We took Nick to Disneyland for the day. The next day we headed to Lego Land Aquarium. It was a delightful yet simple birthday. Share the memories with us.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Playing catch up with you all! Here are some fond memories or New Years 2010.

Make a Smilebox greeting

Tags: 2010, Celebrate New Years, new years 2010, new years celebration

What a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday we had. This year we did something totally different and off the cuff.
Take a look

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Tags: Thanksgiving

We celebrated Beth and Grandmas birthday at Disneyland. Here are some pictures for you.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Autumn is majestic with its falling leaves, warm days and crisp nights. October brings the bustle of the house. We, like many families, like to celebrate Halloween, so we decorate the house, start costumes and rejoice at all the pumpkin birthdays link to my site our family celebrates. It seems shortly after that the hustle and bustle of Christmas comes so fast, that we have no time to sit and reflect the coming holiday. Sure, we celebrate Thanksgiving but how often did we actually take the time to reflect on what it means in our life.

It is time to celebrate Thanksgiving, the holiday of family and food. Besides studying the history of  Thanksgiving and the reason for all the special traditions, there is one special tradition we have on Thanksgiving Day. The first part of our day is spending time with our family playing games and riding bikes. Then we indulge in a traditional Thanksgiving meal.  Finally, everyone takes a turn sharing why he or she is thankful. Thanksgiving is a time of reflection for the whole month, not one day. Remembering our gratitude to the Lord for all the heaps of blessings, He has poured out to our undeserving favor.

We struggle to be grateful every day, not just in the month of November or on Thanksgiving Day. However, it seems as if our gratitude is consistently clouded by unforeseen events. I so often hear from people the negative with the positive in one sort or another. Either the sunny side follows the negative of a situation or, the sunny side is great but it could be better if the negative only remedied it. It is funny that I can hear the negative of others, but I am sure I rarely catch the negative of my own voice. I am not being a bragger or believing that I am so perfect I never have negativity. I am sure that I can tend to see the downside with the upside which is dangerous because there is always an upside so who cares about the down side. Move on! Therefore, it is time to catch the negative.

I hear that a habit is made in 30 days and everything is a habit. Bad habits are the same as good habits because they are still habits. Also, learn how to do it once and you will never have to do it again. Finally, gratitude is everything and the more you are grateful the more meaningful life is.

This year not only are we going to do something wonderful and fantastic for our Thanksgiving holiday,  but I am going to write down daily in a gratitude journal all the things that I am grateful for throughout the month of November. With that, I will have created a habit and I will continue my gratitude book throughout the months of the year. Next Thanksgiving, I can spend time in contemplation over the heaps of blessings the Lord has poured out for my family and me.

What will you do this Thanksgiving season? How will you celebrate? Why are you thankful? For what are you thankful? What can you do this year to ensure that you remain on the positive and avoid the negative? Perhaps just thinking of what we are grateful of on a daily basis will help us to understand just how lucky we are.

Tags: Gratitude, Gratitude books, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Activites, Thanksgiving day

Normally for Thanksgiving my family keeps it quite. We stay home with our four children playing games, riding bikes and hang out just talking. I serve the traditional Thanksgiving meal and it is a day of rest and relaxation. Every now and again we do something different. In years past we have had parties and once we had Grandma and Grandpa over and we spent the day playing Nancy Drew. The kids actually remember that as a favorite.
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This year we have the opportunity to do something very unique. We are planning on staying at the Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park. It is a ghost town with a boarding house. We are staying in the boarding house with all of our other family members. We will have the whole ghost town to ourselves. It will be like taking a trip back in time. I am going to set a long table and fill it with all kinds of nuts, berries, dried fruit, pumpkins and gourds. I think I will see if everyone will dress up in black and white like pilgrims. I think we will smoke game hen instead of having turkey. There is plenty of grass and they have no phone or TV. I think this will be a Thanksgiving to remember…..

Tags: Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving plans, Things to do for Thanksgiving

I cannot believe it is nearly October. With so many things going on during that month I thought I would get a few things on the web for your enjoyment.

Beth will be celebrating her 7th birthday at the Beginning of October. We plan on taking her to the fair on Wednesday, a visit at Grandmas on Thursday and then Disneyland for Friday and Saturday. Busy, Busy..

We have set up for Halloween early this year. Everything is up except the spiderwebs. I think I was due to the fact that we were spending time making scarecrows for the Lombardi farms scarecrow contest. Nick and Beth worked tirelessly on their scarecrows and they did a great job. So good that they and their classmates won second place yielding them a 250 dollar prize. I think we are going to have a party with the money earned to celebrate their hard work. While at the Lombardi farms for the winners announcement and fun filled farm day, we carved pumpkins to take home. We decided light our new Jack o Lanterns and sip on Pumpkin milkshakes while watching a scary movie to bring in this silly holiday.

There were many beautiful entries for the scarecrow contest yet one thing I noticed is some people really have no idea how to make a really good scarecrow. I am not talking an elaborate one, just simple and basic. I thought I would post a video on how to do that as well. We will work on that in the next week or so and get that out to you just in time to make your own scarecrow for the fall.

School has been going terrifically! The kids are motivated and doing well. We have made a great big tree in the classroom and have been studying entomology. This week we will finish up with that and move on to something else, biology. I thought since we have a tree up we would study trees. We will be studying all about the life cycle, types regions, you name it! We will keep you posted.

The tree in the classroom came out amazing. I looked on line to see how to make one and found nothing. Well, that is not entirely true…. The one tree I did find seemed like way too much work for me. So, I was left to my own resources. I will be posting a video in the near future to show you how to make one. Very easy!

That is the Fun on the Farm update………………..Come back soon as we will be adding more of what we are doing for our school year and showing you some neat stuff to add to your curriculum.

Tags: encouragement, family, family fun, homeschool, kids, parents looking for help, resources, school help, starting school, teaching, things to do in summer

Building a House – Raising a Child

When building a house here in northern Wisconsin, many people start with a cement block foundation.  When my husband and I built our house this is how we started as well. In the process of putting in the foundation, my husband handled and placed every single one of those cement blocks himself.  Each block was exactly the same and there were hundreds of them to be laid.  It was hard work that had to be repeated over and over again.  It seemed to take an extremely long time and each day showed painfully little progress.  But without the tedious work that went into the foundation, there could be no beautiful house to enjoy today. A solid foundation is essential in order to build something of lasting value.

Raising children is much like building a house.  We have to lay down the solid foundation of discipline, self control, honor, respect, and good attitudes.  It takes a long time and you often need to repeat the same things over and over again.  When a child is 3, 8, 10, 15, even 18 years old, you can’t expect to open the door of the completed house, look in and see all the beautiful furnishings.  You’re still working on the foundation!  In reality, ages 18, 21, or (gasp!) 25 may even be a little bit early to expect the house to be fully finished & furnished.   Yes, the foundations should be laid by then, but the framework is still in the process of going up and it will be awhile yet before the house is finished and furnished. Think about your own life – when were you truly a “responsible adult”?  When was your “house” completed and fully furnished with never a need for upkeep or repair?

Parents, please don’t expect your children to be mature “finished products” in the foundation-building years.  Yes, we need to train them and call them up to responsibility, good attitudes and servanthood.  However, when they fail, don’t be surprised.  When you have to tell them the same thing over and over again (those tedious foundation blocks to be laid) don’t get discouraged.  Eventually, with diligence and patience, you will lay the solid foundation for their mature adult life and you’ll be able to open the door to their “house”, walk in, sit down and finally – relax.

Source: http://www.homeschool-articles.com/building-a-house-raising-a-child/

Stop Squashing Your Sprouts!

Not only am I a home school mom of four, but I am also an avid gardener. Every year during the springtime, I put on my work clothes, grab my gloves and rake and I begin to prepare the soil for that year’s garden. I start by weeding anything from last year or anything that grew during the warmer days of winter. I add the amendments to the soil and till it all in carefully. I make the rows for the tender seeds and carefully plant the seeds for the new growth of that year. I water and watch as my tiny sprouts come up. I make sure to pull the weeds and care for my little sprouts because I know that they will grow to be good healthy plants if I take care of them. I guard my sprouts making sure no one or nothing comes along and squashes them. I put a fence around them to ensure they will not be eaten by the critters. I care for my sprouts because I know one day they will one day grow to their full potential and that will provide me with the new seeds for the next year’s growth.

So, what does all of this have to do with your home school adventure? Everything! I have been home schooling a long time and one thing I see repeatedly is parents stepping on their sprouts. Home schooling is an adventure and each new day begins with a new awakening. Schooling your children is not a sprint it is a marathon. Parents cannot just wake up one morning and think oh I am going to home school my kids and think it will all be peachy. Then, a few months into the year these same parents are worried and wondering, if they have made a mistake. They are terrified that they have ruined their children’s education. What’s worse, they are considering quitting and sending their children back to school. Like all things, you are going to have good days and bad days. The thing to remember is to not step on your sprouts as they grow. Did you get up that morning and do school? That is a sprout. Did your kid finally get that math fact? That is a sprout. Did you play a game with your children? That is a sprout. Anything you did to educate your children that day is a sprout.

You see, I have learned from experience that many parents just do not recognize how much they do for their children in a day, especially those who are new to home schooling. They do not recognize that each little thing they do affects how well they are growing, or how well they are nurturing their children. The question you have to ask yourself is why you want to home school. What is your why? Do you want to spend more time with your kids? Are you sick of the over crowed class size? Are you tiered of the stuff they are trying to teach our kids? Do you want to private school your kid but you cannot afford to and public school is not an option? What is your why? When you decide the reason you want to home school write it down and when you are having a bad day refer to it remembering that in the end it will all be worth it.

Amending the soil is the most important thing you can do for your garden. It gives your soil rich nutrients so you plants can thrive. Curriculum is the soil for your children. Choose books that will be not only age appropriate but fun and interesting. The beautiful thing about home schooling is that you have the ability to provide for the individual needs of your children. You can cater to the way they express themselves and their learning style. Do not be caught up in the “should haves” of school, they no longer apply to you. Lap books, stories, songs even games all become the curriculum of choice when you home school

Setting a schedule is like putting a fence around your garden. A schedule ensures that you will get something done in your day. Schedules are important to keep you and your child on track. If you plan school from 10 am to 1 pm do that every day! If math is taught every day and science is only on Tuesday and Thursday, do that every time. If you do not keep to some sort of schedule its like having no fence around your garden, soon the rabbits will come in and take over eating up everything you planted, then before too long you will realize that half the season has gone by and all you have to your school year is bits and pieces of information. If your garden is not growing, it is dying and if your children are not learning, they are not growing.

You need to water your garden every day. Now I do not mean you need to give your children masses amounts of schoolwork or test, but you will need to give them something every day of the school week. Even if your sick or they are, you should be filling their little brains with something. When I am sick I like to have them read to me, or draw me a picture (reading and art) if they are sick a good movie with morals hit’s the spot. If you have teens, perhaps they can occasionally take over the cooking so when you are sick it is no problem, (life skills).

Please pull out the weeds now and again. Yes, we all have weeds. We are all faced with so many negatives in a day it is unbelievable. We need to have continual encouragement for our children. They need their minds to be in the right mind set to succeed. There are several ways to pull weeds in your children’s heads. My favorite way is through the Bible. The Bible has so many words of encouragement and mortality. The Bible teaches respect and honor, friendship and adversity. Schooling is more than math; it is life skills. There are all kinds of books that help our children spiritually and when we talk to our children and find out what their fears, frustrations and strengths are, we are in a sense pulling out the weeds that will hold back their full potential.

Let your garden grow.
You should take the time to prepare the soil, you should make sure that your garden has water and you should keep the weeds under control but you also need to let your garden grow. Your children need room for success and personal failure. They need to learn how to teach themselves and not rely solely on your teaching. They need to grow their minds and their independence. Show your children how to find and follow the directions and that has taught them independence. Now when facing a problem you can say to them follow the directions and are confident that they will
When your children fail, have them look for the answers and find why they failed. We don’t always learn when we win; sometimes the answers are in our failures.

Different gardens grow in different soils. Stop comparing your soil to that of others. Some people have been gardening for years while for some it is their first garden ever. So stop comparing yourself with your Childs former teacher. Stop comparing yourself with the mom who has home schooled for several years. Like all things, there is a learning curve and you should embrace yours. Remember we are not home schoolers to school our children but to unschooled them. We home school to educate not to teach. Stop worrying if you are doing it right and realize that you are doing it right because you are doing it. If it were not for failure, how would we know success? Grow your children in your special soil and remember you can amend your soil at any time you wish, it your garden go crazy.

Stop stepping on your sprouts. Start recognizing all of your efforts for what they are, little growths of information adding up to be a flourishing wealth of knowledge

Treat each day as a success, no matter how small or large because it is just another days growth of your home school adventure. If you start out the school year laying the groundwork, you will start to see your sprouts. Each day that you have a new sprout, it reinforces the growth of the previous day until the end of the school year finally arrives and you notice the full growth of your seed. Then, at the end of the year, you put your seed to rest and wait for the next planting season.

Tags: encouragement, homeschool, kids, parents looking for help, resources, teaching, training

Well all,

It is coming to an end. The school year that is. The weather is warming quickly and the kids are already playing in the creek.

Kyle is getting ready to drive and the whole world is going to change for him. Nick got his first summer burn today. For him it will be a tanned little body for the rest of the year. Beth is ready for her summer hair cut, long hair has no place in the pool. Robert is looking forward to winter already as he really hates the summer and loves the winter. Russ has been busy on the farm getting things done before the big heat comes, I fear he may already be too late.

Me, I am going about my routine of school house and work. I am in preparation for summer and collecting lots of goodies to help out all the new families I hope to acquire. I know this year will be a blessing to all. So, get out and enjoy the warmth while you can because soon enough fall will be here and we will be thinking about books and school.

Happy spring all!

Lisa