Our School Year Plans...(as of now)

This year will be a challenge for many reasons. One, we have sold our home and will be moving to a smaller home while we build a house. The house is less than half the size of the house we live in now so we are putting over half of our things in storage. So I have been in the school room for days deciding what I will need and what can be stored until Spring.

This year I will also have FOUR I am teaching daily (although I am sure Linc will also choose to hang out with us and do his preschool/montessori-ish activities.) Carson will be in fourth grade so that brings a bit of "pressure" as well! Maddie will be a 2nd grader and Annie & Cam will be doing Kindergarten work. Cam is only four and is still lacking in many fine motor skills but for the most part I believe he can keep up with Annie.


Typically I have geared everything to Carson. I Planned his curriculum and added in whatever for Madelyn. This year that is changing a bit because Madelyn is different learner than Carson and he does well with anything. We have learned that she is a "creative" learner and does not do well with lots of "fill in the blank", workbooks etc. That is the great thing about homeschooling!! I can teach each child according them their specific needs!

For Madelyn (2nd) we switched to Moving Beyond the Page. It is a comprehensive literature-based curriculum that covers all subjects other than math. It is all hands on projects and most of the activites are open ended so she will use more thought, evaluation and comprehension than worrying about a right or wrong answer. I just know she is going to do well with it!! I can't wait to start!
A few of the projects I will bring down a notch for the Kindergarteners and give Carson extra work to research on his own.
For her math we will continue to use Math-U-See.
Foreign Language: Singschool Latin
We will also continue with a bit of phonics for her, since reading is her weakest area.

Annie & Cam: (K & pre-K)
Handwriting:Handwriting without Tears
Reading: How to Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Phonics:(still not 100% decided) Explode the Code or Bob Jones University
Foreign Language: Songschool Latin (mostly listening to the CD with maddie)
Math: MUS or Saxon (still deciding)
Extras: Dolch Sight Words, bible
We will also do 1 Theme Pocket a month and 2 FIAR titles each month to complete their other subjects.

Carson-(4th Grade)
Math-Math-u-See
Spelling-Sequential Spelling
Grammar/Writing/Some reading/vocab: Moving Beyond the Page literature units
Foreign Language: Latin for Children
Additonal Reading: readers from WinterPromise history program & possibly Bob Jones reading

We still have several weeks of our Winter Promise American Story 1 to complete and once we are moved we will pick up with Winter Promise Story 2.

Then all of the kids will do the following (depending on age): (we will also meet up weekly with another family and work on these subjects)
IEW-writing
50 State study
Barry Stebbing Art/Famous American artists
Apologia Flying Creatures

So the way I figure it this should get us through middle school!!!hehe

Oops forgot to add in what little Lincoln (and Annie & Cam) will be doing to keep busy. Most of the extra "keep'em busy" activities I have in mind are from this genius over and 1+1+1=1!

Camden's B-day Part 1

Horse Camp!

The culmination of this month was the craziest week yet! So both girls attended a local horse camp from 9-2 each day and Carson volunteered at autism camp each day from 9-2!! (Yes I know I had to clone myself and be two places at once twice a day!) Then we had VBS each evening ( and I taught!)!! This week was exhausting!! Add in packing, sorting and clearing out and whew!! I need a vacation!!
On to the girls....Annie has taken a sudden interest in horses. So when we told each of the children they could pick a camp to participate this summer, Annie said "HORSE CAMP!". I have never left her alone anywhere so I really encouraged Madelyn to go with her...but Madelyn wanted to attend a swimming camp. After much research I found a horse camp that offered swimming the second part of the day!!!The best part ...it was 4 minutes from our house! The girls learned to groom the horses and of course how to ride them!
On Friday they girls had a"show" for the parents to see what they had learned. Madelyn actually was able to get her horse to trot! I was amazed that she had that much confidence in 5 days!

Annie was trained with a unique double saddle. They train the younger children with these so they can progress to a trot and learn balance, rhythm and control much sooner than if they were on the horse alone with a instructor walking alongside! She did however ride alone too! If you know Annie this is amazing because she is not my adventurous child...quite the opposite actually! On a horse she is very content little girl though!

The camp had a whole litter of kittens which the girls LOVED!! There was also a little baby goat that they bottle fed each day!

Ready for the first day!

Welcome Home Tedi!

With the huge crowd...this is the best picture I got :( but nonetheless another precious little one is home from Ethiopia in the arms of his forever family!
This was extra special situation because Paul met Natalie by chance last year in a doctors office in Somerset, Ky. Soon the talk turned to adoption and after a few emails they were attending our agencies anniversary celebration. (I am thinking that was in November)....well 7 months later and they are parents for the first time of this precious little guy!!!
They designed the shirts she is wearing and I love it...
5 million minus 1.......and they did just that they took in one of the 5 million orphans sitting in Ethiopia waiting for a family.
If you want to read about their journey...check out their blog!