I am a Wife and Mom. I live on a 20-acre tree farm with some farm animals. My husand and I have been married since 2002. We have two children (born '05 & '06) with a 3rd due December '08. We are Christians and are striving to raise our children the way God has called us to do and to "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4) while living in the country! Please visit our 2nd child's CaringBridge site: www.caringbridge.org/visit/abigailrose http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dolevalleyfarm/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:56:00 -0500 Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:56:00 -0500 Hello. Over the weekend we spent time with my husband's family and Josiah had a blast playing with his cousins (he only has one first cousin on his daddy's side, but many 2nd (etc.) cousins. He has 30 first cousins on my side.)... and I was glad to be in a house with AC, since it was 90* on Sunday. We do not have AC in our own house. It does stay quite cool here, though... but AC is always nice, especially when I'm 6 months pregnant! Abigail enjoyed being held by her Grandma, Aunt, and Great-Aunt and my husband enjoyed visiting his dad, brothers, cousins, etc. Monday I did some cleaning with Josiah "helping" (he IS a big help, actually!) and we spent time reading, playing, and practicing letter sounds. We also made a birthday card for daddy since today is his 29th birthday! It is actually my 23rd birthday as well -- yes, we share a birthday! Josiah wrote "dad" and "I love you" all by himself on the card, with me telling him which letters to write. We then kept it a secret until today. This morning, I slipped the homemade birthday card into my hubby's lunch box when I put together his lunch. First thing Josiah said when he got out of bed this morning was, "mom, did you put daddy's card in his lunch box??" and he was so excited that he had to call daddy at 10 this morning to ask him if he got the card. I have to say it was one of the funnest (is that a word??) projects Josiah and I have done together. Josiah also made me a birthday card, and had me help him write "mom" and "22", even though it is 23 that I turned today. lol. :O)   Today I am scrubbing the floor in my house (1400 square feet and it's all pergo flooring), baked a cake for our birthdays, and then I am hoping to run to the store to get some ice cream as well. Josiah has been begging to play the Jr. Phonics Game, but I told him I might be too busy today. Abigail takes up a lot of time with bottle feedings every 4 hours, diaper changes, and simply needing to be held and cared for... so when it's a cleaning day, it's hard to find time to do many other activities. We did read some today, though! Well, this is long enough, and I talked more about me and my life than I did homeschooling... sorry! Praying everyone has a blessed day today!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dolevalleyfarm/590998/ Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:56:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dolevalleyfarm/590998/ I have played the Jr. Phonics Game with Josiah every day this week - including today. We both really enjoy it and it has helped him with a few letters that he didn't know by sight when in lower-case before (g, q, p, b, and d). Otherwise he knows all of the alphabet by sight, upper and lower-cases! I also have a homemade number chart up on the wall, 1-10 with pictures and I have him point at the number as he counts. Another chart I made was colors. I just wrote the color word, in the color it is (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple...) and I have him point at the color/word and say the colors. I'm hoping to do a outdoor activity this week. Josiah plays outdoors for a few hours everyday and he has tons of fun playing with "guns" (sticks), driving his little dump truck and dozer, and visiting the animals through the fence (he loves to watch them eat), but I'd like to do a science or art-type project as well. Maybe we'll learn about insects! I have been getting some great ideas from reading your blogs and I really appreciate it! For history, I am hoping to buy the "Hero Tales" books one and two (stories about real-life Christians in history, for young children). We are almost done with the Laura Ingalls Wilder series (probably another two weeks worth of reading)! Here are some books that are on my "wish list": Thanks for stopping in! God bless ~Clarissa http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dolevalleyfarm/588113/ Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:44:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dolevalleyfarm/588113/ Today I played the "Junior Phonics Game" with Josiah. He loved it! I enjoyed it as well. We played for about 20 minutes. Josiah wanted to keep playing, but I didn't want to over do it the first day. I have both the Junior and the regular Phonics Games and I'm so excited to be using them. My Mom and my older sisters have used the Phonics games to teach their children to read and it's been really great. The Junior Phonics Game is for 3-6 years and the Phonics Game is for 6+ years.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dolevalleyfarm/586948/ Mon, 8 Sep 2008 15:30:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dolevalleyfarm/586948/ http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/coleruotsala They are distant cousins of mine and go to my church (in MI... I'm in WA). http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dolevalleyfarm/585825/ Fri, 5 Sep 2008 21:40:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dolevalleyfarm/585825/ I spent about 30 minutes doing some seatwork with Josiah today. We just focused on the letter 'A'. I really am not trying to do much "schooling" at this point. I'm just going with the flow, teaching him simple things that he is interested in. So, today I showed him how to write the big letter 'A' and then helped him write it. I had him write it about 10 times on his own. He did quite well. I also read him a Bible Story from "The Golden Bible" story book for children. I have been reading him a Bible story almost every day from that book for the last week. Before that I was reading to him from my Bible (KJV), but this has been working better, since the pictures in the children's Bible capture his attention. For "History" I have been reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. We are on the 6th book now (we skipped "Farmer Boy" and are going to read it last. If I would've been thinking clearly, I would have read that book first, rather than last..). Josiah, being a 3 year-old boy, likes to bounce around and literally stand on his head on the couch while I read, but he is listening and wants me to read... so I let him be a "boy" at the same time! I hold Abigail on my lap while I read, so she gets to hear/see the story as well. She requires about as much attention as a newborn baby, so it can be challanging at times to keep her happy while I devote some time to Josiah. It is times like those that make me wonder how I am going to do it after the new baby arrives in December... it will be like having twins! Anyway, just figured I'd share what my schooling consists of at this point. God Bless~ Clarissa  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dolevalleyfarm/584543/ Wed, 3 Sep 2008 13:32:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dolevalleyfarm/584543/ Hello. I am a 23 year-old wife and mother. My husband and I started out young and have been married since 2002. I am a stay-at-home Christian mom and homemaker. My husband is a hardworking, Christian man, and wonderful father! We have two children with a third due December 2008. Josiah (3.5 yrs.) is very interested in letters, sounds, and numbers already! I am planning to buy the Junior Phonics Game from Ebay and start playing it with him a few times each week. For now we are spelling out words, remembering letter sounds, and counting everything we can! Josiah also has so much fun playing outside and visiting mini-horse, buck-goat, and the chickens! Abigail (20 mo.) is a delight for us all and is acting very aware of her surroundings lately. We think that she knows and understands a lot more than she is capable of letting us know! Visit Abigail's CaringBridge site to learn more about our sweet angel: www.caringbridge.org/visit/abigailrose   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dolevalleyfarm/583572/ Mon, 1 Sep 2008 19:46:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dolevalleyfarm/583572/