What is your favorite Christmas treat?

My favortie Christmas treat is hot chocolet with wip topping.
It is SO good. I even bought my own wip topping to make it.

Conference Jeopardy

We have been trying to follow the counsel of the prophets and study the General Conference talks from the most recent conference in Family Home Evening. We have been taking turns giving reports on various conference talks, and this week we played round 1 of Conference Jeopardy to encourage everyone to spend some more time studying conference to be more prepared for Double Jeopordy. Conference Jeopardy is created every 6 months by Linda Harper and she does an amazing job of creating the questions and sharing them, usually within 24 hours.

I encouraged the kids to spend part of their "Scripture Reading Time" listening to, reading, or watching the general conference talks on LDS.org on in the Ensign, Friend or New Era. The New Era has a special online General Conference Section.

In the past we have also used Rochelle Keogh's Apostle Presentation to prepare for conference.

And of course, I can't forget our favorite way to remember the apostles, the Apostle Song Video by the Sons of Ammon.

Newest Version


Version 2



Version 1








Quick Link to Conference

LDS.org General Conference Page - watch, read, listen, download, or print

Isaac's Alphabet Soup

I'm thankful for:
Zebra's
Yummy Food
X-ylophones
Water
Vaults
Uncle James
Tyler
Stars
Recitation
Quinn
Pizza
Over and other prepositions
Numbers
MaryAnn
Love
Kevin
Isaac
Jack-o-lanterns
Heaven
Grandparents
Funny Faces
Everything
Dogs
Computers
Babies
Aunt Nancy


We had a great family home evening lesson tonight planned by Isaac. He called it alphabet soup, we all took turns picking an alphabet letter (in order) and saying what we were thankful for, and then repeating what everyone else was thankful for. This was a lot of fun, and we thought of many things that we were thankful for that didn't make the final cut, but that did get said if we couldn't remember the "official version!"

When I Hear the Prophet's Voice

Check out this great music video "When I hear the Prophet's Voice" on the Friend Website.

General Conference is this weekend. Are you ready to Hear the Prophet's Voice?

Math Maniac's

I have several Math Maniac's at my house. Last March I discovered World Math Day and my kids had a blast competing in mini math competitions with other students from around the world. See my World Math Day Post. I got an email this week saying that there was a West Coast Math Mania competition this week, so I signed them up, and boy where the kids excited! We were all impressed with the other features of the site that weren't available on World Math Day. They have a great interface to teach the kids math skills, to let them practice and to test them, on top of the fun of competition. Math may be all the schooling that we get done for these two days of competition, but I love hearing my kids say, "Mom, can I do more math!"

Check it out for yourself here - VMATHLIVE!

A New School Year - and She's already ahead

Our new school year is beginning this week, and I'm still not all the way organized, and we are still waiting for curriculum. Rebecca, however, couldn't wait to get started, so she as already completed almost everything for the first week. She would have everything completed, but it hasn't arrived in the mail yet. I guess that is what happens when your a raising a scholar. I feel like I'm behind most of the time to begin with, now compared to Rebecca's I'll really feel like I'm behind, but at least she keeps me on my toes.

Our curriculum this year is called American Culture from Winterpromise. They have great websites listed in the study guide, and as usual I will be posting some of them here as an easy access point for our family, please feel free to come along and enjoy the ride as we learn about American History from the Civil War until today.

The Underground Railroad - by National Geographic

Tour Slave Quarters and more - by PBS

The South Secedes and War Begins - by HowStuffWorks


Here We GO!

Bridget Riley Op Artist

This page talks a lot about Bridget Riley and shows some of her paintings.

This page shows awesome paintings by Bridget Riley.

This page has really cool paintings by Bridget Riley.

By Emily Georgeson

Weeping Willow

The first casualty of our remodeling project was the crabapple tree in the front yard. It wasn’t until the week before it had to come down that I realized how nice it was to have shade in the front yard.

Last fall we spent a learned a lot about trees for science. We had a lot of fun identifying trees in our neighborhood. I really learned to love trees and have been really wanting to get a new tree in our front yard. It has been over 2 years since we started our remodeling project and we have had to spend a lot of time finishing up our landscaping. We now have a sprinkler system and grass in the front yard, not very good grass, but grass none the less. The next step was to get a new tree.

When Grandpa Mackley died in April my Mom’s school offered to either send flowers to the funeral, or give her a gift certificate so she could plant something in his honor. My Mom said she wanted to plant a tree at our house, where Grandma could see it, and when we asked Grandma Mackley what kind of a tree she would like she chose a weeping willow. She said Grandpa would have liked a weeping willow. The kids and I were very excited, we also like weeping willows.

My Dad arranged for the tree to be delivered and planted for us. I’m so glad, because I wouldn’t have known the best way to plant a tree.

I’m looking forward to comparing the pictures of the tree and kids now to ones that we will take in the future.

Sewing is Sew Sew FUN!

A few months ago I received an email announcing that Karalee was offering sewing classes this summer and I signed my daughters up right away. I knew that Rebecca would be interested because her “TALENT” at the Stake Talent show the last 2 years has involved sewing.

Rebecca made and nighttime ensemble for her American Girl doll Sariah. The ensemble includes PJ’s, a blanket, an mattress, and a pillow. Also pictured is Emily’s doll, Emily.

Rebecca models the dress that she made for the talent show in 2009. She received many compliments and wistful comments that they wished more girls learned how to sew today.

Emily was excited to take a sewing class also. Being the jealous Mom that I am I decided to ask if I could participate in the class also. I explained that I already knew how to sew but would like to get some help on zippers and hems. I was excited to be invited to join my girls in taking their sewing class. I’m sew glad that I did too.

Rebecca, Emily and I showed up for class the first day loaded down with 3 sewing machines, patterns, fabric, and iron and lots of enthusiasm. I got some great tips on how to put a zipper in and even got to practice on some scrap fabric Karalee told us that most of the work of the sewing project is in the cutting out, but that most of the problems can be eliminated if you make sure you cut your pattern out accurately. I am humbled to say that learned a lot about the importance of not trying to take “shortcuts” in my cutting that often have resulted in problems later on. After two hours of listening to Karalee explain to us how to rip fabric to make sure it is straight, how important it is to cut the pattern accurately, and the necessity of ironing as you go along ( although, we didn’t iron our pattern pieces) both girls had their skirts cut out.

Our second day of class we got down to the business of sewing. The girls got to practice going straight, doing zig zags, finishing edges, and finally they got to sew the side seams in their skirts. I was glad that there was just the three of us in the class because we got a lot of individual attention, and I knew enough to be able to help out my girls part of the time.

As we were sewing we also discussed our family tree and determined that we were both related to Wilford Woodruff through his wife Sarah Brown. I also was able to begin to explain why I wanted to be part of the sewing class. I explained it as being part of our HOPE CHEST JOURNEY. The Hope Chest Journey was conceptualized from history by Donna Goff and is about preparing daughters to become wives and mother’s. I love how Donna says this,

“All the while she was preparing her hope chest, the women in her life were preparing her, chatting as they worked, passing along a large body of knowledge and skill, incidentally, from one generation to the next, and building bonds of community support, kinship, and sisterhood. These young girls learned about relationships, parenting, family life, recipes, home nursing, and so much more, through listening to and participating in conversations with the women in their lives. Many of the women in this community were informally helping the young girl to prepare to become the queen of her future home.”

I hadn’t even told me girls about the Hope Chest Journey, they got their introduction to it as they listened to me explain it to Karalee.

We have however, already begun our journey, we just didn’t have a name for it. In 2004 I invited my Grandmother to teach my kids to sew. We began with making cute little stuffed animals out of felt and plastic canvas designs. At this time Emily was 5, Rebecca was 6.5, and Isaac was 3.5. They loved having Great Grandma Glasgow come over every Tuesday morning for sewing lessons. Believe it or not, but they all sat quietly at the table and sewed for almost 2 hours each week.

The kids all chose to give Bonnie and Tyler an animal for their wedding present.

The following summer we looked forward to sewing with Grandma again. This year we progressed onto embroidery, and Rebecca (as the eldest(7.5) started on an embroidered pillowcase. Grandma was making one, and Rebecca was making a a matching one. Unfortunately, this perfect example of a hope chest item remains unfinished, because Grandma passed away that November. We have fond memories of our times sewing with Grandma, and my only regret is that I didn’t document the stories that she told us those 2 summers as we sewed together.

And now back to our sewing class. It took us several extra hours on Thursday to finish up the girls skirts, but Karalee hung in their with us and we finally got them done. The girls outdid themselves. I was worried that after 2 hours they would have had enough of sewing each day, but they hung in their and were still happy and energetic and the end of a four hour session. I should have remembered how good they did all those years ago with Grandma and I wouldn’t have worried. Karalee said she was impressed with how happy and fun to work with the girls were. They also enjoyed working with her and telling her all about their American Girl dolls ( who came to class as well).

As I was quietly working on my own projects I was thinking about all the different lessons that could be learned from sewing, like how the little things do matter, how to be patient, to do it right, or do it again, so that in the end you have a product that you are happy with and enjoy wearing, the importance of modesty and beauty, the joy of wearing something that you chose and made yourself. The girls asked me if sewing was cheaper than buying clothes and and we had a discussion about cost and “fair trade” items, but I didn’t even factor in all the other little lessons, traditions, and love that sewing stitches right into the clothing that we wear.

This is just another step on our Hope Chest Journey, and hopefully only the first of many sewing classes that we take from Karalee, because I know I learned a lot, and I hope that my girls did also, and it wasn’t all about stitching.

Quilt Art

My Mom has been coming over every week this summer prepared to use my kids as guinea pigs as she prepares art lessons for her 3rd grade class next fall. My Mom will be teaching a reading extension program that incorporates art projects that will go along with the story that they are reading. This last project was krazy quilt art made with Crayola Overwriter Markers (lesson plan can be found here on the Crayola Website.)

Here are the finished quilt art projects.




I think it would be fun to make one using a smaller color scheme, like just cool colors.

Happy 4th

Declaration Of Independance

Picture by Trumball

Fireworks by SchoolHouse Rock

Pavement Picasso

Julian Beever - Sidewalk Chalk Artist

Julian's Official Website

Independance Day by Julian Beever

Meeting Madame Butterfly

Anamorphosis

- Anamorphosis is a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to use special devices or occupy a specific vantage point to reconstitute the image. (wikipedia)





Time Lapse Video of Water Ride by Julian Beever

Artist Lee Jones has a history of street painting as well of samples of her sidewalk designs.


Chalk it Up has some great tips for creating your chalk masterpiece worthy of a street festival and Chris Dunmire offers 7 Sidewalk Chalk Art Tips for Creatively Inhibited Adults that is worth reading, and 10 Steps to JOYful Sidewalk Chalk Art.

Pollock Art Day

Jackson Pollock was known as Jack the Dripper and creating action paintings as a new art form in the abstract inpressionism art movement. You can find some examples of his artwork here.

We created our own action paintings, outside, under the trees, in swimsuits, on posterboard, and then on each other (at least the boys).







Try out this Jackson Pollock online art creator - click the mouse to change colors.

Copycat Mockingbird

Grandma showed us this video of the mocking bird, it's pretty cool.-Green Girl

Homeschool Showcase part 1

We had a end of the year homeschool showcase tonight that was a smashing success. We put together a program with the two other homeschooling families that we have been getting together with a lot this year. each of the kids got several chance to perform if they wished.


Here is a short video - Rebecca, Emily and Isaac have been practicing as a trio for over a year on this song, they like it so much since they each get to sing their favorite color, and it is also in age order, so they feel like the song was made just for them.

For those of you that were'nt invited, we managed to get most of it video taped, wish I could find the tripod, in the middle I handed the camera off to Ryan Henrie and asked him to video tape, he did a great job. I think next time I'd better not sit so close to the CD player, the music is a little loud. Even I get to learn something, that is part of the reason I love homeschooling so much, I get to learn right along with my kids. I'm looking forward to editing the entire video together, but I'm hoping to get Rebekah to come and perform me the camera so I can add her sections into the video even though she was home sick tonight.

Memorial Day

This is going to be a very appropriate and interesting lesson for us, since it was less than a month ago that my grandfather passed away, and although he wasn't killed during a war, he was a retired veteran and therefor was given military honors at his funeral. It was a very impressive ceremony and I hope instilled deep respect in my kids for the military. I am looking forward to watching the video tape of the ceremony with them tomorrow as part of this lesson.



History of Taps and more information on Military Honors at Funerals

Listen to Taps

Three Riffle Volleys - here - here


Folding of the Flag and a Flag Folding Ceremony and here

Quarter Collections

http://www.usmint.gov/kids/

Faberge Eggs

Faberge Online Exhibition - The Eggs are in Gallery 10

Faberge Eggs Collection - Check out the Eggs made by students

Learn more about the Russian Family who commissioned the Faberge Easter Eggs.

Beautiful pictures of the Faberge Easter Eggs with great descriptions can be found on the Matt & Andrej Kkoymasky Faberge Site.

Treasures of Imperial Russia

Lady Alexandra's Coloring



As with all websites I cannot verify that the pages I link to will always be appropriate for viewing. Although the Matt and Andrej Kkoymasky's Faberge site is the best one I found, I do not approve of the rest of their website.


EDITED: I FOUND SOME MORE SITES on The FABERGE EGGS - how I missed them yesterday and found them today, I'll never know. (More exciting stuff to come)

Mieks Faberge Eggs - All the Eggs on One Page

The Garden Tomb

We were talking about the Tomb being Empty today when Jesus was resurrected and Rebekah asked where the tomb was located, did we know where it was. I told her I was pretty sure that some prophet had affirmed that we knew the correct location of the tomb. I looked it up and found some very neat pictures and other information.

The above picture is from the LDS Scriptures.


The Garden Tomb (the official website)



Spirit of the Garden Tomb has some pictures with some great descriptions of the tomb and the area around it.

My Jerusalem Garden Tomb Experience has some neat insights into the history of the tomb.

If you search LDS.org you can find some wonderful articles about the Garden Tomb, Jerusalem and Jesus's atonement. I could read for hours.

President Monson Report

We are doing reports on the Apostles and Rebekah's Dad told her a story about President Monson wiggling his ears in General Conference and here it is . . .

The Twelve Apostles and the First Presidency

Shortly after last General Conference we discovered this little treasure on the internet through the wonders of mass emailing.


A few weeks ago we were watching it again and I wondered, have they made a new one yet? Of course, I knew they didn't know who the new apostle will be - but just maybe . . .


We are looking forward to seeing the new video when it comes out after conference and the chance to get to know another new apostle.

Speaking of apostles this week we will be learning about the apostles to prepare ourselves better for General Conference. Here are some of the resources we will be using:


The Special Witnesses pages in the 2002 Friend was a Getting to Know (the Apostles) page.
January - Elder Jeffery R. Holland
February - Boyd K. Packer
March - Elder Henry B. Eyring
April - Elder Richard G. Scott
May - Elder Dallin H. Oaks
June - Elder Russell M. Nelson
July - Elder L. Tom Perry
August - M. Russell Ballard
September - Joseph B. Wirthlin
October - Robert D. Hales
November - David A. Bednar
December - Dieter F. Utchdorf

The 2006 Friend had Guess Who pages for Each of the Apostles.
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
The individual links take you to the text pages, but you can also get the pdf version by going to the main page for Friend.

Van Gogh

We have been studying Van Gogh, and the more I learn about him, the more I want to know. I never knew that studying artists and their artwork could be so much fun. I'm also looking forward to learning about a new artist.

Here is an audio file from the Vincent Van Gogh Gallery with the correct pronunciation of Vincent Van Gogh


Here is one of Vincent Van Gogh's most famous works - Starry Night -

oops, I dropped it.

science is cool

These Steve Spangler Video's are really cool. I put a couple of them on here so you can watch them. On the sidebar find Steve Spangler Science Videos and you can watch a whole bunch.

Click Here to Watch One of My Favorite Video's


My name is ISAAC i like stevspangler science video's

Isaac's Baptism Invitation

Van Gogh Online Activities

Online Coloring of Van Gogh Painting

Starry Night
Room at Arles

Flower Beds in Holland


Vincent Van Gogh Biography and Online Activities from Garden of Praise

Latitude and Longitude

We are going to participate in the Globe at Night project. First, however, we have to determine our latitude and longitude. What is that - well, check out this website from Social Studies for Kids for a basic definition and then play this Latitude and Longitude Map Match game to practice what you learned.

Are you ready for a challenge - Try Cracking the Code in this fun game.



Find out YOUR latitude and longitude using one of these tools.
MapTech on ClassBrain
ItouchMap



Enter the quardants you found for your location into the View Above Earth page and see what you can see.




*******************

For some more great resources that I found (powerpoint presentations) and interactive games check out Mapskills@pppst.com

365 Days of Astronomy

We are studying Astronomy this year and I just discovered this great podcast - it is the International Year of Astronomy in celebration of Galileo's first look through a telescope - and so this podcast is part of the celebration. Here is the trailer for the podcasts, followed by links to subscribe.




365 Days of Astronomy Podcast
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/365DaysOfAstronomy
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/52WeeksofAstronomy - This is the same podcast - just a weeks worth at a time.


There is also a great website with an Astronomy Picture of the Day

This study of astronomy is part of the Mother's Education Course for Latter-Day Saints that I am pursuing.

Down Under

Sightseeing Down Under

My Eternal Family

My Eternal Family

Publish at Scribd or explore others: eBooks Religion & Spiritual love bible

Inside Art
This is a really cool website, it takes you inside a painting by Vincent Van Gogh and then answers the 5 "Ws" and the "H" about the painting. I recommend this website. - Green Girl (aka Rebecca)

Van Gogh

How Van Gogh Made his Mark - Met Museum

This was very interesting and educational, it tells about Van Gogh's paintings and Van Gogh himself. It let you experience different tools. - Emily

It was very fun but also educational at the same time. - Makhyla


Vincent Van Gogh - KidKonnect
Self Portrait
Irises
Inside Art
Van Gogh Gallery

Van Gogh - Surfing the Net with Kids

Van Gogh Museum
national Gallery of Art

World Math Day

Today and Tomorrow is World Math Day. How can it be today and tomorrow - well, that all has to do with time zones. World Math Day is March 4th as soon as it is March 4th at the International Dateline and goes until it is no longer March 4th anywhere in the world, so somehow that makes it almost 48 hours. I

I just discovered this website today from a friendly email from Math Mammoth and since it is a free event I quickly decided to sign my kids up after reading Maria's blog post.

I let them practice today - and it was a hit. Rebecca accumulated 785 correct answers, Emily 446, and Isaac 84. It was amazing, they are all excited to get up tomorrow and begin competing in the real competition just as soon as they can.

It is really a neat thing that they can compete in real time with other kids from around the globe, it even shows them where on the globe they are located. I found a great interactive time zone map at WorldTimeZone.com where we can check out the time zone's around the world in either 24 hour or 12 hour format. You can get a printable map here. This would also be a great week to talk about Daylight Savings time.

Time Zones from Brain Pop
Daylight Savings Time from Brain Pop
Daylight Savings Time from HowStuff Works
A Change in Time from Science News for Kids

You can sign up for a free 5 day trial from Brain Pop. We used it a few years ago through our virtual school and really enjoyed Brain Pop. However, you may want to preview some of the health videos before letting your kids watch them.

Hint Hint: A membership to a site like this would be a great christmas present from Grandparents.

Devotional

Devotional is the first part of our school day. It is such a great way to start our day. We have been memorizing scriptures ever since we started doing devotionals (actually, my girls had the articles of faith memorized when they were really young). I guess you could say scripture memorization is a family tradition. When we choose a new scripture to memorize we make it into a beautiful page to put in our recitation binder. Isaac choose this scripture to present in Primary and so he helped me make it into a new recitation scripture for our binder. I have many such pages if you would like me to email you some PDF's please let me know. I am working on a website for them, but it may be another week or so before I have that ready.

Singing a Song is Fun to Do

Melissa of singingasongisfuntodo has created two video's for the primary theme songs for this year. I'm sure that my kids will really enjoy watching these videos. I look forward to seeing other video's that she produces throughout the year.

My Eternal Family

The Family is of God

Grandma's Crochet Hook Produces another Made to Order Afghan

Kevin is now a "BIG BOY"? with a brand new blanket from his Grandma for sucessfully completing potty training.

Of course, most of the time he insists that he is a "SMALL BOY" because he wants help putting on his clothes after going to the bathroom. It isn't that he can't get himself dressed, I think it is just his way of making sure that he get's a little bit of attention amidst the chaos of the day.

For more information on Potty Training and Crocheting check out this post.