/M/-/M/-Moon

The week after we studied the Sun (and the concept that Jesus is the light of the world), we began to study the moon (and I am the light of the world).  I was so amazed at how my four-year-old was able to catch on to this concept so well when it's such a hard spiritual lesson to grasp.  First, we locked ourselves away in our upstairs bathroom that doesn't have a window. (What? You didn't know that we had an upstairs bathroom? That's because we've lived in this house for 4 years now and it's still not finished with the remodeling phase and so only immediate family members have ever been allowed to enter it.)

A random school picture brought to you by the letters d-i-e-g and o. 

Anyway, back to being locked away in a dark room.  I took a globe, a flashlight, and a mirror into the room with me.  Yes, I had to bring a mirror into the bathroom because our bathroom doesn't have one... not finished yet, remember? We talked about how the sun gives light to the world like the flashlight pointing on the globe.  Then we discussed how the mirror didn't make light of its own, but how it could reflect light from the flashlight.  We talked about how this is why the moon isn't as bright as the sun and only gives us a little bit of light and then we talked about how we are like the moon and can't make our own light, but if we are close to Jesus then we can reflect his light in our lives.  And then we sang This Little Light of Mine about a million times...er, we didn't stay in our dark, unfinished bathroom for the singing bit.  In the evening or over lunch break, I often have the kids share with Jesse what they're learning... (it's my way of evaluating what they've actually learned and what I need to repeat again).   I was amazed at how well Diego could explain these concepts to Jesse right away. 

I am grateful for the opportunity to teach both of my kids about the Lord and I pray for the days when they will both make personal decisions to follow Jesus.  Sometimes, I begin to wonder: How long is it going to take Diego to grasp it and make that decision?  But Jesse and I met through an organization called Youth For Christ and one of the things I love about that ministry is their vision- part of which says they want young people: to make an informed decision to be a follower of Jesus Christ.  So, when I'm in a hurry for Diego to make a decision, I remind myself of the importance of not making a rushed decision that isn't carefully weighed.  I want Diego to understand what he's committing to and Who he's giving his life to- so in the mean time, I am so thankful that he is learning so many great concepts of who God is and what it means to live in Him.

Wow, this post just took a much deeper turn than I had originally intended.  But my main goal is to record my thoughts and our days to (hopefully) one day share with my kids.  (I don't scrapbook... and the kids baby books' are dreadfully underfinished.) So, I guess it's okay.

M is for Meatloaf... I know, not very exciting, but really easy to do and throw in the oven while we venture off for 30 minutes of soccer practice. 

And Mosaics... I loved how careful and thorough Eliana was when making her Letter M Mosaic.

And of course the Moon- which we had to figure out how far it was away from earth and then how far away that was from the sun.  Do you see our green earth in one corner of our paper and our moon down at the bottom right of the paper?

Eliana and I held the sun down on our picnic blanket (and may have taken a short nap)  While Diego and Jesse took the earth and moon paper and measured out 300 some yards at the park.  Another excuse to get outside and also a perfect way to get Jesse involved in a piece of our school- which we really like since he can't be there for the whole thing.  Why must Papi go to work?  Oh, we have to eat?  Oh, yeah... thank you, Papi!  We love you and miss you when you're at work!

S is for Sun and Soccer!

Well, I'm utterly behind and have so much to show you!  I'm going to try to lump days by weeks... and since it seems that my weeks wrap around letters right now, that's what you get.

Have I told you that I love the My Father's World curriculum?  I really do!  I love that I can pull Eliana in for much of the lesson and that she has fun learning at her own level.  I love that there's a spiritual lesson that wraps around our letter of the week. Sun- Jesus is the Light of the world.  (Even 2-year-old Eliana can tell you this- I love that!)  I love that lessons only take about an hour and a half- sometimes two depending on how focused the kids are in the morning -sometimes just an hour.  I love the outside projects that it forces us to do... especially now that it's getting cooler. I'm grateful for the excuses reasons to return outside again.

Unfortunately (or fortunately- we  were really dry and I acknowledge that), it did rain for most of the week we were studying the sun... which means we never got around to making a sundial.  (Maybe when Eliana hits Kindergarten we'll have better luck.) And we couldn't lay our grapes outside to make raisins... which meant they stayed in a bowl in a sunny window... which wasn't too sunny so by the time they actually had attained a raisin like status, they also had molded.  Ew!  ( I don't have a picture of them... we threw them away and I gave the kids a handful of raisins from the pantry to eat instead.  I guess you kinda have to make do.)

So, we made spaghetti and sun tea and practiced making the letter s in shaving cream (which was a much happier experience than trying to write s with a pencil... his little four-year-old hands really struggle with keeping a pencil under control). 

As you can see, playing in shaving cream is fun (once you get past the mess). Eliana loves the tactile letter projects we do, even though sometimes she gets a bit off subject.  She was much more into smearing it around the table than actually making an s, but that's okay because she was involved in school, which makes my life easier when I'm not having to come up with something else to keep her occupied.

And we also started Diego's Soccer during S week... very appropriate. Right?  And let me tell you, as much as I was pushing to get him involved in some kind of sport this fall, I was with hesitation that I would be bored out of my gourd having to watch practices and games.  But I am having so much fun!  Four-year-olds trying to play soccer is about the best you can get.  Between kids picking up the ball, scoring on their own goal, or ending a game a couple minutes early because of on-the-field meltdowns (er...other people's kids, not Diego) we've had our share of laughs. 

And Diego is having fun, whether it's running up and down the field rather aimlessly (as he has a tendency to forget to watch the ball)

or his new favorite activity while not on the field.... practicing writing his letters in the dirt with a stick. 

He likes the kids on his team, the Gorillas, and if you have a chance, you should ask to hear his team cheer... funny little monkey sounds.  Brings a smile to my face every time.

Puzzles and Creation

We finished our third day of school today.  Okay, calling it a day may be a stretch at this point because I put a load of laundry into the dryer before I started today and we were finished a few minutes before the buzzer on the dryer went off, but still.

My Father's World Kinder curriculum starts off slow with 10 Intro Lessons.  I've decided to condense them into 7 days since the main thing we're learning about is creation.  We'll end with Rest on Sunday.  Sound good?  (I at least hope I get some rest that day!) 

Here's one of the things Diego and Eliana have been working on the past few days.  (That's Diego's 2... he's working on cutting.) Or maybe I should say: I'm working on letting him cut.  Our Parents As Teachers' Rep, Ms. Michelle, has been after me for quite some time to buy the boy a pair of scissors.  So, for school I bought him a pair.  Of course, Eliana wants to cut out her numbers too, and I (of course) am a mean momma and tell her "no!" (I chalk it up to seeing way too many bad, self-inflicted haircuts on kids and I am bound and determined that's not going to happen to mine.  Nope, if any one is going to give them a bad haircut it will be their father!)

So, obviously there are parts of the lessons that Eliana does with us but there are times when I need to work one-on-one with Diego for reading and calendar math. (The reading lessons so far have been fairly easy-letter recognition things which he pretty much has mastered- this is one of the reasons our little school moves so quickly.) So, at the home school fair I picked up some puzzles and activities specifically for Eliana to work on while I am working with Diego.  So far, this has worked out not so well.  He would like to do her puzzles and she would like to do his calendar work- especially the straws! "I yike straws!"

However, today after nap, I did let him work on her number puzzles and pegs that I picked up for her and this made him happy.  (And tomorrow, I will let her put the straw into our place value chart so that she can be a happy camper, too!)

I think we're going to try and head for the zoo tomorrow.  It's been such a long time since we've gone- I just can't handle the heat of summer!  Tomorrow is Home School Day at the zoo (if you go, this will explain the large number of denim jumpers) and we're going to meet our new home school group there.  I'm sure looking forward to getting to know that group.  Growing up, our own home school group, The Lighthouse Fellowship, was an invaluable resource to my mom (and her sanity!) and such a great source of fun and friendship for the kids, too.  We met the group last Friday night for the first time and I'm already excited about the friendships to be formed- such a smart and sweet group of kids, and such a nice group of ladies (two of whom will be providing playmates for Cruz in the next couple of months)!

Our First Day of School!

Well, it's finally arrived.  I didn't quite feel as prepared as I had hoped, but the closet renovation was more or less done before we started today (Jesse and I did stay up late painting and reorganizing to get that part done).  And the playroom is now a lot closer to looking like a school room instead. 

Like I said, it's not all the way done.  I still have to make curtains for the room.... do you remember this fabric that I mentioned months ago?  Well, it's been sitting around my house waiting for me to get to work for months now.  Then there's the issue of our seating- we have an old church bench that needs to be cut down and some chairs that I've had forever (and when I say forever I mean before Diego and Eliana were around) that need to be refinished and put in there.  And then, while our original plan was for the closet just to have shelves like this.

We've since seen this and think that eventually the doors might be a great addition.  But this is a lot of extra work (and Jesse is in school too). So, I'm not thinking this part will be done anytime too soon. 

Right now, we've taken our coffee table (and the kids chairs that usually sit around it) from the living room and have placed them in there until the table and seating can be done.  When we get a few more things finished, I'll let you see the room.

But for now, here's pictures of the kids for their first day.  I saw a similar photo shoot from Living Creatively and thought this would be a great tradition to document their first day each year.  (Usually, I see photo ideas after the fact and then feel sad that I haven't documented that way from the beginning...ever been there?) But this year, I hope to have started a new tradition from the get-go!

Alrighty, Jesse's going to be home soon so that I can go to the PTR. This was something else I had planned to do before school started so I could be prepared, but a stinkin' water main broke and they decided the best place to store things so they wouldn't get wet was in their childcare area.  Which means they're not taking care of kids on Wednesdays right now.  Boo!  So, it's taken me until now to arrange my own childcare so I could make it down there.  I'll only have about 45 minutes before they close... hope that's enough!  Happy Monday!

Pwa!

Diego: Pwa! Pwa!

Me: What does Pwa mean?

Diego: Don't put salt on my head.

Me: Okay, I'll try not to.

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My kids have recently learned that "Woof" and "Ruff" are not the only things dogs say.  Apparently, they also say, "Barf!"
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Jesse: (to Eliana) Stop moving around, I'm not playing with you!

Diego: She's not playing, she's whining.
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My kids have been taking turns being sick for about two weeks now.  Whenever I take Eliana's temp she "reads" the thermometer and tells me: "twenty-four."

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When we began to discuss the fact that we were going to do school at home, Diego wanted to know if other kids were going to come to our house for school.  I told him that it would just be the kids in our family.  A few days later he told me: "Mami, you need to have 10 babies so that we can have lots of kids in our school."  I told him that as cool as the Duggars are, we are not the Duggars.

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Recently, when I ask Eliana what she wants for breakfast, her response is: "Pizza!" (Something tells me she will do just fine in college.)

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What are your kids funny sayings?

Now that it's cool again...

My house -that is, not outside. (I wish it were cool outside, then we wouldn't have been dying these past two weeks as we were waiting for our a/c to be fixed.) Anyway. Now, I've been trying to prepare my home and life to begin homeschooling Diego this fall. 

As many years as I taught in "real" classrooms (more on this later) and as many years as I was home-schooled myself, you'd think this thing would be a cinch.  But it's not.  Home-school curriculum has evolved tremendously in the 20+ years it's been since my mom started homeschooling us.  Back then, I think all anyone in the home-school community had heard of was Konos.  There are more options now.  A lot. More. Options.

But, I'd heard rave reviews about My Father's World, and after taking a good look at it and going to two of their sales rep's seminars, I was convinced (and excited to give it a whirl). For those of you who are counting, Diego just turned four and so technically isn't due to start school for another year. (Actually the state of Kansas doesn't require most students to be in school until 7. Crazy, huh?) But I've decided to give it a try this year because Diego knew his uppercase letters before he turned two and has always seemed to take a real interest in reading and this way if I mess up royally he's not ruined for life.

My Father's World is only supposed to take 1 to 1.5 hours at the Kindergarten level and I figure I should be able to handle that. We'll soon see.  In the mean time, I'm gathering books that I'll need throughout the school year (where did my copy of Ferdinand run off to?) and writing a few weeks of lesson plans (the state of Kansas requires a hard copy, so I might as well begin to write all I plan to do down) and work on our school calendar (there's only 28 weeks of lessons in this curriculum but Kansas doesn't have a set amount of days or hours for Kinder so I'm not too worried).

Things I am excited about:

• Lots of new books and lots of integrated science that is simple enough for even me to understand. (Science is my weakest area.)
• Weekly themes like: Sun- Jesus is the light of the world. (Just like the sun.) And Moon- I am the light of the world. (I should reflect Jesus' light just like the moon reflects the sun's light.) How cool is that?
• Being able to schedule school around our life events like: a new baby, holidays and Jesse's school breaks.
• Getting my playroom reorganized and turned into a school room.

Things I am nervous about:

• Getting my playroom reorganized and turned into a school room.
• Having enough time to teach on Wednesday which is filled with BSF and my job as director of  the Wednesday night kids outreach ministry.
• Making myself get up at a consistent time and back on a real schedule.

Okay, home-schooling veterans, your turn to sound off: What is your best piece of advice for home-schooling success?  Would love to hear from all of you! 

Cruel Summer Friday Favorites (and a Winner!)

Some of you may remember this song as a Bananarama song. Not me... to me it's an Ace of Base song. Either way, it's seemed appropriate this summer. (Especially the "leaving me here on my own" part.  I think maybe I ought to sing it to my absentee a/c guy.)

We spent a couple of weeks in June waiting for our a/c to be fixed (it needed a new a-coil) and almost two weeks ago, it broke down again (this time it's the compressor- which was fixed last year, too). This is a four year old unit, folks. (At least our a/c guy told us it was brand new when we bought it.) So out of the four years we've owned this unit, we've had serious trouble with it half of the summers we've owned it.

We're praying that it is fixed today. (Well, actually we were praying that it was fixed last week, but that didn't happen.) In the mean time, we've been floating around in record breaking heat temperatures (can we say 108 degrees?) from air conditioned home to air conditioned home of my family. Thank you, thank you! And as a result, my blog has been ignored. I finallly realized what I needed to do to be able to use my lap top at my parents' home today, so I've decided to share my dreams of coolness via my Etsy Treasury of the week.

Have a cool weekend, everyone!  And congrats to Emily @ Cottage Industrious, who won the vintage clothes pin bag!  (I'll get it to you next week when we get together.)