Pics

Abigail, while eating her toast, exclaimed "Hey, look! It's the United States!"

 

Lucia watching football with Daddy

 

First Homeschool Lesson

Abigail is attending school for Reading, Math, and Bible classes, but we will be doing the rest of her learning at home (Science, Social Studies, Art, Music, etc.) Today we did our first lesson, beginning a series on Senses. Many, many thanks to go my mom (Grandma Grace) for helping me with encouragement and inspiration.

First Day of Kindergarten

cracker face

Had three minutes to kill while the leftover lasagna warmed up at lunch today. Pictures below the video.
(inspired by this)

Abigail, sewing

 

 

 

Abigail made a sleeping bag for her dollies, all by herself! (OK, I showed her what to do, and pinned the pieces. But she did the sewing on her own.)

Video for family reunion

We couldn't make it to Camp Martha (bi-annual family reunion on my mom's side), so we sent our greetings and update via video.

We love the library

We have gotten so many incredible resources from our local library, Mid-Continent Public Library. One of the things we love are the learning DVD's. We've learned a lot of sign language from the Baby Signing Time videos, and now we are learning some Mandarin Chinese from Follow Jade (link to Amazon product page, but both DVD's are available at MCPL) and After School Chinese (If you follow that link, you'll get an error message on the first screen. Just click "ok", then "search". That should bring up the library catalog page for the series).

Here is Abigail counting to 10 in Chinese, and Lucia clapping when we say "Clap your hands" in Chinese.

TeePee

We turned this pile of sticks:



Into a teepee!

Preschool Project: Fly-Swatter Painting

Today's project was inspired by Teacher Tom.

I took a carboard box, covered it with "flies", and propped it up in the yard.

Next, I handed the girls their flyswatters...

...and paint palettes (aka paper plates)

Then, let them loose!

Abigail is learning to read

Sound & Vibration

Styrofoam Rocket

If the video player isn't working, you can view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-fTDTGBJZk

Tantrum x3

Sometimes the best thing to do is just grab the video camera so later I can show them how ridiculous they all were. Then sing sweetly at the top of my lungs until they give up.

One tangible result of praying together

Just a few minutes after Abigail sat down to do some activities on pbskids.org, my timer went off to remind us to pray. Abigail prayed first and said “God, please help me to not love the computer more than I’m loving my family, and help me to love you best of all.” {melt my heart}

Later, when it was time to turn off the computer, Abigail was slow to respond to my instruction. Her delayed obedience was not in-your-face rebellion, but despite her subtlety she was clearly wanting her own way.

I asked her, “Abigail, what are you loving most right now? Playing on the computer, or honoring God by obeying Mommy?”

Her countenance changed and she said “Oh. I just prayed that God would help me.” She then turned off the computer and went on her way.

Preschool Project: Goop

Homemade goop:
1 part water
2 parts cornstarch
few drops food coloring (if desired)

This stuff is crazy! It looks wet in the bowl, but actually is practically solid. When you put your fingers into it, it feels hard. Then when you dig your hands into it to pick it up, it turns to liquid and drips all over. My explanation doesn't do it justice, so just mix up a batch and try it yourself.

Preschool project: Hammer & Nails

Another fun activity from our Busy Books.We have been using golf tees as nails and practicing hammering.  Abigail has been hammering them into cardboard boxes, but those were a little to thick for Eliana (below in green shirt) and Joelle (white shirt).  I gave them egg cartons instead and let them go to town.  We also didn't have hammers, so they used the handle end of a screwdriver :)

Fun in the mud

Lest anyone think that raising four girls is all baby dolls and tea parties...this is what happens when Mama leaves the big girls in the backyard to take the baby inside. :)

Welcome Spring

This is what it looked like here on the first day of spring. :)  Sled hack, aka workout for Mommy

Abigail is growing to be such a good helper. She got her sisters clothes on this morning and served up all cereal for b-fast. She also said unprompted "That chili last night was delicious! Thanks for making it Mom." :) So sweet.

What a difference a few years make

Abigail and her dollies, July 2007

 Abigail and her sisters, March 2010
(L-R Abigail, Lucia, Joelle, Eliana)