My Pirate Gift Bags...

We are just getting ready to celebrate Abraham's 3rd birthday. I can't believe my baby turns 3! Makes me so sad that he's getting so big, so quick. Well, I decided that I would try and give him a party, and knowing me, I don't ever do these types of things half way.... it's full steam ahead! One of the ideas that I came up with was for these gift bags, for the kids when they leave. I just stenciled a ghost pirate on the front of a lunch sack and then snipped the edges to look raggedy. I then tied it with a bit of raffia. So simple and very fun to make! You could personalize your own, for any occassion. Have fun! Oh, and by the way, I can't help but give you a sample of Abraham's pirate costume... Just love it! I will post more pics after the party.

Week 3

We had a fun week this week with lots of experiments. I didn't get a ton of pictures, but here are a few.
One of our science experiments this week was how we use our senses. We matched different scented cotton balls to the correct spice or flavoring. All the kids enjoyed this.
This week, we also got a chance to go with our homeschool group to the park. That was a lot of fun for the kids to meet other kids their age. We are just coming into the school year, so we will be going to the park about twice a month and meeting other times for other activities.




The girls worked on their numbers 6-10, and mommy laid out all kinds of things to count. The gummy worms were hard to keep Abraham out of.:) It was so funny, because we started out with 9, and I had Olivia count them. She kept coming up with 8 and I made her recount them several times.:) Till finally I recounted them myself and discovered that there really was 8! Abraham snatched one. That boy!:) After we were all done with this, we of course, divided up the gummy worms between the kids. They loved this!

God made a covenant with Abraham and Abraham trusted and believed. So, we decided to dress up like Abraham and play the part. Abraham thought it was pretty neat to have the same name as the Abraham in the Bible, and mommy thought He looked so cute dressed up.:)

Abraham learned that God promised Abraham a son and more children than the stars in the sky.

He had so much fun making a tent and painting stars above it.

Our 2nd Week of School....

This is our second week of school and has been going great! It's amazing to me the things that they are learning! In phonics, the girls are learning words like at, cat, cot and sat. It's so fun watching them learn to read.:) In the picture to the right, Olivia is working diligently on her thinking skills.

Abraham has been learning about Noah this

week, and is learning about the Number 2. He made two hands that represent Noah's two hands that build the ark. He also made a rainbow that represents God's promise that He will never again send a flood to cover the whole earth. Abraham LOVES crafts and coloring!!!

The girls have been working on their numbers, and here they are making cookies with the correct number of toppings for them. Audrey decided to go with colored marshmellows and Olivia chocolate chips.:)

One of our Science experiments this week, was to make a boat out of foil and to see how much weight we could hold on it, without it sinking. Mommy and Audrey's boat didn't hold very many bears:)

Olivia's boat was able to hold 39 bears until our kitten Anikan jumped into the tub and knocked the whole boat and all out!! The kids had a lot of fun with this project.

We also have been learning about lots of God's animals, like the elephant. Audrey has been really excited to learn that elephants have big ears like fans, that they wave to keep cool.

Our Camping trip....

On Thursday, we headed up to Sequoia National Park, and camped for the weekend. We had a lot of fun! The kids especially! We went with a bunch of our church friends, so that made things even better! I became sick the last half of our time there, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. Oh well, I will get some more next time. Daddy wants to back again next weekend.... but not to camp, thank goodness.:) I love to camp, but love my shower and comfy bed too!!:)
The picture above is looking back and Hume Lake.

The girls are playing with some coloring books and activities that I brought along, so they wouldn't get to bored.

In the picture to the left, we are just gettting ready to go roast some marshmellows for smores. Daddy snapped a picture.:)

The kids coloring, while daddy starts the fire on the cookstove for dinner. Mommy made hotdogs and roasted corn on the cob with butter.

First week at Little Blessings Christian School....

The verse that the kids have been working on this week is Matthew 19:14, "And Jesus said, Suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me, for such is the kingdom of heaven."
Here they are singing their song that goes along with this verse from Steve Green's 'Hide Em In Your Heart'.

We are reading a book together called, The Adventures of Reddy Fox, by Thorton Burgess. On this particular day, we read about Reddy Fox thought he was so smart that he could take one of Farmer Brown's chickens. His boldness got him into a lot of trouble. The kids did some notebooking and wrote Reddy Fox a letter of what they would like to tell him if they could. The one on the left is Audrey's and the one on the right is Olivia's.

The girls have been working on their numbers, and had fun walking on the giant ones mom made on the floor for them. We also took turns placing the correct number of items with each number.

Abraham worked on his letter 'A' this week. He had a lot of fun walking his animals along the giant letter.

First Day of School!

The kids have been getting anxious to start school, so yesterday I thought we would do a trial run, so to speak. They had so much fun, we might just go ahead and start after the 4th.
As, I have mentioned, we are doing Heart of Dakota, Little Hearts For His Glory. It is wonderful, because it is uses the CM method of using "living books". Today, we learned that that God is the beginning of history, and that he created everything! The girls worked on fine motor skills, math, phonics and music. We did a fun experiment with our science too. We went into a dark room and pretended that we were the voice of God. When God said "Let there be light!", we turned on our flashlights. The kids had a lot of fun with that.

Abraham got in on the fun too. He worked on the Little Hands to Heaven, and studied God's creation. Here he drew several things that God created, with a white crayon. Then, he painted black water colors over the paper, so that he could see his work of art, through it. He loved it!!

Here's Audrey and Olivia working on their thinking skills, and Olivia working on her math.

Activities for 2008/2009

I just found out where our fieldtrips are going to be this year. It sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun!

Here is what our group has chosen to do: a horse ranch, local fire station, county waste and recycling center, Savemart supermarket, Ag Center Museum, a honey farm, Naval Air Station, and Planetarium. If one or more fall through, we have a back up plan of a ranger walk, visit to a newspaper, a cotton gin and a tv station.

Also, Audrey will be active in ballet, and Olivia, Keepers Club. Both will be participating in other homeschooling activities such has reading rally, book it, park days, etc.

Abraham has his own preschool program that he will be doing, but he will be participating in many things too.