Hey there homeschool mamas! Welcome to week 11 of our Kindergarten Homeschool! I am so excited to show you what we've done and how it's going every week! If you're curious about our curriculum, my son, or our homeschool room, check out this post!



Well, this was our first week back after an unexpected break. I had talked about Kyle's schedule changing. On September 10, I opened my etsy shop. I was surprisingly pretty busy. With all of the out of whack routine, our Dinosaur unit didn't go very well. We would be busy when Daddy was home, I'd work while the boys rested, then we'd do something else, and before we knew it, we had missed a day of school.  I was stressed out from working on my shop daily and still hadn't yet learned to manage doing it all. Then, Liam got sick last week. He had a stomach bug, so he wasn't feeling too hot for about 3 days. By the time he was better, it was mid week and we didn't really have a choice than to just start fresh the next week. Honestly, I am so glad we did. It allowed me to catch up on my orders, get my house in check, nail down a new schedule/routine to coincide with Kyle's schedule, and just gave us a break. I feel like we were just thrown into September & hadn't had time to catch our breath. Our next break was scheduled for next week, but we will just push through to the next one, since we took it early.


Anyways, onto our Octopus unit! Liam had fun learning about them this week! He loves the movie, Finding Dory. In the movie, there is an octopus named Hank who Dory befriends. There is some facts through out and Liam would recite them. It was great he could put two and two together!

He enjoyed the different activites this week. We learned about the different oceans by looking at our globe and coloring them on a map. He enjoyed our book. We did A House for Hermit Crab book and did this activity with it. We did this one to go with Swimmy.  He really loved making the octopus hand print and using salt for the ocean floor.



Books we read: Swimmy, A House for Hermit Crab, The Octopus, and Octopus

It was a great week back for schooling, that is for sure! We both enjoyed it, I had much more patience, and Liam was eager to learn.



We also took our first official field trip! We went with our homeschool group to the Apple Orchard & Pumpkin Patch. Always a fall activity we enjoy as a family. Kyle was off, so he got to come along. We learned how they pick apples. We were able to pick our own (and they were amazing by the way!). We then got to see how the apples were stored, washed, and sorted. We learned the different types of apples and which seasons they grow in. The kids got to enjoy some apple cider and cookies. We then took a hayride to the pumpkin patch. Once we arrived, we got to pick the pumpkin from the vine! I thought that was so cool! It's something I've never done before. After the tour, they got to climb the hay bale tower, jump on a jumbo jumping pillow, play in the sandbox, and play different games. Very fun & educational! We look forward to many more trips and meeting new friends! =D

Hey there homeschool mamas! Welcome to week 8 of our Kindergarten Homeschool! I am so excited to show you what we've done and how it's going every week! If you're curious about our curriculum, my son, or our homeschool room, check out this post!


This week was a bit blah for our homeschool. Kyle's schedule got completely changed. I knew it might change eventually, but didn't anticipate it changing right when we got back from vacation. I didn't even have time to rearrange anything! Not only did this mess up our homeschool routine, but it also messed up our serving at church, photography sessions I had planned, taking both kids to Liam's therapy, etc. Just no bueno.

So, needless to say we were a bit out of the loop. Our first few days were okay, but by day 4, I was meal planning & Kyle had a meeting. We ended up having to go to 3 different stores (annoying much?) and rush home for dinner and soccer practice. It wasn't until laying Liam in bed, that I remembered, "we forgot to do school!". This was the first time we did this. To make matters worse, on day 5 we made plans out of town. No big deal, they were flexible plans, until we overslept, and yet again, didn't realize we still had school to do. Luckily, we had our two scheduled days off, to catch up!


This week was all about turtles! Green sea turtles are my favorite animals, so I may have gone a bit overboard.

I found another youtube video with our poem this week. Liam was a tad confused why Elsa was with Ariel and not Anna, but he loved the poem and I remember it from when I was younger!

We started out blend ladders this week. Liam liked them okay. He was having a tiny bit of trouble because he kept adding an extra letter onto what we were doing. For example, with "san" he kept adding a "duh" at the end, to make it sand because he is familiar with that word. He did love learning to read "sat" and even copied it onto his chalkboard!

He loved the Tortoise and the Hare story, but loved acting it out even more! He ran a couple of laps in the yard, then I added his daddy's shoes into the equation. He had to try to run with those. He kept saying, "wook, I'm a tortoise, I'm slow! That's funny, but I'm still going to win!"



He also moved like other animals. Not only was this great for his school, but also gave him that sensory input as well. Double win!

For some of the activities in our book, I opted for some others. He did a watercolor of a turtle, as well as a dab worksheet.

He did struggle a bit this week with his Biblical Concept, "I don't quit, I persevere". I can totally understand why, it's a large word. Luckily, I was able to relate to our vacation last week, when we climbed the big mountain. We wanted to quit, but we didn't, we pushed through and persevered. After the third day, he got it, and has weeks 3-8 memorized now! So proud of him!

We read so many books this week! As I said, they are my favorite, so I went kind of crazy. He learned the difference between turtles or tortoises, where they live, what makes them different, the parts of their body, how they hide from predators, etc. Normally we will read one during school each day, but since we picked out so many, we read some during school, and other's during meal time.

Books we read this week were: Turtles and Tortoises, Look Out For Turtles, The Tortoise and the Hare, Katy & the Big Snow, Mr. Putter & Tabby Run the Race, Sea Turtles, Emma's Turtle, and National Geographic's Book on Turtles.  


Everyone's schedules were messed up from vacation, so little brother joined in once or twice!

I am so looking forward to starting fresh next week and nailing down a new routine! We all thrive, for different reasons, on a set routine!

This week was our sun unit. Of course, the week was pretty rainy! Go figure, right?

The week was the first "real" week. It started us on the schedule we're going to keep through the year. Introduced our worksheets, math, reading and activities, poetry, and our classical music.

As I mentioned, I chose this because it uses a variety of teaching methods and is very hands on. The first day I read the poem, Liam was so bored. It wasn't extremely long, but it's hard for him to sit still if he isn't a part of the action. I ended up finding a youtube video (Disney for the win) and he preferred that much better!


He enjoyed getting to paint, make a sundial, play with his globe, read new books, play shadows, and dance to new music.

The books we read this week were: Moonbear's Shadow, Curious George Discovers the Sun, The Sun (which had facts and realist images), and Sunshine, Moonshine.



After Liam read the Curious George book about the sun, I let him watch the episode on Hulu. When Kyle got home, Liam told him all about what the sun is, how it's important, and how it can charge things.

I was also worried he wouldn't do very well at memorizing the flashcards. Each week, he learns a Biblical Concept Flashcard. This weeks was, "Jesus is the light of the world." and has a sun next to it. Wouldn't you know it, he had it memorized by the second day!


My mother in law's birthday party was this weekend. He decided to color her a picture and he wanted to include his Biblical Concept! So, not only did he remember it, but he learned to write it! He also helped me make her a vegan cake.

I love this time we are getting together! It is so fun to see things click for him! I just wish we could have enjoyed more sun for our sun unit! None the less, he had a blast!

We did preschool and pre-k at home, but this year we are using a curriculum. We chose My Father's World. This is an affordable, biblical, hands-on, Charlotte Mason Based, unit curriculum. The thing I love about it, most, is that it is very hands-on for Liam. Liam is currently diagnosed, but is believed to have ADHD and sensory processing disorder. He begins therapy later next month. He has trouble focusing, gets very fidgety, and likes to touch EVERYTHING! Just through the research I did, I knew this would likely be a good fit. I wanted something that was mostly open and go, easy to use, a good fit for Liam, and affordable.

I also decided we will try "year round" homeschooling. It just seems beneficial for him to be learning all year. Most of the first couple of weeks at school are review. This way, we do 6 weeks on, 1 week off. So we still get plenty of days off a year, without feeling like he's going to forget everything.


How much is my curriculum? This part gets a bit hairy, but stay with me! My husband had a $100 amazon gift card he got from work. After analyzing the deluxe kinder package vs the basic, I noticed several of the books were available at our library. The ones that weren't, were cheaper on amazon, as well as a few of the larger supplements. I also wanted to get something for our calendar time activities and some of the supplies we would need for the year. Basically, I order the teacher's manual, student sheets, a couple of readers, and some supplemental supplies, everything else came from Amazon. I spent around $150 out of pocket. Since I ordered everything in the "off-season" it was 20% off their website. The deluxe was around $300 and the basic around $250. I did save quite a bit, the difference being we don't get to own all of the books ourselves and have to make sure we reserve them in time. The minimialist in me doesn't mind one bit. We also will be doing a few books a week along with the unit, so we more than likely have several to reserve anyways. This cost may sound high, but out of the top curriculum's I found, this was insanely affordable! The other one I considered was around $800 for everything. FOR KINDERGARTEN! Nope, I am happy with my decision!

Once I received the box, there was a bit for me to do. Kyle and I laid everything out by unit (week). Some things needed to be cut out for easy use each week. I ended up putting each unit in a sheet protector and putting it in a large binder. The cut outs went into a pencil case that can sit in the binder. Luckily, I had all of this on hand from preschool/prek, so no extra money there!


This week, I have been setting up the homeschool room/office/third bedroom. First, I had to clean it all out and purge. It's been our catch all for about 6 months. I decided to put the ABC chart up on the wall, as well as the memory verses. I put up our large calendar and our US map we got from Dollar Tree some time ago. I also added some cute Sesame Street & Cars decorations from Dollar Tree. I found "READ" & "LEARN" letters from Target for $3 a piece. Also at Target, I found some colorful bunting for $1. There was a ton! Enough to do one set over the window, the other on the opposite wall under my letters, and even a strand over the toy bins in our living room. Also in the room is our bookshelf, that holds our education books, extra notebooks and other supplies, arts & crafts, puzzles, sensory bins, etc. Basically anything education. For my "desk" I am just using the computer desk. On our computer desk, we have a pull out tray. We decided to put a kitchen chair in here with a booster seat for Liam. It has gotten the job done quite well while we've been working on review this week.
I also cleared off our bulletin board and threw up some of the materials we may need to reference frequently.


I am so excited for this year! I am so blessed and grateful I get to stay home and educate my children. I shutter to think what school would be like for Liam. I can imagine how frustrating it would be to be the teacher as well in that scenario! I know Liam will learn a lot and have fun!