Kids Got My Camera!

What can I say????

Tie dye projects

We recently participated in an American Girl Co-Op with one of our local homeschool groups--at least the girls did--the boys were in misery.  The girl this time was Julie.  She was born in my era; however, I did not participate in activities such as the discos.  Of course, tie dye was all the rage during many of my growing up years.  I had never actually done it , though.  So, this was fun for us all.  The scarf on the left is Dana's and the one on the right was Jenna's.  They are now wearing them on their heads bandana style and it is soo cute.  Jenna is still just 5 and is not a full time participant in many of the activities but she was adamant  about doing this one.  They also made friendship bracelets, talked about women coming into equality in many arenas, a few more activities and  topped it off with butterfly cupcakes.  It was a fun time!

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A Constant in Our Home: Room Time

The majority of our school work is usually completed by early afternoon.  After lunch, I let the crew go out and run off some energy by whatever means necessary (within civil limits, of course) and then we are on to room time.  We began doing this when our babies were just babies.  When they were small, it was also an opportunity for them to learn to play alone and to pick up behind themselves.  You can see from the picture above that they have mastered that quite well, no??

 They have always had room time and we all need it!!  By that point in our day, I need a breather and they do, too.  Now that 3 out of the 4 are reading, it has turned into reading time.  But for nonreaders, it is playtime and/or reading time but they know it is quiet time for all to regroup.  I take care of drink/bathroom/toy/book needs before this time commences so that it truly is peaceful.   We all benefit from a peacful moment after the morning hours of productivity.  We have no intention of dropping this time just because they are older..this is kind of a forever thing here!

Leave me a comment and let me know some of the "forever" things in your home.

Garden Update

This is how our garden grows:). We have only harvested lettuce and chives so far. We let the broccoli bolt but will try again in the fall.
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Prairie Girl She's NOT

At least not today. Everyone around here has been enjoying make-believing all episodes available of Little House, but today someone's changing things up a bit!
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Back to School Part 3: The Daily Line-up

Our homeschool is getting geared up for next school year. I am pleased to be fairly ready for next school year. I have a few more resources yet to be received but we are ready. I thought I would lay out what I have each child doing next year so that it is clear what I mean by things.
I mentioned in another post that each child has their own planning page in a weekly lineup that I can write on with dry erase pens where needed. My older children especially like the independence of being able to know what's expected and then just go do it. I'm still enjoying having our family together for some teachings/readings and we will continue with some of those things.


Here's the general plan:

Begin together:
Scripture/Praise/Prayer
Readings/Discussions from the Family Discussions section on harvestministry.com's unit study.
Unit study from Expedition Earth
Prayer wall, animal classification chart, missionary studies


Individually:
Math, Spelling, Grammar, Handwriting, Phonics for littles, reading assignments (mostly from harvestministry.com), memory work, writing assignments
There will be some weeks when there will be timeline entries, but not consistently.
Also, there are few things for the older children(not every single day, just sporadically): geography worksheets, critical thinking exercises, vocabulary worksheets


Together again:
Extras such as games, Spanish, geography experiments, music, etc Each week, I have a meal planned relative to the country we will be studying.


Some of these items only require a few minutes' time, but I list them to keep myself accountable.


I'd like to hear what you have planned for your homeschool next year. Leave me a comment!

Crysalids

Our caterpillars wove their cocoons and we are now awaiting their "delivery"!! Yay!!
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