Weekly Wrap-Up/Homeschool Mother's Journal

In Our Homeschool This Week:
Yesterday, I posted about some of our first week of My Father's World, including our Chrysanthemum activities.

I've always wanted to start an official "tea time" with the kids. We finally did it and plan to continue it two or three times a week. The kids scurried around, putting everything on the tray. Sissy's yummy idea was to take Aunt Patsy's homemade organic strawberry sauce to spread on the chocolate chip cookies. We began reading our Christopher Columbus books as a part of our Adventures in My Father's World.

We had bought a carton of  Little Me Tea to try, which they enjoyed. It's a tea (low sugar, no caffeine) flavored with juice.

Here are our versions of the Scripture Art idea that I found at The Crafty Classroom.

The kids ran masking tape down the length of art paper, then used watercolors on craft poms to create the greens and blues over the whole background. After removing the tape, I instructed them to use side strokes to create the look of the tree trunk. They copied Ezekiel 17:24 onto paper and glued it to their art. (Sissy did an abbreviated version.) I loved the finish product, and we are going to try her other ideas for Scripture Art next.

This week, my 5 year old and 7 year old finished up their super fun summer experience at Mother's Day Out. It was mostly science and art based, and it couldn't have been more perfect for them. Here are the plastic carton with tape masks they made last week.

Here are the "find the object" sensory bottles they put together.

And their volcano collages from Volcano Week.

Guess who's living with us again after being set free for the night? Snails 1 and 2, which were given to him by his Mother's Day Out teacher. After I convinced Dash to let them go after a week inside, I was awakened early the next morning to his desperate concern. The damp area next to our house where we let them free was covered in Grandaddy Long Legs, which apparently is a predator for snails.  He found one of the snails close to where we left it. In two seconds, I went from feeling like, "Did you seriously just wake me up?" to jumping out of bed, feeling like, "Those Granddaddy Long Legs aren't going to get OUR snails! By golly!" I found Snail 2, but Grandpa Snail was nowhere in sight (and thankfully, neither was his empty shell). He must have wanted to be free! :) 

So, we went to the store that day and bought a whole snail world, complete with organic soil, hide-outs, growing plants and a fresh, daily diet of salad and strawberries, etc. plus calcium supplements. I was rearranging their home about 5 days later because I read that is a nice thing to do, to make the snail feel more challenged and stimulated like it would in the outdoors. Ryan looked at me like I was crazy since it had been less than a week. It's good to be a snail in The Academy at Thousand Oaks.

What We're Playing This Week:

We made homemade play dough. I instructed the kids to take it outside to make nature prints.

Matisse Art in the Bathtub!

I saw this idea at The Imagination Tree. I bought a big pack of foam pages at The Dollar Tree and cut them into dozens of shapes. Later in life, Matisse began expressing himself by creating collages with cut-out pieces. That was always one of my kids' favorite art projects, (and in fact, Tornado is always making collages "like Matisse") so I knew they would love doing it in the bathtub. They stick so well.

There were 3 play dates today, which isn't the norm around here. The first one was playing in bouncy houses and a swimming pool at a local church student center. It was a joint play date/service project to collect school supplies for an elementary school. My 7 year old jumped off the low dive for the first time without a life jacket. This might not seem like a big deal for a 7 year old, but this was only the fourth time we've been swimming all summer. This was really his first opportunity on a low dive, so I was very proud of him. And that, of course, is Tornado sweetly cleaning debris from the pool, not surprisingly.

We met our friends, the Davidsons, at Jump Zone. Always fun with those 7 together (and Baby Bro, you'll be able to join in soon enough). I tried to get a picture with more of them, but I only had my phone. They were always whizzing by.

I surprised Sis with a date out for the two of us tonight. I had requested some of her preschool friends to meet at the Pineapple Whip stand, and these two cuties and their families joined us. 

What We're Thankful For This Week:
Continuing on with my Gratitude List (#401-406):

#401 - Grandma and Grandpa from Illinois sent the kids a box of goodies including school supplies and this cute bib for Baby Brother. Thank you! The kids enjoyed their gifts, especially their individually wrapped bunches of stick colored pencils.

#402 - Last weekend, it was back to Missouri for plenty of cousin play time...

and my Grandpa's 92nd birthday (#403). Thankful for a life that was blessed to make it to old age. (#404) Praying for as much peace and contentment as possible for him during his remaining time on this earth.

Spunk wrapped in sweetness, these two. (#405)

Baby Brother made some new friends, including Uncle Chuck. (#406)

The Homeschool Mother's Journal/Weekly Wrap-Up

In Our Homeschool This Week:
We are still schooling. I'm trying to keep them busy and progressing but focusing on my own preparation for the fall.

I started reading aloud the Bible during breakfast. I've never personally read through the Bible front to back, so I'm going to do it with the kids. We're also working through the character training "Put-On" Chart. They like this, and it spurs plenty of good discussion.

Extracurricular This Month:
The kids have been enjoying time out and about, attending day camps for different activities, such as gymnastics, etc.

In Our Life This Week:

Dash lost his first top tooth. He looks so cute. Another top tooth is barely hanging and will probably fall out by tomorrow. He talks with a lisp now, too, which I adore. He says it is hard to read. You should have heard him read the sentence: The fish lifts the gift with its fins.

The boys are both getting a visit from the tooth fairy tonight. Tornado had a dentist appointment this afternoon. The hygienist pointed out to me one of his very loose back teeth. I stuck my hand in there to wiggle it, and it basically came right out. He did so great getting his teeth cleaned, which has been the case during his past few visits. When I think about how much he used to (sometimes) kick and scream at the dentist... (and the hair salon and the doctor and school and church and...) I am thankful for how far we have come.

In Baby's Life This Week:
We aren't really starting him on a regular food schedule yet, but as he will be 6 months in a few days, we let him have several teaspoons of banana with breastmilk.

"What is this thing around my neck and why am I sitting in my new, hard Ikea highchair instead of in Mommy's lap?"

"Okay...interesting."

"That is some good stuff! I'll take some more!"

Our favorite thing he started doing this month is blowing raspberries in the air. They're so loud, and he seems to really enjoy it.

Holiday Celebrations This Week:

July 4th breakfast

We were super excited to have Daddy at home on a Wednesday. We headed to the Historic Arkansas Museum for their frontier Independence Day celebration. This included games such as this ring toss and stilts, etc. They marched in a parade around the grounds and enjoyed watermelon slices. The Declaration of Independence was read, and the kids got a kick out of the "redcoats" voicing their objection and other people chiming in with cheers and other reactions.

They also made crafts and made requests to the Balloon Man. (Tornado: a penguin, Dash: a sword, and Sissy: a flower wand - none of those choices are surprising.)

In Other News This Week:
Heat. Torrid. Hot. Sweltering. Scorching. Humid. Sweat.

My Favorite Thing This Week:
My brother (sans family) came to visit for a couple of days. My kids were over the moon, playing with him on our new sport court.

We enjoyed a great Mexican meal, as you would expect at my parents' house. 

He loves Uncle Matt!

And my sister, he, and I (plus baby, of course) went out for Thai food (and to Target) one night. It was great to spend time conversing without  our kids  interruption.

Places We're Going and People We're Seeing:
Two weeks ago we had a fun Friday night with our friends, Jeri and Jason plus their two sweet kids. We ate supper at Juanita's in downtown Little Rock then walked over to let the kids play for awhile in the Splash Fountain. (We stayed until the water shut off at 8:00 p.m.)

Then we drove over to the Big Dam Bridge. I know it has the word BIG in the title, but I had never been, so I didn't realize how BIG this whole thing was. It was late and hot, so we only made it halfway across before turning around, but I'd like to go back sometime.

The kids and I drove to Branson last week to visit family. We stayed with my brother and sister-in-law. As soon as the kids entered the door, it was nonstop play with their cousins. The next day we headed to my hometown to visit my Grandfather and his wife in the nursing home. (I even got to see one of my BFF's for a few minutes!) He wanted to hold Baby Brother a lot...and I was overjoyed to oblige.

The NOT good thing about our little road trip: the many, many extra stops I had to make for my crying Sweetie.  It's kind of amazing how it was easier for me to take him to NYC (which I WILL blog about one of these days) than Branson only because of that 2 1/2 (increased now to 3 1/2) hour car ride. He + his carseat do not = true love.

I'm Reading:
I loved 7 so much, I was eager to read another Jen Hatmaker book. I've only read a couple of chapters from Interrupted, but I love it so far. I also got Kisses From Katie: A Story of Relentless Love & Redemption, which was recommended by Amazon for me. Enjoying it, so far, as well! It is the story of a girl who moves to Uganda by herself when she graduates highschool. She meant to stay a year - but ends up staying (about 5 years and counting now) and is in the process of adopting over a dozen girls. So far, this has been a great book for me to read aloud to the kids, too. They are very interested and intrigued.

We're also still reading through the Little House series.

What My Kids Are Saying:
My daughter looked at the regular rubber band I used in a pinch to close her braid like, "WHAT is this?" and laughed. I said when I was little I had to use regular rubber bands in my hair all of the time because we didn't have fancy hair bands. She said, "Were you alive when Laura and Mary (Ingalls) were?" It must have felt like a real hardship to her that I used rubber bands in my hair.

From my niece, C, upon thinking about her sister getting the wrong size of ice skates for Christmas: "That's kind of silly cuz God could have told Santa."

One random quote I wanted to remember for myself: Tornado to the hygienist, regarding the inside of his mouth (in his sweet, slow, deep voice and finger pointed upward), "Be gentle with that!"

We were going to be studying "justice" in our Civics book. I was going to use that on our vocabulary word of the day sheet. Before we read the lesson, I asked them to write down what the word "justice" makes them think. The boys' answer: Superheroes (The Justice League). Sissy's answer: Justin Bieber.

Sissy was examining her sunflower plant, which she had planted at their science/art class. The soil was dry, but she declared, "It's frozen!"

Another winner from Sis: "Whenever I think of something, I think, 'That's a good idea, Head. That's a good idea, Self.' "

Weekly Wrap-Up

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

VOTE HERE AND HERE for my kids' artwork! Thanks!

Spring Break

During Spring Break, we headed north to visit some of our loved ones. Baby Brother got to meet many new family members. The trip home was very memorable because after crushing our luggage carrier in my sister and brother-in-law's loft garage, I had a flat tire after dark in Pocahontas, Arkansas. (Ryan was not with me as he has been super busy traveling with work lately so we were only gone a few days.) It was quite an involved experience. I think I'm done driving long distances without Ryan because Baby was not a fan of the car trip experience, in general, not to mention the non-fun factor of being out in the middle of dark nowhere with 4 kids and a flat.

my grandpa and Winnie

Aunt Michele (and Uncle Matt, too)

4 more cousins, including Cousin P...

(I see a resemblance!)

and cousin G

Uncle Andy also got to meet my little guy for the first time.

After we stayed with my brother for a couple of days, we headed to my sister's. He's never short on love, that's for sure. (Pictured above with Cousin W and my kids.)

My kids had an ideal-for-them morning at City Museum.

They played like crazy.

I know they are super jealous of their cousins for living so close to such a fun place. And whenever I leave the City Museum, I have a strong desire to start gluing found objects and sparkly mosaics to my walls at home.

During this trip, Baby Brother started a whole new phase of smiling constantly. He would smile "sort of" before for a split second, smile in his sleep, and have really pleasant looks on his face, but this week he took it to a new level.

   2 1/2 months old                                        

I mean, it seriously never gets old. Almost two months later, I still find no greater joy than making him smile. LOVE!

Thankfulness List # 166-191

Just a few random pictures and grateful thoughts:

My nephew is so silly (#166). Everytime he even sees a camera, he makes this smile. And he really enjoyed picking the flowers out of my pots.

#167: Sissy has been taking dance classes now for a few months. This picture was taken as we were going to her first tap class. (#168: That's another one of my old leotards!) She was enrolled in a class that included tap, ballet, and gymnastics. That session ended, and now she is attending classes at two different places. She is taking ballet at a new place we LOVE (#169). It's an art academy, the same place Dash took his dance class (#170), and Tornado is taking art classes (#171). One reason I like this place better is that parents can watch through the window (#172), unlike her last spot.

She is also taking cheerleading classes (#173). (It's basically a gymnastics class, though.) This was essentially her idea. She goes around saying, "I wanna be a cheerleader." She will cuddle up with Daddy (#174) and watch a few minutes of an Illini game. She loves to watch the cheerleaders, and she will say, "Go, Illinois!"

She has so much fun at all of her classes, and I feel very happy for her (#175).
Sissy becomes more of a "big girl" every day. This morning, I asked her if she needed help putting on her ballet shoes. She said in one breath, "I don't need help, Mommy, but thank you for asking." (#176)

fun with bristle blocks (#177)

We took a weekend trip, which included a stop in my hometown (#178). It's always nice to visit and reminisce; my heart overflows with feelings and memories before I even hit the city limits (#179). Three of my best friends from highschool (Elizabeth, Missy, and Angie) and I got together (#180) because one of them is about to move to California. Our other friend Lori also stopped by with her beautiful family to say "hello." (#181) I am so grateful for these friends that I have had for 20 years (#182). I really lucked out by living in this particular town at the particular time that I did (#183). We missed you, Sarah (#184)!

We also drove over to my original hometown to see my Grandpa and Winnie. He recently had a procedure that really seemed to help him with pain he'd been having; that was great to see (#185). I'm so grateful that I still have my Pa-paw (#186).
I was really, really happy that Sissy let Great-Grandpa cuddle up next to her. She was really sweet, giving him hugs and smiling at him. That meant a lot to me (#187). We also got to visit with my aunt, uncle, cousin, and dog-cousin. Those visits are few and far between so that was very nice. (#188)


(#189-191) I'm also very thankful that I got to spend the weekend with almost my entire family. I'm thankful for safe travel. I'm thankful to my brother and sister-in-law for hosting us!