Christmas Tour Continued

These pictures are in our kitchen.  This is a little shelf unit that hangs on the wall opposite our table.  I've had the matrushka dolls since I was around 10 years old.  They are from Russia and were given to me by my best friend in elementary school.

This is a little tree sitting on a small table along that same brick wall.  I got the tree on clearance from Target a few years ago.  It was a Bratz tree, believe or not.  I chunked the Bratz ornaments and scraped off the Bratz label from the base.  I love the little glass mushroom ornaments that I found to hang from it.

Here is a picture of our kitchen table and window that looks out on my bird feeders and flower garden along the side of our house.  The window has a large sill that holds a collection of snow globes.  The shelf unit and the little white tree from above flank the window.  We have Christmas lights strung around the window and we use our Nikko Christmas china every evening from the first day of December until New Year's Day.

Christmas House Tour

Here are some pictures of our dining room, decorated for Christmas.  This is one of 2 trees that we have.  This room has an "old fashioned" Christmas feel, with a few candles on the tree held on with clips (which we dare not light!), and ornaments that are of natural materials or home-made.

Here you can get a feel for the room, Christmas cones hung from the chandelier, and our Christmas village on the buffet.

Pictures of the rest of the family room and kitchen to come in other posts.

mood music

Well, is there anything more Christmas-y than listening to Julie Andrews et al on the old Firestone Christmas album from the 60's (at least I think it's from then)?  We used to listen to this just about every afternoon after school and all through the Christmas holidays from whenever my parents first got it (in the 60's) until I left home in the mid 70's.  Not sure if that picture is the right one or not, but it's certainly close.  A couple of years ago my dad burned it to a cd for me, along with the old Boston Pops album.  I have them playing now as we decorate the den tree.  I'll have to get on the ball and take some pictures.

Funky Garden Institute: My Garden

From my garden blog, Funky Garden Institute: My Garden: "Here is a picture of my side flower garden This is my flower garden in our side yard, between the house and the driveway. This was in ear..."

TWO WEEK WRAP UP (HANNAH)

Hannah (11th grade) is studying U.S. history, using History of Us.  She is almost done with Book 1, The First Americans.  She is working on an ACT math and science review book in hopes of bringing her math and science scores up when she next takes the ACT, probably in October.  She also is almost done with the first unit in Teaching Textbooks Pre-Calculus.  She is also 2/3 through The Science of Liberty by Timothy Ferris.  This ties the development of science to the rise of democracy and the age of reason, which dovetails very nicely with her readings in Physics, using Physics Demystified.  She will be taking college freshman English beginning this week at Christian Brothers  University, so other than having her read the Scarlet Letter over the past 2 weeks, I'm holding off any additional assignments while she is in that class.  
  

TWO WEEK WRAP UP (Cree)

In the midst of having our upstairs carpets replaced and both of our full bathrooms tiled and updated, we completed our first two weeks of homeschooling for this school year.

Cree (7th grade) is studying U.S. Geography this year, using Trail Guide to US Geography.  The past 2 weeks and this week she is covering New England, doing mapping, making a chart for the states, answering research questions.  She watched a GlobeTrekker video on New England, and we made blueberry muffins and scalloped oysters for dinner.  This week we'll be making apple pandowdy and pumpkin pie.

Cree is using Sequential Spelling, a new program for us, developed by AVSKO for use with people with dyslexic issues.  It seems to be working well so far.

We are using Lightening Literature, which had Cree reading and working with Rikki Tikki Tavi, learning about plot structure and story boards.

In science we did some work with weather.  Cree kept a weather chart for the 2 weeks, and also kept a record of the clouds.  Although the temperatures were in the upper 90's and 100's the entire time, there were quite a few clouds to take note of.  She also did some reading on wind, currents, and hurricanes.  She also learned about bivalves -- all tying in with New England.

Our family readalouds these 2 weeks were A Break With Charity, a novel about the Salem Witch Trials by Ann Rinaldi, and Lyddie by Katherine Paterson, about a mill girl in Lowell, MA in the 1840's

Seaside/Seagrove Florida