we started school

We started!  We started!  First grade is officially underway!

We are diving head first into using the Charlotte Mason method for school this year and I am so excited about it.  Amos is just excited for school.  Our mornings are full of short lessons from really good books on a spectrum of topics.  

Each day looks a little different, but we always start with our Bible lesson and math.  After that, we may sing, study art, dip our toes into Spanish or read some of our countries Tall Tales.  I've been hiding the school books from him so that he wouldn't read them all before we started.  Thanks to the library, we have a lot of new ones that he can read right now.  He's blown me away with his reading ability, so he's moving from learning to read, to reading to learn.  And I'm trying to add in some of the phonics rules he may have missed as he self-taught. 

He loves to draw, read, write and build with Legos.  When he's not doing one of those, he's playing with his brothers or trying to catch a new pet!

Silas has another year of preschool ahead of him.  He's always joined in with us and enjoyed what we've done.  However, with Amos' work taking a big jump forward, Silas doesn't think his school is quite as fun.  My hope is for Ivan and Silas to be outside playing for a large chunk of the morning and just learning through play.  So far, they want to be with us, so I'm trying to get creative with some fun things for them.  

Silas loves catching lizards, frogs and bugs. He takes the best care of them too and is always asking to check on our newest catch.  He's wanting to learn to read, but we're taking it really slow. He's the first one to come when it's time to read and loves when I read to him.  He's mastering writing his own name, but "S" is hard and he's got two of them.  

And then there's are helpers.  Don't they look ornery?  Here was my first mistake in starting the school year, thinking that Ivan would act as he was at the end of last year (joining us when he wanted to, or just going off and playing when he didn't).  Ha!  He was all over the place.  And there were so many tears and things being torn the first day.  School time may have been a bit of a let down for him.  He definitely improved as the week went on, but I'm going to have to get creative.

And Conrad is CURRENTLY still napping during most of school time.  That will be changing soon, so then you can pray for me!!!  Aaah!  

Here are a few pictures from our week:

Everyone was happy for the re-institution of poetry tea time!!

Silas normally joins in writing and practices on our chalkboard.

You can't tell, but they were fighting here.  We definitely have our struggles too.  There's just not enough math blocks to go around, right?

Babies woke up early!!

And our Friday, we joined our Nature Group at George Washington Carver. 

Conrad was eating dirt during the story and poetry.  And I think he liked it.

Amos took a few pictures on our hike.

The most exciting parts of the week were getting to spend time with family.  Nana and Papa and Granny and Emma came on Tuesday to stay the night.  Papa and Daddy had some work to do outside the house and we had fun playing.  Emma even joined us for a little school time!

 Silas mastered the monkey bars this week!  He just started and went all the way across.

They fixed the well, so we made quick use of it and played in the sprinkler and with the water guns!

We finished the week at Grammy and Gramp's house.  And then got to see our cousins.  

A great start to school!  Can't wait to see what's yet to come!

last week of summer

You read that right!  We decided to do an early start back to school.  With Jason going back to work earlier this year because of new teacher stuff at Carthage, and it being so hot outside, we decided we might as well start too.  Then we plan nice long breaks for the holidays an we'll be done the same time he is too!

But before all that, here's what our last week looked like!  More swimming!

Amos has really taken off this year!  With all the exposure, he's swimming all over the pool, jumping in and treading water.  He's become our little fish.

Ivan has no fear.  He wants his floaty off, but we keep it on.  This last time swimming, we had just arrived, and before we knew it, he went to the highest point in the pool and jumped in.  

Conrad is ready to graduate from his floaty boat.  He kept putting his face in the water and sucking it in.  He just want out.  He's not big enough for the puddle jumpers yet, but he will be next year,

And Silas!  Just these last few times, he's grown in courage so much.  He's now diving down for rings and then he surprised me by just putting his face in and swimming.  I hope to get a little more swimming in this summer so he doesn't forget it all before the big break.

We had an especially fun time, because we were joined by friends.  Ashley, Miles and Nora met us there!  It's always more fun to swim with friends.

Ivan has been all about the costumes this week.  He reminds me of Amos and how he would bring me costume after costume to put on him.  He sure made a pretty cute football player!

At the end of the week, we met up with friends at the Joplin Library.  None of us had been there, so we decided to explore.  We had fun, but I learned very quickly that it was hard to keep an eye on all the little ones.  I'm not as big of fan of all the toys being scattered across the huge room.  

I'll plan to share about the start of our school, next week!