It's Beginning to Look alot Like Christmas

We went out and got our tree on Friday after Thanksgiving:






Today we finished dcorating our gingerbread houses:

Thanksgiving 2009

We were at home this year with my sister-in-law as our company for dinner:

John grilled the turkey.

Johnny loved his dinner.

Jacob wanted to eat, not have his picture taken

Zoe's Thanksgiving feast.

She got some turkey too.

Aunt Julie with the kiddos.

The boys were being silly, but Myanna loved her close-up.

All 3 kiddos.

The whole family.

John with his sister Julie. Jacob wanted to be in the picture too.

Myanna has decided she doesn't like to wear her pretty bows.

She would much rather play with them.

More pumpkin pie please.

She didn't like the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, or stuffing, but she sure did like her pumpkin pie.

"Thank You, Daddy".

School Room - A Work in Progress

This is why we need - scratch that - want a new house. The school room is taking over the great room:




Oh and it's a play room too:


But, do we really need the extra space? Not really. It would be nice though. Can you tell that I'm struggling to stay grateful for the house that God has given us?

Weekly Highlights - Week One

I am so excited! This is our first week of school! We are easing our way into school, so we only did two days this week. We are using My Father's World Kindergarten. I was so excited that I already posted about each day:

First Day of Kindergarten

Kindergarten Day 2

Hopefully I'll be able to contain myself next week and not post until the end of the week. :)

For more weekly homeschool highlights swing on over to Mishmash Maggie.

Kindergarten Day 2

Today we had our first theme day at school. Remember when you were younger and you either dressed in backwards clothes or had crazy hair for spirit week? Well today was PJ day for us. :) I'm sure we will be having a lot of those. We slept in until 8 and by the time I got everyone fed I realized that if I took the time to get myself showered and everyone dressed before the school bell rang, Myanna would be fussy and need to be fed and put down for her nap. Then it would be time for lunch. Even though it's possible for us to do school in the afternoons, I know myself and I'm not that disciplined. Yet.

Today we learned about the 2nd day of Creation and how God separated the waters from the waters to create sky above and water below. Next we learned the names of the letters Cc and Dd. Then we reviewed the letters Aa and Bb. Jacob didn't pay much attention today. Johnny spent most of the lesson on his head. I think that next time if I recognize that they are a little hyper we'll sing a few action songs first.

Here are their pages for their Creation Book:




Note to self: buy smaller cotton balls for art projects.

Today's lesson lasted 45 minutes - just long enough. :)



I copied a couple of worksheets from their Rod and Staff Readiness books, because I want Johnny to learn how to draw his shapes. He was more interested in cutting than drawing though and surprised me by cutting out the squares and triangles.

Time for lunch!

All better! Don't you love her new Baby Legs?

I guess I better get everyone dressed now. I might just put it off a little longer since Myanna is sleeping and the boys are busy watching the landscapers. I do want to read the book of Esther since I get to go to Bible Study tonight. I'm so excited! I haven't been to a study since just before Myanna was born last February.

First Day of Kindergarten

Here is my proud Kindergartner. After researching and even purchasing several pre-school/pre-K curricula we decided to go ahead and start My Father's World Kindergarten even though he'll only be 4 in December. There are 166 daily lessons each lasting 60-90 minutes. I plan only "doing school" about 2-3 days per week. So Johnny will be a Kindergartner for probably a year and a half. :) What I love most about MFW K is the way the Bible is woven throughout instead of tacked on as an extra subject. For example, we learn that Sun starts with S-s and that Jesus is the light of the world. Then we learn that like the (M-m) moon reflects the light of the sun we reflect the light of Jesus. Neat, huh?


While Jacob is not ready to participate fully in MFW K (he will be 3 in March) he can sit with us for a lot of the activities. I plan on printing off some simpler worksheets for him so that he can feel included in school.


And of course I couldn't leave out Myanna.

We will spend the first 10 days of MFW K learning about the 7 days of creation, introducing letter names and numbers 1-7. I'm also adding some cutting practice and basic shape drawing for Johnny. We started our school day with prayer. I love how Jacob repeats everything I pray. Then we read Genesis 1:1-5 from Johnny's new NIRV Adventure Bible:


We chose this translation because it's easier to read and understand for young children, but it's a "real" Bible not a picture book. I also like the study aspects of it. There is an introduction before each book about the author, purpose, what we will learn, specific stories, etc. There is even a reference section at the back with a small concordance, dictionary and maps.

We then reviewed what we had read. The goal is to have Johnny repeat back to me in his own words what he heard. Of course at this age it took a lot of prompting and questioning. Then we moved onto making our #1 for our Creation Timeline:





I had to go and change a stinky Myanna diaper and when I cam back to the table Johnny had turned his paper over and traced his hand.



MFW allows us to copy the creation time line and book activities for the whole family. If for some reason I decide to have Jacob participate in the rest of the student workbook activities I'll have to pay an additional $35 for a student package. I doubt I will this year. He is not ready for it and I have other worksheets that he can do.

Then we moved to the family room to learn/review the letters Aa and Bb.

Myanna is supervising. :)

Using the letter chart I sang through the ABCs while Jacob and then Johnny pointed to each letter. They have a cute ending to the song: "Now I know my ABCs. And I know that God loves me!!


Then using the Aa and Bb game cards I taught them the letters. Johnny already knew them so it was more for me getting used to how the lessons would go over the next nine days. I decided for now to keep the uppercase and lowercase letters together. Next we reviewed all of the letters we've learned (only two since it was the first day) using the ABC chart. I asked the boys to put a button on the letter Aa then on the letter Bb. One good thing about Jacob playing along with us is that when he gets it wrong Johnny can correct him. And also when Jacob did put the button the correct letter Johnny got so excited for him, "Yea YoYo". It was sweet. Then we reviewed again using the letter game cards. A little repetitive since it was the first day, but it set-up a good foundation to add upon.

Here is our first page for our Creation Book:



The directions in the student packet have the student glue the verse onto a piece of white paper and then draw a picture of the verse. I'm glad that in the teacher handbook there are alternative directions where I can cut out things for the boys to paste onto paper along with the verse. At this age each page would just be a scribble. :) Johnny was fascinated that the white crayon drew on the black paper, but you couldn't see it on the white.

To finish off the day I was supposed to start teaching them the hymn "This is My Father's World". Well as most of you know I like to sing, but no one likes to listen. :) So instead I purchased the mp3 from one of the Praise Baby CDs and played it in the background while the boys were cutting.


I thought there were some cutting worksheets in one of the About Three workbooks from Rod and Staff. The only ones I saw started with having them cut out a small circle, triangle, and square. So I just got out a ruler and drew lines onto construction paper. Johnny didn't like that Jacob was ripping his paper instead of using the scissors.


This was a wonderful first day of Kindergarten for Johnny. It was short, about 35 minutes, but it held his attention. I can't wait until we start the regular lessons and Johnny starts to learn his letter sounds. :)

Oh and the book For the Children's sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay came with the curriculum:


It explains the Charlotte Mason style of education. When I was looking at MFW this summer I didn't fully understand the Mason or Classical method of teaching, I just knew that I loved the curriculum. I have only just started this book and it's fascinating. I really like a lot of her ideas.