End of Year Wrap-up

Even though I consider us year round schoolers, we do have a definite end to our year just like we have a start to our new one (lately that's been in July and it works for us).

Following along behind Jessica and Sarah, I'm going to put down here what worked and what didn't so that I can remind myself of it in a couple of years.

School goes better with coffee!

High School

First off, the biggest miss... Kolbe Academy High School. You know, I love what they offer and I love that they are classical curriculum, but two epic poems and one greek tragedy into his freshman literature and The Professor was ready to move on from the greeks. We won't even talk about the reading material from Herodotus that would have totally scandalized and grossed out my very innocent young man. Mind you, he really enjoyed studying The Iliad and The Odyssey! I had him read Antigone, because this drama major mama can pull rank like that if she feels like it and he even enjoyed that! But when presented with the option to move on to The Aeneid or read Richard III, he opted for the Shakepeare, which he loved so much, it kind of scares me. It might have been because this whole mystery was unfolding before his eyes as he read it. He finished up the year with reading Murder in the Cathedral because it kind of seemed to fit with our theme for the year. Anyway, all of this is to say that Kolbe is a wonderful, classical education, but it's just not for us. I know that my son prefers to have more flexibility and variety and I'm OK with that.

And speaking of high school...this year's biggest hit...  Lukeion Latin I! He has taken some Lukeion grammar classes before and some of their workshops. They are pricey (about the same as most online classes) but incredibly worth it! The couple who runs it are amazing teachers and encouragers. He took the National Latin Exam and earned a gold medal which is proudly displayed in his room. When he said he wanted to study Latin, I thought maybe it was a passing fancy, but if it was, this year has helped incite his passion for it and cement that in her heart. He loves picking out Latin words or Latin roots from things he reads and looks forward to earning more medals learning more.

Cleaning off the school shelves makes them neat and tidy but everything else... not so much!

Hits and misses for the middle school set

For my girls, we decided to do some practical grammar this year. They've done more intensive grammar in the past and needed a little break this year. We used two different resources Great Editing Adventure and Hot Fudge Monday: Tasty Ways to Teach Parts of Speech to Students Who Have a Hard Time Swallowing Anything to Do With Grammar. Doesn't that title alone sound like fun? My girls had a lot of fun with that last one. It was filled with so many fun writing prompts that we counted it as writing too! That's right... a two for one curriculum! Woot!

Definite Miss: Apologia Science
We started with Exploring Creation With Botany a few years ago and the girls enjoyed it. They really loved using the notebooks with all the mini-books and stuff. They did it mostly on their own with very little help from me. But the one thing they didn't like was the Young Earth Creationist approach. As Catholics, we aren't afraid that science is going to prove our faith wrong. In the Botany book, it was easy to skip over. But then we moved on to the Zoology books and it became harder to stomach. This year, we used the Astronomy book and just couldn't take it anymore. The YEC agenda was really heavy handed and sprinkled throughout, not just in neat little sections that were easily skipped. We plowed through it and ended up using many, many supplements. I'm thinking I might save the Botany book for BigBoy, maybe the Swimming Creatures, because he loves the ocean, but really, I'm hoping to find something better. The best option I've found so far is Behold and See from CHC. They are up-to-date, visually engaging and totally Catholic. The 6th grade book even lists a UD professor as one of the contributing scientists! Woot! And even though it's a grade level behind my girls, we need an easy science year next year because we are making the switch to a more intensive math program, which leads me to...

The Biggest Miss... Teaching Textbooks. Sigh. I am so disappointed! But I guess, as the saying goes, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. My younger three averaged 93, 96 and 99 at the end of this year but then bombed several different end of year tests and placement tests in other programs. And it seems to get worse the longer they use the program. Sadly, this was not the first time we'd heard of this phenomenon. A friend of mine didn't make this discovery until her oldest bombed the PSAT. Now, is it a program that can be beneficial to some? I'm sure it is, especially in a survival year whether that's due to illness of babies or job difficulties but I have a philosophical problem with a program where children get wonderfully high grades with very little effort but then that doesn't translate to other math programs. Huh? So, we are switching to Saxon for everyone. The Professor has already using it this past year and with the Saxon Teacher CD's, I think it's very doable. We ended up using them much more than the DIVE CD's. And to anyone who is sticking with TT, I highly recommend you get your kids at least 2 years ahead of grade level if you want them to be doing comparable work to other math programs.

Last Hit... The Phonetic Zoo. We've actually been using this with our girls for year now. They were not natural spellers and needed lots of reinforcement. They made it all the way up to Level C which is technically for high school so I gave them a break. BigBoy started using the Phonetic Zoo formula with lists of words that I made for him based on the recommendations in The Natural Speller and he's ready to move on to Level A next year. He actually told me that spelling was his favorite subject this year! Seriously! I know!

My poor JPII roses are being consumed by thrips. Ugly brown petals! I've sprayed them before, but I wish I had a non-chemical solution. Any ideas?

So, we are enjoying some "summer time" right now, although, we are only taking a week off from math then everyone starts Saxon. Whoo hoo!

Please pray...

...for Oklahoma. Right now they are reporting 2 dozen children being searched for in one of the elementary schools... recovery, not rescue. The damage is massive.

Especially for Miss Mary's SIL!

 

Window Shade Bleg

For years now, I've had this nice light filtering cellular window shade above the window in my kitchen. It died this weekend. It won't be pulled up or down anymore. I've repaired the mechanism multiple times but this time, it just won't cooperate. I can't even pull it up to take a picture of the window right now.

The window opening measures 71 inches wide by 35 inches long. That's a very wide width. I just don't know what to do with it. When we purchased this cellular shade, it was on super clearance price and just happened to be wide enough although too long, but I didn't care. So, I'm looking for suggestions. because it's so wide, it can't be anything too heavy. I'm considering putting up two shades instead of one big one, but that would put a cord right in the middle and this window is recessed about 12 to 14 inches and I'm kind of short, so I have to be able to open it and close it without always asking the 15 year old to help. I thought about trying to make a Roman shade but I'm worried that it would be too bulky at the top when it was opened for such a wide but short window. Ideally, I'd also like it to be easy to clean.

So, any thoughts? What would you replace it with?

 

Pentecost Cake

I have wanted to make one of Jessica's Pentecost cakes for so long and I finally did it. Yes, we have our back-to-back birthday extravaganza coming up at the end of the week with two birthday cakes on the menu plus a wedding to go to, but this one is a GF treat we can enjoy with Daddy and by golly, it was too pretty to put off any longer.

I used a Betty Crocker GF cake mix but substituted the water for greek yogurt and used 1/2 tsp. almond extract and 1/2 tsp. coconut extract in place of 1 of the teaspoons of vanilla. Also, my kids insisted on a blue candle to represent the Blessed Virgin. Other than that, we followed Jessica's design exactly. Seven slice strawberries (hearts) for the gifts of the Holy Sprit, 12 strawberries for the 12 fruits of the Holy Spirit, 12 white candles for the 12 apostles and 1 red candle in the middle for Christ, our Light.

I also pulled out our Holy Spirit wind decoration. Cupcake has been huffing and puffing her hardest to make it spin in the breeze. You can't see it in this picture, but each strip has a gift of the Holy Spirit written on it in silver.

Happy Pentecost to you all and Happy Birthday to our beloved Catholic Church!

For Faith, Hope and Love

Holy Spirit, open my eyes and calm my mind. Give me the recollection of the Father's love, of the Son's unceasing prayer, of the world as God's world and of your own presence within me. Holy Spirit, give me faith.

Holy Spirit, reveal to me the truth of the Father's unfailing purpose; of the Son's victory and risen presence; the truth about myself~ sinner yet child beloved of God. Holy Spirit. give me hope.

Holy Spirit, give me peace; peace with God and peace with people. Kindle my desire for you. Strengthen my will to live and serve. Teach me and lead me where you will. Holy Spirit, give me love. Amen.

 

Doggie for a (Mother's) Day

My husband has insisted that along with all the praise I lavished on him this Mother's Day that I let you know the "truth" about what he also brought home.

Actually, some neighbors found her wandering in their yard but they were on their way out for a couple of hours so they handed her off to us. He gave her a bath while I called to find out who had a microchip scanner. Husband and the girls took this little sweetie down to the people at the local emergency animal hospital who found a microchip and contacted the pet finder people while I made some flyers to post in our neighborhood. Based on the info they gave us we believed that her name was Opal and she had been owned by a man in our area but surrendered to an animal shelter sometime last year. Well, I chucked the flyers thinking there was no reason to put them up. Little did we know their info was wrong. People... if you have your dogs microchipped (which I think is a great idea, btw...) you might want to double check to make sure the information they have on file is correct. Otherwise, some kind but misinformed neighbor might accidentally keep your dog overnight, give it a bath and come this close to giving it a hair cut!

When we called the shelter in the morning, they called the owner, our neighbor down the street, who had not surrendered the dog but in fact, had rescued her from the shelter sometime last year. We walked her down to them yesterday and met them officially. I have a feeling we will be visiting them again soon since Cupcake has been asking for "Puppy Opal"... whose name turned out to be Suki.

Mother's Day 2013

Homemade cards are my absolute favorite! A poem, a quote from the Bible, a crocheted flower. My 15 year old even told me he loved me... in Latin. A Mary statue on every table for the beautiful month of May and a delicious treat from one of our favorite bakeries! A friend on FB said "Note to great husbands/fathers everywhere: if you're the husband and father you should be, Mothers' Day is a silly formality. We know you love and appreciate us." and I have to agree with her. My husband and my children never make me feel unappreciated or taken for granted. They tell me and show me in a thousand different ways every day. They are such amazing people that I constantly feel like I should do more to say "thank you" for the privilege of being with them. Today was just another beautiful, special day with the people I love.

There is always another choice...

My tiniest baby was atleast bigger than my hand.

Eleven years ago, there was a call put out in our little Catholic community for help for a young couple who had delivered two sweet tiny baby girls prematurely. They were at home with their mom and dad by that time but mom and dad were busy as bees and could use some support. That was how I met this sweet family. But reading this story for the first time yesterday is the first time I heard their whole story. One pound babies! Just amazing!

 

{p,h,f,r} May days

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~ with the lovely ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter

{pretty}
On their way to their piano recital last weekend. Our piano teacher doesn't require formal attire for the recital but I love that my kids love to dress up for it anyway.

{happy}
Inspired by Miss Dwija's creative kiddos, my girls decided to make their own bubble solution when we ran out.

I know there's something wrong with the lighting of this picture, but I kind of like it anyway. 

It's blurry, but I love the long bubble this pic captured.

{funny}
Future graffiti artist?

She didn't draw those things, she just tried to color them in.

{real}
I always caution people when reading blogs that a picture is only a snippet of the writer's world. And pictures can show what they want to show and hide what they want to hide. Case in point...

Beautiful May altar. Pretty.

Beautiful May altar with ugly plugs and outlet. Not so pretty.
Perspective.
This part of our house makes a lovely little altar area except for the fact that it's a dry bar and obviously is meant to have a margarita machine or at least a blender plugged in at this spot. Oh well, you work with what you've got, right?

Sew Successful!

My girls, along with another sweet friend, are taking a couple of sewing classes. I'm really hoping they learn the proper way to sew, then they can teach me! I learned to sew for the theater with lots of shortcuts and jimmy-rigging. It's served me well when I've needed it, but I wish I knew more about proper sewing techniques.

Anyway, their first project was a pillowcase with a little accent color at the opening. They picked out their colors and everything. Sunshine's had a vintagey vibe while Shortcake's was more fantastical. Aren't they adorable? The pillow cases, too!

 

Prayers please...

For Grace and her family, her siblings and her parents as they contemplate hospice care for her father.

Everlasting Father, for the sake of the love which Thou didst bear to St. Joseph, whom Thou didst chose above all to occupy Thy place on earth, Have mercy on us and on those who are dying.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father, etc.

Everlasting Son of God, for the sake of Thy love towards St. Joseph, who didst protect Thee so faithfully on earth, have mercy on us all and on those who are dying.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father, etc.

Everlasting Divine Spirit, for the sake of Thy love toward St. Joseph, who so carefully projected Mary, Thy most holy and beloved spouse, have mercy on us and those who are dying.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father, etc.