Learning isn't just Monday through Friday...

Yesterday, we decided to tear down the only sunflower we were able to grow this year since it was becoming an eye sore.  We saved the "head" and I showed the kids all the seeds inside and how perfectly aligned they all were.  Then we broke it into halves so everyone got a piece and did what we could to get the seeds all out.  The kids had fun shaking their pieces!  Austin wasn't happy that there were still some left so he sat there and picked each and every one of those seeds out.  When we were done, we threw them in the flower garden for the birds!  Next year we're hoping to grow many more sunflowers since they're SO pretty!  The best part--the kids participated in a science activity yesterday without even realizing it!

School pictures!

Today Mike and I took the kids to Searles and Lockwood Park to see if we could snap any "school" pictures worth saving.  I'm not that great behind a camera, but I think I did pretty well!!  Family can feel welcome to save these and print them out at home if they would like to!

 

 

This week in homeschool...

Wesley has been learning about North American Indians over the past couple weeks.  This week he created a wigwam and also a teepee.  Tomorrow we will be working on different kinds of sign language the indians used to communicate.  We've been reading about Squanto, Pocahantas, and Captain John Smith and Wesley seems to enjoy the stories.

Austin is READING!

Austin officially started reading today!  He is so excited and proud!

Wesley aced his spelling test!

Wesley took his spelling test today and ACED it!  He was so proud of himself!  I just thought I'd share this with everyone else  :)

Our first week

Today is day 3 of our first week of homeschool.  This year is a little different for the kids because there's a lot more hands-on learning, a new curriculum, and now they each have their own desk to work at. 

If you were to ask Wesley what his favorite part of his "school day" was, he'd probably tell you "book basket".  Book basket, as we call it, is just a small collection of books that stay in a basket in our livingroom.  Everyday, the kids have book basket time for 15 minutes.  They are required to sit and read or look at books silently, independently.  These books are changed out weekly for different books.  Wes has been working on his first chapter book, Shrek: The Novel.  He made his own bookmark and feels accomplished knowing he's already at chapter 15! 

Austin's favorite part of school would be his desk.  He loves having a place to keep his things, seperate from his brother and sister!  Closely following his desk, would be his art supplies.  Anytime he gets to take out his scossors, crayons, and glue he's a happy boy!!  His handwriting is turning out to be great!

Reagan just loves to do anything school related!  Most kids hate doing sit-down work with pencil and paper in hand.  Not Reagan!  She is starting to recognize letters and numbers and enjoys tracing and coloring pictures.

Our 2010-2011 school year curriculum

For the past couple of years I've created my own curriculum using the national standards as my guideline.  With teaching 3 kids at once, I decided this year to buy a prepackaged curriculum.  While searching I became frustrated at how expensive these were!  When I took a break from looking I received a catalogue in the mail from this company called My Father's World.  I thought it was the same thing the rest of the companies were offering and almost tossed it out.  But just to humor myself, I decided to open it up and look at the prices.  To my surprise, they were within our budget.  I then started looking at each grade level I'd be using and fell in love.  This curriculum is great and is perfect for what I hope to teach my kids! 

We officially began homeschooling this week and I know we're going to love our curriculum.  For anyone that is interested in seeing what My Father's World has to offer, please visit http://www.mfwbooks.com/ .

P.S.  I hope to keep this blog a lot more current than I have been!  It's time for a new family picture!!

October!

The boys just finished out their last soccer "game". They had a ton of fun learning the basics of soccer and are already asking about doing it again in the spring!

Schooling has been going great! Wesley is right on track with everything, but is excelling in math. We are almost halfway done with what I've planned for the year...so I really think he'll be starting 1st grade math before the end of the school year.

Today, the kids and I went outside to play in the leaves. Man, did they have a blast! I'm a little bummed because the sun wasn't shining on our pile of leaves, so the majority of the photos came out dark :(

More later!!

Week 3

For the rest of this week and next, Wesley is practicing more letters and patterns, learning about the 5 senses, and learning about important buildings such as The White House, The Capitol Building, and the Lincoln Memorial. He is just loving every minute of school. I've actually had to find more things for him to do to keep him busy because he just breezes through it all so fast! Today he practiced writing the capital letter E on his dry-erase board.

Week 2

Wesley is still doing very well with school. This week he learned a new song about apples and did "apple tasting". After he tasted the apples he got a chance to jounral about which one was his favorite. He really enjoyed that! We'll be visiting the apple orchard in a few weeks for a field trip. He also worked more on his handwriting, cutting and pasting, letter recognition, sight words, and math.

Our first week!

Our first week of homeschool went great! Wesley was upset when Saturday came and I had to explain to him that we didn't have to do "school" on Saturday or Sunday. He wants it EVERYDAY, haha. I took a few pictures of the kids doing some schoolwork. We worked on safety (science), the American flag (social studies), beginning writing skills (lang. arts), beginning math, sight words, puzzles, and pc games.

I'm going to call today for more information on getting the boys signed up for soccer through the HCC. We've already talked about it with them and they both really wanted to try it out!

Be sure to check back for more updates!!

First day of homeschool!

Today was our first day of homeschool and it was a success! Wesley studied Bible, Language arts, and Math today. He will also go outside to play for P.E. This is how every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday will be. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we will be studying Science and Social Studies, as well as journaling. We read books, listen to music, and play. Before school starts, we watch a 30 minute episode of The Magic School Bus, which the boys LOVE!!

Almost there!

Two more days until the first official day of homeschool! Wesley has been counting down and even Austin is getting excited. I'll be sure to post a blog about how our first day went!

Sight Words

So as you probably have already read, Wesley has been working on a few sight words this summer. He is now up to knowing 9 and is able to open a book and pick them out. I can write sentences out on the chalkboard (using the sight words) and he is able to read them! He is such a sponge!

My first homeschool blog!

As some of you reading this may already know, this will be my first year homeschooling my kids...and we are EXCITED! I plan on using this blog to go into more detail on what the kids are doing here at home. I thought it would be better to separate our homeschool experience from the "family website" since there will be a lot of things to post and write about.

Our first official day of homeschool will be August 25th, 2008. That's not to say the kids haven't learned anything this summer though. Wesley has learned 5 sight words over the past week or so and can use each of them in sentences. Austin is working along side of his big brother but I'm not pushing it too much with him because he is one year behind Wesley in age. If he happens to pick up on it, GREAT!!

I've already purchased and received Wesley's kindergarten curriculum and I've planned out the first 2 weeks. I've decided to only plan out 2 weeks ahead at a time for awhile so I have room to change things later if needed.

If you'd like to continue reading about our homeschool experience please bookmark this blog! I plan to update this weekly, if not daily once we've gotten started!