Night At The Museum

My boys are falling asleep, at this very moment, in the Da Vinci Science Center. We had a Cub Scout Camp-In tonight. They worked on their Engineering badges with other members of their dens, and we are all sleeping over among the museum exhibits.

They've had tons of fun exploring electrical circuits, building bridges out of paper and testing how much weight they would hold, building catapults, and designing floor plans of their dream houses. We finished off the evening with a Bill Nye video on electricity.

Tomorrow morning, we will get the opportunity to visit the Bodies Revealed exhibit before the museum opens.

We've all had a great time!

Winter Outdoor Survival Skills

My boys are both in Cub Scouts, and are preparing for our district's annual Winter Fun Day, where the scouts their age complete a winter survival skills challenge. These 4th & 5th graders will go on a hike (backpacks required) and will have to build an outdoor shelter using the items they have with them. They will also have to build a campfire safely and properly. They will be quizzed on the items they have in their backpacks and what each item is for.

Today, while I gave them a short break from their schoolwork, this is what they constructed entirely on their own.

I think they're ready for Saturday's challenge!

Convention Time!

I spent today at the CHAP Homeschool Convention in Harrisburg with two really good friends of mine.  They had never attended one of these conventions before, so I had a great time showing them around.  (I totally geek out over curriculum and books!)  I think they were both surprised and overwhelmed by the sheer range of curriculum available to parents who wish to homeschool their children.  I felt a little bad at times, because I had some definite purchasing missions I was there to accomplish, and I kind of pulled them along on my power-shopping trip, but they were really great sports about it.  I think they both felt like it was okay to go off on their own when something caught their eye. 

I finally made some decisions regarding math.  Prior to the convention, I was looking over the websites of our math possibilities and asking the boys for their input.  When we watched some of the sample lessons on the Math U See website, both boys gasped with understanding they have been lacking on certain topics.  The exact words from one of them were, "Why couldn't the math program we are using explain it that way?  It makes so much SENSE!" 

As I asked for their feedback, Aidan's question was, "Mom, if I want to do Math U See, will you be mad at me?  It really looks good to me." 

Mad?  About my kids not complaining about doing math?  About my kids maybe even enjoying it a little bit?  No, not mad at all!

So, Math U See was my first stop at the convention.  The boys will do Math U See over the summer to fill in gaps in understanding from this year's curriculum, and if they still like it we will stick with it as our primary math curriculum.  If they decide they don't like it, we will try one of the others. 

I always leave the convention inspired and excited to start the upcoming year.  Today was no exception.

Getting Back to What We Love

Well, we tried something different for this school year.  We moved from traditional homeschooling to an online cyber-charter school.  There were a lot of factors influencing our decision, including my needing some support while we unraveled the exact nature of my 8-year-old's learning difficulties.  All of the teachers and other people at the online school were truly wonderful to work with.  However, the curriculum did NOT work for my boys' learning styles, and actually seemed to get in the way of their understanding of so many concepts. 

So, for next year, we are going back to homeschooling.  My goal is to remove roadblocks for my kids so they can get down to the business of understanding the concepts they need to know.  And I, personally, want some joy back in our learning process. 

I have added pages/tabs to my blog to share what curricula I plan to use for the upcoming school year, for anyone who is interested.  Some of my final decisions will be made this coming weekend, when I attend the big homeschool convention in Harrisburg, and can see all of these items in person. 

I am allowing my kids to have some input in our course of study, too.  I think they will be more engaged if they feel like they have some influence on our choices.

Our cyber school year is complete on June 15.  We will begin our independent homeschooling adventure June 16, even though I cannot count activities and hours for next year until July 1.  Our family's educational experiences do not follow the typical school calendar. We do math and language arts all year round.  In addition to that, I am really looking forward to a summer of fun adventures, outdoor science lessons, camping, swimming, and nature hikes.

Minnesota Road Trip

The boys and I drove nearly 20 hours (over three days) to visit my family in Minnesota. On the way, we stopped at Reptiland in Allenwood, PA. The boys LOVE Reptiland! So many interesting creatures to see! I know photos can be great, but I also hate to inundate people with them, so if you want to see more photos from Reptiland, just click on the picture of the turtles, above, and it will take you to my Reptiland photo page.

One tired, worn-out boy, snuggling with his new "friend" from Reptiland.

We arrived safely in Minnesota and spent the first couple of days at Grandma's house. We crammed a lot of fun into just a couple of short days!

I was glad we brought the boys' scooters along with us. It gave them a way to burn off energy right in Grandma's driveway. And anyone who knows my boys knows they have energy to burn!

We celebrated MY Grandma's 85th birthday. Colin was quite upset that I didn't get a pinata for my Grandma's birthday party, because, doesn't EVERYONE love a pinata? (Sigh. Maybe I should have gone ahead and got one.)

Grandma picked up a Slip-N-Slide for another energy-burning activity on the hot, hot days. It was a GIANT hit!

We visited the Mall of America...including Legoland. Colin thought the life-sized Boba Fett made of Legos was VERY cool!

We also visited the "Underwater Adventure" at the Mall of America. It's one of the world's largest underground aquariums. I thought this shark photo made me look like I must be one heck of an adventure photographer, diving with the sharks! Hee hee! It was all from behind glass!

Now Fred has finally arrived for a few short days, and we are at my Dad's house at the lake. I'm sure there will be MANY pictures to follow, but here is a fun one to share. If you click on it, it will take you to the other photos from our visit to Grandpa's house. Enjoy!

Bedlam!...(But mostly the good kind!)

We've had two busy, busy months. We've been renovating our kitchen and our powder room, a project which is still not complete. We've been submerged in baseball and T-ball season, which has taken up about 6 days per week of our life. The boys have also joined Cub Scouts, which is going to add another dimension to the chaos (again, the good kind).

In the midst of all of this, we took a family trip to Chicago. Fred had to go there for his company's annual National Sales Meeting, and I decided it would be a great opportunity for me to take the boys to Chicago to see some of the fabulous cultural attractions there. Since school was still in session for everyone else, the crowds were thin. If you'd like to see the photos from our trip, click on the photo below, and it will take you to my photo gallery from the trip:

On previous trips to Chicago, we have stayed with good friends and family members who were kind enough to open their homes to us. We opted for a hotel this time, first because we didn't want to inconvenience our friends, but also so that the kids would feel more "settled." I realized after our last visit that it was just too difficult for the boys to settle down in a different house every night.

I also resigned myself to the fact that it would be impossible to see everyone we WANTED to see, given that we only had a week and REALLY wanted the boys to experience Chicago's offerings, such as the Adler Planetarium and the Museum of Science and Industry. (And we had Fred's meeting which we had to work around, as well.) People who live in or around a big city might have trouble understanding it, but after living in rural Pennsylvania for four years and not having access to these things (especially when you're homeschooling), I wanted the kids to have those experiences while we were there and had the opportunity.

So, I opted to simply leave posts on Facebook, letting people know where we were going to be on any given day, and leaving it open for anyone who wished to join us to do so. I'm feel really bad because I think a couple of people were really offended by this; but after driving 13 hours just to get to Chicago, I honestly couldn't see making the boys spend an extra 2-3 hours a day in the car to "make the rounds" to everyone's houses. That kind of frantic pace, along with that amount of time in the car, makes the boys cranky to the point where they completely fall apart every 10 minutes...no fun for any of us!

If you live in the Chicago area, and were one of those who I may have offended, please consider this my formal, public apology to you. And please believe me that no slight was intended.

If you are one of those who joined us in our adventures, thank you for making the trek to meet up with us...it was so much fun to see you again!

Our kitchen project is moving right along. It isn't at the stage where I want to post a final "after" photo, yet, but here is a "before" image:

Actually, this is as they were ripping out the Pergo flooring. The black and white tile would have actually looked fine with the countertops we chose, but a large number of the tiles were cracked because they had been installed over plywood, rather than cement backer board. If you are considering tiling your floor, remember that! If you tile over plywood, it WILL crack!

We had two weeks of living with our kitchen island (which includes our stove) in the family room, unusable. The refrigerator and kitchen table was also in our family room. The contents of our island and another cabinet, as well as our kitchen chairs were all over the dining room. My usually chaotic house reached brand-new heights of chaos!



We have the new tile and countertops in, but I'm waiting until all the trim is up and everything is painted to show an "after" photo. I'd also like to wait until the drywall is repaired (that's leftover from our replumbing project). Hopefully, I'll be able to post some "after" photos soon!



Well, that's all for now (but it's really quite enough, isn't it?)!

Our Easter

We hope yours was happy too!

Where Have We Been?

I just realized it has been almost 2 months since I posted a blog here. Yikes! Where did the time go?

We've been busy with lessons, training our now 93-pound puppy, and home renovation projects. We've been tearing apart our kitchen and putting it back together (still in progress), having a new well pump installed, and now we are getting ready to rip out drywall and replace all the plumbing in our house.

Here are some photos, just for fun. This one is Aidan with Juno about two months ago (photo taken by my mom)...she was smaller then than she is now.


Colin loves playing with the snap circuit set they got for Christmas. It says it's for ages 8 and up, but he seems to have caught onto how to make it work pretty well. If anyone has thought about buying one of these for their kids, I highly recommend it. This is the starter set, and it EASILY keeps MY wiggly boys focused for an hour or more at a time!


I've been trying to do more painting. It has been a really icy winter that has not allowed for us to have much time outside. Painting helps me to cope with the lack of color and light we experience in the winter. I mean, look at my pastels, below. How could anyone look at all of these beautiful colors and resist the urge to pick them up and start painting?

Basically, pastels resemble chalk, but they're almost pure pigment...the same pigments used in artist-quality oil paints.

I started a separate blog for my art and photography. If you are interested, you can get to it by clicking here. I HAVE been updating that blog regularly because I've been painting regularly, thanks in large part to my mother-in-law, who watches the boys once a week so I can go to the "Open Studio" time at the Dietrich Theater and have some dedicated time to paint. Have I mentioned that I have the best mother-in-law in the world?

Why We Live Where We Do

In our front yard, as seen from our living room windows...Not too many words needed here; the photos tell the story.

The orange stuff they're eating is a pumpkin. And, yes, those two tiny spikes are baby antlers!

Breakfast With Santa

We were greeted this morning by a magical, sparkling beauty that extended for miles from the top of our mountain. We were very lucky that the freezing rain did not knock out power and cause too many other problems; we just got the beautiful trees, which sparkled like a forest full of diamonds.

Fortunately, the roads were in good enough shape that we did not have to cancel out on our plans for "Breakfast With Santa" with some good friends of ours!

That look on Colin's face is because he is asking Santa for something that he knows mommy and daddy do not want him to have...a Nintendo DS. It's not that we are opposed to video games in general, we are just not in favor of OWNING any! Fred has too many memories of playing them until he got blisters on his thumbs, instead of doing other things like homework and playing outside in the fresh air. Not sure how to handle this one with Colin...I'd LOVE to hear any suggestions you may have!

Aidan was very excited to tell Santa what's at the top of his wish list! Guess what? Santa already knew what that was...hooray!

On the way home, Fred helped me find some places to park the car so I could take some close-ups of the pretty ice.

I thought these pine needles looked amazing...

And I've never seen an oak leaf coated in ice quite like this one! Pretty cool, huh?