Monday, September 27, 2010

14 Days Worth

Wow, that makes it seem like I've REALLY been slacking! But to give an appropriate excuse, we've had grand parents and great grand parents visiting for the last week and a half-ish...so I think the progress we've made is pretty good given. We're still hangin' on to that Letter A since we've yet to have a full week to devote to all the activities, usually I just pull something out of the binder and spend a half hour or so working on that and then it's onto our daily activities. But now that family's gone and the house is getting somewhat back to normal, we have some good quality weeks ahead of us to move on...

Here's our last 14 days of semi-homeschooling :)

The kids playing with their Shape Puzzles

Lady K making an A in her squishy bag!

Bug and his Cut & Paste activity, and even tho he has a strange smile here, he was super proud of his art work!

The kids playing with the new feltboard I bought at a consignment sale for $10!!!
I was a happy Mommy!

I love this picture, like father, like son! Practicing his tracing ...

Kenna taking a shot at the lacing boards, she's not yet gotten the hang of em... we'll get there!

Pyrogram (I think that's what they're called) fun, again, cheapness from the consignment sale!

A trip to the apple orchard, and trust me, TONS of talking about apples and A's was done here :) Had to make it productive haha!

Letter A craft - Alligator

Cutting practice, and this girl needs it! I'm determined that she will learn to cut along the lines SOON - not just create 500 little paper pieces, simply to be flung around the room, creating a mess for ME to pick up! lol


As much as I'd like to be the super savvy homeschooling mom blogger, and link up everyone for their ideas, I'm just not there yet...so if you saw something you liked, chances are I got it from one of my favorite mom blogs, which you can view on my profile page!

Wish us luck in the next coming weeks, we're praying for discipline and desire...please join us!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Accomplished Something

Our semi-cleaned, messily organized play/school room (I'm pretty excited about it!) -

Today, before naps and since I don't have their curriculum printed off yet, we were messing around with our new cool-shaped buttons. First I had them put them in piles by color, then shape, then count them and put them away the same way. I also had Noah counting, I'd ask him how many his plus Kenna's equaled and he got it right everytime! Small little things like this make me so proud of them :)

And then we finished by breaking out the doctor box and played Dr/patient, the kids LOOOVED this -

Friday, September 10, 2010

My Homeschooling Ispiration

I thought it'd be a good idea to give credit to the ladies who gave me inspiration now, rather than later. So here it goes - take a look at these ladies, they are crazy awesome at what they do -

1+1+1=1
A Mommy's Adventures
Along the Way
Confessions of a Homeschooler
Filth Wizardry
Fun on a Dime
Inspiration Surrounds, Creativity Abounds
mumma made it
Psalm 127:3
The Activity Mom
The Ramblings and Adventures of a S.A.H.M.
And last but not least, an awesome awesome page...
Totally Tots

I really hope these sites are as helpful to others as they have been for me! Get ready, be inspired, GO! :)

Homeschooling? WHAAAAT?

It's been awhile since I posted last cuz our family has literally been through a lot lately! I think it's starting to get back to some sort of normalcy, but one can never tell.

Awhile back, when Noah didn't get into the Preschool program we applied for, I decided I was going to have to do something to get him ready for Kindergarten. Just because we didn't make the cut for Preschool, shouldn't mean he has to be held back or not get any education (which, yes, I should be doing anyways, but I mean more organized, focused education).

I've been spending SO much of my free (and sometimes my not free) time researching homeschooling programs and preschooling curriculum, and while I've found a couple that sounded nice, the options really weren't abundant. I've talked to quite a few people about homeschooling and most of them who have homeschooled preschoolers say that only 30 mins of active learning is necessary anyways, so I figured a rigorous curriculum wasn't worth spending tons of money on, when I could just do something basic at home. I'm not trying to raise geniuses, I just want them to have a desire to learn, without having to shove it down their throats.

A mom on blogspot, (you can find her here) created her own program for her children, and we're going to be using her Letter of the Week program. It includes colors, numbers, letters, bible verses, crafts, all the basics ... I'm so excited, and it only cost me $10, compared to the $350 for the only other curriculum I really preferred. Seeing as I'm not even quite sure I can maintain this, or even be GOOD at it, I figured I better stick to something small for now.

So tonight, after I bought some cabinets off Craigslist, the playroom is getting revamped with loads of organization, I'm pumped! For some reason I love organizing ... cleaning and upkeep, not so much lol! The planning and preparation are to come and I can't wait to get started with it! Hopefully I'll be able to blog and post pictures of our experiences for all to see .... so ....

Here's to my journey as a mom+teacher! PLEASE PRAY FOR ME! Haha