I have no greater joy than to hear my children walk in truth - Homeschool Blogger

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Tue, 6 Jan 2009 17:01:00 -0600

http://thepellerinfamily.blogspot.com/

in a world with 48 hours in a day

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 17:18:00 -0500

So I had lofty ambitions of blogging everyday, and writing what we did every day. Not only for me, to keep a record for myself but for family and friends to keep up to date on or daily ongoings. Last week however I discovered that it's just not going to fit into my daily schedule. In a world that had 48 hours in a day maybe I could have squezed it in. So I bid farewell to the daily blog and I am aiming now for a weekly blog with just the highlights. At first I felt like a failure not being able to keep up but you know what I discovered....it's ok. So I am thinking maybe Saturday nights I'll post a little something something.

Earth Lapbook (Monday 9/17/07)

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 04:55:00 -0500

I am going to try to figure out why I can post pics today. Once I figure it out I will post pics of our Earth Lapbook, it came out really cute.

With the lapbook, I decided to let my son direct on what he thought were the important things from the unit to include. I was really impressed with what he remembered without looking through the book. He remembered that the earth is flat at the north and south poles, that it turns on an axis which isn't a real stick it turns on. He also remembered lines on longitude and latitude. He could tell me about the climate of the earth and that the closer you are the the equator the warmer it is. Then we both looked through the Usborne First Guide to the Universe for more ideas. I struggled for a bit with how much he should actually do and how much I should do. But the Lord is faithful to give me guidance and we found a nice balance. All in all a success.

Handwriting for a Reason: (I)Lesson 5 day one and two

Bible (I) Ways I can enjoy a friendship with God

Math (I) Started new Saxon Math Lesson 1(Calender,graphing, counting to 100, left and right)

Social Studies (I) A child's History of the world Ch6 Tomb Builders Map work "Egypt"

Bigger and Smaller (E) Series of worksheets (tried playing with a bowl of cotton balls today for an activity and he loved it. Cotton balls everywhere but worth it.

Science (I) Completed Earth Lapbook

Language Arts (I) Dictations Sheet, Spelling words with long e, long e worksheet,

Reading (I) The Cat in the Hat

Read aloud (I &E) Mr. Poppers Penguins

Just a cute story

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 12:58:00 -0500

We do family bible study every night. My husband is teaching through the book of John. The kids really enjoy not only the "daddy time" but they enjoy hearing him talk about God and the Bible. He is very faithful to do this every night. Last week, friday night we were all totally exhusted (we were in the ER the night before with our youngest for croup, the hosipital is a 45 min drive away...so when all was said and done we got how about 3:34 am) So we thought we'd just all hit the sack early. My youngest son yells out "WAIT I want to read the Bible, it's time to read the Bible" We couldn't resist such a cute request and it reminded us that even though our earthy bodies mayb be tired, He will give you the strength to come to Him and learn more about Him. What a blessing that my youngest looks forward to reading the Bible as a family and that it's become such an important part of his life. I praise God for these little "pick me ups" because honestly I had a really hard day that day and just felt useless, then to hear those words from my son and the Lord speak to me "I am using you" just made it so much easier to rest that night. Praise God for His Faithfullness!

Soccer Time (Thursday 9/13/07) And I NEED Help

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:35:00 -0500

Another beautiful day in Maine. I mean it's really beyond words. We had a pretty good day today. We had a little downer. My oldest son had his spelling test today and he got 6 wrong and he just burst into tears. I tried to encourage him that not everyone will get 100%, 100% of the time. And that what matters most is that he did his best and did it unto the Lord. He nodded through the tears and corrected his mistakes. I felt so bad because he is usually spot on. I think he partly didn't study enough and partly he was rushing. Whatever the case was I didn't want him to beat himself up over it. I had him rewrite his mistakes 5 times each and said he could have a retake tomorrow if he wanted. He agreed so he'll have a retake test tomorrow.

We live in a very small town...literally maybe 200. The little public school up the street has a small little student body. If I sent my oldest son he would be in a combined class of 8. Anyway they have after school sports. Last year my oldest did basketball, and softball. And now it's soccer time. He LOVED it. They just learn basic soccer techniques and they play a mock game at the end. He really enjoys all the kids and just playing the game. He ran up to me at the end and wrapped his arms around me and said "thank you mom for bring me to soccer. I had a blast" Everyone commented on how sweet that was. And although I agree it's typical of him. Just a thoughtful, thankful kid.

So here's my problem and I NEED HELP! My youngest is 3 1/2. He is his brother's best friend. They are the two peas in a pod. The problem that I thought I had confronted is that my youngest has NOTHING to do while we're doing more instruction intense lessons. Ok I say nothing, he does have things, he has his "homeschool box" filled with all kinds of goodies, but obviously none of them hold his interest. I do his school first and give him my complete attention. That is about 20 min right now. Then he just looks so lost trying to entertain himself. I don't want to put him in front of the tv. It makes me sad and I feel torn. My husband suggested breaking the day up more. Doing two lessons and then a group project, or a walk outside, or a read aloud, something to get him involved more so the time that I do spend doing instruction is in smaller time blocks. Anyone have experience in this?

So here's what we did

Bible (I &E) John 3 (I) What is a friend? How can I be a friend of God?

Social Studies: (I) Ubsborne Book Of History A farmers day

Science (I & E) The power of Magnets

Math (I) Ice Cream Scoop game practicing Math Facts

Shapes (E) Same and different worksheets

Language Arts: (I) Spelling test,Activity sheet with Rhyming,synonyms, antonyms, number words

Reading (I) Finished Put me in the Zoo a day ahead because "I have to know if they let him in the zoo"

Read aloud (I & E) Mr Poppers Penguins

Homer Price and Donuts (Wednesday 9/12/07)

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 13:37:00 -0500

What a beautiful day. "After school" we took a nice walk outside. I will say that I am very blessed to live in Maine. We have the most beautiful seasons. And where I live is simply breathtaking, we are snuggled right in the woods. We are now coming into my favorite of all season of all, fall. First I love the change. I love the colors, red, orange, it's something. We spent about an hour collecting leaves and looking at the differences between them. I love the memories fall hold for us as a family. My husband and I were married in the fall. And one year later the day before our one year anniversary we had our first son. It's just a joyous time of year. It's always a time to look back and say "wow God you've done so much"

Here's our daily activity

A Reason for Handwriting (I) Lesson 4 day one and two

Bible (I &E) John 3 (I) God's People and Friendship

Social Studies (I) A child's history of the world ch 6 ("I" was very interested in the Egyptians which excites me because he's in for weeks of study into them)

Math: (I) Subtraction from 11 and 12 Simple word problems

Shapes (E) Diamonds with worksheets

Science (I) Usborne First Guide to the Universe Vocabulary review with worksheet, started our "Earth lapbook" "I" is so happy to do his very first lapbook

Language Arts:(I) Dictation Sheet ; spelling pretest

Reading (I) Put me in the Zoo

Read Aloud: (I&E) Mr. Poppers Penguins

Since we finished Homer Price yesterday I decided today we would make donuts in honor of the kids favorite chapter. Of course we didn't make as many LOL . I simply bought some premade biscuits and had the boys cut holes from the middle using a cookie cutter. Then we rolled them lightly in sugar and cooked them in a pan of oil (of course mommy did that) then we sprinkled powdered sugar on them. I must admit I snuck a "hole" from the batch and it was pretty tasty. The kids loved this. I have pics but for some reason it keeps telling me I don't have enough space to post it. Does anyone know what that means?

Nile (Tuesday 9/11/07)

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:41:00 -0500

September 11 is always a day of rememberence and saddness. I remember this day 6 years ago. I had called my husband at work to tell him about the first plane hitting the World Trade Center. As we were talking the second plane hit. I remember crying out "OH God help them" My son was about to turn a year old in a few weeks. My prayer that day was "come Lord Jesus" I was just sickened by what an evil world we live in. Today I am reminded of God's mercy and longsuffering.

Today we had another great day in school.

A Reason for Handwriting (I) Lesson 3 Day three and four

Bible: (I &E) John 3 (I) part 2 God made me to have a relationship with Him

Social Studies: (I) Usborne Book of World History "First settlers of the Nile Journal entry. What did the early setters do when the Nile would flodd?

Math:(I) Fact families subtracting from 11

Shapes:(E) rectangles and ovals with worksheets

Science:(I) Usborne First Guide to the Universe "weather and climate"

Language Arts:(I) Activity Sheet rhyming, synonyms, antonyms, adding "ing" worksheet, review of spelling words ending in ing

Reading:(I) Put me in the Zoo

Read Alound:(I&E) Homer Price

Art:(I&E) Usborne I can draw people

And We're Back! I have a little poet and more! (Monday 9/10/207)

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 19:08:00 -0500

The week off seemed way to short, we had some really great family time and it was sort of the official end to summer. So I was worried about starting school again after the long break, but the kids were the least of my worries. They awoke at 5:30 early for us but not out of the ordinary. I was actually glad because I get a lot done in the early morning, it's my most productive part of the day, I can read my bible, do a couple loads of laundry, do odds and ends all before 8:30. So today I had an extra hour...so I thought. I sat down I began to have blurry vision. For me this is an indication that I migraine is coming. I quickly got my medication and braced my kids. They've been through it many times. Mommy has a bad headache and needs to lay down. I was disappointed that my morning was going to be spent on the couch and half out of it. But I just need to give God praise for the awesome things He showed me this morning. First that He is in control and that even though my morning didn't go according to my plan He still was with me and was going to show me things. And what He showed me was many answered prayers. First my older son came over to me laid his hands on my head and prayed for me. Then he took my 3 year old to the table to and poured two bowls of cereal. I could hear him telling him "mommy doesn't feel good so we need to try and be good until she's better" I get very tired when I have the migraine and although I don't totally fall asleep I am far from functioning. I could hear what they were doing, playing, singing, and I would hear the occasional "shhhh we're getting too loud". I heard my oldest say let's get dressed. I must have been on the couch for about 3 hours, when I finally started to feel a little better. I got up and my oldest son had done all his chores and was helping the youngest do his. The answered prayer part is I have been praying about the spiritual growth and character growth of both my kids, but especially my almost 7 year old. And today just showed me how God has answered my prayer in that area. He acted in such a mature, responsible way, but the first thing he did was pray. I love it. Later on when I was putting pj's on my youngest I noticed a band aid on his knee. I knew I hadn't put it there and I asked my husband if he did, and he did not. My oldest son piped in "oh I did that when you were laying down because he got a scrape" and sure enough when I peeled back the band aid he had a little scrape. I was really overwhelmed that one God watched over my children when I was laying down and two that my oldest really is turning into a compassionate, godly young man. AWESOME! So we did get to school after all, just much later than usual and we had an awesome day. Here's what we did.

Bible: (I & E)John chapter 3 (I) Big Truth "God made me to have a relationship with Him" From the Josh McDowell Series for kids

A reason for Handwriting:(I)Lesson 3 Day one and two

Social Studies:(I) A child's View of History Ch 5 learning about BC and AD made our own timeline with a cross to show Christ and BC and AD added the First King of Egypt Menes to the timeline

Math:(I) Review of 9, 10 families, and began lesson on subtracting from 11

Shapes: (E) Triangles Completed triangle worksheets

Science: (I) Usborne First Guide to the Universe "weather" completed worksheet

Language Arts: (I) Activity sheet dictation. Words with the suffix ing, copied spelling list, with words with the suffix ing, wrote a poem with "green eggs and ham" as an influence The following is my son's poem entitled "Bee"

Oh! I see a bee.

He's in a hive in the tree.

He is making honey for me.

Reading:(I) Put me in the Zoo

Read Aloud: (I &E) Homer Price

Art: (I & E) I can draw people

So despite the rough start, God is faithful and we had an awesome day! Praise the Lord!

hubby home this week

Tue, 4 Sep 2007 16:23:00 -0500

My husband is home this week. We'll be back!

Saturday Morning Reflection

Sat, 1 Sep 2007 05:32:00 -0500

We just finished our second week of homeschool. It's been a really fruitful and fun two weeks. I am very pleased with the direction we are headed academically. I love the Sonlight curriculum. It just works us. I love not being bound to a text book. I think it has really helped my sons love books. And my oldest son is sprouting into a willing reader. His goal this year is to be able to read his Bible by himself. (His beginners Bible)

That was a goal that he came up with himself and I started to think of our goals for this year as well. There are academic goals of course, and those are not to be undermined, but honestly the Lord has been speaking to me about character and spiritual goals, which are one of the main reason we are homeschooling in the first place.

We decided to homeschool because we love our children. We want them to see all that God has for them. We want them to love Jesus, know that He has a purpose for their lives, and that they will follow Him all the days of their lives. I told my oldest upon his question "mommy why do we do homeschool?" we want his teacher to love Jesus and we want you be able to grow in knowing Him" and in a nutshell that's it.

That being said I began thinking about our goals. I am more concerned with their relationship with God than how well my sons add and subtract. I am more concerned with their compassion for others than if they know how fast light travels. I am more concerned with eternal destiny than if they are more advanced than the kid next door. I am not saying this as a way to escape academics but I am very convicted that as Christian homeschoolers we should be above approach. We should be following the laws of our state and teaching my children in the area it requires and even go above and beyond giving my children the best education I can possibly give.

When I taught in a Christian school many years ago (I had 3/4 graders) I told my student on the first day that "to love Jesus is more important than getting an A on a test, but if you love Jesus you want to want to do everything unto HIm and do your very best for Him" Through spiritual training and showing them that I meant what I said, everyone of those students exceeded my expectations for them academically. But more importantly the spiritual growth was astounding. Because looking back I can see they got a huge lesson on grace. They were no longer under the law of pleasing a teacher, a parent, or even themselves. They were pleasing God and He loved them regardless. It gave them freedom to love to learn and they had the right motivation for learning.

I starting to look to see if that teacher I was is the homeschool mom my children have. I want to be. I want to see that growth in my own children. So just like in Revelation where the Lord says to return and do the first works again, so I remembered what I did with those students. The first thing was God's word was number one. We spent the first part of every morning, really studying God's word, verse by verse, book by book. The next part was prayer. We spent time in prayer every morning really seeking the Lord for gaudiness and laid our burdens before Him before the start of each day.

So we are going to try this in our home. Now my boys are younger but I know the Lord will give me wisdom how to do this in a way that is age appropriate for them. Our days will start by studying God's word, asking questions and in prayer. Now we do this now, but to be honest we have been doing it as almost as an academic subject...bible check prayer check. How shameful to admit.

So this coming week our spiritual goal is to hold the Word of God above all else. To spend time sitting and reading and time in prayer before a single worksheet is done or a single other book is opened.

"Journal Time" (Friday 8/31/07)

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:17:00 -0500

I was a little worried to start today since yesterday we had a field trip. I didn't know if the kids would be on board or expect another fun field trip day. But they were great and we had a wonderful day.

Bible: (I &E) John 9

A Reason for Handwriting (I) Lesson 2 Day 1&2

Language Arts: (I) Spelling test with ing, ang, ong, and ung words. 100% "ong" worksheet Activity sheet focusing on rhyming, homonyms, and interjections

Reading: (I)Put me in the Zoo

Shapes (E) Squares, different square worksheets

Read Aloud:(I) Homer Price

Science:(I) Usborne First Guide to the Universe pg 16-17 Seasons plus worksheet

Math: (I) pg 146-147 Subtraction Review

Social Studies: (I) Usborne Book of World History pg 12-13 Early Life Writing Assignment In what ways is your life the same as the Sumerians and in what ways is your life different?

"Field Trip" (Thursday 8/30/07)

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 04:41:00 -0500

Today I broke from the norm and we headed about an hour and 20 min away to the Children's Discovery Museum. We met up with a friend and went down together. It was a blast. My boys love going there. They have 3 levels full of fun and learning. Today we are going to do a writing assignment describing their favorite part of the field trip. I purchased Isaiah a new journal that has appropriate writing lines and a space for him to draw a picture at the top. We also stopped at a craft store and I picked up tempra paint for $1.00 and magnetic pattern shapes for half off so they were $10.00 I am building a box for for younger son with activities he can do while I am working with my older son. The other day we were doing our Social Studies and my younger son was wondering around the house bored. I do not allow tv during the day and a lot of games we have he still need supervision. So I dug deep into my craft and game closet to see what I had last night and I found a lot. So right now in the plastic bin we have

*magnetic pattern shapes and board

* agua doodle with pens and stamps

* Discovery Toys place and trace puzzles

* Board with shapes to pattern and stack

*foam shape stickers with paper

* Leap Frog word whammer

I need to pick out some books and add crayons and coloring books. I read an idea online I am working on to. You buy a good sized inflatable pool. Put it in the kitchen or whereever and allow your prescooler to do more messy things but they need to stay in the pool. Things like playdough, rice, painting. Then when they are done you shake out the pool and there's no mess. I am on the hunt for a good sized one that he won't feel trapped. I am also looking into having my older son read books and record them on tape for my younger son. My older son will get reading practice and my younger son who loves to be read to can listen to his favorite books being read by his favorite brother. Mom and Dad will have to do some too!

If anyone else has ideas please comment.

Here is my son's journal entry for his favorite part of his field trip.

"A New Alphabet" (Wednesday 8/29/07)

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 04:34:00 -0500

Bible (I &E)Luke 24:23-53

A Reason for Handwriting (I) Lesson Two Days 1&2

Shapes: (E) Circles, worksheets tracing and finding the circles

Science (I) Usborne first guide to the univers pg 14-15 Days and Nights

Math (I) Subtracting 4-10

Language Arts (I) Practice Spelling test with "ing, ang, ong, and ung" "ang" worksheet

Reading: (I)Finished Green Eggs and Ham

Read Alouds (I &E) Homer Price and Richard Scarry's Watch out Mr. Rabbit

Social Studies:(I) Usborne Book of World History Invention of writing Created our own alphabet by creating a new symbol for each letter of the alphabet and then wrote our name in the new "writing"

"Family Picture" (Tuesday 8/25/07)

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 18:27:00 -0500

I am so pleased at how well school is going this year. I know that there will come days of battle but they have yet to happen and I praising the Lord for His mercy! Here's what we did today.

Bible (I&E) Luke 24:33-53

A Reason For Handwriting (I) Lesson 1 Day 3 & 4

Colors (E) Coloring objects that are the same color

Social Studies (I) Usborne Book of World History The First Great Civilization Here we learned that we can tell what people looked like by drawings and by statues. I asked my son if we had no cameras or video camera how could we show people what we looked liked. It took him awhile to answer (high techies that we are) But he finally said "we could draw pictures of ourselves and things we like and then people would know what we look like and what we do" Here is his family portrait. When I asked him what was near me he said "That is a book because you love to homeschool me"

Math (I) Subtraction Review pg 140-142

Language Arts (I) more practice with words ending in ing, writng ing words in a full sentence. Activity sheet focusing on antonyms, synonms, and homonyms

Reading: (i)Green Eggs and Ham

Read Alouds (I &E) Homer Price and Harry the Dirty Dog

Science (I) Usbornes First Guide to the Universe pg 12-13 what's in the sky?

Tigris and Euphrates River and More! (Monday 8/27/07)

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:44:00 -0500

Monday! Monday! We started week two today. Here's what we did

A reason for handwriting (I) Lesson one day one and two

Science: (I) Usborne first Guide to the Universe pg 10-11 "the oceans"

Math (I) < and > pg 140 (I just got Saxon 2 math which we will be starting in about 2 weeks)

Language Arts (I) words ending in ing, ong, ung, ang, review on new spelling words, worksheet with words ending in ing

Reading: (I) Green Eggs and Ham

Read alouds (I&E) Homer Price and Dawdle Duckling

Bible: Luke 10

Social Studies: A child's view of world History ch 4 " locating the Tigris, Euphrates River and the Pursian Gulf Labled map and made a "mini version" of the rivers flowing into the Pursian Gulf in our driveway. This was a HUGE hit. The boys played for a long time, refilling and watching the water flow down the two rivers and then join to flow into the "gulf"

FUN FUN!

A very nice lady at church gave us this little friend last night.

I waited up last night to see if he would form his chrysalis....but I went to bed only to wake up to this

The boys are so excited.

Saturday Reflection "Attitude & Grace"

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:44:00 -0500

The first "official" week of homeschool has ended. We really had a great week. I learned something very important that I think I've learned many times before, but it's one of those lessons that you need a constant reminder. The lesson was my attitude sets the tone for the day. Everyday this week I woke up and thanked the Lord for allowing me to homeschool my boys and that I have been able to be with them from birth. I find that a thankful heart makes every situation better. What my kids see in me is a directly influence their day. If I am tired and unorganized, and not thankful what does that say to my kids? "Mom is bothered by having to do homeschool, I don't feel like doing it either"?? Maybe? Scary! But if I wake up and I am prepared, excited, and thankful, what does that say to my kids "Mom loves to homeschool me, I can't wait to see what we do today?" I hope so!

Today while reading in 2 Cor 8 it's a chapter on giving, but what struck me was that Paul commended the Corinthians for abounding in many things,faith, speech, knowledge, diligence and love, but Paul says he wants them to abound more in grace. So I asked myself these questions...do I abound in faith, speech, knowledge, diligence and love? What about grace? I want these qualities to be qualities my children see in me and what to follow me as I follow Jesus. My prayer for this week is to abound in grace. Grace toward my children, my husband, my friends, family, or those I come into contact with. Grace, unmerited, undeserved favor.
--
Bethany <><

Magnets (Friday 8/24/2007)

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 07:34:00 -0500

We take Fridays sort of easy. Less "work load" and lots more fun. I like to have one day a week set aside for field trips, doctor's appointments, social gatherings. It worked our really well for us last year. It doesn't always have to be Friday, but most weeks it is. So here's how our friday went.

Bible: (I&E) Luke 7:36-50

A Reason for Handwriting (I) lessons 8,9, 10

Math: Review of Math fact (pg 136-137)

Reading: FREE CHOICE DAY (I) Courious George (E) Franklin is Afraid of the Dark

Science: What can Magnets do? Experiment: Gather lots of different objects, ring, button, paperclip, key, pencil, thumb tack...test to see what objects stick to the magnet. Key lesson Magnets are attracted to metals. We also made a mitten "fishing" game. I cut out mittens from card stock and wrote letters (2 mittens per letter) Attatch a magnet to string and go fishing for letters, match the mittens with it's pair. The boys LOVED this. It was fun to see later that evening that they pulled out the box of mittens and played over and over again.

We had another homeschool family over for lunch and to play for the afternoon. There was a part of me that just wanted an afternoon to myself, but I know it was the Lord telling me it was time to "die to self" because my kids really needed some playtime with other children. I am glad we had them over because we had a blast. It's funny because what I thought I needed was an afternoon alone, but after our friends left I realized what I really needed was a time of encouragment from another sister in the Lord. Funny how He always knows what is best for us. I love that about my Savior.

Color Lapbook (Thursday 8/23/2007)

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:29:00 -0500

So today was a blast. We decided to try our first lapbook. I had to look online how to put one together but it was easier than I thought. Both boys loved it, and they have looked at it many times since it was put together. Elijah has finished his unit on colors. He already knows his colors but it was more about getting him into some sort of "routine" He really enjoys doing "homeschool" with Isaiah because he wants to be a big boy. So here are some pics of our lapbook.

Here's what else we did today:

Bible: (I&E) Luke 5:1-11 "Fishers of men"

A Reason for Handwriting: (I) Lesson 6-7

Language Arts: (I)rhyming puzzles (we've been taking extra time on rhyming words) Spelling test "ch" 100%

Reading(I) Green Eggs and Ham

Read Alouds: (I &E)Homer Price, Franklin goes to school

History: (I)Usborne Book of World Historypg 6-7 Jericho visted this website it was awesome

http://smm.org/catal/

Science: (I) First Guide to the Universe pg 8-9 plus worksheet.

Colors: Mixing Colors (E) we made ice cubes of different colors and then combined two of them in a glass and watched them melt and watched to see what color they made. It was a BIG hit

Physical Activity: Basketball

Making a Loom( Wednesday 8/22/2007)

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 12:06:00 -0500

Another beautiful day here in Maine.

Here's the lowdown on what we did today.

Bible (I&E) Luke 3:1-22

A Reason for Handwriting (I) Lessons3-4

Colors (E) Black, brown (starting to make color lapbook)

Language Arts (I) Rhyming puzzles, spelling pretest with "ch" sounds-only one mistake and he is ready to get a 100% tomorrow, Activity Sheet # 57 covering compound words, singular/plural words, and negative words.

Reading (I) Green Eggs and Ham

Read Alouds (I&E) Homer Price, Franklin is Afraid of the Dark (another request of Elijah)

Math (I) Family Facts pg 132-133

Science (I) Usborne First Guide to the Universe pg 6-7 Why are there Hills and Valleys with worksheet

History (I) Usborne Book of World History pg 4-5 First Settlers Made our own loom See Pics

Isaiah really enjoyed making this and asked if we could get different color yarn and try it again. He also said that it must have taken people a long time to make their clothes if they had to do it by hand. I thought that was a good observation to make.

Physical activity (I&E) Ball bouncing race!

The Importance of Family Tuesday 8/21/2007)

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:15:00 -0500

So we had an interesting second day of school....first here's what we did

Bible (I &E) Daddy did bible today Luke 2:39-42

Reading (I) Green Eggs and Ham

Read Aloud ((&E) Homer Price

Math (I) Review of facts adding to 11

Language Arts (I) "ch" words use them in a sentence

A Reason For Handwriting (I) lesson 2

Colors (E) orange, pink, green,purple

My younger sister had a little baby about a month ago and I got to see him the day after he was born , but the boys had not met their new cousin yet. She lives almost 4 hours away so we made plans to meet half way where it happens my other younger sister lives...so we made a family day of it. We packed a picnic lunch and met at a wonderful playground. The day was beautiful. My two younger sisters came and my mother, and my niece Taylor (who my mother is raising) all came. The boys were so excited to see everyone. My Elijah was in awe of baby Miguel. And Isaiah said "he was the cutest baby he's ever seen" Taylor and the boys played for hours on the playgound. We even got ice cream. It was such an awesome day.

On the drive home I decided to ask the kids about their day and what their favorite part was. Isaiah said "my favorite part was meeting my new cousin and playing soccer with my new friend" Isaiah is a very sociable kid and meets new "friends" everytime we go somewhere new. Yesterday he would make a friend and play and then that child would go home and he would meet a new "friend" There was one point when a bus full of kids from a day camp pulled up, all wearing white matching t-shirts. I looked over and Isaiah had 5 of those kids around him and he was setting up a new game. At this point in our homeschool journey I am not worried about his "social" skills. Elijah said his favorite part of the day was playing with Taylor.

So we didn't have a full day of school but I believe both my children learned the importance of family today and how it's good to take time and connect with them. I hope to meet with them again very soon.