Our school choices for the year...

We are so close to beginning school and I am SO excited!  Our first day will be August 5th and it will be a short day for the kids to browse through their books and folders and do a couple fun projects (like apply for their "passports") relating to what we will be studying this year. Our core curriculum is going to be My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures. This is a year long geography adventure throught many different countries. They will learn facts about each country, where they are located, try foods from each culture, do country related art projects, and hear stories of missionaries from the different countries. They will also be studying the book of Matthew for Bible and about ecosysyems for science. A few extra things we are doing include Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek, Typing Instructor for Kids, Praising God on the Piano, Guitar Worship DVD lessons, gymnastics for Siara, and most likely basketball for the boys later on during the winter. I think this year is going to be so much better than last.  I have spent many hours in preparing our school room, activities for centers (including a school computer - yay!), and beginning tomorrow I will spend the remainder of time lesson planning including pre-planned field trips and scheduled breaks!  I must take a second to say how thankful we are for such wonderful grandparents who have provided the opportunity for us to have so many wonderful and fun things, from books to the extras!  The Lord has once again met our needs and blessed us with more.


Lessons from the Little School House Academy...
Ok, it's not really lessons we have learned just yet but it will be for those who enjoy reading schoolish things like organizing, activities and such. Feel free to skip over these posts in the future if they bore you! : ) I have almost completed our calendar wall except for months and birthdays.  I decided we will include family birthdays for this so we will be able to cover more months.  The younger two will have calendar folders to complete each morning with weather chart, number of school days, etc.  Our huge chalkboard is looking amazing, can't wait to try it out. We have to wait until Wednesday when it must be conditioned and then it will be ready to go. What an invention!  I love the look of chalkboards and have seen the effects of dry erase marker mishaps all over walls so it was a no brainer that we would choose chalkboards but they are both pricey not to mention the holes it would put in walls for us to repair upon our departure of our rental home.  It cost us about $15 for the paint and foam roller and about 30 minutes each for the 3 coats it took!  Compare that to anywhere from $50-100 if we had bought a hanging chalkboard in the size I wanted. 


I became a huge fan of spray paint this last week!  I never realized how much fun I could have with it!  The two colors I chose to use on things I wanted to change are rustoleum's lime green and brilliant blue. I have done buckets, a basket, magazine holders, and eventually the desk chairs will be these colors.  About those school desks...well, let's just say they have been a pain or at least caused pain!  My sweet husband did the rust disolver for me since I had such a horrible allergic reaction to them.  It began shortly after I cleaned them up and the next day I was miserable.  My arms and face were covered with tiny little bumps that itched worse than any bug bite ever.  This lasted from Tuesday until I finally began feeling better Sunday!  I could not sleep at night because when I would get still I noticed the itching even more and even woke up from sleep many times due to the itching.  It never occured to me that my allergy to at least nickel that I know of would cause this.  As I read up on it sweating can intensify your reaction to chrome/metal/whatever!  Since it was above 90 degrees the day I worked on the desks outside you might say I perspired a little!  I am thankful it seems so much better and that Troy finished them for me.  I was able to paint them - without touching them! - and now we are just waiting for him to have the time to work on the chairs.  That's all for now but there's so much more to share and I will add pictures of our room as soon as I get another memory card for the camera!

I am itching just looking at these things!  Above is asfter cleaning and below after painting.

We spent some time in the water sprinkler last Friday after playing with friends!  Warning: Hayden has grown at least two inches this month! I'm not kidding! I need to check his height.