Week In Review

Just dropping off a few pictures of our homeschooling days.  It is hard for me to have very many pictures because I have a certain 3 year old who freaks out if he sees my phone and I don't give it to him to play games on.  :)

We finished up our studies of Ancient Egypt.  We did a lot of fun stuff, but the only thing I managed to photograph was using sugar cubes to build pyramids.

We also built the Nile river in a container and flooded it periodically to see if we could get grass to grow (we could not, but with my black thumb, this is no surprise).  We talked about canopic jars, made scented oils, and went and looked at the mummies at the musuem.  A good little unit!  

I started doing Matthew's reading lessons a little differently.  He gets bogged down with work on paper, so we've been doing reading on various other surfaces.  After I got tired of using the whiteboard, I decided to draw on our glass table with paper taped underneath.  Worked really well, and he was thrilled to be able to write on a generally forbidden surface!   

We are working on memorizing some basic math facts in our math lessons, so we have been playing lots of games to get in a bunch of practice.  Here's a mama-created game where the dice says +1, +2, etc. so that the kids have to add to the number they're on and get to the end.  With some fun additional rules (you get sent to the start again if someone lands on the space you're occupying), this game lasted quite a while and kept their attention.  And even the littlest one joined in.  

All in all a good week.  This week we're moving on to study Jewish people (time of King David-ish), hopefully we'll get a good handle on those math facts, and we'll make some good progress with our reading.

Getting Organized!

Forgive my quiet over the past little bit.  The kids switched swim schools this month, and their new school required two weeks worth of everyday swim lessons before they could start with their regular once-a-week class.  It's amazing how much harder life is with a 30 minute swim class happening at 11:30 every day!   I felt like I never could get anything done.

But swim is over, now scheduled for a reasonable once-a-week time, and life can resume.  Whew!  As we've started the school year, I'm discovering that our schedule/curriculum seems to be GREAT, but my organization skills seem to be severely lacking.  So I've spent some time this weekend remedying that.

Solution 1: Vertical open storage in my kitchen

I am fortunate that my kitchen is large enough that those cabinets in the left of the picture can be used exclusively for school storage.  That is great, because I'm kind of a school supply collector and I have a lot of junk.  But not so great, because it meant that every time I wanted something, I was having to open doors, and then I was annoyed, so I was just leaving crap out on counters, and my kitchen always looked a wreck. Ugh.  

So I cleaned out those colorful drawers (which will go to a closet until I decide I need them again), went to IKEA, and got organized:

My counters are cleaned off (-ish) and everything has a space and is off the floor.  Well, except for that darn white board.  Whatever.  The basket on the counter holds our paper.  On the shelves we have:

1st (top) - Expanding file folder things for holding completed work.  I eventually hole punch it and put it in a binder, but that's too much work for every day, so the file folders work well.  Bonus: They were $1 each at Target.  Also, two containers holding frequently-used manipulatives.  Flashcards, math cubes, counters, etc.  

2nd - My planner (love that thing!), and a file box holding all the manuals and workbooks we use every day.  

3rd - Pencil sharpener, date stamper (I stamp all completed pages in workbooks and such for accountability purposes), and a caddy of school supplies - pencils, crayons, markers, glue, scissors, etc.  

4th - Basket of white paper, Basket of junk for Jake. 

5th - Baskets for Matthew and Hannah.

The kids each have their own baskets because they're expected to work quietly on stuff in there if I'm working one-on-one with a sibling.  They're full of quiet activities like coloring, puzzles, etc.  I don't usually work with kids individually for more than 10 minutes or so, so it's not a huge deal.  And if they don't want to work in their box, they can sit and read a book or go outside and play.  I mostly just want them in the general area I'm in and not running off to their rooms where I have to go re-collect them when it's time to move on.  

Hoping this helps things stay where they're supposed to be so that this mama's mind can stay where it's supposed to be.  Nothing throws me more off track than a messy house.  

What We're Doing

M and H are both in first grade this year.  This is what we're studying/using:

Reading - Dancing Bears (Bear Necessities A1) - We have tried about a million reading/phonics curricula and nothing worked until this year.  I love DB.  I suspect oldest has dyslexia and this has been the first thing that worked.  It's been amazing.  In less than 6 weeks time (and with some vacation in there!), he went from not being able to sound out the word "at" to being able to read the words "dark" and "feet."

Math - Singapore 1A US - Love Singapore.  I'm a former math teacher and heavily biased towards the Asian-inspired curriculum and I find that it works well for us.  We have a lot of fun doing math, and it's fun to see the kids little minds working so differently to arrive at the same answer.

Science - Magic School Bus Kits - We're using MSB right now as a kind of stop-gap before we start our "real" science.  I loved the look of lots of other science curricula (my favorite was R.E.A.L Science Odyssey), but with my kids not really reading, I wanted to wait a year before we started them.  So far the MSB has been a big hit.  We're exploring science and having fun.  I supplement the MSB activities heavily with books from the library.

History - Story of the World, Volume 1 - LOVE this.  The kids LOVE this.  We're a story-loving family and this just works so well for us.  I love the Activity Book and we hope to do one or two fun activities every week that accompany our reading.  We also listen to the CDs instead of me reading every chapter outloud, which is a nice break from all the reading that I do and gives me a chance to relax and enjoy some of homeschool, too!

Bible/Scriptures - We're reading through Egermeier's Bible Story Book, which I love so, so much.  It has just the right amount of detail for my kids' attention spans and summarizes the stories well.  We also work on a new memory scripture every week.  Right now we're studying the Articles of Faith for our church.


Activity-wise, we're also pretty busy.  M and H are enrolled in year-round swim lessons, and they start piano up again soon.  We do a homeschool co-op once a week, too, where the kids have classes in art and music and get the chance to play games with other kids their own ages.  We're also thinking about doing 4-H this year as a family, and H receives speech therapy twice a week, so we've got a pretty packed schedule!

Who We Are

I figure most of the posts will be about the little people who live in this house, so I thought I'd take a moment to introduce you.  We have 4 incredible kids who have come to our family through a variety of ways (that much will become clear later, but is not the point of this post right now).  They are so much fun and really keep me on my toes.

Our two oldest, M (7 years old) and H (6 years old):

These two are in first grade this year and are the bulk of my homeschooling "work."  They just got assigned the job of walking to the mailbox to get the mail, and this picture is documentation of their very first trip.  We've since decided that they should take a bag with them - I'm not 100% sure that all of the mail made it home that day.  

M was our first kid and is such a joy.  Really, he's just downright pleasant.  He's kind and thoughtful, and it doesn't hurt at all that he has the best smile in the WORLD.  He's a bit of a perfectionist, which sometimes causes problems with school, but I do appreciate that he's always striving to do his very best.  He's also kind of a ball of energy and probably spends 50% of his day turning cartwheels in the living room.  He's a big part of the reason why homeschool for us is just as likely to happen on the trampoline as it is anywhere else.  He's also the only kid I can ALWAYS count on to want to run errands with me.  He's my buddy.  Love him to pieces.

H is my social bug.  I don't think there's a shy bone in her body.  She loves to tell stories and entertain people, and she's quite dramatic.  She's super fun to be around and thinks that everyone is her best friend.  her Primary (think: Sunday School) teacher tells me she's "quite the character."  I *think* that's a compliment?  She's also my most naturally studious kiddo, which is a fun thing, and she seems to have inherited some of her mama's math skills.  (I was a math major and am a former math teacher.)  I'm so proud to be her mom.  She reminds me that life is meant to be enjoyed.


A is 5 years old:

A is so, so awesome.  He is just an all-around great kid.  He's the first to give me hugs and kisses every day and the only one who will still let me rock him to sleep.  He thrives on approval and will do pretty much anything you ask him to do if you ask nicely.  He's actually the only kiddo not homeschooled for now so will start kindergarten at the local public school in a few days.  (Long story on that, will get to it another day.)  I can't imagine my life without this little man.

And finally J, our 3 year old:

J is the funniest kid you've ever met.  He (yes, he's a he, even with long hair!) makes me laugh every single day.  I mean, most 3 year olds are funny anyway, but J just takes it to a whole new level.  He's stubborn and smart and just all around entertaining.  There's nobody around who doesn't love J.  He's my youngest and it has been so fun watching him grow and change like I wasn't able to with the others.  I am so excited to see who he eventually becomes, because from what I see now, it looks like it's going to be pretty amazing.

Anyway, that's the kids!  Glad you're here and hope you enjoy getting to know us and watching us school and learn and live!

Welcome!

Hey there!  Welcome to my blog!  I'm Karla, wife my favorite attorney Scott and homeschooling (mostly) mama to 4 amazing kids.  I hope to use this blog to chronicle some of our favorite adventures.  Enjoy your visit!