Tag Archives: Notebooking

Learning all the time

Oka Kapassa, Co-Op, Convergence & Art…

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Yesterday was a hard day for me.† For some reason everything just kinda crashed.† I am going into my 4th month being laid off and for the most part I have stayed positive and upbeat.† I trust God to take care of us and try to let him take control.† But sometimes, not very often but sometimes, I have a bit of a meltdown.† Yesterday was one of those days.† Thankfully I have an amazing friend who talked me down, gave me hugs and tons of encouragement.† I think it is so important to have great female friends.† I am blessed with several.

We have had such a good week besides that.† September, October and November are HUGE festival months around here.† I love that everything is FREE!

We went to Oka Kapassa last Friday.† This is a festival celebrating Native Americans.† It is open to all students which means it was FULL of public school kids.† It just reinforced how lucky we are to homeschool.† The kids had 10 minutes at each ‘station’ which is NOT long enough to do anything.† They were herded around all day in their matching shirts.† We took our time and leisurely strolled through all the exhibits.

We love the Native American dances and since we weren’t in a group we watched them over and over.

Saturday we went to an Art Festival.† Now every year this is on the square of one of our favorite little towns.† This year they decided to have it at the local college.† We did not like it nearly as much.† It was crowded and just not as cool.† We did see some awesome art though.† I got several ideas for things I want Keilee and I to try.

Monday was Keilee’s first day of Co-op.† We have never done Co-op before.† She loved it.† She is taking Spanish, cooking and Robotics.† She had a great day and there are a few girls she really likes in her classes. She had SO much homework in Spanish.† Seriously.† She worked on it for 3 days and got it all done.† I was actually proud of her since she has never had homework in her life.† I am hoping she doesn’t have this much every week.† It is a little too much like Public School to me.† She didn’t mind it and actually enjoyed working on it.† As I said before this is a high school level class so maybe that is why there is so much homework.

Our church has 5 services each Sunday.† So there are people who go to Epic that I don’t even know.† Every 3 months we rent a local Theater and have ‘Convergence’.† It is an amazing experience.† Wednesday night was Convergence.† It was a powerful message and a wonderful time of fellowship.† Imagine 1000 people singing “White Flag” and waving white flags during the part of the song that says, “We raise our white flags, we surrender all to you”.† Goose bumps and God was SO in this place.

My cousin’s daughter is getting married this weekend.† Since money is so tight I decided to make this Christmas ornament I saw on Pinterest.† I got a plastic ornament at Hobby Lobby for $1.47 and I took her wedding invitation and cut it into pieces, rolled it around a pencil and dropped it in.† I love how it turned out.

As far as ‘school work there was a lot of that going on too.† It amazes me how much we get done when Kei isn’t in school 8 hours a day with 3 hours of homework.† We did Saxon Math, she worked on the book she is writing, she did a Module in General Science and 4 experiments, we learned about westward expansion after the Civil War and she made a notebooking page about barbed wire and its inventor.† I am so blown away by her creativity with her notebook pages!

Barbed Wire…

It always amazes me writing out our weekly post to see how much we get done.† And of course there are TONS of things not listed on here.† Isn’t homeschooling just the greatest thing ever?

My favorite resource this week is called “Stossel in the Classroom”.† We have these DVD’s and there is a new one out that I just ordered.† From the website:

“Stossel in the Classroom offers a new DVD free to teachers each school year. The DVDs include video segments from John Stossel’s television programs and specials, along with a teacher guide with lesson plans and ideas for complementary activities.”

Thank you all for the prayers about my job.† Hopefully it will begin around the first week of October.† It has been a long 4 months.

Happy weekend to all my bloggy friends,

Homeschooling Rocks
Karen

ìChurch isnít where you meet. Church isnít a building. Church is what you do. Church is who you are. Church is the human outworking of the person of Jesus Christ. Letís not go to Church, letís be the Church.î ~ Bridget Willard

Happily linking up with
Mary at “Collage Fridays”
Susan at “Favorite Resource”
Passport Academy at “iPhone Dump”
iHomeschool Network at “Homeschool Mother’s Journal”
Kris at “Weekly Wrap Up”

Learning all the time

North & South, DIY, and Notebooking…

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September through November is one of our favorite times. There are festivals galore and we try to go to as many as we can.

This week we went to the Civil War Reenactment they have every year at Pt. Mallard.† We always love this.† A few days before we went Keilee looked up “The Battle of Decatur” to find out some info.† She told me that during the Civil War the Union only left 4 buildings standing in Decatur!† She learned that the battle took place along the Tennessee River and an estimated 500 Southerners and 200 Northerners died.† She was a little frustrated looking the number up because 4 different sites all had different numbers!† It was a Union victory.† Before the actual battle starts we always roam around and see the tents that are set up.

Then the battle began!† It was a long, hard fight.† The Union was positioned behind hay bales and the poor Confederate were just sitting ducks.

They both had women in the field.† These women were nurses but there were women who dressed as men and fought in this war.† There are reports of as many as 250 women who fought for the Confederate Army.

While Kei and I ARE Southerners we both agree that the slaves should have never been slaves.† Being Southern is something that is hard to be described though.† You either get it or you don’t.†† While we were perusing the tents a “Union” soldier came to tell us to ‘Please leave the area because the reenactment was about to begin.”† I muttered “Dayum Yankee” under my breath and just giggled.† 🙂

Keilee had a great idea for her notebook for Coop.† She is beyond excited about this.† It starts Monday.† She just got her Spanish book and IT IS ALL IN SPANISH!† I was a bit freaked out.† I thought they would start with girl – amiga boy – amigo.† Uno, dos, tres…†† Anyway she got chrome spray paint and painted it.† She had asked me to buy her a small dry eraser board and she hot glued that on there and added stickers.† She was thrilled at how it turned out.† She is so much more organized than I am!!

She did an amazing report this week.† Her imagination just blows me away.† She did a typed report on Nomad and the Lab/Blue Heeler mix.† Then she made a PowerPoint presentation with slides and YouTube videos to go along with her oral presentation.† She did it on the iPad so as she was reading I was following on iPad and watching videos.† It was great!† Here are some of the ‘slides’.

A few weeks ago Phyllis at “All Things Beautiful” said she couldn’t wait to see Keilee do her own Notebooking pages.† Well she was creating all over the place this week.† She did one on the Battle of Decatur and it was so cool.† She had a string on it that hung down and the information was on both sides.† She used the program that we got.

She also made one on the “Transcontinental Railroad”.† This one had a train that ACTUALLY moved!† The Sun and the Mountains opened to contain information about the building of it.

This week has been one of my favorites in a long time.† Everything just flowed…the learning…the playing….the fun…..† Nothing was forced or stressed, even Math went smoothly. :)† Keilee is still reading so much, still creating on Polyvore, still playing with her Monster High Dolls.† Actually my friend Carla bought her the newest Monster High Doll and sent it to her without her knowing it.† She got it Wednesday and freaked out.† She is Robecca Steam and she is Steampunk.† Keilee LOVES all things Steampunk and has for a long time.† Kei also made an Instagram account for her.† Robecca Steam.† She is going to post pictures like it is really ‘Robecca’.

Yes I am still laid off…3 more weeks….but life is SO good.† I love this life we lead and wouldn’t trade it for all the money in China!

Happy weekend!
Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen

ìImagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you willî ñ George Bernard Shaw

My favorite Resource is a site from Dove.† It has activities and resources to build Self Esteem in girls ages 8-18.

Happily linking with
Mary @ “Collage Friday”
Susan @ “Favorite Resources”
Kris @ “Weekly Wrap Up”