Apple Tree Academy

NEW YEAR

2010-01-01T21:12:00.001-08:00

Now that Jubilee is a year old, I thought I'd try AGAIN on this blog. We are starting school on Monday, so I'll start taking photos again. A big problem with this blog is photos. Mainly because I have none to put up. In the fall, I lost all my photos when my hard drive crashed. HUGE lesson learned: back up, back up, back up. I've been kinda gunshy taking and uploading photos since then. But I'll try, try again.

Baby Einsteins

2009-04-09T16:19:00.000-07:00

I was doing some laundry and heard a little voice in another room chattering away. Not unusual for Pippin, but I decided to check on her - see who she was talking to. Here is the happy scene I found. She was holding Jubilee on her lap and reading to her. Now THIS is the way homeschool is best - the kids teaching the kids! If only every subject was this easy...

A few comments on the books and other stuff around her.
Old Black Fly and Make Way for Ducklings are wonderful books - we love them. I have no idea what book she is reading. I asked Pippin today and she said, "It's that one where the boy and the girl both want the dog." Ok, Cameo and Gala just informed me that it is called Singing Sam. The other one on the ground, Bright Shiny Skylar, is put out by American Girl, but I'm not really all that thrilled with it or any of the rest of the series. I do love the American Girl series, but this is something called "Hopscotch Hill School" and it is nowhere near as good. Those red things on the ground are connectors for Superfort by Cranium. It is an awesome toy that the kids play with all the time.

Reason number 72 to keep a journal...

2009-03-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

In our morning devotionals, we've been reading about an ancestor - Lucy Hanna White Flake. She married William Jordan Flake, founder of Snowflake, Arizona. (I think she did just as much work to found Snowflake as William did ;D) It has been very interesting to hear her tell of the pioneer lifestyle. She got married at around 16, William was only a few years older. Then he took a second wife after he and Lucy had already been married for 10 years (or was it 13? I can't remember). She explains how hard that was for both of them, but so far in the book has not ever been angry at God, William, or the second wife, Prudence for the decision. Of course, she had to consent to begin with. Wow. They had 4 children die - (so far) which I can only imagine seemed impossible to bear. They were asked by Brigham Young to colonize Arizona, so they went. Lucy talks about how this was much harder than moving from Nauvoo to Utah. At that point, they HAD to go. They were being forced out. But to move to Arizona! She said they could have made excuses... lots of other people did. She describes this move as the hardest thing that could have been asked of them. When they started to AZ, she had a 3 month old. Same age as Jubilee! :) The journey took 3 months. 2 months into it, she became a grandmother, as her oldest son had recently married and his wife had her baby prematurely. It was the coldest day of the season thus far (January) and in the middle of the night. She said she removed her breast from her 5 month old's mouth and went to help with the new baby. She didn't know what she was doing, but it had to be done. During the middle of a major move, with a 5 month old plus other kids, plus trying to feed everyone, she also had to take care of a newborn and new mother. She said after they were out of danger she nearly died herself because of all the stress. They had been living in Beaver, Utah. They first went to somewhere near what is now Brigham City and had a rough time for several months. The water was basically too muddy to be of any use to them. The people in this community were trying to live the United Order, and William had some trouble with that because of a situation where he was trying to help a traveler and he traded some communal property without the consent of the board. He decided to leave that place, and Lucy was sooooo glad - she couldn't wait to get out of there. They bought a farm in a place called Silver Lake and Lucy was thrilled to death to have the clean water! This is now Snowflake. I'm enjoying this book very much and would love to someday meet Lucy. She seems to me to be an amazing woman.

Rockhounds

2009-03-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

Tuesday we went to Angels Camp to a store called "Stories in Stone". I had originally planned to take a tour of Mercer Caverns in Murphys, but it was a bit much for the budget. At $7.00 for kids over 3 and $12.00 for adults, it would have been nearly $50.00! So, instead we went to this store, and wow - was I impressed! The owner, Russ (I can't remember his last name) is about 80 years old and has been interested in rocks since he was 8. He owns some property near Bakersfield and has excavated extensively there, finding innumerable fossils of every sort of sea animal imaginable. He said he stopped counting shark teeth when he got to half a million! The things available at the store are incredible. The best part was an educational room where he does presentations for schools and other groups. He spent so much time and effort putting the room displays together. Unfortunately we were there a half hour before the store closed, so he didn't have time to do a presentation, (and I honestly don't know if he usually charges for it!) but he did give us a cook's tour of the room and kinda explained what he goes through in the actual presentation. It was a lot of information to absorb in a small amount of time, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Braeburn, Gala, and Cameo check out the display which shows what different chemical compounds make up the minerals which then make up the rocks. Russ was so knowledgeable. I love it when people are so passionate about things. It is so fun to speak with people like that.

Checking out some sedimentary rocks, fossils in the background.

Showing off a rock with sea fossils embedded in it.

He showed us some polished rocks with water in them! They just looked like normal polished rocks, but upon further inspection with a flashlight under the rock, there was the water sloshing around! They are made the same way as those fancy geodes you can crack open that have amethyst and other things inside. I'm not very good at explaining it, but apparently the volcano flow seals off some places so there is a cavity there and crystals grow in that open space. Very beautiful! He and his wife get a lot of their stock from Brazil. There is a photo in his warehouse that shows his wife standing next to some geodes that are taller than her!

Here is McIntosh with some smaller ones.

The warehouse was FILLED with rocks, fossils, gemstones, everything!

The girls didn't really get all that much out of our trip, I'm afraid. Pippin led the way in complaining with McIntosh and Cameo not far behind. (Gala had some moments, too) Fuji nearly had a couple tantrums as well. Braeburn wanted to know more about the fossils and rocks, but pretty much all the girls were interested in were playing with the magnet rocks and oohing and aahing at the pretty jewelry. However, I do have to say that Pippin and McIntosh asked a bjillion questions, so maybe they did get something out of it despite the complaining. Maybe Russ was used to it, because he seemed to take all the questions in stride and didn't get too freaked out when the girls tried to touch EVERYTHING. Fuji found a display of all sorts of little polished rocks and he was very patient when she asked what kind each one was. The funny thing is, she never actually asked him. She would turn around and hand him the rock and he would tell her what it was and then she would ask, "WHY?" Every time.

We did end up buying something... magnet rocks. They are great! They seem to be much stronger than regular fridge magnets and the kids spent a long time in the store playing with them. They were $1.00 each, unless you put a bunch into this little tiny bag - then they were only $6.00 for as many as could fit. We ended up getting 13.

It ended up being a good buy because they have pretty much played with them nonstop since then. It's a great way to keep them busy and discovering things. Cameo calls them her pet rocks. That's exactly the kind of pet I like - no hair and no poop.

The worst part of this field trip was that Tree had taken my camera to work for some car photos, and the camera I had only had an 8 mb card in it! So, these are the only photos I got - guess I should have had it on "economy". There's a gem and mineral show in Angels Camp this weekend. Maybe Braeburn and I will head back there and take the right camera!

LOUDNESS

2009-03-20T17:13:00.000-07:00

Ever have one of those "loud" days? Everything seems overamplified. The littles wake up extra early and it all goes downhill from there. The kids want the music (ok, it's Scripture Scouts and Primary music) up at the max level on the stereo. Everything they say is a yell or a scream. They seem extra hyper all day, and the sound of them running on the wood floors through the house seems too much to bear. The baby doesn't want to be put down and protests loudly at every attempt to do so. Reading outloud to the gang is quite impossible because the words of the book cannot be heard over the conversations of the masses. No-one does their schoolwork or chores, and the only way to make oneself heard is to join in the loudness. A headache is inevitable. Even using the bathroom or taking a shower is no respite. Tree came home in the early afternoon for a few minutes and everything was in chaos. When Pippin asked him why he was home, he answered, "So I can get depressed". Hmph. When Tree comes home this evening I am going to escape. It's a nice day, so maybe I'll be able to take a book and go for a walk to a park or something. Somewhere nice and quiet. I gotta make dinner first though. Any quick ideas? I've got rocks on the brain, and can't think what to make for dinner - we've been studying geology. Ok, I've been studying geology - I can't get the kids to quiet down long enough to get any kind of book learning in. At least we've done a couple of field trips and they get excited when they see quartz.
The missionaries are scheduled to have dinner at our house tomorrow. DON'T LET ME FORGET! I've forgotten so many things lately. Things that are written in my planner, but I just forget to look at the dumb thing.

Retry

2009-03-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

I've been inspired by several friends to try to blog again. But really, how do they have time??? I asked Braeburn how he thought they could do it, and he said, "Mom, you have 7 kids. I said, "Well, what about so-and-so? She has... oh yeah... two. Well what about this other so-and-so? She has... oh yeah... three. Well surely this other so-and-so... how does she do it? She has 5! Oh yeah... the youngest is 11 and she doesn't homeschool. Ok, so I could use this as an excuse. I really could. I just have too many kids under the age of 12, so I can't blog. That's 7, if you were wondering. But instead I'm going to try to keep up with the Joneses. You know why? Cause it's good for me, that's why! It gets me writing, which I rarely do, except for lists, like shopping and to-do. But, this is HARD. I should write more on Facebook, I should write letters to my family, I should write on my transformation.com blog. So now I'm adding another "should" to my list. When am I going to be able to write? Good question. I really have no idea. But I'm really good at adding "shoulds" to my to-do list. Thanks a lot, so-and-so. I appreciate your inspiration. Yeah, really I do. I could blog about the guilt factor I just inflicted upon myself. Why do women do this to themselves? All my journal entries in whatever form they take seem to start out this way: "Wow, it's been so long since I've written. I'm going to try really hard to be more consistent. I'm going to write every day or at least once a week." I wonder how many times I've written that!? I'm going to try to keep this blog focused on our school experiences, but I'm sure I'll violate that focus shortly. So bear with me, encourage me, whatever. Just know that I may not write a post for another year. 6 months from today is my birthday. I'll take stock at that time - see how I've done. GO MRS. APPLE!!

webelos scholar requirement: list things I can do now because of education

2008-03-31T16:27:00.000-07:00

1: Help siblings in school.
2: Write better.
3: Help with budget.
4: Keep record of earning and spending money.
5: Work on going to college.

The Story of Snail: Chapter Three

2007-11-26T17:55:00.000-08:00

BRAEBURN:
"Look where your shouting and yelling and screaming got us" Horn whispered angrily to Snail. "Skip the long talk and give it to Spike" said Snail. "He was the one who screamed in the first place." "Because he screamed I could scream all I want and the humans would still hear Spike." "Yeah, I guess your right." said Horn. "But you told us you knew a house when you saw one." suddenly the voices outside stopped. "Were the snails inside that box talking?" the boy said. "Maybe they need food." "What'll they eat?" asked the girl. "Hey!" shouted Spike. Snails heart stopped beating. What in the world was Spike doing? Spike continued. "We want rose petals to eat!" "What are you doing?!" Horn wispered to Spike. "Telling them what we want to eat so we don't starve, of course" said Spike, not bothering to keep his voice down. "HEY!" shouted the boy. "THEY DO TALK!" And before anyone could do anything, he opened the door, got rose petals, came back in and opened the lid. "HI!" he said.

The Story of Snail: Chapter Two

2007-11-23T08:15:00.001-08:00

BRAEBURN: Chapter Two
Spike screamed. "Look what you've done!", shouted Snail. "The humans have heard us and the last thing we'll hear is them saying 'lets kill the snails'! HERE THEY COME!" Sure enough, humans had heard Spike's scream and Snail's shouting. "Look Dad!" a little boy shouted. "There are three snails on the wall! " "Well what do you know" the grownup that was the dad said. "We'll leave them alone, OK?" "OK Dad" the little boy said. They went away while the little boy said, " I thought they might have been the ones shouting, but snails can't talk... Soon the little boy came back with an older girl. "Look" he said. "Three snails. Let's keep them." "All right." the girl said. "Here's a box" said the boy. They took the snail trio and put them in the box, which had holes in the top for breathing. They put the lid on and Horn, Spike and Snail were in the light spotted darkness.

The Story of Snail: Chapter One

2007-11-21T20:47:00.000-08:00

BRAEBURN: Chapter One

The snail was a traveling fellow, always on the move. He had few friends, because he moved before he could make any friends. His two friends Horn and Spike, traveled with him. Horn had a horn mark on his shell and Spike had a spike mark on his shell. The snail had a snail mark on his shell and thus was named Snail. This is the way with snails. Snail was the leader of them all, showing them the way out of human reach. Thus they went on with their usual business until one day they came upon a gigantic something. "Would you please move out of the way?" asked Spike. It didn't budge. "It might not be alive" said Horn. "I'll go and see." He went up to touch it. "It's hard and woody" he said. "We should climb over it." "Hard and woody" said Snail to himsef. "Iv'e heard that description before. Well, lets go" They climbed till they got to a sippery, clear, hard substance. Snail gasped. "This is a window" he said. "What's a window?" asked Horn. "A window" whispered Snail " is part of a house, a human house.

TimezAttack

2007-11-14T14:01:00.000-08:00

BRAEBURN: I really like timezattack. It's a fun computer game to memorize your times tables. I have finished the 11's and and am working on the 12's. It's like this: you are in an underground dungeon and kill monsters with things like 5x6 and 4x2 that are written on themselves. When you kill the biggest monster for the, say the 7's, you go on to the 8's. The thing is, if you get one wrong, it hits you with a bullet from its half club, half gun. If you get hit enough times, you die. Once at my grandma's house something went wrong, and the noise the monster makes when it dies went over and over again. I was so scared, I ran down the stairs as fast as my legs would carry me. I was still shaking when my mom and I went to fix it. Well, I have to leave to do my piano practice to go to cub scouts.

Please, no girls.

2007-10-31T19:01:00.000-07:00

BRAEBURN: I think I could do with 2 girl free days. See, I have 5 sisters and obviously you would think that I would be tired of them. Well, I don't like girls at all. In fact, once I was at this home school PE group I was trying to tell Mrs. Tree why I didn't want to be there, she told me I invited one of the girls in my Sunday school class to my birthday party once. I'm still mad at myself because of that. I'm actually thinking of setting up an anti girl club. I wont even sit next to a girl ( if I don't have to) till I'm say, 25. Once I almost sat next to a girl in church. She sat down next to me and she would've sat next to me if I hadn't jumped up 1 second later. The battle between my sisters and I goes on and I am losing, I think. Oh well.

Home Sellers?

2007-10-16T17:27:00.001-07:00

We have decided to try to sell our house. Not a good time, I've been told. Well, I've also been told it's a GREAT time to buy, which is really what our aim is here. It's not that there's anything wrong with our house. In fact, for the last 8 years it has held up quite well under the hugely destructive forces of children. We also live in a cul-de-sac and have a HOA park and pool at the corner about 100 yards down the road. Why would anyone want to move from this idyllic location? But of course, having 6 kids, 5 of them girls, in a 3 bedroom house kinda leaves 5 girls in one room. It's not functioning that way right now - Braeburn is living with his twin sisters. But I really don't want it to stay that way. So the girls can either be in a small room or in the master bedroom. We actually tried switching with them for a while and had 4 girls in the master and us in the small, and to be honest, we parents didn't like it. We do have room to add on, but Mr. Tree doesn't really do adding on, you know?

I am wondering, how does any family with 8 people at home ALL THE TIME (well, really 7 - someone has to go to work to pay for all the yogurt we end up wasting) sell a house? No, that's not really the question, is it? The question is: how does any family with 8 people at home most of the time ever keep the house clean, especially for an extended period such as a home selling? I try to use Flylady as a mentor, but I still find that unless I am specifically concentrating on keeping it clean constantly, the 3 year olds and the 6 year can mess things up faster than I can keep up with them. At least the baby is semi-clean. The worst she does is writing on herself with pens and markers or ruining perfectly good library books. Today the 8 year old dripped blue food coloring out on the garage floor and inside the car. Why did she have the blue food coloring, you ask? I asked, too. She doesn't know.

SimplyAudiobooks

2007-10-06T17:34:00.000-07:00

I decided to do a trial of Simply Audiobooks because the kids love to listen to audio books from the library. Unfortunately I have not been impressed with their selection. They haven't even had a small fraction of what I've searched for. You have to have between 10-15 books in your rental list just so they can find one to send. So my free trial is almost over and it took me a long time just to find some books that they would be able to send. However, I did get my first book today - C.S. Lewis - The Great Divorce and the Abolition of Man. I've already read the Great Divorce, but it is interesting to listen to it again. C.S. Lewis is so fascinating to read. He really makes so much sense and I often have to focus my brain to get the full meaning of his words. I like that feeling. Gotta remember to cancel the account before I get charged!

Library fines and soccer times

2007-10-04T16:56:00.001-07:00

So I went to the library and decided today is the day I should pay all my fines, including the freakin' fines on those black hole books. But they insisted that I shouldn't pay it today, that they would just renew them again for me. I told the librarian that I WANTED to pay for the books, but she pooh-poohed that idea and said that they would now be due in November. It's nice, but I really just want to get it over with, you know? It's like when I was a kid and did something wrong - a lot of times, just waiting for the punishment was worse than the actual punishment.
Oh, I thought I was going to be able to blog a bit, but it looks like soccer mom needs to save the day and take a kid to practice. I have a real love/hate relationship with the soccer season. And then the 10 y.o. says he wants to play winter league... we'll see.

Black Holes

2007-10-03T22:03:00.000-07:00

I think there is a black hole in my house somewhere. Or maybe outside. I watched a friend's toddler today. She brought a very cute little TinkerBell bag that had her diapers/wipes/extra clothes etc. I KNOW we had it, because I changed her diaper once while she was here. But where is it now? In the black hole. Gone. I've searched everywhere! I even pulled out everything from the linen closet (at least it's clean now). The kids were out playing in the playhouse, and I made them clean that too, but no bag. It's too big to fit under the couch, it's not under the beds, it's not in the shed, it's not in the kitchen cabinets, and it isn't on the side of the house. The sad part is that this is not the first thing to go into the black hole. There are also 2 library books in there. I've been renewing them for the last 5 months because I just know I'm going to find them. The sad part is that they were my library books, not the kids. They probably went to the black hole because they aren't classics. Just a dumb book about Ebay and another one about Clutter. Maybe I sold them - clutter, ebay, they sound like a bargain for someone. I'll bet they're in the Tinker Bell bag waiting for me to find them.