A little homeschooling...

Shopping at the store! 

 We are working on coins in our math curriculum, so I set up a little grocery store and gave the kids coins (It also helped T to realize he does indeed need to learn his numbers!) so they could go shopping. It was fun!

Celery before

Red and Blue Celery!

The tubes found in the stem that carry the water from the roots to the leaves!

 We are totally loving the AIG God's Design for Life series.  My kids are learning so much and they are asking wonderful DEEP questions.  Sam has been stumped by one even!  This week we learned about stem structure and so we watched red and blue dyed water travel from the base to the top of celery by tubes the tubes in the stem.

I am constantly blown away with what they are learning. Their brains are soaking up so much information.  Every morning we go through the states and capitals (which totally confusing Isaiah, when you ask him what the capital of California is he will say C instead of Sacramento!) and it is working! I will hear the boys singing the songs as they play!  The info is going in, now just to help them organize it!  Isaiah is finding the 5 and 6 addition and subtraction families a bit of a struggle, which for him is probably more 'average' but he is having to work to commit those facts to memory!  He is also doing so well in reading.  He is reading books that 2 months ago I thought he wouldn't be able to sit down and read alone for another year!  He still loathes reading, and I'm praying there will be a day when he will WANT to just pick up a book and read it.  He is still new to this reading thing so I'm praying that as time goes along, his confidence will grow and he'll be comfortable to just pick up a book and read.

The boys are exact opposites! T struggles in math (mainly number recognition!) and is excelling in reading.  He knows all the sounds of the alphabet and for the last two week we have been adding constants to vowels and working on blend ladders.  Yesterday we added a constant at the end of the blend to make a word.  BAM! He read a word.  His smile was SO radiant.  So so so radiant when he realized what just happened!

Do you know what is just awesome?  Watching my children read from the bible themselves!  I've been encouraging (especially Isaiah!) to open their bibles every morning during our bible time and look for familiar words (for T) and to actually read a verse!  Seeing their noses tucked away in their bibles can bring this Momma to tears!  This morning I watched the boys work with Hannah girl on her color flashcards and Isaiah flip through T's number flashcards with him.  Isaiah loved helping his siblings!  I love to watch their relationships grow.  Plus, we have been able to play with friends every day this week! 

I am struggling to find balance.  Next week T has a pulmnologist appointment which is likely take us away the whole day, but I have everything figured out so test days fall on certain days (Thursday and Friday) so it just fits nicely...and after next week it won't fit so nicely!  God is working in my heart on balance.  It is OK to miss a day here and there.  And I am very capable of adjusting the lesson plans.  So I just need to stop worrying!  I was getting to relaxed about bedtime and this made for some not very happy kiddos to start school time at 8:30am!  We are getting back to a nice routine at bedtime, it is hard since Sam has been having many late days.  I have also been focusing on Proverbs 31 and going through a study by Elizabeth George during my morning quiet time and then I wrap it up during our afternoon down time.  It has been wonderful and driving me towards being the godly woman I so desire to be!