Favorite Lessons and Moments of 2005

January: We learned about and did some ceiling Art, boosted our Self-Esteem, did a Scavenger Hunt at the Mall, spent some time with owls, interacted with the History of China and theirGeography and Food, and put together our Little House on the Prairie Lesson Plan.

February
We studied and visited the Police Station, learned about the Animals, history, culture, geography and food of Thailand, attended a science fair, studied the Inuit and Arctic, had a teachable moment in citizenship, took a Little House on the Prairie Field Trip to DeSmet.

March
We studied the animals, history, and geography and food of Japan, spent some time with our Easter lessons, took a field trip to the local library, played with magnets and developed our Countries of the World Lesson Plan.

April
We had fun with skip counting, had a great frog birthday party, did activities for Earth Day, enjoyed a visit with the grandparents, attended MACHE homeschool conference, went on a great lampworking field trip, spent time with frogs, created our family fun jar and had our first stitches experience.

May
We had a tea party, visited the state capitol, spent plenty of time in the Star Wars Universe, with lightsabers, kids printables and games and Star Wars web links and humor. Serona and the kids spent a weekend on the SS Fathers Folly while I spent a weekend away. The kids attended a mini horse camp, did some Cinco De Mayo activities and finished off our First year of homeschooling.

Summer 2005
We took swim lessons, spent lots of time at the beach, attended VBS, raised tadpoles that all sadly died, followed the natural progression of the rose garden, made atlatyls and visited the petroglyphs, found a baby gosling, attended a great performance of the The Hobbit, went camping, learned to appreciate our little naturalist. Ciaran learned to ride a bike, Rhia had a beach party for her 6th birthday, we all attended the Scottish Fair and Games, and watched baby grow up. Here is a list of some of our common and favorite Summer Pastimes.

September
We joined a new coop where the kids will be in a Five in a Row class. worked on an Illustrated Bible, enjoyed mud, saved TinkerBell, learned about nomads, played with letters and numbers, visited historical sites, worked on the farm, fought back against advertising. We played with geography,visited Mill City Museum, homeschool picnic, and the zoo.

October
We went leaf peeping, made a homemade calendar, studied floods, built a model of Noah's Ark in our garage, stumbled into accidental unit studies, studied pyramids, Baked an Apple Pie and Saw the World, drove 60 hours roundtrip in our car to visit the grandparents in Maine. While in Maine we visited an elk farm, Augusta Children's Museum, climbed a mountain, went horseback riding, visited a dairy farm, and Niagara Falls.

November
We spent a day at the State Capitol and the James J Hill House, recap of our studies in early November, made stone soup, read and studied The Chronicles of Narnia, did some Thanksgiving activities, memorized scripture and played in the snow.

December
This month has been about playing in the snow, playing monkey ball with dad, watching Christmas movies, making Christmas cookies, wrapping and shipping presents, and just enjoying each other. Rhia wrote a fairy tale, Sirah ate cocoa under the Christmas tree, and Ciaran invented a Toilet Paper Game. They built clay houses, did science experiments, played 20 questions, participated in the end of the year showcase for their homeschool coop. We did activities about gingerbread, learned about Candy Canes, and participated in a cookie exchange. We had a private showing with our hs group of Chronicles of Narnia and did some follow-up activities. Our blog was nominated for in several categories of the Homeschool Blog Awards, Serona and I actually got out on a date, we had a three day snow to guarantee a White Christmas. We joined a Farm Pen Pal program, learned how to snow paint, saw a solar halo, celebrated advent, visited the science museum, went sledding and watched our favorite Christmas movies. We are keeping track of our 12 Days of Christmas.

Serona has had many great posts this year over at Cyber::Ecology. Some of the best include: Vicrtimized by My Food, Debunking Katrina Myths, Election Allegations, Why The War on Terrorism Matters, Weird Goldfish, Privelage, Responsibility and MSM, Globalization and You, Fundamentalist Copyright Zealots, and Rant, Rage, Blister and Fume
Remember by scrolling down you can read more about our year including our reading lists from each month (on the right side bar) and more field trips and lessons. We have been so blessed this year. Hope your year has been great.

We wish you a Merry Christmas,
Tenn, Serona and the kids