Following Foundations 8/14/09 August 14, 2009

As the sun sets on our second week of school, I’m left pondering a statement made by my daughter: “If Walmart goes away, mommy will be a widow.” Selah. Pause and meditate.

EG (5 yrs old):

Here’s a short summary of this week’s work: We were in week 2 of Sonlight’s Core K. We read about ancient Egyptians and how they lived and what they wore. In science, we talked about the causes of weather and the water cycle. Our read-aloud was still The Boxcar Children, which we will finish next week. In her reading, she’s working on two-syllable words. In math, she worked on how to determine “how many more or less” of something. Her handwriting was just a review of letter formation and a few small words. I couldn’t find her handwriting sheet today, so I had to make her one myself.

This week EG memorized 2 Corinthians 12:9, which says “And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” She also memorized question 68 which asks “What are the reasons attached to the fourth commandment?”

Swim lessons went okay this week. On Tuesday she put her whole face in the water. Of course, she was motivated by the fact that her little brother showed her up. See below for more info on that. I don’t think she has made much progress so far during this session of swim lessons. Part of the problem is due to the fact that they’ve had three different teachers for the past four lessons. Each new instructor has no idea what each child has already accomplished, so they don’t know how to push them to a new level. I talked to one of the “higher ups” at the Y about it. We’re hoping next month will be more consistent. Many of their instructors are part-time workers that are either in high school or college.

EG also started soccer practice this week. I think her coach has stepped things up a notch since she’s now in U6. He had them juggling the ball with their knees and trying to hit it with their heads. I’m glad she didn’t walk away with a bloody nose.

AZ (3 yrs old):

The Z-man worked on an L page for his alphabet notebook this week. His two L pictures on his poster were ‘lava’ and ‘lightning’. He didn’t do so well in Explode the Code. I don’t think he’s ready. He can’t really hear the sounds at the beginning of words. I think I’m just going to continue with his poster and his alphabet notebook for a while. This will help him learn his letter sounds really well. I may let him try ETC every once in a while to see if there’s been any improvement.

This week the Z-man was suppose to memorize Psalm 56:3, which says “When I am afraid I will trust in you”. It turns out he already knew it from the Steve Green CD’s. So then we started on Psalm 121. Well, he already knew the first two verses of Psalm 121 because he’s heard his sister recite it so many times. So I guess we’ll start on verse 3 next week. This is why I have them do verses and catechisms at the table together during breakfast. It cuts the workload on down the line!

Tuesday was a great day at swim lessons for the Z-man. He put his whole head under water and came up smiling! He put his sister to shame! I had told them before swim lessons that we would wait until Thursday to have slushies for being brave. (The slushie fund is going to go the way of  ‘cash for clunkers’ if we don’t scale back!) But after he dunked his head, I caved and we went to Sonic.

The Z-man got a little bug house and a butterfly net a couple of months ago for his birthday. We have had the most fun catching bugs. This week we caught a grasshopper on the front porch. This was our first bug that pooped in the bug house. (I tried to use it as an object lesson for Operation Potty Training. Didn’t work. Can you see how desperate I am in this area?) Anyways, I’m telling about the grasshopper for this reason: The next day I hear the Z-man say “I found grasshopper!” I found him sitting in the living room with Anna Comstock’s 900 page Handbook of Nature Study pointing at a black and white drawing of a grasshopper.

SA (15 months):

Can you believe that his sister just called him the ‘evil rat’?! Apparently he’s always “ruining” their things. Ahhh, the joys of having a little brother. The Z-man just passed him in the hallway and said ” ‘cuse me, evil rat!” A little bit of manners mixed with some name calling. I told them not to call him that. They asked if they could call him “evil mouse” instead. Sigh.

Me:

I feel as though I’ve crossed a hurdle this week in my guitar playing. I guess the drudgery of playing through the diatonic chords of six different keys as a daily exercise finally paid off.  Something just clicked this week, and now, all of sudden, in addition to the keys of G and D, I can now play reasonably well in the keys of A and C. This has opened many doors to me in way of songs that I can play. I’m ecstatic to say the least! I’m thankful that the Lord has helped me perservere during the difficult times and has brought me to this point. I still have a ways to go….just one step at a time!

Following Foundations 8/7/09 August 8, 2009

Well, this was our first week of school! We celebrated our first day by taking pictures on the front porch and by going out for lunch. The week went really well, and I was pleased with how well everything flowed. Although, I did discover on the first day that Little Man needs to be napping while I read to the other two. Fortunately, he’s still taking two naps a day!

EG and AZ both started swim lessons this week. They both did well and jumped off the side of the pool. The instructor finally had to dunk EG all the way under the water. She was only getting her chin wet.  Her brother was doing the same thing but never got dunked. Maybe they go easy on the three year olds.

We attempted a nature walk this week, and I think it went okay. My biggest difficulty is trying to find an appropriate and safe place to go. I finally decided on an area in our neighborhood near a ditch with some flowing water. The kids had a good time looking around, but I was having a hard time finding something for their bug house. Eventually, I spied some cicada skins hanging on some trees. We collected three of them and saw many more higher in the trees. After we got back home, I found a neat video online about the life cycle of the cicada. They thought it was really neat to watch the cicadas molt and were very excited to tell Daddy all about it when he got home.

EG (5 yrs old):

The big kindergartener! She was very excited. She kept asking me if she was big enough for science. She said “Maybe just a little science?!” Well, Sonlight’s Science K has been her favorite this week. We sat in the laundry room with a flashlight and a globe and talked about night and day. We talked about the seasons and solar eclipses. The experiments this week were about air, and she and the Z-man had a great time doing them together. I included a picture of them doing an “air race”.

In Sonlight’s Core K, we started The Boxcar Children as our read-aloud, and we read about dinosaurs and the first people in history. I had to do a good bit of filtering of this information due to the fact that the Usborne Internet-Linked Children’s Encyclopedia is a secular book. The internet links in the encyclopedia were very good, however, and we particularly enjoyed looking at the pictures of cave paintings at Lascaux, France.

For reading and phonics, EG officially started on compound words in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading and Explode the Code Book 4.  I say “officially” because she has been reading these words for a while now, but this is the first time we’ve looked at them as part of a lesson. She started Sonlight’s Readers 2, which begin with The Beginner’s Bible. She read five days worth in The Beginner’s Bible in two days, so we had to supplement with other stuff the rest of the week. This week she also began Singapore’s Earlybird Math B and A Reason for Handwriting Book A. The “seatwork”, which consists of math, handwriting and Explode the Code, went very quickly this week. I learned last year that if her brother is doing preschool at the table at the same time, she is more interested in what he is doing. Something that should take 15 minutes would take 45 minutes. So, this week I made the Z-man wait until she finished her seatwork before he started his preschool. This arrangement worked quite well. Of course, sometimes he was just sitting at the end of the table because he wanted to “wait his turn”.

This week she memorized Luke 12:15 which says “And he said to them ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness. For one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’” Also, she has made it through question 67 of the Baptist Catechism, which asks “What is forbidden in the fourth commandment?”

AZ (3 yrs old):

The Z-man was so excited about starting Explode the Code this week. He did well this week, but it’s still too early to tell if it will be too difficult for him. He finished his Kumon Tracing book this week and started some preschool workbooks by Rod & Staff. He also started Sonlight’s p3/4 program this week. We read Eloise Wilkin Stories,  Hans Christian Anderson’s Fairy Tales, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom…..repeatedly. His sister enjoyed the books as much as he did. AZ has gotten so much better at sitting still and listening to books. He even sat through a couple chapters of The Boxcar Children this week.

AZ also has been working on his memory verses. This week he completed Proverbs 1:7, which says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” He has also started working on the Baptist Catechism. He knows the first question, “Who is the first and best of beings?”, and he almost has the second question, “What is the chief end of man?”

I should have mentioned this last week, but the Z-man has made a great improvement in another area in his life. He has always been my picky eater. He eats only a handful of different things, and vegetables don’t happen to be one of them. A while back I expressed my concern to his doctor about his horrible eating habits. The doc said to just keep offering and then hopefully (and that is the keyword here) one day he would decide he liked his food. I can’t tell you how many countless times I have served green beans to this child. He has never eaten a green bean in his life.  And then….one day…….he says “Oh, I like green beans. I do” It was like the ending of the Dr. Seuss classic. And he ate his green beans, and he has eaten them two or three times since then. There is hope!!

SA (15 months):

The Little Man is still toddling along. He can take a few more steps before wiping out. He has really taken to books this week. Curious George and the Bunny has been a big hit. I taught him how to cover his eyes when he sees the picture of George covering his eyes. He can almost do the sign for ‘book’.

Me:

Well, I think it’s pretty obvious that I’ve had a busy week. I’m looped, stooped, and twisted alley-oop, and I’d really like to just pass out under a coconut tree. Chicka chicka boom boom. Nevertheless, life goes on and I have to keep moving. I had a good guitar lesson this week. I do okay playing songs in the key of D or G, but I need some major work in the other keys. So, one of my assignments for next time is to practice “Amazing Grace” in different keys. It will also be beneficial for me to practice transposing in my head.

Following Foundations July 2009 August 2, 2009

I’m starting to get some heat about not having a report up for over a month. So, I guess I’d better get the lead out and start writing! At my last update, bleach was clinging to my nostrils, and I was preparing for a trip up north. Well, the bleach is still there, but the trip was a success. We went to Michigan the first week in July with some dear friends and had a blast! We celebrated the 4th of July with a small 30 minute parade (those are the best kind) and some great fireworks over the Grand River. We flew kites at the Grand Haven beach and the kids rolled in the sand…then splashed in the 55 degree water, then rolled in the sand….. (Let’s just say that after I removed the Z-man’s sand-caked clothes, he was just as sandy without them!) The beach really was great, even though the water was a tad chilly and I had to wear a jacket over my swimsuit. Below are a few pictures of our time in Michigan.

After we left Michigan we drove to Kentucky to visit the Creation Museum. On the way, I was trying to finish the book Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World. As I finished up reading about how we are to abstain from every form of evil, we pull into the Triple XXX Family Restaurant in West Lafayette, Indiana. I was assured repeatedly that it was featured on the Food Network and that I wasn’t succumbing to the seduction of a fallen world by eating a burger there. Turns out that it’s named after Triple XXX Root Beer. The burgers were good, the root beer was good, and the kids thought they were pretty cool sitting on the bar stools.

The Creation Museum was awesome! The exhibits were very well done, and the content was great! God is truly a magnificent creator! We definitely plan to go back if we are able. Answers in Genesis is doing a great work for the Lord!

The third week of July was soccer camp for EG and the Z-man. Between the two of them, it lasted three hours each morning of that week. The first day was just short of disaster. Well, it was disaster for the Z-man. He screamed and clung to my leg the entire time. At the end of the day, his sister was deemed “slushie-worthy” and he was not. Let’s just say he made a big turnaround on the second day and for the rest of the week. The Little Man was just perfect the whole week. I set him up in the Radio Flyer and filled his bib with goldfish. When he wasn’t eating fishies, he played in the dirt. By the end of the week I was sick of sunscreen. I was constantly spraying a kid or rubbing sunscreen on a face. I couldn’t ever remember which kid I lathered up last, so sometimes I think they got two doses quite close together! Overall, I would say the week was a success.

The last week of July EG had vacation bible school every evening. She started crying when I dropped her off the first night. I decided to make a hasty departure because I knew it wouldn’t improve as long as I was there. Well, I did the right thing. She quickly made a new friend and she had a blast the rest of the week.

On Thursday of this week we checked out the new dinosaur exhibit at the NC Museum of Life and Science. It was really cool, and the kids were particularly excited because they’ve been on a dinosaur high ever since the Creation Museum. They also had a fossil dig where they could dig for real fossils.

So that sums up the month of July. Before I move on to the individual updates, I’ll insert a freebie here:

AZ: “What’s that?”

Daddy: “It’s a hoe. I’m using it to break up this dirt.”

AZ: “When I get big, I can use that thing!”

EG: “And when I get big, I can walk outside and say ‘So, how’s it going?”

EG (5 yrs old):

All three kids had checkups with the doctor this week, and EG did outstanding. She had to get those dreaded kindergarten shots. I just knew we would have to pull her out of a corner. Well, we talked about it a good bit beforehand. I reminded her that her friend gets four allergy shots every week and she doesn’t even cry. That it is okay to cry after the shots if she needs to, but there was no need for wiggin’ out before they even start. Well, she was the poster child for “slushie-brave”! She smiled through the first two shots. After the third shot, I could tell she was trying hard not to cry, but then the wails came. The nurse then informed us that the last shot burned. I was so proud of her!

AZ (3 yrs old):

Operation Potty Training is still in progress with the Z-man. Great improvements were made this week with the introduction of the Potty Watch. He now gets to the potty on time 90 percent of the time. Although I had to explain to him that the potty watch doesn’t handle the poopies. We’re having a little….ok, a LOT of trouble in that area.

The Z-man made much progress in the pool during our vacation. The last time he was in a pool he was afraid to let go. By the end of our vacation he was going all over the pool with his floaties and he was jumping off the side faster than you could catch him. I decided to sign him up for swimming lessons with his sister. They both start next week.

He also did great at his 3-yr old checkup this week. He went by himself with the nurse to have his vision tested. He didn’t cry when he got his finger pricked and he was proud of it!

SA ( 15 months old):

Little Man is starting to walk. He can go about 5 feet before he wipes out. He still prefers crawling at lightning speed, and for those times when he feels the need to look a little more grown up, he walks on his knees and grins. I think he’ll make fast progress now. He wants to keep up with his siblings. I took the picture below tonight. It amazes me that they can all three play together so well.

At his checkup, Little Man finally made it back in the double digits on the weight charts. He was in the 20th percentile weighing in at a mere 22 pounds. He got two shots and cried like…..well…a baby! You can’t blame the little guy. He can’t manage a slushie yet!

Me:

See all of the above!  In the middle of all this, I’m still plugging away on the guitar and making slow steady progress. We officially start school next week, so I’ve spent some time making some last minute preparations. I still don’t feel like all my ducks are in a row, but they probably never will be! Quack, Quack!