Victory Ranch

We took a Saturday afternoon and scheduled a time with Vicki out at Victory Ranch, South of Ottumwa. Victory Ranch is the brainchild of Vicki Baum, our friend and a lady who goes to our church, which happens to be right across the road from Victory Ranch. 

 Vicki and Jazz (the horse), and my 4 year old checking the horse out. 

Learning how to brush Jazz down. Part of coming to Victory Ranch is being 

able to help the horses, and help the Ranch out. 

V is for Victory

Getting ready to ride. 

Such a happy guy. First time on a horse, by himself. When he was 3 he 

took a horse ride with grandma at the farm. 

The welcome center, with my hubby's logo. Bible study is held in here on Tuesday evenings. 

Learning to ride with no hands. He decided to ride without the saddle and did great! I think he was more ready to do that than mommy was to let him do that. There's no stopping this kid! 

The saddle fit him perfectly, and I think he was the first one to try it out. Jazz was perfectly calm, and he's really good with kids, which is why Victory Ranch exists- to help children and families. 

While little man rode around the corral, I took photos until the camera battery died, and hubby pulled some weeds. There's always a long list of things that need to be done at Victory Ranch. It's run by our friend Vicki, who's had this ranch on her heart for a very long time, so it's awesome to see it become a reality. 

Victory Ranch is located at 15603 Copperhead Rd, 52501 

Letter F

This week's letter is the Letter F

Fish. Frogs. Firemen.
I'm using some curriculum downloads from Homeschool Creations and 1plus1plus1equals1.

We've been using Totally Tots In My Heart Bible verses and my 4 year old loves doing Calendar from 1plus1plus1equals1. Actually, not so much the calendar part as changing the weather and the color of the day. When he does go to Pre-School it might be hard for him not to change the weather or the color every single day. He misses it when we forget to change the weather for one day. But the good thing is I'll still keep my Calendar at home, so if he doesn't get to do it at school, he can always do it at home.

We'd like him to go one year to a 'traditional' classroom, and we've chosen the local Christian School. We are trusting God in the fact that the money that needs to be there will be there- and we also applied for a state grant, but as of now, we aren't sure if we got it yet.

Letter E is for Elephant

Our letter of this week is Letter E, and I scoured the internet looking for other great mommy-blogs who have made letter E packs and activities for their kids. I just love 1+1+1=1, don't you?
But I couldn't find what I needed, or it all related to Easter, which is fine, but why do I always have to have my child study these letters when it's nowhere near Easter-time?
So I made my own.

Elephant


Elephant 2
My son has to know how to write the letter 'e' because it's in his name. At the end, and granted he only knows the first 2 letters of his long name (it's 11 letters long), but we are getting there.

Our other object we are studying is 'eggs' for this week. I love the ideas that Mom to 2 Posh Little Divas has over on her blog to do with Easter eggs. Who says I can't pull them out to use them as a learning tool? Great ideas!

We played a game with the letters, matching them and finding the big letter and the small letter. Some of the eggs were the same colors and made it easy, but a few of them were mixed, which made it hard for him to figure out. I also made him find the letters on the ABC Chart. We took turns, but I was still able to help him learn the letters by helping me find mine on the chart. I put the eggs in an empty Tide Pods container and kept it with all of our homeschooling supplies and games. We'll play this game again!

Here's a photo of my son at a wedding we went to this weekend! He's so handsome!