LET SCHOOL BEGIN !

The day has finally arrived for school to begin. You won't see a happier more nervous bunch I think, then our family.
We finally got Hailey into the Medical Arts Charter High School and are so excited about it but for Hailey this is difficult. New school, new kids, new everything. There are the same amount of Sophomores in this whole school that she had in her guitar class last year at the High School she was in! She knows this curriculum is going to be intense too but I think she is going to do fine!


There is a positive thing . . . her "bestest" friend Alayna happens to go to this school so she will at least know SOMEONE! Actually another friend Elisha also goes to this school - they will take good care of her I am just sure of it!

And we are off!!!! Yes, the homeschooling has started too. That will be one reason you haven't seen a post on here in awhile. The curriculum through this Virtual School is also quite intense. Most of the assignments with Tyler need a hands-on teacher.

Hayden has been almost schooling himself. I am hoping to change that. I am still trying to figure out how to schedule them so they both get some one-on-one time.

This is going to be quite an interesting year! I am sure there will be more posts to come on things we have done through the homeschooling. Just keep your eyes open and your patience on the forefront . . . it might be awhile!

School Daze!

Well, the day we have been waiting for all summer long has finally arrived . . . the homeschooling supplies have made it to our door! Everyone was very excited!

All of these boxes contained just the things for Tyler!

These items are Tyler's favorites so far . . .

Some of Hayden's things - Hailey is showing no mercy, she is already grilling Hayden from his Algebra book!

Some of Hayden's art supplies.

Tyler will be learning cursive this year among some other great things as you can see!

Tyler is using his new "equipment" to take a moment and check out Willow's fur with the magnifying glass. Willow was very patient with him.

Tyler's chosen elective this year was music. I didn't think I was ready to try to approach a foreign language with him yet! Yeah, that is a tambourine. . .

Tyler's Science . . .

Did I mention the inflatable globe? I don't have the heart to tell Tyler he will not need the safety goggles for all of his subjects. He wore them for most of the rest of the day.

Believe it or not I have to fit all of that stuff into these two carts . . . not so sure about this!

Ta - Da! It fit!

Actually, we did pick up another cart with different sized drawers to keep all of the supplies the kids needed to go with their books and also to hold my teacher guides.

By the way, these are the teacher guides for me! Scary, isn't it! Whose going to school here really?

Needless to say we can't wait to get started. I am getting a little cold in the feet but I am sure once we get going this is going to work really well for us!

Last Day of School!

Tyler loved his teacher this year! She was a truly wonderful person and someone that really knew how to read Tyler and help when she needed and step back when Ty needed to learn something on his own. Tyler now says he wants to be a 2nd grade teacher!

Hailey and I went to have lunch with Tyler on the last day of school. Normally I usually take my kids home after the lunch to get a little bit of an early start on summer but Tyler wanted to stay. The teacher had brought in a sno cone machine and had popcorn and all kinds of great things and she really gave them a fun time on their last day.

Here are just a few shots at his school.
Mrs. Knight -

Tyler with our next door neighbor boy, Landon. Landon and his family have since moved to Washington.

This little girl has a horrible crush on Tyler. Her name is Maddie and she is soooo cute. But, I am not ready for the boyfriend/girlfriend drama quite yet!

1/3 of Hailey's face, Landon and Tyler.

This is one of Tyler's best friends . . . Noah.

(Hailey kept messing with Tyler's hat - he doesn't normally wear it like that)

I tried to tell Tyler that the bill of the hat is for a reason . . . why does "being cool" always outweigh logic! Notice the horrible squinting!

This is Tyler's friend Erica - yes, they are the same age but she is really tall. They have been friends since they met each other at kindergarten sign up. She is adorable. Her family lives in the same subdivision as we do but they will be moving to Arizona in July. Her Dad got a job with the Railroad and is being transferred there. Really nice people, we will miss them!

Yup, Maddie again!

One of the last games of Pepsi he will play for awhile. Welcome Summer!

Things will be much different at the start of the next school year. I am trying my hand at home schooling both the boys come this fall. We are all pretty excited about it and hope to learn many new things about ourselves and each other. I am sure you will experience it all along with us on the blog!

Woo Hoo Summer is Finally Here!

Award and Surprise!

Tyler knew he had an award assembly he was going to on Friday the 26th and he knew he was going to receive an award for Caring/Friendship but what he didn't know was that his Aunt Pat jumped through some hoops at work so she could get some time off and surprise him on his big day!
And was he surprised!
Not only did she stay for the assembly but she came with us to his classroom for a little while and then we all had lunch together.
Tyler was very excited!

After having a nice lunch with a small group of very chatty second graders, Tyler entertained us a little with showing us how to play the game Pepsi out on the blacktop.

Here's Tyler with his best friend from school, Noah. This kid is really sweet and can talk the ear off of you if you aren't careful!

Right after that we had to get going because Pat had only gotten a few hours off of work but I think it was worth it for all of us. We all had a great time and made some wonderful memories!

The Speech Project

Kids and school projects, it's just the way it is. I can't recall how many school projects I have worked on with my kids. Everything from posters and dioramas to mini books they have written with full color illustrations! I have also been up till all hours of the night the night before these little beauties were due trying to help my child who chose to procrastinate.
This project took off on a whole different direction.

Hailey's assignment was to write an informative speech and do either a power-point presentation or make a poster but it must be able to be seen at the back of the classroom. We don't have power-point and Hailey was very much NOT interested in doing another poster. She emailed her teacher to see if she could do a diorama. He was excited by her ingenuity in thinking up another type of project but reiterated that it must be able to be seen at the back of the room.

Hailey chose the topic of "Light and Sound Technician" - due to the fact that she has worked with her Dad in this and finds it interesting.

My idea was to use a large box and some BBQ skewers wrapped in Aluminum foil to make a front visual of a truss and we would go from there with my craft staples of glue, construction paper and dress shirt cardboard. . . . I asked Kurt to help cut the big box in half because it was too deep . . . this wasn't good enough for Kurt. He had his own ideas. The cool thing about it was, for the first time EVER I didn't have to do a lot! Yippee!
There was going to have to be a complete replica of an actual stage . . . Mind you, this took TWO DAYS to complete!

Kurt is trying to center a shoe box lid for the main part of the stage.

Drilling holes for the dowels for the beginning of the truss system.

I am amazed at how good of a job Hailey did at building these trusses!

I asked her if maybe she still wanted to be an architect after all! She did all the cutting, fitting and gluing. . . quite impressive!

Kurt is out in the garage with these little wooden biscuit things shaping some speakers that are going to hang from the trusses!

Here he is spraying Hailey's truss setup with metallic silver spray paint to look like aluminum. It looked just like it! Even where Hailey used the hot glue on the edges gave it a soldered look.

Here is Hailey painting the speakers that will fly from the truss.

There they finally are! These are probably the only flying speakers that our friend Tanya won't be afraid of!!! Kurt is starting to install the "lights".

Wooden blocks made into Mains.

Lights are on and ready to go!

Here it is finally all finished . . .working lights, canopy, backdrop. Stage and drum riser have fabric skirting. There are toothpick mic stands and little wooden monitors for each musician!

You can't see that they also made a Monitor Board that sits off to the side of the stage.

Now where are those musicians . . . They are never on time!

Sure can't beat that with construction paper and BBQ skewers! It looks great! In case you wanted to know, Hailey and Kurt got an "A" on their project!