We've Got Guitar Hero!

Well, we've actually had it since March. Caleb generously donated a large portion of his birthday money so that he, Micah and daddy could enjoy the game. I've actually played it twice. Check out the guitar face!

Break a Leg! Kick the Bucket! I'm Keeping My Eye on You!

Amongst studying about all of the early explorers and finishing a long study on the Pilgrims and Puritans and their journey to the New World and their early, harsh life, we decided to look at the Arts side of that time period. And who best to study but William Shakespeare. My older 2 are only 9 and 6, so it was not an intense study, but a very informative and fun one. We learned that William Shakespeare was a very famous playwright and that we still today use tons of the idioms (check the title) that he wrote for his plays. We also learned that he wrote many sonnets. And we attempted to write our very own. The creative juices flowed a lot easier when I agreed to be the scriber of this sonnet. The boys came up with the words that rhymed and then I helped them make the sentences. I must say, some of the rhymes were a challenge to make work, but then that was the point, right? All the beautiful poems and sonnets we read seem to just flow, bt I'm sure it took a lot of work to write some of them. After we wrote this, Micah titled it.

God's Creation
by Mommy, Micah and Caleb

The world is a vast space
And our God is the praise.
Filled with creatures all over the place
And even a child that plays.

The animals roam loose
And the trees are colored rust.
The camel and lion and goose,
God created even man from dust.

The world seems in a rush
And so many choices of roads.
The animals may be the crush,
As the tires go over the toads.

Yes, the rush and crush of time
Must be the worst type of crime.

Hard Tack? What's That?

We got back into the groove of school this week after the move. We left off with Christopher Columbus and decided to do some review and projects this week to kick-off the school week.

We made compasses, are reading Columbus by D'Aulaire and today we made hard tack, what's that? It was a staple on Christopher Columbus' journeys to the New World. Actually, the recipe we made wasn't that bad. Maybe I was just hungry. We decided to make it a science project too. We stuck toothpicks in all of the squares except for one. We wanted to see what would happen. We made some hypothesis as to what we thought would happen. And then we watched. We were right! The reason you poke holes in the squares is to prevent them from rising. Personally, I liked it better risen. I'm not sure why they didn't want it to rise. Caleb had some very descriptive words about his hard tack experience (right side)! I hope the picture is readable. Click on the picture and you can see a larger size of it.

We also learned that the book we're reading is a biography, so the boys' each wrote a biography paragraph. Caleb chose to write one about his mommy. Micah chose to write one about his baby brother, Isaac. Writing is a struggle for my boys, but I think they turned out well.

We also learned that CC's home country is a pennisula. It's also my birth country. And then we searched for other pennisula's on the world map. While we were there, we looked for another landform, the island.

It's Official - We have a 2-wheel rider!

Micah is officially a 2-wheel rider!

But I want to back up and tell you why, at age 9, he isn't already a 2-wheel rider.

When Micah was 2 years and 7 months old, he was given a "big boy" bike for becoming a big brother (Caleb was born). It was not the smallest bike, but the medium sized bike with training wheels. He got right on that thing and rode like he had been on one his whole life - no fears at all.

Then a few years later we took off the training wheels and after many trys and a "really bad" (Micah's words) fall that included blood and skinned knees, he gave up the bike. Didn't touch it again.

This past Spring, we got everyone a new bike. Micah's was purchased without training wheels. He tried a few times, but was very discouraged. It's hard to learn to ride a bike on a gravel driveway that goes around an inclined circle. So he gave up altogether.

Well, daddy worked with him 2 days and we now have an official 2-wheel rider.

And you can't stop him from riding his bike. He can't believe how fun it is, how much faster he can go, and how good the wind feels when you're riding. Those are all his words! He can even turn around a pretty tight turn without having to stop.

Way to go, Micah!

Coming of Age

Micah has come of age. Daddy was mowing the grass for the last time. We're moving to basically a zero lot. We have enough room to play catch, but not much else. A big change from our 25 acres! Micah has been taking rides on the mower since he was 8 months old. Well, today, he wanted to go solo. So after a few lessons and supervision to make sure he would be able to handle it, daddy let him go solo. I'm glad he got this chance since it will be a push mower in our new home!

"I will never forget this day" were his words!

We love our Friends

The packing is almost done! And we've been trying to make sure we see all of friends at least one more time. Here are 2 of our friends, Jett and Dominic.

2nd Amendment - Alive and well!

Just thought I would share that the Cavender family fully supports the 2nd amendment. And we're passing it on!

Creative Homeschooling

While packing an entire house in 2 weeks is in full swing, making last minute appointments with familiar doctors and dentists; trying to squeeze in all those visits and playdates that should have been occurring all along, and wanting to see as much of Tennessee before we leave it, homeschooling is going to be very creative, to say the least!

Yesterday was no exception. While I love spontaneity, I would classify myself as a person who thrives in a scheduled oriented atmosphere. Homeschooling for our family pretty much has a routine. It gets changed up a lot. How can it not when there are younger siblings! But, when we're all in a groove, it's pretty routine around here.

So, what I'm about to tell you may occur in your homeschool everyday. And it probably occurs in our homeschool more than I recognize, but yesterday was an epiphany for me.

We just returned from a week long trip to buy a house in Texas. You all know how trips go. No one sleeps in their own bed. The long trip (13 hours) home trying to sleep upright. Well, we rolled into the driveway about 930pm on Sunday night. We had to be home by Monday morning for a series of dental appointments on Monday morning.

The kids woke up the same time they do every morning. I was in hopes that the long, tiring day would help them sleep later, but not a chance! They wanted to watch some TV, something we don't do on school days until all school is finished. I said my usual no and informed them all that it was a school day and we were getting back into our routine. Micah scans the playroom and tells me that the school table is a mess. I turned to look and saw boxes on top of the school table, and various school books everywhere on top. It was discouraging to see the table and realize we had to leave the house in an hour for dental appts. Okay, it wasn't going to be routine today! I wasn't even sure, at this point, that school was going to happen at all. But, I was not going to tell the kids that!

With only minor frenzies, we made it to our dental appointments on time with clean clothes on and brushed teeth (very important if going to the dentist is why you're leaving the house) :o). It was a new dentist for our family and to top it off it was Sarah's first time to the dentist. She was very familiar with our old dentist's office, but now she was going to be the patient and it was a new dentist on top of that. This little tidbit is not part of the story, but I added it for a little more drama!

We waited, and waited and waited for our names to be called. We were there for over an hour before they called any of our names. The funny thing is, we really didn't even notice how long it had been. This is why. Right when we got there, we found a magazine on the chair next to where we were sitting. It was the only magazine (or so I thought) in the waiting room. It was a Town and Country. If you aren't familiar with this magazine, it is very thick. It was a travel edition. Sarah and I proceeded to look at the magazine from front to back, looking at each page carefully. I would ask her questions about what was on each page. After about 15 minutes or so, both boys (Isaac stayed home with daddy) started to get interested in what we were doing and wanting to contribute their observations and answers. Then I started to notice the people around us in the waiting room. I could here a few giggles from some of the teens that were listening to our conversation when one of the kids would make a comment about something on the page. We continued to look through each page and talking about where this or that was located, where do you think such and such is, would you want to go there. You get the idea. I continued to occasionally look up or around and noticed that we had become the center of attention in that entire waiting room. It was a long, somewhat narrow waiting room with about 10 people or so. Mostly younger teenagers with a parent here and there. These people had obvious facial expressions that told me there utter amazement at all the things my children were discussing and answering. I even heard one girl say to her friend when Micah answered what continent a certain country was located, "I didn't know where that was."

It finally came time for the 2 boys to go back for their appts. Sarah and I found the magazine rack which we did not see at first and looked through several more magazines before her turn finally came.

I don't know about you, but it really made me feel good to observe people observing us. I feel as if we may have positively affected some of those people in that waiting room. Maybe those parents will go home and read more with their kids. Maybe it will inspire some of those teens to want to learn more in school. I don't know! I do know one thing. I left the house thinking that the school day was already shot! But when I returned home, we had already had a full day of school! All from just a few magazines in a waiting room.

Now THAT'S the beauty of homeschooling!

BTW, Sarah did fantastic at her first dental appt.! A few gags trying to get the film in her mouth to take mouth pictures. But she didn't panic and was very brave. She had her teeth poked, polished and shined! And no cavities! Yeah! Both boys had a "no cavity" day also!

Explorers and Pirates and Soldiers, OH MY!!

School started on Monday, August 13th. For the first few weeks we will be exploring the early Explorers. Both Micah and Caleb are studying American History. Each boy will be making their own scrapbook. Sarah started her phonics lessons. She already knows most of her letter sounds. We're concentrating on her writing.

Stay tuned for more adventure - I think this year is going to be fun-filled!

Check Mate!

This past Wednesday was probably our last Chess class before we move. Both Caleb and Micah have learned a lot from the generous gift of Dr. Brindisi who is a local chiropractor in town that donates his time for FREE to teach the homeschoolers Chess. Here are a few pictures that Micah took of his last class (sorry, he's not in the pictures because he was taking them!) :o)

Frog Guttin' Time!!! YUCK!!!!

WOW! Thanks soooo much to my great friend, Leila Cook, for braving the task of teacher of our homeschool dissection class. Everyone had so much fun and it was so interesting. The kids shared in dissecting a frog, a perch and a few stuck around to dissect the clam. While, we didn't dissect the "Plague of Egypt" sized grasshopper, we did exam the exterior and determined the gender. It was so much more fun to do this with many of our homeschool buddies!