Field Trip!

We took the girls to see the NC Battleship and Aquarium. We ended our field trip with a ride on the ferry. Here are a few pictures to enjoy...

Getting sprayed by the ocean water on the ferry!
Kissing the frog @ the Aquarium...they are true princesses at heart!

Bravely posing w/the gators....

J was not so brave for this photo!

Battleships Guns!

Standing w/ Mema on the Battleship!

K5 Graduation!

The girls had their K5 graduation a couple of weeks ago during our Homeschool Co-op End of Year program. They made their own graduation caps which were super cute! Thanks Mrs. S.T. for helping them with their caps!

Enjoy the pics!

Good Things Come In 3's

We had 3 new experiences this week:

On Monday we went ice skating for Cousin L's Birthday. What a blast. At first the girls used the walker type things to help keep their balance on the skates. Then by the end of the day they were all skating with out any help at all! They loved it and begged to go back for more the next day.

On Tuesday R climbed up in my lap and asked to please read. She has been hinting to me she was ready to sound out words but she wanted to read a story not just words. I went and got the Science reading Pace for her and she read the 1st three stories with little help from me. N then wanted a turn and read 2 stories. J read the 1st story. They are all doing really well. I will post a video of them reading later today. I'm so happy that I waited until they were ready and wanted to read. They love it and the pride in their faces when they finished that first story was priceless!

I have to say that hearing them each read for the first time has to be the biggest blessing to me for homeschooling. I got to teach them how to read. I got be hear them read for the first time! I got to see the light bulb of understanding go on in each little head at how putting the letter sounds together makes a word. This is one of the many reasons why we homeschool! So many moms miss out on this and will miss out on seeing the joy of each lesson learned. I am so thankful this is my full time job! I'm so thankful I did not miss this blessing!

On Thursday thanks to the beautiful weather we got to have school outside for the first time this year. We sat at the table in the back yard and had school. R said it was "the best thing ever!" While I did one on one work the other two played on the swing set. That is what school should be like for every K5 kid! They worked so well outside that they finished all of Friday's work on Thursday so they got to make sock puppets on Friday instead of doing Math and Reading. :) That is just another reason we love homeschool.

So, Did you have any firsts at your house this week?

Math & Phonics

For the last few months I have really been stressing about finding a math for the girls next year. This year I made my own curriculum and I will not do that again. What a nightmare... So, Thursday I went with a few other homeschool moms to a homeschool store. After searching through every math curriculum they had I found it....

I'm really loving this. It's BJU Press and R wants to start on it now. :) She was so excited. Now, I think we are ready for the 1st grade.

I also picked up Explode the Code. It's a reading/ phonics program. I really like it. A friend is using it with her 1st grader this year and he is doing so well with it. I only have a few more things to pick up for next year. :) I'll post more about that when I have it here.

A Lesson on Plurals

Plurals are not your normal topic for the day when homeschooling three 5 year olds but today I found myself jumping right in without thinking! The girls were learning a lesson on the letter "Ii" and the sound that I makes like in the word " ice". On the page were a picture of 2 mice. They were really cute cartoon mice. :) So, please follow our conversation for a good laugh...

N says, "Mommy what cute mouses!"
I replied, *Jumping into unknown plural lessons* "N, when there are two of them (mouse) on a page we say mice." "You know like when there is only one girl we say "girl" but if there are two we say "girls" meaning more than one.

R then says, "Yeah, and you know what mommy?" " When there are three girls we call them "Triplets" and you are wrong when there are two girls you call them "Twins!"

That was the end of my lesson on plurals! I think I'll save that concept for 2nd grade!

Books

I hit the mother load in FREE books!!!!! Our church closed their preschool and offered up all their books and supplies to families in the church. So, during the 11 am service last week I went and picked through the books. I could not believe my good fortune. :) Myself and a fellow homeschool mom sat there looking through several hundred books passing them back and forth! I came home with 50 books!!!!! All of them really good books. So I hope to share them with you over the next few weeks. Here are our first three that we have used this week.

My 50 books from church!!!!

Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann is a super funny and cute book! The girls and I loved it!

Down by the Station by Will Hillenbrand is a book you can sing! The girls love any book that you can sing the words. It is a favorite with all of us! Fall Leaves Fall by Zoe Hall. We did a unit study on leaves this past week using this book! It's full of craft ideas and lots of info on changing of seasons. Great for unit study on fall.
This craft idea was taken from the book Fall Leaves Fall. Yes, that is a Palin bumper sticker covering my child's name. :) Go Palin!!!! :) The girls made objects from the different fall leaves we collected on a nature walk. They made birds, princesses, fish and spiders! :)

Pigs from 1 to 10 by Arthur Geisert. We are going to use this book this week to do a unit study on the numbers 1-10. I love the illustrations in the book they are beautiful!

First Field Trip

We took our first field trip as a homeschool family to the Zoo. We had a blast. The weather was perfect! The zoo was not crowded and we got to see all the animals. When we have gone before the animals are often in a part of the zoo that you can't see but we got to see them all. Here are a few pictures....

The stroller...They all packed into a double. :)


Sleeping with the polar bear...
Family with the black bear...he is sitting on the log in the back ground.

J was a little afraid...
R was not afraid!
In the playground at the zoo...it was a veggie patch.



Daddy helping R see the elephant.

Letter "F"

This past week we learned the letter "F" and had a great story about Father Fox, Felix Fox (son) and Fifi Fox (daughter) to go along with our lesson. While I was telling the story the girls each a picture of Felix Fox to color in their work books. When I finished the story I look at their pictures and had a good laugh.

J decided she was not coloring a boy fox....she was coloring Fifi. I was really proud of the tutu and bow she drew. So I told her, "GREAT JOB! You are really good at using your imagination. "

N said her Fifi had long red hair and purple toe/finger nails. So I also praised her imagination and color choice. :)
R said she liked boys and her fox was Felix....A Boy! She also said that her boy fox loved rainbows! :) Too Cute!

Homeschool and a New Look

So much has happened over the last week. We started homeschooling K5 last week. So far things are going so well. The girls love school and are really soaking up every morsel they are given. Last night I decided to give our blog a new look. What do you think? I love it! I also added a new feature stolen from Leann's blog to list books we want to add to our home library. So if you ever need a gift idea for the girls that would be the perfect place to start. :) Last Friday was Daddy's birthday. The girls helped to make him a cake and we went out to eat with Mema to celebrate. My camera was not working for me so I only got one picture. :( It was a fun day and I think daddy loved his new Wii game. Here are a few pictures of homeschool life in the Hen House....


The girls had to have a calendar! They had one in preschool and did activities with it each day. So, now we start each day with days of the week, weather, months and the "Days of the Week" song. :) They each have a job putting up the days of the week and weather.

My Rollie Cart! It's such a life saver. It has every thing! I love my Rollie Cart... each homeschool mom should have one.
Our Literature Activity for last week. We made a literature pocket. We studied the Nursery Rhyme "The Little Bird". The girls loved all the activities...

R's Lit Pocket N's Lit Pocket
J's Lit Pocket
They each made a book, bird puppet and drawing of a bird. In R's drawing of her bird the other two started telling me she was not drawing a bird. I told her she had to have a bird on her page. She said, "I do mommy! He's inside the house I drew!" You got to love it!

Reason 101 to Homeschool...

Okay so this is how I imagine this conversation went:
Walmart Employee: 'Hello 'dis is Walmarts, how can I help you?
Customer: Yes , I would like to order a cake for a going away party this week.
Walmart Employee: 'What you want on the cake?
Customer : 'Best Wishes Suzanne' and underneath that 'We will miss you'.