The HerdKeeper

Late spring, early summer we met with another family to show them the Konos ropes. We studied orderliness and how that translates into construction/building. We discussed the different trades needed to build a house and the difficulty and skill it takes to build a house. They were not convinced until they were challenged to build one themselves. We first started off by making the foundation of a building with Popsicle sticks and the walls. While we were waiting for the sticks to dry, we moved on to an outside project of building a compost bin out of scrap lumber. They were armed with pallets and a few other scraps. The finished project was a little shaky but it was a great experience. Leadership qualities popped up and everyone had to learn to "cooperate". Our houses were destroyed by a hurricane named Zack (he's two). I understand they finished their houses and used marshmallows for insulation in between their walls. Impressive. check out the link below for a descrip...

I am teaching a one hour co op class on Ancient History using HOW I (Konos) to high school students and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I have discovered that one hour is just not enough time. In addition to the homework I assign, such as Streams of Civilization and various websites, we have done some really fun things to help the lessons stick. We studied Abraham and his journey and placed him on a time line and plotted his journey. I will say that map work is my weak point. I envisioned beautiful colored maps and frankly it hasn't worked out that way, but we all have the idea. Next we added Issac and Jacob and Esau to our time lines. We ate a traditional red lentil stew. I found this amazing website that gave me history and recipe. http://theshiksa.com/2011/02/23/jacobs-lentil-stew/ You must check out her fabulous website. Finally we studied the tower of Babel and added it to the time line and then we proceeded to build the tower out of sugar cubes. I honestly wasn't sure how w...

The human body is not going as well as the bridges unit. It was easier for me to do the hands on with bridges, it was not touching slimy things. Could use some prayer there that I would just buck up and DO IT. We are self employed so finances are an issue with getting supplies as well. With that being said my kids drew in their bones and if I do so say so myself they did a great job. They are not going to be artists anytime soon but for kids who whined and complained that they couldn't do it. They DID IT. They are tossing around words like "hey, you stepped on my phalanges". We started work on the muscles yesterday and my kids were quite grossed out by the concept we were eating muscle. We have a roast to put in the oven this morning and we are all going to wash our hands and poke at it a little to see the grain. Then we are going to look at pictures I have of muscle cells. Not sure everyone will want to eat the roast beef tonight. We seem to be c...

I cannot believe the school year is coming to an end. We did not accomplish everything I wanted but I trust we accomplished what we needed. I missed all of the homeschool curriculum fairs this year because of time constraints. This is the first time in 15 years that I have missed a curriculum fair. 15 years ago I had my son so I was a little too busy to go. Top on my wish list this year is Rosetta Stone Spanish. So this year for math I need Math U See Algebra I - three books - have one book Math U See Epsilon - one book - check Math U See Gamma - one book Math U See Alpha - two books My 3 high schoolers will be doubling up on math this year they are also taking a consumer math class at a co op. I am still pondering Language Arts I think we will be doing IEW for late elementary and maybe Easy Grammar for the actual grammar I really want All About Spelling - to round this out. I have IEW and Easy Grammar. Of course Literature will be some good solid historical fiction to go with ...

When I first "discovered" workboxes Don said no way can we have 108 plastic shoe boxes and 9 racks floating around the house. I really wanted to try this and loved the look of the Trofast system I saw on the yahoo group but didn't want to spend the money for a possible maybe. I am an organizing junky. I have spent hundreds of dollars if not thousands on organizing books, systems, baskets etc. I was skeptical but I kept hearing rave reviews. So....... I bought a cheap coat rack and some shoe organizers and tried it out for a few of the kids. I loved loved loved the system, but hated hated hated the shoe rack it was weak and kept toppling over. After brainstorming with Don and explaining to him how effective this system is he caved in and bought the Trofast system. I just wanted a more permanent rack to hang my system from but Don was sure there was something that looked neater so I was forced to show him the Trofast system at Ikea. I originally thought this syst...

Here are the crates I use to store everyone's workbooks and notebooks. Our family is color coded. Emma is RED, Rebekah is Yellow, Annah is Orange, Donny is Blue, Ben is Green, Josiah is gray, Melaina is pink, Noah is brown, Lydia is purple Lydia's color is Samantha's old color and Aliyah does not have a color so when she is old enough to do school she will get Emma's color of RED. Emma and Rebekah keep their school books in their rooms in their crates (theoretically). I need a new crate for Noah this year but I doubt I will be able to find brown so I will look for tan or white. He will defnitely need a crate this year for his "school". He will not be 5 till November but he wants to be a big kid.

It has become a dumping ground for miscellaneous stuff. Even large pots and pans and paper plates from the teenagers eating snacks at the computer. If they do not know what to do with a paper it gets dumped here. As you can see it needs a little work. My goal is to have this spotless and in order by Monday morning. If I ask for help maybe I can clear the area to work in peace. lol

I cannot believer that summer is half over. I have spent half of it obsessing over what to do next year for curriculum. While "I" love Tapestry of Grace and have learned so much from it my kids are barely tolerating it and we are just dragging our way through the school day. Don has encouraged me to try something new by doing some old. Once upon a time I loved to homeschool and I loved to teach and my kids loved to learn. Soooo we are returning to KONOS. I know my kids will love this I just need to make sure I can be prepared. So now I am obsessing over what units to teach in KONOS and for how long. We have chosen the Russian study and I am not sure how long to make this study and who to include. Speaking of returning, we have started to use the PEGS chore system again. Mainly it keeps everyone accountable not just in chores but in behavior attitude and communication. It helps me remember to praise and reward for good behavior, attitude or communication. On Sunday Noah came t...

We have three weeks plus one day of full blown school left. Aliyah and to many parent teacher conferences have thrown us three weeks off schedule. This is one disappointed homeschool mom. We are usually finished by Memorial Day. Life is in hyperdrive right now so here I am relaxing and sharing some of the finer and not so fine points of my days. We have a writing utensil rule. Only at the kitchen table. I have enough wall art to know that I do not have this one drilled into their heads. On one particular school morning I allowed markers at the table while I helped different kids work on math. I looked up to see that while she was at the table she was still not being supervised. ack. I was not more than 4 feet away. I couldn't even scold her she was so proud of her "makeup". It was crayola marker and I thought it would was off easily, she still had a faint blue shadow for church on Sunday.

We were reviewing the Passover story and I asked what happened when the Pharoah refused to let the Isrealites go. Josiah yelled out. " oh, I know, he sent frogs, bugs, and carrots". Carrots!!! I just love moments like these.