The First Year in Review

It's hard to believe summer is almost over and it's back to school time again.  I actually started this post quite sometime ago and am just now getting around to finishing it.

Our first year of homeschool was...well, interesting!  We had some great times and some not so great times.  We had fun, but on some days, quite honestly, I thought I might run far, far away and never come back.  Trying to do this school thing with a toddler into everything was sometimes a little more than my poor brain could handle. But we lived to tell about it, and although at times was a very bumpy ride, I am very pleased with the goals we accomplished.  Cole's reading really took off, his writing improved, and his math skills blew me away. We dabbled in a few other subjects, such as science and geography, and I am really pleased with the progress we made. All in all, I'd say it was a successful year!  And now I have some experience under my belt to help year number two go a little smoother (or so the theory goes).

Here are a few pictures I managed to take along the way...

This was a favorite of the boys.  It's called My First Science Kit by Scientific Explorer.  You can check it out here.

Puzzle-time was always a winner:

The Magna Doodle was fun for casual writing practice and spelling games.

Cole takes after his daddy and has a fantastic math-oriented brain.  By March he was on to 1st grade level math.

Seth had lots of fun, too.  He loved sorting all kinds of things into different containers.

Max made a good start on learning his letters.  We had some fun activities that really helped, including this fun little game of Letter Bugs. The letters look like bugs and I stuck them all over myself.  I would ask Max to help me get the bugs off one letter at a time.  He liked to stick them on himself, too. (And yes, he is still wearing his pajamas. We did things casually around here!)

These magnets were lots of fun.  I got the idea and the printables from the Letter of the Week curriculum I bought for Max.  You can find it here at a great blog called Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I would really recommend poking around there for lots of wonderful ideas and a ton of free printables.  It's good stuff.

And the magnets are multi-purpose, too!

 Cole got lots of reading practice in, mostly with me, but occasionally he would read to Max.  It was neat to see them spending time together this way.

We also played this fun little reading game that Max could participate in too. Max would draw a card out of a pile. If it was a word, he would hand it to Cole to read.

But if it was a bug, he would put it in his little box and shut the lid quick(!), so it wouldn't get out.

Well, this certainly isn't everything we did, but it's a sampling.  And I'd have to go back and check, but I actually think most of these pictures came from the first semester.  Maybe one day I'll do semester two, but with school starting in a couple of weeks, I'm not sure that will happen!

I am really excited about our new school year coming up.  Not only do I have a new curriculum which I am super excited about, we also have a school room now!  Hooray for school stuff having it's own place and not taking over my whole house!! Bring on the new year!

What do you do with boys...

...when it's been over 100 degrees outside for a month and there is no end in sight?

You let them treat their bed like a trampoline.

Until one of them starts bleeding, of course. Then you make them stop and figure you'd better act like a responsible parent and go back to the age-old rule of not jumping on the bed.

But man-oh-man, is it ever hot.  I'm going to need to be a bit more creative on what to do for these energetic youngsters to get their wiggles out, or we will all go crazy before summer is over. 

I'd love to hear what you are doing to beat the heat and fight stir-crazies in your house!

A Dinosaur Birthday Bash

So, this post is only about 7 months late, but I figure better late than never, right?

This year (or last year; however you want to look at it), we decided to combine Cole and Max's birthday parties since their birthdays are only a month apart, and their interests are (or were at the time) pretty similar.  This probably won't work next year, er...this year, but it was fun for this year...wait, last year. (Wait, what?) Anyway, whatever year we're talking about, at this party we celebrated Cole turning 5, and Max turning 3. Phew; intro over, now on with the pictures!

The Cake - Each boy had his own volcano with the appropriate number of candles on it, as well as his name spelled out in the lava. It was fun to make!

Dinosaur coloring pages kept the kids busy while 

waiting for the rest of the kids to arrive.

Everyone had an opportunity to make 

their very own erupting volcano.

You can't have a dinosaur party without a Dino dig! 

And, if they wanted to, the kids could use the mini dinosaurs

they found to decorate their volcanoes.

Here is one of our guests, Jonah, with his finished volcano.

The big moment!

Hmm, pink lava. And, actually, the lava sort of "oozed quickly" 

out the top, rather than "exploded." 

(Note to self: next time use LOTS more red food coloring and baking soda)

Time to sing!  By the looks on the boys' faces, you'd think they'd never done this before.

Gift time

At long last; a Hamilton t-shirt!

Cowboy Max

And every cowboy needs his very own pair of boots!

The boys got lots more really fun gifts, but for some reason, I didn't get many pictures of them opening them. (Note to self: next year (this year!), take more pictures. Never thought I'd have to tell myself THAT one!)

The sandbox was a big hit with the little ones.  Here's Seth hanging out in it with one of his cousins, Luke.

 We wrapped the party up with a fun game of baseball in the backyard for anyone who wanted to play.

 

What a fun day!