Back to School!

We're off!  After spending about a month of summer doing part-time school work, we officially started full-time on August 8th.  We got going early so we can take a little extra time off during the traditional school year.  

In a word, our days - or at least our mornings - are BUSY!  I don't get a lot of pictures taken because I'm spending all my time running between kids.  We start the day together with calendar time and the Bible lesson, then the craziness begins!  I bounce between Adeline and Braxton, working one-on-one with them, then getting them going on independent work.  Somewhere in between I play with Sadie and help her get started on activities.  Things are going well, but there are always a few kinks to work out in the beginning.  

 First day of school!

Our preschool wall - we chart the weather daily and reflect the day's weather in the tree picture.  The letter of the day and the color of the day are also in the picture.  Later in the year, we'll add a daily number.  

 Adeline's first short story using the Write Shop Primary book.  We spent the week writing lots of short stories together about animals - zoo animals, ocean animals, stuffed animals, etc.  We finished the week with Adeline drawing a nice picture of herself and our cat, then she dictated a story about the picture.

Sadie loves to play with our Math-U-See blocks!  Braxton used the "ten" blocks to make a railroad around the bed.

Coloring...

 Lacing...

 Matching... these are two busy kids!  Adeline and I can get a lot of work done this way!

 Adeline thought we should have "twin day," so she dressed herself and her sister.  Yes, she is wearing pants and a long sleeve shirt when it's 95 degrees.  The price you pay to be a twin!  :)

Braxton is learning to read the names of our family members.  He's doing a great job!

We are tracking our first hundred days with Max's footsteps to his dog house.

 Braxton learned letters A-D this week.
 

 We LOVE Do-A-Dot markers!!

 Braxton practiced his scissors skills.

Poor Adeline, so much of her work doesn't make for very interesting pictures.  She has definitely been working hard, though!

This week our unit study was titled "Chocolate Challenge."  We learned all about the cacao tree, the history of chocolate, the science of chocolate, different kinds of chocolate, Brazil, the rain forest and five famous chocolatiers (Milton Hershey, Henri Nestle, John Cadbury, Domingo Ghirardelli and Rodolphe Lindt, if you're curious!).  It was a lot of information in just 5 days!

To conclude our study, we watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - not the creepy new version, the older one! - and made our own chocolate.

First, we melted the cocoa butter.  The kids had heard about cocoa butter all week, so it was neat for them to see it, feel it and taste it.  It doesn't taste very good, by the way!

 Next, we added the cocoa powder and powdered sugar.

 Then we mixed and mixed and mixed!  The chocolate was very hot at this point and we had to let it cool down before adding the "starter crystals" to temper it.  Our starter crystals were just ground up pieces of chocolate that had already crystalized.

While we waited for it to cool, we sampled cacao beans.    

 Sadie's face says it all!  They aren't very tasty!

 Once our chocolate cooled to 94 degrees, we added our starter crystals, mixed some more, then spooned it into our pan.

Ta Da!  After some time in the fridge, the chocolate was finally ready!  It was really good!

Adeline dictated a report about our experience.  She said, "The cacao beans were so gross!  But when we added sugar to them, they made good chocolate."  

Now THAT'S a fun way to kick off the start of the school year!

See you next week!

2012-2013 Curriculum

After much research and prayer, we finally decided on curriculum for the 2012-2013 school year.  Let me tell you, if you've never tried to choose homeschool curriculum, just Google it.  The options are OVERWHELMING!

So here we go!  Our first grade line-up:

Our Bible curriculum is from BJU Press.  It's a nice curriculum, but after starting it I came across something I like better.  We won't switch this year, but there will be a change next year.  We are also using the Hide 'Em in Your Heart cd.  Love it!

This is our first year using Math-U-See.  So far, Adeline and I both really like it.  I didn't take a picture of it, but the program comes with a large box of manipulative blocks.  It's a very hands-on program that makes math tangible.  There is also a short video that goes with each step.  We are doing 1-2 steps a week right now.  We watch the video one day, then the subsequent days we practice what we learned.  Once Adeline has mastered that step, then we move on to the next.

This is also our first year using All About Spelling.  If you aren't familiar with the program, it's similar to Math-U-See in that it's very hands-on, one step at a time at the pace of the child.  With this program, we are currently doing about 3 steps a week.  I anticipate slowing down, though, as the skills get more challenging.  It's a pretty intense phonics program - I have been learning things right along with Adeline!!  

 We are using Amanda Bennett's Unit Studies this year - beginning with Chocolate Challenge!  We will have a different unit each week.  Up next is Goofy Geckos!  Stay tuned for posts about our unit studies.  You won't believe how much Amanda packs into each unit!  

We are continuing this year with BJU Press Reading.  I am really happy with this program and Adeline is doing well with it.

After much debate, we chose A Reason for Handwriting.  I love this handwriting program because each week the student practices writing a different Bible verse.  At the end of the week, a "pretty" paper is chosen and colored.  Then the verse is written on the paper and it's mailed to someone special.  Adeline has requested we send verses to "people without a home."  The city mission, maybe?

We started BJU Press Spanish this year.  This is definitely a subject where EVERYONE is learning!  It is taught by DVD (hooray!) by a really neat teacher.  All the kids love Spanish class!  

 To meet our health requirement, we are using The Human Body from Answers in Genesis, as well as some free materials I picked up at our local health fair this spring and plenty of real life experiences (like meal planning, trips to the grocery store, visits to the dentist and fire station, etc).

 Last but certainly not least, we started Write Shop Primary this year.  This is an excellent program for building writing skills.  The lessons are short (usually under 10 minutes a day/4 days a week).  Adeline loves these lessons and looks forward to writing with Mom.


That wraps up first grade!  Adeline will do a couple co-op classes during MOPS this year and will participate in a co-op PE class through the local college.  She will be in AWANA once that gets going in September, and started dance class last week - which she really enjoys!  And as if our schedule isn't full enough, she will take piano lessons and join 4H this year.  WHEW!!

Now on to preschool!  Braxton began our "official" preschool curriculum this year.  There couldn't be a kid more excited to start school!  He is so proud to be "4 years old and in school."  We are using the same BJU Press K4 material that we used with Adeline - but modified a little since Braxton already participates in part of Adeline's day.  We have lots of hands-on activities that both Braxton and Sadie can work on together.  One new thing I got this year is a set of preschool activity cards and the games that go with them.  Braxton, Sadie and I use 1-2 cards each day.  Lately we've been working on colors, counting and fine motor skills.

Braxton will be in AWANA and Library Story Time again this year.

Sadie is along for the ride!  She does lots of coloring, Do-A-Dot painting, Play-Doh, mini marker board and anything else she can get her hands on!

So how do we arrange all this?  Stay tuned!  :)

Summertime!

I gave up blogging at the end of the past school year because we got too busy.  So you'll just have to take my word for it, we had a fun finish and Adeline was super excited to become a first grader.

For the first time since May, I got pictures off my camera.  378 pictures to sort through.  I'm on a vacation of sorts this weekend, so I'm going to do some quick catch up blogging.

Here, in a nutshell, is our summer.  Or at least the portions of summer I managed to capture with the camera!

Sadie got her first real haircut!  She sat perfectly still.

 Adeline participated in the homeschool track meet where she got first place in the long jump!

We went camping at our favorite local location.

 Braxton hauled his sister around the yard.

 We drooled over the pool in the days before it opened.  Once it did, we spent LOTS and LOTS of time splashing and swimming and enjoying the sun.  Adeline took swimming lessons again this year and came - this - close to passing level 2.

 We played in the park.

At Adeline's request, we celebrated the end of the school year by taking a trip to visit Aunt Rose and Uncle Jay.  Adeline and Braxton wanted to surprise Jay when he got home from work, so they hid behind the couch.  :)

 Rose planned lots of fun activities for us while we were there.  First up, the Butterfly Pavilion!

 The kids each held Rosie the tarantula.  I did not!

 Sadie enjoyed the butterflies.

 Silly sisters!

SCARY!!!

Back at home, Rose and Adeline made "Kindergarten Graduation" cake pops.

 They were as tasty as they look!  Such a fun project!

Next up, Tiny Town!

 We had such a good time!  Thanks, Rose & Jay!

We made another trip to Colorado in July, but it seems that I didn't take any pictures with my camera (just a couple with my phone).  We had just as much fun that trip, too!

Mama and Daddy got a date weekend!  We stayed in Omaha and relaxed next to the Missouri river.

 Standing on the state line!

 Back on the job, I took the kids to the local nature center.

 And we did some more camping...

 with friends!  Peek!

 Sadie turned 2!!

 We celebrated the 4th of July!  Adeline and I ran a 2 mile race the morning of the 4th.  She did a great job!!  Then we enjoyed our town's festivities, had a potluck with friends, watched a parade and stayed up late with fireworks.  It was a great day!

Our garden wasn't a huge success, but it wasn't a flop this year either.  The kids helped dig potatoes.  It was like digging for buried treasure!  They are the official family bean and tomato pickers, too.

And that's pretty much our summer!  We had a week of VBS and camp, but once again, no pictures of that.

Hope everyone else enjoyed the summer as much as we did!  Now it's back to school and routine...