New Do's

Perhaps not related to schooling and certainly not homeschooling, but here are a few pics of Izzy and Tori doing school work, in their new feety-pajamas.

It's been a wonderful time with homeschooling. The girls just completed their first quarter. They did have a week off early in November to go with Grandpa and Busha to Rhinelander for a week of vacation. Because of this, they got a little behind in some of the testing, but have made it up with "double potions" this Thanksgiving week.

Isobelle just finished up reading Robinson Crusoe. Victoria has been studying ecosystems.

The girls have started playing some Christmas tunes for piano lessons too!

Science Explorations & LOTR

Isobelle if finally getting into the kind of science she is enthusiastic about: beakers, potions and solutions, oh my. She's learned about dissolving solutes in solvents as well as saturation rates. It's exciting to see her enjoying science. In the last couple photos, she was testing out the chromatography of some markers we had laying around the house. Fun!

She also had to choose a novel to read for school. The Fellowship of the Ring (Lord of the Rings) was one of the options, and she quickly went for it. She just finished yesterday!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip!

A Day In The Life Of Homeschooling...

Joony wants attention!

Joony and Sam hang out in the classroom and snuggle to stay warm.

Victoria use egg yolk based pigments to create artwork for art class.

Tori uses her Base 10 Math manipulatives in a creative way.

Week Two: Barometers, Color Wheels and History, Oh My!

Week two went off without a hitch. The girls and I are really getting the hang of the system. It's been easy to motivate them (and myself) downstairs in the morning. We kind of stumble out of bed when we wake up (no time enforcements yet,) push breakfast into our mouths with blank eyes, and wander downstairs to get going. A huge difference from getting everyone out of bed at 7 am, scrambling to get breakfast eaten in time to get hair combed, backpacks together, lunches packed and Victoria out the door before 8am (Izzy never had trouble with the time constraints.) This is much more my speed. The stress is non-existent. And no, we're not being lazy! :)

The girls both like Spanish the best. This week Izzy likes spelling and Tori likes Literature. Funny. Isobelle normally likes reading, but she hates all the analyzing that literature requires. Victoria's learning cursive and I've found I have to "do voices" in order for her to remember the little tricks. But it works! "Oh no, turn back!"

Victoria made a headband complete with the Parthenon, togas, an olive branch and other thematic pictures.

Izzy and Tori paint a color wheel. They had to mix paints to get the varying shades - no cheating here!

Dad and Victoria make a barometer. It works pretty well too!

Week One

Week one mission 'Home school' was amazing! It was filled with chaos, intrigue, challenges and perhaps just a moment or two of swashbuckling.


Trying to blow up the globe. Oh the things you can think!


Victoria is amused by the blowing up of the globes.


Izzy trying to blow up the globe.



Isobelle's first art project of the year: a self portrait.



Victoria's first art project of the year: a self portrait. "It's a Girls World."



Making a cloud in a jar - science experiment. Wow did this one work well!

The 1st Day of Homeschool; Day One

It was an awesome first day!

Victoria says "It was fun." Victoria liked her "Animal Antics" lesson best, which required her to move like an animal would. We picked out 8 Littlest Pet Shoppes, placed them around the yard and the girls moved to the next like the animals would. Cute.

Isobelle says "It was fun and challenging." Isobelle liked spelling best; she got to do it all on the white board.

We took it nice and slow and finished around 2:30 but got to sleep in! We started at 8:30. *wink*

Today each girl did Math, Spelling, Literature, Vocabulary, Science and Spanish. Victoria also had analogies, handwriting (she's learning cursive this year) and health/PE. They additionally will have GUM (grammar usage mechanics,) History, Art and Gym once we work up to it all. I am coming up with a music program for them, based on the K12 method of solfege (a system for ear training and developing ones Relative Pitch.)

Our Classroom

This is our shelf with all the K12 materials. Quite a lot of work for the girlies!

Victoria's desk: She has the computer K12 provided. We have modified a prefab "closet/wardrobe" into a desk for her; John installed two slide out surfaces. One is for her keyboard and mouse, the other is just a desk area for her to spread her books and worksheets out.

Isobelle already has a desk, so she will be using that for her workspace. Hopefully she'll be able to use my laptop some of the time. Spanish is entirely online, and I'm hoping both girls can do it at the same time.

This is the rest of the room. We have some full bookshelves and a daybed to hang out on and read. It's a pretty awesome feeling to have the room ready to go!