Another Job Interview Update

My husband received a call back from the company he interviewed with last week! He goes in tomorrow to meet and talk with more people. It is an encouraging sign! Please pray for God to go before him, for clarity of thought, and that God's will would be very clear. Thanks so much!

Our Week in Review - Ancient China

This past week we learned about the Ancient Chinese civilization that flourished at the same time as the Ancient Egyptian civilization. Amazing to think about the different people groups at that time that didn't even know each other existed!

We learned a lot about China's geography, and a bit about her ancient history, the dynasties that eventually were united into an empire ~ the longest lasting empire in history! We learned about Chinese inventions, language and writing, religious traditions, homes and daily life. All of the children really enjoyed their literature books for the week ~ I read a Chinese Cinderella story to C and Little Man (Yeh-Shen), L read about Fa-Mulan, a female warrior, and G&G read a collection of short fable-like stories from Ancient China. I love when there is a great lit book for every learning level! We all ended up reading them all!


On Friday afternoon we busily made paper lanterns and colored pictures of dragons to decorate our family room.



(concentrating so hard on cutting!)


We strung up the lanterns with Christmas lights, settled on the floor with Chinese food, and watched the Disney movie: Mulan!




It was a fun week! This week we have turned our attention to ancient civilizations that flourished in the Americas. This will complete our whirlwind tour of ancient civilizations throughout the world!

Third Grade - what son C is doing this fall

First of all, a big shout out and thank you to my parents for this wonderful book they sent C recently. The Boy Who Changed the World, by Andy Andrews, is a story of how four boys' lives intertwine to make a difference in the world, and it's even more wonderful because it's true! The first time I read this book it gave me goosebumps, and I loved reading it out loud to all the children with son C front and center on my lap. Thanks mom and dad!



A couple of weeks ago C finished reading through The Beginner's Bible. This has been his daily reading practice with me for about a year, ever since he finished 100 EZ lessons and had his reading party. He read two stories to me nearly every day, and felt a huge sense of accomplishment when he got to the end! (it was worth TEN leaves on our reading tree!)


I have been including him a bit more in our Tapestry of Grace history studies this year, partly because he's ready for more and partly because so far, Year 1 of Tapestry has lent itself well to doing things all together as a family. Which I love! This was a chart that all the children but Little Man made as we read through the latter part of Exodus. It showed where all the furniture for the Tabernacle was placed and what it was used for.

We both love what he's doing for writing this year. Though I am sold on IEW as a writing program, I am waiting until next year to start C on it. This year he is using this All About Me composition book from Love to Learn. Each of his older siblings has also done this in third grade.


Each page asks a series of questions about the student's life ~ so by the end of the year you have a lovely keepsake of this period in your child's life. On Monday C writes his answers to the questions, a rough draft, in a separate notebook. I am working with him on double spacing in his rough draft notebook, to help prepare him for that requirement when he starts IEW next year.




I correct his rough draft, and on Tuesday he copies the corrected version in his All About Me notebook. On Wednesday he draws a picture to go with his writing, and on Thursday he colors his picture. Each week he has a finished page like this:


It is working out very well, and is a nice segue to writing every day with IEW next year.

He is steadily working on math, and recently went through another lesson that taught how to tell time. He has worked on the minutes before. This time he worked on learning the hours, and how to put the whole thing together in order to read an analog clock. I love how Math U See teaches time, because it's completely visual and logical. The circle of blue blocks are the minutes, that can be skip counted by fives or counted individually. The blocks outside the blue circle are the hours, the one block for one o'clock, the two block for two o'clock, and so on. It was a bit of a struggle at first, but when the light came on it was a wonderful moment! (and I love that I get to see and experience these lightbulb moments myself because we homeschool!)

I have not started C on any formal grammar yet this year, but that is coming in January. All in all, he is having a great third grade year!

FIAR Co-op - Madeline

We spent one week on the fun book, Madeline, and Sally was the teacher for this book. There was so much more we could have done! If you are doing a FIAR class with your own children, or in a co-op, you could easily stretch this book over two weeks.

First of course, we read the book together! We talked about how on each page there is a famous Parisian landmark. Then we went to the computer and looked at photos of the actual buildings depicted in Madeline. We could tell what each one was! Sally showed the children where France was, and where Paris was. I love, love, love that simple geography is always built in to FIAR simply by learning where each story takes place.

After we looked at where France was on the globe, we made little booklets that showed what we'd learned. Here is the template for the booklet.

Next we made Madeline dolls from toilet paper tubes! These turned out super cute and all the children had fun with this, even the boys. We talked about colors while we colored, as the youngest children are still working on identifying those. The template for making the dolls can be found here.





We ate croissants for snack!


Viva la Madeline!

Job Interview Update

The interview yesterday afternoon went well! Thanks so much for your prayers. My husband is the first one they've interviewed, however, so now we wait and pray and trust. He liked the company really well, and all the people he met. He thinks he would like the work too. It would be challenging, but challenging in a good way. They are actually hiring for two positions, a senior developer and a software architect. My hubby would be happy with either one, but is hoping for the architect job, as that is the direction he would like to go career-wise.

Meanwhile he is busily working at his two part time contract jobs (that add up to one full time job). They were supposed to have ended by now, yet he is still working.

We are grateful for the Lord's provision on every level!

Job Interview - Please Pray

My husband has a job interview tomorrow afternoon in a nearby town. This is not for a contract job, but a permanent, direct hire position. Please pray that he would do well during the interview, that if he is the man for this job it would be clear to his interviewers, and that he would quickly get a sense as to whether or not this company would be a good fit for him. He is feeling pressured today to complete work for his two part time jobs, but also wants to spend a significant portion of time preparing for the interview, so please pray for good time management today and tomorrow morning.

With election day tomorrow too (I hope you are all going to VOTE!!), I feel like I should just be in prayer all day!

Cleopatra and the Avengers

Sounds like a music group, doesn't it?

But it's just Halloween costumes.

This year our daughter dressed as Cleopatra. Isn't she beautiful?



Son G as Captain America (hours and hours spent by my husband on his shield! about 15 minutes spent by me putting red electrical tape on his winter boots).


Son L as the Hulk.


Son C as Thor. The next picture is better for seeing Thor himself, but this shows what his golden hammer looked like in the dark. It shot out lightning blasts!



And Little Man as Iron Man.


And here are the Avengers, saving planet earth from all kinds of evil destruction!