Just a quick update.  We are almost to the end of our first official homeschool year!  Woohoo!

This has been the best experience for our family.  Seriously.  I cannot even convey in words how much God has brought our family closer together through this.
Both of the big kids have made big educational gains, and have become more independent throughout the year.  The baby has really gotten to bond with her big siblings, and that is something that just wouldn’t have happened (at least not in the same way) if they were away at school.

With only a couple weeks of school left, my current dilemma is this: The pages of our workbooks are running out!

But I’m now really contemplating what’s been working, and what hasn’t.  Some subjects I’ll just order the next level up, other subjects I may be looking for a different approach.

For instance, math has gone well for both kids. But to get a better foundation for the little guy I think we will look into Math-U-See.  My oldest is doing excellent with Teaching Textbooks, so we will just move up to level 6 there. We finally found something that really works for her learning style.  Yes!    So I’ll be doing that for each subject and trying to incorporate in more for our second year.

I’ve always had a passion for education, and I’m super excited about some upcoming conferences to help better equip me as a homeschool teacher.

It’s no secret that I am an avid follower of Confessions of a Homeschooler.  Her blog posts and YouTube videos have been a great inspiration in our homeschooling journey.  If you haven’t checked out her homeschool room tour, you’ve just got to do it… like right now… Well, you know, after you finish reading this!

Last month I stumbled over THIS POST she had about reading incentives.  She had adapted it from another blog post that she saw.  Isn’t that great how us women can keep on encouraging, adapting and sharing?  I love it!

I’ve shared here before that my oldest daughter has dyslexia.  She has made great big strides in reading, but it can still be a struggle to get her to set aside time to read.

She is the type that is highly motivated by a prize.  I don’t like rewarding everything (in fact, that’s a pet peeve of mine!), but this is one area I think it’s okay to give a little encouragement.

If you’re a teacher (homeschool or other) looking for a way to encourage your students I highly suggest you check out Confessions of a Homeschooler for details on how to make your own reading incentive area.

Because we have a huge whiteboard already on the wall, we just didn’t have room for a bulletin board too.  Instead we used push pins to stick the reading necklaces in the tree on the wall. It works perfectly for our family!

I think this idea could easily be adapted to whatever your child needs an incentive for: Behavior, chores, school work, feeding the pets, etc.

This picture was taken before we added our reading incentives, but you can see our beautiful whiteboard.  It was a $5 garage sale find from a friend.  Thank you Aimee!  It’s been SO helpful in our schooling.

CLICK HERE to view the planner sheet

You may remember last May/June (somewhere around the end of the school year) I picked up two Betta fish during a quick Wal-Mart run.  It was impulsive and not well thought out.  We didn’t have tanks, yes I said tankS, because those type of fish have to be kept separate or they’ll harm each other. 
Well, it’s been over 6 months and those little guys are still doing great!  We ended up putting them in 1/2 gal. mason jars that I already had on hand.  They reside on the dining room table for the most part.  Occasionally they get moved to the bathroom, or a shelf in the kitchen. 

I think fish are easy to care for, beautiful to look at, and calming.  Feeding them provides a good responsibility for the kids too. 

Yesterday The Baby had a check up at the peds clinic (routine check up, she’s growing well & everything is fine developmentally.  We are being referred to an allergist for an off-the-wall pear allergy she seems to have.  Seriously, pears?  Why pears! Little known fact- Pear puree is in SO MANY of those handy baby food type pouches!). 

So since we were all dressed and out of the house anyway, I decided I’d make it a fun day and take all 3 kids to Petco.  We spent an hour admiring the animals and reading the tags on the tanks and cages, so we could learn more. 
My son wanted a froggy (please mommy?, please?????), my oldest daughter wanted a hermit crab or a hamster (either one, I just want to get a pet).  The baby wanted to stare at the fish all day.  She’s learning to communicate quite well.  Any time her stroller wasn’t directly pointing at a fish tank, she let me know she was unhappy by throwing a fit and tossing her socks on the floor (as the Petco employee had to point out to me, as I was too busy worrying about where my big kids were, and what they were touching.  Who has time to worry about something as silly as socks?).

In the end The Baby won.  We stopped at Wal-Mart, and again, made an impulsive decision to buy two GLOFISH!  I am now the “BEST MOM EVER” and the “COOLEST”.  I heard “THANK YOU MOMMY” over a dozen times on the car ride home (from the two oldest, the baby was sound asleep from all the morning activities), and probably another dozen times just last night. 

We’re still figuring out how to really care for the fish, what kind of water they like, how often to feed them, etc.  It may have been impulsive, but it’s also a whole lot of fun!

Ps.  So I was a little worried what my husband would say about the fish.  He walked in the door, the oldest smiled from ear to ear and said “Dad, do you notice anything different??”, as she’s eying the fish.  He says, “ohhh yeah” & then looks at me, “I’m just happy it’s not a dog”.  I’d say he likes them!  haha.  No really, he does approve.  Bonus!  Welcome to the family Fish 1 and Fish 2!