Yesterday was Brittany's 13th birthday. I am now officially the mother of a teenager! I'm not worried one bit. She's a pleasure to have around. She knows we've been so tight on money for a while, so all she asked for was to have pigs in a blanket for dinner, red velvet cake and for us to play a game together as a family. She has been such a blessing to us. She babysits when I need to run out, or just so David and I can go out together. And, she's even offered her babysitting money when we've needed it. I knew she'd been really wanting a digital camera and, for about the last year, I've been thinking how I really, really wished I could get her one for her birthday. So, I kept praying that God would provide some way for me to get one for her. A few weeks ago, someone gave us some extra money, and I took that as answer to prayer. We went out and got her the camera from Wal Mart, with a memory card and carrying case.

We had a book club meeting yesterday afternoon at a friend's house, who also let me bake the cupcakes in her oven, and then had the appliance drama (see the previous post) that evening, so we didn't actually get to "partying" until around 8 pm. She finally opened her gift and was in shock. She loved it! As I knew she would. She kept asking, "Is this a real camera?" "Is this for real?" I'm so thankful to be able to do that for her.

Brittany's birth story.
Hers was a surprise pregnancy in a whirlwind wedding. I turned 20 in June and she was due mid July. David and I had just gotten married the previous February, and I had just moved out to Hawaii in April. David was in the Marine Corps and this would be my first lovely and moving experience with military doctors. (Sarcasm is kind of hard to write.)

Anyway, I didn't KNOW nothin' bout birthing no babies. I think that one must give birth at least 3-4 times to really understand exactly what it going on. I think I just assumed everything would somehow just happen, and sort of likened myself to an innocent bystander. I read "What to Expect" and all, but nothing really wakes you up like actually having a baby.

I was due with her on the 16th of July, and starting the trend, that day came and went. On the 19th, in the early am, I started having contractions, but we decided that David should go on ahead to work. By that evening, we went to Labor and Delivery thinking that certainly things were happening now. They sent us home, because I wasn't far enough along, and there wasn't anything they could do. "What do you mean, nothing you can do???" We went back home and Brittany gave new meaning to the term "back labor". The next morning David went on in to work again, but came home later that morning with tonsilitis. I had an already-scheduled appointment at 2 pm, so David drove me in. The doctor discovered I was at 6 cm. and they rushed (wheelchaired) me upstairs to L and D. Hours later things still weren't progressing. They tried to break my water with this stick-thingy that must've existed in medieval torture chambers. Finally the other nurse had pity on me and told the other nurse to stop. I was quite exhausted. No sleep and no food going on 40 hours. I decided to get the epidural and of course, threw up, right as my pregnant friend and her husband showed up. She was due the next month with her first child. I must've have made quite a scary impression.

I eventually got to ten cm, and the nurse said to push, but I was so tired that I couldn't stay awake. And, she still was not coming out. So, the doctor decided, shortly after midnight to do a c-section . At 2:18 am, we had a Brittany. 6 pounds, 11 ounces and 17 and 3/4 inches. I had "failed to progress" because Brittany was sunny side up (babies are supposed to be face down with their spine facing up, but she was facing up with all her weight on my back-hence the back labor) and she was also crooked with her should trying to come out with her head.

David had opted not to come into the operating room. He was sick and more than a little overwhelmed. You know all the "risks" they let you know about with an epidural? There are even scarier "risks" they let you know all about with a cesarean. He must've been terrified.
So, they sliced me open, ripped out a human being, took out my insides and examined them, put them back in and stapled me shut. Literally. And, that's literally what I felt like had happened to me. Although, I was still numb from the epidural for a while after, they wheeled me to the recovery room for a few hours, then onto my own room. (I only got my own room because I had a c-section, I had to share a room when I had Tyler at the same military hospital) It must've been 4-6 hours before they even brought her to me for the first time. I don't know if they fed her, I don't know what happened. And, of course, I didn't know any better. The nurse came in that morning and wanted me to get up to take a shower. I thought she must be crazy. I had been in quite a bit of pain since the epidural had worn off. They gave me a morphine pump, but I was a little afraid of overdosing or something, so I don't think I ever really turned it up high enough. It would take me about 30 minutes just to get up and go to the bathroom and get back in bed. And of course, as soon as I would lay back down, Brittany would start crying.

The day before I was released, a student nurse came by to take out my staples. Well, I guess they have to practice on somebody. Ouch. I did heal fine, though, with no problems. I was so thankful for a healthy baby, but I knew that if I had another baby, I was NOT going through that again. Think VBAC.

Monday Musings

LIttle Thomas loves Alvin and the Chipmunks (the movie). He especially loves the song "Funkytown" that the chipmunks sing outside the window. He "asks" to hear it (he grunts "Uh, Uh") and point to the TV and loves to dance to it. I usually let him watch it in his crib before he takes a nap. So yesterday when I was getting him dressed for church, Tyler walked through the living room and went upstairs singing the "wah-ah-ah-ah-ah" to the beginning, and Thomas, naked, starts dancing and running upstairs thinking Tyler was putting on the movie for him. It was the funniest thing! He also says "Geeen Geeen" for the "Gotta get that green" song at the beginning. He's a mess!

Monday Musings

Conversations with a five year old:

Brooke (to her Dad): "I love you even when I'm naughty at you."

Brooke's conversation with me:
Brooke: I guess it will be good if we die because then we'll get to be with God in heaven.
Me: Yes, that will be good.
Brooke: Will we get to eat there?
Me: Yes, God is preparing a big feast for us.
Brooke: Will he give us presents?
Me: Yes, lots of presents.
Bethany: I know what I can give God! I can give God love.
Brooke: I can give God love, and a gift card!

Daufuskie Island

We went along with my husband to Daufuskie Island for the summer regional meeting for Edward Jones. We had an AWESOME time! We left on Thursday to drive down, it took about three hours. You have to catch the ferry over from Hilton Head Island, and the ferry ride lasts an hour. Well, we did not crash in with the sharks, nor did we have to wear our "life coats". Whew!

We finally got to the resort Thursday around two and checked in. We weren't sure what to expect because we didn't have any room information or anything, and when we got our room we were totally shocked. They had upgraded us to one of their new villas. It was amazing! There was a king sized bedroom with a huge bathroom and jacuzzi tub/seperate shower, another bedroom with 2 full beds, a fully stocked kitchen with washer/dryer and living room with large flat screen Tv and pull out sofa bed.

My dream bathroom.........

This is the view from the porch.

The Main resort house where we ate some of our meals.

We had a couple of meetings to go to the first night, and the kids went to the children's program. We had a nice catered dinner and afterwards the kids couldn't wait to get into the ocean.

A casualty.

Friday morning there was another meeting, we had a nice catered breakfast all three days and David wasn't done until noon, so we just hung out at the villa and enjoyed the beautiful golf course view from the screened in porch.

Friday afternoon we went down to the beach at low tide and found some nice shells, and stepped on quite a few Horse shoe crabs. Ouch! So, we went to swim in the pool instead. We had a nice Italian themed dinner that evening.
Saturday, David was in meetings til noon, so the kids and I went down to the beach again at high tide this time. That afternoon we decided to go do a little exploring in the golf carts we were provided. After we left the villa, it started to pour down rain. Our friend, who had gone exploring earlier, took us down some dirt trails. We were totally off roading and mudslinging in our little golf carts in the middle of the woods in the pouring rain. It was totally just like a scene right out of Jurassic Park, even down to the arrows on the posts to point the way. (It was the trails to the spa.) My older son was even in the back of the cart like the guy with the broken leg. It was hilarious. Our cart ran out of battery, so we had to call a shuttle to take us back. We had a blast.
That evening the kids had a pizza party and David and I went to the awards dinner. We had a nice surf and turf meal and David got a total of four awards. We have a really neat (and fun) bunch of folks in our region.
Sunday afternoon we had to get back on the ferry at 1:15, so the kids and I did some more golf cart exploring while David stayed behind with Thomas who was napping. We went back down the dirt trails, much less Jurassic-like when it wasn't raining. We stopped at another small beach to find some more shells. And I just loved this purple house. There were quite a few multi-million dollar homes, belonging to obviously the rich and famous. It would have been neat to find out exactly who.

"Jurassic Lane"

Hurry! Run!

On the return ferry....

On the ride home......

Some beachy treasures...

History Resources

I cover history for our homeschool about the same way as science, except instead of topics, we cover time periods. I decided thatI would break our studies down into a five year rotation (like science). The five time periods are: Explorers through 1700's American History, 1800's American History, 1900's American History, Creation through Ancients, Middle Ages/Renaissance to Explorers. Now, I do cover a bit of world events when we are covering american history, and I chose American history first since we start our rotation in the third grade and I think American History is easier to understand at that age since we live here and can see the history around us. I also wanted to make sure we were grounded in Bible truth before delving to deeply in ancient gods and such.


I collect material and plan just the same as I do with science in my Science Resources post. Say if I am planning out my1800's year, I will print an 1800's timeline off of the internet, then pick and choose what topics I want to cover. Then I gather all my material and write it up. The first few weeks of my 1800's curriculum looks like this:


Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) 1

biog. Jefferson "A Picture Bookof Thomas Jefferson" by James Giblin
www.monticillo.org (virtual tour/day in the life)
write a biography
rubbing of a Jefferson nickel


Johnny Appleseed (1801) 1

Biog. Appleseed "Johnny Appleseed: A Tall Tale" by Steven Kellogg
JE Gibbons "The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree" by Gail Gibbons
Johnny Appleseed puppet printout
Discuss why apples? nutritious, easy to grow, versatile; examine different apple varieties and products from apples. Examine center seed "star".
Draw an apple tree in each of the four seasons and a short biog. at bottom of page.


Louisiana Purchase/ Lewis and Clark (1804-1806) 2

Complete History book pg. 126-131
978 Bow "The Back of Beyond: A Story About Lewis and Clark" (long book-read only certain parts)
biog. Sacagawea "Sacagawea: Her True Story" by Joyce Milton
www.nationalgeographic.com/west (virtual journey)
http://www.usmint.gov/ (view coins and printouts)
-Divide a paper into six sections and write one important fact from the purchase and expidition into each


The numbers next to the titles are how many weeks I plan to cover that section. Especially for accountability, I'm saying that I have planned 1 week's worth of work to be completed in that section. I've also included the call numbers for the books I'm using so I that when the time comes I can just request them and go pick them up at the library. Now, of course you don't have to cover the same topics, nor do the same sequence of events or chronologically. You can follow this method and choose what topics you prefer. When I wrote up this curriculum, we were doing more of a "notebooking" style of work.


When you want to purchase History materials here are some good companies:
Rainbow Resource (They sell everything homeschool!)

Knowledge Quest (very good for geography also)

Hold That Thought

Home 4 School Gear

Homeschool in the Woods


Here are some websites that have good resources:
http://www.historyplace.com/

http://www.worldatlas.com/

http://www.laurasprairiehouse.com/

http://www.50states.com/

http://www.cyberbee.com/wwho/index.html

http://www.joyofhandspinning.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad

http://legvi.tripod.com/castroromani/index.html


http://www.teacheroz.com/

http://www.teach-nology.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2children/ration/ration_intro.shtml

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

http://www.wholesomewords.org/

http://www.abc.net.au/arts/wingedsandals/

http://www.si.edu/

www.yourchildlearns.com/geography.htm

http://www.americanheritage.org/ (free lessons cd)

Homeschooling Basics

I'm always asked about homeschooling. So many people are interested. A few years back I wrote a paper called "Homeschool Basics" to give out if someone needed information. Now, I am including all of this information on my blog. I will also be posting some information for each subject, how we do homeschool, and some links that I've collected that have been very helpful. I've answered a few common questions here. Of course, this will vary a bit depending on what your state's laws are. If your state doesn't have any laws-awesome! But, if you must test your children, then make sure you are following the information they will need to know for the tests. If you don't have to test, or accountability, you are free to decide what I want to cover and when I want to cover it.

Check out HSLDA to find out the homeschool laws for your state.

**Materials to use besides prepared curriculum...........

There is a wealth of information out there that is not in the form of a textbook. Here are some ways that I have found material for use in my homeschool.

-The Library. There are numerous resources there from literature to history to biographies to math to science experiment books. The "book list" books mentioned later are a great tool. Many of the books listed in these books can be found in the library. Spend some time just browsing the shelves in the children’s section and jotting down books that look interesting to you. I have taken a spiral notebook and listed books with authors and call numbers, and a simple review, so that I can refer to these books later when planning my school year. (I do this for all of the books I’ve come across whether or not they are in the library.) Your personal list will accumulate over time and will be a very handy reference tool.

-Friends. Ask if you can borrow a resource that they are not using at the moment.

-The Internet. You can find almost anything on the internet. Generally if you need information on say birds, for instance, you can type "birds" into your search engine and get tons of links. We came a cross a great link for Paul Revere that has virtual and printable activities, plus Revolutionary War songs you can listen to online. One of my favorite ways to find materials is to type "free educational materials" or "free stuff for teachers or educators" into the search engine. You’ll be lead to tons of links for materials at no cost. Some of these are government agencies that have information just waiting for parents and educators to take advantage of. Some are links to sites that are filled with worksheets, or activity pages. I’ve gotten everything from NASA posters to lessons on George Washington to an entire Sesame Street safety unit from FEMA. Just pick out the things that look interesting to you. It will take some time to search the sites, but I feel it is well worth it.

-Free Stuff. Besides getting stuff from the internet, I have been given "leftovers" many times by friends. The stuff they’ve had sitting around for years, stuff they didn’t use, stuff that may not seem useful. I have taken 15 year old textbooks and (don’t cringe) cut them up and made posters from them. Is anyone really ever going to read a 15 year old textbook again? No, but my children love looking at the posters I have made from them. You may come across other things at little or no cost- magazines, recipes, crafts, poetry, or art prints from catalogs.

-Book fairs, flea markets, yard sales, discount tables, and book sales. After you learn your personal style of homeschooling, you will learn what to keep an eye out for. You can come across some real finds at these places.

-The Book Store or Catalogs. There will be some materials that you will want to purchase. For instance, my two older children enjoyed learning to read using "Bob Books", so I decided to invest in all five boxed sets. Also, you will want to purchase some "tools for yourself" in addition to some good books, games and other materials you find invaluable to your homeschool.

**What about having my child tested?

Legally, it depends on which accountability there is for your state. If your state doesn't require accountability then you can decide whether or not you would like to test. Typically you can order an Iowa Basics Skills test, or something similar and administer yourself, or maybe with your homeschool group. In this case the results are solely for your information and benefit.

**How will I know that my child is learning everything he needs to know?

Don’t worry. You will have some gaps in homeschool. You cannot cover everything about every subject, but neither does public school. But, again, you get to decide what areas are important to you. If you still need piece of mind, try these resources.

-the scope and sequence from the school board. You can call your local school district and usually they will send you a copy of their scope and sequence for a particular grade.

-What Every First Grader Needs To Know" by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. (An overall account of what children should cover in a particular grade level. Books go from K-6th grade

World Book (also gives scope and sequence)

**How do I keep records?

How you keep records will depend on what your accountability requires if you have one. Otherwise, if you use prepared curriculum just keep the used workbooks and make sure you write the date on the page. If you don’t use a prepared curriculum, you can just use a simple spiral notebook and jot down what was accomplished on what day. If you have a time/days accountability you may want to jot down the amount of time spent on a subject as well. This will be proof of days, hours and subjects covered. For instance, if you spend 30 minutes making a recipe from a typical pilgrim meal, and your child measured out all the ingredients, then just jot that down in your spiral notebook, with a notation "math, history (30m)". Do this for all educational activities that your child does, whether watching a spider spin a web or reading a book together. This notebook will be the record book. Or, if you prefer writing down your plans beforehand, just jot down the time that was spent on the subject afterward. You could also jot down how your child is doing every so often in a particular subject in order to make writing your progress reports a little easier. An idea for the child’s portfolio would be to set aside one piece of work each week to put in a special folder just for that particular year’s portfolio. Your accountability group will tell you exactly what you need to send them for their records.


**How long should I take to homeschool?

Unless you have an accountability that has a time of day requirement, that is totally up to you.

**How do I choose curriculum?

This again will depend on your accountability. If you don't have restrictions on subjects, then you are free to choose what you want to cover. A good idea is to go to a Christian book store or regular book store and browse through what they have. Ask friends what they use, if they like it and why. Check out my homeschool methods post to get an idea of the direction you may want to take. Also, you may want to try writing your own with my personal guide from Courtneylane Home Learning Tools!

Science Resources

For science, a few years back, I listed all the broad topics that I could think of that pertained to science. For instance, I included, habitats, human body, solar system, weather and earth science, etc. I had enough to cover two topics per year for a total of five years. I have it on a five year rotation, so the younger kids and older kids can be on the same topic each year. You can choose whatever interests you, or what you think is important to cover. You could cover whatever and how many topics in a year you prefer. I just choose to do two per year and not cover the material again until maybe 8th grade or high school (I start the rotation in 3rd grade and then independent projects in the upper grades). Keep in mind though, that you may not be as flexible depending on your states laws.

Here is a good article from Jeannie Fulbright that talks about why this "one topic immersion" approach is good for teaching science.

After I decided on which topics to cover- next year we will be covering habitats and human body- then I sit down and see all the material that I already have. I generally get a lot of e-newsletters, have websites that I check regularly, pick things up at yardsales and the Scholastic warehouse sales, etc. I keep an eye out for things that I know we'd use and then when the time comes to plan, I generally have a pretty good selection of materials. I also jot down library books that I come across as well. I have never purchased a science curriculum. There is nothing wrong with buying one, it's just that I would always look at them and think, "I could put this together myself and save the money." So, here we are.

After I pick my topics, let say I've chosen to cover habitats and for one of them I want to do a Bee unit. I break it down into sections and decide how long I want to take to cover each section. I would find library books for each, any worksheets/projects/experiments that I've collected and see how much I have, If I felt like I didn't have enough, then I would search my websites that I put on this post, or type whatever it is into the search engine. After I've gathered a suitable amount of material then I put it all together. This was our Bee unit from this past year. You can see the lapbooks under "Lapbooks" on the sidebar with links to most of the worksheets we used. This took us about 6 weeks.

**Insect Bee Unit
595.799 Mic "The Life and Times of the Honeybee" by Charles Micucci
JE Thompson "Gran’s Bees" by Mary Thompson
CD 782.42 Hap "Happy Bees" Songs for Happy Kids
Videos 595.799 Bee "Bees" (Bug City)
595.799 Mag "The Magic School Bus in a Beehive"
-Read Bee overview
-Label bee parts, head and leg sheets (cut out for lapbook) what does a bee see? www.centersti.com/bee/beyehome-1.html
-Honey bee stages (cut out stages and stage time chart for lapbook)
-Egg, pupae and larvae sheets (cut out for lapbooks-use as "closeup" view of bee life stages sheet)
-Use worksheet to make one page books of each queen, worker and drone for lapbook
-stinger experiment and identification sheet, sketch and label stinger for lapbook
-Read Honey Bee Society
-Sayings from Unit study-"Busy as a bee" Are bees busy? What are they busy doing? Read Colossians 3:23. Bees are busy working hard. Do we work hard at even the smallest task? Even when no one else is looking? Does God want us to give our best effort in everything we do? "What's the buzz" Buss is a popular term used in the business world. You hear marketing types speaking of generating buzz for their products. What does this mean. What sound does a bee make? What sound do people make when everyone is talking all a once. This is what businesses want. They want everyone to talk about their product.(copy sayings and meanings for lapbook)
-Dancing bees and maze
-Bees home, diagram and beekeepers (cut out for lapbook)
-Trace some hexagons onto yellow constr. paper to include on lapbook
-Read pollination and map of highest pollination states
-Read "Honey" and "The History of Honey"
-Talk about the health benefits of honey; brainstorm all the ways honey can be used. What type of products that we buy have honey in them. Brainstorm all the things that the wax is used for (candles, lipstick, crayons, shoe polish, floor polish) Copy list for lapbook.
-Make beeswax candles
-Different types of honey around the country
-Honey Krispies Recipe (copy for lapbook)
-Honey in Scripture: Why is ther so much "honey" in scripture? Whats so good about a land flowing with milk and honey. Exodus 3:8; Judges 14:8; 1 Samuel 14:26; Psalm 19:10; Psalm 119:103; Proverbs 25:16; Isaiah 7:15; Ezekiel 3:3; Matthew 3:4; Revelation 10:9 (copy scripture for lapbook)
-Density experiment
-Math Sheets
-Africanized honey bee info sheet and map
-Africanized honey bee diary
-Read Parables from Nature pg. 5 "The Law of Authority and Obedience"
-Beego Game
**Assemble Bee Lapbook

The younger kids did all the diagrams, and age appropriate things. Since I don't start the rotation til third grade, the younger kids are involved if they want to be, but don't do the full lessons that I've prepared until they fall in line on the rotation.

When you need to purchase science materials, here are some good companies:
Rainbow Resource (sells everything you could ever need for homeschooling!)
Tobin's Lab (trademarked the "Lapbook")
Home Science Tools (has a great e-newsletter)
Apologia
Amperand Press (Nature games)
Arbor Day Foundation (10 free trees with your membership, and good tree information)
Wild Goose Science
Delta Education

Here are some websites that I have found science material:
Kid's Gardening
Dole 5 a day
Steve Spangler Science
Cotton's Journey
Science With Me
NASA
Nueroscience for Kids
FEMA
Anwers in Genesis
Minerals Lessons
USDA
Weather Classroom
Healthy Choices
How Stuff Works
Sea World
National Geographic
FAA (airplane printouts and info)
Discovery School
4th Day Alliance

After I've gotten all of my material together and broken it down into units, I type it up and put all the material together in a three ring binder with dividers for the different units. I use the pocket in the front of the binder to hold all worksheets that I've printed out ahead of time and keep all master copies in the binder. This is my binder, but you could make one up for each child if you prefer.