Elementary

  • An Amazing 4-H Club

    Just recently, our local 4-H agent, Lois, started a Homeschool 4-H Club.  Can I just tell you how awesome it is??? We decided early on that we wanted it to be hands-on, meaningful and service oriented.  Forget the meeting minutes and officers and such!  Well, we met for our first meeting this week and it exceeded…

  • Floor Graphs

    I’ve got a fun math activity for you!  It’s important to me that my children not only know how to read graphs, but know how to create them as well.  Mahayla is a pro at gathering information and creating her own graphs on paper.  Caleb is just beginning, though, so I wanted him to make a “concrete”  graph…

  • A Trip to Michigan

    Why is it that you usually feel dirtier after showering at a hotel than you did before you showered?  Why is it that once the baby finally falls asleep in his carseat, somebody else in the car decides they have to use the bathroom and can’t possibly hold it – thus waking up the baby…

  • Artist Study – Durer

    I love Discovering Great Artists!  I’ve used it in our home and in a co-op art class.  This lesson came from the book. Albrecht Durer did paintings, watercolors, drawing and woodcuts.  We tried our hand at woodblock printing, which was one of Durer’s specialties.  You take wood blocks and hammer metal objects into the wood to make impressions. …

  • Ancient Greece

    Studying Ancient Greece has been so much fun!  We could’ve spent many more days lingering in the Greek hillsides, but it’s time to move on to Ancient Rome.  Here are some highlights from our week. On top of the regular reading about Ancient Greece, map work, timelines and such, we did lots of hands-on activities,…

  • Our First Newsletter

    We are SO pleased with the first edition of the Westward Gazette!  I bought a $20 software program from WalMart called Perfect Pro Office that made our computer work simple.  (Word Perfect is the only office-type program that came on my computer and it stinks for projects.) The newsletter includes a story or journal entry from…

  • TV Station Field Trip

    What fun we had visiting WKYT TV in Lexington today!  They took us on a tour of the newsroom, video control room for broadcasts, video control room for taping shows, and the live set.  The kids all had the chance to stand in front of the green screen to try their hand at pointing correctly on the weather map. …

  • More Writing Ideas

    If writing isn’t a natural passion for your child, it can be a subject full of drudgery.  Believe me, I know.  Up until this year Mahayla has fought me tooth and nail over any sort of writing assignment.  This year has been different, though.  I believe she’s enjoying writing partly because of maturity, but I’ve made…