School this year

We have had a great start to the school year so far. We are doing Sonlight for the first year and are learning lots of history. We start the morning by reading a bible story and doing our memory verses. Then we either sing or learn our poem for the month. Next we have our geography lesson. We love learning our geography by singing! Even Lizzy can sing the continents and the countries of the Middle East. After that we read a story about a people group who live in that area. We've learned about Yemenis, Iraqis, and Turks, but so far our favorite have been the Kurds since we are surrounded by so many in our neighborhood. After that we have history where we are currently learning about ancient Egypt. Then we read our story. We've finished Red Sails to Capri, and are now beginnning Ginger Pye. Lastly, we do either Spanish or Science.

Next, the girls take turns doing their Abeka language arts and arithmetic. Lizzy is doing kindergarten and has learned to count by 10s and is learning to count to 100. She is reviewing all her letters from last year. Katie is doing 2nd grade math and relearning her addition and subtraction facts, since we did a really poor job of practicing over the summer. In English, she is doing the 3rd grade program and currently working on capitalization.

 Teaching the two girls is totally different. Katie just wants the facts. Boring is ok as long as she can finish quickly. Lizzy only wants to have fun. If  it's not enjoyable, her attention span is gone. I am more like Katie and would rather finish something quickly than waste time trying to make it fun, so I am always having to remind myself to make it fun! Lizzy is also quite the comedian and loves to make people laugh. It is hard to tell her to stop doing something because it's not funny when I can't stop laughing at her.

This week we start back up at Girl Scouts where Lizzy will be an honorary Daisy (since I'm teaching we can sneak her in) and Katie is starting her first year as a Brownie. Wednesday nights at church start tomorrow also and soon our Co-op will start and that's when our lives get really crazy until Christmas break. Right now, we've been enjoying not having too many places to go or things to do but I know it can't last. We've also been squeezing the last delicious drops out of summer, swimming every night and having friends over when we can.

Life's good

Car

And while I'm getting pictures off my phone, we recently crossed a milestone in our suburban. Still going strong! We've only had it for the last 12000 miles or so. We bought it off the side of the road when our van was totaled and so far it's been a great family vehicle (except for squeezing into parking spots). Hopefully it'll still be around to cross 200k.

Women of Faith

One of the sweet ladies in our church took us to Women of Faith over the weekend. This was my first time to go and they put on a wonderful program. We had lots of inspiring speakers like Sheila Walsh and Luci Swindoll and amazing music by Mary Mary and Natalie Grant. We got spoiled with our box seating and some of us stayed for a "slumber party" at the Sheraton that night. I forgot to take my camera, but feast your eyes on these quality photos of the event I snapped with my phone.

Before and After again

I knew I took some before shots, but I couldn't find them because I had taken them with my phone, so here they are.

And the after again.

Katie's Room

For Katie's 7th Birthday I redid her room. She went from Strawberry shortcake to flowers and butterflies. Everything in here is Katie's choice. She picked out all the individual pieces and then I put them together and surprised her with the final result. I think it turned out really cute! She really loves blue right now as you might guess. I still owe her another pillow, but who knows when I will get it done. I'm tired of sewing for now. Sewing and painting are alot alike. You have to let some time go by so you can forget how much they suck before starting the next project.

New Wall

Here are the before pictures before we had the wall built. I don't have any looking directly in, but this was the room, and it just opened into the entryway.

Now, here is the wall built across.

First Day of School

Today was our first day of school. Katie started second grade. She is doing Abeka 3rd grade language arts, Abeka 2nd grade arithmetic, Sonlight 1+2 history and geography. Lizzy started Pre-K. She is doing Abeka Kindergarten Arithmetic and Language Arts, and Sonlight 1+2 History and Geography. They both do unit studies for science.

I am happy to have them back on a schedule. Hopefully it will cut down on all the excessive whining and arguing going on during the summer.

One day down, 169 to go!

Katie's 7th Birthday!

On Saturday, we celebrated Katie's 7th birthday! She had a butterfly themed party and had lots of friends and family over to swim and enjoy a bbq. She got lots of fun presents, and her big present this year was redecorating her bedroom. I'll post pictures soon of how it turned out.

VBS

Today was the last day of VBS at our church. We had a great week at Saddle Ridge Ranch, learning if you Need Answers? Ask God! Today we had a watermelon seed spitting contest, and got to pet the horses. Lizzy actually got to ride one of the ponies, but I missed that. I got a few pics of the kids in our class so you can click to download them.

Happy Birthday Katie

While we weren't paying close attention, this sweet little baby somehow grew into...

this sweet 7 year old girl. Happy Birthday, Katie! We love you!