Family School and Winter snow storms

This year we have started something here at home called 'Family School'.  It is an LDS based curriculum.  We have been really enjoying it, at least when the internet is working well.  I have had to change our plans on occasion because of technical issues, but for the most part the younger kids are liking it.  I like it because it helps me to focus on something and because it incorporates LDS principles into their otherwise secular learning.  I really, really like that.  I know that I could have put something similar together on my own, but this saves me so much time in finding the different resources that I just would probably never go look for, due to lack of time.  It has pictures, video, Mormon messages, plenty of worksheets (more than I would normally want to deal with, but when I asked them if we should just skip some of those, I got a big fat no!) all in one friendly place online.  Ginga' is a bit too old for it, and so engaged in all the other things that he has on his schedule, that he doesn't do it with us very often.  Occasionally though, he will join us, and I always appreciate his insights that he shares with us.  It has been a wonderful fit for Nutmeg and she is just thriving with it, most of the time.  (Except for those times when she decides that spelling a certain word, or some other minor problem, is the end of the world, and then, well...it's not very pretty.)  Squirrel tries hard, but her attention span isn't that wonderful, so she comes and goes with it.  If there's a video, or activity, we can usually get her to return to us, otherwise, she floats, and that's okay, she is learning a lot at her own pace, and we will just have to work with that.  Rock, is well, Rock.  He is hard to engage in just about anything, unless it's his idea.  But he's the who likes the worksheets best, so, perhaps he's just playing it cool.  His latest passion is lock picking.  He took some bobby pins and cut the ends off, and successfully picked his brother's filing cabinet.  Hmm.  Ginga' moved anything he didn't want him to take possession of.  I'm trying to figure out how I can use this to increase his educational pursuits.  (Any ideas Mary?  You probably just had an explosion of them as you read this, I sure miss having you around to tell them to me!:)  Anyway, back to the family school.  It's been so great, and I am excited about all that I am learning and re-learning with them.  That's the best part of homeschooling, being with your kids to see how they grow and learn, and getting to learn right along with them.

Today we did art.  I know, for those of you who know me, not my favorite subject, and I would never have done it on my own.  I even drew a fish and a bird and a face.  And you could even tell what they were.  I find myself getting so impatient to just have it finished already.  I guess it will be a good way for me to exercise my patience as well as my artistic pursuits.  We are doing art once a week, because I have this artist on my hands (Nutmeg) who just can't get enough, and is so much better than me at it.  I'm sure it helps that she loves it, but she is definitely gifted in this area.  So, today's lesson talked about the element of Line in art, and we talked about Walter Rane, who has painted many paintings about scriptural subjects.  Then we finally got to the part where she was able to do something, and we drew the 6 days of creation.  Needless to say, the rest of us were done long before she was, and I think she continued practicing her tree drawing skills for an hour after we had finished, love it!

The rest of this week we were working on Geography.  We are studying Asia right now, and so we talked about the latitude and longitude and located a bunch of places.  I don't worry to much about geography anymore though, because we have these awesome maps on our kitchen table and the kids are constantly quizzing each other anytime we have a meal, so they have learned a ton since I put them on the table.  The best thing about using the family school geography is that it goes into a lot of the less obvious things about geography and makes you think about it.  Like latitude and longitude, equator, time zones, etc.  Those things to me are just -there.  I don't really think about them very much, but it's good for the kids so that they will be familiar with them.  They have also gotten really good at finding things on the globe.  We really like geography around here.  We are reading the story "Young Fu, of the Upper Yangtze"  right now for our family reading time, and it's based in Asia, so it is helping connect things for us.  I just love historical fiction, really well written ones that really help you understand the culture and time that it takes place in are fabulous.  History is my favorite to learn about and study.  I think I will have to write a post sometime about all my favorites.  We'll see if I get to it anyway.  :)  It would be rather long.  

Here's the link for the Family School, if any one is interested.  http://network.latterdaylearning.org/

This is off topic, but I'm looking out the window right now, and we have TONS of snow.  I think we have gotten almost 20 inches in the last 26 hours.  The kids are having a blast though.  We actually postponed our school time today until the afternoon, because they just couldn't wait to get out into it.  They shoveled off the trampoline before breakfast (their choice, not mine), and then I managed to drag them in for smoothies and breakfast before they were geared up and back out in it.  I am sure glad that we didn't have to go anywhere today, because I would probably have just skipped it anyway!  The county even cancelled school.  I don't think we have had this much snow in a long while.  I am thinking that it's been about 8 to 10 years since we've been this snowed in.  The last time we had this much, Mr. T had to shovel it with a shovel and it would take him about 3-4 hours to do our humongous driveway.  After that season, he bought a heavy duty snow blower, and although he has used it some, this will be it's first really good workout.  Now it takes him about an hour.  Not to bad.

This blog thing is a great way to journal, hopefully any of you who choose to read it, don't mind my ramblings.  Better go start dinner! It's Rock's week to help me, so that he can feel capable of feeding himself one day.  He's not a big fan of helping, but he sure is about eating it.