Getting Back to Our Routine

This past week we have been trying to get back into our normal routine. Between the holidays and then Jimmy being on vacation for a week we were totally out of our routine.

Monday, we had a snow themed day. We read some books about snow and then did some activities. The kids made snowflakes that we hung from the ceiling and then made snowmen by spelling their names. I had originally planned on the snowmen being an activity for the younger kids who are learning to spell their names but the big kids wanted to make

them too.

The rest of the week were just our regular school days. Trevor starts his days off with a journal writing activity. Then we have our Bible lesson. McKenna almost always joins in with this and sometimes some of the younger kids do too. They especially like the singing. Then Trevor does his Phonics lesson, a Reading lesson, some independent work activities, and a Writing lesson. Then we have snack and go outside to play. Then he has Math, another Reading lesson, and then we do either science, health, social studies, music, art or our read aloud book depending on what needs to be done. This week we read our read aloud book each day. After this we work on memorizing our poetry. Then we have lunch and quiet time. Trevor goes to his room for an hour each day to have some quiet time. He listens to books on CD during this time. When he gets up, he finishes his independent work and then does another activity. This could be Spanish lessons, poetry, piano lessons, or Cub Scout work. By this time, all the kids are up from nap and it is time for snack and some more outside time. Trevor has Cub Scouts on Monday nights and Basketball practice on Thursday nights.

McKenna is still working on her Letter of the Week activities. She has school on Monday, Wednesday & Friday during Trevor's independent work time. The rest of the time she either plays in her room or plays with the learning activities I set up in the living room. She has clogging on Tuesday nights and gymnastics on Wednesday nights.

I am currently babysitting two full-time children and one part-time child. One of the full-time kids is 2 and he does school on Tuesdays & Thursdays during Trevor's independent work time. The rest of the time he plays with McKenna or does some of the educational activities I set up in the living room. The other full-time child I have is 1 and she does school on Wednesday during Trevor's independent work time. The rest of the time she does the same things as McKenna. My part-time child comes on Mondays and Thursdays. She is only 1 and doesn't really do a school time with me yet. She plays or does the educational activities in the living room. The following are pictures of the younger kids playing and of Trevor doing one of his Writing lessons for the week.

On Saturday, Trevor had a basketball game and then we had movie night that evening. The following are pictures of the basketball game and of the kids eating their mac & cheese from Applebee's while watching their movie.

Happy new Year!!

Happy 2012!!!

Unfortunately, I have not been able to keep up with the posts on this blog in the way I was hoping. I am going to try to update it once a week with what we have done during the week.

This past week we had some great relaxing family time. Jimmy was off for the week so we were able to finish some projects around the house as well as have some fun family time. Monday, I cleaned all of the Christmas stuff up and Jimmy and the kids played with all of their new toys. Tuesday, Jimmy cleaned the storage area out back & finished laying the flooring in our attic. This was another project that was started a few years ago and never finished due to not having the time. I am excited to have some more storage space. Wednesday, Jimmy worked on a couple side jobs that he had promised to do while he was off work. Some friends that were in town from Michigan came by to visit for a couple hours that afternoon and then Jimmy & I went out to dinner with some other friends visiting from out of town. The kids spent the night with my mom while we were out with friends. Thursday, Jimmy had to go work on the race bike (that season will be starting very soon). I relaxed all morning and did nothing which is something I never get to do. My mom brought the kids home at lunchtime and then later that night Jimmy & I took the kids to Lights of the South. They had already been earlier this season so they were excited to get to show all of the cool things to Daddy. Friday, I went shopping and then went to the movies with my sister, Tiffanni and niece, Karson. We also went to lunch and the mall. It was nice to spend some girl time just hanging out and having fun. This is something we will being trying to do more of in the upcoming year. Saturday, Jimmy and Trevor went to an RC race and McKenna and I finished running some errands. I love that she loves to shop and hang out with Mommy. Last night, we made some snacks and just hung out at the house. Jimmy and I didn't make it to midnight. He had to be up early this morning to go out of town for a RC race. I woke up this morning not feeling well. I am pretty sure it is just a cold but I am trying to rest for the day. I will be cooking our traditional New Year's Day dinner. We are having ham, black eye peas, salad, cornbread and molten lava cake for dessert.

I didn't get any pictures from last week. This is another thing I will try to be better about this next year.

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.

Halloween Goodies

The kids received several Halloween goody bags from family this. Grandpa & Nana sent them each a bag. Aunt Tiffanni & Uncle Jason made them each a bag. Grandma & Papa sent them each a card. Usually I let the kids open the packages as we receive them but they have not felt well for most of the week so they have mainly been resting on the couch on week. So this morning, I let them open everything.

McKenna opening her bag from Grandpa & Nana.

Trevor opening his package from Grandpa & Nana.
Trevor opening his card from Grandma & Papa.

McKenna reading her card from Grandma & Papa.

Trevor opening his bag from Aunt Tiffanni & Uncle Jason.

McKenna opeing her bag from Aunt Tiffanni & Uncle Jason.

Bowling for Boobies

I recently joined up with a group of other women in the area to do some volunteer work. In October, we had several bake sales and a flea market. All proceeds went to support University Hospital Breast Health Center and the Alzheimer's Association. Last night, we held a Bowling for Boobies benefit at the local bowling alley. We had bowling, a costume contest, face painting, finger nail painting, crafts, a cake raffle and a raffle for a free photography session. We had tons of fun and raised a lot of money for the University Hospital Breast Health Center.

This is Kat being silly while we were setting up.
Showing my support in my pink cowgirl costume.
Jimmy brought the kids down.


The kids had a great time bowling.

Pumpkin Patch

We take the kids to the pumkin patch each year to pick pumpkins for Daddy to carve. This is always a lot of fun. Trevor gets very into finding the perfect pumpkin. McKenna has fun but doesn't too much care what her pumpkin looks like. We always get two pumpkins. We buy the little books with the stencils in them. We let each one of them pick out what picture they want on their pumpkin. Unfortunately it was later in the evening before we were able to go yesterday so we did not have time to carve the pumpkins last night. We will be doing that one night this week.

Pumpkin Painting

We always paint the little pumkins that we bring home from Camp Lakeside. This is something the kids look forward to every year.

Camp Lakeside

Every year, our playgroup takes a field trip to the pumpkin patch at Camp Lakeside. They have lots of fun activities for the kids. This year we went on a hayride, heard a story, tried pumpkin seeds, learned about how a pumpkin grows from a seed, picked out pumpkins and made a picture of a tree with fall leaves.

Hanging Out

We are so busy at home most of the time with school and everything else that I have a hard time remembering to take pictures. McKenna had a little cold last week and was not sleeping well at night. Finally it caught up to her and she was just really tired and cranky one day so I got her to lay around and rest. This was not an easy task for my active little one. She was so cute just laying on the couch and watching cartoons.

On this same day, Trevor was good at staying quiet while she was sleeping on and off during the day. He loves to sit at the table and play with just about anything. It is a lot of fun listening to him play because he is very imaginative and creative and you never know what game he may come up with next.

Surprise Party

Last weekend was one of my closest friends birthday. Jennifer is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. She has been a wonderful friend to me since we met 7 years ago. We surprised her with a party at Olive Garden. She was truly surprised and had a wonderful night.

Costume Birthday Party

Last weekend our friend, Robyn, had a birthday party for her daughter. Kaylie just turned 8 and wanted a costume party for her birthday. The kids had a lot of fun. They made cute little Halloween foam crafts, decorated cupcakes & had a costume contest.