Leaf to Leaf Home-School

I've been working on setting up our home-school and it has been exciting. We really like the Thomas Jefferson Education style of teaching. You can learn more about it at tjed.org. Basically, it focuses on mentoring kids to become leaders through reading the classics the way that George Wythe mentored Thomas Jefferson. I don't necessarily want my kids to be political leaders, I just want them learn "how" to think not just "what" to think. I want them to be leaders of themselves.

I also like Diane Hopkins way of home-schooling. She is a mother who home-schooled her seven kids. I love the patriotic and religious curriculum that she uses and sells. I follow her blog and you can tell her kids are happy in their "old-fashioned" sense of morals.

I've started a new blog to track our home-school. You can find it at leaftoleaf.blogspot.com. Right now it is still a work in progress. It's mostly a place for me to keep track of successes and failures. It helps me to have something to look at to see what we are and aren't doing and what needs improvement and to show how much we've accomplished. I hope you'll follow us and find some things that you can do with your kids too. Whether you home-school or not. It would be fun to have multiple people reading the classics along with us.

Picture Post

I don't have as many pictures as I usually do. I guess that's what happens when you're busy. I hate that.

Poor Aydri was in time-out. I was trying to get a picture of her scowl. It's so cute. Obviously, she wouldn't let me. Here you can see the carpet that Jared laid all by himself. Good job, babe.

This is how Jared finished up the gables of the house. I'm so glad that we went with the Shakes siding on the house. It makes all the difference. This is the last thing we've had to do. How should we celebrate?
Kendi's birthday was a couple of weeks ago. She got some curl formers for her hair. These have been fun. I guess I need to take a picture of the finished product.
She had a Bug/Barbie birthday party. hahaha. We tried to go with the Mariposa theme. It was fun. My friend made this cake for her and it was great! The barbie had wings, but we couldn't make them stay and not ruin the cake.
A lot of kids came dressed up. They were so cute. We had to hurry and paint Kendi's face so she wouldn't feel under dressed. Kendi has been really into mysteries lately so we did a mystery game. The kids had to find clues and solve riddles to save Bug City from the Cockroaches.

Journal Post

We've been stuck at home with a bad virus so now I finally have time to post. Getting sick really throws a wrench in a lot of things, but it's nice to just stay home, chill with the kids and catch up on reading and blogging.

We are literally within 24 hours of finishing our house. We've got occupancy so we've been busy moving in and unpacking. Our loan is already in the process of closing. Jared isn't feeling well, but wants to get the house done so he is working on it anyway. Hopefully I'll get to organizing my pictures and post some soon.

I am in the process of setting up our Home School. I've been doing some reading about the Thomas Jefferson Education. I've found some curriculum's that I like. We will probably be doing a mod-podge of different things. I am really, really excited to start this adventure with my kids. I hope that it turns out to be a great thing for us. I'm starting a home schooling blog where you can follow us. It will be a record of our successes and failures. I will probably be posting more on that blog than this one once we start the school year.

Kendi is adjusting to the new neighborhood. She had so many friends in Sunset Ridge that it was very hard for her to leave. She has made new friends here, but all of them are boys. They don't play princess or dress up or pretend like Kendi is used to. She comes home covered in mud and aching from being rough on the trampoline and doesn't seem to miss all the girliness. We have a dear, sweet elderly lady up the street that takes Kendi to the library and out for a treat now and then. She is a spunky lady and we love her to death. It still hasn't sunk in with me that Kendi is five now. I feel like my life has been on hold for the last eight months, but it has not been for the kids. It makes me sad.

I can't believe Aydri will be two years old next week. She has really taken off with speaking lately. She talks to us in sentences and helps with the prayers now. She is so sweet when she talks. Sometimes she tries to act mad and throw fits like her sister, but she just can't pull it off. We laugh and then she ends up laughing too. Kendi and Aydri play really well together now that we have our own home. They play hide and seek for hours. They are sharing a room until we finish the basement and they love it. It is working really well. They have spent a lot of time playing with toys they haven't seen in a long time.

We have a lot of projects planned for the summer and Jared and I can't wait to do them together. It will be fun to just go at our own pace. We've got a front yard to landscape and hopefully a vegetable garden to plant. We have room for a big one, but I think I'm going to start small until I know what I'm doing. If only we could get over this terrible cold.