Documenting and sharing our lives and the fun we have in the midst of the craziness. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:16:00 -0500 Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:16:00 -0500 Today is the first day of school for the public school kids in our area. I woke up with a renewed sense of awe and thankfulness to God for the work he did and is doing in my husband's heart. My five year old is not sitting in a classroom today. He is home. Today I'm praising Him. Today I'm asking for wisdom in my roles of wife and mom. Over the past few weeks there has been a draw on my heart to be more purposeful in all that I do. My eyes are being opened, my ears are hearing more clearly, and my heart is receiving and giving more love. God is so very faithful. He is so good to us. Today is amazing walking with my Savior! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/720498/ Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:16:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/720498/ So I haven't kept up with this blog.  No real reason but I'm back if for nothing else than to have a record of our home schooling adventure. And on that note, I'm home schooling!  Yes, that's right.  My husband is not going to send our 5 year old to Kindergarten this year!  God is so very good and deserves all the praise for this miracle.  I have lesson plans all written up for a lot of the year.  Dustin, my husband, wants to see progress.  He wants to see dedication.  Having plans will help to keep me focused so that I don't slack off. The only subject for which I am purchasing curriculum this year is math.  I have gotten this far on my own and I seem to be stuck, not knowing where to go from here.  We are using Math U See as it comes very highly recommended by most of the home school moms I know.  Plus after seeing the demo it just made sense to me to teach math this way. We'll be starting August 31, though we never really stop learning in this house.  My boys ask to "do some school" everyday. So...I'll just write down where we are now so I can see how far we've come at the end of the year. Nathaniel is 5 and is reading.  He can read almost any word he sees.  He is 2 chapters into his first chapter book, Clara and the Bookwagon.  It's a simple level 3 I can read reader but it is the longest book he's attempted yet.  I'm so very proud of him.  Right now he is halfway through first grade math.  Seth is learning to read really simple three letter words.  Together we are working through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  He enjoys it and it seems to be clicking with him so we'll continue.  He is doing Kindergarten math, though he doesn't realize it.  I'm a sneaky teacher.  :) We have joined a home school group and are already planning on attending several events in September.  I hope to meet families we can connect with.  Most of my home schooling friends are online, spread out all over the country.  I'd like some IRL hs friends too! That's enough of that.  I'll try to keep up with this as best I can.  Once school officially starts I'm sure I'll have lots more to say! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/717149/ Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:42:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/717149/ I found the chord!  I can put my pictures on my computer again!  And once again sorry they are so big.  I still don't know how to make them smaller, although I'll admit I haven't been losing any sleep trying to figure it out. This is the box the boys decorated for my dad's birthday.  He loved it!  He builds things out of wood and has made them several boxes so he was pleased that someone gave him a box for once.  He collects them. The blue card was from Nathaniel and he did all the writing himself.  It isn't exactly straight and notice the capital A because he doesn't like writing the lower case a.  Ha! My dad doesn't like having his picture taken and I never did get a good shot of his face.  He was too busy looking down and talking to the boys.  They love climbing rock walls!  And racing.  Nathaniel is a lot faster with his longer legs but Seth tries his best! "Look Mom, I'm doing it without falling!" This boy's sweet spirit lights up my day. Building with Daddy.  The quality is low, even for me, but it was a weird lighting day and hey, I don't even pretend to understand my camera.  I'm trying though. We made snickerdoodles again last night on a whim.  They turned out much better than the first time because they had more sugar and cinnamon on them.  The next time we see my Mother-in-law we are going to make a batch for her because they are her favorite.  I called my Nanny last night and talked to her for over an hour.  I sure do miss her.  I did okay until at the very end of the conversation she was telling me she loved me and that I was still her baby and would always be her baby no matter how old I got.  She's told me this all my life and I know it's true.  Once I hung up though, the tears had to come.  I wasn't just sad, though, I was happy too because I am so blessed to know her.  I have complicated emotional combinations sometimes.  Today we are finally doing the paint/chalk/science/math/art thing we were going to do last week.  The box turned out to be enough of a creative outlet and we didn't have time for it.  It should be fun and messy, the perfect activity for us. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/591795/ Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:07:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/591795/ Well since I appear to be okay with sharing things I guess I can get into a little more that hit me last night. My uncle Alan died in a car accident at the age of 24.  I was 9.  We had just started going to church and my faith journey was new and exciting.  Then my life was thrown for a loop with this loss.  He was very special to me and it just seemed so cruel.  I realize now that I blamed God, at least a little.  Yes, I tried to think positively, that this was actually right or good.  But reality was that it hurt the people closest to me and the pain was excruciating. It will be 18 years this November.  I realized that I have spent the last 18 years of my life desperately wanting to trust God but being absolutely terrified of doing so.  You see, what if I trust Him and then lose someone else?  "His will, His plan is perfect" and all that.  Well what if His plan involves my pain? Yeah, what if.   Like I'm the only person in this world who has pain.  I can make a list that's quite long of people who are suffering more than I ever have. God's only Son died on the cross for me!  Hello!  He had no sin yet He took on mine and everyone else's.  Talk about pain!  I can't even bear my own sin much less the sin of the rest of the world. I have lived the last 18 years of my life in fear.  I feared losing my parents or other special family members.  Then I met Dustin and I feared losing him.  Then I became a mom and feared losing my children.  Is there a greater pain than that?  I can't even imagine.  But God knows. For the first time I actually asked God to take that fear away.  It doesn't come from Him and has no place in my life.  And where most nights I would be kept awake thinking about the what-ifs of tragedy, the things I would do to spare myself, the things I would do to help the situation, I let it go.  Really let it go.  And I slept. I woke this morning to a new day.  And I know that I will face fear again.  But it won't, it can't take a hold of me like before. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/591301/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:27:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/591301/ I have been learning a lot about God and myself lately. I have a copy of My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers and sometimes I remember to read it.  Last week I read something quite profound, or at least it was to me.  He wrote, "The warfare is not against sin; we can never fight against sin-Jesus Christ conquered that in His redemption of us." I know, I know, that seems like kind of a duh statement.  Yet how often do I find myself trying to fight on my own?  Well since you don't really know me I'll have to tell you:  Daily.  I realized that my thinking was skewed.  I knew that I had been set free but instead of letting God really free me I tried to take the reigns and be free on my own. That doesn't make sense, I know.  It does in my head but not when I type it out.  A great communicator I am not.  I "know" this and let my "knowledge" precede my belief of faith.  I try to take over and fix myself, try to conquer my own sin. I can't tell you how many times I have had this thought run through my head:  There are so many things wrong in my life that I don't even know where to start! Why did I think I had to start anywhere but Faith???  Seriously?  It's crazy because I have said time and time again to other people, "God doesn't expect us to come to Him perfect, that's His job!  He takes an imperfect yet willing, yielding vessel and does a great work in them." So is this my actual first step in letting go my perfectionism?  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/591189/ Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:32:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/591189/ I can't find the chord to get my pictures from my camera to my computer!  I know it must be in a quite obvious place as I would never put it in an out of the way place, no not me.  I always put things exactly where they go, where it makes sense for them to be.  Yeah.  Right. Thanks to a great idea from a forum I frequent my kids now have a fun new game to play while practicing a little bit of math.  Remember the card game "War"?  Yeah, the one that can take forever to play!  Well we play a much more condensed version.  If I remember correctly from my childhood you are supposed to play until one person is totally out of cards.  They just play until they get through the cards in their hands and whoever has won the most wins the game. Although, I'm not really sure if they are getting the concept of which card has the greater number because they both flip their cards over and when I ask which one is greater they both yell "MINE!".  It's cute but it can get quite loud.  I found a neat book of preschool crafts today.  It even has patterns to make the crafts which is great for me because I can not draw and find it annoying trying to figure out how to make my own. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/591177/ Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:25:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/591177/ Yesterday we celebrated my dad's birthday.  He loved the present the boys made for him!  Once I get the pictures on the computer I'll post them.  They really did a great job with it. We have had cooler weather yesterday and today.  I'm so pleased.  I'm ready for autumn.  It's been rainy and dreary though and today it's leaving me feeling sleepy.  I feel okay, just tired.  Or is it lazy?  haha We slacked off on school time this week.  Not to say we didn't do anything, just nothing I had planned to do.  And I'm okay with that.  I refuse to beat myself up for not following my schedule sometimes.  It's not always a bad thing! I think Nathaniel has needed a break from trying to write.  He is a perfectionist like his mommy and if I'm not careful he can really get himself worked up over not getting things perfect.  Even if he doesn't think a break was a good idea, I know it was.  I don't want him getting frustrated or upset with himself over things.  Oh!  I almost forgot!  The boys found a set of wooden blocks for $5!  The original price sticker said $29.99.  They are brand new but were donated because they left the factory missing the square shaped blocks.  But they haven't missed them at all and have 150 other shapes to build with.  I have pictures of that too.  I think my spaghetti is about done.  I guess I have to finally get the clean laundry off of the table so we can eat.  I told you the rain was making me lazy today.  I'm looking forward to a bit of sewing after dinner.  :) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/588687/ Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:38:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/588687/ Saturday was such fun getting together with the families from church.  There were kids close to the boys' ages so they didn't feel left out.  In fact I didn't hear a peep out of them after dinner except when they came to ask for something to drink!  The adults had a great time talking and playing games.  Dustin and I haven't been able to do anything like that in a while and I for one found it refreshing.  It being a family thing made it all the more enjoyable.  Today was a relaxing one.  We all overslept so we didn't make it to church.  :(  But Dustin made us brunch (I LOVE it when he cooks!).  I watched the Carolina Panthers win over the Chargers.  Such an exciting finish!  I hope they can keep the winning up this year.  We had a simple dinner with easy cleanup.  We finished the Magician's Nephew and I don't know when we'll get to read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  If I didn't have those pesky library fees keeping me from using my card the problem would be solved. *Note to self:  Do NOT go out of town and forget to return library books because you will not remember that you forgot when you get home and before you know it you have had the same 20 books for 2 months.*  Maybe I can find a used copy for a decent price.  Even brand new would be cheaper than the fees.  They will just have to wait till another month. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of this weekend's fun.  I was too busy enjoying it to pick up the camera. This week should be a great one.  We are celebrating my dad's birthday on the 10th and the boys want to make him something.  I don't know what yet but we'll figure it out.  And we are making chalk and paint this week and playing around with mixing colors to do it.  We'll cover math, science, and art with one project!  I'm getting chills just thinking about it.  No, really I am. I will for sure post pics of all this!  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/586642/ Sun, 7 Sep 2008 23:40:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/586642/ And that's as much of an apology or explanation as I'm going to give.  Okay, so we started school August 4th.  I gave Nathaniel the choice to start then or after Labor Day and he wanted to start as soon as we could.  I love that kind of enthusiasm! He is four, won't be five until January and Seth is only three so we didn't buy a formal curriculum since it is basically preschool and some kindergarten thrown in for some challenge.  He is rising to the challenge though!  I never imagined the kid who is a bundle of energy would want to sit down to do worksheets.  Yet he does and almost daily asks to do more. I knew he wanted to write letters and I printed out tracer pages but then he saw workbooks in Walmart and asked if I would buy one for him.  Well okay then.  We are reading through their Bible story book and a kids' devotional book my aunt gave them.  Let me tell you, these kids have amazing retention!  I shouldn't be surprised given who their father is, but I am.  They are remembering names and keeping them straight! We are also making sure we know the alphabet and letter sounds.  Nathaniel continues to sound out some words and is always asking me what something says or how to spell something. We are doing basic math: which is greater, number order, one to one ratios, simple addition and subtraction.  One huge breakthrough is that he can now count to 20 without skipping numbers!  He had developed the habit of skipping 15-17.  He even counted up to 65 only asking for help 3 times.  What else...Oh we have nature notebooks and I try to get out to a park or something once a week in order to have a nature study.  Of course we are outside more often than that, but at least once with our notebooks.  It is so much fun. We are currently reading The Chronicles of Narnia:  The Magician's Nephew.  I must get to the used book store for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe soon as we only have 2 chapters left! Let's see, oh I have found so many good books lately and I don't dare list them all.  My favorites are 4 different Hardy Boy books, Charlotte's Web, Little House on the Prairie, a book of science experiments, children's stories by Charles Dickens, picture book of World History, picture book about Abraham Lincoln (Nathaniel is obsessed) and also one of George Washington, the sequel to My Side of the Mountain (we already have it) and A Wrinkle in Time.  Oh the places we can go and the things we can learn from books!  It's so exciting! We had a park day today even though it rained a little.  We didn't let it dampen our spirits.  Tomorrow we are going to get together with several families from church and have a blast.  I can't wait! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/585817/ Fri, 5 Sep 2008 21:01:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/585817/ I love being home with my children!  We can learn so much everyday.  I enjoy seeing them excited about learning. Today at breakfast Nathaniel said something about "Indians".  I'm not an overly PC gal, but really I would rather he say "Native Americans".  After all, he's not talking about people from India is he? Anyway that lead to a discussion on why Native Americans were called Indians for so long, and still are by some.  We talked of Christopher Columbus, geography, and the belief that the Earth was flat. I broke out the globe and showed them where all the places were and they could understand just exactly what CC thought he would be able to do. The more I break out of my public schooling mindset from my youth, the more I discover just how easy, fun, and natural this homeschooling endeavor is.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/564563/ Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:42:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momoftwoboys/564563/