Reality Check

Lest you think I have it all together let me prove you wrong. Here is my evidence...

On any given school day this is what my house looks like...... completely and utterly destroyed.This is what homeschooling really looks like, at least at my house. Laundry piles up, dishes fill the sink, floors go unswept. Why? Because my kids need my attention, time, and efforts. The rest can wait .They are worth a dirty house.


 

Highlights from Weeks 2 and 3

I have a confession. Week 2 actually took two weeks to complete. And I am just now getting around to posting about week 3. We should be on week 5 by now, but are actually on week 4 in the fifth week of school. Confused yet? My head is spinning. In a nutshell, we have been crazy busy.


Overall things are going fairly smoothly. We seem to be in our groove. This is the first year that we have gotten into our groove so quickly and it is also the first year we have taken so much time off during the summer. I am convinced we all needed the mental break.

Here are a few of my favorite moments from Weeks 2 & 3

During our morning meeting we have been using our JOY prayer cards. J for Jesus. We spend time praising Him by praying scripture. This week we prayed Hebrews 12:2 as we thanked Jesus for being the author and perfector of our faith. O is for others. We prayed for those who have never heard of God. And Y is for yourself. We prayed 1 Thes. 5:6 that God would help us be self-controlled in our thoughts and actions. Each morning my children choose which one they want to pray and we join together in prayer. I am not much for scripted prayer time, but I am very for focused prayer. It is a beautiful moment at the beginning of our day.

We had a lesson this week during Morning Meeting about honesty and it couldn't have come at a better time. The morning of the lesson, Caleb (4 years old) chose to take some tickets off of his sister's board and put them on his own. (we do AK) When I asked him where those tickets came from he thankfully owned up to what he had done immediately. Right after this incident, we started MM with the ice cream and salt lesson about lying. Here's the skinny on the lesson (idea came from here) I gave the kids each a bowl of ice cream. We talked about choices that please the Lord. Then I sprinkled a good amount of salt over their ice cream and talked about how we sometimes make choices that do not please the Lord and because we are often embarrassed of our behavior we try to cover it up with a lie.I then poured chocolate syrup on their ice cream and asked them if they wanted to try it. They knew the salt was still there even though you couldn't see it. Each tried a bite with disgust. The lesson: the bad choice is still there even though you tried to cover it up with a lie. Then I took a bowl with dried salt in it and we talked about how Jesus is the only one who can wash those unpleasing choices away. We dipped the bowl in some water and the bowl was clean again. I used the incident with Caleb as an example with the kids. He made a bad choice to "steal" tickets from Julia. However, he chose to take responsibility for that choice right away and did not lie about it. I praised him for doing the right thing in that moment. And in case you are wondering, yes I did give the kids new scoops of ice cream to enjoy. They thought they were living the high life eating ice cream at 8 o'clock in the morning.

I love teaching science! I am so happy to be back in an Apologia book this year learning about Flying Creatures. We did an activity during week 2 that didn't go as planned. We were to make two gliders, one with long narrow wings and the other with short wide wings to see which would glide the farthest. We followed the instructions to the "T" or so I thought. The experiments bombed. The glider that should have gone farther to teach the fact about flight didn't go that far. Oh well. We had fun trying. We also have used the book Genesis for Kids. Neat book, but I have already given up on it. Several of the activities we tried have all failed. I think we will just stick with Apologia for our science this year.

During week 3, we learned about the Jewish Feast of Rosh Hashanah. (say that out loud.... it's just fun to say) Rosh Hashanah is all about celebrating the new year and beginnings. It is also about repentance, rememberance, and revelation. During the week we made shofars using party horns, toilet paper tubes, and tape. I am sure my neighbors were hating me that day when I let them loose in the backyard with the shofars. At the end of the week, we had a special dinner for Rosh Hashanah which included celebrating God's new fruits (we tried pomegranate), dipping apples in honey ("your words are sweeter than honey"), and celebrating God's creation through the blessing of the wine.(this time we used sparkling grape juice instead of real wine... the kid's were thankful) We did a VERY condensed version of the celebration but it was a special time nonetheless.

We also learned about early civilizations and with this learned about early forms of writing. We learned about cuneiform writing. The kids got to write their name in cuneiform and also make cookie cuneiform tablets. Fun and yummy!

One of my favorite things to do with my children is to read aloud to them. Right now we are reading Tanglewoods Secrets. I have been pleasantly surprised with this book. And if my children are really listening, not just with their ears but with their hearts I am confident that God is teaching them some things.

As usual, there is so much more is going on that I would love to share with you, but there is just not enough time to share it all. Here are a few more pictures from weeks 2 and 3...

This is what Benjamin does most days during school

He's is working hard!

Some days we just need to start our day with donuts!

Caleb learning about measurement

Patterns

Counting

Gummy Bear experiment

Isaac's timeline

Writing spelling words with lemon juice

Julia's timeline

Memory Verse work

Lemon Juice spelling words

Benjamin "helping" Isaac practice

Counting

Art Lesson

Apologia Flying Creatures

Benjamin loves the piano

Working on her Apologia notebook

If Benjamin is not getting into something, he is usually right here hugging on my leg begging to be held. Love him so!

I want to take a moment to say I love homeschooling. Some days I get frustrated. Some days I am delightfully full from a day of enjoyable learning with my kids. Some days I fall into bed at night so tired I can't think straight. Homeschool for our family goes far beyond the books. It is for His Kingdom. I am confident that God is blessing our efforts.

On a less serious note, come back and check out my next post. I am going to show you the less glamorous side of our homeschool days. Reality Check!

 

Sabbath

What a beautiful weekend we had as we observed the Sabbath for the first time as a family. 

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. Genesis 2:2

I was challenged from the very beginning of the day Friday to maintain peace and joy as we prepared for the Sabbath. I felt spiritually attacked from the get go.Frustrating change of plans, lots of traffic, tears. My nine year old son humbled me with his gentle response by simply placing his hand on my arm and said, "It's OK Mom. God's got this" And He did. I was grateful that the Lord used my son to remind me to always trust Him and focus on Him, not on my circumstances.

With that out of the way, we spent the rest of the day cleaning, baking, and setting our Sabbath table. One of my favorite moments of the day was making the challah. In the book Celebrating Biblical Feasts it said that Jewish mothers will pray for each of their children as they mix and knead the bread dough. I did this and it was a very special moment of focused time communing with the Lord on behalf of the children He has entrusted me with.

With the table set, we began our Sabbath meal. Before the meal is served there are blessings, prayers,and scripture said as well as passing of the cup and breaking of the bread. It was a test of my children's patience but they did very well... even Caleb! I will never forget when Gabe said a blessing over each of our children. The looks on their faces as he spoke these blessings to them were priceless. Then Gabe read Proverbs 31 to me and I cried. It was humbling to be honored in that way. Often I have read Proverbs 31 and thought I will never measure up, but that night I heard those words in a a completely different way. I heard them through the strength of Christ. Through Him I am all those things. I am not enough but He is. Beautifully, humbling moment.

The closeness we shared throughout the night was unlike any other we have had. After dinner we all helped clean up and then spent the rest of the evening just hanging out and  laughing together. Our family bonds were strengthened for sure.

Saturday we focused on quality time together and rest. Gabe and Isaac went mountain biking while I stayed home and played what seemed like every board game we own with Caleb and Julia. That afternoon we took some friends of ours to a show at the Magik theater and then came home to have another special meal together.

I want to observe the Sabbath again with my family. Not only did we grow stronger as a family, we grew closer to the Lord together. I am now looking forward to celebrating Rosh Hashanah next. 

Highlights from Week 1

Three words.... I. Am. Exhausted.

Either I am having to adjust to the school schedule again after being off for the summer or our days are really packed with homeschooling  from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. non-stop, or I am just getting older. Or all three. Most definitely all three.

It has been a busy week to say the least, however it was a successful and enjoyable week indeed. I am pleased to say that all those hours of planning during the summer have paid off. The flow of our day is working out perfectly with the exception of Morning meeting when Benjamin is cranky and ready for a nap.Can't be helped. The older two are doing a bang up job on their independent work and managing with the work stations and timers wonderfully. My time with Caleb works out to be about 1 1/2 hours which is just about the length of Benjamin's morning nap. Right now I am basking in the smooth schedule knowing full well that it could all come crashing down at any moment. A healthy dose of reality and flexibility is key in home schooling!

A few highlights and snapshots from Week 1

Caleb continues to surprise me with how well he is doing with school so far. He is still very much at that age of  a very short attention span and lots of wiggles and giggles, however he has been very successful with everything I have asked him to do. The only issue I have seen from him so far is the 100 Easy Lessons book. If the lesson drags, then he gets tired of it quickly. I can understand that. I may have to cut those lessons in half if he gets antsy. He worked on a lot of counting and fine motor skills this week, but his favorite part is reading Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? We will be spending two weeks on each Before FIAR book. Have I mentioned how much I love to sit on the couch and cuddle with him as we read? One of my favorite moments of the day. 

Journaling outside... finding something outside to draw. He chose a tree.

Loving Jesse Bear!

counting gummy bears

He has made great improvements in his ability to write his name

Sidewalk chalk

Sorting gummy bears

Working on counting with one to one correspondence  while playing Hi Ho Cherry Oh

We are using the book Hymns for a Kid's Heart this year. Each week we will learn about a different hymn. This week it is "Holy Holy Holy", one of my all time favorites. In the book we read about the author of the song and read a devotional written by Joni Eareckson Tada.  In the devotional a question was posed. "Will heaven be boring?" Though my kids would not admit it I know they have wondered about this. I have. In the devotional Joni describes a kaleidoscope and how each time you look at it the colors and pattern change. Each time you see something new and different. She related this to God. In heaven we will never tire of praising God because every time we get a glimpse of Him we will see another part of His beauty and won't be able to help ourselves from praising him singing, "Holy Holy Holy"  I hope that every time they look through a kaleidoscope they will remember this lesson and continually praise God smiling as they think on how magnificent and glorious our Father is. Will heaven be boring? No way!!!

Julia's journal after this lesson

Isaac and Julia started their piano lessons on Tuesday with Sue Vanley. They both enjoyed their first lesson and are motivated to practice and learn. I think they are finally at the right age to attempt something like this without a lot of frustration. Piano lessons will be every Tuesday morning.

 SAINTS also started this week and will be every Tuesday afternoon. So Tuesdays will be busy without any regular school planned. Isaac and Julia absolutely love to go to PE. It is a solid three hours of great, fun exercise in a positive, Christian environment. The coaches are great with the kids and spend time praying with them at the end of class. I feel so blessed to have organizations like this available for my children.

 
For one part of our art curriculum this year we will be going through the book God and the History of Art. The very first lesson was about frustration. I won't name names but a certain someone in my house needed to hear this lesson. This certain someone gets super frustrated when things are just right, especially in art. As part of the first lesson the kids learned about Joni Eareckson Tada and then had to copy a drawing by holding the pencil in their mouths. I asked my certain someone if this activity was frustrating. The response, "No because I expected to it to be bad" That wasn't quite what we were going for, but we'll get there eventually.

I LOVE science, especially Apologia Science. This year we are studying Flying Creatures and completed one of our first experiments (not really an experiment, just an object lesson really) We learned about how birds fly, about the difference in the speed of air over and below the wings which causes a difference in air pressure. We did a fun activity to demonstrate this using a cup of water and two straws. When blowing the air over the top of the straw in the cup of water, the air pressure changes causing the water in the straw to spurt out. The expressions on my kids faces the first time this happened was priceless. I love hearing them laugh and enjoy learning something new. They had fun spraying each other with the water!

I am really liking our new Spelling curriculum. We have tried several over the years with not much success. This year we are using A Reason for Spelling and thankfully I have both Isaac and Julia in the same book. Throughout each lesson there are a lot of different ways to learn and practice the spelling words... auditory, tactile, etc. This week we went outside where the kids could write their spelling words with sidewalk chalk. Lots of tactile feedback.... too much according to Isaac. He apparently hates the feel of chalk in his hand.
Note to self: choose different extension activity next time.

Even though Isaac was not a fan of the sidewalk chalk, I am happy to report that they both got all of their words right on the end of the week test.

The majority of our week was centered on learning about and preparing for the Sabbath. We are using the book Celebrating Biblical Feasts throughout the year and will have the opportunity to learn about and participate in many different feasts and observances. I am truly most excited about this.I would like to write an entire different post about what I experienced and learned through observing the Sabbath. It was such a meaningful experience for all of us.  My prayer for my family is that these experiences be imprinted on our hearts not as mere events but as a clear picture of Christ.

braiding the challah

Making challah

Turned out beautiful and yummy

Both Isaac and Julia made challah coverings. This is Julia's

Julia and Caleb made candlestick fruit to go with our dinner

Our family at the Sabbath table

Gabe blessing Caleb. I cried as he said a blessing for each of our children.

Gabe blessing Isaac

Gabe blessing Julia. I love how she is looking at her Papa.

Gabe read Proverbs 31 to me. I cried...again!

We actually had red wine in the house. (we don't like wine, so this was odd) The kids DID NOT like the wine

Isaac taking a sip of  the wine as we passed the cup

Caleb's reaction was priceless

Julia scrunched up her nose. Not a fan of wine. Good thing!

I captured this picture of Caleb at the end of the evening as he quietly sat and stared at the candles. Shalom? Yes, indeed!

And sweet Benjamin was content to rest in his Papa's arms. What a picture of how God wraps His loving arms around us. 

As I mentioned above, there is so much to share about our Sabbath. I will be back to write a separate post all about that. Here are a few more pics from the week...

Had to share one of Julia's journals from this week. Isn't she so sweet?!

And what was Benjamin up to this week, you might ask? Oh nothing really. Just climbing into the dishwasher. Fun times!

There was so much more that happened this week, but those were my favorite highlights. Now let's gear up for Week 2!