LEGISLATIVE NEWSFLASH -- March 7, 2008
From:  Roy Hanson's Private and Home Educators of California

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As you probably know, on Thursday, February 28th, The Second Appellate District in Los Angeles County ruled that a homeschooling family from Southern California (not a member of HSLDA) did not have a right to "homeschool" under the California Constitution unless the parent is a credentialed tutor.
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Current Situation
Nothing has changed in California regarding your homeschool.  HSLDA maintains that the advice they have given home school families for some twenty-five years is still accurate and that filing a private school affidavit, or enrolling in a private school independent study program (I.S.P) are valid options under the law in California.

In summary, homeschoolers should not panic but continue to home school as in the past.  The leaders of the statewide homeschool groups and HSLDA are coordinating with each other on this issue on a regular basis.  Pray for a positive outcome.  The attorneys at HSLDA are working very hard during this time to prepare for additional legal action to reverse this decision.  Seeking legislation at this time is unnecessary and likely dangerous.
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Governor's office press release Friday, March 7, 2008 
Gov. Schwarzenegger Issues Statement Regarding Court of Appeals Home Schooling Ruling
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement regarding the recent Second District Court of Appeals ruling on home schooling:

"Every California child deserves a quality education and parents should have the right to decide what's best for their children. Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education. This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will."
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Background
This ruling resulted from a Juvenile Court case on allegations of abuse or neglect, which originally had nothing to do with homeschooling.  When the Juvenile Court judge would not prohibit the parents from home schooling their children, the court-appointed attorneys for the children went to the California Court of Appeals.  The Appellate Court went further than they needed to, and essentially ruled that State law does not provide any options that allow parents to teach their own children at home.

Future court action on this Appellate Court ruling cannot occur until after March 29th.  This ruling is a very serious matter but not a cause for panic. There are legal options still open to pursue in the Courts.  HSLDA is working to overturn this decision in the courts.  In other words, this Appellate Court ruling is not the final say.

It is important to realize that no laws have changed that affect private schools whether in one's home or on a campus.  California is still one of twelve states where homeschoolers can operate legally under the private school provision.  See our Legal Fact Sheet.  The Court does not have the power to change the law but only to interpret it, and this court has made critical errors in their interpretation of private school laws as they apply to private home education.

No court has the authority to universally order every homeschooler into a public or private campus school.  Under due process the court can only issue orders directed to the parties before the court.  Any attempts of enforcement would have to be one family at a time.  As in the past, a family could be charged with truancy and then go to a SARB hearing even before any court hearing.  This should not be a dread for anyone who is a member of HSLDA.  If you are not a member of HSLDA you should join now!

If a public official comes to your door and tells you that home schooling is illegal and that you must put your kids in a public school or a private campus school, do not let them in your house, call HSLDA if you are a member, and let the HSLDA attorney talk to the person at the door.  HSLDA attorneys are available to their members 24 hours a day seven days a week.

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What can homeschoolers do right now to help?
(1) This court's ruling could provoke well-meaning individuals to seek a legislative remedy.  Legislation at this time would be detrimental to our current freedom to home school privately in California.  If you become aware through first hand knowledge of any such attempt to have a legislator introduce legislation addressing or dealing with home schooling, please contact us at contat@pheofca.org immediately!

(2) Please encourage your home schooling friends to join HSLDA now for two reasons! (a) Membership in and contributions to HSLDA will help provide the financial resources needed to carry on this complex and lengthy court process for judicial relief from this current ruling.  This will benefit all homeschoolers.  (b) HSLDA membership will protect your family should you be contacted as a result of this Appellate Court ruling.  This will also give you the piece of mind that, whenever you might need it, you have immediate support from the only experienced highly successful team of attorneys specialized in defending private home schoolers in California and our Nation.

(3) In all situations, it is the Lord Jesus Christ Who is our refuge, provider, and protector (Psalm 50:10-15).  He is sovereign over all.  Our Lord reigns!  We are asking that you pray daily and also consider some kind of periodic fasting during this protracted battle that is shaping up.  Pray for:
*  those in authority, especially the judges involved in this case,
*  the Long family involved in this case,
every fellow private homeschooling family
*  HSLDA as they prepare to not only handle this situation but as they respond to all future legal contacts,
*  for us here at Family Protection Ministries that God would sustain us and that we will be able to intercept every legislative proposal that could further erode our freedoms,
*  CHEA and every other home school organization in California, and
*  all other individuals and groups supporting this effort to defend home education.

(4) Continue on with a peaceful heart in your homeschooling and family life.


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Permission is given to reprint this document or distribute it by email in its entirety without alteration.  You are encouraged to link to this document on our website www.pheofca.org

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Roy Hanson's HELP Tree
Private and Home Educators of California
P.O. Box 730
Lincoln, CA 95648-0730
Fax: (916) 415-9470
contact@pheofca.org

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The purpose of this communication is to present information and express our position on the issues addressed.  We encourage you to research this for yourself and come to your own conclusions.  Regardless of your position, we strongly urge you to exercise your constitutional right to express your position to your elected representatives.  We have included an example of how we have expressed our position.

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DISCLAIMER: We are not responsible for the accuracy of copies printed, forwarded, or sent by any party other than directly from Private and Home Educators of California.

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CHEA of California
(562)864-2432
info@cheaofca.org

Are you doing anything special for Valentine's Day in your homeschool?

I just purchased and downloaded a mini-unit study e-book titled, "A Christ-Perspective Valentine's Day Unit."  You can find out more and/or purchase it yourself by clicking the link on the title.

It looks simple enough to follow and includes notebooking, craft, and activity ideas.  After I sit down and peruse what I just printed out, then I will sit down and order some books online from the library that correspond with what we will be learning this month.  What a fun, educational way to learn about Valentine's Day... and better yet, about the One True Love we have in Jesus!

If you're doing anything special in your homeschool related to Valentine's Day, leave me a comment and share.  I love to see what other homeschoolers are doing. 

~LISA

For science today, the kids started learning about the skeletal system. They cut out bones and glued them into their appropriate place.

I got up with my alarm and got right to work... cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed, dusted, laundry... however, the kids didn't want to get out of bed this morning. I didn't make a big deal about it; however, I did point out to them that we weren't able to go for our walk. They were bummed, so I think that will serve as incentive for tomorrow. I hope! :)

Skipping our 1/2-hour walk put us right on schedule, and it went really well. As I told the kids of my plans for science, creating a Christmas Around the World Notebook, and what we were going to do for history, they were really excited about it.

So, while everything went well, I am TIRED! It was a busy day for me! And, I have work to do this evening... so I better get going. Hopefully tomorrow will be another smooth day. :)

~ Lisa

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

A New Schedule

So, we are heading towards the end of week three of school. So far, things have been going really well. I've struggled with a bit of adjustment time... Bob Jones English and Reading is much more teacher intensive than any other curriculum I've used before for those subjects. I really like the student lessons, but I had to juggle our schedule/routine a bit to figure out what worked best for everyone.

I'm happy to say that we have stuck to the same schedule for a week now, and it's gone really well. The kids have even told me that they like the new schedule and want to keep doing things this way. Yah!! Love to hear that!

I thought I'd post our new schedule in case you're curious. I know that when I was first starting our homeschooling, peeking at others' schedules really helped to give me a starting place. If you have any questions, please post a comment!

~ Lisa

 

School Review #1

~LISA

I'm just talking out loud to myself here... maybe if you have any ideas, suggestions, insight... I'm all ears.

Kids will be home full time next year, which I am very excited about.

There are two things on my mind right now as I look forward to preparing and planning for school next year.  We used LLATL in the years previous to this one.  I liked it.  Kids liked it.  This past year, we were in Paces, which I didn't like all that much... nor did my kids. 

1) I need to set up a schedule/plan/daily routine, whatever you want to call it and STICK TO IT.  Right now, they are in school two days a week and they have a start time, a recess time, a lunch time, etc., and I want to have a similar schedule so my kids know what to expect and can be expected to do what needs to be done at the right time.  Plus, I know it will help my ADD child to have a daily routine.  I am SO GOOD at creating a wonderful looking schedule....   but terrible at disciplining myself to follow it.  I'm always full of excuses why it never works.  It needs to work this time!

2) I am trying to figure out what traditional type curriculum to use for language arts.  I'm prayerfully looking into BJUP, Lifepacs, considering continuing with the Paces for this subject, don't know much about Abeka.  I've had lots of homeschoolers say good things about Rod & Staff, but I want to SEE it with my own eyes... I need to see samples, etc., and I can't do that online.    Our local homeschool expo is in a little over a month and I need to know what we are doing by then so I can purchase what we need at that time.  My husband wasn't as impressed with LLATL as I was... thought it was "too easy" or maybe it didn't look traditional enough for him?

I have no idea how I'm going to schedule our time.  I'm really leaning towards BJUP for our language arts, but I understand it's very teacher intensive and I don't know if I will be able to handle it. 

How do those of you who have your kids use traditional curriculum do this with multiple ages?  Do you have a set teaching time with each child and then the child goes and works on own and asks questions as they need to? 

What would be a reasonable amount of time to plan for our school time?

My head is really spinning... I need to just get out a notebook and start writing everything down, because I can't seem to grasp any of it in my mind. 

Dh is fine with me doing what I want for science, history, geography, etc.  I already know what we will do for science.  We will be using Considering God's Creation once again and we will study Human Anatomy and Physiology this year.   We will be using MUS for math.  So, that's set.

I have no idea what to do with history.  I like learning history along with them and doing it all together, but since that is what I will be doing with our science, I'm not sure if that would be wise to do history like that as well... especially since I think the teaching time for the language arts is going to be more than I'm used to.  So... I'm going back and forth between considering something like Mystery of History, which is very appealing to me... or just using something like SOS History/Geography from AOP.  Since that is something they would do on the computer fairly independently that would free up my time a bit more.

 I really don't know. I wish God would just speak to me in a big, booming voice and let me know what I'm supposed to do so I can plan it all out....


That's not going to happen, though, is it?

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So.... I'll quit rambling for now... I'll post more later as my thoughts and plans become more clear.

Thanks for listening

Well, I just spent way too long trying to change the graphics on my blog.  For some reason, I can't figure out how to get the seashell graphics off.  I've done it countless times before, but I just can't seem to do it tonight.  I think that's my cue that I'm tired and need to get to bed.  I'll figure it out later.

Last week was pretty good overall for our first week of school.  Like I've posted already, this year is very different from our previous homeschool years.  It is quite an adjustment for all of us.  I am hopeful that it is going to be a good year, though. 

Tomorrow, my kids will be in class.  I plan to get a lot of errands done while they are in school.  I did spend time tonight figuring out a schedule for our home days (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays), and I will post that later as well.

It has just gotten too late, and I really need to get to bed since our day starts very early tomorrow. 

I pray blessings on your homeschool year!

~LISA

When possible after reading a book to my children, we like to watch the same movie.  We then discuss what things might have been a little different, what was the same, did we like the change or not, etc.  We did this with Charlotte's Web and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to name a few.

Well, we just finished a book that we all thoroughly enjoyed.  It is called Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls.  I think I remembered his name correctly.  It was such a fun read aloud.  My boys especially liked it. 

Well, tonight we had a movie night complete with goodies and whatnot and settled in to watch the movie of the same name.  What a disappointment.  They didn't just change a few scenes ~ they practically rewrote the book.  They added tons of stuff in the movie that weren't in the book and they took out some of the most important dialogues, etc., that were in the book.  The worse part was in the book the boy, Jay Berry, had a respectful relationship with his parents and was kind to his sister; however, in the movie, during most of the movie, he was very disrespectful to his parents in the way he spoke to them and he was just downright mean to his sister in the beginning.  Bleck!  I really just did not like this movie at all.  I said it above, and I'll say it again... WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT!!

So... that's my review and rant!  LOL 

Anyone else ever have a similar experience?

~LISA

I'd like to know what you use for Bible in your home.  Do you just pick up the Word and read it to your children and then discuss the Scriptures?  Or do you have a devotional-type book to help you along?  Or???? 

I've done different things during our bible time, but I can't seem to settle on one approach that I really like.... that is interesting enough for the kids AND also teaches them and draws them to the Word.  I know that isn't MY job - it's the Holy Spirit who draws them.  I'd just like to have our bible time be memorable and enjoyable.  I'd like my children to look back at that time spent and smile.

So, what about you?  What are you doing for bible in your home? 

Blessings,

~LISA

I feel like we must have missed something.  It's only 10:30am, and we are done with school.  We got up, had breakfast, did chores, math, language arts, and science.  We aren't doing history this week.  Wow!  These new desks are working wonderfully!  The kids are so much more focused on their own work!!  So, now they are getting a treat while watching a fun movie, and I'm going to get some work done.  :)

I hope you're having a terrific Tuesday as well!

~LISA

I have declared that we are taking today off of school... for no good reason!  Just because it's Friday and I'm tired and have a lot of laundry to catch up on.  My ear is continuing to bother me and unless I take Sudafed, I end up with a really bad headache almost to the point where I can't function. 

So, my plans for the rest of the afternoon are to let the children play together, get my laundry caught up, and sit with my bible.  That's it.  Oh... and how do I know that my children will play happily?  Because if they don't, they know I will be more than happy to give them WORK to do.    Hee hee.. sneaky aren't I? 

I hope you are having a good Friday.  Do you ever just take a day off for no good reason? 

Blessings,

~LISA

Celebrate with me!  Ryan passed his final test in the Math-U-See's Beta book today!  He is so excited to start the Gamma book and finally learn multiplication!!!!!   Ryan had a really hard time in 2nd grade with math.  I'm so thankful we homeschool!  It enabled me to slow down and let him learn at my son's pace.  God sure used this to teach me patience and to teach me to trust in Him!  I worried that my son would *never* learn his addition and subtraction facts.  Of course, *never* is a word I should *never* use (hee hee), but if you've been in this spot with your child, I think you know what I mean!  Ryan has done so well in math this school year!  It has finally *clicked* for him, praise God!! 

I thank You, Lord, for these seemingly small victories... however, I know that each small victory leads to another and another.  I thank You for the blessing of homeschool and being able to work with my son through his struggle in math.  Thank You for helping me persevere.  Thank You for being patient with me through my worries.  Thank You for helping Ryan to succeed and overcome this difficulty.  Your blessings abound! 

Blessings,

~LISA

**UPDATED** Received this from HSLDA on February 14th:

HSLDA	February 14, 2006

Oprah Winfrey Responds to HSLDA

In response to our open letter to the Oprah Winfrey Show, HSLDA President Mike Smith received a call from Tim Bennett, the President of Harpo Productions. Mr. Bennett conveyed that there had been an oversight when homeschoolers were excluded from "Oprah's National High School Essay Contest," but that it was too late to amend the rules to include homeschoolers.

Yesterday, HSLDA received a written reply from Harpo Productions, Inc. which recognized that "...homeschooling is an important contributor to the educational success of this country."

HSLDA congratulates Oprah Winfrey for acknowledging that homeschooling is a viable educational alternative and entitled to equal treatment

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I receive e-newsletter updates from HSLDA frequently.  You can sign up as well if you'd like to receive them.  It's a great way to know what is happening on the homeschool legal front. 

The following is from the HSLDA website and is an open letter that they wrote to Oprah.  I thought I would share it here.  If you are so inclined you can write or email Oprah as well.  Homeschoolers should be included in any type of student contest!

Here's the letter from HSLDA:

Harpo Productions, Inc.,
110 N. Carpenter St.,
Chicago, IL 60607

Open letter to Oprah Winfrey

By way of introduction, I am the President of Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and we represent 80,000 member families nationwide. This letter is to call attention to your essay contest and the unfortunate fact that homeschoolers are not allowed to participate.

The rules clearly state: "Oprah's National High School Essay Contest is open to all legal residents of the United States, who are currently enrolled full-time in a public or state-accredited private or parochial school in grades 9-12 in good standing." Regrettably, this definition excludes homeschoolers.

We contacted your show to see if homeschoolers could be included and were rebuffed. While we do not believe that your show willfully excluded homeschoolers, the fact that homeschoolers were excluded in the first place is troubling.

Homeschooling is growing rapidly and there are an estimated 2 million homeschooled children. All the research shows that homeschooled students score well above the national average on standardized tests. I'm confident that you would have received many excellent 1,000-word essays from homeschooled students answering the question "Why is the book Night by Elie Wiesel relevant today?"

Homeschoolers do not deserve to be overlooked. We hope that you will reconsider your policy and decide to welcome homeschoolers.

Sincerely,

J. Michael Smith
HSLDA President

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Blessings

~LISA

I wish I had gotten my camera out sooner!  I didn't get any pictures of the owls... there were so many birds!  I was in awe and didn't think to get my camera out of my purse until we were almost done with the tour... anyway.. here are a few pictures.  Again, if you are interested in visiting this wonderful lady, go to SkyHunters for more information.

In this picture below, the kids are looking at cages with parrots in them. This particular parrot kept saying, "Hello.  I'm a parrot" and then it would sound like it was laughing.  It was quite funny. 

In this next picture, the lady who gave us the tour was showing us the beautiful red tailed hawk.

In the cages behind her was a beautiful bald eagle.  I wish I had gotten a picture of that!  I might have to get some of my other homeschooling friends together for another field trip...

~LISA

We just had a great day today!   We slept in today first of all!  Then we hung out until Nathan's basketball game at 11:30am.  It's so fun watching him play.  Then, we went to a lady's house to see birds.  Not just any birds... mainly birds of prey.  She cares for birds that have been rescued and are no longer able to be out in the wild.  During certain hours on the weekend, she gives tours of these amazing birds.  We went today with another homeschooling family we are friends with.  She spent an hour and a half showing us different owls, an American Kestrel, a Red Tailed Hawk, a Peregrine Falcon, and even a Bald Eagle!!  It is just breathtaking to see these beautiful animals up close!  She doesn't charge for these tours, but there is a donation box for you to contribute to.  Well worth it!  If you are going to be in the San Diego area, you can find out more about going to see these wonderful birds by clicking HERE.  Just scroll down, and you will see the times for tours and the phone number to call.

I will post a few pictures tomorrow evening when I have more time.

Blessings,

~LISA

As I was reading through my previous post on our homeschool routine, I realized that I didn't share what Sarah does during my boys' two-hour school block.  I have to admit that she is *easy.*  It was much more challenging when my second son was her age and I was trying to school just my older son.  I got through it, though!  The difference was that Nathan needed activities changed OFTEN.  Sarah is more content to work on something for a longer time period.  I thought I'd just share a few things that have helped me when I am trying to attend to an older child during school and have a younger child not yet in school.

First of all, like I shared in my previous post, I "do school" with Sarah first.  Now, Nathan wasn't interested in any type of school when he was four (or five, for that matter!).  With Nathan, I just read books to him, did puzzles with him, played concentration game or other preschooler game with him.  Anything that was fun one-on-one time with him. 

With Sarah, she *wants* to do school.  I hadn't planned on doing anything formal with her until the start of our '06-07 school year; however, before her fourth birthday last year, she took Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons off the shelf and asked me to listen to her "read."  I thought, "Okay, I'll humor her."  She zoomed through the first ten lessons in one sitting!    That was my clue that she was more than ready for some one-on-one "school" time. 

So, during our time together, we do either one lesson or a half lesson in 100EZ Lessons book.  We are on Day 65 right now.  Some days she is eager to read and does an entire lesson just fine.  Other days, the story she is reading is just too long for her and I can tell she is getting frustrated and so I will say, "That's okay; you did great!  Let's read the story tomorrow."  Then, we will just finish that lesson the next day.  After our reading lesson, I will get out Sarah's "homework" from her weekly Kindermusik class.  She *loves* this class and loves to practice her homework.  She is about to start the Young Child 2 Class next week.  If she doesn't have any homework or we have already completed it, then I will do whatever she wants for the remaining time (within reason, of course).  One of her favorite things to do is to play games, so often times we will play a game together - UNO, Crazy Eights, Concentration.  Sometimes she just wants me to read to her.  I cherish this special time that we share together!

After our time together, the next two-hour block is when my boys' work on their math and language arts.  My boys are in 3rd and 1st grade.  I still need to be right next to my 1st grader most of the time, and my 3rd grader often needs assistance.  I have a few things that help to keep Sarah occupied during this time:

• I have a couple different Kindergarten workbooks - one from Abeka, and two store-bought ones.  She will often choose to work in one of these while her brothers do their school work.  Sometimes she only does one page; other days she will do three or more! 
• Lately, she's been wanting to do math when her brothers work on theirs.  I purchased the Primer book from Math-U-See since this is the curriculum that her brothers use.  She is loving this!  I just have her sit on the floor next to me (I'm on a low chair at the school table with the boys) and I'll give her some blocks, show her how to use them with the page she is on, and she will work away. 
• If she's not in the mood to "do school," then she has other options.  In my office closet, I have a box with about 25 Ziploc baggies.  In each baggie is a different activity that she can do and it contains everything she needs in that baggie to do that activity.  One of her favorites right now is "going fishing" which is a little pole with a magnet at the end of it, and the foam fish also have a magnet on them.  You can get ideas for making your own bags HERE.
• I have one box that has art/craft stuff in it, especially watercolor books.  She loves to paint and this is the least messy way, in my opinion. 
• Another box has counting bears, lacing beads, etc.
• We have a LeapPad that she chooses to use sometimes.
• Lastly, a box with wooden blocks, a box with Magnetix, and box with Lincoln Logs. 

All of those things listed above are put away in my office closet and she can only use them during the boys' school time.  Sometimes she wants to play on the computer.  I have a headset she can use so the noise won't distract her brothers.  She likes Starfall.com and she has a few "educational" CD-Rom games such as JumpStart and Blues Clues.  Sometimes she chooses to play in her room.  She has a box full of dress-up clothes, a box with dolls and doll clothing, a tea set and stuffed animals.  There have been days where she has happily kept herself occupied in her room.  That is not the norm, though.  She usually prefers to be where we are. 

I make sure to sprinkle in lots of hugs to her throughout my time with the boys and thank her for being such a big helper and playing nicely while Mommy helps her brothers with their school. 

It definitely is a challenge homeschooling when you have preschoolers or toddlers, but it can be done!!  I pray that some of these ideas will be helpful to you. 

Blessings,

~ LISA

Today was one of those days where I remember why we are homeschooling.  Oh, how I wish everyday would run so smoothly.  However, on second thought... it's not that our day ran perfectly, but that I had determined this morning during my quiet time that I was going to have a cheerful attitude come what may!  Hmmmm....

We started out our day great.  The kids got up at 7am with the alarm, fixed and ate their breakfast, and did their chores - without me telling them to!  It was amazing!  Then we sat down at 8:30am and read for an hour.  We read out of the Catherine Vos Story Bible, our history read aloud, and a chapter in Summer of the Monkeys.  I had intended to read that book over last summer - I'm a bit behind schedule... hee hee

At 9:30am, my oldest (9yo) got out his homework from his beginning art class that he takes on Class Days (a bi-weekly co-op we attend).  I had my 6yo sit down at the computer and play math games, while I sat with my 4yo to do a lesson out of her Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lesson's book.

After that, we got out the basics - my boys worked in their language arts books while Sarah took a turn on the computer practicing her reading with Starfall.com.  If you don't know of this site, I highly recommend it to help your child learn phonics!  Fun and educational!  She was so cute.  I could hear her sounding out words in the "book" as I sat next to my boys and helped them where they needed it.

Then it was time for math.  We use Math-U-See, and both boys were ready for a new lesson, so they sat and watched one another's video and then sat down to work in their book.  Sarah then decided that she also wanted to do some math, so I got out the Primer book and put in her video.  Once Nathan (6yo) was done with his math page, she decided she too was done and they went in the other room to play together while Ryan finished up his math.

I was amazed!  All of that done by 11:30am! 

I started fixing lunch and my Grandma rang our doorbell.  She comes over every Monday at lunchtime to visit with us.  She stayed until 1pm, so the kids visited with her and played a bit until she left.  Then it was back to school.  The "fun" school as Nathan calls it - science! 

I got out some paper and helped them put together a notebook page with their vocabulary words on it.  We had such a busy, messed up week last week, that I thought I'd press my luck and give them another notebook page to work on.  They were happy to do more.    This time, I gave them a cut-out drawing of a bird along with internal body parts of a bird.  We first studied a picture of the same and then they took the body parts and glued them in the proper places within the bird cutout.  THEN the boys decided to be creative.  One of them had the idea to cut out a piece of brown construction paper to make a branch for the bird to sit on.  They then cut out green construction paper and made leaves for the branch.  It looked great!  They labeled the body parts and had a great finished page!  We sat and worked on these pages for over an hour! 

They helped clean up and then had some free time to play until their daddy got up from his nap and it was dinner time. 

Let me share that in the course of working on the science notebook pages, a full cup of orange juice was knocked over by one of my children.  I didn't even raise my voice.  It was an accident.  I simply cleaned it up.  That is not my natural reaction, I'm ashamed to say!  I hate messes like that! 

Also during the course of working on their notebook pages, I had the opportunity to speak with my oldest son about what it means to be a perfectionist - that perfectionism is really a sin.  He is very detail-oriented and wants his pages to look his very best.  There is nothing wrong with that.  However, something didn't turn out exactly as he wanted it and he got a bit bent out of shape.  It was a wonderful opportunity to talk with him about how we handle mistakes and messes.  I'm sure glad that I had remained calm when my other child knocked over the orange juice!!

Somehow through all of that, I managed to get two loads of laundry done, folded and put away.  We were "on schedule" and stuck to our routines.  I wonder what made today so different than the others.  Was it merely my attitude?  My initial submission to the Lord this morning?  I didn't rush off on my own and in my own strength to face another day? 

I'm thankful for my time with the Lord this morning, for His refreshing Word, and for His amazing strength and joy that He can bring to someone weak like me.  I am certainly praising Him for our Marvelous Monday!

~ Lisa

Oh, I just had to share!

Every week on Sunday I go to the grocery store and I rotate who I take with me.  Today it was my 4yod's turn.  As we were checking out, she wanted to help me with entering my debit card info, etc.  The first thing to do on the screen is enter your phone number, so I gave my daughter the touch-pen thingy and said, "okay, press (my area code) and then your phone number.  Do you remember our phone number?"  She says, "yes," and proceeds to enter it correctly into the keypad. 

The clerk looks at me in surprise and says 'HOW OLD IS SHE?"  I said, "she's four."  The clerk, "Wow!  That's pretty good."

So then my dd looks at the young guy putting the bags in our cart and says, "Mommy!  Look!!  Ryan!!" (She was reading his name tag.)  The clerk just gives me this LOOK and I said, "that's her big brother's name."  And the clerk says, "WOW, she's really smart! She's only FOUR?!" 

 :

I don't know why, but just typing this out to you is cracking me up!  My dd is just a bright little girl who loves to learn.  I know it's not ME; it's just how God made her!  And so I said, "yes, she's four; she's a little sponge."

And the clerk then says, "Does she go to preschool?" and I said, "No, she stays home with me" and she looks at my daughter and says, "Oh, you go to Mommy's school."  And my dd smiles and proudly says, "YUP!"

 Oh, it was just so cute!