School’s In!!

Well, the time has finally come for us to start our school year…Little Bro’s preschool and Big Bro’s 6th grade.  Woohoo!!  I’ve been waiting for this time for so long and now it’s finally here! 

I can’t say that the boys necessarily felt the same but deep down I think they were pretty ready to begin as well.   After months of planning lessons, organizing workboxes (more on that later) and the tweaking of our schoolroom many times over, we are prepared for anything that comes our way.  (By the way, FLVS stands for Florida Virtual School which is what Big Bro is doing.) 

Here’s a glimpse of what we did this past week (Aug. 23-27):

1st day of FLVS                                Working…                                         Still working…

Not so many photos of Big Bro this week as he does his core classes on computer so the photos  would be pretty boring after the first handful!  Since this was his first week, most of the days were spent figuring out the FLVS system for emailing teachers, learning the pacing charts, turning in assignments, navigating the site and having welcome calls with each of his teachers.  I anticipate as he gets more comfortable with the way it works, we will be able to add some more fun things into the day…science experiments to go along with his topic, DVD’s that correlate with his World Culture class and hands-on math application activities as well.  

 

Big Bro with his first workbox…as I researched homeschooling last year, I found a popular HS system of having a child’s lessons prepped and ready with all materials in the box, all are numbered with velcro so they move the disc over to a tag when box is completed.  All kinds of assignments are included, writing journal, games, vocabulary practice, penmanship activities and so on.  Boxes are numbered and planned so that one can work independently on their project while Mom is helping the other and then vice versa.  Great, great system!!!  Both kiddos know that their turn with Mom is coming so I’m not torn and they both have learned how to get their next box and keep working without disturbing my work with the other child.  Here’s some photos of our boxes: 

Placing #2 on his schedule tag…removing it from box…with one of his boxes…his are car themed, of course.  I was surprised that he picked up on the system immediately and can now smoothly go from box to box, placing the boxes in their “done pile” and retrieving his new box, removing the tag and beginning work on the new activity.  Love this system! 

 

Big Bro’s box with various aviation theme photos (no significance to the themes but just something to entice each child since they represent their interests).  The photo of the stack shows the boxes out of order…not sure why but we weren’t using them yet at time of photo…now they are stacked in order from 1-9. 

 

Big Bro is taking Science, Math, Language Arts and World Culture with FLVS.  I am filling in with reading (that’s my field!!), art, writing (is partially included in lang. arts with FLVS but want to do more), character education, keyboarding, practical life skills and whatever else I can think as we go along.  We also joined a homeschool co-op so on Wednesdays (starting on Sept. 1) Big Bro will be doing a video game design class along with P.E. while Little Bro will be doing his own Pee Wee P.E. class, a story time with projects and one more that I can’t remember right now.  So pictures from that to come next week…

 

I began an “Aa” unit with Little Bro this week….here’s some of what we did…

Reading the “A” board                               Matching capital and lower case

(Saved board from my K teaching days!)                               A’s on an apple tree

                             

Making an alligator using his fist for the body and fingers for legs and mouth…messy fun!

Cute, cute, cute!!    

 

 

Rainy Day Investigation (borrowed the concept from “Sid, The Science Kid”) with best buddy “B”, spent the morning in drizzling rain looking for worms, digging under pavers and then eventually ended up in the fort playing fisherman on a ship.  How fun for two boys!!

Our friend, B, comes over every Tuesday and boy, do we love having him visit.  Now that school’s in, he even gets to participate in our school day.  He and Little Bro are very close in age, two days apart!  So you’ll see him in our photos every Tuesday, too.

  There’s a worm if you can see it

Here the boys are using a toothpick and poking holes in the letter A…good tactile letter activity…they loved it!

         Little Bro                                          “B”                     Little Bro looking at the holes in the light

This week we also learned about rainbows and even painted one with a pencil eraser which he loved and is a good fine motor activity, too.

                

Finished product                                                         Building a letter A with foam blocks

                                

Alphabet recognition wheel practice                     Making an “A” collage with Apple Jacks

            

Some pre-writing practice…he loved this activity the most

              

A little reader book                           Learning to make a sandwich…it’s never too early to train!

                                             

The highlight of the week was an apple taste test involving most of the family (Nana was working so we ate some extra for her)…planned for lunch so Big Bro and Dad were able to join in, too…all enjoyed trying the four types of apples and picking their favorites.  Papa had lots to teach and tell us, too, since his family owned apple orchards and he was raised on one!

              

             

Digging into the first one                                                                   Taste testers at work!

                                     

Papa’s favorite             Little Bro’s favorite       Big Bro’s favorite          Daddy’s favorite

Wednesday we took a couple hours out of the day to head over to a Homeschool Ice Skating Bash.  It was Little Bro’s first time on ice and though reluctant at first, ended up loving it and didn’t come off the ice for 1 1/2 hours!  That’s pretty amazing considering my ankles were killing me within five minutes!  This was a good opportunity for the boys to interact (yes, homeschoolers do socialize!) with other kids.   Of course, Papa joined in on the fun, too!!

     

    Go Papa!    

 

Friday we took a little break mid-day and went to a presentation about the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, it’s history, construction and up-keep.  

                        

And as a special treat to top off the week, I surprised them with a trip to Cici’s Pizza!  It was odd to go in on a weekday with Big Bro but the best part was that we had the whole place to ourselves.  The staff joked that each time we went to the buffet we could pick a different table! 

So the moral of the story is:  so far, so good!  We’ve had a great first week and am looking forward to week number two!  I love being home with them and since I love, love teaching that part is super fun, too!

 

My “plan” is to post at the end of each week the events and activities from the previous week.  I’m hoping I can stick to that!

Thanks for checking in with us and we’ll see you in about a week!

Florida Fun!

We’ve been trying to soak up the sun here in Florida…well, artificially that is.  Mama doesn’t like the heat (for goodness sake, it feels like it’s 100+ some days) so we like indoor activities for now.  Although, in my defense both boys have swim three days a week at different times of the day.  So we are outside every morning and every afternoon for an hour each trip.  But for our in between times, we’ve been attempting to throw in some Florida history this summer.  Can’t wait to hit more old historic sites in our Sunshine State but will wait for the cooler months!  Here’s a sneak peek into a little we’ve done so far: 

Kendan’s play-doh boy                                               DeSoto National Park                                     

                                     

 

Even Ala went kayaking

              

Spanish Explorers (not!)                                                Great historic film there, too!

                

Diving board fun—Garre n               And now Dad!                                  4th of July

Boys love fire!                                                                Escaping the heat in the mall

                       

Throwing a little Florida study in there as well!

T-Rex Restaurant in Orlando!  We had the best seat in the house—no joke!

 

 

Nana and Papa treated us all to lunch and this very awesome dessert!

          

We don’t go far without Ala!    It ’s hard to see but the van’s sticker says “Got Poop”        Garren loved this fact and took photo

       

Tea Party with Mommy!                                 Hot Wheel Fun!

                       

 

Game time with Dad                Learning Florida geography (little slips of paper with facts)

 

Swim lessons for Kendan…love Ms. Slowey                          Florida studies!

 

Love Tea Time with Mommy and Ala…yes, she has her own plate and cup!

 

 

So just a little snipet of our summer and what we’ve been up to!  We’ve had a great

summer!   Looking forward to our official school year to begin!

School Room Update

We first finished the school room transformation in April.  But as time has gone on and we’ve been able to actual work in the room and new supplies and ideas have appeared, we’ve adjusted a little.  The labels were the last thing to be done so I would know “it’s finished.”  So here is the new and even more functional school room:

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Destination Aviation

Big Bro was blessed (really blessed!!) with an unexpected opportunity to attend a week long aviation camp about an hour from us in July.  Thankfully Nana and Papa invited him over to stay with them since they are only a half hour to the camp.   It was a group of 11-13 year olds, most with a passion for aviation like Big Bro.  Here are some snapshots the instructors took during the week and passed along to us in the form of a DVD slide show (very nice for scrapbooking moms like me :)  (NOTE:  in preview of post, everything appears okay but when published the pics and captions don’t match up…not sure how to correct, sorry)

                                

Day 1:  Learn aviation history at on-site museum                             

Day 2:  Begin flight simulator practice                                  Day 3:  Design own airplane

Day 4:  Learn pre-flight checks procedures                    

 

Learning to read a flight map, use a compass and determine weather patterns and atmospheric/cloud changes

             

Group shot                                                                           They traveled to Vero Beach Flight Safety School to actually fly (was not his turn in this photo) the plane!  No joke!!  He did the take off and landing.  He said it was an awesome experience!  

            

They flew over Lake Okeechobee, too!                 Getting his log book filled out (3rd entry!!)

                   

Flight simulator at Flight Safety School the kids were able to ride and another group shot!

He had a fantastic week and loved every minute!  It was an early morning each day andfinished late but he said it was well worth it!                                            

Day 5:  A presentation by each student about one aspect of what was learned during the week.  Mr. Frey, the instructor (very good teacher…and I’m a tough judge), and Big Bro