Wonderful Weather (first day of Summer) (Can you see the funnel cloud forming in the picture above?)
 (Amazed by the storm outside)  Marble sized hail! And YES, the children talked Daddy into going out and collecting some for them.... Rock Painting for Father's Day  We have been collecting large flat rocks for a few months - from Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, so we took the opportunity to paint some up for Father's Day. Sibling Love
Narnia is such a DELIGHTMy eldest is quite interested in the Narnia series, especially "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" since the movie has come out. As he was watching it, he asked what "turkish delight" was, since that is the treat that Edmond had requested.An explanation seemed to fall flat, so after work Daddy came home with a very small bag of Turkish Delight for the children to sample. They were quite delighted!     Support comes in many formsSince we have started support raising we have been surprised at the ways support comes. Missionary "Support" is so much more then just MONEY.- A friend brought over two turkeys for our freezer - Other, similar, gifts of food -- blueberries, rhubarb, jam, ground beef, etc. - babysitting of the children for missions related events - prayer -- so much prayer! - Notes of encouragement, hugs, uplifting words - hosting us for a night or for a meal (when we are traveling) This week we were given another gift that truly blew me away - a homeschooling family gave us all the curriculum we would need (minus the workbooks) for the upcoming school year. What an amazing show of love and support! We offered to pay for them, but the humble response was simply "We can't support you financially right now, but this is what we can do". Unknown to them, my husband and I had been praying about how we were going to be able to afford the books this year. This family has been an unexpected answer to those prayers - a need we had not expressed to them. I just love the way God works - so mysterious, and yet, so completely. Just trust. God is SO good! Science ExperimentWith the receipt of some flowers for Mothers Day (white carnations) we decided to attempt a science experiment which we had been talking about for a little while now. The carnations were cut and the children added red, blue and yellow food colouring to the water. Now they get to document and keep track of the colouring process! I love science! A B C D E F G, H I J K elemenopy! Q R S T U V W X Y and Zed!I'm so proud of my daughter! She is really learning her alphabet well and is starting to learn the sounds, too. She just loves school -- especially the poems and crafts! Learning and GrowingToday Jeff and I attended a local homeschooling conference. I always enjoy discovering what's new, and gaining new insights and ideas from more experienced homeschoolers. We were spacifically looking for something to enhance our science program, as I feel that it's not as "exciting" as it should be right now.We enjoyed the conference, but did not find it as.... inspiring as we have other years. Maybe we were feeling blah with the weather, or something of the like. We sat in a few sessions but didn't really get as much out of them as we usually do. All in all, I was a little disapointed - however it was wonderful to catch up with a few friends who were there! We didn't buy much - most of what we will get needs to be ordered, but we did get a good idea of what we need for the next year, so that was encouraging. The children, on the other hand, had a wonderful day with Grandma and Grandpa. They were certainly tired when they got home! A Hole in the Middle....What do YOU do when the baby pulls the cheerio box off the table and scatters little toasted oats all over the floor? You pull out some thread and some needles and tell the older children it's a CRAFT!  Those little circles got picked up mighty quickly as the children competed to see who could make the longest cheerio chain with the fallen cereal.  Not only was it fun, it got the cereal cleaned up in record time, and it gave the kids something to snack on while they finished up their school work! Everyone wins! PJ Party!March Break has arrived for the public schools here, and with it comes some extra activities for the kids!Today we took part in a fantastic Pajama party, complete with pillow fights, teddy bear games, songs and crafts. The children really enjoyed themselves.  My good scrapbooking friend came over for dinner and kept me company until the wee hours when my hubby came home. I didn't get much done (3 pages) but we had fun and I certainly enjoyed her company! Imitation is the greatest form of flatteryIt's difficult to concentrate on your piano practicing with two little one-year-old hands helping you bang out the notes! It's a Party! Yesterday we had the fun of attending a HOMESCHOOL VALENTINES DAY party! One very organized mom and her boys hosted the party, and the rest of the moms each brought something to contribute. There was cookie decorating, games, valentine exchange, crafts, a valentines-themed movie and even hotdogs! What a wonderful and fun day! A BIG THANKS from our little family to the mom and boys who worked hard to plan such a great event!
Back to SchoolWe started back to school last Monday after a two week break for Christmas festivities.... and it has been SUCH a fight! Nothing seemed to motivate my son to do his work effectively. Today, however, after 6 days of struggling... he suddenly seemed to come around! School work was done well and without complaining today - what a relief to me, and I was able to catch up a bit on some housework. (Folded 13 loads of wash today - Mrs. Hardwick would be so proud!)I was able to go to Ladies Bible study this morning. We are doing a video series on the topic "Lies Women Believe". I think it's going to be a great study! I am always encouraged by the fellowship. What a fight!We are back to school this week, and what a fight it has been so far! My son has it in his mind that he will NOT do school, and he's making our days very difficult. I'm really quite overwhelmed and frustrated by his behaviour, it's very unlike him! My daughter, on the other hand, the one who is normally not interested in letters at all, is very keen to get them "learned" this week! What a nice change in her!We have moved my sons school desk to the kitchen - this way I can keep an eye on how he is working while I am in the kitchen, and he is less distracted by the other children who are playing in the living room... hopfully it will get better! The Personalities of ARTAs I mentioned yesterday, we are using a curriculum called "Art Adventures at Home" for our Art. Today we discussed outline shapes. At the conclusion of the lesson we looked at cloud shapes and tried to pick out objects in the shapes. Since it is SO cloudy outside that we couldn't see individual clouds, we looked at pictures of clouds to get the idea. As we sat around the dining room table, my 6 1/2 year old son, my almost-four year old daughter and I, I found myself enjoying the personalities of my children. My daughter was pointing to each cloud calling things out - "that's a cat, or it could be a clown, or it could be a chair!" - she was so imaginative that she had an several ideas for each shape. My son, however, was much more particular... he had such difficulty "seeing" what wasn't there! He likes things to be exact and percise, which is what makes him so good at reading and Arithmetic, but he really struggles with story writing and "imagining". It is such fun that my children are so completely different and that they excel in totally different areas. It makes me wonder, again, where the baby will fit in, since the older two are such opposites!
GRADE TWOThis morning, after a weekend of sorting, preping, and calculating marks, my son started GRADE TWO!He was SO excited. He came down the stairs fir thing in the morning and couldn't wait to get started! He is so excited to have new books! (even if they're just Math and phonics! lol) We are using ABEKA for most of our subjects again this year. I would really like to find a different SCIENCE program since Abeka is mostly just a reader at this age - I'd prefer something that's more "hands on" but haven't done enough research and looking to know what I like yet (suggestions welcome!!) We are also using Donna Ward's "Canada, my Country", "Story of the World", and "Art Adventures at Home". We are repeating first level cursive ("Writing with Phonics") on recommendation of a Grade One teacher from our local Christian school. She gave me some hints to help him write more neatly and acuratly, so we are going to begin again, with Mommy being more diligint in correcting neatness this year! I'm organizing a little differently this year, too - I guess one must try a number of methods to find what suits best for their family. Last year I left the work pages IN the books, too keep everything together better. It worked well to have it all together, but by the end of the year, the Arithmetic looked pretty ragged and the pages were beginning to fall out. Also, it is difficult for him to do his neatest writing when he has to deal with the whole book instead of just a single page, so this year I have removed all the pages from the books ahead of time. Also, usually I prep every evening for the next day's lessons. I find this time consuming, so I'm trying a different way of preparing for the days. I have five plastic folders, a different colour for each day, and on the weekend I am going to prep ALL the days, and sort out the papers for each day by putting them into the correct folder for a week. "Preping" then, in the evening, simply means writing the work on the board (I write each thing he has to do, including page numbers on the board each evening because he loves to check off what he has done - and see how much is left) and pulling out the folder of the next day's work - much shorter time then what I was doing before. So, I'll try this for a couple of months and see how it goes! If it doesn't go well... then I'll be looking for another system! LOL And so it goes.... Grade TWO has come upon us. Our order from Abeka hasn't come in yet, so I don't have any of the tests or teachers manuals yet, but I was able to get most of the actual textbooks from another source, so we have the Arithmetic, Language, Letters and Sounds, Readers, and such. Since the beginning of the work is review, we've gone ahead and gotten started... hopefully the rest of the items will come in before too long! GRADUATION in NOVEMBERWell, tomorrow (God willing) is THE DAY.My son, 6 1/2, will graduate from Grade One tomorrow. I am so proud of him! He has worked well, and I can hardly believe he's done! What do you do to celebrate when your children move on to a new grade? How do you recognize their achievements? A week in ReviewWell, I must say, after Monday and Tuesday things DID get better... I think my son might have just been testing the ropes a bit. Tuesday morning we stayed home and he "worked" (not very well). Tuesday afternoon we went to the library, school books in tow. He sat at the library and "worked" while the other children and I went to story hour and looked at books.  Tuesday night my hubby and I moved a small desk to the main floor (usually he works at the kitchen table). We put it on the landing of the stairs so that he's out of the direct action of the house. Wednesday he worked well enough, a little slower then I'd prefer, but he completed in the time his Daddy set out for him. Wednesday night Grandma (who is a teacher) challenged him to complete all his schoolwork on Thursday before she completed HER school work. It worked! He started on his stuff first thing in the morning, and was so excited to call Grandma just after lunch to let her know that he finished FIRST! Friday went in a similar fashion - as Daddy had laid down that he would not go to soccer if he didn't work quickly and with a good attitude. So, maybe he needed a change of view? Maybe he was just testing this week? Maybe he needed the time set as a challenge to "beat"? I don't know what did the trick, but he is improving. We are nearly through the Grade One work. We have about two weeks left to go on it, but our Grade two books have not all yet arrived (we do have some) so we might do some special projects until it comes in - that gives him something to look forward to! I really am proud of him (look out, I'm going to brag a little). He was a big help today as we cleaned up the toy room, cleaned the bed rooms and folded the laundry. My daughter asked him to read her a story and brought him the Narnia series book "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe". To my surprise he sat down and read it to her! There were a few words he was unsure of, and twice he stopped and asked me to explain what he had read, but I was really proud of him for being able to read and understand most of what it said. I realize it isn't a "new" book for him, but it is still good to hear him reading and explaining it to his sister. My husbands new job continues to go well. It's hard work, but he feels good about it, and he's already been a testimony to those he works with. Our anti-milk / sleep experiment continues - this is Day #11. Wednesday and Thursday nights (well, early mornings, actually) were both rough nights with screaming and lots of waking, but the rest of the week (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Friday) all went well, so I'm still uncertain if this is completely a milk issue or if there is still something else - or if he's still getting the milk out of his system? I didn't take milk in those days (that I know of), so we aren't sure what's going on. I'm finding myself always hungry. My mother thinks it's due to the reduced fat content in my diet, and she is likely right, but I'm just constantly hungry. I don't think my body has adjusted yet. Tomorrow is Sunday - a special day. The children are looking forward to spending some family time together since they haven't seen much of Daddy this week. I would just like to mention my parents. They have been such a wonderful support and encouragment to us throughout the past few months. From listening, to sharing meals to babysitting to offering practial advice and more... we are truely blessed to have parents who cover us in prayer and who care about having a close relationship with our children. God is SO good! Are Monday's always ROUGH?This weekend the Milk-free experiement continued. Friday night he slept well, and Saturday he slept well - all DAY... Maybe he's trying to catch up on sleep, but he spent most of the day with his eyes closed. Saturday night, however, was a different story entirely... after four hours of sleep he was up - and screaming! Could it have been the delicious lasaguna and garlic bread I ate at supper?? Unfortunatly, this diet is not going to work well when we are out visiting. I may need to re-think how we deal with that, somehow. Sunday evening, he did well, back to the 9 hours, nurse, and four more hours that he was doing last week.Today, however, has been a rough school-day. I feel like I was constantly on my eldest to get back to work. He is SO distracted today! Daddy wasn't very happy with how long it took, nor with the attitude that went along with it, so we are not going to Bible Study tomorrow morning. I must admit I'm very disapointed about that, and so is my daughter. Hopefully realizing that he will miss out on activities will encourage him to focus a bit better.... I'm exhausted tonight. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. How do you teach "Story Writing"?It was a rough school day! My son seems to be having trouble with “story telling”. He can write facts about things – The caterpillar eats leaves. The caterpillar turns into a beautiful blue butterfly who enjoys landing on flowers… etc. But he’s really struggling with using his IMAGINATION to tell a fictional story. Any suggestions on this?? A new Title!As of today I am officially a..... My son and daughter joined the local homeschoolers group and began soccer today. My son has been looking forward to it all summer and was thrilled to go! He did very well! His sister wasn't so keen on it - she liked having the ball, but definatly had trouble sharing it with the other kids - I think we'll need to work on that!
School (or something like it)We are poking along at school for my son. He is less then enthused about the work, but seems to be focusing very well this week. My daughter, on the other hand, is officially in "preschool" and is so anxious to do as much as we can give her!My son is finishing up Grade one right now. We didn't complete the grade in June, due to being away quite a bit, and having a new baby join a busy day-care household... so we are finishing it up now before heading on into Grade two. We aren't particularly concerned about him not finishing since he is only 6, and is doing very well at whatever I give him to do. Another positive about continuing to work on last years "stuff" is that the Grade two books haven't arrived yet! So, on we go... we are doing a writing focus this week. My son seems to be enjoying it, but is having difficulty understanding that EACH sentence needs to contain a complete thoughts - he seems to like fragmented sentences!  It's all about GOD'S timing!We have not ordered our ABEKA curriculum yet for the fall (we have everything else already). We've been putting it off because of the cost - there always seems to be somewhere else that money needs to go. We decided, however, that at the end of August, at the ABEKA hotel meeting we would have to "take the plunge" and make the order.Today something increadible happened. While I was at the church for VBS another homeschooling mom told me that the academy connected to our church was selling off some of the ABEKA books because they are changing curriculums - and suggested that I ask about it. As an answer to prayer, we were able to acquire most of the books we needed at less then half the cost!! God is SO good! What an amazing and unexpected answer to prayer! Not only do we HAVE the books, but we dont' have to pay for shipping, nor do we have to wait for delivery! WOW! Just like MommyMy eldest has been watching me knit, and has asked for quite a while now if I would teach him. This week I decided that it was time to do just that. I pulled out some fun colours of yarn and a small knobby knitter and set him to work... his first project? Just like a boy, he's making a SNAKE bookmark! He's just loving it so far and doing quite well!
In other news.... The power of observation!Tonight my 3-year old daughter was measuring our feet with my measuring tape."Mommy," she announced, "your feet are 7!" She is right. My feet are SIZE 7 "Daddy's feet are 9" She continued..... right again! "My feet are 8 right Mommy?"... again, she was right. She was also right about her big brother's feet. The only one that confused her was the baby - but then the baby doesn't wear shoes yet! She didn't measure them correctly - but she got the numbers right! She remembered our discussions of feet in the past and took in all the numbers! What a smart cookie :) She surprised me today a couple of other times, too. She was playing with my knitting needles and I asked her to pass me a size 4. She sorted a bit but came out with the right number. Again, on request, she passed over a 5. Wow, she's picking up more then I realized! She then made me letters with the needles -- X, A, V and T! I have completely underestimated her knowledge! How did she get so smart?  I forgot to talk about the sessions!I wanted to mention one of the sessions I went to yesterday. It was a ladies tea taught by Stacy McDonald. She centered around being a Godly wife, reminding us that the Bible teaches that women (wives) are to be humble, gentle, meek, paticient and submissive - all weaknesses in the World's view. Our culture exhaults women of style and culture who rise to the top of the work-world, but it really pleases God when we are soft-spoken and loving.Stacy also spoke about building up our husbands both in word and in deed. One of our jobs, as a wife, is to encourage and support our husbands, meeting their needs emotionally and physically. We are to build them up in front of others and in front of our children. We are to show LOVE as an action, and choose to demonstrate it daily to our spouse. For those who have husbands who struggle with taking leadership in the home she even gave some very practical suggestions as to how to encourage him to be the decision maker of home. Finally, Stacy spoke about teaching our girls to be women of virtue. It was a wonderful reminder to keep our young girls pure by teaching them the importance of dressing modestly and honouring their bodies as Temples of God. This does not mean a complete absence of style, but instead a modest and respectful form of that attire. I was really encouraged listening to Stacy speak. My daughter is a precious jewel and I wish to bring her up in purity and graciousness. Also the reminder that God is praised in my soft-spokeness and submissiveness. So often I am tempted to take charge and direct instead of waiting for my husband's final word. I am humbled and reminded to be paticient for his word and direction for our family. Ontario Christian Home Educators Convention! It was an early morning this morning as we headed out to drop the two oldest children off at different homes for care, then off to OCHEC! What a fantastic day! I was able to ask all my questions, find most of the materials I was looking for (Still didn't find music note flash cards), and just be encouraged to continue on. I met up with Donna who was displaying her books, and got to see pictures of her new grandbaby! (Yes, she is beautiful!!) While we were gone, our homeschooling friends hosted an "Our parents are going to OCHEC party"! The children had so much fun, bike riding, playing outside, playing trains, lightbrite, and much more! When the parents arrived home after a full day of conference, they even provided a delicious bbq for us so we didn't have to fuss about getting dinner ready. Good friends are such a gift - a treasure. So, would you like to know what we got?? Here's our "stack"!  Let me break it down a bit for you :)
 A series (7 books) of short Canadian biographies - perfect for reading aloud! Yes, after debating between Story of the World and Mystery of History, we decided to go with Story of the World. I am really looking forward to getting started on this!! I haven't been pleased with the art curriculum we've used for the past two years, so I went searching for some different ideas. The ABEKA one we were using was very "crafty" - mostly cut and paste. I do enjoy crafts -- in fact, I LOVE crafts, but I expect Art to be more then just crafts. Many of the other art books are copy-drawing... showing the lines to draw a picture and expecting the child to mirror the pictures in the books... While this is one way to teach drawing it really isn't teaching him to draw things the way he uniquely sees them, but instead to "draw in a box". I am excited about this program because it verbally explains the assignments, but then allows the child the creativity to do it in his own way. This one book has grades 1-3 art in it. Yes, those are RECORDERS that you see! I learned to play the recorder in Grade 3, and quite enjoyed playing. My son has been interested in it for about 6 months, so, since he's doing so well in piano and enjoying that I'm thinking that I'll introduce him to the recorder in January, depending on how everything else is going. I was surprised that when I picked up the instrument I could still play some of the simple songs! When I mentioned that to my friend she said she can play it rather well -- if I had known that I'd have asked her for lessons while we were still here! Ah well, I'm still looking forward to teaching it! I just love poetry, and so do my children. In researching for some Christian poems to supliment the poetry in our curriculum I came across this book. I was thrilled to find that the vendor had it in stock today when I went looking for it. It will be a great blessing to our school days! This book has age appropriate poems listed by grade from 1 -12 And a few more purchases -- a Map book which teaches map following by using animals in a zoo, clubhouse junior (a focus on the family magazine for 4-8 year olds), a new journal for next year - this journal has a box to draw a picture a day to illustrate the journal entry, a book of journalling prompts, and a CANADIAN money review book - since in our math books we see only Amerincan currency.I'm so pleased with our purchases. There are a few things I haven't shown -- a globe, a laminated (flat) world map, and some personal books to read. The only thing I didn't find that was on my list was music note and symbol flashcards, so I'm still on the search for them. What you haven't seen listed -- Math, phonics, reading, writing, spelling and science. For these subjects we will be using ABEKA again. I'm not sure how long we'll use ABEKA science, over the coming year I'll be reasearching into different types of science programs. That's it!  A day in the Life....
Last night we had an amazing thunderstorm! I love to watch thunderstorms, it reminds me again of the POWER of God! (I actually tried to wake up my eldest to share it with him, but he was just not interested) So, I opened up the blinds and sat in the dark, listening to the rain pound and the thunder roll, just worshiping God for His majesty. Home where they belongI've posted before about WHY I believe MY children belong at home. This video, however, sums up so much of how I think! Not everyone will agree with my choice, but for my family it is what God has directed for us at this time. The video is beautifully created, I hope you'll take a moment to view it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s18yj57iwU Blogger Friend School -- Assignment #20Blogger Friend School Assignment #20 - "Heart" Schooling New Scheadules for everyone!First of all, I would like to thank everyone who e-mailed me with book suggestions both on the list and privately. Some wonderful ideas were offered and I appreciate those who took the time to reply! Taking a break for the good of the heart.....Today we took a break from school. I've heard it from other homeschooling moms, and my own mother, a Christian school teacher, confirms that February is one of the hardest months of schooling. Why is that? Is it the lack of sunlight? Is it the lack of ability to exercise? Is it bordem of routine? I'm not really sure, but whatever it is, it has HIT OUR HOUSE. My son is just not interested in school right now. He starts each day ready to do his work, but the energy doesn't last long! He is distracted by everything -- and even by nothing! So, until Wednesday we're taking a break -- a "Happy Heart" break. We are doing crafts, making treats and having some Valentine fun! Today we made bread, did some crafts, played some games, made a big tent in the living room with ALL the blankets the kids could find, wrote valentines, and made some yummy chocolates - I'll have to take pictures of our finished products to post tomorrow. (And Mommy finished sorting out the kids clothes - they all seem to have grown in January!) It was a fun day and we enjoyed each other. Chapter books - suggestions, please!I was discussing with a close friend this evening about reading Chapter books aloud with our children. I must admit that I've not done this at all with my kids yet, assuming that they are too young to remember from chapter to chapter. My son, however, is now 5 1/2 and I think it's past time to start - but I don't know where... Santa visits our house!Thanks to the wonders of Daycare, Santa and his wife made a house call to see us today! It's not everyone who gets a personal in-home early visit from the big man himself! They brought cookies and candycanes and colouring books for each child. Mrs. Clause read a Christmas story. I have to admit, none of the kids were thrilled at their visit! One daycare child was aprehensive of them alltogether. One daycare child was too young to care. My son stood behind me most of the time they were here, peeking out from behind my chair, and my daughter just stared at them, not going near them! It was actually pretty funny!
Since they came to visit we decided to make it our Daycare Christmas party day. We decorated ornaments, played Christmas games, sang Christmas songs, and made Christmas shaped sugar cookies. It was lots of fun and a good "off" day from school.  The only disapointment was that there is no snow!! Soon, hopefully, we'll get a dusting - the kids are so anxious to play outside in it and make snow angels and snowmen!
On the mend :)Well, we DID skip school on Monday. The good news is that my son is starting feel much better! Yea! He's almost back to his "old" self again.
Just a school-y UpdateWell, we are about 8 weeks into school (WOW) and it seems to be going very well!We generally get through 4 days of lessons a week, and that suits me just fine! My son is still very interested and seems to really enjoy the work. A big surprise to me was his cursive. We decided to start it this year and see how he does - no push if he doesn't like it, we can always do it next year instead. To my surprise he really likes it! (that doesn't mean it's really readable, but he is enjoying it) He is always excited to learn an new letter, and he has said he wants to learn all the letters to his sisters name so he can write it for her because it's such a "pretty" way to write. So, it's all going well. Swimming lessons continue to be a HUGE deal in our house - he's just loving them, and Piano is going well, too!  As craft this week we made paper chains - The cat was the most facinated by these long strands of paper people, animals and shapes, and the kids really enjoyed it! I think we'll do it again around christmas, maybe making some star chains for the christmas tree! 
Catching up....Well, I had a chat with my sister-in-law yesterday and she chided me for not blogging for so long... I admit, I was feeling guilty about it anyway, but her prodding encouraged me to get on the ball. Everyone needs a sister-in-law like her - someone who will just tell you how it is! I'm glad for her.So Thanksgiving went very well. We visited with my hubby's parents (and extended family) for two days, then went on to my parents Sunday evening and my sister-in-laws on Monday. The food was wonderful at each place and we were blessed by the fellowship. Here is a picture of my children with their cousins  The week that followed has been very busy - but it seems like a poor excuse for not blogging! Our brochures for the mission came in on Friday, our prayer cards came in on Monday (Finally!!) and our projector arrived yesterday! We are working on putting together our display board this week, hopefully it will be done tomorrow. God is bringing everything together at the same time, and it's very exciting to be a part of it! It has been a GREAT school week. My son has breezed through his work, excited and on the ball. We've decided not to focus as much on the seatwork for the curriculum because it's one thing that he just doesn't enjoy, so we'll stick to the worksheets and just review on the things he needs the extra help with. With all the rain this week we haven't spent much time outside, but we have spent lots of time playing games and doing crafts. I haven't done as much around the house because of it, but it's certainly been worth it! I must admit, I love the rain - despite the dark clouds and the stay-indoors feeling. There's just nothing like a good puddle jumping session!
An encouragement reminder...
This evening was our monthly homeschoolers association meeting. I was reminded at the meeting of the importance of ENCOURAGMENT. Not just encouraging eachother, but also encouraging our children and our spouses. It's so easy to correct our children as they do their work -- "try to write a little neater", "Work a little faster", "You need to use better grammer", or even "sit up straighter", but do we remember to encourage and recognize the things that they have done well? Do we praise them for the things they are doing even though it's so easy to see the errors?
CANDY APPLES!Well, after the failure of the ROCK CANDY we decided to tackle CANDY APPLES instead -- lots of apples around here right now! They looked pretty good....  And they didn't taste too badly, either! At last, a successful venture! LOL Lots of fun!!
Should I send my child to public school?3 incidents have happened today that have made me, once again, so increadibly greatful that God has blessed our family with the gift of homeschooling.#1. The school that one of my day care girls attends (7 years old) had "early release" day today -- a note was sent home on Tuesday stating that the children would be released at 11:30am. Since it's a 10 min walk from the school to my house, she should have arrived by 11:45am. By 12:30 there was still no sign of her. I woke the rest of the little ones in my house, put on our coats and shoes and headed out to find her - just as she was coming around the corner with her walker. Turns out the teacher decided to keep the children for FOURTY MINUTES after class -- without informing caregivers or parents! I was SO worried about what had happened to her! #2. A friend of mine had her little 5 year old dropped off by the school bus (which was early!) at a bus stop in a bad area of town -- even though there was no one there to meet her! This is completely against school policy, and quite dangerous! #3. Another friend had her child's class released (6 years old) to wait outside in the parking lot for parents to arrive -- unsupervised. The children wandered and were not where they were supposed to be - causing fear and anxiety for many concerned parents. Why do we trust the public system with our children????? They haven't proven themselves today! Lord, Thank you for giving us the conviction and the resources to keep our children home for school -- the ability to protect them and teach them Your ways. Let us never forget the blessing this is, or the gift we are giving our children by putting them first.
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