Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Oct 26, 2011, 7:02 pm
Oh yes, the baby is a he. :) Found that out at a late ultrasound a couple of weeks ago. He's due on Friday but there are no signs that labour is imminent. I had an OB appointment today and the doctor has me scheduled for one more ultrasound Monday (I have big babies. They keep wanting a sneak peek...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Oct 24, 2011, 3:12 am
I was in the hospital Friday. Thought the baby might be coming but it turned out to be a false alarm. Like any good homeschooling mom I took along a new Algebra text I'd picked up in a thrift store and wanted to look over. New is relative of course; the text was published in 1945. I had it sitting...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Oct 17, 2011, 4:46 pm
The World in Ancient Times set, a collection of books on Ancient history published by Oxford University Press, is on sale right now at Amazon.com and the publisher's site for just over $35! This is a set that is wonderfully well written, has a volume of primary sources and usually costs over $200. ...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Oct 10, 2011, 2:50 pm
For the past 3 months or so I've been checking out our local Kijiji ads to see if I could find a used chicken coop or shed that would be suitable for our layers. Although I found a few that would have been suitable my husband nixed them The conditions were that it had to be cheaper then building our...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Oct 5, 2011, 9:51 am
Ugh. I'm 37 weeks now and can't get enough sleep these days. When I think I have had enough sleep my body usually puts the lie to that by slowing down a couple of hours after getting up. I'm cranky with the kids and not getting normal stuff done around the house. Homeschooling is getting to be very,...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Sep 30, 2011, 6:31 pm
This week was busy but it had more to do with things unrelated to homeschooling. There were errands to run, folks to visit and doctor's appointments to be kept. Next week, with me officially in the four week countdown until my due date, it gets worse. A little part of me wants to stop the homschooli...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Sep 28, 2011, 8:11 pm
The start of the day from the front porch. After the tough stuff, Harry does some history and builds pyramids. Then, with school over, onto making Martians with his Martian Matter supplies. Feel for the poor Martians because they're only headed for dissection. The nest of baby spiders Harry disco...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Sep 26, 2011, 2:35 pm
Catherine has whipped through Grammar Voyage and is ready for more grammar. I was going to order Jensen's Grammar . Jensen's Punctuation has been a great success and we could finish it in a year. Yay! Right? No. I told Catherine that her choice was either Magic Lens V.1 (the next in the series aft...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Sep 25, 2011, 8:25 pm
Catherine and Harry got the day off Friday due to lack of motivation on my part. I have learned that there will be days in this pregnancy when I just have to sit back and rest and Friday was one of them. So today was catch-up day. Extraordinary kid that she is she started her work with almost no p...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Sep 24, 2011, 11:53 am
I made lunch a little while ago. I got a little creative and when my son saw what I had done he was enormously impressed and showered me with compliments about what great cook I was. What did I do? I mixed cut-up hot dogs in with the Kraft Dinner.
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Sep 23, 2011, 6:38 pm
It was a busy week this week and I finally came to realize that not only are the mornings off limits for appointments and such, most afternoons are going to have to be as well. While Harry's work can be done in a morning Catherine is not so lucky. While most of English as well as Math,French and Lat...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Sep 22, 2011, 5:26 pm
A lot of the materials we us in homeschooling are things I pick up at local thrift stores or yard sales. I thought it might be fun to post pictures here and invite others to who also buy a lot of used materials to do the same. One local thrift store is the product of one women's ministry and as a...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Sep 21, 2011, 4:32 pm
I love the The Teaching Company audio courses. I've learned a lot over the years on subjects ranging from philosophy to science fiction literature. They're generally engaging and informative and always leave me curious and unsatisfied which in my books is good thing because I'll then go on to pursue...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Sep 18, 2011, 5:35 pm
In our new schedule Sunday is supposed to be the day for art, music and poetry. We didn't get to that today. It was Open Farm Day in Nova Scotia so that meant that part of the day would be taken up by a trip to a local farm. Since I'm only 6 weeks from a baby just the thought of that outing was tiri...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Sep 16, 2011, 3:58 pm
It's been a busy week here. We started school a couple of weeks ago but began with the basics and slowly added in the other subjects until we're now almost at the point where I feel like we've got almost everything covered. I still need to find a satisfactory way to approach science for both kids be...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Sep 11, 2011, 6:12 pm
Catherine wrote her Basic Rudiments music theory exam for the Royal Conservatory of Music here in Canada in August. We just got her results online. 87% and First Class Honours. We both would have been thrilled with this a couple of years ago but with the higher expectations philosophy that we've be...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Aug 1, 2011, 8:38 pm
Sigh. Lost our second chicken yesterday. It was Nudie Bum, the little guy I spent much time trying to help as a little fluff ball. He had issues with his vent. It wasn't formed quite right and he wasn't eliminating waste in the same way as the other chickens. For the longest time he seemed fine but ...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jul 29, 2011, 4:43 pm
The reaper visited our chickens yesterday. The Cornish Crosses are known for dropping dead occasionally, the result I suppose of being a hybrid that grows so darn fast. Sometimes they grow so fast their hearts can't keep up and they "flip", die suddenly of heart failure. We were sure Death was comi...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jul 20, 2011, 4:58 pm
My husband and I could only watch as, just half and hour ago, our old rotti/lab mix walked around the entire living room, peeing. There was nothing we could do. If it was the other dog we could have shooed her out the front door but the old dog is a runner and it takes forever to catch her when she ...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jul 13, 2011, 4:14 pm
The Carnival of Homeschooling is up at A Life Supreme!
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jul 8, 2011, 8:36 am
For the last week our Cornish cross chicks have been getting loaded into a wheelbarrow and wheeled outside to spend the days outdoors. We've borrowed a dog pen from my brother, run chicken wire around the bottom and covered it with a tarp for shade and this is where the chicks spend the day lounging...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jul 7, 2011, 11:20 am
Tuesday, homeschooling for my son and I was horrible. I was tired and he was unfocused and after an hour of struggling everything dissolved into anger and we both marched off in a snit. He was convinced I was the meanest mom ever and I was convinced I should ship him off to school. As I was lying ...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jul 6, 2011, 10:13 am
I finally found my camera and so I can post a some pictures from our little local Canada Day parade. I don't know what other local parades look like but ours always starts with the town cryer outfitted, of course, in a kilt made from the provincial tartan. Local businesses take the opportunity to...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jul 4, 2011, 12:58 pm
*Sigh* Harry has some issues. He has trouble with focus in certain circumstances. His hearing is odd. His recall is sometimes odder. There are a lot of little things that, pieced together, make me suspect he's got some sort of auditory processing delay. I called up our provincial hearing and speech...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jun 29, 2011, 7:37 am
Now that the postal strike here in Canada is over I'm finally getting mail, and in the mail yesterday was Catherine's writing program for Grade 8. It's Lingua Mater and it's had me drooling ever since I was introduced to it by a member of the Well Trained Mind forums. It's actually a rewrite of a...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jun 28, 2011, 10:43 am
For the first time in ages I've actually submitted something. :)
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jun 27, 2011, 5:57 pm
Every spring a lovely pair of tree swallows moves into a broken down little bird house on our front lawn. Last year it was invaded by some sort of predatory bird. The attack did even more damage to the already decrepit house and being the slum lords we are we did nothing to fix it. The swallows were...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jun 24, 2011, 8:50 pm
If you head down to our basement right now you'll see this, Flick the light on. See? It's just a heat lamp. And undneath that lamp? In the box? Two week old Chicks! 25 little Cornish X chicks that will be our guests for the next three months. They'll be fed and watered and housed and adored an...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jun 23, 2011, 12:14 pm
I've always had my eye out for a way to organize the kids' homeschooling work that I could maintain and that wouldn't take up much room. About a year ago I finally put something together and it's been working like a charm ever since. I kept meaning to post about it but never got around to it until a...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jun 19, 2011, 3:50 pm
It's a wonderful luxury to own a stocked pond. Shannon (the husband) is baiting the hook with Harry and my neice. My father giving my nephew (on my husband's side) some encouragement. Catherine picking a spot to cast with adoring cousin in tow. Harry with one of the fish he caught. Dad said the...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - May 13, 2011, 7:14 pm
My daughter is working through Singapore Discovering Mathematics 1. It's roughly equivilent to Grade 7 work here but since the review section at the beginning covers stuff my daughter's 12 year old friends are doing this year in math I am fairly confident that she's actually working at about a grade...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Apr 12, 2011, 7:54 am
Since I'm pregnant and in Canada I though I'd post a bit of an account of what it's like to navigate our health care system and what it costs me for any curious American readers. I hear lots of very weird stories from south of the border about what Canadian Health care is like but rarely do they see...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Apr 10, 2011, 8:13 pm
Boys should learn to do laundry if for no other reason then they'll rack you up when you least expect it. It was Harry's turn to do a load of laundry this afternoon. He went into the laundry room, starting working and about ten minutes latter tore into the living room with a glove on his hand. He ...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Apr 10, 2011, 4:20 pm
Sunday has lately become our family chore day. Of the three days a week my husband has off work (when not out on a call) Saturday is generally when we veg out and Monday is when all the family lessons and appointments get taken care of. So Sunday is the day we pick the bigger chores we need to get d...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Apr 8, 2011, 8:12 pm
I think there's one thing people have got to understand about Roger Ebert's writing before they start getting upset about what he's written. You have got to read a little bit of what he's written, understand his style a bit, get a feeling for it, before you start pulling your hair out over what yo...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Mar 31, 2011, 7:49 am
I had my first ultrasound yesterday. I'm just about ten weeks and despite my lack of enthusiasm in yesterday's post my heart did jump a little when I saw the little jelly bean tucked away in the gestational sack. It was a neat moment knowing I was seeing it so close to the beginning of it's journey ...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Mar 30, 2011, 9:30 am
I go in for an early ultrasound today to determine where exactly I am in this pregnancy. I'm pretty sure I'm somewhere around the 8 week mark but this will give me a much better answer for all those people asking when I'm due. I admit, I hate ultrasounds. You have to drink a lot of water, not pee t...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Mar 29, 2011, 5:59 pm
Another bit of Spring cleaning for the sidebars. Homeschooling Blogs Little Homestead in the Valley Ina's 5 and Our Native Homeschool Alasandra's Homeschool Blog Atypical Life Clio's Classroom Cocking a Snook Corn and Oil Doc's Sunrise Rants Drat These Greeks H.E.R.P.& E.S. Jacqueline's Jabberings ...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Mar 29, 2011, 5:18 pm
Just a post of all my best homeschooling links to replace the clutter in my sidebar. Homeschool News Homeschool Buzz New to Homeschooling? Here's Where To Start: A to Z Home's Cool Jon's Homeschool Resources General Homeschooling Resources Mom's Break Free Printables EThemes Used Homeschooling Mater...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Mar 29, 2011, 4:26 pm
I keep trying other blogs. I keep thinking I'm over this one. But everytime I think up some new blog it turns out to be nothing I really couldn't do here. There are thins I want to write about that are outside the scope of this blog but rather then running off and trying to create the "perfect" blog...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Oct 24, 2010, 3:08 pm
The Crafty Thrifter Forgot to put it in the last post. D'uh. So what's possibly the last post on this blog was written to correct (for those RSS subscribers who might not click to the blog) what I thought might possibly be the last post on this blog but now isn't. Sheesh. You've got to follow the ne...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Oct 24, 2010, 3:02 pm
This may be the end of this blog. I can't muster any interest in posting about our homeschooling days right now. Too much reality and right now I need some escapism. Fear not though. I have a new blog where I'll indulge in fantasy. All about thrifting (buying other peoples junk) and crafting. Pop o...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Sep 2, 2010, 4:03 pm
Just popped in to say that my absence is not going to be a lengthy one. I'm just under the weather due to bronchitis (note: forgo brisk hikes when you have the flu).
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Aug 27, 2010, 8:27 pm
In my last post about our viewing of Walking With Cavemen I forgot to mention something about it that had me thinking. In, I think, the third episode the narrator pointed to some holes in the ground and commented that how our ancestor viewed those holes marked a huge departure from how every other...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Aug 27, 2010, 6:43 pm
A few days ago when we were talking about "cavemen" Harry had the wacky idea that they had cars. Cars? I think he must have caught a few episodes of The Flintstones at some point and it made a greater impression than it should have. Regardless, to give him a better portrait of what those cavemen mig...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Aug 26, 2010, 4:17 pm
This afternoon we followed up on our latest Story of the World chapters with a reading of the first two chapters of E.H. Gombrich's A Little History of the World (my review here - LOVE this book). Both dealt with prehistoric humans so in keeping with the theme we first looked at cave paintings on th...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Aug 8, 2010, 11:31 am
My daughter has been interested in learning Ancient Greek and Latin since forever. We've approached Greek in fits and starts because I haven't really found anything that seemed to work well. She worked through the Greek Hupogrammon years ago but that's just learning the alphabet. Beyond that there's...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jul 23, 2010, 10:26 pm
I wiped my hard drive yesterday and did a fresh install of Windows XP. Now my damn computer is running slower then before. I think that's because I tweaked things with the last install to make it run faster but now I can't remember what I did! It's because of Google. With Google I never have to rem...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jul 23, 2010, 9:16 pm
I must be freakin' crazy. And that's not all of it either. Getting Started with Latin hasn't arrived yet and neither has Oxford's The Medieval and Early Modern World (no, I didn't pay that price! Got it on sale for $95). I haven't got a clue how it will all work. I have a vague idea that math an...
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Dawn A. posted an article on Day by Day Homeschooling - Jul 22, 2010, 6:22 pm
This is Blue. She came from a Labrador rescue and is a lab/pit bull mix. We've had her for a couple of weeks now and can't imagine how we did without her. Even our old lab/rottie mix is having a great time with her. My brother died at the end of February in a car accident that he should have walked...
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