gardening

OK...so this was months ago (actually, mother's day to be exact). But I have been wanting to get these pictures up here on the blog. I just ordered another blog book from last year so it has motivated me to keep up on the family journaling. For some wonky reason my comments are gone. I had some problems with spam and I did some things to take care of it and tried to bring the comment option back and even though I have enabled the comments to exist, it isn't working. If I can get a few hours to figure it out, I will. But for now...yayyyyyy for pictures.
And speaking of pictures...loving the new photo collage. My kiddos have been sick today, so I spent some time uploading pics and getting some old posting taken care of.


I just LOVE how Tate is holding onto my arm in this pic. He is by my side or on my hip every moment of the day.
Tyce is the hardest worker I have seen. He will dig right in and help out in every situation. I wanted to have a garden to provide us the opportunity to work side by side and bond together. He has shown how much he loves plants and flowers and I thought he would really thrive at tending the garden.

reading together

Love it when I see the big girls be so tender to our little ones. Notice Tally is showing Tate how to sign the pictures in the book.

it kills me...

...that these 2 are growing up so fast...sigh.

Our 6th year of homeschooling

OK...so seriously...I have become a VERY BAD BLOGGER. I have spent so much time focussing on our new kids and new family dynamic, it is still at the bottom of the list. But I am trying...I will get back to it. But schooling 3-4 kiddos and all...it keeps me busy.

We are in full swing of our SIXTH year of home educating. WOW...how does the time fly by. It is going well and I try to keep some kind of a record here to show what we are doing each year. We have done about 40+ days of school so far.

Our curriculum (for the big kids) this year includes:

Spelling - Sequential Spelling
Handwriting - Handwriting Without Tears (focus on cursive again)
Grammar - Easy Grammar (Tally is trying to do 2 years worth this year)
Reading - Pathway Readers (Last year for Tally on these)
Bible - Precepts for kids - Names of God
History - Story of the World vol. 2 - Middle Ages
Science - Apologia - Botany
Math - MUS Epsilon (Tally is trying to do 1.5 years worth this year)

Extras -

Tissy takes an art class on Tuesdays (drawing)
Tally goes to an enrichment class on Thursdays t0 focus on hands on learning for science, art and life on a farm.
Both girls are taking Karate (working on their yellow belt)
We meet with another family a few times a month to do some learning together (focus on habitats this fall).
Fall field trips - pumpkin farm, old village, science center, park days, bird banding at the nature center

Tyce (our preschooler) is also homeschooling 2 days a week (Tues and Fridays).
Primer book for MUS - number and shape recognition
Reading - Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (about 1/5 of the way through)
Handwriting - preschool book for HWT
Fall soccer at the Y
MDO (simple preschool) 2 days a week

summer camp

Somehow we found money in the budget to allow our 2 oldest sweet peas to go to summer camp again. It was the HIGHLIGHT of their year. What a blast they had. Swimming, hiking, archery, rock climbing, singing, bible time and lots of hanging with their friends.Tally made it to the top of the rock wall again this year.

We joined them on the last day to get the tour and enjoy the fun for a little bit ourselves. The only down side...it was HOT. And with a little guy strapped to you...it is even more HOT.


The boys didn't quite know what to think about this place. I wonder if Tyce will be able to attend some day. I think he would love the adventure.

The girls opted to attend day camp again. Maybe, just maybe, they might be interested in overnight camp one of these times.


I love it that even though they have a great time with their friends all week long, they still love having a great time together.These two girls are truly best friends. I hope they will always look back on their memories of camp and think it was one of the best places on earth ( that is how I think about my years at camp).

Look Mom...no training wheels.

Since the training wheels feel off and broke...we figured we would let Tyson give it a try. Just to see if he could do it.

I mean...come on...he's 4. That's kind of early to be able to do this kind of thing.

And off he went. Right across the grass (just in case he fell). He is an instant pro.

He is amazing. He has a determined spirit. And look at that smile...he is so proud. He even tried to pop some wheelies the first day. Good thing he has a helmet to keep him safe. What a treat to experience this with him. Daddy teaching his son to ride a bike. Precious.

All American Fourth of July

Remember doing this as a kid?



Decorating your bike for a small town parade.


Wearing red, white and blue.


Waving flags.



Passing out candy.


Having fun as a family on a hot summer day.

I hope that's how my kids remember their childhood.

How did we find time to do this ???

In the last few months we built an herb box and planted herbs.



Moved 8 yards of pea gravel.



Designed and built our own landscape edge.




And re-designed our back yard space so we could hang out with the kids.

recap on last years school

We are busy cleaning out the school room and reorganizing our supplies. Preparing a list of things to purchase and getting ready for the new school year. I love to sort and organize so this is always refreshing for me (and yet slightly depressing...we have so much junk to pitch out).

As I look back at our school year, it wasn't as unfruitful as I thought it had been. When I step back and look, we really did get a lot done. We studied ancient history. Began a science study on botany. Completed a whole years worth of grammar. Figured out fractions and Epsilon in Math U See. Not to mention reading, handwriting, thinking skills, spelling, phonics, nature studies, junior naturalists study on reptiles. We also participated in a Keepers group where the girls learned about baking, gardening, cake decorating, food preservation, first aid, library skills. They also joined the homeschool swim group and swam every week at our local rec center and have taken up Karate.

This summer we have done our girls friendship bible study and they are part of an American Girl club and are studying Kaya. We have also kept up with our math each week and spelling too. We have continued on with science and just yesterday spent time identifying a tree from its seed and leaves.

So, I guess it is good to stop. Look back. And see that we really did accomplish a lot last year. Even if it was a crazy year with adoption paperwork, getting our referral, traveling to Africa and adjusting to 2 new boys. Guess I should give myself a break. (wink wink)

testing one two three

Can a few people leave me some comments to see if this new format will work? After getting lots of emails and comments (which I didn't post any of those comments yet) saying you would like to keep following our family blog, I'm trying something a little different. If I can get this to work, I might be a little more motivated to keep this blog up and running and might even spring for a professional blog makeover.

I have tons of pics to share and posts running around in my head, but the spamming has been so frustrating, I haven't been very motivated to make regular posts.

So, let's see if this works. Leave me some comments to try it out.

It might be time to shut it down

I'm getting tired of all the spam comments I am getting on my blog here so I am seriously considering shutting it down or going private. If you are interested in following a private blog you can contact me via email or FB. It's been a fun ride, but it is getting annoying so it seems like it's time to let it go. I don't keep my blog as a place for odd spam comments and it is a shame it has come to this.

I blog as a way to share our life with our family and friends. I blog to keep a journal for our children. I blog to be a testimony for God and how He has worked in my life. I blog to encourage others along their own journey. I blog to share about homeschooling and letterboxing and composting and organizing (all of my different and varied interests). I blog to share out about our families adventure in adoption.

I do not blog for spammers and foreign language comments that fill my inbox with links to vague sites.

tubular

We took some tubes that were intended to be part of a soccer goal and decided they would be better suited at being water tubes.


Everyone had a chance to make their design.

We wondered if the water would defy gravity and move upward.

We liked the zig zag design.


They learned to work as a team and find success.

The only bummer is...they want to do this every day and get wet. =)

purposeful play

Everything I try and do these days has a purpose. I am trying to be intentional with how I structure my day and interact with my children. We are working hard at learning to play. The boys are at a loss for how to play with traditional toys (very normal for adopted children). As I said before, if I want to get some school work done with the girls, I have to have something to keep the boys entertained. So...back to the tot trays.

Building with the locking cubes. At first...no one was interested in these. Then I gave some ideas. Try and measure things with them. How many blocks does it take to measure things.
Tyce even measured himself. I think he used all the cubes.
These balls come out every day. Tate loves to put them into the container. I mixed it up with adding a long tube to drop them into.

Here is a game where you have to find the matching cards and gather them together. Not exactly like the instructions tell you how to play, but I modify everything so Tyce can use it. He then had to use clothes pins to group them. Fine motor and sorting.

I gave the boys these tubes (which were meant to be used for a small soccer goal) and had them make designs with them. I'll post later with all the fun things we came up with. These kids can get creative.

National Day of Prayer

Yikes...2 months old post here...oh well. Better late than never.


We gathered with some local homeschool families to pray for our leaders before our city held its National Day of Prayer gathering. Good thing we went early for by the time we left, our boys had managed to climb through the flower beds and set off our car alarm. It was clearly our time to leave. =)I love the idea of exposing our children to praying for our leaders. Leaders in our community, city, state and country. We need to teach our kids to pray for others, especially our leaders.


I also think it is important to teach our kids to pray. Not only among our family, but with their friends and even strangers. I loved to see how my girls had grown in their own walk with God from last year's NDP to this year. They are each growing up so much.