1st Day of SEEK!

Today was our first day of SEEK, our homeschool coop! It was so great to see all of our friends and start our classes again! As you can see from the picture, the boys were all very excited this morning!

The big boys each get to take 2 classes. C1 is taking a research class and a class on puppets. C2 is taking a class called "Exploring the World of Science" and a P.E. class. L does preschool and today he did the letter A. He actually came home with a bit of homework. :) J had a lot of fun in nursery.

Moms get to take a bible study one hour and the other hour they are helping with the children. I am an assistant in a human body class. My bible study this semester is called "Season's of a Mother's Heart". The lady teaching has two boys and homeschooled them from K-12. They are 25 and 23 now and are both very successful. One works PR for a production company in NYC! I think she has a lot of wisdom to share about raising boys and I plan on gleaning all I can from her.

We are so thankful to be a part of this coop! It is one of the highlights of our week!

Check out C1's spider puppet!

Big D Cooks!

L and I love to cook together! One of his favorite recipes comes from the cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld, Deceptively Delicious. Nana bought us this cookbook and we have really liked a lot of the recipes. Luke's favorite recipe is for Frozen Yogurt pops. It is a very simple recipe and he can do most of the work. After we mix up the yogurt, confectionary sugar, and frozen berries in the food processor we put them in ice cube trays with popsicle sticks. All the boys love them and they are a small, fairly healthy snack! If you have this book, definately try this recipe!

Dayspring Picnic!

Each year our homeschool group, Dayspring, holds a picnic to kick off the new school year. This was the first year we were able to attend. It was held at Best Nest Farm, which is owned and operated by one the the families in Dayspring. We all had such a fun time catching up with our friends and enjoying the farm. As you can see from the pictures the boys got to feed the animals. They also played in a football game, rode on the zip line and had water gun fights with their friends. It is such a blessing to be able to be a member of this group! We are looking forward to an exciting year with them!

Homeschool Week#3!

We seem to be getting into a groove, which is good. I am glad that we started in stages because we are slowly adding all of our activities over the next two weeks. I can't imagine if we had started it all at once. This coming week we start SEEK, our homeschool coop. And in the following weeks C1 will begin guitar and Latin. C2 and L will begin soccer and the two big boys will start swimming. PHEW! J is just along for the ride!

What an honor and privilege to be able to be home and learn along side these boys!

"Meet the Heels" night at UNC

Last Saturday night, we took the boys to "Meet the Heels!" night at Keenan Stadium on the UNC Chapel Hill campus. Big J is a Tarheel fan since childhood, and now that her brother D is a first-year law student at UNC, we thought we'd get out there and show some school spirit! Highlights of the evening included C2 getting his shirt signed by QB Mike Paulus, L taking on offensive lineman Jonathan Cooper, and C1 getting his UNC hat covered with autographs.

Week #2 is in the books!

This week went very well! I think we are getting into the groove!

We continued our study of the Middle Ages. Our focus this week was on the Byzantine Empire and Justinian I, the greatest emperor of the Empire. We also learned a lot about early monks and monestaries. You can see in the pictures that we made stained glass "windows" to reinforce what we were learning about early churches. The boys did a super job, didn't they? We also painted our salt-dough maps.

During science we made a model of the solar system and hung it on our dining room wall. The model is not to scale. The planets are made out of balloons. However, we had fun blowing up the balloons and trying to measure their circumference. Those tiny planets were very very tricky!

C1 read Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights this week. He really enjoyed it. Both the boys read about St. Patrick during church history. What an amazing warrior for God. As a family we Netflixed a movie about his life, which everyone enjoyed, though I think J might have prefered watching Jay Jay the Jetplane as evidenced by him walking around saying "Jay Jay" and trying to put it in the DVD player :)

This week L continued to enjoy working along side his brothers. As you can see he made his own mini salt-dough map. He really loved painting it!

J enjoyed cutting fake fruits and veggies with mom. It is a lot of fun doing this activity with him. It has reminded me of a time I've done it with each of my boys. We have had this set since C1 was little and they have all loved it!

Lastly, the boys participated in a scavenger hunt at the library. As part of the hunt, C1 got to experience microfiche, which was hidden in a back room under an inch of dust. Nevertheless, it worked! It's good to know the technology we grew up on is not yet extinct!

Big Boys!

Yesterday morning as we were getting ready for church, we were shocked to see how big these boys are getting. J got a haircut on Saturday and he looks like such a big boy! It is amazing what cutting off those first locks can do!

For some reason C1 looked like a middle schooler to me today. Between the glasses and his braces.... Oh my....Is it possible that we have an almost 9 year old. What happened to our baby!!

They both looked so handsome and grown up that we had to share!

Community Ministry

On the second Saturday of every month, Big J and I take C1 & C2 to Moore Square in downtown Raleigh. We serve God by serving the homeless a hot meal. It is a privelege and joy to be able to do this.

Usually Big J will serve the meal with one of the boys and I walk around with the other collecting garbage and chatting with folks when they are finished with their meal. This week we served sloppy joes. C2 enjoyed working beside Big J placing hamburger buns on each plate. C1 walked around with me. What a joy it is to see them have a heart for serving others. They truly enjoy each Saturday we spend in Moore Square. It gives them an opportunity to share God's love with others and to have a greater appreciation for what He has given us.

"He who is gracious to the needy honors Him"
Proverbs 14:31

First Week of School!

We had a great first week of school! We were all exhausted as we adjusted back to the school schedule! I went to bed early every night and took a nap during the day!

The main curriculum we use is called Tapestry of Grace. It is organized into 4 units for a total of 36 weeks. The first unit is on the Middle Ages. So this week we reviewed the Fall of Rome and studied Barbarians such as Attila the Hun.

We also reviewed basic World Geography and landforms. C1 and C2 created salt dough maps showing land forms. As you can see in the pictures they are not done. We will paint them this week. They really enjoyed this and I think having to make each landform with their hands will help them to remember their definitions. We'll show you the finished product next week!

We also began their study of Astronomy. We are working on a lapbook to reinforce what they studied during the week. It is basically a series of little books that they cut out and answer questions on about their reading. They glue the little books into a binder. They came out very nice this week.

L and I had a blast working on numbers and letters. He is so excited to be learning alongside his brothers. He tries so hard to hold the pencil correctly and stay in the lines. It is so cute!

Every morning I spend some time with J, just the two of us. We both really love it. This week, he was very into beads. In the picture you can see him concentrating on putting some large beads onto a straw. He also loves building and knocking down. Very Sweet!

We'll catch up with you next week to share what we learned in Week 2!

First Day of School!

What a Day!

The boys really kicked this school year off right, with positive attitudes and great diligence. L reviewed his numbers today and was extremely excited to be learning alongside his big brothers; C2's first Literature book is Brigid's Cloak and he was a super help to mom with J; C1 is enjoying Medieval Myths and he attended a Gooey Science lesson at the library this afternoon; J will be a handful as we train him...he threw quite a tantrum over a Dora book. Hoo-Boy!

All I can say is...God bless Jen!

Coming soon: Salt dough maps and a model of the solar system!

Welcome to our blog!

Hi everyone!

Our home school year begins Monday and, as you can see, we're trying something new. Through this blog, we're hoping to provide a fun and interesting way for family and friends to see what we're up to...and to comment as well, if you so desire.

Enjoy! And keep an eye out for updates...around here, you never know what may lie just around the corner!

Love to all