C is for Caterpillar

This week for preschool, Zoe has been on letter "C." We have been studying California, learning about Saint Cecilia, eating lots of cookies and other goodies that start with "C",  and learning about caterpillars. We have read many caterpillar books. Here is one of our favorites:

                             

Most exciting of all has been the arrival of our OWN CATERPILLARS! We purchased a butterfly kit from Insect Lore which arrived by UPS yesterday! We will be watching the life cycle of the Painted Lady Butterfly. We will post more pictures of them over the weeks, but here are our little caterpillars:

The kids have been so excited to watch our 6 new little friends

Coming soon to Teach Academy:

Apples and Peaches

We had a fun day today at Teach Academy on our first field trip with the homeschool group we joined! What a blessing to have a great network of homeschooling families for friendship, fellowship and support! It has really been a joy for us starting out in this new journey in our lives.

So let's talk field trips!!!

 I'm trying to take the kids somewhere to do something every week. Trying to "live outside the box!" Love this great big world we live in and learn in.

Today we went to an apple orchard! The weather was beautiful and the kids had so much fun! 

The kids and apples

Ellison got an apple and immediately started to eat it! She is 14 months today and has had cut up apples before, but never a whole apple! She knew what to do though! 

The oldest two have been to the orchard before on class field trips and we of course had a blast, but today we were not on a time schedule. After the tour, we didn't have to rush back to "beat the bell." 

It was SO nice to stay and enjoy the great weather and be on our own time schedule.

When we got home:

Sticking with the fruit theme! We talked about Georgia, (Tomorrow we eat peaches! Apples won today!) our state of the week. We got out our big map and learned how to use a map. 

We talked about a scary concept for them: life before GPS, Siri, and mapquest, lol! 

Then, we used map skills to look up cities that started with their first initials and YES! THANK YOU GEORGIA for not disappointing a 3 year old! TWO TOWNS STARTED WITH "Z"!!

Looks Like Dirt, Tastes Like Fun

 For Zoe's Letter of the Week we are on "D." She had diamond shaped grilled cheese for lunch and for our afternoon project, we made DIRT CUPS! Kids LOVE these! It is simple to make, gross looking- which makes them love it more, and can be completed with a touch of gummy worm!

Zoe and her Dirt Cup

Cian ready to dig in!

Grace ready to eat!

Look mom! There's something in my cup!

Looks like they enjoyed it!

What boy doesn't want to eat a worm?!?

The Chefs! 

"Car-schooling"

Okay, I'll admit it. I (heart) organization!

Homeschooling is going so smoothly because I get everything in my beloved lesson plan book on the weekend and into their workbox bins the evenings before school. But, I want to do soooo much with the kids, scheduling and time management is key.

But, I have found a great new tool! CAR-schooling!

I've been taking the kids to lots of playgroups and organized events with my local homeschooling group. They are a great group of families and the kids are REALLY loving meeting new kids too! I'm also trying to do a field trip each week! (Zoo next week!)

But, with all these extra events and driving, driving, driving, I had to get creative with our daily schedule! We have done afternoon school and even Saturday school - no, not the detention kind, lol!

My new found love is CAR-schooling! In fact, it has actually made the car ride more enjoyable! 

For any parent out there, heck, for anyone who has a sibling, you know the Battle of the Backseat! I know my brother and I waged many wars over that desired middle of the bench seat space! In fact, I have to check with my mom, but I think she might have literally put masking tape down the middle of it to divide it off for my brother and I!

Well, my oldest two are no different! They are constantly getting in each others space, fighting over what goes in the middle and who is invading whose territory. Enter in CAR-schooling and we have had PEACE IN THE MIDDLE SEAT!

I decided when we travel to events I would pack their old backpacks with one or two subjects they can pretty much do independently. For Grace it might be her journal assignment, spelling workbook or grammar workbook. For Cian, his handwriting book, journal, or his math review (his 1st grade book has a 10 section part for review of Kindergarten and since he is skipping Kindergarten, I thought it might be good to do it!)  Anyhow, it has worked GREAT! The kids are loving having their little backpacks packed with assignments and then it's a win-win because we have less to cover when we get home!

Today was the best the kids have ever been in the back of the van! They each had their own assignments to do, but they decided on their own... to help each other! Cian read Grace her spelling words and she spelled them out to him to review for her Friday test. I was so touched that they did that on their own! 

Go CAR-school! You rock! Or should I say rock and roll, hehehe, bad pun- I couldn't resist!