I am still processing all the end of the school year stuff.  You know what I mean.  The essays and papers that still need to be corrected, the portfolio that still needs to be assembled.  I am also waiting for the standardized test results for my 3 children who are at home.  We are also thinking about next year and planning for curriculum.  We are venturing back into a co-op for many of our classes next year after staying home for all of our classes this past year.  I love the co-op as far as opportunity to be with other families goes, however, I am afraid my children see only the social opportunity, and do not understand that this is a wonderful learning opportunity.

I am wondering about how to balance the co-op with the rest of the week.  I am also trying to determine if I will continue to attend the Ladies Bible Study that has been a part of my life for so many years.  I am not sure if I can justify another day out of the house with 2 co-op days.

In the mean time, one of my dear homeschooling friends is taking classes and talking about becoming a public school teacher.    I will miss her if and when she starts teaching in brick and mortar schools.

Dear Lord,
Thank You for opportunities and changes.  May we follow Your will for us.  Please help us to discern the way You would have us follow.

Amen.

Well, we survived the First Annual(hopefully)NECHC.
If you had asked me a month ago if I thought this conference would be successful, I would have scratched my head and and mumbled "ummmmm...." as a vague kind of "I really don't think so, and I think we have been absolutely crazy to undertake this!" After yesterday, though, I am pleased to say that the conference was a success. We had a beautiful day, a great turnout, and happy vendors.
Our lovely Challenge Club girls (with a lot of help from Mrs. Seaver and Mrs. Hill) put together and manned a "food court" to raise money to help defray the costs of the Challenge Summer Convention for the girls who would like to attend this year. Attendees raved about the food.
Dr. William Fahey, President of Thomas More College in NH presented a talk about homeschool fathers. He was very well received by the mixed audience of moms, dads, grandparents and religious who attended. He was at turns witty and serious, and touched on the disconnect that can occur if fathers are "divorced" from the homeschool situation.

Cynthia Montanaro spoke of her years as a homeschool mom and all the lessons she learned along the way. Dr. Jean Golden-Tevald shared her faith journey as a doctor, wife and mother of natural born and adopted children.

There was a music workshop done by Making Music, Praying Twice which seemed geared toward younger children and the importance of surrounding our children with all different types of music from an early age. Nick Morganelli rounded out the afternoon with some fun science experiments that can be done at home. He also demonstrated a "here comes the rain" rhythm with clapping, snapping, stomping that he has used in co-op classes. I am certain that children in a class would love this so much we might have a hard time returning to quiet.

The Daughters of St. Paul presented a lovely hour of Eucharistic Adoration for the hour before Mass. The readings and music brought great peace to the room and very nicely helped to lead everyone into the close of the day. The two sisters also manned a table for Pauline Books and Media.

I think my favorite part of the day, however, was the attendees. People came from as far away as Quebec, Canada, and as near as right here in Chicopee, MA. We had a large turnout of Catholic homeschoolers from CT, RI, and NH. One family came in from Boston very close to the end of the day, having only just heard about the conference on Friday June 5th.

There were several Catholic support groups represented from different areas including this one and this one. It was wonderful to meet so many people dedicated to teaching their children at home. Many people seemed excited about having a Catholic Homeschooling conference.
I know that the Holy Spirit led those of us involved in planning this conference. He laid on our hearts an ache for something that we miss at other homeschool conferences. Our Catholic identity makes us yearn for the presence of the Lord in a way that only Catholics truly appreciate: Our Lord in the Eucharist.

Having both Adoration and the Holy Mass available fulfills in us something that other forms of prayer simply don't give us. It brings the Lord more fully into our hearts and souls.

Dear Lord,
Thank you for Your guiding hand in the NECHC. I am truly awed by the spirit of joy that surrounded all who volunteered and attended the conference. You have blessed us with children who not only help out when "forced," but who also cheerfully offer their assistance where ever they see a need. Please help us to continue to lead them to have servant's hearts. Thank you, Lord, for all those who volunteered at the conference. There were so many who arrived and pitched in. I am humbled by their generous spirits, Lord.

Amen.

• A daily schedule for those who like to have a plan or would like their children to complete the book on their own
• Templates for written narrations, the notebooking activities and experiments
• Review Questions
• Scripture Copywork, with both print and cursive practice
• Reading lists and additional activities, projects, experiments for each lesson
• An appendix with beautiful, full-color, lapbook-style Miniature Books
• Field Trip Sheets to keep a record field trips
• A Final Review with fifty questions the students can answer either orally or in writing to show off all they remember and know at the end of the course.

Botany: https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=128

and

Astronomy: https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=127

Jeannie is giving away four Astronomy Notebooking Journals and four Botany Notebooking Journals to bloggers who post about this on their site. Visit her blog to learn more about this contest: www.jeanniesjournal.com

Rosetta Stone is the fastest way to learn a language and has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — and you can WIN the *all new* version 3 Rosetta Stone Homeschool LATIN program… FOR FREE! This is the first year you can get Latin in the brand new Version III update.

This is a $259 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!)
This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever! Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress- I love that!), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.

To win this most excellent Latin program copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR link to the contest from your facebook page and/OR email the information to your homeschool support group – Then go to the original page http://Jeneralities.com and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post. And good luck!

These photos are from YDS' first baseball game of the season. They still don't keep score and they get 6 pitches, but the kids know which team really won the game. If you get tagged out, you are out. I am not sure if they are counting outs. It would appear they are not. They go through the entire batting order (9 batters). It is coach pitch.
My little guy made a couple of really great plays and got a couple of outs. This is physical education in my homeschool world. This and jumping on the trampoline!Playing first base
Running to first base
He swings and connects!
First up to bat.

We signed up for an online video science class by that title through Currclick.com. Here are some photos from some of the experiments we have done. This one is an air pressure experiment. We learned that 1 atmosphere is 14.6 pounds of pressure per square inch and that the air pressure will keep the water in a submerged glass and even push more water into it. The second photo is also the air pressure experiment.
We made a water clock last week. This photo shows the finished product held by YDS.
This photo shows the lines within the bottom cup. It took 90 seconds for water to reach the first line, another 60 seconds to reach the second line, another 105 seconds to reach the third. The total time it took for water to reach the third line was 4 minutes, 15 seconds.
We did an ice cutting experiment using dental floss and an ice cube. Unfortunately, the cut in the ice from the floss did not show up in the photos we took. It was fun to see the ice being cut by dental floss, though. We are looking forward to more experiments in the weeks to come.