Fieldtrip

We went on our first home school field trip with our local Christian Home School group on Tuesday. It was soooo much fun! We had a picnic, rode a tractor to pick pumpkins from the patch, shucked Indian corn, fed animals, played on tractors and enjoy the beautiful farm.
A special thanks to our friend Pear (Kari) who helped make it happen. 3 kids would have been too much on my own but it was a lot of fun with Pear (Siah named her and it has stuck).

Have I mentioned how much I love homeschooling... I do! We're having so much fun and learning a ton. Today Siah started telling me what letters were on the flashcards and what sounds they make... I haven't been working with him but he's been watching. I was really surprise. Tori is now able to read short sentences and she only started her reading curriculum last week. It's so fun to watch them learn.

*baby girl's face has been blocked so I can share these pictures. If you want to see how cute she is, let me know and I'll give you access to our private blog.

Hungry Caterpillar

Home schooling has been many things-  challenging  I'm still figuring out my teaching style while trying to determine Tori's learning style and how to make it all work together with some sort of schedule so we are not all exhausted.  It's been enlightening- I had know idea there were so many different educational philosophies.  I'd never really thought about it before and now I'm constantly researching and figuring out what I agree with and what I want to implement in our school.  There are some wonderful ideas and I know Tori is going to greatly benefit from this school experience.  Most importantly- it's fun-I didn't know I was going to enjoy this so much.  Tori loves to learn this way and Siah is picking up on a lot of things too.  I usually set aside the morning hours while baby girl takes her am nap.  We read together everday on the hammock or trampoline. Bake. Do tons of art projects.  Learn letters.  Math. social studies. Science and nature study.

Hungry Caterpillar week.  Lessons learned from this simple book- numbers 1 to 5, days of the week, healthy food choices, metamophisis and plenty of art projects.



We even made him a caterpillar.



School- our way

I had no idea we'd all love home school as much as we do.  Our days are usually so calm and fun.  Tori LOVES to learn so this is really working out for us as a family.  I read a great book called, Beyond Survival- An Guide to Abundant-Life Homeschooling and it really gave me confidence and an excitement for home educating.  Here are a few of the things we've done recently.

Wind experiment with sand and water-
We watched Sid the Science kid and they did this experiment so we copied it and then researched sand dunes and waves on-line to see more examples.  I found a great website called ZuiTube and it's Utube videos that have been reviewed and deemed appropriate for children.  We then experimented with pinwheels and made some of our own.  I'll post a picture of those soon cause they turned out super cute too.

Learning by computer

Not so happy about the tomato "sail" on his veggie boat.  Tori's idea for a snack on our wind experiment day.

Field Trip- on the day we brought our little girl home we stopped at a geyser and little farm.  Every opportunity is a learning opportunity if you're thinking that way.

They're all involved in learning their letters.

Home School

I just ordered the books I'm planning to use for home schooling Tori this coming year. I'm so excited! I want to learn all this stuff myself. The science book looks amazing (Apologia Science). (Grandpa, you're gonna love this too!) She's really into science so I researched this a lot. Preparing has been consuming me for a while now as I was trying to figure out the best curriculum. I think I picked out some great materials. There are so many amazing things out there to chose from. We'll use the reading and math programs that many of the schools around here use (ZooPhonics, Explode the Code and Singapore Math) but I've switched up the social studies/history/science/ curriculum to include a biblical point of view.

Oh, and I just discovered that on the PBS website they have experiments and activities that correlate with each episode of the programs we like to watch like dinosaur train, Sid the Science Kid, and many more. BONUS! Check it out.

We've both got a lot to learn but I'm really excited to start. Aug. 14th will be here very soon. She's already practicing school daily though.

Not sure how well I'll do with keeping up the blog but I'll try.