Monthly Archives: July 2008

Unplanned events are the source of much pleasure when it comes to both homeschool and summer vacation in our family. I had all kinds of artwork and learning planned for this summer as is well attested in this blog. We were going … Continue reading →

There are about three weeks left until we start the 2008-2009 homeschool year. This year will bring a relatively big change in the way we do our work. Christian will be working in a similar way to what we have done in … Continue reading →

We spent much of this weekend on swimming events. Saturday we went to the all YMCA championship meet that include four or five of the local YMCA swim teams. The meet was extremely well run and both of the kids swam well. After … Continue reading →

After my post yesterday on programming with Christian, our new friend Ruthie left a comment about a program called Alice. I checked into it and it sounds pretty amazing. Alice is a program that was developed at Carnegie Mellon to teach kids … Continue reading →

I have been trying to figure out a good project to do with Christian. Something dawned on me as I was driving in to work this morning. Focus on the Family had a program on the radio about how there are not … Continue reading →

Our friends over at JKLMNOP blog put up a post that asked that I list seven facts about myself. It sounded like fun, especially when I read our friend Karen’s list. I knew about the pianos, the cooking, and the quilting, but … Continue reading →

Our good friends Carlos and Vanesa in Texas have a son name Joaquin. Carlos and Joaquin run in triathlons. When we were at Gospel meeting Sunday afternoon, one of our other friends, Mike C. told me that he and his kids were … Continue reading →

We have added a cartoon page to ChapmanKids.net: http://www.chapmankids.net/bettyblonde. Kelly is getting far enough ahead with her cartooning that she thinks she will be able to do one every day for quite awhile. I think she only has to draw one more to … Continue reading →

Christian, Kelly, and I are reading two non-fiction books aloud this summer. Actually, I do the reading while they work on their cartooning. Understanding the Times is quite a bit of work, but educational and rewarding. I am glad we chose to read … Continue reading →

Christian and Kelly have been writing cartoons for quite a long time. Every night now, when we read aloud together, I do the reading and they work on their cartoons. Over the two or three years they have been doing it, they … Continue reading →

Grandma Sarah’s twin sister Janet has a granddaughter (Jon and Sharon’s oldest) who has moved just a couple of hours north of Monterrey to work in the Rio Grande Valley for a program called Teach for America. Some of the poorest … Continue reading →

It finally is starting to feel like summer. We had a long finish to our homeschool this year. After that the swim team and a whole bunch of small commitments kept us busy enough so that it did not really seem like … Continue reading →

Next year is going to be a very exciting school year for both Kelly and Christian. We bought the Sonlight books for Kelly this year, but not the study schedule. We were not even going to do that, but when we got … Continue reading →

I was visiting a blog at lunch time and came across this website. I thought it was very cool! It features ticker that allows you to show your weight loss, debt reduction, fund raising, body mass index (BMI) on a neat little … Continue reading →

Here are the pictures I promised from Aunt Julia’s visit yesterday. We had and absolute ball and learned how to cook some excellent new (healthy) foods.(Click on any image to make it larger)There will be no swim meet this weekend so … Continue reading →

This morning, I drove Aunt Julia to the airport so she could fly to a trade show in Atlanta. She did her usual stellar teaching thing during her short stay with us. The kids learned how to play cribbage and another card … Continue reading →

Bryan sent me a screen capture image he extracted from a video he took at a great party we had before Lorena and I got married. In June of 1992, Lorena flew to Oregon from Monterrey for the first time to … Continue reading →

Check out Cousin Charlie’s awesome Guatemala blog. It is a fascinating read. He is definitely having an “interesting” time and I am sure he would appreciate any comments you might leave. For future reference, so you can get back to it whenever you … Continue reading →

Our little family has always enjoyed small town 4th of July celebrations. In Oregon we went to McMinnville several times, Forest Grove, and Independence. This year, there were many places we could have gone, but we wanted to find something with that … Continue reading →