Keeping It Simple

I am thinking that I should rename my blog having something to with animal books... Morris and Buddy: The Story of the First Seeing Eye Dog by Becky Hall Learning about working dogs in our " Dog Unit Study " led us to this book. It is not only a wonderful story about Morris and his seeing eye dog, it is also about the challenges faced by Morris at a time when few accommodations were made for those with physical limitations (blindness or other). How Morris traveled to Switzerland to meet his own guide dog, Buddy, and ultimately paved the rode for the "Seeing Eye" guide dog school was an inspiring read. You can also read more about Morris here . Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine, & a Miracle  by Major Brian Dennis, Kirby Larson, and Mary Nethery My boys loved this story of an unlikely friendship between a Marine and a "dog of war". This book follows the story of "Nubs" (so named by the Major Brian Dennis because of his cut off e...

We began our dog unit study today. I just posted a really cute, fun little movie that might lead you to believe that it was all sugar and spice and everything nice around here today. Oh, that's right- I have boys! What was I thinking? ;) Plan A (the one that did not go smoothly): 1- We walk out to the school room to find an unexpected mess (another story all together). 2- The dog notebook pages that I thought I had bookmarked on my computer weren't there. 3- Found some notebook pages at a good price. It took ten minutes to find a credit card to pay for them, and then the download would not work. 4- Four vocabulary words were just too much for my 10yo to write (picture big crocodile tears). 5- 8yo had a major case of the sillies. 6- Every time I turned around, the item I needed at that moment went missing. Sigh!! Big sis walks in and offers to take the boys to the pool this afternoon- my first thought: No! They are going to stay and get this done. My s...

Goal Planning Monday: #1- Walk two times with my walking group. (casual group that meets M/Th to walk for about 45 minutes) #2- Drink water- not soda! #3- Finalize summer "fun" list. #4- Get all caught up on laundry for one day! (Tuesday)

I highlighted The Read Aloud Handbook in my first "must have" post  . I can't imagine life in our homeschool without it. So far, my selections have very little do with actual homeschooling. My experience is that our homeschool thrives when our house is orderly (relative to having 3 rowdy boys, 1 teen daughter, and toddler grandbabies who visit), and when I am attentive to how I am parenting my children. These two books are ones that I reread every so often to keep me on track: Sink Reflections : written by Marla Cilley also known as the Flylady Reading this book was life-changing for me. If you signed up for "Flylady" emails in the past and threw your hands up in exasperation over the slew of messages cluttering your inbox, I strongly suggest this book. I had three different encounters with the Flylady before I ran to my local bookstore and purchased a copy of Sink Reflections . My final push toward the Flylady was listening to a young mom,...

We school year 'round, but that does not mean that life has to be a drudge. :) Tuesday: First up, keeping with our "exploding things" theme... The soda geyser experiment was on our list of things to do (or expode as the case may be), so it was a happy moment when I stumbled upon this nifty little kit on sale at the store. (it's the little things...)     Much concentration went into the preparations.      And… kablooey. This is the only picture I was able to take because the geyser got so big that I had to turn and run- plus I was too busy laughing. If you want to be educational about this you can read the "whys and wherefores" here .            Time to just hang out is on the "schedule".  Wednesday:   Card games (or any games) are a must. This was #1 on James' wish list for this week.             ...

Not so much. The funny thing is that after 20 years of homeschooling, I am still not an expert. Homeschooling girls is different than boys, having adult children humbles you (even wonderful adult children!:)), and, like anything, the more you know, the more you know that you don't know everything (or maybe anything). However, I know a good thing when I see it, so I thought I'd share a few of my homeschool resource library must haves . My very first pick is this fabulous book . It is not a homeschool book per se, but it is the book that set our homeschool on a different course. Like many homeschool moms, I was already a book nut when I first read this book. And I already read aloud to my children--- lots. However, this book revolutionized the way I viewed reading aloud to my children and how I incorporated it into our day.  I am tempted to go on and on... how my son who did not like books became (and still is) a huge book fan, how my college a...