Back to School & a Solar Eclipse

I can't believe it's time to start another school year. Summer seems to fly by, and yet by this point I am usually eager to get back to a schedule and routine. The kids start to fight and get bored and watch way too much TV. And I absolutely love fresh school supplies, new books, and newly organized binders and notebooks. (Maybe way more than the kids do!) This year, my 6th year homeschooling, we've decided to try things on our own, without Classical Conversations. We will probably be doing a co-op with some local friends, but it won't require travel or planning or outside work-- just a fun extra-curricular day for socialization. I am excited about all the things we'll learn together!!

I'm thankful they still humor me for a 1st day of school picture! They were all pretty excited about starting a new grade-- let's just hope the excitement doesn't wear off too quickly.

4th Grade seems so old! This year we're covering some brand new topics that I am excited about learning myself-- Latin and writing (not handwriting, but actually composing paragraphs and stories). We're also tackling American History, Geography (hopefully memorizing all the states & capitals), and Chemistry as a group-- Andrew and Abi will be participating, but of course will not be required to do as much as Leah. These are subjects I will have to study a great deal myself in order to teach, because I don't remember much at all from my school days.

Andrew is a pretty active boy who doesn't really like to work hard, but he CAN do great work when he tries. I got him a math book that I know will be harder for him, but I don't want him to be bored doing math I know he already gets. He will be learning cursive this year while still practicing on his print. I also really want him to get better at spelling, because that is a weaker subject for him. 

I'm calling Abigail's year "Junior Kindergarten," since technically her birthday is later and she doesn't make the cut-off for public school kindergarten. She will be going to the preschool again this year, but I still want her to get ahead on learning her letters and numbers, at the very least. She isn't quite ready for full-blown school work anyway, so really I'll just be using kindergarten materials at a slower pace to cover 2 years.

I've structured our day this year with four "blocks" of time (unspecified amounts, just however long it takes)-- each kid gets time working with me on subjects like spelling, grammar, or math; then they get an independent time for things like handwriting or other worksheets, then computer time for videos and educational games. The fourth block (which will most often be after lunch) will rotate between history, science, and geography. Of course this doesn't count reading aloud together, playing outside, running errands, piano lessons, dance, taekwando, arts & crafts and projects, and whatever else we do together that they can learn from!

Abi starts her day with her Calendar Notebook, where she's learning her days of the week, practicing numbers, and learning shapes & colors.

This little boy always proves to be a challenge in our school day. He won't really sit still, so he just goes around dumping out all his toys, making messes, filling his diaper at inconvenient times, and making lots of noise. It's a good thing he's cute! 

Everyone's favorite time this year is Computer Time. Leah's math program is all done on the computer. She will also be learning typing. For the others, I've found several educational websites that have games that will reinforce what they're already learning in other subjects, as well as YouTube videos. Of course, if they finish all their assigned computer work, they get to play a game of their choice, which is what they really like!

Our first day of school also happened to fall on the day of the highly acclaimed Solar Eclipse. While our state only experienced about 70% totality, a nearby town had a big party to celebrate, with bounce houses, free viewing glasses, popcorn & cotton candy. It was way cooler to look at then I had imagined it would be, and we were amazed at God's handiwork in creating the sun and the moon and the sky! Leah's BFF Apple was there to have fun with.

Jacob of course had no clue what was going on but LOVED bouncing in the bounce houses (with tons of big kids, by the way) and playing in the sandbox.

Fair & Field Days Year 4!

Fair & Field Days is always a favorite time of the year for us. The kids have specific things they like to see every year now and we look forward to it as a summer tradition. This year we got to go with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle BJ, Aunt Jenipher, and Elena, who were visiting at just the right time. And Brett didn't even have to work at the booth that day, though he'd been there the rest of the week.

Jacob loved the animals this year. He has already learned quite a few animal sounds so it was neat to see him put together the sounds with the real life animals. Of course he wanted to pet all of them.

A guy at the horse stables gave the kids some old ribbons. They were the best in show!

We see this magic show just about every year. He also does the same tricks every year, but for some reason the kids love him!

We got some lunch. Jacob finished up his chicken tender while we walked around the chicken tent. Oh, the irony!

The Children's Barnyard is always fun. They had a fun photo op on a saddle this year.

Then we got to do rides!! Abi was just tall enough to do almost all the rides they usually enjoy by herself this year! Brett went with them on most rides, but really Abi was fearless! She didn't hesitate to get on any of them! Even Leah was a little scared of the big slide and the roller coaster but Abi didn't think twice before running to get in line. What a big change from last year.

Jacob looks excited in this picture, but he was actually just watching Andrew and Abi as they waited for the ride to start. He was actually pretty mad he couldn't get on (although I'm not sure he would have enjoyed it if he could have gotten on). He was too small for anything, so Grandma & Grandpa took him to play in the corn box and walk around while the other kids finished up rides.

We sure did love having this sweet girl with us a couple days. Wish we could see her more!

Of course we also had to enjoy some Fair food. Jacob tried cotton candy (and couldn't get enough)! And of course we had fried bread dough. And the trip to the Maple Tent for creemees.  I try to take a pic there every year.

Jacob took one lick of my ice cream and then kept sticking his tongue out for more. I doubt I ate much!

The kids really enjoyed a new show this year with wild animals. They saw & learned about: a tortoise, a kangaroo, a chinchilla, a bullfrog, a crocodile, and a snake. Of course, Jacob got bored & went to climb around on the nearby tractors. He looks right at home!

Here's the whole gang at the beginning of our day! What a great day to be with family!

Word of Life Year 2

The last week of July I sent these two big kids off to summer camp. It was Leah's 2nd year, Andrew's 1st. Because Leah had told her brother all about the fun she had last year, he wasn't in the least bit nervous. He's never really been a clingy-type anyway, so he was just plain excited. He never once seemed like he would get homesick. And he didn't. He had a blast! (I doubt he showered much, and there's no way he ate like he should have, but what is camp for, right?)

A few other kids from our church went, although not many are close friends with Leah. They got to stay in a cabin together, though, so there was someone familiar nearby. I liked Leah's counselors and her cabin a lot better this year. Her counselor immediately greeted her and helped her get settled and then engaged the girls in a game to keep them busy until their next activity. Leah picked her bed then said goodbye, not nearly as nervous as she was last year. 

Leah & Andrew's cabins were right next door. I think they saw each other every day at meals. Andrew's counselor was great, also, and greeted him and for some reason gave him candy right from the start! 

The other kids got to pet a horse while we were settling in, and then, without a backward glance from the big kids, we were off.

It was awfully quiet at home for the week, with just two kids. We kept fairly busy and both were really well behaved because they had no one to bug all week. We were definitely glad to see Leah & Andrew when we got to go get them bright & early that Saturday, but they had a lot of great experiences and fun stories to tell. I'm so thankful they get the opportunity to enjoy summer camp, learning how to be on their own and make their own decisions! And I'm thankful for Word of Life and the things they teach our kids. I can't wait for many more years of summer fun for my kids!

Blueberry Picking

Wednesday we got up early as a family and went out to a place called Blueberry Hill, where tiny little blueberries grow wild over acres of mountainous land. It was a beautiful place, quiet and undisturbed, and it's free to pick all the blueberries you want. The only problem is they're tiny little things that take forever to pick so after about an hour and a half we ended up with only about 6 cups of blueberries. They taste much better than store-bought, though, and all the kids loved eating them, including Jacob, who won't touch a fruit (of course, when we got home we still wouldn't touch them, but there's just something about eating them right off the bush). We had some great blueberry dump cake and blueberry pancakes.