Homeschooling Fun and Organization (and Pictures!!)

This will be a two-fold blog: (but mostly about homeschooling!!)

First are pictures for those who don't really care or have time to see how we learn, and since Noah is home for 2-3 days because of weather and holiday, you'll get to see both kids!!! Second will be for anyone interested in how we are learning and organizing since I've come across something new (to me!) called workboxes. Plus writing it down, helps me know what the heck I'm about to start!! ;-)   Oh, and since it snowed last night and we play in any amount of snow, there are some snow pictures at the end...plus (yep, there's more!) some bare belly pictures for those who have been asking!

Found a blog http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com telling about how to make snowflakes using Borax cleaner....and seeing as how Noah's home from school due to SNOW...what better time?!?! Will get pictures of the snowflake whenever they form!!!

Working up in the homeschool room: (and bragging a little) Noah knows his numbers 1-100, shapes, how to cut, some of the alphabet (it's hard to know how much because he gets silly when saying the letters), and we are working on using 3 fingers to write...and more of course!! Hannah knows 1-100+, how to count by 2's, 5's, 10's, time, money, learning sight words and how to read, she's drawing clearer (you can usually tell what she drew!), and letter sounds. She has been really good knowing the different uppercase/lowercase alphabet for a while, how to cut and her shapes and more!!

Oh, and just wanted to share that one of the main reasons (out of several) I homeschool is me being a minister to my kids. I just finished reading "10 Days of Homeschooling Enrichment" (the same website as listed above) and the mom hits home with me talking about how we only have so much time with our kids and how precious that time is...so I want to make the biggest impact on my kids...especially now when they think Andy and I are the most important, the coolest, the most fun people in the world...for now!!! ;-)

being silly

Noah doing Time

Hannah doing Temperature and Date

I printed off the alphabet and how to write each letter (the correct way!) for Hannah to see on her desk and she's using it for writing on her worksheet: 

Tangrams (shape makers)

Homeschool Board

"In a nut-shell, workboxes are an organizational system that helps develop independent work habits and a well-structured school day." It was made up by one homeschool mom who wanted to help her autistic child achieve more and found it could help kids on all levels of learning. Basically I will be laying out the whole week for Hannah using little picture cards, so we both know what's going on. Then putting the day's little cards (think stamp-size) Velcro-ed on a box with the numbers 1-10. Hannah will go to box 1 and open the box to see what is her first task. The boxes can be anything, but I'm using a plastic organizer cart just like this:

What I'm putting in each box varies each day. 

For example, she is on a five-day rotation in her curriculum where she learns about one letter each week. On day one, we introduce the letter and the animal that goes with it, like E and Elephant. So we'll look into where elephants live (geography), what types there are and more. This week we came down and got on the Wii because there is a globe and we looked up how far away Africa and Asia were from the US. And from there, I showed her more than she needed to know (like while we were near Africa, here's Jerusalem we talked about on Sunday!!). Also, she learns about the sounds of letters and putting together two and three letter words by sounding them out. There's more, but for time's sake, I'll stop there!!

Other things going into the boxes will be games, like "Letter sounds Go-Fish" and Memory: matching uppercase and lowercase alphabet letters (those are her favs!!). We have tangrams (shape games), puzzles, computer time (of course there will just be a picture!!), and coloring books. Even adding in time for a nature walk, painting and reading. I probably have about 20+ things written down that we'll rotate during the week, plus I'm always on the look out for fun learning activities.

Some of the pluses to this system:
Hannah will be able to see what's going on and how much is left and I will know how much she has done; she will be encouraged to work more independently ~ and work towards definite goals (will be very helpful when the baby is here and I have to feed/change him or whatever will come up!); I will be more accountable to keep things "fun" while learning and not just doing worksheets (she's not a big fan of plain old worksheets!!); being more consistent in our workday; my list could go on!!

Anyway, I'm really excited to be starting this system and implementing it into our days. The organizer cart is on it's way at the end of the month so I'll be taking pictures of Hannah getting into it and what we use...I know there will probably be princess stickers on some of the numbered pictures!!

I hope this wasn't too boring!!! If so...enjoy these pictures and ignore all the writing above!!! ;-)

About to throw a snowball at me!

About to throw a snow ball at Daddy!!

My little Buzz Lightyear

About 31 weeks

Don't even ask...they had to be in the pic!!

Can you see a friendly reindeer??

Well folks, that's all I have in me for now...a bunch of pictures and some writing!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Now that the year is nearly to a close, I figure we ought to send out our, uh, greetings before next year!!!

 And I think I was going to get on and tell about our Thanksgiving as well...getting a little behind, huh?!?! And we finally took a new family picture in front of our tree, although that will be outdated in about 2-3 months. :-)

(I'll try to make this quick and not too long!!!)

Before and after Thanksgiving, we went down to Florida to see our family. We started our with a quick visit to my sister, Jen and Brad's home in North Georgia with plans to stop by for a longer visit on the way back.

Then headed to central Fl to my dad's house and to see my sister and families. While there, we had a double birthday party, Thanksgiving dinner at my grandma Fleming's home, went to Legoland (a new theme park), and the kids played with all their cousins, Kayden, Joshua, Jeremiah, and Lillie each day.

Kayden and Lillie celebrate
their birthdays together!!!

Even though it took us an hour to park,
and we all had to use the restroom,
we had so much fun, who wouldn't!!!

Andy is taking this picture while I had to run to use the restroom!!! We had quite a group, 14 in all, but with each adult, we had a free child ticket...best way to visit a theme park. ;-)

Lillie, Jason, Sarah, Joshua, Kim Fleming, Dad, 

Jeremiah, Kayden, Nicole,

Noah, Isaiah (Kim Fleming's nephew), Hannah

Hannah and Noah drove their own Lego car and received a license!!!

 Then our trip took us south to Andy's dad's house for an early Christmas. 

Grandpa Frazier and Noah with new bike!!!

Grandma Frazier with the kids and their capes!!

And from there we stayed with his mom (we had just seen the Frazier's over the summer), had Christmas and watched videos of Andy as a boy...and boy do the resemblances stack up between father and son!!! My favorite is Andy jumping like a monkey in front the camera repeatedly during a couple Christmas movies, much like Noah who loves to be silly in front of the camera/video. He (Andy) finally calmed down around the 9th birthday video, so there's hope for Noah!!! ;-) Before we left, we headed over to the beach to satisfy these Florida natives!!!

The water was surprisingly warm, around 70 degrees
with a warm, breezy November day around 80 degrees!!

Andy, Papa Kunkle, Noah,
Gramie and Hannah, and me (Kim)

The kids had so much fun playing in the water, they would wait with backs to the wave, and laugh when the waves would surprise them!!! It's been too long for the little native Floridians and I don't think they remember growing up with the beach in their back yard.

We ended up going straight home because of Hannah not feeling too well, me being extra tired (for some reason!) and not feeling too well and my brother in law having complications from dental surgery.

For Christmas, we stayed close to home and had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner with my mom/stepdad, aunt/uncle and grandparents as well as Christmas day dinner. Also enjoyed a late night Christmas Eve service at 11pm, though Hannah slept through it all!!!

And for our "family" gift (for the next few years), we bought a 2005 Honda Odyssey!!! It's a very nice, 8 passenger mini-van we have been looking for a long time. We traded in Andy's big blue van and our Explorer, which wouldn't have room for the baby seat and was about to bite the dust!!

We have one final Christmas gift to open, but alas, we must wait:

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, stays safe for New Year and has a beautiful 2012

Love to all,
The Fraziers
~ Andy, Kim, Hannah, Noah and baby Frazier ~

Boy or Girl??

That has been the question!! 

Once you find out you're pregnant, everyone wants to know whether you want a boy or a girl. For us, we have had no preference...especially now with this third pregnancy, we have both a boy and a girl!!! For me, a boy typically means more action and non-stop action and a girl means more drama. ;-) 

Once your belly starts showing and you're pretty far along the question is now: what's it gonna be?!?

So, what do you think? 

We all had different thoughts....I thought it was a girl. I would refer to the baby as "she" for whatever reason. Of course, then Andy said it would be a boy!! Hannah at first thought it was a boy, then changed to a girl, and finally decided, yes, it's a boy. Noah didn't seem to have much thought except it was both boy and girl. Yes, he said TWO!!

I've had family and friends who think it's a girl because there are so many pregnancies that are female. I've had another friend who calculated my due date minus my age plus....well somehow she found out the sex....not that I can remember!!! 

So what do think? 

First I'll show all who have asked some pregnancy pictures we took today. We went up to the Beauty Spot which is on the verge of the TN / NC state line, and as shown by last year's blogger pictures, a beautiful spot!!

So are you all ready for the video??
To answer the question some of you have been waiting for?!

And I must add that I have been waiting to share anything because we have never made any big announcements when we found out we were pregnant. No t-shirts that say "World's best Grandpa/ma". No onesie gifts that say "I'm a big sister" from Hannah.

So here's our big announcement...we're having a baby and it's a boy! ;-)