“Wow! He’s a big boy!”

“Man, look at those thighs!”

“He’s like a rock.”

“He’s only six months old?”

“Look at the chunky monkey.”

Those are some of the things we hear often when people get a look at this guy.

Tebow went to the doctor today for his well-child visit. The official stats are 22 pounds, 29 inches. He’s sits up for long periods of time (some times forgetting and falling over), rolls around, almost crawls, and has one tooth.

We’ve started him on some solid food, but ever since we attempted the ritual a while back, we haven’t been very consistent. This is mainly due to the fact that when he eats, he starts to sleep very badly. Plus, he’s really not a fan yet. But we were advised to start being more consistent, so I expect more baby-covered-in-baby-food pictures in our future.

He’s been kind of cranky today (probably due to teething and his shots this morning) but we still cuddle him and try to make him laugh. We are very, very happy he is part of our family.

Looking back, last week was a really good first week of homeschool for both Fuller and me. Every day we were able to make it through whatever I planned. Only a few times did Fuller protest and only a few times did I feel unprepared.

Fuller is a child who loves routine and predictiblity. He still includes in his nighttime routine the “what are we doing tomorrow?” line of questioning. I found it interesting how after just a few days, Fuller now prefaces the question with “I know we are doing school tomorrow, but what else are we doing?”

I have been praying and thinking about my children’s education since before they were born. I have known I wanted to homeschool for at least the early years.

So when I talk to other parents or read other parent blogs, I usually hone in on the ones who homeschool and try to glean advice and methods from them. And as I have watched Fuller grow, I have been trying to discern his learning style, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. As his teacher, I want to give him an education he will love and a thirst for learning even more.

So, as I plan our days and grab onto the unexpected teachable moments in our lives, I keep praying for our children’s education. And I look forward to seeing what else tomorrow brings.

Tebow turned six months old yesterday. It isn’t difficult to see the changes he has been through. The obvious one is he keeps growing. Starting out at 8 pounds, 11 ounces, he is easily in the 20 pound range now. He’s in 12 month clothing but his cloth diapers are still fitting him perfectly (love the cloth diapers!).

When he was days old he would sleep and just lay around. And now he is all motion and still unsure about the sleeping thing. He isn’t crawling, but it doesn’t stop him from getting from one side of the room to another. So he is now caged in the puppy corral when he wants some quality time with the floor.

And when he wants to be upright, well…

What a six month old does from mrscrumley on Vimeo.

Happy six months, Tebow! Looking forward to what the next six months brings us.

Well, after a week or more of build up, we have officially started school for the year. Fuller knew we were starting school on the 17th and kept a mental count down, often asking me to tell him again what we were doing on Monday. I also kept a mental count down, just to remind myself to get up and do things that resembled Getting Organized and Being Prepared.

To begin his school day (after morning jobs and breakfast), I presented him with a schultüte. It is essentially a “first day of school” gift- a cone filled with some treats and school supplies of some sort.

I showed him our lesson plans- craft sticks with each subject written on it. They were all stuck in a small plastic container with rice. The container was labeled “to do” and sitting next to a similar container labeled “done.” I modified the idea from Jamin and knew the visual would help Fuller understand we had things to do today, it wasn’t going to be all Legos all the time.

Yes, you can see I included sticks for TV time. This is because Fuller’s TV time has been reduced and having the visual reminder greatly helped him understand once the 4 sticks were in the “done” container, he couldn’t watch any more of “his shows.”

We managed to get through all the sticks in time for quiet time, which was what I was hoping for. We are doing Pre-K, with curriculum cobbled together by me. Fuller is already beyond most of the full Pre-K curriculum I have seen. And we aren’t ready to purchase a full Kindergarten cirriculum, so I’ve been having fun picking out what books and supplies we will use. I’m guided by what I have been researching on Charlotte Mason and the Rule of Six.

Today we managed the following:

Bible Story – we began reading The Jesus Storybook Bible, a book we have had for quite some time and are finally getting serious about reading.
Copywork – I am using these free create your own tracer pages.
Journal – I ask him a question and write down all he tells me on the subject. Today’s question was “What is school?”
Reading – Fuller is still going through the BOB books. He is on the second box and doing really well.
Nature Walk – we took a walk and talked about birds. We both took some pictures and then we journaled it when we got home (I wrote, he drew). I have purchased Beautiful Birds from Shining Dawn Books (recommended by Jimmie) to help me get ideas.
Read Aloud – The Real Mother Goose.

In a few weeks I will probably add some art appreciation, Math, and because of our travels we will be talking about geography (it can’t be avoided- teachable moments!). I don’t want to overwhelm Fuller right away and I still need to figure out what I want to accomplish with Math. I’m looking at this Family Math book, along with some worksheet books I got at Target. I’m not a fan of worksheets and think Fuller is more of hands on learner when it comes to math. But, I’m not ready to sink a bunch of money into RighStart or Math U See.

But, let’s not focus on what I haven’t figured out. Let’s just rejoice we got through our first day and our first born is officially in Pre-K. It’s an exciting time. I can’t wait to see where this adventure takes us.

Technorati Tags: homeschool, first day of school, preschool, pre-k, family education, Charlotte Mason, Rule of Six

In preparation for our education adventure, I’ve been reading/ finding a lot more homeschool blogs. The past few weeks the Not Back-to-School Hop hosted by Darcy has been a treasure trove of finding these other families. Since this week’s theme is Student Photos, I thought I could easily participate.

I might cry a little. Fuller was very excited and ready to go.

Here’s hoping for an excellent year… Pre-K, here we come!

Technorati Tags: homeschool, first day of school, school pictures

Tebow is going to have to leave the infant carrier carseat soon. And this means graduating to other strollers. I pulled down the jogging stroller from the attic (all by myself!) and when I sat him in it, he looked so little! He seemed to enjoy it, and we even took a quick walk this evening to get some fresh air.

Guess he’s going to keep growing. And we are going to keep on loving him.