Summer 2013 -- Week One

We enjoyed looking back at what our summer was like last year, so I thought I'd try to do a weekly recap again this year.


May 27 - June 2

We always finish with school by Memorial Day so that begins our official summer. This year we visited a couple new parks and had a picnic lunch.

Conner wasn't able to be with us for Memorial Day, but came home on Tuesday. Later in the week, we celebrated Liam's birthday. TWO! We spent the morning and the zoo and the afternoon with friends at a park in Golden. I think he had a really good day.

Two years old

BIG ball was a gift from a brother

Fun at the zoo

With Mom

With Dad, making silly smiles

birthday cupcakes

Brenna hadn't seen her friend Anna for 2 years

Field trip to a farm

We attended a field trip with FACE this week, to a you-pick vegetable farm. All of us but Brenna, who chose to utilize the quiet house by getting a lot of schoolwork done. Good girl!

 The morning started cool, but the temperature rose quickly and we were pretty hot. We brought water but left it with the stroller instead of taking it on the wagon -- big mistake!


While we waited to board the wagons, the kids held a couple snakes they kept in tubs

On the wagons:

We picked corn, potatoes, cabbage, kohlrabi, leeks, onions,beets, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, butternut squash, acorn squash and pumpkins.

All of the kids ate some corn, but Liam had 3 ears by himself!

After we picked the veggies and hauled them to our car, we were extremely hot, thirsty and hungry. We sat at some tables in the shade to eat lunch. At least Chase, Liam and I did.  The other three still somehow had energy to go back out in the hot sun and play.

On the way out, we stopped to pose for pictures with their collection of "Cars".

When we got home and set out all the vegetables, we realized we ended up with a lot more than we'd thought!

That night, Chase made a vegetable soup recipe from his favorite chef, Alton Brown.  We gave two bags full to a neighbor and two bags to a friend. Now we're working on what to do with the rest.  :)

Back to School

We are off to a pretty good start this year. We always begin here at home after Labor Day, although the outside classes start a week or two earlier.

To celebrate our first day and the fact that, as homeschoolers, we can start whenever and however we want, we bought Krispy Kreme doughnuts and drinks from Starbucks and headed to the park.

We got there right before it got crowded and hot. Once it did, we left. At home, I went over our new materials with the kids and we discussed our schedule. For now, it looks like our main at-home school days will be Monday-Wednesday. Brenna, Aiden and Zane have classes at Options on Thursdays and Chase has classes at FACE on Fridays.

I'm going to do Five in a Row again with Zane and Declan, with Aiden joining in when he wants to. Aiden is doing Saxon Math, A Reason for Spelling, Daily Grams and Writing Strands at home while at Options he is taking a Young Entrepreneurs and Pioneer Crafts class for social studies, Mountain Lab and Mythbusters classes for science, P.E. and Art. He is also a Cub Scouts Webelo and attending AWANA.

Brenna is taking History, a Composition class, and Guitar at Options. She is also continuing her art classes through here -- this year the advanced class is 2 hours instead of 1, which I think is great for her. She needs the challenge; her drawing is amazing and I definitely can't help her in this area. At home, she's doing Saxon Math, Total Health, and Grammar. I haven't found a good science curriculum for her yet this year -- she may end up helping me teach the littles in this area.

Chase decided to attend FACE instead of Options this year. He wants to take advantage of their culinary arts program through Warren Tech. in his junior year, so we switched him there now in preparation. He is taking Algebra, American Government and a cooking class. At home, he is doing his writing, Total Health, Grammar and we're working on custom-building a science class around his interest in molecular gastronomy.

As always, we will tweak this as we go.

Labor Day Weekend

Usually once a year, my most excellent husband takes the kids up to the mountains to visit my parents. And I get the house TO MYSELF. The thought of that one weekend keeps me going some weeks, I tell ya.

Anyway, I filled my 2 1/2 days with cleaning, organizing, planning, but also with reading, bible study, browsing online and catching up on some shows on the DVR.

Meanwhile, at the grandparents' , it truly was "labor" day. Scott and Chase helped my dad put up a new fence:

But they also found time to have fun and eat s'mores

On the way home, Scott stopped at a favorite place by the river and took a group photo for me. Thanks, hon!

The weekend helped recharge me and now I'm ready for the new school year!

Summer - Week 13

August 20 - August 26

I'm still calling this a summer post, although some of our fall activities started up this week. So it was kind of a half and half week.

Aiden had his first Cub Scouts meeting of the year, which was really just a kick-off for popcorn sales. They don't charge dues in his troop, so they make a big push at popcorn time to cover the troop's expenses for the year. Fundraising is NOT my favorite thing to do.

Options orientation was also this week. We are going a different direction with Chase this year -- he will be attending a private homeschool program called FACE. We've been involved there for years, but he hasn't taken classes there for the last 3 years. He is extremely interested in culinary arts and they have a program there through Warren Tech. that he can take his Junior year, so we made the switch now.

And with Conner having graduated, that left Brenna and Aiden in Options this year.BUT...we also have a new Kindergartner. Zane is beyond thrilled and has counted down the days all summer until he could attend.

Declan was NOT thrilled to have Zane going off without him. They've been doing pretty much everything together for almost 4 years now. But we tried to convince him it will be fun to be the big brother at home to Liam.

Aiden is beginning 4th grade

Brenna is in 8th grade this year

We did get to go out and enjoy the summer heat one day, at a park with friends.

This is the ONE smile I got; he does not care for the swing and wanted out immediately after I snapped the picture

I got to get out and have some me-time this week. I had my Bible Study one morning, Book Club one evening and scrapbooking another evening. In my book club, we just discussed "The Zookeeper's Wife" by Diane Ackerman. This was not one of my favorite reads and I had to force myself to finish it. Coming on the heels of "Unbroken", I wasn't really in the mood for another book about World War II. And this one wasn't nearly as well-written and engaging. It was interesting to get another perspective from the war. This book was set

in Poland, from the viewpoint of the wife of a zookeeper. They hit many, many Jews during the war. I learned a lot, but still did not enjoy the writing style.

Next we are moving on to a book set here in Colorado, in the early 1900s, so I'm excited about that.

This was Conner's 1st official week of classes at CSU. He had been waitlisted for one class, so he had to do a little switching around of his schedule. That resulted in scrambling to find another textbook, after he'd already ordered and picked up the books for his other classes. But he figured it out and got it taken care of. Just the first of many things he'll need to start doing on his own. Makes me so proud of him, but also a little sad. I can now understand why some mom feel a bit lost when their last child leaves the house. I still have plenty of people to take care of here at home, but it's a strange feeling to let one go and just sit back and wait until you're called on. I think, with homeschooling, I've gotten so used to being involved

in pretty much every aspect of my kids' lives and in helping them make decisions, that it'll take me awhile to get used to this new normal. Don't get me wrong -- it's all good. It's natural and wonderful for him to go and be on his own and learn and grow. But my momma's heart is still a bit sad at the ending of this stage of life.

It helped that Scott had some work in Ft. Collins on Saturday, so he was able to pick Conner up for a late lunch. I made him send me a picture ;)

Thank goodness for Facebook, so we've been able to keep up a little with Conner's life at CSU. He and some other students from his floor dressed in morphsuits in the school's colors and attended a volleyball game. Looks like they had fun.

Conner is the front green guy with yellow hat

Brenna is getting back into her drawing, which I love. She is so talented and I'm excited that her advanced art class is 2 periods long this year, to give her more time to draw. I've been looking for additional outside classes for her to take, but haven't had any luck yet.

Both Brenna and Chase helped with the church's food drive on Sunday morning.

On Sunday afternoon, we attended a BBQ for some of the church youth leaders. Scott has worked in the 2nd/3rd grade room for 4 or 5 years now. The hosts had an extremely large yard, with a pool and trampoline so the kids had a great time.