Planners

I took some time to get organized.

I put together three 3-ring binders.

1. Homeschool

2. Home Journal

3. My home business

My homeschool notebook has unit study planners, calenders, book lists and such. I even have a section for this blog! I love the way it looks and I love the way it works for me! I can plan a 6 week unit on one sheet of paper! Love that!

My Home Journal started when somebody told me about The Fly Lady. It's a great way to keep your home organized and clutter free. My home journal has a place for bills, groceries, meals, cleaning, and I like to keep pictures of drawings the kids have given me. It's a scrapbook/planner :) Makes me smile when I look through it.

The Pink Blueberry....This is my embroidery/ sewing business binder. I keep ideas, orders, pictures and calenders in here. It's a great tool to keep me organized.

Does everything run smooth as silk?  N.O. but I don't feel as scatter brained as I used to. I can see what I need to do, and I can see what I've done. I work efficiently and effectively. Bills are paid on time, I know what's for dinner and I can stay on track with life.

This works for me. 

What works for you?

Really...

There was some really bad weather the other day and our tree broke in half!

I was really happy it didn't fall on the house :)

I'm wondering how much dark chocolate you can really eat before the antioxidants stop and it's just fattening. :)  ( I'll let you know) hehe

I'm really excited for fall to get here!

I'm going to work really hard this year at being the best teacher for my kids.

My kids are going to really love this school year!

New School Year!

No special breakfast, no welcome banner or gift bags, not even haircuts!  What's up with that?!?

We did have a fun first day of school! Caitlin said it best when she said, " This is more fun than what I thought it would be!"  We are doing a unit on States and Capitals. I found a cute download on Currclick's website, America's Amazing States and Capitals. It uses cute phrases like, "Don't chew such a large 'mount of gum, Marie" (Montgomery)   But it makes a loud Bam ma! (Alabama)  She's pretty good at remembering them :)

    We have added music lessons for all three kids and a side job for my oldest son, so our schedule isn't the same throughout the week. Some subjects need to find a space, like Spanish...and Spelling. Let's just say Pre Algebra too.  *sigh* 


I love this....

I didn't have to cook tonight :)

What's your good thing?

                                                         Here's to a blessed school year!

Last Days of Summer

     We didn't have much of a vacation this year. We had to work hard to get every subject done this summer. Luckily, we finished with a couple weeks to spare.

    My friend went on a cruise this week with her family and we were invited to swim at her pool while they were gone. We invited a friend over....

Way fun!

 Monday morning is our official starting day! Woo Hoo! :)

Bunco at the Park!

Let's try again!

Good to be back and starting a fresh new year!

We started off with a Park Day! I hope there are many more! I love our little group of kids and home school moms!

 

Bunco!

Smiles!

We start lessons on Monday!

Yay!

a little fun...

UPDATED POST: isn't it embarrassing to not include the picture you blogged about. :) here's the beach ball picture.

 The hanging beach ball. I read about this when Dawson was little. You tie a string through the loop of the
plug and then hang it from the ceiling with an eye hook. He played with that for hours.

      I thought Caitlin might enjoy the idea too, so I just taped it up in her doorway. The hook works better than tape, but it still was fun to play ball in the house.

Play Doh.....



This is what you can do these days with playdoh.

*note
     Dylan said this wasn't done yet, he wants to add voices and sound, but I thought it was good enough to show.



Week 22

This week, Caitlin started her Florida lap book.

While the boys watched Liberty Kids online, Caitlin had a little unit study on our state. She loves to cut and color and use glue sticks! I turned on my Cricut and cut out letters for her to use.



 

We added a little every day.

Other than the printer ink being low, everything looked pretty good. She enjoyed it and we will move on to Georgia next week.

   The boys had a great week, they worked hard on their spelling words and grammar lessons. Dawson learned about banking in math, Dylan is still on fractions in his workbook.

  Our schedule has been the best ever! I moved math to after lunch, we seem to get a second wind and focus is much better. I've become a morning person! Now I have the time to download videos from the library, print out papers and make our daily schedule all before the kids get up out of bed! I'm talking 5 AM wake up call! I absolutely LOVE it! Charlotte Mason says it takes 6 weeks to form a habit. I have four weeks to go!

    The weather was perfect the last few days. I took some pictures just hanging out together.....

Ready for week 23! Have a great week end :)

Week 21 Wrap Up

This week the kids had structure back in their lives. We got so much done and it felt great to get back in the swing of things.
    Caitlin knows her 2's, 3's, and 5's multiplication tables and we have started 6's
  She started reading from 1st grade readers this week too! I can't even take the credit for it. While I am doing one on one time with Dawson, my other son Dylan helps Caitlin with her skip counting and reading. He seems to get a kick out of teaching her and it's working out pretty good for her too!
    Meanwhile, Dawson is getting his much needed time together with me for some of his studies. It's getting harder! I'm hoping I have enough energy to get some Units together again. It's still very hard for me to jump from 7th grade Grammar to Kindergarten Arts and Crafts. Maybe I can get Dylan to do it :)
    We got back to Home Ec on Thurs. We made Pizza dough and bunches of pancakes! We froze the pancakes for next week. We ate the pizzas tonight! :)
   Looking forward to week 22!

Back To Normal

 We are on week 21 and back on a schedule! The kids worked on math and reading during Christmas, it was a nice break but I'm so glad to get back to normal!

   Caitlin is skip counting 2's and 3's and 5's, She is almost finished with her, "100 Easy Lesson" reading book and she is writing too!


    Dawson just finished with percents in his math book. We will be doing some "Life Apps" the next couple weeks with learning how to manage a checkbook, budgeting, writing out checks etc.

   Dylan has been doing fractions, improper, proper, mixed numerals common denominators.

Happy New Year!!!