2012-2013 1st Grade Homeschool Curriculum

Yes, that's right, I homeschool my kids. Why? Well, I'll save that for another post. ;)

After "unschooling" Elli for the second semester of Kindergarten last year, I was determined to choose the best curriculum for her learning style and personality  for the 2012-13 school year. I spent countless hours scouring the internet and homeschool forums for the perfect curriculum(s). I literally researched and read reviews for hundreds of different options; I had no idea there was THAT much homeschool stuff out there! After several weeks I narrowed down my choices and ordered all of our supplies.

Now that we are several weeks into our school year, I feel I am comfortable enough with our curriculums to share (and review) them for you. I am constantly asked what we are using and how I feel about our choices so here you go:

BIBLE- Positive Action Bible Curriculum- Enjoying God's Gifts
I think this Bible curriculum is designed for smaller classrooms vs homeschool but we are enjoying it just the same. The workbook pages are easy to complete and Elli loves learning how stories from the Bible relate to her every day life.

MATH- RightStart Math level B:
This math curriculum is so different from the way math is traditionally taught to kids in school. RS steers clear of counting and teaches kids to recognize quantities visually. There are TONS of games and hands on activities that come w/ the kit and the teacher manual/lesson plans are seriously fool proof. Elli loves using her abacus to solve problems and I can already tell a major improvement in her math skills. Elli's favorite thing about RS math is for sure the hands on lessons.

SPELLING- All About Spelling level 1:
Alright, this one is tricky. I am going to reserve my opinion on this one for the time being. This curriculum is more than just weekly spelling words and memorization. It teaches phonics as well, which is cool, but we aren't far enough into the curriculum to get to the actual spelling portion so, we will continue and see how it goes.

WRITING- Writing Grade 1, Kelley Wingate Publications:
I found this gem by complete coincidence this summer at a yardsale. A former teacher was selling all of her personal books and this was one I picked up for $0.50. It's seriously amazing. The worksheets are easy peasy and does a great job helping me teach Elli about grammar, punctuation, and is a good intro into writing full and complete sentences. It's an older book, and from what I can find online, only upgraded versions are available.

SCIENCE- R.E.A.L Science, Life, Level 1
I'm not gonna lie, I hate science. It's so not my forte and Elli loves anything and everything science. But this curriculum was written specifically for parents like me, and no joke, you cannot mess this one up! Our science projects are definitely the highlight of Elli's week. This week we studies plant and animal cells. Elli got to crack open and egg and check out all the parts of the cell, as well as use jello and grapes to recreate plant cholorplasts. Cool, right?!

HISTORY- Story of the World - Ancient Times
I am amazed at how much Elli is absorbing just by listening to the stories in the book. We are reading a chapter a week and she is using the vocabulary words on a daily basis. Today she told her Grandma D, who travels frequently, that she is a nomad. LOL The chapters are easy reads and the activity book references other books you can check out from the library to supplement and provides several different projects and worksheets you can pick and choose to do, depending on your child's age.

READING- Hooked on Phonics - 1st Grade
I love HOP. I just love it. When we first pulled Elli out of school, she was not reading at all. She had only learned sight words in school and was guessing every.single.word. I was really worried because she was having such a hard time. We introduced HOP last year and after lots of frustration, we backed off this summer and gave her the freedom to read at her leisure. We are two months into HOP this year and Elli has made tremendous improvement and is reading like a champ now!

Extras- We have several craft and activity books I have found here and there and we pull those out whenever Elli feels like being crafty. ;) We also started a book called Little Annie's Art Book of Etiquette and Good Manners. Anybody, homeschooled or not, with a little girl 4-7 year old NEEDS this book! It's bible based and references scripture on every page and covers everything from being a good friend to how to set the dinner table and how to behave at the dinner table when you are out at a restaurant. It's so neat!

Whew! So there you have it. Our curriculum choices for Elli's 1st grade year. I'm so, so happy with every choice we made this year and am overwhelmed by how well Elli is doing and how much she is learning so far. I can't wait to see how much she improves by the end of the year! :)

Elli & her BFF, Emily, working hard this week in our HS Classroom.

October Dress Project - 8 days down, 23 to go!

One week down already, can you believe it? I can't. Really. I'm shocked I haven't groaned once at the thought of wearing this pea green dress, over and over. 

Just kidding.

I really was doing well, until day 6. Day 6 was Saturday, which for me, meant an early and sweaty day at the football field cheering on my little cheerleader. All I wanted to do was pull on some shorts and my "Cheer Mom" shirt and relax! But noooo.. I had to wear this dress. Wah wah, I know, I signed up for this. 

The first 5 days, and day 7, however, went great! I loved all the outfits I put together and was pleased that I could throw it all together in a matter of minutes. I'm wearing jewelry that hasn't seen the light of day in well over 3 years!

I'm starting to worry though that I have run out of casual, weather appropriate ideas so soon. I mean, I really haven't, but all of the "no brainers" have already been used which means it is time to get creative.. This also means I will most likely be second guessing my outfits and feeling like I don't match most days. Yay. -_-

But I will persevere! Wait and see. I've got a feeling that by the last week of October I will be caring less and less about how dorky I look. 

My friend Christen and I have been keeping each other in check with our second "October Project". I am so loving my daily time w/ the big B and really should stop being surprised that the different chapters I read each day so relate to my life and situations I am dealing with. ;)

Did I already mention that my almost 7 year old decided to participate as well? She is way too cute. I'm really surprised at her creativity! She chose a light blue tank top dress and has been diligent and insistent about wearing it every day! Go Elli! 

OH, and another thing- having to take a picture of myself every day is getting OLD. Apparently my body only poses one way for pictures and I am for sure getting sick of seeing pictures of myself, as I'm sure most of my FB friends are, too. 

Ok, now for the outfits you have been so curious to see..

Day One - Dress w/ flower tank underneath & old Juicy Couture necklace

Day One - Elli and her super adorable self! 

Day 2- MOPS! Dress & light tan tank, $2 Old Navy Shawl from the thrift store, Juicy Couture jewelry (we all have a past, right?) and my favorite boots.

Day 3- Homeschool Day at the Aquarium! I wore Evan a majority of the time, BUT really I was wearing the dress, brown tank, crochet belt, indian looking flops I never wear, and Juicy jewelry.

Day Four- LOVED this look. Felt like a watermelon ;) Dress, salmon pink tank, black racerback tank, and Cookie Lee jewelry that is well over 3 years old! 

Day Five- Christen and I! Dress, brown ruffled tank, clearance belt, and random costume jewelry. Christen paired her dress with black tights and red jewelry, cute! 

Day Six- Take two. I was originally wearing a gray shirt, but my messy toddler spilled his lunch on it. Dress & black t-shirt for a super low key, casual day.

Day Seven- Date day w/ my super amazing husband. Dress & a white racerback work out shirt I got on clearance, brown belt, and brown ONeil flops that are falling apart :(

Day Eight- I spent the majority of my day in PJs. My littlest is sick and I only got dressed to go pick up something to make for dinner. Just wore my dress & a print tank top. 

I really wish our weather was more compatible with my wardrobe. It would be so much easier to layer my dress if it wasn't 90 degrees outside. Hopefully by the end of the month I can wear a cute sweater over top. ;) 

$6 and a Great Friend

Only two days until the start of the October Dress Project, are you ready?! 

My good friend Christen and I set out this morning to find our dresses and a couple staple pieces to get us thru the month. We started at Goodwill and we were both encouraged after finding several dresses to try on. I had already decided I was getting a black or dark blue dress, either color would be easy to wear all month. Ha! I ended up falling in love with an olive green dress. But hey, the whole point of this project is to challenge myself, right? 

We are both thrilled with our purchases- both of our dresses are from a trendy mall store, in excellent condition, and only set us back a mere $5.87! 

But we aren't stopping here. We are stepping it up a notch. After I begged invited Christen to join the ODP and she accepted, she came up with a brilliant idea- let's challenge ourselves to grow stronger in our walk with God as well. So, we are both going to dedicate time every single day to read the Bible. I personally have struggled so much with reading the Bible daily, always unsure of where to start, what to read, how to study the Word. But it's time to set aside my reservations and just dive into it. I'm so blessed to have an amazing friend who can call me out and challenge me to strength my walk! 

I'm actually super stoked to wear my GREEN dress! Lets hope I can still say that in 10 days.. 

Here are some pictures of our morning mission- please excuse my low quality iPhone pictures, I promise to start using my camera on a more regular basis. And yes, we were those annoying girls who giggled and put on a fashion show/acted like paparazzi without caring who saw us ;) 

Nighty night time! 

Christen's super cute winner!

The chosen one.. 

A close second!

Darn broken zipper, I loved this one!

Fall Orange! 

Are you challenging yourself this October? If you're planning on blogging about your experience, leave me a comment with a link please! I can't wait to read all about everyone's journeys!

Remember When...

I know I will never forget, yet I feel the need to reminisce about that day two years ago when I thought my life was ending. I sobbed hysterically for hours, searching online for any and all hope that the Doctors were wrong- that my baby boy's heart could still grow before he was born and be whole.

I remember having to call all of our family, close friends, and co-workers, and tell them that our son was critically ill and would literally need to fight to live once he was separated from me. No one knew what to say.

I remember too many nights spent calling out to God to fix my son. Begging for a miraculous healing for Evan. Oh, if only I knew..

He had a bigger plan for me, for us, for my family.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart  and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
                                                 Proverbs 3:5-6


I can't deny that I have struggled with this verse over the past two years more than I would like to admit. It's so hard to shake all the fear; to trust that He knows what is best for my boy.. Yet every.single.time I have feared, the Lord has reassured me that all is well. He has got this! 

If I could have peeked into my future, to see how full of life this little boy is, I never would have believed it was real. Living with half a heart sounds so impossible! But thriving with half a heart? No way. Yet here he is, so incredibly happy, with bright brown eyes that shine and a smile that you literally can't resist. And I love him, I adore him! Every single hug, kiss, and smile is treasured in this house. Every single thing I took advantage of in my pre-heart mom life is treasured! 

Life pre-heart momma status was ok. And life in the early stages as a heart momma was difficult. But being a heart momma now.. is incredible. God will never give you more than you can handle, this I have learned, struggle after struggle.. 

Yesterday Evan had a routine Cardiology visit. He was super bummed out, his favorite nurse and sonographer weren't in the office and I could tell he missed them. We are really lucky that Evan has always loved the office visits. I've heard countless horror stories of children crying as soon as they walk in the door, and who can blame them!! We are usually in the office for 2 hours during Evan's appointments, cooperating for that long is a challenge for an adult, let alone a toddler! But every time he amazes us! Evan was giggling and saying "NO" to every question asked. 

EKG time! 

Evan's O2 sats were in the low 80's yesterday, which is just a tad lower than normal. His EKG and Echo results were fantastic though! There appeared to be no change from his last visit 3 months ago and everyone was impressed with how tall Evan is getting! He is now 34" and 27lbs, which means he has grown 3" since the beginning of the year! 

Do you see how patient this little guy is? He is such a calm natured kid, a natural cuddle bug. He sat thru his echo like a champ! Of course, he did have some help from Yo Gabba Gabba and needed to hold momma's hand the entire time. So sweet! I don't know many toddlers who can sit still for 30 minutes while a stranger scans their bare chest! I'm so proud! 

No changes were made at his appointment and we will be returning in 3 months for the next follow up. 

Now, I know this was all fantastic news, but I really saved the most exciting for last.. On the way home, Evan fell asleep in the car AND stayed asleep when I brought him inside and laid him in his bed! No joke, that was the first time in the history of Evan that this has happened! Seriously, if you're the parent of a baby who refuses to nap in the car, you will understand my excitement. ;) 

I hope to post in the very near future that Evan is walking, he is so close! Please continue to pray for his physical delays. I can't wait to see him walk and run with his friends! <3 

the October Dress Project.

Heard of it? No? Me either, until late last year when I saw some friends posting pictures of themselves in the same dress every day. I didn't give it much thought until a few months later and had almost forgotten about it now that October is quickly slowly creeping up on me.

So, what is it? It's a brilliant idea, created by two friends when one of their grandmas commented that women only needed one dress to wear an entire week, and one for Sundays. They decided to wear one dress the entire month of October. Yes, you read that right. The same dress everyday for 31 days. 

Why? The basis is simple- anti-consumerism, pro-simplicity, anti-conformity, pro-imagination. But you can transform the ODP to mean whatever you want it to! I will be focusing on pro-simplicity. 

I'm going to be transparent here for minute. I am materialistic, self-conscious, and more consumed with my outward appearance than I am with my inner-self. Gross, right? I know. And I have acknowledged these faults and have been diligently praying for God to help me change my ways. And in several ways, I have changed. But I still have a long journey ahead of me. Sigh, don't we all? 

I need this challenge. I need to transform myself. I need to prove to myself that I don't need this season's hottest trends or name brand whatever or brand new clothes to feel like ME. I don't need all these things to define who I am! 

Want to join me? Come on, wearing the same thing for a month doesn't sound appealing to you?! Your reasons behind participating in the the ODP do not have to be the same as mine. Your guidelines do not have to be the same as mine! Think about it, pray about it, give it a try. I stumbled upon a friend's post from ODP 2011 and seriously, she came up with some super cute outfits! Challenge yourself people!

These are my personal guidelines for the October Dress Project:
- Since I do need a few staples in order to survive the entire month, I will need to purchase some items. But I will not buy new! I will shop thrift, yard sales, or my friends' closets. 
- I will sell unused clothing items/household items in order to purchase these "new to me" items I think I need. 
- I will not be wearing my dress to the gym or to sleep.
- I will not purchase any new clothing or accessory items for myself the entire month of October.
- I will not repeat the same look during the month. 
- I will learn to love myself for who I am, not for what I am wearing. 

I'm not gonna lie, this is going to be very difficult for me to stick with. Luckily, one of my closest friends has agreed to dive into this adventure for the first time with me! I'm not sure we quite know what we are getting ourselves in to, but I can guarantee we are both fired up for the Lord to work on our hearts through this challenge! 

P.S. Yes, you can wash your dress! ;) 

DIY Rustic Fall Wreath

I don't know about you, but I absolutely love September thru December! I love Fall colors, the family get-togethers, the humidity dying down, and the FOOD! This year, I am determined to get some crafting done and finally finish some awesome DIY projects. 

Today, the women in my husband's family got together to eat and drink wine make some holiday wreaths. Everyone else made theirs out of fabric and wire wreath forms and they came out amazing! However, my husband and I are smack in the middle of a "no spend month" and while I wanted to participate, I didn't want to spend the extra money to make a fabric wreath when I had some leftover grapevine wreaths in the shed! So I headed to Michael's and grabbed some fall foliage, which happened to be on sale, and decided to figure it out as I went. I don't want to toot my own horn, but Honk Honk! My wreath turned out fabulous! Unfortunately (for you), I was too distracted by my hilarious in-laws to take step by step photos so you will just have to bear with me! 

Supplies:

1 Grapevine wreath

3-4 small bunches of flowers/foliage 

1 spool of 2" coordinating ribbon OR 1 pre-made bow

10" piece of curling ribbon or string (omit if you are using a pre-made bow)

Hot glue gun 

Scissors 

Step 1- 

Cut all of your flowers and foliage off the branches, leaving about 2" of stem. 

Step 2- 

Arrange your flowers/foliage on one half of the wreath and hot glue into place once you are happy with the placement. 

The only progress shot.. My bad. -_-

Step 3-

Make your bow. There is a great tutorial on how to make a wreath bow here. Skip this step if you purchased a pre-made bow.

Step 4- 

Attach your bow to the bottom of your arrangement on the wreath by tying the string through the center of the bow and around the wreath. 

The finished product! 

 Yes, I know it is still Summer, but I love the look of this wreath so much that I couldn't wait to put it up! I adore the rustic look; I live in the country and it is totally appropriate.

The whole wreath cost me about $10 to make. Everything was on sale plus I had a 10% off coupon good towards my total purchase! Michael's had wreaths in the store that weren't as cute as this one for $50!!

I plan on making a Rustic Christmas wreath in a similar style as soon as the Christmas decorations hit the shelves! :) Stay tuned!

My secret to endless amounts of energy

Since becoming a stay at home mom 15 months ago, I have struggled with productivity. At first, I enjoyed staying up late, dropping Elli off at school, and napping with the baby. The house was clean within an hour, and stayed that way. Once we started homeschooling, I needed to get my act together and not only wake up early, but stay awake. It was so hard to fall asleep earlier than 2am! And if there is one thing I love, it's sleep. I can sleep 15 hours if left undisturbed. Something had to change. About the same time, I was mentally ready to lose the last bit of baby weight Evan oh so generously left me with. I started waking up at 5am and heading right to the gym. It.was.so.hard!! I have always loved staying in shape, but willingly waking up that early was a struggle. But I did it! And after a few weeks of forcing myself to get out of bed, I was able get up as soon as the alarm went off - and looked forward to the time to myself at the gym! The energy I have throughout the day is incredible! Not only am I sleeping better, but I have also lost 13lbs. I'm only 7lbs away from my goal weight! 

If you are feeling sluggish, I highly recommend setting that alarm and getting active first thing in the morning! Walk on a treadmill while reading a book, lift some weights to your favorite songs. Just do it! I'm currently blogging while cooling down on the treadmill ;) Don't make excuses. If you fall off the bandwagon a couple days, just pick back up where you left off. You are the only obstacle in the way of being/staying fit.