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Yes, yes yes… I know! Where have I been? I have not written a word on here in so long. But I tell you it wasn't for the lack of trying. This was our third year of homeschooling and we tried something new. This year, we decided to join a co-op. What is a co-op you ask? It is a group of moms who come together, whom have strengths in different academic areas, and teach the kids of the group. That is the most simplest way to explain it!
Let's Try Something New!
The co-op we joined was different then others around. It is not like Classical Conversations or Tapestry Of Grace where the curriculum is pre-packaged. The admin of the co-op chose different curriculums for the four different subjects. It covered history, geography, writing, and science. Many hours were spent looking at different curricula to find which ones would fit the co-op. I have to say, it was a year full of fun, excitement and frustrations but they were all worth it!
With being a part of a co-op, our kids had to participate in class. They did all sorts of science experiments, hands on history, gave presentations, had to work in groups and learn how to work together even when there was a disagreement.
The photo above only captured a fraction of what the kids did while they were in class at the co-op. We mummified a cornish hen (which represented a mummy in Ancient Egypt), wrote in hieroglyphics, had multiple presentations, and made cookies. Yes, we made cookies!
You asked, "Would you do a co-op again"? Absolutely! But, there was a lot of good and some bad that went along with our year. The two years previous, we were pretty relaxed. If we didn't feel like "doing school" we would have documentary day or baking day or home economics day (which meant cleaning the house and grocery shopping 🙂 ). We had a relaxed homeschool but not too relaxed. We definitely worked on our school work, but there was no sense of urgency, no stress, just a get-it-done type of attitude. I loved it, but I saw lots of flaws in this way of schooling (for us).
Our oldest is a very grade oriented child. She loves getting up in front of classmates and show off (for a lack of better words) how smart she is. She loved being the smartest kid in the class. Now that we homeschool, she didn't get to stand in front of the class and talk about all that she researched. So, for her, co-op was like being back in public school. Our middle daughter really loved our relax learning environment. She is not shy to say the least, but she gets stage fright. But by the end of the year, she was so excited to do her presentations and talk in front of the class. It was great seeing her almost comfortable presenting her subject to the class! For our son, this was his first grade year. He was placed in the 1-4th grade class. I was a little worried that he would not be able to hang academically with the older kids… but he blew that worry off the fence! He did great and had no problem getting up and presenting. Actually, he loved it! He was so excited when he picked to play Joshua (from the Bible) as his First Person Narrative! He did such a great job and totally stayed in character!
It was a great experience but we (well… more like I) had a hard time trying to balance everything with such a strict homeschooling schedule. For me, that was the frustrating part of the co-op. Going from a relaxed atmosphere to a "this assignment is due next week" atmosphere was really hard… for me! I will not lie, it stressed me out. Finally, towards the end, we missed assignments, life happened (it was crazy for a while there) and it was ok! The joy of homeschooling… GRACE and I needed a lot of it! 🙂
Como Se Dice?
If adding a co-op was not enough, this year we also added Spanish. My friend, who is a Spanish teacher for local homeschool groups, lives in our neighborhood. I had asked her if she would be willing to teach Spanish here at our house if I could find another family or two who would like to join us. She agreed! I was so excited because this meant that I didn't have to drive 30 minutes into town for her to teach our kids! I only needed to find one more family, they had 5 kids who took the class with ours.
Spanish class was fun and the kids did a Spanish country report… and made food for that report! 🙂 It was fun to see what different types of foods the kids came up with. Spanish was not our oldest's first choice but it was a good introduction to learning a new language. I think this coming up year we are going to try German… since it is part of my heritage!
To Be or Not To Be, That Is The Question?
Oh yes, we just went there… The girls did a fun 6 week class on Shakespeare, that 2 fellow moms put together. My friends did such a good job planning it, teaching it, and made it so much fun. Who knew Shakespeare could be fun! For the final day, the teachers planned a trip to the Shakespeare Theater in Orlando to watch the performance of The Tempest. Our oldest wants to read more works by Shakespeare now! Thank you so much my friends!
Oh Where Did Those Shoes Take You?
I am so glad I did this. At the beginning of the school year, a group of us (outside of the co-op and the homeschool group) scheduled monthly field trips to a local, privately owned, springs. It was an inexpensive monthly field trip in the great outdoors of Florida! The kids has so much fun with all the hands on learning! They investigated every thing from water ways, bugs, to microscopic organisms, to animal skulls and bones, and so much more! I am really happy we were able to go on a monthly field trip and that it was already planned out. All we had to do was just show up!
Where Did That Rabbit Come From?
To add the our crazy life… We adopted a bunny! Funny story. Our neighbors have a couple of bunnies, snakes, big dogs, and they just love animals! While they were on vacation, somehow (while the animals' caretakers were cleaning out a cage) the male and female bunnies mated. A few weeks after our neighbors got back from their long summer trip, their oldest daughter's friend saw that the bunny had given birth to 5 babies! Both mom and dad bunny are show bunnies but they are different breeds. That means, we can not show the bunny at the fair. That is ok, she is our little bunny and we love her. Her name is Agnes or Aggie for short. Which is fitting seeing the our neighbors are alumni of Texas A&M… the Aggies. It was such a beautiful thing watching Aggie grow up and get bigger! We got to hold her before her eyes were open! It was a beautiful thing! She is a mix with Holland Lop and Mini Lop and we were able to bring her home on October 31st! So cute! (P.S. if you are wondering what is on Aggie's head, it is a faux raccoon hat!)
Oh The Places You Will Go!
To go along with our monthly field trips, we had a few other field trips throughout the year. One of our favorite field trips was the Alafia Rendezvous. It is an encampment from the 1800's. It is so much fun and this time, my husband was able to join us! I love it when he can participate in anything school related! Of course we went to the library… what homeschooler doesn't do that! 🙂 We took a fun trip to Sea World. I have to say, Sea World has to be my favorite amusement park in Orlando. We have been a few times since moving to Florida but this time we did things we normally didn't do, which included feeding the sea lions! Yummmm, fish! In the late spring we had a death in the family so we drove the 22 hour drive home to be with family. While up there I took the kids down to our ole fishing hole! It was so peaceful out there. Then to end our school year, we went to the FPEA Homeschool Convention! Man, that was fun! A highlight of that trip with taking the kids to Medieval Times. It was fitting that we went there, because we studied the Medieval Time Period in our history class! I loved watching their faces as the show went on! It really got your heart pounding!
What's Next?
I am looking forward to our next school year. We will be studying U.S. History big time so I am hoping to have some really cool field trips! So much to go out and see!
I would love to hear from you! Please leave a comment at the bottom! If you liked my post and would love to hear more of our adventures, please follow me so you get the newest post!


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Google's Chrome is now the most popular Web browser worldwide, surpassing Microsoft's Internet Explorer for the first time, according to the latest figures from StatCounter. After years of slowly chipping away Internet Explorer's market share, Chrome took the lead with 32.76 percent share, while IE dipped to 31.94 percent.
Just a year ago, Internet Explorer was leading the Web browser market share with 43 percent, followed by Mozilla Firefox with 29 percent, and Chrome was third with 19 percent. Twelve months later, IE has lost 12 percent of the browser market share while Chrome gained 13 percent to the detriment of IE and Firefox, which also lost about 4 percent of its users and now comes in at just over 25 percent.
This is not the first time Chrome has leapfrogged Internet Explorer. For a single day in March, Chrome was estimated to have held a few percentage decimals over IE. This time however, Chrome overtook IE for the entire week, though by still less than a percentage point.
While Chrome is leading the browser market worldwide, in the U.S. it still has a lot of catching up to do. Microsoft's Internet Explorer still has a wide lead at home with 37 percent, with Chrome a distant second at 23 percent, closely followed by Mozilla Firefox 22 percent.
StatCounter figures are generally reliable, as they are based on data collected from some 15 billion page views around the world. However, these stats can wildly differ from one provider to another, as for example NetMarketShare shows Internet Explorer had 54 percent share this month, while Chrome has 19 percent, and Firefox has 20 percent.
Follow Daniel Ionescu and Today @ PCWorld on Twitter.

subset: commoncrawl


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Katie Couric is bidding adieu to ABC News. The former Today and CBS Evening News anchor is negotiating her exit package from the...
Katie Couric is bidding adieu to ABC News.
The former Todayand CBS Evening News anchor is negotiating her exit package from the company, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
2013 Fall TV report card: How's the new class doing?
Couric is trying to end her deal with ABC News, which includes a role as a special correspondent and her daytime talk show, just as she is close to finalizing an agreement with Yahoo for an interview show that would be featured on the site's homepage.
Although executives told the magazine that a decision about a third season of her talk show, Katie, would not be made until sometime in December after sweeps ratings come in, Couric's contract only included two seasons of her talk show. However, Couric would be leaving before she completed her contracted three years with ABC News.
The Biz: Is Katie on the way out?
"Katie is an incredible journalist and this was an opportunity that she couldn't pass up," an ABC News executive told THR. "Thanks to the powerful association between ABC News and Yahoo we know that Katie will continue to work closely with us and welcome her on our air anytime."
There is some speculation that Couric could jump to CNN. She worked with the network's president Jeff Zucker for many years on the Today show, and Zucker helped launch her daytime show before leaving for CNN.
Would you miss Katie?


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Our weekly college football shame index.
The Weekend in Shame
Kansas State 55, West Virginia 14: The most common complaints we get at College ShameDay are not about the teams we lambast; they're about the teams we leave out. The Mountaineers, likely incensed that their loss to Texas Tech went unnoticed, decided to do something about it. That something was laying a bigger and more putrid egg at home against Kansas State.
It is possible to overstate how ineffective West Virginia's offense was in this game, but only by resorting to outright lies like, "Geno Smith started hacky-sacking in the second quarter and claimed that he didn't even know what football was." A more measured statement: Going into the game, WVU was averaging six plays of 20 yards or more per contest; its longest play against Kansas State went for 13 yards. The Wildcats disarmed every Mountaineer weapon. For the first time in 25 games, no West Virginia player finished with at least 50 receiving yards.
Dana Holgorsen's offense could muster only 243 total yards by the final whistle, and—here is where we really twist the knife—West Virginia hadn't been held under 250 at home since Dec. 1, 2007. The winning coach in Morgantown that night?
USC 50, Colorado 6: If you were not aware that Colorado is one of the nation's worst FBS teams this year, I have bad news: You are only a figment of someone's imagination and not a real person. There are coma wards where everyone knows that Colorado is garbage. The Buffaloes didn't need to get trounced by USC for people to realize it, but let's take notice of three momentous fourth-quarter plays from Saturday anyway.
- USC's Javorious Allen runs for no gain on the game's final play, a third-and-4. This was only the sixth third-down attempt the Trojans faced all day, tying a record for the fewest attempts by a Colorado opponent ever. Their company in this category? The 1957 Missouri Tigers.
- Max Wittek throws a 24-yard touchdown pass to D.J. Morgan with 11:11 left. USC's seventh passing score sets the record for most ever allowed in a game by Colorado. A sad moment for the previous record holder, the 2011 USC Trojans.
- Halfway through the quarter, Nelson Agholor catches a pass for a one-yard gain. This is the last pass of the day for Southern Cal, which completes 23 of 25 passes on the day, or 92 percent. No team has ever hung a higher completion percentage on a Buffs defense. The previous record of 91.7 percent was set by Missouri in 1983.
2012 Colorado football—reaching all-time levels of suck!
Wake Forest 16, Virginia 10: Usually, if you hold your opponents to one third-down conversion out of 15, and if you force them into a completion percentage under 40, and if you're playing Wake Forest any time after 2007, you win. The Virginia Cavaliers are anything but usual.
There isn't even an easy explanation for this loss. UVA forced Wake to punt 10 times. The Cavaliers had three turnovers, but the Demon Deacons managed only three points off of them. Phillip Sims even put up his highest all-purpose-yards total ever! (OK, this last one is a pretty low hurdle.)
None of this changes the result, of course, which means the Hoos have a six-game losing streak heading into a bye week where they'll try to regroup before traveling to NC State. You know who never lost seven games in a row in one season? That personification of chronic fatigue syndrome, Al Groh.
Elsewhere in Shame
Prior to this weekend, South Carolina had held an opponent under 100 yards rushing and 100 yards passing six times since 2000, all Gamecock wins. Florida ran for 89, threw for 94—and won by 33 points. Do not tell Steve Spurrier this on the tee box or you will be fully liable for the injuries caused to the person brained by his drive.
Idaho held a powerful Louisiana Tech offense to 311 yards. Then the second quarter started. We miss you already, Robb Akey.
Floridas Atlantic and International, both looking for their first conference win of the year, each took two-score leads into the fourth quarter. The Owls promptly let South Alabama outgain them by 145 yards in the last frame, and the Panthers let Troy score 10 points despite holding the ball for nearly 13 of the final 15 minutes.
Please forgive me for inventing the most vulgar word in college football history, but: Iowauburn.
The Week Ahead in Shame
Missouri is the worst team in the nation at converting on third down. Kentucky is the fourth-worst team in the nation at preventing opponents from converting on third down. You could watch this game, or you could watch a toddler blow bubbles at a cobweb.
1-5 Hawaii travels to Fort Collins to play 1-6 Colorado State. I don't know to whom this game presents any interest, but I feel terrible for them.
Duke-Florida State is a potential preview of the ACC championship game and wait come back I'll give you four free tickets and complimentary airfare to Charlotte and wipe out all your student-loan debt dammit you hung up the phone already.
Celebrity Hot Tub is a college football fan who lost the ability to truly love thanks to three years of Florida head coach Ron Zook. He writes for Every Day Should Be Saturday. Follow him on Twitter @celebrityhottub.