The week of 8/23

    So we have had an eventful week this week.

Kayla giving me the stinkeye

1. We finished up our first 6 weeks of school!!! Last week I wrote a post about how we were going to try schooling 6 weeks on then 1 off. I was going to wait for the bigger kids to finish up 6 weeks, but I started Brie 6 weeks ago and this mama could use a little break :)
 I also decided to break up Noah and Kayla from doing school together. Kayla, who is in 3rd grade, hasn't been getting too much out of school, so I am starting Sonlight Core 1 with her and that has been going great so far. I am trying to make a list of links to give her some extras because she loves hands on activities. If you have any suggestions please share :)

2. We had TaeKwonDo testing this week for both Noah & Brie. Noah has been taking lessons for the last 4 years and tested for his recomended black belt. In about 6 months he will be testing for his 1st Degree Black Belt!!! So proud of my little man.  Brianna tested for her yellow belt. She started taking lessons about 2 months ago since she is finally 5 :) She has been tagging along to classes since she was about 9 months old so she is happy to be doing this now. Her joy in this is now she can spar...watch out!!!

Noah drawing Fred

 3. Noah is almost done with Teaching Textbooks 5 and I am letting him try out Life of Fred Fractions. He loves Fred and so do I. If anything they are fun to read :) Here he is drawing Fred.


4. Nicholas is working on how many pacifiers he can put in his mouth at one time. I think his record is 3 :)

5. We have a new addition to the family. We have been talking about getting chickens for a long time and hopefully we will eventually, but as we were driving around we thought we would stop by the pound and look at puppies :) They didn't have any smaller dogs so we stopped by a pet store to look and fell in love. So, here is the newest member of the Stefko Crew, her name is Daisy-Mae and she was born on 6/23/15, 2 days before Nicholas turned 1. She's a beautiful dachshund.  We couldn't resist ;) We are calling her my early birthday present.

Week 2 in school

    Last year ended up being a hard year for me with school. With having a newborn and a very active 2 year old I confess to getting a little burnt out. It happens to a lot of us. I was reading once on The Well Trained Mind Forum that the 6th or 7th year homeschooling is another bump in the road. Well, for us I guess that bump happened a little earlier :) This is going on my 6th official year as a homeschool mom (not counting all those wonderful preschool years). Last year was just hard I think because the kids weren't too terribly independent and my 3 little ones made things a little more challenging ;) I truthfully considered sending the kids to school but that thought just kills me. I know there are several parents who don't have a problem with public schools, but I just don't want to send my kids there. The other option would be private schooling but sending 3 kids to that would be very expensive and we are on one income so not the greatest idea. So finally after a lot of praying I decided to hop out of my plan for school and try Abeka online. I needed school to be a little more easier on mommy since I tend to gravitate to more literature based programs that involve a lot of mommy reading ;) So, anyway, you have probably already figured out we are using Abeka for K with my beautiful princess Brie (she insists you call her princess Brie Brie lol). Anyway, since I haven't seen a lot of blogs to show what Abeka streaming is like I thought I would post a little throughout the school year of her progress. I am truthfully very impressed with the program so far.
     I have heard several times people not wanting to do school like this because they are spending so much time on the computer. Yes she is probably on the computer watching 1 1/2 or so a day, but truthfully she is learning so much. As you can see it is not strictly on the computer work she is doing. There are several worksheets they do together. Here is her doing the cursive little e. I confess that handwriting is not my strong point in teaching. This program is great at explaining how to hold your pencil and the proper strokes and they repeat it over and over again. I have a feeling that by the end of the year she will have beautiful handwriting. So far she has learned how to write a cursive i, u, and e.  
     Along with learning how to read and write and of course math, there are little fun games and songs she is learning as well. I confess I am not good with memory work but she has already started memorizing several songs, a poem, the Lord's Prayer, the pledge, and another memory verse. She probably has done more but she is getting good at watching and following instrutions so I am not always watching with her and miss some things. I do try to stay close during her lessons to assist her, but there are times when little Nick or Tony Jr need help and I am able to help them without distracting her ;) Thank you Lord for that!!!
     Another plus is they have art time every once in a while and she is learning to draw. I can't draw so it is nice that there is a little instruction on that...if she needs more help there I am thankful that my 2nd DD is a little artist so she can help her there. So finally, I thought I would post a little of her favorite work from these first two weeks that she has put up on the fridge. There is a lot more but she puts those in her room ;)
    So, next week will be my last week with just schooling her so you will get to see what my big kids are up to using My Father's World :)

School fun plus some

So we have officially gotten started on the "Next School Year" Stuff for Noah and also Brie is starting Little Hands to Heaven so is doing her Pre-K stuff pretty consistently. Kayla is still chugging away at Little Hearts for his Glory so here is a look at the last 2 weeks.
Week 1 LHTH
First off I can't say how much I love this program. It is so sweet and fits my dd personality to a T!! Since we were doing 2 new guides it took us about 2 weeks to get through the first unit, but we would repeat stuff which is fine because at 4 they love repetition. My 2 year old joined in at times, but he isn't quite ready to sit still and pay attention the whole time :)
   Each week there is a Fingerplay section which focuses on sounds and motions for the letter of the week put to a rhyme. This week we were on A and my kids asked to do this over and over.  A is for Adam so we got to spend time in the Bible and moving like different animals. I think their favorite part of the week was me taping a big and little A on the floor of their room. They wouldn't let me take it off either so it is still there. They walked on the A and their cars went on the A. What really surprised me was how Brie was able to pick out A's pretty well on a worksheet that you print off from the guide.
 We are also working on making a counting book for the numbers 1-10 and she got to work on her cutting skills. I am thankful that simple things like cutting are placed in the guide because I can overlook simple things like that with the kids and then you have a 9 year old who struggles to cut because mommy always does it for him ;) Anyway, we are really looking forward to what LHTH has in store for us this year and all the fun and mommy time Brie will get to have.

LHFHG Unit 27
Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of dd from this week. Sometimes I get wrapped up in school with the kids and don't think to take a pic, plus she doesn't like me doing it either ;)
We have had a great week through, we have leaned a lot about Thanksgiving and some of the early leaders from our country. I think dd favorite part was making up a Thanksgiving plate and tracing and coloring the food on it. She learned also how to properly set a dinner setting so we will put that into practice with her. Anything that has to do with coloring she is a fan of.
 Reading is going great also. We are nearing the end of The Reading Lessons. Each day we read at least 2 pages together than we color the picture together. It is such a fun time getting to color with her.
Math is going pretty well too. We have hit telling time and she is good when the clock is on the hour, but when it is not well... We are working on that ;0)
   The kids also took an art class at a local studio so it wasn't really part of school but they did such a great job I thought I would throw a pic in. I know she is going to love the higher guides with all the artwork she will get to do!

PHFHG Unit 1-2

So our first few weeks were long but now we are in a pretty good stride and Noah is doing better with his independent work also. I love that as the kids get older they are becoming more responsible and can do more on their own. I love getting to spend time with them and reading to them, but it is amazing seeing them pour over books that they actually enjoy and absorbing the information. I guess it helps that Noah loves non-fiction books the most :) I also am in love with the selection of books for this guide. I know many homeschool companies are Christian and all, but really the word of God just comes alive through the material that is used and I love what the kids are learning!!
  So anyway, in history these 2 weeks we have been talking about creation, sin, Noah's ark, and now we are spending a lot of time in a book called Life in the great Ice Age which is from the point of view from a boy who lives after the floor and Tower of Babel and it gives you a great illustration of how life was like during that time and especially in the harsh areas of the world where it was freezing!!
  History this year also has an independent portion where Noah has been working through the book Draw and Write Through History. He is really coming along in his drawing skills and cursive.
   On top of me reading to him his history and his independent history time, there is also a weekly history project for him to do. This is really what makes him love HOD!! In the first week he got to design a shield of faith. It really drove him crazy the first week not to finish it all on day 1, but I really think he learned patience and since he wasn't worn out by working on it did a better job than if we had finished it in 1 day.
   Week 2 we spent a lot of time reading about Noah and the flood so it was appropriate that our history project was a painting and we also got to learn the difference between warm colors and cool colors and also how to mix colors to get different ones. My 3 year old was in awe of how this worked so she just stared at Noah as he did his painting.

I didn't get any pictures of ds doing his science experiments these weeks either. Science is also independent this year so it is great that he can read and he is comprehending well what he is reading. This part always makes me a little nervous because I can't see what is going into his head, but he answers his comprehension questions beautifully and narration great also. The 4th day of science is an experiment so week 1 he learned about how layers help to keep heat in on animals in the artic and week 2 had to do with melting ice and trying to get it to melt quicker.
   Also, I just wanted also to say how awesome I think HOD selection for LA is also. We are using Drawn Into the Heart of Reading and I love how Noah is not just reading but really learning more about the characters and also thinking about their Character Traits. Also Rod and Staff I wasn't sure about but it is so thorough and I love how it teaches grammar. It does take a little time, but I think the time is well invested. Also, he is doing great with spelling through dictation. He is good at picking up what he sees and has never really struggled with spelling so this has been a great fit too.
 
   Finally, I thought I would throw in Noah's art work from the studio they went to. The kids had a blast here and I was so thankful that their dad was able to take them and have some good bonding time which they learned something too :)

BOX DAY!!!

 So we had a fun day today!!! Didn't get much school done, but organizing our new Core took me almost all day :)
Yesterday I got a package and it was about 6p.m. so I didn't think my Sonlight box would get here too early, but it arrived at 10 a.m. just when we were about to start school, ironic right lol.

Since Brie and the baby are usually at my hip they are the first ones to get a look at the box, Brie likes pictures so she got the first one with the box :)

 So I brought the box in, a whopping 42.3 lbs!!! Noah wanted to pose with the pic and then he ripped into it. Yes, I was carefully observing him as he ripped into it and no one was injured except the box :)

So next we check off everything on the list to make sure it was all there and thankfully it was and then to assembly the IG's. History C, Science C, and LA 4/5. Here is the finished product on the bottom after organizing them.

...And since there were so many books they got their own shelf. So since we went through all this trouble I decided to nicely arrange the rest of my Cores so Here is what my finished product looks like for Core A (top shelf), Core B(in the middle), and Core C(bottom). I didn't purchase Sci B last year to go along with Core B so I have some extra readers and some Life of Fred books hanging out there too :) We love Fred!!!                                                                                       

Almost forgot, to keep the kids occupied while I did that work I let them watch the new Discover & Do DVD and then they got into the science kit box so here's Kayla shooting a straw across a string with a balloon :)
I LOVE BOX DAYS!!!

More from Week Oct 9-12

Well we have had a lot of fun this week!!! One thing I notice with dd is that Sonlight might be a tad too much for her right now. So we are back to LHFHG for a little bit. I am really starting to like LHFHG. We have had some great conversations that really have touched her heart. One thing today that we covered was why parents discipline their children. We were reading from the devotional book that goes along with this program. I truly love this book. If you don't have it, it is great to do on your own.
Anyway, We are really enjoying LHFHG. I would of had more pics this week but my camera was acting up and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I got a new SD card and it seems to be working okay so hopefully I can take some more fun pics of our adventures.

 Here is Kayla showing off her first attempt of sewing. I unfortunately only know how to patch holes so she saw me fixing a hole in a pair of pants so she had to learn. This is a cloth napkin and she is sewing up the sides. Noah took a turn but he wasn't very interested :)

Noah is also working on Shurley English 2 this year and this week he was suppose to make a book filled with synonyms and antonyms. He isn't too big on writing and I didn't have any magazines for him to clip words from so I improvised and I wrote a couple syn/ant combos on each page and he illustrated it. It turned out really nice. Kayla saw him doing it so she had to make her own book. I am quite proud of both of them.

Finally, here is Brie. Whenever she sees me with the camera she comes running and asks me to take her picture too. Her schooling this week is more potty training. Hopefully this is learned quickly :)

Week of Oct 9-12

Tuesday
    So I have been pretty busy the last few weeks and have neglected my blog :( So this is what we have been up too.

I found a Bowflex in the basement. My cousin had purchased it and then my aunt got it from her and my dad traded a pool table for it and then left it in the basement here. We rent their old house so since they decided they didn't want to move it we now are the proud owners of it. So...after it sitting in our basement for 2 years it is now on the porch and I am going to move the treadmill out there and hopefully get a TV to put out there and have a little exercise room for myself. I have used it and do sometimes use my treadmill so hopefully it will be a room that gets used and not wishful thinking :)

 Here is Kayla. We are working on week 3 in Sonlight A. We were learning about Ancient Greece some and so I found this little print off here to personalize a vase like the Greeks did. For science we are on weather right now learning about hurricanes and tornadoes and how weather effects animals.

My pretty little Brie Brie

loves to have her picture taken so since she saw me taking pics she had to be a part of the fun :)

 Next, Noah is working on week 11 of HOD Beyond. Thomas in our history reading shot an arrow through a paper window that had just been oiled so for our art activity we oiled some paper. I only had some white construction paper, but in the pic below you can see how the oiled paper lets in more light than just the regular paper (and our nicely covered pool in the back).

Kayla's first poem

This week Kayla is working through week 25 in LA K. Our creative writing assignment was to write an Imagery Poem! I am not a poem person, so the model said to do
Title
a noun and verb
a simile to describe the sub/vb combo
a final thought that further describes the action so here is what she came up with


Dog
The dog barks
Like a seal
at the dad.

So I decided to throw in Apologia's Exploring Astronomy book which I bought a few years ago. I had planned on doing it Noah's K year, but it was too hard. It is perfect for him this year in second grade. We are on Mercury right now so we made salt dough models of mercury. Noah got a little overzealous making craters on his planet so it kinda flattened it :) Kayla's kinda cracked a little but it is still round. The kids loved doing this. We are also making a solar system on our wall out of paper. The planets are suppose to be comparable in size ratio, but the sun isn't. Sun would be about the size of the room. We have done the first 4 planets and I have to get some poster board to make the next 2 since they are so big so this will have to carry over to next week.
 For the rest of the stuff we have done, let's see. We are almost done with week 6 of BLHFHG. I love the pilgrim books with this set. It is nice to see all that happened. They are in Holland right now. I know when I studied America it would always start with Columbus sailing the ocean blue and then we were there. This is a nice outlook on why the Pilgrims came here too.
  In Sonlight Noah just finished up week 23 and we are about to see the fall of the Assyrian empire. We are almost done with Little Pear too. Next week we will start with Babylon and move on to a new Read aloud. I love finishing and starting new books. We are almost done with week 9 in SL LA 2. He really loves the parts when he gets to make up stories so tomorrow will be fun. We have a picture to look at and then he makes up the story about it. Maybe I will even have him turn it into a little book that he can illustrate since he likes to do that so much. Math is going well too. He is on lesson 27 in Teaching Textbooks 3 and enjoys it. I love TT!!!
  Kayla just finished up week 28 in P4/5 and is still plodding away in LA. We are almost done with week 19 and everything is going well there :) She is doing pretty good listening to the longer chapters in Milly Molly Mandy. I think it will be a good transition into chapter books.