Homeschool

Things have been so busy around here for the past couple of months! We started homeschool in the middle of August, and that has pretty much taken up most of my time and energy, and I finally feel like I am finding my stride in schooling and can come up for some air. You'd think that once we made the decision to homeschool things would be cut and dried... but, no. I've been surprised by how many decisions about curriculum, teaching style, learning style, and philosophy there are once I got into the homeschool world.

This year we are enjoying My Father's World Kindergarten curriculum, which is a very easy review for Garrett since he is already reading and writing, but is a good challenge for Wyatt. We start with MFW each day, and I give worksheets or projects to Wyatt so he can join in too and get a review of the letters and sounds. And then I'm supplementing Hooked on Phonics for Garrett and we're speeding through that fast to make sure he has the good phonics foundation he needs, and we're also going through Handwriting Without Tears to make sure he is forming letters correctly. I'm also giving him some journal time to draw a picture and write about it any way he wants. I'd like to move to a more independent study in the next year or so, concentrating mostly on math, writing, and reading.

For My Father's World, I love the unit studies we're going through! We spend a week studying one topic that starts with one letter. So far we've studied the sun, the moon, leaves, apples, and nests and we're moving on to turtles next week. It's perfect for this year where Garrett is getting Kindergarten review and Wyatt is getting Preschool. They are so fascinated with each subject, and I love hearing Garrett read a lot of the books out loud to us. I'm getting into the rhythm of putting the books for the next week or two on hold at the library and then picking them up. I've also discovered the books on CD in the children's section and the kids really enjoy listening to them which gives me a chance to get something else done. We're trying to save DVD's and videos for weekends only, so they are forced to play, read, create, etc., and it's gone better than I expected but was hard at first.

We've also been reading "Leading Little Ones to God" which has been very good, and every once in a while I get out our Character Concepts curriculum and teach them a character trait and verse to go with it.

So, it's been fun, and I love how homeschool gives us the opportunity to learn together as a family, go on adventures together, teach the boys character traits like being helpful around the house with chores and being friends with each other, and lets the boys be boys and have a pretty care-free and imaginative childhood.

I'm so thankful for how well Garrett is reading, and that makes it a lot easier this year. Wyatt knows all of the letter sounds. Wade has been challenging at this age, but I've been trying to give him things to do while we work and train him that school time is the time for him to play quietly - I hope it takes soon! ;-)

So, here are a bunch of pictures from our latest activities...

First day of school!

 

 Ready to learn!

 

 Wade the little sidekick is too! (He frequently says, "I do TOO!!!")

 

 New sorting toy makes Wyatt happy.

 

 We started with the days of creation.

 

 Garrett loves learning about all kinds of things in his Charlie Brown Encyclopedia.

Wyatt got ahold of stickers when I was busy with Garrett!

Listening to "The Story of Ping" and following along in the book.

 

 Creating a "prototype of a cassette tape" :)

 

Doing fine motor activities before starting school.

 

 Camping trip where the boys caught the maximum limit of fish with Jim - 24 in 2 days!!

 

 

 A sweeping "invention"

 

 G's pictures of the moon and sun...

 

 Surveying the flood water levels (that flattened grass) after the big flood.

Eating crawdads that the boys and Jim worked hard to catch in our local lakes.

 

 Painting around leaves we collected on a walk.

 

 Blowing bubbles in Garrett's "truck."

 

 More bubbles!

 

 Playing with their "invention" that drains water through a pipe to either bottle.

 

 Wyatt is very generous and loves to wrap up little presents for me with plastic wrap.

 

 Another invention - a lock box (after we got locked out of the house and couldn't get into our lock box that had the key in it!)

 

 At a darling apple orchard in Longmont, built in 1892, with heirloom apples and a beautiful yellow farmhouse.

Fun and a picnic at the park...

 

Going on a leaf hunt in their adventure gear.

 

 They ended up getting mostly old grass clippings to make nests...

 

Wade loves swinging!

 ...and having Garrett push him.

 

 Folding his hands so nicely to pray...

 

 Sharpening pencils is a favorite activity around here.

Wade painting a little.

 

 Painting trees and autumn leaves.

Pumpkin patch time!

 

 I love watching the boys playing well together!