We are about to start week 4 of homeschooling.  Yay!  So here as what we’ve been learning about so far…

Our first week was the 7 days of Creation.  We really enjoyed this.  We made a Creation book to wrap up the week as you can see in the pictures.

Our second week was “S-s Sun.”  We learned a few facts about the sun and what it looks like from outer space.  Evan loved looking at space flash cards I have that show realistic pictures of the sun.  We made a “shiny S,” “s cookies,” sun tea, used a flashlight and our globe to illustrate how the sun rotates around the earth, drew Evan’s shadow on the driveway and talked about how the sun casts a shadow on objects, painted and colored and, as always, read lots of good books.

One of our favorite weekly projects is to make our badge for the week.  Each week, we make a badge and write our “words to remember” on it.  The “sun” lesson was: “Jesus is the light of the world.”  And our moon week was: “I am the light of the world.”  We read our daily devotional and discuss a bit about what those words mean.  It’s a sweet time with my boy, for sure.

This past week was “M-m Moon.”  We started off with our mmmmmmacaroni M’s along with a few facts about the moon.  I explained how the surface of the moon was dusty and sandy.  We looked at more space flash cards with pictures of the moon.  He particularly liked talking about the astronauts and how they landed on the moon.  The pictures of the “moon buggy” was a favorite.  We focused on the number “8″ this week, color purple and the shape of a crescent.  Evan learned the phases of the moon too.  Our treat in the kitchen was “marshmallow treats.”  YUM.  I think mommy could have eaten the entire pan full!  We wrapped up the week with making a mobile to hang in Evan’s bedroom with a sparkly moon and stars hanging from it to represent day 4 of creation.  And what lesson wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the moon.  We converted our kitchen table into a rocket ship, Evan insisted on getting decked out in his “space outfit” and away we went.  BLAST OFF!  Tanner even joined in the excitement.

One of my favorite moments this past week with Evan was when we were pretending to be on our rocket ship.  We landed on what I thought was the moon.  We got out of our rocket ship and began to explore the dusty surface of the moon.  But, wait, something’s wrong!  Evan, “Mom!  We landed on the sun!  Oh, no!  It’s so hot.  It’s burning my feet!  Hurry!  Back into the rocket ship!”

The lesson on deck is “L-l leaf.”  A nature hike is in order to collect various types of leaves.  We’ll be doing some fun projects with those.  We’ve been discussing a little bit already this weekend about leaves and tress.  One of our favorite books is “A Tree is Nice.”  Evan really wants to plant a tree.

Our classical music fun this week involved Mozart.  We danced and had fun.  One day, I put the CD in while Evan was painting and he got up and started dancing around the living room.  ”Tanner!  This is Mozart!”

With all of our lessons we include days of the week, weather, fishing for letters and numbers and fun learning games with numbers, letters, colors and shapes.  One of my biggest goals for Evan is to teach him to love to learn.  I know we’ll have our moments where he won’t want to do something but I think that’ll will be an exception, not the rule.  Keeping school rich in good books and hands on fun will help foster that love.

So here’s to the upcoming week 4!  For this mom, one of the big perks about homeschooling is doing it in our pj’s sometimes.  Seriously, you can’t beat that. :)

Days of Creation Book

"Shiny S"

"How the sun works"

Our "S" week

Pattern Fun

Our "M" week

Evan has become the family jokester lately.  He understands what it means to say something funny and he enjoys a good reaction.  Here are a few jokes he’s made over the last few days:

A black dog in the car parked next to us at the ice cream parlor:  ”Mom, I think that dog’s name is macaroni!  Isn’t that funny, mom?”

Evan reading to us at nighttime:  ”Children, Children what do you see?  We see a creature…I mean, TEACHER, looking at us!”

He had an “itch”: “I need a band-aid for my bottom.  Isn’t that funny?!”

This 4-year-old year is proving to be tons of fun on many levels.  From the discussions we have, the things he enjoys (and dislikes), the exploration, to seeing his little personality blossoming.  I’m eager to hear what he comes out with next. :)

This week marks the official start of our homeschooling journey.  After much discussion and prayer with my husband, we decided to start schooling Evan at home this year instead of having him go back for another year of preschool.  We feel so blessed to have been able to have Evan participate in the 3-year-old program at The King’s School this past year.  He learned a lot and had fun doing it.  It was a wonderful experience.

However, I am excited to have begun our school days at home.  I say it’s “official” now even though we’ve been having “school” most of the summer.  But after much research we now have a curriculum for this year.  In addition to our curriculum, we have a very handy “homeschool cabinet” that I have stocked with all sorts of goodies.

The curriculum we have chosen this year for Evan is the Kindergarten program through My Father’s World homeschool curriculum.  We are gently using it and keeping it fun.  We add in a little poetry, nature walks, classical music fun and lots of wonderful books to read aloud.  My Father’s World incorporates unit studies, Charlotte Mason ideas and also classical education.  A nice variety.

Today, was day three of homeschooling and we are really enjoying it.  Our days start out with a 10 day study on Creation.  What better way to start our home school than to learn about God and how he created this amazing world we live in?  Along with our 10 day study on Creation, Evan is learning letters by playing a couple of games, singing songs and mom being creative.  We’re working on upper and lowercase letter recognition too and he knows almost all of them.  After our 10 day Creation study is complete, Evan will have put together a “creation book” to look back on and tell the Creation Story.  Once our Creation Days are done, we will start on Lesson 1, The Sun.  Learning the letter “s,” the sound it makes, and getting our hands involved in fun activities to reinforce our lessons.

School is “in” in the Byron home and I couldn’t be more excited to see the year unfold.  I feel so privileged to be able to do this!

Handy Homeschool Cabinet

First Batch of Homemade Clay

Clay Letters

The Creation Story (more to come!)

Walking into Tanner’s dimly lit room tonight, I give him one last glimpse before I head off to blessed slumber.  But I stop.  It’s then, as I’m staring at him sweetly sleeping, I see it.  His crib is becoming very full or should I say he is getting bigger.  There’s less room from where his head starts and the end of the crib stops.  It hits me just how fast time is going and how much he is growing every day.  Of course I knew this.  That’s what happens, right?  Have a baby, watch them grow.  But it’s those quiet, dimly lit moments sometimes where reality makes it’s way into my mind and I slow down enough to really recognize it.  Tonight was such a moment.  Then the memories came flooding back.  I had this same type of moment years ago with Evan, who now almost fills a twin bed.

It’s in those dimly lit moments that I remember how precious my children are.