Introducing Mars Hall Legacy Academy

One of the fun things I have seen several of the home-school families do around here is to name their "school". Its nice to create a nifty little hashtag when sharing photos on social media. And for the kiddos to be able to say what "school" they go to when people ask.

Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about what to call our little school and yesterday I came up with "Mars Hall Legacy Academy"

So there you have it. We are now going to be know as that when we are talking about what school we are going do. 

A logo of sorts will be coming shortly but for now we will jump into the intro to our first week of school

Kindergarten

Arielle has begun Kinder this year!

This week is all about the creation story found in Genesis 1 and 2. We will be creating a creation book, reading through the creation story in the Bible and learning fun songs that focus on God's wonderful creation. 

Bible: Genesis 1 and 2. Reading the Creation Story and discussing what God did each day of Creation

Math: Creation days  posters focusing on the numbers

Science: Creation book

Language Arts: Learning the ABC song and getting familiar with each of the 26 letters and what the look like.

Extra: Music songs like BINGO, The BIBLE, and Old MacDonald. Gymnastics continues every Friday.

1st Grade

Dartanion has begun 1st grade. Here is an overview of his first week of school

Bible:  This week we begin in Matthew and the life and ministry of Jesus

Math: Refreshers on counting and sorting. We will also start discussing Odds and Evens later in the week.

Science: This week in Science we begin with Life Science. We will begin with the body, skin, and muscles.

History: Ancient Egypt. ( I am really excited about this one!)

Language Arts: For the first half of the year we will be following the "Learn to Read" lessons so that Dart can get a better grasp on his reading before jumping into the chapter books in the lessons. So this week in language arts we are doing some blending sounds and sight word reviews.

Extras: Music and Art in nature made by God. Gymnastics continues every Friday as well. 

We are also reading together during lunch and talking about what we have read. 

So there you have it. This weeks at-a-glance. 

Come back Friday to see what we learned and see some fun pictures!

Its that time of year again

Well, here we are. Just one week away from starting a new school year.

This year we have made the decision to start Arielle in Kindergarten even though she is only 4. She is so beyond ready to start school and she could really use something to be doing with her day.

Dartanion will be starting 1st grade.

While searching for what curriculum I would be using I happened to stumble upon an online homeschool program. It is a Christian based education with Bible built in as one of the core subjects. A lot of it has an online component but I am working to modify it to be as offline as possible. There have been some that say it can't be done but they haven't met me yet! HA!

You can see more of that curriculum here at Easy Peasy All in One HomeSchool

Arielle will be going through the My Father's World Kindergarten program that Dartanion just finished. We had a lot of fun with this program last year and I am looking forward to going through it again with her.

Now that both kids are going to be "in school" I am going to be using this little corner of the internet to keep tabs on what the kids are doing. This will be the place where grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and anyone else who wants to follow along will be able to see what we are learning and what fun activities we have going on.

My plan as of right now is to update every Sunday evening and Friday afternoon.

Sunday will be our weekly intro. I will share what we will be studying in each subject and any fun activities we have planned.

Friday will be our weekly wrap up. I will talk about any details we might have missed in our weekly intro as well as fun projects or activities we did in regards to the lessons.

I am hoping that this will be somewhat picture heavy since I want to capture the neat activities that the kids will do as they learn and grow.

I hope that you will enjoy this school year with us!

Keep an eye out on Sunday as I introduce the first week of school's lessons and activities!

Potty Training

We have entered into the relm of potty training.
Yesterday after church we drove off to Target and let Dartanion pick out his very own big boy underwear. Out of all the many choices in prints such as cars, Nickelodeon characters, Disney characters, and super heros Dart would only have anything to do with the Justice League.
So Justice League it is. His cute little bum is now clothed in superman, batman, flash, green lantern, and even aquaman undies.
So with the timer set to remind me it's time to sit on the potty, lots of juice and tea to drink, and treats as rewards we are on the road to big boy land!

Back to School

Can you believe that it is time for school to start already?!?  I feel like the summer just started with all the fun things we did.

For a little summer update we had 2 little friends with us for most of the summer. It was fun to have 2 more little bodies in the house to give Dart and Arielle some new friends to play with. That was a neat little adventure.

We also took a little big of a trip in the middle of July. Dart and Arielle got to spend some time with Grammie and Pa Pa along with Uncle J. and Aunt P. in Oklahoma. Mom went to a conference in Denver and Dad stayed home for a few days then went to have fun in OK. too.

And lastly, Grandma, Grandpa and Ma came to visit us right before school started. That was fun because we got to spend some time showing them around downtown and we got a super yummy dinner out with them while they were here.

AND...now on to back to school. Dart started Kindergarten this year and Arielle began with her 3 year preschool program.

Dart's 1st day of Kinder

Arielle's 1st day of Pre-K3

Here in our little area of the world we have A LOT of homeschoolers. We also have a lot of little ones who aren't in school just yet. And we also have a few kiddos who go to school a few days of the week and are home in the other days of the week. Kids are around to play almost anytime we are ready to play.

One of the things that could be come complicated is the need to be able to get through school uninterrupted.  That is why I created these cute little signs to hang on the doors.

Chalkboard is in right now so I wen't with Chalk board paint. And the red and green out line is for the kids. Most kids know that green means "Go" and red means "stop".

All supplies were purchased at Hobby Lobby!

Once. they were painted and dried I hung them on the doors outside and I 'try' to remember to turn them when we are focusing on school or when we are done.

On the front door by the playground

On the back door by the parking lot
I didn't have anywhere else to use so it hangs off the wreath.

And now school is in full swing. Here's to a great year!

Happy Birthday

Arielle and Dartanion both had birthdays this month! Can you believe it?!

Arielle turned 2 years old on June 5th. Its amazing how fast those two years have gone by.

Dartanion turned 4 TODAY! I can't even begin to explain what an amazing kid he has become.

Today I decided to start a new birthday tradition with them.  I did a "Birthday Interview" with both of the kids

Here are their answers:

Birthday Interview:
Arielle 2 years old
Favorite Color: Green
Favorite TV Show: My Little Pony
Favorite Food: Peanut Butter Sandwiches
Favorite Place to Go: To the toy store
When I Grow Up I Want To Be: Princess







Birthday Interview:
Dartanion 4 Years Old
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite TV Show: Digimon
Favorite Food: Cheeseburgers
Favorite Place to Go: To the toy store
When I Grow Up I Want To Be: Spiderman

The best description ever and a happy birthday

With in the last few weeks we were blessed with an amazing set of bunk beds for Dart and Arielle. They are a wooden set. Instead of them being parallel with on bed directly over top of the other they are more in a "T" or "L" shape. On one side there is a desk and on the other side is a set of book shelves.

Both of them have really enjoyed climbing the ladder and playing on the top bunk. Arielle even decided that it was time for her to graduate from the crib to the "big girl" bed, which meant that Dart is on the top bunk and she gets the bottom.

Today, while I was doing some cleaning in another room I heard a loud thud then the cries of an almost 4 year old boy. I knew that Dart was playing on the top of the bunk bed and I was sure he had either fallen off or dropped something off that he didn't want to go pick up. I walked into the hallway where he met me in the middle.

This is the conversation that took place:

Me: "Are you alright? What happened?"

Dart: "I was trying to get down from my bed and I was on the ladder and I slipped and it was like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, WHAM! And I hurt myself."

Me: (trying not to laugh) "Well, are you ok?'

Dart: "Yeah. I just had to cry a little but I will be fine. Thanks mom."

Arielle: "You need me kiss it bubba?"

And off they went to play again.

Their play time was great because today is Arielle's 2nd birthday. Dart did  a great job of making sure she had fun all day. (For the most part)

She got to watch "My Little Pony" any time she wanted, she picked out her own birthday dinner (mac and cheese), and I made cookies for dessert.

The only question I have to ask in this situation is where in the world has the time gone? She was just 2 months old when we packed everything and moved to Texas and here she is a bright, beautiful, adventurous little girl now. Or if you ask her she is THE PRINCESS!

Happy Birthday Beautiful Princess!

Mamma and Arielle just a few hours after she was born

Arielle this morning giving me her best "cheese" face

Signs of a sick kiddo

So there has been this HORRIBLE head cold stuff going around. Cough, sore throat, congestion, body aches. It is just down right horrible. Well, our very own Dart came down with this nastiness. And let me tell you it took him out! Today we had some friends over and usually Dart is right in the middle playing with all the kids. Not today. Today he decided he would rather spend the morning laying in his bed watching the 1980's transformers and G.I. Joe. He also decided that food was pretty over rated and has had little to eat. Never before has this kid ever spent that much time being completely still. I can only say that if this cold is strong enough to take him down then I hope no one else out there catches it. Keep Dart in your prayers as he fights off this mess and pray that none of the rest of us come down with it. (I have had it as well but not nearly as bad as he has.)