Letter A is done!!!

Yeah, we finished Letter A.... it felt like we have reviewed the letter A from week 1, (this is week 3). We have had a BIG A & little a up with the word, "Attitude" & a bible verse that we talked about every week.... the kids have down the word ATTITUDE, lol. Tonight on way home from urgent care, Zariah heard someone say it on the radio & she yelled it out how we said it at home! :)
I have learned a lot this week and have enjoyed seeing the kids pick up retention. I am also learning that they may not get it all now & I just have to stick to it! Emma has learned our one spanish word well, "Avion" (Sp?) for Airplane, we have had fun with that one...... Zariah has amazed me with her cutting skills and she is the best at tracing & has a desire to learn how to write her name. Tony well, he is here..... he gets excited some but is easily distracted.

Basically we are doing mostly preschool activities with some K4 activities added in every day now for girls. Lacing cards was a hit this week so we will see how it goes this coming week. We did A Mon.-thurs. last week & finished up today with a cute "A" Alligator craft for our ABC book. :) Kids loved doing this & putting on the googley eyes....
We have four days planned out for B. Since splitting kids up more, we are doing less group time, but kids sometimes want to do that in the middle of day or even @ dinner with daddy! :) & I hope to get a regular routine of doing this & their weekday notebooks atleast 2-3 times a week, but I also realize it is SUMMER, so we are not going to do but so much a day!
Reading use to be the #1 activity in our day, then our house was turned upside down with many kids! BUT today during nap time for Tony (since girls slept til 10, i didn't give them a quiet time) we read for about 30+ mins. different books and was lots of fun! Then silly girls decided to hop in bed together to play kindle for a quiet time on their own, lasted 20-30 mins. til they were mad at each other. & of course Tony was up by this point but got a few good things done!

Today was a great day for outside time! They had to clean girls room & LR play area before going out the second time (had play time before school first) & that took forever..... but they finally buckled down & got it done..... We also took a walk down road together to see horses, no horses though :( in pastures near us & we were hot so we walked back home!

Looking forward to starting B tomorrow! :)

Moving along....... with Homeschooling.....

Week 2 went well on our trial run of homeschooling..... technically did 4 days (Had a field day on day 5) & one day the next week....  then we had days off for the girls to go to a 3 day dance camp with a sleepover @ Mama Debbie's as well.....

Week 2 we reviewed Numbers, Shapes & Colors.

Now as we move ahead, I have been torn how best to teach the kids and decided to step back from the K4 program and use a preschool program.... but the more I prepared it the more I decided to include K4 materials for girls with plans to possibly do majority K4 with girls soon and use the preschool stuff for Tony. I feel like we have a lot planned out for this week but you know how plans can go.....
We will still do our group time, and this week I will introduce notebooks that they will have daily & weekly stuff to do. And then I have planned out 5 mostly individual activities for everyday..... this is what will take me most time figuring out as when I give each kid something to do and when they all need one momma! Granted, I see the pluses in having kids so close in age but I also haven't found a lot of help in dealing with planning our schooling/day with this as most of the parenting help books talks to families with at least year gaps+ in their kids ages.

This week is going to be challenging because we also have VBS all week too..... so kids will probably be tired everyday as we tend to be one of the last families to leave church.... (their daddy will be tired too, with 330 am alarm clock!)..... I hope to take kids swimming @least once as well..... and maybe visit with a friend!

Well, for the most part I am ready to start, everything is all printed out, have a few things to laminate & cut and this week will all be ready! (Monday is ready to go!) And I am excited as we are going to try to start the weekly ABC's letter art projects too at the end of the week! Hoping to get at least 3 weeks down before taking next break, camp & swim lessons! :)

So thankful for all the support we have been given!

Bumgarner Preschool (Giving homeschool a trial run)

Well, we survived week one! And have our first day under us on week 2. I have gone back and forth with idea of homeschooling since Emma was born! And then when Zariah & Tony came along, the idea seemed so overwhelming! As I began to plan for fall preschool, the only way I can see affording preschool is a miracle by God but I have also had a tugging on my heart to homeschool for a long time..... I am not NEAT (a slob), not organized and not a good planner. The idea of having to have lesson plans for kids stresses me out..... BUT.... our first week went really well overall & I am falling in love with it more & more & so are the kiddos! I realized the other week that I have a K4 curriculum on my computer from a ebook set I got last year.... Well, I love it, comes with lesson plans and all! After more research, I am going to most likely take a step back & use her LOTW preschool program (Letter of the Week). I feel like both the girls are not on the same page with their letters after our alphabet review week and this can include Tony more and I'll still use some K4 materials.... especially for the one that seems to have gotten her letters faster. And if I move on with K4 more than I can use LOTW more for Tony because he wants to be doing stuff too. The hardest thing for me is planning out their worksheet learning time and trying to figure out what to all do at once & what to split up and trying to go back & forth with the kids. I feel this will come. I am considering Abeka for this fall as well & looking forward to talking to a friend about this soon before I make a final decision. And if this goes well, we will most likely use Abeka for Kindegarten next year.

So, we have our group time.... we usually start with a warm up song to get everyone in the mood (even mom)..... we sing & dance to SHAKE by MercyMe..... and yes its a pretty good work out too.... b/c we Shake & praise the LORD! :)

Then, we use ideas from K4 Curriculum (Confessionsofahomeschooler.com) and stuff they were doing in preschool already that they enjoy....
Pledge (the flag just got posted to the wall by the principal, lol, they were not too happy about this today but I told them after last week's drama over whose turn it was this was the plan!), and then the girls break out into songs: My Country Tis of Thee & I love my Flag (I Love My Flag, Oh, Yes I do; I Love my Flag, Red, White & Blue, 50 Stars & 13 Stripes, 7 are red & 6 are white!!!) :)

We do our calendar time and sing songs: Days of the Week to "The Adams Family"
Today is...... :) to "Frere jacques"
We also sing ABC...

We look at Today (is), Tomorrow, & Yesterday on our board and each gets a card to post.

Then we look at the Weather out the window.... and post those cards & then it's memory verse time.... we are using a cd..... 1st week's we learned Matthew 19:14, it has a little story and the verse & a fun song we dance to: "Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them for such is the kingdom of Heaven." They have done really well with this. This first week, we used 3 different children's books one time each through out the week about this verse!

Then it's time to start individual time! Today, we started a little different since we started later, i gave kids a snack and then after group time, we had to pull out SHAKE b/c kids were struggling with attitudes.... I think i am just going to have to expect Monday's to be hard, Sunday's are great days for our family but also a very long day! Girls slept til 9ish this am! (another thing i like about homeschool)

We then do different activities during individual time, some we do at the same time others we do one and then switch around. Sometimes Tony can stay involved and other times i have to give him something else to do. First week, we tried to read through out different times in the day about our ABC's, got some books from library & have more from home.... girls really have gotten into this & have been practicing their ABC"s a lot..... We also practiced our sounds after watching The Letter Factory several times this week..... one fun evening girls took turns with figuring out 1st letter of words by sounds.....while swinging (they could swing ALL day!) I also uploaded some apps on my phone & kindle & let them take turns with these. We had a play date after one homeschool day with Callie Rae & Auntie & our friend Jessi came & babysat them on Friday after our work was done so I could rest before a night shift.  They have our friend Tori tomorrow while I go to dentist & work :( but they LOVE these girls and cant wait til they come! (we have been blessed w/ 3 awesome friend babysitters.... cant leave out Mandy!!!)

So, I am incorporating all of this into trying to exercise & eat better daily now! We are starting to eat more REAL Foods and love it! Slowly getting rid of boxes of junk (processed foods).... and it means more clean up, more dishes! Today girls helped in kitchen which also means more of a mess.... but they did a good job and it was fun! This week we are reviewing #'s, all 3 kids are doing well with their numbers to @least 10! :)
& we may start our A the week after, not sure, going to call about swim lessons for the next two weeks if they have spots so that may change our mornings.....

BIGGEST changes in our home since starting this is...... Zariah, she is like a whole new child, still has her whiny moments..... but now i can totally see the attention seeking behaviors & I am dealing with her better! I find myself yelling less and just ENJOYING my kids! They are great kids.... a hand full but a blessing!!!! God is showing me so much in this & blessing my heart & mind as well..... I truly believe this is what He has been wanting me to do for a long time! So we are going to give it our best! I have also been obessed with our church's new program: RightNow Media (ministries) and have been listening to bible studies online while preparing materials, etc. and this has given me a huge encouragement with my walk with the Lord.

God is good all the time!!!!! :) So, I'll let you know how it goes! :)