Back to School - Fifth Year of Homeschooling!

The end of August we headed back to school for our FIFTH year of homeschooling! I never in a million years thoughts I'd homeschool my kids. Let alone that we'd still be at it five years later. But, each year gets a bit better, a bit less stressful, a bit more magical. And I can see how far they've come. They're confident, fun, social, hard-working, and smart kids who LOVE to learn! I love being on this journey with them and seeing them grow. 

This year we have.... 

Conrad - Pre K

Conrad loves numbers and building things. This year he's working on learning all his letters and sounds. His favorite part of school is... playing - as it should be in preschool! 

Orson - 1st Grade

Orson continues to improve his reading! He LOVES math. His recent obsession has been flags of the world. He copied dozens of flags from the back on the dictionary and covered his entire room with them. Now we've taken them down and are working on sorting them by continent and finding each one on the map.

Lenora - 3rd Grade! 

Lenora recently caught the book worm bug and is regularly found cuddled up on the couch devouring a new chapter book. She was SO excited to be old enough to officially join the girls for book club this year! She's learning cursive and doing more and more writing assignments. 

Eliza - 6th Grade (First year of Middle School!)

Eliza will make sure you know she's in middle school now. She's excited about her new literature based language arts curriculum this year. She's also loving the online art lessons we found that she does with her friend Abe. Even though Abe's living in Jerusalem right now, they meet on Zoom and do a lesson together each week. Eliza's taking a "transition to scholar" class in our co-op this year and enjoying the harder work load. 

Cake Eliza made for Anne of Green Gables book club

Hazel - 8th Grade! 

Hazel has taken on much more intense workload this year in preparation for high school, and she's rocking it! She taking Algebra 1 from the amazing math teacher she had last year as well as a Shakespeare class and a Constitution/Revolutionary War class through our homeschool co-op. That's in addition to book club, a creative writing class with Rose, and chemistry which we're doing as a family. She's been so responsible managing her reading, assignments, and presentations!

Speaking of Shakespeare... I was asked to co-mentor the Shakespeare class for our homeschool group. Having a class of 18 teenagers and teaching them about acting and Shakespeare is a bit daunting!  First semester we study a play in depth while learning about Shakespeare, his writing, etc, and second semester we produce and perform an entire Shakespeare play. But, it's been a great learning experience for me. I've learned a lot about Shakespeare and even more about working with youth. Plus, it's fun to teach a class as "Queen Justine."

Overall, our year has been off to a smooth start. I feel like this year I think we've found a great balance between getting in the essential subjects (math and language arts) while still allowing time to nurture hearts and creativity with poetry, stories, art, and side projects. Not to mention plenty of time for read alouds! Our flow is sure to be thrown off by the arrival of our cute baby in March, but we'll soak it up while it lasts. 

Wrapping Up Summer

A few more summer highlights as I try to catch up the blog... 

Payson Scottish Festival: Hazel danced at the Scottish Festival so we attended for the first time. It's an annual event here in Payson, and we'll be sure to go again in the future. Such a fun day! The younger kids especially enjoyed "competing" in the Wee Highland Games. They were pretty serious about their skills and were fierce sword fighters. 

Conrad could barely see around the helmet he chose

Orson and Conrad learned to play checkers and many serious games ensued...

We enjoyed some lovely walks. One day Eliza and Lenora found a cat that loved them and enjoyed cuddling it. 

Summer Forest School: Forest School never disappoints, but this summer was especially fun. The kids discovered a swimming hole a short hike up stream from our normal spot. They spent hours swimming in the creek this summer and loved every minute of it! Could there be a more idyllic way for a child to spend the summer than swimming in the creek? 

One day Conrad found this amazing caterpillar! 

YSA Campout: One of the most fun parts of Michael's calling is the opportunity our family has to hang out with the YSA in our ward. There are quite a few of them, and they are so much fun! They had a campout nearby and invited us all to join them. The kids were spoiled having so many adults to play games with. We made dry ice root beer like I remember doing at family reunions growing up. It's still magical! 

Of course we had some swimming days! 

Cousin's day at the lake: We had a wonderful day at the lake with our cousins! 

Garden: I planted a wonderful garden in the Spring before I was pregnant. It was pretty neglected this year as the growing season went on, but it still did a great job producing! 

Regency Luncheon: Hazel and her sweet friend Annabelle, who wish they'd lived in a Jane Austin novel, planned the most fun "Regency Luncheon" for our book club. It girls all dressed up, at dainty food, and enjoyed a good "turn around the garden." I LOVE this group of girls so much! 

Dinosaur Gardens with just the Boys: While all the girls were at summit, the boys and I got to tour the dinosaur gardens at Thanksgiving Point. They LOVED it! It was so much fun to have a slower morning with just these two silly boys. 

Summit! The girls had such a great time at the Heroic Youth Summit! Brenna got to come this year which made it even more fun. 

This year I was a villin in the final battle - it was a blast! I even got to capture Hazel as part of the plot. Who knew playing the bad guy would be so much fun. 

Bubble Party: The kids were invited to a birthday party with this giant bubble machine - pure joy! 

Labor Day we spent the morning at the lake as a family soaking in the last moments of summer. The girls did kayak yoga which was hilarious to watch. The boys fished and caught tadpoles. We all had a great time enjoying what always feels like the end of summer.