little lundys on the prairie

today we walked to school just like laura ingalls. it's 2.5 miles to the public school, the same distance laura walked to hers from the little house on plum creek. so we walked there, and back, and shew! we all decided she was pretty tough! we couldn't imagine doing that after morning chores, then having a full day of school, then doing it again, then having more chores, and homework, yikes!
it's also very convenient that on the corner by the school, there's an old one-room schoolhouse that we got to explore! it made our walk to school a little more authentic and educational. (wish i'd taken my camera, i just had my phone for pics!)
so cool to walk along the prairie (corn and soy fields) and teach the kids while we saw some homeschooling neighbors, combines up close, dead birds (they thought so anyway), a creek, etc. it was a fun trip!

week 12 of homeschooling

this one flew by and we almost missed it!

mon, nov 2:
today was officially declared grandparents day and school canceled as the grands took the kids to lunch, dinner, and shopping in between!

tues, nov 3:
· today was election day so we did our last research then took the kids to vote. they were so excited and we thought happy to learn about the electoral process, though we learned they thought they got to vote. oops! so their first lesson was you have to be 18, not a popular rule with our kids. we also talked about treating people respectfully even if you disagree with them. with the issues and candidates on our ballot, it was easy to find examples. (i said that respectfully!)
· then we took a hike at a new reserve (that we'll be paying for over 10 more years thanks to that levy passing... also said very respectfully).
· we watched an episode of little house and talked about the lessons (so easy & fun!).
· i think allen did some work with them. i can't remember past the sugar fog. we had a lot of candy.

wed, nov 4:
· today the grands left, which is always a very sad occasion. but we took some family pics, hated but needed of course (in my opinion!) and enjoyed our time with grandma and grandpa before they left.
· we watched an episode of little house and talked about the lessons.
· from the prairie primer: reading, math (grasshopper math!), nutrition, bible, language, science
· we may have done something else. i need to keep up to date or (as josh once said when he was little), my remembers fall out of my brain.
· awana night at church, western night!

thurs, nov 5:
· allen did something, i'm sure. i'll have to ask.
· we watched an episode of little house and talked about the lessons.
· we've been needing to cut down a (falling) tree in the front yard and what better way to learn about hard work and chopping wood? so that took up a good portion of the day, sawing, chopping, and cleaning up. and of course our weird kids LOVED it! they cut all the pieces into firewood even, just like pa (which is what they're now calling allen).
· from the prairie primer: reading, bible, safety, cause & effect, writing
· no jack the dog wasn't really in the lesson, i just thought he was cute. :)

fri, nov 6:
· allen did something, yeah, will ask.
· we watched an episode of little house and talked about the lessons.
· from the prairie primer: reading, grammar, writing, bible, science, living, (we skipped eating turnips!)
· we decided to walk to school, just like laura did in the book. it was great! see the next post for details.

how the lundys jump in leaves

we thought the kids would enjoy jumping in the leaves and left them to play. this is what they came up with. is that normal?! :)

a grand week with the grands!

we had such a fun week while the grands were here! waving, hi grandma and grandpa! (my mom will totally wave at her computer screen.)
october 31st is our big day: halloween, allen's birthday, and all three adoption days (8 yrs for josh, 3 for matt & lizzie). so we celebrated for days! candy, cookies, cake, cupcakes, pie, pumpkin bread (new to me, and yummy!), and oreo truffles (allen's request instead of cake, though we ended up with cake too!) we made dead fingers, which looked great before they baked. they turned into monster's mashed fingers after. :/
we canceled school on monday and declared it grandparents day! the kids went to lunch, dinner, and shopping with them and allen and i had a free day! fun day for everyone, except poor grandpa who hurt his back. :( but he got a few days rest and we had more time to visit, so a bonus for us (if a bit painful for him).
random pics below. lizzy went curly for the big day. a pic of the kids and grands looking at a scrapbook. josh falling asleep with the dog. matt watching tv with/on grandma and grandpa. the dreaded family photo, had to be bribed with a silly pic, but we got a few of us all together.
they've headed back to florida now and will be missed around here, but we were glad to have such a fun visit! see you at christmas! (i bet she waved again.) :)

margiella is not bakerella

i'm no bakerella, but at least it usually tastes good! i tried bakerella's spider web design on cupcakes. super easy and cute, but i guess i missed a memo and used quick drying icing instead of well, not. so mine didn't exactly web, they pretty much crumbled, but they were good.
we'll just pretend a bug got into each web and the spider violently wrapped it up, or something like that. it's halloween, scary and gross is good. the boys said who cares what it looks like, as long as it tastes good (gotta love that!) :)
i'm pretty sure you can tell which are which! :)

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week 11 of homeschooling

we covered a few extra chapters in the prairie primer each day so we could have thursday and friday off, because the grands are coming and it's halloween and daddy's birthday and all three adoptions days! that's too much excitement to think about school. :)

mon, oct 26:
· spelling and math timed tests
· i don't know, allen does the morning shift. i'll have to ask.
· from the prairie primer: reading, research, science, bible, living, literature, vocabulary, character

tues, oct 27:
· i chose this morning, during math timed tests, to learn guitar. loudly. it wasn't pretty, and they weren't happy, but i hope they learned about consideration! don't judge, they needed a practical lesson (badly) and i'm out of ideas! and no, they didn't get many of the problems finished!
in the "what did you learn from this" portion of the lesson, josh guessed you're getting even with us for waking you up? (sigh) but lizzy said (with a light bulb over her head) ahh, i see where you're going with this... and she got it! we'll see if it sticks i guess.
· other stuff, i'll ask allen.
· from the prairie primer: reading, living, art, literature, language, bible, writing, science, crafts
· lizzy came in from the field with a corn cob and made a doll, art class, there you go. and yes, her sweatshirt was on backwards, apparently because they were playing blind tag. alrightythen.

wed, oct 28:
· math timed tests
· other stuff, yes, i'll ask allen. sorry to those following along at home!
· from the prairie primer: reading, language, writing, art, bible, science, history, sequencing, manners, vocabulary, character
· we played uncle john and ring around the rosie from the book
· we had a bible lesson about children obeying their parents, and a great theological debate. i love and they don't, prov 15:5. don't be a fool and disobey your parents. be smart. accept correction. (they're memorizing that one!).
but we had differing viewpoints on prov 22:15. all children are foolish, but firm correction will make them change. now i offered (and may or may not have made up completely) that in the original language, it was "butt firm correction" as a phrase, not just the word but, then the phrase "firm correction". so i suggested that it was my duty to give them "butt firm correction", which of course sounds like something hard, like a paddle, and that i would be happy to help them change by doing what the bible says. now they seemed to think that in the original language but was just but, and the phrase "firm correction" meant "give children candy". we didn't come to an agreement on that verse exactly, and they didn't get any candy, but they didn't get any "butt firm correction" either, at least not today. :)
· tonight was awana also, where i'm sure they got some much more sound bible teaching :)

thurs, oct 29:
· math timed tests
· baseball and football with allen for gym
· trick or treat was tonight, so who could concentrate on school?! they had fun, despite an interesting evening. while trick or treating, we found a lost child and ended up waiting a long time (missing so many houses with candy). it ended well, but the amazing part: the kids were so good and understanding! i apologized for so much time & candy lost, and matt said babies are more important than candy! i was so proud!
of course we stayed a bit longer and let them load up! :) josh was miserable in his mask, hot, itchy, couldn't breathe, sweaty. but he had to wear it, because it scared him so bad when he was three. :)

fri, oct 30:
the grand are here! the grands are here! we had a fun day catching up with them, and eating candy, candy, and more candy!

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week 10 of homeschooling

(does it always feel like each week has flown by? yeesh!)
monday, oct 19:
· math and spelling tests
· i'm moving into a new computer, which is quite the ordeal around here. so i moved computer files and programs all day, not sure what else the kids did. probably worksheets in some subject. :)
· oh, i do remember (cause i just saw the pics) allen was teaching them about printing and colors (probably from an i wonder why book?) and i showed them a great visual aid from my paper knowledge class at mead research. (waving at rhodamae, she'd be proud!)

tuesday, oct 20:
· math timed tests
· for cooking class (and sequential direction following) we made cowboy cookies (yum!)
· from the prairie primer: reading, science, health, geography, bible, art
· we finally hung up our own homemade school photos in the living room, so now we're officially up to date. now if they'd just stop growing...

wednesday, oct 21:
· math timed tests
· online math games
· story with spelling words
· hm, maybe art or music. from the looks of these guitars, they need more strings and gentler players!
· the (public) school was canceled for some reason, so lizzy went to play at the neighbors. josh read a book and matt whined about being bored (until i offered him work, then he played).
· it was the fall harvest party at awana, and they came home singing that you can't get to heaven in a pepsi can because God's a coca cola fan... (yeah dunno, but they had fun!)

thursday, oct 22:
· math timed tests
· appt day for lizzy and me, so she did math worksheets on the drive (and yeah, we did a little shopping, i mean life skills).
· math and reading worksheets for the boys
· from the prairie primer: reading, literature, bible, science, nutrition, living
· gym class was making designs with a rope all over the driveway then walking and balancing on it. also some major jumping rope, even double dutch (shew! i can still do it, barely!) daddy helped out too, it was fun! little matt jumped 42 times in a row! i know!

friday, oct 23:
ummmmm, yeah, we skipped school today. but we did watch the first 4 episodes of little house on the prairie and the kids loved it! i think it'll help them identify with the books even more. so that really isn't skipping afterall. :)

last soccer games

soccer tournaments were this weekend. saturday was josh's last game, and lizzy's team made it to sunday. fun season! allen enjoyed coaching soccer for the first time. it was interesting with three kids on three teams, but we managed! we're looking forward to a little time off now though. here are the last pics. more than the photos themselves, i love the fall colors in the photos!

week 9 of homeschooling

it's already the 9th week, so if we did grades, it would be crunch time! since we don't though, i think i'll give them all straight Q's. congrats kids! :)

monday, oct 12: (happy columbus day!)
· math and spelling tests
· math and grammar worksheets
· watched a cartoon about christopher columbus (man i love youtube!)
· from the prairie primer: reading, science, history, writing, reasoning, bible, vocabulary
· jack's getting in on the schooling too, but he's failing. bad. he is one stubborn dog!
· lizzy needs help getting word problems, they scare her. or other directions, she glazes over. so we're taking the math out of it and will be giving her directions and problems in paragraphs to help her get the concept, minus the fear. today she's following directions to make lunch. it includes the steps (and some unnecessary info) and we'll do easy tasks like brushing teeth, watching tv, playing games, etc. til she processes the idea of following directions. one day, hopefully, she won't fear the word problem.
· · · update: hmm, it might take a while. she followed the directions, but forgot the common sense part (like putting the bread/mayo away). boy it's hard to teach logic!

tuesday, oct 13:
· math timed tests
· book reports
· reading worksheets
· science and reading books
· we studied the seasons and holidays of fall, okay, we decorated the house, but i mentioned those things!
· from the prairie primer: reading, history, writing, nutrition, bible, literature

we finished the second book! now we're starting on the banks of plum creek, which promises we'll study binomial nomenclature (which should also be on a spelling test), weather, plagues... should be fun!

oh, and josh just asked me to post that he got 90 out of 90 division problems correct in 5 minutes and he earned an hour of playstation. so now you know.

wednesday, oct 14:
· math timed tests
· spelling words in abc order
· grammar, reading, math worksheets
· from the prairie primer: reading, science, health, geography, art, history, bible
· first aid class? to provide hands-on learning, josh kindly (yes accidentally) fell on a bench and cut his head, so we cleaned, disinfected, and bandaged. class over, for today anyway, i'm sure we'll have more.
· they played a fun matching/sequencing game - matching socks and folding laundry. i love that game (when i don't have to play!)


thursday, oct 15:
appointment day for lizzy and me, so we went to dayton, out for lunch, shopped, etc.
the poor boys worked hard with allen apparently!
· math timed tests
· math, reading, grammar worksheets
· online math games
· wrestling for gym class (figures)

friday, oct 16:
· math and spelling tests
· field trip to the fire dept! our local homeschool group organized this and it was so fun. each of the kids got to get in the firetruck and check it out. i really wanted to climb in too, but i resisted to save the kids embarrassment. of course i wish they would have resisted saying yes when firefighter andy asked if any of them played with matches! but they had a great time and hopefully learned a bit. they loved when firefighter andy came down the fire pole still holding his spiderman pillow. :)
so a great field trip, though hopefully we won't see any firetrucks here, well again anyway. once was enough. and no we weren't playing with matches...
· they watched a planet earth about caves and wrote reports
· we made laura ingalls butter cookies. yeah, the kids did the sprinkle work. they weren't bad, but i think laura would like our sweeter chocolate chip cookies better! :)
· and for family movie night, we watched akeelah and the bee, which totally counts since it was about a spelling bee! :)

family visit

today we had a memorial for allen's mom and got to spend time as she would have liked, eating a yummy feast with family gathered around her. i have to say i much preferred that than the typical somber funeral home. death is certainly sad, but we're happy for barb (knowing she's now in perfect health) and also for the family we have, so it was so nice to celebrate that.
allen also showed the kids where he grew up. of course he had to tell about all the crazy things he did, and of course they asked if they could do them too! no kids, the boy *broke his head*, i just can't let you do it all! i'm pretty easy going, nerves of steel, but between allen and the kids... shew!
i also made a scrapbook page with old pics of barb using erica belton's left and right sides of an antique album. we took a photo with most of his immediate family and they're not smiling scrapbookers, we'll have to work on that! :)

week 8 of homeschooling

this week will be weird different flexible. we lost allen's mother on sunday after a long fight with copd and cancer, but we're glad she's no longer suffering and is in perfect health in heaven! allen and i spent monday in peebles making arrangements and spending time with family, which was hard, but nice too. so the kids went to friends' houses while we went south. then we brought home a dog, so there will be craziness here.

monday, oct 5
· math and grammar worksheets
· field trip to babysitters :)

tuesday, oct 6
· math and spelling tests
· math worksheets
· all-day dog training
(they need to get to know each other okay?)

wednesday, oct 7
· math timed tests and worksheets
· reading worksheets
· science books, read & answer questions
· lots of reading

thursday, oct 8
· math timed tests and worksheets
· reading worksheets
· science books, read & answer questions
· more reading

friday, oct 9
· math and spelling tests
· book reports
· even more reading
· we had a battle of the wills/legs. allen challenged the kids to see who could do a wall sit (his current favorite form of encouragement) the longest. matt bowed out at 5 minutes (impressive!), then josh just outlasted lizzy at 19 minutes 15 seconds! it's amazing how strong they become for an hour of playstation, but also shows how competitive they are with each other. having two kids the same age is interesting to say the least.
· easy day, well easy week, just because we can. we'll get back to the curriculum next week, probably.

meet the newest lundy

meet the newest member of our family, jack! he's a designer hybrid dog, we're just not sure of which breeds! (yes, that means a mutt). :) when we saw him at allen's sister's, he was so cute and affectionate that when she asked if we wanted to take him home, we thought why not?! then we thought of lots of reasons why not. :) since we lost sydney, we've wanted a dog, but not the responsibility of a dog. but then we thought about the kids and how they'll have a dog to grow up with now and of course they can share the responsibility. he's past the puppy stage but young enough to keep up with them, so jack became a lundy! and the lundy children are SO thrilled. they won't stop thanking us or telling us how great he is or making up songs about the most awesome dog. so yeah, they're happy!

week 7 of homeschooling

monday, sept 28:
· math timed tests
· spelling tests
· all day field trip to the air force museum for homeschool day! they had classes, demo stations, and activities all day long and the kids had a blast. pics below!

tuesday, sept 29:
· math timed tests
· math and reading worksheets
· they read an i wonder why science book
· from the prairie primer: reading, science, bible, history, writing
· josh had a soccer game for gym

wednesday, sept 30:
· math timed tests
· i'll have to ask allen what else, i really didn't pay attention!
· we took two loads of stuff to a friend's house for a yard sale, so pricing, math, life skills, don't be a pack rat class? who cares, it's gone! :)
· lizzy and matt had soccer games/gym. i loved the pics of matt. sometimes you just have to stop and pull the grass, and yes, the sun was in his eyes. :)


thursday, oct 1:
· math timed tests
· appointment day in dayton for lizzy and me, while the boys cleaned the kid room. gotta say us girls liked that!
· between our appointments and a visitor here today, we skipped school again.
· to make up for that, the kids watched a movie about the earth tonight (with pizza & popcorn). but they're doing projects on different animals from the movie.
· here are the i wonder why books we found in our library that we're having the kids read. quality science class in a book! and history, astronomy, biology...

friday, oct 2:
it's our day off, but since we took yesterday off, we did a little today.
· math and spelling tests
· they finished their projects and reports from last night's movie about polar bears (lizzy), elephants (matt), and whales (josh). very creative!
· from the prairie primer: reading, science, social studies, history, sign language, bible, living
· we learned more about indians, so for fun i told them to invent a game that indians might have played in 1870. the boys decided that indian boys would like to play a game where you have a stick and attack each other to try to get the stick. i have a feeling indian boys were just as annoying rotten active as ours.
· random note: it's cool not to have to worry about the no guns in schools rule as sometimes stormtroopers appear out of nowhere.

week 6 of homeschooling

it's hard to believe we're on week 6! oops, said that last week.
i'm compressing this week to one post. we'll see if i like it or not later.

monday, sept 21:
· math timed tests
· math worksheets
· spelling tests
· from the prairie primer: reading, health, science, character, bible, living, vocabulary, social studies
· lizzy had soccer for gym

tuesday, sept 22:
· math timed tests
· math worksheets
· wrote spelling words
· from the prairie primer: reading, science, health, living, bible, vocabulary
· for music class the Children of God band played (loudly) downstairs
· art class was making indian costumes (very creative duds for ken & barbie)
· matt had soccer for gym (where he showed the proper technique of kicking until they tell you to stop!)

wednesday, sept 23:
· math timed tests
· josh and lizzy wrote stories with their spelling words
· matt did reading worksheets
· from the prairie primer: reading, bible, social studies, literature, health
· for science they made an aquifer. yep, they dug a well in a bowl. they drink water from our well daily too, that should count.
· for art, they made indian necklaces
· the prairie primer said to cook an indian meal for dinner. we had lasagna. (do you think the indians had lasagna?? we're fresh out of stewed rabbit!) :)
· allen took them on a field trip to the woods (mind you that's miles of walking from here with no sidewalks or paths!) to learn about indian food. they ate walnuts and brought home lots of buckeyes!
· wednesday night is awana so bible, scripture memorization, team-oriented games, & fun!

thursday, sept 24:
· math timed tests
· math and grammar worksheets
· josh and lizzy read books. matt played a reading game online.
· from the prairie primer: reading, bible, science, history, character
· gym class was soccer in the rain, same time, different places.


friday, sept 25:
· math timed tests and spelling tests
· it's friday, so play, play, play, and more play!
at lunch i heard the kids saying their mac & cheese looked like an aquifer (see wed). matt said would that be aquacheese? josh said no, aqua means water, so it would be cheesifer. gotta love real life application! :)
allen's on his way to kayak the gauley river (gulp!) in west virginia, so we'll miss him, but look for some grand adventures ourselves!