Homeschooling: Week One

It took about thirty minutes Monday morning for me to realize that we LOVE homeschooling.  By Friday, I knew I wanted to do some tweaking.  Here's what I learned...

1)  My kids are wicked smart.  Both of them.  (And Piper HAD to be included in the schooling.)

2)  Sometimes, work is better in the floor.

 

3)  They love learning outside and in an interest-led sort of way.

(look way into the crack and you can see Piper.  But just barely.) 

 

4)  I think we're going to slow this pace down a little.  It became clear by about Thursday that if we kept up this pace Fisher would be doing 4th grade work by the end of the year.  While he's accomplishing every task I give him, I think he was burned out by about Wednesday.  Behavior went to crap and we had lots of frustration.  I'm pretty sure I placed WAY too much importance on worksheets and not enough on being outside and story time.  While we still did those things, the balance just seemed off.  He's only 5 (almost 6!) after all.  This is kindergarten and most of the work he's doing is first grade.  (because he basically "tested out" of the kindergarten level.)  He (and his behavior) thrived during playtime while pretending and having fun.  I think we're going to change it up a little this week and see how it goes.  More time in the woods, more time crafting, more stories, even a story table/puppet show kind of thing. 

(Doing math.  The candle helps with his concentration and he loves it!)

 

(making salt dough veggies for our toy farm)

 

(painting them)

 

5)  He also thrived during the times HE read to me.  He is probably close to first grade level with reading and he loves it.  He's drinking in new words like water (or maybe even apple juice) and he's amazing.  So I think we'll continue with the reading pace until he needs to slow down.  I feel if he has a strong reading foundation he can learn, by reading for himself, about ANYTHING he becomes interested in.

That's really the beauty of this homeschool thing.  The flexibility of it all.  What works one week may not work the next...and that's okay.  One thing is for sure, these kids are awesome and definitely learning a LOT. 

We're at the beginning of an amazing adventure and loving every second so far.  We are officially homeschoolers and proud of it!

Love,
JKFP

***p.s.  Some of you are probably wondering about James and what he's up to.  He does have overseas work lined up but it doesn't start right away.  For now, he's working for a friend of ours in Gunnison until that starts up again.  Which should be sometime in the next month or so.  You know me, I'll let you know as soon as I know for sure.  AND we get to see him every weekend which we totally love!

Becoming a Man

Cheese!

There comes a time when your used to be baby is suddenly old enough to actually be growing up.  I think it has to do with teeth.  It seems to here anyway.  Fisher lost his first tooth in early July.  He has since learned ... to chop wood with an ax, shoot a BB gun, lost two more teeth, has a MAJOR crush, will be turning 6 in a few short weeks, and starting home school Monday!  That's. A. Lot.  And lucky for you I have videos of the ax and BB gun. 

Interestingly, Fisher is being taught here by an old friend of mine from Philmont.  (I hadn't seen him in probably 12 years and I didn't even know he was living in Gunnison.  It was so surprising to run into him at Eric's house!) 




Learning the basics of BB shooting with a gun that was way too big.  They ended up cutting several inches off the back end and he did great.  I missed the TWO times he actually hit the wooden duck in the pond! 

 Becoming a man is exhausting!

It sure is hard work...growing up like he is. But the days when he'll fall asleep in the laundry remind me of the little one he used to be. I'm so proud of who he's becoming.


Love,
JKFP


I'm linking this post to the Peek of the Week party over at Happily Home Sewn! Go check out her sweet new little one and their Peek!

What I did on my summer vacation: The rest of the week.

How's that for a long break from day one?  As I'm sure you can all relate, we've been a little busy around here.  We got home from Gunnison on a Friday night and the very next day my parents flew in to town.  Don't worry I took pictures.  But I wanted to keep things in order so I'll show you the rest of our vacation first. 

The rest of the week pretty much consisted of...

Fishing

Walking to the fishing.

Napping.  Napping while fishing.

Fishing again and looking super adorable.

Fishing some more.

Think we're done?  Probably not.  Can you tell we like fishing?

We also had a couple moments of looking insanely adorable.

See?

There were nature walks.

Giant wishes.

Campfires.

 

Smores with snuggles.

 

And even an afternoon at the pool.

 

We had an interesting little side adventure on the way home.  We took the long way... and somewhere in the middle of nowhere Fisher needed to pee. (TMI? maybe - but it's what happened)  Anyway, we stopped and he took care of business.  Then he noticed bones in the distance.  He's such a good spotter!  So we decided to check them out.

Exploring.

 (he's doing his best Vanna White impression here - even though he has no idea who that is.)

We spent about an hour at this great spot in the middle of nowhere finding pretty rocks and small crystals.  All of us together.

 

It was such a fantastic place to stop!  We were so happy the boy had to go.  It ended up taking us exactly twice as long as usual to get home (6 hours) but we were so much richer for it.  Definitely one of those "stop and smell the roses" kind of days.  Or "stop and look for bones, rocks, and rainbows" kind of days.  Yes, there was a rainbow too.

Oh!  How could I forget.  Just two more things. 

1) We did all 6 of those hours with Bob (who is a wonderful traveller) and two baby chicks (who were decidedly less excited about the adventure than the rest of us).

And

2)  I think we found the place (location) we want to grow old. 

 

THE place. 

Just image a cabin anywere in this picture and you've pretty much got it.

Don't worry.  We'll let you come visit. 

And that's what we did on our summer vacation.

Hugs,

JKFP and Bob

What I did on my summer vacation: Day One

We are in Gunnison!!!  Which means we're on vacation.  It sure does feel good to say that.  The only sorta crappy part is that Fisher, Piper, and I are sick.  Strangely enough I'm the sickest.  I have NO voice at all.  We seem to feel okay during the day but nights are pretty rough. 

We have had a tremendous first day!  Relaxed, a bit lazy, and totally filled with fun.  Sounds weird.  I know.  But it's the truth. 

First up...baby chickens.  Kik and Kendra have somewhere in the neighborhood of a billion baby chicks in their garage.  They are three weeks old and positively adorable.  And. My. Children. LOVE. Them.  Like, love them so much I'm pretty sure we're taking two of them home.  (I'm also pretty sure K & K won't miss them as they have a BUNCH.)  Anyway, Piper doesn't seem to feel complete if she's not toting around her baby chick.  Well, she toted a few other's til "the one" found her. 

Oh how could I forget they have baby ducks too!?!?  Fisher was really into the ducks.  They were wiggly and a bit goofy.  So very Fisherlike.



Not to mention super freaking cute!

Kendra and Fisher.  Chicken and Duck.

(Bummed about the sun spot on this one but it was too sweet not to include.)

The two that have been settled on snuggling happily in a nest Fisher made from his sweatshirt.  Names to follow?

We also had some fun on a friend's zipline.  That's Fisher shooting over the little creek.

Piper even got in on the action.  Brave as always.

A good thinkin' spot.



Here's a fun little experiment Fisher came up with using a log that split in an interesting way.  It's sort of hollowed out and looked like a boat.  The experiment was a success.  It did navigate the river easily.

And just to prove that some things never change here's Piper last summer...



And here's this summer.

This little girl always seems to make her way (usually half naked) into the water.

The boys finished off the day floating/fishing down the river with a group of friends while Pipey and I relaxed around the campground.  We had fun walking Bob, having an early dinner, and having some girl time.

Day ONE people!  Day one.

Love,

JKFP

Blast from the past.

I was looking at old pictures this morning and I just couldn't resist.  (Fair warning, this may become a regular feature too now that I'm getting all "regular feature" on you.)  It amazes me how much kids grow.  I know, everybody says that.  But it's different when it's your own children.  Here's your blast from the past.

And just for good measure...

So cute.  So grown.

Love,

JKFP

 

A Day in the Life...and a Guess What!

**Editor's Note: Dang it!! I meant to tell you all that I'm linking this up over at Happily Home Sewn and her Peek of the Week!  Go over and check it out.  And hopefully next week I'll remember before I post.  Oops.





I guess this is pretty much a regular feature now so I'll just keep it going.  Officially.  A Day in the life is a pretty good way to showcase some cute pictures that didn't make it into an actual story.  So, here's your "Day in the Life".  Oh and stay tuned at the end for my Guess What?!?!?!

Our days are filled with...

 Johnny

Lots o' Johnny

Playdates and Popsicles.

(the Prayne boys - you remember Arthur and Simon?  Well, now they have a little brother Garrett.)

Breadmaking.

 (Fisher decided what kind to make and put all the ingredients in)

Toy making.

(This AMAZES me!  What happens when it's really too hot to play outside and the TV is off?  They came up with the designs and made the panels all by themselves.  I helped hot glue stuff together.  Look closely at the campfire - they are roasting a pig!)

Growning up.

The coolest playground ever?

Serious faces.

Scrunchy faces.

Heaps of love.

And more love.

As hard as some days are I think we're doing alright.  Oh, and it should be noted that some of these pictures were taken by Carly.  Thanks for capturing the cuteness!

*****
Now then.  Are you ready for your guess what?????  Okay guess what?  James is coming home!!!!!!!!  Yep, coming home.  Like this Wednesday.  The 20th.  In THREE DAYS!  Can you tell we're a little excited?  We're quite beside ourselves actually.  We're not sure how long he'll be home for at this point.  We're hoping for at least 3 weeks but not much more than 4.  (I mean, we'd love for him to be home longer, but we need for him to keep working.  Hopefully after this next contract he can be on a longer break.)  So I may be a little absent for a few weeks.  But I'll be back!  With tons of pictures, I'm sure.

Lots of LOVE!!

JKFP and Bob