Thursday, January 31, 2013

Lowe's Build and Grow

My kids and husband have enjoyed the Lowe's Build and Grow events over the last couple of years. They got an apron at the first one they attended and they get patches for each build they do. They have a really cute Valentine's Day one coming up. If your kids happen to be Monster Jam fans, as mine are, the one on 2/23 features the truck Grave Digger. They are FREE, you just need to register here.

It's good hands-on learning at the right price! I just registered my kids and thought I'd pass along the info.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Our Goals for 2013

Well, we are a little over 3 weeks into the New Year and we are chipping away at our goals for 2013 as a family and individually for me.

*See 20 movies
* Read 13 books 
* Have a weekend brunch/lunch with 20 different friends
* 13 date nights with my husband
* Visit 13 new places/have 13 new experiences

I've done some of that already. My husband and I had an impromptu date night last weekend that was so much fun. I also stepped out of my comfort zone and went on a large slide at Kalahari. (I do NOT like being enclosed, in the dark, with rushing water.) I can't say I enjoyed it, but I did have a huge rush when it was over and my friend that went on the raft with me said she thought I was speaking in tongues, so maybe I've discovered something else I can do ;)

As far as homeschool goals, one of the things I want to work on is having the kids spelling more words independently. They are reading like champs and have decent penmanship, but they still want me to spell the words they don't know. I want them to get in the habit of trying it first and then after they write it their way, I will tell them the proper way. We are working on that.

Thanks to friends that will be getting married, we will get to show the twinadoes more of our great county and visit the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama later this winter. We will start our lessons about those states in a week or two. I pack an old suitcase (think old school hard sided, powder blue) with books, worksheets,  games, puzzles, and various other things related to the states we will be studying. I've made the kids travel "passports" and have state flag stickers so once we study a state they can get their stamp in their passport.

I hope to get to this blog more often this year and would appreciate any feedback on topics you'd like me to touch on or information you may need if you are starting your homeschool journey.