Introducing Our Amazing Students 2015-2016

This will be a good chance for me to introduce these amazing people that make our home such a fun place to be.  

This is a good chance for me to introduce Ingredients 6, 7 and 8.  

6. Six Month Purge

7. The Six Month "No"

8.  The Six Month Inventory

These are some of my favorite ingredients.  I love planning and these ingredients are what make it all work for me.  The Demille's emphasize the importance of planning 6 months at a time.  

6 Month Purge:  

In order to effectively have a clean home and have a place of learning that it is important to have a purge about every 6 months.  If you have too much stuff,  you spend too much time cleaning and not enough time learning.  I think this is important.  We can probably get rid of at least 25-40% of all our stuff every 6 months.  This is an ongoing process for us,  but,  we are almost rid of a lot of our junk.  

6 Month No:

It is also important for us to not over-schedule our lives.  This is an important principle,  that I think is important.  We go over our list of activities and try to get rid of any activities that are unneccesary and taking too much time away from our family.  A good talk that illustrates this is "Good, Better, Best" by Dallin H. Oaks.

6 Month Inventory:

Every 6 months it is a good time to go over our resources and plan how we are going to inspire our kids.  Also,  we use this time to have a big interview with each of the kids and ask them what kinds of things they want to learn, and what they want to focus on during our school time.  I take each of the kids with me on a date one at a time and write down anything that they tell me they are interested in.  Then,  I go to work and try to find the resources they need in order to learn what they want to learn.  I also, try to go over, "What Your ____ Grader Should Know",  and see how I can inspire them in those areas.  Another thing I do is called "Blank Page Mentoring",  this is described by The Demille's in greater detail here: http://www.tjed.org/2014/06/weekly-mentor-oliver-demille/

This is where I find time to ponder and pray about each child, then I write down on a piece of paper everything that comes to mind and try to find ways to inspire them in those areas.  Usually,  things just fall into place,  and I can totally see how the Lord is providing me with the materials for each kid.  I can see how He is involved in each of their educations,  and in inspiring me to know what things they need.  It is amazing what things happen when The Lord is involved in my kids education.  I can see how he is molding them and me to become the people that he wants us to become.  

So here is what we are working on for the next 6 months in our family.

I'm also trying out Mathinspirations.com for some fun math for all of the kids.  

 Little Miss is working on being nice to her brother.  She has a feisty personality and loves to get attention.  We're working on being nice.  She loves putting the silverware away and pushing in chairs after dinner,  so those are her family jobs.  She is also working on playing lots and on reading lots of books with her Mommy.

 Mr. Sam-Bam is working on walking.  He recently mastered this art and is loving exploring the world on his two feet.  He loves to point at books and grunt.  We are working on tons of cuddles and enjoying our little baby boy.

 Miss Contrary,  her name fits her perfectly.  She is an amazing artist.  She also, has recently found a love for Math.  I have a workbook that she devours and does pages at a time.  She also is reading Molly Pitcher (Childhood of Famous Americans), Abigail Adams, Clara Barton and Amelia Earhart.
She also loves the "American Girl Series"  Right now she is reading "Meet Kaya" and "Meet Kit".  She has a little book club with a few friends and this month they will be reading "Meet Kit".  She also, loves playing the piano and violin and I am working with her to learn these instruments.  She has also decided to research a country in Europe for our family school and present her report to the family.  She is also, trying to finish reading "The Book of Mormon" by the end of the year.  She wants to work on her "Faith in God",  and she really wants to learn how to sew and cook better.  We're working on not adding too much salt to recipes.  For sports she is doing Tap and Jazz as well as Crossfit a class at our local gym for kids. We love this little girl.

 Georgie Porgie.  He is working on 6th grade Brainquest a workbook that he picked up from Costco.  He is also reading "The Life of Fred" on his grade level.  He decided to sign up for a class at an online Leadership Academy.  He is doing a "Chronicles of Narnia" class. He is excited about this and gets to be online at 8 am on Monday mornings.  He is also learning to play the saxophone and in our local school band.  He is working on playing the guitar.  He also loves making PVC things and is working on a PVC blog.  He already has a cooking blog at dcooksalot.blogspot.com.  He loves to read and is currently enjoying a series by

 He is also reading about Thomas Jefferson and A Wrinkle in Time.  He also says he'll do a report on a country in Europe for our family school and is excited to try some new recipes.  He is working on reading "The Book of Mormon" as well "by December",  he says. For physical he is working of Crossfit a class at the local gym as well as boxing and Archery a class at High Desert Archery Academy,  Pretty amazing...

Little Boy Blue.  Our amazing 6 year old who has excessive amounts of energy.  This year he begged me to work on reading with him.  We found an amazing curriculum at http://www.jennyphillips.com/home-school-curriculum/.  He also uses Explode the Code and many games that we play for math facts.  He loves to play with cars and legos and is working on his drawing skills.  He also wants to play basketball every day, does Jr. Crossfit and boxing.  He says he wants to do basketball, so we are considering this and hopefully signing him up for a basket-ball class.  He is working on being a Moms helper and training for when he is 8.  He is trying to memorize the Articles of Faith, and working on being obedient and helpful.  He is also working on playing and getting along with family and not whining.  

This is it.  I will tell what I am working on at a later time.  But,  this is the kiddos for now.