Celebrate Good Times

We couldn't be more proud of our little guys who have worked hard this year. We've plowed through materials and curriculum and have begun to wrap up a few. We pause to celebrate them!

Brody has mastered the ABC's; names, sounds and starting to blend together and begin reading. I have to say, one of my favorite parts of teaching in the classroom was taking children who didn't know how and teach them to read and write. I cannot tell you what a privilege it is to have the opportunity to do that with my own little guy. This little mama is tickled to see him so eager to learn and take initiative to master each new skill.

Brody got to choose what he wanted to do as his celebration and he wanted to eat out at Red Robin and watch the new movie HOP.

Cheers!! Well done little man!

The week following, Collin completed the entire set of readers for the year. Starting the year, this was NOT his favorite subject but has begun to fall in love with it. We added up all the pages he read independently and the grand total was over 1500 pages!

Collin is growing in so many ways but we wanted to make sure we take some time to enjoy this accomplishment. Swimming was his activity of choice. And thanks to Groupon, we bought their Clackamas Aquatic Park coupon already so we were good to go!

They were so worn out but had a BLAST...here is an "after" picture.

Awesome job Collin!

So blessed to have this teaching "job" and these darling boys! We are so proud of them!

Ahhh, Life With Boys #6

We are "traveling" around the world giving this curriculum a whirl. When we found ourselves knee deep in Italy. Europe, in general, makes my heart beat a little faster and add my bit of Italian heritage and I'm hooked. But what caught my boys attention out of all of it, you ask?

It wasn't testing out Michealangilo's upside down painting methods or being exposed to great works of art like the statue of David (although many giggles were had when they realized the dude was naked). It wasn't paying a fortune for imported goods to create an authentic Italian feast for the family. It wasn't using new materials and creating a replica of the Roman Coloseeum (although their lego men DID enjoy being gladiators for the day).

Nope...a little clay volcano was their height of interest. After learning about Mt. Versuvius and it's explosion over Pompeii, I mentioned as a side note that we would give our modeling clay volcanoes a shot at exploding on Friday after they had time to dry. EVERY DAY, little hands tested those volcanoes, eyes inspected, pitiful pleas were heard to give them a try just a little early.

It was torture but Friday finally came...

Ahhh, Life With Boys!

Guest Post

Hey friends! You'll find me over at this great blog called, Simple Homeschool today...I am excited to have my very first guest post! Let me know what you think!

Kick off...school year 2010-2011

Fresh crayons, markers and glue are all stocked and ready at hand. The school room has been reorganized and cleaned. New curriculum, fresh paper, and sharpened pencils stacked and ready. All signs...it's time to kick off another school year!

We learned so much, academically and about each other, last year! Although I wish I could have written a bit more about the journey it felt very much like my first year of teaching all over again. Learning new curriculum, keeping the home going, juggling the needs of both kids and adjusting for the kids of "mom" putting on the new hat as full time "teacher" was a sharp learning curve for all. To be perfectly honest, some days were ugly. There were also days when I stepped back and said, this is the greatest job ever! Overall, I feel so blessed to have this opportunity to home school. It's working for us now and we're going to run with it for another year. I'm excited to present some new materials and plans for Brody and Collin that have been in the works for the last few months.

Let the learning begin!

Welcome to 1st Grade

We have a bit of an announcement this year. We are (drum roll please)....

Homeschooling!

It has been quite a journey that has led us here. After much consideration and prayer, Kyle and I have decided to give it a try. We've collected some great curriculums and have jumped in with two feet. It is fun to take out my fun teacher materials from boxes and put it to work. It's a bonus to have a licensed teacher in the house!

It's a quick trip down the hall to school.

We are off on this grand adventure! Let the learning begin!