Leaving the blog

Hello Our Crazy Collective blog viewers,
The time had come to move away from blogging.  I was never all that good at it anyway.  I will continue to write about our homeschool adventure, but it will be on our Fawkes Academy Facebook page.  You can now follow us here Fawkes Academy Homeschool

Finally, one of them is old enough to use power tools!

Today I got to start a class with my oldest son that I've been dying to get to... WOOD SHOP   That's right this homeschool mom has been anxiously waiting for the day to come when she could introduce one of her children to her beloved power tools.  

Everett, Annika, and I have all been bitten by the Field Archery bug and wanted to be able to practice at home.  So we bought some archery target bags, some paper targets and now just need a stand to hang them on as well as a stand to rest our bows on when we need to retrieve our arrows.  I picked up the lumber the other day when out with my husband and asked the eldest if he'd like to start Wood shop for an elective.  He said "Sure, what are we going to make"  I decided we'd start with the bow stand because the lumber for the target stands is still a little wet from sitting at the outdoor lumber yard at Home Depot.  

After getting home from our day at Archery league, we started on the bow stand.  We got Bruce the Sliding Compound Miter saw out, as he was the only saw we'd need, then we got the Kreg pocket hole jig set up and got the drill fitted with the Kreg drill bit.  
I showed Ev how to mark the measurement, use the speed square to make a straight line, how to line up Bruce's blade and how to abide by the 7=10 rule I have for using Bruce.  What is the 7=10 rule you ask?  It's simple keep your wood holding hand 7 inches away from his blade and you'll make sure to keep all 10 of the digits on your hands.  

After cutting the frame to hold the bows and the legs I showed him how to use the Kreg Jig, drill bit and screwdriver bit to drill the pocket holes and connect all the pieces.  

Once that was all done we dug through the scrap wood pile and found some bit of 2x4 that would work great for bracing on the legs.  He opted for straight bracing on two sides and angle bracing on the opposite two sides, so I showed him how to measure rotate Bruce to a 45º cutting angle and how to cut one side to the proper angle, then use the leg of the stand to mark the other side so you get the proper length.  He then cut the 2nd angle brace all on his own.  We decided to not use pocket holes on the angle bracing and just drive a few deck screws through the legs into the bracing.  


Lastly we cut a towel down wrapped and used the electric staple gun to attach it to the frame where the bows will rest to keep them from getting scuffed.  

He did a great job and I'm proud to say he wasn't afraid of any of the tools!  He also asked if he could use some of the scrap wood I have to build himself a little lap desk for his room.  I'm one super proud mom!

What we've been up to this February

I'm so bad at keeping this blog up.  I need to recommit myself yet again.  It's been a long time since my last post, not a lot of exciting stuff happened.  In February the kids and I pretty much just did school, you can't say a lot of exciting things about grammar and Algebra, so just know we routinely did the daily work one would expect of a  3rd, 7th, and 9th grader.  


The older two kids have continued with archery and absolutely love it.  They have both purchased their own bows and just as they are like night and day personality wise, so are they in bow choice.  




Everett chose a recurve style bow and Annika chose a compound bow. They have both improved with each trip to the range, and have loads of fun while they are there.  We recently purchased some targets they can use at home, now I just have to build a stand to hang them on.  





I've been busy working on items for my Etsy shop (Nuclear Needle Arts) which includes a lot of knitting needle cases.  I also started working on more 18" doll clothes for dolls such as American Girl™.  I was able to sell my old sewing machine which was frustrating me more than one can stand, and purchase a nice new Janome machine which I love.  Annika was super happy that I was also able to take a day one weekend to teach her how to sew from a pattern.  She made herself a pair of pajama pants.  


Lastly, I was able to take a trip back to WI the last weekend of February to spend some time with my brother and mom.  We had a blast.  We went bowling, hung out, and had some great food from some local places. 
Here's hoping that March will be a good productive month!

And we're back...

We had a great winter break and last week we got back to school work.  It was a short week because the older two kids started a new activity, Archery.  They were supposed to have safety class at the range with the league Monday and Tuesday but the class did so well the coach graduated them earlier. 

Everett and Annika both love it and started leagues this past Monday, the 12th.  Now we're looking at buying them each their own bow so they can practice at home as well as compete in tournaments.  Annika is in the light blue shirt on the far left, Everett is in green just to her right.

We had some changes to some of our programs, we moved from IEW to Writing with Skill. WWS is a bit more challenging, but the kids are adapting. We also put Fix It! Grammar aside and brought Analytical Grammar back.   We stopped phonics lessons with Lucas because his reading has taken off, so we opted to start grammar with him.  Everett has gone from answering questions for science to outlining the text and doing the projects.  We will also being doing more outlining in history.  The days have gotten longer but the kids are buckling down and getting it done.  


I did have to send in grades for the first semester, which is a new experience for me, VA was a non-grade submitting state, but the kids did excellent.  Everett got and A in Algebra, English, History, Science, Personal Finance, Health, and Spanish, as well as an A- in computer programming.  Annika and Lucas got As across the board.  

We're looking forward to a good second semester. 

Week 12, one third of the year done!

We've done it, we've made it through the first third of this school year.  We've been wrapping things up to get to a good place to take a nice long winter break. 

Things are going well over all.  We'll have a few program tweaks coming up in the new year. The kids have done well for this first 12 weeks, finding their groove.  I've found my groove with teaching and planning our days.  

We've looked into a new activity for the older two kids to try starting in the new year... Archery!  Ev and Annika are super excited, Lucas opted not to try it right now.  

This post is really short, and very boring, I sure hope I become more verbose in the new year.  Here's some pictures from this last week. 

We've reached the ten week mark.  That means we've completed almost one third of our school year.  It's been interesting to say the least.  The last couple weeks have been rough, we had some time off that I wasn't anticipating and we've had some issues with making it all fit in.  

Since I last posted, the kids have been trucking along in math using Teaching Textbooks across the board.  Algebra is going really well for Everett, Annika is tackling fractions like a champ and Lucas is blazing through math 3, often doing double lessons because he likes it so much.  

We did end up with almost a week off because Everett had to have his wisdom teeth extracted and was pretty miserable for about 4 days afterwards.  He handled the surgery much better than I thought he would, and is back to my normal 15.5 year old kid.  

Annika turned 13 last week, so now I have two teens in the house, what fun.  

We also spent a day last week at the Brook Museum to see the Animal Mummies exhibit they had.  It was a pretty small exhibition, but interesting none the less.  

My brain has decided it's on vacation already, so I'll end this post wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Lots of fun with science this week

Week 6 is over, ¼ of our year is done and behind us.  The kids did their usual, math, grammar, writing, and reading, so I won't bore you with details about that. 

For history this week we started working on modern history of the world (1850-present) Everett and Annika had fun learning about The Great Exhibition put on by Queen Victoria, and then had not so much fun learning about The Sepoy Mutiny.  The bright spot of the second lesson was that I made some Enfield rifle "cartridges" out of wax paper, flour, foil and an index card.  I then timed the kids while they loaded their paper towel tube rifles, with traditional pour in the gunpowder (aka flour), and ball (foil) and then with the Enfield "cartridge"   They had lots of fun with that and learned how much faster the cartridges were.  

They also had fun with science.  Lucas got to put a series of batteries together to see what the difference was when lighting a bulb.  He also learned about opposition.  Everett did a lab about the fermentation rates of yeast when placed in various temperatures.  Annika started chemistry for middle schoolers, with a new program and had to pick an element to do a profile page on.  She chose plutonium and had some fun learning about it with Matt this weekend. 




 

No longer MIA

I realized today that we're in week 5 of school and I've been MIA.  We had good weeks, but unfortunately for week 3 and part of 4 I was without my beloved Macbook Pro.  It was in need of a new optical drive, and typing or posting from an iPad is less than ideal if not a full out way to drive a person to drink. 

Now that I'm back I'll share some pictures of the science things the kids did during those weeks. 


Other than the usual school day work here's what we've been up to. 

Annika has been taking classes at MCA (Memphis College of Art) on Saturdays and is enjoying it immensely.  She's finally started Latin and it's going well. 

Lucas and Everett have been having some fun biking or going for jogs from time to time with Matt.  

I've been working on a knitting project as well as sewing some cute doll dresses for my Etsy shop.  

We've made a few changes in the items we're using for school as well.  Everett has decided on Spanish as his foreign Language, we've set aside BookShark in favor of History of Modern Times with Story of the World and history encyclopedias, and we're adding in Trail Guide to World Geography.  

Some items that are going really well are the new version of Fix It Grammar from the folks at IEW.  We had some bumps in the road with the writing program from the same company, but seem to have found our groove with that.  

We hope to keep trucking along.  This year has been one of our best starts ever.  

Week 1, we survived

It's done, it's over, we all survived.   We had the good, the bad, and the "Oops, let's change that"

The Good
The kids got up at a reasonable hour
There was no complaining
We managed to be done by 1530 each day
The new school room layout seems to be working really well
We got a new computer for the school room
Everett really enjoyed the science project he picked to do
Lucas is a full on, no more phonics lessons, reader
Annika has become very independent in her school work
Annika loves her science program

The Bad
Everett's not sure he wants to take Latin as his foreign language
Annika didn't like the first book assigned to her for history reading
Lucas hated the new math book I picked

The "Oops, let's change that"
The math I picked for all of them, didn't seem like it would work so I had to order new stuff
The history program uses the World book Encyclopedia which is DRY, DRY, DRY, we got some new books on the way to replace it. 

Over all I'm happy with how this week went.  This post was short and to the point, because I had already posted all the pictures in the First day of School post. Next week I'm planning to add in art and foreign language, guess we'll have to see if I'm successful with that plan. 

First day of school 2014-2015

Today was the first day of my 9th year of homeschooling, wow I've been doing this gig a long time.  The kids were excited, one of the more so than others.  I woke up thinking it would be a rough morning.  I was sure I'd have to drag my kids out of bed kicking and screaming.  After all summer vacation had lasted longer than most kids have due to the move.  As I walked out of my room I was shocked at the sight awaiting me.  My 15.5 year old son, happily eating his cocoa puffs.  Yes, he was already awake, and it didn't take a cattle prod.  Huh, who knew.  

I then proceeded to take pictures of my kids with little signs stating what grade they were in.  You know those pictures, I'm sure you've seen them on facebook or took them yourselves.  Mine weren't like the ones you may have seen of the bright eyed, bushy tailed, kiddos ready to hop on the bus, nope, not at all.  They were of my 9th grader noshing on his earlier mentioned  cocoa puffs, of my 7th grader sleeping with her neck at some strange, uncomfortable looking angle, and of my 3rd grader after he'd looked at me like I was a nutter and decided to take me up on my "it's ok, just go back to sleep" offer.  

After he finished eating 1 of 3 decided he wanted to get to work right away.  I was not ready for that.  I hadn't made out the assignment sheets yet.  I had planned on waking up at least an hour before them all and doing that while I enjoyed the quiet morning.  So I said,"Uhhh, I guess you could do math."  He looked at me, thought for a bit, and then said, "Or I could do my programming, I have a lesson for that on the calendar from dad." "Sure, programming, that sounds good"  I then went about my crazy rushed morning having something to eat and rapidly writing out those assignment sheets. 

We settled in at 10:30 after I woke 2 of 3 and 3 of 3, it was a good day.  They worked without complaint and even stated they had fun during some subjects.  

Even though I realized that my kids had no idea what a number sign or pound sign was and had to resort to calling it a hashtag I consider today a win.


 

Homeschooling year 9 begins Sept 15th

The books are on the shelves, the papers needed have been printed, the supplies stocked, the students are ready, I think.  The teacher is ready, but worried.  Why am I worried, because this is our 9th year homeschooling, how that much time has passed, I do not know.  I am also worried because it's a new state, for those that don't know, we've moved to Tennessee.  That means laws are different and there are new hoops to jump through.  The thing frazzling my nerves most is the fact that Everett is now a freshman in highschool.  Yes, by age he should have been one last year, but Matt and I both agreed that he needed a gap year to mature.  We felt it was best given last year by having him to an extra long 8th grade period, instead of between high school and college.  The boy has grown up a lot, his motivation is much improved, as is his focus.  

I am looking forward to this year with the kids though, as we'll be doing some interesting new things in terms of curriculum.  They will all be doing Saxon math, which makes me much more comfortable.  Saxon is a math program I know I can teach well.  Everett and Annika will be using Institute for Excellence in writing again, and they are both looking forward to that. History will be and exploration of the Eastern Hemisphere via Bookshark. Science is a bit different for every child, Everett has chosen to do Oak Meadow's Environmental Science, Annika will be focusing on physical science using Exploration Education's advanced program, and Lucas will be doing some fun things with electricity, magnets, and astronomy also with Bookshark.  The older two will move on from general reading to literature, which scares them and me.  I was never a fan of English class, hopefully they like the books I picked for them.   One of the nicest classes for me will be Windows Programming and Game Programming for Everett.  Why am I so thrilled about this one, because Matt is taking charge of the whole thing!  Yay!  It will be nice to have one class I just don't have to worry about.  Everett was so excited about it he started it this week instead of waiting for our official start date and has completed 2 chapters already.  I think that puts him about 2 weeks ahead of schedule.  

So, as I sit here thinking of the upcoming year and what it holds for us, I would like to wish all my homeschooling friends good luck in their endeavors, and best wishes to all my friends who have kids in public and private school. May your year be fun, exciting, and all you hope they will be. 

Fun with electricity

Yes it's been a month since I posted.  We've been really busy with little league, wrapping up the winter swim season, swim lessons for Lucas and trying to get the last bit of school work for the year done.  Today Everett did one of his last lessons in TOPS Electricity #32 and had quite a bit of fun, so we thought we'd share. 

The Final article of Kel's Roach Ranch is Live

For those that have been following my Roach Ranch series on Sandbox to Socrates, the final installment has gone up today!  You can check it out by clicking the link below.

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

Being Monet

Yesterday I decided we needed to finish our unit on Monet and the impressionists, so I busted out Meet the Masters and the paint.  Annika was excited, it was art after all, Ev wasn't so sure, he'd much rather play a game instead.  I insisted that we had to get back on track.  Life has been so crazy that we haven't gotten nearly as much as I wanted accomplished.  

I had them review what we talked about when we watched the Monet presentation last week, then we did a color wheel in the impressionist style with little dabs of paint instead of mixing colors.

Afterward they painted some trees in the same way.  After they got into the lesson Everett perked up and enjoyed himself.  Sometimes half the battle is pushing them off that ledge into something new.

Virginia Living Museum Homeschool Day 2014

The kids and I braved the cold and rain to go to The Virginia Living Museum's Homeschool Day 2014.  The kids had a lot of fun.  Everett and Annika took a few classes that they enjoyed while Lucas and I just wandered around looking at the exhibits.  I hope you enjoy the slideshow of pictures there are  A LOT of them. 

What week is this? Who knows. At least History is done for the year!

I have no idea what week we're on anymore.  Things have been so crazy lately, I'm just happy I remember my own name.  I've had a lot of things going on with Little League, the season is almost upon us, and that means lots of work needs to be done.  It was gorgeous this past weekend so we spent some time outside, Matt put up a fence to keep the dogs out of the mud, and the older kids played frisbee.

I have somehow managed to keep up with schooling and the kids had a good week.  They all did math and reading, a little science, and history.  

The older kids finished their Time Travelers Early 19th Century lapbooks this week, which means history is done for the year. They had fun with this project even though interruptions meant it took a lot longer than we though. 

Annika also took a little time this week to learn a new craft.  She opened a Needle Felting kit we bought and made a cute little penguin. 


I've been working away on little projects around here.  I have a needle case to make for a friend who owns fixed circular knitting needles, and I started knitting a cowl for myself.  I still have plans to make a needle case for myself to hold my 3 sets of interchangeable needles, but that is still a design that is just milling about in my mind. 

Lizards, Algebra, and Baseball. Oh My!

So you say I'm a girl,  "Ok, got some bugs?"

This week was just as crazy as most around here.  We started out with a great day on Monday as you could see in our Picasso Monday post.  Tuesday had Annika and I running out to our favorite local Pet Store to pick up more bugs for Spock to eat.  We also took Spock with us so that the reptile experts could finally tell us if he was actually a he.  Well low and behold It's a GIRL!  Yep, Spock is a GIRL Dragon!  Annika was perfectly fine with that and simply replied with, "Well at least I didn't name her Sheldon."  Spock seems to be taking the news well. 

Wednesday brought some crazy snow/rain ugliness, and I creeped my way to a prospective managers meeting for Little League.  The meeting went really well, and we left that night only in need of a handful of coaches for the T-ball division and one for the minors division.  



Thursday was a typical day with school work followed with swim team practice for Annika.  Ev has recently started Hands On Equations for math because I felt it would be best for him to do this before moving forward in his current math program.  The manipulatives in this program are really helping him "see" the math in algebra.  I just wish I would have thought to bring it out sooner, considering I bought it a year ago.

Friday was a quick day to wrap up the lessons and Matt got home early so we headed out for a Valentine's day lunch and some grocery shopping.  Yes, I know, aren't we just the romantic couple.  

Saturday I helped out at another Walk In registration for Little league, which was ok, but I think the weather kept some people at home.  Hopefully the last on this coming Friday will be better. 

So as you have read, another pretty busy week for us here at the collective, but busy is better than bored.

Week 17 - Picasso Monday

Today was our first day back after having what amounted to a week off last week.  Everyone did math, Lucas started Math U See-Beta, and Annika started unit 2 of Math U See Delta.  I presented the first 4 lessons of Hands on Equations to Everett.  He really liked how they use manipulatives to help you think through algebra.  

After math we started art, this week I picked Picasso as our artist unit.  Lucas decided he wasn't interested, but Ev and Annika enjoyed the Meet the Masters presentation.  They thought he was interesting but said he seemed to reinvent himself a lot.  After the presentation we started in on their art packets, and then they began their chalk drawings.  




Another successful Meet the Masters unit!  

A long week has come to an end

This was a pretty long week.  I spent it with Matt as Navy GPS which is the class that helps get us ready for our eventually migration out of the military.  We still have about 3.5 years left, but it never hurts to get all the info you need early.

The kids plugged away at Math and actually did pretty well with their chores while we were gone each day.  Annika has made it through the first 6 chapters of MUS Delta and has taken the Unit 1 test.  Everett started working with solving for unknowns and needs some really hands on work, so we're going to put MUS aside for a bit and use Hands on Equations to do a focused study on this area.  Lucas completed MUS Alpha, we'll do a mini unit on reading and analog clock and then it's on to MUS Beta.

I also have a new article on Sandbox to Socrates.  The 2nd in my series about the Roach Ranch! Click on the link below the picture to go to the article.

Kel's Roach Ranch Part 2

Polar Vortex take two

About a week ago we had gotten a few inches of snow from what has been referred to as "The Polar Vortex"  This week it was back and dropped close to 7 inches. We don't really get snow like this in Southeast Virginia, so even though the kids were out playing in the 2-3 inches we got last week, there was no way I was going to win a "you need to stay in and do school first"  School will get done, that I know, but there's no reason we can't take a snow day or two from time to time. 

So the kids basically worked on math most of the week, and there was a little science done for Lucas and Annika.  Everett is waiting for the last of his supplies to come in before he starts his new Electricity unit from TOPS.  I started working on Barton Reading and Spelling level 4 with Annika, and she did really well.  Then they played in the snow, well actually Lucas played in the snow the most.  Everett was out for a while, and Annika chose to stay in and work on some crafting projects. 

After taking her out on Monday to replace the yarn I had accidentally donated to charity because I misunderstood her, she found a book with patterns for cute little crocheted critters and made 2 lions and a polar bear. She did an awesome job, and plans to eventually list them for sale in my new Etsy shop, Nuclear Needle Arts.  I worked on some prepping of 3 new interchangeable knitting needle cases I plan to list by Monday.  I also have a few ideas in my head for a crochet hook case and a case for straight knitting needles.



I mentioned before that Lucas was playing and playing in the snow, despite only have rubber rain boots to use for most because that's all we could find in the stores, he had so much fun.  He learned to "Snow board", which in our neighborhood means standing on a sled you borrow from a friend and try to ride it down the 2.5 ft hill across the street in the bank of trees over there.  The best part of all of this for me was that he came in with the most amazing hat hair I've ever seen. This is what was awaiting me when I pulled off his fleece hat.  Is it not the coolest hat hair EVER!  

It was a fun week packed with fun play time in the snow and crafting.  Now I think we'll take some time to just relax over the weekend.  Festis has the right idea.  Even if you have to lay on your owner's laptop, it's time for a nap.