Learning the various vowel sounds can be tough work for kiddos (trust me, I know!). Sometimes it helps to have a great visual for kids to refer to when reviewing or trying to remember the key patterns and sounds. 

All About Learning Press has a GREAT tool to help you out, especially with those pesky long vowel sounds – a FREE long vowel sounds poster to print off for reference. 

The chart colorfully illustrates the most common long vowel sounds (for visual kids this is a fabulous resource!). 

This last week has been quite the blur. Most days have been spent running back and forth into town for various doctor’s appointments, driving one kiddo to work, swim team stuff, and who knows what else. Really, I can’t remember it all. 

All I do remember is that on Wednesday I was ready to call uncle and just spend the day curled up with a book and not drive to one single solitary place. (That didn’t happen. But I wished it would.) Mind you that was after we almost missed an appointment and had to race out the door. 

Laurianna is still hopping around to see various specialists. At our last doctor’s appointment they discovered a heart murmur that hadn’t been there before, so they ordered an echocardiogram to check it out. Fortunately everything looks good on that end, but she was rather fascinated by the entire process and spent a lot of time talking to the technician about everything she was seeing. 

(sidenote: His name was Chandler and all I could think about was Friends from that point on. Don’t judge. It made me laugh in an otherwise semi-stressful moment. And now I’m thinking of Friends again.)

For now we are waiting on a few more specialist appointments to see what else is happening. 

On one of our many trips into town this week I picked up something I shouldn’t have from Costco: Coconut Almonds with Dark Chocolate. Please do not make the same mistake I did. Leave them on the shelf or the bag will be empty rather quickly and may require an intervention of sorts. 

Anywho, Zachary also needed a physical before he heads to Scout Camp in a few weeks. One would think I would have realized it was a yearly requirement for camp so we were scrambling to get it done. Lucky boy gets to go back for some immunizations. He is thrilled. Meanwhile, I already scheduled his physical for next year. I will not forget this time. Lesson learned. 

Around the house we are finally getting around to planting flowers and making the front porch pretty and have the garden produce something edible. 

Laurianna and I wrapped up the week by attending HEAV together in Richmond. She still needs some interstate driving time so she may have been rather thrilled to get behind the wheel for a very long time and log some hours. :) How exactly do I have a child that is almost old enough to drive on her own? (sigh)

We’re on the search for the few pieces of curriculum we need, but the main reason is to visit a whole lot of college tables and narrow down the field. The last few years HEAV has had an extended college fair of sorts where students can talk to reps from various colleges. Again – how exactly are we at this point??

Here’s hoping we find some great deals and get the last of the curriculum planning done! 

How has your week been? 

Since 2008, the Preschool and Kindergarten Community has been a place for sharing early childhood learning ideas. It has been so fun to see what other families are doing in their homes – in big and little ways. 

For an indefinite amount of time, Preschool and Kindergarten Community is taking a break. I’m mulling some different ideas and have loved sharing weekly posts with you all (thanks to those of you who have been faithful over the years!). 

In the meantime – enjoy this time with your littles! Trust me – these kids grow up so fast, and every moment we have with them is precious! 

Be sure to stop by our PreK & Kindergarten Pinterest board to see ideas posted over the years!

As I read The Green Ember (we are now 8 chapters from the end!), both boys twist and turn their Rubic’s Cubes and lounge on the couch. Listening quietly and trying to figure out what is coming next.

The book wasn’t their favorite when we started, but now as we draw near the end of the book they certainly don’t mind the daily reading time and are really getting into the story – enough that we have already ordered the second book to read together. 

Me – I’m nursing a cup of coffee and also listening to the crazy washer spinning in the background. Meanwhile the rest of the house is a wee bit of a disaster. Dishes are on the counter and books strewn all over the living room. Random pieces of laundry litter the floor and someone hasn’t bothered to pick up their breakfast bowls from the table. 

But we are reading together and it’s a snapshot of what homeschooling is like: school woven in with our everyday life. The good, the messy, and well – LIFE. 

Later in the day, we have the last of the ‘firsts’ in our house and it’s honestly a little bittersweet. Our youngest, the one who still has stuck in his head that he isn’t a good reader, sits down and started reading The Boxcar Children out loud to me. The last child to read through this particular book for the first time – an honest-to-goodness chapter book where you can’t really get reading clues from the pictures in the story.

And he does wonderfully.

He doesn’t quite fit on my lap like he used to, but he snuggles in, lets me wrap my arms around him, and kiss him on the cheek as he reads down the page. Meanwhile the other kids are walking in and out of the room, working on math, or grinning as they recognize the accomplishment in their brother’s hard work.

These are those moments in our homeschool time that I love – where life overflows into the nuances of our day. When we get a chance to relax together. Celebrate together. Learn together. 

Living life together in all the little moments. ❤️