AWANA Games

We absolutely love our new church and are so thankful that the Lord has placed us there! We were almost positive it was where we would go long before we moved and even before we had visited the church. I am so thankful for a husband who realizes the importance of finding a biblically sound church that we could be a part of before moving his family! It made looking for a home easier because we knew we would want to be close to the church. Once we got to come up and visit the church, on one of those many trips when Troy was job hunting, we were certain it was a place we could worship and serve the Lord.

Last night our church had AWANA games for the kids. They also had hot dogs, popcorn, and snow cones! It was a lot of fun for everyone. During the games, the parents also had the opportunity to participate. Fortunately, I had the camera and wanted to be sure that I got lots of good pictures for everyone to see so I only played one of the games with S's group. : ) At the end of the night, all the kids received a very nice (not the plastice kind) medal for sportsmanship. K is in cubbies so he had to watch this year but sweet big brother let him wear his medal.

S is in the middle of "hunters and rabbits", then trying to knock over a pin

Father & son walking on boards, much harder than it appears. At one point a leader had to help H because he was being dragged by his unaware daddy! Next, H is running in the "marathon".

Little K watching from the sidelines. He ran laps around our chairs for a bit. : ) Needless to say, he wants to play next year! Big brother shared his medal.

Last Co-op Day for the Semester

Today was our last day of co-op for the semester. The kids enjoyed our time spent at co-op. We dropped back after the first couple weeks to only doing two classes instead of four because I felt like we weren't getting our other school work done. Hayden had a PE class, of course he loved that, and a native American class which was a great class. I got to help in there a couple times and the teacher did a wonderful job. Siara also had PE class and an origami class. She has enjoyed picking out origami books on our library visits so that she can make some things at home as well. In origami today they made tulips for their moms and a wallet for their dads. When we got home she wrapped the wallet using paper to give to T later. Keaton had an art class where he made lots of things. One of which was a bell made from a flower pot and a bolt tied on a string. He blot painted a turtle on it, with a little help from his teacher.

We stayed for lunch at co-op today; however, it was not to eat. H wanted to play basketball with a couple of his friends and I let the other two play on the playground there. It was such a beautiful day. We came home and had lunch then spent another two hours outside. The kids were pretty tired as we usually are after co-op so we just enjoyed the outdoors together. At this time we aren't planning on returning to co-op in the fall so that we can enjoy more time with T since he has a wacky schedule. After summer we may change our minds so we'll just have to wait and see!

Library Day!!!

Friday is our library and grocery shopping day! We went early today in hopes of missing the rain which we did. Every week we come home with a good stash of books that the kiddos pick and some that I pick to add in to school for the week. It never fails that before S falls asleep that very night she finishes all her books!! I usually say their limit is 5 books just because we could stay in the library all day and look. Normally we spend a couple hours there anyways and leave with more than five each. Now that H is enjoying reading more I took two bags today and it was a good thing! Here is what we came home with...

About thirty books or so this trip. That does not include a few we didn't return that I have on the shelf to go along with S's storytime in Beyond. We do one book per week instead of one per genre, which biography was four weeks. I also picked up five of the American Girl Kaya books for her to read since they are fairly close to the time period we are studying for history, by a hundred years. : ) She also got some Boxcar Children and other books. This girl just devours books! And I think H is soon to be that way too! We visited a very large church in our community on Tuesday to check out their children's library which I had been told was wonderful and it was. We still have those books around here too not in the picture. H finally wanted a Hardy Boys book which we had suggested before and as I sit here typing this he just came in very excited to tell us he had just finished it while reading in bed! Yay for him, 178 page book since Tuesday! He picked up 3 more today. He got Secret Agent Dingledorf too which are pretty light books but now that he has a mixture I am thrilled. I am so thankful he is starting to enjoy reading. K loves books as well even though he's not reading on his own. There's always someone around who will read the books he picks out to him. I am trying to train/encourage the twaddle-free books and the kids are coming along nicely.

School Week April 19-23

Another week has sped past us and we have accomplished lots of things! It was busy but I think I could say that every week. H finished up learning about the Great Ice Age in Preparing. I love that he got to learn some reasons why "cave men" looked different. It's so good to have a curriculum with a biblical worldview! He added ice age to his timeline. We are going to do it accordion style so that we can easily store it once finished. H's written narration on a portion of today's reading in A Child's History of the World was very good! I think he does better on the written narrations than oral because he can look at it and see where it needs to be changed a little.

Here he's writing the narration which he also copied a small map of the Tigris and Euphrates on.

We really enjoyed the history readings in Beyond this week! The kids were so saddened by hearing what the pilgrims went through because they wouldn't worship as King James wanted them to. And very fittingly, our biography for storytime that we had picked up from the library last time was Squanto. It ended a little ahead of our history reading but the kids are now excited to read more to see how everything connects. Bible time today was about the rich ruler (which she did on her own, we were a little off schedule for the day!). The kids talked about how the pilgrims had left everything to go to Holland so they could worship God.

S made her barn doors and put her memory verse inside, Matthew 6:21. She loved the drawing, coloring, and cutting with craft scissors!

K worked on the letter 'e' this week, listened in on the pilgrim stories, and did lots of readiness worksheets. His coloring and staying in the lines continues to be much better!

We have been reading through My ABC Verses after lunch most days. The younger two just love the stories in the book and I do too! H listens and does the verse with us but I know he thinks it's a little babyish. I think he will really like what we are doing next though. My sweet hubby brought home Mighty Acts of God, Family Bible Story Book today and I am so excited! I have been wanting to add it in since he showed it to me and now we can! It's by the same author as Grandpa's Box which we are loving in Preparing.

www.crossway.org/product/9781433506048

To coupon or not to coupon?

This is a discussion that has come up several times lately amongst different friends. I have tossed the issue around many times myself over the years asking the same questions. Is it worth it? Won't I be buying things I don't even use? Why not just buy store brands, they're cheaper? How long is this going to take? How in the world do I organize all those coupons? And on it goes.

My hubby's mom is a wonder at using coupons. She has told me over and over how much she saves using them. There have been times when I was given a few specific coupons and used a couple of them on a shopping trip saving a dollar or two at most. That was not enough to convince me to take on what seemed like such a daunting task of cutting out coupons. I guess what it boiled down to for me was I was lacking direction (ok and motivation) to get started. I had a little coupon pouch that I would store coupons in that I came across on ocassion or were given to me. I carried that little thing everywhere yet never remembered to pull it out and use them. When I would think of it they were expired! Again, I determined coupons are just a hassle.

When we moved we knew it was going to take some drastic measures to make it work so once again, I revisited the idea of couponing only this time with determination to MAKE it work. On one of the many weekends T was away after we moved here I stopped to pick up a paper after church and went home to get to work. I decided though that I would only cut out those which were items we already used. I was not in the market for trying out the new products or things that look just plain yummy. It had to be practical for us or it didn't make the "cut"! I tucked them away in my little coupon pouch and saved them for our next shopping day. I also looked over the Kroger ad and checked out the good deals on things we use and tried to plan our possible meals around what was in it. I did this for a few weeks. I almost always have my kiddos with me when I do any shopping so we would spend a couple hours on a shopping trip as I pulled out a section of coupons and flipped through until I found what I was looking for. Our kids did really well for the most part to spend that amount of time in a store with nothing to do but watch mom searching through the coupon stacks. If we needed to stop for a minute and discuss a discipline issue we would and then keep going. The main thing was I could tell we were saving some money! This encouraged me to press on.

I knew there were other organinzers so I did some internet searches. Sure, you can buy a nice one for thirty bucks but I wasn't about to do that. I dug out a binder and some page protectors, dividers, and thick paper. All things we had not being used and I made my own coupon organizer. I used the divider to separate into sections similar to the order of the aisles in the store. Then I used teeny pieces of sticky tack to attach the coupons to the paper. After I had everything divided up and attached I stuck the pages into the protectors. Voila! My own organizer!

I also make a very detailed shopping list now adding a symbol next to items that I have a coupon for and those that are in the sale ad. Yes, this takes more time to prepare but the actual shopping trip time is shortened and much more pleasant because I know what I am getting. I rarely get an item not on the list. I still try to plan our meals on what is in the ads and a lot of times I have coupons for those things too! I stock up on things like toothpaste, deodorant, and shampoo because there are endless coupons for those every week. The best thing of all is standing at the cash register and watching my total drop!!! Where I shop they also double coupons up to fifty cents!

Is it worth it? Yes! Do I buy things I don't use? No! Are store brands cheaper? Not always! How long does it take? However long I put into it. The longer it takes the more I save! I don't have a "job" like a lot of people do but I am to be a keeper of my home. I now look at couponing as one of my household tasks. I may not be earning a paycheck but I am saving on what comes out of the paycheck that my hubby works so hard to earn!!

The last few days...

Well, we have had a busy few days but they have been lots of fun! We had a super weekend with friends that came for a visit. Saturday was T's birthday and even though he had to work the first half of the day we were able to finish out the day at Thunder over L'ville. It was the first air show that the kids and I had been too and at times a little frightening with those HUGE planes ever so close. We found a good spot where we camped out for a few hours and enjoyed the sights. We didn't stay for the fireworks because the thought of trying to make our way back to the cars with all our kids and stuff after dark wasn't too appealing.

Now we are back on track with school this week and sticking with our schedule. We are getting school done about an hour sooner than we were. This is good because I'd like to fill that time with some extra things like piano/guitar and art or Greek soon...at least by the fall. We were able to spend more time with T yesterday due to finishing up earlier. It was his day off and we checked out a different library then played freeze tag outside for hours. I am so thankful for the opportunity to homeschool and the desire that God has given us to do it!

Pics from Thunder...

Saturday Projects

We enjoyed some projects today! I had to pick up a couple things at Michael's last night and found some very inexpensive things for each child to do. They had fun and it took up a good deal of time with something productive. We really needed that after having to stay inside since Tuesday.

H made a model rubber band airplane, S made a picture frame for her best friend, and K got to color a wooden lion that he can lace up to practice his numbers. I'm thinking we now have plans for our Saturday afternoons...especially when we can't get outside due to sickness or weather!

He had to sand, paint, and then glue the pieces together and he did it all by himself.

She got to paint the frame and then added polka dots to it and we glued on 'friends'. Just need to print out a photo for it now.

He colored the lion with markers and then had fun lacing it.

Just hanging out with Lily right after his nap.

Spring Break Update

We really enjoyed our visit "home" earlier in the week. Our little gal got to see her best friend for a little while on Monday and I got a couple of cute pictures of them outside. They are so fun to watch together! Since their birthdays are only a couple days apart there was talk of maybe doing a party together for them this summer. That would be great!

We really didn't do even as much of the little bit of school that I wanted to this week but we did do a very little bit. Our big guy had such allergy problems that he has not been able to go outside since we got back home. He is taking medicine for it but this is by far the worst he has ever had them. Today I had him return to his letting the dog out chore to test it a little and after that and a quick trip to the library he is again a sniffy, swollen and red-eyed boy. If you know anything about him, you know he is all about being outside so this has not been a pleasant week for him. Hopefully, things will calm down by next week and he'll be able to a little. He searched for a couple books today at the library and after we got home he disappeared. I found him on our bed reading! He read all of one his books. That was probably the best part of school he could have done this week! I am so glad he is becoming more interested in books.

And moving on to our other sickly one...little guy's developed a nasty cough over the last couple days. We had to start breathing treatments again yesterday and he is really becoming more aware of what is going on with them. He told me that his body wouldn't stop shaking (jitters) after we did one. Maybe he will be able to tell us how he is feeling more now so we can treat him better. After going from June to January without one single breathing treatment and cutting out almost all his meds I was hoping he had grown out of his asthma. He's still doing so much better than he has in the past. He was so wired last night that he was on our bed talking to daddy-nonstop-until it got suddenly quiet. He just crashed with his head laying on daddy's shoulder. That was almost midnight! 

I just had to share this picture. You probably can't tell but I was SO impressed with his coloring. He has shown absolutely no interest in trying to stay in the lines even after much encouragment. Most of the time he asks if he can circle instead of coloring pictures because he just does not like to color. When I gave him his sheets this day we didn't have the crayons upstairs so I gave him the colored pencils to use. I don't know if that made a difference or not but he did a great job on the first side and we all gave him lots of encouragment and he did well at staying in the lines on the back side as well. Now I know what the little guy can really do! I have a feeling he is going to give us lots of surprises along the way in our schooling. One of his MDO teachers a couple years ago told me he was a little jokester and she could never tell what he really knew. Oh boy!!

I also am leaning again towards doing at least some school during the summer. We just function better with a schedule and structure!! Anyways, I'm off to finish up and serve supper...baked bbq chicken, creamed corn, and green beans!

Fun Trip Home

What a nice surprise it was to be able to go "home" for a couple days! It was so unexpected for Troy to have three days off that we could not pass up the opportunity to make the trip together. The kiddos enjoyed ma & papa's spring egg hunt with the cousins, a good visit and lunch with g-daddy, an afternoon of playing with friends, and then supper with nana and mr. ray. We stayed busy but it was still fun! We used our 2 days off for our spring break so now we need to keep plugging along to finish up by the end of May. January was such a wash with the move, unpacking, organizing, and an unplanned trip back to TN right after getting settled. I think with big guy's horrible allerigies it will be difficult on him to do school and it will be hard to jump in tomorrow and focus so I'm planning to do the basics for the three days left and start Unit 3 next week. We have no Wed. night church, no co-op Thurs. so I'm thinking I'll finish unpacking summer clothes and box up winter things. We are definitely lacking in closet space in this house! I am very thankful though that there is lots of storage space in the basement.

Another great week!

We finished up our second week of school with our new books and it was just as great as the first! The kids are learning a lot and not just stuck in front of a workbook for all of school. In Preparing Hearts for His Glory big guy read about the Great Ice Age. He loved reading the story of Jabeth and says that's how he wants to live...hunting for food, trying to kill a bear, he is such a boy and would love to live out in the country somewhere...maybe someday. His narrating was better this week and he got all of his dictations correct the first time. I also gave both of the older two a little reading level assesment out of curiousity. They both scored well above grade level...I'm continuing to see signs in the oldest that it was more of lack of interest and motivation to focus instead of truly having a hard time with reading. That's been encouraging and I think the great books used in HOD will really help him to enjoy reading even more!

Preparing Unit 2

working on his background for a rainbow (got to get some paint, only had watercolors!)

they enjoyed the storytime reading together, it was so neat that it was on cd

trying different ways to get an ice cube to melt

(learning about the arctic tundra and reading about the great ice age this week)

filling out his lab sheet after the experiment (love these!)

I looked out to see big bro teaching little sis how to ride without training wheels...so sweet!

the making of Facing the Giants part 2

This week in Beyond Little Hearts little gal continued learning about pioneers and she is fascinated with their way of living. That is one of my favorite time periods too. We weren't able to make it on our field trip to the printhouse due to the birthday celebration and won't be able to next week because we just found out hubby has 3 days off so we are going home for a couple days!! I'm sure we'll go soon though. She finished up Helen Keller and we picked up some extra books at the library...it will be so good for her when we start DITHOR (reading program) in the fall.

Beyond Unit 2

testing out a crumpled paper and flat paper to learn why squirrels flatten out their body and tail so they can glide through the air

made a map after our history reading

finished up the week with our history reading from the bible about Ruth.

here is a field and she is sprinkling on the pieces of grain to be gleaned.

here is her notebook that we made to hold her work

Little guy had a great week to doing what he does! We worked on the short u sound this week. He is doing very well but I am certainly unsure about my teaching skills when it comes to phonics and reading. I am so afraid I won't do it correctly and slow him down or worse. That's one of the reasons I started early! He is ready I believe or I wouldn't have but with his carefree little spirit it can be so hard to tell what he knows and what he doesn't. He is just a little ball of fun! One of our biggest challenges is writing...those fine motor skills just have not developed. I am beginning to wonder if he has inherited the little tremors that his daddy and grandpa have with their hands. I need to read up on developing writing skills and find some other practices for him. We have done so many of the pre-writing mazes and without much improvement. Below you'll see how we worked on his cutting practice. I had given him shapes to cut out and instructed him to use them to make a picture on the paper plate. I gave him two circles, a triangle, and a semi-circle. In my boring mind, I was picturing that he would make a face with them on the plate-two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. However, you'll see he had a very different idea!

cutting away...

and here it is...a christmas tree!!! : )

practicing writing his name and letter "u"

Birthday Celebration!

We celebrated little guy's birthday this week. The big FIVE!! Since we are too far from family and friends to have a party we began letting the kids pick where they want to eat lunch for their birthday. He's been planning his birthday lunch since big guy's birthday in Feb. It was Chuck E. Cheese of course! However, we had had pizza twice in the few days leading to his day so we convinced him to go there for games as a present sort of (had a great game token coupon!) and then he picked Cheddar's for lunch. They all had a blast, even daddy! It was great that he had the day off. I am so not ready to say that my youngest is 5! We're still praying for any opportunities the Lord will give us for more - through adoption, fostering, or whatever way!

Shooting Hoops...and swishing!

What fun!

Sweet girl!

Such handsome boys!

Time to slide!