John’s 6th Grade Geography Project

John just completed a fairly major project for his 6th Grade Abeka Academy class taught by Mr. Howe.  His assignment was to make a poster-sized map of a country that includes the name of the country and its borders, rivers, mountains, major cities, the capital city, natural resources, agricultural/industrial centers, and major geographical features. John [...]

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Homeschool Memoirs Theme #6: Summer Photo Essay

This week’s Homeschool Memoirs Meme Theme is Summer Photo Essay.  We are to post pictures from our summer activities and give a brief description of them. Our summer was very busy–it was hard to summarize it in a few pictures!    I put together a Smilebox Slideshow for this assignment.  I hope you all enjoy [...]

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I Love Your Blog Award

My Sister-in-Law, Amber, nominated my blog for an “I Love Your Blog Award.”  Thanks, Amber!  That is really nice! Now, as a recipient of this great award, I am supposed to nominate 7 of my favorite blogs to also receive it.  Wow–I read a lot of blogs, so narrowing it down to 7 is kind [...]

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Supporting Boy Scouts with a Treat for Brave American Soldiers

All three of my boys have been selling Trails End popcorn products to raise money for their respective Boy Scout groups.   This year, Trails End has added online sales to their Boy Scout fundraising program so that distant friends and relatives can order popcorn, have it shipped directly to them, and still contribute directly to [...]

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Forever Family Day 2008: Remembering a Special Outfit

I have had a lot of fun making the slideshow at the end of this entry.  It has brought back special memories of the day that Huang Min Cui became my daughter, Kara Joy Mincui. A couple of weeks ago as I was getting out fall clothes for Kara, I came across the outfit that [...]

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Two Years Ago…..

Two years ago during the overnight hours between 9/21 and 9/22 in the USA, an amazing process was taking place clear across the world in Hefei, China: Huang Min Cui became Kara Joy Mincui O’Brien, and our lives have been so richly blessed by her addition into our family ever since that time. I have [...]

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Webelos Flag Ceremony

This afternoon, one of our local medical facilities had a dedication for a new flag/flagpole and had asked the Webelos to raise the flag and perform a flag ceremony.  Brock and two of his friends led the ceremony.  I must say that whenever I see my boys participate in this type of activity, I am [...]

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Book Review: Song of the Brook by Matilda Nordtvedt

For Brock’s first book report of 4th grade, he reviewed the book Song of the Brook which was written by Matilda Nordtvedt.  This book is a sequel to Secret in the Maple Tree.  Brock wrote a report about that story last February at this link:  http://colbylobrien.wordpress.com/2008/02/02/book-review-secret-in-the-maple-tree/ . Here is Brock’s report: Song of the Brook, [...]

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Completing the Personal Care Merit Badge in Caravan

This afternoon the girls received two awards in Caravan:  their Hunter rank pins and the Personal Care merit badge.  We have really been enjoying Caravan–the lessons are so easy to plan and have fun activities.  We have talked quite a bit about the food groups as part of the Personal Care unit, so we reviewed [...]

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Book Review: The Tale of Despereaux by Kate Dicamillo

We do not watch very much television–especially network television–but during the recent Olympics in Beijing, we did enjoy watching the coverage of many of the athletic events.  During the broadcast of the Olympics, we saw a movie trailer for a film that is coming out later this year based on the book The Tale of [...]

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