Our First Week of School

Whewww!  We survived it!  And really, it went rather well.  I'm not sure what I was so worked up about!  This is what I looked like stressing out over the school year about to start!

Ha!  I can't believe I'm putting such a picture of me on here.  A friend had left her camera at my house and I had to surprise her with some funny pictures.  And I'm just trying to be real with you.  Heh.

I do wonder, though, what I even did with all that time that I am now using towards school!  I guess I spent a lot of the summer getting ready!  One thing that has really helped me this year is my super organization.  The shelves and the system I have worked out for them has been the key!  And organization for me has been very important, too.



I have everything mapped out for the year.  Lessons plans will come about every week or every two weeks at a time, but at least I know what my year will look like.

This is what our lessons plans looked like this week...

The morning routine even worked out well!  I got up (some days easier than others!) and we were started by 10 when I wanted to.  We like the morning notebook, although the first few days they weren't so sure about it.

We got through 5 lessons of our main curriculum.  Only 155 of those to go!  Andrew likes to do most of his work just like this...



It wasn't exactly easy to get them to want to do all their work, but they did it.  It went better than I thought it would.  I think they were ready for some structure in our days.

Our intro back into geography went well, along with the other electives.  Science night with Daddy was sweet...

He made a spring scale to show them how to measure force.  He used it in a lesson on friction.  I loved seeing how interested they were!

We used Draw Then Write to make a bird.  They turned out so cute!  My Melissa and Doug easel is very helpful this year!



Our days went about like I had hoped, with the exception of that quiet reading time.  We'll work on that.  I'm sure it will be easier once the weather turns cold.  We ended at about 2:00 each day (with breaks, lunch, etc) in between.  So they had a lot of their day to play, just like I want it to be for them.

So God has proven Himself faithful in my life once again.  I'm trusting Him for the rest of our school year!

Sam's Trays at Work

Samuel is doing so well with his school trays.  Much better than I thought he would, actually!



Come school time, he is ready to pull out #1 (coded Buzz Lightyear) thanks to some great tags from Homeschool Creations.

He has four trays, and I think that's just about right for him.  That gives him time to do stuff while we are doing Handwriting, Math and Language Arts.  All the other subjects are done with all 3 boys together.

He likes what I have in there for him!  I keep most things handy so it's quick and easy for me to fill them.







I am joining in at Homeschool Creation's Preschool Corner!

Quick Idea for Paint/Craft Trays

For those of you that live by a Kroger store, I found these cute little divided plates for 70 cents each!  They are a part of their summer clearance.  I can imagine using them for all kinds of little crafts!  I bought 6 of them and wanted to give you the same idea before they are gone!  I love a good deal!

Our First Day of School!

We started school today!!  I like having Daddy here on our first day, even if it is Labor Day! We did the same thing last year and it worked well.

Here are my little sweeties...







We had a super fun treasure hunt ready for them after breakfast.

This was their directions:



We packed everything in our treasure box we always use for school rewards.  The treasure contained all kinds of fun things like school supplies, Star Wars toys and ring pops!



Chad spray painted a really neat looking compass on the ground (with correct direction).  I took pictures of it, but it just didn't show up in the picture well with all the sunshine and dead grass!

We put these little clue boxes at each marker.  Andrew read off the directions, they stepped it out and found each box.  The clue was the numbers.  So Ethan wrote the numbers out on a clipboard.  They gathered each clue in the correct order, wrote the numbers in the boxes and matched it with the "code" on the treasure box.  It unlocked!





They had a great time.  We enjoyed watching them.





We made it through our school work.  Of course, it was the bare minimum.  But it was a good start.  It's going to take us some time to get set in a routine.

We celebrate the holiday this evening with some friends over.  We grilled some burgers and hot dogs and had lots of other good food that everyone pitched in.  We even had a fire and made smores.  Great times.

I am posting my files for the treasure hunt so you can do your own!

Treasure Hunt key

Treasure Hunt Directions

Tray Ideas for Samuel

I am compiling a list of ideas to use for Sam's tot trays.  These are to keep him busy while learning a little, too!  I also want him to get into our routine of school time.  Last year he was napping, but those naps are long gone.

I'm sure I am missing some!  I want to be able to use this list so I can easily fill his trays each day.

Power Magnets with Letter sheets, Magnets, Counting Blocks, Gluing Shapes Box, Books, Links, Geo Board, Ice Cream Bucket, Playdoh, Puzzles, Leapster, Coloring, Easel Painting, Worksheets, Trios, Stamps, Paper Clip matching, Kumon Books, Aqua Doodle Mat, Bottle lid names, file folder games...anything else I can add that I might already have??

Wednesday we got some new things from the teacher supply store here in town.  Oh, how I love that store.  I let all three of them play with them so there wasn't a sudden interest in what Samuel was doing while we were attempting to get Andrew and Ethan's school work done.  I think they had fun.  So now they have that out of their system, for a while anyway!

These are the new Linking Shapes...

Ethan especially loved the Geo Board...



This is the Counting Shapes box I made.  I got this idea from somewhere that I can't find anymore.  It's using a Playmobil carrying case.  Samuel loves to paste things onto paper, so these are just shapes I cut out for him to use.





This is the ice cream bucket.  Samuel can scoop and sort from the blue bucket into the small buckets.  He already loves it, and so did his brothers!  Good busy fun!



I could never have it all ready or really have all I wanted to have.  What's most important is that we are here and we are together.   Isn't there so much to learn just living with each other?  Oh my, there is.

I have a busy weekend before school starts on Monday.  I need to make my treasure hunt and then it's a go!

Get some more inspiration from Homeschool Creation's Preschool Corner!

Anxieties for the school year

School is less than a week away!  Am I ready?!

I am all organized and have our year pretty much mapped out.  But I'm nervous about starting this adventure again!

I'm worried about starting on time and having enough time in the day for school.  Also, having time for taking care of the house, running errands, on and on it goes

I wish I had more room.  I do love having everyone so close by.  I'm not sure how I could get much done...being able to just step away and throw a load of laundry in or do something in the kitchen.

Andrew...

Ethan...doing him, too!

Samuel...keeping him busy, keeping up with his trays

Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.

A Day in the Life

It's week 4 at the  Not Back to School Blog Hop:  A Day in the Life Week.This is what our routine will hopefully look like:

We will begin on Labor Day (with Daddy home).   I do have a start time of 10, but other than that I have no time constraints.  I just know I would never follow such a thing!  We are a later living family.  Our boys don't go to bed until later, therefore they get up later.  Then everything is pushed back.  I'm fine with that!  It's the way it works around here!

A - 2nd Grade/ E - Kindergarten /  Sam - PreK

-Devotions @ Breakfast

-Circle Time (Morning Notebook)  - all of us

-Electives - all of us from my lesson plans (varies in activities each day, but always includes reading together!)


-Handwriting for A&E; Samuel Tray 1

-Math for A&E; Samuel Tray 2

Play until lunch

-Lunch

-Language Arts for A&E;  Samuel Tray 3 & 4


-Quiet Reading Time (30 min rest for all of us!)

-Play, play and more play! (while mommy tries to keep this house in order, of course!)

These are the boxes I have for A & E.  They have expandable file folders and hold a week's worth of each of the main subjects listed here.



They also have a "completed" tray to help with the mess.  That was always my issue last year...a mess of completed work!



Samuel will have trays with fun learning things to work/play.



Like this fun activity I made out of water bottle caps!



We always incorporate bedtime books with what we are studying using the wonderful library.  Lots of time for playing inside and outside, cuddling, and instructing.

I'm getting both excited and nervous about our new year.  It's about to start!  I'm just scared about getting back into the routine of things.   I'm just so thankful and so blessed to be able to educate my children here at home, with me.  I know I am doing what God has called me to do and He that began this good work in me will be faithful to complete it! (Philippians 1:6).

Get lots of other creative ideas here!

Not Yet! Back to School Day 2010

I started this tradition last year.  It was such fun, I had to do it again this year!  This time we partied with a dear friend of mine and her five children!  We had a Luau theme, which was a blast!  We had fun decorations and we all wore leis.   Our lunch was little ham and cheese sandwiches, chips, and fruit.  The kids drank Hawaiian punch.  Melanie and I had our Sobe Strawberry Daquiris.  :)  We also had some fun Hawaiian cupcakes.  We even played some fun beach party music!  It was a huge success!

[caption id="attachment_3456" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Click to see all the party fun!"][/caption]

Geography Studies Videos Giveaway!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!  THANKS!!!!

I have 3 fun Global Wonders videos we used during our Galloping the Globe studies last year to give away!  These are really cute.  My boys really enjoyed them as an "in-flight video" on our way to each country we studied.

Click on each picture to find out more on each dvd.







To enter, leave a comment telling me which one you would choose and why.  I will draw 3 different names randomly, on August 28th.  US Shipping Only.

I love Homeschool Creations and I love it when she hosts a Curriculum Clean- Out!  Fun times!

Our Morning Notebook

I love the idea of a morning board, but we are limited with space.  So I made a morning notebook to use each day in our circle time.  It's in a cute Dayspring 3 ring binder I bought last year and didn't use.  It has a great reminder on the front of it...Think about all you can praise God for.



What's in there:

Monthly Calendar (made on Word)

Yearly Calendar To Count out 100 Days of School (to celebrate!)

Prayers for each day

Pledge of Allegiance

Weather Graph

What's the Temperature?

Skip Counting Charts

I wanted to add the Godly Character Traits to the notebook, but I also wanted to keep those altogether.  So I hung those up on the wall so we can see the one we are working on each week!



I also have some stuff just for me because I know I won't keep up with more than one notebook!

School Attendance Calendar

My lesson plans for the week - Front and Back.

I am getting closer and closer to our start date.  These things are finally getting completed!

Student Photos

It's Student Photo Week this week at Heart of the Matter!  Meet my little students!

Andrew is 7 and will be starting the 2nd grade this year.

Ethan is 5 and will be in kindergarten...

Samuel is three .  He will be my little preschooler...

Here are my sweeties!

Or we can go the Student Photos "Swim Style"...

I'm so blessed to be called their momma and their teacher!

Meet a lot of other great people here!