SWEET SHOT TUESDAYS

I think this was my favorite image of the week. Isn't this little guy simply gorgeous???

Head over to My3Boybarians to see more sweet shots!!

A DAY IN THE LIFE

Over at the Not Back to School Blog Hop it's "Day in the Life" week. We don't officially start back until Monday (and Punkin the week later), but I have been furiously working this week on our schedule and trying to fit about twelve hours of work and ideas into a space of six hours. Why on earth do I think we can accomplish SOO much? Is this a problem with every homeschooler? I'm forever wondering if we are doing enough or doing too much. So needless to say it has been a very overwhelming week trying to figure out how to schedule everything. This is my first year having to create the schedule, since last year using Sonlight, it was all prepared for me. Hopefully all of this work will pay off!

I think I have come up with a working plan for our day, including chores, free time, time with Dad - everything!! Now, I'm not a "by the clock" kinda mom - so our schedule is more of a rhythm than a schedule.

Our morning begins at 7:00 when everyone gets up and dressed with beds made. Breakfast and morning bible time with dad happens here, as well as morning chores. Punkin gets off to school and the little girls have outside time before school starts. This is when I check e-mails and work on my photography scheduling and ordering, blog, or read other blogs. I do all of my photography work on the weekends. ( I take one client per week, on Saturday evenings, and do all my editing over the weekend which leaves the entire week free for homeschooling.) Our school day begins at 9:00 with memory time - where we focus on memorization skills. First off we will be memorizing the Lord's Prayer in Latin.

Memory time is also included during morning chores time as we will listen to all sorts of CD's with things to commit to memory. Next we move on to Bible time, which I finally decided on exactly what that will be this year and I'm very excited about it! We will use Leading Little Ones to God and A Child's Book of Character Building. The first block of learning time in the mornings will be focusing on Language Arts. This will take a good hour and half focusing on dictation, narration, copywork, phonics, spelling, and grammar. We love using workboxes, so that of course will be part of our days as well. After a mid-morning break for running around outside and a snack, the second half of our morning will be Banana working independently on her Teaching Textbooks Math and her quiet reading time, while I work with Boo on her reading, math and spelling time. And I just have to mention how powerful this little cardboard chest can be!! Who knew???

The girls and I are terribly excited about these wonderful school desks that we got for FREE from a private school in the area that is closing. What a wonderful blessing!

The girls sit in them everyday and talk about how they just can't WAIT to start school!! Banana made me and Daddy crack up last night when she noticed (on the wall behind them in the picture above) the Lord's Prayer written in Latin. She got so excited she just about came out of her pants!!! I LOVE that she is so excited to learn new things! Especially since she hated Latin when she attended school.

And look - I even recycled an old desk we had to make a teacher's desk for me!! Woo-Hoo!! Now I just need to find a more comfy chair....

After a lunch time break (where I again attend to e-mails, laundry, etc), we will take at least 20 minutes a day for a nature walk in the woods out back for observation and sketching time. This is something we are really going to focus on this year, again following the Charlotte Mason methods here. This will also give us some time of solitude, throwing a blanket down to quietly observe and concentrate. On the days when weather doesn't allow this, we will have some quiet focused solitude time in doors. Everyone in their own rooms to sketch, draw, read or play quietly. I'm sure this will be a very important part of our day, even for a short amount of time to refocus, rejuvenate and be ready to move on through our day. Then we will move on to history, science, Latin, geography, gym classes and sewing classes depending on the day. On Thursday afternoons the girls will attend a homeschool co-op class for Drama and Public Speaking (yes - even for kindergarten!!), Literature/Writing, and Science.

At 3 pm everyday we leave to pick up Punkin from school, which lends itself nicely to having a definite "end of school" time each day. When we return home, it's homework and chore time for Punkin, and free time for the younger girls. About 5:30 we all will do a "quick tidy" - cleaning up the clutter from the day before we start dinner. About 6 or 6:30 is dinnertime and devotions with Daddy with bath time following. We always love ending our days with everyone piled into Mom's bed for read aloud time. We even did this throughout the summer and it's one of my favorite times of the day!! Daddy is usually in charge of bathtime and bedtime and it's a special time with his girls. About 8-9 o'clock, Mom and Dad get some time together. Sometimes Punkin will join us for a movie or something here too. We are all so ready to get back into a routine - my kids love routine. I, however, like every day to be entirely different. So - while we follow a general rhythm to our day, we certainly add in lots of cushioned time for all the detours that will inevitably come our way.

Click over to "Heart of the Matter" to see how others schedule their homeschool days!!

SUMMER FRIDAY NIGHTS

I'm really gonnna miss these. I love Friday nights in the summer. Thats when all my favorite teenage girls come over to hang out and have a bible study. We have been going through a book called "In the Flower of Youth" - such a sweet book about becoming beautiful young ladies. The topics include daily Bible study, speaking words of life, purity of heart, submission, family relationships, service, facing fears, and developing life purpose.

Matthew Henry wrote "The flower of youth never appears more beautiful than when it bends towards the Sun of Righteousness".

I love these girls so much - they are an incredible group of passionate young ladies who will be sophmores this year - they are leaders among their peers, with amazing hearts for the Lord. I can't wait to see what God does with their lives! They love getting together and sharing their hearts with each other. Most of them have been friends since they were very small.

They are such a blessing to me...

Shelby - one of the sweetest, sweetest, girls I have ever met who always keeps us laughing - one of the most accomplished ballerinas I have ever known who was accepted into a very elite ballet school in Baltimore - just returned from dancing for six weeks in New York. My Boo is quite taken with this "real" ballerina!! (and so are the dogs)

My Sydney - practically one of my daughters -loves to come over for dinner - loves my little girls like they were her own sisters, is an incredible athlete and teaches my Banana lacrosse, and apparently likes being upside down. She wants to be a physical therapist.

Megan - she is a passionate soul. I love having phone conversations with her. I always tell her I hope to be just like her one day when I grow up. She has a spiritual maturity that boggles my mind. She already knows she has a calling on her life to help plant churches and to lead youth retreats.

And my own sweet Punkin - I'm so proud of the friends she chooses - I consider them my own friends. She is such a nature lover - she has a connection to animals that I think is a rare gift. She wants to be a veterinarian and has a heart for missions, serving those whose animals are their livelihoods. She has a heart for special needs kids and wants to own a therapeutic riding equestrian center one day, and plans on volunteering at one this fall.

And the lovely Julianna. Another amazing young lady - she has a passion for special need kids too, and loves her Down's syndrome little sister like nothing I have ever seen!! I think every Facebook status of hers is about her love for her sister. She is also completely in love with her newest little adopted baby sister who is waiting to come home from Ethiopia, completely in love and hasn't even met her yet. A family of five girls. :) I love girls.

And of course, my Maddie. I feel like I gave birth to this one. :) She is the light of my life. There is more personality bottled up in this girl than I ever thought possible. She has the gift of words. Yes - WORDS!! I can't wait to see where this takes her. She keeps me laughing. This summer she has transformed into an astonishing mature young woman. She spent her summer on several missions trips and retreats which has truly been a turning point in her life.

One of my girls was missing this night - Sam. I love that girl. She is a quiet soul who is a favorite around here - (and a favorite at school too I hear!!) My little Boo even named her favorite security stuffed animal after her - Sam. She marches to her own drum and is never swayed by the crowd. She is an incredible artist who I'm quite sure will work for Pixar one day doing animation! I'll be able to say I knew her when......

I'm really going to miss our Friday night get togethers. But we still meet once a month throughout the school year for fun outings. It's been a very fun summer with them full of bonfires, basketball, food, fun and lots and lots of jumping rope!!!

I love you girls!!

NOT-BACK-TO-SCHOOL PICTURES

Over at the Not-Back-To-School Blog Hop, it's student photo week. What a great idea to take back-to-school pictures! I plan on doing first-day-of-school pictures too. This little vintage desk was Daddy's school desk when he was in first grade. He was able to take home his desk on the last day of school that year as his school was getting new ones. I love that his girls can now use it at homeschool.

Miss Boo begins kindergarten this year!

and Miss Banana will be in 5th grade this year.

not all these girls belong to me - well sort of....

and Miss Punkin - who was decidedly not having her picture taken today will be a sophmore this year - so hard to believe. She is attending a wonderful classical christian school

(aka -the best school on the planet).

To see our 5th grade curriculum CLICK HERE.

To see our Kindergarten curriculum CLICK HERE.

And our school room CLICK HERE.

Enjoy peeking at other student photos over at Heart of the Matter Online