Back to Home School

We began our third year of homeschooling at the start of August (trying to get a head start before the baby comes and everything falls apart.)  Michael started 5th, Sadie is in 3rd, and Ada is in 2nd. The older kids each complete math, reading, journal writing, handwriting, world history, science, language arts, music, Spanish, and a memorization exercise each day. They also have piano/music lessons, and Sadie loves her art lesson with Nana each week.

Jojo started Kindergarten this year. He is doing great learning to read and he is already into first-grade math!

Annie does "school" each day, too, by doing her "worksheets" (aka scribbling on scratch sheets of paper) and joining Jojo and Mom for reading time.

We celebrated the end of our second week by taking Friday off and visiting a new park. Sylvan Beach is a county park with a man-made beach off of Houston Bay. Nice little beach, not too busy, and small enough the kids can't wander off too far. And it's only an hour drive instead of two hours. 

And there were hermit crabs galore!

We are once again involved with our local Deseret Homeschoolers Co-op and Tween Nights.

The opening tween/teen night had lots of minute to win-it games, including pantyhose bowling.

We hosted an Iron Chef competition at our house for another tween night in September.

Another fun tween night: hungry, hungry humans!

We just finished up session one of co-op where I taught a class called "Math-terpieces" all about the intersection of art and mathematics. This day was all about tessellations.

We also had a blast at the Family Hoedown and Chili Cookoff.

Also in September, we made a trip down to the Butterfly House at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. I just love this place!

Other updates:

Joseph had a great 5th birthday.  The rocket-moon-asteroid cake was a mild-success, but the best thing of all was getting his own collection of Legos!

Michael continues to enjoy Webelos Scouts, and after becoming one of his den leaders a few months ago, I'm learning to enjoy it too. This past week, we visited the local fire station. The boys got to spray the big hose and see how many push ups they could do with a uniform on.

Besides doing "worksheets," Annie is really into making "houses" right now. Any place can suddenly get proclaimed "my house" with the expectation that everyone else must stay out!

She also discovered the joy of painting, marking, and drawing on oneself, thanks to a little encouragement from her big sister. 

She has also made great strides in learning to undress herself.... We're stilling working on the getting dressed part.

This little guy is due in just a few weeks! The kids are getting so excited, and we have everything ready.  Can't wait to meet him!!!

Comptons at Carlsbad

 For our family vacation, we toured West Texas, including the McDonald Observatory, and Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.

After a quick stay with Grandma in San Antonio, we headed west to Fort Stockton. It was the first time I'd been to the Davis Mountains and, while not quite as dramatic as the Rockies, they definitely held their own charm. We stayed in a little cabin in Fort Stockton where we had easy access to the McDonald Observatory and the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute. Matt really wanted to go to Balmoreah Springs, too. He's been planning to go there for the last 20 years, and finally when we had it all planned out, we found that it was closed due to repairs to the pool. So sad!!! I guess we'll just have to go back...

Annie hung out with me while the big kids (including Dad) went on a hike at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute.  At five months pregnant, walking around the gardens in 90+ degree heat was plenty for me!

A funny heart cactus we discovered along the trail. --No we didn't pick it, somebody else must have discovered it and wanted to share the love....

We got to drive right up to the famous telescopes that scan the universe and walk around for a bit....We didn't get to go inside and look through them, much to the kids' disappointment, but we did stay for the evening program at the visitor's center. It was all about the moon and its phases. Both Michael and Sadie got picked to hold the "moon" as it traveled around the audience with a light shining on it to show how the phases change.

Then, it was time to head north to Carlsbad Caverns, NM. We enjoyed an almost-pleasant tour of the Living Desert Zoo. It would have been great, if it hadn't been 100+ degrees outside. (Note for future reference: visiting the desert would be much more pleasant in the winter months, rather than at the height of summer.)

The next evening, as the sun was setting, we got brave again and ventured out of our nice air conditioned hotel room to discover a beautiful park on the banks of the Pecos River.

Monday morning found us up bright and early to explore the Caverns themselves. The cool, damp cave air was a nice change from up above!

That evening, we came back for the bat program. Thousands of Brazilian free-tailed bats fly out of the mouth of the caverns every evening in search of a tasty insect-dinner.

After all the fun, we headed back to San Antonio to visit a little longer with Grandma and Grandpa, then back to Houston and home sweet home.

Just some cute pictures:

These little kids sure do get along great...most of the time.

At the zoo:

Dressing up as Mom:

The longer, the better! Actually, I'm not sure Annie was ever able to suck hard enough to get anything out of hers, but it was fun trying.