Friday, June 15, 2007

Atlantic Beach

I finally have my pictures on disks now, four of them!  I created a small film strip and will try to add more later.  We are going camping this weekend so I do not have much time.  We are leaving in a few hours and still have not packed!  



The binders I made up worked great.  The girls played travel bingo, colored, drew, laced their paper dolls, etc.  We played at the beach everyday.  We did putt-putt, ate ice cream and James took the girls to tour Fort Macon.  It was a great vacation.   Thank you Lord!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Lulu and Monkey Experimenting with Smileys

These are Lulu's favorites:
             

These are Monkey's favorites:
                 

They saw the smiley on my last post and wanted to know how I got that on there.  So there you have it, their favorites!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Curriculum Choices for 2008-09

The orders are placed and now we are just waiting on the mailman!   It is very exciting around our house when the boxes start arriving.  The girls enjoy it too.  We love opening up all our new stuff and looking it over.  Then the work begins for me.....trying to plan out our year.  

After much discussion with my hubby and prayer, I made some changes this year.  I'm excited for what the Lord has shown me though about the girls.  They learn very differently and enjoy doing their work in different ways.  So here is what we decided on:

Lulu - 2nd Grade
Bible - we will continue to use our BSG sheets, Missionettes, JBQ, For Instruction in Righteousness
Language Arts - First Language Lessons, part 2
Phonics - I debated this because she reads on a 7th-8th grade level, but I am afraid she does not know the phonics rules well enough, so...Saxon Phonics 2 (which I am also going to see what the spelling is like that is included.  We used Spelling Workout last year and it was a bit too easy.)
History - Story of the World Vol. II, lapbooks
Science - Exploring Creation with Astronomy, Visual FactFinders: Stars & Planets  and Planet Earth, lots of little supplemental stargazing guides, lapbooks, etc.
Math - RightStart Mathematics level C (this is new for us.  Abbye is very excited about it though as it is hightly manipulative based)
Handwriting - We will begin cursive this year.
Music App. - Study six composers -  www.classicsforkids.com , co-op, church musical
Art App. - Study six artists - www.gardenofpraise.com , lots of art projects as well
P.E. - Co-op, possibly Gym-n-swim at our local facility
Monkey - 1st Grade
Bible - we will continue to use our BSG sheets, Missionettes, JBQ, For Instruction in Righteousness
Language Arts - First Language Lessons, part 1
Phonics - Saxon Phonics 1, includes Spelling
History - Story of the World Vol. II, lapbooks
Science - Exploring Creation with Astronomy, Visual FactFinders: Stars & Planets  and Planet Earth, lots of little supplemental stargazing guides, lapbooks, etc.
Math - RightStart Mathematics level B
Handwriting - Master manuscript and begin cursive.  Maddi can already write her name in cursive.  She is very proud of that!
Music App. - Study six composers -  www.classicsforkids.com , co-op, church musical
Art App. - Study six artists - www.gardenofpraise.com , lots of art projects as well
P.E. - Co-op, possibly Gym-n-swim at our local facility
Lil - 2y.o.
We can't leave her out....especially since she is taking less and less of a nap
I am going to put together some Activity Bags for her to have.  Her sisters can work with her one at a time when I need to work one-on-one with them.  She will practice her letters, numbers, sequencing, matching, beading, etc.  I think she will really enjoy some of the activities.  I'm also going to put together a doll house that she can only play with during school time. 
Something all of us are going to learn this year is some sign language.  My nephew (3y.o.) is learning more words now in sign language.  We all want to be able to communicate better with him.   The girls know a few words already and they are excited about learning more.
So that is the basics for this next school year.  Some of our subjects we do together.  I just expect more out of Lulu than I do Monkey.  According to Monkey's birthday she would actually only be in K this year.  But she was ready to do K work this past year so we moved her up.  I'm sure along the way will add and remove some of our decisions and tweek them a bunch.  But that is one of the great things about homeschooling....we have the ability to go with the flow. 

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Yes...We Are Home

I'm sure some of you have been waiting patiently to see the pictures of the girls at the beach.   They are coming.  I just have to get them off the camera, onto the computer, loaded into Photobucket and then posted in an entry.  I just have not had the time to do it since we have been home.   I will probably have some time next week to get  to it.  

We did have a great time at the beach though.  God blessed us with wonderful weather.  It did not rain at all.  We were on the beach every day playing in the sand and somewhat in the cold ocean.  Monkey and Lil were both buried up to their head in the sand.  Of course, both thought it was hilarious!  We went out on a charter boat one afternoon and went dolphin watching.  It was so much fun.  We saw a group of four or five, including a baby that was only about four days old.  Lil still talks about "the mommy and baby".  All in all a nice vacation but it was nice to be back home too.

Since we've been home James and I built the girls a play barn in the backyard.  Our neighbor cut down two trees in the fence line.  It left a big gap that looked kind of funny...not to mention it took away the girls' clubhouse that James had cut out underneath one of them.  So we built them one.  They are enjoying playing in it.   And this week James and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary.  It is very hard to believe that nine years has gone by already.  Even more hard to believe that our little Lulu is about to be in 2nd grade.  Time sure does fly when you hit about 25.  These past five years have just zipped by.    Anyway...I will have pictures soon, hopefully!