What Makes Little Boys' Dreams Come True

Mema moved last year and brought over a box of books. This book was one of them. Who knew you could have hours of fun with paper? :)

Early Morning Fun

Behind our house kids ride quads, and leave tracks in the mud, and rain fills the tracks.
And life grows.

Since we have moved here it has become an obsession of my sweet boy to watch the tadpoles grow. He will be out there from morning until night. We researched the life cycle of frogs on the internet. He is passionate about it. Everyone who comes to visit he takes back there to show the kingdom of life he studies.

Mema bought him a habitat for tadpoles and frogs. This morning, when we were the only two awake I asked him if he wanted to go catch tadpoles to put in his aquarium. He ran to get ready. We walked out into the quiet morning and I let him do his work.

Of course the littles woke up eventually and had to come and see. It was a fun morning. Hopefully a few of the 4 he caught will live.

Weaving

Today we learned about ancient settlers' weaving skills. So we decided to weave.

L agrees it is hard work.

Early Schooling

Usually while L and J school I let M "read" books, color, help with chores, or play quietly.

Recently he began asking to do school too. Hesitant, I put it off for a while, but he

continued to press me. I didn't think he was ready for seat work. I tested the waters by letting him doodle at the table for a week or two during school time. After seeing he was really eager to sit and learn, I went and purchased a small work book for 3-5 year olds.

Today was our first day whipping it out and I was amazed:

1.) M can hold a pencil

2.) He can trace a line very well

3.) He CAN follow directions

4.) He CAN sit still (really he can!)

5.) He loved it!

Looks like schooling around here has just become more fun!

Art

Hiking .. Kinda

Today Mema and Grandad came down and we decided to take a nature hike "field trip" to look at the leaves changing color. Unfortunately that hadn't happened yet and it was super hot. So we followed my parents their favorite campsite and had a great time in the creek.

Testing the water.. not too bad.

Mema

Dad wanted to try to float down the most rapid part we could find. Needless to say he had a blast, but came home slightly injured. :)

Grandad

Me and the booger watching from a safe distance, although he would have swam out to Dad if we would have let him.

This kid was awesome and clocked Jeff in the head with a rock as he floated by. Dad was not amused.

Wading into the creek in Super Grover undies! Yes we are potty training and went on a full day's outing with no accidents. Yay me!

Family time was so fun today!

Kindergarten Graduation

Our little man is a little bigger today! That's right he is a graduate! Goodbye Kinder and here we come First Grade :)

Does he look excited to you? I love how he wears his emotions so openly. He couldn't hide that if he tried.

"Hello my name is L (no he really has a first and last name, but to the www it is L) and when I grow up I want to be an Astronaut."

L getting his diploma. His teacher is an amazing teacher and really blessed L this year. She was a homeschooling mama of 5 until her family needed a second income. So she could relate to all of my fears and anxieties about putting my child in public school when I had so desperately wanted to homeschool him.

L and R! The handsome graduates! R lives a few houses down and is such a sweet boy :)

As this chapter closes we are in prayer about what next year holds for our children.

We know for certain M and J will be home for school.

I am so excited for summer vacation regardless !

Homeschooling Hiatus

As much as I LOVE homeschooling we enrolled L in kindergarten this week.

Long story short, after much prayer and discussion Jeff and I decided it would benefit L more to be in school at this point than at home. The reason - we live in the middle of nowhere with very few neighbors. It is a 25 minute drive into town and nothing in between. We live on a tiny base that has maybe (MAYBE) 75 occupied homes. With these two factors we didn't see a way for him to be involved in many extra curricular activities in order for him to make friends and have play time. So we went down to the local school and enrolled him. Currently there are only 2 streets that have occupied homes here and it was -18 this morning, which makes things difficult for going out to play and make friends in our neighborhood.

My heart is sad, but happy for him at the same time. He was so thrilled to go to school. He just completed his first week. He is gone all day from 7:15 to 4:30 M-Th and has Fridays off. It is a huge adjustment for all of us, but I know the Lord is good and has a perfect plan. I miss my boy with an aching heart during the day, but it makes my time at home with him that much more treasured.

Too True

http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeschooling/2009/07/a-homeschooling-discussion-by-mrs-g/

Check out this link! It made me giggle.. and echoes my feelings and experiences (well I don't know about the booze and monkeys part). ;)

Summer School

Since L is so interested in rocks I wanted to do some fun summer learning. So today I purchased a few items that I hope he loves and that ignite his passion for learning.

After a couple of months or learning, exploring, and experimenting I thought it would be a blast to finish the unit off with cracking open some geodes of his own. I am totally stoked for these materials to arrive.

We Love Homeschooling

We began homeschooling the kids this past fall. L is pre-k and J is preschool. There were several factors that led our family to this decision, and honestly it is still on probation status. Coming from a family full of public and private school teachers we caught quite a bit of flack about this decision, but ultimately it was one made between Hubby, the Lord, and myself.

Initially I began asking Hubby if we could home school about a year and a half ago. He was adamantly opposed. For good reasons, he was concerned about the kids missing out on the fun memories he had of his school days, wanted to make sure they were getting a quality education and didn't want our kids to turn out to be spelling-bee weirdos! I didn't press him, I just prayed and prayed and prayed about it. Those were valid points - although they were not the same concerns that I shared.

I wanted to home school to ensure that my children received a strong foundation before being exposed to the world. I know that to some people that sounds like a religious zealot's mindset, and maybe it kind of is, but I am not saying that I want to raise them in isolation. For me the concern was that my children were going to be exposed to views and beliefs so different to our own for more hours in a day than they would to the core values of our family. While I don't view public school as evil in anyway - so please don't misunderstand - I did not want to have to undo 8 ours of what my kids were exposed to when they got home. It has been brought to my attention SEVERAL times that public school does not push a religious view on children, it is my belief that what you are not allowed to learn or discuss is a form of religious teaching.

Anyway, all this to say that we have been having a blast these past few months learning together. We used ABEKA curriculum this year and I won't be using it again. It is not bad - but we found it boring. So next year we are putting our own together - not that I am designing my own lessons, just taking math from one place, language arts from another -stuff like that. I am very excited. I have been spending a lot of time looking into our options and talking to others about what works for them. Being that we will be moving in the next few months I want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row for next year before life gets too hectic!

(Wish I had a pic. I'll take one and add it later)