7QT-Homeschool Fun

I wanted to get back into participating with Seven Quick Takes Friday posts as I think it is such a great and fun way to wrap up quick events or thoughts from the week.  This week we had a lot of quality time at home due to the miscarriage of our son Samuel.  It was a great reason though to spend time together as a family at home and enjoy the blessing of homeschooling!

 

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Starting Kindergarten



Our oldest son, who turned 5 years old at the end of December just started Kindergarten using Seton's core curriculum last week.  He loves workbook style learning, as well as a great mix of hands on stuff and is loving his new books.  He especially is loving the Math and Phonics books so far.

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Toddler Fun During Homeschool Time

 

Many people will ask how we homeschool with little ones in the house.  I have an entire post coming up soon in a new series that I am starting called "Ask Me", where I answer questions that people have asked and one is about our homeschool schedule!  If you have any questions for me please use the comment section or come on over and "like" Children of the Church's Facebook page and leave a message there!

 

The biggest thing for us is since our children have never known anything different than homeschooling, it truly has become a way of life for our family.  Our toddler is an active 19 month old boy and so we have learned to have some fun active toys for him, which keep him busy!  His favorites are the Little Tikes Trampoline and our Tunnel! 

 

 

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Preschool Learning

 

Our middle child is 3 1/2 years old and is currently not doing any formal curriculum.  He followed along a lot with Seton's Pre-Kindergarten program that we did with our oldest son this past fall and honestly knows 90% of the information, except for the writing portion.  He does not have the fine motor skills of writing yet, and we did not want to push him.  He knows all of his letters, letter sounds, numbers, etc.  He has been so interested in his big brother learning to read that he has actually started asking to learn to read himself.  We have started Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons with him, which has been working GREAT for his big brother so we hope it works just as well for him.  The fun part is, for now he spends a lot of time playing with our favorite learning games and putting together puzzles.  He LOVES school time and is the first one to ask for it each day!

Melissa and Doug See & Spell Puzzles

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St Sebastian's Feast Day

 

We celebrated St Sebastian's feast day this week on January 20th.  He was a Roman soldier in 283 and always defended the faith and helped with many people with their conversion to the Catholic faith.  He is the patron saint of athletes because of his "physical endurance and energetic way of spreading and defending the Faith".  One thing that I love about homeschooling is taking our learning time about the Saint of the Day and then using it as a great opportunity to go outside in the fresh air and play sports!  It was a great way for the kids to understand how during different times and activities during their life that there are different Saints that they can pray to and receive guidance from!

 

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Brotherly Bonds

 

I LOVE that  homeschooling allows for our children to spend a lot of time together and truly become best friends.  Yes, sometimes this is also a negative side of homeschooling if they are disagreeing or fighting, but most of the time it is a blessing.  I love to see them finding special moments all on their own to seek each other out to play or teach each other new things.  Both of our oldest boys love to find our 1 1/2 year old to help him with a puzzle or get him to play whatever their newest game is (store, cars, etc).  I hope and pray to be able to continue witnessing their sibling bonds growing over time.

 

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Enjoying Springtime Weather in January

Last year we were living in Minnesota with feet of snow in January, so we were excited to be back in Nebraska with a more mild winter.  Yet, we were NOT expecting 60 degree weather in January.  We have been loving the beautiful weather and all of the fun time we can play outside!

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The Joy of Catholic Kids

 

Our children have these beautiful moments that they warm my heart with how much they love our Catholic Faith and how integrated it is becoming in their lives.  Our oldest son loves trucks and has been very interested in the huge trucks on the highway that carry Oversize Loads!  I caught him this week in our living room with his wooden semi truck carrying our statue of the Holy Family.  I asked him what he was doing and he said "Mom, Mary, Joseph and Jesus are an Oversize Load!"

 

Another moment this week our boys were being good and I told them they could each pick out a new toy at the store as a reward.  They found these Shining Light Saint Dolls and they were thrilled and each wanted one as their choice.  They picked St Patrick, St Nicholas and Our Lady of Lourdes. They are simply adorable and our boys have loved playing with them!

 

We went to Adoration and then to our parish Prayer Garden the morning of January 22nd, the 42nd anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.  We brought our book Angel in the Waters to read together, which we had given to the boys when we announced our pregnancy with Samuel.  It is a great book to teach children about the gift of life from God from the moment of conception, which is the first part of being pro-life that we want to teach our children.  We then said a decade of the rosary together for Samuel and for all little babies who have died.

 

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