First "Homeschooling Friends" Outing

 My friend Amber and I decided somewhat recently to homeschool our kids, but it's hard homeschooling alone, so we started thinking that it would be really cool to have a little support group! This was our first little educational outing with our group and we went to the pumpkin patch. Eventually, I would love to have these small group outings once a month and then once a month have a big park day with anyone we know who has kids in our age range and is homeschooling too.

 I think overall at the end of the day I felt like we really poured into our kids all our energy and excitement for them to learn and grow in character. I love my job as a mommy, but I often feel like I fail these little ones. I know those failures can help me point my babies to their need for a Savior, but I rejoice on days like this one where I could let my Savior shine through me! 

 Nehemiah (my three year old) went away from the day struck with the thought that he is not the only kid who does school at his house. He kept saying "Joel does school at his house too? Like I do school at myyyy house?" He loved that other kids he knows does homeschool too like him. 

 We have two age groups--there's the 2 year olds and the 3/4 year olds.  For the younger group, Amber had prepared a goose shaped G to color (we were on the letter G this week). The older kids had a worksheet to trace the letter Gg and color objects that started with G including a "goose" and "goat"--both were at the petting zoo at the pumpkin patch.

 We had G for grapes and G for goldfish for a snack.

 A little immunity building and a little sharing! :)

 The kids start to lose it, so we pack up the markers and head over to the guh-guh-garden where things guh-guh-grow.

 We stop by the guh-guh-goldmine (and throw rocks into the water---sorry).

 Then we go see the piGs! Sometimes our letters aren't just at the beginning of a word--so pig ends with our lotw G! Haha--we were making this up on the fly...

 Piggy starts to bite so we move on...

 Time to count pumpkins! We change the number of pumpkins on top of a hay barrel and have the kids practice counting them. The younger kids just repeat us saying the numbers.

 For the older kid group Amber made a number line taped up with the number 1-10. After we count the number of pumpkins, they would write the number on little chalk boards.

 Nehemiah started explaining what he was doing to his little buddy Joel! So cute.

 Gracie (only one) wanted in on the fun too! She's going to be a little smarty...

 Isaiah (my 7 mo old) chills in the stroller this whole time--he's awesome. Brittny also has a baby who does super good hanging out. 

 The kids start to lose it and really need a pumpkin throwing--hay tossing break...

 This works out so while they play Amber glues some little shapes onto pumpkins. 

Then there's papers that have the same shapes on a printed picture and the kids have to run around and find the matching pumpkin. 

 We talked about the different shapes as we looked at the pumpkins.

 Alison shows the kids circles, rectangles, triangles, diamonds, ovals, and a new shape for my kids--crescent. 

 Then we rounded up the kids to get a little group picture!

 Ok--finally got em rounded up...from left we have Mommy Alison (preggo with baby #2), Joel (2), Gracie (1, in stroller), Avery (2), Joel (4), Nehemiah (3), Elijah (2), Mommy Amber, Chase (9 mos), Jake (2), Isaiah (7 mos in stroller), Mommy Brittny, and Mommy Melissa (behind camera).

 We take a quick peek at the goats and goose before we head to a much needed McDonalds slide ride and lunch...