We’ve added a new member to our family. Her name is Shelby. We’re acting as a guardian family to her for some friends who had to move out of state. She is an Australian Labradoodle. She’ll live with us except for when she has puppies which will be about twice a year. She is such a nice dog. She seems to be a perfect fit to our family. The kids LOVE her. She really likes Rachel and tolerates Jacob. He tends to love her a little too much. She is pretty easy and super cute.
Hannah, Rachel and Joe are back in full swing at Heritage. The girls love their teachers. Joe says he likes his teacher but overall isn’t too thrilled to be hitting the books again. This year begins the real craziness. Matt always comments on how busy we’ve been the last 12 years. Ha! I just keep telling him to wait. Well, it’s here. We now know busyness. We’ve always been busy at home but now it’s busy with life on the outside. I personally love it (for now). It gives me more purpose. Yes, I know my life has always had purpose but it just feels different. Rachel started Jr. High Volleyball. She has practice after school and then games 2 nights a week. I love going to her games! I love sitting in the stands with the parents of her friends. It is a huge help that Hannah is able to stay home with Ben and Jacob. The games would be a sensory nightmare for both of them. So, Hannah stays home on Tuesdays so I can go to the game and then Matt and Hannah go to the games on Thursdays. So far Rachel’s team is 2-1. Joseph is playing flag football this fall. His first game he caught the ball and ran 40 yards. The next play his team scored a touchdown. He was pretty excited. I told him his Uncle Jason would be proud. Hannah is taking flute lessons and started youth group, which she loves. Jacob is doing really well in his class. I am working with him in the afternoons with Ben when I can.
Rachel’s first game…I was so nervous for her!
I forgot to take a first day of school picture of Jacob. Here he is getting off the bus. As always with Mario in hand. He has the best bus driver, Patty, who was also Ben’s driver. Everyday he asks “where is my best friend Ben?”
This week was all about Apples. I have to tell you, Ben is making this homeschool thing very easy for me. He comes right down every morning and is ready to head to the schoolroom to get started. He’d skip breakfast if I’d let him. He does have sometimes where he gets frustrated so we take a break and come back to it later. He has the most trouble with language but most of that has to do with his dislike for handwriting. So we compromise and I don’t make him do all of the writing on a worksheet as long as he can tell me the correct answer so I know he is getting it. I had a lot of exciting things planned for this week but not enough time for them. So we didn’t get through everything I had planned but it wasn’t a total loss of a week.
This week Ben,
The highlight of the week was Tuesday morning Bible study. Ben is loving his new friends and playing games with them. When we were leaving he said “I love my new class and my new friends”.
Ben playing an addition game. StArt project
This week our letter of the week was R for Rainbow. This tied in so well with our Bible lesson about Noah and the Ark. We made a beautiful rainbow mosaic and Ben painted a rainbow. We made a Noah’s Ark Lapbook which was so much fun. I am loving the Lapbooks that we are doing. It is a great way for Ben to retell what he’s learned throughout the week and assures me that we are making progress. We also
reviewed the seasons just to make sure he knew them. Ben made a Book of Seasons that turned out super cute.
I started Bible Study this week at church. It’s every Tuesday morning and I was so nervous about how Ben would do for 2 hours in his classroom. He did wonderful! This is going to count for his “social” time and there are 3 boys his age that are also in his class. They played hide & seek, duck duck goose and Little People. This make me feel so good that he is getting time with other boys his age while I get a break and get some social time of my own.
This week we also
- learned to count by 10’s to 200
- Reviewed what clothes we wear during which season
- Adding 1’s
- A sentence begins with a capital and ends with a period.
- Lots of fine motor skills activities
We kicked off the school year with a little Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. This has been one of Ben’s favorite books since he was three. We made a Lapbook that I got off of Confessions of a Homeschooler blog. We also painted a Coconut Tree and used Ben’s handprints for the leaves. We started with the letter K for our Letter of the Week curriculum. This is more or less giving him fine motor skills practice since he’s known his letters since he was two. He loves anything that has to do with the alphabet so he doesn’t even realize that he’s “working”. We’re working a lot on cutting, tracing and coloring. He is so excited to be in “school”. His favorite time is Calendar Time and loves to sing the Days of the Week song. I’m having trouble downloading pictures from my camera but hoping to get it figured out very soon!
Our Chicka Chicka Lapbook.
HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK! We made a Creation Book this week. When I asked what God did on the seventh day he replied “He was sleeping and dreaming”. I asked “What was he dreaming about?”. His response was “Loving me, loving my family and helping me be a good listener at school.” That statement was worth more than any academic achievement.
I am so excited about how homeschooling is going with Ben that I want to have someplace to document what we’ve done. Both to show others what we’re up to and to prove to myself that yes he is indeed learning. This is my second blog and I’m going to try to do a better job with this one than the last. I’ll of course add things that are happening with the other kids so I can have a “scrapbook” for them also. The years are just flying by, as everyone told me they would. So here it goes, my blog about my five blessings.
