Well it's been busy that is for sure

Busy, busy, busy.

With baseball practice and games 3x per week there isn't much time for anything else. Plus, I have been sewing and sewing to try to finish up the tooth fairy pillows. I also baked for a bake/craft sale (there was a sub-wide garage sale here this week).  I am spent.

Problem is we didn't do so swell and I figured we probably wouldn't since it truly was not the right venue.  I thought tho-why not try?  I did make back what I spent in ingredients, but still have quite a bit sitting here.  It is just so hard to guess what you'll need. I did sell 2 pillows and that made me happy!  I guess the baseball team will be blessed with the cookies and brownies, as I decided to not even try today (Friday) cuz the weather is ugly and the traffic in the sub is minimal at best.  In years past, the sub was so crowded with folks out 'sale-ing' (yes that is not a word but didn't want to type 'sailing' cuz that implies being in a boat-this is what the FL snowbirds call it-'sale' plus 'ing'...lol)...anyhoo, where was I?  Oh yeah, years past it was so crowded that the school bus drivers complained they couldn't get down the streets to drop off their charges...well-not so much in the last couple years.  I took the gamble tho to break even plus a wee bit over.  I did manage to meet a new pal who has a child with special needs and I have a feeling (Hi Sydney) that she'll be a total blessing once we get our boy home.  So all is good.

I am going to continue to sell the homeschool books and I see a sorta-local place is having a big used book sale in July, so I guess I will do that too.  I am also going to try making a couple of those I-Spy bags-not sure how that will go but again-I can try.  So maybe the good Lord will give me an "A" for effort, cuz that is how I am grading myself-LOL.  I am trying people, I truly am.  I know that because we don't have the specific child chosen yet, that folks are probably not as apt to shop my wares and such. Maybe once we get to that point-all this work will pay off down the road when I am super busy trying to wade thru all the documents we'll need to get completed to finalize the adoption.

So anyway-that is what I have been doing.  Haven't had much time to write posts...and I know I keep promising about the HOD Creation to Christ one-and do so hope I can get that penned soon.  But for now-thought I would share some pics that showcase my life...and the ones so near and dear to me who bless me....

Our boy-(thankfully the team has an awesome photographer that gets these shots!), cannot wait to scrap this stuff!

*since I don't know the third baseman and do not

have his parent's consent-I blurred his face/uniform name

to protect his privacy

We are very excited to see the wild Mallard, Gracie (and her counterpart George) have decided to nest at our place again this year.  She chose the backside of the house (better in the evening cuz it is shaded, prior she would bake in the front and I was sprinkling her with water to keep her cool)...by the sandbox (good thing the Boy isn't using it this year) but it is a tad more exposed.  Last year, the 5 ducklings hatched, grew a bit and then she panicked [they simply were not ready to swim yet] and moved them from the nest too soon-a feral cat was stalking them. Sadly, they all became bad cat's meal for that day.  I was so upset!!! So I dunno-maybe we'll put up a fence or something to help protect them til they are bigger and harder to eat?  Not sure.  We were concerned she abandoned this nest as she left it for almost 2 days!  I did go count and found 4 eggs and yes, I took a wood chip and rotated them like she is suppose to do..she didn't seem to notice.  Maybe they'll hatch, maybe not.  I was about to call Protective Duck Services on her but I see she came to her senses and this is what I found this morning....

talk about a risky spot! But she blends in nicely.

This was last year's location-much more coverage...

And here is the set up from the sale (actually the first area-we moved it to a busier area but it lacked the shade we needed...oh wellers)...and the wind!!! Goodness-in our second location I finally gave up and put the sign on the ground-which meant no once could really read it....:/

And here are the tooth fairy pillows 

that are available,

at $10 each plus shipping

Supplementing Heart of Dakota-Creation to Christ Poetry unit and Human Body unit

If you are a follower or if you just pop by to read up on the Heart of Dakota [HOD] program we have been using this year, you are probably familiar with my feelings on it by now, but I wanted to highlight a couple things we have done that has taken outside the box.

I found we (personally-as this may not be for every family so keep that in mind) needed to do something different regarding one recommend book for science; and that one area definitely needed a more in-depth investigation-the poet Robert Frost.


I have the Considering God's Creation [CGC] curricula (which I have been plucking units from for about a year and 1/2 now) that has a section on the body. After we read the book Exploring the History of Medicine (very good book!) we simply have moved into this study.  I ditched the An Illustrated Adventure in Human Anatomy book that was scheduled (I had received it via the library inter-loan prior to the Exploring History one...and it needed to be returned before we came to this section-I didn't feel it was worth trying to re-hold/check out again as I have enough human body books on our shelf that are very similar to this one) and that is why I chose not to follow that part. Plus, being we are lapbooking/notebooking sorta folk-the CGC fit the bill perfectly. So we have been working our way through this unit and are just about done.  I am very satisfied with it and find it is just the right amount of info/work for our boy.  Again-this stresses the need for the instructor to look at what does and does not fit the student or situation when using an all-encompassing type of guide such as HOD.  Just because it is listed and recommended does not mean it must be used.  Esp. when you are at the mercy of library loan books, and other circumstances that require tweaking. [image from eagleswingsed.com]

As for the lack of any biographical data/study on the poet Robert Frost...well here is where I was sadly disappointed with this section.  It is very Charlotte Masony to study the person and not just their work.  So being that I am versed in scrounging up data-I found a few things to offer the boy as a backdrop into who this dude was. The one I got via the library is older-so not everyone will be able to find it.  But alas-my silly self forgot to write the title down, so once I get a moment I will see if I can figure that out. But I have to say it was a very nicely written book that hits all the key points a book should when following the CM method for choosing books-it was twaddle free. :)  Anyhoo-I saw this one via Amazon but was not able to get a hold of it...so not sure how great it is but looks to be written for children and looks lovely.  If I do get my hands on it-I will come back and update my thoughts on it.

Papa Is a Poet: A Story About Robert Frost by Natalie Bober

image from Amazon.com

I also downloaded these free notebooking pages from 

The Notebooking Fairy

to give him some opportunities to jot down 

some essential data and such.

image from notebookingfairy.com

I have also pulled those noted human body books from the shelf and we refer to them when needed. Again-I am using what I have to wrap up this unit and it is all good.  Just not what was originally outlined in the study.

And now for one of my favorite projects the Boy has done so far...and yes, it is a fav because he put some personality into it.  Our floating-head skeleton boy with a Barber of Seville curly mustache and a rocker dude goatee. [I say-if you do this study-dry place the pieces prior to the child gluing unlike us. Otherwise, you too will end up with a lovely floating, non-connected skull]

And that my blogger peeps is how we tweaked our HOD study to fit us and our current needs.  

Final thoughts on this year's schooling and more

I am in the process of writing it but my head is not liking this front that is moving in and is causing me to have one nasty headache.  So I had to stop and will do my best to finish it soon.

We're also into the beginnings of my son's baseball season.  It is our first with the Little League and due to a very rainy April, the team wasn't able to get much practice in before they started their games this week.  Let's just say-it reminds us of the Bad News Bears and then some-it is fun to watch. It is the experience not the winning that counts.  The only thing that is no fun, well that is the 3x of running a week and this week we get an extra day added b/cuz of picture day on Sunday. Yippeee. Not.  So my weeks are sorta consumed of late. :/

So once I get a free, non-headachy moment in the next few days-I will get that post on HOD and our year done soon.

til then......

Tooth Fairy Pillows -so far- for our fund raising efforts

Here are the ones I have done-I will take orders after I have the next batch complete, but wanted to share these with you.  They'll be $10 each plus shipping.

Made them to hang on a door knob, 

bed post or shelf with pegs.  

They are 4 1/2" L x 5 " W

In the home stretch-winding down for this year's schooling

Well, whew.  I am finding this year has been a bit, well I dunno...boring, tedious.....lame....like pulling teeth to get things done...and so forth.  I lost my mo-educate-jo.  My student [ahem...sometimes I did too] took a mental leave of absence on more than one occasion and usually a few times per week.  Why?  I did wonder.  I pondered the year. Then I began to evaluate the possible culprits.
We did do some things different than before, and we are down to (at this time) one student (huge change) and we even dropped a few things I love to use in our schooling....like Dr. Smith would say (on Lost in Space), "OH the pain, the pain!"

image from tvparty.com

It happens to the best of us.  Some years are true gems, while others fail to leave much of an impression say for a bit of an aftertaste, and not a good one. But any one who has been jogging along this route for a time knows-this is not a sprint. This is real life in the schooling marathon .  After 18 years (I say this loosely because we were homeschooling prior to officially starting but I just didn't realize that was what we were doing), I know the ups and downs of this. Life gets messy and sometimes that is the major reason why the schooling takes a nose dive. Other times, child issues arise that must be addressed and the schooling has to go on 'basics only' alert for a time until things are resolved.  Sometimes, it is the curriculum you chose to use but your student simply doesn't like it.  And sometimes dear mother (I say mother b/cuz it is mostly the moms doing the day to day hsing)-sometimes it is us.  I know-that one is a cringer.  But fear not (I am talking mostly to myself here) because it can change for the positive.

I will do another post about my thoughts on our year and what happened soon.  We're in the home stretch but hey-I am already planning and organizing for next 'season'.  My goal is to weed out those nasty joy snatchers and boredom hosts to come up with something more lively, engaging.  I actually have already figured it out but need to pen it out in my upcoming post.  So look for that soon....

Homeschooling and Mom/Child Training material up for sale to help build our adoption funds

I have put them in a listing on a FB page I created. There are also some Stampin'Up! stamps (ones listed in the goodies for sale area)...Hagemann Adoption Fund Raiser FB Page

I am asking for a $12 min. order (you can mix/match the stuff listed) or very close to that....please PM or comment under the item to ask about availability and shipping/handling fees. I will calculate when I have your zip.

Here are a few of the things we have up for sale:  pricing/conditions are all listed on the FB page.

Ultimate Blog Party 2013!

 

Hi and welcome to my blog. Well, I actually have 6 blogs, all created to highlight different aspects of our life/education methods, but am working toward putting them into one soon. My main blog is this one-Homeschooling on a Wing and a Prayer. I post about our home education projects/adventures, but also about various other things-like couponing, being a mom and other life stuff. I am a crafter by nature (scrapbooking, various projects and sewing) and have become a big fan of Pinterest.

I have been married 25 years to my best friend, and we have four wonderful (bio) kids (OK, well 3 are adults now) and we're working toward adopting a special needs child (or two) from Eastern Europe or Asia-hopefully very soon.

That is me-us-in a nutshell (and because I know you have lots of other blogs to visit-wanted to keep it short and sweet).  I hope to come across your blog soon, as I work my way thru this year's Blog Party!

And if you have time-come back and visit!  You can also see my other blogs by clicking the links below.

Blessings-
Sheri

Our Fundraiser/Adoption Blog

My Workbox Blog

       My almost all lapbooks/notebooking (some scrapping) blog

 My Charlotte Mason activities/ideas blog

I am retired, but I have several (like a hundred or so?) 

reviews about homeschooling material

My Review blog

HOD C to C History Project: Ancient Roman Meal

As we are winding down in the study of the Romans, we were to partake in a mock "ancient" Roman meal.  We managed to find some similar foods (we avoided other kinds the kids would not touch with a 10 foot pole) and we think it came out lovely.  The only big thing we didn't do were the togas.  Just couldn't get the fam to go that far.

We had the yellow bowls with water and the blue cloths for wiping one's fingers clean between food changes. They didn't use flatware. We had cucumbers, almonds, salami, provolone cheese, grapes, mango (OK, not sure if they had that-probably not but I had one we had to use and it went well with the selection...we were progressive thinking Romans); also olive oil/ feta cheese/Italian seasoning together with hot bread to dip in it. I didn't make a suggested dessert they listed b/cuz I had just made brownies the day before...and we did not need any more sweets around here, but there is that option if you choose to do so. I wanted to get some sparkling grape juice to represent wine but I simply forgot to go down the isle when I was shopping for this stuff..ooopsies.  All in all-it was a fun activity that even dad was able to partake in with us!

This was a part of the Heart of Dakota Creation to Christ study.  But if you are going on your own or with another curriculum and are studying Rome, it is an easy and fun way to bring history alive.

I have a Couponing Tips tab at the top

This page offers some links and ideas to help you save on groceries and health/beauty stuff.  Enjoy

Have some things up for sale

I have a new page with stuff we are going to be selling-to help build our adoption funds-
Right now I have some Stampin'Up! sets available and will be adding more soonish.  I also hope to get some homeschool books and curriculum listed soon too.  Last tab in the pages section above.

Rose Dissection

So my precious husband gave me a lovely red rose for Valentine's Day.  But alas, it is now crumbling and so-being the clever homeschooler I try to aspire to be (but fail to be actually, a lot of the time), we are going to dissect it today.  Yes-my rose will have served two purposes. One as a token of love and affection-the other as a great botany specimen.  So the table has been set with the goodies needed to disassemble it so the boy can see the parts of the plant we have been learning about for the last several weeks.  Since it is winter here, finding plant life to investigate has been a challenge. Thanks to Valentine's Day-we're going to have a real live, up close and personal view of a flower and its seed boxes, stamen, pistols, dust bags, etc.
Of course, the boy will be drawing what he finds in his plant book we have created for this study.

Using the ebook: Plant Life in Field and Garden by Arabella Buckley (thru the Yesterday's Classics collection which I reviewed a few years back-you can read about that program here), we have discovered a lot of interesting facts and along with the study notes provided in the Heart of Dakota program for the Creation to Christ program, this is shaping up to be a fun study.

Hey, if you are interested in the Yesterday's Classics, they have a sale going on until February 28, 2013 at half off! That is an awesome price for all those books!  I use it all the time-and I don't have an eReader, but just have uploaded the free Kindle PC app to my computer. You can find out more info by visiting this link! Hurry as it is only good til the 28th (and no-I did not receive any comp for highlighting this sale, I just want to pass a good deal along to my fellow homeschoolers).

Ancient Greece and Archimedes study continued

As previously noted, we are moving through the Heart of Dakota study: Creation to Christ. We're currently up to our laurel leaves in ancient Greece.  Here are some notes and projects on what we have done these past few weeks. I put the name of the study in ( ) for those who are new to the abbreviations.

Reading:

images from Amazon.com

With HOD (Heart of Dakota) we have been able to substitute a few of the suggested books under the historical reading area.  I came across the Magic Tree House books (again-I sorta forgot about them but my older kids liked them way back when) and found they have one devoted to the Olympics/ancient Greece. I reserved it through our local library and also found they created an additional book to go along with it to give more info on Ancient Greece! Score. So These two books served as our mystery book selection.  If you decide to use these two just look for them via your library or maybe you already have them on your shelves. It was not a difficult read or challenging to say the least, but the additional info book served to rehash what he was learning throughout the study itself.  [They are: Magic Tree House #16: Hour of the Olympics by Mary Pope Osborne and Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #10: Ancient Greece and the Olympics]

Art/Projects:

Sorry it is blurry. I found this idea via a MOH (Mystery of History post...sorry not sure where it is tho...). Basically the student colors with yellow crayon a wide area all over the paper. Then colors over it with black. This is the tricky part-if your paper is not higher grade, when you etch, it will rip or not work right. So anyway-yellow then black over. Press very hard to get a nice thick coat of black. Then etch out a vase shape, and then design.  We tried many things and found-get this...the Pampered Chef scraper tool to work the best. I know-go figure.  If you don't have one, try a sculpting tool used for clay projects or Play-Doh (seriously, check your kids stash) or an edge of something sharp but not dangerous.  They will get that black shavings everywhere so I had the boy do it over a spread out sheet or two of newspaper.  Messy.

He decided on an octopus and waves for his. We had a book open with various pics showing different art/vases found from that era.  The people [very popular theme] would have been too complicated so the four legged [must have been in an accident or something and lost a few limbs] octopus made the cut (or in this case 'etch'). Be careful about what books you use.  I keep thinking of the movie The Birdcage.  I silently chucked when thinking back on that moment in the movie when the dude's dad and his mate had the table set with their dishes that were Greek inspired (cough...dudes playing 'leapfrog' not).  Yah. Go thru the material first unless you want to explain how the Greeks were very, very free with some things.  I found these books to be safe enough [some may want to cover a few images if they seem a bit too racy]...and again-got them via the library:

The Nature Company Discoveries Library:  Ancient Greece  

(this is a Time Life book and shows no official author)

Uncovering History: Everyday Life in Ancient Greece 

by Cath Senker

(images from Amazon.com)

Science:

We did an experiment found in the Science Projects Ideas in the House by Robert Gardener.  This is noted as a part of the BFB HOS (Beautiful Feet Books History of Science)  program that I am piggy backing with HOD.  I didn't think it would work but it did. 

                                     

Games:

I spotted this beauty on Ellen McHenry's site some time ago, then had to wait til we were into the Greece study.  Just look under the free downloads icon, then Geography/Maps.  You can find some ancient China, Rome and Japan stuff there too. This does take a lot to print so be sure your ink and paper levels are good to go.  This is fun once you get the hang of it.  Dad, the boy and I managed our way thru it by mostly guessing, but learned along the way. And he was getting (well us too) some geography lessons in there too. Score again. 

And there you go.  Some more ideas on studying Ancient Greece.