WELCOME!

WELCOME! I used this blog to share our family's homeschooling thoughts and experiences. Our oldest child, EL, finished her formal education in May 2017, and we graduated our son, JJ, from High School in May 2021. I will leave this blog up for anyone who wishes to read our curriculum reviews or see what types of field trips and/or activities we participated in.

Friday, September 30, 2016

SEPTEMBER 2016 FIELD TRIPS: Apple Orchard & Ray Hanna Stables


Lost Creek Apple Orchard 
This was our 5th year attending this orchard. They always give a nice, informational tour with friendly service. 


JJ walking through the orchard with friends

EL picking apples

JJ on an old tractor

EL running to the finish line during a race through the corn

Walking through the corn maze


Ray Hanna Horse Stable
The U of I Extention Office set up this tour. We were able to meet the trainers and caretakers of the race horses, see the equipment the horses wear during a race, and interact with the horses up close.

One of the trainers with "Cole Heat."

EL with a sweet dog named Casey

JJ's favorite horse was "Fox Valley Dandy"

Cole Heat wearing his racing gear




Saturday, September 17, 2016

JJ's Star Wars Limerick

Part of JJ's Language Arts curriculum this year is to do one lesson each day in LANGUAGE LESSONS FOR THE SECONDARY CHILD - VOL 1. This volume is written for a child between the ages of 10 and 15 and includes lessons in grammar, punctuation, copywork, narration, dictation, picture studies, letter writing, and learning how to write different types of poetry.

Last week, he had two lessons about a type of poetry called a Limerick. This is one of the most fun types of poetry - not really meant to be insightful or thought-provoking, but just written for fun. It consists of only 5 lines, with lines 1, 2 and 5 rhyming with each other and lines 2 and 3 also rhyming. Here's an example of a limerick (Author unknown):


There once was an old man from Peat
Who had an affection for feet.
He found them so cute
He would not wear a boot
And his tootsies were pretty soon beat!


JJ was required to write his own limerick, so he chose a Star Wars theme (What else!?), and this is what he came up with. He did this completely on his own, with no help from me, except I did correct his spelling:

There once was a man named Darth Vader,
And he was a very big hater.
He wanted more power
So he could devour
All the people he thought was a traitor.