Our History Timeline

I am very blessed to have a space in our house to call a schoolroom it is our former living room turned dining room/schoolroom! And in case you are confused our dining room became the playroom while the playroom become the family/living room/home office. Everyone clear now, good!
But wall space is at a premium even in such a great room and this year we needed to add a timeline to our room. Now I could just have them keep a timeline in a notebook and call it a day, but my kids love to show off and I like for them to be reminded often to show Daddy what they are learning or have a nice visual to help them remember.

So with wall space scarce I got all creative on that timeline and made one crafty style (when it comes to crafts I am ninja like, I kid you not!) Thus was born the tabletop timeline!

 

Ain't she perfect! Just a big piece of cotton cloth and some ribbon for the timeline itself. I am hoping (fingers crossed) that I can fit each year of our 4 year history study on each line of the timeline, if not I will make one for each year. So to make this a spectacular heirloom that will be passed down for generations ; ) I am printing the timeline pieces on to printable fabric and then ironing them to the tablecloth.

Here is the start of our timeline

 All that leaves is the matter of keeping it kind of, hopefully clean. Easy that only cost me $2.50 at Wal-mart, a large piece of vinyl!

This project actually only cost me $2.50 (+ tax) because I had the cotton fabric red satin ribbon, printable fabric and fusible web taking up useless space in my house, I love when my hoarding becomes useful although it only reinforces the whole hoarding thing, but I digress! I will post pictures of it in a few weeks when we get some stuff on the timeline.

Back to Homeschool Feast!

This year I really wanted to start some traditions, we stink at traditions! So what better way to start some than to try a ton of things and hope a few stick right! Anyway we started with a Back to Homeschool Feast! Tonight before our first day of school we had a fancy meal together. We used the nice dishes, wine glasses for our sparkling grape juice, & cloth napkins! The kids picked the menu: steak, mac & cheese, corn on the cob and garlic bread. I was also tickled to get to use my Grandma's retro serving oven for bread!

I wrote their name and grade on a sentence strip and on the back I wrote my prayer for them this year.

 

Piper looking at hers like "what grade am I in?"

We also introduced our goals for the year:

Then we went over tomorrow's routine and expectations. And then I made them happy again with ice cream cones!

It was fun and I hope to do it again next year!

Year 3

We are getting ready to embark on year three of our homeschool journey. The last two years have been hard for me, I struggle with confidence, balance, patients and my sloth like nature. We take too many breaks and I tend to not push as hard as I should in the right places. But this year I am feeling confident to move forward. A huge help being the same similar curriculum that we used last year. I feel like for me as a teacher I am past the learning curve for a curriculum layout and format. And I just really love the product, we plan to continue to invest in for the years to come. The other thing that is really helping is the fact that there are no more babies, while I have a distant ache for a baby I feel like we are moving into a new season in our lives and it is really refreshing. The time from about pregnancy to two years old feels like all we do is survive, and there is always the possibility of more which adds to that feeling of survival, but without the possibility of more we have moved into a stage were we can figure out how to thrive as a family of 6. It really feels so good, so when I am surrounded by a ton of cute little newborns at church I remind myself we are in a different season and there are things to be enjoyed that we haven't allowed ourselves to enjoy when in "survival mode". That or I tell Troy I need a little puppy!

For our main curriculum we chose My Father's World Creation to Greeks. I think it is going to be so fun and I have committed to following the curriculum with a little extra stuff, last year I tried to add lots of extra but there was no balance and I think this year balance is key. We are using portions of an Ancient Times lapbook and a few extra notebooking pages but other than that I feel like the curriculum is satisfying and we don't have to stuff ourselves on extras! One thing I love about the curriculum is the science, a lot of reviewers called it light on science. The science involves lots of experiments, from simple to complicated that revolve around the days of creation and ancient Egyptian innovation. After looking through it I wanted to make it an activity that the kids can explore in as much depth as they would like, so I am setting up a "Science Center" where my little scientists can do their "own" experiments. They will have the safety gear, the tools, the materials to complete the weekly experiments, using the scientific method they work from beginning to end documenting their work on lab sheets. If they like the topic they can try the experiments other ways, try more or research topics they find interesting, science is only scheduled twice a week but the "lab" will be open everyday to my budding scientists. I am hoping to add a microscope and lab coats and other fun lab stuff throughout the year. We are also very excited to start celebrating biblical feasts this year, it is something I have wanted to do the past few years for Passover but now with it on the schedule we no excuses and are very excited (even Troy)!

Here is the breakdown of the rest of our curriculum:
5th Grade:
- Intermediate Language Lessons
- Spelling Power
- Writing Strands 3 & 4
- Math-U-See

2nd Grade:
- Primary Language Lessons
- Spelling By Sound and Structure
- Math-U-See

And our newest student
Kindergarten:
- My Father's World Kindergarten
- Math-U-See Primier
- Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading

We will also be using Reading Eggs (kids love this) across the board, and Rosetta Stones Latin American Spanish! We are also going to try to incorporate badge & achievement work from American Heritage Girls & Cub Scouts into our weekly lessons, as well as some sports conditioning a few times a week. I am also trying to work on some physical activity each day I was thinking of trying to have each child set a few personal fitness goals that we work together to achieve.

I am also really excited because I got on my game this summer and made all my copies, printed everything that needs printing and filed everything by week, so I feel like I can finally start our year on the right foot and early to boot!

I also had this fantastically awesome idea to help my very reluctant writers want to write! I mean it is so awesome, it will need it own post and introduction in about a week!

That is about how our year is looking and in case you didn't catch it in my post our family "theme" if you will for the year is Thriving & Balance! But more about that later ; )

Making things

I think Pinterest is motivation to make things I would usually put off until tomorrow. How can I not when they keep popping up calling my name!

For example (and I say that like Hermione in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone!)

 This is what I made this morning and got a few more I am considering for today.
And it cost $0 I had everything on hand.

Routine

Most school days are a battle, I don't have the most cooperative students (that is an understatement). Our days are short but they would prefer no days at all, I think my kids confuse homeschooling with unschooling, they prefer the freedom to learn what they want when they want. This week we are trying to get into a routine, I wrote up a general schedule of how I would like the day to look. Most of the schedule relies on me doing my part (I fail miserably at schedules) three days down and my mornings are getting into a rhythm with the rest of the day starting to pan out nicely. It is feeling more peaceful around here, I am dressed with my hair done in anything but a bun (that is huge)! I would say that today we fell out of our routine, after all it is nearly 10:00 as I write this and school hasn't happened yet, and most likely will not but there are days like these that just don't need a lesson plan.

The adventures abound,

superheros walk a perilous obstacles in the name of justice....

baby's need tending too....

warriors need training....

and explorers must explore.

I think this will count as school today, and we will pick up at lunch were we left off in our new routine.

Lazy

I feel like I am being super lazy about juicing and working out. I lost a pound but nothing else, and I have been slacking on juice. Really it can be expensive especially when you are eating too, so when push comes to shove I nix the juice. But to be sure I replace it with some healthy veggie meal and I drink at least one green smoothie each day. I am still playing on my pinterest food board dabbling in the world of vegetarian cuisine. Everything still tastes great. And I really feel like some of the unhealthy eating habits I had are gone for good. And I really like eating no meat although to be honest I had a piece of bacon and it was delicious but I felt so awful afterwards it ain't worth it!

Here are some of the yummy things I have been eating!

The recipe was great and the sauce for dipping the artichoke leaves was awesome but the artichokes themselves were kind of sad little things.

Source: phamfatale.com via Shannon on Pinterest

These were yummy, a whole new way to eat gnocchi, but I think I will try some other type of cheese like Parmesan next time.

Source: iowagirleats.com via Shannon on Pinterest

I usually have the box mix falafel but never again these where delicious with sour cream, tomato and a slice of love (cucumber)!

Source: chowvegan.com via Shannon on Pinterest

I also made some homemade tortillas topped with black beans, rice, guac, tomato salsa, and a little bit of cheese, they were sooooooo good, I will never put meat on a taco again, they were so good! I joined a organic food co-op and got my first basket of food I have been trying to use everything up. We made garlicky collards and roasted yukon potatoes. I had a pesto pizza with halved grape tomatoes & mozzarella really really good. I tried to recreate a bistro salad I got in the publix produce section that was delicious, baby spinach, eggs, Monterrey jack & colby cheese, craisins, almonds, chow mien noodles and sweet onion dijon dressing, it was really yummy, probably the best salad I have ever had! I may have replaced my bad eating habits with the obnoxious habit of telling everyone everything I eat and how good it tastes! LOL! I have been walking, my kids really like to walk and beg to go despite the fact that they complain the whole way. But that last 5 days it has been raining and then of course I burned the dickens out of myself at the beach and didn't want to wear pants so I am hoping to start again tomorrow or Monday with my cute and motivating walking buddy (my hubby).

I have really been enjoying food....but

I am not losing any weight, I haven't gained any either but still. I really am enjoying all sorts of food and really haven't found anything I don't like. I have made huge strides in the less cheese department seriously I consume maybe a 1/4 cup of cheese a day if that. I am in love with those hydroponic tomatoes from the farmers market, and now I want tomatoes all the time, straight tomatoes, tomatoes on everything I eat, doesn't matter they were AWESOME! I want more, I am out and they are near the end of their selling season, I may not survive. Another thing I love is the fresh ground grain bread I bought from a lovely mom I met through my homeschool group, it is fantastic bread. I eat the honey wheat toasted with cinnamon with my breakfast smoothie and the italian herb has been sneaking its way into a lunch or snack time with some of those tomatoes, red peppers, red onions and sprinkle of Parmesan, seriously beautiful! And what I love is her ingredient list, there are like 5 things and they are simple whole ingredients, it just feels good to eat it!

Here are some of the recipes I have marked off my pinterest menu (hehe!)

These were delicious and my first try of mushrooms, oh so good.

Source: theviewfromthegreatisland.blogspot.com via Shannon on Pinterest

These were really good, I think mushrooms will be my new fajita filler!

Source: goodlifeeats.com via Shannon on Pinterest

I think this is my new favorite black bean burger! I think a big pile of guac on top is all it needs!

Source: skinnytaste.com via Shannon on Pinterest

Tomorrow is going to be an all juice and smoothie kind of day I ate every meal today and feel little guilty plus I don't know what to make for dinner tomorrow. I think I am going to try short little reboots here and there.