On board

Kylie is wearing her delta wings!

Merry Christmas from the Bryants!

Fun at the zoo

Kylie's first bike ride

First Field Trip

This past Friday we took our first field trip! It was completely last minute. I went to a Homeschool mom's gathering at the church where I have Bible Study and the boys have their homeschool class. I found out about this event from another mom the night before and we decided to go ahead and do it. We went to Aw Shucks farm and I think this was this years replacement for going to the pumpkin patch. All the pumpkin patches here are WAY WAY more expensive than where we used to live - and not nearly as great I might add. Anyway, this farm had a homeschool day where Kylie and I were free and the boys were a discounted price. They learned alot about corn, listened to a talk, fed animals, got a hayride, played on all kinds of slides and hay bales, ate lunch, and saw an old train car and old store from long ago. Kylie joined right in with all the school ids. They had a blast and a bonus was they had friends to go along with! We had a great time - here are some pictures....

New Class

A local church offers MANY women's Bible studies on various days of the week. On Thursdays they have not only childcare, but a homeschool class that count as school for the homeschooler (though I don't have to worry about that in Kindergarten). It started up this last week. Kylie did not go to childcare since it was her birthday and she was out to breakfast with Jared. I took the boys to class and I could tell they were a tad nervous, though excited, but when they saw all the stuff in the room their eyes completely lit up. I was able to have a nice break and begin the "Beloved Disciple" study by Beth Moore which was great. I'm hoping to make some friends in that class. It is a huge class. We will see :). The boys LOVED their class. It is limited to 15 kids so I was concerned they might be the only boys or the youngest there by far. I wanted to do this class for a number of reasons but I really wanted them to be able to make some friends their age and do some more interacting in a class setting. I was very happy to see there are a total of 6 kindergarteners and 4 1st graders both boys and girls. I think it will be perfect for them! They made balloon animals themselves, studied flotation, began work on a memory verse, learned about faithfulness, and did a few other fun activities. I'm super excited about this for them - it's perfect for all of us! (Well... as long as Kylie loves it next week). It will last the entire year and we are looking forward to it!

Kylie turns 3!

I already posted some pictures of Kylie's birthday party but the celebration wasn't over! Her real birthday was Thursday. This Thursday was the first day we had my Bible Study and homeschool class. Jared took Kylie out for their traditional coffee/waffle date in the morning while the boys and I went to class. Then we all went to Red Robin or lunch and Jared went in to work for a while. That evening we opened gifts and had eggs, sausage, and toast (at Kylie's very specific request) for dinner. Enjoy the pictures! I posted a link to this video yesterday - but here it is embedded..... I took it with my phone (better quality than the camera) and was holding it up. She thought I was taking her picture so that is what is going on at the beginning :)

Kylie's Real 3rd birthday

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcQIYiwmahI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Kylie's party part 1

On Saturday we were able to celebrate Kylie's 3rd birthday with
friends and family. We all had a great time! Sadly, pictures don't
come out well in this house I think because of the lighting and
colors. I'm blogging from my phone and can only post 5 pics at a time
and the video has to be a link. Hopefully this will all post properly
and you will see the pictures int the next few posts. I did it
backwards I. Hopes it would show properly. We will see what happens :)

Kylie's party part 2

Kylie's Party Part 3

Kylie's party Part 4

Kylie's Birthday Party Video

I am unable to embed the video at this time. If you click the link you
can watch it. Unfortunately, If I had taken the video with my phone I
think it would have come out better. However, I love how she is
singing along :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBr8MvwUOrg&sns=em

First Day of School

Our first day of school was today! Other than Kylie being slightly more distracting than I anticipated (she was just really excited), today probably went better than I expected. The boys did great the whole day (about 4 hours with a short break in the middle). Once Jaden said "I'm tired of sitting here" so I will need to make sure I let him roam. Today we talked about school and expectations, looked at all the school stuff, marked our calendars, talked about George Washington, reviewed a few sight words, did Language Arts, Spanish, Science, Math, Reading, Writing and Comprehension. Phew! Math, and kind of reading, were the only subjects that took more than a few minutes. I had Kylie eating her breakfast and watching Sesame Street while we did math and I think that worked really well. Kylie did about 8 (VERY SIMPLE) pages in her workbook, played a little in her room, and did some coloring. They said they liked it which is a good thing since we will be doing it from now on ;). The location of these pictures did not make for a great one - but here are their pictures. Kylie is technically not even old enough for what I refer to as "real preschool" so I call what she's doing pre-preschool :)

Labor Day Weekend!

I am short on time so this post will be a little scatterbrained - but we had a great Labor Day Weekend! On Sat we were able to visit a very dear friend of mine from High School and her family (who have also quickly become family friends) up in Mooresville. Sadly, they are over an hour away. Not sadly for that day - but sad for all the other days :). We had a nice visit, some lunch, and the kids had a great time playing. They have a boy just over a year older than our boys and a daughter just under a year older than Kylie. They get along great! You can't often say you remain such great friends with someone this long past high school! We have some friends just south of that who we know from Bellingham (how crazy is that?) Brandi has a hair salon at her house and Jared and Jaden got their hair cut. The dads then took the kids swimming, we had dinner, and celebrated their son's (also named Jaden :) ) 5th birthday! Fun times! Sadly, I have no pictures of this day. Sunday we caught up on some chores and relaxed. Monday we went to the columbia zoo with our friends from Bellingham and had a blast! It rained a little but it wasn't a big deal. I DO have some pictures of that....

Fun at the Pool

We had LOTS of fun at the pool this summer! I'm so thankful we were able to go! Today was our last day (unless we sneak in one family visit before the end of the weekend) so we stayed until they cleared everyone out! I took some pictures on Monday because the weather for the week was not looking good. I didn't know if we would get to come back. But we did today!

School part 2

Looks like text is missing from my previous post.....


Everything is set up for school! If this was our house that we owned I
would have had a whole different vision. But what we chose is much
more practical, portable, and easier to store - should the need arise.
I'm thankful for this part of our house that was really used very
little. The boys will each have their own desk and Kylie and I will
share the big wood one. 2 more weeks! I'm excited and nervous at the
same time!!!!

School

Fun at the pool

Using chopsticks

Date night with kylie

I had the opportunity to take Kylie on a date.
First up, her choice: chick fil a ....

School Time!

Preparing to Homeschool knowing nothing about it has proven to be alot of work! I started looking at curriculum MONTHS ago and have been constantly narrowing it down and making changes. In the end, I decided not to use an actual curriculum for kindergarten (except for Math) and use other materials instead. I have researched expectations for what children need to know at the end of kindergarten and first grade in the schools here and will be monitoring our progressed based on this information. I have sample tests to give them periodically just for the purpose of knowing where they are and determining if we are on track. The boys do not currently have the skills that a graduated kindergartener does, but we have worked on things over the years and when I look at the kindergarten curriculum I'm concerned that the majority of it will be too easy. However.... I could possibly be overestimating them in chosing 1st grade material. So.... for nearly everything I chose first grade material (after reviewing it myself) and Kindergarten for things they haven't done much with. I hope that was the right choice. I can catch them up with online material if there is a kindergarten topic they are unfamiliar with rather than buying a whole book for a couple concepts. We will see how it goes! Since it's first grade material I won't be concerned if we can't get through it all and need to spend more time on individual items they need to know first. Here is a list of the material I plan to use.... Some of the books makes more sense for them to each have their own book. But there are other books (in the interest of saving money and saving some for Kylie later) I will use page protectors so they can use dry erase and trade worksheets. We'll see how this goes.... Daily Reading Comprehension: There is a short story they can read themselves with questions about the story to follow. Teach your child to read in 100 Easy Lessons: We are allready up to lesson 70 in this book but after joining the pool we slacked off :) We'll finish that up for starters... Spectrum Sight Words: This focuses on using and writing simple words from Frys sight word list. We will be working on the list for reading and spelling throughout the year and this workbook will provide some activities to go along with it. Spectrum Language Arts: Basic activities about punctuation, capitalization, etc. Grammer and Punctuation: More of the same but this is Grade 1 and will be more advanced. Beginning Geography: Simple worksheets on maps, directions, etc to give them some very basic knowledge Bastien Piano and Theory: For music I will teach them piano. I do not know how this will go since I haven't played in years. But I know enough about music to get them started. They like music and instruments and this will be a good way to get them some introduced to some very basic musical knowledge that could help them in the future. They are very excited about this. Daily Science: One simple science lesson a day. Information to read and questions to answer and discuss and some activities. We will also do a simple experiment once a week that I will find online. Crafts (Jaden especially loves these!) The Complete Book of Starter Spanish (grade preschool - 1). Initially I got one to start grade one, but it required alot more reading and writing than the boys are ready for. This one is extreemly simple but teaches them very basic information and provides activities. Pronunciation will be courtesy of Google Translate :) My point in this is that Spanish is one of the languages that could be very beneficial for them to know in the future but since they can't read and write English proficiently I thought I would get them started on some simple basics this way. The book looks pretty fun. Singapore Math: Math was hard for me to decide on. I want to be sure they know all they are required to. I reaped the benefits of in depth research by a good friend and went with this option. There are activities to do, a text book, work book, and practice sheet book. I went with grade one and after looking at it I think they will do well. The year is broken into 2 sets of books. I only go the first set and we may or may not get to the second, though I will plan on working towards that. Math Made Easy: I really like the work in this book but it is 1st grade level and they may not be ready for some of it at the first part of the year. It also might prove to be too much with all their other math work. I'll start them off with it and if it goes well we will use it regularly. If not, we may do it here and there towards the end of the year. Brain Quest: An activity book that covers many subjects briefly. I'll use this primarily when they have down time and I'm working with their brother, or when we need something to do. Scholastic Success with 1st grade: This book is similar to and will serve the same purpose as the Brain Quest book. We will practice using the computer. We will do a daily Bible lesson of some sort There will be a writing assignment every day There will be a variety of other activities through the year to learn about the calendar (and associated items), holidays, basic historical information, learning about continents and oceans, telling time, money, measuring, etc. I'm considering using a "Draw Write Now" book because I think Jaden would love it. But I haven't decided yet. I think that's it. I don't know if I'll get into it and find we don't really have enough to do or if I'll find out it's way too much. We will adjust as needed. Each day we will do Bible, Reading, Comprehension, Writing, Math, Calendar info, review sight words, and science. Mon, Tues, and Wed we will do Spanish (each of those days, including Fri) and do Language Arts, Grammer and Sight Words (one per day) as well as Geography on Wed. On Friday we will make sure we are caught up in all subjects and do our craft and experiment. Piano will Be Mondays. On Thursdays I have the opportunity to go to a Bible Study while they boys go to a homeschool class at the church where they will learn some basic random things (it will count as school time legally - though in kindergarten in NC that does not matter) and we will have a lighter load of work at home that day. I got Kylie a huge preschool book. She can easily participate in Bible time, Science Experiment, and Craft time. I may include her in Spanish as well. The idea for her will be that these things are available should she want to do them and be included but if she wants to run off and play she can do that too! I'm hoping to find this works well. I have the first 4 weeks planned with worksheets pulled and after one week I will plan the next week at the end so there will always be 4 weeks planned at a time. I've put together all the notebooks we need and printed out some things we will be referring to. It's crazy but it's coming together!

Chicago Trip

Jared was number one in sales second quarter and met all the qualifiers so he won a trip to Chicago! My parents came and watched the kids for the weekend and dropped us off at the airport Friday morning. We arrived around 10am and took the subway/train into town. It took a while and was.... a very interesting experience :) We were free all afternoon and had deep dish pizza. We didn't really like it that much. :) We stayed at the Westin and it was very nice. That evening the company went on a boat dinner cruise on Lake Michigan. Sat morning there was a breakfast where they were also given a bluetooth speaker (I don't know much about these). Then we were free the rest of the time. Chicago is a really cool city. We did alot of walking. We did some shopping and walked along the river that runs through the city. We went to Navy Pier, took a water taxi, took a boat cruise in the afternoon, tried a Chicago Dog (which I was surprised to like) and had lunch. That evening we had dinner and though we planned to go to the ferris wheel and see the fireworks our legs were TOO TIRED (we are old). So we had dinner and then went to the top of the John Hancock building. Sunday we had breakfast and then left. They give you money to spend on things you need there or to do whatever you want with. The airport was insane and the airline was not handling things well. In the end they offered money to get booted off to the next flight. At least one of us had to get back because my dad was travelling the next day and needed to get home so I went ahead and got on the plane. But Jared volunteered and got a first class ticket on the next flight, money for food, and a $400 voucher for the future so that was totally worth it. Here are some pictures!

Swimming Lessons

Until this year the boys were terrified of water. They know NOTHING about swimming but since they showed interest we got them swimming lessons and joined the pool for the summer. The boys did really well and learned some basic skills that we can work with them on before they move on to the next class. They were very nervous sometimes but did what their teacher said. One day was boat safety day and they wore a life jacket, went in a little boat and got dumped out. On the last day they got to go on the experienced swimmers big waterslide (because a lifeguard was there to catch them). Overall they had a good time and it was a good experience - though they still couldn't save themselves in the water :) They now have a good foundation. During lessons I took Kylie to the little pool for several reasons - for one thing, I did not want to be a distraction to the boys, I didn't want them to look to me if they were neverous, it was HOT, and Kylie would be bored. I could peek in on them though from time to time from the pool Kylie and I were in so we got to see alot of what they did from there. Today, however, was the last of their 8 lessons and Kylie and I hung out and took pictures of them.... Jaden on the waterslide... Jackson on the waterslide....

Swimming Lessons

If you want to go swimming in Washington you can - but you have to look for it and it's probably going to be inside or in a lake. I do not see the point in this :) (at least from a having fun standpoint) Plus it's quite often cold so we just never really went swimming. Everyone needs to learn to swim though so we would have given the kids lessons at some point. Here, however, there are swimming pools all over the place and little kids swim all the time. We knew they needed lessons as soon as possible but we weren't really sure how to make that happen. I eneded up figuring out how to get lessons at the YMCA and for only 30 more dollars we could also be members of the pool there for a couple months - totally worth it. They have a regular pool and a wading pool that has a splash park built in. The kids LOVE LOVE LOVE it! Swimming lessons began today. Kylie and I dropped the boys off and then went to the wade pool. I did not know how it was going to go. However, I did have to put them in the youngest class available where the parents do not go in. They were way bigger and older than everyone else in their class but it's really the one they need to take. The teacher obviously thought it was odd how old they were (and they look older). They had to wear these little floatie backpacks - which I'm quite certain would not hold the boys up and looked quite ridiculous on them :) Hopefully they gain some confidence and get better in the water. We may get them the next set of lessons after that or else wait till the first of next summer. Kylie will start next summer. They had fun though. Here are a few pictures. I was really far away so they wouldn't see me...

New Bed

Finally we have everything to get Kylie in her big bed. And it is BIG.
It is full size and parts of her crib are the headboard and footboard.
She is SO excited!!! We have to move some pictures around, get a
bedskirt, and then we will get her a nicer blanket in the fall. (the
boys always toss theirs to the floor - we will see what she does :) ).
We got a rail at a yards ale but it doesn't really work with this
setup. We didn't use a box spring though and just used slats so it
really isn't very high. We put her crib mattress on the floor next to
her for now in case she falls.
I'll post more pictures when I finish getting her room together. For
now in just wondering when she will get up in the morning and am just
a little sad - no more cribs in this house.

Tooth number two!

Summer Fun at the Pool!