It's been quiet...

I know it has been quiet on here, but trust me it hasn't been quiet at home. We chose to curriculum free life school the kiddos from Thanksgiving through New Years. That being said, the girls (hopefully) have been learning that there are reasons that go beyond because I said so to clean and organize. I do plan to continue the life schooling once we resume our curriculum. My favorite thing I plan to work on as an ongoing project that spans through the years is to have them create recipe boxes that they add to every time they help with any cooking.
I really enjoyed taking them to the dollar store to buy each others gifts, it really lit me up inside.

I look forward to a great Christmas with my family, and wish any/everbody reading this to have a very Merry Christmas too!

Thanksgiving is approaching

I found this picture that I actually thought I had already posted. This is Lydia's modeling clay version of the Spinx and pyramids in the background. 

It sure has been busy around here the past few weeks. We decided to work on getting Jon-Ira into his room (his room has been our "indoor storage room" if you will) and there were several things that were left in the living room to go through that have been ever so slowly being gone through and so we have been having to work around them to do schoolwork. My step-father broke some ribs so Travis decided we should go up there and help cut up firewood. At first it would have been way to much to bring 5 children to their house as he dealt with the hardest of the recovery stage, so since they had a little bit to last a short while and then we had a slight warm spell, we were able to wait a few weeks before going. We went and were there for a very fast 2 days. It rained the first day which made it hard to do firewood, and I forgot my wrap so I wasn't very helpful at first, but ended up being able to help some when I was able to allow my Mom to enter Grammy mode and tote and love on Melissa while walking around with the other kiddos. 

Being that this is always a tight time of year with mine and Travis' anniversary, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then New Years, and then three kiddo birthdays and then right behind them are mine and Travis'  birthdays we have been trying very hard to minimize the amount of power we are using, so instead of 74 for our A/C on warmer days we bumped it up a degree to 75, and on the cooler days we just haven't turned the heat on at all, and was just using the fireplace. Well, last night it got down in the low 20's so we turned the heat on to 55 and I woke up to it on as the fire had long been out. I am so proud of my Katie Grace and Lydia, but most especially Katie Grace. Yesterday Travis was cutting firewood and she was really busting tail bringing it down to the house and stacking it up! I just hope and pray she doesn't get sick, she wouldn't listen and put on a long sleeve shirt, she had a short sleeve shirt on under her jacket and every time she would get warm would do a few runs without her jacket, and it was quite chilly yesterday. 

This morning I got up and started the fire back up and am already in just about an hours time about out of the wood that was brought in, so I guess I need to go out and get some more to bring in. Hmmmm, maybe I should make some coffee first, so my hands can warm up when I get back in. We have decided that today is going to be the only school day this week before Thanksgiving. I have too many things that I need their assistance in, and/or need my attention to be on to make sure Thanksgiving goes at least half way smoothly. We do however plan on having school Friday and Saturday. I plan on continuing the semi laid back approach to school through the first of the year and then hit it back hard after the new year. I think after how the end of our k12 times were, and for that matter how it started, lol, they deserved not quite a "deschooling" but a relaxed transition period if you will in between the k12 and our homeschooling experience. 

The girls did help me make our menu the other day. I will post it soon, and hope to have them make either a menu or cookbook to journal this years Thanksgiving dinner. I had planned on making a thankful tree on the back of my door, but I can't seem to get my ideas to make sense on paper for the trunk of the tree, I was going to use construction paper, but then you have the limbs and I'm not really thinking that I have the time to cut out limbs out of construction paper, so I may either do just a "pile of thankful leaves" or a tree with no branches, lol. 

Helpers

I started making Becca a counting lapbook last night to help her with learning odd versus even numbers. It didn't turn out the way I first envisioned, but I like it anyways.

This morning I got Travis up and in the woods to go hunting, but couldn't get out of bed because Melissa was still nursing, so in the bed I laid.

Not long after Travis left out Lydia came in asking for help getting the computer to work. I told her I'd be in there as soon as Melissa went back to sleep and would help her after I started a pot of coffee.

I was pleasantly surprised to walk in the kitchen to the coffee pot brewing, and she was filling the grits canister.  She  then asked how to make grits, and went on to do so.

Katie Grace decided to make bacon. At first I think I hurt her feelings when I went on to tell her that the big pan goes on the big eye, but she quickly figured out I was helping her not fussing.

By the time I finished Becca's lapbook (after seeing I had a minute to add the finishing touches) breakfast was nearly done.

Lydia did finally realize the computer wasn't on is why the screen wouldn't light up and was able to start her day.

I'm thankful for... (An ongoing post for the month of November)

In the spirit of thankfulness for the month of November, here are our most thankful things...

1. Erin-I am thankful that Jesus loved me and cared enough about me to die for my sins. 
    Katie Grace- I am thankful for my Mommy
    Lydia- I am thankful for Jesus and God
    Becca- I am thankful for God.

2. Erin- I am thankful for my husband, Travis Britt. Lord knows we have our differences, but there are so many times that I couldn't be who I am to him and our children without him and the love he shows to me, and us. (Even though his show of love is wacky sometimes it's his love and its given to us, and that's all that matters.)
   Katie Grace- I am thankful for being the oldest child.
   Lydia- I am thankful for my family
   Becca- I am thankful for Jesus. 

3. Erin- I am thankful for my 5 healthy children here with me daily.
    Katie Grace- I am thankful for my family
    Lydia- I am thankful for the people around me
   Becca- I am thankful for everyone. 

4. Erin- I am thankful that we are able to homeschool, even though it's not always easy. I'm also thankful that most not so great days still beat the public school bad days.
    Katie Grace- I am thankful for my warm bed.
    Lydia- I am thankful for the trees and flowers.
    Becca- I am thankful for pencils so we can write and draw. 

5. Erin- I am thankful for memories. Memories can take you places that no form of transportation can come close to.
    Katie Grace- I am thankful for Thanksgiving.
    Lydia- I am thankful for all holidays.
    Becca- I am thankful for unicorns. 

6. Erin-I am thankful for my children wanting to learn how to cook, and being able to jump right in and help when needed. I look forward to that love of learning to grow with each season, and passing down the love of cooking and most importantly the love that goes into a recipe.
    Katie Grace- I am thankful for Jesus dying on the cross.
    Lydia- I am thankful for church, and that Jesus died on the cross for me.
    Becca- I am thankful for the trees, and flowers.    

7. Erin-I am thankful for my moms. I am thankful for my Mom Jeannie S. Chambers) that has loved me since the day I was born, and for everything she has done for me emotionally and for the things that she has taught me. I am also thankful for my "adopted mom" or "Hodges mom" Ruth Floyd). She has taken me in as one of her own, and when there are times that I "need my mom" and the 3 hours time difference is hard on me, she is there for me. She also is what I call my "spiritual mom" as she was the one that got me to going back to church when I had swayed from going. I love both of these ladies so very much, and am so happy and blessed to have each of them in my life.
  Katie Grace- I am thankful for love.

8. Erin- I am thankful for love and compassion. There are times that love and compassion are what can be the sole things that can carry you through a situation with or without words
    Katie Grace- I am thankful for my sisters.

9. Erin- I am thankful for holiday traditions, and spending time with family.
    Katie Grace- I am thankful for my brother.

10. Erin- I am thankful for James Williams, and the happiness that he has released within my sister (Susan M. Floyd). He has brought things out in her that we have been yearning for for years. I am so happy for both of them, and so thankful that she is finally at peace with allowing herself to be loved. I am sure getting older had something to do with that too,(not that you're old) but the hugs I yearned for as her big sister growing up, I finally got, and get now that she has him in her life. 
   Katie Grace- I am thankful for toys.

11. Erin- Today I am thankful for our Veterans. I am especially thankful to have had, and have some very wonderful Veterans in our family. I miss my Papa very much, and I appreciate so much the love of his country that he instilled in me. I am happy to have so many military folk that span across the Navy, and Army. 
     Katie Grace- I am thankful for the Creation.

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Jon-Ira

Jon-Ira and his Bobby the bee with his hands for wings.

Jon-Ira the "GEET-BOT"

Happy heart

Becca beat her "by Thanksgiving" deadline of counting to 100. Next step, counting by tens, fives, and twos to 100. (10/16/2013) As of 10/29 she now knows how to count to 100 by ones and by 10's.
Jon-Ira keeps going around saying "aaaa aaaa aga aga" (alligator). And now that he has begun working on the letter Bb he goes around making ;p sounds as he thinks that's the right way, and for 2 years old, I'm okay with that. 

All of my babies on the slide :) 

Jon-Ira has fallen in love with these videos!  He will just watch them over and over and over and they have a beat that's fantastic for getting some moving around done too! I sent another picture from my phone and can't figure out how to bring it to this post, so it looks like I will be having two posts back to back again. *sigh*

People are noticing...

Apparently the girls and I weren't the only ones noticing the stress that SCVCS was causing our family. Katie Grace had an appointment on Monday, and I was told that I looked like I was actually feeling peace again. I have to say, Easy Peasy has truly allowed me to exhale much more often. It really is Easy Peasy! The girls, I admit started off a little slower than they should, but I totally expected it being that it was a change of pace. 

Becca is the closest to getting caught up, but she is also doing three different grade levels, so it's really almost complicated to say an exact grade level for her.  Jon-Ira really wants to be included, especially when we are doing more of the hands on activities, I have started working with him more on the preschool level of Easy Peasy than the ABC Jesus Loves Me, simply because we are already in the Easy Peasy site, but he is still doing lots of coloring activities from ABC JLM. Lydia, is still super excited with her lapbook, and absolutely loves working on it, and almost gets upset the days that her history lesson doesn't lead her to work on it. She is also enjoying working on her "wall body," where we traced her on the yellow paper, and as she learns about a body part she draws, and labels it. So far she has drawn and labeled biceps, quadriceps, tibia, fibula,  radius, and ulna. Katie Grace says that the history is her favorite so far, especially since there are so many games and interactive activities to help her grasp the concepts. Her favorite activity so far this week has been a timeline where she was given four important events from the Bible, she was to look up the approximate date that it occurred and label the lower portion of the timeline. She then was to find Ancient Egypt events from her lesson that were around those same times and label them on the top of the timeline.  (She used this website for Bible dates reference)

We will be headed to the park shortly and all the kids have on their Britt Academy shirts. I hope to get a cute picture while we are there. 

(I was asked if there will be a schedule of posts; most likely not.  There may be days that there are more than one, like today. Then there may be times that I go a week or two without any posts at all.)

Until next time.... happy learning!!

A few pictures...

As I mentioned in a prior post, we decided on the name Britt Academy as the name of our school. We also decided on school colors of purple, blue, and yellow. After the girls made tie dyed shirts for girl scouts, we decided that's how we wanted to do our outing shirts. I wasn't sure if Travis would want one or not, but after seeing how well they turned out, he now tells me he wants me to make some for he and I as well. We look forward to wearing these when we go out on outings. Hey, it will either increase or cease the "Are all of these yours?" comments, right?

Jon-Ira may not "do school" all the time, but he really enjoys it when he does. Yesterday he colored Abraham the alligator, he says "aaaaah." 

As Lydia took her body down to label the biceps and quadriceps, Jon-Ira took the opportunity to lay on it while she grabbed her coloring pencils :)  

Becca had fun with coloring addition, and is getting better daily with her reading. Hopefully I can get either audio or video of it soon. 

 Lydia was labeling biceps on her wall body. Labeling is so much more fun and engaging when it's your own body. (She had to lay on it to see if she had changed any in the last week, lol)

Katie Grace was in deep with history, learning about hieroglyphics. She loves those headphones, whether her lesson is online, or offline, with or without audio/video, she loves to wear them. 

As I am about to publish this (for the second time, as the first time was from mobile, and I wanted to edit it to make it easier on the eyes) I noticed that my picture of Becca didn't even include her, but only a portion of her work. We have hopes and plans to go to the park today, maybe I can get a few extra pictures of her today. 

First Full Week

First Full Week

We left SCVCS October 1, and I spent the remainder of the day that day going over what I expected of them, and what they could expect of me, and how the generic day would play out. We then eased into the daily work the next day. Therefore, this week was our first full week using Easy Peasy as our primary curriculum. 

It has been a very busy and hectic at times week. We went to Anderson for dentist appointments twice, and went to Greenwood twice, once for supplies for Lydia's science lessons and for shirts for tie dying for Girls Scouts and for Britt Academy (pictures to come soon), and once for my sewing class on Wednesday.

Melissa enjoying the play area at Kool Smiles

Katie Grace enjoying the games 

Lydia and Becca, never overlooking an opportunity to say Mommy, take our picture :)

I don't think Melissa is enjoying that as much as Lydia, lol

Now, that's more fun!

A New Adventure

 A New Adventure In Our Life

We have decided to embrace on the life of homeschooling. Through lots of back and forth and praying, and thinking and considering and reconsidering we have decided to school our children through the Easy Peasy curriculum. Even if for just this year, we feel this is what is best for our family at the current time. We have registered with the homeschool accountability association of our choosing, and decided on a name for our homeschool, we even came up with our "school colors." 

We have decided that our school will be called Britt Academy. We have voted and it appears our colors will be BLUE, PURPLE, and YELLOW.  We look forward to making shirts as an Art project one day to display our new colors.  We decided on these colors mostly due to Jon-Ira needing to be able to be included, as our first choices that were voted for were blue, purple, and pink.

As I previously mentioned we have chosen Easy Peasy  as our curriculum of choice. This seems to be the best fit for our family even if just for this first year of homeschooling. This curriculum offers preschool through high school, and can be worked on in different grade levels at once if need be. 

This is new to us in some aspects, as now we don't have so many teachers to "report to" as we had with the virtual charter school, however it is not as much of a change as we were already at home. I will be using this blog to document some of the things we are doing throughout the year. There may be times that as part of a writing assignment one of the older ones may create a blog post.

Becca, while in the virtual charter school was constantly bored, and was actually over half way through the year in her math book, but this curriculum is very reading heavy, so therefore I have backed her up to the reading portion of the preschool level (called Getting Ready 1 McGuffey Primer) for the reading portion and she is doing the rest of the daily work from the Getting Ready 2 section. She was reading so well the other day that I facetimed my Mom so she could see/hear her reading, and about halfway through she looked at me with the biggest smile and squeaked... "I'm ACTUALLY reading!!" She is also working hard towards being able to count to 100, so far she can make it to 50 on her good days. She is buzzing through at quite the pace to keep up with. Becca is such a joy to teach, and her enthusiasm is enough to make you smile from ear to ear on the toughest of days. Becca is currently 5 years old and in regular public school would be in kindergarten, but most likely would be bored as fast as she likes to move forward.

Lydia, currently 9 years old and doing Fourth Grade level, was the absolutely hardest to convince in the virtual charter school to do her written work, yet so far between the two oldest she is having the greatest success in that area with this curriculum. Lydia was the first one to have a lapbook as an assignment and she is head over heels excited about it. She and Katie Grace both love that their history lessons are tied into their Bible lessons.  So far, Lydia's favorite thing about her math is that there are lots of online games. I think what's so great about that is that she is learning even when she thinks it's just for fun.  I wish I could bottle the excitement from her on working on her lapbook and spread it evenly across her other areas of study, but for now we will embrace each struggle as a challenge, and hey, if it takes making lapbooks to create an interest, I see tons of lapbooks in her future.

Katie Grace, currently 11 years old and doing Sixth Grade level, is the typical pre-teen as far as attitude goes. She doesn't really want to do anything. However, once you get her started, and especially if there is a video or other extension activities to go along with her lesson, she's like a rocket you can't stop. She has been my biggest struggle. Why is she a struggle? Well, when she was in kindergarten, she was in one of the highest reading levels of her class, but was ashamed of her smarts because her best friend was in not the lowest, but one of the lower levels, and so her shame soon turned into trying her best to fail just so she could be with her friend. This continued through the years, and gradually got worse over the years. The more she forced herself to have shame in her intelligence the lower her self esteem became. So, now I have her here under my wing, and she is competing against nobody but herself, and sometimes that's an awesome motivator, others it just makes things that much more of a challenge. I'm up for the challenge. It is hard, and I know it is. She is so full of compassion it will shock the pants off of you. This child loves the Lord, and loves people.

Jon-Ira, currently 2 is mostly in the potty training stage right now. I do try to implement some of the 2 year curriculum (from this site) whenever he wants to "do school" like his siblings. Most often that not though, he just will get on Starfall and just play around with the letters and sounds they make. I started all of my babies on Starfall at around that age.

Melissa, being only 8 months old of course is mostly just learning how to handle solid foods, pulling up on furniture and "furniture walking," and crawling around being quite the explorer. The older kids thought I was crazy because when I give her Cheerios I count them to her. But, I told them, you are never too young nor too old to learn.

Travis' greatest excitement with homeschooling the kids is that he wants to teach them about honeybees, and have them have their own beehive. If this works out the way he is wanting, they would be in charge of them, would learn about how they do what they do, and would be in charge of bottling and selling the honey as well as part of their science and math.

My greatest excitement is being in control of when to speed up and when to slow down. There were times that they may need to spend 2-3 days on one topic and doing so in the virtual charter school would mess up their percentages. Likewise there were days that they "got it" much quicker and needed to push forward, and with the virtual charter school we would have to have permission to do so otherwise would be given points that after so many would get the whole family kicked out of school.

Part of what makes the switch from online public school to this curriculum so easy, is that this is a completely free curriculum!! This lady felt led from the Lord to make it available for other families other than hers.