The Nina and the Pinta!

Well, this past week we officially started homeschooling for the year!  And we survived!  Just barely but we survived.  Two days in both of the kids were sick...colds.  By the end of that day I was sick.  Like, I can't survive, just hold me while I die, sick.  

But we got through, we're only a little behind so I guess I just need to cut myself some slack and breathe!  

Anyway, for those of you paying attention we are doing Classical Conversations curriculum this year.  We don't have a group we are meeting with as our schedule with Cal at his Autism school does not permit it so we are just winging it and doing it at home, alone.  Which by the way, so far, I am loving!  We may not get a group because we are plugged in in other areas.  But we will see :)  

Anywho, the first week of Classical Conversation (this year CC is in cycle 3 where we are studying American History) was about Christopher Columbus.  We studied, we read, we memorized.  And at the end of the week we drove for a field trip to a neighboring county where replica's of the Nina and the Pinta were docked for tours.  How awesome of God was that?  To have them here just when we were studying??? Awesomeness!  

So off we went...it was a gorgeous day.  

 Hi!  I'm your teacher for the year...  :)

 Here we are!

 Hi Daddy!

 Okay so these boats are tiny!  I mean, TEENY tiny!  There were 26 men crammed on these boats when they took off in 1492.  And they had to take so much cargo that the men all had to sleep up on the deck.  Seriously, I could not imagine going through that.  No memory foam there, folks.

So we've survived our first week, we've had our first field trip, and all is well in our little neck of the woods.  Hope you had a great weekend and are enjoying school too!

Music and Munchies...there's nothing sweeter

 This morning Emma had a cough so I kept her in bed to take it easy.  I know it was just a little cough...she didn't have a fever or anything (well I guess she did have a touch of a stuffy nose) but to tell you the God's honest truth I am terrified of any of my children getting H1N1 and dying.  I know that sounds extreme but, show up with a little cough and I am putting you in bed.  Just be warned :)

 Anyway, I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon so cough or no cough, the kids had to go to their art classes.  Before we left though we stopped to have a little jam session...Emma on the electric guitar and Cal on the drums.  They got really hot and heavy into it when I went out to warm up the car. When I came back in you would have thought they were acoustically torturing something :)

 two, three, four...In case your noticing, yes I still have the price tag on our drums...don't judge  :)

 And Emma on the guitar..strumming away on the stand, silly girl.  She had to squeeze in next to all of the cookies we are selling for Girl Scouts :)

Anyway, as mentioned earlier I had a doctor's appointment.  It was my annual exam..."the lady one" as my husband says :)  I hate those appointments, don't you?  I have no earthly reason why but the week coming  up to it I am terrified for no apparent reason. I think I am always scared they are going to find breast cancer or ovarian cancer, or tell me I have a week to live.  Something awful like that.  But no lumps were found and no one said "ewww" when the sheet was lifted so I think up to this point I am in the clear :)

In honor of that I picked the little goofies up from art and then proceeded to snuggle up with a chocolate piece, a giant cup of coffee, and a teachers catalog.  A successful appointment calls for a little celebration right?  And besides they might call tomorrow with news of the death outcome so I'd guess I'd better enjoy things while I can, right?  :)

Seize the day, folks, seize the day!

Just Another Manic Monday...

Well it's 8:30 here on Monday morning and the kiddos are still sleeping.  Yes I know I should wake them up, but if they are sleeping their little bodies must need the rest, right?  I'm going with that...

As I struggle to wake them up I thought I would give a little update on what we were up to last week and still are :)  

 This is Frank.  He's our new tape dispenser.  Cute, right?

 This is our my method of sharpening all of the oodles of pencils we go through.  I think it might be time to invest in an electric pencil sharpener.

 Last week when we had the snow bonanze come through we were treated to an ice show on our windows.  So beautiful to see God's patterns and designs in our lives.

 This was one of those weeks that we didn't get through as much as we should have.  So I'm trying really hard to not freak out about it like I usually do.

 Emma's cursive.   While it's still a little too up and down for cursive, she is doing amazing with it!!!  I had oodles and oodles of people ask me how she does with this so I thought I'd give an update!  Here she is writing out her spelling words.  

 After we read our history lesson I will often have Emma narrate it back to me, I'll write it out and then she copies it.  Which is what we had done here.  I love her interpretation of the 95 theses of Martin Luther.  "You don't have to do a bunch of funny stuff to have God love you."  Amen sister!

Emma's Math!  Grrr!  This girl is phenomenal at math but HATES doing it.  It definitely is a weird combination but I'm happy she is good at it.

Hope you all have a Happy Monday!!!! :)

Penguin Themed Homeschooling

Last year I found that I was leaving out lots of fun stuff you probably get to do in real school.  I was also kind of dreading the monotony of school day in and day out, so if I was dreading it I can only imagine what Emma must have been feeling :/   

So this year I've instilled theme weeks.  It's like college all over again or something.  

Anyway  our first week we had Penguins as our theme!  And why penguins you ask?  

 Because we read Mr. Popper's Penguins!  I remember reading this in grade school and loving it so I was super excited to read it with the kiddos.  One of my dear friends, Kristina suggested getting copies for everyone so we can take turns reading or just to follow along.  It was a big help! We also used some components from a Unit Study I found online for the book.  It was awesome!  It had chapter work planned out that you could do for your entire schooling and covered math, vocabulary, history, etc.  It was so much fun and so packed with helpful info!

 I've tried to incorporate some worksheets into their school every week too.  While I can't make all of their work theme-ish, it is fun when I can make some of it.  I got this worksheet from Super Teacher Worksheets.

 Emma's not doing a penguin worksheet but I had to include this because it's just too cute.  This is her "I'm thinking really hard" look :)

 We also made penguins... Calvin using two colors and them not being blue is a huge, huge step forward folks :)

Here was Emma's finished product.  Seriously, how adorable are these two together?  I got this craft from Lakeshore Learning's site.  They have cute projects!

In addition to the things listed we made pbj's on fish shaped bread, snacked on goldfish crackers, read penguin books, made a penguin lapbook, and as our final event we watched March of the Penguins which the kids LOVED!!!  I think that movie helped them understand penguins than anything else we studied.

So excited to share with you our themes throughout the year!  If you have any ideas for themes, please let me know!  :)

Family Fall Festival

 Happy Fall, Y'all!  Yesterday being the first day of Autumn around here, we decided to pack up and have our traditional trek around to welcome the season!  Every year we visit a local mill for a tour, have a picnic, then go to a nearby Orchard to pick apples.

 These are the kinds of faces I get from Cal these days :)  Silly goose.  This was before they sang their fall songs for Daddy and I.  We've been working on songs about leaves and Autumn all week.  Seeing as we homeschool this was a family day/fall party/fieldtrip all rolled into one cute little package of a day!

 By picnic I mean we got take out from Panera.  I know, how planned of me.  But seriously we love their soups, it was a crisp, good day day for soup, Sunday.  And Daddy treated them to these cookies from there...yum!

 I had to document this as this is the most stubborn little boy I've ever met.  Seriously...ever!  Anyway, the boy won't even try to tie his shoes because he doesn't know how, or so he claims...Here he is tying his shoes.  He got most of it on his own and then Emma helped him finish.  But seeing him actually try to tie his shoes is a very rare photo indeed.

 Here are Emma and Daddy exploring the Dahlia garden...gorgeous, right?  By the way, this girl is looking too tall next to her 6 foot 4 inch Daddy...I'm just saying :(

 Hi Baby!  I love you!  This is the picture we always take, with the Mill behind us.  I'm pretty sure Nick thinks I'm insane that I always make him take the same pic of us every year :)

 These two...sigh.

 And these two together.  I called them my Puffy Vest Fellas.  These two go at it like cats and dogs with each other.  But here's how they really feel :)

 Then it was inside for a tour of the mill.  It wasn't on when we got there, the kids were bummed so this kind man who worked there turned it on and actually took us through the steps of how the grain is made.  That's right folks, it's a gristmill that still works!  We buy our year's supply of cornmeal there everytime we go and this time I picked up some bread flour too.  Excited to try to make wheat bread with the kiddos.

 The kids really enjoyed watching the stones grind the cornmeal we were able to take home!  Nothing like learning where your food comes from!

 Then it was onto picking apples!  Seriously, how cute are these kids?

 It's all about the outtakes, right?  How silly!!!

 Emma picked the biggest apple of the day and then proceeded to bite it before we could slip her a smaller one.  Not kidding, the four of us split that apple and it took us about 45 minutes between the 4 of us to eat it.  GINORMOUS!!!

 I think we ended up with two more bushels on top of this and then we were ready to go.  Momma's got lots of apples to make goodies with!

This was his proud moment when Daddy finally let him have his turn with the fruit picker.  He carried the apple in the basket all the way to the scales to pay.

So that was our day, hope you all are enjoying your fall!  Our house is all decorated for the season and we are loving the crisp weather!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

First Day of School Photos

Our first day of school was Monday.  It was...interesting.  While Cal's been around the whole homeschool thing for sometime now, he was in a formal preschool setting so I never pushed him to participate too much as I didn't want to make him go through countless hours of schooling.  This summer he did school with Emma but I had him on a Kindergarten program.  The kid can read and knows numbers and can add and subtract.  Colors, sizes, community helpers, the definition of a noun, the Gettysburg Address, he's got it down.  So I decided he was ready for first grade.  Or some version of that.  We shall see...

Our Kazoo is in third grade!  Age wise she should be in second but she's always been so advanced.  Love her and her passion for learning.  

 How cute is this???

 Emma lost her top tooth last night and when I told her to smile, this is what I got...um, that's not smiling... She is too funny! And speaking of funny....I simply had to show you the progression of Cal's pictures I got...

 Last but not least, finally a smile was in there!  I think we are going to have a super fun school year and I can't wait to see what is ahead for us :)