First day of school- at home

So today was day #1 embarking on the journey of homeschooling. We started in traditional first of school fashion by taking everyone's picture out front. (Wesley was crawling around behind me) Grady wanted in the pictures too with his silly "cheese" smile.

"Cheese Momma, me do shool too!" I love that is this picture Gracie is just smiling like Grady isn't even in her picture :)

Gracie, age 7, 3rd grade
Hoper, age 5, 1st gradeLooking at their pictures, i can't believe how big they are. 3rd and 1st grade? Seriously, where has the time gone? I am so grateful I God blessed me with the opportunity to be a Momma and to get to stay home with them is the icing on the cake. Although it isn't easy, I can't imagine it any other way. This new adventure will be just that, NEW and an ADVENTURE. I will be learning right along with them- How they learn best, what makes excites about learning and how to best meet their needs. I hope and pray that I'm up for the challenge!!

The girls have been highly excited to start school and see what it is like to school at home. Our first day went rather well. We started with Bible and moved on to our literacy based curriculum. I think we all will enjoy it and learn a lot. Our Math curriculum hasn't come in yet from our ES, but soon we will be starting that too! Homeschooling with 2 little ones does make for some challenges, but I'm sure once we get into the "groove", the baby boys will find theirs too. Grady participated in our Bible lesson and memory verse so that was cute. He kept saying "me school too Momma" :)

Wish us luck as we start this new chapter in life and experience lots of new things together as a family. I'll keep posting on our progress! (Or lack there of) Until later...

***Thank You Jamesy, for working hard to provide for us, so we can be home together, We all love and appreciate you!!!***

Dumbo

Grady and Hoper were playing dress-up today and I couldn't resist this little man! I LOVE this costume, it used to be Zach's when he was 2 and I saved it all this time because it was so cute!

Cruise homecoming

We had a fabulous time away, but we did miss our kiddos! They had a little "Welcome Home" party for us complete with a banner and cookies! (Kim, again you are AMAZING!!) They even wrapped "presents" (family pictures in frames I had stashed away) for us to open and were to excited to celebrate our home coming! When Zachary got home from school he too was very excited to see us and asked, "so, how'd your party go?", like it was a real party :)

The cookies got eaten before I could take a picture, ( here's a bad picture of the banner, as the bright outside make it hard to see.Kiddos, thanks for making our homecoming so nice. We loved our banner, cookies and presents! We love you and we missed you tons!!

School

Being part of a charter has many benefits and getting funding for supplies and curriculum is definitely one of them! We are working through a variety of unit studies and they are all literacy based curriculum, so we will be borrowing a lot of books from the library. We've already made 4 trips with about 15 books each time :) The girls are loving exploring the library and seeing how many options there are for learning through books. (Note to self...taking a 1yr old and a 2 1/2 to the library while strapped in a stroller while big sisters explore for hours is not the best idea) In addition to the books we need to supplement our actual curriculum, they get to each choose two books that interest them. The first week I think we came home with a book about wrestling and a book on piano. The book on piano was great and they even learned a few songs, the wrestling book, ummm not so much!

Our ES came today and delivered everything that we ordered, finally!! It felt like Christmas, as I opened 5 boxes of books, supplies and a computer monitor. All the kids (Grady and Zach included) sat for a good hour and looked through all the books and wanted to know if they could do art, write stories and do more school, it made me happy to see them so eager to learn and actively participate.
*** I thought about taking a picture, but just wanted to get everything put away as we are leaving on our cruise in the morning, so after I had put it all away I regretted having not taken a picture***

We won't get through all the books before Christmas break, but I'm sure as we go along I'll need to order some other things as well. For now, I am anxious to dig in and see what new and fun things we can learn together :)

My dearest Zachary

Zach has been REALLY struggling with the transition into a new class, new teacher, new school and making new friends. He is bucking the system in every way possible and it is becoming very wearing on his teacher and both James and I. I wrote him a letter in hopes I can better portray my inner anguish over this situation. Please pray that things will settle down and he can stay in his class and feel good about school.

My Dearest Zachary,
You are my baby boy. I know you're growing up and getting big and not a baby any more, but you will always be my baby boy :) My heart is aching for you and the difficulties you are having at school. I am so very torn in knowing what is best for you. I wish there was an easy fix for the best class for you, your behavior and your feelings, but I know there isn't. God made you special and sometimes that is very hard to understand, for us all, but I know that with Him we will get through this difficult time. You can do it, I know you can. Once you are done testing the boundaries, limits and even your new friends, things will start to click and feel good again.
Daddy and Momma are praying that things will settle down and you will feel good inside again :)
We love you so very much!

New baby Hekman

I was delighted to be in the room today when Jess had her sweet baby girl, Alayna Joy. Jess was a champ and did great during her delivery and the whole process made me want another baby...I know, I know, I have enough kids and don't worry I'm not having any more, but there is something about a newborn baby that still makes me ache in a way nothing else can :)
Congratulations Matt, Jess and Ethan! Thank you so much for allowing me to be in the room and share in your special moment :) Love you!!!

Homeschool art

Our book this week had illustrations that portrayed water and lots of it, with reflections, color changes and the use of light and dark. So for Art the girls looked through some "water" art and then had to draw their own pictures depicting what they had learned through both the reading and visual depictions of water.










This is Gracie's portrayal of use of color in water














This is Hope's portrayal of reflection in water

It is so fun to see their minds at work and see them in action! Fun day!! Great job girls on your "water" art!