Fearless Boys!

At one point they actually 2 of these little slithery devils!  and were playing with them!  I warned them where there are babies there might be a momma! 

Drawing Lessons

As part of our Homeschool, we are doing some Drawing Lessons.  I learned about this book from a class I took at the Atlanta Homeschool Convention.  I checked the book out from the library and read quite a bit of it and decided we needed it for our own library so we could complete the lessons.  The book is excellent and I highly recommend it.  There are many reasons to help teach children (and adults) to draw.  The ability to a look at an object and break it down into simple elements of shape and put it on paper is a huge confidence booster and has many applications in the real world.  For many, drawing is a great way to relax (once you know how) and it can help many children and adults who have poor penmanship, visual issues or other learning disabilities.   After reading and preparing I was ready for our first lesson.  We practiced on some elements of shape and did some "warm-ups" and then on to our first lesson.  Here are the results:

Southern Museam of Flight

We enjoyed going to see the Southen Museam of Flight during FREE week!

Z's First Day

E's First Days

First day 4k

First Day Kindergarten

First Day 1st Grade

First Day 2nd Grade

Yes, barefooted!  A perk of homeschooling!

N's First Days!

Kindergarten

First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade.

Fourth Grade

5th Grade

Yes, no shoes!  The beauty of homeschooling!

Musings on Homeschooling

We started our school year back in July and since we've been going for 5 weeks, I decided to take a break this week.  Mainly because I'm hosting my 4th annual Summer Scrapbook Retreat this weekend and I had A LOT to get done!  Also, I was having a little guilt about making the kids "do school" in the summer! 

So they have been "off" all week and thoroughly enjoying it!  (Just today Z was still wearing his PJs at 4 pm, granted he had on his soccer shin guards and cleats with them, but anyway...I digress.)

Today was hard because our city started back to school so the kids' friends all started back.  They were getting up early and getting on the bus, etc.  while my kids were eating breakfast (one was still in bed!)  My friends were posting First Day of School pics on FaceBook and it's in those little moments that I have a fear about our decision.  I know it's the devil, but he is so real...and so darn nagging!  I called a fellow HomeSchool mom just for reassurance.  Luckily she did not allow me to stay in that devil negative talk for long. 

We have prayed about this decision and sought God for months and I KNOW that we are doing the right thing...but oh, the devil, he is so crafty to use emotions to suck me in.... 

And by the way, with all those posting of pics on FaceBook I realized that I didn't take pictures of my kids for their first day in July!    So we will do our pictures next week.  I'm calling our first five weeks of school our "Summer Session" and this will be our Official start to the school year.  This makes it ok for my scrapbook, right???

Liberty Park

We are doing a Flat Stanley project with some other homeschoolers.  We took a few Flat Stanley's over to Liberty Park today!  Here are some pics of the boys!

A New Dog

The Greater Birmingham Humane Society is waiving fees through August 14th. We went over and found Shakey.  She is one year old chow mix puppy.  Sweet and playful!  The kids are in love!  Though I have to say she is high energy for a one year old.  She is crate trained and very good, though!

Tile Backsplash!

We've been planning to do this for about 8 years! 

Toad

Something else we drew in our nature notebook.

B is for Bubble