In School This Week...

Monday:  I had everything ready for the week to start this morning.  It sure is nice to have Kent and Katy be able to look at what they should be accomplishing for the day/week and know that they can work on their individual work without me having to look it up and tell them what they should do several times a day.  Their schedule also shows them what they need to work on directly with me and what we will be working on all together.  It was smooth sailing today and everyone was done with their school by quiet time.  Clark and Lissie were fussy all day.

Tuesday:  Morning came and I was going to make sure I had the kids work graded, before they started knowing that it was a busy day.  They were anticipating the day and started their school before they ever came downstairs, oh well.  I was invited to a luncheon with some other ladies from church and the kids got to spend some time away from me.  They had fun and I had fun.  Kent and Katy also did a great job doing their individual work and actually completed it all before the end of the day.  Kaomi got to practice following the directions on a color by number sheet and she did a good job staying in the lines while coloring.

Wednesday:  We started off with our together work and then I did reading and thinking skills with Kaomi.  Kent and Katy worked on some of their copywork and History, while I corrected Monday and Tuesday's work before they tried to continue on.  It's so much easier to correct mistakes right away rather than make the same mistake for several days in a row, so we made a point of correcting anything that needed to be fixed before moving on in that subject.  We all went outside during lunch break as well.  It was a beautiful, sunshiny day that wasn't too warm.

Thursday:  We didn't start altogether this morning, because Katy was working on her piano practice at starting time.  Kent was assigned to read Proverbs 2 and choose a verse that he thought was interesting.  He chose Proverbs 2:3-5.  Then he went to work on correcting yesterday's school and beginning his individual work.  Katy finished her piano practice and read Proverbs 2 and chose the same verses Kent chose to share with me.  She didn't know which ones Kent had chosen.  Kaomi started off her math with measuring.  We used a gold plastic coin as our standard of measure for several items.  Then she measured the sides of the table using Duplo Legos as her standard of measure.  Then she moved on to practicing tracing her letters properly on an erasable page.  After Lunch we read our science and everyone pretended to be a bird by trying out different types of flapping their wings.

Friday:  We worked in the classrooms at church and went to Kroger.  After we returned home Kent and Katy completed corrections from Thursday and English.

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Clark's First Step

This morning Clark was playing with the TV remote and I asked him to bring it to me.  He reached his hand out with it toward me and took 1 step toward me.  Then he realized that he wasn't touching the couch anymore and to the floor he went.  Then he brought me the remote with a big grin.  Knowing he was obeying Mommy made him smile, waiting for the good job and thank you he knew was coming when he handed it to me.

In School this Week...

Monday:  I really would like to have Monday's off from school.  So I can recoup from the weekend and be fully ready to start back to school Tuesday through Friday.  Since that isn't currently able to be the case we had a rough start to our week.  We are in Unit 9 this week.  Kent and Katy had some corrections to make from last week, so we worked on those first.  We went to the library since storytime was starting up today.  Then they each completed an English lesson.  Kent did Math, Katy did Cursive, we did History and Storytime together.  Kaomi practiced writing and learned how to write "g".  She also thought about big, medium and small in her math.  We checked "Goldilocks" out of the library for a story to go along with her math.

Tuesday:  I still haven't caught up, so we're winging it today.  It's a good thing Bigger Hearts for His Glory has the plans laid out so easy, even for days with no prep.  We did science reading and Kent and Katy did their notebooking page about Benjamin Franklin.  Kaomi and Felicity colored a picture of Benjamin Franklin with a kite.  Kent and Katy both worked on Math, Reading, and other individual work.  We finished our storytime book, Seabiscuit.  Usually, we really enjoy the books we read for storytime, but this one seemed to have evaded our interest.  While I found the story interesting and learned more about the history of horse racing, I think the book was just  a little bit on a higher level than my kids were ready for (I'm reading to K, 2 and 3).  Maybe it would have been okay for just Kent.  Usually they ask questions to help them understand something better, but there were very few questions this time around and they really didn't want me to read it each day at storytime.  They are all excited that we are done and now we can read something more fun for the rest of the week before we begin a new book next week.  Kaomi's reading lesson was a longer one so I opted to only do half of it today and we will do the rest of it tomorrow.  She is doing well, but becomes overwhelmed easily in one sitting if it is long or she struggles even just a little bit with something.  She was also excited to read more in Peter Cottontail.  We didn't get to math, so she asked Daddy to help her with her math after supper.

Wednesday:  Kaomi had her well-child visit first thing this morning, so we started school when we returned home.  We learned more about how a printing press worked in Benjamin Franklin's day and stamped each child's initials with a letter block and stamp pad on a paper.  We wrote a letter for English and worked on Math.  Kent and Katy also had poetry and other individual work for the day.

Thursday: We kicked off our school day with Bible time followed by Science.  We tried to make static electricity and failed, but then we moved on to talking about progress and robots and programing robots to do what you need them to do.  The three older children practiced following directions blindfolded trying to take a piece of candy to someone else who was stationed at the door.  They had fun and the un-blinfolded children had fun watching the one who was blindfolded trying not to run into any obstacles.  I didn't think to take any pictures until after we were done.  Kent and Katy moved on to English and other individual work for the rest of the morning.  Kaomi worked on reading and math.  Then we read more Peter Cottontail and she tried to draw Reddy Fox pretending to be dead.  I ended up drawing a sample on the whiteboard, then she did her best to draw her idea of what my sample looked like.  In the afternoon we started a new genre for storytime and reading.  We are working on historical fiction and our new storytime book is Understood Betsy.  I realized today that we must have been behind on our last storytime, when I thought we were a couple days ahead.  Oops!  We should have been starting this book on Monday.  That's okay we'll probably catch up with no problem.  Kent and Katy started their new books for reading today as well.  Since their reading gets spaced out a little more with them, I am trying to start the same genres around the same time.  Kent will pick up his missed genres from this year, next year since I have him on a two year schedule to complete his workbook.  Kent's book selections are for 4/5 reading level this year.  I'm thinking that I may do the same thing with Katy, but I will let her read the genres we missed covering this year, as she will have a different set of books to read next year.  She is on a Level 2 reading and will be on Level 3 next year.  I worked on math with Katy this afternoon, then she had a review to complete.  This week we got behind on her math so we will try to get caught up tomorrow, to be ready to start next week on schedule.  She's not lacking in skills, Mommy was just lacking in organization this week.  I'm looking forward to trying to be on top of things next week, again.



 
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Bountiful Basket #5

This is what came in our Bountiful Basket this past Saturday.

We ordered an organic basket, the Italian Veggie Pack and organic 9-grain bread.  I received the broccoli as a thank you for volunteering, as well.

We've been enjoying it.  I made quiche with chard, mushrooms, onoion, bacon and cheese and EVERYONE liked it.  We served fruit on the side.  I added zucchini, mushrooms and fresh basil to our pasta sauce.  I made fresh guacamole and spread it on tortillas and rolled them up with a slice of ham for my lunch yesterday.  I used fresh rosemary and onion in seasoning our roast chicken on Tuesday.

Update:  I also made Veggie Soup to serve with cornbread on Friday and Used the leftover soup with spicy sausage and rice on Saturday.

    

U-NEEKS Card Review

This month I had the opportunity to review some friendship cards by Dayspring through (in)courage.

Cards...they are fun to send and fun to get.  It makes my day when I receive an encouraging word from someone.  If it is a card or note that comes in my mailbox it serves as a reminder more than once that someone I know is thinking about and praying for me.

As I looked through the selection of cards I was sent, I thought the silly animal pictures on the front of them would make them perfect to send to kids and "kids at heart" or for kids to send.  Since I have a few children, who I thought might have fun picking a card for someone, I laid them out for everyone to choose one.  Then we read the inside and tried to think of someone they knew whom they could send some encouragement.  Kaomi chose to give her friendship card to her Sunday School teacher.  Katy's card was a birthday card so she sent it to her cousin who has a birthday next week.  Kent had a get well card and he chose to send it to someone in our Bible Study Group who wasn't feeling well on Sunday.  I chose to send my card of encouragement to a friend who recently had a death in their family.

This was a fun activity to do with my kids and they had to think who would fit with the card, rather than just sending it to whomever they were thinking they might want to write to.  It's a good way to get out of a rut.  

At first, I was a little disappointed with the simpleness of what was written inside the cards, but as we started working on this project I found that I liked that there was quite a bit of space inside them to personalize them as the sender wished to do.   The simpleness of the cards actually turned out to be something I liked after all.*

My challenge to you:  Pick a random card and see if you know someone that it fits.  Then send it to them right away.  Then do it again tomorrow.

     This month when you use the code SpecialShip! you can receive free shipping on any Dayspring Card Pack.

*These are my own opinions.  I received these cards to review and have not been compensated in any other way.

Felicity and Her Baby

This afternoon Felicity and Kaomi were playing with baby dolls.  Kaomi's doll had a dress on and Felicity kept trying to take her doll.  Felicity's doll didn't have a dress.  The next thing I know I see Felicity coming from the area of the stairs carrying Kaomi's Our Generation Doll, Jenny.  She sat down in hallway and removed the dress from Jenny and brought it to me to put on her baby.  So now there sits a doll upstairs with just a pair of stockings on.  Felicity was very happy to have a dress on her doll and she played contentedly without trying to take Kaomi's doll anymore.  It's a good thing that the Our Generation/American Girl doll dresses fit on our baby dolls.

In School this Week...

Monday:  Daddy had the day off of work.  No school!!!  We did swim, so that counts for exercise.

Tuesday:  This was a long day for school.  Katy decided that she would have an attitude all day, because she had to clean the bathroom (her regular Tuesday chore).  She didn't pay good attention and made several mistakes and decided she couldn't do her math.  She finished math with Daddy's supervision after supper and didn't get to play.  Kent had trouble following the directions for long division when he was working by himself.  No mater how many times I explained it and he seemed to understand it, he couldn't do the long division by himself.  Daddy tried to explain it to him after supper and Kent finally got all his problems correct.  I'm hoping he remembers now how to do it.  Kaomi did great in reading new words, in math learning about patterns and in writing.  We had time to read some of Peter Cottontail as well.  Felicity wanted me to read her a book from her preschool box about Joshua and the Battle of Jericho.  Then she made a trumpet craft to go with her story.

Wednesday:  Kaomi did great on her next reading lesson.  It seems like she's starting to understand how sounds fit together to make words.  She practiced making a pattern and wrote several words she has learned how to read.  Kent did a great job on his math review answering every problem correctly.  Katy did a great job on her math review, as well.  They both finished up their school work in a timely manner as well.

Thursday:  We got off to a late start.  I ended up just sending Kent and Katy to begin when I realized that it didn't look like we'd be able to start altogether anytime soon.  They finished all their individual work by lunchtime.  We had some friends over for a little while in the afternoon so we didn't work on anything we needed to do together.  We will try to get it all finished up tomorrow.  Kaomi did great again on her reading lesson.  She struggled a little when she forgot what sound the letter "g" makes, but she continued on and was able to complete the whole lesson.  Kent built a really tall Duplo Lego tower after lunch, we just a few interruptions of Lissie knocking it down and it falling over a couple times.

Friday:  We helped clean in the nursery at church this week.  Kent and Katy completed their English.

Fear of Man

"The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe." 

Proverbs 29:25

This is the verse that the kids have been learning for school this week.  I've found it thought provoking.

Are you caught in man's snare?  What are you afraid of?  Are you trusting God?

It is through trusting God that he will keep you safe.  He will take care of you and give you everything you need.

Other Highlights from Last Week (8/28 & 8/29/2012)

Katy made mashed cauliflower.

Clark got "stuck" between the loveseat and wall.

Kaomi's Birthday Pictures - 2012

Special Place Setting

Breakfast

Birthday Swim

Time for cake

Happy Birthday!

Would you like some tea?

Tea Party Cake

Presents!

Happy Birthday, Kaomi! - 2012

Today was Kaomi's birthday.  She requested toast for breakfast.  We went to church where she made sure that everyone we knew and some people we don't knew that she was turning five.  After church we had a nice brisket lunch, then Kent, Katy and Kaomi played quietly and had quiet time.

She wanted to go swimming and play a game.  She chose to play Zingo and then the older kids watched Princess Diaries while Lissie was still napping.  Around 5:15 pm we all went swimming and came inside to have nachos for dinner.  Then we had birthday cake and presents. 

I'll plan to post pictures tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, Kaomi!!!  We love you.

In School this Week...

Monday:  We needed to focus on rebooting our household so school was limited and we cleaned up and took care of some things around the house.  We focused on Reading, Math, Piano, Timeline and History Reading.  We are supposed to work on our timeline on Friday's but we are behind so I wanted to make sure we caught up on that today.  It doesn't take long and is fun to do as well.

Tuesday: Kent and Katy were both struggling with newer math concepts today.  I think they've both figured them out now.  Felicity enjoyed playing with some horses that I put in her preschool box this morning.  She's been begging to play with them since I put them in there yesterday and she could see them through the box.

Wednesday:  We are now doing a full day of school on Wednesdays and our day "off" will be on Fridays.  Our volunteering has switched back to Fridays for this semester therefore the change in our schedule.  School went well all around.  We completed almost all of our together stuff first thing in the morning which worked well.  All the kids enjoyed drawing pictures of services and goods for history.  Even Felicity wanted me to draw a barrel and a stethoscope on her paper for her to scribble over.  She wanted to be like the big kids.

Thursday:  I found out Katy didn't do her English lesson yesterday.  She didn't think she had time to do it.  We had a talk about making sure you let me know if there is something you don't think you can do for whatever reason.  We started our day off in the garden.  Kent and Katy picked onions and everyone helped with some garden cleanup and yard cleanup.  When we came back inside we started school and completed science right away.  The kids had fun making molds with plastic animals in Play-doh to help them understand about fossils better.

Kent thought he was moving on to a new topic in math, but when I checked his schedule that isn't until next week.  Boy was I relieved, as my brain was already full and I wasn't sure that I would be the best at explaining it so he would understand.  Come next week we can tackle quotients and remainders.  Kaomi did a good job on her hand writing.  She started learning lowercase "d".  She got a little confused when she was trying to write bed, but she figured it out with a little help from me.

Friday:  This is our day "off" of school.  We often still have a few things to do, but our focus isn't on school.  Kent and Katy quickly worked through their English lessons and happily went off to play.  I made peach jam.  I though I was going to have a couple helpers, but they were all playing so nicely that I didn't make any of them join me.  After lunch I made a peach cobbler for dessert tonight and then we had storytime.  Kaomi was pretending to spell a word that she can read, so I suggested she sound it out and tell the names of the letters she hears.  She was so excited when she spelled "an" correctly that she wanted to write it down.  She and Katy got out the magnetic board and letters and had fun making words.

The Hidden Art of Homemaking - Integration

In`te`gra´tion   Pronunciation: ĭn`tė`grā´shŭn

n.	1.
	1.	The act or process of making whole or entire.

The root of the word "integration" is "integer," and to pull from mathematics definitions, an integer is a whole number.  In the context of this discussion, the idea of integration suggests the unification of people across ages, ethnicities, and ideas.  It is well known that people generally don't get along very well, tending to be everything from critical to violent against one another's ideals and backgrounds.

Integration is something that is difficult to attain because God caused segregation at the Tower of Babel due to man's sin.   Yet, God has given us the ability to become more integrated through believing that his Son came to earth as a perfect baby, that he was crucified, and that he rose again on the third day.  The unifying power of this life changing belief is the only way to achieve any integration.  One day when Christ has returned from heaven and made a new world for those who love him we will become completely integrated.

Meanwhile, as homemakers we can introduce integration in the form of having our children involved and listening to conversations and discussions with people of various ages and ideas.  We can take our children to church to hear the Word of God preached.  We can be involved in activities with different ages, ethnicities, ideas etc.  We can be involved in our community.

Edith Schaeffer says, "There is an art to what is called in the Bible 'peacemaking', bringing together people of varied ages and backgrounds to help them understand each other...The most real 'something' you can do is within the family unit, as you open it up to others, to a cross-section of ages and peoples, or the gathering together of community life on a small scale."

*This post was co-written with Jeff. 

Bountiful Basket #4

This Saturday I got to take Kent, Katy, Felicity and Clark with me to pick up our baskets.  I hadn't checked my e-mail and shortly after we arrived we found out that the truck was running an hour behind schedule.  We decided to wait.  While we waited Kent, Katy and Felicity made some new friends and had fun playing.  Kent said later he knew two of the boys from Christian Service Brigade.  When we found out the truck was going to be even later I figured we might as well stay since the kids were having fun.  The truck finally came and the kids were glad when it was time to go home.  I wanted Kent and Katy to stay close by and help keep an eye on Clark (in the stroller) and Felicity.  They weren't too happy to leave their new friends, but they did a great job obeying and helping.  I was able to help close to them by helping put hatch chiles into bags before they went into the baskets.  They were ready to go home and eat lunch as soon as I had finished volunteering and picked up our order.  Even though the truck was late and I had to change my plans for the day we all had fun and it was worth the wait. 

I found that the organic basket's veggies by itself lasted about 1 week plus a day or two for our family.  The fruit usually lasts about 4 days.  This time I wasn't ordering any of the special veggie packs again so I thought we would try one conventional basket and one organic basket and see how they work out for our family.  I also ordered the Organic Honey Wheat Bread.

This is what came in our order.

The conventional basket is on the left of the table and included:  cherries, mangotangos?, grapefruit, Asian pears, champagne seedless grapes, Romaine lettuce, cauliflower, hatch chiles, brussel sprouts, tomatoes and yellow onions (not pictured, because I gave mine away).

The Organic Honey Wheat Bread is in the center.

On the right of the table is what was included in the organic basket:  cauliflower, green onions, iceberg lettuce, carrots, broccolette, rainbow chard, curly endive, a personal seedless watermelon, apples, yellow peaches and white peaches.

We received extra cherries and mangotangos as a thank you for volunteering.  I gave our yellow onions away as I have a couple on hand and some in my garden that are needing to be picked as well. 

I'm excited about the brussel sprouts I like them, but haven't had them in a long time.  Katy was excited about the cauliflower because she has a recipe that uses cauliflower in one of her magazines that she wants to try.  Clark thought the grapes were great.  Kent was excited about the peaches and Felicity likes the looks of the melon.  We opened the grapes as soon as we got home to have some with our lunch.

Does anyone know if you can use endive for anything besides salad?

Things I'm Thankful For

Katy, missing her tooth.

 I took these over the last week and thought I'd share a few thankful moments with you.

Daddy and Clark playing guitar together

Daddy's breakfast cafe.

Saturday Morning rainbow.  We saw this just before 8:00 am.

In School this Week...

On Monday we did really well accomplishing our planned schoolwork as well as taking a trip to the library.  Even Kent and Katy were excited to see the end of their school time as we sat down and worked on history and reading together before they went off on their own to finish up.  They weren't too happy about having to make corrections after quiet time, but if we can do it before the tomorrow then we can get started without having to back up first.  Felicity decided to get into trouble rubbing diaper rash cream all over her face when I was working on English with Katy.  After Jeff came home from work Felicity was playing with his phone and had music on.  The next thing I knew she was holding the phone up to her ear and "talking".  She had called Uncle Andrew and left a message and she had called Grammy.  Jeff called it "toddler dial".

On Tuesday Kaomi had fun learning about circles, squares and rectangles.  Then I gave her a pile to sort out.  She did a great job.  Felicity joined in identifying the different shapes as well.  While I was giving Katy her piano lesson, Felicity got into trouble by getting my wallet out of the diaper bag in my room and emptying most of its contents on the living room floor.

On Wednesday we worked at church and then Clark and Lissie had Dr. appointments in the afternoon.  So we didn't get any school done.

On Thursday Katy and I worked on Math.  She understands the concepts we are working on very well and is excited to do her math problems.  Kent completed his English in a timely fashion.  While I was reading some of Kaomi's story about Peter Cottontail I had given Felicity permission to use markers with the stipulation that they are only supposed to be used in her coloring book.  When I looked up partly through our story Felicity was coloring her arm pink.  The funny thing was she wasn't even looking at her arm while she was doing it.

On Friday we learned about how our body fights virus's by making antibodies.  Kent, Katy, and Kaomi each had either T-cells, B-cells or K-cells to use to attack a virus in the bloodstream paper on the couch.  I read the directions and added the antibodies.  Felicity was defiant and extra grumpy and wouldn't even take a good nap at nap-time.  I had to convince Kent that it wasn't okay to put a P on his map for history notebooking where Pennsylvania was supposed to be.  The directions said to label Philadelphia.  Katy had to do two English Lessons, because I couldn't find the one she did yesterday to check and she couldn't find it either.  She has a notebook for English, so I'm kind of interested to find out where the missing lesson that she said she did turns up.  I know she had been working on it yesterday because she came and asked me a couple random questions about the lesson.  Kaomi made it through about half of her reading lesson before deciding it was "too hard".  It was a little longer lesson, so we will repeat it and finish it next time.


           

The Hidden Art of Homemaking - Clothing

I had set my book aside during this series and just picked it back up, so I hope to finish my overview of each chapter over the next couple of weeks.


Chapter 12 is about clothing.  God gave the first clothes to Adam and Eve after they sinned in the Garden of Eden.  They were made of skins.  We don't know what kind of skins or what their clothes looked like.  Edith Schaeffer talks about how God "clothed" the fields with flowers.  There is much variety, beauty and intricacy upon closer examination of the flowers that God has created all around the world and for different seasons.  There is nothing wrong with wearing beautiful clothing.  She continues to talk about how, depending on where you live and your mission field, you may need to dress to "fit in" to the culture.  This doesn't mean that you would dress in ways that show parts of your body that shouldn't be revealed.  It just means that in order to reach those in your mission field you shouldn't dress above or beneath them.  You should dress to fit in where God has called you.

I found this chapter a little harder to read and I'm not sure that I agree with all that she presented, but in general I think I understood the point of the chapter.


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The Modest Mom

In School This Week...

On Monday we had some cousins over to swim and play, so we had a lighter school book schedule.

Our Sand Castles

On Tuesday we finished our Seashore Study with the older kids making sandcastles.  Felicity made a beach in a bottle that she can play with during school time.  It has water, sand, small shells, small pebbles and 3 colored rocks that she can try to find.  Kent stayed up late making corrections so we didn't have to do them on Wednesday.

Felicity's Beach in a Bottle

On Wednesday we helped restock supplies in some of the classrooms at church, ran an errand at Wal-mart and Kent and Katy each completed their English Lesson for the day.

On Thursday Kaomi and I made Lego towers for math.

On Friday we had some friends over on short notice.  We did science together and went to the playground.  I took pictures, but haven't downloaded them yet.  We ended up with a little lighter schedule this day as well.


        

Bountiful Basket #3

I picked up my Bountiful Basket order this past weekend and my Organic Basket included the following vegetables and fruits.

Romaine lettuce, fennel, green beans, cucumbers, yellow onions, garlic, peppers, corn, cantaloupe, bananas, mangoes, pluots.  I also volunteered and received as a thank you for volunteering another small head of Romaine lettuce and 2 bananas.  I ordered the Organic 9 grain bread they offer this time and it is very good.  I will probably order that again.  They ask that you volunteer once every 6 orders, but I find it fun to do something different, so I've volunteered every time I've ordered so far.

We've enjoyed salads this week and ate the corn and green beans with our supper tonight.  Katy finally lost one of her loose teeth in her corn on the cob, too.

Rain

After having two storms in the past week that had damaging winds and provided lots of damage in our neighborhood, last night's storm was enjoyable.  It had some thunder and lightening, but nothing severe.  Then it proceeded to rain most of the night.  It is a pleasant sound to hear in the night when the water is dripping off the eves.  Definitely not a summer sound here, as it usually doesn't rain much at this time of year.  It sounded more like a refreshing, gentle spring rain.  I'm sure the pool water is quite cool today as well.  I'm not planning on swimming today to find out either.