Caleb and Seth playing with/eating playdough, together.

The children made little foil boats the day we talked about Columbus and his three ships.

Grace’s penmanship paper and one of our laminated map placemats.

We used to use Mr. Sketch smelly markers at school when I was growing up.  I still love the smell of them and when I found them at Target I had to get them.  Yum!

Here is Davy, working hard on his cursive writing paper.

We go to the library just about every week.  The children learn a lot by the choices they make.  Grace has been loving her books on Fairies.

David loves his cursive writing paper and looks forward to doing it every day.  Look how happy and proud he is!

These pictures are all from a couple of weeks ago.  I’ll have to update more soon.  They grow and learn and change so quickly.

Crazy homeschool moment of the day:  Me, helping G with her poetry, looking up some words on laptop on my bed.  Here comes Seth, who was out on the porch playing.  I lifted him up on my bed with G and I, only to discover that he had gotten into chicken poop.  He got himself, me, and my bedding stinky.  Had to stick him in the tub and change.  Meanwhile G is waiting for me.  I throw my bedding in the washer.  I get back to G and here comes J, with crying Sarah in his arms.  I finally get the computer on for Grace but could not hear it at all because of Seth “singing” in the tub.  Leave G with boys, watching video.  Go give Seth his bath and put Sarah on the floor of my bathroom, to wait for me….and on and on it goes….One thing after another.  

Bless her heart, this morning I let Grace read our history lesson on the Pilgrims.  She kept reading “prostitute” instead of “Protestant”.  She doesn’t even know what that means.   Yikes!

We are in the process of turning the upstairs of our garage into a schoolroom.  We hired the same construction company that built the garage, to finish it up for us.  They have worked so hard all week and have gotten the upstairs done, with just one closet door that has to be installed remaining.  We will do the rest of it.

We are painting the ceiling white, and putting a clear coat on the wood paneling.  Rich and I have always admired log cabins and we love the look of the wood.  

I decided to paint the trim sage green.

We still have some work to do, painting and then clearing out the stuff we had stored up there.  We are putting desks and chairs in the room, and a chalkboard.  My xanga pals have convinced me to get some of my nature photographs enlarged and framed for the walls.  I want to put verses and Bible posters on the walls, too.

I especially want the room to be peaceful, organized, and simple.  I want it to inspire learning.  Missionary Amy Carmicheal called her school building “The Happy Knowledge Place”.  I like that!

We have a sliding glass door, that leads out to a balcony.  It is a gorgeous view out to the woods, the long pond, and the chicken coop.  We are going to put two rocking chairs (that we already have) out there.  One for me and one for him.  

See the mattress by the sliding door?  I sat there last night with Sarah, looking through old Country Living magazines, while Rich and the boys worked and the others played with Thomas trains on the balcony.  It was a nice family time.

The most exciting part of the design is the “play pen”.  It is a nice roomy area for Seth and Sarah to play in during school.

Grace is standing in the big roomy closet that still needs it’s door.

I’m so thankful for this room.  We hope to put it to good use, teaching and nurturing the children.  

Happiness is interrupting Mama’s history lesson with a little dancing on the table.

I went to Target yesterday and bought the boys each a “first day of school shirt”.  I had gotten Grace one the other day when we were out together.  I also went to a children’s second hand store and got Sethie his slide.  It was very inexpensive and it should help keep him busy when we are working on school.

I got each of the children a school supplies container with crayons for the three younger ones.  (including Seth)  I got each of the school children scissors, a ruler, pens, glue, and paints.  The containers are labeled with each of their names and make quite the stack!

So, the big news is that we did decided to homeschool Caleb.  We have him in Kindergarten, David is in 2nd, Grace is in 6th, Ethan is in 7th, and Jacob is in 8th.

We had our first day yesterday.  We organized our notebooks and did a few worksheets.  I read them their History lesson about Leif Ericsson and they each made a notebook page about him.  We reviewed oceans and continents, and the days of Creation.

This morning, Caleb is already working on his school pages in my room, at the little table and chairs I picked up at a 2nd hand store.  We are slowly getting organized.  In fact, we recently decided to move our school into the garage.  We have an upstairs room that we are finishing, to put all of our school furniture and materials in.  I am looking forward to having the house for a HOME and the garage for our SCHOOL.  Two separate spaces.

I’ve only been up for an hour and my head is spinning already!  I hope to update this site often, since I will be spending so much time schooling the children.