Edgerton Science Center

We had a blast yesterday going to the first homeschool event of the year at Edgerton Science Center, in Aurora, NE. My boys had a blast for an hour, before classes started, playing with all the hands-on fun. 
Mine traveled around and looked at most of the stuff, Bobo stayed at the train tables and Buggie tried out eveything he could get his hands on, but loved being at the spinning table the best. He also got to play a Kinect Wipeout game with an older girl and Bobo, life sized Operation game, waterway play, and lots of other fun things.
Then the class began about Monarch Migration. The class went over lots of information on Monarchs life cycle and migration patterns. Then we all split into 2 groups:  catching and tagging was group 1 and cutting and gathering seeds for butterfly habitats was group 2. Lots of fun had by all.
Buggie said his favorite things were "being with his family, making giant bubbles and seeing the butterflies".

2013-2014 School Curriculum

Well since in NE you have to be registered by July 15 I had to have everything picked out and ready to go so here is our list for the year.

2013-2014 school year plan

For Bobo we will be using the 2 year old plans at:

 

ABC Jesus Loves Me

and

Letter of the Week

 

 

For Buggie we will be entering the phase of 2nd grade and this is the first year for us to register since you have to be 6 before NE recognizes a student.

  

The Climbing Rock Academy  Curriculum List

 Spelling-          Spelling Workout Level A & B 
Writing-           A Reason for Handwriting:  Manuscript A & B   Author: Carol Ann Retzer 
Grammer-        First and Second Language Lessons by Jessie Wise  
History-           THE STORY OF THE WORLD Volume I: Ancient Times From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor  and The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child:
  The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance By Susan Wise Bauer       
Math-               Saxon Grade 2 
Geography-      Road Trip USA by confessionsofahomeschooler.com
Science-           Elementary Life Science by Scott McQuerry
                         Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology
Health-             http://allinonehomeschool.com/individual-courses-of-study/pehealth-odds/
Art-                  Sister Wendy’s The Story of Painting  Publisher: doring kinderling

Good luck with all your plans and take it slow.  May God Bless you in everything you do.
Gretchen

 

Summer time

Lots of inside time due to allergies but we just had to get out. So here we are in the evil humidity. The boys are running and playing under our awesome tree canopy. We are hot sweaty and happy.

The boys have been doing so well this summer with changes.  We were at church last Sabbath evening for close of Sabbath and my babies both knelt down and did prayer with Pastor without being told it was Prayer time.  I was so proud of them both and daddy got to witness it also.  We both had tears as they both came up with their own Amens.  So thankful to God for giving us two wonderfully little boys who surprise us daily.
God Bless you and hope you are having a great summer
Gretchen

           

Our new family member

Our oldest, Thunder, has diabetes and renal failure so in order to prepare the family. We want to make sure Galic has a friend and the boys, we, have another kitty to help when the time comes for our baby girl.  So hubbie found a Calico kitty when he picked our two up from the kitty hotel after our excursion to MN for the weekend. We checked it out and were ready to adopt her until the Humane Society said oh no she was adopted last night. So after about 30 mins of babies crying and nashing of teeth we asked to look at the kitties that were adoptable. Very quickly Buggie, Bobo and I fell in love with our new baby, Stardust or Dusty as the boys have nicknamed her.
Unfortunately she has an upper respritory problem right now and is healing from being fixed but she is on the uphill and we are so happy to have her.
Hope all is well and God Bless
Gretchen

On our way

We headed to MN for my moms graduation from the Catholic churches Catechism classes, which she spent the last four years in classes, writing papers and spending weekends in Winona.  We are very proud of her and decided to go and be part of it.
Buggie had been throwing up and had a fever since the end of VBS. We were hoping all would be done a week later, but 20 mins into the trip the great green bowl was pulled out and used. Then again about 2 hours later. We figured worse case Mayo Clinic was 20 mins from moms so wed be in good hands.
Well we got to moms and Buggies sickness went away, we think he was just so excited about seeing family that his body was in overload.
After we passed that worry we had good times with family. We got to have a grill out w mom and her boyfriend and hung out with my sister and her family and our cousins and auntie. It was a grand time celebrating.

The next day we checked out my cousins new house and had a fabulous ride to Winona with my aunt. When we got there we had a good family time there along with the ceremony and wonderful dinner put on by the church. Afterwards we went to a little dive that had fabulous homemade rootbeer and the boys played.
After the whirlwind day and a half we turned South and headed home. A lot of craziness but worth it for such a special event for my mommy.

Hope you are all well and having fun. God Bless
Gretchen

In the planning groove

Welcome to our Angry Bird obssesed summer. Both boys want to make new Piggie block designs to knock down with their Angry Bird stuffies, daddy went a little overboard and crazy, he loves getting fun stuff for his boys. I will do another poat soon on what kind of Angry Bird stuff we do.
We are trying to get 1st grade math done here in the next month so we can start Aug as a 2nd grader math class along with 2nd grade reading and writing programs. Starting spelling and grammer curriculum this year and continuing social studies, geography and science.  I will do a whole curriculum list for 2013-2014 school year later this month when I finish planning. For now we will enjoy the many summer programs and lots of outside fun along with some trips to see family and a good week of Christian music.
Hope you all have a Blessed day as we pray you and your family enjoy God`s glorious abundance that He has given to us to share with and explore with our children.
Gretchen

 

VBS

So VBS started last Sunday and ran through Thursday.  Lots of fun for all, not a lot of pics though.  Kingdom Rock was awesome and the catch phrase was "Being brave helps us stay strong!"  Even Bobo loved saying it.  We missed Monday because we didn't get back from the zoo till almost 7 and then Thursday too cause Buggie had a fever of 103.  Buggie says he had the most fun during craft time.  Daddy even got some one-on-one time with Bobo since Buggie did not want to be at church without mom so no errand running for me, but I did get some much needed adult time with some friends, without having to chase down Bobo.  Praise God we have so many volunteers that made VBS great and a special time for all. 

Hope you are all enjoying your summer so far.

God Bless from our home to yours.

Gretchen

Back to fun

We started the week out going to the BIG zoo with friends. Lots of walking and we even got to ride the train, spoiled babies. Wish the elephants were back though. We will go back soon because we did not get to see all we wanted since we had an hour and a half wait in the train line, bit the boys enjoyed it and that is really what matters.
We had a great time at our homeschool group last week @ Antelope Park. Buggie got to play swords, still figuring out if he is old enough, if Im comfortable with that yet, but good experiment.  Bobo had a blast playing and hanging w the big kids. 
We also did a geocaching excursion at Pioneers Park with another homeschool group, sorry no pictures. It was great fun and lots of hiking, Bobo got lots of piggyback rides and Buggie loved being in a group where most of the children are his age and some are even SDA, which is awesome.

 

Finally feeling better

So sorry I just could not shake that cold.  I started feeling better yesterday, but decided to hang with my men, while they played their new favorite game Angry Bird. 

Are they involved or what.  Actually I think they were watching Baha 500 at this point and time the game pictures must be on my camera. 
Last week we had fun but not much for pictures. 
Hope you are all feeling well and Blessed by God's Love
Gretchen

Grrrrrr Starting over again

I guess starting over is a theme for me on this blog.  With family visits, birthdays and lingering sickness, which we are still in, I have been sidetracked.

 

Don't get me wrong we've been having a blast too.  The boys are having fun here at Daddy's office when we brought them homemade pizza and "CRACK" bars (PB rice crispies w PB fudge and PB cups and PB&Choco fudge topping, but really easy to make) for daddy's birthday.  We've been asked to come back often, let me tell you that feels good that people want my kids to come back, we must be doing something right.   

The boys had lots of fun having races in the house with each other and dad, since mean mom wouldn't let them out while they had fevers for what seemed like a month since everybody got sick one at a time, but was only 2.5 weeks.

 

Then we had Grammie (the young lady standing and smiling) come from MN to visit for Bobo's birthday along with some friends here locally, like our friend Charlie the dog and auntie Christina(who is petting him), I can't believe he's 2 already, but then it seems like he's been with us forever too.  Yep we got him Bongos this year and both boys play them daily, or like big brother had happen yesterday, get attacked by them (they fell on Buggies head and left a huge bump and lots of tears poor guy)  We also gained a considerable amount of Lego Duplos/MegaBlocs, which are in high demand and used multiple times during the day.

 

 

Ok so now I have gone crazy with pictures because I could not have a better Mother's Day ever, well unless my mommy had been with us, but she could make it this year so we'll forgive her.  But my 2nd mommy, my Auntie, the boys Grammie, was here and we had a blast.  We went to a garden that had models made out of Legos, which my boys are way into, Buggie kept looking at how many bricks eack model took and kept asking how many more he needed at home so he could make them.  First off we didn't know the engines were there and spent a lot of time playing in that area and then the walk back we read all about the line and climbed a lot, we are a rock climbing family but have nothing big to climb here in NE so we climb anything we can.  Thankfully they did not get pictures but I was right in there with my boys since the retaining wall was taller than my 6'4 husband and both boys were determined to climb it multiple times.

 

 

 

Then we went to the gardens for the afternoon and walked and walked and walked, but had so much fun doing it, unfortunately it wasn't all open so we enjoyed all that was.  With all the water and the warmth I am very surprised my boys did not end up wet at all.  All I can say is we had an amazing time and the weekend ended way to soon. 

Hope you all are feeling Blessed by God's Love

Gretchen