Acorn Woodpeckers

At Mt. Palomar State Park we camped among the trees - trees that looked like this filled with acorns! It was so cool. We had a front seat view to God's creativity. The woodpeckers pecking on a tree above my tent woke me in the early morning hours.

I had never seen trees like this but now as I have read about them (of course it has become a mini-science unit this week), they are popular in Oaks in the West. They peck at the wood and then they gather acorns, find a hole the right size for their acorn and store it.

Sea Star

The kids are learning all about sea life in science at co-op with Mrs. Maitland. They really love it! We had so much fun being on a boat with our science class in Oceanside last week. It was such a beautiful day!

olympics unit study

Matt and Bria are studying Ancient Greece this year in history. We are combining Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer and the Veritas history cards. One of my favorite things to do is to make comparisons to how ancients lived and how we live, or what we learned or took from that particular culture. The kids loved studying the Ancient Olympics, particularly since they enjoyed watching the modern verison this summer.

They made this poster highlighting ancient and modern olympics. They did a great job and had lots of fun! We have history with the Vega family one day each week and while the kids shared their posters, we enjoyed Greek food as well.

Nate's First Week

This is me trying to get a good shot of Nate leaving for school. I have been so slow in the morning that I hardly get a chance to see him off. I knew the grandparents were interested in hearing how their grandson was doing so I sent off the following e-mail at the end of last week :

Nate had a good first week. Here is a little summary of his comments:

Monday (first day) -
"school is great"
"Im going to love it"
"I like all my classes"
"I sit by Josiah in French"
"my biology teacher already likes me a lot" (he answered a lot of questions)

Tues -
"I do not like my Geometry teacher"
"I still have not gotten my locker"
"Im soooo hungry"

Wed -
"School is like a prison"
"Today was so boring"

Thurs -
"I got my locker today and Im so glad I am sharing a locker with a someone I like"
"Im happy beacause I found the school does have one vending machine - with Snapple"

Friday -
"Today was fun"
"Tues and Thurs Juice it Up comes on campus!"
"I got a perfect score on my English quiz, wrote an essay on Thomas Jefferson and got the highest score in my biology quiz"
"thanks for being such a great teacher mom and for not sending me to school before now" :)

That is about it. Ups and downs of high school begin. He has been great about getting up and dressed, making breakfast, reading his bible and having his stuff by the door by 7:20 am. He practices piano and guitar after school and then starts on homework. I know, I know, its just the first week.....

First Day of School and Looking Back

Then.....


First day of homeschool co-op - 5th grade, pre-school and Kindergarten


Now.......

First day at high-school prep. school 9th grade and still homeschooled 2nd and 4th graders (pretending they were going somewhere besides the dining room table and couch)