I actually started writing "Our Complete September" before I finished writing "Our Complete August", of which I was very late.  If you are my dear family just tuning in, don't forget to check out August, as I was sooo late, I didn't even make mention of it to you.  I apologize!

Boy loses his front teeth!

Now, on to September!

September had it's own set of fun-filled memories.  First there was daughter's third birthday on the 8th!

Our friend and the Birthday Princess!

Blood and glue and lots of swelling

Of course, we've had fabulous weather--relatively no tornado warnings--and a month with no A/C or Heat!  That's a good thing!

Hymn of the Month

I forgot to mention that in August, our hymn of the month was The Doxology.  The children loved it and continue to sing it regularly.  For September, we learned "Be Thou My Vision".  (My favorite version of all times was recorded by Ginnie Owens and I've lost my CD--drat!)  This was our hardest hymn to learn yet, as we memorized two verses.

This has been a good practice for us, and has helped add a bit of vocal training to our education.

Bible

Our Bible time this month was awesome!  A big highlight was our time spent on Moses, the Israelites and what happened when they hit the Red Sea.  Understanding from the verses in Exodus 14, how the Lord's presence was magnified, was tremendous. Here's this pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day.  The cloud leading the Israelites every step of the way with the army of Pharoah close on their heels.  They run into water and are apparently stopped (yea, I know you know what happens, but just wait!...). 

So the cloud moves from the front of the Israelites, to the rear.  Now, He is the barrier (protection) between good and evil.  And then we read that though He was light to the Israelites, showing them the way, all the Egyptians could see was darkness.  They could no longer see their prey.  One side light, one side not light (dark, absence of light).  We see the perfect demonstration of how light (God and His plan) can have nothing in common with darkness (evil, separates from God).  Choose a side, be separate, or be cut off! 

Son drew a wonderful picture of this event, with the 2-sided cloud: clarity for one side and darkness for the other.

Cloud

Then we moved on to manna!  Just when I thought the Red Sea lesson couldn't be beat!  We talked about all that grumbling going on.  Here the Israelites were free and rather than let God fight for them and be silent,

"The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent."

                                                                         --Exodus 14:14

they would have preferred slavery, because it was "easier".  Choices, choices!  We make 'em everyday! 

We talked about the exercise that God put before them of collecting the manna.  This "bread of life" that lay upon the dew of the ground (note: not directly on the ground which was cursed, but on the dew).  They had to be on their knees.  Hmmmm--on their knees...

"...for it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God."  --Romans 14:11

and it was tedious and time consuming.  It was work!  They weren't growing it, but they were still working for it! 

We laid out butcher's paper and coconut and the kids knelt down and "gathered" it into an omer (liter jar).  They quickly saw how long and hard that would be.  They tasted the "honey" and then...tasted some more :).  We talked of "gathering" and what else we are called to gather:  God's Words! 

"I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you."

--Psalm 119:11

We talked about Jesus--the Bread of Life--and memorized...

"For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."     -- John 6:33 

Yes!  That would be continuing our studies how Jesus is on every page of the Bible!  Interestingly enough, son has repeatedly "let me know", since our manna lessons, that he has been spending prayer time on his knees beside his bed. 

By the way, these lessons are from the outline used in Judah Bible.

Handwriting/Typing

Well, we took a plunge of another sort this month, and added a typing tutor program to the computer.  Boy can do this on his own and is really getting the hang of it!  His handwriting continues to improve mightily (he writes beautifully!).  It's kind of amazing when the Daddy can't tell the difference between boy's and Mama's writing! (Well, that only happened once!  I'm not sure if it was a good day for boy, or a bad day for me!) All this to say, typing will not be replacing handwriting!

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I will add that I have seen a big change in how he decides what to record for his notebook.  He has gone from fighting to write the bare minimum, to beginning to understand that it doesn't mean anything unless someone can read it and know what you are talking about.  This has been a major hurdle to cross and he's getting there!  It's fun to watch him blossom and see his own ideas come out. 

One example on this was when I asked him to draw a picture of "Seabird" for his geography notebook.  He broadly came to me later and explained that he needed to write the title of the book AND the author, so we would know what it was! 

History

Truthquest History keeps getting better and better!  This month we concentrated on the pilgrims.  I really tried to integrate our Principle Approach thinking into the lessons and we enjoyed the outcome.  I took another's idea of simplifying Katherine Dang's (PA Master Teacher) Key Sheets and made them into age appropriate questions with writing space for the answers. 

A major highlight included reading "William Bradford, Pilgrim Boy" by Bradford Smith (Childhood of Famous Americans--which, by the way, has been republished by Beautiful Feet).  We also enjoyed many of the other Mayflower and pilgrim books suggested by Truthquest!  There are a lot and I'm beginning to learn how to better separate the wheat from the chaf.

Literature

We finished our literary study of "Pocahontas" by the D'Aulaires.  This was strictly to focus on the literary elements of plot, theme, characterization, and setting.  Though I can see the benefits of learning and understanding these elements, I've come to the quick conclusion that it gets old fast!  We'll be focusing more on the reading and less on the break down for a while.

We've nearly completed "Bambi", by Felix Salten and it is really an incredible example of how writing can make a place and events seem real.  There is a scene where two leaves discuss how they have changed colors and will soon fall from the branches to meet their "fate".  It is wonderful!  We'll be watching the leaves a little more closely!! :)

Math

Math lessons are moving along splendidly.  Boy started multiplication this month and has really begun to put all his math principles to good use.  He was tallying Yahtzee scores just last night!  A neat treat for him has been the Schoolhouse Rock:  Multiplication Rock DVD.  He loves it and keeps telling me what he's heard on the DVD that is in his lessons. RightStart continues to be a great choice for us!

Spelling/Grammar

In our spelling we are up to list I-1.  We are incorporating more and more of the grammar activities provided in the "WISE Guide" since I began preparing the activities in advance, for boys notebook.  'Gotta love that MS Publisher!

Geography

We completed our "Paddle-to-the-Sea", though bittersweet!  What a great time we had with it and boy is not likely to forget it anytime soon!  My only regret is that in relying solely on the map for our activities, I neglected to include any notebooking.  Shame on me!  As we begin "Seabird", another Holling Clancy Holling book, I hope to plan a bit better!

Science

This month we covered Earth, the Moon and Mars, in our "Exploring God's Creation With Astronomy" book.  We make it a habit to pick up as much supplemental reading as possiblie, from the library.  These books can often be gems, and boy is going through them quite quickly.  Often reporting the many things he is learning, as well as any descrepancies he reads!  Gotta love that!  I'm particularly thankful that he is beginning to discern the truth! 

He read a book that he really enjoyed called "Buzz Aldrin: Reaching For The Moon" by Buzz Aldrin.  This picture-style book was up his alley!  Now he wants an astronaut outfit for dress-up.  Actually, he's always wanted one, but now he's very reved up about it!

Preschool

Little one was totally tickled when I presented her with her very own Kumon cutting book!  She went to town, too!  She finished the entire book in just a few short days. 

Miss Industrious!

The finished product

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For her birthday she received a tutu, ballet bar and a fabulous DVD called "I'm a Ballerina Now".  She is thoroughly enjoying them!  She is even learning the ballet terms and singing them to her Daddy!  She has a dancing heart!

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Fieldtrips

This month we were happy to get to the zoo and we had our first trip to the Eiteljorg--Indian & Western Art Museum.

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And finally I'll close with my favorite quote of the month from my now three year old daughter:

"I love Jesus! 

He's in my heart. 

Do you love Jesus? 

Is he in your heart too?!"