So much I need to blog about

There is so much that I need to blog about. I just haven't had the time. We were without internet service for two weeks. A few points to blog about later: school progress, discipline, lost tooth, apple orchard and my facebook post a few days ago. Lots of people thought I had lost it completely.

2nd day of school

Today was our second day of homeschool. Our first day was a bit more hectic because we had swimming lessons in the morning. I didn't want our first day of school pictures to be in swimsuits so I waited until today to do first day pictures. School has been going very well. The kids seem to really like what we have chosen for this year. It will take a while to get them used to the routine. However, I do feel good about this year so far. But it is only day two.

Here are some pictures of the kiddos and our first day of homeschool.

Emmalee - 2nd grade



Eoin - 1st grade




Here are pictures of some activities we did today.

So much stuff, so little time

We are getting ready to start our homeschool year. I have researched more hours than I really want to admit. This is what we are going to be using this year.

My 2nd grader:
Math - Horizons 2 and flashcards. I did purchase another math workbook to help cement the skills for her. She struggles with math most of the time. We will do only four days a week to allow lessons to go through the summer.

Language Arts - BJU English 2 and Reading 2, Spelling 2. She will also be reading chapter books that she picks on her own. I like BJU English because it incorporates writing, grammar and phonics skills. I am not thrilled with the spelling. I will probably make some adjustments to their program but I am not going to switch right now.

Handwriting - BJU 2 for this as well. Again, I am not thrilled with it but it will work for now. I might make up my own copy work sheets

My 1st grader:

Math - Horizons 1 and flashcards. He is very good at math and probably could pass his sister up if I would push him a little harder.

Language Arts - BJU 1 reading, phonics and spelling. Reading seems to be where he struggles. He is a slow reader. He needs more practice and he will catch up.

Handwriting - BJU 1 for this again.

Both:

We are using My Father's World Adventures for Bible, history, geography, art, music and science. For Latin, we are using prima latina. It will interesting to do Latin. Mike and I are excited about learning it as well.

There will be other things we do that I have forgotten to list here. I can think of a couple of others already. They will both be doing explode the code books and we will be doing life skills training.

If you go to the not back to school blog hop you can find out what more poeple are using

Not blogging much lately

I have found that I have been too busy with many other things to find the time to blog. However, I do hope to change that.

We are getting ready to start our school year and I have decided I want to blog about our homeschool journey as well as family life. I think that it would be fun and a way to remember what we do during the year. So many other homeschooling moms blog about their journey and I enjoy reading the posts. I don't know if many will read this blog or not but I do hope that those who do will at least get a laugh every so often.

Merry Christmas

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. We are very excited in this house for Christmas day. Of course, the kids are ready to open the presents that are under the tree. But they are also excited because it is celebrating the birth of Christ. We have been doing a lot of activities over the last month relating to Jesus and Christmas. They have really been enjoying it this month. We have been doing a tradition that started when I was a little girl. The kids have been opening one small stocking stuffer since the 20th. We do it for five days before Christmas. It really helps to alleviate the excitement a little bit. Now I just hear for about 20 minutes in the morning "when do we get to open our present" rather than listening to it all day long for several days.

We wish everyone a very happy and wonderful Christmas.

First day of school

Today we started back to school. Emmalee is in first grade this year (how did that happen?) and Eoin is in kindergarten this year ( again, how did that happen?). I can honestly say that this is going to be a more difficult year. Emmalee will do fine. She knows the routine and reads very well. I think she will fly through the phonics/reading portion of the year. Math will probably bog her down though. Eoin, oh little Eoin. I love him but man can he be difficult. The whining, arguing, disobeying really starts to take its toll after a few hours. We will have a fun year, though. He was so cute when I woke him up this morning. He hopped out of bed and said today is my first day of school. He was so excited. I am sure that after we get a good routine down, he will thrive and do very well. I also have to remember the first month with Emmalee. She and I spent several days in tears that month. I just have to remember to get some great pictures of them today and we will be set. I was going to wait for Daddy to get home so I could take some with him.

179 days left. I am looking forward to summer already.

Homeschooling

We are preparing to start school on Monday. Yes, I know it is early but we will be able to take every other Friday off. The kids are excited about. I can not believe that my baby, Eoin, will be starting kindergarten this year. He will be five in October. Where has the time gone?

I have spent the week preparing lesson plans, organizing books, making copies, etc. There are fleeting moments where I think we are crazy for homeschooling and when will I ever get a break. Then I stop and think why would I entrust the raising of my children to someone else. Someone who really doesn't know them. Someone who has twenty other students to get to know and teach as well. Why would I do that? Yes, homeschooling is tough but there is never a day (full day, just moments) that I wouldn't want to be with my children. I love seeing their eyes light up when they 'get' something. I love being the one who is teaching them so much. And as long as the Lord will provide for me to stay at home and to teach my children why wouldn't I? I do believe that we all have to do what is best for our families and I believe this is best for mine. Yes, it does make us different but we are okay with that.

Someday, I will get some pictures up of the kids. Really, I will. We have taken some great pics this summer.

Oh wow, so much has been going on. In mid May we bought a wii game system. We are having so much fun as a family. The kids really like the bowling. We play against each other. Emmalee and Eoin are doing quite well with their scores. Tonight they both bowled over 200. Emmalee bowled 215 and Eoin bowled 207. They each had five strikes in a row. I bowled a measly 139. I can't even compete with them. But, I am glad to see them having so much fun with it.

Emmalee had her dance recital last weekend. It went well. I was very proud of her. I will post some pics later after we get them off the camera and camcorder.