I blinked and it is now October.

The last week of October!

I cannot believe we are in our eleventh week of this school year already!

The week before last, the littles were learning about the letter “G.”

It was a fun week of all things giraffe, gumball machines, and grapes!

Honestly, this grape craft was just to keep their hands busy for a few minutes! I had boys who needed my attention!

Forget that grape craft! Can we talk about these smiles?!?

Math time for the boys!

We are working on counting, especially Tate. So rolling the dice, counting the number rolled, and marking the number with some O’s cereal was a hit!

The gumball machine was a quick activity, but they love stickers!

The boys are ever diligent in their work. Chad and Lane worked in the living room on Monday last week, because the kitchen was SO hot. It was really warm and humid on Monday, and our air conditioner units have long been put away. We kept all the windows closed, because of the humidity. The living room was much cooler!

This past week, the littles learned the letter “C!”

We followed the curriculum, did some printables, read some go along books, and did some crafts!

And I have exactly four photos of ALL that. Brilliant!

We also rowed a FIAR book called The Gullywasher.

All of these FIAR books are so super cute!

Chad joined us for FIAR at his request. I loved that! To me that is the best part of a big homeschooling family!

We painted sombreros out of paper plates.

Pinterest was our inspiration.

We also did some sand art of a desert landscape. This was super fun for the kiddos, and we plan to do it again! We learned the best way to use the glue and sand, and want to have another go at it.

FIAR is a hit!

I have been asked several times recently about the curriculum we use for homeschooling, so I thought I would share that.

For Tate and Eliza, who are a Pre-K age, I use the My Father’s World Kindergarten curriculum. I will teach them kindergarten again next year, with the ABeka curriculum, but I like MFW because it introduces ABC’s, phonics blends, and has a unit study feel to it. I did this same thing with Chad and Lane, and loved that Pre-K year and the foundation it laid for them! I add a lot of hands on things to this curriculum, and go along read aloud books as well. I also do not stress if they cannot do everything perfectly before we move on. It is just the foundation – and they will build on it next year.

Lane is in third grade. I use ABeka Math, Language and Read & Think, but I use BJU Press Spelling. Been doing it this way since Grant and Addie Mae were in third grade – and it is not broken, so I haven’t needed to fix it. Lane is also learning cursive and using Handwriting Without Tears for that.

For all Science, from elementary school through 12th grade, I use Apologia. Lane is reading Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day on his own. I assign a few pages a day, and then he draws and narrates in his Science journal about what he read. I also make sure I have everything on hand that he needs to do the experiments.

I use Five in a Row curriculum as well. It is a unit study and covers every subject in some way or another. Chad has been joining us for our FIAR study. This is our favorite part of the day, and where most of the crafts for the middle boys tie in!

Chad is in the 7th grade. I use ABeka Math,

Easy Grammar and Daily Gram for Grammar,

My Father’s World for Bible, History, and Literature,

Apologia Human Anatomy and Physiology with the notebooking journal for Science,

and Handwriting Without Tears for Cursive.

Chad is also doing a typing tutorial this year – part of which he does on line, and the other part from a book called Keyboarding Skills.

Starting in sixth grade, I switch my kiddos from BJU Press Spelling to Spelling Power. I love this Spelling curriculum! It teaches spelling with a five minute timed test a day. All of the kids have done very well with it.

Chad has writing assignments through his History and Science curriculum, but I also assign writing assignments from a book called Story Starters. I also have several other writing prompt books that we use to prompt writing assignments.

One other thing we will be adding to our day soon is chapter book read aloud time. Reading aloud to the kids is one of my favorite things to do! As the temperatures are dropping outside, these winter like activities come alive inside. I wonder what our first read aloud book should be?

That sums up our school book choices for this year! Our book work takes less than two hours in the morning – and the rest of our day is filled with learning as well – whether by just living life, doing scripture memorization, doing projects and crafts together, cooking and baking together, playing games together, or serving someone together. Every aspect of life is about learning! My goal as these kiddos teacher is to teach them to LOVE to learn! I still love to learn! It is such an important skill to have!

I LOVE teaching our children school. It is the best way to spend my days and such a great calling!