Some seriously cutie kindie printables

My little cutie kindergartener fully believes he should be working as long and hard as his brothers at his own schoolwork.  He totally doesn't get why he should be finished so early. 

I added a few games. 

I added more work. 

I made the work harder. 

Still....he finishes before his brothers. {As he should since they are in 2nd, 4th, and 10th grades.}

 

 

So in an effort to appease him AND give myself the time needed with the older boys, I went on a search for cutie kindie printable games and activities that he can do himself....all day long...until he's completely worn out...and ready for a break.

 

 

Of course I took my search to Pinterest....because that's where all the super cool games and activities hang out.

 

Here are a few that I found:

 

 

The CUTEST and FREE Monsters Pack from A Mommy Talks.

 

 

 

This ADORABLE and FREE Fall Odd and Even sorting game from The First Grade Parade.

 

 

 

And this {$}  SWEET Fall math and literacy printable set from Mrs. McGinnis' Little Sizzlers.

 

 

 

I'm looking for a few more so if you have {or know where to find} a fun free or almost free printable activity set, let me know!

 

 

 



Week 2 and 3

See? Not even a month in and I'm already failing on the weekly updates. Ha!
 

We had some awesome moments and some not-so-awesome moments. You relate?
 

And I have to admit the MOST awesome happened today....the start of co-op.
 

New (huge) host church.  A lot of new faces. New classes. New teachers. New challenges. New excitement.
 

It was exhausting and incredible at the same time....and of course I have no pics because I literally ran circles around the (much bigger) campus all three hours. So you'll just have to imagine the smiling, happy faces this week. :)
 

And no pictures of the teenager who hides out in his room most of the day doing his schoolwork.

A super busy fall is ahead with two playing football on different teams, one playing basketball, and our co-op activities.  Looking forward to it and dreading it all at the same time. :)
 

Happy weekend!!

PJs and couch school.

Chemistry!

 

Joshua school

Teacher of the day

Look Mom...I'm cleaning the shelves!!

Our learning area and my new desk space.

Welcome to our learning area aka part of the kitchen. :) Ignore the ugly red...as soon as I have a spare minute, that color will be gone. 

So this is where we do all of our groupwork and the littles do their *sit down* work {math, spelling, handwriting etc}. 

A close up of part of our school storage. The brown storage bins contain craft supplies, puzzles, calendar pieces, small education games, etc. Notebooks, journals, empty {YAY!} storage space on the 2nd row, and the 3rd row holds all of our school supplies {pencils, crayons, glue, scissors, etc} in labeled storage tubs.

 

 

 

 

All group work printables and Drake's work for the year are stored here.  I love having all of those papers just waiting for me to pull them out for the kiddos.  Saves a LOT of time!

  

Right through the white doors

in top picture is old pantry turned library/school storage/office entryway.  One side contains most of our home library, some math and language arts workbooks and file folder games {blue and green magazine holders}. Then a corner of things that still a home. :)  This is definitely a work in progress.  Someday soon I'd like to take everything out of this area and repaint the shelves, finish off the sheet rock where we tore down the back wall {entrance into my desk area}, and then paint the walls to match the future color of the kitchen.

 

 

This is the other side of the old pantry. From top to bottom: paints, flashcards, and items I don't want in the hands of my littlest littles {gorilla glue!! armor etch glue!! etc}. Some of my teacher manuals, some small storage tubs {more things I don't want the littlest littles to have....glitter, stamps, bingo markers, magnets}, and all of our math manipulatives.  Blue storage tub full of various math games, binders of curriculum, and some of our group work books.  Our Ikea paper roll that I LOVE and a couple of storage tubs with office supplies. Below that are some of our workboxes.  We don't really use the workbox system like it's intended.  I like the idea of the workbox system but I think a couple of the boys are just too young yet.  Really they don't have much *independent* work anyway.  I pretty much have to work one-on-one with them on the majority of their work.  I'm not sure how we're going to use these in the future but for now we just have individual work and some group work books stored in them.

 

 

These last two pictures show my new desk area.  I was standing in the middle of the old pantry {with the library on one side and school storage on the other}, looking at what used to be the back wall of the pantry.  We knocked it out to expose a small storage area that previously was only accessible from the garage and back yard {yes, there are TWO doors in my desk area...lol}.  I love this space SO much and try to only allow pretty girly things in it.....you know, since I'm the boy mama of FIVE, there isn't a whole lot of room in the house for pink and sparkles. The desk is actually a 10 ft countertop.  I have space to plan for school, run our business, AND do some paper scrapbooking!   It's still a work in progress too. I need to find some kind of flooring. The cabinets need to be painted.  I need to find a home for a few more things. And to the far right of the bottom picture is a hidden space around the corner that needs a lot of work. There is a set of shelves that hide all of the things I don't want out in the open yet, a couple rolling storage carts that I haven't put to use yet....and one of our water heaters. :)  That's why I didn't take a picture of that space...it's ugly still. BUT nobody can see it unless they walk around there so for now it stays hidden. Ha!

 

 

 

 So that's it! Our learning area and my desk space!!  For now anyway....  We have plans of turning our garage into a family room so that ugly red wall with our calendar stuff on it may end up being a huge pass-thru/bar soon.

 

 

Until then, it's where we do school!!

 

Oh the joys of remodeling an older house!! :)

 

Thanks for taking a tour of our learning area!  Hope you enjoyed it!

 

Week 1: 2013-2014 school year

As usual, the first week back was CrAzY!!!  We had a lot of fun though and it felt great to get back to at least a bit of our routine.

 

Of course, Monday was our Not-Back-to-School party day. We started the morning with some fun school photos.

 

And the boys opened their gift bags. Since we don't have the expense of public school needs, I like to get them a few fun things to kick off the year. Helps make the day feel special.

 

Then we went to McDs for our annual Not-Back-to-School breakfast. 

 

Monday means women's bible study meeting....which is held in the party room of a fun building packed full of those blow up bouncy slides and mazes. The littles LOVE going there! BONUS Not-Back-to-School fun!!!!

 

After bible study, we ran home for a quick lunch before heading out to a local bowling alley for our homeschool group's Not-Back-to-School party!!!

 

 

Nathan, my 10th grader who came back home this year after a year in public school, met up with all of his old homeschool friends and had a blast catching up, talking basketball, making new friends, and {of course} bowling.  However, he avoided my camera like the plague.
 

Came home exhausted but managed to get everyone seated for a little math.

 

Our 1st official day was Tuesday.  Reminded myself {over and over} that it's going to take more than one day {Week. Month?} to get back into a good solid routine.  We were big ole lazies this summer....and the boys would like to continue that trend.
 

It's just going to take some time and patience and chocolate and Jesus....but we'll get there.

After a morning of trying really hard, we took a break to meet Daddy for lunch. :)
 

We did better Wednesday morning, and packed in as much as we could before taking off for the 1sts student council meeting of the school year. This is Nathan's 1st year to participate....and he was excited!!! Elections were held and Nathan is the new student council chaplain!! :)
 

Decided to take it easy on Thursday....and don't you know, we accomplished more than I had planned. 

 

 

Drake is READY to learn to read. We're working on some letter review and sounds right now. He can't wait to read his first word!

 

Friday is our grocery shopping day, and Nathan has plans with friends. Not much being done in the way of school work but I consider getting anything besides the grocery shopping accomplished a bonus.  Feels wonderful to have the first {crazy) week behind us. Looking forward to a more settled, less crazy week 2 {hopefully}.


Here's to an awesome and blessed 2013-2014 school year!!

 

My NEW super awesome desk chair!!

So this summer Bo and I worked on creating a new desk space for me. I LOVE it and will have to share pics of it soon.  First, however, I am super excited to share my yard sale find!

 

I needed a new bar height chair for my desk. I had been using a bar stool without a back. Not very comfy!!

 

I found this beauty at a yard sale for.......$1. Yep, a whole buck. I had to ask what was wrong with it, and she just said it was a little unstable.

 

So I tightened the screws in the legs. Ha!

 

Seriously that was it!! 

 

I broke a piece of it when I got it home. :-/  But easily fixed it with some gorilla glue.

 

Picked up some 1/2 price HOT PINK mistinted paint at the store along with a can of glittery sealer. I already had the fabric at home.

 

It took a couple of coats and forever to dry, thanks to the humidity. You can't really tell in the picture but it was pouring rain that evening. I finally had to put the chair in the garage just so it would dry. I gave it an extra coat once it dried and then two coats of glitter sealer.

 

The glitter is more of a fine powdery look. Not overpowering but not as glittery as I hoped. 

 

 

Please excuse my messy garage. We're in the middle of moving everything out to convert it into a family room.

 

My finished chair! Isn't she pretty?! I love her!! 

 

Total cost: $15 after supplies but I still have a TON of hot pink paint left, a little bit of fabric for a couple of frames, and glitter sealer.  The cheapest (and I mean cheeeeeeep) brand new bar height chair with a back I found was $38....and it was an ugly brown/black color.  Makes me love her even more!!

 

In my world of BOYS, I need some girly every now and then. :) 

Can't wait to show off my new girly office space!!

Not-Back-to-School pictures 2013

So excited for this new school year! The biggest change from last year is the {re}addition of my oldest who decided public school wasn't all he thought it would be. :) 



Nathan

 

Kaleb

Gabriel

Drake

I like his shirt....

And the shirtless BABY Joshua!!

Opening their Not-Back-to-School gifts!

If the overgrown 4th grader and super young sophomore's sense of
humor is any indication....I think we're going to have a
fun year!

God pushes...The Valley of Death.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Psalm 23:4 NIV

The darkest valley. Called the valley of the shadow of death in the KJV version.

Reminds me of our own "valley of death" where Bo and I run. There is no breeze. It's always hot. And coming up out of the valley on one side is a steep hill. The other side is a gradual 1/2 mile climb.

Hard work on both sides. 

There was a time in my life when I just couldn't do it. I'd give up and walk instead of run the climbs. Beat myself up along the way because I couldn't do it on my own.

Last fall, Bo and I led a small group study called Run for God. One of my first realizations was that I could run with God as I ran for Him. Realized if I asked for help and gave my run to Him, He would push me out of that valley.

So many times I have asked God to push me out. Push me up the hill. And every time He has shown up. He was with me.

My legs burning. My breath laboring. Gravity slowing me down. Feels like everything is working against me to keep me from coming out of the valley of death.

I want to stop. Give up. Like so many times before.

I just ask God..."push me up this hill. I can't do this on my own." And every time I ask, He does. I know I can conquer those hills and come up out of that valley with His help.

Just like Bo, who has gently put his hand on my back to encourage me and literally, physically give me a push...I can feel God's hand on my back, gently pushing and encouraging. 

Just like Bo who has spoken words of encouragement to me as we run together...I can hear God's words of encouragement.

Only when I don't rely on Him do I fail. Stop. Walk. Give up.

Of course  I can eventually come out of the valley on my own but there is no celebration or feelings of accomplishment. I feel worn instead of rejuvenated. Defeated.

I need that push! I need that encouragement.

I've made a habit of asking Him to join me on my run. Mostly because I know I will need His push out of the valley. I know I can't run out of that valley without help. On my own, I beat myself up. I tell myself I can't do it. On my own, I fail over and over. I know I need Him in that valley.

And just like I need His help to run out of that valley, we all need His help as we go through low points in our lives.  Times when we feel like giving up. Times of fear.  Failure.  Disappointment.  Trouble. Despair.

If God is SO willing to help me run up this valley of death in my neighborhood, He for sure is willing to help us through our other valleys. We just have to remember to ask him to join us.

I've learned that if I ask him to join me on my run before I reach that valley, I have peace and comfort, knowing He is with me....before I ever even reach the first sign of struggle. I'm ready. Prepared.

If I stay with Him on the easy flats and the downhill slopes, I know He's there. I know I'm not in it on my own. And I can trust him and know He will push me out of those valleys and up the big hills.

Oh the celebration of hitting the top of the valley!

The air is moving...wind hits my face. My muscles that worked so hard feel lighter, stronger.  And my heart swells, knowing that I conquered that valley.

All because of Him.

And let me tell you....we celebrate! Thankfully it's a not a populated area or I might be a pest with my whooping and hollering.

He tells me every time "see? I told you. Stick with me. I'll get you out of there." 

Every time. He never fails me.

I can't do it without Him. Whether it's on a run or in my daily life.

I know that in any valley, He is right there with me. Encouraging me. Pushing me. Getting back up on those easy flats. Celebrating success with me. Staying with me.

There will always be valleys of death. Times of need. Struggle. Pain.

With Him, those valleys aren't as scary. I don't have to fear because He is with me.