Back to the Blog World

Wow... 3 months, huh? It's been a whirlwind. We've still been trucking along with school, but have had a little trouble keeping up with everything with the new (very fussy) baby. Blogging has sort of fallen by the wayside.

We had Matthew's 4 year check up last week (about half a year late but had to wait for insurance to cover it). The doctor said he had a small fine motor delay because he couldn't hold the tiny little pen and write his name very legibly (he's used to fat markers at home). While I don't think 4 years old is really old enough to be behind in much of ANYTHING, I still figured that as long as he didn't protest, we'd work a little more on his writing and drawing. I found a John Deere letter coloring and sticker book at the dollar store (not the "we're going to end everything with .00 and call it a dollar store" but the "everything's a dollar" dollar store). He loves John Deere because they sponsor the zambonis at the arena where Daddy works, so it was perfect. He's had fun tracing letters in that today.

I've started doing some more focused preschool activities with the girls. They love to color so it's great to get them all at the table coloring and then use that time (provided Andrew is sleeping or at least content in his swing or bouncy seat) to read some of Matthew's books to all of them. The girls are learning to sit quietly for a little bit longer stretches as we do this, plus working on some fine motor skills at the same time ;-) We're learning lots of active songs and they're blowing my mind with how much they're picking up about letters. Matthew has an alphabet floor puzzle and it was all over the floor the other day and Jessica said, "Mommy, H - hhhhh, hhhhh, hhhhhh" (making the sound). Then Ashlyn said, "Yeah Mommy, wook (look), S - ssssssssssssssss". They got almost all of them right and were able to do the sounds. I was impressed because I didn't realize they knew so many letters.

Today Matthew was drawing a picture and he said, "I'm going to draw our family. Look, there's me, Daddy, Ashlyn, Jessica and Andrew on planet earth. And here's you, Mommy (points to a person on a completely different part of the picture). You're on Jupiter." Thanks, bud! He proceeded to tell me that Jupiter is the "bounciest" planet (so at least I was having fun) and that I had taken a rocket to get there. I guess it's good to know he doesn't think that's where I originated or something

New Homeschool Freebie Website

There's a new homeschool freebie website! It's found here and they offer a new downloadable freebie each day of the week. Be sure to check daily because the item is only available for free that ONE DAY (except for Friday's freebie - it's available all weekend.)

Today's is a candy math book. Sounds yummy!

Weeks #11 and #12 Review

We've had a nice 2 week break from our school schedule. But the boy's brain certainly doesn't stop working! Yesterday he opened his Bible while he waited for dinner to be served and said, "Look Daddy, this word says in-tro-duc-tion." Of course he was right. Today he told me I was going the wrong way on the highway because he saw one of those signs that says "wrong way." I always remember as a kid thinking those were for my side of the road because they were where I could read them. But not at 3.5!

He was reading in his Little Bear book and at the end of each page he would say "so..." and recap what had just happened on that page in his own words. That was really encouraging because it's hard for us to know if he's comprehending what he's reading when he reads it himself.

So while we'll most likely get back into the swing of things tomorrow, we'll just follow his lead on what he's interested in. He takes in the world in his own way and in his own time and amazes us more each day!

Week #10 Review

We had a busy week. Wednesday we left for the beach so I just let him do as much as he wanted Monday and Tuesday. He finished everything except Math and a few stories! I'm amazed the handwriting books got done, especially when I was intentionally not pushing anything.

We pulled out a new science book "What's Under the Sea?" to try to prepare for our trip to the beach. It was kind of a dry book and he didn't really get into it so we only read a couple of pages and then just talked about it more on his level. It was fun.

In the car on the way to the beach (the one we went to was about 6 hours away) the kids were all watching Blue's Clues and he pulled out his drawing board and wanted to draw all of the clues. I saw a big improvement in his artwork from before we started working on handwriting. I could tell what each picture was. That was encouraging to me.

Today's impromptu science lesson was the internal workings of the toilet as we had to replace one of ours. He was fascinated and wanted to keep flushing it ;-) It's fun to watch them learn "naturally."

This week we'll just be attempting to finish the math and reading from last week and recover from being gone. If he asks for the other books we'll do them, but otherwise we'll just attempt to have a restful week. If today is any indication... we'll need it!!

Week #9 Review

We did things a little differently this week. A lot more play, and we never did something academic if he said he didn't want to. And we still got through it all! I'm noticing that he'd much rather pull out a book and go through several pages and lessons and then take a break, rather than do one page, switch to a new book, do a page, switch... so we're switching our style a little bit to accommodate that. He's having fun, and that's what's important to me.

To help strengthen his hand muscles we played a game where we spilled a bunch of toothpicks on the ground and had to pick them up with tweezers and put them in a bucket. He thought it was so much fun .

Skating was a little better this week, although still hard. He is still having a hard time adjusting to his new, round-bladed skates. But he felt a little better when his buddy Cole tried to switch to hockey skates and had to switch back. It's hard for him being the only one in the class in hockey skates because he feels like he can't do what the other kids can do, but we keep reminding him that he learned with the other skates and he'll learn with these. He's learning perseverance and his teachers are SO patient with him, so that's been a huge blessing.

Tonight when we were reading his Bible before bed we were facing each other. I was reading and he said, "No, 'The king did everything.'" I had no idea what he was talking about so I kept going. When I got to the second page I realized what he was saying. Each page starts with a phrase in all caps to start it off. The second page had THE KING DID EVERYTHING... as the lead-in to the story. We were facing each other - which means he read it upside down! The kid never ceases to amaze me...

This week's verse was "Let all things be done decently and in order" 1 Corinthians 14:40. Guess I should pay a little more attention to my house if I expect him to respect God's Word... yikes.

Week #8 Review

Well this really would be week #8/#9 review... he did two weeks' worth this week. Every book was "more, more!" The only thing we haven't finished for the second week is his handwriting (didn't want to push him there) and his reading to me. Well that and week 9's memory verse. I didn't want him to have to focus on more than one per week no matter how far he gets in everything else. So we'll keep those on a once-a-week pace.

This brought us to week 10 which includes a book we hadn't purchased yet, so I had to make a purchase. But then to get free shipping I had to add a few more books. Oh darn

Earlier this week Matthew was reading from one of his books. Sometimes it's hard to know if he actually follows the story when he's reading it because he's concentrating so hard on what he's saying. Well he was reading something about some chicks jumping into the pig pen and getting muddy. He stopped and said, "That's.... that's.... that's tewwible!" It was SO funny and unexpected and both Stephen and I started laughing. Then of course he had to do it every few sentences to see if he got the same reaction.

Today's favorite activity was identifying what were mammals and what weren't. He determined that Mommy, Daddy, Ashlyn, Jessica, Isaac, Ethan, Matthew, and Linny (from the Wonder Pets ) are mammals. He thought that was the coolest thing. Oh that he might always be so easily entertained!

Week #7 Review

What an insane week! We've been without internet since Wednesday, which is why this update is late. In addition, I've been helping Stephen on a project for work that the EARLIEST we've quit on this week was 1:30 a.m. One morning it was 4:30. Of course, with 3 young kids, you don't compensate by sleeping in the next day! So things have definitely been interesting here this week.

Thankfully, Matthew was very cooperative this week so school went smoothly.

The week was very tough on the kids with them not seeing Daddy AT ALL, so on Friday we made him pictures. First, Matthew made a sunshine with a smiley face (the eyes and nose are kind of hard to see in the picture). I know it doesn't look like much, but I'm AMAZED at how far he's come:


Then we traced a sign language "I love you" (he stands at the door each morning and presses his little hands up against the storm door in an "I love you sign" and keeps it there until he can't see Daddy anymore). So he signed it up against the paper and I traced it. Then I wrote "Daddy" on another page for him to copy, but he wrote these letters COMPLETELY by himself. I bumped the paper while he was writing the "y," but I was so amazed again at his improvement in this area!


Then the girls drew theirs. Jessica:


Ashlyn:


We hung them all on the fridge for Daddy to see when he came home in the wee hours of the morning. I think they brightened his... night.


This week's verse was "Forgive as the Lord forgave you" (Colossians 3:13). He was able to recite all 7 verses tonight, though was a little bumpy on the references, but I was impressed!


In planning ahead for a few weeks (I was amazed at how much time I had when I didn't have internet access ), I realized that since we skipped 25 weeks of reading, he only has a few weeks of reading left before he's done with the books we have. So I looked up what books were in the next reading level for Sonlight and then went to my trusty "Paperback swap" account (a GREAT resource if you don't already know that!) and was able to get TWELVE of the books off of the list for FREE! One of them was 16.99 through Sonlight and someone had it listed on Paperback swap! I couldn't believe my luck. Now I just need to get a Sonlight order together to be able to get the schedule for the readers. Hmm... wishlist items?