School

I haven't been posting as many pictures of school on the blog because I haven't been taking any. I realized I was often slowing up the process or stopping her creativity to say "say cheeeeese" "show Mommy your paper!!"

I will still have ideas, finished products and some pictures but much less than I was posting.

We are on the H unit for one more day. Our verse is Exodus 20:12 "Honor Your Father
and Mother." The other day she proudly recited it for me as "Abhor your Fadder and Mudder." Lol, I laughed pretty hard. Then I had to explain the big difference between Honor and Abhor.

We made an 'H' house and a little 'h' horse (Yes, we realize most houses are not pink and orange and most horses are not green and yellow, but it was the sturdiest paper we had! :-P) We practiced cutting our verse, talking about how to honor your father and mother, practiced writing h's and had fun hopping.

Brown Bear Fun

My kids ADORE Brown Bear. Thats an understatement actually. Its one of our most worn in books and both kids can recite it. Sophia has it memorized and Liam knows a lot of it. It has a lot of our sight word for the week which is "See" So we read it and did the corresponding tot book found here.

Sophia worked on sorting by size. Matching heads and tails. Counting. ABC's. Colors. She really enjoyed it! And it helped enforce our sight word of the week.

RRSP A unit part 2

I had mentioned a few posts back that we were doing the Raising Rock Stars Preschool and casually started the A unit that I had printed before our book came. Amazingly, our book showed up early, half way through the week! Heres some more of what we did. She got pretty good at writing A's!





We found this A astronaut unit here and decided to add that in too since my little Princess tells everyone that after she is a doctor that shes going to be an astronaut and, "Don't worry Mom, everyone can come in my rocket, Ill have lots of beds!" We kept a lot of the pages and when we get back to the full A lesson I will bring the rest out.


I figured since we did this with a wreath, why not an apple! We also ate lots of apples and ant on a log!

Planning

Just printed off 21 pages for next week! Love having my ink cartridges back!! Starting next week we are moving from random teaching to more intentional teaching with Sophia. We have a lot of fun doing the random crafts and projects that we do but I'd like to focus more on scripture learning, character building, abc recognition, and number recognition. Along side some other skills areas that need growth; scissor use, and handwriting/drawing.

I found the perfect package to use. Its called Raising Rock Stars and the name is taken from two different verses;
Philippians 2:15
so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.

Matthew 7:34
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

You can read more about the program here.

The only thing I can't decide is if I will start at her unit one which is the letter L or just start with A... there is a method to why she creates the units in that way. She wants her kids to learn to write each letter so L is a very easy word to start with. Of course, I printed the A unit this morning but think I will be back to the printer before Monday to print out the L packet. I'll need them both anyhow. :-)

I will continue on with Tot school for Liam. They have so many cool packages and lapbook ideas for him but hes just a little young yet and my thought of the day is that I don't want to wish away any of my childrens developmental stages because I am so busy anticipating the one to come. So he and I will just have fun doing what we have been doing. :-) He is so much fun and learning so quickly at 14 months! I thought he only knew 3 or 4 animal noises and started teaching them more intentionally yesterday only to realize he knows dog, cat, sheep, monkey, fish, squirrel, cow, duck, Lion, tiger, bear turkey, dinosaur, and bird already! So I guess we move on to horse, owl, and elephant! Also cracking me up from smarty pants is the fact that now when we say, "Liam, count" He veryquickly says "one, two, free!"

So thats whats on our plates starting next week! Keep checking back for some (hopefully) more organized teaching and learning photos! :-)

Here we go

Its been over a year since we updated, and boy has it been a busy one. I've toyed with the idea of changing the name of our blog to fit with our family more but haven't decided on a name yet. Something about our gluten free challenges in the last 6+ months. Or something about the great home-school debates, discussions, and decisions happening over here.

We figured out last Spring that Kevin and Soph can't eat gluten. It seemed like an impossible challenge for me. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G has gluten in it. But with a whole lot of research, advice from friends, and too many hours lost in gluten guru's blogs, we have figured it out (I think...)! We have experimented and had some awesome discoveries and gigantic mistakes along the way. More on these and our favorite products soon. Many thanks to family and friends who have helped us make this transition. It has made us much more aware about our health and what we are putting into our bodies. We tend to shop on the perimeter of the grocery store now (like we should have been all along) and avoid the middle as much as possible. We have grown to love Fresh and Natural in Hudson, Taylor Made in Woodbury, and Whole Foods in St. Paul, and Cub Foods in WSP, for their nice selections of healthy food. We also recently switched to eating grass fed beef and organic fruits and veggies as much as possible. Free Range chicken is our next switch. It is pricey to eat well, but we are preventing our health and future health care costs. We also save a lot of money not eating out and not buying the junk!

We recently pulled Sophia from her two day a week preschool in order to use the $90/month for a newer car payment. (our vans transmission is dying....again. Plus its a 1996 without a/c and with limited heat, not so dependable for hauling our precious cargo) We are currently researching the best minivans and crossover vehicles in our price range. My current favorite is the Chrysler Pacifica.

Another reason we felt peace about pulling her from preschool is because I can do pretty much everything her teachers were doing with her, plus devote more one on one time to areas she was struggling with. I really have enjoyed doing the at home work with her. We are having a lot of fun, she is learning tons and we are bonding in the process. I was one who was VERY against homeschooling for a long time. Kevin was homeschooled and has always wanted that for our kids. I told him no way. Its been a very recent switch in my mindset that I may really enjoy this. Here is my current list of pro's vs. Con's

PRO's
We can build character in our children:: I have met so many well balanced kids and adults recently that were educated at home and I have been blown away by them. They are kind, compassionate, smart, and totally normal and socially adjusted.

We can teach bible to our kids without it cost the $7,000+ a year tuition that a Private Christian school would charge.

Our kids would have the opportunity to bond more than kids who are separated most of their time.

Pretty much everyone we know is planning on or already educating at home and we would have such a strong community of help, encouragement and resources. Not to mention the social interaction that we could give them in field trips and team taught classes.

My husband would like me to. The bible calls me to be submissive to my husband and this is an area I can't really argue. We have spend time in discussion and prayer in this area. He is not pressuring me to or forcing me, but I would like to honor his wishes.

It would seem that God is greatly working on my heart in this area as it has been SUCH a drastic change in thought. I need to follow his leading, my husbands leading and do what is best for our kids.


CONS

My family is VERY against homeschooling. I think this is mostly because we were not around people who have home schooled successfully. The two situations that they have witnessed have not been positive. I am very concerned for how the reaction would be and if we would be supported at all. My husbands family is very supportive as is our friends and church family.

Can I do it? Sometimes I wonder. Am I skilled enough? How would I teach math to a high schooler? From what I hear from families who have home-schooled their children, you learn along side your child. Also, that is part of the beauty of co-ops and friends. People with strengths can team teach different subjects.

Money. Homeschooling curriculum cost money. Field trips cost money. Supplies cost money. Much less than a private school, or even less than the public preschool Sophie was attending, but still it is a consideration. It could also be factored in that I wouldn't be able to go back to work if the kids stay home. Fortunately, I have been very blessed to have a job right now that allows me to work overnights and then be home with the children during the day. I pray that this continues so that I can help provide for my family and stay home to train my children.


And that is where we are at. More posts to come with some fun activities and "school" that we have been working on.