Busy, Busy!!

It's been busy, busy around here over the last few months. We're in the process of moving and that is very chaotic for our family of six. Hopefully we'll be settled in in the next few weeks and things will slow down a little. I am always on the lookout for ways to occupy/educate/keep busy my little ones. Yesterday while trying to teach math, I saw some Uno cards laying on the table. My 3 year old was wanting something to do so I said here sort these by color. I separated them into four piles- one for each color- blue, yellow, red and green. I only gave her a few at a time and it was a hit! She really enjoyed it. It works for me! Even my almost 2 year old wanted some to "sort". Yes, we'll be doing this again soon.

Psalm 96

"O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people. For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods." Psalm 96:1-4

Update

Boy, we sure are busy around here. Last week, my oldest two participated in a theatre camp with our home school group. They had so much fun and enjoyed learning about plays. It was fun to watch them in their presentation on Friday night. It did make for a busy week! This mama was exhausted by the end of the week!

Despite all the fun, I'm glad for a "normal" week around here. Our 3rd week of school is already halfway over. We're playing a little catch up from last week since we didn't get everything done. We're studying cultures and countries this year and the curriculum suggested we make a cake and decorate it like a map or globe. We gave it a go and I was gonna let the kids do all the decorating, but apparently I didn't let it cool long enough before removing it from the pan. It split into. I was afraid it would fall all apart if I let them decorate it so I put a light layer of blue icing on first and then let them help me smooth it out. Then I used an icing pen (that I had leftover from some decorating last year) and tried to outline the continents. I didn't have enough of the icing pen to fill in the continents, but they were happy and that's all that matters. They enjoyed looking at it, but really all they wanted to do was eat it anyway! Of course, as their teacher, I made sure they could tell me the name of each continent and ocean before they could eat it :)

Week One - Review

We have completed week one of our homeschool lessons! The children were so ready to get busy. They always are at the beginning. I tried to take it slow to get them back into a routine, but they just wanted to do more. So of course we did! I had a lot of anticipation going into this year of schooling. I knew having two little ones underfoot was going to be quite the challenge. My youngest took her morning nap last year while we were working. I knew that this year would be quite different. I tried to plan things for my 3 year old to do: cutting, coloring, puzzles, sorting, lacing beads, playdough, etc. What I didn't think about was my 19 month old wanting to do everything big sis did. She ate the playdough and macaroni noodles for sorting (not enough to get worked up about, but...) These weren't cooked by the way! Needless to say, I've got to do a little more figuring and planning. I think the key is organization and patience!

Laundry

Don't you just love to fold a fresh load of laundry? I do! I know everyone doesn't find it as pleasant as I do, but I have my reasons. I've lived in two different countries and had to hang laundry. Having a dryer is a big blessing for me. In Africa, we hung our clothes on the roof and if you left them out for too long they were so stiff you'd have to wash them again! I've learned to appreciate the nice soft loads that come out of the dryer. Folding all those little clothes reminds me of the precious family God has given me. I don't always think of this while folding clothes, but I should. Now if I can only be reminded of being thankful as I'm washing dishes. Not my favorite job.

Back to our homeschool

I've gone back and forth on when to begin school around here. Couldn't seem to figure out the best time to start, but we all seem ready so I guess we're gonna plunge in on Monday. A lot of people think we're nuts, but we like to start early so we'll have time to take some extra breaks throughout the year. Plus, in a few weeks we're planning to head to the beach for vacation. We're so looking forward to it! I've been on a mad dash to get everything ready for our start on Monday. I've been reading curriculum, making schedules, straightening supplies, making lists, collecting books from the library, and much more so hopefully we'll be mostly ready when Mon. morning rolls around. :) I've been rearranging around here all summer trying to figure out the best way to use the two rooms I have for schooling, sewing, crafts, scrapbooking, computer, and playtime. They are at the front of the house separated by the front entrance. One is actually the dining room that we use for a playroom. Now I've decided to put the school table in there. I put it in the corner so that there's still room to play. We'll see how that goes. It is still in the works. I moved my sewing machine into the other room that I used to have the school table in. (Confused yet?) It's so nice to have a place to sew without having to drag everything out. I've actually used it a lot this summer. I wanted to do more, but there's still time in the evenings when the children are in bed. Our children are excited about school. Our 3 year old asked me tonight if we were starting school tonight. So cute! I've been telling her that she's gonna be learning more things and she's so excited! She has a pair of scissors, crayons, little workbooks (that I picked up from the dollar *store), stickers, etc. Hopefully, the excitement will continue...:)

Busy weekend and summer project progress

Well, we're back from my brother's wedding. It was absolutely beautiful! We are tired, but glad to be home. It was busy, busy!

Now about our progress for my summer project list. We're still working on Psalm 1. My oldest has it memorized. My son can say it all with a little help from me. My 3 year old also knows it pretty well. It's amazing to me that a 3 year old can memorize so quickly. She knows the first 3 verses well and can say a little more with help from me. I'm still working on it, but can say a good bit from memory.

Last week my oldest daughter and I worked on a cute skirt. She really wants me to teach her how to sew. She's a very eager learner, but I'm trying to go slowly with her. I showed her how to cut out a pattern and press the fabric, etc. She just watched, but I want her to see what goes into putting something together. She was ready to go play after she realized it took a long time to get that part done. I showed her a little more and then she came and watched part of the sewing process. She was so excited to see her skirt finished. Hopefully, this week we're gonna make a couple of doll skirts together.

We're not doing as much reading as I wanted to this summer, but I'm reading to them most every night and they read books throughout the week. It's hard to believe there's only a few weeks left of summer for us.