The Adventure Begins

This month began our year adventure of travels and schooling at home! Our trip to Washington is almost completed in slide show form and will be posted...eventually! :)

But, this week brought the biggest step of all: SCHOOL!!

Below are the kids are their first day. The boys were proud to don their pajama's. It sure beats a uniform and shoes!! (Not sure we're keeping the pj attire for the weeks ahead, but it's a fun option and a blessing not to have to rush out the door, that's for sure!!)

The excitement was evident and we had a great first week. Mommy was exhausted and grateful for the home school friends she has that have gone before her that talked her down off the walls and held her back from making that easy call to our beloved Oakland Christian to re-enroll.


Paige was "Star of the Week" (at her request) and in this picture she is sharing with us her "Show 'n Tell." She also insists on Calender Time, the pledge, Snack Time and her favorite "Free Choice." (This is what happens when a child is first in traditional school and then moved home!) She did a fabulous job and we all enjoyed the sparkle that her ideas/ideals bring to our classroom!

This is the Posey's Animal Kingdom. I'm confident that it doesn't even hold a candle to the number of stuffed wild life our middle child owns and loves, but they came in very handy for a demonstration in addition and subtraction for our Kindy class.

We had one (of many) discrations in our week right outside our class room window, as we discovered a whole nest of bees making their home in our brick. One got inside and I killed it and spent the next ten minutes consoling my five year old who felt very strongly that the bee had done nothing wrong and was punished unjustly. (Lord, have mercy, it's going to be a loooong year! :)

Lots of reading goes on in our day...

And lots of silliness. LOTS of silliness!!!

Thursday was our most exciting of days, but that deserves a blog all its own. (See below)

We ended the week with our first field trip to none other than opening day at our favorite cider mill~

It was a good week. We have much to learn (all of us!), but I think we're off to a good, solid start.

In the Special Book

On Thursday morning this special girl asked Jesus into her heart. It's a precious story, where after four days of a Salvation foundations Bible lesson she sweetly said, "Mommy, you know how you asked me if I wanted to ask Jesus into my heart? Well, now I do!"

She prayed with Mommy, with her two brothers looking on.

The moments following were filled with music, dancing, tears and BIG smiles!! We had a party like no other! She called Daddy and sweetly said, "I asked Jesus in my heart and now my name is in His Special Book!"

We made a special birthday cake (brownies) and had another party when Daddy came home.
Connor immediately made a sign and placed it on the front door that read, "My sister just asked Jesus into her heart!!!!"

That evening Daddy read her a special blessing.

And she received a devotion book just for little girls!

There's been a skip in her step and her smile is even brighter and our somewhat shy little girl has boldly told EVERYONE she see that she is a new believer!! We couldn't be more excited that all our little ones are now written in Christ's "Special Book."

If this is the ONLY benefit/blessing we receive from our adventure in home schooling it will have been worth it!

Our Classroom

I utilized my time while the kids were at Spring Hill this summer to turn what we used to call our "Art Room" into our now "Class Room." I was given very strict instructions by Paige that we were going to have to have "Calender Time," "Snack Time," "Centers" and "Free Choice." She seemed very pleased with our calender corner, so hopefully the others will have similar results.

Steve found these desks on Craigslist from a school that was closing and we got them for $5 a piece!! It was a far cry from the $150+ a piece I was looking at online :) and I think they will work perfectly for our needs.

This is our white board and above the curtains are the ABC's & vowels that we will be drilling into our little princess student.

The two flags to the left were made by Jake & Connor at least two, maybe three, years ago. They're one of my favorites and a perfect compliment to our school room.

This is the Mommy section. This is where all the curriculum and games and manipulative, etc. are stored. This may be the last time it looks this neat, but I'm praying that little hands will also learn the skill of neatness and "putting things back as you found them" during our little home schooling adventure. One can always hope, right!?