Constant

So, we are rearranging today. I haven't rearranged ANYTHING in this house in exactly 2 months and 2 days. So, give me credit.

But Sweetheart wants her room rearranged before next school year. It's been the same way for a year so I'm cool with that. Of course you know that rearranging her room creates an avalanche of events that involves pieces of furniture from 3 other rooms. In the end, we will be better organized, will have the toys out of the living room, will have more space in the homeschool room, and her room will be very nice.

Later this summer, I've got to tackle the stored clothing issue in Little Bit and Bee's closet. That one will require a babysitter for a few hours.

Not to mention that S is in the middle of a forced bathroom re-do in the girls' bathroom. I say forced because a leak caused us to have to knock out a wall of tile. It's not like you can match and replace 45 year old tile...so...bathroom re-do! He's been working on that a little each night and making really good progress too.

And then the washer stopped draining. He got that fixed last night after church. I think the dryer is dying. And our computer has a bug we can't get rid of.

But all I can think about is how blessed we are! We serve a risen Savior Who loves us so dearly. I have a beautiful family and we are all together and healthy right now. We have a home, cars, a job, food in the kitchen....we are blessed beyond anything we deserve.

Summer school starts back up tomorrow. Having Friday through Monday off is really nice. I don't know how much we're actually accomplishing on our 3 days of school, but at least we're keeping their skills sharp and getting a little bit ahead for next year (or not so behind). I really have no idea how we are going to get everything done next year. Sweetheart is going to have to get started a WHOLE lot earlier than 9am, that much I know!

Ah well, today is not a school day. Here's to tearing up the house!

Keepers End of Year Ceremony

We wrapped up our Keepers at Home club this year by giving the girls all the badges they had earned throughout the year. They earned a lot! We invited grandparents and let them know how proud we were of them all.

Little Bit and Sweetheart posing by the display table. We had the girls' scrapbooks to share.

Carrie made programs. We are very official.

Grandma looking at things with Sweetheart.

We took turns giving little talks to explain some of the activities they had done this year.

Then, they got their badges!

Very proud of these girls!
Emily--10, Little Bit--9, Sweetheart--13, and Kate--14

My parents with Bee.

Matt got a very special award. :) As the only brother who attended every meeting of a girls' club, he was VERY helpful with Bee this year!

Baby Bee's Birthday

We had everyone over for brunch and served breakfast tacos.

 

The farm theme came about because she LOVES LOVES LOVES Baby Einstein's Baby Mac Donald movie.

We built her a barn to play in. It's not like it needed to be big since all her cousins are way too big to care about playing in it with her. Poor baby. Her growing up years are going to be very different from her sisters'.

She had a great time though.

Playing peek-a-boo with my Sister.

Cousin Gnat with Sweetheart and Little Bit...

Opening her presents.

My sisters...

Happy Birthday Baby Bee!!!!

Summer School Formerly Known as Boot Camp

I was so proud of my idea for the camo themed boot camp this summer. All I was implying was that we were going to cram a bunch of drill into a concentrated amount of time. Thus, boot camp.

So at Target's dollar spot I found little rolls of camo duct tape! Perfect!! I mean, I can't justify spending money on decoration for summer school. I was going to duct tape their binders and find some camo pencils, etc.

But when we opened that duct tape oh my word!! It stank like anything. You know what it smelled like? When a place has new commercial carpet. It was SO bad. It smelled up the whole house. I kept thinking it would air out but after we threw it away you could still smell it every time someone opened the trash.

Humph. Oh well. I'll think of something. Something less smelly.

So here are some of the things I have planned for this summer. I'm trying to make it as fun as possible and not so much like the regular school year.

1. All About Spelling
We didn't do well on spelling after Bee got mobile. We didn't have anywhere we could put the board where she couldn't get into it. So we lost a few months in the spring of doing spelling. There isn't any way to make this different, but we're going to finish their books.

2. Writing Strands
We are beginning this and since its a new program, and I really think Sweetheart will love the author's tone (he wrote it like he is speaking straight to them), I think she will enjoy it. Plus, at the end of some lessons he says, "Now, tell your parents you have a week off of writing" so she'll enjoy that!

3. Grammar/Art Journals
I noticed during the IOWA test that we took last month my girls are lacking in some grammar rule knowledge. So, we are going to learn the capitalization and punctuation rules (each according to their level). To do this in a fun way, I have a plan to use their Art Journals to learn these rules.

I'll have to show you pictures once we get going on this!

4. Other stuff
Little Bit is still growing as a reader. She just finished 3rd grade, but was using Sonlight's 2nd grade readers. There is a big jump from 2nd to 3rd grade (nearly everything is chapter books) so she needs a lot of reading practice over the summer. We're doing that through our library summer reading program, but there are other skills we can work on.
So I found some things on Pinterest like a cupcake matching game to learn contractions. No worksheets. Just some games and stuff. Plus some sight word work. Just things to strengthen her skills.

5. Mama and Me Journals
Want a sneaky way to get writing and reading practice in for your kids? I found these Mama and Me Journals on Pinterest as well. I made them this week for the girls and they both just loved the idea and were full of questions. I had surprised them by having them under their pillows one night. The instructions are for them to write in them and then leave them on my bed, where I'll write back the next day. It's nice and I think is really opening another line of communication for my 13 year old, where she sometimes wants to discuss things with me, but doesn't have a lot of private time with me. This is giving us the chance to talk about some things. Good stuff.

Those are my plans. We won't do every thing every day. But I have a lot of things to pull from and hopefully a lot of it doesn't feel like school.

And they also have math. All of this will occur on Tuesday through Thursday. We're off the other days!

I mean, it IS summer!

Even if I don't get to be drill sergeant.

End of the 2012-2013 School Year

Good-bye 7th and 3rd grade!

We very happily wrapped up our school year a week early just like we hoped to. I was very pleased with what all we got done. Little Bit has 2 books to read this summer that we didn't get to, but waiting will be better anyway as they were getting to the edge of her ability by the end. And Sweetheart has one to try this summer that was too hard for her during the year.

Here are the happy students after we had our traditional "dance around the house to this song" like we do every year.

Now we are enjoying a care-free week of summer before our summer school starts next week. Monday we went to the park with friends from our homeschool group and sweated together for an hour and 15 minutes, called it quits and went to go find sno-cones.

Tuesday we went to the American Girl store for Little Bit (she had been saving money for the trip) and to Justice for Sweetheart (she saved too). We don't go to the mall very often so its like a big treat for the girls. So funny. We shopped, ate lunch, and had a good time.

Since Bee didn't get to buy anything, we let her play in the baby play place a while.

Then yesterday we didn't have any plans except to turn in library books. We got there just in time for a presentation on monarch butterflies and it was very good!

Other than that, we've just been swimming and enjoying time together and NOT doing school!!! It's so nice. And Daddy had some time off too so we've got to see him more this week.

Sweetheart and S have their sights set on joining the church's washer pitching team this year. They've been practicing.

So far, this week is a win!

Today's plan is to pack away last year's school stuff and start getting things ready for summer school next week. I've already had someone get onto me that "those kids need a break!" Well you know what? (And I told them this) Those kids need to graduate on time too and not still be finishing high school when they are 22 living at home. Don't you agree?

Tomorrow I'll share our summer school plans.

Hope you are enjoying your summer too!

I would just like to point out that it has been summer break here for 5 days and I haven't rearranged anything.