so much to write...so little time!

The title pretty much sums it up! We FINISHED our first week of homeschooling!!! I do want to blog about it and hopefully, I will soon. Our first week was a lot of changes...getting back to a routine after being on vacation for a little over two weeks(naps, bedtimes...fun!), not having Daddy home all day with us, starting school, starting AWANA, and Daddy's bowling league started up! It felt like a crazy week for this Mama who has been struggling to begin with! But...we made it!!! God truly was my strength! So, I hope that sometime this week I will be able to catch up a little on our first week! I got to blog it before I forget about it! 

We Survived!!!

Dry Erase Board welcoming the kids with their verse!

We did it! Our very first day of homeschooling is done and we are all still alive and no one lost any hair! (Although at one point, I did think that maybe throwing in the towel looked sounded good! Ha!) So, I love to plan, but am not good at staying on schedule! Nothing ever seems to take the amount of time I think it will! Does anyone else have this problem? I had our day totally planned out (to like where I was planning things taking 3-5 minutes past the hour! -You can tell already where this story is going!) and although not a single thing happened at the time I planned for it, it all still worked out! I guess all the 'off timing' was just God's timing! 
The kids got up a little later than usual which normally would be nice, but today I had big plans of doing this on the normal schedule. I was dead tired and didn't wake up before them to do my Bible time, but was still determined that this would be a good day and we will still go on! The kids crawled in bed with Nathan and I for a few minutes and then I got up and put the cinnamon rolls  in the oven. I wanted to do a little special breakfast for the first day and since Nathan was home and he loves these I thought I'd do something special! It's only special at our house because normally we have cereal or toast with sprinkles(cinnamon and sugar)! So, we prayed, ate, read our Bible, closed in prayer, and started school! 

Malia and Gage on their mats                         

I got the kids special mats to sit on during our morning 'circle/calendar' time. I had the kids close their eyes, told them what to look for, and then they turned around and ran to find their mat with their names! They thought this was fun! Gage got a frog mat since he seems to be all into frogs, turtles, and bugs lately(yuck...yuck...and yuck! but I know I have to watch my words and actions as I want him to see they are cool because God created them for some reason!) We call Malia either Cupcake or Bug(Ladybug) so the same store had a ladybug mat! These mats are really mats for kneeling on when you garden! Then I blind folded the kids and asked them what they could see...Nothing..although Gage tried to tell me where everything in the livingroom was by memory! We talked about how before anything was created there was nothing, the world was empty and dark. Then we read Genesis 1:1-5, where God spoke light into being and made the first day and night. This is where Malia was the handful I thought she'd be and took a few minutes of telling her to stop bothering her brother or to sit down. (Thankfully Daddy was home today to help, so, we'll see how Mommy does on her own-almost like another first day!) I think for being 2 though, she did really really good! I could tell they both needed to move so we got some wiggles out and danced while we sang a Creation song to the tune of "This old Man"! (We just sang day one's verse...we'll add to it each day!) After that I asked a few questions to see what Gage got from what we talked about and read. We learned the sign for "Day"...which they both did...it was cute! 

Malia with her bin
                       

Then we moved to the kitchen table where our curriculum as a number to color, cut, and paste for each day of creation. I am not a good mommy when it comes to using scissors, so, I have to admit I was a little impressed at how well Gage did! He chose to color his one in yellow which I thought was great since it was for "light" and Malia colored hers blue! At this time they also got to have their special homeschool bin with their new binders and filled pencil boxes...these were a surprise to them as well!

Gage and his bin

                             
The next few steps in our curriculum were to work on learning the ABC's, but Gage already knows and can recognized them so we kinda just skipped over that part and did a little review for him and a start for Malia. I gave them each a bingo card and some little c-thru circle things to cover the letters as I said and showed them to them. I would say a letter, let's say "g" Gage would find it and say, "I'm done!" and Malia would look at it and then Daddy helped her find it on her sheet..she found a few of them on her own! Then I'd ramble off a few words that started with that letter until our boards were filled up! We sang the clean up song, put things away, and they ran outside to play!

the butterfly...it was huge!

                           
As I was making lunch, my mom called and said to come over that there was a big butterfly that had been sitting for over a half over, so we ran there(I left the food on the counters) and then came home to lunch..sandwiches with oreo cookies and milk for light and dark...day one of God's creation!
We played some more, read the book, The Seven Days of Creation(sung to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas) and then tried to do nap time! After our little rest time, we did paper mache to make a globe! They are rather wet so I think my idea of waiting more than 48 hours to the 8th day of this unit might have been a great idea! The kids took a bath and I made BLT pizza with tomatoes out of our garden...yummy! 

Gage's 1st day of Kindergarten picture!

                                   
So, I know we started later than I thought, but how do people do all of this in an hour/hour and a half? It took us pretty much the entire day! I think the kids did amazing though! I feel so good that we did it and am so excited for this new adventure! Praise the Lord!
Now I am off to do the dishes and cut my pillowcases for tomorrow!

Malia with her Daddy for her 1st day of tot school! Really she just had to climb the tree like her brother...we are pretty sure she's part monkey! 

                                  

Our First Day of Kindergarten is Today!

The last few days I have been a little nervous about us finally actually starting school(you know after over a year of just drooling over My Father's World catalog!)... and then yesterday I felt totally at peace and really super exciting! One, it just seems soooooo unreal that my baby boy is old enough to be starting KINDERGARTEN! How can this be?! It's a humongous change in our lives...he will forever be in school until he is an adult now! This just seems so crazy to me that it's here already, it's now! Second, I am so excited and feel so blessed God has chose ME, his "Mama" to be his teacher! I don't have to send him away in this new adventure and I get to see his growth right in front of these teaching eyes! Amazing!
Well, our day ended up being about 4 hours later than planned and now I'm on here so it's even later for this teacher, who should get a good nights rest before the first day of class! Praying we are all rested and our hearts and mind are ready to absorb what God has for us in learning all about His Creation!