In His Grip

A Day in Long Beach!

We decided to get out of the house today and ended up at Long Beach harbor.  We went on a boat tour of the harbor, had dinner at a great restaurant at the end of the pier, and took a ferris wheel ride.

Want to win a Rosetta Stone Language Program?

Check this out!!!

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE! 

This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.

This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program.  Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking.  Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included!  For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports. 

To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (red) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/  and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it.  And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it.  And good luck!  The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg.   And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win.   Yay for free stuff!

Snow Fun!!

Mark, Michelle and Maddie came up for a little romp in the snow today. The kids all had fun sledding and throwing snowballs.  Bob, Mark and Elijah built this incredible snowman:

Asking for prayer...

....this past week has been a roller coaster.  Our pastor and good friend was having headaches and vomiting, his wife took him to the doctor and it was found he has a brain tumor.  They operated on Wednesday and all went well, but we found out that the tumor is a bad one.

The outcome is not looking good.  The doctor basically told his wife to get his affairs in order. *cry* They have 8 children.

Please pray for this wonderful family!

Two Writers In Our Family?

My daughter, Elizabeth is an excellent writer and very creative.  Up to this point my son has really shown no signs of being interested in writing...well, I should say, he does narrate to me at times and I write it down, so I knew he was creative.

This morning Elijah wrote a story without any prompting from me:

THINK BIG by Elijah Watkins

Once there was a boy, his name was Elijah and a girl named Elizabeth. Elijah and Elizabeth had parents named Bob and Annie.

Bob and Annie had a sister and brother named Aunt and Uncle. Aunt and Uncle had a girl named Maddie. 

Maddie and Elijah like to think big! The other Watkins think they are too small to think big, but Elijah and Maddie followed their dreams and showed that everyone could think big.

The Big End

Isn't this the sweetest!!??!?!?  (A proud mama moment!)

Puppet Ministry

Elizabeth has started a new project at our church.  She is now head of the puppet ministry along with her good friend, Jamie.  It is a real joy to see her come out of her shell. Even to the point of making an appeal to the older youth at our church to see if they would help out. She has now written quite a few puppet shows.  I am so impressed with her creativity and her writing skills. Yes, yes, I'm a proud mama!

Bob and the kids built a puppet stage for VBS this year and it has come in handy.  I'll have to post some pictures of one of the puppet shows soon.  Maybe she'll even let me post a snippet of one of her puppet skits!

I am so blessed with all that I see the Lord doing in my children's lives.

My NOT so shy son!

We have been participating in a co-op on Tuesdays this school year.  Elizabeth is taking Spanish and Elijah is taking a class that incorporates reading, writing and speaking skills.

Elijah's class has been doing an indepth study on dinosaurs.  The dinosaur unit ended today and next week they will begin their blitz on Native Americans.

Today his teachers invited parents to come and see the children do an oral report on all they have learned.  Elijah worked diligently on his report this past week.

He was the second one to take the stage and I was worried that he would be shy or come to me for help...but nope...he stood up there and clearly gave his report!  Of course, I had tears in my eyes!  I tried to wipe them before any other moms saw....but when I looked around they all had tears in their eyes too!

My son is such a joy!