1st Day of School 2014

Today was our first day of the 2014-2015 school year. I have to admit, we are spoiled by a homeschool schedule. This year is way more work for all of us. I have a 5th grader, 3rd grader, Kindergartner, and Preschooler all doing full curriculum. See our subject list here! Add to the top of that, a 4 month old who nurses around the clock during the day. Yep. It was busy. We did spend a little time doing 1st day photos this morning and have more subjects on Mondays since it is a day we don't normally have to go anywhere, but gosh, we didn't finish school until 2:50!! It was like being in traditional school again, lol! I'm sure it'll get faster as we get a routine going.

Zoe and Ellie are using workboxes this year. All three kids used these our first year of homeschooling. There's a picture of mine on that first year's post - you can see it here.

Cian and Grace are sticking with their printed daily assignment sheet from Homeschool Tracker Online that we used last year. HST Online is SUCH A TIME SAVER!! All my lesson plans are done for the whole year!! I spent a week doing it this summer and now it's done for the whole year AND the lesson plans are saved for the rest of the kids when they are in those grades. If you are interested in it and decide to get it, can you go through my link? (It gives me a referral credit towards my own renewal! Thanks!) It is here.

Special Snacks for the 1st Day of School

I saw this idea on Pinterest and LOVED it! The websites with the printables I used are saved on my back to school Pinterest page - here's the link or the specific ones I used are linked directly to the sites below.

 "Looking forward to a WHOPPER of a great year."

(From simplysprouteducate.com)

"You are one smart cookie."

(From darlingdoodlesdesign.com)

Here are our yearly back to school photos on the front porch:

CLASS PHOTO

I do the year in school signs with the kids. I have seen these ALL over pinterest and got all the big kids printables from there. I have them pinned on my Back to School page you can find here.

Since Fionnuala is not in a grade- she's a baby, I thought it would be funny if she still had a sign. Hers says, "I'm just AUDITING this year."

Here's a few pictures from our 1st day:

One of the few things that keeps Fionnuala happy besides being held.

All 4 kids at the table this morning doing school work. :-)

Ellie doing the calendar! It is her 2nd favorite thing! Cutting with scissors is number 1, but I was unable to photograph that for fear of loosing a finger or a child during her excitement of cutting!!

Ellie is doing the Letter of the Week curriculum from confessionsofahomeschooler.com

I used it with Zoe and really liked it. It's so nice now to use it again since I laminated it all the first time around.

Another activity from LOTW. 

Zoe and I can TAKE TURNS with the reading! So proud of this little reader!!

I added in a music curriculum for the littles. Fionnuala loved sitting in the swing while the other two and I did sing songs and sang to her.

And finally- a Teach Academy tradition, DONUTS on the first day of school! YUM!

10 Back-to-School Traditions

This week's assignment for my H&H blog group came from yours truly! I love cute, fun traditions for the kids and am always looking for new ideas. I thought it would be great to hear what my blog group and other friends do for their kids for back to school traditions.

Here are our 10 back-to-school traditions:

1. We have always done first day of school pictures on our front porch. 

These are from when Grace was in Kindergarten in 2009!

  

That same year, Cian went to a daycare that did "school." He went for two days a week and my mom watched him the other three, so we photographed that first "school day" as well.
 

Two big changes have happened since we started doing this tradition!
#1- We now homeschool!
#2- We moved!
So, the porch is different, and the kids aren't backpack in hand, but I loved this tradition and still do it.

2. Year in School Sign 

I replaced the backpack in the photos with the a sign of what year they are in. We have done this for both of our years of homeschooling and this has become a new tradition. I got mine at iheartnaptime blog.
I REALLY like the chalkboard-looking ones though, and will probably switch this year!


Here is last year's blog post.
Here is our 1st year's blog post.

3. This one is also pictured above: Class photo!

They are each others classmates after all! We've gotta have a class photo each year!

4. Backpacks! 

When the kids were in school, getting a new backpack was always a back-to-school tradition! They loved picking out their favorite character all on their own. I always made sure to get at least one photo of the backpack too!

Grace in Kindergarten 2009

Ellie last year 2013

Tot School

 Surprisingly, we do still use backpacks, just not daily. We take some work with if we are going to activities or field trips that require a bit of a drive. They still like getting new backpacks, but we don't get each kid a backpack each year anymore. This year, I bought Ellie a new 10" one... as you can see the 12" from last year's picture is still pretty big on her! Walmart was having a $5 sale on backpacks so I let Ellie get a $5 Tinker Bell 10" size and Zoe got a $5 My Little Pony one. Grace has a NICE one from Target that holds her ipod and a zillion other things, so she won't be getting an new one anytime soon and Cian is quite content with his from last year.

5. A special treat!

A homeschooling friend had this adorable idea she did on the last day of school last year. It was a little Hostess cake and said something like, "1st Grade was a piece a cake, you're now a 2nd grader." I plan to use that at the end of this school year, but might also do it for 1st day starting back with adjusted wording.

6. Memory books

We do this, but at the end of school. I make a yearbook for the kids and also have a school memory holder book for each kid. These hold special drawings, papers, etc from that year. I also put their school photo and class photo taken on the 1st day in it.

7. Self Portrait

I am doing a journal supplement for Zoe's Kindergarten that has her draw and write about herself each month. It also has a page for "1st day of Kindergarten."

8. All About Me Journal

Why should Kindergartners get all the fun?! I found a free "All About Me" on teacherspayteachers.com. There are lots of really cute ones to purchase, but I think this free one here from The Savvy Corner is great too and did I mention it was FREE! It says "Elementary School" on it, but we just write our homeschool name on it.

I also found a 1st day interview from pinterest I'm going to do too!  

9. Donuts!!

This one is a win/win! The kids get a special treat for breakfast, and I don't have to spend time making breakfast. This gives us that little extra time as we are getting in our new groove.

10. Handprint

This will be a new tradition for me this year! I saw a cut out on a pinterest back-to-school pin and loved the idea. I will probably just flip over their All About Me journal and trace it there.

Journaling

One thing that I think is really important in the elementary grades is exposing children to writing. Some really great teachers I know start their Kindergarten students journaling from the first day of school. It can even be a few letters or scribbles with a picture narrative if they can't write letters yet. The school Grace attended for K-2nd didn't have Kindergarten students write journals until 2nd semester, but I thought that way too late to start introducing her to daily writing.

I have continued the importance of journaling in my homeschool. These are just a few of the zillion awesome writing resources out there. Most can be used for different ages as well, this is just when I personally use them.

Kindergarten-

This year for Zoe is my 1st year teaching Kindergarten. When we pulled our kids to homeschool, Grace was going into 3rd and Cian skipped Kindergarten and just went into 1st. I have been pinning, searching and reading the last few days to find some journal prompts I want to use with Zoe this year. I found two on Teachers Pay Teachers that I really liked.

Journaling Prompts by the Moffatt girls for Sept-Dec

 (and since we begin school in August, I got a fun summer one)

Summer Writing Prompts by Emily Ames

1st Grade

A super sweet homeschooling friend, (with a really cool name), let me have her binder of reproducible K-2 journal prompts by month. I use it with 1st grade.

2nd Grade

Last year, Cian used a set of free writing prompts called, "If I Were...." from a google search and also I use a scholastic book called, First Writing Prompts, that is for 1st - 3rd grade. I also bought a book I haven't used yet, but will add in for Zoe, called: Complete Writing Lessons for the Primary Grades. I bought it for Cian, for 3rd, but it looks too easy, so will save for 2nd grade.

3rd Grade

I have bought some really awesome e-books from Scholastic that have the journals ready to print. Cian will be using all FOUR of these this year:

•  Quick and Fun Writing Activities Just for Young Learners by Martin Lee and Marcia Miller
• 40 Writing Prompts with Graphic Organizers by Stefan Czarnecki
• Comic-Strip Writing Prompts by Karen Kellaher
• 50 World Record Writing Prompts by Justin McCory Martin

4th Grade

Grace wanted to do creative writing instead of structured writing, so I let her do that last year, but am sure I will add in a little more structure for Cian next year. I haven't tried these two out yet, but so that I REMEMBER I already bought them from Scholastic, lol, I'm going to list them here:

• 145 Wonderful Writing Prompts from Favorite Literature by Susan Ohanian
• 50 Writing Lessons that Work by Carol Rawlings Miller

5th Grade

This year Grace will be journaling 3 days a week from, 1001 Writing Prompts for Students.

She will also be exploring the creative writing again, but with a book called, The Creative Writer Level 1 by Boris Fishman.

Ellie's PAW PATROL 3rd Birthday PAW-ty!

Ellie chose the theme Paw Patrol which is a show on Nick Jr. There is no party line or decorations available to buy yet, but I pinned lots of great ideas onto my paw patrol Pinterest page, and found lots of great printables on the nick jr. website itself.

These are the party hats I made off the nick jr website:

 
I chose to print them on regular paper, then I taped them onto pre-assembled hats from Walmart.

For the goodie bags:

 

 
 I took little cellophane baggies and added a sucker with the nick jr. printable, some mazes (also from nick jr.) and some dog food, okay it's actually it's whoppers. They looks like dog food though, don't they!

 Lunch

 I wanted to do little place cards for the food items like I had done for her Dora party. 
Since it was a DOG theme, I figured we better have hotDOGS!

I called this one "Zuma's Hot Dog Rescue." I found that cute little hot dog slicer at Walmart too.

  

I also had maid-rites, and since they look kinda like rubble, I called them Rubble Rites. 

 

 I placed all the rubble-rites and hot dog condiments in (new!) dog food bowls:

  

The final "main" dish I served was Mac & Cheese. I called them Chase's Chew Toys Mac & Cheese:

 

 For sides I had:

Rocky's Green Veggies Tray:


and Skye's PAW-tato chips:

 

(in dog bowls of course!)

 

Presents

I had made a banner from the nick jr site and thought it'd be a great backdrop for her opening presents:
 

She loved opening her presents!

Cake & Ice Cream

A local bakery made the cake for me and used the paw patrol image!

 Of course, I wanted little place cards for them also!


I had DALMATIAN ice cream.... chocolate chip! I of course called it  Marshall's Dalmatian Ice Cream:
 


Here's a close up of the cake. Since it was Ellie's party, I of course called it Ellie's 3rd Birthday Cake:
 
Since there wasn't enough sugar yet, I HAD to make PUPPY CHOW! I called it Ryder's Paw Patrol Puppy Chow:


Candle in place:

Ellie is ready:


Blowing out her candle:
 

Pictures

 I got lots of great photos at her party! This one turned out super! This is Ellie and her Godparents:

 I found this cute face cut-out poster on nick jr. I tried to get photos of all the kid guests to use for the thank you cards. Here is Ellie in it!

 We even got Fionnuala in it!


Zoe thought it would be funny to put Ellie's new Skye doggie in  one too!

It waa a dog-gone fun day and a perfect PAW-ty!

Positive Parenting

I wanted to follow up my H&H assigned topic about raising daughters- see mine here, by writing a little more about my parenting styles. I would say in the 10 years I've been a parent we have tried many styles of parenting. Tried and abandoned many styles of discipline that was really only punishment. Tried to follow the "experts" regarding "training" a child, then found peace in attachment parenting. I don't have it all figured out; this is just where I am now. At times feel successful as a parent and other times feel like I fail. Sometimes it is a daily battle. Just this morning, all the kids were trying to talk to me at once. My husband's out of town, we had to be somewhere this morning, the baby was crying and ready to be nursed and my sweet little newly three-year-old tried to tell me something and I responded in a raised voice, "Not now!" Her little face fell, she was crushed. She looked at me and said, "I just wanted to tell you something, Mommy." It reminded me of this blog post I wanted to write. It also reminded me of the parent I strive to be and that I'm human and make mistakes. It reminded me to keep trying.

The biggest influences in my parenting style right now are Attachment parenting and Positive parenting.

Attachment parenting is the 7 Baby B's. Here's a link to them, but briefly I'll just list them:
"Birth Bonding, Breastfeeding, Babywearing, Bedding close to baby, Belief in the language value of your baby's cry, Beware of baby trainers, and Balance."

In 10 years, I've learned something. All of these make baby and I happy. With my baby, we do all 7. Perhaps, I am a little lax in the last one. It's hard to have "me" time with 5 kids, lol! With my first, we almost did NONE of them. I only breastfed her for 5 months as I lacked confidence I could work and still nurse and didn't realize I could have done both formula and the breast (but that's another post for another time), we put her in her crib in her own room the first night home from the hospital, and listened to the idiot "experts" about scheduled feedings and sleep-training. I mean, seriously? I was raising a child, not a puppy. What peace I have found with attachment style parenting. My baby nurses when she's hungry. It isn't rocket science. If I'm hungry I go get a snack, not wait until the clock is on the hour to allow one. Babies cry to communicate. If they cry, they need something. You can't spoil a baby. I wish someone had told me these things that seem like common sense now. It's hard when there are "experts" out there each pushing their own style and beliefs, to know what is right.

Positive parenting is actually a real style, here's a couple links about it:
http://www.positive-parents.org/2011/06/positive-parenting-what-why-how_15.html
http://www.ahaparenting.com/parenting-tools/positive-discipline/positive-discipline

The quote at the top of the second link is:

       I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a parent or teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized.”  -- Dr. Haim Ginott

I just love that quote. As a homeschooler, I am BOTH parent and teacher. On an epic fail day last year, Grace and I were both driving each other bonkers and eventually yelling at each other because of her math. When I was upset and told him about it later, Brian called me on it. He reminded me of a couple teachers at her old school who lowered Grace's self-esteem. I had been no better than them that day. I let my stress and pregnancy tiredness affect her and how she felt about learning that day. I am both her mom and her teacher and I want to build her up, not break her down. I have been very intrigued with positive parenting ever since and started a pinterest board on it. Some are the actual Dr. Laura things, but most are things I have seen and pinned that remind me why positive parenting is so important such as these pictures:
 

The final thing I wanted to write about regarding my parenting style was two quotes I saw floating around Facebook a few months ago. I saved both the pictures knowing I wanted to write about them. They are drastically different. The first one makes me sad and the second one reaffirms how I am trying to parent.

VS.

I just saw on Facebook tonight a YouTube video from a couple years ago, perhaps you remember it? It was the boy in middle school holding index cards instead of speaking. However, his tears 'spoke' plenty. He was scared to go back to school because he was bullied. He had cut himself and considered suicide. My heart broke watching it. I will continue to teach my children how to treat EVERYONE with respect, love and justice. I want my children to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. I never want them to just "cope" with an injustice and I pray that they also desire to make a difference, big or small, "to make the world a little less cruel and heartless." As the positive parenting quote above said, "I make the weather" and will be trying my best for sunshine and rainbows.