Looking Forward to the Second Grade

It's time!  It's time to look forward to the second grade.  Several have asked, so I'm sharing our curriculum choices and considerations with you.  I placed the order for our Core curriculum this week.  We're sticking with Sonlight.  I just love it!  We're finishing up Core A over the summer.  We would have finished a few weeks ago, but we switched it up second semester and put it away to work on other things.  One difference this year is that we're doing the 4 day instead of 5 day.  She takes supplemental classes one day a week, so I feel like the 4 day will be sufficient.

We're also sticking with Apologia for Science.  We started with Astronomy.  We'll do Botany next year.  This is the one class that she takes outside of home one day a week.  They don't do the Jr. Journal, so I haven't decided if we'll add it or not.

As for math, we're still not totally sure.  We tried Math U See last year and got about 18 lessons in and she was bored.  I just got her some workbooks from the bookstore to keep her going.  Then the second semester there was math included in the core we used, so she finished it.  And, then we got her a couple of Singapore math books, which she LOVES.  So, it looks like that's what we'll be using.  However, before I made the purchase, I came across Teaching Textbooks and was really intrigued by it.  

 

 

We'll be starting Latin this year.  Very excited!!  I'm just starting to research this and a curriculum to use.  My bestie suggested starting with Songschool Latin, so that is at the top of our list right now.

We are also taking part in a group called Keepers at Home.  We'll meet once a month and will be going through the book and learning a new skill each time.  It should be a great time together.  I'm looking forward to learning a few new things myself.  =)

As an added bonus, I have to share with you some of the great books I earned with my Usborne Open House.  With the double hostess credits, consultant discounts, and commissions - I paid $2.28 for $450.65 worth of books.  SCORE!  I got some great supplemental books to go with our core since I know we're doing Intro to World History.  We also got tons of art books, reading books, and the Learning Palette.  Can't wait!

Week in Pictures

End of Year pool party with our homeschool group.

Good times with our homeschool group.

Last day of Cheer Extreme at the gym.

Audrey getting her Awana award.

Audrey making pizza at her friend's birthday party.

Fruit kabobs at the birthday party.

Maddie eating the pizza she made - look at the cute apron!

Decorated cupcakes!

Good times with good friends in the backyard.

Slip and Slide

Audrey and her new "fake' glasses.

Maddie at Cubbie awards night.

End of Year Special

Whew.  Where did this week go?  And, where did that storm that just blew in come from?  What a weird week!  Speaking of.... Maddie was sitting in the van on the way to school Monday morning and said, "This makes me feel weird.  I like weird."  So, there you have it.  It's a weird week and we like it!

The rainbow after the surprise storm.

I decided to let Audrey have the whole week off from school this week.  (How many times can I say 'week' in one post?!)  There was just way too much going on.  We had several End of the Year events happening with Maddie's school, church activities, book fairs, etc.  And, honestly, I needed the break and "recharge" myself.  We're not completely taking the summer off from school.  We're going to finish up projects that we didn't do, a few workbooks, and just keep plugging along.  We won't start any new curriculum until August though.  I'm also researching a few new things to try for next year.  

I absolutely cannot believe that Maddie's last day of preschool is tomorrow.  I remember when Audrey was in that class and Maddie was a baby.  Now she's finishing up and before we know it, she'll also be moving on to second grade.  Sad thought, too, is we'll never have a chance to have Mrs. Kelly again (love her!).  We have decided to keep Maddie at the private school one more year.  She'll do Pre-K there Tues-Fri mornings.  The days are not as long as GA PreK and she should be reading when she enters Kindergarten, hopefully.  I'm excited about our decision.  We'll start homeschooling her in kindergarten.

Silly girl in the jumpy house.

Can't believe it's almost time for PreK!

Her BFF!  They adore each other!

I held my Usborne Open House on Tuesday.  It went super!  We really had a fun day.  I thoroughly enjoyed having so many friends over throughout the day, as did the girls.  When there wasn't anyone over, the girls and I were either looking through the books ourselves or working on art projects from some of the books.  As an added bonus, I've earned enough hostess credits for $180 worth of free books AND I can purchase $125 at half price.  I do believe we will be getting most of our "wish list".  I'm telling ya... if you need/want some books... you can't beat the new consultant bonus.  (Anyone that hosts a show for me in my first 12 weeks - which will end the first week of July - receives double hostess credits!!  That's how I'm getting so much.)  And, I LOVE these books.  I borrowed 3 boxes of books from my supervisor to show at the Open House and my entire family has really enjoyed them.

I guess I will call this post "done".  I'm going to go to bed and fall asleep to the thunder and rain!

Happy Anniversary!

It's uncharacteristically quiet in my house right now.  The girls are sleeping and hubby is on a plane.  I hear some welcomed thunder in the distance.  I wouldn't mind a bit of rain to sleep to - and cool off this impertinent heat wave.

Enough about the weather. . . I want to say (a few hours early) Happy Anniversary to the most amazing husband ever!  Tomorrow marks 8 blissful years of marriage for us.  It honestly feels like such a short time - though I guess that's part of growing old (together).  The time passes by so quickly.  This will be our first anniversary apart since he's traveling for work.  But, look out - our 10th anniversary will be here before we know it and we're already planning our trip to Paris.  Yay!!

He really is a fantastic man.  He's brilliant beyond (my) comprehension.  He's an eclectic individual which keeps life interesting.  He's a strong Christian man who truly lives each day with the highest of morals and values.  He puts his family above all else.  He puts up with me.  He tells me and shows me he loves me on a daily basis.  He is my very best friend.  I love you, D!

Shopped til We Dropped

Have you ever had this sudden urge out of the blue, don't know where it's coming from, but you just go with it?  We totally went with it today.  Audrey loves to get those free pamphlets from Hobby Lobby on how to make stuff.  We were going through them today and one of them jumped out at me:

This was our inspiration! Audrey & I started planning out a backyard transformation.  Our yard is just so blah.  We took the swing set down last year because it was no longer safe, but we had intentions of building a playhouse in its place.  We have the hardwood flooring for it... but that's as far as it has gotten.  So... in the interim, we're going to go for a garden/tea party look in the back.  Maybe the girls will want to spend more time back there.  :)  Here's our starting point:

We've got big plans!  We headed out to check the new Goodwill down the street.  It was awesome!  So clean and organized.  Happy place!  We found a really nice wooden table, chair, & storage bench set.  It was a high quality material, really heavy.  But, it had been quite loved.  (Lots of tape, writing, and nail polish):

We sanded it down this afternoon and added the first coat of paint.  We're using the inspiration color palette from above.  On the table I actually did green chalkboard paint.  Here's stage 1:

We'll be adding green to the rails on the back of the chair,
but we have to finish the body first and then tape it up to add the third color.
May also change the pink because its not quite as dark as I wanted.

The orange looks yellow here, but it is a little lighter in person.

We also stocked up on some super cute outdoor accessories like this (all 40% off, I might add):

We also have a birdhouse (of course) and other goodies.  I can't wait to get it all put together!  In the meantime, check out my sweet (and very serious) helper:

And, finally, a bonus buy.  No idea why I bought it, but it spoke to me.  LOL  It is an old school slide screen that Audrey called a "T.V. from the 90's".  Nice!  I think it calls for some backyard movie watching!  Do you guys have any ideas to share?!