Keepsake Interviews (2017 Edition)

It's time for our annual Back-to-School Interviews!  This is one of my favorite traditions.  I take back-to-school pictures of the kids and ask them a bunch of questions. It is so much fun to look back at their responses over the years and see how they have changed. This has been done for MONTHS but I forgot to put it up, lol

From the past: 

2011- Sebastian is 4; Kaelyn is 1 

2012- Sebastian is 5; Kaelyn is 2 

2013- Sebastian is 6; Kaelyn is 3 

2014- Sebastian is 7, Kaelyn is 4

2015- Sebastian is 8, Kaelyn is 5; Miles is 1

2016- Sebastian is 9; Kaelyn is 6; Miles is 2; Oliver is newborn

And now on to the 2017 edition in this series...

Using my Erin Condren Teacher Planner in my Home School

I started using the Erin Condren Life Planner in April of this year when both my older sister and my mother were sharing pictures of their planners. I fell in love with the beauty but as I used the planner I fell in love with the functionality and how I am a million times for organized. I am actually getting things done! I needed a planner all my life. When I bought my Life Planner I received a coupon in the package, and when I got around to starting to plan the 2016-2017 school year I looked into the Erin Condren Teacher Planner. With the coupon and my birthday coming up I decided to go ahead and get it. I am so happy I did!  Let me show you how I changed it up to make it work for my homeschooling purposes.

Field Trip Friday: #1 Farm Show

I am starting up a new column on my blog. Field Trip Fridays!  Whenever we go on a field trip, I will try to share our pictures and experiences with you. Today I want to share with you a fun field trip we went on this past week.  Every year we go to our state's farm show in January since it is such a close distance to us. This year it is celebrating 100 years running!

All Saints Academy Mission Statement

I think it is important to have a mission statement for your home school. It helps clarify why you educate at home and it can help you focus during times you want to give up!

I was there this year. We felt the burn out.  I didn't have a mission statement to read, but I took time to think about WHY we are educating our children at home. It is important to do that every once and a while because it can be easy to lose sight of your reasons.

We have been named All Saints Academy for a few years, but I hadn't taken the time to create a mission statement before. Now that my son is rising into third grade this coming year and my daughter is officially starting kindergarten in the fall, I decided it might be time to be more "official".

Life Update: Preschool and Dancing

Kaelyn had her dance pictures this weekend!

How about a quick update on our lives?

Letter L

Our first unit in our "official" preschool was the letter L.

Books We Read:

• Goodnight, Lulu by Paulette Bogan
• Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen
• Llama Llama, Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney

Letter Projects:

• Letter L Lego painting
• She was supposed to use a Lego and paint and stamp colors on the letter. She actually painted  the letter so you can't even tell she used a Lego, lol.
• ABC book: Lamp L
• On black construction paper we glued a purple L on it. We added a lamp shade and gold glitter for light.
• ABC art book: letter college
•  We cut out many letters from a magazine and glued them into her art book as a collage

 Music:

Craft and letter activities board for display

• Little Shepherd by Debussey
• Trout by Schubert (piano strings version, finale only)

Crafts:

• Little light craft from Catholic Icing
• Lollipop cutting practice
• She cut circles and straight lines out of construction paper. She glued them down and decorated them. She went s little crazy with the glitter glue.
• Lion plate

Writing in sand

We also did the activities I listed in this previous post like using Handwriting Without Tears, making the letter out of playdough and in sand, Do-a-dot letters, writing on paper, Q-tip letters, and more.

Using playdough

 This was a fun week!  Next week we are moving on to the letter F! 

Getting Ready for Preschool

The past few weeks in our 4-year-old preschool classes have been a bit haphazard and all over the place. I was waiting for my daughter to be better behaved before I began formal lessons again. Growth spurts, new schedules, and a baby brother made her a bit wild.  She is still wild, but are beginning the curriculum I wrote for her now.


I like home education because I am able to adjust according to the needs of the kids and the family as a whole. There is so much flexibility!

Our goals for this unit include:

• letter recognition
• handwriting practice
• cutting practice
• gluing practice
• following directions
• focused creativity (she is a free spirit, and channeling her energies is a skill she needs to learn)
• hand-eye coordination
• fine motor skills

Books

Each  letter will be read about in books. Lots and lots of books!  I try to read a different book each day to give variety. We start out our lesson with reading a book. It helps focus and bring a good vibe to the start of lessons. I point out the letter on the cover and help her come up with other words that start with the same sound.  Right now she has NO idea how to do that, so my 7 year old son helps her out. One day she may understand the sounds, but for now we are working on letter recognition.

Activities

There are a few activities we will do with each letter. These include:

• Handwriting without Tears pages
• Using the HWwoT (Handwriting without Tears) wood pieces to make the letters
• Using our HWwoT chalk board to wet, dry, and write the letters
• Writing the letter in sand
• Making the letters in Play-doh
• Do-a-dot letters
• Q-tip letters
• Adding a page to our Letter Art Book
• Adding a page to our ABC construction book
• Decorate a letter to hang
• Catholic Icing activities (Includes a Bible verse, a saint, and a craft based on the letter)
• Crafts!  Kaelyn loves to do crafts, so we usually do at least one a day in addition to the standards we do each week for every letter. For example, we might make a butterfly mask, or dig in the garden, or make tye-dyed shirts. We have tons of fun.

Music

Each week I pick one or two musical selections. We listen to the music while we work on the crafts and sometimes during lunch. Sometimes the music makes us get up and dance!

Curriculum 2014-2015

A new school year has started, and  new books have been cracked open in our house. This year I have a 2nd grader, a preschooler, and a baby. This is also the last year I don't have to worry about reporting to my school district, so I am enjoying the laid-back non-stress year as much as possible.

This year we are approaching school with a unit-based classical style, as a family. Although my four-year-old may not understand everything, she is enjoying "doing school" with her big brother. I am loving how we are bringing all the subjects together by using RC History, which is a Catholic, classical, literature based approach to history. The co-op we belong to, Classical Catholic Memory, is also easily fitting into the units we are studying since they are both based in the ancient world this year, and the time of the Old Testament. They are both building a timeline through the year and I hope for the crossover to help Sebastian see connections in real life.

Starting Preschool

School has started up very slowly and gently.  So far we have gone on a few field trips and had four days doing book work.  We continue to read books together and we do tons of crafts.

Oiralinde Preschool

I have enjoyed doing a boxed preschool with my three year old daughter this past year. We read books together and did a craft each day. It was minimal effort and work because the curriculum had everything spelled out for me and the materials ready for me ahead of time. It was a great purchase at the time because I was working most evenings and I was also pregnant.

For this upcoming year I wanted to do it myself because of price and being able to make it completely geared for my child. What is so much fun with the three/four year old age group is their LOVE of reading books. I could read books with my daughter all day long, and I am going to use that love of books in my curriculum.  She also loves anything crafty or hands on, so we will do tons of that as well.  This is a VERY low pressure "school" for her. Since she has an older brother, she likes to do school with us, so this is a way to keep it age-appropriate, fun, and still filled with things to learn. I  have no goals for her except to start to love learning. If she learns some letters, even better but it is not a necessity.

What I am doing for you, my readers, is putting the curriculum I am writing online FOR FREE for you to use, if you desire. Each week I will update you with pictures, tips, ideas, math activities, science labs, art projects, Bible and Catholic ideas, a book list, and a list of materials needed for the projects. I will also link to the Pinterest board I am using that week so that you can easily get the directions to activities I borrow from other places.

Both my daughter and I are excited to start this journey together and we hope you will enjoy it as well. We expect to start this curriculum in July, so we will see you then!