Wrapping up the semester

Alas, my posts seem to be getting fewer and further between as I focus more now on building my web consulting company.  Things are beginning to fall into place.  So, while I'm on a bitty break at the coffee shop today, I thought I'd do a catch-up blog post on our homeschooling adventures.

Our life has been so varied these days, it's hard to say what a typical day is like anymore.  Here are some highlights:

Here's BabyZ playing with a duck during our homeschool co-op weekly meeting.

Me teaching a Web 2.0 class during co-op.  Most of the students seemed to enjoy learning the art of blogging.

Sometimes after church we make  a stop by Sam's Club to run a quick errand, and we end up eating a snack on our way.  I couldn't resist these photos of sisterly love.

For Tot School we've been doing a lot of our block building...

(blocks and a bit of play dough throw in there for good measure!)

Bit of silliness...

Big sister helping little sister get ready for church.

My little girl has grown up so much.  Here she is preparing to walk into her science lab class.

The girls love to go places.

While big Sis goes to science lab, BabyZ enjoys a little Dr. Seuss fun at Books A Million.

So we pick up Big Sis from Science lab, and she proudly shows off her woodworking creation.  It sounded pretty fun.  A nice, elderly carpenter came by to teach the kids how to work with wood.

As the semester wears down and we get closer to Thanksgiving, we are starting to REALLY relax a bit.  We enjoyed a fieldtrip morning with some friends at a ceramics studio.

(finally BabyZ is big enough to paint her own ceramic!)

Another habit, we'd gotten into lately was stopping by Panera Bread for a quick bite before our weekly homeschool co-op begins:

Our school mornings are beginning to look more techie these days.

Ny discovered she was really good at Googling for info.  We're still enjoying BJU for History.

Lastly, we finished off our homeschool co-op semester with a fun carnival-themed holiday party:

Well, there's my lengthy update!

Fieldtrips, history, and lit...

These past few weeks have been fun, exciting, and a bit fast-paced.  We went to a local festival called Kentuck, and the girls had a blast riding the bus there.  (I promised them I would park the car and we'd take the shuttle).

Because I mostly got video footage, and I haven't taken the time to edit my videos, I won't be posting them :-( but you can trust they had tons of fun!  Face painting among other crafts.  It was fun.  I think the part they liked the best was riding on the bus.

We've also been going to our bi-weekly science and geography labs, and attending our weekly homeschool co-op.  In between these days, we've worked on all of our core subjects-- and, of course, I've been working on rebuilding my web business, which I'm really excited about.

As for core subjects, we're still working on missing addends in Saxon 5/4.  I think we'll be in 5/4 for at least another year, and I'm perfectly relaxed with that since we started it in grade 3...so we are just basically cruising our way through it and taking breaks in between to learn our multiplication tables.    In American History, we have really been enjoying our unit on the westward expansion and the 49'ers in BJU's American Heritage 3.  We finished up that unit last week by panning for gold:

Add a little dirt, water, and some gravel the "gold nuggets" and we have ourselves a gold-panning activity.

At least the rocks we painted gold the other week seem like real gold!

The girls got dirty and had a lot of fun with that.

Our next chapter in American Heritage is on folktale and American stories like Johnny Appleseed.  It's kind of a nice break from learning about the colonies and states.

Will I use BJU American history again next year?  Well, the lessons journey through American history all the way up through the 5th grade level.  I'm not quite sure I want the kids to still be on American history that long.  At some point before 5th grade I wanted to study world history with them...so we'll see.  But I do highly recommend BJU for history-- good stuff!

English has been really easy this year.  Again, we are using BJU- English 3.  I don't have the teacher's manual, but with just the student notebook we've been able to pull off pretty easy and quick language arts sessions each school day.  Couple that with loads of reading on her spare time and natural handwriting practice through letter-writing, and I think our language arts program has been complete this year.  What I like about the BJU English book is that it goes beyond your language basics (ex.- "what is a verb? noun? pronoun? etc.) and covers letter-writing, story-writing, persuasive essay writing...that kind of stuff.  I also supplement lessons from time to time with a workbook I bought from Barnes and Noble this past summer (Harcourt Complete Curriculum).  Not to mention, anytime kids want some school fun, all we have to do is dig up some fun websites for them...StoryNory is great for literature.  Spelling City is pretty useful too.

I've got a notebook full of websites I have run across and enjoyed and I should do a post just on that soon.

Til next time...

Outdoor homeschooling and a surprise

Okay, let me start this post by saying that Ny checked out this book from the library a few days ago.  Black Beauty's Family i's 574 pages long!!! (Six books in one).  You go girl.  Have fun, and take it easy.

Today for American HIstory, we went outside to make our gold nuggets.  (Tomorrow we're going to finish up our lesson by panning for gold like the 49'ers).  First step was to fill out a worksheet on the westward expansion on the U.S. purchase of Mexico.

The girls gathered some rocks to be used for our "gold"

They wash the rocks and clean them up, then paint them gold:

We came back in for a little tot school- puzzles and shapes:

Then my dad called and announced that he had surprised us with:

The girls LOVE their bird house!

Treasure hunts

Treasure hunts, drawing maps, and loving a warm and breezy day in October!  Gotta love the south.

Building cabins for history

Overall, it's been a fun week.  Last week NyGirl attended her monthly Science lab offered by her homeschool "cover school", and if I remember correctly I posted pics of those also.

Today she'll be attending her Geography lab, and I'll post updates on that.

In History we've been studying the expansion westard (arly 1800's).  Because NyGirl is such a "do-it-in-order" kind of girl, she's been attempting to find all the Dear America book series from the 1800's before we move on to 1900's...which won't be for a while, I keep reassuring her.

Anyhow, I really enjoy our BJU materials, and we finally got a timeline for our wall so she can follow along with dates. 

The projects have been loads of fun too.  We didn't get around to making a covered wagon, but here is the beginnings of the cabin she built (without the roof):

Rosh Hashanah- Remembering God As Our King

So last Thursday came and went, and I forgot to blog about our experience celebrating Rosh Hashanah.  Rosh Hashanah is a Jewish holiday which means "head of the year" literally.  Is it the beginning of the Jewish new year (the new year is 5771).  It is the birthday of mankind and celebration of Adam and Eve's creation as well.  The main focus is on God being our King.

One of the main events of Rosh Hashanah is the blowing of the trumpets.  It represents the coronation of our King, heralding Him with the sound of the shofar.  It also serves as a call to repentance (leading into the next Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur).

I don't have many pictures, because in my hurry to cook and clean I forgot to snap a few photos.  At any rate, we set a beautiful table with each person having a trumpet (okay, a toy flute, really!) at their plate.   I lit the candle and my husband and I prayed blessings over the girls.

I had the girls make Rosh Hashanah cards for their dad.  I do, at least, have pictures of those...but ignore the misspelling of Rosh Hashanah!!  The girls really enjoyed making these cards for their dad.

(picture coming soon...)

The girls then blew their trumpets (flutes) according to the different sounds associated with the Feast of Trumpet's service (Tekiah, Shevarim, Teruah, and Tekia Gedolah).  Some sounds are short and stacatto blows, others are  wave like, or long and unbroken.  Each trump sound represents an aspect of our relationship to God and His call to mankind.

Where did I learn all of this?  This book tells it all.

And lastly, we had apples dipped in honey, a tradition that symbolizes a sweet year ahead for you.  In reality, we had run out of apples, so we had pears from my parents' pear tree and garden.  Cooked slightly and dipped in honey, they were delish!

Creatively Correcting My Children

I'm at a whole different stage of my parenting now.  This is just one of those seasons where I am just really into the throes of motherhood to the point that sometimes I keep attempting to peek beyond this season into the next.  It's like bobbing up and down in a pool for a breath of fresh air.

And, you know, that may not be the best analogy for parenting.

I want to reiterate the fact that all mothers know: parenting is hard work.

Yet, I want to also note: parenting can be a beautiful process.  It all depends on which choices we make.

It's imperative for me in my life right now, to take the reigns on my kids and drive.  While they are young and impressionable, this is the time allotted, the window of opportunity, for us (my husband and I) to speak into their lives and teach them those timeless truths they won't learn any easier than right now.

And that, my friend, is the hardest part in the younger years.  (If you have teenagers, please don't remind me that it gets harder as time goes by!)  I am really doing my best to think positively and believe that there is a good chance all of this teaching and training we are doing today will sink in and take root before they are teens!  But we all know- kids have a mind of their own.  My prayer is that my daughters will adopt the mind of God- thinking Godly thoughts and acting in Godly ways.

Hence, the work laid out for me today is crucial.

In our home, (and as you know, we are homeschooling), we have been doing a lot more character development studies recently.

If I see a problem in heart or attitude that needs correcting, the first thing I want to do is go to the Word of God.  God's Word literally is an anecdote to all problems, and there is a solution to every dilemma under the sun right in the Bible.  That's why we have the Holy Spirit with us- He is living, He is breathing, He is working, He is real, and best of all, He is IN us who believe!

So, I simply take the Scripture and apply it to their situation (for my 8 year old, mostly).  If we keep having a character problem or a particular issue that constant verbal correction doesn't solve, we are now tackling it from the angle of, "What does the Lord have to say about that?  Go bring your Bible, and look up the Scripture, read it to me, write it down in your notebook, and then let's talk."

Let me tell you, this is bringing about massive changes (and I haven't even touched on the consequences chart yet!)

I have been getting some of my ideas from Lisa Welchel's Creative Correction:

Here's a video by Lisa about this book:

Right now, for my 2 year old, discipline is as basic, primitive and rudimentary as it comes.  But that doesn't mean she can't understand when God is happy.  She will often tell me (after doing something fabulous like picking up the toys from the living room floor), "Mommy, you happy?  God is happy?" and she will skip cheerily away, just knowing that she's done a good thing.

Kids know, even at the very tender ages of 1 and 2.  So, it's never too young or too early to start them on the Truth of God's Word for instruction.

And the biggest thing is- correcting and instructing in a spirit of Love (the way our Heavenly Father so patiently loves us).  I know, it takes a LOT of time to discipline that way.  To have children look up scripture pertaining to their heart attitude and then have a heart to heart with them, pray over them...that takes a lot of time.  It is oftentimes far easier to send them to time out, spank them, or take away a privilege.  But with those methods (none of which I criticize and some of which I use depending on the situation), there is real no connection that lets my kids know WHY what they did is wrong, and how our Heavenly Father FEELS about what they did.

So...

here I am printing out, cutting up, and creating little "correction cards" for our home school and parenting life, knowing that yet another new idea God has given me to help me out with my little ones will take some work and planning...

But in the end, I pray and I believe- it will all be worth it.