A Break For Me! Hallelujah!!!

 This sweet lil guy LOVES school! After 2 weeks of finishing 1st grade he begged & begged & begged to start up 2nd grade. I really did NOT want to, I needed a break! This past year was a whirlwind adventure in opening up about my past & the Lord opened many doors for me to travel & speak. As if being a full-time homeschooling momma didn't keep me busy enough, I was off doing events & press conferences a LOT! 

Now I completely loved every bit of it, even when it was hard, & depressing, because I know the Lord had me doing exactly what He had called me to do. But I'm tired. Worn out. Spiritually, emotionally, physically, & mentally exhausted! I had prayed & asked God to give me a break, some rest to regroup, refocus, & just be. Then my precious Brady comes begging & begging to do school again & I caved in. We started a little, but things kept coming up, knocking us off track & then he & his middle brother got very sick for almost 2 weeks. 

So in the midst of my tiredness & wanting a chance to relax I overloaded myself with more schoolin, not fully prepared & then stuck in the house with sick kiddos. I was at a breaking point. I cried out to God to show me what to do, where to go & He gave me peace, stillness, time to reflect. I asked Brady if we could please hold off on 2nd grade, Momma needed a break. And his reply?

"Sure. I just wanted to be in 2nd grade so I could be in class at church with my 2nd grade friends before they went to 3rd grade. But my teacher told me I couldn't change until August."

I died out laughing! So now, praise the Lord, I get a break! We are still practicing his math facts & reading of course & doing fun stuff with Rylan because I'm still doing preschool stuff with him. I must say I am so relieved! This summer we have a lot of fun stuff planned with VBS, play dates, & this will be Brady's 1st year to go to church camp! Lots of fun adventures await us.

I pray you all have a great summer as well!!

Brady Counting in 2 Languages

This was Brady 3 years ago (2009)!!! Where has the time gone!!!!





Who needs Rosetta Stone when you got Dora & Ni Hao Kai-Lan??? :) hehehe



We had also studied the 5 senses that week too...Brady picks up things so easily...Im so glad he loves learning!

1st Week of Kindergarten

(August 2010) 

Well of course he has a GREAT teacher in his mommy ;) We've only been at it a week but I cant be more thankful that God has called our family to homeschooling! I love our new curriculum! It's completely Christ centered and challenges my lil braniac's mind all the while teaching him not just academics but also the Word of God! Here are some pics from our 1st week.

First Grade Finale!

 WOW! My sweet Brady completed all his 1st grade stuff! We began the week after July 4, 2011 & finished up The first week of April 2012 even with all the breaks we needed to take due to my unexpected call into the Pro-Life Ministry, speaking engagements, traveling, sickness & anything else that came up. I must admit though, it wasn't hard with him, he's naturally smart! We've only been done 2 weeks & he's begging to start up his 2nd grade curriculum!

Here are some pictures I snapped throughout the year of him learning. I try to incorporate different learning styles & ideas as much as possible & always keep learning fun! Some of Brady's favorite things this year were the dinosaur dig, our nature hunts, trying astronaut food, learning to read his Beginner's Bible, & all the fun play dates at the Resource Center.

 Above: Working on a Holiday/Calendar cut & paste activity & space vocabulary.
Below: Double-digit addition & teaching Rylan the difference between P & p.

 Above: Reading a book about time & practicing with his clock & doing learning games on his ClickStart.
Below: Sight word practice in salt & the dino dig.

Above: Spelling words with alphabet Cheezits & his artwork for a co-op class.
Below: Cut & paste nouns & using manipulatives for place value.

Above: Our backyard campout & our science experiment on dissolving bones.

Below: Swinging at the Pumpkin Patch & cheesing with his pumpkin. 

 Above: Dressed in his Native American gear & as Luigi as he does his writing practice.
Below: Reading his first chapter book & super excited he finished his 1st grade reading curriculum. He's a GREAT reader!

 I couldn't be more proud of Brady! I'm very blessed to have him as my son! He's very kind & loving to others, he loves to read his Bible & sing to Jesus, he's an amazing big brother, I could seriously go on & on! I am excited to see what 2nd grade brings us!



What's In The Box Wednesday & Catching Up w/Brady

I planned a long time ago to do a weekly post on our workboxes, a la Erica at COAH, but I would forget! :) So hopefully I can start now! Today's boxes are pretty light because we went over some new things together & I ended up helping him with some stuff I had planned to put in the boxes.

Box 1: Put Bible verse cards in order & copy verse on paper. (Biblestoryprintables.com)

Box2: Make the picture with the correct tangrams.

Box 3: Math-2 digit addition

 Box 4: Listen to The Snowy Day on tape while you read along.

 Box 5: Write a sentence about your favorite part of The Snowy Day & draw a picture.

Box 6: Take a break & enjoy some Skittles!

Box 7: Types of nouns worksheet.

Box 8: Use the snowmen to make the pattern.

 

Box 9: Printing practice.



Box 10: Fun time on the iPhone!



Brady is doing AMAZING at 1st grade! He is almost finished with his Hooked On Phonics for 1st grade curriculum & we are just going to move straight into the 2nd grade one! He picks up very easily in math, but he is pretty sloppy with handwriting at times. He does very well with language arts & spelling too. He is an EXCELLENT learner & I would most definitely classify him as a self-learner. He is enjoys reading The Magic Treehouse Books & is constantly reading, spelling, & doing math EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME! The kid amazes me! I do however wish he could tie his shoes! He still has issues with this & I don't have the patience LoL! So now it's up to daddy to do it!

Brady is an amazing big brother & a great helper around the house! He is still sweet & sensitive, but I can see this silly little boy coming out of him! He definitely makes me giggle! His co-ops are going well, but I am not as happy with some as I thought I would be. You live & ya learn right?

I couldn't be more happy where Brady is as far as school stuff goes! We just began going through the Bible chronologically together so stay tuned for some of that!

Here's my cute boy doing school in his Luigi costume!

Blessings to you all!

What's In The Box?

I finally began using our workboxes & I must say I LOVE them!! It has helped Brady work more independently so I can work with Rylan, tend to Keller, or clean. If he gets stuck on anything he can come & ask me, but for the most part he knows he has to try & figure it out on his own. The boxes are full of things he's familiar with so he knows how to do them already without further instruction. Before he begins them I go over each one briefly to make sure he knows what's expected of him.

Here is how our 1st run at workboxes went:

Box 1: Brady's new list of spelling words. He had to say the word then write it 3x.

Box 2: Read the book as he listens along to the tape. I have a tape player set up beside his desk so it's easy for him to use.

 

Box 3: Math sheet with counters (if needed).


Box 4: Roll A Graph (from Fall Fun Pack at Homeschool Creations).


Box 5: SNACK!!


Box 6: Practice sight words.


Box 7: Practice sound cards for blends.



Box 8: Read words on marked pages. These are words we've already gone over before.

 

Box 9: Count by 5s & use Do A Dot markers to decorate the fall tree.

Box 10: Cut out pictures & paste them under noun or verb.

  



Math Review

When we started school back up I spent a few weeks reviewing some math skills Brady learned in Kindergarten. He practiced counting to 100, counting by 2s, 5s & 10s. Below is a picture of him counting by 10s using a Chicka Chicka 123 tree we checked out from the Resource Center.


He did some workseets with pictures to review & used counters to help as well.

I gave him dominoes & he had to write out addition problems for each one. He really liked this!

He's remembered a lot which makes momma happy! We haved moved on to subtraction review while continuing with other math concepts as we go over other things in our studies such as graphing, odd & even numbers, etc. Below is a picture of Brady helping my stepmom in the store she & my daddy own. He had a blast helping the customers with their money! Couldn't ask for a better hands-on lesson than that one! :)

Have a blessed day!