I love my children

You want proof?

Over the last two months, my dining room has slowly transformed from this

nice, neat, organized and clutter free,
to this...

and this...


Someday, when V is home and finances are no longer an issue we will finish out the garage and make that into our school room, but for now I forfeit (gladly) my dinning room.

We start school 2 weeks from today. I am almost ready, still have a bit of organizing to do, and some field trips to plan, and some time I need to spend in prayer but I am so excited about being Aidan's teacher and being right there to share all these early years with him. To be able to not just be there, but to be the one teaching him when he grasps a new idea or concept... what a privilege, what a blessing!

Gearing up...

for school. We've only got 19 days left. Wow! where did summer go?

I'm actually fairly excited, and have been doing some experimenting and "review" with Aidan in the mornings for the last few weeks. I am trying to accomplish a few things by doing this.

1. It will help establish a typical morning/school routine for both boys.
2. It allows Aidan to get into the mindset of "school time" and what is expected of him.
3. It lets me experiment and get some kinks worked out with Asher (hopefully) before I actually try to teach Aidan with Asher's many interruptions.

So far Asher does great sitting at the table with us for the first 20-30 minutes. Then he starts fussing, and if I am not needed to be directly involved with what Aidan is doing I can typically squeeze a few more minutes of cooperation out of Asher. Once I let him down from his chair he'll occasionally go to the playroom and entertain himself for another 20 or so minutes, which leaves us with the final 20-30 minutes which can be, ahem... not so much fun. At this point we typically break, and during the school year this is the time we'll be heading to the gym. We'll return, eat lunch, put Asher down for his nap and then Aidan and I will finish English and History/Social Studies while Asher is sleeping. Then Aidan will take a rest and I will most likely pass out on the couch??? Nah... I have unending amounts of energy-HA!

I plan to do Rosetta Stone with Aidan in the evenings after Asher goes to bed. It'll be something educational and fun we can do together, we'll both have the opportunity to learn it, and it will give us someone to practice with. Not to mention it will, I think, help Aidan not feel as though he is doing school all day long with the day being spread out like I am planning... of course I also know that with all the planning in the world the kids could totally rearrange what I am thinking... so I know there will be some degree of flexibility... but ya know... can't blame me for trying.


Aidan doing his flash cards. He made it through half the stack, and the ones he doesn't know from memory or just thinking about he has to do with his "pasta bag"

Asher making Mmmmmmm noises with his blocks, I THINK he was eating an ice cream in the first picture, and the second was a moment of cuteness after a horrible outburst of boogerdom.

Our Four Pledges

This school year we will be making 4 pledges every morning before school starts.

Pledge to the Bible:
I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God's Holy Word, I will make it a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path and will hide its words in my heart that I might not sin against God.

Pledge to the Christian Flag:
I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag and to the Savior for Whose Kingdom it stands. One Savior, crucified, risen and coming again with life and liberty to all who repent and believe.

Pledge to the American Flag:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Pledge to the Russian Flag:
I pledge allegiance to the Russian flag. It is our son and brother's first flag and therefore it is our flag. After Christ we do uphold: generosity, frankness, loyalty, wisdom, courage, forgiveness and love, the qualities the flag represents. We promise to learn and respect the Russian culture, to daily pray for our dear one's homeland and to encourage him to one day return as an Ambassador of Christ's glorious Gospel.

Love Love Love It

So... all of my curriculum is finally here, minus Rosetta Stone which I haven't ordered yet. We had company over the weekend (see other blog) when the History and Reading/Phonics items arrived so I just started looking over them in detail last night. Can I just say I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooo pleased with my choice for history!?!? It is AMAZING. I was already planning on beginning the Westminster Catechism for young children with Aidan during our Bible "period" and as I was flipping through the teacher's manual for history last night what should I see but footnotes that say "To begin implementing the truths of God's Word in your child's heart, you may want to us the Catechism for Young Children. Have your student answer and memorize the first three questions at this time." Yipee!!! Another area I get to reinforce the most important subject being taught!

Each Unit is designed to last two weeks when taught every other day, therefore we will be doing History on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tuesday and Thursday will be Social Studies/Geography. Here is an excpert from the teacher's manual for the introduction to:

Unit One, God's Great Story.
Memory verse: John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
This unit introduces the student to the concept of history from a Biblical perspective. Although we define history as "the story of what really happend long ago," it is far more than that. At its core, history is the study of man's response to the creation mandate (Genesis 1:28); it is the story of man's faithfulness (and unfaithfulness) to God as He establishes families, tribes, and nations. Since God guides all human events, history views all aspects of human life in light of divine providence.
The student will see history as God's great story of redemption which unfolds from Genesis through Revelation. He will also learn about the central figure of history - Jesus Christ. Everything that took place prior to His incarnation points forward to Him and everything that has happend since looks back to Him. He is the center of history because He is the Savior of the world. When the fullness of time comes, Christ will return to judge all people and nations as King of Kings. "

And if that isn't reason enough to be excited, take a look at the people we will be learning about!
Creation
Adam and Eve
The Fall of Man
God's Promise of Salvation
Noah and the Ark
God's Covenant with Noah
Tower of Babel
Abraham
Passover
God Gives the Law to Moses
David and Goliath
Birth of Christ
The New Covenant in Christ
Apostle Paul
Polycarp
Augustine
Patrick in Ireland
Boniface in Germany
Martin Luther
John Calvin
First Thanksgiving
Jonathan Edwards
Patrick Henry
George Washington
Lewis and Clark
Noah Webster
Robert E Lee
Dwight L Moody
George Washington Carver
Thomas A Edison
Theodore Roosevelt
Douglas MacArthur
Christ's Return

Our first week we will be creating a gigantic timeline (on the kitchen/dining room wall) so that through the year we can fill in all the details we've learned about. I can't wait!!!!

5 weeks out

So here I am 5 weeks away from the beginning of our first school year, and guess what? I decided to change my reading/phonics curriculum. Why? Well because I'm no good at that stuff. The curriculum I was planning on using was something Darren was coerced into buying from a telemarketer on the phone a few years back and it has been sitting on our bookshelves since Aidan was 3. I've pulled it out and tried to work on it with him several times but we'd both get so frustrated that each time I'd put it away again after only a few weeks. It offers no practical application, no age range or cognitive ability to target your teaching to, so I have no clue if I am expecting too much or to little from Aidan when we sit down to do the work, and on top of that I have no idea how much of the program I am supposed to cover in a year's time. But.. me being pretty frugal (most of the time) didn't want to spend money on an additional phonics/reading program when there was a perfectly good program sitting on my shelf. However, when the curriculum orders for other subjects started arriving in the mail... wow!!! what a difference, thoughtfully laid out daily lesson plans, suggested activities, manipulatives etc... The more I thought about it the more I knew I couldn't stick with what we had. Aidan's ability to read well and understand the English language will carry over into all other subjects, and so after a long night of searching for curriculum online I decided to go with: HORIZONS KINDERGARTEN PHONICS AND READING SET. I also added COLOR PHONICS because Aidan loves playing on the computer and it looked like a good (and fun) program to reinforce what he'll be learning.
So YAY! I feel A LOT better heading into the school year now. Well minus the sting of having to pay for it. Boo.

So far I've been please with the rest of the curriculum that has arrived. I have a minor scuabble with A Beka's Bible Doctrinal Drill. As a whole the information is great and will be a good addition to our Bible class, but there are a few instances where they use phrases that I think paint an inaccurate and confusing view of salvation, but that will be easy to correct/omit.

We've been using Dr. Ferguson's books this last year for Bible school and we love them! They are excellent in that the first half of the lesson is generally an example of a real life situation that the child may experience and the second half ties that back to a Bible story. We're already half way through: The Big Book of Bible Truths 1. This school year we'll also use Dr. Ferguson's The Big Book of Bible Truths 2, and The Big Book of Questions and Answers. I also plan on going through the Cathechism for young children with Aidan. It's the introduction to the shorter Westminster Cathechism.

For Math I will be using Hoizons K Math Package. It's already arrived and I've flipped through it. The first 6-8 weeks, maybe more will be old news to Aidan, and because of that I plan on doubling up and doing 2 lessons daily until we reach new material. Therefore, we will finish the workbooks fairly early in the year. I haven't yet decided if I will then order the following years curriculum and begin grade 1 early, or if I'll just fill in the last few months with a Kumon workbook for grade 1 from Barnes and Noble.

For Science I was lucky enough to get all but his "experiments" from the Creation Museum when we were there last month. I purchased the Buddy Davis Mega Pack, the God Created Series at the museum. Then in order for Aidan to get some hands on time and do some experiments I ordered The Backyard Scientist and for cooking I got Rachel Rays Cooking Rocks! 30 minute meals for kids. I really really REALLY don't like bugs, even pretty ones like butterflys so I am debating with myself on whether to order fun "boy things" like ant farms and butterfly kits, tadpoles etc.. Right now the part of me that says "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW" is winning, but we'll see.

History I've ordered, but not yet recieved History for little pilgrims, and I'm totally stoked about it, it sounds incredible! For Social Studies I ordered A Beka's Social Studies K. I've also picked up work books covering social skills and self awareness, the United States, and 10 different countries from around the world.

I also plan on ordering Rosetta Stone's Russian program for Aidan and I to do together, I just haven't brought myself to swallow that expense yet.

So there you have it... that's what we'll be using this year. Now I've just got to get it all organized and fit it in the dining room. Wish me luck!