Charlie George :: 10 months

See Charlie at 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months, 6 months,
7 months, 8 months, and 9 months.
See Sam at 10 months.

Homeschooling :: 7 months In

We are 7 months into our homeschooling journey, and things are going great! Will is a little smartypants which has helped make this transition of becoming a teacher and a student much smoother than I had expected. Don't get me wrong. We still have our challenges (i.e. getting a 5 year old boy to sit still and concentrate and a mom who continually fails to have enough patience), but I am so thrilled with the progress we have had. 

Will finished his Kindergarten math book back in January. We went right into 1st grade math, and he has continued to fly through that too. No surprise, if you ask him what his favorite subject is, it's this.

He also completed his Kindergarten Letters and Sounds book last month. I would consider him a reader now and hearing him read is so much fun! Learning this crazy language with all it's silly "rule breakers" hasn't seemed to faze him at all.

I wanted to bring up this picture that I posted on Instagram last Fall, a few weeks into our school, year with this caption:

"One thing I want to be sure I pay attention to in our homeschooling journey is how each individual child learns best. There is a time and place for being proper, but if he wants to sit on the table (in his outfit of choice these days) to do his work then by all means I'll let him."

My husband saw this, and didn't fully understand what I was trying to say. There is for sure a time and place for structure and discipline in schooling our children. There are moments when Will standing on a chair or sitting on the table is just him goofing around and it becomes a distraction. But if, like in the picture, he is concentrating and completing his school work, while siting on the table, than great!

We continue to take things one day at a time. Some weeks are more productive than others. With some nicer weather coming our way I am excited to spend less time sitting at the table pencil in hand, and more time in the backyard digging in the dirt and reading books in the grass.

Charlie George :: 9 months

See Charlie at 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months,
6 months, 7 months and 8 months.
See Sam at 9 months.

Charlie George :: 8 months

See Charlie's army crawling in action!

 

See Charlie at 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months,
6 months and 7 months.
See Sam at 8 months.

Boys and their blankies

I have made it a priority to make a blanket for all my boys before they are born (and hope to do so for anymore kids to come!) As soon as I find out the gender while pregnant, I can't wait to go buy my yarn (my favorite kind is this) and start crocheting! 

I have never been pushy on trying to make them super attached to it, but so far Will and Sam's blankies have gotten lots of love from them. 

About a year ago, just out of the blue, Will stopped wanting his blanky at bedtime. I must admit I was a little sad about it at first! Although, he doesn't need it to sleep anymore it is still right on his bedside. Every so often he will pull it into bed with him and wrap himself all up in it, and it sure does make my heart happy. 

When I made Will's blanky my personal sense of style was pretty non existent (there was no Pinterest yet!), and I went with the generic blue's and green for him with a simple double crochet pattern.

Sammy boy still loves his blanky. He has gone back and forth when it comes to what stuffed animal he wants to sleep with (or as of late hard plastic dinosaurs), but has always loved his blanket. I went with a more classic neutral style for his with navy blue and white with the same double crochet pattern.

Charlie boy! He sleeps with his blanket every night, but is still a bit to young to become attached to anything (with the exception of his mommy, that is). My crocheting skills had gotten more advanced since having Sam, so I wanted to do something completely different for his blanky. I decided on a granny square style pattern (I used this one!) with some more funky and modern colors. I love how it came out!

Maternity photo shoot :: Jenny

I've gotta say, it's 50% weird 50% awesome seeing your younger sister pregnant for the first time. Jenny has wanted to have 100 babies since she was nearly a baby herself, so I am 100% percent thrilled for her. She is due with a little girl in just about a month, and is simply gorgeous with her beautiful belly.

I was so excited to finally get to take her maternity photo's this past week! I am mediocre at best when it comes to photography, but I find it to be very fulfilling. Especially doing pregnancy shoots! I know how much I love having pictures of my pregnancies to look back on, so I hope you like these pictures Jen!

Here are some of my favorites!

If anyone ever wants some amateur maternity photo's taken for free...pick me! Pick me!