I Feel Like I Have a Newborn!!

Never having been responsible for a puppy before, I was surprised how very similar it is to having a new baby! :) He sleeps a LOT during the day......

And is awake a lot during the night!! The first week was crazy! It didn't help that Michael was out of town that whole week, we were hosting a Fiesta to celebrate the end of our 'travels' through Mexico, and I had a bone marrow biopsy (nothing serious, but good grief...I was SORE!). We did take an extra week to get through Mexico and to recover....that made a world of difference. I feel like we're ready to start Canada on the right foot tomorrow. And as an added bonus....he slept through the night last night. Woohoo!!

Mexico has been very fun. We started the two weeks by setting up a "bus" in our kitchen. Caleb was to be our bus driver for our trip to Mexico, but once we all boarded, he got shy and Abby took over for him! He keeps asking when we're driving to Canada, so maybe he'll be willing to drive tomorrow!

Our fiesta was SO fun. We had 6 families, for a total of 15 kids. We never did get to our pinatas, but my friend, Wendy's kids did, and they were kind enough to bring one to display and one to break (AND due to my "soreness" she came early to help me set up and decorate! Many thanks to her!!!) The kids had a great time!

We have thoroughly enjoyed our study of deserts. There has been some talk on the Yahoo groups about the Science being dry or light in ECC. To be honest, there are some pages that we skip, but my girls have really enjoyed notebooking after the daily readings. I feel like between that, a couple of extra things that we've done from Janice VanCleave's Science Around the World, and a couple of DVD's...they've learned a lot. We are fortunate enough to have access to BBC's Planet Earth DVD's. I have been SO pleased with how well they have coordinated with what we're learning. I would not recommend allowing especially young children to watch these without parent supervision....especially if your kids are squeamish. We have fast-forwarded through a few things, but overall....well worth it!

We are settling into a new routine...puppy and all, and we're looking forward to travelling to Canada!

The First Two Weeks of School

One of my goals this year is to slooooooow down and enjoy our days a little bit more. These days spent with our kids go by so quickly on their own, without me hurrying them along the way. The past two weeks have been good for that, as we are not full swing in to every subject and some of our "extra" activities have not started yet. It was nice to just be at home and enjoy our introduction into our year of travels.

The first 10 days of ECC do a nice job of introducing globes, different kinds of maps, and atlases. We also started discussing other religions, and that not everyone believes the same things we do. I think this year will be very eye opening for all of us, and will hopefully give us a greater heart for missions.

All three of my kids enjoyed the activities. The girls had a great time making a map of their room to scale, and also a map of our community. The favorite activity for both of them was the Hands Across the World project from Global Art that they worked on for a week. They had so much fun coloring all of the clothes and putting the outfits together. We printed clothes from Making Friends.Another highlight of the week was our Globe Cake. We didn't get Asia and Australia on there, but we squeezed almost everything else on.Caleb loved the Creation unit and was SO proud of his book at the end. He learned his first official school Bible verse (John 3:16), and got a refresher course on the Pledge of Allegiance.

I did tweak some of the activities since he already knows his letters and sounds (thank you Leap Frog DVD's!!). Instead of having him find specific letters on his chart, I had him listen to words and place a button on the letter that either started (or ended....we alternated) that word. I felt like that was great practice for him to listen to individual sounds in the words. He is oh so competitive, so everyday as we sat down to this activity he said, "I bet you can't trick me today!" I'm finding that if I can turn pretty much anything into some kind of game or contest, he's all for it!!

I was reminded this week how much I really enjoy being with and teaching my kids. It is so much fun to learn and grow together, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to homeschool. We are really looking forward to 'travelling' the world together this year. :)

Homeschooling a Boy

I know, I know....I already said that homeschooling a boy is way different than girls, but as I was sitting at the school table this morning about to pull my hair out.....one of the major differences was staring me in the face.

Caleb is working on a Creation book. Every day, we make a page that corresponds with the day of creation that we're learning about. Friday was Day 5....Birds and Fish. Easy, right? Nope! It took FOREVER! I was kind of excited because he was really getting into it, and not just flying through it so he could get down from the table. Today, as we were doing land animals of the 6th day, it occurred to me exactly why it was taking so long. When my girls did this project as kindergartners, their attention was on the "activity". They cut, colored, and glued until the page showed what they had intended. Caleb's attention is on every single, itty, bitty, detail and wants to know how and why every single detail relates to anything that he has encountered EVER before. For example:

Caleb: "Mommy, this is a raccoon like RJ in Over the Hedge. Can raccoons live in the water?
Me: No, raccoons live on the land.
Caleb: Can they live BY the water?
Me: Sure.
Caleb: Can they stick their heads IN the water?
Me: I'm not sure....probably.
Caleb: Can they put their heads all the way UNDER the water?
Me: I don't know!
Caleb: Can I put my raccoon sticker with his head in the water?
Me: YES!!!
Caleb: This is a hippo like the hippos we saw on the science DVD we watched last week. Those hippos were in the water.....
Me: Just put the hippo in the water!!!!

Needless to say, he is so particular. Every sticker had a place, and every place had a reason. He really is doing much better than I thought he would. But, I have decided that he is going to be my child that forces me to slow down and enjoy more of the schooling process instead of just getting through it as fast as we can. He is also going to be my lesson in patience! :)

First Day of School!

Today was our first day of school. I can NOT believe I have a 4th grader, a 3rd grader, AND.....a Kindergartner!! Michael asked me last night where the past 10 years have gone. My answer? We blinked. We decided then and there we were done with blinking! :) In all seriousness, our first day went really well. We went out for breakfast with Michael before he headed to work this morning. After breakfast, we went through the Starbucks drive-thru for me, dropped some books off at the library, and headed home for chores. They must have been at least a little bit excited for school, because they were done with their chores in record time! As I've said before, we are spending the year doing Exploring Countries and Cultures. We're all super excited to learn more about people groups, habitats, and cultures this year. The Olympics have been a fabulous start to that! One of the things they had to do today was apply for their passports. They filled out an application and a 'check' to pay for it, and the passports will arrive in a couple of weeks. Here are their passport pictures:

A year ago, I had read a post on a message board about a shower curtain at Target that was a map of the world. Knowing we had this year of geography coming in the not too distant future, I went and got one. It's been sitting on my shelf for a YEAR waiting for this day! After their geography pretest (boy, do we have a lot to learn this year!!), we spread the shower curtain out on the floor and took turns going from country to country. I think it will be a great hands-on addition to our studies this year.

This is the first year I'm balancing curriculum for all 3 kids and I have been a little nervous about it. Caleb, however, did great today. His kindergarten work was just the right amount of time for a boy on the go. Teaching a boy is definitely WAAAAAAAY different than teaching girls!! :) I think this will be a great year for everyone though. I'm excited to see all the things we get to learn and do together!

Oh Yeah, So THIS Is Blogging.....

So....it's been a few weeks since I've done this. People are starting to notice. My neighbor stopped me on the street two nights ago and said her girls keep asking when I'm going to update my blog! :) (Hi Jaime and Linz!) Really.....I've sat down to do it a few times. Twice I had SO much to blog about, that I was just completely overwhelmed and I got up and walked away. The last time I finally decided to do it, and my blog wouldn't load! GRRRRR! I've also been spending a bit more time on Facebook. Kudos to those of you who can maintain your Facebook AND your blog, and do them both well. I've decided I'm a one or the other kind of gal. So, here I am three weeks later, finally getting back to blogging.

I know a few of you are still waiting for the last half of the cousin's pictures. That's my next project. It will be here soon. I hope. :)

The day after my dad took the Seattle cousins home, I went to one of our local homeschool conferences with 7 other moms. We got 2 hotel rooms, spent the weekend at the conference, and had dinner all together at the Cheesecake Factory (YUM!). It was such a great weekend. Susan Wise Bauer was one of the speakers, along with her mom, Jessie Wise. I had the opportunity to hear Susan at the very first conference I had ever been to and was very impressed with her. When I found out she was coming to this one, I told all of the other moms how fabulous I thought she was. Once we all got there, and were seated in her first workshop, I had a moment of panic.....I thought, "what if she wasn't really all that great, and it was just because it was my first conference and I didn't know any better?!?" I was terrified that I drug all of these poor ladies along with me, and that she would be awful! I was not to be disappointed. She was THAT fabulous. I know, I know, we could have all kinds of debates over classical vs. Charlotte Mason vs. whatever.....but that wasn't the point. She had so many things to say that I can apply to my family, with the curriculum we already use, in our every day lives, without being totally overwhelmed. Some of the things, I was already doing, but didn't really understand WHY I was doing them, and therefore, I feel like now I will do them more effectively. Some of the things, I knew I should have been doing, but was overwhelmed with the HOW, and so I just wasn't at all. I did pick up her new book, Writing With Ease, and I am super excited about that because it will be so easy to use along with the History and Science that we're already doing. She was able to sum up ALL of our writing/spelling issues in one hour, and sent me out the door feeling much better prepared to face this year. Long story short....it was AMAZING, and I'm so glad I went. (And as an added bonus, we had a blast staying the night and going to the Cheesecake Factory. Thank you to everyone who went, I had a great time!)

After the conference was over, I spent the next week wrapping up co-op registration, ironing out small :) kinks in the schedule, and putting together the class schedule and descriptions. Thank you to Wendy and my husband for all of your help during the last 2 weeks with that. Poor Wendy, I called her with a major scheduling issue while she was in bed with a stomach bug. I'm lucky she didn't hang up on me!! If you're interested, here is how the schedule turned out. Now that is done, and class sign-ups are almost over.....now I can focus on getting ready for school to start! Did I mention that was in five days?!?

Last on my "to-do" list for this week and next is TAGGING. If you live anywhere near the metro-Atlanta area, you have probably heard of Kidsignments. It is a HUGE kids consignment sale that takes place twice a year. I sell and shop there for a good bit of my kids' clothes every year. If you are a seller, you get to go to the presale and shop before it opens to the general public. This is a big deal. I am literally gone for at least 8 or 9 hours. It's exhausting and crowded, and we stand in line for hours.....BUT I get some great deals and that makes it all worth it. However, before you can even get to the crowded, exhausting, standing in line part, you have to TAG. Every article of clothing, every toy, every book, has to have a preprinted price tag on it. I'm hoping to sell at least 150 items.....I better get going!!

So.....now you're all caught up and I'm not near as overwhelmed with the thought of blogging. I'll get pictures up soon!

A Little Bit of School Panic....

Ok, so maybe I don't need to hit the panic button quite yet, but as I (finally!) got my kids settled down and in bed last night, I had a chance to sit down with my calendar. The cousins will be here in TWO weeks. They are also staying for two weeks, and will actually be leaving the day before our local homeschool conference. That means I need to get my ducks in a row before they get here. I do have a general plan, and thanks to MFW, it will be fairly easy to turn that into a detailed plan. BUT, I wasn't really planning on doing all of that in two weeks! There are a few things that are making me a little more stressed about school this year. First, we're MOVING sometime after school starts. Also, I have switched to Singapore Math and Spelling Power. I started using Singapore with Abby in the Spring, so I'm getting more comfortable with that (and loving it by the way!). Spelling Power on the other hand....I have not even opened the book (or the DVD for that matter!), so that will probably be first on my to-do list. I have to admit that I am a little bit intimidated by it, but I have spent a lot of time reading reviews and I'm hoping this is the answer to our spelling woes! So here is my tentative plan:

Girls:
Exploring Countries and Cultures
Janice VanCleave's Science Around the World
Singapore Math (on their own levels)
Spelling Power
First Language Lessons, Level 3
Handwriting Without Tears, Cursive Handwriting and Cursive Success

Caleb will be a barely 5 when school starts, so I was planning on waiting until next year to start Kindergarten with him (I'm not moving him up at church this year), but he's BEGGING for his own school work. So, I think I am going to do MFW K with him three days a week, and continue working on his fine motor skills with Handwriting Without Tears, the other two days. I'm planning on taking 3 years to cover K and 1st, so by the time we're done, he will be where he would have been if I had held him back. Clear as mud?!? :)

I guess I'm going to go read my Spelling Power book now!

We are.....DONE!!!!!

Woohoo!!! We are done with school for the year! We have really enjoyed our "Adventure" through the 50 states and we have all learned so much....but it is really nice to be able to say that we're done! :) The last assignment that they had was to write a letter to President Bush. Some of the moms on our curriculum message boards said that every letter to the President gets a letter in return, so we'll let you know if we get one! They both listed some of the things we have learned about, and shared which state was their favorite....Kelsey-Virginia, home of Felicity, and Abby-Georgia....home of us! :) Some of our most memorable state facts have been the silly laws that are still on the books in some states. If you are ever in Kentucky....please remember that it is illegal to carry an ice cream cone in one's pocket....which unless you're my sister and you're trying to sneak a fudgesicle to a baseball game....that one really shouldn't be a problem. (Sorry Ali....I couldn't resist!) Also, if you are ever considering moving to Kentucky, you need to be aware that the law requires residents to bathe at least once a year. Can you imagine how stinky Kentucky must have been for them to take the time to make that into a law?!? Our favorite silly law state was probably Louisiana. It is against the law to rob a bank and then shoot at the bank teller with a water pistol. So, I guess as long as you're not carrying a water pistol...robbing a bank is not a problem?? Also, please be aware that in New Orleans, the law prohibits tying your pet alligator to a fire hydrant. So, feel free to walk through town with him on a leash....just stay away from the fire hydrants! :)

The girls worked on their United States notebooks all year, and they turned out great! They love looking through them to see all that we have accomplished this year.

Happy First Day of Summer Vacation!!!

It's Raining....

It's raining right now. It started around lunch time and isn't supposed to stop until late tonight. This is the time of year when my kids spend hours outside, so the thought of being inside all day was enough to motivate me to swap our free time to the morning and school time to the afternoon! So, after breakfast and chores, we headed out. They had a great time playing with and creating a home for a worm family....

Digging in the dirt......

Checking out the growth of the peaches.....

And chasing the cat into the street (bet you can't guess who was doing that!)......

After lunch, we got started with our school work for the day. For the past two weeks, we've been talking about words and Jesus being THE Word. One of their assignments for today was to spend a predetermined amount of time with activities that do not require words or communication of any kind. So....no reading, writing, talking, computer, music, or TV. Hmmmm. It took them a few minutes to think of things they could do, and then we set the timer. The teacher's guide suggested an hour, but we went for 20 minutes in an effort to set a reasonable amount of time for my non-stop talking boy to be quiet! They sat all together at the table with coloring and Moon Sand, and they did great! It was a great way for them to see how often we rely on words throughout the day. As a follow up to that activity, tonight we are going to watch the Miracle Worker. We're waiting for daddy to get home since he's NEVER seen any version of it. So, all in all, it has been a fun stay-at-home, rainy kind of day! :)