a spring hiatus...

we love you all, but we will be taking the next month (april) off to spend more time together as a family...

april is going to be a busy month on our blossoming homestead...:)

blessings,

jessi & family

a week of birthday celebrations!

the birthday bouquets...

this past week we celebrated 2 birthdays!

the birthday bean & bean-ette...

aydin has officially crossed the rainbow bridge, and is now 7 years old (3/24)...

officially 7 years old...

birthday cupcakes with friends...
our friend caleb...

while at target, aydin got to pick out a birthday present, he chose legos (of course!)

aydin in his the rainbow keyhole scarf that i knit for his birthday (upon his request :)...

and our baby girl, evyn, turned 1 year old on the 27th!

i know it is a bit hard to see, but here is the birthday rainbow!

our baby girl turns one!

evyn in her birthday crown...

a side view...

evyn's first doll, from gramma...

the rainbow cake (made by papa!)

i think she likes it, no??

argh!...the cake fiend...

it turned into a week long celebration with both friends & family...a good time being had by all!

there was definitely a rainbow theme going on...from the rainbow cupcakes & birthday cakes, to the requested rainbow scarf to the rainbow that appeared on evyn's birthday!

an experiment...

a 'school' of fish...:)
image from http://fineartamerica.com/images-medium/schooling-cory-calantropio.jpg

orin & i have been butting heads a lot lately about our lessons...

he loves his math blocks, but not so much the ones that involve a lot of writing. i have talked with other moms of 9 year old boys & this seems to be common. they are all great at the story telling & composition, but not so much at the actual writing part.

while talking with one of my fiends the other night, she helped me to remember that part of the reason that we choose to home school is to follow our children's own paths...

this is true, and yet, there is also a balance...as homeschoolers we must walk the fine line of encouraging & pushing our children to do their best, but not push them so much that they 'wilt' & end up drained & burnt out.

today, after another "battle" i decided to do something that goes against every bone in my body, but may be just what orin needs right now...a bit of unschooling.

he has mentioned this approach before, as we know some other unschooling families, but i have always said no. it just goes against my grain not to have everything planned out & organized...not have a schedule?? (argh! :)

i do wish that i had a bit of that in me, so this is me giving it a go...stepping out of my comfort zone & trusting that orin can lead himself. now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term...unschooling is child led learning. they follow their hearts & what sparks their interests & i am there when he needs me. to help find books at the library, to gather supplies for whatever projects/experiments he may want to do...to look things up on the internet if need be, etc.

i told him that we'll give it a go for the next month & see what happens...i did a bit of compromising though...we will still do our main lessons each day, which this month is math (decimals, more exploration of fractions, & working more with money). but copy work, workbooks, journaling, & all other "organized" schooling will be put on hold.

orin is truly a bright & loves learning, he always has...90% of the books he checks out from the library are 'eyewitness'! so, while i am a bit nervous, i am more excited to see where this month will lead us!

happy homeschooling!

the first of many...

the first of many...well, of several...:) aydin, now 7 (as of this past wednesday) lost his first tooth recently.

aaahhhh...imagination!

aydin started swim classes in the beginning of march, which meant that we had to buy some new googles. this in turn led to much imaginative play...

here they are being astronauts, piloting their spaceship (aka blanket :)

notice how they multiplied once i got out the camera??...i love it!

slightly creepy...

this is ehren, our 3 year old...


it looks like a typical day of playing train engineer, right...so, then what's the the creepy part??

check out the 'cargo'...:)
(for those of you who don't recognize them, these are bodyless lego heads! )