And the potato is off to the races!

Mr. Potato was planted Sunday! We have several nice, tall green stalks coming up! I am really excited and so are Bubba and Sissa. I will keep you up to date and upload new pics soon!

Bubba is still plugging along in his studies. I wish I had more specific learning stuff to share, but he is scattering his learning.

We are doing another Science project! We are growing potatoes from eyes! I am so excited!

This is Day 1. Mom cut the potato so that the eyes were in water to promote root growth. We are holding the potatoes up with staws.

Day 4: We have roots!

Day 5: Look at the roots we have! I can't wait to get our garden ready for planting!

Um, yeah...

So I forgot I had a blog...whoops. We have actually been busy. There have been family members that have left us to go home to God. We have taken trips, done projects and have just had fun.

We had a rough beginning. Our official start day came without issues but it lasted a week before my grandmother fell ill and passed away. Man, I do miss her. We didn't really miss any study time because we were so far ahead anyway.

October brought our lessons on the origins of Halloween and our modern traditions. We also took on studies of the seasons. Math brought new things our way as I decided to take Bubba back to basics...yes, he now does well with place values and line symmetry. I really recommend this site http://www.linkslearing.org . There are areas for students, teachers, and more.

November had us learning about the Pilgrims (a word which I was misspelling until my 6 year old corrected me, lol) and their trip to the New World. That led us to the first Thanksgiving. Math for November has consisted of fractions and addition of larger numbers that require carrying numerals. Bubs is still working on multiplication in his spare time.

We also took a trip in November from Florida to Indiana. It was one big field trip. Give me a bit and I will set an entire post on the trip and what was learned.

My own little "Bill Nye the Science Guy"...

or, Bubba has a Scientific mind!

I love it! Bubba has truly blown my mind.

He and Sissa had watermelon in a plastic baggie and were snacking on our way home today. Bub was squishing his to bits, and I was about to get onto him for wasting when he said "look, Mama. I made digestion"! He went on to tell me that the zippy part of the bag was a mouth to chew the watermelon and now it was squishing up in the stomach. Now, who can be mad at that?

I am having so much fun!

I really am. The past few days have centered around getting our educational goals set for the year. I can proudly say that, by George, I think we've got it!

I have been searching so many educational websites today and I hope we get to try all the ones that I bookmarked. I will be reviewing them as we use them, so keep reading.

I feel like I need to clarify a few things. Even though we were learning this summer it wasn't anything formal. I really needed to do a trial run before we dove head first into home education. I do believe that we passed the first test. I wanted to have more of an unschool environment, but I have gotten into all the curricula and I find that I am not nearly creative enough to make every day things seem educational. That is why I have set up educational goals for the year. I believe Bubba does better learning on his own, but he does need to be nudged in the right direction to keep on track.

Fall will be interesting, to say the least. I can't wait for September 14th!

When Life Gets in the Way or Why I am a bad Blogger

Boy did I get behind. I greatly apologize, life happens.

What wonderful opportunities for learning we have had! We have gotten some real first hand knowledge of illnesses, including some that cause rashes and about the life cycles and eating habits of dragonflies.

Yes, we believe that Chicken Pox is alive and well. As is an insane stomach bug. That is truly all I have to say about Summer illness in our home!

We have had several dragonfly pairs lay eggs in our small pond out front. The eggs have hatched and we now have 10 or more very hungry, aggressive dragonfly nymphs. They have attacked and eaten nearly all of the mosquito larvae in there!

I also have a change to report: Our "official" start date is September 14th. I couldn't see beginning before Labor day, so I chose the next Monday. And it IS official...I have sent in the required notice of intent to home educate to the county school district! WOOT! I can't wait, so excited.

I will also have Bubba blog and write on here. So, look forward to seeing his outlook on his home education experience.

Joy of Summer

Bubba has been doing very, very well.

I decided not to begin a full home school schedule yet. We will be beginning full time on Sept. 1. With that being said, we are still working on lessons and games from http://www.brainpop.com

I have also been searching free curriculum's online. We will be using curriculum ideas from http://www.guesthollow.com and this site http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/index.htm has many things to explore and use.

I have also looked into Charlotte Mason, and have found that I really like the idea that children should know poetry and to have them do copy work. So on that note, I went and borrowed Falling up by Shel Silverstein. I figure that the kiddos will enjoy his work.

I cannot wait to get everything up and running.