Week 4!

Week Four!

Saturday: We are having school today so that we can take Monday off as Thomas has an eye appointment and we have a date with Ashley, Kaleah and anyone else who wants to join us at the Chocolate Bar where we will eat ourselves silly because it’s my birthday! My last year in my 40’s, let the good times roll!

Last night as we were having school, we were talking about the Trinity. I said, “The Trinity is the Father...the Son and" KK pipes in: "THE MOOOOOON"!

Thomas says “I can’t do it” when it comes to writing letters by himself. He can trace like a champ and loves to trace the big flash card letter with his finger. Give him a pencil and paper (even with the “road” looking line) and he kind of blanks out. So I told him today that if he did a great job tracing the letters, I would let him do his seat work with a color pencil. He was very excited and chose the blue pencil today. I hope this works!

Tuesday: I think we were all glad to get “back to school” today having taken yesterday off. We had a wonderful day but the kids and I like routine. Thomas’ “a’s” are the most legible of the letters he is learning to write. I think he is going to be a doctor. J I told him today as he was writing are awesome!” to which he replied “yes, I AM awesome!”

He had the opportunity to apologize to Kaleah for some reason this morning and my heart was made happy. “”KK, I’m sorry”….”I give you” replied Kaleah. Sweet and precious exchanges between the two of them that just bless me. Kaleah also announced “Thomas is my brudder.”

Wednesday: It is amazing how school seems to settle Thomas down. He is a lively young boy (and that is putting it mildly!), yet he will sit in his seat and focus on school (as much as a 4 year old can be expected to) for 30 minutes to an hour. Of course he has his moments so I am going to implement a “marble system”…3 marbles per school day…act up and you will lose a marble and if you lose all of them there will be no sticker. The number of stickers he ends up with at the end of the week will dictate his “Fun Friday” treat. So “losing your marbles” is not a good thing (thank you Liz Tims for this idea!). 

Yesterday and today we read about Cain and Abel. When I reviewed the story and asked Thomas what they names of the brothers were he said “Caiden and Aiden”… Thomas was very irritated with Cain for giving Abel a “boo-boo” and when I told him that Abel died, he wanted to know if Abel died on the cross…I am thinking we have Jesus plenty ingrained into Thomas’ sweet heart!

Thomas is at the age where he wants to color everyone a picture and have his pictures displayed all over. It is so precious. As big as our house is, we don’t have enough wall space to accommodate his desire!

Thursday: We got a late start today as I needed to do some running around with Ashley. I prefer to start no later than 9:00 homeschooling.

Thomas does better with routine (Teacher mommy too) and he was pretty cranky as we started. He lost a marble before we even got started but then sucked it up and got through the pledges and the school day proceeded well.

Kaleah didn’t quite make it through school today as we ran into naptime; thankfully Charles was home and put her down for a nap so that we didn’t have to interrupt Thomas’ class time.  Kaleah still thinks the Trinity is “The Father, The Son, and the Mooooon”, I just crack up every time she says that!

When Thomas writes, he likes to be on his knees in the chair and have his upper body leaning on the table. I don’t know if it is his vision or just the way he likes it. Homeschooling parents, how strict do I need to be about posture? I have never seen a businessman on his knees with half of his body on his desk. I think it is safe to say that this is something he will grow out of. Just how important is sitting in the chair in a seemingly uncomfortable position?  

I also made the mistake of leaving the room briefly while the kids did seatwork…my fruit snack incentives disappeared! Thomas confessed before I even made it back into the kitchen. Goofy kid.

As I type this, Thomas is coloring his picture of Enoch and singing “My Country Tis of Thee”…so sweet. ♪

Friday:  Fun day today though Thomas lost all of his marbles within the first 20 minutes of class! He hollered, “I DON’T WANNA LOSE MY MARBLLLLLLLLES!” as he was sent up to his room to gather himself. It didn’t take long for him to pull himself together and school went on as usual. 

As we were working on our memory verse Thomas said “Unto thee oh Lord do we give Stanks!” I nearly fell out of my chair. 

Then we were talking about Enoch and his son Methuselah. I told the kids “say Methuselah” and Kaleah said “the Foosa”….I wonder if we have watched the movie “Madagascar” too many times?

Weekly Synopsis: Hearing the kids say the pledges and the Lord’s Prayer really blesses me. KK will be playing and just talking to herself and I will hear bits and pieces of one pledge or the other. It is precious.

I chose the Abeka K5 Bible program because Thomas knows the Bible well for a 4 year old and we plan to use it for two years. There is a part of me that thinks it is too advanced for even kindergarteners, the concept of the Trinity is hard for even some adults to comprehend. Yet the kids love the stories and even Kaleah stays interested. It will be so neat to see how much they have comprehended when we go back over the curriculum next year.

Preparation…preparation…preparation…next year I will pay closer attention to the teaching materials and begin cutting out little pieces before the school year starts. Abeka has the neatest teaching games and such but you have to cut out these tiny little game pieces. I would have paid more for them to at least perforate the pieces. Thankfully it is early Saturday morning as I type this and the kids are still sleeping as I cut…and cut…and cut. J

I have learned over the last four weeks that I am cut out to homeschool the kids. It was a scary undertaking but I love every minute.

Week Three!

Monday: Wow…Thomas-Michael-Cranky-Pants woke up this morning and he was not ready for a school day. Again I find myself thankful that our day is not ruled by the clock. We have time not only for consequences due to disobedience but time to sit down and regroup with some loving which somehow makes things all better for both of us.

Lots of reasons to smile and laugh this morning…Kaleah “I-I-I-I wanna go to heaven!” and then as we were looking at the poster of Adam, Eve and the serpent “The snake is going on a mission!” Whaaat? It took a couple of questions but what she meant was “they didn’t ask permission! (to eat the fruit)”.

Thomas told me that Adam and Eve lived in the “Garden of Evil” and that Jesus was placed into a “toon”. This was all just during our Bible lesson which was a review of the last two weeks…where their answers were really funny, it is clear that the kids are learning and that makes my heart happy.

Math is clearly a favorite subject for Thomas. Handwriting is going to be interesting…

Tuesday: Today was just a regular school day though Kaleah seemed more antsy than usual and Thomas seemed a little distracted. Yet we got through our school day and both kids are watching a show on PBS and oddly enough their word of the day is “nest” and ours was too! 

 

We introduced “The Creation” today during Bible lesson. It will be interesting to see if Thomas sits through it better toward the end of the week. The repetition of lessons seems to work for him.

Charles and I were playing with the kids and I asked Thomas about what we had studied this morning in Bible. I asked, “How many God’s are there Thomas?”…Thomas answered “ONE!” Then I asked “How many people (persons) make up God?” Thomas looked at me a little quizzically so I helped him with “The Father…Son aaand”, Thomas then said “The Holy Spirit.” I was shocked. I am not so naive to think that Thomas totally gets the Trinity (especially with only one lesson about this); he is only four years old. What is so cool is that he is listening, hearing and absorbing and when the “light” comes on for him, the light will be in his spirit, heart and mind. This is so exciting!

Wednesday: So this morning my “my son is super holy” bubble was burst when I asked him about the Trinity and after I said “The Father, Son and….” Thomas said “the Lord is my Shepherd.” Oh my goodness he cracks me up! You’ve got to give the little guy an “E” for effort!

Then as we were saying the Lord’s Prayer, Thomas said “give us this day, our daily breasts.” I swear I think the Lord put Thomas in my life to keep me in stitches every day.

Kaleah was having a hard time keeping her hands still during Bible. I fussed at her one time too many in Thomas’ opinion so he reached over and just held her hand like any awesome brother would until our lesson was over keeping her out of trouble.

After class was over Thomas said “School was awesome mommy!” ♥

Thursday: Just a normal day at school today…I was able to video Thomas’ saying the pledges, it was so cute. We will film Kaleah tomorrow.    

Friday: We were just starting our school day when Charles walked into the kitchen/classroom wanting to take Thomas out to the deer stand to add corn to the feeder. Priceless memories are made when a father and son go off to do “man stuff” so school was postponed and we will finish up after naptime.

Weekly Synopsis: We are three weeks into schooling and it is clear that there are going to be “off” days for one reason or another. Thomas has had a couple of rough days this week but we have made it through. We have just completed our third week of school and “Teacher Mommy” is getting tired of the pledges, not to mention my knees don’t enjoy kneeling on the wood floor. I will however be kneeling for as long as my knees can take it because somehow my being at their height and saying it with the kids makes a difference to them.

So thankful for the opportunity to be "Teacher Mommy"!

Week TWO!

Monday: Thomas was a little miffed this weekend that there was no school. He took great pains this weekend to tell me about the weather each day.

This morning as we were making breakfast we played the kids K5 music CD. The “Low in the Grave He Lay” song was playing and as the song ended “He arose…he arose…hallelujah Christ arose!” KK added/sang “Praise the Wort”…sooo cute.

Today in Bible we reviewed everything we learned last week. How I love seeing first hand exactly how much my kids retained from a short lesson. It just cracks me up too that Thomas has decided that “I go to prepare a place for you” means that Jesus is designing our mansions on a computer and that we don’t need lamps in heaven because the streets of “gode” are bright enough to illuminate heaven!

Today was our first day of math. I am in big trouble…I hated math in school and Thomas seems to love it!  I see joining a homeschool co-op in our future simply because I will do well to get him past 8^th grade math! He had so much fun counting out loud and clapping his hands to each number. Kaleah joined in just for the clapping. 

Thomas will start writing tomorrow and just for grins we practiced today. I am so thankful as I learned something valuable. We usually patch Thomas’ eye because of the Amblyopia in the mornings. He wears it two hours a day. It is clear that I am not doing him any favors by having him “patch” while trying to write (or at least learn to write). We patch in the mornings so that he doesn’t have to worry about going out in public with it on, it’s time to revamp the patch schedule!

Tuesday: Learning more about how to structure our day…I think after the pledges we will do the academic stuff and end on the Bible lesson. Bible ran long today and KK ran out of “juice” before Thomas finished his writing. She got fussy and irritable. I think if we end the day with Bible, both will be engaged and the day will go better.

Today we were talking about the verse John 14:14 “If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.” We go over our verses several times each morning. I will say part of the verse and then the kids repeat after me. I started “If ye shall ask”, the kids repeated the same; then “anything in My name”, and Thomas said “ask only one time!” It is so hard not to laugh! Thomas loves the Bible stories and I love sharing them with Thomas and Kaleah. It is clear that Thomas is listening and absorbing and that just blesses me!

Handwriting is going to be interesting…I tend to be a little OCD-ish and Thomas is not. I will have to remind myself that he is only 4 and I should not expect him to have perfect handwriting on the first try. 

Wednesday: Another fun day…As we were eating breakfast, I was asking Thomas about things we had learned in Bible. It amazes me how much he has retained. We are going to use the K5 curriculum for two years so I can only imagine how much he will have absorbed by the end of next school year!  

We started the day with our pledges as usual and went to the academic stuff. I LOVE that we can incorporate action into math…”what number is this?” “THREEEEEEE”….OK lets jump three times! Thomas LOVES it and is quite accurate in his counting while jumping. Kaleah on the other hand jumps all over the place but sure has a great time! KK is just practicing for next year anyway.

Bible is going to have to wait until later because we need to take care of some business for Ashley. This flexibility makes me happy. So little pressure other than making sure we get our Bible lesson in TODAY.

Thursday: Thomas isn’t feeling well today so we are going to take today off and make it up on Saturday. Where I don’t plan to make this a habit, I sure am thankful for the flexibility of homeschooling!

Friday: Kids feeling better but “Teacher Mommy” is sick this morning! School must go on so we moved on with our day and got most of our school day done before picking Charles up from the airport. We are so happy to have him home!

We need to finish up Bible today but we will take care of that this afternoon or evening.

The kids and I were in the car and I was asking Thomas questions about our Bible lessons to show Ashley what he was retaining. Thomas patiently answered a couple of questions and then said “Mommy, this is not school time!” I guess he was tired of showing off! 

We will have a school day tomorrow to make up for Thursday. Thomas will be happy. He loves school!

Saturday: As I type, the kids are still sleeping and since neither has felt well this week I will let them sleep as long as they need to and we will homeschool at some point today.

We didn’t do our Bible lesson until just before dinner yesterday because “life happens”. It never fails though; the kids sit and listen no matter what time of day. I wondered when our curriculum arrived why the Bible curriculum came with small poster sized visuals but I get it now! The kids love the pictures and they help tell the story. Thomas will tell you that they put Jesus in a cave after they took Him from the cross…we’re getting better, it was a HOLE at first! 

Weekly synopsis: Saving Bible for the end of class has proven successful. Both kids love it when we read to them especially when we are reading about Jesus. Bible time takes longer than the other lessons and though KK may get tired of sitting, the stories and pictures that go along with them keep her captivated.

I implemented a “chore” in each school day…Monday we gathered the trash because the garbage truck comes on Tuesday. We cooked Monday night (busy day Tuesday) and used our new counting skills when adding an egg or flour…both kids love to scoot a chair up to the counter and help mommy. We have been busy this week so haven’t been disciplined about chores but plan to have set chores for each day soon.

In just two weeks of homeschooling, I have seen an improvement in Thomas’ ability to self-correct (with a little coaching from Teacher Mommy) and he is choosing more often to control his fit-pitching because he wants his daily star sticker or Nintendo time. I don’t mind offering him incentives (not bribes!) for his good actions, it works for him. The structure of school is good for him, just like daily exercise.

Another thing that I have noticed is that the kids want to be in the same room more. They are rarely out of my sight or hearing but if I am in the kitchen, they come and hang out with me. If I am folding laundry in the living room, they come and hang out with me. In many ways, homeschool doesn’t end at the end of the daily lesson. Homeschool goes on throughout the day.

 Week one complete!
Monday: We had fun! Charles came in and sat with us which I found intimidating for some reason…it’s not like he scares me or anything! Thomas was excited and had fun going outside to look and see if it was sunny, cloudy, rainy or snowing (ha ha). The kids took the pledges to the Bible and flag very seriously, it was so cute; Thomas said “one station under God” and I had to stifle a giggle. We studied the letter “i”, recited a poem about Indians and had our Bible lesson.

We bought the kindergarten Bible program and it seems very advanced even for kindergarten (Thomas is in K4) but Thomas was very attentive and did really well. I am going to like this homeschooling adventure!

Tuesday: The mornings go so quickly, I find myself wishing there was more material to teach today (though I am sure there will be days later when I think “this is too much!”). Thomas takes the pledges very seriously and has his hand over his heart as soon as we stand before our flag pole (which is also our refrigerator!) We are reciting a poem about an Indian child this week so today seemed like a good day to make cornbread (Jiffy mix…ha ha) so that we could talk about the Indian child who grinds corn.

Wednesday: Today Thomas and I were both disappointed when we were “all done” for the day. He loves school, I love teaching him and KK loves being along for the ride (next year K4 is going to be a breeze for her!). Last night as we were telling Charles about what he had learned, Thomas said “Eve ate the fwuit…she did not ask God’s omission.” Charles just smiled when Thomas called me “Teacher Mommy” at the dinner table.

Thursday: We got a late start today as Thomas slept until 9:30! Both of the kids had a rough night for some reason and no one got a good night’s sleep. I love the flexibility of homeschooling…I so remember taking Ashley or Christian to school on a day when they were having an “off” day because “school starts at 8:00 am and we can’t be late!”, I practically set them up to have a really bad day and I hated that.

This morning as we recited the pledges (Bible and to the Flag) and the Lord’s Prayer, Thomas was standing to my right. He put his right hand over his heart and his left hand over my shoulders (I was kneeling) as he recited the pledge. My heart was just a little full ♥.

We talked about the crucifixion today and Thomas was upset that Jesus “got stripes” and angry with the mean guy who hurt Jesus and Kaleah wanted to know if Jesus needed a band aid. Thomas wanted to make sure that Jesus got an “Angry Birds” band aid because it was sure to make Him feel better. Thomas also wanted to know if Jesus uses a computer to design our mansions.

We were discussing heaven and Thomas asked…”will we get wings and fly to heaven or is Jesus going to bring a big airplane for us?” I just love hearing their questions…the wonder in the kids little minds is a joy to see. What a privilege it is to watch these little ones grow spiritually and intellectually!

Friday: What a fun week. This morning the kids were standing on either side of me when we recited the Bible Pledge and The Pledge of Allegiance. Kaleah pledged her allegiance to the United Steaks of America today…ha ha. By the time we finished The Lord’s Prayer, Kaleah had her hand over my heart and both kids were sitting on me.

Thomas has a good grasp of the letter “I” and both kids enjoy the hand motions of and reciting the poem “The Indian Child”.

Charles joined us toward the end of class and just for grins I recited parts of the pledges and had one of the kids finish the sentence. It was so precious to hear the kids finish “I pledge allegiance to the Bible, Gods…” and Thomas said without missing a beat “Holy Word”. When it was KK’s turn, she piped in her sweet little voice “Hodie Word”.

What a privilege it is to homeschool my little ones…I am having so much fun watching their little minds think and work, their hearts too. I have this urgency in my heart to get this (and all other aspects of parenting) right from the very beginning. Yes, I am their “Teacher Mommy” but I am well aware that my children are on loan to me by God and I have a huge responsibility to “Train them up in the way they should go…” in every way.

My weekly synopsis: The beauty of homeschooling is that you are not ruled by the hands on the clock…I wrestled with this all summer long. Once I chose to go with a daily routine rather than centering our schooling by the time of day, I relaxed a lot. We start our day by getting dressed and having breakfast. During breakfast and clean up time, we play the Bible song music CD that comes with the curriculum. Once the kitchen table is cleared it becomes our school area. Then we start…the Bible Pledge, the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord’s Prayer. We then look outside to see if our day is going to be sunny, cloudy, rainy or snowing and mark it on our calendar…then phonics and Bible. We will introduce math next week!

After we have completed our school day, we take a long walk (daily exercise is a NEED for Thomas…it’s just too much for him to stay inside all day) and then the rest of the day we do with as we wish or need.