Friday, August 28, 2009

Week in review

Alyssa learned more about cooking. What utensils, pots, pans etc. that she should be using when making different items. She learned how a kitchen should be designed for optimal use. Spanish was about nations and how to pronounce them. Riding as usual was the highlight of her week.


This week seemed to fly right by. This week Nick learned about the structure of atoms. Atoms are not the smallest unit ... it's actually a qwark that's the smallest unit. In History he learned about the the french, german, and other nationalities founded America. Consumer Science he learned about the kitchen. Untensils, pots & pans. How and why their used. Spanish he learned about nationalities ... how to say countries in Spanish.


Friday, August 21, 2009

Week in review

Buenos Tardes, amigos. Como esta?
Good afternoon, friends. How are you?

All is well at Jones Academy this week. The kids are doing very well with their Spanish lessons. Just wish I could speak to them in Spanish & have them know what I'm asking & answer back in Spanish. Oh well, I'll keep trying & gradually they will get better.
Riding lessons are going well. Lysa is learning how to properly warm up the horse then go into a trot ... canter ... then jump. It all rest on proper posture when sitting then standing when she goes to take the jump. No actual jumping as of yet but it is only the second lesson on jumping so I wouldn't expect there to be just yet.


Lysa is working on Base 5 and having a lot of problems with it. No different than Nick last year. Uggg, how on earth did I teach it last year? Lord knows I don't know as I can't seem to remember it for this year. Guess I will have to read through the teachers material & learn it all over again so she can get the hang of it. Maybe I will grab Nick for a while & let him teach me what I taught him last year. he he he Geez, getting old isn't fun!
Adios. Hasta luego!
Good-bye. See you later!








Sunday, August 16, 2009

Riding Italiano Style






Lysa started her lessons back up this past Friday. She was a little shy at first but I think it was more concentrated then shy. Her new instructor is from Italy and has a very heavy accent. You have to pay close attention to understand what she is saying. I'm a little upset that her lessons are $15 more than her last 2 instructors but guess I will just have to suck it up so Lysa will stay happy. =)




Miss Anna (instructors name) Started her off with the very basic questions. Basically wanted to know how much she already knew so she knew where to start teaching her. She was glad to her her last instructor was Miss Jan Keiger as she knew her well. After only a couple minutes she said it was evident that Miss Jan had taught her well cause her posture was perfect. Thanks Jan!!!

Since Alyssa stated that she wants to continue you on with her dressage lessons on go on to jumping Miss Anna let her trot ... cantor ... then started teaching her how to position her body when learning to jump. Whoo Hoo ... she's figuring out the body position & for now stepping o ver the wood. She learned how to make a horse walk backwards out of a gate & why it's an important thing to teach a horse. You teach a horse to walk out backward so when it sees an open gate it doesn't bold out & run away from you. Very clever. She learned something new.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Updates

The kids plates seem to be really full of things to do so we have cut out the reading the Bible in a year idea. I've also dropped Alyssa out of the Story of the Constitution. I really wanted her to take the class but honestly it seemed a little over her head this year so I will try it again next year. It is for 8-10 grade so I'm not gonna be upset about her not being ready.

Spanish is going very well for all 3 of us. Some of the uses of certain words are a little confusing but I'm thinking once we start getting it all down we will zip right through it. I think I'm taking the most time on the lessons but Nick is picking it up the quickest. He's so darn smart. Thank you Lord for blessing me with a really smart kid.

Tomorrow Alyssa starts her horse lessons back up. She's excited to get to know her new instructor. I don't know how long she will stay with this one cause the price is higher than her last instructor & the instructor has stated that she teaches English for Pleasure which Alyssa is really wanting to learn dressage/jumping. So we shall see how we like this one. I'llcome back in the next day or two with pictures ...

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Back to School Beach Bash
















The Beach Bash was a youth group function with the church and actually a week after we started school but it was so much fun. We wentt o St. Andrews Bay in Florida. Nice beach that I have never been to before. A lot of the group went snorkling and were able to see many different types of fish. I really wish we would have taken a water proof camera (we'll know for next time). Some of the group (including me) didn't do much swimming as there were a lot of jellyfish swimming around. I didn't think I was afraid of them until I saw it coming toward me. Scary!! Some of the kids saw sting rays & Jim (hubby) was so close that he reached out and pet the top of it's body. How cool is that?
Now, on to the first week of school. Lysa loved being on the computer for her work ... said it's much better than workbooks. I tend to agree but that be because I've become lazy when it comes to grading their work & keeping track of attendance. This program does it all for me. It even keeps track of their time in each subject which will be a bonus if I should ever put them in the public school system. Currently I don't see that happening but with the econmy the way it is I never know what tomorrow will bring. The only thing I can do is pray to the good Lord that he continues to provide for us.
I'm taking Spanish with the kids which seems to make the lessons more interesting as I talk to them in Spanish & they are required to answer me in Spanish. We don't know much yet, but we know a few things. Enough to have a couple sentences worth of conversation. I made up a stack of flash cards to help with the learning process. I'll come back & update how this is going.