Dog Days of Summer

Well we have officially entered the dog days of summer....both literally and figuratively. 

In the literal sense, we are pet-sitting for a friend this week! Meet Shadoux.....the sweetest most gentle schnoodle we've ever met. She is a gentle giant and the kids have really been enjoying having her here for the week. They always ask me for a dog, so I thought this would give them a good taste of what it would be like.

We've been taking her on morning and evening walks, taking turns holding the leash, and fighting over who gets to clean up her poop. Just kidding. Ha.

Figuratively speaking.....we've run out of "summer" things to do. Maybe it's just me, but I absolutely thrive on having routine and structure to my days. The idea of days on end with nothing to do may sound nice, but in reality it exhausts me. Waking up without a plan for the day doesn't get me excited. Because in reality it means bored kids, whining, a messy house, and no sense of what is coming up next. We can't easily go anywhere because of covid, Adam is back at work, and we're just at home. A lot. 

I brought up the idea with the kids of starting school early. Our official start date is August 17th, but my thinking was that if we began school a week early, we'd have more flexibility to take time off throughout the year for things like vacations, family time, field trips, etc. Surprisingly, the kids were okay with this idea. I'm still thinking it over, but I have been busy getting everything ready for homeschool!

Are you keeping busy this summer? If you have any new ideas for how to keep kids occupied at home, send them my way! We're blessed to have all this time together, but I'm ready for a bit more structure and routine.

Lazy Summer Day In The Life

Our days are kind of all blending together as the summer goes on. This was a random day earlier this week, mostly spent at home. I'll start the night before, after dinner.

This is the face of a little boy who has way too much whipped cream in his mouth!

 It was about 7pm and we sat down as a family to do the first lesson of our Safety Unit. This is a "The Good and the Beautiful" science unit.

I think Adam missed his calling as an architect. He drew up a beautiful sketch of our house so we could talk about escape routes in the case of a fire.

6:30am - The next morning Adam left for work and there was actually a chill in the air! (Of course this chill was totally gone about an hour later.)

Out in the garage I tried to figure out what to defrost for dinner. Let's see, chicken breast? Ground beef? Pork Roast? Whole Chicken? Something vegetarian that my kids won't eat? I just can't seem to meal plan these days....I don't know what's wrong with me! I blame it on quarantine brain.

After a little bit of Bible Reading (I'm still going through this amazing devotional....highly recommend it!!), I sit down to do some Usborne computer work. I photograph the resources for our upcoming Marine Biology unit.

 And take a few minutes to look through some of our beautiful books.

Adam had made himself a smoothie to take to work, and he left me a little bit. I slice open a boiled egg and eat quickly as Andrew wakes up.

 He LOVES "eggies!"

 Jenna is up and quite pleased with her outfit for the day.

 And this is me, messy bun, glasses, zero makeup, and some basic shirt and shorts. I mean, it's 100 degrees most days, and we literally go nowhere........

I tell the kids they have the opportunity to earn some fun stuff today, like video games, swimming, and a movie. First they have to earn it by doing chores!

 Our Imperfect Produce delivery arrives! I love using this service a couple times a month to help fill in anything I'm missing from the store. Try it here and get $10 off! http://imprfct.us/v/stephanie_12255

 This new bread looks so good I have to try a slice.

 And then the box is turned in to a car.

 Andrew and Jenna try out their new Usborne matching game!

While they play, I make a batch of peanut butter oatmeal bars for Adam to take in his lunches to work.

 Clean up, and immediately make lunch for the kids.

 After lunch I need to put Andrew down for a nap, so I instruct the other kids to each read quietly. Lucas settles on his bed.....

 Ryan is out front on the porch swing (NOT reading)

 And Jenna is looking at books in her room.

Andrew won't nap (his napping days are numbered. I've never had a child this old (3.5) who still naps.) But I'm able to distract him with the train track in the playroom for a few minutes, so I can read a few pages of my book!

 After quiet time Jenna tries on her new bathing suit.

I put away some laundry and talk to Ryan. (he's bored)

 We are starting a new read-aloud book today! We just finished this one, and all the kids enjoyed it!

 After we read a couple chapters we go to my parents' house for a swim!

We stay outside swimming and snacking for a couple hours.

Back at home it's 5pm so I get to work on the dishes. I assign the kids a few new chores to earn a movie/frozen yogurt night.

 Lucas does laundry and the other kids vacuum and pick up toys.

The kids earn their movie and watch The Brave Little Toaster. Adam is home now so he BBQs dinner for us.

Burgers and corn.

After dinner Adam buys the kids frozen yogurt and I put Andrew to bed. (He didn't nap, so he's tired!) Adam then goes to a friend's house, so I head out front with the 3 big kids.

They ride bikes and we end up sitting in the driveway doing silly word games that I found in a magazine. I would give the kids 2 words, and they had to come up with 2 synonyms that rhymed. For example, if I said "squashed kitten", the answer would be fat cat. "upset parent" would be mad dad. It was a fun game for the boys.

I finally get all the kids in bed around 9:30....or maybe more like 10pm. Ryan is the worst with bedtime, and always ends up in my room a million times. I know he is stalling, but it does seem like the only time we can talk without interruptions. I finally send him to bed and read for a few minutes before Adam gets home.

And that's the end of another lazy summer quarantine day!

Homeschool: Handwriting and Typing and Miscellaneous

If you did not see my previous post about our 2020-21 school plans, read that here! This week I will be sharing a separate blog post for each school subject, detailing my plans for which curriculum we will be using. For reference, I will have a 5th grader, a 3rd grader, Kindergartener, and a 3-yr old preschooler this year. Honestly, I do not have any formal "school" plans for Andrew this year. He is an energetic 3-yr old boy and not yet ready to sit and follow directions. He even refuses to color with a crayon!  So any curriculum I list is for my 3 older kiddos.

Also, I feel like I should preface all of this by saying I reserve the right to change my mind about any of this! Haha. Seriously, I will not know if this is the right fit for my kids until we actually use it, so I'm giving myself full permission to switch curriculum if at any point I know it is not working.

Handwriting: Cursive writing seems to be a bit of a lost art. With technology taking over the world, it almost seems pointless to learn. However, the kids' Grandpa Nullmeyer had very beautiful handwriting (and probably other grandparents as well). And that is just one of the reasons I have decided to assign handwriting to my kids. We will use the Handwriting books from The Good and the Beautiful. I have heard excellent things about these books, and I think they will be fun for the kids. Each page contains writing practice, as well as some form of art to draw or color. Ryan will use level 5, Lucas level 3, and Jenna level K. (It doesn't contain cursive, but it gives her extra printing practice while the boys work on their handwriting) Jenna has already started on her book and she LOVES it.

Typing: While my boys were doing distance learning at home, it became abundantly clear to me that they need some serious help with typing. I haven't picked out an online program yet, but I plan on alternating handwriting with typing days. Typing is obviously an important life-skill to have, so if you have any suggestions for a good online typing program for kids, send them my way!

Miscellaneous: In addition to their basic core curriculum, we will make time for things like arts and crafts, Bible (the best story Bible and a fun science devotional), field trips, music lessons, poetry, sports, logic (using these), volunteering, and anything else that sparks their interest. (Assuming these activities are open!) I think homeschooling will give us a lot of freedom to pursue things the kids otherwise wouldn't have had time for. 

I also have a small list of topics I want to focus on for each child. For example, I plan on teaching and testing Ryan on the 50 states and their capitals, outside of his basic history curriculum. I would also like Lucas (and Ryan) to learn how to give an oral presentation.

And one final note. I plan on keeping things very simple, at least to begin with. We will not be doing every single subject every day. And if there are days we need to focus more on life skills, such as the value of hard work (chores!), then I feel like that is completely fine. Educating my kids isn't just about bookwork, although we will be doing plenty of that. 

Homeschool: Science

If you did not see my previous post about our 2020-21 school plans, read that here! This week I will be sharing a separate blog post for each school subject, detailing my plans for which curriculum we will be using. For reference, I will have a 5th grader, a 3rd grader, Kindergartener, and a 3-yr old preschooler this year. Honestly, I do not have any formal "school" plans for Andrew this year. He is an energetic 3-yr old boy and not yet ready to sit and follow directions. He even refuses to color with a crayon!  So any curriculum I list is for my 3 older kiddos.

Also, I feel like I should preface all of this by saying I reserve the right to change my mind about any of this! Haha. Seriously, I will not know if this is the right fit for my kids until we actually use it, so I'm giving myself full permission to switch curriculum if at any point I know it is not working.

SCIENCE: Science is another subject (like history) that I plan on teaching family-style. I spent a lot of time last month trying to figure out which aspects of science my boys have already learned. And here is what I discovered......Ryan doesn't remember anything, and Lucas thinks he has already learned everything. This led me to worrying about my kids having "gaps" in their education, as well as worrying about re-teaching them concepts they've already learned. I've decided there is no way to please everyone and do it perfectly. So we're going to do unit studies this year for science. What this means is that rather than do a broad overview of ALL types of science, or spending the entire year on just ONE type of science, we will spend 4-6 weeks on difference science units. As we focus on a certain science topic for each period, I can do things to make it more challenging for Ryan and slightly less for Lucas, while Jenna will pretty much just sit and listen. We are using science units from The Good and The Beautiful! (A non-denominational Christian curriculum company)

There are many unit studies that look so fun and beautiful from this company, so I'm hoping we fall in love with this company's science and get to do more. (Meteorology, Mammals, Botany, Space, Arthropods, The Human Body) Science has never been one of my favorite subjects but there is something about these unit studies that seems SO visually appealing and engaging to me. I tend to enjoy the life and living sciences (plants, animals, human body) over physical science (physics, chemistry, astronomy) So it was important for me to not only find a science curriculum that would excite my kids, but also me. I let the kids vote on our first unit, and they chose Marine Biology!! We will be learning about coral reefs, sharks, tide zones, marine reptiles, and much more.

I plan on doing The Good and the Beautiful science units studies twice per week. They contain reading, simple experiments, and more, all while being an open-and-go curriculum. (And Usborne has THE best science books to supplement!) Each unit is designed to take approximately 4-6 weeks, so towards the end of our unit I will let my kids vote on our next unit. (I'm secretly voting for meteorology or mammals)

I have also purchased their Safety unit, which we plan on beginning early August, before the school year begins. This addresses topics such as gun safety, water safety, disaster preparedness, and peer pressure. I think it will be a good overview and a great way to ease in to homeschool.

And finally, I really want to incorporate nature study in to our year. I may try to do this every Friday. Gather up my kids and their nature journals, go on a hike/walk somewhere, and just learn about the world around us by observing. I'm not sure yet what this will look like, but I know kids need to be out in nature and I'm confident my kids will enjoy it! (Research the Charlotte Mason method to learn about the value in nature studies)

How do you teach sciene?