Since the oldest is in school and the youngest doesn't start GCA till August 16th I've been really busy....busy keeping a 5 year old busy. Unfortunately we are home bound due to transportation complications. I've been reading ALOT of books. After reading Little Bill "A trip to the hospital." We talked about x-rays and then we made our own x-ray. I traced his hand and foot and he drew the bones in them both. We also read a book about butterflies and went through the steps of how caterpillars turn into butterflies and did a little project on the process. He enjoyed being creative with it.

He also read 3 books from the "Hook on Phonics" program. He learned about animals and where they live air, water, or land. He realized that some animals can live in two places and thought why don't we put those animals between both places. I had made this activity in reference to a Montessori activity I saw via the web. I found animal pictures from Microsoft Clip art website, printing them out and laminating them for continuous use.

Jr. High Stepping

Well...school has started for my oldest and it's his first year in Jr. High. I have to admit I was a little emotional but swallowed the emotions and just took the moment in. He was ready to make moves in middle school. He didn't want to be driven his first day, he wanted to ride the bus...so of coarse I felt as though I had to walk him up to the bus stop though he said "mom i'll be alright." He is turning into such a responsible, independent youth. This week he has woke up by his alarm without complaining, getting his clothes out for the next day and get this, ironing his clothes. Boy, I tell you it's alot to take in for me. Here is a picture of him on his first day, me walking him to his bus stop...

I finally received the boxes with the home school material, 3 boxes to be exact. Looking at everything I was feeling like "Oh, what am I thinking.", but then that went away shortly and I thought "I can do this", I have a couple of ideas for keeping track of lessons and units and just making things fun and at his learning pace. No need to stress him out with a strick schedule and structure. I have to find his way of learning and work with that.

I'm reading the book Rich Kid, Smart Kid by Robert K. Kiyosaki and I'm loving it. I'm only in the middle of the book and I'm already recommending all parents to read this one. My husband read Rich Dad, Poor Dad and finished it within a week and he really does not like to read books. He ended up going on Half.com ordering about 5 copies for about .75 cents each to give out to friends and family he thought may benefit from reading. With that order he bought Rich Dad, Poor Dad for teens for G to read and the book I'm reading now. G just finished reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad for Teens last week and he said he enjoyed reading it. So I guess All 3 books is a good read if you ask us...lol

Getting Ready

So this will be my first year homeschooling...I'm actually a little excited. I do have a few worries. 1 being that J may get bored being taught at home. For the summer he was in a literacy program to help jump start preschoolers for kindergarten. He loved it, he was so excited to go to school, be with his friends and learn new things. He loves having friends. So with that being said I'm really going to have to find some activities for him to be in so he can be with kids his age. I'm hoping to meet a few home school moms in my area with kids his age that I can connect with. The home school program J will be doing is called the Georgia Cyber Academy. It's a public school gone cyber...I thought pretty cool. They will be providing J with his own computer and giving me all the curriculum material I need to home school along with a teaching coach...........for FREE. The shipment of the computer and material is on it's way. The curriculum being used is K12. I plan to use their material of coarse because they give assessment tests and I'm sure it will be based on K12, but I will also add to his learning through other lessons and material.