my first guest post

My friend Alison started a "5 Things" series on her blog. Each Tuesday she will post tips on a variety of topics. I was pretty excited when she asked me to write a post about homeschooling for the series. The post is up today, so go check it out! And while you are there look around. Her blog is great and there are already some fun posts in the series!

insta-friday :: week 8

{Meet Jillyboo. She showed up at our house and we cared for her a couple of days before finding her a home. I so wish our home could have been hers. Isn't she beautiful?}

{Our latest artist study was of Raphael. The kids really enjoy the projects in this book.}

{It is apple season! We went for our first visit last week and I can't wait to go back.}

{I agreed to have Reptile Day at our house for a group of fellow homeschoolers. Need I say more?}

{There is a large statue of a bear across from our house. The kids love to climb under his belly. Note the shoes. After the bear we headed to the track so she could run. In a skirt and tights.}

{Craft nights are a little messy but always a ton of fun.}

{Sherlock Lucy joined us for school this week. She said she was solving "The Mystery of the Burglar's Hideout."}

Happy Friday everyone!

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little reader

The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.

-Dr. Seuss

I have said many times that one of the most touching things as a homeschool mom is teaching my children to read. Actually, I get excited about my children learning, period. But, there is something extra special about watching them learn to read. Just seeing all the pieces come together...I love it!

Lucy is learning to read. We use this book for our lessons. We are about a third of the way through it. Most days she will ask to do more than one lesson per day. She gets so proud when she reads something new. Her eyes light up and she clasps her hands together in excitement.

She has not been reading books, but last week during a trip to the library she asked to pick out one she could read. In the past, I have liked the small simple books by Margaret Hillert. I pulled this one off the shelf first and Lucy was very pleased with the pumpkin on the cover.

She was so excited about reading it that she tried to start while we were still walking through the library! Once we got home, she had to have a little bit of help, but I was so proud of how well she did.

Maybe one reason that it is so exciting to see them learn to read is knowing that once they are able to read, they can take some other learning into their own hands. Not to mention all the places they can go with books (thanks, Dr. Seuss)!

I was just getting ready to close this post and Lucy entered the room and I asked her why she is excited to learn to read and she replied, "So that I can read on my own." And then I asked her what is so great about being able to read. And she replied, "You get to read mysteries and funny books. And you get to read the Bible and learn about people in it." I think those are some pretty great answers.

insta-friday :: week 7

So, I skipped a few Insta-Fridays. Oops. Don't worry, I won't share every photo that I would have posted had I been keeping up, but some of these are a couple of weeks old. Indulge me :) We have been doing artist studies with our history lessons. The photo above was taken during one of our Da Vinci lessons.

{Bird mapping. We love using Apologia's Flying Creature's of the Fifth Day.}

{Nature study with a house centipede we found on the back stairs. Eek!}

{We have consumed more marshmallows in the past couple of weeks that I care to admit.}

{The kids have been taking part in an electricity class with some fellow homeschoolers. They love building batteries and circuits!}

{A little road trip with the family may have involved singing Yankee Doodle to entertain ourselves while we were stuck in traffic.}

{The first banana bread of the fall.}

{Our study of Michelangelo involved seeing what it would be like to paint on a ceiling. In our case, the ceiling was the underside of the dining room table. I use this book along with our history for activities related to each artist. I highly recommend it.}

{The Smalltown Poets Christmas record has been mastered and we are really excited. Lucy was listening to it with Michael in his office/studio/library that we dubbed "Christmastown" during the recording of the album.}

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balcony homeschool

We are finally starting to enjoy cooler mornings here! Yesterday morning Michael suggested that we start school on our balcony. He is a genius. We have a pretty large second floor balcony, so we went out on it, spread a quilt and then piled our schoolbooks on it. We actually did almost all of our school day out there until we had to come in for lunch

{I think that being outdoors may have actually helped them focus.}

{The oak tree was kind enough to give us acorns to go along with our lesson about seeds.}

We so enjoyed yesterday, that we have already had school out there again this morning. This may be a frequent happening until the weather gets too cold. I think it was beneficial for all of us. The change of scenery was so nice. It is easy to get in a rut with school, but this was a simple way to change things up a bit and refresh us!

insta-friday :: week 6

It has been a beautiful week here. We have had a teeny bit of milder weather, so I am now itching for fall. Who's with me? Anyway, here is our week in review in Instagram photos.

{Any other mothers of daughters find that these are everywhere you look?

I really don't mind though because I find they are so very cute!}

{My little helpers for the surprise cookies}

{Friends came over one night with a soft pretzel recipe.

Have I mentioned my soft pretzel addiction? These didn't help me overcome it.}

{A little chalk art to help the kids remember Columbus sailing the ocean blue.}

{My new necklace from heather's happys. It does make me happy, as does Heather's blog.}

{We are studying this (we love this series) and Lucy loves to draw while I read from it.}

{My sweet fella helping me with a surprise for his little sister.}

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insta-friday :: week 5

Another week in Instagram photos! And this time I am actually posting on Friday! As I mentioned last week, we we took a little trip this past weekend to Virginia. We spent Saturday in Colonial Williamsburg. We all loved it, but you really need more than one day to experience it, so we hope to go back very soon.

{Who knew the kids would love the hoop and stick game so much?}

{This was our audio enjoyment for the ride home. Fitting since we were in Virginia.}

{The ride home was quite rainy.}

{My girl's drawings of our family and my boy's first diagrams!}

{He loves reading and listening to audio books.}

{She wore this vest everyday this week except for when she wanted to dress like her owl.}

{Roasted sweet potatoes are nothing new, but these were particularly delicious.}

{Possibly the strangest thing I have every seen at the thrift store, and I've seen a lot.}

I hope you all had a great week!

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looking back

Yesterday Lucy and I talked about rainbows and as I was taking her photo, I suddenly remembered taking a very similar photo of Larkin on his first day. I even blogged about it.

I love comparing photos of my kids at the same ages! Does any one else do that? It really is fun to see Lucy experiencing school and to have the memories of Larkin learning the same things. It seems like just yesterday.

So, two days of school complete and I really do think this is going to be a great year!

first day of school

Our first day of school is in the books! I am now officially homeschooling two. My baby is now in kindergarten. How did that happen? And I have a third grader! Oh, and the picture above? We don't have any apples, but we do have some lovely Asian pears for the teacher. (And hey, I'm not complaining!)

{My sweet peas}

{It doesn't take long to get silly}

{And even sillier}

{I really can't believe she is now in kindergarten}

{About to take off running}

{Too cool}

{Pointing the key thingy from the old doorbell on the door}

{Did I mention she is in kindergarten?!}

{She was so excited this morning!}

We took dozens of group photos. Why is there only one in which we are at least all facing the camera? This is normal, right?

I know this post is short on words, but I am exhausted! Last night I went to see The Help with a group of friends and I got in bed too late! But, it sure was worth it. I loved the book and the movie is fantastic! But now this mama/teacher needs some sleep! I hope your week is starting off as fun as ours!

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