First Day of School!

We had our first day of school today and I think that it went very well!! :-)  I was very concerned at how Alyssa was going to do and she really didn't do that bad.

Here are some pictures from our first day!

Aaron working on his I Can Do It Book.  It is a Seek and Find book that you can use dry erase markers on to erase and do over and over again!  He did a very good job finding the pictures and seemed to really enjoy doing it.  :-)

Alyssa playing in her corner with blocks!

 Seth working on his number of the day sheet.

 During Seth's reading time I put Aaron on computer cool school.  He loves this and I think would be quiet and content on here all day LOL! Seriously though he was able to keep quiet and he didn't fuss when it was time to stop doing this - YAY!

During Seth's reading time I had Alyssa watch Wonder Pets on my laptop with her new pink headphones!  Once I got her to realize that she had to be quiet while watching this it really worked and kept her busy so I could focus on Seth! YAY!!

 

Seth doing his reading workbook.  He told me he liked writing in his new desk.  He said it helped him write better letters.  :-) I think I would have to agree!  He did very well in his handwriting today!

Alyssa coloring in her coloring book. 

Aaron working on his new workbook! He loved it!

Seth exploring with his pattern blocks.

The kids enjoyed some play-doh time at the end of our school time!

I didn't get pictured our bible lesson.  We were talking about scrolls today so I made a powerpoint of different pictures of scrolls.

We also read the first two chapters of the Adventures of Peter Cottontail for our read aloud time.

Tomorrow we get to have a fun activity of making clay pots!  That should be a lot of fun!

I think the morning went well as a whole.  :-)

Until next time,
Kellie

Our CHEAP GIGANTIC White Board

My dear wonderful friend Angela told me how she got her white board for her classroom for super cheap and I talked my husband to getting me one as well :-)

We went to Home Depot last night and got a piece of white panel board (8' x 4')  for $12.87 and some pieces of white trim for $2.87 for an 8' piece.

The boys helped Daddy measure to the next stud to screw it into the wall.

Is that not a cool white board?!?!  I am so excited!!!  (Oh the strips down the middle were due to the fact that the board had to cover an electrical outlet.  Daddy put screws down the middle of that board at that point so it wouldn't bubble as much and we covered the screws with trim.)

(after I got the alphabet train back up...and you can see our bulletin board to the right - it has our MFW reading chart and books of the bible chart)

I put the other white boards over at my desk.  I don't know yet what I will use them for but I am sure I will come up with something.  :-)

We are aiming to start school this next week!  I am hoping to do school on Tuesday and Wednesday!!!  One of the beauties of homeschool is the flexible schedule! Yay!!

Until next time,

Kellie

Ready For School!!!

Well I spent my birthday yesterday finishing getting our schoolhouse cleaned and ready for the start of school!  And I am happy to say I accomplished that!!    WHOO HOO!!!

Here is our teaching area with their cute little desks and chairs all positioned around our white board!

Here is a view of my desk and the craft table!  I don't know if Alyssa will fit in her chair (on the end of the table) all year but she is still fitting in it now...so we will go with it and figure out what to do later when she no longer fits in it! LOL!

Reading is going to be the main focus in Seth's school year so we have almost a whole bookcase dedicated to his books!!  So excited!!!

I have grouped all our games and toys and stuff together.  Hopefully I have enough to keep Aaron and Alyssa busy!

The green box is for Alyssa and Aaron's "stations".  I have an awesome friend who gave me an idea of putting fun activities in bags.  I have also included coloring books, fun toys, and games in there as well.  Hopefully I will be able to quickly teach them that they can have one activity out at a time.  If they want to do another activity they have to put up their current activity first.  Hopefully there will be enough variety that they won't get bored.  (Aaron won't be doing as many "stations" as Alyssa because he will be participating with Seth in some of his school activities).

The blue box underneath the green box is all of our puzzles.  I went through and put them all in ziploc bags (cut out the picture of the puzzle from the box to put in the bag as well to know what puzzle it is). This was also an idea from the same friend!!  Hopefully this will help us keep our puzzles together better.  The boys love to do puzzles so puzzle time should be a lot of fun for them :-)

Another view of the cute little desks - with their cute school boxes on them!  We are ready for school!!

We are looking at starting school on Monday August 22nd!  We will school Mondays thru Thursdays and will take Fridays off!  Every other Friday we will have homeschool co-op classes!  The Fridays we are not in school we are just going to have fun!!

Seth told me yesterday afternoon "Momma I can't wait for my first day of 1st grade!"

Our Very Cute School Boxes

Ok I have to brag on my mom for a minute! :-)  She made the boys the most adorable plastic canvas boxes!  We are going to use them for school boxes!

Here is Seth's box with his lid on!

And here is an inside view.  I found that I had some plastic containers the perfect size to fit right inside.  They make the box more sturdy and protect the boxes!

Here is Aaron's box.  (at the moment the lid is lost...He wanted to play with his box a couple of days ago and lost the lid).

Aren't they adorable?!?!  What a fun way to keep up with school supplies!

Getting Ready for our next school year!!

We have been having a full and FUN Summer!!  The highlight of our summer has been the weekly play dates that we are having with kids from our homeschool group!  We are really developing some neat friendships (mom and the kids)!!  It has truly been an answer to prayer!!

Well starting this week I am getting SERIOUS about getting our schoolhouse ready for the next school year!  I have been given some good advice that the kids feet should be firmly planted on the floor when doing any writing in school.  Well, our table and chairs that we had were not allowing my kids to be able to do that.

Last week hubby and I found some desks at IKEA.  They were actually laptop desks but we decided that they were just the right size, they could adjust to be flat on top and their height was adjustable (and the price was just right!)  So we brought them home and got them put together.

Today though I discovered that the chairs that had for the boys (desk chairs with wheels) were still too high for them to be able to plant their feet on the floor even at their lowest setting!  THANKFULLY though a good friend of mine, Angela, gave me some little kids folding chairs that were perfect height!!  We will still use the office chairs at our craft table and when they are at the computer - but now they are sitting "correctly " for doing their writing and schoolwork!

So here is a view of one of the desks and chairs. (you can see Alyssa in her little desk in the background!  She is so proud to have her own little desk as well (-: )

The boys were so excited when I used some stickers to put their names on their desks :-)

I also found that I had some plastic baskets that fit just perfect under the chair to hold notebooks, pencils, etc...

The kids are super excited about their desks!  I think they are going to work out great!!

Ok - back to work!  :-)

Kellie

Checking In

Ok - so I know it has once again been too long since I posted on here!

To catch up - I am so excited to say that WE FINISHED KINDERGARTEN!!!  Whoo hoo!!  I can't tell you the feeling of accomplishment to finish your first year of homeschooling! It was a super fun year!!

Seth was approached at church by a member who said "Congratulations for finishing kindergarten.  Did you get a diploma?" and Seth's reply was "Nope! I got pizza!!"  Yep!  We went out for pizza that night!

So Summer has started.  We have taken a couple of weeks completely off but starting next week we will be doing some handwriting and sight word review every couple of days or so...he was really just starting to really make strides in his handwriting at the end of the school year and I don't want to lose that!  Plus it will not hurt him to continue to do a little school work through the summer!

I am currently working on a new chore system for us!  I am taking the things I like from several different programs and coming up with my program.  I am really excited about it and hoping and praying that it works! Once I get everything nailed down and get the system started I will make a post of what we are doing :-)

I am also diving into the first grade curriculum and planning out our first grade year!  Oh how I love this curriculum!  It is going to be such a fun year!

Oh we are also enjoying weekly play dates at the park with our homeschool group!!  The moms are enjoying spending some time fellowshipping with one another and sharing in all of our couponing and price matching experiences and learning how to be better at that while the kids enjoy playing with one another!  We have done it for 3 weeks now and are already wanting to make sure that this continues all summer!  It is the highlight of our week!

Ok - so I think I got you all caught up now LOL!

Until next time!
Kellie

An Update on What We Have Been Up To

Ok - I admit it!  It has been WAY TOO LONG since I posted on this blog!  We just get so busy doing normal life that I sometimes forget to share! We are really winding down on Kindergarten!!  It is EXCITING to be so close to finishing our first year of homeschool!!  It's a lot of fun too when you realize you have just completed the last page of a workbook!!

Seth has had an awesome Kindergarten year!  He has learned to count to 100, knows all the sounds of his alphabet, can read 3 letter words, and even has started recognizing some of the blends such as ck, double letter sounds, ch, and st!  He can do simple addition and subtraction with the help of math manipulative (such as counting bears).  He has also learned almost 100 sight words!!

We have learned this year, and I am a FIRM BELIEVER, that the best learning comes just from living life! Here is a picture of Seth learning how to read a ruler while he was out playing in the shop with his dad.

I had an opportunity to attend my first Homeschool book fair and convention!!  And it was an added bonus that my mom was able to go with me!!  I really enjoyed seeing all the different options that are available to homeschooling families!!  What an encouragement that was!  And no, I did not get overwhelmed.  I researched beforehand and knew what I wanted to specifically look at and I spent a lot of time in prayer that morning before I went and asked for God's leading and guiding!  And man He did!!!

I have decided to continue with My Father's World as our core curriculum!  Their first grade material just looks so awesome!!!  In fact I have already started reading over the teacher's manual and my mind is already flooded with ideas!  It will be a fun time this summer planning for this!

And Aaron has been choosing to participate more and more in "school".  Of course it is very much when it is his idea!  (which is still ok for now...he is still quite young!)

But I did find some good, cheap, simple workbooks for Aaron for pre-k next year! I am hoping that he will think they are fun and they will help him to want to get involved more and more with school.  But it will be very relaxed still...I may be totally wrong, but I have a feeling that he is going to be one of those "late bloomers" when it comes to school.  But he may surprise us all!  I am just telling myself over and over in my head to take it slow and easy with him!  That is the beauty of homeschool!  He will do a lot better if he is not forced or rushed!  I know without a doubt that he is super super smart!  He is going to excel!  I just don't need to push it!

Of course he will also participate in a lot of the activities with Seth, especially when it comes to science, art and even reading time (I plan on making the read aloud time suggested in the MFW manual a time when all 3 of them will be read to!)

Oh, and speaking of reading...have you heard of Hank the Cow Dog??  I have been reading about these books for a while and have thought my boys would love them!  Well I bought the first 5 books at the fair and I bought each of the kids their very own little stuffed Hank!  We are all excited to start reading about Hank's adventures!!!

Seth's 1st grade year is going to be a fun year!  I have no doubt about it!!

Oh and did I mention that our little princess turned 2??

I found SO MUCH stuff about princesses and raising your Godly little princess at the book fair!!  OH MY!!  When she is a few years older I am going to be in BIG trouble!!  LOL!! (but it sure will be fun!!)