First Week of Homeschooling

I was nervous the week before school started.  I had spent all this time picking, buying, and reading curriculums that maybe I worked myself up.  I prepared for the worst behavior from my toddler, and whining and complaining from my big boys.  It went AMAZING though.  We are schooling year round -four days a week with seven weeks off throughout the year.  At least, that's the plan for this year.  Here is an peek into our school:

We start off with calendaring during breakfast.  Scripture, character, and a bit of spanish study take place then.

The side of our schoolroom with my desk and the older two kids desks.

The other side of the school room.  There is another cabinet and Micah's little desk on the right side cut out of the pic.

In our schoolroom, a workchart with velcro subjects allows Cobin (and Lucas-he has his own) to see what subjects we are going to do that day.  He also likes the feeling of accomplishment that he gets when he finishes a subject and gets to pull it off the chart.

Keeping Micah entertained one morning with connect 4.

Study of the Ancients: Egyptian tablet making with hieroglyphs.

The finished product. 

We also made a 'papyrus' scroll, though I didn't get any pictures of it opened up yet.

I cannot express how happy I am to be doing this.  Hopefully it doesn't wear off!

Treasure Hunt

A while ago I found some reward charts that were treasure map themed with gold coin stickers for each  good thing done.  I have been saving up for a while up till the treasure hunt James and I put on for the boys.  I got some pirate swords (plastic), Pirates' Booty corn puffs, the new Pirates: Band of Misfits movie, some pirates' club shirts with each boys name on it, and a treasure chest filled with treasure!  I may have gone a little overboard in my excitement, but it made for a fun saturday!  I made a map and had clues that were around the house, inside and out, and led to the sandy place, an area in the park just for little kids with pails and shovels where the treasure was actually buried (thanks James!!) with an X on top of it.

Ancient Treasure Map 'found' in our basement

First Clue at the Flag Pole

Daddy even dressed as a buccaneer!

Our best pirate pose.  ARRGH!

Pirate's Booty and movie

The last  clue lead to the X

Daddy and Micah watch as we dug for gold!

Found!!

Gold and some jewels too!

First day of School pics

We had a fun 'Not Back to School' party the friday before we started homeschooling.  It basically consisted of having fun at a water park, making schoolroom rules together, first day pics, filling out a beginning of the year questionnaire, discussing our school schedule, and a McDonald's playplace trip and dinner -- a rare treat.  Here are the pics: