Merry Christmas!!!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas
(Or whatever Holiday YOU may celebrate!)

We took the day off of schooling for Christmas, but we are getting right back to work today to work towards those make-up days! Santa left a note that he would like to see us working a few more days per week, but other than that he is really proud of us! We are going to work REALLY hard this week!
We got lots of cool things for Christmas but some of our favorites were a slightly larger outdoor pool than we had last summer so that we can use that as P.E., we got an indoor trampoline to add to our outdoor trampoline (also for P.E. purposes), we got lots of toys of course, but we also got some board games because those are great for learning AND fun! Brandon still says his favorite gifts are his keyboard, and his homemade gift that Mom made him (a parking garage made from toilet paper rolls, I got the idea off of pintrest although mine looks not nearly as cool as pintrests did LOL), and the trampoline. Jacob's favorite gift was the trampoline.
It was a good year, we thank God for blessing us with so many luxuries on top of the comforts of having our every day needs met. We are in a good place right now, and we do not forget how quickly or easily that can change. We are grateful for everything we have, big and small! 

November/December in Review

November and December. Wow. We had a crazy couple of months. Grandbaby #2 came early. So our planned time off to adjust came early too. 

Two weeks off for that. 

Two weeks off for Stomach Flu/Upper Respiratory Infections

One Week off for Testing for Brandon 

It FLEW by. Before we knew it, we had taken an unplanned two month break off of school! Sure, we did SOME school work in between, a week here, a few days there, but nothing that amounted to much. It truly was like a whirlwind. 

But I am VERY happy to say, we are settled back in, back on track, and even though the Christmas holiday is upon us, we are working through getting things done. Even Grandbaby # 2 (Her name is BrayLyn by the way) has made her place in our household. I don't have many pictures to share, but I will of course share a few! 

We hope you will join us as we jump back in for a new month (and a new YEAR)! 

See you in January! 

BrayLyn is born early but she is healthy and soon joins us at home. 

She has to go back to the hospital for a some suntanning but comes back to us healthy. 

Ricky Welcomes BrayLyn into the Family! 

BrayLyn celebrates One Month!

Brandon has to get some testing done because he is having some growth hormone delays. 

We are slowly getting back to our schedule though :) We talked about the formation for rocks and the formation of fossils. We made Dinosaur Fossil Cookies and they were super tasty!

We are also continuing on our virtual road trip! We are loving it so far. Mom also added a subscription to Little Passports America Addition, which is super fun! We just keep finding more and more supplements to add to the fun!

Mom has been a little stressed because we are taking out time with our math lessons, but she tries to remember that it is not a race to the finish line and that each kid learns at his/her own pace. The important thing is we are now learning in a stress free environment, we are spending quality time together as a family, and we are all MUCH MUCH happier as a family unit. And math aside, there have been improvements in SO many other areas. All in all things are going great! We are really excited to see what 2016 has in store for us! 

October In Review

Although we had a very busy month in October, we don't have many pictures to share. We had a lot going on this month and taking pictures each day just kind of got away from me. We had my daughters baby shower that I hand made decorations for (WOW that was a LOT of work), and now my grandson is also doing a bit of tot school each day (about 5 to 10 minutes out of the whole day), which you wouldn't think would take up a lot of time, but to prepare for, and then clean up the activity, that adds a lot of time to my day. I do promise to get back into picture taking routine for November, however, don't plan on that lasting long as we are expecting grandbaby #2 ANY time between now and December 1st (she is wanting to come early), and when she comes we will be taking some time off of school to adjust to having her here daily as well.

Anyway......we are still LOVING Time4Learning. We miss the stories from the L.A. Extensions that we had in the second grade level, but we are slowly adjusting the the 3rd grade L.A. Extensions level, and as we add in our own supplements it becomes more fun every day. We do not do the science and social studies that Time4Learning provides as the boys found it a little dry and boring, so we supplement there as well. The program as a whole though works GREAT for our family and we couldn't be more happy with it. It is definitely worth every penny. 

Here are a couple of pictures that we did manage to get in this month! 

Grandbaby Ricky enjoys a few minutes of all the attention on himself. He loves learning along with the boys. This month he practiced the color Red, the letter A, and learned the word Apple. 

This month we added a BIG trampoline to our yard for P.E/Break Time. This will go great with the slightly larger pool they are getting for Christmas...Shhhh.....that is a secret! It is still a small pool as we do not have a yard large enough for a large pool AND a big trampoline, but it will be big enough for them to swim around in! 

Of course we took a day off to visit the Pumpkin Patch! Why go on the weekend when it is packed? Let's go on a weekday when it is empty! 

Collecting Postcards for our Virtual Roadtrip. You can find the lesson for this by clicking the Road Trip Binder.

We have a few postcards so far. We will add these to our portfolio and to our bulletin board in our home classroom! 

And a fun Art Project/Writing Prompt about Pumpkins!

We fount the idea for these here (Image Linked):

Well we hope you enjoyed our Month of October in Review! And in case you are wondering what kind of SUPER COOL costumes we will be rocking for Halloween this year, we will be:

Steve and Creeper from Minecraft! 

Happy Halloween! 

September in Review

Wow. I cannot believe I am already looking back at the month of September. Seriously, did I sleep through the whole month? It went by in a flash! We did so many fun things this month, and we are making lots of transitions!

This second year of homeschooling is SO much different from the first, in a GOOD way. We are ALL so much more relaxed and we are truly enjoying our time together, even on the rough days. I don't want to paint a picture that it is all smiles and roses however, because we DO indeed have some very bad days. We are actually quite used to bumps in our day because with Jacob's Autism and Mood Disorder diagnosis, come unstable moods. This sometimes leads to moments of frustration, but those soon end, and we get back on track and get back to work.

Sometimes when those days pop up we have to step back, take it easy, and scale back for the day. We take breaks when we need them. We work hard when we have the energy and focus. Sometimes we take a fun day and do things like go to the state fair!

I cannot say enough how proud I am of my boys. They have worked incredibly hard this month and have put forth a ton of effort into their work. I can see them starting to take pride in what they are doing rather than just trying to get it done as quickly as possible which tells me that they are beginning to actually enjoy the learning experience! We are doing it RIGHT! HOORAY! 

When we first began homeschooling, I feared that we would somehow fail our children, that somehow I was not "smart" enough to teach them. What I did not realize was that I did not need to be a professor to teach my children, I am their Mother, and it is my instinct to teach them. They also naturally want to learn. Between my motherly instinct to teach, and their instinct to learn, how could I have ever thought I could fail? LOL Don't get me wrong, I still have days that I wonder if I have made the right choice, as I am sure most homeschool families do, but at the end of the day, when it is quiet, and I go over the days events, I am always 100% sure that I am absolutely doing the right thing! 

Anyway, enough of me going on and on! Here are some highlights from September! 

Exploding volcanoes with Dad is SUPER fun. (Notice Brandon's face protection LOL) 

A donation of used books from a dear friend was MUCH appreciated!

How my children eat lunch. Jacob chooses to eat under the table, (Related to his Autism) while Brandon watches some YouTube! On today's menu, McDonald's! Yummy. 

Working with word parts.

We took a day off to clean up damage from a big wind storm! Brandon was a BIG helper!

With LOTS of practice, AND patience, Jacob can do his writing assignments with SMILES most days! He works hard to add details to his work and he takes pride in neatness, something he did not care at all about just a year ago! I am SO impressed! 

The twins made themselves some hot cocoa cups for the cooler weather that we have been having, and grandbaby made and "I Love Mom" coffee cup for his Mommy. (My kids are never dressed hence the batman shield over my sons chest WHICH I did not noticed matched his twin brother's hat until AFTER I posted this blog! Hahaha)

We had so much fun making Toilet Paper Roll Monsters!

The boys LOVE the library despite the pained look on Jacob's face (he hates when I interrupt for pictures LOL)

Jacob is SO proud that he is able to read and comprehend much more easily these days!

Lots, and Lots, and Lots of school work! 

And LOTS of books!

We had a REALLY good month in September, and we are looking forward to another good month in October! We are definitely settled into this years routine and are loving it so far! We hope you will come back next month to see what we have been up to! 

Coming Soon............

Coming Soon......September In Review! I promise it is on my To-Do List, we have been busy, busy, busy! I am going to try my very hardest to squeeze it in tomorrow!

August in Review

August was a really great month. We have transitioned from "Summer School" to our "Full Time" school year schedule now that public schools are back to school for the year. The boys are still catching up from our LONG move over the summer, and we are currently working on finishing up the last of the 2nd grade Language Arts and Language Arts Extensions before we transition into the 3rd Grade Curriculum. We are in no hurry, as long as we are making steady progress, that is really all that matters. It will take us a little while longer to transition to the third grade math, but that's ok too, as the Time4Learning curriculum is a little more advance than what the boys were learning in the traditional schools. 

Here are some of our highlights from the month of August! 

We went to the local museum and seen the Lustron House....

We also seen the Iron Lung machine.....

 And some other fun things from the past! We had a great time

learning and exploring. 

 Lots of worksheet practice

 Play at the park! 

 Bible Study of course! 

 Art Fun!

 More fun at the park!

 Learning with real money instead of worksheets is SO much easier. 

 Water Balloon Target Practice for P.E.

 Social Studies/Art Lesson Vikings! 

 And some Story Sequencing. 

It has been a really great month. We are looking forward to September, cooler weather, and hopefully more time outdoors! Autumn is my favorite time of year, I am really excited for the next couple of months!

Tot School in Action

Ricky is ready to start "learning". He has been increasingly interested in what we are doing while we are working on schoolwork. Just a few short months ago, he couldn't care less what we were doing, and he just wanted to play (of course), but now when the bigger boys are working on school, Ricky wants to be involved. Time to hit pintrest for some Early Learning activities! As I have said before in my blog, it is NEVER too early to start learning, and Ricky is certainly showing interest.
On this day while we did school, Ricky worked on some "pre writing". He wrote a very sweet "letter" to his Mommy and Daddy while visiting at Grandma's house for the afternoon. I think it is pretty amazing that this is the first time he has ever picked up a crayon, and he actually held them in his hands to "write". What a smart grandbaby I have on my hands. :)

"Pre Writing"

This actually kept him busy for quite some time. I had to teach him the rules of crayons...."Crayons are for drawing, not throwing Ricky", "Ricky, crayons taste yucky, how about we eat a snack instead", "Ricky we draw on paper, not Nana's book shelves", but he did mostly stick to the paper. I was proud. 

When he was all done writing (about 10 minutes later) he went on to play again. I was surprised the "writing" held his attention as long as it did. Good Job buddy! 

"Play Time"