Homeschool {it's cool}

Well, the final countdown is on!

For the past year I have researched, prayed, read countless books, attended co-op meetings, researched some more,met with other homeschool moms, scoured various websites, and planned my heart out, all for this!  

 Monday will be our official first day of school!
If you missed it, you can read a little bit about why we're homeschooling here.  Keep in mind, this is the shortest description possible of why we chose to do this...I don't want to bore you all!  If you want to know the nitty-gritty details, I'm more than happy to share, just let me know!

  In case any of you other moms out there are thinking of jumping on the homeschool bandwagon (c'mon, you know you want to :)), I'll show you some of my favorite resources so far.  The very first book that I read was this:

Loved it!

I've already read several sections more than once.  It is highly recommended by many other homeschoolers and it quickly became my go-to guide and road map as I proceeded to plan for this upcoming year.

Next came the big question:  "what curriculum should we use?" 

Should I mix it up and order from various publishers?  Should I order a package deal?  Should I make my own?

Seriously, the amount of material out there is overwhelming to say the least.  After reading several reviews, going to a homeschool convention (where I was quickly overwhlemed with a need to promise Paul that I will NEVER start wearing long skirts, no make-up, and my hair in a bun), I decided to mainly go with Sonlight.

It's very literature based, which is great for Caleb since he LOVES to read.  
The boys and I were super excited for all of our boxes to arrive.  Our school room was covered with books!

  It made me even more excited to get started!
Here is the result of hours of prep work.  All 36 weeks of our school year mapped out. 

 I'm creating a more detailed schedule for just four weeks at a time.  That way I can adjust as needed.


Lots of schedules!!!


  That's o.k.  I'm a schedule kind of girl.  As long as I remember to stay flexible and keep the big picture in mind, we'll be just fine.

One of the really fun parts of getting ready to homeschool was turning the office into our school room!
I forgot to get a good "before" picture, so you'll have to settle for a "in progress".

The ceiling had been orange too.  It was dark and "study-ish" and had mostly been Paul's space.  But, watch out!!  The boys and I are moving in!

The boys chose the locations of the time zones on our clocks.  Simenya is in Kenya and it's where the child that we sponsor lives.  Speaking of which, if you are thinking of sponsoring a child...DO IT!!!  I could write a whole other post on the subject...maybe someday.  We go through Compassion and it's been great!

Do you like the spiral notebook that Weston chose?  He calls it the 'rock-out dog'.  
Umm...pretty sure it's a cat.
In addition to second grade with Caleb, I'll be doing Pre-K with Weston.  I think I'll save the details on that for later since this could get long!


These drawers are going to be a big part of our day (I hope!).  I'm loosely basing this on Sue Patrick's Workbox System.  Each drawer will be labeled and filled with one subject, activity, project, game...whatever's on the list for that day.

The general idea is that I will fill the drawers with each day's work.  When Caleb completes a drawer he will move the label (I velcroed them) to his daily chart.

Once his chart is filled up, he's finished for the day! This way, he will be able to see at a glance what he has in store for the day and I will be able to quickly know what he has left to do.  Obviously I'll be working side-by-side with him a good portion of the time, but this will allow him to be more independent when needed.


I feel like I could go on forever about what exactly we will be doing for each subject etc.  I'm sure you'll see plenty more of what our days end up looking like.  In the meantime...


here goes nothing!!! 

California Trip {part two}

Maya Time!!!

For the second half of our trip we headed over to San Jose to see Brad, Lisa, and of course my six month old little princess-puff-niecy, Maya.

Here she is...

Seriously?  Isn't she beyond adorable?  She was so cute and happy and I am her favorite.  

Right Maya?  She loves me, see, her shirt even says so!

 Auntie loves you too, Maya!  The boys liked to give her snuggles...

Isaac's moving in for a hug...

Although I would have been perfectly content to obsess over my niece the entire time, we did manage to squeeze in a couple of fun outings.  

the monterey bay aquarium

My mom and David came too!  So fun to have us all together.

What can I say?  My kids eat almost anything...

The boys will tell you that the highlight of this trip was going out on Uncle Brad and Aunt Lisa's boat.  I actually chose to stay home with Lisa, Maya, and Isaac for the simple fact that it seriously gives me a heart attack to watch my newborn children being pulled on an inner-tube at breakneck speeds across a large body of water.  Not to mention the threat of sharks, killer whales, who knows what else.  

Oh, those don't live in lakes?  Phew!

there goes weston!

there goes caleb!

It was a great trip.

And I sure do wish I could pick up my house and plop it down a whole lot closer to these three!

Here's the whole gang!  

(Maya was a little bit sad...I think she could sense that I was leaving soon)

Now we are back into the swing of things at home and getting ready for our first day of school on Monday!!!

Stay tuned for all the details :)

California Trip {part one}

We just returned from a lovely 10 days in the state that my brother proudly describes as
 "a pocket full of sunshine".

california!!

We did indeed have lots of sunshine.  I tried to soak it in as much as possible.  I won't mention what our weather is like here today in the gray, dreary, cloudy state of Washington. :(

We spent the first half of our trip in Danville with Paul's parents.  They have a huge deck area where the kids love to play and the grown-ups love to relax.

Caleb and Weston each built a swing and had a blast playing under the big oak trees.

We spent one afternoon at Crissy Field in San Fransisco.  

Paul's sister, Andrea made a delicious picnic lunch.  She is an amazing cook and has a great website called Tomato Tango.  Check it out for some great recipes!!

We had lots of fun flying kites (when the wind decided to cooperate) and the Golden Gate bridge made a perfect backdrop for some pictures!

There were many more moments that I wish I would have captured...Paul's grandparents traveled a long way to see all of us and I didn't even get a photo of them with the boys.  However, I know they are reading this...so thank-you for driving all that way Ralph and Betty!!!!  We loved seeing you and look forward to our next visit!

Stay tuned for the second half of our trip which I like to call

"Maya Time" 

Splish Splash

Dare I say it...

We've been having summer weather.  Finally.  For more than one day at a time.

The boys had been waiting patiently for this...

Isaac has more important things than swimming to do.  Like eat.  All day long.

This is as close as he got to joining in.

We'll be heading to California this week and if it's blazing hot the entire time, you won't hear me complain one little bit.  I have lots of sun time to make up for.  Can't wait!!!