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Christmas Tree Present Unboxing Night

I can’t believe it’s December already. We love this time of year, we remind ourselves the true meaning of Christmas and the Reason of the Season.  Of course, I love to add lots of fun along the way. Every year, the night that we take out our Christmas tree, I surprise my arrows with a gift box filled with lots of Christmas goodies getting us ready for the holiday season.

We have been doing this for the past several years and my arrows love it! Well, this along with our yearly Denali Express (which i will explain on a later post). So what’s in their boxes? I always include Christmas PJ’s, a book, a craft or toy, popcorn, hot chocolate packet or pod and some candy (what kid doesn’t like candy?).

When they open their boxes, my favorite part is seeing the joy on their faces, them knowing that their favorite time of year is officially here. They immediately changed into their Christmas Pj’s. They were a bigger hit this year because it came with a matching PJ for their American Girl doll (they couldn’t contain their excitement). We decorated our tree and watched Christmas movies for the rest of the evening while eating popcorn and hot chocolate as a family.

I look forward to this tradition every year. It always draws us closer as a family.  My goal is to make my arrows childhood special and memorable while spending every possible moment cherishing it with them. What are your favorite Holiday traditions for this time of year? Till next time, Journey On.

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My November Book List

It’s November, Yay!! I absolutely love this time of year because it’s the season of thanks. For myself and my family, I take full advantage of every opportunity to show, teach and reflect to be thankful for all that we have. As homeschoolers, we don’t have a school library, we have to build our own. I have been adding to our collection a little more than half a decade now and it’s so fun to dig into our shelves and find the perfect titles for the season. Now that the weather is cooler, we like to sit down on the couch with a hot cup of coffee / cocoa and enjoy some great books together as a family. (By the way, you can click on any of the links to purchase these books on Amazon.) So here is my November book list so far:

First up is one of our favorites, The Berenstain Bears.The Berenstain Bears Thanksgiving Blessings (Berenstain Bears/Living Lights) & The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks (Berenstain Bears/Living Lights). I believe I have at least one of their books for each of the holidays. I absolutely love that there’s always a lesson to learn and morals shine throughout the stories. The Berenstain Bears are the perfect way to start our month of Thanksgiving.

Next up, My kids are huge fans of silly books especially the Old Lady Who Swallowed books. So we have this really silly fun book called I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie (Picture Puffins) . It’s funny and we get a kick out of reading it after eating pumpkin pie (which is one of our favorite pies by the way).

We are also huge fans of the Magic Tree House Series. We got gifted last year, Thanksgiving on Thursday (Magic Tree House 27). We absolutely loved it, so we are definitely planning on reading it again this year.

I also have some great Thanksgiving picture books for my little arrows, especially for my little tot. My oldest loves reading to him. The Great Turkey Race, One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims (Picture Puffin Books), T is for Turkey: A True Thanksgiving Story & Bear Says Thanks (The Bear Books).

We added some new books to our Thanksgiving collection this year. They are: A Turkey for Thanksgiving & What Was the First Thanksgiving?. I usually like to add a new picture book and an informative book every year. This year, I am surprising them with the What Was The First Thanksgiving book. We really enjoy reading the Who Was books so i thought this book would be the perfect addition to our Thanksgiving collection. I think they are very informative while not too overwhelming for my younger arrows. Can’t wait to cuddle up and turn a page.

The evening before Thanksgiving we like to read Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving and our picture book Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving (Scholastic Bookshelf). These two are great to prepare us for the next day where we always come together and give thanks with our friends and family.

Well, these are the books that we will be enjoying this year. What are your favorite Thanksgiving books? Would love to hear which ones your families enjoy. Till next time, Journey On.

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My Morning Basket

When I first read about the concept of a Morning Basket, I really loved the idea. It was originally created by the amazing Homeschool momma Pam Barnhill. The awesome thing about this concept is that you can customize it any way you like. When I first started our Morning Basket, I would add books based on our current theme or holiday, but I have learned that the Morning Basket has so much more potential. I have incorporated different subjects into my morning basket this school year along with some theme and/or holiday content. I really like to have it free flowing with the intent of refreshing and waking up my arrows minds in the morning while having a lot of fun. Even though our basket is free flowing, our Bible and Devotional are a constant. So let’s get into my Morning Basket:

Bible: I use a curriculum called Grapevine Studies. My Arrows get to draw while I read the word. They also have scriptures they memorize and we end it with some wonderful conversations.  We love to start our day with the Lord and meditate on Him.

Devotional: We are loving the Indescribable: 100 Devotions for Kids About God and Science. We love the aspect of science and God’s word explained to little ones. Easy and fun to understand. Mind blowing facts that we still talk about.

Read Aloud: This will change every month but we are currently reading Little House in the Big Woods (Little House, No 1) and we are really enjoying it. When we finish the book we will be making a lap book to cap off what we have learned. We love lapbooks and you will see that we do many of them throughout the year.

Hands On Books: We are currently using Wipe-Clean Ready for School ABC & 123 (Usborne Wipe-Clean Books) & Wipe-Clean Telling the Time [With Wipe-Clean Pen] (Usborne Wipe-Clean) books. We like to use them while I read aloud and I use them to keep my arrows entertained while I step away to take care of my toddler.

Poems: As a family that does the Brave Writer lifestyle, We do Poetry Tea Time often, but we also love reading a poem or two during our morning time.

Language Arts:  We incorporated Super Silly Mad Libs Junior for our Language Arts portion of our Morning basket. The kiddos think they are really funny and we love making them together. Sometimes, even Daddy joins in on the fun.

Logic: We are currently using Brain Quest Brain Quest Kindergarten, revised 4th edition: 300 Questions and Answers to Get a Smart Start (Brain Quest Decks) & Brain Quest Grade 4, revised 4th edition: 1,500 Questions and Answers to Challenge the Mind (Brain Quest Decks) for each of my girls. This gets their Brains warmed up and ready to listen and start the day.

Art: We are currently using theSpot the Differences Book 1: Art Masterpiece Mysteries (Dover Children’s Activity Books). Besides our Bible this is their 2nd favorite thing to do in our basket. They love learning about new artists and looking through famous paintings. We enjoy doing this together. We also use the famous artist cards from Usborne, these are a huge hit as well.

Foreign Language: The kiddos wanted to start learning languages. I asked them which one they wanted to learn first. My arrows said Spanish then French. I am incorporating a First Thousand Words in Spanish by Usborne along with a workbook.  We are having too much fun trying to have conversations in Spanish.

I also have a couple of resources and games in my morning basket to break up each subject and to keep us motivated. Our family loves to play games so I incorporate several into our Morning Basket. Here are some of our game selections: Mindful Kids: 50 Activities for Calm, Focus and Peace , Bananagrams Appletters: Spelling and Word Tile Game By,Dutch Blitz Dutch Blitz,ThinkFun Math Dice Junior Game for Boys and Girls Age 6 and Up – Teachers Favorite and Toy of the Year Nominee, Yoga Cards The Game, North Star Games Happy Salmon | Fast Paced Family Card Game

Well, there it is…that’s my customized Morning Basket. I absolutely love my Morning Basket and great sign to show its effectiveness is when my arrows tell me that they are looking forward to our Morning Basket time. My goal for my basket is to motivate my arrows and start each Homeschool day on a happy note. Journey on.

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Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

My family and I love this time of year.  I think it’s mostly me but my arrows definitely enjoy it too. We took our church co-op on  a field trip to the pumpkin patch today. I believe it’s the perfect introduction for our pumpkin science week which I’ll be posting about later, it’s pretty much, all things pumpkins! Yay!

I get soo excited thinking of all the activities I have planned. I have a feeling it will turn into a Unit Study. We love Unit Studies and I try to make them really fun for our whole family.

So on to our trip today, we went to Wagner Farms. They are a local farm here in Albuquerque that put on a pumpkin patch every year. They have a really fun corn maze. We didn’t get to finish it last year but we were determined to complete it this year, and we did. It was very rewarding for the kiddos. The finish line is the entrance for the pumpkin patch, the kids ran happily towards the pumpkins. They were soo excited to pick out their very own. My two oldest went on an adventure picking while i was trying to keep up with my nature / dirt loving toddler.

As soon as we finished picking our pumpkins, a wagon was waiting to take us on a hayride. It was really fun seeing the displays they had out and it went with their theme which is Pirates, Argh!!

Next, the wagon dropped us off at the petting zoo. They had a very nice variety of animals. My little Kai loved the pigs and my Ra’ah loved the Shetland ponies. After having fun with the animals, the kiddos were ready for lunch. After lunch we let the kiddos play for a bit afterwards while us moms had great fellowship. I truly appreciate the ladies that i get to share this amazing journey with.  Below are some of the highlights of our trip. We can’t wait to do many more.

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Art in the Park with Grandma

So in the beginning of September, business took us on a trip to Durango, Colorado. The beauty of Homeschool is the flexibility for us to be able to travel on business when need be but also be sure that our arrows get their learning in too! Grandma is an amazing artist so we found a beautiful park in Durango to sit down and enjoy an afternoon art session in the park with Grandma.

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2018 – 2019 Curriculum Choices

2018-2019 Homeschool Curriculum

This year is going to be a way different than previous years because we made the decision to step away from the Abeka program. Abeka was our curriculum of choice since the beginning of our homeschooling journey. As a family, we realized we have different teaching and learning styles and we wanted to capitalize on that fact, to the fullest. Huge shout out to Rebecca Spooner from Homeschool On for providing the teaching style and learning quizzes to get us pointed in the right direction. She also took the time to answer many of my questions personally. Thank you lady! You are an inspiration! So this is our first school year where we get to build our curriculum from a variety of options and styles. We started testing this new method in January, while we were still doing Abeka. One aspect that I loved the most, was being able to do a few of our subjects family style. Bible, Science and History are perfect subjects for all my arrows to participate in, regardless of age. Huge plus for families of all sizes.

Enough rambling, here is our breakdown on curriculum for the 2018-2019 school year.

Bible: for our bible curriculum we are using Grapevine Studies. Their curriculum is structured for different learning styles and can be taught family style. Huge plus for what we were wanting to do.

Math: we are using Master Books. I really like the approach of their books. Its Charlotte Mason style so it’s fun for the kids to read follow along stories, while learning math.

Language Arts: we are doing Brave Writer. I have done a lot of research on this program and I absolutely love the whole approach to writing. The creator says that her whole goal for this program is for you to build a relationship with your child/children. She says it’s a lifestyle type of approach and I definitely love this change for my arrows.

Spelling: we are doing Spelling You See. I started doing this with my younger daughter and i have seen a huge growth with sounding out words. Since she’s a kinesthetic learner this is perfect for her. I am also incorporating this for my oldest daughter’s curriculum too.

Handwriting: The Good and the Beautiful. I absolutely love all of their subjects, but one of my favorites is handwriting. My girls love doing their work sheet every day and it has a fun activity for them to do on each page. It definitely has made tedious handwriting something that we look forward to doing each day now.

Science: The Good and the Beautiful. We did their human body unit study in January and we absolutely loved it. I let the girls decide what they wanted to learn about next and they chose the solar system unit study and the anthropoids unit study. These units are family style as well which we really enjoy.

History: The Good and the Beautiful. We are doing year 1 history. Reading the contents of this unit study really was exciting and definitely got my girls looking forward to History. It’s not just about learning, but the way you learn, and year 1 history is a bullseye, incorporating fun games to go along with learning. We will be doing this course family style as well.

Nature Study: Nature’s Anatomy book. The Nature Notebook from The Good and the Beautiful. It’s simple, we go into Nature, bring our journals and let your arrows express what they see, touch, smell, hear, and experience. Let them draw. Let them write. Let them collect. Let them get in touch with what God created, in their own way.

Art: Homeschool Art Studio. We just started this curriculum and don’t have much to say about it so far other than we are loving it! Especially my oldest arrow. There are many types of art lessons to choose from and its like having an artist in your house teaching yourself and your arrows how to achieve the finished piece. I will definitely be doing a review on this as time progresses.

Of course, last but not least is our Handy Dandy Morning Basket. We all love this time of our day. Please stay tuned for another post where I breakdown our Morning Basket Routine.

So that’s our Curriculum choices for the year. What are yours?

Thank you for joining our homeschool journey.