Showing posts with label Homeschooling Days. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homeschooling Days. Show all posts

Friday, September 11, 2020

August Adventures!

 We had a fun August -- quite a few road trips, the start of a new school year, Zoë's 5th birthday, and more. Here are some pictures! 

Zoë turned 5 years old! We had a fun unicorn party! 


The next day, August 3, we started our new school year! Now I am teaching three kids and I think it's actually better this way, I have more of a plan and they can stay focused for longer periods of time. It's more work for me on the planning part, but the result is better and smoother days! 

Our first grader <3 

Awesome 3rd Grader! 

Naomi wanted in on a picture too -- starting some preschool activities with her. 

First day -- filling in their SuperKid sheets! 

Zeke was so happy to finally get to crack into the U.S. geography puzzle. It is really neat and shows the shape of each state. Levi and Zoë like putting it together too! 

Showing off her new dance gear from her birthday! Her first class is 9/16. She is very excited to begin!

Zoë finally has her own room :) 

A fun preschool activity -- reading Caps for Sale. Zoë hid caps around the house for Naomi to find. Then we stacked them up on her head to see how high we could stack them. 

Zeke got in on the action too because he remembered doing this activity as a preschooler. 

Dress-Up fun! 

SpiderGIRL 

A little frightening... 

We went up to Mimi's a few times. Naomi helped snap a bunch of green beans! 

She loves this new spot to sit at Mimi's house! 

We came home from Mimi's with lots of zucchinis. We made an assembly line to shred it all up and ended up with about 40, 2 cup bags. Looks like we'll be making lots of bread and brownies this winter! 

We explored a new trail -- Amity Woods. It was a nice, easy trail. The kids had fun riding their bikes out and back. 

Exploring! 

We made some refrigerator dill pickles. The kids were not big fans, but I thought they turned out ok!

Pickle making -- Levi had fun chopping the cucumbers. 

Proud of all of his hard work! 

One Friday I made finger paints for the girls. They started out very daintily with just one finger dipping into the paints. 

The colors were bright and the paints were a fun texture! 

After their first papers, I gave them cookies sheets to paint on so they could be washed and reused! 

The boys joined in the action!

Zeke mixed up all the colors and came up with some fun creations. 

By the end, she really got into it! 

Later that morning, we did another hands-on project! We were reading about Norman castles in our history, so we constructed a castle out of reese's pb cup cereal! It was fun and delicious :D 

They worked hard to make the walls, towers, the tall "Keep" in the middle, and a drawbridge. 

Naomi's contribution to the project :) 

Zoë helped build a moat. 

We took Zoë out for her birthday lunch to Jason's Deli 


After her birthday lunch, we went to Target so she could use her birthday money. She picked out some rings (that actually fit her instead of wearing mine!) and this cute Ariel nightgown. 

One evening Levi helped me make this delicious Cobb salad for supper. This was actually just the boys' bowl of salad and there was another bigger bowl for the rest of the family. He loves chopping veggies and helping in the kitchen! 

They enjoyed this giant watermelon very much!

Summer fruit is the best kind!

Near the beginning of August, my cousins and I went to Grandma's house to pick out some of the items we wished to keep before Cody moves in. One of the items I'd always wanted to have was this grandfather clock. It hadn't been working for several years, so after I brought it home I called the Clock Shop here in KC and they sent someone to come bring it back to life. I am so excited that he was able to get it up and running with relative ease. The kids and I are enjoying hearing it all through our day! 

Zoë is creating her own Kindergarten textbook. She has made pages of letters and numbers and she is also working on different flowers as well. This one is a Wood Rose and I thought she did an excellent job!

Jeremiah and I attended the wedding of a friend from high school, up in Lincoln, NE. We had a nice time and I was able to visit with several classmates that I hadn't seen in quite a while. 

The last Sunday of August, Levi, Zeke, and Zoë were all able to attend the Gracie Game night up at Kick MA. Naomi was feeling a bit left out, so we decided to get her a special treat from Sheridan's -- the Razzle Dazzle! It was quite delicious and a special little time for Naomi with both of us, which rarely happens! 

Well, that was August in a nutshell! It was quite a fun month! 

To life... full of road trips to NE! 


Thursday, July 2, 2020

June Fun!

In June we finished up our school year: Zeke, 2nd grade and Levi, Kindergarten. We are on a much needed and welcome 5 week break! I've been decluttering and organizing and sorting and recycling and donating every day this week and it feels good to be getting it done. 
- Special time with Zoë (6/26) we went to Parkville Coffee to get her favorite protein ball and cold drinks. Then we did some shopping at Target and Costco. 
- While Aunt Teresa and her family took a weekend trip to CO, we got some extra play time with Maverick! The kids were great helpers -- feeding, watering, playing with him and helping me take him on walks. 

- The boys took their 3rd annual Father's Day camping trip. This year they went up to Watkins Mill State Park. They fished, explored the mill, played games, roasted marshmallows, and then sweated ALL night long until it started raining in the morning. Quite an adventure! 
- We were so happy to finally see our KS family in June (6/19)! We hadn't been to visit them since February! Everyone played well together and we had a great time! 

Zoë holding baby Wren (14 days old)

Levi is a natural with the babies! {love}

- We've been taking Tuesday morning trips to Line Creek Trail with our friends! The kids have fun catching minnows, crawfish, centipedes, butterflies, moths, and more. Building dams in the water. Taking little cars and boats to float in the water. We've seen a few snakes {GROSS!}. And are starting to go a little earlier in the mornings now as the days are really heating up! Looking forward to more trips out there this summer since most pools seem like they'll be closed this summer. I'm so very thankful we can be out and about and enjoying nature! 


Levi, exploring in the distance :) 

Zoë won't keep her shoes on! 

The water is shallow enough to explore all over. Although we went on a morning after a significant rain and it was rushing much faster and was considerably deeper! Noticing those changes from week to week is part of what I enjoy about exploring. 


- The kids did some great work in school this year! Zeke's favorite subject is Science, and he has made great improvement in his reading ability, as well as his narrations. Levi loves science, but less in the building and engineering sense (as Zeke), but with animals. His yearlong project was a Zoo Keeper manual. We are going to have it bound so hopefully it will last a long time (He indicated that he will be passing it down to his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren; apparently he is very proud of his work too!) Zoë's passion continues to be art so my plan is to do all of her Kindergarten learning through the scope of Art next year which I think will be a fun challenge and focus! Naomi is around and listening along with her siblings' lessons, but next year I'm hoping to do a weekly preschool activity with her to make sure I'm not pushing her too far ahead and allowing her to have fun in the toddler/exploring/creative stage she is in! {How did those teachers in the one room school houses manage all the different ages and stages?!} 

To life... full of summertime memories and traditions!