Rr- Rock Unit Recap

Unit: Rock

Letter: Rr

Number: 19

Words To Remember: "I will listen and obey. I will build my life on The Rock."

I was very slack on the pictures for this unit! Which I don't like, because I do love my pictures!! ;)

But, rocks were a great unit for Grayson, he loves collecting, and loves using his rock tumbler (which will be going for a few weeks) that his Papa and Rosey got him last year for his birthday. We have done one round in it and he was super excited to see how the second one turns out! 

This week started a larger emphasis on simple addition, so we worked on that each day. He enjoys this very much! 

He had the rare opportunity, while I was at the homeschooling conference, to do school with Daddy. This was quite a big deal for everyone, and he seemed to really really treasure this time, as did Daddy! ;)

You can see from the journal entry, he enjoyed his time with his daddy. 

One of our songs this unit was based on a wise man building his house on the rocks and foolish man builds on the sand. We acted this one out, and he had a little light bulb go off during that, which was pretty great! ;)

Sink or float experiment! :)

As I said, I really goofed on getting pictures during this unit! :/ But, that being said, We are all done with it and moving on to Jewels next week! ;)

Toddler Garden!

In honor of this very chilly Spring day, I will introduce you to our new favorite activity around here!

Our own little toddler/fairy/gnome garden! It's nothing more than a bag of potting soil, plastic garden tools, gloves, and a few miniature garden supplies from Hobby Lobby! (which were half off! So it made it even more fun, right??) They have had to best time with this. All of them. And they play PEACEFULLY together!! Everyday. (No joke!) It has yet to get old, and honestly anything that doesn't get old after a day or two is pretty good, for little people.  

This was their little "happy Spring" treat. And boy have they enjoyed it!! ;)

We will add a few plants...when/if it ever warms up. Grady hasn't figured out the gentle side of planting, so that should be interesting...might have to get him a pot with a few plants to "take care" of, because the big kids were getting a little antsy when he was helping them plant their special plant from Papa and Rosey! ;) 

So give your kids a pot of dirt! Let them explore and get dirty. And let them do it their way...I don't think very many of our miniature garden things are even visible...they buried them. And that's just fine! Because tomorrow, they will go out and find them! ;) This was even fun for a 5.5 year old! You won't be sorry!  

Zz- Zebra Unit Recap

Unit- Zebra

Letter-Zz

Number- 18

Words To Remember- "I can not hide anything from God."

During this unit, we didn't get to squeeze in too much "extra", but I am learning for some units we do and some it just doesn't work out that way, and that's okay! ;) We got it done and did get in a lot of lessons about our inability to hide things from God, even the thoughts in our head, which to me was the most important thing we were learning during this unit. 

We spent a good bit of time reviewing math and patterns. Focusing on what plus, minus, and equals means. :)

His love for the globe continued on in this unit! He loves looking and finding places!

We made a zebra mask, and his idea with some scrap fabric was to make a zebra tail. So we did! ;)

Handwriting and tally marks. He can now tally up everything! And his little math mind loves it.

He is really starting to put together the phonics part of reading. Since this is coming together, I am adding some sight words on flash cards just for a little review. The easy readers are his friend this week! He completed his 20 books on his own so we celebrated with some ice cream...the good thing is that he didn't stop reading just because he had his little party. He enjoys it and wants to do it, and I hope this continues! :)

We outlined Africa and used our student sheet to color and cut out the animals for it.

As I said, he loves math so once you can get him seated, he gets into the math rods. ;)

He would look at this book for the longest time! He absolutely loved it and I have to agree, the pictures were fascinating! He decided to draw a fox when we finished reading. I love his picture...he is really starting to appreciate his drawing and coloring!

Remeber Why...

I attended the Great Homeschool Convention this weekend. It was an amazing opportunity and served as a great source of encouragement for me and offered a huge amount of resources to take back. And although the resources were nice, the encouragement was amazing. And, it was here that I finally heard someone say that it was okay! I heard someone say, we live in a broken world and it's okay to guard those precious children. 

 Chris and I decided to homeschool for many reasons but first and foremost because God made it very clear that I was going to do this whether I was a teacher or not. Whether I was scared to death or not. Whether I was ready or not. Funny how God does that, isn't it?? And we ARE doing it. It is not always easy...it's a commitment I never would have made without God's push, and I really have NO CLUE what I am doing, but it is and WILL be worth it! I constantly worry about my lack of qualification to school my children, and it was here, this weekend that God showed me, I AM qualified. I don't know that I will ever equip them with ALL the academics they need to do whatever it is God designed them to, but it is my hearts deepest desire to show them Christ. So they KNOW Christ. And teach them to LOVE Christ. I want them to know they are loved and perfect just like they are. They are amazing and that God will use them. In this dark dark world, God has made them a light. I want to teach them to shine their light. Because when the world and academics fail them, God WILL NOT. So this realization in itself was worth the trip! ;) Heidi St. John from The Busy Mom was absolutely wonderful. She spoke on my wave length. And I very much enjoyed her sessions! A few things stick out...way out...after hearing her speak. First, lead by example. Follow The Lord, stay in tuned, and the other "stuff" will work out. The second, REMEMBER WHY you do this! Don't get too caught up in the how and just remember WHY! Last, she emphasized that this homeschooling journey is as much about me as it is about my kids. And boy do I believe that! This is an amazing opportunity I have, and although I didn't see it coming, I am so very very grateful for it! 

I also had the opportunity to see Mark Lowery  speak, pretty fun. He was an overly funny guy! If you don't know, he wrote the very popular song we hear at Christmas, "Mary Did You Know?"...it was amazing to hear the writer of that song sing it. You could literally feel Jesus in that room (not that He isn't always present, but it was just unbelievably palpable). It was amazing. 

I learned a ton, but the most important was to just keep on. Keep God the center of it. If we just show up, God will do the rest. Bring our children to him. We meet Him there, at The Well, and He will overflow our souls with that Living Water. And that His grace is big enough. It's big enough to trump the bad days. It's big enough to forgive our faults. It's big enough to make up for when we fall short...we WILL fall short, but by His grace we get up and try again. 
I returned home today to my  three amazing children and that wonderful man God designed just for me, and the sun was shining and spring is here! I am so glad to be back with them and so thankful I was able to refuel and refocus this past weekend! And tomorrow, me and my little type A self, will do a little re-prioritizing, clutter clearing and rescheduling to get ready for another week. Another week of Kindergarten. Another week as mommy. Another week as wife. Another week of this AMAZING race set before me. 

"And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith." Hebrews 12:1

Big Day!

Today was a big day in our house! We conquered little fears, celebrated milestones, and enjoyed the day! :)

One of my biggest fears when we started homeschooling was teaching the kids to read. Could I do it? How would I do it? Could they really learn from me? 

And small (really huge, to us) victories like today, prove to me and Grayson, that we can do it! And we will do it! And we are doing it! :) He has been working for several weeks on reading 20 books all on his own. And tonight, he completed it! He has read 20 books from cover to cover!  Small books? Yes! But you have to start somewhere, and that he has! :) Mommy and Daddy are so so proud of him and his determination to learn to read! You can see his confidence building, and I can feel mine building as well! We are having fun! And that's what it's all about!

And, Ada got a nice surprise today, too! She was invited, by her gym where she has taken gymnastics for about a year, to join their competition team! So this will be her new thing this Summer! I can't believe how quickly she has taken to "her" sport! She loves it! She loves working hard! She loves mastering a skill! She just loves it! And we are proud to allow her to continue on as long as she loves it! We can't wait to start this new little adventure with her! And I know she will do great! :) 

And my little Grady! He sprouted his last little tooth for a little while! He now has them all, until the two year molars appear! ;) And he said "pive!"...as in "give me five". :) and "kankyou", as in "thank you". I think I had forgotten just how cute communication was in the beginning! Those little words come out, one at a time, and with such a sweet sweet sound! :)

And on the mommy side...I got a lot of cleaning done today! ;) And I am still cooking away! And actually almost enjoying it! That's really weird coming from me, but I really am! :) 

So all in all, it was a pretty exciting, successful, fun day! :) 

St. Patty's Day Fun!

We have spent the last week or so talking about how blessed we are and focusing on giving thanks for these many blessings and also on how a shamrock can remind us of The Trinity, and The very One who blessed us with these special things. We had lots of fun with St. Patrick's Day this year! I have come to love celebrating with these kids...whether it's an accomplishment, a birthday, or a holiday...it's fun! I made lots of fun food treats, thanks to Pinterest inspirations. Lunches were always a surprise and they ate great when it was arranged cute! ;) Might do some cute food more often. I enjoyed it and so did they. 

We ate lots of rainbows this week! And since I am not a food coloring person (I really don't like for them to eat dye's), this was a little hard for me! Most of our rainbows were made of fruit though, so that helped calm my nerves! ;) They really did love it, and I actually really really enjoyed preparing it. Changed things up a bit! ;)

They made a pretty awesome leprechaun trap! He was pretty tricky though and found a way out! ;) He did lead them on quite a treasure hunt, where they finally found he had used their potty and left some loot in the closet. ;)

Grady is really into choo-choo's these days, so this mommy had to make her boy a shamrock choo-choo. :) You can see, in the picture, Grayson schooling him on how to say it. Those boys sure are sweet together! ;) 

"But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven." Matthew 6:20 (idea was "borrowed" and changed a tad from here for the shamrocks with our blessings and printable coloring sheet can be found here)

Our last rainbow, for this year, was consumed tonight! ;) We had a surprise in our cake!! And with that, we bid St. Patrick's day good-bye! It's been fun. :)