School has begun - for Real

My oldest headed off to his first day of High School on Tuesday - it was a milestone for sure! he was so excited and could hardly sleep the night before. He is my social butterly who THRIVES on being around people! It is going to be an interesting year around our house. Danny and I are just excited to go to the High School football games - is that wrong? Because Alex is not so excited about us being there!

Mommy and the other 3 Boys had a full day of school also on Tuesday. Tuesdays are a hard day for me because my husband is off and he kindof gives a different atmosphere to our day(nothing bad but different) so it was not as s mooth as I would have liked it to be but it was a good day.

I have been gung-ho about workboxes all summer and very excited about putting them into play but when I was scheduling our day I really struggled with how to use them in our day. I could not figure out how they were going to be helpful for me when we do EVERYTHING together and the boys still need my help for LA and Math. It seemed like I was making more work for myself and the boys. Even though a lot of it would be fun stuff - they still need ME to do most everything so I can't figure out how to fill 12 boxes and split myself 3 ways to be able to help them all. It just seems easier to write the games into my planner and our schedule and we can all do them together. So - even though I have put a lot of energy and time into the workboxes - we are not gonna use them at this point in time!
So far the boys are okay with keeping Thomas happy while I work one on one with the other one! But plans always change around here!!

I think I was in LaLa Land last week in regards to anything other than schooling!!! We started school and I totally forgot about the Blog Hop - I love to see how others have decorated and do their schooling so I will so be going back and checking them out!!! If you want to see ours - I blogged about it here.


Now...onto the Real Stars of our show.....


Stephen...8years old......3rd Grade


Stephen is my shy, quiet, video game junkie.

Ben.......6 years old.....1st Grade

Ben keeps us full of life with the stuff he comes up with using his imagination - truly amazing and thoughtful!



Thomas......4 years old.....PreK

When Thomas smiles it is all I can do to not give him the world(and he knows it)!


These boys are great friends and brothers who love each other dearly - even when fighting constantly!!! It brings me such Joy to be able to be at home with them and be a part of this life we have been given together as a family!

2 Years ago the Lord challenged me to take on this huge task of schooling my boys at home. It has been the BEST thing that has happened to our family. We have been tremendously blessed through this challenge and I am so thankful for the oppurtunity that we were given!

the First Week

went pretty good! We got off to a very slow start just doing chores, bible and circle time but it was a good start! The boys were good sports about getting up and doing their chores and NOT playing video games before school! Ben got up early and had his done by the time the rest of us got up!! We didn't get to lunch chores and dinner chores because we left every day right after school to go do other things but we will get those down eventually! Once school starts for all of us we will not be going places so much!

This week I really want to add in some workboxes so I can get a feel for how they are going to fit into our school. I haven't quite got a handle on them so I will be spending some time on Sunday playing around with them and our schedule!! I am anxious to spend some time seeing if others have started using them yet and how they are working for them!!!

Off to a slow start

Last week I read a post about not jumping into everything at once when we start school and I haven't stopped thinking about it - because that is exactly what i would have done!!! I was planning to start - full force - on Aug. 25(the same day that Alex starts high school) but I have decided to start tomorrow and add a little bit at a time until we are on track!

We will start by getting into the routine of what our morning will look like. Wake up(we do not start at a certain time), chores(using the charts I made earlier this summer), Bible and Circle Time. Bible and Circle Time seem to be an easy transition and since we will start our day with them during school I decided to go ahead and throw them in this week! We need to get out of the habit of playing video games way too much and just being lazy!!! I am so bad with routines and schedules that I need the extra time to make these changes for this year!!

I am most excited about doing Circle Time. I know it is a total 'school' thing to do but I have big plans for our time together in the am. I put felt on a tri fold display board and velcroed the things I am using to the board - hopefully it will hold! I am gonna be adding things to it throughout the year. I plan to use the back for history or science needs. I am going to put up some blackline maps so they can put the name, date and locations of the different battles thoughout american history as we learn about them. I haven't come up with other stuff yet but I am sure I will get loads of ideas from fellow bloggers as we go along!!!

The biggest of these is gonna be Family Prayer. We will be spending time every morning praying for different family members. I plan to pick one family a month(we have no family living near us) and we will pray for the kids individually as well as the parents and other prayers for the family and get to know them a little at the same time. I have put up different verses about prayer and a picture of the family we are praying for will be in the center. I am still trying to decide if I should email the families and let them know we will be praying for them and see if there is anything specific we could be praying for - what do you think???

This week, before we actually start with Family prayer, we will be talking about prayer - what it is, how we do it, why we do it, etc. I Have this great book called 'A Faith to Grow on' by John MacArthur that was written for kids and has some great answers to these questions!

We will do calendar, weather and seasons.

We will be learning the books of the bible so we will start memorizing them thru song. I have them listed on one side of the board.

We will be doing things with the clock and time - I haven't figured out all the details for that one yet! But - I do have this fun little analog clock with movable hands for them to use!

Our Family Rules will be discussed every day until they have them down pat and understand each rule - clearly. Then they will be reviewed once a week!!! I am hoping this reinforcement in a positive way will help them to remember them instead of only hearing them when I am angry because they broke one of them!!!

Bible Time will be spent just reading thru the bible in a year! It might even end up being read at bedtime instead of during school because we are aslo going to be doing bible thru the curriculum I bought!

It will all depend on how the boys are responding and how well it is going how soon and when I will add things to the schedule!!! Ben has already told me he doesnt like being homeschooled and he wants to go back to regular school - whatever! The kid has only been in a preschool classroom - which he hated and I had to leave him crying hysterically every time - and he was only there for 6 months!!

More Workbox Schedule Cards & Numbers

I needed to change my schedule cards to make them a little smaller and I needed to add some so I ended up changing some of the ones I already did plus adding quite a few more!! Hope you like them!!!
Here they are for the taking if you want them or want to share them!!!

I also made new number cards which I let the boys choose what they wanted on them so I have Thomas the Tank Engine numbers(only 1-6), transformers and lego star wars numbers if you want to print any of them out for yourself!!!

I have to go to bed now - I have been playing with this for way too long!!!

(Not) Back to School Blog-Hop

Are you REALLY ready for school to start?? I think I am but I am fairly certain it will all chnage the minute we actually start school!!

Every Monday this month Life with 3 Boybarians is going to be hosting a weekly meme about Back-to-School!! The link below should take you straight there! This week is all about Curriculum - I can't wait to see what other's are doing this year!!!

Staples Deals - Pass the word on.....

Every week Staples has penny deals! I am not sure for how much longer but take note for next year if you missed it this year!! They are only sun-weds and this week it is loose leaf paper. Here's the best part - I found out today that Teachers can get 25 of some of the penny deals!!! Guess what -we are teachers - at least according to my staples!!!!
Make sure you check at your staples what the limits are before you buy!!!!
Have fun shopping!!!!