Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The Learning Tree

Fortunately we have a homeschool co op just 10 min from our house called The Learning Tree. We will meet every Thursday and take enrichment classes from 9am-12pm. One session runs in the fall, the other in the spring. Today was the day for sign up!

Zane will be taking a Civil War class(North Vs South), gym & a cooking class.

Zoe will be taking choir, nature enrichment & participate in the Chronicles of Narnia Book Club.

Carson will be learning to play the recorder in music class, taking nature enrichment & a picture book class.

Vania will be taking Geography & Culture, Music & Movement & Seasonal Fun Activities.

Zane, Vania & I were a part of this co op last year. It was really fun & we met a lot of really great families. Besides classes they plan lots of field trips & organize social events for the kids . A great way to get to know other homeschool families in the community!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

School

I've been working on selling my books from last year & buying curriculum for this upcoming school year . Our budget has been super tight and it was time to get creative. So, I have learned how to buy & sell on E Bay & really reaped the benefits. We have been able to purchase the majority of our curriculum so far, including money saved for co op classes, just from our E Bay sales. Being able to home school our children is a blessing that comes with a price tag of hard work & sacrifice but we truly believe that this is what is best for our family & well worth the challenge! I believe that God is pruning us to live below our means which is something we have never been good at. Now that there is not a choice it's time to get busy fast .

So this is what we are doing for school. With so many options and ideas of what to do I will limit the list to our core curriculum. These are things we have bought and will do everyday.Other classes , subjects & field trips may be added later but have not been committed to.

Learning Adventures, Volume I, Ancient History



  • 180 days of daily lesson plans in each volume
  • A chronological history-based study for grades 4 through 8
  • All subjects (Bible, language arts/literacy, social studies, science and fine arts) but math
  • A real, living books approach to learning
  • Experiments, recipes, hands-on activities, and projects that make learning fun and meaningful
Even though the grade level is 4th-8th they also have supplements for Little Adventures for grades k-3. So we should all be covered.

For math we will be using Teaching Textbooks at their individual grade levels. Zane used this program last year and it was a great program. It is computer based using DVDs & workbooks with animated lessons & solutions.


Miss Vania will use free printable preschool packs from various home school websites. 2 of my favorites are Confessions of a Homeschooler & Homeschool Creations. There is an amazing amount of free & fun stuff for preschoolers !

We will also be participating in our local home school co op. We register for those classes next week. So , for now they are TO BE DETERMINED based on availability.

Anyway, I am super excited to start the year ! I have so many ideas swirling in my head I can't wait to actually start using them :) I am praying for an super fun school year with my kiddos!




We packed up the cooler with drinks & snacks and headed for the beach last Friday afternoon.This is not quite the sandy white beach with clear blue water we have been longing for but it did the job. A cool oasis just a couple hours from home. With all the craziness of the weather, reading the afternoon forecast fooled us again. Rain predicted at 4-5pm showed up around 2:30pm, just 30min. after the kids plunged into the water. It ended up being an adventure though. We waited out the storm in the mini-van. In between downpours the kids ran back & forth between the van and beach playing in the puddles along the way. 45 minutes later the sun was out & HOT ! Back to the beach they went & met some friends to play with . Before we knew it it was 5:45pm & time to call it a day. They were not happy to leave but with a promise to return before the summer ends they slowly piled into the van for the 2 hour ride home. I think they enjoyed it as much as the sandy white beach with clear water :) It amazes me sometimes how the littlest adventures can have the biggest payoffs! What a great day.