Learning Together

Given that I have never tried my hand at gardening before, this year is a learning experience for me and the kids.   Today, the girls and I planted some seeds to transfer to the greenhouse later.  I also planted the green onions I rooted.  I am going to try rooting garlic too.

I don't know how successful I will be, but it is a fun experiment.   The girls are having fun learning with me.

Free!!

The girls have been learning to do their homeschool work more independently.  It is super freeing to be able to leave them working for short periods of time.  I can homeschool all the girls at the same time and be able to consult with each of them without having to hold their hands every step of the way.  I am so proud of how well they are doing.

Princess Belle is learning all about computer animation from Pixar and Khan Academy.  And she is enjoying it thoroughly.

I love their little crafts and artwork.

Storm Ahead

It is calling for another storm here so we loaded up our wood stores again (we still had lots, but better safe than sorry).  The cats are loving the warmth from the woodstove.

The girls and I did more Valentine's Day crafts and put them up in the classroom.  I love how festive it looks and I love how much fun the kids are having with it all.

Valentine's Fun

The girls had fun doing Valentine's Day crafts today.

I took all their Valentines and made a garland for our classroom. They were so proud!

Dressing the part

Homeschool in the new year is going well and I feel like we are back in the swing of things, all caught up from our Christmas break.

I am looking forward to getting a new printer again so I can print off some fun unit studies for the kids to enjoy. I like to make it fun if I can.

I was thrilled today when Princess Belle actually was excited by the things we did in school today, she even declared it fun!!  As a teenager I can tell you that is a thing that never happens!

One thing that I really I love about homeschool is how the little girls delight in coming to do their work in various states of dress.  One day the kids will school in jammies or in their favorite dress, another day the little girls are dressed as princesses, and yet another day I am teaching fairies!  It is just as fun for me as it is for them.

K

Friday!!

I am so glad that the weekend is here.  I have big plans.  I intend to spend Saturday attacking all the laundry and cleaning projects I haven't been able to get at this week.  It will be nice to get things done.  On Sunday I am making a turkey dinner and taking the little girls out to the movies.   

Today, while homeschooling, I pulled out a puzzle to help Princess Snifflefritz learn about the continents, helped Princess Belle reason through her math, and helped Princess Magpie understand clocks and time better.  It was a good day.

Aren't They Cute?

The girls and I have been having fun making Christmas decorations for the homeschool tree.  

Here are some of our creations.

They are certainly filled with the Christmas spirit.

And the sight of the stockings all cheerfully hung made us all smile.

Moments

I love catching moments of sweetness between my kids.  I walked into the playroom and found all my littlest ones piled up in the chair reading together.  Just so much sweetness.

The girls made sparkly Christmas balls today for their homeschool tree. They had fun and even helped me clean up the mess.  I swear it looked like Christmas exploded everywhere.

Homeschool Tree

We have our homeschool tree up.  The kids are going to make all the decorations for it.  We even made our own star to put on it!

Here it is after two days.

First Day

Since today is December the first, we started our month of Christmas crafting in homeschooling.  

Today, I gave them red construction paper, white paper, cotton balls, googly eyes, glue and crayons.  Then I told them to create their own Santa pictures.  

This is Princess Magpie's:

Princess Snifflefritz decided to go a simpler version snd to create a Mrs. Claus.

Stuff 'n 'such

I love this little shelf in the classroom.  I will eventually add more little goodies to it but for now I have the Frozen statues and our little name train for Little Prince.

I was enchanted by the sight of Princess Magpie doing her homeschool work dressed as a Princess.  Where else can you forward school as a Princess or while eating a lollipop like yesterday.

Little Prince hasn't lost h8s favorite monkey pillow.  So far he is okay with a fuzzy pillow I bought him last year, but I hope we find it soon.

Thinking

This has been a day where I plan.  I have been planning ways to make the playroom in the new house safe and fun for all the kids including Little Prince.

I have also been planning ways to make his room safe, comforting for him, as well as cute.

That got me thinking about when we start homeschooling there.  I am trying to find what ways I can make it suitable for every one of the kids.

Then I got to thinking about homeschooling Little Prince when the time comes.  I was researching curriculums, techniques, and tools.

On a sidenote, we discussed Little Prince's EIBI therapy and homeschooling with his therapist the other day. She told us we are allowed to delay his school starting date for a year to make sure he is more ready.  She feels that allowing him to benefit from a full year of EIBI would prepare him for homeschooling and I agree.  I am hoping better communication skills will help me know how to approach his education.

First Day

Today was our first day of doing homeschool work for the year.  It was a long, long day and I am going to fiddle with the schedule but it went well.  I am totally exhausted though.

Surprisingly

The little girls have been really enjoying our little summer school.  And in turn, I am impressed by how well they are doing as we concentrate a lot more on their reading.  We have also been learning about Germany as well, just for fun.  When we are doing Germany, we end with songs in German like counting, ABCs and Disney songs in German.  The girls are having a LOT of fun with it.  I even found a set of Phonics flash cards to play games with that goes along with our reading!!

Princess Magpie practicing her reading

Letter A word drawings

Even Little Prince is practicing his drawing

Phonics flash cards!!!

Summer School

The little girls and I did our first day of homeschool in this new house today.  We started our summer school, which is basically learning about a place (Germany today), poetry (a book for poetry in the classroom I have) and reading.  They had so much fun and didn't want to stop.

After it was over, Princess Snifflefritz decided to some coloring and Princess Magpie decided to practice her reading.  I love how motivated to learn the little girls are.  Princess Belle is less excited about summer school (LOL not fun when you are a teenager) so I told her we would start with her next week and would only do math so that it would be short.

On a sidenote, I still really HATE my hair!

You See These?

Since we moved here, these two girls can be found in one of two places; either the backyard or the classroom.  They are just so thrilled.  They have claimed these areas as their own.