Homeschool Journal--Pictures from England!!

I've not done my journal post the past couple of weeks.  Our lives have been a whirlwind!
Jasmine left for England March 20th, and comes home tomorrow evening.
I am sharing the photos today that the  youth minister has shared with us through facebook.  I can't wait for them to get back tomorrow so that I can see what photos she has taken and hear all about the trip!    




Here they are ready to leave for the trip:

Youth Minister, Andy, being silly.

   Big Ben?

 Lunch Time

 Canterbury Cathedral:

 Jack the Ripper Tour

 More lunchtime:

St Pauls Cathedral after Eucharist:

Goodby London--Hello Hogwarts

Hampton Court Palace:

Lambeth Palace:

Windsor Castle:

Lunch at McDonalds:

I am linking up with:

Homeschool Journal--Getting Ready for England

We had a good week all the way around again!  Some of the other neat things for this week was making Valentines with youth group at our church.
We did spend a lot of time "getting ready for the England trip"  We are still reading out loud the books we checked out from the public library on England.  Each week now when she attends the youth group meetings (with the group that is making the trip), they are learning about England too. 

I'm not sure why it wasn't mentioned to us earlier, but we found out last week that the other kids in the youth group had been earning for this trip for over 2 years and my daughter only joined their youth group 8 months ago.  Therefore she had a $830 credit towards the $2330 needed by each youth for the trip.  

Working with a lady at church--actually she is doing the majority of the work---we got to figuring out how to raise the other $1500 that my daughter needs to pay her way.  The youth group at our own church is giving her $750.  Our retired pastor now attends the church where she is going to this youth group.  He has an endowment fund in his wife's name.  He has graciously offered the $500 left in it for her to go.  (He was our pastor for 13 years, so all of Jasmine's life).  

They (some of the people at our church) asked Jasmine to make a poster with a thermometer to track money collected.  We printed out pictures of the places we know for sure they will visit in England and pasted those around on the board as well.  Here is the finished poster:

 Once we got to church this past Sunday the gal changed the $1500 at the top to the total amount needed and started the thermometer out with how much Jasmine had earned herself for the trip.  She gave a big announcement before the church service started, and stood at the back of the church after the service and collected any donations.  I'm not sure how much was collected but we are heading to Bible study in a few minutes so we will probably find out.  I think we pretty much got what was needed though!

There are some things she needed for the trip as well such as a travel wallet and a waterproof jacket.  The gal that is helping us make sure she gets the money needed has bought the travel wallet for her as her gift.  She also brought in a Cabela's catalog---her and another member are going to get her the waterproof jacket as well as water proof shoes as their gifts!

Yahoo!  My husband and I are sending her with $300 for her snacks and souvenirs money.  We are taking that out of our state income tax refund once it gets in.  We won't have our federal in before the trip.

The trip is March 20-28.

That is my report for this week---off I go now to check out what others are up to in their homeschool adventures  :)

Homeschool Journal--Christmas Rush Week

Whew! The Christmas rush week is over and it's time to slow down and get back on track.

Not intentional, but we did no text book work last week at all. We got in our devotions, both at home, and from a book I carry in my tote while we were on the run.
There was of course the Christmas program on the 18th. Jasmine had a reading to do. Below is a photo of her reading during the program. The afternoon of the 18th was 3 hours of Christmas caroling to the shut-in members.

Bible study was held this last week. This week we are taking the week off and it's strange to be sitting at home right now instead of at church for study.
She attended her youth group meeting at the Grace church. Also for that youth group she helped serve a soup supper during the annual Luminary up north of town. The soup supper was a fundraiser towards their trip to England in March.

She did help me some with the Christmas baking. There was also the Christmas Eve service at church as well.
Christmas eve was a full day...first to my brother's house for my family...then to hubby's sister's house for his family...and then to church. Below is a photo of Jasmine at hubby's sisters house waiting to open gifts.

Oh yes, I mustn't forget to share this photo of Jasmine and Santa together too LOL This was after church on the 18th.

One of my gifts to Jasmine I bought through brainemporium.com. It's Visual Brainstorms The Smart Thinking Game. Although she made a wise crack when opening it telling every one "of course mom gets me something education", she got the cards out right away. It's 100 of the world's best brainteaser questions, guaranteed to challenge, entertain, puzzle and amuse you. Ages 10 to adult, multiple players. Everyone got in on trying to solve.

I better move along and take advantage of the extra time at home this morning. I am linking up with:

Homeschool Journal--Christmas is Upon Us

I'm sure most of you are like me---good intentions for book work this past week, but it just didn't happen.  We only ended up with 2 good days of book work.  We have so many activities going on aside from the normal activities.
Time to relax about it and go with the flow.

One day last week we spent 5 hours at our church for a funeral.  A beloved church member passed away.  She was 88 years old and led a full faithful life.  The service was extra long as many people had wonderful things to say about knowing her.  We have been helping with funeral dinners for a few years now (Jasmine and myself), and this one was no different.  Serving over 100 people (family), was a lot of food, a lot of prep, and a lot of clean up.  It's all worth it to know you are providing a service to the family.  Plus, you hear even more stories of their life during the mealtime.

Thursday evening was spent at church.  It was the usual monthly grill fundraising night so we went to eat as usual.  They have added back in family fun night to be from 7-9 after grill.  This last week some of us spent the 2 hours decorating the church upstairs.  When we were done with that we packed up goody bags.  We Christmas carol to the shut-ins and they each get a goody bag.  Then, Santa was there after church to let children sit on his lap and get a goody bag too.  That was assembly line fun to put the bags together.  They played the movie Prancer for the younger ones to watch while we worked, and plenty of snacks and drinks were available for all.
Here's Jasmine untangling garland and lights to decorate the choir area.

In her youth group on Wednesday evening they went Christmas caroling at Wesley Towers.

Here is wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!!

 
Christian Glitter by www.christianglitter.com

 

Homeschool Journal--Plugging Along

I can't say that we had the best of week's as far as book work, but it was a good week.

The grandkids were out of school Friday for Veteran's Day.  I didn't figure we would get much schoolwork done with 5 kids in the house.  It ended up that her youth group decided to meet for the day since there was no school.  They had a 6 hour or so get together.  It's good for her to go and socialize with kids her own age, so in the long run I was glad she got to go.


Tuesday was sewing club at church for me.  Usually we can't get Jasmine involved in helping with anything.  We make quilts that we give to the Domestic violence center and meet once a month from 10-3.  Jasmine still attends the Bible study upstairs and then comes downstairs with us.  Once she is downstairs we have lunch.  She brings schoolwork in her backpack for the afternoon.  This time we talked her into doing some tracing of letters for us.  We are making a banner for the church's 125th anniversary next year.

She did end up doing some math once she was done cutting out the letters.  I would actually much prefer she spent the afternoon helping us cut material, tie quilts, and learning to sew.

We are still reading books about Greece.  The current book we are reading is Teens in Greece.  I planned on moving on to England next since her youth group is supposed to make a trip to England in March.  However, they still need $6000 to make the trip so now they are talking about going to Disney World instead.  We may still study England, time will tell on that I guess.

I am super busy working on quilts and things each day now.  It's something I have to do for myself and for our money situation.  I've decided we will start picking up educational DVD's at the library each week again.  If nothing else those can work in with history and science for times when I am working.  I read a lot out loud to Jasmine in our studies.  It's the way she learns best.

I'm going to move on this week as we need to head out the door to Bible study for this week.

Monday September 28

Good Morning!
I used to do so well, typing into my blog daily..now it's only 2 or 3 times a week...
I've just become so busy these days!

Yesterday was a FULL day. We went to church...after church I got m Walgreens lists and coupons ready to go and then went shopping. Once home we ate some ham and beans....then we headed to my mom's for her birthday cake and ice cream. Right after that we were off to church for youth group meeting. Whew! Run, run, run, and run some more.

This morning started early running my son a few places. Right now I need to be upstairs getting Jasmine up. I really want to get going on her schoolwork for the day and get that done.

I just updated my Our Unschooling Journey 4 squidoo lens. I think I would like to continue these lenses, but we aren't really unschooling so I am thinking on a name change. It's nice for me to keep a running journal of the work that is being done.

I got in my Mail Call! Week of September 20 and my Walgreen's Shopping 9/27/09 posts on gather. I've still been putting in 3 photos a day from the Kansas State Fair. I hope to get in a photo essay today along with 3 more photos, my usual daily post for my group, and a video.

We are to have a yard sale this next Saturday. According to the forecast, as of right now they aren't calling for any rain that day but the high is 64. I will keep watching it. In the meantime I have a box of clothes yet to price...a bag of misc. to price, and 2 small boxes of books to get priced. I do hope the weather holds up and that I can make a few dollars.

I better run and get Jasmine up and her day started. Have a great Monday.
Marsha