Thursday, April 16, 2009

Reading is such Fun

unless you are one of my children!! They have no desire to learn to read if it interrupts with their playtime! I ran into a friend last week and she told me she pays her kids to read - what a concept??? I never thought of that but let me tell you....I am all over it!! They dont get paid for chores as is but they are always begging for money so....... I want them to read and they want money so they will now be reading for money. They are completely stoked!! The deal is 10cents per Bob book, 25 cents per easy reader with a cap of $1 a day. We could go broke real quick without a cap! They will have a tracker sheet and will only get paid once a week. We are going to make piggy banks for them to seperate tithe, savings and spending !

I am gonna have some serious readers....wooohooo!!!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

our ClassRoom

Since this blog is also my journal of our Homeschooling journey - I thought it would be fun to take a tour of our classroom - aka the kitchen! It has taken me awhile to give up my ideas of what my house should look like(I absolutely love to take garage sale/thrift items and make them my own and am constantly redecorating my house) and turn it over to what is, by far, more important...the learning place for my children! I am learning to love the schooly things incorporated into the decor - it is so fun to look around and see what we are learning/doing in school!



So - after all that rambling - here goes.............


This is our school table and book shelves loaded down with all our books from years past and years to come!! We have only been HSing for 2 years but I do love to collect books to use for school and I have already spread onto the living room shelves and will be needing more after this year!!! I think I can fit a couple more on the kitchen wall!!




can you see the couch in the living room - that is where we do most of our reading. the alphabet is on the inside of the doorway for added helps - if needed!




since the calendar wasn't visible I thought I would enlarge it for you and show off my LACK of teaching........notice the month??the date??? pitiful!!!




I do love to paint and make things bright and colorful and fun around our house and I couldn't help but add a few touches to the bookshelves....I bought the book ends at michaels on clearance for .49cents(for 2), painted them and added the little plaques - too cute!! But I keep adding so many books there isn't going to be any space fro my cutesie things!!






the hallway is where we are currently adding parts to our bodies. When we are done with this the plaques(they spell pasiecznik) will be moved to another spot and the wall will be turned into a timeline for the rest of our journey. I don't know how yet but I will have fun searching blogs for ideas!






in the baskets I keep math and language arts stuff, Thomas's school stuff and whatever Science stuff we are using so it is all right at hand for me to get at when we do independent work and science reading or projects! the Lizard just got moved to a new spot becasue every time he got watered it was dripping onto my Grandma's hutch!! I am going to add a whiteboard above this hutch - I think! Notice the cheese ball that jumped in at the last minute???




we got rid of the stools at the counter - they just used them as climbing aparatuses anyways - and put this hutch under it for art stuff!!




we have this great pantry in the kitchen and I use the outside of the door for our schedules, our reading charts, the rules and whatever else I feel like needs to be put on the outside for us to see or read on a regular basis!

on the inside i have a see thru shoe holder with flashcards, markers, pencils, erasers, sharpeners and other daily necessities. I really like the see thru holder so I can look and see exactly what I need! I did use empty frosting containers(they are the perfect size) inside the different spots to put the erasers, pencils, markers and stuff that needed to be contained!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

the Story of Easter

We have been reading this book - the Story of Easter - for Bible during school the past couple of weeks and I love it! It is a very simple retelling of the events leading up to the cross and the resurrection with the verses for each event written across the top of the page. So - there were a couple days I wanted to go deeper and I had the boys bible with us and we read the verses from that as well as reading the pages in the book. The way it was laid out each event was a 2 page spread that we read each day or every couple of days. The boys and I learned alot and enjoyed reading this up to Easter. Follow the link and check it out!!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

wOrdLesS WedNesDaY

nuff said.........

To see more of Wordless Wednesday posts head on over to 5 Minutes for Moms!

Monday, April 6, 2009

I Love Homeschooling

I was always the mom who was going to have this exciting life of doing projects(my most favorite thing in the whole world), crafts and volunteering while my kids were in school all day. My house would be clean, I would exercise and have quiet time after the kids were off to school, I would make fun snacks to welcome them home from school, dinner would be ready and on the table when daddy got home from work, we would have family devotions and off to bed. Ha!Ha!
God had some seriously different plans for my life!!!! And now we HomeSchool and I wouldn't have it any other way. God so knew what he was doing by calling me to this and I am ever grateful for the influence it has had and will continue to have on our family. We are a much better family since our mindset changed and we became a HomeSchooling family. Our whole lifestyle has changed(for the better of course) and I am truly excited for the changes that will continue to happen, for the boys growth and our growth as a family and in our relationship with the Lord our Savior!

I am starting this blog that is just about our Homeschooling Journey and all the fun we have along the way! I have been blogging at http://justalittlehouse.blogspot.com/ about everything going on in my life, schooling, my projects and my random thoughts and I decided I wanted to have a spot to share my homeschool journey, the boys journey and anything else to do with HomeSchooling.
Here we go.....Enjoy the ride........