What would you do if. . .

you inherited an island in the Pacific Ocean and the only stipulation of your inheritance was that you had to design it to be an island resort?



This was the task given to my boys for their first official project of the school year. They had a list of requirements they were graded on and I'm happy to report they more than achieved every single requirement.

Even Ryland got on board with the assignment. Of course, he designed approximately 30 different islands and my basement is littered with scenes from the South Pacific right now.

{Braden's island}

{Tarver's island}

{Ryland giving us a tour of his island, microphone and all}

{Langston looking over his brother's work}

{Langston taking center stage during Tarver's presentation}

{Yeah, I know I'm funny!}

{Tarver's presentation}

{And Ryland, squeezing out every second of the stage he can.}

This year our studies are centering around the Eastern Hemisphere as we jump into Sonlight's Core 5.

We have now left the Pacific Islands and will be traveling through the history and people of Australia for the next two weeks.

What's for supper, Mom?

In haste the other day, I quickly stashed this cute little magazine in my recipe book holder in the kitchen. It has a great experiment to make blue-goo that I can't wait to try with Ryland and Langston, so sticking it in the kitchen wasn't completely wrong.

Until Ryland came running through the kitchen, spotted it up there and excitedly exclaimed,

"MOM! Are we having tigers for supper tonight?!"

His enthusiasm was a bit disturbing, but it was a hilarious moment nonetheless. Ryland is definitely the comedian in our family - part of what makes him so funny is that he doesn't even try. It's just him.

Goin' to the chapel. . .

My sweet friend, Anna, announced her engagement this week and she asked if I wouldn't mind snapping a few engagement photos of the sweet couple.



How could I resist?




Thank you, Anna & Jeremy, for allowing me the honor of capturing the beginning of the rest of your lives together. I am humbled by your request. . . thank you.

And Congratulations.

These are just a *few* of my favorites. . .

Go with God's blessings. . .

The First Day. . .

back to our full-time studies began today. Traditionally, we take a First Day picture. They get a little weirder each year. I do have all boys, you know.


You see, we were doing okay, until the newest little member of our preschool group decided to show off for his Mommy.




And then his brothers started laughing. . .

And all bets were off. Nice, weird First Day picture. {thank you}

So, I came inside to take a pretty picture. This is what I do when eyes go crossed and fingers start exploring deep, dark, slimy ranges that only a little boy could love.

I thought it would be more than appropriate to celebrate our first day back with Starbucks in my 'Balance' cup. This is the cup I pull out when I am trying to keep proper perspective.

I could just sit and stare at my flowers for a long, long time. Except, my absence would mean something terrible would happen {i.e. something would break, catch on fire or blow up} while I am staring at the pretty things. {By the way, this is a yellow zinnia. I have never seen a yellow zinnia before this year when they started growing in my garden! Zinnias are a favorite flower of mine.}

We got Langston's finger dislodged and uncrossed eyes and buckled down to our books. It felt good to be here again. It's nice to have a break, but this routine is so good.

We studied all day long {plus a multitude of other household items, Home Economics is a course still offered at our 'school'} and by the end of the day were more excited about the upcoming year than when we started this morning.

I caught Tarver doing 'one more math lesson' just before bed. And I said to him,

"No! I cannot have you working ahead! You are not allowed to love math more than playing Legos. No, no, no!"

{Yeah, right!}

I said, Thank you, Lord. One of our biggest educational goals is to give our children the desire to and love for learning. To receive this blessing on our first day back was amazing and humbling.

But, that's the way blessings work.

I can tell you one thing for certain. Our Bo kitty was wiped out after lunch. I have a feeling he will not be getting his homework finished tonight! Class pets are really starting to get lazy these days.

I had a chance to ponder some of the differences we experience this time of year, each year. Then, I started writing a few down in my journal throughout the day. I came up with a rather extensive list, but here are some of the differences our home educating family has from 'the rest of the world'.

What sets us apart. . .

{my list of observations from my time to ponder today}

-Our "milk" program consists of starting homemade yogurt in the crockpot the night before, and serving it for breakfast in our "cafeteria" with homemade granola.

-All the cool kids sit at the same table. With their teacher.

-"School pictures" are taken in the front yard. {without shoes on!}

-We get to have a contest on who can make it through the Matthew 1 begats the quickest and with the fewest mistakes.

-The students make lunch in our "school"--after they run out to the garden & hen house to pick cucumbers and collect eggs.

-We have the liberty to continue on in a book or subject we are enjoying despite our schedule, because our "school" has not been equipped with 'period bells'.

-The teacher at our "school" corrects math papers while preparing a crock pot supper, doing 2 loads of laundry and listening to Allistair Begg on the radio--over her lunch hour. {My teacher's union would have a fit over this type of work on a break. . .if I had one!}

-The Principal is having supper at our home tonight!

-The students at our "school" have to walk to classes every day, even the preschoolers. Snow, wind, heat index, you name it, they walk.

-The entire "School Board" had supper together last night and prayed for God's blessing and protection over our students and their education. We specifically prayed that our students would grow tremendously in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus. We even had brownies and ice cream at our "School Board" meeting!

-All "school bonds" are handled in house! {Taxpayers rejoice!} We don't even bug our neighbors with "school fundraisers"!

-Parent-teacher conferences are a cinch to arrange. To some this may seem that I am talking to myself. {This is my excuse}

-I received a teaching bonus today, my first ever! The Principal was pretty clever hiding that shiny penny in my 2-yr old's dirty diaper, I tell you . . .My 2-yr old isn't exactly innocent, as he later confessed "I eat penny, Mommy!"

-We have guns at our school. And swords, axes, lightsabers and even some knives.

-Sometimes physical education class is chasing around the very active and very mischievous preschoolers. Boy can they run. And destroy. Run, destroy, laugh, repeat. . .I am not getting any faster in my old age.

-We have a female teacher at our all-male school.

-Our intercom system works by standing at the top of the stairs and shouting. Likewise, out-of-doors, standing on the front porch and shouting. {This is why my neighbors love me!}

-We practice fire drills on a regular basis. . .pretty much each day a frozen pizza is cooked for lunch.

-Our baby scrapbooks are our "Student I.D."

-The UPS man ringing the doorbell means a mass exodus from our studies, an instant race to get to the door first and generally ends up in an early dismissal.

-Snow days mean we double up on our studies so we can finish earlier for summer vacation.

-Detention can be negotiated for extra yard work, cleaning the floors or cleaning the bathrooms.

-The teacher at our "school" is pretty crazy about the Principal. I think he's kind of sweet on her, too. It works out well for us.

Happy Birthday. . .

To my sweet Grampa, who celebrates #87 today.

We are sending you so much love over the miles!

$6 in economics & entertainment

*Please note: the $6 lesson does not include costs incurred at Starbucks. Proceed with that knowledge beforehand!!


One of our favorite back-to-homeschool traditions over the last several years has actually ended up being a great lesson in economics with a strong emphasis in budgeting.


And it has turned out to be a great deal of entertainment for me as well.


Each year, when Target rolls out their school supplies and starts advertising them for cheap {you know, the $0.25 box of crayons, Crayola no less!} the kids and I load up in the van to make the hour-long pilgrimage to my favorite store. (This does work at any store of your choice, I just happen to be a Target sort of girl.)


I recommend swinging by Starbucks, ordering the coffee of your choice, and then finding an employee and asking if they would mind setting up an end-of-season lawn or patio chair in the school supply section of the store. Experience has proven that this simple and fun lesson takes awhile. {Trust me}


The rest is simple: I hand my sons $6 in cash and tell them that they can buy any school supplies they would like, as long as they don't go over budget and they have to figure in tax. Then, I sit back, relax and enjoy the show.


I love to watch them first skim over the entire section of school supplies, noting prices and selection. Then they start to gather. Then calculate. Then bargain with themselves:
"If I trade the Crayola for the Roseart, that saves me $1.50. Or, I can always go with the 24-count pencils and save $0.46."

And then, they start to bargain with each other:
"If you buy the jumbo pack of Ticonderoga pencils and get the 10-pack of glue sticks, I'll get the economy pack of pens and we can split them. That will save us each $0.72"


This lesson can go on for well over an hour, but I generally call it quits at an hour, causing them to have to budget their time as well. I use the time to browse around the school supply section myself, inhaling deeply because I love the smell of fresh paper and pens and soft pink erasers and glue. . .on second thought, maybe I should not be inhaling so deeply around the glue sticks. Hmm, that may explain a few things. Anyway, it is a cheap lesson in budgeting and being wise with their money. It is fun to see what they pick out for the coming year and I have noticed that the responsibility they exercise with school supplies thought out and picked out themselves is remarkably better than the things they can pull off of our 'community' school supply shelf.


I am all about school this week and will be sharing more as time permits. So excited for Monday, our first day of the new year.

Something Old, Something New. . .{the crayon project}

I think I have already mentioned that I got to work in high-gear last week organizing, cleaning, preparing and planning for our new school year, which is just about a week from starting.

During that process, the one in which I inhale deeply the smell of fresh school supplies and sharpen every pencil the walls of our home contain, I discovered we had a lot of broken crayons in our preschool drawer.

Considering it was hotter than, um, hotter than Oklahoma {I'm not sure if that's true or not}, my frugal, but efficient, mind started to formulate a plan.

Turning broken chunks of Crayola into something useable again.
{Gramma, this one is Ryland}

It was a great way to keep my kids busy since it has been too hot to play outside and even the littlest guy was able to help.

These little toes are so irresistible to this Mommy. I have six pictures of his "tee-kose" (that's how Langston says 'tickles' which is his word for his toes since I tickle so much) from this project. I really love little toesies!

We all stripped the crayons of their paper, then gathered them into a container. Once all the crayons were without paper, I lightly greased two small pie tins with vegetable oil and had Ryland and Langston fill their tins with the crayons.

Then the experiment began.

Yes, it has been hot here. How hot? Hot enough to melt crayons! Last week our thermometer read 104 {that was by far a cool day compared to a few 112' days we experienced. . .ugh!} with a heat index of 131'. I know our weather station bears the name 'Accurite', but I do think it measured the heat index a tad high. Just a tad, though. It was HOT and sticky and miserable. Those of you in Washington reading this, you just have no idea what this kind of heat feels like.

Oh, back to the crayon project. The sun did a great job melting the crayons {although I did have to stick the tins in a 200' oven for just a few minutes to get the middle crayons to melt all the way and have the wax flatten out.} The end result?

Yum. Oh, that's not the end result. This kid of mine who will not touch his white chili at supper but will eat a crayon! I guess that's 2 for you.

The end result: we took something old and turned it into something new. And we are so excited to put our new rainbow crayons to good use on our first day of school.

Although, I did let the Preschool class take their new crayons for a test scribble while I was taking their picture.

It was a hit and they love their crayons because they were able to do most of the work themselves.

And, on a totally separate note from melted Crayolas but in the same topic of home education, I read this book below in an evening a few weeks ago. I highly recommend it to anyone with children, regardless of education preference. I was able to discover my children's different learning styles and discover my own teaching style. It was an eye opener. The book is packed with a lot of helpful information and ideas on how to teach to the different learning styles (and how not to). I am excited about the changes it will lead to in the years to come in our home school. I bought my copy from Timberdoodle years ago, I only wish I had read it a lot sooner.

Braden is our talker, Tarver is a watcher, Bob is a doer and I am a watcher. The verdict is still out on the two preschoolers - right now it seems they are doers, but I am sure that is their age more than anything.

And now, to leave you with a quote from another of my favorite books on home education {I'm not sure why, but it has been rolling through my head today so maybe blogging it out will get it out of my head. . .}

"There is a . . .test I like to offer to determine whether or not you are competent to homeschool. You don't have to go to college to get a degree in education. . . .You don't have to have teachers in your family background. Nor is it necessary that you were once the teacher's pet, or are an expert in clapping erasers. The test is rather simple to take. It should only take a few minutes, and then you will know. The first thing you do is wait until it is late at night. Then, very quietly, go from room to room in your house. Peek in carefully, and see if you find any sleeping children. Then be sure that these are your own children. If there are wee ones in your home during the wee hours, and if they belong to you, you are competent to homeschool. The true Expert on education is the very One who gave you these children."

From When You Rise Up, A Covenental Approach to Homeschooling by R.C. Sproul, Jr.

*This is a favorite book of mine and one I am sure to read every year. It helps give me encouragement for the hard days and to keep my eyes on the ultimate Vision I have for my children. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Leaning on Him,

Hollie