Monday, July 27, 2009

Happy To Be Rowing!

We are officially beginning our homeschooling journey this year. Due to Matilyn's birthday, she barely misses Kindergarten this year. YEAH! So happy to not need to report things anytime soon. So we are continuing to enjoy our homeschooling venture, and are now beginning to row! We are getting started with the curriculum called Five In A Row, and couldn't be happier about it. It is a literature based Christian curriculum (we are adding the Bible supplement). The children are already learning so much and having a blast! We are currently "rowing" The Story About Ping. Today we learned about the cormorant in China, which was quite interesting. Tomorrow we will be studying the map or China and the Yangtze River. For our Bible craft today we made scrolls, which the children loved. Our verse for the day was from our Rod and Staff Bible story book: John 17:17 "Thy word is truth".


Also, I was amazed to see how much information is available from other homeschooling moms who have used this curriculum. They have fantastic ideas for lapbooking, notebooking, and other crafts to expand the curriculum. Truly exciting!


We are awaiting our Hooked On Phonics package. Due to their love for hearing stories, both Matilyn and Matthew are very excited about learning to read. Matilyn is already sounding out 5 letter words, and read her first little reader all by herself. She was thrilled! We have decided to use HOP in the beginning as a fun intro to phonics. We will be adding another phonics program when we finish HOP, so that we are sure not to miss any of the important facts. Right now we are keeping things simple and exciting for them, and they are loving it.


At the homeschool fair I was able to pick up some incredible Rod and Staff readers. Their curriculum is filled with the types of readers that I have been praying to find. If any of you are looking for additional stories to read to your children, or for your children who are learning to read, I highly recommend all of the readers from Rod and Staff and Christian Light Education/Publishing. You just can't go wrong with them. :)


Andrew continues to do extremely well. He has not had any problems with adjusting. What a huge answer to prayer. We are so thankful to the Lord that He made Andrew to fit perfectly into our family. He is such a joy and blessing to us all!


We will be back-posting some pics. We have some great ones to share, but have been very busy with 2 weeks of swim lessons, 1 week of praise dance camp, and homeschooling ventures. Hope to have them on the blog soon! :)

Thursday, July 23, 2009

A few pics


Daddy teaches Matthew about muscles

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Fourth Of July Fun

Our friends Jeff, Heather, and Olivia visited us from Charleston for the 4th. We had a wonderful weekend with them! We miss you guys already!! Also enjoyed a great family time and fireworks celebrating the 4th at Joyce and Wayne's.