Crull Conversation

Moving to a New "Blog Spot"~ (*This Blog/School-Journal Has Moved!)

2011-10-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

*Our blog has undergone a re-design; it even has a new title: Crull School! :) This is partly due to the creation of my husband's fun, new personal blog, whose title is too-near this one's (his is "Crull and Unusual Conversation"). ;)

The daily data from the weeks falling between the old and new blogs has (now) been recorded in a personal calendar of mine, as well as in a MS Word doc (believe me-- you do NOT want to read the forever-long blog-draft I kept adding to, day-after-day..). The past TWO weeks have not been very productive, however. :/ He has done a lot of unschooling and personal reading (along w/squeezing in some workbook work here and there) in large part because we've been dealing with scheduling around five (5) different doctor's appointments for me during this timespan, three of them last week... quick synopsis: 1. visit for dizziness, chest pain, etc. (dizziness is new to me), 2. stress test (failed) :/ - cardiologist appt. scheduled after this, 3. new patient visit w/a new, local doctor (who thought she heard a "slight murmur"), 4. appt. w/cardiologist/ekg looked "pretty good"&I'm out of shape! (certainly Not news to me, lol~), and finally 5. 2nd appt. w/cardiologist for an "echo"-cardiogram to get a look at my heart, which he just wanted to do to be thorough, PTL.~~~ I'm currently awaiting results from that. They should be in within the next week and a half, LW. Still, as of today, Ethan is back to schoolwork full-force-- so thankful for this, as well! Now I won't have to deal with guilt about that on top of everything else..~ ;) :)

I've missed posting blogs about E's schoolyear, even if noone's reading it.. :) If you are interested in reading us at our new "..spot" we'd love to see you there: http://crullschool.blogspot.com/!

Sincerely,
Tiffany~

Week Three

2011-09-09T23:29:00.000-07:00

Well... the day after a holiday off... What can I say..? *After a verse of the day-- one he'd memorized years ago-- Psalm 119:105, Tuesday turned into an "All-Reading Day" per Ethan's (repeated) "request(s)"... (i.e., "Mom, I'm so tired... Mom. I haven't gotten ready yet... Mom, I got distracted again...... [*roll eyes heavenward & giggle fondly with a sigh... ;)]... Mom, can I please just read today? Not The Hobbit-- 'Sherlock Holmes' or my pirate book [Isle of Swords, Wayne Batson]?" Me, finally: Okay, okay-- but tomorrow you're going to do Every Subject, LW!!!...)
And work in every subject he did on Wednesday!! PTL!~ It was another of those Super-Great-and-Wonderful, Total-Focus days!! :) Ethan asked me to sit with him so that he could concentrate better, and he flew through pages upon pages of Lifepac work! ...With a smile on his face, no complaint, and even major enthusisasm PTL!!! :) :) Bible (Joshua 1:9), Math (word problems), History (another culture study), English/Lang.Arts (Hobbit-reading & some punctuation-proving), and Science (study on "Climate," something he greatly enjoys)--- these are the areas he conquered in under three (3) hours! :) :)
Thursday-- which felt like a Wednesday b/c of Labor Day, I guess, was an okay school day, except for the fact that our start was Extra-late, without a verse for the day.... *It was a day for a light workload, and Ethan spent just over an hour in history and language.~~ :) All-in-all, a still a pretty good day~
*And even though today, Friday, was probably the most unproductive day in this schoolyear so far, all-in-all, a good week!!~ :) PTL again!!~~~

Week Two

2011-09-02T23:49:00.000-07:00

Ethan's second week of school went all right. *We took today off, and have scheduled Monday off for Labor Day, as well. :) Soo Excited to have an extra day off with Dad!! :) :)
*Monday and Tuesday were kind of light because I, mom/teacher, was not feeling super from letting caffeine go (as of last Sunday night)... Still, E got two-plus hours in each of those days.~ Wednesday and Thursday were longer and more fun!! :) Language arts, science, and history were the main focus this week. We are still really enjoying reading The Hobbit--- as it turns out, I only Thought Ethan was enjoying it until we arrived at the character Gollum... Wow! I mean, who knew that this character would bring out even MoRe expressiveness in him! Gollum scares me a little!! ;) :) lol~
Also, got in some great pe this week!! Three days of swimming (and one afternoon of lightsaber choreography, not kidding!)!~ ;) :)
All-in-all, a pretty good week!~ PTL!!~~ :) :) :)

Learn About Alabama Kickoff-Field Trip Day

2011-08-26T23:37:00.000-07:00

"We dare defend our rights!" Did you know Alabama's state motto before reading that opening sentence?? Today was a field-trip day, and we enjoyed it! Connecting with other homeschooled teens is a big goal for this (8th grade!) schoolyear. We've been lax in that facet for our first three years, I'm ashamed to say-- especially since Ethan is one who Loves to be social (ie, talk to EvErYoNe!)! ;) :)
Sadly, we got no reading of The Hobbit in... but still enjoyed the day! :) Definitely missed Bilbo & Gandalf (and even Thorin) enough that we'll probably try to keep up the reading-aloud over the weekend. :)
Got to Homewood Park around 10, and left around ten till 12-- after having learned many new things about the great state of Alabama (and after Allie had gotten some time on the playground [mostly at the swingsets, of course!])-- Ethan played a game of AL-State-Trivia-Bingo, worked a state timeline and maze, and participated in several other games.. he (we) even sang the state song! lol.. :) :) *It was a pretty fun time-- but I've gotta' say that with the temperatures still hovering between 90 and 100 degrees most days, we were all glad to get back in the ac of the car to head home.. :)

All-in-all, a great field trip and a great Friday!~~

Tiffany~
Psalm 68:19

Day Four

2011-08-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

What a fun day! :)
Ethan's friend, Connor, came to swim this morning in our deserted, community pool-- we really enjoyed it for a couple of hours before coming back to the house for the muy delicioso cantaloupe he and his family'd brought, then pizza. :) We got in most of a movie, too, before Allie Demanded a nap by having a total meltdown... (this has now happened at least three times after swimming-- must just make her extra-tired/irritable..)!!~ From there, the moms enjoyed some conversation (finally!) and the kids alternated watching the rest of the film (Home Alone 3) with playing darts in Ethan's room..~ :) :)
As soon as our friends headed home, early afternoonish, we jumped on some math & Hobbit-reading.~ (Thankfully, Al had fallen asleep almost immediately after I'd put her in her crib.. whenever E & I came back in from walking C, K, & Eliz. out, I went into her room to check on her. She was fast asleep with her purple crocs still on [she was ReaLLy fighting the whole crib-nap-thing before] and no blankets... It was precious~~~) :)
All-in-all, Ethan got in almost two hours of good work!! :) :)
*PTL for fun times with friends!! :)

Tiffany~
Psalm 68:19

A Hobbit Day

2011-08-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

Today turned out to be an all-reading day with The Hobbit. We really enjoyed it! :)
We are looking forward to swimming in the morning w/Ethan's best friend & his family! We have really been enjoying the deserted pool!! :)
Allie awoke this morning at a pretty regular time for her-- around 8:30, just as happy, full of energy, and feeling-good as usual, PTL!!~~ She'd awoken in the middle of the night a handful of times-- something she never does--- we think it must've just been teething or the fact that she had not taken her regular two-to-three-hour nap yesterday...~
So thankful for another great day (and for the flexibility of homeschooling)!~

Tiffany~
Psalm 68:19

Day Two

2011-08-23T16:46:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty good, too.~ Another later-than-planned start and no Bible-reading at the beginning, again (MUST change that!!!), but overall a good one, PTL! :)
After breakfast (pb&banana sandwich or Eggo waffles this a.m. w/A's PBS show Word World on in the background..), the day began by Ethan reading the rest of The Hobbit-Chapter One. Love this book!! :) Then, his math was interrupted by the earthquake in VIRGINIA(!!!) and our need to watch CNN for a while..(I happened to be browsing Facebook [FB] while he worked, or we wouldn't have heard about it so soon after it occurred...) So Thankful that everyone seems to be all right following it!~~ PTL!!!~~~ After which, he researched Libya for about half an hour. (*Looks as if we are going to need to have an unschooling-slot in our daily schedule this year..) Then, on to more graphing (very math-related graphing) in science! All-in-all, he spent about five hours working again today.~
Allie had an okay-day, too.. I'll try to upload some pictures from yesterday and today sometime soon, LW!!~~

P.S. On a separate subject, Happy 1st Birthday to my sweet nephew Owen (whom Allie calls O-nen..) today!~~ :)

Tiffany~

E's First Day of Eighth Grade

2011-08-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

Really enjoyed today!!~

Ethan began his eighth grade schoolyear at home this morning, and it was obvious that he's missed "the books..." I really believe in letting kids have their summers free when possible, though!

The agenda was simple: 1) Open w/some Scripture, 2) Read some background info. on J.R.R. Tolkien before beginning The Hobbit aloud, 3) Actually read The Hobbit (at least the first chapter) aloud, 4) and Spend some time in math and science. Easy first day, right? :)

And it really was, Praise the Lord (PTL)!!! :) :) *But here's how it really went:

1.) Opened with a couple of dvr-ed episodes of The Jetsons b/c that's what Allie was doing whenever he awoke and came into the living room (later than I'd planned-- after two attempts to awaken him [at 8:55 and 9:15...]).~ Yes: Jetsons & Apple Jacks instead of Proverbs & Waffles... (I did have my personal qt, though, before the cartoons and cereal.. and I Will try my best to change this part of the day tomorrow, Lord willing [LW]!!!)
2a.) Read A Lot More background info. about Mr. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien than planned because Ethan was totally into it. (*He was in "the zone" all day today, in fact... Days like these are Great Fun!! :) :)

2b.) "Totally into it" turned into a one-page report on the author, then on to English pubs, like The Eagle and Child, where the "Inklings" (an academic/literary group/writing club of which Tolkien, as well as C.S. "Jack" Lewis, among other authors/professors, were members..) gathered for their meetings.

2c.) Googled a couple of questions in there, as well... such as, "How far is Birmingham from London?" (Birmingham, UK) ...to which the answer (found at http://wiki.answers.com) is "101.55 miles.." We were surprised that the answer was given in miles...lol.. :)

LuNcH BrEaK (the tv was flipped back on for this brief period, and an episode of Friends and a partial episode of Phineus & Ferb were watched...)

3.) Reading The Hobbit's first chapter was postponed until after math and science so that he could really enjoy it. ;) :)
Allie napped sometime soon after lunch (glad for that!!).. She was grumpy for a large part of the day.. I think she must be teething... 28 months + one day.. is that what's going on? Or was it just that the routine was different?? Don't know.. Anyway, she had a good start to the morning after jetsons & apple jacks. She sat in the living room floor with one of E's textbooks, and started identifying letters she knew-- starting with "w" and going through several more, including "r" (her "r" sounds like two syllables, btw...lol) and "m." She asked Ethan & me about others ("'Dis one?").. it was a-dorable! And after we'd clapped and woo-hoo-ed the show we got to work, but after I'd been talking for about an hour about JRR.. Allie forcefully told me-- while shaking her little, pointer-finger at me, no less--- to "Be quiet, Mom-my!!!" ;) :) lol! :)

4.) Math - only c. 20 minutes today, but he had a nice, relaxed re-introduction into it with some number sentences and symbols. ....Of course he's bored with it... *roll eyes, sigh & laugh* (He seems to be "bored" with almost everything in the textbooks... He feels like he knows it all already... but he doesn't know All of it... *I've definitely got to figure out what to do about that....) To fully express this boredom he yawned repeatedly between problems... I found myself wondering: is he stalling, working the problem while he's yawning, or is he really tired..?

5.) Science - also less than half an hour, but he enjoyed all of the graphing more than the math..
6.) He read (most of) the first chapter of The Hobbit, entitled "An Unexpected Party" before he looked up, laughing (we laughed a lot!) and noticed that it was 4:50! Then it was all over!! ;) "Mo-om!! Can I be done? And can you call the Pirates Online people, and ask them about that thing that I was telling you about the other day? You know, the skeleton card game......" etc., etc. ;) :) His reading of the story was incredibly enjoyable-- truly, his pronunciation and flow are almost-perfect and his expressiveness is really Fun!! :)

Anyway..... :)
All-in-all, it was a truly Wonderful day!~ E got in at least a solid five hours of work, and really enjoyed it!~ :)
SO VeRy Thankful!!!

Truly,
Tiff :)
Psalm 68:19~