Day 138: Friendships for Life

We had a little get-together with some of our friends today. Those are friends that have become like family to us. They are our network, our support system, our lifeline. We can count on those friends, and they can count on us.

Here is a picture of Coqui with his friend Zoodle. They have known each other since Zoodle's birth. It is a special friendship that we hope will last for a long time. It was raining the entire time, but those kids didn't care - they played for hours in the mud. The boys created a boys club with Coqui as the leader. They built a circle of huge rocks, that was their clubhouse.

Stuff like this makes life worth it. Friendships and bonds. We are so thankful for all of our friends that have come out to be with us. Great conversations and tons of fun. We love all of you.

Day 133: A Day on the Lake

Friends of ours invited us out to the lakes. We had never been and it was an honor to be over there. We got to go on a boat ride around the lake. Then we swam in it. And then Coqui got to ride in a tube that was pulled by the boat. It was so much fun.

But the highlight of the trip was when Coqui learned to go on the water skiers. It took him a few tries until he got the hang of it. But at the end, he stood on the skiers and rode for about ten seconds. I love that he was determined to try and succeed. Super proud of him.

Thank you friends for an unforgettable afternoon and evening.

Day 132: Car Bingo 2

It's been five years since I last posted about Car Bingo, but yep, we are still playing it. All the kids love it, Grandma loves it when she visits, and even my parents got pulled into it before.
Today, we found a new addition to our growing collection. Our very first license plate bingo. Coqui already played on the way home from the store and was mad that he only found cars from our state. Well, we are going on a small road trip soon, so maybe he'll be more lucky then.

Day 128: VBS Family Night

Day Three of VBS is completed and tonight, they had Family Night. The kids got to go up on stage to sing their VBS songs. There were games for the guests. And before that, we had hotdogs and lemonade. We also got our picture taken in a photo booth, and the big kids got their faces painted. It was a great night for all.

Day 122: The Spell of the Spelling Words

We are using BJU Bob Jones University for our Spelling curriculum. We really like it and we will continue to use it for the years to come. It works for us, both me as the teacher and Coqui as the student. One list per week, and the kids learn to use the words in context, proofreading, and dictionary skills. It shows that those spelling words are not just words put into a list but that spelling has a purpose in life.

So for a while, we've been working on learning to think about the way the words are spelled, and why. I keep telling him to think about the root word and what else has happened to the word, like a prefix or a suffix or a tense change. So today, for the second time, during a spelling test, he's taken to a piece of scrap paper and trying out different ways to spell a word that he is not sure about. And for about half the time, it has worked for him. He spelled it correctly.

This is it! These are those little milestones that make me jump for joy. When our learning has reached a new level. I don't want him to drill the spelling words for one week and then forget about them. That would not serve him for life. But thinking why and how..... YES! This is it.

Super proud of him for this. And for being able to skip spelling lists here and there, because he already knows how to spell all the words. We are down to our last list of the year. We are excited about finishing the book and taking a break.

Day 114: The Scholastic Mouse

Coqui's new favorite book series is Geronimo Stilton. We own a few books as they aren't cheap. So with a trip to the library, we got a total of seven 'new' books into the house. He barely washes his hands coming home, and as soon as he can he plops on the floor and reads. I love when my passion becomes his passion. I love to read and I truly believe that reading will broaden his horizon and enlarge his imagination. Homeschooling rocks.

Apparently, they also have workbooks - I need to look into those. I am sure Coqui won't mind Reading Comprehension as much with his favorite mouse. 

Day 111: Top Secret Adventures

Coqui has been collecting the Top Secret Adventure countries for a while now. It comes as a monthly magazine, and it teaches them about a country at a time through solving mysteries. He loves it.

When we went to a homeschool book sale and he saw this game, he had to get it. And so did Mami! We played it right away the next day, but today, Daddy joined us for a big round. It was so much fun going around the board, swapping suspects, items, and countries, in order to fulfill our missions. I won the first round, and Coqui won the second. The girls played, too, rolling the dice, moving the little people, and trying to answer the quiz questions. It is such a great game for the entire family.

Day 107: Math App

A friend of us told me about this cool app that she is using for her kids to supplement Math. Now I don't think we need to add any more Math to our daily schedule, but it was worth trying it out. So I downloaded it this morning, signed up for the two weeks trial, and got Coqui hooked. He loved it immediately although he said that it was very hard.

The program is called Dreambox, it is an online Math learning program for elementary and middle school. It cost money, that's why I signed up for the free trial first before I commit to anything. We will try it out every day to see if it is worth the investment.

So far, I like that he is challenged already on day one. I like that I can go into the program as a parent (aka teacher) to see the progress he has made. It tells me where he has had trouble and where he has done great. It has many different areas covered (as far as I can tell from today), for example fractions with money, all the operations, measurements, decimal, etc..... It seems to cover pretty much everything. Let's see what I think in two weeks.

Day 106: He loves school.....

This picture really doesn't need any caption......

Let me be honest, we have great days, and days where homeschooling is real work and not much fun. But when this kid uses his new compass to practice drawing circles and then writes that he loves school - in those moments, I jump up in the air three feet high! THIS is what it is all about. The moments when they get it. Love it. Feeling extremely blessed to be the Mami of these awesome kids and to be able to teach them at home.

Day 104: Complete Metamorphosis

After studying birds for the first part of the year, we moved to the flying dinosaurs. Apologia then had us studying the bats. Now we moved on to insects and will do that for the rest of the year.

I can not tell you how much I (!) am learning alongside these kids. I know we talked about metamorphosis during my school years, but I am pretty sure that we never covered complete and incomplete metamorphosis. That is what we learned the other day. So today, Coqui showed me what he 'built' with those shapes that his sisters usually plays with. All four stages of a complete metamorphosis. I love when they do this kind of stuff on their own.

They got it. Yeah.

Now one big reason why I love Apologia is that it is Christian based, creation based, and anything taught points back to God.  Studying the complete metamorphosis, the book tight in the Christian walk of becoming a new creation when we first believe and invite Jesus into our hearts. What a beautiful picture that is. When we become a Christ follower, we also go through a complete metamorphosis, and at the end, we come out like a brand-new, beautiful butterfly.

Day 98: Rock climbing

Today was a long day...... so here is one picture of Coqui hanging in the wall rock climbing. He did awesome and had so much fun with his friends.
The perk about homeschooling was to go to a birthday party in the middle of the day when it was all empty and the boys had the whole place to themselves..... until school got out and three big buses of a private school unloaded their students.

Day 92: A Research paper about Japan

Coqui is not a fan of English, especially when it asks for writing letter, reports or research papers. We are using Bob Jones University, which alternates between grammar and writing chapters. Well, we finished our grammar chapter and are now working on a research paper about a country of his choice. He chose Japan, his favorite country of the moment. After some resistance from him, he totally got into the research, and I was not gonna stop him. He kept reading and reading, and even took some notes. It was one of those rare moments of pride. One day, they will really get this whole homeschooling idea of independent study and research and interest lead learning. 

Day 84: A hunger and thirst for Learning

So besides history being his favorite subject, Coqui is also quite talented in geography. He just has a GPS in his brain. I am constantly amazed by what he already knows. He's got a very good feeling to where things are on the globe.

So today he grabbed the Complete Book of Maps and Geography for grades Three to Six, all on his own. Then he got himself the globe and started working on a page. Mind you, I was not even in the room when all this happened, and it does not happen very often that he starts working on his own. So when I saw this picture, my heart swell with pride..... some things just seem to work out eventually.

Day 80: Godly Science Experiment

We needed a day where the kids could just go free range about the house and I could clean up after our visitors. The built train tracks, dressed up in all kinds of costumes, and then Coqui came over to show me an experiment that he made up himself. He even dressed for the occasion.

The explanation goes something like this: the two cups represent an indefinite amount of people and if the Christian people (yellow cup) talk about Jesus to the other (non-believing) people, the amount of believing people will overflow just like the water did in the cup. Wow.

I didn't know that my child is such an evangelist, but go Coqui! That was awesome to watch and hear. Very proud Mami moment.

Day 79: Studying God's Word

Our bible club is nearing it's end of the school year, so in these last weeks the kids have to work extra hard to finish their books. Here is Coqui trying his utmost best to get to the end - and trust me, it will be a very close call. I am just amazed at how many verses a kid can remember when it is hard for me as an adult to remember one single one, like my favorite verse. But their brains are like magnets to information and they soak it all in. This is just one reason why we are participating in this club, that the children hear God's word constantly, so they have it ready in their hearts when life will get rough. And it will.

Day 77: Roman Colosseum

The Romans are seriously taking over...... Coqui just loves history and any hands-on activity that makes it come alive. The Easter bunny brought this cool building set. The 'bricks' are made of Styrofoam so one can cut them or squeeze them easily. We built this Colosseum together. As recommended, we started using the Styrofoam glue but it took too long to dry one section of the structure, so we moved to the hot glue gun. That worked a lot faster and we could finish it today.

Day 72: Cursive Writing Skillbook

Abeka's homeschool curriculum seems to put a big emphasis on penmanship. When we bought the entire box for the second grade, we received two penmanship books. Coqui was just starting, so we followed the teacher's manual at first just to realize that every day's workload was way too much. We cut it down significantly, and never finished the book.

But I liked their third grade book as well, so we bought the Cursive Writing Skillbook and added it to this year's curriculum. Last year, we worked through the first part of the book. Coqui learned about one animal in each lesson. He had copy some facts and then answer a question. He loved it and it covered some science for us.

This year, we moved to the second part which is more geography related. He learned about the territories of Canada and is now working on the fifty states of America. A state a day - so to speak. He finds out about it's capital, it's state bird, and state plant. Above, he is studying the state of Indiana, then finds it on the map and I also test him on the states learned in the days prior to today.

At the end of the lesson, he also copies some quotations or verses for character building. Each lesson focuses on the different character, like trustworthiness or kindness. I love this book.

Day 71: My Roman Senator

We continued our Ancient Rome study using The Story of the World books. Today, I finally sewed the costumes. I used our Ancient Greek costumes and simply had to add a purple ribbon to the toga which once was a himation. Coqui loved being a senator and really enjoyed 'ordering' his sisters around. He is a leader for sure.

Day 64: A Decimal Problem

Coqui always claims that he doesn't like Math, but that is only because he doesn't like to repeat the same old problems over and over. I totally get it because if you are lucky to get Math than those repetitions are tedious and annoying. I make him do it anyways, at least to an extend. He has to prove to me with two problems that he understands what he is doing and I let him 'get off the hook'.

Yesterday, he had a 'bad' chapter test which made me realize, maybe he did not understood it as well as he claimed. And by 'bad' test, I mean it was a 72 which is not normal to him. So I got the book out and our Math manipulative, the only once we have because he usually doesn't need them. And I explained away. We had fun with those little fraction pieces. And it wasn't the fraction part he didn't get, it was the conversion into decimal numbers. At the end, he mastered it and I think he will get a better test next time. Proud of my boy.

In case you are wondering, we are using a mix of Math books. We had been using Abeka for years and finally had enough of the drills, so we switched to BJU, Bob Jones University, just to realize that they are 'behind'. We are in the process of testing him for Teaching Textbooks, so far he has surpassed even my expectations, which means that they are 'behind', too. Looking for a better fit for us can be tiring but I want the best for him. He needs the challenge, even if he doesn't like the 'work'. So after those tests, we will test him for Singapore Math. They are known to be 'advanced', so I have a feeling that we will end up using that.

Day 57: German Vocabulary

Today was a crazy day - I was cleaning all day while trying to get school done. So here is a picture of Coqui doing his German. I already talked about our curriculum here. German in Ten Minutes a Day is a great book and we still love it. To stretch the lessons a little bit out and to repeat vocabulary that we talked about a few days or weeks ago, I have him do his own sheets of words. The book comes with stickers that you are suppose to put on the new learned words. I don't like that idea, and they do not stick really well.

So I have him pick any ten words a day. He sticks them on the paper and then he can draw a picture of it. So in the above picture, he picked shorts, salt & pepper, a bicycle, and he is drawing the refrigerator. Those are all words that we have learned within the last few weeks. It is a great way to repeat words that are not spoken very often. And it helps with the pronunciation - so more often he says them in German, the better he will pronounce any word.

Now the best part is really that Peanut, who has been very reluctant, starts repeating some of the words. Mostly, she wants to draw those words, too. So this was a great idea because Peanut learns better with hands-on activities. She will draw or sing anything, and memorizes it this way.