Pumpkin Week

This week we are doing a pumpkin lapbook that I found online for free.
We are going to be reading different pumpkin books and everyday we'll be doing different activities from the lapbook and then putting them all together. To finish the week, we'll be going to the Pumpkin patch with the kids from COOP and on Saturday Renfrew park is having a Pumpkin festival and hopefully we'll get to go to that as well!
Today we read a book about Christopher Columbus. Since today we are celebrating Columbus Day I wanted the kids to have some idea of who he was and why this is such an important day in history. They also got to color the ships and A6 drew Columbus arriving at the beach, just like the picture from the book.
We only did about an hr of school this morning since all the kids are around and wanting to play with my kids. Tomorrow we will start our pumpkin week! We'll also be doing all of the other stuff as well, math, phonics & handwriting.

Wild Horses Of Sweetbriar

This week we are rowing The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar. Based on a true story, this is a girl's touching recollection of the unusually severe winter of 1903, which she spent on a small island near Nantucket.

Geography: Nantucket, what is an island?, isolation: pros & cons.
Language arts: copy work
Science: weathering, erosion

A6 had a fever Sunday and Monday morning, we did all our schooling on the couch:) I tried not to make her think too much, but she really enjoyed the story and was able to talk about the book. By midday she was feeling much better. She even did copy work on her own! The fever never returned, but she is coughing a little.
We didn't get to go to the pumpkin patch last Saturday, but we are going with the COOP kids next Friday as a field trip.

Climbing Kansas Mountains

This week we are rowing Climbing Kansas Mountains. It is the story of a boy and his father doing something special, just the two of them, no brothers!
Geography: Kansas, land forms(plains, hills, mountains, etc)
Language arts: idioms(Kansas Mountains, when pigs fly, etc)
Science: wheat
We will be doing a lapbook for this story as well. Doing lapbooks with each story has been very beneficial to A6, it is a great way to review everything she's learned throughout the week.
We are almost done with book one of Reading made easy. Next week we'll get to start book 2!
For math u see we'll be finishing Primer by mid December and come January we'll start Alpha.
We are still working on the calendar and nutrition this week. We'll be taking a field trip to the pumpkin patch as well! Sometime next week we'll be going on a leaf hunt.
BTW, X4 is back to normal, no fever after that first night, and the hunt for a piano is looking promising!

Piano Lessons

The kids are going to start taking piano lessons! Yes, both of them.
Now all we need is a piano!
We are doing Suzuki piano, which means that I'll be doing half of the work with the kids, which means that I have to take a few lessons before them so that I can help them during the week. The lessons are once a week starting in Nov for the kids, since the piano teacher has to start with me.
We've been to two lessons, really just to watch her doing it with other kids. It's amazing to see kids that young be able to play without having numbers or letters on the keys.
The search for a piano continues, in the mean time my church is going to let me use one of their many pianos to practice!
Please pray that we'll find the right piano at the right price!
Also please pray for X4, he has a bit of a fever and is not feeling well at all.

The Story of Ferdinand

This week we are rowing The Story of Ferdinand. It's about an incredibly big and strong bull who would rather smell the flowers than to fight at the bull fights in Madrid. We got to watch some bullfight videos already, I tried to make sure they would n't see any bulls bleeding or being killed by the Matador.
Geography: Spain, color Spain flag and look for Spain in map.
Language arts: sequence of events, story cards.
We'll be adding everything we do to a lapbook
Science: Ferdinand likes to lay down under a cork tree.

Also this week we'll be talking about the months of the year, for math A6 will be introduced to the unknown number or algebra... a very simple algebra(if there is such a thing).
I also have an activity pg about the colors of fall. Yes it is officially Fall!
I have a lot of Fall activities for the next few months. We'll be doing a weather lapbook that includes the weather for the four seasons, but that's another post!

Nutrition lapbook

This week in addition to the book we are rowing, we are going to be working on our nutrition lapbook. A6 will be keeping track of the food she eats throughout the week and writing it down on her lapbook, also she'll be keeping track of any physical activity we do during the week and writing it down as well. We'll be learning about the four food groups and we'll be able to track how much we eat of each group, of course there is a fifth group...the junk food group!! We won't be doing any tracking of that food group..too scary!!
Here are some pics of the lapbook, it has a lot of sections. This is the most packed lapbook we've done so far.

Mirette on the High Wire

This past Friday we had our first COOP of the school year. Things were a little different for this one, after the kids finished their show and tells we all stayed together and learned how to do a lapbook. Lapbooking can be done by any learner-- from preschoolers to adults. With this educational method, you make mini-books covering details that you've studied. After making a variety of mini-books about a larger topic, all the books are put together in a large folder. The finished product is called a lapbook because it's large and covers your lap.
Five in a Row has been using lapbooks (they call them fold n learns) for a while now but I never knew how to do them. Well, I know now and I love them. We went ahead and did lapbooks for Madeline's rescue and the little red lighthouse.
It's great to see all the info spread out like that, makes it so much easier to remember details about the story and the different subjects we are covering from a single story. I'm changing all my lessons to include a lapbook for each of them!


This week we are rowing Mirette in the High Wire, a wonderful story about a young girl who helps a old performer conquer his fear and perform once again.
We're going back to Paris, France for this one so it'll be a nice review of what we already learned when we read Madeline's rescue. Also for geography we'll be looking at all the places Bellini performed before ending up in Paris.
We'll be doing vocabulary words as well, lapbooks are a great way to display vocabulary words!
We played a game were we tried to walk on the high wire, the kids had fun pretending to do this.

This week we are starting phonics as well, A6 had no problems getting back into it. She is reading very well and she is able to figure out the different sounds certain letters make when they are together. I had to give her a little brake in between subjects because we are covering a lot more stuff now than when we first began school. The breaks worked well, she seemed ready to tackle the next subject after each break.
Math is going very well, we are almost done with Primer and we should be starting Alpha before the semester is over.
Her handwriting is getting better as well, I'm going to start a bit of spelling with her, probably every two weeks 3-5 words at a time. I have a really simple spelling curriculum where I have lists of words for each grade.
I'm working on the calendar right now, she will be learning how to spell the days of the week and then the months of the year.
This Wednesday we'll be continuing with the nutrition chapter from Home economics for homeschoolers.

The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge

This week we are rowing The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge. It is based on the story of a real lighthouse along the Hudson River in New York.

Since the story takes place in NYC we will be learning about NYC today. Not too in depth, but enough that she'll know where is located in a US map and she'll be able to recognize some of the most famous images of NYC.
We'll talk about lighthouses and their purpose, and of course big bridges. We'll be starting our Home Economics curriculum. The 1st chapter deals with nutrition, lots of fruits and veggies!
I'm planning to have her do some notebooking pages with pics of different kinds of fruits and veggies and why they are good for our bodies.
This week we will start handwriting exercises once again, both upper and lowercase. I won't touch phonics till next week, and we'll be doing math as well.
This Friday will be our first COOP, which means I have to make sure I cover everything in four days.

X4 is doing really good with Letter of the Week. His sister has been a real help with that, she's been playing teacher with him. This week is the letter B , the number 2, red and the octagon.
Should be fun!!

Look Ma, No Trainning Wheels!

Two years ago we we got a bike for A6. She hardly ever used it. For some reason she seemed to be afraid to ride it. Two weeks ago it was X4's birthday! He got a bike for his birthday that he started riding right away. When A6 saw this she asked where her bike was because she wanted to ride with her brother. Two weeks later she asked her Daddy to remove the training wheels.
Twenty four hours later here she is riding her bike with no training wheels!! X4 is there as well riding his little bike!

Birthdays, Soccer Camp and Other Things

Last month was X4's birthday! For those of you who could n't make it, here are some pics.
















































Our Church had a Mini Soccer camp for the little ones, here are some pics of X4 and A6 playing soccer!



































Some of the boys started to take take their shirts off and of course X4 had to do it as well!!














Here's A6 and her new smile! She lost her tooth right before Church on Sunday!

Madeline's Rescue

We're back! This week we are rowing Madeline's Rescue. Madeline falls into the Seine River and a very special dog comes to the rescue.
Geography: The River Seine
Madeline was rescued from the River Seine in Paris. Locate the river on a map. What famous church is located on an island of this river? (Notre Dame)
Tomorrow we'll be doing a sequence of events activity and Vocabulary/Dictionary Skills, we'll get a chance to look up some words from the story that we had never heard before in the dictionary.
Science: Animal welfare. In the story, the officials kick the dog out of the school. Discuss why this in inhumane and unacceptable.
On Friday we may take a field trip to our local animal shelter to see what happens to pets who are no longer wanted.

We started math as well, A6 had to practice her numbers, for some reason we had lots of letter practice this summer but not enough number practice. We'll be doing math four days a week as well as handwriting and phonics 3 times a week.
Starting next week and every Wed we'll be doing either Library day, home economics, health & nutrition or music. We will NOT have story time that day nor math or handwriting.

I started doing Letter of the Week with X4.
This week is letter: A, number: 1, color: blue & shape: square. He got to color some stuff blue including a square. He seems to be enjoying that more.
This takes about 5 to 10 minutes plus story time, another 15 to 20 minutes depending on the book and how many questions they ask while I'm reading.

For A6 we are doing close to 2 1/2 hours of school.

A6 wants to continue doing girl scouts which will be three Mondays a month this year. COOP will be starting on the 12th of this month and from what I hear they are going to be doing really cool stuff! I don't want to overwhelm her with too many activities since we also have Clubs and Small groups during the week plus my Ladies Bible study on Tuesdays afternoon.

This year is going to be a busy one which means I won't be able to blog as much but I will try to always post what we are doing for the week and if we do something different or unexpected I'll blog about it as well.

I'll be back in September!

August has been a very busy month. We spent the first week in Roxbury Holiness camp, the kids loved it!!! We started our insects & spiders unit study, which is our way to get back into school mode, it's been going great as well and this week we have soccer camp. Dh and I've been busy with Clubs and next Wednesday is the Club carnival.

We have two more weeks in August, then everybody goes back to school full time. I'll get back to blogging about our little homeschool in September. Until then enjoy the last two weeks of summer!

I'm Done!

I just finished reading Breaking Dawn!
I went to Borders at 11:30pm Friday night and I was #212!
Once 12:01am came they started to sell the books, it took about a half hour and I had the book in my hands!
Once I got home I could not put it down, I finally went to sleep around 4am.
This book and Twilight are the best books of the series... it had everything.
My DH is reading it now!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday and my wonderful husband made me this incredible five course meal!






















Piña Colada


















Garlic Shrimp and Bacon Skewers with Crostinis and Three Cheese Bacon Dip
Pan seard shrimp in bacon drippings skewered with thick slices of bacon served along side garlic crostinis and a hot three cheese dip with bacon bits.


















Papaya Avocado Salad
Sliced papaya and avocado with a topping of red onions, ginger and lime.


















Lobster Bisque
Delicious lobster in a base of cream cheese & milk seasoned to perfection.


















Fillet Mignon on Lobster Rice with Avocado Butter and Balsamic Syrup
A perfect fillet seared medium rare served atop a bed of rice mixed with a creamy lobster sauce. Avocado butter and a reduced balsamic syrup served alongside.


















Glazed Mini-Bundt Almond Cakes
Delicious almond cake with a cinnamon center topped with a sugary glaze and toasted almonds.























Master Chef!
Thank You for a wonderful birthday!
You are a true Iron Chef!

How Do We Know?

How do we know when God has called us to do something? I used to think that God would only call me to do things I was good at, things that wouldn't take a lot of my time, things that I would not be inconvinienced by. That's what I used to think.

That was before I became a mother. Once I became a MOM I saw things a lot different.
In the beginning I was not very good at it, it was taking way too much of my time, actually it was taking ALL of my time, and let's face it waking up every two to three hours a night to feed a baby is not very convinient I don't care who you are!

But then, I started to rely more on the Lord than on myself. I knew there was NO WAY I was going to be able to do this mothering thing without HIM. You know what? It got better!

Being a mother is still something I feel I'm not that great at, it still takes a lot of my time and there are many times that I'm still inconvenienced by it. But I'm having a blast, what I'm getting in return it's sooo worth the "inconvenience"!!!
I know that this is one thing God called me to do.

God has called me to do other things and at first I felt the same way I did when I first became a Mom. No way God, this is going to take too much of my time... I don't think I'm going to be very good at this God...this is way to inconvenient for me right now God...

I knew there was a need, I knew help was needed, but I kept telling myself I would be no good at this. I took a leap of faith and as I look back I can see God's hand in everything I've done.
There more I rely on Him the easier things seem to get and they become much more enjoyable.

There is a boldness that develops, there's this feeling of "Yes, I can do this because God has already taken care of it"!

How do you explain this to other people? How do you let them know that Yes! You can do this because God has already taken care of it!

We have a great need at Clubs, we need help...all of the kids that show up on Wednesday nights need help. We need people to love them as Jesus loves them. We need people to teach them about Jesus' love for them. Many of them don't get that at home, many of their parents don't even have a Bible.

We have an opportunity here to do what God wants us to do. At first is going to look like you'll be no good at it, at first it's going to look like it's going to take too much of your time and yes you will be inconvenienced by it. But as you rely 100% on the Lord He will show you different.

I have heard all the excuses in the book but God can break through every single one of them!
How do we know when God has called us to do something? Look around, is there a need? Is help needed, then there's a good chance God is calling YOU to help.

Going Away! and Desperately Waiting...Again!

We are headed to Nina and Grandpas today, we'll be gone for a few days! The kids are very much looking forward to going,
I'm looking forward to Aug 2nd!!
I remember last summer, I was desperately waiting for book 7 to come out (Deathly Hollows). I honestly thought I was never going to be so desperate to read another book like that again, WRONG!!!!
One year later, Breaking Dawn is coming out on Aug 2nd!!!!
I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!
I'm sure next summer I'll be desperately waiting for Midnight Sun!

What we're doing in July

I can't believe July is already here. We've been doing school here and there during the whole month of June, A6 has come a long way with her writing. There's a few letters that she still flips but overall she's been doing great. As far as reading she's gone back to wanting me to read to her instead of reading the books herself, which is okay since she's writing without even being told to, so I guess that's what she is interested in now. I'm just going with her flow.

We are going to take a little break in July since my niece is going to be here for two weeks and then we are going away for a couple of days.
I have an insects and spiders unit study for the whole month of August. We are going to go out there and hunt for bugs!!!!

I'm not sure when I'll be able to post again, so enjoy July!!!!

Fourth Of July!

End of June Already??

We've been so busy around here with VBSs, summer camps and the pool that I keep forgetting to blog. We've been having a great time! The kids loved VBS, they've gone to three of them and now this week is summer camp 10am to 2pm. They have a giant water slide 100ft long!
There's two more VBSs in July and possibly a Soccer camp at the Church.
The kids are really looking forward to my niece coming to stay for two week in July.
Plus we are going to Hershey Park for my birthday! I Love Summer!

School's Back!

We're back!! We had a wonderful three week break from school and now school's back!

A6 is starting First grade. She is so excited to be in 1st grade. During the summer months we are going to do reading 3x a week, math, phonics and writing 2x a week.

Reading will probably take no more than half hour a day, math, phonics and writing up to an hour the most. We'll have plenty of time to do school and then go to the pool afterwards!

Of course once Fall gets here it'll look a little different, but for summer this will be more than enough.

I told A6 now that she's in 1st grade we'll be doing alot more than last year, I'm going to be expecting more of her, she's up to the challange!

Even X3 wants do school, I'm just going to continue to read to him and now A6 is reading to him!