School? On a Saturday?!

What do you mean, school on a Saturday?!

Yes, you heard that right!
We had school on Saturday, and the boys were just 'miserable' the entire time!! I mean really, who can have any sort of fun while you're running around forced to LEARN about animals at the zoo and eat ice cream at the same time!!!!

Our first visit was to the sea lions!
(the pink arrow points to the children ;) )



Elizabeth was a little taken back by them. They were darting here and there in their pool. We just had to tell her that they were like "doggies" and she started to like them a bit more... from a distance of course.



They have a small aquarium that we walked through. Sean enjoyed the jelly fish. I thought this picture turned out pretty neat.



Monkeys are always good for a laugh. This one managed to get a hold of a baby bottle that was more than likely dropped into the pen. He was having fun filling it up with water, pouring it out, standing on the bottle, rolling it around... all sorts of stuff to see how it "works".






I thought this was sweet, there was a mama monkey laying down nursing her lil'babe.




The boys got a few chances to act like monkeys themselves!!





Sean wanted to go see the Tapir next. Why? I dont know... crazy looking animal this one is!!






Of course we saw the giraffes, they have some cute babies!!



The elephants are always a great treat!!




Elizabeth wasn't all that impressed though, she was more interested in her snacks!




We got up close and personal with the Cheetahs. I did not use any zoom on this picture, he was really close!!
You can always count on the Cheetahs! I think he was enjoy the attention.



We also got a little too close for comfort to the Hippos. On this side there was glass "protecting" us but just a few steps over was the water and you could literally put your hand in the water if you reached over the edge - no bars or glass. Tubbie there, in the picture, got in the water and put on a show for us, which was pretty neat, but made mom and dad a bit nervous how close he was.


I thought this was a funny picture. Not quite sure what it says on the sign, we just assumed it meant not to walk down there. The picture is funny though, what does that mean? No "goose stepping" ?!



Here are some pretty flowers that were in the garden! I love spring time over here, it's so colorful!!!


Finally, just some quick snaps of Elizabeth I took before church this morning. :)

Books, books and more books!

Our first school year is slowly coming to a close here. I cant believe it's only been a year!! (I mean that in a good way.) It's amazing to thing that only a year ago we were battling bus bullies, Sean's stomach problems and frustration over homework lasting all night long. A lot has happened in this past year! I've learned a lot. The boys have learned A LOT - if I may say so! Ryan started the school year out just barely reading the word CAT and now easily reads on a 2nd grade level. Sean's reading has improved greatly!! He still has a few hiccups now and then but he is having a much easier time and is enjoying it a bit more (though he wont admit it ;) ). Both of the boys are able to read from the King James Bible which just impresses me so much! They enjoy it and even ask, "can we read from the Bible today?"

All of our school books have arrived for next year. I was going through the grammar and math workbooks I received from Christian Light Ed. Even the BOYS are excited about these!! The work in these books is a better match for the boys than what we are using this year. The lessons are shorter and not as much as a grind. Poor Ryan has been struggling this year with all the "seat work" he has to do during the day - and I shortened it drastically from what it actually plans for him to do. Sean struggles too for that matter but Sean is a bit older and also more used to it with being in public school for a while.

The news lately has had several very slanted articles on homeschooling lately. Using irresponsible parents as examples of the "norm" and painting a bad light. I can vouch on with first hand knowledge how much better homeschooling is than public school. The boys can't get away with "hiding in the crowd", glazed over eyes during lectures and just mouthing words during recital. Funny story: Ryan is the master of just "mouthing" the words and not actually saying anything when reciting things in a group and especially for singing. Every morning we do phonics drills: Sean, Ryan and I. We read through cards saying as a group things like "E-W says "ew" in flew." Both of the boys hate it! Haha! It only takes 5-10mins but it has helped Ryan get the foundation he needs and Sean's reading and spelling has improved greatly! Anyway!! As we're going through the cards Ryan starts just "mouthing" the words and not saying anything. I laughed and said, "Ryan! That's not going to work when it's just you and Sean saying these words - I can hear when you're not saying anything" Silly boy!!

Well I better go! Elizabeth's not feeling so well today and needs lots of cuddles. I'll end you with some pictures of Elizabeth making an absolute disaster of herself during breakfast the other day.

Happy Easter...Monday

Sorry, I'm a day late. Yesterday was just a busy busy Sunday (when is it not?)

We had a glorious Resurrection Sunday, Easter, whatever term you prefer! We don't do bunnies and easter eggs, we do put some candy in a basket and a small toy for them to enjoy. Then we got dressed up and headed off to church to celebrate the true reason for this holiday.

I have a lot of pictures to catch you up with. I've been holding out on you mostly because I haven't had the time to sit down and take them off my camera. So here ya go! Enjoy!! :)

Dennis and Elizabeth playing :) I love this picture!

This was taken last Wed night before church. I finally got her hair up in a bow and she KEPT it in! *Shock!* (the picture is a bit blurry because it's near impossible for her to sit still)

The boys' new hobby is to build new space crafts for their "guys" out of lego! They get pretty imaginative!
This first one is Ryan's:

And Sean's

And another of Sean's :

And another of Ryan's:

Easter Sunday:

We tried to take a quick picture before leaving for church. This is the best one I got... everyone kept moving, crying, looking in the wrong direction... you know, same ol' story!

We tried again at church, after service. We had a little more success this time.

On the way home Sunday night there was the most spectacular rainbow!! It has to be the brightest rainbow I've ever seen. They boys exclaimed, "you can even see the purple color". The pictures dont do it any justice but here are a few I took along the way!
What an amazing thing to see on Easter! God's promise, a rainbow, on Easter!! :)

It looked like it ended right into the city! Notice the double rainbow with it.

This is the road leading up to the base where we live, it was starting to fade by then but it was really amazing looking at the end of the road.

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....