Vacation??

Well, this week was supposed to be "summer vacation" but it turned into a field trip week! Monday, we spent the day at the river. We collected some mud for art project as well as for geology study.

Tuesday, we went to Arcata Marsh. It's a wildlife preserve kind of place. We got to study different kinds of birds that visit the area. There is a little station where you can study about the area and the history of the marsh etc.... The kids loved the outdoors and the freedom to run! We heard so many different kinds of birds while we were on the walk.

Wednesday was Tesla's ballet class. She is really enjoying the class! And Kep is being really patient just sitting in the lobby and reading while waiting for Tes. Reagan is wanting to participate, but he does really well waiting too.

Thursday was Kepler's golf lesson. For this we go 2 towns over to Mckinleyville. Fortunately Kep and Tes's new golf club sets arrived the day before! Kep got a full set of junior pro clubs and a cool bag. Tes got 3 clubs and a bag and they are all pink! Right before we left for the lesson, there was a knock on the door...and Reagan's clubs arrived!! His set is a plastic one but there are three clubs and a bag and they all have snoopy pictures :) I will remember to take a picture next week ><
Kepler really enjoys the lessons and so does Tes. Though Tes is too young to join Kep's class, she did practice putting on her own. While we were in Mckinleyville
we stopped at their farmer's market. In the parking lot there is world's tallest single tree totempole. It's really tall!!!! check it out next time when you are in humboldt county.

Today, Friday, we went to Humboldt State University's Marine Laboratory in Trinidad. It's about 30 minute drive from where we live. It was a cute little place with several aquarium tanks and 2 touch tanks! One tank had sea urchin, sea anemone (green variety), and sea cucumber (red ones). The other tank had many different kinds of star fish! Tes loves to pick them up, so she dove right in. We got to see star fish eating fish! It was really neat to see star fish slowly sliding over the fish and just eat it up! After a few minutes, we lifted up the starfish and saw its stomach sticking out (apparently its stomach comes out of the body to swallow and digest the food whole!) and the fish slowly being digested. yum! The kids thought it was really cool :)


Well that's it for this week! Next week we should resume studying at home...
It's gotten cold again lately. Today, it was probably in the low 50s. We were freezing in Trinidad! Hopefully, we'll start to feel like summer...soon!!!!

River day!!!!

Kepler finished all of his second grade material last week, so I decided to give him a week off as a summer vacation!! What should we do?? Well it was such a beautiful day yesterday so we went to a nearby river!!! This park is located a bit more inland than where we are, so it gets a bit warmer! The water was still ice cold so I did not dare go swimming, but it was a great fun for the kids! There were many kids from a daycare center in the neighborhood, but they all played really well together (phew).

And then there's Reagan. We got everything out of the car, set up all the toys etc., and then what does he do? He walks back to the car! He wanted to get in, so I just let him do what he wanted to see what he had on his mind...

OK. So we came all the way to the river to...read Thomas book in the car?? oh well. He eventually did get out of the car and played with the other kids.



This river is normally not very deep, but in the summer they dam the place so it makes a nice swimming hole. They even float a little island in the middle! For the smaller children, they cord off a section that is shallow so it's pretty safe even with three children to watch! Across the drive way is a park with play structures, so if the kids get bored of the river, they can go and swing & slide!













We noticed that the water was rather muddy but this seems to be due to the clay-ish nature of the soil. It was really cool to dig up the clay. We brought home some so we can perhaps make 'stuff' with it!






Well, the kids really got some workout! Unfortunately, Reagan got a real good nap so he stayed up till midnight again! Hopefully we'll go to more places during the 'summer vacation' but it's not as hot today. Right now the thermometer is reading 57F. Brrrrrrrrrrr.

Summer is here!!!!

yes, it's official. even in Eureka it's SUMMER!!!! It was so beautiful today! It's so hot, we might have even hit 70! yes you read it right. 70. And we think it's hot. :) The picture is not our house :) It's Carson Mansion. One of the town's "point of interest." Built by a rich lumber guy. It now houses a private club.

So what have we been up to?? Last weekend was the advancement ceremony for the cub scouts! Kep successfully completed Tiger cub stage and now he's a wolf cub! We also went to Wild West Chili Cook-off in nearby Willow Creek. Have you ever seen a footage of Big Foot? This was taken in the 70's I think, but you can catch it often on tv. Well, that was Willow Creek. Naturally there's a Big Foot museum and the chili cook-off was to benefit the museum. The museum also has local historical artifacts. Willow Creek is about 45 minutes inland from Eureka so it was nice and hot (in the 80's!!). And it was beautiful. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery, so no pictures... sorry.

This week was the last week of school for Shelby Academy! **applause**
But we'll be starting summer session next week, so for now, no summer vacation :)
We just finished 2nd grade material and will be starting 3rd grade material in 2nd grade. yes, it's confusing, but the State of California is not so happy to let kids skip grades. So, Kep will officially start 2nd grade, but doing 3rd grade stuff.

Whatelse is new??
Tes is continuing her ballet lessons. We got her ballet shoes and the whole outfit. I'll get the photo next week! Kep started his golf lessons! Unfortunately, I couldn't go this week, because I accompanied Tes to her dentist's appointment. She did very well, but in the mean time, Dad took off from work to take Kep to his golf lesson. I heard he did well (as in listening to the instructor. we'll talk about his golf ability at a later date...).

Today we had a park day at a neighborhood park. It was organized by a local Christian Home Educators group. It's just a homeschooler's group. But the kids were awesome. We had gone to some other homeschooling group but we opted not to hang out with those kids. So we were a bit skeptical about this group, but it worked out so well! The parents were all very nice and the kids were super! They were happy, well-adjusted, just good kids! phew. I knew they were SOMEWHERE!!!
After hours at the park, the youngest is taking a nice loooong nap. I better take this opportunity to work on my cross-stitching. I'll up date you on its progress next week!

oh, and here's a photo of Kep in his new glasses :)

Time flies (again)

So, it's already June 16?? Where did the time go?? Well, we've been sick lately and when all 5 of us get sick, it's rather difficult to get anything done. Let's see...where should I begin? On June 4, we went to ses a ballet recital of a local dance studio. Tes has been wanting to take ballet lessons so we thought we'd check them out first! Even before the show began, Tes was ready to take the stage. I had to stop her from climbing onto the stage! Needless to say, we enrolled her in the class immediately and she began her first lesson last wednesday. She really enjoyed it. Now I have to go and get her real ballet shoes (as oppose to wanna-be ballet shoes at cheap-o stores according to her teacher...) ! Tes also had her first dentist appointment with new pediatric dentist in town. Wow! She's all high tech! Everything is computerized and there's even a flat screen right on the ceiling so the kid can watch any dvd while being treated! Why doesn't MY dentist have that?? Must find a new dentist for me!

Kep got his first pair of glasses! I'll try to get a picture soon, but he keeps forgetting to put them on. And I'm not really forcing him to wear it since he can see ok without the glasses.

As a family we've been exploring different parks in the area. I found a nice one with nice equipments, but it's not in the best neighborhood.... I was too nervous to let the kids play! So, I found another park that is a bit more isolated. This one is nice and quiet + it's got a river running through it, so during the summer months, it would be nice to let the kids play in it! Right now the river is pretty shallow and slow but next week they'll dam the river so it should become a nice pool for the kids to play in.

Well, that's it for now. Sorry I don't have any photos today. I promise I'll put some photos next time & I promise I'll be back soon!!

It's Friday!

Well, so the week is over and the weekend is here!!! Devin is back from LA. He actually came back last night. He thought he might have to stay another night, but he was able to fly back as planned. We haven't gone to LA in about a year so I cannot even imagine what the weather or the traffic must be like there!

As for school, we are in the last few weeks of the school year. We'll go straight into the summer session, so it's not like we'll have a long time off, but I'm planning on taking it easy during the summer.

Yesterday, we went to the mall playground to let the kids run aroung. Yes, we have an indoor playground right in the mall. There's a real play structure with 4 slides! So when it rains we go there instead of the park to let the kids go wild :) We also took our dog, Wayne, to the vet. He's a very friendly chihuahua and he had a great time. Well, I don't know about him, but the vet thought he was great. He was wagging his tails and all so I'm assuming that he had an ok time too.

I haven't worked on the craft project in about a week, but I thought I'd update ya'll on my progress. I sure hope my friend, Carol, does not deliver her child prematurely. I'm nowhere near finishing this project. I'm hoping to get a little done everyday.

And for those of you who has never been to Eureka, I have talked about the nature and the trees and all... I thought I'd share the photo I took from our front door. This is what you see when you open the front door of our house and poke your head out.


Nothing new and exciting today, but I hope to update on monday with more excitement and pictures!!

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....