LightHouse Christian School -Living in the Light of the Son

Week 12 Review

Week in Review

RTR Wk 12

MFWK O-o Octopus

Bible We read in Revelation this week and studied the 7 churches of Asia Minor.  On Wed we read Chap 2, then read our first story in Trial and Triumph.  I was excited to hear the story of Polycarp, and I think it really touched the hearts of A & C.  That night at church the pastor preached on Rev 2:8 on the church of Smyrna and the story of Polycarp.  All I can say is WOW!  Isn't God amazing.  We have one more verse in Romans to attempt to memorize (heavy on the word attempt).  We did much better in years past at Bible memory.  Things have been a bit tougher this year as far as 'life' goes, so this has suffered.  Yeah, probaly not the place to slack.  We do read the verses daily and discuss them, just not hardcore attempt to memorize verbatim.

Vocab -Roots  Our roots this week were manos and pedis.  I think that's right.  It all seems so vague now. 

History This week we read about the emperors that followed the Judio-Claudian Emperors.  We looked at the Pax Romana that continued through many 'good' emperors, and the nasty rule of Nero.  The girls were getting confused since they kept getting killed by their wives.  Our notebook page this week was a list of the leaders starting at Julius through about 250AD.  It then hit a couple more of the important ones that we will study in the future, like Constantine. 

We also read about gladiators, the Coliseum, the games, and chariot races.  Chariot races was Wed lesson and we were interested to learn that there were 4 teams and each had its own loyal fans just like NFL teams do now.  In middle school youth that night they had 'chariot races'.  Rosebud was so excited.  She and her friend were a team and one had to sit on a sleeping bag while the other pulled the 'chariot' around the circuit, then they had to swap and make another lap.  Rosebud said she fell off her's and was trampled like Marcellus in Ben-Hur.  I had to joke with her when she told me that that Galen would have been there to sew up her injuries and examine her gaping chest wound. 

Speaking of Galen, we have almost finished the book.  It has been a great read.  A couple of the chapters were a bit gross for the girls, but overall enjoyable.  I feel like we have way too many book going right now, but several of them we will finish this week.  That should bring us back to a more manageable number.  It's hard to believe we will be leaving Rome behind for the most part after next week.  

Music We started listening to the works of Mozart this week.  I'm not sure they ever finished listening to the life of Mozart cd.

Art We read lots about the art history of Rome and the early Christian church.  Then we drew our own pictures using symbols from early Christian art.

Read-Aloud Twice Freed has been compelling and the girls keep asking for another chapter.

Math Rosebud learned how to find the area of a triangle and about ratios this week.  Cater is focusing on learning multiplication facts of 6,7,8,and 9. 

Spelling This is going good.  Cater is progressing nicely through level 1 and is right about halfway.  Rosebud is about 7 lessons into level 2.  The lessons in this level are longer.  I hear level 3 is meatier.  I just hope Cater slows down with the rest of lev1.  I may have to figure out how to do the 2 of them in one level for a little while. 

Language Arts Cateroo is doing a great job in ILL.  I had worried that it would be too hard for her.  But so far so good.  I have continued to do much of it orally to work on oral composition, hearing correct usage, using complete sentences, etc.  She has gotten really good at copywork.  It is much neater.  She still reverses many numbers and letters but it seems to be a little less often.  So that pleases me.  Speech Therapy continues every Mon morning.  Right now she's working on reading long vowel words, which is a struggle. 

Grammar and Writing Rosebud managed to get through 28 lessons and finish quiz 4, which leaves 2 lessons and the posttest.  We made a decision to begin Writing Strands while letting the grammar sink in.  We will alternate between the 2 until grammar is done.  The beginning of WS is rather simple so it is good to get going on it now.  I believe this is the 3rd time we've tried to start WS 3.  I told Rosebud that she would have to finish this book before I would consider buying a different program.  I'm hoping that she will like it and be ready to do book 4 next year.  If not I'll have to pray for another idea.  I did tell her that it would not matter what the book was she would hate it because she hates writing.  My biggest prayer is that her language arts/reading skills would improve by leaps and bounds this year.

Science This week we looked at the brain and where in the brain different activities are regulated.  We were really tired by Friday and we didn't really get into science this week.  I think next week is the digestive tract.  COOL.  

MFWK Noles did 3 days of O-o Octopus.  We haven't done anything exciting this week.  So many wonderful projects and such an uncooperative child.  We can hope for a better week this coming week.  

Okay Off to Bed!!

Amy  

Week 11 Review

Week 11

Oct 26-30, 2009

MFW RTR

We had a much better week this week.  I felt almost human, so life was back in action. 

In Bible we studied the 3 missionary journeys of Paul, ending with his arrest and journey to Rome to face Caesar.  Once again I love using the Bible as our history spine.  We added info from Victor and Streams, but the majority of our history reading came from the Bible this week.

We also added more Roman history and science with the book Galen and the Gateway to Medicine.  It blows my mind at how much they knew that was later lost during the middle ages.  I think it is further proof that God's hand is on everything.  Just think if the burst of knowledge continued at the rate of the Greek and Roman age.  The current level of knowledge would have been attained a thousand years ago.  Obviously that didn't fit the timeleine of God's plan; so the world was plunged backwards and had to relearn all that was lost.  I guess God could plunge us into the postmodern "middle ages" just as easily now if it's not His timing to return soon.  We can't know the mind of God.   Oh, I was talking about Galen.  During the Roman Empire it was illegal to disset a human body.  It's amazing that the Romans had more respect for the Human body than we do today.

Our Root words this week were Caput/Capitis, meaning head, and Dens/Dentis, meaning tooth.  These went right along with our science topics of bones and teeth.  Our science models were very simple this week, especially the long bone.  Cateroo made her models very colorful since white bones and teeth don't make the most visually appealing pictures.

On Wed the girls drew skeletons in art also.  I worked then, so I drew mine later.  However, I didn't have much time to spend on it, so it wasn't very good.  We missed Mon's art which was on Caligula.  Maybe I'll get back to that, or maybe not. 

In math Rosebud is finishing up the unit on multiplying and dividing fractions.  On Mon we will start on the area of a triangle.  Cateroo is learning multiplying 2 & 3 digit #'s by 1 digit #'s and long division.  She is doing very good on the multiplication, but is struggling with the details of long division.  I'm not worried about it because her sister had the same trouble, but is doing fine with it now.  It's definitely a process. 

Spelling is finally moving along.  Rosebud is on Step 4 of AAS Level 2 and Cateroo is on Step 7 in Level 1.  I have been very happy with how quickly Cateroo picked up the phonogram sounds, even the harder ones like 'o' and 'u'.  She is finally beginning to read.  I am so thankful for speech therapy.   I think we are finally making progress. 

Rosebud is making the absolutely slowest progress in grammar.  We should have finished this book a month ago.  She did one and a half lessons this week.  I gave her the other half lesson as homework this weekend.  That will leave 3 lessons, 1 quiz, and the posttest.  So 2 more weeks of this. UGH!  I like the program and plan to do Winston Word Works next year, followed by Advanced Winston Grammar in 8th grade.  I'm just ready to be done with the book so we can move on to writing.  This was Rosebud's idea at the beginning of the year.  We would do all of grammar, then do writing, and end with a literature study.  Well, this is what I thought would happen.  She couldn't learn the material fast enough for it to stick once we got to the tough stuff.  We really started getting bogged down with modification and subject/object naming.  We will get through Writing Strands this year, even if we have to push the literature study to next fall.  Then next year, she'll have to work on each subject throughout each week.  I think she's gonna wish she hadn't done it like this when she has to do writing 4 days a week. 

For Cateroo ILL is going well.  She wrote a great story and made an outline of her story.  We did a picture study on Thursday that was very cute.  It was a pict of a girl selling flowers and 3 little boys watching her.  The ? asked what she thought the boys were thinkng.  Her answer, "She's hot!"  Somone's been watching too much TV.  Somehow I don't think that's what the artist had in mind when she painted the work. 

This year we have not done a good job on music.  I sent the cd of The story of Mozart in Words and Music  to my MIL's on Tues.  They were supposed to listen to the last half of the cd.  Well they never listened to the first half, so they started at the beginning.   They made it to track 6, a whole 6 minutes of 75!  I guess I can't blame my MIL, since I can't seem to get it in the player at any other time. 

That sums up our RTR week.  I'll blog on the Kindy week tomorrow and add some picts.

Amy

Fall Break

MFW RTR & K

Well, I guess we got an unplanned Fall Break.  That non-stop cough from last week was diagnosed this week as pneumonia.  But I am oh, so happy to have medication to cure it.  I feel much better and I can breathe without wheezing, it's wonderful! 

We tried to do school on Monday, but I read the grid fromweek 12 instead of 11.  It did seem odd at the time that we skipped a couple Roman leaders, but in my sickened satate it didn't dawn on me til we were nearly done.  So I just gave up and went to bed. 

Noles finished up a couple U-u Us projects on the 5 senses.   

Then got 2 days of D-d Dinosaur done this week, one with Nana and one with me.  She loved the book What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs.   She got into Noah's Ark and how big it was.  We got out Victor Journey through the Bible and looked at the diagram of how big the ark was.  She says she wants to go search for it on Mt. Ararat.  How cute! 

A & C did get some 3R's done with Daddy today.    Dh got to come home early today because the power was cut to his building and they couldn't get any work done there.  So I got to lie in bed all day.  AHHH!

So, It'll be back to school as usual next week.

Amy

Coughing and Raining Chaos

RTR Week 10

MFWK U-u Us

Well, it has been a miserably rainy week and I have felt sick the whole week..  I believe I am only suffering from seasonal allergies, but I am exhausted from coughing.  So, subsequently, school this week has been rather lax. 

We got most of the RTR stuff done, and math got done most of the week.  LA suffered the most and kindergarten was an abyssmal failure.  OK, so that is probably too harsh, and unforgiving of myself, but I think we may have done 2 days of U-u Us out of 5.  On the bright side Noles did pick up her math book and do several lessons in it just by choice.  I don't even schedule the book and only bought it so she would have a workbook for addition and subtraction later in the year when the TM directs you to begin one.  She was actually more interested in the RTR science this week on bones.  She spent most days coloring each bone in her skeleton a different color.     

Maybe we'll get some phonics instruction done over the weekend

Our vocab words this week were Urbs/Urbis and Digitis.  My C-bug came up with a pretty good sentence yesterday.  (Especially for her; she always tries to redefine the word in her sentences).  Her sentence was "Some babies are born with six digits."  

All our Bible and history have been one and the same this week.  We've read 10 or 11 chapters of Acts and tons of pages of Victor. I always enjoy it when the history comes straight from the Bible. It is very soothing to the soul.  My 9yr old said she had never heard the story of Stephens death.  She was a bit grossed out. 

We are struggling this year in memorizing the Romans verses.  We did well on the first 3, but since then haven't been keeping up.  I need to be more diligent to work on them.  Neither of my older 2 are good memorizers, so it is tough. 

We got started on All About Spelling Level 1 with C-Bug.  She seems to enjoy it and I think it will be a blessing.    We will begin AAS Level 2 with Rosebud this next week.

Rosebud is coming along nicely in Winston Grammar with 25 lessons complete.  That just leaves 5 lessons to the end of the book.  I am actually surprised at how well she has picked it up.  She learned about nouns, verbs, and adjectives in the past, but they never really meant anything to her.  Now she has all the parts of speech down and is working on subject, predicate, direct and indirect objects, etc.  I'm so glad God led us to this program at the homeschool convention, because it was not on my list of contenders when we went.  I think the cards are a great benefit, like manipulatives for grammar. 

We started 2 new books this week, which the girls both like.  The first is Galen and the Gateway to Medicine, and it is a very easy read, especially after ACW.  The other is Twice Freed and they can't get enough of this book.  We've read 8 chapters already because they kept asking for another chapter. 

We never got around to listening to The Story of Mozart this week.  Oh well, next week.

There was only one lesson in art this week.  It was drawing a human figure.  We learned about proportion and that the human body is 8 'head lengths' tall.  It was pretty cool to draw a proportionate person and then clothe it. After I drew mine, Noles colored it in for me.

 Mom's  C's  A's 

Science was the skeleton and joints, as I previously mentioned.  The kids want to hang their skeletons out for Halloween.   We only half finished our joint model.  Oldest dd and I were working on it today at homeschool skate, because she has a hurt foot and couldn't skate.  I forgot to take brads with me, so our ball and socket joint is not done.  When Nanny stated at dinner tonight that her joints hurt, Rosebud just groaned and said, "No, no more about joints."  I guess she wasn't happy about doing science while her sibs were skating. 

Well, I guess that covers it.  We did let the Turtle go on Thursday beccause it was making  Rosebud's bedroom stink so bad.  I asked her how she could stand the smell and she said, "I just turn up my music and I don't notice it anymore."    HUH!  What do the 2 have to do with each other?  So now you know.  If you assault one sense, the others cease to work!!  Go Figure?

Oh, I almost forgot.  We did watch Ben-Hur this week.  It was a great movie.  A bit gruesome in a couple spots, but in line with the story and the history.  A great visual for the time period.  I would highly reccommend it for older kids and non-sensitive types.

Amy

Marriage

I wasn't able to go to church this morning since it was my weekend to work.  But hubby and the kids went.  Hubby was telling me about SS.  Our SS teacher said that a study was done and it was found that they could predict with 90% accuracy whether a marriage would last based on how a couple fights. 

So... How do you fight?  Will you stand the test of time?

Amy

MFW K report

MFW K

T-t Turtle

This week we spent completely on T-t Turtle.  We made turtles out of paper plates and construction paper crinkle legs.     

We started with our blend ladder and wrote a few three-letter words. 

N made a very cute turtle badge with feathers, jewels, and ribbons.  It was so precious with its googly pink eyes.   

On Saturday the girls found a turtle in Nana's front yard and brought it home.  They put in the empty aquarium.  I told them they could keep it a few days then let it go.  They did an internet search on caring for turtles and it needs a 40 gal tank and a heat lamp.  I told them it would be way too expensive to set up a turtle habitat, so it gets to return to the wild.  Yeah for the turtle.

What an exciting week!

 Amy

Our Week in RTR

RTR Week 9

Oct 5-9,2009

Wow. It's already time to start another week and I haven't written about last week or added pictures to the previous week's review.  So much to do...

Well we finished week 9 of RTR.

I was surprised how quickly we've moved through the life of Christ.  I know in the scheme of our history timeline that it has to be that way, but wow, that was fast. 

We finished reading Augustus Caesar's World.  We really enjoyed the book.  I have learned not to listen to what others say about the books in the packages until we actually read them ourselves.  We have truly loved some of the books that others struggle with. 

We start Galen and the Gateway to Medicine tomorrow.  It should be another good one.

I enjoyed art this week and drew a rather nice set of hands (if I do say so myself.)  They're really hard to see in this picture.   C drew some great hand bones on Monday.  I was very impressed.  A wasn't around for art on Wed and I honestly can't remember her bones page from Monday.

We finished Haydn and I'm sad to say that I didn't get to listen to it much since music falls on Tuesdays and the kids are at my MIL's on Tues'.  I need to pull it out and listen to it on my own.  Tomorrow we'll be on to Mozart. 

Math... We'll A is multiplying fractions and C is learning to multiply double and triple digit #'s by a single digit #.

Grammar is moving slowly as it gets more difficult and A is bogged down.  I'm thinking about moving on to writing and come back to grammar again in the spring. 

Miss A did finish All About Spelling Level 1 this week.  I will start C on that level this week.  A will start Level 2 next week.  I need to get another box for the level 2 cards before we begin. 

C finished PLL on Tuesday and started ILL on Wednesday.  I hope she can keep up with it.  I hear it's quite a step up.  Her speech therapy is going well.  She still has a long way to go though.  I'd have to say that she is still 3-4 years behind grade level in reading. 

Then comes science...  This week was Sight.  Our eye model was really cool.  The kids had a hard time remembering all the names of the parts of the eye.  But did learn a lot about it. 

All in all it was a good week.

 Amy

All About Spelling

We have been using All About Spelling this year.  I thought I would post a few pictures of our spelling set up.  I know when I was looking at the program I wondered if it was worth the cost.  Not only is there the book cost, but also the extra magnetic board. 

I purchased the recommended magnetic whiteboard but I didn't mount it on the wall.  It is on the floor, leaning against the wall.  We have big pillows to sit and lounge on.  I also bought a plastic box to hold all the cards, as well as a dry erase marker and eraser, and the little colored discs.  We store the box behind the board when not in use. 

This is how our board looks at the end of Level 1.  Miss A has 3 more lessons before she finishes Level 1 and moves on to Level 2.   

I need to purchase another box for the Level 2 cards so that I can start Cateroo on Level 1.

I will say my biggest complaint of the program is that it is not portable.  So when I work, spelling doesn't get done, since the kids go to Nana's house.  Even if Nana comes to our house, she doesn't go to the basement.  So we get 2-3 lessons done per week.  Last week I'm not sure we did a single lessons. 

But overall I like the way the program is set up.  It walks me through the material very methodically.  I am not left to guess.  The instructions prompt me when to review previous material, even when to review previously mastered material.  

I really purchased it to assist me in teaching Cateroo to spell and read, so I'm looking forward to getting her started.  She my one with severe dyslexia.  She is in speech therapy, so I pray these two together are a real benefit to her. 

I plan to use it with all the kids if all goes well.  Miss A is rather irritated by the simplicity of the words.  We had the words black, shrunk, and ask in our lessons this week.  Not overly difficult for an 11 yo.  She doesn't have any tolerance for easy things.  So it is a bit of a challenge to keep her motivated.  Of course if she was a natural speller then I wouldn't waste my time.  But her spelling and reading (word attack) skills need lots of work.  So we continue on...

Hope that helps those trying to make a decision.

 Amy

MFW K Weekly Highlights

MFW Units 5 & 6

Nest and Turtle

Noles spent M-W on nest and Th & F on our new unit Turtle.  We finished nest by making our nest badge and eating a chocolate and chow mein noodle nest.  At Nana's house she created a lovely tree on a brown paper grocery bag with green tissue paper leaves and drew a nest and bird in the branches. 

She is enjoying learning the letter sounds and coming up with words that contain each letter.  She comes up with words that start with the letter as well as end with it and words that have the letter in the middle.  I hope that means learning to read will be easy.  It sure hasn't been easy with Cateroo. 

My only complaint is that sometimes we struggle to get Kindy done on certain days.  I don't want to drag it out too far, because I'm not sure slowing down is necessary for this child.  Oh well, it will all work together for good for those who love the Lord, who are called according to his purpose....Oh, wait that was the big girls' verse.  hehe. 

So we will continue with Turtle this coming week.  Looking forward to making a cute turtle.

Amy

Mr B is 3

I can't believe my baby is 3!  At 12:21 PM on October 3rd, 2006 my little guy made his debut.  And now, three years later he's just a wild, sweet, book-loving, truck crashing, Mommy's boy.  He lost his curls a couple weeks ago when he played with the scissors and we had to give him a buzz cut.  But it's starting to grow and maybe by Christmas he'll have curls again. 

He got a John Deere tractor battery-operated ride-on toy from Nana and Grand today.  That was all he needed.  I like to never got him off the thing to go to bed.  But he was sooo cute driving it around in circles in the driveway.  This evening he was riding it in his new Lightning McQueen pj's and his JD ball cap and Lightning shoes.  He was such a doll.  So serious as he made laps around the truck in the driveway. 

He got a Monster Jam game from Mom and Dad where you have to launch monster trucks through a rotating cage.  He thought that was pretty cool too.  Along with that came Bount Hunter monster truck he's been asking for and 2 pairs of Cars pajamas.

His Aunt took him out for breakfast this morning and the to Build-a-Bear to pick out and stuff an animal.  He picked a black dog and named it Puppy. 

We all had lunch at McDonalds, his choice.  And then had cake and ice cream at Nana and Grand's house.

All and all a very full day for a 3 yo.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR B!!!

LOVE, MOMMY

Week 8 Highlights

RTR Week 8

This was a crazy week.  Hubby went OOT for business to LA.  A long trip from NC. 

   That left me home with the four Musketeers.  So we pretty much did what we could to survive the week.   I don't have any pictures yet, since Hubby had the camera all week. 

We focused on Jesus' childhood this week and life in the Roman Empire after the death of Herod.  They learned about Roman soldiers and how they were divided into cohorts and legions.  (Ok, I don't know any of that cuz I worked that day and Nana taught that lesson, but they told me the did it and talked about the 90 lb backpack).  We also learned the 4th of our Romans verses and in Roots learned the latin words for mother and father. 

In the 3R's we really sprimped.  I know we didn't do any spelling and I didn't ever look at Miss A's grammar.  C-Bug has been dragging her feet through the end of PLL.  We have 1 lesson left finally.  I've been hearing a lot of talk about how much of a step up ILL is, so I'm trying to not rush there.  C-bug still doesn't read close to grade level, so there is no need to rush ahead too fast.  In math we are keeping up a steady pace. 

Miss A did do some volunteer work this week.  She served as a preschool assistant in Mr B's 3 yo classroom.  The director said she did a great job with the kids.  I'm so proud of her. 

Science Friday turned out to be a lot of fun with a lot of good discussion.  Miss A wanted to know what pimples were and C-Bug was intrigued by melanin.  We didn't get to do 2 of the experiments though.  The 1st one because we didn't have 2 thermometers, and the 2nd one because - get this - we didn't have any STRAIGHT hair in the house.  Pretty good huh.  We probably could have compared very wavy to extremely curly but we were also missing a few of the other supplies and Mommy's nerves were starting to wear thin.  

Amy

My poor children have inherited my...

MY FEET!!!

My oldest 2 girls and I spent the whole afternoon searching for shoes for the fall.  All they had were flip flops and cleats.  Not so good with the temp dropping this weekend. 

I remember my days of searching for shoes starting in late elementary school.  In the 4th grade I wore a size 9.5 in ladies, and it only got worse from there.  I finally top out in 6th or 7th grade at 10.5 AAAA (yes that's 4 A's).  Nobody makes shoes that size!  Well, we did find one store here in town, but they were always very expensive.  Once I got to high school I had one good pair of Sunday shoes that were from this store and a pair of tennis shoes, and maybe one other pair.  My friends had tons of shoes cuz they had average feet.  Now I have bestowed my long, skinny feet on at least one of my girls and just plain long feet to the other.

Miss A just turned 11 this month and is already in a size 10, but more like a size 10.5.  Most of the 10's that she tried on today did not fit.  She finally found a cute pair of suede boots in a size 10 that actually fit.  Her feet are not narrow like mine, thank you Jesus.  I just don't know where they will stop.  Hopefully at a boring size 11, since you can actually buy that on the rack most places.

Then comes C-Bug.  Well she has her Momma's narrow feet.  At 9 she is currently wearing a size 9.  We found a pair of boots that were cut narrow but were supposed to be medium width.  I noticed that all the regular dress shoes would slip off her heel, so the boots were the best choice for her.  We did go to the expensive store to look at the shoes.  I don't know if the shoes are just weird or my foot has grown excessively.  I couldn't even get my foot into the 11N shoe and the 11M fit well in the width, but my toes hit the end.  Go figure.  I did find a Naturalizer in 11N that fit me correctly.  So it must be their manufacturer choices that are off.  OK, so C-Bug couldn't fit anything there, so we moved on.  When they finally both found something they liked and that fit, I almost cried. 

It was exhausting.  And I've got 2 more that need shoes.  Hopefully they will be easy.

Alright, off to bed...

Amy

Week 7 Highlights

RTR Week 7 Sept 20-26,2009

This week we really got into the birth of Jesus and the History recorded in the Bible.  We got back into Victor after not reading it since last year in CTG.  The girls are liking that Augustus Caesar keeps showing up everywhere they turn.  C-Bug is involved in the children's choir at church and the fall musical is Hotel Bethlehem.  There are several jokes about Aug C. in the musical and they just think it's hilarious. 

We didn't have any great projects this week to show.  They endured 20 min of The Surprise by Haydn, and had to draw books and boxes in art.  So the girls were rather ho-hum. 

Science was back to the senses this week and we studied the EAR.  I had to work today for Science Friday and this evening the girls begged to not do Science Friday with Nana again.  I'll have to get more details tomorrow.  We did do the ear model on Thurs, so I know they enjoyed that.  

Here are some of our models from the last couple weeks.  First is the outer ear and some lovely lips.     Followed by the tongue and eardrum And then comes the taste centers and the inner ear. 

C-Bug used this week to work on her first GA Badge.  She has to memorize the GA Scripture and the Pledge to get the GA Pin that will hold her sash together.  Her GA Handbook is so cute.  They made them out of paper lunch bags, so they were very simple. 

MFW K Unit 5 N-n-Nest

This week we finished up A-a-Apple on Monday and moved to N-n-Nest on Tuesday.  We played a cute matching game of animals and their homes.  I got the picts off a link I got on the MFW Yahoo group.  We learned that God takes Good Care of Me  and made a badge for our wall of a very colorful nest.  We have 2 days to go to finish up Nest and then we will move on to T-t-Turtle on Wed.

Here is Little N and Mr B making their chocolate Nests.

 I'm looking forward to another fun week of My Father's World.  Hope you'll join me again next week.

Amy

It' Been a Year!

I can't believe I've been blogging for a year!  It has been an eventful year to say the least.  I am just now learning how to put pictures on here, so it is definitely time for some updated pictures of the kiddos.

Here is a picture of Miss A after I cut her hair last week.  She wanted it short - so that's what she got.

Then comes C-Bug.

Followed by Little N and her self-styled haircut -UGH!

Finally Mr B who followed in his big sis's footsteps and cut his hair when we thought he was napping.  So he got the standard military buzz cut.  Too bad we can't do the same with Little N.

We have had a busy spring & summer. So here are a few of the memories.

So there you have it, a brief selection of the things we've done in the last 6 months.

Amy

Kindy Update

Little N has finished the 4th unit in MFW K.  So far we have studied the sun, the moon, leaf, and apple. 

In the leaf unit we counted leaves and arranged them by size, identified them with a reference book, and made leaf rubbings. 

For apple we read about different varieties of apples, learned about Johnny Appleseed, and made an apple tree by tracing her arm, and fingerpainting apples on the tree.

For both units she made a badge to display in our schoolroom.  Each badge has the Words to Remember for the unit on it.  In the leaf unit we learned "I will live and grow in Jesus" and in the apple unit "If I stay in Jesus I will have much fruit."

More to come...

Amy

RTR week 6 highlights

We finished our 6th week of school with a fun Science Friday.   Our science theme this week was Roman arches and aquaducts.  First we made a bridge out of an index card across a river between 2 stacks of books.  Then we marched our soldiers (pennies) across the bridges.  The bridge held 14 soldiers before collapsing.  Next we bent another index card into the shape of an arch under the bridge.  Finally we added soldiers and horses (nickels), and even oxen (quarters), and an elephant (dollar coin).  We didn't count how many coins we had on the card, but it was as many as we could get to balance on the card without sliding off.  I'd guess about 45-50 coins.  The girls had a lot of fun giggling over this one.  We did notice when we were done that all the animals (nickels, quarters, dollar) were on top of the soldiers. LOL

We followed this with a coloring page on Roman aquaducts and how they only used mortar on the top layer of the 3 levels and the lower levels were built to such exact measurements that they did not need mortar. 

We then pulled in Monday's lesson from God and the History of Art.  We drew an arch correctly, since the bricks in the art book were not done true to form. 

Our last activity was the much awaited Roman arch made from pudding boxes.  We have enjoyed a lot, did I say a lot, of Jello pudding this summer to get ready for this project.  The girls followed the directions and cut the boxes and taped them together.  Our cereal boxes of Cheerios and Cocoa Puffs made the 2 banks of the river and a large jar of spaghetti sauce and a similar size jar of grape jelly were the support beams for the arch.  We tried to build the arch without sandpaper or tape several times to no avail.  I then got out the double-sided tape.  It worked more like sandpaper than tape since it was so thin.  We added tape between each layer except the last box.  We added our keystone carefully between the two sides and it stayed. YEAH! 

We then had lunch and went to homschool skate day where C-bug got to show off her new skills.  She bought herself some skates with her birthday money.  She has had them on everyday for 3 weeks.  So she was much more stable than any of the other three.  This was only the 3rd time we've been to HS skate day and the older 2 have been skating only a couple of times in the past.  So I expect them all to improve if we go monthly.  But C-bug really looked good out there. 

Amy

Our Life In Review

We have returned to our old church and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.  I can't believe how much we missed it and didn't realize it.  The music is so awesome and the preaching phenomenal.

Miss A is enjoying the middle school group.  C-Bug has choir on Wed nights and they have brought back the old program Girls in Action (GA's).  I couldn't believe it.  Everyone is doing Awana's now and it really isn't my forte.  But GA's, WOW, I went to GA's when I was little.  C-Bug is excited to get her sash and start earning her badges.  Little N also has choir and missions on Wed night.  

I knew we had made the right choice when dh actually took the kids to church alone when I worked last week.  It's been a really long time since that happened and never since we've been to the other church.  He even said he would take them on Wed nights when I work.   The Sunday School class we're in is having a marriage retreat in Nov and dh wanted to go.  But of course I have to work that weekend.  I guess I should pray about it and maybe God will provide a way.

I'm so excited for Sunday to come and all the great worship.  AWESOME!

OK, more about our lives - Later. 

Quest for Church

I wrote last year about our family's quest for a new church home.  We felt called to leave the church we had been members of since high school.  It just was not working for our family. 

So after a lengthy search we finally settled on a church closer to home.  It was much smaller than the one we left, but larger than most.  The girls settled in and the little ones adjusted over time.  We found a SS class pretty quick and figured we were there for the duration.  The in-laws joined pretty quick and I assumed we would follow shortly. 

Well, one month turned to two and then to 6 months.  So here we are a year and a half after we started attending the church regularly and a month shy of 2 years since we first visited.  It has been a bumpy road the whole way.  Everytime I felt like things were going well and we should get on with joining, the rug would get pulled out from under me.  I really have felt bewildered the whole time and unsure of what God was trying to say.  We both felt very sure that our old church was not where we were supposed to be, but never could get peace about where we were supposed to be.  

Well, the last year has been a real struggle with this church.  The people in charge of the children's choir were not using wise judgement in what they were having the kids do. They had them lying on the floor in the dark squeezing each others' feet.  Maybe ok for 6-8 year olds, but not appropriate for my too mature for her own good 10 year old (not by any fault of her own).The 3rd grade SS teachers planned a trip to Magiquest as an end of year trip, which really upset my 9 year old.  She could not understand why they would spend all year teaching her the word of God, only to take her somewhere like that at the end.  Even more it was brought up as an option by the son of the minister of music, because he had been.  So the wisdom of the church as a whole was really a concern for us. 

The pastor's kids are/were hs'd, they have one graduated and a senior.  Then there is one other family that hs as best as I know.  A few of the kids go to private Christian school, but the majority are public schooled.  And the whole mentality was of devotion to the ways of Caesar, if you know what I mean. 

My oldest went to camp with this church for the last 2 summers.  The first summer was great.  This summer C-Bug was old enough to go too.  We got a diagnosis of dyslexia one week before camp.  I notified the children's director of her difficulty with reading and asked them to make sure she was given some extra help with reading.  They assured me they would.  So, when C-Bug returned I asked whether she enjoyed the Bible study times.  Well, no one helped her with her Bible reading every morning and in her Bible Study group they were just told to read passage X to themselves.  I was very upset.  The church people swore they would take good care of her.  The camp itself, had an entire form that I filled out so they would be aware and they didn't seem to do anything to help. I guess I should be happy that she wasn't embarrassed by being asked to read outloud. 

There are lots of little things that bug me.  Like having no nursery available when the kids have musicals or VBS specials, or any number of other times.  I am not a family integration gal.  My littles do not have the ability to sit quietly for an hour, even during lively musicals.  Hubby has missed quite a few children's events d/t staying home with the littles or having to leave in the middle. 

Okay, fast forward to now.  Miss A is in the 6th grade now.  We've gone the whole summer waiting to hear any news on the youth group; ie activities, SS times, events.  She started back to school, the ps schools started back, nothing.  Finally, there was a little something in the bulletin last Sunday and we actually got a welcome letter on Friday.  What we found out was that they only have middle school SS at 9am and high school at 10:30.  Well we have always gone to 9am worship and 10:30 SS.  So to accomodate Miss A, we would have to move the whole family to different SS classes.  Hubby and I don't want to change classes, C-Bug doesn't do change well, especially going from a smaller class to a larger class.  The littles wouldn't notice much difference.  Except Mr B is stuck in the 2 year old class with these tiny-little-barely-2-yr-olds and the only kid close to his size was moved to the other 2 class.  Not amused. 

Alright, so then when it comes to all other youth activities, like Sunday night and Wed night, all the youth are together.  6th - 12th graders all together.  NOT!  My 11yo girl does not need to be hanging out with 18yo guys. 

All of this to say that I think I know now why God wouldn't let us feel comfortable here.  It was just a stop-over, or stop-gap, until we could return to our old church.

Today we returned to our old church, and it felt like going home.  It felt really good.  The  Middle School Minister was a friend from when I was in youth there 20+ yrs ago.  Miss A's SS teacher was my 12th grade teacher(what I later found out was she had just graduated the year before LOL) and a close friend.  Little N's teacher was Miss A's teacher when she was 5.  For such a large church it's amazing how much the same everything is.  We tried a new SS class and saw people we hadn't seen since college, people we had been in class with 2 years ago, people we have met since leaving, and people we've never met.  The service was awesome, the preacher was visiting and he was so passionate.  The music was beautiful, worshipful, powerful.  I am excited to be back. 

I think it took stepping away for a while to truly appreciate what we had.  And I truly believe God wanted us to leave for a period to get us past a season of life.  Now our needs are different and we can return with the peace of knowing we are and were in God's Hands. 

The Beginning of School

We finished our 2nd week of RTR today.  I can't say we are having a great year so far, but it's not the curricculum's fault.  It was a very rough summer and we are struggling with some very big discipline issues with our youngest 2. 

C-Bug was diagnosed with severe dyslexia this summer and we are in the process of having Little N tested for probably ADHD.  Miss A is starting middle school and needs to step up and put more effort into her schoolwork.  We are dealing with the typical laziness issues that seem to follow preteens.  And Mr B,oh Mr B, if he doesn't stop screaming I will lose my mind.  He has been following in his older sister's footsteps and is developing quite the nasty temper.  This I didn't see coming, he was such a precious baby. 

Mr B will return to preschool in 1.5 weeks and I hope that it will calm our day down just a bit.  Little N has an appt around the same time and I'll be begging for meds (I have no shame at this point).  After she starts to calm down, then we can focus on other alternative treatments.  But Mamma's sanity is questionable right now, so some relief is in order.    

I'm praying hard that things begin to settle down and we can eek out a successful schoolyear.  We have already had to modify our schedule a bit.  We moved all of our science from RTR to Fridays;  "Science Fridays"  the kids have named it.  We had a lot of fun today trying to do the "brain control" activities.  It really did make an impression on them.  We laughed so hard as we tried to move the correct finger when our arms were all twisted up and our eyes were no help to distinguish which finger was positioned where. 

Last week we made wax tablets like the school boys used in ancient Rome.

This is Miss A's. 

Language arts feels very hodge-podge right now.  Miss A is doing Winston Grammar and wants to do a lesson a day until she finishes the book.  That should take about 6 weeks I believe.  Then we'll do Writing Strands daily until it's done.  And end the year with a literature guide on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  She really hates the thought of writing, so I know that will be like pulling teeth, right through the middle of winter.  My prayer is that she finds that she loves it and breezes right through it.  We are currently doing a reciew of handwriting, letter by letter.  Then she will start book C of Pictures in Cursive.  Then there is spelling.  I chose to start her in All About Spelling Level 1 to solidify her phonic/spelling rule knowledge.  So we are zipping through about 4 lesons a week.  (We could probably do more if there weren't so many interruptions.)  When she finishes level 1 she will move on to level 2, which is sitting on the shelf and C-Bug will start level 1.  I really hope it will work together with the speech therapy to get C reading.   It is very frustrating to her that she can't read like her friends at church.  (This is a new thing, as I don't think it has been an issue in the past, but she is getting older and her delay is starting to show.)  C-Bug is finishing up Primary Language Lessons and will start Intermediate Language Lessons very soon.  I got a generic handwriting book that was more explicit regarding where the letter sits on a line for her to use this year.  We will stick to written narrations as her primary writing this year.  When her reading and spelling improves we will start to focus on the writing skills.  She gets plenty of practice with copywork and language lessons at this point.    

We have managed to make it through the creation unit in MFWK and have one day left on S-s-Sun. 

Here are the Sun & Moon Badges Little N made for units 1 & 2

Okay, now I really have to go to bed!

Here are Little N's Creation Numbers

Of course the only day it rained this week was on sundial day.  We got some great books from the library on the sun and moon.  Little N loves the 100 chart and the thought of a party at the end of the page.  And singing the A-a-Apple song is a big hit.  Today we played letter name go-fish, letter name bingo, and capital and lowercase memory.  She had a ball.

Youth Group Dilemma

Ok, we're back to our ongoing problem with church.  We left our last church, of many years, a year and a half ago because it wasn't fitting our needs in the area of SS.  Since then we have been attending a church closer to home.  We have never actually joined that church, because we have never felt quite right there.  

So our problem now is that our oldest is in the 6th grade and promotion Sunday is in 2 weeks.  So here we are at the end of August and I haven't received any info about the youth group or our options for SS.  About 2 years ago the church started having 2 worship services and 2 SS hours.  Since then the youth have been meeting in a trailer building in the parking lot.  They have also been in the process of building a new family life center.  Alright, so for the past 2 years all  middle schoolers have gone to SS at 9am and all  high schoolers attended SS at 10:30.  I had assumed that practice would end with the opening of the new building as it was a space issue.  Well, the new building opens next month, and as best I can tell there is no plan to change to offering all age groups at both hours.  I'm still waiting to hear from the youth minister, as the little bit of info I have gotten is just word-of-mouth. 

Honestly I don't want to have to change my schedule around to accomodate the kids every time someone promotes to the next level.  It will be a bigger problem in 3 years when Miss A heads to HS, leaving C-Bug in MS.  One parent will have to go to each service - not my idea of Family Worship.  One of my good friends will have that problem this year and she said the youth minister just doesn't feel it would effect enough families to be a big deal.  So, that, of course, is hearsay, and I'll continue to wait for a call back to find out the whole truth directly from the "horses mouth". 

Soooooo, we are beginning to discuss returning to our former church.  The prior problem is no longer a problem and we've been praying to see if it is time to transition back.  I still have some reservations,as it is a solid 25 min drive each way.  But the preaching is soooo much better and the people are wonderful and miss us.  And we got married there.  Both our older girls were baptized there.  All the girls were dedicated there.  It really is like home.  The older girls went to preschool there and the oldest attended Kindy and 1st Grade at the Christian school before we started homeschooling.  I think if we go back I'll know pretty quickly if it's the right decision.  Last year the girls went to choir there on Wed nights and I knew that it wasn't the right time for us to go back - it was just a gut feeling I had.  So I'm curious about this time if it will feel right.  Not that I advocate doing things in one's life based solely on feelings, it's more like a peacefulness or a burden caused by the Holy Spirit working on my heart.

Well, I've said enough.  It's late and I must go to bed.