Rite of Passage

My oldest daughter will turn 13 in December and I have been thinking about a "rite of passage" for her. Things got a little mixed up when we moved to Georgia 2 months ago but here is what I came up with.

Since we are training our girls to be self-sufficient I figured the best rite of passage would be for her to use the home-making skills she has learned. So, for the next month she will be doing things like meal planning and shopping, cooking (breakfast, lunch and dinner for a week), laundry (sorting, washing, drying, folding), cleaning her bathroom, sewing, knitting, changing the batteries in the smoke detectors, and other household duties. We feel that it will be good for her to know that at the age of thirteen she is completely capable of running a household. So far she has been pretty excited and feels good about her accomplishments in the home.

High School

As I have recently reconnected with friends from elementary school, junior high , and high school on Facebook, it really got me thinking. I am SO glad that God helps us grow and mature after high school. I don't know about you , but I am not even remotely the same person I was was when I graduated!

My "old" friends have a hard time believing that I homeschool because I was not a big fan of school back in the day! That is actually part of the reason I do homeschool. I want my kids to enjoy learning! I also want to be able to spend extra time, if needed, to be sure they really "get" the information and I want them to be able to fly through material that they have a good grasp on.

It is so cool to reconnect because I get to see the kinds of people my friends have grown up to be. It helps me realize how much I have changed and that God keeps forgiving me as I mess up and then He lets me start again with a clean slate!

So, thanks to all of my Facebook friends who were my friends back then and still wanted to be my friends now!

Field Day

Last week the girls attended the area wide homeschool Field Day. There were a couple hundred kids and lots of family and friends there. The girls had so much fun and always look forward to it.
The things I love about it are:
FRIENDS! (Mine and the girls')
Kids who did not know each other were pairing up for team competitions
I heard NO bad language at all
Kids were cheering for each other
I did not see anyone making fun of anyone else
Lots of good sportsmanship
Lots of fun and good exercise!

Casey won 1st place in the 3-legged race with her friend Addison,
she won second place in the back-to-back with her friend Alyssa,
she won third place in the girls team relay with Addison and a girl she did not know, and she ran a mile.

Cody won a first place ribbon for participation,
second place ribbons in the 1/4 mile run,
backwards run, girls team relay with her friends Camille and Prairie, the frisbee throw, the hula hoop, and a third place ribbon for the short yard dash.

Good Friends!

It was fun and exhausting and we need an entire year to recover and be ready for it again next year!

Heavy Metal Funder (yes, funder)

Last night we went to a homeschool Thanksgiving Feast and Talent Show. I was amazed at all of the super talented kids (and parents) we saw last night. From a 2 year old little girl quoting Scripture to kids doing skits and playing instruments.
Cody is like me in that she does not really like to speak in front of large groups. She had decided ahead of time that since her talent is art, that she would show one of her paintings and describe it. I figured I would have to carry her to the stage and describe the painting while she held it in front of her face.
So the show begins and several kids go up and "do their thing". Then a little boy named Max hits the stage. Now, Max is 5 years old and ADORABLE! He takes the microphone and the background music starts to play, just the music, no words. This little guys sings Born To Be Wild, in it's entirety, with pure Rockstar quality. I wish I had the video because he was too cute, especially the part that evidently says, "heavy metal funder". In the middle of his "concert" I lean over to Joe and whisper that I bet Cody will have to follow Max. As he ends the song, on his knees with both arms over his head, all of the kids clap and hoot and holler for him.
The MC announces the next child..... Cody. Well, she walks up to the stage, takes the mic and proceeds to describe, in great detail, but without fist pumping excitement, her beautiful painting. As she finished the kids in the audience gave her as much applause and yelling as they did for little Max. It was so touching and sweet.
When it was Casey's turn to play The First Noel on the piano there was a small technical difficulty. Someone had accidentally removed the piano bench from the small (as in low to the ground) electric piano. The piano was behind a half wall so we could not see exactly what was going on. But Casey, never one to cause a scene played the entire song consisting of 2 verses and the chorus twice, standing, stooped over the piano playing and using the foot pedal. When she finished everyone clapped and she sat down. Then, the guy running sound (who is also a keyboard player) walked up the aisle and announced that everyone should be extra impressed because she played standing up, bent over, which is twice as hard, so she got another round of applause.
Overall it was a pretty great night! I so enjoy our homeschool group!

Cow Hearts

As you may know, both of my daughters are homeschooled.
Yesterday at our homeschool group they got to experience something really cool. In their Zoology class they were able to pet a pig and a goat since they had learned about them that week. They have both milked a goat and fed baby goats with a bottle. Cody learned, through hands-on experience, that pigs have hair and that goat's eyes have rectangular pupils. Goats also chew their cud, or as Cody says - they swallow their food, then spit it back up then swallow it again.
Casey had the chance to dissect a cow's heart in her class. She thought it was awesome. She also thought it was cool that she was not grossed out, but some of the boys were! Evidently, dried cow heart fat looks very similar to Feta cheese. Who knew?
Overall, yesterday was another great day of homeschooling!

A Normal Day!

Even though today is Halloween it appears that it will be a pretty normal day for us.
We will do school, chores, some house cleaning and laundry.
We will be returning some movies to Blockbuster and picking up more, fortunately we will get 3 for FREE by being members of their DVD mail order thing. When we return movies we have received through the mail to the store we get to exchange them for free ones, plus we have a coupon for one free movie. I love finding new ways to be frugal!
Then tonight the girls will go around our coul-de-sac and collect some free candy. Casey will be "an Army person", and Cody will be a Snow Princess.
Hope your day is wonderfully normal as well!

Reptiles

Homeschooling:
Today we went to our weekly homeschooling co-op. The girls are taking Zoology, where today they were able to touch both a corn snake and a bearded dragon. They took two of our pets, a green anole (lizard) and a frog (Freddie, pictured above), and fed the anole a live cricket on front of the class.
They are also taking art, health/PE, US Geography and Casey is on the Yearbook Staff.
It is always fun and the girls learn so much. Plus they get to hang out with their friends.
Casey also went to friend's house today for a party where they made costumes for their Webkinz. Overall a pretty good day!
P.S. Casey made a 97% on her math test yesterday!