Flowers

We learned about flowers. Looked at them, smelled them, ate them :), read about them and took them apart. Here are some beautiful tulips growing at the side of our house. I love tulips. They are my favorite flower. They are so early and bright.
Last year we touched on the subject of flowers. This year we are delving more into them. No pun intended. Well maybe. Now we are learning about where the seeds are and how the flower gets pollinated. It is much like a man and woman really.
I really love spending this time with my children and watching their minds stretch.
Oh ya, I love that they love worms!

Our 1st Homeschool Activity Group Outing - Ojibway Park

I have put together a group for homeschoolers. We will be getting together once a month. For our first outing I chose Ojibway Park. The kids had a great time! They got to see a turtle, hold a snake and watch a groundhog. It is nice to get our children out with other homeschoolers so they feel a part of something...other than our family :) What a beautiful day it turned out to be!

I thought this was amazing. It shows a style of learning perfectly. Ron was studying for his A-Z license and went to get Cohen's truck for hands-on learning. I read a lot about different learning styles because it is important to know what your child's is. It is obvious what Ron's is!
(He passed the tests by the way!)

A perfect example of why we homeschool

This is one of the main reasons we homeschool. Look at the closeness and love between my daughters.

Math time

We were doing Math tonight and asked Ron to grab the camera. We are constantly asked what we do with the other children while our older ones are doing a lesson. Here is the perfect example. Cohen is building a tower with the math blocks, Amelie is using the abacus to come to her answer and Ricky is playing with her abacus. All three of them are enthralled in this math program. I must say, I am too!
I had to add this picture of Cohen in here. This is a math manipulative which you can imagine is the perfect "toy" for Cohen. Who needs toys from toys "r" us when you can do math?

And I thought I would add our other two children. They are not at the age of "playing" Math yet. Reagan would eat the pieces and Callum...well...you get it.

I have started a homeschool activity group. I would love to get more families together around this area. I find that there are not too many groups going out on outings and that is a shame. I want my children to play with other children more often so I have decided to put that together.
We are just finishing up our Right Start Level A. Within the next couple of wks we should be getting our next level shipped. Ricky will be on Level A and Amelie on Level B. I cannot believe how much they learn! Today Amelie was learning about quarters, halves and wholes. I think I will spend a little extra time on that with her. She seems to almost get it so I am going to find more creative ways to introduce those concepts to her. While Amelie was doing that Ricky was playing with the tiles and Cohen was building a tower with the Right Start wooden shapes. Thank you Right Start!
Ricky is now reading words like flapped. It is amazing how fast they catch on once they pass that hump. You should see the excitement in her eyes when she gets a hard one. Amelie is reading anything and everything her little eyes see.
We are in wk 2 of Sonlight and enjoying it. I want to try and focus more on the books she loves instead of following the schedule. I do like to follow it but I also want them to do what they are interested in at that time. I thought Ricky wasn't enjoying books as much as Amelie but I realized that she was being read to with books above her level. Why should she be interested in Core 1 books when she is only at a Pre-K level? So I have dove into the P 4/5 books again with her. She is loving those.
Chomper...I mean Cohen is still his silly little self. You wouldn't believe that he barely talked a yr ago. He.does.not.stop.talking.ever!! I must say though, I love it! Most of the time :)
Reagan is talking up a storm. We may be the only ones who understand but that is irrelevant. She has a red hot temper and knows what she wants. Oh and she is a tank!
Callum is now swiping at his toy to hit it. He is the easiest baby ever! Knock on wood.