Life and Portfolio's

Wow life has been busy around here lately. We have soccer three days a week, church, homeschool, hanging out with friends and a new baby around who requires multiple visitations a week...... It leaves little time for blogging. I haven't forgotten about you, really! There is hope though. Summer break is almost here! Ah the time out from homeschooling!

Speaking of homeschooling....it's time for me to get on the ball with my homeschool portfolio's. This is my second year of doing them and I still don't really have an organized system. I started out at the beginning of the year doing great. I kept putting things in the binder each week. But I quit around October. Yep I haven't put anything in it since then and haven't even started going through everything. If anyone has any portfolio tips at all feel free to share! I could use the help for sure.

And because every blog post needs a cute picture....

Warm weather love. ❤

Crayon sculptures and spring break

Want a fun activity to do with your kids while they are on spring break? A few weeks ago I saw these crayon sculptures on Pinterest. The kids were very excited to try it. All you need is a fresh box of crayons per kid and a hot glue gun. You may also want to find a cardboard scrap to glue your sculpture on. Just start randomly gluing crayons to each other building them up until you reach the desired size. Lots of fun and super cute in a kids bedroom or in a home school room!

Also some spring break pictures...

Homeschool Blues

It's that time of year for me. When we are at the end of winter, pining for warm spring days.

 I'm eager to get outside, get the kids involved in sports, and soak up the sunshine. And I'm a little tired of homeschooling.

Yeah, I said it.

Once spring gets here and I can start doing school with the kids outside in the fresh air I usually get my creativity back. But right now I'm kinda out of ideas and just so ready for some change. Today I'm excited though. I found some free homeschool pop ins at our local museum and we are heading there with some homeschool friends to make instruments out of recycled goods. Fun, fun!!

 I guess the point of this post is if your homeschooling and find yourself in that "I'm so done with this" mood...there's hope. You will get out of it. They excitement will come back. Just keep going. And don't forget. Summer Break is on it's way!!!

 

from here

Can you homeschool?

Sometimes the best training for the really big things is just the everyday things.


I don't know how many times I have heard people say that they don't think they could ever homeschool. It's either because they don't think they have the patience or time or maybe that they just can't imagine not having time away from the kids. Either way so many time I feel like saying "YES YOU CAN!!" 

If you feel like God is calling you to homeschool your kids, but you just feel unable. I want you to know you can do it. Not one of us homeschool moms have super patience or just love being around kids 24/7. NO. We are just regular moms doing it one day at a time with His help. 

I saw the above quote somewhere the other day and wrote it down. It's so true. You learn to homeschool by doing the everyday things with your kids. Read them a book, teach them their ABC's, spend time with them. These are what goes into homeschooling. And yes you can do it.  

First Day of School 2014 and Another Call!!

Yesterday was the kids first day back to school after Christmas break. It actually went pretty well considering I forgot all about the impending back to school day until the night before. They got up, had some play time, then we got started. They finished up around two and I had the rest of the day to get the house cleaned up. Yay!

 Homeschooling can be difficult but I am so glad I do it. Once you get a routine going it isn't so bad. One thing I have found out for me is no routine equals bad! Another little tip would be to remember that kids learn at their own pace. My son has struggled with reading since day one. His biggest problem being that he doesn't like doing it. He just wasn't interested. Now that he has some things that he is really into, like star wars, I am finding him getting out his star wars books and reading them! It can take quite awhile for him to get much of it done but at least he is doing it on his own! Practice makes progress...

It can be hard to not get frustrated when they don't seem to be picking something up. You may feel like your failing as a teacher.

Remember this...

It will happen.

They will get it.

In their time.

Just keep working.

Now about that call you are waiting to read about....

Yesterday while homeschooling,  I got a phone call from the agency! We are going to do our first respite care placement!!

Respite is when a foster family (us) watches another foster families foster children for a short time. It can be hours it can be a week. Basically babysitting for a foster family. Were excited though! It will give us a little practice. :)

Whats going on...

That's probably what you wondering about us. I have horribly neglected this blog since school started up. Pretty much what we have been up to is, schoolwork, church, more training classes for the adoption and spending the early fall days together as a family. We took a parenting class every Thursday in September to start working on our required in service training hours. Between that church and family activities I have not had time to blog in the evenings! The kids are enjoying school so far this year. Alex is still so in love with science and farming. They are both about to join 4h! Im sure that it will be lots of fun! We have also been looking at a small farm nearby that we would love to buy and are praying about. As for the adoption, no news yet! We recently sent our family profile to the adoption agency for birthmothers to look at. But other then that we have just been waiting and believing that God knows when!

Back to School

Today was back to school here at our house. The kids decided to sleep in for the first time since summer break started. But I managed to get them up and school started by 8:30. My goal is to start them by 8 each morning but we will see about that one. Today was our first day using Switched on Schoolhouse and I gotta say, I love it. It took some time today to try and get in the flow of things but I'm sure it will all come together. Excited to see how this new school year goes!

Back to Homeschool Photos

First Grade

 

I cannot believe that my little girl is going to first grade, but she is!!!!

Before I show you the books we are using this year I wanted to tell you a little about this website I have been using. It's called Easy-Peasy All in one homeschool. And it's a great resource for homeschoolers. I have been using it for both of my kids off and on this summer. We use it as practice for the upcoming school year. But it could totally be used as an add on for your every day homeschooling as well.  It has a daily lesson that you go through. It also has all age groups and even a few electives. Feel free to check it out here

Now for Little Miss's curriculum. This year we are once again using Alpha Omega's Horizons. I used this for my sons first grade and it went well. This is also the curriculum she used this past year for Kindergarten. I don't think it's a good idea to switch phonics/reading curriculum's during the first few years unless the one you are using is not working for your child.  She seemed to enjoy it last year so we are sticking with it!

 

This year Horizons will include...

• Phonics and Reading
• Penmanship
• Math
• Spelling and Vocabulary

For science we will be using Abeka 1st grade science called Discovering God's World

As for History and Geography we will be using Abeka My America and My World

If you have any questions about homeschooling feel free to comment below or message me! I will be glad to help!

We have a plan

We official have our homeschool plan for this coming year. We usually start after labor day here. This is one of the benefits of homeschooling, being able to pick when you start. Because of this I am usually really bad about procrastinating on getting the curriculum together.

This year we have a 3rd grader and a 1st grader!! I cannot believe it. It seems like just yesterday we had two toddlers. They are growing up fast! Another reason why I am thankful that we homeschool. My time with them is going by so fast and I don't want to miss any of it.

So here is what I have planned.

3RD GRADE
 
This year we are trying something new for our son. We used Alpha Omega Lifepacs last year and did not like it at all. It  was just not right for him. Alex is not a big fan of reading at all. And Lifepacs are mostly reading. I was sooo glad for the school year to come to an end. After some research on different curriculum's we decided to go with something new. We are doing Alpha Omega's Switched on Schoolhouse.

I have some family members that use this, and have just heard so much good about it. It's even the curriculum used by the reality tv starts The Duggars! It just looks so much more fun and inviting for a boy then those books we were previously using. You can check out it's awesomeness here. This curriculum has Bible, Math, Science, History and Geography, Language Arts, and you can choose between Spanish or French electives.

Alex wants to go with Spanish.

He will also be doing Art for which we have no curriculum, we just have fun!

I also plan on getting him started in cursive writing. Love this book I found on ebay!

So with all of this, trips to the library, and using the internet it looks like we will have a good school year! Getting excited to start again. At the same time I'm not ready to give up my summer days. Tomorrow I will show you our 1st graders curriculum. Come back and check it out!!


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Something More

The moment you stop caring what other people think — is most likely when you start doing what God wants.

 I read that quote on a friends blog today, and I have to say it is so true. We live in a fallen world. So really it makes sense that when we do things that God wants us to do, it's not going to make sense to those around us.

The world says spend your money on things you want...

Maybe an iphone,

a new truck or car,

a big house,and all the latest styles of clothes.

 The world says that to be successful you need to make your self better and better. Climbing up the ladder, bigger house, better job, nicer things.

 But is that what God says?

Maybe right now you are trying so hard to make more of yourself when God says your already enough.

Maybe you want a bigger house,  a better job, a nicer car. Those things really are nice to have. But what if God wants something more for you?

And what if to the world that something more looks like something less?

 What if it's feeding the hungry?

 Being a voice for the orphan?

Adopting?

Being a missionary?

Homeschooling your children?

Helping out with local foster care?

Just reaching out to those around you?

There are so many things we can do for him.  It might mean giving up on some of these things that the world offers.It might mean that the world will think your weird.

But in the end what the world thinks is something less, will fulfill you so much more.

 


 Psalm 82:3 Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.

Celebrating Spring

I am so glad that spring is here!! One thing I have found with homeschooling is once the warm weather hits it is hard to stay inside!! We start schoolwork and soon find ourselves looking out the window, wishing we were out for summer break! Around here we have been trying to get our work done as soon as possible and then run outside for some fun.

 

Today we had a busy day. But we still managed to get out for some sunshine!

I snapped these two pictures of the kids discovering the blooms on our tree.

They were all excited and even proceeded to hug the tree. Yep. I have little treehuggers on my hands.

So thankful for this time of year.

Learning the States

One of the things the kids have been doing as each postcard comes in, is coloring in the state on a state coloring page. Since we are only getting one copy of each card in the mail, I thought this would be a great way for each child to have something that is for them only.

  
The fact that it helps them to learn where the states are located on the map is a bonus.

They are loving it! 

We got four more postcards in the mail today. Which means we have now received postcards from 13 states! So much fun. 

 
 Matthew 22:39 - And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Grab this free  United States Coloring Page!!

St Patricks Day Fun

Today we are having fun doing some St. Patrick's Day Worksheets. You can find so many great printables online to add to your homeschooling day. Best part? A lot of them are completely free!!!!

 

The kids have also been having a ton of fun checking out the clover we planted. Seems to be popping up just in time!!!!

 You can find free St. Patrick's Day printables  here
And the "Find the four leaf clover" page here

Proverbs 15:15 

All the days of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast.

 

Hope you have a great Saint Patrick's Day!!!!!! 

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It's done!

Yesterday I woke up not feeling well, but we pressed on. We cleaned the house, went car shopping for my hubby (his car broke down a few weeks ago), and managed to get our last homestudy visit done!! Oh my goodness it's so nice to know it's done. I need to turn in a few more papers  in the next few days and then we are hoping it will be approved quickly! Another check off the list!

 This week has also been busy with babysitting, schoolwork, and playing with all of Alex's new science stuff he got for his birthday. Which includes a new microscope. Lots of fun! I love how with homeschooling, you can expand on the subject your child enjoys most. We have done so much science stuff this year, most of which if he was in public school he would have missed out on. Our next goal is to dissect a shark! I'm going to let the hubby lead that one though.

 Don't forget to check out this awesome weekend blog hop I'm linking up with today!

 

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