First Day of School

 Our first day of school pictures: 

Madi, 8th grade

Abi, 12th grade

We had a teatime with apple cider and donuts... 

We had a fun little lunch like we did when they were little. 

It was a good day and a good start to the new school year!

The 2023/2024 Schoolroom is ready!

I set up our Fall decorations before we started school, so I had it all cozy when the girls came down for breakfast on our first day of school. 

I had the school room all set up and ready to go....

I always try to give them one toy/ special item and a treat. 

So, Abi found her new weekly work folder along with a beyblade toy and KitKats. 

Madi found her new folder and some of her books along with a new drawing book and some Pocky.

 

Back to School feast

 On Wednesday night, the 6th, we had our annual back-to-school feast. We had chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and corn. It was a fun night, and I was so excited to be finally getting back to school!

2023/2024 curriculum

These are the subjects we will be doing together: Answers in Genesis Bible, hymn study, Master Books and Tuttle Twins logic, Master Books biblical archaeology, Notgrass history, Master Books Geography, Master Books Christian Heritage, Abeka Culinary Life Skills, and a lot of read-alouds. (not pictured)

Abi will be continuing with Life of Fred for algebra as well as for Financial Choices. 

Madi picked fairy tales and retellings for her literature this year. 

The originals are coming from Hans Christian Anderson and the Fairy Tale Collection book,. 

After every two fairy tales I am inserting a regular book. 

Abi chose learning about literary time periods for her literature. I used Master Books' American, World, and British literature as well as Oxford alumni to pick books and excerpts. She will read the books pictured along with the poems, short stories, and excerpts in the binder. It is a vigorous course, but looks really fun. 

For science Abi is doing Master Books Human Body part one and two.

For the rest of her language arts she was going to be using the following books, but we realized it is all things she already knows, so from this picture she will really just be finishing the Spelling Power and doing the cursive. 

For Madi's language arts she is doing cursive, Practical spelling grade 8, and Master Books Writing Strands. 

For Madi's science she is doing year one- Weather, Ocean, Mineral, and Astronomy from Master Books.

 

 

Back to School dates: part 2

Madi's date also started with medical appointments. We left pretty early and went to the hospital. 

She had to have a chest X-ray and do an EKG.

We waited around a lot. 

It was weird to watch my little girl (I know, I know, she is thirteen. She is still my little girl!) get an X ray like this. 

It came back normal, thank goodness. 

Then we had to go for her EKG. The tech looked so young. He didn't seem too much older than her. He was very nice and soft- spoken, and it turned out that he had been home-schooled too. 

Thankfully, this came back normal too. The doctor did call later as we were shopping to tell us about both tests. She also let us know that Madi's vitamin D was extremely low and that it looked like she might have hypothyroidism. However, a few days later the pediatric endocrinologist refused the referral saying that while she was low, she was still normal. So we are going to focus on the vitamin D and see what bloodwork tells us in two months. She may still have to go for a few more cardiac appointments if symptoms don't go away, but for now we are thankful that she seems okay. 

After the hospital visits were out of the way, we went to Target and then to the mall. 

We visited Build a Bear to pick up Madi's friend that had been left there the day before. 

We shopped a few stores in the mall, went to Barnes and Noble, and then went to Applebees for lunch. 

We visited Old Navy as well, and then Hobby Lobby last for my art supply loving girl. 

Madi needed more clothes than Abi did, so we got quite a few things for her. She also didn't have an activity like the escape room that she wanted to do, so we spent that money on craft and art supplies. 

We also bought Abi a shirt and some shoes. 

 It was another really fun day. I was exhausted after two days of nonstop shopping and doctor appointments, but I am so glad I chose to do this. 

I love these girls so much. 

Back to School Dates: part 1

We used to go to a hotel and have a girls' back to school weekend. We would shop and eat out. Eventually, it turned into just shopping as it seemed weird to spend the money on a hotel that was just minutes from home. When we started homeschooling, it morphed into just going school supply shopping, getting a meal out, and buying an outfit. 

This year, I decided I needed to make it more of a big tradition again. 

I told the girls that I was going to take each of them out on a date by themselves. Abi would have Thursday; Madi would have Friday. 

We would go shopping for clothes, supplies, eat at least one meal out, and do a couple of fun activities. 

It was good that Abi and I weren't planning to leave until after lunch, because Madi ended up having some health issues in the weeks leading up to the dates. 

I took her to a local pediatrician and she sent us to get blood work. It was her first time doing this. She was so brave. 

After getting home from the appointments with Madi we had lunch, and then Abi and I set out for our day together. 

Our first stop was Great Clips where we got her hair cut. I've been cutting it for three years now, and I felt like it was time we had somebody else do it. 

After that we visited an eyeglass store to fix her glasses, Five Below, and Old Navy. 

Then we went to the mall. 

We visited a lot of stores there, but the favorite one was Build A Bear because they had a Pokemon plush she wanted. Madi also had a plush in mind, so we were able to purchase both for the sale price and then leave Madi's there for us to pick up and fill the next day. 

We spent quite a lot of time exploring the mall and shopping, and then we left to go to a local escape room. It is one that lets you do the room with just two people. We have only been here once before, and we barely escaped. This time we were back to try a different room. 

Abi is way better at this than I am (and I think I'm pretty good at figuring out puzzles), but this was a hard one. It had a LOT of steps. Unfortunately we didn't escape this time. 

After we left there, we went to the Purple Turtle so Abi could try a strawberry milkshake. Then we visited Barnes and Noble and a few other stores. We had a very late dinner at Taco Bell after trying to go to Kneaders and finding out they were out of what we wanted. 

Abi didn't need many clothes, but we got her some really cute things, and I would pick up some more later. I had a great time spending the day with Abi. 

 

The first term of school 2020/2021

We had a few months in between moving out of our old house and being able to move into our new home, so we stayed with my parents for a lot of the summer. 

We began our school year in July, so our first day, and our first term, were spent at their home. 

We kept the tradition of doughnuts on the first day (although Abi opted for pop tarts instead).

Our temporary school room: My parent's dining room

We took it over. I felt bad, but they said we could, so we brought along one of my bigger shelves and one of my smaller shelves, and a LOT of books and supplies.

The night before school we did our traditional fun dinner and new books. I made this little display which I later put on the dining room table for our first week of school. 

We knew we would be doing physical science this year, but we wanted to take advantage of my mom's amazing yard, so our first science of the year was Botany.

We had some fun with this (especially Maddy!). They put seeds in plastic bags with paper towels. We hung these on the laundry room window to watch the seeds begin to grow. 

We also planted seeds in soil that we put on the back deck.

There was a lot of book work as well. And Maddie and I went on many walks observing the different trees and bushes. We brought home leaves and blooms for Abi to observe from the safety of the house. She is not outdoorsy, to say the least. 

My mom knows much more about different flowers than I do, so on one of the mornings she took the girls around her yard showing them the different plants and telling them their names and information about them. 

We picked a few flowers and were able to look at them under the microscope, and then make a craft with them. 

We also looked at the top and bottom of the leaves we collected under the microscope.

Our morning studies for the term consisted of reminders of our biblical heroines, a study of our countries symbols, habit training, the music of Bach, our history, and the art of Da Vinci.

Instead of assigning reading this year (besides the books that are incorporated into their individual studies), I made a genre book challenge for them. They can pick the books they want to read, but I make sure they are reading widely.

For geography this term we are studying Europe.

Our history was reading this book exploring William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. Bruce is Doug's ancestor (and therefore theirs) , so I wanted the girls to really know a lot about him. 

They are both doing math on Teaching Textbooks this year, which is nice because it does the teaching, assignments, tests, and grading for me. 

Maddie's language arts consist of spelling, grammar, reading comprehension, and....

...writing.

For her writing this year we are doing a Brave Writer program. One of the main components are fairy tales. We read 2-3 different versions of the same fairy tale over a two week period and watch an adaptation if there is one. Then she has to write her own version and illustrate it or make a craft that goes along with it 

The first one of the year was The Three Little Pigs.

Abi's language arts are the Honors High School course from The Good and the Beautiful.

She also has a lot of personal electives like creative writing and drawing. 

Working hard.....

Maddie wrote the cutest Christmas themed story of the little pigs, and her artwork was 3D.

The first term was a lot of fun. It was a bit hard doing it out of our own home and trying to get it done with all sorts of other things going on (building a home, moving into the home, etc...) but they did a lot of good work.