Off for the Holiday's or are we?

We are taking the Holiday's off. I didn't think that homeschooling was that big of a deal, then I took a break. I now realize how much I do. From planning and preparing, to helping the children from driving them different places. I do constant research, on what, when, how and why to teach things. The break has been really nice, but I am ready to get back into it. I made my Preschooler a number game with some containers that I got from the dollar store. There were 10 in the pack. I used a marker and wrote the number inside the container. I wrote the number on the outside of the lid. I wrote the number again in side the lid, the same number of times as the number, (for example, I wrote the number 4, 4 times.) because she knows how to count, but not what the numbers look like. She can count how many times it is written, and know which number it is. I also let her count things and put them in the containers such as buttons, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, dried beans, stickers, or anything I can think of. I am planning on doing Muffin Tin Meals. We will do a counting one with 1 thing in the first tray, so on up to 12 in the last tray. They really like it when we do a food theme to go along with what we are learning.
I let them choose what type of science and social studies they would like to learn about, and we learn it together. Right now, they have chosen space. We checked out tons of books from the library, we even bought some of them. We have done research on Nasa. We have just looked at the stars and talked about them. We are in the process of creating posters with the information we have collected.I really like lapbooking, because it gives them something to do with the information they learn rather than just learn it and move on. It also gives them a review of it as they are building the books. Then they can go back and review anytime they want. They really enjoy showing them off. For Christmas we got a telescope to help us look at space. We are all really excited about that. We also got a rock tumbler. Maybe our next unit will be about geology.
I am really excited about homeschooling and our journey to be a closer family. I am also really excited about this blog and documenting our memories.