Awesome school resources deal at Target!

Scored an AWESOME DEAL at Target yesterday!!! Most of the Dollar Spot items were 75% off, so I got 8 classic reader books and 25 school workbooks for 25 CENTS EACH!!!!

The classics were Alice in Wonderland, Oliver Twist, The Little Princess, Huckleberry Finn, The Secret Garden, Wizard of Oz, Dr. Doolittle, and Peter Pan.  These will be great for our nightly family read-aloud time, and in a few years the girls will be able to enjoy reading them on their own.

The workbooks were everything from Phonics and Beginning Sounds to Dinosaurs, Science, Presidents, World Countries, to Addition, Multiplication, etc.

Thank you Lord for helping our dollar stretch so far.  We are blessed!

Our First Field Trip--The Fire Station!

This week in history/social studies we are learning about community.  Yesterday we learned about firemen by reading some books from the libraryon firemen and watching a video (also from our library) about a fire station.  Then Ivy colored a picture of a fire dog, complete with fire coat, putting out a fire.  She colored the dalmation completely red because she said "the fire is reflecting off him."  We then decided to make a chocolate peanut butter pie and take it to the guys at the fire station, which is about 2 miles from our house.  The guys there loved the girls, and gave us a complete tour of the station.  It was so much fun!

Sorry, Guinea Pig!

Well, we successfully completed our first week of homeschool last week. Ironically, it didn't go according to plan one bit, yet everyone came out smiling!

Our first day was Tuesday, since Labor Day was Monday and we spent it with daddy. On Tuesday we woke early, excited about our first day of Tuesday School with WACHE, the co-op we joined. Complete with backpack and lunchbox, my sweet girl was giddy with excitement. She was enrolled in three classes--Making Christmas Gifts (her choice!), Fun with Numbers, and Choir. The day went well, and all the co-op classes I saw seemed really organized and fun(all moms are required to volunteer in other classes). Ivy enjoyed her classes, but I saw the look of joy in her eyes when she would spot me across the halls. And honestly, she looked so tiny to me compared to all the 5-6 year olds in her classes.

Then, on the way home, it hit me.....she is 3-years-old, and I will blink and tomorrow she will be 18. This is the dilemma of having a gifted child--just because she can do the work and fit into a class with people 2 years older than her, does that mean that is where she should be?? God spoke to me right there on the freeway and said "This is a year for just the two of you. Cherish it. Cherish her. There will be plenty of years for classes outside the home. This year is a gift." So I told her right there on the way home that even though we had a great experience today, I thought that God was telling me that we should stay home and just do school together this year. Amazingly, she agreed. Then later she said it was "because she can eat and drink whenever she wants." Ha ha-- still 3 years old when you get down to it!

So the rest of the week was spent at home experimenting with the workbox system and timing, etc. We learned quickly that it was MUCH easier to do school when Lindy was asleep. We learned that Ivy wanted more boxes each day when we finished school at 10:30am one day (which I thought she would be thrilled with) and she came to me at 1:00pm and begged for more school!! We learned that reading lessons were accomplished much more easily together at a table (less distractions).

And best of all, we learned that we love to learn together....just the two of us.

I love it when a plan comes together.......

I don't think a 33-year-old has ever been more excited to start Kindergarten than I am!!! I really don't think Ivy could be more excited, either. As the supplies have been rolling in and I have been getting them organized she says..."Is this for Kindergarten? Is that special for Kindergarten?"

We decided to use Sue Patrick's Workbox System, which I think will be really great for us because I have tons of random resources from garage sales, Half Price Books, etc. that I need a way to organize and use.
So...
* I bought my boxes
* I printed, laminated, and cut my workbox cards (thanks to Homeschool Creations, my absolute favorite homeschool blog)
* I ordered my velcro dots (on eBay, after a very frustrating local search)
* I chose my curriculum (a random assortment of on-hand stuff combined with lessons from Lesson Pathways, and Biblical Character curriculum from Hubbard's Cupboard)

Now it is just a matter of sticking my velcro dots on our boxes, cards, and schedule, and filling my boxes!

Ivy and I both see it coming together and I have to admit I am as giddy as she is!! We can't wait to begin our homeschool adventure.

September 7th is our official launch date. Keep posted for take-off!!

Curriculum Clean Out at Homeschool Creations!!

My absolute favorite homeschool website and blog is sponsering a curriculum clean out, which means FREE curriculum!!  Whoooh hooh!!!  I have never tried to post a "button" before, so I hope this works.....

Why do you need a blob, mommy??

Well, here goes nothing.  Apparently having a Facebook profile, an Etsy website, and an iPhone are not enough to qualify me as being a "hip" (do people even say that anymore? did I subconsciously put it in quotations because I know this??) member of the new millennium.

Just as every wrist between the ages of 3 and 18 needs silly bandz, every cool homeschooling family needs a blog.  And, of course, we plan to be the coolest homeschooling family around...eventually.  Until then, though, I wanted a way to record our struggles, our trials and errors, and the occasional grand idea that is sure to emerge.  I feel that I have learned so much from other homeschool blogs that I should contribute, also.  Who knows, someday I might stop stealing every one else's great ideas and actually come up with something genius on my own.

Plus, my husband really needs an outlet for his many rants concerning various televsision shows, so this will be good for him, too.

Note to self:  I will have to figure out how to group posts by topic, so as not to subject my fellow homeschoolers to 1,300 words on why America just can't seem to get it right on voting for the latest dancer or chef or talent or whatever.