College on my mind...

It seems so far away with my oldest only entering 8th Grade this year, but I have college on my mind lately. With high school just around the corner, I have to make some big decisions...do I go with an accredited online college prep high school, do I stick with our eclectic approach and make our own transcript, etc. Thankfully, there are so many choices out there now for homeschoolers. The majority in our local area seem to stick with their own unique approaches, make their own transcripts or use transcript services and enroll their kids in community college courses when they are around 16 for a couple of classes. I am not sure which path to college degrees for the kids we will take, but since I am doing all this research (along with ordering lots of college bound books on amazon!) thought I'd post some helpful links and interesting programs that I find. I hope some of these links are helpful to you. Online High Schools: (accredited) - secular http://keystoneschoolonline.com/ http://www.oakmeadow.com/ http://www.internationalconnectionsacademy.com/private-school/home.aspx Online High Schools: (Catholic) http://www.setonhome.org/ http://www.kolbe.org/ And there are all sorts of interesting College courses for high school students: http://www.newschool.edu/parsons/pre-college-academy/ http://www.marist.edu/summerinstitutes/ Also, there are transcript services to help you with scholarship and college applications if you don't become a fully enrolled online student with an accredited school. http://www.thehomescholar.com/homeschool-high-school-transcripts.php

Lots to watch outside the window!

We're still enjoying all the backyard critter action outside our kitchen window. Put together this just for fun video of some of the characters we see everyday;)!

Horse Riding is still a favorite "gym" activity in our Homeschool Class!

Furry Critters in our Backyard!

Eoghan captured the squirrel photos and Mom took the woodchuck who came early in the morning to snatch up sunflower seeds. Glad we got the woodchuck's pic before he hibernates.

Backyard Blue Jays!

Our backyard blue jays, photographed by Eoghan.

Photos by Eoghan (Grade 5)

Kids are really enjoying studying our backyard critters and habitat. We went to our local feed store and bought lots and lots of bird seeds and squirrel food. We are using a great book, "The Natural History of New York" (Freemand and Nasuti) to identify our visitors. The goal the kids have set for themselves are to eventually be able to hand feed our local backyard birds. In the meantime, photos were about as close as they could get.

One of the perks of homeschooling is that the kids get to stay home and bond with their pets during the daytime hours. We always enjoy watching these two best buddies pal around during playtime outside. Gem, our cat, and Angel, our golden, adore each other.