School Days

the night before we start school every year we have a party to get things started. This year we had a pizza party then introduced the boys to the baseball idea


we had donuts as a special treat the first morning. Yumm


we had a picnic inside because it was just toooo hot outside


This is Chase working hard on his math. I do believe he may be a mathematician :)



We went to see the sunrise because Reese is learning about the way God created this beautiful world. What a great morning! What a great class room!


I LOVE MY BOYS!

So far so good. Actually this has been the best start yet. We are all actually enjoying schooling all day. It's amazing how much fun you can have when you need to school for 5 hrs a day. (that is what our umbrella school requires) I am so proud of my boys.

We started this great reward system. We are using a baseball concept. If the boys do a good job or a required task then they get to get a "hit", they move to the next base. Eric and I really wanted to encourage the positive things they do. Reality is they do so many great things all day but so often the negative things out shine the positive. But however they can get a "strike" if they fail to give their best. I am amazed that simply putting a paper on a board really encourages them do what they need to accomplish. At the end of the day they each get to be "MVP" aka "my valued played". This is their opportunity to put on paper what was their favorite part of the day. They put their paper at daddy's spot at the table. Then at dinner Eric reads what they enjoyed. We have had some great conversations already. Good times! Oh and the other advantage to this is, Eric comes in and can see what kind of day they have had and I don't have to say "would you like to know how our day was?" At the end of the week if they get a certain number of complete runs then we get to do something special to reward their team effort. Last week we went to a friends and ordered some grub and let the kiddos hang. I am thinking this week we will buy some goodies for a yummy sundae.