Homeschool Adventures

I wanted to do a unit study about Utah to follow along with the Utah State standards for 1st grade and had been brainstorming how I wanted to do it for quite a while. I knew I wanted to have the unit revolve around a map of Utah but I wasn't sure how to fit everything together. When I had the thought to make a giant map of Utah to hang on our wall and use throughout several Unit studies I got so excited and it has been working so well for us! So far we have learned about the location of Utah on a map (on the world and in the United States), the symbols and landmarks of Utah, Utah Temples, Promontory Point (and the Transcontinental Railroad), and most recently the different habitats in Utah (Simplified into Wetlands, Forests, and Deserts). After learning about the three different habitats, I let Lydia (and Austin) pick an animal to research. They each thought of three questions that they wanted to know about their chosen animal and then together we found the answers. It was so fun and interesting and... I just love homeschool.

We've been building a lot. 

If I had to choose one thing that was my very very favorite thing about homeschooling my kids it might be our slow mornings in my bed. The kids wake up about seven and come crawl into bed with me until about seven-thirty. Sometimes we sleep, sometimes we just snuggle. Oftentimes after I'm ready to really wake up, we read books together until we get hungry enough to force us to stop and go downstairs for breakfast. Our routine has slowly been pushed back later and later to make space for this unhurried portion of our morning but you know what? I'm just fine with that. I will treasure these slow, snuggly mornings for as long as I can have them. 

We hold our Poetry Treat Time (aka Poetry Tea Time for other homeschoolers) every Thursday afternoon. This includes making a special treat to eat, setting out our special teacups and china plates and eating our snack while I read the kids bits of poems and fairy tales. They love it. In truth, Austin loves it most of all. He really enjoys it. He loves helping to make the treat, helping to pour the juice, and eating the snack while listening to a story. This is another special activity that I love about homeschool - with all sorts of benefits and connections that come from the process.

We've been hitting up the Afterschool Art class at the library on Mondays. I want to incorporate more art into our homeschool and this has been a fun and easy way to get one more bit of exposure.  

Reading. My kids have always liked me to read to them. Right now Austin's favorite books for me to read are beginning chapter books called Dragon Masters. I still want to read him picture books, but he begs me to read those instead. For now, I've decided that it's just fine and I am just so happy that he loves to have me read to him. Lydia has taken off in the reading department over the past several months. I can hardly keep up with her! It's been amazing to watch her develop a true love of reading with the skills to back it up. David and I both love to read and so do our parents and so did many of our grandparents - so she comes from a long line of readers, but it's neat to watch her develop the love for herself. 

I love our homeschooling life. It's not always perfect but it certainly has more good days than bad days. My kids are thriving and so am I. These are just a few tiny snippets of our homeschool adventures - most of the time we are too focused on what we are doing to take any pictures at all (which is how I want it). I want my kids to be engaged in what they are doing without worrying about capturing the moments in order to post about them later - so I try to live by that myself. There are so many things that I'll never record and so they will be lost with the passage of time. But I like the analogy that my Dad often uses about building a wall or a building out of bricks. You might not remember each and every brick, but each hour- each day- you are laying bricks that will eventually turn into something bigger and more beautiful than you can imagine.