Homeschool Camp out 2010

Ahhh, the homeschool camp out!

This was another highlight of our fabulous summer.  We stayed on the coast at William Tugman State Park with many other homeschool families.  We got to know some pretty amazing families and children this weekend. There were many fun activities planned to keep us all entertained.  We got to swim, play games, make stilts, paint stilts, have stilt races, worship the Lord together and eat candy, lost and lots of candy!!!!

This event kicked off our school year and what a way to start the year!!  The children came home excited to be a homeschool family.  They are motivated and ready to dig in to their school books.

They are certainly not going to be short of friends this year.   This is a picture of a lot of the children in our co-op.  There are many more besides this that could not make it to the camp out this year.  The girls have several new friends their age and a lot of them even attend our church.

Michael made some new friends this weekend too.  There were 4 boys including Michael who were all about the same age and played really well together.  We are excited to spend more time with them and develop their friendships.

Daddy and boys are hanging out in the motorhome.  We just finished up breakfast and were getting ready for the day.  AJ is getting SO big!  Michael is too for that matter, he turns 4 in two more days.  UGH... where does the time go? 

This last picture is one of the Minute-to-win-it games we played.  The boys had to put an Oreo on their forehead and use only their facial muscles to move the cookie down to their mouth.  It was very fun to watch - quite the sight.  These little hands just could not stay off the cookie.  Can you blame them?

In the evenings we all sat around the camp fire and sang songs.  The girls learned a lot of new fun songs.  They have been singing them all week.  It so great to listen to them and know that they have some very fun memories of camping.

Oregon Gardens 2010

This was so FUN!!  Every year the Oregon Gardens invites homeschool families up and teaches about trees, plants, animals, fire safety and many, many other wonderful things.  We all learned so much on this trip.  
Up above, Emily is modeling this years fire gear complete with fire hose, hat and water canteen.

Emily and Alyssa are standing in front of the fountain where the kids caught a frog!  Emily was thrilled to catch him and get to hold the little guy.  All the kids got to pet him and feel his smooth frog skin.

Here you can see the kids had spotted the frog and were headed in after him.

Emily is holding the little guy down below.  After the excitement of the frog wore down, she did place him back in the pond to go about his little frog life.

At another pond, one of the moms caught a snake that she let all the kids touch.  Yes, my girls were right in there petting the slimy snake.  They loved every minute of it.  Of course, I didn't get a picture of it because it was that very moment that my battery died.

AJ's first food

This is AJ's first experience in his new highchair with Cheerios. He tolerated it for a bit, but overall he was really not pleased or excited about it. He had no interest in the Cheerios, but the girls sure had fun trying to teach him to pick up the tiny Os and try them. I am sure the girls enjoyed this a lot more than AJ did.

Boshart Bash 2010

Very fun weekend!  We made some family memories this weekend.  The kids got to ride the cows, which is always a crowd pleaser.  This is Michael with his cow Betsy and Alyssa is pictured at the bottom with Chloe.


This year we had a bounce house and a racing house, which Emily is standing in front of.  Emily played on these most of the weekend.


At the bottom, Anthony and Michael are learning the Hula dace.  It was very funny to watch the boys and men Hula.  

Swimming Lessons

Swimming Lessons 2010


What a fabulous summer! We got to enjoy 8 weeks of swimming lessons year. The girls went from no water skills at all to being good swimmers. Emily made it through all of the classes in one summer. She can swim from one end of the pool to other. I was amazed at her progress. Now she needs to work on her side breathing and endurance and she may be ready for the swim team next year.

Alyssa had a good summer too. She made huge progress as well. She has one more class to complete next summer and then she is well on her way. She went from not wanting to leave the steps to jumping off the diving board and swimming across the short side of the pool.

Michael had a lot fun this summer once he figured out it was okay to get his face wet. The little turkey spent 7 weeks refusing to do a bob or get his face wet. The teachers were very patient with him and entertained him. One afternoon he was swimming along the wall of the pool and started screaming. He was screaming that a crab bit him. His teacher pulled him out of the pool and took him straight over to first aid. He was crying pretty hard and absolutely convinced a crab bit him. As it turns out, he was stung by a bee. However, to this day he will tell you a crab bit him during swim lessons this summer. He improved a lot this year too. By the beginning of our last week he finally decided he would try a bob. To all of our surprise, he now LOVES bobs. His entire last week he was so excited to finally be swimming and getting his face wet. Hopefully, he will still like it next summer...

All in all, we had a wonderful summer and I am thrilled that the girls can swim and Michael is comfortable in the water now. It was money well spent.

Osborn Park, Corvallis

 September 5, 2010

What a gorgeous day this was! The children and I drove to Corvallis to meet up with our homeschool group for one last summer outing.  The weather could not have been any better.  It was actually in the 90s and scorching, but we had a wonderful time.  


This kids got to play and swim.  The girls really wanted to try out that fun water slide, but mom was a bit nervous.  Actually, I was a wreck.  Trying to keep a close eye on 4 young children in water FULL of people is quite the task.  We all had fun and made it out of there safely and without incident, thank goodness!  


Even AJ got to swim for a while.  He splashed and played and even let out a few giggles.  It is so amazing to watch him grow and learn. He is quite the little swimmer.  He enjoyed playing in the warm water just as much as the other kids. 

How Tall This Fall?

                                                            












To help make today special and memorable we ended our day with "How Tall This Fall?" I set up a measuring strip in the dining room and measured each child one-by-one.

Emily is 46-1/2 inches tall









Alyssa is 44-1/2 inches tall








Michael is 40-1/2 inches tall





All of the kids, excpet AJ of course, are over 40 inches tall - YEAH! That should make Disneyland very fun for all of them.

AJ just had his 4-month well-child check and he measured in at 24 inches tall. They are all growing SO fast!

We Survived the First Day!

After months of fretting and stressing about how I was going to facilitate educating the children at home this year, I am please report that it went well! WOW! We are through our very first day and the only tears that were shed were mine. Tears of joy of course.
Sweet Emily was struggling with her math today; she had to spell out several large numbers. Though her first attempt was a good one, there were many misspelled numbers. She was not happy about having to redo them. With a little encouragement she agreed to try one more time. When I came back down to check on her, to my delight, it was perfect! She did it!!! And, her handwriting was beautiful too. I could not have asked for a better effort. She literally brought tears to her mother's eyes. What a journey this year is going to be. Emily's thoughts about her first day of homeshool, "How FUN this is going to be - I am so excited!"
Miss Alyssa finished her first day of school with ease. She had no trouble with kindergarten what so ever. She is spending time in our reading corner enjoying a book from Mrs. Darbie "The Night Before Kindergarten."  Alyssa's thoughts about homeschool are "I love it!"

What is Michael doing through all of this?  He spent his morning at the table with girls working on his lacing letters.  He is learning the letter Ss and all about the sun and creation of earth.  He has a much shorter day than the girls, so he gets a lot more hang out time.  Michael says, "I like playin' trains!" Well, not really school-related but at least he does keep busy and has fun while the rest of us work on school.  




Thankfully, our newest addition AJ spent a good part of the morning enjoying his morning nap.  He is such an easy-going guy.  I could never get through the day if he was fussy and irritable.  Thankfully, he had a wonderful day, even with teething.  If every day goes as well as today we will be just fine

Homeschool Chronicles

Temperatures are slowly dropping, the sun sets just a little earlier each evening, summer is slipping away.  The children continue to play, laugh, and terrorize each other not realizing how fast the time is going.  We are about to wrap up yet another season as we gather school supplies and prepare for our new adventure. 
The dining room that was once clutter free with open spaces is quickly closing in us.  The walls are lined with bookshelves and stuffed full of school books, literature, binders, and supplies.  The decorations are slowly transforming from elegant family portraits to cork tiles lined with ribbon displaying the upcoming school schedule, the infamous white board and the classic ABC banner.  Yes, our dining room is becoming a classroom. 
Homeschool is about to begin! We are all excited to see what this next year will bring. There are a lot of unanswered questions just as with anything new and uncharted.  Our plan is to stay positive, keep our expectations reasonable and be flexible.  Our motivation for homeschool is more quality time as a family to make memories and enjoy each other.  With smiles on our faces, Jesus in our hearts, a fun spirit, if nothing else we will enjoy the year ahead. 
My hope is to document our first year with lots of pictures and stories of our adventure.  The good times, the funny times, the sad times and the bad times.  There will be struggles along the way, but if we keep a cheerful attitude through it all, I have hope that we will make it to next summer. 
Stay tuned...