New Pictures!

Uncle Cole (my little brother) and I took the girls to Juden Creek the other day!  They have a beautiful little fountain area near the river and Olivia and Caroline just LOVE to feed the goldfish in the pond.  It was hot but we got a few good pictures!  I had to share.  :)

Aren't they gorgeous?!?!

-Maegan

Teaching Kindergarten with Sonlight

Since we started Sonlight, any time we have guests over Olivia wants to take them downstairs and show them her "school room".  She loves showing off her work and we are very proud of the improvements she has made, just in the last few weeks!  I thought it would be a fun idea to take pictures of her favorite pieces of art and schoolwork and post them for our friends and family to see.  Sort of like a virtual open house!  I have several pictures of her painting and working on projects on my phone, but my phone crashed and I still haven't uploaded all of those pictures from it yet.  As soon as I get those uploaded, I'll post!  Anyway, I have also had many moms asking about Sonlight and what all comes with the Core package, versus the Multi-Subject package.  It can be overwhelming trying to figure it all out, so I took some pictures of what we are using most right now.  There are some things not pictured, but most of it is all there!

During Week 1 we started The Boxcar Children, and Olivia wanted to make a REAL boxcar.  We used a shoebox to make a diorama boxcar and she loves it.  I believe at this point she isn't calling it a boxcar anymore.  Now it's a fairy house.  Gotta love having kids with imagination! :)

 Below is a watercolor she made on her own.  It says "My favorite character from The Boxcar Children is Violet."

 These two paintings below were made with fingerpaint!  Caroline's is the top picture and Olivia's is the one beneath.  The picture to the right is Caroline's crayon drawing!  She fills up the ENTIRE page with color!

 Here are a few pictures of her schoolwork!

 The assignment below was from Week 1.  She drew a picture of her favorite book and told a little about the story.  It says, "This story is about Laura and her dog Jack, and their new house."  Of course, it's Little House on The Prairie.

 Okay, the Bolt Buddies assignment was hilarious.  While using Sonlight, I have discovered so many new things about Olivia that I didn't even know she could do!  She looked at the Bolt Buddies picture and was asked to describe as many details as possible about it.  I think she did great!

 This year we selected Handwriting Without Tears to supplement her Language Arts with Sonlight.  This is an option you have when purchasing the Multi-Subject package!  It has been great so far.  Olivia is left-handed which is something we were really struggling with the past couple of months, but HWT has plenty of pictures that have helped us achieve better handwriting form.

 Pretty good for a 4 year old! :)

This is all Handwriting Without Tears stuff!  It comes with a foam mat where Olivia can put the letters together in the same order that she would form letters.  Next we use the chalkboard to practice the letter formation.  Last, she uses a wet eraser to wipe over the letters.  After learning the letter formation in 3 different ways, writing it is much easier!  It definitely seems to come more naturally using Handwriting Without Tears.  Their method is AWESOME and I would recommend it!

 

Next up, Horizons Math!  So far, I am loving Horizons Math.  It just really works great for Olivia's learning style.  My only complaint is that the guide book is sort of pointless.  We don't really use it, because it is very repetitive.  I do like the checklist, though.  It tells me what manipulatives to use for each week.  The only things pictured below that didn't come with the package are the large cardstock numbers.  I made those this summer to help Olivia get more familiar with the numbers 1-10.  We are still using them just for fun to supplement Horizons.  Also, the little plastic containers in the bowl on the right are gerber baby food containers.  I cleaned and saved them to put square counters in and they are labeled 1-10.  I am using these with Caroline right now to learn to count.  She will pick a container out of the bowl, we say the number together, and then count the squares.  She is picking it up very quickly!

 This is our calendar area.  We always start our day here.  I move the big yellow clock to the correct time and I let Olivia move her little yellow clock to the same time on her own.  We sing Days of the Week, Months of the Year, and sing our bible verses.  We learn one new bible verse each week, this week it's C: "Children obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord." Colossians 3:20  AMEN!  lol!  :)  Sonlight sent us a CD that has a bible verse in song for each week so it is VERY catchy and easy to remember.  We then spend time in Bible, reading and discussing the devotional for that day.  This is something we do each day, the same way!  I love the way it works for us right now.  It's a great way to start off our day.

 This is MOST of our science stuff from Sonlight!  Olivia loves Science but I have to admit that it is really my least favorite subject to teach right now.  It is very involved and messy.  It is great and she has retained so much info already, BUT the projects are so all over the place.  This week I decided to do all of our worksheets and reading in our 4 days of school and save the projects for one-on-one time on the weekends.  That way when Nathan is home he can either do the science project with Olivia or watch babies so I can do it stress free!  Both the babies are still very into putting things in their mouth and so many of those little pieces are scary for me!  I love all of the material and I know that once we get further into the year we will figure out what works best for us.  The most important thing is Olivia is loving it and learning so much!

 This shelf has most of our materials that we will be reading during the school year.  I try to keep all our our Sonlight books on one shelf out of the babies reach (to prevent disasters!!!) along with the DVDs that go along with Math and Science, and our Bible CD.  

The large yellow box on the shelf above is actually what we are using with Caroline right now!  It is a puzzle and toddler book set that I picked up at a yard sale for THREE DOLLARS.  It has been awesome!  She is learning colors, how to count to 10, shapes, and much more!  She is picking up all kinds of things from sitting in on her sister's lessons, too.

I know that was a lot of info, but I am so excited to document our homeschooling journey!  When we were looking into different types of curriculum I NEEDED to see it in action.  These aren't the best photos but hopefully it will help others to understand how it works!  :)  Olivia was so excited to see her work on the computer!  We'll keep you updated!!!

-Maegan and OLIVIA MAE MORGAN (Olivia typed that!)

Sonlight and MORE PICTURES!

This morning we hit our first little milestone since beginning Sonlight Core A (kindergarten level) a couple of weeks ago.  We finished the first Boxcar Children book!  We have been reading chapter books together for a while now, but this is our first one in the Sonlight curriculum so it just felt like a major thing.  We celebrated by having a little tea party.  AND THEN, y'all know I had to take some pictures!  I really just wanted to get a cute picture of each girl alone.  They are so cooperative, but I'm sure my neighbors think I have lost it.  "Oh look, there she goes again with her camera..." lol... Anyway, they are so adorable I can't help it!

Speaking of neighbors, I think we have just about the sweetest neighbors anyone could ask for!  Our next door neighbor is a first grade teacher and a first-time grandma to a newborn baby boy.  We walked over and took a peek at him a few days ago while she was babysitting and he is so precious.  I discovered that they also attend our church!  It is definitely reassuring while we are starting out on our first year of homeschooling to know that we have a veteran first grade teacher right next door if we should need any advice!  God always knows what we need, even when we don't.  I should also mention that using Sonlight curriculum has been a HUGE blessing for us this year!  There are so many options out there for homeschooling parents but Sonlight caught my eye right away for two reasons.  It is literature based which suits Olivia's learning style and it is also came in one big package that could be ordered from one website.  We are using Sonlight Core A, which includes Bible, Language Arts, Read Alouds (a mixture of chapter books, poetry, and short stories), and Science.  We chose Handwriting Without Tears for Handwriting, and Horizons Kindergarten for Math.  My lessons are all planned out for the entire year, and everything except math is organized all in one binder.  

This is everything that was included with our package!  I mean EVERYTHING.  Flash cards, bingo, math manipulatives, charts, chalk, EVERYTHING!!!  I know there are tons of hardworking homeschooling moms out there who put it all together themselves, but this is one area of life that I am thankful to just have it put together for me.  I cannot say enough good things about Sonlight.  I have a post coming up in the next few days of Olivia's work over the last few weeks.  She has made so much progress already and I can't wait to share it.  Thanks for reading!  

-Maegan

Sunday Pictures

I know I am driving my kids crazy with all the pictures I keep taking of them, but I just can't help it!  I am trying to get really good with my camera by the babies' birthday party (which is coming up way too quickly) in September.  We decided to do a joint party for Ellie and Caroline since their birthdays are only 4 weeks apart.  I chose a ladybug theme for this year.  They are both really too small to care about choosing a theme so I am taking advantage of that this year!  We are having a shrimp boil and plan to keep it simple and fun.  ANYWAY, the reason for this post...  The pictures!!!

This was a Pinterest-inspired picture and I have to say that I love the way it turned out.  This is just so Caroline.  I love her pouty face!

Olivia and her bow and arrow!  Merida is her favorite princess.... Today, at least!

I love that this photo captures my Ellie baby's arm rolls!  I just love this phase of babyhood!

Love this baby girl!  I can't believe she's almost 10 months old.

I have so many more photos to share, so stay tuned!  Thanks for reading our blog!

-Maegan

New Friends and VBS

This week is the week that we officially begin our kindergarten year with Olivia!  I am so excited to get started.  We have actually done about 3 weeks worth of work over the last month, but it has been kind of here and there since we were hosting house guests and attending VBS.  I have a friend who just moved back to the area and she is actually planning to homeschool her oldest daughter this year also, which is SO EXCITING.  It is always so nice to have a friend traveling down the same path.  Anyway, we attended Vacation Bible School with Olivia's new friend, Jaycee last week.  They LOVED it.  One afternoon after VBS, Jaycee came over for a little playdate.  The girls played dress up, had tea parties, danced to Swan Lake, baked cakes, and read books.  They were so sweet.  After Jaycee left that afternoon, Olivia said, "Mom, I asked God for a friend just my age and he gave me one, didn't he?!".  She was just so amazed that God had answered her prayers.  He hears the prayers of little ones, for sure!  Jaycee and Olivia are about 2 weeks apart and they are so funny together!

These photos are from a few days ago when we all got together for a playdate.  We have five little girls combined.  What could be more fun that this!?!

 Little Miss Rylee

 Oh. My. Gosh!  Caroline and Rylee holding hands was just too cute!

Hahaha.. I just can't get over these two and their poses!  They all had the best time!  We also have MORE exciting news!  Ellie is getting so close to walking.  She has been pulling up and letting go this week.  

....And apparently all that pulling up is so exhausting!  She has been falling asleep in her high chair during afternoon snack!  :)  

Thanks for reading!  I have so much more to share in the next few posts!!!

-Maegan