Letter G

Man with school started and being hit with pink eye.. were behind. and unfortunatley I dont have a lesson plan but this week we did

G
we drew on our Glow board
we did starfall G
we practiced our German
we ate Goldfish
we did math using Geo shape boards.

so far.. its only thursday. perhaps tomorrow well do more and Ill actually get photos. haha

Letter D

Things were awesome using my guide! I actually felt less stressed an was able to do just about everything!

Here is Sams painting of the Desert! he was so excited. We even went on the planet earth app and looked for the antient pyramids! Which is a great trasnition into this weeks Egyptian theme!

This week is a busier week as MOPS starts back up as well as Womens Bible study and Home Fellowship. So this will be a true test to the plan! The kids also have their ear doctor follow up from their tube surgery. (Lilah has ewie gewie ears at the moment).

Here is the Weekly Guide for the letter E. Be sure to click on it to see full size!

The Week has begun

Yesterday was the first day of the week and It started out amazing. Im very encouraged by the start! Not only has the Homeschool front been good.. so has the homemaker! I found this great calendar on justmommies.com that is a list of housekeeping ideas for the day.. its been a great way to keep up on the cleaning! Its been good to start out the day by waking up to coffee and feeding the kids breakfast, then cleaning up around the house till about 11, then we do an hour of homeschool. Then lunch then lunch clean up, then its quiet time till 2 or 230. (lilah naps and sam reads quietly in his room) while I get anything else done I need.. then up and we play some games and color or whatever! then 4 daddy comes home and we start dinner and then starting jan 25th I go to school for the evening and daddy puts the kiddos to bed! whew.. but Im loving it!

So anyhow.. the review went well yesterday. Sam did much better actually than I expected! He had ABC down pat and did much better with adding and subtracting too. We did pattern blocks too. And some Starfall. We are learning about Van Gough and drew these fabulous mini vangoughs!

The New Year Begins

Well we did it.. we made it to 2010!



Im happy to report that we are all moved into our new home. Its so nice and it actually feels like a home not an apartment. Its close to my school and to bible study for fridays. Which by the way I am so excited about. I know God has an amazing plan for our group. I cant explain it but it just feels right. I can feel Gods presence when were there!



No news really in the health department. They are going to give me a trial of 3 months on the ferrous gluconate to see if I can stabilize my Iron serum levels. They think its just a form of anemia and for now it just has to be monitored so we can see what type it is. And no news for the hip either but I am going to start water therapy for it and I hope that I can actually keep it up. My fear is that while Im excited about it now, I may end up just giving up.



So this week we have no cable ( technically were not supposed to have Internet either but someone around here has an unsecure connection). anyhow without TV I was able to really get a jump on my homeschool planning and I think Im going to really change it up a bit. I need to make it attainable. Before when I had mon - Fri planned out, it rarely went as planned and I would feel like a failure. So Im doing a LOOSE weekly guide where I can pull from it and do it as I go about the day. NO set schedule. Which Im hoping will work for me as Im a NO schedule type of person. Yes Im organized but I dont like to have specific times for things. Even when it comes to my children. We dont have certain nap times or eating times. we sleep when were tired and eat when were hungry. it works for us.



anyhow here is my guide for this week.

Click the photo to see full size

hopefully I can keep this up and post one each Sunday night.

I also have a slight fear of being over whelmed with whats on my plate. Not only being a homeschooling mommy but a youth leader, a small group leader, student and now PT patient. It does seem like a lot to be given to do but I have faith that GOD wants me doing each of these things and will give me the strength I need to do them. I also understand that He may end up calling this to change and Im OK with that too. I just need to keep listening and praying!

I wanted to mention also that I have been reading this awesome book by Rob Bell called Velvet Elvis. It is inspiring me to think beyond whats told to me about the bible. To have open discussion about it and investigate it on my own. Not to discover what I think it means but to discover what GOD is saying. What is the actual context behind what is says. What does HE mean~ It really is opening MY eyes to questions. Which is even awesomer (is that a word or is it brienese) because Pastor Tony has been doing just that these last two weeks in service. INSPIRING me to think beyond what Ive been told! like did you know that it actually doesnt say anywhere in the bible that "God doesnt give us more than we can handle". WOW I have been quoting that for years.. because It was told to me and I just went with it. Today we learned to read the context of certain verses. In this particular case GOD isnt saying that at all. The closest thing we get is 1 Corinthians 10:13 and what HE is actually meaning is that God does not give us any TEMPTATION we can not say NO to. He offers us escape from temptation.

man I could go on about all the stuff that Ive been inspired to THINK about. but I wont. I just wanted to share my excitement with you!

Well were moiving and Im going back to school! so its been quite hectic around here.
we havent done much of any tot schooling and I know that for my resolution this year its going to be that.. I think Ill start the first week were moved in in janurary and do a review of the letters we had done and see if he remembers.. and then start there or over if necessary.

still no news on the hip. here is what we do know. I have some sort of autoimmune disease we just know know which one. Lupus is the top of the list along with some others like aplastic anemia which may require more cancer like treatments and so hey.. lets hope for the lupus huh.. haha never thought Id hear myself say that! I had my blood drawn on friday so Im hoping to know something before the holidays but im not counting my chickens so to say!

to tide you all over here are some photos of my beautiful babies!!!!

Photo WON!

I entered this photo in the local photo contest and won first place!!! I get to go up in a balloon next year and Lilahs photo will be in all the ads and flyers for next years races! I cant believe it! how amazing is that!

Ive been feeling kinda down about my hip and how much pain Im in and this just really perked me up!

Letter C

Well because Ive been down on a lot of days due to my hip weve only been able to do a few days a week of school. But none the less.. its going well!

We did Catipillars and the Letter C this week! The only photos I got are these! bad mommy! 

We have been doing many playgroups though! and getting ready for the next two week which is filled with playdates all the way up to Halloween! I cant wait to see my LO trick or treating.. its going to be a blast! woo hoo! 

Here is Sammo practicing.. and whats good is that every week we also do his name and review and hes getting really good at writing all his letters! 

and then the catippillar project we did! they loved it! we read Hungry Hungry Catipillar!

and of course our math puzzles and so forth.. but it was a slow week for us.. hopefully once we have answers about my hip Ill be able to do more! but for now Im happy with the progress!

B is for Balloon races!

I know its taken be a bit to post, things have gotten hectic and finding time to blog was not easy! I had a slip and fall and hurt my hip again. We still dont know whats wrong, Ill go for an mri this week to see if they can find out.

Delilah is now on a Nebulizer 2x a day! Were pretty sure she has asthma and giving her the treatments are no fun! Im hoping she will actually get used to it!~

So anyhow, on top continuing the homeschool, we are still doing lots of playdates with the kids. It helps break up the school week. We just do one to two things a day and then play the rest of the day. It seems to be working well for Sam. He in just this short month can now write his name! Ill have to get a photo of that for next weeks blog!

These are from the week we did B!

We went to the Balloon races which was so exciting! It was the first time our family was up at 4 am and went to dawn patrol! it was so amazing I know that it will be something we will continue to do for a long time!

We also Painted Blue B's

Sam wrote is As and Bs in his writing book

And we did some Math puzzles, which were alot of fun. you count the big one and try to match the number!

and of course I didnt get photos of everything but we also

* Read books about Bs and bees and bears etccc

* went on a B hunt

* practiced writing our Bs

* Baked cookies too

* played Baseball with a Ball and Bat

So even tough Ive changed the way we homeschool and its much less structured it works out better! like this week is the letter C which is taking about two weeks because Ive been down due to the hip and because Sam just wasnt quite getting the hang of writing Cs yet. so it was a good thing we are able to work at our own pace! I love it!

oh and one more thing I wanted to mention is that were working on our Halloween costumes! Im so excited.. its going to be a surprise!

A is for Alligator

Even through the pneumonia weve had a pretty good school week!

This was this weeks lesson plan part letter of the week and part my own pulled from all over! 

A as in Apple
Apples and Alligators and Ants

Poem:
Ten Red apples growing on a tree
five for you and five for me
help me shake the tree just so
and ten red apples fall down below
one two three four five
six seven eight nine ten!

Music:
Alligators go Marching
APPLE like Bingo ( I Know a fruit it grows on trees and apple is its namo)
apples and banannas

Bible: Adam and Eve
Boys bible story
adam and eve coloring page
Snake art project -using a stick found going on a walk. paint it like a snake!

Math: using cheerios or other object teach addition. 1+1 etc

we also have been playing with math puzzles!

Shape: Square
go on square hunt
cut squares out of playdough
draw squares

Science: Animal Alligator
learn about alligators
talk about teeth etc

Art: Alligator paper craft ( Make an A with construction paper turn it sideways and add teeth.
finger paint "ants" with fingerprints


Sport: Act like ants or alligators crawling on the floor.


Weve done pretty good at sticking to it and working on these. of course broke up throughout the week! Im so amazed at how well Sam is picking it up. He is now Drawing squares and actually drawing the letter A! he doesnt quite get the big A little a thing yet but thats okay! Hes having fun and asks now every morning when we will do school!

Here are some photos of today.. (the one day I got the camera out!)

Sam practicing his As


His squares.. which I know kinda look more like rectangles but man hes getting it!


His A alligator project.. we took the letter A and turned it sideways.. added teeth and walah an Alligator! hes so proud too!



We also went for a long walk today. we went to 7-11 and got a slurpee, got me a haircut and to the dollar store! it was fun to be able to get out of the house now that hes feeling better! if He doesnt have a fever tonight then we still may go to gymnastics! overall though its been an Amazing and Adventurous first week!

The week finally begins!

Well I had to postpone the school year because I had Paul for another week. So instead of starting we continued the theme days which included watching movies like Pinnochio and then making marionettes! and then we finished off the summer with some outdoor activities! I do have photos but my battery is currently dead! Im charging it as I type so hopefully Ill get to add some photos!

We were planning on starting yesterday even though it was a holiday but Sam got sick and he ended up in the hospital with pneumonia! yuck! but today he seemed to perk up so we began!

We did letter A drawing on his white board, and read an Alligator book pointing out all the parts. Then we did some math puzzles too! Tonight we will be reading the story of Adam and Eve at bed time and hopefully we can have a real day tomorrow with activities and all!