or occasionally asks me to take some.  Then she uses apps to edits things out of it.  Then she searches for backgrounds of whatever she is looking for and superimposes it all together. 

Beauty and The Beast…

Barbie and Ken.  I love how she changed the pictures in the background!!  She even put Nomad in there!

More editing pictures.  I can’t remember what she did with these. 

SPACE AND ROCKET CENTER

I got a pass at the first of the Summer.  It was $40 for 1 adult and 2 children unlimited.  It is $25 a person to go.  We only went 3 times but we definitely got our money’s worth.

We got Britney and off we went.  It was an exhibit on “Black Holes” which Keilee LOVES. 

The girls had a blast [get it? BLAST???] exploring the museum.  Keilee loves the Space Shot and the G4.  I have ridden them both in the past but am perfectly happy watching!

I love this one.  See the picture where they have their hands on their mouths?  The sign said “Please Do Not Touch”.  Those wacky homeschoolers!  

Another picture that they were being rebels although this was my fault. I wanted a picture of them with the flag and they had to climb under the rail and run out there.

On the way out they were trying to do some walking in sync sorta thing.  Epic fail so they decided to skip!  We had so much fun and were so glad Brit was able to come with us!!

 Keilee and I stay outside a lot!  Like all day long.  We decided to make a few pictures of us on the blanket.  It quickly just got silly.  Well at least ONE of us was silly.

1. Reading “Pandemonium”  This is Book 2 in the “Delirium” series by Lauren Oliver.  She is LOVING this series.  I tried to get her to read it months ago after I read them and she wouldn’t.  Now she loves it.  Sometimes, like she told me, she isn’t ready for something until she is ready.
2.  At our Life Groups sign up at church.  Our preacher is a HUGE Auburn fan.  We had a contest that whichever team was represented the most, he would wear that jersey to preach in Sunday.  Someone made the poster.  It shows him as an ALABAMA player.  We got a kick out of it.  He didn’t. 
3.  Algebra I outside.
4. Knitting in the hammock
5.  Algebra I  red circles are correct problems.  She got them all right and was very excited.  She doesn’t love Math.

7 Cool Homeschoolers Theme was “Fairy Tales”  So Keilee wrote a fairy tale of her own with all the characters from other Fairy tales.  I thought it was very clever.

So there you have it.  This last week of August spent with laughter, learning and friends.  What could be better?

Now bring on September!!!  One of our favorite months.

Homeschool Rocks!
Karen

“Childhood has it’s own way of seeing, thinking, and feeling, and nothing is more foolish than to try to substitute ours for theirs.” ~  Jean Jacques Rousseau

Linking with Mary at “Collage Fridays”
Slyvia at “Friendship Friday”

 

So we are 2 weeks into this last year before High School.  HIGH SCHOOL!!!!  How is that possible?  This picture was the beginning of 3rd grade.  We were studying Ancient Rome.  How has time gone by so quickly?

These past 3 weeks have gone wonderfully.  Keilee has gotten so much done!  She has just jumped in with both feet.

We spent last weekend out of town.  We went to some of her friend’s church play and then she was in a benefit for the man who directed her in “To Kill A Mockingbird”.  He died very unexpectedly last December.  She did a monologue from “Quilters” and then decided 10 minutes before she went onstage to do the “1 Minute Sermon” also.  She nailed it too.  I didn’t even take one picture except before she went onstage.  I just watch her mesmerized. 🙂

 She starts her internships in September.  Along with several classes.  Until then she is doing Algebra 1 from Saxon.  Keilee doesn’t love Math.  In fact it has always been our only ‘butting of heads’.  Not because she doesn’t love it, like I told her very few people do.  It’s that she gets so frustrated.  I think it is that she does so many things well that she doesn’t understand why this can’t be easy.  I told her that is why they call it “LEARNING”.  I remind her of when she first started knitting or doing gymnastics.  She couldn’t do it at first and she kept on and on.  The difference is she ‘wanted’ to do those things.  She doesn’t really want to do Math, she just knows she needs it for what she wants to do.  She is also doing “Ecology” an ebook I rented for a year from Kno.   She is reading through SOTW 4 and we just started Mapping the World With Art which I LOVE!!  I rarely buy curriculum and I am so glad I purchased this.  She also watched CNN Student News every morning.  She wrote a report on the situation in Egypt.  Because she wanted to.  

Mapping the World With Art:

She wanted me to print out a map of the US so she could prove to me that she could fill in all 50 states in under 5 minutes.  She did it.  We also played the game of Knowledge that is similar to Trivial Pursuit.  I beat her for the first time ever!  I will add that my winning question was beyond easy!

She did 2 Art Journaling pages.  She loved how they turned out.

She has been spending huge amounts of time editing photos for Instagram.  It is her new ‘thing’.  A lot of people are doing these photo edits but she doesn’t like ‘copying’.  She likes coming up with her own ideas.  Here are a few. 

Inspired by Jessica’s daughter Lilah she has opened an Etsy shop.  She has done everything by herself.  I helped her with the setting up of the payment and that is all.  I had to fight with her to make her charge the prices she has.  She wanted to sell them for $5.  It takes her 3-4 hours to complete a headband.  Check it out if you would like.  Keilee’s Kreations.  Here are some of her ‘Kreations’  🙂

Go check out Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  They offer FREE DVD’s about a huge variety of subjects.  I ordered 13 and got them this week.  Completely free, shipping and all.

The theme for this week’s 7 Cool Homeschoolers was “Animals”.  Since Keilee has already done a video about Nomad she decided to do an Animal Safari.  I loved how it turned out.  Here it is if you get a chance to watch it.  Lots of information and a cool Australian accent to boot. 😉

My favorite pictures of this week:

So there it is.  Our Homeschool Girls last 2 weeks.  I hope the rest of the year is as lovely as this has been.  Off to check out what all of you have been up to!

Homeschool Rocks,
Karen

“Most people, most of the time, learn most of what they know about science and technology outside of school.” -National Science Foundation

“My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she kept me out of school.” -Margaret Mead

“I hate, loathe and despise schools….School is bad for you if you have any talent. You should be cultivating that talent in your own particular way.” -Maurice Sendak (author of “Where the Wild Things Are”)

Linking with Sylvia at Friendship Friday
Mary at “Collage Friday“

I have been reading everyone’s post on their chosen curriculum for 2013-2014.  We had plans, big plans.  We had discussed what she wanted to do, Keilee had everything written down, notebooks were made. Since we follow more Unschool/ Interest Led sort of things we never have tons of pre-purchased curriculum. I’ve gone that route in the past but it sits unopened after 2 or 3 lessons.

So last night we were talking about this upcoming year.  Keilee said to me, ‘Mom I just don’t have time to do everything I want to do.”  I want to do some different internships, I am doing Co-op, I want to start an Etsy Shop.  So what if I take this 8th grade year and do just that.”  What did this Mom say?  Well of course I said, ‘Go for it’.  So we sat there and figured out exactly loosely how this 8th grade would look.

We school year round from September 1 to August 31.  This is not our public school schedule but that has never bothered us a bit.

So here are Keilee’s plans for her 8th grade Year:

• Internship at Dishman Animal Clinic – 5 hours a week [Science]
• Internship at Old State Bank – 4 hours a week [History]
• Internship at Morgan Co. Archives – twice a month [History]
• Co-op : Photography, Art Journaling, Drama- weekly
• Jesus Calling
• Run Etsy Store [Math, Marketing]
• Keep a blog – [Writing]
• Write Around Town – [We got this idea from Jessica at Teachable Moments. We are going to various places around town to do nothing but write]
• Tons of reading
• Plays and a Film-  At least 2 plays this 2013-2014 year, maybe 3. More on the film later.
• Saxon Math/Khan Academy – Algebra I  [She wants to do this]
• Voice Lessons- weekly
• Volunteer opportunities – We are talking to some people about volunteering in our community once a week.
• Various Science courses at Sci-Quest a nearby Science Museum.
• I will check into classes at Hudson Alpha/Institute for BioTechnology.  Genetics is another love of hers.
• Lots of day trips to various places.
• Plenty of knitting and creating always
• Online courses with Currclick [She is still deciding what she wants to take]
• Audio Books – we always have an audio book going in the car
• There is always history in our house. Keilee watches huge amounts of historical films and documentaries.
• She has several history and Science YouTube channels that she watches.
• Sit in on some college lectures. She finds them online. Currently she is crazy about Quantum Physics!
• SQUILT  Mary at Homegrown Learners has this awesome music study we plan to do.
• Mapping The World With Art– I fell in love with this curriculum and showed one of the videos to Keilee. She wants to do it so I ordered it.  Here is the video that convinced me to purchase it.

And the rest….whatever takes her fancy and her fancy is taken A LOT!  The only ‘textbook’ is Saxon and I am sure she will use Khan Academy for Algebra much more than the Saxon book.

So there you have it, 8th Grade, Homeschool Girls Style.

Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen

PS.  All plans subject to change at any given time.  🙂

 “Life learning is about trusting kids to learn what they need to know and about helping them to learn and grow in their own ways. It is about respecting the everyday experiences that enable children to understand and interact with the world and their culture.” ~ Wendy Priesnitz
“All I am saying…can be summed up in two words: Trust Children.  Nothing could be more simple, or more difficult.  Difficult because to trust children we must first learn to trust ourselves, and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted.” ~John Holt

Linking up with IHomeschoolNetwork Not Back To School Blog Hop

Another great week here in Alabama.  This is the week before Show Week so it is hectic.  Not as hectic as next week will be but still a little crazy.

We spent one day with Kathy and Sophie.  We went swimming and then to a downtown festival that is held every 3rd Friday.  After that we came back over here for dinner and watched Space Warriors.  They hadn’t seen it yet.  It was a great day except that I got so sunburned.  Which was crazy because I am the darkest of us all.  I think my sunscreen wasn’t strong enough!

Sunday we spent the day with my brother.  His family was in Mobile visiting her parents so we went for a long Sunday drive.  It was a beautiful day.  We went back to the roadside Farmers Market that I loved last year.  There is no one there, just a box for your money.  And there is still the sign about IOU’s and Widows.  Love it!  I loved the store that sold “Beer Bologna and More”  I mean what else is there??? 🙂

Keilee had practice 3 times this week.  Starting Sunday it will be every day.  We are so excited about this show.  It is one of my favorite ones she has ever done!

She did a lot of creating as always.  She got playing cards and painted them and wrote her favorite bands, Disney quotes and more on them.  She wants to string them up and put them in her room.  She also did another Art page and is making all her kittens in the play a “Kitten headband”.  She has knitted them all and now just has to add the eyes, whiskers and ears.  They are going to be so cute!!!

She also decided to make jewelry this week.  I swear she is never idle.  NEVER.  She doesn’t ever just sit.  She is always doing something.  I wish I had 1/2 of her energy.  She used things like bottle caps, the tabs from canned drinks and more to make these things.  I love the birdcage!  She hammered holes in a bottle top and used wire to make the cage.

The theme for 7 Cool Homeschoolers was “Water Cup Challenge”.  This was fun for Keilee and of course she added her own bling to it.  Check it out if you get a chance!

Next week is going to be insane but after the play we are going to take it easy for a bit.  I hope!!!  She plans to start/restart? school the week after the play.  There are big plans for our fall.  Can you believe it is nearly August?  Where did the summer go.

Happy weekend all!
Homeschool Rocks!
Karen

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.  ~Dr. Seuss

Keilee has decided to wait until after the play to move full speed ahead on her All in One Homeschool.  She is just SO busy lately and there just isn’t time to do 3 or 4 hours a day of academics.  She is still doing a few things but not the entire curriculum.

This summer will always be remembered by me as the summer of Creativity.  She is always creative but every day seems to bring something new for her to make, sing, create, draw, read, paint, play, bake, learn, etc.

This past weekend we went to our Farmer’s Market.  They were having a Corn theme and were giving away free corn.  Keilee and I opted out since it was 9:00 AM.  Then we went to an antique car show.  We stayed about 20 minutes.  Neither of us are huge antique car fans although they were beautiful.

She has created Art pages although all she does is quotes from songs and some art around them.  She told me she is going to choose another theme soon! 🙂  She was really inspired by Lilah’s Manga drawings and wants to try more of that.
Keilee’s music is very important to her.  She listens to it continuously.  She sings all.the.time.  She doesn’t know every song on the radio because we rarely listen to the radio but she has her Pandora channels and she is rarely without music.  What I love is that she has such a huge range of musical taste.  She also loves many of the bands I always loved; Matchbox Twenty, 3 Doors Down, 3rd Eye Blind, Green Day,  etc.  She is a huge fan of 90’s music. But she also loves current music.  HER brand of current, not Top 40 brand of current. 🙂

Play practice is going GREAT!  They are actually further along than Keilee has ever been in a play.  They could seriously perform it now.  I still need to pick up a couple of things for her costume though.

Keilee is loving the Blimey Cow Photo Challenge a Day.  If you haven’t checked out Blimey Cow you should.  Most Homeschoolers know them from the “7 Lies About Homeschoolers“ video.  If you haven’t seen this video YOU SHOULD WATCH IT.  Keilee has followed them for years.  It is 2 brothers, Jordan and Josh Taylor.  Josh is married to Kelli and she helps too along with other people.  The cool thing about this is that Kelli started following Keilee on Instagram!  She has like 3500 followers but she only follows about 190 people. Keilee SCREAMED like someone was after her when she saw it!  She has also commented on several of Keilee’s photos. She is “krftaylor” 🙂

This is very ‘creative’ also because Keilee comes up with ideas for the pictures.  This day was “Hipster Josh Approved” So yeah…her ‘Hipster’ photos. 🙂

Some of my favorite photos from the week.  She got that guitar when she was 6! She has been playing every day.  She watched YouTube videos and has gotten out the guitar books she had when she took guitar lessons when she was 6!

The theme for “7 Cool Homeschoolers” was “Freestyle”.  Keilee has been wanting to do a video for Pink’s “Just Give Me A Reason”.  She asked me if I would go get Will, one of her very best friends, and let him do it with her.  This is a love song but she had this vision in her head and since they are just the best of friends; they even call each other brother and sister; I was fine with her doing it.  It was strange seeing the finished product.  Like a glimpse into an older Keilee and a “BOY”!!!!  She had a place she wanted to film that we have passed a million times and I have never noticed.  It was perfect.  Even though we did get in trouble for being there but when the owner saw how stinking cute they were she let them finish. 😉

And here is the video if you would like to watch it.

So there is our week.  The weather here is HOT and it has rained so much this summer!  Last summer we had a drought.  Feast or famine I guess.

Happy Friday!
Homeschool Rocks!
Karen

 “Think left and think right and think low and think high.  Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!”  Dr. Seuss
“You can’t wait for inspiration.  You have to go after it with a club.”  Jack London

Linking with
Mary at “Collage Friday”
Sylvia at “Friendship Friday”

 

We went to an indoor flea market Sunday after church.  It is a favorite place of ours.  They had an old red caboose in the parking lot and we had to explore, of course!

Keilee decided to ‘start’ school this past week.  She said she wanted to take June off because she had 2 camps and workshops and play practice but she is ready to get back to it.  She has spent June totally immersed in theater, music, art, dance, puppets and more.

I found this site called All in One Homeschool or Easy Peasy and told her about it and she was raring to go.  This is a great curriculum and it IS FREE!!!!  It is all there, everything you will need, day by day!!!  Keilee loves it because it is ‘all in one place’.  You all know how much she needs to ‘check things off a list’.  She is doing the 8th grade curriculum and Modern History and “Physics and Chemistry”.

You really all need to check this out.  This site is just chock full of wonderful, amazing resources.  ALL FREE. 

Keilee is doing other things also but this is a big part of what her 8th grade will be.  She ‘wants’ to do 8th grade the 1st semester and start 9th the 2nd semester but I am trying to talk her out of that.  She worked on Sunday getting her Notebook made and has worked on it every day.  She has done it daily and really, really loves it.  I begged her to take off July 4th because it’s a holiday!

It usually has taken her about 3 hours to complete but she is doing 2 days at once.  Still leaves a lot of time for fun stuff. 🙂

We spent Tuesday at the pool.  She has almost finished Book 2 of Harry Potter.

There is, always, cartwheels and so forth outside.  I don’t think the Olympic Gymnasts practice as much as she does.  Well ok, maybe they do.

We had clouds and rain and rainbows this past week.

Keilee is doing the Blimey Cow Photo a Day Challenge on Instagram.  She LOVES Blimey Cow.  LOVES them!! Especially Jordan.

Here is the 1st day…a Selfie.  Of course no picture of JUST Keilee would do…

Here is some of her pictures for “Exploring”.  She has the best ideas for things!

And here are some from “Messy”.  Yes she got mud and painted it all over herself.

Wednesday was Keilee’s 1/2 birthday.  13 1/2,  so we went to the movie.  We were going to see “The Lone Ranger” but I read really bad reviews right before we walked out the door so we ended up seeing “Man of Steel”.  It was a good movie.  We went to eat afterwards.  There is only 1 day that a girl turns 13 1/2 after all.  Even though we didn’t see Lone Ranger, she HAD to have her picture made with Johnny.

4th of July it RAINED buckets and buckets all.day.long.  Our backyard was flooded!!  We had plans to go to see Fireworks but that got cancelled so we invited some friends over for food, fun and “Oz, the Great and Powerful“!  The movie was actually quite good.  Keilee made a cake and her 4th of July Strawberries.

The theme this week on “7 Cool Homeschoolers” was “I Got Skillz” so Keilee did some of the roles that are her favorites.  Check it out if you have a chance.

So all in all a great 1st week of July!  I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer brings!

Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” ~Isaac Astimov

Happily linking with
Sylvia at “Friendship Friday”
Mary at “Collage Friday”

Keilee has had to be at a Folk Art Camp all week to help with Puppets and Dance.  It is only for an 1 1/2 but it at a time that messes up our entire days.  Keilee has really enjoyed helping with this but she has been sick all week long.  Horrible sinus headache and congestion and coughing.  She soldiered on even though she felt bad.  This picture is from the Theater’s website so it isn’t very good.

She has had play practice 3 times this week.  It is going really great and all the little kids in the play are just so adorable.  Emma Jo, the little 5 year old, is just the most precious thing.  She sits in Keilee’s lap as much as she can and tells her “You are my best friend” and “I love you”.  It wasn’t that long ago that the roles were reversed and it was my 6 year old doing the same thing to the teenage girls.

This is the first play College Street has ever done that there is a ‘love story’.  The fact that the Duchess, who falls in love with O’Malley, is mine is kinda freaky.  But it is SO sweet to see them and O’Malley is one of Keilee’s very best male friends so it is all good.

Keilee used to read in a tree in our back yard.  She tried this week and she just doesn’t fit in the little nook anymore.  I was trying to take a picture for Instagram and she said, “I am going to fall and break my neck but at least you will have a great photo!” 🙂

She read a lot this week.  In fact I have started reading Harry Potter too for the 178th time and since I read WAY faster than her I am on the 2nd book too.  We are sharing it.  I read it when she is doing other things.  She was reading on the hammock and I tried to sneak up on her but she caught me.  After that she could NOT stop laughing.  She still gets the ‘giggles’.

Thanks to Jess at Teachable Moments she is doing a board book.  She has found her ‘theme’ and it has spent so much time planning it out.  She is having some trouble with the paint sticking.  Jess why can’t you just live NEXT DOOR??? 🙂

1. I have found one of my Mom’s journals.  Just little snippets of her days.  Look at this one, “Today is my little girls birthday.  Is it possible we have a teenager”?  I was 13, the same age Keilee is.  I would not take $1,000,000 for this journal.
2.  This dog showed up at my brother’s house about 2 weeks ago.  He LOVED Eddie, my brother and would follow him everywhere and sleep on their carport.  Eddie found the owner and every time the owner would get him, he would break out again and go to Eddie’s.  Finally the man told Eddie, ‘He is not even my dog, he just showed up a few months ago and I am afraid he will kill himself trying to escape”.  So Eddie decided to keep him.  He already has 3 dogs.  One day Eddie was playing with his black Lab and the new dog went insane and tried to bite the lab.  He thought he was hurting Eddie.  Then the dog went outside and tried to attack a neighbor’s dog.  So Eddie did something he has never ever done.  He put the dog in his car and drove 10 miles zig zagging all over.  He lives in the country and tried to take is somewhere near people.  He was hoping the dog would find a new home with no other dogs because he said the dog was so sweet just very protective.  The next morning the dog was BACK on Eddie’s carport.  Since Eddie doesn’t live in the city limits he called me to take him to our Animal Shelter.  And yes I lied and told them I found it.  We wanted him to find a good home.  This whole thing just upset Eddie so much.  He loved that little dog but couldn’t risk his dogs or his kids since he was so protective.  I had to stop in the parking lot because I was crying.  It just made us all so sad.  This little scrappy dog, with a missing part of his ear and broken teeth, just wanting someone to love him.  Keilee and I pray for him every night.
3. and 4.  Keilee and Nomad on the patio where we spend SO much time.

This week’s theme on “7 Cool Homeschoolers” was “A Snack” and Keilee made fun and easy 4th of July Strawberries.  Check them out!  She was sick and just felt bad the entire time.  Keep watching for the bloopers.  Too funny.

Today we are doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!  Well no where to go or be. Keilee is outside working on her board book and I have been reading Harry Potter.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and a safe and happy 4th of July!

Homeschooling rocks!!
Karen

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.  ~J.K. Rowling, “The Mirror of Erised,” Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 1997, spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. ~Scott Adams

Happily linking with

Mary at “Collage Friday”
“Friendship Friday”