Happenings...

It's been a crazy summer! I can't believe that in a few short weeks, we'll be starting our new school year. I have a lot planned out so far. Everyone has a routine in place and the only wild hair is Sophia.LOL She's not quite ready for activities, but I'm finding some things that will keep her busy for small blocks of time. I think that God is working on flexibility with me this year. Also dependence on Him. I'm not going into this year with a set schedule, because that just won't work with all the different directions we'll have to run, but at least we'll have routines.LOL

Allison's job doesn't end until winter and only for a few months, so we'll need to make allowances for her schedule. Jon also has a job, but his is something that will be easier to work around us, instead of us working around it. We also have four activities to work around during the school year. PE, gymnastics, Bible study, and Jon's scouts. That will keep us busy four days a week with Friday off. I'm liking my Friday off.LOL Allison will be testing for her driver's license at the end of August and if she passes, it'll be a real blessing to share the driving with her. Prayers that she's ready by then would be great!

Here are a few photos of the past two weeks...

Allison with her lifeguard tan and her best buddy, Isaac...


Sophia giving Isaac some love... or the Heimlech...


This is the trouble with girls, they're always wearing my stuff...until they outgrow it...lol


Jon impressed us with his diet soda and Mento's experiment...


Sophia was especially impressed...


My chunky monkey with the bright red hair...


A good photo of my little guy, doesn't happen often...lol


Well, that's it. Just keeping busy with the kids, trying to get everything hammered out before August 18. We'll be following the traditional school calendar this year since the older kids would like to be off when their friends are. We'll see how that works out. If they get behind, they'll be wishing they worked harder this summer.LOL

Blessings,

The Sophia Chronicles...

Let me in, let me in, let me in!!!


(Sophia was imprisioned after the little issue with the crayons this morning. You can see that she took her punishment well. ::snort::)


Blessings,

Preschool Rotation...

I've been working all summer on getting the littles in shape for the new year. We've had A LOT of bumps and today was no exception. Chaos reigned, but Debbie, from SHS and all my SHS friends talked me down from my ledge and I've got some more ideas on how to get these kids on a good solid schedule. Now if I could just get the rest of my life in order.LOL

Trouble? I don't see any problems...


I'll clean it up later, yeah, later... that's it...



What stinkers! Notice how nice the carpet looks though? I carpet cleaned it yesterday. It looked pretty bad and really, o.k. desperately needed cleaning. Whoever thought of putting carpet in a dining room, should be reprimanded.LOL

Blessings,

The Sophia Chronicles...

I just want you all to know that we are going to use Photos #1 and #4 on our collage. Thank you all for your help!

I'm going to photoshop this one to make it lighter.


This one will go, just the way it is.


Blessings,

Preschool Rotation...

Here are more photos of our Preschool Rotations. I'm just getting this out there quickly because we're about to get hit by a huge storm.

The mess...


Sophia's rotation...


Gem finding...


Scooping and measuring...


Blessings,

The Sophia Chronicles...

If this little critter was yours, which photo would you put on your wall? We're working on a photo collage for our great room and I took these today for it. Let me know, cause we can't decide!LOL












Blessings,

Happenings...

We've been having a great summer so far! Lots of outside time, time with friends, time with grandparents, and time for growing and learning. I've been busily planning the new school year that is approaching at break-neck speed, cleaning and organizing the house, buying school supplies and getting these kids in a good schedule. Evie is really coming along in her reading. I'm so excited! It's such a blessing to watch her grow and learn! We've also been getting used to just being a family of five. Allison works so much and Jon's been away at camp all week. What it's shown me is that I don't need the older kids' help, but it sure is nice to have it once in a while.LOL Here's some photos before the storm comes. It's getting noisy outside...

Isaac gardening...


Evie, hanging around...


Two little jumping beans...


Look at my big girl! She looks so grown up...


She's got quite the belly laugh...


I'll post some more on our Preschool Rotations and some cute photos of Sophia later...

Blessings,

Preschool Rotation...

We've been getting back into our Preschool Rotations to keep the littles in a routine and to work out the kinks before the older kids begin their new school year. This year, I added in a new rotation I'm calling, "Exploration Boxes!" I've made 10 boxes that have different activities that can be pulled out and used without my help. I'm leaning on a Montessori style for these.LOL

These are the boxes I came up with:

The treasure box (it's full of polished stones and "gems", a magnifying glass, a pair of tweezers, and a tray to collect their "treasures")

The clothes line box (old fashioned clothes pins, a clothes line, and play clothes to hang up)

The clip box (full of chip clips, regular clothes pins, tongs, and little fuzzy balls to pick up)

Hammer and nails box (golf tees, styrofoam disks, styrofoam plates, and a toy hammer to "pound nails")
Look how happy that little guy is...


Pipe cleaners and fuzzy balls box (title says it all.lol)

Bead box (has beads and string for making necklaces)

Cowboys and Indians box (has little plastic pieces and Kapla blocks to play with)

Foam sheets, stickers, and sequins box (has glue and scissors to make things with)

A playdough box

A science box (has magnets, metal, seeds, and do-dads.)



We've also added in a Lapbook Rotation! Here's Evie's finished Dinosaur Lapbook...

Page 1


Page 2


Page 3


Evie had a BLAST and is looking forward to doing another one soon. I'm looking at http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ for free lapbooks and I've also joined Enchanted Learning so that I can make my own. We are really starting to have some fun around here.LOL

Here are some more photos from our day...

Evie painting...


We made a super big mess...


Isaac and his favorite toys in the whole world...


More hammering...



Well, that's it for now. Sophia's in my lap and pushing buttons.lol


Blessings,

Happenings...

We've had a great week! Last Thursday we had a pool party and invited all of our friends from the YMCA. The kids had such a great time, that we have invited them all over again this Thursday!

Pool Party!

(I don't have permission for sharing photos so I blurred them out.)

Here's Sophia's pool party...


For the party, we bought more sand and here's Jon enjoying it...

(He didn't know that I took this.)

Over the past week, we've had A LOT of these...

My garden is enjoying the rain but the littles are getting tired of it.LOL

Look at the intensity of Evie playing this game...

You can tell she's serious about winning.LOL And I love that Jon caught Sophia playing too. Very cute.


I get a lot of this throughout the day too...

This is why I'm not blogging much.LOL

Sophia is so funny. She is jealous of my notebooks. Whenever I get one out to either work on the bills or do any kind of planning she comes running over to me and cries and whines until I put it away and pick her up. I can do ANYTHING else, but don't hand me a notebook.LOL

I'm going to post an update to our preschool rotation next while Sophia's napping.LOL

Blessings,