A check in... That poor trailer, some hidden treasure in the garden, and the beginning of our "Home" schooling adventure....

So sad... right?  Ugh it's turned into SUCH a project! 

Just when I thought it was time to turn in my green thumb I found these jems out there!  6 Slicin Cukes!  A very favorite round these parts! 

Simple beauty... my little Zinnia garden is in full bloom right now... and deer don't like them... WIN!

Ok so now let me take you on a little trip... back a year and a half ago, when my little "bookins" went off to preschool for the first time...

Sigh... like it was yesterday!

Then just last year when he did his second round of Preschool, this time for a full school year.

And well... drum roll please... 

So this day marked his first official day of "Home" school... which included an almost full schedule of workshops at our co-op location. 

Class 1 -Bats

Class 2 -PE

Class 3 -Books Rock

Class 4 -Wood shop (his fav thus far! Duh!)

At home for the next few months...

In science we'll begin the year off studying Plants

Begin an amazing math program where we'll learn about place value, money and telling time as well as simple addition and subtraction

In Language Arts we will be using many tools to really dive deep into the word of reading... book of necessity: Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons! 

In music we will be listening to different genres of music (and dancing of course!) and making our own music which seems to come quite naturally to the 2 year old!

In art we will make messes that mom will clean up... (with a smile of course)

And lastly we'll have plenty of PE/ Health- which will include all activities that fall into the category... wear the minions out! In health we'll have plenty of healthy cooking lessons followed by plenty of healthy snack munching.

In social studies we'll be learning about our community and jobs that people have.  Honing our address and phone number memorization and studies on our feelings and emotions.

Sounds awesome when jazzed up like this!  I think I created a totally rad curriculum on my own, but we'll see if I'm singing the same tune once it's raining for days on end and I've spent 6 days straight with these little dudes! haha!

The decision to "home" school really came naturally which surprised me.  I never really saw myself here, I actually enjoyed going "to" school as a child.  However something really deep inside told me this was what I was supposed to do, for him, for me, and for our family.  There's tons more that went into my decision to do this, but you don't want to listen to my tangent now do you?!!   I can't even make any promises that this is our forever plan either, but for now we're givin it a good honest go.  My personality isn't really in favor of this life step.  I fall into the inpatient, unorganized, easily overwhelmed category, but with any luck this will be the perfect opportunity to work on some things in myself as well as planting the seeds of knowledge in my very best accomplishment of all time... my children!

A picture from our first week of learning...

Smiles are priceless in my book!

Our first science project... we began the year off learning about plants... totally awesome that we had started this avocado seed with Nana Kathy before she left...

NOW look at it!  It was definitely ready for some more growing space

He was having so much fun launching his sock balls into the numbered baskets that he didn't even realize he was adding and practicing his number writing as he kept our scores.  (oh and Ben's fine in this picture... just throwin a "it's my turn" fit for the camera)

These moments are incredible... working diligently to produce his best penmanship.

No shirt Tuesdays... haha totally kidding!  It's rainy today and jammies are just the best!  Hey maybe you learn better when you have comfy clothes on...

We can be silly here too

The school room is coming together... slowly!  It's been fun to add things here and there!  I'm very patiently waiting on some shelves to store our school books next to our giant ruler.

Lovin our awesome map finds at Costco (US map and a world map-not shown)... the plan is to put this map onto a piece of wood and put the world map on the back side and then hang it on hooks so it can be easily flipped over... (to save on wall space)

As challenging as it's been trying to focus and not have Ben feeling left out, I'd say it's going better than I had hoped. 

It was an art day today...

lets just say I'm glad I got my little "warm & cool" colors lesson in, before things got REAL!  Thankfully the carpet was spared... Boys and paint ~ what was I thinkin?

So hope to keep up with blogging through this experience, it will be fun to look back on these Rookie moments I'm sure,  and fun to share my excitement, frustrations, achievements, heart soaring, hair on fire, new found purpose...moments with you all.  I'm feeling amazingly less overwhelmed than when I started this journey, loving how my days are so much more purpose driven.  A little mind is growing right before me. 

Stay tuned as it's sure to be a fun ride.