Saturday, September 24, 2011

Pumpkin (week 8)

the pumpkin came off the vine and into the loving hands of it's maker. he scrubbed and scrubbed that pumpkin 'till it shined!




and here it sits with batman. i'm guessing this pumpkin will turn into a jack-o-lantern just like that, some time next month!



#14 of 101- things you gotta do

#14. Ride a Train!

I'd been wanting to take my little train loving Camo to this train for over a year. We recently met new homeschooling friends who have a 4 year old train loving boy too! I mentioned that we should take them and BAM we were there within a week... i guess i needed that extra push!





Monday, September 19, 2011

pumpkin (week 7)

it's just about pickin' time!! I gave up on all the other vines and mowed them down.



syllables & subtraction

last week we tackled subtraction (with an abacus) which of course she loves!



we also worked on word syllables and she picked up on it right away. i have a distinct memory of my music teacher teach us syllables in class. one of the few memories of learning in elementary school. 

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

first week of first grade

we started a new school year last week, which brought a new weekday schedule. 2 things I learned last year were that it's near impossible to focus on any traditional schooling with Mayden when Cam is around. impossible. the second thing I learned is that I really like weekends off. when I first envisioned our homeschool lives I didn't really see a difference between education and life. and really truly & honestly (especially at this age)  it's true. however, Mayden and I seem to thrive in a routine and she (so far) likes the idea of school so we've created a weekday schedule for schooling this year. time makes me feel 10,000X better about slacking off on the weekends!

so M-F, 9-11am May and I are left alone to do all things "school". we read (mostly she reads to me), do math worksheets ("I love math because it's like a game to me" she said last week -- surely she is NOT my child!) and I've started having her look up one word in the Children's Dictionary that I pick out and she writes out the first sentence of the definition. so far we've done an A, B & C word... and next week we'll continue. 2 days a week we take our show on the road to the library.

 here she was first in line on the first day last week



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after our 2 hours of reading/writing/talking/math ect in the morning we collect Cameron and do some sort of planned activity in the afternoon. pirate map making, cookie baking, playground time, hiking, swimming, soccer ect



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we were lucky enough to find two other families in our area with homeschooled kids who are about the same age as ours.


 after a summer of fun we recently decided to try implementing a 'science club' and meet each week to "do science". the kids seem to love it .... 



although sometimes it's just more fun to play in mud together!


Saturday, September 10, 2011

pumpkin (week 6)



pumpkin (week 5 and 2 days)

a little late... today's picture coming next!





the other side.... we have ORANGE!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Vacation 2011: the beach

ahhh the beach, one of the most peaceful places on earth.... well, that is until the kids wake up. i woke up to see the sunrise over the ocean and it was worth every second of lost sleep. breathtaking! 



Cameron prefers the sand

while Mayden is my waterbug. thanks to my mom she picked up boogie boarding this year... i see lots of fun in her future!






Wednesday, September 7, 2011

eggs!

We have our first egg!... truth be told, we had out first egg weeks ago and i'm just now blogging about it.




for the first few weeks we were only getting one egg every 2-3 days but now we're consistently getting one egg a day and sometimes 3 a day. so it seems that 3 of the 5 ladies are laying and eventually we should be getting 5 eggs a day! -- send over your eggcellent recipes today! 




Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Vacation 2011: The place

2 years ago we stayed in Ocean City, NJ at a little tiny place that worked for just the 4 of us. this year we added 3.5 people and were able to get a bigger/nicer place!






more photos here: click me
and more details coming to the blog soon!