Starting back with CC 2014

Hello friends and family from afar.  We miss you so very much!  I am looking forward to holidays coming up to visit with you!

Here are a few pictures of last week.  We started our Classical Conversations (CC) class.  If you are interested in what we do here is a typical Monday at CC.  

                9:10-9:30 Assembly (pledges, family presentations, and go over history time as a large community

                9:30-10:00 Kids split into their classes and do "New Grammar"  (if you are familiar with the classical method, basically these are the new facts they memorize about each subject) Subjects covered are: History, English, Science, Geography, Latin, and Math.  Molly and Micah LOVE memorizing their new grammar for the week.  It's amazing how quickly they can memorize new facts each week.  

               10:00-10:30 Fine Arts (the first 6 weeks the children are learning about the basic elements of drawing)  So they have been also creating fun art to go with the things they learn.

            10:30-11:00 Presentations (each week every student goes before their class and gives a presentation on the weekly topic)  

             11:00-11:30 Science experiment

            11:30-12:00 Review  (during this time they review all the "Grammar" they have learned in the previous weeks and they usually do this review time while playing fun games.)  This is a definite favorite for ALL students.  

Once class is all finished as a community a lot of us will eat lunch together and go have some fun playtime at a park or somewhere fun for a "recess" before heading home.  I am thankful to have a community in which to homeschool. 

                  

And here is a picture of Molly marking her first day of 1st grade :)  She is a JOY to homeschool.  I am so blessed to have a happy girl to homeschool.  

 Micah also started CC this year.  So this is his first year in CC and I am thrilled at how he is doing.  I wasn't sure how he would do since he is one of the younger 4 yr olds.  But he is doing great with it!

 During CC class Madelynn has a fun toddler room to play and is taken great care of.  She is also enjoying her day out.

 Had to catch a picture of the kiddos and I on their first day of class :)

 And just for fun  my spunky Madelynn!

And if you are interested in why I write this blog check out my About page
Love you all!

A quick little Haye's update

Hello friends and family,
   Well looks like it's been a while since I've written a blog.  Things are busy and I am still adjusting to life with 3 little ones plus adding in homeschooling.  So I thought I would just give you a little glimpse into our life these last few months. 
We had a busy fall adding in homeschooling and Madelynn continuing to grow up into an independent toddler.  Madelynn began walking around her 1 yr old birthday Dec. 8th and by Christmas she was officially a toddler.  Here some of her one year pictures taking by my good friend Lauren with Signature Lime Photography 

and this is my very favorite one year old picture

My little Molly will be 6 on April 2.  She is counting down the days ha!  And coming up with a different idea weekly on what kind of birthday party she will have.  She is such a joy and I am so thankful for her.  She is a LEARNER!  I can hardly keep up with her eagerness to learn.  She absorbs information like it's candy.  I am so thankful to have her first to ease me into homeschooling.  She loves to write!  She is constantly writing notes for me and everyone she knows.  I love these sweet notes.  She loves to read too.  As she is progressing in reading it's fun to see her read to her younger siblings.  She also LOVES listening to audio books.  And loves for me to tell her stories.  

Oh and so I don't forget this memorable moment.  Molly lost her front tooth on our way back from TN to IL after Christmas.  And for your entertainment here is the story.  In our van she sits in the back seat.  I was sitting in the passengers seat and she requested a pack of oreos.  As any mom would do I tossed her the pack, and with my impeccable aim I smacked her front tooth with the oreo pack and out flew her front tooth!


My sweet Micah boy!  He is really growing up! I forget how much they change when 3 year old hits!  He is really becoming such a fun, energetic, little boy!  He is starting to become REALLY interested in learning as well!  I am so happy to see him motivated to learn and pray God continues to give my children eager minds to learn.  
Right now he loves his legos, hot wheels, and probably his most favorite toy is his stick horse and sword!  He has ridden his stick horse so much the head has fallen off the stick!  I have to do surgery soon to reattach his head.  
OH and for Christmas his aunt Mimi got him this book called Dragons Love Tacos, seriously he loves this book so much that everyday before nap he begs me to read it and before bedtime he requests it again!  I have it memorized.  And since Molly is always talking about what kind of birthday party she wants Micah is already requesting a Dragon Taco party for his!


Life in our homeschool world:
  -Molly has finished up one semester of Classical Conversations and we have begun our second semester.  She is really enjoying it.  
  -This semester is going much more smoothly than last semester. Partly because I am no longer nursing so Madelynn is way more independent and because I have learned to plan more efficiently for "tutoring" our CC class.
  -Also some friends have asked what I use for homeschooling so I posted the pics of the books I am currently using.  I had begun the Saxon Kindergarten math for Molly but like many of my friends ahead of me had said it is really too simple, so we bumped her up to the 1st grade math and probably will continue it for a while.  
  -Micah is now 3 1/2 and has begun to show alot of interest in being more a part of homeschooling.  So I began our preschool curriculum Little Hands to Heaven with him and he loves it!  I love this preschool guide.  And Molly still enjoys it and likes to help him learn his letters.  

our preschool

my guide for teaching Reading

1st grade Math

Classical Conversations guide

alright well that's a quick little glimpse into our world these days, I will try and keep you posted on many more things going on soon!  

September 2013

Hey everyone!

  September has been a busy month for us.

• First Month to start Classical Conversations (Molly's homeschooling)

We are really loving Classical Conversations (CC).  It gives me enough structure to homeschool.  It's a good challenging curriculum so keeps us excited to learn.  It is a national program that is all over the US and overseas.  It utilizes the Classical Education model, so if you aren't familiar with this check out this site: Classical Conversations. CC has three cycles they run through.  This year we are going through Cycle 2.  Every Monday Molly goes to class.  There are 8 students in her class.  I am actually the tutor of the class this year.  (I am considered the tutor because in CC I am not called to teach but to help the students to memorize the memory work and then the parents teach on the memory work at home.)  The subjects that we memorize information in are: History, Latin, English Grammar, Science, Math, Geography and Bible.  Also we are memorizing a history timeline that begins with Creation and ends with Obama.  She also does Fine Arts and a Science Experiment in class.  And each week she gives a presentation in front of the class. 
So I am using CC as the backbone of my homeschooling and then I am supplementing right now with Reading utilizing The Reading Lesson book. Which Molly loves.  We are on the 3rd lesson right now.  And with the Reading Lesson they have a Writing Book that goes along with the words they are learning to read.  So I am using it for her handwriting practice.  She loves writing what she is reading and is loving writing short stories.  And then I also supplement her math with Saxon math for 1st grade.  I had actually bought Saxon for kindergarten but it was way to easy, so Micah is now doing that and she has begun the first grade one.  I am really loving having this extra structure built into our day.

First day of CC Kindergarten

• Madelynn is 9 Months! And has started CRAWLING and pulling up on everything.  She has been super fun to watch.  And the other kiddos just still love her so much and are so excited when she starts new things, especially crawling!  They love to see her growing up :)  She has also started taking a longer nap in the afternoons when Micah naps.  Oh this is sooo nice for me :) Molly and I use that time to do fun homeschooling things that are hard to get done with the younger ones around.

Ok here are some Sept. pics!

Micah loves doing school with Molly

I love that Molly is a motivated student she helps motivate her brother

enjoying the beautiful weather!

getting the bike riding figured out

Madelynn at 9 months

pulling up in crib!

love her sneaky look here

firgured out the straw!

 Can't believe October is around the corner!

Just for Fun

So just for fun I tried to find pictures of the three kiddos to compare and see if they look alike.  What do you think?  Molly is on the left, Micah in the middle, and Madelynn on the right (you can click on the pic to see it larger). It was harder than I expected trying to find similar poses and at the same age!  Thankful for my kiddos!

 

Room Arrangements

With baby number three on the way we decided to rearrange the kiddos rooms :)  Kenny and I have concluded we will always just be rearranging, but I kinda like rearranging things makes it interesting.  We decided on bunk beds to save on space.  And we kinda had a little hiccup when getting ours.  We ordered some from walmart.  But when they came in the box had been dropped and the pieces broken (Kenny saw all this at the store) so they gladly refunded us, and they had another style in stock so we ended up getting those.  They were not too different from the original ones we had ordered.  And I checked the reviews and there were a ton, like 1200 on this style.  So far we have been very pleased with them.
 So last week Kenny put them together and Micah moved out of his crib and into the bottom bunk and Molly on top.  I was so thankful that Micah was very excited and didn't resist leaving his crib one bit.  He was very excited to be in his big boy bed!  And the kiddos are just loving being in the same room.  I am actually contemplating leaving our crib in that room as well and having all three kids together. And making the other room a playroom.  We will see :)  So anyhow here are a few pics of the bunks being put together and the kiddos enjoying their new bed!

happy workin dad

Watching a movie while bunks were assembled

All but the ladder

First time asleep in bed

first time on top bunk sleeping

Riding Aldonza

Just a few pictures I thought I would share of my kiddos when we visited my parents of them riding a horse.  Molly really wanted to ride the "white" horse and so she got her wish.  Here is a few pics and two short videos. 

Baby crafties

So I have been trying out making some little baby gifts for friends. And thought I would share the last two I made.
First I made number months to use to take pictures during babies first year. I have seen stickers made like this and thought fun fabrics would be fun to use to make for this. This one I made for a friend that is waiting to find out if it's a boy or girl. So I tried using neutral fabric colors.
All 12:


A close up of one:


Then I needed a quick gift. So I came up with this little elephant tag blanky. Just something fun to add to any baby gift.
One side:


The other side:


Added some links to it to complete this gift.



Well that's all my crafties today. Babies are so fun! Looking forward to our arrival of our third. But also thankful for the 19 more weeks for her to grow more and me to have to spend getting things ready for her.
We found out we are having a girl last week. I found out on Thursday. And then had a surprise reveal party for Kenny and Molly and Micah to find out. Here are a few pics.
The cake:


Cookies:


Everyone's vote:


The reveal:

It's a GIRL!!



Well that's all for my quick update today. I have a lot of summer pictures to share soon!


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