Summer’s Close

Summer is wrapping up for us and with the end of summer came the end of our summer reading challenge.  I wasn’t as organized as I usually am about this year’s reading challenge.  I think I was being a little lazy actually and the library changed their program into something ridiculous so that sort of took the wind out my sails too. Thankfully I managed to think of something and it worked to get my kids reading this summer.  I bought them Sonlight’s summer readers.   Strawberry and Chocolate shared a pack, Bubble Gum and Blue-Raspberry got their own.  It worked out really well.  Sonlight packaged them up so nice, it was like they each got a present!

Anyway, the challenge was to get the books read before the end of July and in return I would take them to Nelson’s and buy them an ice-cream cone!  They all finished the challenge earlier then the date I set, so off we went! 

        

It was a magnificent day!  Warm, bright, not muggy!

         

I was a good girl, I didn’t have any ice-cream.  I was too busy wiping up spills and dolling out the wet wipes! 

Afterward, we decided to surprise the little people by taking them to the most adorable park ever created:  Teddy Bear Park.

I love it that my teens will still be in family photos, and go to the park with us.  lol

   

Isn’t that cool?  The whole park is like a squishy Astroturf, it’s really fun to walk on.

We ended our adventure at the Stillwater Farmer’s Market, which was quaint and delightful.  My husband spoke my love language and paid the big bucks for a gallon of pure maple syrup!  I am one blessed woman!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Yucky Kale

I’ve been trying and trying and trying to like this superfood.  I just don’t like it.  Any way I make it, it’s still disgusting.  My least favorite vegetable, the only food that makes me gag when I try to swallow it:  Brussel sprouts.  I like Kale even less, though it doesn’t make me gag like Brussel Sprouts do.

I tried to make Kale Chips.  It’s in the Trim and Healthy Mama book, it’s on Pinterest, I have friends who rave about them.  Gag.

I was really careful to get all the stems off, spritz the leaves with olive oil and used this yummy vegetable seasoning that generally makes everything taste yummy.  Baked them until crispy.  They did have a nice crunch, but after the crunch, NASTINESS filled my mouth!

She didn’t like it either. She willingly tried them, with great expectation.  I ate mine before I shared them with everybody else, I thought maybe it was just me.  I promise, they didn’t see ME make this face!

“Can I spit this out?” 

Marshmallow seemed to like them, at first.  She stuffed quite a few in her mouth.

I even caught her sneaking a few.  Then I saw her spitting the kale out and putting the chewed up Kale back in the bowl.  Um…

Then she started making this face.  Yeah, no more Kale for her!  There were more Kale pieces on my floor than her mouth or stomach!

Maybe you have a suggestion?  I just can’t figure out how to eat this super food.  To me, it’s super-ly yucky!

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

2013/2014 Taffy Academy

During my blogging sabbatical, I spent a lot to time rearranging and reorganizing our school room.  Being as I lost two of my students, three actually when I take into account that Strawberry does most of her studies in her room… where it’s quiet, eh hem. I figured it was time for a good old rearrange!

The view looking right.

The view looking left.

I love it.  All the books make me happy.  I would still like to replace my plastic table with a conference table.  Our plastic table wiggles when somebody uses their eraser.  That’s kind of annoying.  Mr. Taffy is also on the look out for a cheap wall TV with a built in DVD player so I can show the kids education movies from time to time without them huddling around the lap top.

My Sonlight Books  and educational DVD’s.

Here’s the fall line up for the children starting with the oldest.

Strawberry Taffy-11th Grade

• Chemistry-Apologia
• Geometry-Teaching Textbooks
• English 3 (American Literature)-Excellence in Literature
• History-Constitution 101 & 102 (Hillsdale College)
• Graphic and Web Design- Team Tree House on-line program (She’s already started this because she’s VERY interested in it.)

I put links in the text if you are interested in learning more about each of her subjects.  I’ve also got an elective planned for her called:  Training in Biblical Womanhood.  I bought her several books that she is going to slowly read and journal her way through.

I found this awesome book holder at a garage sale.  This was on my list to find for our school room!

Blue-Raspberry Taffy- 5th Grade

• 5th Grade Math-Teaching Textbooks
• History-Sonlight Core D & E (combined American History)
• Latin- Song School Latin 2
• Science- Considering God’s Creation
• Language Arts: Sonlight Core D & E (Reading), Easy Grammar, All About Reading Level 4

Strawberry Taffy-3rd Grade

• 3rd Grade Math-Teaching Textbooks
• History-Sonlight Core D & E (American History)
• Latin-Song School Latin 2
• Science-Considering God’s Creation
• Language Arts: Sonlight Core D & E (reading), Easy Grammar & All about Spelling Level 4

You can see Blue-Raspberry and Bubble Gum are pretty much doing the same curriculum, I just have different expectations for each of them.  Bubble Gum read’s terrifically and won’t have any trouble with the reading, Blue-Raspberry reads terrifically too, he just doesn’t enjoy it as much.  (smile)

Laffy Taffy- 1st Grade

I did things differently with Laffy than I did with my other children.  I couldn’t stomach another round of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  It’s a great book, but it’s SO boring and I’ve been through it 5 times already…ugh.  So I used All About Reading PreReading with him.  Usually my children are reading by the end of Kindergarten, granted he just turned 5 toward the end of kindergarten but still, he’ll be starting 1st grade and he doesn’t know how to read yet.  Though he knows all the letter sounds and how to write them on demand.  This year we’ll put all the pieces together and he’ll be reading like a champ before I know it!

• Reading-All About Reading Level 1
• Spelling- All About Spelling Level 1
• Math-Miquon Math Starting in the Orange book and working our way through them all, I’m not sure how long it will take, might take a couple years, might only take 1.
• History/Literature/Science-Sonlight Core A or K depending on what you’re used too.  I primarily wanted a list of age appropriate reading material, to read to him and to have him start reading to me. 
• Handwriting-Just a work book I got from a friend.

I’m using workboxes for him this year so he can visually see how much he needs to do and consequently know when he’s almost done. 

I read on the Duggar’s Blog that during school hours the children aren’t allowed to talk about anything non-school related.  I am totally considering copying this amazing idea.  So much chatter and so many uninteresting questions and too much redundancy, it really makes me crazy sometimes!

The Tot School Area.

We are starting up August 5th, with a four day a week schedule so we can still enjoy the summer weather and meet our friends at the beach once a week.  Until we start up, I have a BIG issue I have to pray through.  I’ll share that next time.  Here’s a hint:

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

Where do I start?

 

Well hello out there!  Is it okay if I start blogging again?  So much has happened, so much I want to share.  I have some significant things to share and some not-so-significant things to share.  Where in the world do I start? 

I’ve been purging and cleaning like a crazy person. My husband (and the rest of my family) is starting to get a little annoyed with the things they find in the garbage and in the trunk to be taken to Goodwill.  I can’t help it. I’m compelled to PURGE!  I’ve even been purging and cleaning my laptop.  Yesterday I deleted 200 files!  Most of them were  blog images that I have made over the years and different reviews of things that I don’t need to keep a rough draft of.  Some were funny things the kids have typed up or created on the computer, I found a funny ad for dog food that one of the kids had made either just for fun or a business idea.  It was cute.

            

I’ve also been filing, filing at home and on my laptop.  I made new folders to keep track of my writings and my homeschool things.  We’ve had so many computers over the years and I’ve downloaded so many fun things for our homeschool that I just can’t find what I’m looking for anymore.  I think I fixed all that.  My desktop only has 10 icons now and only about 6 of those are mine, I wouldn’t dare delete anything that looks like my husband’s.  I have no idea if it’s important or not!  I use to have about 30 files stored on my desktop.  It’s much less cluttered now.

This morning I’ve been going through my picture files and deleting non-important images.  You know, like all the images of the food I eat!  lol  Books I’m selling, stuff like that.

It feels great to get rid of the clutter.

My goals for this year are: Simplify. Trust. Pray.

That’s it.  Those are the words burning in my soul. Maybe I will share how I’m tangibly trying to obtain those goals.

Thanks for hanging with me.

The battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

Weekly Wrap-Up #??

It’s been so long since I’ve written one of these that I can’t even figure out what number I’m on.  Well, we are almost done with our 2012/2013 year and that’s all that REALLY matters!

We’ve been doing some interesting things this week…

I put our normal stuff on hold because I found this hidden on my laptop.  My oldest daughter is still VERY much interested in all-things-Irish, so finding this was fun.  Now her little sibs will have something interesting to tell her.

           

Their copy work has been a famous prayer written by St. Patrick and when they finished the tracing and copying portion, I had them highlight all the prepositions, because there were MANY! 

We’ve started our Sonlight History.  I’m not really on any schedule so to speak, but I am going in the order they suggest.  So far the kids LOVE it and during the reading time they are finding interesting things to do.

They took the big markable map and matched up the state pieces from another puzzle.  I didn’t instigate this, they just thought it looked like fun.  This map…for some reason, has become the delight of the school room and somebody is always looking at it or playing with it, or if you are Marshmallow Taffy, rolling up in it like a burrito.

Marshmallow was such a good girl this week.  This is the first week she hasn’t drove me crazy…she was actually content and quiet.  We discovered she can handle dot painting and she LOVED it!  She also discovered she can maneuver the plasma car with great pizazz!

Strawberry Taffy has had a very special week.  My sweet daughter was blessed with a trip to Florida, to see her very best friend. 

Her friend is a snow bird, so she’s only here in the summer and fall.  We don’t normally, or haven’t in the passed let her, or any of our other children do something like this.  When questioned about it by a friend, this is what I said,

I know…it just sort of happened.  I’m so beyond arguing about anything and so desperate to let my children know how much I love them.  Mr. Taffy and I both had peace about it.  Strawberry and Gracie have such a special relationship, it may be a once in a life time opportunity for her.  Gracie’s Dad flew down with her and is flying back up with her too.  I don’t think we would have been okay with it had she been all alone at the airports.  I’m so glad she’s getting a break and having some fun.  She is tireless in her help to me, always cheerful, willing to do anything I ask.  She works so hard at school.  She deserved a GREAT reward.  We even gave her spending money and I bought her some new (Goodwill) clothes too.  We lavished her.  She will not forget this.  She called me Monday night in tears…she NEVER cries.  She’s just not a crier like me…but wow was she having a hard time being away.  She was SO embarrassed to be crying.  She was just homesick.  So sweet.

Obviously I changed some names, but that is what I wrote, and this still pretty much sums up how I feel about it.  She comes home Friday evening.  We can’t wait!  I’ve missed her terribly. She keeps me company during the day.  We are both introverts so we know how to give each other space, but we also know how to be silly and yak, yak, yak and she makes me the BEST smoothies EVERY afternoon!

While she’s been gone we had an epic snowstorm!

School was cancelled for the older two and Mr. Taffy stayed home! Of course, our homeschool went on as usual but they got plenty of time to play out in that delightful white fluff!

I think we got at least a foot of snow.  And, believe it or not, we had our bedroom window open all night during the storm, it was pretty mild out and I KNOW I could smell spring on that back of that storm.  I can still smell it if I breathe deep enough.

Breathing Deeply,

Mrs. Taffy