Faithfulness!

These past months have been challenging to say the least, both as a mom & a homeschooling teacher. My oldest child turned 18 and a couple of days later took off to another state to get married before finishing school. It was heartbreaking! She always seemed to be such a good natured girl; we only argued a couple of times in her life. We hugged, laughed & cried together, shared things (or so I thought). I was floored, my heart had been shattered into a million pieces. What had I done wrong? I was angry with God; hadn't I been obedient to the call? Is this what happens when I trust Him? But He gives us all the choice. We can choose to be selfish and follow our own desires no matter who it hurts or we can choose to obey no matter how hard that may be. God is faithful, I have enough experience with Him to know that. He always honors His promises. Not always in the way that we want but in what is best for us. I'm always telling my children that I love them & want what's best for them, but that doesn't mean I always give them what they want when they want it. They see it as me being mean but in reality it's because I love them and want good things for them. How much more does God love us?! My relationship with my Heavenly Father has grown so much over these last months. I've learned some pretty difficult lessons but to know that I have a Father that is willing to teach me; to spend that kind of time with and on me. He has spent each day with His arms around me, giving me strength, correcting me, guiding me. He showed me that I had made idols of my children. I had placed them above my husband. My wonderful, funny, imperfect husband. Through this I have grown to love him more. My husband's support has been amazing. We were truly made for each other; our strengths and weaknesses seem to balance us out as one pretty good person. Through all of this I want to glorify God, I've not always done that. I've let my emotions get the best of me at times and lashed out in anger, been overly harsh. But God was always there forgiving me and helping me to seek forgiveness from those whom I had hurt. I've made so many mistakes in my life; a sinner in need of a Savior. I'm so glad that He sent Jesus to be that Savior for me. There are no doubts, the heart knows truth and the Truth has set me free. I'm still a bit angry and hurt but God is still working on me. I need people to pray that I can forgive the way that I've been forgiven, that I can love the way that I am loved. I tell my children we can't live in the past. We accept responsibility for our mistakes, seek forgiveness, make retribution if possible, accept the consequences, and move forward allowing God to take care of the rest. He will, He is faithful.



"The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He." Deuteronomy 32:5

"For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations." Psalm 100:5

"But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness." Romans 6:17-18

J studying his US map

Kitten tracing her letter X

Some of Kitten's previous X work

Kitten coloring by letter

Moo taking his math test

Reading his story

Some outdoor water play & work

Outdoor Fun!

An afternoon of P.E. (Enjoying the weather)



Working with the letter V. Making Vv out of play-doh.

Making a vulture with her pattern blocks & she had worked a maze in a vase.

Animals

This is a long vowel, short vowel file folder game that I downloaded from another site. I can't remember which one but it's one of the ones in my side bar. This is a little above her head but just what Moo needed and she enjoyed playing.

Mom & baby animal match game from same site as above.

These are some animal counting cards that I created. She counts the animals and circles the correct number at the bottom of the card. I laminated the cards so she can use a dry erase marker and they can be reused.

This file folder game was downloaded from the same site as the first two. She puts the animals in the correct column; farm animal, zoo animal, or sea animal. As you can see Moo can't wait to help.

2 Day School Week & Math Bags

Kitten has been going out into the horse pasture to pick me these pretty purple "flowers" everyday because purple is my favorite color & "I'm her favorite mommy." So sweet!

This is one of the Math Center bags that I made today for my soon to be Kindergartner & 2nd grader. They're Take It To Your Seat Math Centers by Evan Moor.

You choose several insects for your jar, separate them by type, then add up how many you have altogether. Great practice!

As you can see I didn't take the time to cut out closely around the insects; I might do this later. It only took about 15-20 minutes to make. Everything I need is in the book except the bags (2 for a $1 at Dollar Tree). I also laminated everything so it can be used often. I'll add a dry erase marker and eraser to the bag when it's in our days plan. Best of all these fold flat and fit perfectly in our workboxes.

We only had 2 days of school this week to make up for our sick days a few weeks back. But Kitten wanted to do school on another day, also. She was so cute sounding out her letter ladder blends by herself (we usually do this together).
Here she's circling the pictures that start with the letter U. We'll do more U activities next week and the number 15.


I've been purchasing some of my curriculum for the upcoming school year. The Math Centers was one item; I'll get 12 math activities from this. I also got a reading readiness file folder game making book. I plan on making some of these this afternoon and this weekend. I'll post more next week about out school plans for 2010-2011.

T - Week, Number 14

This week Kitten reviewed the letter T. We ate Twinkies, watched Tinkerbell, counted tulips, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Finding the hidden T words

This one: I printed off the letters of the alphabet from worksheet.com (you can make this easily at home) and as I called out words she would place a magnet on the beginning letter of that word. She loved it!

Kitten putting her tulips in numerical order.


Moo-Man was having attitude problems this week so we'll be working on that in the weeks to come. He was born grumpy so it's an ongoing process. Hopefully, I'll be posting more about him (good things) in the upcoming weeks. He did his regular Horizon's Math, copywork (writing), and phonics reader, but also a maze, hidden pictures, scissors practice, beginning art practice from www.donnayoung.org, etc. I get disappointed that my children aren't always as enthusiastic about learning as I would like them to be but I hope that will change for the upcoming school year.

Please pray for us as we continue this journey.

S Week

I missed last week because 5 out of 6 of us were sick. Thankfully nothing more than a head cold but enough sinus pain and pressure to keep us from school 3 of the 5 days.
This week was S week with my littlest. I don't have a lot of pictures because it was high drama at my house with my 17 year old daughter getting engaged (though not unexpected still a disappointment). Thankfully we serve a great God and she is in His hands and He will take care of it all. She will never be away from His sight. The situation is being bathed in prayer. (Thank you to all who are praying.)
Anyway, back to the letter Ss. Kitten worked a sailboat and snail maze, put s word stickers on her S page, worked on recognizing the number 13, and practicing her blend ladders (confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com). She also practiced matching her ABC's in a Springtime file folder game (1+1+1=1.blogspot.com). We baked chocolate chip cookies today just for fun and tomorrow she'll help me make pizza's. She loves to help cook, wash dishes, and clean. She's my big helper and a cookie thief.

Kitten dotting 13 apples


Since the weather was so nice earlier this week (Mon - Wed) I let Moo-Man just do the 3 R's and the rest of the time outside playing basketball, jumping on the trampoline, collecting rocks, and playing animals with Kitten. Thur. & Fri. it rained but it was warm so he still played out in the rain. He had a blast! Hopefully next week we'll get back to the plan but I'm thankful that homeschooling is so flexible when necessary. I did run out of printer ink so as long as they arrive by tomorrow and I get everything printed off that I need for the week then we'll be okay. But if not, well hey, we'll still be okay! Yah, homeschooling, Yah God!

Letters Q & R

Last weekend (Friday & Saturday) were my teacher work days. I had planned to post but ran out of time. I was able to get quite a bit accomplished and I believe that I'll be able to purchase the necessary curriculum for well under my budget and that's a huge blessing because even though the budget is reduced this year it was still stretched. As the saying goes "A dollar saved is a dollar earned" and that's about the only way for me to earn any money is by saving it. I watched my Charlotte Mason Seminar and was rejuvenated in my desire to apply a lot of Charlotte's ideas. As usual, I'm excited about the upcoming year and now am back on track for finishing this year well.
My parents are here visiting this week so I didn't get any pictures of our R activities but I got most of my ideas and resources from ConfessionsofaHomeschooler.blogspot.com. We made rainbow crayons, hopped like rabbits, ran, rolled, and just had lots of fun.

Here is Kitten with her pattern blocks forming a quetzel.


She is coloring by number her quilt. (ConfessionsofaHomeschooler.blogspot.com)


For Qq last week I created a counting/number match game for Kitten. I had some crown cut-outs from The Dollar Tree (we called them Queen's crowns), I wrote the numbers 1 - 25 on the crowns and gave her some shiny pompoms to place on them. She counted out the "jewels" to match the number on the crown.


Moo-Man practicing his math with this place value game from filefolderfun.com


Hopefully I'll get back on track for next week, although we do have lots of appointments next week. Oh well, it's all in God's Hands!

Planning Week

No school this week. We do 5 weeks on and 1 week off from the first Monday in August until the first Friday in June (taking the week of Thanksgiving off and 2 weeks for Christmas). The thinking is that I can recharge my juices, reevaluate our school year plans, and make any necessary adjustments. But sometimes (most of the time) it ends up being such a busy week of "other stuff" that I don't get as much done as I intended. So yesterday I did some planning, reevaluating and I will today and tomorrow God willing.
Usually in February I begin planning for the next school year. Yes, I know that it's early but I'm not good under pressure, so I allot myself plenty of time for setting learning goals, perusing catalogs, budgeting, purchasing, and planning our school year. My problem this year is that since we are in the process of moving 10 hours away all of next years school books from years past are already there and I'm here (of course). Our budget is extremely tight this year and I really want to use what I already have so with the exception of a couple of items that I know that we'll be needing it looks like I'll be missing the great spring sales. Also, I really won't be able to plan thoroughly until July. (Yikes!) July is typically a busy month anyway with several birthdays, a family reunion, this year a move, unpacking all of those books, and now school planning. I did package the grade level books in their own boxes and label them Kindergarten for Kitten, 2nd grade for Moo-Man, and 9th grade for the big man. My oldest graduates this June so that's one less person to plan for. I'm stressed just thinking about it, but it's in God's hands and we may just start later in August. That's the great thing about homeschooling; you can adapt and adjust. Praise God, He is good!
I did get a great idea from another blog (Smooth Stones Academy) about planning an in-school work day or a personnal homeschool conference. That's what I'm working on now so hopefully I'll get a jump on all that July planning and will have everything necessary to do the job when the time comes. I will let my oldest dd take control next Friday and my dh can handle it on Saturday. Yah! I'm excited just thinking about it.

The Letter P

Moo Man continued with his Horizon's 1st grade math.

Kitten circled her P words.

Moo Man playing our preposition game. (He's under the table.)

Kitten working her puppy maze.

Kitten worked her penguin tangram puzzle and did very well.

Kitten dressed up as a princess and Moo Man is a cowboy!
They love playing dress-up.

Moo Man is also copying 'The Lord's Prayer' for writing practice and is on Sonlight's Phonics book 2 for reading practice. He and Kitten also practiced cutting out various shapes and for science we learned about the rain forest animals and ocean animals. They watched a couple of National Geographic movies from Netflix, placed their animal stickers in their books, and played a Rain forest Game. They are now watching Finding Nemo. Kitten is also working on number recognition so this week she practiced the number 11 (I created some different worksheets for her since I can't seem to find anything that goes past the number 10). They ate popsicles, pretzels, pop-tarts, and pizza. They created with play-doh and painted.

The 8th grader still reading 'The Dog Crusoe' and about to start his Saxon math.

Senior doing her Consumer Math.

Senior about to start her Biology 2 (notice that she loves her camo coat in the winter; we rarely see her without it) and 8th grader doing his spelling.

O week & Snow Fun!

This week was O week for the littlest. She practiced matching her lowercase o's with her uppercase O's, played an owl dice coloring game (addition), practiced some motor skills by lacing the letter O (I got these from ConfessionsofaHomeschooler.blogspot.com), and she even made an owl puppet.





The first grader worked on telling time, graphing, and addition & subtraction facts for math. He reviewed sight words and some of his previous phonics readers. We read about where milk comes from and how it gets to us. He also made an owl puppet and played the owl dice coloring game. I get a lot of my printables from Makinglearningfun.com and worksheetworks.com.




We got our workboxes this week and the littles really loved just going and grabbing their boxes when they were ready for them and it was so nice having everything ready to go so quickly. Usually I get everything printed that I need but it's just put in a pile on the table. I sort through them and grab what we need, when we need it but it takes a while and then I have to grab the scissors for this and the crayons for that and the glue for the other. With the workboxes I can separate each subject and place all of the necessary supplies in the appropriate box. It saves a lot of time for me and gets rid of the pile on the table. Yay!

Lots of snow fun today! Everyone was so excited (even dad got in on the fun!)

N week

This week was N week for my preschooler. She made a necklace, practiced writing her N's in finger paint, watched the Nutcracker, ate Nuggets (both Hershey's chocolate and chicken) and we read Miss Nelson is Missing.
My Kindergartner played the heart contractions game and the chicks place value game from filefolderfun.com. He practiced his phonics from Sonlight and his Horizon's math. I printed off The Lord's Prayer copywork pages from SimplyCharlotteMason.com and he practiced his handwriting while he works on memorizing the Lord's Prayer.

Yesterday we had a fun day out. I surprised the children with a picnic at our local indoor inflatable playground and a couple of hours of jumping and sliding. Then we went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakquel. They had a great time and talked about it all evening. We can't do this often but it's nice when we can.

No pictures this week; maybe next time.

M week

This week we're learning the letter M and it's sound for my preschooler. We watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, ate meatball sandwiches, played music, counted money (my 1st grader), placed the mail, and learned about manners.

Playing their manners file folder game: (I got this, the money, and mail file folder games at www.filefolderfun.com)





Here are a couple of photos from today: playing music (even big brother joined in)





I'll try to post later about our curriculum and routine.