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Sunday, April 20, 2008

Ian's birthday among other things...


Here is the first beautiful flower of spring at our humble abode.. It was a few weeks ago and there are now some daffodils and other gloriously green things making their presence known. I am so glad it's spring.
We've been hard at work the past few weeks.











An ostrich lapbook...who knew they could kill a lion w/ a kick! I'm learning as much as the kids some days lol.




I have taken some time to evaluate what we've accomplished this year and what still needs to be done. Overall we are right on track, the challenge is to stay on track despite so much nice weather... We've had lots of fun playing outside this week.





















We celebrated Ian's 3rd birthday this week too! Here is one of the birthday pictures that my sister Kimmy took of him at Sadie's in the Holyoke Mall. I'll be so sad when she doesn't work there anymore. I have the greatest collection of beautiful pictures of my children thanks to Kimmy.
We can never seem to get away with having just one party, much to the delight of the birthday boy/girl. First we had a party for Ian at Angela's house and then we had another one up here on Monday (his actual birthday). Both parties were a lot of fun. Its funny, in some ways I can't believe he's only 3, he's so big and he acts so mature...and in other ways, I can't believe my baby is already 3!!! Ian requested a lion theme for his parties this year so I had fun creating lion cakes and crafts and we had a wonderful time at both parties.



























On Friday we went to a "curriculum fair" of sorts. The families in the homeschool group we are a part of got together to share info about their homeschool curriculums. It was really awesome to see and hear first hand about so many different resources. A lot of people came with things to give away too! Being rather new to all of this I was so excited to get so much information. We were blessed with lots of great resources that others were finished with. I am excited to plan things out for next year! A lot of what we have done this year will carry over next year. We will still plan to use our geography studies as our catalyst for other studies. This year we studied North America and Africa...we've still got 5 continents to go! We are going to add some of the rich literature units from Five In a Row to our routine. The math curriculum I bought, Shiller Math, should get Bella through the end of next year. I think we'll try Singapore math after that. We got some free second grade spelling books and I am going to look into purchasing a grammar curriculum called Easy Grammar. Bella will probably start cursive, possibly using Handwriting Without Tears. I also have a ton of resources for Isaac to start his kindergarten work. Ian should be a genius by the end of the year if he pays attention to all I am doing w/ his siblings lol.

One of the best things about going to Amy's for the curriculum fair was that she has a beautiful stream in her backyard. It cascades down the mountain behind her yard creating little waterfalls and pools. The weather was amazing and the kids had so much fun playing in the stream. There were lots and lots of kids there so we made some new friends and enjoyed exploring.






















Now it's vacation week!! I am headed to a retreat in Maryland and the kids will be at my moms for a few days. I am praying it will be a refreshing and fun time for all of us.

2 comments:

Conepines said...

awesome pictures!! that one of ian is like one of my favorites ever

and thats a sicknasty lion cake hahaha
the retreat is gonna be so fun!!

Anonymous said...

Looks like you all have been having a great time!! Congrats to Bella on her award! I hope the warm weather provides you with plenty of opportunities to learn outside!!!
Love, Mallory