I love homeschooling!!!!

This is one of the many reasons I love to homeschool my kids. After dinner tonight we were talking and planning our upcoming week. We are learning about apples so I want to do some cooking. I asked jaiden what he wanted to cook and he said apple candy. After a bit of conversation I figured out it was candy / Carmel apples so... We made some, tonight! We are making apple cinnamon oatmeal in the morning too! I love my life and I adore my kids! (notice the hand in the picture)
In love and light,
Stephanie

Garage sale day

I have been debating having a garage sale for about 6months now and I finally bit the bullet. Today was the culmination of a month of planning. So as we were getting ready for our sale, jaiden kept saying, "I want ..." or "I want ..." so I decided to give him an opportunity to earn his own money. I told him he could have his own snack sale. He figured out what he wanted to sell and I figured out the price. Then he made a sign! It was so well ... Cute! I knew he would get board or sleep in or all of the above but i think it was a great real life was to teach him about money (which we have been talking about lately). We also worked on coin recognition and adding /subtracting. He made about $10 but I think mast of that was Nanay buying whoopers.
The sale went well, the house is a bit emptier, and I have a little extra spending money so I can finally get my honeschool room set up! Jaiden plans on buying more legos with his new stash. Below is a picture of the 2 working their booth.
In love and light,
Stephanie

Fall nature class

As usual, this past thursday was "class" day the this week officially started our "fall" lessons so we decided to take a nature walk. We went to a local park that has a nice 1mile walking trail. I was so impressed that we held the kids attention. For almost an hour talking about birds, trees, bugs, plants, leaves and the like. Each kid had their own clipboards with a worksheet to make notes of what they saw. I also made a sheet with some of the common georgia trees and their leaf shapes. We all had a so much fun! Next week we are going to do a little apple science so that should be fun.
In love and light,
Stephanie

Apple picking

Last Saturday our group went on a little field trip to go apple picking. Truth be told we all got a groupon. ;) It was quite chilly when we got there but we still had an awesome time that included the apple cannon, the petting farm, the hay ride and finally apple picking. For the record, jaiden likes red apples and Lilli likes green. I think they ate their weight in apples before we left!
With the 1.5 hour drive up there, I decided to stop by Burt's Pumpkin Patch before heading home which was right down the street from the orchard. it's such a drive that I don't think we would do it twice in 1season... I think we were all about done by then but we did get a few pumpkins (and a few pictures). Needless to say they were both asleep within 5 min of getting back in the car. Great trip now I just need to figure out what to do with all of there apples!
In love and light,
Stephanie

Crazy busy week

It has been one crazy busy week and as I was planning out October, it doesn't look much better in the next few weeks. But the good news is we are having fun. This week we finished (or so I thought) jaidens "county fair" lapbook but when we went for show and tell on Thursday, I found a few more thinks I wanted to add. Maybe tomorrow but today we matched on. Today we went apple picking! Our group got a groups to go apple picking and today was the day. On the way up we talk a bit about apples but it was really the groundwork for the next few weeks. So there's not much"educational" in this post (not that there wasn't anything educational in the day but just not any new ideas) but there are some great pictures for the grands. I will post some pictures of the finished lapbook when it is done, or just close enough. ;)
It was a beautiful day to go to the mountains! On the way up it was 57 degrees and never got about 65 the whole day. We started with the apple cannon which was fun but for me, I wouldn't have paid extra just for that. We mover on tithe petting zoo which was great! Lots for the kids to pet and play with. After that we hit the hay ride so we could do the apple picking last. The ride was neat because we got to see to back part of the farm where they had the pumpkins and corn. After that we finally got to pick apples. The kids were awesome! I think they ate as much as they picked and that's a lot of apples. I bought an extra 20lb bag (a peck) so after the kids filled theirs, they helped me with mine. It was so beautiful up there and it was so nice to appreciate nature and all of the abundance there is really is. I will not soon forget that trip!
As if that wasn't enough, we decided to stop by the pumpkin patch too since it was right down the street. That was a quicker trip (even though it was really busy). Surprisingly the kids weren't very interested in picking out a pumpkin. They just wanted to play on the really big ones. We got a few they made the hour and a half trip home even though the kids don't remember that part. 5minuets in they were out. We came home and took a good hot shower and are now settelin' in to a nice warm bed. Life is awesome!

In love and light!
Stephanie