Bloggy Hopping, Curriculum Mapping, Plus, Coming Soon: Daily Dollar Downloads and Freebies for Followers!

Last week, Sue from The Homeschool Chick  invited me to come join the Hip Homeschool Hop that she is hosting...  

Her message said that she and a friend are going to start having prizes through a Twitter party.
I don't Tweet, but in case you do, the list is supposed to be posted today on Twitter... August 2nd: Twitter Party (use #hiphomeschool to join in the fun) at 8pm CST.
August 3rd: Hip Homeschool Hop begins! Sounds like fun, huh? 
Then, Kylie from Our Worldwide Classroom invited me to join her 
Making Friends Home School Hop...


Then, found out that Darcy from The Heart of the Matter is hosting  the 2010 Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop - Curriculum Week this week...
 
So, what is a girl to do who would like to do all three?    

Well, she does all three, of course!
So, Here Goes... 
 
 My Family & Me...
We are a Christian family, but we do not feel all that comfortable with sharing our faith on a blog, as we feel that our faith is very personal. We do not like to get into discussions that can end up being exclusive rather than inclusive...so for that reason, we do not usually share much at all in terms of our faith, our political preferences,  or anything that can make others feel like people are on opposing teams.

I  enjoy spending time with my family, taking in all that life has to offer us in The Sunshine State.  Am a former classroom-teacher turned stay-at-home mom & homeschooling mama  to two wonderful sons whom I adore, Big Bro, age 6, and Little Bro, age 4.

Big Bro loves science, history, riding his bike, and building things.

Little Bro loves to play, do art projects, and create puppet shows. Both love to swim, play, and travel.
They are usually best buddies...

 Dear Hubby is an excellent husband to me and daddy to our sons.

Dear Hubby is also great at other things such as building trains, putting up with all of the homeschooling materials in our home, and making possibly the world's best biscuits and chocolate chip pancakes.
We want our sons to grow to be happy, confident, loving, strong, kind, giving, honest, hard working, boys and eventually men. We hope that they will continue to love learning and living life to the fullest,  to be passionate about their interests, but to always remember to follow the Golden Rule, as well as "give back to others" and to "pay it forward", too...
 
A Little about Sunrise Learning Lab
Sunrise Learning Lab's blog grew out of a friendship with an awesome bloggy friend of mine,   
as well as one of her friends..together, they helped to get my Sunrise Learning Lab blog up and running. A big thank you to Jody, as well as to Lena... Be sure to pop by to say hello to them at Mommy Moment.

Curriculum & Materials...   We are kind of an eclectic mix of mostly Montessori and Malaguzzi / Reggio Emilia...

We also sprinkle in Handwriting Without Tears, Draw Write Now, Waseca Readers, 
For Little Ones Readers, Words Their Way, and some Singapore Math.

As far as Reggio Emilia inspired materials, we love blocks, art projects,  light tables, water tables, nature tables, any and all outdoor learning, and anything that arises from the interests of the boys...
We embrace spontaneous learning but we also like to have somewhat of a plan, so that we can seize the day but also have a bit of a rhyme and reason to what we do, too...
For that reason, I have been building a curriculum map for us to use as a family guide...
That pretty much sums up our curriculum in a nutshell... 
Have done posts about preliminary planning, in case anyone else wants to see this process... And one final thing... Am going to start offering Daily Dollar Downloads (Plus Special Freebies for Sunrise Learning Lab Followers & Subscribers) starting in a few days...