Go Panthers!

Soccer Season Has Begun

This is Gabriel's first soccer team. He is having a blast as two of his friends, Patrick and Sean are on the team with him.

Michelle's Wedding in Pensacola, FL

"Always the bride, never a bridesmaid" is no longer my mantra. I had the pleasure of standing by my friend on her special day as she said I will to her now husband. Now Mrs. Michelle Early - She and Scott went off to Belize on their honeymoon and I could not be more happier for them. She made a beautiful bride, it was a gorgeous Spring day and Gabriel made an adorable ring barrer.

Gabriel-isms

I chuckled at Gabriel yesterday for getting upset with someone parked in a handicap space because he thought they were for wheelchairs to park. I was envisioning people wheeling themselves down the road and when they park, then what did he think? They get up and walk inside??

Kindergarten progress

Now that we are more than half way through Kindergarten, it's about time that I report on how homeschooling is going. I have to say it's gone better than I expected, but then again, I'm not sure what I expected since I really have had no experience with this except one friend I had as a child who was homeschooled.

Since this is our first year of home schooling and while I was unsure how the year would go, I'm happy to report he is learning and doing well.

He loves math (which he must get from his dad). He can count to 100 on his own, skip count by 5's to 100 on his own and we're working on counting by 2's (he gets mixed up in the teens but is ok after that). He just finished first grade math workbook (adding, subtracting) and we are starting him on second so a bit of a math wiz. Starting double digit addition which includes carrying over. We don't want to overwhelm him so we're thinking of doing some remedial of past unit studies to keep his confidence level up with mathematics.

The counting by 5s has helped him with learning to tell time and can tell me to the minute now.

As for language arts (which is my niche subject) he is a little slower and doesn't seem as interested at all! He has a hard time focusing, drifts off looking out the window, taps his pencil, etc. He does great at comprehension so I know he is listening and comprehending (when i read or he reads). We've worked really hard at his writing lately and trying to print more neatly and it has helped some (but still exhibits this 'i just don't care' attitude sometimes). We just started the first grade spelling and writing workbooks this month and is learning short u's, long o's -- nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives. It's just going slower than math, but that's ok. That is one of the benefits of homeschooling is you can teach at their pace, at their level and toward their interests.

I started doing spelling tests with him once a week over the last month with three and easy four letter words. He seems to like this so I may take this up a notch, do more often and actually study a set of words. (We've been pretty laid back, just trying to make school fun for him). He says spelling is his favorite subject so want to continue with this momentum. We're also studying the Dolch sight words and using them for spelling words as well. He's almost finished with his Spelling workbook.

As for reading, he asked me the other day if we could go to Barnes & Nobles so he could buy himself a new Step 3 reading book. I LOVED THAT! He was pretty confident with his Step 2 books and wanted a new challenge. Reading has clicked with him just as of late and it's wonderful to see. I knew his old Step 2 books he had memorized so I was able to see this transition to reading brand new material on his own just recently. We have been going to the library every couple of weeks to get new books which we read every night. I'll have him read a book to me in exchange for me reading a larger book to him. Again, he really needs motivation with reading and does not appear to like it although he can do it. Trying to build his confidence in this area.

In addition to the main three "R's" (reading, writing, arithmetic), we do science experiments, history book reading, geography (loves maps and mazes), and read books on social studies, etc. but are not done as part of the main curriculum. We're still going to our homeschool group although we've missed the past few weeks due to illness, he was sick, then me and then the baby. He started soccer and loves practicing with his friends and looks forward to his games on Saturdays.

We've enjoyed having him with us and enjoy being the ones to teach him. It's a lot of hard work but is very rewarding.

There are two homeschool conferences coming up...GHEA (Georgia Homeschool Educators Association) end of April and the Southeast Homeschool Expo end of August where we can look at all the curriculum and get ideas for first grade come fall. I'm very excited!

My Baby Turns One Years Old!

This is her in the same birthday hat Gabriel wore. :)

I can hardly believe my little girl is one years old. Born March 3, 2009, she has grown into her own unique person and personality. She loves her big brother yet is completely opposite from him on many things...

He used a paci, She sucks her thumb
He hated tummy time, She still sleeps on her stomach
He screamed all the time with colic, She for the most part is pretty calm (unless she's teething)
He walked late at 14.5 months, She started walking at 9 months
He breastfed until 15 months, She (and I) quit at 9 months

We kept her special day simple with baking her a ladybug cake, used Oreos for the spots and Pirouline's for antannae. It's amazing to see them play with each other. Feels like my heart grows three sizes larger. We're soaking in the moments.