Our First Report Cards!

Well, we did it!  We made it through our first 9 weeks of homeschool!  I am so proud of Devin and Hannah for their hard work!

Straight A's!!!

Straight A's!!!

September Happenings!

My apologies for taking so long to post this blog!  We have been so busy!  We've also been dealing with colds and allergies so I had to put blog updates on the back burner for a bit.  We are still having a wonderful time learning at home!  We celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday in September by working on a lapbook that had all sorts of fun information for us.  We read books, watched a movie and went to the apple orchard to have apple donuts and apple cider.  We even invited David and David William to join us!  On one afternoon we had an apple tasting, estimated and counted the apple seeds inside of an apple, decorated apple cookies and even made some homemade applesauce in the crockpot!

 All in all, we had an exciting month learning about plants and the fruits they produce.   A great time to talk about Johnny Appleseed and his passion for apples!  In a previous post, I put up pictures of the kids planting seeds.  Only our lima beans started to sprout.  :(  But, we gave it a good try and had fun!  The kids checked their lima beans everyday and gave me daily reports on their progress.  They were thrilled to see the changes that took place on almost a daily basis!  Our sweet Aunt Ina gave us another idea that we will try in the spring...growing grass seed on a wet sponge!  Once the grass starts growing, the kids can give the grass "hair cuts."  We look forward to that experiment!

Plants!

Devin started a science unit on plants this week.  We spent a few minutes this afternoon planting seeds in hopes that we will be able to watch them grow.  We planted pumpkin seeds in the actual pumpkin (I got the idea off Pinterest.)  We also planted lima beans and apple seeds.  The apple seeds were Devin's idea because he had an apple for lunch and found the seeds!  I don't have much of a green thumb so this could be interesting!  Oh well, we certainly had fun playing in the dirt!  I will keep you posted if these little seeds actually start to grow.

Stay tuned next week because we will be celebrating Johnny Appleseed's birthday by making lapbooks about his life and taking a trip to Curtis Orchard to pick up apples for homemade applesauce in the crockpot!

ROAAAR!

Our bible verse this week is Psalm 4:3, "But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto Him."  Today we talked about how Daniel trusted God even if it meant he would be thrown into the lion's den.  I wonder how many of us would actually take a stand for our faith when push comes to shove.  Do I call upon the Lord instead of trying to take matters into my own hands?  Do I trust him fully with my life?  I pray I do, but I know that sometimes I fall short.  Fortunately, my Heavenly Father is merciful and ready to take me by the hand and guide me through this crazy life!  I pray, that as I grow in my faith, I will be an example to my children that trusting in our Heavenly Father in all areas of our life provides us the courage when we stand face to face with the lions!

Insects & Spiders!

On Friday, we went on a field trip to Lake of the Woods for a class on "Insects & Spiders."  We were able to hunt for bugs and put them in cool little bug boxes. The box had a magnifying glass on the top so we could get a better look!  Hannah volunteered to be dressed up as a bee and our friend Griffin volunteered to be dressed up as a spider!  We were also able to see what it is like to have fly eyes!  It was a great morning digging in the mulch with fellow homeschoolers!

Science Experiment: Taste Buds

Wrapping Up Week Two!

Painting while listening to classical music!  We have classical music softly playing during school because we all love it!

Well, we just wrapped up week two and I am impressed with how well they have both adjusted!  Devin loves the Switched on Schoolhouse curriculum and Hannah and I appreciate the familiarity of the A Beka curriculum.  I have already made a few changes by eliminating some things but adding others in order to provide the best experience for all of us!  It has been many years since I was in the classroom teaching preschoolers and I never realized how much I missed teaching until now!  Here are a few pictures of our week.  Hope you enjoy!

Phonics

Making math story problems.

Flashcards for math.

Switched on Schoolhouse

Maybe one day she will play as well as Aunt Holly!

Wii baseball counts as P.E. right???

Devin's little nook!