Some recent schooling-time photos

Here is some photos of the more mama-directed seat-work lately.  

I like to post some pictures here ever once in a while of them doing their work! 

It's sort of a school progress memory-blog for them AND for their mama too!

I'm working on a special post about what Abigail has been up to lately and
will save some of those pictures for that post.

Andrew is doing the "Explode the Code" books this year.

stamped their passports when we "went" to Canada

Photo taken during "book basket" time.  My basket is full of books that they can use for independent learning that deals with what topic we are on.  These would have been picture books of Canada, an atlas book-marked on North America and some books dealing with Northern animals we don't see here in Texas.  One book was about caribou.

North America + Central America geography game.  We have a game page for South America now too.

Isaac very proudly pointing at Ecuador when we began our South America unit.

Working on labeling with our flag-stickers and atlas

This was learning about ground temperature earlier this year.  We put two pieces of ice in zip-loc bags.  One bag got buried about 6 inches deep and the other stayed on top in the sun.  As soon as that piece was melted, we uncovered the buried one and observed what didn't happen to it.

A puppet show "IAA Club" put on for us!  It was great!!

program... I love this for so many reasons!  HAHA!

BOW!!

Other activities...

projects from The Outdoor Handy Book

Keeping Fit!

Now Andrew is in Tae Kwon Do too! 

This is such a great thing for them to all be involved in together!  David can't wait to start too, but my rule so far is that you have to be 6 or 7!

taken on Andrew's first night of practice

Family Trips...

Western Art Meuseum

We interrupted our My Father's World curriculum after we finished studying South America,
so that we could do a Texas History unit.
Next week we are going to San Antonio to Homeschool Day at Sea World and will visit the Alamo!

Here are some photos of more dad-sponsored learning. :)

archery

Planting

Reading...

Biography of Cameron Townsend... Our family read-aloud book
when we were learning about Mexico and Central America
The boys literally went from sitting on the couch to right next to their dad as he was finishing the book.
I HAD to take a picture!

Biography of Nate Saint...  We read this one during our South America unit.  It was special to us because our close friends, The Hollingsworths, live in Ecuador.  It was fun hearing names of places they've been to and live near as we were reading/listening to this book.

 Working...

Our old house provides plenty of opportunities for the kids to learn to do certain jobs and work with their hands in general.

I'm pretty sure I posted this one on our other blog, but it is worthy here again.  Our three boys, and their buddy, Nathan, had a real JOB this day.  They helped Whitley replace a line under the house that he could not have done without them!

Always learning!  It's fun to take breaks and remember ever once in a while too!!

Being Different has its Blessings!

One of the things I most love about homeschooling is the flexibility we can have!  At this point in our lives, we still do more of our structured schooling when Whitley is gone to work.  He works 12 hour shifts for 7 days and then gets 7 off.  During those 7 days off, they still get to learn a lot from their dad, but the learning is less at the table and more focused on other things that can be caught & taught.  A couple of days ago, Isaac learned about changing out the heating element in a dryer, for instance! Hmmm.... wonder why he had to learn that?!  Only because he is taking "shop" class, right?  Couldn't be because the dryer went out, could it?  HA!!  The kids are often in the thick middle of our home improvement jobs which gives them a chance to learn lots of things most kids don't get to.  We do take other breaks from school when we need them, especially right before and after I've had a baby.

All that being said, summer is a season that still involves school for us and it is definitely HERE!  Wow, it has been HOT the last couple of days.  During the hotter months, I try to let the kids take advantage of cooler mornings for their playtime outside.  I sent the older boys out this morning after their chores and told them I would call them in one at a time for their individual school-time.    I never know what type of boy I'm going to be calling in from their play!!  HAHA!  Today it was first a "Native American" that I called in to do his Singapore Math.  Sounds so funny to put it that way!!  Although I must admit that my knee-jerk reactive thought was to be annoyed with the mud-faced boy that I was bringing into my clean house, I quickly straightened up and realized that this was actually pretty inventive and genuinely awesome!  Thus I bit back those thoughts and took these awesome pictures instead.  Glad I chose the latter.... because these are really cute!  These two guys are really special!!

Once I got Isaac situated doing his assignment, I called in the fierce and brave cowboy!   

Celebrating the Difference,

Stations Everyone!!!

Abigail babysitting while

Timothy plays with his toys while 

Isaac does math while 

Andrew has a bit of alone time too...

Pictures of it all working!!!  I try to let everyone have some special time with one or two sibs every day, and a little alone time too.  This morning I paused and looked around, grabbed my camera, and took pictures from room to room.... because everyone was occupied and doing what they were supposed to!!! Don't worry, some time I will take pictures of the opposite (if I'm in the right mood and not so frustrated that I forget the hilarity of the moment), but moments like these make me so happy!!!

Just For Fun!

We went to Lake Amistad on the border recently and it fit right in with our unit on Mexico as we closed that out!  Plenty of cactus, although not the saguaro cactus we studied most about.  Nevertheless, we were as close to Mexico as most in their right mind would care to get these days!  

What my kids learned "outside the box" on our Amistad trip:
1) How to choose the best rocks for skipping
2) Why it is possible to skip a rock (did you know they actually built a "rock skipping machine" to determine that the best angle for skipping is 20 degrees?.... me either)
3) God even created deer to have a routine
4) My 11 year old got to cut with a radial saw and weld for the first time
5) How to enclose a porch
6) How to drive..... we love golf-carts ;)
7) How fossils form and that there are SO MANY to be found when the lake is low!
8) What a real, live, icky centipede looks like....shudder...
9) Cacti are better to stay away from and are best if NOT stepped on!
10) That being a homeschooled kid is awesome.... well, I'm not sure if they get it yet, but I SURE DO!

As a side note, thanks to my brother, we are HUGE fans of Smarter Everyday on youtube!!!  Here is a video he just released about skipping stones.  You will just love this family guy who teaches physics in such a way that young and old get something out of everything he talks about!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRvgGU8p8wE&feature=em-subs_digest

Right Brain, Left Brain...

Isaac doesn't always love a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but many times would prefer ham and cheese.  Even if there is no ham, he will slap some mayo and cheese on bread instead of choosing the pb&j.  The other day, we were having sandwiches for lunch and I didn't have his favorite kraft singles cheese.  So, I sliced him some cheese and placed it on his bread.  I didn't think about how I was putting the cheese on.... I just did it. The mayo wasn't even on there yet because he does all that himself.  In the flash of an eye, Isaac quickly rearranged the cheese slices I had placed on there and it cracked me up!  He had no idea why I was laughing, so I explained.  He and I are SO similar in our personalities, but when it comes to our thinking skills and just the simple ways we use our brains, we are very different.  In one brief moment, cheese on bread tells you how we think differently!  I recreated it very quickly and took a picture.  You might think that's weird and that this whole post is weird, but I cannot tell you how the whole thing tickled me!  Can you tell who is right-brained and who is left-brained dominant?????

My Artistic (without even thinking about being artistic) Arrangement:

Isaac's (I can't even stand how unsymmetrical that was Mom)  Arrangement:

HA!

In The Spotlight: Andrew- 6 yrs old

Some random thoughts and tidbits about writing instruction for Andrew:

1) He is left-handed.  This is challenging when it comes to teaching writing, but we are taking it slow on purpose.  I'm trying to get him to focus on pointing his pencil "up" instead of down.  He also has tended to have an awkward pencil-hold even without other lefty troubles added in.  He'll put his fingers in a funny position that doesn't at all look comfy!  He's improving on this a lot already this year.

2)  I don't generally do a lot with a pencil at first.  We write in corn meal, shaving cream, in the air, etc. while learning phonograms.  

2)  Over the last couple of months he has gone from getting physically tired of writing very soon, to doing entire sheets of exercises so I'm very pleased with his progress!  A year or so ago, I was having him attempt to write his name.  It was just too hard.  A pregnancy and a new baby later (= significant break from school), he is back to practicing this now that he is getting more steady with his hand.  -Just a developmental thing really.  I have a book that has tracing exercises (not letters, just exercises) that has contributed to his progress, so we are back to practicing his name!  Right now he is doing a combination of practicing those written phonograms in the shaving cream or corn meal, and then tracing his name.  I use this worksheet generator to print out his traceable name.

3)  He is also learning to put some phonograms together to make simple words.  He is unscrambling these little "word pockets" that Nana bought us years ago when Isaac was his age.

4)  He enjoys making up addition and subraction math "stories" and is getting better at writing his numbers too.  

5)  Andrew is also enjoying learning about countries & cultures in our "My Father's World" curriculum.  More and more he is doing the activities with his older siblings, including playing the geography game!  More on that another day!