Tot School

When we decided to start homeschooling

I wanted to make sure I had some items for Little Miss.

She begs to do school with us.

As you have seen before, 

I really like 

Confessions of a Homeschooler

She has wonderful ideas

and 

has created some pretty neat items

for the younger crowd.

For Preschool:

Letter of the Week

For Pre-Kinder:

K4

I have also enjoyed using some

items from 

1+1+1=1

I really enjoy looking at all of these 

wonderfully creative ideas!

Then I automatically feel guilty

because I don't have all thes 

wonderfully creative ideas

for my littles to do during school!

I have started doing a "little"!!

When I ordered the boys Abeka books

I also ordered Little Miss a couple of books

Child Art for 2s

Arts & Crafts with Amber Lamb

Readiness Skills K4

I have finally started letting her start her books.

Well, she started one book.

Then I printed off and laminated 

quite a few items from the 

Letter of the Week program

mentioned above.

It is a CUTE program

and I had been waiting until I thought she was

ready for it to start

printing

and 

cutting

and

laminating.

She was completing each of the 

little activities quicker than I was getting them made!

I am not sure I will print all of the activities

for each letter, 

just the unique ones.

She does repeat a lot of activities,

which is easy and makes sense...

but I am not sure I have the desire to do that.

Here is Little Miss working on her
"school work" this week with us.

They are both working on the letter "A".

 After she finished all the activities I had for her,

she made a drawing for me.

Now I just have to figure out a way to keep up with 

this one's desire too!

Curriculum

I have FINALLY made some decisions

on our curriculum.

Yes, technically, the year

is half over

and yes,

we are getting a late start.

BUT

better late than never!

We dove into our Abeka Math books a few weeks ago.

I started them in their current grades

because they weren't ready to move up.

So R is busting through

about 3 lessons a day.

There are 4 lessons then a test.

So he is taking a test 

about every other day.

(Instead of once a week as this program recommends)

He also gets to take "speed drills".

He looks forward to those so much

those are his motivation to get through

multiple lessons a day

so he can take these drills.

J is working in K math from Abeka.

He is getting through multiple pages a day too.

We are just going to keep going at this speed

til we get to some stuff that is more challenging.

We have chosen Abeka for 

Language

Spelling & Poetry 2 & 3

Letters & Sounds -2

Letters & Sounds - K 

Science - Discovering God's World

History - Our America

Reader Set for J

We are also going to use 

Confessions of a Homeschooler's 

Road Trip USA

Then we are using:

Catholic Heritage Curricula for:

More Science:  Behold & See 1 & 2

More Readers: for R & J

Languages of God A - Language Arts

Didn't realize I had gotten 2 Language Arts books for R.

HA - oops.

We will look through both and save

 one for J when he is ready for it.

So big relief there!

All the books should be here Friday.

Which is great.

It will give me the weekend 

to look through them and make some decisions

about which ones we are starting with

and when we are doing 

our "specials".

The "core" subjects will be done every day.

Math

Language Arts

Spelling

Reading

Writing

Science

History

Art 

will be done once a week.

We have decided that the amazing land we found last week...

will have to wait a little longer. 

We have kept busy with the normal household stuff.

I do get these moments when I realize

these BIG decisions we have made lately...

have been good ones.  

And although these decisions have not been 

easy to make

nor

easy to implement

sometimes I 

have these moments

where I am thankful

that we JUST DID IT!

We sat down and watched a few episodes of

Lizard Lick Towing last night

which is based in our home "county"

and it honestly 

made me miss home even more!

I loved listening to them talk

brought a smile to my face

and a little of that good ole southern drawl back too.

Then when we got up from the couch

to walk upstairs, 

I honestly had to snap back to reality and

realize that we were not in

our house in NC.

(We aren't in Kansas - er, NC - anymore Toto!)

We are starting to discuss our trips back to NC.

I am SO excited!

And we are making a list of must sees/eats...

Kanki

New 2 story Chick-Fil-A at Cameron Village

Sushi Thai

Hmmm...actually all of those are must eats!

HA!

We are going to be participating in a 

Valentine's Party & Exchange

with one of our homeschool groups.

The exciting & overwhelming part...

there are about 50 kids participating!

OY!

That means we have to figure out a way to do

150 Valentine's this weekend.

But happy for the opportunity. 

I am looking forward to it!

Well since I originally wrote this an additional 

12 Valentines have been added to our list.

Bringing the grand total of required Valentine's 

for next week to

162!

Double oy!

Look for pictures next week!

I will try to get back into the picture taking mode and post soon!

Gingerbread Houses - Take 2

So the pre-made gingerbread house kit

didn't work out so well.

Due to the kind we chose this year - 

it would not fit together properly. 

Sounded and looked neat in the beginning

but implementation...not so great.

And that is ok with me, 

cause I think the boys got a little

carried away with the decorations!

So one of our new friends

invited us to her house for a 

Gingerbread House Decorating Drop-In.

She made them out of graham crackers.

I have seen and heard of the idea

but never in person 

and I have found a new

tradition for our family.

Gone are the days of one

big gingerbread house

in this household...

Hello individual ones!!

The kids had a great time

and they will eat off of them for a few days

and then it is GONE!

So it is their special snack for the next few days.

We also used it for today's writing

exercises. 

R is writing a story about his

gingerbread house.

J is drawing a picture about his.

Using lots of detail!

(R's masterpiece)

(J's masterpiece)

(A's well decorated attempt - with a little help from mom)

What else have we been up to??

We are still doing well in the homeschool

area and still "winging it".

BUT there is an end in sight!

I met my new best friend.

At least that is what I told her she was gonna become!

I am one that I really like to see items in person

before I bite the bullet and order on line.

(It is a whole lot harder to change my mind and return

stuff I buy on-line)

I have been struggling with which math style to use:

Saxon

Singapore

Abeka

etc...

On one of the local yahoo groups, she was getting rid of all 

of her singapore math books.  

I was so excited...

I wanted to go over and look through the books and

see if it would fit us.

I arrive at her house to learn she is pregnant with #8 

and has been homeschooling for 9 years 

(her oldest is in 8th grade).

I was so excited.  I told my husband 

I wouldn't be long when I went to visit and look through her

singapore math items.

Oh was I wrong!

I got home 3 hours later and 

had a PLAN!

I was beside myself with excitement!

I left there and had decided to do something

I would have NEVER decided to do on my own.

I spoke with my husband,

and he agreed.

So we settled on following the

"Mother of Divine Grace" 

curriculum.

It is a classical Catholic curriculum

that is VERY inexpensive

and they have it all organized out 

you purchase a syllabus 

and then the books individually

and follow the syllabus.

I can do this!

That is exactly what I have been looking for!

Reasonably priced

AND

it has all of the lesson plans done for me!

I am sure I will tweak and add and subtract things.

The best part about all of this is

"I" decide!!

So we are gonna start off attempting to follow it 

and add a few things in here and there.

I am very eagerly awaiting the arrival of our new goodies!!

This is mainly for, my oldest, R.

And somewhat for my second son, J.

J will also use parts from Confessions of a Homeschooler

and A, my 3 year old, will do her PreK curriculum.  

A already knows most of her alphabet and the sounds they make

but she is not ready to move on to other more advanced stuff yet.

I don't want to push her too hard.

So she will get to do lots of fun stuff with the PreK stuff.

I am excited to get it.

But we probably won't get REALLY into it for another

few weeks.

It is amazing how much time it takes to get this stuff ready!

But its ok - it is a great feeling working on it 

and seeing the results.

I acquired a bookshelf, lamination machine and paper cutter over the holidays.

The bookshelf houses our books - imagine that.  And looks better than it ever has!

(our paperbacks organized by reading level)

The lamination machine and paper cutter are already being used

and have helped me develop our HCIA -

Household Central Intelligence Area.

I will add to it as we go.

But for now,

It is helping J learn about the calendar and days of the week

and we will move on to months of the year.

And I am attempting to keep up with a weekly 

schedule too.

So the kids will see what is coming up in our week.

Mom and dad too.

Scouts, sports practices, special events

(like gingerbread house drop in).

And special snacks,

I am also going to do a little more baking with the kids.

So special snacks will include,

homemade soft pretzels

more granola bars (but with real oats, not quick cook!)

There will be a few more posts coming up about some of the other 

excitement over the holiday "break".

Christmas Baking Anyone??

I have fallen in love with the blog

"Confessions of a Homeschooler"

I discovered her a few weeks ago

and have been pretty much obsessed ever since.

This lady has got her act together!

And her site is a great place to start for new

homeschoolers with young kids!

I am not copying -

well, I guess I kinda am...

but like I said -

she is a great resource 

and a great place to start!!

She does monthly meal plans

weekly lesson plans

created her own curriculum for 

preschoolers and K4

(both of which I plan on purchasing).

She has figured this thing out!

I used to be pretty good at meal planning.

When we lived in NC, I would STOCK

my freezer UP when meats 

would go on super sales

at our local grocery store.

Due to the competition between

5 grocery store chains

(not including the 2 mega stores that sold EVERYTHING)

every day prices were a little high but the sales 

were AWESOME!

So I always had meat in the freezer to use.

Then we get down here in good 'ole Texas

and there is basically ONE

grocery store chain!

YEP

ONE!

Then there are the 2 mega stores too.

So there really is NO competition

like there was in NC.

So my buying stuff super cheap and stocking up days 

are kinda over.

Instead, I am attempting to

plan and purchase for 2 weeks at a time.

We will see how that goes.

I am headed in the right direction and 

have planned out meals and snacks for the 

next two weeks.

I wasn't really giving the kids snacks like they 

think they need.  

So I have been inspired by 

Confessions of a Homeschooler...

and

we are baking!

We would be doing a little anyways.

But when I put things on paper

and on a calendar.

It is easier to stick to!

Last week we made & decorated 

Christmas cookies

while my folks were here.

(will have more about that on another post)

Today

After we put the babies down for naps

- yes "we" - the boys put Ms. Priss in her bed

I put the baby in his bed - 

we made

Christmas-y Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

1) Dump

2) Pat

3) Bake

4) Cut

5) Devour!

(six thumbs up!)

Then we started decorating our annual gingerbread house.

I helped/supervised for a while...

then went and worked on something else.

This is what happens when you leave 2 boys

with 3 bags of icing!!

Can you tell that these are supposed to be

the sides of a gingerbread house??

Can't wait to see what the completed house looks like tomorrow!!