Well, in about 2 weeks we will be finished with our first semester of homeschooling all three boys. Even though this is something I never in a million years thought I would do, after this first semester- I can't imagine doing anything else. I love this time with my boys. I love not only teaching them, but being with them through the day, reading with them, problem solving with them and as you can see from the pictures below- just exploring and doing fun things with them.
We started out our school year like every year... first day pictures on the front porch, a special breakfast and new school supplies. The only difference is that we stayed at home!
I found this a few days before our year started. I just love it! It is a constant reminder to me about what's important and why I do this. My relationship with my boys, their relationship with each other, and their relationship with God is why we are choosing to homeschool. Our word for this year is "relationship."
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New School Supplies!
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And we're off!
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The best part of our day is reading... everyday I try to spend time reading chapter books, picture books (seasonal), non-fiction books (based on what we are studying that week), and poetry to my boys. This is just small sample of the chapter books we read together. I ready one to all three of them at breakfast and during lunch (and usually they ask for it before bed, too, which I love). I have a separate one that just Abram and I are working our way through after the twins have gone to bed. It's not pictured in this stack, but we just finished "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and I would say it was everyone's favorite. They absolutely loved it and couldn't get enough of it.
We are blessed to be apart of an amazing community through Classical Conversations. We meet every Tuesday and the boys just love their friends and tutors. This semester I also tutored a class, which I loved! We are going to miss this community.
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Abram with his class. (He does love it- he just had mouth surgery the week before and he was still swollen.)
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| With his tutor, Mrs. Christen. We think she is the best! |
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With my class... I taught the 6-7 year olds.
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And, Jack and Luke with their friends.
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During the week, besides working on our CC grammar sentences, math, handwriting and reading we also try to do some fun, interesting things, too. I try to incorporate as many of these extras throughout the week as I can.
Extra #1: Science- this includes experiments and exploring.
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Skittles and water
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Trying out our new microscope that shows up on the computer.
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| Painting with chalk paint |
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Nature walk to the creek
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Drawing what we see on our hikes
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Lava Lamps.... this was a favorite!
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Soap Socks
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| Food coloring and milk |
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Erupting Volcano
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Extra #2- Cooking. I found a kid's cookbook for Abram and I let him pick out a recipe that he wants to try. He has really enjoyed this. A few of the things he has made include: waffles, pumpkin soup, peanut noodles and also what's pictured below...
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Monkey Bread
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Blackberry Fool
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Pesto Meatballs
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Extra #3- Geography with Picture books. I found a great curriculum called "Beautiful Feet" where you travel around the world through amazing picture books and activities. So far we have traveled to China, Japan and Thailand.
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| Our China table |
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Learning about the archipelago of Japan and recreating it with playdough
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Samurai warriors
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Getting ready for our Chinese dinner
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Their favorite part was the noodles.
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Green Tea- they weren't fans
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Extra #4- Field Trips. These are our favorites and we are fortunate to be in an area with some good options! We usually try to do these on Friday if we have finished our school work for the week.
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Renaissance Fair in Gainesville
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Arboretum with friends
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Castillo De San Marco in St. Augustine
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We even let Chris in on our learning sometimes... in September the book "The Apple Pie that Papa Baked" was on our reading list. Chris made an apple pie with them, which is one of his many talents. They loved it!
Another part of schooling at home which I love has been being able to do devotionals and scripture memory with them. Our church did a series of Truth Quest virtual lessons every week which we worked our way through and it was just amazing! We did a lesson every Wednesday and it quickly became a high light of our week.
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Doing an experiment to learn about sin and forgiveness.
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This semester has been wonderful! I certainly have a lot of things to learn and it is far from perfect, but I trust that God is doing a good work and I love being a part of the process. Our boys are precious gifts and I am loving this sweet time I am able to spend with them each and every day. It is such a gift.
