keeping up.

Life is crazy. Absolutely crazy. We recently discovered that a close friend of ours has brain cancer. Suddenly this blog seemed so unimportant and inconsequential.  
But we are still here. We are keeping up. These kids are still learning.  
  

Crazy. We were learning about leaves, apples, and pilgrims while our friend was waiting to have a 10 cm tumor removed from his brain. How is that possible? 

  
I didn’t get pictures of everything they did the last few weeks.

  

But I managed a few here and there.

  
I am still impressed with MFW, especially the kindergarten curriculum. 

 
 I love it’s progression through God’s world.

  
The week about apples was particularly enjoyable. I thought the tie in with the fruits of the spirit was wonderful.  

I know this blog isn’t life and death. But I realize that my kids education is important and I do want to document it here as much as I can. 
  
My reaction to the things that come our way impacts our girls. And while life is certainly crazy and full of unexpected horrible events, I can’t curl up under the covers and hide. Honestly, the girls’ precious existence has probably rescued me more than I have rescued them. Their little bodies and active minds keep me getting out of bed each day, no matter what depressing things head my way. 

Ss is for Sun

We had so much fun with MFW Unit 1. Our words to remember were Jesus is the light of the world. Blondie Pie wanted to put her badge above her desk and she is looking forward to a long row of completed badges above her desk.  

 
She loved writing the letter s in salt but I didn’t get a picture of it. We did so many activities with S that I just didn’t get a picture of them all. 

She loved the cuisnaire rod activities.  

 
All three girls painted a sun this week using watercolor crayons, which by the way are amazing inventions.   

   
I have also been using All About Reading Pre-Reading program with Blondie Pie and she LOVES it. It comes with a zebra puppet and she can’t get enough of that silly puppet. Their letter activities and rhyming games have been adorable so far. Here is one that she completed this week. 

 
We read several wonderful books about the sun and the letter S but Blondie Pie’s favorite was definitely My S Sound Box by Jan Belk Moncure. Our library had it and it is excellent. She has written one for every letter and I’m hoping to find them all. 

 

the excitement of Creation

Blondie Pie is doing My Father’s World Kindergarten this year. If you aren’t familiar with it, it explores God’s creation through unit studies. We just finished up the introductory unit which was a study of the Days of creation. Even though she has studied the days of creation before, Blondie enjoyed this unit SO much!

Each day we read the verses for that day and then she colored the number for that day and added it to her creation numbers book. Every night she was talking about how she couldn’t wait to do the next day’s number. She carried this little book around with her and showed her daddy each night.

Here she is after she completed all the numbers. 
She also completed a drawing page each day for her very own Creation story book. Here she is hard at work on it…

Here she is showing the cover which was all her idea.

And here she is showing her favorite page – Day 6 – when God created man and land animals. Precious side note: when I told her to draw some of her favorite animals for this page, she asked if she could draw a unicorn. I couldn’t say no but she ended up drawing a giraffe, a bunny, and some squirrels instead.

Blondie Pie was so proud to have completed her own book. Her older sister is always writing books and so she was thrilled to have one that she could call her own. She can look through it and tell the days on her own now and she says it is the best kind of book to have made – one about God.

The past couple of days have been a tiny bit stressful around here but looking back over these photos of Blondie Pie’s week reminds me of how precious this time with my girls is and how important it is to perservere with them even when I would like to go hide in the closet sometimes.

First Day 2015-2016

Well, today was the day!  

 M&M is in third grade this year. She is such a smart girl and I am looking forward to learning along side her again. 

Blondie pie was so excited to start Kindergarten. We aren’t actually starting her K curriculum for two more weeks but she is tagging along with MFW Adventures with her sister.   
 
  Here are all three together. Jazzy Tot had no idea what was going on but she was excited about it!  

Today we started work in MFW Adventures. We put our timeline up and started our U.S. Notebooks. 
Here is the beginning of our timeline…  
…and the end of our timeline. I love timelines. They speak to my ordered, organized side. There is just something so crisp and perfect about seeing all those details laid out in a row. I am excited about adding to this one over the school year.  

We made our red, white and blue snack at the end of the morning. We layered yogurt, strawberries, and black grapes. M&M thought this was great and asked where I got the recipe. She thought the person who came up with this was a genius!

  

The snack was definitely Jazzy Tot’s favorite part of the day!!

  
If you want to follow us this year and are interested in our curriculum choices, here is a list:

M&M ( 3rd grade): 

My Father’s World Adventures in US History –  This is an amazing curriculum that includes Bible, Science, and History as well as hands on activities and suggestions for literature and nature walks.

Beautiful Feet’s Early American History for Primary grades– This is an amazeballs literature curriculum that perfectly pairs with MFW adventures.

Abeka 3 rd grade Language arts – This includes spelling, grammar, reading, and writing.

Artistic Pursuits, Early Elementary Book 1 – I am so excited about trying this new art curriculum this year.

Math Mammoth, Light blue Series – We are switching from Singapore to Math Mammoth this year.

Rosetta Stone Latin, Homeschool Version

Blondie Pie (Kindergarten) – 

My Father’s World Kindergarten – Includes math, phonics, science, and Bible

All About Reading, Pre Reading – This is to give extra practice on pre reading skills. I am really excited about this and Blondie is excited about Ziggy the Zebra!

Blondie Pie will tag along with big sis for History and art.

I am so excited about this year! We are gonna crush it!