Jumping In

This is the boy who has always run AWAY from the waves at the beach, the child who preferred to lounge on the side of the pool and was never the least bit interested in entering the water.

We decided not to push him. Surely, someday he would be ready to "jump in" on his own.

Sure enough, two years ago he discovered the joy of jumping in the ocean waves. Before long we had a hard time getting him OUT of the water.

And this summer he asked to take swimming lessons - and he discovered the excitement of jumping off the deep end!

Birds of summer

We experienced a first yesterday...I was sitting at the kitchen table when ds7 excitedly announced that there was a hummingbird right outside our sliding glass doors (and we do not have a hummingbird feeder). The hummingbird hovered outside our door just long enough for us to catch a glimpse of it but not long enough for us to catch a picture...

But we were able to get pictures of other birds that visited our yard this summer.

We had the privilege of hosting two different bird families this summer...

I spent a bit of time perched on the kids swingset in order to get this picture of one of the houseguests in our birdhouse (I believe that this is a house wren).

ds7 got this awesome picture of a robin gathering food...

And ds7 was also able to get a picture of this american goldfinch when it visited our yard.

Weekend Fun

I've been on a mission to actually use all (or at least most) of the freebie coupons we received over the summer...our Rita's coupons were getting ready to expire so we planned a trip to get some free italian ice :) The Rita's that we like to go to is very close to a nice lake and park area - so we took our goodies there...

After licking our cups clean - we took a walk on the path that surrounds the lake.

We had some friends follow us :)

DS7 and I tried to capture this beautiful bird on film - we think it was some kind of a kingfisher...

And dh got creative while trying to capture a picture of the fountain in the middle of the lake.

The kiddos were especially surprised by this outing because we ended up having our dessert BEFORE dinner :)

What we did on the first day of school

Actually, we're currently in our 5th week of school (homeschool), but the schools around here started yesterday. Instead of hitting the books, we took a bit of a break and headed to a nearby lake - and played in the sand and the water for most of the afternoon.

After the Rain

A Box Full of Books...Our New Curriculum

The kids and I were so excited when our box full of books arrived a few months ago...

We're in our 3rd official year of homeschooling. This year our school consists of a 2nd grader, a k'er and a busy, busy preschooler.

Up to now we've done an eclectic mix of curriculums - concentrating mostly on reading and math. Towards the middle of last year we transitioned to using Ambleside Online's Year One Curriculum - and ds7 loved our Ambleside reading time. However, I was unsure how dd5 would handle the content of much of Year One's reading selections. And I really did not want to start down the Ambleside path if it was not one we would continue longterm - so I began to consider Sonlight.

The funny thing is, Sonlight is the curriculum that I was absolutely sure we would use when we first began to research homeschooling - I loved their literature-based approach to learning. But for one reason or another, we never tried it. But this year, with my husband's blessing, we made the plunge and bought Sonlight's Core 1 Curriculum.

We've just completed our 4th week of Core 1 ~ and so far it's been a perfect fit for our family.

A Long Break

Whew, I didn't plan on taking such a long break from blogging...but July flew by with nary a post in sight! We're on Week 3 of our new schoolyear - and this year I have a 2nd grader, a k'er, and a very busy almost 3-year old :). Needless to say, we're still working on how to get the schoolwork done.

I do plan to get back to blogging more regularly. I can't wait to share how our new curriculum is working :)