Joseph's Coat!

We are learning about Joseph and his coat of many colors this week.  What a fun week for E!!!  She got to make her own coat of many colors!

Thankful.  Blessed.

School this week

Enjoy this picture post of school this week.  :)

 Kumon makes these amazing books.  E has one for tracing, mazes, drawing, and cutting.  She loves them!  

 Noah's Ark!

 We got these lacing cards in the dollar spot at Target.  I think they were $3.00.  They are very durable!  She loves all of the designs!

 We use this chart to keep track of the letters we have learned.  We use it to review letter sounds.  In a few weeks we will use them to make words. 

 I love these sheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler's Letter of the Week curriculum.  It has helped E so much with her letter formation!

 

 This is also from Confession of a Homeschooler's LOTW curriculum. 

 We made a tent this week.  (We were talking about camping).  She read more this week on her own than she normally does because of her tent.  :)

 Number Order Activity

We made a tent and stars!  She used marshmallows to dip in paint to make the stars. 

Letter T!

Size sort.  :)

This has been one of my favorite E activities.  I pick a word for her to "see".  She searches for the letters she needs to "build" it.  Then she writes it.  So good for her!

BOB Books.  I cannot recommend these enough.  She is already on book 2 and can read both 1 and 2 on her own.  Next week she starts book 3. 

Finally, at the end of each week she watches some sort of a show/movie that related to our topic for the week. 

Thankful.  Blessed.

Fun day!! (and a proud mama!)

M was out of town this week and he got home yesterday.  He was so kind to allow me to rest while he hung out with the kids.  I am very thankful for him.  He regularly puts my needs before his.  Jesus knew what he was doing when he introduced us.  :)

We had a great time in school today!   See for yourself!!

 Before we could do school, E had to give all of the animals a check up.  Makes sense. 

 Lion!! 

 The Jesus Storybook DVDs are great!  E loves watching the stories each week and is great at remembering little details!

 Letter z practice!

E's favorite part!  We made a zoo!!  She asked if we could keep it up for 10 years.  Sure, E.  We can.  :)

And my favorite part:

We have been reading the BOB books that I told you about HERE.

Evie has learned how to sound out words, but has struggled with blending them together to make the word.  (I mean, she's 3.  I am not pushing this at all.  Sometimes we try it to see if she can do it).  

Here she is sounding out and reading her very first word!  Proud mama!

Thankful.  Blessed.

Zoo Day!

We decided to go to the zoo on Monday afternoon.  Our theme this week is the letter Z, Noah's ark, animals, zoo, etc..  So what a perfect time to go!  When we got there Evie asked for some "noculars" so she could see the animals better.  :)  Sweet girl.  

It was 10 degrees colder than we thought it was going to be when we got to the zoo.  A little chilly.  So we just got E a sweatshirt from the gift shop.  It turns out that most of the other parents had the same idea!  There were blue sweatshirts all over Zoo Atlanta!   (And of course, her "noculars").  :)

 Both kids had a great time watching the birds! 

 G thinks E is so funny! 

 E loved the merkats! 

And the statues...

 And the older gentleman that offered to rock E on the see saw when there were no other kids to ride with her.  They had a nice little chat.  :)

And of course, G laughing at his big sister.  :)

Thankful.  Blessed.

Reading Day!

Some days we just like to snuggle up on the guest bed and read.  We still had school...just a modified version.  (We did our bible verse and the calendar).  This week our theme is Noah's Ark, animals, and the zoo (letter z).  We read a bunch of books on those topics.  

But first... I finished my desk.  I love it.  I really just want to sit here all of the time.  Sometimes I create work for myself just so I can have something to do at my desk.  I'm sure that will pass...  :)

 My desk

 Bob Books.  We love them!  E has already started to learn how to sound out words because of these books.  They are highly recommended!!!

 Reading Day!!

E wanted to do a project.  So I poured salt into this box lid and she practiced writing her letters.  

Thankful!  Blessed!

Getting Ready

We have been trying to get our home ready for new kids.  A few weeks ago we moved G into E's room.  It's been going pretty well!  The first few days, they both were waking up pretty early, but they have both started waking up at around 8:00.  It's been so nice.

We can get our home ready.  We can buy cribs and carseats.  We can clean and safety proof the things that aren't already safety proofed.  We can attend the classes.  We can have our homestudies.  But even if we do those things, are we really prepared?  Not without Jesus.

There are days that I think I am emotionally ready for this challenge.  And days when I am terrified.  There is a strong chance that within the next 18 months, we will have 4 kids ages 4 and younger.  It will be different.  But it will be good.  Because Jesus is good.  And Jesus is the center of this.

My prayer is that Jesus will prepare me emotionally for this journey.

He will.  He already has.

Thankful.  Blessed.

Here are a few pictures from school yesterday and today:

 We have been working on this apple tree all week.  The trunk is her foot, the leaves are her hands, and the apples are her finger prints.  :)

 Dot markers! 

 She is really starting to be able to follow the directions on the card and build her letters!

 Tuesday we stamped apples with paint.  I drew stems on them and cut them out.  We used them today to make patterns.  It's so fun to watch her progress in her learning!

 She put the ABCs in order.  There are so many fun games we can do with these bean bags!

 Writing the letter A

 We read the story.  As I read, if she saw an A, she would use her yellow dot marker to put a dot on it. 

Apple seed counting and number matching. 

Thankful.  Blessed.