Homeschool Wrap Up Week 34

We are winding down the school year, and only have one more week to go!  We had some beautiful weather this week and also more storms, including a tornado warning and one night of running through a hail storm. We spend as much time outside as possible when the weather is good and even when it is raining sometimes as ling as it is not storming.

Bible:  We read three chapters in First Corinthians.

Read Aloud: We finished Ember's End and Heartbreak Trail.

History: We watched 2 Drive Thru History The Gospels episodes.

Science: We finished a chapter on Trees in Botany.

Geography: Our lesson was on Portugal.

Emmie: Emmie completed 3 math lessons, 3 lessons in Lightning Lit on A Mouse Named Wolf, and two lessons in AAR Level 3.

Lily completed 3 lessons in her Reading Eggs book, started The Dreamer in Lightning Lit, and completed 3 math lessons.

Anthony and Christian are working on their research paper and completed 3 chapters in Adam of the Road (only one to go!) and 3 math lessons.

Other Activities this Week

Monday I had to go to the church and set up a photo board for Nick.  We usually do a senior Sunday when parents make a photo board and set it up in our decorated fellowship hall, seniors are recognized during the service, and those that want to leave little gifts for the graduates.  We have a potluck lunch honoring the seniors after church.  None of those things could be done this year.  So parents were invited to make a photo display, set it up on Monday and those who wanted to could come in during the week, view the seniors displays and leave them if they wished.  They also decided to host a drive thru fish fry for the church to honor the seniors. 

Tuesday we headed out to pick up two more goats.  We hoped we would have enough babies for the kids to show this year but only ended up with two.  I needed at least one more goat but decided to get two just in case something happened to one of ours.  We also can keep them and breed them next year.  Lily will be showing a goat for the first time this year and Alex will show two if all goes well.

Wednesday we went and walked at the park.

Nick and Emmie walked pigs for the first time.

Friday was our 21st Wedding Anniversary!  Art asked me if I wanted to go out to eat, but even though our restaurants are open (33%) capacity you have to wear a mask in the restaurant.  You can take it off when your drink arrives.  I think this is crazy.  We went and did our grocery shopping and picked up some takeout on the way home.  When we were halfway home a big storm blew in and it started hailing!  We pulled in the driveway and made a run for the house leaving the groceries until the storm settled down.  The wind and hail laid down all of my tomato plants.  I replanted them, maybe they will be ok.  As poor as my garden is doing this year, I do have pumpkin growing that I didn't plant in the front yard right next to the flower bed. It looks great!

Saturday was another rainy stormy day.  We had a tornado warning but no tornado or damage thankfully.

Sunday I try not to focus too much on what was supposed to be happening before Covid 19 shut down the country, but Sunday was supposed to have been Nick's graduation.  We listened to the church service by radio and then drove through the fish fry.  Graduation has been rescheduled for July 17th.

I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Review: Unveiling the Past by Kim Vogel Sawyer

Kim Vogel Sawyer is my favorite author and I am always very excited to have an opportunity to review her books.  In 2017 she released an outstanding novel called Bringing Maggie Home.  I said in my review that if you enjoy Christian fiction, Bringing Maggie Home was a must read.  I also said, "Bringing Maggie Home is a stand alone novel (although I would love to see some kind of sequel featuring Meghan and Sean.)"  I received my wish!  Today (May 15th) is release day for the sequel to Bringing Maggie Home, Unveiling the Past.

Although Unveiling the Past is a sequel it will work as a stand alone novel.  The author weaves the story in such a way that you do not have to read Bringing Maggie Home to understand and appreciate the story.  The story line is independent and the characters are well developed in this story even without previous knowledge of them, but I highly recommend Bringing Maggie Home because it is such an amazing story.

In Unveiling the Past we are reintroduced to the main characters of Bringing Maggie Home; Hazel, Margaret Diane, Meghan, and Sean.  We also learn more about the detectives that Sean and Megan work with: Captain Ratzlaff, Tom Farber, and Greg Dane and are introduced to two new main characters Sheila Menke and Kevin Harrison.

Sean and Meghan are newlywed cold case detective partners in Little Rock Arkansas. A new case if brought to their unit and Meghan is the requested detective to work on the case.  Sheila Menke's father went to work when she was a little girl and never returned.  He was accused of embezzling a large amount of money from a bank and it was believed that he took it ans started a new life, but Sheila did not believe that to be true.  Meghan takes the case with a new partner at the same time she decides to try and search for her own absentee biological father.  While Sean investigates the death of two young brothers also with a new partner, he very much longs to start a family with Meghan.  But Meghan is afraid that she is not fit for motherhood.  As Meghan and Sheila learn more and more about the case, they have to choose to stumble on the road of bitterness and resentment or walk the path of forgiveness and healing.  They learn that while earthly fathers can and do fail, there is one in heaven who is a father to the fatherless.

Ms. Sawyer has an amazing writing style that draws the reader in and brings her characters to life.  I was excited to learn more about Sean and Meghan and their loves together and revisit Hazel (I love that spunky lady!) and Margaret Diane. I really loved the mystery element of this story. Following the clues to solve the cases added excitement to the story and kept me turning pages because I needed to see how it all was resolved! There were many life lessons and messages throughout the book.  Diane was very hurt (and understandably so!) when Kevin left her to raise Meghan alone.  She knew of her life and experiences but never really thought about his side.  Even then she could've have stayed bitter and resentful but through a lot of prayer and counsel from her mother is able to rise above all of that.  Kevin struggles in his relationship with Kip and doesn't understand why.  He is powerful and wealthy, a successful business man but not successful at life.  He doesn't think his son can ever change.  But Diane says, : If habits can be learned they can be unlearned."An important message for us all along with ," It's never too late to begin a relationship with God the Father though His Son, and it's never too late to fix a human relationship that's gone wrong."

I loved the relationship that developed between Meghan and Sheila.  Things that happened in their past had made them bitter and resentful, but they chose to overcome it and hold on to the happiness.  Reminding Sheila that there is a loving Father in heaven who never leaves us and never lets us down, reminded Meghan of that as well and is a good message for all who are reading.

I loved how everything was resolved in the story.  Unveiling the Past is on the list of my favorite books and is highly recommended.  I cannot wait to read what Kim Vogel Sawyer writes next!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes.  All opinions are my own. I received no other compensation.

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 33

We are winding down our school year!  We have finished several things and will at good stopping points in other subjects very soon.  The boys have a research paper to finish and will finish reading Adam of the Road.  Emmie has a few more stories in AAR Level 3 and will finish A Mouse Called Wolf.  Lily has a book to finish in Language Arts (I forget the name of it.)  We have a few countries left in geography, 6 more Drive Thru History Episodes, and 3 more science chapters. 


We had a short week this week.  A beautiful day mid week sent us to the park to walk and on a picnic instead of doing school work.  And we took another day off to prepare for a camping trip!

Week 33 in our Homeschool

Bible: We read 2 chapters in 1st Corintians.

History: We watched two episodes of Drive Thru History The Gospels.

Science: We finished a chapter on Roots in Botany.

Latin: We completed lesson 4 in Visual Latin.

Emmie completed 2 lessons in AAR Level 3 and Math and started reading A Mouse Named Wolf.

Lily finished Nim's Island and completed 2 math lessons.

Anthony and Christian completed all of the warm up lessons for writing a research paper, read two chapters in Adam of the Road, completed Step 16 in AAS Level 7 and  did two math lessons.

Other Activities this Week

Monday Nick's graduation quilt arrived from my mom.

And we were delighted to have an opportunity to watch the baby birds in the nest above the tractor learn to fly!

Baby goats turned 6 weeks old.

Tuesday we picked up our tiny pigs, Scarlet and Hamlet.  Scarlet truly is tiny.  She squeaks instead of grunts and managed to escape the pen in 10 seconds flat causing us to make some adjustments to the pen.  So far they seem to be doing well.

Wednesday we had a wonderful time at the park and having lunch in Chelsea's backyard.  I left the children with her so the big boys and I could run to Walmart and pick up supplies for our camping trip!

Thursday we took care of the babies and that evening headed to Daisy State Park.  Our state parks have opened to self contained campers (bath houses are not open.)  Playgrounds and basketball courts and other similar things are still closed.  But camping is allowed.  We spent Thursday night through Sunday.  The weather was beautiful (except for a thunderstorm Thursday night.) We cooked everything on the fire.  Alex really enjoys cooking in Dutch oven and with cast iron, did some fishing, went for walks and hiked the nature trail, and played some board games.  It was a lovely week-end. Some other lakefront campgrounds are supposed to be opening in the next few weeks so we are hoping to get to go camping again soon.

I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 32

We had some beautiful weather this week, and one really stormy night.  It didn't hit as bad at my house as it did in some of the surrounding area but it was bad enough to knock out the power, wake up the house, and wait and wonder if we would need to take cover for a tornado.  We did not have any damage from this storm but there was a lot of damage in the area.  Springtime in Arkansas.

In our shopping adventure this week I was able to buy a spray bottle of bleach ( we use these to bleach out animal troughs and buckets.)  I have not seen those in the store since the end of February.  Meat was low.  Some freezer products were low and still no big tubs of butter.  I had to go to two stores and buy two small ones.  Strange.  Fabric was still almost completely empty.  Everyone bought it up to make masks.  Arkansas has begun the reopening process ( we were never under shelter in place but many, many businesses (and churches) had to close and of course "social distancing" practices were put into place.)  Restaurants can begin to open May 11th with limited capacity, masks, and other measures.  Hair salons, gyms, massage parlors, things like that can open this week.  An announcement will be made today on other recommendations for larger gatherings starting up again like church and 4 H is supposed to be deciding on summer activities after the governor's announcement.

Our school year is winding down!  I can't believe it is May!


Week 32 in our Homeschool

Bible: We read 4 chapters in 1st Corinthians.

History: We watched two episodes of Drive Thru History The Gospels.

Science: We finished the activities on roots in Botany.  We took our preserved rose out of it's box.

Geography: We studied Ireland in Let's Go Geography.

Art History: We finished the Post Impressionist Artist section in HiGasfy.

Latin: We finished lesson 3 on Gender in Visual Latin.

Emmie: Emmie has started moving a little faster in AAR Level 3 and I'd like to finish it up before we stop for the summer and keep her reading some chapter books that she chooses over the summer before we start level 4 next fall. We read a fun story this week called Sleeping Rudy.  She completed 4 lessons in Math on division and in Lightning Lit we read The Bears on Hemlock Mountain.

Lily is working on Nim's Island for Lightning Lit.  We watched the movie a few weeks ago so we will see what she thinks about the differences.  She also completed 4 lessons in math and in her Reading Eggs workbook.

Christian and Anthony: completed Step 15 in AAS Level 7, read 4 chapters in Adam of the Road and continued working on the steps to writing a research paper in Jump In.

Other Activities this Week

Chelsea had to work a long day shift on Monday so the babies arrived at 6:10 and were here until 4:30.  Liam was very happy the donut shop had opened and he brought everyone donuts.  It was a pretty day and we spent much of it outside.  Willow loves to stand up on her own.  She even took one step!

We did some more work on the barn.  It's getting closer to being done.

We went walking at the park again on the Nature Trail and around the pond.

Emmie helped me in the garden.  My plants are not growing well.

Our last year's goat babies turned one year old.

Some of the children had a two night camp out in the backyard,

We went to the lake and did some fishing.

hundreds of minnows

the baby geese we saw last week were much bigger

We were challenged to an egg drop by 4 H.  They built a nest for the egg out of different types of paper and a tissue box and dropped it out of an upstairs window onto the driveway.  It didn't break.

Lily had her piano lesson again by phone.  She doesn't love it this way but it's the only way we can have lessons right now.


I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!