September Homeschool

We started homeschool in August - but the Haderlies were staying with us, so we didn't start our normal homeschool routine until September. The Haderlies still joined us for most of the fun things that we did (we LOVE having them live in the same state as us again), but we were excited to do some of our back-to-school traditions and start getting into our routines. 

Lydia- Grade 3

Language Arts. Math. Science- Biology 1. Family History. Piano. World Art Appreciation. Procreate Drawing/Illustration. Spanish. Bird Study. History through Literature. 

.

Austin - Kindergarten!

Language Arts. Math foundation. Process Art. TECH/STEM. Family History. Spanish. Poetry memorization. Cooking skills. Science through books and activities.

We moved the homeschool room out of the guest bedroom and into the sewing room off of the laundry room. We got a few fun school supplies/new clothes/reading pillows and set them out for our "First day" of school. The kids were thrilled and it was a great start to our "official" school year. 

We finished our zoo unit with animal cookies...

...and a trip to the zoo with our neighbors the Wards. It's the Ward's first year of homeschooling and we are thrilled to have the joining our neighborhood homeschool community. With Covid, we now have several families right on our street that are homeschooling and it's going to be an AWESOME year! 

We went to a meetup with another homeschool coop group to see if it would be a good fit for us. Our very best homeschooling friends, the Middletons, are heading up this new coop and I wanted SO badly for it to be a good fit for us. But after the meetup I felt the strongest impression telling me "Not for you, not this year." I'm so grateful for the partnership of the Lord in helping our homeschool stay focused on the things that are the most important and in guiding my decisions and purposes. 

However it was a lovely day of sunshine and playing in the dirt. (And we made the Middletons promise to still hang out with us as much as they can possibly stand it.) 

One story that I want to remember is that there was a large group of kids that were throwing rocks at the ducks. Lydia tried to tell them to stop but they wouldn't listen. So Lydia and Austin left the group and walked all the way around the lake. I was keeping track of their progress and when I saw Lydia come back and get Caleb to join them I was so grateful for such good kids. The three of them sat on this little dirt bench area right by the lake for a really long time. They were talking and soaking in the nature around them and I realized that as long as they have each other, they're going to be a-ok. (I originally was like "Why are they leaving? We are here to socialize." But when I realized it's because they were choosing to leave a bad situation and standing up for themselves I couldn't have been more proud.) 

-The Haderlies came down again and we built Home Depot wooden craft kits. 

-When you're a homeschooler, your library haul looks like this. 

(Both of these pictures are from the same haul.) 

And speaking of books, our FAVORITE used book sale was this last month. You get a bag for $10 and you can fill it as full as you can get it. I let Lydia have her very own bag and then I got a bag to split between books for me and books I was grabbing for Jenna. It was the best thing in Lydias life to be able to fill an entire bag of books just for her. We got between 100-200 books in total and it was THE BEST. I was so proud of Lydia because of the types of books she was choosing. We love books around these parts. 

The books below are the only photo I have of two separate planning meetings that I've had with the gold-medal Ali Middleton. We've been doing some homeschool planning together and it's been the best. One day she came to my house and we just talked about things, the second time we went to her house and let the kids play and planned out all our memory work for the rest of the year. Someday I'd love to go on a girls weekend with her and plan out our years together. It's a homeschool dream. 

Another Haderlie adventure: The Salmon run at Strawberry Reservoir. The river was full of salmon and it was so cool! I didn't realize the salmon migrated here in Utah. We watched the salmon then ate a snack while we read some books about Salmon. A homeschool field trip for the books.