Dinosaur Museum

We had been studying dinosaurs for science. I knew when we went to Colorado we would have to check out the dino museum. There have been thousands of dino bones found right near our city of Grand Junction. It was fun to take the kids there. To be able to see and touch the actual dinosaur bones we had been reading about was an awesome experience.


Digging for dino bones with cousin Levi.

St. Augustine Alligator Farm

Today for a field trip we went to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. For science about a month ago Tyler wanted to study alligators. I figured we would go to the alligator farm when we studied alligators, but it just never happened until today. It was a really neat place - holy alligators everywhere!

Yes, they talked me into stuffed animals from the gift shop...
It's funny because I can't stand stuffed animals. My kids on the other hand love them. They play stuffed animals all the time together.


Alligators everywhere! Yikes!!

This crazy guy got into this area with 39 pretty large (and scary looking) alligators.

There were some really big turtles...

Even two albino alligators!

When we first got to the park Brenalee wouldn't go near this glass because she was afraid the gators would get her. I think this picture is funny because it looks like she has her hand on the gator.

However, she isn't afraid of snakes. Tyler, on the other hand, is.

Does my heart good

to see this:

I walked into my room a couple of weeks ago and found Tyler with his daddy's scriptures. He likes to use Tj's while Tj is gone. Tj has his little red military set with him and left his big set here. I have to say the best part of homeschooling is snuggling with my little buddy and reading The Book of Mormon every morning.

I had gotten a picture book of The Book of Mormon, with lots of pictures and shorter passages for homeschooling. Actually, here is the link for a really cool Book of Mormon curriculum that I bought and wanted to use: http://www.bookofmormondiscovery.com/bookofmormon.html which is really, really cool. It has neat games, worksheets and other info for kids on different chapters in The Book of Mormon.

Well, this little guy won't have any thing other than the real thing. He says "I want to read real scriptures."
One great thing about technology now is webcams and Skype. We can usually read with Tj and we have even read with Grandpa before. Tyler really liked that.

Volcano science experiment

On Tuesdays and Thursdays we do science. The kids got this flask with different experiments at Chick-fil-a one day. Instead of trading in the toys like they do all the time for ice cream, I told them we needed to keep this one. We did the exploding volcano and the kids loved it. We have been homeschooling for about 1 month now and it is going so good. We are all loving it. I am grateful for the extra snuggle times we get and that my little boy is back to being sweet and happy! It's funny, TJ and I use to think we just had average kids. Now I realize that public school was making them "average." Tyler is 100x smarter than I ever thought. It's just amazing how much he has learned, and the kid can memorize like nothing I've ever seen! We have never worked on the U.S. states before. He just likes looking at the map on the wall. For Christmas my

sister gave him flashcards of the states (examples above). One Friday I pulled them out and decided we would start memorizing states and capitals. I pulled the first card out thinking he was going to need a lot of help on these - I mean look at those tiny states! My jaw dropped to the ground when he knew every single state. He didn't miss one! We showed TJ the flashcards on Skype one night - he couldn't even get every state right! There's no way I could either. He has memorized many scriptures, articles of faith, poems and on and on. I can't begin to tell you how much he has memorized. I have one smart little cookie :)

New chapter in our life

If you are on goodreads with me, this probably won't come as any surprise. However, if you had told me just 1 year ago I would be homeschooling - I would have thought you were nuts! I have never even considered homeschooling - I thought it was weird (sorry!). Almost a year ago I started talking to a Mom at Brena's ballet class. She is a Mom of 4 and homeschools them all. I couldn't get the things that we talked about out of my head. I thought about it ALL the time. I thought I wanted to homeschool, but I didn't know where to start. And, I was too scared. Scared I didn't have enough patience, scared I wouldn't be able to teach my kids everything they needed to know. Scared to lose my new found Independence with both of them in school now. Well, after months of promptings to homeschool (and a little boy who begged everyday to homeschool), I started reading some books. I read The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child by Linda Dobson. It was awesome. I really, really connected with things she said. One thing I will never forget reading in there is that Public School takes time away from the Family. The other book that was recommended to me by a good friend who homeschools was The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise and Jessie Wise. This is what pushed me over the edge. I thought I would start to homeschool next year. The last day before Christmas Break, I was in Tyler's classroom volunteering. I talked to his teacher, crying the entire time, and told her Tyler wouldn't be coming back after Christmas. She was so supportive! She thought it was a wonderful idea and even mentioned she wishes she could homeschool her own daughter. That really made me feel better - but I already knew I was doing the right thing. So, here we are. It's day 2 and we are having a blast. There are many, many reasons I have chosen to do this. One, I have never felt comfortable with the Government running my child's education - that's probably the number one reason. But a very close second would be that I don't get to see my family much anymore. With homeschooling we can go wherever we want, whenever we want - and that's what I'm really looking forward to. Brenalee is still in preschool, and she will finish this year up there. But next year I will have them both home with me. I'm so excited!