School work is all planned... The books are all order... School work starts in 5 weeks

Yeah I know, just 5 weeks. I'm wondering where the summer went, which is really saying something since our summer started in May. Oh and we do start our school work in August in case anyone is wondering.

I am doing things a bit different this year. I have written up the week to week plans a bit different. If you have been following this blog for a while, you may remember this...

And there was nothing wrong with this plan, but I just wanted to go more in depth, and also make time for homework (yes I know, it's all homework, because it's all from home), and study time. So now it's this...

with this schedule...

You may have noticed that every ones week plan is tailored to what they are able to complete, and that each subject (math, history, ....) is done on certain days of the week. We do it like that because it flows better that way (for us it does). My kids do a lot better when we start the week off with the subjects that we are going to need to study the most in, and take the most notes in. 

You may have also noticed that on the schedule I have over time work and a Saturday penalty. That's because there are two boys who live in this house that sometimes have a hard time keeping their mind on their work. I also have a boy who always gets done early no matter how much work I throw at him.

For anyone who is curious we do 36 weeks of school (if I tell myself 36 weeks, then it makes it really easy to schedule breaks for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter), We usually start the 3rd week in August and finish the 3rd week in May (or that's the plan, it's not unusual for us to finish earlier).

I'm happy to announce that all of the homeschool books for this year are either here already or on their way, and should be arriving tomorrow.

The school books can get a little expensive, but I'm so happy that my 3 big money savers exist and really came through for me this year, Ebay, Amazon, and the legendary Curriculum Sale (where local HS moms sell the books they don't need anymore). 

After making up the list of books we needed this year (not counting the ones we already owned) it was going to be about $500 brand new from ABEKA (which is our choice curriculum). Well we only ended up spending half of that, when it was all said and done. :) This is something I really look forward to every year, the making of the list, hunting for the books at discount, and having them arrive. I'm not sure if other HS moms feel that way as well, but if I were to guess I would say that yeah they do.

Oh and I also have the reading / book report list for anyone who wanted to see...

Reading List 2015-2016 Homeschool Year

Darien

Walt Disney - Saving America’s Lost Generation

Animal Farm

The Princess Bride

The Time Machine

Bloody Jack

Earthrise: My Adventures as an Apollo 14 Astronaut

The Paper Magician

The Glass Magician

Zachary

Lily Renee, Escape Artist: From Holocaust Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer

Leonardo da Vinci: The Amazing Genius Inventor and Artist

Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Six Napoleons

Abraham Lincoln For Kids

The Jungle Book

Mary Poppins

Half Magic

The 13th Warning

Nathaniel

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Operation Huttlet

A True Book: Volcanoes

Detective Dinosaur

Grasshopper on the Road

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Yoda in Action

Penguins

Scooby-Doo: The Haunted Hallowen Party

Super Twins Meet the Bad Dogs From Space

Darien is going to be an 8th grader this year, Zach is 6th, and Nathaniel is 3rd.

Olivia is going to be in Kindergarten, so yeah no reading / book report list for her, even though I'm sure we will be doing a lot of reading.

With my list I tried to do (well with the older two anyways) some non-fictions, and some classics. I also included things that I knew they would enjoy, and my husband helped with the list.

The book reports are just a part of all of the writing they are going to be doing this year. They will have one writing assignment every week, and it will either be a game review, where they pick a board game or video game and write a review on it (I will be posting all reviews on this new blog I made for them), an Essay like a personal narrative, fan fiction, or research report, and of course the books reports are thrown in there on certain weeks. This is my attempt to improve their handwriting, spelling and grammar. 

Lets hope it works :)

Oh and filing my Intent To Homeschool here in Utah was super easy. I had already found the paper work I needed to fill out for filing online (it was one page), and I got the address for the school district building. Before I left I pulled a folder with the kids' birth certificates, shot records, and prof of homeschooling for the previous years, and I didn't need to bring any of it. The school district building was the nicest one I have ever seen. Most of the time, they are in an old school building that are pasted their expiration date, and they smell funny. No not this one. It looked like an historic town building from the outside, and a fancy office building from the inside. Yeah WOW! Maybe the Mormon church is funding the school district or something. :)

So yes 5 weeks... Well here's to trying to enjoy the rest of the summer. Thanks for reading everyone.

Summer Vacation Has Started And There's about To Be A Teenager In The House

Well school is officially out for the Legates family. I'm so glad, as I'm sure you can imagine. We finished almost two weeks ago on the 8th. It always feels great to finish a school year. I however have only gained a little more free time, because I still have to get Olivia fully ready for kindergarten. Yeah, that's always tons of fun (not really). My daughter is really smart and catches on to things quick, but she is also stubborn (joy). Well you can't have everything, and if there is one thing that I have learned during this whole teaching my children experience is that you have to adapt. Wish me luck with that.

So now for some good news. I am starting my YouTube hair tutorials back up. So you can expect the next one this Sunday. I am also going to be doing a bonus video once a month with an unboxing. I got Jeremy a subscription to Loot Crate for father's day, and he got me a subscription to Geek Fuel for mother's day. Our first boxes should be coming in a few days, and I was going to make a video showing what was in each box, and kind of do a "Geek Fuel VS Loot Crate which box is better?" sort of thing. It should be fun, and I am really looking forward to getting my first box.

My oldest so is about to turn 13. Wow! The years have gone by quick. The good news is he's a great kid, and I doubt that turning 13 will change that. He's awesome at being a helping hand around the house, and is starting to show a lot of responsibility. Yes I'm proud, and that's okay. From a mom's point of view I'm just glad I didn't mess him up some how. He was my first, and I had to learn how to do everything. It doesn't seem so bad now looking back, but I know there was a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of tears. Yes they were all worth it.

Thanks for reading, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARIEN!

Wrapping up the summer

This post is just going to be about a few different things that I've been wanting to write about. So first off the pool.

In my last post I told you guys all about the pool that we got off of amazon. My only complaint that I have, is that Washington summers are not nearly long enough. We had two good weeks of hot swimming weather, and then that was it, and the pool got little to no use. I will say that the times that we did get to use it, made the cost well worth it. The pool it self was easy to set up, and easy to clean, and when you only get two weeks of pool weather, than that is really what you want. We are goting to be packing it up this week, so I'll let you guys know if it survives the winter.

In other news, we are starting school work this Monday... EKKKKKK... The summer went by so fast. Where did it all go. I've been so busy this week getting ready. I was mostly planning out the school year (what work we needed to do every week), and cleaning. The books all came about a week and a half ago, and it was almost like Christmas. I really enjoyed organizing the school bookshelves. I always find it fun to get out my big box of old school books, and my just shipped to me new school books, and switch them out with last years books.

We are planning another trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in September! I'm really excited. It's a secret though, so don't tell the kids (as I look around to make sure none of them are behind me reading this as I type it). We really do love that place, and if it was cheeper, I'm sure we would be there all of the time. We are going to do the trip right this time, and pack snacks. Lots of snacks! So that way we don't have to eat out as much.

We have also started to plan our annual Harry Potter Party. It's still a ways off though. We are doing it a little different this year. Instead of having it be all the movies one right after the other until we have watch them all, we are doing a movie every night, with one or two snacks that fit in with that movie, and the last night with the last movie will be on Halloween night and we'll wrap it up with a full on Halloween party. So it goes like this 24th (of October) will be The Sorcerer's Stone, the 25th is the Chamber of Secrets, 26th ... oh you get the picture. All ending on the 31st with the Deathly Hallows part 2. I'll post more about it when the date is closer.

Off Campus should be starting up again in about a month, and my kids are really looking forward to that. I am too! I really enjoy just going out with Olivia. It's also sad to think that next year if we are still in this area, she will be joining them at off campus (yeah wow... I'm really not ready for that).

Well that about sums things up. Thanks for reading :)

We got a pool (it may be little, but it is still ours) :) And also new summer schedule

I have always been hesitant about getting a pool, even the smallish ones. I always think about set up, water, chemicals, and maintenance. That's what always stopped me before from saying yes. As if I didn't have enough to do already, was always my excuse. However after finding out that all of this week we were going to have 90 degree weather, kind of changed my mind. We don't have AC! It's okay really, most of the time we don't need it. Our house can feel like a furnace on hot days, and it's better on those days to either hide in the basement, or play outside. So yeah we got a pool. We got the Intex Easy Set 12-Foot by 30 -inch Round Pool Set. We had some work to do though before we could set it up. Our backyard is not level. We have a slope, and it's not a steep one, but we still had to do some leveling, so the pool would set up right.

When all was said and done though, it was one of the best purchases we've ever made. These past few days we've had so much fun it that little pool. We played Marco Polo, and made whirlpools (yes there isn't much else you can do in this pool). On amazon it $70 right now, and yes that's what we payed as well. Best $70 I've ever spent. :)

So in other news, we have a new summer schedule. Why? You ask... Well my kids have been kind of lazy this summer, and that's fine to a curtain degree, but when you find your kids watching 5 episodes of My Little Ponies (that you turned on for your daughter, but she is nowhere in sight), because they can't find anything else to do, well you may have a problem. So I came up with this

They all have areas of school work they need to improve on, and I also have all of them writing a fan fiction this summer, for a creative outlook, and improvement on writing skills, and as long as they do well, then get to swim during pool time. I'm happy with it, and now they won't be sitting around watching tv all day.

Time to Catch Up?

Hey everyone, sorry about the gap in post, I've been kind of busy, and during my free time, I've been kind of lazy. Not surprising right? The boys finished school about a month ago, and they've been taking it easy, which is nice to watch. I think it's great when kids can just be kids. We got the new Mario Kart, and if you like the previous ones then you'll love this one. The only complaint I have is about the balloon battle part of the game. In past games, balloon battles were done in arenas, and that was fun and great, on this game, you pick one of the race tracks to do the battle. It's just like racing then, only with no value on placement, because in the racing mode, you are hitting each other on a race track, so the only real difference in battle are the balloons. Okay, but other than that, it's a great game.

I made my daughter a dress!

I got the idea from pinterest

The original blog it's from is LBG STUDIO. Now of course my dress isn't exactly like that one. I made some alterations, but I got the basic idea from their pattern.

The good news is I've washed it a few times, and it's still in one piece. :) Olivia has wanted to wear it everyday, and she calls it her Else dress.

In other news... ... WE ARE GOING TO HAVE VISITORS SOON! I'm excited! Can you tell? My brother Wesley, and his wonderful wife Jessica are flying a whole 3000 miles to come and see us. Yes wow! They are flying here on the fourth of July and staying for a full week. I'm looking forward to going hiking with them, and walking around Seattle with them, and just hanging out. No worries there will be a full blog post about their trip and all of the fun we had, once they leave.

As far as homeschooling goes for next year, I'm in gather mode. I'm getting books together, and everything else I need. The truth is it will be time to start school again before I know it, so it's time to get prepared.

Well that's all I have to report. Try and have some fun this summer, and let your kids be kids. :)

Mother's Day

Yup it's that time of the year again. The time when all mothers get treated like a queen. Yup and I'm one of them. The kids have been sneaking around this place like crazy the past 2 days, I think Jeremy and the kids are planning something. The kids have let a few things slip, I know that part of it is a craft.

Sunday I'm spending the day with my family. There is going to be a lunch at my grandmother's house. This will be Olivia's debut, because most of the people who are going to be there, haven't seen her yet. Yup I have a cute outfit picked out (for both me and her, tee-hee).

The kids have been good lately, and I'm looking forward to the summer. It has been hot this week and the humidity has been really bad. Today is better though, today feels like San Diego weather. When I walked the kids to the bus stop this morning I felt so at peace. I always do when the weather is really nice. This may explain why I liked San Diego so much.

Olivia is eating really well, and she has been trying to turn over. She can almost do it. She is getting so big, and growing more and more beautiful. Zachary reading is greatly improving, I'm amazed at the things he can sound out. Darien has been doing a lot better with his bossy behavior, and has stepped back into the brother position and not the parent one most of the time. Nathaniel is going thought a not to fun phase though. I haven't let him ride in a shopping cart since before I got pregnant with Olivia, and that was fine, but now all of the sudden, he wants to ride again. He knows he can't, there is no way, Olivia is the small one now. So I don't know, I just hope he cuts it out and soon.

I have made a new friend. We started talking about a month ago, at the bus stop in the afternoon, her name is Trudy. Her kids go to a different school, but they get dropped off around the same time as my kids. She has 2 boys ages 7 and 5 (I think), and their names are Hayden and Reuben (I hope I spelled those right). She is really nice, I like her. Her husband is in the Army National Guard, and is going to deploy soon (sad). I hope this summer our kids can have fun playing together.

Jeremy has two weeks of leave coming up (actually his last day of work is today), we both can't wait. We plan on taking day trips for our vacation. We want to go to Kings Dominion, The Maryland Science Center, Baltimore Aquarium, and Six flags. I can't wait! It's been so long since I've been to Kings Dominion, and I'm excited. Yes I'm excited about the other things too, but I'm most excited about Kings Dominion.

Okay I think I updated you on everything so far. Thanks for reading. Have a wonderful Mother's day!