Beach Babies

Yesterday, we had an adventure.

I already knew that I wanted to take the kids to the beach, but I was waiting to make sure the weather was going to be agreeable to finalize my plans. We called Grandma and asked if she wanted to join us, and we were off.

What does one pack for a three hour adventure to the beach?

Hats (we don't want heads overheating or burning)

Sunscreen (for the kids, but don't forget to protect your skin, too. I forgot. My shoulder is regretting it now.)

Water bottles, juice pouches, sippies (just being around water will not hydrate your body)

Plastic sandwich containers (no one likes to eat squished sandwiches. Also creates less trash to worry about later)

A variety of finger/snack foods (I know my kids would rather play than eat, so having snack foods helps to fill them without interrupting their play too much)

Sand toys (not a whole lot because you only have so many hands, but enough to make building a castle doable)

Flip flops (sand will not get trapped inside and they can easily be rinsed off)

Camera (you need a way to capture the memory)

Sunglasses (the sun will be bright)

We had such a great time yesterday and nap time lasted about 3 hours after. My favorite parts were watching Addie run between the water and sand while trying to make her sand castle and Ian splashing his heart out. I am also so thankful that Grandma came with us. Four hands make it so much easier to enjoy this type of outing than just my two.

Next week I am going to start a series on Ma Ingalls and what I have learned from her.

Have a great weekend!

Ready to Learn

Tuesday evening was the annual used book sale through our home school group.

It is one of my favorite times of the school year!

Where else can you get Dr. Seuss books for ten cents a piece!

I had a list of specific books I was looking for and a list of general ones. I browsed, looked, and rummaged through the piles of books all organized by subject and age level. I paid $7.05 for my final collection of books with few on the Dr. Seuss books coming in at 10 cents! 

When Addie woke up on Wednesday morning, she was thrilled to read her new books. "Mom, when can we do schooltime? I'm so excited for my 1st grade books!"

Not until August! We are taking a break from school!

The Graduate

She amazes us daily. And she did it again.

Addie graduated from Kindergarten on Friday night with all of the other kindergarteners in our home school group.

Our first rehearsal did not go well. At all.

I don't know if it was the fear of being in front of people, the fear of doing something we have never done before, or because we were tired and getting over a cold. Whatever the case, after talking her through it, she was amazing for her next practice and the real thing.

Lots of family came out see to her. My dad, Brian's parents, Aunt Faye and Uncle Jim, my cousin and her kids, and Miss Cathy and Kennie were all there to cheer for her. Addie left there with presents from her guests, too! She was so excited!

The next morning, she woke up, came to me and said, "I'm in first grade! When can I graduate again?!"

Oh, Addie! Let's not rush that graduation. Mommy is not ready for it yet.

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100 Days of Summer

I am so excited about summer this year! I have so many goals and plans, but from Christmas time I learned not to actual publish them until after we do them.

As each new season approaches, it is so much fun to go onto Pinterest and pin away. Once the season begins, even though we have so many ideas and pins, it is so easy to draw a blank.

The eBook, 100 Days of Summer, is only $5 (I am receiving no compensation for this) yet gives so many ideas, lists (which you know I am all about), recipes, and links to other helps. I have already read through the book (1 page per day of summer), and I am so excited for summer to officially start, which the book begins at Memorial Day.

I bought my own notebook on the same day we bought Addie's and I have already begun writing down my plans and ideas so that I am ready for each holiday and moment this summer.

This season, I have a plan, but I am open to change. I have certain dates lined up for activities (such as our blueberry "hunting" adventure pictured above. Yes, that is what Addie called it.), but nothing is set in stone. I want to plan fun moments for my children, but when family and friends reach out for us, I want to be flexible enough to adjust our plans.

I also need to make sure that our summer includes lots planned activities but also planned rest. I don't want everyday to so pack with adventure that we are burned out half way through summer. Planned rest to me means scheduling days that are non-negotiable go nowhere, have no one over, do nothing overly active at home days.

Exciting days ahead for our little family! Bring on summer!

The Notebook

When I was a little girl, I remember my mother working with me at the kitchen table. She had a composition book the she would prepare ahead of time and each day we would work on it a little bit.

During my recent office clean out, I found the composition book that had the handwriting of my mother and her then three year old Suzette. I went through it and was so excited that I decided to do one with Addie. 

The one thing my mother did with me was mostly letters and numbers. Because Addie is past that stage, our is more about teaching her to journal using pictures and a summary sentence (which our studies will actually require in the fall so this is good practice), reviewing our already learned reading and math skills, and a place for us to communicate with each other in written word.

Last night was our first activity in our book. I wrote out the names of four animals that she knows how to read (I underlined the "teams") and then had her draw a picture for each. When she finished she started to turn the page and said, "What's on the next page?" She had a good time and. That's what I wanted. Lord willing, this is scheduled to be an after nap activity. 

Some of the pages I have prepared are

What did I do today?

-air sound words

Something special is going to happen tonight

-at sound words

Poem reading and drawing

Draw our tomato plant

Write your name. How many letters are in it? (17 with full first and last names!)

Printable fillers with activities already on them.

This is a great way for her to write down (draw) special activities, plans, and moments that we experience this summer.

We chose regular composition notebooks, but I let Addie pick what the cover of hers looked like to make her even that much more excited to open it. Putting the date at the top of each page will be fun for her to look back on one day when she is doing her own office clean out.

The Tomato Plant

We have had some really good rainfall this past week which has made our tomato plant very happy.

Our plant has definitely gotten taller and has lots of yellow flower buds which tells us that we will have a fair amount if tomatoes.

In fact, there is already a little bitty green tomato growing (pictured with Addie's hand).

Because the weather has been gorgeous, we played a bit in the yard. Ian was fascinated with the water spicket and had a blast filling the bucket..... until the bucket got in the way.

Blogging

Last week I was pretty inconsistent in my blogging. Okay, I think I only blogged once.

I apologize. Sincerely.

After thinking over what approach I should take over the summer, here is the plan.

Lord willing, I am going commit to blogging 3 times per week- Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Over the next few weeks, these are the topics that you can expect to read about:

*Podcasts
*Family Night Ideas
*Ma Ingalls- My New Hero
*Addie's Graduation
*Tomato Plant
*100 Days of Summer Review

I am looking forward to picking back up. And writing. I love writing and I love connecting with you, my readers. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Getting Our Craft On

I have always enjoyed making crafts.

By myself.

I know the type of crafter I am and I can control the type of mess and how quickly I can clean up the mess I have made.

When others are added into the mix, there is no telling what can happen.

When I was a classroom teacher, I would basically tell my homeroom mother that any and all crafts were her department (right, Cathy R?). Crafts with others is just not my cup of tea (or coffee).

So, God decided to give me children who love to make things! Crafts to be exact.

And I have (finally) decided to go with it!

As the summer approaches and school work has finished for us, I am trying to plan what types of activities we will do around here. I am thinking along the lines of a specific type of activity for each day of the week.

And Monday will be Make-It Monday!

We gave it a shot yesterday, and it worked out pretty well.

Addie picked a princess coloring page to paint, and Ian was put in his high chair with a huge dollop of whipped cream to "finger paint" with. Although, when he discovered that it was edible.... well, let's just say craft time was over.

We used our painting time as a learning experience, even though Addie didn't quite know it at the time. We took out our good paints in primary colors that GrandTiti and Uncle Jack had gotten us years ago, and we decided which colors Addie would need to complete her picture. Then we mixed our paints to make the colors that she needed. White with a little bit of brown made the skin color, we changed the shade of blue we had by adding white, we made purple by mixing the blue and red, etc.

I have also been on Pinterest looking for activities to do with the kids over the summer (here and here). Acti
vities that are not necessarily "school" type activities, but are really more fun than anything. When the fall comes, we will be diving right into our books, but for now we are just taking a break and having fun. 

Happy Birthday, Brian!

Thursday was Brian's birthday.

Now we are going to have a little pop quiz here, for those of you who have been following for a while.

What is Brian's hobby?

You're right! Sports! Give yourself 10 points.

Next question for 20 points.

What is Brian favorite sports event of the year?

This one is a hard one. I'll give you a hint. It happens on or around his birthday every year.

The NFL Draft!

So for his birthday, I made all football themed desserts for him (and us) to enjoy while he watched the Draft. They were pretty easy to make.

The recipes for the football dip can be found on my Pinterest board "Fantasy Football Draft Ideas."

The following day, we took the kids to Busch Gardens for a fun day out as a family (our tradition).

Happy birthday, Brian! The blessing is all mine that God created you. I love you with all my heart.

What Does It Mean?

The more I look into and read about the Well Trained Mind classical method of education, the more excited I am about starting with it in mid-August.

One thing I have encountered quite a bit over the last few years of home-schooling Addie is that I would teach Addie something (a verse, passage, or even a book) and after she quoted her memorized fact or verse for someone outside of our home, she would then be asked, "Now do you know what that means?" and then they would proceed to try to "teach" her the meaning in theological terms what the deep meaning was.

Honestly, that would frustrate me to no end, because I personally felt as if they were saying, "Yes, she can recite this, but she still doesn't know what it means so you really didn't teach her anything." Yet I knew from spending hours teaching my daughter that there were things that she got and there were things she didn't understand yet, I just didn't know how to explain it to an "outsider." Now I can.

With the Well Trained Mind method, facts and memorization and laying the foundation happens during the first through 4th grades because children at this developmental level are great at memorizing (which is why Addie can recite up to 20 verses with a one word prompting). Their critical thinking/ logistical skills generally don't begin to be seen until they hit fifth grade.

Once the 5th through 8th grades come (the logical stage), the child then goes back to the beginning of what they have already learned and NOW begins to learn the meanings (the whys and hows) of the information they previously learned the facts for.

Comparing the curriculums that I have taught in a classroom and the Well Trained Mind method, I can see how this method works with and for the child. In the traditional curriculums, children are taught a little bit of everything in a one year period, and then every year it is expanded on. Yet they are still expected to learn only a little bit about everything in a one year period.

With the Well Trained Mind method, children are taught in 4 year groupings. Each year they are taught "chunks" of information in grammar, history, writing, and science. At the end of the 4 years, they go back to the beginning and then begin to expand logically to what they learned the facts to.

From the 9th through 12th grades is the rhetoric stage and students are then taught how to use the skills they have refined to speak, write, debate, and express themselves with "fluency, grace, elegance, and persuasiveness." (from The Well Trained Mind p.461) They are now able to speak with correct information (facts), form their own opinions (logic), and express their views (rhetoric) in a way that is intelligent.

That is what we want for Addie and Ian.

Brian and I are convinced that, because of her personality, Addie will either grow up to own her own business and be "the boss" or be a lawyer. We want to make sure that we are giving her the kind of education that will help her become who God has created her to be. This curriculum will require much more from me, but I look forward to the challenge. I also look forward to working with Ian to prepare him to begin this program when the time comes for him to begin school.

I have been spending quite a bit of time on ebay piecing together the books that we will need to begin our next school year. I still have a few books to go, but I am feeling good about what the next school year is going to bring.