Great Wolf Lodge

For Nate's birthday this year his main gift was a trip to Great Wolf Lodge. They had a deal for homeschoolers and we couldn't pass it up. Two other families came with us and it was a great time had by all!!!

Dinner time at the kids table 

Story time

Nate was unimpressed with story time. I guess he really is growing up. 

First weeks of school

Our first weeks of school went better and worse than I thought. Nate and Caitlin did great and stayed on task most of the time. Caleb was a bit of a challenge. After a summer of barely any structure the increased workload expectations for grade one mean he is not a happy camper. He is not impressed at all and is letting me know. Each day is getting better but he keeps telling me everything is boring. My goal for this coming week is to try and do some more fun activities.

Here's a major photo dump of our first few weeks:

Our new homeschool room is combined with the playroom. Here is our bookshelf and circle time/calendar area.

Our work area/desks

Morning bible reading time 

Caitlin learning to write the letter A

Working hard at Math (have I mentioned how much I love the Math U See program??!!!)

Nate's first Draw Write Now drawing

Caitlin playing with one of her busy bags! She loves them! I am so glad that I was able to organize the swap. It has been a great success!!

Another day, another busy bag :)

Nate's pig from Draw Write Now 

Caleb's pig (with some help)

It was also Nate's birthday party last week. He had a minion themed party. It went really well!!!

In other news, we are trying to not eat any processed food. We've had a couple days of "real food" and it's going great!  It means a lot more time in the kitchen for me, but it's so worth it!!! I've made my own bread, granola, pancakes, pizza dough....yummy!!!

Off to start another week!!!

Peace?

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3


Peace is one of those things that I feel is lacking in our house.  I am a yeller.  The kids yell back. Sometimes I really wonder what the neighbours must think of us.  But as I mentioned in an earlier post I am making a resolve to stop the yelling. It doesn't do anything but escalate already tense situations. My devotions this morning were in Ephesians 4 and once again I was hit over the head with the conviction that I have not been holding up to my promise to stop the yelling.  I am not walking in a "manner worthy of the calling".  I have not been humble and gentle and patient and tolerant.  I loved the wording of verse 3: "being diligent".  The definition of diligence is "earnest and persistent application to an undertaking; steady effort".  It takes persistence and effort.  So once again....I am committing myself to not yelling at the kids.  I know it is going to be a big challenge because the kids (especially munchkin #2) are not excited about doing schoolwork after a summer of very little routine.  But I'm doing it...and I know that is only possible with God's help.  So that's the goal for today....PEACE!

And as a side note...I just want to say how thankful I am that I have peace WITH God through the sacrifice of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Because of Him, even when I do mess up...royally...I am forgiven.  I am still His child.  He still loves me and welcomes me back into His arms.  What an awesome God we serve!!!

First day of school photoshoot

We had some fun this afternoon taking some first day of school pics and then I've been playing around with PicMonkey to edit them.  I'm in love with this newfound website.  Thanks Emma ;)

Here is the product of our creativity:

I may be biased....but my kids ARE SOOOOOO CUTE!!!!!!

Not back to school and our curriculum for this year

Today was back to school for most kids but not for us! We had a "not back to school" day at the Ontario Science Centre with some fellow homeschoolers. It was also Nate's birthday so I didn't want to start school on his birthday! We were originally planning on going to Centre Island for a beach picnic but the weather was gloomy and cold so we opted for an indoor activity. The kids had a blast! It is such a cool place. We've been several times this year and the kids don't get bored of it. Here are some pics of the adventure:

Caitlin fit herself into the lockers when we first arrived (and ended up getting her fingers pinched of course). 

Caleb and Matthew at the "supermarket" 

Caleb was so excited that he found tree frogs. He's been watching "Nature's Deadliest" on Netflix lately and has been a fan of tree frogs ever since he learned about them. 

Watching the electricity show 

Electric kids!!

Watching the sponges get sucked up a vacuum and shot out into the air. She played with this for a long time.

All the "not back to school" kiddos :)

My colourful girl 

The birthday boy 

So tomorrow we start school. I am excited and nervous. I really want to learn from my mistakes from last year and make this year awesome. 

My main academic goals for this year are to teach Nate to be more of an independent learner, teach Caleb to read more fluently and letter/number recognition for Caitlin. But my biggest mission is to make this family a family that seeks the Lord first in everything. We are starting our days with bible lessons and bible memory verses. I am also committing to getting up before the kids and having my own quiet time with God to set my focus.  I am praying and trusting that God will guide and direct us and give us all great success!!

I'm really excited about our curriculum choices for this year. We are continuing with Math U See for both Nate and Caleb. Nate is doing Gamma and Caleb is doing Alpha. I think that Nate will be able to breeze through Gamma and start Delta part way through the year to get "caught up". 

I've chosen curriculum that can be adapted for different age groups for our geography, French and history lessons. For geography, we will be using Galloping Around the Globe. It is a unit study curriculum. We are going to start with a general overview of the world and geographical terms.  We are going to make passports and "stamp" them as we learn about each new country. I will also be incorporating social studies into our unit studies as we learn about the people of the countries as well. 

For history I have chosen Story of the World volume 1. Some of our friends are also using this and we are planning in doing some of the activities in the book together on co-op days. 

Our french program is called Le Francais Facile. I was a little disappointed with it when I first looked at it but I'm changing my opinion as I look deeper. I'm glad that the kids will be learning a second language this year. Hopefully I will remember enough from my grade school days to help them develop fluency. 

Language arts will be taught with the Spalding Writing Road to Reading program. We had bought the main book back when Tim was homeschooling Nate for grade 1 and never implemented it. I tried several times to read through the book last year and found it very disjointed and hard to piece together. This year we purchased the home educators kit which came with a teacher's manual. It is awesome!  I can't wait to finally implement this program and be able to learn the foundations of the English language along with the kids!!

We are using Apologia's Exploring Creation: Human Anatomy and Physiology for Science. It is also a book that was previously purchased and sat on our shelf. I am committing to not letting it go to waste. It will be used two times per week!

I will also be alternating piano lessons and art lessons using piano books we got from Grandma Bauman and Draw Write Now. 

Tuesday afternoons will be our coop days and we will go to a drop in gym time every other Friday. 

We have one field trip per month scheduled from now until December (the Toronto Zoo, Brooks Farm for fall harvest, Ripley's aquarium and a pioneer village Christmas). 

 Woohoo!!  I am really hoping that we will get into a routine and have fun learning. My theme for this year is "Go For It" (this phrase appeared on my scrabble tiles recently and it has stuck with me).