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 Here are our climbing green beans.  Amie and Demi really like picking these and eating them raw, a good incentive for me to plant them...my kids are not really into vegetables, except for broccoli.

• Something I learned this month...that if you don't use up your romaine lettuce in a timely manner, they get really tall and bushy and taste kind of strong.  

• A recipe I will be using when our green bell peppers are ready:

6 large bell peppers  (or two large for the parents and just stuffing for picky kids)
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 16 oz canned diced tomatoes
1/2 cup quick cooking rice
1/2 cup water
dash salt
dash pepper
1 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Cut tops from bell peppers, discard seeds and membrane.  Dice up some of the tops to make 1/2 cup full, put aside.  Cook the whole bell peppers in boiling water for about 5 minutes, uncovered.  Set them up-side-down to drain.  In a skillet cook ground beef, onion and the chopped tops until meat is browned.  Drain fat off and then add the can of diced tomatoes-undrained.  Add the uncooked rice, water, salt, pepper and worchestershire sauce.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover.  Simmer for 18 minutes.  Stir in half the cheese and then stuff the peppers with mixture and place in a baking dish or pan.  If you are only making two peppers, put the extra stuffing around the peppers.  Sprinkle the other half of the shredded cheddar cheese on top, bake covered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Serves 6.

How is your garden growing??

Labels: garden, recipes

Welcome to the LEarning Never Stops Photo Challenge.

This week's theme is - Comfort.

Link up a photo that says "comfort" to you.  Linky will close 10pm Monday night.  Two winners will be chosen/displayed on Tuesday night.  Photo site accounts are welcome.  Please link up to your photo entry, not your main blog and try to visit around :)

Labels: Lens

The Homeschool Mother's Journal



In my life this week…
I've been super-crazy-busy.  We are wrapping up our last days of homeschooling.  We had our last learning record meetings for our homeschool-charter schools- this involved some preparation on my part..um, not my strong point.   I am also busy looking ahead to next year, busy planning on curriculum purchases and having to make sure our course plans for Meg will satisfy her charter school requirements.

 In our homeschool this week…
With our 3 youngest students, we continued our studies with Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy.  We did some narration, a crossword puzzle, read some colorful and interesting library books, and then we did resist-watercolor paintings of the planets and sun in our solar system.  I really wanted to make a styrofoam solar system model...but realized that with my inner Jenn-ness, it wouldn't happen in a timely manner, so- watercolor paintings seemed the quicker way to go!

We survived the finishing up of Meg's term paper, also. Whew!  It was a bit of torture, but at the same time I am so happy with the Biola Star Program she is taking classes through- I am beyond thrilled with the level of work that is expected of the students.  Yes, it's a bit of work for the parents too- but I know she is learning so much and will be prepared for college by all this stretching.  Saying that, I am still glad that the semester is drawing to a close and grateful for the Summer break!


 My favorite thing this week was…
Our whole family, including the dog- heading to old town to watch Demi's martial arts class and then heading to the farmer's market.  The evening was just beautiful, the weather- perfect!

 What’s working/not working for us…
Narration was a really good thing this week.  Not working- Well, I decided to end my struggle to finish up Sonlight core 2 and just move on and sell it.  It's just not my favorite core.  We are still using Sonlight and I am looking forward to doing Core 3/4 with the kids next year.

 Homeschool questions/thoughts I have…
I am hoping I can find more of next year's curriculum used- I have found a few teacher's manuals that I need, buying them used is a big help to our budget :)

A photo to share…

Our solar system resist-watercolor by Amie

how was learning in your home this week?

Labels: homeschool

This week's challenge was Math!  Here are the two winners for this week- though I bet, not a big surprise :)...


1) Cafe Mirecki





nothing says Math! as much as an abacus!  MomLaur writes that they are using Right Start Math this year.  I love the bright colors of this abacus :)


2) Janet Rose



Janet Rose shares this Math equation: 



love it! :)

I hope you will join us on Saturday when the challenge will be: 

Comfort

Labels: Lens winners

Welcome to the LEarning Never Stops Photo Challenge.

This week's challenge is Math!

Link up your photo demonstrating this topic.  Please link up to your entry page, not your main blog page. Photo account entries are welcome!  Please leave a link back to this challenge, and try to visit around and be neighborly :)  Linky will close 10 pm pacific time and two winner will be chosen/displayed on Tuesday night.

Labels: Lens

"Where are you going today? Well, that's very odd, 'cos I was too...let's go together..." -Us Two by A.A. Milne

Labels: Dose of doodle, Emma-doodle dog

Labels: family, homeschool

Thank you for playing this week!  I loved looking at the memories you wanted to always remember.

Here are the two photos that grabbed me this week.  It's so hard to choose only two!

1) Cafe Mirecki


...remembering the milestones. She had several photos in a chronological story-telling post.  It was like reading a lyrical picture book, hop over and read her post!



2) Vanessa -flickr stream




Something about this photo...the vintage look, a familiar rite of childhood..starting out for school, and I love that he is walking away- and all the lines in this photo leading up. 

Thank you everyone for sharing your memories with us.

I hope you can join us on Saturday when the challenge will be:

Math!

Labels: Lens winners

oy, I am so behind!  I've actually finished a few books, but haven't written the reviews for them yet :(

Week 7's book was a fun read:


Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts by Lucy Dillon

This story is about Rachel, who all in a short span of time, lost her boyfriend, her job, her flat and inherited her late aunts' house.  She moves into the house, to sort out the will and see into selling it.  The house also comes with a dog rescue shelter that is not in the least profitable. 

Rachel's aunt had a way with dogs, and a special gift for matching up just the right dog with the right owner.  Rachel resents it a bit that the town assumes she will be the same.

Rachel is sorting out the house, her aunt's secrets, unraveling family miss-understandings and sorting out her messed-up love life.  We also meet some interesting people who become side-stories to Rachel's story.  In this small village, we meet the cute, single Dr.- the cute, rugged and single Vet, a struggling divorced mother dealing with a puppy her ex gives the kids, and Natalie and Johnny- young married couple longing to have a baby.  Of course, we have lovable and lonely dogs, too.

I really enjoyed this read, it was a bit deeper than a chick-lit novel and did not tie everything up into a tidy, perfect, slightly unbelievable package at the end.  Real life is not usually that tidy, and this book gives you a satisfying ending- but realistic and hopeful one, too.

A really good read, I recommend it!

Labels: 52books/52weeks, book review

Meg, homeschool prom

Welcome to the LEarning Never Stops Photo Challenge.

This week's theme is - Remember.

Link up your photo below, please link to your entry page, not your main blog page.  Linky will close 10 pm pacific time, Monday.  Two winners will be chosen and displayed on Tuesday night.

I'm looking forward to seeing that which you wish to Remember :)

Labels: Lens

As always, choosing just two winners for this week's challenge was really, really hard.  We had some great photos entered!

Here are the 2 top picks for this week:


1)  Our Peculiar Lives


What can I say?  This is a wonderful portrait.  The golden eye is so compelling among all the white.  I love this photo.  Beautiful shot!


2)  Nina Bee/ He Searches Me




This photo, wow- the reds framing the bright golden sun.  Beautiful!  She caught the light just right. 

Thank you everyone for joining up! 
I hope you will come back this Saturday for the L.E.N.S  Photo Challenge,

when the theme will be:

Remember

Labels: Lens winners

Labels: Wordless Wednesday

My boy stood in front of me as his father told me about our son’s testing for a new belt.  Waves of excitement were rolling off my son.  The story was told, my son’s great feats had been re-counted…but something more was needed.
My boy was waiting for something more...

Do you realize the power of your words?  I am writing today over at The Moms of Boys society, click over to read the rest.

The Power of Words- M.O.B. Society

Labels: guest posts, mothers of boys society

photo by eileenberedo-used with permission

We had standardized testing a few weeks ago.  It's part of the package of using a homeschool charter school.  It doesn't bother me, I don't change anything about our homeschool because of it.  My kids look forward to it, there is usually a huge crowd of kids to play with on testing day.

Most years, a week or two before, it will occur to me that I should prepare them a bit.  So, I will maybe look up the standards for each grade and then introduce any concepts they haven't seen before, just so they won't panic or feel dumb.  Most years I do this, but then some years, I don't.  This year was one of the years that it didn't occur to me.  No big deal, I thought.

I forgot that Amie, my 3rd grader is my school-book loving/intense child.  She has learned some of the times tables sitting in with Demi and Teddy, but I never even thought about discussing division with her.  Oopps! -it looks like division is on the 3rd grade standards.

So, when I arrived to pick up Amie on the first day of testing, I found my baby girl totally in tears.  I felt so bad.  It was partly that she heard the teacher call me to say she was done, and she got my voicemail....because I was driving.  I didn't call back, because I was 10 minutes away and on my way...but Amie began to worry I wasn't coming, and then on top of that was the whole division sign that she did not recognize.

I used hand motions when I told Sky about it later.  Me- standing there with buckets of mom-guilt pouring over me. Not sprinkling over me- pouring over me, like a waterfall.

So, how do you give a homeschool mom guilt?  Having a child in tears over not knowing division -Bingo.



We will continue working through Math U See this Summer, and I am going to add in Math drills, so the kids have their facts down cold.  Math games, too- are on the menu, because Summer is about fun, right??

I'm not a Math person at all....I kind of have an aversion to flashcards.  This whole section of school is a bit hard for me.  For Josie and Meg, I had them write times tables everyday in a notebook- over and over and over again.  They got it, but it wasn't any fun.  I'm thinking I've got to shake things up a bit for my 3 youngest students...the boys don't really have much patience with writing.

So, I stumbled on this program called Mad Dog Math.  It's a whole system of drill work sheets already made for you and organized for you...with directions, and timers, and clubs.  I need hand-holding with stuff like this.  Yes, theoretically it should be easy enough to type up times tables on the ol' computer and print them up and administer them....but somehow I don't ever get past the thought... so, I've learned it's best for me to find something with the planning already done.

I'm pretty excited!   The kids, they don't know yet....

We start next week! :)

summer of math, math, math...summer of math, math, math...

Labels: homeschool

Welcome to the LEarning Never Stops Photo Challenge. 

This week's theme is - golden.

Please link up to your entry page, not your main blog page.  Flickr/photo account entries are welcome.  Linky will close 10 pm pacific time- Monday.  Two winners will be chosen and displayed on Tuesday night.

Can't wait to see what you come up with!  :)

Labels: Lens

Thank you everyone for joining up with us this week!  As always, it is so hard to choose! 
[bold] was a fun theme :)

Here are this weeks' winners! (I apologize for getting them up a few days late, life sort of got in the way/Science fair project time here at our house!)

1)  A Pause on the Path


 This handsome fella is indeed, bold!  Lovely bird!


2)  Homeschool Nature Study and More



A very bold adventurer here!  I love how the photo stopped the water spray, and how bright the red boogie board is.

Thank you everyone for playing!  Join us on Saturday when the challenge will be

golden

Labels: Lens winners

A book we've found very helpful,  California Gardener's Guide

I am linking up with The Homeschool Village's Garden Challenge :)

Labels: garden