A place to share our story.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

The Story of Us


 Here is the Story of Us in picture form.
 
 
Brady and Logan made a Christmas countdown paper chain.

The chain was this long the day we made it. Today it's looking much shorter.



Sometimes our work space gets a bit crowded, and sometimes our stuffed animals come to the table too :).

With some new snow on the ground, the boys tried out their snow crayons. Or course our snow is long gone now.

They wrote their names. Logan's is upside down, since he was standing the other way.

Then all of the boys came down with the flu. This was the "sick spot" on the couch.

Sometimes, on really cold days, Brady and Logan do Language Arts by the fireplace.
 
On Saturday, we decided to celebrate Christmas with our family early.

The boys were excited and surprised.
 

Monday, November 24, 2014

Random Thoughts

My life is SO fun!
My days are spent hanging out with my favorite people. We learn, we cook, we watch movies, we sled, we play board games at the library, we take baths in the middle of the afternoon--it's just awesome!

I haven't blogged in awhile, even though I really do like to share, so that's why I'm here tonight.

Choosing to homeschool was the best decision we have made for our family in a long time. My boys are so happy at home, they are doing fantastic with their school work, and they are closer to each other now than they have ever been. I have found a few places to turn for the homeschool support that I need, and Brady and Logan have found time to spend with their friends, like they need. Honestly, though, they have all 3 become so close with each other, that they really aren't lacking many friends.

After returning home from Florida last month, we celebrated Halloween with our typical Halloween walk and trick or treating in our own neighborhood. Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Laura, and Uncle Jason all came down this year to join us.
Here are my skeleton, my robot, and my dinosaur all bundled up for the cold night.
We spent the next several weeks house hunting, furniture hunting, and checking out the kids play area at IKEA for the first time.

I have been working a lot. Actually, I have only had about 4 weekends completely off since September. The reason was because we are a little short of staff at work right now, and we are still learning our new ipad system for documentation. I really prefer just using a pen and some paper, but after lots of practice, I think the ipad should be good.

While most of the metro was getting dumped on with snow a couple weeks ago, we were not. Down at our house, we only saw about 2 inches. That didn't stop the boys, though. They have been out sledding on our hill and making snow brick houses almost everyday. As of yesterday, however, the snow in our yard was completely melted! But then, this morning, some new snow appeared again. It's never boring around here, that's for sure.

The boys are also keeping busy these days preparing for the Christmas program at our church. All 3 boys will be a part of the Christmas choir, and Brady even gets a special solo part, as he plays the part of a shepherd. The program is called  A Rockin' Royal Christmas and it will take place on Sunday, December 14 at 10am and again at 6:30pm. I have to work that day, so I am so grateful for the double performance!

We've put our creative side to the test a few times to make Halloween masks and Thanksgiving turkeys.

The boys have been climbing trees and baking cookies...



They have helped decorate for Christmas already as well as rode the light rail downtown to see the Christmas show.





But my favorite part of the day is watching them learn in the comfort of our own home--especially when they wear interesting hats :). Have I also mentioned that Marshall has actually started to read!?! His desire to sit at the table for busywork is lacking, but his desire to read is strong, which is so awesome!

Sometimes Logan chooses to write his spelling words on the marker board, near the Christmas tree.

Today, Brady wore his Santa hat while doing his Reading assignment.

Logan wore his stocking cap :)

And Marshall wore his "helmet", his "boots", and his "gloves" as armor. He also carried his "sword".
Brady and Logan will both be playing basketball this winter, starting next week. Brady plays on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings, and Logan plays on Saturdays too. It's been wonderful having a break from sports, but I think we're all ready to jump back in now.

Maybe I'll have a chance to come back to the blog before the holidays, but if not--Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

Thursday, October 30, 2014

We Went Back to Florida

Yes, for the third year in a row, we took the whole family back to Florida, our most favorite state.

Although being in the car for so long is not ideal, I really do enjoy the drive down and back. This year, we headed out through WI, IL, KY, and into Nashville, TN, where we stayed out first night. We continued on into GA and FL from there.
On the way home, we changed things up a bit and came home through Tallahassee, FL, into AL, MS, AR, and MO, where we stopped for the night. Then we headed into IA and back home again.
It was fun to hit 12 states in one trip!

As usual, we enjoyed lots of sunshine, swimming pools, the ocean, and mini golf.

Here are some of my favorite pictures.















Surprisingly, we have some different plans for next year. We haven't made any permanent plans just yet, but likely we'll be going someplace new!
I LOVE family vacations!!
I am so glad that the boys are old enough to travel well, and I can't imagine taking a trip without them.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

The Reasons Why

So, upon hearing that we've decided to homeschool our boys this year, the question I hear most often is "why?".
I will share some of our reasons this morning, and then I'll share some more of our pictures.

We chose homeschool because:

- We wanted more time with our kids.

- We wanted them to have a calm and relaxed schedule. Many days in the past were spent rushing kids to the bus, and then rushing them back inside to do homework, eat dinner, and head out to sports, church, etc.

- We want to know what they are learning each day and have control over the "sticky" areas.

- We wanted freedom from a 7 hour day away for school. School takes us roughly 3 to 3 1/2 hrs a day now, leaving us lots of time to learn away from books---at the park, at the library, in the kitchen, with each other.

- We wanted our boys to grow closer to each other, and after a long, tiring day at school, they had little "good" energy to give each other. It's SO much better now!

- We wanted to be able to give the boys the individual, one on one attention they need, especially with the areas of school that are a bigger challenge for each of them.

- We had to take a break from BSF, because the boys were getting too tired to be out that late. Also, they were struggling to have the desire to finish their bible homework and memorize their verses. This was not settling well with me. Now, we do our Bible class in the day, along with the other classes, and they are learning a lot together, and memorizing lots of verses.
I am hoping to bring them back to BSF next year, now that our days are more relaxed and less busy.

- I really like spending time with my boys, and I feel so fortunate to have them home with me every day.

- The boys really enjoy it! Just ask them, if you don't believe me ;).

- We decided it would be the best fit for our family at this time. We realize that homeschool is not right for every family, and we understand that it may not be the best fit for us down the road either, but for now it works, and we are having a blast!!

Here are the pictures to prove it.

Making a Rainbow in a Jar after school one day (from a library book we checked out).

Brady, reading to his brothers after school.

Working together on a puzzle and mapping out our route to FL.

A typical day in homeschool.

We get outside as often as possible for physical education. Last week we spent 3 days learning about tennis.

Learning how to make Enchilada Pie. They did great!

Riding scooters at the Farmington Art Park at 2:30pm.

Monday, September 8, 2014

The First Week of Homeschool

Last week was our first week of homeschool. It was fabulous and we all loved it SO much better than any other school.
We learned a lot of great information together.

Brady and Logan finished up with their math review books, and they'll begin learning new information today. They had some quizzes in Reading and Language Arts on Friday, which they did wonderful on, as expected, and we even did a few science experiments in our first week.
Brady and Logan are working through the Bible class fairly independently, and we all gather for Social Studies together.

Marshall reviewed his capital letters, worked on improving his cutting/pasting skills, puzzles, and so much more.

Here are some of the pictures I managed to take while we were working.

Oh, and our favorite part so far is that we are always done with school before lunch. Our typical day has been running from 9-12/12:15, which is working out great!!

Playing basketball for Phy. Ed. on Tuesday



Brady was taking a little break between classes.

Helping Mommy get dinner made up ahead of time.

Playing soccer in the backyard for Phy. Ed. on Thursday.

Practicing kicking the ball around the cones

Working hard

Brady was reading The Brick Bible for his free reading time on Friday.

Working on our science experiment. Seeing what passes through paper.

Proof of a great start :).