El Dorado Lake 2010

We spent this past weekend camping at El Dorado Lake. We went specifically for the OK Kids Day on Saturday.

We left Friday afternoon around 3. Bri's dad came with us in his motor home. The weather was absolutely beautiful! We found a great spot near the water and close to the shower house.





Bri got in a short kayak time on the water after getting us all set up. Turns out that was his only time on the water so I'm glad he got to go then.

That evening some friends arrived and camped next to us. Our boys and theirs had a great time chopping wood for our fire with their hatchets.
The wind picked up during the night and we awoke to a chilly morning. Rachelle graciously shared hot chocolate with the kids.

Israel, Jacob and Sam


Nathan


Luke


Caleb


After breakfast we headed over to OK Kids. It stands for Outdoor Kansas Kids. It is a free event held at various lakes throughout the year. The point being to introduce kids to outdoor activities and various demonstrations. This was our fourth year. The boys absolutely love it! It was more special this year to get to introduce their friends and take them around to the different activities.

Bri helping Nathan at archery


Rescue demonstration


Caleb in the petting zoo


Nathan won a tackle box in the drawing after lunch!


Our great friends, The Vallejo's came for the afternoon!
3 of their girls painting bird feeders.


After OK Kids, we went back to camp.
Dinner that night was Chili and corn bread.




After dinner Grandpa cooked S'mores with the boys.


That night the boys slept in the motor home with Grandpa.


Bri and I waiting to watch a video before bed.


We had a wonderful time camping and visiting with friends!

Leat

Our Boys

Since I am terrible about posting regularly, I thought I would just post some pics of the boys to see when I come to read my friends blogs. hehe

Gone Home

My Mother-in-law, Dianne Brooks, went home to Jesus early this morning. she had been in hospice for several weeks.

She was a great mom and grandmother. How she loved her 10 grandchildren with a passion!

She was also one of the greatest prayer warriors. Whenever anyone in the family was sick or going through a difficult time, Brian would say, "call mom so she can pray".

We all miss her terribly but are thankful that she is finally home.

30 Days Day11

This program is going a lot slower for me because I average only 2-4 times a week with it. I've had it for well over a month. Oh well, I'll get there sooner or later.

My curiosity got the better of me today and I did level 3! It went pretty good. I admit I did the modified on a lot of it. The sumo squats just about did me in! Believe it or not I think the walking push ups are easier than regular.

It feels good to get back into it. I usually skip the weekends and that is also when I eat worse than during the week, sweets wise. All things in moderation right?

I think I will start rotating the levels just to keep it interesting. I like level 2 but for some reason it messes up my right knee. No use getting in shape if I end up screwing my knee up.

Hope you have a great start to the week!

Leat

30 Days Day 10

I did the video 3 days last week. I had started level 2. Today I got back with it and continued with level 2. It seemed to go a bit smoother. Hopefully my right knee will not swell this week. I started doing the knee circles from level 1 before starting.

So that's where I'm at. No difference in my clothes yet, but I do have more energy the days I exercise and fell stronger all around.

Have a great day!

Leat

New School Year

This past week we started our new school year. We got in 3 out of 5 days of actual bookwork. It went better than I thought actually. We still have some tweeking to do with the schedule, but that's to be expected right?

I love reading about what other home schoolers use for curriculum, so thought I would share what we are using this year.

A lot of our books we just keep and pass down to the next boy as needed. Mostly readers and Science and History for the early grades. This past May I went to a local home school used book sale and picked up quite a bit for a huge savings over ordering on line. We got two books used from Amazon and Luke's from Craigslist.

So here is our curriculum for this year.


Luke is in 7th grade this year. He is using Alpha Omega Switched On Schoolhouse for all of his subjects. He really loves working at the computer and is thriving on this format.


Jacob is in 5th grade this year. His readers are Of America Vol.1,Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book 5,Jed Smith Trailblazer of the West and Pinocchio's Quest. Math is Saxon again. The format really works with him. Bible is the same as Caleb; listening to daily reading and copy work from Psalm 119. Spelling is Building Spelling Skills Book 5, as well as extra games and practice from a great website I recently learned about called Spelling City .com. You just plug in the words and then the student can do different activities to help learn them. Science is from Abeka Investigating God's World.English is from Bob Jones. History is Exploring American History from Christian Liberty Press. Geography is called Maps Globes Graphs


Caleb is in 2nd grade this year. His readers are Beautiful Stories for Children,and the Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book 2. For Bible each morning I read the chapter of the day in Proverbs and Acts. Then he and Jacob each have a notebook and copy 1 verse each day from Psalms 119. There are 172 verses in that chapter so by the end of the school year they will have written the whole chapter. Science is from Christian Liberty, as is History. Spelling came from the used book sale and looks to be a great book. English, also from the sale is from Bob Jones. He will be learning about a fictional missionary family in Grenada as he learns writing and grammar. Math is from Modern Curriculm Press.


Nathan is doing the Rod and Staff Preschool work books just like his brothers did. I also picked up an extra workbook at the Dollar Tree. He also does Starfall on the computer, various activities and puzzles, and we will be going through the classic Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.


For read alouds, we get different biographies from the library and have started reading the Bobbsey Twins series.

Happy Schooling!

Leat

30 Days Day 7

I went ahead and went to level 2 today. I really liked it! It was good to have new moves to do. Also it was great to not have push ups! There is more moves in the push up position, but it is doing leg work and not push ups. Clear as mud?

I also noticed my energy was up all day. It stood out more because I didn't exercise last week and felt sluggish and cranky most of the time. So that is just more motivation to stick to it and get it done in the early morning and reap the benefits all day long!

Leat