A Month Down....

I pretty much look like this each and every day.  But, it's good.

One month down and we are back into our groove.

We are used to not being done by lunchtime now.

With two little ones, it's just not possible anymore, and we

are doing ok with it.  We start at 9, go until 11:30 or noon. I send the kids outside so I can make lunch, clean up, do some laundry or just stare at a wall for a few minutes.  I put the littles down for a nap around 1pm, and then we all come back to finish up our day and are done by 3pm. It is working.

Having the kids (mostly Seth and Addie) have "baby duty" is helping a ton.  After they have done a few things from their workbox, I send one of them off to play with the little ones.  Playdough, sandbox, or whatever!!  It has been great!  (Although very messy....oh well...!!)  Audrey really had a hard time getting into trouble when we first started back to school; slamming doors, ripping up our papers, just being a stinker.  But, we all are making sure she knows we love her and take time to play with her.  That is why our day is longer now, but I am ok with that.  A few months back, a huge concern of mine was how I would homeschool the three big kids and still take care of my babies???!!  Letting go of the old way we used to homeschool has helped me. We are always adapting, aren't we?!

I am happy with the way our year is going so far.  Each day may not go the way I planned it out in my mind, but I am learning what things are ok to let go, and what things aren't.  Happy Fall to us all!

p.s.

I am working on altering some fancy dresses the girls found at the DI for their Halloween costumes.  Princesses for four of us, a doggie, a Spiderman and one handsome Zorro.  Yes, we all dress up in the Rodgers Family!!  LOVE it! 

Our little "Happy Handsome"

We have a new nickname for Noah.  Will called him "Happy Handsome" one day and it kinda stuck.  He is seriously the most happy boy ever.  Plus, he is super handsome. 

 We have been playing Clue a lot lately.  Kind of a morbid game to play with your kids, but oh well.  Noah loves to "play" too.  I have tried to put out another game for him to "play" while we play our game.  No dice.  He is too smart for that!  Addie loves to choose the murderer, the room and the weapon and she loves to sit there as we all try to figure it out.  It is kinda funny because if you happen to guess all the right cards, she perks right up and asks if it is your final answer.  Will has won about every game we have played lately.  Somebody needs to come beat him, cause we can't seem to.

 Noah getting a bit frustrated cause he can't seem to reach the pawns........

 Our little Happy Handsome loves to stand at the stairs and yell jibber-jabber to whomever happens to be down there at the time.  I think he has seen me do this a time or two.

Oh, this boy is so sweet.  And big!  My wrist has been acting up again and I am sure hauling him around is contributing.  Precious boy of mine.

Artists are we....

Thursday is "Art\Music Day" for us so here is what we did today....

 I had an Usbourne Book Party recently and got this book!  LOVE it!  It has art in it, a short biography about the artist, and shows you how to do a project on you own that is similiar to the artist's.

I also got these art cards and they have been super fun to just pull out anytime to look at.  Addie especially has liked to do that.  We spread them all out today and just picked up ones we thought were interesting. These cards are awesome!

 We turned on some classical music, channeled our inner "Jacskson Pollock" and tried our hand at splatter painting. Addie took to it like a pro....

So did Seth.  He is what I call my "Reluctant Artist".  He claims he hates art and usually disappears when we start doing artsy stuff.  But, sometimes he comes and joins in after much prodding on my part.  He told me as he was creating his splatter painting masterpiece today, "I could do this all day".  See, Sethy!  Art IS fun!

Sasha takes art from a wonderful lady once a week, so it has been important to me this year to make sure I do art with my other kids since they aren't old enough her for regular classes. What shall we do next week.....???

**Audrey painted her arm quite nicely and Noah managed to eat more of a crayon than I would have liked while we painted.  Just in case you wondered if they like art, too.**

Heritage History: Ancient Rome

A friend found this history curriculum and recommended I take a look at it, so I did! 
Here is what it says on the back of the cd:  "The Ancient Rome Classical Curriculum was created to provide resources for anyone interested in learning about Ancient Rome, either through independent study or as part of a comprehensive course.  Our complete curriculum includes a library of engaging traditional history books, as well as maps, illustrations, timelines, and other study aids developed to help foster a life-time interest in ancient history."

LOVE that!!  It really is awesome because you can tailor how you use it to suit your needs.  If you just want to use the book lists you can.  If you want to download the books to a Kindle, you can do that. You can use if for a variety of ages, so that makes me happy since my kids range in age.  I am so glad I found this since it fits my vision of how learning history should be. 

My kids wanted to learn about Ancient Egypt first, and them I will casually suggest we study Ancient Rome so we can really use this cd.  I am pretty sure they'll go for it.... I will do another review of this cd at that time. :)

Our first day of the 2012-2013 school year went a little something like this:

 

For breakfast I got the kids a $1 McMuffin to make it special.  It worked.

We started promptly at 9am.

We sang our hymn of the week "Love at Home".  Ok some of us didn't sing.

Prayer and scripture of the week. 1 Nephi 3:7.

Then we danced around to some fun music to get our blood flowing.

Someone didn't want to dance but he soon joined in....

The kids all wrote in their journals about their summer....

Some cried because summer is over.

Noah had a morning nap.

All kids did their math.

All kids did their english or phonics.

Sasha played the piano.

We ate lunch and tried to have recess but some people fought so

recess got cut short.

We decided to start our year studying about mummies. (Tuesday is the day we

study history).

We watched some cool videos about mummies.

Then Audrey bit Addie on the back.

So, Audrey went down for a nap.

Noah was ready for his afternoon nap by then, as well.

We had quiet reading time until 3:15.

The End.

 

Today was not perfect by any means but we did good things.  The first day back is always the hardest.  Tomorrow will be better.  Especially if nobody cries, nobody bites and if I can find some chocolate to sneak off and devour.  :)