I finally did it!!

Well I am very excited!! I ordered our Sonlight Core 5 this week. I was going to order it when we got our income tax, but we got some unexpected money this week (YEAH!) and I decided that I better go ahead and order while we had it. We are now anxiously awaiting our "box day". It will be our first one (woo-hoo). However, I will have plenty of time to organize everything and probably preread a few books because we will not start Core 5 until this summer or possibly the fall. I have a feeling that Nichole is going to want to start asap. If we do start in the summer we will probably drag one day into two until the fall. I have also ordered the Before five in a row IG for Jamie-Lynn. We have been just reading (most of) the BFIAR books over and over since the fall. I really think that she is ready to start rowing a few of them. Her favorites right now are: Goodnight Moon, Play with me, Jesse Bear What will you wear?, Caps for sale, The Carrot seed, and Going on a bear hunt. The rest of the books are a little over her head still. I think that if we keep it light she will really enjoy it. I really love the lapbooks, but i do not think that she is ready for them. Maybe just a few crafty ideas out of the book for now. As the new year rolls in, I have decided that I really need to be a little more consistent with this blog. This blog was really just for me to keep some memories and journaling of our hs, but since I posted my blog on my nook with The Homeschool Lounge, I guess I need to keep it up to date. I am not a very good writer, but I would like to get better.

Trick or Treat 2008

I know that this is a touchy subject for some, to "trick or treat" or not to "trick or treat". I have posted on another blog about this same subject and our family does participate in "trick or treating". As a child I remember this greatly anticipated day to be wonderful fun!!!! It was a day that my friends and I talked about long before the day would come. What are we going to dress up as? Who's party are we going to? This was never an evil day. I never even knew that was how it started. It was always just one day out of the year to have fun with your family and friends and be silly and get lots of candy!!!!! This year was a little different. The boys decided that they were to old now and they stayed behind and passed out candy. Our neighborhood is always one the places to go to on trick or treat! Our friends came over to walk with us. It was a fun night!!

Dalton, Erik, Nichole and Jamie-Lynn

Both of the girls were Tinkerbell

So CUTE!!!

Captain Hook (aka. Dad) and the girls

Holly and Nichole (they have been friends since they were 3)

Haylie and Jamie-Lynn (Haylie is Holly's sister and also Jamie's bestest friend)

Fun school pictures from the last couple of weeks

Nichole writing an ending to one of her short stories for Language Arts

Jamie-Lynn having some fun with shaving cream

Jamie-Lynn having some snuggle time with Dalton (aka - Dalt)

Snuggle time with Erik (aka - "Bubba")

I recently purchased a wonderful book called Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June R. Oberlander. It is a book that has weekly activites for your childs development from birth - age 5. It is a great book and we have been having fun with it. This is an activity from Age 2 week 27. We made a life size paper doll of Jamie-Lynn and she played dress-up with her. The learning goal was for Jamie to learn to dress her self. She had so much fun with this all week. In one picture below you see Jamie having tea with her paper doll.

Nichole working on her Science Project this week. Cell Cycles.

The girls had a blast painting their pumpkins. Now they want to have bigger pumpking to paint.

Jamie-Lynn having some snuggle and reading time with Daddy.

Erik ran in his first cross country race this week and even though he did not get the time that he wanted he did great! He ran a 19:20 3 mile race. We are so proud!!!!

Erik's Social Studies Project on Chinese Food

Erik had to do a project this week on Chinese Food for his World Cultures class. he wrote a wonderful paper and made this poster board (with a little help from me:):

What Nichole has been learning the last few weeks

Math - Adding, Subtracting, Multiplying & Dividing Fractions
Language Arts - Reading lots of short stories and summarizing them in paragraphs as well as creating her own endings.
Science - Studying Plant and Animal Cells
World Cultures - Studying Egypt
President Notebook - Studying President Washington
Spelling
Vocab
US Geography - Arkansas

A few pictures form our 2nd week of school

A look at a school day at our house:

Nichole is working hard on her school work and Jamie-Lynn is playing with her puzzles. O.K. I forgot to take a picture of the Jungle that we made in the living room to go wtih Jamie-Lynn's Letter of the week theme this week. Nichole set up the Jungle and they had a blast plaing in it. Nichole is having lots of fun "doing school" with Jamie!!! I think she is definitely a teacher in the making!!!

Nichole's studies this week:

Math:

Decimals: Adding, Subtracting, Multiplying & Dividing with decimals

Language Arts:

Studying Writing & Reading skills, Nichole read a story this week about two kids who go to school in the year 2115 and they find a "real" book with writing in it. There is more to the story but that part is where her assignment came from and she had to make a list of 10 items for a time capsule which we will be making up next week to put away until she gets married (that is if her daddy ever lets her date) lol. Here is her list:

I. Write a letter to myself- I will write a letter to myself reminding me of all the things I liked when I was eleven year old.
II. A poster of the Jonas Brothers [Jo Bros] – They are fantastic singers. They are my favorite band right now.
III. Dollar bill- I would put in a dollar bill because the design of money is changing.
IV. Receipts- I would put in a gas receipt and a grocery receipt from 2008 to compare prices.
V. Camera- I would put a disposable camera with film that has not been developed so I can develop it when we open it.
VI. Favorite outfit- I am putting my favorite outfit from now in my time capsule.
VII. Television guide- We will print a television guide and put it in the time capsule.
VIII. Disney/ American Girl magazines- I will put one of my favorite Disney magazines and one of my favorite American Girl magazines in the time capsule.
IX. A picture- A picture of my dad and I about to take off on a motorcycle ride for a daddy daughter date, one of my favorite things to do with my dad.
X. A family picture- A picture of Mom, Dad, Dalton, Erik, Jamie-Lynn, and I.

Science:

Studying the question; What is Science? and What is a Scientist? Learned about many Scientist and thier discoveries/inventions.

Jamie-Lynn playing with her Melissa & Doug wooden dress up dolls that her Mena gave her. She LOVES these. As you can tell we LOVE Melissa & Doug toys. We have many many of them and lots more on my "wish list" on Amazon.

Jamie-Lynn playing with her Melissa & Doug puzzles. She has now mastered these!

Just a really CUTE picture of Jamie-Lynn!

Family Fun Project

This was a fun little project that we hung up on the living room wall. The girls had a blast and the boys well lets just say, I got them to do it :).

Summary of our first week

Well we had an interesting first week of school. I have already posted about our first day. We had no internet all day, so Nichole (6th grade) who is doing most of her school online with Florida Virtual School had a great 1st day (no school)! We did have a great day with the baby though. Nichole is really enjoying her job as assistant teacher for her sister. Nichole is in charge of Jamie's morning devotions out of the Little visits for Toddlers one year devotions book. Nichole has named this "circle time". Jamie-Lynn is already waking up in the morning asking for circle time. It is so sweet watching the girls together. The rest of the week did not get much better as far as getting anything done thanks to Fay. That is, tropical storm Fay. Since Erik (10th grade) is going to public school and school was cancelled for Thurs and Fri, Nichole felt like she should not have to do school. So, we just laid back and took it easy all week. We did accomplish finishing Jamie-Lynn's first week of Letter of the Week and I have posted a picture of her first poster below. She really retained what we learned more than I thought she would. She knows that a calf is a baby cow. She knows what a square is and she is picking out sqare shaped things around the house. She knows the number 1. Her color this week was green and she can pick out green things around the house. It is really neat to see how much they can actually learn at this age. I can't wait to start again next week!!!!




Having fun with finger paints!

Our Crazy First Day of School!

Well we had our first whole day of school today. Of course it was a crazy day! I woke up at 5:15 and got on the computer and we had no internet. I do not remember the last time that I could not connect to the internet and it has to happen on the first day of school. This puts a damper on our school day because most of Nichole's classes are online. Of course SHE was not disappointed :). So, I spent the entire day on the phone with the phone company and Dell just to have them blame it on each other. Well we finally fixed the problem just in time to go pick Erik up from school. She did finish up her school day when we got home. While we waited to get online, Nichole and I started Jamie-Lynn's Letter of the Week and her devotions. It was really sweet to watch Nichole "teaching" her baby sister. Jamie-Lynn learned that God gave us food and that a baby cow is called a calf. She started on the letter A and the number 1. Overall we had a wonderful first day. It was nice getting back to a schedule. I hope that it only gets better. I look forward to bonding with the girls and learning along with them. After school the girls made Banana Bread so of course I had to post some pictures. Oh my, I almost forgot to post about my wonderful great husband that brought home a new dishwasher today. It was a total surprise!!! I have not had one in 5 or 6 years. I mentioned to him a while back that once I start homeschooling I am probably going to need a dishwasher. I am so blessed to have the best husband and kids in the world!!!!

The official new school year is getting close. Next Monday is the first day of school. Nichole has been working on her math for the last several weeks so she is ahead of the game in math. She has touched on a few of the other subjects, but I am just letting her do what she wants in each subject until Monday. My goal this week is to get somewhat organized before Monday. Here is a list of my goals for this week:

Clean my bedroom
Go through our (mom & dad's) clothes for yard sale
Convert Jamie-Lynn's crib into the toddler bed
Clean kitchen cabinets
Clean oven
School shopping for Erik
Get all laundry done

We need to take a trip to the library to get some books for Jamie-Lynn with a cow theme for her first week of letter of the week. I am very excited to begin this with her! Erik needs to finish his book, Tuesday's with Morrrie for his summer reading. Nichole is finishing up one of her Dear America books and we are still trying to finish Helen Keller. I am thinking about taking a break from Helen Keller (since it is a little difficult to read) and starting the Little House series with Nichole. Helen Keller is very interesting, it is just a bit hard to read. Well I am sure that I will have lots to post in the next upcoming weeks as we "officially" begin our homeschooling journey!!

Jamie-Lynn's 2 yr old pictures

Our School Schedule for 2008-2009

M/T/W/F

5:30 - Mom wakes up (read bible, computer time, drink lots of coffee, make lunches)
6:00 - Wake Erik up
6:35 - Wake Nichole up
6:40 - Bring Erik to school
7:15 - Back home
7:20 - 8:00 - Breakfast
8:00 - 8:30 - Ckean-up, Everyone gets dressed
8:30 - 8:50 - Nichole & Jamie-Lynn's devotion time
8:50 - 9:30 - Science
9:30 - 10:10 - Language Arts
10:10 - 10:40 - Healthy snack, Nichole reads, Mom reads/plays with Jamie-Lynn
10:45 - 11:10 - Break, games, walk, outside time
11:15 - 11:45 - Lunch, clean-up
Get Jamie-Lynn down for a nap
11:45 - 12:25 - Math
12:30 - 1:10 - World Cultures

M/W/F -

1:10 - 1:40 - Spelling, Vocab, U.S. Geography

Tues-

1:10 - 1:40 - Presidents, Spanish, U.S. Geopgraphy

Thurs -

We have storytime and PE on Thurs so entire schedule TBD

1:40 - Pick up Erik

2:30 - 3:00 Erik and Nichole homework

Our Family trip to Islands of Adventure

We had the opportunity of a lifetime to go on a Family trip with our church to Universal Studios last week. The church got a great deal on a one night stay at a hotel and a one day park pass for just $45 per person. We just couldn't pass that up, and I am so glad that we didn't. We had so much fun. I have posted just a few of our pictures:



Jamie-Lynn and I spent alot of time in the Dr. Suess bookstore enjoying almost ALL the books and the air-conditioning :) while Nathan took the other 3 to enjoy all of the rollercoasters.


The Grinch

The Boys

The Girls

We are on our way!

Well Nichole has finished her first official school week. We are just taking it easy this summer. She is soing Spelling (Spelling Power), Vocab (Wordly Wise), and Geography (US Activity Book). She has done real well. I am very proud of her so far. I figure if I can get her started lightly, then she will ease right into the school year in the fall. So far she is motivated and excited. I hope that it stays that way. With Jamie-Lynn we are just reading lots of books. Erik is currently reading The Back Porch Swing and he will start on The Lord of the Rings series next.

It is Erik's 15th birthday today. Happy Birthday baby boy. We love you so much!!!!!

Books that we are reading right now

Me:

Karen Kingsbury - Return

Jamie-Lynn:

Lots & Lots, Here are some favorites:

Nichole and Mom:

Helen Keller

Nichole:

Dear America - The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung

Schools Out - Rachel Yoder- Always Trouble Somewhere by: Wanda E. Brunstetter

Erik:

Tuesdays with Morrie by:

Alas, Babylon by:

The Backporch Swing