Our Week in Review

Workboxes

We had a great last-week-of-school using our workboxes! Here are just a few shots of some things the children did. C enjoyed doing a page each day from the Thinker Doodles book put out by The Critical Thinking Company. In this book only half of the animal is shown on each page, and the student must draw the mirror image of each one. I have had this book for years, but thanks to workboxes we are actually using it now! C had a lot of fun with these.



Daughter G doing playful patterns with Little Man.


After my brilliant idea of putting most of Little Man's activities into his siblings' workboxes for focused time together, I had a second brilliant idea to have our daughter plan some of her own activity times with Little Man, just as she used to do with her brother C. So one day this book was in one of her envelopes, along with a note that said, "plan activity to do with Little Man".


She was responsible for choosing and preparing an activity to do together. She chose a really neat one involving planting seeds in a cut off 2 liter bottle. The top third of the bottle got turned upside down inside the bottom two thirds. G put water into the bottom of the bottle first, and then put a rolled up paper towel inside the neck of the upside-down top of the bottle, so the paper towel would act as a wick, constantly watering the dirt.


See the teeny tiny seeds in Little Man's hand? They are snapdragon seeds.


They had a lot of fun with this activity, and 3 days later we can already see small shoots beginning to grow!



History

Well, we made it to the year 1900 this week! Actually, slightly beyond. We spent this year studying the 1800's (Tapestry of Grace year 3) and what a fantastic year we had! This week we read about Helen Keller, George Washington Carver, and Teddy Roosevelt. This was the great book we read on Helen Keller. Pictures on every page, and engaging text. Great for all ages together!


After we read the book, we played a game where one person was blindfolded (having a "blind" experience) and another person guided them through an obstacle course we had set up in our family room. This was fun, but also really brought home to each of the children how important our sight is, and how thankful we should be for it!





Bible

We are just about finished reading through Matthew (we will finish next week, even though this was our last "official" week of school ~ homeschoolers never really stop learning!). Reading the Bible outloud to my children is one of the best things I have ever done, and probably the best part of our day (which is saying alot, because there are alot of great parts). Nothing has given me as much joy as knowing that we are, together, studying what God says to us, and hiding His Word in our hearts. Some of my children may not be good spellers, and some of them may not excel in math or grammar, but if they know and love the Lord and know and love His Word, I will feel that our primary homeschooling goal was accomplished.

In Matthew chapters 23-25, Jesus talks quite a bit about the end of the age. We read through these chapters several times and discussed them at length. The children were quite fascinated and had lots of questions. This is son G's journal illustrating the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25). The top picture shows all 10 going out with their lamps. If you look closely you can see that 5 of them also have oil, while the other 5 do not. The bottom picture shows the 5 on the left with their lamps lit, having been welcomed into the wedding feast by the bridegroom at the door, while the 5 on the right are crying because they were not prepared and cannot come to the feast.

This is daughter G's journal illustrating Matthew 24:36-42, where Jesus says that no-one knows the day or hour of the Lord's return, not even the angels or even the Son of God Himself! The small picture shows a man working in the field, wondering where his friend went who was there just a moment ago.



And this is L's journal illustrating the same portion of Matthew. The top picture shows a man in the field with a rake on the left that has no man attached to it. The bottom picture shows a woman grinding grain, where just a moment ago there had been two women.


When we finish reading Matthew, we will have read through Matthew, Mark and Luke. In the fall we will begin reading John. We are planning to continue reading in the new testament next year, because the following year we will start over with Tapestry of Grace's 4 year cycle, and begin at the start of history again, therefore focusing on the old testament.


Extra

Our daughter had her last horse riding lesson last week. She had a great time and learned so much! I was very proud of her and how much effort she put into each lesson. She showed a lot of improvement from the first lesson to the last. She is now considering whether or not she wants to continue with lessons in the fall. We have told her that if she wants to continue, she has to pay for half the lessons, and that is assuming that we can pay for the other half, which remains to be seen.



In other G news, this week she reached her initial goal of saving $100! She was able to sell $24 worth of items at our MOPS consignment sale, and when she put this in the bank that put her over the top. Way to go G!!! That's diligent saving for someone who has little opportunity to earn money yet.

Our son L received this bag of freeze dried scrambled eggs in the birthday box from his Washington grandparents. We prepared it according to the directions on the back, and he ate this for breakfast one day. It was quite good!


Yesterday was our last day of regular school work. Today we are finishing up the year with an art project day ~ from the era of the Impressionists. Stay tuned for pictures of our work!

Overheard....

I apologize in advance for the crudeness of this episode of "overheard", but they were just too funny not to share. We have some neighbor children who have developed the bad habit of going potty in the bushes behind our backyard shed whenever the urge strikes while they are playing. Our younger boys, of course, think this is fantastic, and we are having to work hard at training them NOT to do this (we're working on the neighbor children too, but that's going rather slowly).

So this afternoon as I was reading history with our 10 year old and the others were outside playing, Little Man came running excitedly into the house to ask me:

"Mommy, if our house burns down can I go pee behind the shed?"

I matter of factly said, "yes, if our house burns down you may go pee behind the shed."

He grinned happily and said, "okay!!"

After he skipped back outside to play, G and I looked at each other and dissolved into laughter!

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9 year old L during dinner table conversation: "If Adam and Eve hadn't sinned by eating the fruit we would all be NAKED!"

An Update on our Insects

Earlier this week we released our beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies into the outdoors. Sadly, one butterfly died when our cat knocked over the butterfly habitat and the orange slice fell on it. But we let the other 4 fly around our living/dining room for a while first, caught them in our hands, and finally let them go outside.



One of the butterflies did not seem to want to leave!


But it finally fluttered away. We watched them for a long time until we lost track of them.


All 31 of C's mealworms hatched into adult beetles and are now happily digging and doing other beetle things OUTSIDE! (my friend Laurie should be very happy about that!)

The ants in our daughter's homemade ant farm have been doing very well, but it's a chore to remember to feed them so she is going to release them back outside tomorrow.

That leaves us with just our non-insect pets ~ two mice and two cats!

Exercise Accountability Update

Walking 5 times a week, or even 4 times, remains elusive. But I'm determined to keep trying! I walked 3 times again last week. Shooting again for 4 this week! It may be that I just can't walk 5 times until school is over, but this is our last week so the timing is good. :-)

Any of you willing to walk "with" me today?

p.s. Happy June!

Planning not to Cry

Today was the baccalaureate service at our church. The graduates represented many different high schools, but all attended our church's high school youth group. They were called up by name, given a gift and a hug from our high school pastor, and sat down again to applause from the congregation. The message was on leaving a legacy ~ focusing on those things which are most important. I was very moved as I watched the graduates down in the first several rows, some of their gowns still wrinkled from being newly taken out of their packages. It seems not so long ago that I graduated, and I remember the mixture of emotions I felt that day. Joy at being DONE (!), sorrow at leaving friends, a little fear of the unknown, thankfulness that this milestone had been reached, and overwhelmingly an excitement about the future and a confidence that God had a special plan for my life and I was about to embark on it.

This particular year, most of the graduates sitting up front are young people I do not know. The ones I do know, I do not know well. And yet, I cried. I cried with joy and hope for them. Cried for their parents who are experiencing bittersweet moments. Cried for their spiritual foundation to be strong. Cried over how fast time goes.

In 6 short years, we will be planning a graduation ceremony for our oldest child. I have been looking forward to it already for quite a while! To plan our own (homeschool) ceremony and include all the elements that we deem most significant seems to me a special treat.

But.

When the time comes, it will be OUR daughter up there. OUR daughter finishing her homeschool journey with us. OUR daughter embarking. Is it as exciting to launch as it is to embark?

I have 6 years to steel myself not to dissolve into a puddle of tears and embarrass our daughter on her special day. Six years to enjoy the daily moments with her solidly in our nest. Six years to disciple her and prepare for the launching.

It seems so short.

I know that day will be here in the blink of an eye.

And when it comes I am planning not to cry.

(too much)

More Preschooling with Workboxes

One day this week our daughter had a bunch of fat paintbrushes in one of her envelopes. When she got to that envelope, it was time to paint with Little Man! Since we don't have a space to leave this easel up permanently, we get it out periodically and keep it up for several days, then put it away again. I wish it could live upstairs all the time, but we just don't have the room. It had been a while since we had the easel set up, and Little Man LOVED painting (easel from IKEA).




I have stored small portions of tempera paints in old plastic cake frosting containers for literally years. In 9+ years I have only had one container that got dried out (with sometimes many months between painting). When the lids are off we match the paintbrush handle color to the paint color and get very little color mixing! I got the chubby paintbrushes with various colored handles here.


Playing A to Z Junior with brother G. We acquired this game years ago when Discovery Toys sold it, but you can still find it at Amazon.


This was L's workbox rack one day this week. Notice in his third box he has a large coconut tree with velcro letters and the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom?


That was his special activity time with Little Man. As L read the story, Little Man placed the velcro letters on the tree. He doesn't know them all yet, so he didn't place them in order, just played with them as his brother read (please ignore the large gardening glove next to the tree!). The Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book we have had and loved for years, but the corresponding velcro tree was a gift to Little Man last Christmas.


On that same day he played "Monkey Business" with his brother G. This is a favorite game of ours that requires only a bit of fine motor skill to play. If you understand the concept of balancing sides you will do well according to the rules of play, but our boys think it is hilarious to cause the monkeys to fall off the tree (the top of the tree is magnetic so it eventually falls off when one side gets too heavy) and into the alligator pit below!


Doing a craft with his craft-loving big sister! (from the $1 section at Michael's)



Except for the tiger craft, everything Little Man and his siblings have done together this week were things we already had. I am so grateful that they are being USED and ENJOYED!

Overheard....

Since forever we have had a rule that no toys may be at the table during meals. We learned early on that they provide too much distraction and s-t-r-e-t-c-h out the meal to an interminable length. With each child that came along, this rule has been taught and enforced. Which translates to me saying, "remember the rule about no toys at the table?" approximately 8,672 times. So this week (don't ask me why it took this long) I finally said, "no more reminders. You bring a toy to the table, you lose the toy."

Today at lunchtime there was a toy at Little Man's place. It was a Star Trek communication device that came in a cereal box (who-hoo! a whole new generation to convert into trekkies!).

Me, as I confiscated said toy: "Oh dear, you brought a toy to the table so now the toy goes bye-bye."

Little Man, earnestly: "Well mommy, I didn't bring the toy to the table, it just suddenly appeared there!"


Sorry buddy. Even Star Trek communication devices don't magically beam themselves onto the table.