Plans for the 2010 School Year

(First day of homeschool co-op.)

For those of you interested in what we are learning around here on a regular basis, here is the inside scoop:

With Savannah we are working on:


Building her repertoire of little reader books, while working on sight words and phonics rules as they come up as we read together. Today she read an entire book all the way through that wasn't even an early reader-- we were so proud of her (not to mention how proud she was)! I love teaching her what exclamation points and apostrophe's are! It's just so much fun and she delights in learning to read and is so proud of herself.


Hooked on Math- we were given this curriculum from a friend and since my main goals this year are keeping her up to speed with reading and math, this is a great go to of songs, worksheets and games. She is really enjoying it!


We will be implementing some geography unit studies- where we learn geography and about other cultures around the world. We also learn about history, other cultures, landmarks, and indigenous flavors. I think these unit studies are a great way to learn and do some fun activities while the kids get a cornerstone understanding of the world around them. We will plan these randomly (as I'm 2 weeks out from having baby number 4, and when you homeschool, structured planned learning like this happens in seasons, especially when mommy is growing more future pupils :)


Continue working on penmanship, upper and lowercase.


Working on character and household responsibilities/ chores, bible stories and memory verses, crafts.


So far she's learned to count by fives and read time on a clock with hands- which was one of our goals for the year.



She is also taking a PE class, and Arts and Crafts class, and a "Globe trotters" class at our homeschool co-op. You can check our co-op out at http://www.ignitecoop.com/


Chemistry for little kids!

With Liam we are working on:

Playing lots and reading to him lots!

He will also come along for the ride when we delve into our unit studies.

He is working on drawing letters, but has a hard time with it so we never push it. He is so different from Savannah, but we know his pace is much slower and since he's not even pre-K age yet and is a boy, our main focus for him is creative play and working on character.

He knows his ABC's and many of the letter sounds and adds numbers in his head a lot. He is learning so much everyday just from being around when we teach his big sis.

He is also taking a Five ina Row class, a Music and Movement class and a Games and Recreation class at our co-op.


So those are our regular activities for the most part, that we will implement throughout the school year. I'm sure I'll let you in on of our geography based unit studies soon. I think Nick is itching to do one on Asia so he can have an excuse to order Chinese takeout, learn how to make something Asian at home (other than stir fry), watch Anime with the kids and take them to the Super Cao Win supermarket. He loves Asian culture.

We are excited for another "school" year!

We made donuts on the first day of school!!

What? Don’t they look delicious? They’re donut holes. OK, they're a little burnt. You’re NOT planning on coming over anytime soon to eat our homemade donuts? :)

Let me tell you about our tradition that started last year. On the first day of real “school” in our town, we celebrate at home by doing something we would never be able to do if we were rushing around, packing lunches and getting first-day-of-school snazzy and flying out the door to fight school traffic.

Just so you understand, I think the first-day-of-public-school excitement is wonderful. It’s a mixture of flutters, a crisp new outfit, that new backpack and pencils smell, promise and excitement for what the year will bring, new friends to meet, a cool new lunch box full of goodies. And to be honest, my kids miss out on all this. So to compensate and have something of our own to celebrate on this day, we celebrate along with our town, at home, doing something we could never do if we didn’t homeschool.

Last year we did this in the early morning on the first day of school:

We had a huge rainstorm while everyone in the neighborhood was rushing off towards town, and we sat back and enjoyed it…
And learned about precipitation and evaporation…

How God made this freshwater cycle and how it’s perfect and good…

And I learned that getting to stay home with my 3 small children and teach them intentionally is not only a blessing to me, but a flat-out luxury.

Now that doesn’t mean that being a stay at home, homeschooling mother of 3 (almost 4) is just a bunch of sitting around basking in luxury…

Case in point, the burnt donut holes.

We decided this year we’d do something we’ve never done on the morning of the first day of school, and make donuts from scratch. We were so excited. I had my camera in my hand.

My kids were so disappointed when this is what they got.

This is what came out of the fryer, no matter what I did. I even turned the oil on several different heat settings. They would always burn and be 100% raw on the inside. The baby was fussy and clinging to my legs, my kitchen was covered in flour and that greasy-deep-fry smell. The kids were sad. I was exhausted from just having to stand up for that long.

We grumpily refrigerated the dough and planned on trying it again in a few hours after lunch with a much lower heat setting on the oil.

And they ended up being pretty…yummy. (Donut shop donuts are still way better).

We enjoyed the making of them this time, and the eating of them, too.

And we were able to celebrate the first day of school with the eating of our donuts, and go on to learn a few things and do a few school activities that day.

And that afternoon with my belly full of donuts (hey, I'm pregnant and I can eat as many donuts as I want, right?) I was secretly able to feel the luxury of having my children home, soaking them in, teaching them how to make donuts from scratch, teaching them so many other things.

Oh, and I also reminded my self several times about my not having to wait for 30 minutes in a line full of running, hot cars waiting to pick up my kids after school.

So the first-day-of-school tradition serves many purposes. The main purpose just might be for this Mom as she realizes that she's able to relax and make donuts from scratch with her children and remind herself of these moments of luxury when things get downright messy and hard around here.

And being humbled that even the moments of luxury, like this one, are never perfect.

Summer Happenings 2010!

Some of the things our gang has been up to this summer...

On the school- front, Savannah and I have been spending these hot afternoons together, indoors while the other two sleep to work on her reading, which includes phonics worksheets and reading games (thank you, Internet for letting this pregnant mom rest while my child learns about reading from cartoon characters). We also spend the most time on reading books together, which at this point means she reads them, slowly to me, and I help out when she needs me. I love these sweet, alone moments with her, and she is so proud of herself.

She has also been swimming like a fish / “mermaid” every chance she gets, picking our vegetables for us, enjoying the new super girly room she shares with her sister, wearing dresses all day, everyday, and organizing her purses like she’s going on several trips at once that will each require separate and certain types of belongings (keys, marbles, lip gloss, hair bands, polly pockets, brushes, calculators, etc.)

Enjoying the fruits of her labor.

We have kicked up the learning activities with Liam, working on his letter sounds and his drawing skills. He feels so important being included in with his sis on “school” activities.

We learned a lot about amphibians this summer, including their life cycle and environmental needs. Liam raised some tadpoles and he a Savannah saw them develop into baby frogs! Here he is showing them off to neighbors.



In his free time, Liam has been in immersed in his summery world full of froggy frog (toad) catching and detaining, baseball with his dad, bug hunting, and finding flowers around here for his sister and mommy. I love that sweaty, sweet boy and all his over-the-top boyishness.
Playing golf, another favorite pastime.

And Felicity- well- she's just a certified big girl now!

She is now walking all over the place and struts her stuff like the big girl she thinks she is..

She is already good at screaming "Mine!" as she runs away from her siblings with one of their toys, squealing a sassy "Nooo!" when I ask her to give me a kiss, and trying to sing and do the hand motions for "Itsy Bitsy Spider".

Baby peek-a-boo!




We’ve also enjoyed a great summer harvest of some yummy fruits and vegetables (did you know anything is a fruit if it has a reproductive structure in or on it? e.g. seeds, kernels, etc)

And I, in the midst of the hustle and bustle, continue to grow this sweet little baby boy that we are all anxious to meet.

And try to find moments of rest, like this one, to reflect and enjoy this summer before it's gone.

Thank you for putting up the hammock, Daddy, we all enjoy it!

Happy Late Summer everyone!

Before and After...

This is half of our kitchen, before....

and after...

I am in love with my cooking, baking side of the kitchen, and I am forever thankful to my handy husband who is willing and actually enjoys remoldeling with old stuff.

Like I told him the other day, "I'm so glad we enjoy doing these projects together!", long period of silence on his part, and me realizing I needed to change my wording, "Or, I mean, you doing the work and me liking it when it's done".

Summer happenings post coming soon, we've had such a great, blessed summer (even though the van's broken down and I'm huge and hot ALL THE TIME!).

My girl's spring birthdays!

I have been so delinquent in my posting for this blog, not sure if anyone noticed but I do, sometimes late at night but I never do anything to remedy it!

But today is a sunny Friday and it seems like a day for accomplishments (including painting the trim in Savannah's room) so I'll go ahead and share the very- late pics of Savannah and Felicity's birthday parties!

Both of my girls have birthdays in the spring. So April and May are very girly, birthday festivity happening months, and I love it.

Savannah turned 6, and wanted a park birthday, so we planned it and when the day of the party rolled around it just rained, and rained, and never stopped. But we stuck it out, and so did her guests and we all had a fun/ wet/ chilly/ at-least-the-pizza-was-warm-and-dry night. She wanted a diamond castle cake so she, Liam and I worked on it all day together (honestly they did most of the work, with me hovering tightly over them) with half lemon and half vanilla. They even placed the little diamond and castle cake toppers themselves and sprinkled it. Just making the cake was one of the funnest things we did that day! Savannah had all of those details planned months in advance. Savannah felt so special, and that is all that mattered.

Does that candle SERIOUSLY have a six on it? Isn't she still a baby? No?

Warm pizza!

The present huddle.


Braving the rain!

Felicity is now a one year old and that fact still shocks me sometimes. We celebrated her birthday out at the house on a Saturday evening and had burgers, the fixings, cupcakes and cherry chocolate chip cookies (one of the the best cookies, ever!). Her theme was "Flower of the Prairie" and we had wildflower bouquets full of flowers that her Nanna and Mema brought and that the kids hunted down around our property

The wind wrecked havoc on our floating flowers.

Birthday girl!

Savannah on the deck that Poppy built in half a day for us!! No more stepping out onto a little rock and then dirt! Thanks Poppy!!



Felicity LOVES these "Di Dat" (kitty cat) PJs and couldn't get enough of them!

I don't think I have ever seen a one year old have so much fun at her party. Every inch of her knew it was her party, and she flirted and was cute to all of the guests and actually opened every single present with me and examined each one! She had an absolute ball.

My sweet girls are growing up at super speed right before my eyes and it's hard to take! I am so blessed to watch them grow and see their personalities unfold and get to know who God designed the to be more and more each day, but I always have that bittersweet feeling that every mother knows at the same time.

I truly believe these two girls are two of the most incredible girls in this world, and I am so blessed that I'm their mother. That I get to love them, fill their tummy's, change their diapers (not Savannah anymore :) kiss their boo boos, help them clean their rooms, fix their hair, pick out their clothes in the morning, educate them, teach them about our God and how wonderful he made this world, brush their teeth, and protect them from their equally as awesome but completely pestering little brother.

Here's to another beautiful year with my girls :)

What have we been up to??

When things are pretty quiet on this blog it usually means we've been up to a lot, and there just aren't enough moments in the day to give us the time to keep up here! And when Momma (me) gets the time at the end of the day while Nick's playing with the kids, Momma is reading and resting. But, for those of you who want to know what we've been up to, here's a synopsis:

The kids have been enjoying all the winter snow, and we even had a day where we went "sleuthing" around the backyard, using high tech detective skills (animal track identification) to see what creatures had been romping around back there and what they must have been doing.

This included a pack of dogs--or could they be coyotes, heading back to the fields from a night time hunt through the neigborhood. We determined that that was the most plausible explanation.

We also noticed numerous bird tracks, we're talking hundreds here, that were lingering around where the cow had been weeks ago. We were quite stumped as to why. They hadn't been where her food was, they were where, ahem, where she used the bathroom.

We also noticed that a stranger (neighbor kid) had been lurking back there. If these neighbor kids weren't so great we might have been disturbed.

Savannah and I (Liam gets bits and pieces) have been enjoying delving into the Little House on the Prairie books. Such a wonderful childhood classic. She really gets into it (so do I) and what's neat is that our family has actually done some of the old techniques that they do in the book.

Savannah is continuing her "learning to read" adventure, which includes us reading lots of books together, working together on reading workbook exercises when the rest of the house is napping, and now we are challenging her to read a set number of new words a day, whether they be on food containers, signs, toys, etc.

Liam is working on tracing workbooks, which he loves! Oh, and he's playing plenty of cars and appropriately wearing out the knees of all of his pants.

On another note, recently, by finding a listing on craigslist for free barn wood, Nick, his Dad, and brother went out to the middle of nowhere to bring back all sorts of stuff, barn wood for refurbishing, an antique Westernware vase, wagon wheels, vintage advertisements, antique windows, antique doors (we're talking skeleton key hardware here and peeling depression blue paint- the things my dreams are made of), all for free because the landowner thinks it's junk, and well, to him, it is.




While raiding the junk, Nick met a neighboring cattle farmer who is about to tear down 4 very old homesteads and gave him his card so we can raid them for all there worth, door and cabinet hardware, antique lighting, who knows? May turn out to be just a neat experience. I can't explain how much we love old things. Nick and I both sigh when we see old homes being torn down, silently hoping someone got to take advantage of the antique treasures that might be in them.






Other things that have been going on, well we went to the zoo on spring break with Nana, which just so happens to be a tradition she started with me over 20 years ago, and a tradition which we all love to keep up. The kids had so much fun...
Nana with all 3 grands, Felicity loved the baby bunny.



The kids enjoyed exploring the new children's zoo that just opened...





And then the next day, Nick and the older kids took off for a camping trip to the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge with some of our good friends and their kids (it was all Dad's and kids, they had a blast).

The kids look like they're about 2 inches away from a dangerous fall.
"Wait for ME!" says Liam.
The dam.

The campsite at breakfast- they look like they are having sooo much fun here!
Ready for the days adventures with Savannah's BFF Sidney.


Awesome Dad.

Liam thinks the world of little Kayman (the girl in the striped pants), when he saw her for the first time that day he said "Kayman you look beautiful". No other girl gets that kind of attention from him. We've warned her parents ;)



Seeing the buffalo.





That's a quick run down on some of the things we've been up to, spring weather is here and we have been enjoying it, about to get some veggies in the ground:)