Homeschooling! Our New Adventure

This is a picture of our first day of homeschooling, in August 2013.  I thought about blogging as we went along, and quickly realized I'd better just stick to lesson planning for the first year!  We had decided in May of the same year that after our oldest finished first grade in public school we would plan on homeschooling the next school year.  Now, we have successfully completed our year, so I figured I might have time for a short blog post before I get too involved in planning next year...and gardening...and...haha.

We tried to integrate as many fun snacks, outdoor activities, and hands-on science as we could.  Our curriculum (K and 2nd grade) was My Father's World.  We'll be adding Apologia Science next year to add to the science aspect, which was constantly requested.  More, Mom, we want more science! :-)

One thing I wanted to make sure we did this year was field trips!  We went to the Deer Farm (near Williams, AZ), the Wildlife World Zoo, Butterfly Wonderland, We Make History's reenactments of the Revolutionary War (perfect timing, we had just studied it!), Grand Canyon National Park, Slide Rock State Park's harvest Festival (where we learned about old apple sorting equipment and got to taste homemade apple butter!), and even a jeeping trip (Thanks Daddy!) out to the "Cinder Pits" to learn a little more about volcanoes.

Hands on science, projects, arts and crafts (always taken VERY seriously, of course!) were always a part of our weeks.  Best extracurricular find of the year?  Miss Cara's art classes (THANK YOU!!).  They were amazing and really got the kids' creative juices flowing.

The kids spent time helping garden (learning more this year, too!) and we had a lot more time for family adventures.  Our flexible schedule allowed us to tag along once while Daddy was out of town, and to consistently follow his work schedule.  Daddy taught school on his days off and being in-sync with his schedule allowed us so much more wonderful time together.

This is such a short version of all we did this year, but above all, it was a wonderful experience.  Great support from family and friends was integral!  The kids have been growing academically, physically, and spiritually in leaps and bounds.  We are all very excitedly planning our adventure next year!