Our House in the Middle of Our Street

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Join others from Soulemama's blog, sharing a moment to remember from throughout the week. 

Source: jonesdesigncompany.com via Jessica on Pinterest This year I'm flirting with the idea of year-round schooling. I see tons of benefits and really no cons, simply because we have the freedom to NOT do school at any point. Although the summers are hot around here and I get pretty cranky after 1PM, we regularly schedule fun and free things to do with our family and get-togethers with lots of friends. Of course, as home schoolers, school is always happening, whether you have a formal break-down of days or not. As for upcoming home schooling posts, I'll sooner or later fill in the gaps with what my kids learned, succeeded, and need more work on in the last 8 months. Next week I'll be doing simple testing (i.e. making sure my son can recognize numbers, read simple words, find Lincoln, Nebraska, and Canada on the globe, and remember a few concepts from science). I'm excited to share the amazing books we read this year, what I thought worked and didn't, a...

Source: knitgrrl.tumblr.com via Judy on Pinterest This upcoming weekend, April 28-29 is the next "Get the Craft Outta Yo House" at Rogers B&B here in Lincoln. There are day crafting spots available, and I believe, a couple spots for over-nighters if you'd like to join. I'm so sorry to be missing this one but this weekend is also the annual Nebraska Homeschooling Conference, which we make it a point not to miss! If you would like information about this, leave your contact info in the comments and I'll set up an email with the correct people to get you started. See my other blog posts about this fun girls-only time here and here .   *** What are you working on this weekend?

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Join this moment with others, savoring a moment from the week. Ours was a sweet treat at a local bakery after swim lessons! 

photocredit Today's book share is from the Kane Miller side of Usborne Books & More, and it's a simple paper back picture book of how honey is made. Honey: A Gift from Nature by Yumiko Fujiwara is a tale of a family who have bees in their backyard, and goes through the year-long process of caring for them throughout the seasons, informing on the process a bee makes wax and honey, and how the diet of a bee makes the honey different!  I used some of my free book money from my last home show to get this book for my own kids. I've gotten quite the little 'urban & homestead' farming library collection going, and Ashley English's reference book, "Keeping Bees" took up residence at Christmas time. Ever since then I had been on the look out for a good children's book of the same nature, since I'd like to explain to our kids how honey is made from bees, why we feel it's important to add bee-loving plants to our garden, and that so...

A couple weeks ago when I did a post on board games that my kids love , I promised another post where I would list out all of the quiet time/individual games that they also go back to consistently. These toys and activities will be suitable for children who are not putting things in their mouths anymore, perhaps 2 1/2 years old to about 5.  photocredit My daughter loves her lacing toys. Although these wood ones shown above are beautiful, we have 'cheaper' (quality and price!) ones at home that I had found at a thrift store. You can't beat $1 for hours of quiet entertainment. I have also loved showing Lukka many forms of stitches using our lacing cards, and he has practiced on his own.  We also own a 'sewing block' which is just a circular toy that has holes all over it (think swiss cheese in tube form), and an attached piece of rope and a 'needle' that looks similar to a red wooden crayon. Ani got this for her birthday one year from Grammy and both ...

photocredit I have a few authors that I always 'follow' with reading all of their books, and Geraldine Brooks is one of them. I read her book titled, "People of the Book" one year for the One Book One Lincoln event within a small church book club, and enjoyed her style. A year or so later, I had read most of her books, and loved her book, "March", which won her a Pulitzer Prize in fiction, and a permanent scout out for my annual book lists. Caleb's Crossing was her newest book, out in 2011, and it is along the same genre that she writes most of-historical fiction. Being as this is my favorite type of book to read, it's no wonder I choose to read all of them! I especially love her Notes sections in the back of the books, where she explains her original inspiration, and the facts that the story was based off of. This story in particular is a story that is set in colonial times, off the coast of (what is now) Martha's Vineyard in Great Harbor. It...

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Source: hannahwaldron.co.uk via Sarah on Pinterest In case you hadn't noticed, we've had some difficulty with our computer (re: pictures) lately. Our computer, ahem, 7 years old and counting, had literally .03% memory left...or something. I had over 10,000 pictures on it, and along with our large (and unabashedly divine) mix of itunes songs, it wasn't cutting it. We had to take all our pictures and upload them onto the web (thank you, drop box !) and cut them out of our computer memory so we could go on using this puppy for another couple of years. In the meantime, all the pictures of the kids I uploaded from Picasa...and those are all gone! DOH! While I can remember a few of what was in the looming black boxes all over my blog, I can't remember all of them. I'll twiddle my fingers, insert a few I can remember, and that will be it. Sad, but at least not as sad as having my computer crash and loosing all of them! If anyone knows how to recover such things as lost b...

photocredit When I had first heard of Hugo , last summer, I believe, I wrote it down because I loved the idea of a quirky kids' movie that takes place in Paris. When I found out it was directed by Martin Scorcese, I was a little surprised. This is quite the veer from his usual graphic and violent movies like Goodfellas . I did not know this before I saw the movie, but have since learned it was based on the book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick, which I've never read. This book has won the Caldecott Medal, which is one of the most prestigious awards given in children's literature. This film is about a boy, Hugo, who is an orphan living in a train station's clock tower. He winds the clocks like his uncle, who also passes away, taught him and he is always running away from the Station Inspector, who provides comic relief throughout the film. He meets a young girl named Isabelle and they embark on an adventure to solve Isabelle's failing godfat...

photocredit Something near and dear to my (former travelling self) personality is teaching children about the world we live in. To me, this means studying, learning, and reading about all different types of people; where they live, what they eat, what their families look like, etc. Kane Miller Publishing, the fiction and world cultures part of Usborne Books and More, is quite active in their pursuit of quality literature found all over the world. Kane Miller Publishing was acquired by Usborne a couple of years ago, and the more I get to know the books, the more I think it is really a wonderful fit. On the back of Kane Miller books there is a spot that tells which country the book is from. This leads me to the next point of the customer specials this month. One of my favorite books-- "Around the World" is on sale for $4 this month! The sticker dolly series has a lot of girly themed books, but this one is by far my favorite. This book is filled with boys and girls from all ov...