First Day of Homeschool 2015-2016

Today we had our first day of the homeschool year. Ella is in Grade 1, Juliette is in Kindergarten, and Karis is in preschool. I am so excited to be teaching the girls from home again this year. It is the most rewarding, beautiful, and fulfilling job I've ever had.

Most days don't go as planned and not all of our moments are beautiful - that's for sure! Last year we had some books thrown on the floor, doors slammed, and tears shed. But I love that we can live our messy lives together and work through our struggles with Christ at the centre. The messy days only make us stronger and also help us appreciate the smooth ones even more.

The girls walked down the path and knocked on our door to officially start the school year. Karis opted to answer the door with Spencer and I. I love opening the door to these sweet faces.

First day of Kindergarten!

First day of Grade 1!

The girls began the day by meeting with Principal Dadda. He talked to them about the most important part of our learning - loving God and loving others. And then talked to them about having joyful hearts, and listening to their teacher. He then prayed over each one of them.

After the principal meeting, we had our traditional crêpe breakfast.

I gave the girls each a new pencil case with fresh pencils, erasers, and scissors.

And then I showed them the books we'd be using this year.

We then got down to learning...

Here is our plan for the year:

Devotionals: We start each day in prayer and in the Word. This is done around the breakfast table, before Dadda leaves for the day. We are using a devotional book called "Our 24 Family Ways." This book is amazing and is a great tool to help us grow. Each week there is also a new verse to memorize.

After our devotional time, we do our family read-aloud. We continue to sit at the breakfast table and I read from a chapter book while the girls finish eating / color in their art books. This year we have a specific focus to our read-alouds. We are going to be reading our way through history. This year we will cover Ancient Civilizations. So, I've found a list of age-appropriate historical fiction novels that are set in Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, etc. It is going to be so much fun!

We then work on our Memory Board. This board will be changed weekly. The board includes our devotional verse, a History sentence (this will relate with our read-aloud), 7 events on a timeline, Science facts, and Math facts (skip counting, etc.) I'm really excited about our Memory Board! It even has a cd that goes along with it. Once the week has past, we will put our History event cards on a timeline and build the timeline over the year.

After we work on our Memory Board I do reading lessons with the girls. For Karis, this means that we read a book together on the couch and she points out letters to me on the page. For Juliette, this means that she reads a level 1 reader to me. Right now, she is loving Little Bear by Else Minarik. And Ella is into reading chapter books, so I sit with her as she reads me a chapter and catches me up on what is going on in her book. It is such a great way to enter her world!

We then do dictation - I sit with each girl for some more 1 on 1 time as they write something for me in their dictation books. I love this time, it is so valuable both for their learning and for our relationship. 

Math - I am using Saxon math for Ella and Juliette this year. It is a great program that instills a strong base in math and has a lot of options for manipulatives to use.

Science - we will do nature journaling again this year. This year we will use "Journaling A Year in Nature" by Charlotte Mason. These books are beautiful. One of my favorite parts about them is that we will each be "adopting" a tree for the year. So we will observe the tree throughout the year and record the way it changes - we will do sketches, take pictures, etc. There are so many amazing ideas in these journals!

And on Fridays we will do Science Experiments :)

Geography - we will be working on locating all of the settings of our read-alouds. We are also going to be doing a lot of mapping this year. Mapping the continents, North America, and Canada. We will use a Children's Atlas, and of course our enormous World Map.

We will improve our drawing with the help of this book...

 And - what do you do when all 3 of your daughters want to take ballet, but ballet is expensive and you are unable to find a class for the girls to go in together, meaning that you would spend the week driving them to their different ballet classes?

You buy a DVD and learn how to teach them ballet at home. Wednesday afternoons - ballet class with Momma... please don't pop in between 2:30 - 3:30 ;)

Ella, Juliette, and Karis all have music lessons on Tuesday mornings. E & J are learning violin, which requires me to be there with them so that I can help them practice during the week. So during this time on Tuesday mornings, Peter will have a date with Grandpa Rob. Thank-you Grandpa Rob!!

Juliette is 5!!

Our sweet girl turned 5 on Wednesday. We thank God everyday for Juliette. She is full of love for others, she tells great jokes, and she helps us see the world through her eyes. We love you, Juju!

On Monday I took Juliette on a special date to the swimming pool and to White Spot. We had a great time! I loved our conversations and how delighted Juliette was to be at the restaurant "just the 2 of us."

We had cinnamon buns for breakfast.

For her birthday, Juliette wanted a scooter - just like her big sister!

"Happy Birthday Juliette It is fun to be matching with our hair. It was fun playing in the fun park inside. Do you like the yellow tunnel slide i do and i like this food Do you xoxo Ella"

Ella wrote Juliette her own special card for her birthday. We had a special family day and celebrated by going to the kids adventure zone at Granville Island and out to dinner at the Sandbar.

On the way home, our birthday girl was worn out!

Peter and Juju's Party

Last Saturday we had a Mickey and Minnie Mouse party to celebrate Peter and Juju's bdays. Originally we had planned to have the party at the beach, but there was a huge windstorm that day and so we had the party at our house. The power went out halfway through the party. The kids had a great time and it will be a party we will always remember :)

About the bday girl and boy!

We made some Mickey Mouse ears.

Peter made short work of his first cupcake!

All the party guests with their ears (except for Caedmon, who was napping).

Hailey, Moriah, Karis, Riley, Tessa, Juliette, Natalie, Peter, Ella, Hudson, Ethan, Alexis.

Thanks to all of our friends for celebrating with us in our basement suite! We are blessed by each one  of you.

The girls have been talking about the moment when Peter will "make a huge mess with his cupcake" for weeks. I love the enthusiasm in this video.

Karis Rides a "big girl bike"

Some video of our girl riding her "big girl bike." Way to go, Karis!

Peter Rocks

Shuswap Lake

Last week we went camping at Shuswap Lake. We love the Shuswap campground. The lake campsites are beautiful, there are tons of young families, the lake is great for kids, and the weather is usually perfect as well. 

All ready to go to the beach!

We had a fun trip, but we were definitely ready to come home and sleep in our own beds at the end. It didn't help that Juliette threw up in the tent on our last night. Thankfully she was feeling better the next day. Camping with little ones is always an adventure!

Juliette's birthday gift from Grandma Jo-Ann arrived in the mail. Juju is thrilled with her Rapunzel dress-up outfit and wig! And she was kind enough to let Ella wear the Cinderella dress. 

Karis is doing really well on the pedal bike these days and asks to practice often. Today she made it from one side of the court to the other all by herself! This girl is pretty serious about keeping up to her big sisters.

More Summer Fun...

For the August long weekend we went camping at the Coquihalla Campground. We went with 3 other families and had a fabulous time.

The girls loved lying in the hammocks. 

All together, there were 8 little girls on our camping trip. And 1 baby boy ;)

The girls loved doing Rainbow Looms, playing in the woods together, and playing in their fort - imagining that they were the characters from Little House on the Prairie.

Peter was thankful to spend time with the men in order to get a break from all of the girls!

When we came home we had our dentist appointments. Everybody's teeth look healthy! And Karis decided to share with the dentist that one time she dipped her toothbrush in the toilet. The dentist didn't say much in response, and then Karis looked her in the eye and said "and then I brushed my teeth without even rising it."

The girls completed the summer reading program at the Surrey Library. We had so much fun doing this program. We went to the library often to get stickers on our charts, to find the picture of the building that the librarian hid in the kids section, and to enter our names in a draw for a prize. Each of our girls ended up winning a prize.

And they got medals for completing the program.

This year our garden was a success!! This may not seem exciting for you, but it is for me. This is the first time I have ever grown any vegetables that actually turned out. The girls love eating fresh carrots from the garden.

Rainbow Looming with our friend Diya.

Karis loves getting french braids in her hair these days.

And yesterday we went back-to-school shopping. Each girl got to pick one new outfit.