Weekly Round- Up

 I took Meg to a little workshop on how to make string art.  She made the SC state outline as a little remembrance for when we move.

 
 I was at Goodwill and found a whole String Art kit!! For $2.00  Meg went right to work.

 She made a little collection in her room.

 She is in the kitchen all the time.  She made us Valentine cupcakes.

 You start to label food.....when you live with Owen

 We headed to Jacksonville, FL to compete one last time with the Charleston Band.

 They always have livestock and Meg immediately went to see the horses.

 I loved this little plaid ribbon on this pony.  All dressed up for the Scottish games.

 This guy cracked us up.  He saw me taking his picture so he "flexed" for me.

 Meg went for the snow cone... an excellent choice seeing how it was 81 degrees

 I didn't get a picture but Owen always gets a scone with strawberries and whipped cream!

 Our sweet friend the amazing Sandy Jones  

 Then it was our time to take the field.  My nerves are always a wreck walking out on the field in front of the judges.  Front and center.... no pressure...right?    

 This guy pretty much expresses how I feel after piping all day.

 and these guys.

 but we made and we placed 2nd!!

Owen waiting to take the field for an air soft game.  He loves this stuff.  He was meeting up with a friend today so he was super excited.

Spring has arrived here in Charleston.  I'm hoping it is here to stay.

Weekly Round  - Up

We headed to the beach for a day.  Meg and Owen are always building.  

 Meg had two more riding lessons.  She was super excited to find out she will be joining a group of homeschool girls her age for group lessons.

 Sweet Jesse

 Out at the farm they had some baby sheep and we were smitten.

 This mama was giving us the stare down.

 We are studying the Civil War... I grabbed my high-school note book.  I had the most amazing US history teacher.  His notes are always a help and I use them as a reference.  

 I also pulled out my high-school research paper.  I thought the kids would get a kick out of reading it.

 My original stack of research articles.  Going to show the kids how it was done in the "olden days."

 Goodwill Update:  I really should do a fashion show of all the clothes we get at goodwill.  Meg is into half boots so we lucked up on a pair of Born and Cole Haans for $5.00 each! We scored an REI vest for Owen, a cool light up blue tooth speaker, a new game, an air-soft camo shirt for Owen and a new car.....


just kidding about the car...

But boy do we love a good - GoodWill run!!

 We are a little more than half way through the school year.  We have read some really good books.  The kids have their own reading logs but this is the list of books we have read together.  This year I tried something new which was having books for each one of us.  This is a little tricky but because I thrift all the time I pick up books here and there, usually end of checking one out at the library and always hit the local re-sale book store.  Between all of those options I am able to find 3 copies of each book we ready together.  I have found that having the kids tract the text as one of us reads is a real help.

 Here are a few stand-outs
Loved this one!!  We were laughing out loud. We love this author. We already have another one of his on the shelf to read.

 We liked this one -  didn't love it but it had a great story line.  The kids didn't like the movie at all.

 We felt Ginger Pye was written for a younger audience.  This book seemed too childish for us.

 We really liked this one.

 This was a tough read... hard vocab and very lengthy but we stuck with it and in the end we were glad we did!!

The kids did a happy dance when we finished Tom Sawyer.  They did not care for this book at all.  And that is putting it lightly!!  Sorry Tom, we won't be ready Huck's adventures.  

Two thumbs up for the Kite Fighters...BIG fans of Linda Sue Park!!

 We loved Amos Fortune.  Sweet, Sweet story!

We just finished the first book in the Hunger Games trilogy.  It appears on tons of reading list for middle schoolers.  I asked our local librarian about her thoughts on it for my kids and their ages.  She asked if they had read the Harry Potter books -  I said, "yes" she felt like if they could handle that they could handle Hunger Games.  I will say the whole idea of the book seemed violent but we had lots of conversations about it and in the end we discussed the good, the bad and the ugly.  I would say read and discuss this book with your middle schooler.  We were intrigued though...I think we will start book two this week.  

and that's a wrap.  

We are down to single digits in the number of weeks we have left here in Charleston.  New adventures ahead.....stay tuned.