Bits of history in our back yard! Well this is not really in our back yard, but our state is full of fun history to enjoy!

So we will enjoy all that we can especially those that only cost a little parking fee :)

Preschool and Baby too!

This year we have a collection of Lauri developmental toys for T, her baby sister is enjoying the stacking pegs too! I have my eyes on the toddler collection of things offered through My Fathers world! Though it is for ages 2+ she had fun! And with close supervision they could be something fun for baby girl to play with only during school & in her chair. Less worry as to what she may be crawling off to get into.

A little test out on the mobile blogging! Loving my iPhone and it could be a fabulous tool in keeping this up! Took the girls to a little park down the road from their dance studio since we had an hour to kill between one Childs class and the other! It was a true hidden gem. I believe we will visit regularly! This was the view from the picnic table we had our snack time at. Awesome!

Our Homeschool 2011/2012

So last year lets just say I totally fell off the face of the earth, with new baby, making us a family of 6, working A LOT, and homeschooling, there was not much time for anything else.  My goal this year is to keep this flowing some how some way.  Especially for far away friends and family.

So here goes.  We started our full time school year this Monday September 12th, being our 4th year of homeschooling....  WOW!!  A little history, 1st year aBeka K (hated it), 2nd year BJU K & 1st (started out ok.. then hated it), 3rd year Alpha Omega lifepacs 2nd & 3rd grade (fabulous..  hit a few bumps with Molly she did Time4learning reviewed K and restarted AO lifepacs 1st grade.... )  So towards the end of our 3rd year I was still not happy with the curriculum, and how homeschool flowed for us.  So I looked at some school house classics from the early 1900s and then made a post on fb about how maybe I would just go with the classics.   A fellow homeschool mom responded with look into the Charlotte Mason method....  interest peaked and I began to research and read.... and read some more....  I wanted homeschool to be fun and for the kids to want to learn.

We attended the homeschool convention and for the 1st time not to just mull over curriculum to buy and score free shipping and 20%off for ordering at the convention... we actually went to listen to some of the speakers.... me as many about homeschooling with toddlers and babies, and Stephan those on the fathers role.  We came out encouraged and ready to totally change the way we would homeschool our girls.  I had been eyeing the My  Father's world curriculum because it is designed around the Charlotte Mason method, and for children of multi grade levels to be taught together.  So we went with it!!!

SO our curriculum this year is Adventures in My Father's World for bible, history/geography, science, art, and "music" we will learn about Tchaikovsky.  Then for Language arts we are using Primary language lessons for 2nd&3rd, then spelling power for 3rd & spelling by sound and structure for 2nd,  Teaching Textbooks for math  Chloe tested @ 4th grade so we went with it, and Molly will begin 3rd grade math in a few months via teaching textbooks as well.  We went with some preschool developmental toys, and she will be working on learning letters and numbers, so far so good.

Looks like we will do lots of fun reading, hands on projects, nature walks, and all in the hopes of making learning though it is tough at times fun!  We added incentive "no complaining" chart to the mix this year, each girl has a card with 25 blocks on it, for each day with no whining or complaining about what is being done for school work & not causing drama during the school hours, they get a little sticker and once the chart is full it = a kids meal at chic fil a!  Talking MOTIVATION!!!!

Mom's view each morning!  LOVING IT! 

and I will do my best to keep these coming!  :o)