Wow! This summer FLEW by!

Ok, I wanted to do an end of summer post, featuring all of the things we have done since our last post, but HOLY MOLY we have done SO MUCH! LOL. So I will just hit on the highlights and let you in on the changes we have made (we are SO excited to share these with you!).

We read a LOT this summer, and I do mean A LOT. It was HOT, HOT, HOT here in Kansas this summer as it is every year, so we were either in the pool, or in the house. When your in the house you have to entertain yourself and one of the best ways to do that is with a good book. This one came with a treat (Good Thinkin' Mom)!

 

We played math games that were really fun! Jacob won. Brandon played so many times that he had a "math" casualty LOL Get it? A MATH casualty? Ok,Ok I need to work on my jokes. 

 

We are always sure to keep fun in our work. Even if we can't keep every day fun and messy, we try to make sure we make at least most of the days out of the ordinary. It keeps smiles on the kids faces and they never know what to expect! 

 

We had plenty of swim time until our pool decided to give us a ton of trouble. We decided next year we are going to stick to the public pool once a week! We will get more use for half the price! We spent a tone of time and a LOT of money trying to keep that sucker clean. 

 

Oh my gosh, the kids LOVED this worksheet. I wish I could remember where I found it so I could link you all up. I really need to get better about writing this stuff down *newbie homeschooler here*, I am pretty sure we found this on Pintrest though. The boys did their math review and then checked their answers themselves using the QR code app on the phone and they LOVED LOVED LOVED it! We will be doing more of these this year! 

 

We managed a second camping trip in, this time at the KOA in the cabin! YAY! It was SO nice! The boys were able to bring a friend along. They spent most of the three days in the pool and ALL THREE of them learned beginner swimming!!!! YOU GO KIDS! 

 

4th Of July would have normally been a day of school for us as we do not usually take holidays off. We save days off for when Dad is home since he works on the truck. However this 4th of July Dad happened to be home!! YAY! The kids enjoyed spending the day doing boy stuff!
 

 

I know this looks like a ton of cuteness mixed in with fun and stuff, but this is SERIOUS Tot School! We worked a hard 30 minutes on colors. As you can see from these pictures, I run a tight ship around here. No ONE was allowed inside the learning area except me and small toddler Ricky, and we worked hard and serious *snicker*.   JUST KIDDING! Ricky and I started playing in the ball pit while I was on break from teaching the other kids. I decided it was a great teaching opportunity. I asked him, "Throw me a pink ball please" and he would try. Sometimes he got it right, sometimes he did not. If he got it right I would jump up and down and act silly, if he did not I would just throw it back, smile and say Try Again. He had a BLAST! Soon Sissy Girl climbed in and started throwing balls, and then Uncle Jake who is NINE joined in the fun *ehem, I mean LEARNING*. 

*Ok, it WAS cute AND FUN!*

 

We are just beginning to dip our toes into multiplication. Our boys aren't quite ready yet, and we are NOT the kind of parents to push our kids to "keep up" with their peers (as long as they are making progress), so we will keep trying, and when it comes easy and natural to them, then that is when we will keep going with it. Until then, we practice, a LOT with the little numbers. 

 

Speaking of cute and fun, look at this boy and his masterpiece! His love of colors AND trucks helped him to create THIS! By the way, can you tell he LOVES to paint? It is his favorite! Unless it is on his hands, then he wants it off right NOW! LOL

 

Oh, this one is one of my FAVORITES! We were/are still studying ancient times. This day we were studying ancient cave paintings. The assignment was to gather things from outside that people might have used back in those times to paint. (flowers, sticks, weeds, etc) No paintbrushes was the point. We also used real mud as some of our paint. We wished we had clay in our area to use like they did back then, but that is not available in our area so I mixed paints that look like clays they might have used back then.  Jacob finished the cave off with vines, that was his OWN touch. I was so very impressed with that detail. I love how this turned out!

 

This day we had an art assignment to make boats. The boys were given instructions and they were to try to follow the instructions and see if they could follow those instructions and get their boats to float. The instructions were purposely made so that everybody would have to adjust their boat according to the weight of clay, tin foil, etc. that was used on the boat. The boys did not give up and each of them ended up with a floating boat! 

 

Now that the boys are getting bigger, we are doing less of the younger kid arts and crafts, and starting to get into the "bigger kid" stuff (with the two bigger kids anyway, I still have the grandbabies for the cutsie crafts). This day we were working on a "how to draw" assignment. We were working on a "how to draw an ox (not that I nor my husband thought it looked like an ox but more like a cow)". I thought both of the boys did an excellent job. 

 

And here we are at August!!!

We just ordered some shirts to take our pictures for this years school pictures. They should be here in about 7 days or so and after that I will pick a nice, not too terribly hot day, to take school pictures for this year. BOY oh boy do our blog pictures need updated LOL!

And finally to share our news with you all. We DID end up trying out that curriculum that we were talking about in our last blog post which you can find HERE. I am happy to say that ALL of us LOVE it! The best part about it is it is 100% FREE of charge. It is amazing!
I love that all of the lessons kind of mix in with each other. For an example: if you are working on Ancient art, you are also working on ancient history, and ancient music. If you are working on a certain area of math, there are worksheets AND websites that work on the same areas, ALL free of charge! It is just a lot of fun. The reading and language arts lessons also work together. It is just an amazing website. I honestly cannot believe this is free of charge. There is a donation button, but that is totally up to you whether or not you donate. I believe in my heart a small donation here and there throughout the year is in order, but that is just my own opinion! 

Just in case you want to check this amazing website out it is Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool. 

*I was NOT asked to do a review, I was not asked to post a link, nor am I affiliated with this website. I did NOT receive compensation of ANY kind for doing so!*

So there you have it! The end of summer and onto our next year of full school days again!
Have fun with YOUR school year!
If YOU have a blog, we would LOVE to follow along and see how your year goes! Just post a link to your blog in the comments!