Homeschooling has begun!

Our school year has begun! We decided to start in August because we will take most of December off (if CJ will let me!) with baby girl arriving then! We have really enjoyed the past two days. First, we decided that we would do a kick-off breakfast at IHOP. Clark said that they used to go to McDonalds for breakfast the morning of the first day of school. We decided that since the boys love pancakes so much that they would enjoy IHOP and they did! Hopefully we can make this a tradition.

These first pictures are of some of the books and materials that we are using. We decided to start with "Little Hands to Heaven" for this first year (www.heartofdakota.com). To take it a step further, I felt like CJ was ready for some reading practice and math. He is always coming to us adding numbers up and asking if he is right so I thought we could start to expand on his interest in math with a kindergarten program. The reading workbook has been suggested by every homeschool mom I have talked with.

Daily, I go through the curriculum workbook and get the materials ready for the next day by putting them into the white bins you see here. It makes the teaching portion go very smoothly. The prep time takes about 5 minutes to simply make two copies of certain pages, get art materials and the correct books to use put in their bins.

CJ has been very engaged in our first few days! He is a good listener when he sits down ready to read. I know they have active personalities-they're boys, so I just go into it knowing that everything might not always be calm and I try to stay flexible and move things around to times when I know I will have their attention. CJ can tell the whole story of Adam and Eve, from the beginning...the first week is studying the letter "A". "A" for Adam. The first day was studying how God created the world from nothing. They made drawings on white paper with white crayon and then painted over it with watered down black paint to see the drawings appear-key point-God created all things from nothing. The paint I used wasn't watered down enough but CJ still understood.

Today we had a playdate at Christie's house and when we got home it was time for naps. Our typical schedule will be doing our school at around 9:00 a.m. but Tuesdays are going to be days where we have extracurricular activities. Science class for CJ at the Heard Museum and Mark's gym class are going to be on Tuesdays. Plus we'll have T-ball practice that day most likely and possibly library programs and field trips with our homeschool group through Frisco HIS, depending on the start time. We might have to move library time to Thursdays. We'll also try to fit in play time with friends knowing that not all our friends homeschool, we'll be able to be flexible and play when they are available. The neat thing about homeschool, is that we can do it anytime. After naps and before dinner, we did school today. Yesterday we went to visit baby Luke because the boys and Clark had not met him yet. We got started later than expected but we got to do something that was important to our whole family, see our newest baby! We didn't have to worry about sticking to a strict schedule. After we were finished tonight CJ said, "Mommy, can we do more school." That made me smile! I had been told that many times homeschooled kids love the idea of "school" versus what I remember-not ever wanting to go! Clark was in his men's group last week and one of the guys asked him, "Why would you want to homeschool?" Clark told him several reasons but its hard to describe. Today, as CJ snuggled up to me in our reading chair to read, I thought to myself, "This is why I want to homeschool." It might be crazy busy around here, full of messes and screaming kids but to spend as much time as I can seeing them learn is truly the reason that I want to teach them.

Our math and reading workbooks haven't come in yet but we plan to do the math and reading portion as soon as I put Mark and Peyton down for naps each day. These are items that we need more quite time to learn and we need about 20 minutes for the reading and 10 for one on one math.

IHOP Breakfast

Painting project

Mark entertaining himself with some new learning toys that were in his bin.

The puzzle that CJ got for a "first day of school" prize since he did so well. It took him an hour to put it together the first time all by himself. I told him he needed to find a place to do it alone so that the other boys wouldn't bother him so he locked himself in our room and would come out to give updates every 15 minutes or so. He started with each separate dinosaur and then pieced them all together-I didn't even tell him to try to figure it out this way. He spent probably a total of 4 hours yesterday taking it apart and putting it together again. He LOVES puzzles.

School tonight, Mark had his baby Bible and CJ had his older version recommeneded by Heart of Dakota. This is where we begin our daily school.

CJ and Mark slithering on the floor like "Anacondas". Studing the letter "A" with a rhyme that I was reading.

Intently drawing objects of different colors in each shape.

Tracing the large letter "A" with animals...hince, animals make sounds just like letters do. The workbook recommended masking tape but I felt like blue painters tape would get more attention and it did. As soon as Mark saw what I was doing with the tape he said, "Oh, cooooooooool."

When I first started thinking that I wanted to homeschool I thought I was nuts. I'm not a teacher, never had a desire to teach what so ever. However, I have a completely different feeling when it comes to the teaching of my own kids. I have questioned from the beginning if I will really be able to do this. I know it will be one of the hardest things that I will do as a mom and thankfully, after beginning the journey, I do feel like I can do it. Many moms have sent me the same verse to remind me that I do have the capabilities to make this work..."I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phil 4:13

I've also been told to never forget the reason that I decided to teach our boys in this way.

Deut 6: 5-7.

So far so good and I have high hopes for the rest of the year!