It's just about that Time.....Curriculum Choices for our School Year (2015-2016)

The summer has gone by in the blink of an eye!  We are starting school next week...yikes!  Not sure I'm ready yet.

This year, we are adding Caroline to the mix. She is 4.5 years old and ready to start building some good habits.

This year we will have kids in 6th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, Pre-K and tot school.

Our oldest two boys attend our local public high school and will be in 11th and 12th grades this year.

 Our Pre-Ker will be using All About Reading Pre-1

 Our 2nd grader is continuing to work through All About Reading Level 1 and will move onto level 2 when she finishes.

 Our 3rd grader is working in All About Reading Level 2

 Our 4th and 6th graders are using Teaching the Classics this year.  They will be reading and discussing great books.

 

Our math curriculum continues to be Math U See

Language Arts/Grammar

 Our younger kids use a combination of First Language Lessons and Rod and Staff.

Our older kids use Rod and Staff

Writing

 For handwriting practice we are using Handwriting without Tears

Our writing curriculum for our younger kids is Writing with Ease and our older kids are using IEW writing Intensive A this year.

For spelling we are trying something new this year.  Our younger kids will use All about Spelling and our older kids will you the Phonetic Zoo level A.

 We are continuing with Story of the World for History

and Apologia Exploring Creation with Zoology 2 for science.

We are excited to start Latin this year using Song School Latin.

We are also going to be implementing Morning Time during which we will work on memory work

1.Bible Verse Memory

2. Poetry

3. History Timeline

4. Science Facts

5. Read Alouds

 

This will already be our third year homeschooling.  That is almost hard to believe. God has blessed our family through this experience.  Our children are growing in His love and grace daily.  I am very grateful for the opportunity to learn together as a family.  It definitely can be challenging, but so worth pushing through those days that you just want to throw in the towel.  The one thing I have learned is that our day is much better when God is at the center of everything we do.  As soon as I think I have things handled on my own, my patience, self-control, and joy become depleted. 

 

 

 



Lake Days

 We have been blessed by the generosity of Brett's former boss and friend Dean the past couple of weekends.  Dean's house is located on a beautiful lake.  He has allowed our family to take over his house the past two weekends and have a fabulous time.

 The kids have had a joyous time jumping off his dock and swimming in the lake.

Even our little ones have enjoyed the action.

The boys have enjoyed a little lake fishing off the dock and the back of Dean's boat.

 He even trusted us with his boat.

 Brett quickly learned to navigate the lake and took everyone on a boat ride.

Last weekend, the kids graduated up to tubing and totally had a blast getting dunked in the lake.

Dean drove the boat over to a pizza place and the kids ate pizza on the boat.

 At first Luke wasn't too sure about the boat when it was actually operating out on the lake, but by last weekend, he had actually come to like it and took a nap while the kids were tubing.

 

 The beauty of his place.  We are so thankful for Dean and how he loves our family.  Not every person works for a company such as Brett that truly embraces family.  We have been blessed over and over through the relationships Brett has made through his company.



Caroline's Colorful Summer

 Caroline fell in our front yard and broke both bones in her arm at the beginning of July.  It happened on a Sunday night, so we had to wait to get into the orthopedic doctor on Monday morning.  

 Monday morning, off she went.  They ended up needing to sedate her to reset her arm, the orthopedic doctor met Brett and Caroline over at the ER.

She left with a pink cast. She had wanted a yellow cast, but her arm was too swollen to be set immediately in a fiberglass cast, so her first cast was plaster wrapped in pink.

 Cast #2 was purple.  A week later, her bones had shifted slightly and the doctor felt more comfortable leaving her in the plaster cast for another week.  Luckily if got a rewrap because the pink was crazy dirty!

Cast #3 and we have a very happy girl. She is finally sporting a yellow cast and as a bonus it is waterproof!  She can have a bath and even swim in fresh water.

 

She was a trooper throughout this experience.  She definitely was spoiled!  We are hopeful that this is our last visit to the orthopedic urgent care with Caroline.  She has had far too many visits there in the past 4 years!

Knee High by the Fourth of July

When I was growing up, one summer tradition I loved was going to get corn on the cob.  There was a farm near our house where they would bring the corn in on big flat beds attached to tractors.  My mom would peel back the layers of husk to peek at the corn. I still love to have corn on the cob every summer.  It brings back many happy, carefree summer memories.

Speaking of summer memories, this is a little bit of what our family has been up to these lazy days of summer.

 A baby watermelon has grown on the vine.  We are looking forward to seeing it grow.

 Our first green pepper

We are all enjoying our gardening adventure this year.  Brett is already mapping out a bigger location in our yard for next year.

 We love our Dad!  He might be biased, but we think our Dad is the best dad around.

 Uncle Van stopped by on his way home from a show in Atlanta. He brought a few fireworks to preview before the annual Fourth of July Picnic we have with our friends and neighbors.

Setting of a parachute man

Going in for the catch

The aftermath...only one person can catch the man!

Our third annual Fourth of July picnic.  We welcomed new neighbors this year and enjoyed an evening of good food, fellowship, and fun.

 

Adding a bit more excitement to our lives, we had a water issue that brought this cool digger into our front yard.  Luke loved pretending to drive it.

 

And then, Caroline fell running in our front yard and broke her arm.  She has been a trooper throughout this adventure and received a few special surprises to help cheer her up.

 

She received a sweet card and stickers from her cousins.  She loved the picture that James made especially for her.

 And then a few days later this box arrived in the mail for her from Pop and Nana.

 As you can see, she was super excited to receive her very own American Girl. 

Meet the two Caroline's

 

We have about 4 weeks of summer left before school starts again.  We are getting our school room clean and ready for the new year.  Our curriculum is arriving in the mail and we are getting excited to begin another year.  We are going to soak in these last few weeks of summer.

 

"These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full."

John 15:11