Mystery of History – Take 2

April 19, 2013

I first discovered the Mystery of History curriculum years ago in a Timberdoodle catalog. I was looking for something that would include biblical history as well as world history. This curriculum has not disappointed us!

Matthew and Kelsey with their Joseph coat cookies – picture taken April 2006

A lesson about the Nile – picture taken May 2006

Volume One takes you from Creation to the Resurrection. My favorite parts of this curriculum are the lessons, the activities, and the timeline. When reading the lessons, you almost feel like Linda (the author) is right there with you, telling you the stories. Each lesson has at least three suggested activities, with age appropriate lessons for each age group, younger, middle, and older students. And the timeline!

We put together our timeline on a project board that could be folded up and stored away when we weren’t doing school work. This is the timeline the kids created from Mystery of History Volume One.

The kids made their own timeline figures based on the description provided in the book. For each week of lessons, Matthew would create two of the timeline figures and Kelsey would do one.

These figures are from Mystery of History Volume Two which spans from the Early Church through the Middle Ages.

Volume Three covers The Renaissance, Reformation, and Growth of Nations.

So our three completed timelines cover from creation until 1707!

I was really hoping that Volume Four would be completed before Matthew finished school, but Volume Four is still in progress of being completed. Looks like Kelsey and I will be working on that timeline together!

One of the really nice things about this curriculum is that even though we have gone through all three volumes in the past, Kelsey and I are starting to go through them again. This year we are working our way through Volume One and have been able to do some things we didn’t do the first time through. Like go to the Rosicrucian Museum!

We plan on using Volume Two next year which makes one less thing for me to have to purchase for school for next year. Yay! The catalogs have already started arriving so I will be making decisions on some other subjects soon.

What is your favorite history curriculum?

Capture Your 365

March 20, 2013

Ring the bell, I actually have photos for all 7 photo prompts from this last week! Ding, ding, ding!!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/3.2, 1/25 sec

Day 72 – Messy: My freezer was getting a little low on homemade pasta sauce. I usually like to clean up along the way while I am cooking, but who can resist a good photo prompt and an excuse to leave it all a little messy?

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.0, 1/4000 sec

Day 73 – Branches: Many of the nut and fruit trees are in full bloom around here right now. Makes me wish I could drag by camera around with me all the time!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/3.2, 0.6 sec

Day 74 – In A Field of Green: Most pool tables have green felt, but my husband and I had a chance to play pool on this pool table with red felt which dates back to the very late 1800’s. By the way, my husband won the game (re-match for next time!)

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.2, 1/1000 sec

Day 75 – Green: Starbucks stop on our way home from a couple of days in Monterey with my husband! Caramel Frappuccino is one of my favorites, what is your favorite Starbucks drink?

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.2, 1/20 sec

Day 76 – Wearing of the Green: We had a really good reason for not wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day! My daughter did our Compassion Sunday presentation so we all wore our Compassion Sunday t-shirts, which just happen to be one of my favorite colors. You can watch the video of her presentation here. I love that our pastor gave her a big hug when she finished!

ISO 400, 36mm, f/5.0, 1/20 sec

Day 77 – Spots: or marks. This is how I keep track of our homeschool days. I just write in a ‘P’ for days that we did any kind of school work, field trip, or life skills lessons. Daily attendance is one of the very few requirements we have here in California for our homeschools. You can print out a calendar like this one here.

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/20 sec

Day 78 – Play a Game: Today was one very busy day! My morning started off at a MOPS meeting to listen to my friend, Kendra, share with the moms there about the hope we have in Jesus. Then after a quick lunch, Kelsey and I headed on over to our ladies Bible study. We have been going through John MacArthur’s Fundamentals of the Faith book with our pastor leading the teaching and discussion. After the study we were back home again to get a couple of loads of laundry done and throw together a quick dinner. Then my family all went off in different directions for the evening. There was definitely no time to sit down and play a game today! But seeing how many of my bulbs in the backyard are blooming, I cut a few and brought them inside. Great reminder that in spite of the busyness of some of our days, we can still stop and see the beauty that God provides all around us.

Do you love these photo prompts as much as I do? Be sure to visit Katrina’s blog, Capture Your 365, and join in the fun!

Capture Your 365

February 27, 2013

Time for another week of photos!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/6 sec

Day 52 – Performance: Kelsey working on her least favorite subject, math. At least she likes the program we use: Teaching Textbooks! I love that all, and I do mean all, of the problems have a solution that is explained in easy to understand terms. The curriculum has made my life easier as a homeschool mom!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/50 sec

Day 53 – Sweet Treats: I have to say I am loving these excuses to bake! Made up a batch of my favorite sugar cookies for this photo prompt. Kelsey helped me with the icing and the sprinkles. Even though the icing turned out a little too pink for my liking, it was the perfect color for the photo.

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.5, 1/13 sec

Day 54 – Framed: I am not one to usually take pictures tilted, but given the suggestion for this prompt, I thought I would give it a try on this photo. That wicked cough came back over the weekend, so hot tea with honey was my way to try to beat it, with one of my favorite mugs of course.

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.5, 1/13 sec

Day 55 – For the Love Of Music: Kelsey has been diligently practicing a song with the hopes of playing it at church soon.

ISO 100, 50mm, f/2.2, 1/60 sec

Day 56 – A Cup Of ____ : For me in the morning, it is always orange juice! My favorite go-to breakfast most often is a bowl of cheerios and a cup of orange juice. Yum!

ISO 100, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/13 sec

Day 57 – From The Side: This Bible sits on a table in the entry way of our home. It belonged to a set of great grandparents who I don’t believe I ever met. But it was special to my grandmother, and she gave it to me to keep, which makes it a special heirloom for me to cherish.

ISO 100, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/2000 sec

Bonus photo!: On my way home from photography class last week, I just had to pull over to take this picture. The sun was starting to set and I had noticed on the way to class that some of the almond trees were starting to blossom. Sure is nice having that big girl camera with me at times like this one!

What did you photograph this past week?

Want to join in the fun? Visit Capture Your 365 and sign up for her mailing list. You get a daily e-mail with the photo prompt for the day. As you may have noticed, there are days that I have missed, but it sure is fun adding a little creativity to what I am able to capture each day. Hope you join me on this photo adventure!

You started blogging when?

February 22, 2013

So I took a peek back at my old blog to remember when I posted my first blog post…April 2006!! Almost 7 years ago! Yikes!

My kids were this little once!

One of my very first posts was about our cookie making activity from using the Mystery of History curriculum. I find this very interesting because Kelsey and I are going through Volume One again this year, although I don’t believe we made the Joseph coat cookies this time.

A lot has happened since that first set of blog posts: my kids are 7 years older (and so am I!), Matthew has graduated from our homeschool and is working full time now, and Kelsey is my only student. Over a year ago, I moved my blog to Blogger and just a couple of months ago, to WordPress.com. And over the last 2 years, not only do I blog about my family and some of our daily happenings in our little corner of the world, but our experiences with Compassion have taken a front seat on my blog.

My blogging goals are posted for this year on my About page. On that page, you can also find links to some of the posts that were popular on my Blogger blog before I moved it over to WordPress.com. There is also a link to the Compassion website and a link to a Pinterest board with letter writing ideas for your Compassion sponsored kids. If you haven’t taken a peek at my About page yet, you might just learn a little more about me with the random facts I have listed.

My friend, Kendra, over at Preschoolers and Peace has been helping me with some great tips and encouragement as I begin to be more intentional about my blogging. She has a lot of great information to share, so be sure to visit her blog today.

So, if you are a blogger, how long have you been blogging?

Field Trip! – Monterey Bay Aquarium

January 31, 2013

Want to know a secret?

I have never paid admission to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium!

How do you do that you ask?

We have always gone on a Home School Day!

Now I know the Home School Days are full for this year, they usually open up reservations for their Home School Days in October. Be sure to just check back on their web site in the fall and plan your day out my the ocean!

For a while, we had been so many times that I think my kids could give a guided tour of the aquarium to just about anyone. But how can you blame me? Admission for our family of four would have cost almost $140, just for one day!

Anyway, we took a break from the aquarium for a couple of years, but I wanted to make sure that we included a trip this year since Kelsey is studying swimming creatures from the fifth day of creation.

I ended up taking over 100 pictures, but narrowed it down to just over 20 that I really liked. Here are a few of my favorites to share with you: