What A Year!

What an incredible year of homeschool this has been. Yup!…… that’s my t-shirt, and it describes my morning perfectly (wink).

Five years in, and I still get butterflies and anxious thoughts about the upcoming school year. Such a comfort to know that a peace that surpasses all understanding comes over me each year as I continue this journey of homeschooling our children.

I’ve had a few moments where I simply take a deep breath in, think about ALL that we have learned and accomplished, and I have been filled with tears. The year has been full of ups and downs, good days and bad days, success and failure …….. but, we did it!

One of the greatest joys and encouragements comes from working with, and seeing a child learn to read! Just as much, is when someone finally gets their math questions, or figures out how to spell certain words. THIS, makes my heart happy!

It happened again this past year. We work hard and we work together. This picture here shows one of our kids not only reading, but reading a chapter book to his little brother!

It’s times like this that remind me of WHY I’m doing what I’m doing! The huge tug that God put in my heart years ago,  was for a reason and so I keep envisioning the ‘end in mind’.

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I thought we’d fill you in on what we’ve been doing over here at our little homeschool neck of the woods, as well as give you a glimpse into our next homeschool season.

I have to say, I absolutely learn something new everyday. Probably, by the time I feel like I’ve got this down pat, and  under control,  I will be graduating my kids!….. But until then, we will work on this together and continue to learn and grow as a team!

So here we go …….

Last year we dove into our monthly unit studies! They are a big hit over here.  We went through Canadian Geography, World Geography, Government, Health and Nutrition, A study on Japan and Ireland, Oceans, butterflies, migration and a baking unit.

We of course work on our main core subjects daily

~ Math (Math-U-See – Love this program)

~ Language Arts (writing,and grammar)

~ Bible/ Virtues

~ Science

~ Spelling and Vocabulary

~ Handwriting

We went on multiple field trips with our homeschool group, read MANY books, and threw in a few adventures here and there. It’s definitely not boring over here. And each  year that goes by has SO many great memories .

After a lot of planning this summer, we are ready to tackle another year!

So many goodies to get into soon ……. We have a study on Russia coming up, human anatomy, electricity and magnetism, engineering, maps, birds and so much more!

Our room is ready……. but most of all, I pray that their hearts are ready to learn, and my heart is ready to patiently teach them and give them all that they need.

Schedules for each child.

Fun decor that the kids helped make.

The school room!

First day of school gift bags full of their supplies.

There is so much to look forward to, and so much to be thankful for on this journey!  I pray that no matter what stage you are in, whether homeschooling, driving your little’s to school or staying at home with your babies ……. that you have an amazing week full of new memories!

Happy Homeschool! (A look at our homeschool space)

A new school year!!

Even though we are going into our fourth year of homeschooling,  I still get full of nerves and apprehension about the whole thing.

But …….. my excitement and anticipation always overrides any worry!  I simply love homeschooling my children, and considerate an honour. Through the good and the bad days (and believe me, there are many bad days!)  I wouldn’t change this for anything.

I haven’t posted for a while, I took a slight break, but I now plan on posting a bit more.

Today, I invite you to take a peak at our homeschool space!  Each year we switch it up slightly, and I try to create new boards and strategies to execute.

WELCOME ……

I love this corner of our homeschool! It’s our work space – containing all work books, journals and activities.

Each child has their own school cubby. All of their work books are in the cubbies, and they get out what they need after looking at their schedules.

My 9, 7, and 5 year old all get a written schedule, and I made up a visual schedule for my little 3 year old.  So far this board is working great.

I made some ‘Busy Boxes’ for our little guy. Each day he gets a different box full of stories, puzzles, sensory activites, colours, numbers, letters and motor skill games. He is doing a great job working on these boxes!

We love this wall! And our world map gets a lot of use. It’s fun, colourful and the kids refer to it often.

There are a few areas in the room that we love to hang up and share the children’s artwork. We strung a srting across a wall, and when there is some finished artwork to hang, we do so with clothes pins.

Canvas art.

Learning is process!

So, here is a little glimps into our homeschool space! A space where we spend a good chunk of our day, and a space where a lot of love, learning and fun happens.

Happy Homeschooling!