Our School Room

I don’t think I have ever posted pictures of our school room before and since a wonderful friend recently helped me rearrange some things it I thought it would be a good time to share pics.

Here is our circle time area. Our circle time area is to the right when you walk in the room and behind the door is our calendar, family mailboxes and school rules. We use the little mail boxes to put their allowance in and write notes to each other.

In the middle of the room we have our school table and up against the wall is Emily’s workboxes. Ellie is using a notebook instead of a workbox that you can see on the back of her purple chair. I will talk more about how Ellie is using her school notebook in another post.

In one of the dormers there is a cabinet that holds the curriculum that doesn’t get used as often and the baskets on top hold the curriculum that we use on a daily basis.

Also, in this dormer is our animal wall from Road Trip USA and our Mystery of History time line. 

In the other dormer we have our foam alphabet that we are working on. All of the foam letter ideas came from Totally Tots. 

My friend had the great idea of putting all of our books in file crates so the girls can easily flip through them. So they run along the back wall of the room. This has been such a huge hit! They aren’t in alphabetical order but all of the A’s are together and B’s are together etc. 

  This large Ikea shelf holds most of our games, Holiday books and manipulatives.

Our art shelf is tucked behind our chair but it wasn’t quite big enough to hold everything so there is a SMALL closet right beside it so I put a shoe holder on the back to help hold our loose items.

On our longest wall we have a sofa and chair because this is also the room where we watch TV and I have a craft nook in the corner but it was too messy to photograph:)

Sensory Bin

I love making the girls sensory bins and there are so many awesome ideas in blog land so I decided to make at least one a month and maybe 2. This month I decided to make a cutting sensory bin. I filled the tub with:

• scissors
• craft and hole punches
• beads
• tissue paper
• scrapbook paper
• foam
• straws
• thin cardboard strips
• paper in all different shapes
• paint samples

It is definitely not a “pretty” box but it has been very popular. I am not sure who is enjoying it more. Next week I am going to add glue and pipe cleaners.

Family Spa Night

We try to plan a family night once a month that is different and fun and this month it was spa night. It has been our favorite so far. We set up three stations: facial, pedicure and manicure.

For the facial station we set up a lawn chair (b/c we are classy like that) and set up a little table with homemade facemask, cucumbers, lotion, body spray, lip gloss and a pan with warm water.

For the manicure station we set up nail polish, fingernail files, lotion, pan of warm water for soaking and body spray.

For the pedicure station we set up the same as above except in the foot tub we put a body sponge and soap.

 

We started the night off by getting into our pj’s and sipping pink lemon-aide.

 We read a cute little book that came with the spa kit called Spa-di-da. Chris and I took the girls through each station first so they could know what to do when it was our turn. At the beginning of each station we sprayed the girls with body spray to help them relax (Ellie’s idea). We played classical music in the background to help set the mood:)They were so cute and into the whole thing. After Ellie’s facial she said that her skinning was soft and glowing:) We acted like the girls were our clients and they did the same for us.   

For the facial mask we used 1/4 cup of oatmeal, 2 T of warm water and a dollop of yogurt. It didn’t smell that great but they didn’t seem to mind.

I love the times when we all really enjoy the moment we are in. No whining, no grumpies, no complaining and not thinking about what I should be cleaning or my to do list. Just appreciating being together!! This was one of those nights and I loved it!!

1st Day of School

We had our first day of school today!! Ellie is officially a 1st grader and Emily is in Pre-K. We had a lot planned today and the girls were so excited! We started our morning off with new outfits and taking pictures. I printed their signs from here.

  Chris made one of their favorite breakfasts, egg cups and cinnamon fries and the girls each got to open up a bag of new school supplies. Their favorite things were the stapler and gel pens.

 

After breakfast we packed their lunch and headed upstairs to start school about 9:00. I don’t let them eat upstairs very often so they were happy about that! School went really good. I worked with Ellie and Chris worked with Emily. Ellie had a little bit of a melt down at the end when we were playing a game but other than that it was a success.

We were done with school right at noon and the girls ate lunch and had some down time. I called the girls down about an hour later for Sundae school. Ellie thought we were doing our family bible study and Emily was just confused on why were were doing school again. Both girls were happy to find this:

  I saw the idea here and new that I wanted to incorporate it as part of our first day excitement.

After we enjoyed our root beer floats and sundaes we set up for our family night. We are trying to do this once a month and this month we were going to have a family spa day. It was my favorite part of the day. I will post more on that later.

We finished off the day with a carpet picnic and the movie Tangled. Now I am pooped but I think the first day of school was a big success:)

Where Has The Summer Gone

I didn’t mean to take most of the summer off from blogging but I guess life happens and blogging got put on the back burner. This summer has gone by faster than most and I can’t believe fall is in just a little over a month. I am so ready:) So what have we been up to this summer? We have been sick A LOT!!!! I was sick for a month but two rounds of antibiotics and lots of homemade chicken stock and I am finally better. Both girls have been sick off and on as well and Chris has got another cold. I am not sure what is going on but I am praying that the worst of it is over!!! We did manage to do fun stuff as well.

Ellie went to sleep away camp for a 1/2 week and she loved it!!!! What is not to love about 3 nights and 4 days of swimming, lake activities, games, horseback riding, camp fires and the list goes on and on. She can’t wait to go back next year.

Both girls took swim lessons and got to go to music camp. Ellie was so excited because she had a speaking part and got to sing a duet.

We went on a family camping trip to one of the Jellystone Parks (Yogi Bear Campground) and had a blast! It was the first time we camped for 2 nights. There was so much to do at the campground and there was a creek right by our camp site that the girls had fun playing in.

That about wraps it up. We are starting school on Labor Day so I have spent the last few weeks tweaking our school room and put the finishing touches on our curriculum. I will be posting about school and our school room soon!

Curriculum 2011-2012

In May I attended our big homeschool conference and got most of what we needed for the upcoming school year.Ellie is finishing up Kindergarten and will be starting 1st grade at the beginning of Sept. Emily is over half way done with Raising Rock Star Preschool and will continue working on preschool activities throughout next year. Here is what the girls will be doing

Ellie 1st Grade: (Workboxes Monday-Wed)

Handwriting – A Reason for Handwriting Book B (she will actually be doing this 4x/week)

Reading – Just reading lots and lots to each other.

Spelling – All About Spelling 1

Math – Continue with Math Mammoth. I love that I have found something that she is happy with. I liked MUS but she did not like it at all!!

History – Mystery of History, MOH audio book and MOH coloring sheets

Language Lessons for Little Ones 3

Phonics – Continue with Explode the Code

Piano – Kinderbach (I think)

Art - Artistic Pursuits and Themes to Remember

Critical Thinking – We have several of these books that I will incorporate off and on

Emily Preschool: (Workboxes M-W) because she wants to do the same thing as big sister.

I am filling Emily’s workboxes with games, puzzles, and hands on activities. I have a membership to Kidssoup and ABC Twiggle so I will be giving her printouts and crafts based off a letter a week. I am also going to start her with Handwriting Without Tears Preschool Book. Both girls will be doing a book and a craft a couple of times a week based off the letter that we are working on. I already have most of these planned out.

Thursday – as a family we are doing Confessions of a Homeschoolers Road Trip State Study. You can read more about what we are doing here. Instead of breaking it up a little each day we are doing a state in one day but stretching it out into multiple Thursdays if needed.

Friday – Ellie is taking a science class every other Friday but we will all do science together on the weeks she is not in class.

Both girls start Frontier Girls and AWANA in Sept. as well.

Fun at the Beach

Here are a few pictures from our beach trip.

Enjoying the sand Fun at the aquarium

I think she spilled more ice cream then she ate

 

Ellie found a baby frog

Vacation Activity Bag

We recently got back from the beach and we had such a great time. The older the girls get the more fun we seem to have. It is just so nice to have the uninterrupted family time!! Every year I pack a bag of new activities for the girls to do when we are just relaxing at the beach house. Sometimes the activities last 20 min. and sometimes 1 min. You just never know but this year the girls spent lots of time with the items I brought. Here is what our vacation activity bag consisted of:

Uno Moo: My sister bought this for the girls and it was a big hit

Spot It: A fun game for any age. Each card has a picture that matches a picture on another card. The first one to spot the match keeps the card.

Melissa & Doug Make a Face: This was the biggest hit of all. They both spent so much time playing with this. I will be buying this again for sure!

The rest of the items were found in the $ section at the craft store/

Beach Stickers with Markers to make a picture scene

Paper Dolls

3D Mosaic Animals – I thought they would love this but it wasn’t a big hit

Sun Catchers to paint

Peel and Stick Sand Art – always a hit

New Bubbles

Books of course :)

What do you take with you on vacation to keep the kids busy during down time?

Nourishing Traditions

Remember a few posts back when I said that I was taking a six week cooking class based on the book Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon? You don’t?? Oh well that is OK! Well I recently finished the class and it was so great. Here is a brief overview of the class:

Week 1 – Cultured dairies              Week 2 –Fermented fruits and veggies

Week 3- Homemade broth            Week 4- Soaking Grains

Week 5- Sugars, Oils and Fats        Week 6- Trip to Earthfare, Beverages

First let me back up. Last year about this time I started doing some research on eating healthier because I have always been a low fat eater and I ate pretty healthy or so I thought but I really thought for my age I should just feel better in general. Throughout my research I kept running across information on eating real whole foods. I didn’t know a lot but I knew that I was interested and I poured over Passionate Homemaking and Heavenly Homemakers blogs and watching Food Inc. Some of the ideas seemed very foreign to me. Making most things from scratch and cutting out processed foods seemed like a smart idea but eating full fat foods seemed a little crazy. Then I was introduced to the book Nourishing Traditions and everything it said made so much since to me until I got to the recipes! I was basically like huh????? I didn’t have a clue how to really get started so I just started trying to make snacks from scratch and switch to mostly organics. After a few months the only thing I had to show for my “hard work” and research was an additional 7lbs. I slowly crept back to my old way of life and had slowly started to lose the extra weight that I gained. I still knew that I wanted to make changes but I still didn’t have a clue at how to do it. I happened to see that a class was getting ready to be offered based on Nourishing Traditions just down the street from me. I was so excited and talked a friend into taking it with me. I can’t tell you how great this class was and I am so excited/nervous to start making these changes again. Before when I made changes I was pretty much just eating lots of homemade whole wheat baked goods but that was about it. Now I have lots of new goals and I have already started making some changes. Here are the changes I have made so far:

Switched to raw milk (Emily LOVES this milk)

Switched to coconut oil and dumped canola and vegetable oil

Buying very few processed foods

Buying mostly organic

Buying only grass-fed beef, free-range organic eggs and organic chicken (which we eat a lot less of now b/c it is expensive)

Switched from sugar to Sucanat

Soaking most of my grains – you can read more about that here

I still have a long long way and truthfully I know just enough to know what not to do and not enough of what I should do but I am so excited about this journey. I will share my successes and failures off and on. I will also soon share my “to do soon” list of new things I plan to try making.

More Horses

The girls have been fortunate enough lately to ride horses several times between birthday parties and Ellie’s day at horse camp. They have loved every minute of it!!