2019 Powersheets are COMING!

If you've been around this little piece of the web for any of the last couple of years, you'll know that I am a serious fan-girl of Lara Casey and the Cultivate What Matters Team.  They make the most amazing intentional products from their Write the Word Journals to motivational postcards you can send to your loved ones. It is this time of year that I love the most for so many reasons... one of them being the NEW Powersheet Collection release!

I seriously love my powersheets for so many reasons, but one of them is that they allow me to work through a series of worksheets designed to help me figure out what goals matter most to me. Now, I've fallen victim of overloading on the goals in the past, but I'm learning how to edit myself over time. One main issue here is that it is okay to not fill in every single line on your tending list each month... I'm a work in progress, Y'all.

I'm going to take you on a short tour of my goal refresh for the fall season...

To start your refresh, you're given these boxes to examine different areas of your life. Starting at the top of the left page going clockwise on the page - Health, Friends, Spouse/Significant Other, and Family are given a rank from 1 to 10.  You're then allowed to explain why you chose the rank you did, then a space to write what you're saying YES to in the coming season, and what you're saying NO to in the coming season as well. On the second page, you work through - Finances, Spiritual + Personal Growth, Work, and Recreation. After this two page spread, you're given space to choose up to 10 new goals for the season. 

You're allowed to do this within the 1 year dated workbook each season - Spring, Summer, and Fall - in addition to your initial goal prep work that is a 60-page journey toward uncovering the things that matter most to you. (at least it was 60 pages in 2018 -- they likely have added things for the new year.)

After you've finished your refresh -- or each month -- you'll find a blank tending list page that you can tear out and place somewhere meaningful for you. Maybe it's in your day planner or taped to the fridge or bathroom mirror... where ever you need to place it to keep you chipping away at your goals. I personally leave them inside the Powersheets and set it next to my day planner so that at the end of the year, I can pack them away and have a record of all the goals I set and progress made in the previous years.

Here is my list for October 2018... I left several lines on the weekly and daily goals blank because I'm focused in on some bigger monthly projects this season. I've got some checking off to do, but still LOTS of progress to be made!

Now, let's talk about the 2019 collection... there are SO many new products coming out on October 24th at 10AM Eastern -- you will absolutely want to make a note in your planner to shop that day! I'll make sure to come back and drop some links and share some more products for you to look at in the days until Launch Day. For now... let's talk covers.

In past years, there has only been one cover for the 1-year version -- and they've had a few choices for the 6-month versions... this year, however, there is only 1 version for the 6-month sets (a neutral cover) and FOUR covers for the 1-year versions!

Multi-colored (Funfetti)

Pink

Teal

Yellow

I am torn personally between Multi-colored and Teal... which one would you love to have in your hot little hands on October 24th? In addition to this, Lara has designed a Cultivated Homeschool Planner that I plan to print and take to Office Depot to be bound. It's completely free and customizable for how you need to plan your homeschool, but what a blessing for no cost at all! I do hope you'll join in the movement and Cultivate What Matters in your own life!

Neurologist Update

Today, we had our follow-up appointment with our Pediatric Neurologist. We love Dr. Jones, and it's always fun getting to spend a few minutes with her. We talked about all of the issues that have been going on - especially the day that James nabbed my phone. We talked about how in some ways it seems like we are reverting back to those crazy toddler days before we even knew what was going on with James.

We started off with her letting me know that his MRI looks exactly the same as it did the last time it was done... which is a GOOD thing. Don't get me wrong - I love that result, but I was wondering if these behavioral issues were the result of a change there. That isn't the case - so we're back to the drawing board of finding the balance for James.

She gave us the all-clear on the MRI for 18-24 months -- so we don't have to worry about that again for a good while... which is nice.

We also talked about a test that a friend of mine mentioned -- it's a cheek swab test that brings back a list of what medications work well for the patient and what won't work at all. The website for the test paints it a bit differently - as in the test is a miracle that will magically tell you the exact medications that will work best... sadly, that isn't reality. Dr. Jones explained that it basically brings back the patient's detailed liver reaction to each medication -- which can be helpful, but it doesn't directly point you to specific meds. She did say that one benefit to the test is that it can stay with him for life -- so if anyone ever needs to put him on medications later in life for whatever chronic illness may or may not come... it'll have information on what drugs might work best for him.

I feel good about that given that I can't help guide him on what he might be allergic to - where I can with Tyler to a certain degree. At least as far as my medical background goes - so the only mystery for Tyler would be John's medical background... but even there - we know that John isn't allergic to anything.

After talking through that test - we looked at what tweaks we can make to his medicines - so for the next couple of weeks, we are going to try a new patch that gradually doses his medicine over 9 hours. I don't know how the patch will work, but it's the same medication that he has been on and we've had success with it -- so as long as he will keep the patch on, it might work well. Additionally, we are going to give him one of his other pills a couple hours earlier to see if that'll help slow him down in the witching hour when he just seems to be like a tornado.

Lastly, we talked about how he is doing academically - which is hard for me to answer. I'm of the mindset that they are always behind, but I know that is partially me being hard on myself. I feel like in some areas they are doing well, and others we are a bit behind... but I think overall we are doing as well as we can. Everyone keeps up for the most part - so we will just keep plugging away. I hope everyone is having a great start to their week... and I'm hoping to get back to this blogging thing more often -- since we're 95% over this flu now.

Classroom Setup

I let these two wild and crazy guys preview their new classroom set up today after I'd finished getting it all ready for next week. We've got new desks this year and hopefully, they'll last a bit longer than our smaller wooden versions. I really liked them because they are adjustable so the boys can sit at the right height for themselves.

This is our Character section - we are continuing forward with our We Choose Virtues program with a few other things to supplement our lessons - I've got our character video series from our preschool years that we never watched, so I'm planning on pulling out our television that is in the closet there to show those at least one day a week. There is a chart where we can mark off if we're having good days on each of the character traits too.

This is our calendar & math corner -- I'm debating taking down the calendar this year and making this a science and math section -- but for now the calendar is still up and ready to roll for next week.

The boys have these classroom manners/rules basically memorized so I'm sure as the year moves on, I'll trade these out for other things. I've also got the books of the Bible displayed there with the Old Testament on the top list and the New Testament on the bottom.

This is where all of our workbooks live -- by the end of the year those racks will be empty on the top of that furniture. I've also got supplies inside of both sets of drawers there -- there is a social studies manipulative drawer, a math manipulatives drawer, a science experiment supply drawer, art supplies & lessons, pencils & erasers in bulk, and much more. I'm such a school supply geek that I have bought nothing this year and I think we'll still have leftovers.

This is our library -- we've got chapter books on top, paperback books on the top shelf, hardback books in the middle, and reference books on the bottom. We are starting a reading challenge on June 5th so the boys will be reading 400 minutes over the first 8 weeks of the school year, and hopefully, will earn some new books through the sponsorships that we've solicited.

Our height chart along with part one of our Language Arts section of the room... working on parts of speech in this area of the room.

This area talks about the different types of punctuation. On that shelf to the left side of the picture houses our really nice special hardback books, some teaching books for Mom, and our classroom fish tank.

The classroom is ready and the desks are full for the start of class on June 5th. We have closed the door for the remainder of our break. A little more R&R before we get started on our next school year!

2nd Grade Preview

We start 2nd grade on Monday the 5th of June, and I thought that I'd give you a preview of what our curriculum looks like for this year. We are doing the full LifePac 5 subject set, with Horizons penmanship too. 

This is what the full set looks like and you can get is from Alpha Omega - that's where I've gotten all of our homeschool curricula it's easy for us to follow and I love the quality of each of the items that they produce. Both of the boys seem to enjoy it -- as much as 2 kids can enjoy school work, but they don't complain about it being too hard or things like that. The most complaint I get about it is sometimes it's too much writing. The only other complaint is just having to do anything at all. 

* Descriptions of the subjects comes directly from the AOP website * 

Are you interested in teaching your second grade child math lessons using the best-selling LIFEPAC homeschool curriculum, but already have a teacher's guide? We've got just the solution to meet your needs. The LIFEPAC 2nd Grade Math 10-Unit Set was created with families like yours in mind! This mastery-based math program contains ten colorful worktexts designed for growing math students. As your student progresses through this ten-part series, he will learn about numbers, place value, adding with carrying, subtracting with borrowing, fractions, measurement, coin conversion, time, directions, temperature, and much more! Each second grade math worktext in this Alpha Omega curriculum offers step-by-step lessons, fun activities, and lots of colorful illustrations—all designed to encourage mastery of taught concepts.

But let's take a closer look. The LIFEPAC 2nd Grade Math 10-Unit Set has child-friendly lessons that include fill-in-the-blank questions, puzzle activities, and graphing problems, to name just a few. And unlike big bulky textbooks, your child will be able to easily complete each of these slim worktexts in as little as three to four weeks, ensuring a regular sense of accomplishment! To encourage mastery of each taught concept, each worktext also contains concept reviews, self tests, and an end-of-unit test. It simply doesn't get any easier than this! Order your LIFEPAC 2nd Grade Math 10-Unit Set without the teacher's guide today!

Feeling overwhelmed by the thought of trying to teach language arts to your child? Need a great homeschool curriculum to help you with the job, but feel like you don't need the teacher's guide? You've come to the right place! LIFEPAC 2nd Grade Language Arts 10-Unit Set may be exactly what you're looking for! This Alpha Omega curriculum set contains ten, full-color worktexts created especially for growing readers. Each Bible-based second grade language arts worktext offers a mix of colorful illustrations, easy to follow lessons, and ample opportunity for both oral and written practice of new skills. This unique, integrated language arts course provides instruction in grammar, writing, reading, and spelling! Topics covered include: phrases, sentences, capitals, punctuation, creative writing, contractions, root words, dictionary skills, cursive writing, singular and plural verbs, verb tense, suffixes, ABC order, and a continuation of the study of phonics.

But that's just the beginning! The LIFEPAC 2nd Grade Language Arts 10-Unit Set contains easy-to-follow lessons which include a variety of fill-in-the-blank questions, oral and written exercises, penmanship practice, spelling lessons, and much more. Plus, since each engaging worktext can be completed in as little as three to four weeks, your student will experience a regular sense of accomplishment at the completion of each one! And each LIFEPAC worktext in this Alpha Omega curriculum also includes concept reviews and self tests to reinforce and solidify comprehension—plus a removable teacher-administered unit test. Sounds great, doesn't it? Don't wait—order the best-selling LIFEPAC 2nd Grade Language Arts 10-Unit Set today.

Are you interested in teaching your second grade child Bible lessons using the best-selling LIFEPAC curriculum, but already have a teacher's guide? We've got the perfect solution to meet your needs. The LIFEPAC 2nd Grade Bible 10-Unit Set was created with families like yours in mind! This Alpha Omega curriculum set contains ten colorful worktexts designed for young readers. Using the King James Version of the Bible, lessons from units on The Story of Moses, God and You, David's Sling, The Story of Joseph, God and the Family, and God Made the Nations will captivate your child's interest. Each second grade Bible worktext offers step-by-step lessons, fun activities, and lots colorful illustrations.

But let's take a closer look. The LIFEPAC 2nd Grade Bible 10-Unit Set has child-friendly lessons that include fill-in-the-blank questions, puzzle activities, and hands-on drawing assignments, to name just a few. And unlike big bulky textbooks, your child will be able to easily complete each of these slim worktexts in as little as three to four weeks, ensuring a regular sense of accomplishment! To encourage mastery of each concept taught, each worktext also contains concept reviews, self tests, and an end-of-unit test. It simply doesn't get any easier than this! Order your LIFEPAC 2nd Grade Bible 10-Unit Set today!

Are you interested in teaching your second grade child science lessons using the best-selling LIFEPAC homeschool curriculum, but already have a teacher's guide? We've got just the solution to meet your needs. The LIFEPAC 2nd Grade Science 10-Unit Set was created with families like yours in mind! This mastery-based science program contains ten colorful worktexts designed for young science students. As your student progresses through this ten-part series, he will learn about the world that God created—living things, non-living things, plants, animals, pet and plant care, five senses, physical properties, and much more! Each second grade science worktext in this Alpha Omega curriculum offers easy-to-follow lessons, fun activities, and lots of colorful illustrations—all designed to encourage mastery of taught concepts.

But let's take a closer look. The LIFEPAC 2nd Grade Science 10-Unit Set has child-friendly lessons that include fill-in-the-blank questions, puzzle activities, and plenty of hands-on science experiments. And unlike big bulky textbooks, your child will be able to easily complete each of these slim science worktexts in as little as three to four weeks, ensuring a regular sense of accomplishment! To encourage mastery of each taught concept, each worktext also contains concept reviews, self tests, and an end-of-unit test. It simply doesn't get any easier than this! Order your LIFEPAC 2nd Grade Science 10-Unit Set without the teacher's guide today!

Teach your second grader the basics of U.S. history with the LIFEPAC 2nd Grade History & Geography 10-Unit Set! This curriculum contains ten, full-color worktexts created especially for growing readers. Each worktext offers a mix of colorful illustrations, easy to follow lessons, and ample opportunity for both oral and written practice of learned concepts. From the War of Independence to westward expansion, this U.S. history course covers the trail of the Native Americans, the different branches of the government, westward expansion, and America’s pioneers. The course also includes a comprehensive study of maps.

The LIFEPAC 2nd Grade History & Geography 10-Unit Set provides the opportunity for a unique individualized learning approach for your child. Since each self-paced worktext can be completed in as little as three to four weeks, students experience a sense of accomplishment at the completion of each one! In addition, regular self tests and an end-of-unit test provide ample opportunity for assessment of student progress.

Friendly, colorful cartoon characters make manuscript handwriting fun in this Bible-based Christian schools penmanship course from Alpha Omega Publications. Each lesson and activity in the Horizons 1st Grade Penmanship Set student workbook promotes increased control when forming upper- and lower-case letters on ½″ lines as well as a basic understanding of capitalization and punctuation rules. Plus, beautifully bordered pages provide writing practicing for weekly Scripture verses; bordered pages can be copied, decorated, and shared with others.

But there's even more! The Horizons 1st Grade Penmanship Set also includes a comprehensive teacher's guide with reproducible practice pages and daily lesson plans. Practical teaching tips, activities, and illustrations make the most of your teaching time so your child will be writing manuscript in no time at all! Sound fantastic? It is. Teaching penmanship has never been so easy or worthwhile. See for yourself. Order the Horizons 1st Grade Penmanship Set today and enjoy every hand-written, heart-felt expression of your child's love!

This is everything we'll be working on this year -- and I can't wait to get started! The boys aren't quite as excited, but they don't know how our schedule will be different this year as we do 6 weeks of school and then get 2 weeks off to do field trips with our friends. I was just chatting with the other moms tonight about the trips we'd like to take -- and I think they'll be well rewarded for their hard work. I love our little group - we are small, but we sure to have a good time together.

Summer Reading Programs

Do you have children in your life? Most of us do in one way or another, and I'd like to help with some ideas for the summer for everyone! I know that in today's world, we worry about too much screen time... but would you ever worry about too much book time? Of course not, and with summer almost here -- it's time to have a plan! 

Have you ever heard of the summer slide? It's the idea that during the 3 month long break from school that kids are often given, they are losing some the knowledge in reading that creates a long term effect on their schooling. 

To combat this -- I've got TWO programs this summer to help keep kids actively reading.

The first program is my Summer Book Club. We can make this work in different ways -- if you have multiple children, you can do one subscription per child or you can split the box between your kids. Your $45 will get two books a month, including tax and shipping! Each month: June, July, and August -- I will mail your child(ren) 2 books for their reading pleasure. These can be customized based on your children's preferences and reading levels. Wouldn't your child love to get personalized mail for them each month of the summer?

The second program is a little bit different, but equally fun!

The Summer Reading Challenge is a bit different in that it is a reading challenge - your child commits (each child is a separate commitment). They can read the books themselves or you can read with them if they are not reading yet. They'll read 400 or more minutes over the course of 6 weeks (about 10 minutes a day if you're reading 7 days a week). They'll ask for sponsors from other family members or friends -- the possibilities are limitless!

Once they have finished their reading their sponsors will pay the parents the total, and the children will choose a wishlist of books to purchase with their sponsorship money - then we will order the books they've chosen with the total by July 31st!

There will be other prizes throughout the Challenge for the kids to encourage them to keep up their hard work reading.

If you joined in on both programs, they'd have 4 new books to read during their challenge!! Because you'd get 2 of their Book Club packages during the weeks of the Reading Challenge. 

Goals for 2017

It's 2017 y'all! I'm so excited to have turned the page on the year and to have a fresh start. I don't know why everything feels fresh and new magically on January 1st, but there is just something about the start of a new calendar year that gives me a whole new hope for doing things better and being stronger.

Well, this year I've got a new tool in my belt -- it's called Powersheets! I'll have a link down below to check out to see if there are any left for you to get them. If there aren't -- you should ABSOLUTELY go over and check out Lara Casey's Blog -- grab a notebook and DIY yourself some powersheets!

I wanted to take some time and share what I came up with for my goals this year... but I want to start with Lara's overarching words for this year that we are all about Progress over Perfection. I couldn't have said that any better than she did. So with that said -- my word for 2017 is: JOURNEY!

I want to embrace all of the ups and downs that come along with setting goals for the year... which I have often let derail my goals in the past. I've so often started something, had a hiccup along the way and let that completely stop the entire process.

My main goal for this year is to NOT let those hiccups take away from the good progress that is happening in my life.

So I worked through the entire prep work section of the Powersheets and ended up with these goals.

(feel free to click on this to get a better look)

These are the 10 things that I'm working on this year -- or at least for this first season of 2017. Every 3 months there is a goal refresh process that you can work through to make sure that your goals haven't changed a bit over time. If they have - then you can change them up a bit and keep going... 

Once you've written your goals for the year out -- which you can have as many or as few as you want... then you make an action plan for each of them. 

I chose this goal to show you the action plan -- just because I wanted to show an example and I thought that this one is the most important for the year. I also bought a new bible for my work this year... 

 

This One Year Chronological Bible is on sale right now and it's the NLT version so it's going to be pretty practical. I love that it also has some adult coloring spaces as well for you to get a little creative and spend some time soaking in the Word of the Lord. Mine should be here by the middle of next week -- so I'll be working hard to get caught up to the daily reading for whatever day it delivers, by pouring into it for a few days. 

After your action plan is written in your Powersheets for each Goal -- then you fill out your monthly tending list -- which is a place for you to write in your Monthly, Weekly, and Daily tasks that will help you accomplish progress toward your goals. 

This is my Tending List for January -- and I LOVE that it has a progress bar for the monthly goals, then a checkbox for the weekly and daily goals. I'm already loving seeing the check marks getting placed in the boxes. 

If you see down at the bottom there that nothing is happening with my first 3 daily goals... well, that's because I also am in the process of reading about a new lifestyle plan that my sister uses along with her Beachbody workout systems... so I'm going to give it a shot. I just may wait another week or so to get it all planned out. I'm planning to go visit my mom for a few days a week from Monday -- so I will likely not hit the ground running with this plan until the last week of the month, but I do plan to start working out again next week and getting more water in... and making healthier choices with food once we are back into our other routines. 

I'll write more about what I'm planning to do here in a few more days -- once I've finished the book! 

Use this link below to check out the shop where all of these amazing Powersheets and other items can be found. There isn't a thing on their site that I don't have on my wish list!

Real Life

I need to deviate  from the planned posts for a minute because sometimes homeschooling is H.A.R.D. - who is with me on this?

I mean, I would love to have a day or two at home alone to get a few things done... or who am I kidding -- I'd at least spend a couple hours on Netflix or something just enjoying watching something other than cartoons on repeat for a while.

Instead, I'm spending extra money to buy curriculum and do it myself. <I'm happy to do this, so follow me here>

Anyway, this week has been a horrible struggle with the guy in the picture at the top. He just flat doesn't want to participate in the short lessons that I'm asking him to get done each day. It's too much to ask him to write a word here or there. It's too hard to follow directions -- I mean y'all -- it's not like I read the whole page and say "here."

I break it down, and our curriculum separates the different areas with different instructions into color coded boxes... so when we talk about the instructions -- I am specific "Go to the red box on page 12, and match the number with the number word" -- easy peasy, right? I mean wow. It saddens me that he gets so ahead of himself that he goes off and does the wrong thing, and spends half of his time in the classroom erasing and redoing the work.

I'm at a loss. I mean we had a real argument over it this week because I lost my patience a bit with it all, but it's the same thing everyday. I tell him -- WAIT for me, but it's like he just can't stop himself. I know he really wants to show me what he can do, but it typically ends with both of us annoyed because of it being wrong.

I know it's just a phase, but seriously -- this stuff isn't easy. Parenting is not for the weak, and Homeschooling is almost like walking out into a loaded battlefield some days. They are lucky that I see them every night when they are sleeping and fall in love with their sweet faces all over again -- and wake up the next day ready to try again. 

Homeschool Co-op: Pumpkins and Apples

For our first October meeting, we studied the life cycle of pumpkins. We made a life cycle on a string. 

I found it on Pinterest, but I printed the large pumpkin coloring page for them to use as well. We could have made paper plate pumpkins, but I just didn't think of that initially.

Here are the kids coloring and assembling their pumpkin life cycles. They just taped or glued the stages of the life cycle in order on a string and attached it to the pumpkin.

Next up, I took a small pumpkin pie pumpkin and cut the tops off of them - we did one per child in the co-op.

Here the all are lined up - both the pumpkins and the kids! We left all of the seeds and junk inside. Then let the kids come one by one to do the next step.

Here is my little, James, putting potting soil in his pumpkin. We added a tiny bit of water and placed them in a sunny spot. 7 days later, we had pumpkin sprouts! Ultimately, ours died, because it rotted out -- but they got to see them sprout and take off with leaves.

Next up we did an apple rotting project. An hour or so before the meeting started, I cup up an apple. I placed them in small bowls, one I left just in the air. One had water, vinegar, and vegetable oil in them. At the end of the meeting, we let the kids observe what happened.

They put them in order of which were the most rotten at the time we were looking. It was interesting! The vinegar was the most rotten. Next, was the one sitting in the oil. Third, was the one sitting just out in the open air.  Finally, the one sitting in tap water remained the most fresh... it actually looked like I had just cut it.

The kids then spent about a half hour playing out in our backyard on the trampoline and on the swing set. I think they love these meetings and really enjoy the little bit of running around enjoying being with other kids for a while. We really have a great group of kids and parents -- I'm so thankful for them!

Our Homeschool: 1st Grade

James & Tyler started their 1st Grade journey on August 8, 2016 - and truly when I tell you all of the stress I had over it was really for no reason at all. Something clicked with these two over the summer, and this year has been going relatively well. We've had some blips, but overall -- I feel like we are really making good progress this year!

We started off the year with our new curriculum, and a plan -- and I couldn't be more pleased with how we are staying on track!

We chose to use LIFEPAC by Alpha Omega as our curriculum, which is the same as we used last year for Kindergarten. (if you're interested -- you can look in the box at the bottom of that link and there are sample pages for each of the subjects and teacher guides) Most likely we will use the same for our 2nd Grade Year, and then we will change to the online Monarch Program (by the same publisher) for 3rd grade on.

We are doing all 5 subjects: Bible, Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies everyday. I worried about this while I was planning, thinking that it would be too much for them each day, but we're doing about 2 pages of each subject each day -- with the Unit Tests being on their own day -- I try to keep it manageable for the boys though -- so I only do 1 page of math if it's heavy on the actual math problems -- but it's just trial and error, knowing when your kids will start to push back.

About 30 school days ago, I added a couple of extra skill building things starting with this book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. To make sure that they are both learning this information - I sit with them individually at the beginning of our school day to work through 1 lesson a day on this. I can really feel like it's catching on more than when I tried it last year, and I'm so glad I pulled this back out!

I've also added in the Reading Eggs/Math Seeds program, which is for kids ages 3 to 13. They seem to be responding better to this than they did with ABCMouse -- I liked ABCMouse, but they complained every time I asked them to work on it. It's got a similar set up, in that they are working on a learning map -- so I have them work through 1 section of the map in both subjects each day. There is an assessment test that the kids can work through to get them to the correct level. Tyler is farther ahead in math and reading than James is -- but they have both raised their estimated reading age by a whole year -- and hopefully by the end of the school year they'll be on level or ahead of the game.

In addition to this:

•  I try to get them outside or doing something active everyday for 30 minutes
• We have co-op twice a month with varying themes of lesson topics
• We hope to be starting a homeschool Boy Scout and Girl Scout troop soon
• We do a few field trips as well
• Once we finish the 100 Reading Lessons -- we will start working heavily on our handwriting -- which needs a lot of work!

Co-op: Mock Election

Last Wednesday, we had our regular co-op meeting with our friends, and we had a really good time. We took individual photos of each of the kids and a group photo of all of the kids. I'm only sharing my kids -- but look at these two handsome boys! I love them fiercely -- but BOY can they push my buttons!

We meet twice a month for co-op, and soon we will be starting to meet the other 2 weeks of the month to do scouting.

Anyway, this time we met and talked about the election process. We didn't get into politics at all -- just that there is a president and people run to be elected. We let the rest of that fall on the parents to educate their own kids as they see fit.

We did have a ballot for the kids to vote - they voted for their favorite cookie and snack. We had Oreos and Chocolate Chip Cookies as the choices for the cookie voting -- Oreos won in a landslide.

For the snack voting -- we had the choice of popcorn, chips, or pretzels -- we had a close tie vote between popcorn and chips -- so we were able to talk about run off voting.

They came in and made their own voter registration cards -- which we then laminated. From there they went over to sign in at the voting booth. We had a sign in sheet for them to sign and they had to show their card. 

After the signed in, we had them go over to the voting booth to cast their ballot. 

James was so excited to be voting.

After they voted, we had a special ribbon made for them that said "Voted" they were super cute! Sadly these are the only pics I have of the ribbons... but they were adorable and hand made by one of the other Moms.

I found another picture of the ribbon later that I was able to zoom in on -- but the original ones made me laugh - so I left them too.

The kids have a great time getting together, and hopefully they leave with a little bit of new knowledge. This was our third meeting because our second one got canceled due to 1/2 of us being sick.

Over the weekend, I'm going to post some updates on our other meetings and what we talked about.

Next month, we're going to talk about Native Americans, Pilgrims, and Thanksgiving.