Better late than never....

 It's been 18 months... 18 loooong months since I last updated you all on our life's adventures the wright way. Life has thrown us a few curveballs and we are getting ready for a big move in 7 short weeks. I really want to get back to blogging though, I love sharing our homeschool journey with  you!

  For a quick update:
  Chickadee is now in 2nd grade (almost finished actually) and I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. We are loving homeschooling more and more each day and the freedom it gives us as a family and the joy we have in learning!

 This past week this is what our school looked like:

Rock climbing at Zoo Atlanta! Chickadee has begged to do a rock climbing type experience for several months. We finally were able to find one that she could try! She loved it :) 

Brushing a goat at Zoo Atlanta Children's Zoo. 

Giraffe fun at Zoo Atlanta. This is one of her favorite animals!

Chickadee and I 

Critter show, this is an armadillo.. we really were this close!

Baby American Alligator... pretty cool!

PANDAS!!!! Chickadee's first time to ever see a real panda. She was captivated!

Great Smokey Mountains National Park

Chickadee trying her hand at farming the "old fashioned way"

Chickadee and her Papa exploring the river.

We watched 30 elk for about a half hour... they were just across a small part of the river. It was a pretty neat experience!

Pioneer Farm Museum in the Great Smokey Mountains National park

Photo Fun :)

Relaxing... 

We had a great trip with my parents visiting my sister and exploring the a few places down south. I love how flexible we can be with our homeschool schedule and that we can have days to do some hands-on learning and exploring!! 

Hoping to update more frequently!! Thanks for joining us on another adventure the Wright way!

~B

Adventures in First Grade....

  So it begins, I now have a FIRST grader!! I can't believe that Chickadee is ready for first grade work!! She has been working all summer on improving her reading and every time she picks up a new book, I am blown away by how well she is reading it! (My favorite though, is when she really does come to a big word she doesn't know and she just turns it into one she does... it makes for some funny sentences!)

   We have been working back into our routine slowly and have pretty much gotten it set as we just finished up our 4th week of school. Here are some pictures of our first day!

    On her first day of school, we buy her a cheap "I'm proud of you" type card and each of us writes a short message to her. Seeing as how one of her love languages is gifts (which is the LEAST of my love languages so I really have to work at this) she adores these cards and keeps them sitting on her desk ALL year! She still has last years card on her desk as well! Its a "cheap" but invaluable way for us to express how proud we are of her and show her how much we love her in a way that really speaks that to her!

A few activities from our first day: 

Calendar time

Writing sight words in shaving cream!

All About Me poster!! I love that we can fill this out each year, take a picture of it and compare it to previous years! (We NEED to get a current picture of her printed to hang up with it!) 

  

We are well on our way to learning and loving first grade! We have already done many exciting things and several more are coming up! Stay tuned for more great adventures, the Wright way!

~B

Pirate Adventures!

Ahoy there, Ye Mateys!   

   This month's theme for the "Poppins Book Nook" hosted by Enchanted homeschooling Mom was PIRATES! Chickadee loves this theme anyways as she likes Jake and the Neverland Pirates from Disney Jr. and also loves to visit the pirate exhibit at our local museum! She also loved the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride last year when we took our first trip to Disney. We had to ride it several times and each time she pointed out new things! We had fun this month reading different pirate books and creating an activity to go with our theme!

  First, we read "How I Became a Pirate" and its sequel "Pirates Don't Change Diapers" both by Melinda Long and illustrated by David Shannon. Chickadee and her Dad loved cuddling up and reading these books! We read a few other books too like "Exploring We Will Go" (a Backyardigans book), Little Einstein's "Pirate Treasure," and "Pirates: Adventures in Treasure Island" (a dollar store book). Chickadee loved reading different pirate themed books and using some of our old pirate theme packs from preschool.

 After reading the book we completed our lapbook component pieces for this months theme. The above is a picture of her completed ones from this month. You can find the FREE printables here.

  The activity we chose to do was to go on an actual, real life, pirate adventure!! We just happened to find one right in our own backyard (wink, wink). My husband helped me out by drawing a pretty accurate map of our backyard then I crinkled it all up and tore the edges (to make it look old) and then added a "path" with a great big X! 

  We told Chickadee that she had to follow the map exactly in order to find various tools to help her on her treasure hunt. I had also added small "X's" throughout the map at different locations where she would find these tools. (Really, I didn't want her to just open the door and go straight to the location of the biggest X). Along her journey she found a pirates hat, some swords, a bucket, and a shovel- all important treasure hunting tools! 

  
  When she finally reached the treasure, Chickadee had to dig it up from a large dirt pile in the corner of our yard! She had a blast and the laughs and giggles were well worth the work! 

 

  After she was finished, Chickadee INSISTED that Daddy to the treasure hunt and made him go inside so she could put everything back. It was a fun morning with lots of family laughs! :) (Although, I'm not sure who enjoyed the treasure hunt more... Chickadee or Dad!)

After we went inside, we took out the puppets that were included in the treasure "chest" and put on puppet shows for each other making up great pirate adventure tales of sailing the high seas and finding buried treasures! I loved hearing Chickadee use her imagination as she made up these great tales of adventure and giggle at the stories her Dad and I told. What a fun day and theme! "Yo ho, Yo ho, A pirates Life for me!" 

Until Life's Next Adventure,

~Bethany

Adventures in Summerland...

 Wow! What a busy, but oh-so-fun, summer we've had around here! I cannot believe that August starts in less than a week and that means school starts in 2 weeks! We have had quite a few visitors this summer, fun little trips, and adventures of our own around town. Here is a recap of what we have been up to:

  The end of May was my middle sisters wedding... we had a great time helping to celebrate her celebrate this wonderful time in her life and we were all part of the wedding party. Chickadee's favorite part of the day was the dance floor during the reception... I'm pretty sure of it!  (Although, she did take her flower girl duties VERY seriously...lol)

Getting ready...

Family picture!

Fanning the bride!!!

Time to drop some flowers... look at her determination!

One of my favorite pics of the night!

Dancing the night away....

In June we had our church's Backyard Bible School!! It was one of the best ones we have done and we had a great turn out! The following week Andy was gone for Children's camp and Chickadee and I decided to do some rearranging of our living room/family room! It was quite a task, but we managed to get it finished and Daddy approved when he got home ;).  The same week, we also had a garage sale in which I was able to sell a fair amount of "stuff" and Chickadee made some good money selling popsicles! 

 July hit full swing and stated off on a sad note. Our 15 yr. old nephew passed away on the 1st after battling a disease called ALD for over 8 years. It was a bittersweet time as we were all glad he was no longer suffering and instead enjoying a healthy body celebrating his healing in Heaven! However, it doesn't take away the loss we feel here on earth. Andy officiated the funeral, which was hard, but God got him through and it was a beautiful service. 

Coleton (before he got sick) and his Grandpa!

  During July we also headed to my grandparents for the 4th of July and were able to spend a few days with my parents who were also visiting for the weekend. We headed to my old elementary and middle school to watch the fireworks. Chickadee got to play on the playground at my old elementary school while we were waiting. She was excited to see my old school and I thought it was pretty neat how although some things had changed, some were still the same..

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  We also had a lot of visitors in the month of July: some of my cousins and their kids, my sister, my parents, some of Andy's family.... we joked we were running a hotel, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything! We also managed to head to our Museum 3 times in 3 weeks (due to all the visitors wanting to check it out!) It was great and I know for sure that we definitely got our money's worth out of our membership this year! 

Finally, Chickadee took some basic swim lessons. Our community pool offered a 2 week session and she was ready! She had some really incredible teachers (and a few COLD days- like 60 degree air temp) and totally grew in her swimming abilities! At the end of the week, she even got to jump off the diving board (into 12 ft deep water!!!) and swim to the side all by herself! We are so impressed and her hard work and excited with her for her new accomplishments!! 

And that brings us up to the end of July... Chickadee and I will be taking one more trip in 2 weeks to go visit my sister in GA and then we will be starting school! I can't believe we are almost ready to start first grade, but we are! Exciting time ahead!!