Week 2 and 3 down!

Post #2 - I'm already doing better than last year with my posting...so...yay! :)

We have had a great start to this school year. Last year I was so stinking stressed about doing everything "right" that I think we missed out on one of the major benefits of homeschooling...HAVING FUN! Now, don't get me wrong, we have already had a few "if you do not sit down and finish your work" threats, but overall, I'm trying really hard to make this year's work interesting and more interactive.

First on the agenda = FUN DAY MONDAY! 

Since we started back to school weeks before the public school, I thought a cool tradition would be for us to take that day off and just enjoy the fact that we get to be together and school at our own pace. We went swimming at my bestie's house and then enjoyed a nice lunch together before heading home for Ivy's afternoon nap. Great fun was had by all! 

I'm sorry - when did she grow up???!!!???

Ivy was more interested in the non-pool activities :) 

But these three water bugs had a blast! 

It's always best to be "safe" when mowing the grass! 

Love him! 

I told Eden to fly...

...and because of that, Miss Competitive had to go next :) 

We had quite a bit of work to accomplish after taking off a day, so here is a little glimpse into the next few days.

We had a little break in the super hot weather so we decided to take advantage of it and go on a nature walk. I found this idea on Pinterest (where else, right??) so we grabbed our notebooks and left the house! Ella drew pictures to go with her words.

Eden's findings!

Ella independently working on her Reading lesson - LOVE that she can do this now!! 

We had a super busy math week so we moved our study time back upstairs to our old classroom with the huge whiteboard...aka...Little D's bedroom :) 

I took Ella's spelling words for the week and scrambled them up. Daddy took her on a coffee date later that night and she worked on unscrambling them for "homework." She drew a little picture up top. She takes after her daddy in the art department! 

Sweet little Ivy wanted to work on her spelling words too!

Eden practicing her odds and evens

Ivy wore David's superhero cape for like 2 1/2 hours one morning. She wanted to do "math" on the board with Eden. :) 

Ella is working on a butterfly packet for Science

Eden is working on a frog packet

Ella's reading has improved SO much! It makes my heart so happy to sit next to her and only have to help her with the hard words. She is a rock star! 

My little ladies hard at work

Working on their memory verse

Wish this was real money ;)

Eden working on her planets packet

Math!

English time

Week 3 Spelling Words

Eden is learning how to graph in Math 

Ivy stole Eden's pattern blocks. Still wearing the cape! :)

Loving Ella's handwriting these days!! I told her that I didn't want to see anything other than this type of perfection from here on out. I'm a no-pressure kind of mom/teacher! ;) 

Year 2 of homeschool has begun!

Well, if you scroll down a couple of entries, you'll see that I had great intentions of blogging about our first official year as a homeschooling family - and you'll also notice that I wrote ONE entry! There are oh so many reasons why I didn't post more, but most likely, the main reason was simply because I was a newbie to the homeschooling world and found it to be WAY MORE challenging than I think most non-homeschooling parents will ever understand. There are certainly great benefits that come with it, but if you think for one second that it is "easier" than sending your child through the public school system, I beg to differ. But, I'm not here to argue the politics behind our decision to teach our kids at home. Lord knows we've had enough of that over the past 12 months. ;) I am here to say that year one was hard but incredibly rewarding, so for now, we are still a homeschooling family and year two has officially begun!!!

Last Monday, August 10th, was Ella's first day of 3rd Grade, Eden's first day of 1st Grade and David's first day of 4's Pre-K.

These crazy kids are ALL mine and I love them oh so very much!!! Because of that love, I want the very best for them - and that means choosing the very best curriculum for them. I actually enjoy researching curriculum so I spent the summer reading other mom blogs and making a list of my "would like to's" for this year. What I landed on is Saxon Math 2 and 3, Horizons Spelling and Vocabulary for Eden, BJU English 3 and BJU Reading 3 for Ella, The Story of the World and Heritage Studies 3 for both girls, The Life of Fred series for Eden and David and then weekly Art and Science activities that I create. 

Cuties with their new binders! 

He is SO excited to have his own binder this year!

Already annoyed with my camera :) 

Ella working on her first spelling list for the year

Eden working on her first spelling lesson for the year

One of the subjects that we didn't focus on much last year was Science. My kids LOVE Science, but I really wanted to push Math and Language Arts last year so I left the Science teaching up to the co-op that they attend on Thursdays. However, this year I have added it into our weekly curriculum and they are already loving it! We jumped right in on day 1 with the human body - so we're kind of combining Science and Health. :) I bought a squishy human body set that is super cool! We took it apart, discussed all of the organs, muscles and bones...and then put it back together again. I have to admit, it was really fun! 

We took some time to talk about our lungs...pretty cool, right mom?? :) 

Like I said, it was really cool! We are all excited about learning more about the human body this year!

Week 1 was quite a success! Ivy Noel (now 20 months old) tried to test my patience a few times, but I assume figuring out our school time in regards to her nap schedule will be my biggest challenge this year. :) We tried to amuse her by bringing her toys into the dining room, but that lasted all of ten minutes and then I found her digging through one of our computer desk drawers. Stinker!!! 

I welcome week 2!!!