a little bit of Abe

A few weeks ago Abe started back to Mother's Day Out just one day a week. I thought it would be good for him. And it would give the big boys and I at least one uninterrupted day of school time. Last year we had started our homeschool co-op so I pulled him from MDO. This year he is doing both and he sort of acts like it is torture to be away from me all of that time. :) We attend only morning classes at our co-op, by our own choice. So with MDO, co-op, and time at church he is away from me about 10 hours a week. I remind myself of that when he clings to me at a drop off and I start to feel like maybe it's too much for him. :)

 He was all smiles for his first day, until it was actual time for drop off.

 

 Then last week he knew a real live fire truck was coming to school, so he was extremely excited and he had no reservations whatsoever at drop off. He was ready to get on that truck!

 But this boy is a solid momma's boy and with me is, by far, his most favorite place to be.

And here is a picture from last month. He loves to sit and paint with water colors. He will sit and do this for a full hour. Which is a long time for a 3 year old boy, in case you are unfamiliar with this gender/age combo. :)

 And then on the day I was taking the brick wall school pictures of the big boys, Abe really thought he needed his own photo shoot. So I snagged these. :)

In just over 2 months we will be celebrating this boy's 4th birthday. I am not sure at all how that is even possible, but that is what my calendar keeps telling me. I'm hopeful that I'm half crazy and I've somehow skipped a year in my head. But I have a strong suspicion that his 4th birthday really is right around the corner. Which means there really are no more babies that live in my house. Hard truth to swallow for this momma. 

Pax in 2nd grade

A look back on the past three years. He keeps getting cuter. :)

Holden in 3rd grade

And just for grins, here is a little trip down memory lane. Oh my, he just keeps growing up!

Homeschooling: Year 3!

We have found our groove! Hey, it may have taken 3 years, but we found it. This spring semester has really clicked for me. I will say that our first year felt easy peasy. Holden in kindergarten, me using an all inclusive curriculum, and only working for a couple of hours each morning (during Abe's morning nap). Holden was already reading when we began and things just went smoothly. Pax is right on his heels in age so he just did kinder along with us at age 4 and actually has become a pretty brilliant little boy. But, I take no credit. I think he always had it in him. Beginning school just brought it to light. It is interesting to me that the reasons I began homeschooling have changed as we have been doing this for nearly three years now. Those initial reasons are still there, in the background. But now having homeschooled for a few years, there are plenty of other reasons I find that makes me want to continue what we have going. Those things are better for a one on one conversation when I'm asked. Because honestly, most people don't care to read them here. I'm still not committing to forever on this. But I'm more than excited to commit to next year.

We really changed it up this year. Through some really encouraging and insightful conversations last spring, I pieced together our curriculum. For those that are new to exploring the homeschooling option, I am going to list here what has worked for us and what has not.

Science - Apologia Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the 5th Day.
We read from this Science textbook twice a week. We should complete this book early (mid-March, I think) and I believe my plan is to buy another textbook from this group and dive right in rather than waiting for fall. This science is a keeper. It has captivated my boys minds and they have learned so much. And so have I!

History - Beautiful Feet: Early American History for Primary Grades.
We complete history once or twice week. Only once a week when we go to our co-op, Sonlight. I'll talk about that in another post. But this history curriculum has taken key characters in history and compiled the information into these great literature books. So we read aloud and they usually have a task in their journal to complete. This history can be a two year commitment to complete it in full. Seeing that I am not halfway through our lessons yet, we will definitely continue on with this study into next year. Today we read about the first Thanksgiving feast, which is odd in February! But that's where we are in the study.

Math - Math U See: Alpha
At this point in time, math is a harder subject for us. In reading and comprehension, the boys are doing excellent. And most of our subjects revolve around those two things. But right now I can admit that we are catching up in Math. I do like this curriculum. I'm not yet in love with it or anything. We started the fall with Life of Fred, which was story formed math. My boys easily learn from stories and literature. So this sounded like a good option for us. But I felt like it was not taking us in the direction I wanted us to go. So at the end of the fall I made a switch to Math U See. This one is taking us in the direction I want to go. But math is a more challenging concept for my boys right now. I've been told by those that have gone before that eventually it just clicks. So I'm walking slowly with them, making sure we actually master the concept before moving on. I am planning to stick to Math U See. And we plan to continue our math all summer long. It's too easily forgotten right now, as I quickly learned when we picked back up this fall.

Reading - no set curriculum
We are big ole bunch of book worms. The boys read on their own daily. I would guess that Pax reads 5-8 different chapter books per week. But during school I'm making a point to read them some good classic literature. This is probably Paxton's favorite part of school. Listening to me read these great story books. He typically wants me to read more and more once I've completed our chapter(s) for the day. During this school year we have completed: Mr Popper's Penguins, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Mary Poppins and Teddy's Button (my very favorite so far). Currently we are in the final portion of Despereaux. And Dragonwings is next on the agenda. So if you're looking for some good read alouds for your kids, those were some that we enjoyed.

Writing - no set curriculum
The boys do copywork each day. Sometimes it's the verse they are memorizing for church. Sometimes it's new information from our science or history. Sometimes it's about a character trait we need to work on. They hate copywork. Someone typically complains. But we still do it. Daily.

Art - Simply Charlotte Mason Artist Study
We have spent this year learning about Vincent van Gogh and study his paintings. They can now identify and name several of his works of art. We do this once a week.

Music - We sing a hymn each morning when we begin our school. Every 4 weeks we learn a new hymn. Hymns are full of biblical truths and honestly my kids rarely hear them unless they hear them at home. So we decided to incorporate these this year. We have also studied some composers and their classic pieces of music.

Devotional/Bible Time - The Dig: Proverbs Words of Wisdom
I haven't loved this one. It's been ok. But I want studying and reading the Bible together to be part of our daily school routine. This particular guide hasn't been my favorite for the purpose I was going for.

So our morning of school looks a little like this...Typically after breakfast, I clean up while they get dressed and have some time to jump on the trampoline. Even when it's 30 degrees outside. :) I really appreciate that they begin their day with activity. I'm pretty sure that they appreciate it as well. We start our school by 8:45 with prayer, a hymn and our devotional. Then we move on to math because that takes the most brain power. :) Then copywork. Then science/history (we do these on opposite days). Then our reading and anything else we need to finish up. We are done with school by lunch time. Last summer I sat down with Jeremy and we really evaluated why we have chosen this route and what we wanted to accomplish as a family on this journey. He kept saying: a well rounded education. So we've incorporated some things that originally I hadn't thought of by myself: the hymns, the classical music/composer and the artist study. I used plenty of resources and other homeschooling mommas to help me to get to this point. I'm thankful for the community and the many resources. Yet, someone reading this may see all kinds of flaws in our approach. And I'm still fairly new to homeschooling. I may find my own flaws when I read this post in 5 years. But I feel like one thing I am learning is there is no "right" way to do it. Each family and child is different. So you have to figure out what works for you and your family. What I do know, is that this is working for us right now. Even with the schedule above we go to the library once a week. The boys love this library trip. We spend a full morning at our co-op on Wednesdays. And we have hours each week to play in the sunshine. But with that said, remember that it's taken me 3 years to get into this groove and really figure out a schedule. But we've finally gotten there.

 

 

 

January happenings.

I love a new year and a new beginning. When we returned home from Colorado, this little baby was waiting for us. We had ordered it after Christmas. For some reason, Jeremy had thought a magical Santa was going to buy us a blender. That didn't happen. So we bought one ourselves and I love it. We have used this thing nearly every single day since getting it.

 

Abe has the largest veggie intake of the boys because he loves these green smoothies. He helped me fill this container with spinach, banana, frozen mango, a splash of orange juice and some water. He pushed the button to blend. And quickly slurped it down.

The schools in our area headed back and we took an extra week of play. Well, the boys played and I organized my house from top to bottom. Spring cleaning in January and it was fabulous. And it really involved no cleaning. Even better. :) But then we headed back to our books. It took us a good week to get back into that routine. And now we are rolling right along.

 Some school outside in the sunshine. Pax will read multiple chapter books in a day. I really can't even believe it. Is he going to be a writer or what? He has a great hunger for words and reading. I have just never seen anything like it. Except if I didn't have many responsibilities in this life I could sure plow through some books. But I was not this way at age 6.

 Some school inside at the desk. Writing can be painful. Physically painful to my boys. ;)

And this little guy. He would LOVE it if I set him in front of a TV the entire time we were doing school. I'm always saying "go play". And apparently that is hard for this one's personality or age. I'm not sure which. But so far the fire truck tent filled with a few toys and books keeps him occupied for a while.

 I've been showing some tough love to the 6 month old injury. At the end of December I saw my orthopedic and she said I was free to head back to Camp Gladiator. That the physical strain and activity on my arm would be good for it by extending the range of motion of my wrist and breaking up the scar tissue from surgery. Sounds pleasant, right? :) She said it would be sore and probably "flare up" with the increased movement. So I headed back this month. And it sure has "flared up". That picture is just a big swollen area around my incision. Going back to CG, I realized how very out of shape I am compared to last January when I had been running several miles a week. And I'm still somewhat limited with the injury. But I'm back it. It's fun and it's a special part of my day. A time just for me that I thoroughly enjoy.

 I've had a couple of one on one dates this month with my big boys.

 Both dates included fro-yo.

We met up with some church friends at the MLK parade in downtown Fort Worth. This was our first MLK parade. The boys loved it. Marching bands, music, cars, motorcycles and people throwing candy. What more could a little boy want? I'm so thankful and proud to be part of our church.

 It was so cold that morning.

 So they warmed up with hot coco on their way home. I bought one hot coco and Starbucks split it for me between 3 cups. :)

 We had a last minute dinner out with friends at Abuelo's. And this little pair are an affectionate couple of boys. Pretty sweet friends.

 Abe and Cruz. The fun of being 3. 

And little brother, Rico, looks like a sweet little baby doll. 

 We had a family movie night with popcorn. Mainly because Jeremy and I hadn't watched Aladdin in YEARS and we wanted to see it. :)

And this athletic little boy can now out run me. :( Holy moly what happened? I've always won in the past. He and I went on a bike ride one Friday when Jeremy was home. We played at the park and I decided we should race on foot. I picked a longer distance because Holden has always gone full steam and then puttered out. But this time...he won. Big time. He even ran backwards at one point and taunted me. I raced him a second time. And he won again. I don't claim to be fast. At all! But he's 7. And I'm taller. Not by a ton, but I'm still taller. I hope hope HOPE he'll be my running buddy in future years.

And this weekend we will close up January by celebrating Jeremy's birthday! He will turn 36 on Saturday. Some friends are watching the boys for 2 nights while we have a little getaway by ourselves. It's been over a year since we've done this and you don't even know how much I'm looking forward to this weekend. And that is a little of what we have been up to this month.

Pax in 1st grade

This boy is loving 1st grade. You can see Paxton's Kindergarten favorites here. And you can see his Pre-K favorite here.

Holden in 2nd grade

We began our school year on August 31st. Just playing a bit of blog catch up! You can see Holden's 1st grade favorites here and Kindergarten favorites here. It's fun for me to look back! Holden is having a wonderful school year in 2nd grade!

July Highlights!

My August started with a bang! Seriously, a really hard crash and bang. The bang has left me temporarily with one arm to hunt and peck all over our ergonomic keyboard. So I have been on the computer very little. But I hate being so far behind on my little family updates so I will wrap up July in one short post. July included...

 bowls full of watermelon. Jeremy even carved watermelon initials one night.

 a hot and sweaty July 4th. Dang Texas humidity! I cant handle it!

 

 

 

 

 

 sparklers at home

 a fun college roomie weekend getaway at a resort on Lake Conroe. We were just missing one roomie. I love these girls. And I'm so thankful God brought us together and made us friends almost 17 years ago! How is that even possible?!!

creating beautiful masterpieces....

 

 

 

(in some of these pictures, Holden is just wearing Superman glasses from Sonic.)

 

 preparing and planning for another year of homeschooling my boys! Yahoo! I'm pumped about branching out and trying some new things.

Pax conquered swim lessons like nobody's business and now we have another fishy in the family! 

 

 Church group pool party, complete with men's cannonball contest!

 a family waterpark day!

Mister Abe decided he was ready to be done with diapers. And it went very smoothly. I can count his accidents on one hand. I'm a big believer in waiting until the child is ready and interested.

 Just a sweet moment where I caught of these two listening to a library story.

 We read Charlotte's Web outloud, I cried. Then we got to watch the movie.

 We celebrated Paxton's late August birthday along with cousin Cameron's mid-July birthday with one big family dinner.

It was just a little bonus that Abe got to visit with all of Aunt Amy's poultry. Life on the farm. Now I could get used to that!

I can assure you that August has been less exciting due to a fall - a bang - a break and an unplanned surgery for me. Recently, the boys and I have been cooped up way more than what is fair for summer. But for the most part they have been troopers and such great helpers to me. We will celebrate a big 6 year old Paxton on Wednesday. I am pretty sure that will be our favorite of August. Until then...