Moving...

It's been a while! We had an extra busy fall, so the blog was put on the back burner. I'll try to go back and fill in the gaps soon, and I'll try to be more diligent from now on. That sounds like a New Year's resolution... =)

I've decided to go back to our old blog address: http://diefenblog.blogspot.com.  This is because while much of our life has to do with homeschooling, there is plenty that doesn't, so the "diefenschool" address doesn't work as well.  Plus, "diefenblog" is just cooler.

So, from now on, please visit our other blog for our latest family news.  I'll keep this blog up and I'll link to it from the other one.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Happy Happy Harvest Day

Halloween is one of those holidays we don't like to celebrate, but we try to partake in some of the fun activities without emphasizing the evil undertones often associated with the day.  We call our "redeemed" version Harvest Day.

We don't always carve pumpkins for many reasons: quick-to-rot pumpkins, parent labor, kids with knives...etc.  This year, we went for it.  The kids drew their designs, helped hollow the pumpkins out, and did a very small percentage of the cutting.

Our favorite Harvest Day activity was our church's Harvest Festival, which requires that people dress up as someone/something from the Bible.  Kyler chose Joab (complete with a lock of Absalom's hair), Ella was Abigail (she carried food in a basket), and Brennan was Shammah (the Mighty Man of David that defended the bean field - he had a bag of beans attached to his belt).  The church was filled with game booths, bouncy houses, craft tables, and more.

We concluded the holiday with our annual candy sort-and-pick event.  This is where we consolidated candy bag contents, sorted it, and then each person picked 7 pieces to keep so they can eat 1 per day for a week.  The rest of the candy was donated to a good cause (Scott's soccer team).  All-in-all, Harvest Day 2011 was a blast!

Even a child is known by his deeds...

We've made an effort this school year to include Bible verse memorization in our daily routine.  We have a great book that has a verse for each letter of the alphabet, plus a short story that helps kids understand the verse.  Brennan is working on memorizing these verses.

Here is a video of him doing the verses for A through L.  The motions are all his invention, and I can't explain the goggles...

Co-op is Cool!

The kids will tell you, if you ask, that the best school day every week is Monday.  Monday is the day that co-op meets this year.  Last year was a huge success, and this year is different, but equally successful.

Ella and Brennan get to do art, science, P.E., and writing.  Kyler gets to do literary analysis, which involves reading books, discussing them as a class, and then doing unit studies on topics related to the book.  For example, the first book they read was The Witch of Blackbird Pond, which is set in New England during the time of the Puritans.   One of the activities they did was to make their own candles.

Kyler also gets to participate in a class called Team Building, which Scott teaches in addition to P.E. for the younger kids.  In this class, the kids play games and do activities that promote such skills as leadership, trust, and communication.

My responsibilities include maintaining the website and other technological things, as well as coordinating field trips.  Our first field trip was to a pumpkin patch.  Kids got to pick out pumpkins, learn about potatoes, and go through a huge corn maze.  It was a lot of fun!

Project Management

Now that we kinda got the hang of this homeschool thing, we decided to let the kids each pick a project to work on that's not directly related to a school subject.  I guess we could call it electives.

Brennan picked woodworking, which is fine with me, because that makes Dad the teacher!  They are working together on a birdhouse for the back yard.  Don't worry, Brennan is not allowed to use the power tools.  Those of you who know Brennan know what a scary prospect Brennan with a power tool is. =)

Ella chose sewing.  This is her working on a decorative pillow case for her room.  She learned about using the iron, pinning, and even operated the sewing machine.  I am currently her teacher, but we are hoping to transition soon to her much more qualified Grandma.

Kyler is learning computer programming.  This is one area that I feel somewhat confidant that I can teach.  He's using a program called Alice, which was developed at Carnegie Mellon as a tool for teaching programming concepts.  So far, it's mostly like a computer game for Kyler, so he loves it.  But he is learning as he goes along, whether he knows it or not.

Boot It!!!

Ahhhh....autumn.  My favorite season of the year.  Beautiful colors, crisp air, cozy living rooms....and parents screaming "BOOT IT!" from the sidelines. =)

Fall is a busy time for us.  Not only do we have school starting and all the work that goes into that for homeschoolers, but we also have soccer.  Scott is the head coach of the varsity boys program at the high school, and all three of the kids are on teams.  I'm even assistant coach for Ella's team this year.  We have something soccer related - practices, games, meetings, etc. - almost every day of the week for over two months.  It's crazy, but we love it.

Kyler was on a club team for the first time this year.  It was his idea to try out this summer, and he made the team.  They played in a couple of tournaments over the summer, and they're doing great in league play.  They are ranked #2 behind a team they lost to the first time they played them, but then beat the next time.  Kyler has improved quite a lot throughout the season, and we're very proud of him.  Go Pumas!

Brennan loves to play soccer!  You may not be able to see the HUGE smile on his face in this picture, but it's there.  In fact he giggles through most of the game, he's having so much fun.  Brennan has shown himself to be very coach-able.  He is able to take suggestions from us and his coaches and apply them during the game.  He's also turned out to be a natural defender, at least this year.  When his team loses possession, he gets back to defend his goal.  We're looking forward to seeing how Brennan develops as a soccer player over the years.  Go Rockets!

Ella does not generally play keeper, but I love how she looks in those huge gloves in this picture.  This year has been unique for me because I've been able to participate in Ella's experience as her assistant coach.  She

has improved a lot in many ways over the course of the season.  I am most proud of her tendency to look for someone to pass to as soon as she gets the ball.  Go Pink Panthers!

There are only about two to three weeks left in the soccer season.  Although I'm a looking forward to fewer time commitments, I will miss the excitement of three soccer games every Saturday.  Oh well, there's always next year!

Consider the Lilies

Imagine life without flowers.  Of course, they are beautiful to look at, but think of all the other things for which we depend on flowering plants: food, clothes (cotton), honey...the list goes on and on.

Our botany book points out that God had a wonderful plan when he created angiosperms (flowering plants), and that we should be very thankful for them.  We also dissected flowers and learned about the parts.  But the favorite section was the one on carnivorous plants.  This is fascinating stuff!