Who Knew Homeschooling Would Result in This...

After teaching the kids about the importance of taking care of the environment we began to feel hypocritical since we didn't recycle! So, as a family we decided to jump in. We are so glad we did because it was unbelievable how much we go through! It begins to take over our garage! This is the first day that Jon and the kids took the recycling off...

Did I mention there was a lot?

Swim or drown in the plastic...

All in all we feel really good about finally getting around to this, and it ended up being a great learning experience as well!

You Know You Are a Homeschooler If...

You take your son out to the Rainf*rest Cafe for his birthday and let him order the really huge volcano dessert, but before you let him eat it, you make him tell you what the parts of the volcano are (The chocolate sauce inside is magma while the chocolate sauce on the outside is lava and the ice cream is an ash cloud!). He loved it and knew all the right answers!

We Need to Do More Art...

We took advanatage of some warm weather and set the easel up in the garage. This was actually a few days before Valentine's Day so I told them they should paint pictures for family members. They chose to paint pictures for each other which I found really sweet!

Jackson painted what Ashton likes:

Ashton paints herself!

This was Ashton's final painting for Jackson which had a sports theme with lots of footballs and baseballs and the baseball field at the bottom:

Jackson's final painting with lots of girlie stuff!

I was very proud of how sweet they were thinking of each other and how they selflessly did this for one another. I'm also VERY convicted that I need to give them more opportunities to do art! I have looked at tons of resource books and idea websites, but I need to quit looking and just let them dive in! I seriously need 3 more of me!

10 Commandments Lapbook...

We wrapped up our study of Moses with a 10 commandment lapbook. This is one of those lapbboks that I got different components of from several different sites and did not keep track of where I got them! I'm sorry that I can't share the links for things, but I'll do better next time:) If you really want any of it leave a comment and I'll try to search it down for you!

I loved this printout because you cut flaps under the numbers so that they lift up to reveal what the commandment actually is. I am really trying to let them be creative with the fronts of their lapbooks so they got to watercoler paint these!

This was Ashton's colorful stone:

This was Jackson's more realistic stone:

The left is a song to the tune of "Jingle Bells: which my non-musical self probably blundered! The right side only Jackson did as it was a matching worksheet.

(Blogger is refusing to let me turn this picture!) All of the little matchbooks were actually Jackson's addition. We used this opportunity to learn Roman numerals, and he came up with writing them all on matchbooks which flip up to show the "real" number. I am so often dictating what their lapbooks contain that I was proud of his addition. Even though it doesn't look as neat as I would like, I'm trying to let go of the control and let it be totally theirs, as it should be! We also did a maze and word search.
Jackson chose this coloring page for his back:

Ashton chose this one:
My favorite part was where they told me what they thought the 10 commandments were before we learned the real ones! I typed and printed them and we added it to the lapbook. They are definately something I want to remember! It was really funny!

Jackson's were:

1. Use God's name in a good way.

2. Trust in God.

3. Be nice to one another.

4. Do not steal.

5. Do not hit.

6. Obey your mom and dad.

7. Take care of God's animals.

8. Take care of God's land.

9. You have to learn every day.

10. Share love.

(OK- you can tell he is homeschooled by #9 but he's sounding a little like a hippie on #10 and the whole "green" message is really sinking in #8 and is why we are now recycling!)

Ashton's were hilarious:

1. Be nice to yourself.

2. Take care of your dog.

3. Brush your teeth.

4. Sharpen your pencil.

5. Be nice to your friends.

6. Share your toys.

7. Share love all around town.

8. Listen to our teachers.

9. Love your mom and dad.

10. Play nice with your brothers and sisters.

My favorite is picturing God in His big booming voice saying to Moses as he etches on stone: "Sharpen thou pencils!"

I think the best thing about this lapbook is that we can look over it later to remind us of what the 10 commandments are. We actually did this lapbook all in one day-yeah us!

St. Patrick's Day...

We had a fun day of St. Patrick's Day activities starting with mixing shaving cream and green food coloring...

We were very excited to have a visiting student in my nephew Justin to have some fun with us...

Will thought it would be more fun to eat the paint than paint his shamrock...

Justin was very serious about applying the clouds to his rainbow...

I got this great headband at Bunco and knew I had to pass it on to my Irish princess...
After crafts, we feasted on a green feast, located Ireland on a map and looked at my photo album from when I studied in Ireland. We also learned a little Gaelic and greeted the neighbors with it!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to us!

Twin Tot School #3...

These are the beginnings of our Tot School. I am really trying hard to find time with the twins to learn things. I also have to figure out how to get them both engaged but not in the same thing so they won't fight! Not an easy task, huh?

On this day they worked puzzles really for the first time. Luckily, I had 2! They did pretty well with it and I was amazed at how long they really stuck with it. Definitately lots of puzzles in our future which is great to me because I love working puzzles!

Doesn't this boy look like he's enjoying himself?

Oh, the concentration!

Here's a beginning of many Tot School days to come!

Officer Buckle and Gloria Lapbook...

While big brother had the flu we didn't do much in the way of school. I needed something for Ashton to do so we came up with a lapbook about one of her favorite books, Officer Buckle and Gloria. I got all the things from Homeschool Share.

She illustrated the cover.

She got to practice her address and phone number, all our names, and finding the title, author and illustrator.

Her least favorite part was copying Humpty Dumpty because she has started hating handwriting! We did vocabulary from the book, listed reasons to call 911, learned about helping dogs, and wrote sentences with words from the book. My favorite part was where she had to write her own safety tips like Officer Buckle does in the book.

I enjoyed doing this little project with just Ashton and she seemed pretty proud of it as well!

Reason #73 I Love Homeschooling...

When it's a beautiful day out and you are lucky enough to homeschool and you are greeted with a warm day in the middle of winter what do you do? You have writing time in your fort.

I am so excited about the possibilities spring will bring!

Mummy School...

Our Egypt unit has become all of our favorites! I used my good ole' art history class from Belmont and stole an idea we did there! I traced the kids onto brown butcher paper and they got to decorate a sarcaphagus (I have no idea how to spell that and have already taken the Egypt books back to the library and am too lazy to look it up:). The best part was they were really dilligent about finding examples in all of our resource books to draw inspiration from!

I got a great book on heiroglyphics at the book fair in the fall knowing we would be doing this project. So they had to write their name in heiroglyphics going down the middle. They both did an amazing job drawing the very tricky ones! Jackson is totally into this whole mummy study...

We then had to show off our new friends so we hung them up on display for Daddy to see when he got home.

I really thought they turned out well. You can tell Jackson's was a pharoah from his headgear!
They are actually still hanging on the wall in my living room proclaiming to all who enter: homeschoolers live here! The only bad part is they kept scaring us because we'd look up and think someone was standing there! Oh well, the price of learnin'!