"Schooling" a Young Child

I had a few friends over today to talk about homeschooling. Their children are too young for "school" but they feel the pressure to start educating. My goal was to encourage them that they are already doing this as they live life, counting grapes, saying colors of toys, reading books, etc. I also promised some links to resources that were helpful to me.


My ABC Bible Verses is an excellent start to learning letters and Scripture.

Kendra at Preschoolers and Peace always has great tips and ideas! it is one of my favorite homeschool blogs.

Leila has great tips on home management, child rearing, etc. at Our Mother's Daughters

Five in a Row is a great resource when you're ready for a more formal curriculum.

Here’s the Before Five in a Row Free Resources http://www.homeschoolshare.com/before_five_in_a_row_resources.php

This is great letter reinforcement: http://www.starfall.com/

Lots of free printable resources: http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/

Ideas galore! http://www.icanteachmychild.com/

Fun Learning http://www.playfulearning.com/Playful_Learning/Blog/Blog.html

Ava and Olivia

These two sweet 5 year olds get to be cousins and share the same special birthday!

What fun!

Give a Cheer for A-V-A, Ava!

Naomi was very into running the snack shack

If you ask Ava what she's going to be when she grows up, "Cheerleader!" is always the answer, but it fits, right? So we threw her a Cheerleader Birthday Party complete with skirts, a visit and cheer seesion with 2 AHS Cheerleaders, a snack bar and a football game! It was great fun and we are so thrilled to see our enthusiastic 5 year old grow and become a leader who cheers others on toward Christ and good works! 

Daddy and his Boys

A Gift from Grandma Koehler

Steve's mom is an amazing minature artist and was so wonderful to send the girls these rooms. They LOVE them and play with them almost everyday! There are some cute videos of them openning their package on our YouTube channel too!

July

What can I say... it's half way through August and I'm just blogging about July! Life is full, full, full! July was lots of fun and started off with a visit from Nana & Papa Tex (my Mom & her husband). We celebrated Steve's birthday and got to see the MacAdams when Leah played a softball tournament in town. Then we had two weeks of swim lessons and an awesome visit from the Shinns. Hopefully it was the first annual trip :-) The last week was spent wiping noses and administering acetaminophen. Here's a few of my favorite pictures!

It's hard to believe Daniel's 9 months old! He is becoming a fast crawler, pulls up on any thing and every thing, waves hi, gives "5," and loves to eat! This is his first time  wearing shoes and using them.