Sonlight Garden

Dancing

She is dancing again.

(sigh)

This is a very good thing. She was beaming when class was over.

A very good thing :0)

A Mother's Smile

Joe started school today. When I picked him up he had a big smile on his face. Big change from last year. We are ready to officially begin our school year on Monday. This week we are busy with doctors appointments for the kids and me. Joe had an orthodontist appointment and got a palate expander and braces on the top teeth. The poor dear is adjusting to talking and eating with a mouth full of metal. He has had a big week; new school, braces. He is handling it well though.

In other news Catherine lost a front tooth yesterday. How cute. I love her toothless grin. She is getting so big and is just a sweetie.

John Paul discovered the laundry shoot in my closet. I found a drawers worth of clean clothes and lots of shoes in the laundry room. Good times!

In the next couple of days I want to blog about the learning spaces I have set up for my guys. They are loving the new set up. Very excited about this.

I read something today though that puts everything in perspective. "The most extraordinary education begins with a mother who smiles."

Isn't that awesome?! So all the prepping and planning I have done is great and good. But the key ingredient is going to be my joy and enthusiasm. I am so thrilled to have my children home with me. I feel so blessed to be able to teach them. Do they know that? Most importantly do they see that?

I heart faces ~ Beautiful Eyes

Our John Paul has awesome eyes with the l-o-n-g-e-s-t eyelashes. Out of the bazillion pictures I have taken of my children, this is my favorite one of Jonh Paul's eyes. You can really appreciate just how long his eyelashes are! 

To see more beautiful eyes go to I Heart Faces

 

A Look Back

 I put together a video which is becoming a tradition every August. 

To my bunch,

A look back as we step forward. What a year we had!! It was hard at times but we made it through and we grew. We grew spiritually. We grew closer. We grew stronger. You bring unspeakable joy to my days! I am so looking forward to this year. I am sure we will have some great adventures and no doubt some struggles. But with Jesus and each other we can do it!! I love you all so much. More than I could ever say in words.

 

Love, Mom

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same visit Soule Mama to participate.

Craft Kits

At the homeschool convention this spring I came across a booth called Shirley's Crafts. They were selling a box that contained directions and material to complete 12 preschool crafts a month. Each month is a different theme. The concept is pre-packaged crafts. While at the convention I bought a box for the month of April for Amelia. She LOVED it!!  I loved it! Everything I needed was right there. There was no need to hunt everything down. The fun little crafts happened.

 When thinking about this school year and my gang I wanted to add some fun, seasonal, liturgical, "crafts". I wanted them to be a little more than paper crafts, although, I did add a lot of those in here also. I wanted there to be something fun for them to look forward to each week. Something planned and prepped and ready to go. Usually I will see a neat idea on-line for a craft and think, "Oh I don't have the glitter, pipe cleaner, etc. to do this, I will get it the next time I am out" and then I forget all about it. And then the "project" never happens. I am not very good on the fly.  I also added a few baking projects like, baking a cake for the Blessed Mother's birthday. 

Years ago Jennifer at as cozy as spring (one of my favorite blogs) put together crafts bags for her school year. I thought that was such a great idea and I found her old post. She found a lot of great ideas out there and I borrowed almost all of them :0). This entire summer I worked on this list picking up items when they were on sale or when I had a coupon. Oh, and I discovered Hobby Lobby! I think it is my new favorite craft store. We didn't have those in Florida. Anyhow...

I took out my calendar and looked at the feast days and the seasons. I took into account the arrival of our new baby and I wrote everything down on the calendar. So here are our monthly crafts and activities. Everything that can be in a bag is and ready to go!

August

-Pencil Boxes- decorate pencil boxes for the first day of school. I found these blank pencil boxes at Michael's. I am going to fill them with their school supplies, new crayons, pencils, etc. and then let them decorate them with stickers and markers. This will be a nice surprise on the first day of school.

-Apple cupcakes (so many cute dessert ideas on Family Fun)

(photo from Family Fun)

-Seed/Bean mosaic pictures

-Fairy Garden

September

-Bake a cake for the Blessed Mother's Birthday

-Tissue Paper Monarch Butterflies- supplies pipe cleaner, black card stock, tissue paper. Will look like a stained glass window.

-Autumn Wreath (these are printed out ready to go in a bag with the paper plates)

-Sunflower coloring page (They have really beautiful coloring pages)

-Michaelmas Daisy coloring page

-Make Sculpey Angels (out of Sculpey clay)

October (Mary Jane's Birthday, Welcome new baby!)

-Feast of the Guardian Angels- Bake an Angel Food cake and have an Angel Hair Pasta meal.

-Feast of St. Francis of Assisi- pine cone bird feeders

-Feast of St. Margaret Mary- Miraculous Medal Craft

*round wood plaques, pictures of Blessed Mother, ribbon, little flowers. Write on plaque "Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee."

-Autumn Leaf creatures

-Glitter Pumpkins -these would be a great centerpiece or mantel display. (note to self. Do these outside.)

 

-Make roasted pumpkin seeds

November (Catherine and Amelia's birthday)

-All Saints Day- Spoon Saints

-Thankful Tree- I love this idea from The Crafting Chicks (great site!). What a cute centerpiece. I have also seen thankful trees that you hang up on the wall, which would probably be more practical for us. After all, we do have a 2 year old John Paul in the house. 

-Mosaic Cornucopia

-Autumn Gnomes (down at the bottom)- I am linking to these cute craft kits. And, oh there are so many cute ones. I so badly wanted to order these. I tried a couple of times. Once, the cart was all messed up and I couldn't get more than one item in at a time. The second time I had my shopping cart ready to go and then was called away from the computer and never got back to it. I took it as a sign. I then realized I had all of the materials to make all of these little dolls downstairs in a basket. I bought this doll making craft kit years ago, similar to this I also had two books sitting on my shelf to help with the process, Feltcraft: Making Dolls, Gifts and Toys and The Nature Corner: Celebrating the Year's Cycle with a Seasonal Tableau A little more work is involved but it is cheaper!!

-Pine Cone Turkeys - I found lovely cinnamon scented pine cones for these. Supplies- pine cones, pipe cleaners, wool felt for feathers

-Pomanders- with cloves and oranges

December  (Christmas)

-Paint wooden Christmas tree ornaments- found blank wooden ornaments at Hobby Lobby and Michael's. I had a coupon. This year I will be sure to pick some up after Christmas when they go on clearance.

-St. Nicholas Doll Craft

-Our Lady of Guadalupe- make tissue paper pointsietta

-St. Lucy Peg doll- so cute!

-Gingerbread houses- They sell these in kits at the craft stores. 

-Spoon Angel ornaments- Like the spoon saints but make angels! 

-Jingle bell girl ornaments- for the life of me I can not remember where I found these. I think it was Wee Wonderfuls? I am going to blame it on pregnancy brain. **** I found it! It is Wee Wonderfuls. Just did a google search!

 

-Children of light doll kit- my own version

*****************

I will have plenty of basic supplies on hand:

Glue (a lot of it)

Acrylic paint

watercolors

card stock

construction paper

sculpey clay

beeswax

crayons

markers

colored pencils 

(am I missing anything?)

So that's it.

This brings us through December. I haven't thought about January through May yet. Any ideas? 

Our Plans :: 2011-2012

I finally finished our plans for our upcoming year. This year is the most prepared I have ever felt in our nine years of homeschooling. It feels good to have it all written out on paper.  I even have a list of crafts and activities that I have planned, even the supplies to go with them! I am prepared through January. 

With this being a school year where we welcome a new baby I wanted to have most of our plans well laid out. Our year is a little more workbook intensive than I care for, but it allows for a little more independence from the children. 

Julia's school year is also going to be a little different because she is taking classes at a one day a week cottage school run by a popular homeschool curriculum provider. We are both super excited. She is going to have a full, very independent year. Which is what she wanted. I am going to watch her closely to make sure we didn't overload her. We will tailor back at home as needed.

::Religion::

*This year we are using the Faith and Life series for all grades (grades 1,3,5, and 7) and the workbooks to go with them as needed. I was looking at the on-line version but I just couldn't justify spending the money when 1.) we already the books and 2.) I found the workbooks brand new at a used book store, super cheap.

*Bible Stories for read aloud for everyone. I am going to have Amelia and Catherine orally narrate and illustrate in a bare book. Patrick did this and he still goes back and looks at his book of Bible stories. For this we will be using

 

Tomie DePaola's Book of Bible Stories

 

Bible For Young Catholics as a supplement for the older kids. I love this book because it is written in "story" format but gives reference to where in the Bible it comes from so that we can look it up in our Bibles.

Treasure Box Books (Amelia, Catherine, John Paul)

I also have a list of feast days to celebrate and plans for those. ( I plan to put a post up of our liturgical year, craft plans in the near future.)

 

::Math::

We have already gotten a jump on our math for the year and it is going really well. Julia will also be taking a supplemental math course at the cottage school which focuses on long division, long multiplication work. 

Teaching Textbooks 7 (Julia)

Teaching Textbooks 5 (Mary Jane)

Teaching Textbooks 3 (Patrick)

MCP Mathematics: Level A & Connecting Cuisenaire® Rods Introductory Set (Catherine)                    

Modern Curriculum Press Mathematics, Level K & Fat Brain Toys Inchimals (Amelia)

::Language Arts::

*Julia

Julia has found her true passion this summer. Writing. You will find her with either a notebook and a pen or in front of the laptop typing. She has written quite a few stories this summer. I really want to encourage this love of writing. I am amazed at her creativity. She told me she really wants to "dive" into grammar this year. I am hoping the cottage school will help with this. (Grammar is not one of my strong points, neither is writing as is evidenced by my humble blog.)

Wordsmith

Editor in Chief B1

Sequential Spelling 2

English 7 at the Cottage School 

Latin at the Cottage School

*Mary Jane

Grammar Practice (5)

Daily 6-trait Writing, Grade 5

Editor in Chief A1

Word Roots Level A: Learning the Building Blocks of Spelling and Vocabulary

Sequential Spelling 1

*Patrick

Grammar Skills (Grammar Skills, 3)

Sequential Spelling 1

Daily 6-Trait Writing, Grade 3

WORD ROOTS BEGINNING

 

A Reason For Handwriting Transition

 

*Catherine

Phonics Workbook Level B (Modern Curriculum Press) (Full Color Edition)

Daily 6-Trait Writing, Grade 1 (Daily Practice Books)

Draw...Then Write, Grades 1-3

Grammar Practice (1)

A Reason for Handwriting: Level A: Manuscript Student Workbook

*Amelia

My Amelia. Sigh. Amelia is 4. She will be 5 in late November. She is a busy, bright, child who will not be left out of anything. She lives life out loud! I have workbooks for her which I, or one of her older siblings will do with her. She keeps asking if summer is over because she can't wait for school to start! I have a lot to keep her engaged. When I made out my plans I kept this in mind. If it is to much we will let go of it. 

MCP Phonics K

A Reason for Handwriting: Level K: Manuscript Student Workbook

Developing the Early Learner Levels 1-4 (Developing the Early Learner, 1 through 4)

::History::

The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor (Revised Second Edition) (Vol. 1) (Story of the World) (Mary Jane, Patrick, Catherine)

The Story of the World, Activity Book 1: Ancient Times - From the Earliest Nomad to the Last Roman Emperor (Mary Jane, Patrick, Catherine)

 The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance (Second Revised Edition) (Vol. 2) (Story of the World) (Julia)

The Story of the Church: Her Founding, Mission and Progress: A Textbook in Church History (Julia) 

The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Activity Book 2: The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance (Julia- as needed)

Hands-On-History: Middle Ages: 20 Enchanting Art Projects and Other Creative Activities That Illuminate and Enrich Your Study of the Middle Ages

 

The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History (all)

::Geography::

Daily Geography Practice Grade 5 (Mary Jane)

Daily Geography Practice ,Grade 3 (Patrick)

 Daily Geography Practice, Grade 1 (Catherine)

 National Geographic Beginners World Atlas Updated Edition (Amelia)

Geopuzzle U.S. and Canada

GeoToys World GeoPuzzle (All)

 GeoToys World GeoBingo Game

(All)

Educational Insight GeoSculpt 3D (Patrick) I bought this mainly for Paddy thinking he could make a bunch of different land forms or countries, but this is a one time, one project kit. I think we may look into some salt dough map work after we use this kit. I want there to be some hands on things for him to engage in. He loves this type of learning

::Science::

 Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the 5th Day (Apologia Science Young Explorers) (Mary Jane, Patrick, Catherine, Amelia-I'm sure won't be left out!)

 Zoology 1 Notebooking Journal (Young Explorer Series) (Mary Jane, Patrick)

Exploring Creation with Zoology Lapbook (Catherine, Amelia if she wants to join along!) Instead of assembling a traditional lapbook we are going to put the mini books into a Bare Book

 Thames & Kosmos Little Labs Stepping into Science

(Amelia) I figure this will be fun to do an experiment a week

 Christian Kids Explore Chemistry (Julia)

Chemistry + The Alphabet of the Universe (Julia)

::Critical Thinking::

 The Fallacy Detective: Thirty-Eight Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning (Julia)

Critical and Creative Thinking Activities Grade 5 (Mary Jane)

Lab Mice  (Mary Jane)

 

 Critical and Creative Thinking Activities, Grade 3 (Patrick)

SepToys Seven Sided Design Blocks (Patrick )

miniLUK Starter Pack

(Catherine)

 

::Art::

I am assembling seasonal/liturgical Art/Craft bags and plans. I am so excited about this!! I will post my plans as soon as I am ALL done! 

My main motivation for this are these two girls.

Mary Jane is into all things crafty, knitting, sewing, cooking. Catherine is also. They both just want to help and get their hands on something and be creative. I want to help them along with this. If it is planned out and ready to go I will follow through. I am embarrassed to say that if it isn't planned out and ready to go it usually doesn't happen. 

We are looking forward to starting. Our school year will officially begin August 22.

***I fixed some non working links. If there was something you wanted to click on and it doesn't work on your reader you may have to click on over to the blog to get it to work. Have a great day!

Still testing!

Still testing!

Just testing something out. I'll

Just testing something out. I'll be back soon with a proper post. :0)

Sew easy and Sew excited!!

It all started with these little pants.

I wanted to sew some pants, to go with the sweater that I knitted for the new baby. I googled baby pants and found this free pattern. It was sooooo easy. 

I really have no sewing experience, except that I know how to sew a straight line forwards and backwards. That's it.

This pattern is easy to understand and she even gives you a picture tutorial if you need it. I so badly want to find some nice flannel and make some more of these. It took me less than an hour. It is a nice feeling to finish a project in less than an hour. A knitting project takes me months.

Anyhow, Amelia sees me sewing and is very interested. She finds my little fabric stash and wants me to make her something. Feeling super confident after finishing the easy pants, I figure a skirt would be even easier.

You know what? It was!

I made this into an apron skirt. I have seen them around (aren't they cute?) and have always wanted to buy some for my little girls but I always said, "Heck, I can make one of those." 

I didn't have a pattern. I measured around Mia's waist and from her waist to her knees. I allowed some extra for a seam allowance. 

I cut out a rectangular piece of fabric and hemmed the edges for the "apron". I sewed it on while I was making the waist band. 

So, now I have orders for three more skirts :0) . I want an apron skirt. But I think a forty year old woman in an apron skirt might look kind of funny. 

Am I right??