School Update

We had a great year homeschooling. I would not have chanced our decision to do it. I think with the extra year at home Owen gained more confidence in him and has opened up a little more. The biggest down fall for me was the lack of socialization – a lot of homeschooling families are flakey!! If they showed up at all it would be very late, like hours late- to me punctuality is very important and I think its extremely rude when people feel that they can show up hours late. With that said, we decided to enroll both Emma and Owen at our small local Christian School in Ventura. Emma will be attending (Pre-K) M-F 8am-1pm and Owen will be attending (2^nd grade) 8am-3pm. The days are longer than I would like, I sure will miss them but given our choices of schools we feel that it is the best fit for our children. The school actually goes all the way through High School. There are a few families that live in Ojai so we are hoping to make some new local friends. Emma is very excited to start, Owen has accepted it but I would not say that he is excited about it. School is school. We have met both teachers and I feel that both kids will have a wonderful year. We will keep you posted! School starts August 21^st! 

Owen's Solar System Presentation

Solar System

We spent about a month and a half learning about the Solar System. Typically we learned about 2-3 new planets a week and Owen had to write down a few facts that he learned about that planet. We made a planet poster, a 3-D solar system, we named / made our own planet and wrote a story about how life was on this new planet, and at the end Owen did a oral Solar Planet presentation about what he learned.

The video is too long and will not post :( sorry  

Annettes Visit Home

Confetti Easter egg 

After Emma attacked 

Owen's birthday 

Emma's birthday at zoo 

Emma's birthday at zoo

Annette was back home for a little while and stayed with us. Luckily it was during Easter and both kids birthdays!

Happy Birthday Owen

Happy 7th Birthday Owen!!!

Funny thing, last year Emma’s birthday was on Easter and this year Owen’s was on Easter! At first Owen thought it was great – we always camp at Lake Casitas for Easter so Owen was excited to be camping on his birthday, but he soon realized that you cant really have a party because all of your friends are busy doing Easter stuff. We still had a great little party in our trailer with family, despite the rain. Another thing we realized this year- it has rained on all of Owen’s birthdays. 

Happy Birthday Emma

 Happy 4th Birthday Emma!!!

I honestly do not know what happen to the last four years!!! It has gone by so incredibly fast. Emma wanted to go to the Santa Barbara Zoo for her 4^th birthday. She brought a long a couple of friends and we had a great time. It started off with Emma falling into the koi pond and within the first 15 minutes of arriving, but yes I did have extra clothes and everything turned out great! There were two pregnant giraffes during this trip who look like they were ready to pop any day!!

Emma and Daddy 

Emma and mommy 

Goobers 

Owen reading Emma her card 

Before she fell into the koi pond 

Kylie 

Tucker

Emma, Kylie and Hallie

Cherry Blossom Tree

Cherry Blossom Tree

I can’t believe how long it has been since I have posted!! Wow, I have a little catching up to do. One of our projects in March (I think) was to paint on canvas a picture of a tree in our yard. I have to say that the kids did a really great job with this project. Unfortunately about a month later we lost the tree in a windstorm. 

What Owen learned about Ancient Egypt

Owen’s Dictation about what he learned – Ancient Egypt

January 8, 2013

The Nile River. They made canals to water their crops all year. They hunt geese. When somebody died they take out their hearts. They bury Pharaohs in pyramids. IF the feather weighs more than your heart you would be eaten up by an alligator, lion, hippo thing. They use big big blocks to make pyramids and it takes 9 people to move one block. King Tut was found in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. They played music, dance, swam and fight for fun. They kill hippos. They fight each other on boats as a game. They could never move the boundary stone; its how they paid the taxes on their lands. They had to be careful of alligators and cobras on the Nile River. Sometimes people got beat up if they didn’t bring home enough geese. They get honey from bees and sometimes got chased by bees. They had parties with lots of food. At the temple the priest would take a bath before ceremonies. They had different gods in Egypt’s. Egyptians writings are called hieroglyphs. They wrote on papyrus. Inside the pyramids were: mummies, furniture, gold jewelry, and food, anything they wanted in the next world. 

Owen's drawing of King Tut - January 8, 2013