Week 1

All through out the week... he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." And I praise God for His continual presence through out our week, our very fruitful and enjoyable week. Since it was the first week it prooved to be a challenge, the first day was exciting and full of energy but every day after steadily slanted slightly down hill as we pushed ourselves to stay in a somewhat straight line with our daily plan. He daily supplied me with His power to not only walk in a straight line but also to beable respond with grace to all of the behavior issues and daily distractions.

(Isn't he handsome!)

Math: Superman completed all 5 lessons from his Horizon 2 workbook and each day we played a simple but fun math game to follow our lesson. I was very proud of how quickly and eagerly he took to his math lessons. I have his workbook by his desk so that he can reach it and pull out the daily worksheet and then he completes it pretty much on his own. If he struggles with anything I assist him and explain on our white board. I am loving our daily math game, it is a nice way to lighten up our lesson and have some fun practicing our lessons.

*A funny math quote from Eli this week: "65... is embarrassing me." No idea, just thought it was cute and funny.

Grammar: We didn't go as fast as I thought we would with our grammar lessons, it seems that Superman has a lazy brain when it comes to thinking about verbs and sentences. I know that over time he will begin to run a little faster, I am not rushing him but it is hard, this is one of those areas where His grace is poured all over my head as I sit there and just know what he is capable of but realize he is holding back.

Spelling: Super simpe and awesome! I don't really have a year or even weekly plan for this, we are just going to "go with the flow" of it because it is all about learning through sight and dictation. This week he focused on CM's children's motto: "I can; I am; I ought; I will." Ought was the focus word, he got it!

Cursive: Oh my goodness does this boy LOVE his cursive, he would do it all day if I would let him. I am so suprised at how well he is doing and how diligent he is about not only doing it but learning it correctly.

History: It started off a little rocky when Superman couldn't anwser any of the review question but as the week went on he did better. I decided to try out head phones for him to listen to the chapter and that worked a lot better, no distractions. I will have to listen to the chapter the morning or night before so I know what is going on. We did our coloring sheets and carpet craft and today we will do one of the activities. I am determined this year to follow through with my plans to do one craft a week + an activity if one is given. I want History to be alive, to jump off the pages of the book and live in his imagination.

*Note: we were using the revised edition of the book but not the Activity Book and when I looked through it at the store yesterday I was amazed at the illustration differences in the two and purchased the revised edition. They are amazingly better!

Science: Ya know we are just truly enjoying ourselves here and it is only going to get better, I have A LOT up my sleeve. 2 days ago I took a little trip to the library to assist us in our Plant study and Nature study. I will begin pulling alot out of my sleeve this weekend to begin doing. We studied a little bit about the seed, made a little booklit on it, read some books and planted some flowers. Just this afternoon I noticed they have already sprouted, we were all excited about their life.

Before lunch Superman has his independent reading time. I do not have this scheduled out, it really depends on the subject and availibilty of it. So far he has been able to dive into artist, history and science books while I cook lunch. Sometimes I had him read it to me and sometimes he read silently.

Artist and Music Appreciation: Amazing... we have had such a blast with each of these and I can not tell you how much I have personally enjoyed watching him growingly increase in enthusiasm and appreciation for them. I will say that I have allowed him to lead in this. He observed The Starry Night one day, read a book on Van Gogh and then decided to try his hand at recreating The Starry Night. For music we have simply enjoyed listening to Mozart's music and his life, I (the big student in the room) was very intrigued by Mozart's life. Superman already has a favorite of his works.

Latin: Ha! We have struggled with our latin lessons, we only made it to one this week. That is not good. We will extra hard to make it apart of our day next week and following, I really do not want it to fall between the cracks of the day.

Rest Time: Okay so rest time isn't a subject but it was a success this week! It is a giant chore to get T-Rex to actually sleep at rest time, he usually plays the whole time which is 2 hours usually. Well I thought up a plan. I told him that he wouldn't get his afternoon snack if he didn't sleep, I told him I would leave it on his night stand but only if he was asleep, it worked:

Butterfly has her own little "desk" that she climbs in and out of as she pleases working on her own little creations and education.

And here she is tormenting poor precious, who was trying to get some sleep:

It was a great week! I need to start getting up earlier to soak each day in prayer.

JOYfully in Him,

Kelli

Our GMW Daily Adventure

This is our daily plan or adventure as I like to think of it, though it is in the process of transforming into a better fit for us... all times are simply a guide

Before Breakfast: 7:30
• Room
• Dressed
• Trash and Table Chores(empty & set)

Before School: 8:00
• Kitchen Chores (clear, wipe and sweep)
• Teeth and Hair (brush & fix)
• Quick clean up
• Couch Time: Family Meditation (in the word) and Dedication (in prayer)

School: 8:00-11:30
• Math 20-30m (Horizons)- I may put our Cursive here considering his eagerness
• Break with Game for E&K-Art on Wednesdays
• Grammar 10m (Simply Grammar)
• Spelling 5-10m (Spelling Wisdom)
• Break for FREE play (together) Art on Mondays
• History 20-45m (SOTW)
• Break with short fun read aloud
• Science 20-45m (106 Day/Condsidering God’s Creation)
• Nature Mission (daily seek&find or make&design)
• Independent Reading (different days different subjects) while I fix lunch if not helping

*We will try to do as much outside in the beginning fall months as possible and I will not allow us to go over 20 minutes on any subject if there is any resistance and we will take breaks when necessary.

After Lunch Studies: 11:30-12:30
• Kitchen Chores and Daily Chores
• Free Play (closet door OPEN): encourage outside

Before REST: 1:30
• Quiet Time… 30 minutes as a family- I am loving this!!
• Play

REST: 1:30-3:30ish
• Alternate Dessert Time with “Composer Name” and Table Time with “Artist Name”(picture study, read aloud or other)
• My Cleaning Block
• Bible and prayer time with Eli
• Computer Block
• And reading Block


Before 5:30 Dinner
• Latin Studies with Daddy
• Clean up from the day rooms and fingers!
• Table Chores (set the table)

Before 8:00 Bedtime
• Kitchen Chores
• Bath* and PJs
• Family Time: communion, worship (with Hymn study) and prayer
• Boys Read Aloud: currently: The Runaway Mouse

I will post what we are using soon...

Day 2 Examination

Last night I did a lot of examining as I am now over today. It was another "Awesome Day!" but we had a hard time fitting in all of our subjects between 8 and 12. I had an idea that was going to be a problem but I was hopeful. One of the reasons is because I have little blocks of time set out for family time and learning "breaks" between our harder subjects, which you will see in our daily schedule when I get around to posting it. I thought maybe we need to get up earlier but we are good to be making it by 8:00, 8:00 is good, actually perfect for us so that will not change. I guess I will be forced to move some subjects into our "rest" time in the afternoons. I am also not sure what to do with T-Rex, my 4 year old, who just can not and will not sit still long enough to do anything. Tomorrow, I am planning on closing our closet door which is the flood gate to all or most of the toys in our house. After trying to do a set out curriculum with him I think I am realizing that it is just to much for him and me so I am going to have to figure something out tonight or by the end of this week. I personally can not allow him to just wander and play all day while I actively pursue Superman's education. Some thoughts I have are to just have some things available throughout the week to do with him, with the idea that I would steal a few moments here and there to spend with him learning. I don't want to push him to much, he is only 4 but I do want to engage with him in some way through out the 3 hours.

We finished today around 1:45ish and entered our my sacred rest time, oh how I look forward to this time each afternoon, though I am hoping not to lean to much on it in the future because I would really like to take advantage of the majority of that time with Superman... and I do sometimes but honestly I allow the time to overtake me and my desires to just be in my own space.

Superman was so excited yesterday when Classically Cursive came in and he wanted to start it right then but I swaded him to wait until today. When we finally rolled around to our time he begged me to do more of his cursive, I orginally said no but after continuous beging I gave in and he did it for at least an hour covering many pages. I wasn't sure about letting him do it but I was watching him and guiding him the whole time. It was exciting to see him so eager to learn and today while we were in the middle of our lessons he told me that "School was fun".

Yes...

JOYfully in Him,
Kelli

Our 1st GMW Adventure

I learned a lot today, about myself at this season of motherhood and homeschooling and about the structure of our day as well as the floetry (is that a word?) of subjects and children :0). I feel like the Lord blessed us in our attempt to honor Him in our adventure, I am calling it that because it is just that an adventure in simply living, loving and learning we are all walking and sometimes hiking together and we will need to be there to encourage eachother when the road gets rough and we will definetly need to pick eachother up when we fall on the rocky ground below us and nurture our wounded knees and hearts at times. I, only with the Lords strength, got up earlier than I have in months and got off to a fairly close start to the one I had written on paper and deep in my mind.

Initially I had planned on taking a lot more pictures but I guess we just got to caught up in our day that I forgot. I had everything planned out but did not have the intentions to be a legalist about it but rather to use it as a guide. It worked out pretty well other than a few things. Here is what we did...

...family meditation in the word and in prayer... we gathered on the couch in our playroom and went over what the bible says about authority and then with a request from Butterfly we all very loudly proclaimed "Our God is not dead... NO" as we all joined together in song and then followed with a time of prayer for our day.

...we then went to our desks to dive into some math concepts... and after gathered around the kitchen table for a game of addition Bingo. At first I thought only Superman and I could play but with T-Rex's persistence that he was "big enough" to play to he joined us and I was very glad because it was a great learning experience for him and his numbers.

...next was our copywork and grammar lesson, which was super simple and fun... Superman enjoyed the lesson on sentences. For copywork he just copied his memory verse for the week: 1 Corinthians 11:3.

...we enjoyed some time just hanging out together and planting some indoor window plants.

...it was hard to go back inside after being outside so we brought our radio outside and listened to our SOTW Chapter one and then colored the map and had a nice little discussion.

...after our history lesson I put several library books on the table for him to read about Rome... he loved them and couldn't get enough. We then went into lunch time and after moved into our cleaning time, this was nice and I was so suprised at how much fun they all had, Butterfly had fun spraying her cleaning solutio,water, all over herself and everyone else and the boys did an excellent job at getting all of their dirty hands and feet markings off the hall wall while I cleaned the bathroom...

... right before our rest time we had a nice little family quiet time together just enjoying some books together...

...during our rest time Superman enjoyed some time with Vincent Van Gogh and The Starry Night. I was very impressed with his enthusiasm to just observe art and discuss what we looked at together... we are both looking forward to more.

We had a pretty nice, calm and short day considering we were missing our cursive, science and spelling, which all came in directly following our lessons :0). They will be added to our day tomorrow. Superman is excited about cursive.

Something that I learned today was that Butterfly needs her own table and chair so that I don't have to keep battling with her on T-Rex's desk or on the kitchen table. At one point she actually grabbed a book and put it on the table and began to climb in the chair, it was then I realized she wanted to be apart of what was going on. All in all it was in Superman's words "Awesome day!"

JOYfully in Him,

Kelli

Note to Self:

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24

HAVE FUN WALKING TOGETHER THROUGH THIS GLORIOUS DAY!

*it is our first day of our 2008/2009 homeschool year... stay tuned.

Waiting to finish...

I am half way expecting this up coming year to be a bit unpredicatable and in some places a tad bit crazy with the possibility of us moving in the middle of December and taking a new position at a new church in a new town and near family for the first time. All of those meshed together could cause some unknowns to occur for us, some good unknowns and some bad. I am planning for the whole month of December off in expectation of a move and little days off through out the rest of our year to make up for lost time and the fact that we will only be having 4 day weeks and 36 weeks to the whole year, or at least I am hoping for a 36 week year :0).

I am still waiting for some of my books to come in, a bit unpatiently might I add. They really should have already been here but all in His timing, all in His timing. When they do finally drive up my driveway I will greet them with an over-joyous and maybe a little obnoxious "HELLO" and then with out any manners at all sit down with them at my table and observe and give them the third degree of how they will serve us this year for hours just like I have all the others ;0) and I will love it. Can't wait to share all of my overly zealous plans for our, in 5 short days, upcoming year.

JOYfully in Him,
Kelli

Anxious yet Nervous

I am very anxious about beginning our new school year but also a little nervous. I have so many plans and expectations that I fear I will buckle under the pressure and constant demands. I struggle with giving ALL of me as I feel the natural pull of the rest of my house tugging at me and not to mention this world beyond the screen. I lack discipline and battle an emotional force with in me that tries to control where I move my hands in service causing me to take an easier path forsaking my priorities. I wonder if I am alone in this struggle. I long to have a strong accountability that reminds me daily of my God ordained Christ centered priorities as a stay at home mom who has taken her children's education under her wing.

With this idea of accountability this year I have decided for one to put my husband in his rightful place in our little schoolroom as Principal and with that, with him being my authority and and my kind of "accountability supporvisor" I will set out to turn in a weekly and monthly progress report to him, so that I will feel more responsible in my daily educating (as if the future of my children wasn't enough?) and so that he can feel assured of the things we are doing and the progress we are making. I think it will proove to be a blessing to all of us. Also with the reality that we will probably if it is the Lord's will be moving at the end of the year I will need the reports for when we get settled in our new place. (This is not for sure yet) I will also join the Weekly Reporters in my attempts to have more accountability.

I am currently working on our progress reports and praying that God will enable this mom to be 100% devoted to her children and their beautiful individual Growing Minds in our 2008/2009 homeschool year.

JOYfully in Him,
Kelli