An Artsy Kind of Week

This week started out with our yearly Achievement Tests.  Though these are not required in our state, I like to give them as we are finishing up our year just to make sure we are staying on track.  We use the California Achievement Test (CAT) which we buy through Seton Homeschool.  Monday was all about testing...a.very.long.day!

I decided the rest of the week should be a little more relaxed than usual.  We would throw in some fun stuff and leave off some of the not so fun stuff.  Artsy Girl will still be learning about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War and Soccer Boy will still be learning all about the letter "X".

So, today I let Artsy Girl do a little art review of all the artists we have learned about this week.  Her favorites are O'Keeffe, Degas, Monet, Van Gogh and Pollock.  She decided to sit outside on this beautiful 75 degree day and do a little painting.  So, I got out some new paints, paintbrushes and a canvas.  She was super excited to have "big girl" art supplies and not the ones she has to share with her younger brother.  She painted a very lovely fruit bowl which will now be hanging somewhere in our home.  We have lots of her art pieces framed and hanging around the house.  No, they are no Van Gogh's.  But, they are priceless to us.  She loves seeing her art around the house and it gives her self confidence a boost.

We also celebrated a big accomplishment today too.  Soccer Boy has learned to count to 100!  We celebrated today by having pizza, cookies and popcorn.  Artsy Girl made the pizza dough all by herself using her Pearables Home Economics book.  She then made a "100" out of pepperoni...super cute.  Soccer Boy loved the special snacks and is eagerly ready to start counting higher.

A Little Home Economics please...

So, I have been reluctant (aka...lazy) when it comes to teaching my daughter her way around the kitchen.  I have been researching different Home Ec type courses to use with her and my son too when he is a little older.  I came across The Pearables and have found it to be quite user-friendly.  It has about 30 lessons.  We will be doing one a week to help introduce her to cooking, baking, sewing, etc.  I skipped the first few lessons, as we had already covered the basics.

We jumped right into the lesson on baking  (# 6) and I let her make her very own batch of chocolate chip muffins.  Of course, the recipe calls for plain muffins.  But my sweet girl wanted to add a few chocolate chips...chocolate DOES make everything better!  I walked her through it, but let her do all the measuring and mixing.  I did place them in and out of the oven for her.  She did the cleanup too.  She was sooo excited that she had made her very own muffins all by herself.  I like the fact that each lesson is layed out for us.  I do a lot of cooking and baking myself, but having a specific lesson plan is great.

More posts to come on the wonderful food creations she makes!

Our Easter Gardens

I decided to take some time this Easter holiday and reflect upon the true meaning of our Savior's Resurrection.  I have seen several variations of an Easter Garden, so I decided to make our own too.  I let both kids make their own.

We gathered two large saucers, 2 paper cups, 2 large stones from the backyard, potting soil, grass seed, small bag of pebbles, 6 small sticks for the crosses,  and a spray bottle of water.

I would definitely recommend doing this little project outside, but since it was cold and raining, we opted for inside.  As the kids put their gardens together, we talked about why we were planting this garden.  I told them the story of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection and how important it is to not only at this special time, but each and every day thank God for sending Jesus to us.  This helped them to really understand the empty tomb (large rock and empty cup) and the meaning of the three crosses (glued sticks).  We planted our gardens one week before Easter and luckily we had the first sprouts on Easter morning...perfect!

We used the spray bottle of water and sprayed them each day and here's the results after only one week.

These look beautiful on our table and the kids just love looking for new sprouts each morning...it has become a little bit of a competition.  All in all, a very easy but messy project.  I would definitely recommend this to anyone to help kids remember the importance of this wonderful time of year.

Another great week of homeschooling has come and gone!

Soccer Boy spent his time this week learning about rocks, raccoons and ropes.  Letter "Rr" has made an appearance this week.  He is moving right along with his sight words and now we are starting some very simple addition.  We have been counting and counting like crazy!  We also painted our "Rock" quilt piece and our "Zebra" piece that we forgot to paint last week.  Only 6 left until I begin work on his "Kindergarten Quilt".  The very last thing we do each day of school is curl up on the couch and read a book.  I let him pick out most of the books and each day he always wants to read a Berenstain Bears book.  I grew up reading these cherished books and now they are a favorite with him around here too.  We have purchased many of them and they continue to delight him even though we have read each of them several times.  It is so nice to find books that children find enjoyable, but at the same time are Christian focused.

Artsy girl spent her week learning about Samuel Morse and the Telegraph.  She even wrote her name is Morse Code.

 She also learned about the states of Florida and Texas.  I really enjoy the Road Trip USA printables to go along with our study of American History.  She loves coloring and decorating the pages.

We also have made a board with all the state animals and state birds which we classify using the Animals of the USA printables.  This is a great way to learn how to classify the animals and review along the way.  We try to remember which animals go with which state...very challenging!

Next week she will be learning all about the California Gold Rush and Soccer Boy will be on to letter "Jj".

Spring is in the air!

I am so excited to see the daffodils peeking up from under the leaves!  As a very busy homeschooling family, we are not at all thrilled about spending day after day inside hiding from the cold.  But Spring is in the air and we are so very anxious.  We have been slowly taking the bikes, sidewalk chalk, scooters and kites from their hiding places in the garage and savoring every bit of warm, sunny weather.

This is also the time of year when I order our new curriculum for the next school year. We are staying with My Father's World.  We are especially enjoying this curriculum...so if it ain't broke, don't fix it!  We will be using the new My Father's World First Grade with Soccer Boy and Exploring Countries and Cultures with Artsy Girl.  We are continuing with Teaching Textbooks 4 for Math, Language Lessons for Language Arts and BJU Press Homeschool Spelling 4.  We also add in World' Greatest Artists 2 throughout the year for our art studies.  I am contemplating adding a foreign language.  I am currently scouring message boards looking at reviews of various foreign language products.  As far as I can tell, no supplementing is necessary with the First Grade curriculum...easy peasy!

Since we homeschool year round, we officially end our year at the end of May.  We take June off and start back in July.  By July it is soooo very hot here, so air conditioning is a must!  We usually spend the mornings in our pool, have lunch, and then do school in the hot afternoons. Then, it's back outside after dinner for more fun.  Year round homeschooling allows us the opportunity to enjoy each and every beautiful season that God gives us.  We take a week off every 5-6 weeks (this really helps keep moral up and helps with my sanity:) and then we take December and June off.  We may tweak it here or there, so we are very flexible should things come up.

Take a few moments today to thank God for his abundance of blessings, for tomorrow just like the brief appearance of the daffodils...they may be gone!

Week #23

We had a very nice, little week of school. Everything seemed to flow this week, which makes this Mommy very happy.

Soccer Boy finished up "P" by painting a cute, little penguin. He humors me when it comes to art projects, but he doesn't find it very fun. This is just so different from my little Artsy Girl as she begs to do art each week. This is just one more great reason why we love homeschooling. I can tailor to each child's strengths and interests. We spent Thursday introducing the new letter "K" and will continue on with kangaroos next week.

Artsy Girl learned about Robert Fulton and his great contribution of the Steam Boat and submarine. We also learned about Mississippi and Indiana and the importance of traveling by the Mississippi River.
She also completed her 3rd grade Teaching Textbooks curriculum and moved right into 4th grade math. We also finished observing her Petri dishes that we started last week. She came to a major conclusion: hands.are.dirty! We grew lots and lots of colonies in the dishes with the hand swabs. Yuck! She came to realize jut how important soap is and why Mommy continually says, "Go wash your hands" at least 50 times a day. Nothing like a little bacteria colonization to show that I do "sometimes" know what I'm talking about.

Happenings of the past three weeks...

I have not posted in the last three weeks...shame on me! No excuses, just life.

Soccer Boy is moving along with his letters and sounds. He is now working on the letter "P". We have been studying all about penguins. We even practiced being Emperor Penguins by balancing an egg on our feet to show how hard they work to protect their babies and to keep them warm.

Artsy Girl has learned about Daniel Boone, Kentucky, our state of Tennessee, Ohio, the Louisiana Purchase, Louisiana, Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin.
We have spent the last couple of weeks using the Magic School Bus World of Germs as our Science study. We made a replica of a animal cell out of jello, grapes and beans. We have also put several specimens in our Petri dishes to test the growth of several different kinds of microbes. We will monitor the results this week.

Week #19

Well, we are officially back in the swing of things!  We took 3 weeks off for Christmas, New Years and squeezed in Soccer Boy's 6th birthday too...whew!!  I  must honestly say that I did miss the "schedule" and I use that word loosely of our homeschooling.  We don't so much as have a set schedule as we have a routine each day.  I seem to function better with a little routine each day.  So here's what all we accomplished this week in a nutshell.

Soccer Boy began his study of the letter "H" this week learning all about horses.  Can I just say one  more time how much we are enjoying My Father's World Kindy Curriculum.  It moves at a really nice pace for us.  We began this week with an ABC review and jumped right in to all things "H".  We read several books this week and this seems to be one of his favorite things about our day...who knew?  After our lesson each day, I let him pick out any book from our "library" and I read to him.  He said, "Mommy, I love sitting by you every day!"  How sweet is that!!  It's these little reminders that show me exactly why we chose to homeschool in the first place.

Very serious about gluing!

Making a horse out of different shapes.

Artsy Girl jumped right back into our study of American History.  We finished up the 13 colonies this week, including Rhode Island and North Carolina.  Then we moved to Vermont.  She took special interest in learning about the Wright Brothers and we will study them more in depth when we learn about American inventions later this year.  She started working with fractions, contractions and aced her Spelling test.

A look ahead into our year...
We are hooked on My Father's World and will be ordering again for the next school year.  Since we do year-round (does schooling ever stop?), our new year will begin in July.  Artsy Girl will be in 4th and studying Exploring Countries and Cultures.  Soccer Boy will be doing MFW First Grade.  We like the year-round approach, since it allows our breaks to be spread out throughout the year.  We really get to enjoy all four beautiful seasons by having some time off during each of them.  I am a firm believer that "school" can happen anywhere and everywhere, not just sitting at our school table.  We like to get out and have fun while learning at the same time.  We visit  museums, our zoo, festivals and anything else where we can get some hands on learning.

On Friday, God blessed us with a little piece of Spring right here in the middle of Winter.  We had a beautiful, sunny 70 degree day.  We spent most all day outside riding bikes and going for a much needed walk around our neighborhood.  Since we homeschool on a four day week, our Friday was wide open.  I snapped a couple pics of my little man, but my little lady was speeding so fast that I couldn't get any pics!  It's these special days that I believe God blesses us with to remind us that He is always there.  A blessed week for sure!

Mr. Jingles is Here!

Mr. Jingles has officially landed at our home this holiday season.  And boy is he ever busy exploring the "ins and outs" of our busy home.  He made his appearance bringing some "Elf Kisses" and then had the audacity to decorate the mantle with the kid's underwear.  He even decorated Artsy Girl's bathroom mirror with a little "Happy Birthday" on the mirror.  This morning he was caught red-handed sipping syrup in the fridge.  Stay tuned for his upcoming adventures as I will post ideas for you to use in your home!

Week #18

My oh My...what a blessed week!  My Artsy Girl turned 9:)  Needless to say, we have been very happily busy.  We still managed to complete all of our school work and take Wednesday off for some serious birthday fun.

Along with her normal math, english/grammar and spelling lessons, we completed the Birthday Bonanza Unit Study by Amanda Bennett.  We really love adding in these unit studies throughout our year.  They are a nice welcome break from the norm.  They are a one stop shop with easily accessible internet links that I can use right from my iPad...easy peasy.  She was fascinated to learn that just 50 years before her birthday the very first color tv went for sale!  What a long way we have come in such a short time.



Soccer Boy finished the letter "Gg" lessons and we jumped right into the letter "Cc" lessons from My Father's World Kindergarten.  I decided to let him practice his letters in a more fun way by putting some flour (I was out of sugar) in a pan and letting him practice his letters.  He really like this, but don't all little boys like anything that lets their little hands get messy!  This is really an enjoyable program that seems to move right along at his pace.  We will continue our farm animals lessons as we learn about cows next week.

Week #17

Soccer Boy spent all week learning about the letter "Gg" and many different kinds of farm animals including goats. We are continuing his phonics study of his sight words. While big sister was at her horse riding lesson, we went on a nature walk enjoying a beautiful day! We admired the horses, found squirrels and acorns and looked very hard for any of the insects we had learned about last week. I think the cool air has sent them into hibernation. We also received our ant farm and got it all set up. He is looking forward to watching them build "roadways".

Week #16

It's Thanksgiving...yippee!

I absolutely LOVE this time of year.  So, why not spend the week learning all about the history of this great holiday.
Artsy Girl and I read The Thanksgiving Story this week.  This is an award winning book that I found to be very fun to read.  It is short enough that we finished it in three days.  It was part of our Adventures in My Father's World Curriculum.  For science we learned about pumpkins...did you know they float?  We had mixed answers when I asked that question.  I said, "yes" and Artsy Girl and Dad said, "no".  Well, what do you know...they float!  We also measured our pumpkin, weighed it and used a little math to figure out how much Artsy girl weighs with and without holding the pumpkin.  A little reasoning goes a long way.  Soccer Boy and Artsy Girl both made Native American vests out of paper sacks and performed a super cute little play for the family on Thursday.

All in all a great, short week!  We have so many wonderful blessings to be thankful for...our beautiful healthy children and the freedom to live in such a wonderful country that allows us to choose the path that we feel is right for their education.  May God bless you & your family this holiday season!

Week #15

Soccer Boy and I began our study of insects!  I must admit this was an area that I have been dreading, to say the least.  I have absolutely no interest in insects and I find them a little creepy.  However, I may have jumped the gun a little in making my assumptions.  We have had a great week studying the Letter "Ii".  We began the week learning about ladybugs and he made his own pet rock ladybug.  She's super cute and we will use her as a paperweight on our school table, too.  I found this really cute little Insects & Arachnids case that we have been using for some up close and personal viewing of our insects.  We are off for Thanksgiving next week and will resume the following week with our study of bees and make our own ant farm as well!

Artsy Girl spent the week learning about Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey & Georgia.  These were the first four states to adopt the Constitution and become "states".  We reviewed state capitals, state birds and famous people/foods from each state.  We decided that we like Hershey's and New York style pizza the best!  We continued with our science study of birds & nests that follow right along with the states.

We have a light week planned for next week as we will be doing some Thanksgiving activities!

Week #14

Along with our home studies, Artsy girl and I spent the night in Huntsville at Space Camp with our American Heritage Girls troop. We had lots of fun (and very little sleep) learning all about the space program.
Soccer Boy finished up our study of the letter "Ww" and water. He learned about liquids and solids and continued adding sight words. I mailed off our form to receive our ants as we begin our study of insects next week.
Artsy girl was a very busy little bee this week. Along with Space Camp, she completed her study of The Declaration of Independence. We will move right into learning about the states as they were added. We also began a study of birds and nests and we will continue to learn about the state birds as we study each state. We also did an artist study of Henri Matisse and his beautiful paintings. She has decided that he is one of her favorite artists so far. He used beautiful colors and even some collages as well. She finished her Art School classes at the Memphis College of Art. This is her fourth series of classes and she continues to love her art.

Weeks 12 &13

I am combining these last two weeks together, since Artsy Girl has been sick with bronchitis.  She has had a rough time, so we have been doing lots of reading.  Sometimes I think that just by reading to your children, they learn an abundance about our world and history.  I have really taken to the principles of Charlotte Mason and her beliefs that literature and nature are the foundations of education.  So we have read and read and read some more this week.  We finished reading a couple of books about the Revolutionary War.  She finished her Magic Treehouse Book detailing Jack and Annie's adventures with George Washington during the war.

Soccer Boy finished up his study of the letter "O".  My Father's World had us exploring the oceans and even an octopus.  We cut pictures out of all my stacks of magazines (I knew they would come in handy) of anything that had to do the ocean.  On Tuesday, we made an ocean poster with all our finds.  To help him with the sight words we have been reading, I decided to make him a little "ring" of words.  Really any excuse to use my laminator...makes me smile!  I will continue to add new words each week or two.  I plan on him using these in the car or when Artsy Girl is in karate and we have some downtime.

We are off next week and off the the Smoky Mountains to enjoy some of God's beautiful color He paints over the mountains!  Happy Fall!!

Week #11

Last week flew by in a flash...whew!
Soccer Boy jumped back in time to learn about the time of the dinosaurs.  We read tons of books...who knew we had so many about dinos!  He is continuing to learn new sight words each week, building upon the last week.  I am so very proud of the progress he is making.  This is his "attempt" at making a dinosaur out of clay.

Artsy Girl spent the week learning about George Washington's early life as we will move into learning about the Revolutionary War next week.  Both the kids took their hand at making "Tricorn Hats".  These were the typical hats seen during colonial times but usually made out of beaver fur.  We took the week off from science as we had far too many extracurriculars this week to attend to.
She is greatly enjoying Teaching Textbooks 3 so far.  We struggled with math last year...she was becoming quickly bored.  So, what's a mom to do other than begin researching alternatives.  That is another great reason we love homeschooling.  When something does not work, we fix it!  This program has been a blessing to us.  It gives her the freedom to move at her own pace while still allowing me to check in once a week to view her grades...did I say how much we love this program?

Who says tricorn hats can't have glitter and sequins?