School Week in Review #3

If you've been reading my blog, you know that we had a very challenging day on Monday. Tuesday was also challenging, but I felt much encouragement from the Lord in spite of the difficulties. I'm realizing that a lot of the difficulty is not necessarily related to the actual school work and learning we are doing, but instead related to new parenting challenges as the boys each enter new developmental stages. When you put them all together... POW! It often feels explosive! I need to be ON every minute of every day prepared to teach, train and redirect with patience. In the morning, during school, after school, at supper, and bedtime...phew! Makes me tired just thinking about it all. The Lord will give me strength. In fact, I am reminded every second that I simply cannot do this without Him holding me up.  

So we come to our week in pictures. Back in August, I said one of the reasons I wanted to start this blog was to have "a record of the positive experiences as a testimony to God being at work." It is by His grace alone that we finished up our week strong and are following through with our commitment to homeschool. Hope you enjoy the photos and find a few reasons to chuckle as you take a peek. :)

Let's start with our silly little 3 year old. Some of these pictures absolutely capture his personality.

Finishing up our letter Ss work with gluing sand to the letter S.

Silly boy cutting strips of paper.

Matching the colored pieces to the color on the stars.

Moving on to letter Mm and stamping on the mouse.

Do-a-dot letter Mm

Here he is being productive under the VT blanket. His brothers didn't notice him hiding there. 

He decided to make a helmet out of a full tissue box. Where did the tissues go?

Of course, he emptied them onto the floor. Yes, of course it looks like "snow" to jump in!

Let's move onto the 5 year old kindergartner. We LOVE the curriculum we are using. (My Father's World) The Bible and science themes are wonderful. The phonics however is getting off to a slow start. A little easier then we need, but I think it is good to lay a solid foundation since E is a young kindergartner. There is no rush and he's not bothered by the easiness. I also realized that I don't have any photos of the core math and reading work since I'm working with him during that time, but we're doing it! :)

Cuisenaire Rods

A little bit of flopping around 

Making a lowercase m with pom poms

More cuisenaire rods

uppercase M with sticks

Phases of the moon drawings for letter Mm week

Ahh... 2nd grade. We are having lots of fun, but also working hard on writing, reading comprehension, grammar, spelling, math and United States history. Less exciting photos to be taken.

This is a wonderful moment I'm so glad I caught on camera. He is actually having a great
time and laughing while we work on math together.  I have to remember this moment!! 

Snuggled up beside A reading his book.

I love the precision. He has a picture he is gluing to the center of this poster and measured
to find the exact center. Then he got out Daddy's level to make sure we hung it straight on the wall.
Hmmm... I would say he gets this from his Daddy (but maybe his Mommy too!)

Group activities:

La Classe Divertida - The boys up close watching and participating with our spanish lesson DVD.

Running and jumping while listening to Tchaikovsky's Russian Dance from the Nutcracker.

Grinding up crayons in pencil sharpeners for our window poster

Adding the crayon shavings to the wax paper poster before Mom irons it. 

The finished product.

Our nature walk at Deep Run Park. 

Of course we are climbing!

Tomorrow we have our first field trip to the Mariner's Museum in Newport News!