Halloween 2015 Wrap-up

We had a great time this October. Making spooky decorations, putting our costumes together, and of course filling our buckets with candy. We usually go to the Trunk-or-Treat party at our church AND do the normal trick-or-treating but this year we were sick for the normal trick-or-treat night. Bummer! Hopefully that never happens again! It was quite traumatic to miss it, but we had an awesome family party. Complete with zombie pirates we had to shoot with our dart guns and a "boss" monster that dropped chocolate coins when he was defeated. My kids know they have the most awesome dad ever. :)

Anyway, here are some pictures to review the highlights of the month!

Lots of outside time! We love fall weather!

 SO much fun with Jack-o-lanterns!

 I had fun with the decorations but this one was my favorite! The kids just threw the spiders up and they clung to it perfectly. :)

We had a "Mummy Wrap"!! Never knew toilet paper could be so much fun!

And of course our costumes! Go Pokemon!! We had Ash, Brock, Nurse Joy, two Pinkachu's and one Pikachu. We won first prize at the Halloween party!

Now everyone thinks I should dye my hair pink...

Project!

"Ghosts and Goblins

Spooks Galore

Scary Witches

at your door

Jack O'Lanterns

Shining Bright

Wishing you a Haunting Night!"

Hooray for Halloween! We've been busy turning our place into a "haunted house" (as Evelyn puts it). I think I've been having more fun than the kids! So today I wanted to get them more involved and we made some little ghosts to fill an empty corner. They were super easy and turned out pretty cute. 

 

This lead to comments like - "making decorations is better than buying them", "we should make these and sell them!", and "I want a ghost stuffy". 

Now we have a project for tomorrow! John and Evelyn drew their patterns for their own ghost stuffies, and I did one for Thomas and Lily. I did the cutting tonight and tomorrow we will get the sewing machine out.

What does this have to do with school? Oh you know, measuring, following directions, learning to use equipment properly, gaining confidence in their own ideas and abilities, and totally fun. Are we going to start mass production and sell these? Ummm, no, but I'm sure that would be very educational as well. Hope everyone is having fun getting ready for a frightful night!

First Day of (Home) School Pics!!

Oh the joys of homeschool! No need for fancy new clothes and worrying what other people think! Here we can dress up to our hearts content! Our "first day" was Tuesday of this week.

John - 2nd Grade

Evelyn - Kindergarten

Thomas - Preschool

Summer 2015 Artwork

This was up all summer, there's a lot we didn't do but we still had fun!

 

Kirby Land by Evelyn

Hello Kitty Land by Evelyn

The Zombie by John

The Eye of Death by John

Nice Day Outside by John

Thomas

Thomas

These masterpieces were on our wall for quite awhile. Taking them down was hard for some of us, so we now immortalize them on the internet!

They Have Been Notified - Ohio Homeschool Notification 2015-2016

Today I sent our homeschool notification papers! Yea! They included a signed paper from the certified teacher that reviewed our last school year and gave us the all clear.

This begins our 2nd year of homeschool in which the legal paperwork was required. Last year I stressed allot over the "legal requirements" of notification in the beginning and then a teachers assessment at the end. Now that I know what to expect (and more about what is expected of me), I feel much better!

When we moved to Ohio from Michigan it was very hard to not be upset over the differences between homeschool regulations:

Michigan - homeschool to your hearts content and don't worry about telling anyone.
Ohio - fill out papers to legally notify your intent to homeschool, feel stressed by the state requirements, and then "asses" your child in the accepted methods.

Yeah, I'm still a little bitter. But trying to see the good, it does "help" me stay on task for planning and thinking ahead. I felt very confined by all the requirements last year, thinking we needed to do lots of paperwork and more "normal school" activities.... It wasn't working for anyone here and I was going a little crazy. This year I hope to school in a more relaxed way, no more stressed out crazy days would be great! I feel confident that we will meet or exceed the legal requirements, we're awesome like that. Ha!

Anyway, for my own reference, and in an effort to help others who are beginning a home education journey in Ohio, here are a couple of links I found helpful for information and useful forms. I used the PEACH notification form.

 Ohio - Department of Education 
PEACH - Parents Educating At Christian Homes

Happy Home Schooling! 

 
Update: On Friday, Sept. 4th we received the confirmation letter of our public school excusal.  Whatever I did worked! Hooray!