Starting School 2011

We started our school year a little early this year, not because we were so excited to start (as we have been in past years) but because we are going on vacation in September, so it can't hurt to be a little ahead.

Yesterday, we started the day with a movie (of course :) ) at a local theatre that was showing already released movies for a dollar. When we got home we still had some time to get in some workbook pages. Ava has been very excited about starting kindergarten and has already done quite a few pages in her math and language books. Sydney and Ava are both doing A Beka for their math and language and Ryan for language, but I got Teaching Textbooks for math for him this year. We tried it out at the end of last year and it made such a difference in his attitude, it's worth every penny. :)

We got quite a bit more done today, starting with a new Bible study for Ryan and Sydney, and math and language ( which are the only 2 subjects that I buy new books every year for each kid and they finish them each year). We dove right back into our Story of the World history (which we love) and the kids played Monopoly Jr.

So far I have to say, having 3 kids now who are school age, I definitely feel like homeschooling is a full time job :)

Art day

Luckily I got to this one before she started exploring around the house :)

We took out our liquid water color paints and did some sharpie drawings and painted them in...

Ava's butterfly



I was so impressed with Sydney's "Starry Night"

summer school

Since the summer is almost over, I guess I should admit that we didn't do as much "school" as I had hoped, but I'm sure my kids kept learning anyway :)

We took an afternoon and went to Deception pass...

We came home with pockets full of rock (I admit, I brought the most)

I had some fun making letter stones, and story stones.

Gretchy!!

I made a lower case and upper case set of letters, so the girls could put them in alphabetical order and make pairs of letters that go together.

I also made these "word builders" from paint sample papers, and just so anyone might be impressed with me, I got all my ideas from someone else :)

I had Ava move the one card that had an ending sound on it over the other card that had consonants on it and write the ones down that made a word, she loved it.

Ava's and my sharpies on foil drawing.

This idea came from here , we used Lego's to stamp pictures.

Sydney's

and Ryan's ( I only got a picture of the beginning)

Looking forward to more "summer schooling" :)

Unit study for preschooler/kindergartener

I love unit studies when I'm teaching my kids and a great place to get ideas is Home School Share .

I love looking at this site to find books to read and then ways to use them to teach :)

I recently got the opportunity to try out a new study that isn't on the site yet and we had a great time (oh ya, and they're free, it doesn't get any better than that!)

Here is the birthday girl with the books we picked up from the library. Our study was about reptiles, and we were given a list of books to read (although you could get books on the subject yourself) but most of the books on the list I was able to find :)

There are pages to print that go along with the study, these are for preschool/ kindergarten age. I laminated this one and Ava used the Crayola whiteboard crayons to write on it and then erase. I love those crayons!



finding the first letter of the reptile

patterns

big sister reading a story

how many spots

These 2 books are from Costco and I love them! Each one had a section about reptiles that really added even more to our study.

if you are interested in this kind of thing, check out the Home School Share site, I think these new studies will be there some time in August :)

Starting School?

What do you do when you have a very excited kindergartner whose workbooks have just arrived in the mail and it is only June???
you start kindergarten, of course :)



Ava loves to learn (so far) so I am running with it

look at the concentration :)

Sydney's story

Sydney needed to write a story in her language book

about when Jesus was a little boy

and she was having a hard time so

I told her she could write a story about me when I was a girl.

I gave her the words cows, hay forts, swimming and obey, this is what she came up with...

When my mom was little

When my mom was little, she grew up on a farm. If cows got out they would chase them back-in.

It's fun chasing cows. My mom had a HUGE pool. I wish I could've gone swimming in it.

My mom found openings in trees, and made tunnels in hay bales, which they call: hayforts.

They had to obey or they would get a harsh punishment. (true-story)

Playmobil Medevil Times

This post was actually started last year, but my camera ran out of batteries mid story so we never finished it. I'm posting what we did , maybe we will finish it someday.(knowing how I do project, don't count on it) :)

enjoy.

Long, long ago, in the land of England

there was a king...

"I have servants to do everything for me...I'm bored!"



" I know, I'll have a tournament!"




"Herald, I want you to find me some brave knights, and tell the royal cook to plan a big feast"


"Yes, Sire"




"Royal cook, you must prepare a big feast for the King."



"This isn't going to be enough for a big feast"

"here, kitty, kitty, kitty"

to be continued.....(maybe)

First day of school 2010

We are planning to start the year studying about chocolate (more on that later) so what better way to start the day than to have pancakes with chocolate chips :)

Ryan made this smiley face himself

Ava helped me keep Gretchen occupied by "reading" to her


we found these here and painted them with liquid watercolor, Ryan didn't want to so I painted his.

this was Ryan's artwork

more sorting fun...

I got these great foam shapes from the $ section at Target, they are perfect for sorting by color or by shape...

or making designs :)