I Don't Hate it Yet

Two weeks in and I am still enjoying homeschooling.  We had a really bad day last Wednesday so we quit and went outside.  The kids (especially my TypeA who has to do everything as it is supposed to be done) wanted to finish later in the day so we did, but if we didn't, that would have been okay. 

Eden has already memorized a poem (Rain by Robert Louis Stevenson) and the first half of the Lord's Prayer. Her reading is improving and she is learning to write cursive. She is working on narrating stories we read and I am looking forward to this discipline helping her communication skills!

Theo is working on writing letters and numbers and counting to 50. He is so motivated and finishes his work so fast that I run out of work for him to do! I need to figure out what to do with him!  

This week we continued our nature study with the study of trees.  We learned about growth rings.  Once again the kids seemed to love it and the crafts we did to compliment the study.  Here are some photos from our tree study.

The girls have short attention spans when we are outside. Theo's is shorter.

Growth rings in the log pile.

Growth rings in the lumber pile.

We made cedar magnets for the fridge.

Painted magnets.

We used white crayon to draw growth rings in our nature journals, then we painted over them.
The crayon acted as a resist.

Today Felt...

...rushed and lazy.

We started school 45 minutes early this morning so we could get a jump on our day.  We had a checkup appointment for our dog, Amos, and the new kitten, Mittens.  We got through most of our planned items, but skipped out on our nature hike (on the schedule every day).

Mittens sleeping off her stressful vet visit.

I thought we'd walk when we came home, but it was rainy and dreary and we ended up just hanging around reading books and I let the kids watch a movie. Theo chose to watch it like this:

How Theo watches a movie.

 So, it felt like we ran around this morning and wasted the rest of the day. We'll do a proper, non-rushed day of school tomorrow.

Saturday, I took a planning morning.  I hope to do this each month.  I planned out the next 3 weeks of school and I think doing it this way will work out well for me.  We'll see!

My school planner.

Week One

Week one at Hunter's Grove Academy went pretty well, in my opinion.  I learned a few things about planning that I will implement when I plan out the next 4 weeks.  I did only the first week to start as I knew I'd likely figure some things out once we got going.

Tomorrow I will be planning the next month and I am actually excited about it!  This is such a switch in attitude for me and I am grateful that I have finally gotten to the place where I "feel the love" for this decision to keep the kids home this year.  I have bathed my attitude in prayer and it has been a huge internal struggle with my inner brat (she stomped around for a while saying "I DON'T WANNA'!").  Praise the Lord for bringing me to this place!

Wednesday, Eden started piano lessons.  We were given an old piano that belonged to a family member.  It has been fun to bang around on it even though it makes me cringe it is so out of tune (the tuning guy is coming soon)!  Eden picked out Twinkle Twinkle with my mom's help and she hasn't been able to walk past the piano without sitting down in front of it since we got it.  I have been playing around a little bit, too, though I can only pick out the right hand (thanks to 6 years of clarinet).

First Day of School 2013

We started school at Hunter's Grove Academy today!  Eden is doing Ambleside Online Year 1 and Theo is doing Pre K.  Much of the AO curriculum follows a one room schoolhouse approach where all ages participate in the lesson.  Eden and Theo will do separate lessons in reading, writing and math, but  Theo is joining Eden in Art, Music and Nature Study and will follow along in some Literature and History.

I decided to plan out one week and see how it would go before I set out to plan the rest of the month. I learned a lot today. I think the kids learned something, too!

Some friends joined us today for Nature Study. We made leaf prints, did blind contour sketches of the fifth largest white oak in the state of Virginia and learned about oak trees.

Eden doing copy work. 

Theo working on tracing.

Eden sketching leaves in her nature journal.

Evelyn (our friend) learning how to make leaf prints.

Sketching red oak leaves.

Not an oak leaf, Theo!

Our leaf prints drying on the line.

Cousin's Camp 2013- Giants in The Land!

2013 Cousin's Camp was a wonderful success!  The theme was Giant's in the Land.  We learned about George Washington who was a giant in character (and over 6 feet tall at a time when most men were not so tall).  We also learned about David and Goliath.

Here are some photos that capture some of what we got to do this year at Cousin's Camp!

We pounded flowers.

We dyed t-shirts.

We camped out.

We made meat pies and cooked them in dutch ovens.

We fought with water balloons and also played capture the flag.

We climbed trees.

We climbed trees a lot.

My mom (aka Cousin Becky) is a rock star! She is the mastermind behind our cousin's camp and she makes it better each year. So many people come together to make it a success and a big THANK YOU is in order!  What a great family I have!