{H.E.E.T} Fall Apple Farm Tour!

My Homeschool Tour Group {H.E.E.T}=Home Educators Exploring Together took a tour

of a nearby Apple Orchard. It is family owned and operated and has been around since 1919. The current apple growers are 7th generation apple growers!! All of the apples are picked, sorted and packed BY HAND!! It was an amazing adventure!

We were able to tour the farm, the orchard, the museum, the packing/sorting area and the warehouse. 

We were also able to pick our own apples to bring home! We also had an informative slideshow presentation in a classroom setting and drank fresh apple cider, too. It was really a neat tour!

We have been to this orchard several times as a family, but it was much more interesting

to view it from the operations end. I have a whole new respect for how hard farmers work!

The girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we had an absolutely gorgeous fall day to 

enjoy spending some time outside!

{click on photo to enlarge}

Since it was so beautiful outside, we attempted to have

a picnic lunch at the farm.

Unfortunately, the bees wanted our lunch as much, if not more than, we did!

LOL. 

So, we headed to the minivan and ate there before driving back to town. 

Until next time..be a blessing,

Aria:)

*EASY* Contact Paper Collage!

Ready for a really easy, inexpensive and fun craft?

Well, just pull out some clear contact paper and tissue paper!

That's it!

{No messy glue to contend with either, LOL}

For the younger kids, tearing the tissue paper is a great way to build their fine motor skills (and pre-writing and cutting skills) and for the older ones, cutting the tissue paper is great practice!

The girls really enjoyed this project!

Be a Blessing,

Aria:)

Math Estimations

I found a really cute idea for a Math Estimation Craft on Pinterest 

{hop on over and follow us there} 

and decided to give it a try!

Our girls love math and love eating, so it was the perfect combinations, LOL;)

First,  just printed off the estimation worksheet and let the girls get the O's going.

We just traced their hands and let the girls estimate how many O's would fit in each.

Em really underestimated hers, but Elle was really close to her actual number!

Definitely a hit and a great follow up to our {H.E.E.T} Apple Cooking Class, where we 

played an Apple Estimation game as well!

Hands-on learning at its finest--so fun!

Be a Blessing!

Aria:)

Art Museum Visit

Our children love going to the local Art Museum.

We have been studying various artists in homeschool (Brueghel, Inness, Bierstadt, Jacob Lawrence and Piet Mondrian, most recently). We have learned about how artists use various mediums to create different pieces of art and also how they use shapes and lines in different ways.

It was really fun to take the girls back to the Art Museum armed with knew knowledge about art. They were really interested in looking at the various creations and also creating some art pieces of their own!

We had a really nice visit and a lively dialogue about the various artists and their work. Practical application, in a hands-on manner, has always been the best part of homeschooling!

 I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the artwork of Elijah Pierce. I was introduced to his work over 20 years ago by a Professional Mentor of mine in college. I was so happy to see a whole gallery of his works at our local museum-what a treat!

They have a really neat kids' area where they can create funny animals, make sculptures out of wooden dowels, create funny faces using metal instruments and play with dishes (and more)!

We even packed a healthy lunch and enjoyed it at the museum!

It was a wonderful family outing and very educational!

Blessings,

Aria:)

Our History/Herstory Timelines

We are using Heart of Dakota's History Curriculum and the girls absolutely L-O-V-E it!
I love it as well. It really allows us to use the Bible as a History book and teaches us to view all of timre from creation forward through the lens of God.

As a part of one of the lessons, the girls made their own personal history/herstory timelines. It was so fun (and bittersweet) to see the girls' baby pictures and their lives all put on paper.

They loved having their own "history" and proudly display them in our home!
Elle had so many years, she had to use 2 papers (sniff, sniff:0).

This was a really fun project for the girls!
Blessings,
Aria:)

1st Day of School! {Smart Cookies}

I thought it would be fun to start a "back-to-school tradition" and since I am so health-conscious most of the time, I really wanted our children to get excited about it!!

So.................I came up with the idea to make "Smart Cookies" and use the positive affirmation phrase of "I am a smart cookie" to get the girls super-excited about another great year of homeschool!

Needless to say, the girls LOVED the idea of baking cookies!!!

We used this super simple recipe for Vanilla Wafers and adjusted our oven temp lower for the bigger letters. Elle came up with the idea of making letters/initials for their first names and since I already had the cookie dough in the piping bag, it was super easy and quick to pipe out the rest of the "smart cookies!"

I still cannot believe how fast our girls are growing up!! 

I keep trying to find the "life brake," 

but, to no avail....*sigh*. If you locate it, please steer me in the right direction!:)

Yes, you can see it here-Elle is more mellow/serious and Em is all about having FUN!!

Ce Ce tries her best to keep up with the big girls, so this year should be quite interesting! I need to take some extra vitamins to keep up!!

What kind of special back-to-school traditions do you all have???

We'd love to hear about them!

Blessings,

Aria:)

Our 2012-2013 Curriculum Updates!

Hello! I hope you all are doing well!

I have to tell you, one of the biggest blessings of homeschooling is having OPTIONS and flexibility. We really can pick and choose what we want to focus on and how we will deliver the info to our children. I LOVE that!! We also treat each child with an individual approach in regards to homeschooling. "Each child, each year" is our motto. We will see who needs what and make necessary adjustments as we go.

On the other hand, one of the biggest drawbacks of homeschooling is having too many options, LOL. It can be overwhelming. I tend to want to expose our children to all sorts of fun activities and get them a lot of social interaction. Our girls seem to love being on the move, but it can be very tiring. I have to ensure that we ALL get adequate rest! We are considering karate, ballet/tap, gymnastics, music/piano classes, homeschool gym, and will continue with our {H.E.E.T} Homeschool Tours this year.

I have been praying (along with my husband) about what we will do for this upcoming school year and we have made the decision to try different things. While the kiddos are young, why not? What is there to lose? We can stop mid-stream if we need to (another benefit of homeschooling) and re-direct to a better fit.  I love that:-)!

In an effort to streamline things in life, I will probably do less blogging about all 3 children's educational paths individually. I want to keep an online record of their achievements and such, but my heart is telling me to pull back a bit. 

I came across this blog post and it totally confirmed what my heart has long been telling me! 

So......here is our curriculum!

 Along with our weekly Bible Memory Verses, we are using "Leading Little Ones to God" and some really neat Bible Story cards for Tiny Tots!

 Em will turn 4 tomorrow, so we will really be focusing on her reading this year. We are using "Teach Your child to Read in 20 easy lessons" for her. She also really loves using the Starfall website! I am on the fence with her having an August birthday. I am just no sure how to pace her for Kindergarten. This year will allow me to assess where she is and we can decide what is best for her.

 Core Curriculum for Em (age 4) will be "Little Hearts for His Glory (for ages 5-7)." It has lessons plans for the entire year, all Bible-based! We are using "the World God Made" and "History for Little Pilgrims" for history and social studies/geography.  I LOVE being able to have a curriculum that is God-focused so that our children learn from a young age to view the world through the eyes of Christians.

 I am going very lightly with Em in Math this year. Just some fun lessons as we go. 

Em will be working on some handwriting and other fun workbooks as well. 

Of course, we will make our weekly voyage to the library and check out 100 books and do lots of arts and crafts, too!

For Elle{age 6}, we are using an online school that will allow her to advance on her own and get evaluated by a certified teacher. She will continue to participate in our homeschool lessons, most importantly, the Bible Lessons and will let us know when she needs more challenging material. Elle has completed half of the first grade math workbook already, and is also working ahead in other subjects. She just can't get enough!

For CeCe {age 2}, well, I will be busy just trying to keep her occupied while I focus on the bigger girls. She will continue with fun "Tot School" activities, and will likely try to keep pace with the big girls!!

This is my daily prayer!!!

I also want to be a HAPPY homeschool Mom who enjoys educating my children, but also just being their Mom;-). I read this wonderful list and it inspired me to draft my own list of habits I will cultivate this year in order to be a bit happier along this journey. 

Homeschooling is certainly a 24/7 job and I don't want to risk burning out so early in the process! We have a LONG road ahead of us. I need to train like an Olympic Athlete and build up my endurance, pace myself and get enough rest. I am hanging up my "super mom" cape and journeying to abide in the grace of God and teach that to our children.

Blessings,

Aria:)

{Messy Mondays} Part 1

Our girls LOVE doing "Messy Mondays!" 

Every week, we come up with new and fun ways to have some Messy Fun!

Here are a few of our latest Messy Mondays!

Enjoy!!

~Top-Shaving Cream and Marbles Fun

~Middle left-sprinkler/water fun outside

~Middle right-Bath tub paint

~Bottom left-writing on the doors and windows with markers

~Bottom right-Homemade Play dough with spaghetti and wooden beads.

More fun to come!!!

What kinds of ways do your kids like to get messy?

Blessings,

Aria:)

Rainbows and Colors Unit

We love colors, though, our girls' favorite colors are pink and purple:). Yes, they wear a lot of pink. Hey, it makes the laundry a lot easier, lol. 

We studied colors and the rainbow. Here is the wrap-up. Enjoy!!

Our Bible memory verse for the week.

We had a rich discussion on how God keeps His promises!

We were even lucky enough to catch a few rainbows in our front hallway from our 

windows in the front door. 

 The girls all really enjoyed our rainbow fruit kabobs!

 We rarely eat food coloring, so I made an exception for this lesson.

We made Rainbow Toast using Organic Rice milk with food coloring in it.

 We read the book "I Can Eat a Rainbow" and gathered all of the colored play foods we could find.

 What a gorgeous rainbow!

We needed more purple and blues!

 Elle learned what ROYGBIV stands for and decided to draw what her interpretation of Roygbiv is.

What a creative little girl!

 Elle still loves creating math triangles with fact families.

Elle's vocabulary worksheet.

 We made gorgeous rainbow waffles!!

 We learned about primary colors and secondary colors.

I put blue, red and yellow glittered paint into ziploc sandwich bags.

 The girls had a wonderful time experimenting with making secondary colors!!

 This was the perfect activity for Ce Ce. She does not like to get messy:).

 We went on a nature walk and collected various items.

We painted the pinecones-the girls loved this!!!

 Em's worksheets on colors.

 Another wonderful free file folder game from mamaslearningcorner.

 Elle is really improving in her spelling and vowel usage!

Not perfect, but making progress!

Be a Blessing,

Aria:)