Music Class - Homeschool Style :)

My 6th grader started taking private guitar lessons last year for his music class. This year he talked me into an electric guitar! We'll be rockin' and rollin' this year for our music requirements.

Apple Picking Field Trip

I always love taking the kids apple picking in the fall. It's a gorgeous time of year in the North East and I love the smiles when they go hunting for the red ones. Here's my homeschool first graders big smile pics!

Phys. Ed. Homeschool Style :)

College on my mind...

It seems so far away with my oldest only entering 8th Grade this year, but I have college on my mind lately. With high school just around the corner, I have to make some big decisions...do I go with an accredited online college prep high school, do I stick with our eclectic approach and make our own transcript, etc. Thankfully, there are so many choices out there now for homeschoolers. The majority in our local area seem to stick with their own unique approaches, make their own transcripts or use transcript services and enroll their kids in community college courses when they are around 16 for a couple of classes. I am not sure which path to college degrees for the kids we will take, but since I am doing all this research (along with ordering lots of college bound books on amazon!) thought I'd post some helpful links and interesting programs that I find. I hope some of these links are helpful to you. Online High Schools: (accredited) - secular http://keystoneschoolonline.com/ http://www.oakmeadow.com/ http://www.internationalconnectionsacademy.com/private-school/home.aspx Online High Schools: (Catholic) http://www.setonhome.org/ http://www.kolbe.org/ And there are all sorts of interesting College courses for high school students: http://www.newschool.edu/parsons/pre-college-academy/ http://www.marist.edu/summerinstitutes/ Also, there are transcript services to help you with scholarship and college applications if you don't become a fully enrolled online student with an accredited school. http://www.thehomescholar.com/homeschool-high-school-transcripts.php

Lots to watch outside the window!

We're still enjoying all the backyard critter action outside our kitchen window. Put together this just for fun video of some of the characters we see everyday;)!

Horse Riding is still a favorite "gym" activity in our Homeschool Class!

Furry Critters in our Backyard!

Eoghan captured the squirrel photos and Mom took the woodchuck who came early in the morning to snatch up sunflower seeds. Glad we got the woodchuck's pic before he hibernates.

Backyard Blue Jays!

Our backyard blue jays, photographed by Eoghan.

Photos by Eoghan (Grade 5)

Kids are really enjoying studying our backyard critters and habitat. We went to our local feed store and bought lots and lots of bird seeds and squirrel food. We are using a great book, "The Natural History of New York" (Freemand and Nasuti) to identify our visitors. The goal the kids have set for themselves are to eventually be able to hand feed our local backyard birds. In the meantime, photos were about as close as they could get.

One of the perks of homeschooling is that the kids get to stay home and bond with their pets during the daytime hours. We always enjoy watching these two best buddies pal around during playtime outside. Gem, our cat, and Angel, our golden, adore each other.

The kids found it and named it "the perfect leaf"! We are enjoying fall in the Hudson Valley!

Enjoying Life in the "Barn"

Our Pre-K/K Group Eggs - hatching in 21 days!!

Just put our eggs in the incubator, so 21 days they will be hatching hopefully at a time that our Pre-K/K group will be here:)! The lighter colored egg is a Speckled Sussex and the darker is a Blue Orpington. They are incubating at 99.5 F degrees with 50 percent humidity in the incubator. Fingers crossed they hatch for us:)! They have to travel all the way from Arkansas to NY in the mail so they do get a bumpy ride before they land at our house, but last time we had a good hatch rate.

An Outdoor Classroom and Playgroup prep!

Today we were too tired to go to swim club so took a break and stayed at home. I took the opportunity of being at home to clean and prep for the Fall. I still have IHIPs (NY paperwork) to do! But since those aren't as much fun as creating an "outdoor classroom", I focused on the new addition to our learning environment. All 3 kids were great helpers and had lots of fun. They caught insects and spring peeper frogs to put into our aquarium on the table, wrote on the chalk board and begged for more "science" animals (pets)! They couldn't convince me that the idea of adding a snake was a good one. Yes, I'm sure there are lots of learning opportunities that snakes would bring to science class, but they still give me the creeps! The outdoor classroom will also be used this Fall with my youngest's new playgroup! He's really looking forward to having a group his age since he's constantly being dragged to the big guys activities and classes. Enjoy the pics of the new "Outdoor Classroom" designed by mom and kids and future space of the PuddleJumper Playgroup (that's what we've been nicknaming it here since the kids are big frog fans!) (And while working on it all, our cat, Gem, was being lazy and enjoying our company - Eoghan snapped this picture, I thought it caught the mood of the day well!)

Summer time fun! (and some learning mixed in there:)

Kid have been busy this summer! Between swim team, chicken keeping (and show prepping), and camps we've been busy! But not too busy to sit back and enjoy the summer sun and long days.

Finally Hatched some Eggs!

We finally completed one of the projects we always wanted to do - hatched eggs!! It was all that we expected and more. Now 12 chickens later, we are finding ourselves addicted to chicken raising!

Met two of the kids favorite writers this year!

The kids attended book signings with two of their favorite authors, Erin Hunter (Warrior series) and Rick Riordan. They got their autographs and learned a bit more about the writing, editing and publishing process.

One of our Science habitat projects this year...

Our Homeschool Art Class!

We adore our homeschool art teacher, a very talented artist who encourages the kids creativity. In class they study a country each week. The teacher uses a globe to show them where the country is and art books with the samples of the country's art. This year the kids studied China and the Ukraine, as well as created water colors and self portraits. We are really looking forward to the Fall classes!

Our short phase of Montessori:) CLASSROOM reflections

I decided white rugs on the floor for private work space would be a great idea. It lasted for a short time, and was nice while it lasted:)!