Beginnings!

This morning I was awakened at 7:20 a.m. by an excited whisper.  "Mama! Get up!  I already made my bed!  I'm ready for my first day of kindergarten!" Thats right, today is D-Day, the day we

launch our attack on education.  And while I appreciated Bella's enthusiasm, I have to admit I cajoled her into climbing into bed with me for 20 more minutes of sleep!

So we finally got up at 7:40, at breakfast, brushed teeth, got dressed, and took this picture of my

very excited kindergartener:

Then we got down to business!  It really wasn't too foreign, as we did our "practice year" last year,
so she already got the concept of sitting down for lessons.  We did add a few things this year, though, and will continue to do so throughout the year.

We began our morning with prayer.  Bella prayed for her Nana, Abby mentioned a few names, and I asked God to help us be good teachers and learners! Then we said the Pledge of Allegiance.  I don't even know if they still do that every day in public schools, especially since it contains -gasp- the "G" word. (God!) But I want Bella to learn it. 

Then we sat down for Phonics.  Most of which was (and for a while will continue to be) a review.  We went over the letter "I" (and i!) and did a couple of workbook pages.  We reviewed all her letters with flashcards, etc.

Next was an art activity that came with her curriculum, then Math.  We actually did two math lessons today as they were only a review of colors and numbers 1-10.  As with Phonics, math will be a review for a while.  But I did not feel comfortable trying to skip her to 1st grade so we will just cruise for a while and enjoy it!

We ended our day with Bible. We did a song, then started our first memory verse, Genesis 1:1~ Which, in a fabulous coincidence, begins with "I"!  We talked about creation- beginnings!- and named several things God created, etc.  We ended by praying and thanking God for his creation.

Since we finished all this in much less time than I anticipiated, I let the girls gather up a big pile of books, we got cozy on the couch, and read aloud for half an hour!

Mostly, our first day was a resounding success! I already see some improvements that need to be made, firstly in my organization, as I was not as prepared and I thought I was last night!  And secondly in keeping Abbigail happily occupied!   I got her a new toy to play with during lessons and it did keep her occupied for a while.  But once she got tired of it she tended to be distracting.  And while I do not expect her to sit quietly at the table the entire time, I do expect her to play or color without being a disruption.  We are most definately a work in progress! But I feel very blessed and thankful to have the means, opportunity, and desire to homeschool.

Mission: Kindergarten!

Several weeks ago I asked my husbad (casually!) "Do you have any plans for July 20th?...Cause if you don't...."  He knew where this was going and there were several seconds of frantic mind-racking on his part....surely someone had asked him to to something on that day.... Okay, just kidding.  I am doing my husband a huge disservice.  He is actually great about watching our girls for a whole afternoon, which is exactly what I asked him to do this past Friday.

Because Friday, Mommy (thats me!) had to make....drumroll please...."THE PLAN!"

Otherwise know as my "First Annual Homeschool Planning Day!" 

So after breakfast, Hubby loaded up the subjects of our experiment in parenting and took them to Hands On Museum for the morning.

As soon as the garage door closed, I started cleaning out the two large closet shelves I have allotted for craft things and school books.  We had accumulated quite a lot of junk...dried up acrylic paints, markers with no lids, lids with no markers, and crayons crayons crayons crayons.... 

Let me dwell on the Crayola phenomenon for a moment!  What happened to the 8 basic colors?  Or even the jumbo box (remember, it used to have a sharpener in the back?!) Now they make Glitter crayons. Neon crayons. Skin Tone crayons and no I am not joking.

Anyway, I cleaned out the junk, segragated dry erase markers, regular markers, colored pencils, and crayons into separate (but equal!) pencil boxes.  I culled through the coloring books and pitched the ones in which someone had scribbled on every page.  I separated the coloring books from the preschool workbooks that Abby can use later....I put things in stacks and baskets and piles...you get the picture.  It was extremely cathartic.

Then I moved on to the homeschool cart (pictured below!) and went through the same process.  Flash cards went back into envelopes, math manipulatives put back into baskets, old phonics workbooks thrown out, etc.  I love this cart because I can fit a lot into it, and since it has wheels I just roll the whole thing into the kitchen when its time for lessons!

So once all that was done, I could get down to planning the plan.  I spread Bella's curriculum out all around me on the floor and stared at it for a long time, resisting the urge to frantically call the registrars office at ETSU and beg them to enroll me in some primary education classes. Then I rolled up my sleeves, poured more coffee, and dug in. 

As I've stated in previous posts, I have chosen A Beka for Bella's curriculum this year.  Her Kindergarten kiy provides Math and Phonics (which also encompasses handwriting).  I have started familiarizing myself with the layout of the teachers manuals.  They looked a bit daunting at first glance, but I think by paring down what I really want with a highlighter they will work really well, especially as I get more familiar with them.  I also purchased A Beka's Art Projects book, although we will supplement this a LOT with our own crafts.  Hey, its Kindergarten!

For our Bible lessons, I purchased the Kindergarten curriculum from Positive Action Bible Curriculum.  I really like this! It is set up to be used 3, 4, or 5 days a week as you choose.  There are songs and memory verses that correspond to the lossons, and the child's workbook has coloring, drawing, matching activites with each lesson to keep them engaged.

As far as things like Science and History, for now we will cover these things sporadically or as we are interested in them by checking out books at the library.  One of my big goals for kindergarten is read, read read! 

After looking through curriculum for a while, I set out for the really fun part of the day: shopping! I purchased several craft supplies at Michaels, then got 2 large dry erase boards- one for here and one to keep at my moms for the days she does lessons with Bella.  I also picked up some pretty sparkly pencils to give Bella on her first day of school

After Planning Day was completed, I can say with confidence that I fell almost, barely, hopefully ready to begin teaching Bella kindergarten!

Hallelujah Shoes

This post was inspired by my friend, Julie, and her post about grocery shoppping with four young children, and how the Lord provided help from an unlikely source just when she needed it.  It brought to mind an incident that happened to me a few years ago, and I wanted to share it.



                                                  These are my Hallelujah Shoes.

Okay, I know you are thinking, "There's absolutely nothing special about these shoes!"  Thats right.  The shoes themselves aren't anything to write home about.  But the purchase, well, it was special to me.
So here's the story of the Hallelujah Shoes.

A few years back, my husband and I were having a child-free day in Pigeon Forge.  (We only had Bella at the time) We were browsing the outlet stores and I decided to go into one of the shoe stores.  I had a pair of brown clogs (exactly identical to the ones pictured above) that I really liked.  I had worn them for two winters, and they were coming apart.  Literally.  The insole was coming out, the stitching was coming loose, the soles were worn away.  They were shot.  But I liked them so much I wanted to find another pair just like them.

The problem was, I didn't want to pay a lot for them.  I'm pretty thrifty when it comes to buying clothes and shoes for myself.  I admit I don't shop at Goodwill or the thrift stores ~ even though I have absolutely nothing against wearing used clothes, I just usually dont have the time or patience to go hunt for what I need.  But I very rarely buy clothes or shoes for me or my girls that isn't on sale, and I never shop at the more expensive stores.  I don't buy things for myself until it becomes a need. 

Anyway, I went into the shoe store, which of course was having their monthly "Huge Clearance!" and "Lowest Prices of the Season!" sale. I asked God, "Please let my shoes be on sale!..I walked around until, sure enough, I found THE shoes. I tried on the new pair and boy, did they look and feel. good.  And surprise! they were on sale!  I picked up the box and headed to the cash register.

In the fifteen seconds it took me to walk to the line at the front of the store, I was already trying to talk myself out of those shoes.  Yes, they were on sale, but it was still a little more than I wanted to spend...I could use that money for other things....did I really need them?  Wouldn't my old shoes last one more winter?

As I stood in line, argueing with myself, clutching that shoebox to my chest, an amazing thing happened.  I remembered thinking one  simple thought," Lord, please let them ring up even cheaper!"

One heartbeat later, the woman in front of me, a stranger, suddenly turned to me.

"I have this coupon for an extra %15 off that I can't use...would you like it?"

Would I?! Yes, ma'am!

So I bought the shoes, and I have always called them my Hallelujah shoes, 'cause that's what I felt like hollering when I left that shoe store.  They always remind me that God hears and considers our smallest request.

You can read my friend Julie's blog posts at www.cherokeechix.com .

How does your garden grow?

As many of you know, we have decided to homeschool Bella, and later, Abby.  I used this past school year as a "practice year" for kindergarten, as homeschooling is a completely new journey both for me as a teacher and for Bella as a student.  She has done extremely well.  She is now a beginning reader, and just as importantly, she loves to be read to.  She frequently asks me to read to her while she is eating lunch and I am happy to oblige!  We finished a kindergarten math book (Saxon Math K) and she really enjoyed it, especially the manipulatives.  We have also almost completed Book 1 of Explode the Code.

I decided that a unit study would be a good, fun way to end our year.  Since planting season is upon us, I picked a Garden unit study.  I purchased and downloaded a unit study by Amanda Bennett to use as a guide, and off we went!

We have had such a good time with this! I have been able to incorporate reading, writing, art, science, and Bible all into this unit.  We learned about Claude Monet and looked at several examples of his artwork.  In the picture below, we are attempting to paint like Monet...we had fun, but I'm not sure it turned out quite as good as the original!

 We also learned some new vocabulary words, such as: row, dig, stem, etc.  I had Bella copy these into her Garden Journal, then I wrote the definition she gave me for each one!  We also made a garden collage out of magazine clippings, talked about the differences between fruit and vegetables, and made a flower out of pattern blocks.  For a Bible lesson, we read the parable about "A sower went forth to sow" out of the book of Matthew, and we talked about having "good ground" for the seed of God to grow!

                And of course, at the end of all this, we planted some seeds!  Bella chose tomoatoes, squash, broccoli, beans , and carrots.

                                     Abby helped plant the seeds!

 
                              Just a few short days later, we were excited to see our seeds sprout!

                             My sweet Daddy plowed us a real garden!

                   But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who has ears to hear, let him hear."  Matthew 13:8-9

Yeah, but its a dry heat....

After returning from the Disney trip, I have to admit I was ready to stay home for the rest of the year.  Which, if you know my husband, was a total pipe dream!  He loves to be on the go, especially with "the girls".   Because of horrible flight delays on our Disney trip we had a voucher with the airline, and we also had a "buddy pass" ticket through our AmEx credit card.  Between that and knowing how upset I was about losing my camera with all our Disney pictures on it, he decided we should go back. To Disney. This year. 

And while I greatly appreciated his effort to replace our pictures, the thought of going back to Disney so soon did not sit well with me.  We were at a standoff!  He was determined not to waste free airline tickets, I was very determined not to go back to Disney so soon!  So one day as we were discussing the issue again, I said (quite exasperatedly!), "If you want to fly somewhere, why don't we go to Arizona and visit Stephen and Jamie!"

He took the idea and ran with it, and we discovered that in order to not conflict with his work schedule, our fall beach trip, and the hot summer weather in AZ, we were going to have to go in just a few short weeks, at the end of March.  We booked our airline tickets, and before we knew it were were Arizona bound!

The girls did wonderful on the flights, which were - Thank you Lord!- all on time.  We arrived in Arizona late on a Saturday night, and by the time we got a rental car and got to our hotel, it was 1:30 a.m...4:30 a.m. Tennessee time!  I'd like to report that we slept very late the next morning, but my girls get up early regardless.  A few short hours later we were up and on our way to Stephen and Jamie's house, and what a reunion we had!  Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Kenneth, me, and the girls at the Grand Canyon.  It was so beautiful!  

 Me and Abby with my awesome sis-in-law, Jamie.  Despite the

distance that separates us, she is one of my dearest friends!

Sweet cousins!  Lexi, Bella, Lucas, and Abby.  These kids played from

sun up till sun down!

One of my very favorite pictures from our trip.  My brother-in-law

and Lucas on the flight line at Luke AFB.  We are so proud of

Stephen's service to our country, and the sacrifices that he and his

family make.  As he showed us around the base, his pride in

his job was evident.

We spent several days in Arizona, and Stephen and Jamie graciously welcomed us into their home.  I admit, I was leery of staying in their house.  After all, the saying "you don't know someone till you live with them" applies to extended family!  At the conclusion of the trip, I told Jamie if they ever move to TN we need to build a duplex with a communal kitchen!  The kids had a blast playing and we felt so welcome. 

Besides the excursion to the Grand Canyon, and our trip to the AFB, we also spent a morning at a Wildlife Zoo, which the kids really enjoyed.  And we got to spend a lot of time just hanging out together, talking and cooking and boy did we eat good! Stephen can make some mean smoked barbeque, and oh, those tacos!

It ended up being one of my favorite vacations ever. 

Wooly Day!

On April 14, a local historic site called Rocky Mount hosted their annual

"Wooly Day".  I saw an article in the paper about it and thought it might

look like something my girls would enjoy.  (And count as a good "field trip"!)

I called their Nana, who is usually game for these adventures, and we headed out. 

It turned out to be a very enjoyable day for all involved...except maybe the sheep.



Wooly Day gets its name from the fact that this is the day when the sheep are sheared.

They do not seem to particularly enjoy this, especially since it means being separated from

their new lambs for a while.  The girls loved petting the baby lambs, and Abbigail was brave

enough to pet one of the adults- with Nana close by!



 The sheep leave an oily residue on your hands if you pet them, because their skin secretes lanolin.  The wool must be washed several times to remove this.

One of the exhibits showed the making of lye soap.  Bella and Abby try it out!

One of the most popular exhibits was candle making!  For $2 the kids could make their own
candle...but there ended up being a lot of adults in line, because it takes many dips into the wax
to make even a small candle, and little ones lose patience so quickly!  Nana finished the girls' candles
while they had a snack in the shade!

We also saw demonstrations on spinning, weaving, archery, and fireplace cooking.  It was a great way to spend the afternoon.  I decided that the good Lord sure put me in the right time in history, because I'm afraid I would have made a very poor pioneer....you would have found me in the springhouse, the only cool spot on the farm!

Disney World Part II....The White Flag of Surrender

I just reread my first "Disney" post....wow. It was pretty negative. But accurate, since that's pretty much how I felt during the first few days of our trip! Now I want to focus more on the positives! They were:

1. Seeing my kids' faces! Oh, how those little eyes lit up when we saw Tinkerbell fly over the palace before the fireworks! And Abby, who watched Snow White like a hawk until she came over to meet us at dinner. Bella squealing with delight on the Kali River Rapids as we all got drenched!

2. Family! My husbands parents and his brother from Erwin (and wife Joy!) went with us. But a special treat was being able to see my brother in law who lives in Az and his family! We only see them a few times a year. It was so special getting to love on my niece and nephew, they are precious kiddos. Also, I got to spend some time with their mom, Jamie, who I dearly love... in spite of her tattoos ;-).

3. The rides! Like my husband (but to a lesser degree!) I have never outgrown my love of rides! My favorite was probably the Rockin' Rollercoaster, although Test Track and the Tower of Terror were also very fun.

So, after five days of Disney parks, we had to get up at 2:30 (A.M.!!!) to catch the Misery- um, Magic Express back to the airport for a 6:30 a.m. flight that was mercifully on time. We were in our house by 11:30 and we ALL went to bed.

And now for the very very worst part...When I went to unpack later that day, I discovered that my camera, which I had last used to take a picture of the girls on the airplane, was nowhere to be found. Thats right, folks. I lost my camera. And subsequently spent the rest of the weekend crying over my lost pictures. I adore my pictures of my baby girls, and oh, how it hurt to lose them!

We emailed the airline and called the airport to no avail. Most importantly, we prayed about it! And no, I haven't gotten my camera back. (yet.)