Our 1st Annual Thanksgiving Party!

Today was a super fun day, friends!  We had a Thanksgiving party at our house for a few of our fellow homeschool friends.

Here are some pictures from the fun!

I found this cute and {FREE} "give thanks" banner printable on the ucreateparties.com page.  Great site for cute resources!  The turkey in the background is courtesy of my very talented husband :)

The first craft we did was the Thanksgiving Story bracelet.  Light brown pipe cleaner and pony beads.  So fun and informative!

The Thanksgiving Story bracelet...

Next we made some pretty rad Indian headbands.  Wish I would've made one for myself.  Boo.

Three of our little Indian girls in attendance with their headbands :)

During our scavenger hunt the kids had to find pine cones, Indian rocks, run through the house like an Indian AND find and kiss Mr. Turkey...Miss Bella got a good smooch in :)

Then we moved into the living room to read, "Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving."  LOVE this book!

We made some really sweet "I Am Thankful For..." books but I didn't get a picture of any of them! Bummer.

This next activity was one of my favorites.  Probably because it involved, sugar, icing, sugar, sprinkles and more sugar :)  These are Tee Pee's made out of waffle cones!  Gently cut off the tip of the cone, ice the bottom with chocolate icing, dip in sprinkles, put icing in the top tee pee hole, stick pretzel sticks in and let it dry...VOILA!

Some were devoured just minutes after making them...

We also played, "pin the feather on the turkey."  This was great fun :)

I think Elijah's trying to peak! Little turkey...

We spun in a circle three times before pinning the feather :)

Momma's Indian and Pilgrim :)

All the little Indians that came to the pow wow!

This was such a joy for me today, friends.  Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of children and being able to come together to celebrate everything we have to be thankful for in your precious Son, Jesus. 

{Psalm 106:1}

Thanksgiving in the Schoolroom

I've been looking forward to this since our school year started, friends!  I love Thanksgiving.  I love having an entire month to focus our hearts and minds on the One who opens His hand of blessing on us everyday. And although I'm ridiculously excited to teach our boys about the Puritans, the Indians, the Mayflower and everything in between, my sincere prayer for them is to have a heart of thankfulness to God and everything He offers us through His Son, Jesus.

As we learn about Thanksgiving the entire month of November, we'll be reading lots of great books, memorizing verses on giving thanks to God, reading poems, studying a famous painting about Thanksgiving and listening to an early American composer from the 16oo's.

Here are some of the books we'll be reading...SO excited!

{N.C. Wyeth's Pilgrims by Robert D. San Souci}

{P is for Pilgrim by Carol Crane}

{Saying Grace - A Prayer of Thanksgiving by Virginia Kroll and Tim Ladwig}

{Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Mextaxas}

{The First Thanksgiving by Jean Craighead George}

{The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh}

{Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness}

For our Picture Study:  "The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth" painted in 1914 by Jennie A. Brownscombe.

For our Music Study we'll be listening to and learning about Johann Frederich Peter.  Take a listen below:

http://www.folkways.si.edu/american-colonial-instrumental-music/folk-classical-historical-song/album/smithsonian

{A Psalm of Thanksgiving}

Blessings!

October's Field Trip Fun!

October was such a fun month for us, friends!  THREE field trips.  Not too shabby, huh?

Since we're learning about Ancient Egypt all year, we took the boys to the Ancient Egypt exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science {through Groupon we paid $30 for a family of four...regularly $80!}  It was amazing.  Every corner we turned the boys saw things we've been reading and learning about. It was such a joy hearing them spout off facts and get excited about what they saw.  Isaiah played it cool as long as he could when we saw real mummies then he made Guy hold him :)  Elijah, however, was fascinated by them--especially one that still had hair on his head and chin.  Pretty creepy,  but WAY cool! At lunch that afternoon Isaiah told me that he never thought he'd get to actually see everything we've been learning about at a museum until he was at least eighteen..."and I'm just SEVEN, Momma!"  Such a sweet and encouraging moment.  Sadly, we have ZERO pictures from the museum!  Can you believe that?  But to make up for that, here's a picture of Isaiah pretending he's an "ancient Egyptian artifact."

After the Ancient Egypt exhibit that afternoon we saw Jerusalem 3D in the IMAX theater.  Simply stunning. Elijah kept reaching his arms out during the film to touch things in the air :)  It was SO cute.  This film is a must see, friends!

Here's a clip below--breathtaking!

http://youtu.be/tejeDb_5WWs

We also took the boys on a field trip to The Oil Ranch.  SUCH a fun time!  The boys each got a free pumpkin from the Pumpkin Patch, we learned how cows get milked and the kids could even milk her {the boys wanted nothing to do with that}, the boys rode horses, learned about and got to pet tons of animals {pigs, goats, chickens, roosters, etc...} AND we got to see gorgeous peacocks, a ram and a real billy goat.  And not to mention the massive hay pile in the barn they got to play in and the tepee and totem poles--the boys loved it all.  There's even a mine where you can gather lots of small gems and stones...Isaiah came home with a pocket full!

http://oilranch.com/

{Isaiah was in cowboy mode all day at the ranch :)}

{Sweet Elijah riding a pony}

And last but not least we went to the Calendar Garden. This is such a sweet and quaint little garden that I happened to find while searching for fun fall/pumpkiny type things to do with the boys.  There are several free outdoor games to play and a hay maze.  They have a stunning rose garden and a Texas garden full of Texas flowers, plants and, of course, lots of cactus.  There were so many teachable moments at the garden as we saw and got to smell and touch citrus trees, herbs, vegetable plants, a grape vine and bumble bees!  We went with some precious friends of ours and we sat down at a table under a cute little rustic pavilion and note-booked about our day {thanks Susan!}  I can't wait to go back at Christmas.

http://www.calendargarden.com/

{Elijah...he could have stayed on this tractor all afternoon!}

{Isaiah and Cooper.  Baseball teammates AND homeschool buds!}  

{You always need a hay/mum picture at a fall garden, right???}

{Some citrus trees...they all smelled AMAZING}

{There were about 30 bumble bees in the bush behind the boys!}

November is sure to be fun as we'll be learning about the Mayflower, pilgrims and Indians!

Blessings!

Leaves, Poets, PJ's & Couscous...

I can't believe we're heading into our second month of homeschooling--YAY!  Here are a few things we've been up to this month :)

{Nature Study & Nature Journaling}

This was such a fun afternoon.  We learned a lot about broadleaf and conifer trees/leaves and collected lots of samples along the trail.  One thing we forgot, however, was bug spray. Needless to say, all of the mosquitoes in a fifty mile radius had a great lunch...but it was worth all the itching and scratching!

The Nature Journal we're using...LOVE it!

Isaiah has really started to love Alfred, Lord Tennyson...who new???  He's even made the background screen on his iPod a picture of him :)  He decided to try his hand at poetry a couple of weeks ago and was pretty proud of his work--it was a proud moment for mom, too!

The picture I have up in the schoolroom of Alfred, Lord Tennyson and the same picture Isaiah put on his iPod :)

September 23-27 was International Homeschool Spirit Week!  Monday was pajama day and the boys were so excited to stay cozy all day :)

A little school work in the PJ's...

We'll be learning about Africa the entire year in our Bible/History/Geography lessons and on this day we were learning about the African country of Morocco! The Butter Man is a great living book we read about a Moroccan family that makes it through a season of drought.  And we couldn't go through the day without a little Moroccan food, so we made some yummy couscous for lunch :)

Hungry Planet is a really neat book we use with some of our Bible/History/Geography lessons.  We used it for the first time this week to take a look at the Ahmed family from Cairo, Egypt--what their grocery lists looks like, what they eat, how they live, etc...It was interesting for the boys to see how another culture lives and what they eat.  They really enjoyed looking at a picture that showed all of the food the Ahmed's buy at the market for the week and identifying what we eat that's the same :)

We're looking forward to a few field trips coming up and can't wait to share them with you!

Blessings, sweet friends!

Kindergarten & 2nd Grade: A Day in the Schoolroom...

As I was reading blogs on homeschooling and searching for moms that had children the same age as mine, I found it SO helpful when they told me {in as much detail as they could} how their day went, what curriculum they used, how they schooled children that were different ages, etc.  So, that's what this post is--what our day looks like in the schoolroom from start to finish!  I also included several books/resources we're using that I'm totally loving :) 

A few small changes since my, "Well, It Looks Good on Paper" post!

8:30 - 9:00    Isaiah:  Math-U-See Beta 

                     Elijah:  abcmouse.com {I love this resource!}

9:00 - 9:30    Bible/History/Geography 

                     {Simply Charlotte Mason curriculum}

                              {both boys}

9:30 - 10:00    Enrichment Studies 

                      {Mon: artist study, Wed: composer study, Thurs: poetry, Fri: art}

                              {both boys}

10:00 - 10:30    Read Aloud 

                        {right now we're reading The Little House on the Prairie}

                              {both boys}

10:30 - 11:00    Isaiah:  Copywork, 20 minutes of silent reading

                                                  

                          1 on 1 with Elijah:  Reading/Handwriting {Delightful Reading} & Math  

                         {Math-U-See Primer}

  *** Science is done on Tuesday's & Thursdays.  Tuesday's we read out of the Burgess Animal Book for Children from 9:30 - 9:45 and Thursdays we do our Nature Study and Nature Journaling after we're done with everything else for the school day.  This gives us the freedom to leave the house for a while {go to nature trails, ponds, etc...)and not have to come back and "finish school." ***

Ok, so here are some books/resources that I've loved so far this year...you know, the whole week and a half that we've been homeschooling :o)

This is the copybook reader Isaiah uses.  It reinforces reading, handwriting and grammar.  This little book is so precious.  Right now he's copying a poem by Cecil Frances Alexander entitled, "All Things Bright and Beautiful."  Here's a little sample of it:

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.

This is one of the chapter books Isaiah is reading for his silent reading time.  It's written by Milly Howard.  It's a cute book for little boys :)  He read, "On Yonder Mountain" last year in first grade and LOVED it so I thought I'd stick with the same author for his first few chapter books this year.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson is one of the poets we're studying this year. The introduction of the book is his biography. I'm breaking the biography up into five sections because it's pretty long.  We read the first poem last week and the boys weren't sure about it :o)  Maybe it had something to do with it being titled, "The Mermaid." Hopefully they'll like the next poem better...it's about an owl!!!

Our school year is broken into three terms {each term is 12 wks.} We study a different artist every term. Right now we're studying Rembrandt.  We change the painting we're studying every two weeks.  So we'll end up studying six paintings per term.  I use the Picture Study portfolios that you can purchase on the Simply Charlotte Mason website and I LOVE THEM!  They come with twelve laminated paintings and a small book with the painters biography and details about each painting, when it was painted, etc.  It's such a great resource.  I also purchased this book by Usborne that I really like--just some additional information, pictures, etc.   

Same thing goes for composers during our school year.  We study one composer every term.  This consists of reading about the composers life {I really like The World of Composers books} and listening to their music during our school day, during dinner, through-out the day....whenever.  I like to play it during our quiet reading time--it's relaxing for everyone :)

This is one of the books that I'm using for Science.  This book is considered  a "living book."  Living books are quality literature (can be either fiction or non-fiction) written by an author that has a passion for the topic. The writers passion and expertise breathes life into the book.  Living books engage the mind of a child and give them characters they can look up to and emulate.  We started reading The Burgess Animal Book for Children today and the boys looooved it--I did too!  Can't wait to get all of the Burgess books!

These are the boys art books.  Barry Stebbing is amazing.  The books offer beginning drawing, art history and beginning painting to name a few.  One thing I like about Elijah's book {Baby Lambs} is that many of the projects include puzzles, math, the alphabet and stories along with drawing and colors!

And this is how I organize it all :o)  Isaiah has the top shelf and Elijah has the middle shelf.  The bottom shelf is subjects that they do together {mainly Bible, History and Geography} and most of their enrichment studies {artists, composers, poets and their art books.}

Well, there you have it--our life from 8:30-11:00 Monday through Friday :o)  So far this schedule has worked out great for us...so excited about that!

I still can't believe I'm actually doing this, sweet friends.  This is definitely a time in my life that I wake up everyday acknowledging that every last ounce of this is Christ in me.  Some days as the boys are working quietly on schoolwork I think to myself, "who AM I????"  As so many of you already know, the thought of me teaching our boys was just waaaaay outside my comfy little box I'd made for myself.  But, it has proven to be one of the greatest joys in life yet. Step out on faith today, believer.  Do something that requires your FAITH to be bigger than your FEAR.

{2 Corinthians 9:8}

Here's to another week and a half of happy homeschooling!