First 4 weeks of homeschool

We are enjoying our kindergarten year. I have to be honest, the first day was HARD. I was almost ready to throw in the towel. However, I changed my attitude and found a good rhythm for us and things have been going much better since. I had to remind myself of the reasons why we wanted to homeschool in the first place. Mainly so that we can be more involved in our children's raising, be able to teach them about God, and to allow them to build close relationships with one another. In addition, we want the best education possible for each of them! With homeschooling there is so more flexibility and more time to hone in on skills we want to teach them and allow them time to explore things they are interested in.

This year is plenty busy. Caden has built a lot of things, he's had lots of time to paint, including painting with string and other mediums. He's learned how to make a paper boat and paper balloons and even taught his Sunday school class how to make paper boats! He figured out how to make a ball out of toilet paper and has created several and painted them and given them to various teachers as gifts. We've taken him on several field trips, the American Airlines Center, a self sufficient farm, and he has taken a lot of wood building classes. Caden has started his classes at his part-time school where he takes science, art, and Spanish, he's involved in two co-ops, is playing tennis, taking karate/gymnastics, and is going to start music classes next week with a good friend of his. We also planted a garden, which I'll do a separate post as it grows. Here is an overview of pictures from this year of some of the things he's done and places we've explored. 

He made a model coracle (round boat) out of a plastic bag and pipe cleaners

Learning to count by 5s

One of the few pictures of him doing his school work

He came up with this on his own, he stacked groups of 5 Jenga blocks

He made up a fishing game

He's very creative!

Making snow

Showing Dad how to make snow

He built a wooden snail!

Science page on how rain works and he colored the rainbow.

Painting

He built a 3D family tree

He built a bird's nest

Made an extension bridge with his train tracks

Making an Egyptian Collar

I put it on him but he didn't wear it long

American Airlines Center

American Airlines Center

American Airlines Center

American Airlines Center

American Airlines Center

Digging in the sand

Sewing like ancient people

Getting ready to swim

He loved Humpty Dumpty and made his own!

Neat picture he drew

Baby sister's first time to swing

First day of co-op

I'm teaching one of his classes, they made a friendship web

Making a pinch pot at the farm

Making a pinch pot at the farm

Making a pinch pot at the farm

Making a pinch pot at the farm

The farm we visited

Feeding a sheep

Daddy wearing two kids. The pavement was hot!

Learning how they made Sorghum Syrup

First day at his part-time school

Picture with his science teacher

In Spanish class

Getting ready to learn about hydroponics at home

Tennis lessons

Making the parts of a flower and putting them together

Building a bird house

Building a bird house

Painting his birdhouse

Building a bird house

Sweet girl!

Painting with string

Grocery shopping, he fit in the front of the tiny basket at Sprouts!

Hydroponics kit

We're watching to see which way a seed grows best

Karate!

Painting rocks

Playing together in their hut

He made a pyramid but turned it into a hat

Watching brother play tennis

Tennis lessons

Standing in her crib

Co-op class

I'm so cute!

Roman dinner party in our living room

Dress like a Roman

Playing an egg sight word game

Egg sight word game

Building wooden binoculars

This was something special just mom and son went to

Planting our Fall garden

Roman Dinner Party

This past week we studied ancient Rome. Caden learned about what the ancient Romans wore, how they lived, and what they ate. For fun, I decided to end our week with a Roman dinner party. Ancient Romans usually ate on the floor and many times they reclined on the floor and ate while on their bellies or on their side. If you know me well, you know this was a big step for me. I'm a shoes off, hands washed, no food except in the kitchen kind of mom. So getting to eat in the living room, especially on the floor, was a HUGE deal! I laid out a blanket and set our table. Ancient Romans didn't have forks but occasionally would use spoons. Mostly they ate with their hands, which is what we did. We had a nice feast and ended our feast with some Roman bread pudding that Caden helped me make. The Bread Pudding recipe was in our book.

We ate chicken, carrots, broccoli, olives, grapes, cheese, and apples.

Eating like an ancient Roman on his belly

Cutting bread for our pudding

It was really good!

Grace is 8 months!

Dear Gracie,

Today you are 8 months old! You are such a delight and joy in our lives! I'm a little sad how quickly this year is passing but also am enjoying seeing your personality blossom and watching you learn and grow. You have a wonderful and contagious laugh. I love how you'll find humor in the smallest and silliest things. Your smile is infectious! When I see you smiling, I smile. When you start laughing those around you often will start laughing.

One new milestone this month is you have started lounging forward when in a crawling stance. Usually, when you want to get something that is out of your reach you will scoot backwards and then roll over to it, which I think is creative. You roll a lot. I have to be very careful when you're on my bed. A few weeks ago you rolled off my bed and I felt horrible! Thankfully you were okay and landed on your belly. These past few weeks you have really wanted to crawl forward and have started almost hopping toward something. As much as you like to roll and crawl around, you really seem to prefer standing. Your legs are strong and you can take a few steps while holding onto our hands or something sturdy.

A few weeks ago you started clapping! We were in my bathroom when I first saw you do it. You had the biggest smile and laugh! 

You love music and will sing in your own way to songs that are playing. You love getting and giving kisses.  When I'm standing near you, you are now reaching out to me for me to pick you up. It's sweet. Your new words are "Dada" and "baba." Daddy is very happy you can say his name. You can also say a number of sounds for pre-words.  Your favorite word to say is still "Mama." This makes me happy. :)  We're trying to help you get used to more adults besides me and Dad. If you could spend all day with me, you would, which honestly for the most part, you do! Your second favorite people are Daddy and Caden. You are very fond of both.

You have started eating a little more solid foods. You still mainly prefer to breastfeed. You've been waking up a lot at night and I realized two days ago that your first tooth is coming in! It's on the bottom and will break through your gums any day now.

You love books and seem to really like Goodnight Moon. When I get to the page that is the same as the cover you flip to the cover as if you notice it's the same. 

Currently you are taking two naps a day. One around 11 or 11:30 and the other around 3:30 or 4. Your naps last anywhere from 30 min to an hour. You sleep from around 8pm to 7:30am. Lately you've been waking up at night but I think it's because you're getting your first tooth.  

Some of your favorite toys are wooden puzzles, your standing play center, and really anything someone hands you. Recently I let you play with some toy pots and pans and you loved it! You also like balloons and rolling the ball with Caden.

Here are some sweet pictures of you on your 8th month of life. You are truly a beautiful and smart girl! We love you so much and thank God daily for you and your brother.

Love,
Mom

You were done!

Mom, I'm really, really done with pictures!