we are homeschoolers!

well after two weeks in public kindergarten, for various reasons, we decided to take Toby out and we are now trying home school! since he just turned 5 in august, we have this year to experiment with home school without really hurting anything. if it goes well, he can go to 1st grade public next year, or do kindergarten or we may love homeschooling. we'll just see how this year goes!

On our way home from Houston the other weekend Toby was very interested in the clouds and sky, sunset and stars. So right now we are "studying" SPACE. we are reading library books about the solar system. we practice writing different words like, "sun" "moon" "stars" & "aliens". Elliana likes to pretend she is the sun and Toby orbits around her as the earth. btw, have you tried to spin in a circle while spinning in a bigger circle? Its pretty hard!

what we are trying to do is teach them many different things, (reading, colors, simple math, handwriting, science, etc) through learning about outer space. I tried to sit them down on the carpet and teach them about the calendar and practice some letters and numbers. Elliana loved it. But Toby kept saying he didn't want to play this game anymore! He isn't excited to learn in a classroom setting. He is a sponge though, just soaking up new information and wanting to know why this and why that all day long. So at least for now we are going to teach him while we are cooking, playing games, working with David on the farm, reading books, acting things out, watching videos, going to the zoo, doing projects together...

It requires more organization and purpose from me each day. But I am really enjoying it. I've been able to chat with different moms that have older kids whom they have home schooled for a while. They have been very helpful!

We are still sort of trying to find our weekly groove. We go to the Y a few times a week. We have one play date and a MOPS meeting every week. I'm working on some consistent "boy time" for Toby each week as well. Our little friend Hudson is starting to come over for a few hours every Monday. Toby loves to follow David around the farm. Right now he helps him milk the goats every Wednesday. So in some ways I feel busy! But its a good busy, one where if we need a day off we can cancel it all and be in our jammies all morning until we can get rolling.

Another fun change is the kids now have chore charts! It took three different versions until we found one that the kids understood. I didn't realize that circling a number or checking a box could be so confusing! But we figured it out. Every morning after we eat breakfast they do their morning chores; brush teeth, make up their bed and pick up their room. Then after dinner Toby takes the compost bucket out and vaccuums the floor in the kitchen. Elliana helps set the table then wipes it after we clear it off. Then they both brush their teeth and pick up their room again. They are both doing great! They happily do the chores! We have a bowl with folded pieces of paper on top of the fridge. Each weekend if they did a good job with their chores, they get to choose a piece of paper. The papers say different prizes like, "ice cream date with daddy", "movie date with mommy", "stay up 30 minutes after bed time", etc.

Last but not least, baby Asha is still adorable! She likes to eat her toes and chew on EVERYTHING! I'm just waiting to see her little bottom teeth pop up. She still squeaks and smiles. She's so fun!

Oh and speaking of teeth, I went to the dentist today and it looks like I need to have my wisdom teeth removed. :(