Christmas break

We are out for Christmas break. I am going to use this time to rest and reassess where we are and where we want to go. My oldest Jamie leaves for MI on Thursday of next week. So we will be one less around here. Of course he is not around all the time with working full time and college full time.

I think we did great getting to Christmas break. We finished what we needed to to be halfway through. I am still loving the Heart of Dakota. The older kids work mostly on her own so that is very helpful.

Everyone have a Merry Christmas celebrating the birth of the Savior of the world.

November update

Actually November was a good school month. They all worked very hard and I kept on track with C. His reading progress it going very well. He has finished a couple of his workbooks earlier than planned because he loves to keep working in them.

We took most of the week of Thanksgiving off and that helped me since I had to prepare two Thanksgiving meals that week. One for us and one for Chuck and Hazel to take to WV. They appreciated the meal.

I am scaling back on videos/movies that the kids watch during the week and they are playing so well together. Of course they have their moments but for their age they play great together. I love having the two little ones in the house. As I type they are running around the house playing with each other.

December will probably be a short month. I think we will take the week of Christmas off but I will still do phonics with C.

We are reading our advent story every night. Advent started Sunday Nov. 28. We are reading Tabitha's Travels by Arnold Ytreeide. You can look at the books here. We enjoy slowing down in the Advent season and reading together every night.

We will do the lights at the Raceway one night before Christmas too.

I love Christmas  and the season and all that goes with it. I love buying gifts for others.

Well since this has gotten off school and onto other stuff I will leave for now. Hoping to be back soon.

 

October over

So we have been in school now since the first of August and October is over.
I guess I should update on how things are going.
We are loving Heart of Dakota still.
I have made a few changes in curriculum with my older two.
For the most part things are going really well. I am pleased with most of my choices this year.

I am excited that the Heart of Dakota is something I think I will stick with with few substitutions as my younger two grow older.

I have three more years of high school to teach. S has two more years after this one and V has three. I can't believe they are this close to finishing high school. :( Time goes too fast. :(

Today's science

Those tiny little things on it's back were babies. It was neat and gross. LOL

Nature Walk

The weather is so nice today so when were done with school we took a nature walk. We have a wonderful walking path that goes behind our house, so I took the little boys. They were so good.
Here are pix of all they collected. I have decided we need a bucket or basket for these walks. We all had our hands and I had one pocket full. LOL

Are these chestnuts or buckeyes? 

The little boys called the walnuts coconuts. LOL

He was dead so don't worry. LOL

Lots of roadblocks

Or really just life. School is plugging along and then last Friday I was hit with the worst headache of my life. I don't ever remember being that sick. Then today is Labor Day so no school today. But we will get back in the groove tomorrow adding a few more things for my high schoolers.
We are loving Heart of Dakota. C is learning so much.
He is also playing soccer. His first practice was interesting. His attention span is a bit short. LOL
Hopefully we can get pictures of the first game on Saturday. I know he will look cute in his uniform.
Praying this is a week of school with no sickness. 

Week 3

Our weeks have been interuppted since we started but I knew they would, that is why we started early.
Still loving HOD with C. He is doing great.
One product that I got this year that have never heard of anyone using was Biology 101 DVD. I watched the introduction yesterday and loved it. It is fun, engaging and easy to understand. I wish I had bought this last year.
Check it out if you have never heard of it at the link above.

First week+

We started school last week. I have two high schoolers and one in K.
So we started on Monday and it was good. Then Tuesday and Wednesday. Then on Wednesday afternoon C fell asleep and woke up from his nap with a fever. So no more school for him that week.
We are over the sickness now and this week was good although I took today off with C.

I started slow with my high schoolers so they kind of get the hang of things and will add in more slowly.

So all in all it is going well so far.

I am using Heart of Dakota with C. I am using Little Hearts for His Glory. I am loving it. It is so well organized and fun too.

With the older I am using a mish mash of stuff.

More to come...

Welcome to our school

This is where I am going to document our school year. I hope to have pictures and hopefully samples of school work on here. I will talk about the things we did and how they went. I will document our field trips and post the pictures of them. I will even do some reviewing of books we are using or reading.

I am hoping this will give me and my children a keepsake for years to come.