Perhaps I should rename this Weekly Standard...

So I haven't been here in a long time AGAIN! aaaaaaaaauuuuugggggHHH!
Time just goes somewhere without me sometimes :) But I have to remember that kids are only kids for such a short time and cherish these fun & crazy times :P Though as other mothers can empathize that sometimes you do want to just have some quiet time to yourself!

Well, well, lots has happened since the last entry. Of course we just had a three day weekend! Here in Eureka, the town was crowded with the visitors traveling to see our famous Kinetic Sculpture Race! Kinetic Sculpture...well, it's really more like bike on steroids went trick-or-treating in West Hollywood. People decorate these human-powered vehicles and they race from a town north of us to a town south of us. It's a three day event with the second day major event of 'water plunge' by the vehicles. Whichever vehicles that were able to stay afloat from one end of Eureka to another get to go on! I should include a photo here, but this year we skipped the race! SO you'd just have to search the web for their official website :) Next year, I'll go and see the race.

While tourists and locals alike were seeing the race, our family went golfing. Yup, you heard it right. Nope, I've never golfed before and Devin is not a serious golfer either. We just like to have fun. So we took the kids and went to the driving range. Of course Tes and Kep had to get their OWN golf clubs. Hey, the grown-ups are just renting!! Oh well, they didn't have the right size to rent for the kiddos so we just bought them a few. They seemed to really enjoy so maybe we can incorporate this into our homeschooling and get some PE credits....


We also went to the nearby park this weekend. It had been nice and warm lately. On Monday, it actually reached 70 degrees at one point!!! Phew! I don't know how we survived that scorching weather!! So we had some icecream at the park. Kep is the one in the white shirt and Tes is standing next to him, being eclipsed by Reagan. Needless to say, the one eating sno-cone is Reagan.

But today we are back down to the high 50's. Brrrrr. And rainy too. Yes, IT IS Eureka after all!

So it's warm and wet. That means...BANANASLUGS!!!!! YES! We have a ton of them all over our house. It doesn't have to be wet really. Eureka is wet enough without the rain. So if it's not the middle of winter, they will come out. Here's a bonus picture of Mr. Bananaslug stuck to our wall on the outside of the house.

Today I signed Kepler up for a Youth Soccer League in the town north of here. Eureka has a soccer league too, but their team play 7-on-7, whereas our neighboring league plays 3-on-3 at the younger age. Kep signed up for U8 (7, 8 year-olds) so he'll be playing in the fall. The league's name is Mad River. Isn't that cool?? There are 6 major rivers around here. Mad is one of them. It was name so because the explorers got mad at each other around the river, or something like that. Tesla wants to sign up for ballet lessons. Hmmm. Sounds like I'll be busier still come fall. AT least Reagan is not signing up for any class YET!

So that's a short summary of our life lately. Hopefully I'll come back more often to write more in details as to what we really do on a daily basis. Oh yeah, Kepler just went to his semi-annual eye exam and got a prescription for glasses. When they come in, I'll up the photo. IN the mean time, I'm hoping to come back again very soooooooooooooooooon!

boy, time sure flies!

I'm hoping to update more often with lots more pictures, but for now, here's a quick update!

Last week Dev had to work late again, so we didn't get much chance of seeing him.
On Wednesday, there was a cub scout meeting for the whole pack. It was a campfire + smores night so we all picked out some sticks and got to work! Reagan really liked the marshmallows. He got some on his stroller, but he loves to clean, so he wiped it all clean with his wet-ones. On Thursday, Tes and Kep had AWANA award ceremony. They both finished the entire book so they both got a little award. In Kep's grade level only 2 people finished the book, so I guess he worked really hard! On Friday, I got a call from a friend of mine and we all went to the Discovery Museum for a little planetarium show. It was a cute place(size of a walk-in closet) and I really wanted to see the show, but Reagan had a different plan. They had Thomas the Tank Engine train set. HAHAHA. Like he's going to do anything else, right?? But Kep enjoyed the show. Fast forward to yesterday...Dev called me to tell me that I needed to come down to the mall to sign our new cell phone contract. So we trekked down to get a new camera phone and a new deal (all incoming calls are free! so feel free to call me any time!). When I got there, I found out that Dev had made an appointment for my (long awaited) hair cut! My hair had grown quite long so I cut about 8inches off! The good news is that 1. it feels light 2. it doesn't get in the way and 3. most importantly, I was able to donate my hair for the cancer patints! Apparently all you need is 6 inches and I've got a lot of hair! So I felt good about all that hair that came off of my head! Pictures should follow soon...I need to get school started today though.

Welcome!!

WELCOME to the first edition of The Shelby Academy Times!!
Yup, we moved here. Homeschoolblogger, as nice as the idea was, was such a pain in the *%^# that I decided to move my blog. I hope this works better. In case you hadn't checked out the other blog, I am re-posting some stuff. If you've already read them, feel free to skip :) I'm hoping that the photos are visible here.

May 8
We have 3 children: Kep (7 yo), Tes (3 yo) and Reg (19 mos). We've been homeschooling our oldest for the last 2 years. I looked and looked for a good school for my child and came to a conclusion that the best school is AT HOME! Especially for a unique, high energy child like Kep! I think Tes would do fine in a traditional school setting, but why settle for 'fine' when you can 'excel'? According to California state law, Kep is in first grade, but he is finishing some 2nd grade curriculum while in other subjects he is already doing 3rd grade stuff. He loves to read and is very much interested in paleontology. Recently he went to a lecture in paleobotany, which we thought would bore us to death, but he was excited. To each his own.... Tes has been wanting to 'do school' with us, so she's doing some kindergarten work. She writes very well and she can read simple words. She also counts very well, except for occasional twenty-tens. Tes loves to sing and dance. Reg hasn't started 'official' school yet, but he is working on his ABC song. He loves Thomas the Tank Engine.

This is an odd time to start a school related blog, but I felt motivated so why not

I hope to update this often, but with three little ones, I can only be optimistic.

I'm also working on my own craft project, which takes up my very limited free time. But I'd like to update the project on this blog as well.

May 9
Little more about what we do...
So, I thought I'd write a bit about what we do here at Shelby Academy.

Before I go on, just a little warning. If you are not a homeschooler, you may find the following info too detailed. In which case, you can just disregard the rest and I'll see you tomorrow. But I do want to let ya'll know that homeschooling is awesome and I'd highly recommend it to anyone with half a brain. It really doesn't require so much out of you. I often encounter people who tell me that I must have so much patience to be able to homeschool. The truth is I DON'T. It is only by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit within I can accomplish the task set before me. Praise God!

When we first started to homeschool, I went through dozens of curricula to find 'the right one' for our son. In the end I chose Abeka. For the first grade material, I stuck with the curriculum very strictly. But as we progressed to the second grade, I found that Kep was beginning to get distracted. After much thought I came to conclude that he is simply bored to tears! Why would I bore him at home when I can simply do so at any public school! So I decided to augment a bit here and there. First we began to double up on arithmetic, spelling, reading, and phonics. Then it was apparent that phonics was just tedious (after all he was already reading at 6th grade level, why should I stick to long and short vowel sounds, right?) so we decided to do a whole week's worth in one day (I'm so bad at just dropping it, aren't I?). It was amazing how much Kep improved when I actually gave him more to do! I believe most kids in school are just not challenged enough and that's why they fall behind, because THEY ARE BORED!!!!

While we moved forward with Abeka 2nd grade curriculum, I began further research on different methods of homeschooling. For now, I think I'm going to go with the Classical method. I bought a book by Susan Wise Bauer, Well Trained Mind, and I'm totally sold! If you are homeschooling or thinking of homeschooling, I'd definitely recommend reading this book!

Well, our lunch break is over, I better go back and finish school!

May 15
Sorry about not updating more often! As you all know, life happens FAST!
On Wednesdays I go to a women's bible study at a nearby church. It's a great series by Beth Moore and I really enjoy it. But this means that we don't do school in the morning! Not only that, we have a cubscout meeting on wednesdays too AND my husband, Dev, is the den leader! A few weeks ago Dev was promoted and that meant he'd be spending more time than he'd like on getting accustomed to his new position. His boss flew in from LA last week to orient him, so he had to miss Kep's cubscout meeting. Fortunately, I had planned on having a den picnic at a nearby park, so all I had to do was to bring everything to the park, start the grill and cook some food :) no biggie, right? especially with three children running around, this should be a breeze.... heheheh. Thankfully, many parents pitched in to help once we were at the park, so it worked out great. But no time to blog. Oh and I DID do school in between all the stuff.

Thursday, we did school as usual in the morning, but in the evening Kep and Tes go to AWANA. It's a bible club kind of thing for kids ages 3 and up. Each week the kids would memorize a verse or two or three and earn patches and prizes. Last week was THE last week of AWANA for the school year, so Kep crammed in last 5 verses in the book!


Friday was AWANA Grandprix. It's just like Pinewood Derby they do in boy scouts.

So Kep brought his car that he made for the cubscouts. With great luck, Kep's car kept winning all the heats and he ended up winning his division. Then the winner from each division competed for the impromptu grand prize (it wasn't planned so there was no trophy for this) Again Kep's car won! Thank goodness, for he's not the greatest loser in the world.

Saturday, we went to see Ice Age2. It was just as we expected. Fun. The kids had a great time, except Reg wanted to take a stroll during the movie. But he did great all in all.

Sunday was Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers!!!

Well, I got some pretty cool drawings from the kids, and from Dev, I got some cool pearl strands. Yes I said strands and I meant it. They are NOT necklaces. They are strands to be strung by ... ME! ME? ME?!?!?!!? Can I be THAT creative?? hmmmm. I don't know, but they are pretty! I couldn't really do them justice in my photo taking, but I'm putting some pictures for you to see. I'm looking forward to making some really cool necklaces and earrings. Dev, knowing my craft ability(?) did give me one pearl necklace that is already strung together.

The last picture is the promised update on my craft project.

This is the cross stitch project I'm currently at work! I saw this pattern and thought I just had to make it for my very good friend who is expecting a child in a few months! I'm hoping to finish this before the baby is born How ambitious am I? I'd never really cross stitched in the past, but I am really enjoying it. The gift was a surprise but now I guess she'll find out here.

So that's what's up around here, these days. Still gotta finish history with Kep. We're studying Mohenjodaro today, I think....