Our first week!

Our first week went great. Although it was so exhausting. By the afternoon, after we were all done with school, I couldn't keep my eyes open I would turn something on for the kids so I could sleep on the couch. I tried to find creative ways for us to incorporate into our lessons. Everyday was great except thursday. I have everything set up so I don't have a ton of prep work every night. 

The kids thought that doing our Explode the Code lesson on the window was a blast. I did too!

As one of our writing practices we wrote to our new penpals in Virginia. The kids LOVED this!

I told Mac to write to him about what he like or likes to do. I loved his first sentence!

Oak did some copy work and a drawing for her letter. 

And to our surprise it only took 2 days to go 2800 miles. I also loved that my friend took a picture of her kids just like I had taken of my kids. 

This is now what our homeschool wall looks like. I actually love it and it has been fun and functional.

During quiet time I watched some speakers at an online Homeschool summit. Learned some great things!

The kids picked this up at the library and we had an impromptu lesson about what it was and why and how it was used. The kids were really intrigued. 

Friday we ended up going to a homeschool park date. It was our first time going and we loved it. The kids loved playing with the kids and ended up getting along great with the older kids. Mac ended up playing with a kid whose last name was "Mac" (actually his real name, not nickname) and a kid whose middle name was also the same. I thought that was hilarious since I have never met another person named that.

These older boys were so nice to Mac and they played so great together. 

We will for sure go again.

mommy-n-me time, shots and fun with friends...

I was laying down after church to get rid of a migraine and Mac came in and was telling me all about his lesson on Tithing. He was so cute!

Mac made it his duty almost every morning this week to make every one breakfast. He loves doing things that make him feel like a grownup.

When we dropped Mac off at the homeschool center, Oak and I had some mommy and me time at Les Scwab trying to get our tires fixed (for the millionth time). And they are still having trouble and I will have to go back AGAIN, ARG!

Trying to waste some time after all of our complimentary popcorn was eaten. 

While Oak was at preschool Mac wanted his mommy and me time to be at the Children's museum. We had a lot of fun together. 

The doctor room is always his favorite. He always ends up calling the other rooms demanding they come in for a check up.

We pretending we were doctors flying to Africa to help and we also flew over the Eiffel tower. It was quite an adventure. 

We had a few minutes to spare  before it was time to pick Oak up so we stopped at the park to swing. 

A little dancing to The Piano Guys. Our favorite!

They were cracking themselves up!

Because Oak had been sick when she went in for her check up we held off on her shots. And we went back in this week. Oak wanted her daddy there.

She was all smiles until she was jabbed. 

But nothing that a purple balloon, sucker and a dilly bar couldn't fix. 

This boy did great with school all week except Thursday. He was having the hardest time focusing and listening. It about drove me nuts! By the afternoon he was great!

We went to the library to get some more books.

And Mac was able to get his first library card. He has been beyond excited about it and has been telling everyone he can about it and that he can get 25 books with it. He has carried the card around everywhere which has led to it getting lost a few times.

Our stake service project was handing out donation bags for the local food bank. The kids loved it and I did too until someone yelled the F word at us. Then I was freaked out and wanted to run home. Thankfully that was all the guy did. 

The highschool Hubs went to and from where we just moved from was playing a local school. We ended up going and were able to see a few great friends from our old ward. The kids even got some new shirts. Go Falcons!

She was excited!

It was fun seeing friends there. 

Saturday morning the kids were so bored so we ended up breaking out this box to play store. It was fun for them for about five minutes before they were complaining they were bored again. ug!

Oak got some late b-day presents from some of her birth family. She hasn't put the guitar down. She is very serious about it and has asked several times if we could get her a book with music so she can learn to play it. 

We went golfing at the putt-putt at the running Y for the first time. We had fun with some of our greatest friends. 

Mac loved it and kept running ahead of us to do the next hole. 

We had a great week!

Our official first day!

Well I have to say that our first day was a success! It did not go at all like I thought it would, but it turned out great. I tried to be prepared and to not to have high expectations. I think the number one key to our great day was that Mac showed absolutely no resistance to any of it and never grew tired of anything we did. Thankfully I know that won't be the case everyday. 

I was hoping to get up and get school going a bit before we had to take Oak to preschool. The kids kindof dragged doing their morning routine, which they do every morning. After taking pics and making our traditional "first day of school pancakes" and looking for Mac's birth certificate, it was already time to take Oak to school. 

We also got a little dancing to The Piano Guys in. This happened to be Cello Wars which is their favorite!

Mac with his "teacher".

Oak with her teacher Ms. Nicole.

She loved it and her teacher said she did great and was so much fun!

While Oak was gone to school I took Mac over to the local Homeschool Center and registered him. (Thats why I needed his birth certificate). The Center offers times the kids can come in and have fun. They just have to come in at least once a week. They also will pay for up to $1500 worth of approved (non religious) curriculum. He got to visit the classroom for a few minutes and he loved it and I will take him tomorrow morning to stay for a couple of hours. 

After we got home from picking up Oak, we made and ate lunch. While the kids were eating I decided to start reading a book we had gotten from the library about Dinosaurs (which is the unit study Mac has chosen for now). As soon as I started reading, on their own, they decided they wanted to draw and write about dinosaurs while they were listening. As I was reading I wrote a few interesting words down for them to copy (snuck in our copy work). 

Then Mac chose Math to do next. Oak is even doing it with us. 

We were going to do Explode The Code but Mac asked to play this game and so I went with it. He love this Sight Word Popcorn Game I got for like $2 at Walmart in the school supply section. 

This is how Oak played the game. Silly girl!

Next Mac finished Go, Dog Go! from his reading chart. He read the best I have ever heard him. Although he was struggling with words that started with "wh" and "th" which I have never seen him do before. 

Next we did our devotional/scripture. Hubs has been reading The Book of Mormon to Mac at night and he has been marking the chapters off on a chart so he can finish the whole book before he turns eight. So I decided to keep this simpler than I had originally planned. We are just going to continue to read from the scripture readers, which my kids LOVE. Read something or do an activity from the Friend magazine and practice one of the songs they are learning for the primary program. I printed out the music for all the songs and put them in page protectors and they can choose which one we will work on that day. 

We also read our FIAR book which was The Story of Ping. We own that book and the kids have always loved it. We just talked a little bit about China and the culture and that was all we did for that because I was TIRED because I did not sleep most of the night.

An added bonus: Mac saw this page in the book I was reading to them and so he on his own gathered all he needed to officially be a paleontologist and got back to work on his excavation.  It was adorable. 

We started school at about 1pm and ended at about 3:30.

After all of this I turned on Netflix for the kids to watch so that I could sleep a bit. I could not keep my eyes open. They did that until dad got home. So not a perfect day but I am happy about it and so are the kids.