Book It!

If you have not heard of the Book It program...it's time for you to hear.

Book It is a program that works with Pizza Hut to offer reading incentives to children in kindergarten through sixth grade. Although Book It is only offered through participating schools, home educators may also enroll their children ages 5 through 12 into the program.

You can learn more about the Book It program here...or follow this link to enroll as a home school. The deadline for enrollment is September 1st.

Happy 4th of July!

In need of a last-minute Independence Day project for your kiddos? [...like I was...]


Crayola has some fun coloring pages.

Color the flag of the USA.

Color in a picture of fireworks behind the Statue of Liberty while you talk with your kids about why we light fireworks on the 4th of July. 

Learn about past and present flags of the United States of America, then color them in.

Learn about and color the Statue of Liberty.

Color the flag and map of the United States of America.

Whirlwind...

Life is a blur as of late...

Spring has sprung and everyone is restless, longing to drink in the sunshine. My kids grow bigger; and along with their increase in size comes an increase in appetites, a wider disaster radius post-playtime and continued development of independent thinking - consequently: more frequent arguments both with each other and myself. My husband has been diligently studying, excelling in all his classes; I am so proud!

L., my youngest, has started walking and is quickly graduating from that mundane skill to more exciting techniques for mobility...such as climbing. [Really, who wants to walk when you could just climb stuff, right?]

A few days ago I caught her sitting in the middle of the living room talking to herself, "No. Nooo. No. No Ma. No Mom. No. Mom. No no. Noooo." She was practicing telling me no. My heart was filled with delight at her sweet voice, pride for her working so intently to enunciate her words correctly...and slight trepidation as I considered the implications of her resolve to clearly communicate her defiance.

My oldest daughter is learning important and difficult lessons about the ugliness of lies. Meanwhile, her father and I are being tested in matters of patience and grace. She is also rapidly learning to read and write. She enjoys writing letters and often I find random letters on her schoolwork or art pages. Occasionally, her random letters happen to form words, much to her older brother's astonishment and delight. He is very impressed by her "skill" and they celebrate her accomplishment together with cheering, laughter and expressions of recognition: "Great job!" "Wow...you wrote ________!" "You are such a great speller!" This warms my spirit. I love to see my children loving and encouraging one another.

I am considering what to do for my son's education in the fall. Boarding school has been an attractive thought from time to time. New, unpleasant and frustrating phrases have been surfacing during our conversations lately; "It's not FAIR!" "I wish I had a different mom!" "Why do I have to...?!" I really dislike the attitude I see him developing and find myself praying often for an extra measure of love and grace to respond to it. While this new "big kid" personality dampens my excitement about home-educating in the coming school year, it also deepens my resolve to guide him, to instruct him, teach and correct him so that issues of character, discipline and integrity may be swiftly addressed and corrected, deterring poor attitude from developing into bad habits and unpleasant personality in later years.

I am just taking it all in. At moments, reminding myself to pause to breathe or to resist the temptation to react. Other times, digging deep to find motivation to tackle the dishes and laundry, or to mom-up and confront the arguing coming from the kids' room [instead of hiding in the pantry with a bar of chocolate pretending not to hear it]. Occasionally, ignoring those tasks that seem so pressing and important, but will still be there tomorrow and just holding my baby a little longer while she sleeps, or sitting on the floor playing dolls, or pulling out a messy art project to do TOGETHER or attacking my children with kisses and tickles while they still enjoy it - I know it will not last forever.

This season is full of unique joys and difficulties...and so will be the next. This is a sweet sort of whirlwind to be caught up in.

A is for...

Today my 3-year-old and I played with our ABC cards. She identified each letter and then we practiced saying the sounds each letter makes. I was really surprised by how many she already knew! [Big brother has been teaching her lots of letter sounds lately.]

I asked her to think of words that begin with each letter as we went through them.  My son wanted to play too, so I asked him to write down the words she thought of.

Here is the list she came up with.

A is for Am and Andy

B is for Band

C is for Can't

D is for Dad

E is for Ear

F is for Frog

G is for Grape

H is for Heather

I is for Inch

J is for Jam

K is for Kitten

L is for Lamb

M is for Man

N is for Net

O is for On and Octopus

P is for Peeing [she's been wearing "big girl undies" and using the potty...it's exciting around here]

Q is for Queen [brother helped her out with this one]

R is for Rachel

S is for Sand

T is for Teeth and Tooth [again, brother was giving hints]

U is for Ummm [you know...as in, "ummmm, Mom, can I have a snack....ummmm, Mom, brother is being mean...ummmm, Mom, I peed in my pants a little" It is a legit word for a 3-year-old, right?]

V is for Van

W is for Whine [that goes along with "Ummm"]

X is for eXercise and X-ray [brother helped with X-ray]

Y is for Yam

Z is for Zipper

Learning with Dad

My husband and I determined early on that I am not qualified to teach our kids science unsupervised. I think we realized this one day when we had a discussion about thunder and lightning. Let's just say the look on my husband's face was priceless; it was one of those, "I would like to think you are kidding...but I know you're not" sort of looks. He was baffled by my scientific intelligence - or lack thereof.

There is a responsibility, I think, in choosing to home school, to asses our own academic strengths and weaknesses and to recognize when we are unable to adequately teach a subject on our own and could use a little [or a lot of] help. At that point there are a variety of options; rely on a curriculum, find a tutor, join with other home school parents and help each other out.

Thankfully, my husband was always very interested in science and applied himself to studying it in school. So, when it comes to all things biological, chemical or otherwise over my head...he picks up the slack and does an excellent job of it! This is important, especially since our son, like his father, has lots of scientific questions, and enjoys learning about the whys and what's of the world around him. Some questions I can answer...others, well, to be honest, I've never even considered before. I realize that I just take many things for granted. For instance: why does water boil? My answer: "Uh, cuz it gets hot?" Der.

I'd never really thought about it. It just does.

I'm really glad that other people think about things differently than I do and have noticed and taken the time to study these kinds of questions...and find some answers.

My husband is back in school and often shares with me information he is learning in his classes. As an adult, I have a whole new appreciation for science. As a believer in God, I have an even greater appreciation for the amazing and intricate details of life, and the mysteries we still have yet to uncover.

However, my appreciation for it and ability to teach it are not equal.

So...

My husband has done a few projects with our kids over the last few weeks.

They made a volcano...
[I lost the pictures of their eruptions though...sad!]

They planted a garden:

[I watched. I also kill plants...not intentionally...but inevitably, they always end up dying in my care.]

 These are cacti they planted last year...

And here are their little plants beginning to grow!

May Calendars are Up!

There are 6 different syles to choose from.

Visit our Free Calendars page to download yours.

Like Father, Like Son

My son drew me a few pictures today, and naturally, I had to share. :)

I loved how he colored them in.

He is quite a little artist...my favorite is the barnyard. 

And I really adore the green monster-guy saying "Mmmmmm" as he eyes the delicious fruits!

He takes after his dad. My husband drew this in high school.

He doesn't draw much anymore...but I hope he picks it up again someday. In the meantime, I am enjoying these sweet pictures from my five-year-old.