First Day of 1st in photos

it's here!  the day we've been dreading/waiting for...

 oh my baby - 1st grade!  may you go forth being filled with knowledge, being blessed and being a blessing to those around you.

A December Day

Painting homemade Christmas cards

Bouquet of Pencils

Fall is here!  School time has come!  "I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address." - a quote from my favorite movie, You've Got Mail.  Ahh!  Love it.  Life is all apples and pumpkins.                      

Last year Justin and I much debated, prayed and discussed where Addison would attend school this year.  Ugh!  He's old enough for kindergarten!  I thought we would never come to an agreement and then of course finally did...this year he's staying home.   

It has had its ups and downs.  I've had a really hard time figuring out how to still do "life" - cleaning the house, preparing meals, making snacks, running errands, run a business, go to the library, doing church, having a garden and still spend time with my kids AND teach Addison stuff.    

This third week I think we may be into a routine and the one I post is the one that's been working, but that is sure to change, I know.  I have to remember that it's only kindergarten and that one of the big reasons we kept him home is so he can continue to be a busy 5 year old boy, playing and using his imagination, not to mention that both classical education and the Charlotte Mason Method (both of which I lean toward) agree that formal learning doesn't need to start before the first grade.

I've been reading, reading, reading and loving what I find.  The following books not only helped us  make this decision, but help guide my days and challenge me to always be trying harder.  The Well-Trained Mind:   A Guide to Classical Education at Home  is  just terrific.  The beginning and end give more of the reason as to why and then the rest of the book leads you through a "how-to"   It also has THE BEST chapter on socialization.  Awesome!  Wish I could memorize that chapter.

For the Children's Sake:  Foundations of Education for Home and School   is lovely.  It introduced me to Charlotte Mason and helped me form ideas for the type of home I want my children to grow up in.

I am in the middle of Pocketful of Pinecones:  Nature Study with the Gentle Art of Learning    This is a different book, sort of a story but full of ideas for nature study with your children.

Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder I borrowed from a friend and I'm bummed it's not mind.  I want to underline every line and write a blog post including all the amazing and devastating statistics I am reading about the decline of outdoor play and how it is having it effects throughout society.

This summer I was given this book, A Charlotte Mason Companion:  Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning, as I have been exploring more of Charlotte Mason.  This book is terrific.

 I decided to piece together the kindergarten curriculum from Sonlight, adding in some Charlotte Mason elements that I have learned about and love.  I'm using this blog quite a bit as she does the same thing:  http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/ and by piecing together I mean, not buying everything from them - it's expensive.  Instead, I am ordering things through local libraries and shopping my used book sites.

We do school on Tues, Wed, Thurs mornings and Friday afternoons.  Monday is our family day and so from time to time we'll do "field trip" type stuff with Justin.  Last Monday we visited the Minute Man trail from Lexington to Concord and Addison LOVED it.  We can tell he's going to be a history buff.  We've been learning about the Revolutionary War ever since.  Not what a typical 5 yr. old would be learning at school!

School looks something like this...Tuesday:   Memory Verse, Phonics and Writing, Math, History/Geography, and Science.

Wednesday:  We play a game to follow-up with math or language skills, write letters (to our compassion children, friends moved away or family), and focus on artists or composers.

Thursday:  The same as Tuesday.

Friday:  I keep Addison up during rest time as we are at Bible Study at the church all morning.  We do math, some more history/geography and practice the piano.  We might also work on an ongoing project like these planet mobiles...

Everyday we read our "read alouds" (right now we're reading The Boxcar Children which I never read and we both are LOVING IT!)  before rest time and do our Bible reading before bed at night.  We spend cozy afternoons on the couch reading, reading, reading library books.  This all occupies a little of Eliana's time as she wants to be  involved as much as possible, but she usually just prefers to be in proximity to us doing her own thing.

This little guy, however, is off doing whatever please his little heart.  He plays really well on his own.  If it stays too quiet too long, he is definitely a child in which that means trouble.  He really makes this whole schooling things pretty challenging!  But oh, how he keeps us smiling!

So that's what I've learned so far.  It will probably all change next week :)  but we're making progress and having fun during it all!

Italia

This month we are studying 4 countries for school - one a week.  I picked 4 countries I have been to so I can show the kids pictures and tell them personal stories.  We are starting with Italy.  I had so much fun finding as many fiction and non-fiction books at the library for us.  Honestly, people always give me 2nd looks when they see the stacks and stacks of books I check out from there.  I used to feel a little self-conscious about it like I was doing something wrong, but last week the librarian told me - "we love it!  it's job security to us!"  great!

Anyway, I made sure to check out some cookbooks too and yesterday Addison helped me go through them and create our menu for the week.  Here it is:
Tuesday - Risotto and Salad
Wednesday - Bruschetta and Fruit Salad
Thursday - We are doing a full blown Italian Dinner...  (serving sizes will be very small!)
     L'Antipasto - tomatoes and mozzarella
     Il Primo - Ravioli
     Il Secondo - Fish and Potatoes
     Il Contorno - Salad
     Cheese platter
     Il Doce - Lemon Granita
Friday - Homemade Pizza
Saturday - Frittata
Sunday - Lasagna and Salad

We started a couple of books right away.  I wasn't sure what I would find for fictional children's books but the 2 we have read already have been EXCELLENT!  Pippo the Fool is about how Fillipo Brunelleschi ignored ridicule when he came up with "crazy" plan for building a dome on top of Florence's Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.  It is a story of determination, imagination and perseverance and well as a children's book that tells the remarkable true story of the cathedral so well.  


I was excited to find out that this is what the story was about since I have been to that Cathedral many times myself and was taught the story, however in a less appealing way!  I was able to show Addison pictures of it and a video that Justin and I took standing in front of it and other landmarks of Florence.  It was great!


The other one we have already done that I was similarly excited about is Michael the Angel.  This is a story about Michelangelo from boyhood to adult.  Obviously a very brief biography, but so fitting to introduce young children to this amazing artist.  One of my favorite books is The Agony and the Ecstasy, an adult biography of Michelangelo.  Addison was enthralled with learning about frescos and how marble was chiseled out of mountains for sculptors to use.

This month for Co-op, we are focusing on different artists, so I was happy to see how our lessons will coalesce.

It is so exciting to teach your child and see them get excited and want to learn more!  Next week we're off to Japan, but we still have a lot of fun in Italy left to have before then!!

September Thankfulness

During the month of September, we were studying everything... apples.  We created an apple tree to hang on the wall near our kitchen table and made it a habit to pick something we were thankful for every day; we wrote them on apples and hung them on the tree.

My hope in doing this was to help the kids to get their minds off of all the things they want, are constantly asking for, and onto being grateful for what they do have.  It was great!  On the days I forgot, Addison always remembered.  It even became something we did again at dinner so Justin could be included.  So, the kids are helping to add to the journey to One Thousand...  (you'll be able to tell by many of the thankful apples that we did this at meal time :)

61.  not getting stuck in the rain

62.  for today

63.  peanut butter and jelly

64.  for my brother and sister

65.  for deanne

66.  for the rain

67.  for my french fries

68.  for the sun and going to the Y

69.  for pears

70.  for friends who come over

71.  for pizza

72.  for medicine

73.  for the sun

74.  for plums

75.  for justin

76.  good friends

77.  that we get to do school at home

78.  for a front porch

79.  for dishwashers

80.  coffee makers with timers

The boy's big accomplishment.

Twice this summer Addison saw boys his age or even a little younger riding bikes without training wheels. One day he told us he wanted them off his bike too.  I was a little hesitant.  Addison is a bit hard on himself.  I didn't know how easy it would be for him and thought that if it proved too hard he would just give up all together.

He had been learning about persistence in Sunday School and so we talked a bit about how it could be difficult to ride without the trainers and he would need to be persistent in practicing and not to give up...yaddy yaddy yaddy...



So yes, he was totally ready.  And he still does need to work on the getting going part, which will require some persistence, but he surprised us all.  What a boy!

What I've Been Up to Lately

For a variety of reasons, we have decided to start homeschooling Addison.  As we were praying about it, I found out that 2 other friends of mine were considering the same thing!  We were thrilled and started talking and planning.

This fall, we officially kicked-off our Co-op and started creating a blog where we could share information with each other and other people who would like to interact with the information we are finding and with the work we are doing.

We have been meeting weekly for the month of September and it has just been awesome - here is a post from our blog that highlights one of our bigger projects we just wrapped up...

THE APPLE DOLL (click here)