D-D-Dinosaur

Lesson 8 in MFW K was on the letter Dd. To make the alphabet letter matching game a little more fun, we shaped it into a dinosaur. Ok, ok, so in the picture, it looks more like a dog, but I assure you that each time we laid the cards out, the figure got better! Katie got a big kick out of it, giggling as usual!


She also sculpted these lovely clay dinosaurs. They are now extinct...hee hee. The wooden dino holding the card up is a wooden puzzle that came from Michael's Craft Store.

Library

We went to pick up some holds at the library today and both kids begged to go in to the children's section. It turned into a great trip. Emily wasn't particularly interested in anything...until...I mentioned the American Girl books. We tried these last year and she was not the least bit interested and didn't read a single one. This time, we found the chubby, short story collections that got her a bit excited. Could she possibly be developing a love for reading? I pray so! First, Kingdom Tales, and now American Girl! I'm excited and hope that she continues to foster her interest. I'm so thankful!

Kingdom Tales

We are loving this book. All the symbolism reminds me of the Chronicles of Narnia, which we have not read together yet. If any of you have the first edition of ECC in MFW and didn't know this is recommended in the second edition, please give it a try!  We loved it from the beginning and Emily is actually comprehending far more than I thought she would. I love the brief discussion questions that MFW includes at the end of each chapter. It makes me glad that I decided to order the book directly from MFW instead of trying to find it elsewhere. The interest that this book has sparked is well worth the money spent on it. Truly a good read for adults and children alike. I believe one could read it over and over and pick up different things each time! I love books like this and apparently, Emily does too! Yeah!!!

Home Economics

Thursdays almost always include home economics. You all know what that means, right? Yep, you got it. Cleaning and straightening up the house! Since we're at church every Thursday morning and find it difficult to settle into textbook material when we get home, we usually spend this day working around the house. We learn a lot about organization...and implementing it. After all, what good is having a place for everything if you don't put everything in its place?

In Bible study, we are learning about what revival means. The most important thing to try to grasp in these first few weeks is the splendor of God. He alone is magnificent. He alone can fill a room with His glory. Who are we to question His ways? All we truly need is Him. All else falls short of His glory and majesty. So, when I'm tired and weary, I go to Him. When I want to yell, I shout to Him. When things seem chaotic and I can't remember which way I'm going, I go to Him. Only God can provide rest, patience, and peace. Only God!

What a Day!

We got started early today and still didn't finish until 3:30! Is this normal? Somehow, we ended up doing two L.A. lessons and extra spelling using puzzles, which were lots of fun and no one complained about the long day, which was a miracle! When we finally finished, I took the girls swimming to exert some of that bottled up energy! It was well worth it to see their smiling faces as they bobbed in and out of the water!

We cleaned up the school room today (as we do each day) but it is in disarray again. The kids had a friend over this evening and they hung out in the school room, of all places! You would think they had enough of this place for one day! I noticed the kids looking things up in the children's dictionary earlier. Hummmm... I guess that's a good thing!!?

My adult women's Bible study meets on Thursdays, so our school day tomorrow will be flipped. We don't usually get a whole lot done on Thursdays, but that's ok because we always have one light day anyway. I love how MFW builds that into the program! This curriculum is so well suited for us and I feel so blessed to have discovered it.

Complete Book of Animals

Today, we began working in the Complete Book of Animals workbook. I taught from this book last year in our co-op with my daughter in the class, so we should breeze right through it. I debated about skipping it since we've done most of it, but decided that it would make for a good refresher and help with reading and writing skills. The pull-out stories are great too. Before adding them to our book basket (as recommended by MFW), I put them inside sheet protectors inside a binder with divider tabs for each continent. This should help preserve the pages and keep them organized.

I've been on this organization kick for a while and have learned many things that are working for us. Binders are just one of them!

My Father's World ECC

This year, we are Exploring Countries and Cultures with My Father's World with my 9 year old and MFW Kindergarten/First Grade with my six year old. I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on using the World Geography book with my 9-yr.-old. The book is written for grades 5-8, so I'm wondering if I should hold off on it or just try a few pages with each country we visit.

We started week 3 today and it's going really well so far. I like it more than expected. We really liked Adventures last year and I miss the United States history, but this is exciting too and we've learned so much (together) already!

My 6-yr.-old started Kindergarten late last year, so we're finishing that this year before moving on to first grade. She wanted to jump right in to first grade once she saw the science books. I hated to tell her that she had to finish K first! She's starting to read, which is very exciting. Her older sister went to public school for K & 1st, so teaching a child everything about beginning reading is new to me. I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it, but I owe God the credit. He led us to this curriculum and is guiding our days. I couldn't do this without Him!

All in all, we've had a great start to a new school year.