Back to School 2013-2014

Although we've been gearing up for a few weeks --- adding more subjects each day --- today was our official first full day of school!

 

Check out these "official" first day of school pictures. Their outfits are funny. No new school clothes or haircuts. Ha ha! But here they are on the first day of 2nd and 3rd grade....

 

 We continued the tradition of presenting the boys with first day schultutes filled with school supplies and treats.

 Here we are busy learning...

 This year -- instead of our morning workbooks -- we are doing daily journals. Today they wrote three goals for the school year.

Adam's Goals

Ray's goals.

 We are learning about sound waves. This afternoon we did some hands-on experiments and designed our own musical instruments.

It's hard to see in the picture, but this is the old "two cups and a string" trick.

Adam's homemade guitar

Ray playing his homemade "pan pipe."

The day seemed long... but went well. This year I made a weekly checklist for each boy so that he can see what needs to be done each day and mark it off as he goes. I'm giving them more freedom to choose in which order to do their work.

We also instituted mandatory quiet time in the afternoon - after school and before playtime / video games. We are having the boys earn their video game time by competing in a daily Math facts flash card drill. The length of time they get to play their video games is determined by how many Math facts they answer correctly in five minutes. They compete as a team.... taking turns but adding up one tally of facts correctly answered. We plan to use harder cards and then shorten the time period as they get better at it. Today they earned 43 minutes, which is more than we usually want them to play... but they were excited at their accomplishment. The deck is already "stacked" for tomorrow. ;)

So... one day down. 180 to go. Pray for us!

Water Science

Of course - now that school has started - the weather has finally gotten warmer. We enjoyed a backyard water science day with some friends last week.

 

We  built boats.
It required some trial and error to get actual sea-worthy vessels that would float.

We played the old "sink or float" game.
Did you know that Coke sinks and Diet Coke floats?
Or that an orange floats, but when you take off the peel it sinks?
 

Adam working in his Science journal.

Which ice cube melted fastest?
We tried plain ice cube, wrapped in paper towel, wrapped in foil, in water, with salt, with sugar, with sand, and in salt water.
The salt water won of course.

My godson doing a little bit of "fishing" for colored ice cubes.

 

Making sculptures with colored ice.

Floating boats on a tin foil river.
Thankfully, Pappy and Mary were around to help.
They mostly cleaned up after all our messes.
With their help, the yard and house did not end up looking like Armageddon after all this.

Carter and Ava were here too for a while.
This is the boat-building station.

I had frozen water balloons and then peeled off the balloons.
We had fun shaking salt on them and then squirting liquid watercolors over them.
We watched the paint go down into the tunnels that the ice had made.

 

And finally.... we just had some good fun running in the sprinkler and playing on the Slip and Slide!

Hooray for Summer!
Hooray for learning and playing together!

"I Thirst"

"Let anyone who THIRSTS come to ME and DRINK."

John 7:37

 

 

Our homeschooling group has a great tradition of beginning the school year with a retreat for the moms. It's such a wonderful opportunity to get away, re-group, and be filled with grace before beginning the new school year. This year's retreat theme was "I Thirst." We filled the retreat center --- 65 beautiful Catholic homeschool moms came together to pray! We enjoyed a beautiful weekend and came home DRENCHED, QUENCHED, and READY TO ROLL!

 



 

Here's what we found waiting for us in our bedrooms.

We had plenty of lovely drinks to quench our physical thirst....
in addition to the wisdom shared and graces poured out to quench our spiritual thirst.

I doubt that many retreats have a "stroller corral" like ours!
It's awesome to have so many nursing moms bring their babies along for the weekend.

 Our retreat included Adoration, Confession, Benediction, the Rosary, Mass, a talk by a beautiful wise homeschooling mom, a craft, social time, personal prayer time, meals (which we didn't have to cook or clean up after!), and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

 

 Our speaker reminded us to slow down, be still, and be attentive to God's presence and guidance.... that we must remove ourselves from busy-ness and non-essential distractions in order to be faithful to the mission God has given us. Our true thirst is for Him. And as we strive to quench the thirsts of our spouse and children, we need to make sure that we ourselves are not parched. Just as our bodies need eight glasses of water a day in order to function well and be healthy, so our souls need plenty of Living Water every day. Do we make spiritual activities and prayers an essential part of our day so that we can drink deeply from the Living Water and then give drink to others? When we give water to the thirsty we are engaging in a Corporal Work of Mercy. How can we be more deliberate about quenching the thirst in our souls and those around us?

We were truly inspired and challenged!

We got to design a mug to take home as a keepsake from the retreat.

Thank you, God, for the opportunity to spend this time with my sisters and with you. Please bless us all as we begin this new school year. May we turn to you to quench the longings in our spirits. May we be true to our vocations as evangelizers of your Good News. Amen.

Psalm 63

 

O God, you are my God -

it is you I seek!

For you my body yearns;

for you my soul thirsts,

In a land parched, lifeless,

and without water.

 

I look to you in the sanctuary

to see your power and your glory.

 

For your love is better than life

my lips shall ever praise you!

 

I will bless you as long as I live;

I will lift up my hands, calling on your name.

 

My soul shall be sated as with choice food,

with joyous lips my mouth shall praise you!

 

I think of you upon my bed,

I remember you through the watches of the night.

 

You indeed are my savior,

and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.

 

My soul clings fast to you;

your right hand upholds me.

 

But those who seek my life will come to ruin;

they shall go down toe the depths of the netherworld!

 

Those who would hand over my life to the sword

shall become the prey of jackals!

 

But the king shall rejoice in God

all who swear by the Lord shall exalt,

but the mouths of liars will be shut.

Ha Ha Honeychild!

Last night I enjoyed attending a pro-life banquet with some friends. The star attraction was the Duggar family, whom I adore. It was awesome to see and hear them speak again. They are such a beautiful witness to Christian family life.

Both times that I've seen the Duggars, I've been struck by the way Michelle so lovingly looks up at Jim Bob. She listens to him so attentively. I think I need to be more like this when Jon speaks. Except we're the same height, so I won't be looking up. And I'll probably squench up my face really funny. But I'm going to try.

When I got home from the banquet, I caught up on some emails and was checking some blogs. Somehow I linked into the FUNNIEST blog I have EVER seen. Please check it out at Mama Knows, Honeychild. But make sure you go to the bathroom first (trust me) and you have a lot of time to read and laugh and cry. Seriously, this lady is awesome! This is not just slapstick humor. She is a Catholic homeschooling mom who is very witty and draws very funny pictures to go along with her stories. She makes you laugh really hard because you can relate to everything she's saying about the real grit of family life. But then, when you're crying with laughter, she turns the tone and helps you see God's love and grace in the midst of your own messy, crazy vocation. It's profound.

So I got to reading this blog --- in bed with my laptop. I tried so hard to be quiet. But finally I just lost it. I blurted out a huge laugh. Jon shot straight up in bed and was not amused. It was 12:30am. I could not stop reading. I ended up going into the spare room and reading for another hour. I am totally sleep deprived today, but it was so worth it. Here's a sample of my favorite posts ----

*Have you ever felt resentful of those Downton Abbey girls with the little bells to call their servants who bring their breakfast and brush their hair and clean their rooms ..... while you're dealing with the real world of demanding kids, sickness, a messy house, and a mile-long to-do list? If so, you've got to read this --- http://mamaknowsithoneychild.blogspot.com/2013/07/morning-sickness-playbook.html

*Do you love free samples at the grocery store, Jesus, and Mr. Rogers? Read this ---- http://mamaknowsithoneychild.blogspot.com/2013/08/free-cheeses-free-jesus.html

*Do you enjoy an enormous snack buffet while watching Biggest Loser? Get neurotic about wild animals attacking your family on vacation/camping? Try to turn things like dead bats into magical homeschool teaching moments? Yep. She's got all that too.

And then there's the post that put me COMPLETELY over the edge . The one that made me laugh loud, really loud. I couldn't stop. "Adventure in Family Prayer." HYSTERICAL! I could totally relate to everything single thing in this post. Been there. Thought that.

My favorite picture ----


My favorite quote (goes with the picture) ---

"Hail Mary full of grace, HEY! You don't chew the rosary! It's a rosary! It's not a box of raisinettes!!  You don't eat tha- WAIT. Why are there only 9 beads on that decade you're holding?!?!"
or
"Holy Mary, Mother of SOHELPMEGOD you better keep your HANDS to YOURSELF and stop touching your brother's EYEBALL."

 And so on. And so forth. Foreverandever Amen."

So, I'm off to the awesome Retreat for Catholic Homeschooling Mothers! If you've got free time this weekend, READ THIS BLOG!

School Room Updates

 It's almost school time! The plans are submitted to the school district. The books are here. The schedule is made. And now..... the school room is ready! My dad and Mary purchased some great supplies for us and helped me do some re-arranging and updating in our school room. We were able to purchase some used school desks from a local district for $5.00! They are perfect! Here's a peek inside our little school ----

My helpers!
We even took the curtains down and washed them!

The whiteboard is a new addition.
I just love having the crucifix over it.... just like in Catholic school!

The new desks!
They have cubbies for books and supplies.
We put cards on top with alphabet, number line, etc.
(I took the big alphabet down off the wall.)

The view from where I sit.



My work area

Ray was the first to try out the new whiteboard.

Adam came in to check out the changes....
wearing his "thinking cap!"

Mari --- our supervisor!

 We've been doing a little Math and reading each day this summer. This past week we started their new Math books. Beginning next week we'll start easing into our full school schedule. My plan is to be full throttle by the 26th! 2nd and 3rd grade.... here we come!