First day of Learning Grove- 2014

Our beautiful 5th grader

our handsome and cool 3rd grader

Our adorable Kindergartener

my cute boys

my sweet kiddos

On September 2, 2014, we started our 6th year at our homeschool group, Learning Grove. The kids were so excited to put on special outfits, pack lunchboxes and book bags and head off to see their friends.

This is Trent's first year at Learning Grove and so far, he loves it! He hasn't made any friends (his words), but he does like going there. Bradley is really enjoying 3rd grade and has a good group of boys that he enjoys playing with. Rachel loves everything about being in 5th grade and has many little friends (young and old) that she chats with.

This year, I'm working at LG on Tuesdays with the 1st grade class. Basically, I'm an assistant who follows around 16 first graders to each of their classes (Art, Creative Writing, Music and Science) and tries to make teaching easier on the 4 tutors. I sometimes help with a lesson, but my main purpose is to make sure they are on task and behaving while the tutor is teaching. It has been a fun job and a really good group of kids to work with. We are thankful to be part of the Learning Grove family!!

:)

Big dog in a little bed

Oh poor, sweet Buddy...why do you choose to lay in the small dog bed?!

This bed is the perfect size for petite little Dixie, but Buddy, as you can see, is a bit large for it. However, he curls up in this bed more often than not and he looks so adorable all squeezed into it. We have a huge bed in the garage, but Buddy sometimes wants to be near us, I guess, so he crams his body into this bed on the back porch. What a cute doggie!! :)

First Day of Milligan Family Homeschool- 2014

We started our 6th year of homeschool on August 25, 2014. :)

 

So far, we are having a great year! Rachel is in 5th grade and rocking along just beautifully. She has such strong reading and comprehension skills. She works hard on everything and is a very independent worker. This year, I've been giving her a list of daily assignments and she writes them in her assignment notebook. She can do most things on her own and I only help her when she asks. We're really concentrating on her writing skills and making sure she knows how to write a solid, descriptive, paragraph so that she can write a strong essay by the end of the school year.

 

Bradley is in the 3rd grade and is doing really well! He began reading like a pro last year, so he's had more fun being able to work independently on some assignments for the first time. Bradley's strength is definitely mathematical concepts, so we're about to start multiplication tables, and I know he's going to knock them out! We're really concentrating on writing our thoughts down without worrying about spelling and punctuation. Brad tends to be a perfectionist, which prevents him from attempting things because he's fearful of doing something wrong or having something misspelled. Our goal is to write complete sentences with correct spelling and punctuation by the end of the year.

 

Trent is in Kindergarten and is a really eager student! Like most things that Trent does, he works REALLY hard and loves to succeed (and does!). He is a very fast learner and remembers things very easily. He has excellent penmanship! He struggles with speech articulation, so our main focus this year is practicing sounds and letter combinations. He loves doing this and loves to be praised for his efforts. :)

 

All 3 kids are still studying North America and "traveling" up the east coast. Recently we learned about North and South Carolina. We are also about to delve into the Middle Ages in History and we've just started learning about Astronomy in Science.

 

We have lots of fun in our homeschool classroom and are so thankful that we get to do this every day. :) 

Time away...

Nick and I are blessed that he is part of a company that has an annual weekend (spouses included) where we get away for a few days. Much of the time is meetings for Nick, but the wives get to do lots of relaxing stuff like swim, take walks, chat, eat good food and get massages. The evenings are for large dinners with all spouses and lots of talking. I really enjoy my break each year and am so thankful to have 2 sets of grandparents that help watch our kiddos so we can go.

This year, I was able to go with Nick for all 3 nights, so the kids spent 2 nights with Joe and Deb and 1 night with mom and dad. Of course, this is quite an exciting and fun treat for the kids to spend so much time with grandparents and Nick and I don't have to worry about a thing. :)

I love getting to spend time with my precious husband and not having to think about laundry, cleaning, meals, school, chores or other people's needs for a few days. BUT, neither of us can hardly wait to get home to pick up our babies and hear all about their super fun weekend!! :)

Pop turns 67!

We are all so lucky to have such a wonderful dad/pop! I remember when I used to think 67 was really old, but now I see how "young" it is! :) 

We had a really good time celebrating Pop with tons of yummy hotdogs, sausages, hotdog toppings and condiments, plus lots of really yummy sides! It was a great time of cousin fun too, as they all really enjoy playing together, running around and hanging out at nana and pop's.

We love you so much dad/Pop and are so thankful to have you in our lives to love, learn from and celebrate! Here's to many, many more celebrations! Happy 67th!!

What have we been up to??!!

Since the last post, we have been up to A LOT! From finishing up a fun summer, to starting school, we've been keeping ourselves quite busy. We stained our front porch floor, painted the exterior of our house (ourselves) and only lack the back of the house plus Nick's shop to be finished, Nick fell off a ladder while painting the house and thankfully, didn't break a bone or kill himself (but has had an injured leg for 3 weeks!); we celebrated the 4th of July, went to the Laser Show at Stone Mountain, celebrated Pop's 67th birthday, did small projects around our house, spent lots of time with cousins and good friends and finally...took sweet Rachel to get her ears pierced!

the cute cousins trying on fashionable specs

Rachel's beautiful new earrings!

Nick, Joe and the boys went to the Braves game, so Rachel, Julia and I had a girl's night out. Rachel had attempted to get her ears pierced one other time a few months ago, but didn't quite feel ready (after we drove to the mall, went in, and watched another child scream in pain as she had her ears pierced), but she really wanted to get her ears pierced with her sweet cousin, Juj. So, we went to the mall and this time, watched a sweet 10 year old girl get it done before her. Rachel was much more confident this time and was even cracking jokes with her favorite cousin. There were 2 ladies working at the store, so they were able to simultaneously pierce both ears, which helped the process go very quickly! Rach did great and hasn't complained a bit about her ears hurting.

After we left the jewelry store, we walked up to Bath & Body works to smell lotions, perfumes, hand sanitizers, soaps, etc... We left with a special smelly lotion and the girls were thoughtful enough to put on a generous amount in the car, which left the whole car smelling super fruity! :)

The girls decided they wanted to eat at Logan's Steakhouse, so we went there and had a delicious meal. The girls giggled and chatted and I was more or less like a "third wheel" but I didn't mind because they were so precious and so sweet. It is so fun to watch them enjoy being friends AND cousins.

We came home and watched a funny movie and waited on the boys to get home to hear all about their fun time watching the Atlanta Braves take a beating. :)

More fun Milligan family updates to come...I promise!