Delay in our start time!

We are getting a late start today. Jay ended up staying down by his mom yesterday so he can take her to the doctor today. She's not feeling well. For those that don't know, Kathi has stage 4 recently labled uterine cancer (they are not sure of the source). Casten had a fever on Saturday of 102. He had no fever on Sunday and then last night it came back only around 100 and he has a rash all over his body! Alyssa has also been coughing a lot, so we are making sure we keep up on her inhaler. She's not sleeping very well at night though. I figure they need as much sleep as they can get!
So here we are 10 AM (school is supposed to start at 9) and the kids are just finishing up breakfast! That's the beauty of homeschooling though! So we will be working on lessons a bit later than normal! We probably won't start work until this afternoon. When everyone is feeling a bit better!
I'm off to get my coffee :)

First Day of School :)

Starting off on half days this week while I get our unit plans together (science, history, geography, etc) It went pretty well! Casten had a hard time focusing, but he does in new surroundings and so much has changed downstairs!

We started off doing journals. The kids wrote answers to the question on the board. Alyssa wants to learn about weather and Casten wants to learn about numbers. Maizie said she wanted to learn about Scooby Doo :)

Next we did our weather chart. Casten guessed the number closest to the one I picked so he gets to be weather man this week :)

I think I need a new weather wheel or replace the brad in this one. The arrows won't stay in place!

Next we went on to Casten's computer time and Lyssi's Math time.

Then we switched. Casten did workbooks and Lys went to the computer. I need to remember to hook up the headphones tomorrow. It was a little distracting!

We did some reading with Lyssi. I'm so impressed with how well she reads! I'm pretty confident I'm going to have to get her some 2nd grade readers soon! I'm also sure Casten is going to moving on to 1st grade readers too and probably 1st grade math. He LOVES math! It'll be nice if I can teach math at the same time!

Maizie didn't cooperate too well today. I know it will be hit or miss with her. No need to do anything formal. Just some one on one mommy time :) She had a rough morning though. She's still in her jammies now!

Casten actually smiling nicely for a picture!!!!

Notice her funny smile? Her front tooth is SO loose and she won't let anyone take it out! It's super crooked and sticking out! Her adult tooth is almost half way in behind it!!!! I don't think we'll ever have a toothless smile with her, so far she's had her adult teeth in before she's lost her baby teeth!

Our Princess :)

Here is a picture of our bulletin board wall. Both Alyssa and Casten will get their Words to Remember put on there. Along with any special projects they want to show or certificates they earn! 

 

We'll be teaching Lyssi cursive this year. I think it will help with her problem of not making her letters correctly. She makes a lot of her letters backwards. They look right but she makes the the opposite way. Like an A She goes \ then / and then - It's already helping her printing!

Science we will be doing unit studies on non-living items, life cycles, and space. Some things we'll cover is the different forms of water (gas, liquid, solid), experimenting with light, we'll do some studying of plant life, animal habitats, life cycle of frogs and/or butterflies (Lyssi did Butterflies last year, but they would be fun to do in the spring!). We'll also be studying the planets, and stars, learning some constellations, and about the moon. 

Social Studies we'll be learning how everyone needs food, clothing and shelter. We'll discuss different cultures and how they meet these needs. This will coincide with our geography lessons. We'll be learning to find where we live on the map, to recognize the 7 continents, how to read a map and follow directions using a compass. 

For history Jay and I decided to begin with Early America. We'll learn about Native Americans, on to Columbus and on to Colonial America. Alyssa has a lot of interest in Colonial America because we have the Felicity dolll from American Girl. 

So that's it in a nutshell! They'll be getting music lessons, art, science and PE at our homeschool co-op. It meets every Friday from 12:30-4. 

The rest of this week we'll continue reviewing what we already know and next week start with new lessons :)  

The downstairs is clean!

We have the downstairs cleaned! The kids are so excited! Jay is going to set up a computer down there for the kids to play their games on. We have a bunch of educational games the kids can play to enhance lessons, plus it gives one child something to do while I'm working with the other one!
We are very excited to get officially started on Monday!

And it's a GO!

I was so excited for my co-op meeting this morning, only to wake up to two sick children and a sick husband! Oh well! I'll get the information later.
So today we continue to get ready for the school year! I *think* Jay has agreed to homeschool Alyssa for the first semester and we'll discuss where we are at during winter break. She is excited about homeschooling this year.
We are planning on putting both girls in gymnastics this year. Maizie will start with a mom and tot class this fall and then be able to go into her own class in the spring! The older two kids will begin piano lessons. Casten has expressed interest in wrestling. It was strange looking at the Schaumburg wrestling club's website and to see my brother's name all over it! It's going to be the same coach John had too! That will start in November. He's too young for tournaments but can begin training and can compete next year (because he'll be SIX!) We may try to get Casten into hockey and Lyssi into dance this year too!
Things are falling into place nicely. We are having fun planning things and really looking forward to making new friends!

VBS IS OVER!!!!

Thank goodness :) It's a fun few days, and the kids have a BLAST, but it's very tiring for Mommy!
Today is laundry and clean up day! I have SO much laundry and house work to catch up on! Jay is going to set up a computer downstairs for the kids so that they can do their lessons and games down there! They are very excited! Everyone has a job to do, so I think it should go smoothly!
We bought some school supplies yesterday. I love back to school prices! It's the only time of year you can get crayons for $.25! Hopefully we'll get the downstairs organized enough today that I can get our supplies and books organized down there also!
YAY for back to school!

Here we go!!!!

So today we are starting our workbooks! YAY! (Alyssa is reading what I type out loud)
We don't have time to do much more than that since we are in the middle of VBS! The kids had a blast last night at the first night of VBS. They are so excited to go back!
Today we'll just be reviewing what the kids already know. Just refreshing their brains and getting back in the swing of things!
We are still discussing what this year will bring. We are debating between putting Lyssi back in St. Peter, going to public school, or homeschooling. I have found science classes for homeschooling, a co-op that will also teach science, art and P.E. Also a weekly Bible study for the kids and I with other homeschool families. There is also a homeschool gymnastics group too. Lots of options out there!
So now I'm off, workbooks, lunch, and a trip down to church :)

It's that time of year again!

We are now getting back into a new school year. We have yet to decide what we are doing for Alyssa for school, but we are praying about it and hopefully will come to a decision soon! She really wants to go back to St. Peter, but I think it might not be financially possible. We are hesitant to put her in the school right by the house, we worry that Alyssa would get lost in the mix. She's a good student, which is great, but it doesn't require much attention. We worry that the fact that this school is an ESL school (english as a second language) the focus will be on struggling students and the ESL students. She's also excited about the idea of homeschooling this year though! Being in 1st grade now opens up a WORLD of opportunity in classes and groups.

Casten and Maizie will be homeschooled this year though! I'm really excited about it! We'll be doing Kindergarten with Casten this year! I'm so excited about that! He is begining to read (with some encouragement) and can do simple math problems! He's so smart! He knows way more than I think he does! LOL!

Maizie we'll be doing the preparatory curriculum from letter of the week (LOTW) http://letteroftheweek.com/ We'll be starting next week with week one. We'll include a trip to the cosely zoo http://www.cosleyzoo.org/index.html  to see actual cows!

We are really excited about our new school year and are working hard to get everything ready for next week. In addition to our new school year starting next week, we also have VBS! (vacation Bible school) It should be a lot of fun! Anyone in the area that would like to see the closing program on Wednesday please let me know!!!

So that's it for now! We are going to re-organize the downstairs and the kids room today! So much fun!