Celebrate the Everyday

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Why Celebrate the Everyday? I always start my day by repeating to myself Psalm 118:24- "This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it." It's a reminder that even in the midst of the mundane and on the hardest of days, there is always something to celebrate, always something to be grateful for! Join me as I document our family's journey of homeschooling our son.

For my Mother-in-love- August 30, 2010


See...he really does enjoy homeschooling, here's a smile just for you!...Ha! Love you Mom! : )
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Potter Park Zoo with Cub Scouts- August 29, 2010


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On Sunday, August 29 we joined our Cub Scout Pack for an afternoon at Potter Park Zoo. We enjoyed ourselves very much. It was neat to see a few animals up close. Thanks to the zoo camp Zach attended earlier in the summer he was very knowledgeable about the animals we saw. I think that his love of animals will take him far in life as one day he hopes to become a Veterinarian and work in a zoo. Unfortunately, due to ridiculously high temperatures (92 degrees) we did not stay long but we did enjoy the time we spent!
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First Day of School 2010- A week in review- August 27, 2010


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Our homeschool journey officially began on Monday, August 23, 2010. The day started off with a bang. Zachary was extremely excited to begin and we raced through our day at break neck speed. We finished everything on the agenda in a little over 3 1/2 hours. Our second day was not the greatest. Some attitude issues started to creep in due to the fact that he had to work on things that were not his favorite (writing). To be honest I wasn't surprised. I'm expecting a period of adjustment as this is something very new and different for the both of us. These issues allowed for a lot of discussion and character development, which again is one of the reasons we chose to homeschool for the fourth grade in the first place.
Academically, our curriculum has been somewhat simple and will be for the first couple of weeks. The groundwork is being laid for our study of the world in Science, Bible, and Geography. The majority of our time this week was spent learning about maps, globes, latitude, longitude, hemispheres, etc. Zachary was able to apply for his (fake) passport. He enjoyed filling out his passport application, filling out his check for the passport fee, and addressing the evelope to the passport office. In Science, he has started learning about niches, communities, and environments. In Bible this week he memorized John 3:16 which begins our study of missionaries, and different religions around the world. In Math, we have been doing some review work. Brushing up on some of the skills that may have gotten a little rusty over the summer. Our grammar curriculum,
G.U.M. Drops (Grammar, Usage, Mechanics), has been a lot of fun. They are short lessons which Zach seems to enjoy. The greatest success thus far as been our writing program. I cannot say enough good things about Writing Strands! Zachary has always despised the writing process and this program has completely engaged him and is making writing fun. We do have a couple of programs we have yet to start. Spelling, for example, starts during week 3.

Well, that about sums up our first week. I am almost done planning our second week and am excited for what is in store!

Before I end this I have to share a funny story. Sunday night as we were tucking Zach into bed he said, "Mom, aren't you going to lay out my school clothes? I said, "Zach, we homeschool you don't need school clothes." To that he replied with a gigantic grin on his face, "Oh yea I can go to school in my underwear if I want." I promise he was wearing clothes come Monday morning and the pictures above and below are my testament. I couldn't help but laugh at my crazy kid!
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Woldumar Nature Center- August 26, 2010


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We met up with our Botany Boot-camp friends for a scavenger hunt this morning to help review what we have learned thus far. We broke up into teams of 3-4 kids and hiked throughout the trails looking for samples of things like: a monocot, a dicot, angiosperms, etc. The kids has a lot of fun and were rewarded with GIANT marshmallows at the end.
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The weather was beautiful and we were treated to an awesome display of butterflies and hummingbirds.
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Look very close to the left side of the feeder to see a hummingbird in action! There was probably 4-5 of them in this small flower garden area. It was amazing! I have never seen that many at one time.

On your mark....get set....go!


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I can't believe the start of our first homeschool year is only a couple days away! We made our decision over 6 months ago and at that time it seemed like our start date was so far away. Oh how time flies! I actually am finding myself ready for school, and ready for fall. This summer has been so jammed packed that I can't wait for our season of stillness. Cooler weather, Hot Chocolate, Apple Cider, warm flannel pj's, shorter days, soups, stews, and casseroles, along with the routine of school year life all have great appeal right now.

I've spent the majority of the last couple of days making sure everything is ready. Copies have been made, materials have been sorted, assignments have been planned, and books have been requested from the library. I think that we are as ready as we will ever be! If our family comes to mind next week please pray for success. Oh and patience for me because I'm sure I'm going to need a huge dose of it. On second thought maybe you shouldn't pray for patience...you know what they say about praying for it..... ; )