First Day of School

Well, day one is done. We will do some fun crafts while Jackson is napping, but our book work is complete.

Hannah said she is going to like this homeschool thing.

We are starting slow so mama can get the hang of things. We did our first Saxon Math lesson and a lesson from our reading book. She worked on handwriting, read me an easy reader and made a Bible "keeper" to keep her Bible in. We worked on our Bible lesson and memory verse.

Not bad for day one. It all took an hour and a half. I think I have some work to do over the next week. We will add on some fun "big books" for mom to read out loud and take a few trips.

So far, so good.

Corn

I am a pretty random person and this blog thing is proving to be sporadic at best. I have just a few more days to prepare for the school year. Since I don't know what to expect, I will just jump in and see what happens.


We just returned from another family road trip, but this time we were only gone two weeks. We headed to the north east this time. We enjoyed spending time with my parents in Pennsylvania. I did not realize how many mountains there were out east and also did not realize how rural Pennsylvania and New York were. I would say we enjoyed a break from the heat, but we did not. It was hot the whole time we were gone. Niagara Falls was 100* the day we were there. Despite the warm weather we had a wonderful time seeing family and new places.

I will post more about our trip and add some pictures later this week.


So, about my title.....

Now that we have driven a good 3/4 of the US, I have come to realize how much corn we grow all over our great nation. It is beautiful and strange/scary at the same time. I guess it takes a lot of corn to make all that high fructose corn syrup and who knows what else that is added to our food supply. Makes me want to take extra time to really read labels and see what my family is eating. That said, we had some very delicious fresh picked sweet corn from a farm in rural Pennsylvania. I miss it already :)

Just the beginning

I have decided to go ahead and start with some of our homeschool stuff. We have already begun the lessons in the " Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons" So far everything we are doing has been review since she is already starting to read. I told her it's ok if she already knows what is in the lesson, this is just review and practice. I know she is ready to get going! We are also working on handwriting.
I decided to hold off on Saxon math until August. The book starts the lessons on reading a calender and the first month is August. Clint starts dental school in August so it will work just fine. We are not ignoring math all together. I have some other fun workbooks and activities to keep things fresh in her mind.
I'm still trying to find things that will help us incorporate science and history.
I am also looking into dance, or gymnastics, or something along those lines that is affordable. We are trying to get through the next four years on as few loans as possible.
Let the fun begin :)

Last day of school

We have absolutely loved the time that Hannah was able to spend at GEM Express preschool. The school has such a heart for God and teaching children about God as well as ABC's and 123's. I look forward to the day that Jackson will be able to attend GEM.

For the last day of school they had a birthday party celebration complete with a bounce house, party games, and homemade ice cream. Jackson and I went up to take a few pictures and help watch the kids on the bounce toy. It was wild and the kids had fun.

Last day of school.



Waiting in the carpool line.

Taking her turn to mix the ice cream.

Jackson fit right in and took his place on the rug.

Having fun on the slide.

Graduation

My oldest baby graduated from preschool a few weeks ago. I have always thought preschool graduation was silly, but it is cute and makes for a fun memory. They did a little program and then had a ceremony complete with cap and gown.

Baby Steps

Well, we are on our way to getting our plans in order for homeschool. Hannah is excited most days, other days she says she wants to go to school with her friends. That usually lasts a little while then she is back to being excited about homeschool. She does want a "real" school desk and I found one on craigslist for $15. I will post pictures when I get the chance.

I ordered her books yesterday. We landed on " Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons" for reading/spelling/handwriting. I ordered Saxon level 1 for math. They had a handy dandy test you could give them to determine which books to buy. I'm glad we did the test or I would have wasted my money on the Kindergarten books and she would have been board to death.
I also ordered a book to help with Bible stories. It comes with music, games, and craft ideas.
We also plan to start piano lessons with Mimi. I will do my best to help her practice. I should be fine at first, but I have no doubt she will surpass me quite quickly. As far as history and science go we will be doing some reading and hands on things as her interests stir her.

This will be a whole new ball game for me. I am not a planner! I am a fly by the seat of my pants kind of gal. I am doing my best to get things lined up and in order. I will be enlisting the help of my wonderfully organized , planner of a mother :)

I plan to join a local christian homeschool group so I can have support and we can do field trips with other kids. They meet up in one way or another every week so that will be nice. You can do as much or as little with them as you wish. I am anxious to meet some other families with kids Hannah's age so she will have some playmates that know what she is up to everyday.

The adventure continues. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for the coming school year.

We chose....

We finally chose what we will be doing with Hannah next year. Clint and I talked a few days ago and we decided we will try homeschooling Hannah for kindergarten. We will see how it goes and play it year by year. I think my greatest challenge will be keeping on task and making sure Hannah gets out of the house enough. I am hoping to get a piano in the house to start lessons on a real piano instead of the keyboard we use now.
I am leaning toward Singapore Math, but not sure yet what to use to help teach reading and spelling.
Let the journey begin.