Tea For Six And A Few Letters

Last week we had some really fun moments at school.  

I wont get into the challenges, they are there and we are working through them.  

{Homeschooling my 3 girls while one rambunctious 4 year old bounces around the house and one tiny toddling cuteness on legs distracts us...you can imagine the obvious challenges!!}

But back to the FUN STUFF that is more enjoyable to read...

Here's Mailee on the front deck sipping chai tea at 8AM while the neighbourhood kids walk by on their way to school...very satisfying:)

Being able to help the Pumpkin Pie sip some Chai while listening to Mom read while sitting on the deck watching the neighbourhood kids walk by wearing heavy backpacks...very, VERY satisfying:)

Yellow stickies are my new best friends.  Every night I go through the books and label the pages we will be covering in the morning.

This year we are heavily focusing on Geography and the people that live in other countries around the world.  We have mastered the 7 continents, all the oceans, how to locate a country on a map or globe,  and are now beginning to "travel" from one continent to the next learning about many of the countries and people, their religions, languages, what they do for work, what the kids do for fun...I am so excited to help the kids expand their understanding of the world and the people that live in it.  To be honest, I am learning a lot too!

We are studying all the other subjects too.  The girls enjoy science and math and work diligently at their english even though I can tell it is not "fun" for them.  We started spelling this week and I was excited to find out after giving placement tests that both Mikayla and Mailee are already spelling above their grade level (props to KCS and their own brains).  Mikayla has signed up for the Spelling Bee, she really enjoys spelling.

We have so many books that we are loving.  I will have to talk about each one separately at some point.

I am avoiding science experiments...the first one involved earthworms and dirt.  Eek!  Don't worry, I will make sure they get to dissect a frog and all that horrible stuff, I may need Mike for back-up btu I will be sure it all happens!!

The kids are really enjoying our "letter writing".  On Monday they get to draw a name out of a hat.  The "hat" (glad-ware plastic storage container) is filled with the names of all our favourite people that do not live int he same town as us.  The kids love picking names on Monday!!

This activity is awesome for working on their writing skills, polishing their handwriting skills, encouraging them to think about the person they are writing to and writing something personal to them, learning how stamps work, post office, etc.

My kids love to make the letters look cool...I must admit, that is my favourite part, too!!

This letter got put in the mailbox this afternoon.  On it's way to someone really special!  Maddie made the card and envelope, wrote a rough draft of the letter and then rewrote a final copy all alongside her big sisters.  What a fun way to spend an afternoon together!