4. August 2008 by Shannon.

Well, my Bigs have headed off for Cadet Camp… Ev in Introduction to Leadership and Kenz in Basic.  It’s very strange being at home with just the Littles.  I find myself having a lot more time for reading stories, playing games, enjoying funny play.  I’m kept laughing at their funny understanding of the world.  Greys informed me today that he’s the “betht bathkitball player in the whole backyard”  (he was alone in the backyard at the time - and told me this through the back window).  Chae is so impatient… she wants to eat the apples on the trees.. and will not hear me that they are NOT READY yet.. and that worms live in them (Kenz told her that hoping to make her stop picking them).  So, she went on a tangent telling me it is “not fair that worms are in my apple acuz those are MY apples on MY tree and those worms aren’t aposed to eat apples - they are aposed to eat dirt!” (she’s really mad!).  She’s also adopted a pet slug.  I have a feeling she’s finding a new one every day and thinking it is the same one, but who knows… she also brought an inchworm in the house - then promptly LOST it… so now SOMEWHERE in my house there is a confused (or possibly dead) inchworm… Lovely.

My Square Foot Gardening adventure has kind of taken on a life of it’s own… I’m almost scared to go out there each morning as these tomatoes and beans and zuchinis are trying to take over the lawn!!!  The “Beans” and “Tomatoes” are two BIG gangs having a turf war in my garden… everyday it would seem one or the other has been “knocked out” (read: laying on the ground under) by the other.  But my tomatoes are prolific just the same… and my beans, well… with all the foliage, I’m not sure I’m ever going to see a bean on the thing.  Oh well, it’s been so much fun!  I also have some eggplants coming along nicely.. small, but at least they are finally there!!!  Eggplants are so pretty, even their flower is so pretty… I’d almost grow them anyhow just for decoration! :o)

So, All’s Quiet on the Home Front with only half our offspring makin’ noise… I never realised how much noise my “quiet” Bigs generate!   But I have to admit… I do miss them!

Blessings (and peace!)

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17. June 2008 by Shannon.

Well, not that we’re there yet, but we are certainly getting anxious around here for the end of the school year!!  This week *should* be our last for the currect school year, and we’ll pick up again in the middle of August.  Kenzi still has math to complete over the summer to finish up the Saxon book she’s working on, but otherwise all “formal” lessons will end on Friday.  MOM can’t wait!!!  This was a challenging year, I’m not afraid to admit it… it was a lot of nagging and a lot of heartache as we both worked out our comfort zones…. but then we found Connect the Thoughts and that helped SO much, and then a very wonderful friend gave us an old laptop for Kenzi to use for her lessons and that helped even more… I didn’t realise how much of the battles were in fact related to her dysgraphia…. amazing really.  But as wonderful as this new “system” is, we really are in need of a break… a time of just being Mother and Daughter, and not Teacher and Student… really!

Ev is finished his school year in the Junior High School, and will be homeschooling next year as well… that will also make a difference around here in that we’ll be together for learning instead of having all our days so choppy.  Everett can’t wait to start Connec the Thoughts Creative Writing courses either… he’s looked the two I have over and is so excited to get started so he can move onto the Master’s Courses.  I was surprised to hear that he wasn’t as interested in the Animation course… but I think if he tried it he’d probably like it… we’ll have to try it as an elective in August.  He also just finished his Puzz3D that he’d been working on for a while… the Sistine Chapel!!!

This past week was the cadets Annual Review - both Ev and Kenzi were on the Drill Team, and Kenzi even got an award!!!  She was given the “Tracy Turton Award” for “the cadet that perseveres”.  That’s a positive statement, eh?  She was so surprised (as was MOM!) and proud that she’d stuck it out… it was a long haul, that’s for sure!  But she’s looking forward to Basic Camp this summer.  Ev got Leadership Camp, and he’ll be gone for a full three weeks!  I don’t know how *I* am going to handle it… but I guess it’ll be lots of fun for him! *grin*

(Ev and Kenzi right beside him…. Kenzi getting her award)

We have a new dog… I can’t remember if I blogged about him already or not, but his name is Charley (okay, I’m a die-hard Lost fan, and we wanted a name from Lost, but we were torn between “Hurley” and “Charlie” *our two favourite characters!* … so we decided on Charley… clever eh?  LOL!  Not that he cares, he just answers to anything - silly boy!), and he’s a lovely blond cocker spaniel.  SO cute…   He had a little “mohawk” going when we first got him, but we trimmed it off because it made him look even sillier than he generally does.  He’s so smart and learning more by the day… and he’s SO sweet to the kids!!

We got him about 3 weeks ago and although he’s housebroken VERY easily, we’re having “Bark Busters” come in to work with us and the two dogs next week. We’re hoping it will make a difference in some of the undesireable behaviours he has, mostly we believe caused by improper (none existant) training he recieved at his previous home.  He’s very bright and learns fast, and best of all, is eager to please. 

And lastly… my garden update… this is my garden ONE WEEK from the last picture… I can’t believe how fast this thing is growing!!! We finally got the tomato rings on and had a real battle to do so, since the plants are not only large, but really sturdy - not easy to “flex” to get them through the center!  But we did it… and they seem happy! *wink*  From the looks of the the flowers, we are going to have LOTS of everything.  The only thing I’m not sure of is the eggplants… are they supposed to be slow starters?  If anyone knows, I’d be so happy to find out!

I have to tell you this funny story.  Miss Chaeli came inside COVERED in dirt the other day, and I was, of course, worried about my lovely vegetable gardens.. what had she done?  Well, apparently nothing… she’d been playing in one of our front gardens… anyhow, while I was out there “fixing” her mess, I noticed these three obviously fast growing plants had taken root in my annual bed (I only have one, we positioned it over the septic tank lids so we can always find them AND it doesn’t matter when it’s dug up because they are only annuals anyhow… smart eh?).  As “pretty” as they might think they are, I didn’t want them there.  So, UP goes the plant… well, it has what looks like a giant peanut on the end.  Interesting.  So, I yank up another… this one is a normal looking root.  The third one (these were all the same type of plant, btw) told me what had happened… we had POTATOES growing in my annual bed!  HAHAHA on me!  I guess we must have had some potatoes go to seed and we tossed them, and I suppose a squirrel must have found them and reburied them in my garden… clever little agricultural creature that he must be.  but alas, I stole his harvest…. after all, everyone knows potatoes need to stay buried so they can grow… so I repotted the one plant, buried it up past it’s leaves… and a couple days ago, we could see the little leaves peeking through again, so today I buried it some more.  Chaeli keeps trying to dig them out, but I think this time I’ve convinced her to “let’s wait and see what surprises we can grow”.  I hope we get some good potatoes!!  If we do, I think maybe next year we’ll make this a FORMAL school project… maybe to end off the school year for Greyson… along with a little lapbook on Plants or something. 

That’s me… always planning ahead! *LOL*

Blessings!

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10. June 2008 by Shannon.

I posted recently about my adventure in Square Foot Gardening.  WELL, I am completely sold!  My gardens are growing like wildfire!!  I wanted to show you all some pictures of this very successful homeschool project we’ve got going on around here… and I will update often (as I have something up update!!).

We built the boxes and planted the gardens on May 17th: 

May 30th:

And again from June 5th:

And today, June 10th:

I can’t imagine a more successful garden story at this point!!!  We do NO work.  Once every few days I go out there and pinch off the plant “suckers” (those little sprouts between the boughs of the tomato/pepper plants which don’t produce fruit, just sap the plants growing energy) and take some pictures and I’m done.  Seriously… it’s been THAT easy!  I have flower buds on EVERY plant except the brocoli and the eggplants so far… yes, even my zuchini and cukes have flower buds…. my tomatoes are COVERED in them.  Even my strawberries might get a fruit or two this summer… who knows!

On another note… it’s definately SUMMER here (this past weekend we saw 30 degrees celsius with humidity ranging somewhere above 90 percent!!).  Seems like only yesterday the kids were climbing the snowbanks onto the ROOF, but this weekend we were off at the splash park… Canadian weather is so dramatic! LOL!

^^Chaeli running to save herself from the spray   ~   Greyson running *into* the spray, LOL! ^^

I love how different my kids are… keeps things interesting!

On a side note:  Kenzi’s end of year evaluation is on the 25th of June… so it’s crunch time on portfolios and finishing up projects.  Busy, busy around here!!!  I’m curious to know what others do for portfolios (or if you do them at all, what method of “evaluation” to you employ in YOUR homeschool?  I’d love to hear your comments!!! :o)

Blessings!

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23. May 2008 by Shannon.

That is the title of the “project” I’ve been wanting to work on for years.  For those who haven’t figured out that the name of this site (little homeshool on the HILL) might mean something… well, it does.  We live on a small mountain.  And as such, we have very, very rocky land.  The only way I’m going to have a nice veggie garden is if I build UP.  SO, that’s where Square Foot Gardening comes in.

This is not a new concept either… it’s been around since I was a wee babe.  I even think my Grandad was using a variation on it (from my childhood memories… mmmm… I loved puttering with him in his veggie garden, probably doing more damage than good, but he was ever patient and ever kind - I miss you, Grandad!).  Anyhow… we’ve never managed to “get it going” here in the spring because of all the blackflies on the mountain… but this year we finally decided to just DO it - and surprisingly, we weren’t bothered that much by the blackflies after all.

I am NOT sorry!!!  My garden looks fantastic!!!

What we have planted.  Well, in that first box (and I am sure later on I might be sorry with the volume, but I really love them… ) are 4 zuchini plants.  The second box (the big one) are 9 cucumber plants, two tomato (one grape red, and one yelllow) plants, 3 squares with bean seeds planted… we’ll see how those work out, and one brocolli.  The last box has 4 more tomato plants (cherry, pink, big red and an orange variety), one green pepper plant, and three more brocolli.  I know, not too much variety there, but I really don’t like growing lettuce, hate red peppers, have a kid who is allergic to carrots, and well, cellery probably wouldn’t work in these boxes… so besides cauliflower, I couldnt’ think of anything much else to plant. 

There are pots too, which we did a day or so later, which aren’t in this picture.  one big pot has strawberries in them, and three pots have eggplants (one plant each pot) and one additional  pot has chives planted in them.  Now to week, watch, tend, and wait and see what our harvest yields. 

This was a fantastic homeschool project… we did it with the Littles (the Bigs were out for the day).  they had SUCH a kick out of mixing up the 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss (they called it PoppaMoss, since their Grandfather “Poppa” ’s name is Pete) and 1/3 compost (we used composted sheep manure… and thanks to Dad who didn’t think the first time he did it, spent the day calling it sheeppoop).  They got really dirty, as did Mom and Dad (guess that’s part of the fun, eh?)!  But at the end of the day, we felt so accomplished.  We had built boxes, and since we bought 4 10-foot long pieces, we were able to cut 2-foot long ends, then split the rest into a bunch of 4-foot lengths…which gave us exactly what we needed to make the three gardens.  We put them together with L-brackets (actually, I have to admit, at this point our oldest son, Ev *was* still home and helping… ).  It went very fast, the hardest part was digging off the top layer of the ground.  We wanted to get rid of as many dandilions roots as we could - and BOY were there a LOT! 

OH!  We also had a pleasant surprise!  A few years back I tried a pseudo-SFG (not really planned out at all) and had planted asparagus into one corner (being perrenial and all)… well, we were about to take apart that mess and Lo and Behold, guess what???  We had a harvest of asparagus buried under all those weeds and grasses!  So, it pays to pay attention, Lord only knows how many years that’s been harvestable and we just let it get overgrown.  Live and Learn, eh?

So.  That was our foray into Square Foot Gardening for this year.  I will keep y’all posted on how my garden grows!  I cannot recommend this enough to all you homeschoolers out there who might be interested in a “plants” project for the kids… all you need is a couple of planks of wood, some mix, some plants (or seeds, if you like)… and you can easily make a couple of the small gardens… maybe one for each child? 

Now, if I could only get the SUN to shine on my pretty little garden, that would help! *grin*

Blessings!

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24. October 2007 by Shannon.

Today was a bad day.

… till a few minutes ago. Let me tell you why.

I suck at math (oh, and before you tune this story out, this has very little to do with math) always have… but I’m forced to challenge my non-mathematical brain into grasping grade 6 math every day. I do *not* like this part of homeschooling. History, YES! Literature, YES! Reading, Writing, Grammar, Geography, Art, … EVEN SPELLING, YES!!!!! But Math, no.

SO, we were doing math… it wasn’t going well. I feel so stupid and imcompetent as a trudge around despretely trying to help Kenzi figure out some answer to some stupid math problem.. feeling like maybe I should reconsider this whole homeschooling thing after all. Well, we made it through (well, till Dad comes home and tell us we did it wrong.. LOL! Then it’s back to the kitchen table with us!). I was burnt out. It was about 10 in the morning and all I could think about was why bedtime was so far off.

Then we moved on to French. I am GOOD at french, conversationally… but written grammar, well… let’s just say I have to stop and think sometimes. But we managed to get through it with no real bumps or bruises. Then Kenzi was off looking for a book she’s misplaced and we’re supposed to be reading. The littles are just hanging out, making messes, playing loud (through this whole time, I might add). Kenzi finds her book (or one like it?) and starts reading. After about half an hour or so, she comes to me asking if she can make lunch for her and the littles. Of COURSE I say “yes!”. I decide to take the time to check my emails.

Fast forward half an hour. Kenzi comes to the door of the bedroom looking pale as a ghost. “Mom, I don’t feel well.” Okay… what’s wrong now? “I ate some of Greyson’s egg that I made him for lunch” - “but, Kenzi, you are ALLERGIC to eggs” - “I know, I think that’s why I feel sick. Do we have any benadryl?” - “no.”… so off goes Mom to the pharmacy to buy some allergy medicine… grrrrr’ing all the time over how kids do the dumbest things, and WHY is this kid at home anyhow, am I TRYING to make myself crazy?!?!

I get back home, she takes some medicine… half an hour to an hour later she’s feeling a bit better.

Now comes to “Reason” part. While I was out, I noticed the Metro store had some nice pumpkins for sale, cheap! So, I decided to get a pumpkin for them to gut and roast the seeds. We don’t do halloween, but fresh pumpkin seeds and the promise of making some nice pumpkin pie filling to can just sends shivers up my spine (literally!). How cozy, how warm…

So now it’s about 1:30 in the afternoon, there’s me doing dishes, the pumpkin is now on the floor of the livingroom, with Kenzi, Greyson and Chaeli digging around with their bare hands, pumpkin guts pretty much everywhere, sorting seeds and guts” into different containers. I was just about to … um… reprimand, remind, I don’t know, about all the pumpkin strings on my floor and how there is sticky stuff getting rather near my freshly folded laundry sitting in the basket nearby, when Greyson - sweet, wonderful Greys, up to his elbows in orange, stringy, sticky pumpkin guts - looks up adoringly at Kenzi and says, “I wuv you, Matenzie”. I shut my mouth. Kenzi replies, “you do?” “Yeth, I wuv you becauthe you are my betht big thithter” (I love you because you are my best big sister). I almost tear up. Then Chaeli, not to be outdone, pipes up, “I love you ME TOO, Kenzi!”. Now my eyes are stinging with tears.

THIS is my reason for homeschooling. All this happened in the peaceful quiet of the afternoon, before the schoolbusses started passing by dropping off this student or that student laden with bulging backpacks full of homework. It happened because Kenzi was home, IS home… experiencing life with her little siblings who get to spend time with her while they are at their best, not only late in the afternoon when the whole supper hour craziness is upon us.

Thank you, Lord, for leading me to homeschool McKenzie. Today was a lovely day.

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