School

 We took a VERY nice long break from school. 3 weeks in fact. I really needed it as did the kids. I talked to a lot of other home-school parents as well as read some articles and this semester I decided to take a MAJOR chill pill. It has been sooooo awesome. Last semester I was just so worried that Denim wouldn't learn enough that I pushed REALLY hard. A bit of an overkill. This semester I cut down the time in half. I cut out a LOT of the lesson plans and focus on the basics. At least 20 min reading, 20 min writing, 20 min math. That's all we HAVE to accomplish. We do another about 30 min in the afternoon so that it is broken up. It has made all the difference in the world for all of us. It gives me time to spend with Blazen too. The really amazing thing is that Denim is learning and retaining more than before. I think I might just figure this out. We also added some scripture time in. When the kids are eating breakfast I read them and article from the Friend and we talk about it. They love it. Then after breakfast each child reads 1 verse of scripture. The fun part is that we get to mark the verse with highlighter. It is helping Blazen with his pronunciation and Denim is really reading big stuff. It starts the day out so nicely.

Denim requested that we added fun things to school. We made sand volcanoes. It was a blast and super easy. You just put a cup in the sand and put the sand around it in a mound. Then you put baking soda, a little dish soap, water, and food color in the cup and stir. Then you pour in vinegar and watch your volcano explode. Last you play in the colored sand.

Darlin really enjoyed the fresh day as well.

This week Ace has been helping me organize all of our storage tubs, garage, and mud room. It has been a beast of a job, but it is finally done. We have acquired hand me downs from a lot of people so we needed to organize. It was fun to find old memorabilia as well.

Sorting through little shoes.

 

Lots of miles in these babies.

 

Darlin liked the hand-me-downs as well.