Updates

Whew! I haven't updated you all in a while so I figured I will take a min and give a quick run-down of what's been going on for us over here.

After all the home school talk before about what I'm going to use next year, it has finally been settled, bought and hopefully here next week for us to look through. I ended up getting the Sonlight Core 1+2 and their science2 program (with appropriate age level readers for the boys). I didn't get their Usborne World History book though after reading some of the reviews, I substituted a different book in its place. That covers, reading, literature, history and science. Then I have Language arts and math coming in from Christian Light Education. They will be workbooks, again, but you really cant get around that for grammar and math. For Bible, as much as it saddens me to give up the Abeka cards, I've decided to do on our own. We will basically read a passage from the Bible and discuss it together on what it means and how we can apply it into our lives. I've bought a book called The Child's Story Bible, it's an old book first published in 1930s but I will be using that mostly to guide me on where to go and maybe for pictures. :)

In another note, we have been busy this past week in the Mission's conference here at church. It was a great success!! We had a guest pastor (is that the right word? speaker?) from another church some down and preach all week. Boy! He was really good. God has shown me this week some weak areas that I need to work on - so please pray for me. On Saturday, to finish up the "festivities" we had a big international banquet. Everyone brought in foods from different nations. We have some dear friends in the church from Cameroon and they brought in a dish - I was real excited about trying something from their country. They had to give me some instruction on how to eat it (haha!) but it was pretty good!! It was African Yams and greens with beef. The greens and beef were kind of in a thick sauce and you ate them all together. I'm a novice, so forgive my explanation, it was good though! ;)

This week, Dennis has off on leave so we're planning on doing a little local site seeing. Hopefully the weather will be nice. Of course, last week it was warm and sunny almost every day. I hope it is the same this week!

Elizabeth walking!!!!

Amazingly enough I was able to catch the last few steps on video of Elizabeth's first walk all by herself across the room. Before now, she had only taken 2 or 3 steps on her own! Today, she started at one end of the room and made it all the way across (I just only caught the last little bit on camera).

Yay Elizabeth!!

Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...
windy and cold, snow and ice partially covering the ground... Spring, where art thou!

I am thinking...
(purposely left blank)

I am thankful for...
a calm, quiet (as quiet as a house full of children can be), uneventful day!!

From the learning rooms...
Sean is learning how to multiply fractions and how to identify adverbs,
Ryan is finishing up learning his final phonics, and how to add digits with 10s place,
both boys are learning about the US Revolution, how to identify different birds in science, and we just finished the last part of the movie The Gospel of John and now are going to finish up our study on the Life of Jesus

From the kitchen...
Tonight we had tacos and salad,
tomorrow I'm planning Chicken Stir Fry over Rice,
the rest of the week is a bit up in the air

I am wearing...
the usual uniform: sweatshirt and jeans

I am going...
to Elizabeth's 1 yr doctor's appointment tomorrow... the dreaded shots
I am reading...
The Screwtape Letters - trying to finish it up before I have to return it to the library

I am hoping...
that this week stays uneventful
I am hearing...
daddy playing with his baby girl

Around the house...
the usual evening at our household. Children running amuck and daddy, well, being his normal self! (if you know him, you know what I mean ;) )haha!


A few plans for the rest of the week:
the rest of the week, hopefully, should remain uneventful! I really hope there are no surprises! We have Elizabeth's doc appt, and a water delivery scheduled for tomorrow, have to make it to the library by Thurs to get our books in on time and on Friday there is a Children's night at church. The boys are going to be learning to draw from our Pastor and us girls will be working on quilt squares.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...
Copper's Baby picture
(just because he gets left out of the blog sometimes)

More Simple Woman's Daybook go here: http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com/

Something to add a little JOY to your day!

I caught Ryan and Elizabeth playing today....

Science and art...

... who says they don't go well together?!

Today, the boys did a special art project. They were assigned a task to create a new creature here on Earth.

I said, "What if God told you that you could design your very own creature? Where would he live? What would he eat?"

(you might have to click on these pictures to see the details)


The wheels began turning and the pencils and crayons began scribbling!

Sean created a "Water Lion". He can swim and live in the water but also fly in the air. He eats meat. And just like sea horses sleep with their tail wrapped around a weed... so do these amazing Water Lions. ;)

(notice the green weed extending from the tail - on the right)


Ryan created "Eyeball Eaters". Amazingly enough, despite the name, they eat salad and carrots, not eyeballs. They spend time in the forest but their home is actually in a volcano. They are nocturnal and can see very well at night. The females are very colorful and the males are plainly colored.


(notice the momma Eyeball Eater on the bottom, with her babies)

The boys had fun with their project today. I hope you had fun as well.

OH! and not to forget Elizabeth's special assignment.... learn to walk! HA!HA!

Blustery!

Phew! What a week! The weather has been really spring like and just nice to be out and about it. Today, the wind is HOWLING though. Supposedly (from what I can gather) there is a big storm blowing through. We havent seen much rain from it but the wind is gusting up to 60mph or so.

I think we've finally come to a decision on what we're going to use to home school next year. After several weeks of going back and forth between Sonlight and My Father's World (see this post here) and my poor husband being driven batty by me switching back and forth every other day on my decision, it seems that our choice is going to be neither of them. LOL!!! I have found one named Heart of Dakota (I will have the link to the right if you want to have a looksie). It seems to have best of both worlds of My Father's World and Sonlight. It is Christ centered and completely customizable, even down to the point that you can pick books that are boy and girl interest (also has a "classics" list for both boy and girl). The reading program looks excellent!

The negatives - there's always going to be one or two. So far the curriculum stops at about 8-9th grade. The author (who is very active on their message boards, answering questions) says that she is currently working on 9th grade/high school curriculum. Sean has a ways to go before he will be at that point so I can pray that it will be ready by then. That was a big problem for me, when I was first looking at this curriculum. I originally disregarded it because I didn't want to fall in love with something and then have to begin a search for new curriculum when the boys get to that age.

The other negative is that the boys will need to be on their own program. Technically, they CAN be together. If you look at their curriculum, you'll see each set can cover a broad age range. However, if I were to put them in the same year, I think Ryan would have too many problems next year... there's a bit of a jump academically between those 2 curriculums for his age.

Anyway, go take a look (link Heart of Dakota on the right column of the page just below the About Me section). I'm planning on putting Ryan in "Beyond Little Hearts for his Glory" and Sean in "Bigger Hearts for His Glory" with extensions for 5th grade. I will be using their language program. It looks REALLY good and uses Rod and Staff (another christian homeschool company) but I wont be using their offered math program. I will be using our own Math program for that - again, it's such a plus how customizable this program is!!

They have a preschool one for two year olds as well... but I think Elizabeth has a little while until she needs anything like that... haha! She just has fun pointing at the phonics boards as the boys say them and pretending she's saying them too!

Joy

I thought you might enjoy seeing some old pictures of our JOY. Children are truely a blessing from God!




"...The joy of the LORD is your strength."(Nehemiah 8:10)



"Thou wilt show me the path of life in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore."(Psalm 16:11)

(May 2003 - Sean 2, Ryan 5mos)


"...Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."(Psalm 30:5)

"Restore unto me they joy of they salvation; and uphold me with they free spirit."(Psalm 51:12)

(Mar 2004 - Sean 3, Ryan 1yr)

"O let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah."(Psalm 67:4)


"Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation."(Hebakkuk 3:18)

(April 2005 - Sean 4, Ryan2yrs)


"The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing."(Zephaniah 3:17)

(Oct 2006 - Sean 6, Ryan 4yr)

"And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people."(Luke 2:10)

"Likewise, I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."(Luke 15:10)

(Sept 2007 - Sean 7, Ryan 5yr)


"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost."(Romans 15:13)

(May 2008- Sean 7yr, Ryan 5yr)

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."(Galatians 5:22-23)

(Thanksgiving 2009 - Sean 9yr, Ryan6yr)


"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."(Hebrews 12:2)

(Feb 2010 - Ryan 7yr, Elizabeth 1yr )
(No 2010 pictures with all three of them together yet- I'll get to it ;) )

"Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." (1Peter 1:8)