The First Month of Homeschool

Its hard to believe that we just wrapped up the first 4 weeks of school for this year. It has absolutely flown by! And it has gone really well. That doesn't mean that every day is perfect, but we are having a great time learning together.

I'm also really happy with our new homeschool group that we've joined. Last year was a pretty lonely time for me with pretty much no support group at all, so when we moved I was determined to find a good homeschool group to become a part of. We now are participating in co-op classes each Friday afternoon and the kiddos are loving it. The Princess has art, a book club and a history class and Mr. B is taking early math and early reading classes with playtime in between.

Our group took a field trip to a local fire station this past week, too, and we all had so much fun!

Fort Smith Fire Station No. 1

Demonstrating *the suit*

coming out of *The Smoke House*

The Princess was so excited to blow the horn on the fire engine.

We also took a trip this month for some of my husband's speaking engagements and were able to take the kiddos on some other fun field trips (have I told you how much I love field trips?!) : the Colonel Sander's original cafe, Cumberland Falls and Mammoth Cave.

So, yes, September has been a busy month~and its not over yet. I've got a trip to our state fair and a regional apple festival on the calendar before everything is said and done:)

One Way I Refresh During the Summer as a Homeschool Mom

As our homeschool takes some time off this summer, my mind almost never stops thinking of and planning ahead for the upcoming school year. This is probably because I'm Type A and an obsessive planner...lol Whatever the reason, I do enjoy this season of planning. But I also need to be refreshed as a homeschool mom. Homeschooling can be incredibly exhausting and all-consuming. It's not easy and it's a lot of responsibility. And I take that very seriously when I am researching curriculum and planning toward the next school year. So also taking some time to rejuvenate and refocus myself is very important. How do I do this? Each summer I take some time to read something inspiring and motivating that speaks to me as a homeschool mom. Some of my fave reads from past years--that I have nearby on my shelf and refer to often--are Educating the Wholehearted Child, The Well-Trained Mind, The Charlotte Mason Companion, A T...

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

my blessed life

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