Epic Weekend part the 2nd, section A: Why I mow a lot of grass

For the last, almost 2 years, we have been fortunate enough to live as caretakers at a YouthRanch.

We get to play ponies everyday, and be a part of the lives of the families receiving services here. 

We mow a lot of grass, often.

This past Saturday was the 4th annual charity fundraising horse show for the YouthRanch.

It was a combined show open to any child that wished to participate.

The local 4-H clubs and a group of our kids had a day of fun & games.

It's a super great day!

Anyone who has ever showed any animals knows how long the day can go & usually seems like you spend hours preparing for 5 minutes of actual doing.

This year was extra special-

I have been working most of these kids for the last 2 or 3 years, & to watch them literally grow up & figuratively grow in their skills has been......well, anyone that has ever watched a child grow up knows there isn't really a word for it!

This year was also special, because of our horse, Dash.

I initiated the donation of Dash to the program last fall. He has become a very important part of the program & to see his success this past weekend was pretty cool, too! 

I don't think he has ever been to a horse show before.......

But, he wasn't phased at all.

Our Team 

The weather was great, the horse was great, the kids were great.

Yep, we were all winners that day!

Epic Weekend, part the first- Date night & an Armadillo sighting

A weekend without children.....

I should have jotted some notes down as we went along....

now it is Monday, I have spent MORE time with medical professionals, & picked up MORE prescriptions at Target.

For breakfast I had a large cup of coffee with a lot, a lot, a lot

of sugar.

I survived school today with crabby, out of sorts children.

We wrote Thank You notes.

I had more giant & sugared coffee.

So, here, & mostly in pictures

Epic Weekend- Date night

Because it's better to be early, we celebrated Husbands birthday, almost an entire month early. I tried really hard to be a good sport at the Meat Emporium, but everything was doused in meat, meat bits, meat fragrances or meat juice. If it wasn't, it was smothered under flaming marshmallows & brown sugar (RIP Sweet potato) (Does anyone actually eat that?)

It was a large, expensive piece of cow, but he was happy.

My personal favorite part was sitting, almost near to this....

He was just across the bar from me, & I only had to climb (politely, it is for my blog) over a few people to take his picture. 


Then the fun really started! I am surprise the Law wasn't called....



We went to Target to pick up prescription round #1.

We went to Wal*Mart to buy fun things like------>

 &Raisin Bran.


We ended up coming away with------>

The sparkly shirt in almost the correct color for HRH Princess Elsa's Halloween costume, stay tuned.

& most importantly, delicious cupcakes

 But, by the time we got home, we were both still full & very tired.

Nothing caps off a romantic date night like falling asleep on different couches during the 10 o'clock news. 


Pretty scandalizing. Some seriously good material for a grocery store romance novel right there.

Stay tuned for the other installments, coming some time.....

A tree Grows in Brooklyn, an excerpt

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith, features an early 20th century Irish immigrant family, living in Brooklyn. 

Our snippet today, comes after the Father has passed away and the teenage children of the family, a boy & a girl, are having to get work for the summer to help support the family, to include a new baby.

The older sister, Francie, much like her mother, is a do-er, & a dreamer.

The younger brother, Neeley, is only concerned with his immediate place in the world.

It is also a well known fact that their mother, Katie, plays favorite to Neeley.

Francie spoke to Mama about school and Mama said, yes, they'd have to talk about it. They'd talk about it right after supper that night.

     After finishing their supper coffee, Katie announced needlessly that school was opening next week. "I want both of you to go to High School but it's working out that only one of you can start this fall. I'm saving every cent I can out of your pay so that next year, both of you will be back in school."...

          

       francie's lips were stiff as she spoke. So much depended on Mama, and Francie wanted her words to make a good impression. "Yes, Mama. I want to go back to school more'n I'll ever want anything in my life."...

    "Neeley doesn't want to go back to school," said Katie. She spoke to Francie almost pleadingly. "You know what the means, Francie."....."It means," said Mama, "that Neeley has to go back to school."

Discussion......Discussion.....I won't, etc........

"Because if I don't make him, he'll never go back," said Mama, "Where you, Francie, will fight and manage to get back somehow.

Accasius Page School 2014-2015

It's the first day of school!

We are firm believers that children should not go back to school until September, and holiday or not, it's Monday & it's September. 

I figure I have to labor everyday regardless, so might as well get with the program.

Though, we are fans of organic, learn with life as you go people, I suppose everyone could benefit with some book learnin' too!

So, noses in.

It has taken me forever to settle on what I wanted our learning space to be. It has been in almost every room of our house, except the bathroom, we always seemed to gravitate back to the kitchen table. I also had to work out the notion that it needed to resemble a classroom. But, who wants to live in a classroom? 

This is it. All of our official, book learning space.

Our learning board. We have our color words above, our maps, our calendar center

.

I have tried to do the very intricate calendar time previously, but was never a fan. This is simple, to the point. Today is......the end.

Our Eric Carle Alphabet. This is extra special from our Mimi & GPH. 

Some of our books, with room to grow! 

The hole left by the couch that got sold...because who needs to sit down?

We are saving up for a cute bench, in the meantime, the dogs are enjoying the cushion.

Our keys to success.... Our small library box, to hold free reading books. You can move the box & have a seat for someone naughty. But, most importantly, the teachers candy jar, aka the John Deere cookie jar- because I am never below bribing my children!

Our Pinterest maybe fail? The Princess and I made this lamp shade out of torn fabric strips & old ric-rac. It doesn't look too horrible, for where it is.....

Lawn Chairs in the reading nook= Quick, Cheap & Easy

&, most importantly, our new chore chart! 

Made using a cookie sheet, paint chip samples, clipart & some fun magnets- that just happened to be in everyone's assigned colors.

Our Curriculum

I am also super excited for this!

At the end of last year we sampled a literature based program, that they could all learn together, all at once. Which, you better believe made it so much easier! All we needed to add in was a math & reading. Everything else was wrapped up nicely with a bow & a giant price tag. EEEK!

One day, on one of my Facebook groups there were several comments about 

Build Your Library , 

a secular, literature based (almost complete) program that actually encourages teaching them all together, at a reasonable price- I would just have to locate the literature needed for all the topics, &add maths + reading.

I did purchase several (most) of the books, used from amazon. It is after all called BUILD your library! The others we will get at our local library.

Batman will also work independently on his creative writing (no official program), & will use 

Practical Spelling Gr 4, only because I thought we needed more. This is from a Mennonite Publisher, so not secular, but user friendly, & very reasonably priced (cheap&easy!). It also includes little grammar tidbits with each lesson. We do occasionally run into a specifically religious word, or a word that is unfamiliar.

The Littles, will be using Pathway Learning through sounds workbook, for phonics, &

Before we Read workbook , so that we can always finish on a high note, also Mennonite.

Before we read, features easy, student lead pages. There are no directions to overwhelm young learners, the student must decide what the goal is (comprehension).

I have been having the littles read to me at bedtime, after I have read them their bedtime stories. It seems to be working, & I have no plans to fix what isn't broken!

  

For Maths, we will continue with our Hippy-dippy Montessori program presented by Shiller Math . We started it last year & have had good success. The lessons are gentle, & usually include a manipulative or a physical movement to reinforce the idea. It's been a good fit for the boy's learning style and is just right for the young Princess (age5).  

Our Scholars 

A picture for Mommy....

How they really feel!

Happy 1st Day of School!

And, as a happy coincidence, it is also the 1st day back to school in Israel!