Our Spring Adventures

So far this is my favorite season for home schooling! We have been out and about taking trips, learning new things and connecting with others! Being outside on beautiful days has been nothing less than wonderful! Carl Sandburg's Home is a great place to visit in East Flat Rock, NC this time of year. They have baby goats at the farm!! My children enjoyed the farm, but especially the baby goats. I was so proud that they weren't shy to ask questions. The caretakers on hand were very patient and willing to answer all questions (even the ones my four year old repeated five times heehee).

 We call him "The Goat Whisperer"

Some things we learned at the farm:
- Multiples are very common for goats
- The Carl Sandburg House privately auctions off goats
- Some of the goats will be competing at the WNC State Fair in the fall!
- At the Carl Sandburg House caretakers take the horns off of the baby goats to keep them safe
- The babies we saw were 4 days old and 8 days old
- There are two breeds of goats at the farm
- Sometimes twins or triplets can vary greatly in size, sometimes they don't
- Baby goats are very curious and fun to play with!

Another trip we have taken already was a HCHA (Henderson County Homeschool Association) trip to the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education. We have been to the Nature Nut programs held at the Center several times and the children have really enjoyed each one. This time, however, it was all children from our HCHA! There were two sessions for the day, each 1hour and 30 mins long. The first took us on a hike where we discovered May Apples, a washout hole, salamanders, scat, and all about the wild woodlands! Our second session, after lunch, was about raising trout. Did you know all of the trout at the fish hatchery are sterile! Very interesting facts. Matt, our guide, was wonderful with the children! They asked great questions and behaved superbly. During the "Raising Trout" session the children got to pass around test tubes with actual embryos showing different stages of development. There was much discussion about life cycles, animal population and what trout need to survive. Overall this was a fabulous trip and I was about to spend some time talking to other homeschooling mamas that I hadn't met before!

Some other plans for the spring include The Cradle of Forestry, Park Days, Lego and Robotics Club, Johnson Farm, and Dollywood! Stay tuned!

It's been a while!

It's been quite a while since my last post and many things have kept me busy and off of the blog! Homeschooling and outings and the passing of one of my most dear family members, my Nana. After that we had family in town, which was a wonderful bittersweet time of fellowship. Our family is adjusting to the void created by our loss, but we are trying to move ourselves along. So now, just this week we are getting back to some kind of schedule.

This Tuesday we attended Take Action Tuesday with the HCHA. Click on the link to see photos! This group meets at East Flat Rock Park each Tuesday and does fun educational activities together. I'm really looking forward to next week, Camping/Backpacking workshop with a fellow from Diamond Brand outfitters.

Update on the kids:
Big Boy child is flying through his work! He is doing so well with each subject and he says he likes Reading the best. We are using Abeka for reading this year and it has some really great stories that are character building. He is almost finished with the flag football season. He has really enjoyed playing football! Next up for Big boy child is Upward basketball! Lucky for us it is much closer to home, only a short 5 minute drive as opposed to the 25mins we are driving for football.

Miss Sweet Pea has hit a growth spurt! She is getting so tall and so grown up. She is my beautiful girl. Last night was her first night back at Releve Performing Arts Center (which she attended last year) and she was BEAMING as she ran up and hugged her teacher. This group does a WONDERFUL job teaching and encouraging children! I'm so proud of her homeschooling accomplishments! My girl knows her numbers 1-10 and can recognize and count out items (bears, marshmallows, sticks) to that number. She is working on her letters and this week we are learning the letter H.

Itty Bitty, as he has been dubbed, is doing fabulous! He is at the very beginning of sleeping through the night. He has slept from 10p to 6a a few times now and I'm hoping it will become routine! Bo gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth, he is getting ready to chase the big kids around! He loves the other two and smiles and laughs at them all day. His cloth diapering is going wonderfully. We have sold off some of the Sunbaby pocket diapers and are now using Alva Baby diapers ( LOVE THEM!)

Hopefully I won't go a whole month without posting again! Happy Fall everyone, enjoy the beautiful color and the smells of this great season!

Moving right along...

Things are going great with homeschooling. We got Big Boy Child started in the Saxon Math 2 book and it is much more on his level. I have added writing to his daily work as well. The kids are enjoying studying about animals for Science and have learned about elephants, ants, owls, ducks and turtles so far. I've also moved him to his 8th reader for First Grade. Looks like he will be moving into Second Grade readers soon. He is such a smarty pants. HaHa

Sweet Pea is doing well with her preschool work as well. She has improved drastically with her cutting and hand control. I have her doing lots of number work (games) and tracing. She can now recognize numbers 1-8 consistently and can count out items up to ten without error. I'm so proud of her! She hangs right in there with Big Boy! She is always asking for more work!!

Homeschooling with a baby proves challenging but as he gets older he is more able to entertain himself and then we do a bulk of the work while he takes a nap. It is working quite well!

Overall I'm extremely pleased with the way things are working out! I'm hoping to set up a few more playdates during the week so that the kids can play with more children their ages. We've met several families playing football/cheerleading that are also homeschooling families, which is very exciting!! Thanks for reading and HAPPY FALL!!