The Joys of Home Educating

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Pictures can be deceiving

It was ONE OF THOSE DAYS (morning anyway) here at The Joys of Home Educating..ya know the ones, where you want to send all the kids off to school and say heck with this all! Yes this picture they appear to be playing nicely together (or at least next to each other). HA! Pictures can be deceiving. Just a few moments before they were fighting and yelling at each other....my head was pounding!

Yes, even homeschooling parents are not ALWAYS all "go homeschooling" 24/7....LOL

The day got much better once we left the house....

Tree House

We are so blessed to live in The BEAUTIFUL Hudson Valley area of NY State. Only 60 miles North of NYC! This lake happens to be only a few miles from our home and wouldn't you know we have NEVER been picnicking or exploring here ever!

A dragonfly landed on his hat and stayed a while!

Some other homeschooling friends met us for lunch and a hike! Looking for frogs today!

Let's break for a moment while we roll down the hill!

EYE SPY a Dragonfly! Talked about camouflage today!

Bubbles and yet more rolling....

Well no frogs were to be found...but when the last bubble got away from us..it was time to go.....

Once again our weekend is filled with fun times! Tomorrow, we will at our Friday morning Summer Bowling fun! Yet another Tball game and then Saturday, Molly's Long Awaited Ballet Recital! (of course a little celebration will be had!)

Hope your weekend is great and BE BLESSED!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Almost Recital Time!

Taken at her Ballerina Birthday last year!

Molly has been in ballet for a while now. Last year she came in too late

into the dance company to be IN the recital. However, this year

she has worked SO hard from Sept. until now and the anticipation

in the house is getting out of control! She is dancing from room

to room! LOL

We are have invited family to come to the recital and afterwards

a little reception at the house. Couldn't be more

proud of her!

Only a few more days to wait.......she might burst out of her ballet shoes!

Be Blessed!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Placemat Schooling

I am always looking for more/new/unusual ways to educate the kids (when they don't realize they are even being educated). One idea I had about a year ago was to buy placemats that had some sort of learning theme to them. It has made a HUGE difference in the way they learn. For the month of May, Zachary and Molly both had mats that had maps of the USA with all states and their capitals labeled. Every meal Zachary would quiz Molly on something on the mat. In a month Zachary knew every single state capital and where most of the states were located on the map. (Stack the States for IPAD helped with that also)

Some of my favorite brands are these Write-A-Mat by Melissa & Doug. They are produced in such a way where the kids can use the Crayola Dry Erase Crayons

on them. Usually on the back side there are activities to do which pertain

the other side. June's placemat theme for Zachary is US Presidents.

Molly has a time telling one...

Sammie is starting her number recognition.

What we read today...

Picture taken before we got his hair all cut off today!

I informed the children, that after speaking with the Principal (moi), that we would be taking Friday's off of schoolwork for the Summer months. Starting this Friday, June 1st and running thru Labor Day. We will still participate in the Kids Bowl Free Program on Friday's and reading is still on the schedule, but other than that, I wanted to keep Friday's open for field trips and playdates.

Hope your week is full of adventure!

Be Blessed!