New Years 2012

We've seen our share of flu bugs, colds, and nastys this year.  We barley made it to Thankgiving, Christmas, and we didn't make it to New Years.  Here is our post New Years celebration.  I made up special bags and we opened one on every hour.  One hour was New Years resolutions, another games to play, a kids Wii dance game we borrowed from friends, a movie, and treats.  Making memories!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas 2012

My Daddy and I

My Daddy and I at Thanksgiving.

Time for Pumpkins

Shortcake's pretend pouting

I emailed this last picture to my mom just days before she passed away.  I thought she'd love the piggys!

School in the backyard

This late summer/fall my favorite spot to do our read-alouds has been on the bench under the pine in the back yard.  In between books the kids can run and play and I can watch the kids on the tree swing, the swingset, the beam, it's just a good place to be.

Taking school outside

Lamby's dunking

Shortcake has a very special lamby . . . one day she decided to give her lamby a dunking in a bucket of water that her big brothers were using.

I guess holding a dripping wet lamby didn't faze her.  It's a good thing I had time to give him a proper wash and dry before bedtime though.

Random Summer Fun

This summer the children's program at church challenged the kids to do random acts of kindness. The boys put quarters in zip-locks and taped a note that said "Please enjoy this random act of kindness".  Then we taped them to gumball machines at our local County Market and at Walmart.  The kids were so excited they could hardly stand it, they totally wanted to stake out the place to see who would get the bags.

This was a fun activity and we did it a few times for hot summer days.  I found miscellaneous stuff, put it in a plastic bin, added water, froze it, then pop it out of the bin onto the sidewalk.  After some major warnings about keeping toes at bay when using hammers and the screw driver I let them loose.  Ages 9 and under loved this!

Agent H and papa hit up an airshow.

Agent E and The General are covered in mud but look at those sparkling eyes!  Mud is good for the soul.

One of our favorite "mom needs you outside" activities.  A cup of water and a paint brush so they can "paint" anything in sight.

First day of preschool for The General

First day of preschool for The General (yes this was back in July or August but I'm a litte behind).

Ooooooooo, mixing the freshly dyed rice for the alphabet box!

About to plunge the astronaut into hiding with all the other "A" objects.  If you're interested in what we're doing for preschool you can find it at this post, near the end.

Father & daughter (Awwww!)

My new favorite photo.

Shortcake's first haircut

Our little Shortcake before her first "official" haircut at a salon.

In process . . . .

She was not going to crack a smile but once on that little horse, well she liked it up there.

Ta-da!  I stressed over this haircut.  I wanted so much to grow out her bangs but she just wouldn't keep clips or ponytails in her hair so it was always hanging in her eyes.  I love the results even though it "grows her up" a bit.  I really wanted to call my mom and tell her all about it and show it off to her, I hope she has a good peep-hole in heaven.  Love you mom. xoxo

2012-13 Curriculum

Okay . . . here goes another year of this adventure called home education (and a boring text only post - I'm so out of the blogging sadle)!  This year we'll have a 4th grader (Agent H), a first grader (Agent E), a preschooler (The General), and Shortcake who will again be along for the ride with a few tot activities.

I searched the web for reviews on the curriculum we're using this year and couldn't find any first-hand users.  I was so intrigued by it I went out on a limb and bought it anyway.  The name of the company is Living Books Curriculum.  It's a Charlotte Mason based curriculum.

4th Grade
Bible: The Story of God for Kids, recommended by Living Books Curriculum

History: The Story of the Ancient World from Living Books Curriculum.  We are starting with the grade one simply because that puts us at the beginning of World history.  I will be supplementing his study with independent reading.  Our first independent read is Adam and His Kin by Ruth Beechick.  We'll also use this book for narration.

Science: Answers in Genesis, God's Design for Heaven & Earth and weekly nature studies

Dictation (in leu of a spelling program): We'll be using Agent H's AWANA handbook

Math: This will be our first year using Horizons

Read Aloud: The Snow Treasure, some of the books from The Chronicles of Narnia

Extras: As listed below under first grade

1st Grade: Living Books Curriculum, Grade One

Bible: The Story of God for Kids, recommended by Living Books Curriculum

History: The Story of the Ancient World from Living Books Curriculum (LB Curriculum), grade one of course.  I've been pre-reading this and I LOVE it!
AND
American History, here is the list of books.
Geography:  See the books here.

Science: An assortment of living books that study life, earth, heath and physical science. See here for a list of the books.

Reading: We are using Hooked on Phonics.  The LB Curriculum does include a program but we're just going to stick with what has been working for us.

The LB Curriculum also includes poetry, art, and music appreciation, the same read alouds I listed for Agent H above plus a few others.

Penmanship: This is new grounds for us as well.  We have used Handwriting without Tears in the past but we're switching to the LB Curriculum recommended Italics program.

Math: Horizons

Storytelling (narration): Aesop's Fables

Nature Study: Weekly nature walks with the Handbook of Nature Study in hand.


Preschool
The General and I will be doing mix of LetteroftheWeek.com, Little Hands to Heaven by Heart of Dakota, and Totally Tot's ABC program.

This was our first week of school.  Yes I know everyone gasps at our early start but we really needed to start.  There is a certain amount of peace that the school schedule brings and we have been out since May so we've had quite a nice break already.

I'm going to try Charlotte Mason's recommendation to keep lessons to 15 minutes.  After just one week of school our experience has been that we are able to complete our lessons in the morning - a big change from last year.  But I admit that we have just one week done for this school year and time will tell if that lasts.

Happy studies!

Agent H Meets the Mower

At the Mpls Children's Museum

Izaty's was a wonderful gift to us so we used the money we had saved for vacation on a year long pass at the Children's Museum . . . we went the day after we got back from Izatys.  The General and Shortcake had never been there and I was super excited to see them love it . . . and they did SO much!

Family Vacation 2012

We're off to Izaty's for a short week of swimming, rock climbing, and playing. :)

Agent E

Agent H

The General smacking his s'more lips

Hunting for clams

Finding one

Enjoying our hike

Splash!  Brought to you by Agent E.

Shortcake loving the cool water & mud.

Agent H enjoying the luxury of a sand burial.

Some deck time for me. :)

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can . . . get this door open.  And he did! (The General)

Peek!

Superdad taking all four kids on a bike ride.

Taking one last dip in the hot tub.

What's a vacation without a crazy family portrait?