Abigail: Cleaning, her way or no way!

I got Abbey her own little broom and dustpan since all she wants to do is copy Mommy and that means clean, clean, clean!

However, Abbey decided that after carefully sweeping under each chair and the table that rather than put the food particles in the dustpan, she would eat them! Now, I couldn't convince her to stop, but really, can I complain? She got the floor cleaner than any of the other kids have!

Jamie's first day of school! First Grade watch out!

Jamie has to wear a uniform to school, but she makes anything look so cute!

Welcome to the First Grade! Jamie rides to school on the bus and stays all day! She is doing a wonderful job.

Justin: An artist? Maybe!

Justin made his first piece of artwork the other day. His pincer grasp and hand control has improved so much I decided to pull out the markers and see what he could do. He rose to the occasion, as always, and held the marker better than I ever could have imagined! His work is beautiful and he has drawn several more since then!

Science: Weather

Dakota is doing a really neat science program where he read literature, Dakota? Read? Yes! And he is loving it! After reading a variety of literature (not simply textbooks, actually no textbook!), Dakota does hands on experiments to reinforce the concepts. He's really enjoying it. We are currently studying weather and it's a great time with the monsoon! Here is a weather vane that we made and it is still holding up in our back yard!

Justin is hitting the road!

A little over a month ago, we got Justin a "creepster crawler." This is a device that allows you to work on crawling even if you can't hold your head up. Justin is more than ready to "get up and go" in his mind so this was the perfect solution. A few weeks ago, Justin would merely inch around the entry way and dining area for up to 15 minutes...well, today he is blasting from the front door to the kitchen sink in that amount of time and going for 30 minutes! He is so proud of himself. Here are some pictures of when he first got the "creepster" and hopefully I'll have video of him now loaded soon!

Week Four: Creation Through Noah

This week we got to work on a familiar bible stories which was really fun, Creation and Noah's Ark. The kids looked up how large Noah's Ark really was and went down the street and measured it out with Daddy and TaTa...it was much bigger than we all expected! Then we read several different variations of Noah's Ark and compared and contrasted them to the biblical view.

Dakota is working on in depth bible studies of each story. He has to look up verses, completing missing parts, doing a crossword, and word search. He has also been doing independent book reviews and research. This week he researched pangea and the layers of the Earth and drew models of each. Here are two awesome websites on those topics: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/dynamic.html and http://www.math.montana.edu/~nmp/materials/ess/geosphere/novice/activities/planet_earth/

Dakota is picking up a lot of grammar through his reading and writing as well. We were comparing two stories, "The Three Little Pigs" and "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs." When talking about the conclusion, Dakota decided to write that "The three little pigs lived happily ever after." I was pleasantly surprised to see the quotation marks, something I had not taught him you needed when quoting another reference. I asked him, "Why did you use those quotation marks?" He replied, "Moooommmm, you are suppose to use them when you take words out of another book, or if you are talking." Then he rolled his eyes at me...of course. Then I said, "I know Dakota, that is great work, I just had never taught you that..." His reply, "Mooommmmm" (eye roll again), "I reeeaaaddddd you know." Of course, my mistake!

I have introduced Shiller Math to both Kaylee and Dakota. Kaylee is starting at the beginning as she is in Kindergarten and Dakota is skipping through quickly to make sure we didn't miss anything he needed last year. Shiller Math is really neat, it is all done on a cloth mat on the floor. There is very little written work and no drilling. It is manipulative based, hands on, concept finding math. The kids really love it and love playing with all the "math stuff". You can find more info at www.shillermath.com. It is a spiral type math which means that it introduces a concept and then comes back to it over and over again. This is much different than studying the same thing for weeks on end. With this method, there is no time to get bored and you don't forget what you studied at the beginning because it keeps coming back all the time!

Week Three: King Tut and the Ten Plagues

Well, since we'd been learning about mummies, we had to research King Tut, the most famous mummy of them all! We had a great time learning about buried treasures and discoveries. We also learned in depth the Ten Plagues God sent to Egypt to convince the pharoah to free the Israelites. The kids sure thought that pharoah was a little slow! They drew a comic strip about the Ten Plagues and they were very funny and cute! Dakota did an in depth study of Passover, what the original Passover was and how it is celebrated today.

Week Two: Mummies and Pyramids

Well, you can't study Egypt without the Mummies and Pyramids, can you? Oh, it was fun! We read, "Mummies in the Morning" and it's non-fiction companion guide by Mary Pope Osborne to set the stage. The we learned about the process of making a real mummy and why the Egyptians made them! We learned all about Egyptian beliefs and compared it to our own Christian beliefs. We explored pyramids and all their wonder. Then the really fun part was when we made our own mummy out of newspaper using the outline of the kids!

We started by ripping up tons of newspaper, this was fun all by itself! Then making a paper mache glue mixture, Daddy traced the mummies body and then the kids went to work. The mummy became part of the family, he ate with us, watched TV with us, and read stories. He is in the library of our house now just waiting to make his debut on Halloween!

I can't tell you how many odd looks I've been given by visitors who are greeted at the door by our mummy! It's still just as funny every time someone notices him standing there!

Week One: Ancient Egypt and Moses

We started off in early July with studying Ancient Egypt and Moses. We wanted to learn all about Moses's life, so that meant learning all about Egyptian life! We discussed irrigation, the Nile River, transportation, the type of dress, hairstyles and hieroglyphics.

Here is how we made our 3-D Map. First, Dakota drew a picture of Africa and

Madagascar onto a thick piece of cardboard.

Then Kaylee and Jordan worked hard on mixing up the salt dough mixture. Once it was ready, they carefully laid down the clay mixture within the boundary lines. It was important to draw in important features like the Nile River and Atlas Mountains. With Daddy's help, the kids made topographical features. Kaylee then built the labels while Dakota put them in the proper place, without a map I might add! When it was looking good, the kids had to set it aside and wait overnight for it to dry. Then, the really fun part came: painting and labeling!

Our Family:

This is the only picture in existence of all six children! Including Jordan who we fostered for a year and has now moved on to his forever home.

All the children posed beautifully...however, not at the same time!

In the Beginning...

Thank you for joining our homeschooling experience! We use the following curriculums:

• Tapestry of Grace (world and biblical history, philosophy, writing, literature, & government). Find info at www.tapestryofgrace.com.
• Time4Learning (online resource that teaches children math, science, language arts, and social studies at their individual level and pace).
  
• Spalding, "The Writing Road to Reading" (spelling, handwriting, grammar, phonics). For more info visit www.spalding.org
• Noeo Science (literature and experiment based science).For more info visit www.noeoscience.com
• Handle on the Arts (art, architecture and music history, appreciation, and application). For more info visit www.handleonthearts.com

It took a lot of time and research to pick the right curriculum for our family. We are very happy with all of these choices!