This Week's View

This Week's View is not bad. 

I quite like it actually.

Looking forward to Next Week's View though!  The next time you see these toes, they will be nestled in sand along the Atlantic. I can smell the salty sea air already...

Saturday Skate

Josh wanted to take the kids skating Saturday morning, so off we went.  Anna had new skates to break in anyway. 

The last time we skated at this place, I told the owner he needed to get some of these skate mate contraptions.  He hemmed and hawed and said something about them taking up space and being expensive, but LOOK!  He had some this time ... and in more than one size!

Noah didn't really need it, using it only once or twice just for the novelty.

Anna definitely needed the extra support to get her footing straight and confidence up, so it was worth its $3 fee easily!  

And still she wiped out once or twice.  No pictures please! :}

Back in the saddle.  Scrawny, but tough.

 Noah had a much better sense of humor about his spills.

He still tends to take short, choppy strides to get around the rink, but he'll improve with more practice.  He had me timing him every lap.

Look Ma, no hands!

We decided by the end of this session, and by the tenth time Josh had to tighten them up, that Noah's second-hand skates were officially crapped out,

 

so we went directly to Academy Sports and got the boy a brand-new pair for a change instead of whatever I could find at consignment.  We'll give them a run this weekend at Emily's where we have cousins chomping at the bit, broke toe'd and all, to skate together again!

Wrestle Mania

Noah is fortunate to have a sister that enjoys a good throwdown.

Grade 2.5 Review

Noah and I have been done with his Grade 2.5 school year for a month and a half now, so I better report back with follow-up notes now before I forget anything more than I already have.  We are fully into a summer vibe these days and it's taking a lot to gather any pointed thoughts.  Ha!  I will follow the same format I did summarizing last year.

Firstly, and I believe I have said this already, giving Noah another year to mature emotionally and academically before entering upper elementary was SUCH a great move and I really had no reason to doubt it.  Going 2.5 instead of grade 3 was great.  Mission accomplished in terms of redeeming that year I sent him to kindergarten a year before I should have.  We have righted that course and are so satisfied with how it has and will continue to change our schooling trajectory. I am sure I only doubted that "extra year" decision to begin with in relation to how others would perceive it and that was just silly.  Grade 2.5 was a much more enjoyable year together that saw some changes, but mostly things continued on the same path we began in Grade 2.0.

For the entire Language Arts block, we continued on with full 3rd grade material from Sonlight Curriculum.  By year's end, Noah was reading well into 4th grade level.  We did a bunch of read aloud and audio books of our own choosing.  I hate that we didn't document them all, but honestly, it would have become quite a chore to do so, we moved through so many books.  Noah killed it on the AR scene with 120 points, ranking second among all of the second graders in Josh's district. :}  We stuck with vocabulary practice again using Wordly Wise Online.  Noah got sloppy throughout the year, so when he finished all the 3rd grade coursework, I reset it and had him review all those word goals again to really solidify his grasp of that content. In the fall, I am going to try out a Word Build vocabulary program I checked out at the homeschool conference this year that relies heavily on Greek and Latin roots and word parts to unlock vocabulary.  I am convinced this sort of word study will go much farther than random words lists and definitions.  We shall see.  Anna, for her part, will use Noah's second grade curriculum from last year for her first grade year as she is already such a STRONG reader working on a second grade level as it is.

For History/Social Studies, we happily abandoned Sonlight as I detailed our head start into that jumped ship last March.  We kept pace with Story of the World and covered Medieval Times - from the last roman emperor all the way to the fall of Constantinople and the start of the Black Death.  We did not do hardly any of the projects that were suggested, but we did make it through the year with a smooth, effective routine of reading, discussing, mapping, and comprehending.  Given how abominable our SS hour was last year, we call this a HUGE step up.  In the fall, we are taking a break from World History for a year, to cover something a little more accessible and kid friendly and honestly, a little more fun ... US states/capitols and geography and mapping.  This will be a fun course load to take on with my first year with TWO kiddos of different grade levels.  I picked up Trail Guide to US Geography at the convention and, if we like it, will check out their Trail Guide to Learning Pathways curricula after that for the rest of World History and US History in the years that follow. 

For Math, we absolutely stuck with RightStart Mathematics and it continues to be Noah's favorite part of the day. Noah completed Level C (which is second grade equivalent) and are excited to tackle 3rd grade math in the fall.  Given what all Noah can do already in multiplication, division, fractions, and mental addition and subtraction of three digit numbers, I am chomping at the big to see what difficult math it will make easy next.  Love this curriculum!!  Even the geometry units this year were a success for Noah.  As an added help, Noah used Xtra Math online to improve rapid recall of all math facts.  It's a great resource and I recommend it every time it comes up in math conversation ... which is a lot with homeschool moms.  HA!  Anna will use the Level B math Noah used last year since it was technically first grade anyway.

For Science, we stayed with Sonlight curriculum in Science C learning about geology (rock and minerals), meteorology (weather), biology (plants, animals, babies), paleontology briefly (dinosaurs), and historical and mechanical technology (how machines are made and work).  The mechanical technology was a drag for me, but Noah was QUITE interested, so I sucked it up and just learned alongside him. Josh manned the science experiments every weekend again this year with both kids - topics covered electricity, magnets, and the human body.  Next year, we'll continue with Sonlight and Anna will do the same course study Noah does.

For Bible, we worked our way through an excellent kids bible study/devotion book called Long Story Short.  I was amazed with how spiritually mature the topics and discussion points were ... and how my son was completely in his comfort zone in those discussions.  Such a blessing to see his faith and understanding and that growth!  It is such a thorough bible study, we only made it only half way through and will continue the second half next year with Anna joining in.  I also want to somehow work this resource in as well - Get Wisdom!  It is very timely for the ages of my kiddos and we will also be able to rely on it for our community group kids lessons each week.

Josh wanted Noah to start learning to type this year as well, so we set him up on a free online typing program called Typing Club. He grew in leaps and bounds with this program and will continue that in the fall.  He completely learned all the letters and punctuation by touch, but will likely need to review all those again as I haven't made him continue in that this summer.  By 2nd semester, his goal will be to improve his wpm.  Exciting!  Anna will use this program, too.

Between all that, our 1 Timothy homeschool field trip group and his Anchored Enrichment co-op on Thursdays, we had a fun and full year and look forward to sharing the next school year with Anna on board!  Bring on 1st and 3rd grade!  I am not exactly sure how our schedule will shake out, but I am comfortable enough with the idea that we will figure it out when we get there and simply adjust as needed.  Homeschool freedom rocks!  Here's to taking mornings slow again, being our own boss time/schedule wise, and (Anna's favorite) pajama day every day of the week.  HA!

Daddy Dearest

If you asked the kids who their favorite parent was and they said Josh, I truly would not be upset.  I would agree with them actually. He really is the greatest.  And I just count myself lucky to get to be his partner in this parenting life we lead.  Here's the loot and love notes The Greatest Daddy got this Father's Day... plus a new cooler with wheels (not pictured) that we gave him early a few weeks ago. :}

Anna's gifts were the shirts from his favorite brand of clothes and a handmade Joke Book. :}  Her note said - and I quote with misspellings and all, "I love Daddy Becase 1) he reads the Bible, 2) he bilds with me, 3) cises evre night (kisses {me} every night).  Sent with hugs and kisis.  happy fathers day."  ♥♥♥

Noah's gift was his own copy of The Hobbit trilogy that he so loved watching with his Daddy recently.  His note reads, "Daddy, I love you because you take care of me, you don't get grumpy a lot, and you play Legos with me." ♥♥♥

And just for fun, I threw in my free movie ticket to our favorite theater here in Gallatin.  He's gonna sneak away to see Jurassic World.

All that and a carefree weekend at home makes for a great holiday weekend!  Happy Father's Day, Josh!  We lurve you.

Sample of Summer Stuff

In this randomly fine week of June, we managed to have nothing on the calendar and yet something going on every day.  Summer at its sweetest!

Swimming!

Friends!

Science Musuem!

Gardening!

Clouds!

Going to work with Daddy!  (no pics of that though)  :(  After a full day at work, we surprised the kids with tickets to see Inside Out while the rain came down, down, down outside.

Other highlights this summer week included Noah losing his eighth tooth, both kids passing their sixth hour in summer reading, Anna keeping up more pen pal correspondence with her cousin Brooklyn, ME SLEEPING IN TIL 9 EVERY SINGLE DAY, much stuff cleared out via GTP, and this sweet treat that came in the mail from Vanessa and Valentina.

But the best part about this week is the fact that we are only a week away from getting to go hang with my sister and her crew in GA and then - bonus - a quick trip to the closest beach we could find from there!

Finalizing Noah's Room

Since the many room reshuffling/reorganizing we did before the boys came in March, I have posted pics of the new classroom, the new Jonah's Journey bedroom, and our new living room.  All that remains to be unveiled is Noah's new room, which finally met its long-awaited completion this weekend.  So glad to get this done!  The room that is Noah's has morphed so many times before its classroom days in our life.  But it was in early March that we slowly moved a kid back into it for good.  It looked like this once Noah started sleeping in there again.  Boy and bed on the left, classroom remnants in the front and on the right side still.  Nowhere near done.  I hated how unfinished it was.

After s-l-o-w-l-y moving classroom stuff out and selling that corner booth, and in time for company to come that would need access to BOTH sides of the bed, it got to this point.  Bed in the middle of the room. Better, but still not right to my eye.  It was at this point I decided the kid needed a headboard.  The hunt began.

I found him a headboard on GTP this week ($250 Ikea one for $85!) and it really got me back in the bedroom finishing mood.   Josh didn't like the headboard in front of the window so we tried another layout I have been asking him to consider.  He had his doubts that it would work for all their Lego endeavors, but he stands convinced now.  This floorplan actually makes the room feel bigger to us and Josh and the kids LOVE the specific Lego area over by the window.  Even better, I think it will be more conducive to the big passel of kids we have up there on Wednesday nights for community group; it will give them separate areas to land instead of all on top of each other in one spot.  I love how it turned out and Noah does, too.  Take a look!

Anna got jealous of my attention to Noah's bedroom and insisted I take some pics of her room that she proudly announced she'd cleaned up for an upcoming playdate with Luci.

 

 

And with that, the Status of the Bedrooms report is complete.  Phew!!

Wrapping Up Spring Ball 2015

Noah's last game Thursday night was a fun one!  His coach was gone to the beach, so Josh and some other dads filled in.  The kids won HUGE - 22 to 8.  Noah was proud of a couple doubles he hit on top of getting on base every time and earning the team 3 runs.  I snapped pictures like it was going out of style - because it kinda is.  Anna wants to try t-ball in the fall and Josh is insistent that Noah will take the season off as a result.  I don't want our schedule overpacked any more than Josh does, but for some reason, it hurts my heart a little to think of Noah having to sit out a season.

Love how he keeps his eye on the plate instead of worrying about where the ball is as he works his way around the bases.

Split-second before connecting with the ball.  You can see it there along the white line coming at him.

Noah on second base out there.  He impressed me with how he'd squeeze another base in after his hits.

I really, really love to take pics of him at bat.   I really, really love the green and red diamond against the deep blue night sky.

Lining up to clap hands with their oppenents after the game.  Noah is there in the middle next to number 5.

And last night was the league's Closing Ceremonies.  With Thursday's big win, Noah's team just barely eeked out a winning season of 8 wins and 7 losses.  :}  Good games, Tigers!!  See ya again in the spring ... unless we can talk Josh into allowing both kiddos to play in the fall ... possibly on the same team if we are lucky!

My sweetie pie waving at the camera there in the middle.

That's Noah receiving his trophy there in the middle from the lady in black and white.

So handsome!

They don't do trophies for fall ball and Noah missed last spring when he took tennis lessons instead, so he was excited to get another trophy to represent his season again. His last one is from Spring 2013.

Josh is glad to see the season wrap up and looking forward to a couple months without practice and game commitments.  For my part, I will miss it.  Baseball has really grown on me in the years since Noah started playing.  Is it wrong to look forward to fall already? :}