A Special One Year Anniversary

I just wanted to let you all out there know that I am still on this planet, but I have been busier than busy. I have been digging deep on sorting out how our homeschool life really is going to work for us. I change my mind daily about it all. One thing is consistent though... I know that I want God to be at the center of it all. Amazingly, a year ago I would have told you that I thought it was just fine to keep God and school seperate. What an amazing journey this year has been for me and my family. In this very moment I am just realizing how strange it is that I am making that statement as a type.. you see today marks our One Year Anniversary of homeschooling!! Wow! I can't believe it.... This day one year ago was Savannah and Sierra's last day to attend public school. October 31, 2008 I sent Savannah to school telling her that it might be the last time she would be attending public school and her daddy told her in the car that morning that it would be (I wanted to not tell her and make it easy for her... He thought she needed to tell her friends goodbye... I didn't want teacher drama, etc... It was okay either way, I guess.)

I spent a great deal of time over the coming months feeling awful for Sierra because she loved her school and all it had to offer her. Sadly, it was a break away for her and a chance for her to shine. What I have witnessed in our home is something that was not immediate and still is a work in progress, but it is that we are learning to let her shine.... HERE. I struggle with feeling like I am not good enough to deal with her... see, she is very independent. She does not need others like some kids do, but in many ways she needs me more. She needs to feel important and special. Sometimes in a larger than average family a child like that gets kind of looked over. That is how I feel about her. She is confident and a hard working... focused and driven to succeed. She is willing to jump in and do her part, but as wonderful as that all seems it is easy to forget to focus on her needs. She is the child that always wanted to sleep in her OWN bed and left us heartbroken that she did not want to sleep with us. ;) We disturbed her from resting. ;( She was so happy to move out of our room and the baby bed and move on to her big girl bed alongside her older sister. I could lay her down for a nap and put on the Pooh Heffalump movie and she would always drift off to peaceful sleep when Kanga would sing Roo to sleep in the movie. I might note that I rocked Savannah to sleep for naps until she was four years old... or longer. Sierra was quite content with all this, but it left me with mommy guilt anyway. :) Due to birth order I never read to Sierra as much... or did anything as much as I did for Savannah. All of those things are normal, but I always felt I should be doing more for her. I also, had a fall and pregnancy loss when she was 1 1/2 which caused me to have some anxiety issues... always trying to be careful, etc.. I am sure I sat around way to much when I should have been up and busy with her. Just life's happenings really, but it all left me feeling like she always got the leftovers of me. So, taking her away from something she loved was a hard thing and caused me much guilt... once again! Guess what I know now?! I am not shortchanging her!! I am learning HOW TO focus on her. I will say that it has not felt that way, but sitting her now I can tell you that many of my schedule changes have been because I know that she is not getting her time that she needs for her learning and her Kindergarten experience. And in the last few weeks I have been scrapping all my plans to make sure we are "getting it right"... and I don't mean academics (gasp!) ... I mean the way we do our schooling... the time we spend together... the way we spend that time... the way we interact with one another... my attitude... their attitudes... I can finally see that this is all going to work. I can let it go and let it "happen". Sierra is shining, too.

Reflecting Back.... Some things that we have accomplished are: I taught Sierra her ABC's and am teaching her how to begin reading... her numbers... many other things.... NOT some other person, but ME taught her!!! Wow! And I must say that I really do not know what I am doing, but I work hard at it and we are learning together how to teach her. It is truly amazing! I have taught Savannah so many new concepts... many of which I can't imagine that she would learn so easily (if she were not fighting me all the way... [insert sarcastic grin])... basic addition & subtraction, complex addition & subtraction, 100, 000 place and beyond, Roman Numerals, fractions, telling time, punctuation, abbreviations, LOVING TO read vs. hating to read, cursive handwriting, multiplication (1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 10s, 11s, some 12s), beginning division, LOVING music vs. disliking music... the list goes on.

I think we have started to enjoy our schooling more... What a great way to celebrate our special anniversary!!! Anyway, I will catch you all up on my life a bit later... we are here... we are working hard... and I am evaluating carefully how I spend my time and unfortunately I have been taking a bit of a bloggy break. I need to update the MFW blogroll posts some and I want to show you some of things we have been up to... The Texas Renaissance Festival was great... our costumes were so fun.... we enjoyed some fall festivals.... we, I mean, the older girls each won 1st place in a costume contest tonight at a nearby fall festival! I was super thrilled since I made them!! They were super thrilled because their Momma made them and they got a bucket of fun and candy for a prize! OOoooohhh ... sorry... no pics right now... I will share later... but now I must go to bed.

Just Wanted To Say This....

Have YOU Hugged Your Kids Today?

And I am talking to myself here, too! I used to hug my kids all the time, but I have realized that there are days that I find myself wondering if I did hug each of them. Do you ever feel that way? My two littles are always in my arms, but sometimes I am finding that I am not hugging the older ones as much. We have to find that time... make that time...

I used to be able to say that I always hugged and kissed them at night, but now my husband puts the older ones in bed while I rock the babysometimes and I miss out on that goodnight hug and kiss. It is a source of frustration to me because I know that I need it and they need it.

Go HUG your kids!

Going Somewhere...

Well, it's going to be a short trip, but we ARE going somewhere. Tomorrow we will be heading out to the Texas Renaissance Festival for their School Days. I meant to post this a couple days ago, but I have been sooooooo busy. I was going to see if anyone out there is going to be attending, but by the time you tell me I will be on the road now. ;) Ooops!! Maybe I will see some of you there. Leave me a comment if you attend... just because I would love to know it even after the fact.

So, I am Missing In Action... and I do mean action... it has been crazy here! By the time I post my My Father's World updates I am going to have 3 weeks to post at once. Whew! I don't know how everyone else gets it done!! Seriously, I have been trying to put my computer aside and focus on schooling. If I let myself get on the computer I kind of "check out of reality". My focus has been on trying NOT to do that and I have been tackling some projects.... reorganizing closets, going through all the kids clothing, celebrating a third birthday for Caden, having a yard sale, tackling a filing nightmare, changing our schedule (AGAIN)... not really changing it, but rather juggling it because life gets messy and that schedule thing justs gets all scrambled around. Maybe that will be the way for a while. Some days I like to let the kids wake up when they want and play with each other... you know they are learning to enjoy one another and that is something that is not in our books completely... I just don't want to look back at a rigid schedule and wonder if I could have been more relaxed about it all. On Wednesday it was Caden's birthday and I just let all the kids play together until lunch time. It was so great to see them just buzzing through the house having fun as siblings. I thought of all those children sitting in desks staring at their papers and missing out on this... this is why I started homeschooling... togetherness and loving being together... not just schooling on a rigid schedule.

Anyway.... I am actually going somewhere outside the walls of this house!! Ah--ha--ha--ha!

Little Momma

Sierra has always been such a little Momma to Caden, but since Sahara has been born she has switched gears a bit. She has been more concerned with protecting Sahara from Caden and a little bit less of a little Momma to Caden. I guess that just kind of happens with us Momma's sometimes, doesn't it?! ;) Caden will be three on Wednesday and we have been talking about it for weeks now. While he was having his nap today we were looking at the calendar for the upcoming week and a half because it is going to be a bit hectic. I told them I HAD to talk with them about it all because I need full cooperation. Of course, Sierra can't read, so she saw that I had something written on the calendar of Wednesday and thought it was church. When Savannah and I told her it said, "Caden's b-day!" she burst into tears!!! We had no idea what was wrong with her. I asked her and in quite a bit of distress and tears she said, "Caden is going to be three!!" She was horrified. Savannah was trying to sound excited although she was confused, so she was saying, "Yay! Caden is going to be three!" Sierra said, "He's growing up!!"... and he's almost a MAN!!" Awwwww... my little Momma knows how I feel!! Actually, I thing she may be more distraught by it than ME!! :)

Laundry Zone Dilemnas

If you could only see how this house has changed inside since we moved in eight years ago! Whoa! It's no wonder I can't keep it clean, because I am always coming up with another project! A year and a half ago I would have told you that we were done with all the changes with a small exception. The tiny hallway area near the kitchen and the stairway area both needed a coat of paint. That little project has yet to be done, because I just can't settle on a paint color for hallways... I mean, it is just a hallway, but I DO NOT want white and color just seems bold... Anyway, I just keep changing things!!! I actually have a cool idea for that little hallway area that, if I get motivated I might just do soon and I will let you see. Anywhooooo ... this is about my Laundry Zone!! This house is over a 100 years old, so much of the layout does not make much sense sometimes. We removed a square water heater from the back left corner of this area that was the SIZE OF THE DRYER! Crazy! So, the house had this very old electric hot water heater and this other BLUE MONSTER gas hot water heater in the right corner... Uh... yeah, TWO hot water heaters... Why would you need two hot water heaters running through the same pipes?! Really!! When we replaced the floors in this area we decided one of them just needed to go. So imagine that there was a square hot water heater where you see my dryer.... What could that mean? That meant that the dryer and the washer were sitting beside each other along the wall on the right and also, alongside my upright freezer. So, I moved the dryer to the wall under the window and had my washer sitting beside the blue monster on the right side wall. I liked this setup better, but this area has always been a challenge. At one point I even bought double bi-fold doors to section this area off from my kitchen, but it just didn't feel right when I started putting the doors up. So, I thought that maybe a divider screen would work... No, I worried too much about the possiblity of it falling on my precious children's heads. Either way it would have closed this space off in a very awkward way and there would have not been much room to move around. All-in-all I decided to just live with it like it was and decorate it as part of my kitchen. And yes, I have those crazy bold colors in my kitchen, too. ;) My kitchen is in the center of this house with all the other rooms around it, which means there are NO windows. Even though it was painted light colors it was very depressing and had no life in it.... Gloomy with a capital "G". So, my latest change is to bring in modular chest of drawers set and move my washer and freezer further down just a bit. Oh yeah, I did have a couple of small shelf racks there, but you could see everything and it added to the clutter. I got this fabulous chest of drawers for about $2 (along with 13 others and three desks for... all under $43 total). Yes, once again you are reminded of how "frugal"I am. ;) I can't say I am in love with the color, but for closets and a laundry area I just don't get too concerned with color as long as it is not repulsive. So, I guess the reason I am showing this and sharing this information is to show that by making this simple change I now have a laundry folding and sorting are (other than just the top of the dryer). Amazingly, this small change makes a huge difference and the drawers are great storage for laundry supplies and food (this area also serves as my food pantry). And I will just say that I wanted to put everyones socks and underwear in these drawers, but my husband thought it was crazy... for now we won't do that, but I have a feeling I will make that change soon and I bet you he will like it!! So, the next thing I plan to do in this area is to GO UP! I was thinking a cabinet or a shelf that would hold laundry baskets. My husband suggested a wire shelf which I was saying no to, but I have been thinking that I could hand clothes up as we pull them out of the dryer and he might just be on to something. Laundry baskets could be stored on the shelf... all that jazz. And this is where the "dilemna" part comes in... GOING UP! What do ALL OF YOU SUGGEST... ANY TIPS FOR ME.... BRING IT ON!!! Remember I love frugal ideas, but I am not to cheap to spend money for a good cause. ;)

Meek and Quiet...

Ahhhhhh... to be meek and quiet... must be nice! I wanted share this for any of you out there who struggle in this area. I am reading this book right now:

Homeschooling With A Meek And Quiet Spirit

by Teri Maxwell

available on the http://www.titus2.com/ website.

(and I am not getting paid to advertise for them... just paid by the blessings it is to read their books!!)

I have to be totally honest here... I have never desired to have a meek and quiet spirit. Well, maybe a little, but for the most part I think we are raised thinking we are supposed to be bold and brassy and get it all "OUR WAY" all the time. I think we are so programmed to think that the world is all about US and what we can get out of it... We are generation of tantrum throwers and fit pitchers and we are much like infants falling on the floor hammering our fists away in a big ole ridiculous fit!! It is all about me, me, me and "what I need to get out of this" in every situation we encounter. This summer I attended a workshop and one of the presenters made a comment that when you begin your homeschooling journey God will start to work on your "issues". She confirmed for me what I had already been experiencing, but you think you must be the only one on the planet with "issues".

A few years ago I started watching the occasional episodes about this mega family on TLC, The Duggar Family. I think I have seen EVERY episode ... seriously, from when they only had thirteen children. I DVR it and watch it like it is my "How do I do it all?" session. My thoughts are that if they can do it with all those kiddos, then I can surely learn from them... and I have! I have learned so much and they even played a huge role in my decision to home school. But the thing that strikes me as interesting the most probably is their spirit about doing it all. How does one maintain that calm? And how did they ever get that way to begin with? How is it that they are so soft spoken and gentle, yet respected and obeyed? Was it all their parents doing? Or is it more than that? Is it simply a choice they have made... whether deliberately or not? Over the last year I have been tested and ~wow!~ have I ever failed hard! Homeschooling has brought out all my "issues"... I have had to search myself deeply. I desire that meek and quiet spirit that I see in the Duggar home, but I think I had resolved to the fact that it was just not "my personality" and that was something that I could not fully change; HOWEVER, I made another discovery this summer that would change AND CHALLENGE that thinking. I was so blessed to obtain some of the Maxwell books for a huge bargain (you know me.. gotta get it on the cheap... most of the time). I read the book "Manager's of Their Home School" (review coming one day) and I was quite to read that Teri Maxwell spent many years battling depression an anger issues. Wow! I had built her up in my mind to be one of "those" perfect homeschool moms! She clearly admits that is just not so and I have been so blessed by her sharing such personal details of her life to help others. I decided that I needed to read more about what she had to share and I went to the Titus2 website and ordered this book along with the study guide (for only a couple dollars more)... and a collection of family novels written by their daughter, which I can't hardly wait to read. "Homeschooling With A Meek And Quiet Spirit" is a thin book which it makes it very attainable to reach the goal of completing reading it. I am loving it.. and not because it is just enjoyable to read, but because I know it can help me change my spirit. I highly recommend it even if you have only small "issues". This is my plan for reading the book:

• I am going to read through it all the way one time, while answering the "Application Project pages" only in my mind for now.
• I am going to re-read the book along with the study guide and journal my thoughts for the "Application Project pages" and the questions that are included in the Study Guide.
• Then, I am going to do it, again.
• Then, again...and again... until who knows when.... that is my goal.

We should all desire a meek and quiet spirit... and we should all know that it is possible!!

MFW Adventures and K: Week 2

I am going to leave out the major details and just hit the highlights or what I most think others would want to see ... or what I think I will want to have captured in a few years. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask. Also, if I "add" to a project and you want the file just leave a comment and I will be happy to email you the file.

MFW Kindergarten: Week 2

We did the Creation Numbers a bit different because I wanted to be able to add it to their notebooks rather than have a poster on the wall. I will insert this in a pocket (page protector) in their notebooks. It is four sheets of paper folded in half and taped together. When it folds up it closes like a book; however, this left a blank page at the end and a blank green cover. We just can't have that, so I created a cover page for the kids to color. Also, I added a final page that says, "God Made Me!" and an empty square for the to draw a picture of themselves.

We also stapled our Creation Art Pages to make another book which I titled, "Creation: The First Seven Days, My Artistic Creation by: ______".

This is a sampling of our art for day 1 and day 2... I started to post them all, but you get the point.

MFW Adventures: Week 2

Ooooppss!! I added this photo sideways! I just wanted to show that it is easier for the little ones to form their boat over some sort of mold..... ahem, translation = old bowl, etc.. Some kids may find it frustrating to form a boat without a mold and I suspected that with my oldest (the perfectionist) and ran to find a "mold". It worked so well. We just turned it upside down and pushed the aluminum foil down to take the form. When you remove the bowl you can press the edges inside.

This is Savannah holding an empty bottle under the water to demonstrate that the bottle is not empty as it might appear. It is full of AIR! This experiment is in the Science With Air book.

The Santa Maria, The Nina, and The Pinta successfully sailed the Atlantic Ocean (bathtub) and we continued our Science With Air experiment by blowing our ships around the bathtub to make the AIR move them. I also demonstrated that fanning a sheet of paper with a book will make the paper race across the floor (mentioned in the book). The girls designed the sails all by themselves. I was just about to do that while they formed their aluminum foil boats when I decided that it would be best if I let them have a chance to "design" their sails... and I almost drew the shape of a sail for them, too... but then, I decided that it would be best if I let them have a chance to "design" their sails.... Guess what!! They did a great job with a ALL the details on their own and with me sitting back and saying to just do it how THEY wanted to. Sierra designed the one for the The Santa Maria and Savannah designed the ones for The Nina and The Pinta.

Sahara had a great time watching the ships sail across our ocean!! She got so excited. Poor Caden slept through it all,.... but awoke, found it in the bathtub and played "destroy the ships". He disassembled the sails and stuck them to the floor and continued floating the boats. ???

I had my girls do this part TOGETHER... on the one paper. I think it is great to get them to work together to create even a simple coloring page sometimes. They have to learn to take turns and wait on the other one or move over, etc.. They also learn to share in the design process rather than it all being "their way" only. I highly encourage having siblings do a "Togetherness Project" whether it is big or small.

In my post for the week 1 I mentioned my Posty Note Cheat Sheets that have been so helpful to me. Like I said... nothing fancy... and not totally necessary, but it is extremely helpful too me. Also, I make a copy of the current week's plan page and mark off the things we have accomplished. I am thinking that I will eventually start to make a copy of the current week's plan page and make my notes on that in colored ink or pencil and then, marked that off as we do it. Both systems would work .... anyway, that is my tip of the week. Make it work for you. You have to find those tricks that make things work for you. When I was a secretary (many moons ago) I would place outgoing mail on the floor by my seat. When I would get up to do something I would grab my pile of outgoing mail and take it to the mail room. Those type of things really help me remember to do things. I love to put posty notes on my steering wheel when I am doing errands... Those are the little things that help me survive the chaos! :)

My Father's World Groups

Someone mentioned to me that there were some Yahoo Groups for My Father's World curriculum users. Since I am familiar with and have joined two local Yahoo Groups for homeschoolers I knew already how great it is to have that contact with others, so I decided to check it out. I ended up joining four of the groups!! And I love it... already the I found out that they have a daily detailed lesson plan on the Yahoo Group for Kindergarten (although I have yet to get my computer to cooperate and open the files). After joining the My Father's World Families group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MFWFamilies/" I got this via email. It lists all of the Yahoo Groups for MFW! So, I thought I would share it with you all.

"In addition to the group you just joined (MFWFamilies), you may be interested in joining a yahoo group that is specific to the program you are using this year.

Here is MFW's official message board to check out as well
http://board.mfwbooks.com/index.php

Customer run Yahoo Groups for My Father’s World Curriculum MFW Families:

MFW Kindergarten
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MyFathersWorldKindergarten/

MFW 1st Grade
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MFW1STGRADE/

MFW Adventures
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MFWAdventures/

MFW Exploring Countries and Cultures
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/

MFW Creation to the Greeks
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/

MFW Rome to the Reformation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MFWRTR/

MFW Exploration to 1850
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MFW_EX1850/

MFW 1850-MOD
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MFW_1850MOD/

MFW Curriculum Swap
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mfwcurriculumswap/

MFW High School
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MFWHIGHSCHOOL

and if you are using or consider using Workboxes to organize your MFW day, here's a group to see, too
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MFWworkboxes/ "

Let me know if anyof the links do not work for you, please.

It's Going To Take Me Awhile...

It's going to take me awhile to get into posting these weekly My Father's World posts. Life happens in a crazy manner around here. Everyone is well, but we have three days this week that are full of scheduling conflicts! 8l I am finding that some days we have to skip our lessons or do only part of it, but I like that we can squeeze two days in together because the lesson activities go together so well. An example of that would be that today we were supposed to make our ships and sail them, but we had surprise company. So, tomorrow we will do that portion of the lesson along wth the Scinece with Air portion where you use air to blow paper around. We will blow the paper around and then , blow our ships around in the same manner. I love that we have that flexibility!

I am also trying to be very detailed with my posts... partially for my readers... partially as a way of journalling what we do in our homeschooling... partially so when I do these lessons again I will have it to look back on in a few years. Please bear with my over detailing. It won't bother me if you just scan for what is relevant to you! ;) It is all relevant to me, obviously. ;) Please let me know if there is anything specific you would like to see our version of. I will be happy to d a post or answer your questions!

Let the "Adventures" Begin... And "K" (MFW)

Name Art

Pics first, and then you can read about it all...

Savannah, Caden, and Sierra making their Jello for dessert prep.

Sierra being silly with her Red, White, & Blue dessert.... She played with it, but wouldn't eat it even though she thoroughly enjoyed being silly with it and making it.

More of the sillies.... Sierra thought it was hilarious to give her dessert "the bunny ears".


... and more of the sillies... Sierra had band-aid stickers all over her face when her daddy came home from work. On the table you can see they are working on their forever long coloring of the U.S. map. Notice how silly their daddy is! I can't imagine why the kids are so silly, can you!!?

Seriously, I did not realize until this moment how silly they were being and that I uploaded all silly pics! They said this experiment was stinky. I thought they were referring to the eggs... and where just acting silly. They were saying the salt water was stinky... strange children!

And here we have a non-silly pic... because my kids are NOT in it! ;) This is our egg experiment on density. VERY interesting! I might just graduate from elementary school myself!!

This is Savannah's bracelet. Notice the little cross charm to remind them that God guided us in choosing their names.

_____________________________________________________

NOTE: I wrote this post at the end of last week & have not had time to add the pics to it. We are no longer sick... yippeeeee!! ;)

I'm not so sure about that last schedule just, yet. I am starting to think that that finding order may not happen for awhile with my sickly kiddos. And yes, they are sick, again. I say it that way because everyone was fever free as of Monday, so we are having some (Caden & Sahara) with a relapse or possibly a sinus infection... or a different virus. This week was supposed to be our first week using My Father's World Kindergarten and Adventures In My Father's World. I knew at the beginning of the week that we were fever free, but we still had some kiddos that were feeling pretty rough... and a Momma needing more time to prepare and needing rest. :) With all that in mind, I made the decision that we would just wait until next week to begin with My Father's World.

... That was until.... Monday and Tuesday came and went... and I realized how bored the kids were with "just being". I was letting them lay around and rest or move around playing as they felt up to it. They never said they were bored, but it was obvious they were feeling better and needing more to occupy their day. I decided that we would just jump in and start My Father's World K and Adventures and see what we could do. I already knew that next week will likely not be a full schooling week, so I was thinking that we might accomplish one week in that two week time period. So this is what we have done this week:

My Father's World Kindergarten
I found it very helpful to make my self a "daily cheat sheet" for the activities, so I would not need to look at what the book says to do next (nothing fancy... just a handwritten posty note):
1-->Read the days Creation verse
-- Child Retells
-- Briefly Discuss
2-->Cut / Color the Creation # & Glue Up
-- Play "I Spy" for the #
3-->ABC Chart & "ABC Song"
-- Point as you sing
4-->Teach the Letters of the Day using ABC Game Cards
--(We did the whole alphabet because she knows this with few errors)
5-->ABC Chart & Button Games
--(We did the whole alphabet because she knows this with few errors)
6-->ABC Chart & Shuffled ABC Cards for letter name recognition
--(We did the whole alphabet because she knows this with few errors)
7-->Creation Book Page (Art)
8-->Music
--"This Is My Father's World"
(Note: We have already done a similar study of Creation for K this year using A Beka, so I am thinking I will double time this portion as I see fit without losing the "lessons". Also, some of the Alphabet and Numbers learning games are just too simple for Sierra, so we are going add difficulty.)

9/30/09 Wed = Week 1, Day 1 & 2 (double lesson sessions)
We followed the 8 Step plan above and we did two lesson sessions. I read the verse and we discussed it. As they do the Creation # and the Creation Day art page we are continually discussing the verses further, so that works out well. We really do not do too much of the "I Spy the #" game because Sierra has known her numbers for a couple of years. The focus for her with the numbers is ordinal (1st, 2nd, 3rd....). We are doing Steps 3 through 6 to reinforce what Sierra already knows and to test the ABCs that she is still stumbling with (t, g, h, m, n). We add our own hand motions to the music, so they really focus on what they are singing about and not just memorizing the words. For snacks today we had Oreo cookies to represent that God divided the light from the darkness on day one. Thank you to all you MFW bloggers out there for that tip. We also had water to drink to represent that God divided the water above and below the sky on day two (and having water was easy).
10/1/09 Thu = Week 1, Day 3 & 4 (double lesson sessions)
It went pretty much the same as the previous day. Again, we doubled up and did two days sessions. We included fresh apples and oranges in our lunch to represent the fruit that God created for us to enjoy.
10/2/09 Fri = Week 1, Day 5 (one lesson session)

Pretty much the same, again. We slowed down to one session today, because this momma is tired from the two little ones having fever, again. I also thought the Day 5 lesson could stand to get a little more attention. We spent more time with the art portions.

Note: Caden participated in some of this with us, but the little guy was feeling yucky and has a very short attention span. He did enjoy some art, but was much happier to lay in bed mostly in the bedroom next to us.

<---- I will post some pics for this next week when we have finished the Creation Week lesson.--->

Adventures In My Father's World

I am really getting into my little posty note "cheat sheets"! I tend to re-read things over and over as if I am going to miss something, so making myself a little mini-outline on a posty note is working well for me.

9/30/09 Wed thru 10/2/09 Fri = Week 1

This week I am going to journal "Adventures" a little differently than I did "K". We were working with a 3 day time frame, but we did get most of it squeezed in. I rearranged some of the activities to suit our crazy week (i.e. staying up to write the kid's a letter happened later in the week rather than at the beginning).

We talked about Savannah and Sierra's names, but this is a discussion that we have had often in our home. There is no Biblical significance in our choosing our children's first names, so this was something I really had to think hard on how to adapt for my children. Also, I have written a lot to my children in their baby books and I write in a journal occassionally for each of my children. I did not really feel I need to repeat the same information in this letter. I do like the idea of presenting them with a letter from Momma, though. So, I started the letter like the book's example and adding to it:

"When you meet someone new, one of the first things you learn is their name. Everyone has a name and names are very special. Names have meanings. Some parents choose their child's name strictly for the meaning and some parrents choose a name for other reasons. Either way, I believe God leads us in naming our children and He guides us in choosing just the right name. This is what I wrote in your baby book about your name....."

I went on to write the reason we liked each of their names and the story about how God gave their names to us. I also included various meanings/origins and a little personal story of some nicknames from their baby days. We wrote their names using a name art tracing technique and we made the name bracelets. We added a tiny little cross charm to their bracelets to remind them that God guided us in choosing their names. These little charms can be purchased at Wal-Mart (dz. for approx $3). I made and colored the timeline pieces ahead of time and we added the figures each day as we did our history. We started placing all our papers in their notebooks, but we still need to cutesy up the notebooks... we can do that throughout the year. I have already explained the Pledge to the kids, but it was nice to break it down a little more and reinforce what they have already learned. They really enjoyed making jello parfaits for dessert for lunch. I choose this version of the red, white, and blue snack idea because it would be so easy for the kids to completely make. We made the jello around 10:am and had it for lunch at noon. We did a lot of map tracking when we talked about the Vikings and Leif Ericsson. And on that topic... Boy, does it take a lot of time to color those maps!! I think I would have liked to have just colored the water and our individual state and then have the kids color the other states as they are studied later on. I am really liking the idea of reading the history lesson and having the kids use narration and dictation (Sierra just listened in on this part). My kids L~O~V~E sceince, so the egg experiment was a big hit... and I was pretty happy that this experiment did not involve anything but floating the egg. The girls were totally understanding this and predicting what would happen. Savannah knows that I check eggs in a glass of water to make sure they are not spoiled, if they are past the date on the carton. They will float if they are bad, so that was her first thought when we started the experiment and when the one egg was floating. It was fun to show her that that was not why it was floating by switching the two eggs. The same egg that was floating was now sinking and vice versa. ... and then, we stuck those eggs in fresh water and boiled them on the stove for dinner. ;) For the name thing I had planned to write the letters of their names on Ritz crackers with "squeeze cheese" and for a dessert write their names in marshmallow creme on graham crackers, but we just ran out of time (and energy ...and concern). :) I'll try to be better next week!

With all our sicklies this week there were some things that got totally left out, but all in all I think it went well for what we had to work with. The things that got total skipped were: 1)handwriting practice, but they do that when they write for other things; 2)Book Basket because I was not going to give the librarians and others the flu and we read some other stuff; 3)Nature Walk and Art, but we did drive around to yard sales on Saturday... does that count? No, well... we got more learning games, etc... so it's not all bad and we did get OUT of the house and had a chance to breathe fresh air!!! Works for me!!

Oh My... My Prizes! Using What We Have

Okay, I have stated on this blog that I am f~r~u~g~a~l and I believe in using what you have available to you. What I mean by that is that if you think you have to have "x" lacing cards and you just can't live without them, then go ahead and buy them; however, I believe that God will supply all our "needs" and a whole lot of our "wants". Sometimes we just have to be patient and wait. Now, that is just an example about the lacing cards, but it is a REAL example. In the last couple of days I have gotten a whole lot of "wants"... probably more than I will ever need really, but I will take them and do my best to use them. ;) Actually, I think that is going to be one of my new goals. I want to start using what I have!! That is one of the reasons that I have started making a database list of all the books, puzzles, and other learning items that I have on hand. I read something on a blog several months ago that said if you think you "need" to have new curriculum or learning tools to start making a list of all the things you have on hand. We try to buy used children's books whenever we can, so we have a lot of books on hand to choose from. This also eliminates a lot of the, "I spent $10(?) on that book and the kids (or us) do not even like it that much!" moments. You really don't care so much if you paid less than 50 cents for it.... and for us most of the time it is way less.

My husband came in from work on Wednesday and said that he had gone by Goodwill and that they were having a sale on books. All the books you can stuff in a bag for 99 cents. He had already bought some, but his taste is much different than mine. Since it is close by he kept the kids and I went to check it out. I filled 3 or 4 bags and I was surprised at how much could be stuffed in a bag. I know that I probably had 20 books per bag... easily 80+ books total. And some of them are so good... I would list them, but that is just not going to happen with so many books. I spent about $4 and walked away with several leveled readers, some Mad Libs, Science books (like DK), Teacher's Thematic Unit Studies, Bible Story books, and many wonderful children's books. Some of the books I got are very old, but in great shape. Actually, I just Googled one of them, "The Eye Book" by Theo. LeSeig, and this is what came up for a heading in the Google search:

The Eye Book by Dr. Seuss writing as Theo. LeSeig; illustrated by ...

(mine is older than the one pictured)
I immediately looked in the front of the book for a copyright, etc. and it has 1968 !!! And if you have any interest in Dr. Seusss at all you have got to go to this link and read this!! So, my book is a Dr. Seuss book written under his real name!!! I seriously just realized this while I am writing this post and now I can't don't quite care what I was writing about... I already knew that I had a few possibly collector's items in this loot, but now I am blown away.

Also, in my loot is an old "Hardy Boys" book #1 (1959).... ONE!!! "The Happy Little Handsaw" (1955) and is ultra-cute with deligthful artistry! "Junior Laurel Songs" (1917) is one of the books and it is some sort of song book. It says "Special Edition" on the front and the "Introduction" page says, "....Laurel Songs For Juniors is the fulfillment of a long-cherished purpose to bring a higher standard of music into the Junior classes of the public schools. ..." It is very interesting to me that even in 1917 there was struggle to try to bring "higher standard" into public schools!! There is a two page Introduction addressing that need for a "higher standard"... very interesting. Okay, on to the next book, "Frog Went A-Courtin'" (1955) and it is interesting to me that this book has an excerpt called "The Story of This Story" which elaborates on the origin of the story and that "has always been the kind of story that was told and sung to children, instead of being read to them." The excerpt tells the history behind the story and how the telling of the story rather than reading of it through the years caused it to change over the years. What a truly interesting concept! Not that it is really surprising, but it is just not something I usually think about. There is also a book that has me a bit intrigued... I feel like it is supposed to be in my hands, but I am not sure why. Do you ever have that happen? I have picked it up at least twice before when I have gone in Goodwill and put it back down not knowing what it was. Needless to say, it went into my bag on "fill-a-bag" day! It is "James Robb: Pioneer" and on the back it has a symbol that I have never seen before. The symbol says: "Home Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention, Our Land For Christ", so I am guessing that this is some sort of book used for missions work within the United States... I do not know and who is this James Robb? I was origianally thinking that it was a fictional story, but now I am thinking he may be an important figure in history. I am going to have to dig deeper and find out.

Okay, now back to the topic I think I was writing about before I suddenly became intrigued with my prizes and the possibility of some of these books being early printings and all the other details... really... back to the topic. I was talking about my educational finds/bargains. Also, at Goodwill I found this little treasure for $1.99 and can't wait to use it for Sierra for school. It is so wonderful I can't even tell you all about it right now. Later I will try to do a post just on this game. Meanwhile, if you enjoy Dr. Seuss stories or your little one does I would highly recommend this game set. When I was "borrowing" this picture I noticed that you can buy it used on Amazon, etc. for a good price. The original retail price on the back of this item is $39.99 .

Moving on to today's finds.... under my influence my husband has become a bit cheap... so now he likes to go to resale shops and yard sales as a family outing. LOL! I did not really want to go today because I had fully intended to make banana muffins and homemade waffles for breakfast. Sometime today I was going to bake a pumpkin pie with homemade crust and roast a chicken for dinner.... You would love to see the loopholes my husband throws in my plans on a daily basis. My plan should seriously be to NOT have a plan. ;) Anyway, we loaded in the car and hit the local (fabulous) donut shop, filled our kids with sugar, and started the yard sale venture. Right away we came to a yard sale with MORE books (children's Bible stories and you just can't pass that up) and a couple of kid foam craft kits. I have found that it is quite easy to find these little craft kits that people buy and never do!! The next yard sale was MORE books and at only 10 cents a book I left there with 60 MORE books (more Bible stories and timeless tales and teaching Unit Studies). Also, a Mosaic Tile Art Kit that was still sealed in the cellophane wrap (50 cents / Retail=$19.99).

Another great find is this 3 letter word game called "What's GNU?" (50 cents/Retails=$15.95) This is perfect for teaching Sierra since she is already starting to understand spelling words like c-a-t, d-o-g, ... They are going to love playing this for "school"! And back to what I was saying about those lacing cards..... Now keep in mind I was not patient, but I was selective this summer when I purchased basic lacing shapes from My Father's World, as well as, purchasing their Lowercase Foam Lacing Letters. I have to admit I have still been wanting to get more lacing cards. Just Imagine my JOY when I came across these eeBoo Under The Sea Lacing Cards!!! Now their cocker spaniel chewed the corner of the box, but otherwise they are in mint condition! (50 cents/Retail=$14.95) A little while later I totally missed this one, but Sierra came running over to me saying, "Momma will you please buy me these flashcards?" Uh-YEAH! No brainer... of course, I will! (free/Retail=$9.95)... my kids get a lot of freebies just for looking so darn cute! Thanks freebie lady! (bad pic, but I am being lazy and using pics of the internet)... Just for some detail, these flashcards have a picture on them and you pull it apart some and see the letter and word for the picture. I don't even think Sierra realizes that they pull apart. She just saw Dora and wanted them. She is going to think these are way cool!
We droved a bit further and hit a couple more yard sales... Ended up with a toy horse, some jewelry for the kids, some size 18 months clothing for Stinky Doodles (Sahara), some princess blankets, and a few costumes, and a free end table (that we don't need... hmmm... wonder what I'll do with that... LOL!) ... oh and a couple of costumes because we are big on costumes and dress-up around here... And that was all we could stand of the yard sale list!! Whew! It was hard work.... so, off to the biggest town around here and we had pizza for lunch and tried to acquire a not-so-easy to find pacifier, then ventured to Dollar Tree for Sierra to spend her tooth money and scored a shield and foam sword for Caden's Renaissance Festival costume!! Yippee!! Cody started complaining of body aches (Eeeekkkk!!) and we came home. I made the banana muffins for tomorrow morning and Waffles for the kiddos for dinner... That chicken is gonna have to wait until tomorrow to roast! ;) .. and that pumpkin pie... Another crazy day with my crazy family!!