Weekly Wrap-Up: Watchdogs

Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord;

keep watch over the door of my lips.

Psalm 141:3

 

 

This week our bible lesson was about being watchdogs over our mouth.  We talked about how we should watch what we say so we don't sin with our tongues.  The girls became a member of the watchdog group, which is not a real group, but a made up one for the purpose of the bible lesson.  However, they felt very important when they joined the group and got their membership cards. Anyways, the watchdog motto is: I will watch my ways and control what I say. 

 

 

 

And, me being the best mom in the world (not really), gave us all a lesson when I said something that hurt Lauren's feelings.  I was not trying to be mean, but I said it without thinking and Kristen's uncontrollable laughing was probably what really hurt her feelings, but in the end the lesson became real.  Whether or not we say something intending to hurt feelings, sometimes it just does, so we need to be careful of what we say.  

 

Kristen is a little over halfway through her first math workbook.  I actually had to get out my teacher's guide this week.  I know...can you believe it.  It just didn't seem like what they were asking should be so simple, but it was.  It was intended to be the foundation to build on future lessons.  I have been very pleased with the Horizon's math program.  Although I have not really needed to reference the teacher's guide, it does have some great teaching activities for students who are struggling.  I will probably have to reference it more when Lauren starts, but who knows.  She might just blow us all away. 

 

Kristen's reading is coming along nicely.  This week she actually said that she can hear the words in the sounds.  She is doing much better with sounding things out.  Her sounds were very disconnected from each other.  If she was sounding out pat she would emphasize each letter sound with such force and would break between each sound, so it really wasn't flowing for her.  This week she has done much better sounding words out.  Although tomorrow is Saturday, I am going to work on reading with her in hopes that we can finish Lesson 5 and start our week reviewing and reading one of the actual books that come with the Hooked on Phonics program.  I have also been very pleased with this program too. 

 

Lauren is doing good with her letter sounds.  We are working on G and her chicka chicka boom boom tree is filling up. I think we are going to start working on her numbers next week so she will be ready for the math program come September.  

 

This week I tried a couple of new things.  First, I made homemade donuts and they came out delicious.  The recipe was very simple, but everyone loved them...even my picky Dallas.

 

 

 

I also cut Lauren's hair.  I just had both of the girls hair cut at their favorite place.  The lady who cut Kristen's hair did a great job.  She even made me comb through it to make sure I liked the length.  She listened very well to what I wanted.  But, the lady who cut Lauren's hair was a twenty something know it all.  Lauren's hair just does better when it is cut shorter.  I wanted it chin length and cut in a bob.  Well, she was too busy telling me all of the reasons why I didn't want to cut it that way that she really wasn't listening.  The place was packed and by the time she finished it looked longer than I wanted.  She told me once it dried it would be shorter.  I know I am not a hair stylist, but I have had my hair cut a few times over my 30 plus years to know that it wasn't cut how I wanted it.  Anyways, Dallas was over sitting in his stroller and I was over picking up the yogurt bites that kept falling to the floor because eating was the only way to make him content during the 30 minutes, that I just paid and left.  The more I looked at her hair the more I wanted to fix it.  So, thanks to YouTube I got out my scissors and 45 minutes later (I know that's a long time) her hair was cut.

I think it was harder on Lauren than me.  I wish I had counted how many times I told her to sit still.  I am sure it was a record, but she did great and it turned out better than I thought it would.  We will be going back to get Dallas's first hair cut.  They do a picture, save some hair and write up a little paragraph naming everyone who was with them.  We got them for the girls, so we will get one for him, but after that I think I will be the hair stylist in our house.  It will save money and I am all for saving money.

Weekly Wrap Up: Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

 



First, I haven't blogged about Kristen loosing her first tooth.  It was more emotional than I thought it would be, for me that is.  I waited 7 months for her little baby bottom teeth to come in and now they are falling out.  I guess that's what happens when they grow up.  She got a whopping five dollars from the tooth fairy and we took a trip to Five Below.  After going around the whole store she finally decided on a stuffed animal...shocking!

 

 

I didn't do a weekly wrap-up last week because there really wasn't anything to wrap up.  Monday we had a ton of errands to run so I didn't even attempt to do school.  Tuesday found me sick and needing to go to the doctor.  On Wednesday Lauren woke up with a fever and laid around most of the day not feeling well.  I still wasn't feeling all that great so we took Wednesday off.  On Thursday Kristen woke up splotchy from allergies of some kind.  It was different than her regular eczema.  I gave her some benadryl after breakfast and we did attempt to do school, but she was drowsy so we didn't do much.  By Friday I just gave up!

 

 

 

He is not here; He has risen, just as He said.

Matthew 28:6a

 

We had a lot to celebrate this week!  Our bible lessons this week focused on Easter.  Not dying eggs (although we did do that) or the Easter Bunny (he did bring baskets), but we learned about the reason why we celebrate Easter and it has nothing to do with eggs or bunnies, but everything to do with resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! 

 

We started off the week learning about the Lord's Supper.  We learned that Jesus wants us to remember all he has done for us.   We talked about communion and the importance of it.  On Tuesday we talked about the sad story of Jesus' death and also about the happy results of his resurrection.  On Wednesday we talked about how Jesus disappeared in the clouds, but one day he will appear again to take us to live with him.  On Thursday we had a little Easter party and talked about the different colors of Easter.  Here are some pictures from our week.

 

 

Dying eggs....they were so excited!

 

Colorful eggs.

 

Adding the stickers.

 

 



The colors of Easter craft.

 

 

I printed off this Easter game online.  The girls really liked it.

 

 

We ended our week with yummy brownies.

 

 

 

Kristen completed unit 5 and read another book.  Her reading is coming along even though she doesn't like to do it.  She is still doing very good with her math and she is sailing through her first workbook.  Lauren is practicing staying in the lines and cutting.  She is getting better.  We did make it past the letter E sound and are on to F.  I realized that to her the E sound (like elephant, envelope and egg) sounded a lot like F, so she was saying F  instead of the E sound.  I know...confusing, but we are finally moving on.  Whew!

 

 

So, I will leave you with some pictures from this weekend.  Our church had an Easter egg hunt, fellowship dinner and a magic show for the kids.  Kristen and Lauren were so excited about the Easter egg hunt.  I didn't get really good pictures because they were running around getting eggs, but here are a few that I did capture.

 

The Easter Bunny did come and leave baskets for the kids.  Here are some pictures from this morning. We hope everyone had a very Happy Easter!

Kristen found where the Easter Bunny hid her basket.

 

 

She couldn't believe how big her bunny was.  She told Paul he could have some.

 

 

 

 



Lauren found her basket.

 

 

Looking at what the Easter Bunny brought.

 

 

 

Dallas looking at his Easter basket.

 

 

 

  





Weekly Wrap-Up: A little Rocky

Well, our week started off with my alarm clock (Dallas) not waking up until 9 a.m.  Now, on a Saturday I would welcome this, but not when I have a to-do list a mile long.  Believe me, my list was long.  Paul even commented on it the night before.  Anyways, even though our day started later than I would have liked, I got us all up and moving. I was determined to get everything crossed off of my list.  Then, I let our dog out and he ran away.  He OBVIOUSLY didn't look at my to-do list because if he had,  he wouldn't have picked that day to run away.  At first I was mad.  I decided that if the pound called I was not going to bail him out of doggy jail.  Then I had to pick up cheerios off of the floor and I realized that the dog is the only one in our house that helps me clean up.  I was determined to not pick up anymore food off the floor and get my dog back. So, instead of crossing things off of my to-do list, my day was spent going from the back door to the front door with my assortment of squeaky toys trying to entice my runaway dog to come home.  I never told the girls that Degas had ran away.  They never asked where he was nor did they think that me going outside squeaking squeaky toys was odd.  I'm not sure what that says about me. But, after four and a half hours of "exploring", a nice citizen of Powhatan County called and said they had my dog.  There went my day and my to-do list. So, just when I thought my to-do list was long on Monday, you should have seen it on Tuesday.  It really was a mile long!

 

So do not fear, for I am with you;

do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

Isaiah 41:10a

 

 

Our bible lesson this week was on Daniel.  We talked about fear and how Daniel had many reasons to be afraid.  He was in a den with hungry lions!  But Daniel learned how to overcome his fears through God.  During times when we are afraid, we need to pray to God and trust in him to take care of us.  My how I needed this lesson!  I need to learn to trust that God will take care of certain situations and he really doesn't need me telling Him which way is best.  I need to stand back, be quiet and let God take control.  It's a hard thing to do, but I am determined to let go and let God do the work.

 

Now moving on to.......

 

Reading

 

I wasn't looking forward to tackling reading on Tuesday because it had been 3 days since we had really done anything reading wise, but Kristen picked up right where she left off and did great....and then the rest of the week came and the reading blues set in. We didn't complete the section this week that I had hoped for, but she just wasn't ready to move on.  She wanted to read another book so bad, but she wasn't focused enough to get it done.  I don't want to rush her because reading is hard.  Her math, however,  is going good and she loves counting money.  It is her "fav" as she says. We were doing around 5 math worksheets a day, but they have gotten harder.  When you add reading into it, well, it just became to much.  Every day varies on how many math worksheets she does.  If they are simple easy ones, we do more.  Math is still her strong subject. Oh, and she has her first loose tooth.  She can't wait until the tooth fairy comes!

 

 

Now on to little miss Lauren.  We are still working on staying in the lines while coloring.  Her favorite sentence this week has been, "but I don't know how."  She does know how she just doesn't want to do it.  We are still working on the letter E.  I think she will have it by this week.  We'll see. She does like her Pop, Pop, Pop! book that came with her lessons that we read.  She gets really loud when saying "Pop, pop, pop". She is so cute "reading" this book out loud.  Still not a big fan of lesson time.  She just wants to paint, cut, glue and do her craft.  Maybe she'll be a crafty girl.

 

And I leave you with Dallas' faux hawk.  Kristen said he looked silly and was almost in tears because she thought I was going to take him out in public with his hair sticking up. 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday

Weekly Wrap-Up: A Blizzard

Yes, you read that right.  A blizzard!  I'm not talking about the Dairy Queen type either.  I know that for most people our snowstorm would not necessarily be classified as a "blizzard", but anything above 2 inches constitutes a blizzard in my book. I think we got around 7 inches of snow, which was about 7 inches too much for me.  It really caught us off guard.  First, we weren't supposed to get anything until Wednesday evening and we woke up to 2 inches of snow.  Second, I never thought we would loose power, although snow + heavy wind + falling trees = no power.  (Note to self...always have cell phone charged.) Finally, never let your hubby leave for work in the middle of a blizzard because it will take him 4 hours to go 13 miles.  Anyways, we all survived (thanks to a generator). I will end by saying...I HATE SNOW!

My kids, however, love the snow.

 Watching the snow

 

Making a tiny snowman all by themselves!

 

Dallas watching through the door.

  Making snow angels.

 

 

 

So, when there is a blizzard and you have no power...what do you do?  School!  Yes, we did our lesson even though we didn't have any power. 

 

 

 

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10

 

 

Our bible lesson this week focused on how we are God's handiwork.  Just like he created the bee to do a certain job, God created us for a certain purpose too.  We learned about bee's and watched The Bee Movie (which was a very cute movie by the way). It amazes me that God created the littlest insects to do such big things.  A bee's work is amazing!  I think I am learning more than the kids. 

 

 

We also continued with reading.  Kristen is doing so good and has completed unit one.  She read another book and she was so excited.  Next week we will start unit two and I think she is actually getting excited about reading.  She is still doing very good with math.  It is definitely her strongest subject.  I am excited about starting some new things next year.  I think Kristen will really enjoy it.  Lauren is still plugging away at her sounds.  We focused on learning the sound for letter E and as much as I would like to say she has learned it....well, she has not.  So, this week we will focus on the letter E....AGAIN. 

 

I will leave you with a picture of Kristen and all of her reading buddies. I think she could use a few more.

 





Wordless Wednesday

Weekly Wrap-Up: A SUCCESS!

I had every intention of starting my blogging back up last week and doing a much overdue weekly wrap-up.  However, by the time Friday rolled around I was just so happy the week was over that the last thing I wanted to do was remember any part of it.  Hmmm, how would I describe it...extremely difficult.  I never thought teaching reading would be so hard.  I am not sure what exactly I expected, but tears and frustration (for both of us) was not what I had envisioned.  Needless to say, we both needed time-outs and at the end of the week we all had adopted Lauren's general whiny, grumbling mood when it came to school.  I wanted school time to be fun and exciting, so I regrouped over the weekend and realized that I had so much to be thankful for.  Instead of focusing on the struggles we were having, I needed to focus on all of the things we had accomplished.  This week started with a better attitude on my part, which made all of the difference in the world.

 

Go to the ants you sluggard, consider its ways and be wise.

Proverbs 6:6

 

 

Our bible lesson this week was from Proverbs 6:6.  What we learned: we should be hardworking like the ants.  Not having to be told what to do, but just doing it because that is the right thing to do.  How many times in our house do I hear, "But I didn't get it out."  It seems that when it is time to clean up, all of the toys have made it onto the floor all by themselves!  Lauren actually did a good job picking up things she did not get out.  She helped pick up the DVD's, games and coloring books Dallas decided to make a mess of and that is something to be praised because that little boy can sure make a mess!

 

 

 

We also learned many things about ants too.  I never knew ants didn't sleep!  We read several stories about ants and did some crafts.  Kristen also started a new math curriculum last week and she ROCKS in math.  She is already on page 45!  She is learning about money and telling time.  It is getting a little harder for her, but she is catching on.  Lauren is working on getting all her letters on the chica chica boom boom tree.  She already knows the upper case letters of A-D and the sounds.  It is going to be a long journey for us, but hopefully she will know them all by September.  I see a lot of progress from just last September, so I am hopeful our kindergarten year with her will be successful.  I guess I am learning how to find my inner patience with Kristen, because I am definitely going to need it with Lauren.  As for reading.  Well, I think I have learned a lot more than Kristen has.  The most important thing I have learned is:  Frustration does not make anyone learn any faster.  It doesn't matter if you say it louder.  If it doesn't make sense....it doesn't make sense.  I have learned that time outs are neccessary for success.  I also found out that Paul and I make a pretty good team.  When I was frustrated and ready to throw in the towel, he saved the day by having the patience I had ran out of and worked with Kristen even after a hard day of working.  Kristen has since read two books and has learned how to sound them out and put all of the sounds together.  So, I leave you with Kristen's reading debut.