Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving !
It's been a while since I posted. My intentions were to post regularly...photos, happenings, cool homeschool resources I find, etc but being this is our first year doing this..it takes alot of time and planning, etc and so I failed to hop on here regularly to post.

So starting next week, my goal is to post an update atleast 1x a week :)

The girls have been doing independant work this past week. I printed out Thanksgiving themed worksheets centered around Thanksgiving and some of the sheets are word search, vocabulary, crossword puzzles... and then I threw in a few coloring pages and math sheets with a Thanksgiving theme (clip art) on the page. So the girls have really enjoyed it. It was a way to give them themed work to do centered around the holiday but also a task of my trying to see if this technique works with the girls, either one of them or both of them. I wanted to see who took to independant work the best and benefited from it and who, if anyone, did not respond well to this type of work at all.

And both girls did very well with independant work and studies. So I plan to move forward with putting together independant work folders for both girls and add in handouts, etc centered around the current month, holiday(s), events, and lessons we are working on. That way if we are out and about or whatever the reason, the girls can grab their folders and do work on their own.

So Im happy that it worked. Emily even asked me to print out more sheets and she looks forward to the Christmas themed ones. :)

So I am on the search for Christmas themed activity pages, handouts, lessons, and anything I can find.

Off to go take a nap !

Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday
Jenn

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Homeschool Spirit Week ...

(click image to be redirected to the Official Interntaional Homeschool Spirit Week FACEBOOK page)

Announcing the official schedule of events for Homeschool Spirit Week. For links to each of the themed day's sponsors, Visit CurrClick.com!

Monday 9/24 Homeschool Away From Home Day!
Visit Great Homeschool Conventions for details and to download a FREE Spirit Giveaway by Simple Schooling!
Click here on Monday 9/24!

Tuesday 9/25 Comfy Cozy Day!
Visit Apologia Educational Ministries for details an...
d to download a FREE Spirit Giveaway from Knowledge Quest!
Click here on Tuesday 9/25!

Wednesday 9/26 Crazy Sock Day!
Visit A to Z Homeschool's Cool for details and to download a
FREE Spirit Giveaway from Geography Matters!
Click here on Wednesday 9/26!

Thursday 9/27 Mismatch Day!
Visit Homeschool Mosaics for details and to download a
FREE Spirit Giveaway from Knowledge Box Central!
Click here on Thursday 9/27!

Friday 9/28 Twin Day!
Visit iHomeschool Network for details and to download a
FREE Spirit Giveaway from Hands of a Child!
Click here on Friday 9/28!

Currclick FREEBIES:
megaphone coloring page
design your own Mascot

Happy 1st Day of Fall !!


I just LOVE Fall ! The smells, the sights...and don't forget, the cooler temperatures. Here on the Gulf Coast Fall is greeted with open arms like a best friend we haven't seen in years. I love that the mornings are cooler, the humidity is lower and the afternoon temps go from being in the upper 90s (with a heat index of in the low 100s) to the mid 80s and then continue to fall from there as the season progresses.

I love making hearty one pot meals...soups and stews. The kind that stick to your bones and warm your insides and bring a smile to your face. :)
I love baking in the oven and roasting and all of those cooking tasks you dred doing in the summer because it's just too darn hot to turn on the oven.

So how will you celebrate the 1st day of fall ?

We have Taco Chicken Chili in the crock pot (a recipe I found on Pinterest) , I plan to make a pumpkin cake with apple cider glaze...(recipe found here)
and a pan of sweet yellow corn bread to go with our chlli.

I have pages upon pages of Fall/Autumn themed worksheets to print out for the girls and we will just enjoy the day. I will also let the girls mix and bake the cake as well as mix up the cornbread (Jiffy mix, love it). So a little home ec lesson mixed in with some math measurements. And then on to other fall themed activities.

We look forward to what the new season will bring us and Will share our Fall/Autumn activities here with you as well.

Checkout a Fall Freebie I found:

And I purchased a few inexpensive Fall themed activity pages from Currclick as well.
here are the links to those as well:



I will share our photos and projects soon. So check back for our 1st Day of Fall Fun.

I hope you Enjoy your 1st Day of Fall as well.

Happy Homeschooling !


Friday, September 14, 2012

Getting Organized...again and again & our Beach Field Trip

So I did some organizing in the Living Room area to make the perfect "classroom" space. I moved somethings around once, twice and then we purchased a sectional couch for the room and now I have organized and moved things around again. It now looks like a disaster area. haha :) But that's okay.. My motto is

You can't make progress with a making a huge mess !

Anyway, we decided to take advantage of the cooler weather out (if you consider mid to upper 80s cooler) and packed up a picnic lunch, change of clothes for all and headed to the beach. Oh how I love Gulf Shores in the fall and winter. Although it technically isn't fall just yet, it surely was a super fantastic day. Cool breeze, high surf, sand and shells...oh and sun too. Can't forget the sun...lots of it. So we were sure we got in a big dose of Vitamin D from Mother Nature .

We waded in the surf. The girls were eventually knocked down by the high surf. Then we noticed a red flag flying. .. meaning high surf. So we kept close to the shoreline. We searched the beach for shells and other fun finds. The girls found many and some with holes in them that they want to use for stringing a necklace. After playing for an hour or 2 we washed off the sand, changed clothes and sat under one of the Pavillions for a nice picnic. PB&J's and Chicken salad. It was the best day ever, as quoted by Emily. And chiming in Ella states it wasn't the best day ever, it was the most awesome day ever.


So today we will do a few writing prompts, internet searching and science lessons with what we oberved while at the beach yesterday.
Other than shells, sand, sun and surf we saw:
Pelicans, Seagulls (and babies too), kite surfers, helicopters and learned about the different meanings of the flags (warnings).

I'm looking forward to our next adventure and outing coming up next week to Seward Farms-Corn Maze.
Until Next time,
Keep reading and reaching for the stars.




Friday, August 24, 2012

Happy Friday !!

Everyday feels like Friday to me. My girls are here with me. We have lots of fun in our daily routine. Everyone is fully rested, on their toes and in a positive mood. So much different than when the kids were enrolled in public school. Everything was so rushed and it felt like the kids never had any "free" time to just be kids and enjoy their learning experience.  Dinner was rushed. Bedtime rushed. And then the little free time the kids did have to relax was filled with homework and getting ready for bed to go it again the next day.

So here's to us...our first year of church school/homeschool and our exciting adventures and jouney we will share together. ... enjoying the lives of our children and seeing them grow and learn and just have fun...the way life was intended to be.