A Look At Our First Day of "School"

We always start our day with morning chores and devo. Today we prayed, read about Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac, went over memory verses and sang lovely songs.

Then it was math time. Elizabeth had calendar activities, Emily had the same plus time to the hour and Jacob had number patterning. Jordan reviewed numbers and Kimberly counted things for me.

This picture is out of order. It is Elizabeth doing language arts, and Jordan and Kimberly sitting in.

Here is Jordan working on numbers with Emily tutoring him.

At 9:50am we did some exercises together and then headed outside for PE. Today was walking and bike riding, but we also ended up playing next door with the neighbors' grandkids.

At 10:30 we cam inside to have Jacob and Emily read. jacob is reading Farmer Boy and Emily is reading Little House in the Big Woods. While they do this, I do language arts with Elizabeth (picture above).

After they read, Emily and Jacob do language arts and spelling or grammar, while the younger ones play, use computers or watch educational tv. Then they all do some writing. Jacob wrote a letter to the bowling alley, Emily practiced cursive and Elizabeth did some tracing. Then we were finished a little before noon so we ate lunch!

After lunch, the kids had free time to play. they diod alot of pretending and the girls played games together awhile. At 12:45 it was time for chores. Jordan took out some trash, Lizzie did dishes and folded towels, Emily and Jacob folded clothes and swept and wiped the table in the kitchen.

Here is Elizabeth doing a great job folding. After chores we read aloud from The Secret Garden, and I read a story to the little kids. Kimberly took a nap.

At 1:40 we started History. today we studied Vikings. The kids made campfire models (their choice) and drew pictures of Vikings. They also colored a map of Erik the Red's and Leif Ericsson's voyages to the new world.

Here is Jacob's cooking area model. this was not planned, by the way. I planned for them to narrate what we read. They wanted the project, so i said ok-it is a better learning experience that way!

Here is Emily's village area. Very cool work kiddos! After this we took a break and at 4pm we looked up the composer Gabrielli and artist georgia O'Keefe on the internet jsut for a bit of culture. Then we vegged on dvd's and snack food. Now it is almost supper time and it was a great first day! i will post other days in our life through the year. Not all homeschools are alike. in fact, most are vastly different. We don't all sit at the table and we have lots of breaks thru the day. As long as the work gets done we are happy.

Promotion Day!

This is how I know the kids are growing up. Every August they promote to a new bible class. This year I got pictures of them. Jordan was having an issue with getting his teeth brushed so he is pictured with only Jacob (everyone else was already in the van). Aren't they sweet!

First Field Trip of the Year

Emily practicing with crutches...hope this is not a future indicator!

Lizzie and Ethan at Mission Control!

Jacob in flight suit! Blast off!

Kimberly expressing her creativity.............

Astronaut Jordan after his successful space walk.

Wednesday I took the kids to the North East Texas Children's Museum in Commerce. Stacy Rudd brought her kids, too, and we all had a blast. Here are some shots of the kids at play!

I Miss That Song!!!!

Well, for those of you who actually read this, you probably noticed that my top song, Dream Big, is missing. I guess since it was an American Idol track, and not an official recording, it was dropped from playlist. Ugh! It was so awesome! I really miss hearing it, but I am going to post the lyrics because they were great (at least I thought so)!

Ever since I was just a boy
I thought that I would change the world when I grew up
Nothing else would be enough...
I see it every day,
We settle for safe
And lose ourselves along the way...

But if you don't dream big, what's the use of dreaming.
If you don't have faith, there's nothing worth believing.
It takes wild hope to make the stars worth reaching for
So reach up for something more!

Anyway, if you haven't heard the songs on the playlist, they are really good, especially the second one. But hey, they are some of my faves.
Will post soon with shots from a children's museum. We start school on Monday so I plan a post about a day in our life soon. Hope you keep reading!

Summer is almost over

It is time to get ready for our time of learning. Our schedule, while flexible, has to cover certain subjects and we want to make sure we are giving the kids a quality education with plenty of interesting projects. Here is what our days will look like in another week:

8:45 devo time
9:00 math for everyone
10:00 PE for everyone
10:30-big kids read, younger do language skills
11:00 big kids do language skills, younger work on computer
11:30 writing time for kids
12:00 lunch and chores
1:15 storytime for all kids
1:40 nap for Kimberly, History or science or art for other kids
3:00 rotating skills of music, art, bible, handcrafts, computer
4:00 one on one with kids

Fridays will be Friday School from 9-12, Mondays will be library time from 5-6

So there you have it! A week in our life....
Believe it or not, we look forward to the fun (yes, fun).

Changes

Boy's storage

Girl's storage

We are officially at a turning point. We have put Kimberly's crib in the attic and moved her into bed with Emily. This is the first time in 10 years we haven't had a crib set up! I am posting a couple of pictures of the new storage systems we put in the kids' rooms in honor of this change. I am all about organization and orderliness so I love these new shelves! They came from Target, by the way. Last night was Kimberly's first night in the BIG GIRL bed. She went right to sleep! I was so proud! I am sure this will not happen every night, but it was a lovely start! She stayed in bed until 2:30am, when she wandered into the kitchen looking for milk. Then she slept with us the rest of the night. Very nice, indeed!

Kimberly turns 2!

She was totally unexpected, but we knew all would be fine and she would be completely loved. And she is a precious darling with a fiery spirit and adorable smile. Today Kimberly Anne turns 2 and it is unbelievable to me! Before I blink she will be school age....Anyway, I get really sentimental about my kids. Wanted to share some pictures from her birthday. Notice the grandpa picture. Looks like carbon copies. Kimberly squealed with delight when we all sang to her and she loved her presents. Enjoy!

Fun in the sun!

This past Monday, my friend Stacy and I took our kids to a sprinkler park in Royse City. They had such fun, but man, was it hot!! There is a larger one with more shade in Rockwall so we are going there in a couple of weeks. Still, lots of water on a hot day is worth the drive!