Looking for Some Sunshine

I'm just going to pretend that it hasn't been 6 months since I've posted anything here. Writing is not my strong suit, therefore blogging is work! Yet, I just had to share this cute picture I took of JJ this morning. This child loves sunshine and every chance he gets is spent trying to soak it up. Here, he has pulled the coffee table over to the patio door in order to be in the suns path while completing an assignment. I loved watching it, and thought I would share.

So, this got me to thinking about how the Son radiates his love to us all the time. We (I) don't have to look for a ray here or a spot there. The Son shines everywhere, he wants to illuminate all of the dark places in my life. In turn he wants us to be "the light of the world" as he tells us in Matthew 5:14. He doesn't want just any light though. What good is a light that is not lit? Jesus wants us to be lit and on display, bringing light to all those around us. So, let your light shine (5:15-16), you never know who might be looking for some Son shine.

The Vikings Have Landed!

While school officially began 2 weeks ago, today we began inquiring about the first European explorers to see North America. Yes, the vikings. From Norway to Iceland to Greenland and eventually to Vinland (Newfoundland) we mapped the voyages of Erik the Red and his son Leif Erikkson. While Leif seems to have been a good guy, his father and grandfather were quite the hotheads both having been exiled from their homelands for murder. Leif followed in their footsteps, not as a murderer but as one who sought new land to explore and settle. The boys were thrilled with the study of vikings since it led to the construction of weapons. Here you can see them making their very own viking shields.

And of course if you have a shield, you must have a sword. Here they are in battle.

Each with his own shield.

First Day Success

While summer is technically still here, summer vacation is officially over. Yesterday was our first day and we got the year started with a bang. I remember loving the first day of school...new outfit, new backpack, new crayons (I loved the crayola box with the sharpener), new lunch box...and I want my guys to have happy memories too.

We began the day, as usual with chores and breakfast. Chores come first because I am seeking to instill in my guys that if a man doesn't work, he doesn't eat. They have a tangible goal to reach and a time frame to work within. Next was the Pledge of Allegiance, Bible reading, a hymn and prayer. I then spent time with each one discussing our schedule, expectations, goals, behavior, attitude etc...

Next came the fun stuff. As I said, I like to give them something fun to remember. Last year we began with a study of the military, and the first 3 days were spent in boot camp. Well, this year we kicked off with a treasure hunt. I hid a few special items (cute pencils, pencil grippers, small dollar store toy, sports notebook, snack, $5 ChikFil-A gift card) around the apartment. I made up clues for them to follow and sent them on their way. They had a ball. Here they are with their loot.

They were so geared up that by this time they were ready for math drills. There was still extra loot, so for each correct answer they could choose another "prize" (erasers, pencils). Other than a little journaling and letter writing, the boys had not done much composition for awhile, so they each wrote a paragraph about their first day of school. My academic goals for the day included Bible (check), math (check) and writing(check). All of this before lunch!

Speaking of lunch, if you've read this blog before you know that food is very important to me. My kids are also inheriting this trait. First day festivities around here included a meal of their choosing. They had been asking for months to make paninis. IJ bought me a panini press for Christmas that had yet to be used. Why did I wait so long? If you don't know, a panini is really just a grilled cheese sandwich, however there is something about the use of that caste iron weight that makes the bread so absolutely golden and delicious! Take a look. This sandwich was made with roast turkey breast, provolone cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, salad greens and pesto (made with basil from our garden). Yummy!

What would the first day be without a picture of those happy faces, full of anticipation for all the wonderful knowledge to be gained? Here they are.

First day of 4th grade

First day of 2nd grade

If you've had your first "official" day of school for the year I would love to hear about it. I'm praying that all of you homeschoolers will have a great year of guiding and directing your children and that their hearts will be turned toward God.

Is it really?

Is it really the end of July already? Where has the summer gone? I will make no excuses for not blogging. Instead I'll take a line from my friend Stephanie who posted that she has been too busy living life to blog about it.

So, what have we been up to? Well, there's been swimming, summer movies, play dates, gardening, catching tad poles and fish, observing bird eggs until they hatched, a track meet and a weekend in Augusta, GA with J's family. I've done lots of reading and am now trying to get myself geared up for another year of learning and exploring with my guys.One of the nicest parts has been the lack of a schedule. Most of what we've done has been without planning. I've loved it! The best part has been that we've done it all as a family.

Hope your summer has been as good as ours!

No Bragging, Big Brother!

Music lyrics, movie lines, video game strategies and most certainly commercials are all so easily memorized and internalized by our kids. Yet there are some Bible class teachers and children's church leaders who don't give them enough credit for being able to learn and process scripture. They need to play, do crafts, sing and dance. That's just how kids learn. Well, I beg to differ. We are creating another generation of kids with the inability to sit and think without having 5 different things to "stimulate" their senses. When will they learn scripture? When they are teens? Young adults? By then their hearts no longer belong to us and they most certainly do not belong to God because they have no real knowledge of him.

J and I do not rely on others to teach our children scripture. That is our job. Deuteronomy 6 tells us

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.

7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Why is this on my mind today? Well, yesterday IJ was doing a bit of bragging about getting something right. JJ recognized it for what it was and called him on it. Did he yell at him or tell him to stop? No, he attempted to read Proverbs 16:18 to his brother.

Pride goes before destruction,a haughty spirit before a fall.

Now it had been at least a month since he read this verse, yet he remembered it and knew how to apply it. My 7 year old did as Paul did to Peter in Galations 2. He confronted him with his clearly wrong behavior, in love. We need to give our children credit for wanting to know what's right and more importantly we need to give God's word credit for convicting them just like it does us.

Happy Birthday JJ!

Today is my baby's birthday. Yes, I know he's seven and technically he is not a baby any more. However, if you are a mother then you understand that he will forever be "my baby". He is learning and growing by leaps and bounds and each day makes me want to hold on to the day before. What happened to my tiny 4lb 14 oz baby? That's about what he weighed when we came home. Well, look at him now!

JJ loves to swim, so he had some friends over today to join him at the pool. It was about 86 degrees, so the weather definately cooperated. After the pool they dined on vegan cupcakes that were absolutely delicious, if I do say so myself. After their sugar fix, they quickly headed back outside for a water balloon fight. Great weather, great friends and an even greater God make for a day to be thankful. I am so greatful for my wonderful little man. Happy Birthday, JJ!

Wild Days in the Animal Kingdom

We have been doing some really interesting things with our unit studies. Science is not my strong point, so I've really been stretched as we've studied animal classification. Thanks to Jessica Hulcy (Konos author) and the other Konos moms for the tips and encouragement. As a side note, Mrs. Jessica was in an awful car accident last week and suffered some very serious injuries, including broken ribs, torn diaphram and punctured lungs. Please be praying for her as the Lord is healing her a little every day. You can visit her Caring Bridge site here.

The character trait we are working on for this unit is orderliness. God has created an orderly universe and it is so evident in all of nature. First let me say that I am not orderly by nature. In fact, keeping entropy (I love this word) at bay is a great challenge for me. God is truly working on me as I work on training my children to tame the clutter that invades our home.

Animal classification has been wild in more ways than one. Oh the stories I can tell. We began our unit with the Tree of Life. I was not at all sure how this would turn out, but have been very happy with the results.

I used a seperate posterboard for each phylum, adding a picture and characteristics (given by the boys) as we studied each one. This worked well because it gave them a quick reference when they went to write about any given phylum. Learning the classification system was fun. I even made up a rap to help them remember Kingdom, Phylum, Class.... Anyone want to hear it? I'll spare you, but they won't ever forget what comes next.

We collected earthworms to observe, and tried to count their segments. The most fun came on a day when we were babysitting my 2 year old god-daughter. She was thrilled beyond belief that she could hold the worms and look at them with the magnifying glass. The following week when she came over she looked at our Tree of Life and pointed to the worms. She wanted to see more!

Things began to get creepy when we tried to combine this unit with lunch. As we were studying mollusks we decided to purchase fresh clams. We observed them, watched them shoot out water when touched, close when they felt threatened, looked at all parts etc... All was fine until I cooked them. They looked great. I prepared them in a garlic and wine sauce and tossed with pasta. Sounds good doesn't it? What we discovered is that you can't eat science projects and that we need our food to be dead before it comes into our home. Just know that we will not be purchasing any more food that has to be killed before eaten. We just couldn't do it. A lot of food went to waste that day.

I would have liked to look at more insects but the boys were not okay with "putting them to sleep". The one thing we have actually mounted on a foam board is a very large crane fly which did not go to sleep without a fight. Seeing this was a bit disturbing, so I put it in another room. We captured several spiders to observe and spray painted a few webs gold so that we could see the intricate designs woven by the spiders.

For the past 4 weeks we have had a painted turtle that the boys named Shelly. They have never had a pet, so we have learned about pet care and turtles at the same time. She is the one critter that is starting to grow on me, although the plan is to return her to the pond from which she came.

Although we were done with this unit, no one bothered to tell the critters. Since this little green guy saw fit to make his way onto our patio I figured the least we could do was take a picture of him. Isn't he cute?

So, now lets see. We've caught toads, frogs, turtles, slugs, worms, spiders, various insects, lizards, birds (shells at least), and clams. I think we've had a well rounded animal kingdom experience. Are we more orderly for our observations? The jury is still out on that one. I'll have to ask J when he gets home.

The perfect way to end this unit was with a trip to the zoo. I'll share the pics from that trip in the next post.