Give Thanks to the Lord~ {Thanksgiving Books}

Today we read Give Thanks to the Lord and talked about all the gifts we have to be thankful for.
We wrote the verse on the white board and sang our praise song to go with it~

 Everyone grabbed their journal for copywork and Evie decided she could copy all by herself. She did~

 They all drew what they were most thankful for~

 Loved hearing them share their story with each other.
Giving Thanks I get to be their mom and their teacher!!!

Draw. Write, Now~

I felt it was time to give the 4 youngest a little drawing instruction.

I used this book with EK and SJ and they loved it.

I used the printable found @ 1plus1plus1equals1~

I printed two to a page and we glued them into our journals.

I drew on the whiteboard as they followed.

They did awesome and then copied the words.

I had the boys give me an extra fact about chickens as well.

This will be a daily activity for Journal time until we have finished the book.

I really like that it gives the kids confidence with drawing, reading, and writing.

A win win all the way around!!!

Record Keeping~ {Notebooking and Journals}

Over the years of public schooling I had children keep journals

as a keepsake of the growth made throughout school year.

Now as a homeschool mom I have found this practice just as positive!

We put everything in them from stories we write to art projects we make

to maps we label to photos/letters we want to keep.

There are times when we have a geography or science lesson we create a notebooking page with

so we glue it in our journals as well.

Some journals last half a year, a whole year or more...

it just depends on how often it is used.

The best thing about them is seeing the kids pick them up and look back at their own growth.

EC finished up her journal this week and as I was filing it away I decided it would be a Fun Friday activity to pull them out for a Journal Party~

I was right!

They laughed their heads off as they read old stories and looked at young photos of themselves.

It was neat for them to notice how many more EK had than them

and say... oh she's been home longer. :)

I am convinced journals are the best record keeper because the kids love them

and they are also super easy to store!!!

Happy New Year! {TaCkY the Penguin}

Today was our first day back after the holiday break

and we were all pretty ready for our routine!

I heard Scott tell the kids to be nice to their teacher today

and EK left a surprise note on the school cabinet~

 We began the day watching our KidSpring videos and reading our devotion.

They chose a topic for writing workshop and loved reading to each other~

{Love recording their writing at least once a month so I can watch their growth}

We worked on all our usual morning things working up to what Evie calls...

The Activity~

 I read them Tacky the Penguin and for art we made our own~

Evie is carrying her Tacky around like it is a pet.

More 'Activities' to come this week!

Santa Visit Stories~

When you visit Santa and want to take photos with your own camera,

they make you purchase a set of photos for $25...

crazy but it is the rules so we comply and today we enjoyed those photos~

I helped them each glue their photo in as well as their Pink Pig sticker/ticket.

We wrote about our fun day and they can look back at their photo to remember.

It was sweet to see Holly's face light up and say Santa

when I gave her the photo.

I also love watching all 6 look back through their journals

reading and remembering all the things we have saved in this book.

A great keepsake for sure!

The Most Thankful Thing~

I left the kids in the school room while I ran to get dressed this morning

and came back to this...

EK reading and teaching the bitty girls Brown Bear, Brown Bear~

and SJ teaching the boys calendar~

All was right with the world... I just sat back and watched!

A Most Thankful Moment for sure!

I had EK choose a story from our Thanksgiving basket to read today

and she chose~

The little girl in the story kept trying to guess her mom's Most Thankful Thing

and so did the littles as they listened to me read.

It was sweet to see their faces as they realized having a family is The Most Thankful Thing

and I could barely get through the last couple of pages...

had a few leaking tears stream down my cheeks.

They all grabbed their journals~

and wrote about their Most Thankful Thing~

We all took turns reading what we wrote and celebrated

the authors and illustrators they've already become.

My Most Thankful Thing... my family!

And being home every single day to teach these beautiful gifts from God!!!

1 Thessalonians 5:18

In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Journals Organized~

As long as I have been teaching I have always used composition books for journals for lots of reasons.

From the beginning of our homeschool journey, this has been our choice as well.

We write everything in them, glue art in them, add little books we make,

and all subjects are in one place.

Journals work well for us just because it is a simple format...

one book for all things we want to keep or remember.

You can imagine in the future we will have a bunch so this weekend,

Scott bought me 6 different rolls of duck tape~

and I began coding the binding of the journals.

One roll for each child and all have been taped and dated.

It will be super easy for them to pull their old journals to look back

over their work.

I can tell you I LOVED looking through them today!

Sweet memories all organized and proof of all the work we do each day as we learn together!!!

Skimmer Duty~

During pool season, checking the skimmer is the #1 chore and the littles can't wait to go out each morning.

Today they hit the jackpot...

9 toads and 1 salamander~

 During breakfast both EK and SJ researched to determine what kind of toads and salamanders they had saved~

They decided they needed a photo printed and wrote all about their morning in their journal.

They also copied some facts from their books.

Yay for Skimmer Duty!

The Carrot Seed~ {BFIAR}

This week we are rowing The Carrot Seed.

We read the story and connected with our planting day on Friday

 then read our Bible story of The Parable of the Sower in Luke 8.

We thought of things we had to be diligent at to succeed and wrote a story in our journals~

 In the midst of school, the UPS man delivered EK's MOST wanted birthday gift so all school halted as we swooned over this wonderful gift~

Window Nest Box

 Do you think she was just a little happy?

We are SO excited to see a bird move in and maybe raise some babies!!!

Dad was able to hang it when he got home from work~

Right outside our school room window along with another birdhouse, a feeder, and our hummingbird feeder!

After just one reading of The Carrot Seed SJ picked up the book and read it to me!~

{THIS is why I don't skip BFIAR (Before Five in a Row) books...

They are SO valuable for new readers in gaining self confidence in their reading journey not to mention...

 they are just plain AWESOME books!} 

AND just look at the youngest student to join our school for the day~

Ummm... can you stand the cuteness???

Journals~

Today we were very happy to have Addie over for a little playdate~

Amy joked we could practice what it will be like when Abby comes home... 

was pretty awesome as everyone paired off to play!

Since we were already outside when Addie went home, 

I thought it would be a great day to bring our journals out~

I want to share what our journals hold as they are actually treasure books for me as a mom and teacher.

Some of you may have heard the term 'Notebooking' where students write, draw, collect info, etc about a particular topic.

We actually did some that last year and kept in binders.

To say the least it was very tedious making copies, hole punching, and adding to a binder... just a whole bunch of paper.

We have also used Journals in the past but only wrote stories in them... this year I got just a little more organized (smarter) and are using them for everything except our art work.

Each child has their own journal that we work in every day. I say 'work' because we use it for lots of various reasons.

I am going to share a few pages out of everyone's journal to give an idea of what this little 'treasure' book holds!

EK~

~Copywork and dictation

~Poetry Notebook

~Social Studies writing

~Notebooking page that we glue right into the journal

~Math

~Today we all wrote Nature stories... EK's was about spiders

SJ~

 ~Science Writing

~Work with her Bob Books

~She goes anywhere in the house each day and draws a picture of whatever then we write the words together

~More Bob Books work

~Two stories she has written in last two days

PC and WP~

~Both boys trace their name and tell me the letters each day

~copy numbers or shapes

~Begun working on some patterning

~Today they both drew (EK drew for WP), they colored, and dictated what they wanted me to write. WP went back and traced the words.

EC~

(I do not stress at all about what she does... sometimes she follows directions and sometime no... it is her stage and I LOVE it!)

~Tracing name and coloring in shapes

~Cutting and gluing

~Tracing shapes with tracers

~Today she told me what to draw and I did then she colored. :)

Hope you can see why I hold these books as my treasures and what a cinch to store at the end of the year rather than a big binder.

We LOVE our journals!!!