Week 28 Recap

Waiting for MomMom 

MomMom always brings fun treasures!

RR figured out how to play right away. 

RR got special time at MomMom's during BSF.   He created a whole village wth MomMom and had a blast creating that.  Scrabble shows he needs some work in spelling.  :)

Learning about a new fruit - star fruit! 

 MomMom also brought our new van!  The kids love it. 

RR has been having some behavior "stuff" this week and this date night together was overdue.  We really had a great time and he kept a good attitude.  It was a success :) 

This boy HAS to work on his flexibility.  He is still excelling at TKD and we are very proud of his hard work and practice at home. 

Evelyn LOVES dance and really is doing well! And she is a great teacher!

  

We finished God's Names book - what a great book that was!   We are gonna create our own book now with a page for each name we learned.  In math, RR is learning fractions.  English we are reviewing linking & helping verbs.  Raymond liked Revere Pilgrims so much he decided to read it again.   In other news, RR had his first cavity filled. 

Week 27 Recap

We had our first glimpses of warm weather and beach days! 

with a perfect reminder of God's love :) 

Annabelle can swing by herself now!  She was fed up having to wait for people to push her and finally learned to just do it herself ha. 

I love when the boys get time together! Daddy's new schedule is GREAT!! 

Evelyn is cruising through all her Pre K books.

Pajama Raymond 

Annabelle stays at the desk for about 15 - 20 minutes before she is off to find her own things to do. 

in Revere, we learned about Crispus Attucks - I didn't remember him at all! He was the first casualty of the Revolutionary War.  He was black & native american and died at the Boston Massacre.  Very interesting!

Tiffany did a great job teaching about the Stamp Act / Sons of Liberty!  We all learned a lot and she was funny.  We had literally JUST read about the Stamp Act in Revere so it was perfect timing - God does that a lot. 

In the science part of Co Op we learned about the water cycle, condensation, evaporation, clouds & rain.  The experiment was a hit. 

It's the end of the 3rd Quarter!  Time is flying :)   Raymond made a lot of progress in respecting Mommy & Daddy this quarter so that's a great thing. 

Week 26 Recap

I absolutely love the freedom I feel more and more as we walk through this 1st year of homeschooling.   I have seen God lead me and give me discernment when to rein the kids in and push through hard work.... when to tell them to forget the books today and get outside...... and my favorite - when to put aside the paper and come sit in my lap and get a hug and prayer. 

I am really not "with it" mentally still.  I am struggling in mind & body still :(  so that just proves to me so much more - I can depend on Jesus even when I can't depend on my body & my mind.  His Spirit can lead me despite my suffering. 

We are getting tastes of spring and we were SO excited to get outside!  The kiddos were outside before 8:30 one morning and were clearing leaves, finding "plants" and making their own little garden beds.  I love letting them explore and create while I get to sit back and just watch.   We have loved that Daddy is home and on spring break!  It has been so nice to have just "being" time together.  It has felt like a small vacation. 

I learned my lesson not to let Raymond do book work this far away from the house.  Not only did the books get too filthy but it was way too distracting to be away from me and "in the woods".   I wasn't asking him to do a lot - so I learned next time he does have to do school work on a pretty day - just to get him to do what he has to do at the picnic table or inside then he can be free :) 

Here's Raymond learning an important life skill:  filling out brackets :) 

It reached 80 this week!! WOOHOOOO and it was glorious :)  Couldn't believe we were the only ones at the park - everybody must have been at the beach. 

From Facebook: 

I have done so much wrong as a mom... And will continue too.... But I must say I feel success!!! because my kids love love love books ... So much so that I find myself reading EVERYwhere smile emoticon and I'm losing my voice from all the reading. at age 8 Raymond picks up on the symbolism and depth to c s Lewis more than I do at 31. Blows me away. Trust God!!! He uses the imperfect !!

Week 25 Recap

This week Mommy had to start her antiviral / supplements - and as expected things felt worse but that's a good sign, we think!  The winning theory is that we are killing the viruses/whatever is attacking my body and we believe that this pain I'm feeling is weakness leaving me.   We pushed through another week with lots of snuggles, down time and Raymond doing his work independently which is a great thing.  

Here is Annabelle's drawing she is most proud of from the week.  She said, "This is me and Papa at Disney going to the race cars".   What a memory!  Our first day at Disney she road the speedway with Pa. 

We are finishing up the book on God's names so now we started to read the Message Kids Bible.    Part of me was doubting the way I have been teaching about the Bible/Jesus because I don't read from the full version of the Bible and let them hear the full scriptures. We only read kids' Bibles & Devos, but I don't feel the nudge to change what we are doing yet.  More studying and reading the full scripture will come eventually -  especially when the girls are elementary age.  For now,  in this "introduction" stage of their relationship with Jesus - I am okay with what we do.  Hearing how God makes them feel when I ask and hearing what they believe about Him encourages me.  So I just have to embrace the stage we are in,  be patient and keep praying!  I believe God is wooing them for sure and I know He will lead us as we lead them!! :)  

In the Message for Kids, we are on the story of Moses which is great since that is what we are learning in BSF.  We discussed the plagues and Pharaoh's hard (Frozen) heart.  They drew an illustration for each plague.  Here is Evelyn's first 9. 

And Raymond's first 9 Plagues. 

In History, we are learning about the start of the United States which fit perfectly with the Cubscout Assignment, "What makes America special"

The girls have learned Red Light Green Light :) for indoor rainy days

But then finally finally finally it was warm and sunny and the windows were opened!! :) After spending numerous days in PJ's only to change for bathtime, we were so happy to get dressed, make beds and get outside.  They were outside before 8:30 one day and stayed out ALL day! 

We had such a great park playdate with the homeschool group.  20+ moms and all the kiddos - it was great!  (Francine drove us since B had to take my car to Durham) 

It was so great to let RR do his school work outside at the end of the week.  He really doesn't need me at this point to do any teaching so I just come into play in the afternoons for history, science, art, music and reading any other "extras".   

I really have not taught them well enough to put things away when they are done with them :( BUT I am thankful that when they see Mommy is TOTALLY overwhelmed, they are compassionate and understanding and try their best to clean.  Here is our before & after!

Co Op was really good this week too.  RR had a much better attitude than last time!  And he learned a lot about ports, pirates & sea turtles which was his fave.  

We just got home from the Pinewood Derby.  Uncle Jim and Daddy were a great help this year and RR got his first trophy! (3rd in his den).  He won his first race of the day! and he was so excited, jumping up and down - so for that moment, all the work was worth it. 

Weeks 23 & 24 Recap

We are certainly still getting our exercise as we have both dance & TKD studios daily where our instructors give us great classes. 

 Outside of home, Evelyn REALLY loves dance and her memory is amazing.   Raymond did his first TKD test and passed.  He is a high white belt. 

At Co-Op Mr JP spoke about the bridges in our area and we learned about how important it is to take care of our oceans from Jessica. 

The past 2 weeks we learned about temperatures and at what point fountains even freeze!  (this was our first visit from Elsa and something like this!) 

Raymond was a great helper in the kitchen.  He really enjoys cooking and I find he eats better when he helps.  I am also finding already that having Daddy around makes for better dinners for sure!  The kids don't snack because he can keep them away until dinner is done :) so then they are actually good & hungry for dinner. 

DREAM Academy is still open on snow days! :) 

Rosie is a very pregnant huge bird that comes to the rose bush out front every day.  Here's the kids watching her on the snow/ice day. 

AND we CELEBRATED!! Daddy's last day at the hospital and new job starting!! :)  Already, my body feels stronger and healthier as I already have more space in my life and Daddy is around me.  We are at the tail end!  He just has to finish school - 2 more months! And it's such freedom!

When we went to Chucky Cheese with the gift card from the hospital, I was so proud of Raymond.  It was actually Annabelle that gave us the hard time this time.  Raymond was so good.  Patient.  Waited for everybody to finish eating before he played more.  He is really maturing!  It was a great great day.  Wow, things are getting easier with him as he matures and shows more respect and less tantrums.  It feels like such a victory!!!

And the best thing we have implemented over the past 2 weeks is "yes sir" and "yes maam" at home.  We really understand from watching TKD how important that separation of respect is.  When we give an order or are correcting, he has to say it to us and it makes so much sense.  We are being very consistent with it and being very consistent to keep him accountable to his attitude.  Instead of just building up anger when he shows small disrespects, we are nipping it in the bud.  It feels so good to have the time and ability to do this and correct him right! 

In actual book work - he is thriving.  It takes him only about an hour to get through all the desk work and the rest of the "others" we learn throughout the day.  We are working on pronouns in English.  Reading through the Kids Message Bible.  History, we are reading about the start of the US (and learned about how NYC started as New Amsterdam which I had somehow missed along the way!).  Reviewing Classifying animals in Science (He enjoyed making the poster of the hierarchy).   And still chugging along great in math.   For art, Raymond made this really cool collage when we were learning about "drawing with scissors".   He really seemed to have an artist mind. His shapes of the rocket/meteor/earth were perfect and really showed frantic/emotion that he was going for - incredible!    

RR found his first book series that he LOVES!  He had to return them (the dogs of the drowned city) and was actually sad.  I was so happy for him to begin to know how totally amazing books are and that they are like best friends that you can visit when you get to pick them up again.  I am super pumped he found his first chapter book "friends" :) We gotta find more! 

For TKD we had to turn in a progress report and I loved getting the chance to fill that out for the 2nd quarter (no grades but just highlights & comments) along with a "character report" we found.   I love it and I LOVED reviewing it with RR.  This will be something we do at the end of every quarter now.  Very cool!  

Evelyn is SO close to reading by herself.  She just needs confidence so I made sight word flash cards and I think this will help a lot.  She has about 5 different PreK / K books she does a page in each day.  

Annabelle pretty much just does art whenever the other 2 are doing school work.

We are in a great place, I am feeling stronger & healthier, thank God.  So thankful!!! :)