I am struggling ...

Not sure if it is me or her but we are really butting heads. She will intentionally write horribly or say she is finished when she is obviously not. She is a totally different student for me than she is for our wonderful reading tutor. Praying for guidance ...

My weird unsocialized homeschoolers ...

The boys have started soccer!

Playing dress up!

Feeding Belle popsicles!

Riding lessons!

Learning about service dogs!

{This is Crimson, he will be a great service dog one day!}

Random school pics ...

Math

More math!

Curious George craft!

Writing about Mr. Lamb!

English

First day of preschool & first grade!

I think I might just have the hang of this ...

Wow! I can't believe September is almost over. I think we finally have a good routine, which means FINALLY time to blog and share some things we are doing and some pictures too. =))

Abby is doing fabulous in math - we are using Saxon 2, yes 2 for first grade! I thought it would be crazy, confusing and difficult but it really has flowed quite well. Abby is doubling numbers, adding numbers plus 1 and plus 0. Small word problems. Time. Date. Honestly we have progressed more already in one short month than I thought we would in a year! It is amazing!

English has been pretty boring for her so far. We really kind of fly through it cause it bores me too! LOL! Right now, the first 4 chapters, have been groups and subgroups. Any group you can think of: transportation, food, clothes, animals and all kinds of subgroups. She already knows all of it and we haven't had one single problem or hiccup yet.

Literature has been fun for us both! I enjoy the books, so far: Corduroy, Blueberries for Sal, Curious George, Caps for Sale. Most of the stories have a little craft for her to do to go along with the reading comprehension. Lots of writing and answering questions about the stories. She seems to love the art aspect ... must get art classes going ASAP.

Geography is pretty easy, mostly reading and coloring. We will get more in depth after Christmas. We have some Flat Stanleys going out. When they come back we will spend a week on each place he went - more fun I think that the boring book.

Bible has been good. Everyone in the house is learning together - FANTASTIC!

Phonics has been our struggle and I knew it would be. She doesn't seem to want to try for fear she will get something wrong. I spend most of my day trying to convince her to just try. Make the sound and if it is wrong that is fine. She knows it, I know she knows it, she just won't try. It is a struggle.

I will post more pictures later tonight - didn't realize I hadn't added our classroom and first day of school pics! Promise - post with just pics before I go to bed tonight!!!

~Lisa

I love this!

{click on image to see it bigger}

2011-2012 Our first year homeschooling!

We will start first grade for Abby on Monday - 8/22/11. The twins, Cooper & Parker, will be in pre-k from 9a-12:30p Monday through Friday. This is when we plan to do all of Abby's first grade book work for: Phonics (Veritas Press), Literature (First Favorites - Veritas Press), English (Shurley) and Math (Saxon). Science, Geography and Bible will all be done in the afternoon with all 3 kiddos. Wish us luck and I hope you enjoy following our journey!

Why home-school??? This is the question I get asked all the time and I loathe. Why not? Why public/government school? First off, these are my children. I love and adore them. I want to spend as much time with them as I possibly can. I am perfectly capable of teaching them. With home-school they get a 1:3 ratio, at worst! We can learn civics by going to the capitol whenever we feel like it. Art, Music, PE, Technology can be taught as often as we want. They aren't a limited resource like with public schools. The library - we can go everyday and spend the entire day if we want. I can also teach {gasp} Bible during school. I have teacher guides just like the public school teachers. The zoo is also a place we can go to learn science on a daily basis, they offer many home-school classes during the week. The sky and my imagination are our only limitations- and with this little thing called "google" my imagination is not very limited. I also have a fantastic resource I will utilize for lesson plans and to "test and evaluate" my kiddos quarterly. And as of now, I plan to stay in line with the state/public school guidelines for standardized testing. Again, why not???

Welcome to our classroom! =))