Olympic Game farm Squim Washington

Yesterday we decided to brave the rain and head up to Squim Washington to tour the Olympic Game Farm with Imanol.


Although we went to Olympic game farm, we first stopped at the highway 101 diner. We had burgers and fries and went on our way.






The first animals we were able to see once inside the park were prairie dogs. Christian accidentally lost her rainbow bracelet inside the pen. She went to throw a piece of bread and when she did that, her bracelet followed the bread! LOL



The next group of animals on our trail were some yaks and Lamas! We couldn't drive by the Lamas with out saying " No touchy the Lama" from emporers new grove video. *Ü*



Imanol had a good time.





Now comes our favorite! The bears! They look so cute and cuddly... then youlook at those paws and the large claws and you are brought back to reality! Bears = danger. *Ü* Most seemed like old show bears though because they would sit up and wave if you gestured for them to do so! *Ü* Too cute!



another favorite and cuite!






and yet another.....just try to tell me he isnt cute!




We saw many other animals along our path.... but I wanted to share one last photo and that was of Imanol feeding the Bison! These things have the lagest heads, largest sticky slimy hard tounges..... yuck!

United Streaming

I'm so excited to hear that United Streaming is considering a price for homeschoolers through Homeschool buyers co-op!US is such a wonderful resource to have access to in our homes, and for home Schooling!

We used this as a resource last year for History. Luckily they offer a 30 day free trial! We were hooked after the 30 days!! The historical videos and documentaries I have access to is such a valuable resource! I don't have to wait for holds at the library, inter library loans or pay late fees or video rentals!

We have a 1 year subscription now and we are inquiring about the plus option at this time. I was disappointed I lost my files after my free trial was up. Since I subscribed for the lower price $200.00 and not what the public school system pays. I ended up not having the total access to all United Streaming has to offer after my 30 day trial was over. I have a request in about the plus option (normally the $900 or $1000. price). They realize they should have made this issue a little clearer, but normally the public school system is who uses what they have, not homeschoolers. So they are doing what they can to accomadate us. Even before I read today about homeschool buyers co-op I asked about the plus option for homeschoolers and they are supposed to be getting back with me soon. Im hoping today! *Ü* My hope is I can pay the difference ($100.00 for homeschoolers) and have full access to what United Streaming has to offer and what I had during my free trial.

Regardless! This is still a great tool to utilize. This year we will use US as a supplemental tool and access science, history, language arts and Foreign language video feed.

Some of the my content files we have to date and videos we have watched are Animated hero classics, Magic School bus, Horrible History, and PBS documentaries on the French and Indian war, Benjamin Franklin and also the signing of the constitution.

This is a cut and paste from the Well Trained mind swap

Just heard from www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org that they're working on group price for homeschoolers!!

From their email notice.......

--- Coming Soon - Group Buys in the Pipeline ----------------------------

United Streaming by Discovery Education: We are working behind the scenes with Discovery Education to offer their premier educational video streaming service -- United Streaming -- to members at Group Buy pricing. If you are not familiar with United Streaming, you really need to check it out. Although widely available to schools, homeschoolers currently have to pay $199 for a one year license. We can't give you details yet, but we think you'll be pleased with the offer.

You can check it out now by signing up for a free 30 day trial account and take it for a spin. You will need the latest Flash Player plugin. Discovery doesn't ask for your credit card info, so there's no danger of you being charged at the end of the trial period. By then, we'll have the deal all figured out, and you'll be ready to go!

Tapestry of grace year 3

Year 3: The 1800's

Four major units include:

Napoleon's World
The Birth of the Modern
Nations Uniting and Dividing
The Gilded Age


This year will be a wonderful year!We will be covering all of the 1800s. American and world history. I am looking forward to the slower pace. Last year we covered almost 1000 years of history!It was a wonderful year, but hard! We are so happy to be moving on!


In addition to our regular notebook we have each year for our TOG studies, we will include presidential flaps (lap booking in a note book)of Presidents and vice presidents and the first Lady's. We will also notebook about States as they come up.

We didn't begin this project last year. I wish we would have now! The first week of school we will create State pages for the 13 colonies and George Washington and John Adams.

This will take us the next 2 school years to finish. Some of the resources we are using are from TOG but a few key ones are

US Presidents

This resource will be cut up and used in the notebook. RyLee will also write a lot of the information in folds, or maybe I will let her cut and paste. It will depend on how busy the week is and how much needs to be done. I need flexibility!

States

The Wich way USA will be read and used in folds and flaps for the note book.

We will begin our year on August 20th. I will post our progress as we make it.

Basque Country

Have you herd of Basque Country? I never did. Not untill about 3 years ago. The first time I herd of Basque Country or Basque people , was at my church. Here is a map. It is located inbetween Spain and France.



We have a student program at our church where studnets from different parts of Basque Country come and live with us for 1 month. The hope is to learn better English. Our hope is to be a light and family to them.

Here is Imonal. He is 16 years old and from Bergara. Look atthe map above and you will see.




He arrived on June 29th and will be going home on July 29th. 8 more wake ups and he goes home. We will miss him!!

This is a welcome sign we made for him at the air port. It says welcome in Basque and his name.

RyLee Kays first lap book

I have used Tapestry of grace since 2003. We love it! We have come to a point in our home school that we wont use anything else! Until!!! in 2005 Jennifer Steward came to my house to give a wonderful workshop on flap books! Aka Lap Books.

Jennifer calls her product Flap Books because Tobin's Lab created "Lap Books". They are one in the same. Just a different name.

While she gave her presentation all of us were pretty inspired and enjoyed the knowledge and expertise and wisdom she shared with us. She also brought a ton of her unit studies, books and resources! It was so much fun!

One of the best things about that night though was a book I found.It was called Galloping the Globe. i had to have that book! Here it is.




Found here. Geomatters:

I "had" to use this with Rylee. I knew she would love it! It was a good experience, even though we did not complete the book. We enjoyed learning about geography, cultures, people, events, monuments, scripture and more. It was a nice unity study her 4th grade year.

This is also the year we made our first lap book and implemented all the things I learned from Jennifer. Here is RyLees first lap book that she made all by herself (well I helped cut things out *Ü*)In the first section of the book we learned about china, but also many insects. Not related to China, I know.... it was still fun!

RyLee Kays cover





Here is a look inside






Butterfly book. We printed this from Enchanted Learning.




Ants



More on the butterfly




Ladybug




This is an extension we placed on the back of the lap book to add more about the lady bug. Again, most of this we printed out from Enchanted learning, or got our ideas from "the Ultimate Lap book Handbook" by Tobins lab.




More to the extension




Last one! *Ü*




She did a great job and we were both very proud! She was nine when we made this. I will be posting more about our note booking and lap booking adventures. This year we will lap book/ Notebook some history and we will be using Live and Learn press new folds for Apologia Biology and Astronomy. We will use Knowledge Box Centrals TOG lap books for our note books and also Zoology 1. On our own we will be making pages to add to RyLees school notebook about Presidents and States. This will be a 2 year project!

Watch a video about Lap Books

Dog woes........sigh

This is my Gidget. Isn't she the cutest dog?! Personally, I think she is the best dog ever! Mary Poppins of dogs if you ask me! Practically perfect in every way! *Ü*

My husband thinks so too.... NOT! He does love her.... but because she tends to get in a little trouble......

What kind of trouble? Well, she is constantly sneaking up on the bed at night. You know, you go to sleep comfortable, cozy even only to wake up a few hours later with a 70 pound dog on your legs and cant move!

She also has a tendency to find trouble. Not that she is bad (this is what I think) but because we have fed her people food, she now thinks its her food too! Get this....my husband is the one who shares w/ her. SIGH..... who is the trouble maker? Hu? *Ü*

So how does she get in trouble?!Let me tell you.... For example, you bring home 1 and 1/2 pounds of pure dark chocolate. The kids enjoy it in small amounts as a treat. Well Gidget thinks its for her too (wink).... I want my share..... and then... she eats all of it when we were not home!Shes a dog! Right? Dogs do stupid things all the time! Well, normally she would be scolded and we move on..... but pure dark chocolate is poison to a dog and can cause a heart attack! So what happened? We took a 40 minute trip to a 24 hour animal hospital at 1:00 in the morning and flopped almost $1000.00 down for her to be checked in.....less than 20 hours later we get her back!


You are thinking how scary! Yes it was... now your saying.....The $$, how could you spend that kind of $$ on a dog? Well she is my pet, and I love her. Husbands response,"a bullet is only a quarter, it could have been cheaper".
:( do I detect a little hostility here? I mean really.....

Has she had any other tangles with death? Good question! Yes....yes she has!*Ü* Just recently we also found out she is allergic to bees! Yes, bees! She broke out in hives so bad a few weeks ago, she had bumps over every square inch of her body! The danger for her.....The hives would have eventually closed her throat and then suffocated her. What??

I know, I know... you are now asking... what did you do? Well, another trip to the vet was due. 2 shots and almost $300 later we go home. ( I'm cringing here.... my husband couldn't believe it!)This dog has cost us more in the last month, than I spent on Home School materials this year!

I still love her...she still holds the Mary Poppins award in my heart for dogs..... my husband... not so much...

isn't she cute though! *Ü* awe....

Apologia's High School Science Courses are the Best College Prep

This was a recent topic on the Well Trained Mind K-8 board. Apologia not being enough for preparing our students for college..... This is a wonderful post on Jeannies Journal/blog.

Please use the title of this post to view the article/blog entry.