I am wearing a turtleneck today!

The cold weather finally hit today. Very cold - it is supposed to get into the 20's tonight....brrr!

Beth and Ryan arrived on Monday night. We woke the kids up at 2:15am on Tuesday to see the lunar eclipse. It was worth getting up for. It looked like red cellophane wrap was over the moon. On Tuesday afternoon, after Hunter's tennis lessons, we went swimming - it was 81 degrees. The kids had a great time. Tuesday night Beth and I went to a neighborhood Christmas party. On the 24th we had some neighbor kids over to make cookies and gingerbread Christmas trees. Beth and I did the cooking, the kids played. We went to church that night.

We had a wonderful Christmas and ate way too much. I wasn't that worried because Terry got me a Wii Active for Christmas so I worked it off. After two days of workouts I am VERY sore. My virtual trainer is named Devon - he is very nice.

Today Terry and I put up Hunter's rope swing in the backyard. It was a big hit. Terry has ticks thinking about the patch of dirt that will inevitably appear under the swing. I promised to patch it with sod regularly.Tonight Hunter got to participate in tennis practice at the local high school with some kids from Katy. It was a two hour practice - he should sleep good tonight! I promise to post pictures soon.

Hunter's Piano Recital



The video everyone has been waiting for! Hunter had his piano recital tonight. It was his first piano recital ever - he was a little nervous but did GREAT. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Today we had so much fun at school. We learned about interjections in grammar. This is especially fun for our family because we use interjections A LOT. Interjections are one of two words of strong emotion - examples: Ouch! Rats! Wow! Yikes!   Now when someone in our family runs into something and says Ouch! Hunter starts singing the "Interjection Song" from Schoolhouse Rocks. We are sure to have fun with this. We also learned about conjunctions - not nearly as interesting.

We also discover a wonderful new website.Youtube has so many great educational videos available to view. The only trouble is the advertisements are rather X-rated. Hunter has to close his eyes for almost every page load. However, there is a Youtube for kids called Zuitube. You can find supplement classes on math, grammar, and any other subject you can think of- without the trashy advertisements. They also have "Funniest Videos". We haven't watched that one yet.

Today we also finished up our book on Paul Revere for history and knocked out math, phonics/spelling and science.

Eye Ball Dissection Udate.....Oh what fun!!!

 Hunter had an amazing time dissecting a cow eye at the Health Museum in Houston. We attended the event with our friends Mrs. Kelly and her daughter Katherine. While we were there, we ran into one of Hunter's classmates from last year, Olvice Greenwood.

The woman teaching the class did a great job helping the kids pull out all the different parts of the eye. She spent a lot of time talking about the role of each of the parts.

The most interesting piece of info I learned is that the pupil is not a black circle, but rather a hole in the eye.  The museum also offers a pig dissection, but I am going to skip this for this year - I like bacon too much!! I am working on selecting a 4th grade math program for Hunter. He is not really loving the curriculum we are using right now. We will be ready to move to 4th grade math in the next 2 months. Tomorrow is a grammar test - it might be tough with all of the time we've had off school over the past month - but we are going for it!

Where is my clean laundry?

Every day for several weeks of my vacation I would wake up to find my clean laundry folded outside my bedroom door (compliments of a little elf - Lola Landers). Even after leaving Jon and Lola's house, my mom did laundry for me at my grandma's house. Today I was slapped in the face with the reality of now having to do my own laundry. I opened my bedroom door this morning and NOTHING! No clothes - they were all still sitting in the laundry room.

We arrived back home last night - today we spent settling in - but before I get too far ahead of myself.............

First, Hunter had no fun at Kalahari as evidenced by the below photo. His favorite ride was the Toilet Bowl. He let us know that he was not happy when one of the lifeguards asked him if he could swim before he went down - he was so offended.



Steve is not standing on a stool - he is this tall!



After the fun of Kalahari, we headed to Sheboygan Falls, WI to see Hunter's GREAT Grandma and Grandpa. We also were able to catch a couple of my brother's basketball games at St. Norbert's College in De Pere, WI. My brother Steve is now a senior - where did the time go? He treated us to TWO slam dunks during his first game - very nice!

We got to see a lot family even though we did not get to spend as much time with them as we would have liked. Picture below: First row (left to right): My brother Jack, cousin Aiden, my Mom.  Second row: Hunter, Steve, Grandma Shank, my Dad. Third row: me, my Aunt Kathy. Last row: Uncle Kevin and Aunt Laura.

We originally planned on taking three days to get home, but by the grace of God we made it in two days. Hunter ended up running a fever for the trip home but seems to be on the mend now. Today we knocked out some math, history and spelling. Tomorrow we head to the Health Museum to dissect an eye - not our own. LOL - a little science humor.

Fun...Fun...Fun

We have been having such a good time visiting family that it has been hard to find time to update everyone on our trip. On Terry's last day in Indy, we went to the Titanic exhibit with Uncle Jonathan. It was really a nice exhibit and we enjoyed it. When you enter the exhibit you are given a boarding pass from a real passenger of the Titanic. It tells what cabin class you were in and some background info. At the end of the exhibit, you can see if your passenger survived or not. Terry and I both survived. Hunter and Uncle Jonathan did not make it. I told Hunter I am sure they died trying to help women and children off the ship.

Hunter and I knocked out some school on the way up to Wisconsin to see his Great Grandma VandeBerg. Oddly enough, we were doing his Excellence in Writing class on the DVD player in the car while driving through Chicago. His class actually takes place in Chicago so there are several references to Chicago by the professor teaching the class. He got a kick out of the fact that we were in Chicago while the professor was talking about Chicago.

This was the first time in years we have been able to spend that night at Grandma VandeBerg's house - typically we just stop by for the day. Hunter was so excited to have time to play with his cousins. He had an amazing time running around with the kids. Can't forget to mention that my Aunt Diane was able to get me a package of the most delicious venison sticks I've ever had....mmmmmm. Grandma sent me on my way with three loaves of Amish bread....yummy!! We woke up Wednesday to an answered prayer - SNOW!!  Hunter just wanted to see snow while we were in WI. There was just enough snow to have a fun time. It is supposed to snow again on Friday and Sat. - several inches. We start heading back to Texas on Sun. morning so I am hoping it is nothing major.

Hunter with Addie and Lettie



Hunter and Ryan Robert playing in the snow.



Hunter playing with Emma, Ryan and Addie

Yesterday we arrived at the Kalahari water park (indoors) in Wisconsin Dells for a little fun with my mom and Jack, my brother. Jack and Hunter especially liked the toilet bowl and the Kalahari Surfari - it is a ride that is just like surfing. Hunter took a bad spill and is still limping today. He had so much fun. We practically have the entire water park to ourselves since it is off-season. Off to the water park for another day of fun!

Hunter's first typed paper.

Hunter did his first paper on the computer today - he did GREAT!!  He did a great job on the keyboard. The title of his first paper is "Wise Wishes".

Had to include a picture of Hunter with his friends Connor and Jacob. They are the children of my best friend from college. We were able to visit them last weekend and had a wonderful time with them! Connor and Hunter exchanged DS games.

Hunter with Connor and Jacob in Racine, WI

Update on our travels - Family, Friends and Fun.



Hunter with his Uncle Tom

What a fun time we have been having. After two long days of travel we were happy to get to Grandma and Papa's house. Hunter will tell anyone who asks him that he is spoiled by his Grandma. At night he sits on the couch with his head on his Grandma and his feet on his Papa. The kids is happy as can be!

We've been so happy to be able to spend time with Uncle Tom, Aunt Karla, Kayla, Luke and Mary. We went to one of Mary's basketball games - it was a blast! Mary is an unbelievable basketball player.

On Friday we went to pick up Kayla at IU for Thanksgiving break. Hunter enjoyed hanging out in Kayla's room. After we picked up Kayla, we went to
 watch Luke's football game. It was 30 degrees outside - Hunter and I were

Hunter and Kayla in her dorm at IU.

 not used to the cold weather. I could not feel my toes by the end of the game. Hunter spent a lot of time during the game playing football with a friend he made. Luke's team won their game and are now headed to State!!!  We are really proud of him.

Luke after a great win!!

On the school front, we have been doing school during the morning. We discovered a GREAT website with  grammar videos. The professor in the videos is fabulous. Tomorrow we start another week of school. Terry gets in on Wednesday night - we are both excited to see him!!

Update on our drive to Indiana

We started off this morning at 5:00am - Terry left to catch his flight to Florida and Hunter and I left for Indiana. About 30 minutes into the trip, Hunter advised me I was in "Math Cab" (his version of Cash Cab). Yes I could win big money by answering his math questions: I have twenty Cocoa Loco bars and 10 of them are rotten, what fractional part is rotten? Hmmm.... Evidently the thought of winning pretend moeny really got me engrosed in the game because we missed our exit. I got the question right though!! 

So once again I had to call Terry to help get me back on track. He is very close to embedding a GPS chip in me so these situations can get resolved so much quicker!

We were back on track. Hunter and I switched to his favorite game - the coin game. I tell him how much money I have and how many coins and he has to figure it out. For example, I have 35 cents (where is the cents symbol on the keyboard?) with 8 coins. He could then need to answer that I have 3 dimes and 5 pennies.

We drove until about 7pm tonight and are now settled in the Holiday Inn. It has a swimming pool and spa. Hunter was very happy as he is really trying to excercise so he can get in shape to play tournaments for tennis. He did his push ups in the hotel room and then swam three laps in the pool. Now he is relaxing in the spa.

Originally Hunter tried to talk me into driving all the way to Grandma's house tonight. However, by the time we were about 10 minutes away from the hotel he was ready to stop. We look forward to getting tomorrow's trip knocked out.

Pictures from our trip to the museum.

I wanted to get these pictures of our trip to the museum up before we left out of town. The pirate exhibit was very good. We were not allowed to take pics of the exhibit so we had to settle for what we could get. Hunter was especially interested in learning about John King - a 9 year old boy who was a pirate on the ship that was excavated for this exhibit.

A really nice chemistry exhibit. I especially liked the Periodic Table for Elements made on glass cubes. Each cube contained something associated with the element - very cool!

A huge, gross bug!

The countdown for our trip.

Hunter and I are starting to get ready for our Midwest tour. Last week we started covering the British navigation laws and how they led to pirates. This weekend Hunter designed his own pirate flag. This week we are going to visit the Museum of Natural Science in Houston that has a real pirate treasure on exhibit. We are going to have to do this on Tuesday after we get the tires rotated and the oil changed.

This week for science we are going to make rubber balls. We are continuing to study atoms and elements. We also have some writing assignments to catch up on. This week we also start the "8"'s for multiplication.

Hunter is so excited for our trip I am a little worried he is going to have a hard time focusing on school.

I forgot to post a funny story last week. Terry and I had put Hunter to bed and we were sitting in the living room watching TV when Hunter yelled, "Mom......I just had a stroke!" It took me a while to assure him the pain in his chest was not a stroke - just gas.

Of course my son is going to LOVE science!

When I was in high school, I really gave my chemistry and biology teachers a run for their money. I was all attitude and had very little interest in science - barely paid any attention.  In college, I hardly got through my required biology class - I think I ended up with a "C". So it would only make sense that God would bless me with a home schooled child who loves science. Especially since he seems set on NOT following a curriculum. Instead he wants to select a topic to learn about and then leaves it up to good 'ole mom to figure our a lesson plan. 

Our topic this week is the Periodic Table of Elements. Why this? Well, there is a picture of the table on his science book; however, no information in his science book on it.

Today we discussed matter, atoms, molecules, elements and the scientist who developed the Periodic Table of Elements - Dimitri Mendeleev. By the grace of God I was able to find an amazing website which has videos with information on each of the elements- including some great science experiments. We watch the video on Hydrogen today.

I have some great home experiments which entail mixing different elements to see the reaction. One experiment will allow him to make his own rubber ball out of borax, cornstarch, glue and water.

Sumo Wrestling with Dad



Terry and Hunter Sumo Wrestling

 Last night Hunter had a chance to Sumo Wrestle with Terry. As you can see, Hunter could barely stand in his sumo wrestling outfit. Two men had to pick him up and move him because he could not walk. Dad won the wrestling match with ease. We had fun.

After having a school meeting this weekend, Hunter and I have made some adjustments with school. He thought we were going a little too slow in math, so we are going to combine some lessons to keep the pace moving a little more to his liking.

He felt grammar was going to fast. Just in the last 1 1/2 weeks we have learned the 7 possessive pronouns, 7 subject pronouns and 7 object pronouns. Put this together with the 49 prepositions we've learned and it is just moving a little too fast. We are going to take a couple days to sit back and review everything so he can retain what he has learned. Hunter is doing great in grammar so I have no trouble slowing it down a little for him.

He thinks science is just a little too baby. I will say that there isn't a lot of action involved in our science cirriculum. he wants to learn about the elements, etc... and we are still planting seeds to study how plants grow. I am tempted to take a break fro the cirriculum and spend some time learning about things that are interesting to him. Not sure yet how to work through this.

Cursive is SOOOO boring to him! Right now we are copying paragraphs in cursive for practice using the Abeka cirriculum - he really doesn't like it. Not sure on this one. I know I want him to be able to read cursive (which he can). How important is it to me that he can write in cursive?  I'll have to take some time to think about how we can make this a little more exciting for him. Soem things in life you just have to get through.

Everything else seems to be moving along well and we are both happy with the pace.

Photos from our trip to New York

We made it back late last night. Today we started getting back into our routine of school. Hunter had a math test and we covered poetry, grammar, science, history, phonics and reading. He also had his science lab this afternoon.

We finally got a new camera before our trip. I knew mine was old when Terry's cell phone had a camera with a high megapixel than my digital camera. Part of my job as Director of Electronic Functionality is to get the software installed on my computer so we can get the pics off to upload to the blog. Thus the delay in getting these posted.

By the end of our stay Hunter had no trouble hailing a taxi! He loved the taxi rides. We had great weather! It was sad to come back to Texas where is was 86 degrees at 9:00pm. The museums were great.

The Metro. Museum of Art was so nice to walk thru, but a lot of their exhibits were not behind glass. At age 39 I had a hard time not touching (oooh...pretty rock!) - you can only imagine what Hunter went through. LOL. He did great. We got to see the world's oldest extant piano (see photo below). When we told Terry about it later, he asked what year it was from. Unfortunately, Hunter and I are both global learners - we don't dwell on details. So neither of us read the plaque to find out. Can't you just be happy knowing it is the world's oldest? Don't ask me what extant is either. But the piano was beautiful (and not behind any glass).

At the Museum of Natural History we got to see a lot of artifacts from the Aztecs and Mayans. We have studied these cultures in history already this year. Here is Hunter sitting in front of an Aztec sundial. We also got our picture taken where it looks like we were running from a dinosaur - we all looked very scared and the museum made $25.

 We went ice skating at Rockefeller Center. I lit up the rink with my impressive skating ability. I only knocked five people over trying to stay up. Hunter kept complaining that the ice wasn't very good so it was hard to skate on. That and the fact that he has only been skating three times! By the end of the outing, he was doing a great job skating. I accidentally got someone with my skate blades when I was changing into my shoes - he's okay though - only needed about 5 stitches. I'm sure he is already off his crutches. (just kidding)

The Statue of Libery was amazing. Just amazing.

Update on our trip to New York

We got here yesterday and were happy to learn our hotel room had a view of the Statue of Liberty. After settling in, we stopped to have a knish at a street vendor and then made our way to Ground Zero which about a block from the hotel. Really amazing to stop and think about what the people here went through on 9/11.
Next we headed to Union Square and then walked to Bryant Park to have smores. We then took a bicycle rickshaw to Central Park and then stopped to eat at Terry's favorite afghan restaurant. We ended the night with a trip to Times Square. I asked Hunter if he would move to New York - he said he wasn't ready to leave Texas. His first choice would be to have a farm in Texas and an apartment in New York.

This morning we had brunch in the Bowery and then stopped to let Hunter play in the park for a while. Not sure we will make it to the Statue of Liberty today - may wait for tomorrow when there is less of a crowd. The line for the ferry is VERY long right now. Think we will head to St. Patrick's Cathedral and then see what happens.

It has been so nice having Terry here to take us around since he knows the city so well. He's awesome!

Will post pics when we get back.

Start spreading the news. We're coming to town......

We want to be a part of it New York, New York!

We are getting ready for our trip to New York. Terry was VERY concerned about the number of school books I was going to bring with me. For our trip to Dallas I really loaded up - mostly because we drove and I didn't have any limits. This is our first trip flying during homeschooling. I am happy to say that the below picture is all the school work we need to take for our trip! Here is a breakdown of how I was able to do this:
1. Math - we are going to practice skip counting and mulitplication 1-7. I have a multiplication game on Terry's iPad. When we get back we have a math assessment - so we can also review.
2. Writing - I have our next writing assignment on two sheets of paper.
3. History - we are starting to learn about the colonies - I have the book we are reading packed if we have time to do some history.
4. Grammar - we are practicing our 9 grammar jingles and working on memorizing the subject pronouns, possessive pronouns and object pronouns - only need flashcards for this.
5. Music Theory - just a workbook.
6. Science - Hunter has a small science book for each unti instead of one big book. This is great for travel and easy to pack!
7. Misc books for us to read.

We've decided we are visiting the American Museum of Natural History  and the MET while we are in New York. Hunter is VERY excited!

We had Hunter's school pictures taken. He requested some in his suit and some in his Johnny Cash tshirt. Here is one of his pictures - he was being silly! I should have all his school pictures with me when we come up in November.

Tennis and Piano Lessons

On Tuesdays and Thursdays Hunter takes piano with Mrs. Vastine. He LOVES practicing his songs, but does not really like piano theory. Terry and I sure do enjoy listening to him play piano at home - we are really proud of him! Mrs. Vastine is such a great teacher - she makes learning piano so fun!

Hunter and Mrs. Vastine practicing piano.

On Tuesday afternoons Hunter has tennis lessons with Coach Justin at the country club here at Weston Lakes. Right now it is a little HOT on the courts, but we know it will cool off soon enough.

Go Hunter!!!

What's for sale today?

Each day for Math, we open up a store for Hunter. It is either Hunter's Walmart or Hunter's Target. Today at Hunter's Target we sold NyQuil, kleenex, juice, Emergen C, soup and vapor patches. I asked Hunter if he knew the theme of the items we were selling today and he said, "Dad is sick and needs stuff." That is correct!!!  Terry, who usually is never sick, has been hit with a cold like you would not believe. He actually should not even be at work today - but he went anyway.

After we determine the items for Hunter's store, I come in and puchase a combination of items. He needs to determine the total and give me change - great way to learn how to count change. He LOVES having a store!

School is going a little longer today as we had to take a break to learn how to do laundry. Sunday after church I asked Hunter to hang his shirt from church in his closet. He has a tendency to wear something for 5 minutes and throw it in the dirty clothes. Well today I found his church shirt in the dirty clothes. I decided he could do his own laundry. We started by separating colors from whites - he said, "So - doing this task is fun anyway." Yes Fun - until he found out he was also responsible for turning all of his clothes right-side-out. Then not so fun!!  A nice break for me though!

We had a fabulous time at the Ft. Worth Zoo.

Hunter and I really enjoyed the Ft. Worth Zoo on Tuesday. We weren't sure we were going to make is as Hunter was really sick on Monday. We spent most of the day in the hotel room. But Tuesday he woke up refreshed and ready to go.


Hunter with two birds. He liked to pet them.

  Hunter really enjoyed the birds. There were so many, they were flying around you from every direction. When they landed, you could pet them and they didn't mind a bit.

Of course Hunter also loved watching the apes, gorillas and monkeys. We spent a lot of time watching them play. The zoo had a six month old baby named Layla.

Hunter with Kimono Dragon

Hunter on the climbing wall.

We also spent a lot of time with the Penguins. Very cute. One of them just kept walking back and forth on the otherside of the glass - Hunter loved it.

The zoo also had elephants, giraffes, reptiles, flamingos, zebras, eagles, rhinos, hioppos and any other animal you could imagine. Hunter spent a lot of time petting the sting ray - he loved the "squishy" feel of it.

We ended up staying at the zoo until about an hour before it closed.

Fun with Ricky Skaggs

Hunter and I spent Friday morning at Pump it Up for some fund on inflatable bounce houses and slides. Friday night Terry and I took Hunter to see Ricky Skaggs - what a great concert!!! We all really enjoyed it. On Saturday Hunter went into work with Terry and then we took some of Hunter's friends to Dewberry Farms. Hunter's friends spent the night and Hunter and I both woke up with colds on Sunday.

Today we are off to Dallas with Terry for a business trip - hope to be able to get to the Fort Worth Zoo if we are feeling up to it.

We finished our "Doors to Discovery" book on Friday and are now moving on to "Pilgrim's Progress". Hunter also started his Excellence in Writing class - he loves it because you HAVE TO use a pen - no pencils! We'll be doing school on the road for the next couple days.

Fun with friends.

Yesterday Hunter and I got to spend some time with our friends Mrs. Kelley and Katherine. They also homeschool. Hunter really enjoyed running around outside and climbing trees. It was so nice to catch up with friends.

We use the trampoline a lot at our house for homeschooling. Hunter jumps on the trampoline while we practice flashcards or listen to our grammar jingles. It sure beats sitting at a desk all day!

This week we are reviewing our first seven chapters of History. We are also starting a new unit in science on plants. Hunter has memorized his second poem "My Shadow". He can't wait to recite it to his Grandma and Papa.

Fall has arrived!

I apologize for no updates this past week; however, fall has finally arrived so we have been very busy catching up on outdoor activities. Last week Hunter and I did school at the Brazos Bend State Park. While we were hiking, we saw a 10ft alligator eating a smaller alligator. Of course I left my camera in the car - GRRRR!

Hunter had a math assessment, a grammar test and a science test last week. He did a great job on all of them. Grammar is the most challenging right now - advebs, adjectives, prepositions and object of the preposition.....brings back fond memories!



Hunter at Brazos Bend State Park



Hunter showing his Science Test.



This Friday we were able to pick up Hunter's friends after school for a night out. First they all went to the park. Then they played lazer tag, bowling and arcade games. We also had pizza. From left to right: Matthew, Kolton, Judd and Hunter.

After a tough week of school, it is nice to get out with friends and have some fun!!!              

Hunter has completed level 2 All About Spelling!!!

Today Hunter received his certificate for completing his level 2 All About Spelling. We will start level 3 next week. Hunter loves All About Spelling because he gets to throw the words that break phonics rules in jail. Below is a photo of Terry giving him his certificate.

We had our first taste of fall here today - 81 degrees and very dry. We did a lot of school outside. Hunter likes to hang out with our neighbor's dogs while he does his work.



Today is crazy day.

Well, everyday is crazy day, but today is Crazy Dress Day! Yes - that is underwear on his head and he is wearing three pair of shorts.

Oh the agony of Monopoly!!!

Hunter and I have been playing Monopoly for almost a week now - same game. He has a hotel on Kentucky Avenue. The rent if you land on it is $1,050. Today I landed on it. He took great joy collecting his $1,050 from me for rent. He has since put another hotel on Pacific Avenue. The rent for that property is now $1,275. I don't stand a chance!!!

A fun day at the Houston Children's Museum



 After taking our spelling test this morning, we spent the day at the Houston Children's Museum. What a blast! Hunter enjoyed climbing the Power Tower, playing in Kidtropolis, splashing in Water Works and  the Invention Convention.

He also spent a lot of time in How It Works. He got to sit on a chair and try to pull himself up using different pulleys. The more pulleys used, the easier it was to lift. Below is a photo of Hunter with his carbon dioxide molecule model at the Matter Lab.

A great day all around! We really had fun. We can't wait to share this with Ryan and Jack!!!

Getting Started with Homeschooling!

Hunter in a lab coat and safety goggles.

We are about four weeks into our first year of homeschooling. Hunter really enjoys the flexibility and he is learning a lot.

Our typical day includes science, math, history, grammar, spelling, phonics, Bible, cursive writing, reading and keyboarding. This fall we will also add a writing class to our day.

Hunter's favorite subjects right now are Bible and science. He attends a science lab every week at a local christian school in Simonton. The Houston Health Museum also offers science labs - he is excited to dissect a cow's eye in November. I'll let you know how that goes.