What's the password?

Libby often forgets how to begin her prayers.  She just dives right in with things such as "thank us to be good" or "thank us for the food".  She's been making an effort to improve lately, though.

It was her turn to say the family prayer tonight.  She bowed her head, closed her eyes, opened her mouth, then looked up and said, "what's the password?"

It took me a second to realize she was asking how to start the prayer.

"The password is 'Dear Heavenly Father'," I replied.

Satisfied, Libby began to pray.

Preparing For School

The last couple of weeks have kept me busy with school preparations.  We will officially be starting our fourth (if you count kindergarten) year of homeschool next week!  Hudson officially joins us this year as a kindergartener.  We're starting to get pretty comfortable with the process and we're all looking forward to starting up again.

We're using a new curriculum this year.  It's from the Trail Guide to Learning series.  I picked this curriculum because it seems like it will simplify things for me.  I'm all about making things easier.  In our past curriculum, each subject was independent of the others but in this one, everything is combined into one lesson.  It also has tips in each lesson for how to adjust the lesson for different aged children.  Teaching four children of different ages is what I'm struggling with right now, so I hope things will be made easier with the Trail Guide to Learning.

I can't completely give up Bauer's Story of the World.  It is too great not to be used as, at the very least, a supplement to our history lessons.  I love the map work, the coloring pages, and different activities offered in it and the children love it, too.  The Trail Guide to Learning is unit-based so I think Story of the World will fit wonderfully with that to help us get a broader sense of the history before, after and adjacent to the history in our units.  

Our first unit is all about Christopher Columbus.  From there we will visit Jamestown, the pilgrims, and the explorations of Daniel Boone, Lewis & Clark, and the trails reaching westward.  As our last two school years have been devoted to ancient history, I'm very excited to finally be able to get to the New World and westward expansion.

Because our history this year focuses on settling America, I thought it would be the perfect time for us to learn more about the Restoration of our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and read the Doctrine and Covenants together.

The Trail Guide to Learning incorporates nature study which I am also very excited about.

Our math curriculum for the past two years has been Saxon and we will continue to use it this year.  A Saxon math lesson, although simple, can take a long time with the amount of review they have in each lesson, but we've learned to shorten them about every-other time to make it more bearable or even combine the more simple lessons.  We keep with it because the kids learn math so solidly from Saxon that I don't want to do anything else.

 I've known for a while now that our homeschooling has as much to do with me learning as it does our children.  It is teaching me organization, patience, and endurance like I've never learned before.  I haven't been much of an organized person in the past but each year I get a little better.

 Toward the end of this last school year I started doing the above worksheets for Maria.  Last year the left-hand side was for things she was to do with me and the right was things she could do by herself.  It became immensely helpful and I'm continuing it this year. This year, the left-hand side is for lessons we do as a family, so Hudson's left side of the page looks identical to Maria's, and the right-hand side is work that is unique to that individual.

We keep these worksheets in a binder, one for each school-age child, along with whatever other worksheets we will be doing that week.

I know one of the great things about homeschooling is the flexibility it gives us, but I'm afraid we allow ourselves a little too much of that, so that is my main goal for this year, to stay on task.  I've planned out the school year, something I've never done before.  I've roughly planned the lessons and have scheduled breaks.  We will have a week-long break in both fall and spring as well as two weeks for Christmas and New Years.

I bought a planner specifically designed for homeschool families that I LOVE - the Well Planned Day (you can see it a bit in the first picture).  It will be my best friend this year, I'm sure.

We are also looking forward to Maria's spanish lessons with her Aunt Kimberly.  They will have lessons weekly via Skype.  I love technology!  How wonderful that Maria can be taught by her Aunt even though they live almost nine hours from each other!

Wow, I wasn't planning on this post being so long.  But there you have it - our school plans for the year.  I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to teach my children at home, and I'm looking forward to getting better at it.

I'm going to try to post more about our homeschooling adventures throughout the year . . . I'm sure there will be many.

Flying

Some days, this is as productive as we get.

And Bear Lake Again

What do you do when it's hot outside and you happen to have a small workload that day?  You go to Bear Lake, of course!  At least, that's what we do.

This last Thursday we made it back to Bear Lake for some fun at the beach.  It was a blast.  We all had a great time.

 Look!  Lincoln in the water!  Isn't it amazing?  We got there and he immediately wanted to get in the water.  No more sitting on a blanket watching everyone else.  It was so fun to have everyone in the water together.  He loved it.

 So shallow for such a long ways.  Can you see Hudson in the water?  It was only up to his knees there.  Do you see Maria and Ethan waaaaay out in the distance?  Maria was only up to her waist or chest.  Isn't that fun?

It was really nice to get out and do something fun together.  I'm sure will be back to Bear Lake soon.

Walk Around the Lake

A few days ago, we went up to Tony Grove to picnic and walk around the lake.

 Of course, the kids had to immediately throw rocks into the lake.

 Of course, they had to tromp through the snow even though Ethan warned them against it - we didn't want cold little tosies.  But, of course, we ended up with some anyway.

 And, of course, Libby had to free her feet as she does anytime we are around any sort of body of water.

 Oh, and, of course, we forgot Hudson's jacket - it was a bit chilly - and he had to make do with the suit coat he had left in the suburban from the Sunday before.

 The NEVER elusive socks and shoes of Libby.

 Of course, being Nuttalls and all, we must walk on any log we find.

 The lake was beautiful.

 It was perfect.

 Lincoln even walked about half the way.

 This was the result of me asking Libby to please keep her eyes open for the picture.

It seemed like we were the only ones there. 

 There was lots to see.  It's a wonderful walk.

 It was starting to get late.  The little ones were getting tired.

 But they persevered.

Trying to Remember

Have you been wondering what we're up to?  Well, so have we.

I'm just focusing on trying to remember this:

Let's just say, if I'd have known how stressful job hunting was, I would've appreciated the time Ethan had in school more.

And when I'm stressed, I'm not interested in writing, so, sorry for the lack of posts.

Just a Few of Our Favorite Things

 Frosting Faces

 Nature Journals

 Special Notes

 Park Picnics

Strawberry Faces