First Day of Kindergarten and Third Grade (September 1)

I simply couldn't decide which pics to post, so you get them all! :)

Had to point out that small pile on the sidewalk behind Olivia. Guesses anyone? Okay, I'll tell you. That's a mushroom Livy found, unbeknownst to me. She got a knife, unbeknownst to me, and cut up the mushroom on the sidewalk...unbeknownst to me. :)

*Signs from HowSheDoes

{this moment} First day of school

Joining SouleMama for {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

We have an 8-year-old???

Carli Brooke turned eight years old last week...while she was a Rookie Camp (kids' church camp). Let me tell you, this mama missed her girl quite a bit. On her birthday, I was in Hobby Lobby picking up a few gifts for her and getting ready to head to Marion to see her when I got a call that Matt's baby was on the way and it was time to cover the front desk at IWU-Kokomo for him. So Glen was the lucky one, the one who hugged our birthday girl and passed out treats to her roommates.

Her party was Saturday at Jackson-Morrow Park with a sweet bunch of girls + Cameron and Nathaniel + parents. Olivia took most of the pictures, and I didn't realize that there was a smudge on the lens and a lot of them didn't turn out very well. It was a day of Mama-mess-ups. I forgot a knife and a cake server, and somehow, one of my packs of plates disappeared (did I just leave it in the cart or what??). It was windy on the hill, and despite lots of taping, the table covers continually billowed up, knocking over plates and cups. Ah, well. We had a lot of fun despite Mama and the wind! :)

An extra-bright spot in the day was the discovery that the Nature Center was open, so to escape the heat for a while, we headed over there. We visited with the critters (stuffed and live), looked at some cool science displays, and made bracelets.

I had to share this one (obviously after she pulled her bow out, her favorite trick).

Pizza crust...Mmmm.
By the way, when did this little one grow up? She took this picture herself. (Oh, and the lady in the background is Amy, our neighbor, whose little girl is a new little buddy to our girls)

Carli,

Eight years! The time is slipping through our fingers so quickly, and I want to cling to each moment of being your mama. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of the young lady you are becoming. You have a tender heart and a love for Jesus that warms our hearts, and your prayers of faith challenge us to trust Jesus more. I pray God will direct your steps all through your life and that you will follow Him closely.

I love you,

Mommy

Trip to the apple orchard

At the end of September, Olivia and her preschool friends went on a fieldtrip to a family-run apple orchard. We'd planned to all go along, but Carli ended up sick, so I left her and Madeline with Glen. I love spending one-on-one time with each girl.

Kissable, huggable, loveable, unbelievable.

Olivia and her teacher.

I took pics of this little guy for his mother, and I couldn't resist putting one up here. One of Olivia's favorite people! :)

I could just eat her up...figuratively speaking, of course!

MFW Adventures, Week 1

I must say that one week in, and I'm absolutely in love with the My Father's World curriculum. My Father's World follows Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education and teaching methods. For a mama who has always wanted to do more than just workbooks and inspire my kids to love learning and reading, but also not being overly creative on my own, this curriculum is does what I couldn't do on my own.

We are doing the second grade core this year, called Adventures in My Father's World. Through the course of our year, we will be studying the history of the United States and learning about each of the 50 states. Next year, we will get a good dose of geography and culture with Exploring Countries and Cultures, to be followed in 4th grade with Creation to the Greeks. Each year after that, we will be studying another section of history. What I love about MFW is that I can incorporate all the children into the core without having to teach separate history lessons to each one.

So these are pictures of our first week of school. Carli was not at all excited about starting school until the night before, but halfway through our first day, she said, "I'm excited now! I can't wait till tomorrow so we can do more!"

Here's Olivia on the first morning of school. (Funny...the girls laid out darling little sundresses to wear and we woke up to a chilly house. Someone had accidentally bumped the AC down way too far, AND it was in the 60s outside! Most beautiful weather this week. So they found sweaters to keep them warm for a while. They wanted to wear their robes, but I didn't think that would be fun for first day pics!)

Carli ready to start

Oh, and she wanted to show off the rock she painted.

All three littles.

Day one called for a red-white-and-blue snack. We had Icee treats.

One of Carli's favorite activities was the timeline. Since I didn't have wall space to make the line on the wall, I accordion-pleated cardstock. I was going to buy a book, but I talked to a MFW rep and they suggested that we do a more simple timeline this year, one that could be stretched out so she could see a full line at once...something about how young ones see time at this stage of development. So we'll start our big timeline books in two years with Creation to the Greeks.

Carli adds Leif Ericsson to the timeline. We also had a brief geography overview of the United States, as well as the continents and oceans. (My camera was dead for a couple days and I didn't get that photographed).

I bought Draw Write Now book 1 for art this year, and we worked on it twice this week. (This is day one). This will be a favorite activity of ours this year. Carli, Olivia, and I all worked on this. I am NOT an artist, so we started simple with this book. Carli enjoys art, but Olivia LOVES to draw/paint/color/marker and does a good enough job that I think she has a more creative bent than Carli or me. I'd like to get them into art lessons next year. Carli was constantly complaining that hers didn't look as good as the book, and saying things like, "I'm just horrible at this!" If anyone has great ideas about making art lest scary, encouraging us both to try and practice and be happy with our best efforts, let me know! :)

Carli working on her aBeka math and phonics workbooks

In Bible this year, we are learning about the names of Christ. This week we talked about name meanings and how our names were specially chosen.

• I wrote her a letter to tell her about her name.
• Carli did some copywork on special paper.
• We incorporated Chrysanthemum to remind us that our names are special.
• We did a simple notebooking/lapbook hybrid page
• We made name necklaces to remind us that our names are special.
  

On highlight of the week would have to be Science. MFW includes the Usborne First Encyclopedia of Science, and we enjoyed the bright and colorful pictures, the internet links(!), and the simple science experiment. We used a notebooking page from http://www.notebookingpages.com/ to document our experiment.

On Friday, our whole family traveled about an hour and a half away for our first field trip and nature walk. We visited one of Gene Stratton Porter's home and Rainbow Bottom. More on that coming soon.

Another part of our school day that did not get documented photographically is our Book Basket. We really enjoy any chance to read and we definitely have plenty of chances to read between our read-aloud (Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski, sometimes read during school and sometimes before bed since it's not part of the curriculum), book basket time, and "reader" time for Carli. (We've been using Sonlight's reader list mixed with ones we choose) The Book Basket is used with MFW to provide read-aloud or independent reading related to our history, science, or Bible topics. This week, we read Chrysanthemum, the Usborne Vikings book, and have started Paddle-to-the-Sea (we're practicing our narration skills with this book, and Carli is really enjoying that process!).

Coming soon: "Not-back-to-school blog hop: A day in the life" and "Limberlost"

Happy 2nd Birthday, Madeline Kate!

Though she was not like the other girls...

...they thought she was the best.

And through all the years of struggle...

...Neither whispered one regret.

They remembered the words that God had spoken...

And they both broke down and cried.

See to them it just did not matter

Why some things in life take place.

They just knew the joy they felt

When they looked into her face.

They learned sometimes miracles hide.

They said, "God has wrapped our blessing in disguise."

--Bruce Carroll