Heading off to spend a night away from the kiddos tonight. I know that doesn't sound like it has anything to do with home school, but really, it does. If you are home all day every day with the kids always with you, you need some time away every once in a while. Spend time with your sweetie pie and then you will be a better teacher and mom for your little ones! Tomorrow is my first 8k and it starts at Mt. Si high school, so we are spending a night in North Bend at a bed and breakfast. Sounds relaxing? Yeah.

Spring gardening!

I haven't posted all school year. Shame on me! Here is what we are working on now. Brindy is taking weekly spelling tests. Each Monday she gets six new words to learn. She has to write each word six times each on Monday, use them in sentences on Tuesday, and do an extra spelling activity like type her words on the computer, or write them in shaving cream for her Wednesday spelling work, then she takes an oral pre-test on Thursdays and finally, a written test on Fridays. If she gets them all right, she gets a new book. She is reading the Magic Tree house series, and also a series about fairies. For math she is working on place values, and perfecting counting by twos.
Katy gets a few words to sound out each day and she has to draw a picture of what the word says. Then she has to practice writing her name because she still reverses sometimes.
Brian is working on writing his name and any other letters he wants to take a stab at. He is at a different level as far as small muscle coordination. He also has a harder time sitting still than the girls do. (Which is normal for his age from what I have read)
Natalie is learning to use sentences and sing songs. She knows all the major body parts and many animals and their sounds. Ask her what a pig says sometime. It's really cute!
We always cook something together during the week, and sometimes we have a project or field trip. This year we have tried weaving with yarn, growing crystals, and baking bread. We have gone on trips to the childrens' museum, the zoo and aquarium, the spring fair, and of course the library!!! We have also done some observational art: making pictures of things we see. Brindy made a neat oil pastel drawing of the fish in his tank.
That should pretty much bring us up to date except for one thing: The GARDEN!!!
For Easter the kids got Veggie Tales seed packets. They planted their seeds today. We have cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, green beans, peas, pumpkins, and a zucchini! I can't make my new camera work in my computer so I can't post pics until Brandon loads them into his computer. We are having so much fun learning from daily life and nature and being together as a family!

Failures and successes

Brindy was having trouble with the number 12. She decided she would quit home school because it was too hard. So I let things simmer down that day and the next day I asked her to help me make a poster of the twelve dancing princesses and write a fancy number 12 on it. I gave her a flashcard to copy and she had a great time practicing writing 12 and drawing princesses of course! Today the kids had the sniffles so we stayed home from church and boredom set in quickly. I gave Brindy an old workbook and told her to find a coloring activity to do. She found a color by number page that used the teen numbers. She was very excited to see the number 12 and had no trouble naming it! Then at noon, I yelled to her in a very excited way to come see the clock. I asked her what time it was and she said 12:00! I think we are ready to move on now, but this is important to post about, because it reminds us that sometimes we need to just let anxiety simmer down and then come at something from a different angle. I think I will be doing some things differently in the future. The kids are leading the way!

Um, creative writing?

Today was another fun home school day. We did a cooking project today. We made Jell-O with pears for our afternoon snack. We also had the whole world in our hands as we put our hands on the north pole, south pole, and equator of our new globe. The kids really enjoy playing with their calculators too.













































Brindy built a balance during recess using pvc pipes, roller skates and a bathroom stool balanced on the top rung of the slide ladder. She called it her "invention" and Brian destroyed it in one, no actually in two fell swoops. At least I got this picture first!

First day of home school!

Wow! So much to think about. Note to myself first of all: don't wait until 9:30 the night before to start putting together a bulletin board. Today we did table work, science, and art, and had recess and two story times and a snack. We had lunch too of course. I think the kids did well. They were impressed with my calendar/ bulletin board, and they really loved painting. We used black and white and no water for dipping because we wanted to mix the colors to make different shades. For science, we discussed absorption and tried different materials to see if they would absorb water or not. School officially started at 9am with a prayer/devotional and the pledge of allegiance. School ended by 1pm with a final story time before naps. Everyone slept so I was able to get some serious house work done! That was my favorite part of the day (besides recess, 'cause I really had fun jumping rope with the kids)

Staycation Pix

We spent the last two weeks staycationing from home. Most days we did things for free, so our total two week expenditure was only about $120.00! (does not include food and gas, both of which were minimal because we came home for lunch most days) Here is the breakdown and some photos of our fun filled time!
Monday August 17 - Letterboxing at Wright Park. We played on the playground and chaised squirrels. We had FHE with our friends the Hellyers and played our fishing game!
Tuesday August 18 - Picked blueberries for two hours at blueberry park. Yum!
Wednesday August 19 - Here are some pics of us at the McKinley Playfield sprayground.








































It's a pluot!












On Thursday August 20th, we went fishing!


















Here's our catch.










Friday August 21st, Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium

The girls were very brave to ride that big camel at the zoo!












We got to feed the budgies bird food on a stick. What is the problem with the kid in back?














Saturday August 22, Mt. Rainier National Park













Playing in a stream.











We hiked the Longmire trail and Natalie did the whole .8 mile on her own!







Monday August 24th we found a letterbox at Hyde Park on the waterfront, and we also played on the little beach there and got our kite up with very little breeze.
Tuesday August 25th we went to the library and then walked the trails of Orange Gate park which is just down the street from us. We scouted out some spots to hide a letterbox of our own.
Wednesday August 26th, we went to Dash Point State Park and played on the beach at high tide. At first I was dissapointed the tide was in, but it made a much smaller beach for me to keep track of my kids on:) Here we are at Dash Point

































Chocolate chip cookie with just a hint of sand. Mm!









Brindy has no feet!








On Thursdays in the Summer the Children's Museum of Tacoma is free! Here are a couple pics from August 27th.


























Friday August 28th was our Ferry Boat adveture. We rode to Vashon Island and back on the Rhododendron. We got red vines from the vending machine as a special treat. From the boat we saw jelly fish and seals!



























After our boat ride we stopped at Vassault Park to play and this time the wind was just right for kite flying. If you look closely you can see the line is paid out all the way!









Thanks for sharing our staycation adventure! Look for more next week as we start Home school for the first time ever!