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!!