Jan. 22, 2008 - Our New Blessing!

We were blessed with a new baby girl in December.  Bella weighed 8lbs 10oz and was 20 in long.

Here are the kids with their new sister:

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Nov. 5, 2007 - Circus Night - End of NERF Unit Wrap Up

For our Circus Night we put on "The Greatest Show in Our Home" for both sets of grandparents.  One of the wonderful Konos Online Coop Moms shared a couple of her files on the yahoo group with everyone and so I got that title from her along with her schedule and her circus program to hand out to the guests.  So, we just updated it to fit our family and it saved us a lot of time.   So, thank you to you!!  Another one of the moms posted about the music that they used for the different acts from the CD "Best of the Millennium - Top 40 Classical Hits" which was a huge help as well.  We used some of those along with the CD "Do It Yourself Kids Circus" which had great circus music for different acts, which we used for most of them.  First, Jake & Leah greeted the guests at the door and welcomed them to the circus.  Jake handed out the programs while Leah handed them a ticket for 1 Free Popcorn and then they led them to their seats.  Sam then "sold" the popcorn and took the tickets and offered them Lemonade & served it to them.

Then came our Daring Royal Rider & her horse Starlight: Sam & her horse, Daddy.

 

  It was a great night and tiring!

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Nov. 5, 2007 - 2nd Konos Unit - Stewardship: NERF (Nutrition, Exercise, Rest, & Fun)

Well, we ended our NERF unit last Wednesday with a Circus Culmination night with the grandparents.  With this unit, we definately took it a little easier but we also ended with a bang!   So, overall I was happy with what we accomplished and with what my children learned.  Our main focus, again, was the character trait of Stewardship (of the body) and we learned bible memory verses, such as 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own; you were bought at a price.  Therefore honor God with your body. ".  We always try to put our memory verses to a familiar tune since my children are so young and so we sang this one to "Mary Had a Little Lamb".  It really does seem to help with remembering them.  We talked about privilege and responsibility and read about how Daniel was a good steward of his body.  We learned all about nutrition and how we need to take care of our bodies and the food we put into it (we are still working on this one-more so me with the sweets-when the kids are sleeping of course).  We made up the four food groups on the floor and seperated them by tape and I did get pictures, but they are on my sisters non-digital camera.  The kids then raided the kitchen & pantry to put all the food into the correct food group.  They loved it.  We then studied the individual groups on different days and  located their origins on the map,

made macaroni collages,

bean bags, bean sprouts, tried different seeds & nuts, made a vegetable sculpture,

made a food chart

and visited the grocery store many times to learn all about the groups, nutrients, labels, additives, etc.   We also made a meal that went along with that day's food group.  We learned about the glycemic index, calories, and did a hike with heavy backpacks to show how much harder it is to do things with extra weight like you would have if you take in too many calories and don't burn them.  We also studied exercise and how it is good for your body, by exercising.  We did some workout videos, we ran around my room through the kitchen in a circle so many times, we did stretches, etc.  Here the kids are doing fun exercises like the the inchworm, wheelbarrow, gorilla walk, etc.

  We created a physical conditioning course in our back yard.  We learned about the muscles of the body and dissected a chicken to see the muscles, tendons etc.  We learned about getting enough rest to help our bodies function, the different stages of sleep, and consequences of lack of sleep.  And the best part was planning & performing our Circus Night to wrap up our unit; the FUN part.  It was a lot of work but so worth it and so precious.  A night we definately won't forget!  I will post about that next.  Here are some of the books & videos that we really liked:

Nutrition - Good Enough to Eat by Lizzy Rockwell / Pyramid Pal series/ Learning Your ABCs of Nutrition/ Do You Know Where Your Food Comes From/ Fresh from the Family Farm (vhs)/ Magic Monsters Learn About Health/ A Cow, a Bee, a Cookie, and Me by Meredith Hooper

Exercise - Exercise by Sharon Gordon/ You Can't Make a Move Without Your Muscles/ Get up and Go!/ The Busy Body Book/ Move 'n Groove Kids (VHS)

Rest  - Sleep is for Everyone by Paul Showers/ A Good Night's Sleep by Sharon Gordon/ Sleep Well-Why You Need to Rest by Kathy Feeney/ Wide Awake Jake/ How Do You Sleep

Fun (Circus) - Kids Love the Circus (VHS)/ Clowning Around - Jokes/ Circus Time!/ At the Circus (Better Homes & Gardens)/ If I Ran The Circus by Dr. Seuss/ Circus by Roxie Munro/ The Performers - Circus Stars/ A New True Book - The Circus by Mabel Harmer/ Do It Yourself Kids Circus (CD)

Picture Books - Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs/ Jamberry/ Stone Soup/ The Gingerbread Girl/ By the Light of the Moon/ Richard Scarry's Just For Fun/Princess Bee and the Royal Good-Night Story/ Close Your Eyes

Easy Readers - Mary Clare Likes to Share/ The Pizza that we Made/ So Hungry!/ Lunch Boxes/ Good Food/ The New Red Bed

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Nov. 1, 2007 - First Konos Unit - Attentiveness: Ears/Sound/Music

This year for school we still are using Konos Unit Studies, but I am also participating in the Online Coop available through Konos and it is great.  Our first unit was Attentiveness studying Ears/Sound/Music.  So we learned about being attentive, especially to God and the kids dramatized Samuel & Eli from the bible and learned about Mary & Martha too.  We studied a different bible memory verse each week too.  They had to listen carefully for me to whisper to them & then come right away throughout the day.  We played games that require concentration such as Simon Says, Duck Duck Goose, Hokey Pokey, and Memory.   We learned all about how the ear works and built a crawl through ear.

Here the kids are pretending to be a Bride & Groom while listening to Mendelssohn's "Wedding March".  You've got to love unit studies, especially when the main focus of Konos unit studies are on the character.  We started out every day with our bible study and going over the character trait that we were on and it made such a big difference (lots of the time more for me even than the kids) and put our focus where it should be.  Last year I didn't emphasize the trait like I should have and this year it is making such a difference and I am thankful for that!

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Oct. 19, 2007 - Preschool Activity Bag Exchange

Someone in my homeschool group recently hosted a Preschool Activity Bag Exchange and it was such a blessing.  Everyone had to pick two activity bags to make up and then make enough of each for everyone that was participating.  Then we got together and each person presented their bags and how to use them and handed them out.  A lot of the ideas for the bags came from the book Preschool Activities in a Bag and from miscellaneous websites.  I was in awe at how creative everyone was and we had such great variety.  So far, my children are loving them and we are trying to just use them during school to help occupy and teach my preschoolers while I work with my 1st grader.  Well, I think they are great.  The person who hosted also had an idea to do an exchange where you make a letter of the week curriculum and each person participating would take 2 letters of the alphabet and have everything for those weeks ready to go in a bag.  So, I would highly reccomend anyone to organize this type of exchange.  Believe me it is a lot of work to make up 2 different activity bags for 16 people, but definately well worth the effort!

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Oct. 18, 2007 - Fall Time Fun

One of our favorite things to do in the fall time is to make applesauce with Grandma & Grandpa.                We get to pick apples,

wash them,

 cut them, cook them, mash them,

can them, and just enjoy playing in the apple trees (probably the kids favorite).

  This year the kids even found a caterpillar that we put in a jar and it formed a chrysalis and we are waiting for it to become a beautiful butterfly.

God's creation sure is amazing and beautiful.

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Feb. 16, 2007 - Too Cute

This morning my 3 yo son came crying to me and say "Owwww....my tongue hurts!" and I asked him why it hurt and he said that he bit it.  I asked him why he bit it and he said "To see if it would hurt."    Got to love 3 year olds.

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Jan. 31, 2007 - Kings & Queens Unit Study Fun #2

While studying Kings & Queens we had an English tea party and had made Queen Cakes(Marie Antoinette) for it.  The kids dressed up and we had little cutout sandwiches and tried to decorate the table fancy.  Sam had drawn a teapot and cut it out and said that it was decoration for our table too.   It was cute.  We made some tea which none of us liked (I am not a tea person) and drank out of "tea", coffee, cups. 

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Jan. 31, 2007 - Kings & Queens Unit Study Fun

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Jan. 29, 2007 - Preschool Activities/Toddler Fun

I started planning out my activities for Jake & Leah ahead of time for each day that would keep them busy while I worked with Sam and so far it has helped out a lot.  Before I would try to just decide at the moment what I though might work well and since I am so indecisive and then would have to make sure I had the items for the activity, it just didn't to seem to work very well.  Here are Jake & Leah "washing" the toy dishes.  They loved it, but they did get soaked.  Next time I might have them wear smocks.  The only problem I have with these activities is that Sam usually wants to join in too.  So, I usually let her after she has finished her work.

Here is Sam working "hard" while the other two are playing.  Notice how she is drawing a picture on the side of her math lessons.

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Nov. 26, 2006 - Cowboy Cookout-End of Horse Unit Wrap Up

We had a lot of fun at our Cowboy Cookout.  We invited the grandparents to it.  We made "wanted posters" of the grandparents, daddy, and the kids which were adorable.  You can make them here for free: http://www.glassgiant.com/wanted/.  We also used our horse poster and a red/white checkered tablecloth that we already had.  We used tin pie pans for plates.  We would have liked to done it outside, but it was too dark and too cold.  We considered doing a fire anyways, but ended up not.  We made "Son of a Gun" Stew, homemade biscuits (which I used baking soda instead of baking powder and they tasted disgusting), beans, apple cobbler, coffee for the adults, and rootbeer in bottles for the kids.  We set up a table to showcase the books we've read, some artwork, pictures, and Sam's lapbook.  We sang some songs and had the grandparents try to lasso the grandkids and played a cowboy game called "thimble rig" (where you have 3 thimbles -we used cups-and you hide one item and then move them around and you guess which one has the item under it).  Then we just relaxed and the kids ended up making it into a dress up party and decided to dress everyone up.  It was a nice night.  Oh, I almost forgot to mention that besides ruining the biscuits, the apple cobbler leaked all over the edges of the pie pan and started smoking and my mom suggested putting salt on the part of the stove that had the food leaked on it to stop the smoking.  Well, it started smoking furiously then and the whole house was covered in smoke, so we had to open all the windows and doors.  So, we at least go to have the feeling of it being outdoors!

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Nov. 21, 2006 - Who needs toys when there is dirty laundry to play in?

I walked into my bedroom the other week and this is what I found.  I didn't even realize that Leah was in the basket at first since she had the lid closed but she popped out shortly after I came in and Jake was just relaxing in the dirty laundry.  Of course I had to grab the camera.  Who needs toys when you have dirty laundry, right?  One thing I love about my kids and homeschooling, even though we haven't been doing it that long, is that they have such wonderful imaginations and they are pretend playing everything we learn about and that they are able to go and pretend whatever they just learned about.  Actually, that is a large part of our curriculum too, even though half the time they do it on their own.

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Nov. 21, 2006 - Quarter Horse Racine/Branding "Irons"

During our last week of our unit study theme of Obedience/Horses we studied the Wild West.  One of the activities we did was to make our own branding "irons" from potatoes.  The kids drew a design on the halved potatoes and then I cut them down to make a stamp and then they inked them on an ink pad and stamped them into a little branding booklet I made.  We had first read about branding and running brands.  After they finished stamping then I had Sam write the name of the brand on the same page and on the next page she made up a name for the Ranch it belonged to.  At the end she stamped all the brands again and altered them to create running brands and named them as well.  We put this booklet into our Lapbook, which I hope to post some time later.

Here, Jake was dressed up as a Knight, like usual.  It's either that or a dragon.   The kids are also racing the quarter mile race, like Quarter horses.  They were disqualified if they crossed into the other horse's lane and as you can see, Jake thought it was a lot of fun to get disqualified.  Sam on the other hand wanted him to stay in his own lane, but once she realized that she won, she got over it pretty quickly.  We just used masking tape to make these racing lanes.  The Konos book suggested doing it outside, which is another option.  I don't remember why we didn't do that.

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Nov. 17, 2006 - Devotional

I just wanted to recommend a devotional that I think is awesome!  It is The Power of a Positive Mom by Karol Ladd.  I haven't read through the whole thing yet, but I have read her other book The Power of a Positive Wife and that is also a wonderful book.  You can check it out here at http://online.nph.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?10418&productID=124160, if you are interested.  Just wanted to share these with you since they have really inspired and encouraged me.

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Nov. 14, 2006 - Bike Horses/Fun/KONOS

Here we attached our horses to our bikes with duct tape(it does leave sticky marks though).  The kids thought this was pretty neat "riding" their horses around the neighborhood.  Again, Leah was feeling left out.  Poor Leah.  Actually she didn't mind, she got to ride in the wagon with the chalk.  We all went to the park where they have a cement area for the basketball court and we drew, with our chalk, a big oval racetrack and the kids, even Leah but not on a bike, raced each other.  I even got in on the fun!  I had a whistle with to start the race and we also had been blowing the whistle throughout the day and whenever the kids heard it they had to come right away, since we were studying obedience as the main focus and horses as the subtopic.  Surprisingly, the kids loved this and for the most part came right away, running.  I thought I should start using this all the time!   I should probably mention that we use Konos character curriculum.  It is a unit study approach using character traits as the unit and different themes as the subtopics, such as Obedience-Horses/King&Queens/Light/etc.  I think it is wonderful so far and we have only been using it since August.  Their website is www.konos.com.

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Nov. 10, 2006 - Grooming/Steeplechase

Here the kids are "grooming" the "horse"(Jake) and we used different combs/brushes, etc for all the different grooming tools and had Sam & Jake do them in the correct order and of course Leah wanted to help too.

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Nov. 8, 2006 - Horse Saddle/Bridle

Here we used our stick horses stuck through a little kid's table to learn how to saddle a horse, mount and dismount, and the verbal, rein, and leg aids a rider uses.  We also used their bikes to mount & dismount.  We even practiced at our Walmart on their coin activated horse to mount & dismount properly.  Sam thought that was pretty cool.  It was actually her idea.  As you probably have noticed by now, Sam likes to dress up alot and Jake as well but not quite as often.  Leah just loves shoes; any and all shoes, especially boots. 

Jake here is showing off the "bridle" Sam & I made for her stick horse.  She had to list off the 6 straps and the areas they went on while we did it and we of course had to refer back to the book a couple of times.  I pretty much have been learning right along with her.  And boy have I learned a lot!  It's amazing what you can learn from kid's books.

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Nov. 6, 2006 - Draft Horse Racing/Puzzle Fun

 








Sam loves puzzles, so I was happy to find this one at a yard sale just in time for our horse unit. 

Today our Homeschool Group has Enrichment classes and so Sam is there for 3 hours doing Beginning Public Speaking (show&tell/fingerplays), Ballet, and Gym class.  There are so many classes to choose from and all of them are just volunteer homeschool moms and dads.  It is wonderful!  There are some fees involved, but you can spend as much or as little as you want or can afford.  Well, it is almost time to pack up the kids and pick her up.  Usually my hubbie is home in the afternoon these days so I don't have to wake up my other 2 from naps but he called to say he won't make it in time today.  Poor little things will have to get woken up!   I hate having to do that.

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Nov. 5, 2006 - Stick Horses

This was probably the best activity for studying horses.  We made these stick horses and our kids have used them over and over and over again.  They just love them!  Plus you can use them in so many ways to learn about horses and in a way that is fun and memorable for the kids (and the parents).  We have used them to learn the different gaits or paces of the horse while demonstrating using them.  We have rode them to learn different racing events.  We have attached them to the kid's bikes to learn different racing events, games, mounting/dismounting, and more.  Plus they have been used endlessly for pretend play.  But they did require a little bit of work to put together and since they have been used so much they have had to be taped up a few times.

You can see Leah(the littlest) is wondering where hers

is.  Sorry hunny, but you are going to have to take turns

with the older ones.

Mommy, I can't wait any longer!! (Leah)

Sam's horse

Jake's horse - I drew but he colored some of it.

He's not a big fan of coloring.

Finally, it's MY turn!! (Leah)

Children truly are a gift from the Lord!

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Nov. 4, 2006 - 2nd Unit - Horses: Pin the Tail on the Horse

Our kids had a lot of fun playing this activity and it even can be used to review the anatomy of the horse by asking them which part they put the tail on or where they

got it closest too.

Samantha

Leah

Jake

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