Austin's First Short Story!

Car Crash by Austin

“Hey Nacy, what cha’ doin’?”
“Oh, nothing.”
“C’mon, tell me!”
“I already told you!” She shouted “I’m not doing anything!”
“You’re doin’ somethin’,” I argue, “You jus’ won’t tell me nothin’!”
“Can we go on one road trip without you two fighting,” Dad asks from the front. We are supposed to go to Atlanta, Georgia. But I hate this car!!! It’s cramped so I’m shoulder to shoulder with Nacy. It also smells like Swiss cheese. Swiss cheese!!! It couldn’t have been cheddar. I hate Swiss cheese but love cheddar cheese.
“Me fight?” I reply “Now I would never do that, right sis?”
Boom!!!
A car smashed into Nacy’s side of the car. That the last I see before blacking out.
I wake up a few minutes later, under a red SUV. I smell gasoline. A lot of gasoline. I can’t move. Then I see a big problem. Fire! It’s everywhere! The smoke starts to smother me! I desperately need help. I look around frantically. Nacy is right beside me.
“Help,” I scream! I get Nacy to finally wake up.
“Wh-what’s going on?”
“A fire,” I tell her! “Now get up and get otta here!”
“What about you? Your leg is smashed under that car!”
I start hacking. The smoke is thick now. I feel Nacy trying to pull me out.
“What are you doin’, Nacy?!”
“Helping you!”
“Run! Get outta here! I’m a goner but you’re not! Get…”
Boom!
I hear an explosion. It must be our car.
“I’m not leaving you, Lisa! We’re sisters! We both live or we both die!”
“Alright you stubborn fool! There’s a saw over there. Saw my leg off so I can get outta here!” She does it. But the pain makes me pass out.
Two hours later I awake. Nacy is by my side. The only other person is a nurse.

I don't know about you, but I like it!!!

Lazy Homeschool Days! :)

Catching Up!

I know... I haven't update the blog in like forever!!! Forgive me!

So, what have we been up to??? Well, let me tell you...

Austin wrote his first Ballad Stanza in Creative Writing:

A feather floated through the air
birds flew over head in V’s.
A duck waddled by undisturbed
of the feathers that dropped down here.

It may be just me but I like it!!!

We are already finished with Math-U-See, Epsilon & according to the placement tests we're skipping Zeta (though we will be doing a decimal review) & then moving straight into Pre-Algebra! Yay! Austin's finally caught up & doing 8th grade math! He really flew through fractions! Wow!

He has also gotten his first report card & I must say he did well... all A's & B's! Praise the Lord! This is a huge improvement from public school & no Mama isn't just giving him grades... he's earning them! I think the main difference is that Mama knows what he's doing in school & not letting him get away with NOT doing work! In public school I had a hard time figuring out what he was doing so that I could stay on him to do it but not anymore!

We have also gotten his school pics done. My 2 favorites are...



We have been on 2 more field trips (one to a local Fall Festival where there were Civil War & American Revolution exhibits & one to an old mining museum/community)...











And our latest school projects...





I think you're all caught up now!

First Field Trip!!!

I have been meaning to update the blog for a while now but lately it just seems that I am always busy doing something or another.

Before getting into the field trip details, let me share our latest Science project... constellation finders! These were a big hit... all of us LOVE them & think they are waaaaaaay cool!



And here's a pic of our cat learning how to do math! He actually was swatting at the TV a little! It was precious!



And now, for the moment you've all been waiting for... our first field trip!!! We went to St Bernard Abbey/Ava Maria Grotto in Cullman & had a blast. Although our tour guide got called away at the last minute on an emergency so we didn't get an official tour of either place. We did get to actually walk through & see the Grotto, but not the Abbey! That was very disappointing to me b/c I REALLY wanted to get a tour of the abbey! I'll post a few pics for your viewing pleasure!



The Grotto...


The Monk who created it all...


The Abbey Church...


The Cemetery located beside the Grotto...
The pathway to the cemetary was lined with the 14 stations of Jesus! I loved them... they were beautiful!


The small church that was in the middle of the cemetery...


Leaving the cemetery...

More School!

Austin is really enjoying history & so far we both like the Alpha Omega Lifepacs. We just finished up the American Revolution & are about to start on the Civil War. So I gave Austin the Lifepac on the Civil War early so he'd have it on Monday morning & he has already read half of the workbook.

We are also enjoying videos about the American Revolution created by PBS. If you have recently studied or will soon study the American Revolution, I highly recommend these videos... they are very interesting (Austin is even enjoying them & was somewhat skeptical of them at first) & even have actor's portraying certain key figures of the times... http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/

In Science we created sundials! It was really amazing (they actually worked ) & complicated to actually create (a lot of work involved).



Austin's is the red one & mine is the blue one!



And here are a few pics of Austin doing some science work...




Of course, as you can see, Austin had to make a funny face at me because I was taking pictures of him!

In Bible, still my absolute favorite subject, we are learning reasons to believe in God & 4 logical arguments for His existence:

1. The Casual Argument: Anything that begins to exist must have been caused to exist by something.
   
2. The Design Argument: If something exists that is designed, then it has a designer.
   
3. The Mind Argument: If there is no intelligence behind the universe, then our thoughts are only by-products of matter & we have no reason to trust them.
4. The Moral Argument: Since moral law exists, there must be a moral law-giver.

Austin & I both agree that to us the mind and/or moral argument make the most sense to us.

I must admit that I truly LOVE this worldview curriculum. It has generated a lot of good discussions between Austin & I. I will definitely be purchasing the 12th grade version (http://www.summit.org/curriculum/hs/homeschool/) when Austin is a senior, which apparently can be used to obtain college credit according to the Summit Ministries web site! Though Austin keeps saying that he is not going to college, which if that is what he wants I'll support him but I do plan on at least preparing him to go to college should he change his mind.

And for PE we just get out in the yard & play... our favorite game has been H-O-R-S-E! Here are a few goofy pics of Austin playing. Notice the shoes!




I am truly blessed that the Lord chose me to home school my son. I am enjoying every minute of it! I am learning so much through this... probably as much or more than Austin is.

Last but not least, Austin JUST got a hair cut yesterday that we both adore. Not sure that Mike is keen on the idea but I just LOVE it. Now, if we can just reproduce it!





The hair dresser gave him "choppy layers" & styled his hair to look unkempt, which is perfect for him since his hair always looks unkempt to begin with! All he has to do is put hair wax in & just run his fingers through his hair, which of course is easier said than done! We tried to re-create the look for church this morning but it fell! We'll just have to keep playing with it until we get the hang of it... of course it could be that I didn't buy the expensive product the salon sells & instead bought a cheaper version, which as we know, the cheaper versions aren't always as good as the more expensive ones.