Getting Ready for a New School Year

Tomorrow is our first day of school. Trevor will be in 1st grade and McKenna will be working on a letter of the week preschool program. I have lots of fun and exciting things planned. There are so many things I love about homeschooling. One of my favorite things is that we are able to do more "out of the classroom" learning than kids in school. We will be doing a lot of learning from book work but I also have lots of other activities planned.
Here is a list of things Trevor will be learning this year:
Math (Abeka)
Science & Health (Abeka)
Reading, Writing, Spelling, English (Abeka)
Computer (I have several different programs he will be using)
Spanish (My Child Can Speak Spanish)
History & Geography (Abeka)
Bible (Abeka)
Literature (We will be reading the following books: "Charlotte's Web", "Stuart Little", "Trumpet of the Swan", "Mr. Popper's Penguins", "Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh", "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", & "Peter Pan")
Poetry ( Abeka & a study of Robert Louis Stevenson)
Nature Study (We will be working on the Junior Ranger Program with the Georgia State Parks)
Art (Abeka & studies of the following artists: John James Audubon, Claude Monet, Mary Cassatt, Carl Larsson, Maxfield Parrish, P. Buckley Marsh)
Music (We will be studying the following composers: Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky)
Obviously, we won't be working on every subject every day but we will work on them all throughout the year.
McKenna will be working on a letter of the week program. I found it on another blog that I follow. http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/letter-of-the-week. She has lots of great ideas for kids. I am sure I will be getting more stuff from her in the future.
We have joined a great homeschool care group. We have lots of field trips planned with them this year. We are also still involved in out playgroup which we will also be doing things with. I have also planned a few extra things too.
Here is a list of a few things I have planned for us to do for the year:
Children's plays put on by Patchwork Players at ASU, visit to a veterinary clinic, Augusta Canal boat ride & museum, Steed's Dairy Farm, Wild Turkey Federation
As you can see, homeschooling keeps us very busy but we love every minute of it. I will try to post updates about all the things we are learning.

Augusta Canal Field Trip

Our playgroup took a field trip to the Augusta Canal. We learned about how the canal was used to get supplies to and from the mills a long time ago. We also learned about Enterprise Mill and how cotton is used to make things.

Cousins & Friends

We had a fun weekend full of cousins and friends. Gavin spent the night on Saturday night and hung out with us for the day on Sunday. Kaylie came over Sunday to hang out with us. The boys had movie night Saturday night after McKenna went to bed. The movie choice...."Toy Story 3". This was an easy choice considering both boys love Toy Story.

On Sunday, Kaylie came over to hang out with us for the day. The weather was great so we pretty much spent the whole day outside. The kids ran around, played basketball, played on the swings, rode scooters and rode bikes.

Clogging

McKenna had another clogging performance at the Wrangler Family Festival when the rodeo was in town. She has been taking clogging lessons since last September and is doing really well with it. She is the youngest girl in the studio but seems to be picking up the steps. I am even more excited about how it has helped her socially. My once clingy child who would never leave my side has completely changed. She is much more sure of herself and very outgoing. I am definitely very happy that we made the decision to put her in the dance classes even though we thought she may be a little young.

This is a picture of some of the other girls in the studio.

Baby Shower

My sister, Nikki, is having a baby. She is due in March and is having a baby boy. She lives in North Carolina. Tiffanni, my younger sister, and I decided to drive up to North Carolina for Nikki's baby shower. We brought her daughter, Ryleigh, along with us. It was a nice drive up and a great day spent with two of my sisters. I am so excited to be an aunt again.

Little Mommy

McKenna has really been into playing with her baby dolls here lately. She got quite a few dolls and accessories for her birthday and a few more dolls for Christmas. I walked into the living room the other morning and she was sitting on the couch with one of her babies. She does not really name her babies. Most of them are referred to by color. However, she has named this one baby doll. Her name is Ryleigh. She named her after her baby cousin. Every time we see my sister, McKenna tells her that she wants Baby Ryleigh to come live with us. Obviously that is not going to happen so McKenna has her own Baby Ryleigh now.

On this morning, McKenna was feeding the baby a bottle. She very gently burped her when she was done and then put her down for a nap. I don't have any pictures of her putting the baby to bed because she is very adamant that the baby must be left alone during nap time so we don't wake her up.

I am absolutely loving this stage that McKenna is currently in. I love to see her little personality really coming out. She is a very caring, sympathetic, dramatic, active and smart little girl. I love that I get to be home with her to see all the cute little things she does during the day.

Happy New Year!!!!

We had an awesome 2010 and are looking forward to an awesome 2011. The weather outside this morning was beautiful. It rained this afternoon but we were able to get a good bit of outside time in before the rain started. McKenna got to try out her new scooter and her new roller skates that she got for Christmas. Trevor decided he wanted to practice some T-ball and then he helped Jimmy clean up the front yard. The rest of the day was spent just hanging out in the house and the kids playing with all their new toys they got for Christmas. Here are some pictures of our morning outside.