Water Color before it rains...

It's a gloomy day. It started out lovely, until the clouds moved in- looming over our little art setup in the backyard. I'm sorry this didn't show up larger, but I hope you can see how much fun we had! Keagan really enjoyed wacking his siblings with paint brushes and dipping his fingers in the water bowl... oh, and painting as well- whether by brush or by finger!

He disappeared inside for a bit... and I found him doing this:


He loves my rolling pin.


Nolyn says he wants his mohawk to grow "really, really big". I love mohawks, and have been so tempted to try the hair style, after seeing Sonya Tayeh's 'do (when she was a guest judge on So You Think You Can Dance). However, I value my marriage and would hate for my husband to be compelled to beat me!

Chalk it up

First of all, I want to thank all of those men and women who have served (or are currently serving) our country. God Bless America! Happy Memorial Day!

I realize I haven't been writing much here on my blog, but, truth is, I just haven't felt like it. So, instead, you'll have to settle for photos! Here's a few from the other day!



Nolyn


Merikalyn and Keagan


I traced the kids' bodies on the cement... Keagan drew ON their bodies! :)


They decorated their body outlines. :)


Yours truly, with Keagie.

Birthday celebrations!

Like the new blog look?

I was looking through some of my photos from the last couple months and realized I haven't posted some of the events here. So, here y'go!


Cajuns love their crawfish boils! We went to the Landry's home to celebrate D's fourth birthday. In addition to "mudbugs" there were mushrooms, garlic cloves, potatoes, corn, sausage, celery, and halved lemons thrown in the boilin' pot!


Any good cajun has a toilet out in their yard somewhere. We did. Our friends do. Be cool. Use commodes as exterior decor. ;) [That's me, btw.]


And my hubby! [FYI, I'm only kidding- the only reason either of us ever had a toilet out in the "yard" was due to remodeling! We had a beautiful "peach" colored toilet and a seagreen one as well set out to be hauled off.


Everyone loves Spiderman cake! (The Landry boys: T, age 2 and D, age 4)


When we got back, Keagan wasn't feeling to well. You know the boy is sick if he conks out in the middle of the livingroom floor with all the noise and craziness going on around him!


The Landry's came down for Merika's 6th birthday party. Here's the birthday girl opening her gifts, and a mohawked Nolyn watched on.


The littlest Landry and our Keagiebaby got along pretty well!


D. Landry, giving me a sweet little face!

Homeschool Planning

Summer is coming, and with it comes a reassessment of our homeschool. As I've mentioned before, we're relaxed homeschoolers. We're riding the Sonlight wave, sometimes surfing in other directions, back tracking, or swimming it straight on.

Merikalyn turned six on May 5th, so she's entering first grade. I've decided to go through Sonlight's K curriculum again. We're only halfway through it (as I chose to take it at a slower pace), but she's really struggling with reading. I purchased Hooked On Phonics for 1st grade, but before we really dig into it, I think it would be wise to review the first few weeks of Sonlight K to really ground in the alphabet and the sounds.

Nolyn is four, and seems to be ready for some simple homeschooling, and I believe he could benefit from sitting in on the lessons as we do a review of lessons this summer.

I don't want to push him, but he's already ahead of where Merikalyn was when we started Sonlight, so I think he'll do well to start now.

In case you didn't catch on, we're year-round homeschoolers. No, we don't homeschool every.single.day, but we don't take a big lump break either. We may take a few days here or a week there, but you can't really take a break from learning. It should happen whether you schedule or organize it or not.

Anyway, so, for now, our plan is to review in order to strengthen the foundation for Merikalyn's reading, to continue the Montessori style for Keagan (who turned 20 months old yesterday), and to bring Nolyn into the Sonlight mix as we review.

I love the flexibility of homeschool. You can change it up, mix it up, or completely overhaul it. There's no one-size-fits-all. You can back track, speed up, or slow down whenever you need to. Of course, there are days when I think, "Oh LORD, how am I going to do this for 20+ more years... until the last little one leaves the nest?" but, truly, it's rewarding- especially when you see those little successes.