Beyond Measure

Port Aransas Vacay

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 21:38:00 +0000

We took an impromptu trip to the coast last week. It happened something like this: I got an email with a 15% off coupon for a condo in Port A, we were planning on taking the following week off from school anyway, Glenn needed a break from work, and it just so happened to fall on my 45th birthday....so I asked myself: "Why can't we go to the coast for a few days?" So we went.

We stayed 4 nights and it was such a nice break.

We took our girl Hallow. Y'all, she had a blast. I think she may have had the most fun out of all of us.

Our condo was right on the beach with a boardwalk that took us pretty close to the water. Caleb's FreeWheel attachment made getting around so much easier for him. Sand and wheelchairs are a fussy combo.

Look at her! She loved running in the water and rolling on the beach. She would walk out until the waves started hitting her and that was as far as she would go. She loves water, but she just likes to walk in it, not swim.

We pretty much had the beach (and the entire town) to ourselves. It was very quiet.

Wet, sandy, and tired.

Sometimes, you just have to dig a really deep hole.

Caleb, the gull whisperer.

Rolling in the sand.

Absolutely covered.

Hallow resting in front of the faux fireplace.

We ate good food while we were there. It is always fun to eat on the bay.

With my girl.

The boys often wanted to chill in the condo in the evenings, so Glenn and I would head out to walk Hallow along the beach.

Woke up to this view on my 45th birthday. Not too shabby.

We went to a coffee and gelato shop.

More beach time.

Turning 45 isn't so bad when you get to celebrate on the beach.

We met a few locals.

These guys were fun to watch but you could really only see them at dusk.

Our last day was probably the best day as far as weather. It was warm the entire time but overcast which made it feel a little cool by the water. The last day was sunny and very warm. I stayed out on the beach even after everyone else headed in.

Benjamin's sand creation.

One final walk down the beach before we headed home.

It was a much needed trip. I'm so glad we were able to get away for just a few days. It was exactly what we needed.

Gather Round Homeschool: Psychology

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 18:56:00 +0000

We just wrapped up the Psychology unit through Gather Round Homeschool. I loved this unit. It was so good. Without a doubt, the best part of homeschooling is learning alongside your kids. I enjoyed this unit so much.

The content was so rich that we rarely (if ever) managed to get through a lesson in one day. Most lessons took us at least 2 days to get through. Psychology covered everything from anatomy of the brain to anxiety, phobias, and dreams. We learned about perspective, problem-solving, motivations, personality, and memory. The boys enjoyed learning about specific topics like OCD and sleep walking. Did you know that one woman walked 9 miles in her socks while sleep walking? Fascinating. Seriously, this unit was excellent and we took so much away from it. I highly recommend it, especially for middle and high school students.

We chose "Wonder" and "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" as our audiobooks for this unit.

We all enjoyed this book. We watched the movie as well.

This one was definitely interesting. Benjamin seemed to enjoy it...Caleb wasn't so sure.

We added a brain pin to our "Gather" pendant to represent the Psychology unit.

What is next for us? Well, we will take a short break before we dive into our next units. They boys get to take turns picking our units but I've noticed we all start to get a little antsy about halfway through a unit. I'm going to mix it up a bit by alternating between 2 units.

Caleb has chosen South America. This kid loves learning about other cultures.

Benjamin chose Creepy Crawlies.

I'm actually excited for this one.

To keep both boys interested, we will do one lesson of South America and then a lesson from Creepy Crawlies. We will just go back and forth between the two units. I think that will keep everyone interested and attentive.

I want to do a mini history unit (A New World) in November along with the 4 day Thanksgiving unit. I think these 2 units will pair really well together. We will pause South America and Creepy Crawlies to work through "A new world" and "Thanksgiving" during the month of November.

I think switching up the units like this will help keep everything fresh and new instead of just plowing through 20 lessons of the same topic.

And now for a random photo dump:

Nature hike with some local homeschoolers.

Thank goodness for Caleb's freewheel attachment. This particular trail was not paved and Caleb had to work hard to get through it. He managed...and had a few blisters to show for it.

We got rained on during one of our nature hikes, Hallow didn't seem to mind.

The kids didn't mind the rain either, they thought it was awesome.

Big news! This man-child (more man than child these days) turned 17 in August. How that happened, I have no idea. He's amazing. I love him.

Our Homeschool Curriculum 2022-23

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 17:54:00 +0000

We have enjoyed having July off (even though it has been ridiculously hot!) but it is about time to jump into a new year of homeschool. Ya'll this will be my 10th year to homeschool. So crazy. It has flown by. I am so thankful that I have been able to keep my boys at home. It was a leap of faith to pull Caleb from public school and start homeschooling. Benjamin has never been to public school. I haven't regretted my decision (or rather God's decision) once.

Anyway, here is what we will be tackling in the weeks to come.

We are sticking with Gather Round Homeschool. Psychology is the unit that Caleb chose. I am so crazy excited about this unit. I have gone through the entire unit and it looks amazing. We will be covering so many interesting topics. The unit is gorgeous and so well put together. I can't wait to jump in. This is going to be good. It is a full unit of 20 lessons with 5 notebooking pages per lesson. Given the rich content of the unit, I highly doubt we will get through a lesson per day. This unit might take us a couple of extra weeks to work through. I'm okay with that, I'm not in a hurry.

These books are meant to be a fun compliment to the Psychology unit.

This is something new that I added this year. It is through Not Consumed. "My Brother's Keeper" is a bible study intended for siblings. I'm hoping it will help strengthen relationships within the home. The "Faithipedia" is a gorgeous stand and flip book that covers the Old Testament. We will likely do this during our morning time, before we jump into lessons.

I love the stand and flip design of the book.

Since Gather Round covers all of the major subjects (history, science, literature, grammar, art, geography, etc), it will be our main curriculum.

Benjamin will be using "Spelling You See"

We used All about Spelling for several years. I loved it and I do think it help Benjamin. All about Reading was an absolute life saver and Benjamin is a solid reader because of that program. We just hit a wall with All About Spelling so I made the switch to Spelling You See about halfway through our school year last year. We will continue using it, at least for the time being.

Benjamin will continue using Teaching Textbooks for math.

Caleb will continue to work through his online driving modules, working toward getting his license. He won't be doing "traditional" high school math this year. Instead, he will work through Dave Ramsey's "Foundations in Personal Finance: High School Edition". Focusing on real world math makes more sense to me, so that is what we will do. He worked through the "Foundations in Career Readiness" last year, and really enjoyed it. I offered Caleb a couple of online courses through Master Books Academy and he chose the Intro to Sign Language course. He completed an ASL class at our co-op this past spring and really enjoyed it.

There is also a Geocaching course on Master Books Academy that I might introduce in the fall when the weather is cooler. Obviously, you don't need a course to do geocaching but it looks like it has some fun activities with it.

I'm going back to the simple spiral notebook for scheduling. I got this idea from Sarah Mackenzie (Read Aloud Revival). It is just a really simple way of letting your kids know what they need to get done each day. They just check it off as they go, no need to ask mom: "what do I have to do next?"

I'm also not going to "pre-plan" as much this year. I'll go into each week with a rough idea of what I would like to get done but I'm going to follow "reverse homeschool planning" (google it for more info). Basically, I'll write down what we got done each day. It is more encouraging to see what you accomplished (usually more that you think) instead of seeing what you didn't get done.

I'm really trying to give the boys more of a say in what we learn. Gather Round Homeschool has been such a blessing because I can let the boys choose the units and we learn together. I really want them to find topics/hobbies/subjects that interest them. Learning is a lot more fun and meaningful when you focus on a topic that means something to you.

We won't have a homeschool co-op this fall but we will still meet with our co-op friends once a week to hang out and have fun.

Arcade fun with friends.

Gather Round Homeschool: War and Reformation

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 18:35:00 +0000

We finished up another Gather Round unit last week. Benjamin chose a history unit, "War and Reformation". This unit was a mini-unit. It had 20 lessons, like a full unit, but less notebooking pages. A mini-unit was the perfect fit as we were winding down our homeschool year, leading us to our July break.

I really enjoyed this unit. I think the boys like it too. It covered a 45 year time span, early 1900's to the mid 1940's. The unit began with the Spanish-American war and ended with WW2. While the unit didn't necessarily dive deep into any particular event, there were plenty of rabbit holes you could follow if you wanted to learn more about a topic. I love all the critical thinking questions it brought up throughout the unit. It was a good opportunity to talk about our world today and some of the startling comparisons to our world 80 years ago. Did you know that during the Flu Epidemic in 1918 it was illegal to sneeze or cough without a handkerchief?! Sound familiar? We read about the different presidents during that time. Fun fact: Theodore Roosevelt was the only president to be elected 4 times. We read about propaganda, sedition, women entering the work force, and Pearl Harbor.

We added another pin to our pendant.

Now we take a few weeks off before we start back with our next unit, Caleb's choice: Psychology. I'm so excited for this one.

And now for a few random photos:

Obligatory last day of school photos. The boys humor me....barely.

A few weeks ago, our living room was taken over by teens. It was wonderful.

Caleb officially has his driving permit so he is learning how to drive with hand controls. EEK!

And, because it has been awhile...here are some cute photos of Hallow.

She's so sweet.

Stalking me while I chop carrots. She loves carrots.

Her "psst, I want dinner" face.

Gather Round Homeschool: Inventions and Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Tue, 17 May 2022 19:01:00 +0000

We just wrapped up our second unit through Gather Round Homeschool. I blogged about the first unit we tried, North American Birds, a couple of months ago.

Benjamin chose "Inventions and Ideas" for our second unit.

This unit took us 7 weeks to get through because it was so rich. We had to split up most lessons over 2 or 3 days. This unit covered a variety of inventions. We learned about inventions that navigate: the compass and sextant. We learned about inventions that thrill: bungee jumping and roller coasters (that was a fun lesson). We covered everything from post-it notes, to the vacuum cleaner, the atomic bomb and playdough. Fun fact: playdough was originally used as wallpaper cleaner. We learned so many things. It was a really fun unit. Our read aloud book was "The boy who harnessed the wind." It is the true story of a young boy in Africa who taught himself about electricity and used that knowledge to build a windmill out of scrap yard supplies and supply electricity to his family. It was a fantastic read.

We added a lightbulb pin to our banner after we completed the "Inventions and Ideas" unit.

I have to say that I'm really enjoying this unit approach. It is just nice to know that we will spend a few weeks on a topic of study and then we will move on to another topic. There isn't enough time to get bored or burnt out. It's refreshing.

Caleb and Benjamin also want to keep using Gather Round so I let them pick out our next two units.

Benjamin chose History Unit 4: War and Reformation

This is actually a mini-unit. It still has 20 lessons, like a full unit, but only 2 notebook pages per lesson (the full units have 5 notebook pages). We are going to do this unit next before we take a short summer break in July.

Caleb chose Intro to Psychology

This one is likely going to take us a bit to get through. It looks amazing! We will start this one at the beginning of August.

I don't have any photos of our day-to-day homeschool routine...but I do have some random photos from the last couple of months. Warning: Photo dump!

A rare photo of me with the boys. This was at our homeschool co-op field day.

Benjamin and his buddies.

Our sweet Hallow girl.

Park day with co-op friends.

Coffee shop hangout with co-op friends. My kids have been so blessed with good friendships.

I've also been blessed with some good friendships:

Love all of these ladies.

These gals are fellow homeschool moms and fans of The Office. We had a blast in our dorky shirts at a trivia night.

Us ladies at a "GALentines Day" brunch. So fun!

New Year. New Home. New Curriculum.

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 22:07:00 +0000

2022 has ushered in a lot of changes in our household....including a new house. A new home means a new "school" room.

I love this space. Our new school room is at the front of the house and it has a huge window that just makes everything feel so open and airy. I love it. It just feels clean and fresh...probably because it is!

White Table: Ikea, Orange chairs: Ikea

I found this canvas world map at Hobby Lobby (50% off ya'll!)

Map

I found this personalized sign on Etsy.

Homeschool sign

I discovered these beautiful watercolor maps months ago and I couldn't wait to find a spot for them in our new home.

These prints are gorgeous and have so much detail.

Elizabeth Wade Studio

Gotta have a comfy recliner in your school room, right?

The room has built in shelves in the closet! It's amazing. So much room and storage. It's like a dream.

So that's a little sneak peek into a new school room.

Now onto the new curriculum. Homeschooling means you can just switch gears anytime you want, right? You can just dump a curriculum that isn't working and try something else. That is what we did. This is my 9th year to homeschool and for most of those years, I did the bulk of school with both Caleb and Benjamin. They had independent subjects that they would work on separately but for the most part, we learned together. When Caleb started ninth grade, his work became separate from Benjamin's work and we were no longer learning together. I hated it. I put up with it for a year and a half but by last fall, I knew I didn't want to separate the boys anymore. I wanted to go back to learning together.

Anyway, I prayed about it and started searching for something that might work. There are plenty of options for learning as a family but I kind of wanted something that was unit study based and that would allow the boys to choose what they wanted to learn about. I'm was tired of choosing what they were going to learn. I think they should get a say. By chance (well, not by chance, I think God pointed me in the right direction), I stumbled upon a fellow homeshooling mom on YouTube (Simply Living It). She was sharing her frustration with homeschooling her boys and she was longing for connection as well. Through her channel, I learned about Gather Round Homeschool. GR was started by a homeschooling mom who couldn't find a curriculum that met the needs of her family, so she started writing her own. It is Unit Study based so each topic of study takes just a few weeks, depending on how many days a week you do it. I did some research. I liked what I saw. I grabbed Caleb and Benjamin, showed them the different units, and then let them pick what we would learn.

Caleb chose North American Birds, Benjamin chose Inventions and Ideas. I decided to start with NAB first because it looked pretty "gentle" and a nice way to ease into a new curriculum.

There is a digital version of the curriculum but I went with print. It is just lovely.

The teachers guide is super easy to follow. I just read to the boys. We stop periodically to watch the recommended videos or look through photos/websites. Everything we need is made available to us through the Gather Round resources page. It's amazing and requires very little prep from me.

The student workbooks are similar to journaling pages, just more structured. There are 5 pages for each bird. The workbooks cover everything from facts about birds, grammar, geography, science, writing, research, etc. Everything ties together with the topic.

I've really enjoyed NAB. It was the perfect unit to start us off our Gather Round journey.

I can't take credit for this idea. I saw it on the Gather Round Facebook page. The "Gather" pendant is from Amazon, so is the bird pin. The idea is to add a pin after each unit, a bird (obviously) for North American Birds. I found a lightbulb pin that we will add after we finish Inventions and Ideas. I love stuff like this. I'm not sure if the boys care but this kind of thing is my jam.

We will finish up NAB this week. So far, I'm really enjoying Gather Round. We will definitely continue through Inventions and then I'll chat with the boys to see what they think. If they are enjoying it, then I'll likely let them continue to take turns picking the units we cover. I'll keep you guys posted.

The change has definitely been a breath of fresh air for me. I just really needed something different. I missed the together time with both boys. They live parallel lives these days and I want their paths to cross more.

Benjamin turns 13!

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 22:22:00 +0000

Well, it happened. Benjamin is officially a teenager. How did we get here ya'll?! I swear, I blinked and suddenly I have a 16 year old and a 13 year old. It's madness.

If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you know I love the opportunity to plan a themed party. As my boys have gotten older...the less I get to run wild with a party theme. Benjamin only wanted his two good friends over to hang out and play video games. He did have an idea for a theme so this mom was happy.

His favorite Fortnite skin is Fishstick. Thus, a theme was born.

I did my best to keep it simple but it wasn't easy for me.

That is "edible sand" on the cake. I made it with Nilla Wafers, Graham Crackers, and brown sugar.

So cute!

Benjamin and his buddies!

It was a fun afternoon for these boys. You can't go wrong with snacks, sweets, and video games.

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

10th Annual Spina Bifida Christmas Card Exchange

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 18:28:00 +0000

I can't believe it has been TEN years since I started organizing the Spina Bifida Christmas Card Exchange! What a blessing it has been to my family and I.

Don't miss out! Sign up HERE!

Family Escape Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 21:48:00 +0000

What in the world! Has it really been a year since I have posted? Yikes. It must just be the season of life we are in. The boys are older, Caleb is 16 (shut up!) and Benjamin is about to turn 13. We are doing well, still homeschooling, hanging out with friends, and just doing life. I won't even try to share all the happenings of the last year (assuming anyone even reads this blog anymore). However, I will share a fun weekend we had recently.

We got the spend the weekend at Camp John Marc for a Family Escape weekend. We love CJM. We have so many memories of Family Camp there (before Caleb aged out). We haven't been in years but the place hasn't changed a bit.

CJM's Family Escape weekend is a self-directed weekend. We didn't have anything scheduled. We were free to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted.

I found our family brick from our first year at Camp John Marc.

Hallow absolutely loved it there. She is such a country dog at heart. She was especially interested in the dozens of deer that graze around the area.

We grilled hotdogs and burgers outside.

That's us!

Living her best life.

There were a few other families there, one family that we knew pretty well. Caleb hung out with Cannon quite a bit. They played basketball (a lot).

Benjamin brought his water pellet blaster.

We did a little fishing.

Did I mention that this man-child is 16 now?

Caleb caught a fish but his sweet-soft-heart hated watching the hook being removed and vowed to never fish again.

It was very pretty on the water.

Rolling in the grass like a lunatic.

More basketball.

I seriously think Hallow had more fun than any of us.

We played indoor games as well.

It was a really fun getaway weekend.

(p.s. I'll try to blog more)

9th Annual Spina Bifida Christmas Card Exchange

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 14:22:00 +0000

Hey SB folks, it's that time of year again! 2020 has been a bit rough so why not end it with a little cheer by signing up for the 9th Annual Spina Bifida Christmas Card Exchange. Use the link provided to sign up. At the beginning of December I will send out an email with a list of fellow SB folks and families for you to send a card to. You'll get cards in return. It is really fun and I promise you will be so blessed by it.

Here is the link to sign-up!

https://forms.gle/4Exij2fpaggZgv2U8

Homeschool Curriculum 2020-21

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 21:29:00 +0000

We are gearing up to kick off another year of homeschool. This will be our 8th year of homeschooling. With all that is going on right now, I am so thankful we were already on the homeschool path. I know so many families are struggling to figure out how to handle all of the changes with public schools because of Covid19. I've met with several friends recently that will be homeschooling for the first time this fall.

Anyway, every year I share what our curriculum looks like for the upcoming school year. Caleb will be going into 9th grade (shut up! how is that possible?!) and Benjamin will be in 6th (equally as shocking to me!)

Caleb: 9th Grade

I decided to switch Caleb to Notgrass: Exploring World History for the bulk of his curriculum. This will cover history, English, literature, and Bible. This will be our first time using Notgrass and I'm very excited. I love when I can tie multiple subjects together so that everything makes sense. I plan to read all of the literature books myself, I don't think I've read most of these. I'll probably have Caleb listen to audio books while he reads along (that usually works better for him).

From the Notgrass website: Exploring World History by Ray Notgrass is a one-year homeschool curriculum for high school that teaches students to understand history from a Christian perspective of faith in God and respect for the Bible. It provides one full-year of credit in world history, English (literature and composition), and Bible.

Your high school student will gain a rich understanding of world history by reading the history narrative and primary source documents, reading classic literature, completing writing assignments and hands-on projects, and studying what the Bible says about issues and ideas in history.

Notgrass has several very helpful videos on their site that explain the curriculum thoroughly.

Notgrass offers a PDF of all of the lesson assignments. I had them printed out and bound at Staples. All Caleb will have to do each day is work his way through the listed assignments. The planning has already been done, which makes my job that much easier and fosters independence in Caleb.

I think this is going to be great and I can't wait to dive in.

For math, Caleb uses Teaching Textbooks. We used Math-U-See for years but last school year I made the switch to TT. It is an online math curriculum. Caleb watches a thorough lecture, does a few practice problems that cover new information, and then completes problems from previous lessons. I like that the program is visual so he can see how to work the problem. It will give you hints if you get stuck and it will show you how to solve a problem if you get it wrong. TT gives immediate feedback, does all of the grading, and keeps track of everything. I love it. It has been a good fit for Caleb. You can even try TT for free to see if it is a good fit for your kiddo.

Caleb will also continue to work on his typing. Typing Club is the program we use. It is super simple and I love it.

I gave Caleb a choice for his foreign language credit. I offered him Spanish or Sign Language. He went back and forth, consulted his friends through text to get their opinion, and then decided to go with Spanish. I've researched a lot of options for learning Spanish at home and we have decided to try ULAT.

ULAT is an on-line Spanish program. It uses videos for instruction and follows a more immersive approach to learning another language. I looked at several online programs and I'm not sure if ULAT is the right choice BUT they allow you do the first 15 lessons completely free so I figure it can't hurt to try. If it isn't a good fit for Caleb then we will switch to something else....or if he decides to switch to Sign Language, we can do that. Flexibility is the point of homeschooling.

Benjamin: 6th grade

Benjamin will also switch to Notgrass for the bulk of his curriculum. He will be working through From Adam to Us. I bought the MP3 audio of the textbooks so that Benjamin can read along with the audio book. I will probably either read-aloud the literature books to him or have him listen on Audible...or maybe a mix of both. I think asking him to read all of this on his own would be a bit too much for him. Thank goodness for audio books! This appears to be a very thorough curriculum with a variety of supplemental materials. I'm excited about the Map Book and the Timeline Book.

I has Benjamin's Notgrass assignments printed and bound as well. This is going to make my life so much easier ya'll!

Benjamin will continue with All about Spelling. I love, love, love this curriculum. It has been a game-changer for us.

Benjamin is on the last level for All about Reading (again, a huge game-changer). I highly recommend All about Learning for spelling and reading, especially if you have a child that struggles in this area. This curriculum has been a HUGE blessing.

Benjamin will stick with Math-U-See for now. He likes the worksheets so I don't see any reason to change. I might switch him to Teaching Textbooks at some point but for now he is happy with Math-U-See.

Our "together" stuff:

This will be the first year that the boys are doing completely separate curriculum. I've always tried to choose curriculum that allowed me to teach multiple grade levels at once so that we could all learn together. That gets harder to do when you've got one in 9th and one in 6th. We will still do some "together" stuff each day.

I chose MasterBooks for science. We will work through Applied Engineering together. It's for 7-9th grade so I think it will work for both boys. I've used MasterBooks in the past and was impressed with their approach and their products. Their books are very colorful, designed nicely, and interesting to read.

I heard Monica (Etiquette Factory) speak at a homeschool convention last spring. I loved her. We started working through her Life Skills program last spring, and will continue this next school year. The boys actually enjoy this because the lessons show short videos of "what to do" and "what NOT to do". Caleb and Benjamin especially like the "what NOT do do" videos.

One of my favorite things about our school year last year was the geography we learned through My Father's World: Exploring Countries and Cultures. We learned so much and I don't want to lose that, so we will continue to review geography together using the maps from ECC.

We will probably spend about 45 minutes or so on our "together stuff" before the boys move on to their other subjects. This is going to be different than what we are used to so I'm allowing all of us a few weeks to adjust and find our new routine. I get asked if we have a homeschool schedule and the answer is no, but we do have a routine. I like routine more than schedule. A set schedule stresses me but I find comfort in a typical flow to our day. Hopefully we will find a flow that works for everyone.

The boys typically do their "electives/fun-stuff" at our wonderful homeschool co-op. Unfortunately, the church we meet at for co-op is following our local ISD guidelines which don't allow for in-class instruction yet. So, fall semester of co-op has been cancelled. We will be getting together with families throughout the semester for fun and friendship. Hopefully our co-op will be back in full swing for the spring semester.

I think that about sums up my curriculum choices for the upcoming school year. I'll touch base in a few weeks to let you know how it is going.

Port Aransas 2020

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 18:16:00 +0000

We just got home from a much needed vacation to the beach. With all that is going on right now, we really needed the change of scenery. It's been five years since our last trip to Port Aransas. We had planned to go in 2017 but Hurricane Harvey hit two weeks before our trip.

We rented a cute condo. Normally we stay somewhere on the beach but we decided to stay in-town this time.

We hit the beach first. Our condo rental included a golf cart, which was a new experience for us. The boys absolutely loved the golf cart. You can drive the golf carts on the streets through town and right on the beach, which made it super easy to get Caleb to the water.

My happy place.

I love these little critters. The waves expose hundreds of tiny shells and then you can watch as the critters inside scurry back into the sand. I could watch these for hours.

One of the locals.

Caleb almost got assaulted by some laughing gulls.

Benjamin buried.

On our second day in Port A, we went to a little coffee shop for gelato and blended coffee. It was super yummy!

Our condo had a pool.

Steps up to the slide.

Caleb is part fish. He loves the water.

We headed back to the beach on day 3.

With my boys.

Benjamin wanted to be buried from the waist down.

He's so stinkin' cute.

We went to the beach again on our last day.

Attack of the gulls!

I love the beach.

We had to leave Port A a day early because Hurricane Hanna was on the door step. We didn't feel like sticking around for that! All-in-all it was a great trip. We relaxed a lot, spent a ton of time at the beach, and came home happy and sun-kissed.

My Father's World, Exploring Countries and Cultures: Australia and Antartica

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 17:33:00 +0000

Almost done! I am going to wrap up my series on Exploring Countries and Cultures with trips to Australia and Antarctica.

We drew a Kookaburra, a bird native to Australia.

We used an Atlas Crate to build a coral reef and a hopping kangaroo.

We made Anzac Biscuits. Simple, yet super tasty.

Australia was our easiest map yet!

Our journey through Antarctica was brief so I don't have too much to share.

We read a fascinating true story about an expedition to Antarctica. We also read through different survival scenarios to see if we could survive an expedition through Antarctica....I don't think we could.

You can't study Antarctica and not draw a penguin.

I think that about wraps up our curriculum for this past school year. If you want to read more about our journey with Exploring Countries and Cultures you can click the links below. This was one of my favorite years of homeschool. I just really enjoyed the curriculum. It was such a switch from what we typically do in a school year. It was like a nice reset for all of us. I loved the geography component of the curriculum. The boys and I can now label most countries on every single continent! I am embarrassed by how little geography I knew a year ago. I loved all of the missionary books we read as well. All-in-all, it was a really fun year.

Exploring Countries and Cultures: Overview

North America

South America

Europe

Africa

Asia

My Father's World, Exploring Countries and Cultures: Asia

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 17:08:00 +0000

Whew! I am blazing through these blog posts, trying to get caught up!

If you are paying attention, I have blogged about our amazing curriculum through My Father's World: Exploring Countries and Cultures. You know we traveled through North America, South America, Europe and Africa. Now we are headed to Asia.

We read about Pandas and decided we definitely want one as a pet.

While we were reading about China, our science had us learning about viruses! It seemed appropriate to draw a picture of the Coronavirus.

We used an Atlas Crate to make our own Dancing Dragon.

We drew an Anglerfish.

We played a simple game from Japan, Daruma Otoshi.

Kawaii means cute in Japan. and is a word often used to describe an art form. We created our own kawaii inspired art using an Art hub for kids video.

We also made our own Koinobori or flying carp. These are used in Japan to celebrate Children's Day.

I read Amy Carmichael aloud and Caleb listened to "I dared to call him father" on audio book as part of his supplemental curriculum.

We can now label a map of Asia.

This was our read-aloud. A great book about an amazing woman.

My Father's World, Exploring Countries and Cultures: Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 16:50:00 +0000

So I am playing catch-up here by posting several blog posts in a row to cover our homeschool journey this past school year. I've blogged about our curriculum; Exploring Countries and Cultures through My Father's World, our journeys through North America, South America, and Europe. In this post I show you a few highlights from our time in Africa. Our studies didn't keep us in Africa very long, so I don't have a ton to share.

We painted the African Savannah.

We played Mancala using an egg carton and M&M's.

I read David Livingston (African missionary) aloud. Caleb listened to Kisses from Katie on audio book. He really enjoyed the book.

We can now label a map of Africa. Impressive!

My Father's World, Exploring Countries and Cultures: Europe

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 16:33:00 +0000

I'm so behind on blogging! Oops!

We wrapped up our 7th year of homeschool in June. We follow a year-round school schedule for the most part, but we do take all of July off. I really enjoyed this past year. Exploring Countries and Cultures was such a fun and fresh curriculum. I already blogged about our journey through North America and South America. In this post, I'm going to hit the highlights from our journey through Europe.

Our first stop was Norway. Caleb used an online program to create a Norway travel brochure.

We tried some snacks from France.

We used an Art Hub for Kids video to draw the Eiffel Tower.

We enjoyed several tasty snack crates from Universal Yums:

Greece

Poland

Austria

(this was our favorite, so many tasty snacks!)

Spain

We used an Atlas Crate to make a pizza oven.

We can label a map of Europe.

We read these books together.

I'm sure I am missing a ton of details but these are the fun highlights. It's been at least six or seven months since we "traveled" through Europe...my memory is fading (thank goodness for pictures!)

Family Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 20:35:00 +0000

We had some family photos taken last fall....I'm just now getting around to sharing them. Here are a few of my favorites:

We had our sweet Hallow girl join us for the photo session. She makes us look good.

My half-grown, man-child.

My baby.

Benjamin's 11th Birthday Party: Fortnite meets Ninja!

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 19:52:00 +0000

My almost-a-Christmas-baby is turning 11 on the 21st. I can't believe my baby is about to be 11. We had his party this past weekend. Benjamin wanted a Fortnite theme this year. You know how much I love a good party theme! We had his party at All-Star Ninja again this year. It is the perfect place to let 10 boys run wild and burn energy.

I made simple invitations to send out to his friends. We embraced the Fortnite Emote (dance moves) theme for his party.

I found these cute gift bags on Amazon. They came with stickers, a lanyard, buttons, and a bracelet. I made a cute Emote name tag to go with each lanyard.

I got the V-Buck circle printout on Etsy and I glued them to chocolate coins. They looked so cute.

I got the bottle labels on Etsy. I used the "shield potion" labels on blue Gatorade bottles to match the shield potions in the game. I made the Marshmellow water bottle labels myself.

The Ninja course. I took quite a few pictures but all the boys were just moving so fast! I couldn't get a clear shot. They never stood still long enough!

See? Blurry.

The climbing wall was a favorite.

The crew was still just long enough to get a quick group shot.

We only had access to the party room for a short time so I had to keep my decorations simple.

The cake. I'm not a fondant master by any means but the cake came out cute.

I bought the Emote Cupcake toppers on Amazon.

It was a pretty good birthday party for this kid.

Quick Caleb Update

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 21:32:00 +0000

Caleb had surgery yesterday and it went well. The doctor did decide to do the tendon transfer. Caleb will be in casts for 3-4 weeks. Caleb is doing great, minimal pain and he is able to get around pretty well even with the casts. He and (we) are so happy to have the surgery behind him (us) and we are hopeful that the results will be worth the effort.

Caleb also had an MRI on Monday and the results are stable....meaning things still look a little weird with his shunt but no more weird than 6 months ago. The neurosurgeon wants to continue to watch and wait.

That's about it for now.

Surgery: Tendon release/transfer

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 20:25:00 +0000

Caleb is having surgery on both feet next Tuesday, November 26th. We have been watching his feet for the last couple of years, working closely with his orthopedic surgeon, waiting for the green light to have surgery. Caleb's feet are just really tight. They are in a constant, rigid state of flexion. We've been fighting this tightness for a good while and we've exhausted every option; stretching, botox injections, etc. We've reached a point where we can barely get AFO's on his feet and he is getting some skin breakdown.

So, he's having surgery on both feet. Specifically, the surgeon with be working on two tendons.

The Anterior Tibial Tendon is the main culprit for Caleb's tightness. The surgeon will either lengthen the tendon to allow for more flexibility or he will transfer the tendon to the Achilles. He will make his decision in surgery, doing whichever will be best for Caleb. He will also lengthen or cut the Extensor tendons to help relieve some of the issues we are seeing with Caleb's toes (they curl under).

The surgery is actually out-patient so we should be able to come home the same day. Yay! Caleb will be in casts (from the shin down) for about 4 weeks.

Here is how you can pray:

That the surgery goes well and we get the results we are hoping for.

That Caleb doesn't suffer any fractures after the casts come off. His bones will be more susceptible to fracture after several weeks in casts. We don't want any broken bones! (You might remember Caleb broke his leg after his SPML procedure 3 years ago....so frustrating!)

That he doesn't get any skin breakdown or pressure sores from the casting. The orthopedic surgeon will be doing the casts himself and assured us that there will be plenty of padding but skin breakdown is always a concern when you are dealing with someone who can't really feel their feet.

That his spirits stay up. He recognizes the need for this surgery but he is understandably frustrated that he needs surgery at all. It's maddening how his body fights him and insists on doing its own thing despite our best efforts to keep his body whole.

That we can go back to business as usual once the casts come off; start back up with physical therapy, continuing to build strength.

We are thankful for the orthopedic surgeon and we are optimistic that this surgery will improve the flexibility in his feet. We are ready to get it done.

Side note, unrelated to this surgery: Caleb is having a follow-up MRI the day before his surgery to check the status of his shunt. An MRI at the beginning of the summer showed an increase of fluid around his brain but he wasn't/isn't showing any signs of shunt failure. The neurosurgeon opted for a "wait-and-see" approach so this MRI is to see if there have been any changes in recent months. Prayers that everything looks stable would be greatly appreciated. I'd rather not deal with a shunt revision along with everything else.

8th Annual Spina Bifida Christmas Card Exchange

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 20:47:00 +0000

It's time to sign up for the Annual Spina Bifida Christmas Card exchange. I organize this every year and it is such a blessing. Here's how it works: Sign up using the link provided below. Once sign ups are complete, I'll break the list of names into manageable groups of about 10-12 families each. At the beginning of December, you will get an email with a list of families for you to send cards to. You will get cards in return. Simple. Don't miss out!

Click here to sign-up.

My Father's World, Exploring Countries and Cultures: South America

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 19:22:00 +0000

From North America to South America! We spent the last 3 weeks "in" Brazil.

The boys got their plane tickets, had their passports stamped, and received some Reais to spend on Brazilian candy.

I found the Brazilian candy at World Market.

We made Brigadeiros which is a Brazilian chocolate treat.

We also made Brazilian lemonade (which is actually a limeade with sweetened condensed milk)

We used our Brazil Atlas Crate to make a Table Soccer Game. Benjamin really loves these Atlas Crates from Kiwi. He loves any kind of hands-on activities. (Click the link to get 50% off your first crate!)

We learned quite a bit about the Amazon Rainforest during our time in Brazil. We did some ArtHub videos to go along with our studies.

Toucan.

Coral Snake.

We also had the well-timed trip to the Dallas World Aquarium, which gave us a little look at life in the Rainforest.

We read "Bruchko" which is the true story of a missionary that spent time with the Motilone Indians in South America. It was an incredible story.

Here is a link to my Brazil/South America Pinterest board.

That sums up our time in Brazil. We are heading to Europe next but decided to have a quick "layover" in Turkey so we could eat one of our Universal Yums snack crates!

The boys love these snack crates. They are such a fun way to try different snacks from other parts of the world. Some are pretty tasty...some are weird...all are interesting.

We learned all of the countries in South America and can now label a map.

Dallas World Aquarium

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 19:57:00 +0000

Our co-op planned a field trip to the Dallas World Aquarium. The timing could not have been more perfect as we are in the middle of studying South America as part of our curriculum. We were able to see several of the critters in person that we have been reading about over the past couple of weeks.

This sloth was just out in the open. Hanging out.

He was hiding his face.

Selfie with the 14 year old.

Selfie with the 10 year old.

Hanging bird nests.

It was like walking through the rainforest....well a rainforest with air-conditioning.

So many colorful birds.

Electric eel.

The aquarium had a manatee, penguins, sharks, sea horse, etc.

It just happened to be National Sawfish Day. One swam right over our heads.

Sawfish face.

Blue poisonous dart frog.

My boys.

We had a great time.

My Father's World: Exploring Countries and Cultures

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 18:07:00 +0000

So we just wrapped up our first 8 weeks of the school year. If you read my previous post about our homeschool curriculum, you know that this year we switched from Tapestry of Grace to My Father's World. We are doing Exploring Countries and Cultures. It is a total change from anything we have ever done. It has been fun and refreshing.

The first 8 weeks had us exploring the countries of North America. On the first day of school we worked on this super cute Kiwi Atlas Crate. We assembled a globe, created a travel booklet and did some map work.

The boys were so excited to try the Universal Yums snack crate. Technically this snack crate represented Colombia which is in South America....but the boys just couldn't wait until we started our South America studies so we made the first day of school extra fun by trying snacks and treats from Columbia.

Some tasted better than others...all were interesting.

We made a "Continent Cake". Educational...and yummy!

The first two weeks of school covered general geography and set the pace for the rest of the year. We spent the next two weeks in the United States and then we headed south. One of the things I love about ECC is we get to "travel" to other countries. There is even a passport and currency for each country. As we left our United States studies we "traveled" to Mexico. I tried to make the transition from one country to the next fun.

Caleb and Benjamin get official looking plane tickets. Here's the website I used to create the tickets.

The boys get their passport stamped each time we head to another country.

They received pesos that they could use to purchase snacks from Mexico.

The muffins and donuts were a hit but the candy was way too hot!

We attempted Mexican yarn art.

We used Art for Kids Hub to supplement our country studies and to go along with our science. ECC science covers the different biomes and ecosystems in different countries. As we studied Mexico, we read about deserts and we drew pictures of familiar desert critters.

Lizard

Scorpion.

This looks like an alien but it's actually an Axolotl, an amphibian found in Mexico. It has crazy regeneration abilities. Really cool critter.

We also drew sugar skulls.

After two weeks in Mexico, we headed north to Canada.

Plane tickets and Canadian dollars.

I am super blessed to know a fellow SB momma who lives in Canada. She was so very sweet and sent us a ton of Canadian treats and snacks. All of the candy was tasty....the ketchup chips were weird.

I found a few other Canadian treats at World Market. The boys were able to use their Canadian dollars to purchase snacks.

For Canada, we drew Inuit, igloos, an arctic fox, and the Northern Lights.

ECC is heavy with geography. We play a geography game several times a week to help us learn the names of the different countries. We also learn about different landforms. The curriculum recommends copy work for the different landform definitions but the boys found that incredibly tedious and I could tell they weren't actually learning anything about landforms. So we switched to creating the landfoms out of clay and this has been a huge hit, especially with Benjamin. We add one or two landfoms every week.

We can successfully label a map of North America now.

We also read about different missionaries. We read the story of Cameron Townsend, founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators. It was fascinating. Caleb and I read Anne of Green Gables together as part of his middle school literature. Since the story takes place in Canada, it was a perfect fit to the curriculum. I'm embarrassed to say that I had never read the book before and I honestly didn't expect Caleb to like it. I loved it, and so did he!

As luck would have it, our Parks department offered a class on ecosystems. The boys got to make their own terrariums. It was the perfect hands-on supplement to our science.

So far I am really enjoying the curriculum. It has been a nice change of pace from what we have done in previous years. I have a Pinterest board full of supplemental videos and ideas I have pulled from over the last 8 weeks. I will continue to add to it as the year progresses. I love using videos along with science because I can read about desert critters all day long but it is so much more fun (and memorable) to watch a few videos along with the reading.

We "travel" to South America next. Stay tuned....

2019-20 Homeschool Curriculum

noreply@blogger.com (Cassie) — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 22:17:00 +0000

We are about to embark on our 7th year of homeschooling! What?! Time flies y'all. I like to share our curriculum choices for the upcoming year, so here you go.

I have happily used Tapestry of Grace for the past 5 years. I love the curriculum. I do. However, this past school year was just blah for me. I was just a little burnt out and barely treading water by the end of our school year. I knew it was time to try something fresh and new for this next school year.

We will be doing My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures.

I have used My Father's World in the past. I did Adventures in U.S. History with Caleb when he was in 2nd grade and I did their Kindergarten and First Grade curriculum with Benjamin. It really wasn't a touch decision to jump back in with MFW. Exploring Countries and Cultures will be unlike anything we have ever done before. I am so excited. We will get to "travel" the world while learning about different countries, the cultures, the landscapes, the food, the history, etc.

Since we will be exploring all of the different countries and cultures, I thought it would fun to supplement with a couple of subscription boxes.

We will be doing Kiwi Atlas crate. We get a box each month with a different country/culture to explore further. It will be a great addition to our curriculum. So excited.

The next addition (and the one the boys are the most excited about) is.....

Universal Yums is a monthly subscription box that allows you to try a variety of snacks from a particular country. The box also comes with information about that country as well as the snacks included. There is also trivia games and other activities in each box. This will be a tasty supplement to our curriculum. The boys absolutely can not wait for this. They are actually begging to start school so they can get to the tasty treats!

Another easy/fun supplement was to mail letters to different embassies asking them to send more information about their country. I mailed out 13 letters to 13 different embassies.

So far, I've received amazing packets from Brazil and Australia. I'll put these aside and pull them out when we get to those countries during our school year. I got a letter from France stating that they won't be sending us anything!

Hopefully we'll hear from some other countries in the weeks to come.

Exploring Countries and Cultures covers most of the core needs (geography, history, literature, science, art, Bible, etc.) We do have to add a few things to make it fully complete.

In addition to the main curriculum, Caleb will also have a few additional elements since he is middle school age. He will have several extra books to read as well as writing reports on some of the countries we will be studying.

Math:

Both boys will continue to use Math-U-See. It's DVD driven which I like.

Writing/Composition

Caleb will continue using IEW for his writing/composition curriculum. We used it last year with great results (after trying so many other options with poor results).

Benjamin's writing program. This is a companion option through My Father's World.

Grammar:

This was recommended by MFW so we are giving it a try. It is student driven and only takes a few minutes a day.

This is Benjamin's grammar curriculum.

Reading:

Benjamin will continue to use All About Reading and...

Spelling:

....All About Spelling.

This curriculum has been a huge blessing to me. It was exactly the approach Benjamin need to boost his confidence and ability with reading and spelling. Love it!

I think that covers our plans for the school year. We will continue with our co-op on Mondays. Caleb will be taking Texas History, Life Skills, and Chess. Benjamin will be in Fitness Fun, Hands-On Design Fun, and Responding to Emergencies.

We will be starting our school year soon so stay tuned!