Family Photos!

There is a young lady at our church who is starting out in the photography world....and boy, is she a natural!  We were able to capture all of these shots in 30 minutes!  I am one satisfied customer...I wish I had my own camera like this so that I might be able to capture beautiful images like these. 

It doesn't look like we've been married 15 years....right?

We decided props might be good to showcase what our children were interested at the time of these photos.  Amber loves to read.  I often catch her on her bed, on her tummy, feet in the air, reading away everything she can get her hands on.

Jacob still loves to dress up.  This is his new Boba Fett helmet...he likes to wear it when meeting new people.  Go figure.

Jason loves legos...these are a few of his unique spaceship creations.  He's quite inventive!

Priceless!  I just love this one.

Sweet boy.

Handsome ain't he?

My little model...her cheeks were tired after smiling so much :-)

Science Class!

Have you ever wondered about those Butterfly Garden kits you see at the store?  They are really excellent.  For around $20, you will receive a butterfly enclosure and coupon to redeem online for butterfly larvae.  Once you order online (you do have to pay a shipping and handling fee of less than $5), you receive your larvae pretty quickly, in about 3-5 days.  They come in a container that has everything they need nutritionally before they go into chrysalis stage.  The kids really enjoy checking on the status of the insects everyday, often checking on them multiple times a day.  

This year, we also ordered ladybug larvae.  They were pretty fun to watch too.  They look like little scorpions in their larval state.  And they change quickly into ladybugs.  What an easy way to introduce your kids to life science!  Next project for us?  The "grow your own frog" habitats!   

On release day:  each child got to hold and release a butterfly.

Ladybugs like raisins, but their habitat gets dirty pretty quickly.

Jacob said, "Aww, these ladybugs are hugging each other!"  Ummm....more like mating, I think!

Be free butterflies!



Boston Trip - May 2010

       We traveled to the Boston area this year to attend Tommy and Kimmy's wedding, but we stayed to enjoy the sights and all that Boston has to offer.  We arrived in Boston on Wednesday, and on Thurday, went to the Science Museum of Boston.  We got to ride the subway - which the kids loved.  At the museum, the kids enjoyed looking at the dinosaur bones and made goo in their hands-on lab.  That night, we were invited to a cookout at the bride's home in New Hampshire to meet her family.  The ka-bobs were delicious and the Bishops live on a rural property overlooking a beaver pond.  Boy heaven. 

   On Friday, we drove up to New Hampshire for the wedding rehearsal.    That meant hotel switching, but  anytime spent at the hotel meant pool time.  The outdoor ones were heated, so that made it particularly nice.  I kept the kids busy there while Mark was at the rehearsal, but met up for the rehearsal dinner.   The wedding was Saturday.  It was held in a garden on the property of a quaint historic restaurant.  It started raining just before the ceremony, but the wedding went on as planned.  I have to say there was something charming about sitting at a wedding in the rain.  The dinner following the ceremony was esquisite.  The dancing had Amber grooving the whole night - she even went into the spotlight circle a couple of times.  I had to tell her to stop, otherwise, she would have tried to steal the attention the whole night!

   On Sunday, we went on a whale watch boat.  Unfortunately, the whales were very far out into the ocean - about 2 hours one way.  We got to see a couple of minke whales, but nothing else.  Then, we went to the New England Aquarium.  It has a huge cylindrical aquarium rising through the center of the building.  Pretty cool.  On Monday,  we went to Plimoth (that's how they spell it there) Plantation.  We were able to see a living museum:  a recreation of the actual settlements the Pilgrims and Native people would have had at the time.  Then, we went on a tour of the actual town of Plymouth, where we saw Plymouth Rock and the area where the first settlement existed.    Tuesday was highlighted by a trolley tour of the city of Boston, a boat trip to see the USS Constitution, and the Children's Museum of Boston.    A wonderful trip.  Precious memories.  We are so blessed! 



The Science Museum of Boston





 


Probably the kids' favorite place in Boston - the pool!




At the Wedding shower...sisters-in-law UNITE!





 The Children's Museum of Boston



At the wedding - all dressed up!




Goofing off...

 



The Native site at Plimoth Plantation




Talking with the Pilgrims at Plimoth Plantation.





At the Children's Museum...my little monkeys.



WHY NOT HOMESCHOOL?

This is an issue that has been on my heart for quite some time.  I have heard other moms say "I just can't homeschool"  or "Homeschooling is not my calling" or the likewise.  And all I can think in my head is "that's just not true!"  When we first considering pulling Amber out of public school, mentally I fought the idea.  All I could think about was how hard it was going to be managing 3 kids at home.  How would I shop for groceries?  How would I do the household chores?  When would I get any "me time"?  I mean, there are lots of advantages to having your kids leave the nest for 7-8 hours a day!  I happened to mention the struggle with my friend Joy.  She told me she had similar struggles and realized it was just selfishness.  Whoa.  Wow.  That's exactly what is was!  (I'm so thankful to have a friend to call me out on that one, and hence my burden to my friends to speak the truth in love to them)  I was selfish.  I didn't want to give up MY plans, MY time, MY energy, even MY money.  I mean, don't make ME spend more time with MY kids!  I really thought that way and to be honest, I still struggle with those thoughts!  Maybe you've had similar feelings?  Don't get me wrong, I do love my kids, but did I really have to be around them more?  Weren't we going to drive each other crazy?
Our decision to homeschool was originally based on child need, not religious or other conviction:  Amber desperately needed attention, and I knew I was the one who needed to give it to her.  But since that time, I have realized that homeschooling is much more important that I originally thought.  The Bible says "You shall teach them (the words of God) diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way  and when you lie down and when you rise up."  (Deuteronomy 6:7,  NASB)  Homeschooling makes it a whole lot easier to do that!  The world is not going to teach our kids about Jesus.  That is our responsibility.  I taught in public school for 10 years.  Every science textbook (even social studies textbooks) teaches evolution as fact.  And they hide evolution in other ways, like when speaking of the first people, they'll say they've lived as nomads for millions of years.  Or when discussing space, the books will talk about how old the stars are, billions of years old.  And most teachers I taught with were not Christians.  Sure, they were really nice people, they loved kids, they were fabulous teachers, but they were not believers.  And the kids...yikes!  Amber had what the teacher described as a "partner in crime" in kindergarten.  Really!  The Bible says, "Do not be deceived: 'Bad company corrupts good morals'" (1 Corinthians 15:33, NASB).  Should we let our kids continue to socialize with bad company?  Or should we provide the moral and social instruction the soul needs?

CONSIDER THIS:The following is copied from the HSLDA website (http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/200908100.asp)
Drawing from 15 independent testing services, the Progress Report 2009: Homeschool Academic Achievement and Demographics included 11,739 homeschooled students from all 50 states who took three well-known tests—California Achievement Test, Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, and Stanford Achievement Test for the 2007–08 academic year. The Progress Report is the most comprehensive homeschool academic study ever completed.



The Results
Overall the study showed significant advances in homeschool academic achievement as well as revealing that issues such as student gender, parents’ education level, and family income had little bearing on the results of

National Average Percentile Scores
Subtest        Homeschool    Public School
Reading            89                 50
Language         84                  50
Math               84                  50
Science           86                  50
Social Studies  84                  50

Core               88                  50
Composite      86                  50
a. Core is a combination of Reading, Language, and Math.
b. Composite is a combination of all subtests that the student took on the test.

There was little difference between the results of homeschooled boys and girls on core scores.
Boys—87th percentile
Girls—88th percentile

Household income had little impact on the results of homeschooled students.
$34,999 or less—85th percentile
$35,000–$49,999—86th percentile
$50,000–$69,999—86th percentile
$70,000 or more—89th percentile

The education level of the parents made a noticeable difference, but the homeschooled children of non-college educated parents still scored in the 83rd percentile, which is well above the national average.
Neither parent has a college degree—83rd percentile
One parent has a college degree—86th percentile
Both parents have a college degree—90th percentile


Whether either parent was a certified teacher did not matter.
Certified (i.e., either parent ever certified)—87th percentile
Not certified (i.e., neither parent ever certified)—88th percentile

Parental spending on home education made little difference.
Spent $600 or more on the student—89th percentile
Spent under $600 on the student—86th percentile


Let me sum that up.  It doesn't matter how much money you make, how much education you have, or even how much money you spend on curriculum...homeschooling is an AWESOME way to educate your kids.

Need a hand getting started?  I'm here for you. :)

Halloween 2009

Yes, we do Halloween here at the Leeds house, but don't fret - we spend most of our time at the church's fall festival.  Halloween can be a controversial issue among Christians, after all, wasn't it first a pagan celebration prior to All Saint's Day?  While we certainly don't want to teach our kids the pagan way of life, I can't say that Halloween the day has that message anymore.  When kids think Halloween, they think "CANDY!" and maybe some of them think "costumes!" (at least my Jacob does)  So, we do Halloween on the conservative side:  no witches, no ghosts, no monsters, no scary stuff...  This year, we went to the fall festival at our church:  which involved "trunk or treating," games, and food.  Afterward, I promised them we could go door-to-door in our neighborhood.  Our neighborhood is primarily eldery folks who have been here since the beginning and I just so enjoy watching my kids interact with them.  The neighbors "ooh" and "ahh" over their costumes (which they enjoy)  and the kids "ooh" and "ahh" over the candy (which the neighbors enjoy).  We ended up with quite a loot.  I sent most of the candy off to Mark's office because we simply could not eat it all!

Jason as Darth Vader (Star Wars); Amber as Daphne Blake (Scooby-Doo); Jacob as Snake Eyes (GI Joe)

On the Farm

Fall 2009

Grandpa always lets the kids help out on the farm.  The kids love it!  Here, they are feeding the cows hay.

Grandpa needed some help filling in some holes in the driveway...Leeds kids to the rescue! They loved getting to shovel and throw gravel to patch the driveway.

And doing what grandmas do...taking care of everyone and keeping everyone hydrated! :)

The best farm hands....hands down (pun intended)!

UPWARDS SOCCER

Fall 2009

Last year, the boys did the "sports skills" class at the Little Gym and loved it.  They were getting a little too old for that class again, so we were able to find a great church based program that taught the kids soccer.  Practices were only once a week with games on Saturday mornings, so great for young kids.  Best of all, Jason and Jacob would get to be on the same team.  Here are some highlights of the season....

The focus of the Upwards program is Jesus.  Students learn bible verses each week, and the coaches encourage the players to exhibit the character of Christ when they play (selflessness, cooperation, self-control, kindness, etc.)  Here, the kids huddle up and pray before the game.

Jason scored at least 1 goal each game.  His record was 3 goals in one game.

Jacob learned the ropes quickly.  We never had a "no you're going the wrong way" moment!

Warm-ups before the game...notice most of the kids are running...mine...walking.

He looks like a soccer player, huh?

I caught this shot after Jacob missed the ball.  Poor guy, at least he was going for it!

Chillin' during his break

 (Upwards does a great job of rotating players so that everyone gets equal playing time).

I think he got that one!

Go! Go! Go!

Tiring out...

and gone!

(Yes, the game is still going on around him)

Homeschooling with the Leeds
I decided to start blogging about some of our homeschooling adventures to give our friends and family insight into what homeschooling is like for us. We originally made the decision to homeschool because our oldest, Amber and I just didn't get the bonding time I desired after the adoption. She was in school all day, then in trouble from school when she got home, and there just wasn't a lot of positive time the way things were going. This year, I added Jason to the mix, he started Kindergarten this past fall. While Amber's 2nd grade work is more time intensive with one on one teaching, lessons for the boys are less rigid - they play and practice, learning by doing whenever possible.

This week, after the boys were caught doing a "science experiment" that resulted in flooding the bathroom with red dyed water...I decided, I needed to try to find some more "science" things for them to do...hence, homemade play-doh!

Mixing the dough by hand, getting messy outside!

This week, Jacob did a great job learning to write the letter "R"!

This photo is from last year...Jacob learning his first letter, "H".

This photo is also from last year, when Jason was learning the letter "G" using the Handwriting Without Tears program.

Jason working on pattern block patterns.

Amber is working on math using "Right Start Mathmatics" - an abacus based program that teaches her to visualize numbers in patterns.

Puzzles!