A local homeschooling family we know is moving to Japan sometime next month most likely. (They were supposed to leave August 12th, but something came up and pushed the date back. The dad is already over there now.) We've only know them for a few months (since about Feb. or March) but they are a great family. So today we had a going away party for them at our local park. Several families came and we had lots of yummy food, the kids had a great time playing and us moms got to sit and chat a hot lazy afternoon away. The day went very slow, which made it nice because it seemed like we had more time to hang out and relax.

I had some baked ziti cooking in the crock pot while we were gone. It is ok, but I won't make it this way again I don't think.. maybe if I add 2 jars of sauce instead one. The noodles in the middle were good, but the outside was very hard and yucky. I did add in some water to help the noodles, but it needed more.

I'll be cleaning off shelves and such this weekend and next week while getting ready to have a yard sale. And I thought I would post the HSing books I'll be getting rid of. If you are interested drop me a note. I'll go ahead and add media mail shipping to the price, but if you want more than one I will adjust the total. :) Check back often as I will just keep updating this same post.

Writing Activities for Every Month of the School Year: Carol H. Behrman  Grades 4-8 $15ppd, New but has some shelf wear/bent corners

Lord of the Rings Literature Guide (Scholastic) grades 4-8 $5ppd Gently used, but no writing

Coffee Can Science (Scholastic) Grades 4-8 $6ppd, brand new

Ready to go Super book of Outline Maps (Scholastic) Grades 4-8 $6ppd, Brand new

Math Word Problems Decimals and Percents Book 2 (Critical thinking Co) $12ppd, brand new

Reading Books -

All single paperbacks $2.50ppd (or take all 4 for $6ppd --
Deltora Quest: The Forests of Silence
Star Wars Young Jedi Knights: Darkest Knight
The Weird Zone: Best from Beneath the Cafeteria!
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Free (has a picture page tore fro the middle and the back is tore a bit)

Series:
The Zack Files (brand new) $6ppd for all
#4 Elvis the Turnip and Me
#10 Bozo the Clone
#11 How to Speak Dolphin in Three Easy Lessons
#26 Me and my Mummy

Hardbacks:
Star Wars Episode II by R.A.Salvatore (brand new) $7ppd
Spiderman by Adam-Troy Castro (brand new) $6ppd

So, here is what I have *planned* for next year. I need to update my side bar also.

Amanda:
Math -  MUS Pre-Algebra, Key to workbooks and possibly some consumer math. I am not sure what program I'm using. I want something secular, but having a hard time finding what I want.

English/L Arts - Word Roots (finishing last 2 books from Critical Thinking), Daily Grams (finishing last half of the Jr/Sr book), Shakespeare study (never did this last year), assigned book list

History/Geography - Medieval History, Blackline maps

Science - Joy Hakim's Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way along with accompanying Student Quest Guide

Then whatever else we may come up with. And she'll continue with Photgraphy and photo editing software, etc. She does this on a daily basis. I might look into some classes for her, but around here they are so expensive.

Jake:

Math - MUS Pre-Algebra, Key to workbooks.

English/L Arts - Word Roots (finishing last 2 books from Critical Thinking), Daily Grams (finishing last half of the Jr/Sr book), assigned book list

History/Geography - Medieval History, Blackline maps

Science - Joy Hakim's Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way along with accompanying Student Quest Guide

And whatever else we decide upon. He'll also continue with his game making program. I'll end up upgrading and getting him the full version of the software.

So that's sort of *it* in a nutshell. I need to start cracking down and be more strict with getting the work completed. So we're going to start off the year strong, or so I hope. LOL

The weather has finally warmed up around here. Mid-80's during the day and nice and cool at night. But that's all about to change as the temps are climbing higher every day.

Last week was a nice quiet week. We didn't have anything scheduled. This week isn't too bad. Today we have a Nature walk with the Earth Scouts group. So I plan to get some pictures uploaded (it has been forever since I added new pics to the blog). I hope the weather holds out for us, there are thunderstorms being forecasted for later this afternoon.

Friday a group of us will be heading to VA for a field trip to Sonic (there isn't one in our area, and a lot of us have never been to one LOL) and then to make it educational (and not just unhealthy) we're going to the Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum. So everyone is looking forward to that.

The kids and I have been reading The Cartoon History of the Earth books by Jacqui Bailey. They are really fun books. So far we've read Vol 1 The Birth of the Earth and Vol 2 The Dawn of Life. I have to get these from Inter-Library Loan as our local library doesn't have them. So we are waiting on the last 2 books, Vol 3 The Day of the Dinosaurs and Vol 4 The Stick and Stone Age.

We're also reading through Story of the World Vol 2, just as a refresher. We never did get started using the Beautiful Feet Medieval history study this year. So I think we may *try* to work some of that in over the summer. The first part is mainly a bunch of reading, So the kids won't moan too much about it.

We still have a little bit of math to get finished, and some work in the Word Roots books. I think over the summer we'll do some fun science experiments. And I want to get the kids cooking more often. So I think we'll have cooking class as well. ;)

Hope everyone is enjoying the last bit of Spring. We really didn't have much of a Spring here. It went from cold to hot it seems.

It has been so yucky here lately, I'm beginning to wonder if summer will ever come! We've had rainy, cloudy, windy, dreary days for so long. This am it was beautfiul and sunny.. now the dark gray clouds are rolling in. :(

But on the HSing front, not much book work to report on. LOL (No big surprise there right.) But we've been busy with other things. Not so much went on last week. I did have to take Amanda to the doctor for her ear. She kept saying it was clogged and couldn't hear. But the Dr. said it wasn't wax, she has water or nasal drainage behind her ear. So she has a nasal spray (Flonase) for that. Which is fine, its been helping her allergies.

This week so far we've had our monthly Geo-Lunch on Monday. Once a month we have a theme country that the kids are supposed to study a little about. then we meet up at a HSing families house for a potluck. This month was Egypt. We had some yummy food! The kids and I made Spinach & Feta Sambousek (almost like veggie empanadas). They were good, but I should have made them a little larger and with more filling. hehe

Then on Tuesday, we had another Earth Scouts meeting. The kids were working on making there own nature journals to use at our next meeting/nature walk. So they all seemed to enjoy pouring through the field guides everyone brought. Some kids just made their own from animals, plants, etc that theyd like to see. One of the moms was being silly and telling her daughter and mine that she'd like to see a manatee next time. LOL

Today a group of us are going to opening day of the new Indiana Jones movie! Been anxious to see this. :) And then on Saturday is a much needed Mom's Night Out!!