Day 17! Gymnastics

First meet of 2014! Level 3! 

Tallahassee Fl! She had fun! 

Day 16! Routines

Little superstar! 

Our morning routine:

Get dressed 

Brush teeth and hair 

Make bed

Five minute bedroom tidy; clothes up, trash thrown away, dishes up, messes cleaned

Breakfast

Dogs fed

Morning chores: dishes loaded and unloaded(Reilly), shoes put up(Emma), clothes switched over, started,and folded(Delaney)

Weekly chore! (Rotating schedule of different rooms cleaned top to bottom) lots of times this one gets skipped! Needs to be made into a habit! 

Day 15! Trip to the dr!

We made a dr. trip today for the first time in a long time! Nothing big, some skin issues, but I loved how the dr. Spoke directly to my girl as if she were a frown adult who should take of the problem herself! And guess what, she has! Followed his instructions to a T and it's working! Love it! My kiddos are growing up! Here's a picture of how far the little has come in just a few months with her letters! Love the HWT (handwriting without tears) block paper! Easy peasy handwriting in 5 min! Done! 

Day 14! FL history.... Here we go!

Started our FL history unit study! The museum of Florida history has a wonderful printable packet and I also bought a few things off currclick.com. I also bought a membership to Zane education online! It's tons of educational videos for kids of all ages! We watched the Zane video on FL history and did the first section of the museum packet. I've also downloaded onto iBooks Strawberry Girl and the Yearling!

Day 11! Work on School house!

After pressure washing! Before window!

Refurbishment under way! Got a lot done in two days! Pressure washed the outside and cut the whole for window! 

Cleaned the inside from top to bottom and started painting and got the window in place!!! Very exciting! This was the hard stuff! Window in! Needs flashing and trim!

Walls before paint ! 

During! 

After!

Not bad! Maybe one touch up coat needed! LOVE the paint sprayer !! Gonna come in handy! 

Day 10! Getting organized!

Our school boxes from target! Everyone has their own and their books and supplies fit nicely inside! These have been perfect for travel; short and long distances! 

For me one of the hardest parts of homeschooling is staying organized; I have three kids on three levels, we get bored easily and constantly want change, and just because having a school in your home with all the distractions isn't easy! This school year I've vowed to stick with my curriculums for the core subjects and just add unit studies for the electives! So today was a day of getting back on track with curriculum after the new year! This is what we did:  

1. Portfolio evals sent in mail! 

2. Papers sorted into portfolios by subject! (Simple three ring binders with dividers and sheet protectors! Every month of so we add our completed quizzes and tests. This method has been life changing for me)

3. More books ordered from CLE and need to order kindergarten from HWT! 

4. Reviewing curriculum so I know what to do- all about spelling, IEW(fix it's and fun and fascinating), the phonetic zoo, teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons! 

5. Florida history units purchased from curr click to start this week! (I've started using these handy stackable boxes to storemy unit   studies that I print and want to do. It's working great to Keep me on track and not lose all the papers. I can easily add supplies to the box for the unit at leisure.  They are out where I can see them so I don't forget about doing them. With unit studies I go with the flow of our life depending on what the kids want to do, where we are vacationing, or what projects we happen to be working on, or I get my handy boom out "what your child needs to know when" and plan something! Everyone loves the unit studies! It's the fluff and fun! I'm always amazed at how the age differences don't seem to matter with this) 

6. Planning some places to go in Tallahassee! 

7. Getting my calendar in order :0 

Still have some work to do but it's 100 times better than years past when I'm just ready to call it quits after the new year! I'm actually excited to kick it into high gear and start planning and implementing KINDERGARTEN with my little person! I think I'm going to start early with her, something I should have done with the others in retrospect! This is our fifth year and I'm still learning how this works on a daily basis ;) Trying to keep it simple this year which is NOT how I have been in years past! Seems to actually be working!!!! Yah! 

Day 9! Let the reading begin!

Baby girl is showing all the signs that she is ready to start reading! This book comes highly recommended by a prek teacher friend so I had to run to Barnes and Noble and grab it, along with a few workbooks for the car and some curriculum reading for mommy! Only I can run in a book store, be there 20 min, and spend way too much money! Oh well! Better than library fines! Excited to get started ..... 

Day 8! New tricks

The kids got to have nanny camp because mommy had appointments! They always look forward to nanny time! Check out what the middle child learned. I'm constantly amazed at what she can do with her hands and body! She's the kinesthetic child for sure!!!! 

D's scarf! An intro to crochet! Took me about three hours to learn to do one loop and she knocks this out in like 30 min! Talented little booger! Excited to see what next weeks sewing adventure will bring! Always good to have a mommy day ;) blessed with helpful family willing to take my kids for the day! 

Snow at home!!! Day 7, 2014

It's a glorious site seeing snow falling even if we have to make or own! About the only things I'll get up early for are snow and leaving on vacations! Today we were up before the sunrise to catch the cold temps, well FL cold that is! The car thermometer read 20*. Cold enough for snow for sure ! We layered up and went to the "compound" where pop pop had rigged up his snow maker!  It's been a few years since we've been able to make snow! Everyone was giddy, especially me! He uses a special nozzle, large pressure washer, and generator. It's all explained on snowathome.com. Even tells you when the ideal conditions for blowing will be in your zip code! The nozzles are the key for blowing but the temp and humidity also have to be just right to make it work, which is why we got up early and went bc 4am just happened to be the "ideal" time, and snow tends to melt pretty quickly in the FL sunshine even when the high is only 36!  Snowflakes just another one of Gods amazing miracles! Love watching these babes have sooooo much fun with one of my greatest childhood memories! 

Day 6, 2014! Back to school with the whole crew!

There are only a few days a year in Fl that it gets cold enough to make snow so tomorrow is the day!!!!! Momma is so excited since she grew up with the fluffy white stuff so we did a snowflake unit today to kick off the new year and pop pop is making snow super earlytomorrow  morning!!!! :D 

Snow flake unit : utube videos on how snowflakes form, utube video on window painting snowflakes, window painted snowflakes 

A few days ago they did a snowflake craft kit I found at ac Moore super cheap! They also made coffee filter snowflakes! Every kid should learn this! The "real" school for the day came from a snowflake unit off curr click.com my new favorite unit study site! We also took Tupperware containers filled them with water and dropped Legos in, then stuck them in the freezer! Someone asked how long it would take to freeze so we googled and found a great short study on freezing water with charts and temps and all! Took about five hours to freeze and then we cracked them open with hammers knives forks screwdrivers etc! Chipped away until the Legos were back out. Such a super easy favorite activity for my kids! We've done a few times before with other objects! 

Snowflake unit complete! Snow tomorrow!!!!!! 

Day 5! Designing the school house

After a trip to Home Depot we have a rough plan to start cutifying the school house! I'm picturing cute cottage style! ;) we will see ..... 

Looks like this now! Needs some pressure washing! Good thing I got one for Christmas! :D  Picked these colors for the outside! 

Main part yellow with red trim and door! 

Had to get roof sealer to seal the roof so it doesn't leak! We are thinking we will put carpet on the walls so I can stapleanything  and every thing we could possibly think of! 

New beginnings ...

Up bright and early starting on our new project! A new school house!!!! Beyond excited! 

Day 2! 2014

Some times those scary moments make us remember how very blessed we are! 

God has equipped me....day 3!

It was crazy frustrating weird day but in the end God brought everything into perspective! I can do this! He has equipped me for this job and everything will be ok! ;) Tomorrow's a new day with a new plan, thanks to my crazy hubby!

Do not neglect the spiritual gift you have received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you. Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress. Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you (4:14-16).

A picture a day in 2014