preparing for fall

I know I've posted recently-ish about what we are covering this fall in our homeschool.  That pretty much hasn't changed, except for science and math mostly.  I'm making life easier on me and the girls will all do Khan Academy for math this next couple years while Scott is in college full time (Lord help me, this is going to make life insanely busy for me) and for science I am doing Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology and then Apologia Botany.  We are taking a science-centered focus for a while, learning and experimenting as a family this year to try and make up for my serious neglect of the subject.  I don't like science and have never been very good at it, with the exception of human anatomy and physiology.  Preston even gets some simple lessons, using the free lesson plans from ABC Jesus Loves Me.  I'm going to pick and choose, based on his interest and how much time we have.  No pressure, just some fun and games with a little coloring and simple activities.

That leads me to the place I'm at now.  I'm pre-reading my first science book for the year now, and enjoying it.  I'm trying to be mindful to make notes in a Word document so that I know where I feel good stopping points are in the chapters to break it up into shorter lessons, as well as noting when there is an experiment or when I want to add in a notebooking page from the free extras that I can access at the Apologia site (they have a code in the introduction to each book that I've used so far).  Once I finish this stage, I plan to do a little looking online to see if I can find some coloring pages to pass out while I'm reading the text to the kids.  I have a couple girls who listen much better when they have a quiet activity like coloring to keep their hands occupied.

Nathaniel, well he will just remain cute and cuddly and spend a lot of time hanging out on my chest in my beloved Action Baby Carrier on a daily basis.

Happy Independence Day

Or should I say, "Happy go to a parade to see politicians and businesses give out flyers and candy to win customers/votes day."  That sums up the parade we went to this morning, although we did get coupons for some free tumbling classes and karate lessons.  I'll take advantage of those when we have the extra room for gas to do them.

And just for fun, here's a picture of me holding Nathaniel last night as he got to see his first fireworks on his month-day. :)

How on earth did he grow this quickly into a 2 month old?  It is going so fast.

Sorry no pictures of the kids were taken today, we opted to spend the majority of today without technology and ended up out back all day after the parade, grilling hot dogs and burgers and just having fun as a family.