• Sep. 9, 2008
One month into school

We have almost a month into school now.  My daughter is really enjoying her program and my son enjoys his too except for any writing parts of it.  Today was the first day of our Co-Op.  The kids had a blast.  I am teaching FIAR to the K-2nd crowd.  They are so sweet. 

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• Aug. 2, 2008
The best laid plans of mice and men....

Well, here it is August already and I've not done any of the things that were on my list for this summer.  My niece came to visit us for 4 weeks.  To keep her from getting too homesick, we went to two different VBS programs and went to the pool and beach as often as we could.  We also had the kids in swim lessons for the last month.  Other than that, nothing got done.

We had a sink overflow upstairs and damage the kitchen ceiling.  Now that it's opened up, we can see that the plumbing leaks and we are going to have to replace it, somehow.  We think the leaky plumbing weakened the drywall next to my stove as well, which might explain how the flying squirrel chewed through it so easily this spring, we still haven't fixed that hole.  Can you say $$$$$$$$$$$$.

I had such high expectations for this summer and I'm a bit bummed that none of the things on my list got done, but as they say, "no use crying over spilt milk".

Tomorrow I hope to get everything ready to start school on Monday.  The kids are restless and it's time to get back at it.

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• May. 27, 2008
Summer Plans

As I said yesterday, we will spend our summer working on life skills, gardening, painting, reading, quilting, and playing with friends. 

I want to teach my 8yo to do prepare simple foods, like

• scrambled eggs
• mac n cheese / ramen noodles / spaghetti
• jello / pudding
• tuna salad sandwiches
• fruit  salad
• oatmeal / grits
• pancakes

I want to teach them how to clean their room respectably, how to help with other household chores, etc. 

I am also excited that we will be getting my niece Samantha for a month or maybe a bit longer this summer.  My sister lives with our parents and they care for my niece when my sister is working.  So this will give my parents a chance to go visiting other family members, and it will give us a chance to spend a lot of time with Samantha.  We plan on taking her camping with us, she's never been camping before.

Is summer here yet?

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• May. 27, 2008
Divide and Conquer... the Bible

I thought others might be interested in this too.  I recently went to hear Judy Reamer give her Divide and Conquer the Bible seminar.  She talks of how a man named Philip Green changed her life by teaching her the value of reading the bible straight through over and over.  Her testimony is amazing and I am thrilled to try her technique of dividing the bible into 4 sections to make it easier to read.  She has an article on the benefits of reading the entire bible here.

If you read 5 pages a day you will read your bible in a year.  How many people read their bible all the way through every year?  But Philip Green says that's not good enough, if you don't read it through several times a year, you forget what you have read.  fascinating to me. 

I think I've read every book of the bible once at some point over my lifetime.  But I've never read the bible straight through even once let alone several times a year.  I do bible study but Philip Green says it's important to just pick it up and read like you would read a novel.  You can read about Philip Green's ideas on reading the bible here.

You don't have to divide up your bible to do this, just use a bookmark and commit to reading a certain number of pages a day.  If you miss a day, just pick it up again the next day.

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• May. 26, 2008
Winding Down

We are winding down our school year.  We have approximately 3 weeks left and then we'll quit for the summer.  We will spend our summer working on life skills, gardening, painting, reading, quilting, and playing with friends.  That's enough isn't it.

In August, we'll start back with my 5yo in Little Hearts For His Glory, and my 8yo in Bigger Hearts For His Glory and Drawn into the Heart of Reading, all from Heart of Dakota (HOD).  We've settled on HOD's programs.  We started with them when my oldest was in preschool and then tried FIAR and MFW.  While MFW is a good program, it just isn't a fit for my family.  My kids love FIAR and were learning well from it but it is too labor intensive for the teacher.  So we are back to where we started, with HOD and we'll stick with them.  No more curriculum switching for us.  HOD is easy for me, enjoyable for them and we are all learning together.  I don't know why I didn't trust my early experiences with HOD and decide to check out other curriculums.  HOD is a perfect fit for our family and we've been blessed by the programs.

Now for myself, I am currently reading Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit by Teri Maxwell.  It is really speaking to my heart.  I am quite guilty of letting myself get irritable and grumbling instead of being meek and quiet.  I am praying for the Holy Spirit to quiet my heart and teach me patience.  I am also working on a MOTH (Managers of their Homes) schedule to find order in my home and help me get more done in a day.

All this to say that I am a work in progress. I am hoping that with the Lord's help, I will be more equipped to teach my precious angels in the fall.

More another day.

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• Jan. 26, 2008
Blessings from above

We were on our way to bible study Thursday morning around 9, and were on a 2 lane country road.  There was a little snow on the roads but they didn't seem slippery until I hit the ice.  I fishtailed and started heading into the path of an oncoming car.  I overcorrected and the backend swung round and we started going offroad.  Snow was flying over the windshield and I couldn't see anything.  We hit a tree on the back left then the rear end swung round and we hit a tree on the back right, it swung round a bit more and we finally stopped. 

Praise God!  We all came through with only minor injuries.  The car is totaled but can be replaced, my little angels could not be replaced!

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• Nov. 26, 2007
Home Again!!

   Yay!  We're home again!  I like visiting the family, but I missed my own bed....  The Creation Museum was really interesting.  I wish I could have spent more time reading the displays but with two little kiddos we would have to move on a bit before we wanted in each room.  They enjoyed it too though.  I would have liked to have seen a display geared more at little kids somewhere in the museum (almost a reward for them since they were so good)  but overall, it was impressive.  We will definitely visit this one again.  My 7yo's favorite parts were the display of Adam and Eve in the Waterfall before temptation and the lifesize section of Noah's Ark.  My 5yo's favorite part was the bookstore where she got a toy!  They both enjoyed the museum but could not sit still long enough for us to read all the signs

I'm working on my MOTH schedule.  I have a morning schedule put together now, but we weren't able to implement it today.  We had to run errands this morning so we're just now getting to schoolwork, but I hope to follow the schedule tomorrow.  After I get the mornings running smoother, I will work on the afternoon schedule. 

Someday I will be more organized so that my family can do more of the Lord's work instead of always trying to just get by in a day!

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• Nov. 18, 2007
Thanksgiving Break

We are officially on Thanksgiving Break!  Yay!  We are spending a week near my parents.  Part the time I'll be helping them out around the house and the rest of the time we'll be hanging out with my family and long time friends.  Looking forward to visiting the Creation Museum on wednesday!!!!

When we get back home, I am determined to finally set up my MOTH schedule.  I bought the book in August but haven't made / implemented a schedule yet.  I have come to realize that I need the structure I've been rebelling against all my life.  If you are not familiar with MOTH, it stands for Managers Of Their Homes.

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• Oct. 2, 2007
Flower Pot Math

We just printed out the Flower Pot addition game from HSS.  The kids are having fun playing with it in our clean schoolroom....

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• Oct. 1, 2007
Schoolroom almost done

So, my schoolroom (which is where all craft supplies are located) turned into a major disaster zone over the summer.  I've been working for about 3 weeks on it and we finally have some semblance of order. 

1. First the first time in a year, both the US and World maps are on the wall. 
2. I took out my daughters big desk and put a clean (thank you Magic Eraser) little tykes desk in its place.  She now has her big desk in her room full of coloring books and crayons.
3. I took all their papers from last year out and boxed them.  I want to go through them and put together a portfolio of their work from last year, but that's a project for another day.
4. I went through all the piles of my own paperwork that were stashed around and got them filed!  That was the roughest job.  And I set up a kiddie table/chair for working with puzzles, and anything else that would slide off their desk.
5. I actually followed MFW's reccomendations for Kindergarten and set up my milk crate full of files for each of the MFW units in K.  I also took all of the extra workbook type stuff my daughter had floating around, ripped the pages out and put them in the appropriate K unit files.  Kindergarten is easier with an organized program.  Thank you MFW for the idea!

I'm not done yet, but it's so much better than it was before, now if only I could find our copy of Primary Language Lessons, I know it was here before I started cleaning up.....  Please don't tell me I accidentally threw it out!

This is my computer corner.  I finally have a space to put my computer so I can do printouts on the fly of anything we are working on. 

This is the kids desk area.  We have an area rug on the floor for reading, I have a small chaise lounge I want to put in here for a reading area but I can't move it until I get some visiting brother-in-laws to help me.  My dh and I both have back problems so no lifting...    I want it now....  But the area rug is a much needed addition.  Last year, we were reading on the bare floor, I like the cusioning of the rug.  YAY. 

And I did what I should done last year and ordered "Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory" from Heart of Dakota for my oldest.  He is still not ready for MFW Adventures.   So for this year, we will do MFWK with my daughter, the Beyond program with my son and FIAR with both.  They love FIAR.

Here's hoping you are more organized than me, I'm not sure you could be less....

Lee Ann

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• Sep. 28, 2007
Our first Lapbook

We have just done our first lapbook.  We are rowing a unit from HSS on Time of Wonder.  My 7yo was thrilled to do the lapbook, he really likes how it turned out.  We may have to try more of these.  .

Using the templates on HSS made it really easy to do.

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