First day of school 2012

This is my second year of homeschooling.  This year I have a second grader, kindergartner and 3 year old preschooler.  We will see how that goes.

I am still trying to decide if I want to keep the soon to be three year old at home while we homeschool.  Since I work at the afterschool program I get daycare for free, and I could take him in the mornings.  However, he is almost 3, and he is growing up so fast! He is my last "baby". So I really want him home with me.  I guess I can send him if there are days we are doing activities that would be easier without him, but again, he won't be three forever. This is my favorite age....yes I am babbling!

Ok, so back to our "first day of school".  I have been planning in my head and on Pinterest all summer. I still don't have our school room the way I want, but I was able to organize it this weekend.  I got everything ready for the first day.  I was so excited about JoAnna starting Kindergarten, if I had to be a teacher it would definitely be kindergarten!!!  I had so many fun things planned I wasn't sure if we would be able to fit them in one day.  Again another advantage of homeschooling, if we don't finish it in one day we can always pick up where we left off. 

Jacob's planning was much easier.  He is in second grade and for the most part its all business.  Not sure how I feel about that.  I feel I don't make his schooling fun enough.  I see teachers blog about the stuff they do in their classrooms and it's so creative and fun.  I want to try to do more fun things with him this year and less "work".  Does that make sense??

So here is our first day of school in pictures, hope you enjoy. Most of these ideas came from Pinterest, and I WILL post links to them once I find them all again!

JoAnna's first day of Kindergarten

This will be JoAnna's first year to homeschool.  Last year I sent her to preschool at the daycare.  It was my first year to homeschool and thought it would give me time to get into a routine.  Since I work at the afterschool program I get daycare for free, so I chose to send her to preschool.  Although she never arrived until her class was done with seat work, so poor thing didn't get much schooling at all last year. 

Jacob's first day of second grade

Jacob did great in first grade.  He is very easy to teach, although at times he can be very wiggly and talkative.  He learns fast and was easy to teach.

Jace's first day of 3 year old preschool at home

 Jace had his first day of 3 year old preschool last week at the daycare-but I didn't get a picture of that-shame on me.  I haven't decided for sure if I will keep him home everyday to homeschool with us.  I get daycare free so I could send him to preschool but I just miss him so much.  He is almost three and growing up so fast.

JoAnna mathing her uppercase letters to her lowercase letters.  She did very well at this.  We only have a few letters to work on.

Still working on the uppercase and lowercase letters.  These are only A-D.  Again she did well but she did have a little help since the pictures match as well.

Jacob working on his spelling words. 

JoAnna writting her letters A-E.

Jacob working on his Wordly Wise.  He was not thrilled.  This is new to us this year and I think it'll be great for him. 

JoAnna writting her numbers.  She was to roll the dice and then trace the number she rolled.  It's actually a game for multiple players but it worked well for her.  She counted the dots and then traced the correct number. 

Still working on the Wordly Wise

Jace playing with the tinker toys.  He stayed busy today, not so much on the school stuff as much as just getting into everything he could.

JoAnna starting on her tear paper apple. This took much longer than I had anticipated.  She wasn't happy that she could only use red on her "a". 

I was able to pull his tooth in between lessons.  this tooth has been hiding behind his front grown up tooth for a while.  I finally was able to pull it today!!! Guess we will get a visit from the tooth fairy tonight.

Jace working on his tear paper apple.  This is the most he worked on it, I ended up doing most of it.

Here is Jace putting on his one and only paper.

JoAnna still working on her tear paper apple.  She enjoyed this activity but again it seemed to take forever.

Jace working on writting his letters...yeah right.

Here is what he was really doing.  It's a start.

Almost done with that tear paper apple!!

Here is Jace's picture he drew on the dry erase board.  He wanted to take it to CC to show her. 

Here is JoAnna working on her playdough numbers and letters.  She was very excited to play with playdough and she did a great job. 

Jace playing with playdough.

Jacob working on his second grade math.  We actually started on second grade math at the end of last year.  He seems to be ahead of the book but I know there are some key things in the lessons that he needs to know and learn so we continue with this curriculum.

Jace and JoAnna playing with the sensory box.  It is filled with rice and objects staring with the letters A-E, the letters we are working on this week.  JoAnna knows all her upper case letters so we are reviewing them one a day.  Jace will need more work on his letters.

Close up of our sensory box.

Our story today was a  biography.  We discussed the difference between biography and autobiography.  Jacob was to pick five items that represented himself.  From left to right: 1.  a "good job" ribbon he made me this morning. He chose this because it has green on it-green is his favorite color.  2: a drawing pad, because he loves to draw.  3. A dice because he loves to play board games.  4. A golf ball because he loves to play sports.  5. Wii remote because he loves to play the Wii

Matching numbers to groups of objects.  She did this quick.

Jacob playing an Even-Odd dice game.  We had to choose if we were even or odd.  I was odd, he was even.  Then we took turns rolling the dice.  If you were odd and rolled an odd number you wrote it on the bottom rung of your ladder.  The first person to reach the treehouse was the winner.

JoAnna working on patters.  She really liked this box.  I took pictures this weekend and printed them out.  She had to pick a card and then match the patter. Found this on Pinterest with Mr. Potato Head http://pinterest.com/pin/89157267593621711/

"Star Friends" Jacob had to roll three dice, add the sums and mark off the correct sum on the star.  It also has Star Wars people at the bottom. Another cute idea from Pinterest!!

Jace playing with his flashlight.  He was tired and cranky at this point.

A little bubble fun after school.  We put a blanket on the floor so it would not get slippery.  They had a great time playing in the bubbles, which gave me a few minutes to get lunch ready. 

Cooking with my son

I got off work early today, @3:45!!  So we came home and Jacob and I cooked dinner.  First of all, it has been years since I have cooked a meal for my family.  Yes I cook for bunco from time to time, but since my kids are very picky and my husband isn't home at dinner time, well I just don't see the point in cooking for myself.  So I just eat whatever the kids will eat.

However, tonight I decided to cook dinner.  Once I started pulling stuff out, my 7 year old son was very excited and eagerly asked to help.  So we had a great time measuring, stirring, pouring and spending some great time together.  We will surely have to do this more often.  He also TRIED it.  We made Southwestern CHicken, a Weight Watchers recipe.  It had corn, tomatoes (which we pureed since I don't like chunky tomatoes), rice, cheese and chicken.  I don't think he would have tried it if he had not helped cook it.  I can't say the same for the other two.  They wouldn't touch it.  So they enjoyed a gourmet hot dog!! LOL.

Here he is with his first meal. Here is JoAnna making sculptures with her grapes. Anything to get these kids to eat!!!

Baby Birds

Last year we had a nest under our front porch. Three baby birds, two of which fell from the nest. We have no idea what happened to the third as the baby, male and female bird suddenly disappeared. I don't know if they moved the nest or if the third baby fell and the adults just left. Who knows. I don't even know for sure it was a male and female bird keeping watch. Anyway, this year they are back. They built a little addition to the old nest and now have four baby birds!! Here are a few pictures. I have no idea what kind of birds we have living on the front porch. If you know please leave a comment.

Feeding time, I think this is the female bird?

Mommy bird with wings spread

.

Daddy standing guard during feeding time (I think this is the male bird)


Here are a few pictures from last years nest.  You can tell the difference in the nest from last year to this year.  The new addition to the top of last years nest is darker than the bottom.  Does it look like the same bird to you??

Here is a picture from last year

Add caption

Here is a picture of the nest from last year

Training for The Susan G. Komen 3-day!!!

I call it "training" but we are just walking and increasing our distance right now. I need to be doing some resistance training, but haven't pulled out my machine yet-hoping I can slide it under my bed to keep the kids off of it. Last night we walked 6 miles in under 2 hours. Not bad considering the farthest I have walked has been 2.5 miles. I felt great. No pain whatsoever. Until I came home and fell asleep and woke up a few hours later. My left knee and pelvis was extremely painful. Even today my knee just feels like it is going to give out. My pelvis hurts if I lay down for an extended time and then get up. Hopefully I can work that soreness out. However I am concerned about my knee since it's been hurting on/off since Christmas.

Susan G. Komen 3day!!

My sister, two friends and myself are participating in the Susan G. Komen 3day!!! It will be held in Atlanta! We will walk 60 miles in 3 days and camp in a pink tent city for two nights! It is going to be a blast!!

IF I can raise the $2300 required to participate.  So here is a link to my website where you can go and donate money!!!  Check back frequently to keep up with my progress.  Feel free to pass it on to friends and family!!!

Geocaching

I finally got a chance to take the kids geocaching!! I haven't been in months and not consistently in about 5 YEARS!!! So it was GREAT to get back out there and find some caches. We have searched for about eight in the last few days but have only found four. I hate loggind DNF!!! My 7 year old son has really gotten into finding treasures too. He mostly likes the regular sized caches with "treasures". So we decided to create an account just for him!!! He is super excited!!!!

35 BEFORE 35

So this had now become my 35 BEFORE 35 list...since I didn't get everything done on my list..yet again!!! Why is it so hard for me to set goals and actually accomplish them?!?!



-->

1.run a 5k (not looking good)

2.buy a backup camera/backdrop equipment

3. make stepping stones with the kids

4.do a studio photo session/trash the dress session

5.go backpacking/kayaking

6.make a camera strap I bought one. Does that count?

7.take my kids camping and canoeing

8. make “MUG” gifts yeah! Made these for Christmas 2011! Potato Soup-Super good

9.sew something cutesy for my daughter

10.make wall art for the boy's room

11.paint a canvas for the mantel

12.photograph “alphabet” art

13. make a card table playhouse for the kids

14.lose the baby weight

15.organize my art room/closet/kids art closet. (I organized it 3 times-now if it could stay organized)

16. sew a crayon cozy

17. host a Wii party

18.scan old family photos

19.have a garage sell

20.vacation in the mountains

21.pay for someone else in line

22.find a letterbox/find 100 caches

24.plant an herb garden

25.go to a drive in movie

26.decorate my grandmother's sewing box

27.take my kids fishing. We didn't catch anything...but we are working on that.

28.design my own blog banner/tags

29.knit a hooded baby cocoon for portraits

30.finish knitting my daughters scarf to match her hat i made last winter/knit my boy's hats

33.design my tatoo - will decide later if I actually get it!! Thanks to Pinterest.com I have my tatoo design picked out.....hmmmm.

34.build my photography website /register my business name

35. Go on a mothers/ladies only weekend retreat/vacation!!!!

A few odds and ends....

I am so behind on posting...so here are a few things I have been working on lately...





Been letting the kids paint a good bit lately...they LOVE it!!




My kids all doing school work quietly at the SAME time!!!



A shamrock I painted with my sister and a good friend. The three of us made up 75% of the class. The other 25% was a 6 year old boy!! BWAHHHA



Here is JoAnna's 100th day of school t shirt. She loved eating all those tootsie rolls. Sure she shared "some" with her friends, but the majority of them found their way into the bottom of her school bag, which she would sneak into her bag every few minutes to get a tootsie roll. That baby girl LOVES candy...just like her Roo (Aunt Marissa)


Here are some Valentine treats we made for the kids teachers...they were a hit..I think anyways.



Here is the chore chart I made last week for the kids. And can I just say...I should have made this MONTHS ago. The first day I had it up Jacob was racing around trying to figure out what chores he could do, how much money he would get and how much of it he would spend at candy shop (every Friday the kids can bring money to spend on junk food at candy shop). This week, the same thing!! He is even helping JoAnna pick chores so she can have money to spend-especially since last week we had a melt down on Friday when she realized she had not done ANY chores and therefore didn't have any money for candy shop. Of course the great and wonderful mother I am -HA- I allowed her to have a dollar and told her she would have to do chores that night to make up for it.

Jacob's First Junior Division Karate Tournament

Now that Jacob is 7, he competes in the junior division karate tournament. They are put into different divisions (not sure how that is decided) and they compete against each other. He was placed in the "patterns" division. There were three competitors. He was awarded 1st place!!! Very excited for him. He works very hard on this patterns and combos (of which I am not sure the difference between the two). The second division he competed in he had to fight another child. They had padded "swords" and shields. They were awarded points for hitting their opponent in the leg or stomach. No points for the head or arms. If they hit at the same time no point was awarded. He and the kid went several rounds, sometimes scoring a point, sometimes not scoring. The score was tied at 1-1, then went 2-1, then tied again at 2-2, but the other kid won 3-2. But I am so proud of Jacob for hanging tough with the kid that appeared to be a few years older. He did great!!!

He should be wearing his Tiger belt (Orange with black stripe) but he lost it the week of the tournament and we have yet to find it :(