Homeschool Memoirs #14: Award The CATEGORIES!

I want to blog about some older Homeschool Memoirs that I missed and look like so much fun. I hope you enjoy them. I will do them in separate posts so that they can be added to Mr. Linky even though they are late.

THEME

This week I want to invite you to nominate your family to their correct categories as well has have others nominate them. While my two sisters are listed under Best Teen and Best Design, those definitely are NOT the best traits they have nor the funniest.

This is how you do it…. you post the category that best describes each of your family members and write something about why you nominated them in that category, and you’re welcome to post photos.

This was a hard one for me. Each family member has so many points I could have highlighted... well these are the ones I came up with for the post... there are so many more facets of each family member that I could have told you about... FAMILY... I LOVE YOU!! Mom

Best Jack of All Trades - Master of Many: Hubbie - Courtgood with anything electric or mechanical
good at art and music
great with computers
underutilized, unappreciated, and underpaid at work

Best Baker of All Things Sweet... and not sweet: Sweet DD Rachel
Rachel on her birthday receiving a gift of a cake cutter
a "sweet" gift for a sweet girl which she can use to make us many sweets



Best, Most Prolific Writer of all Genres - journalling, diary, short story, poems, novels, blogging, to do lists, letters, notes to her family, etc: DD Jessica
The only thing Jessica likes more than a new journal is
a HUGE pack of pens with which to write in her new journal
also check out her new blog just for young writers (and old writers)
Literary Pursuits



Best Lego Mindstorms Robot Creator: DS Nathan
This was last Christmas when he received his Mindstorms. He had no idea that we had gotten it for him. He had been saving up for almost a year and with the money he had saved, the money his grandmother put in and the money his dad and I put in we had enough to get it for him. This Christmas we got him the rechargable battery pack to make it work longer than he can with rechargable AA batteries. He has had many hours of creating and maybe one day soon I will post some of his creations since he does not have his own blog yet.

Best Bringer of Smiles to the faces of others : DS Christopher

All around goofball and crazy guy,
sweet boy who delights in talking to old and young
and brings so much joy into all our lives...
most of the time...
LOL

Well that is my family, such as they are, and now you know a little more about each of them
Debbie

2009 Goals - Homeschool Memoirs #19 Making a List

Can anyone believe 2009 is ALMOST here? Seems like just last week the summer-sun was shining. With every new year, like many, I try to make a list of goals and tasks I would like to accomplish for that year.

THEME

This week I want to set our minds on setting some goals for next year, whether personal, for the whole family, or for school.

Personal Goals:
Exercise more, more often and consistently
Eat better and loose weight
Be more consistent in my devotions
Work on E-book I am trying to write
Get back to weekly time with each of my kids, just mom and one of the kids having lunch in my bedroom alone and then doing whatever the child wants to do. Usually a combo of eating, talking and playing board games and/or computer games.
Spend some time scrapbooking
Get back to doing my own personal copywork
Homeschool Goals:
Get my son Nathan more organized and help him keep that way
Get the boys back on our daily "schedule" which is not by time but order of things done. We have been on vacation for two weeks but in Dec. we also did two Christmas units and it is time now to get back to "regular" subjects. We will be finishing up Vikings in the next week or two then moving on to Middle Ages for History.For Science we will be continuing with our Human Body/Health study.
Get back to evening read aloud time with the boys - I have not been doing that, so we are still on Little House in the Big Woods.

Be more consistent on recording daily in our school log. I have not been doing it daily and then have to go back and try to remember what we did the past week.
Read the two Henty novels to the boys that we were supposed to finish a long time ago and never did. We are partly done but never finished. One is For the Temple the other is the Young Carthaginian. I may only read For the Temple because ds got Young Carthaginian on audio for Christmas, I will have to make that decision later.
Family Goals:
Healthier Eating
Exercise (at home on both our Bowflex (for muscle strengthening) and our Elliptical Walker and outside at Winterthur Estate and Gardens where my mom bought us a years membership and my dh and I bought the girls their membership. We have to do it that way because the girls do not qualify to be on the family membership, it is for children 18 and under only. So we bought them the dual membership. It was a blessing from the Lord that one day after we had spoken with my mom about Christmas gifts in early December and I checked my e-mail and I found that Winterthur was doing half price on memberships for that day only!!! When my dh came home we ordered the memberships. What a great deal.
The two above will hopefully result in weight loss for all except dd Jessica
More singing as a family
Regular Personal Devotions for each family member and regular Family Devotions in the evening.
Family evening read-aloud time more consistently.
Get back to meal planning and shopping more wisely because things are more planned and then we will not have to eat the same chicken every night! I am sick of the meals we have had lately.



Well there may be more but that is a good list to get started on.
Hope you knew year goes well,
Debbie