Apple Picking October 2012

The children and I went apple picking this year, almost didn't get to! Hubby out on comp since the end of April, so it's been a crazy ride.   So glad we had the chance to got apple picking though! We go every year and I didn't want to miss it.  We've already eaten several apples!  Some of the apples that "ended up" with bites taken out of them, but not eaten all the way (our littlest one strikes again!) we shared with the family of deer that crosses by our back yard several times a day.  The few pictures I took from our apple picking day are below.

                                Little J enjoying his apple!

                           "Big kids N and A enjoying apples too!

                               "Little K enjoying an apple"

                                "The littles" with their apples

                            All four children at the end of apple picking!
Well this post is short, but sweet!  Have more to post though. 

Trying to get back to blogging!

It's been several months since I last posted.  Things have been busy with four children!  My husband is currently out of work.  He has had two sugergies and more to come, which makes life around here very interesting!

Last time I wrote we were trying "unschooling".  Well, that didnt' quite fit so well into our lives.  My two older children have had the public school experience before coming home and so have I!  I was not ready for unschooling and neither were they.  I may or may not try it with the younger two, we'll see.  We have made a big switch and are now part of the "My Father's World" family and loving it (well.. I am!).  My children are liking it some days.   It does honestly depend on the day! I think all in all, they will end up liking it.

We have tried some different math curriculums since we've started our homeschool journey too.  First I used what ever I could find, then after a short few months of that I bought Math Mammouth from Curr-click.  It was a great start.  Both of my older children needed more work/review on some things from being in public school.  We then, the following school year, moved on to Saxon math.  I kept my oldest using it for the entire school year, but about half way (or more) through the typical school year (Sept-June) I discovered Math U See.  I went with this for my next child.  It's a better approach to math for her.  Last school year I tried it for both of my children... not a good move!  It was still working for my dd, but not ds.  I should've just stayed with Saxon for  him.  Well over this past summer we tried Life of Fred.  Although I do really still like it.. it was not the right fit for our family.  The kids did/do enjoy the silly story, but they have not been trained in math that way and it would be too much back tracking for them at this point to really grasp Fred's math.  So.. we are back to Saxon for my oldest ds and dd is back to Math U See.  This is great though.  Now they each have a math program that seems to "fit" them and their mathematical needs.  As for the youngest two..I'm planning to start ds that just turned 4 on Singapore math..but I'm waiting until after Christmas.  Since he and dd almost 2 are young and will be schooled at home from the beginning I can go a different route with them.  I like Singapore, it looks like they will like it.  We'll see.  I still have time to change my crazy mind!

Life in our school room has moved again! I don't have pictures though.  I had originally moved it around to make it look nice to "show" for selling.  That never happened.  After looking back at our old pictures, I miss our old room.. nice and organized and neat.. If I can arrange it in here.. I may change it back that way.  I'm not ready for that big mess though, so for now, we're staying crammed and in order! I don't have the space in my home I'd like to have our school room like I like it.  Actually if I can figure out a new home for our computer.. then I could make is a little less crowded in here.  Small spaces!!!

Puppy??.. not anymore.. we had to give her away 7 months after we got her.  I was crazy to think it would work with a newborn and a new puppy.  It was horrible and I was not doing well with it.  The puppy was a lab/boxer mix and she was CRAZY!  My ds who is now 4, then a little over two, had the best time with her, but it caused problems for the rest of the family.  He would let her out of her crate when it was not a good time and she'd chew and destroy something..or he'd open our front door and let her run....!!!  Plus he also liked to be naked..alot!  So he'd join her in the daily run...yes, naked!  :)

We have a nice guinea pig who came to live with us around the same time as the pup.. but he's a cool pig.. very social and friendly.. and he does not destroy our home! 

I like blogging and hope to find more time for it.  I also hope to add some pictures of some of the fun stuff we've done..

Thanks for reading!  Blessings to you! 

It's been too long!

It has been too long since I've gotten to come on here and update my blog. Quite a bit has changed! Our "newest addition" is now 15 months old! She's adorable and very loud! Our little Joey is as wonderful as ever.. and A HANDFUL!! Abby our "princess" is still our princess and getting closer to being a teenager.. but not yet! Our oldest is a teenager.. oh boy! We have made some changes to our classroom, mainly because we were going to put our home up for sale and I needed to have the doorway I had blocked off unblocked. It's okay this way, but after looking back at the pictures I miss the way our room was last. It looked so neat and organized.
We have moved onto exploring "unschooling". I've been reading a book "Christian Unschooling". It's really great and so helpful! Our journey is off to a slow start, but I am sure we will get to where God wants us to be. I continually pray on his calling on all of our lives and for His guidance in our education. Currently Abby is working on a lapbook/unit study on Australia and one on Oceans. She is also very interested in fashion and writing. We did have a couple of great fashion books out from the library, but had to return them. I'm still contemplating whether or not to purchase them. I do have a mother's luncheon to go to very soon and there is a ton of used curriculum for sale, so I'm trying to hold off buying too much until then. Nicholas is into this show he discovered on Apacolypse. I've put together a unit study for him, but he's not too interested in it. I'm praying again we will find out way through this. Joey is very much into many things, but dinosaurs, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse and Scooby Doo are his favorites. We recently completed a few weeks on dinosaurs. Followed by a couple of weeks on "We Like Books" using a lot of Eric Carle books. Things have gotten a bit crazy lately so we're just filling in the day with activities. Kristen is into exploring everything. One of her favorite activities is painting... EVERYTHING! She does well at the easel though.

All of us, except for my husband are involved at the play at our church. My oldest is part of the stage crew, the rest of us are part of the play. It's exciting and fun, but also keeps us busy. I'm looking forward to the weekend of the performance and praying it will bring many people to Christ!

We no longer have our dog, it was sadly too much for our family. We will try agian another time. We still have our guinea pig and fish though. I will post some new pictures as soon as I can get to it.

Abby and I discovered an awesome craft of recycling many things and turning them into useful things for Barbie. We found it on You Tube. It's called my froggy stuff. It's so much fun for both of us! I love to craft and so does Abby. I'll be taking some pictures of what we've made for her doll house as soon as we finish each room.

A friend and fellow homeschooling mom and are going to be starting a new homeschool group at my church in April of this year, we're all looking forward to that.