Monday, August 30, 2010

First Week of School {My Father's World Creation}

We're starting our second week of school today, which means that we survived our first week last week! I'd like to think that we didn't only survive, but thrived! :) Since the lessons in kindergarten aren't terribly long or take up half the day, I decided to do our school in the afternoon when Brigham was napping for the first week. This way, I wouldn't have the extra distraction or frustration from wanting to focus on the older two but having to deal with a new-two-year-old's demands. While this worked out well, I found myself wishing some afternoons that I had already completed school in the morning getting right into a routine, instead of looking forward to it all day and not being able to start until early afternoon. I figured I'd do school in the morning this week then, and compare the pros and cons of morning vs. afternoon school. This will truly test my multi-tasking and patience, though, having to keep Brigham happy (and quiet!) for school time. Afterall, I won't always have the luxury of only having a mostly quiet four and six-year-old around for each day of school!
Wanting to make the first day of school special for the kids, we headed to IHOP for breakfast on Monday morning followed by them picking out a new outfit for the day and fall. We enjoyed our morning, strolling around the shops and making our stops, preparing for the big afternoon! When we were ready to start, I still of course had to take the "first day of school" pictures in front of the house! :) There were the initial moans and groans coupled with very sunny skies, but in the end, we found a shady spot and got a couple of good ones...

Once inside it was all smiles and even though I was a bit nervous on how to "start", we were rolling in no time. Each day the lesson took just a bit over an hour, as I served them a "creation snack" along with the lesson. These were easy, fun ideas that I mostly got from the My Father's World message boards. (A huge wealth of information!) We waited until the near-end of the lesson before our last coloring project and song to have snack, as to not disturb the "core" of the lesson.
Day 1: Oreos & milk {God divided the light from darkness}

Day 2: Blue water & marshmallows {God divided the water above & below the sky}

Day 3: Pudding, crushed oreos, & strawberry {God made sea, dry land, & plants}

Day 4: Nachos & lemonade {God made the sun, moon, & stars}

Day 5: Goldfish crackers {God made living creatures in the sea & birds}

{I will also not confirm or deny that anticipating what the creation snack would be ended up being the kids' favorite time of school...}
Bella did a great job with her letters (and numbers) each day, as she already knows them all with their sounds. These first two weeks are definitely review for her, but I came up with a couple of speed games with the alphabet cards to challenge her a bit. This helped her along with not becoming bored during the lesson. As the year goes on, I expect things will pick up for her with more letter blending and reading. She also loved the "This is My Father's World" hymn that we learned, and loves singing along to the laptop music many, many times as we close each lesson. As expected, Lincoln drifted in and out for parts of the lesson. Some days, he was quite interested in the letters and numbers and others not. He did enjoy the crafts, though, coloring and pasting. With him being in preschool still this year and a newer four-year-old, my focus with him will be review of his colors and shapes, while teaching numbers and introducing letters. Of course we will all do a lot of quality reading too, as that's a huge focus of the My Father's World curriculum! :)

Illustrating the Creation Book

Ready to start! {I love this picture, as many of you who know Lincoln knows that he does NOT smile or cooperate for pictues...}
We're really looking forward to this week, the second week of Creation, and even more so to the themed weeks that follow! Of course the kids are already counting down and asking for when their favorite themes are coming up. I feel great that we have our first week done and confident to move on, finding our rhythm and the schedule that fits best for us before the baby is born.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Snippets, Ramblings... Anything!?

Ahh, blogland, it's been a busy couple of weeks and again there's not much coming from this end in the way of creative thoughts, cute pics, or really... anything! When life gets a bit busier {or even if I just want a break from something!} the blog is always the first thing to go. I guess that's better than most things like the children, hubby, or laundry, though! :)

I've missed chatting with you all and hearing from you here, stopping by your blogs to hang out and comment, and just plain soaking in my bloggy friendships! I'm not sure if any of you noticed I was absent, but oh how I've missed my daily fix of checking in with my friends! :)

Like I said, it's been a bit busier the last weeks or so, but I'm hoping to get back in the swing of things very, very soon! I'm hoping to expand on a few points and goings-on around here, but for now I'm just going to ramble. I like to ramble sometimes, and I think it's long overdue here! :)

~ This little cutie-patootie turned {TWO} this week...

{I can't believe it either! I started this little blog when I was pregnant with him... We had a "Cars" party and tried to spoil him rotten. Not that that doesn't happen on a daily basis around here! Such a cute age...}

~ My parents were here for a week-long visit and we tried to fit in quite a few yummy restaurants and fun outings. I'll miss the extra help and extra food...

~ We'll start school at home this Monday the 23rd! I'm so excited, but feel like I have a lot to get together this weekend still. Hang things on the wall, freak out, pray, order a few more books and supplies, buy more art supplies, freak out again, pray again, trip to the Christian bookstore, look into homeschool groups... I figured out that I just needed to set a date and start or there would always be something left to do, so that's the date we set! I hope to be able to keep up on here with what we're doing every couple of weeks. We have a perfect little dining nook off the kitchen with built-in shelves and our table that we'll be using for our school area and storage.

{Here's a pic from when we moved in... Love the shelving on both sides and the bare wall space to hang and store lots of school stuff!}


~ Mark's schooling is going very well so far, and I've lovingly started calling him a "nerd". Studying advanced-level pharmacology, biochemistry, anatomy & physiology, statistics, and anesthesia research would do that to the best of us, I believe. {Just between you and me, though, I think he sort of likes it...} Classes and exams are really heating up now and in full-swing, but he's doing an amazing job of juggling school with plenty of family time. It's hard to believe, but in a couple of months we'll probably know where we'll be moving on to next for phase II, starting next summer. I'll let you know which state we'll be the newest residents of when we find out!

~ Last, but certainly not least... If you haven't noticed, our newest little boy-blue will be arriving before we know it! I'm feeling very good and just can't believe that it's nearing the end already! I'm getting sooo excited to meet him, see what he looks like, and see how our first homebirth unfolds. Did I even mention yet that we were having a homebirth with him!? Hmmm.... Well, we're planning on it! We love, love, love our midwife and look forward to the new experience. Of course there's a list that I want to have done by a few weeks time, but we're really trying not to overreact with crazy unnecessary preparations for this one. By the fourth, I think {hope!} things just fall into place a bit more. But if I'm wrong on that thinking, please don't burst my bubble... ;) And yes... I promise an updated baby belly picture before too long! Oh, I just can't wait to share his name with you all too...

So... What's new with you all? I have some catchin' up to do! :)
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Wednesday, August 4, 2010

sos

tRaPpEd

by siblings...

Please send help.

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