January School stuff

I know that I still have a few more weeks of January, but here are my January highlights in our homeschooling life. I have to say that I really love this as my main way of documenting what we have done. It is so easy to look back through!

We had Martin Luther King Jr. day. Lily loved learning about him. We also did a cooperative learning assignment. I would cut pieces of construction paper and she would copy me. She had to listen well to the steps and then she made this picture of Martin Luther King Jr. It turned out great! Then she did some writing about him. We are working at getting her print to be neater. I was very happy with her taking her time on this!

We also went to Juanita Q. Hammons hall to see the play "Strega Nona". It wasn't my favorite. I think it was a little old for Lily, but she still enjoyed it and we had some great worksheets to go with the story. This first one was a comprehension page. We took turns reading and then she answered the questions with no problems at all.

This page was all word problems to go with the story. We haven't done very many word problems so I was very happy with how well Lily listened. Only one of them tricked her a little.

In reading, I had been pushing her more with chapter books that were in the second grade level. The bad thing was that she was getting tired of all the reading and stopped enjoying reading. The main goal in reading is to LOVE reading so we found some first grade chapter books. This first page is easier than the rest of the book, but it is a very easy read and Lily is loving the stories about the kittens. It is called Three to Get Ready by Betty Boegehold and it is only four chapters!

For science, I found a Walt Disney All About Animals book at my parents house. We are learning lots of fun facts about animals and she is loving every minute of it!

Can't leave Valerie out! She is loving school right now. She loves to write. She is working on writing her letters and doing great! She also is very good at circling the words that start with that letter!

My Napping Husband

I titled this my napping husband only because he is napping right now as are two of our children. So I have time to blog! I like to blog on and on about our three children. I love being a mommy, but I also love being a wife!

Over the last 6 weeks, Jason's schedule has completely changed which always brings with it new challenges and sometimes new rewards. This is Jason's slow season managing Oxifresh so normally our poor time of the year! ;) This year Jason didn't want to make me have to struggle with the budget as hard so he took on a second job. Now on a selfish note, I had sort of been looking forward to all the extra time I would have with Jason. Last year he helped with homeschooling and the house work. It was great!! Even if we were poor!

So his new job is working doing a newspaper route! Strange hours have made for napping during the day. So Jason is staying busy between his two jobs plus now needing a nap or to sleep in. I admit the first week of this was AWFUL. I felt frustrated having him sleeping while I was doing all of the parenting and house work and he was gone just as much as before. Oh and to top it all off, I bought him P90X for Christmas. Several of his friends had it and he wanted to get in shape. This program takes up almost an hour and a half of each day!!!!!!!!!!! But he is looking great! ;)

The funny thing about life is that every stage of it teaches me more about myself. I have gained patience and with in a week or so we had a new routine and we have all learned to love it. The best part is that I appreciate my husband so much. I am soooo lucky to have a hard working husband who always puts his family first! He makes it possible for me to be a stay at home mom and to give my girls the attention that they deserve and to give them meaningful memories each day!

Another brag on my husband is that he signed Lily up for karate and he takes her twice a week. I love them having special bonding time and I love hearing how proud he is of her. He is such a great dad! Some bible verses that made me think of my husband:

1 Peter 3:7 "Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers."

Titus 2:2 "Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance."

1 Timothy 5:8 "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."