First To Last

A little late, but you know I love a good comparison picture.

First day of school versus the last day.

Josie's appearance didn't change as much this year as it has in past years.  

Sure her little face is looking more grown up these days and she grew almost 3 inches, but most of her changes were on the inside.  She's become sensitive and loving and thoughtful in a more mature way.  She is learning to express herself.  It's been an interesting year as far as her friendships and watching her learn to navigate them.

She's still more of a follower in group settings.  She doesn't like to stand out too much until she's comfortable in the group.  I'm hoping this passes as she gets older.  She has such a cool personality and I want her to let it out more.

Having a little girl is both terrifying and thrilling.  I listen to her talking and realize that everything we say to her gets soaked in and becomes a part of her.  There's a whole lot of big changes happening in her life right now and she is handling it all with such grace.  Even when she's sad or confused about it, she is blowing my mind.  I'm so proud of this child.

As far as school, this year was huge.  

Huge!

I got a front row seat to watching all sorts of lights flip on for her.  We started the year with math and reading being a big struggle.  She just did not get it.  Then somewhere around the Spring, she just started reading and doing math like she'd never had a problem with it.  It was awesome.  Every day I listen to her get better and better.  So cool.

Writing is still not something she enjoys.  I'm trying to find ways to make it fun for her, but not much peeks her interest.  Which brings me to my biggest lesson of the year.

I realized that when a kid is ready for a subject, they'll get it.  No matter how hard we push and nag and force it, if they aren't ready, they won't get it.  I'm still trying to help her move forward over the Summer, but in a gentle way.

I love this homeschool gig.  

That we all get to grow and change and learn together.  Even on the hard days, the days I'm sure I'm doing it all wrong, I wouldn't trade it for the World.

Look out 2nd Grade, we're coming for ya!

That's A Wrap

I've been a little MIA around here. 

Life has been busy and my focus all over the place. Both made it difficult to form cohesive thoughts. But things are settling down for the moment, due in huge part to school being D-O-N-E!

At the end of last week, I pulled out all the work Josie had to finish before we called it a wrap.  Girlfriend buckled down and did some serious school over the long weekend.  She took her last math test on Monday and when she aced it, I told her she was officially done with 1st grade!

Que the loud cheers!

This is our first year that we are taking an actual Summer break. 

I went back and forth on it since school is such a big part of our daily life, but at the end of the day there's just no way to keep any kind of schedule while moving across the country. I'm sure we will still fill our down time with activities that are technically school, but my lesson planner is blank from now until August. 

I'm excited to fill our last few weeks in Georgia with all things Southern. Well, except sweet tea. I'm more than OK leaving that behind. 

In other news:

We eased into Summer last week with a pool day at Andrew's Mom's house. There's nothing that signifies summer more than babies in goggles that smell like sunscreen.

We discovered a bird's nest in a flower pot on the back porch.  There are four tiny eggs in there.  We are watching closely for the babies to come out.  It's pretty exciting.

First blackberries of the season!  Between the three of us, none will actually make it into the house.

Josie had her ballet recital last weekend.  I love watching her dance.  And seriously, could she be any more precious?

Well, that about catches us up.

Hopefully I can keep my thoughts straight and be around more!

Documented - 5/17

Life This Week:

We are in the calm before the storm around here.

We reached a point where we can't really pack anything else up so we are just on hold.  Andrew heads out very soon, but not soon enough that I feel the clock counting down.  I'm so excited to be out in Arizona, but somewhat dreading the steps that stand between now and then.  One day at a time, right?

Trying to orchestrate this cross country move is taking up the majority of my brain power.  I spend most of my free moments playing out different scenarios.  I haven't felt like writing much, which is a weird feeling for me.  When I'm feeling a bit off kilter like this, I like to plan out every detail of life that is within my ability.  So this was the perfect week for my Erin Condren Life Planner to be delivered!

If you create an account HERE, they send you a $10 coupon!

Teacher books are 25% off this month too!

Eep!  I'm in love with it.  I just ordered a teacher planner too and can't wait to get my hands on it.

I also had my first court experience (outside of adopting the kids, which is technically done in chambers).  I got my very first speeding ticket a few weeks ago and my license was expired to boot.  I had to go to court for the charge.  I won't lie, I was totally scared.  I escaped with a $300 fine, hard to swallow, but better than the $1000 I had been told it would cost.

So overall, this has been a good week, but strange.

School This Week:

We are in the home stretch people!

Like, for real.  If all goes according to plan, we will tie first grade up with a pretty bow this May 30th.  Josie is doing great and is super excited to finally be in second grade.  I couldn't be any more proud of all she accomplished this year.

On fridays Josie writes a letter.  She gets to pick who she writes to.  I guess she ran out of people and has moved on to more abstract recipients.

Now that this year is pretty much done, I couldn't help myself from starting to layout next year.  All I can say is second grade seems to be when the material starts building on itself and we are going to have one heck of a fun year.

Seriously, planning is my favorite!

Gabe is loving Mother Goose Time for preschool.

I am so happy that we found this program.  It takes care of all the planning for me and let's me focus on just teaching him.  My favorite is how much Josie can do to help.  She's been reading him the books and helping him with all the alphabet work.  She's a pretty great assistant.

This is the first year in forever that we aren't doing a big garden.  We did plant a few things, but not enough to warrant a garden theme for school.  I did breakdown and do our seeds in the jar.  The kids are observing how long it takes to sprout.  Again, Josie is taking the lead on this experiment.

Hmm.  Maybe I should be concerned about my job security?

Going & Seeing

I had book club Monday and we cooked out with the Mabrey's on Tuesday.  I got a little teary thinking how that was likely our last cookout until one of us visits the other.  My dreaded court date was Thursday and that night Josie had her Girl Scouts Award Night.  Josie got badges for selling over 150 boxes of cookies!  She was so excited.  Before the awards, they toured the fire station.

February School

February was strange.

Between crazy weather, Andrew's work schedule, and preparing for Gabe's surgery, school just felt off.  I struggled a lot this month with feeling like I wasn't doing enough with Josie.  Then the next week, I'd feel like I was pushing too hard.  I know it's the stress of Gabe's surgery playing tricks on my mind so I'm not putting any stock into it.

We will be taking the majority of March off for his recovery and I think the break from school will do us good.

We didn't do any extras this month, but we did go on some fun field trips and had some major, major breakthroughs.

For starters, one night Josie picked Curious George Flies A Kite to read to me.  I'll be honest, I was tempted to talk her out of it.  I knew that a long book like that was going to prolong bedtime by at least 30 minutes.  Not to mention I had been flying solo for three days and wasn't sure I could listen to her sound out words for that long.

Girlfriend cracked open the book and read every dang word like she'd been reading for years!

I totally cried.  It was like watching all those frustrating lessons click.

My girl can read and that is life changing!  She was just as proud.  I don't think she thought she could do it either until she did.  From that day on, her reading time has been a lot of fun.  She is finally confident enough to go beyond her Biscuit books (that we both love).

Our other "Ah Ha" moment was on my end.

I've been pretty open about how difficult writing has been for Josie.  Not just creative writing, but handwriting too.  She was rushing through and very sloppy.  I didn't stress about it too much, but knew that we had to get it moving forward before too long.

Then one night, after a particularly rough evening, she slipped an envelope under her door and when I opened it, I found a perfectly formatted apology letter.  Sure the spelling was very phonic, but the letters were all sitting where they were supposed to.  Two pages!  I had given up on asking her to write anything close to that long.

And suddenly I realized that it wasn't writing Josie was hating, it was pointless writing she was so against.  Ask her to write a letter or a card that actually means something to her, and you'll get her best work.

So I ditched most of our copy work and traded it in for more meaningful writing.  We started a notebook writing letters back and forth to each other (adorable) and she is now in charge of writing out my grocery list each week.  She feels like she is doing something worthwhile and I know she's getting that practice in.  We are still doing A Reason For Handwriting to get letter formation down and she has to do writing in her english book, but this is working so much better for her.

Sometimes I look at her and she looks so grown.

We started our new biology curriculum this month.

I went with Christian Kids Explore Biology.  I honestly hate the name because I think it makes it sound overly religious.  It isn't.  It's peppered with verses in the sidelines, but other then that it is pretty unbiased.  It does lean towards Creationism but also teaches what Evolution is.  So far we are loving it. I'm hoping to make it through 2 units before Summer and then we will pick it back up in the Fall.

I love the way it's laid out.  One day is reading and vocabulary and the other day is a hands on project.  We review the vocabulary every day.  The reading sections are very short so it's easy to keep her attention.

And the hands on projects?  Well so far she has gotten to do paper mache and make an edible cell out of jello and candy, so I think it's safe to say Josie is thrilled with it.

She wrapped up her unit on early settlers.

I really enjoyed the way 123Homeschool4Me put her Colonial America information together.  With simple copy work, a great book list, and a few hands on projects Josie was able to learn about 5 explorers and get an in depth look at what it was like for the first European settlers in American.  Her last project was to build a log cabin.

I'm getting antsy to go a little deeper with Gabe.

So far we've been doing a lot of flashcards and letter tracing.  He loves art and Leapfrog Letter Factory.  The plan for him is to keep going with that until the Fall.  We have no clue what to expect with surgery so I think it's wise for us to hold off on anything else.

We spent a day at a local animal conservation park with this crew:

That's a lot of little people!  And people worry about homeschool kids getting socialized.

We also hit up a couple more concerts at Spivey Hall.

No photos allowed in there so you'll just have to take my word for how great they were.  If you live in Georgia, I recommend looking up the Education Concerts at Spivey Hall.  It is only $2 per person and there are quite a few left this year.  I'm hoping to make these a regular field trip for next year.

January School

We took a good chunk of time off during the holidays.

It was really nice and I totally understand the lure of it. But y'all, starting back up was hard!  I mean we were all more then ready to get back to routine. And I had fresh new curriculum waiting for us. But actually making myself sit at the school table?  Not so awesome. 

So we started back light. 

A fun unit on chocolate got us off on the right foot.

I'll do most anything if it involves Hershey Kisses at 9 AM.

Gabe sort of blew my mind a few weeks ago when he randomly counted the beans on his plate.  

1-25 without skipping a beat.  And with correct 1 to 1 correspondence too.  I had planned to do a light preschool with him soon, but now most of the things I had planned (like these awesome cocoa cup counting sheets from The Measured Mom) are behind where he is.  Luckily he still had fun with it.  Could be the marshmallows.

Either way, I'm going back to my original thoughts that "preschool" can be accomplished by simply talking to your kid and being observant to real life teaching moments.  It's obviously working for him, so why switch it up?

Josie also had quite a few lightbulb moments this month.

That dang subtraction and fact family junk was messing with her mind and she was not happy about it. She just could not get it down.  Then one math lesson I decided to try these number cards instead of writing and she figured it out!  We were so excited!  I think it was a huge help that she could see and feel that those three numbers in the addition problem were the same three numbers she needed to do the subtraction problem.  

Since that went so well, I searched for some other hands on math games.

We've been playing Flip 10 (flip two cards, if they add up to 10 you keep them), yatzee, and Skipbo pretty much every day.  I also found a few math apps that I let her do in the afternoons that she loves.

We've moved on to place value and she's cruising through it.  Math is once again fun around here, praise the Lord.

Reading and writing are still a little like pulling teeth.

She has gotten really, really good at reading and can read most any book, she just doesn't choose to.  I want so badly for her to love reading.  She just isn't there yet.  I'm sticking to my 20 minutes a day rule and encouraging her to pick up a book when she's bored.  Maybe someday soon she will figure out how awesome books are.  I'm dying to have reading days so I hope she cooperates!

Her handwriting is needing some work.  I want to get her on track by the Summer so I bought A Reason For Handwriting.  She started a week ago and so far really enjoys it.  It does letter practice all week and ends with her using those in a verse sheet that she gets to decorate.  She feels like the level is beneath her, but since she never learned proper letter formation, she needs the basics.  

The problem is she rushes through so it's sloppy.  When she goes slow and takes her time, she writes wonderfully.  So I am ok pushing her in this since I know she can do it.

We started history this month.

I'm using 123homeschool4me's Early Explorer units.  They include fact sheets, a few note booking pages, and a great list of books and activities.  We started with Vikings and then did Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus.  In February we will work on Early Settlers before breaking for Gabe's surgery.  I found a great history curriculum that we will use next year so I'm not sure if I'll pick this back up for the end of the school year or not.

One afternoon, Josie started asking about penguins so I printed out a great unit study from Enchanted Homeschool Mom's website.

We've done research pages on nine different breeds of penguins, science experiments, and lots and lots note booking pages on penguins.  This pack was the perfect level for Josie.  It required a lot of research but still had quite a few hands on or artsy elements to it.

We ended January with another unit from Enchanted Homeschool Mom all about groundhogs!

This one was SO much fun!

I don't think much about groundhogs, but after this past week, I know a whole heck of a lot about them.  I have to say, I'm super impressed with EHM's website.  There is a small membership fee for a lot of the packs, but they are so great for elementary school, which is really hard to find.  I can't wait to do more of these!

* Josie has a curriculum for most standard subjects.  They just aren't as fun to share! *

Curriculum Switch Up

At the start of the year, I was 100% sure I'd picked the perfect curriculum for Josie.

But after about a month I realized we needed a few changes.  We have found an excellent rhythm and I am so, so thankful for that.  The changes I made were mostly due to things being more advanced then I want to go this year.  Not necessarily that Josie couldn't handle them, but more that I'd rather wait until Gabe can do them with us.  The other reason I switched a few things was that I still feel that having extra time to read for fun, play outside, and just be a kid are just as important (if not more so) then sitting at the table to get ahead.

first night of girl scouts!

We are still using, and loving, Math Mammoth.

We do a few pages a day and she's doing really well with it. Adding was super easy for her. We are in the middle of subtraction right now and it's been tricky but she's getting it. She can memorize math facts pretty quick and I'm thankful for that. Math is not my strong suit.

We also stuck with Lightening Literature, but I'm not using it like I originally planned.

The books have been great, but the worksheets are super easy. I've been having her do two days worth each day so we finish each books work in two days. There is a writing assignment with each book and that is an area she needs a lot of work with so we spend the whole week perfecting that.   She comes up with great stories, but hates that actual writing. She tends to change er story to make it less writing. We are working on doing her best no matter what and Farm Fusion is helping.

king of the jungle

We finished All About Spelling 1 but I didn't buy level 2. 

Instead I got a list of words from a friend with a first grader in public school and we are doing those each week. I have her practice everyday and give her a test on Friday.  I've been using Spelling City online each week and that is a great help.  I also gently correct her spelling when she does creative writing. Once I tell her she usually remembers the correct spelling in future writing.

I'm still super excited to do Story of the World, but decided to hold off until next year. 

I'm doing small unit studies for history when holidays come around and am pumped up to start 123Homeschool4Me's history units this week.  We are starting with early explorers and the activities she has look right up our ally.

edging very, very close to 7

A Childs Geography was a bit over Josie's head so I shelved that too. 

We did the first few chapters and I know that we will love this one.  It's just more on a 3rd grade reading level.

I just ordered Little Passports and can't wait to get our first package!  This s totally my teaching style and will be easy to add to. We will get a box each month focusing on a different country. Once we go through all of those, I'm planning to continue with the US edition.

don't worry, it's a plastic drill that doesn't actually fit in the outlet

So I guess I changed a lot.

That's one of the many beauties of homeschooling.  If something doesn't work, we can modify and move it until we find what we need.

She still does daily journal writing or copy work and she reads for 20 minutes before we start school.  We are averaging 2 field trips a month and have amped up the crafting.  Josie is loving Farm Fusion, ballet, and children's choir.

She also started Girl Scouts last month and instantly earned the Cutest Daisy Badge.

Gabe is plugging along with early preschool.

Lots of art and cutting and coloring.  I'm sporadically using All About Reading - Pre Reading, but decided to go with regular old flash cards to get his letter identification and letter sounds down.  It just felt more to the point then all the extra letter of the week activities.  It's going great so far.  He's pretty much obsessed with Legos and with helping Andrew do man stuff around the house.

I'm still over the top happy about how well this school year is going.  Excited to see what the second half of our year has in store.

random photo dump from the end of 2013

December School

Ah, the holidays.

Every teacher's dream.  Here's a peek at the crafty goodness.

Absurd amounts of ornaments:

Snow Sensory Tubs.  On a 70 degree December day.

fake snow: 2 boxes corn starch, 1 bottle foaming shaving cream

messy, but quiet.  and i love quiet.

How much longer can I count JELLO as science?  I mean, it totally covers the different states of liquid.

These hole punched Christmas trees were easy and the kids loved it.  Plus they look pretty in the window.

I planned to spend some time listening to christmas carols and stringing popcorn and cranberries for the birds.  Then I remembered that December is busy and the birds are totally cool with stringless treats.  So we just tossed these in the yard and called it a day.

We painted trees with Q-Tips.  Wanna guess which one belongs to Gabe?

Gingerbread Houses!

Gabe's

Josie's

"I would like to play with toys.  I would go to bed.  I do lots of work."

side note:  I'm laying off her on the spelling and just encouraging her to express herself through writing.  It's been a battle to get her to write and I think it has a lot to do with my constant criticism of her work.  It's making a difference.  She now sort of enjoys it and we have years and years to work on spelling.

And that's a wrap!

Closing the books until 2014!