Exactly Why I DON'T Plan~

Yesterday after breakfast we read our Story Bible about David and the Giant.
We are also memorizing Psalm 23 and sang some worship songs~

When Evie suggested we measure how tall Goliath was~

Using a tape measure we marked his height then all the children, me, Scott, and Josh!
Then they drew him with all the things he carried to fight.
We converted his height into yards and inches as well as how much taller he was than all the people we measured.
It was a GREAT bible, math, and art experience all rolled into one!

We went back in to explore the Bible App for Kids~ Stones, Slings, and Giant Things.
They hear the story read to them, answer questions, and able to play games after that~

Even the baby can play!

We moved on to our sunroom for math and clipboard work then
an Activity Tray for the little girls.
I printed farm animal pictures for them to build words, play memory, and make little books~

Everyone came back together for Charlotte's Web read aloud, copy work, and Wilber painting~

 

I sat watching this baby water coloring a pig while listening to Charlotte's Web and could scarcely take in the miracle I've witnessed over the last year.

The 23rd is Calla Day. The day she crawled into our arms a little caterpillar and through a year of cocooning, we have watched a baby butterfly emerge.

It's beautiful! She's worth it. And there are millions more just like her waiting for their forever too~

We read lots of other read alouds as well as independent reading.
Exactly why I don't plan...
I couldn't plan this much beauty!
Thankful God helps make it happen.

Samson~

One of stories this week in The Child's Story Bible was Samson~

 The kids remembered we had it on DVD so we had to watch it~

while they copied a verse from the story and sketched.
Hiding the word in their hearts!!!

Poetry and Bible~

Shakespeare and Little Debbie make poetry teatime even more fun~

 And for Bible we are memorizing Psalm 100 and singing He Lives~

And the proof is it making a difference?
I hear them quoting and singing all day long!
Hide it in their heart!!!
{PS. Look at the little convo going on in the back:}

Bible & Technology~

You might gasp when I say my kiddos get bored with the same old Bible reading all the time.

I've been using God's Love for You

and I LOVE it but sometimes we just have to change it up.

We've had these Bible DVDs for a long time

(think I may have bought them @ Lifeway)

and pulled them out this week for our Bible time~

Everyone was very attentive...

There is a scripture, a story, and a song.

We each took our journals and I wrote the scripture for them then

they drew a picture...

had the bigger girls write what it meant to them.

Evie also asked if I would read from

My Great Big God... love it because it rhymes!!!

As for technology...

I tread a fine line when it comes to computers, Ipads, Ipods, and tv.

How much is too much?

Should they be doing it at all?

When and what?

I have found it best used as a gift for tasks completed well.

Today everyone finished all their school work in good time

with little playing around so~

 Technology was gifted for about 30 mins before lunch

(school games only of course)!

And THIS is what the bitty girls' idea of playtime after school~

{Let's see if we can pull every single thing out we have

and cover the whole floor so our clean up time will last

a very long time!}

All that matters is that they were having FUN, right?

Worship, Reading, & Technology~

This weekend while rummaging through a cabinet I found our Hide 'em in your Heart cds~

This morning EK read our bible story for us

(I had not eaten breakfast)

and we added some worship songs!

We are singing 5 a week and hope to have them all memorized by the end of the year!!!

EK has read just about all the 'reading' books I can find for her and she really just wants to read non fiction SO...

I'm going with it!

Last year I let her Zoobook subscription expire so for Christmas we gave her another one.

She races to the mailbox for days when one is due for delivery~

 Today I had her choose one for reading time.

She chose a topic inside and read to me then narrated a summary.

I found an Animal Report book and printed for her.

We began working on it today and she loved it!

Mixing reading and science just feels so right for her!!!

AND then there is WP!

He is doing so well with his letter recognition and sounds,

I decided to start him on Reading Eggs

{We LOVE Reading Eggs!!!}

I really think it helped EK make such a great leap in her reading confidence and fluency!!!

SJ has been working in it for a year now and WP joined the ranks today~

 He was very proud of himself and I am sure PC is right behind him!

 

Prayer Pail~

Thanks to LeighAnn for the Prayer Pail idea... the kids LOVE it~

I found a bucket (pail) in the garage and gathered some decorating supplies. We wrote 1 Thess 5:16-18 on it plus the people in our immediate family. I had them think of people they thought we needed to pray for and wrote them on popsicle sticks. 

Each morning they will all pull a stick and pray for that request.

I also changed up what we are using for Bible. The other book just wasn't keeping their attention. I am going to reread The Jesus Storybook Bible and adding Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing and today they loved it!!

Please let us know if we can pray for you!!!

Blessings to all!

Morning Work~

Every moring we begin our day with a Bible story. Some mornings EK reads and the next SJ. 

The girls have bible notebooks they do copywork in and illustrate~

 and the other three have name notebooks~

 They trace and sound out their name to me. I add some other skill to the bottom... maybe shapes, numbers, letters, etc. Over the last months we have created a keepsake of the progress they are making with this skill. Both boys can spell, sound, and write their name due to the repetition. Evie... working on it. :) Once first names are mastered, we will begin last and middle. 

Other really fun thing we do each day is sing each name to 'Bingo'~

There is boy that we all love and Will is his name-O,

W-I-L-L, 

W-I-L-L, 

W-I-L-L, 

And Will is his name-O.

They are learning to spell each other's names too so that kind of compounds the number of letters they are learning.

A Great way to begin our day!     

Resurrection Eggs~

Even with sick bay in full force, we still squeezed in some school.

I brought out Benjamin's Box and our resurrection eggs today~

We are a little late starting these so we read 3 parts.

 I had small images of the story so we worked on 3 pages in our flip books. I had EK bring her bible down and taught her how to locate scripture. She found each one and highlighted with color pencils then recorded in her bible notebook. SJ copied her verse too!

We also threw a little art into the morning... this was the quietest they had been or were all day :)~

We watercolored Easter eggs and they turned out gorgeous when we removed the masking tape. 

Can't wait to decorate our schoolroom with them.