A Look Back

I was just looking back and reading through some of my first blog posts here.  It's so fun to see where my head was a year ago versus where my head is now.  I went from feeling the waters with the tip of my toe, to jumping head first into the deep end.  But you know what?  God's got his arms around me so there is no way I'm going down!  This past year I have felt such peace about the decision to homeschool.  There has been confirmation after confirmation that it's not only the right thing, but the best thing for our family.  It's amazing how a topic that caused me stress to even think about (the girls schooling and what to do about it) now causes me joy and excitement about what our future holds.

I'm not going to lie though.  There are still many moments when I have no idea what the best choices are and get overwhelmed about it all.  I'm trying my best to do as much research as I can to make wise informed decisions that have our long term goal for homeschooling in mind.  I'm looking forward to being intentional about meeting other homeschooling moms over this next year so I have some support and relationships with people who are going through the same thing.  I'm still unsure about if we should join a co-op and if so... which one?  I feel like I have time to decide those things though as Kindergarten is about fun and learning to enjoy the process of learning.  I've heard from multiple people that K should be fun and you can't screw it up so I'm trying to take that and run with it.  Here's to an amazing new school year!

Summer Lovin!

Our spring and summer has been crazy, busy, and fun.  We kicked off summer with an amazing 2 week family vacation to Maui and have been going non stop since we got home.  It's hitting me though that our school year is going to start in a month.  I'm both excited to be starting, and sad that after 5 years our lives will now somewhat revolve around the school calendar.   We had a successful year of preschool last year and I'm excited to become an official homeschool mama by starting Kindergarten this year with the girls.  I've just gotten the last of our curriculum picked out and ordered and can't wait to get it in and start our year.  I'm thinking we'll begin in August so we have a little flexibility at the end of the year.  That leaves us just under a month to enjoy the rest of our summer and get ready for school.  Can't believe it's gone by so quickly.

My cuties on vacation in Maui!  Oh how I wish we could have stayed there forever!!!

Just Keep Swimming...

I haven't been good at updating, and we've had a busy February. I had friends in town the first 2 weeks in February and didn't end up doing school with the girls. Bad, I know. I'm thinking of it as an early and extra long spring break. ;-)

We did take a trip to SeaWorld on a gorgeous warm day, which we of course used as a learning experience. I love that we can use a trip to SeaWorld as a school day, and get more out of it than had we read about it in a book or watched a videos for a week. The girls are still reciting facts about orcas and the many different fish we saw. I'm so thankful we have passes so we can go back whenever we want throughout the year! Here's a little recap of our favorite moments of the day...

We started the day with the Shamu show. The girls loved the orca's and have enjoyed playing SeaWorld trainer ever since our trip.


One of my favorite shows of the day... the dolphins!


They all waved goodbye at the same time. :-)


This is one of my favorite exhibits in the entire park. A little Sea Lion Love!!! <3

Sea Turtles!!!


The girls loved feeling the starfish and were so brave at the touch pool.


We got so lucky and walked through the beluga whale exhibit right when they were feeding them. I had no idea the beluga whales could do all of shamu's tricks. This is when the trainer had her spit at us.


This was the most hilarious walrus. He was sitting in shallow water right up against the glass and eating a squid (or fish or something equally squishy.) He would spit it against the glass and then suck it back in over and over again.

Rainy Days

I was given some great advice by a wise homeschool mom when I first started on this adventure. She said to make sure I enjoyed the little moments and to make time for special memories amongst our schooling. She said one of the things here girls still remember most from their early homeschool years was taking a break on a rainy day to cuddle together under a blanket with a cup of hot cocoa and a good book.

So today, when I woke up to the sound of rain on my window... I decided to do just that! I asked the girls to get everything cleaned up and then instead of heading into the school room I told them to go wait quietly on the couch for me. I warmed up some hot cocoa on the stove and brought it to them (with squeals of delight) in their new princess mugs they got for Christmas.

I downloaded The Wizard of Oz onto my Kindle Ap and we all snuggled under a blanket drinking our cocoa while I read for over an hour about the amazing adventures of Dorothy. It was everything I was promised and more! The girls were great and listened intently, and we got to just be us, together, making memories we will never forget! I can't wait for more rainy days in the years to come and am so thankful I listed to those wise words and let myself just stop and enjoy the moment!

Oh and as a bonus... my sweet little Brin lost her 2nd tooth today!

Faith like Daniel

Today for our Cubbies lesson we learned about Daniel. After reading the lesson to the girls we read Daniel 6 together from our Bible. I love that they really understand and question things now. They listened to the entire chapter very intently and really took it all in. We talked about the men who had tricked King Darius, the faith Daniel had to openly pray to God, the heart of the King after God has saved Daniel from the lions, and the tragedy the men and their families went through becuase of what they had done to Daniel.

We talked about what we would have done in each of those situations and the girls asked really intelligent questions and showed great faith in their responses. They both said they would have prayed to God just like Daniel becuase he is always there to listen to them and helps them when they are feeling scared. When I asked them what they would have done if they had been thrown into the lions den, they both exclaimed they would start praying right away becuase they would have been scared. I can only hope this is a glimpse of the faith they will have as they continue to grow and mature in their relationship with Christ. There is something so special about the faith and trust of a child and I feel so blessed to be able to witness that. Praise the Lord for his love and saving grace!!!

A good idea... gone bad

So I had this fabulous idea to have the girls help with their thank you notes this year. I made little forms that allow them to fill in who the card it to, what they got and are thankful for, and then their name at the bottom. I planned to cut these out and have them paste them into cards we make during craft time on Friday. It's obviously been awhile since we did school and I've forgotten how frustrated they get with free hand writing... especially with all lowercase... and on just a small line. So yesterday after the girls struggled and huffed and tried their best for over an hour to form words and leave spaces between them (which didn't happen.) They are barely legible and after each doing just 2 notes and almost 10 left to go... I called it a bust. I'm thinking I'll just write them this year and have them sign their names at the bottom. I'm sad it didn't work out, but I don't think I have the patience to sit through another few hour of this, nor do they. Waaaah Waaahhhhh!

Back in School

To say we missed a little school over the holiday's is a bit of an understatement. We had the girls birthday and week up at Disneyland the first week in December. The girls got really sick and were down for the count with ear infections, strep, pink eye, and colds for the entire 2nd week of December. Then we took off the week before Christmas and the week after was our annual family trip to Palm Springs. So if you're adding that up... it's an entire month off school. For that reason even though the local school wasn't starting until next week I decided to start back up today. We're easing in with a bit of review, catching up on our Cubbies since we missed the last 2 weeks and have this weeks lesson as well, and just trying to get used to having school every day again. I'm excited to be back to a routine and make up for lost time and I hope we find the groove we were just developing before the break.