Skate Day!

Another homeschooling year begins at Davis University. We've been homeschooling for 7 years now, wow! I'm not sure where the time has gone, really. It's weird to be teaching Kindergarten and High School.
The kids have been working hard and earning money for some extra outings, one of them being
Homeschool Skate Day. (Thank you to Grandma & Grandpa for supplying all those extra jobs and paying good money for them.)

 The Davis boys have gone skating, but the girls haven't. 

Today was Alanah's first day on skates. A sweet friend of ours took these pictures for us. Austin is the tall one closest to us and he's holding Alanah's hand. 

 Here she is being saved by the sweet teenage boys. 

Almost a wipe out! 

Austin and Sam were so sweet to take her around and around and around. :)

Our weekend~

CHOIS CONVENTION 2012

Homeschooling Conference

Dusty and I were able to attend the annual homeschooling conference this last weekend, together and without kiddos. (A big thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Fitzpatrick for watching all of them.) We listened to some amazing speakers, drank lots of coffee, had lunch dates for two days in a row, and we walked away ready to take on another year of homeschooling our kids. (I still can't believe we've been homeschooling for 7 years.) The conference was two very full days. Friday from 8:45 to 6pm and the same for Saturday.

The keynote speakers were great and we got lots of tips to prepare us for homeschooling through high school. 

Thought this was funny.

I thought this was funny. When people ask us about socialization I know for sure that they have never meet my kids. I usually give them a weird look and say, "Have you meet my kids??" Socialization is never an issue, it's more like jockeying for air time. LOL

The Centrality of the Home in the Evangelism and Discipleship of the Next Generation

This is the message that started the "Family Driven Faith" firestorm. This exposition of Ephesians 6:1-4 challenges the very foundation of age-segregated ministry in the local church. The Bible makes it clear that parents (not Sunday school teachers, youth ministers, or teachers) are responsible for the discipleship of their children. Moreover, the church has a responsibility to avoid efforts that undermine this biblical imperative. Unfortunately, much of what we have done for the past several decades has worked against biblical discipleship in the home. There must be a reformation in this area. This message has been the spark for such a reformation in countless lives and local churches around the world.
Click Here to Listen, very powerful 37 min. by Voddie Baucham 

I know some very welling meaning people that work in the youth groups and with the youth, I want to be very careful not to offend those people or act ungracious to their work. I think we've fallen so far as a society that we might not even realize that we are undermining the Bible's commands. Take a listen see what you think.

~~1st Day of School~~

We made the decision to enroll our oldest son Austin in a private Christian school for 4 days a week and our younger boys for 2 days a week. This is going to aid us in our homeschooling and give me a little extra time to work with the girls. We didn't make this decision lightly, only after lots of prayer.

We felt this school was just perfect for our family and we are very excited to see what they learn this year. Siah and Noah have 6 kids including them in their class. Austin has 4 kids including him.

We took some pictures of the kids before school. The boys need to wear slacks, dress shoes and a button down shirt everyday. I've rediscovered my iron!

A big thank you to Grandpa & Grandma Fitzpatrick for all they have done.

They have been a huge support in all this.

They are attempting to get all the silliness out before school starts.

Still working on it...

Okay, now they are ready.

They just finished the first week of school and they all did great, we are so proud of them!
The girls did good as well. We worked on counting, coloring, tracing & memorizing the books of the Old Testament. (Which Alanah was able to do all by herself last night!!)

~~Valentine's Day Party~~

We had our own little Valentine's Day party here at The Davis Academy.

I made a cake with a group of ladies from church a few days prior, the kids couldn't wait to get a slice of it!
Noah is being silly, and pretending he's going to eat the whole cake by himself.

We had lunch, then cake, then opened a package from Grandpa & Grandma Fitzpatrick

Grandma & Grandpa Fitzpatrick sent each kid an envelope...

"Go ahead kids, you can open 'em now!"

Inside the envelope was a Valentine's card, candy & $1

I caught a little of Kaianah's excitement in opening her Valentines

Noah was surprised that even Kaianah got candy & money.

They LOVED eating chocolate cake in the middle of the day, pretty special treat around here.

After all the sugar the kids went outside to run around for a while. Get out a little of that energy from all the candy & cake.

The Davis Academy~~NOW OPEN!

Here at the Davis Academy we strive to find the perfect balance between academics, religion, life experiences & hands on learning.


Soccer is encouraged.

Children of all ages are encouraged to climb on the play structures.

Academics can be multi-locational.

Here's one of our happy students!

All that kidding around to say we started school yesterday & here's some pics! :)

What about socializing?

We had a homeschoolers park day about a week ago. The kids just love these, most of our kid's friends attend. It's fun for me to because I get to hangout and visit with my friends and don't have to worry about entertaining the kids, providing snacks or cleaning my house, it's a nice break! :) I actually remembered my camera for this park day...
This is my friend Kathy and her son Thad with Alanah in front of them.
Just to the side of the park is this area, AKA "Boy Fun Land". It's loaded full of SBT's, which is short for the 3 basics of a fun park day...Sticks, Bugs & Trees! Austin is the one kneeling down with the dark pants on.

Alanah with her wild and crazy hair.
This is Alanah's little buddy, his name is Thad. The two of them are only 9 weeks apart in age. When Alanah is looking for Thad she says "Where's MY Thad?" (It's hilarious)
Siah coming down the slide.

Noah being silly, as usual. That is his favorite shirt, he always wants to wear it. I'm not sure why he's drawn to it...is it the bright red, the dalmation dog on the front or what?? It was passed down to us from a friend up here.

This is a funny video on homeschoolers...we got rid of our white van! :) Before you push the arrow AKA the play button, you'll have to go down to the bottom of the blog and push the "stop" button on the play list or the music will play over the video.

Homeschoolers

The kids and I just got back from our homeschoolers "Park Day". The homeschooling group that we belong to meets at various parks during the summer for the kids to play, and the moms (and sometimes Dads) to chat & visit with each other. We were having so much fun that we ended up staying 3 1/2 hours, needless to say, the kids are wiped out and having a rest time right now. I should "savor the moment" but we have a ton of raspberries and zucchini to harvest and a lawn that needs to be mowed...I think I'll just start with the raspberries! Here's a picture of the boys that I took right when we got back from the park...one cute picture and one of them being silly.