Not Back To School A Day In The Life

First let me say that I have enjoyed this blog hop SO MUCH!!  Thank you to everyone that has stopped by to get to know our family and to those who follows us.  I appreciate you very much!  I have found some wonderful sites myself and I will share those in another blog post.

Now for OUR day in the life... This is how I would love for our school day to go.

High School starts at 8am with Bible first.  Christia and I join Kaite and Maryanna for the beginning of Bible class for Christia just loves to sing with the girls.  I enjoy it as well.  While the older girls get started on Bible, Christia and I go downstairs for our school time.  We start our day with prayer and then we start on our colors.

9am the older girls move to Geometry while Christia and I clean the kitchen.  Well, I clean the kitchen and Christia will have free play time.  When I'm done with the kitchen I start a load of laundry and Christia and I will read a story or play a color game.  10am  the older girls move to English and Christia and I work on her letters and numbers.  By this time Christia is ready for a snack, so we snack while we learn some table manners.  11am the girls come down for a snack themselves and they start working on Chemistry.  I start folding the laundry I started earlier and think about what's for lunch.  At noon everyone breaks for lunch and a movie {this includes Dad}.  1pm it's time for Spanish.  Christia loves to listen to Mrs. McLamb speak spanish so we will sit on Spanish 2 class for a while and I will let Christia play upstairs for a while OR we will go for a walk.  We love to go on walks when the weather is good and we will go on short walk when the weather is HOT...which is MOST of the time here in Texas!!  2pm and it;s the girls final class of the day US History.

NOW for the REAL day in the life at our house...
Christia and I got up today around 8am only to find out that this was NOT going to be a day that would go by the schedule.  Christia is teething and so she is running a fever and Katie and I just got finished cleaning up the floor and ourselves for Christia just threw up ALL over us and herself!  SIGH... school started late so that mean it will finish late  The girls eat their lunch while doing their Chemistry to try and make up for some lost time.  Since they did NOT finish their history homework that put history behind as well.  Christia and I just hung out on the couch for most of the day since she was not feeling well so no school work for her.  It's amost time for dinner and I have yet to go to the store for supplies.  Welcome to the real world.  I'm hoping tomorrow will be better.

I'm Getting A Kindle!!

I'm SO EXCITED!!!  I'm getting a Kindle for my 19th wedding anniversary!!  I say getting for they are on back order.  I have been looking at this cool gadget for quite sometime and now that they have come down to a more reasonable price I'm on the waiting list!!

I LOVE to read and when we travel it's hard to find the extra room for books.  I'm thinking that if I like it and love the way it works I may get the Katie one for her 18th birthday and Maryanna one for her 16th birthday.

Amazon gives a great description about them and the things they are able to do.  Take a look it's amazing!!
Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6" Display, Graphite - Latest Generation

They offer a TON of FREE books, which are AMAZING.  Most of them are classics which is what our family reads the most of.  I will let you know if it's all I think it will be.

Not Back To School Student Photos

This has been a FUN month!!  I have enjoyed learning about so many new homeschool families!  Thank you everyone for sharing. 

Here is our school photos:

This is our oldest Katie.  She is a hard worker and a FABULOUS cook.  Katie is very talented in the kitchen and with a needle.  Even though I have not shown her how to work the sewing machine, she made a skirt by HAND for a costume party of one of her friends ( she won first prize for BEST costume)!!

Here is daughter number 2 Maryanna.  We were so excited to see her honor roll student certificate from A Beka!!  She keeps my life organized (I would be under a mountain of paper work without her) and makes THE BEST homemade chocolate chip cookies!!

This is our youngest "Bean" (as we call her) Christia.  She is such a wonder!!  She is full of life and smart as can be.  This was taken at the library.  She LOVES books!!  She loves to dance and sing around the house.  She has made my journey with homeschooling continue...Thank you Lord!!

This is our schools {handsome} principal that we like to call Dad!!  He is SUPER!!

And this is Me {Lisa} the Teacher.

Thanks for stopping by and getting to know our family!!

Not Back To School Our School Room {s}

I'm LOVING the 'Not Back To School' Blog Hop!!  I have enjoyed reading others blogs and finding new cool ideas!!  I'm late in posting our school room for I could NOT find the cord for the camera so that I could download the pictures.  FINALLY, I found it!! 

Okay, this week is about the school room.  I have to say that I am VERY blessed this year.  We have moved to a new home and I'm loving the space we have now.  Let me just say that it was not always this way.  Our family lived in a 750 square foot apartment one year and even though it was 'close living' I would not have changed a thing about moving there!!

Here we go:

This is called the 'game room' {which is upstairs} but we call it our high school!!  The girls set up their tables and chairs each morning before the start of school.  They have plenty of room and a nice view. 

Here you can see that our little "Bean" claims every room in the house!!

This is my desk.  I just love this area.  I have tons of storage space {which I need to organize!!} and plenty of counter space.

This is called the 'study or office' {which is downstair} but we call it our preschool!!  "Bean" and I have her school here.  If I bring her upstairs she wants to play with Katie and Mary and well....they just can't get school done, so.... I thought it would be could and since we have the space to have her downstairs and in a nice little room of her own.

I just LOVE her new table and chair set.  My darling M-I-L {mother-in-law} bought this for her as an early birthday gift... THANK YOU!!!  She just loves it as do I.  It was expsensive but this is a piece that can be passed down from family to family {I just love that idea for I have my husbands grandmothers dinning room set}.  We found this at Pottery Barn Kids.  Do you need this to teach your child??? NO, my older 2 did not have this and came out just fine!!

As you can see I try and keep colorful things all around.  She loves to sit at her chair and read her books.  No she is not reading yet, but she thinks she is...LOL!!!  I have my laptop computer set up in here as well and I have Pandora playing classical music while we learn.

Here is Dad and "Bean" color sorting cookies!!  We found this darling set at Lakeshore Learning.  Most of their items are expensive but I will stash back extra money in case I find something really cool there.

My rooms are neat as neat and organized as I would like them to be but we do enjoy our school rooms.

Not Back-To-School Blog Hop A Beka Academy

I'm so excited to be part of the 2010 NOT Back-to-School Blog Hop!!  Our school year started early this year (July 12,2010)  Reason...The older girls will be celebrating their 16th and 18th birthdays this year so we will be going to the beach in late September to early October.  I always like to have a 'cushion' so that if we have special things coming up OR even just unexpected sickness so we don't get behind.

We will be using A Beka Academy (DVD) for the older girls {11th grade} and I will be using A Beka Nursery books for our little one this year who will be 2 in December.  I never used curriculum for the older girls when they were young.  We just had fun and enjoyed ourselves and learning in the kitchen and at play.  My little "bean" has shown interest in learning, she loves books, blocks, coloring, etc. So we have decided to start early with her and see how it goes.  This is what I LOVE about being a homeschool mom.  You can change to what your family needs when they need it and not have to follow someone else plan that may or may not be good for your child.  So...

Here is what our day looks like:
HIGHSCHOOL
Monday - Friday school starts at 8:00am and the girls follow this schedule:
Bible with Mr. McBride
Geometry (honors) with Mr. Collins
English with Mrs. Schmuck
Break
Chemistry with Mrs. Hicks
Spanish 2 (honors) with Mrs. McLamb
US History with Mr. McBride

NURSERY SCHOOL
Monday - Friday
We will be learning our colors and shapes then we will move on to our ABC's and numbers.  We will also have some great craft projects that we will be doing.  These projects are easy and develope their motor skills.  We will also be reading about Amber Lamb and learning about developing our character.  I also have a great song books for learning fun children's songs and a book full of children's poems and finger play.  All of this we bought from A Beka Book.  Do you need to buy all these books for a  2 year old??  NO for I DID NOT with the older girls.  Christia works well with books and such this why I'm doing things in a different way with her.  At this age the key to success is having fun and make learning FUN for them and they will want to learn all the time.  In all our school time for nursery school be a total of 30 minutes stretched out through the day.  Of course learning will not stop for she will be helping me in the kitchen count beans, and cups.  We will enjoy saying our ABC while washing dishes.  I wash she has fun playing in the water!!  This gets her use to being in the kitchen and learning about the jobs she will be doing.

I'm looking forward to seeing what others are using this year.  Happy Homeschooling Everyone!!